Chapter 890: Starry Splendor (32)

"The mother-mold core we manufactured only has three, so the launch must not have any mistakes..."

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 saying this, Ross discovered that the two generals in the front row had faces that became a bit unpleasant.

In fact, Ross also knew what was going on.

The Red Gate Orchid plan was called extermination, but in fact, it was nothing more than using super weapons as bargaining chips to negotiate with mutants.

At that time, Professor X and Magneto were too dominant in terms of military force. The military coveted this power but couldn't gain any benefits from them. In order to reverse this situation, they planned to manufacture a bargaining chip themselves.

However, five years ago, it was very difficult for humans to even launch a probe to Mars. At that time, wanting to develop a launch device capable of hitting the vicinity of the sun directly could be said to be a fantasy.

The Red Gate Orchid plan was proposed under such a technical background. At that time, the military's imagination of the upper limit of the weapon's radiation range 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 smashed countless wealth and gathered the military budget of the three armed forces, only then barely managing to manufacture this ridiculously expensive equipment.

To talk about why it was so expensive, one has to start from the so-called mother-mold core.

"Mother-mold" was 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 this technology to develop a super artificial intelligence.

However, even if all the scientists who researched artificial intelligence they could find were added together, they were not as good as Stark alone. Therefore, this super artificial intelligence was not as good as Jarvis. It had a fatal shortcoming, which was that it needed a special core to carry its powerful computing core.

Although this special core looked small in the design drawing, one also had to look at the size of the entire Red Gate Orchid base.

In the design, the Red Gate Orchid base should stably hover near the sun, with a volume of about one percent of the Earth.

The core installed inside the base was about as tall as a twenty-story building, and most of the parts in it needed to use Vibranium.

And at that time, Vibranium was ridiculously expensive. The military took out their bottom line with tears in their eyes, only then barely managing to manufacture three cores, two of which were simplified versions.

What happened later, many people knew. About three years ago, Schiller came to this world, and then, the Earth was like a wild horse that had slipped its bridle, galloping toward an unknown path.

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

The military never dreamed that their grand plan back then looked like a clown in today's eyes.

Back then, they were very visionary. According to humanity's development speed, wanting to touch the sun would take at least hundreds or thousands of years. As long as they could use leading technology to build a base near the sun, not only could they threaten mutants, but they could also realize more ambitions.

Driven by such power, the U. S. military erupted with infinite potential, especially the Tartus faction among them. Their philosophy had always been "the military, not just the military".

The plan, which ran smoothly in the first three years, was like a gold-swallowing beast, but at least the progress was relatively smooth. The core was manufactured, and the launcher was successfully completed. Then, the Iron Demon God descended.

From then on, Stark, who had severe persecution mania, was like suddenly enlightened, starting to scatter technology without money.

It didn't matter if the rocket couldn't fly up. If it fell down one day, the next day one could get a series of design drawings gifted by nature. It didn't matter if the satellite orbit was unstable. You only were responsible for sending it up, and naturally, someone would maintain it for you.

In the following time, Stark transformed into a hundred-billion subsidy Stark-a-lot. Regardless of whether you had the ability to explore space, as long as you wanted to explore, I would solve the technical problems.

And after Schiller's Iron Curtain descended, most other countries also saw clearly that if they didn't rush forward to grab the cake, they could only eat the dregs in the back. Under the dramatic explosion of global space exploration enthusiasm, one-month moon landing, three-month Mars exploration, half-year solar energy development...

In just over a year, human civilization underwent a dramatic change in its attitude toward the solar system. Before, I was of the solar system; now, the solar system is mine.

In this situation, 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 eventually be able to. If you dare to open fire, then no one will be well off.

What made the military feel even more heartbroken was that when they manufactured those cores back then, the price of Vibranium was at a high point. To prevent being affected by 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 already had a generation gap with the present. This led to the fact that they only had the confidence until now to send the launch and transport devices that were a few generations behind into the scheduled orbit.

And they didn't even have full confidence, they still had to rely on Ross to ask 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, pioneer was pioneered, but not driven.

Chasing the rise and killing the fall is also human nature. The military's launch this time was also being forced onto the shelf. Launching now, at least they could win over forces that were against mutants participating in the solar system construction plan, 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 now, this thing really looked a bit outdated. Launching it up now, when discovered by other countries, they would think Russia had started archaeology again.

But things had come to this, they could only bite the bullet. At least, after launching it, they would have one more bargaining chip to negotiate with mutants, perhaps they could recover some losses from them.

Ross thought viciously, when negotiating with that group of annoying mutants, he must make them bleed heavily. Otherwise, how could he recover the military's losses?

On the day of the launch, the sky over New York was cloudless. All the generals were waiting at the launch center, standing behind the glass curtain wall on the high floor, looking at the giant screen monitoring the launch. A researcher walked over and said:

"We have launched a satellite in advance to monitor the status of the equipment near the flight path. Once the rocket successfully lifts off, the generals will be able to 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 wasn't considered very leading technology in this era, it was completely different from traditional rockets. The ignition process was shorter, but the speed was faster. Almost in an instant, the rocket's figure was no longer on the screen.

The screen picture switched to above the Earth. The figure of the rocket flying in the distance made several young generals' hearts surge. But several more mature generals standing in the front row frowned and said:

"What is that thing 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? Did I see it wrong? Why does it seem to be glowing?"

"Rocket! The rocket is flying toward that ball!! No, it should be that ball blocking the rocket's path, move it away quickly!!!!"

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

In an instant, the fire lit up the pitch-black night sky. At this moment, the universe was starry and 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 have been left by rockets launched by various countries..."

"This space junk is compressed from some special equipment, 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, saying: "Yes... but fortunately, we originally wanted to launch a simplified version to explore the way first, so what was lost was an incomplete core, the most important core hasn't been launched yet..."

The old general's face looked a bit better, but he still had a dark face and said: "If this situation happens again, you should be clear about the consequences. The Red Gate Orchid plan 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 was very smooth, approaching Mercury according to the scheduled orbit, and then leaning toward the sun.

When monitoring this picture, the generals' faces finally got better. 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's the Mercury base..."

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

Amidst a burst of whispers, the outer shell of the last launch cabin fell off, and the equipment was ready to unfold on the spot.

Just when everything was going smoothly, a striking laser appeared out of thin air, as if cutting the picture 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 observation, it's not Stark's equipment. The defensive weapons on the Mercury base haven't been activated at all..."

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

"Then what do you say is going on?!!" The old general's chest kept heaving. 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, and he said: "We must make them pay the price, let them know what kind of stupid thing they have done!!!"

"Yes, they must pay ten times, 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 Asgardian fleet..."

The generals who were just righteous and indignant fell silent instantly. ===== CHAPTER 891 =====