Chapter 104: Electromagnetic Pulse
"Is it over now?"
Inside the cave shelter, the new players who had come to seek refuge gathered around Salty Fish, the strategist, staring at the nuclear explosion footage on his pad.
A strong sense of unease surged in Salty Fish's heart.
These three missiles were too much of a probe!
And since it was a probe, they would definitely formulate the most effective subsequent tactics based on the results obtained.
Only in the actual combat phase would the shortcomings of a single defense system be brutally exposed; it was too passive! It could only wait for the target to appear, then aim and fire.
When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.
But what if the laser cannon couldn't complete the aiming?
A bad feeling welled up in Salty Fish's heart. Given the consistent nature and difficulty of the game "star sea", the enemy would definitely seize the weak point and attack fiercely.
The official website's homepage said it was a casual game, not grindy or difficult, but anyone who played it knew that wasn't the case at all!
Fortunately, he wasn't alone.
A communication from the Executive Officer came through. Due to being in geostationary orbit at an altitude of over 35,000 kilometers, this communication had a delay of nearly a quarter of a second.
"Salty Fish, I'm sharing the surface images captured by the industrial ship with you now. Apollo's attack formation did not unfold as we previously expected, encircling us from three sides; currently, the 'hummingbird' in the vanguard position is continuously accelerating and climbing, and the climbing angle is quite large."
Accelerating and climbing?
Salty Fish's brain raced.
The direct effect of an aircraft accelerating and climbing is an increase in mechanical energy, which is beneficial for extending the range of the mounted missile weapons, allowing them to fly higher and farther.
But Apollo missiles already had a long enough range, and their cruising altitude was above 20 kilometers; any higher would touch the ionosphere and other—
"Could the enemy be using 'that'?"
Lu Yuan: "Probably."
Salty Fish: "Then—can we withstand it?"
Beside Lu Yuan, Jubian's voice came through the microphone.
"Calm down! We won't go into the specific principles, but you need to manually protect these few things—other than these, don't worry about anything else!"
Salty Fish: "Understood! Thanks, leave it to me!"
He opened the public channel and shouted to everyone remaining on the ground: "Everyone, immediately go and physically cut off the power circuits for the following items: camp power grid, communication antenna, phased array radar, all-terrain vehicles, pads, electronic wristbands! Strictly follow the sequence, confirm one by one!"
Jin Yi Ye Xing: "What's going on? Turn off the radar too? We're in the middle of a fight."
Moonlight Ma Lou: "More than half of the nuclear missile detection relies on it."
Bei Hai Xian Yu: "The EMP is coming! No time for detailed explanation, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry!"
Not all players knew what an EMP was, but Salty Fish's hoarse voice made them realize this was no joke, but a matter of life and death.
At this moment, the leading Apollo "hummingbird" had climbed to an altitude of 15 kilometers and accelerated to Mach 1.7, deploying the nuclear missile.
The missile engine ignited, surging forward with momentum, quickly climbing to an altitude of 20 kilometers, followed by 30 kilometers, 40 kilometers, and 50 kilometers! At this point, the high-energy explosive inside the warhead detonated, compressing two pre-formed rings of 239 together, exceeding the critical mass for a chain reaction.
The second nuclear explosion arrived.
The flash swept across the land again, but this time, the high-altitude nuclear fireball did not change color or roll, but rapidly spread like a fried egg, forming a blue-white glow curtain.
The Li Star ionosphere was impacted by the nuclear explosion's gamma rays, releasing a large number of free electrons, which in turn formed a widespread electromagnetic pulse carrying extremely high energy, sweeping across the land like a torrential downpour.
This type of pulse is fatal to electronic equipment, and its coverage area exceeds 3 million square kilometers, potentially even affecting Red Iron Town.
On the battlefield, equipment such as "hummingbird", drones, and power armor, due to having a relatively complete metal shell, effectively form a Faraday cage, completely shielding against the electromagnetic pulse and protecting the internal electronic components.
But the rest, which cannot achieve complete enclosure and shielding based on their working principles, will inevitably have some or even most electronic components exposed, like whiskers.
For example, those civilian devices.
They were not so lucky.
Along with the strange glow in the high altitude, electric sparks immediately erupted in various corners of the camp.
"Report! Power grid failure! All fuses are blown!"
"Communication with the industrial ship is also cut off!"
"Salty Fish! The radar is still burned out, damn it, smoke is coming out, think of a way quickly!"
Salty Fish's heart sank.
Communication being cut off meant he could no longer receive help from the Executive Officer, and had to rely on himself.
Don't panic.
You can't panic!
"New Engineers, go repair the power grid and antenna, don't worry about the phased array radar, that thing can't be fixed in a short time!" Salty Fish forced himself to calm down. "It's okay, if the radar is broken, we still have infrared detection methods, we can still lock and intercept!"
Well, I should be composed, not embarrassing myself! But did the Executive Officer let me be the commander just to say "it's okay" and comfort everyone?
Who the heck wouldn't think of this? At this point, he connected with Ma Lou.
"Hey, how's it going on your side?"
Ma Lou: "It's okay, how about yours?"
Salty Fish: "Also okay. Listen, immediately take 40 players by vehicle to leave the camp, bring enough weapons and ammunition, and hide in the Desert to the west. Apollo has decided to attack the city from the east, don't worry, the 'hummingbird' won't detect you."
Must plan for the worst-case scenario!
Omar looked up at the sky through the porthole, feeling very satisfied with the effect of the EMP.
The hillbillies' radar must have been completely destroyed, excellent, the next step is to disable their infrared!
I still have 16 nuclear bombs in my hand, I ask you, how can I lose?
This is like 16 chess pieces on the board, consume them when necessary, because to achieve the final checkmate, only two or three pieces, or even fewer, are needed.
"Continue bombing!"
The power armor players remaining on the mountaintop urgently moved the laser cannons, which were originally located on the west side, to the east side of the mountain to give them a better shooting field of view.
However, Apollo's subsequent nuclear missiles did not all rush towards Devil Mountain Camp together, but were launched one by one.
When the first missile of this wave flew to its maximum interception range of 50 kilometers, the warhead automatically detonated.
The fireball that overshadowed the sun lit up again, rising into a mushroom cloud, releasing rolling heat waves around it.
At this moment, Nan Guo de Xue connected with Salty Fish.
"Something is wrong, the nuclear explosion is gradually heating the atmosphere, which will significantly reduce the sensitivity of the infrared detection system. Since we have lost our radar, if the next missile flies along the same route, the locking distance will be reduced by 4 kilometers compared to before."
What—
Salty Fish's heart trembled.
"Each nuclear explosion reduces the locking distance by 4 kilometers, so as long as there are enough nuclear bombs 'paving the way' ahead—"
He did a quick calculation.
"Subsequent interceptions will be impossible!?"