Out among the stars, Corps Commander Sigmund was piloting the Asgardian flagship, chasing down the Supergiant's Chitauri command ship.
Much to his frustration, while he had the means to defeat the Supergiant's forces in open battle, there was simply no way he could intercept the Chitauri flagship before it breached Asgardian territory while being swarmed by countless Chitauri fighter ships.
Even after Sif and the others returned to the battlefield and immediately assumed command of their respective legions, their numbers were so far below the Chitauri that the fighting exhausted them completely.
Asgard had only around three hundred thousand warriors. True, each of those warriors possessed strength comparable to Captain America, capable of lifting twenty to thirty tons. Their berserkers could even lift sixty to a hundred and forty tons. But their numbers were far too few.
So the Chitauri ultimately broke through the atmosphere. Amid the wails of countless Americans, they descended upon a city in the central United States: Denver.
Over eight million Chitauri soldiers poured out in an instant, leaping directly from the flagship stretching more than fifteen kilometers long.
Without any suspense, Supergiant led her vast army and immediately began striking back against the humans and the Asgardians who were charging in pursuit.
At that moment inside the flagship, Sigmund silently halted the vessel just outside Denver.
He opened the landing channels. Instantly, over eighty thousand Asgardian soldiers and more than seven thousand berserkers stormed out.
"Sif, take the berserkers and charge with me. Break their formation! They have too many numbers; we have to divide them. Otherwise, once our follow-up forces finish sweeping up the stragglers outside the planet and enter Midgard proper, we'll be completely surrounded by these damned bastards!"
"By your command!"
Sif parked her skiff near the flagship, then disembarked and drew her blade. In the blink of an eye she had decapitated over twenty Chitauri and rushed into the ranks of the advancing berserkers.
"All troops split into three routes! Volstagg and Fandral, take the other two! Hogun, provide archery support! The remaining landed corps commanders, guard the flagship with your own units and cover the subsequent landing forces!"
Sigmund issued a continuous stream of orders. The various commanders carried them out, albeit somewhat awkwardly. They truly hadn't fought a war without the Bifrost's support in a long time. Covering landings and reinforcements? They hadn't done this in ages! Wasn't war supposed to be about going wherever you pleased? Tsk, having to employ tactics without teleportation felt so primitive.
Meanwhile, Supergiant calmly dispatched over three million Chitauri soldiers to continuously wear down and hammer the Asgardian forces. The rest of her troops fanned out like a spider's web, radiating in every direction.
Of course, the humans had already done their utmost during this process. Even before the Chitauri landed, Earth had launched more than two thousand nuclear missiles it could hastily mobilize, attacking the fleet beyond the atmosphere. But let's be real. This is reality, not a movie.
Could humans, whose technology trailed the Chitauri by at least a millennium, possibly inflict any large-scale damage on aliens with their basic scientific understanding? A single nuke stopping an entire Chitauri fleet like in The Avengers? Heh.
Admittedly, whether it was Asgard, the Chitauri, or even Thanos, they all favored melee combat. But to say they lacked weapons of mass destruction? Impossible.
Asgard's Bifrost and Thanos's main cannons on Sanctuary were both planet-busting weapons. However, just as nations on Earth would never casually use nuclear weapons against one another, the purpose of such planet-destroying armaments was solely to instill fear in other factions. For instance, a few nuclear warheads could easily obliterate those little... ahem. Those friendly neighbors living rather comfortable lives. So why had no one dared to do it?
The vastness and complexity of the cosmos far exceeded that of any nation on Earth. If no country on Earth dared be the first to become a target, of course none in the universe would either. Therefore, as long as a war wasn't determined from the start to be a campaign of absolute extermination, no advanced civilization would directly annihilate a lesser one with destructive strikes.
Besides, Thanos's forces followed a doctrine of slaughtering half of every race. Fighting toward that objective naturally meant they primarily waged ground invasions. And Asgard, passionate about conquest and subjugation, also favored ground warfare. This was the main reason most aliens in the Marvel universe engaged in pitched terrestrial battles.
In the blink of an eye, even though the United States had deployed every possible combat unit in time to carpet bomb the Denver landing zone and mobilized all nearby forces to intercept the Chitauri, their outdated gunpowder weaponry couldn't halt the alien advance.
In just over ten minutes, the American military had been completely silenced by the alien onslaught. Thanks to the countless streaming outlets and self-media reporting every detail, this news spread across the entire Americas almost instantly. This, in turn, plunged every city except New York into utter panic within a very short time.
Outside the White House in Washington, from the moment the aliens appeared on the moon's surface until now, barely half a day, over eighty thousand people had gathered. At first, they rallied under banners to defend the homeland. Later, they called for evacuation from the United States. Until just ten minutes ago, after the Chitauri had fully surged into the American continent, their signs abruptly changed to...
"We need Superman!"
"We need superheroes!"
"The President is a bitch! We need heroes!"
Tsk. Those kinds of slogans crisscrossed endlessly. Before long, all the protesters were shouting them in unison. This only made it harder for the already overwhelmed acting president to handle the current crisis.
Yet the chaos in Washington did not affect New York. In New York City right now, over one hundred fifty thousand Nuclear Bomb Gang members in black suits patrolled the streets. At the same time, every member of the Justice League, except for Crossbones, stationed themselves at every bustling spot in the city, acting as reassuring symbols for the people of New York.
The Ancient Order, which maintained friendly cooperation with the Justice League, also unprecedentedly dispatched more than twenty mages to guard the city's major transportation routes. The presence of these individuals gave New Yorkers nearly boundless courage.
Meanwhile, following Heisenberg's prior orders, Bullseye quietly leaked some information. Soon, New York organized its own protest march. The content of their marches was quite different from those freedom lovers in Washington.
Most of them carried banners expressing hope and gratitude for Superman protecting New York. A minority, as planned, held signs declaring they didn't want Superman leaving New York to help other cities or countries.
In this era of fake snow in Texas and "Make America Great, Trump King" miracles popping up across the Pacific, vast numbers of people genuinely answered the call, demanding Heisenberg just stay put in New York. New Yorkers adored Heisenberg to death. They hung on his every word. Other cities had never loved Superman, and they didn't need his attention or aid.
Tsk tsk. The various media controlled by Bullseye immediately broadcast the spectacle from New York. This soon intensified the protests in other states and major cities calling for Heisenberg to come save them. Hollywood even dispatched over eight hundred actresses for body-paint campaigns, inviting Heisenberg to relocate to Beverly Hills, on the grounds that Los Angeles was the true paradise for men.
Of course, Las Vegas wasn't about to accept that, so the casino bosses there, before fleeing to New York, pooled together three billion in cash and piled it outside City Hall. Their purpose was likewise to issue an invitation to Heisenberg and any other powerful superheroes.
At the same time, inside S.H.I.E.L.D., Hill, just freed from a United Nations meeting, soon received a call from Stark.
When the aliens first appeared, Stark had immediately taken his newlywed wife and hurried to Heisenberg's theater for refuge. Not only did he open up all the various suits he had already built, but he also remotely commanded J.A.R.V.I.S. to activate his armor assembly lines, beginning mass production of the Iron Man suits.
His reason for calling Hill now was to ask her to send elite fighters led by Captain America to a specified location to retrieve the Iron Man suits he had stockpiled or just finished manufacturing. Hill naturally couldn't refuse such an invitation.
In an instant, Captain America, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Iron Cavalry, and others took their handpicked agents by plane to the rooftop of Stark Tower, less than two kilometers from the theater.
Inside the theater, Stark and his wife wore their own suits and sat in chairs Billy had prepared for them, speaking with Hill. His helmet projected an image of Stark Tower into the air. Using that, Tony guided the thirty-plus S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives to retrieve the suits he had urgently produced.
After the S.H.I.E.L.D. group left, Tony frowned and looked at Billy.
"Still no word from Heisenberg?"
"Uh, yeah. The boss got taken away by a blue light earlier. Nobody knows where he went."
"Great. This gives me a real headache. Even though he's gone, all your people are still in New York, right? The Justice League members? Send them all to my company. I've got a few more specialized suits left for them. That way, the S.H.I.E.L.D. suits let Cap save more people outside the city, and the Justice League suits can make New York and my wife a heck of a lot safer. Let's hope we can hold out until Heisenberg returns."
"Mr. Stark, please rest assured. Nothing can stump my BOSS!"
"Heh, what a joke. Let me ask just one thing: Can he have a baby by himself?"
Tony teased, even as he worriedly gripped Pepper's hand. His frown deepened, and seeing that, Pepper couldn't help but rub his cheek.
"Tony, you've already done what you should. Over forty Iron Man suits will have a much, much bigger impact than a single Iron Man ever could."
"Mm hm, indeed." Tony nodded, but his expression didn't change. "Right now I don't feel I owe the world a thing. Protecting my family and you is my most important duty. I'm just worried about the whole planet. These aliens attacking Earth now... will they be the only ones to ever come? And how long can Heisenberg help us? Will there be a day when, just like now with him not on Earth, he leaves us forever?"
After saying this, Tony let out a long sigh. As a smart man, he simply thought too much. Of course, it was all because this alien war had placed an enormous amount of pressure on him.
Still, was he, Tony Stark, the only one feeling the pressure? Absolutely not!
As all Nuggets fans writhed in agony, Supergiant, who was leading her forces in a sweeping massacre along the Denver Nuggets' arena, abruptly turned her head toward a green streak of light flashing across the horizon. Her brow furrowed deeply. She would never forget the master of that light.
"Hela, the Goddess of Death from the Nine Realms! According to rumor, weren't you supposed to have vanished long ago?!"
Supergiant pondered for a moment, then her eyes suddenly widened. "Damn it! Could this be Loki's aim? To completely annihilate me and the Chitauri, the backbone of His Majesty's forces? Loki, you are truly vicious!!!"
After shouting under this immense pressure, Supergiant instantly transmitted everything she had deduced to Thanos himself, far across the distant sea of stars.
/-\
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