Chapter 281: The Final Battle with the Trisolarans

Earth, humanity's cradle, humanity's ivory tower, is now a sea of fire. The severity of its environment has far surpassed that of the Great Ravine period and, in some ways, is almost comparable to Venus.

In such conditions, Earth has become unfit for human habitation. According to planetary climatologists, it will take at least tens of thousands of years for Earth to recover to its former climate.

It's a long and arduous process, and the world is now facing a new round of mass extinction, with most higher species unable to survive in this environment.

Fortunately, humanity had carried out a global genetic backup plan long ago, preserving the genes of almost all species, even including those of the deepest-sea microbes.

The attack that Earth has encountered has also caused deep pain to humanity. It's highly unlikely for Earthlings to survive, and it's estimated that the population of Solar System humans will suffer a loss of two-thousandths in this strike.

For Space Humans in the Solar System, the difference in appearance from those on Earth is stark, and some regions even refer to Earthlings as a "subspecies of humanity."

Upon learning of such a significant blow to Earth, a flame was ignited within them, their eyes sparkling with anger and defiance, nearly splitting at the seams.

The blood and passion buried deep in their hearts erupted like a volcano at this moment, coalescing into an indestructible force.

At this moment, whether it's the Naturals' Camp or the Long-Livers' Camp, all the past conflicts and disputes among humanity, all those petty squabbles, were almost instantly cast aside into oblivion.

It was as if a powerful force made them put all their fixations and disagreements aside in an instant.

What does it matter if one lives long or ages naturally?

These are just different forms of human existence; what truly matters is the survival and original intentions of humanity.

Humans need to survive, must resort to any means necessary, stay alert and wise in this game of civilization's survival, and seek a glimmer of hope in the Dark Forest.

Facing a common enemy, facing the survival of their home, at this moment, they have only one shared goal, which is to battle the Trisolarans.

...

Bunker Base.

In the first round of attack, apart from the one on the Bunker, all other strategic targets of the Trisolarans had been achieved.

With the exception of the Bunker, whose situation was unclear, all other Interstellar Broadcasting Stations had been destroyed. In a sense, the destruction of Earth was merely caught in the crossfire of war, further illustrating the cruelty of interstellar conflict: to annihilate you has nothing to do with you!

Besides the Bunker, humans had constructed several large Sophon-Blocked Zones. Although these places weren't equipped with interstellar broadcasting facilities, they still faced fierce attacks from the Trisolarans. For the Trisolarans, they would not tolerate any potential threat or risk.

In the doomsday battle, the nuclear bombs used to wrap the oil-film substances in Logic's Starshine Plan were dismantled after the establishment of the Interstellar Broadcasting Stations.

But this also pointed the Trisolarans in a direction. With their powerful deductive calculation abilities, they could swiftly identify and destroy any potential targets that could reveal the coordinates of stars. The Trisolarans, with hindsight, would not make the same mistake again.

At this stage, the main task of the Trisolaran warships' outer fleet had shifted to focus on hunting down Human Warships. However, thanks to their excellent acceleration performance, Human Warships could change their course direction flexibly, using the so-called 'serpentine maneuver', and thus effectively dodging attacks.

Trisolaran Warships had to get close enough to Human Warships, even within 0.5 astronomical units, and based on high-level algorithms of the warship systems and the behavior model of the captains, predict the possible course changes of the warships to possibly catch a glimpse of Human Warships' whereabouts in complex maneuvers and launch effective attacks.

Everyone knew that although Human Warships were still resisting, utterly defeating them was merely a matter of time for the Trisolarans. With humanity yet to reestablish Dark Forest Deterrence against the Trisolarans, their fate seemed to be sealed.

The state of battle became clear.

Everything now depended on the other half of the Trisolaran fleet's battle with the Bunker.

That was just the Trisolarans' first round of attack – because the Bunker is a fixed target, Trisolarans could recalibrate and launch their attack from a great distance without having to close in.

The Trisolarans' second round of attack would arrive soon, and by observing the interval between the two attacks, the frequency of the Trisolaran warships' attacks could be understood.

Less than 5 minutes passed, and the Trisolarans' second round of attack came on schedule. Compared to the first round, the power of this attack had clearly weakened, with only 3 warships participating from different directions.

This also informed humanity about the number of Trisolaran Warships and the directions they were coming from.

This gluon field attack was different from the first one. Its range had significantly expanded, now capable of covering the entire Bunker area. Of course, the energy density of the attack was correspondingly much lower, so naturally, it wouldn't have much of an impact on the Bunker.

For the Trisolarans, it was even simpler. The biggest issue with directed energy attacks is the precision of direction and the confinement of energy. Reducing the requirements for such precision and confinement naturally allowed the attack range to be larger.

Inside the Bunker, the human Science Advisory Board was also calculating the strength of the gluon field attack in order to ascertain the Trisolarans' strategies and intentions.

Humanity soon understood the Trisolaran strategy. It turned out that the Trisolarans were most worried about the possibility of other starship broadcasting methods hidden within the Bunker. They had to destroy all of humanity's broadcasting methods at all costs.

The most effective broadcasting method for humanity was actually the gravitational wave emitter.

Whether it was electromagnetic wave broadcasters or neutrino broadcasters, inside the Bunker, it was impossible to transmit through the ice crystals and nano fogs. The only feasible method was for the broadcasting station to move outside of the Bunker.

However, gravitational wave emitters could be operated from inside the Bunker. Those last 5 minutes were humanity's final opportunity. If they did not conduct gravitational wave broadcasting, there would be no chance left for humanity.

The Trisolarans adopted a tactic: their warships would attack in rotation. Specifically, every 5 minutes, every group of three warships could launch a main cannon attack. 600 warships rotating in this manner guaranteed that every 1.5 seconds, there was an attack by a gluon field covering the Bunker.

The working principle of gravitational wave broadcasting relied on the oscillations of high-density long strings composed of degenerate matter. This degenerate matter was based on the strong interaction force between protons.

Even though the gluon field couldn't cause atomic disintegration within the Bunker, it wasn't without effect. Especially for the neutron degenerate matter used in gravitational wave broadcasting, the impact was particularly significant.

Under such high-frequency gluon field attacks, the degenerate matter used for gravitational wave broadcasting would rapidly decay, rendering gravitational wave broadcasting impossible.

Humanity's sole broadcasting method could only rely on electromagnetic or neutrino broadcasters to move outside the Bunker, but a new problem arose.

The Science Advisory Board's calculations showed that a gluon field of such intensity would still cause atomic disintegration of ordinary human matter.

The only material that seemed able to withstand this effect was strong interaction force material, which perhaps was something humanity should be grateful for!

However, just as humanity began to feel relieved, at the bottom of the Trisolaran escape pod's protection base, a regular round hole suddenly opened.

Immediately after, 10 Droplet Detectors flew out of the hole in quick succession, at a speed of 9% the speed of light, heading straight for the Bunker. Due to the relatively short distance between them, it was estimated that these Droplets would reach the Bunker in 3 minutes.

The battle of dust was about to begin!

PS: In the last chapter, the author depicted the scene of the Trisolarans destroying Earth, which many found displeasing. This made many feel that it would be quite repulsive if humanity were to ally itself with the Trisolarans after such an event.

Earlier preparations had been made, with less than 100 million Earthlings, a significant gap existed between them and Space Humans, nearly making them a subspecies of humanity. Space Humans did not hold as deep feelings for Earthlings as we might imagine.

Next, humanity tends to forget easily.

Nearly 100 million deaths, indeed a substantial number, but it may not be remembered for long in the hearts of the remaining 40-plus billion humans.

We often mention how many died in the War of Resistance against Japan or in World War II, but we seldom recount how many died in the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, something that few know about, even though it's just over 150 years in the past.

According to estimates in "Population and Modernity in China since 1850," the population loss in this period was at least 100 million. Of this, 70 to 85 million died directly as a result of the war. As for the figures commonly cited online of direct war-related deaths of 160 or 210 million, there are no specific, corroborative documents; these are mainly conjecture.

"The Demographic History of China" suggests that before the war, China's population was around 430 million and dropped sharply to 230 million afterward. Of the reduced 200 million people, 30% died directly in the war, while 70% were due to disasters, migration, diseases, etc. In terms of destructive impact, this far surpassed the War of Resistance against Japan and can truly be described as a national disaster.

I'd rather not share my personal opinion on this issue to avoid being accused of inserting my personal bias, but anyone with judgment knows what's going on. Hong Yang had many problems, but he wasn't foolish.

How much of this disaster do we remember today? And for how long?

History must look forwards; this is without a doubt. However, we must also regularly reflect on history. Otherwise, it's too easy to lose sight of what's ahead in our eagerness to look forward, which is absolutely dangerous.

Finally, what the author means by an alliance with the Trisolarans is different from what everyone might think. If there were a chance, both sides would not hesitate to kill the other.

It's just that the protagonist here is thinking more long-term and, certainly, now is not the time for an alliance. Without a third civilization emerging, how could humanity possibly ally with the Trisolarans?