Chapter 386: Expansion (Part I)

"Atlas tells me you received a new order from the Master, No. 2... Has something happened over in Brazil?"

A familiar voice came from the mouth of the burly, unfamiliar Decepticon body standing before him.

The electromagnetic spectrum on his body, unique to Decepticons, appeared somewhat dim and unfamiliar.

However, there were only a few true Decepticons stationed within Base No. 2, and recently, only one 'Pioneer' had been scheduled to replace his New Body, and he was the only one who could enter this hall in the core area of Base No. 2 without triggering the base's alarm system.

Combined with what he had just said, No. 2 and Frenzy identified his identity in an instant.

Pioneer!

Brawl's hand, which was fiddling with a wheeled grenade launcher, paused; his eyes were filled with greed as he looked at Pioneer, and jealousy made his already somewhat ugly face look even more ferocious.

"Hmm?!"

This heated gaze was instantly captured by Pioneer, whose ability to detect his surroundings had greatly increased after changing into his New Body.

Following the gaze, he met the eyes of Brawl, who made no effort to hide his jealousy and faint hostility; capturing all of the other's emotional changes in an instant, he merely snorted coldly but did not speak.

Although Pioneer had previously been sent by Sun Cheng to Russia and had stayed in North Port for several months, he still knew that his Master had recruited a Decepticon Warrior like Mixmaster.

If it were in the past, he might have been somewhat wary of Brawl, because the appearance of this person would directly affect his status in the Master's heart.

However, he did not need to worry now.

With the advancement of cooperation with China and Russia, more and more scarce materials were being continuously delivered, and Sun Cheng had also fulfilled his promise to the Decepticon Workers and several Warriors who followed him, beginning to replace their bodies with New Bodies.

Although Pioneer was not the first Warrior under Sun Cheng to return to the base to change his body, Sun Cheng was clearly very satisfied with his performance on the night Mixmaster invaded the Severodvinsk naval port; the alloy used for his New Body was no weaker than Brawl's, and once he passed the break-in period and completely mastered his current body, his comprehensive strength would exceed Brawl's by at least a notch, and he would even have the strength to fight Mixmaster.

Therefore, he ignored Brawl's hostility.

The Decepticons were a race where strength was supreme; his current combat power was still above Brawl's, and if he really dared to provoke him, he would just beat him down.

No. 2 had only just returned to the base from Rio; he had received a notification to return this time, naturally to replace his body with a New Body.

Staring at Pioneer's brand-new body with some envy, he then replied: "My lord, I received a notification from the base to return and replace my body... The Master didn't have any new orders, but I just reported the situation in Brazil to him a few days ago, and I have already received the Master's permission!"

Come to think of it, No. 2 bore no small responsibility for why Brazil was so chaotic now.

Not long ago, a human whom Sun Cheng had developed early on in Rio—Rivera—was targeted by Brazilian prosecutors, who suspected him of involvement in 'arms smuggling', 'corruption', and 'hiring killers', and eventually, the Rio police moved to arrest him.

Rivera still had a bit of cleverness; before being caught, he activated a special signaling watch that the base had configured for him earlier, notifying No. 2 that he was in trouble.

At first, No. 2 was indeed prepared to rescue him according to the normal procedure, but before he could act, he was stopped by Yuri, who had already defected to Sun Cheng and changed his name.

Yuri had completely taken over all of Rivera's connections; this former Senior Agent of the CIA believed that Rivera was completely useless, and being ambitious, he was very clear about the ambitions of these extraterrestrial beings he had defected to regarding the control of Brazil, so he managed to persuade No. 2 to kill Rivera on the spot while he was being transported.

And Yuri was truly worthy of his CIA background; he had already completely digested Rivera's connections, and with Rio as the center, he had initially established an organization, the 'Card Association', in Brazil, which was involved with the upper echelons of Brazilian state-owned enterprises and parts of the military.

At the same time, he also took advantage of Brazil's relatively loose policies to control four or five security companies, large and small, through various overt and covert means; he had recruited thousands of retired soldiers alone, and having received support from the base, he was different from ordinary security companies—aside from aircraft and main battle tanks, they had almost everything in terms of light and heavy weapons.

Yuri secretly used cheap drugs and arms to fund, control, and incite gangs and major drug lord forces across Brazil, and at his request, No. 2 also took action one after another to help assassinate many high-ranking police, political, and military officials in Rio.

Under his constant fanning of the flames, the Brazilian drug lords and gang forces, who already dared to confront the government, became even more unscrupulous after obtaining large quantities of arms and drugs from him at low prices.

With a gentle push from Yuri behind the scenes, several major drug lords and gang forces took advantage of the chaos in the Rio police, political, and military circles to attack several prisons and police stations; after hundreds of thugs successfully broke out of prison, a riot subsequently shocked all of Brazil and even half the world.

Rio, once Brazil's most prosperous tourist destination, had simply become hell; the thugs, secretly aided by Yuri, were armed with AKs, RPGs, and various anti-tank missiles, dealing painful blows to the Brazilian police's helicopters and armored vehicles in street fighting; in just over a month, hundreds of Brazilian military police had died in the unrest, and the number of civilian and tourist casualties was immeasurable.

The City of God had turned into hell!

The Brazilian government had no choice but to mobilize more than 60,000 military police, including 2,600 paratroopers and 1,200 United States Marine Corps personnel, to begin clearing out this riot.

Unfortunately, the opponents they faced this time were no longer the thugs and hooligans of the past who held semi-automatic rifles, submachine guns, and pistols, but thugs whose cruelty exceeded that of the armed drug traffickers in Mexico.

Thus, the clearing operation met with stubborn resistance; although the vast majority of gang members and drug traffickers were far from being the opponents of the military police, their fighting was very fierce, and although they could not win in a head-on confrontation, they repeatedly gave the clearing military police heavy losses in street fighting through surprise attacks.

In the end, it took the Brazilian government a full two months to completely bring the Rio urban area under control, but there were still several slums in the suburbs that might be hiding a considerable number of gang militants, and many drug lords had withdrawn their strength from Rio and moved to other cities in the state.

In the past nearly two months, taking advantage of the riots in Rio, Yuri and his group had expanded their forces terrifyingly; just the security companies on the surface had now expanded to have more than 3,000 retired soldiers, and they had obtained special approval from the Brazilian government to use a military police training base for daily training.

And in secret, what he had gained was far beyond what was on the surface.

Brazil was very chaotic now, so chaotic that voices of impeachment against the current president were endless throughout the country, and Rio State, where Brazil's economy was most prosperous, was still in turmoil, which was a good time to fish in troubled waters.

And at this moment, whether it was influenced by the chaotic situation in Brazil or not, its neighbor Bolivia also showed some bad signs, which allowed Yuri to see an opportunity.