Chapter 231: Zeus-Class and Another Universe

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Although Elizabeth City is still shrouded in smoke, with occasional sparse gunfire, the overall situation has stabilized.

The gunfire signifies ground troops methodically clearing the remaining Beast Entities.

The sudden onslaught of Beast Entities and giant beasts caused massive damage to the city; the exact figures still require further tally.

Moreover, as soon as the attack occurred, tens of thousands of Beast Entity photos and videos spread online, giving over 90% of netizens a rough understanding of Elizabeth City's plight.

This time, Umbrella seemed to take no blocking measures; after the photos and videos, local Elizabeth media broadcast live coverage of the entire attack.

Professional live broadcasts allowed society at large to clearly grasp the whole course of the attack.

Beast Entities surfacing from the sea engaged in indiscriminate slaughter of humans and even their pets; startled citizens and tourists fled the coastline, and police stations across districts were mobilized urgently.

In Elizabeth City, home to 18 million people, over 20,000 police officers formed the first line of defense blocking Beast Entities advancing northward.

With prompt response and special police equipped with pulse firearms and various heavy weapons, the police successfully halted the Beast Entities' wanton slaughter and advance.

During this period, it was the most worrisome time for outsiders concerning Elizabeth City, as news and the internet showed the overstretched police struggling to hold on.

When the th Airborne Division, the 78th and rd Infantry Division arrived sequentially and began pushing back toward the coastline, people's anxious hearts finally could "settle down."

Until the Second Fleet eliminated the hundred‑meter giant beast with a single salvo, the outside world realized Elizabeth City was relieved, and also realized humanity had faced some kind of monster, or…

An alien species attack.

Donation channels have opened online, and heated discussions are underway, analyzing and speculating what the Beast Entities are, whether they constitute an alien declaration of war, and so on.

South of Elizabeth City, at roughly six thousand meters above the sea surface.

A warship belonging to Umbrella, deploying Optical Camouflage, hovers here, continuously monitoring surface movements.

If it voluntarily lifts its cloaking, the ship's overall shape becomes visible, vaguely reminiscent of the Fire Spirit.

However, this warship is nearly four kilometers long, with a more compact structure and a widened, enlarged hull; if it truly lifts cloaking over the city, it would certainly cast a sky‑blocking shadow.

Zeus-class heavy aircraft carrier.

It is Umbrella's, and humanity's, currently largest‑tonnage warship.

Equipped with three 450‑meter‑long electromagnetic gun arrays capable of firing 20‑ton tungsten‑iron alloy projectiles, its artillery system is of a kill‑in‑seconds, marathon‑level caliber.

UNSC's largest‑spec warship is the Phoenix-class carrier, fully upgraded by Umbrella; UNSC leadership would never publicly label its flagship fleet carrier as a Phoenix‑class support vessel.

Regarding the Umbrella fleet.

It possesses ten Zeus-class heavy carriers in total, nine of which are primarily led by OriginalBody legions.

The more special one is the ship housing Dark Angel, which is also Sui Bian's flagship, so its specifications, firepower, and crew capacity are slightly higher than the other nine.

As for Sui Bian's original cloaking‑class flagship Gryphon, it serves as a mobile base for NuoWa and Ghost operatives.

After fully outfitting the Zeus-class, Umbrella, though having a next‑stage warship research program, will not build more in the short term.

After all, the current Zeus-class suffices as a legion flagship.

Rog and Magnus, both OriginalBodies, even though each has a dedicated flagship, remain stationed long‑term on the Moon and Mars; unless Sui Bian issues a direct order, they will never leave their respective jurisdictions.

Three other OriginalBodies have already left the Solar System, deployed to the three outermost star systems of humanity's current territories.

Excluding Rog, Magnus, and Leon, four OriginalBodies with their legions and flagships covertly assist UNSC in patrolling the Solar System.

The first to respond to Elizabeth City's attack, the Zeus-class heavy carrier named Bloodtear, is Shengjilesi's flagship.

At this moment, inside the bridge below the bow, equipped with numerous portholes and offering excellent visibility.

Wearing OriginalBody‑powered armor and a deployed helmet, Shengjilesi stands beside the central console on the bridge.

The console generates a three‑dimensional sandbox of Elizabeth City and its surroundings, displaying all real‑time dynamics to this OriginalBody.

Red Queen shrinks her holographic avatar to palm size, "standing" at the far left of the console to assist Shengjilesi with the incident.

Seeing UNSC has fully mastered the situation.

Shengjilesi brings up several holographic screens, watching online discussions and news reports about "aliens" and "monsters," and he can't help but ask:

"Red Queen, didn't father order a lockdown on information about this anomalous event?"

"He said there's no need for me and Bai Hou to deliberately control it," Red Queen replies coldly as always.

"Is that so…" Shengjilesi murmurs thoughtfully, looks ahead, and says:

"Matt, please inform the entire ship to remain on combat readiness."

"Yes, sir."

The young captain, seated at the captain's seat, with neat short hair, nods in response.

On this captain's staff badge is engraved "Employee ID: UM‑A‑176009, Matt Kaise."

Matt Kaise.

He is the son of Jacob Kaise, the legendary captain who once commanded three Eagle‑class ships and forced his way through the Raider fleet, praised within the company.

Young in age, appearing as a "nice guy."

However, Matt was screened through multiple layers of two AIs, ultimately recommended for the flagship captain list, and then personally appointed by Shengjilesi as the captain of Bloodtear.

He has ability but lacks combat experience, which is actually what most Umbrella and UNSC captains lack, given the absence of real battle opportunities.

———————

…

Meanwhile.

Sui Bian's flagship, the Anthem of Courage, is within Mars' gravitational sphere.

On the bridge.

Here the layout mirrors that of Bloodtear's bridge, looking forward through the portholes.

One can directly view Mars' atmosphere, much denser than a decade ago, with equatorial surface features visible to the naked eye—considerable patches of "green" and "blue."

But Sui Bian, standing beside the central console, has no inclination to admire the increasingly "Earth‑like" Martian scenery.

Because not long ago, the system whispered into his mind:

Detecting the Ghost agents under the host's command, a portal opened by the Colonizer race was discovered, and thus a mission was issued.

Mission: Find and kill the leader of the Colonizer race responsible for assimilating and invading another universe's Earth.

Success: Obtain all surviving humans of another universe's Earth.

Failure: No punishment.

Time: No time limit.

(End of chapter)