Chapter 345: Stopping

Chapter 345 – Stopping
“Sink it.”

Agatha’s eyes tightly stared at the ship that was approaching on the sea, her tone cold and hard as if it was ice.

A subordinate officer next to her was a bit stunned, as if she couldn’t believe what she heard, “What did you say?”

“Sink it,” Agatha didn’t respond to the junior officer, but just turned her head to look at Colonel Lister and repeated it again, “That’s the ‘Raider’, a huge source of pollution- -I don’t know exactly what it is, but that is by no means the Haiyan.”

At that she paused, her knuckles holding her cane slightly white, “I take responsibility for that decision.”

Lister said nothing, the muscles in his face tensed, and for a long time he stood in the cold wind as if he were a frozen statue, and it was only when a steam whistle sounded once more in the distance, a sound that was clearer and louder than before, as if it carried a disquieting urgency, that he suddenly broke the silence, “Ma’am, is your source of information surely reliable? ”

“…… I trust my judgment, Mr. Colonel,” Agatha inhaled softly, her voice a hint of husky magnetism, “And I take responsibility for that judgment.”

“You are not responsible, you are the Gatekeeper, but not the direct overseer of the harbor system.” Lister said calmly, then turned around, his gaze cast to the distant sea.

“Sink that ship, I am responsible for that decision.”

In the distant sea, the suddenly appeared “Haiyan” was still traveling at full speed, the towering bow of the ship split the waves, the fluttering flag danced in the air, the smokestacks in the middle of the hull spewed out large white clouds, in the clouds, it seemed as if there were countless hidden hissing voices roaring noisily one after another, and in the stern of the Haiyan, the breaking waves were undulating and interchanging, tumbling over and over. In the aft of the Haiyan, the broken waves were undulating and overlapping, and in the depths of the waves, a black viscous substance seemed to spread with the waves like blood flowing out from the body of a giant beast, with its wisps and strands, undulating and undulating.

“Woo–“

The siren sounded again, and the top of this steel battleship spewed out more swathes of white mist, high-pressure vapor tearing through the sky like a scream from the deep.

A single figure bobbed near the side of the Sea Petrel, walking around and weaving busily, dressed in the uniform of the Frost Navy and doing what ship’s sailors were supposed to do, striding across the rugged grooves on the deck, over the sticky, writhing substance and the proliferating nodules that crisscrossed the deck as if they were thick veins.

There was a constant stream of melting black mud falling from these sailors, and even a constant stream of sailors suddenly collapsing and fusing with the structure of the ship around them – while at the same time there was a constant stream of new sailors detaching themselves from the decks or the sides of the ship, writhing, crawling, and trudging about, scrubbing the decks, maneuvering the flags, and striking lights ……

They were going home, the Sea Petrel was going home-

Yet far away, in the direction of the harbor, the heavy shore defense batteries were already in operation, the gates covering the cliffs, the seawalls, and the reinforced concrete facades of the harbor opening one after the other, the blackened barrels poking out, the heavy batteries slowly rotating under a series of cogs and connecting rods, and the deep-underground elevators creaking and running, sending shells from the underground ammunition magazines to the huge guns on the upper decks, while another rush of bells and sirens rang out both inside and outside the harbor, urging all ships still outside the harbor to quickly take evasive action, and all facilities inside the harbor to enter a state of readiness.

The Petrel seemed to sense what was going on – it began to accelerate even before the sirens of Frostbourne Island sounded.

Steam was pouring out, the siren was hissing continuously, the whole ship was hissing from the inside out, the sailors on the decks were running, the white mist floating over the smokestacks had somehow appeared a wisp of black and red color – the ship was accelerating, and it was already a fast steamer, its speed was further increased to the limit, just like a huge beast wrapped in thunder! In the vast and boundless sea speeding, that split the roar of the breaking waves, gradually such as the frenzied hissing resounded through the sea!
At that moment, the coast defense guns of Frost Island opened fire.

Like thunderous explosions, the amazingly powerful coast defense cannons suddenly spewed out huge flames and explosions, and the conventional armor-piercing shells were the first to carry out a round of unison fire, and the shells shaped like cones emitted ear-piercing whistling noises in the air, and cut through the sky like a line of fire, and landed on the distant sea after a period of time of flight.

When the shells entered the water, the water columns rose up everywhere, large and small water columns were distributed around the Haiyan, and formed a mist that continuously diffused and spread on the distant sea surface, among them, a few shells scratched the Haiyan, but the latter’s speed was not affected in the slightest.

The tremendous vibrations from the firing of the coast defense guns even slightly shook the platform under Agatha’s feet, as if she could feel the entire lookout gently trembling under the feedback of the rounds, while at the same time she heard someone reporting from the side –

“Low first round hits – that ship was too fast for the recorded values!”

“Free fire, switch to armor-piercing incendiary rounds and keep firing until the target sinks,” Lister’s face was expressionless, “Keep the stationed fleet on standby, and if we still can’t stop that ship on the offshore cordon, let the fleet strike – even if it end up using ramming, stop that ship beyond the Frost!”

“Aye, sir!”

Lister’s face was as heavy as water, in the continuous roar of cannon fire, he was staring at the rising column of water and smoke in the distant sea, staring at the “Sea Petrel” that was still accelerating towards Frost, and there wasn’t even the slightest bit of hesitation left in his expression.

Just from what he saw now, he could already conclude that that ship was by no means the “Haiyan” that he was familiar with.

In the face of the shelling from Frost Island, the ship did not slow down, did not display the required flags and lights, but instead accelerated continuously, and even accelerated to a point far beyond the limits of its design……. That’s not a Frost battleship, that’s a monster.

It was a monster disguised as an earthly object.

All the coast defense guns began to hiss, and in the roar of the guns, the armor-piercing incendiary shells drew countless bright lines of fire in the air, splashing like intertwined rain on the waters where the Haiyan was located, huge columns of water rose one after another, and in the middle of the uncountable columns of water, the ship that kept letting out shrill whistles and roars continued to charge forward straight ahead, like an enraged wild beast. And as the distance drew closer and the barrage continued to calibrate, shells finally began to fall on the Haiyan.

Huge explosions tore through her armor with a loud bang, smashing her masts and stripping the deck from her hull in pieces, and the black, sludgy, viscous substance spewed out from under the camouflaged shells like blood and drifted down over the sea like a deluge of rain.

“…… The God of Death is above! What the hell was that?!”

In the binoculars, the people on the lookout could already vaguely see what kind of grotesque form was taking shape underneath the Petrel’s fragmented deck, and some people couldn’t help but let out a low cry of alarm.

However, Lister just looked at the scene with a stony face, the muscles on his face still tense.

That ship was not slowing down.

After the coast defense guns had torn up its aft deck, knocked out its smokestacks and bridge buildings, and even blew up the section of the ship where it had theoretically stacked its ammunition and housed its steam core, it still hadn’t slowed down.

The coast defense guns hissed, round after round of deadly shells continued to fall, a staggering number of batteries concentrated “care” of an “enemy ship” that did not dodge, in a very short period of time on the sea oats poured countless shells, no matter on any ship, this is already a fatal injury. In a short period of time, it rained countless shells on the Haiyan, which would have been fatal to any ship.

Even if it didn’t sink, it was time to stop.

But she was still sailing at full speed.

Soon, the others noticed what was happening on the surface of the sea, and tension began to fill the air.

“Keep fighting – until it disappears into the sea,” Lister said through clenched teeth, then suddenly turned to Agatha beside him, “Ma’am, please notify the cathedral as soon as possible, if we can’t stop it on the harbor side, we may need to ……”

“Don’t give up just yet, Mr. Colonel,” Agatha, however, shook her head without waiting for the other to finish, “The attack is working, it’s on the decline.”

As she spoke, her gaze peered out over the sea in the distance, and a pale shimmering light was gently leaping beneath the young Gatekeeper’s eyes.

What was reflected in her eyes was not reality, but the spirit world.

She saw that the twisted black silhouette was disintegrating, and on the chaotic surface of the sea, errant lines of light and shadow were rapidly peeling away from that silhouette.

The shore defense gunfire had not directly “killed” the fake, but it was effectively pushing it to a tipping point where it was about to disintegrate.

Agatha blinked as the brief image of the spirit world faded from her vision, and the reality of the world once again became clear to her.

The coast defense guns were continuing to fire, and soon, additional shots were being fired from a short distance away.

It was the fleet that had stayed in the harbor – they had finally finished their preparations and were beginning to participate in the interception.

The roar of the battleships’ main guns was the last straw for the Haiyan, which began to crumble as more armor-piercing incendiary shells landed on the now-defunct ship.

First, the deck and outer hull peeled off in pieces, revealing the twisted and dark structure inside, and then the whole ship squirmed and tore from end to end, as if it was going to tear itself to pieces, and what once looked like the Haiyan quickly broke apart while pouring out countless dark slurries.

Its siren finally stopped, and that strange, shrill whistling sound petered out.

It began to slow down, spreading outward in great swaths of dark impurities as it melted and collapsed on the surface of the sea.

The terrifying, bizarre, assailant that had attempted to charge the civilized world – finally stopped only a few nautical miles away from Frostbourne Island.

(End of chapter)