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Others were too far away, out in the city's suburbs, and would need to make their way deeper into the city via the subway systems to be any help where they were most needed. Thankfully, beyond surface strikes shaking the underground, the Chitauri hadn't made any effort to stop the subway trains from moving, although there would no doubt be problems regardless.
Better, Steve also got in contact with the officer leading the army's efforts to push in their nearest armored division. No one in their right mind wanted to take the tanks into the city, but they could elevate their guns enough to actually hit some of the skimmers and other flying units from three miles away, and were accompanied by the M163 VADS for antiair cover. But if they were just out there on their own, the skimmers would close through their fire and slaughter them, so Steve had several of the infantry units rerouted to bolster that formation's close-in support, and contacted Archangel and E directly to back them up.
Steve knew better than to give Tony outright orders. The man would ignore them just to be difficult. Besides, say what you will about Tony, he's causing more trouble for the Chitauri and E at the moment.
Once he was done working with the more mundane military units, Steve moved on, asking, "Scarlet Witch, how are you doing on your end?" over the coms.
Scarlet Witch had broken off from the other flyers. Able to handle herself thanks to her Chaos Magic, she had moved to defend the westward area of the blockade around Washington, working closely with several Air Force officers from bases in Virginia and West Virginia to destroy any skimmer groups trying to break out to cause trouble. They'd taken losses, but working with Wanda had kept them from losing too many planes.
"We're doing alright on this end. But if you think we're going to be able to break in anytime soon, I'd think again," the Scarlet Witch answered, her voice strained, filled with pain. While she had become an experienced fighter by this point, the former gypsy had never fought so many enemies in the air, and her legs had taken a hit from a skimmer that had ducked down when she had thought it was going to go up just as she had decided to dodge its fire instead of renewing her magical shield in favor of attacking another skimmer. Thanks to her armor that hit hadn't been crippling but her legs were now feeling a bit sunburnt and black and blue.
"I seriously need to get better at dual casting or switching from one cast to another," she grumbled, before coming back on task. "The Air Force is doing their best, but it takes two missiles to down a skimmer, and the fighters can only carry so many before needing to rearm. ON the offensives, the big manta-ray things blast down too many for us to saturate their defenses."
"Damn it." Steve rarely cursed, but having his nation invaded from extra-dimensional invaders certainly called for it. "At least the evacuation has picked up speed. Praise God for Storm and her mass teleportation spells, or we'd be pushing through hordes of panicking civilians."
"Indeed," a new voice intoned, causing Steve to start before he could place the voice: Pinoptes, the AI of the Hanging Gardens. But there was more emotion in the AI's tone than normal, a tone of deep, heartfelt grief. "In point of fact, Storm's nearly ready to move on from DC. The butchery in Paris is accelerating, and she is nearly done going over the grid for Washington. What surviving civilians have been teleported out are all there will be."
For a moment Steve and the rest of Force Washington looked at one another in silence. Iceman and Boom Boom, the youngest on the team, were both looking green, while Cyclops' jaw, visible under his mask, was clenched teeth-shatteringly tight in rage. Black Widow was looking a little sick despite her past as a spy, and Avalanche began to repeatedly wail on a nearby wall. All of them knew that regardless of their efforts, the death toll among the civilians would make any event any of them had been involved in prior to this seem tame in comparison. Indeed, America might well have lost more civilians than in any disaster, military or otherwise, in its history.
When Pinoptes spoke up once more, Steve feared that the AI would tell them precisely how many had died so far. But he should have known better. Having spent enough time around humans to know how such news would have been received, the AI kept that grim toll to itself. Instead, Pinoptes spoke of the actual military threat. "Moreover, Professor Richards and I have discerned where the jamming equipment is coming from, as well as where the Beacon, the device that allowed the Chitauri to open their dimensional portal, is located."
Steve breathed a sigh of relief at that, while Cyclops allowed himself a fist pump in the air for a moment, and then got on his own magical intercom to call his girlfriend. "Rogue, love of my life and currently the hottest green-scaled monster in the world, where are you?"
"I'm at the Holocaust Museum. Just got blasted through a building nearby, be damned eel things are getting better at tagging me when I'm in the air. And let me tell you, the damage around here and the bodies are just, just horrible," Rogue's tone was extremely grim, killing Cyclops' exceedingly brief moment of humor.
Clearing his throat, Cyclops went on briskly. "Right. We've got the coordinates for the portal, sending them to your…"
"Just tell me. My helmet took a hit and the HUD's been kind of wonky. Your voice is coming through, but barely," the southern belle interrupted quickly.
Cyclops read out the coordinates, and then thanks to Charles and his connection to the high command nearby, gave her the address where the Beacon could be found. "I hate to say it, but you might be the one best suited to just, well, Hulk smash your way in there."
Rogue answered in the affirmative and then signed off, and Cyclops hoped that she would be able to get to it quickly. The sights and sounds of what the Chitauri had left behind were obviously getting to her. And since she had seen the remains of Asgard's oceans rising and the dead left behind by the Fire jotun, that was very worrisome indeed.
A blast of energy outside their current hidey-hole caused everyone to look out the window. This was followed by three streaks of hellebore fire flashing through that same airspace from wherever New Jersey was. "What are they firing at?"
It was Emma's voice who replied mentally to Psylocke's question for some reason. "New Jersey's assault has forced a large portion of those giant flying fish things out of the city to chase after them. Her attack group is retreating to keep the range open just in case they have anything that can get through the Black Dragon's shielding. But it has the coordinates for the portal, and just fired straight through it! Damn, I don't think it'll be able to do so often if those flying fish eel creatures closed the range, but for now…" Another series of deadly energy blasts came out from beyond the horizon to streak over the cityscape, making any further words superfluous.
"Right. Make sure their captain is reaching out to the Army and Air Force, hopefully the Air Force has some more planes to send out there to back them up. Or if the captain thinks he can handle it, we can maybe create a Big Wing situation, bring all our jets in on one attack from that vector, with the New Jersey's guns plowing the road for them," Steve ordered, then went back to his mental map of the city.
Several things had changed in the last few seconds, and he took a few more minutes to issue orders, getting in contact with still more of the arriving infantry forces via Charles. After this is over, I have to remember to push for more high-tech coms to be spread out to allied forces. Using the telepaths for this isn't the best use of their abilities.
Steve also took a brief second to wonder what voices in their heads would be doing to people's paranoia in the future, and were doing to their morale now, but hoped that Charles would sit on any instincts Emma had to control the individuals she was so connecting to.
Then he moved on, giving out orders to Cyclops and the others around them. "Cyclops, take Nightcrawler, Black Widow and Hawkeye with you. Shut down the comms jammers, and keep in contact with Rogue to reinforce her." Steve knew Cyclops wasn't the sort to fly off the handle if his girlfriend got into trouble, but it was best to make certain. "Beyond that…"
Steve was again interrupted this time by Storm, who sounded quite harassed at the moment as she spoke into the communicator. "Captain America, I have Nick Fury here. I just teleported him and apparently a small fifth column he had created from various agents and police out of the inner city. He is quite cross with me at the moment, but…"
OOOOOOO
About twenty minutes before Force Washington had broken contact successfully enough to take a small break, Nick Fury was shaking his head as he looked around at the exceedingly mixed group, he'd been able to pull together since this assault began through having nothing more than a nasty look, a no-nonsense demeanor and acting as if he had a clue as to what to do. "How many guns do we have?"
"Six rifles at the moment, mostly grabbed by some of the Chitauri we've been able to kill," Agent Leo reported, his former secretary, shrugged her shoulders minutely. "I think you're the only one who still got ammunition for his original rifle, sir. Even with the… the professor helping us as best he can, we've still been going through ammunition at a prodigious rate."
And people, she didn't add, knowing better than to say that aloud or voice her concerns about a telepath ruffling through either of their brains. The group had gathered people to them thanks to Professor X helping them and other groups of survivors link up and Nick being able to command enough respect to get the groups pointed in the same direction. Yet just as often, the men and women they gathered fell in battle.
The first group, fifteen policemen, had died nearly to a man trying to defend a street from Chitauri skimmers. None of them had obeyed Nick's furious orders to retreat, to pull back out of contact. Instead, they had fought to the last to protect a group of civilians without doing anything. The skimmers had absorbed their fire and slaughtered every civilian on the street. After which, Nick's remaining people had been forced to fight their way through several buildings against Chitauri infantry before they were able to break contact.
Which had only been possible thanks, again, to Charles helping to direct them. Frankly, the telepath was doing such a good job, that Nick, professional paranoiac though he was, had elected to not care overmuch about how many secrets might be laid bare in either Leo or his own mind to the man right now.
Hearing this, Nick cursed a bit at that, before looking around. Currently, Nick, Agent Leo, and several locals crouched, hiding within a restaurant of some kind. For some reason, the smell of some of the restaurants within the city kept Chitauri from entering them. Nick had actually seen one of them poke its head in, recoil, and leave before spotting him in the doorway to the kitchen.
Why this was, he couldn't say, and Charles hadn't hinted at having figured out a pattern to such moments in their telepathic communications. Nick had what most would call a dullard's nose, and none of the hanging bits of garlic or whatever bothered him all that much, nor any of the others. Hell, how are the fucking aliens smelling at all? The Chitauri don't even have God damn noses.
Shaking his head amused at how the human mind traveled down strange paths during stressful situations, Nick looked around at where a few large packs lay, having been laid down by some of the locals. "Well, you still got a lot of things we can use to blow shit up, at least."
Two policemen, who they had picked up a few streets back, shook their heads dryly at that, one of them very clearly still dealing with the mental shock at what was happening. That was easy enough to understand in Nick's opinion. Hell, even Nick, a hardened WW2 vet, was still having trouble with how quickly Washington had fallen into the alien's hands, thanks to the strange portal-based method they had used to invade.
In contrast, the grins on some of the other locals, worried Nick a bit. Judging from how they dressed and had been acting since they'd joined up with his little troupe, several of them were almost certainly criminals of some sort. Luckily, they were outnumbered by the more regular citizens, men and women who had grabbed up some kind of weapon and tried to fight back against the Chitauri when many had tried to run away.
too often, those who had tried to run, either by vehicle or on foot, had trampled their fellows in their fear of being gunned down by the Chitauri. And precious few who tried to run had gotten away regardless.
Nick had seen a lot of horrible things in his life. He had lived through the horrors of WW2, led his Howling Commandoes against Strucker, Zemo and the Red Skull. He had seen the insides of several mad scientist-type lab back then and again during his time as leader of SHIELD. He had seen demon lairs, and concentration camps. He had even seen the horrors of Japan-occupied China and Korea.
Despite all that, the hardened spy knew the sight of a mother and son being trampled to death by a crowd of fleeing civilians, many of whom didn't even notice what they were doing as they tried to run away from the fire of the Chitauri, would be joining his nightmares. And it wasn't the only such sight Nick had seen today.
"Where do we go from here?" Another local asked. He dressed like a lawyer, but one who took his health seriously and had proven to be a crack shot with a pistol that he had apparently taken from the body of someone earlier that day during a close-in fight with the Chitauri infantry when they'd fought their way through a building several streets back.
Nick frowned a bit, wondering that himself, and then tried to, to send out his thoughts. As Nick wasn't a telepath, this wasn't really what he was doing but it felt a better way of explaining it than acknowledging the fact that Charles was the one doing all the work. Regardless, Nick knew that thinking of his picture of Charles had proven able to grab the man's attention before this. "Professor, do you have any suggestions about what we should be doing right now? I think we either need to figure out a way to rearm, or simply act as watchers until we can."
There was no immediate reply, and Nick frowned, but knew that probably meant that either Charles had no idea what they should do, or his attention was fully occupied elsewhere. For all his immense telepathic power, Professor X could only concentrate on so many things at once.
Good to know that even someone like him has limitations, I suppose, Nick thought, somewhat leery of telepaths at the best of times. As someone who had two lifetimes worth of national secrets in his head, that was only natural, but he could not deny how much help the professor had been today, guiding them through the city away from larger concentrations of Chitauri and toward civilians willing to fight back.
At the moment they were near Capitol Hill because he had hoped to get close enough to see what was going on within the capital complex, maybe even reach one of the weapons caches there that he had been forced to hand over to the Secret Service once SHIELD had been dissolved. Those caches had some seriously nasty goodies, but had, perforce, been mainly set up too far away for the White House's defenders to get to in time. Something else we're going to need to think about going forward.
Contrary to his hopes, the whole place was crawling with Chitauri. Nick and his group had been forced to turn back several times and he'd lost at least a dozen men in their latest attempt to break out between two buildings. The fact my makeshift militia has been going through their ammunition like water isn't helping matters, but that's more like the shit icing on this particularly crappy day.
"We need to pull back and rearm," Nick finally decided when no input from Charles was forthcoming. "Anyone know where we can get our hands on some guns? I'm afraid the ones I know about aren't reachable from where we are at the moment."
The first cache he, Agent Leo (or Leona to her friends, which did not include her boss) had reached had helped. But the ammunition hadn't lasted, and they hadn't had enough hands at the time to empty it at the time regardless. From here it was more than a hundred blocks away, far too far to be of much use.
Whatever response the group was going to make was silenced by the hiss from their lookout. "Large group of Chitauri moving down the road, skimmers and infantry both. One of them's… different. He doesn't look like a regular Chitauri at all."
"Out the back and down to the sewers," Nick ordered instantly. The group, ten men and seven women strong moved quickly, leaving the restaurant behind and heading down into the sewers via the same manhole cover they had used to enter it, but going in a different direction from. Nick was the last out and prepared a little surprise behind them by the entrance to the restaurant just in case the Chitauri somehow worked up the courage, or whatever, to enter the restaurant.
Moments later from his new position in the sewers, he heard the explosion go off and smiled grimly.
Led by two men with flashlights, the group quickly moved through the sewers, then up to the next manhole cover. Lifting those things from below was not easy, and more than one of the men grumbled to themselves about how movies had lied to them for years about that. But eventually it was moved, and one of the slimmer women quickly poked her upper body up, purloined alien gun raised and moving in every direction. She had been a waitress before today, but now moved like a trained veteran.
She signaled all clear and the group were moving up and out of the sewers quickly. But, as Nick left the sewers, a skimmer flew overhead, banked sharply, and came down on them, opening fire with a suddenness that would have put any helicopter crew to shame. Caught between the sewer entrance and cover four of Nick's people went down, their chests and heads exploding under the fire, and one of the men fell back into the sewer, smashing the next person, another woman, off the ladder, causing a chain reaction that had two more falling back into the sewer in a heap.
Nick leaped forward rolling to put a trash compactor between him and the incoming fire, twitching his rifle out over the lip to fire back. He heard the hateful noise of the Chitauri shield activating to block his gun, and growled, "Damn it!"
The skimmer sat there for a moment, taking his return fire, and hosing down the entire alleyway, with its heavy repeating energy gun. But thankfully, it's fire wasn't all that accurate, and unlike Nick, the rest of the surviving group that were caught in the open knew to play dead. They had seen several times today that the Chitauri were somewhat like cats. If their prey stopped running or trying to fight back, they lost interest.
Eventually Nick decided the same thing and showed his arm spasming in place for a moment dropping his rifle as he fell forward.
Surprisingly, perhaps because of the rifle, the skimmer moved forward and a second later, two of the Chitauri aboard hopped down moving check Nick's body.
A Molotov cocktail was hurled up from behind them by the woman who had been the first out of the sewer, smashing into the back of the head of the Chitauri still on the skimmer. Fire spread across them quickly, causing the aliens to panic. Whatever cyborg additions the Chitauri had, they were still living breathing beings, and people almost always had the same reaction to being set on fire.
The skimmer was flung to the side smashing into a building as the operator panicked, crushing himself against it. The skimmer had been going too slowly to activate its shield.
The two Chitauri on the ground quickly turned, but by the time they did Nick had his rifle up and fired at one of them in the back, while his secretary, still alive thankfully, fired from the open manhole. Both Chitauri went down, and Leona quickly pulled herself up and out, followed by five more of his makeshift militia. "Two dead down below," she explained brusquely. "Lindsey smacked her skull against the side of the tunnel, and Tristan landed badly and broke his spine when Derek's body hit us. Deter's also got a few broken ribs."
Realizing that Derek must've been the name of the dead man who had been caught half out of the sewer, Nick nodded, shaking his head. Fuck, I haven't bothered to learn any of their names. Hell, why has Leona bothered when they might be dead all too soon? That might have sounded cynical, but then, against just one skimmer the group had just lost a little under half its fighting strength. And judging by the wide eyes and shaking hands of a few of the others, they weren't going to be good for much for a while. Just like green cadets flung into the firing line the moment they joined the commandoes. Green as grass and just as easy to cut we said back then.
But one of the first people out of the sewer hadn't gotten involved in fighting at all. He'd been the first to get into one of the nearby buildings, and had pushed his way deeper into it. Now, he waved his hand from the entryway, getting Nick's attention. "Fury, get over here! There something you need to see."
Nick obeyed, with the rest of his people following quickly, hiding themselves in the building. The blasted, shattered remnant of a building, really. The upper three floors had been destroyed, and all the windows seemed to have been blown out by whatever had done the deed. Judging from what he'd seen over the past few hours, Nick felt that might have been one of the giant eel-like constructs having fun.
It was also very obvious that the Chitauri had been through the building before despite the damage done to the upper floors as they passed several bodies of office workers and others. One of the locals muttered that this was a recording studio at one point along with a local radio show. "Guess it's going to be off the air permanently now."
That bit of gallows humor caused several snorts, but Nick concentrated on weaving his way through the debris after the man who had called for them. Soon, they were on the topmost intact floor, and the man motioned them all to start crawling. Crawling through the debris on the floor was not fun, and more than one of them cursed a bit as bits of debris caught at clothing or tore at skin. Agent Leo's hissing comment of, "Fuck me, next time I go crawling, I'm going to wear a damn corset," caused several snickers as well.
Soon, Nick was by the windows, and slowly peeking out over it.
What the man had seen was what looked like some kind of command skimmer, perhaps the same one that had been spotted moments before. It wasn't one of the troop transports, the Chitauri equivalent of an APC. Nick had seen several of those already and had even helped put one down along with its users. But this one was built more along the lines of a normal skimmer, but larger with several banks of computers, and a series of small speakers. Its shield was also permanently on, rather than waiting to snap up and intercept threats.
On it was one of the aliens, but this was not one of the normal Chitauri they'd faced up to this point. No, this one was very obviously special. He was not only taller, but he also had an actual mouth rather than mask coverings. His features appeared almost lizard-like, with yellow eyes, and a strange, ragged looking suit. Rather than a rifle, he also had a large scythe in one hand, of all things.
Nick looked over his shoulder at his group, whispering harshly, "Get that makeshift explosive up here. And Rill, you've got the best arm right?"
The man, who'd bragged about having beaten an alien to death with a metal bat and only went by his nickname of Rill (Nick wasn't certain he believed that but didn't care one way or the other as the man's arms were larger than his head) nodded firmly. "Time to put my attempt to enter the big leagues to work, I guess." He murmured, and began to crawl towards Nick, being very careful to stay as low to the floor as possible. All of them had learned by this point that being spotted meant death.
However, as he did, one of them from the far back hissed out, "Look at the floor! It's glowing. What's happening?"
Despite not being on the ground floor, something was indeed glowing underneath them. Not like it was red hot about to explode, but as if white and blue light was being somehow directed up through the floor.
Nick recognized this from Charles's description. "Oh, you have got to be kidding…" Nick began, before he and his surviving militia group disappeared.
OOOOOOO
Outside, Corvus Glaive paused in shouting orders into various communication devices, staring over to where a series of blue and white lights had appeared for a second in his peripheral vision. They were gone now, but he stared in the direction they'd been for a second, before shaking his head, and moving back to giving out orders. The damage to his antiair defenses had to be made good quickly, and the antiair pyramid extended further.
These humans have some decently armed jetfighters, and I have to keep them at arm's length. To say nothing of that seafaring battleship. Such a quaint concept, but one that obviously can be effective with enough technology while acting defensively. I cannot allow it to just sit out there firing into the portal, blast it. That will take most of my Ripper units out of play. I also need a shield generator to be brought in quickly to defend the beacon just in case. That blasted green-scaled female is tearing across the city directly towards it! I don't know how I would fair against such a monster, but I refuse to let such a, a simple danger defeat this beachhead!
Worse, reports indicated that the humans were pushing back now. Units of human infantry had appeared within the city in some manner that he didn't understand, while massive chunks of the civilians had been transported out, removing the majority of his prey. That, too needed to be dealt with somehow.
OOOOOOO
After listening to what Nick had passed on, Steve spent a few minutes before asking questions about where Nick had been, trying to figure out a way to get ahead of this special alien or trap him somehow before Charles came up with a solution for finding the enemy commander in the first place that Steve would not have thought of. "I will be able to lock onto this commander's mind. It is far more intelligent and… self-aware than the regular Chitauri, but while it has mental defenses I cannot break without it being aware of me, I can keep track of the being easily. The regular Chitauri are almost like a hive mind in nature, perhaps because of the heavy cyborg surgeries they have gone through?"
The older man's telepathic voice trailed off as he seemed to lose himself in thought for a second before everyone there twitched, a tiny jolt going through their minds, the backwash of Emma nudging him telepathically. Normally her self-control was better than to allow for that, but at present, Emma was stretched thin. "Er, regardless, I will be able to guide you straight to him."
"Can you reach out to Rogue as well? If you're sure you can find him and the rest of the infantry are causing problems elsewhere, I think this calls for a change of plans," Captain America said, smirking a little bit.
OOOOOOO
With his throne using its defenses to once more send a series of missiles coming in through one of the open portals back through the same portal, Thanos turned, staring in amused interest as two bolts of intense energy came through from another portal. In this case, the portal lead to the front controlled by Corvus Glaive. That is the capital of the strongest nation on Earth, the one called America. It is also home to the Fantastic Four and many of Guardian's followers. Thus, it makes sense they have some interesting toys.
A simple touch of a button activated a small replicator at the back of his throne while Thanos read a report on where that bolt of energy had come from and its composition. Several seconds later, several small helix- shaped devices appeared around the portal leading to Washington, DC. What does the DC stand for again? No matter. That city will die along with the rest of this world.
Thanos watched as the helix-shaped devices moved under their own power, flying forward to hover around that portal, ready to intercept the next series of energy strikes. Luckily, those first two bolts hadn't smashed into anything vital, although one had come dangerously close to penetrating one of the Chitauri's habitation hubs on the massive gas giant-sized space station that was the home of the Chitauri.
Now, Thanos could see an energy shield flickering around the station. Redundant. My small interceptor-absorption devices will stop any further energy blasts and send the energy into my throne. This happened a second later. Two of the devices flashed to one side, intercepting the beams. The energy of the bolts was broken down and sent directly to Thanos's throne, which hummed under him for a moment before subsiding again.
Looking around the three-dimensional mustering zone, Thanos was amused to note that he could actually see a difference in the numbers of the Chitauri around him, thanks to how many had already gone through the disparate portals. In particular, Ebony Maw was funneling hundreds of thousands of Chitauri through every few minutes. Using smaller portals connected to the main beacon he had created a dozen forward reinforcement points for infantry, spreading out quickly as he created a defense in depth that the beacon required throughout the mountains the humans called the Himalayas.
The next portals drawing in the most Chitauri were Corvus Glaive and Nebula. Corvus was drawing in a well-rounded mix of units, and was now bringing in more Rippers on top of that. Nebula was bringing in as many skimmers and infantry as she could in large, almost disorganized clumps.
Thanos shook his head at that, idly wondering what Nebula thought that particular mix of units would be best to combat. Nebula was always a disappointment to him, and the seemingly haphazard way she was handling reinforcing her front showed why. Nebula has no real understanding of command, of tactics, let alone strategy. I wonder if she is exerting control over that battlefront at all or if the Super Skrull has taken it over. He too is a blunt instrument, but one who came up from their infantry, so his emphasis on infantry makes sense.
Despite the armies that had been sent forward so far, the losses were but a pittance of the dimension-traveling Chitauri's full numbers. Fighting across the entire planet, Thanos knew that millions would die in the purge of the humans. The Chitauri had billions they would lose willingly in his name.
Once, the Chitauri had been a small but expanding star-spanning empire. Yet just as they began to truly become worthy of note, the race had been forced to deal with several different catastrophes that forced them to retreat into the dimensional gap they had been using to cross space. In this case, those catastrophes were two solar flares wiping out several of their planets, Galactus eating their homeworld, and plague threatening to break out just as the Kree expanded to the outer edge of their empire. Which was followed promptly by doing as the Kree do: crush any other race that got in their way.
How the race as a whole made the decision to retreat into the dimensional gap, Thanos did not know. But they had. As the Kree finished wiping out what had once been a mighty empire, the people of that empire slowed them down while sending as many resources into the colonization project as they could. Billions died, but billions lived to create a new society in the dimensional gap.
There, they eventually met Thanos, who was using the realm to conduct spacial teleportation experiments. Upon meeting the Chitauri, who had already begun to evolve to live in this special dimension, he knew they would be perfect pawns. The radiation and the UV light had forced several large-scale changes in the race. A lack of what most races would call eyes, replaced by cybernetics. Portions of their brains were replaced similarly. And finally, the lack of gravity had quickly begun to atrophy their muscles, forcing many to opt to replace those, too.
Bringing the Chitauri to heel had not been a bloodless exercise. It had taken him several years to break their spirit and mold them into the weapon he wished via a hostile takeover of their cybernetics. The end result was a whole race who worshipped Thanos as their god. He could literally order them to commit suicide as a race, and they would do it.
So what mattered if millions of them died to take Earth or any other planet Thanos pointed them at? Indeed, to Thanos, the more that died on both sides, the better it was to help him in gaining his Lady's attention.
If billions of souls snuffed out clinically and quickly is not to her liking, then perhaps the slow, artistic mutual slaughter of a few billion on a planet like Earth, which has all the signs of a pivot point in the great creation of He Who Is Above, will garner more of my Lady's attention. Although of course, even that is but the appetizer, the start of the full course meal the offering of the Phoenix Avatar's soul will be. To say nothing of Guardian's soul… that one, yes, that one I will savor killing for far more than the hope My Lady will grace me with her presence.
Shaking that thought off, Thanos went back to contemplating humanity. "They fight hard. Although separated into single states that should be barely worth a mention, being situated on a single world as their whole race is, only the main portal is not under direct military-style attack. And their base technology is actually proving somewhat effective against the Chitauri troopers. I had assumed the local militaries not worth investigating, but it appears that the human infantry is a match for the Chitauri, if the losses we are seeing is any indication, and those energy beams are fascinating."
The purple-skinned tyrant shook his head, continuing to talk to himself. There wasn't anyone else around to have an actually intelligent conversation with, after all. Even the Chitauri leaders were little better than mindless drones to Thanos. They could not think beyond the bounds he had set for them centuries ago.
"They lack the aerial assets to fight Rippers and Dreadwyngs on an even footing, but even there, the humans have some surprises. It honestly makes me wonder if there is much of a difference in capability between the land-based militaries of space-going species and those like humans, who are on the cusp of that level. I had not anticipated that, nor the proliferation of the power armor concept that fills what few reports are coming in from Nebula's front. Still, more annoying than any of that is the fact that the Skrull fleet has been completely sidelined."
Thanos scowled, a sight that sent the Chitauri leaders hovering on their own command boards around him to shiver in a mixture of fear and religious ecstasy. As one, they moved further away from him, bowing their heads.
In the original plan, the Skrull was supposed to be the hammer coming in from on high. The Chitauri would grab the attention of Guardian and the other defenders of Earth, and then, as they were concentrating inward, the Skrull would arrive from space, having smashed through any space-based defenses the humans had set up.
Thanos had believed information on the space-based defenses of earth had been far better than on the land-based militaries, having made them the target of the limited espionage operations Thanos had allowed himself beyond Loki's insertion. Not only did the reports he was getting from both the Fleet Overlord Len'Dok and Black Maw tell him they were facing magic users, but the humans seemed to have far more combat-capable ships than he had anticipated. The small pinnace-like attack craft had apparently had an impact on the Skrull fleet well above their weight class. And the human magic users there were proving to be unassailable.
Is that Guardian himself? Could he have felt certain enough in his allies to leave the close defense of Earth from the Chitauri to them and gone to deal with the Skrull?
Thanos pondered that for a moment, then set it aside. Guardian did not strike me as the type to warn his enemies off as, apparently, this magic user did, according to Len'Dok. "I could wish that Black Dwarf thought to describe his enemies for me, but I suppose that is behind his mental faculties. Regardless, the Skrull has failed me on a scale that will need to be addressed later. Incompetence, cowardice, a simple unwillingness to pay the price my orders demand? Whatever is going on there, I will discover it later and mete out the appropriate punishment."
Another blast of energy came through the portal leading to Washington DC, and Thanos looked in that direction, amusement crossing his face, banishing the scowl from a moment ago as he watched one of the small hexagons move to intercept, absorbing the energy and sending it to his throne. "So strange to consider that a race which is able to get to space has elected to continue its use of blue water ships for anything, let alone militarily. I wonder… there was a certain artistry and beauty to the ship-to-ship combat in the various historical recordings I have seen of earth before this. Is it as interesting in person?"
Thanos crossed his arms, leaning back on his throne, once more redirecting his errant thoughts this time to the preparations he had made to defeat the one called Guardian. Thanos later learned the human's real name but did not care to make use of it. Guardian was certainly the most powerful magic user the humans had access to, the one who had defeated him the last time they'd met, forcing Thanos to run away, horribly wounded and disfigured.
Despite the measures he had taken to not seem weak to his followers, Thanos knew how closely he had come to losing his life then. The skin grafts had taken well, although Thanos knew that was a small blessing. So much of his body had needed such grafts no visible portion had been available for color comparison. His arm had been amputated just above the elbow, replaced by a robotic arm the equivalent of his original.
Sanctuary, his flagship, had wanted to replace his original arm with a gene-spliced equivalent grown in a cloning vat. But Thanos had decided against that, believing the arm could be useful in many ways and wanting a reminder at all times of his loss. Thus the robotic arm was linked to his throne and had much of the same systems in miniature but lacked the computational power or the energy storage. It even could link to his ship, if only short-range, barely a few light years.
Thanos now raised that same arm, the bionic hand, covered by synth skin, moved this way and that before his eyes, which narrowed dangerously, the white light in them becoming even more violent in its intensity. "I have prepared as best I could, consulted with Loki as freely and openly as I possibly could given his duplicitous nature. I have come up with several scientific counters for Guardian's power and energy and tested them against Loki. Much like with Ebony Maw and other telekinetics to prepare for the Avatar. My throne is also as ready as I can make it for both offense and defense against Guardian and the Phoenix Force. I have high hopes for my necro-tech, but so-called magic is always tricky."
It was unusual for Thanos to feel concern over any physical contest. But this was one contest he'd lost once already. There was no doubt the battle to come would challenge him, but in the end, Thanos knew he would prevail. After all, did he not serve the Endless, the ultimate ending, his Lady Death? How then could Thanos lose?
Setting that aside, Thanos turned his attention to the reports from all the other portals. The battle in Paris was chaotic and wild, as was the battle going on in the American capital, although there, Corvus Glaive had begun to take control of both the land and air battles. He was undoubtedly facing the most resistance, but Corvus was also Thanos's best general. It would take a while and hundreds of thousands of lives, but Corvus would do it. The reports from the massive area called Russia were… annoying, telling Thanos that once more, Proxima Midnight had gone out to play and then been sidetracked. Still, the slow spread she had ordered the Chitauri to perform was going well.
Supergiant was doing her normal espionage-based assault while letting the Chitauri again spread out slowly from the portal. It was working quite well, from what reports were coming in. It was also forcing a secondary conflict between the nation of China and the same America that Corvus was fighting.
Ebony Maw's own advance was… interesting. His portal was the central one, the most important. As such, he had created a defense in depth, but it was clear from the reports that he was also losing thousands of troops from hit and run attacks. Hit-and-run attacks from a group that included Asgardians. The energy signature of those quasi-deific entities was distinctive. But not their Sky Father. And not in large numbers. Two of the attackers are mere beasts. Guardian is nowhere to be found just yet. Nor the Phoenix. Perhaps… Perhaps I need to do more to draw them out than simply assume the hordes of Chitauri are enough to grab their interest.
With a single thought, Thanos turned his throne and moved over to a large satellite to one side. While the throne could create matter from energy, there was no need to do so for something large like this as he had other means to do the same thing. The fabricator, linked back to his mothership, quickly created the series of satellites that he wanted. Soon, they were ready, flashing through the portals that were open at that moment, the ones to Ebony Maw, Proxima Midnight, Supergiant and Nebula.
On the other side of those portals, the tiny but insanely advanced satellites, each of them wrapped in three different cloaking devices around a miniature fusion generator, flashed upwards quickly. Soon, they were well up in the air of the planet, moving away from the portals.
Now, what is more artistic? Using a Fusion beam to wipe out random cities, making a pattern, or using them on a single local polity? Decisions, Decisions, Thanos formed.
Movement from above and to his right drew Thanos' attention from his thoughts, and he turned his head in that direction only to stare in surprise. One of the portals had just gone dark.
This caused consternation among the troops all around Thanos, and Thanos blinked, then sighed in resigned annoyance as he realized which portal it had been. "Nebula, why must you always disappoint me?"
OOOOOOO
While Thanos had been deep into his musings on his version of romance, In Paris, Mystique was having a surprisingly easy time of it now that she had shifted her Chitauri disguise enough to look wounded. For some reason this let her blend in far more easily than she had previously. Under this guise, Mystique followed the scanner's signals through the city, moving through buildings, and heading in a straight line towards her target. Only twice was her form challenged, both times inside buildings as aliens who had invaded the buildings challenged her with snarls and roars in their language. Head shots answered all such challenges however, and she moved on quickly.
All around Mystique, the battle of Paris ebbed and flowed, as more aliens arrived. But more ODMs originally assigned to the Russian theater also arrived. With the defenses around Severomorsk so strong but no sign of the Chitauri there spreading fast enough to be much of a threat to other major cities, the Russians felt they had things under control, and, more than anything wanted to show they could handle this alien invasion on their own.
They came in along with groups of British troops being ferried across via Kitty and her magic carpet, and French troops similarly from nearby, teleported into the city by Storm as she teleported civilians out just as she had done previously in Washington DC. By this point, Storm had cleared a large portion of the city, and two divisions worth of infantry troops had been teleported in, along with antiair brigades. The enemy in Paris hadn't brought in enough infantry to fight effectively within the buildings from the start, and this was costing them in terms of how quickly they could shut down the human reinforcements, but they made up for that in skimmers.
Of course, outside the city, the skimmers were still racing out in hit and run attacks, and a heavy force had been pushed northwest towards the UK. The dogfights elsewhere in France and the battle in the English Channel were truly becoming nasty.
The skimmer's shields and speed meant they were death on marines or armored units moving in the open… or through easily smashed buildings such as that which were found in the suburbs of the city of lights. Yet the missiles of the French were working just as well as elsewhere. Better, the Chitauri here were nowhere near as organized as elsewhere. That allowed the French to bring in more of their Air Force assets to smash most of the units heading south, west or east on their own. Their tanks were less than useless just yet, but small columns of them were also heading toward Paris, just in case the battle lasted them that long enough.