Chapter 208: The First Battle with The Waterdrop_1

Supreme Commander: "That's the only thing we can do now. I hope everything goes smoothly."

"What is Lin Sen's purpose in using the Sophon-Blocked Plan at this final stage? What does he plan to do here?"

"Humans have never truly seen our weapons, they can't possibly know how to deal with them, so what is he preparing in the Sophon-Blocked Zone?"

"The greatest reliance of humanity is the deterrence of the Dark Forest. If it's about using the Dark Forest to deter us, they wouldn't need a Sophon-Blocked Zone."

"I must continue to investigate this."

Military Governor: "Indeed, we can't speculate. Theoretically, humanity's greatest reliance should already be in a state that could be blocked at any moment, so we should have basically secured the situation."

"The final problem is how many warships will flee during the decisive battle. At critical moments, we can also appropriately increase the speed of The Waterdrop. We are confident that we can keep all humans within the Solar System."

"Moreover, as long as there isn't a mass exodus of warships, the impact on us isn't actually that great. Even if a small number of human warships develop a relatively strong civilization, that would take a long time, and they wouldn't dare return easily."

"What we fear is them exposing themselves en masse in the Dark Forest, not their retaliation."

No. 7: "It won't be that simple. Lin Sen never does meaningless things."

"Just analyzing the time Lin Sen has invested in this plan shows how much he values it."

"There must be a huge conspiracy hidden here."

"I can't make a judgment now. I need to study all of Lin Sen's past actions."

"I only have 7 Earth days left to deduce his plan, otherwise we will always be in danger."

Supreme Commander: "Agreed. Leave the other plans on the battlefield to the Military Governor."

"You are granted the highest computational resources. You must crack Lin Sen's plan with all your might."

...

Seven days felt like a century.

Every moment was filled with endless tension and anticipation.

People from both worlds were watching the showdown between Trisolaran civilization and human civilization.

The will of both sides was firm as rock; this was not merely a contest of technology and force, but a collision of intelligence and will.

With the exposure of the latest five The Waterdrops, there are now seven known appearances.

Humans have divided into five major warzones:

The First War Zone consists of 3000 warships from the Human Combined Fleet, set to engage two The Waterdrops that appeared from the Kuiper Belt, with the anticipated battlefield inside Neptune's orbit.

The Second War Zone is the Wallfacer Headquarters, confronting two The Waterdrops that suddenly appeared near Jupiter's orbit, clearly targeting the Wallfacers.

The Third, Fourth, and Fifth Warzones are comprised of the remaining fleets of the three major human space powers, each with around 700 warships.

...

The First War Zone, where human warships made initial contact with The Waterdrop, is inside Neptune's orbit, Radial Sector 10.

All space weapons platforms of the Human Stellar Defense System have been attempting to intercept The Waterdrop, creating a fireworks display across the sky.

But The Waterdrop has been avoiding battle and persists in evasion; it has now moved to Radial Sector 10.

This aligns with human expectations; The Waterdrop is too small, and it must reserve its resources for a critical moment to deliver a fatal blow to humanity.

A single main cannon attack from a human warship consumes thousands of tons of resource material. With such a small size, The Waterdrop likely has a specific purpose for being here, and it could probably only deliver a crucial strike's worth of energy.

Humans have been quite arrogant and underestimating, but arrogance is not stupidity. The 200 years of war have honed human vigilance, which is not taken lightly.

Long-distance attacks by the Human Combined Fleet are pointless; with the presence of Sophons, The Waterdrop will certainly evade in advance. The two sides can only come closer and closer.

The vanguard of the United Warship fleet, the First Division, is now less than 0.1 astronomical units from The Waterdrop. The two Waterdrops are one in front of the other, not too far apart.

The United Warship fleet's main battle group is far from the vanguard. No one knows what The Waterdrop's attack pattern is, so using the forward division's warships for probing is very necessary.

Space battleship combat tactics include skirmish formation, line-ahead formation, and array formation.

Skirmish formation typically uses a dual-ship team, with the lead ship and wingman coordinating their tactics. Based on battlefield conditions, this could also be divided into tri-ship or quad-ship formations, etc.

Line-ahead formation usually consists of 30 to 50 ships forming a single column battle line, which is not straight but rather a curving line resembling an upward spiral, adopting flexible and varied attack patterns depending on the battlefield situation.

It is also an evolution of the traditional naval battle line, resembling a flexible and maneuverable column battle line.

Array formation is essentially multiple column battle lines, increasing the complexity of tactics and the difficulty of command. These columns are arranged in a specific array, forming a spiral interwoven by many little snakes.

This mode is generally considered unlikely to occur on the battlefield,

First, because there is no need; a dispersed multi-ship maneuvering line formation can attack from any direction and is the most appropriate tactic. The array formation, besides being visually pleasing, offers little practical value, and the attack direction in array formation is also relatively fixed.

Second, the coordination required is too demanding; during high-speed combat, the position of every battleship is almost fixed; they cannot move at will, and any mistake by a single ship could lead to the collapse of the entire formation.

Nevertheless, the commander of the federal fleet, Ye Chen, decided to face the enemy in array formation.

When the Trisolaran Military Governor learned that humanity would face the enemy in array formation, even though he lacked emotions, he felt an incomparable surge of elation. A sly glint flashed in his eye, as he seemingly saw the dawn of victory.

Just like in the original timeline, seeing the human warship's dense formation, he didn't expect that the commander of the Human Combined Fleet would make the same mistake now.

...

The vanguard of the first column had locked onto The Waterdrop, and the main cannon's reactor began to work.

In an instant, a tremendous surge of energy burst forth from the battleship's main cannon. The energy beam was like a thick, dark red pillar, condensed with unparalleled destructive power; it seemed to be a fury erupting from the unfathomable abyss.

The dozens of energy beams were so powerful that they appeared to tear wounds in space itself, like dozens of awakening fire dragons roaring toward The Waterdrop.

In interstellar space, there are still extremely sparse dust particles which are instantaneously ionized by this powerful energy beam. The energy beam's dispersion is minimal, and its dark red light is mainly due to these interstellar dust particles, which is also a major reason for the weakening of energy beams.

In 50 seconds, the dozens of energy beams from the first column had crossed 0.1 astronomical units and were rapidly closing in on The Waterdrop.

However, The Waterdrop, with almost inconceivable agility, preemptively performed an evasive maneuver.

The human warship commanders understood that such attacks were unlikely to succeed; after all, with Sophon's assistance, it was not easy for humans to concentrate on The Waterdrop. The purpose of the attack was also to test The Waterdrop's maneuvering and evasion abilities.

The human warships continued to approach The Waterdrop with Velocity 4, and the first column kept attacking in various probing ways, but to no effect, none of the attacks hit The Waterdrop.

Three hours later.

The distance between them was only 5 light-seconds (the distance light travels in 5 seconds, for clarity in understanding attack timing).

At such a distance, human attacks are very difficult since The Waterdrop observed by humans is 5 seconds in the past, and by the time the attack reaches, it's already been 10 seconds for The Waterdrop, giving it plenty of time to evade.

The main cannons of the first column roared again; this time, the battleship's attack strategy changed as they launched dispersed attacks that blocked all of The Waterdrop's possible evasion routes ahead.

The humans had a clear goal—to force The Waterdrop to reveal its true capabilities. Everyone held their breath, waiting for this moment of revelation.

However, when that moment actually arrived, The Waterdrop's maneuverability once again astonished everyone. It performed a movement that, from aeronautical dynamics, seemed outright impossible: at three times the third cosmic velocity, it made a sharp angle turn without decelerating.

Not only did it successfully evade the encirclement of the first column's warship, but it also demonstrated its extraordinary strength with an almost arrogant posture to humankind.

The Waterdrop's agility and power undeniably announced its formidable presence to humanity, who had long set aside any contempt they might have felt.

As time passed, The Waterdrop quickly closed the distance with the first column. The battleship's secondary cannons activated, pouring down a torrential bombardment like a downpour, in the hope of annihilating The Waterdrop beneath the relentless firepower.

Yet, facing this overwhelming attack, The Waterdrop displayed unbelievable agility and composure.

It weaved through the dense barrage with the grace of a highly skilled embroidery needle, each evasive maneuver so elegant and precise that it seemed to be dancing a waltz of the universe.

Drawing closer and closer, everyone watched this scene intently, eager to see what kind of attack The Waterdrop would exhibit.

But to everyone's surprise, The Waterdrop seemed to utterly disdain the first column.

It haughtily swept past the side of the first column's warship, without initiating any form of attack, not even showing a hint of slowing down.

Its real target was not the first column at all, but rather the rear group of the federal fleet. The first column couldn't even pressure it to use its offensive abilities, which was a humiliation and defeat in and of itself.

At this point, for the first column's warship to intercept another Waterdrop ahead was meaningless. The column's warship immediately changed posture, aligning their sterns forward, igniting intense exhaust flames to decelerate and close the distance with the federal fleet behind.