AHumanMadeMOFO
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Chapter 280: The Giant Squid (1)
🕑 Added 2025-03-17 12:50:45 +0000 UTCSince regular drills and tools were completely ineffective against the spaceship, Josh ordered the robotic exploration team to gather vibranium weapons from the military robots at the site and attempt to cut through the ship's hull.
This had an effect, but instead of cutting through the hull, the threat of the vibranium seemed to trigger the ship's defense system.
"Alert! Alert! High-energy fluctuations detected on the ship's hull!" The exploration team’s scanning system issued a sharp warning.
"Commander, the energy fluctuations from the ship exceed our monitoring range. Should we activate the emergency protocol—Zzzzt!" The on-screen command robot’s report was abruptly cut off as a powerful energy pulse flashed across the area. Josh’s VTOL immediately lost all contact with the robotic units on George King Island.
"What just happened?" Ophelia exclaimed in shock.
"This is bad," Josh said with a frown. "That spaceship must have released an energy pulse strong enough to disable all the robots' electronic systems."
He had originally used robots to explore the ship to avoid endangering personnel, but had overlooked the possibility of an EMP attack. Though, to be fair, the technology of the i, robot universe was highly advanced, and military robots were designed with EMP protection in mind. If even the most advanced military and command robots were knocked out, it meant that the energy pulse from the ship had exceeded their defensive limits.
"Commander, according to high-altitude scans of George King Island, an energy pulse beyond our system's detection limits erupted 23 seconds ago, covering the entire island and extending 500 kilometers into the sky. Our satellite system can no longer monitor anything on the island," confirmed the command robot aboard Josh's VTOL.
The powerful energy field had not only severed Josh's connection to the robots, but had probably also rendered the remote detonation mechanisms of the two nuclear bombs useless. If they were to be detonated, someone would have to activate them manually inside the energy field.
In fact, it wasn't just Josh who noticed the disturbance. Governments around the world that had the ability to monitor such phenomena quickly detected the intense radio waves caused by the energy explosion on George King Island.
However, with the current technology available to Earth's nations, it would take days for any of them to reach the remote island in Antarctica. Even the closest force, the British Navy stationed in the Falklands, would take at least a day or two to arrive.
This meant Josh didn’t have to worry about interference from Earth’s governments in the short term.
However, an energy pulse of this magnitude didn’t just attract the attention of world powers—it also alerted hidden supernatural beings on Earth.
Of course, it wasn't easy for even supernatural beings to travel such a great distance.
So in the immediate aftermath, only four groups had the ability to respond quickly.
The first to arrive was, unsurprisingly, the one who constantly kept an eye on Josh and monitored Earth as a whole—The Ancient One.
The second group to arrive were the Eternals, who had recently become paranoid after the disappearance of two of their companions. However, not all of them came—only the fastest, Makkari, along with Ikaris and their leader, Ajak, whom Ikaris had brought along.
The third group was a bit more unusual - they were the Inhumans from the Moon. With their access to Kree technology, they quickly detected the anomaly on Earth and sent a five-member team to investigate.
As for the fourth group, they didn't physically arrive, but instead observed from a distance. This was Heimdall, the gatekeeper of the Asgard, who reported the situation to Odin.
However, even Heimdall couldn’t detect the presence of the Ancient One. But Odin could.
After confirming that the Ancient One was also on the scene, Odin chose to remain a spectator. The Ancient One, upon noticing Odin’s watchful gaze, simply ignored it.
Among these four groups, the Ancient One and Odin were undoubtedly at the top. The other two groups had no idea that they were even present.
But Ajak, having lived on Earth for over 7,000 years and having interacted with both sides before, knew that with their personalities, Odin and the Ancient One were surely watching. Since they chose not to reveal themselves, she pretended not to notice.
Ajak and her two companions were unique in their existence, making their arrival undetectable to anyone but the Ancient One and Odin.
However, because they landed directly on George King Island, they were unaware of Josh, who was hiding on the Falklands.
The Inhumans were in a similar situation.
But the three Eternals did notice the Inhumans’ arrival.
For some reason—whether arrogance or simply underestimating Earth's forces—the Inhumans didn’t activate any cloaking technology like the one used in Attilan.
As a result, even Josh, hiding on the Falklands, was able to track their movements.
This meant that, despite having superior technology and superpowers, the five Inhumans stood out the most among all the visitors to George King Island.
