President Hobart, who had just had breakfast, changed his clothes and went to his round office, and there were only 30 minutes left before the launch of Capricorn 1, and the newly appointed national security adviser and the secretary of defense were already sitting in their offices waiting for the live launch of Capricorn 1 to be broadcast live together after the president's arrival.

At this time Secretary of Defense Howard? The mobile phone in Admiral Xiao's pocket rang suddenly, and Admiral Xiao immediately answered the call when he saw that it was his assistant, and the assistant opposite said to Howard in a nervous voice. Admiral Xiao said:

"General, our supreme commander in country B has just received an emergency report from an important general in country B, and he asks us to immediately convey the content of this message to our president, the content of which is that the prime minister of country B suggests that country A immediately cancel the launch of Capricorn 1, the specific reason is that the flight trajectory of Capricorn 1 may be affected by the uncertainty of the latest observation of a tiny meteorite in space, and the details of this report are being sent to your mobile phone."

After the call, Admiral Xiao immediately checked the announcement of the Prime Minister of Country B sent by his assistant, he looked at the announcement of the Prime Minister of Country B with the research observation data, and felt that this notice was very important, and Admiral Xiao was immediately ready to hand his mobile phone to President Hobart and asked him to see the emergency notice for himself. Unexpectedly, President Hobart shook his head at Admiral Shaw's outstretched hand holding his mobile phone and said:

"Admiral Xiao, I just heard the conversation between you and your assistant, and I know the general situation, please tell me if you believe this is true and credible?"

Howard? Admiral Xiao immediately nodded and said, "I believe this is true, there are observations from several well-known astronomers in country B, we may have overlooked something or not noticed something!" ”

"Oh, so how likely and destructive is the impact?"

Admiral Xiao had no choice but to withdraw his outstretched hand, flipped through the contents of the report, and replied: "They calculated that the probability of impact is 3 to 8 in 1,000, and the damage to the spacecraft is 1 to 10 percent, but if it hits an important part, the spacecraft may lose control or be destroyed. ”

After listening to Howard's briefing, President Hobart smiled and said: "Dear Admiral Shaw, do you think I should terminate this launch because of the only 10,000 chance of failure? Do you know how low the odds were that Columbus would survive while he was on an expedition to the seas, and that we are not yet living on the American continent that he discovered! ”

Listening to the president's pitch getting higher, Howard? Admiral Xiao was no longer silent, and no one of the three or four people sitting in the office wanted to make trouble for himself, and at this time, there were only ten minutes left before the official launch of Capricorn 1, and the male anchor of the live broadcast had already begun to count down the time with his voice that was trembling a little with excitement to start counting down the time with the sound of the countdown in the flight control room, and the president's office gradually quieted down, and everyone's eyes were fixed on the huge screen. Plumes of white smoke have begun to rise from the bottom of Capricorn One, which is erected on the launch pad, and the air in the TV screen is wafting with the rising heat.

……

In the headquarters base of the Black Eagle Society behind the moon, Kosuke Sato, Shuzo Yasuda and Ryoko Misaki also sat together and watched the launch of Capricorn 1 in country A, which is the largest spaceship launched in human history, and the hull of the spacecraft is still the size of two train cars after getting rid of the huge three-stage booster rocket, and its weight even exceeds the weight of the two train cars combined, which is mainly because Capricorn 1 is equipped with a separable Mars landing module and many other landing and maintenance equipment. At the same time, the living facilities of the four astronauts are also the most complete since mankind entered the space age. The next two Capricorn II and III were smaller than the One, but they were also huge, and these huge hulls were exactly what Sato needed to build the Black Hawk Fortress.

As Kosuke Sato expected, Mitsumasa Sato's warning message was not able to prevent the launch of Capricorn 1 in country A, not only because President Hobart was still under Sato's control, but also because in addition to Secretary of Defense Howard? Admiral Xiao took this message seriously, no one wanted to really stop this launch, the scale of this space program involved the interests of many people and officials, and people would not take a small warning as a very important thing.

Capricorn Star 1 lifted off on time, under the attention of billions of people around the world, its powerful ion thruster sprayed a blue tail flame in the lower part of the spacecraft to form a long white vaporization band as if in the blue sky erected a white jade pillar, when the hull of Capricorn Star 1 disappeared from view, the control center said that it had risen to an altitude of more than 20,000 meters, the most dangerous moment of launch has passed, and there were several crackling applause in the president's office at this time, President Hobart smiled and said to his cronies:

"Now is not the time to be happy, when Capricorn Star 3 finally lifts off, we will have a good celebration."

According to the plan, Capricorn-1 will be accelerated by the Earth's gravity after flying five times around the Earth, and then rush to the route to Mars, flying to the back side of the Earth means that the control and contact work of the spacecraft will be carried out by the Pacific Rim Command of Country A in the Pacific, which will be responsible for relaying the command signal between the Earth and Capricorn-1. It seems that today's launch went well, and we will meet here in five days, when Capricorn 2 will be in space. ”

Kosuke Sato, Shuzo Yasuda and Ryoko Misaki in the base of the Black Hawk Society on the moon quietly watched as Capricorn 1 was launched on time and entered the scheduled orbit, and Kosuke Sato immediately ordered the vanguard of the Sakamoto Corps to start carrying out Operation Wild Wolf in North America, and the first batch of 300 Black Hawk-22 gradually approached the orbit of Capricorn 1, and at the same time, several microwave satellites of country A controlled by the Black Hawk Society began to transmit high-power multi-band electromagnetic interference signals to space and the adjacent earth area. Many communication channels and monitoring frequencies in the space control center of country A immediately lost accurate contact and surveillance signals, and the control center of the space administration immediately fell into a panicked busyness.

With Naoki Sakamoto's order, ten Black Hawk-22s fired twenty proton missiles with electromagnetic pulse warheads at the position in front of Capricorn 1 that was flying at high speed, and the missiles were guided to explode in front of and around Capricorn 1, and the electronic equipment in Capricorn 1 was destroyed on a large scale almost at the same time, the spacecraft immediately lost control and automatic flight system, and all internal and external lights, including the indicator lights on the outside of the spacecraft, were completely extinguished, Naoki Sakamoto saw that Capricorn 1 had been completely paralyzed, with a smile on his face, ordered 300 Black Hawk-22s to occupy their respective advantageous positions in the plan, and then the Black Hawk fighters opened the compartment door one after another, put down the mechanical arm or mechanical suction cup installed in the magazine, Capricorn 1 was firmly grasped, and then was dragged by 300 Black Hawk fighters without the ability to resist and flew quickly towards the direction behind the moon.

The first batch of North American wolf operations The wolf pack's holding Capricorn 1 hostage soon reached the predetermined position behind the moon, and the seven hundred Black Hawk-22s that had been waiting there also began to join the kidnappers, the huge Capricorn 1 gradually stabilized in the orbit behind the moon, and several Black Hawk-22s began to use their concentrating laser cannons to cut the array of Capricorn 1 entrances and exits to seal the hatches, and the four astronauts of country A were completely frightened at this time, and they were huddled in the cockpit, waiting for a terrible fate that they did not know.

Secretary of Defense Howard on Earth preparing to go for lunch? When Admiral Shaw heard the news of the disappearance of Capricorn One, he immediately returned to his office halfway. Runes's phone rang on his desk as he bought the office, and when he picked up the phone on the classified line, Lieutenant General Runes' voice came at once:

"Admiral Shaw, this may be a huge conspiracy, I think our Hobart president has a direct relationship with this matter, I suggest to you that we should not continue to launch Capricorn 2 and 3 until the disappearance of Capricorn 1 is investigated, and if it is really as I speculate now, our original plan to help the president may have to be changed, but now I have not yet figured out what to do in the end!"

Admiral Xiao was originally worried about the missing Capricorn One, and he didn't think of what Runes said, and when he heard Runes's words, he nodded and said to Runes on the screen: "Oh, what you said makes a lot of sense, but according to the alternative emergency plan - if Capricorn Star 1 has an emergency, then Capricorn Star 2 and 3 will take on the rescue spacecraft to carry out rescue missions, and this plan makes it difficult for me to prevent their emergency launch, It's as difficult as trying to stop a doctor who is on his way to resuscitating an endangered patient. ”

Howard? Admiral Shaw and George? While Runes was talking, Admiral Shaw's assistant hurriedly pushed the door open and poked into his head and said, "The space command center just received a distress message from the Capricorn 1 astronauts!" ”

"Oh, do we have any specifics?"

"Yes, I just transferred it to your computer."

Admiral Xiao immediately turned on his computer, called up the encrypted file that the assistant had just transmitted, and immediately played it to Runes on another video call at the same time:

"I am the captain of Capricorn One, our spacecraft has been hit by an inexplicable small space meteorite group that has not been detected, and now our spacecraft has lost control, seriously deviated from the course, and the spacecraft is more damaged, but after emergency repairs, it can still continue to fly reluctantly, we request that the backup rescue plan be implemented immediately, too long will keep us farther away from the earth......"

This very short distress call audio signal seems to have been interrupted by some unexpected event or equipment failure, the captain's words stopped abruptly at this point, and there was no more sound, Lieutenant General Runes felt that this distress signal was a little strange after listening to it, and he asked Admiral Shaw:

"Admiral Xiao, don't you think this distress message is a little strange? As far as I know, our command center has completely lost all information about Capricorn 1 in the past few minutes, and there is no report of regaining contact now, but where did this brief distress signal come from? I have some doubts about its authenticity? ”

"Oh, but this must be the voice of Captain Capricorn One, that's not wrong, I listened to his conversation with the command center several times this morning, I can't judge this matter easily, I have to go to the president's office now, the president's emergency meeting is about to begin." After speaking, Admiral Xiao hurriedly straightened his military uniform, ended the call with Runes, and walked to the elevator outside the door.