Whoosh~ whoosh~.
The breeze stirred the emerald-like lake surface, sending ripples across it, while the midday sun made the water glitter.
If someone set up a parasol by the lake, lounged in a reclining chair with an ice-cold Sprite or Coke, and admired the sweeping view of the lake and mountains, it would certainly count as one of life's blessings.
"Move! Move!"
"Too slow! Too slow! My old hen runs faster than you! If you can't get back to base within ten minutes, you'll run another fifteen kilometers this afternoon, understand?!"
"Yes, sir! Yes, sir!"
Yet a group of soldiers wearing desert-camouflage combat pants and black short-sleeved shirts gradually came into view from the left, entering the mountain-and-lake landscape.
After an officer finished barking his orders, all of them visibly picked up their pace and headed right, toward the southeast.
It appeared that the soldiers were about to finish their morning run.
Looking in the direction they faced, one could vaguely make out a military base complete with walls, guard posts, and terminal buildings.
The highly recognizable red "Λ" symbol embroidered over the left breast of their shirts made it clear that they belonged to Atlas, a multinational corporation operating across numerous sectors.
Based on the scorching climate, the alkaline lake resembling an inland sea, and the desert terrain visible everywhere, this military base could be identified as being in Kenya, not far from the western shore of Lake Turkana.
Pulling one's "gaze" away from the soldiers still running their morning drills, it rose several hundred meters into the sky and shifted above the base for a bird's-eye view.
The military base covered roughly fifty hectares and had two operational runways, each 1,800 meters long and 80 meters wide.
The buildings scattered around the airfield included large facilities such as hangars, bunkers, radar stations, armories, surface-to-air missile positions, and armored vehicle depots, as well as smaller ones like cafeterias, supermarkets, game rooms, screening rooms, and dormitory buildings no taller than three stories.
Most of the hangars stood empty, though they housed an F-16 Fighting Falcon purchased at a "friendly price," an AC-130 gunship, two A-10 Warthog attack aircraft, and several transport planes.
The tarmac, however, held numerous types of helicopters...
After all, compared with fighter jets and attack aircraft, helicopters like the UH-1 Huey and A/MH-6 Little Bird were far more "affordable."
Clearly, the scale of this Atlas military base was no less than that of an official overseas U.S. military installation.
In fact, many of the contracts and agreements Atlas had signed with senior U.S. military officials stipulated that, in emergencies, the U.S. military could use Atlas military bases in Kenya, Bolivia, Syria, and near the Iraq border to carry out missions or evacuations.
In return, Atlas mercenaries in those three regions could also travel to or withdraw to U.S. military installations and bases.
In the Middle East alone, Atlas had cooperated with the U.S. military more than six hundred times and maintained especially close ties with the United States Marine Corps.
Atlas's ability to build military bases overseas and even possess military aviation rights was inseparable from the tacit approval of the U.S. military.
Of course, Atlas also provided tangible benefits to the local areas, the simplest being direct investment and funding, or assistance with improving local infrastructure and promoting economic development.
The Kenya base's main personnel included the soldiers who had just been conducting morning runs by the lake: the Third Infantry Company of the ARS, along with one-third of the Fifth Armored Company and Sixth Air Company. Including ground crew, logistics, technical, engineering, and armed security personnel under standard contracts, there were over four thousand people in total.
It was worth mentioning that the six-company ARS was not only the core unit of Atlas's contracted operations, but also the primary defensive force for all three military bases.
As elites, the First Company members known as "Hunters" numbered just over a hundred and were responsible only for combat involving the company's core interests. Meanwhile, the Second, Third, and Fourth Infantry Companies accounted for 60% of the ARS's total personnel, roughly 2,200 men.
The three infantry companies were likewise responsible for contracted missions and personnel directly cooperating with the U.S. military.
There were many reasons why Atlas had built military bases overseas.
On the surface, Atlas needed to ensure the safety of its overseas oil fields and mines, preventing company personnel from being harassed by rebels or terrorists.
Just as Wang Xie'en had said in interviews, it was the abundance of natural resources in those areas that had drawn Atlas there to invest and build.
But the true "core" idea was that, after Atlas founder Sui Yang learned that this world contained Vought, people from other worlds, and perhaps even unknown threats, he had begun "preparing for war" before the company's assets exceeded one hundred billion.
Otherwise, Sui Yang would never have spent so much cash on maintaining the company's "military expenditures." The purpose was to wait for the Space Gate to open, then exploit the differences between worlds to complement their strengths and weaknesses, eliminating Vought and every other threat.
However, after Sui Yang learned that his transmigration was closely connected to the God-Emperor of Mankind, this founder's ambitions might have grown "a little."
No matter what, Atlas needed "legal and compliant" authority to conduct military operations overseas, making it easier to carry out the series of plans that followed.
Inside a training hall west of the Kenya base;
"Recruit! Again... Tch! Why can't you break that flashy habit? Are you looking to get yourself killed?!"
A harsh rebuke echoed throughout the training hall.
The hall contained numerous weightlifting machines, as well as an area with hanging sandbags and padded shock-absorbing flooring for close-quarters combat and martial arts training.
Several dozen trainees, also dressed in desert-camouflage pants and black short-sleeved shirts, stood at the edge of that area, watching an instructor demonstrate a sparring match with a blond trainee serving as the demonstration "material."
The instructor had reprimanded him because the blond trainee had tried to use a flying armbar to secure an instant victory, only for the instructor to effortlessly neutralize it by borrowing and redirecting his force.
Judging from his muscular, powerfully built physique and his habit of wearing a beret, the instructor was none other than Jack Krauser, formerly a U.S. Army second lieutenant.
As for the trainees' true identities, they were prospective Investigators who had been training under Krauser for nearly half a year.
At that moment.
The two men in the center of the area separated.
Krauser turned around first, anger plain on his face as he barked at the blond trainee some distance away, "Leon, how many times do I have to tell you? Reality isn't a movie, and it isn't a game! When your identity is exposed and you have to face an enemy bare-handed, use every means available! Stop pulling those flashy moves on me!"
At that, Krauser dropped his fighting stance and swept his gaze over every trainee present, raising his voice again as he instructed them:
"Don't forget that you're Investigators. You're meant to help the company infiltrate and penetrate unknown areas, and in the future, you'll be deployed to other universes! You must be fast, precise, and ruthless! Don't you dare forget that again, understood?!"
"Understood, sir!"
(End of chapter)
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