This operation triggered waves far more significant than a tsunami on the coastline, and the chain reactions sparked by several events simultaneously almost ignited the entire Earth.
First, photos of Mars City stirred widespread public discussion. Although the existence of aliens isn't particularly shocking in this cosmos's Earth, having them so close and constantly watching is indeed enough to shock.
In terms of cosmic distance, Mars and Earth are practically hugging. Even humans, with their relatively backward technology, could manage to send something to Mars. For any civilization with the ability to leave the surface, a slight push on the pedal leads to a tailgate. Calling them neighbors isn't quite accurate—more like co-renting roommates. At least co-renting has a door; there are no barriers between Earth and Mars.
This overly close distance inherently causes human panic, not to mention that the Mars civilization appears much more advanced and visited Earth thousands of years ago, with many hiding among the people on Earth. This fact alone has already widely incited anxiety.
Soon after, a Mars-made space station was quietly launched into near-Earth orbit, indicating that Mars people's infiltration is even more terrifying than imagined.
Most people don't know of Victor's existence, and even if they do, they scarcely understand his ability to create things out of thin air. In their imagination, building such a space station requires an extremely complex industrial chain, suggesting most of the high-levels in this chain might have been infiltrated.
It should be noted the aerospace industry is an integration of various industries, including materials science, engineering, dynamics, mathematics, physics, astronomy, covering nearly everything. The manpower and resources needed to launch a space station are unimaginably vast. For this thing to fly and operate successfully, even most scientists are probably Mars people.
Moreover—unknown to them—Green Lantern and his girlfriend, along with his father-in-law, just happen to be leaders in this industry. Wayne invested heavily, and personnel involved in each approval process didn't even look at what this thing was, allowing it to smoothly head skyward. Each process was even entirely legal and compliant, proving the supervision process has failed.
From these three aspects, Mars people's control and infiltration into human society have reached a very dangerous level. If the discovery of Mars City previously incited public anxiety, then the space station's launch slightly shocked the human higher-ups.
Additionally, three stakes driven into Earth's surface shattered any lingering hope humans had—especially when even Superman couldn't pull these things out.
They had imagined maybe Mars technology wasn't all that formidable. Isn't it just a space station? Who couldn't build one? Even if the city seemed slightly advanced, there might be backward areas. It couldn't serve as solid evidence of technological advancement.
But once these three stakes appeared, everyone had to admit that Mars civilization's technology was indeed advanced. The creations couldn't be moved by humans—Superman included.
Finally, the revelation of the Luthor Manor murder case—where the suspect was believed to be Mars people—utterly crushed humanity's last bit of fantasy: Mars people harbor malicious intent towards humans, and coexistence between the two sides is impossible.
Subsequently, Mars people's speech exposed a fact: although they aren't perfect beings with weaknesses like reproductive difficulties, the solution to this weakness lies on Earth. This signifies that between the two civilizations, it's fight to the death, with zero chance of compromise.
For America, especially the Federal Government's politicians, the most terrifying aspect of this Mars people invasion is that it wasn't a grand armed war but fought in a manner America fears most.
For politicians and the military, armed warfare isn't entirely bad; otherwise, they wouldn't ignite globally. War gives them legitimate excuses to oppress people. As long as wartime is declared, the populace modestly cutting back becomes reasonable, and it even allows further extraction of resources.
Resisting invasion and suppressing internal conflicts are beneficial for both politicians and the military. Anyway, in a real conflict, it's either ordinary people sacrificed, or the Justice League. Even if defeated, they're the last to fall.
However, infiltration warfare is deadly—especially when human technology can't determine who's Mars people, meaning anyone could be Mars people.
This brings about a scenario these political masters dread: they can't locate the enemy. Without a visible enemy, diversion of conflicts is impossible. Once fully infiltrated, it spells the most tragic end for everyone.
For Angsa people, death isn't the most terrifying. It's not that they don't fear death; it's just that within their cultural system, there's something far scarier than death—becoming a slave.
For some countries, perhaps slavery is a distant concept, but for others, slavery is within this version's history. Even if draped with modern democratic society's cloak, it does not alter its essence.
The vast majority of policies and laws in European and American countries essentially warn people never to become slaves. Even if one must sell dignity, health, and life safety, they must not fall into being lower class. Even if the exploiters take whatever they want, even if enduring extreme suffering, it is still much better than being a slave.
For this reason, they create slaves and make their lives extremely miserable to deter and warn others that living like this is worse than death. This kind of mindset and atmosphere is not only popular among the middle and lower classes but also deeply affects the upper-class society.
Many describe people in America's upper-class society as angry small dogs. When confronting many problems that can be peacefully solved and do not require getting worked up, they insist on acting like a reactive mad dog. Essentially, this culture shapes them. The cultural environment does not allow one to show weakness, one must appear aggressive, even when bluffing. Behind the intense behavior lies a deep fear of "being replaced".
Only those living in such a society can realize what kind of hellish days they would lead if they became second-class citizens on Earth. Because hell is always around them, the miserable state of those tortured souls is too close. So, when this possibility enters their mind, their stress explodes instantly.
Because three nails were simultaneously nailed near the most densely populated continents covering both Eastern and Western countries, the response of Eastern countries is considered slower in comparison.
While they were still studying what the Mars people were up to, many had not realized the consequences yet, while the western great powers across the ocean were already losing their minds.
They knew more than anyone how tragically the natives would fall after being occupied, and knew what would happen if they became slaves of the Mars people, fearing failure more than anyone. They could only win this battle.
One can only say this move stepped on the tails of Western politicians. What they feared most was not confrontation but replacement.
The initial actions taken by Eastern countries were nothing more than exploring, researching, evaluating, and trying to establish communication. First sending engineering vessels and submarines to detect various data nearby, tapping and testing material strength while soothing the people to prevent panic. The most aggressive measure was using the military to improve social security levels and prevent people from going crazy.
Meanwhile, the Western countries opposite them had already entered a full-scale war state, with politicians kicking those millennium tortoises and ten thousand-year turtles into action, making those normally lazy asses work at the fastest speed to immediately find solutions.
They even entered a frenzy without any prelude. The whole nation echoed with the same roar on all communication channels—"Get rid of that thing now!!!"
The activation tower can accelerate the breeding speed of Mars people, meaning that each second of stop might result in the birth of a tiny Mars person. Since distinguishing them is impossible, and wiping out all newborns is not feasible, humanity would collapse. Therefore, the best solution now is to get rid of the tower quickly.
Now the entire Earth seemed to turn into the canyon of a MOBA game, everyone shouting "Push the tower! Push the tower!", with occasional cries like "We need to gather!" and "Help! Help me!".
The military delegation, naturally, dispatched carriers, fighter jets, and submarines all together. The equipment might not be new, but it's useful. The carrier fleet majestically sailed toward the Atlantic, but neither the fighter jet bombings nor the submarine-launched torpedoes could even scratch the nail's surface, barely scraping its paint.
The representatives from the politicians first launched intercontinental missiles, which were ineffective without nuclear warheads. Even after equipping them with nuclear warheads, they proved useless. Even though the Green Lantern prevented radiation from spreading into cities, Aquaman's cursing was rather unpleasant.
Even indifferent to Justice League's opinions, abandoning environmental and human rights restraints, they still had no way to deal with this thing. Heavy engineering machinery, underwater drilling, and all kinds of powerful cutters, everything that could be found was thrown at it.
Even later on, everyone was desperate. Whatever idea anyone proposed would be tried, without caring whose equipment and technology it was. America and Europe cooperated to their fullest, yet it didn't work.
Superpower users were not absent but had no effect either. One issue was that the thing was too deeply embedded to be forcibly pulled out without cracking the entire crust, potentially leading to a Pangu Continent remake; another was that cutting rays usable on Earth could not cut through it, and firing the ultimate rays Clark used against Doomsday at the surface would again lead to a Dinosaur extinction version remake.
Overall, humans felt utterly helpless. Within just a short week, over ten congressmen had rushed to the hospital, and even three experienced generals had suffered strokes and two brain hemorrhages.
Most importantly, the two parties finally ceased focusing on voting. In one week, they met more than 70 times without mentioning ballots, everyone studying how to pull out the nail.
After discarding the most crucial democratic process - the election, the light of democracy finally shone brilliantly upon America once again. As the veins hidden beneath the earth were pierced, the white coastlines stained with blood, the Atlantic's waters like Holy Blood dropped on blood fields, proclaiming the death of Lord Jesus and heralding the imminent new birth.