In the dining room of the Osiris, the crew members who took turns were either eating nonsense or chatting, and some fell asleep on the dining table after eating because they were tired. It was as chaotic as a middle school cafeteria. Suddenly, a news break appeared on the TV and the restaurant instantly became quiet:
"The colonial satellite Antioch has just paid a ransom of 1 billion star coins to a group of HER remnants in exchange for a passenger plane that was seized by them. It is said that the leader of this group of HER remnants is the Red Knight. The New Empire has previously announced The statement declares that the real Red Knight is dead, hoping that the Imperial soldiers who followed the fake Red Knight will return from their lost ways and join the new Empire."
The news break ended, and the program on TV returned to a bunch of experts bickering about "H".
Old Jack, who was chewing a steak in his mouth, let out a long breath through his nose and said to the people at the same table: "Half of the month that H mentioned has passed. The Alliance may be gathering troops to prepare for a decisive battle, but we are being attacked by a pirate pretending to be someone else. It’s all going round and round!”
"Yes, at this moment I would rather die at the hands of H than sweat over dealing with HER's remnants."
"If you ask me, it's better to let the Osiris raid the hometown of that group of pirates, and then go directly to fight H!"
"What about Mycenae? We all have relatives here."
"Mycenae still has two warships that can protect themselves."
"Really...how long will we continue to fight? I originally thought that there would be no need to fight after HER is destroyed, but now we have to deal with pirates and an AI of unknown origin..."
The soldiers complained to each other louder and louder. Sima Qian walked past them carrying a dinner plate, pretending not to care about what they were talking about, but in fact she overheard everything they said. She wandered around in the crowd and finally sat next to Lieutenant Anton. Anton asked her:
"What do you think?"
"Are you going to listen to it yourself?"
"Oh, I'm sure they won't talk about it if I go there. What did you hear?"
Sima Qian didn't say hello, but reached out and snatched a piece of pudding from Lieutenant Anton's plate before saying: "It seems that everyone doesn't want to waste time and energy on dealing with a group of space pirates, but rather wants to deal with H."
"Well, I think so too, but... I can't tell you yet."
"What?"
"The Alliance is preparing for war against H."
"Everyone has guessed what's so secretive about this."
"The war must be kept secret until the tablecloth is lifted, but I think H has already guessed the attitude of humans, and it is also making preparations."
"Since you said that, you must have gotten the news from the higher-ups, right? Tell me, isn't this reporter afraid that I will expose him?"
Anton smiled and said: "I believe you will definitely not do anything wrong at this time. Moreover, there are so many voices in the media encouraging confrontation with H. This can also be regarded as a non-public statement of the alliance."
"Ah... I hope that by solving H, the war can really end."
"Well, I still remember the agreement we made in Kathmandu. When the war is really over, I will abide by the agreement with you."
Speaking of this, Sima Qian deliberately leaned on Anton's shoulder. Anton wanted to whisper some love words, but suddenly noticed that the restaurant was much quieter. He turned around and found that everyone was peeking at him and Sima Qian.
"Hey! You guys! What's there to see?"
…
Captain's cabin of the Osiris
Captain Li Youde is on a video call with Major General Shepard. The content they are discussing is secret messages from AI Toth and the Alliance.
The message sent by AI Toth stated: "H" has not moved its position recently, and its purpose of moving all humans to Australia may be just to facilitate it to wipe out all humans, and there is no benefit in surrendering to it (this is Toth's point) I told Lin Ao a long time ago).
The information sent by the alliance stated: "In order to resist H's cyber attack, the alliance is now making every effort to coat all weapons and important facilities with plutonium-42. However, the reserves of this element are limited by major forces. The large amount of plutonium-42 purchased from the Wan Chamber of Commerce It will not be able to reach the Earth Circle and distribute it to everyone within a month. However, the Alliance will use fighting to delay time, and the batch of plutonium-42 distributed to Mycenae will not arrive until war is officially declared with H."
After reading these two messages, Li Youde said: "Thoth's hypothesis is scary, but we humans will definitely not choose to give in."
"Yes, but there is still a need to forward it to the Alliance." Major General Shepard nodded in agreement.
"But... it is really disturbing that the Alliance cannot give a specific time for plutonium-42 to arrive at Mycenae. Although the Alliance said it would try to delay the time, H has previously demonstrated that it can quickly attack multiple colonial satellites in a short period of time If Mycenae is attacked before the arrival of plutonium-42, the only ones that can fight it are the three Ten Swords machines on the Osiris..."
Major General Shepard coughed a few times after listening. His condition has begun to deteriorate again recently.
"Youde, your analysis is correct. And I am more worried about H's intelligence acquisition capabilities. It has previously demonstrated its ability to 'kidnap' the Earth Circle media. I wonder if it can steal the alliance's increasingly frequent internal communications. .Even if it can’t steal it, it should be able to detect the alliance’s attitude from various media.”
"Yes, some media have even begun to promote the 'National Mobilization'. Those speeches and demonstrations supporting the surrender to H were rarely reported, and even the Alliance suppressed those who opposed the New Empire joining the Alliance. Such an obvious gesture, It is impossible for H not to notice. What if H turns against it first? Judging from its behavior of first attacking the colonial satellite and then admitting it, this AI does not abide by human standards of morality and honor."
"These alliances must have thought of it, but they can only do so much in the current situation."
Li Youde melancholy massaged his forehead and kept chanting "Plutonium 42". Suddenly he thought of something and asked Shepard: "Teacher, the mysterious triangle of the 'Legendary Age' that was previously broken on the Osiris , where is its remains?”
"Huh? Ahem, let me think about it... um, by the way, I handed all the wreckage to the Mycenaean research institute."
"Teacher, please contact the research institute and see if they can find the element plutonium-42 in it, even just a little bit!"
"Oh! I understand what you mean! AI Toth's current body has plutonium-42, and the container that stores it may also have it! Okay, I'll call them right now, I..."
Before Shepard finished speaking, an alarm sounded inside the Osiris, and someone reported to Shepard almost at the same time:
"The fake Red Knight is here with his troops! There are three battleships!"
…
A dark and narrow room contains three glass containers that emit a faint light. Through this faint light, two figures can be vaguely seen in the room. One of them was standing in the corner of the room, and the other was standing in front of a glass container as if admiring the contents.
The figure standing in the corner said: "You still like coming here so much. Even if you don't use your eyes to confirm, you know they are not necrotic, right?"
"Um."
"The Wan Chamber of Commerce's plutonium-42 will take more than half a month to reach the Earth's sphere."
"Didn't you tell me this a long time ago?"
"The weight of the first batch of plutonium-42 shipped by the Wan Chamber of Commerce has now been confirmed. It's amazing... They were able to get so much, and there will be several more batches that will be shipped to the Earth Circle."
"Are you worried about their technical capabilities? It is indeed beyond my expectation, but discovering plutonium-42 is only the foundation. In the legendary era, using plutonium-42 to prevent hostile forces from interfering with oneself is just the foundation, just like lighting a fire before cooking noodles. The things that can determine the future are still firmly in my hands."
The figure standing in front of the glass container finally reached out to touch the container in front of him and said to the contents: "Old friend... you will soon see what the world has become now."
