Chapter 639: Autobots' Counterattack (Part 1) (Patreon)

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When the USS San Antonio, a naval dock landing ship docked in the Red Sea, came under attack by extraterrestrial beings, and news of several Autobots' corpses being reclaimed by Autobots reached the homeland, chaos erupted within The Pentagon.

"Optimus Prime isn't dead? The Autobots' leader is still alive?"

Inside The Pentagon, there was more than just a handful of terrified individuals.

It's widely known that since the end of World War II, especially after the Cold War, the United States had become the prime instigator of global turmoil. Whether it was the CIA's interventions, territorial invasions, support for proxy agents, or extravagant military expenditures, the United States had manipulated much of the world at its whim.

Some claimed that the American elite suffered from paranoia, while others believed they exaggerated crises to secure congressional funding. Some even argued that Americans had committed so many unethical and underhanded acts that they projected their own misdeeds onto others.

In any case, this nation, from its military to its citizens, churned out a multitude of reports, analyses, and discussions every year, ranging from threats to American sovereignty to speculations about the demise of the United States.

Among these topics, analyses of scenarios where the United States was attacked or invaded by various nations remained perennially popular.

Reports and analyses about Canada, Central America's immigration-based takeover of the United States, a war with Mexico, a Chinese invasion, or even a nuclear strike by North Korea were not only frequently produced by think tanks like the Rand Corporation but were also sold to The Pentagon at a premium, bundled with so-called contingency plans.

Even within the Department of Defense itself, a group of such analysts was maintained, seemingly doing nothing but specializing in crafting threat analyses and invasion scenarios for different countries.

These people were, in essence, professionals in the art of unethical speculations, and as a result, they could not help but worry about potential reprisals one day.

With the appearance of the Autobots and Decepticons, two extraterrestrial races from beyond the stars, on Earth, The Pentagon had specifically assembled a team of analysts to assess the potential risks of a Decepticon or Autobot invasion of the United States and the consequences of a full-scale conflict.

This team of analysts and their analysis plans had seen a substantial increase in resources after the devastating attack on the U.S. Navy's Second and Fifth Fleets.

Immediately following the annihilation of the Second Fleet, Congress approved a special budget of a staggering $860 million for The Pentagon to comprehensively analyze and calculate the odds of success for the United States in a full-scale war against the Cybertron civilization.

As the cooperation between the Autobots and the United States completely fell apart, the threat posed by the Autobots became a matter of concern for the White House and Congress.

This development delighted a group of analysts who specialized in peddling fear-inducing articles, and the results of their analyses genuinely shocked everyone, including themselves.

Because analysis required some basis in fact and theory, and as they delved deeper into their research, including extensive records from Sound Nest units that had fought alongside the Autobots, a consensus gradually formed among experts.

If the United States were to engage in war with the Autobots, its losses could potentially exceed those of the Vietnam War.

Analysts from across the United States unanimously believed that the Autobots were a greater threat than the Decepticons because they were more rational and understood strategy and cooperation better.

This implied that if a serious conflict were to erupt, the Autobots might opt not to engage the U.S. military directly but instead focus on striking key cities and more valuable targets within the United States.

Furthermore, they believed that the majority of the weapons currently in the United States' arsenal posed no threat to the Autobots.

Individual infantry weapons performed especially poorly. Over the past year, Sound Nest units had exposed soldiers' individual weapons multiple times. Apart from grenades, heavy machine guns, and somewhat effective rocket launchers, most other weapons were incapable of inflicting any harm.

The heavy weaponry of the Army, Marine Corps, and special operations forces lacked the necessary mobility. The various aircraft of the Air Force, Navy, and Marines were unable to deal a lethal blow to the Autobots, who averaged speeds of over two to three hundred kilometers per hour, were terrain-agnostic, and possessed extremely high mobility.

The U.S. military, as of now, is known to possess weapons other than nuclear ones. The most notable among them is the GBU-43B, which made its mark in previous bombings. According to post-operation analysis by the U.S. military's battlefield assessment team, the success was achieved through a surprise attack, coupled with distractions from the Decepticons and the deployment of Electromagnetic Pulse Bombs by an unknown force.

Ultimately, the analysts submitted a thick and highly detailed analysis to the Department of Defense, the White House, and Congress.

They believed that if the United States were to ever conflict with the Autobots, it was imperative to keep the war away from the homeland. Otherwise, if the Autobots were to obstruct them on American soil and systematically wreak havoc city by city, the resulting devastation would be utterly unacceptable to the United States.

There was also a major caveat – the assumption that Optimus Prime, the leader of the Autobots, was deceased. Otherwise, should conflict erupt between the United States and the Autobots, the Americans were not reluctant to analyze it from the most perilous perspective.

If Optimus Prime continued to summon more Autobots from the cosmos, and their numbers exceeded thousands or even tens of thousands, the fate of Earth might no longer be determined by humans alone.

Hence, upon learning that Optimus Prime was still alive and that the United States had angered him by stealing Autobot corpses for research after their attack on a naval vessel, the nation fell silent.

The most dreaded scenario they had envisioned had come to pass!

In Waltham, Massachusetts, the renowned headquarters of Thunder God, a major American arms manufacturer, was located.

As a manufacturer of advanced missiles, few were aware that Thunder God not only excelled in the arms trade but also had a multitude of businesses in various sectors such as aerospace, energy, and chemicals.

In Waltham, Thunder God boasted seven laboratories and twenty-three research institutions affiliated with different departments and subsidiaries.

As one of the primary contractors for the U.S. military's equipment, Thunder God naturally received special treatment. This favoritism was evident not only in the skewed distribution of orders and national technology support funds but also in access to certain unique research materials.

For instance, alien corpses; Thunder God was one of the earliest military giants in the United States to obtain Decepticon remains for research from the government.

Not long ago, through persistent lobbying efforts, they had successfully acquired the remains of an Autobot obtained by the U.S. military on the Jordanian battlefield.

As the primary purchaser of Thunder God's products, the Air Force sought to gain more significant advantages from Thunder God in the future, as well as access to more advanced products.

On the second day after clearing the battlefield, they utilized a C-5 transport aircraft to deliver the remains of a renowned Autobot to Waltham.

The name of the deceased Autobot was Bumblebee.

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