220: Chapter 220 Ground Special Operations: Decapitating the "Free Government"
Inside the command hall of Ark City, a deathly silence almost solidified the air. On the massive main screen, the scenes from the lunar battlefield were unbearable to watch: the Taishan Ship had turned into silent debris drifting in the void; the soaring heavens trailed thick smoke and electrical sparks, like a mortally wounded beast struggling to move under the lock of the Alpha units' dark purple "Death Gaze"; in lunar orbit, human defense platforms and vessels were turning into cosmic dust at an unprecedented speed under the eerie and efficient attacks of Beta and Gamma units. Piercing damage reports and loss-of-contact warnings pelted everyone's nerves like cold rain.
Despair, like ink dripping into clear water, spread and bled rapidly. The chasm of the technological gap appeared so deep and insurmountable under the Scavenger's cold and efficient display.
At the center of this despair that seemed to crush everything, Lin Mo's figure stood tall like a pine. His face was pale, but his eyes were like tempered stars; instead of dimming, they burned with a colder, sharper light under the extreme pressure. His gaze did not only linger on the suffocating starry battlefield but also quickly switched between several split screens—displaying the final reports of the Purification Protocol, real-time situations of major regions on Earth, and... fuxi's final tracking map of the Freedom Day declaration source and the Hades platform activation commands based on all residual data.
On the map, several originally obscure data streams, in the final moments of the Hades platform's self-destruction and the resulting energy burst and communication feedback, were like startled venomous snakes, exposing their final nest—it wasn't some complex distributed network, but clearly pointed to a cluster of deep underground coordinates labeled "Geological Anomaly Zone" at the border of Texas and Nevada on the North American continent. That was the final lair of McCarthy and the others, where the self-proclaimed "provisional government" of the Free Human Front was located.
"In the space battlefield, we are temporarily at an absolute disadvantage." Lin Mo's voice suddenly rang out; it wasn't loud, but it was like a sharp blade cutting through the thick oppression in the command hall. "But war has never been limited to the stars. The tumor shooting cold arrows behind our backs and attempting to stab us while we are in a bloody battle with the Scavenger must be uprooted before their conspiracy fully ferments!"
He turned abruptly, his gaze like lightning, shooting toward the head of the special operations command directly under the S.H.I.E.L.D.'s command, a tough officer codenamed Night Owl.
"Night Owl, the self-destruction of Hades has exposed the rats' final hole. The coordinates have been synced to you." Lin Mo's speech was fast and clear, carrying unquestionable decisiveness. "I authorize you to launch Operation Broken Blade. Target: Locate and eliminate the core leadership of the Free Human Front headed by McCarthy, completely paralyze their command and control nodes, and especially seize or destroy the control permissions of the remaining avengers fleet and any unstable weapon systems they might control."
Night Owl's eyes flashed with sharp light, and his body instantly straightened: "Understood! Mission guaranteed!"
"The enemy possesses some legacy forces from the old era and is at a dead end, so they will surely counterattack frantically." Lin Mo added, pulling up an assessment report on the potential performance of the avengers fleet derived by fuxi from the Hades platform and stardust incidents. "They might still have stealth attack units, dangerous AI logic, and self-destructive tendencies. Your actions must be fast, accurate, and ruthless, with paralyzing and controlling as the primary objectives to avoid getting bogged down in a war of attrition. The first batch of experimental shadow stalker bio-exoskeletons and neural-link tactical helmets provided by the pegasus project will be prioritized for your distribution. The Kunlun tactical simulation library has loaded the most precise underground structure deduction model of that area."
"Yes! We have conducted over four hundred hours of virtual infiltration and assault drills for this area!" Night Owl said with confidence. "The shadow stalker exoskeleton's initial environmental mimicry and neural reflex enhancement are precisely prepared for this kind of beheading operation in complex underground environments."
"The operation begins immediately. Ark City and the Earth orbital defense system will provide you with the necessary information masking and limited external support. Remember," Lin Mo took one last deep look at Night Owl, "you are not just clearing out rebels; you are buying time for our space defense line and removing a bomb that could detonate at our most vulnerable moment. Only success is allowed!"
"The S.H.I.E.L.D. never fails!" Night Owl gave a sharp military salute, and his figure instantly vanished from the hall.
One hour later, deep in the Texas desert, beneath the surface.
This was not a simple abandoned facility, but a lair converted from an old-era deep-level strategic command post of staggering scale. Although the GDA's integrated census had missed it, McCarthy and the others cowered here, relying on remnant independent energy and a closed ecosystem, dreaming their final frantic dreams.
Inside the central command room (which they called the Freedom Palace), the atmosphere was completely different from the solemnity of Ark City, filled with morbid fanaticism and hysterical excitement.
McCarthy stared at the footage fragments on the screen sent back by the Hades platform before its destruction, showing the soaring heavens being heavily damaged and the lunar defense line collapsing. Even though the platform was destroyed, he was still flushed with excitement, waving his fist: "Did you see that? Did you see that?! Lin Mo's fleet is vulnerable! What 'North Heaven Gate'? It's just paper in the face of true power! The Scavenger will clear the obstacles for us! When they are both wounded, it will be the time for us 'Free Humans' to reclaim our destiny!"
Davis and Kelson were not as optimistic. Kelson looked at the alarms flashing on the avengers fleet control system, showing accelerated airframe aging and a continuous decline in AI logic stability, and said worriedly: "General, the self-destruction of Hades proves there are huge hidden dangers in our technology. The status of the avengers is also deteriorating; the risk of an active strike..."
"Risk?" McCarthy turned abruptly, his eyes ferocious. "Do we still care about risk now? We either win everything or lose everything! The avengers are our final strength! Order all avengers to end standby mode and start preheating! Once the Scavenger deals a decisive blow to the moon or Ark City, it will be our time to strike, clean up the mess, and seize the sower project and those core technologies!"
Just as he was shouting frantically, while Davis hesitated and Kelson tried to dissuade him again—
All the lights in the command room suddenly flickered once and then went out completely, plunging the room into pitch darkness. Only the faint glow from various instrument screens and indicator lights reflected several stunned and terrified faces.
"What's going on? Backup power!" McCarthy barked.
"Backup power is on, but the main energy lines and external monitoring signals are all cut! We've been... jammed? No, it's an intrusion!" the technical security personnel shouted in panic.
Almost at the same moment, from outside the heavy alloy doors of the command room came the sounds of short and intense skirmishes, the hum of energy weapons firing, and the dull thuds of bodies hitting the ground! The sounds rapidly approached!
"Enemy attack! It's GDA people! How did they find this place?!" Davis screamed, trying to grab a weapon on the table.
"Activate internal defenses! All guards, block them!" McCarthy was both shocked and enraged, lunging toward the console, wanting to manually activate the final self-destruct protocol or release the avengers.
The console did not respond. A cold, voice-modulated electronic voice rang out through the internal broadcast: "All systems of the Freedom Palace have been taken over by the Nuwa sub-entity. Give up resistance."
" Bang!"
The command room door wasn't blown open; instead, a high-frequency vibration cutter had silently cut a large circular opening like a hot knife through butter. Amidst the drifting smoke, several dark figures slid into the room like ghosts. They wore streamlined shadow stalker exoskeletons that seemed to absorb light, moving with a speed that exceeded human limits. Their weapons were strangely shaped, their muzzles flashing with dangerous low-energy light.
It was the Broken Blade squad led by Night Owl!
"Free Human Front, you are under arrest for rebellion, sabotaging human unity, and colluding with external threats." Night Owl's voice came from under his helmet, cold and heartless.
The remaining personal guards tried to fire, but their bullets hit the shadow stalker exoskeletons, only splashing a few insignificant sparks before being deflected by the bio-composite armor on the surface. The Broken Blade members' counterattack was precise and lethal; low-energy pulse guns instantly incapacitated the guards without causing excessive damage.
"No! You can't!" Seeing that the situation was lost, a final madness surged in McCarthy's eyes, and he suddenly pressed an emergency physical button hidden in his sleeve—it wasn't a console button, but a signal transmitter directly connected to an implant in his body!
"You destroyed Hades, but the avengers... are mine! Let's die together!" he roared.
Deep in the underground base, a violent explosion and the sound of tearing metal came from the direction of the hangar! The remaining avengers stealth fighters were forcibly activated and received one last chaotic command: attack all life signals in the base indiscriminately, then self-destruct!
"The avengers are out of control! They're firing inside the base!" Kelson shouted in despair as a stray bullet pierced the command room wall, sending sparks flying.
"Protect the targets! Seize the control terminal!" Night Owl remained calm under pressure, and the squad instantly split into two groups: one continued to suppress McCarthy and the others, while the other lunged toward the still-flashing console.
Intense crossfire broke out inside and outside the narrow command room. The out-of-control avengers, like frantic metal wasps, used their remaining stealth capabilities and lethal aggression to rampage through the base corridors, strafing friend and foe alike. The GDA special forces and these out-of-control killing machines engaged in a perilous close-quarters battle within the dark and complex underground labyrinth.
Night Owl lunged at McCarthy himself. The old general drew an old-fashioned pistol and fired, but the bullet was easily deflected by Night Owl's exoskeleton arm guard. In the next second, Night Owl was close, delivering a precise knife-hand strike to the side of McCarthy's neck, knocking him unconscious. Meanwhile, the technical expert members also forced their way through the final firewall, and with the remote support of Nuwa, finally injected a forced sleep command into the chaotic AI core of the avengers fleet.
The sounds of explosions and gunfire inside the base gradually subsided. Only a mess and smoke remained.
"Targets controlled. The avengers fleet has been forced into sleep mode; some units self-destructed or destroyed each other during the loss of control. Preliminary assessment: threat neutralized." Night Owl checked the unconscious McCarthy and reported into his communicator.
In Ark City, Lin Mo received the brief report of Operation Broken Blade's success. There was no joy on his face; he only nodded slightly. One poisonous thorn had been removed from his back, but the desperate situation in the stars had not changed in the slightest. The muzzle of the Alpha unit had already finished charging again, and this time, it seemed to be aimed at the most vulnerable ecological dome area of the Guanghan Palace base.
The ground beheading operation was clean and efficient, winning a moment of peace in the rear.