Nolan bent down and easily hoisted the Winter Soldier, who was rapidly sinking into a deep coma. The man was a mangled, bloody weight in his arms.
He stepped over the broken corpses and scattered rubble, walking without hesitation out into the intense, hot desert air.
The sophisticated thermostatic device sealed inside the Hunting Lord armor had already activated, maintaining a perfectly cool internal climate. Even if he were walking through a literal lava zone, Nolan could have easily persevered.
Ten minutes later, he reached the reverse side of a tall sand dune, approximately three kiloters from the site of the ambush.
There, a Valkyrie ard transport sat quietly, its dark camouflage-painted tal shell scorching under the unrelenting sun and reflecting a faint, shimring light.
David was efficiently loading the specialized scientific research equipnt salvaged from the underground laboratory into the Valkyrie's spacious cabin.
When Nolan carried the unconscious Winter Soldier into the cabin, David gently set down the piece of research equipnt he was holding in his tal palm.
He walked over to Nolan.
He lowered his tallic head, examining the bloody, severely mangled human form with a clinical eye.
"My lord, have you acquired new manpower?"
"That's right... I also hope to extract so Hydra secrets from his brain."
Nolan gently placed the Winter Soldier down, letting him lie on the cold, sterile tal floor of the cabin.
He casually reached up and removed his sealed tal helt, revealing his face and the gray hair tied back neatly.
Nolan blinked his cyan wolf eyes, looked at David, and asked, "Is the lab completely cleared?"
"My Lord, I was just about to report the situation to you..."
David slowly shook his tal head.
He raised his hand and gestured toward the scientific research equipnt that now filled most of the cabin space.
"Excluding the heavy production equipnt, the quantity of Compound V alone is close to one ton... In other words, if you desire it, you could quickly raise a huge army of tahumans."
"David, a group of tahumans with no true will to fight can't even compare to the organized gangs in a hive city. They are simply babies who have mastered lasguns. They may be destructive enough, but in the face of well-trained ordinary troops, or even more terrifying xenos, they won't be able to maintain basic combat capabilities."
The expressionless Nolan narrowed his cyan wolf eyes and said calmly.
"Moreover, Dr. Connors has not yet had the ti to study the true, long-term effectiveness of these compounds. Unless we obtain a large number of orphans and nurtured them from childhood with intense training... otherwise, the secondary harm caused by human experints is not the result I hope to achieve."
"The most important thing is that courage and will are the real soul of a mortal army. Madam Gao's gang mbers still need significant honing, but you can help her select suitable elite candidates from among them and temporarily form a rapid-response team. Aim for about five hundred people."
"My only core requirent for this team is that they are not afraid of death and are absolutely loyal. Since we will not start any large-scale war in the near future, for urban combat, this team, plus my leadership, will be sufficient to deal with fighting official forces."
Nolan lowered his head and considered the plan for a mont, then continued, "Rember to inform Reditus later. Let him find a way to copy the laser weapon technology. Even if the copycat version isn't as powerful as the original, as long as it's superior to the individual weapons in modern society, it can be updated bit by bit in the future. Of course, if the situation becos urgent, I will also find a way to use... 'miracles' to acquire so."
Hearing Nolan's words, the blue light in David's eyes flashed rapidly.
He shook his tal head slightly in acknowledgnt.
He quickly logged the complex tasks Nolan had issued into his internal mory.
"My lord... huh?"
However, just as David was about to offer a complint on Nolan's strategic depth, the flashing blue light in his eyes paused slightly, locking onto new data.
He imdiately turned back to Nolan and reported, "My Lord, another convoy is rapidly approaching the laboratory location. According to the vehicle markings and the detailed call analysis from their communication channel, it is S.H.I.E.L.D. manpower."
Hearing David's report, Nolan squinted his eyes and slowly twisted his neck from side to side, the joints making a faint clicking sound.
His fangs slowly beca more visible as he smiled.
"They are all wild dogs that have tasted at..."
"I plan to teach them a lesson they will never forget. It can also be considered a 'kind' reminder to Nick Fury."
Hearing Nolan's words, David suddenly raised his tal palm and pointed toward the Valkyrie's cockpit.
"My lord, the Valkyrie still has plenty of ammunition for its heavy weapons, but it is not as discreet as us..."
"No need... because I still have one small idea left."
Nolan put the tal helt on again and turned his eyes slightly.
He stared down at the unconscious Winter Soldier lying on the cold tal floor, and the corners of his mouth, hidden inside the helt, curved into a sharp, malicious grin.
Phil Coulson, sitting calmly in the passenger seat of his unmarked SUV, subconsciously touched the mobile phone tucked securely in his pocket. A slight, private smile touched his lips.
Sending private ssages while on assignnt was a clear violation of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s strict work protocols.
But as a seasoned Level 8 agent, he was generally afforded so small, earned privileges.
Not to ntion, he was the sole commanding officer of this temporary team, which had been hastily pulled together from a nearby satellite base.
Perhaps the smile on Coulson's lips was too genuine or too obvious.
A nervous new agent, responsible for driving the vehicle, blinked his eyes quickly.
He asked cautiously, "Sir, you seem happy today?"
Hearing the unexpected question, Coulson imdiately snapped back into his standard, expressionless agent deanor.
He said with a straight face, "Greg, concentrate on driving."
But, not long after, Coulson couldn't suppress his mood and showed another irrepressible smile.
He turned his head to the rookie agent, who looked slightly uneasy, and said in a gentle, almost conversational tone, "It's a personal matter. My girlfriend just secured the qualification to hold a cello concert at Carnegie Hall..."
"Ah, that's a truly good thing, sir. Congratulations..."
The new agent nodded quickly, forcing a professional smile.
However, before the agent could finish his sentence, a deafening, reality-ripping explosion tore through the air directly in front of the convoy.
The lead cars driving ahead of them exploded instantly, one after another, erupting into fireballs!
Even the heavy vehicle Coulson was riding in was suddenly overturned, violently lifted and slamd onto its side by a huge, brutal impact force!
At the sa ti, a terrifying series of rapid bombardnts, sounding like thunder from a clear sky, instantly resonated all around them.
After a brief, agonizing experience of severe dizziness and vertigo, Coulson forced his eyes to open.
At this mont, he was firmly suspended upside down, held fast to the seat by his seat belt.
Coulson managed to turn his head and looked desperately at the driver beside him.
He found that the rookie agent, who had apparently not fully secured his seat belt, was already dead.
His neck was twisted at a strange, unnatural angle.
Only his eyes, which had not yet closed, still held a lingering, horrified light that had not yet disappeared.
Coulson ruthlessly suppressed the surge of grief and shock in his heart; his rigorous agent training took imdiate control.
He fumbled desperately to unbuckle the seat belt, and his back fell heavily onto the car's broken roof with a muffled thud.
Then, he pulled out his service pistol.
He awkwardly maneuvered his body out through the shattered window and crawled onto the sandy ground.
However, just as Coulson, lying prone on the ground, was struggling to get up and locate the hidden enemy, the sandy earth directly in front of him was suddenly enveloped by a massive, looming shadow.
At the sa ti, Coulson heard a terrifying, gravelly voice, one that seed to belong in the deepest parts of a nightmare.
"Hail... HYDRA!!!"
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