Looking down at the ground from a height of thousands of meters, the endless snow-capped mountains of the Monamolin Mountains resemble a vast and boundless white sea, which is a natural barrier on the southwestern border of the Ulster Free Federation, and to the west, there are five relatively weak independent states: the Kingdom of Fries, the Kingdom of Basel, the Kingdom of Kempten, the Kingdom of Falain, and the Ishnir Tribal Alliance, which are located between the Ulster Free Federation and the Norman Empire. Today, it is still struggling to survive in the cracks.

To the north, the federal states of Clavor and Neuchâtel in the west of the Ulster Free Federation, these two states have a relatively mild climate, full of lakes and plains, suitable for large-scale cultivation of crops, at the beginning of the last war, the Norman Empire and the Free Federation invested heavy troops here, launched an unprecedented fierce battle, as a result, the Norman Empire relied on the novel tactics of open space and land to win, and then, its troops drove straight into the heart of the Free Federation, That was the moment the old Emperor Hohenstaufen III came closest to his dream of world domination......

To the west, the Antarctic Sea and polar glaciers, especially the extremely cold polar glaciers, are completely unsuitable for terrestrial life, and only a few scientific expedition members have left footprints there.

To the east, is the federal state of Lorraine, where the Clumber-Heyssen family has lived for generations, the terrain here is mainly mountainous, the land is barren, the total population is only more than three million, and the per capita income ranks in the bottom ten among the 61 federal states of the Free Federation, but it is rich in coal, iron, chromium, nickel, copper and other ores, and the people are fierce, there are many traditional weapon workshops, before the birth of the Ulster Free Federation, it was regarded as the most difficult area to conquer, even the Grumman Group, which had a rapid industrial expansion, took two generations, It also failed to completely annex the metallurgy, foundry, military industry and other related industries of the federal state of Lorraine......

Struggling to crawl out of the snowdrift that day, Weiss seemed to be in purgatory, surrounded by charred trees and bomb craters, and when he returned to his hometown today, he thought he could recognize the battlefield ruins at a glance, but everywhere he could see was white, and finally relied on the bearing coordinates provided by Brooks to successfully reach the crash site of the "Ranger Del Long".

As the flying battleship hovered over the snowy forest, Weiss couldn't help but take a few more glances at the snowy mountain to the northwest. The scene of the sudden appearance of the enemy warship that day is still deeply engraved in his mind!

The basket slowly lowered, and Weiss's feet once again set foot on the land he would never forget. Looking around, he didn't see the huge wreckage of the Ranger Del Long, nor the huge craters, and if it weren't for the fact that there were still many blown tree stumps nearby, he really suspected that it was just a nightmare of his own.

"You must be curious about where the remains of the Ranger Del Longe have gone." "We brought it back with a transport, studied and analyzed it in detail, and by the remaining armor plates, we could already tell that it had been hit by enemy shells before it crashed," explained Major Brooks, standing beside Weiss. In addition, some of its remaining Star Stones have been repurposed, and in a little while, a brand new 'Ranger Del Longer' will return to our combat sequence. ”

Weiss closed his eyes softly and took a deep breath, a biting chill running down his airways into his lungs, but it still couldn't compare to the cold memories in his mind.

"Before it crashed, it had seven or eight shells, but it actually ...... The enemy's first shell left it largely incapacitated. It was a medium-caliber shell, it hit the middle of the starboard side, and then there was a violent explosion, and I was in the second deck on the starboard side, and the hull exploded, and I fell down and saw that a large piece of ...... was missing from the right side of the battleship."

The major responded: "The L24 type 1st class cruiser to which the 'Ranger Del Long' belongs does have the problem of insufficient protection capabilities, but the battle you experienced was an enemy ambush battle, and our battleships rushed to meet it, and their maneuverability and firepower performance were not brought into play. If it was a fair and equal battle, it would never have turned out this way. ”

"There's never an ideal equivalence on the battlefield, is there?" Weissdau.

The major sighed and did not answer.

After a while, more than two dozen people came down from the ship, including the four gendarmes brought by Leibold, two intelligence officers under Brooks, and a group of crew members who had been temporarily recruited to help.

Standing on this empty woodland, Weiss couldn't help but wonder: since the wreckage of the "Ranger Del Long" has been removed, the remains and relics scattered around at that time must have also been collected and brought back together, what else are you looking for this time?

When he asked Major Brooks this question, the Major gave him a meaningful look and replied, "In the last search, we were unable to find any evidence that the Norman armed forces had been here, nor did we find Dr. Z and the classified information he carried, and if we can find one of them, Mr. Clumber-Haysen, we can clear your name." ”

Instead of asking him what would have happened if he couldn't find evidence, Weiss asked him if the shells fired by Norman warships were not evidence?

Major Brooks replied: "There are many countries that import arms from the Norman Empire, so the shells themselves say nothing. ”

The battle that took place between the flying warships of the two countries, the Norman side did not lose anything, and it seems unlikely that they could find evidence other than the shells here, but on the side of the wooden house in the woods, because the battle lasted for a long time, there were casualties on both sides, even if the enemy later went back to clean up the remains of the dead, in the case of limited time and manpower, there should be something missing.

After much deliberation, Weiss told Major Brooks about his idea.

He thought that the major would immediately adjust the search plan and focus on the wooded cabin, but after thinking about it, he decided to conduct a large-scale search around the crash site of the "Ranger Del Longe", and if nothing was found within two days, he would go to the wooded cabin that had been set on fire by the soldiers of the 1st Special Service Group when the two sides had exchanged fierce fire and were set on fire when the soldiers of the 1st Special Service Group evacuated.

The entire operation is expected to be completed within five days.

The Major was the commander of the operation, and his decision was an order. The crew quickly unloaded their weapons, food, tents, stoves, fuel, and radio equipment, and set up a makeshift camp on the spot. The flying battleship "Scout Orlane" carrying them did not leave, but was ordered by the major to find an open space a few kilometers away and landed.

(Flying ships are powered by electrified Star Stones, which means they need to consume a constant stream of fuel to keep them flying.) If you wait in place for a few hours, it's okay to stay in the air, and after a few days and nights, it's enough to exhaust the fuel on board the flying battleship.)

For the first two days of arriving in the Monamolin Mountains, God was still a good face, and every day the wind was beautiful, and a large group of people could work from dawn to dark. Weiss did his best to recall the scene after the crash of the Ranger Del Longe, and the crowd dug up a lot of objects that the previous search team had missed from under the snow, and even dug up a mutilated body, but unfortunately, none of these things directly proved that the Norman armed forces were present here.

By the evening of the next day, Major Brooks had finally announced that, starting the next day, the search would be fully geared to "cabins in the woods."

In the second half of the night, the Monamolin Mountains began to be windy and snowy. This sudden snowstorm has no intention of stopping until dawn. In such bad weather, although the flying battleship can be lifted into the air, the flight state is very unstable, and it is difficult to hoist personnel and materials in the floating state.

To make matters worse, the guards found traces of the hyena near the camp early in the morning.

When the weather was good, the cunning beasts did not dare to provoke this group of armed and organized people, and as soon as the weather turned bad, they began to prepare for a sneak attack.

For safety reasons, Major Brooks decided to leave behind the tent, stove, and food, fuel, and ammunition that were not needed for the time being, and returned to the battleship with only weapons and necessities, and waited for the weather to improve before continuing the search operation.

The crash site of the "Ranger Del Longe" is more than 10 kilometers away from the wooden house in the woods that has been burned down, and if you take a flying battleship, it will take only a few minutes, but it will take half a day to trek on foot in the wind and snow.

A group of 27 people quickly packed up and set off in a team.

Leibold was at the front, followed by 2 gendarmes, Major Brooks, Nikolai, Weiss, 1 intelligence commissioner, 18 crew members, and behind the palace were 2 gendarmes under Leiboyd.

Operating in the inaccessible and beast-infested Monamolin Mountains, the group was all armed, but some were long and some short - Weiss, Nikolai and the crew used the Grumman M3.2D, a shortened version of the "Grumman Burning Stick" on the flying battleship, the gendarmes carried 2.5PIR (12.5mm) caliber revolvers, and Major Brooks and the intelligence officer he brought with him used 2PIR (10mm) caliber semi-automatic pistols.

From the makeshift camp to the landing site of the Scout Orleine, the distance in a straight line was less than four kilometers. When the weather is good, as long as you walk seven or eight hundred meters and walk through the woods, you can see the majestic figure of the flying battleship, so no one thought that in such a short distance, this group of soldiers with complete weapons and sufficient ammunition would be in danger......