The Panjandrum Has Arrived
A transport helicopter was flying at a low altitude together with an attack helicopter escort near the enemy lines.
A large object was hanging underneath it.
「Arrived at the target point. Dropping the Wheel of Fortune.」
The cat-shaped Familiar piloting the transport helicopter solemnly declared.
This was the first weapon the Hidden Boss had ever designed.
「We’re still a little further away from the enemy lines though.」
「Yes. That’s just the kind of weapon it is.」
The helicopter dropped the object. It fell to the ground and started rolling straight ahead.
It was more than twice the size of a regular Silhouette.
It was a spinning wheel-like weapon with two giant wheels attached to both ends of a thick metal cylinder.
When they hit the ground, the jet nozzles equipped on the wheels sprayed jets of hot air and made the weapon go straight at a tremendous speed.
「Dropped after calculating the time lag. Two more units remaining.」
「Roger that.」
The helicopter slowed down and shifted to hovering.
「I really can’t understand what our Hidden Boss was thinking when he made those things.」
The dog-shaped Familiar grumbled as he watched the mysterious-looking weapon speed away.
「A video footage was sent by a Murder. A mysterious-looking weapon is rapidly approaching the advanced Keres troops– No, it seems to be running them over.」
「Getting run over doesn’t sound like something good. Put up a live feed.」
Vasa ordered the comm officer.
Video footage taken by an Ant Commander was displayed on the monitor.
What appeared on screen was a huge steel spinning wheel that rushed straight into the Ant Worker formations and trampled them down.
Every Murder that got in its way was crushed by it. They were certainly getting overrun.
「What the heck is that?」
Castor muttered in surprise. It was a weapon he had never encountered before.
It just ran straight ahead. One could avoid it if they simply moved to the side.
The Ant Workers learned of that fact quickly and dodged to the side in order to keep distance from the unknown weapon.
Then, the weapon’s huge wheels suddenly purged its auxiliary armor right in front of them.
Injection ports attached to the outer side of the wheels were revealed and started spewing fire irregularly.
The Wheel of Fortune started moving erratically. It went back and forth, trampling Murders as it rolled around all over the place.
The Ant Commanders and Mantis types that were equipped with high-dimensional projection armor tried to stop it by placing their bodies in its way, but the weapon’s charging momentum was so strong that they just bounced right off.
「Vasa-kun, don’t tell me that’s……」
Alberto was stunned in surprise.
「No comment.」
It seemed like Vasa couldn’t even bear to look straight at the weapon.
「The enemy weapon has been successfully identified! It’s a Panjandrum! It’s a self-propelled ground-based rocket weapon!」
「And what the heck is that?」
Vasa looked away and didn’t respond to Castor.
Castor turned to Alberto instead.
「It’s a self-propelled explosive weapon that once existed on Earth. It was a weapon that was quite famous for wreaking havoc among allied troops during testing and became famous due to that.」
「It wreaked havoc among allied troops? Not the enemies?」
「Indeed. Even in the video footage, its movements were quite erratic, right? It’s hard to predict where it would be rolling around next. Perhaps this one was improved by using a gyro and additional armor so it would successfully reach the target point and wreak havoc there.」
The Wheel of Fortune continued to roll around erratically while running the Murders over. However……
「Isn’t it more efficient to just shoot rockets?」
「It’s just as you say.」
「What are your fellow Earthlings thinking?」
「Honestly, I have no idea myself. However, the Ant Workers can serve as effective anti-air batteries. I’m not sure if you can call that weapon effective or not, but there’s no doubt its throwing the Murders into disarray. Even the designer of that thing wouldn’t be able to predict how it would move.」
「Why? Isn’t that erratic movement caused by a program?」
「Its movement direction gets changed due to the influence of the terrain and the Ant Workers getting in its way. Its direction changes merely through direct contact. The original of that thing was created in an era when gyro sensors weren’t available yet.」
「……Order an Enyo to destroy it.」
「Yes!」
An Enyo that had been waiting behind the formation moved forward and swung its huge forelegs to crush the Panjandrum.
「No, wait! That thing’s probably loaded with explosive charges!」
The moment Vasa returned to reality and yelled a warning, the Enyo’s arm had already swung down.
A huge explosion occurred. A great debris cloud akin to that of a volcanic eruption rose up to the air.
「They got us……」
Vasa muttered and sighed. The damage caused was no laughing matter.
「If you equip that thing to a Silhouette with a metallic hydrogen reactor and let it charge ahead–」
「The MCS has a will. You can’t equip it with a self-destruct device. If the Whis supply gets cut off, it will simply vaporize or react with the atmosphere and turn into water.」
「So, it won’t work huh. Maybe putting in Murders would work?」
「What if that thing explodes in the middle of our own troops?」
「……Right. Sorry. It was just idle talk. Just forget I ever said those things.」
「I understand your feelings, at least.」
The comm officer made a report once more.
「A second and third Panjandrum types are heading straight for our troops!」
The three people displayed heartfelt worn-out expressions as they stared at the footage being displayed on the screen.
「Kou, a weapon called Wheel of Fortune had just gotten employed by our troops.」
Rick sent a transmission over.
His eyes were glassy. They were kind of scary.
「……」
Kou remained silent. He turned his gaze away to the bottom right of his MCS interior.
「Just what were you thinking when you created something like that? Go ahead and say it. I won’t get angry.」
「Just what the heck did you make again, Kou!?」
Blue also barged into the conversation like it was normal.
Rick silently sent the footage taken by a recon helicopter to Blue.
It displayed the brave and imposing figure of a Wheel of Fortune as it trampled down a swarm of Ant Workers while rolling around all over the place.
「What… is that……?」
It was a truly bizarre sight.
「It’s a self-propelled siege weapon called Panjandrum that was first made on Earth. I hesitated to use it because it just moves too unpredictably. Actually, it’s said that its entire development was actually just a ruse and was only used to deceive and confuse enemy intelligence operatives.」
「……」
Blue was also stunned by the sight of the Wheel of Fortune that was crushing Murders left, right and center while rolling around the ground.
「Just why did you make something like that?」
「Uh, it’s the first thing I made while I was training on how to be a Development Engineer…… The full-scale bricolage tutorial program had a task where it asked me to make a weapon by connecting two rings, you see. I created three prototypes.」
It was not an improvement to existing weapons. The tutorial back then was about combining various parts from scratch.
Kou started seriously training for conducting bricolage after he paid a visit to the A-Class Development Engineers.
「So, you ended up making prototypes huh.」
Rick audibly sighed.
「Hey, Astraea. I thought these were to be sealed up?」
『I thought it would be better to clear up the warehouse before moving to full mass production, and those things were taking up a lot of space, so I deployed them this morning. It looks like they had some effect.』
「They did really well. It managed to partially destroy an Enyo and crushed scores of Ant Workers. Just three of those did that much damage.」
「……」
「Kou, your eyes look dead.」
「Yes, they did really well. But if we keep using those on the battlefield, wouldn’t it wreak havoc on our allies as well? You understand what I’m getting at, right?」
「I do. But, you see, I actually already made a Mark 2 as well.」
Rick’s eyes glazed over after hearing Kou’s terrifying revelation.
「……You can’t make those things anymore. Promise Uncle Rick, okay?」
「Yes.」
「Hmm, let’s see. Once this war is over, let’s have a nice long talk together with Yunlan-san. I’ll make an appointment.」
Rick was absolutely serious. Kou couldn’t help but nod.
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