The shield that Xin studied is called the "Teardrop."
Its appearance resembles a teardrop shape, and to be precise, it is not a single tear but composed of countless tears.
If a giant Rupert's Tear-shaped shield were to be created, its weakness would be apparent.
Generally, in long-distance space combat, it is unlikely for energy to hit the "tail" precisely. However, if the enemy releases a group AOE attack, there is a chance that scattered energy might affect the tail.
This requires additional energy to protect the tail, which is obviously not worth the cost.
By miniaturizing all Rupert's Tears and forming a giant shield with hundreds of millions of tiny Rupert's Tears, the tail can be hidden inside without this issue.
The energy used is essentially the same, but the control of electromagnetic forces needs to be more precise, which is not a challenge with the current technological level.
Yan Xia went to see the "Teardrop."
At first glance, he understood what Ella meant by instability.
Electromagnetism has a unique property that is easy to imagine for those who have played with magnets. To make two magnets attract each other, they must be aligned properly, with opposite poles attracting and like poles repelling.
The "Teardrop" faces a similar situation. Usually, with several million or even several hundred million, this variable can be controlled. However, when the number reaches the level of hundreds of millions, there will always be a few "rebellious" ones.
These "rebels" are the weak points of the "Teardrop."
They could cause the "Teardrop" to be easily shattered.
Yan Xia frowned and calculated the current magnetic force of the "Teardrop."
Ella shook her head, and her twin ponytails swayed.
"There is no perfect solution."
"After the 'Teardrop' is created, each small Rupert's Tear has a magnetic pole. When the magnetic field is small, it can be reversed by adding more energy. However, when the magnetic field becomes too large, changing one or two of them requires even more energy to support it."
"Currently, there are 2.782 billion Rupert's Tears structures surrounding the Tiangong spacecraft, and among them, there are three reverse magnetic points. According to simple data, it would require twice the energy of the energy shield to make the entire structure an integrated whole."
Nothing in the world is perfect, but we can make something close to perfect by sacrificing something else.
Doubling the energy consumption is not worth the cost.
Yan Xia noticed on the screen that the three reverse points were all placed at the rear of the spaceship, which should minimize the risk of energy shield failure due to damage to the reverse points.
Just as Yan Xia was thinking of a solution, Ella's virtual face suddenly changed, and her twin ponytails loosened as her body grew from a loli into a white-haired mature woman with a cold expression.
"Yan Xia, a reconnaissance ship at the front has lost contact, and according to observations from other reconnaissance ships, it seems to have been destroyed."
Enemies?
How could there be enemies here?
Yan Xia didn't think deeply about this question but immediately issued a command.
"Estimate the direction of the attack, and all battleships enter a defensive state."
"Locate the enemy's coordinates, and once the enemy's position is confirmed, order the battlecruisers to counterattack. Then, estimate the enemy spaceship's speed. If it's slower than us, we'll catch up, and if it's faster, we'll use long-range, wide-range attack methods."
Determining the enemy's position in space is extremely challenging.
Observing the enemy requires light, and sometimes, the reflected light from the enemy's battleship takes several minutes or even several hours to reach you. By the time you see them, they could have changed positions.
In this case, predicting their direction is necessary. Even with laser weapons, hitting the target can be difficult if the enemy is moving in an irregular pattern.
Therefore, most interstellar battles involve large-scale laser barrages to cover a wide area. No matter how agile you are, can you avoid getting wet in a heavy downpour?
After 22 days, Ella finally confirmed the enemy's whereabouts, and when Yan Xia saw the battleship, he was slightly startled.
Isn't that a Civilized Federation battleship?
Whether viewed from the left, right, front, or back, it looked exactly like a Civilized Federation battleship, but it was an obsolete model from 1,500 years ago.
"Yan Xia, look!"
Ella sent another video, capturing a screenshot and continuously optimizing it until it became a slightly blurred image.
But it was clear enough to make out some outlines.
From these outlines, Yan Xia immediately understood.
"The Purple Thorn Civilization?"
This was a U-shaped battleship, and Yan Xia couldn't forget the days when he was overshadowed by this U-shaped battleship. He had to make a decision, resulting in the loss of several hundred million Katers and the planet Proxima Centauri b.
Apart from some remnants of the Purple Thorn Civilization that resisted, some became interstellar pirates and left the Civilized Federation.
In the early stages of the war, when the Civilized Federation's strength was not as powerful, the battles were evenly matched, so it's understandable that the Purple Thorn Civilization possessed Civilized Federation battleships.
Yan Xia's eyes gradually turned cold.
"Since we've encountered them, let's take care of them."
"The speed of the Purple Thorn Civilization's battleship is not much slower than ours, and our distance is over 100 astronomical units. It's not worth the time to chase them."
"Ella, use large-scale destructive weapons to deal with them."
Ella nodded.
"No problem. Recently, we've developed a new weapon."
"This weapon utilizes the Hodge Conjecture that you and Xin discussed."
"If energy geometry can be decomposed and reconstructed for defense, can it also be used as an offensive method?"
"There's a piece of information that you should have noticed by now."
"The Möbius strip, when decomposed and reconstructed, traps energy within the ring, forming an isolated system. Although it will collapse due to entropy increase very soon, it is sufficient to create a weapon."
Yan Xia saw a 50-meter-diameter and 300-meter-long projectile being loaded into the launch port.
The projectile was launched from the electromagnetic railgun and used anti-electromagnetic acceleration to eliminate the impact of acceleration, allowing it to reach 42% of the speed of light at the moment of launch.
"Based on predictions, when the weapon reaches the enemy's position, their battleship should be at this coordinate. Currently, they are 137 astronomical units away from us, and it will take 46.8 hours and 142 astronomical units for the weapon to hit the target, with a 97.72% accuracy rate."
About three days later, Yan Xia saw the image of the weapon hitting its target.
It was an energy diagram, and the explosion's power covered a range of two astronomical units. The energy's shape was not a Möbius strip but a Klein bottle structure.
After all, a Möbius strip is just a ring, and it can only achieve the effect of the new theory in the concept of space. In reality, it is impossible for energy to form a ring because this energy does not involve space. In four-dimensional space, even if you enter the interior of the Möbius strip, you can still escape from both sides instead of being trapped inside.
It can be seen that the strong magnetic field caused by the explosion attracts surrounding matter to the Klein bottle structure. Then, through geometric decomposition and reconstruction, the opening is closed, turning it into an isolated space. The entropy increase in the isolated space causes instability in the outer energy, leading to the collapse and explosion of the entire space.
The isolated space here is isolated by electromagnetic forces, not in the concept of spacetime.
The current Civilized Federation cannot create such a dimensional weapon and can only use energy simulation.
It can be understood as a closed system in thermodynamics, where there is no exchange of matter with the outside but an exchange of energy. According to the second law of thermodynamics, entropy will increase within this closed system.
The energy isolation weapon utilizes the difference in entropy inside and outside to create chaos, causing energy to collapse inward, resulting in an explosion and destroying all internal matter.
Although it seems terrifying, it is not very powerful due to energy simulation. It can be easily countered by using stronger electromagnetic forces to hold it open or directly breaking through it. It is only effective against weak opponents like the remnants of the Purple Thorn Civilization.
After half a month.
The reconnaissance ship sent by Yan Xia arrived at the area and found it filled with battleship wreckage, with no survivors.
The main fleet continued its journey.
The once-terrifying existence is now nothing more than an ant that the Civilized Federation can crush without a second thought.
It doesn't even warrant Yan Xia's attention.
After traveling halfway, Yan Xia decided to enter a 2,000-year hibernation, waiting for the day they reach the Olive Branch Civilization.