Chapter 784 - 743: S3, Server Launch_2

...

NACA, Robert hadn’t experienced such a chaotic situation in a long time, not even when Artemis II lost contact had he panicked like this.

Originally, he had received a message from the Chinese people and was preparing to lead a large delegation of NACA’s top officials on a visit, when he suddenly received an emergency notice.

Now the headquarters was full of employees running around, and the sound of several office telephones ringing non-stop could be heard, he even faintly heard the sound of helicopters outside.

—This wasn’t the end of the world, but it was very close.

"Yes, this is Robert, we’re investigating! Soon, just give us a few more minutes!"

After rattling off a string of words like a machine gun, Robert had just hung up the phone when a group of fierce-looking soldiers stormed into his office like a whirlwind, and then a disheveled McMaster appeared before him, roaring:

"Get that damn thing to stop, or a world war is going to break out! The Chinese have already issued an emergency mobilization order, all their warships are beginning to prepare to leave port!"

Twenty minutes ago, McMaster, who had just entered his office to enjoy coffee and desserts, suddenly heard a loud bang, his office door was kicked open by the burly members of the Marine Corps, who dragged him without a word to the rooftop "Doomsday Helicopter".

At the Presidential Palace, the Pentagon, there are specially prepared helicopters for the most extreme emergencies, with crews on standby, ready to relocate key personnel in the shortest time.

However, because of the conditions for its activation, it was referred to as the "Doomsday Helicopter", since it was likely only to be used in the event of a nuclear war.

Being dragged by the hefty soldiers, McMaster almost felt he was teleported into the already whirring helicopter and it was there that an intelligence officer who had boarded the helicopter before him informed him of the situation:

"The Chinese have just sent us four urgent hotline messages in a row, asking if we are conducting large-scale electromagnetic interference within their borders and stating they are ready for any emergency situations.

We are still verifying the situation, but the Far East has already sent warnings, detecting a large number of encrypted messages from inland longwave radio stations, initially judged to be targeting submarines and warships.

At the same time, several radar stations have detected them beginning to massively mobilize aircraft, with unprecedentedly dense electromagnetic signals, which is highly likely to be an emergency mobilization order!"

Understanding the gravity, McMaster felt his soul almost leap from his body. Large-scale electromagnetic interference within their own territory? Or was it the kind of interference that drove the Chinese to send urgent communications and start mobilizing troops?

He could assure that the Pentagon had absolutely no such operation planned. Without time to delve into the details, he hastily responded to the intelligence officer:

"Immediately reply to them that we have not taken any action, nor do we intend to start a war!

Besides, figure out what’s going on with the electromagnetic interference and also, mobilize the Far East garrisons and the Pacific Fleet right away!"

Intelligence Officer: "Our operators have already responded, and the Far East has also automatically entered a state of emergency..."

His words were suddenly cut off by the ringing of a satellite phone, which brought another series of news after being answered:

Not only the Chinese, but Russia also sent inquiries through an emergency hotline and claimed they had begun mobilizing, stating that Russia was not afraid of any challenge;

The Peninsula and Island Country authorities also made inquiries one after another, asking who had initiated the war, explaining that satellite signals had massively collapsed, and they had entered a defensive state.

Only the Pentagon itself was still in the dark, as if something momentous had happened in the Western Pacific, and even the onset of war had begun?

Just as McMaster was so anxious he wanted to jump out of the helicopter, reliable news finally arrived:

The intelligence agency had basically located the source, it was chaos triggered by NACA!

...

At around 9 a.m. Central time, "Artemis," which had been in low Earth orbit for over ten days meticulously testing its various functions, was finally about to conduct its first reflector deployment test.

Prior to this, controllers on the ground had been ceaselessly checking the precision of nearly a million square meters and thousands of large-node controllers, as a single fault could lead to reflector wrinkling or even cause a large-scale rupture if it went wrong.

Before this deployment, they had carefully confirmed that there were no issues, and the timing chosen was quite subtle: Artemis was just about to cross over the Eastern Hemisphere, near the twilight line going into its dark phase, so it would not be affected by sunlight.

But during deployment, the reflector would face the sun at the horizon and experience light pressure through a window period of less than 10 minutes to precisely determine if the reflector was warping or deforming.

If any mishap occurred, this brief sunlight would not cause too significant an orbital deviation, as Artemis would automatically retract the reflector on the dark side, containing the accident within a manageable scope.

Everything proceeded smoothly, with Artemis beginning very fluidly, receiving no error signals whatsoever.

However, just a minute later, Artemis suddenly reported an anomaly with the attitude control system, the external input signals were too strong, and it automatically entered a protective program.

The ground controllers were of course aware of the implication of this message. Artemis had two attitude control systems, one with small rocket engines and conventional gas RCS thrusters, the other with ion thrusters and micro gas RCS systems.

The first system was used in the retracted state for large-scale orbit raising or attitude adjustments. When Artemis was deployed, the immense reflector was quite fragile, with 0.0045mm stretched aluminum foil that, if subjected to uneven forces, could at the very least become wrinkled and deformed, or at worst, tear apart.