Chapter 162: You Again?
There was hardly any place in the world where the US power and intelligence did not reach.
The United Human Federation was the only place that the US had given up on spying.
In such a situation, the US could not have missed the signs of the fifth Middle East war.
It was just that they had been relatively negligent because they were focusing on the United Human Federation.
They also thought that Israel was so strong that there would be no war.
The various countries in the Middle East were burning with the desire to destroy Israel once and for all, but it seemed difficult unless Saudi Arabia joined them.
When the US political figures mentioned the Middle East, they often said this.
—As long as we hold Saudi Arabia, there will be no war.
This country had used its enormous wealth built on oil to introduce the weapons systems of the US and the United Human Federation on a large scale.
Based on that, they had intervened in Yemen, which had been a headache for a long time, and successfully ended the civil war.
Thanks to that, Saudi Arabia’s position in the Middle East soared.
Even though they had introduced drones, which Muslims called killing machines and disliked, for the protection of the royal family, there was hardly any backlash.
The US believed that there would be no war in the Middle East as long as they maintained a close relationship with Saudi Arabia.
There was a controversy that nuclear weapons had leaked due to Yu Ji-ha turning back the clock of Iran and Pakistan to the Middle Ages, but it was difficult to track them down.
As NPT became meaningless and IAEA lost its power, nuclear weapons tracking became more difficult as well.
However, the US did not strongly prevent nuclear proliferation as before.
They probably thought that it was pointless since hafnium-2 warheads had spread enough, but also because they had succeeded in producing iron beams themselves.
Reverse engineering had been done long ago and the crystal to make the focusing lens was the problem, but the United Human Federation gave it to them as a condition to stop Russia’s invasion of Estonia.
As a result, the US succeeded in deploying iron beams in large quantities.
The algorithm was lacking, but with its overflowing output, it completed an ICBM interception test.
Because of that, the US laser weapons were all on the verge of extinction, and actually became so.
But the US didn’t care.
—As long as we have iron beams, the chances of our homeland being attacked by nuclear weapons are close to zero.
—The era of missiles is over. It’s the era of lasers now.
The performance of the iron beams, which had been unsealed, was shockingly impressive.
There were rumors that they couldn’t understand why Earth Fleet had been attacked by nuclear weapons from Pakistan in the Indian Ocean battle.
—We succeeded in intercepting our warheads with a 99% probability with a deficient algorithm. Why did we get hit by Pakistan’s old-fashioned nukes?
—We did it on purpose. To show our weaknesses to China and Japan.
It was impossible to know if that was true, but considering the situation of the East Asian War afterwards, it was plausible.
Anyway, the US gained confidence with iron beams and tried to sell them to Saudi Arabia, but they were rejected.
Saudi Arabia had already introduced weapons that had been obsolete in the United Human Federation.
The royal family had personally intervened and spent billions of dollars at once, which made the State Department complain.
—United Human Federation weapons are flowing into the Middle East. This causes unnecessary conflicts.
But the US’s true feelings were just revealing their discomfort that Saudi Arabia had not bought their weapons.
In the end, Crown Prince Muhammad appeased the US by signing a weapons procurement contract worth billions of dollars.
In such a situation, the US did not have as much interest in the Middle East as before.
The homeland was safe, and Saudi Arabia had a tight grip on the Middle East.
The Yemeni civil war, which had been dragging on for almost 20 years, had ended, Afghanistan was stabilizing, and Iran and Pakistan, which had been thorns in their eyes, had been shattered.
The only problem was that Yu Ji-ha was involved in all these matters.
So all their nerves were focused on him, and they missed the nuclear weapons flowing into the Middle East.
As a result, the US failed to prevent six countries in the Middle East from declaring war on Israel, let alone predict it beforehand.
To be precise, the intelligence agency had warned them, but it was close to being ignored by the upper echelons who thought it was nothing serious.
When the fifth Middle East war broke out, they realized it was no joke.
—Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Syria have notified us that if Israel uses nuclear weapons, they will use them too. What the hell happened?
—It seems that nuclear warheads have leaked as Pakistan collapsed. It’s a small amount, but it can cause a lot of damage to Israel, which has a small territory.
—We have to stop the war right now.
But it was after Egypt’s armored units had already crossed the Sinai Peninsula.
Since several countries had nuclear weapons, there was a risk of a full-scale nuclear war breaking out.
The US sent bureaucrats from the Department of State to Jerusalem for mediation, but they heard unexpected news.
“The Prime Minister went to the United Human Federation?”
“To discuss weapons procurement.”
“Why now of all times?”
The President of Israel was mostly an honorary position and most of the authority belonged to the Prime Minister.
The US government was humiliated when the Prime Minister of Israel went to the United Human Federation instead of the US right after the war broke out.
The President had no excuse and the US politics, including the White House, boiled with anger.
—How could Israel choose the United Human Federation over us? That’s impossible.
—We’ve given Israel nearly 50 billion dollars in military aid in the last 10 years. What was that for?
—The influence of the United Human Federation in Israel has reached a dangerous level. If we don’t exclude it, our influence in the Middle East will shrink day by day.
The White House planned to induce a ceasefire, even if they couldn’t fully support Israel.
But they were very nervous to see Israel’s high dependence on the United Human Federation.
The relationship between the US and Israel had gone through many bumps, but it was still a solid alliance that could never be broken.
It was natural to feel betrayed when that alliance ran to the United Human Federation first.
But the Prime Minister of Israel, who succeeded in meeting Yu Ji-ha, had to hear that he had nothing to offer.
“We have to care about our relationship with Saudi Arabia too.”
“We’ll buy any weapons you have. Isn’t Earth Fleet unmanned? We just need to borrow it once.”
Israel wanted Earth Fleet.
They seemed desperate, since they offered to exclude the new bomb that France had used.
But Yu Ji-ha had no intention of taking Israel’s side.
Saudi Arabia was also a valuable customer.
He talked to someone on the phone and then met with the Israeli Prime Minister again.
“I’m sorry, but sending Earth Fleet is difficult. Instead, we’ll suspend weapons exports for a while, considering the positions of both countries. This is all I can do for you.”
It was obvious that Crown Prince Muhammad had intervened.
He probably promised a large-scale weapons procurement deal after making Israel kneel.
It was a bad situation for Israel, but not the worst.
Yu Ji-ha had always been very plain about the Middle East, and Israel was no exception.
He would sell weapons as much as they paid, but he would refrain from doing so now because it could affect the war between the two countries.
The Israeli Prime Minister was disappointed by his attitude as a merchant of death and left for home immediately.
The US and Israel appealed to the international community, but they couldn’t stop the war.
It was their fault for ignoring the cooperation of the international community in the first place. Who could they blame?
The Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights were ablaze.
***
Israel was pushed back badly in the early stages of the war.
It was because Saudi Arabia had given K-3 tanks to Egypt and Syria.
There was a tank battle in the Golan Heights and Sinai Peninsula, and Israel’s armored units were smashed to pieces.
Israel had K-3 tanks too, but not many.
They had to invest in defense systems such as iron beams and drones.
In contrast, Saudi Arabia used its abundant funds to sweep up the obsolete weapons systems of Korea.
They even wanted to buy the retired Kim Gu and Yeo Un-hyung ships, and although they failed to do so, they succeeded in introducing railguns.
The Saudi navy used railgun bombardment from the Gulf of Aqaba in the north of the Red Sea to strike the cities of Israel.
The warheads had a small diameter and low destructive power, but the bombardment from an unreachable area was very terrifying.
As Gaza and Jerusalem were hit hard, Israel immediately responded, but the Saudi air force was not easy to deal with.
Since both sides had iron beams, they couldn’t dream of invading the airspace, and naturally an air battle ensued, but the Saudi forces had the upper hand.
As the situation went on unfavorably like this, the US proposed a ceasefire to the belligerents, but it didn’t go as planned.
—The US has been taking Israel’s side so much that they can act like thugs in the Middle East.
—This is our chance to destroy Israel and reclaim Jerusalem.
Jerusalem was such an important city that mentioning it alone could ignite many countries in the Middle East.
Losing it would mean the end of Israel and the loss of US influence in the Middle East.
The US couldn’t stand it anymore and started to send troops.
As soon as the war broke out, Israel ran to the United Human Federation, which was annoying, but they couldn’t just leave them to die, could they?
However, fearing the backlash of the Middle Eastern countries, they decided to send military advisers and sell weapons instead of combat troops.
US transport planes flew into Tel Aviv International Airport without a break, and the belligerents except Israel looked at them with displeasure, but there was nothing they could do.
There was no country that could stop the US as long as the United Human Federation didn’t intervene.
The Israeli Prime Minister threatened to use nuclear weapons as soon as his sacred territory was invaded.
“All of Israel’s land is too sacred to be compromised. If our enemies violate it, we will not hesitate to fire nuclear weapons.”
The belligerents fiercely opposed him, and the fifth Middle East war was going down the drain.
When the world’s attention was focused on the Middle East, Yu Ji-ha paid attention to the moon.
It was because the prophet’s artifact was about to arrive on the moon.
Starfield had set up a solar system warning system and deployed it on each planet’s orbit, so he was able to notice it in advance.
“Master, the prophet’s artifact has arrived. It’s a heat converter.”
The artifact that came this time was a very important device that converted heat into electricity without loss.
He no longer needed to build a huge nuclear fusion plant.
He could easily generate electricity with just a nuclear fusion reactor and a heat converter.
Many countries would doubt it, but they couldn’t ask outright.
As soon as a gray capsule hit the silent sea, rovers and walkers rushed in.
It happened to be near the moon base that the US was building, so astronauts discovered it.
“What are those cans taking?”
“I don’t know. I just confirmed that the ground shook…”
NASA didn’t take this lightly and reported it to the White House immediately.
The White House staff concluded that it was a prophet’s artifact.
“It seems that a new artifact has arrived after the golden record, ether core, and supermassive particle accelerator.”
“Currently, the artifact is secured by the United Human Federation and being transported to Moonlight Base.”
“…You just watched it?”
The NASA director wiped his forehead repeatedly on the screen as he was embarrassed by this situation.
“We had no choice. Our astronauts on the moon have limited work to do.”
“You could have mobilized androids.”
“They’re not good enough to operate in such extreme environments.”
The US also had androids, but most of them were early models that couldn’t operate properly in extremely low temperatures like on the moon.
The walker that was brought in experimentally was also made on the premise of operating on the ground, so it was not suitable for working on the moon.
But at this very moment, the United Human Federation was improving them.
For example, the current Lucia and the initial Lucia were so different that one might doubt if they were the same model of android.
There must be something more amazing at the base on Mars.
President Bernstein ordered with a click of his tongue.
“Connect me to the United Human Federation. I can’t ask them to hand it over, but I can at least ask what it is.”
He thought it wouldn’t hurt to hear his opinion on the Middle East.
Soon, the hotline was connected and Yu Ji-ha told him honestly.
“It’s a heat converter.”
“What is that?”
“It’s a device that converts heat into electricity without loss. We’re currently reverse engineering it, but it doesn’t seem to be very difficult.”
“Convert heat into electricity? Is that so impressive?”
This president seemed to be from a non-science background.
Yu Ji-ha kindly explained it by comparing it to a nuclear fusion plant.
“Don’t you have nuclear fusion plants in the US?”
“We have three of them.”
The relationship between the two countries had cooled down and the introduction had been suspended, but they had some that they had introduced before and they were using them well.
“How big are those plants? The nuclear fusion reactor itself is relatively small, but isn’t it huge with all kinds of facilities attached?”
That was obvious.
Since they couldn’t get electricity from the nuclear fusion reactor, they had to boil water and spin a turbine.
It was the same for thermal or nuclear power plants.
Bernstein clenched his handset as he thought about it.
“Don’t tell me you can get electricity without those facilities?”
“You got it right. The heat converter itself is not very big either. We won’t have to worry about electricity from now on.”
It was assuming that he succeeded in mass production, but he couldn’t imagine him failing.
‘This will cause a commotion if it gets out to Congress…’
The United Human Federation had been making significant progress in miniaturizing nuclear fusion reactors lately.
It wasn’t a dream to mount nuclear fusion reactors and heat converters on spacecraft.
But he wondered how the Seoul-class combat cruisers would generate electricity.
They wouldn’t operate gas turbines in space.
Several intelligence agencies had calculated that it was impossible to operate such a large mass with gas turbines, nuclear batteries, or solar power generation.
It had to be nuclear fusion, but they couldn’t boil water in space, so it meant they had installed some special equipment.
‘Sure enough, they already had the prophet’s artifact.’
They didn’t seem to bother hiding it.
President Bernstein took a deep breath and said.
“Why don’t you reveal your identity now? If you are sincere about the peace of humanity that President Yu said, we are willing to cooperate with you.”
“I saw the special program about me. You did a very good job with the details.”
It sounded sarcastic to talk about cooperation after making such a thing.
Bernstein wanted to tell him that the US was too big for communication or cooperation to work well, but he kept his mouth shut.
The two countries were in a fierce conflict and they couldn’t go back to the past.
He asked him about the Middle East for the last time and Yu Ji-ha answered briefly.
“I don’t care much about it. Do as you please.”
The call ended there.
Bernstein sighed deeply and hung up the phone.
He felt that war was inevitable.
The Middle East war was halted after only 10 days of outbreak.
It was because the US finally drew its sword.
The carrier fleet openly entered the Red Sea and the destroyer fleet anchored off the coast of Tel Aviv in the Eastern Mediterranean.
And the White House issued an ultimatum to the six belligerent countries.
“We can no longer tolerate the brutal violence against Israel. We urge you to withdraw all your troops, personnel, and facilities to their previous positions within 10 days. If you fail to comply, we will take it as a sign that you want to go to war with us.”
The international community was stunned by the US’s blatant threat.
The US had been in a position of a satiated lion and showed a rather generous attitude.
But lately, it seemed to be driven by something.
It was probably because the United Human Federation had emerged as a competitor.
The United Human Federation had little role in this war, but its influence was so great that Israel reached out for help first.
Saudi Arabia also proposed to buy weapons from the United Human Federation instead of the US, which clearly hurt the US’s pride.
The belligerents resisted together, but the US was adamant.
Senators stepped up and even threatened nuclear weapons, forcing Saudi Arabia, the leader of the Middle East, to back down.
What could they do with a few nuclear weapons?
The US had thousands of them.
The US had also reverse-engineered and deployed iron beams in large numbers.
It was the country that introduced the most and earliest weapons systems of the United Human Federation.
As the US clenched its fist, the belligerents had to curse and withdraw their troops.
Israel breathed a sigh of relief.
They might suffer some losses, but they seemed to have no trouble making peace.
Many political scientists argued that Israel was not as strong as before.
It was because the combat capability had declined as the Haredi, Jewish fundamentalists, joined the army en masse.
To make matters worse, the number of Arabs in Israel continued to increase.
Israel’s population kept shrinking for security reasons, but the proportion of Haredi and Arabs increased year by year.
Several political scientists agreed that Israel would not last 20 years.
—Orthodox Jews and Arabs have five or six children each. By 2050, they will account for about half of Israel’s population.
—The influence of AIPAC (American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee) has also declined in the US. Nowadays, Americans don’t understand why they have to help Israel.
—The war has subsided for now, but as long as Israel is there, another war will break out.
The geopolitical position of Israel in the middle of the Middle East was again raised as a problem, and Britain, which caused it, was dragged out and criticized.
Inside Israel, they welcomed peace but also hinted that they wanted intervention from the United Human Federation.
They thought their country would be ruined if things went on like this.
But Yu Ji-ha didn’t have time to pay attention to Israel, which didn’t even produce psychers.
It was because an alarm came from a satellite with an ether scanner sent all over the solar system.
Five cocoons were marked on the three-dimensional solar system map.
He fell into a dilemma after receiving information on the psych field density emitted by Yu Ji-ha’s cocoons.
“Five knights. That’s too much for training.”
「Maybe they’re testing because they killed Beta One too quickly?」
It was awkward not knowing their intention.
“It’s hard to destroy more than one even if we mobilize Settler.”
It wasn’t easy to fire reactive bullets in space.
They might send psych waves for all he knew.
He could use blockers, but he couldn’t blow them up in a non-frontal situation.
It was recently developed and difficult to mass-produce, so it was more precious.
He made a decision after receiving information on Yu Ji-ha’s cocoons.
“I guess we’ll have to leave them alone until they fall to Earth.”
He couldn’t take risks in a situation where he wasn’t sure if it was the prophet or Plague who sent cocoons.
Humanity would suffer more damage, but what could he do?
It was impossible to protect eight billion people from the beginning, and Yu Ji-ha didn’t plan that far either.
“We only protect the United Human Federation. Prepare for defense system activation.”
Updat𝓮d from freew𝒆bnov𝒆l.co(m)