Su Xuan's tearful roar, like a death knell from hell, instantly shattered all the stalemate and suspicion inside and outside the confinement room.

"Soviet...top-secret military communications...leaked across the entire frequency band?!"

Yan Zhensheng's face drained of all color, and his body swayed uncontrollably. He managed to steady himself by grabbing the cold wall for support.

His mind was buzzing, and only one thought was screaming wildly: It's over! The sky has fallen!

This is ten thousand times more serious than the "Stardust" exposure!

This is a super accident that could drive the Kremlin mad and bring the world to the brink of nuclear war!

"Open the door! Open the door now!"

Yan Zhensheng's roar was even more shrill than Su Xuan's as he frantically pounded on the iron gate.

The iron gate was suddenly pulled open, and Su Xuan's pale face and terrified eyes appeared in the doorway.

"Academician Yan! Quick! The control center is in complete chaos! The signal is too strong to be blocked! The content... the content is still being broadcast! It's all encrypted call signs and coordinates! It sounds like... it sounds like the strategic missile force!"

Yan Zhensheng felt a chill run from the soles of his feet straight to the top of his head, and his hands and feet were ice cold.

He turned around abruptly and looked at Mingzhao, the one who had triggered this storm, in the solitary confinement room.

Mingzhao had already stood up.

The eternal calm on her face was finally broken. Her brows furrowed, her eyes sharp as a hawk's, filled not with fear, but with an almost cold focus and rapid calculations.

Her words, which Su Xuan had interrupted her with, echoed clearly in Yan Zhensheng's ears: "This isn't a malfunction! This is..."

What is it?!

But now is not the time for questions! Every second, those deadly codes are broadcasting to the whole world!

"Walk!"

Yan Zhensheng practically roared as he grabbed Mingzhao's arm with astonishing force and dragged her out of the solitary confinement room without a word.

"Su Xuan! Lead the way! To the control center! Quickly!"

At this moment, all questions of identity verification and the "Stardust" secrets were cast to the winds! Stopping this disaster was the only option!

The group stumbled and staggered toward the brightly lit but chaotic control center.

The piercing alarm blared sharply, and the screen scrolled with dazzling, high-intensity signal waveforms.

The technicians, pale-faced, frantically operated various devices, trying to block, analyze, or at least record the flood of information.

A sense of desperate panic filled the air.

"Report! Signal source locked! It's a Soviet 'Lightning-M' military communications satellite, orbital parameters XXXX! It...it's broadcasting encrypted data streams repeatedly like crazy!"

"Report! We cannot effectively block the signal! The signal power is too high! It covers almost all commonly used frequency bands!"

"Report! Part of the primary code has been deciphered! The content... the content points to SS-18 missile silos in Siberia and the Far East! God..."

A collective gasp filled the control center.

SS-18 "Satan," the king of Soviet land-based intercontinental ballistic missiles! Its deployment coordinates have been broadcast?! This is practically exposing the Soviet Union's nuclear button to the public!

"Ming Zhao!"

Yan Zhensheng shoved Mingzhao in front of the control panel, his bloodshot eyes fixed on her.

"What were you trying to say? What is this if not a malfunction?! Is there any way to stop it?!"

His voice was hoarse, filled with a desperate madness. At this moment, this woman, whose identity was shrouded in mystery and who carried a taboo, had become his only lifeline.

All eyes instantly focused on Mingzhao. Those eyes were filled with surprise, confusion, and a glimmer of hope as someone grasped at a piece of driftwood in despair.

Mingzhao didn't look at anyone. Her gaze, like a laser beam, was fixed on the wildly fluctuating data from the spectrum analyzer and signal recorder.

Fingers tapped rapidly on the console, bringing up publicly available structural diagrams and limited orbital dynamics models of the "Lightning-M" satellite.

Her mind was operating at its limit, and her vast knowledge base and powerful analytical abilities from advanced civilization were fully activated.

"This is not a natural malfunction."

Mingzhao's voice was cold and clear, cutting into the chaos like a scalpel, "'Lightning-M's' military core control system employs multiple physical isolation and mechanical redundancy designs, theoretically making it impossible for it to broadcast uncontrollably across the entire frequency band. The only explanation..."

She looked up sharply at Valery, whose face was also deathly pale and who had somehow squeezed into the control center. "Its core control system was hit by a powerful energy pulse from the outside that exceeded the design threshold, instantly burning out all the safety isolation layers and locking the launch channel!"

"A high-energy pulse?" a senior technician exclaimed. "Where did that come from in space...?"

His words came to an abrupt halt. All eyes, simultaneously filled with disbelief and shock, turned to Mingzhao!

It's her! It's that bottle containing the eerie red powder! It's that fleeting, faint red glow when she applied the powder for the last time! Could it be...?

Valery understood instantly! His grey-blue eyes stared intently at Mingzhao, filled with extreme anger.

"It was you! It was you who did this! You used that evil thing..."

"Shut up!"

Mingzhao interrupted him sharply, her cold, authoritative voice leaving Valery speechless.

Her gaze returned to the screen, and she spoke at an astonishing speed:

"Criticism won't solve the problem! The satellite's core control chip is now completely burned out and locked, like a stuck switch! Conventional remote control command injection and physical restart mechanisms have completely failed! There's only one way to stop it!"

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