Anti-Nemesis Program Part 2


The Armadillos were launching out one after another as if they were simply falling out of the ship, and before another batch managed to deploy, the ship’s internal bulkhead opened up.

『Understood!』

「Attention all hands! Hurry and get as far away from that ship as possible! Those on the front line should evacuate underground immediately!」

After hearing Kou’s orders, the Familiar-driven combat vehicle squads quickly retreated.

Armadillos continued to emerge from the enemy ship’s bow visor.

「Kou?」

「That’s not an aerial carrier at all. That ship’s hull is a gun barrel, and the bow visor is its muzzle.」

『There’s no more time. Anti-flash defenses deployed. Brace for impact.』

Asia gave out a warning.

What looked like a bow visor was indeed a gigantic gun muzzle.

And what was supposed to be the enemy ship’s hangar was actually an equally gigantic warhead. The remaining enemy Silhouettes sank into the thick pool of metallic hydrogen.

The ship’s huge hull trembled ominously, and–

A shell with a diameter of 30 meters was fired straight toward the center of Fortress Area P336.

The hull was actually a gigantic railgun barrel. It was directly connected to the ship’s A-Carbuncle that served as the giant weapon’s power source.

The angle at which this gigantic cannon pierced the Fortress Area was probably somewhat off-target. The shell ended up getting fired toward the middle of the Fortress Area’s downtown sector.

The moment the shell landed, it caused a huge explosion that shook the earth and impacted everyone within the Fortress Area.

The resulting flash was blinding. Shockwaves followed soon afterward. It was a detonation of an unprecedented scale.

The resulting shockwaves managed to exceed the speed of sound and spread across the entirety of Fortress Area P336 in mere moments.

Subsequent explosions and fiery plumes went off continuously. Jets of flame soared high into the air. A gigantic fiery pillar rose up and burst through the Fortress Area shelter’s canopy hatch. Blood-colored waves of flame also spewed out of the hatches on either side of the Fortress Area’s shelter.

The defensive troops and patrolling aircraft around the Fortress Area were practically wiped out.

A huge crater appeared at the impact point, and the area around it was completely vaporized.

Due to the powerful pressure caused by the blast, the surrounding objects were crushed and bent in improbable directions.

The ones that got blown away could be said to be in better states.

The sectors surrounding the impact point continued to melt due to the ultra-high temperatures caused by the explosion. All the buildings were supposed to be made of tough high-dimensional projection armor materials powered by the Fortress Area’s A-Carbuncle, but the destructive power of the explosion seemingly made a mockery of that fact.

「What the heck……」

Kou instinctively went down on one knee. He did it to hold Aimer up because she was about to fall down on the floor. Nyanta and Blue managed to steady themselves by using their hands as support.

The aftershocks still haven’t subsided.

『It’s akin to being shot directly with an artificial sun. Checking the resulting damage. Commencing enemy weapon analysis.』

Asia did her best to analyze the enemy machine and discover its secrets.

A tremendous amount of heat continued to radiate from what was previously thought of as a ship’s bow visor. The Armadillos continued to melt and get blown away.

『A tenth of the residential city block has been completely decimated. A sixth has suffered extensive damage. The number of casualties is currently unknown. The underground facilities have also suffered considerable damage.』

Buildings collapsed one after another, turning into rubble.

And these were buildings that were reinforced by high-dimensional armor materials powered by an A-Carbuncle that allowed them to withstand meteorite impacts. A residential city block that was supposedly nigh impervious to damage was actually destroyed so completely.

Smoke and flames still persisted within the Fortress Area.

「To make something as absurd as that…… It must be the work of that Bombardment Lord, Alberto!」

「I can certainly imagine him pulling a stunt like this.」

Kou murmured a conjecture, and Kurt affirmed it via transmission. Alberto, who Kurt knew fairly well, was certainly more than capable of doing a feat such as this.

Smoke gathered on the shelter’s canopy hatch, and following that flame pillar, a huge mushroom cloud rose up next.

Black smoke also came out of the shelter’s side hatches.

『Analysis complete. Approximately 100,000 tons of metallic hydrogen fuel was used to make an unguided general-purpose bomb. The resulting explosive power is estimated to be over 5 million tons.』

「General purpose? You call that purpose!?」

Blue was at a loss for words.

『You can think of it as a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier from the era Kou previously lived in that was converted into a massive warhead.』

「Why are there holes in the buildings though? Did they fill it with shrapnel or something?」

There were traces of damage left on the collapsed buildings that appeared to suggest that they had been hit by some sort of scattered projectiles.

『They simply mixed Silhouettes and the hangar carrier itself into the explosive. The hangar itself served as the warhead after all. Similar to how you add metal fragments to a bomb to increase its destructive potential, it scattered around the Silhouettes on board like shrapnel. They stuffed A-Spinel-powered Silhouettes with high-dimensional projection armor into that tube and shot them out.』

「8-meter-sized shotgun pellets!?」

「I already knew that they didn’t treat humans well, but it looks like they really do consider them expendable huh? Those bastards.」

After all, they even came up with the idea of scattering piloted Silhouettes like shrapnel.

『To the Stones, a person’s value is merely akin to a pebble lying around on the side of the road.』

Asia glumly declared.

『Even with the Anti-Nemesis program activated, this level of damage is virtually unprecedented. It’s currently impossible to move around on the field without extensive protection. In addition to the super high temperature, one would collapse immediately without protective gear due to the lack of oxygen.』

「Is something like this even allowed?」

Both fission and fusion-type nuclear weapons were expressly prohibited. If one ever tried to use them, their very existence would be erased by Okeanos.

『Its inefficiency borders on the absurd. It’s basically an aerial carrier converted into a gigantic rocket launcher loaded with a high-performance explosive.』

「Dammit……」

『Thanks to fully opening the shelter hatches and the activation of the Anti-Nemesis Program, the resulting damage was minimized. Even so, it still had so much destructive power.』

Humans out on the field should have died instantly from the blast’s shockwaves and the resulting lack of oxygen. The vehicles that were unable to retreat in time also got destroyed by the shockwaves. Even if one took shelter behind buildings, the blast pressure was still impossibly immense.

「Asia, that cannon barrel is still spewing out fire.」

Aimer pointed out after observing the footage on the screen.

To everyone’s horror, the gigantic cannon barrel was still active.

『The large-scale metal hydrogen generation reactor within the A-Carbuncle engine block is still active. In addition to oxidizing agents, it’s taking in outside air from the rear and is combusting large amounts of metallic hydrogen, acting as a gigantic burner. They probably intended to turn the sealed fortress area into a huge furnace. Fully opening the shelter hatches was the right call.』

Astraea gave out her own analysis.

「So, they wanted to turn the entire Fortress Area into an incinerator huh?」

Kou spat in distaste.

『The buildings above have become brittle due to the high temperatures. That cannon barrel shouldn’t be able to last that long either. I believe it will explode after a while. And that will be the second stage of this attack.』

「First, they hit us with an aerial carrier-sized wire-guided rocket. Then they converted the thing into a giant burner. And then they’ll turn it into a bomb at the end?」

Aimer muttered in shock. Blue nodded in agreement.

「It won’t be possible to go aboveground unassisted for a while due to the high temperature.」

And this was where Silhouettes came in handy. After all, Silhouettes were piloted humanoid machines initially created to operate and perform work in extreme environments. On battlefields, Silhouettes have replaced regular infantry in order to enable the use of things like electromagnetic barriers and operate in oxygen-less environments.

「That bow visor is just cheating. It provided the explosive force directionality.」

『Indeed. They really intended to burn everything down.』

It seemed that Asia had noticed something. She quickly switched the footage.

『The real enemy aerial carriers have also arrived. There are three ships. If we didn’t open the hatches, the Fortress Area would have turned into an incinerator. But now that they are open, they will serve as infiltration routes. We are being forced to make a choice…… but if we close the hatches now, the heat will get trapped inside the Fortress Area and won’t dissipate. Perhaps it would be better to retreat to the Silhouette Base.』

Kou shook his head.

「I want to protect this Fortress Area that you built for us, Asia.」

『I’m happy that you feel that way. But…… will we be able to fend them off?』

The damage they suffered was truly quite severe. Asia wanted to prioritize the lives of Kou and the others.

「Is pulling out the A-Carbuncle the only way for them to fully take control of this place? The underground sections have been completely sealed off, right?」

『Right. Only qualified Development Engineers are capable of entering the most vital underground facilities, and my data can be immediately transferred to the orbital elevator or the Silhouette Base underground arsenal. But……』

「But?」

『They can still employ the method you used when you rescued me. I’m referring to seizing the control room in the deepest depths of the underground sector. That can only be done by A-Class or above Development Engineers.』

「In other words…… Vasa would be able to pull it off, right?」

『That’s how it is. He might come here personally. After all, only Development Engineers are capable of entering the underground sector, regardless of them being friend or foe.』

「He’s probably gonna come over. Since they’ve already gone this far.」

Kou was sure of his conjecture.

「The aerial carriers have given out orders to commence the attack. We’re gonna have to hold out.」

「This is the Astraea. We’re in the same situation. If we pull out here, the enemy ground forces will immediately swarm toward you, Kou.」

Transmissions came from Barry and Fuyuki. Both of them were feeling anxious but were helpless to do anything about the current situation.

Both of their ships were currently unable to fly at high altitudes and were withstanding the onslaught of enemy ground forces.

As soon as either ship pulled back, the enemy forces would initiate a pincer maneuver, and the defense line would collapse.

However, if Fortress Area P336–which was their main base–were to fall, then it would truly be their loss.

「Please hold out as much as you can.」

Kou instructed both of them. In any case, the priority now was to endure.

「Nyanta, let’s head out.」

「Okay nyaa.」

Blue and Nyanta left the control room.

Kou and Aimer. As well as Asia. Only the three of them remained.

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