"Asgard?? You just said, Asgard's fleet... How could they appear in the Solar System?? How... Do they want to..."
General Ross stuttered towards the end, feeling a chill of sweat down his back, but soon, a major walked in, saluted the generals, then said:
"Commander, we just received a call from the Sanctum. They said that Asgard is conducting a patrol of the Nine Major Kingdoms and as a member, Midgard (Earth) needs to cooperate..."
"Asgard's battleships have determined that the sanitary condition within the Solar System is not satisfactory, urging us to make changes soon. There shouldn't be too much space equipment in space, transport devices and spaceships should be neatly parked..."
"Additionally, to prevent too many cosmic traffic accidents within the Solar System, their escort ships are helping us clean up space junk."
"Also, this clean-up service comes with charges. The United Nations has published the bill for the cleaning service and other countries have accepted it. Our president is planning to sign off on it..."
"DON'T sign off!!!" The old general shouted immediately: "On what grounds... they... we can't... they can't! The president can't sign!!"
Seeing that he's starting to talk nonsense, Ross quickly stepped forward and said, "Where is the president? Stop him right away, we can't accept this bill..."
The major looked a little embarrassed, he said, "Actually, this bill is quite cheap. Congress even passed it without a second round of review."
"Moreover, the Sanctum conveyed that Thor, the new God King of Asgard, intends to construct a new crown, and hopes to collect special metals from among the Nine Major Kingdoms, symbolizing the united force of the Nine Kingdoms."
"The president believes this could stimulate the price of Vibranium, after all, Vibranium is our specialty metal."
"And the United States has the highest stock of Vibranium in the world outside of Wakanda. The severe decline in the price of Vibranium has caused us great losses. If we can recover some of the losses, it would compensate for it. For this, the Congress wants to establish a good relationship with Asgard…"
"Moreover, the United Nations said that space junk is a longstanding problem that needs to be solved as human technology explodes. Although we can solve it with our own technology, the cost is too high. They are considering signing a long-term cleaning service agreement with Asgard…"
"General Sir!!! General Sir!! Wake up!!! Doctor!!! Doctor!!!" Ross immediately rushed over to support the old general, who had fainted and rolled his eyes back. All the generals were in disarray, supporting the fainting general, not knowing what to do.
That afternoon, the sky above New York was just as blue. Sitting in the car heading back from the hospital, Ross felt the tempory nature of life for the first time. And this was just the beginning.
Although the first two launches failed, the modules released were streamlined versions of the mother module's core, so the loss wasn't as significant. All hopes were pinned on the third attempt.
The third launch was delayed by two weeks. Everyone conducted another round of calculation, trying to exclude all accidents, striving to succeed in one go. This was their only chance.
On the day of the launch, almost all the officers of the Talto faction went to the launch center. The moment the rocket launched, everyone's hearts reached their throats.
During the flight, the rocket did not collide with any space junk and after reaching the target location without incident, no sudden laser weapons appeared either. The base was deployed smoothly and cheers echoed throughout the launch center.
Afterward, they saw a speck appearing from afar, approaching the base. Compared to the massive Red Door Lan Base, that figure seemed incredibly tiny, yet it was still captured.
"An invader?!! Quick! Quick! Start the defense equipment!! Isn't it armed?!!"
"Start the weapon! Start the weapon! Don't let him get close to the base!!!"
Both the generals and researchers started shouting, but the researcher in charge of operations wiped the sweat off his forehead and said: "No can do! The base just expanded, the energy has not yet fully connected to the defense equipment, the energy is being transferred, currently at 13%, it will be completely transferred in three minutes…"
The figure is standing very far away, in the lens, it's just a small black dot, and it's unclear who it is. It didn't seem large.
Unlike Magneto, he didn't immediately crush the base as soon as he appeared. This gave everyone the impression that he certainly couldn't attack the base too quickly.
Who knew, the figure seemed to have turned around in its original location and then threw something. The people of the launch center saw a ring of light approaching from the distance at an extremely fast speed, bringing with it an unbeatable momentum. It swooshed past the lens and then precisely hit the energy core of the base.
When the dazzling fireworks appeared on the screen again, the generals still didn't know the name of the circle of light they saw that day. Yet the gleam of the fireworks on their faces was much more splendid than the sunset in New York.
Once again, the bright lights illuminated, they had never seen the stars of this cosmos shine so clearly and brightly before.
It was still a peaceful day on Earth, almost no one knew the story that was unfolding in space, yet almost all of New York heard the heart-crushingly shattered voices of several people.
The next day, the military base's meeting room was filled with an ominous silence with half of the officials missing. Those who had left were explaining the matter to their superiors, and the remaining were admitted to the hospital.