Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 548 [Return]

Hughes glanced at the white calamity represented by large clumps of cotton on the sand table and raised an eyebrow.

"Looks like they're coming for us?"

Most of the White Plague in the North is located in more distant places, but along the railway line, the White Plague protrudes forward like a veil that has been pulled up.

"Yes, the white calamity—no, to be precise, the white bones in the mist—seem to have targeted us, chasing our train and rushing along the railway. As you saw in the report, the mist followed the white bones and eventually arrived here."

Hughes nodded, remained silent for a moment, and then suddenly said, "I remember Gwen said she saw a little girl in the fog?"

"Yes, according to the doctor's diagnosis, she was likely experiencing a significant shock that caused the hallucinations. I don't plan to let her participate in the battle this time."

"Has her background been investigated?"

"Yes, we asked around among many expeditionary forces and collected a lot of scattered intelligence. With cross-referencing, we can roughly piece together her past experiences."

Alexei didn't hesitate and started talking. As the leader of the resistance, Gwen had all her backgrounds investigated by Alexei personally, and he could basically recite them from memory.

"She was born in a village on the border between the White Raven Principality and the Empire. It was very chaotic because neither side cared much about the border. Her parents disappeared when she was young, and the village was attacked by bandits. She hid alone in the house and ran out after the bandits left. She went to the nearby church—the church of the Silent Sanctuary. Later, she encountered the Silent Sanctuary organizing the evacuation of refugees and came to the North with them."

"Did she meet Nora around this time?"

"Yes, Nora's area of ​​responsibility happened to be nearby, so she followed Nora. Later, due to her outstanding performance, she became Nora's deputy. After Nora split up, she officially took over the resistance."

Hughes nodded, about to say something, when he suddenly frowned.

"Wait a minute, why did Nora go to Castel?"

"At the time, the Silent Church was temporarily residing in the North. Both the Candlelight Church and the Lords of the North were very resistant to them. Therefore, the Silent Church had to send priests to various places, hoping to obtain a place to settle down through persuasion. Castell just happened to be a remote land waiting to be developed, so Nora came here to try her luck."

"Then they reached an agreement with the Candlelight Church to abandon all the refugees?"

Hughes hadn't noticed this before, but now the more he thought about it, the more something seemed off. How could such a large, silent sanctuary not even have a place to stand?

They had, after all, confronted the empire head-on.

If they can't beat the Candlelight Society, surely they can just go to the desolate lands of the Southern Continent and claim some territory? Even if they can't beat Nora, she brought her promises, so why not just move the refugees to Castel?

Do they have some reason that forces them to remain in the North?
And even if he wanted to stay in the North, why did he suddenly abandon his people?
This whole thing is strange from beginning to end. We were only focused on fighting before and didn't think much about it. Now it seems there might be more to the story.

"Never mind, none of that matters. Let's prepare for the impending White Disaster."

Although the expeditionary force did not have much time to prepare, the fortresses here had already stockpiled a large amount of supplies and weapons. The expeditionary force only needed to pick out the important items from the camp and transport them over, and prepare a few empty trains as an escape route.

On the contrary, a lot of thought was put into the arrangement of the firing positions.

Shortly after the banshees brought by Hughes were incorporated into various parts of the fortress, a white hue appeared on the distant horizon.

"Is that the White Disaster?" Hughes exclaimed, holding a pair of binoculars and looking at the distant wall of fog.

Near the White Calamity, an airship was suspended in the distance. This was the real forward observation post. Now that they were close enough, Hughes could communicate directly with the banshees on board.

How is the situation?

"My lord, if I may be so bold, the situation is not optimistic." The banshee's voice was very serious. "We've tried bombing and machine gun fire, which have been effective against the bones, but have had no effect on the white mist." "What about the dragon breath cannons?"

"The Dragon Breath Cannon has some effect, but its range is too short, making it difficult to use."

"Only the Dragon's Breath Cannon works?"

"Yes."

Hughes explained the situation to Alexei, who frowned as well.

"Only the Dragon Breath Cannon is effective? That means..."

"It is very likely related to pollution."

The biggest difference between the Dragonbreath Cannon and other weapons is that the Dragonbreath Cannon is not a completely technological creation, but rather a hand cannon made by adding pollution.

"If the Dragon's Breath Cannon works, then perhaps the pollution could also be accumulated here? Is there any physical pollution here?"

"There are some, but not too many."

Physical pollution is generally used as fuel for steam engines, and in Castel, it has greatly alleviated the island's fuel shortage.

In the North, however, it's the opposite. Storing physical contaminants is troublesome and risky, while ordinary fuels are readily available.

Steam engines are not picky about fuel type, unlike internal combustion engines which require specific fuel octane ratings. You can boil water by throwing in tree branches or coal.

The northern region happens to be the main coal-producing area, but due to transportation limitations, it is difficult to transport coal out.

As it turned out, the expeditionary force was building a railway.
This resulted in a large amount of coal being stockpiled in the expeditionary force's camps, while physical pollution was minimal.

"Our steam engines mainly burn coal. Only the steam engines on airships use physical pollution. The energy density of the steam engines is much higher than that of coal. Space is precious on airships, and it would take up too much space to load coal."

"Let's experiment with some pollution," Hughes said, glancing one last time at the distant wall of fog before turning and shoving the telescope into Alexei's hands.

"You continue to command here. I'm going back to check some information." With that, he turned and left.

Alexei watched his departing figure and scratched his head, somewhat puzzled.

Upon arriving, Hughes immediately asked for a safe house to rest in, then moved some documents inside and assigned a banshee to guard the entrance.

Now he says he's going to look up information.
Why not just bring it to the command center for inspection?
Alexei thought for a while and then gave up. Perhaps the lord had other secrets. He didn't intend to interfere. Right now, the battle was the priority.

Hughes strode to his room, opened the door, and looked up at Ash standing in the doorway.

"I need to go inside for a while. Remember what I told you before. If you encounter any trouble, follow the contingency plan."

Ash nodded.

Hughes went into the room, lay down on the bed, and selected "Return".

(End of this chapter)