Chapter 870: Starry Splendor (Part 12)

"We have only manufactured three Mother Mold cores, so the launch must not be mistaken..."

General Ross looked at the old general standing on the stage. The old general said in a sonorous tone: "In these five years, we have invested countless manpower and material resources, and finally manufactured the Mother Mold core, as well as the launch device capable of launching it to the vicinity of the Sun..."

When he said this, Ross found that the two generals in the front row had faces that became a bit ugly.

Actually, Ross also knew what was going on.

Project Red Orchid is called extermination, but in fact, it is nothing more than using super weapons as bargaining chips to negotiate with mutants.

At that time, Professor X and Magneto had too much advantage in military power. The military coveted this power but couldn't gain any benefits from them. In order to reverse this situation, they intended to create a bargaining chip themselves.

However, five years ago, humans were struggling to launch probes to Mars. At that time, developing a launch device capable of hitting the vicinity of the Sun directly could be said to be a fantasy.

Project Red Orchid was proposed under such a technical background. At that time, the upper limit of the military's imagination for the radiation range of weapons was the solar system.

At that time, they thought that as long as they could deploy a super weapon near the Sun, they would definitely be able to solve the mutant problem once and for all.

In the first three years of the five years, they threw in countless wealth, gathered the military expenditures of the three armed forces, and finally barely manufactured this ridiculously expensive equipment.

To say why it is so expensive, we have to start with the so-called Mother Mold core.

"Mother Mold" is a super artificial intelligence developed by the military. The military used various means to force many scientists who mastered the technology to hand over their technology, and used these technologies to develop a super artificial intelligence.

However, even if they could find all the scientists who studied artificial intelligence together, they wouldn't be as good as Stark alone. So, this super artificial intelligence has a fatal shortcoming: it needs a special core to carry its powerful computing core.

This special core, although it doesn't look big in the design drawing, also depends on the size of the entire Red Orchid base.

In the design, the Red Orchid base should stably hover near the Sun, with a volume of about one-hundredth of the Earth.

The core installed inside the base is as high as a twenty-story building, and most of the parts in it require Vibranium.

And at that time, Vibranium was ridiculously expensive. The military shed tears and took out their old bottom, barely manufacturing three cores, two of which were simplified versions.

Later, many people knew what happened. About three years ago, Schiller came to this world, and then, the Earth was like a wild horse that had broken its reins, galloping on an unknown road.

Schiller stepped on the accelerator, humanity accelerated into the space age, the Iron God of War accelerated again, and the entire solar system became a territory of humanity within reach.

The military never dreamed that their grand plan would look like a clown in today's eyes.

At that time, they were very visionary. According to the development speed of humanity, it would take at least hundreds or thousands of years to touch the Sun. As long as they could use leading technology to build a base near the Sun, they could not only threaten mutants but also realize more ambitions.

Driven by such motivation, the US military erupted with infinite potential, especially the Tal-Tu faction among them, whose philosophy has always been "the military, not just the military".

The plan, which had been running smoothly for the first three years, although like a gold-swallowing beast, had made relatively smooth progress. The core was manufactured, the launcher was successfully completed, and then, the Iron God of War descended.

From then on, Stark, who had severe persecution mania, seemed to have suddenly opened up, starting to scatter technology for free.

It doesn't matter if the rocket can't fly up. If it falls down the day before, you can get a series of design drawings gifted by nature the next day. It doesn't matter if the satellite orbit is unstable. You are only responsible for sending it up, and someone will maintain it for you.

In the following time, Stark turned into a hundred-billion-subsidy Stark. Regardless of whether you have the ability to explore space, as long as you want to explore, I will solve the technical problems.

And after Schiller's Iron Curtain descended, other countries also saw it clearly. If you don't rush forward to grab the cake, you can only eat the dregs behind. Under the explosive outbreak of global aerospace enthusiasm, one month to the moon, three months to Mars exploration, half a year to solar energy development...

In just over a year, human civilization's attitude toward the solar system has changed dramatically. Before, I was of the solar system, now, the solar system is mine.

In this case, throwing something around the Sun is quite novel, but now countries on Earth have either thrown it, or are planning to throw it. As long as you can fix it there, everyone will be able to sooner or later. If you dare to open fire, then no one will be better off.

What makes the military feel even more heartbroken is that when they manufactured those cores, the price of Vibranium was at a high point. To prevent the impact of price increases, they also hoarded a lot.

And now, due to the popularization of Molten Steel, the cost of manufacturing the same thing only needs one ten-thousandth.

Moreover, due to the explosive growth of technology, the technology of about five years ago has a generation gap with the present, which led to the fact that they only have the confidence to send the launch and transport devices that are a few generations behind into the predetermined orbit until now.

And it's not even a full grasp, it still depends on Ross asking his daughter for data near Mercury to prevent being shot down by the defensive weapons of the Mercury base.

Just like this, the military became the pioneer of human exploration of the solar system. Saying pioneer is not accurate, it was first, but not driven.

Chasing the rise and killing the fall is also human nature. The military's launch this time is also being forced to the shelves. Launching now, at least it can win over forces that are disgusted with mutants participating in the solar system construction plan, and gain their favor, so as to obtain more support later.

Thinking of this, Ross looked up at the image of the transport vehicle playing on the screen. He also had to admit that compared to the pile of slightly sci-fi equipment of humanity today, this thing really looks a bit outdated. Launching it now, when discovered by other countries, they will think Russia has started archaeology again.

But things have come to this point, and we can only bite the bullet. At least, after launching, there will be one more bargaining chip for negotiation with mutants, perhaps we can recover some losses from them.

Ross thought viciously, when negotiating with that bunch of annoying mutants, we must make them bleed heavily, otherwise, how can we recover the military's losses?

On the day of the launch, New York was cloudless. All the generals waited at the launch center, standing behind the glass curtain wall on the upper floor, watching the big screen monitoring the launch. A researcher walked over and said:

"We have launched satellites in advance to monitor the status of the equipment near the flight path. Once the rocket successfully takes off, the generals can see the flight trajectory of the equipment..."

The leading old general nodded and looked at the screen again. The countdown was completed, and the rocket roared into the sky.

Although it is not considered a very leading technology in this era, it is completely different from traditional rockets. The ignition process is shorter, but the speed is faster. Almost in an instant, there was no figure of the rocket on the screen.

The screen switched to the sky above the Earth. The figure of the rocket flying in the distance made several young generals feel excited, but several more mature generals standing in the front row frowned and said:

"What is that in the upper right corner of the screen? Is the screen dirty?... It doesn't seem like it, why is it still moving?"

"That... looks like a ball? Am I wrong? Why does it seem to be glowing?"

"Rocket! The rocket flew toward that ball!

No, it should be that the ball blocked the rocket's path, move it away quickly!

Accompanied by the last roar, the screen brightened for a short time. In the process of gradually extinguishing, the explosion light lit up, and rocket fragments flew everywhere.

In an instant, the fire illuminated the dark night sky. At this moment, the stars in the universe were brilliant.

"What's going on!

The leading old general roared: "What did the rocket hit?! Why did it disintegrate?! Why didn't the equipment detach in advance?!

Soon, a pale-faced researcher ran over and said: "So... sorry! General! There is a piece of space junk we didn't detect, it might be left by rockets launched by various countries..."

"This space junk is compressed from some special equipment, and its own gravity is abnormal, so it caused our equipment not to detach safely, so... so..."

The old general glared at him with wide eyes and said: "Are you trying to say that the core we spent a lot of money to make is completely destroyed??!"

The researcher's legs began to tremble, but in the end, he gritted his teeth and nodded: "Yes... but fortunately, we originally intended to launch a simplified version to explore the way first, so what was lost was an incomplete core, and the most important core has not been launched yet..."

The old general's face looked a little better, but he still had a dark face and said: "If this happens again, you should know the consequences. Project Red Orchid is absolutely not allowed to fail. Continue to prepare for launch!"

After preparing for about another week, the rocket was launched again. This time, it followed the predetermined orbit very smoothly to approach Mercury, and then leaned toward the Sun.

When monitoring this scene, the faces of the generals finally improved. Ross heard his colleague beside him whisper: "It's already launched to this position, there shouldn't be any problems, right?"

"Is the equipment ready to unfold? I think this distance should be just right. Look, that is the Mercury base..."

"The equipment is out of the cabin, quick, quick! Unfold quickly! As long as the base can be anchored, the plan is more than half successful..."

In a whisper, the outer shell of the last launch cabin fell off, and the equipment prepared to unfold on the spot.

Just as everything was going smoothly, a striking laser appeared out of thin air, as if cutting the screen in half.

The generals instinctively covered their eyes with their arms, and when they opened them again, the equipment that had been initially unfolded had disappeared.

Everyone was stunned there. After a long while, the researcher shouted: "We have been attacked by unknown weapons!

! Someone destroyed our research equipment!

This is an attack!

This is an attack!

"What's going on?!" The old general roared: "Who attacked our equipment?! Is it Stark?! Contact him immediately!

After a while, the researcher ran up and said: "General, our equipment was attacked by unknown weapons. According to observations, it was not Stark's equipment. The defensive weapons on the Mercury base have never been activated..."

Ross hurriedly stepped forward and said: "It cannot be the defensive weapons above the Mercury base. We have already obtained the authorization code in advance and avoided the output range of the main weapons. It is impossible to be shot down so silently..."

"Then what do you say happened?!"

The old general's chest kept heaving, and he had already lost his mind a bit.

After all, as the proposer and executor of this plan, he knew better than anyone how much money they had lost in those few seconds just now.

"Find out who opened fire!

!" The old general's voice almost broke through the glass curtain wall. He said: "We must make them pay the price, let them know what stupid things they have done!

!"

"Yes, they must pay ten or a hundred times the price for this!

"Someone echoed.

"Go find it immediately! Go find out who did it!

"We want to declare war on them!

!"

At this time, another researcher ran over and said:

"According to the signal sent back by the black box, the energy fluctuation of the weapon that destroyed the equipment is very similar to the Bifrost that appeared on Earth before. It is suspected to be a weapon of the Asgard fleet..."

The generals who were just filled with righteous indignation fell silent instantly. ===== CHAPTER 871 =====