Industrial Cthulhu, starting from the island lord

Chapter 549 Hold the fortress, no retreat allowed
Everything suddenly went dark. When Hughes slowly raised his head, he found himself in the long-lost throne room. Then, he turned to look at the worker Hughes sitting at the long table.

"Let me see what's going on."

About six months ago, before Castells began his Great Expedition, Hughes could still control the body of the worker Hughes and occasionally hold online meetings with a few people.

But one day, the body was suddenly enveloped in white mist, and the threads connecting it to others seemed to break, rendering them useless.

At first, Hughes didn't know what the white mist was, but as he sent troops north, he soon began to suspect—could this be the White Disaster?

None of those who entered the White Calamity survived, but Hughes's body didn't seem to be alive either.

After that, Hughes conducted many experiments, such as inhaling the white mist or shouting for help, but to no avail, so he gave up the exploration.

Until he learned that little Gwen had been swallowed by the white mist.

Back in Blood Harbor, he had secretly probed and knew that this little girl was very likely the one he had linked with, and might even have already come into contact with the extraordinary.

After all, when I first contacted her, the information I received was that she was a "named person".

When Big Gwen said she saw the white-haired little girl fall into the fog, Hughes immediately thought of the little girl who sold fried fish, so he rushed to the North.

If Little Gwen enters the White Disaster, will Hughes, a worker also in the White Disaster, be able to successfully link to her?
Hughes wasted no time, exchanged a glance with the worker Hughes, and then everything went black again.

When he opened his eyes, he was surrounded by endless white mist.

Hughes skillfully pulled out a few threads and tried them on the others first. As expected, just like before, they were completely immovable and the connection could not be manipulated.

Taking a deep breath, Hughes grabbed Gwen's thread and gave it a gentle tug.

He felt a supple touch in his hand, and the next moment, Hughes successfully established a connection with Gwen.

Inside the fortress.

"The skeleton swarm has reached the 1,000-meter marker!"

"Fire!"

The heavy machine gun, whose firing parameters had already been set, roared and spat out fire.

The white fog was getting closer and closer, like a massive tsunami, while the skeletons were the waves in front of it.

Gwen gripped her machine gun tightly, but instead of firing immediately, she knelt down and began to pray.

She placed one hand on her heart and the other on the heavy machine gun, her eyes slightly closed, her expression devout.

"Gwen, who are you praying to?" Hodge asked curiously from the side.

"By myself." Gwen opened her eyes after a while, revealing a somewhat embarrassed smile.

“It’s strange, isn’t it? I used to pray to the Silent Sanctuary, but they didn’t help our resistance. Nobody came. In despair, the only thing you can trust is the sword in your hand.”

"After that, I only prayed to myself, praying that my sword would always shine, and that my heart would never falter."

Gwen patted the heavy machine gun in front of her and grinned foolishly.

"Now I have a new friend, and I don't know what to pray for her, so I just pray that she has fun killing."

Gwen casually mounted the heavy machine gun on the firing port. A soldier next to her, noticing her empty loading bay, couldn't help but remind her:

"Have you forgotten?"

"Shut up!" the entire Hodge squad shouted in unison, startling the man, who then continued firing with a somewhat aggrieved expression. As he cranked the handle, he couldn't help but turn his head to look over again.

As Gwen chanted a prayer, she casually cranked the handle a couple of times, and the heavy machine gun eagerly roared with gunpowder smoke.

Gwen turned around for a while, but couldn't keep up with the speed of the bullets firing, so she simply let go of the crank and started firing the heavy machine gun.

The soldiers of the expeditionary force were dumbfounded.

The soldier who had just spoken up looked like his worldview had collapsed. He stared blankly at Gwen's machine gun for a moment, then looked down at his own.

After hesitating for a moment, he also began to pray, but he changed the prayer to the sacred text of imperial truth and the object of his prayer to Hughes.

Whether it was psychological or not, after a while, he opened his eyes, looked at the machine gun in his hand, and a look of surprise appeared on his face.

"Machine spirit! I think I can sense the machine spirit!" he shouted, and the soldiers all looked over.

Soon, the soldiers on this front began to employ some additional techniques during combat.
Alexei did not notice the soldiers' subtle movements.

He was standing in the temporary command post, nervously watching the state of the white fog along with the other technical priests.

"Are evacuation preparations complete?"

"All three steam trains are on standby, the steam engines have been kept running and they can be dispatched at any time. The soldiers' evacuation plan has also been practiced. After the order is given, everyone can board the train in turn within three minutes. Supply stations have also been prepared along the railway to deal with any emergencies."

Alexei nodded, then turned to the banshee beside him and asked, "Nini, how is the skeleton?"

"The kill efficiency is quite good. Currently, only one-fifth of the firing points have opened fire, and the skeleton horde has already been effectively intercepted. If nothing unexpected happens, they will not be able to break through our blockade line."

"And what about the fog?"

"The white mist's movement speed has indeed slowed down significantly. The skeleton is not far from it now, and that strange pulling effect has weakened considerably. It seems that our blocking of the skeleton is effective so far."

"But the white fog didn't really stop moving forward?"

"Unfortunately, yes, although the white mist has slowed down considerably, it is still moving steadily forward, and the bullets fired at it have no effect."

Alexei pursed his lips.

The skeletal remains are not difficult to stop. Although they can regenerate again and again, they are ultimately made of flesh and blood and cannot truly stop bullets.

But the white mist is different. It seems that only the Dragon Breath Cannon can have some effect, but it can only disperse part of the white mist, not enough to block it.

if it is like this.
"Get the reserves ready."

Alexei sighed and said.

The expeditionary force's fortress in the north was indeed magnificent, but it could only hold off enemies with physical forms.

If it were just bones, no matter how many there were, they would surely crash into Castells’ No. 150 concrete.

But what can we use to block the white fog?

"Shall we retreat, sir?"

Alexei sighed: "The dragon's breath cannon has too short a range, and the bastion can't defend against the fog. There's no point in holding out here."

"No, we must hold this position and not retreat." A voice suddenly rang out from behind.

(End of this chapter)