The eerie blue jet flame pushed the Seagull-class carrying the hope of human civilization towards the endless darkness. In addition to three hundred scientific researchers, the space elevator components designed by Future Heavy Industries for the Mars colony were also loaded on-board.
After Jiang Chen watched the starship depart, he left the port of Celestial City.
In order to determine the candidate for the inoculation of Flowers of Memory, he had already spent more time than he planned for, now it was time to return to the surface.
When Jiang Chen returned to his mansion on Coro Island, it happened to be late at night.
He saw the lights in Xia Shiyu’s office were still on, so he gently opened the door and walked in.
Just after she finished signing a document, she yawned, leaned back against the chair, and stretched out to relax herself.
A pair of hands was gently placed on her tender shoulders, and the unexpected Xia Shiyu almost fell off the chair.
She turned her head to see a smug smile and revelation appeared on her face as she gave him a hard stare.
“You didn’t say a word when you came in.”
“I was afraid to disturb you.”
“You already disturbed me, okay?”
She closed her eyes and gradually relaxed her body. With a sweet smile, she quietly enjoyed the massage from the big hands on her shoulders.
“Why are you up so late?”
“It’s because of you.”
“Me?”
Jiang Chen glanced at the pile of documents on the desk in a puzzled manner. He only saw the words “2020 Xin International Defense Expo” and “Planning Document” written on the pile of signed document’s left upper corner.
When he saw this, he realized what happened.
He actually personally instructed this matter.
“We have invited 47 countries to participate in the expo, 39 countries have confirmed their attendance, and 789 companies have confirmed that they will appear in the expo.” The closed eyelashes trembled lightly from comfort; she said in a lazy tone as she reported the event’s progress to Jiang Chen. “The venue and time for the event have been finalized, and it will be held in the Heart of the Sea on Coro Island in September.”
It was the first international defense expo hosted by Xin. The invited countries were either members of the Earth Defense Alliance, or the countries with intention of joining the alliance. The purpose of this defense expo was not only to strengthen military cooperation among member states, but also to find overseas buyers for the burgeoning arms giant, Future Military.
It was the first time Future Military was open to arms sales.
In addition to creating profit, the sale of arms itself was also a way to expand influence.
It was almost foreseeable that EMP weapons and kinetic skeletons would become the stars of this defense expo.
Of course, all weapons sold to foreign arms were export models specially designed by Future Military. In terms of technical capability and performance, they were naturally inferior compared to the Celestial Trade models. The equipment was more similar to the ones used by Madagascar’s mercenaries.
“Don’t stay up too late,” Jiang Chen said softly.
With a relaxed sniffle, Xia Shiyu joked.
“I suddenly realized that you are quite good at taking care of people.”
“You just realized?” Jiang Chen smiled.
“What… what are you doing?” With his hands that started to venture into other territories, Xia Shiyu bit her lower lip and blushed. She glanced at the door, and then whispered, “Don’t be silly.”
“If you are worried about Lilith hearing us, you can rest assured.” Jiang Chen smirked and quietly whispered in her ear as he watched the red hue cover her face, “When I went upstairs, she was playing games.”
“You, you haven’t showered yet…”
“I want you to help me.”
…
It was a quiet night.
The next day, Jiang Chen slept until almost noon before he got up.
After he washed up and ate the lunch Ayesha prepared, he went to the living room.
Lilith, on the sofa, saw Jiang Chen moving towards her, so she moved her legs to make room for him.
Jiang Chen sat down next to her, comfortably leaned back on the sofa, and turned on the holographic TV.
It just so happened that it was international news.
The Colombian government force and FARC exchanged fire in the central region. Because they had lost the support of the NATO Coalition Force, the government force retreated under the offensive of the guerrillas. They retreated to a place less than 20 kilometers from Bogota.
At present, NATO attempted to start a dialogue with Moro on the issue of prisoners of war, but Moro refused at this moment. Italy and Greece were considering withdrawing from the NATO Coalition Force, as well as launching peace talks with FARC as independent nations in order to redeem their captured soldiers.
After all, the two countries just sent a battalion each symbolically. It was purely to join in on the fun and respond to their allies. Now the situation was turning south, it was clearly not in their interest for the war to continue. Compared with the common interests of NATO, domestic political interests were much more crucial.
“Are things developing as you expected?” Lilith, who was on the sofa with her legs curled up, suddenly asked nonchalantly.
“Not at all,” Jiang Chen smiled, “but at least the general direction has not gone south.”
“Really?” Lilith said thoughtfully.
At this moment, Ayesha walked into the living room, glanced at Lilith on the sofa, and then sat down on the other sofa.
“Bernice called. The UA Department of Defense issued a document to all UA soldiers, requiring the strict implementation of the requirements to platoon-level combat units. All electronic equipment, especially communication equipment, must be strictly stored in a Faraday backpack during non-usage time…” Ayesha turned on the holographic screen on her watch and pushed the news to Jiang Chen, “Here is the original document.”
“She can even get this information.” Jiang Chen was a little surprised as he extended his finger with interest and fiddled with the scroll bar on the holographic screen.
It seemed that the UA was indeed terrified by the EMP attack, otherwise, it would not implement this method.
The benefits of doing this were obvious. There was no need to worry about Celestial Trade’s EMP attacks destroying the eyes and ears of the military. The tradeoff, however, was that it hindered real-time communication, such that it was necessary to agree upon a communication time and so on.
In addition, the report also mentioned that the UA Department of Defense ordered a batch of old-fashioned communication equipment from domestic communication companies to respond to emergencies. At the same time, the country also invested 10 billion dollars to develop a more advanced, more convenient, and lower-cost optical transmission system, intending to solve the threat of Celestial Trade EMP weapons at the root.
Jiang Chen was skeptical about whether or not the UA could really achieve this.
Their direction was indeed correct. There were only two measures to deal with EMP weapons in the apocalypse. One was to replace telecommunication components with optical transmission components, and the other was to make key electronic components as small as possible.
However, it was still impossible to completely resist EMP strikes, unless the electromagnetic field could be completely shielded…
