Dark.
This is the background color of the universe.
Empty.
This is the theme song of the universe.
The birth and destruction of anything are just embellishments on this black canvas.
After the events of over 700 years ago, the entire geothermal civilization began to tighten its defenses, always waiting for the enemy's attack.
However, even after waiting for so long, the enemy still did not arrive, causing their defense to go from a full-scale mobilization to scattered preparations.
From space, there are only dozens of spacecraft patrolling around the entire planet.
Further away from the planet, there are a few ships serving as advanced defenses.
This is the inertia of living beings.
It stems from the logic of energy consumption at the lowest level.
As long as living beings tend to conserve physical energy, inertia will exist.
The entire planet has become much brighter compared to centuries ago, with more structures rising from the planet, even beginning to no longer rely on volcanoes.
This is thanks to the absolute zero-degree missiles.
These missiles passively freed this civilization from its reliance on geothermal energy within a few hundred years, transitioning entirely to nuclear power generation.
External threats are the best catalysts for civilization progress.
This statement is indeed true.
The reason why humans have developed so rapidly is also due to the nature of human civilization—an endless history of warfare.
Human civilization is a history of human warfare!
Just when all the creatures on the planet were becoming complacent due to centuries of stability.
A beam of light appeared in the distance, hitting a giant crystal ball on the ground.
As the beam struck the crystal ball, the internal structure immediately dispersed the light evenly, turning the entire crystal ball into a massive light bulb.
The light emitted by the crystal ball could be seen within a radius of several hundred kilometers.
Suddenly,
Chaos ensued.
Countless warships began preparing for liftoff.
Beams of light shot into space from the planet's surface.
Through the light, this civilization was able to determine the enemy's position and distance in almost half an hour.
Thousands of artillery positions on the ground began to rotate.
Since the planet itself lacks an atmosphere, their weapons can be fired directly from the surface.
And due to the nature of laser weapons, they do not have to consider the effects of gravity, allowing them to turn the entire planet into a fortress.
They adjusted their positions and began the attack in just about ten minutes.
Beams of light ascended into the sky, each with a diameter exceeding 20 meters and a length of 700 meters, resembling enormous light swords, blurring the line between technology and magic.
...
In the starry sky,
Gigantic ships cruised in a fan-shaped formation.
At the forefront were patrol cruisers and destroyers.
Laser weapons themselves are light, and since light is the fastest entity in the universe, reaching its physical limit, perfect optical weapons can only be detected after they arrive, similar to gamma rays.
Therefore, Yancha couldn't detect the enemy's lasers head-on.
Only when the enemy's lasers hit their ships could they perceive the attack and use their own positioning predictions to evade.
This is a flaw in laser weapons.
Fortunately, at this moment, the distance between the two sides was enough.
When the first laser passed 40,000 kilometers from the side of a destroyer, Ella captured the scattered photons.
"The enemy has launched an attack."
"And it won't be small."
Yancha nodded, as hundreds of laser beams had already passed them in just a few short sentences.
At the same time, their two warships were hit.
"Activate the electromagnetic shields."
Light, electricity, magnetism, and many other things fall under the electromagnetic category.
Laser weapons can be blocked by magnetic fields.
The destroyers began to close in.
When the distance between each destroyer was less than 100 kilometers, the electromagnetic shields were activated.
Magnetism itself has the property of mutual attraction, and Ella utilized this property. The electromagnetic shields of the destroyers at this distance could be connected to each other, just like ships linked by iron chains.
Yancha looked outside the main ship and felt that those few destroyers had only come closer by a bit.
The electromagnetic shields don't flicker with electric light like in the movies; they can only be seen on instruments as a special shield.
After the electromagnetic shields had been activated for about ten seconds, a laser beam hit them.
According to conventional reasoning, light is not affected by magnetic fields. However, Yancha observed that the electromagnetic shields lit up and turned into a visible electrical grid.
"What's happening?"
Ella explained, "The electromagnetic shields block lasers not by the magnetic field itself, but through the photoelectric effect and the Delbrück scattering."
"Inside the electromagnetic shields, many electrons and special atomic nuclei are released. The electrons, influenced by magnetic force, are evenly distributed on the shields. While magnetism cannot stop photons, electrons can, and the electric field generated by atomic nuclei can also interfere with the movement of photons."
Thestory abruptly ends here, leaving the reader in suspense about what happens next.
"Since the enemy has extended their welcome, let's give them a gift," Yancha issued the order, commanding the battleships and patrol cruisers to launch Absolute Zero missiles.
In the vacuum of space, unaffected by gravity and air resistance, the high-speed projectiles could combine their velocity with that of the ships. Three days after the missile launch, they successfully reached the outer space of the enemy planet.
The triggering mechanism of the small Absolute Zero missiles was different from before; they would automatically detonate when the ambient temperature rose to -100 degrees Celsius or upon impact with an object. The massive laser weapons targeted the incoming missiles and unleashed their firepower. Silent explosions bloomed in the starry sky.
A terrifying cold spread instantly in the outer space of the planet, affecting everything within a 260-kilometer radius of the explosion. Several alien warships were covered in the freezing cold, losing power and plummeting towards the planet's surface. However, when they were about 10 kilometers from the ground, they swiftly pulled up again.
As Ella had mentioned, this civilization had already conducted research and taken precautions against Absolute Zero weapons. Nevertheless, these weapons were only meant to buy enough time for the fleet.
Within the range detectable by their instruments, the fleet had arrived. The distance between the two sides was now less than 1.4 astronomical units. "Is this distance suitable?" Yancha asked in the ship. Ella nodded. "Yes."
"Then let's charge and fire..." The colossal antimatter annihilator was mounted on the front underside of the Hope, measuring a total length of 1,152 meters, nearly half the length of the Hope itself. Behind the barrel of the cannon was a massive sphere, an antimatter manufacturing machine. This machine used lasers to collide with gold, generating temperatures of 6 billion degrees and creating positrons and electrons, which were then stored and confined by a magnetic field.
During the charging process, the electromagnetic thrusters ceased firing, and all controllable fusion devices provided power to the antimatter annihilator. After approximately 10 hours of charging, "Antimatter charging complete. Energy capacity: 408 kilograms." "Fire!"
The 408 kilograms of antimatter were concentrated and launched from the massive barrel, devoid of form and color. It resembled a gas. Civilizations without mastery of antimatter technology would even be unable to detect its presence. These particles collided with the target planet's surface at 40% the speed of light, 7.5 hours after being launched.
The extraterrestrial civilization displayed no reaction, but the antimatter and the matter on the planet's surface underwent annihilation. "Boom!!" The terrifying explosion reached an energy equivalent of 17.5 billion tons, 350 times the energy released by the largest hydrogen bomb detonation in human history, "Tsar Bomba." The core radius of the explosion reached 100 kilometers.
In an instant, the hemisphere of the entire planet was swallowed by light, and the heat could be felt 2,000 kilometers away. Without air resistance, the shockwave composed of dust and debris spread across the entire planet's surface at ten times the speed of sound within an hour and a half, destroying countless structures.
Witnessing this scene, even the extraterrestrial spacecraft in outer space ceased their movement, silently observing the sudden and utter destruction of their home planet's surface.