Chapter 236: After the War, Auxiliary Army and Jump
April 7, 2022.
Noon.
Elizabeth City, located at the southern tip of Africa, has long since emerged from the shutdown caused by the attack two months ago, and the haze of losing 360,000 compatriots has gradually dissipated.
The entire city has resumed operation. All kinds of ships and cargo ships are plying to and from the star port. Even the portal in the shallow sea area has disappeared, as if it had never appeared before.
On the contrary, the temporary base built around the portal and being dismantled by UNSC engineers proved that the portal did exist.
The newly built Memorial Square on the seaside attracted a large number of people, many of whom were holding white and yellow bouquets.
In the center of the square, there is a monument with names engraved on it.
There are neat bouquets of flowers placed in front of the monument. If you look closely at the hard-to-observe right corner of the monument, there is also an unknown meaning of "80Y (billion)" engraved on it.
"Mom, why do people bend over that big rock?"
On the sidewalk across the square, a boy was sitting on a public bench, swinging back and forth with his legs that could not touch the ground, innocently asking his mother beside him.
"It's so that people who go to heaven can rest in peace." My mother said in a gentle voice.
"Heaven...? Are there angels there?" The boy was even more curious.
"Of course, son." Mother said patiently.
"Wow... I really want to see an angel..." The boy looked up at the sky with longing on his face.
"Haha~."
The mother raised her hand to rub the boy's head and smiled kindly: "As long as you listen to your mother and eat well and not be picky about food, you will definitely have a chance to see an angel."
"Yeah!" The boy nodded repeatedly.
In fact, the mother and son had witnessed an "angel" descending beside them two months ago, shooting blazing arrows to pierce the darkness.
But they lost this memory, and also forgot that they once lived in a fortress city where there was no daylight, and their frightened past.
In the desert plain twenty kilometers northwest of Elizabeth City, the UNSC 9th Airborne Division is stationed.
The restaurant on the first floor of the base canteen.
More than a thousand paratroopers, wearing only training uniforms or black short-sleeved shirts, were gathering in twos and threes, sitting at a four-seat dining table, enjoying lunch and chatting with their comrades.
Back then, he and Krieger acted together and successfully captured a colonist's corporal alive...
No, it should be sergeant.
After the UNSC withdrew from the portal, they rewarded each other based on their merits. Due to the outstanding performance of their three platoons, all members received awards, and some of them also received promotions in military rank.
At this time, the sergeant and six comrades carried metal dinner plates filled with vegetables, meat, and staple food and walked towards a less crowded area.
Then they put the dinner plates on the two dining tables first, and then put the dining tables together.
"Guys, I wonder which alien home planet I can visit next." As soon as he sat down, a comrade said.
"Who knows? But I heard, I just heard that the superiors and Umbrella seem to have a lot of information about alien races."
"I would like to cooperate with the Astartes again. Those guys are so damn fierce. I feel safer operating with them than following the tanks of the Armored Division."
The comrades opened their chat boxes and started chatting freely, but listening to the content of the chat, it seemed that they had forgotten about the other earth.
In fact, after the portal was closed, their memories were replaced. What was originally a battle leading to another Earth was unknowingly replaced by a journey leading to the colonists' home planet.
Before leaving the portal, they did not receive Umbrella technicians and aftermath teams holding "silver rods". Instead, their superiors issued an order not to discuss the details of the war with the outside world, otherwise they would be sent to a military court.
So they did not forget the mysterious and powerful Astartes, the body of God and the Primarch.
"Attention everyone!"
When the sergeant and others were halfway through their lunch, a loud reminder came from the entrance to the restaurant, causing them to put down their spoons and turn to look at the entrance.
Wearing a blue beret, with gray temples and beard, the colonel in charge of their 9th Airborne Division walked into the restaurant and raised his voice and said:
"According to reliable information, there will be a joint exercise with Umbrella on the 17th of July. This time we will play the role of the defender, so please prepare the equipment for me in advance!"
"Yes! Colonel!" A group of airborne soldiers stood up and responded.
"Yes." The colonel raised his hand in return.
"Colonel!" A captain suddenly raised his hand and said, "I have a question!"
"explain."
"Will those super soldiers participate in the exercise?"
The captain's words can be regarded as speaking on behalf of all the airborne troops, expressing the questions in his heart.
As a teammate, the Astartes feel safe, but as an opponent...
"No, they will not participate in any exercises of an exercise nature. Who has any questions?" the colonel said, looking around at the crowd.
The colonel's answer finally reassured the airborne troops, and they responded in unison: "No more, sir."
"Then it will be business as usual."
After the colonel finished speaking, he left the restaurant with several guards, and everyone sat down to continue eating.
"It's time to practice again, Sergeant, have you made any progress with that female Krieger?" After sitting down again, a comrade joked.
As soon as the joke came out, all the comrades focused their attention on the corporal.
"This topic has been going on for two months. Let me stop it." The sergeant said with a normal expression, picked up the metal spoon, and said in a slightly serious tone:
"Otherwise, you will know what it feels like to run around the base ten times with a weight of thirty kilograms.
"Yes! Sergeant!"
Seeing that the sergeant wanted to use his military rank to suppress others, his comrades naturally did not dare to tease him casually.
While the dining atmosphere of the sergeant and others seemed to have become much more "dignified", the Hope Zeus-class aircraft carrier was within the gravity range of Venus.
Inside the bridge.
John, who had taken off his original power armor and put on his custom-made military uniform, stood behind the porthole, silently gazing at Venus "not far away" in front of him, enveloped in an extremely thick and turbid atmosphere.
Two large engineering ships belonging to Umbrella were quickly passing by both sides of the Hope and appeared within his field of vision.
Subsequently, there were six small Pioneer II ships, which gradually approached Venus along with the large engineering ships.
The mission John received from his father this time was to use his flagship Hope to escort the company's engineering fleet throughout the entire journey and try to carry out environmental modification of Venus.
The reason why it is called an "attempt" is that Venus is not as beautiful as Venus, the goddess of love, as "she" is also called, and its surface environment is more "ugly" like the fallen Aphrodite.
The average temperature is 464°C, the atmospheric pressure is more than 90 times that of the Earth, magma flows on the surface, sulfuric acid rains down, and one day of rotation is longer than one year of revolution around the sun.
Even Umbrella today is not completely sure that it can terraform the hellish Venus.
The "Hope" title of John's flagship was inherited from the second Goshawk class built by Umbrella, while Robert and Russ's flagships were named after the Dawnguard and Destroyer.
After all, Umbrella has sold all the eliminated Goshawks to the UNSC.
"Sir, the Engineering Department has arrived at the South Pole of Venus and is expected to send a landing craft to enter the atmosphere in half an hour."
At this time, a report came from an "adjutant" behind John, and this "adjutant" was Captain Tis Byron, who was wearing a military uniform with a "Λ" logo and a scar on his left face.
And the remaining soldiers of Byron and Rabat, like the mother and son, had forgotten the existence of another earth, and were now captains of the Spartan Legion Auxiliary Army.
"Okay." John replied coldly, and then continued to look out the window in silence.
Byron, who understood the temperament of their original body, raised his right hand to John and saluted, then turned back to the center console and continued to follow the progress of the engineering team.
As for the auxiliary army...
…
Inside the cabin of the Hymn of Courage.
'It seems that the humans on that earth have all perfectly integrated into this world.'
While Sui Bian was talking in his heart, he closed the file on Thies Byron that was on his desk.
As the file disappears, the holographic screen screen automatically switches to the information of the Spartan Legion Auxiliary Army.
After more than ten years of development, Umbrella's legion organization has been basically finalized.
A legion is composed of Astartes, as well as the crew members, engineers, pilots, ground crew and other personnel of each original flagship. The current size is about 23,000 people.
The Astartes of each legion are indispensable with these auxiliary personnel.
The largest number of them are legionary auxiliaries like Byron.
Their auxiliary army's former identity was the regimental Mobile Task Force (MTF), whose name was banned as Hope Express.
Chris and Jill's Charon task force was also dismantled, but these veterans are still in important positions in the company, either holding civilian positions or continuing to stay in the armed forces.
For example, Chris, this "abnormal" macho man, is the commander-in-chief of the Raven Legion's auxiliary army and the right-hand man of the Raven's original body, Corax.
Gil chose to go to Minos Island to assist Hank in teaching Umbrella's future officers and intelligence agents.
The only MTF retained by the Ministry of Armed Forces is 141 of more than 500 people.
141 owns a small stealth-class battleship that is located in the earth's low-Earth orbit all-weather and is responsible for supporting intelligence personnel on the surface as soon as possible.
The "worst" thing is the living dead.
Due to the high cost of maintaining normal physiological functions of the living dead and their lack of independent thinking ability, they have been frozen by Umbrella, which is equivalent to being stored in the ice indefinitely.
Krieg, which has completely replaced the living dead, has a "soul" and can be "mass-produced", currently has 10 regiments with a total number of about 30,000 people.
According to Sui Bian's plan for the future, at least one Krieg battle group will be deployed on the main star of the colonial system within human territory. If it is a production base like Reach, more will be deployed.
Even galaxies on the edge of human territory still need to station a battalion-sized Krieg to assist the UNSC in joint defense.
After all, the legions led by the Primarchs cannot take care of the entire galaxy, and with the steady expansion of human territory, this situation will become more and more obvious.
This is why Sui Bian began to gradually disclose the existence of the Astartes to the UNSC, and even prepared to disclose the existence of the Astartes to the entire society, because the UNSC and humanity need a "backbone".
If the galaxy is invaded by a powerful enemy, and the UNSC knows that the Astartes will eventually come, there is a high probability that it will defend with the Kriegs until the last moment.
Think of this.
Sui Bian turned off the screen on the table completely, looked to the left out of the corner of his eye and said, "How are the various departments of the UNSC reacting to the original body and the body of God?"
"There is a basis for cooperation to jointly solve the colonist race. The UNSC elite division has adapted to the fact that the Astartes exist." The Red Queen replied.
"Yeah." Sui Bian looked to the right again and said, "We are going to use the Internet and media, especially movies, games and other industries to export content related to super soldiers to the society."
"Okay sir." Queen Bai nodded.
'leftover…'
After finishing the conversation with the two assistants, Sui Bian put his elbows on the table, crossed his hands, looked at the end of the cabin, and said to himself:
'It's a suitable opportunity.'
———————
…
"嗗…嗗…"
Accompanied by the subtle sound of electricity, the lighting in a passage with metal floors and bulkheads flickered on and off.
"Boom...! Boom...!" At the same time, there was a strong shaking.
"what happened…"
A "stewardess" who was pushing a trolley with food and drinks, had her long hair tied up, and was wearing a red slim-fitting uniform, stopped and said in a panic.
"You must have encountered some fluctuations. Why, are you scared?"
Walking in front, an older female flight attendant wearing a white silk scarf said with a smile.
"Are you not afraid..." The stewardess pushed the trolley again and followed the flight attendant to a first-class cabin on the left, her voice trembling as she said:
"We are in the fault space of the jump. If something unexpected happens..."
"Don't worry..." the flight attendant pressed the red button next to the cabin door to remind the passengers in the first class cabin, and then continued to explain to the flight attendant:
"It is normal to encounter fluctuations in the fault space, and I have never heard of any ship crashing during the jump voyage."
"Okay." The stewardess nodded with lingering fear.
"Shua~——."
Coincidentally, within a few seconds of the two of them finishing their conversation, the automatic door of the first class cabin opened to the right.
Standing in the first class cabin was a young and handsome male passenger wearing pajamas, blond hair, and a parted hairstyle.
"Mr. Kennedy." Seeing this, the flight attendant opened the insulation covers of the two large trays and instantly showed a standardized smile:
"This is the steak Wellington and hamburger set you ordered. Do you want us to help you carry it in?"
"Well, thank you." The passenger named Kennedy took a few steps back to make room.
"You're welcome, this is what we should do."
Immediately afterwards, the flight attendant and stewardess walked to the first class cabin carrying steaks and trays with hamburger sets.
Walk in.
You can find that the living room in the first-class cabin is spacious, covered with white carpets, facing the cabin door is a large porthole, and there is even a master bedroom and a second bedroom.
But the door to the master bedroom was closed, but the door to the second bedroom was open.
The flight attendant and the flight attendant placed the steak and hamburger set on the fixed dining table next to the porthole, said "please enjoy" to Kennedy, and left the cabin one after another.
Wait for the hatch to close.
"Ugh..." Kennedy walked to the dining table with a sleepy look on his face, sat on the end where the burgers were placed, glanced at the master bedroom with the door closed, and raised his voice:
"Hey, Miss Wang, the steak you asked for has arrived. Come out to eat."
Finished.
Kennedy didn't wait for "Ms. Wang" to come out, then picked up the burger with his left hand and took a bite, enjoying the "breakfast" that was a little too high in calories.