Two guards in dark green ballistic shell armor stood expressionlessly at the entrance to the enormous waterproof military tent, Laser Rifles in hand. The air conditioner's external unit, connected to the ventilation ducts, hummed loudly. Whenever someone lifted the heavy door flap and emerged, cold air carrying cigarette smoke rolled over the wooden planks laid before the tent. Thick bundles of wires wrapped in black rubber stretched into the tent like a South American anaconda whose head and tail could not be seen, providing an endless supply of energy to the headquarters and the nearby information reconnaissance department, while the air conditioning cooled the complex equipment. At the same time, countless smaller serpents of wires extended throughout the camp. Cold lamps hung from the camouflage netting that blotted out the sky, illuminating the night sky above the forest like stars on a summer night. The command tent was not the place with the greatest concentration of light. After the blackout restrictions took effect, scattered cold lamps gleamed like shining drops of dew in the forest.
Four quadruple-mounted anti-aircraft guns stood fifty meters from either side of the tent. The soldiers operating them watched their radar displays without rest, vigilant for any airborne military unit that did not belong to Latveria. The farther outward one went, the sparser the cold lamps became. The temporary airfield was encircled by rings of lights. Inside the hangars stood Assault Transports capable of vertical takeoff and landing, along with several armed landing transports that could carry supplies and personnel from planetary orbit down to the surface. Each could transport a company of troops or thirty tons of supplies—if the airport runway had been completed and the City of Immortals' transport planes could land, the camp's food selection would have been far more plentiful.
There were