Pentagon.
Footage captured by a high-altitude drone played on the floor-to-ceiling screen.
Amid the smoke, the soldiers clad in mechanical exoskeletons had swept every armed militant from the deck with swift, decisive tactics, without the slightest bit of hesitation or delay.
By the time the United Kingdom's special forces arrived by helicopter from the nearest military base, not only had the aftermath already been dealt with, even the bloodstains on the deck had been scrubbed clean.
The video ended.
The entire conference room fell silent.
After clearing his throat softly, the Department of Defense's senior military adviser broke the silence. He tapped the floor-to-ceiling screen twice with the laser pointer in his hand.
"Thirty-seven minutes."
"Shit... they cleaned that deck faster than I wash my car."
"More accurately, thirty..." The Pentagon's Secretary of Defense lowered his arms from across his chest onto the table. His face was so dark it seemed ready to drip water. "From the moment they learned that the freighter had been hijacked by armed militants to dropping the Orbital Paratroopers over their heads, it took only thirty minutes in total."
"One-hour global deployment is probably just the most conservative estimate."
"Their strategic projection capabilities are even stronger than we imagined!"
The conference room sank into silence once more.
And this time, the silence was somewhat terrifying.
"Damn it." The exhausted president removed his glasses, pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers, and spoke with difficulty. "How did they do it so quickly..."
No one could answer that question.
Their intelligence on this Orbital Drop Brigade was practically nonexistent.
What kind of deployment method could transport an iron army armed to the teeth from Jinling, more than ten thousand kilometers away, to the middle of the Baltic Sea?
The secret behind it was probably known