Chapter 168: The Earth "Bunker" Project_1

The Earth Alliance had three major starports, and they were also preparing to meet an attack from the Moon.

A multitude of rockets and missiles were launched from in front of the starports, with the rockets exploding to release another kind of thick black gas.

Soon, a range of thousands of kilometers in front of the starports was enveloped in this black gas, like a heavy dark magic cloud slowly spreading.

This black gas could greatly weaken the energy of laser weapons and also obstruct the enemy's line of sight, while at the same time having a certain shielding effect against electromagnetic wave detection.

Many people believed that gas had no defensive capabilities, which under normal circumstances was indeed the case, as kinetic weapons and high-energy particle beam weapons could easily pass through it.

The power of a weapon is not in its performance, but in how it is applied.

Kinetic weapons had been almost abandoned by both sides, and there were other means of defending against kinetic weapons as well.

The attack range of high-energy particle beam weapons was also somewhat narrow, making them not the optimal choice for attacking large targets; their typical targets were high-speed running battleships.

In fact, high-energy particle beams were more capable of changing direction. It was easier to use high-energy particle beam weapons from the Moon's reverse slope position, but the Moon did not use high-energy particle beams either.

The effect of a high-energy particle beam hitting a target was generally penetrative, with results more akin to cutting.

The effect of laser weapons hitting a target was typically highly destructive, with the extreme heat rapidly melting and vaporizing all contacted materials, causing them to explode under the immense internal stress.

Thus, both Earth and Moon forces used high-energy laser cannons for attack more frequently, which made the gas defense have its function.

Sometimes the defensive capability of gas was the highest, as it could not only disperse laser beams but also greatly weaken the energy of the lasers.

Of course, when the black gas was subjected to laser attacks, it would also roll and spread more quickly due to overheating. An attack from one side would clear a large area of the gas.

The starports had to continuously replenish the gas, and in space, the diffusion speed of gas was much faster. This plan was known as the "Fog" plan within the Earth Alliance.

Of course, the "Fog" plan was not so simple; even though the fog could reduce the attack strength of lasers, it could still cause damage to the Earth Starport.

Following the fog, the Earth Starport executed the "Scatter Star" plan, and the once towering giant starports began to slowly disperse.

As the fog in front of the starport spread, hundreds of high-energy laser beams from the Moon's reverse slope position had already arrived.

The laser beams fiercely penetrated into the fog, and in an instant, dazzling white light burst forth, shining like the sun's brilliance, illuminating the entire sky.

The beams resolutely pierced through the layers of fog, unstoppable, like meteors cutting through the atmosphere in an unmatched manner, the flames they dragged along like a brilliant halo, sharp and spectacular.

The spread-out components were like many small "turrets" that could appear anywhere in the fog, occasionally moving to the edge of the fog to launch attacks. At the same time, the dispersed starport was not easily targeted for focused fire from the Moon.

After launching an attack, the small "turrets" were pushed quickly back into the fog by the strong recoil, which was more conducive to "hiding" themselves, avoiding attacks from the Moon Base.

The fog acted like a thick curtain, becoming the "cover" of the Earth Starport. The Earth Alliance's firepower was like a hidden beast, ready to strike the enemy with lethal blows at any moment.

On the Moon Base's reverse slope position, the barrage of fire poured out like a torrential downpour, trying to tear through the veil of fog. The dense gunfire, however, seemed to hit cotton, cleverly absorbed and dissipated by the fog, significantly reducing its power.

The Moon Base's biggest advantage was its sufficient energy reserves, while the Earth Alliance attacked counting their resources. In the long run, it was the Earth Alliance that would inevitably be unable to sustain.

In this interstellar artillery duel, it seemed as if the entire universe was ignited, and the starlight was dim and lackluster against the backdrop of the gunfire.

...

One and a half hours after the artillery exchange began.

The Earth Alliance had not launched an attack for half an hour, and the Moon Base gradually ceased its attack as well.

As the final round of artillery fire slowly dissipated into the endless darkness, what remained on the battlefield was nothing but gunsmoke and silence.

The Moon Base's Starports on Mars, Mercury, and Titan had all been destroyed, years of hard work vanishing into nothingness in just a short period of time.

The Apennine Mountains on the lunar surface, once a towering and majestic landmark, now lay battered beyond recognition, shrouded in dust and debris, with parts of the range even blasted into gaping holes.

However, the losses at the Moon Base's reverse slope position were not too severe; no matter how powerful the Earth Alliance's artillery, it was hard for it to penetrate the hundreds of kilometers of mountain rock and cause significant damage to the reverse slope position.

It was uncertain whether all the giant turrets in the Earth Starport had been destroyed, but according to observations from the Moon Base, at least 50 were demolished.

During the exchange of fire, 60 attacking turrets were accounted for, but it was unclear if the Earth Alliance only had these 60; perhaps many more were hidden elsewhere.

If one rashly used battleships to approach Earth, the Earth Alliance certainly had countless fallback plans to attack the battleships.

At the same time, 8 of Earth's space elevators were also destroyed, leaving Earth with only 9 space elevators in total.

As mentioned earlier, space elevators are not connected to the starports, so the destruction of Earth's space elevators would not affect the starports.

Clearly, it would be very difficult for the Moon Base to defeat the Earth Alliance with an attack from the "reverse slope."

But both sides knew that the Earth Alliance had already failed. Up to now, the Moon Base had not used any of its active space battleships, and these forces were surely hidden in places the Earth Alliance would not expect.

The Earth Alliance had almost played all of its cards; in fact, the purpose was to force the Moon's battleships to appear. If they could take out a few, they would hold some advantages in the negotiations to come.

However, the Earth Alliance found it difficult to cope with just the Moon-based reverse slope positions, which gave them the impression that the Moon Base "didn't care" about the war.

The Earth Alliance's biggest shortcoming was the lack of resources. If they had enough resources, the power of the 88 giant cannons could perhaps be increased several notches.

Whether in technology or development potential, the Earth Alliance had in many respects already surpassed the Moon Base by a lot.

The war had reached a point where there was no point in continuing. The Earth Alliance had also used up all its pre-war stockpiled resources.

…

Earth Alliance, Combat Command Hall.

Military Advisory Group: "We no longer have the resources to continue the attack. Now we can only concentrate all our resources on strategic defense.

"Once the Moon side employs their hidden battleships, our defense will become meaningless.

"Commander, should we prepare to negotiate with the Moon side?"

Ye Chen: "Prepare for negotiations!

"We have achieved the objective of this war. The fundamental purpose of this conflict was to probe the strategic intentions of the Moon side, and that goal has been completed.

"We never expected to win this war. Aside from not forcing the Moon side to deploy their active battleships, everything else has gone as expected.

"We've lost starports and space elevators, but that was also part of our plan. Aside from essential personnel, hundreds of thousands of ordinary staff had already been evacuated prior to this.

"Furthermore, the early design of our starports had significant issues, with major limitations in defense and attack capabilities as well as starport expansion.

"Once the Earth Starport is completely destroyed, a newly built starport can be entirely free from past constraints and undergo a completely new design. What we need is a flexible, scalable starport with both offensive and defensive capabilities."

Military Advisory Group: "Yes, Commander."