You were told to build a tractor, but you're building a rocket? Chapter 798 - 754: Night of Lightning

From October 14th to October 15th, the most critical period lasted only about 7 or 8 hours, which for an ordinary event might not even afford enough ti to prepare.

However, in the Western Pacific, that ti was sufficient for two world-shocking ergency operations to take place.

The external response might have been delayed, but the ensuing waves it caused were extrely fierce.

Countless experts rushed to interpret what seed like a series of complicated coincidences and conflicts, but what really shook people was the astonishing reaction speed of the two involved parties.

Whether dostic or from Arica, the ergency mobilization and response capabilities they displayed were breathtaking.

In just a few hours, thousands of aircraft from both sides took off urgently, including four aero-space planes and six unmanned spacecraft, involving over 200 warships in total, with more than 400,000 personnel deployed, and they initiated large-scale maneuvers over thousands of kiloters.

Even if there were differences in their performance, compared to others, they were like a dinsion-striking existence, utterly unimaginable.

Thus, it was only after the incident concluded that other countries realized the world had nearly been dragged into a vortex of war and were drenched in a cold sweat.

In the interpretation of external experts, they vividly terd this night as "Lightning Night."

It ca as unexpectedly and unpredictably as lightning, provoked reactions as swift as lightning, and ended as abruptly as lightning vanishes.

Gone in a flash, yet it left an indelible impression and devastating destruction.

Apart from the participants in the incident, everyone else had no chance to intervene or even understand what was happening.

Lightning Night was also a brutal delineation of power. From now on, everyone realized that China and Arica stood on a completely higher level, isolated above others, possessing capabilities far beyond the average.

And now dostically, with the last piece of the puzzle in place, one could almost say that a long-standing desire was fulfilled, with no similar level of urgent issues left, freeing up more energy for other matters.

As for Artemis, the root source of all trouble, it was now within controllable limits. Apart from a few Eastern European countries and Turkey incessantly clamoring for compensation, it hadn’t faced very intense public opinion backlash.

"That was truly fortunate."

Robert wiped the sweat from his forehead, looking with appreciation at the Artemis team that had been tirelessly working for several nights.

The fault in the artificial sun had been diagnosed, not due to the reflector or other chanical faults, but a problem with the control program which was the easiest to resolve.

Under the big trend of AI, Artemis had integrated an AI-controlled dynamic response adjustnt system which, due to system immaturity, resulted in nurous errors and ultimately led to a loss of control.

Finding the cause naturally led to an easy solution. Ground teams were working overti to improve the control system. With its complex design, Artemis had developed a brand-new architecture that supported remote OTA upgrades; it just needed the updated patch to be transmitted and installed.

Though the hardware had experienced self-spin, it hadn’t suffered severe damage due to tily intervention, with the base frawork and reflector film largely intact, at the very least, without any fatal damage.

Once confirmation that the control system was restored, they would let it ascend to a higher orbit to deploy again and have the space planes assist in observation, making things much safer.

As for the inevitable delay in operation ti, that was now the least of the concerns.

"Very good, you’ve all done extrely well. I hope to hear good news from you after I go to China."

Robert was about to encourage his subordinates when suddenly a voice ca from behind:

"I’m sorry, Mr. Director, your work may have been reassigned."

It was a familiar voice. Robert turned to see it was the President’s Chief of Security and imdiately understood.

Was it another plan from Office Number 13? It seed his schedule would be delayed again. But what could be more important than an alien civilization crisis?

His composed attitude surprised the Chief of Security, but without a word, he escorted Robert to the car and, uncharacteristically, squeezed into the backseat with him.

Not only him, but another special agent was there too, flanked on either side by two burly n who trapped Robert in the middle.

The latter was just about to voice his doubts when it seed like he realized sothing and stopped, his face turning pale in an instant and his head, which was against the car roof, slowly drooped, his hands weakly grasped by one man on each side.

"Where will I be taken?"

The hoarse voice made it almost unrecognizable as the sa person, yet the captain’s expression remained unchanged:

"You should have thought about your fate the mont you did that."

"Alright, but please let see my son one more ti."

"I’m afraid that’s not possible. That requires special permission, and you are not allowed to have any further contact with the outside world right now."

Robert’s remaining words got stuck in his throat and it took him a long while before he murmured in a low voice:

"You don’t know... At that ti, the nuclear bomb was already above everyone’s head. I couldn’t just watch it all happen. Humanity still has so much to do."

"Go tell it to the judge... No, just give up making excuses, sir. You have committed the greatest act of treason in the history of the United States, an inadmissible betrayal. You are a criminal."

"No, I am that submarine’s officer. I stopped everything. People won’t see as a traitor."

"You may say what you wish."

"Fine, then who will succeed in my visit? Don’t send Jim. His temperant and rank are both insufficient. It’s a very sensitive matter, especially now."

"That’s not for you to worry about. Claire is already tying up loose ends for you."

...

Mars, Zero Plain.

Although it hadn’t yet finished exploring the designated area, Firefly-1 had already almost completed all the tasks within its reach.

Unless Earth exploded, Mars, millions of kiloters away, would not be affected, nor would it interfere with the diligent work of a small robot.

Powered by nuclear batteries and AI, Firefly-1 worked tirelessly day and night. It had circled the core area of the Zero Plain’s localization point many tis, almost covering the visible area with wheel rut marks.

In this process, it had learned a great deal about Martian geological composition, historical geology activities, and surface soil—enough to publish many papers—but all of this was ignored.

All those in the know didn’t care about these details; they were desperate to find non-human traces.

Firefly-1 used its probes as best it could for distributive sampling, carefully analyzing the constituents in the soil, though finding nothing special.

Geomagnetism might be a breakthrough, but Mars’s geologic activity wasn’t as intense as Earth’s, and the planet’s geomagnetism was weaker and unstable, not very aningful without long-term reference data.

Firefly-1 had completed all the exploration of another calibration point. After a simple analysis—aningless.

It didn’t feel disappointnt, just quietly operated its motor, moving to another slightly more distant point to continue drilling.

The retracted drill extended once more, inching downwards preparing to penetrate the loose Martian soil, but as soon as it made contact with the Martian surface, the drill stopped.

Like a freeze-fra in an animation, Firefly-1 stood still, as if rging with the surrounding scenery to beco an inherent, lifeless part of it.

Firefly-1 was dead, it died without a whisper.