Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1488 Gravity Slingshot

"Ms. Diana, it's a pleasure to meet you here."

Tita rose from the captain's seat. She showed due respect to the first android, even though Dina's power armor wasn't as ornate as Tita's, nor did she wear a luxurious fur cloak. Everyone knew Dina was the Emperor's most favored android, and all the Sisterhood members gathered on the bridge, whether androids or humans, paid her respects. "You've been away from us for too long, Madam. We've been eagerly anticipating hearing stories about Him from you," Tita asked humbly. "Does your presence here today mean that He will also come to us?"

"Yes, He will come."

Tita nodded and loudly relayed the message to the sorority members present. The ordinary human crew members, especially the few newly trained Yugoslavian sailors, although most had only seen the Emperor on television, couldn't comprehend the palpable fervor in the air. They saw the girls' eyes sparkling, as if something had instantly ignited the air around them, making the normally warm and humid bridge sweltering. Becoming a qualified void warship sailor was no easy feat; it required rigorous training and examinations. Almost every sailor was selected according to astronaut standards, while the void fighter pilots were elite pilots from Earth, also from all over the world.

"He will stand by our side and accompany us to the moon." Tita looked down from the bridge. "The Battle of Attilan will be a long and arduous campaign. Remember our duty, and do not harbor any illusions. Our opponents are a group of highly mutated mutants, bio-engineered slaves created by the Xenomorph Kree. This race believes itself to be the ruler of humanity, that humans should bow down to the Kree Xenomorphs, simply because they consider Xenomorphs superior to humans!"

She paused dramatically, calming herself as she loosened her grip on the railing. The prospect of leaving SkySword Space Station and boarding a departing SkyCarrier to participate in combat filled Tita with excitement. Under her command, all Sisterhood members hadn't stopped training and exercises for a single day; everything was only meaningful if blood was shed.

"These people were once our kin, but their ancestors suffered a tragic fate, becoming experimental subjects and war slaves of the Xenomorph race. But this is not a reason for them to side with the Xenomorphs and despise the human race. You have read the strategic briefings; their appearance is similar to ours, but the Kree's chemicals can cause their Xenomorph mutant genes to be expressed. After that, they will completely lose their human appearance and mind, becoming enemies of the human race and Xenomorph slaves," Tita said. "Sisters, our mission is to follow the genetically modified warriors and the Custodians to control the key transportation routes of the Attilan lunar base. You have thoroughly studied the tactical briefings and participated in no fewer than twenty tactical meetings. I believe you can accomplish the task He has given you."

"Eliminate the aliens, leave no survivors," Diana said. "He will stand by our side."

"Sometimes I feel sad, Athena. Unity comes at a price, and I am one of those prices."

"I'm never surprised, my dear. You've always been a very emotional person, otherwise you wouldn't get along so well with the witches." Athena squinted behind her sunglasses, watching the two witches lying on an inflatable mat in the distance, swaying gently with the waves. They were enjoying the warm sunshine that the Northern Hemisphere didn't have at the moment, and were planning to get beautiful bikini tan lines—but in the eyes of the goddess of wisdom, this was the witches giving her and her adopted son their last hour and a half, undoubtedly the result of a compromise between her and the two witches—the witches knew what would happen in that hour and a half, because they knew that Athena was trying to control Salomon using Freud's psychological theories, just as Bayonetta had done initially. They all knew what Salomon truly lacked, and no one could truly blame the other.

"If you could shut yourself off, you wouldn't be tormented, but I know you can't. You have to do something terrible to ensure the survival of the human race. If hundreds of thousands of Inhumans were to disappear completely, you would not only gain the technology and equipment you need, but also solve the nearest threat and prevent a large-scale genetic mutation of humanity on Earth."

"I am a human being, not a god."

“You can do better than any so-called god.” Athena continued to lean against Salomon’s chest. “Your wisdom, your vision, your will—everything surpasses that of the Earth’s gods. They need to unite to fight the Celestials; you don’t. You are stronger than them all. You’ve already cursed your true name and your worldly name, haven’t you?” She held up a finger as an example. “The paper that writes that name will spontaneously combust, the electrons that record that name will neutralize, and even I can’t fully remember your name. This is something the Olympian gods cannot do.”

"Eliminate the Xenomorphs, that's my order." Salomon grinned. Athena looked up into his eyes, and he simply blinked at her questioning gaze. "There's a standard for judging Xenomorphs and demi-humans, a standard I set. Attilan will become a factory and a spaceport; that's my mercy, Athena. The Inhumans will become a vague legend, until no one remembers any evidence of their existence. There will be no more royalty in Attilan, no more slaves, but also no more councils controlling Terrigen."

"You scared me, darling. I thought you'd turned into one of those white left-wing saints!" Athena said seriously, but was actually joking. She knew Salomon's current thinking was even more extreme and cruel than his initial decision, but on the surface it appeared very merciful because it meant that the ordinary humans in the Attilan base who hadn't yet undergone mutation could survive, and even live in much better conditions than before, but at the cost of losing everything except material possessions. This was a deal Salomon was secretly making with their lives at stake. Whether the ordinary people of Attilan were willing or not, after the genetic selection, Attilan was destined to lose a large portion of its population.

"Is your power armor ready?"

"Yes."

"I have prepared a laurel wreath for you, and you must wear it this time."

"No, it's not time yet. That day will come, don't worry, I've already seen that sad moment."

The forces participating in the lunar war included one air carrier and one air battleship. Only one air carrier and numerous interstellar missile pods remained in Earth orbit to ensure the military threat posed by the Yugoslav Federation. Due to the distance between the moon and Earth's orbit, and to conserve fuel and other resources as much as possible, the routes of all aircraft, including the air carrier, air battleship, Martian void bombardment drones, heavy shuttles carrying heavy armored vehicles and artillery, and escorting assault transport ships, needed to be precisely calculated. The entire formation was to be sent into lunar orbit intact using Earth's gravitational slingshot, ensuring that all war machines maintained a relatively tight formation as they approached the moon, preventing Attilan's void forces from detecting them and launching an immediate counterattack.

Nations on Earth with space technology could observe the carrier strike group leaving its space station port, but they wouldn't know it was heading to the moon. Only Wakanda's technological department, deeply involved in the Yugoslav Federation's Void Project, knew that this group wasn't the entire force of the operation; equipment such as a Martian solar-powered Void Laser bombardment satellite had also been deployed to lunar orbit. While the Emperor was still on Earth donning his powered armor, the group had already completed its first revolution around the Earth, like several spears poised to be hurled into the void.

The Emperor held a long spear similar to the Guardian Spear, a weapon said to have been forged by Himself; even up close, the extraordinary nature of this colossal weapon was palpable. He temporarily entrusted the weapon to Constantine, who had recently finished dealing with all matters concerning S.H.I.E.L.D. and brought Amon, who was undergoing induced sleep after two consecutive missions, to Obsidian Tower. "This is the final armor-donning ceremony before the war," the Emperor said, holding the golden shoulder armor. "You will face the first threat of this new era alongside me."

Except for the Royal Guard responsible for guarding the catacombs of Kamar-Taj and those on special operations missions, all other Royal Guard members gathered around the Emperor. They stood on the high steps of the Obsidian Tower in the Immortal City, spears in hand and battle banners in hand, beside the Emperor. The unassuming black hall was adorned with the Royal Guard's battle banners and scrolls of achievements; thunder and eagles were their shared emblems. The Emperor then fitted shoulder armor onto the powered armor of a Royal Guard member, before accepting the Oath-Written Shortsword from Constantine—a standard longsword by human standards, its blade engraved with secret electronic runes, the Oath-Written Blade concealed within an ornate scabbard. No one except the Emperor, the Royal Guard Commander, and this particular Royal Guard member knew the content of the oath inscribed on the shortsword. This was a secret between each Royal Guard member and the Emperor, besides the oath of lifelong loyalty; it was the Emperor's vision and arrangement for the Royal Guard's immortal bodies and spirits for millennia to come.

For some members of the royal guard, using this short sword to execute a target had a certain symbolic meaning.

"Derrick, I heard your oath." He handed the dagger to the Royal Guard with both hands. He repeated the above procedure, accepting the allegiance of all ten Royal Guards before him, as well as the battle oaths of all the Royal Guards present. All the Royal Guards, including the newcomers who had just officially joined the Royal Guard Order, had all gone through the strategic briefing. All the golden-armored demigods present were familiar with the source of the Inhumans' so-called superpowers. The information came not only from psychological indoctrination, but also from the data and research they had unearthed in the Kamar-Taj Library. All the documents indicated that this kind of extradimensional pollution and the targeted expression of genetic mutations was very common. The Kree Empire combined specific genetic mutations with the part of the human genome that possessed the blood of the gods, attempting to stimulate the potential of the human race, but the result was the creation of the Inhumans, a deformed species.

Attiland as a whole remained shrouded in mystery for the Royal Guard. All satellite reconnaissance efforts had struggled to penetrate the thick layers of rock to ascertain the base's overall structure. Time was of the essence; they had to eliminate other threats before the Dark Order arrived. This was the Emperor's decision, and by this point, the Emperor's accumulated resources were barely sufficient to meet the demands of the operation.

Facing the arduous assault on the Attilan lunar base, with its extremely limited information, their mission was to protect the Emperor's safety during the firefight and, when necessary (i.e., under the Emperor's orders), assist the Sorority and genetically modified warriors in protecting vital facilities and the Inhumans' research findings on sorcery and alien genes from destruction. As a squadron of super-heavy assault transport ships broke through the water and soared into space, slivers of orange-red sunlight still clung to the surface of the Mediterranean Sea.

"My lord," Constantine whispered to Him aboard the assault transport, "should we bring the Guardian of the Holy Sword with us?"

"No need," He said. "The twelve seals have been broken, and there is no need for us to maintain that ritual any longer. Soon, Kamar-Taj will become a subordinate agency governing the psionicists. That day will come soon, and there will be no more Sorcerer Supreme in this world."

"Will He bring the Royal Guard with him?"

"He will make a brief stop at the space station, and will arrive here on an assault transport ship when the fleet passes by," Diana said calmly. Outside the armored portholes of the bridge, Void Bombers, Heavy Transport Shuttles, and Bomber Drones, carrying out escort missions, were flying slowly in a predetermined formation. If the Sky Carrier were operating at full speed, they would reach the moon in no time, but the logistics units carrying ammunition, artillery, and heavy armor were significantly slowing them down. Once the Gravity Slingshot Protocol was completed, the logistics transport formation would separate from the forward combat formation to ensure that the initial advantage on the battlefield was not lost. "He will continue on to the moon in this ship," Diana said. "According to our agreement with the Guardian Order, you will select an escort team to participate in the Guardian Order's security operations."

Tita lowered her voice, speaking almost in a whisper, "Let my guards go."

"As long as you can arrange everything for the Third Battle Group, He won't care who you send to carry out the security agreement," Dinah said. "It's politics, even between us and the Guardians of the Order. That guard is just a representative. I will be the commander of that guard." Dinah didn't explain everything, but Tita was well aware of the unspoken rules within the Sisterhood. All the Battle Sisters possessed, to a certain extent, extremely handsome features—in short, beautiful and capable in combat, making them excellent as a ceremonial guard. Dinah's plan to have a ceremonial guard participate in the security agreement was precisely for the benefit of the Sisterhood—since the number of androids was fixed, the subsequent addition of human girls would undoubtedly weaken the Sisterhood's importance, and such an agreement would greatly help maintain the Sisterhood's position in the Emperor's eyes—but even Dinah didn't know that the Guardians of the Order agreed to the Sisterhood's participation entirely because it was a decision made to appease Dinah.

Tita gazed into the void beyond the armored porthole. As the fleet moved at high speed, the hundreds of flashing collision warning lights seemed like an endless journey. "I can feel its presence," she said, pointing to the void. The Skysword Space Station lay on the other side of Earth's orbit. Although the fleet couldn't see it at all, Tita could still pinpoint its location. With precise calculations, the error wouldn't exceed five-thousandths of a degree, and it would gradually decrease over time.

"Is this normal, Ms. Diana?"

Please vote for me!

(End of this chapter)