Meanwhile, in the Pentagon's operations command room in Eagle Country, the officers present all turned ashen when they learned that all twelve vessels in the 1st Carrier Strike Group had been stranded without propulsion.
"This is a provocation!"
"A blatant provocation!"
"If he had the ability to destroy the entire Izumo, why did he only destroy our propellers? He's flaunting his power, showing off their new equipment!" one Eagle Country officer cursed in the command room.
"Perhaps... he did this out of some concern? Perhaps he doesn't want to provoke too great a conflict with us..." another middle-aged white officer said cautiously, taking a deep breath.
As for the supreme operations commander seated in the center of the room, after studying the combat data-link information compiled on the screen, he took off his reading glasses and rubbed the aching bridge of his nose. "Enough! Stop arguing! Haven't we embarrassed ourselves enough?"
"To deal with a single infantry target, we lost two F-35 Fighter Jets and expended hundreds of expensive missiles and torpedoes."
"Most infuriating of all, our 1st Carrier Strike Group is now immobilized in the Pacific Ocean, with nothing to do but wait for tugboats to rescue it!"
"This is a disgrace to Eagle Country! Once word gets out, our entire military will be nailed to the pillar of shame!"
At these words, the command room fell temporarily silent. In particular, the two officers who had been arguing flushed red and stopped quarreling.
The invincible carrier fleet that ranged across Blue Star's seas was now stranded en masse in the Pacific Ocean like a fleet of zombie ships. Even without anyone fanning the flames, this news could never escape the other countries' satellites constantly passing overhead.
Once this news spread, the blow to the Eagle Country military's morale would