All-Out War 13

When news reached the neighboring country that the mechanized infantry brigade Canada had sent to cooperate with the U.S. military had been almost completely wiped out, the Americans found themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place.

At the Pentagon, a group of senior U.S. defense officials and generals who had just received the order for a full counterattack against the Decepticons gathered together.

For a time, an unspoken awkwardness and silence made the atmosphere in the highest-security conference room unbearably stifling.

After a while, a general from the North American Aerospace Defense Command was the first to speak. "Canada has just suffered its worst losses since World War II, and it happened on our own continent. Within half an hour, North American Aerospace Defense Command received calls from the deputy commander, Canada's defense minister, and Canada's prime minister. We have to give them an explanation!"

The North American Aerospace Defense Command, abbreviated as NORAD, had been established during the Cold War by the United States and neighboring Canada as a joint military defense organization against the Soviet Union. Although its original duty had been to jointly establish an aerial defense zone spanning the Pacific Ocean, Arctic Circle, and Atlantic Ocean, its responsibilities had gradually expanded into many other military defense fields.

NORAD's commander was generally a senior officer appointed by the U.S. military, while the deputy commander came from Canada.

Although Canada was an economic colony of the United States, it was still one of the world's few industrialized nations. Under normal circumstances, the appearance of NORAD's Canadian deputy commander was enough to make the Americans take the matter seriously.

This time, however, a Canadian mechanized infantry brigade had been annihilated. Several high-ranking military and political officials had personally demanded an explanation. Even the officials in the Pentagon,