"What? Are you crazy? This is an area of airspace with a diameter of 30 light-years!"
"I'm not crazy. You personally oversee this matter, the faster the better, the more the better, there's no limit, even two hundred tons a day is fine, but it has to be fast. I know we can't blow up the entire nebula, but we must clear a space around Earth Two. All matter in this area must be eliminated. I'm afraid we can't wait much longer."
"Didn't you ask Academician Xiao to research relevant extermination technologies? Why are you still using this laborious and thankless method?"
"We can't wait any longer; we must act now. If Academician Xiao and his team can solve it, that would be great. If not, we'll have no choice but to resort to this large-scale attack method."
"Also, won't this affect Academician Zeng's space research? This project is crucial to the fate of the entire fleet."
"I will discuss it with Academician Zeng and the others."
"Okay, I hope your guess is correct."
" Supervisor Chen, immediately seal up the antimatter stored here in units of 100 grams. You have two months."
"General, rest assured, we have already manufactured an antimatter packaging machine. It won't take two months at all; ten days will suffice."
"What antimatter packaging machine? Haven't we always had that?"
"General, this antimatter packaging machine is not like any other antimatter packaging machine. This antimatter packaging machine is made entirely of antimatter, so antimatter doesn't require any protective measures inside it. It's as quick and simple as our ordinary packaging process."
"A machine for manufacturing pure antimatter? Supervisor Chen, is it difficult to manufacture such a machine?"
"It was indeed difficult at the beginning. We had to gather antimatter little by little into the various component shapes we needed under the constraint of a directional magnetic field. After the components were completed, the other processes were relatively easy. We only needed to assemble them in a vacuum. The power source was also simpler. We just needed to throw matter into the combustion chamber in particle form little by little."
" Supervisor Chen, please compile the relevant manufacturing technologies and the problems that need to be solved and send them to Academician Zeng. This could be an important discovery, and your contribution would be significant."
"I wouldn't call it a contribution; I just wanted to speed up the packaging process so as not to delay the fleet's operation."
Less than a light-year from where Zhang Yuanshan lost contact, a ragtag fleet began to assemble. This fleet included more than a dozen design styles, including the Wind Master warships. Some of these warships were controlled by biological agents, while others, like the Wind Master, were unmanned.
This fleet consisted of over 20 million warships, with the 10,000 Wind Master being inconspicuous among them. They varied in size and design, clearly indicating that they were a combined fleet of multiple civilizations.
This fleet is heading towards Earth Two at five times the speed of light. At this speed, it will arrive at Earth Two in about ten months. Due to the special circumstances this time, Hu Yu did not release satellites at a long distance, but only deployed an early warning system in an area 0.5 light-years away from Earth Two. Earth Two is completely unaware of the arrival of this ragtag fleet.
The antimatter bomb is ready. Hu Yu consulted Academician Zeng about whether the use of antimatter would affect Academician Zeng Zeng's space research. The reply was that it could be used with confidence and would absolutely not affect space.
What affects the change of space is the total energy. Mass is also a type of energy. As long as the total energy in this space does not change, the space will not change. Antimatter bombs are made here, and matter is also made here, which means that the energy is also made here. Since the total energy in the space does not change, the space will not change. Moreover, even if this small amount of energy is lost or increased, it is not enough to change the overall state of this space.
Even though excessive energy accumulation may affect space in a short period of time, space will immediately return to its original state as soon as the energy returns to balance. This can be seen from the working effect of the warp drive. The warp drive causes space to deform, but as soon as the warship passes, space will immediately heal and return to its original state. With the fleet's current technology, it is impossible to detect whether a warp drive has flown over a certain place.
After much deliberation, Hu Yu decided to reserve half of the antimatter. The 2,000 tons of antimatter were divided into 20 million portions, each weighing 100 grams. All of this antimatter was loaded onto the Wind Master. Ten million portions of these portions would be launched into the surrounding space within one-tenth of a light-year radius via the Wind Master's electromagnetic orbit. After Wind Master, this antimatter would not immediately react with the surrounding matter; its launch time was strictly controlled by a computer.
When the first antimatter bomb reaches the designated airspace, the last antimatter bomb has just left the Wind Master, with each bomb spaced equidistant from the others. This massive chain of antimatter beads will detonate simultaneously, releasing energy comparable to the explosion of a star. Although the mass of antimatter is a thousand tons, far less than that of a star, this is a complete E=MC² energy release.
One thousand tons of matter and one thousand tons of antimatter annihilated. Every corner of Earth Two could see the bright sky. This was not a searchlight projected by the Wind Master. The annihilation energy impacted the entire airspace. The collision of energy tides caused the curvature of this space to become extremely chaotic. Matter particles and gas molecules moved randomly like fallen leaves in a torrent, sometimes being carried forward by space, and sometimes being carried laterally or even backward by space.
Ultimately, this wave of energy will carry matter in the opposite direction from Earth Two, essentially clearing out the matter in a region within one-tenth of a light-year radius of Earth Two, except for the star itself.
As time goes by and the energy of antimatter annihilation weakens, these substances will slowly reassemble, but this will happen hundreds or thousands of years from now, as the movement speed of ordinary matter is extremely slow.
On this day, Academician Xiao also brought good news: the plan to destroy consciousness had been finalized. In Academician Xiao's view, consciousness is actually fragile. Even if consciousness is indeed born in the nebula and its strength exceeds that of ordinary biological consciousness, it is not impossible to destroy it. The antimatter cleanup operation that was just carried out can completely destroy the Nebula Consciousness.
However, Academician Xiao still reminded Hu Yu not to underestimate the enemy. If there really is Nebula Consciousness that can survive in the complex nebula environment, it must have some unique characteristics. Academician Zeng suggested deploying antimatter particle beam weapons on a large scale above Earth Two. These particle beam weapons were originally abandoned because they had low attack power and were easily deflected by force fields, often failing to achieve their attack effect.
However, dealing with nebulae is probably the best solution. The amount of antimatter used is small, but the coverage area is wide. It can be most effective against Nebula Consciousness with similarly low matter content. Since these antimatter particles are distributed throughout the entire space, any force field deflection is useless.
One million satellites are already en route to the various accident sites. Since the fleet of the Fish Horse Star Civilization is not in the Nebula Region, Hu Yu doesn't have many concerns. Considering that material friction will affect high-speed satellites, this batch was hastily produced. Unlike the previous satellites which were only the size of an apple, these satellites are the size of a large watermelon. They not only carry a propulsion system but are also much more robust, otherwise they would not be able to reach their designated locations.
Hu Yu believed that no matter how powerful the enemy was, it was impossible for them to destroy all these reconnaissance satellites at the same time. There would always be one or two satellites that discovered their traces. These satellites were carried by several Wind Master and traveled at high speed to a place half a light-year away from the accident site before being released. The remaining half light-year would take the satellites two years to reach.