Chapter 371: Rapid Action

Hearing Jason’s explanation, Alex nodded, a hint of embarrassment on his face. "Sorry, Commander. I didn’t mean to openly object during the briefing..."

"I just wanted to suggest that we take additional, proactive measures to control this risk..."

Jason’s eyebrow twitched, but he didn’t scold the junior analyst. Instead, he stepped into the personnel shuttle and waved Alex inside.

Alex scrambled up the ramp and jumped into the cabin. He spoke rapidly, "If... if we can somehow find the coordinates of their homeworld and deduce their fleet’s probable flight vector... we could deploy two Titan warships to intercept them along their flight path! We could buy the Deep Space time to escape!"

Directly attack the incoming armada?

Jason was stunned. To be completely honest, the sheer audacity of the idea shocked him. He hadn’t expected the usually analytical Alex to propose launching a preemptive ambush against a technologically superior enemy with only two warships!

"As long as they remain inside their warp bubbles, they are completely blind to their surroundings! We can establish a kill-box ahead of their vector and fire a massive barrage of munitions right into their flight path!" Alex said, his eyes wild with excitement.

"Then, we let the two Titans engage whatever survives the initial barrage.

They don’t even need to win! The moment the ambush connects and the enemy’s warp bubbles collapse, our sensors will observe the detonation. At that exact second, the Deep Space immediately spools its drives and flees!"

"We hand full control of the two Titans over to our combat AIs... They can fight a retreating action, stalling for as long as physically possible. So what if the enemy eventually catches up and destroys them?"

"That strategy guarantees we buy the Deep Space enough time to jump!"

Jason lowered his head and pondered the tactical scenario for a few seconds. It actually made terrifying sense.

If sacrificing two Titan warships could guarantee the survival of the mothership... there was no doubt the plan was militarily viable!

As for the astronomical cost of a Titan and the two years it took to construct one... Jason couldn’t care less. As long as humanity survived, material costs were irrelevant. They could build a hundred more Titans later!

He frowned. "But the fatal flaw in this plan is... how do we determine their flight vector? Space is vast. Where do we position the ambush? In which direction do we fire the barrage?"

"Ideally, we’d need a massive asteroid belt or a rogue planet to use as cover; otherwise, the Titans would be easily detected on long-range sensors the moment the enemy dropped out of warp."

Alex was stumped. It was indeed a massive logistical hurdle. In the infinite expanse of the cosmos, where could they possibly lay an ambush?

However, he quickly recovered and replied, "That’s why I think... we need to search the ocean floor immediately to see if there is an abandoned alien outpost! If we can find any residual data or telemetry, that would give us our vector!"

"And if they didn’t leave any telemetry behind..." He shook his head, trailing off.

Searching for an alien base?

Jason’s heart skipped a beat. He frowned, thinking it over. Alex was right; this was the only proactive option they had left.

A small, automated scout probe could only carry a limited sensor suite. For a thorough scientific survey, an interstellar civilization could easily establish a small, automated base on the ocean floor... though whether such a base actually existed was pure speculation.

"It all depends on how much strategic value they placed on this planet back then. If they deemed it low-priority, they likely just dropped a buoy and moved on.

But if they placed high value on it, they might have established a secure facility to conduct long-term research... Perhaps that base is what’s been secretly monitoring the Gaia entity this entire time?"

Jason said quietly, "Honestly, I pray to God they didn’t value this planet..."

Over the next few hours, as Jason’s shuttle landed back on Planet Dige, he initiated an emergency global broadcast, officially declaring that the Federation and the Deep Space were under absolute wartime martial law!

Through live speeches and distributed video briefings, he informed all surface personnel and the citizens aboard the mothership of the true nature of the impending crisis.

Faced with this sudden, apocalyptic threat, the civilian population initially panicked. Millions felt an overwhelming urge to flee. However, Jason’s calm, authoritative tactical analysis and solemn promises quickly anchored them.

"I will remain here on the surface! Always!"

"When the danger arrives, you will all evacuate first. I will be the absolute last man to leave this planet! You have my word!"

Hearing this, the panicked masses fell into a stunned, reassured silence.

Jason’s decades of leadership, guiding humanity from near-extinction to the level of an interstellar civilization, had fostered an unshakeable aura of authority around him.

The public’s cult of personality surrounding him was absolute, even though he genuinely despised the idea of being treated like a dictator. In reality, his operational authority was no different from one.

This was simply the sociological reality of their survival. Whether he liked it or not, it was impossible to dismantle that absolute trust unless he deliberately sabotaged his own reputation to counteract the hero worship.

Knowing that their Supreme Commander was willing to anchor himself to the irradiated surface, and that the civilian staff could evacuate to the mothership at a moment’s notice, gave the population a strange, profound sense of security.

In reality, even without the threat of a hostile alien armada, operating on this bizarre, irradiated planet carried inherent risks.

Therefore, after careful consideration, the vast majority of the crew decided to stay at their posts and continue the mission.

If the sky falls, the giants will hold it up. That was the prevailing mindset of the general public. To them, the concept of a interstellar war felt abstract and distant. It’s just one more month...

Several high-ranking officers advised Jason to return to the Deep Space and command from orbit, but he righteously refused.

The decision to hold the line was his. If he, as the Commander-in-Chief, cowed to the danger and hid in orbit, he would essentially be abandoning his frontline soldiers. Given his character, he would rather die.

Within hours, the entire civilization was rapidly mobilized for total war.

The Deep Space began an emergency blackout operation. Massive thermal dampeners and stealth shrouds were deployed to disguise the colossal mothership’s hull as a natural asteroid, allowing it to rest silently in the shadow of the planet’s second moon.

"Yes, exactly like that! As long as we maintain absolute radio silence and the enemy doesn’t conduct a low-orbit sweep, they are highly likely to mistake us for lunar debris..."

"Using the moon’s gravity well and mass shadow as cover is incredibly deceptive! We just have to pray they don’t look too closely at the radioactive craters we left on the surface..."

Groups of military experts whispered among themselves, formulating countless contingency strategies. The entire Federation transitioned smoothly into wartime readiness.

Orders were executed with brutal efficiency; this was a live-fire mobilization, far more intense than any simulation!

"Shut down the primary nuclear reactors immediately! Reroute critical life support to the secondary auxiliary plants. Shut down all non-essential industrial sectors and civilian functions!

Minimize our thermal signature at all costs! As long as we eliminate the mothership’s external heat radiation, we practically vanish from their thermal sensors!"

"Understood! Engineering teams are triple-checking the main thrusters right now. We have automated drones and manual crews working in tandem. The main reactors are primed for an emergency cold-start at a moment’s notice!"

"...All weapon batteries and interceptor drones are fully loaded with live munitions and fueled for maximum burn. The Warp Drive diagnostic must be completed within the hour.

If the tactical situation goes critical, we may have to initiate an emergency warp jump while still deep inside the star’s gravity well!"

Orders cascaded from the top down, mobilizing thousands of industrial workers and engineers. The civilization of 800,000 citizens remained highly disciplined, with almost zero chaotic disruption. At first, the tension was suffocating, but they quickly adapted to the wartime environment.

Modern Federation society was vastly different from the fractured nations of old Earth.

Thanks to rigorous education and shared hardship, every citizen possessed strong critical thinking skills. In private, people constantly debated the merits of the crisis, whether they should flee immediately or hold the line for the ultimate prize.

Disagreements were common; the younger generation always leaned toward adventure, while the older generation favored conservative survival.

But regardless of personal opinions, they all obeyed the government’s absolute authority. At the very least, they wouldn’t fracture during a critical survival moment. There would be no internal protests, riots, or catastrophic divisions.

In the ancient past, humanity’s baseline instinct was selfish, individual survival. It was human nature; if an issue affected someone personally, it was a massive crisis. If it affected a stranger, it was trivial.

People were so inherently selfish that they viewed missing a meal as a greater tragedy than the death of a stranger. They never grasped the butterfly effect of sociological collapse, never realizing that those "trivial" societal cracks were already spelling their own doom.

But now, backed by post-scarcity wealth and unified ideological education, the citizens thought in terms of "the civilization." If the civilization fell, individual survival was meaningless.

We must unite. Unity is survival. This core tenet was drilled into every citizen from birth.

For any interstellar civilization, risk and reward are forever bound together. That was why this crisis was so agonizing, and why it sparked such intense internal debate. Of course, Jason’s absolute, unshakeable will was the anchor holding it all together...