Marvel Magic Event Book

Chapter 1753

Diana Lister believed that Regent Victor von Dum was driven mad by immense pressure.

For the past 24 hours, she has worked tirelessly in coordination with the Regent, issuing one administrative order after another, delivering the last batch of supplies to the airport, and then transporting them to the SkySword Space Station via super-heavy assault transport ships. From there, they are transferred to the three SkyCarriers. Only three SkyCarriers can participate in this expeditionary operation because the other combat fleets are not equipped with faster-than-light engines and must remain near Earth and Mars to defend against potential attacks from the Dark Order.

After a long day of work, Diana Lister felt she might faint at any moment, but Regent Victor von Doom remained energetically processing documents, his only sustenance being hot coffee. She was stunned when she noticed the Regent muttering to himself—he slammed a stack of documents on the table, muttering things like, "If blood brings you pleasure, here's a whole bunch of death row inmates for you to kill"—but there was no one opposite the Regent's desk; the two of them were alone in the office.

Two guards in golden armor stood watch at the entrance to the office, while the passageway beyond was guarded by the Guardian Order and the Sisters of the Clergy. In addition, there were ubiquitous motion sensors, surveillance cameras, mass sensors, and low-light thermal imaging devices, making it impossible for anyone to sneak into the office without alerting the guards.

"Are you alright?" Diana Lister asked cautiously. "Do you need to rest?"

Regent Victor von Doom did not answer until a figure appeared on the sofa beside him.

“Your Majesty,” she exclaimed in surprise, then recognized the figure at a glance.

What terrified her was the emperor's blood-stained shirt, though the blood had dried, resembling large patches of rust stuck to the fabric. This fierce and terrifying aura perfectly suited the emperor's current appearance—a tailored suit and neatly slicked-back hair—giving him a look reminiscent of a 20th-century gangster film. But she couldn't understand why the emperor would adorn his felt hat with a golden laurel wreath; wasn't he afraid of being recognized?

"I have not received any notification, Your Majesty."

"Of course you didn't. I just came over and didn't disturb anyone." The emperor waved his hand. "Go and rest. I don't want a capable assistant to die from overwork."

Diana Lister left the office in a hurry, like a startled quail.

"She hasn't received any news from Dr. Lister." Regent Victor von Doom, like an emotionless golem, sat coiled behind his desk. "How's Hydra?"

"When the chicken dies, the monkeys will naturally be quieter. I returned using a portal, not giving the Malik family a chance to track my movements. I think this insecurity will frighten them," the Emperor said. "I'm really curious, the great purge within Hydra has only just ended, yet they've already developed ambitions again, planning to collude with the venture capital industry to take over the pharmaceutical companies."

“They are all one, and those who truly worship Hydra are a minority.”

“You’re right,” the Emperor said. “Tonight, Gideon Malik will surely kill any ambitious fellows, and without me knowing.”

"Since you already know, why did you come back to the castle? Are you planning to eat up all my food allowance for today?" Seeing the emperor shrug, Regent Victor von Doom laughed in annoyance. "You decided in the first place that you didn't need food allowance, and there's no food for you in the canteen."

See you in five days, Victor.

The emperor waved his hand and disappeared from the office, taking with him Diana, who was carrying takeout food outside the office door.

Five days passed quickly, and the witches, in their eagerness to "catch up," didn't let him off the hook for a single day. Salomon breathed a long sigh of relief as the super-heavy assault transport took off from the manor. The super-heavy assault transport spent several hours flying to the vicinity of Hawaii, picking up Tony Stark on the luxury yacht. Salomon then immediately ordered the vessel to depart for space, as if something terrifying on Earth was chasing him.

Salomon only truly relaxed the moment he crossed the Carmen line.

"Seven days!" Tony Stark kept complaining. "I've been on the yacht for a full seven days!"

“The soldiers need more time to prepare, Stark.”

“You could have told me in advance!” Tony Stark was furious. “I hired an entire ballet company to cover the operation, and it was delayed by seven days!”

"Isn't this a good thing?"

"Pepper will kill me!"

“Okay, it’s my fault. I didn’t think of you at all. You know, you’re not that important compared to my other jobs,” Salomon said casually. Tony Stark, while muttering things like “I’m worth millions of dollars a minute,” sulked in a corner of the transport ship. If the Imperial Guard hadn’t been there, he definitely would have donned his Iron Man armor and engaged Salomon in hand-to-hand combat.

Salomon decided not to provoke Stark any further and sat on the sofa to rest with his eyes closed.

Several hours later, the super-heavy assault transport ship entered the SkySaber space station's landing pad. After a long wait, the air pressure on the landing pad finally equalized, and Tony Stark was the first to jump off the gangway and enter the space station. A group of journalists had once been invited by the Yugoslavian government to board the SkySaber space station, but at that time, the footage they could take was limited, so many were unaware of the technology used on the space station's landing pad.

But for an engineer, none of that mattered. What truly intrigued Tony Stark was how the super-heavy assault transport ship could be brought to a standstill. This unconventional docking method began to challenge his imagination; he even suspected that some kind of gravity technology might be involved, capable of directly eliminating the super-heavy assault transport ship's kinetic energy.

"Tony!" A voice interrupted his thoughts. Steve Rogers, Captain America, the Inhuman God, and Howard Stark's best friend, was standing at the airlock door on the tarmac, waving in his direction.

“You should call me Stark, Captain Rogers.” Tony Stark clenched his fist and walked over expressionlessly. “You should remember what this surname stands for.”

“You know,” Steve Rogers said, his face contorted with pain.

Zemo, the man who caused the death of the former King of Wakanda, revealed a secret to him, a secret that was passed on to Stark through Natasha Romanoff. Although the Avengers were scattered at the time, preventing a conflict from erupting, Steve Rogers knew that the Avengers had completely disbanded and would never unite again.

Later, the Kingdom of Wakanda was suddenly struck by a conspiracy and rebellion. Zemo, who was imprisoned, suddenly disappeared, which made Steve Rogers suspect a conspiracy. However, he had no evidence, and the only person who might know the truth, Natasha Romanoff, had completely vanished, and even Nick Fury didn't know where she had gone.

“You should be glad your friend isn’t here, or I would have killed him.” Tony Stark took off his sunglasses, stared intently at Steve Rogers’ face, and then walked into the interior of the space station without looking back. “Not today, I have more important things to do.”

“I received the invitation. But I don’t trust him; I’ve seen his style.” Steve Rogers followed. “There are probably 20,000 soldiers on the warship, along with many armored vehicles. He intends to participate in a war.”

“I don’t care about that; it’s his military plan.” Tony Stark had to slow down as he realized he was lost. He didn’t see any way signs on the bulkhead and could only pretend he had a specific destination. “He thinks humanity has to fight off alien invaders on its own, so he had these soldiers training on the space station for a whole year.”

“Why did he send me here?” Steve Rogers frowned, staring intently at the Earth outside the porthole. “I don’t think I’m capable of getting involved in a war like this.”

“Perhaps he trusts you. He trusts your moral character, and he believes you will make the right choice.” Staring intently at Steve Rogers, Tony Stark said with great pride, “As for why I’m here, it’s definitely because he needs an engineering expert! I’ve decided that I’ll reveal my research findings to him in exchange for just half of the alien technology spoils!”

"That's well said, but do you know where we're going now?"

Ignoring what Tony Stark and Steve Rogers were saying, the Emperor, having just descended the gangway, led his Imperial Guard to the central control room. He would wait there for the soldiers to board, for the final tanks to be loaded into the garage, and for everyone to be ready. Two years had passed since the Yugoslav Wars of Unification. The Black Armor Guards from the Immortal City, the Crusader descendants Lara Croft found in Siberia, and the Silver Sable international mercenaries from Transylvania—through repeated military integration, recruitment, training, elimination, and ideological education—had resulted in Yugoslavia's most elite mortal soldiers: the 20,000 currently stationed at Skysword Space Station. That was all.

This world is material, and even the emperor cannot recruit more elite soldiers who meet his standards through supernatural means. As long as they survive this war, they will become the backbone of the Yugoslav army. The emperor plans to send some of them down to serve as junior officers after the war to consolidate his control over the army.

As for the cost of training these new recruits and arming them to the teeth, the emperor dared not, and could not, ask. Otherwise, Regent Victor von Doom would have charged at the emperor with a lock of his fallen hair. However, both the emperor and the regent were prepared for the complete annihilation of this army, for they were facing a war situation unlike anything Earthlings had ever experienced.

Twenty thousand mortal soldiers, plus three thousand genetically modified warriors and fifty Imperial Guards—this was the entire force for this expedition. The Emperor needed to assess the Black Order's military strength in Asgard, as well as the true power of Thanos. If it were merely about taking the Space Stone and the throne, the Emperor could accomplish the task alone. This war was necessary; proactive action was far better than passive acceptance. At least in the former case, they retained the initiative and the right to evacuate. Once the aliens arrived on Earth, they wouldn't even have the right to leave.

The Emperor didn't care about the internal impact of this expedition on Yugoslavia, because others lacked his and the Regent's vision. He had already warned the United Nations, but they were all madmen until the alien fleet actually arrived. The Emperor didn't care about the outside world's stigma, but Yugoslavia had to, so this expedition had to bring back some spoils and give humanity the courage to take the initiative.

That's the role Steve Rogers and Tony Stark play.

Their role in this expedition was negligible, but they could convey a message to humanity: interstellar warfare is not far from us. One was a WWII veteran, hailed as a righteous man by American evangelicals, representing the American spirit, and deeply trusted by Christians and hardcore rednecks; the other was a playboy representing technological trends and cutting-edge technology, destined to attract young people. Both left and right wings would have listeners to them.

They had to witness the war firsthand and then become propaganda tools for the emperor.

Before departing, the Emperor made another prophecy and contacted Lorelei, the witch who had been lurking in Asgard, to confirm the situation there one last time: Hela, having returned to Asgard, was completely free of control and began using necromancy and recruiting soldiers in an attempt to overthrow Odin's regime. Some of the Aesir and Vanir gods, who had previously resented Odin's oppression, joined Hela's rebellion. Now, the soldiers led by Thor and the rebels led by Hela were locked in fierce combat, but Valhalla remained conspicuously absent, as if Odin's backup plan had failed.

Twelve hours later, after all the checks were completed, the Emperor finally boarded the Sisters of the Crest of Crosses, surrounded by the Guardians. The Sisters' Chief Commander Tita, the Guardians' Grand Master Constantine, and the genetically modified warrior commander Markov stood below the control panel, awaiting orders.

The emperor nodded calmly and pressed the electronic seal on the final checklist.

“Let’s go,” he said.

As the order was given, the SkySword Space Station systematically disengaged its robotic arms and fuel delivery arms from the warship, retracted its supply transport channels, and its preheated engines began to increase power, transferring energy to the engines on the side of the ship to propel the Cross Rose away from the space station. Two other space carriers followed closely behind, slowly accelerating towards the edge of the solar system.

"How long will it be before we can perform a faster-than-light jump?" Tony Stark asked.

Standing beside him was Sofia, a red-haired girl from Siberia, the daughter of the Prophet, and the chief political commissar of the Cross Rose. Faced with Tony Stark's question, Sofia simply shook her head. "The United States once launched a spaceship equipped with a faster-than-light engine," she said. "That ship didn't end up well."

“I know, Project Pegasus, ‘Tear the Horizon’. NASA sent ‘Louise & Clark’ on a rescue mission, and I was involved in designing NASA’s rescue plan and was responsible for designing the space engine. Later, ‘Louise & Clark’ lost contact.”

“I don’t know the situation on the ‘Tear Horizon,’ but when His Majesty boarded the ship a year ago, only one person remained alive on the ‘Louise and Clark.’” Sophia straightened her collar and then put on her peaked cap. “I’ve already revealed a lot of classified information to you, Mr. Stark. Now I’m going to attend the operations meeting. I hope you won’t cause any trouble during this time, after all, we are about to enter No Man’s Land, and any rescue from Earth will be of no use.”

"Why are you telling me this?"

“I am responsible for the safety of the personnel on this ship,” Sofia said. “I have the authority to take temporary action, including killing anyone who violates safety regulations or poses a threat to the ship.”

Tony Stark raised his hands in surrender. He knew his hacking activities when he boarded the S.H.I.E.L.D. Helicarrier were on record, and his every move was being watched to prevent him from making any mistakes out of curiosity.

After giving her a scare, Sofia left.

She's incredibly busy right now. Maintaining shipboard safety and discipline is just one part of her job. She also needs to address the psychological issues of 20,000 soldiers who are venturing out of Earth for the first time. Although the Emperor had ordered officers to prepare the soldiers mentally beforehand, things aren't so easy in reality. She must ensure the recruits participate in the soldiers' committee, where veterans of the Attilan campaign repeatedly reiterate their experiences in space warfare, letting the recruits know they understand everything about space combat and alleviating their anxiety.

Steve Rogers eventually found Tony Stark, since they were the only people they knew on the ship.

They couldn't see the Emperor, and if they wanted to talk to someone, the other person was the only one who could listen. Although both sides felt a little awkward, it was much better than having no one to talk to at all. Even Tony Stark didn't want to spend his long journey talking only to the AI ​​Friday.

A week after the Cross Rose set sail, Tony Stark couldn't help but complain in the ship's drawing room.

"I'm going crazy! They haven't granted me any network access!"

Steve Rogers, who only uses a 2G flip phone, shrugged. "I think it's alright," he said. "At least I still have magazines to read."

What magazine is that?

“Military internal reference.” Steve Rogers turned to a new page with great interest. “It tells the origins of various space technologies and tactics; it’s very helpful.”

“You’re very patient, Captain Rogers.” Tony Stark let out a long sigh and slumped in his chair. “Even alcohol is rationed here.” A week passed like this. The restless Tony Stark explored every place on the ship he could reach, and even secretly ordered the AI ​​Friday’s subroutine to use the computing power of his Iron Man armor to try to break through the ship’s firewall and find some interesting information.

As a result, he was arrested on the spot by Sofia and thrown into solitary confinement for three days. He wanted to resist, but when he gave the order, the Iron Man suit didn't respond. For the past few days, he had been tirelessly investigating the Iron Man suit's firewall. He simply couldn't understand how his security code could be so easily breached. Was there a firewall in the world more powerful than Stark Industries'?
"As far as I know, transporting supplies from Earth to space requires calculating every gram of weight; there's not much spare weight for carrying unnecessary items." Steve Rogers, who lived a Puritanical lifestyle, had no complaints about life on the ship. If there was anything he wasn't used to, it was the loss of sunlight. The ship was moving faster and faster, and every day he could see the sun getting further and further away; the cycle of day and night could only be controlled by a clock, not sunlight.

Also, he lost his favorite morning workout spot, but he made many new friends in the communal gym and training area. Male friendships are very simple, and when he broke his weightlifting record at the gym, everyone cheered for him. Steve Rogers even felt like he was back in his old military camp, rather than a steel warship floating in space at terrifying speeds.

Now he can say that he knows the ship and the soldiers better than Tony Stark does.

“Those great lads felt they had to fight in this war to weaken the aliens’ military,” Steve Rogers sighed. “It reminded me of my old comrade, Tony. I know you’ll find this a dry topic, but I saw passion and justice in the eyes of these soldiers; they were going to shed their blood for all humanity. I envied them. Perhaps in the eyes of these young men, there was a clear line between good and evil; they didn’t have to get the blood of innocents on their hands…”

“Dude, this isn’t your fault. You haven’t participated in any war since World War II.” Tony Stark had barely finished speaking when he awkwardly sat up straight. He felt uncomfortable all over.

"Thank you for your comfort, Tony."

“Call me Stark. And I’m not trying to comfort you, I’m just stating the facts, Captain Rogers.”

Salomon, or rather the emperor, closed his eyes and enjoyed the hard-won tranquility.

As the supreme commander of the warship, he had been working continuously for 48 hours. Ten hours ago, he ate a canned crab meat supplement developed by the research institute and a packet of concentrated vitamin cocktail juice, which was his only calorie intake in 48 hours, and then he started working again. After a temporary respite on the three ships, he began his prophecy again, intending to spy on the situation in Asgard.

Odin's Valhalla has yet to appear, which makes him very uneasy.