Chapter 1 March 27, 2024, 22:43

230 kilometers above the Earth's atmosphere, over the east coast of the United States.

The spaceplane's forward-facing thrusters continuously ejected gas, providing reverse thrust for deceleration. In this thin atmosphere, the pearl-white spaceplane flew over the US coastline, heading towards the Atlantic Ocean, at a speed that seemed slow but was actually incredibly fast.

Wei Cheng was completely focused, utilizing the highest level of skill he possessed to pilot this spaceplane without navigation, signals, guidance, radar, or positioning systems.

He was confident.

Since this spaceplane was built in the factory, he had been the first person to sit in it.

Xiao Bai. (Little White)

That was the name he had given to this crucial piece of national equipment.

"Since it's confidential and the real name and model aren't mentioned, let's just call it Xiao Bai!"

This was a casual joke Wei Cheng made the first time he saw the spaceplane, but the name stuck.

Wei Cheng was a Dragon Country ace astronaut who had carried out over a dozen space missions. Apart from spacewalks, he had performed every type of space mission and had received numerous honors.

That was why, combined with his superb piloting skills, he had been selected by the nation through rigorous screening to become the pilot of Dragon Country's first spaceplane.

It was a unique honor.

At the same time.

It was also a unique responsibility.

For countless days and nights, he had depended on Xiao Bai in this narrow cockpit.

Depended on each other.

Xiao Bai was the heavy responsibility and expectation placed on him by the nation.

Xiao Bai was Wei Cheng's life!

"Hold on, Xiao Bai."

Wei Cheng gritted his teeth, staring straight ahead, looking through the spaceplane's windshield at the dark universe outside and the clay watercolor painting of land, ocean, and clouds below.

As professional astronauts and pilots.

They, of course, had to undergo training in various extreme situations, such as bad weather, loss of signal, no navigation, and bare-eye flying, etc.

Early on, when they were recruited as pilots and trained in specialized academies, many classmates complained that training in extreme conditions such as weather or loss of navigation was understandable; but the complete loss of all signals, being in outer space, the failure of all communication terminals, the silence of all satellites, and the inability to call the ground via radio was simply impossible!

Any space mission was prepared and prepared by the country, simulated and simulated, backup plans followed by backup plans, and backup equipment followed by backup equipment... This kind of voyage completely disconnected, relying only on a pair of eyes, had no training significance and was completely demanding the impossible.

Back then...

What the instructor said to everyone was what he said to Gao Yang before this space mission:

"It is undeniable that 99% of the training we are doing now is redundant, just like the things you learn in your textbooks. Most of them seem to be completely useless in life. The country will never need you to calculate the law of universal gravitation, nor will it need you to prepare oxygen with an alcohol lamp, nor will it need you to carry classical Chinese into battle."

"However, life is unknown. Who knows what will happen in the future? Ninety-nine percent of insurance policies are bought in vain, 99% of precautions are unnecessary, 99% of physical examinations are false alarms, and 99% of household medicines expire..."

"Even so, why do we still do these things? Because we need to prevent that 1%!"

The instructor held up his index finger and looked around at everyone:

"Of you college students recruited as pilots, only 1% will actually become pilots! And of these pilots, only 1% will eventually become astronauts! And most astronauts in Dragon Country never have the opportunity to go to space. Only 1% of the astronauts who can actually go to space!"

"1%! 1%! 1%! If you don't work hard, if you're not stronger than others, if you're not more outstanding than others! How can you become that 1%!"

Rumble.

A jolt of recoil and shaking.

210 kilometers above, Wei Cheng's eyes were like torches! Staring at the dark universe and the blue earth!

He had worked hard all the way!

Becoming one 1% after another! Becoming the pilot of the only spaceplane in the entire Dragon Country!

"I am chosen..."

Wei Cheng gripped the control stick tightly:

"And the only one!"

Whoosh—

In the boundless space.

At the farthest corner of the Earth.

In Wei Cheng's determined gaze, this spaceplane that had lost everything flew towards the rising sun, towards the other side of the Earth.

Flying towards.

Those outlanders who had come from afar, not belonging to this world, this universe, this time and space.

...

Inside the equipment bay.

Lin Xian, Huang Que, Gao Yang, and Chu Anqing stood in a circle.

"Liu Feng's space-time particle tracker can be used normally, so we not only didn't lose the space-time particles, but we also have directional navigation, which has no impact on our original capture plan."

Huang Que turned her head, looking at Gao Yang:

"In another hour, we will meet the space-time particles at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. It seems that the minimum speed of the space-time particles is Mach 0.97, and it hasn't slowed down for a long time. This speed is very suitable for us. At that time, this spaceplane will also turn on the propellant engine, and travel parallel to the space-time particles at Mach 0.97."

"Then it will be the moment for you to发挥作用 (fā huī zuò yòng, shine), Gao Yang. We have worked so hard for so long. Whether this plan will ultimately succeed depends entirely on whether you can catch that space-time particle with the rice cooker."

Gao Yang nodded, giving a thumbs up to show that he was okay.

"You two."

Huang Que turned her head again, looking at Lin Xian and Chu Anqing:

"Lin Xian stands behind Gao Yang to assist Gao Yang; Anqing stands in the passenger cabin as a hub connecting the equipment bay and the cockpit. Whether there is anything happening here or there, you must contact and be responsible for running errands in a timely manner."

Lin Xian and Chu Anqing also nodded.

Now, some time had passed since the accident where all network communication equipment was lost. Under Wei Cheng's superb piloting skills, the spaceplane was running smoothly, which also eased the tension in everyone's hearts.

It seemed that, as Huang Que had said, for professional pilots and astronauts, this was just one of many emergencies, and there was no need to panic.

Lin Xian walked to Gao Yang's operating table, looking at the complicated control sticks, and supported the back of the seat.

What he was worried about now was not the problem of Wei Cheng's level.

But...

Kevin Walker.

Without VV's suppression of him, Kevin was already lawless in this era, and hijacking that x-37B US unmanned spaceplane in high orbit was as easy as reaching into a pocket.

Would he come to interfere?

He definitely would.

Huang Que knew this, but still acquiesced to VV's death and used VV's death as a guarantee of "refusal to return."

Then, where did her confidence lie?

Did she still have a backup plan hidden?

"Wait! What is that!"

From the cockpit, Liu Feng's scream suddenly came.

He had been sitting next to Wei Cheng all the time. In order not to interfere with Wei Cheng's concentration on driving, he had never spoken a word during this time, but only reported the position and distance of the space-time particles to Wei Cheng at fixed times.

This shout obviously meant something had happened!

"What's wrong?"

Huang Que walked over.

"You guys, look at the sky! No... it's in outer space! The space above us! Countless shiny things are flying towards us!"

Everyone heard this.

They leaned against the portholes one after another, or switched to the external cameras of the spaceplane to project the picture in.

"Holy crap!!" Gao Yang's face was pale!

"Oh my god... what is this?!" Chu Anqing was also shocked to lose her color: "This is... this is! A meteor shower!?"

"No."

Lin Xian looked at the monitor in front of him...

Space.

In the space even higher than them.

Back and forth, left and right!

Countless and countless points of light were rapidly approaching them!

There were too many...

As far as the eye could see, it was like starlight!

Hundreds!

Thousands!

These points of light were not ordinary points of light. They were very large... Their heads reflected the sunlight, but their tails emitted a strange blue light.

Seeing that familiar blue light, Lin Xian understood instantly:

"Argon Hall thrusters! Because it is an argon ion stream, it is blue. There is only one thing that can use so many argon Hall thrusters in outer space—"

"[Starlink Satellites!]"

His brows furrowed.

One wave had barely subsided when another rose. He had just been thinking about how to prevent Kevin Walker from hijacking the spaceplane, but he didn't expect that Musk's Starlink satellites would fall directly!

No wonder the reflected light just now looked so familiar. VV had hijacked thousands of Starlink satellites in the World Hacker Competition and drawn a pentagram in the sky for Chu Anqing.

But now!

Thousands of Starlink satellites were dragging strange blue light, descending from the sky! Crashing towards their spaceplane!

This was even more terrifying than dark clouds pressing down...

The fall of the stars!

"Holy crap! What the hell is going on!"

When Gao Yang heard Lin Xian say that Starlink satellites were falling, he jumped up:

"You mean, the world's richest man's tens of thousands of Starlink satellites are falling? How the hell can we dodge this! There are too many! It's simply saturation bombing!"

"Quick, quick, quick, get out of the way, let me see!"

Gao Yang pushed Lin Xian away with his body and rubbed up to the monitoring display.

The screen was showing the picture being taken by the camera on the top of the spaceplane—

"Oh my god..."

Gao Yang was so shocked by this shocking scene that he couldn't speak.

The sky was full of blue light! The sky was full of Starlink satellites emitting blue light! Falling fiercely from high altitude!

The number of falling satellites was at least several thousand, completely covering the entire space above the spaceplane!

This was a real overwhelming blue hand, a Five Finger Mountain descending from the sky!

Making this small spaceplane have nowhere to escape! Nowhere to hide!

Now, these countless thousands of Starlink satellites falling at high speed were very close, only tens of kilometers away.

But in front of the satellites falling at high speed, this distance was nothing. Even those satellites were trying their best to accelerate, without stinting on fuel.

"Dodge quickly!"

Gao Yang screamed in a broken voice:

"Dodge quickly, Brother Wei! We're done for if this crashes down! There are so many Starlink satellites, like a fishing net! We're done for if we get hit by one!"

"The range is too wide!"

Wei Cheng looked up through the windshield, and his face was also pale:

"The range is too wide! We can't dodge at all! Our radar and scanners are all damaged! We can't dodge this kind of dense impact at all! And the speed of these satellites falling is too fast! The speed is still increasing! Like meteors!"

"No... even faster than meteors! They have thrusters accelerating behind them! It won't be long before they crash into our 200-kilometer altitude!"

"Wha... what to do! Senior Lin Xian!" Chu Anqing took a step back and grabbed Lin Xian's arm.

She had just glanced up through the porthole and was directly frightened.

Who could have imagined so many dense satellites crashing straight down.

That strange blue light was like the eyes of death, countless death gods descending from the sky!

"This... we can't dodge this."

Liu Feng was a rigorous science student, and he knew that under this relative speed, and with such a dense satellite array, it was no exaggeration to describe it as a hail of bullets.

If Wei Cheng had a radar, he believed that Wei Cheng's technology would definitely be able to dodge the falling satellite group.

But!

Now this spaceplane was blind!

Even if Wei Cheng was an ace pilot, he could only look ahead with his two eyes, and he couldn't take care of the front and back, let alone that these satellites were crashing down from the sky!

"I have a way."

Lin Xian quickly ran into the cockpit, looking at Wei Cheng:

"Turn on the propellant engine!"

"Now?"

Wei Cheng didn't look up, but drove seriously, asking:

"Lin Xian, at this distance, even if we turn on the propellant engine, we won't be able to dodge such a dense satellite rain. More importantly, we are now in the deceleration stage. If we rashly turn on the engine to accelerate, our orbiting speed will increase again, and we will definitely miss the Alpha matter at the 100-kilometer rendezvous point."

"By then, it will be too late for us to decelerate again. We will definitely brush past the Alpha matter!"

"No, not accelerating forward."

Lin Xian shook his head, pointing below:

"[We accelerate downward and dive! Pull those satellites into the atmosphere!]"

Hearing Lin Xian's words.

Liu Feng suddenly realized:

"I understand! I understand! Lin Xian plans to drag the satellites falling at high speed into the atmosphere! The satellites are falling so fast. Even though the 100-kilometer atmosphere is very thin, it will still cause atmospheric friction and burn up like meteors at that speed!"

"I have studied [meteor showers]! I understand meteors very well! The altitude at which meteors generally burn is 80 kilometers - 140 kilometers! Most meteors have already burned out or even disintegrated at an altitude of 80 kilometers!"

"And something as fragile as a Starlink satellite, once it falls into the atmosphere at such a fast speed, it will directly burn out or disintegrate in dozens of kilometers! It will only last up to an altitude of 60 kilometers at most!"

"And don't look at how fast they are now. As long as they enter the atmosphere and are subjected to air resistance, they will quickly decelerate! They can't catch up with the spaceplane that has turned on its engine! As long as we pilot the spaceplane and dive to an altitude of 60 kilometers, we will be safe!"

"We don't need to dodge these Starlink satellite groups at all! Just as Lin Xian said, pull them into the atmosphere! Pull them into the dense atmosphere! Let them turn into [meteor showers]! Burn out in the sky above us!"

"Genius... Lin Xian! You are really a genius!"

Liu Feng was so excited that he was about to stand up, but the seat belt restrained him.

He said quickly:

"Although we can't rendezvous with the space-time particles at an altitude of 100 kilometers, it's the same to rendezvous at an altitude of 60 kilometers or 50 kilometers! And our spaceplane has wings, so it will be more flexible in the atmosphere, and it will be easier to capture, it's just that we lose some capture time!"

"Commander Huang!" Wei Cheng shouted: "Please give instructions immediately!"

Huang Que nodded:

"Do as Lin Xian said!"

Boom—

Against the falling stars, the Xiao Bai (Little White) spaceplane finally started its propellant engine.

A pillar of fire like a rocket was ejected from the tail.

The huge sense of pushing back took everyone who had already returned to the passenger cabin and dived towards the Earth's atmosphere.

You chase me, I chase you.

This was a race between a spaceplane and thousands of Starlink satellites.

"Altitude decreasing! 180 kilometers... 150 kilometers... 120 kilometers... 100 kilometers... Breaking the Karman line! 90 kilometers! 80 kilometers! We continue to decrease our altitude!"

"The falling Starlink satellites have also entered the atmosphere and begun to burn! The speed has dropped sharply! Most of them are estimated to have begun to disintegrate! Liu Feng and Lin Xian are right... Starlink satellites are far less solid than meteors. Once they enter the atmosphere, they will be broken up by resistance and high temperature!"

Wei Cheng reported the altitude to everyone while piloting the spaceplane.

At this time.

Chu Anqing and Lin Xian, wearing seat belts, were clinging to the porthole, looking at the sky.

"Wow..."

Chu Anqing was so shocked that she couldn't speak:

"This... this is the real meteor shower, right..."

Lin Xian lowered his head, pressed against Chu Anqing, and looked at the sky above.

That was...

Countless blue meteors.

Dense, like rain!

This would be the largest meteor shower in human history, and would never be surpassed...

The Starlink project, which the world's richest man, Musk, had been planning for years and had spent tens of billions of dollars to build, was now shattered, turning into an oil painting in the sky.

Turning into this, the most romantic and most thrilling meteor shower in history.

Liu Feng raised his head in the cockpit.

Dumbfounded.

Looking at the stars falling in the sky...

"Qi Qi..."

His voice was a little choked.

Qi Qi had said that she would turn into a star, watching him on the stage, blessing him, and waiting for the day when his cosmological constant would be recognized by the world.

Liu Feng clenched his fist tightly:

"I will."

...

At this time, the spaceplane had circled halfway around the Earth, passing through the daylight area, and coming to the dark side.

The Earth at night.

People on land raised their heads one after another, watching the miracle that might not be seen a second time in billions of years.

The entire sky was filled with meteors.

Fireworks, blue, tails, light.

The Earth's 4.5 billion-year-old night had never been as beautiful and shocking as it was today.

"The crisis is resolved!"

Wei Cheng laughed heartily, as happy as if he had cleared a game:

"We did it, we really did it! We—"

Suddenly.

The smile froze on his face.

Pupils shaking...

Eyebrows jumping...

"What, what is that again!"

Everyone looked up.

They saw a huge fireball in the sky, dragging a rocket engine-like tail, accurately and fiercely rushing towards them!

Fast!

Accurate direction!

There was no way to dodge at this distance!

"It's the US spaceplane!"

Wei Cheng shouted:

"x-37B!"

He was too familiar with it.

This was something that Dragon Country astronauts had been envying for a long time.

They had dreamed about it countless times in their dreams!

The Xiao Bai spaceplane manufactured by Dragon Country was targeting the US x-37B!

But...

Why would this spaceplane appear here?

Because all the radar and scanners on the spaceplane had been destroyed...

So, it wasn't until this US spaceplane rushed into view that they could observe it!

The x-37B rushed in quickly!

The propellant engine was running at full speed!

With its own navigation and steering!

It was aiming at their spaceplane!

At this distance and speed!

There! Was! No! Way! To! Dodge!

The huge fireball was about to crash over!

The distance and altitude were only a few kilometers away!

Wei Cheng desperately pulled the steering stick to turn!

But the burning spaceplane was also turning!

Like a demon descending from the sky!

Boom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another flash of light and shadow rushed up from below!

Straight as an arrow!

Moving like light!

The number of Mach rings ejected behind the object... was enough to represent that the speed of this unknown object was close to breaking the first cosmic velocity!

"Rocket?"

Lin Xian stared at the shadow that flashed past in an instant.

There was no mistake.

It was really a rocket!

And even though it was just a flash, he still saw the letters printed on the side of the rocket clearly—

[space-t]

"It's Musk's Starship rocket!"

Wei Cheng shouted:

"Why is its rocket here! And the target is—"

Boom!!!!!!!!!!!

Boom!!!!!!!!!!!

In the sky only two or three kilometers in front, a huge light like the sun suddenly exploded!

Red light, black smoke, scattered parts!

The suddenly appearing Musk rocket, like a missile! Directly hit the oncoming fireball, the US x-37B spaceplane!

The violent explosion of the two colliding blew away the nearby clouds!

Wei Cheng, who was desperately pulling the steering stick, rushed out of the edge of the fire ball and the wreckage in the sky under the huge centrifugal force!

Everything.

Returned to calm.

That ball of fire, that x-37B spaceplane descending from the sky, that Starship rocket that suddenly rose from the ground and intervened halfway...

They were all left behind by the spaceplane.

Wei Cheng went limp, holding the steering stick and lying back in the seat.

There was no one speaking on the radio channel, only heavy breathing... Everyone had not recovered from the shocking space chase just now.

Lin Xian looked at the sky behind through the porthole.

The firelight had disappeared.

The black smoke was gradually blown away by the wind.

The spaceplane and rocket parts that had exploded and collapsed in sight just now... had long since fallen somewhere.

The entire sky was as quiet as before.

It seemed...

As if nothing had happened.

Lin Xian inexplicably recalled the Science Charity Gala, when Musk stood up straight in front of him and slowly raised his right hand to point to the sky:

"Mr. Lin."

Musk smiled, holding out his index finger, pointing straight to the sky:

"We'll meet in the sky."

Suddenly.

Liu Feng widened his eyes, suddenly stretched out his right hand, pointing to the dark space above:

"Lin Xian! Look quickly—"

"[Space-time particles!!]"