Chapter 229: with translation of chapter title

Elizabeth City is under attack; all personnel, immediately prepare for combat!

!

Hearing the broadcast and alarm, the clerical soldiers walking on the stairs also had their faces turn grim, and they quickened their steps toward their respective offices.

NuoWa, wearing the Hostile Environment Suit (HES) and holding a custom-made sniper rifle, also silently quickened her pace to leave this place.

Having reached outside the building and arrived at the base's interior street, NuoWa listened to the still piercing alarm while observing her surroundings.

All that could be seen was the new recruits dropping their heavy training equipment and running toward the armory belonging to their respective companies.

On the airfield side, there were already many assault craft, carrying fully armed paratroopers sitting on both sides of the cabin with their legs dangling outside, who swiftly took off and flew toward Elizabeth City to the southeast.

Accompanying the flight were also armed helicopters resembling those with the propeller removed, but medium attack craft that could only travel within the atmosphere.

Next were several Cormorants.

As for the large transport ships that could carry more soldiers, they were standing by with their engines engaged.

After all, the first to take off were the rapid reaction forces, who had prepared immediately when the alarm sounded and directly boarded their vehicles to take off.

At this moment, NuoWa attached her sniper rifle to her back, moving through the base that had been urgently mobilized, and ran toward the western airfield.

And using a communication channel undetectable by the UNSC, she directly contacted the Red Queen:

"Employee ID X018, I have detected a suspected anomalous phenomenon intrusion event; I am preparing to use UNSC vehicles to rush to the scene and request additional intelligence support."

Having said that.

Thanks to the HES enhancing her physical condition, NuoWa had already rushed to the western airfield and then approached a large transport ship with its rear hatch opened.

With a light leap, she silently landed on top of the transport ship.

At this moment, the communication also transmitted the Red Queen's reply:

"According to surveillance footage and reports from local personnel, it can be known that large numbers of hostile beast-like anomalous creatures, hostile to humans and all life, have surged from the sea and are rampaging within Elizabeth City."

"Currently, the UNSC's th Airborne Division, the 78th and rd Infantry Divisions, and the Second Fleet are responsible for handling it."

"On the company's side, the Bloodtear is heading to the airspace above Elizabeth City; if the UNSC cannot cope, the Bloodtear will directly intervene."

"Employee X018, your mission is updated to enter Elizabeth City, covertly assist our personnel in assessing the threat level of this anomalous phenomenon."

"At the same time, get as close to the beach as possible to investigate the source of the anomalous creatures."

"X018 received." NuoWa replied softly.

End of conversation.

Finally, a few paratroopers wearing fully sealed individual equipment, painted desert color, and holding pulse weapons also entered the cabin beneath NuoWa's feet.

The hatch sealed.

The large transport ship rose smoothly to an altitude of about fifty meters above the ground, adjusted its direction, and then accelerated toward Elizabeth City.

NuoWa, half-crouched on top of the transport ship, need not worry about being thrown off, after all the HES is Umbrella's equipment most adept at infiltration, possessing excellent magnetic adhesion.

Furthermore, this time it was a large number of transport ships, Cormorants, assault craft, and attack craft leaving the base.

The first wave of the main flight formation of the 9th Airborne Division sped low over the African land.

But the soldiers seated inside the cabin had no mind to admire the outside scenery; each of them felt heavy-hearted.

With an average age of around twenty, their childhood occurred during the transitional period when the UEG and UNSC had just been established.

At that time, news and the internet were filled with reports and discussions of "war" and "famine," but after 2010 they became increasingly rare, until they were seldom seen.

Especially war.

This group of recruits, hailing from all over the world and even the entire Solar System, experienced from childhood memory, through school, to graduation, and then joining the force, precisely humanity's most peaceful and stable period of rapid development.

And there are many reasons why they joined the force.

For example, influenced by sci‑fi movies, comics, and games, plus the cool equipment, they enlisted out of passionate fervor.

Some were simply in it for the money, or purely for the chance to "freely" follow the fleet and roam the universe, eventually coming to the base of the 9th Airborne Division to receive training.

Regardless of which reason, after enlisting they all shared a unified belief——

Obey orders, protect humanity.

Now.

Through their helmet screens, the recruits learned that the attackers on Elizabeth City were not humans, but "Beast Entities" with gray skin, claws and fangs, and a size far exceeding that of tigers…

It is impossible not to feel tense, and they are also puzzled as to what these Beast Entities are.

Aliens?

Or monsters?

But they have undergone rigorous training, equipped with weapons and armor "transformed" from tax revenue—isn't that precisely for this moment?

As for NuoWa, who could sense the recruits' emotions, she had made similar preparations more than ten years ago.

Within less than half a minute of the flight formation leaving the base, the smoke‑filled Elizabeth City and the vast ocean appeared in her field of view.

As the flight formation was about to approach the urban area, she slightly closed her eyes and quickly expanded her Spiritual Energy to sense the surroundings.

The first emotional feedback she felt was the panic, agitation, and grief of losing loved ones caused by the Beast Entity attacks on people.

However, mixed in with that was a sense of "reassurance."

It seemed that the police and the first‑arriving rapid reaction forces gave the citizens sufficient feeling of safety.

As for the Beast Entities' side, NuoWa sensed only killing, with no other emotions whatsoever.

She believed the Beast Entities were not naturally occurring anomalous creatures, but rather seemed to be deliberately "programmed," with simple thinking…

Biological weapons?

Having reached this conjecture, NuoWa stopped the expansion that overtaxed her stamina and energy.

She opened her eyes.

She discovered that the flight formation had already entered the city's airspace and had split into more than ten groups, rushing to aid various parts of the city.

And the transport ship that she had treated as a "convenient vehicle," together with two Cormorants and more than ten assault and attack craft, arrived at the city center.

The transport craft and the Cormorant slowed their speed, hovering above the widest main thoroughfare in the city center, preparing to descend to the ground.

By contrast, the more agile assault craft landed on the rooftops of buildings flanking the main thoroughfare, disembarking small squads of paratroopers to occupy the high ground.

Likewise, the attack craft maintaining a hundred‑meter altitude above the ground poured ammunition onto the south‑facing street, where masses of Beast Entities were running.

"Boom—! Boom—!"

"Tap‑tap‑tap!"

In an instant, explosions and gunfire rang out.

NuoWa rose to their feet and looked ahead.

They saw Beast Entities' bodies exploding in batches, utterly unable to withstand pulse cannons of any caliber, and their indigo blood spattered everywhere.

Seeing this scene, NuoWa provisionally rated the Beast Entities' threat level as low,

Immediately afterward, she saw the transport craft about to touch down, so she leapt lightly and landed early, disappearing into the alley.

And after the transport craft that had completed its landing opened its rear hatch…

"Quick! Quick! Quick! Build the defensive line! Soldiers! Remember your training and drive that pack of mangy curs back to their lair!"

"Commander! Yes, commander!"

A company's paratroopers poured out of the hatch, set up a temporary defensive line on the street, and fired various‑caliber Shellless Pulse Ammo at the wave‑like Beast Tide.

The two Cormorants that had landed not far in the rear also disembarked two combat platoons.

Nearly two hundred paratroopers, coordinating with the attack craft and the several squads occupying the rooftops, instantly established absolute firepower superiority.

But just as NuoWa had suspected, the Beast Entities, appearing to be biological weapons, will not cease their attack as long as their bodies are not completely destroyed.

One Beast Entity, its hind half blown to fragments by machine‑gun fire, still dug its two forepaws into the ground, dragging its indigo intestines, and kept trying to approach the paratroopers ahead in its field of view.

Even so, this Beast Entity uttered no howl.

"Whoosh—puff! Pfft!"

Only after it took several more Shellless Pulse Ammo hits, destroying what remained of its front half, did this Beast Entity finally cease.

However, "unfortunately," even if the Beast Entities disregarded their own casualties, their numbers are rapidly dwindling against the main force of the th Airborne Division.

Otherwise, NuoWa would have provisionally rated the Beast Entities' threat level as low.

"Everyone!" Seeing the situation, a second lieutenant with red shoulder boards waved a hand and bellowed the order:

"Follow me in counterattack! From the foul mouths of that pack of mangy curs, we'll snatch Yilishabai back for the civilians!"

"Yes!"

The high‑spirited paratroopers roared in response, launching a southward counter‑push determined to drive every Beast Entity out of the city.

———————

…

The city's southwest.

A vacation hotel separated from the beach by a single road.

Inside the hotel's ground‑floor lobby lay scattered human limbs and blood‑soaked torn clothing.

A… skull lay askew on the marble floor at the lobby's center, its eyes wide open, its face frozen in shock as it stared toward the hotel exterior.

Following "his" gaze, one could see countless canine beasts surging from the sea, crossing the beach, and streaming relentlessly toward the city.

The skull's owner might have been a tourist fleeing the Northern Hemisphere's cold to vacation here, or perhaps a hotel employee.

But regardless, he lost his life in an instant, and even the whereabouts of his remaining corpse are unknown, having been flung by the Beast Entities.

After all, this is a seaside vacation hotel; guests enjoying the finest ocean views would hardly expect "monsters" to surge from the sea, let alone become among the first victims of such an attack.

Even if the th Airborne Division advances like a bamboo shoot splitting stone, it can never restore the skull's owner—or all those slaughtered—to life.

"Ah!"

A human scream of extreme anguish suddenly rang out from above the hotel.

Leaving the lobby and ascending to the hotel's top floor, inside the master bedroom of a south‑facing suite.

There stood a powerfully built man whose right forearm had been torn off by brute force, bracing his body firmly against the door.

"Thud! Thud!"

Outside, several Beast Entities had gathered, one of them repeatedly slamming the door.

The man's breathing was ragged, his face pallid, teetering on the brink of shock from massive blood loss.

Given this trend, the Beast Entities—already far hardier than humans—need only a few more blows to break the door and storm in.

"Daddy… I'm scared…"

At that moment, a little girl only seven or eight years old, hiding in the corner where the floor‑to‑ceiling window met the wall, tears streaming down her face, whispered to the man:

!!

Hearing her words, the man steadied himself, gathered his resolve, and comforted the little girl:

"Aila… don't be scared, Daddy will protect you… and… Aila… you must remember… Daddy loves you…"

"Thud!"

No sooner had the words left his mouth than the door was burst open by a Beast Entity.

The man himself was shoved aside by the impact, toppled over, and crashed heavily to the floor; blood from his severed arm quickly soaked the white carpet laid at the foot of the bed.

"Daddy!" the little girl rushed to the man's side.

The Beast Entity that had burst the door did not stand idly by; it flung open its blood‑stained maw, littered with scraps of human skin, and lunged at the father and daughter.

!!

Seeing this, the man, with his only remaining left hand, strained to push the girl away from him.

Even though he and his daughter were destined to die, he was determined to fulfill, before his death, a father's duty to protect his child.

Yet the man felt none of the excruciating pain of being torn apart alive.

Because the Beast Entity that lunged at him was actually 'floating' in mid‑air, unable to get any closer to him.

Then the Beast Entity, defying common sense, was pulled out of the bedroom by some force.

Next.

The living room rang with the sound of shattering glass, 'Whoosh! Whoosh!'—as if that Beast Entity, together with all the Beast Entities gathered in the living room, were hurled out the window by a force the man could not comprehend.

Just as the man was about to lose consciousness, NuoWa, clad in gray‑white HES and having removed her mask, entered the bedroom with silent steps.

"Save… save… my daughter… uh…"

The man, having exerted all his strength to say those words, then could no longer hold on and fell completely unconscious.

"Dad…" the girl slumped beside the man, already sobbing uncontrollably.

"."

NuoWa then walked silently to the man's right side, half‑crouched on the ground, unfastened the small tactical pack hanging at her waist, and took from it a syringe finer than her thumb.

Through the transparent wall, one could clearly see inside the syringe, which held a pale‑purple "liquid".

Next, NuoWa pressed the end of the syringe marked with a red downward triangle directly onto the intact skin at the edge of the man's severed arm, completing the injection in the blink of an eye.

When NuoWa stowed the empty syringe back into the tactical pack, a flesh‑colored, semi‑transparent film quickly covered the severed‑arm wound, finally staunching the bleeding.

Once NuoWa rose to her feet, the man's breathing also steadied; though his face remained deathly pale, it was much better than before.

Seeing this.

"Don't worry, your father's fine, and you are too." NuoWa said to the still‑sniffling girl, revealing a rare smile: "I'm right outside."

Having said that, she turned and walked toward the living room.

"Mm… thank you…"

Although she didn't know what NuoWa had done, the girl sensed the man's condition improving and quietly expressed her thanks.

Leaving the bedroom.

Arriving at a disordered living room.

NuoWa resumed her cold demeanor, stopping before a row of shattered floor‑to‑ceiling windows on the southern side, observing the sea surface where no more Beast Entities were emerging.

In fact, NuoWa had originally needed to find a spot with good visibility to investigate the source of the Beast Entities.

After sensing with Spiritual Perception that this father‑daughter pair was in dire straits, she chose the top floor of this hotel for her observation.

And now.

Focusing her attention on the sea surface, NuoWa saw, even without using Spiritual Perception, in the shallow sea not far from the coastline, at the center of a swirling whirlpool of rolling waves, a faint blue‑glowing "gate" about eighty meters in diameter.

At the same time, she sensed an even larger "thing" about to burst forth from the other side of the "gate".

(End of chapter)