The Great Leader of Hydra

As the giant stone teleportation array activated, the enormous boulder in the pit instantly liquefied. Calvin, the leading Hydra Magnetic Field Warrior, leaped in first, clad in armor.

A few seconds later, he returned and nodded to Councilman Malik, who was standing outside the laboratory window. "There…"

"The gravity there is much stronger than on Earth, but it doesn’t affect our movements. More importantly, there’s oxygen, so we won’t need to carry breathing equipment. There’s a star, and the temperature isn’t too high right now, though I don’t know what it’ll be like later. The other end of the portal is on top of a sand dune. The wind and sand are intense, and the environment is extremely harsh. I don’t think anyone could survive there."

Councilman Malik picked up the microphone and said to Calvin inside the laboratory, "The entire planet may not have turned into a desert. And even if it’s an uninhabited planet, I believe our great leader will certainly survive. Your task is to bring him back."

"I understand. I’ll do everything I can to complete the mission, but it may take many days, or perhaps many years. You need to be mentally prepared." Calvin gave his boss a warning in advance, so he wouldn’t be too disappointed if they came back empty-handed.

Councilman Malik nodded. "Of course. We’ve already waited more than a thousand years. We don’t mind waiting a few more."

Only then did Calvin relax. He led the fully armed team that had been prepared long ago and leaped into the portal. The portal then closed and turned back into a stone.

As agreed, the portal would open once every three hours from then on. After exchanging information, they would decide whether to advance or retreat.

On a distant alien planet.

Sand filled the sky, blocking out the sun’s light and turning the entire world a murky yellow.

A vortex suddenly appeared, and a group of people leaped out of it, landing in the desert.

After watching all the warriors land safely, Calvin waved his hand. No one ventured out recklessly. Instead, they first set up a simple base nearby.

The planet was enormous, and finding Hydra’s leader would be no easy task. This was sure to be a long-term mission, so establishing a base was the right choice.

While his men busied themselves, Calvin flew into the sky and looked down, searching for signs of life. But everywhere he looked, there was nothing but blowing sand, and he couldn’t see anything clearly.

He had no choice but to land and wait to see whether the wind and sand would stop after a while.

The warriors who had come this time were at least in the Current Drive Realm, placing them all at the level of minor Supermen. They worked quickly and forcefully, assembling the simple tents in just a few minutes.

Everyone had been assigned their duties before entering. Those responsible for recording information had already begun filming the environment with a camcorder. These videos would become part of the work log and be sent back to Earth the next time the portal opened.

Three hours later, the wind and sand still hadn’t stopped. Calvin sent one person back to the portal to deliver the recorded information, then continued waiting.

After another half hour or so, the wind and sand finally stopped, and visibility improved greatly.

Several people crawled out of the tents and, following Calvin’s assignments, began exploring in different directions. Calvin coordinated from the center, ready to provide support at any moment if they encountered danger.

They were lucky this time. In less than half an hour, the communicator rang.

"Chief, guess what I found?" The speaker sounded extremely excited. "A person! An astronaut sent by NASA!"

"Really?" Calvin’s spirits lifted. "Bring him back. Is he safe? Does he need medical attention?"

"He doesn’t seem to be in very good shape. He keeps thinking I’m an illusion and shouting something about demons."

"Leave that to the psychologists. Bringing him back safely will be a great achievement."

As they spoke, a gale suddenly rose again, and another sandstorm swept over the land.

"Damn it! Report your position. I’m coming to get you right now!"

Calvin immediately took off and flew at full speed to provide support. He managed to rescue both of them before the sandstorm engulfed them.

"Chief, there seems to be something in the sandstorm."

"I’ll escort this astronaut back to the base. You go capture one alive. Retreat if it’s dangerous."

"Understood!"

Calvin flew back to the base with the astronaut. With the help of hot coffee and whiskey, the astronaut finally realized that what he had seen wasn’t an illusion. He had been saved.

He burst into tears, his emotions too intense to control. Calvin wasn’t good at comforting people, so he could only let him vent.

After finally calming down, the astronaut told Calvin that his name was Will and that he was an astronaut from NASA. In 2001, he and his companions had come to this planet, but his companions had accidentally entered a restricted area and been controlled by demons. In the end, they had either gone insane or killed themselves, leaving him as the only survivor.

As the two of them spoke, the other members gradually returned as well.

"How did it go? Any discoveries?" Calvin handed each person some strong liquor.

"The environment here is awful. It’s practically a forbidden zone for life!" several people complained as they shook the sand from their clothes.

"But there was definitely something strange about that sandstorm. Some black figures attacked me inside it. Only after knocking them down did I realize they were all dead."

"I was attacked too. They were dead as well."

Several people said that they had all been attacked by the dead inside the sandstorm.

"Could there be a realm of the dead nearby?" Calvin guessed wildly.

"You didn’t capture a few living dead?" he asked.

"Impossible. They were completely rotten. They fell apart after we defeated them."

"That’s a shame. Next time, try to bring a few cages or something. See if we can capture a specimen alive and take it back."

The group chatted and laughed, paying no attention to it. None of them knew that they had already brushed past their "great leader."

The second three-hour mark soon arrived, and the portal opened again. Calvin had someone escort Will back to Earth and hand him over to Gideon Malick.

Seeing that they had truly brought someone back from an alien planet, Councilman Malik was extremely excited. He summoned his aides and began analyzing the information they had obtained.

After studying it, everyone felt that Hive might be sleeping somewhere on the planet. The restricted area and the sandstorm were both highly suspicious, especially the dead within the sandstorm, who were even more likely to be connected to the leader.

Controlling sandstorms and commanding the dead in battle clearly belonged to the domains of the wind god and the god of death. Since Asgard’s Thor already existed, there was nothing surprising about another wind god or god of death appearing.

No one suspected that the corpses they had fought were the leader. After all, those corpses were far too weak. At most, they were merely subordinate creations produced by the leader Hive’s abilities.

Hydra worshiped the strong. How could the leader of Hydra possibly be a weakling?

After careful discussion, Malik decided to have Calvin’s team remain stationed on the alien planet long-term and conduct a thorough search of the entire planet to find where their "great leader" was sleeping.