"call……"

Lü Yongchang took a deep breath and opened his eyes.

A deep sense of exhaustion emanated from the depths of his eyes.

This is a side effect of receiving the "hint".

Although it's still a bit uncomfortable, it's much better than the previous result of falling into a coma.

"professor?"

Wilson's voice came from the side: "Are you alright?"

Lu Yongchang looked up at Wilson's worried face, chuckled, and waved his hand, saying, "It's nothing."

As he spoke, he pushed himself up by his knees.

"Particle beam weapon!"

Lu Yongchang glanced around at the researchers and suddenly spoke in a deep voice.

"What?" Wilson didn't react for a moment and asked instinctively.

“Our next research direction,” Lü Yongchang said, striding straight out of the laboratory. “Wilson, come with me.”

Watching the figure gradually disappear into the distance, Wilson paused for a moment, then quickly took a step and followed.

...

"Particle beam weapon?" Wilson frowned as he looked at the holographic image data displayed in front of him and muttered to himself.

Lu Yongchang, who was standing to the side, nodded and said, "To be precise, it's an ion beam weapon."

"After all, we still cannot accelerate electrically neutral particles such as neutrons."

"This is also one of the directions we need to study in the future."

“Imagine this,” Lü Yongchang said, his tone suddenly becoming more excited, “if we could manipulate a large number of neutrons and use them to precisely strike enemy ships.”

"We can completely bypass the armor and directly attack the personnel inside the enemy ship!"

"Like... a neutron bomb."

Wilson took a deep breath.

"Of course, this is just my idea." Lü Yongchang shrugged, a hint of regret in his eyes. "At present, this technology is still some distance away from us."

"We can only accelerate charged particles now."

Wilson hesitated for a moment, a hint of doubt showing on his face.

"Professor, I've looked into these kinds of weapons before."

"However... compared to lasers, ion beam weapons seem to have a shorter range."

"Due to the dispersion effect, once the ion beam leaves the emitter, it will begin to diffuse on its own."

Faced with Wilson's questioning, Lü Yongchang nodded with a wry smile: "I am aware of this as well."

"But compared to laser weapons, ion beams have more advantages."

"For example?" Wilson's eyes showed even greater doubt.

“First, endurance.” Lu Yongchang breathed a long sigh of relief. “In this respect alone, laser weapons can’t compare to it.”

Wilson's face immediately fell into a wry smile.

He awkwardly reached up and touched the tip of his nose, nodding repeatedly.

As a researcher of laser weapons, he was naturally aware of the biggest drawback of laser weapons.

"Secondly, although the speed is not as fast as a laser, the sub-light speed ion beam has an advantage that laser weapons cannot match."

Lu Yongchang's lips curled up slightly as he continued, "It has quality."

"You can think of it as a weapon that combines the advantages of laser weapons and kinetic energy weapons."

Wilson was stunned and stood there.

That's right.

This is the biggest difference between laser weapons and ion beam weapons, and also the biggest advantage of ion beam weapons.

E\u003dmc2, the mass-energy equivalence formula dictates that it can carry a large amount of energy!

Compared to the surface-burning attack method of laser weapons, the way ion beam weapons cause damage is more brutal and bizarre!

The specially modulated ion beam can completely "penetrate" the starship's armor and directly strike the starship's internal facilities or personnel!

If it cannot "penetrate" the starship's armor, its main damage is similar to that of a laser—releasing a large amount of heat that burns through the armor directly!

"Then... what should we do?" Wilson asked, his breathing slightly rapid.

“It’s very simple.” Lü Yongchang smiled and waved his hand in the air, opening a holographic projection.

"What we need to do is reduce its dispersion effect and extend its range."

...

2037.12

In the laboratory, Wilson sighed softly and turned off the small particle accelerator next to him.

"Professor, it failed again."

Wilson shook his head with a wry smile: "I think we've chosen the wrong direction."

"Changing the types of ions is not the right direction for research."

Lu Yongchang didn't speak, but just frowned as he looked at the experimental data in front of him.

During this period, they experimented with a large number of different types of ions in an attempt to find one with the weakest dispersion effect.

Currently, the best-performing ions can maintain an effective killing range of approximately 500 km in space.

This distance is clearly not enough.

However, the experiment was not without its gains.

At least, after so many experiments, Lü Yongchang roughly knows what type of ions to choose as "ammunition".

They are neither protons nor electrons; they are too "light".

Heavy ions.

Simply put, it refers to ions with an atomic weight greater than that of a helium atom.

Of course, heavier isn't always better.

On the one hand, the heavier the ions, the weaker the dispersion effect and the longer the range.

On the other hand, the heavier the ions, the more energy they consume to accelerate, and the slower the ion beam speed, the less effective the killing effect may be.

Furthermore, light ions are more likely to penetrate starship armor and cause internal damage, while heavy ions are more likely to damage starship armor.

This requires them to find a balance.

"Tsk..."

Lü Yongchang clicked his tongue in annoyance.

There are too many things to consider, and more importantly, they haven't solved the most basic problems yet.

Range issue!

We can't exactly get right up close and attack, can we?!

Just as Lü Yongchang was getting agitated, Zero's holographic image suddenly appeared.

"Professor, there is something I need to remind you of."

Lu Yongchang, whose train of thought had been interrupted, looked at Zero with impatience.

He frowned and asked, "What is it? If it's not important, you can just talk to Fang Xu."

Zero's tone was completely flat as he said, "Professor, in a week, the sun will completely engulf Mercury."

"..."

Silence fell once again in the laboratory.

Wilson stared in horror at Zero's holographic image.

Although I know this is a phenomenon that inevitably occurs during the process of the sun becoming a red giant, but...

When the moment actually arrived, Wilson had to admit that the news was still too shocking for humanity.

Lu Yongchang sighed heavily, rubbed his cheeks, and stood up from his seat.

"Time flies..."

“Zero, we can start preparing various protective measures,” Lü Yongchang said in a deep voice. “In addition, we must keep a close watch on the condition of Mercury and the Sun.”

"receive."

The holographic image vanished instantly.