The Wandering Planet

In the live broadcast, the Mantis is slowly recovering water droplets with its ultra-long robotic arm.

At this time, people discovered a strange contrast:

The mechanical arm is obviously a thing that only focuses on function in design. The steel bones, coupled with the exposed hydraulic equipment, are full of complicated technical qualities and a rough industrial feel.

The water drop has a perfect shape. This crystal-clear and smooth solid liquid drop eliminates all functional and technical connotations with exquisite aesthetics, showing the lightness and detachment of philosophy and art.

The steel claws of the mechanical arm grab the water droplets, like the hairy hands of an ancient ape grabbing a pearl. The drop looked so fragile, like a teardrop in space, that everyone feared it would shatter in the steel claws.

But this never happened, and the mechanical arm began to retract.

The water droplets were slowly pulled into the main cabin of the "Mantis", and then the two opened bulkheads were slowly closed.

The crowd on Earth once again burst into cheers, but this time the celebration was not as fanatical and ecstasy as last time, because the end of the war and the victory of mankind were no longer a surprise.

Taking a step back, even if the upcoming negotiations break down and the war continues, human beings will still be the final victors.

The presence of the Combined Fleet in space gave the public a graphic idea of ​​human power.

Now, the earth civilization already has the confidence to face all kinds of enemies calmly.

The arrival of water droplets has caused subtle changes in people's feelings towards the Trisolaran world, and more and more people have begun to realize:

The race that is trekking towards the solar system is a great civilization. They have experienced more than two hundred disasters and survived with incredible tenacity.

They have gone through hardships across four light-years of space, just to find a stable sun, a home where life can continue...

The public's feelings towards the Three-Body World began to shift from hostility and hatred to sympathy, pity and even admiration.

People are also aware of the fact that the ten water droplets of the Trisolaran world were sent out two centuries ago, and humans have not really understood their meaning until now.

This is of course because the behavior of the Three-Body Civilization is too reserved, but it also reflects the mentality of human beings distorted by their own bloody history from another aspect.

What excites people the most is not the facts in front of them, but the bright future that has already taken shape: what kind of dreamy paradise will the solar system become when the technology of the Trisolaran civilization combines with human power?

However, this ridiculous fantasy was shattered in less than a minute.

The hull of the Mantis, which had recovered the water droplets, suddenly glowed red. From the outside, it looked like the candles in the paper lanterns were lit.

At the same time, the metal hull melted like wax, and all the metal in the hull turned into an incandescent liquid, which instantly exploded and scattered in space.

Everyone's first reaction was that the water drop self-destructed. Although they felt sorry, they were not particularly surprised. They were just disappointed that the water drop was not a messenger of peace.

However, all human beings have not made the minimum psychological preparation for what is about to happen.

Qiao Li sighed deeply. Although he already knew the result, he still felt very sorry about it.

He turned around and said to 2B who was standing behind him, "Sit down and watch the fireworks with me."

Just when people thought it was only the Mantis that was destroyed,

Doesn't include much more. A corner of the United Fleet's rectangular formation suddenly burst into flames, and then continued to spread like a lit fuse.

"What's going on? Why did you suddenly get angry?"

Before the crowd watching the live broadcast realized what was happening, the first stellar-class battleship on fire exploded.

Unlike the conventional explosion that occurred in the high temperature of the Mantis, this stellar-class battleship was obviously caused by a nuclear fusion reaction when the nuclear reactor was detonated.

The fireball of the thermonuclear explosion appeared on the hull of the ship and expanded rapidly. The entire fleet was illuminated by strong light, which stood out against the dark and silent space background, and the star sea of ​​the entire galaxy was eclipsed.

Before anyone else could react, the stellar-class warships in the first row of the matrix queue exploded one by one, turning into nuclear fusion fireballs at intervals of less than a second.

The entire fleet array also shone brightly as if it had been ignited, becoming a sea of ​​light.

The crowd watching the live broadcast was completely stunned, because until now they still don't know why this happened, was it an enemy attack? So what exactly is it? Where are you from?

All are in a state of extreme trembling and numbness. In the past two centuries of space strategy and tactical research, various extreme battlefield situations have been imagined.

But witnessing a hundred warships being blown up in one minute like a firecracker was still beyond their psychological capacity.

There are even quite a few people who believe that this powerful invisible enemy may be a third-party alien force other than humans and Trisolarans, because the Trisolaran civilization is already a weak loser in their subconscious.

"Water drop! It was the water drop that launched the attack!"

Someone finally yelled this sentence in the picture, but people still couldn't understand how the water droplets less than one-ten-thousandth the size of a star-class warship could pose a threat to these behemoths.

After searching and matching huge amounts of battlefield image data, the fleet finally discovered the existence of water droplets.

In the image extracted by the image analysis software, except for the propelling halo at the tail, the water droplet has not changed much, and it is still perfectly streamlined.

It's just that its mirror surface reflects the light of nuclear fireballs and metal magma in high-speed motion. The strong light and dark red alternate frequently, as if it is a drop of burning blood.

The commander of the United Fleet immediately ordered: "All attacking units, aim at the target and fire immediately!"

All Stellar-class warships activate their interceptor weapons, firing electromagnetic kinetic weapons at incoming droplets.

The metal bullets fired by the electromagnetic gun have huge destructive power. Due to the huge kinetic energy brought by its high speed, each metal bullet is equivalent to a heavy bomb when it hits the target.

Hundreds of such metal bullets can be fired every second, each the size of a football, with a speed of tens of kilometers per second, and can level a mountain on the ground in a few minutes.

However, when it hit the water droplet, there was only a clear and melodious sound, accompanied by violent sparks splashing out, these indestructible electromagnetic gun metal bullets were completely shattered like pebbles hitting rocks.

On the other hand, the water droplets only slowed down a bit, and there was no depression at all on the smooth and flat surface.

If you observe the surface of the water droplet with a super-high magnification microscope, you will still see an absolutely smooth mirror surface without even a trace of scratches.

The water drop immediately adjusted its propulsion, quickly recovered its speed, and flew towards the United Fleet against the dense hail of bullets.