The Steam Age: Gears and Bones

Chapter 42

The breastplate, backplate, armplates, shoulderplates, and legplates—each plate seemed to have its own will in her hands, sliding precisely into its designated slot.

She pushed the hydraulic linkage with her finger and it fit into the groove of the joint shaft.

Once all the armor plates were assembled, she flipped the back armor over, revealing the access port to the steam core.

Belfast stepped forward, filled the compressed anthracite briquette into the furnace, closed the furnace door, and locked the seal.

Perfit took a step back and gave a brief command: "Belfa, go inside."

Belfast silently stepped onto the edge of the box and inserted her arms into the operating sleeves inside her arm armor.

Perfit went behind her and connected the conductive interfaces one by one.

When the last interface was locked, she tapped the steam core's start valve with the end of her Midas touch.

The red light of the Philosopher's Stone fragment flashed briefly on the valve, and an extremely faint muffled sound came from inside the furnace—the compressed anthracite was instantly ignited, and the heat climbed to the operating temperature in a few breaths. The heavy water rapidly vaporized in the sealed pipes, and the high-pressure steam was injected into the hydraulic linkages of the limb joints along the copper pipes.

Two fine white plumes of smoke billowed from the exhaust grille on the back of the armor. Belfast raised one hand, clenched a fist, and then relaxed it.

Jiaju's fingers followed her differential machine commands, each knuckle moving so smoothly it was as if the machine had never stopped.

"How long can this coal last?" Ludwig asked, looking at the steam knight who had stood up again.

"Low-speed standby is enough to last us until we get through the pass." Perfit put the Midas touch back at his waist and straightened up. "If there are still ambushes in the pass that haven't been evacuated, this armor can wipe them out directly."

Ludwig looked at her for a moment, then gestured to the gray-armored knights behind him.

The gray-armored knights retreated from the edge of the pine forest and reformed into a guard formation.

The flag captain gave the order to the scouts: the four knights were to go back to the front of the column, the reconnaissance area was to be expanded, and the towers and trenches on both sides had to be checked again before the column passed.

Chernzov walked toward his old Russian soldiers and fleeing troops.

He took a neatly folded Rus' flag from Rahman—it was one he had brought from the defeated fortress, not his own worn-out old flag, but a new one he had found in the fortress warehouse, its golden double-headed eagle emblem still bright.

He planted the flagpole on the ground, gave a few brief instructions to Rahman and the sergeants, and then turned back to Perfit.

The team slowly emerged from the pine forest and advanced along the frozen road toward the pass. After walking for less than half an hour, the gray stone walls of the pass outpost appeared on the horizon.

Only after getting closer did Perfitt realize what this outpost had been through.

The upper part of the east tower was completely torn off.

It wasn't a collapse, but a direct hit from a shell—the stone crenellations at the top of the tower were blasted into jagged, serrated shapes, and broken bricks were scattered from the tower's base all the way to the edge of the trench. The largest piece was about the size of a horse-drawn cartwheel, half-buried in the frozen soil, with traces of the high-temperature burns from the shell explosion still remaining on its surface.

The tower's interior structure is exposed, with a broken wooden beam lodged diagonally in the pile of bricks. Several pieces of shrapnel are embedded in the beam, and rust marks along the edges of the shrapnel have left dark red marks on the wood.

Although the west tower still retains its complete shape, there is a longitudinal crack in the middle of the tower that runs from the crenellation to the base. At its widest point, a fist can be inserted into the crack. Through the crack, you can see the empty, emptied storage shelves inside the tower.

The main entrance to the command post building was blown open.

Radial charred marks from the explosion remain on the stone walls on both sides of the door frame. The iron door panel is rolled outwards, the hinges are broken, and the door panel itself is twisted out of shape, hanging halfway on the door frame, making an extremely faint metallic friction sound in the cold wind.

The main building's exterior walls were riddled with bullet holes, and near the ground at the base of the wall, there were several marks blackened by gunpowder, the result of close-range shooting—guns fired with the muzzle almost touching the wall.

Corpses lay scattered in the moats extending from the main building entrance to both sides.

Perfitter approached the edge of the trench, crouched down, and carefully examined the nearest corpse.

It was a young soldier wearing a Ross uniform, the number inside the collar of which was soaked in blood and could no longer be made out.

His fatal wound was in his chest—a bullet hole with charred edges in his uniform, his sternum pierced by the bullet, and broken rib fragments, already frozen white, protruding from the hole.

This was not caused by the infected; the infected do not use flintlock pistols.

She stood up and walked along the trench.

Every few steps at the bottom of the trench, there was a body, each with a different manner of death—some had been shot in the forehead and lay face up against the trench wall, their hands still in the position of gripping their rifles before they died, their fingers stiffly bent, and a thin layer of white frost on their knuckles.

Someone had half of their shoulder sliced ​​off by shrapnel. The wound had stopped bleeding, and the frozen, blackened muscle tissue and shattered scapula were exposed to the cold air, the edges as clean as if they had been sliced ​​by a giant blade.

Several bodies were piled up at the corner of the trench. Judging from their posture, they were shot from behind while trying to climb over the trench and retreat towards the main building. The bullet holes on their backs were so numerous that they were countless, and the backs of their uniforms were almost riddled with bullet holes.

She examined each body carefully.

They weren't infected; they were all Ross's garrison soldiers. They'd been dead for at least several weeks.

All the wounds were caused by bullets and shells.

In the latter half of the trench, the uniforms of several corpses had been turned over, their ammunition boxes were empty, and their weapons were not next to the bodies.

It is likely that Romulus's army picked up usable ammunition and weapons while clearing the battlefield.

Perfit straightened up, turning his gaze from the pile of corpses in the trench to the flag captain: "Have someone search the outpost. Collect anything still usable—ammunition, food, medicine, maps, military telegram records—and catalog them."

We need to be quick; the shorter our time here, the better.

The flag captain accepted the order and went to assign search areas.

Four knights were sent to search the tower and the outer perimeter of the main building, while the rest were divided into two groups: one group cleared out usable equipment from the trenches, and the other group entered the first floor of the main building to inspect each room.

Cherzov instructed Rahman to summon the sergeants and have them allocate manpower to assist the knights in moving supplies, but all the corpses should not be moved for the time being; they should be buried together after the supplies have been inventoried.

The sergeants went to allocate manpower, and the soldiers began to disperse in an orderly manner under the knight's command, disappearing into the shadows of the buildings throughout the outpost.

Perficott turned to Chertsov: "Lieutenant General, take me to headquarters. Hopefully, they left something behind before they left."