Pioneer Lord: Starting From Daily Intelligence

"Eventually, they combined the steam engine that powered the excavation drill, the mill’s grinding wheel, and canvas to build the earliest rotorcraft. After successful test flights, this early version underwent centuries of improvements, evolving into versions with stronger power, faster speed, greater load capacity, and enhanced protection, and has remained in service to this day."

"The primary mission of the early Dwarf helicopters was to transport supplies and information between various fortresses and settlements. Their aerial advantage left the goblins and Rat People on the ground almost helpless against these flying machines. Their speed allowed supplies and messages—especially distress signals from besieged settlements—to be promptly delivered to other settlements capable of providing support, avoiding the tragic destiny of further territorial losses for the Dwarves."

Su Li nodded slightly; Bierga’s strong recommendation of the Dwarf helicopter clearly considered the connection between both sides.

Dragon Rock Castle is unlike Redbeard Castle and Gray Rock Castle; they are too far from Hesse Territory.

The decline of the Dwarves is a universally acknowledged fact among the stubborn, inflexible Dwarves, including the Gray Mountain Dwarves. Su Li still remembers choosing the location of the Pioneer Territory at Marle Castle with the Civil Servant’s introduction: The Gray Mountain is filled with Dwarf tunnels, though many have long been abandoned. Some Dwarf fortresses still exist high in the Gray Mountain Range like small islands surrounded by a sea of Beastmen, Goblins, bandits, and Mountain Giants. If a path can be opened to make contact, their engineering technology could greatly benefit the territory’s engineering projects.

Under such circumstances, Dragon Rock Castle is undoubtedly an isolated island at the deepest point of this monster sea, even if their King leads an expedition with 8,000 Dwarf soldiers, it’s not necessarily safe.

To strengthen connections, using Dwarf helicopters is indeed the best approach.

Don’t underestimate its construction, using the mill’s grinding wheel and canvas as the main body and the most adapted steam engine; its reliability is very high, seldom heard of a Dwarf helicopter crashing.

Moreover, after several centuries of improvements, Dwarf helicopters have grown beyond their initial transport role.

Bierga spoke excitedly and enthusiastically: "In subsequent developments, Dwarf helicopters were quickly employed in combat. New models with heavy metal bodies almost eliminate threats from ground arrows and use their deadly weaponry to spread death and chaos among enemy lines."

"A default weapon on a Dwarf helicopter is a steam cannon, a lethal device that can eject deadly steam mist and numerous lead pellets into enemy formations, tearing them into steam-emitting fragments; some crews replaced steam cannons with even deadlier sulfur cannon, spraying ignited liquid sulfur upon enemy forces to inflict lethal mass casualties, proving especially effective against hordes of Goblins and Rat People, as the gruesome deaths under high temperature would prompt these poorly motivated races to flee."

"To further enhance the helicopter’s lethality, Dwarf Engineers installed bomb bays for dropping explosives, though early versions required pilots to simultaneously operate the craft, ignite the fuse and throw the bomb, later improved versions placed bombs on stabilizing wings on either side of the craft with touch-sensitive fuses, simplifying operation significantly."

"Nowadays, Dwarf helicopters are a standard part of each Dwarf Fortress, with dedicated heliports built for these rotorcraft to take off, land, and receive maintenance and resupply. Many Dwarf flying squads have emerged in battle, such as the Rapids Pass’s Hammer of the Sky Battalion and Karak Azarak’s Black Hammer Bombardment Battalion, becoming rising stars."

"We can offer you, our Big Guy friend, a Hammer of the Sky helicopter squad with four rotor helicopters equipped with sulfur guns; although their wide-range power is smaller compared to bombers, their range, damage, and accuracy are very high, capable of causing flame damage and delivering considerable harm to elite enemy units. Even Mountain Giants of Champion Level or Divine Chosen Level could be shattered after the fierce battle when targeted by sulfur-gun helicopters."

"Such a Hammer of War squad has a minimum price of 3000 Dwarf Oath Gold. But since we are friends, we can give you a 20% discount."

Dwarf Oath Gold, at 20% off, is 2400. Su Li took a deep breath; well then, Bierga surely calculated that Hesse Territory plus savings would roughly amount to 2400 pieces of Dwarf Oath Gold, right?

The Dwarves are really trying every means possible to recover these Ancestral Oath Gold, calculating things to the extreme.

However, Su Li pondered and did not refuse.

This Hammer of War Squad is quite similar to Zhendan’s Celestial Lantern Team, also capable of providing aerial recon while boosting morale.

In terms of output power, though, not nearly as exaggerated as Bierga claimed. This sulfur gun version of the Hammer of the Sky helicopter squad is not a specialized bombing fleet; their main attributes are [Heavy Armor], [Flame Attack], [Dwarf Craft], [Armor-Piercing], [Multi-Shot], and [Rapid Fire].

But the armor-piercing rounds aren’t exactly professional, which means they can counter large units like attacking Mountain Giants, beast infantry with low defense, or goblins riding war boars satisfactorily. Against truly massive units like Divine Chosen Chaos Knights, Heavy-Armored Giant Dragons, and similar large creatures, they seem relatively weak.