Sword of Dawn

Page 636

But that tower...you can see the top.

"... General," the voice of an adjutant came from the side, interrupting Byron's thinking, "We are now..."

Byron took a deep breath, and while connecting to the communication with Azalena, he gave an order: "Scout Ji returns first, the fleet is approaching the target, let's go over and see the situation."

"Okay, I'll go back now..." Azalena's voice sounded through the communicator, but immediately raised her pitch, "Wait, what the hell is 'Scout Girl'?!"

"Ah..." Byron touched his nose in embarrassment, "Recently, I read a few more pages of "Holy Words" and learned some new words."

"...Can you Cecilians promote normal reading?"

Chapter 1354 Abnormal Contact

Under the guidance of the information sent back by Azarena, the imperial expedition fleet headed by the Winter began to move towards the sea area covered by clouds and mist. As the sun became stronger and the aftermath caused by disorderly turbulence gradually subsided, the The clouds and mist that shrouded the sea gradually dissipated as time passed, and among the thinner and thinner clouds and mist, the "pillar" that seemed to connect the sky and the earth gradually emerged.

Standing on an observation platform at the bow of the Winter, Byron looked at the blue ocean in the distance. In his sight, the "high tower" that had penetrated the clouds and disappeared at the end of the sky was becoming more and more clear. The black shadow, as the sea fog dissipated, it was like a pillar of heaven that fell in front of mortals in myths and legends, pressing down towards this side with a suffocating majestic momentum.

The sound of giant wings beating the air descended from the sky, and the red dragon in mechanical armor flew over from the direction of the tower, hovering over the Winter, and gradually lowered its height, finally accompanied by a loud "bang", Azalena, who had transformed into a human form in mid-air, landed on the "Ting Ji Ping" not far away. The dragon-born lady straightened her long red hair, which was a little messy, and came to Byron briskly: " You see, this stuff..."

"It must have been left by the sailors, and the style is very obvious-this is not something that civilization on our planet can build," Byron said in a deep voice, his eyes resting on the distant sea, "Talrond's The envoys said that the voyager once left three 'towers' on this planet, one of which is located at the North Pole, and the other two are located at the equator, respectively on the sea and on a continent. Our Majesty also mentioned these towers. The matter of the tower... Now it seems that what we have in front of us is the tower located on the equatorial sea."

He paused for a moment, his tone inevitably filled with emotion: "This is really a feat that has never been done before in human history... How far have we deviated?"

"It looks very different from the tower near the mainland of Tarrond," Azalena frowned and looked into the distance, and said thoughtfully, "Although the tower in Tarrond is also very It's high, but at least you can see the top, and you can even fly to the top of it if you are brave enough, but this thing... I tried to fly up for a long time just now, until I reached the limit height that the steel wings can support Still don't see where it ends - it's like the tower goes all the way through the sky."

Byron didn't say a word, just frowned and looked at the tall tower in the distance—the Winter was still moving in that direction, but the tower still seemed far away, and its scale was far beyond human comprehension So much so that even now, he can't see the whole picture of the base of the tower: nearly two-thirds of the "Island of Steel" is still below sea level.

But as the fleet approached the sea area where the tower was located, he noticed that the surrounding environment had begun to undergo some changes.

The waves were becoming finer and smoother than in other places, the color of the water was beginning to lighten, the wind on the sea was weakening, and these changes became more and more obvious as the Winter continued to advance, and when he could almost see the high When he saw the whole picture of the "Island of Steel" under the tower, the whole sea area was as calm as the small pond behind his house.

This is an unimaginable environment in the ever-changing sea, but here... I am afraid that this sea area has maintained such a state in the past ten thousand years.

"Where was the most you got close to just now?" Byron turned his head and looked at Azalena, "Didn't you land on that island or touch that tower?"

"I'm not a fool like you," the red-haired Dragon Seal Witch shook her head immediately and said, "I just flew around a few times, and I haven't entered the range of that island recently. But as far as I know Observe, there should be something 'alive' in that tower and the island under the tower - I saw moving mechanical structures and some lights, and there seemed to be something moving in the relatively shallow water at the edge of the island. "

"...It's normal for the things of the voyager to run up to now," Byron rubbed his chin and muttered, "According to the legend of the silver elves, the original elves in ancient times fled from the land of their ancestors and came across the endless ocean. In Loren Continent, they escaped the storm in such a huge tower standing on the sea, and they were also "cursed" because they recklessly entered the "forbidden zone" in the tower, and they were divided into a large number of elf subspecies today... Your Majesty and I mentioned these legends, he thought that what the elves encountered at that time was the tower left by the voyager, and now it seems... probably this is the one in front of us."

"Then we have to be more careful, this tower is very likely to react to the creatures that enter it - the differentiation and degeneration of the original elves sounds like some kind of drastic genetic information change," said Azalena With a solemn face, as a dragon seal witch, she has the duty of "preserving knowledge and inheriting memory" in the Holy Dragon Principality. The scholar said, "It is said that the towers left by the voyagers on the surface of the planet have different functions. The tower in Tarrond is a 'matrix factory'. The tower in front of us may be related to the ecology of the planet..."

The tower was at last near.

The majestic giant tower was supported between the sky and the sea. It was not until they reached the base of the tower that the officers and soldiers of the fleet realized what kind of colossal monster it was. It was larger in scale than the tower in Tarrond. It is also more complicated, and the base of the giant tower is even bigger. The shadow of the tower cast on the sea can even cover the entire fleet—under this huge shadow, even the Winter is set off like a piece of land. sampan.

"How is it? Do you want to go up and explore?" Azalena glanced at Byron next to her, "It's hard to find this thing, so you can't just go around and go? But it may be risky, it's best to be cautious act..."

"I'm used to risks, and nothing is smooth along the way," Byron shrugged, "We need to gather some intelligence, but you're right, we have to be cautious—after all, this is the voyage The leftovers..."

"Then send a small boat to go there first? I observed that there are some extended structures on the edge of the steel island that can serve as docks, just enough to dock mechanical boats. I will send a few dragonborn warriors to provide support for the exploration team from the air."

Byron thought for a while, and was about to nod his head in agreement, but a voice suddenly came from behind him: "Wait, let's go and have a look first."

Byron turned his head and saw Ms. Cassandra, the siren navigator with a tear mole on the corner of her eye, "walking" this way, swinging her long snake tail. Behind her were two other sirens. Byron's sight, this "deep sea ally" who has been working with the Imperial Fleet since Beigang, smiled on his face: "We can start exploring below the surface of the sea, and then go to the island to check the environment. If we encounter danger, we can also It is much more convenient for you humans to retreat directly into the sea than to run."

As she said that, she looked back at the two sea monsters she had brought with her, with a proud look on her face: "And anyway, we can't die easily..."

Byron subconsciously picked up the second half of the sentence: "...Just do it to death?"

"Almost the same meaning," Cassandra poked her waist, and didn't feel that there was anything wrong with the conversation, "Our sea monsters are a race that is very good at exploring. It's a shame to die..."

Byron thought about it and was persuaded on the spot.

A moment later, with a few plops, Cassandra and the two Siren exploration team members who are said to have "rich experience in exotic exploration and violent death" jumped into the sea, and a few ripples quickly disappeared on the water surface , the figures of the three ladies who were as nimble as fish quickly disappeared from everyone's sight.

And the seabed scene in the shallow water area near the sky-reaching giant tower was transmitted back to the control center of the Winter along with the magic net terminal carried by Cassandra.

In the picture sent back, Byron saw that they first crossed a sloping seabed covered with gravel and black fine sand. On the seabed, some agile and small creatures could be seen fleeing in all directions due to the appearance of intruders. , Immediately afterwards, there is a "dividing mountain" with obvious artificial traces. The gentle seabed stops abruptly in front of that dividing line. , as well as the giant pipes and pillars buried deep in the canyons, which may have been deeply nailed into the earth's crust.

Under the sea level, the base of the giant tower has a more exaggerated and amazing "basic structure" than the part exposed on the sea surface.

This scene lasted for a while, and then began to move upwards obliquely. The sunlight shining from the sea penetrated the thin sea water, and moved around the three siren explorers like a floating aurora. They found An alloy ramp slanted deep into the seabed, like a pipeline, and then a light flashed on the screen, and Cassandra floated to the surface of the sea, climbed up the steel island, and began to move towards the direction of the tower.

"We have already landed on the island, General Byron," the voice of the siren lady came from outside the screen at this time, "Many facilities here are obviously still in operation, we just saw moving lights and mechanical structures, and In some areas you can still hear the hum from the building - but other than that it's 'quiet', no dangerous ancient guards and traps... Seriously, it's better than we were back home The tower found on that continent to the south is much safer."

Sirens once explored the southern seas of Antaveen in ancient times, and found a primitive continent full of dangerous ancient machines wandering everywhere, and on that continent stood the voyagers who stayed on this planet It is the third "tower" on the top of the tower, and it is also the tower that Gawain Cecil climbed 700 years ago.Byron also knew something about this matter, so he didn't have any special reaction at this time, but asked very seriously: "Are there any biological traces on the island?"

"Yes—although the entire 'island' is made of alloy, you can still see a lot of signs of life in the wet area near the coast, with silted algae and small creatures living in the crevices... oh, I also saw it A seabird! There may be other natural islands nearby... Otherwise, the seabirds would not be able to fly so far. This is probably its temporary resting place?"

Byron breathed a sigh of relief: These signs of life show that the vicinity of the giant tower is not a "dead place" where life is cut off. At least outside the tower, ordinary creatures can survive for a long time.

After all...the sea monster is a special race. These deep-sea salted fish that cannot die are not comparable to ordinary creatures in the material world. No matter how lively they are around the giant tower, Byron dare not use it as a reference...

Cassandra led the two subordinates and continued to move towards the high tower. The strong sunlight in the equatorial region shone on the three sea monsters. The scales on the tails of the two Kraken explorers were glowing with strong sunlight, and the faint water vapor was transpiring around them.

"...won't it be dried fish?" Azalena suddenly said worriedly, "I see their heads are emitting 'smoke'..."

"Don't worry, Ms. Azalena," Cassandra's voice came out of the communicator immediately, "In addition to exploring and dying, my sister and I also have a lot of experience in drying out, we know how to Avoid drying out in strong sunlight... we have a lot of experience with condensation and rainfall."

Azalena & Byron: "..."

What strange experiences do these deep-sea salted fish have? !

After a long journey of exploration, Cassandra and the two sisters she led finally came to the connection between the giant tower and the base—a seamless alloy ring structure connected the tower body and the base. The steel island below, and around and above the ring structure, you can see a large number of subsidiary connecting corridors, ramps and structures that seem to be entrances.

"Now we have come to the main part of this tower," Cassandra said to the portable magic net terminal hanging on her chest, and at the same time stepped forward and knocked on the huge alloy ring—due to its astonishing scale, To Cassandra, the side of the ring was like a towering arc-shaped metal barrier. "So far, no danger has been found..."

The siren lady stopped abruptly in the middle of her words. She stared dumbfounded at the place where her fingers struck, and saw layers of light blue halos spreading rapidly on the piece of silver-white metal!

"Deep sea! This thing is glowing!"

……

At the same time, in Cecil City, Gawain, who had finally dealt with the affairs at hand, was about to take a short rest in the easy chair in the study, but a voice suddenly sounded in his mind made him bounce off the chair:

"Sensing that the local intelligent organisms contact the lower structure of the orbital elevator of the orbital space station, the preprocessing process starts, the safety protocol 766, the detection-elemental life, the sequence is abnormal, mild and harmless.

"Transfer to process B-5-32, the system remains silent for the time being, waiting for further contact."

Gao Wen jumped directly from the easy chair to the ground, stood there dumbstruck, only one sentence hovered in his mind repeatedly:

What the hell?

After standing still and reacting for a few seconds, he finally realized where the voice in his head was coming from—the guard system of Sky Station!

In the next second, Gao Wen quickly returned to the easy chair and found a stable position to lie down. Immediately afterwards, he quickly concentrated and connected to the monitoring system of the sky station. After a little adaptation and adjustment, he began to move " "Line of sight" moved towards the orbital elevator connecting the space station with the surface of the planet...

Chapter 1355 Ancient Message

Gawain has two perspectives overlooking the planet from outer space.

One is the "satellite vision" that comes with him after crossing, which comes from a planetary synchronous satellite orbiting near the equator, and its perspective is limited to the Loren continent and a small area around the land. The bird’s-eye view of the sky station obtained by “drilling loopholes” in the authority system—strictly speaking, the system situation of the sky station is even worse than that of the synchronous satellite. After a collision, the Cangqiong Station is currently in a state of serious damage, a large number of rings are extinguished, the monitoring system is stuck, and Gao Wen only has a ring of cameras that can be used.

However, due to the huge size of the sky station and the special monitoring position, he can still see some things that the monitoring satellites cannot see when using the sky to look down on the earth, such as the large sea area in the southwest of the Loren continent.

In space, an inconspicuous light lit up on the huge orbital space station. On the inner orbital orbit towards the Loren continent, several monitoring devices slid out of the protective cabin, and moved quickly along the guide rails to adjust the focus , the ancient induction unit is running silently in space, collecting data on the surface of the planet, while on the ground, Gawain's spirit is highly concentrated, and while slowly adjusting the ground monitoring mechanism located in the inner ring of the space station, endless thoughts pop up in his mind. Conjectures and thoughts—his brainstorming continued until the picture in his mind gradually became clear, and the figures of the Winter and other capital ships appeared near the base of the orbital elevator at the edge of his vision.

Gao Wen was stunned, and "rubbed his eyes" in consciousness, so the optical sensor on the sky station also zoomed in on the camera. At the limit of this viewing angle, the orbital elevator that connects from space to the surface of the planet It became a little clearer than before, and after repeated zooming in several times, the image of the sea surface observed by Gao Wen also became clearer than before: it was [-]% the Winter.

He recognized the ship's unique multiple wings and the weapon deck equipped with a giant rainbow light generator—isn't the fleet following that ship the same Imperial Expeditionary Fleet he lost?

"What the hell...how did I get there?" Gawain murmured subconsciously in his mind, "It's unscientific...the distance from the mouth of Aldo to that elevator cannot be explained by a storm. Clear, and this location..."

But no matter what he said, the truth was in front of him: the missing Imperial fleet had been found, and it was right under his nose (in a physical sense) now.

After a short period of stupefaction, Gao Wen accepted the fact. Immediately afterwards, Gao Wen thought of the series of system prompts he had heard in his mind. Just now he was only confused, but now he vaguely guessed the truth: Byron's side was lost. After that, they obviously didn’t waste time in a daze. They had already sent an exploration team to the orbital elevator, and the landing and contact of the explorer triggered a certain system left by the sailor—this system was connected to the Sky Station, and a series of The reminder message was sent to me...

Judging from the content of the prompt message, the Voyager obviously left a set of "standard procedures" for dealing with such incidents in the Sky Station, which may also be the difference between the two orbital elevators and the "industrial tower" in Tarrond. The difference is that Gao Wen doesn't know the specific content of this process, what will happen next?How will the orbital elevator handle unauthorized contacts?Will Winter's approach be considered a threat by that tower?And most importantly...how can I contact Byron who is floating under my nose?

In the dark virtual space formed by the connection with Sky Station, Gawain pondered for a few minutes and found that he was completely lost—he searched the system, but found no usable loudspeaker near the orbital elevator, nor The microphone for air-to-ground communication was not found in the system...

It seems that I can only watch on it, watching the exploration team sent by Byron look around the orbital elevator, and then hope that they will not die, but then I think about it, the original original The elves also lost their way to the orbital elevator in this way. They did a lot of death back then, and in the end, they just mutated a little and were released by the Voyager system. If you think about it this way... Maybe you don’t have to worry too much. ,perhaps……

Gawain's thoughts drifted uncontrollably, and he couldn't help but wonder what would happen if the exploration team sent by Byron really died. The original elves climbed a tower back then and became silver elves , gray elves, sea elves and a bunch of subspecies, if Byron's fleet turns into a ship of beast-eared machos when they return, it would be a damn thing... How will he explain to Peas?

With thoughts running wild in his head, Gao Wen frowned, and continued to pay attention to the scene sent back by the monitoring system, watching his imperial fleet floating beside the steel island...

……

"This thing is glowing!!!"

For a moment, Ms. Cassandra's scream resounded through the entire communication channel, and the siren's penetrating voice almost broke Byron's eardrums—but soon, Cassandra calmed down. She got down, because she found that the metal ring wall in front of her didn't seem to have any other changes except for the light.

The sea breeze is still calm, and the sun is still shining. The three salted fishes who landed stare at each other with big eyes and small eyes. The water vapor that evaporates in the sun surrounds them under controlled conditions to prevent them from really getting sunburned. Dried salted fish, the communicator on Cassandra's chest finally rang: "Hello, hello? Hello—Ms. Cassandra? Are you okay?"

"We're fine," Cassandra finally recovered from her daze, and hurriedly responded while lowering her head to check her situation, "Just now the outer ring structure here suddenly started to glow, I suspect that I accidentally touched something here, But nothing happened after that ... we intend to continue exploring."

"Continue to explore?" Byron's voice sounded relieved, "Then you should pay attention to protecting yourself, and try not to touch things near the tower in the future."

"Understood," Cassandra nodded repeatedly, wrapping her tail around a nearby metal pipe, carefully dragged herself back two steps, and then waved to the two sea monsters she had brought. "Sisters, let's continue to check along this 'ring', first look for things like open entrances..."

After this short-lived episode, the Krakens calmed down by relying on their nervous systems that were nearly necrotic, and continued their happy exploration journey. During the hours-long exploration process, there were no more accidents. occur.

This ancient voyager facility kept silent in front of the explorers, silently letting these deep-sea salted fish circle around itself as if on a picnic.

The tension caused by the previous "relic suddenly glowing" incident has gradually subsided from the hearts of the commanders of the Winter, although they still maintain sufficient caution and vigilance, they have begun to focus on follow-up exploration operations, And pay attention to the real-time images sent back by Cassandra in front, and from time to time ask the exploration team to focus on checking some things that look like text or markers, and record the data.

The words and markers left by the voyagers are elusive things for the mortal races of this world, but now as the mortals of the Loren continent are increasingly exposed to information related to the legacy of the voyagers , research in related fields has entered the initial stage, the dragons can recognize the words of the sailors, and the ruler of the Cecil Empire, Gawain Cecil, also possesses mysterious knowledge in this area, so these recorded materials can be obtained It will be of great value after returning - presumably the domestic "voyager linguists" and even His Majesty himself will be very interested in it.

Looking at the information that Cassandra kept sending back, Byron couldn't help thinking that it would be great if there were a few experts in his fleet who studied the words of the voyager, so that he could figure out the many facilities on that island right now. What are they all for—unfortunately, this can only be thought about.

What he brought with him was not a scientific research fleet. The original mission of the Winter was to blow up treemen and mutants on the battlefield in the southern part of the mainland... Who would have thought that such a purely combat mission would turn into an exotic exploration in the end? ?

Irrelevant thoughts flashed through my mind, and the image sent back by Cassandra was moving on the holographic projection in front of the captain's seat. At this moment, Byron's peripheral vision suddenly caught something strange , He quickly reacted: "Wait a minute, Ms. Cassandra, turn the camera back—the writing on that metal plate is wrong!"

With a flick of her tail, Cassandra quickly turned around and returned to the place where she had just shot the video data. This is an open and flat metal "square", located near a huge gate (just now Cassandra was Go to the gate to check the situation), and around the square, you can see a large number of neatly arranged obelisk-like unidentified facilities, and in front of one of the obelisks, there is a huge metal plate, the metal plate Mottled patterns are engraved on it.

For Ms. Cassandra, who lives in the deep sea and specializes in mechanical repair, marine navigation, and death metal rock, language and writing are the areas she is least good at, but even so, when she is remotely reminded by Byron After looking back and carefully observing the patterns on the metal plate, she immediately realized that these patterns were significantly different from the Voyager characters she had found in other areas.

Those patterns are also characters, another kind of characters.

On the bridge of Bitter Winter, Azalena, who was resting, was called over, and together with Byron, they were studying the picture sent back by Cassandra. After carefully identifying the mottled lines on the metal plate, The red-haired dragon-marked witch finally came to a conclusion: "...it is the ancient Elvish language, the most primitive version. The grammar and the way some letters are written are already different from the contemporary ones, but they are still recognizable."

"Ancient Elvish?" Byron glanced at the other party in surprise, "You can even understand ancient Elvish?"

"I understand a little bit. Although the ancient Elvish language is somewhat different from today's Elvish language, they all come from the same source, and the official language system of the Silver Elf is the best-preserved one in this respect. When I ran away from home to prepare Before going to the 'outside world' for adventure, I did a lot of preparation work, including the study of various languages, including seven or eight languages ​​and characters such as the common language of mankind, dwarf language, and elf language... "

"Fuck, you learned seven or eight foreign languages ​​at once just to run away from home?" Byron stared at Azalena dumbfounded, "Are all the brats in the Holy Dragon Principality so hardcore?"

"Before the opening of the country, the only way for us to leave the mountains was to jump down from the top of the highest cliff in the north and glide for a hundred kilometers into Lindong County. Fighting hand-to-hand with ferocious beasts in the surrounding mountains,” Azalena shrugged, “Under such starting conditions, it is a very hard-core thing for young people in the Principality of Shenglong to run away from home. The children do not have both civil and military skills. The foundation can't stand up at all."

For a while, Byron didn't know how to evaluate the overly hard-core race of Dragonborn, so he coughed twice in embarrassment and quickly brought the topic back to the serious direction. He looked at the ancient elven words and frowned slightly: "Then can you translate what is written on it?"

"I'm doing it," Azalena's eyes fell on the holographic projection, and those ancient characters were reflected in her eyes, and the meaning behind them was gradually deciphered by her—although there are still many incomprehensible paragraphs, but she has already recognized many broken sentences, "This is a message left by the original explorers to posterity.

"It mentions that mass memory decline and physical deterioration are spreading in the population, and that this is the result of some 'protection' mechanism in the tower...those who still retain intact mental abilities leave Warning, and they are still fighting against the 'amnestic' effect in their minds when they engrave these words...

"It is mentioned that the hall at the bottom of the tower is safe, but there is an authentication mechanism leading to the upper floor. This authentication mechanism once warned the intruders not to continue climbing to the upper floor, but some reckless people ignored the warning of the tower and triggered the ancient what system...

"What great secret is mentioned here... and possibly the truth? The phrase is untranslatable, the spelling has changed too much...

"There is also a warning here, warning latecomers not to rush to the upper floor of the tower, because it is 'too early', there is a long paragraph behind, I don't understand it.

"Finally here..."

Azalena frowned suddenly, as if she was trying to interpret the content on the screen, and said with some hesitation after a while: "In the end, this looks like a poem? The person who left the message said that this is what he can remember from the tower. The final message brought out reads:

"Don't be intoxicated by this unreal night of tranquility, which will eventually be broken.

"Don't indulge in your warm cradle, the cradle will capsize one day.

"Don't sleep in the sanctuary of the mind, the shelter of the mind will sooner or later become an unbreakable shackle.

"Let's go, before the stars twinkle, let's go, before the long night is over.

"If you don't start sooner, the day will come."

Azalena raised her head, her gaze shifted from the holographic projection to Byron's face.

"That's all...why is your expression so weird?"

"Your Majesty mentioned this poem to us." Byron's expression became unusually serious. In Azalena's memory, she rarely saw such a serious expression on this idle man, "I think...we need Take a little risk."

Chapter 1356 Does not meet the cross-border conditions

A small mechanical landing craft was released from the Winter, crossed the calm and clear sea like a mirror, and docked steadily at the foot of the "giant tower" that seemed to penetrate the planet's atmosphere. Kashan explored the steel island for half a day Della came to meet him, and after securing the landing craft, Byron and Azalena led a loyal Marine Corps to board the ancient ruins that had stood on this planet for 180 million years. .

The gentle and weak sea breeze blows from afar, bringing extra fresh air. The giant sun has deviated from the high point in the sky, and the slanted sunlight is no longer as hot and deadly as it was at noon. The golden-red brilliant light shines on the huge tower in front of you , let it cast a shadow that can be described as spectacular on the distant sea, and on the edge of the steel island, Byron saw the mineral deposits accumulated over the long years, algae silt and many other things that belonged to the sea. traces of vitality.

He raised his head and looked hard at the top of the tower—of course, just like the previous observation results from various angles, he couldn't see where the top of the tower was at all, he could only see a magnificent silver-gray giant. The column goes straight into the sky in the setting sun, and gradually becomes a slender black line at the end of the field of vision, and its end disappears at the end of the sky - like a bridge hanging from the sky.

"How did this thing stand here?" A marine soldier couldn't help muttering, the voice under the mask sounded a bit dull, "Is it really not going to fall?"