I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?.

Chapter 744 Life hangs on a thread

In 1960, three years after Sputnik, the first artificial satellite of mankind, was launched into space, NACA launched a very special satellite, Echo 1, into space.

The essence of Echo 1 is an oversized balloon made of 0.08 mm thick polyester film and a 0.013 mm thick aluminum foil.

It is in a folded state when launched, with benzoic acid material placed inside it in advance. When Echo 1 enters space, the benzoic acid will vaporize due to the heat generated by the sun, causing the balloon to slowly expand, with a maximum diameter of about 30 meters.

This huge inflatable metal ball is the first generation of passive communication satellites. Its principle is very simple:
Satellite communication can be achieved when location A on Earth sends a signal to Echo 1, which reflects off its metal surface and returns to location B on Earth.

Although this crude balloon was rotten, it was it that completed the first satellite communication between Aramco and the Alliance, verified the feasibility of this technology, and laid the foundation for the development of communication satellites.

Now Artemis is the ultimate enhanced version of its predecessor, with an exaggerated diameter of 1100 meters. It is not a spherical surface with strong diffuse reflection and high loss, but a carefully designed parabola that can focus over a large area.

When it lost control, it happened to pass through the border of Asia and Europe, where satellite communications were busy. The native chickens there were big users of television broadcasting satellites. The signals from the synchronous orbit were received by Artemis and amplified countless times. Every time it rolled and swept in one direction, it would cause strong interference to the covered satellites.

It's not just space. The chaotic waves absorbed and amplified by Artemis will also affect ground receivers. Faced with electromagnetic waves that are suddenly amplified many times and chaotically modulated, the filters of ordinary radio and satellite TV receivers are powerless. At the very least, the signal will be weakened and garbled, and at worst, the signal will be lost directly.

The scale of 300 kilometers is quite astonishing. The first areas affected are actually Eastern Europe and the area near the Black Sea, and it can cover several small countries at a time.

The residents there first even saw a bright spot suddenly flashing in the sky, and then found that radio, satellite TV, data network and even GPS signals were stuck or even failed to varying degrees.

However, because the incident happened suddenly, these countries did not realize something was wrong at the first time, and no one reported it until the impact spread to Russia.

However, China was still the first to enter a state of alert. Due to the great uncertainty of the alien crisis, the domestic early warning network is currently in top condition. After the large-scale electromagnetic interference was discovered, an alarm was immediately issued. Five minutes later, two H5-based "Shenlong" rockets were launched one after another using solid rockets. At the same time, the aerospace shuttle also received an emergency order to prepare to enter space.

At the same time, inquiries were immediately sent to Ame through the hotline, but because Ame was ignorant and slow to respond, the country did not dare to gamble with the current situation and immediately issued a level one warning. All warships that could leave the port immediately went out to sea, and all warships and submarines on missions went into silent mode.

All aircraft at all coastal airports were ordered to take off as much as possible, and inland bombers also began to mount long-range cruise missiles, preparing to take off and cruise along the predetermined routes to strike the targets set out in the emergency plan.

However, they are no match for the rocket force, which has the highest level of combat readiness and is on standby almost as soon as it receives an alarm, ready to carry out a strike at any time.

The Artemis interference warning was issued at 21:34. As even the communications of most military satellites were disrupted, people in China almost believed that Amy was taking a risk, because the sudden situation determined her to launch a surprise attack, and the previous concessions were all an illusion.

Just out of the last bit of rationality and trust in past judgments, the top management decided to calm down for 10 minutes without receiving further information:

If any attack against the homeland is detected from any direction within these 10 minutes, a full-scale counterattack will be launched without hesitation. If not, the period can be extended appropriately.

When Shen Zuozhou received the warning, five minutes had passed, and Lucia and other authorities had already responded. In this case, even though the Pentagon had no idea what was happening, the Pacific Fleet in the Far East saw the sudden change in the situation and mistakenly thought that a war was about to break out, and desperately began to mobilize.

The Pentagon and John were frantically receiving urgent calls on the hotline, first from the Chinese, then from the Far East, and then from Lucia. After them, calls came one after another from the European allies. They also realized that something was wrong and had issued a mobilization order.

John was already on board the Boeing 747 Doomsday Command Plane, and he responded at superhuman speed on the plane, with only one thought in mind: It's not me, I didn't, calm down!
At this time, the information about Artemis's turmoil had not yet arrived, so his words were not very convincing.

By the time McMaster got on the helicopter, the world's mainstream forces had basically entered a state of readiness for counterattack, staring at each other nervously, waiting for the final order to be issued.

……

Lin Ju, led by Shen Zuozhou and several other people, entered the basement, but it was not safe here, so Shen Zuozhou kept in touch with the military, waiting to be picked up by a helicopter for transfer.

Only then did Lin Ju have time to unlock his phone and read the emergency message sent from the base. After a quick scan, he finally felt relieved.

NACA’s large mirror certainly attracted a lot of attention, but due to the busy affairs of the Aeronautical Development Commission, the observation task was given to Xinyuan, which has a satellite network. Xinyuan has been quietly observing Artemis’ actions.

When the alarm was triggered at home, the base had already determined that Artemis was the cause of the chaos, but did not immediately report it as a misunderstanding.

Because we also cannot determine whether this is part of the Artemis plan. What if it is just a cover and is actually a super space weapon?
It took another ten minutes to continue the confirmation. Through observations from multiple high-orbit satellites and the space station, it was found that Artemis had not fully unfolded and was rolling irregularly, which basically confirmed that it was an accident.

It was five minutes later when Lin Ju saw the message. He hurriedly grabbed Shen Zuozhou, who was also shocked when he saw the message and quickly contacted his higher-ups.

However, the base had already sent a report in advance, and Shen Zuozhou quickly received the latest feedback from above, as well as inquiries confirming that no casualties or chaos had been caused.

This call lasted several minutes. After he hung up, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with fear. He felt goose bumps all over his body. He looked at Lin Ju with lingering fear and said:
"Fortunately, you, Xinyuan, responded in time. A local conflict just broke out in the East China Sea. The higher-ups almost sounded the national alert and launched a counterattack. It was only a minute away. The General Staff directly stopped the warship from launching missiles through satellite connection. Otherwise, we would have been finished."

Naval battle? Battleship strikes back?
Lin Ju's scalp also tingled. He certainly knew what this meant. Once they had made up their minds, they should have heard the air defense alarm covering the entire city a few minutes ago. The civil defense facilities that had been silent for decades would have been flooded with people. Governments at all levels would follow wartime orders to preserve the population and industry as much as possible under nuclear attacks, and at the same time issue countless conscription orders.

As long as we start to fight back, the chain reaction cannot be stopped at all. Even if everyone understands afterwards that it was a misunderstanding, the war has to be fought, otherwise the heavy losses suffered cannot be compensated.

One minute, only one minute away from the intersection of human destiny!

(End of this chapter)