The Earth Alliance Defense Agency had set up twenty large screens in a row, each displaying live footage of the four major countries' rockets sent to the moon for trade. With the experience of the first trade, Colonel Chu and the others seemed calm as they issued orders without hesitation.
"Something's wrong!" A staff member suddenly shouted, pointing to one of the screens. The rocket was just about to land.
Everyone turned to look.
The image on the tenth screen began to shake violently.
"What's going on?!"
"I don't know. The camera is very unstable. Either the camera stand is loose, or there's a problem with the rocket..."
"Switch to another screen!"
but after cutting to several other screens, the footage was still the same. This meant that the entire rocket was shaking, not just the camera stand.
"Switch to another rocket's camera!"
Instantly, the footage on the other nineteen screens changed to show the outside of the rockets. The screen clearly displayed a flame at the bottom of the tenth rocket that had gone out.
"Whose rocket is that?" Colonel Chu asked urgently.
he staff member glanced at Thomas and replied, "It's from Meine ."
Colonel Chu immediately turned to Thomas and said directly, "Tell your country's space agency to report the situation!"
The Earth Alliance Defense Agency did not have control over the twenty rockets, and all footage shown on the screens was transmitted from the four major countries' space agencies.
"I'm calling now!" Thomas said while pretending to not know what was happening. He then went on to contact his people.
"It's too late!" A staff member switched the camera to the outside and the rocket could be clearly seen falling towards the ground.
Its destination was the crater where the entrance to the alien base was located.
"What's going on, Thomas?!" Colonel Chu asked angrily.
"How should I know? I'm standing here right now. I'm not on the rocket, so how should I know?!" Thomas didn't even bother to make the call, raising his hands innocently.
"Damn it, you idiots!"
Colonel Chu cursed, and although he already had an idea of what was going on, he didn't have time to think further, staring nervously at the tenth screen and observing the situation on the ground.
If this rocket were to destroy the entrance to the alien base, what would they think?
Would it lead to war?!
Unconsciously, Colonel Chu's arms began to tremble. He was worried that this incident could lead to the destruction of Earth.
On the screen, as the rocket approached the ground, the camera shook more and more violently, causing the hearts of all the staff to tremble with it.
Just as the rocket was about to crash into the ground, suddenly, a white light flashed.
On the tenth screen, flames flickered and then it went completely dark.
Everyone quickly looked at the other screens, and the next second, they all had stunned expressions on their faces.
In the images, a white light screen enveloped the outer shell of all nineteen rockets, with smoke and fire spraying outside the screen.
The visible shockwave surged towards the camera, but before it could reach it, it was stopped by the light screen.
The command center suddenly became quiet, and everyone looked bewilderedly at the scene before them.
Under the protection of the white light screen, the remaining nineteen rockets that were at risk of being destroyed by the shockwave from the crashed rocket landed safely and intact.
"Commander, look here!"
At this moment, a staff member pointed to a screen on the side and shouted.
Colonel Chu turned his head to look. It was the camera from the rocket farthest away from the crash.
The camera was pointing towards the ground.
"What's going on?!"
On the screen, their rocket did not land, but was standing on a milky white light screen, several meters away from the ground.
Certainly, here's a corrected version of the translated novel with the errors fixed:
On the screen, as the rocket approached the ground, the camera shook more and more violently, causing the hearts of all the staff to tremble with it.
Just as the rocket was about to crash into the ground, suddenly, a white light flashed.
On the tenth screen, flames flickered and then it went completely dark.
Everyone quickly looked at the other screens, and the next second, they all had stunned expressions on their faces.
In the images, a white light screen enveloped the outer shell of all nineteen rockets, with smoke and fire spraying outside the screen.
The visible shockwave surged towards the camera, but before it could reach it, it was stopped by the light screen.
The command center suddenly became quiet, and everyone looked bewilderedly at the scene before them.
Under the protection of the white light screen, the remaining nineteen rockets that were at risk of being destroyed by the shockwave from the crashed rocket landed safely and intact.
"Sir, look here!"
At this moment, a staff member pointed to a screen on the side and shouted.
Colonel Chu turned his head to look. It was the camera from the rocket farthest away from the crash.
The camera was pointing towards the ground.
"What's going on?!"
Colonel Chu was taken aback. On the screen, their rocket did not land, but was standing on a milky white light screen, several meters away from the ground.
Before he could finish his surprise, all nineteen screens went black.
"The signal is interrupted, the aliens should have activated the jammer..."
As everyone waited anxiously, a minute passed.
Then, suddenly, the cameras flickered back to life. To their surprise, the nineteen rockets were now sitting quietly on the ground, as if nothing had happened. There was no trace of the explosion, not even a single stone had moved, and the previous flames and smoke had vanished without a trace.
If not for the tenth screen being pitch black, people would have doubted whether they had seen an illusion just now.
"Zoom in on the cameras!"
Soon, the cameras from all nineteen rockets cut into the interior. The mountains of resources that had piled up were gone, replaced by neatly arranged projection touch watches.
Seeing this, everyone understood that the explosion had been resolved by the aliens. That light screen was a kind of protective shield, not only protecting the ground, but also the other nineteen rockets.
What was even more surprising was that, in just one minute, the entire scene had returned to its original state.
Not only did the rockets that were floating above the light screen land smoothly, but the debris of the explosion was also cleaned up. What was even more impressive was that the AI had the ability to move all the resources and put down the watches.
This sudden situation had been easily handled by the automatic defense system of the alien base and some AI that collect resources.
As the group tried to process what they had just witnessed, someone murmured to himself, "Is this...alien technology?"
..
At the moon base.
"Commander, a rocket from Earth just exploded,"
"Huh?!"
"Is there any on-site footage?" Zhao Yu asked.
"Yes!"
Uncle Da pulled up the video and played the entire scene of the rocket crashing and the protective shield deploying.
After watching it, Zhao Yu nodded slightly and asked, "Only one nozzle went out, so it should be a rocket malfunction. Are the resources still intact?"
"Except for the rocket that exploded, which lost most of its resources, the other nineteen rockets are fine," Uncle Da paused for a moment.
"Commander, do you think this was really just a malfunction?"
"What do you mean?" Zhao Yu narrowed his eyes, suspecting something.
"The trajectory of the rocket that crashed happened to be at the entrance to our base. This is quite a coincidence..."
"Furthermore, this rocket had a total of sixteen thrusters. I just calculated that, in order to have that falling trajectory, one nozzle on the left must go out at a height of 3144 meters. This probability is very low, only 0.001534%. If we include the time it takes for the rocket to fly from Earth to the moon in the denominator, the probability becomes even lower," Uncle Da explained.
Zhao Yu stared at the paused screen of the rocket with one nozzle out and wore a perplexed expression, "What are you suggesting?"
"This might not be a coincidence!"
"This might not be a coincidence," Uncle Da's voice became cold, laced with a hint of anger, "I think Earth is trying to provoke us."