Marvel Magic Case Files

Chapter 1493 The Lunar War (Part 5)

She writhed in the ventilation duct like a soft, black snake.

The narrow ventilation ducts forced her to contract her ribs and shift the position of her internal organs. The synthetic bodysuit deformed along with her limbs in ways that no normal person should, squeezing her organic parts through the gaps between the metal plates and navigating the complex, insulated energy pipes wrapped in black rubber. Through the ventilation grilles, she could hear the rapid, tense conversations of the creatures dozens of meters below. When the building experienced a brief tremor, the conversations ceased, and she temporarily stopped moving to avoid being trapped in the section of the duct without ventilation grilles due to potential metal deformation.

She knew the content of their conversation meant her disguise had been exposed. The layer of human skin she had peeled off was already rotting and stinking in the high temperature. Even though she had hidden it in the ventilation duct leading to the substation, that was seven standard Earth days ago, and the stench of decaying biomass was extremely unbearable. But she didn't care, because she had already obtained what she wanted using that identity.

This isolated mutant settlement had developed its own civilization, completely different from Earth's, but before she could infiltrate the base using a weak solar wind, the Regent had instilled in her the local language and writing system. As for why the Regent could understand this mutant race's language, that was not a question she needed to answer.

As the tremors subsided, the conversation resumed, this time with even greater tension and agitation. The long, narrow skull covered in scaly skin swayed, and the tongue and teeth, like those of cold-blooded creatures, spat out saliva—these mutants had no reason not to be agitated. The Emperor's fire support forces were bombarding the metal city. She despised these repulsive creatures, and a deep-seated loathing made her involuntarily curl her fingers—she was able to control this psychologically instilled emotion not only because the two mutants were too lowly in rank and their positions and authority prevented them from obtaining more information, but also because the two mutants had already notified the security department of the Attilan base to report the bizarre murder they had discovered.

Those mutants with special abilities are coming, and she has witnessed the abilities of several of them.

But she couldn't rule out the possibility that the Attilan law enforcement had already discovered the identities she'd used in the previous disguises. She also couldn't be sure if her massacres, carried out using the same methods, would mislead the investigation, or even whether the law enforcement would attribute those cases to internal crime or external invasion. All she could do now was find the next target, use that appearance to impersonate the target, and then continue approaching the next target until the mission was finally completed. This was a mission she only learned about after the memory implantation; she only knew that the target of this mission needed to be identified through investigation and interrogation, and nothing more, to avoid the mind reader extracting information from her brain.

The war has begun, and she must act quickly.

The engine thrust, like a sledgehammer, pressed the knights firmly against the harness. Aparishia tensed his muscles to resist the powerful gravitational acceleration. The holographic image in his helmet visor was data from the command network, and also included footage from the squad leader's visor camera, medical data compiled from all the knights, and low-resolution images of the bow. He watched as the sensors pierced through the giant cloud of smoke and dust, depicting the pyramidal, layered structure of the Attilan base. Hundreds of towers extended from the base, then broke off and fell from the mountainside rocks being cleared by the fire support forces.

The gleaming metal wall was getting closer and closer; the distance was rapidly decreasing.

The collapsing gray mountainside billowed up massive amounts of dust. Rocks embedded in the metal armor walls were peeled away layer by layer by the explosion. The thin air prevented the sound of the explosions from propagating. The hundreds-of-meters-high metal structure collapsed silently. The explosive decompression caused a gas ejection that instantly pushed aside the billowing dust, but it was immediately engulfed by more explosions. The Attilan base had a diameter exceeding twenty kilometers.

Above the gradually crumbling Attilan base, the assault transport craft's vectoring engines plunged headlong into the sea of ​​ash below, leaving long trails of flame. The fire support forces' fire control radar servo system precisely controlled the firepower down to the microsecond, and several brief gaps appeared in the meteor-like beams hurtling towards Attilan. The assault transport craft pilots, though unable to see beyond the gray clouds through their armored glass, remained alert.

Guided by the battlefield synchronous command system, all the assault transport ships, like fish swimming in flowing water, navigated through a dust storm that obscured the external environment and blocked the engine intakes with admirable discipline, courage, and coordination, plunging towards the mountainside and metal cut open by the fire support forces—a truly awe-inspiring and unforgettable scene. Hundreds of giant black steel birds of varying sizes spread their wings, their thrusters illuminating the hull like stars orbiting the surroundings, maintaining their formation like raptors of death as they crashed into the metal walls of the Attilan base destroyed by artillery fire.

The long-range sensors of the Sky Carrier, Sky Battleship, and bombardment drones collectively mapped out the weak points of this metal city, while the fire support forces further weakened these vulnerabilities, stripping away the thickest outer armor plates and exposing structural weaknesses. Aparisha blinked hard, switched data links, and transmitted her voice to the ears of the other nineteen genetically modified warriors behind her.

"The hunt is about to begin, brothers! The impact is imminent!"

With a blinding flash erupting from the bow, hundreds of assault craft were engulfed in the instantly molten metal wreckage. The shouts of the genetically engineered warriors were instantly drowned out by the deafening shrieks of melting, stretching, and tearing metal, and the hum of leaking air. The landing claws sliced ​​into the metal and concrete like blades, and the roar of the thrust reversers spewed flames amidst the violent tremors of the ship. The seemingly endless, deafening assault finally came to a halt. Accompanied by the screech of metal scraping and brief, intense explosions, tactical symbols lit up on the monitors above the bow.

"Prepare to open!" Aparisha shouted. The explosive bolts on the ramp exploded in the molten metal, the clamps retracted instantly, and Aparisha unlocked the explosive pistol and longsword locked to his waist, charging ahead into the dimly lit passageway flashing red alarm lights. Without looking back, he knew the assault troops were following closely behind, their magnetic boots firmly gripping the ground. "Free fire!" He pulled the trigger, killing the Inhuman soldiers who had fallen to the ground from the violent shock. Air leaked continuously from the passageway cut by the assault boat, the piercing alarms and the ominous red lights in the passageway chilling, but Aparisha still cut off the power armor's oxygen supply, smelling smoke and flames through the helmet's breathing filter. Atmospheric composition: Standard. Atmospheric pressure: 0.75 atmospheres.

The tremors continued, and with the genetically modified warrior's hearing and the sound capture device in his helmet, Aparisha clearly heard more than twenty explosions coming from above, below, left, and right, all of them originating from the assault transport ship.

"Open the tactical map, seize the objective!" Following the map's guidance, the core generator unit was only nine kilometers away as the crow flies. The twenty squads involved in capturing the core generator unit would regroup along the way and return to his command. The tactical chart in Aparisha's helmet showed that this command squad was the fastest advancing. "Our mission will determine the outcome of the war!" he said. "Today the Emperor leads us, and we will make Him proud! For unity!"

"For unification!"

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(End of this chapter)