Not long after the mission assignment was completed, at the tarmac on the northwest side of the frontline base.
Several stealth assault crafts were parked on the reinforced alloy deck, and ground crew personnel were completing the final system checks.
The exterior of these aircraft featured a streamlined angular shape, with surfaces covered in a dynamically adjustable optical camouflage coating that reflected shifting metallic lusters under the intense desert sunlight.
The belly of each assault craft was equipped with a retractable rigid electromagnetic adsorption device, and could seamlessly switch between vertical takeoff and landing and high-speed cruise modes. If humans from the late twentieth century of the main universe were to witness this type of assault craft, they would highly likely consider it an unidentified flying object.
Ground technicians clad in one-piece overalls shuttled busily around the fuselage holding portable scanners, while also receiving assistance from synthetics.
They inspected every skin seam, every set of vector exhaust nozzles, and every sensor array with skilled movements.
At the edge of the tarmac, the Investigation Department agents who had completed their equipment preparations were conducting their final pre-battle checks. Including Leon S. Kennedy and Mike Monadi, all agents wore nano combat suits that were still expensive to produce.
On their backs, they carried standard issue small equipment cases featuring a modular design. The cases were made of lightweight titanium alloy and carbon fiber composite materials, with the Investigation Department's emblem—crossed daggers and a magnifying glass—etched on the surface.
Inside the cases, various mission essentials were loaded according to precisely planned spaces.
These included folding hard-light and Gauss rifle components, high-explosive rounds, armor-piercing rounds and battery magazines, miniature reconnaissance drone kits, environmental sampling and analysis tools, emergency medical kits, a three-day supply of high-energy nutritional supplements and hydration capsules, as well as seals of purity provided by the Heresy Inquisition Department.
At this moment, Mike was adjusting the miniature projection device on his left arm armor, and real-time topographical data of the Cairo area rolled across the holographic screen.
Holding an unlit cigarette in his mouth, he said, "Tsk, even the pyramids have become palaces. These things that proclaim themselves to be gods actually have quite a retro aesthetic taste."
Leon did not respond immediately; he was checking his own equipment.
"Retro?"
Only after standing up did Leon respond, "I actually think it is complete depravity. Turning the architecture of human civilization into toys to show off their own authority is the behavior of tyrants, not the actions of gods."
His voice was calm, but a cold light flashed in his eyes.
As a veteran who had experienced various nightmarish events, Leon held an instinctive disgust and vigilance toward all existences that acted high and mighty and treated human lives like dirt.
"All teams pay attention." The command tower's broadcast rang out over the tarmac, "Boarding countdown five minutes. I repeat, boarding countdown five minutes."
Hearing this, all agents began to board in an orderly manner.
Their movements were agile, and the collision of equipment cases with the deck produced a muffled and rhythmic sound.
"Time to go." Mike put the cigarette into his inner pocket and patted Leon's shoulder.
The two stepped into the assault craft.
The interior space of the cabin was compact and efficient. Six adjustable shock-absorbing seats were arranged longitudinally in two rows, with equipment mounts and data interfaces between the seats.
The cabin walls were covered with sound-absorbing materials, and the lighting system used soft cold light to minimize interference with the external optical camouflage.
"Agent Kennedy, Agent Monadi, welcome aboard."
The pilot's voice came from the cockpit, "I am the captain of Night Owl Two, Lieutenant Carlson. I suggest you two fasten your seatbelts."
Leon and Mike chose the two front seats.
The interfaces on the backs of their nano combat suits automatically connected with the data ports of the seats, and their vital signs data began to synchronously upload to the onboard system.
The seatbelts were of a magnetic adsorption type, automatically locking tightly when approaching the chest armor. They were secure yet did not hinder rapid release in emergency situations.
"All personnel in position." Lieutenant Carlson's voice became serious, "Cabin doors closing, airtightness check commencing."
The heavy alloy cabin doors slid shut silently, and the air pressure balancing system let out a faint hiss. The lighting inside the cabin turned dark red, clearly the standard mode for night infiltration missions.
"Ground control, this is Night Owl Two, requesting takeoff clearance."
"Tower copies, Night Owl Two, cleared for takeoff."
Without any warning, the engine roars of the several assault crafts were suppressed to near silence by advanced soundproofing systems. Only the faint vibrations transmitted from the seats indicated that takeoff was underway.
The assault crafts lifted off smoothly in an almost vertical posture, landing gears retracting into the bellies. The optical camouflage coatings began to dynamically adjust, and the fuselages gradually became transparent during the climb, blending into the sky above the desert and becoming difficult to distinguish.
When the altitude reached five hundred meters, the pilots synchronously activated the full-spectrum stealth systems.
"Optical camouflage activated at full power, anti-radar beam generators activated, thermal signature disguise activated."
Lieutenant Carlson reported to the cabin while operating the control panel.
Leon looked out through the observation window on the side of his seat.
The window glass was actually a high-resolution display screen, showing in real time the footage captured and processed by the external sensors—
The frontline base below was rapidly shrinking, turning into a regular gray square in the desert, while the other assault crafts were merely a few imperceptible, rippling transparent outlines like water waves in his eyes.
"Course set, target Cairo."
The somewhat talkative Carlson continued his broadcast, "Estimated time of arrival is forty-seven minutes. You two can relax a bit, if you can sleep... after all, once we get there, I'm afraid there won't be time to rest."
But neither Leon nor Mike closed their eyes to rest.
They brought up the reconnaissance data of the Cairo area and began to familiarize themselves with the mission environment one last time...
Not long after, in the sky above Cairo, Egypt, at an altitude of two thousand meters. Looking down from the air, the scenery of Cairo presented an extremely uncomfortable, bizarre fusion that felt like a temporal and spatial disorder.
This city, or rather, this divine capital that had been modified beyond recognition, was like roughly stirring together the fanatical worship of ancient pharaohs, the feudal hierarchy of the Middle Ages, and the industrialized ruins of the late twentieth century, and then sprinkling a thick, nauseating layer of theocracy seasoning on top.
The Nile River still flowed through the city, but the river water presented an unhealthy dark green color, with a massive amount of unidentified debris and rotting matter floating on the surface.
On both sides of the riverbanks, those buildings that once belonged to the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries—namely apartment buildings, office buildings, and asphalt roads—were mostly in ruins.
The walls were covered with dark red, vein-like vine organisms. Windows were shattered, balconies collapsed, and twisted, bizarre plants resembling a hybrid of cactus and coral had even grown on the roofs of many buildings.
And rising from the ground among the ruins of these modern buildings were a massive number of bizarrely styled Egyptian mythology-esque architectures.
They did not look like true ancient Egyptian architectural craftsmanship, but rather a clumsy, twisted imitation.
Disproportionate obelisks were carved with blasphemous runes, giant sphinxes had grown extra heads and arms, and the colonnades of temples were modified into cage-like structures holding humans in tattered clothes with vacant eyes.
The surfaces of these buildings were covered with a greasy luster like biological secretions.
The entire city was divided into distinct hierarchical zones.
On the west bank of the Nile, in the original Giza Plateau area, the scene was the most shocking.
That was the settlement area for the so-called divine favored and nobles, and the Pyramid of Khufu had been completely renovated and modified.
It was no longer a silent pharaoh's tomb, but had become a living, giant palace emitting an aura of majesty and terror.
The surface of the pyramid was covered with a layer of smooth black alloy plating, etched with flowing, faintly glowing patterns. It seemed to be a type of writing similar to ancient Egyptian script, but more twisted and complex.
A giant archway over thirty meters high had been opened on each of the four sides of the pyramid. The insides of the doors were unfathomably deep, with faint sights of
flickering lights and moving figures inside.
The original capstone at the top of the pyramid had been removed, replaced by a floating palace complex made of dark gold metal. The spires of the palaces pierced the clouds, surrounded by rotating totems of the Eye of Horus seemingly made of energy.
With the Pyramid of Khufu as the core, a neatly planned and fully equipped noble district radiated outward.
There were clean and broad streets, gorgeously decorated courtyard villas, artificial canals flowing with clear water, and even gardens planted with exotic flowers and rare herbs.
Brightly dressed clerics and nobles strolled leisurely on the streets, followed by throngs of servants and slaves.
Occasionally, one could see floating palanquins seemingly decorated with gold and gemstones, carried by four bare-chested strongmen. The curtains hung low, making the figures sitting inside indistinct.
But in the main area of the city, it was another scene of a living hell.
Millions of existences that could barely still be considered humans crowded into dirty and dilapidated neighborhoods.
Their dwellings were shacks haphazardly built using ruin materials. There was no clean drinking water and no sufficient food, and the air was filled with a stench mixed from feces, rotting matter, and despair.
On the streets, so-called displays of miracles and trials of faith could be seen everywhere.
At an intersection of a main road, on a temporarily built altar, three priests were conducting a public dedication ceremony.
They wore gorgeous robes embroidered with the Eye of Horus and scarabs, feather crowns on their heads, and heavy greasepaint smeared on their faces.
In the center of the altar was a boiling pot bubbling with green bubbles, and five emaciated children were tied up beside it.
"Great Set, God of Storms and Chaos!" the lead high priest shouted loudly, his voice echoing through the entire neighborhood via some sort of amplification device. "Please accept these pure souls as sacrifices, and grant me power!"
The watching crowd—
Those sallow and emaciated lower-class citizens with numb eyes were forced to kneel on the ground, mechanically repeating prayers.
When the priest raised the ceremonial dagger, preparing to plunge it into the first child's chest, a burst of suppressed sobbing erupted from the crowd, but no one dared to stand up and resist.
Even more nauseating were the bizarre creatures that appeared in Egyptian mythology but were now living and breathing:
Sons of Sobek with crocodile heads and human torsos;
Servants of Serqet, half-human and half-scorpion, with venom dripping from their tail stingers;
And the most disturbing, traveling in packs, the Kin of Anubis with jackal heads walking upright.
These creatures obviously required large amounts of meat to sustain their lives, and the source of the feed...
"Today it is the Seventh District's turn to offer flesh tributes!"
A herald riding an ostrich-like mutant creature galloped through the slum streets, waving a gem-inlaid scepter in his hand. "Every household must offer one person! Resisters will have their entire families turned into feed!"
Following that, fully armed soldiers appeared.
They wore leather armor studded with bronze plates, wielding spears and scimitars, clearly in the attire of the old era's Egyptian army, but their eyes were equally fanatical and vacant.
These soldiers violently barged into the slums, randomly seizing the weakest and most defenseless elders, the sick, or sinners who had offended the priestly families. They bound them with rough ropes and dragged them out of their homes like livestock, handing them over to the so-called breeders.
And the breeders would conduct a screening—relatively intact corpses were thrown to the crocodile-headed creatures; those alive and still struggling were shoved into the paddocks of the scorpion-men swarms; and the freshest ones were saved for those jackal-headed existences.
"This is fucking..."
Mike's voice rang out in the cabin, carrying irrepressible anger and disgust. "This is fucking worse than animals! Animals kill to survive, but these scumbags are enjoying it! They are treating the torture of their own kind as entertainment!"
Leon did not speak.
His facial expression appeared incredibly gloomy under the dark red cabin lighting. Those eyes, which had witnessed countless tragedies, were now burning with a cold, almost materialized anger.
And even more heinous scenes continued to unfold.
On the avenue in the center of the city, the main road connecting the Nile dock area and the Pyramid of Khufu, a god parade seemed to be taking place.
Twelve sub-god species over two point three meters tall, possessing robust human torsos and limbs but with the heads of animals like wolves, eagles, and lions, were being surrounded by countless fanatic believers and soldiers as they slowly marched forward.
They wore gorgeous ceremonial armor inlaid with gemstones and gold, holding scepters and weapons symbolizing power in their hands.
Wherever they went, the citizens had to kneel prostrate on the ground, their foreheads pressed tightly against the filthy dirt, forbidden to look up directly.
But the parade was not simply a display of authority.
When an eagle-headed sub-god species with eyes like burning rubies passed by a market, it suddenly stopped in its tracks.
Its gaze locked onto a young woman selling clay pots.
The woman was about twenty years old. Although her clothes were worn out and she looked malnourished, she could not hide her delicate features and graceful figure.
"You." The eagle-headed creature's voice was like sandpaper rubbing against metal, piercing and cold. "Look up."
The woman trembled in terror, not daring to disobey.
The moment she looked up, the eagle-headed creature reached out a claw covered in bronze-colored feathers.
The subsequent scene made Mike inside the assault craft violently turn his head away, unable to bear watching any longer.
The eagle-headed creature tore the woman's clothes to shreds in public. In front of the prostrate citizens surrounding them, amidst the woman's shrill screams that nearly tore her vocal cords, it committed a completely inhumane assault.
During this, its attendant priests even sang prayers of praise loudly, as if this were a blessing bestowed by a god.
When it was satisfied, it casually snapped the woman's neck and threw the still-twitching corpse to a jackal-headed sub-god species behind it.
"A decent appetizer." The jackal-headed creature grinned. "But I want something fresher. Go, grab ten top-tier goods. I am hosting a banquet tonight."
The soldiers immediately lunged into the crowd, beginning to select those men and women who looked relatively healthy and young.
The selected people cried and struggled, yet were still violently dragged away. Strung together by ropes like livestock waiting to be slaughtered, they continued forward following the parade procession.
"Pilot." Leon's voice rang out in the cabin, frighteningly calm. "Report our position and stealth status."
"6
Night Owl Two is currently at an altitude of two thousand one hundred meters above downtown Cairo. The full-spectrum stealth system is operating normally."
Carlson's voice also lost its previous ease. "Thermal signature is completely disguised, optical camouflage integration with the background is at ninety-nine point three percent. No form of active scanning or psychic detection has been detected. We are temporarily safe."
Hearing this, Leon brought up the detailed topographic map of the Cairo area and drew a line with his finger between the pyramid area and the slum area.
"We cannot land directly near the pyramids; the defense and detection levels there must be the highest." His voice regained an agent's calmness and precision. "We also cannot land in the densely populated slum areas."
His finger tapped on an area in the eastern suburbs of Cairo.
That seemed to be a pre-war industrial zone, now reduced to a pile of ruins. Reconnaissance data indicated that the patrol density in this area was relatively low, and there were many abandoned factory buildings that could serve as temporary hiding spots.
"Land here." Leon made the decision. "Lieutenant Carlson, find a suitable location and execute a silent landing."
"Copy that." The pilot responded immediately. "Initiating vertical descent mode. All non-essential systems are shutting down. Entering shadow state."
The assault craft's optical camouflage system continued to operate at full power, making the fuselage almost completely transparent. Like a true shadow, it silently glided across Cairo's chaotic, bloody sky, descending toward the forgotten ruins in the eastern suburbs.
Inside the cabin, Leon and Mike began their final equipment checks.
And the scene outside the window, that living hell, was gradually enlarging and becoming clearer...
______
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