63: Chapter 63 Warships Approaching
Amidst the ruins of the convention center, Obadiah clutched his chest tightly, leaning behind a broken wall, not even daring to breathe loudly.
The majority of his Iron Monger armor had been blasted to pieces; he had only escaped death at the hands of Ronan and the others by using the feign death device in his chest to mask his life signals.
Without an order from Fu Haoran, the Iron Legion completely ignored this minor character cowering in the corner.
When Obadiah peeked out, he saw the ground covered in blood and mangled flesh, the wreckage of the quinjet stripped into scrap metal, and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents scrambling to retreat. Finally, his gaze fell upon Ivan, who was turning to leave with Fu Haoran.
His back was instantly drenched in cold sweat, and his undershirt was wet enough to be wrung out.
He finally realized that from beginning to end, he was merely a pawn in Fu Haoran's hands.
A massive wave of fear gripped his heart; he was shaking all over, his teeth chattering.
He knew all too well that someone who could effortlessly crush Ivan and Tony could crush him like an ant.
...
The hatch of the valkyrie transport aircraft slowly opened as it landed steadily on the helipad of Tony Stark's seaside mansion.
Tony walked in front with a dark expression, while Fu Haoran and Ivan followed behind.
Once inside the workshop, Tony reluctantly tapped on the keyboard, made a complete backup of j.a.r.v.i.s.'s underlying algorithms onto an encrypted hard drive, and tossed it to Fu Haoran.
"Take it, and don't break it. But remember, this is just a trade; don't expect me to do anything extra for you."
Fu Haoran took the hard drive and said, "Don't worry, you wouldn't be much help anyway."
With that, he turned and left without staying a moment longer.
Tony stood frozen in place, looking at the brand-new non-toxic arc reactor in his hand. A small sense of relief actually welled up in his heart; at least this guy kept his word and didn't pull any extra stunts.
But a second later, he saw a massive warship rising from the sea outside the window, its sun-blotting hull nearly obstructing half of the sunset.
Fu Haoran and Ivan had already reached the transport aircraft's hatch, seemingly about to board.
Tony couldn't help but mutter quietly, "Hey, not even an invitation to come up and sit? I'm iron man after all, give me some face, will you..."
After muttering, he rolled his eyes again. He couldn't exactly chase after them and demand to be kidnapped, right? That would be too undignified.
...
Stepping onto the cobra-class destroyer for the second time, Ivan froze completely.
In just two months, the interior of the ship had changed drastically.
Originally clear corridors had become crowded, and many soldiers were wearing Powered Armor. The point was, this Powered Armor was what he had helped design two months ago—in other words, the other party had produced so many suits in less than two months!
"Two months... how did you produce so many?"
He truly couldn't understand it. Even with complete blueprints, building a production line from scratch and mass-producing so many sets of Powered Armor should have taken at least two years.
Fu Haoran didn't answer, merely tilting his chin to signal him to keep walking.
Soldiers passing back and forth in the corridors were all wearing light black exoskeleton frames; the support braces at the shoulders, waist, and legs automatically fitted to their bodies and provided exceptional load-bearing capabilities.
Many soldiers also wore modular ceramite guards and breastplates; even with battery packs half the height of a person on their backs, they still walked as if they were flying.
"This thing... it doesn't increase strength, but it at least doubles endurance," Ivan quickly judged in his heart.
Ivan's gaze fell on the backpacks the soldiers were carrying; he recognized at a glance that they contained the lowest-end first-generation arc reactors.
In his eyes, such low-power, crudely structured things were trash, but he had to admit that for ordinary soldiers, these first-gen reactors were enough to support continuous combat while being extremely efficient with palladium.
Ivan looked at the seemingly endless line of Powered Armor in the corridor and the passing soldiers with extremely high tactical proficiency, his mind in a state of chaos.
He finally realized that he had never truly understood the man before him.
The other's planning and resource integration abilities far exceeded his cognition.
The rebellious intent in his heart didn't fade upon seeing this terrifying mass-production capability; instead, it grew stronger.
He knew very well that if this continued, he would forever only be a pawn in the other's hands.
Fu Haoran glanced at him, a flicker of coldness passing through his eyes, but he didn't expose him.
In his earpiece, Lucifer's voice rang out playfully: "That human is sending out signals again. Why, do you really intend to keep him?"
Fu Haoran's heart remained completely unruffled.
...
The two walked all the way to the bridge.
Fu Haoran got straight to the point, projecting the design blueprints of three carrier ships onto the large screen: "I brought you here for one thing."
"I want you to write a cracking program to take full control of these three Helicarriers."
Ivan scanned the blueprints and immediately shook his head: "Impossible. The systems of these three carriers are jointly encrypted by S.H.I.E.L.D. and Stark Industries. Even if I understand the underlying architecture, it would take at least half a month to crack."
"What if we add this?" Fu Haoran raised his hand and placed the hard drive containing j.a.r.v.i.s.'s underlying algorithms in front of him.
Ivan's pupils shrank as he realized instantly.
He finally understood why Fu Haoran had gone to such lengths to trade with Tony for j.a.r.v.i.s.'s underlying code!
The fire control and operating systems of the carriers were all designed with Stark Industries' involvement; j.a.r.v.i.s.'s underlying code could directly open the highest-level authorization backdoors!
"With this... I can do it," Ivan's voice carried a hint of trembling.
"I'll give you five hours," Fu Haoran said, his tone leaving no room for negotiation.
Ivan instantly exploded: "Five hours? Do you think I'm a god? Even with a backdoor, what can be done in five hours?"
Fu Haoran turned to look out the porthole; the warship had already entered supersonic cruise, and the clouds outside were being stretched into long white lines.
"Five hours is enough for me to take down their base. You just need to have the cracking program written by then."
He paused and looked back at Ivan, his tone flat but carrying a bone-chilling coldness: "In five hours, I want full control of those three carriers. If you can't do it, you can go talk to Father Karen about the Cogitator system."
Ivan froze, not daring to say another word.
...
On the other side, Nick Fury stood on a high platform in the underground dock, looking at the three completed carriers before him, his single eye filled with cold confidence.
Compared to the previous generation of Helicarriers, these three had significant upgrades to their propulsion and weapon systems.
Originally, according to the plan, these three carriers would have taken several more years to complete. It was only thanks to a group of outsiders providing finished engines called Chitauri engines that the construction schedule was forcibly moved forward by several years.
"With these three carriers, even if he has an interstellar warship, we have a fighting chance," Fury said in a deep voice.
Black Widow stood beside him, looking at the carrier's engine room with a slight frown: "These engines are completely different from the last generation. Has the energy issue been resolved?"
"That Stark kid might be annoying, but the arc reactors he provided are indeed useful," Fury snorted. "Even if he doesn't admit it, the core technology of Stark Industries is still serving S.H.I.E.L.D."
He always had a Plan B.
Just then, the base's red alert suddenly blared, the piercing siren echoing throughout the underground dock.
"Report! Radar has detected a massive unknown object approaching at high speed!"
Fury's face darkened: "Where?!"
The soldier at the console shouted in terror: "Overhead! Right above our base!"
Everyone looked up sharply. Through the observation window at the top of the base, they could only see a pitch-black ship shadow, completely blocking out the sun.
The cobra-class destroyer was tilting as it charged toward them, the cannons at the bow slowly lighting up with a pale blue charging glow.
"Damn it!" Fury's face was as black as the bottom of a pot.
The next second, the two short-range lance defense towers at the bow fired first.
Two pale blue beams of light fell precisely, and the anti-aircraft positions, radar stations, and ground power stations on the base's perimeter were instantly blown into fireballs.
Immediately after, the single-barrel light Macro Cannon let out a low roar, and the shells landed precisely on the base.
In less than ten seconds, the base's ground defenses, external communications, and radar scanning systems were all paralyzed.
Only the main structure of the underground dock remained intact.
Fury watched the damage report on the screen, which was entirely red, his teeth grinding audibly.
"Everyone retreat to the underground bunker! This base can withstand a nuclear bomb. The other side can only send soldiers down. We have 30,000 combat personnel and heavy weapons here; I'll see what he can do to us!"
Just as Fury thought, the cobra-class destroyer was not suited for bombardment, but that didn't mean Fu Haoran didn't have a backup plan.
After all, in the Warhammer World, the most classic tactic is called boarding action.
When in doubt, board them.
"My Lord, ground defenses are completely destroyed, the underground bunker entrance has been locked, and the landing troops are ready," Wade reported.