Steel steam and flame

The thing that I come into contact with the most during the mission is firearms, which are incredibly powerful. No matter what type of caliber they are, or what specifications of bullets they are, they are all fatal threats to humans. But firearms as mainstream weapons are compared to the armored vehicles that are practicing in the middle of the basin. The power of the explosion of a one or two hundred kilogram shell they fired can tear all the human bodies within a few meters around into pieces.

The blast wave may have little impact on the operator, but compared to the steel fragments produced by the used steel shell bomb, the two are always in different stages. It’s okay if there are fewer such armored vehicles, but there are enough of them. The power of concentrated fire, comparing the speed of the artillery shells and the locking mechanism controlled and analyzed by the differential engine. When facing these things, the surgeon can only hide behind a hard enough surface like ordinary humans. The head was shrunk behind the rock mass, and there didn't seem to be many ways to deal with it.

"That thing is one of the main firepower of the army on the ground. There are a lot of them. There is a special storage warehouse here in the volcano base to store those armored vehicles. And in order to allow these armored vehicles to drive out of the volcano base smoothly and quickly, they are arranged When we get to the front, many huge tunnels have been drilled out in the ring-shaped mountains in the basin on the opposite side. They are only used to pass through these armored vehicles and combat vehicles. Those land-borne aerial bomb vehicles can also pass through, but not many." Doe. Er said, "When I first came here, I definitely didn't know anything about where it was, what it was used for, etc. It only took a few days, and it wasn't that important in the first place."

Then Doyle took Cassia down the spiral staircase on the side to the flat ground of the basin, walked a few steps to the train station in the base that he just saw, and caught a ride on a cargo train. They were driven into the building surrounded by huge trees. Most of the facilities for living, command, monitoring, and communication are there, and the rest are just a few buildings scattered in the warehouse base.

On the way, we passed an airport that could be described as empty. The landing gear shock-absorbing devices that penetrated deep into the ground were all wrapped in layers of green rainproof cloth. There were only a dozen or so airships of unknown class parked there. There were no models or codes written in paint on their navy blue bodies. Their lengths were far longer than cruiser-class commercial airships, about six hundred meters. . More than a dozen airships lined up there, it was like an insurmountable metal wall. The pressure and the mottled and old corrosion marks on its body could be felt from a distance. ,

I don’t know whether it is being repaired or maintained. There are piles of vehicles on the side, ladders and mechanical arms are set up, and hundreds of people are climbing on them, tinkering with something with instruments. Many pieces of several square meters of steel plates were removed, revealing the complex transmission mechanism inside, and all the twisted pipes and wiring were exposed. Those people were dealing with these things. From a distance, compared to the airship, the logistics personnel lying on it wearing blue clothes are just a bunch of negligible ant-like organisms.

The area occupied by the entire airport cannot be ignored in the basin, but now it is completely empty. At a glance, it is difficult to see anything available, except for the dozen or so airships.

"This is a time when there are a lot of airships. The number of airships usually stationed here is less than three. The few extra ones have recently flown here from who knows which base, but they stopped and stopped. Flying into the sky." Doyle continued to introduce the normal situation of the volcano base. "The airport has always been empty. It is said to be an airport, but most of the soldiers here treat it as an open space. I have been here for more than ten years. , it has always been empty, and those tarpaulins are replaced every two years. If they are rotten, they are replaced. At the same time, anti-rust oil and inspection and maintenance are returned to the landing gear of the package. I don’t know how the imperial military thinks about these airports. Not just at the volcano base, I heard others say that the same is true for airports in other places. The construction specifications are extremely high, with various standards and conditions, and the cost is extremely expensive, but the number of uses is almost zero. I think it is definitely not because Isn't the number of airships enough? Maybe it's not necessary to send a large number of airships here. If one day, the light in front of you suddenly becomes dim, and then you look up and see a neat team of people in the sky The airships in formation are parked in the sky, so that’s when the war should begin.”

This time won't be far away, Cassia answered silently in her heart. Looking at the empty airport with only air in front of me, I had the same questions as Doyle.

"And those airships don't go out to perform missions. They are very enthusiastic about maintenance every once in a while. When air support is needed, or when air power is dispatched to search or something, cheap airships are used, the thing that holds hydrogen. . The power is also steam-driven, but it is not very easy to use. I have been up there before and it feels light and airy. If there is a slight situation in the weather, it will be 'crash landing! Crash landing!'. After that, I have never tried to ride on an airship again. .”

Seeing Doyle's distressed face, Cassia could roughly imagine what the scene would be like.

It took about half an hour for the two of them to be pulled by the train to the edge of the building complex. Passing through a quiet forest area several hundred meters wide, there is a group of exquisite low-rise buildings.

With the information and detailed arrangements printed by the Communications Department, Doyle had no specific tasks, so he personally took Cassia to the accommodation management building to get the password card corresponding to the room number, and led him to find his room.

This scene reminded Cassia of the feeling when he first entered the military school, and the things he experienced seemed to be the same.

"It's still a room for one person. Cassia, you seem to have a special status." Doyle said on the way, "The imperial military designated personnel will be notified in advance, and you should also carry optically encrypted files with you. And every day People come in groups at one time. I have only seen a few people like you come here once or twice at the volcano base, but they also come with dozens of people. Maybe your situation is different from those people almost,,,"

As soon as he stopped talking, Doyle remembered the many reminders and advice in the past years, and now he suddenly realized that Cassia's identity was other than a military special agent. But it was rare to see someone with whom he really wanted to have a few words. Doyle was probably itching to talk about some common "things" on the front, and he still had to remind a few people out of the goodwill they had just met. Sentence is good. Deaths are common here, and enemies don't always come from the Far Sea Commonwealth.