Cage Mountain, outside Thorns Town.
“A-achoo——”
Walking into the warehouse through the wind and snow, Gu De sneezed heavily. He placed the heavy ammunition box in his hand beside the plane and sat down on it with a thud. "I hate winter... it always reminds me of the days of liuwang."
"No one likes the Evil Moon, but I have to say, this temperature hasn't even touched the edge of winter yet." Fen Jin curled his lips and opened the wooden box he had carried on his back. "You should be glad we're not far from the sea, the effect of the Evil Moon isn't so obvious—before His Majesty became the lord of the Western Region, everyone didn't know if they would live to see tomorrow each time they went to sleep. Not to mention liuwang, even hiding in the house, you might be crushed by the accumulated snow and suffocate in the snowdrift."
"Uh... is the Evil Moon in Neverwinter that terrible?"
"That's right, and this situation was completely resolved after His Majesty brought cement houses. Otherwise, why do you think His Majesty Roland named the new capital 'Neverwinter City'?" Fen Jin shrugged, taking out the drum magazines wrapped in the box and placing them one by one into the compartments.
The Skyfire had two machine guns installed, one at the front and one in the middle of the fuselage. Although they were both the latest general-purpose machine guns, the ammunition supply methods were very different. The gun body at the front was half-buried in the plane and used a belt-fed system, so the ammunition box was also made of metal, requiring complete disassembly for reloading.
The machine gun used by the rear gunner was fixed on a rotatable gun mount, and the operation method was exactly the same as that of the Firearm Battalion's Mark I, except that the ammunition supply was changed to a saddle-shaped drum magazine with a capacity of one hundred rounds, which could be manually replaced directly in the air.
Therefore, in order to ensure that each mission was fully loaded, the ammunition needed to be re-prepared after the plane landed, no matter how many shots were fired. Although this step could be left to the ground crew, Gu De preferred to do it himself—as long as he could touch the plane more, even for just a moment, he didn't want to miss such an opportunity.
At this moment, a burst of enthusiastic cheers rang out outside the warehouse.
There was no doubt that another trainee had passed the assessment and safely landed the plane on the runway.
Even with the light snow falling, Her Royal Highness Princess Wendy did not stop the training.
In fact, she was even busier than before.
In addition to teaching new trainees how to fly, the princess would also take them to patrol the northwest region of Wolfheart twice a day, and the evenings were spent on theoretical lessons and problem discussions, with hardly any time to stop.
Influenced by her, everyone seemed to be putting in their best effort, and the training effect was even better than in Neverwinter. At least this week of flying had not seen a single trainer crash.
After working with his partner to load the new ammunition box into the front ammunition compartment, Gu De walked to the window and sighed softly.
"What's wrong, homesick?" Fen Jin followed up and asked.
He shook his head. "I'm just a little worried..."
"Worried about the war or worried about your sister far away?" Fen Jin showed a smirk. "I remember her name is Rachel, right?"
"I'm worried about being replaced!" Gu De glared at the other person unhappily.
"Why?"
"Currently, there are only four planes capable of combat, one of which is Her Highness Tilly's Unicorn. That is to say, we must be in the top three among all qualified people to be eligible to fly the Skyfire." Gu De turned around and looked at the bustling training ground, and said in a low voice, "Our advantage was combat experience, but we haven't seen the shadow of a devil yet. If one or two geniuses emerge among the new recruits, we may have to move backwards."
Probably not expecting that he was worried about this, his partner was stunned for a while before helplessly saying, "Hey, you're thinking too much. Even live ammunition target practice is experience—didn't Her Highness say that these thousands of rounds of ammunition would take the Firearm Battalion a month or two to practice with!"
"But neither of us are very good at shooting, are we?"
"This..." Fen Jin was momentarily speechless.
Even though the patrols
had not yet encountered the enemy, the machine guns on the plane had already fired several times—Tilly didn't let them bring the ammunition back untouched. Instead, she would find a target on the way back to unload the bullets, treating it as live-fire practice. Sometimes it was a randomly released balloon, and sometimes it was a large tree on the top of a mountain.
This also made Gu De realize that his talent in shooting was far inferior to his talent in flying. At the same time, he also heard that many talented people had emerged among the newly recruited trainees, one of whom, apparently a newcomer named Manfred, had gained the recognition of the instructors in just a few days.
Therefore, his worries were not unfounded.
Unfortunately, operational skills could be mastered by repeatedly practicing on the simulator in his own time, but shooting completely depended on feeding it bullets.
"Woo————————————————————"
Suddenly, a sharp alarm sounded over the airfield!
Gu De and Fen Jin exchanged glances, and their expressions changed involuntarily.
Once the alarm sounded, all training had to be stopped, the runway cleared, and the selected air knights had to go to the airport command post to assemble as soon as possible.
This was the first time such an emergency call had occurred in the week or so since they had been stationed in Thorns Town.
Without any hesitation, the two of them ran towards the command post at the same time.
……
Soon, more than thirty people gathered in the temporarily built operations room.
"Just one minute ago, I received news from Iron Axe that a devil squad has appeared two hundred kilometers north of Wind Howl Fort." Her Royal Highness Princess Wendy pointed to the map on the wall and said, "The message was transmitted through animal messengers, and the secret letter also stated that a group of fleeing refugees were found nearby—the devils' purpose is likely to be this. Relying solely on the garrison of Wind Howl Fort, it would take more than two days just to march there, and it would probably be too late when they arrived."
"And this is precisely the battlefield that is most suitable for air knights. Apart from the Skyfire, no one can cross such a long distance for combat in two or three hours. Even the enemy cannot imagine that this sky will no longer be the exclusive domain of devils one day! Now listen to my orders, air knight squad, set off immediately!"
"Yes, Your Highness!" Everyone said in unison.
Gu De couldn't help clenching his fists. He had finally waited for a real combat opportunity!
Back at the warehouse, the ground crew had completed the takeoff preparations.
He climbed into the cockpit in three steps and two steps, skillfully opened the oil and circuit valves, and rotated the starting handle—under the traction of the electric motor, the nose of the plane spewed out bursts of black smoke, completing the first cycle in a series of popping explosions.
And once the cycle began, the piston engine would continue to operate at high speed.
Gu De put on his goggles and pressed down on the control stick amidst the waving and shouting of the crowd.
Half a quarter of an hour later, four biplanes roared across the runway in sequence, rising into the air against the swirling snowflakes, heading north.