Those who face the wall, but are in the Nascent Soul stage.

Chapter 331 Starship Earth (4k)

The first to sense the danger was not Fleet International's bloated and massive command chain, but the AI ​​data analysis center of the pursuing fleet.

Unfortunately, due to the multiple layers of caution humans have towards AI, this AI alert was manually verified several times before being confirmed and uploaded to the decision-making level, which wasted a lot of time.

Five star-class warships responsible for escorting the droplet probe exploded one after another within a few dozen seconds. All electromagnetic communication emitted by the escort fleet was distorted by the droplet's strong interference. Fleet International was still in a daze until the five bursts of fire and the brief flash of light when one of the warships entered forward four state were observed by a space telescope in Jupiter's orbit.

Seventeen seconds after learning of the destruction of the five star-class warships, the fleet's high command confirmed that the culprit was the "droplet" probe.

The fleet's international high command was briefly thrown into chaos. The efficiency of the human high command's "meeting-style" communication was simply too low. In the past, whether it was a human civil war or a war against the Devouring Empire, humans had ample time to discuss, formulate, and make tactical decisions.

While commanders at all levels were still pondering whether the "droplet" had "fired five antimatter bullets" to destroy the human warship, the droplet had already embarked on its pursuit of the Natural Selection.

When the droplet gave up the pursuit of the "Natural Selection", the solar system fleet sounded the invasion alarm. However, after the alarm was sounded, the more than 3,000 star-class warships scattered in Jupiter's orbit, as well as the more than 1,000 star-class warships that had not yet dispersed during the parade, did not even know where the "enemy" was.

When the three fleet commanders authorized the Solar System Fleet to accelerate its evacuation, the droplet had already abandoned its pursuit of the "Natural Selection" and instead attacked the pursuing fleet that was chasing the "Natural Selection".

Through the "Fog Umbrella" project that spreads throughout Jupiter's orbit, humanity witnessed the "Droplet" probe's bizarrely sharp-angled turns and its unbridled "zigzag" flight capability.

To date, this is the only water droplet exposed to human view.

Upon seeing this, Fleet International immediately lifted the restriction order for the Solar System Fleet to enter [Advance 4] state, but no warships voluntarily entered [Advance 4] state.

Just then, a new development once again drew Fleet International's attention.

Of the ten pursuing fleets targeting the ten fleeing ships, several of the pursuing warships transformed into fleeing warships, deviating from their course and escaping into deep space.

Of the forty star-class warships that volunteered to form a pursuit fleet, seven actually fled.

Among them, the three warships "Ultimate Law", "Blue Space" and "Bronze Age" were the worst, as they were secretly fitted with the same chemical propulsion system as the "Natural Selection".

And this is the result of Fleet International's almost complete isolation and investigation of all stamped ships, and the implementation of the captain system.

The high command of the three fleets was thrown into chaos. The military commissioners of the Solar System Joint Conference argued incessantly, with some angrily condemning this act of fleeing without a fight, betraying civilization, and abandoning the mission of soldiers. The fleets were divided on whether to continue sending pursuit fleets to chase the fleeing warships. Meanwhile, Qian Mengjian and Grant, as the newly appointed interim commanders, were completely unable to control the veteran military commissioners and senior commanders.

The meeting ended with Qian Mengjian kicking the table over, beating up a European fleet deputy commander who had repeatedly contradicted him, and returning alone to the "Paradox Engine".

The commander of the Asian Fleet concluded: "The order to pursue the fleeing warships is abandoned; the existing pursuing fleet can decide for itself whether to continue the pursuit."

This seemingly inactive order, at the last moment, preserved a significant amount of life for the solar system fleet.

Then came the incident of the droplet attacking the Enterprise and Deep Space spacecraft.

On the eve of the Deep Space's impending destruction by the Droplet, the Natural Selection's counterattack miraculously destroyed the once-invincible Droplet. The gamma laser beam, spanning tens of millions of kilometers, pierced the tank's observation window like an arrow, killing the driver inside.

The Deep Space probe then successfully transmitted all the correct information about the Droplet probe back to Earth.

8000G acceleration, 8.33% of the speed of light maximum speed, absolutely smooth and absolutely hard surface, and maneuverability for sharp-angle turns.

The three fleet commanders, including Qian Mengjian who had already boarded the ship, fell silent almost simultaneously.

There was no antimatter, no unknown high-energy particle beam, and no fantastical quantum virus capable of controlling the self-destruction of star-class warships; it was a pure collision.

It is an ancient naval ramming tactic.

These are not water droplets, but nine tears of death.

There are five more such Tears of Death within the Oort Cloud.

Almost simultaneously, the three major fleets issued the same order to the entire solar system fleet.

[All ships of the Solar System Fleet, proceed to Advance 4, Evacuate! Evacuate! Evacuate!]

In fact, this order did not need to be issued by Fleet International. The message from the Deep Space was broadcast globally. Upon receiving the message from the Deep Space, a thousand star-class warships immediately entered [Advance 4] status before receiving authorization from their superiors.

No one who can become the captain or even the executive captain of a stellar-class warship is a fool.

A thousand golden rays were born, burning hot, in Jupiter's orbit.

After the orders were issued by the three fleet headquarters.

Three thousand golden rays were born, burning hot, in Jupiter's orbit.

The remaining warships that failed to enter the [Advance 4] state were either star-class warships that were trapped in the central area of ​​the parade formation in the early stages and have not been able to evacuate quickly, or warships that were being investigated by a large number of post-heavenly military police who boarded the ships to investigate the Steel Seal Clan.

The most crucial point is that among all the messages transmitted by the Deep Space probe, there was a fatal error: "[The droplet probe's weak point is its head; a high-energy gamma laser, if accurately aimed, can destroy it!]"

No one knew that this so-called "weakness" was discovered by a physicist who used a hammer.

This led Fleet International to still hope to sacrifice some warships to hit the non-existent "weakness" of the Droplet, thereby "exchanging losses" to destroy the enemy.

This naive idea further ruined the fleet's future. Within the Solar System Fleet, the most loyal pro-war faction and the most steadfast defenders of human civilization became the main factors that led to the fleet's demise.

Even at this point, Fleet International had not yet lifted all charges against the deserter. Although it had issued a clear order to advance to Forward 4, it still had not authorized the "escape".

Despite the fact that some warships were determined to escape.

But it was too late.

At the same time, nearly four thousand star-class warships entered the forward phase.

In the star chart, at four distinct vector points, extremely high energy peaks and signal loss reports came simultaneously.

"Wanhu signal interrupted!"

"The Greek ship... energy fluctuations indicate a secondary explosion! It has vanished!"

"The Aristotle has been destroyed!"

"Stardust..."

Reports from the four pursuing fleets overlapped, merging into a cacophony of deathly noise that drowned out all communication channels. There were no images, no last words, no struggle. Only four markers on the star map, representing escape, were simultaneously extinguished by an unknown enemy. The brief, exploding nuclear explosions, like four stars that could only flash once, then plunged into eternal silence. [Four Strong Interaction Force (HIF) probes have joined the battle.]

These four escaped warships were all equipped with chemical propulsion systems. However, they were trapped in the parade formation and were worried that starting the chemical propulsion systems abruptly would cause the exhaust flames to accidentally injure friendly ships. Therefore, they only started the propulsion systems after they had completely broken away from the parade formation.

This "soft-hearted" behavior led to their downfall.

The Trisolaran world's objective is clear: to destroy all escaped warships.

Fortunately, of the initial ten escape warships, apart from the earliest one, the "Natural Selection," the remaining five escape warships, the Stellar-class warships, gradually escaped the droplet's pursuit.

The water droplets then began attacking the pursuing fleet corresponding to the fleeing warships.

But this destructive quartet is merely the first chord of the overture.

The four water droplets that carried out the impact did not pause for even a moment for this result. Their trajectories drew cold, sharp angles at the edge of the exploding sphere of light, their kinetic energy not diminishing in the slightest, and they precisely and gracefully crashed into the pursuing fleet that was briefly slowed down by the shock.

"Wanderer! Hard port! Evacuation—"

The captain's roar was interrupted by a dull, piercing sound that seemed to penetrate every structure.

Water droplets seeped into it.

The last image transmitted from the real-time monitoring system was a horrific scene of the ship's internal structure tearing apart, followed by fusion flames that devoured everything.

The explosion fragments damaged the Hera, which was located 150 kilometers away. After being damaged, the Hera immediately entered "Iron Curtain" mode, but the strong interaction force of the water droplets easily penetrated this ridiculous defense based on metallic bonds.

Another ship, the "Stalingrad," attempted to create a fire-blocking network with its electromagnetic railguns, but this perfect droplet shattered the metal storm, cutting diagonally through its engine room and piercing the "Stalingrad."

The captain of the last pursuing warship, the "Horizon," relentlessly attacked with gamma laser beams and high-energy particle beams, but to no avail. The droplet flew unerringly towards all the degenerate photons and particle beams, easily piercing through its weakest point, the hull, leaving a perfectly formed hole with its edges instantly melted.

A large number of glowing Puji and space force soldiers died simultaneously in the nuclear explosion.

The few humans who survived the secondary explosions floated in this sea of ​​warship wreckage, watching in despair as the droplets destroyed the pursuing fleet and flew towards the main force of the solar system in Jupiter's orbit.

The tails of these water droplets emitted distinct visible light, indicating that they no longer bothered to hide themselves in the misty, cosmic space.

Similar scenes are playing out everywhere.

In another pursuing fleet, the "Geneva" took the lead in changing course and deliberately rammed its bow into the droplet. The droplet slowed down slightly as it pierced the "Geneva," which bought the friendly ship about three seconds, but this was obviously not enough.

"Copernicus," "Galileo," "Hubble"... these names that embody human exploration and wisdom, along with their hulls, have silently transformed into a slowly spreading band of metallic dust encircling Jupiter.

A strong interaction force detector has joined the fray.

A strong interaction force detector has joined the fray.

A strong interaction force detector has joined the fray.

A strong interaction force detector has joined the fray.

A strong interaction force detector has joined the fray.

Shortly after the destruction of the four escaped warships and their corresponding four pursuit fleets, the remaining five pursuit fleets were also attacked by five droplets. Among them were the seven warships that had turned from pursuit to escape mentioned earlier. However, not all warships that turned from pursuit to escape were as lucky as the "Ultimate Law" and the "Blue Space".

Ultimately, of the seven pursuing warships that had turned back in advance, only three star-class warships—the Bronze Age, the Epsilon, and the Crimson Storm—escaped.

The Bronze Age was equipped with a chemical propulsion system, while the Epsilon and Crimson Storm were equipped with experimental plasma pulse propulsion systems. Although the propulsion power was lower, these two warships were able to turn early and accelerate to a relatively high speed.

Clearly, the preparations of the "escapees" were not uniform, and the workers at the Jupiter dock also had their own different plans for wall-mounted modifications.

The world has never been a world for a few.

In addition, the remaining seventeen star-class warships of these five pursuing fleets were all destroyed in the attack of the five droplets.

Subsequently, the five water droplets also emitted visible light and flew towards Jupiter's orbit, where the fleet was most concentrated.

In this apocalyptic battle, only twelve warships successfully escaped. They were:

The "Natural Selection" starship

The "Infinite Frontier" star-class warship

USS Lexington, a starship

The Einstein-class starship

"Antarctica" starship

"Misthorn" Starship

"Deep Space" starship

"Blue Space" starship

The "Ultimate Law" starship

"Bronze Age" Starship

The Epsilon, a star-class warship

"Crimson Storm" Starship

Of these, the first six warships were fleeing vessels, while the latter six were pursuing vessels. Fate, with its wondrous scales, re-weighed the soul of each ship. Twelve golden rays traced their own paths in the deep universe, like sparks scattered by a sudden gust of wind.

Behind them, Jupiter's orbit had become a purgatory; before them, the eternal night of deep space was slowly unfolding.

(End of this chapter)