The stars, but they become the gray wind

"What's more, that thing is still hovering in the airspace near the palace. It's impossible for such a huge thing not to attract attention." As L said this, he raised his head and looked around, trying to find the huge and unimaginable giant aircraft in the sky that appeared near the palace in recent days.

"To facilitate the peaceful reunification negotiations between the Kingdom and the Republic, they have temporarily withdrawn that thing from the airspace near the Royal Palace during our negotiations and instead conducted aerial patrols and hovering over the entire city of London," the colonel said with a pout.

"But if I had the chance, I'd really like to get up close and personal with the advanced technology that allows me to build such a massive aircraft."

"Don't even think about it... From my point of view, even if such advanced technology was placed in front of us, I don't think we would be able to see it, let alone understand it." L calmly advised the major to give up such unrealistic ideas.

Just as the two people who had just gotten out of the car were whispering to each other beside the car, a figure that was extremely familiar to them appeared at the end of the red carpet.

At the end of the red carpet, the Duke of Normandy, still with a stern face, was watching the negotiation delegation of the Republic getting out of the car. His keen intuition from years of intelligence work made him notice L and the colonel standing by the car and whispering at the first sight. The Duke of Normandy's keen intuition told him that the identities of these two people must be extraordinary.

When the members of the negotiation delegation got off the car, they saw that the Duke of Normandy, who was in charge of the reception, was already waiting at the end of the red carpet. They walked up the red carpet slowly and walked towards the Duke of Normandy who was waiting in the distance.

Standing by the car and seeing the other political representatives of the Republic who came with them walk forward onto the red carpet to greet the Duke of Normandy in the distance, L and the colonel also followed the delegation's pace and walked towards the Duke of Normandy who was waiting at the end of the red carpet.

"Tsk... the person I least want to see has appeared. Why is it this guy who comes to greet us?" The colonel complained unhappily as he looked at the Duke of Normandy who was in charge of the greeting in the distance.

"Stop complaining and catch up quickly." L whispered a reminder from the side.

Just as the two of them were walking on the red carpet with other representatives, a loaded pistol was slowly pointed at the unsuspecting representatives of the Republic from the crowd watching behind the fence on both sides.

"Bang!" With the sound of a gunshot, the delegation of the Republic walking on the red carpet was startled. L and the colonel, who have been professional intelligence personnel for many years, immediately realized that something was wrong. The gunshot came from the crowd, and the target was most likely the delegation of the Republic participating in the negotiations.

"Ah! This... what is this?!!" Suddenly, a representative of the Republic who was walking in front of the two of them screamed, his eyes fixed on a certain area in the air on the right side of his body. There was a pistol bullet hanging in the air a few meters away from him in a way that violated common sense of physics. The representative of the Republic looked at the bullet hanging in the air with a somewhat terrified expression. Judging from the direction of the bullet, there was no doubt that the bullet would hit his neck, and he would most likely die on the spot.

"A bullet can stop in the air? What the hell is this thing?" The representative of the Republic who almost died touched his neck in fear, staring at the bullet that was only a few meters away from him in horror.

The assassin hiding in the crowd saw that the assassination failed, so he quickly hid the pistol in his coat and planned to escape. Just as he turned around, he suddenly felt a huge force pulling him backwards.

"It looks like someone is trying to ruin my plans..." Just as the kingdom's guards were about to rush into the crowd to capture the assassin who fired the gun, a pleasant voice rang out, and then a two-dimensional portal glowing green appeared in the air. Amidst the shocked gazes of the onlookers, the kingdom's guards and the people, who were staring at the portal that appeared out of thin air, a purple-haired girl walked out of the portal.

Kalisi beckoned her right hand to the chaotic crowd, and the assassin who was just about to escape was instantly grabbed by Kalisi out of thin air and pulled towards her.

"I didn't expect that someone would sabotage the negotiations. I'm quite curious, what is your purpose in assassinating the representatives of the Republic who are participating in the negotiations and disrupting this negotiation meeting?" In front of all the guards and civilians who were watching, as well as the representatives of the Republic and the Duke of Normandy not far away, Calisi grabbed the assassin in mid-air like a chicken.

The assassin who was caught in mid-air first tried to struggle to break free from this invisible strange force that he could not understand, but when he found that all his struggles were futile, the assassin wanted to approach the purple-haired girl step by step.

"I'm getting more and more curious. What is your purpose in disrupting the negotiations?" Carlisle walked to one meter in front of the assassin who was caught in mid-air and said, touching her chin.

"Long live Prince Richard!!!" Seeing that he could not escape from this strange power of unknown political system, the assassin shouted and reached into his pocket and took out a cylindrical object.

Just as the assassin was about to pull the fuse on the grenade, a strange suction force caused the grenade to fly out of his hand and directly into the left palm of the purple-haired girl in front of him.

"Wow... explosives! I didn't realize you were so well prepared." Carlisle looked at the wooden-handled grenade in her left hand and sighed with an indifferent expression.

"But aren't you afraid of hurting innocent people by detonating explosives in a place like this?" Looking at the assassin in front of her with no regrets in her eyes, Carlisle's expression turned cold.

"Since you don't care whether this attack will harm innocent people, then I naturally don't need to show mercy."

"Then... please... die!" A drone appeared from the side of Kalisi, and the light of four plasma cannons fired flashed by. The assassin who was caught in the air turned into ashes. The crowd, the Republic delegation, and even the kingdom guards who had been watching the whole process from afar looked at the assassin in horror as he was instantly burned to ashes by the plasma cannons of the suddenly appeared drone. They all felt a fear of the purple-haired girl whose identity was unknown.

"OK, it's done. We can't let these remnants of Richard destroy the situation I have worked so hard to create." Without paying any attention to the horrified expressions of the onlookers and officials from both countries, Carlisle casually clapped her hands twice to bring the still shocked representatives of the Republic back to their senses.

"Alright, it's just a minor incident. You guys continue. I'll be responsible for your safety during the negotiations. These one or two little bugs are just a piece of cake for me."

"You guys talk about your stuff, and I will provide necessary supervision." Carly said to the representatives of the Republic not far away in a commanding tone.

Seeing that this purple-haired girl had just burned an assassin to ashes in front of everyone, the representatives of the Republic who were standing on the red carpet not far away in a daze swallowed their saliva and did not dare to refute the purple-haired girl's words.

Among the Republic delegation that was too frightened to move, there were only two exceptions. L and the colonel carefully observed the purple-haired girl in the distance and the incomprehensible power that the girl displayed, which was like witchcraft.

"Could she be... the one our agent Angel mentioned?" the colonel whispered to L beside him.

"I think so." L replied to the colonel with a frown.

After dealing with the assassin, Kalisi, who didn't care about the horrified looks of the people around her, opened a portal and returned to the Hundred-Armed Giant again.

.........

After this brief and chaotic episode, the peace and unification negotiations between the Kingdom and the Republic continued as planned. However, the horrific scene of the assassin being burned to ashes in public outside the palace was forever imprinted in the minds of the Republic representatives participating in the negotiations and the Duke of Normandy who was in charge of the negotiations.

At the negotiation table, L frowned as he looked across at the Duke of Normandy. Ever since the representatives of the Republic and the Kingdom began discussing the issue of handing over power, the Duke of Normandy had been staring at him and the colonel.

"May I ask if this gentleman has any experience in intelligence work?" At this time, the Duke of Normandy suddenly asked L.

"Oh, I'm curious, how could you make such a judgment?" Facing the questioning of the Duke of Normandy, L asked back without showing any weakness.

"My explanation for this is: intuition."

"Intuition isn't a convincing explanation," L taunted.

"In my opinion, people who have been working in intelligence for many years always have some characteristics and aura that cannot be concealed, and you two obviously exude this aura." The Duke of Normandy replied with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, that's really interesting. However, as the head of the kingdom's internal affairs department, isn't it a bit too emotional for you to make such an inaccurate judgment based solely on so-called intuition?" L responded to the Duke of Normandy's question with eloquence.

"Haha... Your answer has made me more confident in my judgment."

The colonel standing by felt an invisible pressure beginning to spread between L and the Duke of Normandy, two old enemies of the Republic and the Kingdom's intelligence departments. The two seemed to be engaged in some kind of invisible competition and confrontation.

At the same time, on the other side of the earth, on Taylor Island, during the gap before the Banshee production was completed, Renlong looked at the piles of brand-new tanks of various models produced by the underground automated military factory in front of him and scratched the back of his head.

"Hiss... I think we accidentally overproduced them. This many tanks... enough to form several synthetic armored divisions, right?"

Renlong walked into one of the tanks, stepped forward and patted the thick electrothermal chemical gun barrel with his right hand.

"Completely converting the T-14 into an unmanned vehicle and adding a 125mm electrothermal chemical cannon. In my old world, I wouldn't have even dared to think about this."

"Speaking of which, we have tanks, but there doesn't seem to be much space on the island to put them to good use?" Renlong thought, stroking his chin.

"How about building a tank training ground on the island?"

Without hesitation, Renlong selected a place on the island as a simulated tank combat training ground.

"We need to add some buildings that simulate real combat environments, and some city squares, traffic roads, and so on. It's a pity we don't have invincible anti-tank trees... otherwise I would definitely make something fun like that."

"Then do this here...then do this here...um...then design it like this."

While Renlong was planning the bizarrely shaped tank training ground, the production of the Banshee and Light Cavalry was nearing completion. As the huge Banshee's body with a span of more than 1400 meters was transported to the starting point of the mass accelerator, the huge mass accelerator hook was slowly fixed to the fixed point set in advance at the bottom of the Banshee.

At this time, Renlong, who was still struggling to design his own weird tank training ground, decided to put aside his work for the time being and watch the Banshee launch that was about to be carried out by the mass accelerator.

At the starting point of the giant mass accelerator with a length of more than 121 kilometers and a maximum height of more than 8,000 meters, a giant steel bird with a three-layer flying wing structure is quietly waiting for the mass accelerator to start.

As the two cold fusion reactors that drive the mass accelerator began to output energy, the huge body of the Banshee began to slowly move forward on the main accelerator track made of room-temperature superconducting materials. The first few hundred meters moved very slowly. As the acceleration distance increased, the speed of the Banshee on the track began to increase continuously. When it reached the orbit position about 1/3 of the distance from the starting point, the Banshee turned on the nuclear-powered turbojet engines on both sides of the fuselage. The engines running at low power ejected blue tail flames backwards, further increasing the already high speed of the Banshee. At this time, the Banshee had completely entered the part of the accelerator track located on the sea, and the high-temperature and high-speed tail streams ejected from the engines on both sides caused the sea water below to be lifted up to form a mist.

At this time, the speed of the Banshee on the track has been accelerated to more than 3500 meters per second, and the acceleration track journey has already exceeded half. The huge lift generated by the three-layer wings on both sides at high speed has made the Banshee tend to leave the acceleration track, but the fixing device at the bottom still tightly locks the Banshee's huge and heavy fuselage.

As the ship gradually entered the ascending phase of the acceleration orbit, the output power of the nuclear-powered turbojet engines on both sides of the Banshee continued to increase. With the help of the acceleration orbit below composed of room-temperature superconducting magnets, the speed of the Banshee on the orbit became higher and higher.

Finally, after a long acceleration process lasting nearly 10 minutes, the Banshee, which had been lifted to an altitude of nearly 8,000 meters, finally arrived at the end of the acceleration track. With a flash of electric sparks, the fixing device at the bottom of the Banshee released its lock on the Banshee through explosive bolts. Under the powerful inertia and the huge thrust provided by its own engine, the Banshee, which had broken away from the acceleration track, took off into the air and rushed into the sky with a blue tail flame.

"This is truly...spectacular..." In the distance, Renlong, through the vision of a drone, sighed as he watched the Banshee take off into the air the instant it separated from the mass accelerator.

"It's a truly spectacular sight to see something this big launched into the air at once."

"The mass accelerator appears to be operating well. It ejected an object of this size and mass at once without any problems. It seems the room-temperature superconducting magnets used to construct the track are indeed of excellent quality."

"Even if we eject the Banshees all at once, an object of this mass and volume would be more than enough for a cold fusion reactor..."

"The hourly energy output of these two cold fusion reactors alone is almost equivalent to the total global energy output for nearly ten years before the time travel, right?"

"It's worthy of being praised by some scientists as a mass accelerator facility that leads to the orbit of the stars. In terms of its effectiveness and efficiency, it truly lives up to its reputation. The company will delete the information from the beginning."

"Ejecting a nearly 20,000-ton improved Banshee only uses 10% of this mass accelerator's capacity. Even if we plan to use this thing to directly build a counterweight for a space elevator terminal weighing over a million tons, it would be so easy."

"However, it's obviously too early to build a space elevator now, and we won't need that kind of thing for the time being. The mass accelerator's carrying capacity is sufficient to meet our launch and transportation needs for a considerable period of time."

"And I must send this spectacular launch video recording to Calisi, Aze and the others." Renlong rubbed his hands happily, packaged the launch video he had just recorded, and sent it to his three companions on the other side of the earth through the delay-free thinking network.

"Okay, now that the launch issue is resolved, I can continue working on my tank training ground!" Renlong whistled happily and began to design a tank training simulation field where he could conduct a real-life version of War Thunder.

More than 100 kilometers away from the island, at an altitude of more than 8000 meters, the Banshee with a wingspan of more than 1400 meters and a three-layer flying wing structure began to slowly turn and head towards its target, Europe.

Chapter 93 Knowledge Explanation and the Desire to Fight Against Renlong's Armored Bombs (5000 words)

At the negotiation table, the colonel had a sullen face as he watched the two people, the Duke of Normandy and L, who were engaged in an invisible confrontation. Neither of them was willing to show any sign of concession in front of the other, and neither side wanted to be at a disadvantage in front of the other.

As the leader of the Republic's intelligence department, L believed that if he showed weakness in front of the Duke of Normandy, it would not only be an insult to his dignity as the leader of the Republic's intelligence department, but would also damage the reputation of the Republic's government.

The Duke of Normandy, who was sitting across the table, was unwilling to show any concessions or weakness in front of his opponent. Even if the ultimate goal of this negotiation was to make the kingdom give up its sovereignty, as the leader of the kingdom's internal affairs department, he must not lose face. Moreover, the Duke of Normandy did not want to lose momentum to L, who might be the leader of the control room of the Republic Intelligence Organization who had been fighting against him for ten years.

The colonel looked at the increasingly tense atmosphere between the two people around him and finally lost his patience. He advised them with an apologetic smile.

"Hey, both of you, don't look so sad. Relax a little. Come on, have a cup of tea and calm down!" The colonel called the waiter with an embarrassed look on his face, poured a cup of black tea for each of them, and tried to ease the tense atmosphere between them with an apologetic smile.

"Hmph... well, my mission today isn't to compete with you anyway." The Duke of Normandy said with a look of contempt as he glanced at L who was sitting opposite him.

"Oh, really? Then Duke, don't forget that our purpose today is to discuss the disintegration of the kingdom?" L, who is usually calm, cautious and speaks very little, seemed to be angry today and deliberately kept provoking the Duke of Normandy with words.

"Okay, okay... let's not discuss this for now... Come on, have a cup of tea and calm down." Seeing that the atmosphere between the two was about to become strange again, the colonel hurriedly held L down and persuaded him with a wry smile.

The grudges and hatreds between the two men in front of him over the past ten years in intelligence and espionage wars were obviously not something that could be resolved in a short time. The major on the side looked at the two men, one of whom was his direct superior, and the other was a powerful duke of a fallen country. Feeling the tit-for-tat hostility between the two, the colonel suddenly felt very stressed.

"How can I persuade them? One is the Duke of the kingdom, and the other is my boss. How the hell can I persuade them when they are in such a mess?" The colonel, who was under great pressure, complained crazily in his heart.

On the other side of the negotiation table, several representatives of the Republic and the Kingdom have begun discussing the specific details of how to hand over various government agencies, military, weapons and equipment, finances, etc. within the Kingdom.

"Well, I hope the next work can go more smoothly..." The colonel looked at the two people who were still arguing with each other, then glanced at the negotiating representatives from both sides on the other side of the long negotiation table, and muttered helplessly.

While representatives from both sides were negotiating in this conference room, they were unaware that there was an optically invisible drone in the room, recording the entire negotiation process.

On the Hundred-Handed Titan, Carlisle was leading everyone in an indoor shooting range on the lower deck of the Hundred-Handed Titan to fiddle with and demonstrate various weapons.

"This is the M134 Gatling machine gun. Its full name is the M134 Gatling Mini Vulcan Cannon rapid-fire machine gun. It fires 7.62mm bullets. The six barrels are rotated by an electric motor, which can reach 3000 revolutions per minute. The maximum rate of fire can reach 6000 rounds per minute." Carlisle explained to Dorothy Anjie, Charlotte and others who were watching on the side.

"6000 rounds? Isn't that too outrageous?" Dorothy's eyes twitched when she heard this number. Even the water-cooled Maxim machine guns that the Kingdom and the Republic's armies have begun to equip in large quantities have a theoretical firing rate of only 600 rounds per minute. As far as Dorothy knows, some second-line troops in the Kingdom and overseas colonial troops in remote areas are even equipped with hand-cranked Gatling machine guns, which have a firing rate of only about 250 rounds per minute and often malfunction in battle.

The machine gun in front of her had a firing rate at least 10 times that of the Maxim water-cooled machine gun Dorothy was familiar with. Dorothy, who had witnessed the ferocious firepower of the Maxim machine gun, knew very well what a terrifying firepower network 5 to 6 Maxims could weave. Dorothy looked at the thing in front of her in detail. She could not imagine what a terrifying firepower network a monster machine gun with a firing rate more than ten times that of the Maxim could create.

"How about I demonstrate it to you?" As she spoke, the purple-haired girl stepped forward, turned on the motor switch that was already connected to the ammunition belt, and let the six barrels idle for a few turns. After confirming that it was operating normally, Kalisi pulled the trigger to fire. A burst of fire came out from the muzzle of the M134, and green tracer bullets cut through the air, leaving a series of dense bullet holes on the metal target in the distance. In just a dozen seconds, Kalisi poured at least thousands of tracer bullets at the distant target as if they were free. A huge amount of steaming shell casings clanged to the metal floor at the feet of the purple-haired girl, and the ammunition box that had just been filled with a whole box of stored ammunition belts was emptied almost in an instant.

"This...firepower density...is too outrageous, right?" Dorothy felt a little embarrassed as she looked at the metal target in the distance that had been completely destroyed.

"Such terrifying firepower...even the bravest soldier would be frightened to the point of trembling legs, right?" Chise sighed as he watched the purple-haired girl demonstrate the machine gun.

"But... in our opinion, this firepower density is completely insufficient. Moreover, whether in terms of firepower density or destructive capability, this thing is definitely not ideal for us."

"Ah... Such fierce firepower, you still don't think it's enough?"

"Yeah, the M134's rate of fire is fast enough, but its destructive power is really not that good, especially against guys with crazy armor stacking. It's not even as effective as a rocket-propelled grenade."

"So next, I'm going to introduce this to you: the GAU-19/A six-barreled Gatling cannon with a caliber of 12.7 mm. You can basically understand it as a larger, more powerful version of the M134. Its armor-piercing and destructive capabilities are much better than the M134, and it also has stronger fire suppression capabilities." As Carlisle said this, she pulled open a piece of green waterproof cloth next to her, revealing the .50 caliber Gatling gun covered under the cloth, and took out a .50BMG bullet that was longer than her palm from the ammunition box next to her and showed it to everyone.

"This... are you sure... this thing is used against infantry? Even the most sturdy military transport vehicles of the Kingdom and the Republic would be paralyzed by a single round like that, right?"

"Indeed, most of the time, this thing's targets are light vehicles with a certain level of protection. Of course, it's also quite effective against people."

"Uh... if you get hit by this thing on the battlefield... no matter how you look at it, it's a death sentence." Dorothy looked at the .50BMG armor-piercing incendiary bullet chains connected to the GAU-19/A, which were as numerous as if they were free, and the corners of her mouth twitched.

"Oh, by the way, speaking of this, there's one thing I forgot to tell you. Among the weapons mounted on the exterior of this aircraft is a further enlarged version of this thing."

"It's this thing." Carlisle said as she turned on a holographic projection.

"Pfft! What the hell is this?" Dorothy couldn't help herself as she looked at the holographic projection in front of her.

"So many barrels... let me count... 1, 2, 3, 4... 10, 11, 11 barrels? So many?" Qianshi walked forward and carefully counted the number of barrels of the weapons and equipment in the holographic projection.

"Yes, 11 barrels firing 30mm caliber bullets, with a rate of fire of 11000 rounds per minute and a range of about five kilometers."

"Puff! Such an outrageous firing rate. What kind of weapon would require such a ridiculous firing rate to deal with?" Dorothy found that she seemed to have underestimated these people's views on firepower density.

"Of course, it's some ridiculously fast little flying sticks. And this version with an 11000-round firing rate isn't the limit. We actually have some versions with even more ridiculous firing rates and firepower density, but we don't have any use for them right now, so we haven't built them."

"Little flying stick?" Dorothy obviously didn't understand this alternative name for missiles.

"Those weapons you see hanging from the underside of aircraft in the hangar. In actual combat, those things often fly at speeds and trajectories that are difficult to predict. To deal with them, we naturally need something with an absurdly high firepower density to intercept them."

"Of course, oftentimes, even the ultra-high-density firepower that seems excessive to you can't stop those ridiculously fast things. This forces us to try to develop and use a weapon that can reach the limits of physics in terms of shooting and firing speed."

"That is, using light itself as a weapon." As she spoke, Calisi removed a modified high-power laser pointer from the Picatinny rail of a rifle on the table beside her, and turned on the laser pointer in her hand. A red light spot with a clear light path under the Tyndall effect shone on the metal wall next to her.

"As you can see, nothing can be faster than photons themselves... at least not things with mass." The purple-haired girl paused and added silently.

"Regarding this, first you need to understand the principle of laser formation."

"Normal visible light is formed when electrons in atoms absorb energy, jump from a low energy level to a high energy level, and then fall back from a high energy level to a low energy level. The energy released during the fall is released in the form of photons."

"Laser can be understood as electrons in atoms of a substance being excited by external energy and reaching a high-energy state. When the electrons return to their normal state, they release photons. The light composed of these photons is laser."

"Lasers, like other visible light sources in nature, are produced by atomic transitions and caused by spontaneous radiation. The most crucial difference is that ordinary visible light sources are produced by spontaneous radiation from beginning to end, and therefore contain different frequencies, wavelengths, and colors, and propagate and scatter in all directions. Lasers, on the other hand, only rely on spontaneous radiation for a very short period of time at the beginning, and the subsequent process is completely determined by stimulated radiation. As you can see, compared to visible light in other bands, lasers have very pure colors, almost no divergent directionality, and extremely high luminous intensity." As she spoke, Carlisle shook the turned-on laser pointer in her right hand. As her right hand shook, the red light spot on the wall also moved left and right.

"The pulsed laser cannons equipped on our aircraft are essentially miniaturized, high-power hard X-ray pulsed laser weapons with an energy output exceeding 993 megawatts. In extreme output mode, they can even reach gigawatts (GW) when necessary."

"This enhanced version of the pulse laser weapon is powerful enough to easily penetrate a half-meter thick homogeneous steel plate. That's why the protection of the key core parts of those airborne warships is almost as easy to penetrate as a piece of paper. Even thick homogeneous steel plates are far less capable of protecting against the high temperatures generated by lasers than materials like aerogel."

"To achieve our laser-level output and a similar volume, you would need a lot of room-temperature superconducting materials with sky-high R&D and production costs, as well as sufficiently advanced supercapacitor technology."

Just as Carlisle was about to continue teaching and popularizing relevant knowledge to everyone present, the door of the shooting range suddenly opened, and Yuki and Aze walked in together.