The flames dissipated, and Wanda withdrew the energy shield she had cast.
However, the group didn't sigh in relief from surviving the disaster.
Because, simultaneously with the explosion, piercing alarms also reached their ears.
This almost perfectly synchronized alarm was clearly not triggered by a single person exploding.
Instead, air defense sirens wailed continuously over the entire city of Sokovia, warning citizens to seek shelter and beware of the impending attack.
"They detected anomalies, so they launched the attack ahead of schedule? These green-skins aren't irredeemably stupid."
"But..." Green Bull looked at the scorched ground from the explosion, a few black lines appearing on his forehead.
"What kind of shitty security do the French airports have?!"
With things developing to this point, Green Bull understood completely.
The Skrulls must have vaguely sensed that their infiltration and sabotage operation might be obstructed.
However, since Sokovia could directly read the spies' memories, their replies and reports revealed no flaws.
So they sent a human bomb for a final probe.
Green Bull was certain the spy who just blew up was wearing a highly precise tracking device.
If he had just taken a detour or deviated from the normal route slightly, it might have been fine.
But being taken directly to a corner of the airport and staying there for so long without moving...
The Skrulls, noticing something was wrong, detonated the bomb and launched the attack ahead of schedule.
Hopefully, that guy didn't have any listening devices on him. Otherwise, our conversation just now might have exposed quite a bit of info.
Recalling the conversation he might have had, Green Bull actually didn't feel much tension about the sudden alarm.
Not only because Sokovia was already prepared to clash with the Skrulls tomorrow as scheduled.
More importantly...
"It's already active~"
Green Bull and the others looked up.
In the sky above Sokovia, a layer of pale blue energy shield, seemingly covering the entire country like a dome, was closing rapidly at a visible speed.
Yes, this was the "Dome Energy Shield System" Luca had obtained from Wakanda.
In fact, among all the Vibranium technology Luca acquired, this super-large energy shield was the first to be implemented, consuming the most Vibranium resources.
Even though Luca, piloting the Boxer Gundam, had once blown up Wakanda's energy shield with a single arrow...
Aside from its high energy consumption, its base defensive capabilities were still nearly overwhelming against current Earth technology weapons.
Coincidentally, Sokovia, which had never stopped building "Bio-Reactors" since the Yuri MCV landed, had no shortage of electricity.
Moreover, unlike Wakanda, Sokovia didn't keep the shield's camouflage mode active daily. The consumption for activating defenses only during wartime was negligible to Sokovia.
Just as the near-transparent energy shield closed...
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM~
Several explosions rang out on Sokovia's energy shield in succession.
Then, similar explosions became almost continuous.
Sokovian citizens heading to shelters looked up and felt like countless fireworks were exploding in the sky.
In fact, only a few sporadic explosions were sympathetic detonations from intercepted missile attacks.
Most of the smaller sparks were actually "fireworks" created by "small meteorites" raining down from the sky and smashing onto the shield.
Of course, if anyone paid attention to these "small meteorites" before they hit the shield and exploded, they would discover...
Each "small meteorite" was actually a Stark drone launched directly from orbit.
Normally, these drones were programmed to jettison their protective metal landing shells at a certain altitude and switch to attack mode.
But now, blocked by Sokovia's shield, they crashed and were destroyed in mid-air before they could even eject.
Of course, the space-drop drones produced by Stark were remotely controlled by the AI Friday.
After suffering heavy losses from the initial failed deployment, these drones quickly modified their landing procedures.
Some drones landed directly outside the range of Sokovia's shield.
More drones adjusted their shell ejection altitude.
Before hitting the shield, they transformed into combat mode and attacked the energy barrier in front of them.
But...
If these drones had fallen into the city, facing ordinary troops or unarmed citizens, they might have been devastating.
Causing destruction while inciting chaos.
But intercepted outside, the twin machine cannons on these drones couldn't even make a splash against Sokovia's energy shield.
More importantly, Sokovia under Luca's control wasn't like Wakanda, which would just passively tank enemy attacks with the shield without fighting back.
In fact, as the enemy offensive arrived, countless seemingly inconspicuous spots on the ground inside Sokovia opened up.
Cracks appeared, releasing swarms of drones into the sky.
Simultaneously, not just from these underground storage facilities hidden in the city.
Core factories, military fortresses, municipal buildings—more small and medium-sized drones quickly joined in.
Remember, in today's Sokovia, drones were integrated into every corner of the city.
City surveillance, express delivery, auxiliary police force, security protection.
Among them, apart from delivery drones, most were equipped with decent weaponry.
Plus the stockpile prepared in factories for the dimensional war.
In an instant, friendly drones, outnumbering the incoming ones by more than ten times, blotted out the sky.
After the energy shield opened several designated channels to release these drones for combat...
In the blink of an eye, green ion disintegration beams thoroughly engulfed the "primitive" machine gun drones made by Stark.
Furthermore, when the Skrulls' second wave of attack—several aircraft arriving late—reached the battlefield...
Seeing the enemy drones blotting out the sun, they immediately abandoned their original bombing plan.
Despite being fairly large bombers, under the pilots' control, they performed extremely difficult maneuvers and quickly turned around to flee the scene.