Time passes minute by minute.
Foreign Ministry, intelligence agencies, and newsrooms around the world are keeping an eye on the clock.
Waiting for Rabbit Nation to respond to Eagle Nation's harsh statement.
An hour passed, and there was only silence on Rabbit Nation's side.
Five hours later, Rabbit Nation Foreign Ministry's regular press conference was cancelled.
The spokesman failed to show up and the situation became urgent.
Ten hours have passed, and apart from daily news, its official channel has not mentioned a word about the aircraft carrier incident.
This complete silence makes all observers feel suffocated and uneasy.
Eagle Nation In China, there are various speculations from strategic think tanks to street discussions.
This extremely tight silence lasted for almost the whole day.
Rabbit Nation time 7:30 pm.
Through all its national news agencies, mainstream TV stations, and official online platforms, it is released simultaneously with a completely unified caliber:
"In order to test the actual combat capabilities of the troops, defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity, and maintain regional peace and stability.
I, People's Army, will be in some designated sea areas starting from 0:00 tomorrow morning.
A seven-day multi-service joint military exercise was held.
During the exercise, multi-subject exercises such as live-fire shooting, sea-air confrontation, joint anti-submarine, and regional air defense will be conducted.
To ensure safety, the relevant sea areas will be designated as temporary no-navigation zones.
All unauthorized ships and aircraft are prohibited from entering. Please be informed!
The wording of the notice is a standard and restrained military tone, but every word is scrutinized by military officials around the world with a magnifying glass.
The most important thing is the attached sea area coordinates. After comparison, its core area.
It is only about 20 nautical miles away from the nearest position where the Japan Footpan Chicken aircraft carrier, which suffered an internal explosion yesterday, is being towed and transferred!
This is not a response, this is proximity deterrence! It is a naked and provocative declaration of action!
"Military Exercise"! A live-fire, multi-service, seven-day exercise was held in a sensitive sea area where the world's attention is focused!
This is tantamount to publicly rehearsing how to inflict greater damage on your opponent's wounds, and unequivocally declare:
I'm right here, I know where you are, and I'm not afraid of you.
As soon as the news came out, the whole world was in an uproar!
The international community was shocked.
For decades, no country has dared to attack Eagle Nation.
Instead of explaining or cooling down the situation, he acted in such an aggressive and almost humiliating way.
Advancing military power so close.
This completely subverts many people's understanding of Rabbit Nation's strategic style.
"How dare they?" A Europe senior diplomat could not conceal his shock in a private comment.
"They are actively provoking a war and are confident that they can win!"
In an instant, the eyes of the whole world, whether political, military, or just for fun.
They all focused their attention on the sea area Rabbit Nation marked as the "exercise area".
Monitoring satellites in various countries have received the highest priority instructions.
Adjust the orbit and lock your "eyes" firmly on the sea area and its surroundings.
Especially the location of the remaining ships of the Eagle Nation aircraft carrier battle group, and the movements of the Rabbit Nation coastal military base.
Data from commercial satellite companies are also snapped up at high prices by major countries and intelligence agencies in an effort to obtain more real-time and detailed pictures.
The hotline of diplomatic channels has become hot, and all parties with close relations with the two countries are communicating urgently.
Trying to figure out the bottom line and prevent misjudgments in global financial markets, especially the Asia-Pacific market.
The first to feel the chill, stock index futures fell and safe-haven asset prices soared.
Eagle Nation The atmosphere on the conference table can no longer be described as solemn.
On the screen, the coordinate map of the exercise area announced by Rabbit Nation and the position of the "Japanese Footpan Chicken" were displayed side by side.
That short distance of 20 nautical miles stung the nerves of everyone present.
"Sir, this is a provocation! It is a direct humiliation to the United Eagles!"
Defense Ministry's face was ashen, and his fists hit the table hard.
"They are showing off their force next to our warships! We must respond reciprocally!"
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman stood up:
"It is recommended to immediately order Japan Footpan Chicken to escort the remaining ships of the formation.
Together with the advance team of the Outer Root strike group that was urgently dispatched, a deterrent formation was formed outside the exercise area.
At the same time, Guam Base's B-52 strategic bomber took off with bombs attached and was on standby in safe airspace.
We want them to know that every minute of the drill is conducted under our guns!"
The national security adviser was relatively calm:
"Diplomatically, we should immediately unite with our major allies and issue a joint statement.
Condemn this behavior that heightens tensions.
At the same time, submit urgent issues to Security Council.
But the most important thing is to demonstrate militarily that we will not be intimidated."
The commander-in-chief's face was as dark as water as he listened to the almost one-sided strong response from his subordinates to the suggestions.
Rabbit Nation This step is stepping on the red line, due to the pressure of domestic public opinion, the anger of the military, and the expectations of allies.
All required him to respond forcefully.
"Gentlemen," the general said slowly.
"I agree..."
Before he finished speaking, he was interrupted by a rapid, even slightly panicked knock on the door.
A senior staff member pushed open the door and entered, clutching a tablet computer that was still scrolling news.
"Sir! Emergency! Major domestic and foreign media...
CNN, Fox News, BBC, Reuters, Agence France-Presse...
And our <The New York Times>, <The Washington Post>...
Almost at the same time, a piece of... top-secret intelligence provided anonymously was received and began to be broadcast!"
The staff's voice changed slightly due to shock.
"What information?" The commander's heart suddenly sank, and an ominous premonition instantly gripped him.
The aide connects the tablet to the home screen.
A series of images of media-coded files fill the screen.
The title is shocking:
[The core confidential data of the aircraft carrier battle group has been leaked!]
The leaked content is shockingly detailed:
This includes not only aircraft carriers and their escort ships, but also cruisers, destroyers, and supply ships.
Names, ranks, partial duties of all officers and enlisted personnel, and even brief background summaries of some key personnel.
Fighter duty status table, accurate to the 72 hours before the incident.
The specific sorties of each F/A-18 squadron, E-2 early warning aircraft, and anti-submarine helicopters on the aircraft carrier.
Pilot, mission type, mounted weapons list, maintenance status code.
Weapons deployment and inventory list, and proportion of missile models loaded in each shipboard vertical launch system.
The base number of naval gun ammunition and the number and type of precision guided munitions stored in the aircraft carrier hangar.
Each document has clear military formatting marks, and some documents even have a confidentiality level watermark.
"This is impossible..." National Intelligence Agency murmured in silence.
His team had just been assessing the damage to the aircraft carrier.
What was leaked here was the most complete confidential information of the fleet before the incident.
"These data... some are only archived in the top-secret servers of Fleet Command, Pacific Headquarters and Pentagon! The contact range is extremely small!"
Director CIA's face turned pale. "From the intelligence point of view, the media received only a small part of the intelligence.
The source is completely anonymous, delivered via multiple encryption and untraceable springboards.
Our Cyberwarfare Command is fully reverse tracking.
But initial feedback... At present, it has been traced that several public servers located in neutral countries have been completely disconnected."
There was deathly silence in the conference room.
Just now we were discussing how to respond to provocations with military deterrence.
Now? Our most core military secrets have been stripped bare and thrown on the news headlines around the world!
This means that the opponent in the game has opened a picture.
Rabbit Nation did not respond with diplomatic rhetoric, but used military strength and intelligence acquisition as a strategic deterrent.
Don't you want evidence? I'll show you part of the evidence.
Don't you want to explain? This is my explanation.
Don't you reserve all rights of action? Please do so, but I may know every step you take.
The faces of the military generals turned from livid to pale.
"Sir..." Defense Ministry's long voice was extremely dry.
"Judging from these data... our fleet is already... almost transparent in the eyes of the other party, at least at the intelligence level.
The original deterrence plan must be completely re-evaluated.
The other party chose to leak it at this time, and their intention was obvious. They anticipated our reaction.
And blocked our road one step ahead."
"Alas..."
The commander-in-chief leaned back in his chair and felt a sense of powerlessness sweeping through his body.
"Convened a press conference and conducted an investigation.
The aircraft carrier explosion was caused by operator error."