Chapter 689 - 670: Peace Above All

The Presidential Palace, Ministry of Defense, and NACA spent two days and a night reevaluating the results from Office Thirteen, and the seriousness of the situation was now comparable to that of the M incident.

John’s once lustrous hair had long been a tangled mess, and now he was convening representatives from the Pentagon, the Staff Group, and technical experts from several major military-industrial giants.

The specific purpose of NX17 had been ascertained, and now it was necessary to clarify its impact.

The experts from the military-industrial giants vividly explained to John what had happened:

"After more laser satellites are launched, all the missiles we fire will be destroyed, while their missiles will still predominantly reach their targets.

Even airplanes will not be spared, as various aircraft with aluminum alloy skins will be burned and deformed in less than a second, plummeting to the ground. From now on, America’s planes, tanks, and soldiers, as long as they are exposed under the lenses of satellites, will be cleanly and efficiently destroyed into a pile of metal scraps.

America’s 6,000 nuclear warheads will explode outside of their intended targets, while 250 out of their 300 nuclear warheads will likely hit the mark. The three-pronged nuclear retaliation network, built with tremendous national effort and expense, will be directly crippled by the grim reaper from space."

At the same time, Raytheon Company, the main developer of the lasers, had assessed how long it would take to reach the level of NX17, concluding it would be 3 to 5 years and require an enormous investment of no less than 20 billion US dollars.

By that time, the Chinese laser satellites would already have been monitoring the world.

After Raytheon Company presented this prospect, the presidential office fell into silence for a long three minutes.

If the threat of aliens optimistically still had a decade or even decades before it arrived, then the Sword of Damocles was already hanging over their heads, bringing immediate and immense terror of life and death.

The balance that had been maintained for nearly 60 years, founded on nuclear deterrence, was finally starting to tip. The other side had added a weight named laser satellites, instantly striking the lowest point.

Under the all-encompassing, no-dead-angle surveillance of the laser satellites, there would come a time when Lin Ju could simply press a button (through thick fog), and all the flying vehicles and space vehicles globally would dare not take off. Even if others also developed similar equipment, there was no guarantee that it could be successfully sent into space.

John wiped the fine sweat from his forehead vigorously, murmuring:

"The Chinese people love peace, they won’t be the first to start a war, they won’t..."

"Sir!"

Sullivan interrupted him:

"There’s an ancient Chinese proverb that says: ’When you carry a sharp knife on your person, you can’t help but feel the urge to use it to hurt others.’

Having a handy weapon, how can there be any reason not do use it?"

The already broken atmosphere coagulated once again. Frankly, if America had mastered this weapon, it would be impossible not to brandish it constantly in their hand, not to exert extreme pressure to squeeze out every resource they could, not to push to the brink but rather to the point of death.

Such a splendid thing would be a waste not to flaunt vigorously!

Under the assumption of ’judge others by oneself,’ everyone became even more uneasy.

It is not known how much time passed when John’s tired and heavy voice once again rang out:

"Mobilize all our intelligence resources immediately to collect more information, and additionally, try to find ways to delay their progress. At the same time, start developing laser satellites with all our might, without any budgetary demands, even to the point of using every penny of the Federation to figure it out!"

...

"Two million years ago, the ancestors of modern humans, Homo sapiens, appeared, and 1.5 million years ago, humans learned to use fire, marking the first time humankind harnessed the power of nature."

Two hundred years ago, the steam engine changed our lives, so we call that period the Steam Era;

One hundred years ago, the internal combustion engine became the mainstream, ushering in the era of the internal combustion engine;

In the 1920s, electrification became the symbol of humanity embracing the future, and the Electrical Age marked the beginning of modernization;

In 1942, the first nuclear reactor lit up a light bulb, then started powering ships and aircraft, and now it is propelling us into the cosmos."

It took three million years to go from the Stone Age to the Space Age, modern science has benefited all of humankind, never before have so many people lived at the same time, never before has so much food been produced, never before have so many fruits of civilization improved our lives.

We spent half a century healing from the wounds of war, and as humanity steps into space, the last sanctuary for humans, everyone who loves peace across the world says, ’Let the evils halt at the atmosphere, humankind in the Space Age is united, and there is no war in space.’

The disputes and bloodshed on Earth are already heartbreaking enough; we cannot allow such tragedies to occur in space."

America strongly opposes any attempts to militarize space, and no one is allowed to deploy any kinds of weapons in space for any reason or purpose.

We hope for an even stricter enforcement of the Outer Space Treaty to ensure that every man-made object in space serves peaceful purposes that benefit humankind."

In the Manhattan District, America’s United Nations Ambassador, the intellectual woman Germaine Ferrante, nearly burst into tears at any moment as she delivered a moving speech in front of many representatives.

Russia’s representative Dimitri and China’s representative Xu Rang gave hearty applause, full of praise, and then exchanged glances, their eyes’ emotion replaced by a myriad of complex feelings, as the camera panned away.

Xu Rang: The Yankee has gone crazy, haven’t heard of the environmental girl taking over the Presidential Palace.

Dimitri: I have no idea either.

Although eye movements do not come with subtitles, that didn’t stop the two from quickly exchanging information.

If Lin Ju were to summarize America’s current actions, it could probably be described in two words: power generation.

Even Xu Rang and Dimitri were baffled. International politics is all about cause and effect, and every seemingly irrational act must have its unspeakable motives.

America is suddenly implying interference with United Mining’s lunar development, talking about stopping the militarization of outer space, and calling for joint nuclear disarmament, it’s really confusing.

The non-militarization of outer space is a standing issue; everyone ostensibly complies with it, but no one is short on covert operations. Can America honestly say its X37B does not serve military purposes?

Talking about nuclear disarmament could be seen as a publicity stunt or reducing maintenance costs, but why suddenly involve United Mining?

United Mining’s development actions have received unanimous approval. If they’re flipping the script now, they better provide a convincing reason because the other parties won’t be easily hoodwinked.

After Germaine’s speech, Dimitri and Xu Rang immediately began a private meeting to confirm that nothing recent had ticked off America’s nerves, so they began probing for news, wanting to know what John was up to lately.

And when these messages suddenly got back to the home front, the Aerospace Development Committee all issued question marks in unison.

Where has United Mining offended America, creating obstacles at such a critical moment?