Chapter 1375: Chapter 1374: Technical Player

The first ray of morning sunlight crossed over the eastern mountain barrier, casting a faint gold glow upon the undulating mountain ridges. The high-altitude gusts swept across the faint barrier above the Sky Fortress, filtering and guiding the cold upper air into a comfortable breeze. The Empire’s Flag, hanging over the control center, fluttered in the wind, and the gold-thread-embroidered Sword and Plough Emblem undulated with the airflow. Rebecca paused on the main walkway of the upper deck, looked up at the superstructure of the Dawn of the Mortal World as it gradually gleamed with a metallic sheen in the morning light, and a silly smile slowly spread across her face.

She had grown accustomed to life on this Sky Fortress, and recently she increasingly enjoyed welcoming each sunrise on the upper deck of the Dawn of the Mortal World.

"Good morning, Creator," the voice of the Fortress’s Main Brain came from a nearby low-powered speaker. The Dawn of the Mortal World’s system had detected Rebecca’s presence and greeted her proactively, "The sun is quite nice today."

"Good morning, indeed it’s great weather today," Rebecca smiled and waved at the monitoring device not far away, her face lit with joy almost as if she were about to glow, "It feels like a good day to toss something artistically inclined over towards the wasteland—"

"As you say, today is a good day for departure," the voice of the Dawn of the Mortal World sounded calm and gentle. A low-to-high buzzing noise arose from deep within this anti-gravity behemoth, as it began to warm up its twenty-two auxiliary propulsion engines. "Would you like us to arrange track transportation for you to Industrial Deck 2? The nearest duct entrance is fifty meters to your left."

"Sure," Rebecca nodded and stepped toward a protruding facility on the deck nearby, "By the way, let Commander Jinna know that I’ve completed the calibration of the last Supercritical Accelerator. She can use it at any time."

"Understood, the notification has been sent." The Main Brain’s voice immediately responded, and Rebecca had already arrived before the protruding facility. With a slight mechanical friction sound, the curved protective plate lifted upwards, revealing a track transportation pod capable of holding several people, resembling a cylinder. Rebecca, familiar with the process, climbed in and buckled the safety lock. The transportation pod sank into the track groove beneath the deck, swiftly heading toward Industrial Deck 2—where the purification device component factory was located.

The scale of the Dawn of the Mortal World is astonishing, featuring a highly efficient multi-layered spatial structure within. It’s not an easy task to traverse this enormous "flying city." To address this challenge, Rebecca and the team of Mage Technicians and Mechanical Scholars designed a comprehensive transportation system at the fortress’s inception. This system included magic vehicles used on the deck surface, fast-moving track transportation systems between sectional layers, and a rapid elevator system penetrating the entire fortress, providing access to all "floors." Among the three systems, the track transportation plays the most crucial role.

Its initial design inspiration came from the Sorin Giant Tree, whose scale surpasses even the Dawn of the Mortal World. To facilitate the transportation of people and materials, Beltira constructed "transportation ducts" within the giant tree, resembling nutrient veins inside a plant. This mature and effective design inspired Rebecca’s technical team to ponder, and these brilliant minds clustered together to successfully recreate this convenient transport system through industrial and mechanical prowess—an exceptional innovation.

The cylindrical transportation pod swiftly slid within the track groove, a part of which is made from high-strength man-made crystals serving as "observation windows." Sitting in her seat, Rebecca cast her gaze through the observation windows at the outside view. The entire "road" is embedded beneath the deck, but the area surrounding the track is not barren darkness. Quite the opposite, under the deck of the Dawn of the Mortal World lies the fortress’s primary structure—its powerfully beating heart and numerous assembly factories for killing machines, enclosed by heavy armor and high-strength shields. Most ship-mounted troops are stationed in soldier dormitories on the lower deck, and to this day, many areas underneath the deck are undergoing continuous expansion and construction.

A dimly-lit space appeared ahead, with a massive platform emerging in the gloom as the transportation pod swiftly passed overhead. High-power engineering lights illuminated the center of the platform, where a large number of engineering machines and uniformed Mage Technicians and Mechanical Scholars bustled about. The glow of welding and cutting continuously flickered within this gigantic structure. At the other end of the platform, numerous prefabricated frames marked with distinctive golden tags, indicating they weren’t manufactured by the Dawn of the Mortal World’s own factories, but by the adjacent Hektor Flying Fortress, awaited dismantling and assembly.

Hektor is a Gorgon-class flying fortress permanently escorting near the Dawn of the Mortal World. Though its combat power is not strong, it bears the largest foundry and integrated industrial center of the Aerial Combat Group on its "back." Every five days, "Cloud Bottom" flying machines with significant carrying capacity transport semi-processed metal ingots and other materials from earth to Hektor’s industrial center. The raw materials are processed into various components amid those scorching smelting furnaces and roaring machine tools, subsequently allocated to various fortresses or bastions, including the Dawn of the Mortal World, which is how Hektor received its name—according to human legend, "Hektor" was the name of the greatest craftsman from the founding period of the Gondor Empire.

"That platform should be the second maintenance hangar... Took so long, it’s finally almost finished," the transportation pod swiftly passed over the platform, and Rebecca withdrew her gaze from below. "With this new hangar, our Dragon Cavalry Squadron should enhance combat efficiency significantly... What’s left unfinished now?"

"Only a set of auxiliary cooling units in Area A12 remains under construction. Upon completion, it will allow the Dawn of the Mortal World to sail at a faster speed, reducing the cooling cycle of all main cannon class Rainbow Light Generators by ten percent," the Main Brain’s voice followed, "Currently, more than half of the foundational construction is complete, with ample materials and personnel. The project will be completed as planned."

"Phew... that’s good to hear," Rebecca exhaled lightly, "Finally, this fortress is nearing completion."

The Dawn of the Mortal World wasn’t complete upon its departure. The war broke out too rapidly and got nearly out of control in the initial phase. Therefore, the Sky Fortress was hastily dispatched to the battlefield almost the day after its primary functions had barely passed the acceptance test. Besides ensuring basic navigation and combat capabilities, many "sub-units" and the flagship fleet’s auxiliary modules were built while fighting, made possible by its enormous scale, fully-equipped industrial facilities, and the technical team’s excellent creative capabilities. Up until today, the Dawn of the Mortal World is finally nearing its completion stage.

"Do you plan to construct a second Sky Fortress afterward?" After a brief silence, the Main Brain’s voice returned, "As you mentioned earlier... my sister ship."

"Certainly, as the ancestor said, weapons used once and lost are unreliable; mass-producible weapons are the most reliable. From the start, we didn’t intend to build only one Dawn of the Mortal World; we need at least a squadron," Rebecca immediately nodded, "With the experience accumulated from you and the advancement in technology, your ’sister’ should soon be born... Actually, I’ve even thought of the name in advance!"

"You’ve already thought of the name?" The Main Brain expressed a degree of curiosity, "I couldn’t retrieve related information from the database..."

"I haven’t officially reported it yet, I haven’t even told Aunt Heidi and the ancestor," Rebecca waved her hand, "Since you’re called ’Dawn of the Mortal World,’ I plan to name the new fortress ’All Divine Twilight,’ that way, the day will be complete..."

The Main Brain suddenly fell silent, and after a while, it spoke again, "I think the high-ranked advisors of the theocracy Authority Council might be a bit sensitive to this name..."

"Then I’ll discuss it with them later," Rebecca waved her hand, looking as if "I don’t think it’s a problem," "At worst, we can rename it to ’All Divine Noon’..."

The Main Brain stopped talking entirely—it could manage the thousands of neural signals coming from this massive fortress every moment but couldn’t handle the whimsical ideas coming from the lead ball head of the Empire...

However, it didn’t stay quiet for long, as the transportation pod had already begun to decelerate. Accompanied by a slight mechanical friction and the unique clicking sound of the repulsion mechanisms overturning, Rebecca felt herself stop. The entire cylindrical transportation pod was then pushed toward the exit, and as the protective panel opened, she saw the aesthetically pleasing open-air assembly platform of Industrial Deck Two, along with the technological crystal ready to be launched, created by her and nearly a hundred technical personnel:

A purification device disassembled into seventeen components, which can be packed and installed onto a simple airdrop framework, capable of being airdropped directly from the Sky Fortress to the ground for assembly.

She crawled out of the transportation pod, happily walked towards the assembly platform, and halfway there, she saw an unexpected figure standing there—a tall blonde woman wearing a snug, lightweight white uniform of an air force commander, with a decorative short cape draped over one shoulder. Her silky golden hair was tied into a single ponytail, making her look vigorous and refreshing.

She was the Empire’s Air Force Commander, Ginna Prince, once a Gryphon Knight and an experienced "Sky Rider." She had participated in almost every battle along the Empire’s path to rise and became the Empire’s first "pilot" upon the establishment of the Dragon Cavalry Troops. As a young and technologically advanced emerging Empire, the Cecil Nation was characterized by youthful talents in both military and technical fields, with this air force commander undoubtedly being one of the best among them.

However, Rebecca thought that Miss Ginna Prince’s most impressive feat wasn’t her skills in "air combat," but rather her undefeated streak of more than a platoon of people trying to introduce her to a partner and failing—rumor has it even Mister Soldrin’s mother approached her, and they had a delightful conversation, exchanging opinions on the rearing of gryphons and warhawks for the entire day. If Soldrin hadn’t arrived in time, the two might have become sisters from another race...

Rebecca shook her head vigorously, quickly dismissing the wandering thoughts from her mind, reminding herself that more than half of the gossip she heard came from Amber’s mouth, so it’s better not to indulge in such thoughts. Moreover, before departure, the Ancestor and Aunt Heidi had specifically reminded her to follow Commander Ginna’s instructions—though she was the technical director of the Dawn of the mortal world, she was merely the technical director, after all. The entire air force, including the Dawn of the mortal world, was still under the command of this truly professional soldier.

"Commander Ginna, what brings you here?" Rebecca approached and greeted Ginna, who seemed not to have noticed her, "I thought you’d be at the control center..."

"Princess Veronica," Ginna only then noticed Rebecca’s presence, smiling slightly and nodding, "I received the message you sent and was about to check on the last completed set of the Supercritical Accelerator, passing by here on the way, so I came to see how the purification device was doing."

Rebecca smiled proudly, never having learned to hide her feelings in the face of praise, "It looks pretty good, doesn’t it?"

Ginna turned her head, looking at the shiny metal devices on the assembly platform, the purification core split into three segments standing like giant pillars made of crystals and metal at the platform’s center, with technical personnel carefully installing buffer pads and fixing frames around them. Other components had already been disassembled and packed, neatly arranged at the platform’s edge, waiting for heavy transport vehicles to take them to the "launch port" at the edge of the Dawn of the mortal world. There, the packed components would be equipped with disposable airdrop frames, flying to the ground through a series of posture adjustments and deceleration, to be reassembled by the surface engineering teams and ground recovery units on-site.

"Truly an incredible achievement," Ginna wasn’t skilled in technical aspects, but she understood well the significant advancement this plan could bring to the entire battlefield, "The western front is currently the most ’lagging’ area in the alliance’s progress, but if the airdrop plan proceeds smoothly, we can catch up with our allies on other fronts."

"No problem at all, we’ve tested it, these broken down components are easy to install," Rebecca sounded very confident, "And during the airdrop, there’ll be an entire aerial combat group covering from above, until the purification device is activated, no monsters can interfere with the assembly progress on the ground..."

"No, I’m not worried about ground assembly and activation, I’m concerned about the airdrop itself..." Ginna seemed worried, "Are the disposable airdrop frames really reliable? Welding a high-powered anti-gravity ring directly onto that big metal frame... I looked at the finished product yesterday, and how can I say, it feels a bit... rough?"

Rebecca rubbed her chin, "I think it works... or should I ask the Mechanical Scholars to weld a couple more steel columns onto the frame?"

"It’s not about welding more steel columns... alright, you are the technical expert, if you confirm there are no issues, then it’s fine," Ginna Prince’s mouth twitched subtly, nodding helplessly, "Duke Baldwin has just sent a message from the ground, his main forces are ready to move, just waiting for us to set off."

Ensuring air supremacy first, then having ground forces follow up to secure territory, is something Ginna has learned during this war.

"Yes, Commander Ginna, the Dawn of the mortal world is ready," Rebecca immediately straightened up, speaking loudly and seriously, "We can set off now!"

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