Chapter 433: Creatures on White Planet_1
The president of the Academy continued to explain, "That massive gravitational source causes the New Continent Star System to deviate from its trajectory by over a hundred astronomical units each year.
"This distance might seem significant, but when compared to cosmic observations on a light-year scale, it is easily overlooked.
"These coincidences have resulted in the accident where the Pioneering Fleet went directly into the planetary system."
The head of the Strategic Department, with his sparse hair, said, "Apart from the objective reasons for the accident, after careful study, we have also identified some human factors.
"Our concept of a buffer zone of six thousand astronomical units came from the Trisolarans.
"But we neglected one fact: the Three-Body Star System is very close to the Solar System, and the Trisolarans have sent a large number of Sophons to the Solar System.
"Trisolarans have a thorough understanding of the Solar System's trajectory, which is why they can accurately leave light speed outside six thousand astronomical units.
"On the other hand, the New Continent Star System is too far from us, and we didn't have the time for careful observation, which is another reason for the accident.
"We suggest that for planetary systems within thirty light-years, the safe distance for humanity's first interstellar travel should be around fifteen thousand astronomical units; that is the safest."
Cao Yang frowned, "That distance is roughly 0.2 light-years."
Jiang Yu waved his hand dismissively, "Now is not the time to discuss this. You should provide us with some intelligence on the enemy; up to this point, we are still completely in the dark about them."
Number Three added, "Based on our observations, the enemy has at least sixty thousand warships! And about two hundred thousand of various other types of ships!"
This number of warships shocked everyone on the White Planet!
It was like suddenly discovering that the brother sleeping in the upper bunk is a mammoth.
Cao Yang asked, "How many warships did we destroy in the previous battles?"
Jiang Yu was concerned, "Haven't they only arrived six or seven years ago? How did they build so many warships?"
Number Three replied, "According to our colonization process, we would send a Pioneering Fleet first, and after preliminary development of a planetary system, we then proceed with large-scale immigration.
"But the enemy's method of colonization is not like this; when they arrive, their fleet obscures the sky, and it's estimated they already reached such a scale.
"We believe that their method of colonization is very different from ours; it involves at least half or the majority of a civilization moving to colonize all at once!
"Moreover, the focus of their colonization is not what we consider suitable habitable-zone planets, but a high-temperature planet closer to the star, leading us to guess that there must be quite a difference between the vital signs of our two civilizations."
After pausing, he answered Cao Yang's question, "We destroyed approximately three to four thousand enemy warships, mainly thanks to the volley from the Monster Cannon!"
Cao Yang pinched the bridge of his nose, "One-twentieth!"
After a long silence from both parties, Jiang Yu urged them to keep reporting the movements of the enemy ships and then ended the call.
No one left the command room; everyone just stood there, quietly lost in thought for quite some time, because the complexity of the New Continent Star System far exceeded everyone's expectations.
It was not until under Cao Yang's order that everyone dispersed.
After a short rest, Jiang Yu called Cao Yang, Hao Ying, and others for a meeting.
Jiang Yu said, "We are no longer blind and deaf, but the situation is increasingly difficult and pressing.
"The enemy could broadcast the location of the New Continent Star System at any moment, and we still can't undertake interstellar voyages—we are like 'cripples'. If subjected to a Dimensional Reduction Strike, the consequences would be unthinkable.
"Fortunately, we are relatively safe before the Dark Forest Strike.
"We must fully utilize this time to strive to develop our industrial system and construct the Star Accelerator as soon as possible.
"Once we have the means to flee, we won't have anything to fear."
He paused, then added, "Now, let's discuss what the most urgent matter is, shall we?"
After more than an hour of meeting, everyone agreed that there were three immediate tasks!
First was to summon the hidden civilian ships together; strength was in numbers, and the goal was to rapidly establish a comprehensive industrial system.
Second was to use the existing equipment to detect the location of the mineral resources on this planet and prepare for further excavation operations.
The last task was to bury the fallen compatriots. The enemy had found more than forty civilian ships, which meant that over forty thousand compatriots had perished during the enemy's search.
Leaving the bodies of compatriots exposed to the wilderness was irresponsible to our own civilization.
At the same time, the destroyed civilian ships needed to be searched to see if anything of value could be salvaged, in hopes of using some general equipment to repair the core engines of the command ship.
Jiang Yu assigned the tasks; Hao Ying was in charge of gathering civilian ships, Xing Yuanbin took responsibility for leading the preliminary geological surveys with instruments and robots, and Cao Yang was to lead the burial of the deceased compatriots.
...
Cao Yang had modified ten escape pods from the civilian ships, and with twenty soldiers, more than a hundred technicians, and four hundred volunteers, he rushed to the site where the victims' bodies were piled.
However, when Cao Yang and others arrived at the designated coordinates, the mountain of bodies had vanished.
A few soldiers went down to inspect, while Cao Yang immediately contacted the command ship using the communication equipment: "Command ship, do the coordinates I'm at match the mission coordinates?"
Ai La, the duty communications officer, replied, "They match, is there a problem?"
Cao Yang said, "The bodies of the fallen compatriots are missing. Check the detectors in near-Earth orbit over the past two days to see if they have taken any photos of these coordinates."
Ai La: "Okay, just a moment."
After a few minutes, Ai La spoke with confusion in her voice, "Commander, it looks like the bodies are, well, covered with a layer of ice and snow."
Cao Yang used the cameras on the outside of the escape pods to look around; the white expanse of the snowfield was very even, with no mounds of snow or anything of the like visible.
He ordered Ai La, "Send me the photos to have a look!"
Several photos quickly appeared on Cao Yang's display, and as Ai La had described, the bodies seemed to be slowly covered by a layer of white snow.
But... after a careful comparison of the photos, Cao Yang discovered something was off; the bodies hadn't been covered by the snow, they had disappeared into it!
Because the photos were taken from the sky, from this angle it looked as if the bodies were covered by the snow.
Cao Yang stroked his chin, could this be an enemy trick?
Just then, a soldier suddenly shouted in the combat channel, "Enemy contact!"
Snapping back to reality, Cao Yang ordered, "Don't panic, use the ships for cover and return fire effectively!"
Another soldier reported, "There's only one enemy, and it's white!"
Cao Yang immediately found the soldier who had just reported through the combat channel and switched to that soldier's point of view.
After a careful observation, he was able to make out the rough outline of the enemy.
It was a pure white creature. The entire world here was white, serving as the perfect camouflage for it.
If one did not pay close attention, it was indeed hard to notice its presence amid the snowy landscape.
To Cao Yang's surprise, it had the contour of a human figure; he could see a distinct head and limbs, but the face was blurred, making it look very eerie.