Ignition and Liftoff

"Mr. Hodgson, please watch your words. Miss Catherine stayed in Egypt of her own free will. We did not detain her," Clemens said.

"Of her own free will? More like she was forced to 'volunteer.'" Hodgson sneered.

"Mr. Hodgson, please don't bring up matters unrelated to this meeting," Alexander shot back. "This disaster requires all of us to work together. If you insist on undermining that cooperation over something irrelevant, I can only suggest that we exclude America."

Seeing Bear Nation and America square off, Bilborn hurried to change the subject. "Mr. Clemens, we'll leave the matter of contacting the gods to you."

They had already made preparations to send nuclear warheads up and knock the asteroid off course, but when the survival of everyone on Blue Star was at stake, there was no such thing as too many backup plans.

"Mr. Anderson," Bilborn said, turning to Anderson Streicher, "could you ask your country's supernaturals to destroy asteroid G-10?"

"We can try, but I can't guarantee success," Anderson Streicher said with a smile. Whether he actually asked them was up to him.

Bilborn nodded and made the sign of the cross over his chest. "May everything go smoothly. May God protect us."

"Odin above, grant the brave Norsemen victory in every battle."

"May Amenominakanushi protect the Eastern Isles."

"Ra..."

When countries weren't taking something seriously, they could be terribly inefficient. But once they did, they could unleash power beyond imagination.

Through the coordinated efforts of every nation, resources poured into the Kennedy Space Center.

Located on Merritt Island off Florida's east coast, this satellite launch facility, named after an American president, was the world's largest launch center for crewed and uncrewed spacecraft.

This time, a spacecraft embodying the pinnacle of human technology and carrying the hopes of all humanity