Embers of Embers

Chapter 511 The Burning Gun
The howling wind and thunder sounded together, adding to the atmosphere of this thrilling encounter.
"What's going on! Lorenzo!"
The command room was packed when the Shrike rushed into it, and he seemed to be the last to arrive.
Specialized in surgery, Lorenzo handed over the command of the crew to rescue the emergency to Captain Notar, and he discussed with Lan Jade who came over how to fight back.
"We were attacked by a group of pirates." Lorenzo glanced at the sea. The fire flashed and another round of shelling caused the cabin to shake violently again. "I don't know how many there are, but in this situation He really knows how to choose the right time to attack."
"Do you want to speed up the evacuation? If the Dawn Advance advances at full speed, they won't be able to catch up with us." Lan Jade suggested, which in her opinion was the safest solution.
"We can escape, but those cargo ships can't."
Lorenzo immediately rejected Lan Jade's words,
"Does the Morning Glory Advance have any means of counterattack?" Lorenzo asked Captain Notar.
"Yes, but the weapons have not been used in actual combat at sea...at least not in this situation." Notar was also shocked by the violent weather. "I don't know how effective it is in actual combat, and they are mainly used for To deal with demons."
This was the first time Notar had seen this kind of battle. He was wondering if the other party was a lunatic. In such bad weather, normal people would try to find ways to escape from the storm, but the pirates chose to attack at this time. It may be that the other party is really alert and has caught such misunderstandings. In short, Chenhui Advance is extremely passive now.
"If you can deal with demons, you can deal with humans." Lorenzo shouted loudly, "Ready to fight back!"
"Ready to fight back!"
Seeing this situation, Captain Notar had no choice but to bite the bullet and go down and issue instructions.
The gray world flashed with fire again, and round after round of shelling washed the Morning Glory Advance. Fortunately, the violent waves made it difficult for the Black Fang's artillery to aim, and only a few shells hit the hull. on the armor, but the good times did not last long. A violent fire ignited on the deck, and a cannonball hit it, splashing fireworks.
The hull of the ironclad ship was protected by strong armor, but the buildings above the deck were completely exposed. Notal turned the steering wheel hard and adjusted the angle of the Morning Glory Advance as much as possible.
The engine roared, black smoke rose from the huge chimney, and rising sparks drifted in the wind.
"Fixed artillery fire!"
Notar ordered, but was stopped by Lorenzo.
"Wait! Don't fire yet."
Lorenzo stared at the Black Fang behind the raging waves, keeping a safe distance between it and the Dawn Advance.
"what are you going to do?"
Notar didn't know what illness Lorenzo was suffering from, and he clearly vowed to fight back, but he stopped again at this critical moment.
"Our angle of inclination is not enough, and it is difficult to hit the fixed artillery. Recklessly firing will only make the opponent vigilant. We must show weakness now." Lorenzo smiled horribly, "Show weakness, find the right time, and kill with one blow."
In order to kill the boredom in this boring sea life, Lorenzo read a lot about ironclad ships, and constructed a new plan in his mind.
Ironclad ships in the world today are basically equipped with fixed artillery, but fixed artillery has a blind spot for shooting. This is the problem encountered by the Morning Glory Advance. Some people have also tried to install rotating artillery on the terrace, but The current hydraulic technology is not enough to support the rotation of dozens of tons of turrets. Even if it can be driven, the speed is extremely slow, and the gain outweighs the loss.
For this reason, the Perpetual Pump came up with a very interesting method. They installed the terrace artillery into the steel fortress. There is no need to rotate the turret, just rotate the artillery in the turret. There is a mechanical structure above the artillery. For breech loading, the turret only needs four gunners to operate it and it can work normally. Although the top of the turret is completely exposed without any protection, these risks are exchanged for faster mobility. The technicians of the Perpetual Pump I think it's worth it.
There are six such rotating cannons on the Morning Glory Advance, which are distributed along the hull, and one of them is special, which is temporarily installed by the pump of perpetual motion.
"Reload Ascalon, I need it to kill in one hit."
Following Lorenzo's order, the ferocious steel slowly moved under the baptism of the heavy rain. The roar of machinery sounded in the tallest turret of the Morning Glory Advance, and a huge gun barrel was seen rising from the groove. Dragging slowly, it was so heavy that the perpetual pump designed a circle of slide rails along the periphery of the turret, and the moving steel on it supported the muzzle.
"This is a practical exercise. What we encounter in the Silent Sea will only be worse than now."
This is what Lorenzo thinks. Regarding the Silent Sea, all he knows is the stories told by others. He has never really been there, and he has no idea of ​​everything that may happen.
Therefore, all Lorenzo can do now is to get everyone to adapt to all this and get used to fighting on the waves.
"Start loading!"
Notar didn't talk nonsense and shouted directly. Although he was a captain in his position, he was more like a housekeeper, managing the work and deployment of sailors. When war came, his words could only be regarded as suggestions. .
It's not that Notar doesn't have much naval combat experience, it's just that he has never faced such enemies, those monsters called demons, in his long service career.
Both Shrike and Blue Jade acquiesced to Lorenzo's order. Lorenzo was right, the leisure before was just the calm before the storm, and they needed to fight to warm their blood.
"At least let me see what this Morning Glory Advance can do."
Lorenzo looked excitedly at the other end of the waves. Before he could finish his words, he was shattered by the roar of the cannon.
Ascalon opened fire.
Along with the loud noise came an invisible impact. The raindrops all over the sky stopped slightly for a second at this moment. The dripping water on the porthole was changed its trajectory. The crystal water droplets reflected the molten golden light. This glow The moment it flashed, the Chenhui Advance became heavier and heavier, suppressing the splashing waves.
Everyone saw it.
It was a long spear, a burning and blazing spear. It was so fast that it flashed by and was pulled into a slender and dazzling light. The extreme high temperature penetrated the obstructing wind and waves, and the light was shining everywhere it went. Brighten everything.
This is Ascalon. As Lorenzo, who has personally experienced the bombardment of this artillery, he is very aware of the power of this artillery. Judging from its range, when the enemy ship appears within Lorenzo's field of vision, it will It is already within the strike range of Ascalon, and the rate of fire of this artillery is extremely fast, with almost no attenuation in a short distance.
Just as Lorenzo thought, Ascalon's attack at this distance could hardly be called a bombardment. The burning and speeding warhead was like a spear, penetrating the Black Fang's hull the moment it came into contact. , all the steel wherever it went was melted, and the flesh and blood body had no time to react before being burned into ashes.
The expected explosion did not occur. The warhead was too fast and too hot. It penetrated the hull directly and fell into the sea, arousing raging steam and sinking to the bottom of the sea with the afterglow.
As for the Black Tusk, the blow directly plowed one side of their deck, and the mast and chimney collapsed. Lorenzo guessed that the blow might have penetrated the enemy's command room as well.
"It's really...the power of God..."
Notar looked at all this and marveled. He had never seen such a scene before, and it was hard to imagine that his ship actually carried such a big killer.
"Don't act like you haven't seen the world before. We have quite a lot of this kind of divine power on board." Lorenzo said with a smile.
"Is this the end?"
Shrike looked at the Black Fang. After Ascalon hit, the Black Fang fell into silence. A raging fire could be seen on the ship, and then there were successive explosions inside, which might be fireworks. It affected the ammunition and caused a suicide bombing.
"It should be over. Now we just need to wait for the storm to stop, and then go and collect the spoils and prisoners."
Lorenzo looked at the fire rising from the sea and won the first battle. He felt that it was not bad, but he was not happy enough.
"Wait... there's light."
Lan Jade keenly observed something. She motioned for several people to look at the Black Fang, and saw a disharmonious light in the blazing fire. It flashed regularly, as if it was releasing some signal.
"What's going on? Notal." Lorenzo immediately asked the experienced Notal.
"This... is communication. Ships at sea lack effective means of communication. We will make semaphores during the day and use the flashing lights as signals at night." Notar replied.
In order to prevent possible technological disasters, the builders of the country secretly restricted the progress of world technology, or to be precise, the progress of communication technology. Technologies such as communicators have been implemented in the Perpetual Pump and are used for purification. Except in agencies, due to this terrible reality, this kind of technology still cannot be leaked out, so that everyone uses large ships made of steel, but they still use such primitive methods for communication.
Lorenzo began to feel a sense of fragmentation in the world, and in the coming days, this sense of fragmentation would continue to intensify.
Humans are like beasts trapped in a cage. The beast grows bigger and bigger until it fills the entire cage. Finally, it has only two choices, either to break out of the cage or to suffocate in the cage.
The builders of the country made a choice. They were unable to break out of the cage and could only continue to weaken the beast.
"It's terrible..."
Lorenzo couldn't help but sigh. This kind of loss did not last long, and he asked Notar again.
"Do you know what this means? Asking for help?"
"I think..." Notar raised his telescope. The fire on the Black Fang interfered with his judgment. He hesitated for a while and expressed his thoughts. "I don't know. This is different from what I know." , probably their internal communication language.”
"You mean...them?" Lorenzo said.
"Yes, this signal is not for us to see..."
As he spoke, Notar's voice slowed down, and he looked directly at Lorenzo, with the same answer in their eyes.
"Get ready for battle! There is more than one enemy ship!"
Lorenzo shouted loudly, and at this moment countless flames burst out on the sea. Not only one ship, but six ships approached the Morning Glory Advance under the cover of the storm.
They had been ambushing all around early in the morning. Ascalon's attack not only failed to scare away these pirates, but instead aroused their greed.
Dozens of warheads hit the Morning Glory Advance. Even with advanced armor, it could not withstand such a sustained attack. The surface of the hull began to appear damaged, and some warheads directly hit a turret, putting it in the flames. .
It is very difficult to directly hit the turret in a conventional naval battle, but the restless sea under the hull lifts each ship high and then smashes it down, making the ballistic trajectory difficult to predict during the bumps.
Subtle vibrations rang out from all parts of the ship's hull. It was much lighter than the cannonball hit, but it still caught Lorenzo's attention.
"What!" he asked.
"It's pirates, they're on board!"
The soldiers shouted, facing the violent storm, several hooks were thrown on the fence. They could see that pirates who were not afraid of death were actually approaching here on a warship. You must know that if they are not careful, they will be buried in the sea. .
No... they were not the only ones. Six armored ships that had been lying in wait for a long time came over the waves. They stopped shelling and accelerated closer to the Morning Glory Advance. The front end of the ship's bow cut through the wind and rain with an icy collision angle.
It seems that they want to ram the Chenhui Advance. Judging from their tonnage, it is obvious that they cannot shake the Chenhui Advance, but they cannot withstand so many ships attacking together.
Thunder flashed, the dark flag danced wildly in the wind, and a sharp and pale tooth could be vaguely seen carved on it.
Seeing all this, Notar seemed to remember something, he said with some anxiety.
"I think I know who they are. They are the Black Fang Pirates. After the civil war in the Viking Kingdoms, they were the largest group of Viking pirates. They did not obey the King of Ice Sea and have been running around in the Viking Kingdoms. The edge of the sea.”
"Never mind who they are! All stationary artillery fire!"
Lorenzo didn't care about that, he yelled.
The armor on the side of the Morning Glory Advance was pulled down, and the gun's muzzle was extended along the slide rail. A few seconds later, the first salvo was fired.
The gunfire continued one after another, but it failed to stop these pirates. There were also sounds of fighting on the deck, but Lorenzo seemed not to feel it, and stared at the ships on the sea.
"Their target has changed," Lorenzo thought clearly. "Before, these pirates may have been for the cargo ship, but I think they are now for the Morning Glory Advance."
"We?" Shrike couldn't understand.
"It's not us, it's the armored ship under our feet."
In Lorenzo's understanding, these pirates initially wanted to rob the cargo, but after seeing Ascalon's attitude, they changed their minds and prepared to rob the Dawn Advance.
"It's crazy."
(End of this chapter)