Great, we're doomed now!

It may be more than ten years before it can be put into practical use (the safety in subspace is guaranteed by a mysterious shield, which is not very reliable), but since the limitations have been broken, the direction of progress has been determined!

Imamura stood with his hands behind his back in front of the command platform, his shoulders, which had been tense all day, finally relaxed.

For half a century, humanity has gradually moved from near-Earth orbit to the Moon, and then to Mars, only to face a long period of technological bottlenecks.

Now Jupiter—a distance that once took months or even years—has been shortened to half an hour!

He didn't cheer; instead, he picked up the walkie-talkie in front of him and spoke in as calm a voice as possible.

"Plasma Hyakushiki, welcome home... Mission accomplished."

Inside the cockpit, Asuka Kazuma let out a long breath.

He leaned back in his chair, tapped his helmet visor twice, then turned his head to look at the family photo in the corner of the control panel and grinned.

The next steps were not difficult for this experienced pilot. He began to shut down the plasma engine according to procedure, switched the Magus power unit back to standby mode, and the aircraft switched from extreme overload mode to normal cruise, slowly gliding towards the recovery route in lunar orbit.

Inside the command center, the celebratory atmosphere continued. Several young technicians gathered around the data transmission terminal, eagerly beginning to analyze the subspace flight data brought back by the Hyakushima. The experimental information accumulated from this flight was enough for them to digest for a long time.

Imamura, however, did not completely relax. He walked to a separate monitoring terminal, on which the situation diagram of the Earth-Moon system's orbital defense system was displayed.

"A meteorite? It's already this far...?"

Prior to this test flight, the Space Development Agency activated the Orbital Defense System according to standard procedures. This system consists of dozens of monitoring platforms and nearly a thousand observable nodes deployed in Earth and lunar orbits, which can track unknown objects entering the Earth-Moon system in real time.

Normally, this system is activated during each test flight, but it never issues an alarm.

Since its inception, the Space Development Agency has discovered that the vast majority of meteorites that have entered the Earth-Moon system have passed outside the Moon's gravitational field, a few have been intercepted by the Moon, and the very few that have entered the Earth's atmosphere have basically burned up in the upper atmosphere.

The last time a meteorite posed a real threat to residents on Earth was before the establishment of the Space Development Agency.

So when an orange notification popped up on the screen, the duty officer didn't pay much attention and told Imamura, who was walking over, that there was nothing to worry about. He even picked up his coffee cup, took a sip, and calmly opened the data.

Then he put down his coffee cup.

--red!

The alert level has been raised!

"Chief Imamura, something's not right with this thing. Its speed... it's accelerating?" He shouted, his voice not loud, but it silenced the people around him.

Imamura leaned over to look at the screen, which displayed an unidentified object that was still in the distance but had just been detected by the orbital defense system. The system's preliminary analysis data was displayed in cold white text on one side of the screen.

Speed: Extremely high.

Quality calculation...

Trajectory calculation...

—Probability of intersecting with Earth's orbit: High!

Next row of data refreshed:

Preliminary density analysis has been completed.

Conclusion: The dense metallic core suggests a greater than 70% probability that it is not a natural celestial body.

Imamura's face darkened. He straightened up and his voice cut through the noise: "Everyone back to your posts. Activate the highest alert procedure!"

The noise stopped abruptly.

A message was sent from a crater on the far side of the moon, and the radio waves were transmitted to the TPC headquarters in Tokyo Bay, Japan.

At the same time, all monitoring platforms of the orbital defense system adjusted their attitudes synchronously, focusing their detection arrays on the approaching meteorite. Three deep-space telescopes deployed in geosynchronous orbit simultaneously locked onto the target and began high-precision spectral scanning.

The scan results were generated within seconds, corroborating the previous preliminary analysis—it was a high-density celestial body with an estimated diameter of 450 to 600 meters, containing a dense metallic core, and its velocity was constantly increasing.

This could never happen with a natural meteorite!

"Notify the Defense Force... no, notify the Victory Squad!"

Chapter 461: Shout out my name! (Three-in-one, 11K)

The space station "Beluga" operates quietly at an apogee 450,000 kilometers from Earth. This is the edge of the Earth-Moon system, where human footprints have just been set. It is the most remote human settlement besides the Mars base under construction.

It is TPC's outpost in space and one of the Space Development Agency's proudest projects. The silver-white modules are pieced together one by one. Although it is called "white whale", it actually looks more like a centipede floating in the sea of ​​stars. The head and tail are connected by giant keel spokes like wheels. The wings on both sides absorb cosmic radiation and starlight, supplying energy for the entire space.

At this moment, the interior of the Beluga was bustling with activity.

They were the ones who issued the warning about the meteorite, and everyone was preparing for emergency evasive maneuvers. Astronauts in blue work suits moved back and forth in the narrow passageways, while in the command module, a handsome young man stood ramrod straight.

His name is Gale, the commander of the White Whale Defense Force. At his age, he shouldn't have been given such an important responsibility, but TPC has always been unconventional in its personnel selection, valuing ability over seniority. It can bring logistics and transportation personnel into the Victory Team, and it can also make up-and-coming talents the commander of the Space Station Defense Force.

Everything is arranged by ability and fate.

Simply put, he was handpicked by someone.

Some people have questioned this arrangement, but it turns out that every appointment Ye Shou made was extremely wise. For example, Jifeng completed his mission very well. Last month, during an alien invasion, he even personally piloted a fighter jet to destroy the enemy's spaceship.

Therefore, a saying circulates within TPC:

Whenever we question Captain Kuze, he always turns out to be right afterward.

(Ye Shou himself was actively trying to suppress this idea, preventing his subordinates from blindly trusting him... but with little effect.)

"The depth scan results are in!" the operator shouted, drawing Jifeng's attention. He walked over and leaned down to look at the spectral analysis chart on the screen. Layer by layer, from the outer shell to the core, all the data was constantly being refreshed.

One unusual curve caught Gale's attention—something was releasing energy at a fixed frequency at the core.

“Life signs.” The operator’s voice was low. “There’s something inside. It’s not hard to imagine any living creature in this kind of environment, but… it has a heartbeat.”

Jifeng frowned: "Continue scanning and synchronize the data to the lunar base."

"It's already being done... wait, what's this?"

"Ok?"

Just then, the trajectory curve on the radar display suddenly changed.

The meteorite, which was originally flying steadily along its established orbit, seemed to be pulled by something and began to deflect unnaturally. The angle of deflection was not large, but on this spatial scale, the difference in distance was enough to fit several moons.

The operator typed rapidly on the keyboard, calculating the new orbital parameters. A few seconds later, he looked up, his face pale: "Gale Commander... it's coming towards us!"

"Is the target a beluga whale?"

Jifeng remained calm. He walked to the main display screen and used his thumb and forefinger to draw an auxiliary line on the touchscreen. With AI correction, he outlined a new trajectory curve, and then it became clear and intuitive that the meteorite was not simply passing by the Earth-Moon system, but was heading straight for a head-on collision!

Due to the beluga whale's unique location, they would be the first to "make contact" with, or rather, collide with, the meteorite.

"speed?"

"It's still increasing, now it's 83 kilometers per second... It's too fast, it's hard to lock onto."

"Power source?"

"Currently... no obvious power unit has been found."

"This is troublesome." Upon hearing this, Gale shook his head with a serious expression.

There are two possibilities: one is that it is an alien with advanced technology, and the other is that it is a monster disguised as a meteorite—either way, it cannot be an ordinary meteorite!

The air in the command center grew heavy, and everyone stopped what they were doing, staring at the ever-extending red trajectory line:

It pierced straight into the Earth-Moon gravitational field like a needle, and kept correcting its trajectory, always managing to lock onto the Beluga Whale. It seems that it had measured the Beluga Whale's trajectory and speed in advance, so it was somewhat targeted.

"All personnel on Level One alert." Gale's voice echoed within the cabin. "Shut down all non-essential systems, transfer all energy to the thrusters and shields, and notify the lunar base—we need to maneuver to evade!"

The space station began to vibrate, and the twenty-four adjustment thrusters ignited simultaneously. The massive body of the beluga whale slowly rotated, aligning its thrust with the tangent of the meteorite's trajectory. This was done to achieve the maximum lateral displacement in the shortest amount of time, in order to create enough distance before the meteorite arrived.

—But the meteorite also started to spin.

The trajectory was constantly being corrected under the watchful eye of the gale. Evasion was no longer meaningful. No matter how it was dealt with, the opponent was flying straight for the white whale!

The space station's structure cannot withstand more violent maneuvers. The non-combat metal frame has already shown slight deformation under continuous stress accumulation. If the thrust is increased further, the space station will be torn to pieces before the meteorite hits it... A decision must be made now!

Jifeng straightened up without hesitation: "Activate the defense system, charge the main cannon!"

"Main gun?"

"Is this the first time you've used it?"

"Don't we need to apply to the lunar base or headquarters?"

"There's not much time left." Gale stared intently at the light spot on the screen, his gaze extremely determined.

The Beluga was equipped with an asteroid defense system, officially called the "Variable Orbit Kinetic Interceptor," but it is more commonly known as the "Super Gunnail."

If calling the electromagnetic cannons mounted on mobile suits "Gangnir" is somewhat of a joke, then the one on the space station is truly comparable to the divine spear of Norse mythology—"Gangnir".

Because of its immense power, it was prohibited from being deployed and used on the ground from the very beginning of its design. As the last resort to defend against asteroid impacts, it naturally ended up in space.

The turret protrudes from behind the armored hatch on the belly of the space station. Three guide rails are arranged in a triangular pattern, with a solid iron rod sandwiched in the middle. It is shaped like an enlarged nail, but the material is not any natural metal, but a modified hard alloy.

hum~

When charged, the surface of the guide rail begins to glow, changing from dark red to orange-yellow, and then to dazzling white light... Just like a person drawing a bowstring to its fullest extent, like a full moon, only one "launch" is needed before it pierces through anything or anyone that dares to stand in its way.

Even asteroids!

Jifeng's breathing slowed, his heart rate dropped from 120 to 80, his pupils contracted slightly, and only the crosshair and the target remained in his field of vision.

Although there is an auxiliary calibration system, the AI ​​has never collected motion data similar to that of this meteorite, so it cannot make 100% accurate predictions, and some errors will inevitably occur in actual operation.

At times like these, he still trusts his experience and instincts more!

—Right there!

Finger snapped down, without hesitation!

A muffled electromagnetic hum came from beneath our feet, causing the entire space station to tremble slightly. However, this was already a delayed aftershock. Long before human senses received the signal, the divine gun known as the Meteor had already left its rails at an initial velocity of one-thousandth the speed of light, carrying enough kinetic energy to pierce through the continental shelf and hurtling toward its target!

Hit, pierce, a fleeting line!

You can hear nothing in a vacuum, only the light that is released in that instant—

The shattered outer shell of the meteorite exploded with a white-hot halo, and fragments scattered in all directions in a radial pattern. Then the core was exposed and torn apart by the remaining kinetic energy of the spikes. The entire meteorite disintegrated in an instant.

This process sounds complicated, but it's just a fleeting moment to the outside world. No one can see the specific impact process; the only evidence that the attack was effective is the white light that spread out.

And it's a one-hit kill!

Very good! "

We're safe!

"Long live!"

Someone shouted from the command center, their joy at surviving the ordeal palpable. Gale also breathed a sigh of relief, leaning back in his chair without making a sound. However, out of professional ethics, his eyes remained fixed on the screen, waiting to confirm that the target had been completely destroyed.