Martin Variety in American Comics.

Chapter 597 Launching the Rocket (Please subscribe and read further, and recommend with monthly tickets!)

Why did Jacob and Steve come here?

At the time, the White House saw the Justice League's unstoppable rise and hoped to win them over so that these superhumans would continue to support the free world led by the United States and stop causing trouble.

But is this possible?
Of course, that's impossible. If that were the way things are, why did the Americans rebel against the British in the first place? They could have just obediently accepted the colonial order of the British Empire.

But logic aside, Jacob and Steve, being in their positions, certainly couldn't say anything bad about America, otherwise they would lose the support of the system.

Are they planning to rebel?
Both of them are getting on in years and simply don't have the means to change their social standing.

"Let's go!"

Bruce, seeing that Jacob and Steve remained silent, wanted to end the meeting.

Bruce is no ordinary man; he is the heir to a family business and has grown up in the world of fame and fortune since childhood. He has long understood Washington's ways thoroughly.

In this respect, even Martin couldn't match his farsightedness.

Before the war even began, he had already guessed how Washington would react.

As one of the most important regions in the world, Washington has long established a set of effective political rules, which are layered and stacked up like an unshakeable idol.

Whether my Washington politicians are geniuses or mediocre, their first reaction to any situation is to act in accordance with these rules.

In any case, the United States is the core of international capital flows worldwide and has enough power to continue this set of rules.

Bruce, having been involved himself, naturally knew exactly how Washington would react.

Because he was an insider, he was one of the first Americans to become disillusioned with Washington.

When American members within the alliance tried to maintain the alliance's relationship with the United States and instead asked him to persuade Martin, he decisively refused.

He bluntly rebuked the members who sought his help, demanding that they "open their eyes, stay clear-headed, recognize their position, and not act arbitrarily."

It was thanks to Bruce's insistence that the American members within the league hadn't caused any trouble.

After all, factional struggles are an inevitable part of any organization, and superheroes are not saints, so they are naturally not exempt from this.

Steve hadn't expected Bruce to be so adamant, so he had no choice but to grit his teeth and insist on staying: "We've only been together for less than three minutes, and you're already trying to kick me out? Is that how you treat a guest?"

Bruce laughed: "Are you two guests?"

"To be honest, instead of focusing on the Justice League, you should be thinking about how to deal with the invasion from Apokolips."

He said to Jacob, "The information about Apokolips released by the Alliance is absolutely true. At most three months, a fleet will arrive around Earth."

"The sooner you begin preparations, the more lives you can save. The later you begin, the greater the risk of being breached by Apokolips."

Although the Justice League decided to push the battle line to the edge of the solar system, they tried to avoid a final battle with Darkseid on Earth.

But from Martin to Hippolyta to several member countries, none of them were willing to let the Americans join the plan.

Through this attack on Savage, everyone saw through the true nature of the Americans; they had absolutely no trust in them.

They were afraid that if the Americans joined the plan, they might suddenly go crazy and stab them in the back, causing the entire plan to collapse.

Bruce knew all too well what kind of people these were. Even with the threat from Apokolips looming ahead, they would still fight amongst themselves when the time came, and would never consider the bigger picture.

For people in Washington, there is only one big picture in the world: their own interests. Everyone else is just a tool or pawn to be sacrificed.

"So, the Justice League already has a plan to deal with Apokolips? What is it?"

Steve couldn't wait to ask questions, wanting to understand the Justice League's actions in order to gain their support.

Bruce looked at the two men with an expression as if they were idiots: "Whether the Justice League has a plan to fight against Apokolips' invasion, and what that plan is, is a secret of the League and has nothing to do with you two."

"How can you say it has nothing to do with us?"

Steve became excited: "The Apokolips invasion is a matter for the entire Earth; all of humanity faces this threat. At such a critical juncture, we must naturally unite against it."

"Now you all want to unite against a common enemy? What were you doing before?"

Bruce remained firm: "We have repeatedly yielded and presented the relevant evidence to the world time and time again. Washington has turned a blind eye and smeared it all as a fabrication on our part."

"Now that the sword of the weather is truly hanging over your heads, it's too late to think about cooperating with the Justice League."

"I can make it very clear to the people behind you two that we do have a plan to resist the intrusion of electric shocks, but this plan absolutely does not welcome the participation of Americans. In the face of a major war, we should rely on our own abilities."

Steve's face turned red instantly, and he trembled with anger, his white beard and hair shaking.

He never expected the Justice League to be so resolute.

"No matter what Washington does, they are still human beings. At this critical moment of alien invasion, they will also abandon their original ideas and fight for the future of humanity."

And yet you made such a selfish decision, is this the behavior of heroes?

"No one is stopping you from resisting the invasion of Apokolips. We just don't want to cooperate with you. You can figure it out yourselves."

Regardless of Steve's emotions, Bruce remained unmoved and heartless.

Pushing the front lines to the edge of the solar system was an extremely risky plan, and if it weren't for Martin acting as the key mediator, the plan wouldn't even have been proposed.

At this point, everyone was focused on eliminating uncontrollable risks, so naturally they couldn't bring such a time bomb as the United States into their own territory.

"To put it bluntly, Martin was too tired to play this boring personnel struggle game with Washington anymore."

Bruce knew that he couldn't convince Steve with just words, so he directly shifted the blame to Martin: "Martin also knew what you were going to do. So before he left, he said that if you could find him, any cooperation would be negotiable, but if you couldn't, then we should each do our own thing and not interfere with each other."

After saying that, Bruce didn't give them a chance to say anything more. He grabbed the two men by the shoulders, pushed them out of the conference room, and left.

"Bruce, you can't just leave like this..."

Steve persisted, still wanting to argue with Bruce. But Bruce completely ignored him, not even turning his head.

He's got a lot going on in the league, he's always busy, and he doesn't have time to waste arguing with someone like Steve.

"All right!"

Jacob pulled Steve aside and resignedly advised, "Can't you see? This isn't just Bruce's decision; the entire Justice League isn't cooperating with us. What's done is done, and we can't change it."

"What a foolish decision! With a formidable enemy at hand, we're trying to divide ourselves up. Isn't this just giving Apokolips the opportunity to defeat us one by one?"

Steve was so angry he was panting heavily, as if he had two steam engines stuck in his nostrils.

Jacob looked at the old general in surprise, and after a long while said, "I don't know what you're thinking. But Washington obviously doesn't think the Justice League is qualified to cooperate with them on an equal footing, otherwise they wouldn't have only sent the two of us generals here."

Steve was immediately taken aback by these words, and his relentless momentum vanished.

After a long while, he muttered, "Washington is a bunch of bastards, but the Justice League does this too? Has Martin gone mad?"

Jacob said helplessly, "The Justice League is currently unable to distinguish who among the American side are the most sincere cooperators and who are trying to take advantage of the situation to cause trouble. So they simply choose not to cooperate with us, saving time and effort."

"Moreover, the Justice League's refusal to cooperate with us does not mean they will not cooperate with other countries on Earth. At least, before we arrived, the Iron-Faced General of the University of Tokyo had never left."

When the University of Tokyo was mentioned, Steve lost his temper.

Americans can wield the big stick of the international financial order at will and beat around any country on Earth.

Since you live on Earth, you'll always have to engage in trade, whether it's producing goods for export or importing goods; you can't escape this system.

This order can be maintained for a long time as long as the major countries do not go to war.

But Apokolips doesn't care about any of that. The alien fleet is right there, and if they don't want their country to be destroyed, switching to a wartime production mode is inevitable.

Once countries switch to wartime production mechanisms, it means the interruption of international trade, and the United States will lose its position.

It could even be worse, because Americans will no longer be able to import large quantities of cheap industrial goods through such a trade system to sustain the lives of ordinary people at home.

They also lacked the foundation to transition to a wartime production mechanism; white Americans did not have the spirit of working more than ten hours a day in a factory just to dedicate themselves to the country.

This is why Steve is determined to win the Justice League's support.

The United States does indeed need this emerging group of Superman as new supporters in order to keep its domestic society functioning.

But the Justice League, led by Martin, has no interest in playing this game with the Americans. They've had enough of this order and won't give up any opportunity to change it.

"Oh, America, how did the country become like this?"

Steve can sigh and complain as much as he wants because he's a senior employee.

Few people who casually criticize Washington would risk losing their future by standing up to an old man.

But Jacob was neither qualified nor in the mood for such a thing, and he certainly didn't want Steve to put on a show of "loyalty being humiliated" in front of the Justice League.

After Washington's series of actions, the Justice League members already had very little goodwill towards the United States left.

If Steve were to put on another show like this, America would lose all its prestige in the eyes of the Justice League members.

Jacob was overthinking it. Everyone in the alliance was busy and had a lot of work to do, so no one cared about them.

Although Bruce didn't reveal anything to Jacob and Steve, the news that the Justice League was going to go to space quickly became an open secret.

First, the Justice League launched three rockets in one day. Except for one that remained near lunar orbit, the other two rockets went directly into Mars orbit and Saturn orbit through the Mother Box.

The launch vehicles heading to the Moon and Saturn carried numerous probe satellites. Once the rockets reached their destinations, these satellites, powered by the Justice League's built-in artificial intelligence, began to operate.

Besides surveying terrain and mineral resources, these satellites with built-in artificial intelligence programs also release a large number of robots to begin constructing early-stage bases.

The launch vehicle bound for Mars carried not only the satellite but also a special passenger, the Mars Hunter.

His purpose in returning to his home planet was to find out the situation there, thereby clearing obstacles for the Justice League's subsequent actions.

After all, Mars has its own civilization, unlike Saturn and the Moon, which are devoid of intelligent life, so we cannot act arbitrarily.

Of course, people on Earth are completely unaware of this.

They were shocked by the Justice League's constant launches of rockets and couldn't understand how the Justice League could manufacture rockets so quickly, treating them like cheap industrial products.

The Justice League pulled a little trick: they didn't have the ability to quickly produce rockets, but they had the Mother Box as a cheat code.

After launching the rocket, they can simply open the blast tunnel to pull it back, make simple repairs, and put it back into use until it is completely damaged, at which point a new one will be installed.

The Justice League's goal is to build a base in space, which, once completed, will allow them to establish a teleportation channel with their headquarters on Earth.

By then, rockets will no longer be needed.

They could easily build a shipyard in space and directly create sub-light-speed spacecraft, eliminating the need for rockets.

On the third day of the Justice League's continuous rocket launches, East University and the League signed an alliance agreement to jointly fight against the invasion of Apokolips.

Soon after, Tokyo University joined the Justice League's space program, sending rockets into the sky in a flurry of activity, first satellites, and then people.

With a group of people like Superman, they completely disregarded the harsh environment of space and immediately began all sorts of engineering projects.

The United States first condemned the actions of the Justice League, citing various agreements and attempting to use the international order to suppress its own actions.

The Justice League doesn't care about any of that; they just send a group of people to argue with them, and then go about their business.

The Americans also went all out and started launching rockets into the sky.

(End of this chapter)