Chapter 166: The Locked-Up World
The small conference room on Iserlohn was filled with people. Each one breathed carefully and in a somewhat oppressive silence. Here were all Ade's men, that is, the people he was planning to run together if they couldn't beat the enemy.
"Dr. Aeolia is too old, he needs to rest, so he is not present, don't worry." Ade coughed, and Loran winked covertly at him when Diana wasn't looking, "I'll explain what we're dealing with, what the situation is, and why we need to take refuge immediately. Rei?"
Ayanami Rei, who acted as an assistant on the side, nodded and then turned on the projection. Although Ade was a little indignant at Aeolia for letting Ayanami Rei out in advance, he had to admit that Ayanami was really good at being the assistant.
"This thing on the screen is the ELS proper that I mentioned before." Ade indicated the huge sphere on the screen, the surface of which was densely covered with thick lines of mycelium, looking very creepy, "The image was captured by P.L.A.N.T.'s astronomical telescope at L4 sixteen minutes after the attack on the satellite cannon. That means the ELS's combat power split into two and passed both L4 and L5 at the same time, and is currently heading toward the Earth and moon."
"After rough calculations, ELS's speed is about seventy kilometers per second, then from L4 to the Earth-Moon system, it needs to fly about 25 days."
"Still 25 days? Then do we really need to run so early? Shouldn't we assemble all human forces to fight it before running away?" Garrod casually interjected, then noticed Ade's look. He immediately gave himself a slap, "Sorry Doctor, I did not ask anything! Please ignore my existence!"
"It's a good question, why should I ignore your existence? Stop it, if you hit yourself again, Tiffa will think that you've eaten the wrong thing." Ade didn't bother to pay attention to him, "The question involves two elements, first, how the ELS moves."
Ayanami Rei switched the projection to the image Haman provided of the battle with the ELS, not even needing Ade to give her a wink to prompt her. The four silver and white science research ships were highlighted on the screen, with the details of the battle mosaicked instead.
"The silver ships are the Jupiter science research ships that Aeolia lost back then, which means that ELS has already been to Jupiter. There are two guesses: ELS either can fly at a higher speed that has not been revealed, or can leap through short-ranged space. Considering that there is a small amount of Chulip crystal on Jupiter that it can absorb to recharge itself, I prefer the latter guess. That said, twenty-five days is not an accurate number, and the actual situation could be much worse."
"Doctor, what exactly is ELS?" Uraki asked, raising his hand, "Can't we even fight with DX?"
"That's the second question, Kou, how big is the ELS." Ayanami Rei cut back to the picture before as Ade slapped the nasty spherical object hard, "Three thousand kilometers in diameter, in other words, the size of a moon. Not how to fight it, but we are impossible to fight it, and there is no need for it to fight. As long as the other side flew closer, its gravity alone could deal a devastating blow to the ecosphere of the moon and the Earth."
The enemy could not be defeated by physical means at all. This conclusion was too desperate and hardly different from a direct pronouncement of the end of the world. Everyone finally couldn't help but start exchanging words. Lacus asked Ade with her eyes, "If it was really okay to say this directly?" and Ade smiled at her, telling her with the same look, "It was the result of careful consideration."
This is everyone's world, and Ade doesn't feel qualified to take everyone and run, and then tell them afterward that the world is destroyed or saved. Ade believes his friends can be both strong enough to accept the truth and not stupid enough to make a fuss.
"The world is going to end again…" Ange's mind was a bit mixed at the moment, "Ade and Dad, pooh, Yang's fate is too similar, are they really the same person…"
"Next, let's talk about countermeasures." Ade's voice made everyone quiet immediately, "The first plan was proposed by Dr. Aeolia, send a powerful NT to communicate with the aliens and find a way to convince them to live together peacefully with humans."
"I'm willing to go." Tiffa resolutely stood up. Her long ponytail fluttered gently with her moves, and her firm eyes stared at Ade. Even if he had no NT sense now, the girl's strong will still came straight through into his heart, "Since Ade-san's NT ability is disabled now, I am the best choice."
"Tiffa! Stop talking nonsense! You don't need to be a hero at a time like this, right? This isn't our world!" Garrod held Tiffa's hand nervously, "Doctor, you don't really want Tiffa to go, do you?!"
Tiffa struggled to break free of Garrod's hand and shook her head at him wordlessly. Her expression was still serious.
"I agree with Garrod and disapprove of you going." Ade continued before Tiffa could say anything, "Aeolia's plot is fundamentally untenable, and its attack on P.L.A.N.T. has made me completely certain of its intentions. I judge that no reconciliation options exist."
Almost everyone in the room has a near-blind trust in Ade. Perhaps only Diana trusted Aeolia a little more, but unfortunately, she trusted Loran more than Aeolia, and Loran trusted Ade.
"The second scenario was inspired by Amuro's earlier correspondence where he mentioned that all ELS units are communicated with their NT senses, so we might as well infer that the enemy has a core similar to the NT proper." Several Gundam pilots raised their eyebrows and immediately got the point, "But I immediately figured out that in front of a diameter of three thousand kilometers, there's no point in NT-D doing anything."
"Oh, right." Shinn instantly hung his head, "What was I thinking with an enemy as big as the moon."
"Shinn?" Stella worriedly took his hand and pressed it to her heart, "Don't be sad."
"Awwwwwwwwww." Shinn glanced from side to side, quickly withdrew his hand, and whispered in Stella's ear, "Stella, don't do the action at home outside!"
"And finally, the third option." Ade looked at the red-faced Shinn and smiled gratefully, then said with a straight face, "And the only option I feel hopeful about. Find ELS before it gets close to Earth, drive TurnA to rush over and release Moonlight Butterfly, and finish the job. The above is the entire content of this meeting. I think I don't need to emphasize the issue of confidentiality. Meeting adjourned."
Only Lacus, Loran, Diana, and Ade himself knew that TurnA had problems before, for others, TurnA was good from beginning to end, and this answer was also considered reasonable. Everyone gradually left with a gloomy expression.
Not long after, when Chang Wufei also left, only Loran and Ade's family members were left in the room. Even Diana had also left. She and Ade are not that familiar with each other after all, and she will not think anything about Ade and Loran's close relationship. Lacus and C.C. didn't feel anything strange either, only Ange, who had just seen Loran's perverse performance, felt suspicious in her heart.
"Ade, you deliberately didn't tell others that ELS has the ability to absorb human technology, right?" C.C. asked worriedly, "Tell me the truth, can TurnA really defeat ELS?"
"God knows what the Creator thinks." Ade helplessly spread both hands, "If Moonlight Butterfly can disintegrate the mechanical life, it makes sense; if ELS can assimilate nanobot, it also makes sense, in the end, everything only depends on the setting. Anyway, everything will be fine if we win, and there is nothing we can do if Moonlight Butterfly doesn't work. Fortunately, TurnA also has a space jumping function, we can always choose to run away."
"That means that you don't know the answer either." Lacus sighed, and her gaze suddenly became harsh, "And who will be TurnA's pilot? We have so many ACEs, do not tell me you want to drive it yourself."
There were indeed a lot of reliable pilots, but once it involved TurnA and ELS, he suddenly found that he still couldn't trust anyone. The only two that he could barely trust wholeheartedly were probably Ange and Loran, but was he willing to let them take the risk? It would be better to do it yourself.
Ade was speechless for a moment, and now he could only say perfunctorily against Lacus's eyes, "It's a big deal, so I haven't figured out who to drive TurnA."
"TurnA was supposed to be my MS." Loran suggested softly, "How about—"
"Are you kidding me? No, absolutely no way!" Ade sternly interrupted him, "How many years have you not touched MS? I can't give such an important task to you, the chance of winning is too low!"
Loran did not care at all about Ade's tone. He just softly smiled and then closed his mouth.
Only Ange held Mineva in her arms from beginning to the end, and didn't say a word. Her eyes turned around, after a long time, she clenched her fist. Mineva dissatisfied wriggling her body to protest.
"In fact, it has nothing to do with the pilot. All the pilot needs to do is to fly over and release Moonlight Butterfly. The key depends on the setting of this world." Ade tilted his head and thought for a while, "Give me three days, I will make a decision after three days."
…
ELS can be pronounced as Ayers, so we might as well call it by Little Ayers, and the next is Little Ayers' story.
Little Ayers was a very nerdy guy, usually, its favorite thing was to curl up as a satellite, revolving around a planet, and thinking nonsense by the way. The planet it revolved around had rich Chulip crystal mineral reserves, whenever Little Ayers felt hungry, it would send numerous small cone shuttle down to dig some food, after eating, Little Ayers would continue to revolve around the plant again.
Although it had evolved the interstellar travel technology a long time ago, because it was too nerdy and didn't like to contact with other cosmic civilizations, it thought that other civilizations in the universe are as kind and peace-loving as it is. Therefore, when BETA visited, it welcomed BETA without any precautions, and never suspected BETA's behavior of launching space shuttles to the outside world frequently.
Until one day, when Little Ayers went down to digging, it finally found that the crystal mine had almost been dug up, and those space shuttles were all evil robbers.
For the first time in Little Ayers' life, it was provoked and brutally eliminated all the BETA, but was stunned by the information it absorbed from BETA. It knew Tyranids, Flood, Forerunner, and the race who created BETA had long been extinct. The cold and bloody universe was completely different from its imagination at all.
However, it was already too later to know these. The Chulip crystal mine had long been exhausted, because of its wrong good intentions, it would be starved to death. The poor Little Ayers was forced to embark on a journey, looking for food in the vast universe. It was only after it left the plant that it realized how scarce and precious resources Chulip crystal was and how unique everything it once had was.
Little Ayers was not bold, because it never traveled, it didn't recognize the way and didn't know how to find food in the vast sea of stars. In the end, it decided to find other BETAs via the communication equipment it got from the BETA it destroyed. If other BETAs hadn't dug up their mine, it might be able to eat some leftovers.
Therefore, Little Ayers followed BETA's traces all the way, eating the mine that hadn't been dug up. However, it wasn't always lucky. Sometimes, it couldn't find any food and had to cut off part of its body, because with a little lighter weight, it could eat less.
After countless times of cutting off itself to survive, Little Ayers was now only 3,000 kilometers in diameter. Even so, Little Ayers was still trying hard to live, believing that there would be always hope if it lives. Maybe there would be a kind race that would be willing to give it food?
Occasionally, it would encounter civilized planets with crystal mines, but Little Ayers knew that mining would cause irreversible damage to the planets. Whenever this happened, Little Ayers always left in silence with a hungry stomach.
One day, being hungry and dizzy, Little Ayers picked up a huge ship in disrepair. Little Ayers absorbed the spaceship as it absorbed BETA, expecting to find some news of food. The technical part of the ship was damaged and was completely unrecoverable, but Little Ayers got a piece of extremely terrible information from it.
In order to destroy Tyranids and Flood, the Forerunner intended to build a halo array to destroy all life in the galaxy in one fell swoop. The remaining time compared to Little Ayers' life span could only be described as a snap of the fingers. If it doesn't do something about it, it will die soon. Little Ayers can endure hunger, but it does not want to die.
Food, it needs to eat, it needs to eat a lot of food, the food needs to be enough to support it to jump to the outside of the galaxy. It could no longer follow BETA to eat leftovers, it would certainly die if it continued. Next time, the next time it encountered a planet with food, it must plunder it, no matter what the cost would be.
As for kindness? Little Ayers thought, what is that? Can it be eaten?
