Chapter 12: Chapter 12 : The first scramble opens
A square of 2,500 airships, lit by cold lights, hovered silently and calmly not far away.
From the perspective of the Newton, it looked very oppressive.
The lights of the airship swarm shone over the Newton to the giant airship on the opposite side. The giant airship, which was already shining with a cold gray light, now reflected the lights of the airship swarm and looked like a huge light bulb in the night.
As the Newton stopped, the liquid bubbles slowly retreated into the airship bulkhead.
The faces of the team sitting in different places gradually became clear, like a gradual retreat from a warm and unreal dream to the harsh reality.
"The airship swarm has transmitted an encrypted, close-range transmittable signal." Robo reminded the worried faces of the group. Everyone on board the Newton was silent at the moment. Everyone was prepared to encounter a lot of difficulties, but this was just the beginning. Robo's calm voice suddenly rang out, cutting through the long silence.
"Can't crack it?" Master Wu asked.
"It should be possible, but it will take time to mobilize the data." Robo replied.
"They're contacting the airship." Merry said.
"Yes, this message is supposed to mobilize the data of a certain ship for encryption, and then call the data for decryption after the ship receives it. This encryption method can be easily cracked for two interconnected ships, but for others it is like a sealed book," Robo explained.
"Did they have a connection before?" Jason asked.
"I don't think so."
"Then how did they get the data about each other's ship?" Jason wondered.
"Before exchanging encrypted messages, they should have shared some of the publicly releasable data of each other's ship." Robo replied.
"So can we intercept their data and decrypt it?" Merry asked.
"In principle it's possible, but the airship swarm should have activated its signal shield just now and prevented the Newton from receiving data. Before intercepting this encrypted message, no other data was intercepted." Robo said.
"Is their signal shielding system already so advanced? To be able to block the signal of the selected object at will, should this really be used in the battlefield, it would become a big deal. I always thought it was just an idea circulating on the Internet." Bob said in surprise.
"It is much more advanced than imagined, but it should also be in the early stages of research and development. Just now, they should also only briefly blocked the signal of the Newton, and then sent part of their data to the giant airship on the opposite side, so that they could share the data for communication." Robo explained.
" They are really, being respectful!" Jason was champing with rage.
Indeed, the Newton was so disparate in strength to either side that they could have easily torn the Newton apart like an ant, and could have chosen to communicate openly about the terms of how to divide the prey in front of them, but they showed enough "respect" to the Newton by choosing to communicate in such a fussy way.
"I can temporarily enter the sleep mode and turn off the social system to speed up the decryption," Robo said.
"Okay." Master Wu agreed.
"I cannot communicate directly with everyone after entering the sleep mode, so it may not be able to protect everyone in time, please take care of your safety." Robo uttered these words in a tone that remained calm and almost inhumane, but undoubtedly, they warmed everyone present. He is a robot, so he will always speak in a same tone that, from a human point of view, is cold and heartless, but it is something at the bottom of his heart that his set-up is to do his best to protect these people in front of him. This is a feeling that cannot be defined by any word in the human world, including "loyalty".
The others on the Newton could only wait in silence while Robo decrypted the encrypted exchange between the two sides.
Airship swarm, "We have tracked the Treeman and his companions as early as the slum, so we have set up an ambush and wait here specifically. In order to avoid losses on both sides, we ask you our friend to retreat immediately."
Giant airship, "We have no fear of loss."
After a few minutes, Robo uploaded the decrypted conversation to the Newton's display system one after another.
The conversation that followed probably unfolded in response to this, with the airship swarm believing that they had spotted the team first, so it was logical that the giant airship should quit the fight and let them take Dao.
The attitude of the giant airship was disdainful and impatient, thumbing its nose at the blackmail and compromise from the other side.
Merry thought twice and decided to just leave the ship and go negotiate with the giant airship. If their target was Dao, then if the conversation went well, she would be willing to take Dao with them, in which it could avoid greater losses and save the others on the Newton.
"You can't do that, we're a team, you can't just leave us behind and go into danger at a critical time like this." Jason was a little angry to hear Merry's thoughts, "You make it look like we're a joke."
Merry looked out the window, the airship swarm was still hanging neatly in the night sky, she said said faintly: "We were a joke."
Jason wanted to say something else, but for a moment there was no way to refute.
"Merry, this is dangerous, stay with us." Cici said.
"No, Dao is their target, I'll go to them and say I'm willing to hand over Dao, maybe there's a chance of survival. They have made such a big show, if we resist, they can just take our lives. I can't let everyone get dragged into this." Merry said.
"But..." Cici still wanted to persuade Merry.
"Merry, I'll go with you." Dao, who had been silent, suddenly said.
Everyone turned their eyes to him, and his expression was firm and relaxed.
"It's dangerous." Merry said, tears were in her eyes.
"Merry, as long as I'm with you, I'm not afraid of anything." Dao said.
The Newton was originally not far from the ground, and landing on the ground did not cause any reaction from the enemies on either side.
The door of the airship opened, casting a small warm yellow glow on the dark ground, contrasting with the cold white light of the airship swarm.
Two small figures appeared on the open ground next to the airship, and Merry led Dao down from the airship.
Suddenly, the cold lights of the airship swarm in the opposite turned into dots of blood-like red, and switched back to white, which flickered so violently for three times. Just got off the airship, Merry had not yet adjusted to the miserable white light outside and shaded her eyes.
A few moments later, the front-most airship in the airship swarm in the opposite suddenly exploded in the air, like a brilliant firework exploding in the air without warning, right after that, with this airship as the center, it began to spread around, like igniting a long-linked firework swarm, all the airships in the swarm quickly exploded in the air, before the airships at the very edge of the formation reacted and started to escape, it was too late.
The 2,500 airships exploded in the air suddenly, like countless fireworks that blossomed violently after rising into the air.
Merry looked at this scene and was shocked speechless, she suddenly thought of the "New Year's Eve". Merry read in Robo's information that as early as two centuries ago, around 2022, in power in the Eastern World, there was the custom of New Year's Eve, when people would set off fireworks and families would gather together for New Year's Eve dinner, what a cozy picture. And the scene in front of her reminded her of the fireworks show in the material provided by Robo...
Airship swarm, "Please retreat as soon as possible, otherwise half of our airships will be sent to bombard."
Giant airship, "Go on!"
The "corpses" of the burning airship swarm outside the window after the violent explosion, slowly fell to the ground, and exploded again in the distance on the ground. For a moment, the outside of Avalon, which had been silent and dark, became as bright as daylight.
Robo deciphered the last two lines of dialogue when the fire outside had gradually declined.
Everyone on the Newton, including Merry and Dao, who had disembarked from the airship, were shocked by the splendid sight before them, or rather, by the hidden power and cruelty behind it, which had far exceeded all the harsh realities that the team had been exposed to.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone