Arrow Chasing the Sun

On April 29, 2018, at 10:15 AM, an American "Combat Shadow" experimental reconnaissance aircraft departed from the airport.

Two hours later, it was found to have crashed in the eastern Indian Ocean, about 170 nautical miles from a naval port. The nearest naval base dispatched search and rescue forces to the accident area.

Pilot Bailey ejected and was safely rescued.

An investigation into the cause of the accident revealed that while flying at high speed, the reconnaissance aircraft collided with an unidentified object at an altitude of 6,000 meters. The wing was damaged, and due to the high speed, the damage continued to expand, preventing it from returning to base and ultimately leading to the crash.

Military employees investigating the accident found it strange. According to the pilot's description, no flocks of birds were detected at the time of the accident.

The object that hit it was very small, but at high speed, they never expected an object at such a high altitude. The joint detectors also did not detect any metallic reactions.

Fortunately, the cockpit video captured a blurry image of the object that hit the wing through the reflection on the pilot's helmet.

"It was a rod-like object, definitely not a bird."

"At 6,000 meters, how could there be a stick? Could it be space debris falling?"

"Even if it were space debris, falling to an altitude of 6,000 meters above the ground, its surface would either be burning or there would be a downward airflow trajectory."

"But there was none of that, meaning the stick was flying horizontally at high altitude when it impacted? Unfortunately, the video only shows a small part, making it impossible to determine its trajectory."

"In any case, space debris has been ruled out. The reconnaissance aircraft detected no metallic objects at the time. Perhaps the object's metal content was too low. If that's the case, an item not made of heat-resistant material couldn't have fallen from space to an altitude of 6,000 meters; it would have evaporated long ago."

The investigators analyzed for a long time but couldn't figure out what had happened.

An unidentified object at high altitude, flying horizontally, causing wing damage to the aircraft at high speed – they didn't even know how to write such an accident cause in the report, as it seemed more like an attack.

After they honestly reported it, a military weapons expert quickly took notice.

Dr. Robert stated, "It could be some kind of special stealth alloy material that evaded our joint detectors."

"The object itself had propulsion, allowing it to withstand force rigidly in the air without support, damaging the wing."

"This might not have been an accident!"

An onlooker exclaimed, "Meaning, it could be a stealth missile? Or a micro-drone?"

"It's highly possible this is a new type of weapon we are not yet aware of. Theoretically, the most likely propulsion for such an object would be the acceleration of its fall, but the video proves it wasn't a high-speed falling object. Therefore, it must have self-propulsion capabilities; it should be an aircraft," the doctor said.

Soon, ships in the accident area reported that no unidentified objects were found in the vicinity, nor were there any fragments of the unidentified object among the aircraft wreckage.

"It might still be in the air. Deploy more aerial search forces."

Although they couldn't detect the flying object, the search fleet's aircraft still found it.

Because the object's speed was supersonic, if they searched carefully at a certain altitude, they could see objects that caused sonic booms by disturbing the clouds.

However, this thing emitted no signals. If it hadn't shot down one of their planes and provided a general trajectory, they would never have found it passing by at such a high altitude.

"It's a supersonic stealth fighter... No, not a fighter, it's too small, it must be a drone!"

"We don't even have this kind of supersonic stealth micro-drone technology. And it's so small, how is the fuel storage problem solved?"

"Is it the latest drone?"

"Pursue!"

After discovering the high-speed unidentified object, the military quickly determined its flight trajectory.

A supersonic fighter jet was dispatched from the naval port to pursue it.

"Target speed is approximately 500 meters per second. Estimated to catch up in five minutes."

"To think there's such a high-performance drone..."

"Its target might be the base. Can we shoot it down?"

"No, it's too fast, and the detectors can't pick up any signal from it..."

The American military quickly compiled a lot of intelligence on the mysterious flying object.

Although this mysterious flying object was supersonic, it was far from being comparable to a real supersonic fighter jet.

What was truly terrifying was its extremely small size and its incredible radar stealth capabilities.

If it hadn't flown straight at an altitude of 6,000 meters, making its trajectory too obvious, and instead had climbed to an altitude of 8,000 or even 10,000 meters, it would have been impossible to detect.

No electromagnetic waves were detected, not a single control signal was intercepted, and there wasn't even a metallic reaction. Its material was completely unknown.

"The previous video showed that this rod-shaped flying object broke into several pieces upon impact. Why can it still maintain such a high flight speed now?" Dr. Robert raised his doubts.

"Could it have nano-repair capabilities?" the onlookers asked in horror.

As they were pondering, five minutes passed in an instant. The pursuing aircraft reported, "I've caught up to it. Its trajectory is very straight, and I can attack it. Do I have permission to shoot it down?"

The doctor said, "Has it not changed course? This might not be an aircraft, but a warhead?"

"Try to fly parallel to it and transmit the image."

Soon, the supersonic fighter jet approached within about 20 meters of the target. At this distance, if the target exploded, there would still be time to evade.

Flying parallel, the image of the mysterious flying object could finally be seen clearly.

The pilot observed carefully and was completely stunned. He immediately transmitted the image of the unidentified object back to the base.

"What? An arrow?"

The so-called unidentified object was a pure carbon arrow.

Because of the previous impact, the arrow was already shattered. The shaft broke into more than a dozen pieces, and the arrowhead had detached.

However, these fragments were still flying diagonally upward at nearly 500 meters per second.

This was utterly baffling, leaving everyone at the base who witnessed it dumbfounded.

They were looking for a mysterious flying object, but what they found was an even more mysterious flying arrow.

And it was a broken arrow, with no jet propulsion or rocket boosters, yet it was flying at supersonic speeds.

At high speed, the arrow's body was visibly heating up, with a small amount of steam lingering on its surface. However, the pure carbon fiber material had excellent heat resistance, and speeds less than Mach 2 were not enough to ignite it.

"It's not burning, but there's steam following... Is this steam the gas evaporated during the collision with 'Combat Shadow'? Why is this gas also following this broken arrow at supersonic speed?"

Dr. Robert stared at the screen in astonishment, finding the scene absurd.

What was propelling this arrow?

Why was it still moving after being broken?

Why were the gases still propelling it even after some of its material had evaporated?

Where was this inexplicably flying arrow going?

The multitude of questions stunned the weapons expert.

Just as the hall fell into a dead silence, a Captain said solemnly, "Dr. Robert, please compile this data for me. This matter is classified as 3A secret."

The Doctor stammered, "Ah? Yes..."

The Captain then sent out the data compiled by the Doctor. Soon, orders came from above: "Two more supersonic fighter jets have been dispatched to intercept. Have the pursuing pilots cooperate in capturing it."

Upon receiving the order, the Captain immediately relayed it to the pilots near the flying arrow.

Not long after, two more fighter jets were flying parallel to the arrow.

One of them was a drone, which launched a dense capture net and successfully caught the pile of scattered arrow fragments.

"Gradually decelerate!"

The drone began to slow down, but as soon as it did, it lost balance!

The connection point between the drone and the metal capture net became taut. The arrow was dragging it, maintaining its own speed without any sign of being slowed down.

"Loss of balance! Loss of balance!"

The drone responsible for towing spun behind the arrow. No matter which direction it flew, it couldn't stop the arrow from diagonally streaking towards outer space.

Nearby aircraft flying in parallel calculated the arrow's speed, which remained at 500 meters per second.

"Cut the capture net!"

Helpless, the command came to abandon the capture net. The arrow parts, along with the net, continued to fly, while the drone took a long time to regain stability.

"My God, what is this?" Dr. Robert watched the screen, on the verge of a breakdown.

He couldn't help but ask, "Is this a UFO?"

The Captain shook his head, remaining silent.

The superior in command also went silent, seemingly deliberating on how to handle the situation.

The three pursuing aircraft could only continue to follow. Time ticked by, second by second.

The arrow gradually crossed America's base in the Indian Ocean. After some time, the planes would no longer be able to follow, due to fuel limitations or restricted airspace, which would prevent American aircraft from following this arrow around the Earth.

At this point, Dr. Robert gradually calmed down. His scholarly instincts allowed him to continue analyzing and thinking based on this absurd premise.

He seemed to have thought of something and suddenly said, "Huh? It seems to be constantly chasing the time zone?"

"Time zone?" The Captain blinked in surprise.

Dr. Robert operated the computer, pointing to the arrow's trajectory, and said, "If you compare carefully, you can see it's always heading towards the sun. Its speed is about 500 meters per second, which at 35 degrees North latitude is just slightly faster than the Earth's rotation speed."

"The arrow moves from east to west. If it maintains this speed, it can circle the Earth in twenty-four hours. And during this process, it will almost always be at the same local time."

He brought up the time the Combat Shadow was hit and said, "The impact occurred just past noon. The arrow passed over India at this speed, and when it reached the West Coast, it was also noon local time. Continuing forward, crossing the Indian Ocean, it will be noon local time again when it's over the peninsula."

The Captain asked with suspicion, "What does this mean?"

Dr. Robert shook his head, "I don't know. It's as if it's an arrow chasing the sun..."

"Chasing the sun? Wouldn't chasing the sun mean flying straight out of the atmosphere? Why is it circling the Earth?" the Captain asked, confused.

Dr. Robert seemed to have thought of something and was frantically calculating. After a while, he suddenly stood up and said, "Actually, it's not circling the Earth!"

"I know why it's so fast! It's not following the Earth's rotation! Therefore, to us, its speed has reached supersonic levels! And it's always illuminated by the sun."

Robert quickly constructed a model. In the model, the arrow remained as an anomaly, while a sphere rotated beside it.

That sphere represented the Earth, and one rotation represented a day. For that anomaly, after one day, it would have passed over the Earth once.

"No..."

Robert soon overturned this model because he discovered that the arrow was not stationary relative to the Earth. Even excluding the Earth's rotational speed, it still had a residual speed of several meters per second.

This speed was precisely the speed at which the arrow was moving away from the Earth's surface.

In other words, its inexplicable propulsion did not solely come from being a backdrop to the Earth's rotation. Even if the Earth didn't rotate, the arrow possessed a strange propulsive force that was driving it away from the Earth.

It was originally an arrow flying upwards. Because the Earth was rotating, and its rotation speed was significantly faster than its upward speed, it appeared to be flying horizontally.

"Away from the surface... away from the surface... I get it! It's entering orbit!"

Robert quickly began constructing a new model, but he wasn't very good at this project; he was just a weapons expert.

He could only explain to the Captain verbally: "Captain, you were right. It is indeed flying 'straight' out of the atmosphere, it's just moving too slowly! Its speed away from the surface is only a few meters per second."

"If an object is continuously propelled and has not exceeded the second cosmic velocity, it will orbit the Earth, continuously gaining altitude."

Robert casually drew a "swirl" pattern, and then at the end of the swirl, the line directly pulled into a straight line, symbolizing its escape from gravitational bonds.

"I can't explain this inexplicable propulsion, but if it can be maintained, its altitude will gradually increase away from the sea level at a rate of a few meters per second, eventually leaving the atmosphere."

"For some reason I can't comprehend, it's always heading towards the sun, so it's not following the Earth's rotation. The orbital path is just an illusion created by the Earth's rotation."

"Once it breaks free from Earth's gravity, it will continue to advance towards the sun in a vacuum... advance... until it's swallowed by the sun in the distant future."

The Captain immediately reported this idea, and soon the higher-ups approved this conjecture.

A screen displayed an old professor speaking to Robert: "Your idea is correct. Although absurd, it might be the truth. This arrow... is relentlessly charging towards the sun... at an extremely slow speed."

Robert's expression turned grim: "I was just thinking aloud, but this is too absurd. This arbitrary propulsion allowed it to overcome air resistance and the Earth's rotational pull."

"Existence implies reason. We can only infer based on facts. Just now, the flying arrow suddenly accelerated to an altitude of forty kilometers in outer space. Our planes can no longer keep up. Fortunately, we placed detectors in the capture net. It will continuously report the arrow's position and speed to us," the old professor said.

Robert frowned: "It suddenly accelerated? That doesn't make sense. Doesn't that overturn my hypothesis? If its speed can reach forty kilometers per second, why didn't it just blast out of the atmosphere?"

The old professor explained: "No, your idea is still correct. This is still not its own speed, but the Earth's orbital speed... It's not that the arrow is accelerating away from us, it's just that it suddenly stopped following the Earth's orbit..."

"Although this is even more absurd, we can only make a series of conjectures about it."

As he spoke, a more rigorous model appeared on the screen.

The old professor said: "The idea of the Arrow Chasing the Sun that you proposed is one of the dozens of conjectures we've listed, and it's the most likely one."

On the planar model, a dashed line was drawn between the sun and the arrow, and the Earth's orbit was not a perfect circle. It had times when it was closest to the sun and times when it was farthest.

If the Earth's orbit was approaching the sun, the arrow would receive help from the Earth, and the force pushing it towards the sun would overlap with the Earth's force of approaching the sun. This would make it appear to be following the Earth's gravitational pull and orbiting with the Earth.

Thus, the previously observed speed of a few meters per second away from the surface was not its own speed. It was simply because the Earth was in a phase of slightly approaching the sun during that period, and with the same direction, the arrow barely moved away from the surface.

But if the Earth's orbit was moving away from the sun, even slightly, the arrow would not follow. Under this condition, its propulsion force seemed to have increased by just the right amount to counteract gravity, and it could still maintain its own speed of departure.

From the perspective of Earth observers, the arrow would suddenly move away at an extremely high speed.

In reality, the arrow didn't accelerate; the Earth's speed was just too fast, and the two parted ways.

"The distance between the flying arrow and the sun did not increase due to Earth's gravitational pull. On the contrary, the arrow consistently headed towards the sun, and its distance from the sun was slowly decreasing... This value, after calculating and removing all other influences, is approximately 45 meters per second in a vacuum."

"Simply put, no matter how much you pull this arrow, you cannot prevent its speed towards the sun from being less than 45 meters per second. Conversely, helping to propel it is possible."

"We can no longer investigate whether there's a way to stop this unstoppable 'constant propulsion'; it has already moved far from Earth."

At this point, the old professor sighed with a sense of melancholy.

Robert was also somewhat lost. After a lifetime of engineering, he had never encountered such a bizarre object.

It was simply... simply an extraterrestrial product.

After serious contemplation based on absurd reality, he fell into a state where his worldview was somewhat collapsing again. The physics in his mind had been utterly destroyed by this arrow.

No matter how good the analysis was, it couldn't withstand the fact that the fundamental premise was flawed!

"Constant propulsion"? Neither classical physics nor revolutionary physics could explain this strange phenomenon.

"God, where did this Arrow Chasing the Sun come from?"

p.s: The new book is called Blue White Society, but this name was registered an hour before release. It might be changed later, so for now, I'll just add a large character. Please support.