The sudden turn of events stunned everyone. Even the boldest among them hadn't expected such an outcome.
No, perhaps not that they hadn't expected it, but that they dared not, and more so, refused to think about it.
The black ship was positioned directly over the Atlantic. Before the human fleet could react, a warship belonging to the old Americans exploded, followed by a warship from Europa.
There were no cannons, no beams, just sudden, unprovoked explosions. Everything was precisely as it had been when the brain-fish first arrived on Earth!
A Russian warship, also in the same direction, immediately opened fire. However, human artillery proved useless. The shots merely flashed faintly upon striking the black ship.
Conversely, human warships were defenseless. One after another, they detonated, and at that moment, everyone's hearts sank to the abyss.
In the critical moment, the space defense system fired, and its beams struck the black ship, but to no avail, like a mere tickle.
The black ship temporarily ignored the human warships, prioritizing the space defense system. In an instant, all defense satellites within the black ship's line of sight exploded. Even the wireless power transmission relay points in low Earth orbit were destroyed by the black ship, scattering countless fragments.
In the command center, Zhou Guangyi, propping up his fractured hand, roared, "Abandon ship! Abandon ship—"
At this moment, only the US warship *Enterprise* remained in the sky over the Atlantic. The US captain, having received the order, did not hesitate and immediately issued the command to abandon ship.
But he was a step too late. As the escape pods launched, cannon fire from the black ship struck the *Enterprise*, and expanding flames engulfed the escape pods.
Even more unexpectedly, the shot's momentum was not depleted. After destroying the *Enterprise*, it struck the North American continent!
A dazzling flash erupted in the eastern United States, and a crimson line of fire spread outwards at an astonishing speed. Wherever the fiery line passed, forests were incinerated, buildings collapsed, and everything turned to dust.
In a blink of an eye, half of America turned into scorched earth. The long coastline was filled with boiling seawater, and soon, thick clouds and mist covered the eastern seaboard of the United States.
Everyone was stunned by the sudden turn of events.
The power of the alien weapon was so immense that with just a few more shots, Earth would be irrevocably doomed.
But was resisting alien invasion wrong? Even if humanity surrendered, would the aliens spare Earth and its people?
Don't be a fool.
On the Moon, Ou Zhanpeng was dumbfounded, unable to comprehend how things had escalated to this point.
When the black ship first appeared, he was indeed shocked, but he quickly comforted himself. The mysterious existence would surely not stand idly by while the black ship wreaked havoc on humanity. He would destroy the black ship, just as he had years ago.
But the human warships were destroyed, and the mysterious being remained silent.
Half of America disappeared, and the black ship remained unharmed.
This was less than two minutes. All human warships in the sky over the Western Hemisphere were annihilated, while those in the sky over the Eastern Hemisphere, shielded by Earth, were temporarily spared.
Ou Zhanpeng trembled violently, unable to control his body.
The black ship's appearance over the Atlantic was a coincidence. If it had appeared over the Eastern Hemisphere, that shot would have meant the disappearance of his own country!
The air in the command center felt as rigid as steel. Was this the end of humanity? Was there no hope at all? Was humanity destined to watch Earth be destroyed by aliens?
Xie Yu suddenly grabbed Ou Zhanpeng's arm, his five fingers digging deeply into the flesh like iron clamps. "Can the Broken Ship fly? Can the Broken Ship fly?"
Ou Zhanpeng was about to shake his head when he suddenly remembered something. "It can't fly, but I can try!"
Before he finished speaking, he turned and ran.
Everyone present was stunned. How could they try if it couldn't fly?
Xie Yu, not understanding the situation and unable to stop Ou Zhanpeng, followed suit and rushed out.
Then came Gong Yiding, Zhu Yuhan, and a group of people, some relevant and some not.
Ou Zhanpeng, running at the forefront, was far ahead, only the sound of his desperate shouts echoing back: "Sound the alarm, sound the combat pressure loss alarm—"
Xie Yu, not knowing what was happening, immediately followed Ou Zhanpeng's instructions. All airlocks leading outside the mountain were sealed, including the passage to the industrial zone.
The piercing alarm unnerved everyone. They stumbled into the warship and found that Ou Zhanpeng had long since vanished. Xie Yu located him via his personal terminal and pointed towards the depths of the passage: "In the bridge!"
The repair of the Broken Ship had never ceased. With Ou Zhanpeng's assistance, the damaged parts had long been replaced.
However, the Broken Ship was too heavy. Even with the ship's equipment repaired, it was impossible to get it to fly again.
The group rushed to the bridge, where Ou Zhanpeng had already activated the control system. The main screen displayed the arrogant silhouette of the black ship. On the side of the screen, a charging progress bar rapidly increased.
Ou Zhanpeng stared intently at the screen. A green circle enclosed the black ship, flickered a few times, and then turned red—it signified that the Broken Ship had successfully locked onto the target!
Xie Yu, utterly bewildered, was about to ask, when Gong Yiding, with a look of sudden realization, was about to speak.
On the screen, the black ship once again opened a wormhole. On another screen displaying the Eastern Hemisphere, the exit of the wormhole appeared.
Everyone's expressions changed instantly, and the words that the two men were about to utter were choked back.
The human fleet, led by two aircraft carriers, immediately opened fire. However, there were no missiles or cannonballs, only scattering lasers.
They came not only from the warships but also from orbital defense satellites in the sky over the Eastern Hemisphere.
The black ship, unhindered, charged into the wormhole under the barrage of human fire and appeared on the other side of Earth.
Gong Yiding's vision went black, and he nearly fainted on the spot.
The others' faces were ashen with despair, their expressions incredibly grim.
Just as the black ship was about to pass through the wormhole, the progress bar finally reached its end. Ou Zhanpeng's pupils contracted, and he softly uttered two words: "Fire!"
The progress bar instantly cleared. A surge of power flowed into the ship's belly. An invisible energy beam blasted through the rock beneath the ship, then shattered the mountain, carving a straight canyon tens of kilometers long and up to four kilometers deep on the lunar surface. It then traversed the vast distance of over three hundred thousand kilometers and struck the nearly closed wormhole with a single shot!
The wormhole closed, and the residual energy wave brushed past the outer atmosphere. The invisible air rippled like the surface of the sea in a storm before slowly returning to calm.
A torrent of energy surged from the wormhole's exit. The black ship, which had been so arrogant and destructive moments before, suddenly fell silent, then disintegrated and shattered, vanishing into nothingness like a sandcastle in the waves.
At Landing Mountain, air rushed out with a howl, turning the mountain into a vacuum in an instant. Yet, no one intended to hold Ou Zhanpeng accountable. A group of people stared with their mouths agape and eyes wide, fixed on Ou Zhanpeng.
Young Master Ou let out a soft breath, a joyful smile appearing on his face. "The gamble paid off!"
Gong Yiding, like a frog that had held its breath for too long, exhaled forcefully. "The Horizon Cannon!"
Ou Zhanpeng nodded. "Yes, the Horizon Cannon... To be honest, I wasn't confident. I was just trying anything to save ourselves."
This was the weapon that had once punched through the lunar horizon with a single shot, hence its name, the Horizon Cannon.
Xie Yu looked conflicted. "The problem is, you actually managed to save this dying horse! Brother, you're so damn cool, you know? You saved humanity, don't you know? You saved the Earth!"
He couldn't contain his elation. He grabbed Ou Zhanpeng's shoulders tightly, shaking him back and forth, desperately trying to vent his inexpressible excitement.
Everyone else snapped back to reality. Someone heartlessly shouted, "Get him!"
A group of people surged forward, surrounding Ou Zhanpeng completely. Some patted his shoulder, others thumped his chest. Countless "salty hands" patted and prodded Ou Zhanpeng, while some hands roamed up and down, heading south.
Ou Zhanpeng, startled, clutched his private parts. "Hey, hey, where are you touching? Damn it, who touched my butt... Wife, wife, save me—"
The crowd burst into laughter, but no one stopped. The few females in the crowd, as if they had taken the wrong medicine, enthusiastically touched him from head to toe, their faces flushed with excitement.
Xu Qing stood aside, smiling brilliantly, making no move to intervene.
"Wait, wait a moment, everyone! The battle isn't over yet!" Gong Yiding, managing to maintain some semblance of clarity, gasped as he reminded everyone and rescued Ou Zhanpeng.
Ou, finally freed, felt a wave of emotion: dealing with aliens wasn't as difficult as this!
On the screen, the few alien warships seemed to have been scared off and were fleeing Earth at full speed.
"Can it fire again?" Xie Yu asked with lingering unwillingness.
"No more," Ou Zhanpeng shook his head. "The direction is wrong, it won't hit."
Heaven always leaves a way out. The place where the black ship initially appeared was precisely within the firing arc of the Horizon Cannon, which was why the shot was successful.
Xie Yu was incredibly disappointed. "What a shame!"
"It doesn't matter," Ou Zhanpeng said with a chuckle. "The important thing is that we won!"
Not only were the three enemy warships on the battlefield fleeing, but the enemy ship near the Moon was also moving away from it.
"Kid, you've done a great service this time!" Gong Yiding said with deep emotion.
If not for Ou Zhanpeng's sudden inspiration to fire the Horizon Cannon, humanity would have been in dire peril.
"Let's not publicize this matter," Ou Zhanpeng said, feeling immense joy, but his reason remained intact. "It's best to keep the Horizon Cannon a secret."
Through years of research, Landing Mountain had gained a certain understanding of the Horizon.
The formal name of this device should be the Particle Disintegration Cannon. The energy beam it fired was highly specialized, capable of instantly collapsing the original structure of matter at the atomic level.
However, Landing Mountain had only grasped the principle. With the current level of technology, they were unable to manufacture a similar weapon, let alone determine its true power and range.
Ou Zhanpeng had seen a similar weapon in his dreams, which was why he had tried it with a sliver of hope. The result was a single shot that destroyed the black ship and averted Earth's crisis.
"Stop talking about these useless things!" Gong Yiding clapped his hands, drawing everyone's attention. "Xie Yu, contact the command center immediately to explain the situation. Be careful, not the joint command center."
"Received!" Xie Yu grinned and gave a salute.
"Little Ou, go with Xie Yu."
"Received!" Ou Zhanpeng readily agreed.
"Pay attention, say what needs to be said, and strictly keep secret what shouldn't be said. Absolutely do not reveal a single word to unrelated personnel!" Gong Yiding emphasized sternly. "The rest of you, come with me. Launch the warship modules immediately. Quickly, everyone move!"
Following Gong Yiding's series of commands, the entire Landing Mountain sprang into action. In a short while, all the warship modules were launched and assembled.
At this time, in the joint command center, a group of generals had already surrounded Zhou Guangyi, arguing fiercely. They kept repeating the same questions, their sole objective being to ascertain what weapon had been used and why it hadn't been deployed earlier.
Zhou Guangyi was also at a loss. Holding his throbbing fingers, he shouted back, "I don't know! I'm sorry, I'm not clear. Don't ask me, I don't know what that was either!"
He even used the Broken Ship as an example: "That alien warship back then also suddenly broke in half. This has nothing to do with us, absolutely nothing!"
However, others simply didn't believe him. General Sam, in particular, had a face as purple as a liver. "General Zhou, we have every reason to believe that that alien warship was destroyed by your secret weapon. You must provide an explanation to all the fallen American citizens!"
Why fire now and not earlier? Why only fire when your fleet was threatened? Wasn't this deliberate?
What kind of nonsensical theory was this?
Zhou Guangyi desperately wanted to retort that it was America's secret weapon, but the sudden appearance of a straight canyon on the Moon was something that couldn't escape the notice of those who were paying attention.
To date, only Beijing had established a permanent base on the Moon. If they weren't looking for Zhou Guangyi, who else could they possibly look for but the aliens?
He stuck to his story, refusing to yield. "I've already said, I know nothing, I can offer no comment. You can continue to pester me, but it won't solve anything!"
At the same time, their companions on Blue Star called Beijing, inquiring about what secret weapon had been used on the Moon.
However, even the most exasperated old Americans didn't dare to say anything harsh. The only request from their companions was to purchase this weapon.
Who wouldn't want a weapon capable of destroying alien warships with a single shot?
If possible, Beijing also wanted to equip more of these weapons, but it was simply impossible, so they had to refuse all requests from their companions.
However, this battle was not over. Although the three enemy ships had escaped, humanity still had a vanguard fleet out there!
The joint command center immediately ordered the fleet to intercept the enemy ships at all costs, to ensure their complete destruction.
Only by completely annihilating the invading enemy ships could they deter other aliens and show them what it meant to come and never return, and what it meant to be inviolable!
At the same time, the Chinese fleet, having broken into a cold sweat, immediately launched a rescue operation, searching for survivors on the battlefield and providing timely aid and proper treatment.
A day later, the vanguard fleet caught up with the enemy warships attempting to escape. At the cost of seven warships sunk and fifteen heavily damaged, all three enemy ships were destroyed.
Thus, this battle finally came to a grand conclusion.