Chapter 207: Encounter
Chapter 207 – Encounter
A bow towering steel battleship is sailing in the vast sea, a thin layer of cold fog is in the steel battleship around the range of hundreds of meters haunting undulation – this fog is like the northern part of the frozen sea entangled in the sea fog on the body of the curse in general, even if this place has been relatively warm in the central part of the sea, the fog in the cold! still coalesce and do not disperse
On the deck of the steel battleship, six huge triple main cannons and dozens of large and small secondary cannons were already in a state of readiness for battle, and the undead sailors who were haunted by the cold aura were nervously and busily traveling between the various facilities, preparing for the possible outbreak of the battle;
On the lower decks of the battleship, the elevators of the ammunition depot were clicking away, sending firing charge packets and shells into the turret staging bays continuously, and there were again sailors operating the piping hubs located in various places, checking the delivery and pressure of sacred steam and grease in various parts of the ship;
At the rear of the battleship, a small church had already lit its independent boiler, and the steam pipe at the top of the church was emitting a gust of aerosol into the sky, accompanied by the sound of the church’s siren, there was also the scent of smoky incense mixing with the steam and gradually letting this scent envelop the entire deck;
The undead priest in somber robes stood in the prayer room of the ship’s chapel, lighting the incense and candles in front of the goddess’s icon with a solemn expression; the dry, pale-skinned priest appeared to be very old, with one side of his skull sunken in, and the corresponding half of his body appearing as if it were still wet from being submerged in seawater, and within his eyes, which were whitish, there seemed to be two dark clouds brewing for eternity, one of which blurred and poured out, one of which was a dark cloud. Inside his eyes, two dark clouds seemed to be brewing eternally within his whitish orbs, in which the flickering candle flame in front of the icon of the goddess was blurredly reflected.
In front of the priest was the icon of Gemona, the goddess of storms – the goddess who sheltered every ship on the infinite sea, even if it was run by the dead – and the base of this icon was located at the top of a huge pipe, which was surrounded by a large number of tiny pipes spreading out as if they were veins and extending to all parts of the church, and whose lower part was buried deep in the ship’s hull, penetrating the church. The lower part of the pipe was buried deep in the hull of the ship, penetrating through the layers of compartments and reaching the pressurized water tanks, the darkest and coldest compartments that were directly connected to the Infinite Sea.
Fully functional shipboard chapels, individual chapel boilers, and sacred steam pipes running through all decks – standard equipment on every warship that has had to navigate and fight for long periods of time on the Infinite Sea since the great revolution in military technology in the city-states in 1835 – are effective in preventing a ship from breaking out into mental contamination in the midst of a high-pressure, hostile, sustained-casualty combat environment, or being captured by subspace due to a collective mental breakdown of the sailors. space capture.
From a certain point of view, the beginning of the technological innovation in 1835 can even be traced back thirty-five years, all the way to the “Lost Country Incident” in 1800 – the most advanced exploration ship in the history of mankind, the best explorers, after a long voyage directly into subspace. The most advanced exploration ship in the history of mankind, the best explorer in the history of mankind, after a long voyage directly into subspace, which directly stimulated everyone concerned with the field of navigation.
The priest withdrew his gaze from the iconostasis, but he could not help floating in his mind the thoughts related to the Lost Country, and the shipboard church in front of him.
His cold, numb brain and heart that had stopped beating for half a century were both agitated by what was about to happen.
“May you shelter us,” the Chaplain bowed his head in reverent consecration to the Goddess, “as we confront the shadows of subspace head on, witness ……”
An electric bell suddenly rang off to the side, and a small light flickered on in front of the communications desk.
The priest came to the communication desk and turned on the copper pipe corresponding to the small light, “This is the church …… Yes, the grease and vapor are present, the blessing has arrived.”
On the bridge, the captain of the Sea Mist, Tirion Abnomar, was standing quietly in the captain’s chair, looking out over the seemingly calm sea in the distance.
His eyes ached slightly and a haunting, low murmur echoed in his mind, while at his hand lay an intricately constructed and complex piece of brass machinery that consisted of a large number of intermeshing gears, several elaborate compasses, and a number of circular orbits, at the center of which was a small, hemispherical bowl supported by three brass pillars.
At the moment, about one-third of the blood was in that small bowl, and the blood was constantly rolling like boiling, and the whole brass machinery was constantly fine-tuning the angles of the gears and compasses in the midst of the tremor, with its multiple pointers pointing to the faraway place.
First Mate Aiden came over from the side, nodded to Tirion and said, “Captain, all units are ready, the church has just sent a message back that the Goddess has sent down her blessings.”
“The …… Lost Country is just ahead,” Tirian whispered as if to himself, then glanced back at the brass machinery beside him, “I think ‘he ‘ should have sensed me as well.”
First Officer Aiden’s eyes also fell on the brass machinery, and especially on the boiling blood.
This pale skinned bald man’s voice was low, “The Blood Seeking Compass will guide those whose bloodlines are linked to be reunited, but this item never brings good luck or reunion …… it only points to killing and desolation.”
“Appropriate to the situation,” Tirian said faintly, while at the end of his vision an ethereal black dot seemed to have loomed up, “…… It is really here, pointing straight at Prand. ”
“We can fire,” the First Officer couldn’t resist reminding, “just now, in fact.”
“…… No, keep getting closer, not until we get to close firing range,” Tirian shook his head, “We already tried that once half a century ago, a salvo from a certain distance will never land on the Lost Country, that ship is under the influence of some kind of warped space-time, there’s a disconnect and misalignment between it and the reality dimension.”
Aiden lowered his head, “…… Yes, the Sea Mist will continue on.”
……
Duncan lowered the monocular in his hand and rehung it on his belt, then continued to tighten his grip on the helm wheel.
He saw the ship. The Sea Mist, the ship as it was called, had a thin layer of icy fog coiled around it that just didn’t look normal.
But what really surprised him wasn’t the layer of ice fog that appeared to be related to transcendental phenomena, but the stance that the ship itself displayed-
It was a very advanced-looking steel battleship, with thick armor, towering chimneys, a well-structured and imposing bridge structure, and an advanced multi-mounted battery reminiscent of a battleship’s main guns.
All of this does not look like a century old ship can be equipped with – even if it is said to be modified, it makes people think of how a sail battleship can be changed to this posture.
This made him think of some rumors he had learned during his many inquiries in the city-state related to the Sea Mist as well as the Radiant Star.
For example, that Tyrian warships would devour metal from the sea bed as well as the remains of the defeated and grow and remodel themselves in the middle of the night when no one was watching.
Now it seemed that there was a reason for the birth of these rumors – it was as if you were trying to explain why a 59 suddenly made a FTL leap, and all you could say was that it was the soul of the machine was in great joy ……
Duncan shook his head and shoved the unseemly thoughts in his head aside for the moment.
The Sea Mist had no intention of backing down, and looked ready for a fight, and the Lost Country had no time to meander, so a head-to-head encounter seemed unavoidable.
He didn’t know much about naval warfare, but in theory he didn’t need to worry about the battle either – the Lost Country’s guns would take care of the rest on their own.
He was just a little …… dazed and confused, and his dazed state was tinged with a bit of nervousness and …… anticipation.
Tirion Abnomar, captain of the Sea Mist, one of Captain Duncan’s pair of sons and daughters.
Theoretically, Duncan’s current identity was the father of that pirate leader.
How could he not expect that he would make a face to face with the Sea Mist ship in this kind of situation …… Shouldn’t that ship be staying in the Cold and Cold Sea? Shouldn’t it be busy looting and collecting protection money in that cold sea? What’s it doing here?
Tirion looking for his father? Father and son?
I don’t think so.
Captain Duncan’s story sounds like a line of family tragedy.
“Captain,” snapped Goathead’s voice, sounding a little …… excited, “the Sea Mist is starting to get into a firing stance, should we adjust our heading?”
Adjusting the heading to try to avoid the first round of direct fire coverage from the other side’s guns and to get into a fighting position with minimal hull projection while getting as many of his side’s guns as possible into a fireable angle – Goathead was clearly ready for a gunfight.
Duncan raised an eyebrow, “You sound like you’re looking forward to it instead?”
“The Sea Mist is a good opponent, firstly it can’t beat us, secondly it dares to fight us,” Goathead’s voice was a little pleasant, “and lastly, it’s hardy – that ship is full of living dead, even the ship itself is tainted with a little ‘undead’ with a little of that ‘undead and unsinkable’ property, and if the Lost Country wants to stretch its legs, there’s no better object than that.”
“…… In short, the kid resists punching, right?” Duncan said casually, and just then, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed several clouds emerging from the sea in the distance and slowly dispersing around the Sea Mist.
It was another short while before he suddenly heard a sharp whistling sound coming from high above and wrapped in some sort of powerful aura straight at the location where the Lost Country was located.
The Sea Mist was the first to fire – as a technologically more advanced steel battleship, that ship had a range advantage, and even if it delayed firing until it was at close firing range, it would be able to launch its attack before the Lost Country.
Duncan couldn’t help but feel nervous for a moment, immediately after that, he saw huge columns of water rising one after another from the sea near the Lost Country, the powerful battleship-class main guns had amazing power with each blast, those huge columns of water even made the huge hull of the Lost Country shake slightly.
But not a single shot landed on the Lost Country – the Sea Mist’s first round of shots all fell short.
Duncan watched the columns of water fall one by one, and thought for a moment that this was probably normal in a naval battle – without guided weapons and modern fire control computers, the hit rate of a ship’s artillery should be about this high.
(End of chapter)