Chapter 276 Gluon Transformation Field

In the Natural Human's command center for the battle zone, the atmosphere was extraordinarily tense.

The fleet commander of the battle zone stared at the central large screen, where more than 40 red warning symbols were flashing. His brows were tightly furrowed, and his tone carried anger and anxiety, "This must be an attack by the Trisolarans, there are no other possibilities, they finally made their move!"

"Damn it... The surveillance department has been too negligent; the enemy has approached, and we're still completely in the dark!"

He issued orders swiftly, "All warships enter emergency status immediately, analyze the sources of these attacks right now, we must pinpoint their location.

"Science department, start analyzing this unknown attack immediately, I need to know the principles behind this kind of attack, its method of assault, and possible defensive measures.

"At the same time, activate high-power radio communication, gravitational wave communication, and neutrino communication, report our situation to headquarters immediately.

"We can even try to use the secondary cannons' lasers, to emit information in Morse code.

"Although it's already too late, as soldiers we must fulfill our duty."

Secondary cannon lasers reaching over 30 astronomical units away would basically have no attack power left. However, such a laser is perfectly suitable for emitting Morse code signals because of its intermittent nature.

The commander also understood that sending out messages now was already over, the Trisolaran attack was definitely not limited to what they were observing now, and the current messages sent back might have become completely useless by now.

He paused briefly, then said in a deep voice, "This will be the Trisolarans' first wave of assault, and their targets will inevitably be all the star-level broadcasting stations as well as our entire Faster-Than-Light Communication Stations.

"We always believed that the Trisolarans would not dare to act under the deterrence of the Dark Forest, but we neglected the fact that if they really made a move, it means they could recall all our star-level broadcasting stations immediately. Otherwise, they would never dare to launch an attack so rashly.

"To destroy the Faster-Than-Light Communication Stations is to prevent us from passing the message of the Trisolaran attack back to headquarters, which would give the Swordholder the chance to choose to initiate the Dark Forest broadcast.

"They really went all in this time; we are about to face the true power of the Trisolarans, not just a few of The Waterdrops that slowly emerged from the Trisolaran world. Real danger for humanity is upon us!"

He suddenly looked towards everyone in the operations room, raised his voice, and with an unyielding glint in his eyes, declared, "The Trisolarans think they can annihilate us with this, they are dreaming.

"The strength of humanity today far surpasses that of the Battle of Judgment Day. We still have so many Sophon-Blocked Zones, where countless Wallfacer plans are hidden.

"The methods of attack by the Trisolarans indeed instill fear in us, but those who should be more afraid are them! Under the cruel laws of the Dark Forest, they cannot afford the slightest mistake.

"But we, without any concerns, we can go all out in a gamble with them.

"They have been deceiving us, they have angered us, they must pay the price for their actions.

"Even if we are not victorious, even if it is death, we shall fall on the path of the charge.

"We will use our lives to explain the determination of humanity!

"Order, all warships enter forward serpentine maneuver pattern 4!

"Direction, any that could possibly be the direction of the Trisolaran Interstellar Fleet."

The serpentine maneuver pattern involves randomly changing the warship's course, which can effectively evade strikes from the Trisolarans.

Any attack cannot exceed the speed of light, the Trisolaran's attack is launched from several astronomical units away, by the time it has reached its target, it's already been tens of minutes, during which the target warship could have deviated significantly.

The serpentine maneuver can almost make it impossible for the Trisolarans to predict the warship's lead, the best the Trisolarans can do is to approach rapidly for a close-range attack.

The drawback of the serpentine maneuver is that it is highly fuel consuming, and maneuver pattern 4 is changing the direction of the warship at its maximum acceleration.

The commander understood that under this kind of attack method by the Trisolarans, humanity had no hope of victory. The efforts of humanity over several centuries would eventually turn to nothingness, and perhaps only the last of human courage and determination were left.

At the same time, the commander also had doubts; Wallfacer must have other plans. It was too odd that they directly deployed 3000 warships this time, their target might not be the Long-Livers but the Trisolarans. The only thing he could do now was to launch a charge at the Trisolarans to provide cover for the Wallfacer's warships...

...

Inside the Long-Livers' command center for the battle zone, the atmosphere was even more tense, with anxiety mixed with panic.

Compared to the Natural Humans, despite both being in a state of extreme bewildered fear, the Natural Humans still managed to maintain normalcy amid the heavy mood, but the emotions of many Long-Livers were already highly unstable, on the verge of collapse at any moment.

The fleet commander's face was filled with astonishment as he asked urgently, "What on earth is this situation? Has the Wallfacer launched an attack? It's impossible that they have such strong offensive capabilities!"

He turned toward the Science Advisory Board, asking hopefully, "What do you think this attack is? Could it be some kind of natural phenomenon?"

The commander of the Long-Livers' fleet might not have been qualified; he seemed somewhat at a loss, as if subconsciously unwilling to believe that this was an attack by the Trisolarans.

The fleet commander clearly understood that if this were an attack by the Trisolarans, then humanity was facing an imminent catastrophe.

Science Advisory Board: "It couldn't be an attack by the Wallfacer or some natural phenomenon. This completely surpasses all current theoretical frameworks of humanity. There is only one possibility, the Trisolarans might have already launched an attack on us.

"Through our detection, after our faster-than-light communication station battleship was hit by a mysterious force, all matter seems to have disintegrated at the level of atomic nuclei.

"We detected the presence of a massive hydrogen-helium medium where the communication station battleship was, as if all the matter of the battleship had turned into hydrogen, helium, and other elemental particles.

"The only technology we can think of is the reduction and contraction of the strong interaction force into protons. After the decrease in the strong interaction force, the atomic nuclei originally bound by the strong force would disintegrate under the great electrostatic repulsion of protons.

"However, the disintegration of elements lighter than iron requires the absorption of vast amounts of energy. The total binding energy after fission is usually less than the binding energy before fission. Even if the atomic nuclei disintegrated into new particles, the newly formed particles would be in an extremely unstable state, prone to further decay, but we did not detect any energy phenomena that would result from such decay.

"If this is the principle, then the mysterious force that hit the communication station is akin to a gluon transformation field tether. It is a special force field that acts on the strong interaction force, which the Trisolarans can also project over vast distances.

"Currently, no theory supports this technology, but we cannot speculate on other possibilities."

Gluons are the particles that convey the strong interaction force; they are the real mediators of the strong interaction.

The gluon transformation field is an application of the fifth force field in the universe; it's the name humanity gave to that special force field after studying the surface of The Waterdrop.

It usually coils up in the high-dimensional micro, and the Trisolarans have applied this force field technology at the macro level and can project it over great distances.

After a brief unease, the commander of the fleet's boson group gradually regained his composure, "This indeed resembles Trisolaran technology.

"Allowing the strong interaction force to spill out of the nucleus could create strong interaction force material, and by contracting it into protons, the original nuclei would disintegrate under proton electrostatic repulsion, producing a hydrogen-helium medium.

"Although we are not masters of physics, I also know the difficulty of this process, which even violates the principle of entropy increase.

"There must be mechanisms at work here that we have yet to understand.

"The problem we now face is, how do we respond to another invasion by the Trisolarans? Faced with weapons from the Trisolarans that far exceed the limits of our cognition, how should we respond, and is there even a possibility of resistance?

"The most critical point is that the Trisolarans' arrival this time will definitely include thousands of battleships, and their first target will certainly be all of humanity's star-level broadcasting stations."

The atmosphere sank into heaviness again, everyone's brows furrowed as if enveloped by an invisible weight. The more deeply one pondered the question, the more desperate it became, even to the point of wanting to collapse.

When humanity faced The Waterdrop, there was still a chance to retaliate. No matter what The Waterdrop's armor was made of, it could be broken with continuous, strengthened attacks. In a sense, humanity was the attacker, The Waterdrop was the defender.

However, now the Trisolarans have used weapons to attack humanity that we have never imagined, with no possibility of defense. Even materials with strong interaction force would disintegrate at the level of atomic nuclei under its attack, leading to an overwhelming sense of powerlessness and despair.

Military Advisory Group: "The technical strength demonstrated by the Trisolarans has far exceeded the current theoretical framework of humanity. The probability of us contending with them is minuscule.

"This technological gap is a gap between two levels of civilization, with almost no hope for us to bridge it.

"Humanity's only chance is that the Trisolarans do not know the specific situation under the Bunker. It is very likely that it hides interstellar broadcasting stations.

"According to our data analysis, for the Trisolarans to use the gluon transformation field attack to cover the entire Bunker area, they would need at least three thousand battleships to launch attacks simultaneously.

"The Trisolarans probably do not have that many battleships. If the broadcasting stations inside the Bunker can be spared in the first round of strikes, the Wallfacers might be able to use it to reestablish a Dark Forest Deterrence equilibrium against the Trisolarans."

Fleet commander: "Now, the future of humanity once again rests on the Wallfacers. We can only hope that they will be able to reestablish a deterrent balance and win a glimmer of hope for humanity.

"But before that, we must prepare to respond to another attack by the Trisolarans.

"I order all battleships to enter advance pattern four serpentine maneuvers! All officers and soldiers, maintain high alert and be prepared to respond to emergencies at any time."

Compared to short-lived humans, Long-Livers not only have significantly delayed reaction times in crisis situations but also tend to be overly conservative in their decision-making processes.