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Age of Cosmic Exploration (Web Novel) - Chapter 443 - Defense Line!
Chapter 443: Defense Line!
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
On the fifth day after the silver fleet arrived, humanity sent out the third batch of pilotless spaceships. The second batch of civilians from first defense line was moving towards the second defense line. Right at this moment too, the space around the silver fleet started to twinkle with silvery lights… several hundred thousand silvery lights suddenly appeared in the cosmos.
At the City of Light Moon's giant observatory, the workers who were stationed there for 24 hours managed to discover at first notice. Using the AI, they immediately started analysing it, very soon, the analysis report was sent to the Barracks and just as they had predicted, the main force of this silver fleet indeed totalled up to around 1,700,000 spaceships!
The Barracks, who still initially held onto false hope, had their hopes dashed immediately and a thought suddenly appeared in many people, including Yao Yuan's, minds… space warp.
Space warp was humanity's trump card. It was a navigational technique even more advanced than wormhole and star gate. It wasn't guaranteed that it would be able to help humanity escape from a high tier space civilization though. After all, they had stumbled across a situation where a high tier space civilization had locked up a whole solar system before. But facing against a middle tier space civilization, it was an invincible presence.
However, this meant that they would have to abandon everything and it would be impossible for them to ever return to this place. The City of Light Moon, Homeward Planet, the New Solar System, they would all be memories from the past. It would be not unlike how they were forced to abandon Old Earth…
The fate was much too cruel…
Abandoning one's home once was a harrowing experience, abandoning it twice would be a sin, while abandoning it thrice would break the human spirit into half!
Therefore, unless there was really no other choice, no one dared to bring up the possibility of leaving the New Solar System, not even Yao Yuan… Everyone knew the enemy was powerful, but since it was not a landslide disadvantage of facing a high tier space civilization, everyone was at least a little bit glad. Those who had not experienced the cosmos would never understand how deep the yearning for a home was; that desire oftentimes could be bigger than the need for survival. Therefore, if they really were to leave the New Solar System, unless Yao Yuan utilized his political power, quite possibly several thousand people would choose to stay behind…
After they received the confirmatory report, the atmosphere at the Barracks was dark and heavy. All the strategists were carrying out hypotheses, confirmations, and simulations using all the available data. This was the war of a level 3 space civilization. It was fought first on paper before any war erupted. The amount of data involved in the calculations was so huge that they had to rely on the AI.
"…Based on the current coordinates of both parties, if the enemy is determined to head towards the City of Light Moon, they would have to pass the firing zone of first and second defense lines. In fact, when they near the City of Light Moon, they will be within the firing range of third defense line as well. In other words, this fleet will be in an extremely disadvantageous situation!"
On the stage, a middle-aged strategist was giving a speech with the 3D image of the New Solar System behind him. As his speech continued, the image changed.
In fact, before building the New Solar System's defense circle, many Defense Unit majors were confused. After all, space war was not a flat surface war like it was back on Old Earth. Even in 21st century, when there was marine, air, and land warfare, the wars were still carried out in terms of a singular plane battlefield.
However, for a space war, the battlefield was truly three-dimensional. Up, down, left, right, front, back, there were six directions to worry about, and this was the reason why most soldiers were confused. In space wars, strategies like holding a fort wouldn't work because the enemy could just circle around the location and the supposed defense line was nothing more than a set of dead coordinates in space.
However, after using the AI to simulate the war, these soldiers finally understood the importance of the defense lines. One could say that a perfectly formed defense line would be enough to defend the attack from an enemy several hundred times its size!
However, the most key issue was the plasma weapons used by level 3 space civilizations. Even though there were many different kinds of plasma weapon, they shared a similarity: their bullets travelled at the speed of light. Therefore, unless they were Homo Evolutis who could sense danger, most of the normal lifeforms wouldn't be able to evade the attack. They would have to rely on energy shields. This was especially true for bigger spaceships.
Of course, one had to take into consideration the things called creator's particle and ECS system. With the combination of these two elements, one could practically appear "invisible" in space, and this would greatly decrease the accuracy of long distance attacks. However, while sniping was impossible, the spaceship would still be vulnerable to blanket fire. This was a level 3 space civilization, so the Genesis was no longer a tactical cannon but a general cannon. Combined with blanket firing of the more powerful Requiem and other plasma weapons, while the attack might not be as powerful as the booster-based energy weapons, it was not an attack that could be ignored by spaceships without a powerful enough energy shield.
In terms of shooting range, when one became a level 3 space civilization, a well-constructed defense line with weapons could have the firing range as far as one-third of a solar system. This meant that a defense line's firing range would cover 1/3 the size of the solar system. It would be difficult to circle around such a large firing circle. Furthermore, this was only one defense line, a solar system normally would have a wall of defense lines and their firing zone would overlap, thus creating a wall of security.
The last point was the lack of depth in space warfare. If one got shot in space, then the war was practically over; however, it was different for defense lines since they were mostly built on meteorites or asteroids. No matter wehther it was built on the surface or underground, this was a natural advantage. Furthermore, the size of a defense base would normally be bigger than a spaceship, meaning they could store more energy cores and defense systems. Therefore, defense lines could be dubbed the indestructible spaceships. Unless it was surrounded by many spaceships or threatened by a civilization with a technological level much greater than their own, for level 3 space civilizations, defense lines were natural, indestructible spaceships!
It was one of the reasons why humanity selected to make this solar system their home.
As the strategist continued, the simulated silver fleet started moving. When the fleet was about 3 days away from first defense line, the first defense line started attacking. A great amount of Genesis and Requiem cannons fired at the enemy fleet.
"As we expected, the exhaustion of plasma shields is huge, the exhaustion quota is almost six times the energy employed by weapons of similar strength. This is related to the manipulation of plasma, shaping the energy into a circular form apparent eats up energy… In any case, our simulated result is that the first wave of fire will take about around 80 to 90 percent of the enemy frontline, but the damage caused by the second wave of fire will drop tremendously. Starting from the second wave, the damage caused by the first defense line will be less than one percent or lower, and it is the same for all the attacks after that…
"However, this situation will last for around 30 hours. According to our calculation, the maximum time a plasma reactor can hold up against our attack is 30 hours. After that, even for a level 3 space civilization, its stability will dramatically decrease and they will need repair and maintenance, or else there might be a threat of energy leakage. If they continue this for 50 hours, there will be a chance for short-circuit and internal explosions. If more than 70 hours, then its energy output will decrease by half. If by some miracle the enemy fleet still hasn't exploded, the weapons at the first defense line will be able to shoot through their weakened energy shield!
"And that is the purpose of a complete defense within the solar system! The first defense line will be the line of death for our enemy!"
After the strategist made his explanation, the 3D image disappeared and the faces of the majors present lightened up greatly. However, Guang Zhen asked darkly, "Then, according to the calculation from the strategist department… how long can first defense line keep up the attack of this strength?"
The strategist laughed bitterly before adding, "According to our data, first defense line can only support such an attack for… 16 days. After 16 days, be it the Genesis, Requiem, or normal cannons, all the weapons will stop working due to lack of energy, and the whole first defense line will be depleted of any energy storage…
"In other words, after 16 days… the first defense line will fall…"
