The hardest war in human history had ended, but its repercussions were far from over.
In this battle, more than half of the eighty-three warships were lost, with only twenty-odd remaining.
After the war, half of the United States was destroyed by alien warships, an unprecedented loss. Fortunately, while the alien's bombardment covered a vast area, its penetration power was not as high as imagined. Civilians hiding in air-raid shelters were mostly unharmed.
Outside the shelters, there were few survivors.
But problems arose alongside the devastation. In the scorched earth zone, all buildings were destroyed, infrastructure annihilated. Power, water, communications, transportation – all facilities vital to the populace were gone. The entire scorched zone suffered from shortages of food, water, and electricity, with all external transportation completely severed.
Although the US had stored large quantities of food and drinking water in the shelters beforehand, their reserves were but a drop in the bucket against the consumption of hundreds of millions of mouths.
Many civilians began self-rescue efforts, but they had no idea what they were about to face. Only a few on the fringes of the scorched earth zone moved in the right direction and successfully escaped danger.
The US government launched rescue operations immediately, but American rescue efforts were, as always, just that.
To rescue more civilians from the dangerous area, the US promptly sought international aid. Regardless of country or region, any entity willing to conduct rescue operations was granted free entry into the scorched earth zone.
At this time, the space situation remained chaotic, but all nations, driven by the most basic humanitarian spirit, extended a helping hand to the US.
Even their old rival, Russia, offered some assistance to the US. Gloating and celebrating were kept private; on the surface, deep sympathy was expressed.
Indeed, whether it was for show or to spite the US, they provided manpower and resources, leaving no room for criticism.
Post-war assessments revealed staggering losses for the US, with recovery projected to take at least thirty to fifty years.
They would not be reduced to a third-rate nation, but it was obvious they could no longer maintain their previous position. A new world order was taking shape, and the eyes of all nations turned towards Yan Jing.
Yan Jing also suffered considerable losses. Out of a total of twenty-six warships, thirteen were damaged, seven heavily so, leaving only two space carriers and four expedition-class vessels intact.
The losses were undoubtedly severe, but these six warships represented the strongest space military force in all of humanity, bar none!
Might did not make right, but at this juncture, no one dared to ignore the military strength possessed by Yan Jing.
All nations clearly recognized that the ancient oriental power not only re-emerged but had once again ascended to the pinnacle of the world, becoming the de facto leader of the Blue Star.
No matter how unwilling they were, they had to acknowledge this fact.
Yan Jing also clearly understood that this battle had only repelled one alien offensive. The aliens who fled Jupiter had dispersed to the outer reaches of the solar system and would inevitably return soon.
The immediate priority was to clear the battlefield, reorganize the fleet, and prepare for another alien attack.
However, clearing the battlefield was not simple. The engagement area was vast, with immense amounts of debris. Warship wreckage and weaponry were scattered widely, making the task far from swift. Rescuing people had to come first, and then other matters could be addressed.
Yan Jing deployed all its rescue forces, even sending rescue teams from Luojian Mountain, including Ou Zhanpeng, in the newly assembled Warship No. 028 into the battlefield.
Expecting no survivors, they were surprised to find many people still alive after commencing rescue operations.
The reason was simple: the core compartments of the expedition-class warships were small, each with only a few dozen crew members, who were mostly concentrated on the bridge during combat. Even if the core compartment was destroyed, the bridge could withstand some impact for a period.
Only a direct hit that obliterated the bridge would result in all hands lost.
Regrettably, the core compartments of most warships were riddled with holes by the alien attack, with only a fortunate few escaping destruction.
But after just two days, the rescue operation had to be halted because the asteroids arrived!
The vanguard fleet had pushed them aside, and theoretically, these asteroids would only pass by Earth without close contact. However, nothing was absolute; what if a stray asteroid decided to seek solace in Earth's warm embrace?
The human fleet, not yet fully replenished, set out again, prepared for any unexpected situations.
Fortunately, it was uneventful. Only a few asteroids entered the battlefield, further disorganizing the already chaotic wreckage. However, in terms of size and mass, the fragments were merely a fraction of the asteroids, and impacts of this magnitude could not alter the asteroids' trajectories.
The rescue operation continued, but no more survivors were found.
Following the rescue came the long clearing operation. Personnel from various participating parties found many wreckage fragments of alien warships and salvaged a batch of alien weaponry.
These weapons, similar to the weapon systems on the damaged ships, were powered by wireless energy transfer.
Experiments revealed that the power of these weapons was considerable, possessing both penetration and thermal damage capabilities. However, these weapons were not lasers or any other known energy weapons, and their operating principles were still under investigation.
For convenience, Gong Yiding gave them a rather imprecise name: Thermic Light Cannons.
As a result, all who obtained Thermic Light Cannons considered them treasures and immediately sent them back to the ground, mobilizing top-tier researchers to study them day and night.
Luojian Mountain, however, was different. Gong Yiding waved his hand and equipped most of the Thermic Light Cannons onto new warships.
One reason was the considerable haul. The second was that the base's understanding of alien weaponry far surpassed that of other nations. Leaving two samples was sufficient; the rest would be idle, so it was better to install them on warships to serve their purpose.
Beyond the weaponry, other gains were scarce. However, countries did their best to send collected alien warship fragments back to the ground for thorough, all-encompassing research.
Without high-performance materials, high-performance warships could not be built.
Furthermore, various countries also found many giant species and a small number of brain-fish on the battlefield!
The successful capture of aliens brought immense joy to all nations, who happily sent them back... Well, they initially intended to send them back to the ground immediately, but for safety reasons, they delayed. After implementing isolation measures, the aliens were sent back to Earth for research.
Unfortunately, within a few days, all captured giant species died. Dissection revealed that these creatures had very few normal organs and did not resemble biological life forms at all!
When this news was released, the researchers were quite excited. They were unaware that Luojian Mountain already knew what the giant species truly were, and even possessed some giant species embryos, capable of cloning them at any time if necessary.
Alas, falling behind at one stage meant falling behind at every stage. The gap was evident, and catching up was no easy feat!
The battlefield was too vast and cluttered with debris to be cleared quickly. After the asteroid群 passed, personnel belonging to Luojian Mountain returned to the Moon under superior orders to continue their original work.
The day after returning to Luojian Mountain, the base held a brief celebration. There were no lights or sound systems; it was during dinner that Gong Yiding suddenly stepped forward, clapped his hands to attract everyone's attention, and announced, "Everyone, we have just received a commendation order from above. Given the current special circumstances, we will not have a formal celebration. I will simply say a few words!"
As he spoke, the already quiet dining hall fell into a pin-drop silence, filled with anticipation.
Gong Yiding tapped on his terminal, bringing up a document: "I will now announce the commendation order... Ou Zhanpeng!"
No one was surprised. The venue immediately erupted with thunderous applause. If not for disciplinary constraints, cheers and whistles would have likely ensued.
Ou Zhanpeng smilingly stepped forward, and Gong Yiding personally pinned his new rank and hung a newly forged battle flag medal around his neck.
This was the highest military honor, awarded only during wartime, with very few recipients since its inception.
"Say a few words," Gong Yiding whispered.
The applause exploded once more, with Xu Qing clapping particularly enthusiastically.
Ou Zhanpeng turned and saluted, and the applause gradually subsided.
Facing the crowd, Ou Zhanpeng's expression shifted, and after a long moment, he uttered, "Ah, what can I say? I won't say anything!"
"If you have nothing to say, get down quickly and let the next person come up!" Xie Yu shouted.
Ou Zhanpeng immediately stepped aside without a word.
Unexpectedly, Gong Yiding's gaze fell directly on Xie Yu: "Come on!"
"Me?" Xie Yu was very surprised.
Ou Zhanpeng pushed him forward: "Get up there!"
Gong Yiding pinned a medal on Xie Yu's chest.
In the time it took for one meal, over thirty medals were awarded, and the applause in the dining hall never stopped.
There were simply too many individuals recognized for their meritorious service this time; the entire meal was not enough to present all the awards. Otherwise, Station Chief Gong might have awarded another round.
During dinner, Ou Zhanpeng noticed the 3D printer had stopped and a group of people were gathered around it. He felt a pang of curiosity: What was going on? Had the machine malfunctioned?
Driven by the natural human inclination to witness spectacles, and seeing Xie Yu among the crowd, Ou Zhanpeng immediately approached: "Old Xie, what's happening?"
Xie Yu shrugged: "Station Chief Gong just received notification. Apparently, superiors reviewed the lessons learned and felt the expedition-class performed poorly. They've ordered construction to stop, and those in the fleet are to be retired."
"It's stopping already? What about the ones that weren't finished?" Ou Zhanpeng wasn't particularly surprised. As a transitional warship commissioned during a special period, the expedition-class had fulfilled its historical mission, and its retirement was not unexpected.
"They should finish building this one," Xie Yu said. "I heard they plan to sell all the completed ones."
Ou Zhanpeng suddenly realized: "Ah, I thought something serious had happened. Let's go, let's go eat!"
Much later, he learned that all the expedition-class ships, including No. 028, were sold, with only the Swift Blade being retained.
The military organized personnel to dismantle this warship piece by piece, package it carefully, and send it back to the ground for reassembly. It was then displayed in the Interstellar War Memorial Museum in the suburbs of Yan Jing. Visitors entering the museum would see this battle-scarred, meritorious warship.
Its solid-smoke hull was covered with mottled, distorted marks, like an old soldier silently recounting the tragic past.
Everything gradually returned to normal. A few days later, the design drafts for new warships and fleet reorganization plans were sent to Luojian Mountain for the base's opinion.
Primarily, technical opinions were sought.
After continuous discussions between the ground and the Moon, the new plan slowly took shape.
First, the fighter jet improvement plan was finalized.
It proved that space-time fighter jets could still play a significant role in space and were an indispensable mainstay of the fleet, thus needing to be strengthened.
The existing space-time fighter jets had already reached a high level and did not require replacement, but the request was for Luojian Mountain to equip them with shields.
As long as the fighter jets stayed close to the warships, their shields would be continuously replenished with power.
Due to the fighter jets' size limitations, onboard shields could not be as large or as robust as warship shields. Strict experiments found that fighter jet shields could withstand at most one hit.
This seemed like a dubious enhancement, but in a battlefield where life and death were decided in an instant, withstanding one hit was equivalent to extending the fighter jet's life by one, effectively doubling its survival rate. Why not?
The military's opinion was to add shields even at the cost of reduced payload.
Correspondingly, space carriers would also undergo necessary modifications, increasing their reactors and wireless power transmission systems to support more fighter jets.
The redesigned warships would also increase the total wireless power transmission capacity to accommodate the new fighter wings.
Next was the crucial part of the reorganization plan: the warships!
The design of the new warships was highly targeted.
Perhaps due to the design philosophy of the core compartments originating from alien species, their performance in combat was not ideal. The new design discarded this structure, opting instead for four smaller, enclosed compartments distributed on the left and right sides of the stern. Normally connected by passages, these passages would be sealed during combat, dispersing the entire crew into several independent airtight compartments.
This configuration would maximize crew safety even if the ship was sunk.
The solid-smoke hull was also abandoned by the military, as it was useless against the Thermic Light Cannons. However, being an excellent radiation-shielding material, it was not entirely discarded. Instead, the solid-smoke was used to create an outer layer for the hull, to resist radiation, slow down aging, and increase lifespan.
The new warships also adopted the advanced concept of modular warships. Simply put, one core ship would be paired with four unmanned warships. Normally combined, they would appear as a somewhat strangely shaped warship. During combat, the four unmanned warships would detach and engage, with the core ship providing primary control and the unmanned warships handling the primary combat.
Someone gave this structure a pleasing and vivid name: Plum Blossom Five Petals!
This design essentially mirrored the space-time fighter jet carrying unmanned drones concept. The one-to-four configuration offered greater maneuverability and survivability. As long as the main ship was operational, the subsidiary warships could be freely replaced, and tactical options became more diverse.
To put it hyperbolically, one modular warship was a small fleet in itself!
In terms of weaponry, Thermic Light Cannons for long-range engagement and plasma cannons for close combat. Unmanned warships would be standardly equipped with electromagnetic close-in weapon systems, while the main ship would have an additional electromagnetic cannon. Conventional missiles would no longer be carried; instead, they would be replaced by gun-launched missiles fired from electromagnetic cannons.
These projectiles traveled much faster than conventional missiles, especially in the initial phase, making interception significantly more difficult.
The military also considered the idea of manufacturing "mushroom cannons," but in space engagements spanning thousands of kilometers, the hit rate of unguided weapons was lamentably low, leading to their eventual abandonment.
Thus, the new warship design was completed and entered the construction phase!