Deep Sea Embers

A steel battleship with a towering bow is sailing in the vast sea, and a thin layer of cold mist lingers and rises and falls within hundreds of meters around the steel battleship—this fog is like the frozen sea in the north wrapped in sea fog. The curse on the ship is like that, even though this place has reached the relatively warm central sea area, the coldness in the mist still lingers

On the deck of the steel battleship, six triple-mounted giant main guns and dozens of large and small secondary guns are already on standby, and the undead sailors who are lingering in the cold are rushing through various facilities nervously and busily. preparing for a possible battle;

On the lower deck of the battleship, the elevators of the ammunition depot are running in Kerala, continuously sending propellant cartridges and shells into the transfer warehouse of the turret, and the sailors are operating the pipeline hubs located in various places, checking the sacred steam and grease on the ship. Delivery and pressure conditions everywhere;

At the stern of the battleship, a small church has already lit an independent boiler. The steam pipe on the top of the church is emitting bursts of mist into the sky. With the sound of the church whistle, the smell of incense is mixed with the steam and erupts gradually. Let this breath hang over the whole deck;

The undead priest wearing a gloomy robe stood in the prayer room of the shipboard church, solemnly lighting the incense and candles in front of the statue of the goddess. This shriveled, pale priest looked very old, his skull The side is sunken, and the corresponding half of the body is in a weird wet state as if it is still soaked in sea water. In his eyes, there seem to be two dark clouds brewing forever in the white eyeballs, which blurly reflect The flame of a dancing candle in front of the statue of the Goddess.

In front of the priest was the icon of the storm goddess Gomona - the goddess who shelters every ship on the infinite sea, even if the ship is held by the dead, and the base of this icon is located on a huge At the top of the pipe, there are a large number of small pipes spreading out like blood vessels around the base and extending to all parts of the church. The lower part is buried deep in the hull, penetrating through layers of cabins, reaching the pressurized water tank—— Directly connected to the Infinity Sea, the darkest, coldest cabin.

A full-featured shipboard church, a separate church boiler, and sacred steam pipes running through all decks are standard equipment for every warship that needs to sail and fight in the boundless sea for a long time since the great military technological innovation of the city-states in 1835. These facilities can effectively prevent a ship from breaking out in mental pollution in a high-pressure, harsh, and continuous casualty combat environment, or being captured by the Warp due to the collective mental breakdown of sailors.

From a certain point of view, the beginning of the great technological innovation in 1835 can even be traced back thirty-five years, all the way back to the "Lost Country Incident" in 1800-the most advanced exploration ship in human history, the most The excellent explorer, who rushed directly into the warp after a long voyage, directly stimulated everyone who paid attention to the field of navigation.

The priest withdrew his gaze from the icon, but couldn't help but have thoughts about the Lost Homelander and the ship-borne church in front of him.

His cold, numb brain and his heart, which had stopped beating for half a century, were agitated by what was about to happen.

"May you protect us," the priest bowed his head and prayed reverently to the goddess, "We will confront the shadow of the subspace head-on, please witness..."

The electric bell on the side suddenly rang, and a small light flickered in front of the communication platform.

The pastor came to the communication station and turned on the copper tube corresponding to the small light: "This is the church... yes, the grease and steam are here, and the blessing has come."

On the bridge, the captain of the Sea Mist, Tirian Abu Nomar, was standing quietly on the captain's seat, looking at the seemingly calm sea in the distance.

His eye sockets were slightly painful, and a disturbing murmur echoed in his head, and beside him was a brass machine with an exquisite and complicated structure, which consisted of a large number of intermeshing gears, several exquisite It consists of a compass and many arc tracks, and its center is a small hemispherical bowl supported by three copper pillars.

At this moment, about one-third of the blood was contained in the small bowl, and the blood was continuously tumbling like boiling. The whole brass machine was also constantly fine-tuning the angles of the various gears and the compass in the tremor, and its multiple pointers pointed far away.

First officer Aiden walked over from the side, nodded to Tirian and said: "Captain, all units are ready, the church has just sent feedback, and the goddess has given her blessing."

"...The Lost Home is ahead," Tirian said softly, as if talking to himself, and then glanced back at the brass machine beside him. "I think 'he' must have sensed me too."

First officer Aiden's eyes also fell on the brass machine, especially on the boiling blood.

The pale-skinned, bald man said in a low voice, "The blood-seeking compass will guide those who are connected by blood to reunite, but this item never brings good luck and reunion...it only points to slaughter and desolation."

"It fits the situation," Tirian said lightly, and at the end of his vision, a misty black spot seemed to have loomed, "...it really came, pointing straight at Purand."

"We can fire now," the first officer couldn't help but reminded, "Actually, we could just now."

"...No, keep getting closer, only within close range," Tirian shook his head, "We tried it once half a century ago, and the bombardment from a certain distance will never land on the Lost Home , that ship is affected by some kind of distorted time and space, and there are faults and dislocations in the connection with the real dimension."

Aiden lowered his head: "...Yes, the Sea Fog will move on."

...

Duncan put down the monocular in his hand, hung it on his waist again, and then continued to hold the steering wheel tightly.

He saw the ship.

The Sea Fog, as the name suggests, is surrounded by a thin layer of ice fog, which doesn't look like a normal phenomenon.

But what really surprised him was not the layer of ice mist that seemed to be related to extraordinary phenomena, but the attitude of the ship itself——

It looked like a very advanced steel battleship, with heavy armor, tall chimneys, a well-structured and stylish bridge structure, and advanced multi-mounted turrets reminiscent of battleship main guns.

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't look like what a ship a century ago could be equipped with. Even if it is said to be modified, it is hard to imagine how a sailing warship can be modified to change to this posture.

This reminded him of some rumors about the Sea Fog and the Bright Star that he had learned from many inquiries in the city-state.

For example, Tirian's warships will devour the metal on the sea floor and the remains of the defeated, and grow and transform themselves in the midnight when no one is watching.

Now it seems that the birth of these rumors makes sense—it seems that if you want to explain why a 59 suddenly made a superluminal leap, then you can only say that it is the joy of the machine soul...

Duncan shook his head, temporarily putting aside the incoherent thoughts in his mind.

The Sea Mist has no intention of backing down, and seems to be ready for battle, and the Lost Country has no time to turn around. A head-on confrontation seems inevitable.

He doesn't know much about naval warfare, but in theory he doesn't have to worry about combat either—the artillery on the Lost Home can handle everything by itself.

He was just a little... dazed, and there was a little nervousness and... anticipation in his dazed state.

Tirian Abnomare, captain of the Seamist, one of Captain Duncan's sons and daughters.

In theory, Duncan is now the father of the pirate chief.

He never thought that he would meet the Sea Mist under such circumstances... Shouldn't that ship stay in the cold sea? Shouldn't they be busy looting houses in that icy sea and collecting protection fees? What is it doing here?

Tirian looking for a father? Father is kind and son is filial?

It is impossible to think about it.

The story of Captain Duncan sounded like a family line of misfortune.

"Captain," the voice of the goat's head came suddenly, sounding a little...excited, "The Sea Fog has started to enter the shooting stance, should we adjust the direction?"

Adjust the orientation, try to avoid the first round of direct coverage of the opponent's artillery, and enter the combat position with the smallest hull projection, and at the same time let as many artillery as possible into the shooting angle - the goat's head has obviously done a good job for an artillery battle. Well get ready.

Duncan raised his eyebrows: "You sound like you're looking forward to it?"

"The Sea Mist is a good opponent. Firstly, it can't beat us, and secondly, it dares to fight us," the voice of the goat's head was a little cheerful. They are all contaminated with a bit of 'undead and unsinkable' characteristics, if the Lost Country wants to stretch its muscles and bones, there is no better object than that."

"...In short, children resist beatings, right?" Duncan said casually, and at this moment, out of the corner of his eye, he suddenly noticed a few clouds and mists floating on the sea in the distance, and around the Seamist. Spread out slowly.

After a while, he suddenly heard a sharp whistling sound coming from the sky, and with a certain powerful momentum, he rushed straight to the location of the Lost Home.

The Sea Fog fired first—as a technologically more advanced steel warship, that ship had a range advantage. Even if it was delayed to close range to fire, it would still be able to launch an attack one step ahead of the Lost Homeland.

Duncan couldn't help feeling nervous for a moment, and then he saw huge water jets rising one after another from the sea near the Lost Homeland. It made the huge hull of the Lost Homeland shake slightly.

But none fell on the Lost Home—the Seamist's first shots all missed.

Duncan watched those water jets fall one by one, thought for a while, and felt that this might be a normal situation in naval battles—without guided weapons and modern fire control computers, the hit rate of ship artillery should be at this level.