Volume 3: The Nameless Chapter 47 This is your war
At the place where the underground cave connects with the underground dark river, one can vaguely see the direction of the coast from the rift above. In such a doomsday place, the starlight is not very bright and should not be able to see through the cover of the night.
But tonight is an exception.
The towering Osborne Tower was burning like a torch, and the light it emitted illuminated the entire coast like day, like a beacon guiding the armed warriors to their destination.
A large group of Lizardmen carrying the armed residents of the shelter disappeared along the cold underground river into the shadowy darkness ahead. Although Captain Jack instigated everyone with the help of Mary Jane and Jameson, not everyone is suitable for going to the battlefield.
Women and children remained in the underground people's caves, and some skinny lizardmen children were not allowed to follow their parents into the desolate and dangerous night.
Dr. Otto was there to comfort them, but there were others who were responsible for protecting the elderly, the weak, women and children.
The demon knight Jason Blood was now standing on a protruding rock in the underground cave.
His exquisite and old-fashioned dress was out of tune with the surrounding environment, but he did not care about this strange contrast. Instead, he looked in the direction of Osborne Tower with his calm eyes.
As an old knight who had lived for more than a thousand years and experienced countless conflicts and wars, he had enough tactical knowledge to discern what kind of threats and dilemmas these rebels would face tonight.
"They are destined to be supporting roles! If Mason Cooper had any common sense, he should not have sent these 'armed farmers' to the front line of the battlefield.
Or maybe he's a cold-blooded bastard who doesn't care about sacrifice and wants to use the lives of these poor people to pave the way for their victory."
The voice of the demon Itlegan echoed in Jason's mind. It spoke to the old knight with the malice and coldness that a creature of Hell should have:
“Although we haven’t seen those cleaners with our own eyes, if those mad dogs are one-tenth as powerful as the rumors say, they can set off a post-apocalyptic massacre tonight.
Are you going to keep watching? Jason, you and I both know what Mason is waiting for."
The demon let out a deep laugh.
It says:
"He is using this method to urge you to appear. He knows that only we can become the core force that determines the outcome of tonight's victory. Perhaps when he and Constantine, who deserves to go to hell but dares not to go to hell, lured us to this world, he had already made up his mind.
Well, look at this feeling of being expected, it's as dazzling as a red-hot coal in the nine levels of hell.
Are you going to wait until the finale?"
The old knight made no reply.
His eyes stayed on the night sky lit up by the burning Osborne Tower. A rainstorm seemed to be brewing in the gloomy clouds. In the gaps between the dark clouds and fog, he could clearly see the troop transports carrying the cleaners flying through the darkness, as well as the huge weapon hovering in the air above the open sea, like a floating island or a behemoth.
That was the mothership of the Cleaners, like a strange black fish rushing out of hell.
Judging from its size alone, once that thing flies over Osborne Tower, perhaps just one salvo of fire would be enough to solve all problems on the ground.
It is the occupiers' fortress in this doomsday world, and also a proof of the mad dogs' show of force.
“This is not my war.”
Jason Blood finally retracted his gaze and said to the restless demon in his body:
"I do not represent myself, and I swore to the world at that table in the House of Mystery that I would never compromise with the evildoers among the stars.
The break with Mason was as far as I could go.”
"Hypocrisy! Haha, you are not someone who can be bound by an oath, otherwise you would not have betrayed your King Arthur."
Itlegan sneered:
"You are a double-faced old man. We both know that you will get involved. It is only a matter of time. Well, look, your little protector seems to be planning to do something dangerous..."
On the other side, little May Parker, wearing a black spider suit, also sneaked into the crowd. This surprisingly brave little girl was excited to follow her uncles and aunts to take a stroll around Osborne Tower.
In addition to worrying about her mother, she also wanted to see with her own eyes how heroic her father would be after becoming a superhero again.
After all, she grew up listening to Spider-Man's heroic stories.
"Where are you going?"
Just as little May Parker was about to sneak into the weapons box that was being pulled by several lizardmen, a deep voice suddenly sounded beside her, startling the little girl.
She looked up and saw the Demon Knight uncle holding a cup of coffee, looking at her expressionlessly with one hand in his pocket.
"I……"
The little girl has great trust in the uncle who saved her.
She wanted to make up a story, but Jason Blood didn't give her the chance. He reached out, grabbed Xiaomei's collar with two fingers and lifted her from the box back to the river bank.
He shook his head, took a sip of the fragrant coffee, and said:
"That's not the place you should go. You'll only cause more trouble if you go there. Be a good boy. Staying here is the best help you can give to your parents."
"oh."
Xiaomei nodded in disappointment, but then she tilted her head and looked at Jason Blood and said:
"Uncle, aren't you going? You're so capable, you'll definitely be able to help!"
"I have fought too many battles, seen too much conflict and death, and before my first death I was tired of the endless strife."
The Demon Knight shook his head and said softly:
"So now, I just want to quietly appreciate this scene that will surely go down in history. You are still young, you don't understand, this is your war.
It's not mine, at least not now.
Don't be afraid, little girl.
As a knight, I promised your parents to protect you, so I will fulfill my duty to the end."
——
On one of the floors of the honeycomb-shaped residential building on the ground level of the Osborne Tower, Barbara Gordon, who had quietly taken control of the city's fire defenses, was constantly changing the positions of cameras spread across the city.
Two men armed with weapons stood guard beside her.
Behind them was a middle-aged couple who were tied up, with torn socks stuffed in their mouths and looking terrified. Apparently, these two guys had used some not-so-peaceful means to make a temporary safe house for themselves.
"They are here, the picture is shared to your helmet."
Barbara stared at the screen of the microcomputer on her arm and said something to Ertong beside her. Jason Todd nodded, and the image of the black aircraft that was landing in the messy area below the Osborne Tower appeared in the front eye protection of his red high-tech helmet.
He could see a group of heavily armed soldiers jumping down from both sides of the shuttle.
They formed a queue in a silent but well-trained posture, and under the protection of the gunships hovering high in the sky responsible for fire support and troop transportation, several guys who looked like the commander walked out of the aircraft.
The old Green Goblin, dressed in black formal attire, and his assistants were there to greet these guys.
Behind them in the night, nearly a hundred shuttle-shaped troop transports were landing in various corners of the city. It was obvious that the cleaners were going to take over the attacked city in order to protect the important resource, the gravity hammer, stored there.
“These commanders are not our targets. Old Norman promised to deal with them. We need to weaken the power of this group of cleaners as much as possible before the underground people enter the battlefield.
At least their air superiority must be eliminated."
Mason's voice sounded in the communicator, and he began to assign tasks:
"Barbara, set targets for the city defense weapons. We will act immediately after the old green devil starts, and destroy as many of the cleaner gunships as possible in the first round of attack.
The rest will be up to Charles and Zack. "
"Mason, Norman just delegated the authority of the armory in Osborne Tower to me."
Barbara reminded:
"There are several special cruise missiles in this city, the kind with tactical nuclear warheads! Perhaps we can use them to attack the Liquidators' base on the island offshore.
There are about 1,500 people guarding it, and there is also the mothership floating in the sky! That thing is the biggest problem. I detected a very terrible energy reaction. Even a nuclear bomb may not be able to destroy it. "
"No, throw all the big fireworks on the cleaner's island. That warship is not our target. Someone will help us deal with it."
Mason replied:
"Wait until the war starts here before firing the missiles. Don't alert the enemy. After the war starts, you can adjust the deployment of the city defense weapons. This is the only advantage we have.
Ertong, come and meet us near the gate of Zone C in the city. We will start the assault from there.
The 'Lizard Knights' that Jack found for us will also enter the city from there."
"receive."
Ertong responded and patted Barbara on the shoulder, signaling her to protect herself.
Then he jumped out of the window of the narrow and cramped honeycomb room and disappeared into the quiet and gloomy night in a few seconds.
"Are you trying to bring Jason Bradshaw in?"
On Mason's side, after hearing his conversation with Barbara, Zha Kang, who was preparing magic materials, came over and asked in a low voice.
Mason was holding a military telescope and observing the Cleaner Gunships flying in the sky. Without even turning his head, he said:
"It's not that I want to drag that Demon Knight into this, but he's already in the middle of this war. If he has any sense left, he'd know that he should help us now.
When we're done, he'll be the next target of the cleaners.
He didn't want to pay the price of being cursed by the soul and use the World Gate to return to Gotham, which would be equivalent to trapping him in this world. I don't know if the Demon Knight is aware of this...
His fate is tied to the fate of the world ."
"Well said, but I think you might underestimate the stubbornness of an old guy who has lived for more than a thousand years."
Zha Kang blew out a smoke ring and said with a curled lip:
"Jason Blood is a character who is as stubborn as a rock in a toilet. No one can force him to do anything he doesn't want to do. In fact, I think even more than a thousand years have not changed his character.
He is still the Holy Grail Knight seeking atonement, yearning for Camelot, where he can never return, and attaching great importance to some extravagant etiquette.
The most important thing is that he has power, so he has the freedom to choose. He can wait until our army is completely wiped out before choosing to send down his troops from the sky.
You should at least send someone to invite them, I mean to persuade them.
You have to give people a way out.
After all, in theory we are still in a hostile relationship with him, and now it is just a truce."
"Don't worry, he will come."
Mason put down his telescope, pulled out the Widowmaker rifle from his back, curled his lips and said to Zha Kang:
"The righteous knight will not sit idly by and watch the weak being slaughtered, and the vicious demon does not want to miss the fun of making a big fuss. He has enough reasons to convince himself.
We just have to wait until his big moment.”
"Bang"
After the buzzing gunshots due to the silencer, three of the patrolling Cleaner soldiers were knocked down by one bullet. At the same time, the Cleaner sniper who was aiming at this side from a high place was pierced through the chest by a golden sword.
The four-man patrol was wiped out in an instant, and the female pirate Angelina and Old Peter quickly dragged the bodies over. Mason and others took off their clothes and put them on while checking the condition of these soldiers.
"Such obvious signs of transformation, some of their internal organs were removed to suppress their physiological needs, and some strange things were implanted to change their brain secretions.
Look, they put something in these guys’ spines.”
Mason half-knelt beside a corpse, frowning as he looked at the soldier in front of him who had been transformed beyond recognition, wearing medical gloves.
The latter's eyes were replaced with creepy electronic prosthetic eyes, there were rough stitches on the chest and arms, and there were stitches of some kind of black implant along the spine on the back, like a twisted centipede.
This scene made the members of Team K beside them frown. They doubted whether these guys could still be called "human" after this level of transformation.
"Just like the 'demon-like' army under Darkseid, the physical fitness of these mad dogs has been improved to an exaggerated level. One person beating ten is a bit risky, but one person beating five should not be a problem."
Zha Kang also held a cigarette in his mouth and smeared some kind of potion on the arm muscles of the corpse. He looked at the spots left after the drug penetrated, and checked them with some very magical means, saying:
"Although there is still a soul left, it has basically no emotions and is just like a robot. Hey, what is this thing?"
He reached out and pulled apart the head of the corpse that was smashed by Mason, and while holding back his nausea, he took out something that looked like a blood-stained silver circuit board from the bloody mess.
"Let me see."
Mason took it in his hand, and the information label popped up immediately:
Submissive personality replacement chip insertion
Quality: Standard engineering precision manufacturing, standard craftsmanship
Item Effect: Implanted into brain socket to complete personality replacement and data learning, cancel emotional fluctuations, activate combat prosthesis upon receiving command and stimulate the secretion of adrenaline to put the host into [Frenzy] state.
Producer: The 37th Precision Manufacturing Workshop of the Logistics Department of the Cleaner Corps
Item Description: If you can upload a [Self-Suicide] virus into their chips, you can make them dance while blowing their own heads off.
"It's the black technology of the 2077 world."
Mason crushed it in his hands and said to his teammates:
“The Afterlife Squad should be very familiar with these things. They are used in Night City to mass-produce company dogs and thugs who will not resist. I guess these soldiers are recruited in batches from other worlds.
It doesn't matter what they were before, the Cleaners have ways to turn them into deadly warriors."
He turned his head to look at the silent old spider and asked softly:
"Were some of the heroes who participated in the Doomsday War with you captured?"
Peter nodded solemnly.
After seeing the control chips in the brains of the Cleanup soldiers with his own eyes, Spider-Man has begun to mourn the fate of his captured friends.
But at the same time, an even more angry flame burned in his heart. He flexed his fingers and looked at the city being taken over by the cleaners in the night.
He no longer refused the shotgun that Mason handed him, and threw the cigarette butt at the corner of his mouth to the ground. He said:
"Go ahead, Mason."
Mason stood up, stretched his neck, and said to everyone around him:
"K Team claims that we will never be the spurned hounds. We claim that we are the good guys and should do something different from the bad guys. This war is indeed not in our interests, but it's time to go to hell with our interests.
Come on, guys.
Let's burn these mad dogs to ashes!"
