manynovel Chapter 139 You have a good eye
Chapter 139 You have a good eye
After Thanos sent out the communication, the fleet did not respond immediately.
The Holy Lord stood still, his eyes fixed on the outlines of the warships in the sky, where hundreds of points of light hung in the hazy sky of Titan.
"Someone's not listening." Wanda pulled Black Dwarf up from the ground and dusted off her hands.
Black Dwarf had stopped glaring at her. The mark left by the Mind Stone on his forehead hadn't completely faded. He stood behind Wanda, as quiet as if he were a different person.
Thanos returned: "The flagship has carried out the order, but the twelve escort ships on the outer perimeter and the 'Dark Star' squadron on the left flank have not responded."
How many people?
"The 'Dark Star' fleet consists of seven main ships, each with a standard complement of four hundred people, and the escort ships have a smaller complement of about one hundred and twenty people, totaling a little over four thousand."
The Holy Lord nodded.
Wanda walked to his side and whispered in a voice only the two of them could hear: "Should I go up?"
"Together."
The shuttle took off again, with Shendu, Wanda, Thanos, Proxima Midnight, and Corvus Glaive in the cabin. Black Dwarf remained on the ground; although Wanda had treated his wounds, his ribcage hadn't fully healed, and he grimaced whenever the shuttle jolted.
After the shuttle entered orbit, Proxima Midnight looked out the porthole and saw that the flagship "Sanctuary" had shut down the heat signals of its weapon systems and entered hibernation mode. However, on the left flank, the engines of the seven warships in the "Dark Star" formation were all lit up, and the charging lights of the cannons flashed outside the porthole.
They are still preparing for the battle.
"Who is the commander of the Dark Star Squadron?" the Holy Lord asked.
Thanos replied: "Covis Grive. A Chitauri, fought for eleven years, his command style is conservative, but he's not stupid."
"Is he loyal to you?"
Thanos paused for two seconds: "He is loyal to me, but he is even more loyal to his own judgment."
This statement makes it clear enough: Covis Grive is not the kind of person who obeys orders without question. He analyzes the situation, and once he determines that Thanos is under control, his reaction is to refuse to obey and then prepare to fire.
The communication channel rang.
"Lord Thanos, please confirm your identity verification code." The voice on the other end was very restrained, but the speaking speed was a little faster than normal.
Thanos glanced at Shendu, and after receiving Shendu's permission, began entering the identity verification code.
"The verification code is correct, but I still need visual confirmation."
"You're stalling for time," Thanos said.
After a long silence, Kovis Grive's voice came through again, but this time his tone had changed: "Lord Thanos, your voice pattern analysis results are normal, but your emotional baseline has shifted by fourteen percentage points. My AI advisor told me that this kind of shift usually occurs in mind control subjects."
The shuttle was quiet for a while.
General Corvus Glaive sighed: "This Chitauri is certainly not stupid."
Proxima Midnight didn't respond. Her current state was strange; part of her mind was still resisting, but her body had completely accepted the new chain of commands. This sense of unease kept her expression stiff.
The Holy Lord stood up, walked to the communication panel, and pressed the broadcast button.
"Covis Greif, I'll give you thirty seconds. Open the hatch, shut down the weapons systems, and assemble everyone in the hangar."
There was no response from the other end.
The Holy Lord didn't wait: "Wanda, clear the way."
The shuttle sped up to full speed, heading straight for the flagship of the "Dark Star" fleet. The Dark Star flagship was a "Rift"-class heavy warship, over two kilometers long, with its hull covered in black reflective armor, and the two main guns at the bow were large enough to swallow the shuttle whole.
Two blue-white energy beams shot out from the bow of the ship. The shuttle was about the size of a mosquito compared to those two beams of light. Thanos gripped the armrest of his seat tightly. He instinctively wanted to order an ambush, but Shendu did not allow anyone to move.
Wanda's right hand reached out, through the outer shell of the shuttle.
The red light diffused through the metal wall, forming a funnel-shaped force field ten meters in front of the shuttle. The energy beams from the two main cannons crashed into the funnel opening, were swirled into two spirals, and shot out from the rear of the funnel, their trajectories deviating by ninety degrees, striking the side of a nearby frigate.
The frigate broke in half, with the two sections drifting in different directions.
The shuttle passed through the residual halo of the main gun without slowing down.
"Master, should I remove the hatch?" Wanda asked.
"No need to dismantle it," the Holy Lord said.
The shuttle crashed directly into the hangar door of the Dark Star flagship. Or rather, the Holy Lord's power pushed the twelve-meter-thick alloy door through half a second before impact. The entire door panel detached, bounced twice on the hangar floor, and crushed the three fighter jets parked inside.
The shuttle landed amidst debris, and the hatch opened.
There were people in the hangar, about two hundred, fully armed. It was the standard Chitauri formation, with three ranks of firepower arranged in echelon: the front rank was energy shield soldiers, the middle rank was riflemen, and the rear rank was heavy weapons.
A tall, thin Chitauri stood on the command platform behind the ranks, wearing black officer's armor unlike the others, with three red rank insignia on his left breast.
Kovis Greif.
He saw Thanos emerge from the shuttle, and then saw the two people behind him; his facial muscles twitched. The Chitauri's facial expression system differs from humans, but the reaction of "nervousness" is universal.
"Lord Thanos," Kovis Grove spoke, "who is behind you?"
Thanos didn't answer. After stepping off the shuttle's platform, he stood to the side, giving up the middle position.
As the Holy Lord stepped out of the cabin, Wanda followed half a step behind him.
The temperature in the hangar changed. Not in a physical sense, but as a signal transmitted simultaneously through the spines of everyone present—an alarm sounded from a biological instinctual level. Kovis Grove's finger was already on his communicator, ready to give the order to fire.
When the Holy Lord entered the hangar, he did not stop, make any announcements, or perform any unnecessary movements.
The Mind Stone was circulating within him.
The ripples emanated from his body, not in a localized way like on the ground, but this time covering a much larger area. The ripples passed through the hangar walls, through the corridors, through the decks, spreading to every corner of the entire warship.
The shield bearers in the front row were the first to fall. Not from being knocked down, but from their own legs buckling, the sound of shields hitting the ground echoing through the room. The riflemen in the middle row held on for two seconds, several of them pulling the trigger, their energy blasts deflecting, but Wanda waved her hand, swerving them all off course.
The heavy weapons squad in the back didn't even have a chance to fire.
Kovis Greif watched as his two hundred elite soldiers knelt down in rows, his hand still on the communicator, his fingers not yet pressed.
He resisted when the fluctuations hit him.
Kovis Greaves' mental strength is among the best of the Chitauri. He once withstood a low-power scan of the Mind Scepter without losing consciousness, which is a source of great pride in his resume.
But the difference between the Mind Scepter and the Mind Stone is about the same as the difference between a flashlight and the sun.
His resistance didn't even last a moment before his knees buckled.