Shadow trail of the beautiful world

Chapter 728 32. Return of the Stars

At the same time that Coulson "abducted" the young man to join S.H.I.E.L.D., Merlin, who had returned to New York, was frowning and looking at the documents sent by his e-mail.

It was from Fury, about the final result of the discussions between the World Security Council and the German and Russian governments on the omnibus issue.

Pierce and Fury adopted Merlin's suggestion. They agreed that the two countries stationed troops in the intelligent industrial zone, and the two countries also agreed to form a special army to deal with omnic affairs.

But the trouble is, as the proponents of the plan, the agents under Merlin seem to have a new job to do.

"The two countries officially asked SDOLD to also participate in the small-scale trial training of these soldiers?"

Merlin looked at the content of the email, and he said with some doubts:

"Why? Do they trust us so much?"

"Probably because they saw the outstanding performance of the watch team in the Eichenwald incident."

Icarus analyzed:

"Facing an industrial area that has been basically completely occupied by mobs, and thousands of armed omnic robots, the watch team, which is at an extreme disadvantage, can completely solve the chaos caused by the Ten Rings Gang in less than an hour. It shows the super fighting power of SDOLD's commando team."

"Since the German and Russian officials demanded the formation of an army in the name of ensuring the safety of the industrial zone, then they have no reason to ignore the performance of the watch team, and they invited SDOLD to help them conduct trial training for the selected soldiers, which is what they should have meant."

"Well, there is indeed some truth."

Merlin nodded, and he looked at the second half of the email. In the email, Fury appended the completely different army building ideas chosen by the German and Russian officials.

"Tsk tsk, although both countries have chosen to use battle armor to assist soldiers in combat, the details are completely different."

While browsing through the instructions, Merlin said:

"Germany tends to have soldiers manipulating the armor, which is similar to Tony's Super Mark armor. They trust the power of humans more. But the name of this unit is really the second... Crusader, my God Well, serious Germans are not bad at all when they play memes."

"The Russian side is more radical. They adopted a design similar to the Titan omnic of the Ten Rings, designing various mechas, and then operating them by professional drivers. Well, in another sense The torrent of steel is indeed the style of Lao Maozi."

"Merlin, Coulson's invitation has come to fruition."

Icarus said:

"Miss Song Hana has just become a first-class agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. Coulson is taking her to Pegasus Base, are you sure that girl can take over from Agent Patton and become the pilot of 'Starscream'? "

"I can't say for sure, Icarus, but that girl is really talented in this area. She has a brave and bold personality. You can also see how she manipulates the Titan omnic. She has experience, and Steve treats her well." The evaluation is also quite high, so I like to believe that she will make a good driver."

Merlin snapped his fingers and said:

"Of course, she won't be allowed to pilot weapons of the level of 'Smash' and 'Starscream' at the beginning. Maybe she should start from the basics. Isn't Winston designing a small assault robot? It can be used by Miss Hana to practice."

"She still has a lot to learn, but I believe that in the watch team, she will definitely grow up quickly. But now, including 'Spectre', 'Mirror' and 'Horus', we have There are 5 Cybertronian fighters that can join the battle at any time, maybe it's time to set up a separate mechanical combat team."

"It's 6 units!"

Icarus reminded:

"And 'Lola'."

"Lola..."

Merlin hesitated, he said:

"Coulson has been hiding Lola's secrets for the past few years. He doesn't seem to want Lola's existence to be exposed. You have to understand that everyone has their own secrets, and everyone has the right to keep their own secrets. Icarus , I don't want to interfere in this matter."

"Are you really going to keep it a secret?"

Icarus replied:

"About the real relationship between you and Coulson, do you think he has no doubts? Although Coulson looks gentle on the surface, you should know that he is actually a very sensitive person."

"I'm not going to tell him that would complicate our relationship...."

Merlin closed his eyes, leaned back on the chair, and gently drew circles with his fingers on the table, he said:

"That is a thing of the past, a thing that has been forgotten. Now that I have borne the price, let it pass. This may be good for me and Coulson."

He was silent for a few minutes, then remembered something, and said to Icarus:

"Speaking of which, Dr. Reed and his research team have been in space for almost 3 years, right? How long is it before their scheduled return?"

"three days left."

Icarus replied:

"If all goes well, they will return to this world in three days."

-----------------

Among the lonely stars some distance from the earth, a white spacecraft is following the established route, deftly bypassing the constraints of Mars' gravitational force, and heading back to the earth.

This 1-kilometer-long irregular spaceship is not quite like those spaceships that have appeared in the science fiction works of people on earth. Its design borrows from the Cree aircraft in many places.

During the Cree invasion in 1994, SHIELD, with the help of Captain Carol, captured several Cree spaceships. Dr. Reed also referred to SHIELD when designing his own spaceship. information in the database.

At this time, in the spaceship, the bearded Dr. Reed was doing daily routine recording work in the huge laboratory. Because of the internal gravity generator, the interior of the spaceship was not in a state of weightless suspension. People can move freely as if they were on the earth.

The super-large laboratory in front of Dr. Reed was divided into many small compartments due to different experimental needs, but thanks to the huge size of the spaceship, the area of ​​each small compartment is quite wide.

"Well, this long journey is finally coming to an end."

Just after Reed finished recording the growth data of a plant cultivated in the sun, behind him, a gentle voice sounded.

"Yeah, Ben, three years, unbelievable, we've been away from home for three years."

Reed put down the recorder in his hand. He looked back at his friend behind him. It was a man a little older than him. His name was Ben Graham. He was a college classmate of Reed and Susan. Worked at NASA for a while, but Ben lost that job due to some mishaps with Hydra's Far Star program.

After Reed established his own laboratory, he immediately invited Ben over. He is an outstanding astronomer and physicist. During this long journey, he also shouldered the progress research of several important experiments.

"Do you miss home too, Reed."

Ben handed Reed a can of beer in his hand. He sat on a chair in the laboratory and said to his good friend:

"I still remember when you set off, you told me that you yearn for the stars more than the earth."

"That can only mean that I was too young at that time."

Reed smiled indifferently. He looked out of the porthole at the empty space except for the cold starlight. He said:

"It's only when you're among the stars that you realize what the Earth means to you, it's home..."

"I also thought that I was tired of the world full of divisions and disputes, especially after participating in the S.H.I.E.L.D. project, but in the past 3 years, I thought a lot, and I found that the stars are not as good as we thought. Beautiful, so beautiful."

"I will miss my hometown, and occasionally dream, I will dream of the scene where Susan and I drive out for a trip, the warm sunshine, the gentle wind, the friendly people, and the delicious food..."

The doctor took a sip of the weird beer and said to his good friend Ben:

"Maybe I'm not really ready to step into the stars, anyway, this trip is enough for me...I'm going to propose to Susan when I get back, Ben, I don't want to wait any longer, I Three years have been wasted."

"Okay!"

Ben said with a smile:

"She will definitely accept you, but you have to think of a romantic way. Women like romance. They are hopelessly romantic creatures."

"That's a big problem."

Reed shrugged and said:

"I'm not good at this, but maybe I can ask Jonathan for advice, he is very good at dealing with women."

"Yes, Jonathan."

Ben took a sip of his beer and said to Reed:

"Your future wife's younger brother is a super engineer. In fact, if his character can be calmer, I will like him more."

"He's a young man after all."

Reed wanted to continue chatting with Ben for a while, but just as he finished speaking, the entire spaceship suddenly shook violently, as if being hit by something, causing Reed's entire body to fall. Unsteady, almost fell.

Ben helped him up, and the expressions of the two became extremely serious. They rushed out of the laboratory and walked towards the bridge of the spaceship.

Susan and her brother Jonathan, the two remaining members of Reed's research team, were already on the bridge.

"What happened to the shock just now?"

Reed asked, and Susan, who was at the console, steered the spacecraft and replied:

"It's a rubble that suddenly appeared. The radar system cannot detect its source. I think it should be thrown by a nearby meteorite or asteroid when it disintegrated. It's not big, but the situation seems to be pretty bad."

While talking, the young man beside Susan projected the situation outside the spaceship on the bridge projector. On the rear deck of the spaceship, a half-person-high stone was being touched by the advancing spaceship. It was thrown away a little bit, but the deck of the spaceship had already appeared a depression visible to the naked eye, and part of the rubble remained on the outer deck of the spaceship.

It is worth mentioning that in the holographic projection screen, the stone embedded in the outer deck of the spacecraft is emitting a slight green light spot, like some kind of radiation.

"The damage control procedure has been started, but I think we need to stay on the space station outside the earth for a few hours to confirm whether the residue is harmful and whether emergency repairs are needed. If necessary, we may have to do it again. Unplanned spacewalk."

Susan's younger brother, the engineer Jonathan, turned to his future brother-in-law and said:

"But if I could, maybe omnics could help us with this mission. I don't want to wear a bulky spacesuit anymore, I'm out of acid tablets, I'm out of gum, and hell, I really want a burger. ..”

"We'll be home soon, Jonathan, bear with us. We'll go to the space station first."

Reed carefully checked all the parameters of the spacecraft. After confirming that it could still fly normally, he issued a docking application to the space station hovering in orbit outside the earth, and said to the other three people:

"Ben, you and Jonathan are going to wake up our omnic assistant, Susan, I need you to prepare a container that can hold meteorite fragments and isolate energy. The readings are somewhat unusual and should be something we haven't discovered yet."

"But it's not in a hurry, we have to stay on the space station for at least 24 hours."

Dr. Reed said:

"The Life Foundation's deep-space spacecraft will return in seven hours, and we still need to conduct a test on the samples collected by the unmanned probe. If there are living life samples in them, we may need to report to the earth in advance. "

"To SHIELD?"

Dr. Susan tousled her hair, and she said softly:

"I guess Mr. Merlin will be very happy to hear from you. After all, the two of you seem to have a good relationship."

"Just friends, Susan."

Reed shook his head. While he was busy, he said:

"It's very, very difficult to be good friends with a senior agent like Merlin."

"When I was working with Tony, he told me that if Merlin smiled at you, you must be careful... Well, of course, this is a bit of an exaggeration, but how to say it, according to what I gathered Judging from the information, Merlin...he is quite a complicated person."

"Is that Merlin important?"

Jonathan, who was eavesdropping on the chat between the two, suddenly said:

"When I hear you talk to my sister, I often mention this name. He sounds like a traditional villain in movies."

"Merlin, he is very powerful."

Reid took one look at his future brother and joked:

"You'd better not speak ill of him, Jonathan. I'm not sure if he has bugged the spaceship. If he gets upset, he might eat you for breakfast. Susan and I can't stop him. "

"whispering sound"

Jonathan pouted, he snorted, stopped participating in the chat, turned and left the bridge.

Reed raised his head and looked forward. Outside the observation window of the bridge, the blue planet has been vividly seen.

that's earth...

that is home.

(End of this chapter)