Chapter 368: Forward! Forward! _1
Over a decade ago, Jiang Yu and Rediaz realized that the antimatter weapons currently developed would be used for a long time, and before finding a weapon with greater firepower, it was imperative to maximize the power of antimatter weapons.
Thus, the Monster Cannon was born. In the initial design, to provide the weapon with a massive amount of energy, it was as large as a Space City.
With the increase in size, speed inevitably fell behind.
Especially since ordinary battleships could accelerate to 15% of the speed of light in four and a half days, the Monster Cannon would take two months to complete such acceleration, which would slow down the marching speed.
Therefore, the researchers took a different approach and split the Monster Cannon into thirty-six spacecraft.
These spacecraft were agile and could keep up with the march of the main forces, but they needed some time to assemble when it was time to use them.
Upon receiving the order, the thirty-six spacecraft quickly converged with each other, forming a circular ring with a diameter of several kilometers.
Then they released thirty-six leads, which fastened together at the center of the circle.
After completing the energy charge, they began to release antimatter and quickly reached the critical state!
Accompanied by Ai Qi's shout, "Fire!"
A beam of black light, as thick as an arm, burst out from the center of the cannon and struck an enemy ship almost instantly!
The enemy ship tried to escape, but it was already too late; a flash of white light passed, and the enemy finally suffered casualties!
The Monster Cannon swept across, and sixteen flashes of white light followed in the direction of the first echelon.
Following that, the Monster Cannon needed to continue accumulating energy, and the second firing would take place after three minutes!
The battle report quickly reached Ai Qi: "The Monster Cannon took 2.33 seconds to destroy sixteen enemy targets!"
This report was met with applause from everyone.
Ai Qi excitedly said, "The gap between us and the enemy is no longer as vast as it was during the Uranus battle! They can be defeated!"
The staff applauded again!
Ai Qi ordered, "Prepare for the second round of shelling! Target the enemy's main force!"
Woo~
Suddenly, a whistling sound was heard!
Ai Qi's scalp tingled, "What is that sound?"
Humm~
All the officers and soldiers felt a violent vibration!
Wu Xinghai immediately recalled a casual conversation with a comrade from a Satellite Colony, who had described an earthquake to him.
The difference was that people knew what an earthquake was, but the cause of the vibration now was unknown.
By the time everyone came to their senses, the Monster Cannon, which was charging, as well as the more than five hundred warships around it, including Ai Qi's Command Ship, had disappeared from the battle formation.
The area was empty, as if nothing had ever existed there.
Humm~
During the vibration, everyone heard this sound.
The sound seemed to strike deep into their souls, causing an instinctual fear in everyone.
Ninety-one hours later, Earthlings seven hundred astronomical units away also felt the vibration, although it was relatively faint at this point, like a minor earthquake.
At the same time, everyone heard a faint hum.
Almost all birds were startled at this moment, and creatures that hid underground became restless, scrambling to the surface.
Everyone was shocked or woken up, blindly searching for the source of the vibration and sound!
Of course, that was all to come later.
Ai Qi and the entire Commander-in-chief's headquarters had just vanished like that, and for the next half a minute, the whole army was in chaos, headless and panicked.
The enemy's single round of attack that destroyed over thirty battleships was something everyone could accept.
But the sudden loss of over five hundred warships had exceeded everyone's endurance.
That sense of powerlessness when facing "The Waterdrop" once again filled the soldiers' hearts.
It wasn't until Wu Xinghai took over command, "There's no time to mourn the fallen, our war continues!
"In accordance with the Military Command Succession Regulation, as commander of the Second Legion, I assume the role of interim Commander-in-chief!
"If I die, there's still the Fourth Legion's commander, Cao Yang, and if Cao Yang dies, there's still the commander of the Seventh Legion, Cooper Winston!
"Advance! Keep moving forward!
"For humanity, for the Solar System, please sacrifice your lives!"
In the heart-wrenching cries of Wu Xinghai, the soldiers' morale was restored.
Wu Xinghai's staff were the first to spring into action, as by now, all forces of both sides had been revealed to each other.
Even the enemy couldn't stop the Solar System State's Monster Cannon.
But the enemy weapons that caused a large number of warships to become paralyzed and the unknown weapon that destroyed over five hundred ships in one go were the nightmares of the Second and Fourth Legions.
However, the combat staff quickly realized that the enemy's powerful weapons, like the Monster Cannon, couldn't fire continuously.
Otherwise, if they had fired several shots in a row at the beginning of the battle, the fight would have been over already.
Even now, with the distance between battleships stretched to the size of three Jupiters, a few more shots in a row, and the Second and Fourth Legions would have no fighting force left.
This sortie was equipped with seven Monster Cannons, and dozens of warships were dedicated to storing antimatter for them.
These were the three hundred "other types of warships" in the fleet.
After that, Wu Xinghai made use of ordinary battleships to draw enemy fire, disrupt their formation, and started to counter-attack using the remaining Monster Cannons astutely.
It turned out that the enemy's weapons for mass destruction took much longer to charge than the Monster Cannon did.
The Trisolarans' vanguard squad had no choice but to "dodge" to avoid the shelling.
The battle became extremely intense for a while, with both sides suffering damage.
...
At this moment, Jiang Yu had just left Saturn Orbit and was heading towards the Kuiper Belt at 15% the speed of light.
In his hands was an analysis report from the Academy of Sciences, suggesting that the weapon causing the widespread paralysis of warships was likely an artificially created quantum storm.
The evidence came from scientific research equipment in the Kuiper Belt, which detected quantum anomalies coming from the direction of the battlefield.
The researchers suggested trying to block it with quantum waves.
As for the enemy's weapon of mass destruction, the experts speculated it to be a form of dark matter weapon.
The enemy had detonated dark matter within a certain range, and its immense power destroyed over five hundred warships across a vast area!
The explosion also caused spatial vibrations, so the tremors that people felt were the universe quivering!
This vibration persisted up to about eight hundred astronomical units from the battlefield, and it was expected to diminish to an undetectable level beyond three light-years.
This was the first time humanity encountered a weapon with a "light-year response."
The Academy of Sciences sent this report to Wu Xinghai at the frontline first, then to Jiang Yu and Rediaz among other crucial departments.
After reading the report, Jiang Yu was silent for a long time, acknowledging the clear gap between humanity and the Trisolarans.
Especially in the field of dark matter, Yang Dong's several detonation models had all failed, indicating that humanity was significantly behind in its research on dark matter.
No blame could be laid on Yang Dong and others, for these studies had started much too late!
Even now, they might still not have made up for the scientific advancement that should have occurred during the over two hundred years of the Crisis Era.