Chapter 73 Killing someone isn't as bad as destroying their spirit!
Across the ocean.
The Pentagon.
The highest-level meeting of the US was convened once again.
All the top brass of the US Air Force and Navy were in attendance!
There was only one agenda item for this meeting!
And that was, how the hell was the fighter formation shot down?
The US President wished he could fire and investigate all the high-ranking officials involved in this incident!
Twenty-four raptor fighter jets and a group of elite pilots were all shot down!
The loss of the fighter jets and the loss of the pilots—for the US, neither was something that could be easily borne!
Don't be fooled by the US's wealth; the cost of the raptor fighter jet was not only high, but the maintenance costs and the costs of other onboard systems added up to a truly terrifying figure!
So much so that the US had now stopped production of this aircraft model!
Originally, there were ninety-three in total, and now twenty-four had been lost!
That left fewer than seventy fighter jets!
And that was just the fighter jets!
Then there were those pilots flying the F-22 raptor fighter jet!
Pilots capable of flying this type of aircraft were, without exception, the elite of the elite!
Among them were even several ace pilots who had been tempered in large-scale wars.
Their value to the US was even greater than that of the fighter jets themselves.
And now, they were all gone!
For the US, this was absolutely an unprecedented event!
The US President slammed his fist heavily onto the table!
"Have you still not found out who did this?"
"You bunch of useless idiots, what is the use of having any of you?"
The Navy Commander responsible for salvaging the aircraft black boxes also felt very innocent!
It clearly had nothing to do with him, yet he had to share the responsibility!
And this naval general was none other than Gaolion!
The same high-ranking US official who had previously believed it was a fist appearing from the void that smashed the mecha!
"Mr. President, I know you are very angry, but please, don't be angry just yet!"
"Because there is an even more infuriating situation waiting for us!"
He slowly stood up, his bald head reflecting the light from above.
"I regret to inform you all that our naval soldiers responsible for salvaging the fighter jet black boxes recovered a pile of black boxes from the incident site!"
"They were placed on top of a huge piece of fighter jet wreckage!"
"We counted them, twenty-four black boxes, but all of them were shattered!"
Hearing this, one high-ranking official couldn't help but ask: "Why would they be placed on a piece of aircraft wreckage?"
"Could it be that the other party guessed we would be looking for the fighter jet black boxes?"
The US President took a deep breath, struggling to suppress the anger in his heart!
"It is obvious that the other party is mocking us!"
"Destroying all the black boxes and displaying them before us!"
"This is a naked provocation!"
"Who does he think he is, daring to provoke our US Empire!"
Hearing the US President's words, the faces of the high-ranking officials suddenly became serious!
They realized that they seemed to have encountered a difficult opponent this time!
A very difficult opponent!
The key was that they didn't even know who had done it.
"The incident occurred near the waters of the Banana Country; they have neither the ability nor the guts to take action against us!"
"So, could it really have been the Dragon Country?" General Gaolion said.
However, his thought was quickly dismissed by the President!
"It cannot be the Dragon Country!"
"The Dragon Country's newly developed Fifth-generation fighter is not enough to deal with our entire formation of raptor fighter jets!"
"Especially to take out our advanced fighter jets without a sound; that is even more impossible for them!"
"The other party is definitely not an ordinary force!"
At this moment, another general speculated: "Then it can only be the Bear!"
"Back when they were competing with us for hegemony, they conducted many strange and peculiar inventions!"
"You never know, perhaps one of their inventions was successfully developed recently and tested against us!"
Everyone heard this and felt it was somewhat plausible!
The Bear's current economic situation might not be very good, but its scientific and technological prowess was indeed unquestionable!
One must know, they were the first nation to send a human into space!
In the sixties, an era when the Internet hadn't even been popularized, sending a human into space—what a terrifying feat that was!
It even caused the US to feel it had been left behind, thus initiating the Star Wars program!
"Could it really be the Bear?"
"What the f*ck? I didn't expect that after being silent for so long, they would actually pull off something so big!"
"If it really is them, then we cannot just sit and wait for death; we must find a way to counter them!"
The Bear's "success" made the US high-ranking officials feel panicked!
It was as if they had returned to the Cold War era of the last century!
However, at this moment, the US President pounded the table, signaling them to be quiet!
"Whether it is them is not yet certain!"
"After all, we have no evidence to indicate it was them!"
"Now we must find a way to collect more evidence to deduce who exactly is stabbing us in the back!"
General Gaolion suddenly said: "Rest assured, Mr. President, we have already salvaged a lot of fighter jet wreckage!"
"Our research personnel are currently analyzing this wreckage!"
"However, the analysis may take some time!"
The US President nodded: "Tell them to hurry!"
Saying this, he was about to stand up and announce the end of the meeting!
This conference room made his mood exceptionally gloomy!
He needed to go out for a walk now to relieve his mood.
Just as he had stood up, his personal secretary rushed over in a hurry!
"Mr. President, this is bad! Something has happened!"
The US President snorted coldly:
"Is there any news more devastating than our fighter formation being destroyed?"
The secretary said: "This news is from the Dragon Country!"
As one of the suspected targets, news from the Dragon Country was extremely sensitive to them!
The US President snatched the document from the secretary's hand and began to read it!
After a long while, he clenched his fists in anger, his chest heaving rapidly, and he nearly fainted from rage!
The other generals were stunned to see him like this!
They all looked at the document!
They discovered that it was actually a statement issued by the Dragon Country!
The statement was as follows:
Recently, our troops located in the Southern Sea Area discovered a US reconnaissance plane invading our territorial waters and opening fire on our fighter jets, causing huge losses!
Our country demands that the US compensate for our losses and issue a public apology!
Otherwise, we will definitely take countermeasures!
Seeing this statement, the other high-ranking US officials were so angry they almost vomited blood!
We lost twenty-four Fifth-generation fighters, and we still haven't found the culprit...
And you are actually asking us for compensation!
Who is going to compensate us?!!!