The moment Ye Mo's fingers touched the alloy door of Sector B-7, the coldness of the metal surface crept up his fingertips. He didn't stop, kicking the seam of the door. The door wasn't locked, and he kicked it open a crack. He squeezed in sideways, leaning against the wall for a couple of seconds to catch his breath. His leg was still bleeding, and every step felt like stepping on nails.
Before him was a circular hall, with a fist-sized energy sphere suspended in the center, gleaming with a bluish-gray light. It neither turned nor moved, yet the air was thick with static electricity, making even the hairs on one side stand on end. Ye Mo knew this was the core of the mothership. It wasn't a reactor or an engine; this thing was more like a "switch"—as long as it was lit, the portal wouldn't close, Chitauri could keep sending troops to Earth.
He took a breath, shaking off the jumbled notifications in his head. The system had just beeped again, saying, "[Target locked, high-frequency Shockwave recommended for destruction]." He ignored it. Last time he trusted it, he almost got sliced into three pieces by the grating. This time, he only trusted his own eyes.
He stretched his shoulders, channeling the remaining Steel Bone abilities to his left arm. The skin beneath instantly hardened, turning grayish. The Regenerative Phasing energy also gathered in his chest, like a piece of red-hot iron. He didn't intend to fight head-on, but he also didn't have time to beat around the bush. Tony's nuclear missiles were almost in place; he only had a few minutes.
He rushed over and punched the Force Field barrier surrounding the energy sphere with his left hand.
"Bang!"
The shockwave bounced back, making his entire arm numb. The barrier cracked, but immediately closed again. He gritted his teeth, pushed off the ground with his right foot, and leaped into the air, using the momentum to plunge his right arm directly into the barrier. Regenerative Phasing activated, and his arm pierced through the energy layer, heading straight for the core.
"Click--"
Spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of the energy sphere, and a bluish light began to flicker. The buzzing sound grew louder and louder, as if something was about to explode. Ye Mo withdrew his hand, landed, and rolled. Just as he hid behind a pillar, he heard a loud "boom".
The explosion did not originate from the core.
He himself created the crack, which triggered a chain reaction. The energy ball suddenly expanded, then collapsed inward, followed by an outward explosion of a circular shockwave. The blast overturned half the room, shattered the control panel, collapsed a section of the ceiling, and dust mixed with Mars fell down.
Ye Mo was thrown back, his back slamming against the wall. He instinctively raised his hand to block, and the Steel Bone arm guards absorbed most of the impact, but a "crack" still came from his left shoulder. His bone was broken. He tasted something sweet in his mouth, spat out a mouthful of blood, and his ears were filled with sharp ringing, unable to hear anything else.
He lay motionless on the ground until his head wasn't so dizzy before looking up.
The core is gone.
It wasn't destroyed, it was completely obliterated. Only a charred base remained, emitting smoke. But the mothership didn't stop.
It got even noisier.
The floor was shaking, but the frequency was off. It used to be a steady, low-frequency vibration, but now it was like a seizure, sometimes strong and sometimes weak. All the lights overhead turned red, and the alarm blared, one blare after another. He tried to stand up, holding onto the wall, but suddenly his foot slipped—a crack appeared in the floor, and steam was spewing out.
He looked up at the projection screen on the ceiling.
What was originally a diagram of the mothership's structure has now become a dynamic battle map. The New York City area is marked in red, with dozens of moving dots representing the positions of weapon arrays. They weren't even on the map before; now they're all lit up.
And it's charging.
He recognized those blue-light plasma cannons. They weren't anti-aircraft cannons used against aircraft; they were heavy weapons specifically designed to demolish buildings. Each shot could flatten an apartment building. And now, there were at least thirty of them.
He understood.
This is not a defense mechanism.
This was a last-ditch effort.
Loki never expected the ship to return alive. He set a trap: if anyone tried to destroy the core, it would trigger a pre-programmed sequence, activating all hidden weapons and indiscriminately attacking the surface. His goal was never conquest, but destruction.
Ye Mo cursed and turned to run towards the door.
The door was blocked by the collapsed beam. He looked up at the ceiling; the maintenance pipes were still running, and the fan hadn't stopped. That was the only way out. He jumped up and grabbed the pipe opening, but his left hand couldn't hold, and he slid down. He bit his lower lip and forced himself up with his right hand.
The pipe was narrow, so he could only crawl forward. He had crawled less than ten meters when he heard a "click" behind him.
He turned around.
The walls of Sector B-7 are deforming. Armor plates slide open automatically, revealing circular cannon muzzles. They slowly rotate, aiming at the city below. The first round of charging is complete, and the muzzles emit a blinding blue light.
He quickened his pace and climbed forward.
There was a fork in the road ahead; the left led downhill, the right uphill. He remembered the route he had taken; the right path led to the main ventilation shaft, and further up was the outer deck. He chose the right path.
As soon as he climbed inside, the entire mothership suddenly shook violently, as if it had been hit by something. He grabbed the inner wall to avoid falling. Outside, there was a series of muffled explosions, like thunder coming from a great distance.
He knew that was the first round of shelling.
He continued crawling forward, his knees scraped and his elbows abraded. Halfway up, the pipe suddenly creaked and began to tilt. He looked down and saw that the support frame below had broken, and the entire section of pipe was falling.
He lunged forward, desperately stretching out his right hand.
My fingertip reached the next connector.
In the instant his body was suspended in mid-air, he grabbed the edge and rolled inside. The pipe behind him snapped completely, crashing downwards with a loud metallic clang.
He lay on the ground, panting.
Suddenly, a static noise started coming from my headphones.
It wasn't Tony's channel, nor was it S.H.I.E.L.D..'s common frequency. The signal was short, only three seconds long, but the frequency was unusual. He'd heard it once before. Emma Frost had intercepted a similar band on the day Loki was captured. At the time, she said it was the prelude to Asgard's old-style encrypted communications.
The signal disappeared.
He sat up and leaned against the pipe wall.
The city below is under attack. His mission failed. Not because he failed to destroy the core, but because he opened the gates of hell with his own hands. He thought he was stopping the war, but he was actually pressing the start button.
He touched the circuit board in his pocket.
It is engraved with "Don't believe it".
He chuckled, then coughed up another mouthful of blood.
There was light at the end of the pipe. He climbed over and found the exit covered by a movable panel. He pushed it open a crack and looked out.
Several cracks appeared at the bottom of the mothership, flames billowing from them. But it continued to fly, even beginning to accelerate. The weapon arrays began their second recharge, this time with a clearer target—the location of the makeshift defensive line they had previously established. There were still several hundred civilians there who hadn't been evacuated.
He has to go out.
People outside must be notified to take cover.
He forcefully pushed open the panel and crawled out.
Outside was the outer deck of the mothership, and the wind was strong. He stood up and saw that the sky over New York in the distance was already illuminated by fire. A building was collapsing, billowing thick smoke. Chitauri aircraft were still shuttling around like a pack of mad dogs.
He turned around, trying to find the way back.
My foot slipped.
The deck was tilting violently, as if it had lost its balance. He crouched down and grabbed a stake. Looking up, he saw black smoke billowing from the command tower atop the mothership, followed by a loud bang. The electrical system was collapsing.
But the weapon was still moving.
The third round of charging has begun.
He stared at the blue light, his throat dry.
He can't do anything right now. Communication is cut off, his abilities are off cooldown, and he's covered in injuries. He can only watch.
The cannon barrels lit up.
He opened his mouth, as if to shout something, but no sound came out.
The wind is too strong.
He raised his right hand, pointing his finger to the sky.
A beam of plasma shot into the sky, piercing through the clouds and heading straight for the ground.