Destroy Sado Island.
The justification was the appearance of a Tactical Surface Fighter-class BETA.
Although once they presented such a reason afterward, many people would certainly refuse to believe it.
Once footage resembling an invasion was shown, everyone would have a rough idea in their hearts that it was probably fraudulent.
But so what?
Their country was the most powerful in the world, possessing the strongest armed forces on the planet.
Moreover, many countries in the world had no choice but to rely on their country, importing certain fighter aircraft components and equipment from them.
If they cut off the supply, those countries would suffer greatly when resisting BETA attacks.
In short, after the incident, the most anyone could do was curse them verbally. What could they actually do to their country?
So right now, inside a military operations conference room in the United States of North America, everyone was tensely watching two feeds.
They had not launched only one G-bomb. There was another one, and it had not been fired from the sky, but—
"Hit confirmed!"
The communication from the deep sea instantly made many people clench their fists, because the G-bomb had struck what appeared to be an abandoned, uninhabited island with nothing on it.
But beneath that island was the other party's base. They had confirmed that the materials sent to Sado Island had been transported from there.
So as the G-bomb detonated, the island was instantly swallowed by a glowing, dimly luminous sphere.
That island would no longer exist on the world map.
Oh, it had been small to begin with, difficult to display.
This time, it was truly gone. Only the sea remained.
Then everyone turned their attention to the other feed. A G-bomb launched by their space destroyer in orbit was going to erase Sado Island.
This would not merely destroy the mysterious force's power. It would also prevent the countries of the world from obtaining advanced technology.
Most importantly, more than half of the world's scientific talent had gathered there. They would all be destroyed together. Although that would be a tremendous loss for humanity, from the United States' perspective, if they could not be used by them, then it was better for them to disappear.
That way, the countries of the world would have even more reason to depend on the United States, and American technology would pull even farther ahead.
Of course, the United States had also dispatched some of its own researchers there, and the team sent over could be considered reasonably capable.
Otherwise, sending no one at all would have looked far too suspicious. They still had to put on a show.
At present, the G-bomb was about to pass through the thermosphere. Once it passed through, it would enter the mesosphere, placing it less than one hundred kilometers from the surface.
"One pillar successfully destroyed."
Another piece of good news arrived. The death soldier who had infiltrated Sado Island had used a bomb implanted inside his body to damage one of the other side's so-called metal pillars, which were said to be able to deploy an electromagnetic barrier.
Although they believed the other party's electromagnetic barrier could not withstand a G-bomb anyway, destroying it was still preferable.
Now that one pillar had been damaged, it should be unable to function normally.
Their gazes refocused on the progress of the G-bomb's launch. Its altitude was decreasing.
Three hundred kilometers from the surface.
Two hundred ninety kilometers from the surface.
From the surface—
When it reached roughly one hundred kilometers from the surface and was about to enter the mesosphere, a sudden burst of light erupted.
.....
Sado Island.
The sound of alarms left many people at a loss.
"The metal towers are changing. Are they going to deploy the shield?"
"To prevent Laser-class irradiation, probably."
"But that explosion just now seemed to destroy one of them. Will it still work?"
"Wait, there's a glowing point in the sky. What is that?"
Those words made Cui Yifei look up at the sky as well. There really was a glowing point.
They could not actually have dropped a G-bomb, could they?
Suddenly, the sky blazed with intense light, as if a small sun had been born.
"A n-nuke?"
Because it looked too similar.
But before their shock had passed, the little sun was instantly swallowed, replaced by what looked like a black sun rapidly swelling outward.
It expanded until it seemed as though someone standing on the ground could reach out toward the sky and touch it.
It was enormous, like a huge, faintly glowing lead ball dozens of kilometers wide hanging directly overhead and pressing down on them, creating an overwhelming sense of pressure.
"A G-bomb?"
Cui Yifei, who had originally been about to wonder whether it was a nuclear strike, instead spoke those words in a daze.
Having experienced a G-bomb attack and survived by a hair's breadth, she could confirm that this thing was indeed a G-bomb.
Why had it suddenly detonated above their heads?
If a sphere this large fell, Sado Island would disappear outright, wouldn't it?
"A real G-bomb attack?"
Stella Bremer also stared blankly at the huge sphere in the sky. The dim light it emitted made it feel as if a massive hole to hell had opened in the heavens.
The pressure it gave off was so intense that fear seemed to stop every cell in her body from dividing. She stood frozen in place, not daring to move.
Only when the black hole in the sky suddenly shrank and vanished did she finally come back to herself.
Immediately afterward, abnormal air currents converged toward the sky, giving her the sensation of losing gravity. Her body also began to lose its sense of balance.
As for lighter objects, they really did fly toward the sky. Even some smaller, lighter people had their feet lift more than ten centimeters off the ground.
If they did not grab onto something, it felt as if they might truly be sucked into the sky.
The changes in the sky were especially obvious. The clouds around the hellish black hole, after the black hole vanished, suddenly rushed toward the region where it had disappeared, as if a huge mass of cotton were being pulled into threads.
This phenomenon was caused by the difference between internal and external air pressure after the G-bomb's explosion.
Once the pressure inside the space had been replenished, it surged back outward.
It was like pouring water violently into a long pit in front of you to fill it. After the water flowed in and rushed from one side to the end of the pit, it struck an obstruction. Due to the reaction force, the water then pushed back.
As a result, the people on the ground soon felt violent winds pressing down from overhead.
"What... what just happened?"
Cui Yifei, finally coming back to her senses, muttered in confusion and fear.
The surroundings were in chaos as well. It could now be confirmed that what had just happened was a G-bomb attack.
Suddenly, the images on screens of all sizes switched to a livestream feed of the host who had organized this technology-sharing and disclosure conference.
"As everyone has seen, just now, we were attacked by a G-bomb without any warning whatsoever. Hm? One moment."
In the footage, Dr. Kouzuki received a communicator from someone, and the voice inside came through.
It was an urgent call from the United States of North America, claiming that the G-bomb attack just now had been a misunderstanding. They had mistakenly believed that a Tactical Surface Fighter-class BETA had landed on Sado Island and had no choice but to use a G-bomb.
"A Tactical Surface Fighter-class BETA? What is that?"
Stella Bremer heard that term again. It sounded like a new type of BETA, one dangerous enough to make the United States drop a G-bomb without issuing any warning?
Tactical Surface Fighter-class?
Combining that with the footage of the BETA landing on Sado Island earlier, where one machine had looked both like a BETA and a Tactical Surface Fighter...
Could it be that the BETA could modify and control humanity's Tactical Surface Fighters?
As that thought occurred to Stella, a chill ran down her spine.
Wait. No, that was not right. Cui Yifei had said the machine in the footage was crude and fake.
That meant Cui Yifei had seen the real thing?
"In that case, can you explain these?"
In the livestream, Dr. Yuuko Kouzuki suddenly played several videos, instantly making the other side of the communicator fall silent.
The footage showed containers holding BETA being transferred from transport planes onto the sea, accepted by submarines, and placed on the seafloor.
Finally, after what looked like some kind of command was received, the locks on the containers automatically detonated, releasing the BETA.
At the same time, from one of the submarines emerged a strange Tactical Surface Fighter—the one stitched together with some BETA components. It proceeded to lure the BETA forward.
Seeing this, although many people still did not understand the specific situation, they could confirm one thing: the BETA invasion of Sado Island had been orchestrated by the United States.
Then, using the BETA invasion as a pretext, after "discovering" some dangerous individual, they directly dropped a G-bomb?
This self-directed farce instantly ignited the fury of countless people.
"Since you have gone this far, do not blame us for being impolite."
In the livestream, Dr. Kouzuki smiled as she said those words.
That smile was dazzling.
Yet it felt terrifying.
Stella Bremer suddenly realized something, and her expression changed slightly.
"So this was the true purpose of this technology exchange conference?"
She could not help murmuring.
She realized just how terrifying this woman, Dr. Yuuko Kouzuki, truly was.
Five minutes later, Stella received the first piece of news from her superior.
A space battleship belonging to the United States had been destroyed.
And that was only the beginning.
(End of Chapter)
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