Long-term salvation

After greeting Rhode, the two new girls began to work at the stove. They grabbed the black cat, Pickman, who had slipped in at some point, and placed it by the scruff of its neck in Rhode's arms. The cat stretched, its whiskers trembling slightly, its beautiful green eyes filled with anticipation for breakfast.

Rhodes always felt that this cat would be able to speak one day in the future.

While stroking the cat in his hand, Rhodes looked up and saw Mary walking towards him in her home pajamas. After getting used to her usual nun uniform, she looked very special now. Mary blushed when she was stared at by Rhodes. After protesting softly for a few words, she walked over to Marian and asked her for a cup of hot milk.

"How's your sleep since arriving at Hill Villa?" Rhodes sipped his coffee, turned his head and asked Asuka Ikiki with a smile, "I haven't been able to enter your dream world recently."

"Much better... I just have nightmares, but they're just dreams," Asuka Iki replied with a smile. Her face looked much rosier due to her healthy diet and improved sleep, and her beautiful features, which had been suppressed by burdens and pain, gradually relaxed. However, her breasts were still barren. "However, I can sense that many people in this land are suffering, Mr. Rhodes."

"We'll solve them one by one."

Rhode nodded, feeling more at ease. Now that he thought about it, there must have been some issues with Asuka Iki's diet, medication, and environment in that hospital. The use of DCmini and the serial killers using it to invade dreams were also part of accelerating the development of the girl's abilities.

Now, this is no longer a problem, not yet.

Rhodes couldn't be sure whether Asuka Jingmuji's ability would be further enhanced in the future, so he could only hope that the system's [Base Construction Task] could provide a better solution.

There was some noisy sound coming from outside the kitchen. Rod looked in the direction of the sound and saw Little Red Riding Hood holding Abigail, whose limbs were hanging like noodles. The girl's face was still confused, "Who am I, where am I, what should I do?", and it was obvious that she had not woken up completely yet.

Red-haired Nikki placed Abigail on the chair like a doll, and then found a chair to sit down and took the coffee that Mary poured for her and started to drink it.

Bai Zi, who was following behind the two men, was already wearing cycling clothes and holding a thick windbreaker in her hand. It seemed that she was planning to start riding today immediately after breakfast. The girl now rode once in the morning and once in the evening every day. If she didn't want to ride, she would go to the big cities in the nearby states to see if there were any new gangster sales points, and then make some pocket money there.

Looking at the girls busy in the kitchen, Rhode couldn't suppress his smile and had to hide his feelings:

"What's for breakfast today?"

"Eggs Benedict, sour cream toast and some bacon scattered around," Marianne replied.

Chapter 125: The Army Without Borders Begins Here (3K)

After breakfast, Rhodes put on his eye mask, stealth suit, and long beige windbreaker. He said hello to the girls and strolled out, heading towards the training camp in the forest.

It was a beautiful day, but the temperature in the forest wasn't particularly high. It even felt a bit like winter, chilling. This made Rhode tighten his windbreaker. Although his stealth suit was designed to maintain warmth and enhance strength, he still instinctively felt the chill.

Like Rhodes, no one liked to stay in this dense yet cold forest for a long time:

The soldiers of the Army Without Borders didn't stay at the training camp permanently. Instead, they lived in several houses purchased by Atlas Corporation on the edge of Arkham, near Hill House. Except for those who were married, most soldiers lived in groups of four or five. The conditions here were obviously much better than those in the barracks.

Construction is still underway in the residential area, with plans for forty residential houses, a small theater part-time auditorium, underground warehouses, an indoor/shooting range and an intelligence center, as well as two open-air parking lots and a large underground parking lot.

The open-air parking lot is used to park civilian vehicles and wheeled vehicles, while the underground part is used for testing and storage of certain armored vehicles that are "easy to get tickets."

The Army Without Borders had already been established when Rhodes went to Japan. This included the construction of training camps, summarizing combat training experiences and compiling and updating teaching materials, pre-setting more combat environments, and comforting soldiers who had been "severely frightened." General Hammer had contributed greatly to this, so much that Rhodes felt guilty.

Because of this, when Rhode and the soldiers still called him "General," the old man seemed quite embarrassed... until his code name was assigned to "General." At the same time, Rhode threatened him that if he didn't accept, he would call him "Five-Star General," and a group of soldiers nearby cheered him on.

General Hammer certainly couldn't bear the title of a five-star general, so he had to let others continue to call him general.

The training camp is located nearly two kilometers deep in the forest, connected to Hill Villa and the town outside by a compacted dirt road.

The soil here is solid, and even heavy rain or early spring snowmelt will not cause vehicles to become unable to drive. However, the gravel when the camp was first built made the workers complain bitterly, but fortunately, all this is over now.

Rhode looked up at the low-rise buildings surrounded by the Hesco blast wall. Only a few sentry towers of varying heights stood among them. Most of the time, the sentry towers were unmanned, with only the infrared monitoring equipment produced by Atlas Corporation running automatically.

"Oh, Rod!"

General Hammer's voice came from the doorway. He was wearing thick winter camouflage uniforms and a coat of the same color. Seeing Rhodes strolling over, the general smiled a little more:

"I thought you wouldn't be back until noon... Looks like the land of gentleness hasn't completely buried you yet."

"It's hard to say in the future," Rhode shrugged. "If you weren't so reluctant to go to Hill Manor for dinner, I would have asked you to bring the soldiers for dinner tonight. Ahem, how are they doing?"

"All twenty-one are here and have begun daily training. More will be arriving soon. There are many troublemakers and soldiers dissatisfied with the army. I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing for me."

General Hammer forced a smile, but he immediately put it away and got down to business seriously:

"Except for Krauser, Jack Krauser, you must remember him. Apart from him, based on several training sessions with your girls and the training experience in that haunted mansion, I divided them into four teams, namely, 'Goshawk-1', 'Horn Eagle-2', 'Vulture-3', and 'Falcon-4'."

"Isn't there a squad called the Bald Eagles?"

"Of course, some people wanted to call it that, and there was even a fight over it... so I just dropped the code name and changed it to another raptor name."

Speaking of this, General Hammer sighed and shook his head, feeling helpless. Although they had left the army, no one had abandoned the symbols of their country. Rather, the main reason for nearly half of the soldiers' willingness to stay was to protect their loved ones and the common people from the monsters of the other world.

This expectation will grow stronger as they continue to fight, and will eventually become an ambition to safeguard human civilization.

Rhodes was looking forward to seeing the transformation of the soldiers, even though most of them would probably not see the end of victory.

"One more thing, Rhode. The Army Without Borders still needs armed personnel who aren't involved in the events of the other world to carry out normal military operations. How about hiring some mercenaries now? Although I don't particularly like these war hounds, their deployment is more flexible and they can be used to fill in the gaps."

"Director Hannibal gave me several lists of mercenaries," Rhodes replied. "I'll go talk to him again. I've only selected one team so far. Judging by their reviews, they're very good, loyal, reliable, and brave."

"That's good."

General Hammer and Rhodes walked side by side into the camp. Occasionally, short bursts of gunfire could be heard from inside, suggesting a small team was conducting indoor combat training. Several soldiers, fully armed, were still encircled by the high walls of the training grounds. They whispered about their training sessions, and upon seeing Rhodes and General Hammer, they immediately stood at attention and saluted.

"BOSS/General." xN

After Rhodes and General Hammer returned the greeting, they returned to their previous state, seemingly preparing to leave. The Ododek scanning device shrank behind each person, not extending.

Walking further into the camp, he could see more people, but what surprised Rhode was that there were not only soldiers from the Army Without Borders here, but also several agents and technicians from Atlas Corporation.

Noticing Rhode's surprised expression, General Hammer ushered him and the outsiders into the combat intelligence room. Pointing to a pile of intelligence documents on the table, he began to explain:

"These are intelligence documents compiled by Miss Noah. They're clearly categorized and neatly arranged, and even include some preliminary analysis reports. While the wording is still a bit immature and imprecise, the content is clearly organized and concise. Reading these reports is a real pleasure. She's such a smart girl! And she has an exceptional memory; she can memorize almost anything."

Noah would do this? Rhode thought with a little surprise. The girl was obviously not planning to be the head of the intelligence department, but more like planning to be his confidential secretary. This was a good thing.

So it seems that Yuka is in charge of finances?

"But she has no experience in dealing with this kind of thing, and she needs time to learn. That's why I asked Irons to send some agents and intelligence personnel, as well as this weapons technician. They will help you train a group of qualified logistics support personnel. Of course, I know you may have other... uh... lovely girls to help you in the future, but for now, you will still need to rely on them."

Needless to say, Rhodes smiled and walked forward to shake hands with each of the support personnel, and the latter's faces were somewhat curious and honored. The personnel assigned by Ains already knew some of Rhodes's intelligence before coming here. Knowing the existence and dangers of the other world, they naturally understood the significance of the existence of the "savior".

This time, the support personnel from Atlas Company not only brought a large number of weapons and ammunition, but also customized professional weapons for the soldiers of the Army Without Borders. They also brought cutting-edge equipment such as 4-barrel panoramic night vision goggles, composite bulletproof light armor, grenades with various functions, CBRN protective clothing, etc.

It is not only an equipment test, but also an effort to enhance the soldiers' strength in the face of disasters in the other world and to protect the fragile lives and health of human beings, so that these elite soldiers can sacrifice on the battlefield where they are truly needed.

After roughly scanning the equipment list, Rhode nodded slightly. Then he remembered the question he had been wanting to ask, so he asked the technician:

"How is the research on exoskeletons progressing? Will they be used in actual combat this year (1990)?"

"It's going smoothly, especially after you provided the manufacturing blueprint for Labor. I think we can start initial testing in October this year, and practical applications in March or April next year. As for mass production... it will probably have to wait until the end of next year," the technician pushed his glasses. He was a young man in his 30s with messy, poorly groomed hair.

After saying this, the technician smiled with a hint of disdain:

"If it's Aperture Technology, those guys who only like to build sky gardens will probably have to wait four or five years to produce results."

Rhodes: “…”

It seemed as if a strange rivalry had been established. This was perfectly fine, exactly what Rhode hoped for. Even if Irons handed Atlas over to him in the future, he still needed to introduce internal competition. Otherwise, the consequences of a single dominant company would become clear... Just look at Boeing thirty years later.

"Speaking of which, Rhodes, there's one more thing." General Hammer pulled out a few intelligence documents from the thinnest stack, flicking the titles with his fingers. He said with a hint of seriousness, "According to the intelligence provided by the agents this time, several very suspicious incidents have been preliminarily determined to be 'otherworld incidents,' but whether they will rise to 'otherworld disasters' is still unknown."

After reaching out to take the intelligence document, Rhode opened it and read it carefully. As he continued to delve deeper, his brows furrowed slightly. After hearing the system prompt, he pointed to one of the documents and said:

"This is a case of so many missing babies. I'm certain there's an element of the otherworld involved. Gather a team and I'll lead them in handling it."

Note 1: From "Resident Evil 4", Leon's instructor.

Chapter 126 STORK: Arrival

The state where the baby disappeared is not far from Massachusetts. It takes about six hours to get there by heading southwest along the state highway. The deeper you go into the heart of the United States, the more you can feel the signs of spring.

The melted snow is nourishing the plants that have just survived the cold winter, causing some fresh branches to emerge from the trees and shrubs along the road. However, the earth stretching into the distance is still a bleak scene, with gray, brown and slightly green mixed together, which really cannot bring people any good mood.

Cashel Philip of the "Horn Eagle-2 Squadron" of the Army Without Borders withdrew his gaze from the one-way car window. He was tired of the scene outside and instead looked down at the rifle in his hand.

An M4A1 plus a SOPMOD II modification kit, a holographic sight, a tactical light and a two-in-one visible laser tactical device, plus a 4-barreled panoramic night vision device on the head and lighter and stronger bulletproof plates on the body, etc. To put it bluntly, this set of scattered items is equivalent to his annual salary in the past three years in the army, and more!

Not to mention, there is the Ozodek scanner on his shoulder, which is now shrunken and motionless, like a ferocious beast in hibernation... Cashel couldn't imagine how expensive this device that can detect the energy activities of the other world would be.

"You look nervous."

A gentle voice woke Cashel from his thoughts. He looked up and saw Rhodes, who was wearing an eye mask - the man they called "BOSS" - looking at him. The other two members of the team also turned their heads, with a teasing smile on their faces.

Kashiel knew that the other members of his team were somewhat nervous. Since he was not alone, he naturally did not feel any fear or panic. He nodded slightly and said:

"Yes, Boss, a little bit. After all, we are facing monsters, not humans."

"Relax, this mission won't be difficult. At least it's easier than the ones the First Team and I encountered in the New York subway." Rhodes patted Cashel's shoulder, took out a cigarette case, shook it at everyone, and said, "Want to smoke?"

"Have one, Boss." / "Give me one, please." / "You speak so elegantly, Cashel."

"SHUT UP," Cashel angrily pushed back the stupid face in front of him. He opened the window a little to let the cold wind in and dispel the smoke lingering in the car. "Ahem, this cigarette tastes a little weird... Red Apple cigarettes? Such an old brand, they're still in production?"

"It's close to bankruptcy, so there's very little on the market. It's only available in some cities and small towns in central China," Rhode shrugged, a smug smile spreading across his face. "But I've acquired the factory and the brand. From now on, this stuff will be like Marlboro, an internal supply for the Army Without Borders!"

Don't use your privilege for this kind of thing!

Cashel and other members of the Harpy Eagle Squad roared in their hearts, and after spending some time together, they gradually understood what kind of character their future boss was - trustworthy, and when the battle begins, as long as he stands by you, people will feel at ease, but he is really out of tune on weekdays, often talking nonsense in a serious manner, but making people feel that he can realize those nonsense in the future.

And, of course, there's his bizarre but decidedly undesirable love life.

Angels, man-made weapons, a witch who can summon tentacles and is wrapped in endless knowledge, and her cat. The girl from Japan looks normal, but according to General Hammer, she can enter other people's dreams. If the damage suffered in the dream can be reflected in reality... Thanks to the boss for sealing these doomsday triggers in that damn haunted mansion.

Cashel sincerely thanked Rod, along with the $5000 monthly salary. If you were married with children, the salary and bonus would be even higher, and there was an even better benefit: Atlas's legal team would even handle your divorce case for free, so at least you wouldn't be kicked out and have to support someone else's family with your salary.

This life is much better than being in the Marines!

"We'll soon reach the target location. Let me briefly describe the next steps." Rhodes finished smoking, crushed the butt under his shoe, picked it up, and threw it into the empty ammunition box. He nodded his head and said seriously:

"The most important part of the mission is gathering intelligence, which means determining 'what's happening here' and 'who our enemy is.' Is the enemy physical or intangible? Is there a possibility of infection? Will the disaster in the other world continue to spread? These are all issues we need to consider. Therefore, I require you to wear fully enclosed protective gear, even though it's uncomfortable."

The soldiers of the Harpy Eagle Squad nodded slightly. They were well aware of the extent of the threat posed by an unknown enemy. The entire squad consisted of five people, all sitting in a modified truck like Rhode. The driver was an agent from Atlas Corporation, and there was also a technician. The two of them would serve as logistical support personnel once the operation began.

"The target house is on the outskirts of the city, near the forest. According to intelligence the agents obtained from the police, at least seventeen babies have been abducted in the past three months. They are likely dead or sacrificed. Eyewitness reports of the kidnappers are inconsistent, clearly indicating multiple enemies. You must pay attention to this now."

Rhode took out the map and pointed at the location that had already been marked on it. He looked around, taking in the expressions of the surrounding soldiers, and then continued:

"For this operation, I won't be entering the house. Instead, I'll stay in this truck and watch the live video feed, using the communication system to communicate with you. Because of this, you'll have to rely on yourselves and the Ozodek scanner. You'll need to activate it upon entering, and also decide when to deactivate it to conceal yourself. But remember one thing—"

"Don't think you're hiding well, or that you can hide forever," one of the soldiers said. His face was grim, clearly recalling the painful memory of being surrounded by four or five ghosts in the closet at Hill House. "You must enter the battle with the mindset that you've been discovered. You must enter the battlefield with the understanding that the enemy will attack from any angle."

"That's right," Rhode nodded slightly. "Be careful and cautious. I don't need to repeat these combat principles to you. You must deal with the enemy as if you were surrounded in complex terrain and street fighting."

"The local police station here has noticed the case and will be tracking us down soon. We need to make a quick decision. If we can't make it in time, I will buy you some time," Rhodes said. He felt the truck slowly stop and the driver in front turned around and gave him a thumbs-up.

After nodding slightly in response, Rhodes stood up and opened the back door, allowing the soldiers to file out.

A three-story house with an attic stood in the darkness, standing before everyone, with a vague ominous aura. This place was on the edge of the suburbs, and few people passed by during the day, let alone the dark night.

However, at this moment, there was a figure at the door wearing an orange shirt with bright reflective strips, but it ignored these outsiders and staggered into the house.

"Everyone, there's one last thing you need to remember," Rhodes said calmly, gazing at the house for a moment. "Don't show any mercy, especially after I've given the order."

"Don't worry about that, Boss," Cashel said with a slight smile as he checked his weapons and put on his mask and other equipment. "We will show no mercy to those monsters."

As Kashiel finished speaking, he saw Rhodes suddenly turn his head and look at him, his blue eyes filled with majesty and scrutiny. At that moment, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cellar!

After a few seconds, Rhodes looked away, with a hint of anger on his face, and said:

"I hope so, soldier."

Note: This incident comes from the horror story "STORK" by Russian flash mogul Oleg, and was adapted into one of the stories in "Videotape Beyond", which is well worth watching.

Chapter 127 Assault!

Taking advantage of the night, the five soldiers quickly dispersed and divided into two groups, approaching the house from different directions.

A four-rotor drone slowly rose into the air and hung above the house, observing the situation inside the house through the night vision goggles mounted on it, while also being alert to possible enemies escaping. The drone's stabilization system and battery still had some problems, making it an early product in the laboratory. Because of this, a cable was connected to its bottom to temporarily solve the control and energy problems.

The windows of the entire house were boarded up inside and out. Rusty nails were embedded crookedly in the boards, with some sticking out, like a field of unshed wild boar hair, a sight that was repulsive. A faint light shone through the cracks, indicating that the house was not completely filled with darkness.

"Everyone, activate the Ododek scanners. Number 3, forward."

As Harpy Eagle Team No. 2, Cashel heard Captain George say this on the communication channel, and then a voice with a slight southern accent sounded:

"Received on the 3th."

No. 3 Evins J. Turner, who was born in Texas, is the most irritable person in the entire team. Of course, this evaluation is compared with others. Like Cashel, he is armed with a rifle and is responsible for assault and fire support.

No. 3 walked carefully to the main door of the house, turned the handle gently, and then opened the door a crack at the same slow speed - there was no trap or sudden attack - after all, the figure he saw at the door just now walked in carelessly, but the soldiers who entered later still had to be careful.

A faint light leaked through the crack in the door, and the blades of everyone's Ododek scanner slowly unfolded, turned blue, and turned towards the room.

The door made a strange creaking sound when it was opened, piercing the silent night.

"Number 3 enters."