Chapter 363: Please Offer Up Your Lives_1

"All hands, at ease, attention!"

In the endless expanse of the hangar, at the command of the Commander of the Fourth Corps echoed through amplification, tens of thousands of soldiers from Fort No. 17 moved in unison, taking the stance of attention in a weightless condition.

"The Commander-in-chief will now address you!" the Commander of the Fourth Corps announced.

Ai Qi stepped onto the small platform, and all the display screens within the hangar lit up, broadcasting Ai Qi's speech.

Ai Qi's hair had whitened with age, his presence commanding without anger, and the passage of time had lent depth to his gaze.

He said, "Just moments ago, the Wallfacer sent us a video to boost everyone's morale!"

Ai Qi waved his hand, and Jiang Yu's video began to play on the screens: "Since I can't cheer you on in person, I must use this method to say a few words to all of you.

Jiang Yu spoke solemnly, "You are equipped with the most advanced weaponry of the Solar System, with technology that could even surpass that of the PDC and Fleet International by half a century!

"These weapons are more than sufficient against 'The Waterdrop,' but when facing the Trisolarans' most advanced warships, there will still be a significant gap.

"Therefore, for the pride of Humanity, for the sake of our home, the Solar System, not being violated…"

Jiang Yu suddenly choked up, "Please, sacrifice your lives! Please keep the enemy beyond our gates!

"If our weapons and equipment are lacking, then we fill the gap with our willpower!"

Jiang Yu wiped away the tears at the corner of his eyes and said resolutely, "Fight for Humanity! Fight for the Solar System! Don't let the invaders take even one step inside our borders!"

The soldiers shouted together, "Fight for Humanity!"

"Fight for the Solar System!"

"Don't let the invaders take even one step inside our borders!"

Many were moved to tears in excitement; they were proud, they were elated, but they were not tragic!

Ai Qi spoke loudly, "Letting the aggressors into the Oort Cloud was already a failing on our part, we must stop them before they reach the Kuiper Belt!

"The time has come for Humanity's warriors to wash away our disgrace! Strive in battle, and let the name of Humanity flutter throughout the universe!"

"Depart!"

For the first time since their construction, all the military fortresses in the Kuiper Belt opened on a grand scale, and countless warships flew out from within.

The first group from Fleet International that had left Jupiter last year to observe the so-called "Great Migration", were fortunate enough to witness this spectacular event.

The shape of these warships was conspicuously different from the Ordinary Battleships equipped by the Solar System State in the First and Third Legions; they all had a large "head" but seemed to be much smaller in overall size.

Additionally, when they left the military fortresses, the nuclear engines at their rear expelled bewitching red light, starkly contrasting with the mainstream white light.

And the sheer number was staggering to the members of the observation group, with an estimated tens of thousands of warships!

However, the group's ships were soon captured by Fort No. 3 and weren't able to witness the warships' acceleration process, which would have surely dropped their jaws.

The ceiling speed of nuclear engines is 15% of the speed of light; this had become the common understanding between Humanity and the Trisolaran World.

How quickly an engine can reach this speed has become the benchmark for the performance of a nuclear engine.

As of now, the military nuclear engines of the PDC and Fleet International take about twenty-six days to achieve this acceleration.

In the past half a century, the nuclear engines of the Solar System State had undergone five improvements, requiring only four and a half days to accelerate to this speed.

However, more than thirty years ago, the acceleration process of the nuclear engines brought about another issue: the inertia during acceleration was too great!

When it was possible to accelerate to 15% of the speed of light in about eighteen days, not even the Deep Sea Mode could avoid the harm to the human body during acceleration.

The research into developing a new deep-sea acceleration fluid had failed. No matter what, the inertia was just too great; any living cell structure couldn't withstand the pressure from acceleration.

Therefore, the warship research team devised a different approach by designing a flat repulsion field at the bow of the warship.

This force field didn't have any support points, so it didn't affect the warship's acceleration, while at the same time it could neutralize that huge inertia.

This was another clever use of gravity. In the mechanical model, this force field not only didn't negate the warship's acceleration, but it actually had a certain pulling effect.

It was like a high-speed car whose sensation of being pushed back was neutralized by the gravity generated on the windshield.

Because of this device, all of the Solar System State's warships had what was referred to as a "big head."

The Second and Fourth Legions, totaling more than thirteen thousand ships of various types, went to meet the enemy confidently and with high spirits.

Among them, there were over nine thousand "P-class Battleships," also known as Ordinary Battleships, more than one thousand "Q-class Battleships" and "Z-class Battleships," which are the flagship and command level battleships, two thousand Supply Ships, and over three hundred ships of other roles.

They were still over a thousand astronomical units away from the enemy; theoretically, it would take several months before an encounter could happen.

However, the war could break out at any moment, since no one knew how far the Trisolaran warships' weapons could reach.

The only option was to advance in stages, to avoid having the entire fleet enter the range of the Trisolaran warships at once.

Ai Qi was in the last echelon. Over these many years, defeating the Trisolarans had become his obsession. He had always wanted to meet a Trisolaran warship in combat and see just how strong their combat capability really was.

...

On Earth, Sophon began to pay some attention to this side once it saw the gigantic fleet of the Solar System State.

At the same time, its intelligence updates started to become more timely. Zhuang Yue's actions had just begun when the PDC's command headquarters were already aware of them.

Sophon's intelligence prevented the First Legion from gaining any advantage in the following month's battle processes.

The largest engagement took place when the PDC brought together all its space forces in an attempt to destroy at one stroke the Solar System State's space-based weapons hub, which resembled a large umbrella, in near-Earth orbit.

This "umbrella," over ten kilometers in diameter, was built more than a decade ago and was only fully deployed after declaring war on the PDC.

If not for the fact that the soldiers of the First Legion were not very skilled yet in using it, the forces that had previously besieged Desert North Farm would have been half-wiped out by this very thing.

With it operational, all of PDC's ground forces were forever within the strike range of the First Legion.

In this battle, the PDC mobilized nearly all of its space forces, not expecting that Desert North Farm, which seemed quite weak, would hide a space force that was terrifyingly powerful.

Within minutes of the war starting, Sophon received accurate intelligence that the First Legion had set up an ambush at the space weapons center. If not for the remaining six "The Waterdrops" joining the battle in formation, the PDC's space forces would have suffered heavy losses.

The ambush quickly turned into a skirmish, with both sides sustaining damage, and ultimately, the battle ended with the PDC's retreat.

Only after the battle did the Trisolarans realize that the PDC had not fallen into an ambush, but had "The Waterdrops" fallen into a trap instead?

Because two more "The Waterdrops" were destroyed in this battle, leaving only four remaining, which were now the only force of the Trisolarans inside the Solar System.