Chapter 272 Humanity's Preparation 3

Lin Sen: "How is our military force prepared now, and can it achieve the expected outcome?"

Ding Yi: "In the battle of doomsday, the Trisolarans showed us what absolute defense is. Now, it's time for us to show the Trisolarans what absolute defense means.

"Our most important military force consists of 1,000 Special Transport Warships, capable of reaching 25% of the speed of light, each carrying 6 Special Torpedo Ships, totaling 6,000 Special Torpedo Ships.

"Special Torpedo Ships only require one crew member, and the warships use the most advanced intelligent programming. The entire warship is akin to an extension of the crew member's body. At nearly 120 meters in length, such small warships do not have a main cannon, but only a few secondary cannons.

"Every Torpedo Ship and Transport Warship is equipped with Curvature Propulsion Defense, Strong Interaction Armor, and Sophon Blocker. Curvature Propulsion Defense is very resource-intensive; half of the resources under the Bunker have basically been used to build this type of defense.

"The Torpedo Ships themselves also have a maximum speed of 15% of the speed of light and, upon being launched from the Transport Warships, rush towards the Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet like torpedoes, employing that superweapon when they approach within 0.05 astronomical units of a Trisolaran Warship.

"Whether we can achieve the expected results hinges on whether we can approach the Trisolaran warships. This requires strategic planning."

Lin Sen nodded: "What decides a war is not the weapons, but how we strategize and utilize our tactics.

"Each weapon has its limitations, and each tactic has its suitable environment and conditions. We need more advanced weapons; it's the most critical factor in our warfare, but more importantly, we should not over-idealize weapons."

Ding Yi: "Indeed, Curvature Propulsion Defense is not impregnable.

"The Trisolarans might be astonished by this defense during their initial encounter. However, after a series of probing attacks, they will surely deduce its technical principles and might even find a way to break it.

"The core concept of Curvature Propulsion Defense is to connect two pieces of space through a curvature point, cleverly transferring the attack from one space to another.

"Some of the universe's fundamental rules remain unchanged, like conservation of angular momentum. Therefore, the direction of the attack cannot be altered, or else we would be able to reflect the attack directly.

"The weakness of curvature point defense is its unidirectionality. In reality, it's impossible to establish effective curvature defense in all directions.

"This means that if the enemy attacks from behind or from the flank of the warship, our warship will have no defense.

"Therefore, we must achieve significant victory as quickly as possible.

"Of course, in the battlefield, I would prefer the Trisolaran warships to move to the rear of our ships to attack, as that would also present an opportunity for us.

"The design philosophy of these Torpedo Ships is to always face the enemy, charge towards them. If one flees, they would expose their rear to the enemy and face certain death."

Lin Sen sighed: "It can't be helped. If instantaneous communication technology could be miniaturized in the future, then such warships could operate unmanned.

"Additionally, how many Sophons and Waterdrops have we constructed?"

Ding Yi: "We currently have 200 Waterdrops and 60 Sophons; these 200 Waterdrops are an important reinforcement during the war.

"The Waterdrops can now only serve as an auxiliary to the war, and if the Trisolarans assess humanity's strength merely by its current appearance, their assessment wouldn't be far from what it was during the doomsday battle; they might even think that the Waterdrops can still dominate the battlefield.

"They don't realize that humanity today is a thousand times, hundreds of times stronger than before and now stands before them with a new stature and strength.

"If they believe that the Waterdrops can still play a significant role in the battlefield, they will surely be disappointed."

Wade added: "The key to this war is how to gather the Trisolaran's fleet as much as possible.

"We might have a chance to keep the majority of the Trisolarans' warships that have come to the Bunker. But the other six fleets will not be so easy to retain.

"Once the Trisolarans become aware of our methods of attack and defense, they won't possibly gather their warships. Neither can we transport our ships to the Kuiper Belt quickly."

Shi Qiang: "Can't we just send our warships there now? Our warships are all installed with Sophon Blockers, so Sophons won't be able to detect what's inside our warships, right?"

"When the Trisolaran fleet approaches the Bunker, our warships sent ahead can also attack the other six Trisolaran fleets simultaneously."

Wade said, "This plan isn't very feasible, mainly for two reasons.

"First, the Solar System is in the midst of the most intense civil war humanity has ever seen. Sending our warships now would be too risky and could lead to attacks from both sides in extreme cases.

"Second, the warships we send could also become a target of the Trisolarans' first wave of attacks. Once attacked, our defensive capabilities would be exposed, and the other half of the Trisolaran fleet might hesitate to approach the Bunker.

"Even if the first wave of attacks doesn't fall on our warships, we would still face furious assaults from Trisolaran warships later on. Our real counterattack must wait until the other half of the Trisolaran fleet arrives near the Bunker."

Shi Qiang said, "Indeed, the cards hidden until the end are the trump cards. Cards revealed too early can only become ordinary military forces.

"Do we have any other methods?"

A cruel smile appeared on Wade's lips: "Actually, we do have a way. We can also take part in humanity's civil war."

Rey Diaz looked at him, baffled and frowning, "How can we do that? Our participation could disrupt the current strategic balance, and it would be hard to ally with the losing side afterward."

Wade was somewhat disdainful: "Do you still care about that? Your torpedo plan is much crueler than this!"

Although humanity had long become a community with a shared destiny, old habits and prejudices from 200 years ago still left a deep imprint on this era. Wade and Rey Diaz were examples of this, often disdainful of each other.

Lin Sen looked at Wade: "That's indeed a method. We can accept appropriate risks and losses as long as they are worth it. Please elaborate."

Wade said, "It doesn't matter which nation we choose; what's key is having a reasonable excuse to intervene. Perhaps we can also induce an incident where we are attacked.

"If the plan goes smoothly, our warships heading to the Kuiper Belt battlefield won't raise suspicions from the Trisolarans. In fact, it may even be a scenario they'd be pleased to see.

"Currently, we have over 2,400 conventional warships, which technologically far surpass any currently active human warship. Thus, in any engagement with human warships, we would have an absolute advantage.

"We will dispatch all of our warships along with 600 Special Transport Warships to form a mixed fleet of 3,000 ships, divided into six groups to head towards the Kuiper Belt battlefield.

"Our Special Transport Warships resemble conventional warships in appearance and all are equipped with Sophon shielding technology. This makes it difficult for the Trisolarans to distinguish them from the outside, and they cannot detect their true state inside using Sophons.

"Once the war with the Trisolarans starts, those over 2,400 conventional warships can be sacrificed if necessary, all to protect the 600 Special Transport Warships.

"With Sophon surveillance and instant communication, we can remotely obtain the attack positions of Trisolaran warships. If they target our conventional warships, we can selectively sacrifice these to conserve our strength.

"And if they target the Special Transport Warships, we will use the Sophons' instant communication to promptly adjust our tactics, ensuring these key ships miraculously avoid the Trisolaran attacks.

"Despite the risk that using Sophons could increase our chances of being discovered by the Trisolarans, given the vastness of space and the six-dimensional microscale of Sophons, the likelihood of being detected is actually very low.

"The counteroffensive will begin when the other half of the Trisolaran fleet reaches near the Bunker. At that moment, our Special Transport Warships in the Bunker vicinity and at the six outer battlefields will swiftly rush towards the Trisolaran fleet.

"As they close in on their targets, they will rapidly deploy the Torpedo Ships for the final sprint, leveraging our secret weapons to deliver a fatal blow to the Trisolaran fleet, thus completely changing the situation on the battlefield.

"In this war, the key is how to close the distance between us and the Trisolaran fleet on the battlefields."

Lin Sen said, "Indeed, Curvature Propulsion Defense can defend us against any Trisolaran attack. The most crucial thing is how to close the distance with them.

"When we rapidly rush at them, the Trisolarans might realize what's happening and could likely accelerate their retreat.

"So the most crucial thing is how to lure the Trisolarans into the trap!"