Austin and his security team looked tense, closely monitoring the live feed of the buried UFO. With Jason's explicit authorization, the nuclear strike could be launched at a moment's notice.
The Noah, with all 50,000 citizens aboard, was only about 130 kilometers away from the alien wreckage. If the one-gigaton Helium-3 Nuclear Bomb were detonated directly at the site, the resulting blast and shockwave could very well damage the Noah itself!
But there was no other choice; holding back against a potentially hostile extraterrestrial civilization would be suicidal. Jason knew perfectly well that compared to a true interstellar empire, the Federation was barely stronger than an insect. Nuclear weapons were their absolute last line of defense. Until the Tetrahydrogen Nuclear Bomb was finalized, the Helium-3 warhead was the most powerful weapon in humanity's arsenal.
