Reborn Before the Apocalypse: My Backing is the Nation

Chapter 206 Instantaneous Life and Death
In the vast sky, a huge, bright sun hangs in the distance, illuminating the massive, azure planet before us, as well as the enormous, cross-shaped space station that looks somewhat rough and was clearly built in a hurry.

Several astronauts, secured by safety ropes, are busy in the weightless space.

A huge, metallic-looking hydrogen bomb hovered in front of the astronauts, with some thrusters about one meter in size hovering nearby.

After a series of electronic components and space thrusters were installed in an orderly manner, the hydrogen bomb was completed in 46 minutes.

Then came the self-check and test, which took another 6 minutes.

At the 55th minute, the hydrogen bomb was installed on the launch tower.

It was something pieced together from a few steel bars, resembling a makeshift barbecue grill. It was located in the middle of one of the sides of the cruciform space station.

Beside him, the other compartments opened one after another, and the astronauts displayed the fruits of their labor on these shelves.

There are 26 standard hydrogen bombs placed along this one side alone.

Holding onto the safety ropes, the astronauts climbed to the other side in the weightless space, using both their hands and feet, and watched from afar.

"This is the last batch of goods. After we deliver this batch, we can go back."

The astronaut lowered his head and looked at the enormous planet beneath his feet with deep emotion.

"Hope everything goes well."

The other astronaut did not respond to his words, but looked in another direction.

There, too, was a sky full of stars. But among these stars, some floated silently and motionless, while others moved rapidly in their new positions.

In a daze, the stationary stars seemed to transform into some kind of "dam" in the vast starry sky, while the moving points of light became rivers bound by this dam.

He knew that it was actually a hydrogen bomb launched by his colleagues on the other space station.

The combined plumes of numerous hydrogen bombs and thrusters form this long river of light.

Looking into the distance along this river of light, he saw that these points of light extended to the farthest reaches, with no end in sight.

The countdown is shrinking little by little, until it finally reaches zero.

In an instant, the 26 hydrogen bombs placed on the "barbecue grill" simultaneously emitted scorching flames from their tails, propelling them like rockets into the vast starry sky.

As the distance increases, the tail flame shrinks rapidly.

In the end, these 26 tiny points of light converged into the river of light and flew towards the endless distance.

In the ground control room, on the large screen, a river composed of countless constantly changing points of light is flowing forward.

Somewhat strangely, the beginning of this "river" is not only narrower, but the current is also slower, almost as if it has stopped flowing. The further back you go, the wider the current becomes, and the faster it flows.

Therefore, from an overall perspective, the length and width of this river are rapidly shrinking.

People knew that the reason the lights behind were moving so fast was because they were trying to catch up with the lights in front.

The black hole interception project requires an enormous number of hydrogen bombs. And it is clearly impossible to launch so many hydrogen bombs in a short period of time.

We have neither the capability to launch this product nor the capability to manufacture and transport it.

The only feasible solution is to proceed in batches.

The hydrogen bomb factories on the ground are built first. Once a batch is produced, a portion is sent to near-Earth orbit via rocket, and the rest is launched into deep space.

In this way, once all the hydrogen bombs were built, they would be almost ready to be launched.

However, this inevitably leads to a problem.

The first hydrogen bomb launched has a longer flight time and gets closer to the target. Our objective is to ensure all hydrogen bombs arrive at their designated locations simultaneously.

Therefore, the speed of this last batch of hydrogen bombs can only be as fast as possible.

To save fuel, payloads launched into orbit around the sun are typically accelerated by passing through the Earth and the Moon before reaching their target.

This last batch of hydrogen bombs adopted a direct, forceful orbital insertion method, prioritizing time efficiency.

This created the peculiar scene before us.

"It is now day 60 since the start of this cycle."

All hydrogen bombs must be in place in six days.

Sun Changhe, who was in charge of the chief advisor for the doomsday plan, spoke slowly, his voice full of solemnity: "The next task of adjusting the orbit is entrusted to you."

"Please rest assured, Consultant Sun, we guarantee to complete the mission."

The middle-aged man, with a resolute face and around 40 years old, gave a solemn response.

Jiang Yang knew that in six days, based on the information he brought from his previous life, the black hole would enter the designated location, namely the cube-shaped space with sides of 2000 kilometers.

Clearly, our own hydrogen bomb cluster must also arrive at that cube-shaped space within the corresponding time.

Too early, too late, or the trajectory will be off—all of these will cause the hydrogen bomb to miss the black hole, leading to the failure of the interception plan. And… at this moment, every hydrogen bomb in flight is simultaneously subjected to the gravitational interference of every celestial body in the solar system.

Precisely measuring, calculating, and controlling the trajectory of a single hydrogen bomb is already unimaginably complex. How much more so when we are now trying to control 360 million hydrogen bombs, each with a different trajectory, speed, and direction.

The difficulty is no less than casually throwing a handful of millet from space into Earth and then independently controlling each grain to ensure that when the millet finally lands on Earth, it not only has to land in a predetermined position within a specified time, but also accurately form a predetermined pattern.

The computing power required is simply off the charts.

Even if all the supercomputers on Earth were mobilized for calculations, it wouldn't be enough.

The fact that the human world eventually managed to gather the required computing power surprised Jiang Yang.

Watching the image grow narrower and shorter, Jiang Yang silently closed his eyes.

"hope everything is fine……"

The changes in that river of light lasted for six days.

During this period, the flight trajectory of each hydrogen bomb was measured in real time by navigation and communication satellites after removing communication delay factors, and the trajectory was calculated in real time by the supercomputing cluster, and then the trajectory was adjusted in real time.

If we still use the same macroscopic perspective, the river of light has shrunk to a single point of light.

When magnified, it can be seen that it still occupies an extremely vast space, and the orbital adjustment is still ongoing and has never stopped.

Jiang Yang saw that they already had some cube-like outlines, but the overall shape still looked somewhat irregular.

The countdown has begun; the most crucial moment is approaching.

"5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0...detonate!"

In that instant, Jiang Yang clearly saw that just a moment ago, there was chaos, like a tangled mess. One was flying diagonally upward at a speed of 3.2 kilometers per second, another was flying to the left at a speed of 2.9 kilometers per second, and yet another was flying straight down at a speed of 5.4 kilometers per second. Each of the 360 million hydrogen bombs had a different trajectory than the others. In a very short time, they miraculously and neatly assembled into a perfectly standard and orderly cube.

Each hydrogen bomb floats in the weightless space environment, at a standard distance of 13 kilometers. Like soldiers who have undergone the most rigorous training, they are perfectly aligned, without the slightest tilt, whether viewed from the front, the side, above, or below.

They thus occupied every corner of that 2000-kilometer-long cube, leaving no gaps.

Jiang Yang knew that this situation could only last for a moment.

This is a fleeting glimmer of order emerging from chaos, which will shatter in the next moment.

The hydrogen bomb that was originally flying diagonally upward at a distance of 3.2 kilometers will continue to fly diagonally upward along its original trajectory, and the hydrogen bomb that was flying downward will also fly away without stopping.

but……

A mere instant is enough.

In that split second, the detonation signal traveled millions of kilometers and arrived precisely at the hydrogen bomb cluster.

Thus, a total of 360 million hydrogen bombs were detonated in a mere 6.7 milliseconds.

Satellites deployed near this cube, whether for navigation, communication, or optical observation, were all destroyed in an instant.

Several screens went black instantly.

However, satellites deployed further away clearly captured the scene of 360 million hydrogen bombs exploding simultaneously.

At that moment, it was as if a sun had suddenly appeared in the vast and deep space.

An endless, immense amount of energy poured forth into the surrounding space, and the dark universe seemed to brighten up at that moment.

In his previous life, Jiang Yang had already seen the hydrogen bomb constellation, which was spectacular enough, but compared to this moment, it was completely insignificant.

But at this moment, no one cares how spectacular this scene is.

There's only one thing people care about.

Did the black hole actually enter the cube at that instant?

If it gets in... did the envelope of the 360 million hydrogen bombs that we manufactured and deployed with the full power of the world break?
Everyone knows in their hearts that although there is still a full month until the end of the world, whether the end of the world will ultimately be over depends entirely on this moment a month from now.

Inside the command center, all was silent as people waited patiently.

If the envelope of that black hole has indeed been damaged, then...

The light from the simultaneous explosion of 360 million hydrogen bombs appeared for only a moment, lasting just a few seconds before being extinguished.

Darkness once again engulfed this space.

It seems that this explosion, powerful enough to destroy tectonic plates, left nothing behind in the universe.

A silence.

The next moment, an extremely bright spot of light suddenly emerged from the darkness without warning and clearly entered people's eyes.

(End of this chapter)