It’s Just Your Usual Panjandrum. However……

 


「They sure are fast. Those panjandrums……」

The Mk. IIs were advancing at a speed unheard of in ground-use self-propelled explosives.

The one that said the earlier words in a mutter was Rick.

「They’re advancing at a speed of over 300 km/h. They’ll make contact with the target in five minutes.」

「Rick, we have orders. Anti-flash defenses at maximum! Those who are able to should evacuate back to the Fortress Area immediately! Especially the aircraft!」

「What? Are we actually gonna detonate nuclear weapons?!」

「Of course not! Hurry!」

「U-Understood. All troops, prepare to evacuate. All who are able to return should evacuate to the Fortress Area immediately! The aircraft should all evacuate! Stay as far away from the pitfall where the Ate fell as possible! Maximum anti-flash defenses!」

Rick’s tank also quickly retreated, and he decided to contact Kou.

「Kou, The Wheel of Fortune Mk. IIs are going to collide with the enemy Ate soon. Are those things really okay?」

「……So, you ended up using those after all, Rick. Don’t worry. Those are just your usual panjandrums that were made with proper thought put into their design.」

Even as he declared so, Kou’s expression was still clouded over.

「What do you mean by “proper thought?”」

「They were originally intended as siege weapons; anti-Fortress self-propelled explosives. They advance to the target directly, and once they reach it, they’ll automatically topple over with the cylindrical body facing upward. The explosion will be directed to either the upper or lower portion of the cylinder. That’s in order to minimize the damage to the surroundings as much as possible.」

「Umu? Uh, it does sound like your usual panjandrum. I think?」

「Right. It’s just your usual panjandrum. However……」

Kou averted his eyes from the screen. It was the expression he uses whenever he messes something up.

「However?」

The first Wheel of Fortune ignored the Ate’s plasma barrier and fell directly into the pitfall.

The remaining three also fell one after another.

The Wheel of Fortune Mk. IIs crushed the countless ant-type Keres that got in their way. But once they reached their target, they toppled over.

「However, the destructive power is unexpectedly high.」

The Mk. IIs exploded simultaneously. It was as if the door to hell had suddenly opened.


A gigantic pillar of flame pierced the sky.

Black smoke enveloped it.

Even with the daylight blocked, the light from the explosions still illuminated Rick’s face.

He was stunned silly by the outrageous power of the explosion.

For a moment, he really thought the door to hell had opened.

It was an unprecedented explosion with destructive strength that was unheard of in Planet Asia.

The blast blew away the surrounding trees and smashed them to dregs.

If they hadn’t turned up their anti-flash defenses to the maximum, the troops present would probably have gotten blinded.

Everyone who witnessed the explosion was absolutely dumbfounded.

The highly stable bug-form Keres were all overturned by the blast.

There were also Ant Worker-types that were directly blown away.

The shockwaves generated by the explosion were also extremely powerful.

The detonation was destruction incarnate.

The Ate directly exploded due to the shockwaves and ultra-high temperature caused by the blast.

Some of the Familiars and Therianthropes trembled in fear after witnessing its might.

It was well and truly terrifying.

Only Voy and Fuyuki displayed triumphant smiles.

All of their teammates were as dumbfounded as the rest of the troops.

A huge deformed lump of metal fell two kilometers away from ground zero.

It was the Ate’s head.

Within the pitfall, terrible things were occurring.

The entirety of the Ate’s body collapsed in the intense heat.

It turned crimson-hot and gradually degenerated into a molten metallic mess.

Its last struggles were futile.

It melted down from the bottom up until it was finally swallowed by the flames completely.

The blast could be seen with the naked eye even from the distant Cimon-class.

「Just what happened?!」

「It seems the Wheel of Fortune Mk. IIs were activated. The Ate…… has exploded! Its remaining body has melted down. The thermal plume has reached an altitude of 8,000 meters…… How incredibly powerful.」

The command center crew members were all dumbfounded by the explosion’s destructive power.

「Just what the heck have you done this time, Kou?!」

Even Barry was stunned silly.

「Astraea, you didn’t try to stop him?」

『The Mk. IIs were necessary.』

Aki, Nyanta, and Aimer all knew the source of such destructive power.

Aimer sighed as she gazed at the rising mushroom cloud.

The temperature in the center of the blast had reached nearly 8,000 degrees.

Moreover, such a high temperature was actually maintained within the pit.

「What the heck–!?」

Rick yelled at the culprit.

The flame pillar was still shooting further up into the sky. The high-temperature gasses still hadn’t stopped.

「That’s one destructive explosion alright.」

「Don’t talk like it doesn’t concern you.」

「The explosives within the Mk. IIs simply exploded normally.」

Kou explained with his eyes still averted. He was the one who built the Mk. IIs after all. He already knew they were really powerful.

However, the power of the explosion in the simulation was completely different from the one in reality. He belatedly regretted stuffing a little too much explosive in the Mk. IIs.

The flame pillar could be seen from the Astraea and the Cimon-class ships that were stationed far from the explosion. There was no doubt that the crew members stationed on the ships would also gossip about it among themselves.

「That’s certainly no mere explosive! What exactly did you use?! How much did you use anyway?!」

「……Err, we packed about 25 tons of electronically excited metallic hydrogen-based explosive in each Mk. II.」

All four Mk. IIs were packing explosives roughly equivalent to 50 kilotons of TNT.

Hence, it was only natural for it to produce such a gigantic mushroom cloud.

「That explosive is similar to smokeless gunpowder. Look. That cloud isn’t a nuclear one, right? It should subside in an hour or so. There’s no worry of radioactive contamination, so it won’t cause “black rain” either. Please rest assured. Well…… I suppose detonating four of those at the same time was a bit of an overkill.」

「You’re lucky those things didn’t get banned from the get-go!」

「We did defeat the Ate with them, so it’s fine, right?」

「……I suppose. We were unable to bring it down on our own after all. I guess this is fine.」

Rick let out a heavy sigh.

「Kou, be prepared to participate in a retreat with me and Mr. Yunlan later. We’ll be eating nothing but canned food for three days.」

「……Okay.」

Kou decided not to quibble with Rick who was seriously incensed.

Then, Rick proceeded to contact the other two culprits who brought about the current situation.

「We did detonate the explosion within the pitfall, so there wasn’t much damage done to the surrounding areas. All the surrounding Ant-types were blown away though. However! Make sure to hand in a complete report regarding your plans from now on, Fuyuki! Voy!」

「O〜kay.」

「Sorry ’bout that.」

「Answer me properly, you two!」

Rick thought that he really needed to call Yunlan as soon as possible and lecture the three fools about the proper ways to conduct ground battles.

The Wheel of Fortune Mk. II held enough power to make Rick utterly distressed.

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