Inside the portal, the number of Chitauri was immense. In almost an instant, thousands had swarmed in, with even more continuously pouring through.
In the movie, due to limited special effects budget, the number of Chitauri shown was relatively small, and the destruction was largely confined to Manhattan Island.
But given the actual number of Chitauri and the size of Thanos' transport ship Sanctuary I, bringing tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of Chitauri soldiers at once would be no problem.
Moreover, this is a war, an invasion of an entire planet. Even dispatching an army of millions wouldn't be excessive.
In the face of such a large-scale alien invasion, no matter how spectacularly a few superheroes fight, it would merely be a drop in the bucket, hardly making a difference.
"Director Fury, the Guardians of the Great Wall will immediately join the fight to resist the alien invaders. We vow to protect Earth, our shared home!"
Su Ye first made his stance clear over the phone. With these words, no one could criticize his position. After making his declaration, he moved on to highlight the difficulties.
"But what we can do is try to shut down the device that activates the portal. The enemy numbers are overwhelming; we can't hold them off on our own!"
"So, I suggest we don't shoulder this burden alone as S.H.I.E.L.D. Call in the military and request their support. This is a war concerning Earth's fate and humanity's future. The military can't stand idly by. Their firepower shouldn't just be aimed at other human nations; at times like this, they must boldly take responsibility."
The Avengers were already heading toward New York, and Nick Fury saw the chaotic scene in the skies over New York on the surveillance screens. After a brief hesitation, he dialed the military.
Su Ye was right. If it were just the current thousands of aliens, S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers might be able to hold them off. But if the number keeps rising into the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands, not even if every S.H.I.E.L.D. agent had the powers of an Avenger could they plug this gap.
Su Ye led the Guardians of the Great Wall into action, riding modified Great Wall gliders to the rooftop of Stark Tower.
On the way, Su Ye had already assigned roles to the Avengers.
"Harry and Gwen, handle perimeter defense. Any alien that tries to approach or attack Stark Tower is to be eliminated!"
"Max, use your flight and wide-range attack capabilities to kill as many aliens as possible. Show them the might of the Guardians of the Great Wall! Perform well, and this will be your defining battle."
"But be cautious. Don't stray too far from Stark Tower or let yourself get surrounded by aliens. When your power drops below half, come straight down for a recharge. Stark Industries has high-quality clean energy that can quickly recharge you!"
"Terry and Sharon, stay by my side and guard me while I research a way to close the portal!"
Researching a way to close the portal was just an excuse Su Ye made up to slack off.
Su Ye knew that the portal could be closed instantly by stabbing it with the Mind Scepter, but others didn't know that, nor did they know that he knew.
By taking on the most critical task himself, the Avengers would have to work even harder outside.
With everything arranged, Su Ye and his team arrived at the rooftop of Stark Tower. Everyone followed the plan and began their respective tasks. Meanwhile, Su Ye, from a distance, launched a Gale Fist at the device powering the Tesseract.
As the blast hit, a blue transparent energy shield instantly appeared around the Tesseract, blocking the attack.
Nearby, Dr. Erik Selvig was about to say something, but the explosive energy from the attack struck him, sending him flying and knocking him unconscious.
Su Ye had secretly used some force to ensure that the only person besides himself who knew how to correctly shut down the portal device would stay unconscious until evening.
Then, under the protection of Terry and Sharon, Su Ye began his 'research' on the portal activation device.
You go fight, and I'll find a solution. As long as I'm here, this portal won't be closing!
In the sky, the Chitauri noticed Su Ye and his team arriving and initially planned to drive them away. But just then, a cluster of black dots appeared on the horizon, rapidly approaching.
The military's fighter jets were just five seconds away from the battlefield.
In his past life, Su Ye, as a casual military enthusiast, had read an article about the global fighter jet count.
By 2022, the U.S. ranked first, with approximately 13,200 fighter jets.
In second place was Russia, with only about 3,800 jets.
This enormous gap was one reason why the U.S. could be so domineering; they not only had quantity but quality as well—how could anyone compete?
In third place was China, with 3,200 jets. Despite the larger gap, considering they started from scratch and developed under various restrictions, this achievement was enough to make the Chinese proud.
Su Ye didn't know how authoritative this data was, but he firmly believed that they were still young, energetic, and would catch up sooner or later.
And as Su Ye had said, with so many fighter jets, the U.S. couldn't just sit idle. Now that aliens were at their doorstep, it wouldn't be appropriate not to fight back, right?
Apparently, the military thought the same. After General Ross had twice embarrassed them, they finally displayed their thunderous response during this invasion.
Over a hundred fighter jets were deployed at once. This number was enough to form a dense attack network capable of delivering devastating, all-encompassing damage to the Chitauri's thousands of aerial units.
The military's air force pilots carried out the mission with full confidence.
The first wave went very smoothly for them.
The fighter jets were fast and powerful. The Chitauri were caught off guard, with countless of them being shot down in an instant, their bodies falling like raindrops.
However, this did not halt the Chitauri's advance. From the portal, countless more Chitauri poured out continuously, without hesitation, in a smooth and unrelenting flow.
And this time, the smooth flow carried large chunks of matter. From afar, it was better left undescribed—rather disgusting.
Those large chunks—or rather, the enormous dark silhouettes—were estimated to be over a hundred meters long, their massive size terrifying. From a distance, they resembled deep-sea monsters like Leviathans.
But the brave air force pilots didn't flinch at the sight of these newly emerged giant beast-like creatures. They decisively launched another airstrike.
Over a hundred fighter jets, in neat formations and organized into several batches, turned back and charged at the battlefield again. After this attack, they would return to the nearest airbase to refuel and reload ammunition.
Encouraged by the air force's impressive performance in the previous wave, the civilians who had been fleeing in all directions stopped in their tracks. They regained their courage and confidence in the war, cheering on the fighter jets in the sky.
"Go! Take them down!"
"Wipe out all these aliens! Kick their damn butts hard!"
"Shove their damn heads into their filthy butts and make them eat their own crap!"
"Kill these motherf—ers!"
Even with the appearance of new giant alien creatures, the civilians still believed that the fighter jets could take them down—confidence instilled by countless Hollywood blockbusters.
Soon, amidst the cheers and encouragement of the onlookers, the fighter jets launched their second wave of attacks. In the air, they encountered the Chitauri's small crafts and the massive beast-like creatures that could be called Leviathan Beasts.
Then, everyone witnessed a scene they would never forget.
In the sky, as the Leviathan Beast endured the barrage of firepower, its armor suddenly opened up like scales. Then, countless black dots leaped out from within, lunging toward the incoming fighter jets.
Caught off guard, the fighter jet squadron collided head-on with the black dots that had suddenly emerged. In an instant, more than a dozen jets turned into fireballs in the sky.
As the remaining jets, realizing the dire situation, began to turn away from the battlefield, the previously disorganized Chitauri suddenly synchronized, turning their weapons toward the jets and unleashing indiscriminate fire.
In a flash of fire and lightning, out of over a hundred fighter jets, only a handful managed to escape, while the rest were obliterated in midair.
As the shattered remains of the fighter jets fell from the sky, the civilians on the ground finally reacted, letting out waves of terrified screams.
Unintentionally, they had witnessed history—this was likely the first time in American history that an entire fighter jet squadron had been destroyed in formation.
At such a thrilling historic moment, it felt wrong not to shout at the top of their lungs.
Meanwhile, in the operations command center, the military brass all frowned deeply.
More than a hundred jets and their pilots were lost. Even those who managed to eject were shot down by the aliens midair. Such massive losses were rare in America's two-hundred-year history.
But now wasn't the time to grieve over these losses. The urgent task was to discuss the next battle plan. As long as that portal remained open, losing even more jets would be futile.
At that moment, someone spoke up.
"We've figured out the aliens' tactics, and there's only one Leviathan Beast. As long as we deploy more jets…"
Before he could finish, he abruptly fell silent as the live feed showed the portal spewing out more Leviathan Beasts in quick succession—over a dozen—swimming toward the city below.
Alongside them, countless Chitauri soldiers and small crafts poured out as well.
Judging by these numbers, sending another squadron of a hundred jets would likely just be sending them to their doom.
"How about using missiles to take out those Leviathan Beasts first?" someone else suggested.
But this proposal was quickly rejected.
"They're too close to the city. The missile blasts could end up destroying the city as well. If it comes to that, we might as well use nukes."
At the mention of nukes, everyone fell silent.
In their minds, nukes were the ultimate solution. There was no problem a nuke couldn't solve, and if there was, it was time to run.
If this incident were happening in another country's city, it wouldn't matter whether they used missiles or nukes—America wouldn't mind the expense.
The problem was, this was New York—the largest, most developed, and most populous city in the U.S., home to over 8 million people, or over 20 million when including the metropolitan area. Among them were Wall Street tycoons controlling vast amounts of wealth.
Would it really be appropriate to launch missiles or nukes in a city like this?
After a moment of silence, someone finally spoke again.
"Actually, we don't need to destroy the entire city. Just use a nuke to take out Stark Tower and close the portal. The remaining aliens will be much easier to deal with."