True Apocalypse Game

The fierce Arctic winds, filled with countless ice crystals and snowflakes, clattered against the polar vehicles.

The headlights of a dozen or so polar vehicles were like sharp swords, tearing through the near-eternal darkness of the Arctic polar night.

When they had first left the icebreaker and entered the polar region, they could still see the hazy aurora in the sky. But now, it was completely obscured by the wind and snow; they could see nothing at all.

If not for the positioning blips on the radar indicating they were still moving forward, Liszt might have thought his group had entered an eternal, dark Hell.

A frozen Hell, at that.

But even if they had truly entered Hell, it wouldn't have mattered.

The places the SEAL Team was sent were always Hell.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Mexico—Liszt had been walking through hells like these for years. The ones who should be afraid were the Devils in those hells.

Still, this was his first time on a mission in the Arctic.

As the captain of the most elite squad in the SEAL Team, Liszt was also somewhat curious about this mission.

Originally, his team was in the Middle East, conducting an assassination mission against a political leader in Syria. Just as they were about to succeed, an urgent order recalled the entire team. They were sent directly to a military base in the Persian Gulf and then immediately flown by transport plane to one of Eagle Country's arctic research bases.

A large cache of polar warfare weapons and equipment was already waiting for them there.

In accordance with their orders, the dozens of elite SEAL Team members immediately boarded the polar vehicles and sped off into the long Arctic night, heading for the target location.

The orders they received were simple:

Coordinate with friendly forces, assault the target location, and capture the target.

The target location was so highly classified that, until the mission officially began, only Liszt himself was privy to it.

Liszt gripped his automatic rifle, wrapped in insulating material, through his thick thermal gloves. His expression was grim.

'This mission… it's stranger than any other I've been on. As one of Eagle Country's most elite special forces units, mobilizing us requires authorization from the highest levels. According to a tip from my friend at the Pentagon, this mission is somehow connected to the Central Intelligence Agency, with the order coming directly from Strategic Command. There's a lot to unpack here. And every single one of our missions usually involves meticulous planning. We always hold pre-op briefings, plan before acting, and only move out after a period of preparation. No matter how elite we are, we can't predict everything. But this time, there was no time to prepare at all. The Arctic… Thinking about that Space Wormhole on the seabed in the Arctic Circle that caused such a stir... I have a feeling there's a connection. If so, I really want to know what it is… Well, I should find out soon enough…'

They were currently about fifty kilometers from the target location.

Liszt stared fixedly into the vast darkness ahead, as if trying to tear the night itself asunder with his gaze.

Just then, two beams of light flashed in the darkness not far away, like twin longswords slicing through the night, followed by more lights.

They were the headlights of more polar vehicles!

"Captain, we've got contacts! Should we fire a warning shot?" the left-flank scout's urgent voice crackled over the comms channel.

"Hold your fire. They're friendlies—the Signal Flag guys," Liszt said slowly, his eyes on the cluster of blips that had appeared on the radar a while ago. "All units, maintain radio silence. Command vehicle will communicate via light signals."

The Signal Flag Special Forces was a unit directly under the Russian Federal Security Service. They were a powerful fighting force, primarily conducting anti-subversion missions and protecting Russian institutions outside the country, much like the CIA's own foreign teams. They had taken part in various operations during international incidents like the war in Chechnya and the conflict in Crimea.

The unit was the successor to the KGB's independent training center from the Soviet Union era, and their methods were notoriously aggressive. While they had numerous successes to their name, they were perhaps most infamous for the 2004 Beslan school siege, where their overly blunt tactics resulted in massive casualties.

Their combat prowess was not to be underestimated.

And this time, before coming to the Arctic, Liszt had received orders from above informing him that the Signal Flag Special Forces would be one of their allied units.

Under Liszt's order, the SEAL Team's camouflaged command vehicle flashed its lights several times, sending a friendly signal.

The other vehicles immediately flashed their lights in return, signaling their friendly intent to the SEAL Team.

Both sides maintained radio silence as the two convoys merged and continued toward the target area.

Soon, they were within ten kilometers of the target.

Just then, a large, dark mass loomed ahead of them in the snow.

It was a convoy of polar vehicles!

The vehicles had their lights off and were observing radio silence. The polar vehicles of the SEAL Team and Signal Flag Special Forces nearly crashed into them. Blocked, they had no choice but to slam on the brakes.

Tensions spiked, and they were seconds from opening fire. Just then, a few red lights flashed from the rear of the silent convoy, sending them a signal:

"Friendly. No hostile intent. Lights out. Proceed to target on foot."

At the same time, Liszt's communicator crackled, delivering a message that confirmed the other party's identity.

Liszt nodded impassively and gave the order:

"Lights out. Dismount. We're proceeding to the target on foot with these guys. Remember to tether yourselves together with safety lines. If the wind blows you off course and you get lost, no one's coming back for you."

The SEAL Team members immediately killed the lights and dismounted, stepping out into the fierce Arctic gale. They linked themselves together with safety ropes and advanced, weapons at the ready.

Ahead of them, the group that had been waiting was already on the move, like a procession of silent statues.

"Captain, who are these new guys? Are we really walking with this mysterious bunch?" the sniper at his side asked Liszt.

"Ed, cut the chatter and keep moving," Liszt said grimly. "They're our Eastern counterparts, key allies on this mission."

"Who? Eastern? You mean Japanese?" the sniper muttered. "A squad of shuriken-throwing Ninja? Won't those skinny guys freeze into popsicles out here in the Arctic?"

"No," Liszt said slowly, his eyes on the figures ahead. "They're the Hua Country Navy's Flood Dragon Assault Team..."

Three of the world's top special forces units, sixty members each, now formed a temporary joint task force, advancing through the fierce Arctic winds in a fan formation.

For the time being, the entire force was under the joint command of the three captains.

Even in this extreme environment, with temperatures dozens of degrees below zero, it was nothing for these elite soldiers. Moreover, they were using the best equipment available; the electrically heated combat suits alone made them far more mobile.

Soon, a cluster of triangular buildings loomed before them in the darkness.

Looking through their full-color infrared night-vision scopes, they could see that the temperature of the triangular buildings was significantly higher than the surrounding area. The central ridge of each building faced into the polar gale—a very logical design.

There were six buildings in total, connected by corridors with arched domes.

The men lay prone in the snow for a moment while twenty scouts broke off and headed toward the complex.

After a while, the scouts returned at a quick pace. They signaled that they had taken out the enemy sentry posts and disabled the cameras and security systems.

Liszt immediately gave a hand signal, ordering everyone to switch off the heating systems in their combat suits.

The 180 spec-ops soldiers then broke into six groups of thirty, each heading for one of the six buildings.

As he neared one of the buildings, Liszt saw that its walls were covered in a dense pattern of massive eyes.

Blocks of plastic explosives were slapped onto the walls.

~

(I got screwed by Baidu before. When I searched for "Chinese special forces," it gave me "Longyan." I looked it up again later and realized that was wrong, which was super embarrassing, so I quickly changed it to the Navy's Flood Dragon Assault Team.)