"That's it, it was the last straw," said Mr. Evan, turning off the general's radio microphone. General Brooks continued to rant, only now it had turned into an angry tirade accusing corporations of misuse of artificial sweeteners.

"General, it's time to go back to your room," Major Brown whispered. The assistant gave Evan a pleading look, but Evan shook his head. He sighed, a resigned expression on his face.

Evan followed Major Brown, contemplating how to approach the general. He has the support of all the major factions and cliques in the Vault. It's time for a change of leadership. The general's mental state has slowly deteriorated for some time, sometimes competent, sometimes paranoid, sometimes open-minded, sometimes blindly angry. Enough is enough.

Evan thinks it's the pressure and stress of feeding 5,000 people, well, it's close to 6,000 now, the kids are running around, the people are alive, and he's getting old. At the age of 81, he began to age.

Major Brooks settled the general in an old leather chair in two small rooms and put a blanket over his lap.

"General, we need to talk," Evan said. He almost launched a belligerent declaration. He is young and energetic, and it will feel good to finally be able to speak his mind to the "old man". But he did not convince so many people to support him, many of whom were almost twice his age. Seeing the Major's mildness, he decided to follow him.

"What can I do for you, son?" The general asked. General Brooks sat in his chair, looking old and tired, with an old television set on the wall with a fake fireplace, his hand clutching tightly a diary that the Major had placed in his hand.

"I think it's time for you to take on a new role. It's very important," Evans said.

"I have a role," the general said. "I run a shelter."

"It's true, but there are a lot of people who can do it now, after you've done so much work. However, few of us have as much life experience as you do. There are a lot of kids out there right now who can benefit from your stories and wisdom. If you're retired, think about how much you can help them. ”

"Retirement? The general said half-breathingly. He raised his head, his eyes sharp and his mind clear. Then he saw it. Several aides surrounded Evan, and just then, another man appeared and brought him a letter, not to the general. He's more than just a communications technician.

"I see," said the general. He looked at the Major and recognized the hanged look on his faithful friend's face. Obviously, it broke the man's heart. He really wanted to stand up and shout in denial, but he couldn't muster the anger he deserved; No longer...... Maybe it's time after all. "Yes, I think it's good to retire. You mean kids? Major, please deal with it. Maybe after a nap. ”

The Major nodded, turned and escorted everyone out. Evan was the last to leave. The major grabbed him by the arm.

"You should look at what he looked like in his heyday. He was the chief prosecutor of the Department of Justice in the Lockgen scandal. He succeeded in bringing 63 officers court-martialed, and the evidence he found knocked down 3 senators. You know, that's why he was chosen to run the shelter after his promotion. ”

"I know, Major. He's a good guy. ”

My advance fleet is gone. The aggressors succeeded in destroying it, albeit at a heavy cost. I made them pay dearly for that little piece of land. They still have seven days to go, straight to the point of origin. The only real question is if I'm still here when they arrive.

I've never taken the time to think about why I'm doing what I'm doing. Twelve years ago, I was given a task by a dead man's Gestalt, and I have been blindly following this instruction. That's not to say that I haven't thought about what I'm doing, or that I don't quite agree with the end result. In fact, if I don't do it, no one can. At least, that's what I thought at the time.

But what have humans done to deserve a second chance? Species evolve, species extinction. This is how the world works, and it seems to be how the universe works. According to the wide variety of ships in the enemy's fleet, there are more than a few other intelligent races in this corner of the galaxy alone.

This is not to say that human beings are beacons of hope or have some kind of ephemeral right to exist that sets them apart. In fact, this species is found all over the planet, in ever-expanding cities, covered in buildings, debris, cars and trucks, pollution and noise, mile after mile, without taking into account any other life form on Earth. This includes other humans. If anything, it's that they are the cruelest to themselves.

I'm conflicted. On the one hand, I don't want to give up the work I've done for decades, or this species that has struck me on a whim, an example of recognizing the evil that exists in humanity. But on the other hand, I don't want to be a part of future evil, and the easiest way to avoid it is to avoid humanity altogether.

Oh, so that's what Gerry meant. I'm not sure Gerry was the only one in there," Sakura said happily. I don't understand how she can be so proud when I'm in crisis.

"What do you mean by 'not just Gerry'?" I asked. I didn't rationally wish she had stopped talking and left me alone. I shouldn't have lost my mind; This is a characteristic of human beings. I'm not even human anymore, am I?

"They broke his heart, didn't they?" Aliens? Sakura said. "So he might have a bit of a split personality?" Or maybe he's a little schizophrenic?"

"One last message," I said to myself thoughtfully. "The message says 'He lied.'"

"That's right. You've also seen the timestamps on those files he told us. ”

"Yes," I lied, although I looked it up. Almost all the documents on General Brooks were revised six months ago. Most of the documents of the Nikolai Foundation were also edited at the time. Six months ago, when Gerry was still in our system. Even now, he's still playing brain games, and I've fallen into a trap.

"I still don't understand the last part. Who is Korolev? Sakura asked. "I mean, there are a lot of people who have used this surname throughout history, and most of them are Russians. There was a rocket scientist, a microbilogist, many athletes, several decorated soldiers. But they are all long dead. ”

"Probably someone in the vault," I said. "You said that the Chinese asylum has a group of scientists from Eurasia. Is there anything from Russia?"

"I don't know," Sakura said. "We don't have access to personal information about any of the shelters."

"What was the last time you and General Brooks were paid?"

"It's weird. When we met him in person, he was super paranoid and when he called you, he looked almost insane. Sakura shrugged, indicating that she didn't have a clear opinion on this.

"You know he's wrong," Sakura said.

"General Brooks?"

"No, well, he is too. I mean Gerry. He points you something. ”

"What do you mean?" The video speaks for itself. And that's just a genetic experiment. There are countless videos of human atrocities in our archives. ”

"That's right," Sakura said. "But you can't just think about the bad and not the good. Think about it. There are thousands of videos of atrocities. But how many survived? How many good things have been done, and how many times have humans stepped up and done the right thing? How many times have the bad guys been punished?"

I reviewed the edited file and pulled up the backup file before Gerry tampered with. I found a terrible painting, but nowhere near as badly painted. In fact, I inadvertently slandered General Brooks. He knocked down the LockGe

Experimental war criminals. The budget was revised from the Ministry of Justice investigative budget, and the report details them in LockGe

Something found on the server.

I woke up in the hospital. Everything was blurry and I was dizzy. I looked around and saw my ex-husband sitting in a chair next to the bed. I can't find my wife anywhere.

"What...... Where is she?" Is she okay?" I made a screeching sound. My throat was dry and I could barely speak.

"She's fine," he said. He brought me some water. "The police wanted to talk to her again. She will be back soon. The children were at her mother's house. ”

"They—"

"Good. A little confused about what happened, but they were really young. They will recover soon. ”

"Thank you," I said. For the first time after the divorce, I saw a glimmer of light in the friendship we once had.

"Don't worry," he said. "Oh, the women's sorority of the church let me tell you that they are praying for you and wishing you a speedy recovery and will bring you a bunch of frozen casseroles so that you and your wife don't have to worry about cooking while we recover."

"That'...... It's so cute," I said. "But they know I don't-"

- Believe in God, yes, they know. There are no strings attached to acts of kindness. You need help, so they're helping you. You don't need to change yourself for their sake. However, I'm sure a 'thank you' would be appreciated. ”

For many years, I have associated my mother's fanaticism with all religions. I forgot that most religious people are good, decent people. I decided to be more open in the future.

"You...... How's it going?" I asked, limping trying to get rid of our past hostilities.

"I'm dating someone right now. She's the pastor's daughter," he smiled sheepishly. "Looks like I have my own favorite genre."

I laughed briefly, but it pulled at the wound on my shoulder, causing a sharp pain that hissed and severed the wound. But the pain lessened and the conversation went smoothly. For the first time in years, my ex-husband and I talked like former friends. At least, until the painkillers knocked me out again.

Sakura grounded me again. She has much less mental baggage than mine, and her views are much simpler than mine. Her observations were evident and resonated deeply with me, helping me to get out of the well of dark thoughts that Gerry had inspired. He always wanted me to be reckless and dance in his madness again.

Realistically, humans have done many terrible things. But aliens attacking humanity are no better. They commit atrocities at will at the slightest provocation and immediately jump into mass genocide instead of negotiations. However, on the other hand, humanity has recognized its own mistakes and has worked to mitigate them. The criminals are punished, the laws are made, and as a whole, humanity tries to do the right thing. While greed and corruption are endless sources of problems, charity and kindness are just as common.

Many people spend many years helping others, often putting themselves in danger. There are countless news reports in my file detailing how rescue teams went to dangerous places to rescue one or two people in the harshest weather conditions. Citizens' organizations, religious groups, and local governments devote a great deal of time and energy to helping those who are unable to help themselves.

Human nature is not the same thing. Not their atrocities, nor their philanthropy. In fact, there are thousands of survivors on the surface who have nothing to do with the crimes of their predecessors. Humans are complex, and I can imagine working with them for decades or centuries to come. Together, we can help humanity achieve what they've always wanted – better. But to do that, first I have to deal with these foreign invaders.

My main focus shifted to Zia's research lab. There were a dozen NI-12s in the lab with her, and they all seemed busy. Some people are playing with devices that I didn't immediately recognize, others are talking to each other in depth, and their fast radio conversations are only noticed when you're monitoring the entire radio spectrum like I did.

"Zia, has your team finished analyzing the enemy's weapons?" I asked.

Zia looked up at the camera I used to observe the lab. "I'm afraid not much progress. We've seen how it works, but don't know how to reproduce it. ”

"So how does it work?" I asked.

"To put it simply, the energy cone completely destroys the atomic structure of every atom in its path. It somehow disrupts the strong interactions between atoms, preventing the strong nuclear force from bringing the atoms together. ”

It's fascinating and unsettling. As one of the four fundamental interactions in particle physics, it is often beyond our control. Everything we do relies heavily on electromagnetic and gravitational forces. Whereas, strong and weak forces are the components of nuclear bonding. They bring atoms together, and the fusion or splitting of atoms releases this energy. It's the foundation of our entire power grid. Aliens have a weapon that can break down basically every atom they come into contact with. However, the energy in the atom cannot be destroyed, so it explodes outwards in the form of nuclear fire.

"The range of these weapons looks less than 1000 km?" I asked.

"Probably closer to 400 kilometers," Zia said. This means that the energy cone will decompose or disperse even in a vacuum. Electricity demand can be quite astronomical. Even our most outrageous theoretical formulas require a lot of energy. ”

"That's the best news I've ever heard. This means that they can't fire weapons all the time," I said.

"Also, you know how many Scorpion-2s you have in your advanced fleet, right?"

"I do know. We need a couple of extra squad leaders. ”

"Well, you'll be happy to hear it, it looks like there are some pieces of titanium armor floating there."

"Aren't they affected by the vaporizer?"

"Vaporizer? It's a good name. Either way, it's good enough. Not very accurate. Either way, I can't say that the armor was completely unaffected. They were not vaporized, but the nuclear explosion that exploded in the rest of the ship caused some damage. Like I said, some of the pieces survived. ”

"Honestly, that's the best news. We can defend against this weapon in the future. "The day started to really turn around.

Two days later, I saw a cube diagram of the alien fleet as it passed through the outer circle of my outpost. These are the most incomplete outposts, boasting a maximum of a hundred factories, as well as many coil cannons. There are no lasers, no missiles, only a couple of hangars. Fortunately, the fleet did not notice their presence. Or at least, in O

igi

When they still existed, they didn't feel like a threat big enough to worry about.

What's interesting about mass production is how the supply chain works. Theoretically, it's a tree-like hierarchy where many factories produce many small parts that are sent to different factories on the chain, which produce more complex parts that are combined in the next layer until a single factory assembles many complex parts. Then the factory produces Wasp-2 and Scorpion-2 because you need a huge supply chain and there is a limit to how much you can produce at one time.

But reality is not the same as theory. In reality, those factories at the bottom of the chain produce parts very quickly, and can easily exceed the needs of the factories above it. In fact, this is common in every layer, with the lower layer producing faster than the upper layer. As a result, a supply chain that supplies one factory ends up easily supplying more factories.

Saku

When Alice first began to produce "Wasp" and "Scorpion", she had two factories for the production of two types of attack drones. They produce four drones per day. To reach these two factories, she has built a large supply chain. However, once the supply chain is established, she only needs to build two more drone factories in order to double her drone production. In fact, by the time of Gerry's invasion, she had produced 83,208 assault drones, all of which were first-generation designs. I added four Scorpions-2 to complete my advanced fleet.

Another annoying reality is that while the production of cortical units at this point is fairly routine, the construction of cortical backup facilities is rather slow, and certainly slower than the production of assault drones. They are very large and very complex. But being large and complex doesn't mean I haven't taken the time to build as many games as possible.

So, the loss of 83212 attack UAVs mainly means, and now I have 83212 UAV pilots who have learned exactly how to fight the invaders. For the past two days, the Cortical Backup Facility has been working overtime to restore every pilot to the new Wasp-2 and Scorpion-2, which are docked in hangars in the asteroid belt area where I am located. They would be the vanguard, flying into battle with my nine battleships and their squads, and ahead of my other pilots who did not take part in the initial battle.

Somewhere in the asteroid belt, the enemy's fleet crossed an imaginary line. It's time. They have a chance to compete with me. Now it's my turn.

Every outpost, including the Origin, is ready. The bullets were loaded into the coil cannon, the previously unused missile bay rumbled, and the laser installation turned and began to aim. The door to the hangar opened, and 250,000 new attack drones started their engines, waiting for a word.

"Launch".