Chapter 11, Montana’s New Stronghold (Part 1)
Two months after the end of the New York War, the District of Columbia, the capital Washington
Whether it is a world war or an alien invasion, as long as human society has not been destroyed, life will still have to go on after the restlessness.
The Potomac River flowing through the capital, Washington, is one of the most famous rivers on the Atlantic coast of the eastern United States. It originates from the western foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, is formed by the confluence of the North Branch River and the South Branch River, and finally flows into the Chesapeake Bay of the Atlantic Ocean. During the Civil War, the Potomac River once became the border between the two armies of the Civil War. From in front of the White House in Washington, you can see the flames and smoke of gunfire queuing up on the brutal battlefield.
The iconic building of S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters, the Trident Wing Building, is like a trident thrust into the clouds. It stands on a small island in the middle of the Potomac River, across the river from the Washington Monument, not far away. They are the famous Lincoln Memorial and Watergate Building.
After hiding on the floating aircraft carrier for several weeks, Nick, the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. in a black leather jacket. Fury finally returned to the director's office in the Tri-Wing Building. He was sitting in front of the glass table, staring at the LCD screen of the computer on the table with one eye, reading the confidential documents inside.
After more than a month of long fighting, the issue of accountability for the Manhattan nuclear explosion finally came to a so-so result: the World Security Council held its nose and accepted the accusation, and several permanent members held a press conference in Washington. We would like to express regret for the deaths of 400,000 New Yorkers and the nuclear contamination suffered by tens of millions of Americans. But the directors also repeatedly emphasized that when the disaster of alien invasion occurs and the entire earth faces an existential crisis, all means of war are necessary and all sacrifices are necessary, even nuclear explosions are no exception. !
Therefore, it is not wrong and blameless for the World Security Council to order the nuclear bombing of New York. Those who dare to cause trouble are all anti-Earth "ball traitors"!
In short, all losses and blame are put on fate. No one is at fault, and naturally no one has to bear responsibility! As for the 400,000 innocent souls in Manhattan, New York, they are necessary sacrifices to save humanity. Live great and die gloriously! All mankind will remember your selfless contributions, so the bereaved families should not care too much. Anyway, your area is rich in all kinds of super murderers. After decades, you have become accustomed to dying
Such an attitude of refusing to admit their mistakes is comparable to that of those naughty students who were caught cheating and still spoke plausibly. Naturally, the White House, Pentagon, Capitol Hill and S.H.I.E.L.D. were quite angry. However, since the World Security Council has smashed this scapegoat itself, it can no longer use it to harm others. Therefore, seeing that the matter is basically revealed, Nick, Director of SHIELD. Fury returned to headquarters to resume normal work.
At the same time, the U.S. Air Force made many futile attempts to capture or destroy the Cosmic Cube, which transformed into a giant bouncy ball and bounced around the American continent. However, any attack method known to mankind cannot break the pure energy shield activated on the periphery of the Universe Cube, or even consume the durability of this shield - because the Universe Cube itself is an endless super energy source!
On the contrary, every weapon attack, whether missile, laser or artillery shell, makes the giant bouncy ball jump faster, higher and farther.
After discovering that the Cube could not be shot down at all, the military racked its brains to devise a "ball catcher" plan to use airships, helicopters and other aircraft, mounted with a giant net bag, to catch the Cube like a baseball. To this end, the Pentagon urgently mobilized two airships, more than twenty helicopters, and a team of "war machines" personally led by Colonel Rhodes, the "Iron Patriot."
(Iron Man Tony. When Stark had a premonition that he was going to die from palladium poisoning, he gave the Mark II Iron Man suit to his friend "Iron Patriot" Colonel James Rhodes. The military used it to develop "War Machine" is a mass-produced simplified version of Iron Man)
However, this operation did not go smoothly. After all, the size of the Cosmic Cube plus the excitation equipment was far from comparable to that of a baseball or a football. Its size was at least as large as a phone booth! Not only is the jumping speed very fast, but the trajectory is also irregular. The pilots paid a heavy price for four helicopters, an airship and two "war machines" crashing, and seven people were killed and eight injured, but they still failed to catch this extra-large bouncy ball.
After experiencing this setback, the elm-headed staff at the Pentagon finally came up with a relatively feasible idea, which is to use bombardment to boost the Cube into a swamp. Slow down its ability to move. Unfortunately, it's too late - just last week, the Cosmic Cube jumped from New York on the east coast to the west coast, and finally jumped into the Pacific Ocean and turned into a floating object. Then, before the excited naval warships went to salvage it, Thor suddenly arrived with a group of Asgard warriors, and a confrontation began over the matter...
"...The Cosmic Cube, the evil god Loki, foreign spies, alien weapons, the Nordic gods of Asgard..."
Looking at the text, pictures and videos displayed on the LCD screen, SHIELD Director Nick. Fury lowered his head and kept whispering about various recent sources of trouble, but his face was still completely expressionless, making it impossible to tell what the one-eyed black bald man was thinking.
"...Knock! Knock! Knock!" Suddenly, a sudden knock on the door interrupted Nick. Fury's musings.
"...Come in." Nick turned off the computer casually. Fury raised his head, looked at the office door and said.
"...Yes, sir." With the sound of leather boots hitting the floor, a fair-skinned black girl wearing a tight black uniform walked in with a serious face. "...This is the latest report just received today. Please approve it as soon as possible, sir!" As she spoke, she handed the folder in her hand to Nick, then stepped aside and stood there with a serious face. It looks clean and neat, without any unnecessary movements. Sky-blue eyes looked at his commander calmly, like a well-trained soldier, waiting for the next instruction.
"...Thank you, Miss Hill." Nick was already used to Agent Hill's serious, almost harsh, and impersonal work attitude and didn't care. He just reached out and took the document, put it on the table, and started reading through it with squinted eyes.
"...The research and development of alien weapons by the scientific research department has still made no progress. All the alien weapons collected in the New York battlefield cannot be used, and all the alien soldiers have died, and no information can be obtained through torture. According to the autopsy of the corpse, the captured Zita The Rising Man seems to be a hybrid of half machine and half creature. The body, and any body with a remote-controlled safety device, can only be regarded as a war tool similar to a drone, rather than a real intelligent life... Damn it! I knew all these things last month! Could it be that this bunch of trash has arrived! Haven’t developed anything new yet?”
"... Agent Sitwell has completed the recovery of an alien weapon, captured two gangsters who used alien weapons to rob a bank, and recovered an alien individual weapon suspected to be an energy gun or laser gun. Two The robbers are husband and wife, and the male robber seems to have the ability to crack the safety device of alien weapons. It is recommended that SHIELD recruit him to join the scientific research department... It is approved! It needs to put some pressure on those useless scientists!"
"...A congressman delivered a speech against the Avengers in the House of Representatives, claiming that it was because the superheroes of the Avengers rashly took hostile actions against aliens and caused huge damage to aliens, which led to the intensification of conflicts and the New York nuclear crisis. The explosion caused huge losses to the United States. Therefore, the Avengers should be responsible for the disaster of this alien invasion, and SHIELD should also bear the responsibility for poor supervision...
Haha, is this a rabid patient released from a lunatic asylum barking? Even if he talks about the Rubik's Cube, it's better than this! ”
"...The confrontation in the Pacific Ocean has ended. The naval fleet returned without success. The alien who called himself Thor and his men took away the Cosmic Cube... Well, this matter has finally come to an end, and the case is closed like this Archive it! ”
"...Sir, regarding this matter, the World Security Council has just sent a video communication asking us why we did not take decisive action and just sit back and watch the precious Cosmic Cube being taken away by the Asgardians!" Agent Hill suddenly added. said.
"...Don't pay attention to such stupid talk!" Nick waved his hand boldly, "...Anyway, these old swindlers are just looking for trouble. No matter what we do, it is wrong! If we really want to get the Universe Rubik's Cube back, the trouble is just It will be bigger! Okay, let’s go here today!”
Watching Agent Hill put away the approved documents and leave the office, Nick couldn't help but rub his temples and sighed.
Although S.H.I.E.L.D. has had no shortage of enemies and challenges since its establishment, and is no stranger to aliens, this is the first time such a large-scale invasion by an alien army has occurred recently. And the various subsequent impacts and fluctuations have not yet completely subsided - for example, in order to suppress the mobs wreaking havoc everywhere in the New York area, the National Guard's first task after the nuclear explosion was not disaster relief, but peacetime. After the rebellion, tens of thousands of thugs were killed successively, and armored vehicles and aircraft were dispatched to blow up the remaining ruins into a mess, and social order was finally restored.
Compared with the retreating aliens and the incompetent thugs, what worries Nick even more is a certain shadow lurking within SHIELD - an old opponent who has been competing against each other since World War II, named The terrifying organization of Hydra. It was only recently that he was vaguely aware of the existence of Hydra, which was extremely unusual for the leader of a secret service organization.
As the protector of the Earth and all mankind, S.H.I.E.L.D. is not afraid of any external enemies, whether aliens or cults. However, when the enemy is parasitic in your body, the feeling is indescribably bad: you have eyes but you can’t see the direction clearly, you have ears but you can’t rely on them, you can only walk on the tightrope step by step and deal with it one at a time. If you're not careful, it could take over everything. You don’t know who is trustworthy, you don’t know where your opponent is, you have no energy but you can’t use it, and if you accidentally fall into its grasp, you can only suffocate in despair.
In fact, at the moment, there are only a few people that Nick can completely trust within SHIELD, such as Hill, Black Widow Natasha, and Captain America Steve. However, the shadow of Hydra seems to be everywhere, as if It has completely swallowed up the entire S.H.I.E.L.D., and it seems to be just his personal imagination.
"...We can only do it step by step for the time being. Let's solve the alien trouble first!" He touched his bald head and muttered.
However, without his knowing anything, another small force from outside this world has quietly infiltrated into this country...
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During this period, Wang Qiu, Political Commissar Guo, Tang Mary, and Chen Ping, two trapped travelers, also experienced a long journey across the entire continent of the United States from south to north, from the hot and dry Texas to , all the way to the densely forested Montana, and settled here.
——Montana is located in the northwest United States, close to the Pacific coast and the Canadian border. The state has a vast land of 380,000 square kilometers, which is larger than the total territory of Japan. Among the states in the United States, Montana ranks third in the country in terms of area, but the population is sixth from the bottom. Therefore, the population density is It is the second lowest in the country, but its permanent population is only 900,000. It is definitely a vast country with a sparse population.
However, despite its vast land and sparse population, Montana is not a snowy plateau like Tibet, nor a Gobi desert like Xinjiang, but a paradise full of vitality. Wang Qiu and his party had just driven here and were fascinated by the scenery at first glance: the flat and wide valleys were verdant with green grass, the farmland full of crops stretched as far as the eye could see, the clear streams were meandering, and there were sudden rises all around. The mountains are sometimes dotted with white snow.
This kind of magnificent landscape, which is very rare in China, amazed Wang Qiu and others, as if they were in the plot world of "The Lord of the Rings".
Generally speaking, in the eyes of Chinese people like Wang Qiu, Montana is a wonderful land full of paradoxes. Although the land here is flat, the water is plentiful, and the climate is not particularly cold, at least not colder than Boston and Vancouver, the population is surprisingly small. Although the magnificent scenery of Montana's ten national forests and thirteen nature reserves attracts tourists from all over the world, local young people are moving out in large numbers, and more than 70% of high school graduates dream of leaving. Here, head to those bustling metropolitan areas to find a new life. Although many fashionable billionaires in the United States are spending huge sums of money to build luxurious vacation homes in Montana, Montana is still almost the poorest state in the United States. Many local residents even have to work two or three jobs to earn enough to reach the federal poverty line.
The key to why this situation occurs lies in the natural environment. Although the land in Montana looks vibrant, the high latitude and altitude mean that the growing season is short and crops can only be harvested once a year, rather than twice a year like in areas with longer summers. Moreover, the transportation is not convenient and it is far away from the densely populated consumer market. These shortcomings mean that any crop grown in Montana, if grown elsewhere in the United States, can be delivered to other densely populated areas of North America at a cheaper cost, with higher yields, and faster and cheaper transportation.
As a result, Montana has become a piece of land that is as beautiful as a fairyland but is uncompetitive in agriculture.
But in the final analysis, it is because the Americans' territory is so good, with more fertile and high-quality land everywhere, that they look down on such a second-class place and let it sleep in the wilderness. If the Japanese or Chinese could get such a treasure land, they would probably wake up from their dreams and laugh.
But for Wang Qiu and other visitors from other worlds, it is precisely because Montana is both sparsely populated and relatively poor that they can easily live in a remote place far away from human habitation at a very low price. place, bought a large farm that was on the verge of being abandoned - owned The old couple who owned this farm died of illness not long ago, and their son was more willing to hang out in the bustling Los Angeles than to come back and inherit the farm. After a lot of trouble, the farm was sold to the owner for three cents and not two cents. Don Marie, sold for a very measly fifteen thousand dollars!
——For Wang Qiu and the others, the funds available at the moment are still quite tight. Although they took advantage of the chaos of the Battle of New York, they obtained a lot of banknotes from some shops and supermarkets, and in the modern world, the Chinese government can provide sacks of US banknotes as funding at any time.
But first, the dollars in the two worlds are not exactly the same. Secondly, in the United States, where credit cards are widely used, it is very eye-catching and suspicious to rashly take out large sums of cash. Even ordinary people use credit cards and checks to pay for valuable things. If anyone can take out a large stack of U.S. dollars to buy something, then everyone will immediately associate you with illegal criminal organizations... Therefore, the cost of purchasing this farm in Montana was entirely spent on With the savings in Tang Marry’s bank account, she could only buy the cheapest ones.
However, after taking a look at the farm, they understood why the farm was sold at such a low price: because the place was so remote. There is neither running water nor gas supply, so cooking depends on firewood and electricity depends on its own generator. To get from the nearest town to the farm, you need to drive more than 150 kilometers in one go along the original road that was completely driven by vehicles, and it takes at least half a day. Once the mountains are blocked by heavy snow or the roads are washed away by heavy rains, the farm will simply be isolated from the rest of the world! Also due to the inconvenience of transportation, it is also a very difficult job to transport agricultural products from the farm, and the freight is astonishingly high and almost uncompetitive.
In short, in a place like this, you can almost only live the legendary life of a reclusive monk, relying on eating what you grow to be self-sufficient. It is really difficult to save a few spare cash, and taxes and fees still have to be paid. Correct. No wonder the aborigines yearn for the colorful world outside.
However, for Wang Qiu and others who do not rely on this world to maintain their lives, such a remote place is ideal. Therefore, after hastily tidying up the only dilapidated wooden house in the farm, they went out to explore the environment with great interest.