Chapter 57 Ion Propulsion

This probe utilized Li Qingsong's most advanced stealth technology: it was made as small as possible, painted black, and coated with a layer of radar-absorbent material to avoid radar detection to the greatest extent possible.

Meanwhile, the trajectory Li Qingsong predefined for it did not approach the adversary planet, but rather swept past it at a high speed at a distance of approximately one million kilometers.

Thus, once a combat spacecraft had accelerated to a certain velocity and achieved a suitable trajectory, it "released" the probe.

From then on, the probe would continue to travel along its current trajectory.

Throughout this process, it constantly maintained contact with the deep-space communication network built by Li Qingsong, continuously acquiring its relative positional data, correcting its trajectory, and performing orbital maneuvers as needed.

By this time, its velocity had reached approximately twelve kilometers per second.

Following a slightly curved parabolic trajectory, it would spend about forty days traveling a distance of roughly forty-two million kilometers, ultimately reaching its closest point to the adversary planet and conducting observations of it along the way.

This was not the only probe Li Qingsong had launched.

Trailing behind it, more than a hundred other probes were launched one after another. If necessary, Li Qingsong could launch even more at any time.

During the waiting period for the probes to reach their destinations, Li Qingsong did not remain idle; instead, he devoted himself entirely to war preparations, exhausting every effort to stockpile supplies, manufacture clones, and build spacecraft.

Time quietly slipped away.

As the distance closed, the probe gradually gained a clearer field of vision than any space telescope could provide.

Consequently, the faint point of light gradually revealed a disk-like structure, upon which undulating ravines and a dark red surface could be vaguely discerned.

This was roughly a planet similar to Luoshen, possessing a comparable formation time and elemental structure, and having been "flung" out around the same period—approximately 4.5 billion years ago—by the gravitational tug-of-war among the early giant planets of the inner solar system, thus acquiring an orbit so distant from the Sun.

However, now was not the time for scientific research.

Li Qingsong merely recorded these data temporarily, sparing no energy whatsoever for analysis.

He consistently focused all his efforts on searching for traces of intelligent life on the adversary planet.

When the distance closed to approximately ten million kilometers and ten days of travel remained, Li Qingsong finally made his first discovery.

Near the adversary planet, the probe observed a bright spot.

That bright spot was roughly elongated in shape and was revolving around the adversary planet.

It appeared to be a spacecraft.

After a simple proportional conversion, Li Qingsong obtained an astonishing piece of data.

The length of this spacecraft was at least five kilometers!

A five-kilometer-long spacecraft!

Let alone a five-kilometer spacecraft, even for a space station, despite exerting all his resources, he had only managed to build one a little over a thousand meters long.

What an advanced level of technological capability a civilization must possess to build a five-kilometer-long spacecraft!

This far exceeded even the peak era of human civilization!

Li Qingsong's heart began to sink slowly.

Such an enemy was definitely beyond his ability to confront.

Yet... why had they only lured those strange birds to his location in the past, rather than attacking him directly?

And after all this time, why had they still not launched a direct assault?

There had to be a reason for this!

Li Qingsong did not despair; instead, he still carefully controlled the probe, slowly drawing closer.

When the distance shortened to about five million kilometers, Li Qingsong managed to get a rough look at the appearance of the spacecraft.

Its shape was somewhat similar to his own space station, consisting of a central axis with several rings attached.

However, it was vastly larger than his space station, and it clearly possessed its own propulsion system, featuring several massive structures that were unmistakably thrusters, unlike his space station, which he had no way of moving at all.

Yet... it seemed somewhat damaged? Some structural parts appeared to be missing from the middle? As if it had undergone an explosion?

The distance was too great, and Li Qingsong could not see clearly.

However, he did notice some other things.

On the surface of the adversary planet, an artificial building complex had clearly emerged. Those massive structures possessed smooth, luminous surfaces, interspersed with illumination lights in between, looking as brilliant as gemstones.

According to Li Qingsong's estimation, its overall scale was roughly twenty square kilometers.

"The base isn't particularly large, after all..."

The probe continued to approach, arriving at a mere two million kilometers away.

By this time, Li Qingsong was able to confirm that the spacecraft was indeed damaged, and on the adversary planet, the base belonging to these unknown intelligent beings was indeed only about twenty square kilometers in size.

Aside from that, Li Qingsong also spotted several smaller points of light around the massive spacecraft.

During the period of Li Qingsong's observation, those points of light sometimes orbited the large spacecraft, sometimes moved away, and sometimes landed on the surface, appearing to be smaller spacecraft executing missions.

The number of small spacecraft was not large, only around forty.

However...

At this moment, they seemed to be executing some special maneuvers.

Li Qingsong saw them all lift off from the surface and converge around that gigantic spacecraft.

After a brief period of silence, about thirty of those spacecraft began coordinated actions, flying away in a direction away from the adversary planet.

Bright but thin exhaust plumes appeared at their sterns, entirely different from the gaseous exhaust plumes produced by his own spacecraft burning liquid methane and oxygen.

Driven by these exhaust plumes, the velocity of these spacecraft rapidly increased.

Moreover, Li Qingsong felt a sense of familiarity with the shape and color of these exhaust plumes.

After half a second of recollection, Li Qingsong suddenly remembered that the exhaust plume of the Deep Space spacecraft, which utilized high-pressure jet technology as its propulsion source, bore a seven-to-eight-tenths similarity in shape to this exhaust plume!

The propulsion principle of the Deep Space spacecraft involved the combustion of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen to generate high-temperature gas, which was then subjected to secondary heating by an onboard fission reactor to elevate its temperature to tens of thousands of degrees Celsius, causing the pressure to rise sharply and expelling the gas at a speed far exceeding normal combustion. This achieved greater thrust while conserving working fluid, enabling the interstellar voyage to Luoshen.

Yet clearly, the propulsion technology utilized by these spacecraft at this moment was even more advanced than that of the Deep Space spacecraft!

This technology appeared to be the high-power ion propulsion technology that had always lingered in human dreams but had never been realized?!

Li Qingsong was shocked.

However, what shocked Li Qingsong even more was the next moment.

He saw that the acceleration direction of those spacecraft was none other than Luoshen, where he was located!

They were coming for him!

The next instant, whether suffering from some form of attack or electromagnetic interference, the probe instantly lost its connection with Li Qingsong.