Chapter 16: The war has ended

𝗕𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘁𝗼𝗻, 𝗦𝗼𝗸𝗼𝘃𝗶𝗮 (TN: 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘸𝘯 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘦 𝘚𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘤𝘬𝘦𝘳 𝘸𝘢𝘴 𝘴𝘶𝘳𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘈𝘵𝘭𝘢𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘮𝘺)

When the last tank was hit by a steel pin from two kilometres away, the 23rd rebel advance was a failure.

The last of the anti-government forces were now down to less than 20,000 men, all of whom were cowering in a piece of land no more than a dozen square kilometres in circumference trying to put up a last stand.

With these observer groups watching, Ethan was too embarrassed to continue his killing spree, after all, Karadzic, who was last to do so, had already been sent to The Hague.

Since we can't lay a hand on them, let's behead him, and show these observer groups what it means to be in the war against them.

"Reckon, you may take your squad and prepare to board."

"Are you sure you want to do this descent operation now? There's nothing exciting about being 50,000 feet up in the air." Reckon rubbed the back of his head, they'd had almost half a year of targeted training before, and it looked like their first performance was going to be a bit of a dud.

"Just enough to scare the hell out of those guys."

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

A black-painted CMV22 assault eagle shot straight up like a sword piercing the sky, the vector engines on either side of the wings constantly adjusting their nozzles to the fish eagle's stance until a black shadow, much smaller than Freedom, appeared over the craft and the pilot stopped to refuel.

Samuel was going to name this unit the Orbital Assault Unit, but Ethan stopped him, "Are you kidding me?

So Ethan waved his hand, and the Atlas's Air Assault Unit was formed.

Although it was nominally an experimental unit, the equipment and other things were readily available.

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

Eight in the morning.

The sun was shining, there was no cloud cover, even the sound of gunfire on the battlefield had stopped, and a number of military vehicles of various colours were parked in the open space outside Atlas Corporation's headquarters.

These were all observer missions sent by NATO countries, Britain, France, Germany and Italy, and even the Communists and a certain power had sent personnel, of course, a certain power was prepared to participate in the reconstruction of Sokovia, after all, this is their speciality, and Ethan was happy to let them participate.

Atlas Corporations were also given a lot of rare metals that were under control, and Ethan even sent twenty-four F14s to the other side in the name of Hammer Industries, which the Americans didn't need anyway.

Upon arrival, the observer groups were led by soldiers from Atlas Corporation's security forces to a huge meeting room.

As soon as they were seated, they were greeted by the images on the projector, and many of them almost cursed, "Why the hell did Atlas Corporations create another big thing without saying anything?

But Ethan didn't show up either, so these people could only continue to watch.

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

"Conveying complete." As the electronic voice sounded, a hose was yanked out of Ruin's nose, accompanied by a bit of green liquid coming out.

"I can't figure out why we have to pour this into our bodies every time."

"Because these nano-bot serum boosts your red blood cells, helping to suck up more oxygen and make you move faster." Reckon, who had already finished delivering them, straightened the tight combat suit he was wearing, then patted Ruin on the head.

"I know, but this stuff does not last long, and I have to squat in the toilet again at the end of combat to get this stuff out, can't they develop a long-lasting one?"

"Then you can try it yourself." Battery on one side said with a grin.

"I'd rather not." After wiping the liquid off his face, Ruin also sorted out his equipment, then followed Reckon with his backpack towards the induction door diagonally across the room.

When the door opened, what met their eyes was a long tunnel, on each side of which were four three-metre wide, three-metre-high prismatic metal pods, which was the transport they would be taking later.

"BOSS, we're ready to go live." After beckoning his heavily armed men into the airborne pods, Reckon called to Ethan.

"Roger, the number of enemy soldiers at the airborne location is lower than expected, but you should still be careful. The Hræsvelgr will deliver one last fire strike before entering orbit, then it's up to you." Ethan was also impressed, he had tried this system before but that was only on a drill ground, this was a real battle and an advertising campaign for Atlas Corporations, so this show must not go wrong.

"Understood, the camera is on, the one-minute countdown to airdrop." With that, Reckon snapped on his helmet, turning on the camera along with it, and his viewpoint appeared on the big screen in the ground-level meeting room the next second.

"Gentlemen, the fun begins." Reckon, who was afraid that the audience would be shocked later, also made a point of instructing the audience in the channel.

The massive XB-0 continued to climb, propelled by eight power-packed engines, and after finally reaching an altitude of 80,000 feet, the engines shut down their boost while smaller auxiliary engines at various points in the XB-0's delta-shaped fuselage began to jet in order to adjust its attitude.

"Target locked, fire sweep commencing." Inside the XB-0's command centre, the fire controller, also wearing a grey Atlas Corporation uniform, pressed a button in his hand as the fire control radar in front of him beeped, then two triangular-shaped gaps appeared in the XB-0's belly and six Hellstorm missiles fell with gravity, followed by the ignition of the pulse engines.

An anti-government soldier basking in the sun on the ground was breathing in the clean air greedily, they had been underground for three days now, only for Atlas Corporation to stop firing today, so the soldiers ran up to the surface regardless of the officer's ban.

"What's that?" Just as the soldier looked up into the sky, he spotted several small black dots in the sky approaching fast.

A series of bird names crossed the soldier's mind, but none of them fitted the bill until a word suddenly came to him.

"Airstrike!! Take cover!" The soldier who reacted shouted and ran for the artillery shelter, which was less than ten metres away, but it was too late, the combat section of the Hellstorm missile had popped open after a final acceleration to reveal the smaller combat section inside, and these guided warheads, loaded with high explosives, poured down on the enemy in the trench, like a rain of death.

A succession of explosions sent up walls of fire along the trenches as wailing wounded soldiers struggled out of the flames, hoping for help.

"Confirm hit, launch airlock."

The ground crew in their grey uniforms and yellow waistcoats slammed the outer walls of the pods one by one, a notification to those inside that they were about to enter the final launch sequence, although it was easier and quicker to use the communicators. But according to the ground crew's reaction, it was more emotional.

Three harsh beeps later, the nacelle below the airborne pod opened to reveal a circular drop hatch, and the locking pod in the upper part of the pod opened, releasing the pod.

"Spaceman, We're on our way." Reckon, locked in position by two security locks, raised his hand to turn on the sensors on the top data pad, confirming the drop track and ground conditions as well as the location of other friendly drops. (TN: 𝘚𝘱𝘢𝘤𝘦𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘶𝘯𝘪𝘵.)

"Roger, B1 be advised, there is enemy infantry approaching the bombardment area, recommend dropping auto-turrets."

"Roger, Spaceman."

After confirming the location of the enemy infantry, Reckon linked up with the other groups and proceeded to pick a few locations on the map where the crowds were denser and proceeded to press the handle on his right.

Several square iron boxes, the size of a metre, accelerated off the bottom of the airborne pod and slammed down with unrelenting momentum.

"Airstrike, again!" At the sight of something falling from the sky again, the anti-government forces jumped to their feet and, without waiting for orders from their officers, the soldiers fell to the ground and cowered in a ball.

Before the square-shaped steel box was about to hit the ground, the counter-thrust system at the bottom activated, slowing down the box's descent considerably.

"It doesn't seem to have exploded." One officer grew his mouth without waiting for the impact and raised his head in confusion, noticing that the square-shaped boxes did not look like bombs, but rather like some kind of storage box or some other contraption.

"Don't panic, it's not a bomb, someone, go check it out."

A few rather bold soldiers hesitated for a few seconds before stabbing over with their long sticks.

"No reaction." One soldier dropped the stick, walked up and kicked it, then waved at his companions behind him, "This thing probably failed."

"Shit, you idiot, get out of the way." The companion who had wanted to lean over suddenly shouted as if he had seen a ghost.

"Dodge what?" The soldier turned his head to find three blackened guns suddenly poking out of the crate, already aimed at him.

"Buzz ..." the roaring triple-barreled rotary machine gun spun and sprayed deadly pellets in all directions, karping down almost any unlucky man who stood up and ten thousand rounds of caseless ammunition were soon all gone, leaving only a very few lucky ones at the end.

But those lucky ones couldn't have been luckier, for almost as soon as the machine guns stopped firing, four larger cylindrical pods crashed to the ground again, sending a wave of noise through the air.

"Move, go go go." The first one to rush out of the hatch was Ruin who was carrying a square bulletproof shield in his left hand, despite the dozens of pounds of alloy shield he was carrying, he still felt as if he was able to leap a distance of three or four metres with a single step, not only him but everyone's strength, speed and reflexes were several times faster thanks to the nano potions.

Reckon, who was holding his heavy sniper, pulled the bolt almost once in half a second, and without even taking careful aim, he casually took out an enemy soldier who had raised his bazooka a few dozen metres away with a single shot.

"Command is two hundred metres to the north, we're still off." Taking a moment to glance at the PDA, Reckon was somewhat remorseful, as they had envisaged that they should have smashed the airborne pod in the middle of the village where the opposing command was located, but instead they were now in a farm outside the village.

"We made it in time." Ranger checked his vantage flamethrower and then snapped on his closed mask. (TN: 𝘈𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘴𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘴 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘢𝘮𝘦𝘴)

"Ranger cover him, Ruin clear the way, let's go."

"Roger that."

Raising his large shield high, Ruin crossed a fence and kicked down a soldier who tried to take a cold shot, then raised his shield to block the fire suppression from a machine gun position a hundred metres away, allowing the gunner behind him to raise the grenade launcher in his hand.

"Clear, go go go."

The members of the observer group sitting in the parlour watching the live broadcast only felt dazzled, and several officers who prided themselves on being fast gunners even breathed heavily, too fast, whether it was their stance, marksmanship or reaction speed, several T1 level special forces officers secretly compared themselves.

The senior generals were even more interested in the vertical descent mode of operation, the American, Russian and even French army officers even took out their notebooks to write and draw. Ethan naturally also noticed these people, but he was not surprised, anyway, like the XB-0, it is also ready to be sold, if possible, he can also lobby Congress directly.

The resistance to the assault was only gradually increased after they entered the village, because of the ethnicity of the faction bosses, the guards around them were their countrymen, and they followed them to the end, so the resistance was more fierce, and Reckon was annoyed that the other side did not surrender, but even dared to fight back, so he threw all kinds of heavy firepower at them, which made the guards dizzy.

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

Casually tearing off the mask on his face, Strucker took a look at the noisy scene not far away and did not drop any harsh words that I will return sooner or later.

"Let's go, don't bother with these losers." With a sigh, Strucker changed into a normal soldier's uniform and disappeared into the trenches. He was already familiar with the trick of running away, and he decided to study hard and never participate in any warlord struggle again.

The warlords who had been relying on Strucker's might were chilled to the bone when they realised that he had slipped away.

As for running away, they couldn't let go of their plundered wealth and were torn between them when the door to the command post was slammed open and their bloodied men planted in front of them.

"Excuse me, gentlemen, our boss has invited you to join him for lunch." Reckon, dressed like a Terminator, politely extended the invitation.

With their own boss captured, all the anti-government soldiers had to meekly lay down their arms and surrender, and in reporting the results of the battle to Ethan, this is what Reckon reported.

"We captured half a dozen of non-commissioned officers, a platoon of soldiers, two acres of tank artillery, three boxes of rifle machine guns and a dozen boxes of arms and ammunition."

The gunfire stopped again, and the surviving anti-government soldiers all threw their weapons away as if they had been pardoned, and then just sat there in the middle of the fields looking out at the blue sky, not having to worry about bombs exploding around them, it was a great feeling.

"That's the reality, Mr Ethan." Senior General Guisan from Russia handed Ethan a Cuban cigar.

"Ever since the Soviets left, the internal contradictions within these countries have come to the fore, between the various ethnic groups, plus the chaos of our armaments in previous years, so that in this land, a hundred guns make a colonel and a thousand call themselves commanders."

"So that's why Atlas Corporations are here, we've come to put things in order." Ethan took the cigar, then bent slightly and asked the Russian lady secretary on one side to light it for him, then gestured at the land in front of him with the cigar in his hand.

"We thank Atlas Corporations for their dedication and are willing to engage in deep military and commercial exchanges with Atlas in all areas."

"I wonder what you, sir, think of today's daytime performance?" Ethan looked up at the sky, Freedom was currently on its final wave of cruises and would then return to Iraq, while the much smaller Hræsvelgr would still remain in Sokovia until the security forces had completed their purge.

"Excellent, I'm sure higher-ups will be very interested in this."

"That's only natural, after all, you're the ones who dare to drop airdrops with a man."

After a bit of banter, the two men gave up trying to test each other and went straight to the price.

The Russian army wanted the production technology and drawings for the Hræsvelgr, and said they wanted to re-establish military observation posts in Sokovia.

The price was tens of billions of dollars worth of oil and gas orders and the right to exploit the resources of the Arctic, as well as shelling out real money for the Hræsvelgr.

"We only sell finished products, sir, and with all due respect, you couldn't build the Hræsvelgr if you were given the plans, it would require six high-end research laboratories, seventeen top fluid laboratories, seven hundred related industries and seven thousand supporting industries." Ethan sighed, even if it was Soviet with its heavy industry in its heyday it wasn't possible, don't even think about it in the case of Russia, which had only partially inherited the property.

"..." the General was silent for a long time, then let out a long sigh, "Dollars or Pounds?"

"Both, you can also use ten per cent of the arms quota and twenty per cent of the oil against the debt, if you want to shell out precious metals that's fine with me." Although Atlas had an almost complete production line, the small scale production of some of the gadgets was better for Atlas than buying them, and what about all the big bombs in the Soviet arsenal that were sitting unused and expired anyway? Yes, Ethan was talking about mushroom bombs, which the Atlas didn't have in stock, but there were a whole lot of clean hydrogen bombs, but Ethan didn't really want to use those either, preferring to use the big guys like atomic disintegration bombs.

After agreeing on a price, the Russian General left, the details of which he would bring a team of professionals over to discuss, the main reason for his visit was to discuss the garrisoning of Sokovia, and after confirming that Ethan would not have NATO in the peacekeeping force for several years, his purpose was achieved.

After the Russians left, the second visitor was the British, well, Margaret, who was not too happy about the fact that Great Britain only wanted to buy a few hundred drones to be used as aircraft carriers, but seeing as Margaret's Max Group was busy with the food and drinking water supply for Atlas Corporations, Ethan had to hold his nose and admit it, and besides, Margaret wasn't starving him.

The third person who came to him was the United States of America. Unlike Russians and British, who were living on a tight budget, the Americans came directly and offered to buy the Hræsvelgr in the sky, and hoped that Atlas could train qualified operators for the air force within the following two years. (TN: 𝘐 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦 𝘏𝘳æ𝘴𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘨𝘳 𝘵𝘰 𝘎𝘰𝘥𝘩𝘢𝘸𝘬 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘰𝘯. 𝘐𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦𝘴 𝘵𝘰𝘰 𝘮𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘰𝘯.)

"Full payment. Mr Ethan." The Lieutenant-General was almost in tears, he had received deadly orders from the President before he arrived that this thing had to be bought back or the Goldhawk would be bought by some organisation with roots in the United States of America but not officially constrained, yes, S.H.I.E.L.D.

In fact, with the rapid expansion of S.H.I.E.L.D., basically every agency within the United States was displeased, the military hated that these guys were fully equipped, IRS hated that they couldn't check their taxes and in response, the Department of Agriculture gave Ethan a huge order of wheat and soybeans for nothing, enough that Sokovian refugees will puke out but it won't get finished.

"Ah, this." Ethan looked at the man in front of him and then at the Sitwell but still, his heart softened, after all, you can't let the big guys have a monopoly all by themselves, right, both of you can have it. Go enjoy.

Even Ethan can think of the future when Hydra is ready to jump back and suddenly finds itself surrounded by American troops before the Project Insight has even flown into the sky.

In a flash, Ethan slapped the board, one XB-02 for 5 billion US dollars, and the version for sale was not a support ship model for attacks on the enemy, but an air-carrier model that could park at least forty F-35b's.

"What? The orders are lined up for three years from now?" Sitwell was shocked, in this time their own built air carrier could be launched for sea trials.

"Agent Sitwell, you have to understand that Atlas is still an American arms dealer and we have to give priority to the needs of the country."

"We can increase the amount discussed. Twice as much." Sitwell asked tentatively, remembering his own boss's face.

"But the production line, the labour overtime for these ..." Ethan smiled, "You must know that Atlas Corporation is not one of those rubbish Japanese black companies where people die from hard and get isekaid, we have always upheld the 8-hour working system, and if we have to employees work overtime, we'll pay five times overtime in full."

"Than three times, no more."

"OK, one and a half years for delivery." Ethan nodded and left the rest to Atlas Corporation legal office.

After a long wait, another heavily armed army arrived in the Sokovian capital, but this time, instead of artillery fire and bombardment, they were confronted by a myriad of frenzied people.

"Attention all vehicles, slow down, guns and ammunition seize." The lead air-cushioned armoured vehicle stopped advancing, lowered its load of infantry and then cranked up its turret to lock it in place before slowly revving its engine.

In front of the convoy, the Atlas Corporation officer leading the group poked his head out of the vehicle and looked at the civilian population leaning towards the armoured vehicles with a sudden sense of pride.

If a civilian child had run onto the road in Iraq, the patrolling Marun would have put the black barrel of his .50 against his head and told him to get lost, but here, in Sokovia, Atlas Corporations treated them a world away from Iraq.

"Come and have a snack and a cup of tea, son." An amiable older woman held up a basket in her hand, containing baked bread and samovar.

Not only the officers but also the infantrymen and the drivers of the armoured vehicles who got out of the vehicles were surrounded by big girls and old women, with all kinds of food stuffed into their hands. (TN: 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘮𝘢!! 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘯𝘢𝘶𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘺 𝘸𝘰𝘮𝘢𝘯.)

The old men carried bottles of wine in their right hands and glasses in their left, and when they saw one they had to pour a glass, and when the wine was gone the empty bottle was thrown away and their grandson was told to take another bottle from a box on the roadside.

The soldiers and officers of the Atlas Forces are used to it, if they have been on a large scale training exercise in Iraq over the years, they will also have local sheikhs with people to bring water and food, it is the love between the people and the army.

In fact, when countries around the world talk about mercenaries, they are just wild dogs scavenging for food in a rubbish heap, and they can do anything they want as long as they are paid, but Ethan doesn't think so.

From its inception, the Atlas Mercenary Unit popularly known as Juggernaut has always presented itself as protectors, quelling wars, that is their job.

They help to quell rebels in war-torn countries in Africa, then train their troops, build modern industrial agriculture, build hospitals, provide doctors and supplies for disease outbreak areas.

Even Ethan patrols war zones in combat fatigues with his rifle, this is not for show, every year he takes time to go to the sites for three weeks to listen to the common soldier and to learn about the various aspects of the Juggernaut and this was one of the things that Kate admired most about Ethan, that he was a man of his word, he would do what he promised and his spirit could inspire others.

The first brigade to arrive in the capital took almost four hours to complete the ten-kilometre stretch of road, and even then they were still inching their way into the city, cheered on by citizens placing flags and wreaths all over their tanks and armoured vehicles.

"Looks like they're very popular?" Margaret wrapped her arms around Ethan's waist and rested her chin on the other man's shoulder, tsking as she looked at the troops walking down the street.

"Because we're liberators." Ethan turned and slipped both hands into the other man's bathrobe.

"They have endured so much suffering and we have come to drive that away and next thing you know, they will be rebuilding their homes just like Iraq, the fields will be full of crops, the factories will be rumbling to deliver countless products, the schools will be full of children's laughter and that is what we are here for. "

"All this is something I would never have thought of before, I never thought I would see it here today." Margaret tinkled, opening Ethan's oddly manipulative hand before lying back on the large soft bed in her room, "So shouldn't President Hunt settle our bill as well? Our Max Group is not as big as Atlas Corporations' family, and those dozen transports you used are a lot of money in default."

"All right, then I'll settle the account properly first." With that said Ethan closed the balcony window and then drew the curtains, ready to settle the bill.

In fact, if he had had a choice, Ethan would have taken Marguerite somewhere else, but he had no time to spare.

It was still early in the day when Ethan, who had laboured all night and yawned as he walked out of his room, found his own secretary sitting on his bed looking at him with an unkind face.

"I get it, I get it."

For the next while, Ethan lived a happy life of being repeatedly squeezed, signing papers during the day, running back and forth at night, and in general having a particularly full day.

According to the six-year work plan, which was divided into two phases, Sokovia would become a country with basically basic industry and agriculture back to pre-war levels in six years' time.

And at this point, Ethan breathed a sigh of relief. The cost of the operation was huge, but the dividends were enough to take the Atlas to the next level, and at least, the word from Dr Samuel Hayden was that there was new progress in the reverse development of new technology and that perhaps within two years, the Atlas's own spacecraft could go from drawing board to reality.