Chapter 10: My own Hundred Arm Giant

"Agent Sitwell, you are very generous with this so-and-so bureau, how about this, I'll give you a discount, and when the military order is completed, you'll be the first to get the goods!" Ethan narrowed his eyes, then enthusiastically shook Agent Sitwell's hand.

"That won't be necessary, Mr Hunt!" Sitwell was still a little sniggering in his heart, although he was a senior officer in the SHIELD and was usually in charge of all sorts of important matters, and had no shortage of greetings with all sorts of triads, this was the first time he had been greeted so warmly, and it couldn't help but make him a little light-hearted.

"Just go with the original price, we have this institution paid for by the UN!" Sitwell waved his hand, he wouldn't get a penny of this money anyway, so before he came, Director Nick Fury's instructions for him to do his best to save money.

"So here's the deal, you buy it at the original price, I'll give you a 1% discount. The 1% will be given to you. After all, you came with such a big deal for me."

"Ah, this!" Sitwell was in a trance.

At this moment, Agent Sitwell wanted to pay homage to Ethan. 1.4 billion, which would have taken him thousands of years to earn.

"That's not good!" Although the mouth said so, his action is completely another way.

"It's okay, your agency serves the UN, it must be very hard on a regular basis, consider it a cup of coffee from me!" Ethan waved his hand indifferently, combined with his memories from his previous life, Ethan understood that he was not really an important person in Hydra, nor was he a ruthless man, just quite dedicated to his job, since this was the case, then why not give him a new boss?

In fact, when Ethan shook hands with Sitwell, he tried to penetrate his opponent's mind, but it seemed that he had received special training from S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra and was subconsciously wary of Ethan, so Ethan threw his weight around and corrupted the opponent with a sugar coating.

The United States of America is a paradise, a wave of pleasantries has drawn Ethan and Sitwell closer to each other. Sitwell even patted Ethan's hand and said, in the future, if there is anything, just call him, there is nothing we can not handle.

And Ethan also said, "In Atlas Corporation besides EXO there are other good things as well, take a look at our T-600 Titan tank, look at our Y-32 Xi'an type VTOL transport plane and if you are looking at them also take a look at these babies, shell-less rifle, plasma rifle, multifunctional launcher."

The long list dazzled Jasper, looking at such a great deal on various combo packs, coupled with Ethan's hint, Agent Jasper Sitwell immediately said that for a conscientious group like Atlas Corporation, we as a government agency should strongly support it, so a phone call was made to Nick Fury.

"Director, I looked around here at Atlas Corporation and found that many of their company's products are quite good, a bit cheaper than Stark Industries', but the quality and everything is pretty much the same, you see!"

"Wasn't the quota granted to you? You're on your own!" Nick Fury's attention was completely on Tony's big pills, so he didn't care about Jasper's proposal, and gave the decision to the other party directly, after he finished, Nick Fury hung up the phone.

"Damn, this isn't saving me any time!" Tony Stark's father was the oldest member of the SHIELD. According to Coulson's report, they had already raided the houses of four or five local gangs and seized hundreds of pounds of flour alone, but there was no sign of Obadiah.

"This can't be, has Obadiah really gone into the rainforest! Do everything you can to find him and take care of him!" Nick Fury said he still had to find a way to pull Stark into his superboy group, the pitch had to be there!

With Nick Fury's permission, Sitwell let loose. Ethan set three to four PDA's in front of him, full of Atlas Corporation-related products and Sitwell went straight and bought them.

Since there was now a chance to rip off S.H.I.E.L.D. hard, no, a chance to eat big all time, why not, bearing in mind that at present in the Atlas Corporation's Iraqi factory had already laid down their keel, and the two armament giants named Freedom and Justice had completed their main bodies and were now just waiting for the mass driver in Florida.

In fact, geographically speaking, the equatorially located countries of Indonesia and Brazil which are located on the equator, are more convenient, but the Atlas Corporations have no roots in these places, so they had to settle for the second-best place, Florida, where the governor and state government, including the National Guard, are considered to be part of the Boston Consortium faction, and it is more convenient to put it there.

These projects and the manufacturing of weapons have already brought the finances of the Atlas Corporations to the point of not being able to make ends meet, not to mention the OPEC moving to shout for increased production, the Atlas Corporations control of those few oil fields although the production is good, the income is like a roller coaster up and down, now Ethan, in order to open up financial resources, is planning to directly overthrow a few small resource-rich countries in Africa.

Speaking of Africa, Ethan suddenly remembered that he seemed to have forgotten a certain mecca in the hearts of black people, Wakanda!

"Uh, speaking of which, Agent Sitwell, you just said you've spent time in Africa, right?" Ethan asked, pretending to be offhanded.

"Yes, when we went there to catch smugglers and warlords, it was very hot, but luckily I was bald so it was a lot easier than my companions!"

"Oh, and have you ever heard of the place Wakanda!"

"Wakanda? Yes, I've heard of it, it produces wood and crafts!"

"Oh, I've also heard that it produces vibranium, it's so rare that we only got a little bit of it from the black market in Europe, and we used it all on our satellites, although we could have done without it, you know, we in the military industry always want to build the best things, so we need the best materials!"

"Ahem, actually, Mr Hunt," Sitwell coughed and then whispered softly in Ethan's ear, "You're right about that, but even we can't have any dealings with those guys, the UN investigators can only see thatched huts and rhinos there and as for the vibranium, there was no sign of anything, so in the end, we had to leave it at that!"

"So there's nothing that can be done at all?" Ethan didn't expect to get a few tons of vibranium, but a dozen kilograms, because of the special properties of vibranium, it was perfect for making high-frequency cluster laser cannons to be mounted on the hundred-armed giant and the Stymphalian birds, but unfortunately, he couldn't find any contact with Wakanda.

He had also hired a number of money-minded mercenaries through a purse company to try his luck, but unfortunately, they had all disappeared after entering Wakanda, and Ethan was not prepared for a full-scale conflict with Wakanda, so it was impossible to send his own commandos there.

"Erm, actually, I've heard that there's going to be a special auction over in Europe in a little while, so Mr Hunt could go over there and have a look!"

"An auction?" Ethan thought of the gilt invitation that had been sent over by McCullen, it looked like that one was an auction too. It looked like he had to go to this auction!

"Thank you, Agent Sitwell, then!"

"Alas, that's not necessary, Mr Hunt, we are friends, friends should help each other, we may continue to place orders for you in the future when the time comes, we will have to ask Mr Hunt for more support!"

"Yes, yes, yes, with the same discount applied!" Ethan said with intent.

"Thank you very much then!" Hearing that all future rebates would be at this rate, Sitwell couldn't be happier in his heart.

While Ethan was picking up orders, Stark wasn't idle, he was continuing to develop his Iron Man armour and going out at night to do fights and he was laying off people like crazy.

That's right, in less than a week, Stark fired half of the unlucky guys in the top brass, simply because they were all in Obadiah's faction or the kind of guys who were masculine to him in the company.

Stark hired a whole team of lawyers and went crazy with the details, but in the end, not only did he fail to pay a single share of the breach of contract, but he left the executives in debt and in the dust.

In all fairness, these executives did contribute to the development of Stark Industries, but they were on the wrong team and with the wrong people, and Obadiah took his own bodyguard captain with him when he ran away, without informing any of them.

First, they were invited to tea by the FBI in their sleep, then they were fired at dawn. These executives wanted to die, but at the critical moment, someone jumped in. Justin Hammer, in order to disgust Stark, said that he would sign as many people as Stark Industries fired.

"Tony Stark has eyes, but I have eyes for people! Come on, come on, everyone comes to us at Hammer Industries and make a fortune together!"

Although it was a purely disgusting move by Stark, Hammer was also able to reap a small reward, as the former Stark employees who had been fired had some skills and abilities, and their arrival would close the gap between Hammer Industries and Stark Industries.

After some personnel changes, and without waiting for the remaining old employees to catch their breath, Stark drops another big bombshell, he wants to make Pepper Potts the executive of Stark Industries.

The executives, who had been expecting to rise to the top of their lives, were dumbfounded.

"If sleeping with Mr Stark makes you president, I think I can be too!"

The unconvinced executives and also the shareholders wanted to call a general meeting and re-elect an executive they were happy with.

"These guys!" Stark's heart flared up at the news and the consequences of his previous lack of control were revealed, but for the moment he had to suppress his anger and prepare some real material to hold each of these executives down.

8 AM

New York; Stark Industries

Even though it was raining heavily over New York at the moment, countless journalists were still waiting for the new shareholders' meeting since the disappearance of former Stark Industries executive Obadiah.

Stark Industrial Group as the most important arms supplier of the United States of America military, the share division is also very complicated, Stark himself has thirty per cent of the original shares, which is lightning, Obadiah has fifteen per cent of the shares, now these shares were retrieved by Stark, and the rest of those shares, the United States government has ten per cent, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s purse company has ten per cent, the rest Thirty-five per cent is the loose shares on the market, which were mostly dumped by their holders at low prices some time ago because Stark shut down its weapons development division, and unfortunately, those shares were taken by Ethan for roughly eighteen per cent.

A dozen overbearing GM bulletproof SUVs tore through the rain and pulled up in the building's car park with rising vapour, the brightly coloured letters Atlas on the side of the vehicles instantly catching the eyes of many journalists.

Security personnel in black suits jumped out of the car and formed a human wall to block the reporters surrounding them, then a bodyguard about as big as Boulder walked up to the buggy in the centre with an umbrella.

"BOSS, we're here!"

"Well, good! Thank you, John!" Ethan closed the laptop in his hand and casually dropped it in the back seat, then stepped out of the car.

"My God, Ethan Hunt, the big boss of the Atlas Corporation Group, showed up at Stark Industries." A crowd of media tabloid reporters instantly brainstormed hundreds of thousands of words about a business war, the tit-for-tat between two arms groups, one revealing a breach, the other planning to annex, all sorts of struggles and other powerful images already made many reporters feel their blood rushing, there's a big story today!

The reporters were not even bothered about their modesty, they poured in with all their might, passing the microphones over the shoulders of the bodyguards to Ethan.

"Mr Hunt, can you tell us what you're doing here at Stark Industries today?"

"Mr Hunt, is the Atlas Corporation planning to annex Stark?"

Only to the disappointment of the reporter, Ethan walked into the Stark Industries building without looking back, accompanied by his own driver and head of security, John.

"Uh, welcome, Mr Hunt, I wonder what brings you to Stark Industries today?" An executive saw Ethan, who was flanked by a row of large men in suits, and after a moment's hesitation, stepped forward and asked.

"Here for the shareholders' meeting!" Ethan revealed an unmistakable smile.

"A shareholders' meeting?" The executive gulped and swallowed a mouthful of saliva, their Stark side of is still not done, and here comes another wolf, this ... damn playing us right!

Although his heart was already about to cry out, this executive still did not move and called a beautiful blonde clerical secretary, instructed her to take Ethan to the conference room.

"Mr Hunt, please come with me!" The clerk swayed her better posture and brought up a fragrant breeze as she guided Ethan towards the lift.

Immediately after Ethan left, the executive pulled out his mobile phone, a small group he had created with a few neutral executives to exchange ideas on how to counter Stark's aggressive momentum. And with Ethan's arrival, he suddenly had a bold idea.

The executive's idea was echoed by the others, Both Stark and Ethan looked like a bad deal anyway, and in that case, let them both mess around and we'll be able to swing from side to side and survive in the cracks here.

In the bustling conference room, the major and minor shareholders were chatting endlessly about the latest gossip, female celebrities, the international situation, stock movements, all these were their topics, and unknowingly, several small groups of different tastes were formed.

Just as the conversation was getting happier and happier, and some of them had even made plans to go to some entertainment place like Red Romance or Purple Charm when the meeting was over to contribute to the GDP growth of the United States of America, the door of the conference room was pushed open again, and then Ethan, wearing a hand-made custom-made suit, walked in wearing sunglasses.

"Is that him?" After seeing Ethan sitting in a large and dignified position on the side row of the conference table, a group of shareholders whispered. The shareholder representative of the United States of America government froze for a moment, then showed an expression of friendliness and then he took the initiative to step forward and talk freely with Ethan.

But the S.H.I.E.L.D. skinned company representative on the sidelines was a little surprised, after all, as a S.H.I.E.L.D. business professional, he still understood what Stark Industries and Tony Stark meant to them. If Ethan did annexe Stark Industries, would this have any effect on the Director's plans?

In short, Ethan's arrival was a source of joy for several people.

Ethan was happy to see the gloomy expressions of everyone in the room, and later on, he's sure someone would have a heart attack!

It was nine o'clock before Stark walked slowly into the conference room with Pepper Potts, and was not surprised to see Ethan sitting in the side row of the room, as long as his shares were not in Justin Hammer's hands he was happy!

"Firstly, welcome everyone, as we all know, Stark Industries has been having a lot of surprises and problems for some time now, especially with the departure of my Uncle Obadiah, who I was very close to, which is not good news for all of us!" Stark began with a short summary.

"But the decadence is only temporary, Stark Industries' future goals will focus on clean energy and the development of high tech, and in order to accomplish this, we need to elect a new executive to lead Stark Industries forward, now, everyone who has something to say can speak!"

After Stark's words, he sat back in his chair and played a little game. The other shareholders looked at each other for a moment, and the government representative stood up first.

The government representative first made a comment on the contribution of Stark Industries and said that the government would still continue to support Stark Industries and such.

When he had finished speaking, an executive then spoke, stating that he would continue to add to the development of Stark Industries and that he had put himself forward as an executive officer for future development.

"Huh!" After hearing his formulaic speech, a group of shareholders immediately raised their middle fingers.

"Come on, Tom, you old bastard, you want to be an executive? Why don't you take a look at yourself, just you, are you worthy?" A balding uncle in his fifties slapped the table and cursed.

"What's wrong with me, I'm better than you, Lederman, look at your big belly, your wife doesn't even like you being fat! You fat pig!" The executive called Tom was not to be outdone, and the two of them spat right out with Lederman.

Ethan reckoned that this was why those groups had to keep their doors closed when they met and not give out the slightest hint of what was going on, or else the outside world would know that these so-called business elites were pulling their voices and gesticulating their fists like street thugs for fear of laughing their heads off.

"You guys do this in your meetings?" Next to Ethan sat a man in his forties with glasses, seemingly still some kind of technical director for Stark, who had been given a small share by Obadiah as a reward for having a patent.

"No, the Atlas Corporations never have shareholder meetings!" Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose, although at the beginning, in order to develop, Atlas Corporation did get a lot of shares outwards, later these shares were all withdrawn by Ethan, currently, less than ten per cent of Atlas Corporation's shares were left in the hands of other shareholders, and most of these shareholders were also people from the Boston Consortium, who only shared the money but not the business, that is to say, Atlas Corporation had become his one word.

"That's unthinkable!" The IT man cocked his head.

At this point in time, there was already a new wave of people on the floor arguing, and the purpose of the argument was also all because of the executive officer selection issue, some people thought they are suitable for the position, some people wanted to recommend the boss of their own small group, in short, this would be spittle and teacups flying all over the place, just short of a chair.

"That's enough, you lot, I recommend Mr Hunt!" At this point, the executive who had met with Ethan earlier on the ground floor suddenly popped up.

"I ..." watching the eyes on the floor instantly turn to himself, Ethan had every intention of sending that executive to Africa to help him run the branch, it was just a shame that this man was an employee of Stark's.

"Ahem, let's dispense with that offer, I'm usually too busy for that, but I do have someone in mind, why don't you guys think about it?" Ethan coughed and then said.

"Oh, I wonder who Mr Hunt thinks would be a good candidate?"

"I would recommend Ms Pepper Potts!"

"??"

...

The meeting room was instantly silent, Pepper Potts was dumbfounded, and as for Stark, although he kept playing with his phone, judging by those perked up ears, Stark was taken aback as well.

"Mr Hunt, you're joking!"

"No, why would I be joking? I'm pushing for Pepper Potts to be the new executive of Stark Industries, who's for it? Who's against?" Ethan stood up and propped both hands on the table, his sharp gaze sweeping over everyone in the room.

Against? The shareholders in the room were silent, everyone remembered who Ethan is and that the private army of the Atlas Corporations had the right to operate and deploy in the country, and now he had given his opinion, who was against it? Who would dare to oppose?

"I ... am against it!" A young shareholder who had spoken earlier stood up.

"Well, in that case!" Ethan snapped his fingers, and then John walked in with two black suits.

"Congratulations to this gentleman for winning our March Africa tour package from Atlas Corporation Marine Group, John, send him off to the DRC, the tribal chiefs over there are already waiting! What are you waiting for? Get him on the plane!" Ethan nudged, gesturing.

"Wait, wait, I've changed my mind." The young shareholder stammered in a cold sweat as he looked at John, whose arms were thicker than his thighs.

"I'm sorry, it's too late!" John gave what he thought was a kind smile and grabbed the scrawny shareholder as if he were picking up a child.

As they watched the unlucky man being taken away, the remaining shareholders looked at each other and one of them sprang to his feet, "I also agree with Ms Pepper Potts becoming an executive of Stark Industries!"

"Yes, we agree too!"

"Ms Pepper Potts is young and talented, I agree too!"

The shareholders, who were still in an uproar, immediately reached a united front and spoke in one voice in support of Pepper Potts.

An argument that should have lasted for hours ended in just under an hour under the pressure of a powerful force.

"Want to come to take a tour of the Stark building, at least I think it's quite a bit taller than your Atlas Corporation's office building!" After the meeting was over, Pepper suddenly stopped in front of Ethan who was leaving and extended an invitation to him.

"Oh!" Ethan glanced behind him at the corner where Stark was padding around looking over the side.

"It would be an honour!"

It had to be said, that even with the closure of an important division, Stark Industries was still a very large organisation, the whole building was 72 floors high, the top six floors were Stark's private space, usually, only Pepper Potts had access, but usually Stark rarely came to this building, it was only this or a shareholders meeting that he came.

From the 66th floor on down, there are the aerospace division of Stark Industries, the biotechnology division, the pharmaceutical research and development, the power plant, the energy development, the electronics industry, the software research and development and so on dozens of departments and institutions, there is even insurance and banking business, yes, Stark also involved in the banking industry.

Along the way, Ethan visited Stark Industries' newly developed Pineapple 6s mobile phone, Pineapple tablet, and the new electric car.

"This one can go 700 miles on a single charge, but there aren't any charging pads out of the city, and we're talking to the federal government to see how we can solve that problem!" Pepper pointed with some regret to a small blue car about the size of a mini parked in the hall.

"In the tradition of the United States of America, if you leave a charging post outside the city unattended, it will disappear in less than three days!"

"Uh, maybe we could try to get it like a gas station!"

"That wouldn't be a problem, but you wouldn't be able to recoup the costs for years before such vehicles were put into mass operation!"

"Cost is not something we have to consider, we'd rather lead the industry!" Out of nowhere Stark popped up with a packet of chocolate beans in his hand.

"Er, Pepper, it's almost noon, why don't we invite these guests for lunch?" Seeing everyone on the field looking at him, Stark waved his hand and pretended he had just passed by.

"Yeah, sure, let's go to the top floor!"

Perhaps to show off his love of food, Stark sent Happy to bag one of his favourite Turkish kebab shops, and the chef plus waiters all pulled up to the top floor of the building on the terrace to make lunch on the spot, the meat was Australian Wagyu beef, and Stark even opened a bottle of Royal Salute from his own collection.

The beef was so juicy with carefully baking spices, and the beef ribs were grilled crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and the savoury and cheesy beef pies, Ethan had to admire that Stark was indeed Marvel's number one gourmet.

With a topic to talk about, the atmosphere at the table sort of opened up, and Stark got to talking to Ethan about his thoughts on the future.

"I've seen your plans for that mass driver, the reactors needed for that thing would require at least four, and if it were to be built, it would definitely cover an area as big as half of the Great Lakes, and the personnel needed, the supporting facilities, it would be possible to rebuild a metropolis!"

"Then let's build it, as soon as the funding for the EXO exoskeleton armour is in place, we can start construction! I intend to finish it in five years!"

"Mr Hunt, speaking of which, you and I have known each other for a good four or five years now, I'm curious to ask what your real purpose in building this thing is? The mass driver can technically be used as an orbital weapon as well, and by my calculations, if loaded with a live weapon, this thing could have a strike range that would even cover Africa!"

"Yes, and not only that, the Atlas Corporations are planning to use this thing to hit sixty-four armed satellites up there, and I'm even planning to build an orbital space station in high orbit around the Earth if that's possible!" Ethan reached for his tablet and sent a blueprint to the 3d projector in the middle of the restaurant.

"This?" Stark put down his knife and fork and walked over to the projector.

"Jarvis!"

"I'm here, sir!"

"Take apart the 3-D diagram of this thing!"

"Roger that!"

The triangular orbiting space station was instantly broken down into dozens of parts by Jarvis, while Stark went through it part by part.

"Personnel living pods, research pods, maintenance pods, and weapons pods?" Stark couldn't help but freeze as he looked at the three huge compartments of the triangular space station that were heavily armoured.

"Yes, this is the biggest thing the Atlas Corporation can get their hands on at the moment, the Magnetic Accelerator Cannon (MAC from Halo), which, according to the Atlas Corporations' current technology, can accelerate a six hundred kilogram shell to a velocity of 0.04c and hit it!"

"Who are you defending yourself against? Aliens? There can't really be anyone who believes aliens exist these days!" Stark said as he looked closely at the construction of the MAC.

"What, there are really people who believe there aren't aliens these days?" Ethan was remembering that Howard Stark had studied the Tesseract for so long back in the day, and he, Tony, knew nothing about it?

"But how do you know that aliens aren't coming to Earth to make friends with us? But for war? What resources do we have on Earth that they would be interested in? Humans? Or seawater!"

"Back when humans domesticated animals into pets, they didn't think pets had any resources, did they, and maybe there are aliens who think Earth has too many people and have come to help us with family planning?"

"Family planning?" Stark now wondered if Ethan was being so radical because he had PTSD from being a soldier before.

"Anything is possible, Mr Stark, what will we do then if they do come?"

"I'll come up with my own weapon of restraint against them then, I'm Tony Stark!"

"Yes, you're Tony Stark, but only on Earth, you're Tony Stark!" Ethan remembered what Rocket Raccoon said to Stark, maybe Stark was a once-in-a-century genius on Earth, but in the universe, the great empires, the Kree Empire, the Nova Corps, there were many people like Stark, after all, compared to them, the human race was still too shallow.

After hearing Ethan's words, Stark wanted to grunt twice to show his disdain, but he was now one of those who could only listen to his words and stopped to think for a few seconds about what Ethan had said.

"I think we should stop this conversation, this food is quite tasty, isn't it?" Seeing the flames growing between the two men, Pepper hastily jumped in to smooth things over.

"Of course, Ms Pepper!"

After re-entering the table, the conversation at the table was brought back to the exchange of ideas about business. Ethan's Atlas Corporation had taken over nearly seventy per cent of the world's shipping business in the past few years, and many times Stark Industries' products had to be sent to other continents by Atlas Corporation's ships, so in this regard, Pepper and Ethan both still had quite a common topic, and even the charity activities that Stark had done over the years, the donated food and clothes were also relieved by Atlas Corporation's patrol gunboat machines in the local waters after a pirate encounter when passing through Somali waters.

"I've heard that you've been buying up all the vibranium on the market these past few years, is that true?" As he ate, Stark suddenly remembered this.

"Why is this something that you know about too?" Ethan was a bit taken aback, knowing that in order not to attract too much attention, Ethan had run seventeen or eighteen purse companies with agents ranging from Asian to African, but it looked as if none of these methods was working.

"No, the way you run a purse company to find an agent is so clever that everyone wouldn't normally think of Atlas Corporation, but you've still made a mistake!" Stark took his glass with the smug gesture of a victor.

"Vibranium requires special transport vehicles because of its special properties, and these vehicles are of a special shape, and as far as I know, the Atlas Corporations currently have about forty of these types of special trucks, and the rest of the world combined doesn't have half as many as you do!"

"Thanks for the reminder!" Ethan nodded, and later on, he would go back himself and inform them to change the shape of the vehicle.

All in all, after this meal, Stark was a little less contemptuous of Ethan.

In fact, in addition to what we talked about before, Stark also wanted Ethan to propose his own plasma anti-gravity system, and in doing so, proposed the development of an anti-gravity car, which is a kind of joint development project between the two companies, but because Stark's current technology is not mature enough, and Ethan's side has not yet eaten up the things he brought back from COD13, so this project is expected to remain on the surface for a long time to come.

But Ethan didn't expect to convince Stark over this one meal, and because of some of Stark's quirks, he couldn't have brainwashed him or anything, otherwise, it would have been a pretty picture if he had turned Stark into a human supremacist.

"I really want to thank you for your help today Mr Hunt, next time you're in New York you can come back to see me or Tony!" To show how much he valued Ethan, Pepper even took Ethan to the car park after the meal, and the image of the two shaking hands and saying goodbye was filmed by a tabloid reporter.

"Well, BTW, Pepper, Stark is actually quite a good match for you!" With those words, Ethan got in his car and left, leaving Pepper to ponder where he was.

......... ......... ...

"BOSS, where are we going now?"

"Home first, plus get the European side ready, we're going over there next week!" Ethan leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes.

"Understood!" John took the instructions to heart and continued, "So do you need me to move the Ghost Squad over?"

"No, keep them on the move in Iraq, clear out the opposition over there, that's their priority, inform Cormac to have the Escanor Team send three squads to the branch over there, have them enter in make-up, don't bunch up, and change their ID's and everything to all over the world too! Also, tell Dr Samuel Hayden to find a way to send a scientific expedition to the Arctic, focusing on the waters beneath the Arctic ice cap, money is no object, just the sooner the better!"

"Understood!" Although he didn't know what had happened to the McCarran Group, John knew that the company was now in Ethan's pocketbook, after all, the last one that Ethan had made such an arrangement with was the local Iraqi opposition forces, but now they had gone to enjoy seventy-two virgins

Iraq

New Baghdad, 3:00 a.m. sharp

Atlas Corporation Base Airport (code name Zeus)

A C17 transport plane, which had been magically altered beyond recognition, landed slowly and vertically on the base's runway, supported by rotating jet engines on either side of its wings.

This C17 is Ethan's personal aircraft, and as a former military man, Ethan thinks those guys who use Airbus A380s and Gulfstream G550s as their private jets are pussies. The C17's interior cargo bay has been reduced by half, and can now only park two six-wheeled armoured vehicles side by side, while the rest of it has been converted into a bedroom dining room and a home cinema.

In addition to internal changes and upgrades to the flight control system, the cockpit of this C17 was also overhauled, the glass windows of the cockpit were covered with armour and replaced with full image sensors, Ethan would have wanted that on the C17 if it wasn't for the fact that the flying control system wasn't suitable for it.

The C17's profile was also significantly changed, with twin automatic guns mounted in the back and belly, along with two missile mounts in the belly for four air-to-air missiles, and in terms of power, the original four HP PW2040 turbofan engines were replaced by six vectoring plasma jet engines for more horsepower and speed, and the R&D department even went so far as to give the C17, codenamed Paladin, retractable floats in its lower belly to support the aircraft's take-off and landing on the water in an emergency.

Ethan's modification was included in Boeing's own brochure and caused quite a stir, with a number of wealthy Russian and Middle Eastern dogs interested, except they couldn't buy a C17 and had to settle for an Airbus.

"Welcome to Iraq, sir!" Two men immediately greeted Ethan as he leisurely stepped off the plane.

Cormac Madsen, just 38 years old this year, once served with Ethan in the Marine Corps, the two were in different units also had a joint rescue operation, in that operation, Ethan bravely and fearlessly saved two friendly troops seriously wounded in the face of gunfire, which left a deep impression on Cormac, later because of his daughter's school reasons, Cormac chose to retire, and Ethan also happened to create the Atlas Corporation, so this acquaintance a ride pulled over.

Dr Samuel Hayden (from DOOM), perhaps because of the butterfly effect, many characters have emerged in this world that are not far from those Ethan remembered, such as this Samuel Hayden, who is also suffering from an incurable disease, his body functions are slowly dying, as a great master of mechanical engineering and applied physics, he thought of replacing his gradually dying limbs with machinery, for this reason, he chose to come to Ethan for help, simply because at present only the Atlas Corporation's prosthetic technology is considered the most mature.

After the initial transformation was completed, Dr Samuel Hayden immediately used the team Ethan gave him to form the core team of Atlas Corporation, and he was responsible for the reverse development of the technical drawings and other wreckage Ethan had gotten from various worlds.

"How's it going?" Shaking out the padded trench coat that had just been draped up by Kate, Ethan asked with concern.

"Nothing major, both the Escanor unit and the Sentinels have now finished fitting out their new exoskeleton armour, that thing will allow our soldiers to fight ten to one! However we are still a little short of pilots at the moment, the base now has six F52 squadrons but only enough pilots for four, and although we have recruited hundreds of volunteers from all over the world over the past year, it will still be six months before they become proficient at flying, for further details I will give you a report in the morning!"

Cormac gave a brief overview of the current Zeus base.

"I have quite a lot on my side, you'd better come to the lab and look at them one by one, we're currently working on the heat dissipation problem of the hundred-armed giant, as for the two Stymphalian birds, the assembly work will be completed in about three months!"

"It's been a lot of hard work, not all of its big tree!" Ethan blurted out with feeling.

"???" Although he was impressed with his boss's usual wild ideas.

"It's okay, let's rest now, and in the morning we'll go see the 100-armed giant!" Ethan waved a big hand and went, first to bed.

The new Baghdad has seen a number of star hotels rise up on the banks of the Tigris River, which flows through the city, and the renewed ecological environment has attracted a large number of tourists to visit the city.

Of course, if Ethan wants to live, he certainly will not stay outside the hotel, those hotels are not only expensive, security forces are also very weak.

They have built special mansions here for Atlas Employees. If the family members of Atlas Corporation employees come to visit the base, they can not only enjoy free airfare, food and accommodation but also live in these villas.

With such a generous package and Ethan's easygoing way of dealing with people, it can be said that the loyalty of the employees within Altas was above 70 (TN: 90 is considered loyal and 100 is 'I want your child in me')

..................

"Salute!"

After a night's rest, a refreshed Ethan changed into a light grey training uniform and walked into the main base building, the sentry standing guard at the main gate had his voice a few notches louder than usual when he saw his BOSS pass by.

"Good morning, everyone!" The bustling hall was instantly silent the moment Ethan pushed open the door and looking at the dense crowd of heads, Ethan's heart filled with a sense of achievement.

Almost all of Atlas Corporation's directors in Iraq were gathered here upon learning of the arrival of the big boss, with the heads of the combat troops concentrated on the left and the economic and scientific personnel staying on the right, with a clear distinction between the two sides.

"Well, sit down all!" Ethan pulled out a chair and sat down, taking the PDA at hand and flicking through it.

As of 2010, Atlas Corporation had become a behemoth with over two million employees, with the following figures:

60,000 combat troops deployed in Iraq (excluding the Air Force and Navy), divided into ten strike brigades (Escanor and one special operation brigade (Sentinels).

The following equipment is available

T740 Titan Transformation Tank: 120

Infantry fighting vehicle armoured vehicles: 400

Fighting Falcon Assault Gunships: 160

MV66 Giant Bird VTOL Transport: 280

F52 fighters: 96 (all expected to be deployed on the 100-armed Giant)

F16 fighters: 72

Su-25 attack aircraft: 24

Xian multi-role transport aircraft: 108

Enterprise-class Littoral Combat Ships (equipped with electromagnetic guns and unmanned hangars): 10

Frigates and patrol boats: 30

With this army, Ethan felt he could even take on one of the P5 countries (yes, you, UK).

The military needs to be supported by an even larger economy, with an average annual military expenditure of sixty billion dollars (even more than Germany), all of which comes from the Altas's energy development, shipping, resource exploration and arms trade, and, of course, certain unseen black ops, which the CIA shelled out almost twenty billion to the Atlas in the year 2009 alone.

"When the follow-on funding for the EXO comes in, keep investing more in aviation! Mr Williams, it would be best to increase the air training for pilots, any difficulties?"

The head of Atlas Corporation's AirPower, Wilhelmus Reinhardt, was previously a member of the Bundeswehr, with over twenty years of flying experience and proficient in over thirty types of aircraft, if not for the casualties caused during military exercises, he would have been a lieutenant general at the very least.

"No difficulties, BOSS, the new batch of flight trainees have already received almost six hundred hours of acclimatisation training, now we just need to wait until our big guys are in service and the air force will be ready for combat soon!"

"You don't have to worry about that, as long as a few of our current challenges are solved, the big guy you want will soon appear!" Dr Samuel Hayden, who was standing by, patted his chest.

"Then I'll be squatting in front of your lab every day to see when you can solve the problem!"

"When we can solve the problem depends on when the BOSS gets the materials we need!"

"Materials? How come there are still people who don't buy materials for us? Should we go over there and get them into some trouble?" Hearing that there was an opportunity to take advantage of the situation, the head of the Sentinels, former Delta Special Forces commander Anthony Parman, hastily jumped in to ask for help.

"No, your mission is not here, Anthony, I need you to turn Iraq into a real big outback, the kind with no worries, and make this land ours, understood?"

"Understood!"

"No, you don't understand!" Ethan rubbed his temples and stood up and said slowly, "I know you all don't understand many of my orders, but you are still determined to carry them out, and now that it's done, I'm not going to hide it, guys, what do you think about alien life?"

"Extraterrestrial life?" A group of big old men from the military looked at each other, but on the other side, quite a few scientists were already glowing with both eyes.

"I know some of you think it's impossible, but what I'm telling you is that in less than three years, our home will be changed forever, and we, the ones responsible for its safety, will be the ones to take care of it. Pioneers, you can all bet with me!" Ethan pulled out three dollars and placed it on the table.

"Three dollars max, anyone wants to bet with me?"

"Sir, I don't think so, I'll bet!" An Asian Atlas Corporation senior put down a dollar.

"And me!"

"Me too!"

Within minutes, everyone in the conference room had placed their bets, with the heads of the science departments betting almost entirely on Ethan's side, and the heads of the military splitting the bets in half.

"Kate, have you finished taking notes?"

"Well, it's been recorded!" The junior secretary nodded.

"Okay, guys, let's see what happens!"

..................

"Say, can you stop looking at me like that?" In the cabin, Ethan said uncomfortably to Kate, who had been staring at him with measuring eyes for almost half an hour.

"What's the matter? I just want to know when you became a prophet! And is it true about aliens attacking Earth?" Kate asked with a smirk as she half reclined in the flattened chair.

"It's not a prophecy, it's a fact, a fact that's destined to happen in the future, and all I have to do is make those destined tragedies disappear! Do you believe me?"

"I believe it, from the moment you pulled me out of the burning carrier and jumped into the sea, I believed that what you were about to do was right!" With that, Kate pulled her collar open and pointed earnestly at a scar above her chest.

"Then you won't be disappointed!"

"Sir, we're approaching the Zagros Mountains!" The pilot suddenly warned loudly.

"Open the hatch!" Ethan put on his headset and gestured to the pilot a few times.

The flanking hatch of the HMS Falcon gunboat opened, and before Ethan could poke his head out, a gust of wind swept the sand and gave him a wash.

The Zagros Mountains in the northwest, where the Mesopotamian Plain ends, have always been a sparsely populated area, especially since the Iraqi government relocated some of the remote civilian population to the plains after the arrival of the Atlas Corporations, who had contracted the mountains. As for the reason, it is very simple, this mountain range has mineral resources, at the same time, the terrain is complex, there are a lot of covers, it is perfect for secret bases, and the Atlas Corporation is currently building some big ships that are hidden under this mountain range.

The gunships lowered their altitude as soon as they entered the mountains, and a huge gap suddenly opened in the mountainside of a peak not far from Ethan, revealing the long, flashing warning lights of the airfield runway inside.

"Welcome to the Base! Sir!" The pilot skillfully landed the gunship on the runway, and also raised two fingers in a sassy American military salute to Ethan.

"Nice technique! Lieutenant!" Ethan shook the other man's hand before jumping out of the cabin and walking towards the few men who greeted him.

"Last time I was here it was one runway, you guys are fast, now it's four!"

"After all, we've got a bunch of big guys now, we've got to make the opening wider or we'll be prone to traffic jams!" Samuel flung his long mechanical arm around and walked first, followed by his student and secretary Dr Olivia, a scholar of quantum mechanics and space development, and it looked to Ethan as if this Dr Olivia was also an avid mechanics enthusiast who spent her days staring at the semi-mechanical Samuel Hayden and drooling over it.

"Speaking of which, this thing has swallowed us up for almost 100 billion!" Kate looked at the F52 fighter parked in the hangar.

"It'll be worth every penny, ma'am!" Olivia turned her head and said seriously, "This thing could reorder the world!"

Kate, who was the Atlas Corporation's Chief Manager, was still scratching her head over the huge financial investment.

"Let's hope so!"

The crowd boarded the pass and made their way straight down the deep passageway, where tens of thousands of engineering teams had been working day and night since Altas had contracted the area, hollowing out almost the entire interior of the mountain range, which housed almost all of the major facilities including dry docks, laboratories and military production lines.

After a half hour's wild ride along the cool passageway, the scene before the group opened up.

"What is this?" Kate smelt the faint smell of the sea in the air and suddenly got a little excited.

"Our number one dock, here, our Aigaion is here!" Samuel Hayden explained, "Outside the dry dock is connected to the artificial lake we're building, from which the Egeon will set sail once it's finished!"

"An artificial lake, but I smell sea water!" Kate wondered.

"The artificial lake is where we draw the water from the sea and also the source of water for the base, we have built a total of four seawater purification plants to meet the daily needs of the base and even have spare capacity to supply the nearby cities!"

"Is that Aigaion?" Kate had by now been sucked in by a massive metal creation in the dry dock.

The hundred-armed giants were the children born to Gaia and Uranus, three in number, named Cottus, Briareus and Gyges. They were all huge and ferocious monsters, even bigger than the Titan gods and the Cyclops.

Soon after their birth, their father Uranus saw that they were all ugly monsters and hated them, which led to what happened to them subsequently. They were imprisoned by Kronos in Tartarus, and later, after Zeus rebelled, the hundred-armed giants made a deal with him to help him overthrow his father, and in the Iliad Homer mentions a story found in no other Greek myth: some of the Olympian gods, represented by Poseidon and Athena, attempted to overthrow Zeus. But Amphitrite, the goddess of the sea, brought in a hundred-armed giant to protect Zeus and bring the rebellion of the gods to an end. This hundred-armed giant was called Briareus by the gods and Aigaion by humans.

In the world of Ace Combat 6, there was also a giant called the Egeon, the P1112 Heavy Command Cruiser of the Estovakian Navy, which was originally conceived to control a large area of airspace with naval aircraft and cruise missiles.

"With a wingspan of 963.77m, an overall length of 433.3m, a height of 102.39m, a capacity of 72 F52s and seven Lightwheel cruise missile silos, I can hardly think of anything bigger in the world!" Samuel's face was filled with a sense of achievement, he had watched this thing being built day by day.

"Not necessarily, Dr Hayden," Ethan remembered that Hydra had built a trans-continental bomber that big back in World War II and although the power source was the Tesseract.

"How long will it take?" Ethan leaned on a high railing to look over the dense mass of engineers and machinery as small as ants.

"Only just finished the keel, the interior is still slow! After all, we're following the blueprints step by step, we've only built a probing machine of less than a hundred metres before to confirm the perfection of the technology, and there's a real shortage of manpower - after all, we need both progress and secrecy!" Samuel complained.

"How are you guys getting on with the C6?"

"The reverse of the C6 is still not complete, but there is no problem if we do a copy, I just can't guarantee the safety!"

"Then first copy a few hundred for small-scale experiments, if there is no problem, then directly mass production, those robots can do a lot of things!"

"Understood, I'll arrange it as soon as possible!"

"Okay, let's go see how the big birds are doing!" Ethan patted the railing and led the way next door.

Less than two kilometres from this dry dock was another huge workshop, home to a big baby more than two hundred metres wider than the Aigaion, but not as long as it was, from which sparks fell like rain from the engineers' cutting.

"Stymphalian birds, seriously, as far as drones can go, I guess there's nothing for us pilots anymore!" This time it was Olivia's turn to introduce it.

"No Doc, drones won't replace manned aircraft, ever, war is not going to become about killing your opponent at the touch of a button, that kind of war doesn't satisfy their desires!"

"That's right, in fact, for the operation of the Stymphalian bird we have adopted two modes, one for remote ground control and the other for pilot operation, to prevent a situation where the drone is remotely hacked into we have also set up a one-button remote disconnect mode, but once activated, this thing will need four pilots working together to fly it! "

"So it's these two things that have eaten up two-thirds of our income over the years is it?" Kate did the maths on that massive figure and already wanted to curse a little.

"Yeah, but they'll be relatively cheap to maintain, especially the Aigaion, we've only used a fusion reactor for power, once it's up and running it'll take about as much maintenance as a Nimitz carrier and a half!"

"Well then, seriously Ethan, you're really not building these things to rule America?" Before Kate's words had even fallen, the remaining guys' eyes immediately glazed over.

"Rule America? How is that possible? Who would want a mess that big!" Ethan waved his hand.

"Ugh!" Hearing their boss's speech, several scientists were quite disappointed, most of them were recruited by Ethan because they did not fit in or were not as good as they wanted to be, and naturally they did not have any good feelings towards America, especially Dr. Samuel Hayden, who was kicked out of the institute after he got this disease at first, and his family's mansion and luxury cars were also repossessed.

"But if we want to unify, we will unify the world, I have a name in mind, if that day comes, Earth will change its name to Star Federation, or Star Union for short, and then we will build a space station in outer space named God's Fortress!" After hearing their own boss's speech, the few people who were still disappointed just now immediately came to their senses.

"Don't even think about it, I don't need to build these forces with just those three things on Earth, our goal is the starry sea, these are just appetizers, when we get good at it, we should build big guys that can really sail in deep space!"

"So, sir, those aliens you mentioned, when will they probably come to Earth?"

"Two or three years, and then we'll be facing the death of a race! And these are what's needed to buy us time!" Ethan gestured to the armoury giant bird at his feet.

Because of its early construction, the Stymphalian bird, codenamed Freedom, had already completed its main body and installed its power system. Whenever he got the vibranium, Justice could only proceed with the construction.

"By the way, sir, I took the time to make a sample of the explosive weapon you mentioned earlier, would you like to see it?" After inspecting the basic condition of the big guys, Samuel Hayden thought again of a self-defence weapon that Ethan had suggested to him earlier and said hurriedly.

"Oh, you said you had a sample?"

"Yes, as you ordered, nineteen-millimetre calibre, rocket propulsion, diamond warhead, but I didn't have any tools to hand to engrave whatever prayer you were talking about, but I had the casing purposely refined!"

"Quickly, bring it here for me!" Ethan was overjoyed and hastily ordered.