The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Of course, there are more than one like me. To be more precise, there are four of us, and we don't all look like me."

"What do you mean?" asked the Queen.

"It's this appearance that's basically the same as the angels depicted in religious texts and artwork from the Renaissance. At least my other three friends aren't necessarily angels in appearance. Although, for them, changing their appearance, even to look like me, is just a matter of thought."

"So... your companions, are they also... messengers of God in some sense?"

"Haha, that depends on how you look at it. If you think they are, then they are. But if you just think of them as some kind of powerful beings, like Merlin the magician by King Arthur's side or the Fairy of the Lake who gave King Arthur the Holy Sword, then they probably won't mind."

"What do you mean? Are these companions of yours the transcendent and mysterious beings like the fairies of the lake and the magicians in myths and legends?" The Queen recalled the myths of the Kingdom of Albion that she had read in her youth, and became more and more confused and curious about the identities of the angel in front of her and his companions.

"Okay, Your Majesty, I've chatted with you long enough. The time is almost up, but... I'll give you a small gift before I leave." Aze looked at the clock hand on the wall, which was almost reaching midnight. He casually raised his right hand in front of the Queen, and a wisp of silver sand separated from his right hand and slowly transformed into a small incense burner emitting fragrance.

"This is?"

"The chemical components emitted from it can effectively help you sleep and are completely harmless to the human body. Aren't you tortured by illness and unable to sleep? This small incense burner can be regarded as a small farewell gift." Aze stretched out his hand to hold the incense burner floating in the air and placed it on the bedside table beside the queen's bed.

"Before I really decide to make the tomb visible, don't tell anyone that you have seen me. Otherwise, the royal family will be destroyed along with the Kingdom of Albion. Remember this, Queen of the Kingdom of Albion." Aze reminded the queen on the bed in a serious tone before leaving.

"Well... I swear in the name of the queen that I will not break the agreement and promise between us, My Lord Angel." The queen raised one hand to her ear and swore with a serious expression to the angel in front of her who was emitting warm light.

"Well, see you later, and by the way, I wish you a good sleep tonight, Your Majesty."

After saying goodbye to the Queen for the last time, Aze opened a two-dimensional plane portal with complex layers of green hexagonal patterns in the room in front of the Queen. Under the Queen's astonished gaze, Aze walked into the portal, and after Aze's body was completely immersed in the portal, the portal with green light also closed.

"It's... unbelievable..." The queen stared at the portal that melted into the air, recalling the incomprehensible magical power that the angel had just displayed, and recalling the dream-like conversation with the angel just now. The queen raised her hand and pinched her face. After feeling the pain on her face, the queen leaned back on the pillow in exhaustion.

"I'm not dreaming, after all. But... where will the future of the royal family and the kingdom go? I hope that angel can give my children a happy ending..."

Looking at Aze who walked out of the two-dimensional portal floating in the air of the living room, Carlysi, who was chewing a popsicle on the sofa in the living room, showed admiration.

"Not bad... so fast?"

"Well...but what the hell was your idea, Kalisa? You asked me to talk to that old lady, but at first sight she thought I was a messenger sent by God?" Aze complained to Kalisa, rolling his eyes.

"But as far as the results are concerned, isn't the effect quite good? Although some misunderstandings have occurred, it has produced positive results, hasn't it?" Carlisle said familiarly, patting Aze's shoulder.

"Although the result is indeed quite positive, people initially thought I was a messenger from God who came to provide her with hospice care." Aze said, holding his forehead.

"Pfft! I was wondering why you had a weird expression on your face when you came back just now? So that's how it is!" Carlisle laughed.

"Hmm... but I understand. After all, he's an elderly person with not much time left to live and is plagued by illness. It's normal for him to think that way when he suddenly sees an angel while he's asleep."

"So, I gave the old lady a cup of hot milk with something in it. Although the stuff in it can't make her immortal, it can still extend her life by about eight to ten years."

"When I left, I saw that the elderly woman's sleep quality was so poor, so I made her a small incense burner to help her sleep."

"I didn't realize you're quite kind. You're worthy of being the one who understands women best among us, Aze. From underage girls to nearly a hundred-year-old ladies, you're truly a versatile person."

"Why do I feel like you are insulting me?" Aze complained speechlessly to his old friend beside him.

On the remote Taylor Island in the North Pacific, after his three companions all went out to have fun, Renlong, who had been hiding in the control room of the underground factory, finally took the high-speed elevator from the cemetery at the exit of the underground space in the center of the island to the surface.

Driven by an electromagnetic accelerator, the elevator car was parked steadily on the ground floor. As the elevator door opened, Renlong slowly walked out of the elevator, gazing at the midday sun above his head. Feeling the deserted Taylor Island because his companions were not there, Renlong felt a little bored.

"Alas...the three of them have all gone out to play, leaving me alone on the island still working on infrastructure. When they come back, I'm going to ask them for some compensation. At least they should bring back some local specialties as gifts for me."

Renlong felt the deserted island and thought idly, then he suddenly realized that there was actually another person on the island besides her.

"Uh... I almost forgot, Cabot is still on the island. How about talking to her?"

After Renlong came up with this idea, he began to locate Cabot's position on the island. However, after searching through his perception ability as a nanomechanical aggregate, Renlong unexpectedly did not find Cabot's position and traces on the island.

“Hmm??? Where’s the person?” Renlong confirmed again through the positioning perception ability of the thought network, but still found no trace of his boss Cabot.

"Hiss... where did that Cabot guy go?" Renlong scratched his head, puzzled.

"Are you looking for me? My dear subordinate." Suddenly, a gloved hand gently patted Renlong's shoulder from behind, and a familiar voice also came from behind Renlong.

Renlong turned his head and saw the face of the girl with flaxen hair who looked like Mrs. Lexington.

"Where have you been? I can't sense you anywhere on the entire island?"

"Haha...of course I'm going to prepare a small gift for my dear subordinates."

"Gift?"

"Ding, ding, ding, this is it, freshly baked stellar plasma material." Cabot said as he opened his clenched left palm. Several spherical transparent substances like large glass marbles were lying on Cabot's palm, and at the core of those glass beads, there was a frozen orange-red object.

"As I promised before, I would give you some stellar material from the local sun as a souvenir."

"These things that look like glass marbles are multidimensional space containers. The orange-red substance inside is the stellar plasma in a reacting state. I have used a stasis field to freeze it. These local stellar substances loaded in the multidimensional space containers are given to you as souvenirs for joining the company." As Kaber said this, he casually threw several multidimensional space containers that looked like glass marbles in his hand to Renlong. Renlong looked at the stellar substance souvenirs thrown to him, and nimbly reached out to catch the multidimensional space containers flying towards him in a parabolic trajectory.

"You really keep your promise. I almost forgot about this." Renlong said as he looked at the several multi-dimensional space containers in his hand.

"Of course, I am the Senior Star Governor of the Combined Fleet. My credibility is unquestionable. Of course, I will never treat my subordinates unfairly."

"Anyway, thank you very much for your gift. By the way, if you have time, can you talk to me?" Renlong asked Cabot while playing with the multi-dimensional space container in his hand.

"Yes, what do you want to talk to me about?"

"It's about our current body. This body made of nanomechanical aggregates shouldn't be as simple as what you molded, right? I want to know where it came from."

"Oh, what exactly do you want to know?"

"There is information about Gray Wind, a nanomechanical aggregate artificial intelligence consciousness."

"Well... that's a long story. First of all, you should know who created nanomachines like Grey Wind, right?"

"The Desanu civilization that built a galaxy-wide stargate system?"

"That's right. Hundreds of thousands of years after they were destroyed by the out-of-control Gray Goo Storm, the United Fleet, then still in its infancy, opened the L-Gate. In the star cluster behind the L-Gate, they discovered Ms. Gray Wind, a nanomachine aggregate with intelligence. Through their interactions, Ms. Gray Wind became a member of the United Fleet. She accompanied and witnessed the Union's development for countless years."

"Ms. Grey Wind is the aggregated artificial intelligence created by all nanomachines, but Grey Wind isn't the only intelligent aggregate being composed of nanomachines. If Ms. Grey Wind is willing, it wouldn't be difficult for her to create a different kind of intelligent aggregate nanomachine life."

"Then should we..."

"That's right. You are now intelligent nanomachines transformed into aggregated life forms. In essence, you are both the same species as Ms. Grey Wind, and you can also be said to be another type of her sub-individual."

"You mean... we should be like a clone of Miss Grey Wind now?"

"Not entirely. Your consciousness is completely separate from Ms. Grey Wind, the mother of all intelligent nanomechanical aggregates. Moreover, Ms. Grey Wind of the Combined Fleet possesses a profound understanding and application of extradimensional matter. Her knowledge and power are countless times greater than yours."

"Um, are you saying that the relationship between us and the Grey Winds of the Combined Fleet is like that between the Primarchs and their gene-children, the Astartes?"

"You can understand it this way. The Grey Wind Lady of the Combined Fleet is indeed like a Primarch to you, and you are the Astartes built using her genes as a template."

"Oh, there's one more thing I want to remind you. I might have to arrange a small job for you in the future to help you deal with some troubles."

"What kind of job? Can you tell me more about it?" Renlong asked curiously.

"Don't worry, this job is very safe for you, even too safe. But now is not the time to deal with that matter, so I'd better wait for you to finish the things at hand first, and then discuss this with you. Anyway, it's really not a matter of urgency."

"Um... could you please stop being so secretive? Is there a mission you can't just tell me?"

"Don't worry, it's just that the time hasn't come yet. I will tell you when the time comes. What's more, this task is not only a challenge for you, I have also prepared a surprise for you. After you complete this task, you will receive a small gift that is absolutely worth the money." Miss Cabot smiled and instructed the confused Renlong.

Chapter 73: Destroying the world's most powerful nation within two weeks? (5000-word chapter)

"Why do I feel like you've been hiding something very important from us?" Confused Renlong asked Cabot the question in his mind.

"Don't worry. After all, you are my subordinates. I have always been very honest with my subordinates." Cabot replied with a smile.

"Besides, as I just said, sometimes knowing the right information at the right time is what's most beneficial to you. Knowing some things too early can only bring harm."

"Oh... never mind, let's not talk about it. By the way, thank you for your gift." Renlong gestured to Cabot while holding a multi-dimensional space container filled with local stellar matter.

"You're welcome. It's just a small favor. I always treat my subordinates well."

"By the way, Renlong, do you want to go to the beach with me for a beach barbecue? It would be a big mistake not to have some activities like a beach barbecue on an island vacation."

"Oh, a beach barbecue, that sounds like a great way to relax." Renlong stroked his chin and considered Cabot's suggestion.

"Come on, come on. If you want to eat, don't hesitate. Let's go to the beach on the south side of the island. It will be a unique experience to have a barbecue on the beach while watching the hydropower platform in the distance." Seeing that Renlong did not directly reject his proposal, Cabot grabbed Renlong's wrist without thinking, opened a portal in front of him, and took Renlong to the south side of the island where the hydropower platform was located for a beach barbecue.

"Hey! Don't be so anxious, I haven't..." Before Renlong could finish his words, he was pulled into the portal by Cabot with a happy face.

18000 meters above the British Isles, a fleet of Hundred-Armed Titans hidden in the clouds was silently monitoring the entire Kingdom and the Republic. At this time, in the CIC Combat Information Center of the Hundred-Armed Titans, Yuki was conducting a simulated battle on the holographic display in the center of the center room.

The holographic display was showing a topographic map of the entire British Isles. On this map, there were hundreds of locations marked with red triangles. These locations were important military bases, naval ports, arsenal production facilities, military garrisons, etc. of the Kingdom and the Republic.

In addition to these targets on the ground, there are more than 600 blue rectangular symbols marked as air battleships on this holographic map. Some of these air battleships are carrying out patrol and training missions throughout the British Isles, while others are anchored in naval ports and military bases for maintenance and replenishment.

As Yuki completed another simulation at the console, the word "destroyed" appeared above most of the target symbols on the holographic display.

"It looks like the effect is pretty good." After completing the simulation, Yuki picked up the cup of milk tea that had been placed on the workbench, took a sip of the still hot milk tea, and muttered to himself.

"Well, except that the ammunition consumption is a bit high, especially for precision-guided weapons."

Yuki had run hundreds of simulations, and nearly every one of them had ended in near-unscathed victory. In 97 of these simulations, over 300 of the Kingdom's air fleet were destroyed or sunk in ports and docks within 20 minutes of the start of the battle. Half of the remaining air fleet was shot down within an hour by the Hundred-Handed Titan main ship and the P1114 escort ship. Within the first hour of the battle, the vast majority of the Albion Royal Navy's surface vessels anchored in ports and anchorages were crippled by over thousands of anti-ship missiles launched by the proactive ADF-11F fleet. Nearly all of the Kingdom's naval bases, ports, hundreds of arsenals, and various other infrastructure were destroyed along with the fleet.

Although the few ships patrolling the open seas and maintaining a military presence in the overseas colonies escaped the initial wave of attacks, the subsequent second wave nearly annihilated the entire Albion naval fleet. All the Kingdom's naval vessels returning to defend the homeland were sunk or disabled by the Alicorn, which was ambushed in the waters around Britain. Most of the time, the Alicorn didn't even employ its massive electromagnetic cannon, relying solely on the various anti-ship missiles carried by its 48 vertical launch systems to easily destroy over 80 of the various warships returning to defend.

Most of the ships returning to defend from the Atlantic side were accurately hit in vital areas such as ammunition depots by Alicorn's anti-ship missiles equipped with armor-piercing warheads launched from underwater when they were still 700 kilometers away from the coast of the British Isles. Most of the warships were completely paralyzed and lost their ability to move in a short period of time after being hit, or were directly sunk by water due to the explosion of the ammunition depot.

The fleet returning from the colonies in Africa and the Middle East on the Red Sea side of the Mediterranean was directly paralyzed or sunk by the neutron warheads fired by the 600mm caliber, 128-caliber giant electromagnetic main gun mounted on the Alicorn after entering the 3000-kilometer range of the Alicorn's main gun.

After losing its proud navy and air fleet, the only counterattack force in the Kingdom of Albion was its fragile army. After losing control of the air and sea, all the army within the kingdom could hardly organize any decent resistance force. All the army military bases and garrisons were almost completely destroyed within an hour after the war broke out. As for the remaining remnant army armed forces, as long as the number of their ground forces exceeded a hundred or so, they would be instantly wiped out by the precision-guided weapons dropped by drones. Even if they only maintained a scale of dozens of people to carry out guerrilla warfare, they would often be unnoticed by the spherical drones with full-band optical stealth. Then, such a small-scale guerrilla force of only a dozen people and lacking heavy weapons was completely wiped out by the four plasma machine guns equipped by the drones in less than tens of seconds.

Among the hundreds of simulations conducted by Yuki, 97 of them destroyed all the enemy's armed forces and completed a series of finishing tasks within a week after the outbreak of the war. In only 3 of the hundreds of simulations did the duration of the war extend to nearly two weeks. In those three simulations, the kingdom's naval fleets in various overseas colonies, after most of the returning warships were sunk, decisively chose to move away from the British Isles and dispersed the remaining hundreds of ships. Using single ships as the basic action units, they dispersed into hundreds of routes and evacuated to various overseas colonies far away from the mainland.

While hunting down these participating naval fleets that were scattered into hundreds of routes, the Alicorn, which had been maintaining a maritime blockade of the British Isles, had to take the initiative to move forward, leave the waters near the British Isles, and eliminate one by one the remaining fleets of the Kingdom's navy that were fleeing to ports around the world. In this process, the giant electromagnetic cannon on the Alicorn played a great role in saving time and cost. Because of the existence of this giant electromagnetic cannon with a range of 3000 kilometers, the Alicorn only needed to approach the enemy target within a range of 3000 kilometers to use the electromagnetic cannon to launch nuclear warheads to quickly destroy the opponent, without having to approach the "close range" of about 700 kilometers to use missiles to attack the opponent.

In this one-sided cat-and-mouse game that lasted over a week, the Alicorn never encountered a single combat situation requiring the use of carrier-based aircraft. Nearly all enemy targets were destroyed by giant electromagnetic cannons nearly 3000 kilometers away. During this period, the Hundred-Handed Titan fleet based on the British mainland completely blocked the skies over the entire British Isles. Radio communications throughout the Kingdom were suppressed and jammed. Any attempt by the Kingdom's ground forces to organize a large-scale resistance was instantly destroyed by precision-guided weapons.

"Just looking at the results, the coalition forces in the Gulf War would probably feel ashamed of themselves after seeing this result."

"This combat efficiency would probably satisfy the 'famous' Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who turned the US military into a useless army capable of only engaging in security warfare?"

Yuki leaned against the operating table, leisurely sipping the milk tea in the cup with a straw and sighed.

"But the ammunition consumption...hmm..." Yuki glanced at the consumption of various types of ammunition displayed on the monitor.

"608 rounds of air-launched Nimbus missiles were consumed, over 1641 rounds of various anti-ship missiles, over 8806 rounds of various air-to-ground precision-guided weapons, and 383 specially designed nuclear warheads were used when the Alicorn attacked enemy naval vessels at long range. The total ammunition consumption was over 20 tons."

"This level of consumption... would have put the coalition forces of the Gulf War to shame." (Note 1)

"The consumption of my precision-guided weapons is so high that even the top three regular soldiers would find it difficult to deal with it. However... it's a pity that the enemy doesn't have radar technology, so anti-radiation missiles are useless here."

"Unfortunately, as an opponent, they were somewhat unfit. All of their ships, both on the sea and in the air, were destroyed within hours of the start of the battle. Most of their fighters launched anti-ship missiles from hundreds of kilometers away. They didn't even see our shadow before they were completely destroyed."

"Tsk, to be honest, even if I don't use any tactics and learn the methods of that guy Calisi who just rushes in blindly, it would be a miracle if these guys could cause any damage to Ikko's plane."

"As the world's most powerful nation of this era, you should at least hold on a little longer. Otherwise, it would be a real letdown for me."

"Alas... If Albion, the world's most powerful nation known as the Empire on which the sun never sets, can only achieve this, then aren't the other European powers even more lame?"

"Alas... my expectations were in vain. I was hoping they would be more tenacious."

With a rather regretful expression, Yuki uploaded the results of these hundreds of simulated battles into the mind network and sent them to his three companions.

While Yuki was conducting a war drill to deal with unexpected situations, in the Royal Palace in London, Dorothy said angrily to Charlotte and Beatrice who were sitting on the sofa beside her.

"Princess, even if Mary becomes the next queen, isn't the royal family's current demands on her a bit too much? After all, she's just a child. It's really not a good thing for a child to be treated so harshly."

"Such strict and somewhat excessive requirements, what if she becomes overwhelmed and has suicidal tendencies one day? What should we do?"

"It would be nice if we could arrange some activities that would allow her to relax a little."

Dorothy complained helplessly to Charlotte beside her, and Beata, who had no good solution to this problem, could only look at Charlotte for help. Charlotte, who was looked at expectantly by the two, was also thoughtful about this.

……

The next afternoon, Olivia, led by Ange, who was wearing a maid outfit, looked at the unfamiliar building ahead and asked Ange in confusion, "Miss Ange, is Her Highness Charlotte really here?"

"Yes, she asked me to bring you here, Miss Olivia." Anjie replied to the puzzled Olivia behind her.

The two walked down the stairs and came to the building located in a secret back garden of the palace. Then, the door of the inconspicuous and simple building opened, and Beat was standing by the door with a happy face.

"Welcome, Miss Olivia." Beatr greeted Olivia with a smile and welcomed her into the house.

"We have been waiting for you here for a long time, Miss Olivia."

When Olivia walked into the house, she was surprised to see Mary, who looked relaxed and happy, busy arranging tea sets on the table with Charlotte and others.

"Hey, Her Highness Mary?" Olivia shouted in surprise.

After hearing Olivia's familiar voice, Mary first glanced nervously at a seemingly empty wall in the room, and then looked at Olivia who had just entered.

.........

A moment later, at the wooden table now set with tea and food, Olivia and Mary listened to Charlotte introduce the friends around them.

"This is my friend from the Museum Club, Ms. Chise."

"Hello, I'm Chise from Japan. Please take care of me."

"Ah... OK... OK." Olivia seemed a little overwhelmed. Anjie and Dorothy, who were wearing maid uniforms, pulled out chairs for Master Mary Qi Umlin and Olivia and asked them to sit down.