Chapter 849: Total War 3

At the Pentagon, the newly appointed Defense Minister let out a long breath after hanging up the phone.

Looking around the conference room as all eyes focused on him, he smiled slightly.

"Gentlemen, I have received military action authorization from the President, who is currently visiting Europe!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the atmosphere in the conference room instantly became heated.

"Great, we can finally teach those annoying alien bastards a lesson!"

"Salute to the President; this will be the most correct decision he has ever made!"

"Mr. Minister, please issue the order; our soldiers are all prepared!"

More than a year ago, it was also a surprise attack from the sky by the Decepticons that led to the total annihilation of the United States Second Fleet.

Not long after, in the Battle of the Red Sea, the main force of the Fifth Fleet was again ambushed by Decepticons and suffered heavy casualties.

As a maritime power, the reason the United States was able to maintain its superpower status during the Cold War and the subsequent era after World War II—

Financial hegemony and technological hegemony were indeed among the reasons, but the important reliance was still its powerful military strength.

And the Navy, without a doubt, is the most important link in the United States' military power.

Relying on over a dozen aircraft carriers, nearly a hundred nuclear submarines, hundreds of various warships, thousands of various military aircraft, and overseas military bases spread across the four oceans and five continents.

From the Cold War era to after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Americans have always maintained their maritime hegemony.

If a major power is disobedient, an aircraft carrier battle group blocks your doorstep for military exercises.

If a small country is disobedient, a few guided-missile destroyers or cruisers patrolling the high seas, coordinated with the sea, land, and air forces stationed in the nearby region, are enough to deter the vast majority of countries on Earth.

However, although the United States Navy looks very large in scale, in order to maintain this powerful navy, they also have to pour most of their military budget into the Navy every year.

Even to maintain the advancement of their military technology, the two most important links in the United States Navy—aircraft carriers and nuclear submarines—must undoubtedly return to their home ports regularly for maintenance, nuclear fuel replacement, and modernization.

Because of this reason, although the United States military possesses over a dozen aircraft carriers and nearly a hundred nuclear submarines of various types, the number of aircraft carriers they can simultaneously deploy for alert and military tasks is basically less than half, and sometimes even only one-third of the total.

Previously, due to the two Decepticon surprise attacks, the Second Fleet was wiped out and the main force of the Fifth Fleet was severely damaged, so the American Navy undoubtedly fell into a very awkward period.

Their other aircraft carriers were either just finishing military tasks and undergoing regular maintenance and rest at their home ports, or were at shipyards receiving modernization upgrades.

The past year was undoubtedly the most difficult period for the Americans, as they only had one aircraft carrier and one amphibious assault ship available.

For the Americans, who have numerous interests globally and have spent the past half-century desperately stirring up trouble everywhere in the world, having only two aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships is clearly not enough.

In the past, the Americans relied entirely on military hegemony to forcibly establish their own financial and technological hegemony.

As the most important link in American military hegemony—the Navy—saw its strength greatly reduced, their military hegemony immediately collapsed at one corner, and their financial and technological hegemony wavered accordingly.

Consequently, over the past year, anti-American protests and demonstrations have broken out everywhere around the world.

In some countries that were severely harmed by the Americans in the past, there have even been extremist attacks targeting American consulates, overseas personnel, and even military bases abroad, and the frequency has been very high.

If it were an ordinary person, they might reflect on whether their country had done something wrong in the past.

But the politicians and soldiers of the Americans clearly have a thought process completely different from ordinary people.

For more than half a century, riding on the heads of countries around the Earth and acting like tyrants has long fostered in them a mindset of "God is the greatest, and the Americans are second."

Facing the backlash from various countries, instead of reflecting on their past behavior, they instead grew to hate the Decepticons, the Autobots, and even Sun Cheng and his group, who are currently trading with countries on Earth in the Black Market and causing a sharp decline in American global influence.

Over the past year or so, they have simultaneously urged the Federal Reserve to loosen policy and increase the intensity of money printing, while also increasing military spending.

They even provided a secret fund for the previously severely damaged Navy under the name of special expenditure.

Under the effect of the gold-sea tactic, the current naval strength of the Americans has recovered quite a bit.

More brand-new warships have also begun construction, though it will take at least another year before they are launched.

But this does not affect the restlessness of a group of hawks within the Pentagon in the slightest.

They have waited too long for this day to retaliate against the aliens.

"Gentlemen!"

The Defense Minister clapped his hands, suppressing the noisy discussions in the conference room.

He cleared his throat, then spoke with a solemn face: "Since we have already obtained the military action authorization from the President, the meeting officially begins!"

"I will first re-summarize the ins and outs of this matter. About two hours ago, NASA observed a meteor shower falling in the Arctic Circle region of our neighbor, Newfoundland."

"Because NASA had not observed any meteor shower beforehand, we activated a military satellite to track and observe the area where the meteor shower could have fallen!"

"The result exceeded all of our expectations; this meteor shower was disguised aliens. They attacked one of our mines within Newfoundland, and the Tombstone unit stationed there suffered heavy losses, and it is even very likely that they have been completely wiped out!"

"Here, I would like to specifically point out that a gold mining exploration company in our country inadvertently discovered a special mineral vein while exploring for gold in the area that was attacked not long ago."

"According to research by the scientific expedition team we sent earlier, that metal is superior to all special steels known to us, and it is very likely a type of metal artificially created by aliens who arrived on our Earth long ago, using prehistoric creatures on Earth at that time!"

Speaking of this, the Defense Minister paused slightly.

And in the conference room, some people who were not yet aware of this inside story were indeed shocked and began to discuss it in low voices.

He left a little time for everyone to discuss, then clapped his hands again to stop the discussion and continued his introduction.

"We have sufficient reason to believe that the special metal we discovered in Newfoundland has also been targeted by aliens. From the photos sent back by the satellite, it can be preliminarily determined that the aliens who attacked us belong to the Decepticon Legion and are not of the same faction as those Decepticons on Trindade Island."

"Considering that this metal has a very important role in our national defense and military industry, and through reverse engineering, we may also be able to master a super-technology that can use organisms to manufacture special metals in the future!"

"Therefore, I propose that the North American Aerospace Defense Command notify the Newfoundland side to prepare to launch a retaliation."

"This military operation, codenamed 'Sidewinder Assault', will be carried out by the Air Force in coordination with the Tombstone unit to launch a retaliatory action against this batch of Decepticons that attacked us."

"We will persuade Newfoundland to provide fire support, but the Naval Aviation, Army Aviation, and the Army must also be prepared to support the front line at any time."

"Gentlemen, this is not just a retaliatory action we are launching against aliens; we want to let the whole world know our determination and efforts."

"Do you understand?"

"Yes!"

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