Chapter 6

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Some states in the USA were in good condition because of the unique political system in which each state was autonomous. Citizens stocked up supplies and dug bunkers in an orderly manner. They actively participated in the prevention of the disaster. However, some states had fallen into bigger chaos than Britain and Gaul, where the local state government had lost control of the situation.

As for the federal government of the USA, their resources were focused on the defense against the meteorite. In addition, the government itself had limited control over the states. Therefore, they simply kept a blind eye and let the state governments handle their own affairs so that they could fully focus on the defense plan.

After all, as long as they could manage to change the orbit of the meteorite, Earth would be freed from impending disaster. The many disturbances and social problems caused by the impacts of the meteorite would also subside at that time. Then, the government would only need to supervise the post-disaster recovery phase in all states.

Perhaps, it was because the United Nations had those thoughts, that the disaster prevention preparations were not ideal.

Of course, the USA also had shelters and nuclear bunkers, but most of these were built during the Cold War.

The Cold War ended along with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. The USA became the world’s superpower and commanded the strongest military. The country was safe, and the shelters and nuclear bunkers were abandoned as they did not serve any further purpose.

Although there was a saying that went by “Peaceful America, shootouts every day”, the two World Wars were never fought on American soil. In dealing with possible disasters, the Americans had always maintained a kind of optimism that often confused other countries. It was as if they did not have any sense of danger.

To face the disaster, normal American citizens could only rely on their own basements, but that only included families that could afford to live in villas. As for the poor, they could only live in their apartments. How was it possible for them to find any basements as a bunker?

Of course, the truly wealthy ones would build their own bunkers with complete facilities and living supplies. That was indeed unmatched by other countries.

However, although all countries had their own problems to handle, they never slacked in the defense against the meteorite. They mobilized all possible resources and forces they could to ensure all three plans would be carried out smoothly.

At that time, none of the countries could hide their nuclear silos any longer. Both hidden and known nuclear silos had already entered a ready combat state. The nuclear warheads had been loaded with missiles and were ready for launch.

As the core of the three plans, the space shuttles of Vermillion, USA, and Russia were completed around-the-clock. They would only have to wait for the arrival of the meteorite and the plans could be put in motion.

The USA deployed two space shuttles, the Atlantis and the Endeavour which were out of service. They overhauled and repaired the shuttles regardless of the cost. These two old shuttles that had been out of service for more than 20 years were brought onto the launch pad once again.

According to the USA’s plan, not only did they need to carry nuclear bombs to propel or detonate asteroids, but they also needed to carry drilling rigs as well as crews to operate them, and to plant the nuclear bombs. They would also have to perform a successful landing while carrying a heavy load.

The USA’s spacecraft were the only ones in the world that, besides having such carrying capacities, could also re-launch after landing on the meteorite.

On the other hand, after the United States provided the Falcon Rocket, Vermillion combined it with its own Long March rockets to form a heavy-lift spacecraft with multiple engines. Its job was to apply sufficient thrust to the meteorite as it approached the moon to alter the meteorite’s orbit, with the help of lunar gravity.

However, all the data they had at that point was based on speculation. Nobody knew how heavy the meteorite was, and whether Vermillion’s giant rocket could achieve sufficient thrust to change its orbit.

After much deliberation, the United Nations operation team decided to adjust the plan. First, the United States’ crew would land on the meteorite and carry out their plan. They would drill holes to plant the nuclear bombs and blow up the meteorite into two pieces, one big and one small to reduce the weight of the main body.

At that same time, Vermillion would install the heavy-lift spacecraft onto the surface of the bigger fragment. They would change the orbit of that meteorite and deviate it from its impact trajectory with the combined forces of lunar gravity, the thrust from the spacecraft itself, and the thrust from the nuclear explosions.

As for the remaining fragments, it would be up to the Russians. They would direct a large number of nuclear warheads launched from Earth to conduct a concentrated nuclear attack on the smaller meteorite fragments until they were completely shattered.

If the whole plan went well, the large meteorite that was likely to cause human extinction would eventually be blown into a pile of debris in Earth’s low orbit, and then fall into the Earth’s atmosphere and incinerate.

Maybe some larger fragments would eventually fall on Earth, causing some damage, but that level of disaster was still bearable for overall human civilization.

When Vermillion, the United States, and Russia were ready to respond, the meteorite had finally closed by the moon’s orbit and was gradually approaching Earth.

The three teams that had been on standby for a long time were launched into space one after another. They would refuel at the International Space Station and Tiangong Space Station in low-Earth orbit and then use the gravity of Earth and the moon to accelerate. That was so that Vermillion and USA’s spacecraft could accelerate to a speed that would allow it to land on the surface of the meteorite.

To achieve that, Vermillion had sped up the completion of the Tiangong Space Station in the past three months while the United States carried out a major overhaul of the International Space Station. The two countries sent a total of six astronauts as the operation team to ensure that the stations could provide refueling services for their spacecraft.

The fuel needed for the entire project had also been launched to the space stations with the assistance of the SLS system. They were only waiting for both spacecraft to arrive at the respective space stations.

The rescue effort that affected the fate of all mankind had attracted the attention of everyone on Earth. All major media outlets and TV stations broadcasted the operation live for 24 hours a day.

Whether a person was a religious believer or an atheist, everyone prayed for the success of that plan.

Under the attention of six billion people around the world, Vermillion’s spacecraft and the United States’ spacecraft arrived at the Tiangong Space Station and the International Space Station respectively and started refueling.

As for the Russians, because they were responsible for intercepting the meteorites, they would not mobilize until Vermillion and the United States began their operation. After all, their mission was to direct those nuclear warheads. Relatively speaking, it was not necessary to launch their space shuttle so early.