Underwater in the Northeast Pacific, the USS Pennsylvania strategic nuclear submarine.
Captain Thomas Banford held his coffee cup, needing it to revive himself because he was not in good condition. Banford and his crew should have ended their strategic patrol and returned to the Bangor Naval Base in Washington for maintenance three days ago.
The typical patrol cycle for an Ohio-class ballistic missile submarine is 77 days of patrol and 35 days of rest, with the crew generally rotating in two shifts to maintain high efficiency.
However, when they were about to end their patrol and head back to the Bangor Naval Base, the Navy Command suddenly requested that they continue their patrol. The reason was that the United States was reportedly under the threat of an alien attack, advising them to stay on patrol as a precautionary asure.
Banford thought the precautionary asure was for them to launch nuclear missiles at the aliens; what he didn't know was that the Air Force had already done this. The real intention of the U.S. Navy Command was to keep them hidden as the last ans of strike, fearing that if they returned, they might beco a target for the aliens.
The real threat of strategic nuclear submarines wasn't to the aliens but to other countries on Earth. The United States could afford to suffer a little but absolutely could not let its rivals, like Country C and other powers, sense any decline and see an opportunity to pounce.
Not returning when it was ti to, and not having a clear date of return, made everyone aboard the USS Pennsylvania extrely anxious. If it weren't for Banford and his XO constantly ntally counseling the soldiers and swearing oaths, there would probably have been chaos on the Pennsylvania by now.
Banford asked the base daily when they could return but still couldn't get a precise answer.
The XO was aware of the captain's urgency. He, like Banford, wanted to return ho to see his wife, but military orders were as firm as mountains, and there was nothing they could do in the vast ocean.
"Captain, don't worry. Our supplies on the ship will soon run out, and then we will have no choice but to return," the XO reassured the captain.
But Banford was more pessimistic, saying, "Who knows? Maybe they'll send a supply ship to resupply us."
The XO said, "If that happens, we'll have to surface, which defeats the whole purpose of our deterrent patrol."
As they were discussing, suddenly the sonar operator shouted, "Captain, right above us, there's an unknown underwater sound signal, sothing we've never heard before... like sothing big entering the water."
Before Banford and his XO could react, the sonar operator exclaid again:
"My goodness, it's moving so fast!"
This statent hardly mattered, as almost the mont he finished speaking, the entire submarine experienced violent shaking.
"Damn it, what's going on? Move away from here imdiately!" Banford, who had fallen and could barely keep his balance, scrambled up and shouted at the helmsman, amidst a flurry of activity in the command center.
The helmsman, sweating profusely, was controlling the rudders, but he found that the nuclear submarine could not move at all.
"Captain, it's no use; our aft propeller seems to be stuck!"
Banford's eyes nearly burst from their sockets—the situation had unfolded too quickly; in just a matter of seconds, they had beco fish on a chopping board, not even knowing where the enemy was from or what kind of attack they were facing.
The XO reacted the fastest. He didn't care about morale anymore and shouted, "It must be aliens, aliens must have attacked us!"
Things that couldn't be explained were ascribed to inexplicable entities—it was the most logical explanation.
The submarine's depth gauge was continuously decreasing. A massive force was rapidly pulling the nuclear submarine, which weighed over 18,000 tons, towards the surface. Every sailor inside the submarine was flung around by this force; so even hit their heads against the wall, blood gushing out.
Finally, the ballistic missile submarine, which had been well-hidden under the water, was dragged up to the surface, causing waves that made the massive vessel bob up and down like a rubber duck in a bathtub.
A huge Iridium Star unmanned engineering vessel, dripping with seawater, grabbed hold of the USS Pennsylvania with two sturdy, powerful chanical arms. Yes, it was this object that had plunged down from space, even piercing into the water to haul the befuddled submarine to the surface.
The unmanned engineering vessel's mission was not yet over. Operated by the Imperial Chancellor Bai Zhongqi, who was suddenly seized by a whim, it deployed the vessel's spray gun to paint a colossal "Demolish" on the hull of the USS Pennsylvania in crooked letters, and, not satisfied, circled the characters. After snapping a photograph with a click, Bai Zhongqi finally felt content.
A third engineering arm, originating from who knows where, abruptly tore open the submarine's conning tower. Then, a horde of Bionic Humans, clad in Army-Breaker Powered Individual Armor, descended from the sky. These Bionic Humans stord into the submarine, and soon after created a cacophony, subduing and binding the Arican sailors one by one.
The Arican sailors, utterly terrified, watched these robot-like figures handcuff them with plastic handcuffs, gag their mouths, and drag them to a landing craft floating on the surface. Clearly, this craft was about to transport these prisoners.
The engineering vessel's work was still not done. It then extracted all the Trident ballistic missiles from their silos on the submarine, even dismantling the nuclear warheads on-site and sealing the nuclear material in a hertic container.
After draining the missiles and the submarine of fuel, the engineering vessel forcefully shot up from the water, astonishingly carrying the tens of thousands of tons submarine into the air, not stopping until it had breached the atmosphere.
Subsequently, the USS Pennsylvania temporarily beca a satellite orbiting Earth…
"Take a picture as a keepsake, upload it online, then continue to dismantle it. After all, it's about ten to twenty thousand tons of material, and there's already enough junk in Earth's orbit; let's not add to the chaos," Bai Zhongqi said, seemingly with a great sense of civic duty.
Looking at the photo he had taken, he was very satisfied, although the Iridium Star people still couldn't quite grasp the deeper aning behind their Chancellor's actions.
Seventeen Ohio Class submarines were lined up by the engineering vessels, creating a visual impact that could rival an interstellar warship.
Since the Iridium Star people began surveilling Earth, they had beco aware of the use of nuclear submarines by Earth's nations. As a necessary precaution, water-capable Dragonfly Drones entered the water, using highly sensitive sonar to search for traces of these submarines. Coupled with monitoring the U.S.
Navy's network, they could ascertain the specific locations of these submarines, ensuring that none ever escaped the surveillance of the Iridium Star people. When Bai Zhongqi was ready to thoroughly puml the Aricans, this intelligence proved very useful.
As the main force behind Arica's nuclear strike capabilities, the Ohio Class carried half of Arica's nuclear arsenal. Eighteen of these submarines were built, and Bai Zhongqi had staged a photo with only seventeen, the missing one not an oversight, but reserved for another purpose.
Clever kids, can you guess what Bai Zhongqi did with that one submarine?
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