After returning to Earth from Terra, Xing Chen and Theresa had other things to do besides enjoying a good meal.
The first was the guidance problem for anti-ship nuclear missiles.
As is well known, due to the existence of the barrier layer, Terra's aerospace industry is basically negligible.
For missiles, a very important part is guidance.
Obviously, Terra has no satellites. Therefore, the satellite guidance solution required for low-altitude cruise missiles was discarded.
Inertial guidance is one method, but this has certain requirements for the trajectory, and the height of the barrier layer does not support it. If the altitude is lowered, the result is a significant reduction in range.
It's a dead end now.
"Actually, I have a method," Theresa said in the school laboratory, fiddling with the geological drone from Xing Chen's team. "I can operate it using my Originium Arts."
"You want to imitate a fiber-optic drone?" Xing Chen was inspecting Originium samples in the laboratory. His mentor had called him back precisely because these Originium samples had suddenly proliferated in large quantities.
Here, "large quantities" is relative to the previous proliferation speed; the actual increase in quantity is very small.
"Yes, I can use my Originium Arts combined with a specially designed casting unit to achieve long-distance sensing and control."
"Theresa, do you know that the flight speed of a cruise missile is at least Mach 0.5, which is more than twice that of a low-speed drone?"
Rhine Lab did not classify missile types. According to the design concept proposed by Xing Chen, the flight altitude of this missile could not be higher than the barrier layer, which is around five kilometers. The flight speed could not be lower than Mach 1, because below this speed, some elite marksmen would have interception capabilities. The range could not be less than 200 kilometers, to avoid the range of enemy warship fire and also to prevent being caught by Terra's superhuman infantry.
Overall, the closest Earth weapon would be a cruise missile, and not even an advanced one.
Xing Chen believed that if he dared to post something online about fiber-optic guided cruise missiles, he would definitely be lambasted.
"Controlling a supersonic flying object over two hundred kilometers... the difficulty is indeed a bit high."
Supersonic speed for the human body is not impossible for Terra's strong individuals, but the problem is maintaining that supersonic state continuously.
"I can talk to Nastya about reducing the speed during the journey, but the speed for terminal penetration must meet the requirements."
Theresa nodded. As long as the speed did not exceed the speed of sound, she could barely control it by amplifying the power of the 'Continuity of Civilization'.
Now the only problem left was terminal guidance, and Xing Chen planned to ask Yu Bo.
"Do you think I might tell you?"
Yu Bo and Xing Chen had a good relationship, but on matters of principle, there was clearly no room for negotiation.
"However, you could try laser guidance. This is the guidance method with the lowest technical content."
Yu Bo gave Xing Chen a suggestion, which also had the possibility of being realized by Columbia's technical capabilities in a short time.
The problem is that it would require someone to use a laser designator at close range to guide the missile.
An ordinary anti-ship missile can at most detonate a warship's ammunition depot, with a limited kill radius, and if it misses, it poses little threat.
However, the anti-ship missiles they were using were equipped with nuclear warheads. If the detonation location was unreasonable... "Then let Dukare be the guide," Theresa said jokingly. "Anyway, he caused me enough trouble before. Even if you tell him to stay put, he'll secretly go to the front line."
"Alright, then all the problems are solved." Xing Chen was also very happy; he had finally sorted out the details of one matter.
It was almost dinner time. Xing Chen locked the laboratory door and went with Theresa to the school cafeteria to see if there was anything good to eat.
The summer sun was starting to become scorching, and there were fewer pedestrians around.
Xing Chen only had a single umbrella, and he decided to give it to Theresa. Seeing this, Theresa used her Originium Arts to double the size of the umbrella canopy.
The school broadcast was reporting some domestic and international news. The space elevator incident from before was brought up again, likely at the insistence of people in materials science.
However, the next international news item piqued Xing Chen's curiosity.
The general content of the news was that a massive blizzard had suddenly hit an area near the border of the Northern Country and the Eastern Country.
It was already summer; no matter how high the latitude, it shouldn't be a blizzard.
"Maybe there's some great injustice," Xing Chen joked.
"Why don't you say it's a natural disaster?" Theresa, for such anomalous weather events, would instinctively lean towards thinking of them as natural disasters.
Natural disasters had been etched into Terra's civilization's DNA.
"If it really were a natural disaster, it would definitely cause great losses, wouldn't it? Look at this broadcast, it's already gone off the rails."
"Is it possible that there's nothing valuable there, so they didn't report the losses?" Theresa looked up, and after a brief thought, she suggested asking someone with a more developed intelligence network.
Xing Chen hadn't noticed until Theresa mentioned it, and Yu Bo's words made him gasp.
According to his local intelligence network, the blizzard almost completely covered the entire Babylon Base, and during the snowfall, tiny black Originium particles were discovered.
Natural disaster... it really was a natural disaster.
During the Reunion Movement's time in Ursus, the anomaly tank had appeared once, and Xing Chen thought it was just a coincidence.
Later, when the Doctor woke up, Xing Chen mentioned it in passing, and the Doctor speculated that it might be a problem with some equipment in another world, causing this anomaly to temporarily disappear.
At that time, since neither side had evidence, there was no further discussion.
Now the situation was clear; the Doctor was right.
However, when Xing Chen sought further confirmation from Yu Bo, he denied the claim that Babylon Base was damaged.
Commercial satellite images showed that the core buildings of Babylon Base were heavy concrete structures. These sturdy buildings showed no signs of damage.
"Theresa, do you think this is reasonable?" Xing Chen turned to consult the Sarkaz's opinion.
"It depends on the situation; the damage from natural disasters also has different grades. I used to order Kazdel to advance at full speed into a natural disaster storm."
If even Kazdel, that pile of junk that could fall apart at any moment, could emerge from a natural disaster storm, then it was normal for this blizzard to be unable to harm permanent concrete fortifications.
Yu Bo did not mention Originium clusters, a byproduct after natural disasters, while Theresa had mentioned that the natural disaster cloud above Babylon Base was very strong, which clearly contradicted each other.
This was not unexplainable; one could simply say that Terra's natural disasters and Earth's natural disasters were not the same thing.
But why weren't they the same? Xing Chen didn't understand.