Chapter 14: One Shot from the Annihilator Cannon, 175 Billion Tons of TNT
Darkness.
The background color of the universe.
Emptiness.
The theme of the universe.
The birth and destruction of all things are mere embellishments on this dark canvas.
After the events of over 700 years ago, the geothermal civilization tightened its defenses, constantly anticipating an enemy attack.
But after waiting for so long, the enemy still hadn't arrived, causing their defenses to shift from a full-scale deployment to scattered patrols.
From space, only a few dozen ships could be seen patrolling the planet's vicinity.
A few more ships were positioned further away as an early warning system.
This was the inertia of living beings.
It stemmed from the fundamental logic of energy conservation at the most basic level.
If living beings tend to conserve energy, inertia will exist.
The planet was significantly brighter than it had been a thousand years ago, with more buildings rising from the surface, and they were no longer solely dependent on volcanoes for energy.
This was thanks to the absolute zero missiles.
These weapons had forced the civilization to break free from its reliance on geothermal energy and transition to nuclear power generation within a few hundred years.
External threats are the best catalysts for civilizational progress.
This saying proved to be true.
The reason why humans could develop so rapidly was due to their civilizational trait—endless warfare.
Human history was a history of war!
Just as the beings on the planet were becoming complacent after hundreds of years of peace...
A beam of light appeared from afar, striking a giant crystal sphere on the planet's surface.
The crystal sphere evenly dispersed the light, causing the entire sphere to glow like a massive light bulb.
The glow was visible within a few hundred kilometers.
Suddenly, chaos ensued.
Countless warships began to launch into space.
The light from the planet's surface shot into space.
Within half an hour, the civilization had determined the enemy's position and distance using this light.
Hundreds of thousands of cannons on the planet's surface began to adjust their aim.
Since the planet had no atmosphere, the weapons could be fired directly from the surface.
Moreover, as laser weapons were unaffected by gravity, the entire planet could be used as a fortress.
They adjusted their aim and began their attack within ten minutes.
A beam of light shot into space, each beam over 20 meters in diameter and 700 meters long, resembling giant laser swords, blurring the line between science and magic.
...
In the depths of space, a fleet of ships resembling roaming space beasts unfolded their wings.
At the forefront were the star cruisers and destroyers.
Laser weapons, being composed of light, traveled at the speed of light, the physical limit of the universe. Perfect optical weapons, like gamma rays, could only be detected upon impact.
Therefore, from the enemy's perspective, they were unaware of the incoming laser attack.
Only when the lasers struck the ships could they sense the attack, and they had to rely on their own positioning systems to dodge.
This was the flaw of laser weapons.
Fortunately, the two fleets were still at a safe distance.
When the first laser beam grazed the side of a destroyer 40,000 kilometers away, the scattered photons were captured by Ella.
"The enemy has launched an attack, but it's on a small scale."
Yan Xia nodded, as hundreds of laser beams had already passed them during this brief conversation.
Two of their ships had been hit.
"Deploy the electromagnetic shields."
Light, electricity, magnetism, and many other phenomena fell under the category of electromagnetism.
Laser weapons could be blocked by magnetic fields.
The destroyers moved closer together.
When the distance between the destroyers was less than 100 kilometers, the electromagnetic shields were activated.
Magnetic fields inherently attract each other, and Ella utilized this property. The electromagnetic shields of the destroyers connected like chains, forming an impenetrable defense.
From the main ship, Yan Xia looked out and saw that the destroyers had only moved slightly closer together.
The electromagnetic shields didn't emit flashing lights like in the movies; they were only visible as a special shield on the instruments.
Ten seconds after the activation of the electromagnetic shields, a laser beam struck one of them.
According to common sense, light shouldn't be affected by magnetic fields, but Yan Xia observed that the electromagnetic shield lit up, becoming visible as an electric net.
"What's happening?"
Ella explained, "The electromagnetic shield doesn't block the laser beams using the magnetic field itself. Instead, it utilizes the photoelectric effect and Delbrück scattering."
"The electromagnetic shield releases electrons and special atomic nuclei, which can be evenly distributed on the shield due to the magnetic field. Although the magnetic field can't block photons, the electrons and the electric field generated by the atomic nuclei can interfere with the photons' path."
The entire shield, hundreds of kilometers long, lit up.
The fleet advanced, protected by this glowing shield.
They were now only 3 astronomical units away from the enemy planet, and at the First Fleet's speed, it would take just over 5 days to reach the planet.
"Since the enemy has welcomed us, let's return the favor with a gift of our own."
Yan Xia issued the command for the battleships and star cruisers to launch the absolute zero missiles.
In space, without the influence of gravity or air resistance, the high-speed missiles could add to the speed of the ships.
Three days after the launch, the missiles reached the outer space of the enemy planet.
The small absolute zero missiles were set to detonate when the environmental temperature rose to -100 degrees Celsius or upon impact with an object.
Countless laser weapons targeted the incoming missiles.
Silent explosions blossomed in space.
A terrifying chill instantly spread in the outer space around the planet, covering an area within 260 kilometers of the explosions.
Several alien ships were enveloped by the cold, losing power and falling towards the planet's surface.
But when they were 10 kilometers above the ground, they suddenly regained control and pulled up.
As Ella had said, this civilization had researched and prepared for the absolute zero weapons.
However, these weapons were intended to buy time for the fleet.
Within the detectable range of their instruments, the fleet had arrived.
The distance between the two fleets was now 1.4 astronomical units.
"This distance should be suitable," Yan Xia said from within the ship.
Ella nodded.
"Yes."
"Then let's charge and fire..."
The massive Antimatter Annihilator Cannon was mounted on the underside of the Hope spacecraft, measuring 1152 meters in length, nearly half the length of the Hope.
Behind the cannon was a spherical antimatter generator.
This device used laser beams to strike gold, creating temperatures of 6 billion degrees Celsius, resulting in the birth of positive and negative electrons, which were then confined using magnetic fields.
During the charging process, the electromagnetic thrusters were shut down, and all controllable nuclear fusion devices supplied energy to the Antimatter Annihilator Cannon.
After approximately ten hours of charging...
"Antimatter charging complete. Charge amount: 408 kg."
"Fire!"
The 408 kg of antimatter was compressed and fired from the giant cannon, formless and colorless.
It was like a cloud of gas.
Civilizations without antimatter technology couldn't even detect its existence.
This matter, traveling at 40% the speed of light, reached the target planet 7.5 hours later.
The alien civilization, caught off guard, witnessed the annihilation of their planet's surface upon the collision of antimatter and regular matter.
"BOOM!!!
The terrifying explosion equated to 175 billion tons of TNT, 350 times more powerful than the largest hydrogen bomb ever detonated by humans, the Tsar Bomba.
The explosion's core radius reached 100 kilometers.
In an instant, half of the planet was consumed by light, and the heat could be felt 2000 kilometers away.
Without air resistance, the shockwave of dust and debris spread at ten times the speed of sound, covering the entire planet's surface and destroying countless buildings within an hour and a half.
Witnessing this scene, the alien ships in outer space halted their movements, silently watching as their homeworld's surface was obliterated without warning.