Chapter 158 Watching the Aurora

At that moment, the voice in the communicator could be heard calling continuously:
"Dragon Head, Dragon Head. This is Yellow Dragon. Dragon Head, Dragon Head. This is Yellow Dragon. Acknowledge and reply, please acknowledge and reply!"
Upon hearing this, Zhang Desen immediately rushed forward, grabbed the microphone, and replied:
"I am Dragon Head, I am Dragon Head! Yellow Dragon, please speak, Yellow Dragon, please speak."
At this time, Zhao Chengming's voice continued to come through the communicator:
"Dragon Head, Dragon Head, General Feng Yucai is causing a commotion at the door over here!"
Zhang Desen asked:
"What is wrong with General Feng Yucai? Why is he causing a commotion there?"
Zhao Chengming continued:
"General Feng Yucai says he is quite reluctant to be sidelined like this. He says he is here to help, not to watch the spectacle, and he hopes we can explain to him what is actually going on and why they have been left out in the cold until now. So they are currently raising a ruckus at the door, demanding to come in and discuss the matter."
Hearing this, Zhang Desen could not help feeling a slight headache. After thinking for a moment, he said to Zhao Chengming:
"Alright. Go and speak with General Feng Yucai now. Explain to him that shortly there will be many things that cannot be seen by others. If he learns about these, he will shoulder the exact same risks as we do, and the more he knows, the more likely he is to attract trouble. However, if he still insists on knowing, it can only be for his ears alone. Go and ask him first."
Zhao Chengming acknowledged upon hearing this:
"Yellow Dragon understands, Yellow Dragon understands. I will go talk to General Feng Yucai immediately and reply shortly."
Zhang Desen said:
"Very well!"
After ending the conversation, Zhang Desen felt a slight ache in his head. Seeing him like this, Li Longfang, who was by his side, asked him:
"Captain, what should we do now? Are we returning to Earth now?"
Zhang Desen glanced at the huge cigar-shaped space mothership in the distance, pondered for a moment, and said:
"Let's wait for Zhao Chengming's contact first. If he doesn't reach out again within ten minutes, we will head straight back to Earth. Otherwise, if Zhao Chengming suddenly sends a message while we are on our way back, it could cause certain procedural disruptions—after all, passing through the atmosphere is no laughing matter. Let's wait a moment."
Hearing Zhang Desen say this, Li Longfang immediately replied:
"Yes!!!"
Sure enough, in less than ten minutes, Zhao Chengming called Zhang Desen and the others once more. At this moment, Zhao Chengming's voice came through:
"Dragon Head, Dragon Head! This is Yellow Dragon! Dragon Head, Dragon Head! This is Yellow Dragon! General Feng Yucai and his men state that they have been forged in piles of corpses on the battlefield and fear no danger. However, leaving them sidelined right now amounts to an insult to them."
Zhang Desen thought carefully and realized it made sense. Back in his original universe, he was also a soldier; if he were the one left out in the cold, it wouldn't feel good either.
However, Zhang Desen's dilemma at this moment lay in the generational gap and other factors. After all, General Feng Yucai and his men were accustomed to the mindset of the cold weapon era. Suddenly talking to them about high-intelligence civilizations, interstellar spaceships, and detailed information regarding aliens made Zhang Desen somewhat worried whether their brain capacity could absorb so many new things all at once.
Therefore, at this moment, Zhang Desen truly fell into a dilemma. Seeing that Zhang Desen did not reply, Li Longfang, sitting next to him, did not urge him either. Naturally, Zhao Chengming said nothing further. None of them intended to disturb Zhang Desen, and all of them simply waited there for Zhang Desen's reply.
After thinking for a while, Zhang Desen picked up the microphone and asked:
"First tell General Feng Yucai that I have gone to reconnoiter the enemy situation. If possible, ask him to wait until I return to discuss specifics with him, and assure him that I will definitely return to Hozhou City before dark."
Upon hearing Zhang Desen's words, Zhao Chengming immediately replied:
"Understood, I will relay this precisely."
The call then ended. At this point, Li Longfang asked Zhang Desen:
"Captain. Do you really intend to confess everything to General Feng Yucai?"
Zhang Desen replied:
"General Feng Yucai would be a reliable partner. But if he feels that the people he is helping are keeping many things from him, he might perceive it as an insult. That would not be very favorable for stabilizing our rear, so choosing an appropriate time to confess everything to him may not be a bad choice."
Li Longfang then said:
"That is true as well. If General Feng Yucai can keep a secret, it indeed holds advantages for us. It's just that, Captain, in case there are spies from other factions among his subordinates, I'm afraid many of our secrets will be exposed to others."
Zhang Desen thought again and replied:
"In that case, if we do make a confession, perhaps we should only confess to General Feng Yucai himself. As for how General Feng Yucai chooses to inform those around him, we can take it one step at a time. Besides, I haven't even made up my mind yet whether I should truly confess everything to General Feng Yucai right now. Let's return and talk it over first before deciding."
Li Longfang said:
"Yes!!!"
At that moment, a sudden thought occurred to Zhang Desen, and he said:
"Brother Longfang, while the time is still early, and considering that solar winds are currently exceptionally strong during this monitoring period, and the South Pole happens to be in the middle of its polar night, I will fly you into the skies above the Antarctic region to appreciate the Antarctic lights from space."
Upon hearing this, Li Longfang said:
"Oh, the Captain mentioned something about auroras in the past. But I haven't quite remembered it clearly. Could the Captain explain it once more?"
Zhang Desen said:
"Certainly. Perhaps viewing it from space doesn't give quite the same sense of grandeur as viewing it from the ground, but let's not dwell on that too much for now. I will briefly explain it to you."
An aurora is a colorful plasma phenomenon that occurs when streams of solar charged particles (solar wind) enter the Earth's magnetic field, creating a brilliant and beautiful glow in the night sky at high altitudes near the Earth's north and south poles. In the Antarctic, it is called the aurora australis, and in the Arctic, the aurora borealis.
Earth's auroras are generated when high-energy charged particle streams (solar winds) from the Earth's magnetosphere or the sun excite (or ionize) high-latitude atmospheric molecules or atoms.
Auroras frequently appear in the skies near the geomagnetic poles and generally take the form of bands, arcs, curtains, or rays. These shapes are sometimes stable and sometimes undergo continuous changes. There are three conditions required for the production of an aurora: an atmosphere, a magnetic field, and high-energy charged particles.
Auroras appear in the skies above the high magnetic latitude regions of planets and are a colorful luminous phenomenon. Earth's auroras are produced when high-energy charged particle streams from the Earth's magnetosphere and the sun excite ( or ionize) the upper atmospheric molecules or atoms. The three conditions required for an aurora—atmosphere, magnetic field, and high-energy charged particles—are all indispensable. Auroras do not occur solely on Earth; other planets in the solar system possessing magnetic fields also experience auroras.
Auroras generally appear only in the high-latitude regions of the north and south poles. However, the solar storm on August 1, 2010, erupted facing the Earth precisely, and the solar wind carrying a large number of charged particles "struck" the Earth accurately, interacting with the Earth's magnetic field to produce a "magnetic storm."
This allowed slightly lower latitude regions such as Michigan in the United States, Denmark, and the United Kingdom to witness the beautiful aurora borealis landscape. Experts stated that this solar storm did not disrupt global satellite and telecommunications systems as previously predicted, but instead brought a magnificent "fireworks show" to Earth.
An aurora is a large-scale discharge process surrounding the Earth. Charged particles from the sun arrive near the Earth, and the Earth's magnetic field forces a portion of them to concentrate along the magnetic field lines toward the north and south poles. When they enter the upper polar atmosphere (>80km), they collide with and excite atoms and molecules in the atmosphere, and the light generated by energy release forms a large circle surrounding the magnetic pole, namely the aurora.
The period when auroras are most likely to appear is before the arrival of the equinoxes of vernal and autumnal equinox, with the frequency of occurrence being even greater in spring and winter—correction, spring and autumn.
This is because during the vernal and autumnal equinoxes, the Earth's position intersects most closely with the "magnetic rope." In addition, during periods of numerous sunspots or when the solar cycle sees an increase in coronal mass ejections and enhanced solar wind intensity, the frequency and brightness of auroras also increase.
However, Zhang Desen added at this moment:
"Perhaps you haven't noticed, but there is a weapon in the warehouse of the ultra-ancient humans. It can produce characteristics quite similar to magnetic storms that occur when auroras are intense, capable of interfering with various modern high-tech instruments. I wonder if the ultra-ancient humans were inspired by auroras when they developed such a weapon."
Li Longfang said:
"I heard there is also a particle beam weapon, is that correct?"
Zhang Desen smiled and said:
"So you know about particle beam weapons!"
Li Longfang said:
"Captain, you've told all of us about it! And you said that quite a few of the technologies developed by the ultra-ancient humans are more advanced than those in your original universe."
Particle beam weapons utilize accelerators to speed up particles such as protons and neutrons to tremendous speeds of tens of thousands to 200,000 kilometers per second, emitting them through electrodes or magnetic convergence to form extremely fine particle beams used to bombard targets.
Depending on whether the particles are charged, they can be divided into charged particle beam weapons and neutral particle beam weapons. In space, particle beam weapons can destroy targets dozens of kilometers away; however, their power attenuates in the atmosphere, limiting them to attacking targets a few kilometers away.
In the 21st century, weapons development has entered the world of atoms and molecules, with nuclear weapons applying atomic theory. The protons in the center of atomic matter carry a positive charge, electrons carry a negative charge, and neutrons are neutral. Matter referred to as particles includes electrons, protons, neutrons, and other positively and negatively charged ions.
Particles can only be used as weapons when accelerated to the speed of light. When fired into space, a particle beam can melt or destroy targets, and upon hitting a target, secondary magnetic field effects occur to further damage it.
Particle beam weapons emit high-energy directional strong currents of near-light-speed subatomic beams (charged and neutral particle beams), destroying satellites and incoming intercontinental ballistic missiles with immense kinetic energy.
Even if nuclear warheads cannot be directly destroyed, the powerful electromagnetic field pulse heat generated by the particle beam will burn out the missile's electronic equipment, or utilize gamma and X-rays generated around the target to disable or damage its electronics. Charged particle beam weapons are typically used within the atmosphere.
Neutral particle beam weapons are used outside the atmosphere, primarily for intercepting intercontinental ballistic missiles during their boost and mid-course phases.
...
However, what they did not know was that at this very moment, a fierce discussion was taking place within the human nation of Liaogu.