Chapter 282: Led by the Nose Again

As the Trisolaran Droplets surged into the battlefield, humanity appeared to be in an impasse, and the last glimmer of hope seemed to shatter.

If human interstellar electromagnetic wave transmission stations were directly exposed, they would be quickly destroyed by the gluon field. Humanity had to cover the transmission stations with a layer of Strong Interaction Material, which could effectively resist the destruction caused by the gluon field.

At the same time, it was possible to take advantage of the attack intervals of the Trisolaran gluon field to seize this window and broadcast messages, which was humanity's only chance.

The appearance of the Trisolaran Droplets meant that once the human interstellar electromagnetic wave transmission stations were exposed, they would immediately become a target for the Trisolaran Droplets. Given the immense scale and size of the transmission stations, humanity could not build them in large numbers, and covering them entirely with Strong Interaction Material was extremely impractical.

Soon, the Trisolaran Droplets arrived at the outskirts of the Bunker, and the Trisolarans outside the Bunker used up to sixty Sophons for close surveillance, ensuring that any subtle movements by humanity in the area could not escape detection.

At this moment, the Trisolarans clearly had the upper hand. They didn't need to be overly cautious, and wouldn't hesitate to sacrifice all ten Droplets to create time for the Trisolaran warships to approach the Bunker.

However, humanity remained silent.

Time ticked by, one hour, two hours, three hours... consecutively passed. Although time seemed to be entirely on the side of the Trisolarans, the silence, particularly that of Lin Sen, made the atmosphere eerily tense. This silence and waiting also caused an indescribable unease among the Trisolarans.

If Lin Sen remained inactive, it could well mean that he was brewing a bigger plan. Therefore, despite the Trisolarans' apparent dominance, their internal anxiety was accumulating with the passage of time.

If Lin Sen continued to maintain silence, even No. 7, with his caution, wouldn't know what to do and even abandoning the operation wasn't entirely out of the question.

After a long eighteen-hour wait, just as the Trisolarans grew impatient, the outer layer of the Bunker finally showed signs of activity. Forty warships, fully covered with Strong Interaction Armor, suddenly emerged, charging at full speed towards the outer layer of the Bunker.

Of course, achieving true, omnidirectional protection with no blind spots was impossible; at least their engine exhaust ports could not be fully protected.

These forty warships all showed clear signs of having been hastily modified and pieced together by humanity within the short span of eighteen hours. What surprised the Trisolarans even more was that humanity seemed to have used such a large amount of Strong Interaction Material that it could mean they had exhausted their reserves.

These forty warships must be humanity's trump card, but what was their purpose?

Since the Trisolaran directed gluon fields attacked mainly from three directions, consistent with the navigation path of their warships, the human warships had to constantly guard against attacks from at least two directions due to the obstruction of the Bunker.

This required that the parts of the warships without Strong Interaction Armor could not be exposed to these directions, and even their attacks were best carried out during the intervals between the attacks of the gluon field.

The goal of these forty warships was clearly the ten Trisolaran Droplets. The moment they entered the outer layer of the Bunker, they didn't hesitate to launch a fierce attack on the Droplets.

Since the Trisolaran Droplets were very close to the Bunker, the human warship attacks could reach the Droplets within approximately 0.02 seconds. These forty warships represented the pinnacle of human technology; if their attacks could hit the Droplets, they could certainly destroy them.

While the appearance of these forty warships posed a certain challenge to the Trisolarans, it gave them a sense of relief in a way, for they had once again forced humanity to reveal their hand, a hand that couldn't possibly be too extensive.

With the high maneuverability of the Droplets, it was not an easy task for humanity to strike them.

However, if the Droplets were to attack from the engine exhaust ports of the human warships, they could certainly destroy the warships. Therefore, destroying these forty warships would not be difficult for the Trisolarans.

The battlefield progressed as the Trisolarans had predicted. Two Droplets easily dodged the human warships' attacks and nimbly moved to the rear of the human warships, charging at high speed toward their engines to swiftly destroy all human warships.

However, just at that moment, from within the Bunker, hundreds of attacks suddenly emerged. These weren't exactly coming from warships, but from movable turrets that had Strong Interaction Armor fitted in specific directions. In fact, these were the turrets of a dismantled, movable Starport.

Although the nano fog significantly impeded the attacks from these turrets, preventing them from dealing a fatal blow to the Trisolaran Droplets, if the Trisolaran Droplets' trajectory became fixed, like charging at high speeds towards the Human Warship, then these turrets still had the opportunity to concentrate fire and land devastating strikes on the Droplets.

The reality was indeed such that when the Droplets approached the Human Warships at high speed, the hundreds of fierce attacks nearly cut off all retreat for the Droplets. Under such intense fire, one Droplet was destroyed after being hit by dozens of attacks simultaneously, while another narrowly evaded the assault.

However, the Droplet that wasn't destroyed wasn't lucky either, at the very moment the Trisolarans were counting their blessings. The attacked Human Warship suddenly changed direction and, within the brief gap between the gluon field attacks, launched a surprise counterattack on the Droplet.

Since both parties were too close, the attack struck the Droplet a hundred-thousandth of a second after it was fired, directly hitting and destroying it. Of course, the critical parts of the Human Warship were also destroyed by the gluon field in the next instant, eventually causing it to self-destruct.

This strike seemed to give the Trisolarans a feeling reminiscent of the doomsday battle; whenever they thought victory was within reach, Lin Sen always gave them a profound lesson in an unexpected way.

In an instant, two Droplets were lost, and the Military Governor reacted swiftly, ordering the remaining Droplets to keep at a safe distance from the outskirts of the Bunker. As long as a certain distance was maintained, the Droplets could more easily dodge Humanity's attacks.

The attacks from both sides also became more cautious, as if entering a kind of stalemate where balance was maintained, both sides searching for the other's weakness to break this balance.

This state of affairs continued for over ten more hours.

Humanity had not been able to destroy another Trisolaran Droplet since that time, during which the Trisolarans, with their superior calculations, had destroyed twenty of Humanity's warships. According to the Trisolarans' predictions, they were confident they could destroy all Human Warships within the next four hours.

However, No. 7 gradually felt an indescribable unease, although he couldn't yet pinpoint the source of this uneasiness. While other Trisolarans grew increasingly excited with the prospect of victory, No. 7's heart was filled with trepidation and anxiety.

Therefore, No. 7 made a bold decision, although the Military Governor thought it was unnecessary, he still executed the order, which later proved to be the decision that saved the Trisolarans.

Four hours later, the Trisolarans were about to destroy all Human Warships.

Yet, the Military Governor also realized a problem, the intense 14-hour standoff seemed to put Humanity at a disadvantage.

However, in reality, the Trisolaran Droplets had all moved to one side of the Bunker, and there was now a substantial distance between them and the Bunker.

Perhaps Humanity's initial target was to drive away the Trisolaran Droplets, and yet, the Trisolarans had been led by Lin Sen to engage in a long battle with Human Warships.

As if confirming the Trisolarans' conjecture, ten huge silhouettes appeared in a different direction on the other side of the Bunker's inner layer. Judging by these silhouettes, they must be Humanity's massive interstellar electromagnetic wave antennas.

When the Trisolarans finally realized the gravity of the situation, they couldn't help breaking out in a cold sweat. They had always suspected that Lin Sen was secretly constructing a large number of massive broadcast antennas, but the actual situation far exceeded their expectations.

What surprised the Trisolarans even more was that Lin Sen had managed to produce an astonishing amount of Strong Interaction materials. In just 24 hours, he had equipped these massive electromagnetic wave antennas with Strong Interaction Armor, something that was completely unexpected by the Trisolarans.

However, this could not be entirely blamed on the Trisolaran's oversight; they had always assumed that the production rate of Strong Interaction materials inside the Bunker was comparable to other Human regions, but they had not anticipated that Lin Sen's production rate was a hundred or even a thousand times faster than theirs.

That wasn't the critical point; the crucial issue was how the Trisolarans should respond.

The massive broadcast antennas were just reaching the outer layer of the Bunker, which was also shielded by Sophons. This meant that if the Droplets launched an attack, they would face a problem similar to the one during the doomsday battle. If Antimatter Directional Mines were hidden within the giant antennas, the Droplets could very likely be destroyed in the midst of an attack.

What made the Trisolarans feel even more defeated was that the number of Humanity's giant broadcast antennas unexpectedly surpassed that of their Droplets. Moreover, these antennas were surrounded by densely packed turrets, posing a risk of destruction if the Droplets moved too close.

At this moment, the Trisolarans also realized that once again, they had been led by the nose by Lin Sen.