The second line of defense consisted of five satellites orbiting Tianyuan B, along with hundreds of thousands of hidden mines and controlled turrets in the asteroid belt.
Xiao Yu didn’t expect the weapons on this line of defense to inflict any actual damage on the droplet. His only hope was for these defenses to delay the droplet for two hours.
In that ti, Xiao Yu planned to command robots to modify the Tianyuan IV large particle collider. The collider would be dismantled, with one end converted into a cannon barrel. Using the orbital adjusters installed on the collider, it would be aid at the droplet. Then, a single proton would be launched from the other end, accelerated over two billion kiloters before being fired from the cannon at nearly the speed of light to collide with the droplet.
This was Xiao Yu’s entire plan. Theoretically, it was entirely feasible. At near-light speeds, the proton would release an energy density far surpassing any energy cannon, disrupting the strong interaction force shell of the droplet and shattering it like glass.
The droplet had already completely destroyed the first line of defense and was racing toward the second line. It was expected to reach it in thirty minutes.
At the collider, Xiao Yu had mobilized a ship carrying 10,000 robots to begin the extensive modifications. The robots worked tirelessly, first cutting open the collider’s pipeline, then installing a large shielding device at the cannon’s mouth to block irrelevant particles from entering. They repaired damaged circuits and installed a propulsion system under Xiao Yu’s direct control to allow for precise aiming adjustnts.
Once complete, the Tianyuan IV particle collider would transform into a massive cannon over two billion kiloters long!
As the robots worked feverishly, ti slipped away. The droplet crossed the imnse distance and reached the second line of defense.
The first to engage the droplet were 5,000 combat spaceships stationed in the Tianyuan B interstellar fortress. Among them were nearly a hundred County-Class ships, while the five satellites hosted a total of 18 colossal energy cannons.
The 5,000 ships, led by the County-Class vessels, unleashed a torrent of high-speed projectiles in unison. Mixed within the bullet storm were thousands of interstellar missiles.
The mont the two sides t, the battle erupted with no preamble.
The combined firepower of these 5,000 ships could overwhelm a civilization twice as advanced as the Moluton Civilization. Yet against the droplet, these ships were as fragile as plastic toys in the hands of infants.
Xiao Yu watched somberly as a County-Class ship was enveloped by the droplet despite the hail of bullets. Before it could escape, the droplet pierced through the ship, causing its fusion reactor to lose control. A massive energy release obliterated the ship into fragnts.
However, the destructive energy blast also pushed the droplet several hundred kiloters away, sending it tumbling through space and colliding with three Village-Class ships, destroying them.
On the battlefield, the flashes of hydrogen bomb detonations continued. Each explosion, generating billions of degrees in temperature, vaporized everything within several hundred ters—everything except the droplet.
Despite the intense bombardnt, the droplet remained unscathed. Its shell was still flawlessly smooth, its 100% reflectivity bouncing back distant starlight and the brilliance of nearby hydrogen explosions alike.
Xiao Yu no longer had the luxury of feeling pain or fear.
The 5,000 ships, the satellites of the interstellar fortress, and the hidden turrets in the asteroid belt were all giving their utmost, sacrificing themselves to delay the droplet’s advance.
Behind them, 10,000 robots continued their feverish work. Forty minutes had passed, and the pipeline cutting was complete. The robots were now installing the shielding device at the cannon’s mouth. Once the shielding device was in place, they would install the propulsion system and a high-power laser cannon to clear the firing path.
Half of the 5,000-strong fleet had already been destroyed. Only 36 of the 100 County-Class ships remained. One of the five defensive satellites had been rendered entirely inoperative.
Millions of bullets continued to puml the droplet, each transferring its kinetic energy before being deflected. Xiao Yu was using this “many ants biting an elephant” approach to delay the droplet as much as possible.
No matter how many ants there were, they could never take down this “elephant.” Likewise, no matter how many bullets rained down, they couldn’t scratch the droplet.
The battle was devastating.
In this war of technological asymtry, Xiao Yu’s imnse computational power was of little use. Computational advantages only mattered when the foundational theories of both sides were comparable, with differences rely in technological execution. In this battle, no matter how exceptional Xiao Yu’s computational power or efficient his tactics, they were powerless against the droplet’s overwhelming superiority.
The droplet was relentless. Its speed never dropped for long, even when impacted by bullet storms or hydrogen bomb blasts. And whenever it was knocked off its trajectory, it would cleverly use the deflection to collide with nearby Village-Class ships that couldn’t evade in ti.
Xiao Yu’s fleet included 20,000 Village-Class ships, 5,000 Town-Class ships, 400 County-Class ships, and four City-Class ships. These represented the accumulation of centuries of effort. But now, over 100 County-Class ships had been lost, and more than 8,000 Village-Class and Town-Class ships had been destroyed.
This amounted to a quarter of Xiao Yu’s combat power—a century of effort reduced to nothing.
And unless Xiao Yu devised a solution, his fleet would be annihilated, and he would die within a day.
The particle collider remained his only hope.
The modification of the collider had reached the stage of installing the laser cannon. Although lasers were ineffective against the droplet, Xiao Yu needed the laser to clear a debris-free path for the proton’s journey.
Protons rely on direct impact to inflict damage, and the Tianyuan IV star system was filled with material that could obstruct the proton. If the proton collided with any other object en route, the effort would be wasted.
Launching a proton would take at least 20 minutes: 15 minutes for acceleration and 5 minutes for preparation. This ant Xiao Yu had, at most, two chances. If the droplet survived both attempts, Xiao Yu would be dood.
This was a gamble for survival. If successful, Xiao Yu would secure his future. If he failed, he and human civilization would be erased from the universe.
At the second line of defense, 4,000 of the 5,000 ships had been destroyed. Three of the five satellites had lost their weapon systems. The remaining ships could no longer launch attacks of the sa scale as before, and the droplet’s rate of destruction increased. It was estimated the second line of defense could hold for another 20 minutes.
At the collider, the laser cannon installation was complete, and Xiao Yu was now directing robots to install the propulsion system. Only with the propulsion system in place could Xiao Yu adjust the cannon’s aim to target the droplet.
This process would take at least 40 minutes.
“Hurry, faster!” Xiao Yu thought anxiously as ti slipped by.
The battlefield was littered with debris from destroyed ships. So pieces, achieving escape velocity, drifted irreversibly out of the Tianyuan IV system, their final destinations unknown. Other fragnts, failing to reach escape velocity, continued to orbit the star system.
The droplet surged toward Tianyuan B, accelerating to 5,000 kiloters per second. Its imnse kinetic energy and power allowed it to pierce straight through Tianyuan B’s sixth satellite, reducing it to a chaotic landscape of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. All weapon systems stationed on the satellite were obliterated.
The second line of defense had beco a graveyard. The droplet, like a terrifying zombie erging from the tomb, surged toward the inner system, bringing death with it.
Between the particle collider and the droplet lay only one final half-line of defense: the asteroid belt.
However, most of the weapons Xiao Yu had stationed in the asteroid belt were designed for ambushes and sabotage. They weren’t ant to confront sothing like the droplet.
The asteroid belt was expected to hold the droplet for another 20 minutes. Once it broke through, it would take the droplet 30 minutes to reach the collider. A single impact could disable any part of the collider, rendering the two-billion-kiloter-long structure completely useless.
Twenty minutes passed. The droplet broke through the asteroid belt.
This ti, it didn’t bother clearing the entire asteroid field. Spanning billions of kiloters, doing so would have taken too long. Instead, it cleared a 100,000-kiloter path, ignoring weapons that couldn’t reach it.
With only 30 minutes remaining until it reached the collider, the propulsion system installation was in its final stages.
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