The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

The steam crossbow sounds unscientific, and even Leo can't imagine its firing principle. Obviously, relying solely on the instantaneous thrust of steam, it may be difficult for the arrows to produce power, but if it is not If it relies on steam propulsion, then what is the half-person-high steam device on the Annihilator's back for?

With all kinds of questions in his heart, Leo carefully observed the equipment on the Annihilator.

I saw that the annihilator was wearing a steam insulation suit all over his body, wearing a pair of glasses like diving goggles for his eyes, and holding a launcher for the steam crossbow in his hand. An Old Earth Gatling gun as seen in the Weapons Gallery.

An iron box with a height of half a person is carried on the back of the Annihilator. Some gears with unknown functions are installed on the outer shell of the box. There are some instruments, pistons and air outlet pipes on the top of the box. There are two adjustment hand valves near the hand. , a sealing tube extends from the bottom of the box, and connects with the end of the repeater launcher.

While Leo was secretly observing the situation, a soldier of the Kingdom of England with severely corroded skin suddenly got out of the trench in the distance, and ran frantically towards the periphery of the battlefield.

The movement made by this soldier was too great, and he was noticed after he ran a few steps away.

One of the Annihilators shouted and made a gesture, as if telling his colleagues that this person was handed over to him, and then saw him raise the repeater launcher in his hand and aim it at the mad soldier.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!

Several very slight cracking sounds came from the launcher, and immediately after that, five arrows with a length of about 20 centimeters were pierced into the body of the mad warrior.

The barb at the end of the arrow is released during flight to prevent the arrow from penetrating the body and causing more serious tearing damage to the target's body.

When the soldier fell to the ground, his body had been torn into pieces by the arrow barbs, and his original shape could not be seen at all.

Although Leo had seen the power of various weapons of the Interstellar Federation, he still had to marvel at the power of the steam crossbow in front of him.

After Leo retracted his head back to the bunker, he estimated his own strength in his heart.

If he still had the body of the original biochemical weapon, this kind of weapon with a high rate of fire would not cause him any trouble, but although the strength of this body is two or three times that of ordinary people, it is not strong enough to avoid it. Those arrows that were faster than sound, once he was exposed, the final result would definitely not be much better than the crazy warrior just now.

Thinking of this, Leo carefully retreated from the broken bunker to the trench, crouched down, and quickly returned to the hiding place of Nelson and Jason.

"How's the situation outside?" Seeing Leo's figure appear, Nelson asked hastily.

Jason also pulled the corpse off his body, sat up, and looked at Leo expectantly.

"It's bad." Leo shook his head, responded, and emphasized: "It's very bad."

Afterwards, he carefully told the two of them what he saw outside just now.

Hearing that the situation outside was so dangerous, both Nelson and Jason sat on the ground in frustration, and the whole person became disheartened.

Feeling that the atmosphere was not right, Leo immediately gave them some hope, saying: "It is impossible to escape now, after dark, maybe we can find the loopholes in their defense line."

Although Leo's words were more like a last consolation, at least it brought some hope to the two of them, and also made the surrounding atmosphere a little better.

At Leo's suggestion, the three of them moved to a trench closer to the edge of the battlefield. This was not to better observe the soldiers of the Faran Empire, but to avoid the poisonous gas smoke.

In the trench where the three of them were now, the poisonous gas smog was already very thin. As long as the skin was not directly exposed, they would not be harmed, and their protection would no longer be corroded by the poisonous gas smog, allowing them to persist until tomorrow.

There was still some time before dark, and the three of them sat facing each other. At Leo's suggestion, they arranged their luggage again. Because they escaped in a hurry before, all the items they collected were directly stuffed into their pockets. This situation is nothing in normal times, but it may become a fatal factor after the escaped death.

For this reason, the three of them carefully sorted out their belongings, and rearranged them according to Leo's suggestion, making the luggage on their bodies more regular, and the abnormal noise made when walking was much smaller.

After finishing packing, the sun had gradually set and the sky was getting darker. In order to pass the time, Jason, who was a little bored, asked Leo in a low voice as if he had nothing to say: "Is it not dangerous for us to stay here? If those guys push into the trenches, we'll probably be discovered the first time."

Leo closed his eyes slightly. While adjusting his breathing rhythm, cultivating his body and mind, and recovering his strength, he answered Jason's question and said, "No. It depends on the situation. Before the poisonous gas and smoke in the battlefield area of ​​the French Empire troops dissipated." , they will not go into the trenches."

"Uh! That's good." After getting the answer, Jason felt a little relieved, and then simply used his backpack as a pillow, fell down and fell asleep, not worried at all whether he would be able to find it from the enemy's defense line tonight. Opening a hole, escaping out, is completely heartless.

The surrounding atmosphere became quiet again, apart from the occasional sound of metal armor rubbing from outside the trench, there was no sound of anything else.

After a while, the sky was completely dark, and I don’t know if God was taking care of Leo and the others. It was clear that the sky was still clear in the morning, but now it was covered by dark clouds, blocking all the stars and moonlight, and making everything under the sky change. darker.

At this time, the troops of the French Empire that surrounded the battlefield collected a large amount of firewood, made fires one by one according to the length of the distance, and ignited them. The fire produced by the fire was almost dry enough to find the surrounding situation. And it connects with the flames of other fires, forming a search isolation zone composed of flames.

I don't know if it's because he hasn't been in any danger all this time, but Nelson became more courageous. He found a wooden box to put under his feet, quietly put his head out of the trench, and fiddled with the eyes on the mask twice. , like a telescope to see the movements of the soldiers of the Faran Empire in the distance.

Nelson's actions were also noticed by Leo, especially the movement of adjusting the eyes on the mask aroused his interest. He also tried to touch the edge of the mask's eyes according to the position where Nelson's fingers touched.

Although the tactile sensation became somewhat inconspicuous through the glove, he still felt that there seemed to be a deliberately protruding gear on the frame of the eye. He fiddled with the gear after him, and found that the eyes on the mask extended forward and backward like a telescope, allowing the The scene gradually became clearer.

"It's really fun!" Leo returned his eyes to their original positions and said approvingly.

Although this pair of glasses is simply an antique that is not worth mentioning in the Earth Federation, but in the current environment, it is really commendable to make the glasses so exquisite.

"This is a medical device specially designed by Locke Institute of Mechanics for the Department of Medicine. It is usually just ordinary glasses, and it can be used as a magnifying glass during surgery." Nelson shrank back into the trench, just in time to hear Leo's words of approval. , So he explained, followed him and said in a heavy tone: "Just now I looked at the soldiers of the Faran Empire, and found that they are not ordinary soldiers."

"What do you mean?" Leo asked puzzled.

"They are the troops directly under the Duke of Dewen, the eldest son of the Emperor of the French Empire." Nelson explained, pointing to a part of his waist, and said: "Here is the badge of the Duke of Dewen."

Hearing this, Leo recalled the outfits of those soldiers, and quickly found the badge from the information summarized by the system, and confirmed, "Is it that two-headed deer?"

"Yes." Nelson nodded, and said again: "If I remember correctly, this is not the territory of the Duke of Devin. Why did his direct troops come here? And he used imine gas in violation of the Continental Agreement. Could it be that he Aren't you afraid that the Continental Congress will question you?"

"These things have nothing to do with us, and it's useless to know." Leo was not very interested in the secrets that Nelson said might be related to the war, he was more concerned about other things, "Doctor, since you If you can recognize those people at a glance as the troops directly under the Duke of Devon, then you must know something about them. Tell us about their abilities. The more we know, the less likely there will be accidents later .”

"Who do you think I am? I'm just a doctor. How could I know about Duke Devin's army?" Nelson said with a self-deprecating smile. It is also one of the best among the various legions of the empire,"

As he spoke, he paused for a moment, as if he had something to hide, but after thinking about the current situation for a while, he finally said it out, and said, "My classmate in the medical school once mentioned that there was a meeting between the medical school and Duke Dewen. Cooperation, to invent a drug that can stimulate the potential of the human body for the Duke of Dewen, but it seems to have failed in the end, and only a defective product was produced."

After Leo heard this secret, he couldn't help but think of those armored swordsmen patrolling back and forth in his mind. He thought of them wearing heavy armor, carrying a large shield behind them, and carrying a two-handed broadsword in their hands. It was very relaxing, which made him think of the medicine Nelson was talking about.

In the Earth Federation, it is common to use drugs to enhance the potential of the human body. By systematically taking drugs, an ordinary person can eventually have the same physical fitness as a combat biochemical human.

Although with the level of technology here, even if the technology tree is not crooked, it is impossible to have the potential medicine with the same high efficiency as the Earth Federation, but it is not impossible to create a similar medicine.

So, he immediately asked: "Do you know anything about the defective product of that potential drug?"

"I don't know much about it." Nelson shook his head slightly, and then added: "But I have seen the corpse of the experimenter who failed to use the defective product. That corpse...how should I put it? It looks like a monster full of muscles Same."

Hearing this, Leo couldn't help sticking his head out of the trench, and by the light of the bonfire, he looked at the sword soldiers patrolling back and forth in the distance, and saw them waving their two-handed broadswords like waving a piece of paper. Answer.

"It's really difficult!" Leo frowned, thinking that if those sword armor soldiers really took that kind of medicine, then his attack might hardly cause fatal damage to this kind of person. Alarming others puts him in danger.

When Nelson sat back on the ground again, the mechanical repeater he put aside casually reminded Leo, and he quickly had a plan in his mind, and then asked Nelson very seriously: " I remember you said just now that you added a poison to the arrow, what is the effect of that poison?"

"Very strong." Nelson said confidently, but he seemed to feel that the words were too full, and added: "The strong effect of the medicine is only for ordinary people. I have not tested it on those with special conditions. .”

"What will happen if this medicinal powder is burned? Will it lose its efficacy?" Leo asked again.

"The efficacy of the medicine will be affected..." Nelson quickly replied, and then he was stunned, as if thinking of something, looked at Leo, and asked: "Do you want to throw these medicine powders into the fire , to create poisonous smoke?"

Leo nodded and asked, "Can it be useful?"

Nelson pondered for a moment, seeming to be thinking about Leo's thoughts, and after a while, he said, "If you just use this mixed medicine powder, it may be difficult to produce the effect you want, but I can improve the medicine powder and let it pass through." Incineration will produce an effect, and will not weaken the efficacy of the medicine too much."

Leo showed joy, and immediately urged: "Very good, quickly configure it."

Under Leo's urging voice, Nelson immediately took out the medicine suitcase, took out several bottles of medicine powder and a set of balance weights, carefully mixed the medicines according to the formula, and filled half an iron box in a short time. And the medicine needed to prepare the poison was also used up at this time.

Leo found a wide-mouth flask from Nelson's medicine chest, poured all the medicines in the iron box into it, and then made a light-shielding tent with a wooden box and thick cloth.

He took a medical alcohol lamp and boiled some water in the tent. He did not extinguish the flame until the water boiled.

Following him, he stuffed a half-meter-long bandage into a wide-mouthed flask filled with poison, poured warm water into it, plugged the mouth of the wide-mouthed flask with a soft stopper, and shook the bottle vigorously to let the poison in the bottle The poison quickly dissolved into the water, and the water completely penetrated the bandage in the bottle.

After making all the preparations, Leo signaled Nelson to take a break now, so that he would not have the strength to escape when he broke through later.

And he made a small flag out of bandages, stuck it on the bunker not far from the trench, and then sat back in the trench, quietly watching the small flag that was constantly being sealed and blown.