When all the drones released the energy they had accumulated, following their programmed instructions, these powerful pulses—part of the "discarded noise"—triggered an unprecedented EMP burst in the space around the Zenith Seat. Chaotic pulses flooded every communications channel, overloading and collapsing the communications network between Zenith Seat's fighters. Then the wave of energy sweeping through space burned out the fragile radar and antenna systems, physically eliminating any possibility of restoring the network. The shockwave even produced visible discharges: fine, hairlike arcs of electricity erupted between the drones, expanded, and swallowed the entire Zenith Seat Space Station. A wave of electrical sparks swept across the station's surface, destroying every Communication Device in its path.
Among the casualties were large numbers of "Enforcers" whose defenses had been inadequate.
The energy level of this EMP had been precisely calculated. Hao Ren and Nolan had used data collected from N-6 to determine how well an Enforcer's logic core could withstand this kind of energy surge. As a result, the worst damage the affected Enforcers suffered was burned-out external circuits that left them unable to move. Their logic circuits remained intact, so they hadn't truly "died."
The communications network around Zenith Seat had become a silent wasteland, and the EMP had also cut off communications between the station and the Moon surface base. The disabled fighters and warships continued drifting into the depths of space under their own momentum, but the drone swarm was already in action. Using tractor beams and their mechanical arms, the drones caught the objects drifting past them, preventing the powerless station defense forces from crashing into one another as they floated aimlessly around.
In that brief, eerie silence, Nolan quickly caught up with a Zenith Seat fighter drifting away from him and towed the thirty-meter-long craft into his hangar with