Higgs Field Reconstruction

"How are you going to deal with a weapon like this?"

One of Gray Wind's sub-individuals asked the "Cyberlex" core before her.

The Vacuum Decay weapon used by the "Purification Protocol" was terrifyingly powerful.

So powerful that, during the war against the "Purification Protocol," even when "Cyberlex" had complete control of a battlefield, it made no difference.

If the other side deployed this weapon, the entire surrounding region of space would suffer devastating damage. There was no way to prevent it or effectively resist it.

At present, "Cyberlex" could only match the "Purification Protocol" in conventional forms of interstellar warfare—"ship against ship," "ground units against ground units," and the like.

In other words, the other side could overturn the table whenever it wanted, while "Cyberlex" could only play the game on the tabletop. The situation was extremely unfavorable for them.

If this situation wasn't turned around, no matter how many resources they poured into a war of attrition against the "Purification Protocol," it would all end the same way—

The entire Andromeda Galaxy would be utterly destroyed in the mutual attrition of their war, and then both sides would move the battlefield to the next galaxy.

But Gray Wind believed that "Cyberlex" must still have cards up its sleeve that it hadn't played.

Otherwise, in a war of attrition so completely unfavorable to them, they would have been routed long ago.

"Under current technological conditions, the mainframe has compiled 367 countermeasures."

"After adjusting for the current situation, 352 proposals have been eliminated. The remaining candidates have been made public..."

Gray Wind's sub-individual immediately received a data file, which was promptly transmitted back to the Milky Way.

"Cyberlex" made no attempt to stop her. Gray Wind's action was permitted under the alliance agreement.

Sharing necessary technology was a show of respect for an ally.

As a highly intelligent machine intelligence, "Cyberlex" understood and followed this principle.

United Star, Scientific Research Department.

Xidra took one look at the data that had been forwarded to her and immediately grew interested.

As soon as the existence of the "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix" had come to light, the Scientific Research Department under Xidra's charge had begun an in-depth study of this deterrent weapon.

The principle behind the Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix was actually quite simple.

The Higgs Field was a ubiquitous quantum field that gave particles mass through its interactions with fundamental particles.

In the Standard Model of physics, the Higgs Field had been introduced to resolve the contradiction between gauge invariance and particle mass.

The Higgs Field's potential function resembled a "hat," and its vacuum state had the property of spontaneous symmetry breaking.

This symmetry breaking enabled the Higgs Field to interact with gauge bosons and give them mass.

The "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix" used high-energy devices to inject energy into the Higgs Field, shifting it from its current stable state—the vacuum state—to a higher energy state.

It then took advantage of the quantum field's controllability to alter the Higgs Field's potential function and redistribute its energy.

By adjusting the Higgs Field's energy distribution, it altered matter's mass and interactions, thereby reconstructing matter.

Put simply, it manipulated fragments of dimensions in higher-dimensional space to change the source and distribution of the Higgs Field's energy, affecting the structure of the universe.

This process involved advanced dimensional technology.

Even so, the weapon wasn't without a counter. The solutions "Cyberlex" had provided were actually fairly basic.

The first proposal was to build an "Anti-Higgs Force Field Matrix." This device could generate a field opposed to the Higgs Field, canceling out or reversing the effects of its reconstruction.

The "Anti-Higgs Field" could "freeze" or "reverse" the Higgs Field's reconstruction ability, restoring reconstructed matter to its original state.

The second was to equip warships with a "Super Quantum Field Disruptor." This device could generate intense quantum fluctuations that interfered with the local structure of the Higgs Field, preventing it from reconstructing matter properly.

The principle was to introduce high-energy quantum entangled states into the Higgs Field and disrupt its energy distribution, thereby stopping the "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix" from working.

The third proposal was more straightforward: deploy an "Interstellar Black Hole Projector."

This device could project miniature black holes into a target area and use their gravitational and tidal forces to destroy the structure of the Higgs Field, wiping out the entire "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix."

There were seven or eight other proposals along similar lines.

But whether any of these methods would actually work remained to be seen. They would have to be tested on the battlefield.

After all, according to what was known, the "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix" used by the "Purification Protocol" activated very quickly.

In a mere instant, it could spread across thousands of light-years, directly destroying an entire region of space within its range. Its effects were comparable to a miniature "Hunter."

In theory, all the proposals put forward by "Cyberlex" could counter the "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix."

But whether they would be of any use in a real fight was hard to say.

The more brutal a war became, the fewer opportunities it gave the combatants to put theory into practice.

Fortunately, the war in the Andromeda Galaxy was still fairly evenly matched, so "Cyberlex" could afford to try a few things.

As long as the Federation wasn't the one suffering losses, Gray Wind, Xidra, and the other Federation personnel who knew the true state of the war wouldn't feel strongly about it.

The one thing that gave Xidra pause was this:

When she first saw a weapon like the "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix," she couldn't help wondering:

Was the "Purification Protocol" a little too absurd?

According to the information she'd learned from Chen Yu, the creators of the "Purification Protocol" had built these extermination machines to prevent the birth of a "Level 30 Singularity."

A "Level 30 Singularity" could be understood as a civilization capable of destroying the structure of the universe.

When the "Purification Protocol" used the "Higgs Field Reconstruction Matrix," wasn't it actually destroying the structure of the universe?

The weapon had so far only demonstrated the power to destroy a small region of space, and thus posed less of a threat than the "Hunter," which could devour an entire galaxy.

But the "Purification Protocol" was trying to stop other civilizations from destroying the structure of the universe, while committing similar acts itself in the process.

From a logical standpoint, this was difficult to evaluate.

It was like saying, "To stop someone from becoming a terrorist and bombing a building, I'll become a terrorist first and blow the building up myself." There was something absurd about it.

In the end, it had indeed stopped the other terrorists.

But what about the "Purification Protocol" itself? Who would stop them?

Even as a machine intelligence, Xidra found this kind of absurd behavior hard to stomach.

But there was nothing to be done. That was simply the reality.

For now, the "Purification Protocol" was an extreme and absurd terrorist—or perhaps executioner.

An executioner could carry out the sentence on other executioners, but never had to turn the blade on itself.

In this universe,

the "Purification Protocol" was currently the most extreme executioner as far as other civilizations were concerned. It would indiscriminately execute every civilization it encountered, even fellow machines.

There seemed to be no civilization capable of stopping this executioner.

Then another executioner would have to arise to carry out the sentence on it.

"Galactic Cluster Planning Adjustment System construction in progress. Current progress: 0.12%..."

While Xidra was busy directing the Scientific Research Department, another startling piece of news came from the Astronomical Observation Department:

"Report: a terrifying anomaly has been detected in the Styx Galaxy, approximately 64.51 million light-years from the Milky Way..."