Agatha's eyes were fixed on the approaching ship on the sea, and her tone was as cold as ice and snow.
A junior officer next to him was a little stunned, as if he couldn't believe what he heard: "What did you say?"
"Sink it," Agatha did not respond to the young officer, but turned to look at Colonel Lister and repeated, "That is the 'Raider', a huge source of pollution - I don't know what it is.
, but that is definitely not the Haiyan."
She paused after saying this, and the knuckles holding the cane turned slightly white: "I am responsible for this decision."
Liszt said nothing. The muscles on his face were tense. For a long time, he stood in the cold wind like a solid sculpture, until the whistle sounded again in the distance, and the sound was clearer and louder than before.
, as if with an unsettling urge, he suddenly broke the silence: "Madam, are you sure your source is reliable?"
"...I believe in my own judgment, Mr. Colonel," Agatha took a gentle breath, with a hint of hoarse magnetism in her voice, "and I am responsible for this judgment."
"You cannot be responsible. You are the gatekeeper, but you are not the direct supervisor of the port system." Lister said calmly, then turned around and looked at the sea in the distance.
"I am responsible for the decision to sink that ship."
On the distant sea, the suddenly appeared "Petrel" was still sailing at full speed, its towering bow split the waves, fluttering flags danced in the air, and the chimney in the middle of the hull spewed out large clouds of white mist.
In the clouds and mist, there seemed to be countless hidden roars roaring and noisy one after another, and at the stern of the Petrel, the breaking waves undulated and overlapped. Deep in the turbulent waves, a black and sticky substance seemed to be the blood flowing from the body of the giant beast.
It generally spreads with the waves, wisps of threads, ups and downs.
"Woo——"
The whistle sounded again, and more large white fog spewed out from the top of the steel battleship, and the high-pressure steam tore through the sky like a scream from the deep sea.
Figures swayed near the side of the Petrel. They walked around and shuttled busily. They wore the uniforms of the Frost Navy and did what the ship's sailors should do. They stepped across the rugged ravines on the deck,
Stepping through the thick, squirming material and the hyperplasia nodules crisscrossing like thick blood vessels.
Melting black mud kept falling from these sailors, and some sailors even kept falling down suddenly, integrating with the surrounding ship structure - and at the same time, new sailors were constantly separated from the deck or the side of the ship, squirming.
crawling, crawling, hobbling, to scrub the deck, to control the flag, to turn on the lights...
They are going home, the Haiyan is going home——
However, in the distant direction of the port, heavy coastal defense batteries have begun to operate. The gates covering the cliffs, seawalls and reinforced concrete exterior walls of the port are opened one after another.
Driven by a series of gears and connecting rods, it slowly rotates. The elevator buried deep in the ground creaks and runs, sending the shells from the underground ammunition depot to the upper cannon. At the same time, there are bursts of rapid bells and whistles ringing inside and outside the port.
, urging all ships still outside the port to quickly evade, and urging all facilities in the port to enter a war-ready state.
The Petrel seemed to feel something - before the siren of Frost Island sounded, it began to accelerate.
Steam was spurting out, the whistle was continuously whining, the whole ship was roaring from the inside out, the sailors on the deck were running, and at some point, strands of black and red appeared in the white mist floating above the chimney -
—The ship is accelerating. Originally a steam clipper, its speed has been further increased to the limit. It is like a giant beast carrying thunder galloping on the vast sea. The roar of splitting the waves gradually resounds like a crazy roar throughout the sea.
!
At this moment, the coastal defense guns on Hanshuang Island opened fire.
Like thunder exploding, the astonishingly powerful coastal defense artillery burst out with huge flames and explosions. Conventional armor-piercing shells fired a salvo first, and the cone-shaped shells made a piercing scream in the air, like lines of fire.
It flew across the sky and landed on the distant sea after a period of flight.
The shells entered the water, and water columns rose everywhere. Large and small water columns were distributed around the Haiyan, and formed a spreading mist on the distant sea. Several of the shells scratched the Haiyan, but the latter's speed
Not affected at all.
The huge vibration of the coastal defense artillery fire even slightly shook the platform under Agatha's feet. She seemed to feel that the entire observation deck was shaking slightly under the feedback of this round of shelling. At the same time, she heard someone reporting next to her -
—
"The first round hit rate was low - the ship was too fast, exceeding the recorded value!"
"Free fire, switch to armor-piercing incendiary bombs, and keep firing until the target sinks," Lister said expressionlessly. "Stand the fleet on standby. If the ship cannot be stopped on the offshore cordon, let the fleet attack - even if
In the end, we have to ram it to stop that ship from the frost!"
"Yes, sir!"
Liszt's face was as sinking as water. Amidst the continuous roar of artillery fire, he stared at the water column and smoke rising from the distant sea, and stared at the "Petrel" that was still accelerating towards Hanshuang. His expression
There was no longer any hesitation in the matter.
Just from what he saw now, he could already conclude that the ship was definitely not the "Petrel" he was familiar with.
Facing the bombardment from Frost's main island, the ship did not slow down or display the prescribed semaphores and lights. Instead, it continued to accelerate, even to the point of far exceeding its design limit... That was not Frost's battleship, that was a monster.
They are monsters disguised as earthly things.
All the coastal defense guns began to roar. Amidst the roar of the artillery fire, armor-piercing incendiary bombs streaked through the air with countless bright lines of fire, splashing on the sea area where the Haiyan was located like intertwining rain. Huge water columns rose one after another.
And in the middle of countless water columns, the ship that kept screaming and roaring continued to charge straight forward like an enraged beast.
As the distance got closer and the barrages were constantly calibrated, shells finally began to fall on the Haiyan.
The huge explosion shattered its armor, broke its mast, and peeled off the deck from the hull in pieces. A sticky substance like black mud spurted out from under the camouflaged shell like blood, like blood.
Falling like heavy rain on the sea.
"...God of Death! What the hell is that?!"
In the telescope, the people on the observation deck could already vaguely see what kind of strange shape was showing below the torn apart deck of the Petrel, and some people couldn't help but let out a low exclamation.
However, Liszt just looked at this scene with a solemn expression, the muscles on his face still tense.
The ship didn't slow down.
Even after the coastal defense guns tore apart its stern deck, knocked out its chimney and bridge building, and even blew up the section where it theoretically stored ammunition and housed its steam core, it still did not slow down.
The coastal defense artillery roared, and round after round of fatal shelling continued. An astonishing number of forts concentrated on "taking care" of an "enemy ship" that would not dodge, and in a short period of time, they poured down on the Haiyan.
Countless cannonballs were fired, which would have been fatal damage to any ship.
Even if it doesn't sink, it's time to stop.
But it's still sailing at full speed.
Soon, other people also noticed the situation on the sea, and tension began to spread.
"Keep fighting until it disappears on the sea," Liszt said through gritted teeth, then suddenly turned to Agatha beside him, "Madam, please inform the cathedral as soon as possible. If we can't stop it at the port, we may need to
…”
"Don't give up in a hurry, Mr. Colonel," Agatha shook her head before the other party finished speaking. "The attack is effective, but it is fading."
As she spoke, she looked at the sea in the distance, and in the eyes of the young gatekeeper, a pale glimmer of light was dancing gently.
What is reflected in her eyes is not reality, but the spiritual world.
She saw that the twisted black silhouette was constantly disintegrating, and on the chaotic sea, chaotic lines of light and shadow were rapidly peeling off from the silhouette.
Although the shelling of the coastal defense artillery did not directly "kill" the fake, it was effectively pushing it to a certain critical point, and it was about to self-disintegrate.
Agatha blinked, and the brief image of the spiritual world faded from her vision, and the clear real world appeared in her eyes again.
The coastal defense guns continued to fire, and soon, additional gunshots rang out not far away.
That was the fleet staying in the port - they finally completed their preparations and began to participate in the interception.
The roar of the battleship's main gun salvo finally became the last straw for the "Petrel". When more armor-piercing incendiary bombs fell on the already unrecognizable ship, it finally began to collapse.
First, the deck and outer hull peeled off in pieces, revealing the twisted and dark weird structure inside. Then the entire ship violently squirmed and tore from head to tail, as if it was tearing itself into pieces.
What once looked like the Petrel was rapidly breaking apart while splashing countless dark mud outwards.
Its whistle finally stopped, and the weird scream gradually subsided.
It began to slow down, spreading out large areas of dark impurities while melting and collapsing on the sea surface.
This terrifying, strange attacker who tried to charge into the civilized world finally stopped only a few nautical miles away from the Frost Island.