69novels Chapter 18: Capture of the "Prometheus"
Chapter 18: Capture of the "Prometheus"
Just as the Trisolaran civilization successfully tested its first faster-than-light engine and was preparing for mass production, a message was sent back from the Alien dimension.
"Your Excellency Supreme Ruler, this image was taken one minute ago by a reconnaissance satellite deployed outside LV-223!"
The eavesdropping consul and military consul are reporting to Cheng Yuan, while a virtual screen plays in front of Cheng Yuan.
In the vast expanse of space, LV-223 is a huge gray planet with rings, but the focus is not on LV-223 itself, but on a spaceship that suddenly appears in space outside of LV-223.
It was a silver-gray spaceship with an industrial feel. Its hull was made of thick, rugged metal plates, with sharp lines and no streamlined design, like a floating steel fortress.
The ship has four engines on its side, which are currently emitting blue and white light to support the ship's flight in space.
After the video finished playing, the virtual screen displayed live monitoring footage, showing the silver-gray spaceship flying through space, approaching LV-223.
Cheng Yuandao: "This is a human spaceship from the Alien universe. I didn't expect them to arrive at this time."
The eavesdropping consul asked, "Your Excellency, what should we do with them?"
Cheng Yuan stared at the screen and asked, "We can't let them get close to LV-223. How confident are we in our chances of success if we take action against them in space?"
The military governor stated, "Their ship has broken free from faster-than-light travel and is currently moving at a speed of only 1.112 kilometers per second. The probability of completely destroying it is 100%."
Cheng Yuan then asked, "What if we capture the spaceship and take the humans inside alive?"
The military governor said, "If we can equip weapons with faster-than-light engines, the probability is over 75%."
The military governor then explained the basis for his judgment.
"Their spaceship arrived here without deploying any reconnaissance equipment to explore the area, and after entering the star system, they did not deploy any reconnaissance equipment either, indicating that their awareness of defense is extremely weak and they do not believe that there is any danger in the star system."
This is only the second civilization with such audacity that the eavesdropping governor and military governor have ever seen; the first, of course, was the "Engineers" civilization.
These guys are really bold. It's one thing to not have a vanguard ship to lead the way, but they didn't even send out a spacecraft to scout ahead. After entering an unfamiliar star system, they didn't send out any reconnaissance equipment and just drove their main spaceship straight in.
Even if this wasn't a warship but a research vessel, it wouldn't be this reckless.
No, if it were a research spacecraft, it should be even more rigorous and careful.
Is it possible that the more reckless he is, the more courageous he becomes?
Although the Supreme Governor had previously said that human civilization in this world was not rigorous, seeing this human spaceship fearlessly and ignorantly enter the LV-223 system still greatly surprised the monitoring governor and the military governor.
It is only in this plane of existence that, in their universe, this human civilization would be destroyed as soon as it entered interstellar travel.
In any case, the Trisolarans wouldn't dare to be that brave!
"Our reconnaissance satellites can detect them, but they can't detect us, which means that the detection equipment on their spacecraft is far inferior to ours. The probability that our weapons can approach the spacecraft without being detected is over 90%."
"As long as they don't suddenly activate their faster-than-light engines to escape, we will be able to capture them."
Cheng Yuan then spoke up: "Then I'll increase the probability for you even further!"
"As far as I know, there are more than ten humans and one android on this spaceship. These humans are all ordinary humans with low physical strength."
"As for that android, it was created by humans from the Alien universe by combining precision machinery, biological materials, and artificial intelligence."
"Its core skeleton is made of alloy materials, its body is made of synthetic materials, and its intelligent core is a computer with its motherboard installed in its brain."
The eavesdropping consuls and military consuls were taking careful notes; this was intelligence being given to them by the supreme consul.
"Bionic humans are faster, stronger, and have better reflexes than humans, but their physical strength is not high, and even ordinary swords can hurt them."
This is clearly another case of substandard materials, resulting in a bionic humanoid that is high in attack but low in defense, essentially a glass cannon.
The human civilization and the "Engineers" civilization in the Alien world are truly father and son civilizations; the father's materials science is not very good, and the son follows suit.
"The bridge of this spaceship is located at the front, and the cockpit is also there. When you attack later, you can prioritize attacking the engines and the cockpit to cut off the spaceship's power before taking control."
After speaking, Cheng Yuan looked at the monitoring governor and the military governor: "Any questions? If not, immediately draft a battle plan."
Just over ten minutes later, the plan to capture the human spaceship in the Alien universe was successfully drafted and submitted to Cheng Yuan for approval.
Cheng Yuan quickly skimmed through the plan. The plan was not complicated at all. In short, it involved using a faster-than-light engine to launch weapons to quickly approach the human spaceship, paralyze its power, destroy its control system, and then capture it before the people on board could react.
If capture fails, the spaceship will be destroyed.
After reading it, Cheng Yuan said, "I agree to the plan. Execute it immediately. I will watch the entire process!"
Upon hearing that Cheng Yuan wanted to watch their battle, the eavesdropping governor and military governor said, "I guarantee you won't be disappointed!"
At this moment, on the Prometheus, as the destination was about to be reached, all the crew members in the hibernation pods were awakened, and the spaceship, which was usually only active with the android David, suddenly became lively.
After enjoying their first meal after waking up, the crew members were gathered in a spacious cabin, including the android David.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, a white woman in a gray uniform stepped forward.
"Good morning. For those of you I hired personally, it's nice..."
The white woman had just uttered a "nice" and hadn't even finished the next word when the spaceship suddenly jolted violently, causing her to fall to the ground.
The others in the cabin weren't much better off; many of them fell to the ground, chair and all.
A Black man fell and shouted, "What happened? Did we hit an asteroid?"
The android David, holding a tablet, rapidly tapped on it: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have a big problem. The engines are down."
As soon as he finished speaking, all the lights in the cabin suddenly went out, and the cabin was pitch black except for the tablet David was holding.
In the darkness, someone cried out in alarm, "The power system is down too?"
David is an android, and the darkness has little effect on him; he can still see. But suddenly, the tablet in his hand went dark, his body trembled violently, and he collapsed to the ground as if having a seizure, with a large amount of white liquid spilling from his mouth and nose.
An electromagnetic wave is attacking its motherboard and chips, causing it to malfunction.
In the final seconds before the computer shut down, David glanced around and realized that everyone else was already unconscious.
David's motherboard flashed a final message: This was a premeditated attack.