After thinking for a moment, Zero decided to suppress the doubts about Franklin's identity first. It's about his secret, even if he asks the giant, he might not be able to tell it, so it's better to inquire about it later. After changing the subject, he said, "I heard from Cinderella that you have been to Istar. Then why are you here?"
Franklin rolled his eyes and said, "You want to go to Istar?"
"Yes, I want to negotiate a deal with the rebels." Zero was vague.
"Then you don't need to go." The giant sighed slightly, and said, "Istar is finished, that's where I escaped from."
"What?"
In the meeting room on the Destiny, Zero summoned Feng and others as well as Cinderella, and told the whole story about Istar from Franklin. Franklin did not hide anything about this, from when he and the Knights of the Vatican encountered the Iron Scale intervening in the rescue, to Sauron secretly cooperating with Deborah to finally destroy Istar. But he concealed the fact that Sauron took him away, and simply said that after he escaped from Istar, he was still hunted down by Sauron and the two, and he was rescued only after fleeing to this sea area.
But this does not prevent Zero from grasping the current information of Istar, and at the same time, he has a more intuitive understanding of Sauron's ability from the side. From this incident, it can be seen that Sauron is not simple. The Iron Scale and Diboraxian are chess pieces that he has arranged a long time ago, but they have not used them until now. And with the posture of thunder, completely destroyed the headquarters of the rebel army.
Next, the Western Continent will usher in the most turbulent era. The three corners of the pope's hall, pirates and rebels are like cornerstones, and now one corner has collapsed, and the pope's hall is huge. Without the containment of the rebel army, maybe Sauron would soon take the pirates. Then, Roaring Bay will no longer be a shelter for pirates.
It's just that the news that Ishtar was destroyed should not have spread, and there are very few people who have foreseen the undercurrent of the times. But when it was discovered that the undercurrent turned into a tsunami that destroyed the world, it was too late to reverse the unchangeable fate.
"No, I have to do something!" Cinderella stood up. As one of the four major pirate groups, she naturally knew what the consequences would be after the destruction of Istar: "I have to go to the sea immediately." Everyone, I must tell everyone about this. Especially Deborah, he turned out to be Sauron's lackey, this matter must not be left alone!"
"Don't be impulsive." Zero grabbed her hand and said, "The news must be spread, so that others can prepare in advance. But the time for spreading is very important, let alone dealing with the Pope Hall, your strength alone is not enough. enough."
"Franklin said that Sauron only destroyed Istar and killed the leader Ursen. Of course, many soldiers of the rebel army must have been killed. But don't forget that their remaining two leaders are not dead yet. And all the troops will not just let Sauron and Deborah eat up. In other words, they still retain a certain strength."
Zero looked at everyone and said: "I want to go to Istar, and Franklin also asked me to take him back. He said that Istar was indirectly destroyed by him, and he needs to go back to confirm the current situation of the rebels. Condition."
"After I come back from Istar, I will go to Sea House with you to tell other people the news. Believe me, we still have a lot to do, and Sauron will never make a big deal out of it. Because..." Zero Looking at Cinderella, he said lightly, "I'm coming!"
Cinderella was stunned for a while, and said, "Can you accompany me to the side of the boat?"
Nodded, let Feng pass on his instructions, and asked Billy to ask Franklin about the route to Istar. He and Cinderella came to the ship's side deck outside the Destiny, facing the sea, Cinderella turned around suddenly and said, "Who the hell are you? Intervening in the disputes of our mainland should not be the work of so-called adventurous merchants? Besides, yours The strength has far exceeded what a caravan should have!"
"Give up your strength." Zero calmly sat on the deck, and said lightly, "I know, Cinderella. You grew up in the flames of war, and you chose to become a pirate to resist the Pope's Hall. But you You don't want outsiders like me to intervene to make the situation worse, so when necessary, you will use force against me at all costs, right?"
Cinderella sighed, bit her lips tightly and said, "That's right, even if it's because of this, I won't be happy in the future. But this continent is already chaotic enough, and I don't want you to make it more chaotic."
"You're wrong." Zero waved, motioning for Cinderella to sit next to him.
Cinderella hesitated for a moment, then sat down as promised. Zero took her hand, kissed her lightly and said, "Whether you believe it or not, I will tell you. Cinderella, my enemy is not here. It is not on any continent, it is very powerful, It is so strong that it is possible to fight against it by gathering the strength of all people. For the Western Continent, I am indeed an outsider. But what I bring is not chaos, but order. Because I hope that the Western Continent after restoring order can become a My ally, join me against that mighty enemy. Not only for me, but for the world."
"You may not understand now, but please stay by my side. I believe you will understand soon, and you can also supervise me. If you find that what I do is contrary to what I said at this moment, you can shoot me at any time." Zero looked directly at Cinderella and said.
Cinderella looked at him submissively, and nodded after a long time: "Okay, I believe you. But as you said, if one day I find out that you have lied to me, then we are enemies!"
"Don't worry, I won't let that moment come, my lord queen." Zero stood up, imitating the tone of the pirates on the Nixie.
Cinderella couldn't help laughing.
Zero said, "Come on, let's see how Billy's course drawing goes."
When the two came to the medical room, they just bumped into Billy walking out. Franklin's description was clear and in place, allowing Billy to quickly draw the route to Istar. According to the speed of the Destiny, they can reach Istar in three days. So the Destiny bypassed the House of the Sea and headed towards Istar according to the channel provided by Franklin.
At night, the Destiny moored near an isolated island. Haiwei and the others couldn't sit still on the boat, so they planned to go to the isolated island. Zero knew that everyone would be busy, so he proposed to hold a banquet on the island. The crew were delighted to hear the news, and Zero invited Franklin. The giant's injury was basically fine, and he didn't want to stay in the medical room, so he accepted it happily.
It's just that when he walked out of the medical room, Franklin showed symptoms. And when he came to the isolated island to watch the Destiny, Franklin couldn't help but tremble all over his body.
"Scared, big man." Feng just took some food from the Destiny, and seeing Franklin like this, he laughed and said: "Our boat is different from ordinary ones."
"Yeah, I was really scared." Franklin lowered his head, his hands were still trembling slightly.
Zero next to him looked in his eyes, thoughtful.
Soon, everyone built a bonfire on the beach of the isolated island. Feng and Kaidon also went to the island to fetch a few mutant beasts to roast and eat. The crew had a great time eating, and they hadn't relaxed like this for a long time. In the end, these guys didn't go back to the boat at all, they set up their marching tents and slept on the beach.
Zero was no exception, but in the middle of the night, he woke up suddenly. Zero quietly walked out of the tent, just in time to see the Destiny undulating slightly on the water under the dark red sky. A huge figure jumped onto the ship's side deck, and then walked into the Destiny.
It was Franklin. He didn't use the passkey, but pressed his palm on the ship like Zero at the beginning, and the Destiny opened the entrance and exit for him. There were other people on board, but they were all fast asleep at this time. What's more, Franklin landed silently, and the tall figure followed the main passage of the spaceship all the way to the front of the control room, and no one knew it at all.
He walked into the control room and went straight to the console. Franklin kept sliding his hands on the light screen of the console. If Billy was beside him now, he would definitely jump up excitedly, because the weapon system that neither he nor Dr. Curd could decode could be decoded by Franklin's complicated operation. One untie. The light screen showed that except for the particle beam main cannon, the antimatter cannons on both sides of the bow and other weapon platforms had changed from the red unusable state to the green active state.
Franklin searched for other systems, and finally said to himself: "Very good, all the weapons can still be used. Although the efficiency of the energy system is not as good as before, it is still ok. With it, maybe everyone will be able to use it. Rescue..."
"That can't be done."
Suddenly another voice sounded at the door of the control room, and Franklin turned around abruptly. Zero walked out from behind the dimly lit door of the control room. Looking down at Franklin from the captain's high platform, he said, "It took us a lot of effort to make the Destiny available for use. After all, we can't let Mr. Franklin drive away at will, can we?"
"Destiny?" Franklin asked, "Is this its current name? Destiny... Hey, it's quite appropriate."
"Let us talk about you, Mr. Franklin. The weapon system that our engineers have been unable to decode has been opened for you a few times. It seems that you are familiar with this spaceship from the last era. Then can I Inference like this, in fact, Mr. Franklin, you are not from this era?" Zero said lightly.
Below the control room, Franklin fell silent. But as his eyes gradually turned red, a rough and thick power also quietly emanated. Zero shook his head and said, "Don't get me wrong, Mr. Franklin. I don't intend to pursue your identity. There are already too many weird things in this world. It's nothing if you have one more person who doesn't belong to this era. I'm sorry for eavesdropping I missed your words, but what you said just now seems to mean that you want to save some people, and these people are of course your compatriots... "
"Before you went to Istar again, which means that you wanted to cooperate with the rebel army in exchange for the chance to save your compatriots. Since the partner of your cooperation is the rebel army, then your enemy is naturally the Pope's Hall?" Zero With a faint smile: "If it is the Pope's Hall, then our goals are the same. I think you may also cooperate with me."
Franklin looked at Zero seriously, and he had to admit that Zero was very smart. He has deduced the outline of the whole incident based on his few words, plus Zero means that he did not delve into his identity, which won Franklin's favor. So he nodded and said, "How do you want to cooperate?"
Zero said lightly: "It's very simple. I still lack a deputy captain on board. Franklin is also very familiar with the system of the Destiny. If you are willing to join, I believe that the performance of the Destiny can be greatly improved. Of course, I hope you You can tell my engineer the real operation method of the Destiny. In return, I will help you rescue those compatriots, how about it?"
Franklin thought for a while, nodded and said, "It's fair, I can't think of a reason to refuse."
"Then welcome, our vice-captain." Zero smiled.
Three days later, Destiny passed through the natural tunnel of Crescent Island and arrived at the inner bay, and saw Istar from a distance. During these three days, the people on board were shocked again and again. First, Franklin suddenly became the deputy captain of the Destiny, and then he began to guide several engineers, including Billy, to understand some of the originally encrypted systems of the Destiny. Under Franklin's direction, the operators in the control room were finally able to use the other weapon systems. After Billy's evaluation, the performance of Destiny has been improved by at least 50%.
As for how Franklin was able to decipher the encrypted systems of the Destiny, Zero only gave an explanation that their deputy captain was also a weapons engineer. Naturally, no one would really believe this explanation, but since Zero didn't want to talk about it, other people wouldn't get to the bottom of it either. After all, there are more or less secrets that are unwilling and humane in everyone.
Compared with Franklin's identity, Istar's appearance shocked everyone's attention even more. In the three windows of the Destiny's control room, it can be seen that the flames burning on Istar have been extinguished. But there are still smoke columns rising on the island, a scene after the disaster. Franklin had been to Istar before, and now he revisited the old place, and the feeling was the deepest.
Especially the inner bay of Crescent Moon Island, which was calm before, is now divided into two parts by Istar, causing changes in the ocean currents in the sea. The natural vortexes on both sides of Crescent Moon Island also disappeared, making the base of the rebel army lose the protection of the natural barrier. If the Vatican came at this time, Istar would be exposed to the guns of the Holy Seal Knights.
Seeing this scene, everyone had a thought in their hearts: Istar is over!
Istar has now been divided into two peninsulas, the east and the west. On the pier of the east peninsula facing the inner bay of Crescent Island, the Lost One is undergoing maintenance. Since chasing the Ironscale a few days ago, they did not return to Istar until two days ago. The damage to the Sunken One can't be called serious, but the air waves caused by Sauron's Crescent Vacuum Slash and Missing Burst successively crushed a mast on the ship and some scattered parts of the hull.
Now that Ulson is dead, Jesse and Oran are gathering the remnants of Istar's manpower. Sauron's attack this time can be described as vicious. Compared with other losses, the heaviest loss is the loss of the leader, followed by the destruction of the nuclear power plants at the north and south ends and the Tower of Harvest. The nuclear power plant is the source of Istar's energy supply, and the Tower of Harvest is the command center. The former is like blood, the latter is the brain. Now that the blood has been cut off and the brain no longer exists, Istar, the steel giant, naturally collapses.
At present, the remaining two giants work together in a division of labor. Jesse recruits fighters, and Oran urgently forms a temporary combat team. Of course, the two are no longer comparable in terms of scale or capability.
Ishtar has existed in name only, and the division of the island has led to changes in ocean currents, making the previous natural barrier quietly disappear. This island can't stay any longer, otherwise, the Pope's Hall only needs to send out two or three knight orders, and they can eat up all their remaining power. The combat team headed by Oran offered several plans, but among these plans, only two were more suitable.
One is to choose another base and start over from scratch; the second is to break it up into parts and infiltrate the Western Continent with all the staff, and then continue the previous "Harvest Project" in another way through the cooperation of the inside line of the Pope's Hall.
Of the two options, Jesse and Oran finally chose the latter by unanimous decision. After all, it would take time and effort to choose another base, and it would be impossible to rebuild a base as large as Istar in less than ten years. And now, they can't wait that long.
Now that the second option is chosen, the remnants of the rebel army will now have to be mobilized. It will take a certain amount of time to recover all available materials, assemble the remaining personnel, and prepare the ships for migration to the mainland.
Therefore, when the Destiny sailed into the inner bay of Crescent Island, the pier of Istadon Peninsula was busy. On the observation deck of the Destiny docked at Pier 3, the Destiny was quickly discovered by the soldiers on it and passed the news to Jesse. A moment later, Jesse returned to the pier from the inner island and boarded the warship. Taking the binoculars from the soldier's hands and looking towards the inner bay, the Destiny immediately came into Jesse's eyes.
"There is no flag. I don't know if it is a pirate or a person from the Pope's Hall. But the ship looks very strange. Is the blue flame an energy propulsion system? Pirates should not have such technology, so the possibility of the Pope's Hall is mostly! "Jessie put down the binoculars and shouted: "Let the heavy gunners on the pier get ready to fire on me as soon as the enemy ship comes into range! Everyone else, get ready to fight..."
"Can you hear me?"
Jesse was giving an order, when suddenly a loud voice came from the inner bay: "Everyone in Ista, don't get me wrong! I'm Franklin, and I'm coming back to see if I can help! I beg you to let me The boat docked!"
On the ship's side deck of the Destiny, Franklin yelled at Istar with his huge voice. The giant's voice was like thunder, resounding throughout the inner bay.
Jesse looked through the binoculars, and sure enough there was a tall figure standing on the strange ship, it was the giant Franklin they brought back from Roaring Bay not long ago. But looking at the giant, Jesse gritted his teeth and said: "Leave him alone! It is because of him that we let Sauron take advantage of him. Maybe he is also Sauron's lackey like Deborah! Everyone, don't relax. Brighten my eyes!"
On the Destiny, Zero saw that the turret on the other side's pier was still aiming in their direction, and said immediately: "It seems that they are not so friendly, there is no other way, we can only forcefully land in this way."