"Mr. Russell, does Umbrella really have the capability to send a Fleet into space??" Melissa asked, struggling to imagine it.
It wasn't just her. Even the NBC film crew and the audience watching the live news broadcast had expressions several times more shocked than Melissa's.
Space. Fleet. These two words wouldn't be surprising anywhere, but when combined, the implications were entirely different.
"Heh, that's right." William maintained a calm smile, explaining to Melissa and everyone else:
"The Rocket with the highest launch capacity in your country is the Saturn V, a hundred meters tall and weighing three thousand tons, capable of delivering a 118-ton payload into low Earth orbit. It is truly a rare behemoth in human history.
However, sending a ten-thousand-ton class warship into space is a fantasy, a joke, from the perspective of the United States or any other country on Earth.
But..."
William stopped there and didn't continue the explanation. Melissa and the NBC film crew didn't press him either. This was because ten 'black dots' of varying sizes had appeared in the sky.
These black dots were flying toward the Science and Technology Building, and as the distance decreased, their true appearance was gradually revealed.
Five paris-class heavy frigate, nearly six hundred meters long. One 2.5-kilometer-long fire spirit aircraft carrier. And four colonization ships that were similar to the fire spirit but much simpler in design.
Excluding the four colonization ships, each costing no more than ten billion, the other six warships formed the prototype of the Umbrella Fleet.
"My... My God..." At this moment, Melissa could no longer maintain the professional smile expected of a reporter and instead gaped in astonishment.
An aircraft carrier nearly three kilometers long. What kind of concept is that... Looking at it, it was simply a fortress in the sky, ten times larger than an aircraft carrier at sea; it truly blotted out the sun.
The cameramen were still quite professional; even though they were terrified, they didn't forget to focus other cameras on the Fleet in the sky so the main station could switch feeds.
Of course... it wasn't just NBC and the audience watching the news who were stunned; the high-ranking officials of governments around the World were also shocked by this scene.
Some high-ranking generals who hadn't been infiltrated by the Russell Family felt nothing but concern, in addition to shock, at the strength displayed by Umbrella.
Umbrella had deceived the entire World; no matter the form of intelligence gathering, there had been no word of any plans or technology for a space Fleet.
Yet today, they had suddenly brought out ten 'behemoths'.
The generals were worried that Umbrella would rely on the athabasca agreement to practice hegemony and bully the World, just like a certain country.
These few space warships alone could rewrite any form of war on Earth. The intercontinental nuclear missiles that were once the most powerful deterrent? In front of Umbrella, they were useless, mere decorations.
But for the sleeper agents loyal to the Russell Family, seeing that William had actually produced a space Fleet brought nothing but extreme joy and excitement.
The revitalization of the Russell Family was in sight? It was more than just revitalization. In the eyes of most sleeper agents, the current achievements of William and Umbrella seemed to have long surpassed that 'My Lord Russell'.
On the plaza. Having recovered, Melissa composed her facial expressions, pointed up at the fire spirit that had stabilized directly above them, and asked William beside her:
"Mr... Mr. Russell... is this the Fleet you mentioned?"
"Yes, Ms. Celio." William nodded. "And the aircraft carrier you are pointing at... is a forty-million-ton behemoth. It possesses our unique Umbrella anti-gravity engine technology, which can easily lead us to break free from Earth's gravity and travel into the deep galaxy. It is also the center around which our current Umbrella Fleet revolves, and the other four ships of the same size are colonization ships capable of accommodating over ten thousand people."
"Colonization... ship?" Melissa wore a puzzled expression again and said, "Mr. Russell, what is colonization...?"
"Heh." William smiled slightly. "The detailed announcement should have already been uploaded to my company's official website by my secretary (Serana). I won't go into the specific details; it should be much more convenient for Ms. Celio to browse the website when you get home."
As he said this, a pelican with a light gray paint job and the red-and-white Umbrella logo on its belly and sides was slowly landing on the plaza, entering the view of the live broadcast camera.
William glanced behind him out of the corner of his eye and smiled at Melissa, "It seems today's interview time has come to an end. Thank you to NBC for the reporting and the interview; I look forward to working with you again."
After speaking, William smiled at the camera, waved his hand, and walked toward the pelican.
Hank and Alpha followed closely behind.
"Eh... this...?" Melissa watched as a group of men in suits passed by her, cutting off her desire to continue questioning William.
Fortunately, a department head wearing a white lab coat, with a receding hairline and rectangular glasses, stepped in front of the camera. He voluntarily took William's place and began explaining the upcoming policies and priorities of the Umbrella Space Department to Melissa, along with other meaningless pleasantries.
Inside the pelican cabin; William stood at the rear of the cabin with his arms crossed. The gentle smile he had maintained was long gone, and he looked expressionlessly through the porthole at the ground that was gradually receding.
He had lived in this World for two years, and the first thing he learned was the'smile' that his family was best at.
William had brought NBC in for the live broadcast, firstly to let the World know that Umbrella possessed epoch-making technology, and secondly because it was better to be proactive and gain the advantage than to be secretive.
Once he learned that his Grandpa had left sleeper agents in governments around the World, the obstacles to launching the Forward Unto Dawn would be greatly reduced; at the very least, it wouldn't provoke a collective attack.
William could certainly use force to 'demonstrate', but that would only consume humanity's own vital forces, which was inadvisable.
The colonization plan was imperative. It was to ensure that when Earth could no longer contain Exafanistei-level anomalous phenomena, humanity could preserve a spark, or at least not perish completely.
And the hidden purpose of the colonization plan was so that William could use it to make Umbrella completely surpass the government in both strength and influence.
Like the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in "Alien," except that the current Umbrella would not be like that company, crazily courting death by persistently researching immortality and Xenomorphs.
William wanted to make containment operations more convenient, and his main goal was to make humanity unite to face anomalous phenomena together.
Just like an old song from China, 'Unity is Strength'. Or perhaps the Tower of Babel from the legend of ancient Babylon, which humanity built together, causing even God to feel fear.
Thinking of this, William couldn't help but shake his head and sigh inwardly: 'If the World before I transmigrated could also unite, without smoke and war, perhaps humanity's footprints would have reached far beyond the moon by now.'
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