Pejite, located in the western part of the Eftal Desert, is recognized as the premier industrial city-state among the nations of the Sea of Corruption.
Similar to the Valley of the Wind, which is nestled among mountains, Pejite is situated on a Gobi plain surrounded by mountains.
With the mountains to the west, which border the Sea of Corruption, shielding this land, though desolate, it is not threatened by the erosion of yellow sand or miasma.
Because there's no need to constantly guard against insect swarm attacks, the city walls here are far less tall and majestic than those of Pejite City. However, outside the walls lies an outer city area that is no less large than the main city, with various workshops, warehouses, and residential areas arranged in a chaotic yet dense manner.
The city's architectural style is also distinctly different from other regions. It makes extensive use of locally fired yellowish-brown bricks and reddish-brown concrete, with strong, square building outlines, narrow and winding streets, and many buildings featuring multi-layered arched structures.
From a distance, brown domes stand alongside towering factory chimneys, and the bustling city life blends with the roar of machinery.
The reason for this stylistic difference is that the history of the Pejite is longer than that of most of the Sea of Corruption.
More than 500 years ago, before the Ancient Kingdom of Eftal was even established, this place already existed as a ruined mine.
The Pejite site contains a massive factory from an ancient civilization, with some speculating that the factory may cover an area of thousands of square kilometers, encompassing the entire mountainous plains.
The evidence is that even after five hundred years of continuous excavation, this place still produces Ceramic Steel, rare metals, ancient technologies that cannot be copied, and engine cores.
Those who venture deep into the mine without a map may never see the sunlight again.
( Pejite Underground Ruins, set in a comic book style)
After the fall of the Eftal Empire, the surviving descendants fled to this border mining town and began to truly develop it into an industrial city.
The enormous furnaces burned day and night, the sound of hammers striking echoing throughout half the city, and railcars carrying ore and finished products crisscrossed the spiderweb-like underground rail network.
However, the industrial boom did not benefit everyone. The big merchants and factory owners who controlled factories, mines, and sales channels constituted the true power class in Pejite.
They exert influence through business alliances, control bargaining power, circumvent labor laws, and even engage in the illegal trade of slave labor.
The workers, miners, and technicians at the bottom of society trade their health for wages, living in crowded factory areas or even underground buildings.
The royal family also wanted to change the status quo, but due to the complexity and independence of the "underground city," their decrees often only circulated on the surface and in the ruins controlled by the royal family. No law enforcement officers dared to venture into the mine mazes dug by the merchant guild itself.
Furthermore, the city-state's tax revenue heavily relied on these industrial giants, making any change in one area extremely difficult and fraught with challenges.
Even Haideng, as the king's right-hand man and the chairman of the Commercial Federation, could only barely manage to maintain a fragile balance.
This balance of outward prosperity and inner tension was easily shattered when the vast shadow of the south descended.
The royal family may still be trying to restrain capital, but capital only wants the royal family to disappear completely because King Pejite, who is diligent in his duties and tries to improve people's lives, has touched their interests.
The roar of engines sounded like muffled thunder rolling across the sky. The colossal creation, representing the pinnacle of Dorok Industrial Technology, broke through the clouds. The " Endure Battleship " led two guardian battleships that appeared from nowhere as it descended.
They resembled three artificial clouds suspended above Pejite, beginning to rain down hot and deadly iron.
Almost simultaneously, intense gunfire and explosions erupted within the city.
The private soldiers of the merchant guild, who had long been dissatisfied with the royal family, suddenly launched an attack. They were well-equipped, well-organized, and had clear objectives: to seize transportation hubs, destroy communication nodes, attack the guards stationed to the royal family, and most importantly, to paralyze the airport.
The royal guards and city defense troops were caught off guard.
Most people's attention was drawn to the three imposing warships in the sky. Many troops were divided, surrounded, or even wiped out by aerial artillery fire before they could even assemble. With the support of firepower, the rebels quickly gained the upper hand.
On the airport runway, all the warships attempting emergency takeoff were destroyed by rebel rockets before they even left the ground, turning into burning wreckage that rolled across the runway.
The three ancient gunboats hidden in the royal palace's secret hangar successfully took off. These gunboats were extremely fast; they streaked through the sky and bravely charged toward the Endure Battleship.
The bow cannon roared, its firepower, powerful enough to penetrate the armor of ordinary warships, striking the Ceramic Steel hull.
But to everyone's surprise, the machine guns that used to easily tear apart spaceship armor could only spew up large amounts of sparks on the surface of the enemy ship, and the massive main guns only left a few insignificant dents after the loud bang.
In contrast, the Endure Battleship's dense anti-aircraft barrage quickly destroyed two of the gunboats, turning them into fireballs in the night sky.
Seeing the situation was unfavorable, the last and most agile purple gunboat turned around and fled far away.
Subsequently, the central dome, or royal palace, that magnificent domed fortress symbolizing royal authority, became the primary target of artillery fire.
Hundreds of high-explosive shells shattered the dome and outer walls, which were more decorative than defensive, and triggered violent explosions inside, turning the once magnificent hall where state affairs were discussed into ruins in an instant.
(The streets of Pejite in the comics and the central palace in the animation; Pejite was destroyed by the Tolmekia attack in the comics and by the Zerg swarm attack in the animation, and in this article, it dies in a different way again----)
Under the desperate cover of his guards, the king made an emergency evacuation, hiding in the underground ruins through a secret passage in the palace.
Thick smoke began to rise throughout the city, and panic spread like a plague. People screamed as they fled the streets and hid in houses or basements, but the sound of gunfire came from all directions, leaving them nowhere to escape.
Pejite, the strongest nation in the Sea of Corruption, fell in less than 24 hours under the attack of traitors and the army of the Dorok.
Time passed by, and it was now dusk on the second day.
At this moment, the Endure Battleship hovered above the central fortress of Pejite, intimidating all the remaining resistance fighters.
Two guardian warships landed in the city, and countless fully armed Dorok monks poured in and out of the hatches. They quickly took control of the streets and high points of buildings, and then began to enter the underground area in an organized manner, seemingly searching for something urgently.
Fortunately, their operation did not go smoothly. Although the army collapsed, the scattered remnants of the royal guard and the angry workers' militia continued to fight desperately.
Relying on the complex, labyrinthine network of ancient industrial ruins and mining tunnels beneath the city, they waged a fierce tunnel war, causing considerable trouble for the rebels and the Dorok monks, slowing down their advance.
Fires raged and thick smoke billowed from the City of Pejite, with gunshots and sporadic explosions echoing from underground.
The Endure Battleship in the sky occasionally open fire, using overwhelming firepower to wipe buildings suspected of being resistance strongholds off the map.
Compared to yesterday's fierce fighting, the resistance is now much less intense.
Just then, the blue glow of the plasma engine appeared on the southeastern horizon.
Similar-looking but different-in-detail aircraft appeared on the horizon and quickly Accio towards Pejite.
Above these aircraft, the flags representing the nations of the Sea of Corruption were raised. The allied forces of the nations had finally arrived.