The Murderous Panjandrum part 2
「Astraea was involved in the plan too?」
「She thought Tower didn’t convey its strength correctly, she wanted something stronger. After the Asia War, she grumbled about the Hanged Man but still helped refine the design. She was the one who designed the crustal tsunami effect too. Big Boss was the one who named it Star. We had to modify the angle and speed to meet Okeanus requirements. The real producer of Star was Astraea and Okeanus supervised its construction.」
「These behind-the-scenes stories of Star’s creation are beyond anything I expected.」
Even Abel, who had designed many destructive weapons, began to question the ethical implications of creating something so destructive.
「The Star is practically divine punishment, isn’t it? Its force is such that it could be called World instead.」
「In the Arcana, there’s an interpretation that Star and World share the same meaning. The next Panjandrum, utilizing this tether-hook mechanism, may very well be named World.」
But would there ever be a ‘next time’? Even Abel doubted it. This was a weapon that all factions across the system would undoubtedly seek to ban. Even Abel, who had worked to develop it, was taken aback by its sheer destructive potential.
The Gorgias, now submerged in the sea of magma, could no longer be located. All that remained was a boiling expanse of seawater, shrouding the region in a dense steam cloud. Remarkably, the inflow of ocean water exceeded the rate of evaporation, preventing a total vaporization of the area.
Whether it was fortunate that the impact did not occur in a deep ocean trench was debatable. Had it struck such a location, the increased evaporation would have created massive rain clouds, potentially shrouding planet Asia in storms for over a month.
「There is one thing that I don’t understand. They didn’t even seem to be on guard against attacks from orbit, how could they be so careless?」
「Agreed. I expected at least some level of precaution. It’s as if they emerged from the seafloor thinking the end of the Asia War meant the danger had passed.」
The grim state of the Mercenary Association’s fleet was undeniable. The Silhouettes that had once stood on the decks of surrounding escort ships were now being tossed into the sea as those vessels capsized.
It would be unfair to blame them for failing to respond to Eirene’s attack. The Hanged Man had once been a crude orbital weapon, spun and hurled with sheer force. But Star was precision-targeted, a calculated strike from orbit.
It was a level of devastation they had never been prepared to confront.
「The second strike will be in one hundred seconds. I’m not sure if we’ll be able to manage a third. For the next one, we’ll need to reduce the drop speed. Let’s keep it moderate.」
Abel adjusted Star’s settings, reducing its speed from 30 kilometers per second to 15—a sharp reduction. Stimulating any more undersea volcanoes or active fault lines was the last thing he wanted. As a precaution, he set it to detonate after impact in case anything went wrong.
Although his face betrayed no emotion, Abel felt a chill running down his spine. In truth, even he was unnerved. This was the moment he fully reconsidered his perceptions of Astraea—who had been accused once of nearly annihilating the Nemesis Star System—and Eirene, widely regarded as one of the most dangerous entities in the system.
They were, after all, AI designed for weapons development. Their very purpose was to create tools to destroy the enemy in the most efficient and devastating way possible. Abel couldn’t help but think that Kou was utterly captivated by them.
He had to be the brake. For the sake of Kou, who was his friend, and for these two AI who walked a fine line between creation and obliteration, Abel resolved himself.
「I’m counting on you.」
A weary, elderly voice seemed to whisper in his mind. Surely, it was just his imagination.
「The power will be reduced, but it should still take out smaller vessels in a single hit. However, Star won’t last much longer. I think the next strike will be its last.」
「I wish we could have dropped it at least two more times.」
From her position in low orbit, Eirene spoke of destruction as if it were an everyday matter.
◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆
「Is anyone alive?」
Raimund, captain of Roche Phalanx, had briefly lost consciousness. As soon as he woke up, he checked on his team. Their spacecraft, the Nabis, had capsized and sunk to the ocean floor due to the combined force of the blast and the ensuing tsunami.
Raimund had abandoned his Aratron and switched to his strongest unit, a testament to how deeply he regarded the Metal Iris’s new models as a threat. His machine, named Asmodel, was so durable that even collisions with walls left not a scratch.
「I’m… I’m alive somehow.」
「My apologies, Captain. I lost consciousness.」
They had all been thrown against the walls of the hangar by the force of the impact. While the Nabis, a spacecraft designed to endure direct hits from charged particle cannons, could withstand a great deal, it had not been prepared for the shockwaves and tsunami forces within an atmosphere.
「This is the Nabis. Gorgias, do you read me?」
He waited, but no response came.
「Was the Gorgias completely obliterated in a single strike?」
Raimund couldn’t help but voice his doubts aloud. The situation was inexplicable. He was well aware that the Asia War had ended with the use of a mass weapon—a fact that remained etched in history. Such weapons were the first to be banned under the treaty governing the current war with the Stones. If such a weapon had indeed been deployed, it would undoubtedly prompt Okeanus to intervene.
He considered the possibility of a different type of weapon but dismissed it as equally implausible. After all, the Gorgias was a spacecarrier built for interstellar operations in the harsh environments of space, where high-speed objects were a constant threat. It shouldn’t have been destroyed in a single blow.
Even if a collision with another spacecraft had occurred, both vessels would have been pulverized, resulting in even greater devastation. No one would resort to such a wasteful, suicidal tactic.
「Captain Sans, do you read me?」
「This is Sans from the combat command center. The ship remains capsized. It’ll take time to surface.」
「You’re taking too long.」
「We aren’t in space. I’ve never been to space myself, but the airtight integrity of this ship is our saving grace right now.」
「As a warship built in the Interplanetary War, even a minor breach would render it useless in space. It’s a given that we’re holding together.」
「True enough. Our situation is manageable for now, but the Gorgias… well…」
「What’s the status?」
「I’m sending the visuals now.」
The transmitted footage revealed the Gorgias, a grim sight to behold.
A massive, spiked, wheel-like object had crashed onto its deck, evidently launched from orbit. Multiple holes gaped across the deck’s surface. The force of the impact had caused an explosion of atmosphere and seawater, creating towering plumes that evolved into devastating tsunamis. The Nabis had been thrown violently by the shockwave and subsequently engulfed by one of these massive waves.
The Gorgias was slammed into the ocean surface and pushed further beneath the waves. Plasma and boiling seawater were drawn into the gaping holes in its deck, and within moments, the massive vessel sank into the sea of magma.
Its ghostly silhouette lingered in the burning depths, a haunting and pitiful sight. The water columns, though still present, were gradually losing their height
「I believe some of the Gorgias‘ systems are still operational, but there’s no response. The crew could be unconscious, or perhaps the impact from that mass weapon turned everything inside into minced meat.」
「A mass weapon deployed from orbit—isn’t that a violation of the treaty? What is Okeanus doing?」
「Here’s the thing, I checked, and the Mercenary Association wasn’t involved in that treaty at all—not even indirectly.」
「What? We’re part of the Mercenary Association Headquarters. Shouldn’t the treaties signed by our subordinate groups, all the Underground Forces, apply to us as well?」
「Not even close. That’s a stretch, and you know it. We didn’t participate in the fighting, nor were we present at the negotiations. The Mercenary Association as a whole wasn’t involved in any capacity. That peace treaty and war protocol only apply to the Corporate Union Ulysses and its defense force Metal Iris.」
「…Unbelievable.」
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