Chapter 786 - 744 Hanging by a Thread

In 1960, three years after the launch of humanity’s first artificial satellite "Sputnik" into space, NACA launched a very special satellite, "Echo 1."

The essence of Echo 1 was a giant balloon made from a polyester film only 0.08 millimeters thick and coated with a 0.013-millimeter-thick layer of aluminum foil.

It was folded during launch, and benzoic acid material had been placed inside beforehand. Once Echo 1 entered space and the benzoic acid was heated by the sun, it would vaporize, causing the balloon to gradually inflate to a diameter of about 30 meters.

This enormous inflatable metal sphere was the first-generation passive communication satellite, and its principle was exceptionally simple:

A signal sent from point A on Earth to Echo 1 would be reflected by its metal surface and return to point B on Earth, thus achieving satellite communication.

Although this rudimentary giant balloon was rather shoddy, it nevertheless completed the first satellite communication between America and the Union, validating the feasibility of this technology and laying the foundation for the development of communication satellites.

Now, Artemis was the ultimate enhanced version of its predecessors, boasting an exaggerated diameter of 1100 meters, and it wasn’t a diffuse-reflection sphere with significant signal loss, but a carefully designed parabolic reflector capable of a wide focusing range.

When it went out of control, it happened to pass over the junction of the busy satellite communication area of the Eurasian Continent. The Earth chickens there were major users of satellite television broadcasts, and signals from geostationary orbit were received by Artemis, which then amplified them countless times. Whenever it tumbled and swept in one direction, it caused strong interference with the satellites it covered.

Not only space, but the jumbled waves absorbed and amplified by Artemis also affected ground receivers. Confronted with electromagnetic waves that were suddenly many times stronger and modulated in chaos, ordinary filters of broadcast and satellite TV receivers were overwhelmed, causing a reduction in signal strength and garbled code at best, and a complete signal loss at worst.

The scale of 300 kilometers was astonishing, with Eastern Europe and the areas near the Black Sea being affected first, covering several small countries in one go.

The residents there were even the first to unexpectedly spot a bright point flashing across the sky, and then discovered that the radio, satellite television, data networks, and even GPS signals were stuttering or malfunctioning to varying degrees.

However, as the situation was sudden, these countries did not realize something was amiss immediately. It wasn’t until the effects spread to within Russia that someone reported it.

But it was China that first entered a state of alert. Due to the extreme uncertainty of the extraterrestrial crisis, the domestic early warning network was basically in top condition. Upon detecting large-scale electromagnetic disturbances, it immediately sounded the alarm. Five minutes later, two H1-based "Shenlong" were launched successively with solid rockets, and the Aero-Space Plane also received urgent orders to prepare for space entry.

At the same time, an immediate inquiry was made to America through the hotline, but since American authorities were oblivious and slow to respond, China, not daring to gamble on the current situation, immediately issued a level-one warning. All naval vessels capable of leaving port did so immediately, and the warships and submarines on missions entered a state of silence.

All planes at coastal airports took off as much as possible, and inland bombers began loading long-range cruise missiles, ready to take off and patrol predetermined routes to strike against predetermined targets as per emergency plans.

However, they were no match for the rocket forces, which were on the highest readiness level and were almost on standby the moment they received the alarm, ready to carry out strikes at any time.

Artemis’s interference was detected at 21:34, and since the majority of military satellite communications were also disrupted, China almost believed America was taking a risky step due to the sudden change in the situation, intending a surprise attack with previous concessions being a mere facade.

However, out of the last vestige of rationality and trust in the assessment of past situations, the leadership decided to remain calm for 10 minutes without further messages:

During these 10 minutes, if any strike towards the homeland were detected from any direction, a full counterstrike would be launched without hesitation. If not, the wait could be extended appropriately.

When Shen Zuozhou received the warning, five minutes had already passed, and by then, Russia and other authorities had also responded.

In such a situation, even if the Pentagon was completely clueless about what had happened, the Pacific Fleet in the Far East, seeing the sudden turn of events, mistook it for the brink of war and began mobilizing desperately.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon and John were bombarded with urgent hotline calls, first from the Chinese, then the Far East, followed promptly by Russia, and after them came call after call from European allies. They too had sensed something was amiss and had already issued mobilization orders.

By this time, John had already boarded a Boeing 747 doomsday command plane, responding rapidly from the aircraft with superhuman speed. His central message was just one: "It wasn’t me, I didn’t do it, stay calm!"

At this point, the information about Artemis causing the chaos had not spread, making his words not very convincing.

By the time McMaster boarded the helicopter, the world’s main powers had essentially entered a state of readiness for a counterstrike, staring tensely at each other, waiting to issue the final command.

...

Lin Ju was led into the basement by Shen Zuozhou and a few others, but it wasn’t secure there, so Shen Zuozhou kept in constant contact with the military, waiting to be evacuated by helicopter.

It was only then that Lin Ju had a moment to unlock his phone and look at the emergency information sent from the base. After a quick scan, he finally felt a great weight lift from his shoulders.

NACA’s big mirror certainly attracted attention, but due to the busy affairs of the Aerospace Development Committee, the surveillance task had been handed over to New Yuan, which had been silently observing Artemis’s actions all along.

When the alarm was triggered domestically, the base had already determined that Artemis was the cause of the chaos, but they did not immediately report it as a misunderstanding.

Since even their side couldn’t determine whether this was part of Artemis’s plan—what if it was just a decoy and actually a super space weapon?

It took another ten minutes of confirmation, involving multiple high-orbit satellites and space station observations, to find that Artemis had not fully deployed and was tumbling irregularly, which basically confirmed that it was an accident.

By the time Lin Ju saw the message, five minutes had already passed. He quickly grabbed Shen Zuozhou, who, after seeing the message, was also startled and hurriedly made contact with the higher-ups.

However, the base had already sent a report ahead of time. Shen Zuozhou soon received the latest feedback from above, along with inquiries confirming that there had been no casualties or chaos.

The call lasted for several minutes, and when he hung up, he wiped the sweat from his forehead with a sense of relief, his body breaking out in goosebumps, and with a lingering fear in his heart, he turned to Lin Ju and said:

"It’s a good thing you at New Yuan reacted in time. There was just a local conflict in the East Sea, and the top brass almost proceeded with a nationwide alert for a counterstrike. They were just a minute away. The Joint Chiefs directly stopped the warships from launching missiles through a satellite link. Otherwise, we would have been doomed."

Sea battle? Warship counterattack?

Lin Ju’s scalp tingled; he knew exactly what this meant. If a decision had been made, they should have heard the citywide air raid sirens a few minutes ago, the long-silent civil defense facilities would have been flooded with a torrent of people, local governments would have followed wartime orders to preserve the population and industry as much as possible under a nuclear strike, and countless conscription orders would have been issued.

Once their side began a counterstrike, the ensuing chain reaction would be completely unstoppable, and even if everyone understood afterward that it had been a misunderstanding, the war would still inevitably occur to address the severe losses suffered.

One minute—humanity was just a minute away from a potential crossroads of fate!