Embers of Embers

Chapter 703 Unlucky Ghosts
In the empty and huge workshop, harsh noises continued. On one side of the rails, one piece of original sin armor was hung, and they were dragged into the maintenance platform in front. There were several rails all over the bottom. The snake had already been waiting here, and the carriage was cut open, replaced by a cold frame, holding up the original sin armors listed one after another on it.
Just like an automated assembly line, after the assembly was completed, the technicians sent a signal to the command podium. They opened the heavy gate, and then the armed iron snake slowly started to move, dragging the heavy armors towards the next destination.
"continue!"
A sound was broadcast, with the chaotic sound of electricity, and a new round of armed iron snakes drove in from the other end of the workshop, waiting to be assembled, and then left.
The Cape of Angry Waves has been running at full speed since the old Dun Ling was damaged. They work in shifts to keep the place in working condition at all times. Now they are able to handle Merlin's needs with ease.
Complex mechanical facilities are operating stably, and crude oil is refined and processed into flammable paint antimony, which is then poured into oil tanks marked with warnings, stacked together, and transported in a centralized manner.
They were gathering strength as if they were going to start another war.
"How are you preparing?"
Merlin walked into the atrium covered with iron dust. The air was turbid and hot, filled with the smell of rust. Merlin put on a mask, which made him feel better. Then amid the rumbling sound, the technician in charge here, Coming towards you.
"You can leave anytime."
The welcoming technician stretched out his hand and shook Merlin's hand firmly, "Long time no see, Chief."
Merlin looked at the guy in front of him carefully, and then said with a hint of surprise.
"Huh? It's Aika. I thought you died in that rainstorm."
"How is that possible? I was transferred here a long time ago," Aika looked a little confused, "You haven't forgotten me, have you?"
"No...are they?"
Fortunately, Merlin has facial paralysis and wore a mask. He perfectly hid his embarrassed expression and tried to change the topic.
Aika paused for a moment, then sighed helplessly.
Merlin looks young, but everyone who comes into contact with him knows that he is actually an old guy. As the technical director of the Perpetual Motion Pump, he has led many technicians and dispatched them one by one. The people he comes into contact with are too many. There are many, and there is nothing special about Aika, so it is normal for him to ignore her.
But normalcy was normal, and Aika still felt a little unhappy.
"them?"
Aika followed the direction Merlin pointed and looked at the two people behind him. Judging from their clothes, they didn't seem to be technicians.
"The two of them?" Aika said, "They are the pilots, and because of their good performance in the previous rainstorm, they were included in this operation."
"Dot."
"Reli."
The two announced their names and saluted Merlin.
"Yes, I understand," Merlin nodded and continued, "Let's start as we planned. The sooner we start, the better."
"Okay, this is the equipment list we called here, as well as some important weapons..."
Aika picked up a form and introduced it to Merlin. After talking for a long time, he finally asked.
"There are others that I'm not sure you need..."
"There is no need to be frugal at this time. Equip everything you can use," Merlin immediately interrupted, "This may be the last war, there is no need to hide it."
Aika raised her eyebrows and replied.
"okay."
"When you are ready to set sail, take the Iron Snake to the port. We will wait for you there."
"Will you come with us?" Merlin asked again.
"How is it possible? Although I don't know what your specific actions are, but you can use so many things, it must be a hellish war." Aika looked at the form and was prepared in his heart, but he still couldn't help but tremble. , "I can't go, I'm still needed here."
"Looking at it this way, you two are really unlucky ghosts."
Aika said and looked at Dot and Reli.
In the purification mechanism, due to the small number of war airships, it is not necessary to have many pilots to control the war airships. Their number has always been kept low. In addition, they are located at high altitudes, and there is almost no time to face monsters directly.
But in that heavy rain, erosion rolled up an invisible storm in the old Dunling, and most of the pilots were affected. Although antimemetics were used to purify it later, many people still suffered from many sequelae. .
This time they will go deep into the Seven Hills and directly face the Well of Sublimation. There will never be any risk, let alone the key position of the driver.
In the selection of personnel, Merlin screened out those who were strong-willed and had a certain degree of resistance. After several selections, Dot and Reli caught Merlin's attention and were transferred here.
"Unlucky one? Us?"
Dot and Reli looked at each other. In fact, even now, they don't know what task they want to perform.
"By the way, what exactly do we need to do?"
Reli asked tentatively. He was curious and uneasy. As an ordinary pilot, he had almost no chance to meet a person in charge like Aika, let alone the technical chief Merlin.
On the one hand, I feel honored, but on the other hand, I feel terrified.
If you think about it carefully, you are just a grassroots worker. Maybe because of your type of work, your working environment and treatment are better than those who go out to run business every day and fight with demons.
As a result, one day, your manager brings the top person in the company to see you and tells you that the company has an important mission for you, a grassroots employee. No matter how you think about it, there is something wrong with it.
If you want to lose your head, there are at most two possibilities. Either you are the illegitimate son of the number one man, and your cheap father tells you that the time has come to inherit this huge family business, or the company has a very important job. The unlucky guy needs to go to the mine.
The more he thought about it, the worse his mood became. Reli felt that he was not such a suspicious person before, let alone had such bad ideas about the purification mechanism. He tried to think back and realized that his cognitive bias might come from several people. At the staff gathering a month ago, he heard a high-ranking knight at the next table complaining about this.
Ah...the memory gradually became clearer, and Reli even remembered the code name of the high-ranking knight.
It's called... Kestrel, right?
Aika also looked curious. The primary project of Horn of Raging Seas was originally to support the reconstruction of Old Dunling, but after Merlin's order was issued, everything focused on supporting their actions. This mysterious action is more important than reconstruction. Old Dunling is even more important.
"Didn't Arthur tell you?" Merlin asked.
"Arthur?"
When they heard Arthur's name, their eyes lit up, and then they became even more uneasy.
Judging from Merlin's point of view, Arthur was originally responsible for telling them the specific situation. Rounding up, this was a direct appointment from the company boss.
"Is it convenient to disclose?"
Probably because she didn't have to participate in the action, Aika was even more curious.
Merlin looked at Aika, then at the restless Reli and Dot, he sighed, and then said helplessly.
"Sorry, this is too important to reveal too much, as for you..."
Merlin looked at Dot and Reli, then looked at Aika, and asked in a strong tone, "Are you very free?"
"Huh? Still...huh?"
Aika wanted to say something else, but in the end the words were choked back. He waved his hand and retreated at the same time.
"Okay, okay, I'm going to do my business, you continue."
Aika left here. As the person in charge here, he knew the assembly list that Merlin needed. He also smelled the smell of iron and blood from these deadly assemblies, so he called Dot and Reli the unlucky ones. .
"Which place could be so unlucky to receive such firepower?"
Aika muttered, looking at the track to the side with a little expectancy.
The armed iron snake docked and then left, transporting a steady stream of weapons to unknown lands. Aika knew what was there, but unfortunately, he didn't seem to have the chance to witness the moment when it sailed.
"Chief..."
Seeing Aika leave, Dot called Merlin softly. The excitement and uneasiness reached the extreme at this moment.
"To put it simply, we are going to fight a battle now, a very difficult battle," Merlin said uncertainly, imagining the unknown future. "We may win, but the greater possibility is that we will all die. There."
The two swallowed. They had heard this kind of talk about pre-war mobilization many times, but this time the narrator was Merlin, and from Merlin's cold and paralyzed face, they could not feel the passion of pre-war mobilization. Instead, it looked like a doctor was announcing his own death.
"We...will all die there?"
"Yes, everyone will die, no one will be spared."
Merlin suddenly thought of something, he approached the two of them, stretched out his hands, and put them on their shoulders.
"Then there is such a thing now, the bad news is that there is a high probability that you will die."
"What about the good news?"
Dot asked shakily.
"Good news? The good news is that the Sail to Dawn is short of two determined co-pilots..."
"Let's go! Where is the airport! Where is the Sail to Dawn!"
Before Merlin could finish speaking, Dot and Reli excitedly interrupted Merlin's words. They were like big dogs about to go out for a walk, happily pawing at the door, ready to rush out and roll in the mud at any time.
"No... wait, you might die."
The two replied, but Merlin was a little confused. He thought he was going to replace Arthur and do some psychological construction for the two of them, but the direction became strange.
"Death? That's the Sail to Dawn!" Reli screamed.
"Yes! Sail to Dawn!" Dot repeated.
"The most advanced war airship today! It's so much bigger than conventional airships!" Reli shouted.
"The most advanced! Big circle!" Dot repeated again, not forgetting to draw a big circle in the air with his hand.
"Where is it! Where is it!"
The eyes of the two were shining, and they sang together.
Merlin had mixed emotions. Looking at the two people who were in completely opposite states to what they had just been in, he didn't know whether he should be happy or something else.
"Ah...I'm starting to wonder where Arthur recruited such a group of people."
Merlin whispered.
……
"Without stopping, without rest, where are we going?"
In the narrow carriage, Kestrel complained.
After getting off the train, a group of people carried their luggage and walked into the industrial area. Without any time to prepare and rest, they boarded the armed iron snake again, walked through the towering steel giants, broke through the dust and sparks, and headed towards the unknown place forward.
"I don't know, but stop complaining, Kestrel, you are really annoying."
The shrike sitting next to the kestrel said that from the moment he got on the bus, the kestrel kept chattering, and the shrike wanted to sew his mouth shut.
"what……"
The kestrel more or less listened to the shrike and couldn't complain, so he let out a long, low sound, as if he was hanged, and the only breath left his throat.
The sound echoed in the carriage. The light was already dark, and everyone looked tired and serious, making the atmosphere even more stiff and awkward.
"Does anyone want to hear a joke?" Kestrel said suddenly, "I'm not complaining."
The others ignored him, but Lorenzo on the opposite side slowly raised his head, glanced at the kestrel, and then moved out of the car window.
"Alright alright."
Kestrel sank down, leaning on the back of the chair, waiting for the destination to arrive.
The scenery outside the window gradually opened up, and the steel jungle disappeared, replaced by a vast sea, with gray-black, canine-like rocks, tearing the waves to pieces.
"I think I probably know who 'Old Friend' is."
In the long silence, Lorenzo suddenly said.
The others raised their heads and stared at Lorenzo, only to hear Lorenzo continue.
"We need to go by sea. Time is tight. We need a fast ship, a fast ship that can carry a large number of weapons."
This was really an old friend, and Lorenzo couldn't help but smile a little.
"I don't know how well it was repaired."
"Fortunately, although the armor and firepower facilities have not been completely repaired, other than that, everything is the same as before, and the speed has not slowed down."
Merlin opened the car door and walked over from the other car.
"Arthur is already waiting for us there."
"What are you going to do, force a landing? It's a long way from Feilengcui to the Seven Hills," Lorenzo questioned, "What's more, it has no firepower facilities, and we may not even have a landing point." You can’t even grab it.”
"It's not necessary. It just needs to be close to Feilengcui. Other old friends will take us there for the rest."
Merlin smiled, everything was going according to plan.
"Other old friends?"
Just as Lorenzo was about to ask something, a silhouette appeared above the horizon.
Familiar armor, sharp ram angle, after the repair and maintenance of the Mechanical Academy, the Morning Glory Advance galloped on the sea again, and this time, on the deck of the ship, many artillery pieces and Ascalon disappeared. Instead, there is a giant lair built along the deck, which locks the behemoth firmly on the Morning Glory Advance like something is bound.
"Temporary transformation can't be done to this level... After returning from the lonely sea, you are doing this? Have you planned it?"
Lorenzo asked curiously.
"It was just an accidental collision. Originally we were planning to use it to end the world war."
Merlin lowered his body and looked at the giant steel beasts docked in the harbor with Lorenzo.
"The Morning Glory Advance will break into the White Tide Strait, and the Navigation Dawn on it will set sail when it is close to the coast and rise to high altitude. It uses lacquer antimony as new fuel, and the energy is enough for us to float all the way to the capital of Gaulnaro. , blow it up to pieces."
Merlin sighed and said helplessly.
"It's a pity that Qiqiu is the unlucky one this time."
The armed iron snake got closer and closer, and the picture in front of him became clearer. In the steel bird's nest, the Navigation Dawn was docked in this narrow mobile airport, waiting for the moment to rise into the sky.
(End of this chapter)