Scramjet-equipped Hypersonic Transport Craft
「Nyanta……!」
Kou groaned in frustration and worry.
He had witnessed Nyanta’s final desperate shot through the monitor, and his heart was filled with worry for her.
Aki was also anxiously watching the events on the screen.
Yutong and her troop’s reinforcement was certainly a welcome development, but it wasn’t like they had much of an advantage against the enemies.
「If only there was a way for at least myself to get over there……」
Even though Nyanta had managed to defeat the commander machine after a great struggle, things will most likely turn into a battle of attrition from here on out.
Kou and the rest could easily surmise that Nyanta and her troops would probably jump straight back into the battlefield after getting their machines resupplied.
They were lucky that the Menghu tanks arrived as reinforcements on time.
The front line has certainly shifted to the areas around Fortress Area P336.
There was a danger of being shot down from the sky by the enemy space battleship’s main naval gun, and it would take too long if Kou went by land instead.
And even if he chose to go back through outer space, Astraea wouldn’t be able to take off straight away because of the damage it suffered from the enemy space battleship’s attack.
If he set off only using Unit 5, it would take at least a day for him to reach the area around P336.
「Understood. I’ll try to ask for assistance.」
「Aimer?」
Aimer opened a comm channel, and the transmission got picked up.
The one who appeared on-screen was Abel.
「Oya? Admiral Aimer, what seems to be the matter?」
Kou then had a feeling that perhaps this unconventional Development Engineer might really hold a solution to their current problem.
「I apologize for calling you all of a sudden, but I would like to ask if you have a way to send even at least one person back to Fortress Area P336 safely. If possible, with a Silhouette as well. Do you have any ideas, Abel-san?」
「It’s good that you came to me. I, in fact, do have a way! But we’ll be making use of a prototype.」
Abel easily responded while sporting a wide grin.
Aimer and Kou were both shocked by his quick response.
「We’ll take it! Please help us!」
「Of course. Then, please give me permission to board the ship first. I’ve been sending out requests since earlier, but I haven’t gotten an approval yet.」
「Eh?」
Aimer froze up.
Kou turned his gaze toward the girls and found Aki looking away awkwardly. Astraea, whose image was displayed on the monitor as well, also looked away.
「I’m sorry, Abel-san. Our ship’s AI is a bit of an antique, you see. I’ll get you approved for boarding right away.」
『A-Antique……!』
Astraea’s eyes looked similar to those of an abandoned puppy’s. Aimer conveniently ignored her protesting gaze.
Aimer and Kou greeted Abel who was guided to the combat command center by a Familiar.
Abel politely greeted them and asked Kou for a handshake.
「So, you’re the Big Boss Bricoleur who introduced the wonderful Panjandrum to Planet Asia.」
「I actually only made it in passing at first though. Thank you for your assistance, Abel-san.」
「Don’t mention it. I was looking forward to meeting you anyway.」
Aki stared hard at Abel who was getting more and more worked up.
Aimer, who had sensed Aki’s mounting displeasure, hurriedly interjected into the two men’s conversation.
「Abel-san, I apologize, but what about that matter we discussed earlier?」
「Oh, forgive me. You seem to be in a hurry, I see. Well then, please take a look at this.」
Abel took out a small memory storage device and handed it to Aimer.
Aimer quickly activated the device and took a look at the memory data.
What the device projected was a huge rocket-propelled transport plane.
「This is?」
「This is Harmonia, a hypersonic transport aircraft that we designed using the Concorde, which was a supersonic airliner that was jointly developed by Britain and France during the twentieth century, as a motif. It can just barely fit a single Silhouette, but I believe it is more than capable enough to address your present needs. We have its parts available, but they are still stored within the Gracious Queen. We haven’t built the actual prototype yet due to inadequate structural strength calculations.」
Back in the past, the Concorde supersonic airline brought about a famous term called the Concorde fallacy. Due to the fact that they were unable to resolve the sonic boom problem, the plane’s poor fuel consumption efficiency, as well as a major accident, the project was eventually discontinued.
Since then, there have been no more supersonic airliners that were developed up until the middle of the 21st century.
「What do you think, Astraea? Will this work?」
Aimer, who had passed the data to Astraea, inquired anxiously.
『It is a surprisingly good design. It is capable of reaching Mach 10 using scramjet engines. This transport plane can theoretically fly in the stratosphere at an altitude of 30 kilometers. There will be no problems as long as we properly reinforce its structural integrity. However, I do find the fact that it is equipped with two rocket engines highly distasteful. All in all, it certainly can work.』
After hearing Astraea praise(?) the design, Abel seemed to be quite proud of himself. After all, he had managed to get the approval of the Super AI in charge of weapons development.
The scramjet engine was a propulsion system that boasted high energy efficiency in the hypersonic range, which was at Mach 5 and higher. In theory, the value can go up until Mach 15.
「Thank you so much, Abel-san!」
「You’re very welcome, Admiral Aimer.」
Abel displayed an elegant-looking gentleman’s smile. Kou thought he really did look the part of a British gentleman when he saw Abel’s smile.
『I shall calculate, verify and reinforce the plane’s structural strength then. We will commence production as soon as that is done. We will transport all the plane’s parts here in conjunction with the Gracious Queen’s Familiars, and we will assemble the plane immediately afterward. It will be completed in three hours.』
「Three hours, you say?!」
Abel was quite taken aback by Astraea’s words. He had expected assembly to last at least half a day.
『Where do you think you are? This is the Mobile Arsenal Platform Astraea.』
Astraea declared in a calm and even tone. Building a prototype machine in such short notice naturally posed little problems for her.
「As expected of you. We’ll be counting on you then, Astraea.」
『Kou, please go ahead and stand by inside Unit 5.』
「Roger that.」
Astraea believed that Kou would probably rest better within the MCS of Unit 5 compared to staying in the ship’s combat command center.
Aki noticed Astraea’s intention but kept it to herself.
「Thank you so much for your help, Abel-san.」
「You’re very welcome. Please leave piloting Harmonia to me.」
「Eh?」
Aimer quipped in surprise.
「Isn’t it only natural that I serve as its pilot? I am a Development Engineer you know? It would be quite irresponsible of me if I didn’t pilot it, correct?」
「Understood. Please do so, Abel-san.」
Before Astraea and Aki could voice their objections, Aimer had already voiced her approval.
Castor sat on the commander’s seat within the combat command center of the space battleship Megadeus. Vasa and Alberto were seated beside him on the assistant’s seats.
「The operation is going smoothly so far.」
Alberto reported the current situation.
「Even if we ended up facing unexpected developments, I did not think that we would end up resorting to fielding the Megadeus.」
Castor’s feeling of frustration was a given. After all, the first wave of Murders normally should have been more than enough to settle everything.
Although the Murders getting defeated was certainly unexpected, the enemy forces even managed to recapture Fortress Area R001.
The strength of Metal Iris and Ulysses was a lot more potent than they had ever imagined. They even gave off an uncanny feeling of unfathomableness.
「This can serve as a practical test of the Aberration Arms. Let us make good use of the opportunity then.」
Video feeds showing the Crocodile-types on the coast and the Arachne-types inland were projected on the command center’s main monitor.
「The Aberration Arms and the creation of a new type of special MCS are the last souvenirs we managed to obtain from Libya. We should make the most out of them.」
「Has Libya truly been destroyed?」
「That seems to be the case. I have no idea how things will develop on that end. It took all we had just to evacuate our resources and personnel.」
「I see. So only Europa is left huh?」
「Things would be the same with or without Europa. After all, that place is but akin to a ruin ruled by machines. Once we fully seize control of Libya and Asia, we can simply take Europa once we have time to spare.」
Castor sighed dispiritedly.
「In any case, it looks like the Aberration Arms, which is one of our few harvests from Libya, seems to be proving quite effective.」
「As expected of your designs, Castor-sama. In particular, we have confirmed that the Arachne-type is displaying performance that has exceeded our initial expectations.」
Vasa unabashedly offered Castor his praise. Although he did assist in making them, the Arachne-type which was a combination of the new machines Black Knight and Black Widow was mostly designed by Castor.
「However, they still had a hard time against that quadruped.」
「That particular enemy machine had displayed extraordinary performance. However, I don’t believe they will have more than five machines that can display a comparable performance at their disposal. Rather than that, it can be said that the Arachne-type that was able to fight with it on roughly equal terms is a truly formidable weapon. And we have more than a hundred of such Arachne-types.」
It was a straightforward and self-assured observation.
The Epona’s true ability was still unknown to them, but it was certainly a machine that stood out among the centaur-type Silhouettes.
It could be reasonably assumed that it was a machine that was only provided to the enemy side’s ace pilots.
「I couldn’t believe it when I heard from the Mercenary Association that the centaur-types were actually Therianthrope-exclusive Silhouettes, but it seems to be true.」
「The other four-legged model is probably a mass-produced version of that high-performance machine. In other words, the Arachne-type most likely surpasses a majority of their centaur-types in overall performance.」
「Fumu. –You’ve come to this conclusion after observing the fight between the Arachne corps captain and that machine in a one-on-one duel, correct? The excited electron shells were certainly unexpected, but overall, the performance of our machines was more than satisfactory huh?」
「It is as you say. In fact, those shells might have been that particular machine’s trump cards. Since that fight, none of the enemy machines have used such a shell.」
They watched the battle between the Epona and the Arachne commander take place in real-time.
They had seen that Nyanta only had one excited electron explosive shell which she used with the determination to be destroyed together with her opponent. The observers on the ground missed such a detail.
The Epona might objectively be better as a single unit, but judging from the performance of the Arachne-type corps, the Aberration Arms had more potential when employed en masse.
「The mobility and stability provided by eight legs are certainly impressive.」
「At first, they couldn’t be used without cutting off the limbs of their human components, but now it can be resolved through the use of medication and a bit of body modification. In a sense, they have become a lot more humane as weapons.」
Castor chuckled cynically. Of course, he was fully aware that their actions were still quite inhumane. After all, in the end, they weren’t really human.
「Right now, we are using humans simply as components, but with further research, we should be able to put in fully functional pilots inside them with minimal costs by making use of things such as drugs and nanomachine capsules. If they can be operated by a functioning human will, their performance will certainly improve.」
「I’d like for that to happen as well. At present, they are only a bit better than regular Murders in that aspect.」
From the start, the Aberration Arms were meant to be supplied with Helots, the slave class of Stone society. There were so many of them that the Stones regarded them as easily expendable. They were also used for research on organic fertilizers during the initial phase of the Planet Asia invasion.
It was also a fact that they were judged to be of little worth because of their low potential and abilities.
Due to the elevation of the importance of Silhouette pilots, the value of the Perioikoi, who were second tier-citizens of the free men class in Stone society, also rose.
Among the first class citizen, the Lakedaimons with particularly high combat abilities were given high-performance commander-class machines.
「The ground forces we’ve hidden in the surrounding defense domes are now also advancing toward Fortress Area P336. If we can complete the encirclement, we will be able to easily crush them.」
「I do hope everything goes well from here on out.」
Castor sounded skeptical of Alberto’s words. After all, it seemed that Metal Iris possessed strength beyond his imagination.
They had a surprising number of combat spaceships. There were also those excited electron explosives. They fielded unexpected new weapons one after another. The panjandrums were also quite troublesome and grated on his nerves.
They were also actively trying to conceal just how much firepower they really had in possession.
「In terms of overall combat strength, we clearly have the upper hand. However, it takes quite some time to defeat the enemy units that are focusing on defense. At this rate, we can expect that the decisive battle will occur in a few days. Isn’t that right, Vasa?」
「Indeed. We have enough strength, but our supply network is admittedly weak. The enemy, on the other hand, is making use of combined arms tactics centered on Familiars. It is more advantageous compared to us who are forced to operate a limited variety of weapons.」
This was a shortcoming of the Argoforce. They only had humans, with a good chunk of them deprived of their free will, at their disposal. Hence, they were mostly restricted to humanoid weapons.
Direct combat, indirect fire, resupplying, and troop transport. All of these were being performed with humanoid Silhouettes at the center.
This also went for their attacks. There was no need to make use of humanoid Silhouettes to perform indirect fire. If a Helot was put inside a self-propelled artillery platform and told to operate it, they could only do so much because they basically couldn’t do anything other than directly performing commands.
But since the Stones had no choice but to use them, they resorted to having humanoid Silhouettes carry howitzers instead. This was because the Silhouette’s MCS essentially makes up for a Helot’s lacking thinking and judgment abilities. In this way, they could play both indirect fire and direct combat roles.
「What if we fail to bring it down with this?」
「This situation will merely get prolonged. Probably a month. Or perhaps even longer. I cannot read that far into the future.」
「I see. The enemy has kept surprising us with a lot of new weapons. This time around, let us make them have a taste of our own new weapons.」
Castor sneered vengefully.
Vasa nodded expressionlessly in agreement.
Comment (0)