The roar of the helicopter made Pan Yilong, who had been in a coma for a long time, gradually wake up, surrounded by soldiers of the Combine Watch Force, and the cold murderous aura on his body made him shudder, his hands and feet were tied up by them, and the left leg that was injured by the fall was actually tied to a splint to fix it, as if he didn't want his leg to rot completely

"Where is this going?" Pan Yilong asked a guy next to him, he turned his head and glared at himself without speaking, Pan Yilong had to shrink his neck stupidly, tilted his head to look out the window, he saw an endless city, several islands connected together, the middle of the water and land are all over, the waterway is dense, the unique floating city is built between the high-rise buildings in the sinking area, such a scene, he has also seen it a few months ago, but it was to deal with the combined army at that time...

"Are you back?" Pan Yilong smiled, turned around, and finally returned to the place at the beginning, the watery district of New York, the towering super tower is the only landmark building of the United Empire on earth, and he vaguely remembers that his party jumped into the icy Passaïk Canal from the middle of the tower, about two hundred meters high, and now he is back again, and his next fate is completely under the control of the United Empire.

Pan Yilong was sent to the highest court of the empire for trial, and the guys on the jury were all in good spirits, with a mocking smile on the corner of their mouths, looking at this guy who hadn't even taken off his military uniform from a distance, as if they were deliberately humiliating this man;

He stood in the center of the courtroom, and was photographed all over the body by headline reporters from all over the world, he could imagine that he participated in the most brutal war in the history of mankind for the slogan of liberating all mankind, desperately driving away the lackeys of the United Empire, and today these guys completely describe themselves as a murderer, a deserter, a wanted criminal, an extralegal fanatic who endangers the peaceful relations between the human world and the United Empire, and now, he is still shamelessly wearing a military uniform that symbolizes freedom. Here to receive the highest judgment of the Empire...

The people laughed, watching this man about to be executed by the Empire, his spine and dignity completely trampled under their feet as a cloth, and the stench was incomparable.

"Sometimes, the greatest punishment for a useless person is not to kill his body, but to kill what little dignity he has in public, so that he doesn't even have the courage to live..."

Pan Yilong smiled, his face always had a look of dying soon, his eyes were dull, he stood in the crowd weakly, the buzzing in his ears did not gradually regain calm until the hammer of the courtroom sounded, the National Guard stepped forward to press him, walked out of the courtroom step by step, and then was sent to the escort car, his hands and feet were locked in electronic shackles, and he kept running all the way to his last residence: prison, where he would usher in the last tragic time of his life...

Now, April 27, 2040, Central Castle, New York

The appearance of the Combine agents is indeed inconspicuous, they are more like a kind of chrysalis, fat and bloated, with a pair of small mechanical arms on top of their bodies, a feeding mouth similar to a shaped internal mouthpart, used to suck the brain marrow of their victims, they are kept in isolation pods all day long (one is said to avoid infection with viruses and bacteria on Earth), they are connected to their bodies with countless information catheters, and then they are connected to the transceiver at the top of this energy tower, The agent's thoughts and words are sent to any corner of the universe through this device to communicate with other Imperial agents.

From 2037 to the present, it took 3 years for the 18th Institute to figure out the most basic communication method of the United Empire, which is the most primitive wave morphological language, relying on these ubiquitous colonial facilities, theoretically the information and thinking of these guys can ignore any distance and time dimension, and spread throughout the universe at the first time, and can also be encrypted in any colony, and the technical means of encryption are only known to the agents themselves, and the information sharing with the agents of the United Empire in other regions18 also called it vividly: swarm consciousness.

Before Femiric took over as Commander-in-Chief of the Civil Guard in the United Empire's Earth Sector, he was just a young officer on escort duty in the Empire's Nova Mine Garrison; Former Civil Guard Commander Colin Youssef was attacked by the Vodriganes from the planet XEN while attending a one-on-one event in the stars in 2035, and the deadly gamma rays directly destroyed his immune system, and finally died of multi-organ failure. Femiric was on his side, and he immediately knocked out the Fredgan with his stun gun, and then rushed forward and tied up the guy in the first place.

He didn't care about Commander Yusuf lying on the ground dying, because for him, the Empire cared more about the intentions of these saboteurs and the manipulators behind them, as for an officer? Hehe, whatever this kind of thing is, Femiric retrieved some of the Resistance's orders and plan of action from the Vdegan people, and personally led the Civil Guard and the armored core to start a city-wide search (note that the Nova Mine garrison is a direct unit of the United Empire!). No one can be mobilized without the order of the agent)

At this time, in order to avoid getting burned, he chose to command the ordinary Civil Guard to fight, and destroyed countless places where the Resistance had secretly joined...

After the whole incident, the New York agents saw that such a young officer who was not greedy for merit or rashness, acted vigorously and extremely cautious, and needed to be promoted to replace the long-dead Commander Yusuf, and then the Empire promoted him to the Supreme Commander of the Civil Guard in North America a few days later, and in March of the following year, he was promoted to the Imperial Spaceport to be examined by the agents, and successfully passed, at this time most of the shrewd politicians on Earth began to realize, This young soldier was about to become one of the most powerful people on the planet, and he was only 25 years old that year...

Now 30 years old, Femiric has always been a tall and strong, a little like a superhuman male god, the majestic figure attracted the attention of countless young and fearless girls as soon as he went out, every move is quite aristocratic, walking in the crowd is impossible to ignore his existence, such a dazzling person is difficult for people to associate him with the infamous "eye-gouging maniac", this day is also the same;

Femiric was not happy to see so many onlookers, on the contrary, he felt a little uneasy at the call of the agent, got into the car and drove away the fanatical fans who were in the way, and hurried towards the central castle.

When Femiric passed by the Energy Castle, he saw more than a dozen arrested migrant workers standing in line by the ditch waiting to be shot, and the Combine officers who had read out the charges closed their notebooks, and the Civil Guard behind them raised their guns and fired with a dab of fire, the corpses blocked the narrow river and stained the river red.

"Your Excellency, Commander, the agents have been waiting for you at the top tower for a long time... I've heard that it's a little unhappy, do you want to..."

"I think I have a way to coax it to be happy, you better go about it." Femirek glanced at him and casually asked, "What crime did they commit?"

"Last year's invasion of the core area of the central castle, after which it was discovered that someone had dug a secret tunnel under the castle, they were the ones who dug the hole, they were really tired of being crooked, and for 200 dollars, they actually dared to break ground on our heads!"

"Oh, I said, isn't the Resistance the most popular thing about explosives and terrorist attacks? Why are you doing the work of digging a hole now, it turned out to be a hired person. Femiric smiled and walked towards the castle, and the officer followed him step by step and kept asking him, "Hey, Commander, I heard that last year's incident seems to have been caused by someone in the empire who deliberately waterproofed, I wonder if you have heard of it?"

"It's better not to talk nonsense!" Femiric glared back at him, who was stunned, then covered his mouth again and nodded, "I'm just curious to ask..."

"Curiosity kills the cat!" Femilic didn't say anything to him and continued to walk, he looked at the glass trestle under his feet, the people who had attacked at night climbed up from the core cooling pipe below, and then hid in the dense pile of lines, and climbed to the top of the core hub that was nearly fifty stories high in one breath when the castle changed defenses, and then used the climbing rope to drill into the control room of the core area, a series of operations were smooth and did not be intercepted by the Combine Forces, and if it was stopped, it would not have caused so many incidents now.

He thought so, took the elevator and looked at the world outside the porthole, looking down on the city at the foot of the castle, and it took more than five minutes for the vacuum high-speed elevator to climb to the top of the tower, Femiric looked at the person beside him and shook his head, "I'm bothering you all the way, is there anything else you want to say to me?" ”

The officer hesitated for a moment, then replied slowly, "There is a letter from Colbrand, who claims to be the 18th Research Institute, and I hope you will take the time to take a look." He handed Femiric a yellow envelope, bulging and not knowing what it contained, Femiric was stunned, nodded hesitantly and took it from his hand, "Trouble." He said this to him, and the elevator arrived, and Femiric walked towards the secret room where the agent was without looking back, and stayed in front of the eyeball scanner for a moment, then pushed the door open and walked in.

"Rick, I'm losing my patience now, you know?"

The Combine agent watched Femirick standing in the middle of the command room through the screen, his head bowed without saying a word, his right hand constantly kneading the corners of his clothes, and the only thing that came to his mind was the cold conversation between him and the agent.

"For seven months, from September 20 last year to April 27 this year, you and your National Guard haven't heard from Bill Crawn again? He took his country's supreme artifact, the Heart of the Universe, and disappeared from the earth under the blockade of millions of imperial troops? Now not only me, but even the gods of the empire are angry at the stupidity of humanity today, do you want to see the human era disappear from your eyes? ”

"No, it's not."

"Do you know why the artifact was left in the care of humans? Instead of handing it over to the elite guards of the empire to watch? The agent twisted his body and shook his head and said to him:

"The empire once foresaw the occurrence of this event, and carried out targeted defenses, in order to catch this madman who stole the artifact, after countless arrests, all the guys who touched the artifact have now been completely wiped out, along with their world! All possible potential threats have also been eliminated by the forces under the command of the Empire, but only the real world of humanity has been spared, do you know how much the Empire has paid for this last step? ”

"I... Understanding the sacrifices made by the Empire and its men, we will quickly reclaim the Heart of the Universe and Bill Crawn's, who will never escape! ”

"Your human guarantees are feeble! I don't need your assurance! The agent shook his head in disgust and ended the meeting, "Take your scum and leave my room immediately, you don't have much time, I can feel the Heart of the Universe it's back!" Bring it to me and eliminate all potential threats, it's your mission! ”

The last words the agent said to him made Rick's heart tighten, and he hurriedly withdrew from the agent's chamber, and then stood in the empty corridor, he walked to the window, and reached out to open the envelope by the light of the sun, which contained only a letter paper and a pile of torn photographs, from which he could barely see a familiar face, undoubtedly the number one leader of the night raid, but there was another blurry figure beside him, the face of the photograph was damaged, and the face of this person could not be seen, and the letter paper read" Suzujo Tax Office, please come quietly. Such a passage made Femirik suddenly vigilant.

"What the hell is this Brand doing?"

Colbrand sat in front of the sofa, sipping a glass of expensive horsehead wine, staring intently at Femirick with a gloomy face, looking at his current appearance, Brand couldn't help laughing...

"What are you laughing at?" Femirek looked at him, Brand smiled and waved his hand, and said, "You are really... Hehe, led by the nose by the detective's thinking, you don't have your own opinions at all, you can sit in the position of the commander of the Civil Guard like this, it is also your ability, believe me, you can't sit for long in peace! ”

"You're just looking for me to taunt me, are you?" Femiric grinned, "You know I've never had a good temper, don't try to provoke me into thinking it will affect my thinking. ”

"Don't talk nonsense~" Brand patted his thigh, "Do you remember the Chinese boy named Jason Watson who was taken away by your National Guard last month?" ”

"What's wrong with him?" "Oh, he's fine, but have you ever thought about such a big case, and in the end, he was the only one to be tortured and then hastily settled? What about the other participants? The Empire is not going to pursue it? ”

"The agent agreed, and that's it!" Femirek looked at the latter coldly, "Do you have a problem?" ”

"It's the detective who doesn't want to tell you the truth behind it, right?" Brand said to him with a smile.

"What do you want? Are you hinting at me something? Want me to openly question that this is a conspiracy of Imperial agents? Let it admit that behind this artifact robbery is actually a conspiracy directed and staged by the Empire? ”

"That's your own understanding of Rick!" Brand shook his head, "I've never said that, I just want to remind you, don't take yourself too seriously, the agent said that you are still useful now, then you are useful, and if you are useless, you can disappear immediately... I'm here just to give you some valuable clues, and whether you believe it or not, that's your own business. ”

"What clues can you bring?" Femiric seemed to know the temperament of the guy in front of him, so he also taunted him at the moment: "Are you going to dig another hole for someone, and then watch others fall into the water and have fun yourself?" Vile! ”

"Do you think I look like that kind of idler!" Brand said: "That's the case, I heard the news from a friend in the black market, he said that he made about seven million from a transaction before, and to tell you the truth, he is in the smuggling business, and he is bold, as long as he makes money, he dares to do anything, so... During this time, he was smuggling arms on behalf of others, and the flow was unknown, and he refused to tell me the information about the buyer, so you know, I can't break the rules of the industry, let alone know who he is. ”

"Munitions?" Femirek's eyes narrowed, and a cold glow shot at Brand who was sitting on the sofa and drinking leisurely, "Hey, don't look at me like that, it has nothing to do with me!" If you want to listen, just sit back! ”

"You say... I want to see what kind of man is so bold as to smuggle arms in the capital of the Imperial colonies, but I want to see if his life is hard. ”

"Hehe" Brand continued: "Actually, it's nothing, it's basically all guns, cannons, and other miscellaneous rags, and these are nothing, but the other party finally asked them to pull an extra boat, and there may be a report on the entry record, probably around the end of January..."

Brand couldn't help but raise his eyebrows when he said this, "There is a 20,000-ton French freighter in the name of purchasing materials for the expeditionary force, and it drove to the old port area of Shuicheng, and pulled a bunch of mysterious parts on it, wrapped tightly with three-proof cloth, but the people of the cargo ship do not admit that these things are components used to assemble some kind of large machinery, only that they are electric fences of a pig farm somewhere, hehe, electric fences still need to be disguised like this?" What's even more amazing is that some people in the port authority have been in a state of indulgence, allowing them to send things to the dock, and then they were pulled away by another unknown convoy, and then the convoy and the goods disappeared on the edge of the water city in such a strange way, without a trace at all, don't you say strange? On that day, it happened that the Urban Transportation Bureau overhauled the monitoring system, and except for a few monitoring bugs performing tasks in the sky, all other monitoring stations were shut down without exception..."

"Bang!" Femiric slapped the table hard and stood up, Brand leaned back on the couch, and he asked Brand, "Do you have any detailed records or evidence of what you said?"

"Check it yourself, I don't know, it's just hearsay."

"You bastard! You already knew these things, why are you telling me now? Femirik was in a rare rage, grabbed Brand by the collar, and the latter slapped his hand off, shouting, "I tell you, I am telling you this for the safety of all mankind, otherwise I would have thrown my hands and left, and you would not have known about these things now!"

"Shh Femiric pouted and let go of Brand, "Some... It's like a moth on the surface of the apple," Brand said leisurely, "They bite open a little of the skin and get into it, and then seal the skin, and hide under it and feast on it, thinking that no one else can see it, but in fact with the passage of time, these traces will be all visible, and it is not advisable to deceive themselves, which is stupid!"

"Are you trying to tell me that everything that happened behind this is actually the ghost of you 18?" Femiric looked at Brand and a smile gradually appeared on his face...

"I'm preventing humanity from being forced to declare war on the United Empire!" Brand said in a deep voice: "But some stupid guys who are bad at chess think they have hidden from everyone, but they don't know that they have been targeted by the empire, and those dirty things in their hands are touched everywhere, who can't see them?" It's just that the agent didn't do it, but it doesn't mean that the agent will sit idly by! ”

"Hmph..."Femiric didn't speak, Brand knocked on the table with his hand, "You are a celebrity around the Empire, you can not care about the life and death of the earth, and then go away with the Imperial fleet and fly away without fear of what war will break out between humans and the Empire next, but please remember, if an agent dies on the Earth because of this incident in the future, with you as a human being, you have no great credit to the Empire, and you have indirectly killed the agent who recommended you to the position, why do you think the Coalition Army will take you away from this planet at that time?" ”

Femiric raised his head and squinted his eyes, "You also asked me about Jason Watson just now, what do you have to do with him?" Could it be that you did it yourself to kill him? A waste in exchange for the trust of the Empire? And then stop a fictional war? Or have you managed to use him to get the attention of me and the agents, and you've started to carry out some shady plans behind the scenes? ”

"Didi~" Brand opened his mouth, and finally decided to take out his mobile phone from his pocket and glanced at the message sent on it, his face was cloudy for a while, and finally made up his mind, smiled at Femirek reluctantly, and then got up and walked towards the door.

"Is this leaving? Why don't you stay and have a drink? Femiric looked at Brand, who got up to leave, and said faintly behind him: "I still want to thank you for the reminder, I will pay close attention to you and your subordinates during this time!" He watched with a smile as Brand left the place, the smile on his face gradually cooling...

"How could I not know these things that you have said? Brand, don't think that if you send Cloon away, you will be able to do a great job, I will still arrest you then! We'll see! ”