Earth Federation.

Since the negotiation with the Gaia civilization broke down, the Earth Federation has made the decision to prepare for war urgently, and in the face of another war that may come at any time, the entire federal government is like a sophisticated machine running rapidly.

Today's earth civilization can be said to be different from what it used to be, and the earth civilization that has entered the cosmic civilization has theoretically the possibility of fighting the Gaia civilization. However, in the face of the more powerful Gaian civilization, neither the members of the federal government nor the military were absolutely sure of winning the war.

Faced with this problem, the federal government proposed two plans, the first of which was to focus on defense, that is, to do everything possible to defend the solar system and protect the Earth civilization from the Gaia civilization. But the problem is that it is impossible for such a huge solar system to achieve a watertight defense, not to mention the earth civilization, even the Gaia civilization cannot implement a comprehensive defense of its home planet, you must know that in three-dimensional space, the state of war is completely different from the two-dimensional plane, the breakthrough point of the attack is not just a point or a plane, unless you can use a cage-like defense system to block the entire solar system, but this possibility never exists, let alone the entire solar system, Not even the entire planet can do that.

According to the plan of the federal government military, the defense of the solar system, including the earth, can only be partially defended, that is to say, its defense system is similar to the outbreak of the last war, the space force arranges a ring defense device in the earth's low earth orbit, and in addition to this ring defense device, another layer of defense network is set up, which will be the innermost two layers of defense system to defend the earth, and beyond them are free search fleets and space search vehicles, together with the moon base, which constitute the outer layer of the earth's defense system. In the inner solar system, the space fleet will also deploy another layer of space searchers to ensure that the enemy's whereabouts are discovered at the first time. As for the entire space force, it will also be divided into several parts, garrison fleet, free fleet, patrol fleet, rapid reaction fleet, etc., thus forming the entire defense system.

As for the Martian base, the structure of the defense system is similar to that of the lunar base. This huge defense system is not only costly, but also takes a long time to build, and it will take decades for the Earth Federation to fully invest in it. Even more frustrating is whether they will end up working as expected or is still an unknown result.

This plan was rejected after many discussions, the reason is very simple, according to the calculation of the brain, even if such a defense system is completed, its effect is not very good, the entire solar system is still like a sieve everywhere There are breakthrough points, whether it is the resources and the level of science and technology, the structure of this defense system is somewhat more than worth the loss.

Of course, there are still some merits in the conception of the entire defense system, at least the arrangement of a ring defense system in the earth's low-earth orbit is necessary. For this reason, the final result of the scheme is only to approve the construction of a ring defense system in low earth orbit. As for the Space Force's Space Fleet, the federal government also agreed to make adjustments.

In addition, it is necessary to launch a large number of space seekers at the edge of the solar system, and this result can be said to be just a compromise result, barely passable.

In addition to this defensive plan, another plan has been proposed, and that is the offensive plan.

As the saying goes, the best defense is offense, and in the absence of a perfect defense. Offense instead of defense is a good option.

For thousands of years of civilization on Earth, war has never disappeared in human society. The wisdom left by the predecessors, including the art of war, has changed although the situation of war has changed, but its essence remains the same.

As soon as the proposal to replace defense with offense was proposed, it was widely accepted by the military, and even the commander-in-chief of the Space Fleet, Admiral Ivan, was the main general who supported offense instead of defense. The ancient book "Hanshu. It is also written in the biography of Xiang Ji. The saying that strikes first and strikes later, and many events in history have proved the correctness of this sentence, even the "blitzkrieg" tactics used by Germany in World War II are also out of this way.

In addition, there is often an old saying among the people: the first strike is the strongest. After the next hand suffered. The principle of this sentence is the same as preemptive strike. In the case of a gap between the consolidation force and the other side, the preemptive option can better exploit the strengths and avoid the weaknesses. The military proposed that since it was impossible to ensure the safety of the earth's civilization in war, it was a good choice to take the initiative to attack and burn the war to the enemy's side. Similarly, even if the attack fails, with the current interstellar power of the Earth civilization, it can bring losses to the Gaia civilization, and more importantly, it can also win valuable time for the Earth side.

As time went on, there was a growing call within the federal government to replace defense with offense, but the federal government has not yet made a final decision. This situation led to strong dissatisfaction among the Space Force, that is, the military, and even some military generals began to accuse the federal government of being too weak.

It was already late at night, and Tian Lao, who had just finished a meeting, returned to his residence, he should have retired a long time ago because of the events of the Gaia civilization, but he no longer held the position of president of the Federal Academy of Sciences, but worked for the government as an advisor to the president of the Federation.

After the negotiations broke down, Mr. Tian took over the position, advising the president and the government on decision-making as a scientist. Don't look at him as just a consultant, but his actual work is very busy, in the face of the upcoming war, in the face of another war that will lead to the future of the survival of the earth's civilization, Tian Lao has invested almost all his energy.

The driverless car stopped silently at the door of his residence, the door opened, Tian Lao's secretary was just about to get out of the car but Tian Lao refused, waved his hand at the secretary, Tian Lao asked him to go back early, and come to pick him up the next day, and then walked into the residence with heavy steps.

It is a small and exquisite building, which was specially allocated for use by the federal government, and it is fully equipped with all kinds of equipment, and there are special personnel to manage and clean it. When I entered the door, the living room was brightly lit, and two guests had been waiting there for a long time, and when they heard footsteps, the guests stood up at the same time and looked at the door.

"Lao Tian!"

"The meeting just ended, so I've kept you waiting." Tian Lao squeezed out a smile, and said to the visitor with the tiredness on his face that could not be erased.

"Nothing, have you eaten it?" Of course, Lin Dong knew the urgency of Tian Lao's current work, and asked directly.

"I took a break in the meeting. Not hungry yet. Tian Lao replied, and walked quickly to the sofa: "Wan Lao, Lao Lin, you all sit down, this way is quite smooth, right?" ”

"What's wrong, it's a few hours to take the shuttle, but it's your old Tian. I'm afraid I'm a little exhausted these days, right? Wan Changchun handed over a cup of freshly brewed tea to Tian Lao, looked at his tired expression and sighed: "The body is the capital of the revolution, and your age is not young, take it easy!" ”

Tian Lao took the tea and thanked him, and then smiled bitterly: "How can I rest well in this situation now?" Don't talk about me, even the chief is like this, it's harder than me. ”

The head Tian Lao said is the president of the Federation, and the old people of their generation have long been used to being called, and they still use the previous name in private.

"That's right. I heard that the military is very dissatisfied with the federal government's lack of determination to preemptively strike, is there such a thing? Lin Dong asked after waiting for Tian Lao to take a sip of tea.

Putting down the teacup, Tian Lao nodded: "It's not a secret, and there is no need to keep it secret as the two of them, it is true that as Lao Lin said, the military is very dissatisfied with the federal government, and the key point is also because the federal government has not adopted an offensive alternative defense plan for the time being." ”

"How's it going? ...... the military? Lin Dong asked with some anxiety.

Tian Lao shook his head slightly: "For the time being, the problem is not there, General Ivan and some other senior generals still support the federal government." And they understand the difficulties of the federal government, so there are only a few whispers within the military. It's not a precarious situation yet. ”

"That's ......." Hearing this, both Lin Dong and Wan Changchun's hearts settled down a little, now this situation can be said to be extremely severe, once there is a problem inside the situation of a strong enemy outside, then it will bring irreparable losses to the entire earth civilization. In any case, stability is everything. Only when you are internally stable can you concentrate your forces on facing the enemy.

But Tian Lao's last sentence made their hearts hang again: "This situation can't be delayed any longer, it must be solved as soon as possible, if it drags on, no one can guarantee what the military will react to." ”

"Can't General Ivan hold it down?"

"It's not that we can't hold it down, the key is that the trauma caused to us by the last war is too great. Soldiers are bloody. ”

"Yes, soldiers are bloody, in fact, not only soldiers, but also ordinary people." Wan Changchun nodded understandingly, at present, the discussion of this plan is only within the government, but once it is spread and known to ordinary people, with the crimes committed by the Gaia civilization against the earth civilization, including the trauma suffered by the people in the last war, the public opinion supporting the military's views will inevitably be one-sided, and I am afraid that the federal government will be difficult to ride the tiger at that time.

"Is there any concern on the Chief's side?" Lin Dong pondered the cause and effect carefully, and asked hesitantly.

Tian Lao nodded silently: "Actually, not only the chief, but also me. To tell you the truth, the federal government has so far failed to approve an offensive alternative to defense plan, and although there are all these other reasons, I personally disagree. ”

"What do you think is wrong?" Lin Dong and Wan Changchun exchanged glances and asked.

Tian Lao sighed and nodded, as a negotiator who had direct contact with the Gaia civilization and was also the core figure of the delegation, Tian Lao was one of the main people who had experienced this whole process. After the negotiation between the two sides broke down, Tian Lao carefully recalled the details of the previous negotiations, plus the possible results after the negotiations, Tian Lao suddenly felt that this incident was not simple.

Tian Lao felt that this initiative of the Gaia civilization to contact the negotiation seemed to be a bureau, an unpredictable situation, on the surface, this whole thing seems to be very simple, a Gaia civilization that had invaded the earth civilization asked for reconciliation with the earth civilization, but was unwilling to characterize the previous war, and even put forward the statement of the universal norms of the universe civilization.

And it is precisely because of this that the negotiations between the two sides broke down, the Gaian civilization left in anger, the relationship between the two sides suddenly became tense, and the war broke out again anytime and anywhere.

The whole thing is like this, there is nothing wrong with it on the surface, and even from the perspective of the earthlings, the Gaia people are arrogant, do not take the earth civilization in their eyes, and come up with a so-called universal rule to cover up their mistakes, which is unacceptable to the earth civilization. But in retrospect, Mr. Tian felt a little strange, the Gaia civilization seemed to be hiding something from the initiative to contact and negotiate this time, but Tian Lao couldn't guess what was hidden, from his intuition, Tian Lao even felt that the Gaia civilization was looking forward to the outbreak of war again than the earth civilization, which was also the reason why he objected to the military's plan to replace defense with offense.

Told Lin Dong and Wan Changchun what he thought in his heart, including his suspicions, Tian Lao invited the two of them to come this time mainly to hear their opinions, as the military became more dissatisfied with the federal government, the pressure on the federal government's side also increased, no matter what, a decision must be made in this matter in the near future, otherwise there will be big problems within the earth civilization if they don't wait for the Gaia civilization to come over.

After listening to Tian Lao's story, Lin Dong and Wan Changchun were silent, they generally knew about the incident, but some of the details were heard from Tian Lao for the first time. Like Tian Lao, when they understood all the circumstances, their intuition was a little uneasy, perhaps this intuition was influenced by Tian Lao, or the reason for their respective judgments.

Time passed minute by minute, and the silence in the living room could even be heard when a needle fell on the ground, and I don't know how long it had passed, Wan Changchun opened his mouth first.

"How's it going on with the Vanguard spaceship?"

Tian Lao shook his head: "The information has been transmitted, but Xiao Su and they are too far away from the earth, and the information we receive is lagging behind, and it has no value for this event at all." ”

Wan Changchun sighed lightly, in fact, the current situation is clear to them, as a new cosmic civilization, what the earth civilization lacks is an understanding of the entire galaxy and other cosmic civilizations. This is an Achilles heel of the earth's civilization, and it leads to their helplessness like a blind man touching an elephant.

The reason why Wan Changchun mentioned the Pioneer spacecraft was to ask Su Yichen if they had come into contact with the Blue Star Civilization and whether they had made contact with other cosmic civilizations, so as to understand the details of the general principles mentioned by the Gaia Civilization.

As an old man who has experienced "struggle", Wan Changchun may not be as good as the current person in other aspects, but he is extremely sensitive when it comes to the experience of struggle. If the Gaia civilization's contact negotiations really have another purpose, he thinks that the other side is likely to take advantage of the shortcomings of the Earth civilization's understanding of the cosmic civilization, but they don't know what to do. (To be continued......)