While the anti-terrorism exercise, codenamed "Mission", was underway, it was late at night on the land of China.

On the other side of the globe, in North America, it is noon.

Normally, at this most sleepy time, Pentagon employees would probably choose to have a cup of coffee, sit in an air-conditioned office, and chat with their colleagues in the same office about international news or the situation of yesterday's football game......

Today, however, the situation seems to be somewhat different.

From 8 o'clock in the morning to the present, the entire Pentagon is like a wind-up music box, everyone's pace is unconsciously speeding up, and every gear is running at high speed.

The reason for all this is none other than the "anti-terrorist exercise" that is taking place tens of thousands of kilometers away at this very moment – at least nominally.

In a conference room in the core area of the Pentagon, on a screen that occupies almost the entire wall, images taken by satellite aerial photography of the Okinawa base are projected......

Facing the screen on the floor-to-ceiling screen, the entire conference room was silent, and everyone held their breath.

After the screening ended, it was about five minutes before the president spoke in a somewhat hoarse voice.

"Replay ...... again"

Glancing at the Minister of Defense and seeing him nodding, the staff member in charge of playing the film took a deep breath and pressed the button.

The screen starts to play back.

From the airborne capsule breaking through the atmosphere, to the burst of smoke when it approached the ground, and the mess on the ground when the smoke cleared, they were all in front of everyone sitting in the conference room at this moment.

Even if it is 108,000 miles away, even if it is separated by a screen, many people still smell the faint and threatening smoke of gunpowder......

It took a long time for the mouth to open and close before NASA's Director Carson scolded and said.

"Shet! Anti-Terrorism Drill ...... What kind of terrorists are especially able to fight with this kind of equipment? ”

Of course, this was said in an angry tone.

But I don't know why, when this sentence came out, the entire conference room suddenly fell silent. Several high-ranking officials, including the president, looked at each other and were speechless.

Noticing the unnatural silence, Director Carson was stunned for a moment, then realized that there seemed to be something wrong with his words, and hurriedly shut his mouth.

The silence lasted for a long, long time, and was finally broken by a cough from Kevin, the chief of staff.

"The people inside weren't smashed into meat sauce, it's so unscientific......"

The Pentagon's aerospace expert pushed the glasses on the bridge of his nose and said: "The speed at which the airborne capsule breaks through the low-altitude area is very fast, but the terminal speed close to the surface is actually not fast, and the explosion effect is not caused by the impact, it is estimated that the airborne capsule actively released a suppressive weapon when it is close to the surface area...... Something like a cluster/beam bomb, and that smoke—"

Interrupting the space expert's speech, the president spoke.

"Is the detailed analysis report out? About equipment identification. ”

The Pentagon's defense secretary and intelligence chief exchanged glances, then nodded.

"Just came out......"

There was no long wait, and soon a report was delivered to the conference room.

Taking the report from the secretary's hand, the president carefully read it line by line.

Minutes and seconds passed.

Everyone was waiting for him to read the report.

Kevin, who was sitting next to him, secretly glanced at his president, not knowing if it was his delusion, he always felt that His Excellency the president was pinching the index finger of the report, and he was shaking gently and uncontrollably.

In fact, he wasn't mistaken.

Even the president himself did not know how to express the shock he was feeling at the moment.

It took half an hour to go up and less than twenty minutes to land.

Theoretically, the force could be deployed anywhere in the globe within an hour, regardless of geographical conditions, whether it's the snow-covered Arctic, the jungle-dense rainforest, or the White House and Pentagon surrounded by steel jungles......

In this world, there is no corner that is truly safe, maybe one day he is in the office in a meeting, and the ceiling is smashed with a few big holes, these are all possible.

And most importantly, these paratroopers can easily bypass the legitimate airspace of all countries!

It's kind of scary......

Because the president has not spoken for a long time, I don't know when the conference room has been mired in a quarrel.

"It's time for a strict international convention to limit this evil weapon, and we should change the altitude of the airspace to the height of synchronous orbit! And the international treaty prohibiting the entry of unconventional weapons into outer space orbit will be expanded to the category of conventional weapons! Not even a single bullet is allowed! ”

"Are you crazy? The altitude of the airspace that we admit is only 35km! Who the hell is this restricting? And even if we continue to raise the altitude of our airspace, will our missiles be able to threaten their spacecraft? If not, what is the difference between this kind of convention and paper wiping fart/strands, except for embarrassing us? ”

Generally speaking, countries regard the lowest limit of satellites of 110 kilometers as the recognized altitude of their airspace, while the United States is in a special situation, and the upper limit of 35 kilometers of aircraft is used as the altitude of territorial airspace. After all, they have mastered some technologies that can break through the theoretical maximum flight limit of 35 kilometers, and naturally hope to be able to "legally" fly some special aircraft freely into the airspace of other countries for reconnaissance.

However, at a distance of 110 km, even if there is an international convention to limit it, it actually does not make much sense.

Even if advanced air defense radars were to be able to detect aircraft operating in the area, the means of restricting the area would be quite limited.

Not even a spacecraft.

If you want to hit a "relatively fixed" satellite in such a high airspace, you need a certain amount of luck and timing.

Prevent the orbital airborne troops from parachuting?

At such a high airspace, it's easier to dream.

“…… Are we just going to watch them hang this sword of Damocles over our heads? This is a provocation by the Chinese against us, and I suggest that we should respond to it strongly! ”

"This will not help ease regional tensions, it will only exacerbate the crisis!"

"Exacerbating the crisis? Just appeasement? I think it's always too weak to be the root of the problem! ”

There was a lot of noise in the conference room, with hawks and doves and the centrist sandwiched between the two sides, all of them arguing with red faces.

"Enough!"

An angry roar interrupted the debate in the conference room.

The president, who slapped the report in his hand on his desk and his chest heaved violently, glanced around the silent conference room, and finally looked at his chief of staff and spoke.

"Kevin, I'd like to hear your opinion."

Kevin was silent for a moment in response to the president's question.

“…… Their military exercises are not necessarily aimed at us. ”

"According to the information collected by the CIA, this military exercise is likely to be a crisis rehearsal arranged for Professor Lu's visit to St. Petersburg, Russia in August.

The Minister of Defense frowned.

"Visiting Russia?"

Kevin nodded.

"Well, supposedly to St. Petersburg for the IMU conference."

Minister of Defense: "......"

Pentagon Officials: "......"

Although he could understand why Hua Guo attached so much importance to the scholar, he used military exercises to escort a visit to an academic conference......

With such a big hand, he didn't know what to say.

Looking at the president, who had fallen silent, Kevin continued to make his point.

"According to the CIA report, this is indeed a good opportunity to not only get rid of a trouble, but also worsen the relationship between the two countries...... But my suggestion is that it is better to exercise restraint and caution until we find out more detailed information about their orbital airborne system. ”

"I don't need to tell you this, I know it." Speaking impatiently, the president, who sat in a different position, noticed that everyone was looking at him, suddenly thought of something, and then added a sentence after the sentence.

"Of course, just in case, I'll give our CIA director a call later."

Hearing this, at least half of the people in the conference room breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he was one of the people who breathed a sigh of relief, Kevin's face did not show a relieved expression, but was full of powerlessness.

After the Cold War era, the pattern of one superpower and many powers was laid, and other countries have always acted according to their faces, when it is their turn to avoid the edge for the time being.

With a bitter smile, he nodded heavily.

"It's better to ...... this way"

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