Unbeknownst to Jason and his command staff, the Viridian Empire had actually connected the crashed spacecraft to the events on Mars! The aliens were deeply alarmed, believing that the mysterious vessel might have been shot down by the Noah... This assumption had a massive deterrent effect on them.
Especially after transmitting their surrender, the Viridians realized that the spacecraft ruins in the Martian Arctic had been inexplicably vaporized by a nuclear detonation, all without any detectable incoming missile trajectory. This further terrified them. (Their optical telescopes couldn't see the tiny, automated suicide rover moving across the surface).
