The experint worked well, and the won in the sleeper car whispered among themselves, clearly pleased with the results.
But there was one problem left—how to get the steel greenhouse back onto the roof of the vehicle.
"Why not just drag it? All the way to the next teorite breach," Emily Ward suggested casually.
"Won’t that noise attract the rat beasts?" Liana Jabbar asked, her tone edged with concern.
Charlotte Renard shrugged, dismissive. "So what if they co? Worst case, we lose one steel sheet. And with all those spikes on it, we’d probably take down a good number of rats too."
Magnus Specter nodded slightly. "This is part of the test anyway. Let’s see how the rat beasts react to a steel sheet being dragged under the car."
They got out of the vehicle, Magnus signaling to Harper Quinn to start. The steel greenhouse was attached to the back of the off-road car, and Harper began driving slowly. The steel sheet scraped across the plastic turf of the football field, the sound surprisingly quiet. Even so, the surrounding rat beasts noticed. A few of them stood upright on their hind legs, staring intently at the moving steel greenhouse. After dragging it for a while, neither the rats nor the bats overhead reacted. Magnus Specter felt slightly relieved, then stepped off the vehicle and returned to the sleeper car. Emily Ward and Liana Jabbar were still discussing sothing. When Liana noticed Magnus boarding, she imdiately said, "Hey, Magnus, what do you think—if we move all 24 steel-covered greenhouses here and link them end to end, wouldn’t that make things a lot more efficient?"
"End to end?" Magnus raised an eyebrow, giving her a curious look. "You’re saying we should dig several teorites at once?"
"Exactly!" Liana lit up with enthusiasm. "If this works, think about it. We wouldn’t just use it for teorite digging. We could also use it for resupplying the convoy. Back at the main camp, couldn’t we build connected pathways between the vehicles? Reworking the steel greenhouses for that purpose would make it much easier for the female team mbers to move outdoors freely during supply runs. What do you think?"
Magnus nodded with a faint grin. "Not a bad idea at all, really. But there are two problems. One, do we have enough steel for this plan? Two, dragging those greenhouses off the vehicles is one thing, but loading them back? That’s no joke. We need a simpler way to get them onto the convoy."Magnus Specter laid out the real challenge: unloading was manageable, but getting the steel panel shelter onto the roof? That was a nightmare. The roof was covered in spikes. If they tried dragging it up with a vehicle, it would get stuck. No way around it—they’d have to lift it manually. That ant needing a crew of dozens, and even then, an enclosed space like a parking garage was necessary.
Using the off-road vehicle to pull the shelter into the garage before lifting it onto the roof? Too complicated. And what if they were out in the open wilderness with no such facilities? Would they just keep dragging the thing around forever?
“If only we had a small crane,” Liana Jabbar sighed.
“Yeah, but it’s not the only problem,” Charlotte Renard added, her tone weighed down with frustration. “We can’t rely on Magnus every single ti we need to seal these steel panels either. Having a regular mber do it wastes a Super Fire Crystal—just not worth it. Take that teor earlier, for example. We struck gold with one Super Fire Crystal, but what if we hadn’t? Long term, we’ll burn through all our crystals eventually. Then what are we supposed to do?”
They were stuck. The shelter problem. The sealing issue. Neither had a simple fix.
But flipping the coin, if both obstacles could be solved, then the Ice Regint could sweep through the major cities without restraint, claiming every crystal in sight.
One wrong step, though, and they’d be walking into a death trap, paradise turning to poison. "That’s it for tonight. Let’s head back to the main convoy base; in just over 20 hours, it’s ti to coat the vehicles with animal blood again."
Magnus Specter frowned, troubled by the unsolved issues. He decided to wait until the car blood-coating session to bring the problems up with the whole team of won. Maybe they could brainstorm a solution together.
Back in the off-road vehicle, Harper Quinn was half-asleep. The mont Magnus returned, she quickly straightened her seat and asked where they were headed.
"First, back to the underground parking lot, then we drive through the night to the main convoy base," Magnus replied curtly, unscrewing a bottle of water from the dashboard and taking a swig.
As Harper started the engine, she glanced over and winked playfully, her tone teasing. "Drinking from the bottle I used? Are you hinting at sothing? No need to hint; just say it outright."
Magnus ignored her, taking another long drink. Her laughter filled the cabin.
After returning to the underground lot, Magnus briefly instructed the team. Emily Ward and the others would stay to continue assembling the steel greenhouses, while he and Harper set off for the convoy base.
They reached the base in the latter half of the night. Harper started pestering Magnus to take her to see the RV, promising she’d be quiet for the next few days while driving.Emily and the others hadn’t co back yet. Magnus, reminding her not to speak recklessly, brought her along. She’d been sleeping in the off-road vehicle these past few days—tough work.
Sophia, Lana, and the rest of the won were on the RV. When they heard that Magnus had successfully tested the steelplate greenhouse, they were all quite pleased.
After a few hours of sleep that night, Magnus rose early the next morning. He found a few trucks loaded with steel and asked Harper to guide them to the underground parking lot. Afterward, Harper would return alone to fetch Magnus.
In the RV’s living room, Mia listened as Magnus laid out the two major issues and seed deep in thought. “Captain,” she asked, “why must we use Super Fire Crystals for sealing? Wouldn’t an ordinary tal Crystal do the trick?”
“An ordinary tal Crystal?” Magnus was montarily taken aback but found the suggestion interesting. It might work, after all. With the greenhouse’s steel exterior being so sturdy, using plastic sheets to seal it wasn’t too slow a process. Worth a shot, at least.
“Good idea. I’ll test it tonight,” Magnus replied thoughtfully.
“And about getting the greenhouse onto the roof...” Mia continued, analyzing further. “Captain, have you considered? The teor showers have all hit urban areas.”
Magnus nodded slightly, his gaze fixing on her. “I’m aware of that. So, what’s your idea?”“That’s the solution you all thought of!” Mia Hadid said firmly. “Which city doesn’t have cranes nowadays? No matter where we go, we can find plenty of them. It’s really not that hard. Wherever we end up, we just find one on the spot, use it, and leave it behind.”
Magnus Specter looked at Mia, a little surprised. What she said actually made sense—getting a crane to follow the convoy for mining teors wasn’t really a complicated task.
With that thought, Magnus quickly followed up, “But what about when, like Liana said, the convoy stops to rest while traveling? We can’t always drag a crane along with us. What do we do then?”
“Well...” Mia gave Magnus a quick blink and said, “That’s easy too!”
User Comments
0 comments from readers