Vol-2: 087. Orion Plan

087. Orion Plan

All members of the Akaban Squad fell silent for a few seconds.

Then, they spoke in unison:

"Madman."

A team member grumbled:

"Leaving aside the corrosion from the Calamity Cloud, Azure Star is all ice fields and blizzards. Where are you going to get a rocket launch site? Where are you going to find enough fuel and a space shuttle? The launch conditions are extremely stringent!"

"Moreover, even if you plan to become Gamma-tier and your body can withstand the first cosmic velocity (7,900 meters per second, about Mach 23.2), you still have no way to break through the corrosion of the Calamity Cloud—no material can resist the Calamity's erosion. You would be infected and become a deformed monster."

"No one can reach space. For hundreds of years, we've only been able to launch satellites into the atmosphere. Even the Red Arrows couldn't do it. How could you?"

"The downfall of Azure Star's old era was caused by coveting space, which led to the disaster of the Calamity... Do you want to repeat that mistake?"

It wasn't even a question; their first reaction was to stop and forbid Li Aozi from thinking this way.

Sixty percent of Azure Star's problems could ultimately be solved by opening a path to space, but one hundred percent of the time, they couldn't get past the Calamity.

They tried, again and again, and failed. No nation had the courage, economic strength, technological level, or bravery to send its brightest talents into the Calamity Cloud, only to watch them rot away, eroded or infected, turning into deformed monsters.

For both the citizens and the nations, repeated failures in space exploration had made people forget their dreams of the stars. Many people went their whole lives without ever seeing the sun.

Some even believed there was never a sun to begin with, that darkness gave birth to humanity and life—ridiculous, anti-intellectual, and pathetic. Human short-sightedness and capacity for forgetfulness were truly terrifying.

People would forget the protectors who risked everything for them just days ago due to their current grievances, even forgetting the threats entirely.

For hundreds of years, many people had become accustomed to a world ruled by Calamity and cold. They had no idea what sunlight, rain, blue skies, white clouds, or lush grasslands were and instead mocked the scientists who recorded history.

"The sun and stars are just scams to get funding. All that history is fake. I'm living fine without the sun. Why should I fund your space attempts? Stop fooling me."

"You say the old era reached space and satellites were launched into low Earth orbit? That's nonsense. According to Johns Hopkins research, if there were really a sun and universe, shouldn't Calamity have been riddled with meteor strikes by now?"

"Why worry so much? Even if space travel were possible, it would only benefit the elites, not you, a commoner. Worry about yourself instead. Your boss is calling for voluntary overtime."

Perhaps it wasn't just the Calamity.

Many phenomena, inferiority complexes, narrow-minded views, and negative emotions also blocked humanity's path to space, robbing them of the courage to look up.

"…I could have endured the darkness, had I not seen the light."

Li Aozi calmly accepted their advice and reproaches:

"I will go to space, and I won't need any spacecraft."

"That's just nonsense! Even if you could fly, how would your body reach the first cosmic velocity to enter orbit? And how would you accelerate to the second cosmic velocity (11,200 kilometers per second, equivalent to Mach 32.91)? What about the Calamity problem?"

"That's easy. Acceleration isn't the issue. For me, it's just about solving the Calamity."

"So how do you plan to do it?"

Li Aozi said:

"The Beitiao Group possesses a hydrogen bomb from the old era—'Guangqi Arisa,' with an explosive yield of about 140 million tons. It's Tianhuan's national treasure."

The members of the Akaban Squad were stunned.

"Imagine this: since the Calamity shrouds everything above the stratosphere and blocks all of Azure Star, it must also be blocking solar storms, gamma rays, and nearly all thermal energy from reaching Azure Star. So, in reverse, the radiation from a hydrogen bomb explosion could naturally be blocked by the Calamity Cloud."

Li Aozi explained further:

"Simulate it: a hydrogen bomb with a yield of 1.4 trillion tons of TNT would have a fireball radius of about 138.02 kilometers, with a theoretical destructive area of 770.73 kilometers—though we should be conservative. The hydrogen bomb could be affected by the Calamity's 'entropy disorder,' reducing the efficiency of the tritium fusion during mass-energy conversion."

"Considering that, the actual fireball might reach 100 kilometers, and the shockwave could exceed 500 kilometers—still, that would be more than we could hope for. Also, the thickness of the atmosphere is about 1,000 kilometers, but the Calamity mainly concentrates between the stratosphere and mesosphere, covering a 50-kilometer region above the surface, with a thickness of 30 kilometers. That's the limit for current human aircraft."

"However, between 60 kilometers and 1,000 kilometers in the ionosphere, where charged particles dominate, the density of the Calamity decreases, and its corrosive effect weakens. Once you reach 300 kilometers above the surface, you'll be completely free from the Calamity's influence."

"Simply put, if we detonate a hydrogen bomb at 60 kilometers in the mid-atmosphere, the thrust from the explosion will be enough to accelerate me to the second cosmic velocity, and the heat and shockwave will temporarily destroy the Calamity Cloud within a 120-kilometer radius."

"At that moment, my acceleration will reach 350G (3,430 meters per square second), which is enough to launch me out of the atmosphere. With the shockwave provided by the hydrogen bomb explosion, the vacuum of space will allow for continuous acceleration without air resistance. The nuclear pulse will keep pushing me forward, and while I don't need to go too fast, one-thirtieth of the speed of light will be sufficient for my purposes."

"The biggest problem with this plan is the need to consider materials, astronauts, and load-bearing capabilities—but there's no need to worry about any of that. You don't need to be concerned about gravity or spaceflight endurance because I am the master of gravity. The universe is my domain."

"The only trouble lies on the ground. The theft of the Hojo Family's hydrogen bomb will undoubtedly cause nationwide panic, and I will be hunted by Tianhuan's four active Gamma-tier pursuers."

"Everything else is trivial."

The next moment, everyone looked at Li Aozi with utter horror.

"Hey, you don't mean to…"

"Yes."

Li Aozi calmly declared:

"I will detonate a hydrogen bomb and launch myself into space."

"In a sense, you could say I'm blowing up the planet."

To soothe everyone's nerves, Li Aozi reassured them:

"Don't worry. It's not my first time doing this—I've got some experience."