Anti-Nemesis Program Part 1
An alarm echoed within Fortress Area P336.
Upon hearing it, Kou rushed to the Fortress Area’s control tower.
He quickly parked Unit 5 inside the underground hangar and headed to the control room. The control room itself was located underground.
He found Aimer, Nyanta, and Blue waiting in the control room.
「What’s the situation?」
「It looks like the Megareus has finally made a move.」
Footage of the Megareus was displayed on the main screen.
It was moving forward slowly as if crawling on the ground.
「I’ve instructed all Bricolage Academy personnel and civilian residents to evacuate to the Silhouette Base. The A Carbuncle providing power for the railway has been deactivated and recovered. The tracks have been made completely unusable.」
「Thank you, Aimer. Your judgment was sound.」
Fortress Area P336 and the Silhouette Base were connected by an underground railway network.
After the evacuation, an operation would be carried out to completely block off the railway tracks. This was to prevent the enemies from following the tracks and using them as intrusion routes into the Silhouette Base.
『Kou, the Megareus is now approximately 600 km from our position. It’s gotten us within bombardment range.』
Asia appeared on the main screen and warned.
『Bombardment confirmed. The shell will land in ten minutes.』
「How much can we endure?」
『The opponent is using a space battleship’s main gun. Even if the shelter can withstand the Nemesis system’s meteor showers, there’s a risk of it being destroyed if it keeps receiving attacks on a fixed point.』
「Can it block the current shot?」
『Yes, unless something unexpected happens. If the shelter could be easily destroyed by artillery bombardment, then it wouldn’t have been able to survive the Interplanetary War era in the first place. However, it can’t defend against the shelling indefinitely.』
「They probably won’t settle for just long-range bombardment. An attack from their troops should be coming as well. I believe they are gonna try to stage a surprise attack at some point. Maintain maximum alert.」
『Understood. I will activate the Anti-Nemesis program.』
The Anti-Nemesis program.
It was a countermeasure specifically designed to defend against the meteorites that rain down on the planet from the direction of the dwarf star Nemesis.
Even Sophia, who remade the Nemesis star system into an environment similar to Earth, was unable to deal with the countless meteorites surrounding Nemesis.
The restructured habitable zones of the three planets have thus been given ample defenses against falling meteorites instead. The best examples of these defenses were the shelters that were made using high-dimensional projection armor materials powered by A-Carbuncles to cover and protect living areas, as well as buildings made out of similar materials.
Even on the off-chance that a meteorite does manage to punch through, the inner living areas wouldn’t get too damaged as long as everything was running normally.
However, the meteor showers that regularly occurred in the Nemesis system were still far too deadly against humanity.
That’s why it was decided that each residential facility would have an underground bunker as well. Even the underground bunkers of small-scale Defense Domes were equipped and supplied enough to allow people to hold out within for at least several decades.
In case a Fortress Area or Defense Dome’s shelter was destroyed, the residents would be evacuated to the underground bunker and unconditionally protected.
The Familiars would be the ones who would guide and protect the people underground.
「Barry, what’s the situation on your side?」
Barry quickly responded to the transmission.
「They are conducting an offensive on both us and Astraea. There’s no doubt that they’re up to something.」
「How about ramming the Megareus just like how we rammed the Aristides?」
「If given a few hours, the Astraea and Cimon should be able to flank the Megareus. But I wouldn’t count on it.」
「I see. Understood. I’ll concentrate on defending Fortress Area P336 then.」
「Please do.」
Another alarm rang out.
「What is it this time?」
『A giant flying object has been spotted and is closing in. It’s not a space battleship but an aerial carrier that was built by the Argoforce. It’s powered by an A-Carbuncle.』
「So, the advance of the Megareus was a diversion? Commence interception!」
Kou immediately gave out an order. Anti-spaceship interceptor missile systems and large-caliber railguns hidden throughout the mountain range fired at the enemy aerial carrier.
Because they were distracted by the Megareus, their response against the aerial carrier flying at high speed from the rear was delayed.
『Several other aerial carriers confirmed. Are they planning on sacrificing the leading ship? Only the leading ship is of a different model.』
The overall height of the first aerial carrier that was spotted was relatively low, and it was also unusually long. It looked like a long and thin tube-like ship.
「It has a strangely elongated ship. Astraea, Is it possible to perform an analysis?」
『It’s about 600 meters long. However, using a Silhouette’s average size as the standard, its overall height is relatively low for its class. It should be equipped with either a one-story or two-story hangar. It’s probably an armored aerial carrier model.』
「Are they planning on piercing through the shelter of the Fortress Area like an arrow?」
The leading aerial carrier was subjected to heavy long-range fire from the Metal Iris forces.
「An all-out charge without any care for the damage they’ll take?」
「It’s withstood the concentrated interception fire so far. Although it should be impossible for them to replicate a proper starship’s armor, that carrier’s armor is still pretty thick.」
Aimer had her doubts about the situation. Nyanta, on the other hand, was surprised by the leading ship’s thick and durable armor plating.
「It doesn’t appear to be an amphibious assault ship…… Is it a cargo ship? Considering the shape, it should be a bow visor-type. Are they really gonna ram the shelter with that aerial carrier?」
A bow visor-type was a cargo ship with a loading ramp on its bow. Because of their design, they were prone to accidents, so ships with rear hatch well docks became mainstream instead.
If they wanted something that would charge forward and ram a target, then a bulbous bow-type like the Aristides would have been better. The mechanism that opens and closes the bow of a ship greatly reduces its structural strength.
「The interceptor squads within the shelter are already on standby.」
「Is it really impossible to intercept them before they manage to reach here?」
「Unbelievable. A warship of that size…… And it’s even fitted with an A-Carbuncle. Are they really planning to use it as a disposable resource?」
Blue shook her head in disbelief.
『Its armor plating appears to be quite thick. They must have compromised its internal cargo capacity to obtain that sort of thickness. It appears that they really built it as a one-off disposable ship.』
「With that level of armor plating, it shouldn’t be capable of carrying that many combat machines inside it. So, does that mean the other ships are the actual attack force? It shouldn’t have been necessary to specifically make it an aerial carrier if its purpose was just to punch a hole through our shelter.」
Blue also held doubts about the purpose of the leading aerial carrier. It was quite a disconcerting ship.
The aerial carrier continued to advance. The large missiles were induced to detonate prematurely by its electromagnetic barrier.
The railgun shells, however, did score direct hits, leaving various holes in the carrier’s armor plating. But the damage caused was far from critical.
『We cannot shoot it down before it reaches our position. There are only a few moments left until impact.』
As the interceptor weapons continued to fire in vain, the enemy aerial carrier advanced forward despite losing some altitude. In the end, we failed to shoot it down.
The aerial carrier punched straight through the shelter, causing shockwaves that shook the entirety of Fortress Area P336.
The bow visor of the aerial carrier that pierced the shelter at a practically horizontal angle deployed itself.
However, the way it opened up was rather unusual. It deployed to all sides and formed a rampway.
Armadillos — heavy armor-type Silhouettes piloted by Perioikoi who had their wills stripped away from them — began to exit from within the ship. They weren’t equipped with electromagnetic armor, and their overall combat effectiveness was on the lower side.
They also weren’t equipped with any ranged weapons.
The Familiars who went to intercept them hesitated to open fire. All of the enemy machines were covered in metallic hydrogen, perhaps due to the ship’s storage tanks rupturing after the crash. There was a high risk of inducing a massive explosion.
「Look at that, Kou. Metallic hydrogen is leaking out all over that ship’s hull. Did their reactor go critical or something?」
Nyanta also noticed the anomaly. Metallic hydrogen was leaking out like water from the armor plating of the enemy aerial carrier.
「Looks like it failed to explode. Is that why all of them are only equipped with Silhouette-use combat axes?」
「That would be rather weird though. They couldn’t have designed it specifically so it would leak out metallic hydrogen. Did the metallic hydrogen storage tanks develop leaks due to the impact of the collision?」
Nyanta immediately refuted Blue’s assumption.
「Just why? Why did they equip it with a bow visor that’s nearly the same size as the rest of the ship’s hull? Its interior should be more than 30 meters long.」
Kou felt that he was missing something. He was puzzled about the ship’s overall shape and still hadn’t figured out its purpose.
「It resembles a musical instrument.」
Aimer muttered her impression of the enemy ship.
「A musical instrument……? Astraea! Is that thing really an aerial carrier?」
Kou seemed to have realized something and cried out. He recalled that there was an anti-tank rocket launcher that resembled and was named after a musical instrument back on Earth.
『No, it’s not. It’s actually……』
「Asia! Open all the Fortress Area’s hatches!」
Kou confirmed that his assumption was correct, so he immediately gave an order before Astraea could finish her words.
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