The stars, but they become the gray wind

"Do you have any scars on your clothes?"

"That's right. The appearance of this thing makes the air fleets of various European countries look as ridiculous as toys in front of it."

"Even Albion, the world's leading military power, couldn't stop it and the mysterious force behind it, Atlas, let alone us."

"If the detailed information obtained by our intelligence agents in London and our diplomats is correct, this thing can reach any corner of Europe in four hours, and the firepower it carries is enough to easily destroy a country."

"Furthermore, it's rumored that the mysterious force known as Atlas possesses more than one aerial battleship of this size. It's said that another aerial battleship that appeared earlier, while smaller than this behemoth over 1400 meters in length, still exceeds the theoretical limit of what we currently believe an aerial battleship can achieve in actual construction."

"It's no exaggeration to say that any European country's air fleet or military force would likely face a disastrous outcome if it encountered this thing."

"And that force calling itself Atlantis Sanctus, when it says it will punish anyone who provokes war with an iron fist, it's likely no joke."

"But... Minister... let's not even talk about building such a massive aerial battleship. Just the mobilization and consumption of raw materials required to produce such a behemoth would be impossible to conceal."

"But we have never heard of any shipbuilding facilities that can manufacture air battleships of this specification. To manufacture warships of this specification, a large amount of industrial machinery and equipment is necessary. There are only so many shipyards in the world that can manufacture large air battleships. I have never heard of any facilities or shipyards that can assemble air battleships over 1400 meters in length. Even if such a thing exists, it cannot be concealed from other countries." At this time, an experienced engineer raised his own question.

"I'm also very puzzled by this question. Logically, an industrial facility capable of producing such a large aerial battleship would be impossible to conceal. Yet, such a behemoth appeared almost out of thin air. Our intelligence personnel in various countries have almost never reported to them the discovery of industrial facilities capable of producing aerial battleships of this size."

"Compared to the terrifying size and firepower of this thing, what I find even more strange is how it is possible that there is no news about its construction?" The middle-aged man who presided over the conference table and was called the Minister by the engineers expressed his inner doubts.

"Tsk... What a terrifying thing! How on earth was such a thing made? The person who designed it must be crazy to have thought of designing such a monstrous thing."

Just when intelligence personnel and diplomatic officials from various countries were at a loss as to what to do due to the sudden warning and threat of force, compared with the top leaders of European countries who were in a state of panic, Carlisle seemed much more relaxed.

Since the Banshee issued a warning to the whole of Europe and let it hover in the European airspace at all times to deter everyone with force, the main defense and deterrence tasks have been handed over to the Banshee. In Europe, your work has basically been completed. The trio also plans to take the spy team and others back to Taylor Island, which is currently their hometown.

"Aerodynamics is a good thing. When there is a dense atmosphere, it often takes much less effort to maintain flight." Kalisi pushed the accelerator hard, and the high-speed aircraft broke through the sound barrier in an instant. The sonic boom cloud produced was deafening. Yuki, who was several kilometers away in the opened lower hangar of the Hundred-Armed Giant, could almost hear the sonic boom coming from afar.

"How's it going, Mary? How's it feeling driving around and sightseeing in this thing?"

Inside the fully transparent spherical cockpit of the anti-gravity aircraft,

The purple-haired girl turned to the little Loli sitting in the passenger seat and asked.

"I never thought the sky could be so wonderful, and... Sister Carlisle, maybe what Angel Sister said is right. Your piloting skills are really quite poor."

"How come even you are starting to say that my driving skills are bad?" The purple-haired girl was unhappy and complained softly with a pout.

"But purple-haired sister, your driving skills are indeed hard for the passengers to compliment."

"Even on this trip I just took, sister, your several high-speed maneuvers almost made me vomit. I think I understand why Angel Sister didn't let you touch the joystick and steering wheel of the aircraft before."

"If I really leave it to you to drive, then being scared like I just did is already good luck, right?"

"Your aircraft piloting method is really too thrilling."

"Oh, is there any?"

"I think my driving skills, no matter how bad they are, should still be acceptable, right?"

"How about you, sister with purple hair, you shouldn't fly an aircraft anymore. Although I saw a lot of beautiful scenery on your plane, the ride comfort was completely negative. So you shouldn't fly an aircraft anymore in the future, okay?" Mary recalled the terrible ride experience just now. Even for a good child, this ride experience was a bit too "impressive".

.........

After the Banshee completed the handover, Yuki and the others decided to drive the Hundred-Armed Titan back to Taylor Island. As a relaxing activity during the journey, Calisi suggested that she drive the anti-gravity aircraft to take a few people for a ride in the air and enjoy the scenery, but the two companions who were obviously aware of Calisi's poor driving skills obviously did not buy it.

Mary, Charlotte and the others, who had no idea of ​​Kalisi's true driving ability, suffered greatly. As the purple-haired girl drove the anti-gravity aircraft and took them out for a ride one by one, they all enjoyed the terrible riding experience brought about by Kalisi's weird driving skills. Beat, who was relatively weak among the others, even vomited uncontrollably after getting off the plane.

"Can't you just fly properly?" Dorothy, who was tortured by Carrich's poor driving skills, covered her hands and complained with her still dizzy head.

"If she can fly normally and not torture the passengers half to death, the sun will rise from the west." At this time, Aze, who walked in from the side, commented.

"If she hadn't performed so many difficult maneuvers, it probably wouldn't have been that severe. The passengers were tortured to death."

"But as a small aircraft, shouldn't its maneuverability be maximized? Obviously, Kalisi has a different opinion on this.

"It's not a matter of mobility, it's that you're just doing all sorts of high-G maneuvers when you have nothing better to do."

"Who would do the Korvo maneuver with passengers on their first flight?"

"Even if it's maneuvering to adapt to high g-forces, there's still a period of adaptation. Who would pull 9G right out of the gate?

"If you fly properly, you won't have so much trouble."

"After all, we just want to be more stable. It's better not to do anything too outrageous." Aze commented quite objectively.

After 12 hours of continuous flight, the White Hand Giant fleet was finally about to arrive at the main island of Taylor Island. Yuki called Charlotte and others to the bridge and planned to show them the local characteristics of Taylor Island.

"We will be able to see Taylor Island in half an hour. This will be your new home in the future." Sitting on the seat in front of the center console, Aze said leisurely with his legs crossed.

"But you called them all to the bridge to wait for me to see that?" Carlisle said to Yuki in a deliberately vague tone.

After flying for more than ten minutes, the fleet of hundred-armed giants, which was at a very low altitude and close to the sea surface, slowly approached Taylor Island.

At this moment, Ange narrowed her eyes, noticing something strange on the small island in the distance.)

As the Hundred-Armed Giant got closer and closer to the island, this small island of only 27 square kilometers gradually revealed its full appearance.

"What... is this?" Dorothy asked, standing next to the high-strength bulletproof glass of the bridge, pointing out the silver-gray "mountain range" that was faintly visible on the distant island and extended into the sea.

"Taylor Island Supermass Accelerator No. 1, Miss Dorothy."

"Mass accelerator?" Dorothy, who had never heard of this term, asked in confusion.

"A giant catapult device that uses electromagnetic force to launch large payloads into high altitude or low orbit. This mass accelerator you see is 121 kilometers long, with an exit at its highest point at an altitude of 8,000 meters. The Banshee you saw in Europe earlier was launched by this thing. The Banshee is first accelerated by electromagnetic force on the acceleration track to a sufficiently high initial speed. Once it reaches a certain speed, its engines will start and further increase its speed. Then, the entire Banshee will be continuously accelerated to the top exit of the mass accelerator, which is 8,000 meters high, and launched at high speed from there."

"In fact, even a behemoth like the Banshee only occupies a very small portion of the mass accelerator's capacity. The Banshee weighs 20,000 tons, which only occupies about 10% of the mass accelerator's maximum ejection capacity."

"The maximum mass that this mass accelerator can eject at one time is 200,000 tons. Based on numerical calculations, it can directly launch ten Banshees or two Ordnance Giant Birds weighing up to 100,000 tons into the air at once."

"However, launching such a giant aerospace combat aircraft platform is essentially a side effect of this moderate accelerator. Its main function is to cheaply place a large payload into orbit, that is, to accelerate the payload to the first cosmic velocity of 7.9 kilometers per second, break free from the atmosphere, and throw it directly into space."

"Under the full-load single-shot extreme payload launch mode, this mass accelerator can launch once every half hour, ensuring that the daily payload into orbit is around 960 million tons."

"This... means that even the heaviest aerial battleships produced by the Kingdom and the Republic can be launched hundreds of times a day?"

"Although those aerial warships are completely different from our SSTO aircraft, if you understand it that way, it's actually fine if you insist. After all, the design goal of this thing is essentially to throw those large and heavy objects into space using an electromagnetically driven acceleration track."

"Of course, if this thing is paired with a skyhook, the launch efficiency will be higher, although we don't need the latter yet."

"Skyhook? What's that?" Dorothy, the private servant of Liulin Village III, asked curiously after hearing this new term.

"That's a long story, but to put it simply, it's just a momentum exchange rope running in space."

"As the name suggests, the Skyhook is a 'hook' flying in space, with small docking devices connected by reinforced cables at both ends. The upper end is 4000 kilometers above the Earth's surface, and the lower end is about 150 kilometers above the Earth's surface. A spacecraft launched by a mass accelerator to a sufficiently high speed, such as a space plane, docks at the lower end to deliver the goods. After docking, the goods are sent to the transfer space station at the center of mass via an elevator, and then sent to the release port at the upper end by an elevator. If the goods and people need to return to the Earth's surface, the above steps are reversed."

"A momentum exchange rope orbiting the Earth continuously adds payloads and cargo launched from the surface and sends them to higher orbits. On the surface, this is naturally paired with a large mass accelerator like this as a cheap launch method."

"Uh... I think I understand." Although they had made up for the relevant knowledge in the past few days, Dorothy and the others still had only a superficial understanding of the relevant aspects. Although there were still many things they didn't quite understand in this explanation, Dorothy nodded and planned to make up for the relevant knowledge later.

"Everyone, we're almost there. Are you ready for a thrilling sea landing?" Yuki, who was sitting on the console, controlled the Hundred-Armed Titan to lower its altitude little by little, and said to everyone jokingly.

Chapter 96: Obsessed with Armored Missiles and the Theory of Missile Almightyness (5000 words)

While the Banshee was rampaging across Europe recklessly, demonstrating its invincible military might, an equally huge aircraft carrier was about to land at sea next to Taylor Island on the other side of the earth. The speed brakes above the wings of the P1112 were also lifted up by the hydraulic rods, further reducing the flight speed of the Hundred-Handed Giant, which was already very close to the sea surface. As the tail flames from the engines on the fuselage were running at low power, they blew the sea water on the sea surface and produced a circle of water mist around the fuselage. The bottom of the Hundred-Handed Giant's ship-shaped body slowly slid into the sea, and the huge body glided all the way on the sea surface. Finally, under the combined effect of the water resistance and the body's speed brakes, the Hundred-Handed Giant, which had glided on the water surface for nearly a kilometer, stopped steadily on the sea surface not far from the anchorage area.

"Huh... we landed safely..." In the command center of the Hundred-Armed Titan, Beat, who was frightened by Yuki's joke just now, wiped the sweat from his forehead.

"Really, Miss Yuki, you scared me to death. I thought it was an emergency that such a big thing landed directly on the sea?!" Beat, who was relieved, complained a little dissatisfied.

"Just kidding! This thing was originally designed to land on the sea, but... the P1112's design of landing on the sea is a very rare operation mode even in the air traffic control mechanism."

"Normally, once these giant aerospace carriers and fortresses are launched, they rarely land again. This includes the Banshee you saw. Unless it's shot down or decommissioned, it will never land. The Hundred-Handed Giant's design, which can take off and land at sea, is quite unique."

"But don't worry, our aerospace carriers are very safe. As long as there are no ace pilots with cheats, they will never be easily shot down or destroyed."

Yuuki said to everyone with a thumbs up.

"Please get off the plane first. There are many interesting places on the island. I think you will all be very interested." Carlisle clapped her hands happily and invited Charlotte and others.

After the hundred-armed giant on the sea slowly walked into the port's berth under its own power, everyone just got off the plane when they heard a deafening explosion in the distance.

"What is Renlong doing on the island? Testing new weapons? It's so noisy?" The purple-haired girl frowned when she heard the explosion.

"I don't know. Why don't we go and see what she is doing?" As soon as Aze finished speaking, another dull explosion sounded in everyone's ears.

"That's right. It's a good opportunity to take Charlotte and the others to visit our base along the way." Carlisle waved her hand and called an unmanned electric commuter car. She asked Angel and the others who were still looking at the direction of the explosion in confusion to get on the car, and set a route for the unmanned commuter car to where Renlong was.

…………

"As you can see, Miss Angel, Miss Charlotte, and the others, this island is our base. We call it Taylor Island. It has a total natural area of ​​27 square kilometers. It houses a mass accelerator 121 kilometers long and 8,000 meters high, as well as a Stonehenge artillery system responsible for air defense and orbital interception. It also has comprehensive airport facilities and a standard military port. It has fully automated ship and aircraft manufacturing capabilities. There's also a large-scale underground factory facility in the center of the island that's not open to the public. The entire island is protected by dense air surveillance radars and anti-aircraft weapons. Any target that could pose a threat and approach within 1200 kilometers will be instantly shot down."

"In addition, there is a giant power generation facility near this island. It is a giant fusion hydropower platform located in the sea area at the southern end of the island. The wireless power transmission device of this hydropower platform covers the area within 300 kilometers including this island. This island..." Just as Calisi was about to continue speaking, a deafening explosion was heard near the location of Renlong in the distance, which directly interrupted Calisi's words.

"What's going on? This is?" Aze stood up from the back seat of the convertible commuter car and looked at the location where the explosion came from.

"Actually, we can sense what she is doing through the thought network, right?" Yuki, who was chewing a bag of potato chips in the passenger seat of the commuter bus, reminded.

"We know, we just want to keep a sense of surprise. After all, we are also curious about what Renlong did on the island while we were away?" Aze replied.

"Given her personality...without the constraints of rules and with the freedom to let her imagination run wild...well...I think she will probably come up with something big." Yuki thought as he recalled Renlong's style and personality before he traveled through time.

"And judging by the noise...it might be a really big deal?" Yukichi commented calmly as he heard another explosion.

.........

A moment later, at the edge of the tank training ground, the purple-haired girl looked at the dozens of tanks of various models parked in a row in front of her with a face full of questions. Some of them had their turrets blown off and flew off headfirst, some had their tracks blown off, some had big holes pierced through the front, and some had their engine compartments blown out.

"What is this?"

“T14…T72、T80、T90、M1艾布拉姆斯、豹2A4、甚至还有KF51，这是什么马里乌波尔防线吗喂？”看着面前花里胡哨的各种坦克

Carlisle felt overwhelmed.

At this time, a tracked tractor slowly drove into the area, dragging a damaged ammunition truck.

"That thing being towed behind the vehicle... if I'm not mistaken, it should be a Merkava, right?" Looking at the Merkava IV tank with a big hole in its side being towed by the towing vehicle, more question marks popped up in Kalisi's head.

"So this is some kind of International tank exhibition?"

"And they are all battle-damaged versions..." Aze added silently.

"To be honest, seeing those T72s and T80s gave me the illusion that this was Mariupol, but seeing that Merkava made me think this was Gaza..." Aze complained with a speechless expression.

"Mariupol? Gaza?" Charlotte and Dorothy, who were not familiar with these two place names, asked in confusion.

"It's okay, they're just two places in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. I just want to complain about this pile of stuff in front of me." Carlisle said casually to the two of them with a careless look.

"So, is Renlong organizing some kind of exhibition of battle-damaged International tanks?"

"Why don't we go ask her in person? The location shows that she is in the house over there." Yuki reminded Aze and Kalisi who were complaining about the piles of scrapped tanks, and pointed to a one-story gray building not far away.

Just as the three of them walked into the half-open door of the building that looked low and very heavy and solid, a voice came from inside the house.

"Damn! Active Defense System, you're cheating!!!"

A very familiar and somewhat angry voice came from inside the house, which stunned Carlisle who was about to push open the door.

"But even if I don't use ADS, you can't beat me. I've destroyed at least a dozen of your tanks unilaterally. I can only say that your skills are too poor." Cabot's voice also came from inside the house.

"Every time you attack me from behind or from the side, do you dare to fight me head-on?" Renlong replied in a rather unconvinced tone.

"Only a fool would try to engage the enemy main battle tank's frontal armor head-on. To deal with something like a tank, you have to go around it or to the side, then penetrate the fragile side and rear defenses with a single shot."

"What's more, the Thor electromagnetic tank isn't meant for direct attacks. A long-range attack or a sneak attack in the enemy's blind spot is the correct and optimal solution."

"In short, if you're new, just practice more!!!" Cabot earnestly advised and reminded Renlong who was sitting at the operating table on the other side.

"Uh... you two spent all this time and ended up making this thing for me?" At this time, Carlisle pushed the door open and walked in, looking at Renlong and Cabot sitting next to the smart operating table.

"The scene outside gives me a déjà vu of Mariupol and Gaza. Hmm... So, you two are just acting like a real-life War Thunder?"

"It seems to be correct to call it the real-life version of War Thunder. It's a pity that we don't have a super-human tank commander who can take a 105mm steel needle on his face and still be unconscious." When Renlong heard Carlisle's complaints about the sense of déjà vu, Renlong also made a humorous complaint.

"But... this win-loss ratio is a bit too ugly." As he spoke, Renlong silently looked at the scoreboard next to him. The scoreboard showed 0 to 23. He had been killed by the opponent's Cabot 23 tanks in a row, and the only effective damage he caused to the opponent was just an armor-piercing shell that hit the opponent's front inclined armor belt modified from the CV90 chassis.

"Renlong was bored and played with a bunch of tanks. As her boss, I naturally have to play with her... However, her skills are obviously too poor. I have destroyed 23 of her tanks in a row, and so far she hasn't even been able to cause enough effective damage to me." Cabot spread his hands in disbelief.

"We agreed not to use anti-tank missiles or anything like that. We wanted the tanks to engage in armor-piercing duels at a limited range, rather than using anti-tank missiles to rip each other's heads off."

"Even without the anti-tank missiles, and returning to a combat situation of armor-piercing shells, it seems that this subordinate of mine is still no match for me. His record so far is still 23 losses and no wins."

"But why do I always feel that this is not our fault?"

Renlong muttered quietly to the second age of warm three Ba ​​Qi Yi three.

After watching the entire test of the limits of the frontal armor-piercing and shell-resistance capabilities of tanks from all over the world, the purple-haired girl took Charlotte and others to see almost all the major armored vehicles of various countries in the 21st century, and how these armored vehicles were hit by various flying heads.

"Sure enough, no matter what kind of tank it is, if its ammunition depot is blown up by a single shot, it can't avoid the fate of having its head blown off?" Carlisle said to herself as she watched another Leopard 2 tank with its head blown off being towed away from the field by a tractor.

"From this point of view, there doesn't seem to be much difference between a tail loader and a rotary loader."

"But it's obvious that with the level of white armor, no third-generation tank can withstand the high-speed shells fired by an electrothermal chemical gun." Aze, who was drinking iced cola, commented as he watched the unlucky Leopard 2 tank whose turret protection was penetrated from the front by an electrothermal chemical gun.

"Compared to the 1800 meters per second muzzle velocity of traditional chemical artillery, tanks equipped with electrothermal chemical guns, such as the T-14 and Abrams X, have increased the average muzzle velocity of their shells to 4500 to 5000 meters per second. This isn't just a 30-40 percent increase, but a full 2.5 times! Such a significant improvement far exceeds the expectations of our world's technicians."

"Back in our world, when those technicians were estimating the performance of the electrothermal chemical cannon, they thought increasing the muzzle velocity to 2500 meters per second would be incredible, and increasing the muzzle kinetic energy by 40% would be quite outrageous. It seems like we've come up with something truly amazing," the purple-haired girl said with a silent sigh. (Note 1)