Chapter 992 - 37: Postwar Takeover

Italy and Turkey, the two countries at the forefront.

The ancient cities, having been baptized by gunfire, have become ruins. In just one night, the attacks inflicted here could rival those of a country mired in war for decades, with the cities all turned into rubble, everything shattered.

The shattered streets are littered with blackened wreckage, and the remains of Ultron robots are everywhere, their scarlet electronic eyes long since extinguished.

Regular troops from Latovia arrived at dawn, taking over the battlefield left by the Iron Riders. Riflemen clad in exoskeletons and carrying electromagnetic rifles, assisted by prosthetics enhancing their perception, roamed the battlefield looking for any robots that might still be operational to complete the cleanup.

Behind them, some Latovians, designated as firefighters and security personnel, drove engineering robots over two meters tall, serving as signal enhancement centers and moving giant stones with rescue equipment...

Titan Robots lingered on the city’s edge, where a temporary camp had been cleared for the Latovians to use as a temporary base. A continuous stream of semi-automatic convoys delivered supplies and personnel to the front line—

When Latovia’s robots and engineering teams fully took over the highways, a grand convoy of semi-automatic vehicles set out, and the European Union suddenly realized that this previously obscure, remote little country a few years ago had transformed into something akin to an alien nation from a movie...

These neat and uniform drones, orderly transport convoys, meticulous soldiers, engineers... all mocking the self-proclaimed advanced European Union—

An advanced country beaten to the point of being unable to fight back.

Though Christopher was part of the trusted aides, at present, in order to implement the strategy of defending the European Union border, all Iron Riders, new recruits, and engineers were mobilized, and manpower was very scarce, so he also had to join the fight.

Honestly, when Lille made this decision, though he wouldn’t have other emotions towards Lille, it was a different matter when it came to the Europeans:

The region in Eastern Europe where Latovia is located has been plagued by constant wars, never hearing of any European country kindly offering help, but those taking advantage of the chaos for human trafficking are plenty...

Though the European Union verbally condemns this and that, and the law prohibits such acts, they’re not so active in practice.

To Latovia, the European Union is definitely a cold neighbor.

However, with the arrival of war, there are no more proud and cold neighbors here, just ordinary people struggling to survive amid needles.

Click...

His Titan effortlessly lifted a massive chunk of steel-reinforced concrete, the exoskeleton and prosthetic implants on his body granting him immense strength, lifting tangled rebar and beams:

His perception prosthetic told him there were people inside.

The rubble was lifted, revealing a family of four in front of him—the male head of the family already fused with the concrete block under him, charred all over, no longer breathing...

His sacrifice left some survival space for the woman and two children beneath him, blocking out the debris, high temperatures, and shockwave from the explosion.

The only thing he couldn’t block was the rebar in the concrete; it still pierced his body and his wife’s body...

The latter was still breathing, the two children only had some friction burns and sprains, temporarily in a coma.

Looking at these people was like looking at the former Latovians, and Christopher’s emotions were very complex:

On one hand, he would certainly rather be a good person than a bad one, especially when he could save those with similar experiences;

But on the other hand, when they were attacked, no one kind-hearted came to save them...

To be fair, you could see from some EU and United Nations agencies that there were indeed related projects providing humanitarian aid, but unfortunately, most either disappeared along the way or were intercepted by that damn Lord.

Maybe some people were kind-hearted Holy Mothers, but unfortunately, their aid never reached those in need.

While the Titan braced the rubble, he carried out the two children, simultaneously calling on the network for medical teams to rescue their mother.

"... at least this is a good person, maybe a good person..."

[Christopher: Your Majesty, the post-war cleanup on the ground is going well. What should we do next?]

[Lille: I’ve uploaded the blueprints to the engineering department to build fortresses along the sea and land borders and establish an air defense network; deploy combat forces on-site, I will descend to the resupply altitude nearby and prepare for the next attack.]

Christopher paused: But this is the territory of Turkey and Italy?

Upon thinking this, he instinctively looked to the shelter not far away, where the Turkish President was inside, like a headless fly, searching for his advisors.

Honestly, he couldn’t care less about these leaders; in such circumstances, their ugly sides were fully exposed: whether it was their helplessness, or their shuffling and hesitation without advisors, their capability and attitude were pathetically weak.

But... are they directly building military bases in other countries like this?

Of course, thinking too much doesn’t mean he reacted slowly.

[Christopher: I understand...]

[Lille: The European Union has already passed the emergency military alliance agreement, Latovia has the emergency takeover power over countries where the government has lost control.]

[Lille: If anyone is dissatisfied with this regulation, arrest and hand them over to available local places to serve as prisons; execute troublemakers on the spot, be sure to maintain concealment, and minimize conflict.]

[Christopher: If it’s a government official...]

[Lille: Then dismiss them first, then arrest them, including the President.]

[Lille: Those who are willing to cooperate should establish organizational structures locally that align with Latovia’s governmental management agencies and network, directly recruiting soldiers, engineers, doctors, and other scarce professions that meet the requirements.]

[Lille: Rebuilding, resource extraction, and expanding the resupply network require a lot of manpower and resources.]

[Christopher: As you command, Your Majesty.]

...

The King’s Throne, Lille was immersed in a gradually cooling pool.

This massive floating combat barrier was not just a military command base but also had a large number of missile defense and attack systems, simultaneously equipped with a powerful electromagnetic railgun that, under special circumstances, could overload into plasma shooting mode, firing not just simple kinetic bombs but those containing highly heated plasma.

In this way, while supplying power to the six enormous floating engines, this fortress also needed to provide rest areas for hundreds of Titans and transport helicopters within the fortress, ensuring that the communication system, electronic warfare system, and weapon systems, especially the weapon systems, operated simultaneously...

This was an extraordinarily demanding energy need, so there were three nuclear fission reactors inside this fortress.

But the most important main gun, and the "key" necessary to activate the fortress, was the ark reactor on Lille.

The ark reactor could convert energy into Spark Energy, infusing into the energy core to unlock the entire fortress and weapon systems and to open the electromagnetic main gun designed with Cybertron Technology.

Italy and Turkey were temporarily safe, but defense alone could not defeat Ultron.

[Chairman Schulz: Europe thanks you, Your Majesty the King...]

[Lille: Your military command system is no longer usable; from now on, I will take over the military systems of Turkey and Italy, and prepare other countries.]

On the other end of the communication came a long silence.