Earth.
A colossal wormhole suddenly opened, and the Starship base passed through it.
At this moment, the entire Starship team, including Ou Zhanpeng, had their nerves taut, fearing they would see a battered and broken Earth.
However, in the next second, everyone was stunned. The Earth was intact, with a large number of Flame-class warships patrolling its surroundings.
More importantly, a large number of engineering ships were busy in Earth's outer space and behind the moon, either dismantling ship wreckage or casting debris towards the moon.
Most of them were alien warships, with only a very small number being human vessels.
Ou Zhanpeng, with his sharp eyes, also saw some rescue ships docked on the wreckage of their own warships.
On the far side of the moon, dozens of alien warships were stationed in one area, with robots bustling all around.
"What's going on?" Ling Xiao asked in surprise. "It seems we've come back too late."
The Starship hadn't taken much time, but while the wormhole's appearance and disappearance seemed instantaneous, it wasn't that simple. There was a significant time delay in entering and exiting. Simply put, the farther the jump distance and the larger the warship's mass, the higher the delay.
"We are indeed back late!" Ou Zhanpeng confirmed Ling Xiao's guess and immediately activated the communication system. "Starship calling Headquarters, Starship calling Headquarters, please respond if received!"
"Starship, this is Lunar Command Center, please speak!"
"Lunar Command, did we come back late?" Ou Zhanpeng asked.
A burst of laughter came from the other end. "Indeed you did, but only a little bit."
Ou Zhanpeng was not disappointed, but rather greatly relieved. "Lunar Command, has the battle report been prepared? Send me a copy!"
He indeed had reason to be gratified.
Ever since humanity left Earth, they had been treading on thin ice, constantly threatened by alien civilizations. The First, Third, and Fourth Earth defense battles were all won thanks to the Starship's intervention.
It could be said that without the Starship, humanity would not be where it is today.
This time was no different. They had initially expected the base to encounter a fierce battle upon returning to Earth.
But in reality? Their own fleet had already finished the job.
Humanity now possessed a certain degree of self-protection capability. The history of humans living in unease at the mere presence of an alien warship in Earth's outer space was over!
However, there were still many powerful civilizations in this universe, and humanity had only a little self-protection capability, still a long way from true safety!
Therefore, humanity must remain sufficiently clear-headed and must not become complacent with even small achievements.
Not long after, the moon sent a package of documents to the Starship, which included text descriptions and a large amount of video footage, allowing everyone to understand the entire battle process.
When the enemy fleet jumped to the far side of the moon and was met with the full force of the defense system and fleet, everyone thought the battle was about to conclude.
However, the fact was that a portion of the enemy fleet had hidden in the dark. As a large number of human warships gathered on the far side of the moon, over two hundred alien warships jumped into Earth's outer space and took the opportunity to bomb Earth.
The enemy's plan was insidious: use the main force to lure the human fleet away from Earth, and then use a detachment to sneak attack Earth.
The aliens' only oversight was not anticipating that humanity possessed far more warships than they realized.
As soon as their attack began, it triggered the highest alert of Earth's defense system.
The defense systems were all on fixed orbits, and most of the firing points did not have the capability to strike the far side of the moon. The result was that as soon as the enemy's wormhole opened, it was subjected to the full force of all firing points.
The bombardment had just ended when the enemy fleet had already forcibly charged through the wormhole, appearing in Earth's outer space.
Just as the enemy was about to bomb Earth, the reserve fleet, having broken out in a cold sweat, arrived in time. With the cooperation of the defense system, over four hundred warships managed to sink two-thirds of the enemy fleet with a single salvo. The remaining third did not last long either.
However, the enemy was tenacious. Even as they were about to sink, they persisted in their attack, launching two volleys at Earth. A batch of surface cities were destroyed by the enemy's firepower, and the casualties and property losses had yet to be tallied.
Seeing this, Ou Zhanpeng couldn't help but gaze into the distance at Earth, and indeed, he spotted a few scorched marks on the planet's surface.
Fortunately, they weren't within their own territory!
Ou Zhanpeng knew it was inappropriate to think this way, but he couldn't control his thoughts.
Gong Yiding sighed deeply, filled with emotion. "Now, the foreign affairs department will be busy again."
"Who cares, let them say whatever they want, just treat it as them farting!" Ling Xiao said dismissively.
Since the military fully took over Earth's defense, the other companions no longer had to worry about Earth's safety, or rather, they were unable to.
If nothing had happened, it would have been fine. Now that a dozen cities were lost, there would definitely be strong protests directed at the foreign affairs department.
Although the military possessed a vast space fleet and had made the greatest effort in this battle, the losses of the other companions were entirely unexpected, and there was no need to pay attention to these chaotic voices.
However, there were no losses within Xia Country, which was precisely what some people wanted as leverage.
There would never be a shortage of conspiracy theorists in this world, nor a lack of indecisive, foolish people.
However, these issues were not something the Starship needed to consider. The foreign affairs department would handle the rebuttals and counterattacks as needed, and it would be handled perfectly.
The subsequent development was simple. The alien fleet, misjudging the situation, immediately attempted to break through. However, humanity's firepower was too strong, and not a single warship had a chance to escape.
Before long, only about twenty-odd warships remained. Knowing they couldn't escape, these warships simply landed on the moon, releasing all the aircraft and combat personnel from within, intending to put up a desperate resistance.
The human warships in the air didn't give the enemy any chance to act. They directly airdropped land combat modules, and a large number of improved mechs rushed out of the modules. In a short period, all alien combat units were rounded up.
Ou Zhanpeng couldn't help but smile.
This was perhaps the second large-scale participation of mechs on the moon, wasn't it? After so many years of development, the performance of these little things had made significant progress. Some people had even suggested reducing the deployment of xenobugs and increasing the production of mechs.
The reasons were also sufficient: humanity could absolutely control mechs, while xenobugs could not. If they were to defeat the star beasts in the future, it would be extremely awkward if the xenobugs became too powerful to control.
He heard that the military was already considering this issue.
Just after finishing the report, the Starship received a communication from the command center. Upon opening it, to their surprise, all three top leaders were on the screen.
Shan Qiuyu and Ou Zhanpeng were most familiar with each other. Shan Qiuyu smiled and made a joke, "Little Ou, you're late this time!"
Ou Zhanpeng laughed heartily. "Isn't that right? If I had known, I wouldn't have rushed back."
"Is it okay for you to return at this time for negotiations?" Zhou Guangyi asked with concern.
"No problem. Projects related to us have already been finalized, and it doesn't matter whether the Starship is here or not," Ou Zhanpeng replied confidently. "By the way, we made a discovery on Ror 4 related to the enemy's identity."
The expressions of the three top leaders immediately turned serious. Zhou Guangyi furrowed his brow and pressed for details. "What did you discover?"
"Let Old Gong explain this," Ou Zhanpeng said, gesturing for Gong Yiding to step forward and briefly explaining their findings before their return.
After finishing, Ou Zhanpeng took over again. "We have already locked onto a few targets, but partial similarity is not strong evidence. If there are Ror people supporting them from behind, it would be easy to build hundreds of warships."
"You want more evidence, right?" Zhou Guangyi asked.
"Yes, with so many wreckage on the battlefield, we are bound to find aliens. It would be best if we could capture some alive," Ou Zhanpeng said.
"It should be fine!" Zhou Guangyi agreed and immediately issued an order to the fleet to capture more aliens.
It didn't matter if the order wasn't given; during the battlefield cleanup, any surviving aliens would naturally be captured.
Not long after, the command center received the preliminary statistical data from the fleet, reporting over seven hundred aliens captured!
Upon hearing this news, Ou Zhanpeng's spirits were immediately lifted, and he requested the command center to send the specific information about the aliens.
Soon, a batch of photos was sent to the Starship.
Ou Zhanpeng opened the files, and a group of idle people immediately gathered around.
It was a photo of alien warship wreckage. The lighting was poor, only showing a blurry outline, making it impossible to identify the alien race.
Fortunately, the next photo was clearer, showing a bulky spacesuit, a hemispherical helmet, and other external features distinctly.
There was also a photo of an alien with its spacesuit removed, taken even more clearly.
"It's the Groping Head!" Ling Xiao exclaimed first.
Everyone was immediately filled with righteous indignation.
The Groping Heads were indeed members of the Anti-Ror Alliance. The greatest characteristic of this race was their lack of necks, as if their heads had been cut off and their faces directly attached to their necks.
This was why they had such a strange name.
However, naming based on physiological characteristics was not intended to slander but was based on their appearance, making them easy to identify and remember.
Other alien civilizations also named themselves in the same way, finding the most prominent characteristics from their physiology and appearance whenever possible.
Of course, not all aliens were like this. The most obvious example was the Ror people... In fact, this name only appeared in official documents. In private, everyone called the Ror people "Radishes."
This was by no means intentional belittlement. The Ror people themselves bore a strong resemblance to radishes with legs and limbs. They were not only short and stout but also similar in size. If you directly replicated the image of the Ror people in an animated cartoon, people would surely believe they evolved from radishes.
In the following minutes, the Starship team successively identified the affiliation of six other alien races. Seven warships and seven alien races, their identities were thoroughly confirmed.
After reporting the results to the command, the three top leaders remained silent for a while before Zhou Guangyi spoke, "Now, all I want to know is whether our foreign policy has any problems. How did so many aliens suddenly appear to target us?"
The military's foreign policy was essentially no different from Earth's foreign policy.
It must be pointed out that Xia Country had always been very mild in its foreign affairs. Only those who deliberately targeted them would receive countermeasures from Xia Country.
Furthermore, interstellar civilizations were different from other companions. In its interactions with other interstellar civilizations, the military had always been very cautious and could not have offended so many civilizations.
"The problem may not be with our policy," Shan Qiuyu said. "We cannot rule out the possibility of the Ror people deliberately bribing them. After all, they are an interstellar civilization, and it is not impossible for them to use some means to bribe a group of aliens."
"Isn't it too early to discuss this now?" Mu Xingyu expressed a dissenting opinion. "The immediate priority is to organize personnel to conduct interrogations as soon as possible and obtain firsthand information!"
Zhou Guangyi nodded in agreement. "Immediately assign personnel. The location will be Luojian Mountain."
"Alright!"
With the decision made by the three top leaders, the order was immediately relayed.
The battlefield had not yet been fully cleared. The fleet immediately dispatched several warships specifically for transporting prisoners.
In just a few hours, nearly a thousand prisoners were sent to Luojian Mountain and placed under guard.
Luojian Mountain did not have sufficient military strength on its own. The guards were temporarily drawn from marine detachments of the fleet.
Luojian Mountain also lacked existing prisons, so several warehouses had to be vacated and their interiors temporarily modified.
Half a day later, the interrogation team from Earth arrived at Luojian Mountain. There were more than 300 people in total, with over 200 being specialized translators and only about 100 being interrogation experts.
At this point, they couldn't afford to be concerned about whether human interrogation methods were suitable for aliens. They would make do for now.
As for the translators, it was a more complex matter.
When humans first came into contact with alien civilizations, they communicated using a common language. However, the ambiguity of the common language was a significant problem. Later, the military established a specialized research department to translate the languages of other interstellar civilizations.
To be honest, this was not a good job, as language was truly complex.
One alien did not have vocal cords at all and could not make any sound, relying entirely on complex pheromone language for communication. When encountering such a civilization, even the most capable translator would be helpless; only chemists could perform translation work.
Another alien civilization, although it communicated through language, had very few morphemes. To human ears, it sounded like a hen about to lay an egg, squawking at a high pitch. A string of calls combined together formed a sentence.
Human ears could not distinguish the intonation of this language; specialized equipment was required to capture the changes in intonation.
This was still considered good. One civilization communicated using ultrasound, like bats, can you believe it?
Fortunately, it was ultrasound. If they communicated using infrasound, bringing them onto the battlefield would be like having human sonic weapons!
Despite encountering many difficulties, the translation of interstellar languages had never stopped, and corresponding translation software had been updated multiple times.
Although humanity had not encountered many interstellar civilizations, thus far, in most cases, direct communication was possible, rather than using an ambiguous common language.
It was precisely because of this foundation that the military had confidence in carrying out the interrogations.
Otherwise, how could they interrogate if they couldn't even understand what was being said?
In fact, besides translation, the Starship base had an even more direct method: reading the prisoners' minds.
However, doing so would be equivalent to turning the prisoners into robots. For the most basic humanitarian reasons, the military would not do this for the time being.