Chapter 2709

Hearing this news, the two of them instantly widened their eyes. Shiler rushed to the window, turned to look at Natasha, and said: "Are you sure this wasn't arranged by Nick?!"

"How could he possibly do something so reckless?" Natasha said: "That's tens of thousands of lives, and he's not military—he wouldn't do something like this even if he went crazy!"

Shiler quickly calmed down, thought it over, and Nick really shouldn't be capable of something like this—his moral底线 is low, but his stance is clear; he stands on the side of human civilization.

The space station can have accidents, after all, this is humanity's first attempt, so mistakes are inevitable, but the space station cannot be destroyed—if the very first step is met with a thunderous blow right at the outset, it would likely severely dampen the enthusiasm of nations, making future similar endeavors difficult.

Nick only wanted to create a crisis to get everyone to work together to resolve it, not to destroy the world. Such a massive space station plummeting at high speed into Earth—if it lands on land, it could even pierce straight through the continental shelf—then he would truly be a sinner against humanity.

Shiler took a deep breath, pulled out his phone, dialed a number, and said to the person on the other end: "Hey? Clark, look up at the sky!"

At this point, there was no time to worry about training or not training—first, stop the space station from falling, then talk.

When Shiler's call came through, Clark was already airborne, and he sensed the disaster in the sky faster than any human could, but he truly had no confidence in catching the space station instantly while ensuring everyone inside remained unharmed, so he didn't rush up immediately—instead, he kept adjusting his posture.

When Shiler called, it happened to be just the right moment. As Clark surged upward, he still didn't forget to ask: "Can I let them see me?"

"Better not." Shiler said: "On one hand, this universe has no Superman—your public appearance might cause some problems. On the other hand, this is a drill—we should try to remain undetected."

"A drill?! Are people in your universe this wild? If this thing hit me on the head, I'd be dazed for three seconds!"

"That serious?!" Shiler said, somewhat astonished.

"Isn't this something you guys built?!" Clark said, even more surprised: "I can confirm that whatever is currently falling down is extremely hard, and inside it is a kind of metal I've never seen in my universe..."

Shiler then recalled that the space station's main structure is made of molten steel alloy, with some vibranium mixed in. Though its hardness doesn't surpass adamantium alloy, it has better toughness and shock absorption than adamantium alloy—indeed, it's quite hard.

Thinking of this, Shiler suddenly remembered Howard had also participated in the space station's design, and he once mentioned that some critical parts of the station used the same structure as Captain America's shield.

Captain America's shield has one greatest function: no matter how high Captain America jumps from, as long as the shield touches the ground, he won't be injured at all—that's the wonder of vibranium steel.

If that's the case, the space station's design may have already anticipated a fall. Thinking this through, Shiler said to Clark: "You just need to ensure the people inside the space station are safe—adjust speed and direction as needed, and let it come down!"

"Are you crazy?!" Clark said: "What guarantee do you have that it won't disintegrate the instant it touches down? No human could withstand such an impact!"

Shiler went over Howard and Stark's resumes in his mind several times, especially recalling Howard's expression when talking about his technology and Stark's reaction upon hearing the drill plan, which strengthened his resolve. He said: "Yes, you just need to provide timely deceleration, but don't stop the fall—let it drop. Best if it lands in the sea."

"That's not difficult—from the trajectory, it will indeed fall into the sea, roughly south of Australia, near Antarctica. I'm currently using a bio-force field to slow its speed."

"Alright, Clark, stay in touch with me at all times. I need to contact the technical personnel who built this thing—I'll get back to you later."

Let Ouchuang maintain communication with Clark. Shiler called Howard—now it's a race against time, he had no small talk, and directly asked: "If the space station falls into the sea at this speed, will there be a problem?"

Howard's end was very noisy—clearly he was arguing with various technical staff. Howard shouted loudly: "I know my own creations—I guarantee there won't be a problem!! Even if it falls at original speed, at most people would just be knocked unconscious or injured—no one would die!!!"

Shiler heard various languages being spoken, among which the loudest shouting was in Chinese—they firmly opposed Howard doing such attempts.

From these blunt remarks, Shiler could infer that the arguers split into two sides: one for mid-air interception, one for waiting until impact. China was the former, Howard the latter.

China proposed a mid-air interception plan, mainly relying on their domestic mutants' power—having the Weather Witch, Wan Zhong Wang, and others go up to catch the space station, ensuring personnel losses are minimized to the lowest possible level.

Meanwhile, Howard said it's completely fine to let the space station just smash into the water surface—his deceleration device and outer shell structure can offset 99% of the impact force, and the worst result from the remaining 1% would be that those inside are knocked unconscious or suffer only minor injuries.

Clearly, the latter sounds unreliable—it looks like pure gambling. Even if I trust Howard's technical ability, I don't have full confidence.

Seeing that the argument couldn't go on much longer, Shiler suddenly thought of a method and said to Howard: "Do you have your blueprints on hand? If so, hand them over to the Chinese side—they'll understand you're telling the truth."

Howard was a bit doubtful, obviously he'd gotten a bit worked up, feeling the other side just didn't trust him. Shiler didn't bother with him and directly had Ouchuang send the blueprints to Zheng Xian.

Soon, the argument subsided. After reviewing the blueprints, the Chinese technical experts unanimously agreed Howard was telling the truth—they didn't say another word to him, but immediately arranged personnel to prepare for maritime search and rescue and salvage.

Clark was controlling the space station's speed, but he had previously noticed the station itself already had a deceleration suspension device, also regulating speed. Now, although the people inside were unconscious, they weren't in life-threatening danger—indeed, they might even wake up after descending to a certain altitude.

The space station gradually broke through the atmosphere. Clark could say he was carefully controlling its attitude and speed, while constantly monitoring everyone's heart rate inside, to prevent anyone from having a health issue and dying accidentally.

But as he kept controlling, Clark suddenly sensed something was off. He immediately contacted Shiler via comms and said: "Does your drill include a segment on damaging the deceleration device?"

"Of course not!" Shiler said firmly. He had already gotten into the car with Natasha and Coulson heading to the airport. Although an accident occurred, the plan must continue—departing for Texas won't interfere with long-distance remote command.

"The deceleration device is broken." Clark said truthfully: "Before entering the atmosphere, it was fine. If it were working normally, those inside would just be unconscious or suffer minor collision injuries—overall stable. But now it's broken, and without me, those inside wouldn't survive more than three seconds."

"Can you tell how it broke?"

Clark wanted to say he didn't know, because he truly wasn't clear on how this device works. After thinking, he said: "I don't need to hold up the space station, so I can fly in and take you a photo—but don't expect me to fix it. I just looked at it, and if it weren't in another universe, I'd think this thing should have a bat symbol on it."

"How so?"

"Even a super-genius brain can't figure out how it works." Clark said very honestly: "Your scientists made a leap in thinking at some stage, and I lack that kind of scientific inspiration."

Shiler then realized he was referring to the Stark父子's miraculous scientific approach, but he still asked Clark to fly in and take him a photo.

This photo hit the mark—Shiler immediately sent it to Howard, who let out a miserable cry.

"This is human sabotage!!!!" Howard shouted on the other end, seemingly explaining to a group of foreign scientists: "Someone sabotaged the deceleration system's power core! Do you see this? This spot was smashed!!"

Then came a chorus of multilingual discussion from the other side. Finally, the scientists collectively gave Shiler an answer: this thing wasn't naturally damaged—someone struck the deceleration system's core directly, rendering it completely useless.

This made Shiler even more suspicious. He called Nick again to confirm it wasn't Nick behind it. Nick also confirmed to Shiler it wasn't him. After comparing notes, they found neither was responsible for this incident—then they realized: there's always been a mysterious third party behind the scenes, stirring trouble.

After a brief thought, Shiler said to Clark: "Can you figure out a way to remain unseen by anyone, and hover the space station in midair? A few ten thousand feet high would do."

"I can hold up the space station and fly for a while." Clark said: "But if something else flies by, it might be able to see me."

"As long as you're not visible from inside the space station, that's fine—we now suspect there's a mysterious person inside the station causing sabotage, so don't let him see you."

For Clark, doing this wasn't difficult—after all, he's very good at holding things while flying. He let the space station's descent speed gradually slow to zero, then simply held it hovering in midair.

Shiler immediately informed all nations via Howard: S. H. I. E. L. D. has found personnel to intercept the space station, because now isn't a good time to test collision safety—since the mysterious person can sabotage the deceleration system, they could sabotage other areas too. We can't risk so many lives on this gamble.

Thus, Howard couldn't oppose anymore. He had confidence in his technology, but not in the malicious intent of this mysterious person. If they truly destroyed certain structures inside the hull, this whole thing would come crashing down—and he would truly become a historical sinner.

What relieved Shiler and Nick was that these scientists didn't pin their hopes on their superhuman abilities. Instead, they began researching how to conduct rescue operations in midair.

Currently, the space station is in the middle of the atmospheric warm layer, roughly around 400 kilometers altitude. The station itself is insulated and temperature-stabilized, so the warm layer's temperature doesn't affect it much.

Earlier, we mentioned the 13 areas that lost power—over half of them are on the falling half. The staff there have evacuated, so now there aren't many people in that half, and oxygen is sufficient for a period of time.

However, this altitude is somewhat awkward for human spaceflight—airplanes definitely can't operate here, and most nations' space shuttles can't either. Wakanda's aircraft are very suitable for this altitude.

But all of Wakanda's ships have been dispatched to the other half to pick up people—after all, over half of the people are still there waiting for rescue.

Wakanda's ships are good, but too small—they can't carry many people at once. Just that alone keeps them busy.

Shiler originally thought they'd at least need to discuss for a while, but as soon as he boarded the plane, Ouchuang told him the discussion results were out.

The few Kree escort ships previously captured by humanity are now docked at the星港 on the edge of the solar system. Those ships are quite large, and their various life-support facilities are complete—very suitable for picking up people.

The only problem is they're flying too close to Earth, which might be dangerous—after all, this thing wasn't designed for Earth specifications. During modification, most changes were geared toward interstellar travel, with no consideration for near-Earth rescue—so risks definitely exist.

But there's no time to worry about that now—we must get these large spacecraft to rescue the remaining people inside the space station, then send Wakanda's ships and the space station's own small craft to save those in the half that broke off.

The moment the plan was confirmed, government headquarters and technical centers across nearly every nation on Earth lit up layer by layer, like brilliant fireworks shot into the sky—

The largest near-Earth rescue in human history has begun.