The sudden change made Fu Luo's scalp tingle.

The first time she met Yang Ning, he was a thoughtful and filial son. The second time, he was a newly appointed superior who was well-versed in all aspects. The third time, after a brief conversation, Fu Luo had an extremely good impression of this young and patient colonel—apart from the idiot Wang Yizheng, the brat Wang Yacheng, the scumbag Ye Wenlin, and Robin, who had taken his sissy career to the pinnacle, Fu Luo thought she had finally met a man who fit the traditional aesthetic of being as gentle as jade.

This piece of jade had turned into a venomous snake right before her eyes, without any buffer, going straight up and down.

The Ground Forces was actually more like an ordinary state-owned enterprise. Most of the people who entered were just given a military rank and faced a terminal, a cup of tea, and a swivel chair every day, living a nine-to-five life.

Except for the higher-ups who could still truly give orders, the rest basically did office clerical work and participated in military training for two weeks each year, just going through the motions for inspections.

So when faced with an emergency, they were completely different from the special forces in the fortress, thousands of miles up in the air.

After a few seconds of silence, there was a loud crash. Someone had actually broken a cup due to excessive panic. That person subsequently discovered that everyone's eyes were focused on him, and he screamed in a pale face, "What's going on? What's going on! Someone was killed. Why hasn't anyone called the police!"

This shout almost ignited the panic and unease of the entire Ground Forces.

Years of peaceful and privileged life had turned these people into sheep. Only a few managed to maintain the dignity of a soldier. Scared out of their wits, they were in a mess, and no one dared to make a move due to the armed opposition.

Director Wang was dead, and there was no backbone.

In space battles, speed and change were incomparable to anything on the ground. Every second counted. Yang Ning didn't want to handle the problem in such a simple and crude manner, but he had to act quickly and decisively. There was no time for him to plan and lay the groundwork.

His hand touched the gun again. If it didn't work, he would fire a warning shot and forcefully control the situation...

At this moment, a person who had been in the corner suddenly pounced on the guard standing at the outermost position.

That person was bold and reckless. Taking advantage of the guard's unpreparedness, he fiercely elbowed Yang Ning's guard on the temple. As the guard involuntarily tilted to one side, the person kneed the guard in the abdomen, snatched the guard's gun, and pointed it directly at Yang Ning.

"Any crime committed by military officers, including civilian cadres, is to be judged and executed by a military tribunal. Colonel Yang Ning, who gave you the power to privately shoot and kill your colleagues?"

Yang Ning's heart stirred, and his gaze followed the direction of the voice. The young female soldier hadn't had time to change into the new uniform of the Ground Forces. Her sky-blue old school uniform looked a bit eye-catching among the crowd.

Huh? Why is it her?

Colonel Yang's guards immediately raised their guns in unison.

However, Yang Ning's hand left his own gun stock—she was indeed a newborn calf not afraid of tigers.

But it was good. Fu Luo, this standout, had just broken the current deadlock.

Yang Ning walked straight past Fu Luo, facing her gun, and came to the main control platform of the Ground Forces. With a stretch of his hand, a guard used the key searched from Wang Hongbing to open the platform, connecting to the internal central channel of the space fortress under the watchful eyes of everyone.

Fu Luo swept a glance and saw the leaders in charge of the First, Second and Third Space Combat Departments, as well as General Yang and many other high-ranking generals, all present without absence, standing in the central control room.

Yang Ning stood at attention and saluted. His deep voice echoed in the silent Ground Forces.

"Reporting to the leaders," he said, "by order of the Space Fortress Command Center, I have temporarily taken over the Ground Forces. Please give further instructions."

Fu Luo was stunned for a moment, slowly lowering her gun. Scanning the faces she had seen on television or at school celebrations, she smelled an impending coup in the air where the bloody smell had not dissipated.

Even if she turned a deaf ear to outside affairs, she could see that the atmosphere in the central command room was very tense, and almost all those standing on the command platform were clearly from the pro-war faction.

Old General Yang's face was grim. "Received. All personnel on S-level combat readiness. I need the Ground Forces to ensure that all communication lines are unobstructed."

Yang Ning clicked his heels, turned around, and his gaze swept over Fu Luo, who had already put down her gun.

Good on-the-spot reaction, decisive, and not slow to adapt.

Even if she was only the best among the worst, she was still usable.

"You," Yang Ning pointed at Fu Luo and said, "open the fortress holographic defense control map to 100% and connect all the probes."

Fu Luo suppressed her doubts, no longer wasting words. She walked to the main control platform and, following the procedures she had memorized from the Ground Forces work manual, nimbly lifted the three-layer password cover and continuously entered the 26-digit password.

There was a loud bang from the ceiling of the Ground Forces, followed by a creaking sound like rusty bearings turning with difficulty. The ceiling separated from the middle, revealing the flip screen inside. The deformed screen automatically popped out and assembled at a rapid speed.

Thirty seconds later, the entire ceiling of the Ground Forces turned into a huge interactive controllable electronic screen. It was a schematic diagram that was more comprehensive and dazzling than the one hanging on the wall. The densely packed light spots and the intertwined lines made even the mentally prepared Fu Luo startled on the spot.

A mechanical female voice echoed, "Please enter the key."

Fu Luo looked at Yang Ning, only to see Yang Ning take out a pigeon egg-sized sensor from his pocket. A straight beam of laser shot towards the screen overhead.

"Access granted. Highest authority of the Central Military Commission."

Amidst the exclamations of the Ground Forces, the walls around them made a rumbling sound again. The old walls with peeling paint flipped over, and more than a dozen screens popped out. After a brief screen distortion, clear space images were transmitted.

"It's a special period of S-level combat readiness," Yang Ning's gaze swept over the wastes of the Ground Forces, saying expressionlessly, "I need all personnel to take their positions immediately. Anyone who dares to delay will be executed on the spot, now!"

After Yang Ning's killing, Fu Luo's defiant questioning, and the ups and downs in the entire control room through the highest authority, everyone almost instinctively complied with Yang Ning's orders.

"Area 126 circuit control in position, check if the lines are normal, report fault points immediately."

"Shut down civilian media networks."

"Earth defense network entering countdown..."

On the vertically laid out world map in the center, more and more small lights lit up. With each light, the countdown board would move a little.

The American Alliance had the most lights, the bickering European Union reacted slowly, the defense network control points had no response. China's Beijing Military Region Ground Forces was the first to open, and a few minutes later, the second and third lights slowly lit up in the central and western regions, but the speed was very slow. Each light that lit up meant a life-and-death struggle between the pro-war and pro-peace factions.

Yang Ning's brows furrowed tighter and tighter.

Just then, a sharp alarm sounded.

All the space images went snowy in an instant.

"Colonel, space signals are severely interfered with."

"What's the situation?"

"Is it an enemy attack?"

"Impossible, it must be domestic terrorists!"

"Wait, the signals from electronic devices..."

On the giant screen overhead, there was a "zap" sound, followed by a thunder-like noise. Then, all the lighting equipment at the Ground Forces went out for a moment, and lit up again with unstable voltage. The big screen on the ceiling showed that the emergency power equipment had been activated. On the Earth defense network's opening status, first Australia, then expanding to both sides to the west coast of the Americas, to Japan and South Korea near China...

The originally lit defense network points went out at a speed difficult for the naked eye to see.

Fu Luo didn't understand what happened, but her body hair stood up first.

Yang Ning's pupils shrank abruptly: "Get down! Everyone hit the deck!"

His words hadn't even finished when the ground shook violently.

Fu Luo instinctively hit the deck, and before she could fully cover her ears, she heard a loud bang.

The glass door at the entrance of the Ground Forces shattered with glass flying over ten meters, the giant screen on the ceiling broke in the middle, more than half of the easternmost screen shattered, and a Ground Forces staff member who didn't react in time was directly blown away.

Fu Luo's vision went black, and there was a "buzzing" sound in her ears.

What was that?

An explosion?

Was the Ground Forces the target of the explosion?

Who did it?

How was Beijing?

Mom and Dad...

In the jumble of thoughts, a sharp pain came from her ears. Fu Luo gritted her teeth and reached out to touch, staining a finger with stickiness. His left ear was bleeding.

If it was an enemy attack...

Crossing the space fortress, the attack landed directly on Earth in the blink of an eye. What kind of concept was that?

Had the enemy's technological level reached a point that the United Nations could hardly match?

The first wave of attacks was so fast that it was unbelievable, directly breaking through the incompletely activated defense shield and destroying most of the communications between Earth and the space fortress.

Nine out of the ten communication terminals in front of old General Zhao Youxuan went out in the blink of an eye, leaving only one that could still function, relying on the signal tower between space satellites and not going through Earth's long-range signals.

Through this terminal, she saw that the central command of the fortress had exploded.

Yes, technology determines everything. When technology explodes to a certain extent, the role of humans in war becomes negligible.

Ten thousand strong primitive human settlements are also powerless in the face of nuclear weapons dropped by a pilot.

The enemy's unceremonious appearance left the Commander of the Space Fortress choking on his breath, nearly passing out. The pro-peace faction quickly counterattacked after the shock, and the command room became even more tense.

Zhao Youxuan said in a low voice, "Temporarily cut off the two-way association with the headquarters, we'll just listen to what they say. They don't need to know what we're discussing here for now."

The guard immediately stepped forward and closed the two-way link.

The three special forces squads led by the old general were on the move. In the general command room, besides himself, only Ye Wenlin and a guard remained.

Five years ago, when Ye Wenlin joined the "Dagger" unit, he was handpicked by General Zhao. After enlisting, he was also often called over to do copywriting work.

"Do you believe it?" General Zhao asked in a deep voice, "Do you believe that the technological level of humans in the other star system far surpasses ours?"

Ye Wenlin: "Reporting to the leader, no."

The old general's eagle-like gaze turned and fixed on him: "Give me a reason."

There was an unusual coldness on the young "Dagger".

He said without hesitation: "Statistical data shows that in the post-war period of the last century, the average military budget of various countries on Earth more than doubled, while the first problem that humans in the other star system had to solve was survival and energy. This is the first point. Second, according to incomplete estimates, the population of humans in the other star system is about one-eighth of Earth's population. If the point of technological explosion is equated to genetic mutation, then the side with more population definitely has the advantage. Third, large-scale lethal weapons are extremely costly and cannot be developed without leaving traces, yet none of our high-level spies have mentioned relevant intelligence. I believe the most likely possibility is that our people simply do not consider it a weapon."

Old General Zhao: "If not a weapon, then what is it?"

Ye Wenlin: "The improved electromagnetic cannon is an extension of communication technology, and the latter is likely to be classified into the civilian system."

"When humans in the other star system immigrated, everyone had to save living space. In order to survive, they abandoned their original nationalities and cultural differences, and gradually merged together. Being far from the stars means that the imitated ecosystem must have an artificial nuclear reaction as a fake sun, which makes the unification of time and work and rest feasible."

Ye Wenlin spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, as if these words were not his impromptu performance, but had been pondered thousands of times in his heart.

"But we are different. Under our United Nations, there are continental alliances, and under each continental alliance, there are various countries. Even within a single country, there are countless political factions, with political parties and military interest groups intertwined. The military itself is further divided into pro-war, pro-peace, and neutral factions, making it unwieldy. This means that Earth's impregnable defense network cannot be activated at the first moment. Taking advantage of this gap, they can launch electromagnetic cannons, using the spaces between the protective shields to achieve diffraction. As long as the frequency of the electromagnetic cannon matches the medium, it can easily strike the ground stations directly."

Ye Wenlin paused for a moment. "Directly attacking Earth, in addition to causing us to lose most of our communication systems, will also create tremendous psychological pressure on our military commanders and soldiers, intensifying internal strife and attrition."

Zhao Youxuan was silent for a moment. "You're right."

"Our only chance," Ye Wenlin said, "is at the first moment when the S-level alert is issued, for the pro-war factions worldwide to take control of all ground 'posts' immediately, open the protective shields, and prevent the other side from launching electromagnetic weapons in time."

The guards beside them listened with wide eyes, but Zhao Youxuan asked in a deep voice, "How can we achieve this 'immediate takeover'?"

Ye Wenlin said without hesitation, "The ground stations have been at ease for years, with ample benefits. The primary leaders are mostly pro-peace or neutral factions, which will certainly cause obstacles in this situation. The best plan is to shoot them directly, stage a coup, and seize control openly."

The guards choked on their breath.

Zhao Youxuan stared straight into Ye Wenlin's eyes, but the young man's expression seemed extremely calm.

"No one will dare to do that," Zhao Youxuan said softly after a long time.

Ye Wenlin's expression remained unchanged. "That's why we were hit."