I ask you to build tractors, but you build rockets?

Hexagon Building, Office Thirteen.

Anthony stood next to the whiteboard, clarifying his thoughts to the reconvened former NX17 tracking team.

"...According to the latest data we have found from the database, there is more than 80% probability that NX17 is on the synchronous orbit. What does this mean?

NX17 is powered. Assuming they don't provide more supplies to NX17, NX17 relies on its own power to raise its orbit, which shows that it has sufficient fuel, advanced technology, and mysterious uses.

So, what needs to be raised or lowered, and for what purpose? "

Anthony's eyes swept across the group members who were taking notes. Most of them also held their chins and began to think, exchanging a few words with each other from time to time.

After a while, someone made a voice:

"Since it is a secret and it is within the scope of the earth, it means it must be used against the earth. I guess it is a weapon, some kind of extremely dangerous weapon.

It may be a large armed satellite that throws kinetic energy weapons or nuclear bombs to the ground to carry out precise strikes on important targets. "

The person Anthony looked at was an older Hispanic. He immediately received Anthony's signal and stood up to continue explaining to other colleagues:

“Although we have long proven that kinetic weapons such as the ‘Rod of God’ do more harm than good, they are not useless.

Missiles launched from the ground are easily detected, and the huge thermal radiation is as conspicuous as the sun. However, if they are released from space, conventional reconnaissance satellites cannot detect them at all, which limits the scope of defense to the end.

A 100 kilogram kinetic energy rod is enough to kill everyone on the lawn of the Presidential Palace, and the same is true for a nuclear bomb. "

Anthony nodded without comment, just asked him to sit down, and then someone stood up immediately:

"I don't agree. Such weapons are meaningless at all. When you really need to use them, who will care about this little bit of concealment?

If it is for this purpose, then the goal is too obvious! "

The second person's words were approved by the majority, and obviously everyone felt that he had another purpose.

"Is there anyone else? Does anyone else have any ideas?"

Anthony continued to search, and then a skinny hand rose up.

He was an old man who looked to be in his sixties, with a classic white Texas appearance. It could be seen that his young hands were very strong, and there was always a touch of pride in his eyes.

His name is Rule, an old man from the Air Force Intelligence Office. He was already on the verge of retirement, but he came here again because he was previously involved in the NX17 investigation.

Ruhr stood up and sneered at the confused team members:

“You silly kids, don’t you think about it in another direction?

Look at them, they are learning from the alliance, that NX17 is not a secret weapon with great destructive power, on the contrary, it is an umbrella. "

Anthony's eyes lit up and he immediately became interested:

"What umbrella? Protect against what?"

"An umbrella against missiles, providing them with an overwhelming advantage in nuclear deterrence. I think some of you still remember the Aurora."

Most of the young team members were still thinking about what "laser" was, but a few people over forty years old suddenly became excited and shouted:

"Stage-DM, yes, that's it!"

"Damn, I should have thought of it earlier, that's what really kills me!"

"They got the Alliance legacy, we should have known better!"

"..."

There was an immediate excitement around a few insiders. Although Anthony was young, he had rarely studied the history of the league's equipment carefully, and finally remembered what "Aurora" was.

Before Xinyuan-3, in addition to carrying the space shuttle, the world's first launch vehicle "Energy" not many people knew that it carried the Stykey-DM test ship "Aurora" during its first flight.

The 105-ton laser satellite can be called the alliance's ultimate black technology. Even senior equipment experts only know about it by name.

Even though the alliance was in such chaos after the disintegration, "Aurora" has still not been leaked. It is still hidden in a secret laboratory, waiting for Lucia to one day restart its research.

Yes, only this kind of thing deserves to be kept so secret, even if it is equipped with a powerful nuclear reactor.

Anthony was almost certain, but he still asked Rule:

"Why didn't you say anything last year? Was it because there was insufficient evidence?"

“At that time, I felt it was impossible because it was too small, only 20 tons, and Aurora weighed 100 tons.

But after learning the latest information, I understood that the distance from low-Earth orbit to synchronous orbit is more than 30,000 kilometers. The only thing that can span this distance and still maintain its power is laser, so it must be something similar to the 'Stage-DM'.

Technology is iterating too fast. Lasers are shrinking and reactors are improving. It is not impossible to achieve 20 tons. "

After Ruhl finished explaining, most people understood what "Aurora" was and tried to connect the two.

"Wait, doesn't that mean we are very dangerous!"

Someone reacted and said in horror:

"NX17 was launched a year ago, and they have been testing it for a full year!

How many defects have they discovered and how many improvements have they made during this period? Are they developing something bigger and more powerful like the Aurora? !

But we were completely unprepared and were at least three, not five, years behind!

If they launch enough laser satellites, all the nuclear bombs around the world will be rendered useless. "

This conclusion was so sensational that everyone became quiet and did not dare to speak.

"No...it is difficult to launch so many large satellites..."

"Don't forget XAP. They are fully capable of launching more than 10 100-ton laser satellites a year. Launching rockets is as easy as drinking water for them."

Anthony's eyes met with everyone's in turn, and his thoughts were running rapidly.

He had a hunch that the result he least wanted to believe would be the truth.

…

"Colonel Anthony, can you take responsibility for your words?"

A day later, David Ursino saw Anthony, who had been up all night and had red eyes.

"I'm sure, at least 95% sure."

"so tall?"

David frowned deeply. A senior intelligence officer said that he was 95% sure. This was very unusual.

"Yes, it can even be said to be 100%, because I also found other supporting information."

Anthony did not report it immediately after coming to the conclusion. He spent a whole night re-reading the relevant information, especially several key time points of NX17, and then discovered a seemingly ordinary event:

On March 2, 2017, less than a week after NX17 took off, an unmanned test high-speed jet trainer aircraft numbered "2231" crashed.

He found this incident simply by searching the web and sifting through the news one month after the launch of NX17. According to the news at the time, the cause of the crash of "2231" aircraft was an uncontrolled disintegration caused by local high temperature and skin deformation caused by exceeding the maximum flight speed.

It looked like an ordinary aviation accident, but when Anthony, who was suspicious of everyone, read it word for word, he felt inexplicably familiar and several questions popped up in his mind:

Why does a jet trainer need to be tested at high speed?

Why does a jet trainer need to be unmanned for a test flight just because it is "replaced with a new engine"?

Why did it crash just a week after NX17 took off, and XAP never conducted similar experiments again?

Anthony thought about it for a long time, and then watched the photos of the wreckage on the news website at that time gradually twist and move, forming two words:

target drones

A perfectly good manned aircraft is transformed into an unmanned aircraft. The Air Force only does this when it needs a simulated target drone. No wonder it feels familiar.

If "2231" is a target drone, what shot down this target drone?

Anthony, who was leaning on his desk by the window late at night, was suddenly blown by the evening breeze and looked towards the quiet night sky.

He seemed to see an extremely bright green light rising in the dark sky, accurately hitting himself as he looked up at the sky. The blazing high temperature instantly ignited his clothes and hair, and then the laser penetrated the skin and flesh, and the fat also burned. It began to crackle and burn, and his body burned into a raging fire like a cremation, shrinking into a ball in the painful struggle, and finally only a pile of scattered, white-burning bones and a few nails were left.

Anthony immediately closed the window, grabbed the blanket on the sofa where he had taken a nap in the morning and covered himself tightly. Like a vampire, he avoided the pale moonlight shining through the window and rushed into the bottom floor of Office 13. It felt slightly better when I was surrounded by cold concrete.

He didn't know how long it took before he fell asleep in exhaustion. After waking up, the fear of the sky finally dissipated a lot, but he still hated the sky as instinctively as avoiding snakes and scorpions. He could only get it by hiding in the shadow of a building. A lot of security.

He was glad that David's office was underground. If it were the office of the Director of the Air Force Intelligence Office that was covered by a large floor-to-ceiling window, it would be difficult for Anthony to sit there.

After listening to the analysis of the "2231" crash, David Usnow said nothing. He couldn't help but look up to the ceiling, as if through the surface of the earth, through the spectacular hexagonal building, directly to the synchronization that overlooks the entire earth. track.

A few people work diligently, and a few people know their master well.