Chapter 516: Facing Themselves – The Trisolarans Are Nothing but Dust in the Universe!
"Commander, what should we do with the humans on Earth? Should we wipe them all out?"
The war had not yet officially begun, yet already some Trisolaran officers believed victory to be inevitable, that humanity would become slaves of Trisolaran civilization, and that Earth was already their prize in hand.
The public mood within the Trisolaran fleet was much like that of the former International Fleet—buoyed with absolute confidence in themselves after their technological explosion.
Even if the sophons had vanished and could no longer suppress the progress of human science, humanity's technology could hardly advance by leaps and bounds in the short term.
With the Trisolarans' grip on the information gap and their overwhelming technological advantage, this battle carried little suspense. The only real issue to consider was what to do afterward.
How should these cunning, troublesome humans be dealt with?
In a sense, humanity could be regarded as the Trisolarans' teacher, but the Trisolarans had no such tradition as respecting one's teachers.
For them, the acquisition and transmission of knowledge was as effortless as charging a phone.
Rarity defined value. Thus, in the Trisolarans' eyes, teachers were no different from ordinary people, unlike humans who placed deep reverence on the role.
"I will drive all humans onto that southern landmass, Australia. It is large enough to house them."
The fleet commander spoke calmly.
The Australian continent was nearly 80% desert. Apart from relatively rich underground mineral deposits, its essential resources for human survival were extremely scarce—especially fresh water.
Driving billions of humans onto Australia would inevitably spark chaos and fratricide, which was exactly what the Trisolarans wished to see.
If the Trisolarans personally descended to slaughter humans en masse, it would only provoke fierce resistance—not conducive to establishing their dominion over the human world.
But if they shifted to a new approach—forcing humans into a confined region and leaving the rest to them—then humans would destroy themselves.
This species' weakness was obvious: when faced with resource shortages, they rarely sought to expand resources, but instead contracted inward and cut consumption.
Survival was pursued by plundering others' resources. Only a rare few would ever think of enlarging the pie.
Based on this, exterminating humanity could be left to humans themselves.
The Trisolarans would only need to maintain the blockade.
When the officers understood their commander's plan, the smooth, mirrorlike faces of the Trisolarans gleamed with excitement. This approach seemed born for the very purpose of humanity's extinction.
Seeing his subordinates so brimming with confidence in this war, the commander himself grew proud.
The Trisolaran civilization had endured hundreds of cycles of destruction and rebirth. Hardened like metal, they, not the Earth's greenhouse-bred humans, were the ones fit to occupy the solar system's tranquil paradise.
Fragile and pampered humans were unworthy of such a fine home.
"This is our greatest difference from humanity. It shows in our very genetic expression—the unbridgeable gulf between us. Civilizations grown in greenhouses can never learn true unity."
"They are destined to vanish into the boundless cosmos, like a single wave swallowed by the sea."
The commander, influenced by human culture, spoke with relish, using metaphors that only humans typically employed. Such redundant, ornate styles of speech had never been welcomed in Trisolaran culture.
To guarantee maximum efficiency in communication, Trisolarans strove to simplify language as much as possible.
Yet as individualism spread, more and more Trisolarans began adopting human devices such as metaphors and parallelisms.
Though their metaphors often landed clumsily, this personalized habit of speech quickly spread through the fleet.
It was akin to humans adorning themselves with small ornaments—earrings, necklaces, bracelets—expressions of individuality for its own sake.
While the Trisolaran fleet eagerly anticipated the coming war, the nine water drops pressed ever closer to humanity's Jupiter-orbital base.
As for the Asian Fleet that had taken the initiative to intercept them, the water drops gave them not the slightest regard.
And why would they? Back then, a single water drop had annihilated the combined European and North American fleets of 1,300 star-class warships.
Now, the Asian Fleet had only 700 vessels, none upgraded or refitted. In contrast, the Trisolaran water drops and their warships with lightspeed engines clearly held every advantage.
Most crucially, Universal Megacorp's Endless-class carrier had not departed with the Asian Fleet, but remained stationed above Earth.
This gave the Trisolarans even greater confidence in victory.
Paul had withheld the Endless-class carrier to stabilize the populace. As long as the Endless hovered in Earth's orbit, the people would not feel abandoned.
The only drawback was that public faith in the Asian Fleet waned. Without the Endless, their most vital force, how could those seven hundred ships hope to face nine water drops?
By all appearances, they would not withstand even a single charge.
In short, under Trisolaran two-pronged pressure, either the Asian Fleet or Earth itself would become the sacrifice of war.
Either Earth was abandoned, and the Asian Fleet carried humanity's seed of hope away from the solar system to begin a long wandering exile.
Or else the Asian Fleet was annihilated, and humanity fought its final battle with the Trisolarans on Earth.
In that moment, fear and panic weighed on every heart. Everyone knew this was the decisive hour for humankind's fate. Yet the man they had placed their hopes upon—the savior Paul—did not step forward.
He merely stayed on Earth, commanding the Asian Fleet and calming the populace.
In truth, Paul had never intended to intercept the water drops with the Asian Fleet. He was waiting for the arrival of the Trisolaran fleet itself, to face its commander head-on.
Near Jupiter's orbit, the seven hundred star-class ships of the Asian Fleet stood ready. This time, unlike the International Fleet's suffocatingly cramped formation for the sake of show, they spread their forces wide.
Their battle line stretched into a vast fan shape, awaiting the water drops.
Unlike the International Fleet's earlier theatrics, the Asian Fleet now approached with a mindset of certain death.
They were prepared for sacrifice. They understood well their enemy was no ordinary probe, but Trisolaran civilization's most terrifying strategic weapon.
Many among the Asian Fleet's soldiers did not believe the operation had much chance of success. In their hearts, they expected the battle to end as before—with the water drops crushing them utterly.
But the soldier's duty was to obey orders and defend the people.
This Asian Fleet had its roots in the People's Liberation Army Space Force, once established under Commander Chang Weisi.
After two hundred years, this force still carried within it the martial soul of China's fallen heroes.
At this moment, the nine droplets left clear flight trails upon the oil-film material produced by the Snowfield Project, and it was thanks to this engineering effort that humanity was still able to track their flight path.
As the droplets drew closer, the many defense systems deployed across Jupiter's moons began to activate one after another.
This, too, was the result of the three great fleets' long-term efforts in building up Jupiter Base, where they had left behind numerous orbital defense installations. Each satellite was a fortress of steel in space.
Aside from the Asian Fleet, this was one of humanity's few remaining pillars of reliance. If the droplets wished to reach Earth from this direction, they would have no choice but to pass through here.
One must remember, Jupiter was the largest planet in the solar system by both volume and mass—its mass was 2.5 times that of all the other planets combined.
Its immensely powerful gravity had also captured the vast majority of asteroids that otherwise would have struck Earth. In truth, Jupiter was Earth's most loyal guardian.
Now, in the face of the Trisolaran invasion, humanity needed Jupiter's presence to interfere with the droplets.
No matter how advanced their propulsion system, the droplets could not entirely ignore Jupiter's gravity, and so the defenses deployed in Jupiter's orbit could still play a role.
Here was to be the decisive battleground between the Asian Fleet and the droplets—the fate of two civilizations would be decided in this clash.
The overall commander of this operation was none other than Lin Yun, the leader of the Asian Fleet.
The defection of the Natural Selection had cast a shadow of cowardice over the fleet, and today Lin Yun was prepared to wash away that disgrace with a glorious death in battle, proving to humanity that the Asian Fleet were no cowards.
Through his two years of dealings with Paul, Lin Yun had come to regard him as a close friend. The very reason the Asian Fleet could charge so resolutely into this confrontation with the droplets was, in part, Lin Yun's absolute trust in Paul.
He believed Paul surely had a plan behind this—just as he had before, when he devised the strike that destroyed a droplet with a single gram of antimatter.
"Xiao Guan… to be honest, I regret letting you board this ship."
Lin Yun gazed out the porthole at the cosmic scene beyond, sighing lightly. At the end of the day, they were only ordinary people—no superhuman powers, only flesh and blood.
That seeming fearlessness of theirs was built upon a fragile and uneasy foundation of fear.
"Sir, I don't regret it. Even if you hadn't let me board this ship, I would have boarded one sooner or later."
Guan Yifan smiled as he spoke. As the accompanying explainer of Cosmic Phenomena, he hadn't been required to join the operation. But when he thought about how this would be the final song of humanity's space power in the universe, he resolved to join without hesitation.
Better to die with calm heroism in the vast sea of stars than to cower and perish in fear on Earth.
"I saw with my own eyes how a single droplet destroyed over a thousand warships. It was just like throwing firecrackers during Spring Festival—one after another, explosions everywhere. Two hundred years of humanity's effort wiped away in less than half an hour."
Lin Yun did not fear death himself, but he couldn't bear to see Guan Yifan, such a young university graduate, go to his death.
He was still just a child, fresh out of school, yet here he was—marching with men long married and settled, ready to fight to the death against the Trisolarans, ready to bleed and fall.
"Facing the Trisolaran civilization, we may be nothing more than insects. But facing ourselves—they too are no more than a speck of dust in the universe."
Unmoved by Lin Yun's description of the carnage, Guan Yifan spoke firmly. Humanity's courage might mean nothing to the Trisolarans, but in that instant when life faced death, countless sages throughout human history stood behind them.
Huo Qubing, sealing off the Xiongnu at Wolf Juxu, roared to the heavens in the royal court of the northern deserts. Wang Yangming, attaining enlightenment in Longchang, glimpsed the faint outline of Heaven's Way. James Watt, burning his fingers on a steam engine, heard the roar of oil-fueled vessels heralding the Industrial Age.
Einstein, gazing into the depths of space, saw gravity sling an asteroid like a taut bowstring, hurling it into a distant star system light-years away.
And Trisolarans in their childhood once looked up to see a meteor from the solar system streaking across the sky above their heads.
"They're all here."
Lin Yun murmured softly.
The nine droplets had finally appeared within the Asian Fleet's field of vision. At this range, the droplets no longer bothered to conceal themselves.
Their engines roared at full power, dazzling blue vortices flaring behind them.
Against the still and silent backdrop of the black starry sky, nine points of light closed rapidly upon the Asian Fleet.
Just as predicted, according to the Snowfield Project's observations of their flight paths, the droplets would inevitably pass through Jupiter's orbit before escaping its gravity well and flying unimpeded toward Earth.
Now the Asian Fleet had become the final line of defense between Earth and the droplets. This Great Wall, forged from steel warships and human flesh and blood, was using its very life to defend the dignity of human civilization.
Even the Trisolaran fleet's commander could not comprehend this decision of humanity's.
It was plainly an utterly futile act.
The destruction of the first droplet had been caused by a rash mistake on the Trisolarans' part, aided by the Megacorp's powerful gravity device.
All humanity had managed was to deal with that single droplet. Here, there was no infinite-class carrier of the Grand Megacorp, nor any gravity device of such strength.
The Asian Fleet had no means to resist the rampage of nine droplets.
Even if humanity had mastered antimatter technology and could build some antimatter warheads, there was still no chance of hitting a droplet.
After all, the droplets' propulsion technology far surpassed human science. Humanity's theoretical framework could not even explain how the droplets executed their razor-sharp turns.
Thus, the Trisolaran fleet's commander was certain that even if humans possessed so-called antimatter penetrator rounds, they would never manage to strike a droplet.
Compared to the Grand Megacorp's infinite-class carriers, the Asian Fleet's so-called stellar-class battleships weren't even worth mentioning.
From any perspective, this fleet stationed near Jupiter's orbit was nothing more than cannon fodder.
Their only possible function was to delay the annihilation of the Asian Fleet as long as they could with their loose formation, sacrificing themselves in total destruction to buy Earth's humanity a little more time.
But of what use was that, really?
Far better, surely, to abandon the humans on Earth altogether and flee the solar system, seeking a new home elsewhere—that would be the more reliable course.
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