Chapter 186 : The Application of Cluster Munitions
Chapter 186: The Application of Cluster Munitions
【Sub-munition Elemental Incendiary Bomb】
This was a product created by Alliance scientists based on a concept proposed by Grace.
Before this, no one had thoroughly studied the suppressive effect of the elements. People only knew that wherever seawater existed, the magical elements in the air above and around it would inevitably be repelled.
It was like the two poles of a magnet—identical poles repel each other and cannot easily coexist.
Meanwhile, the Subcontinent’s unique geographical environment provided sufficient conditions for elemental generation. These elements counterbalanced the sea’s mist, allowing a state where magical elements were thin but still present.
Because of this, the Subcontinent was actually not threatened by elemental suppression. Instead, it was more like being protected by the ocean. After all, without this phenomenon, the ancestors would not even have had this land on which to reproduce and survive.
Habit became nature, and even Mitia subconsciously overlooked this issue.
Because the Alliance’s demand for submachine guns had dropped significantly, Grace felt that his career had suffered a setback. One day while walking along the seaside to clear his mind, he stared at the vast mist hovering above the ocean and suddenly wondered:
“Where did they come from?”
With that question in mind, he went to the Alliance scientific department to seek an answer.
During previous weapon development projects, he had frequently coordinated with the materials division of the scientific department, and he had good relationships with many scholars there.
However, everyone he asked was stumped by the question.
Although the Alliance’s research equipment was advancing rapidly at the time and optical instruments had begun to be widely used, this particular field had not yet been explored.
But that did not matter.
They did not need to determine the exact composition immediately.
All they needed to do first was extract some seawater—the source of the mist—and then attempt various methods to separate the substance from the ordinary elements contained in seawater.
At first, Alliance scientists had no clear direction.
That was until they observed the separation equipment used in petroleum drilling and chose a distillation approach.
By heating seawater to evaporate it at high temperatures, separating and condensing the vapor at different temperature layers, they were eventually able to crystallize the suppression mist contained within it into particles at low temperatures.
Once this step was completed, the rest became much simpler.
With continuous improvements by Grace and the Alliance scientists, these special crystals rapidly advanced toward weaponized applications.
Using the Alliance’s newly developed M88 cluster bomb—originally designed to counter the Church and the Tsarist Nation of Roshek’s slave-based human-wave tactics—they created a derivative product.
The M88 cluster bomb measured 937 millimeters in length and 152 millimeters in diameter. Inside it were 88 small bombs stacked layer by layer within the bomb body.
It was normally supplied for use with the Alliance’s 152-millimeter towed artillery and self-propelled artillery.
At the same time, a smaller 75-millimeter cluster artillery shell was also developed.
Grace chose this new weapons platform to carry the special crystals as ammunition.
Compared with conventional gunpowder shells—whose fuses were triggered by the rotation caused by the ribbon stabilizer—crystal explosives were much more complicated to detonate.
The crystals were kept in a low-temperature crystalline state and mixed with small amounts of solidified gasoline, which wrapped around and filled them.
Once fired, the solidified gasoline would ignite, producing temperatures of over a thousand degrees. This heat would continuously vaporize the crystals, thereby creating a localized suppression mist similar to that found over the ocean.
At the same time, an ultra-thin layer of thermal insulation cotton could be added inside the outer shell body, while a rune array maintained the shell’s low temperature, allowing it to be stored and transported safely.
After detonation, the high-pressure gas produced by nitrated fiber would rupture the locking structure of the outer shell.
This naturally blasted away the insulation cotton, exposing the internal sub-munitions.
A secondary propellant charge would then detonate, scattering the sub-munitions outward.
By adjusting the charge amount, the coverage area could be controlled between 50 meters and 300 meters.
The reason for designing it as a cluster munition was to achieve the largest possible coverage with minimal expenditure.
Like shotgun pellets, it would saturate an entire area instantly rather than waiting for the suppression mist to slowly drift outward.
Naturally, this special type of ammunition required a testing platform.
The Derro War became the ideal experimental battlefield.
The results completely exceeded the expectations of the Alliance observers stationed within the Roshek military command.
The Church forces had never encountered such a weapon.
Their highly magic-dependent troops suddenly lost access to magic without warning and immediately suffered heavy losses.
The Tsarist forces, however, had prepared in advance.
All of their weapons used mechanical technological systems. The 75mm field guns behind them were also standard Alliance artillery rather than magic crystal cannons powered by magical crystals.
Without drawing magical energy from their internal power sources, their mechanical units could still operate independently for over ten minutes.
Combined with heavy machine guns and rifles, they tore through the Church army’s defensive lines.
Even the Church’s supreme commander of the Mitoten front army was captured.
The Tsarist forces then launched a counteroffensive.
Not only did the Church fail to seize Mitoten Port, but they also lost the neighboring Pemeh Port.
Reinforcements sent by Rezha to Uyanchi attacked the army that had marched out from Chernit, pushing the front line back to the gates of Chernit State’s capital city.
On the other two fronts, the Tsarist Nation continued mobilizing endless waves of slave soldiers. Their relentless counterattacks, regardless of casualties, forced those fronts into stalemates and completely disrupted the Church’s pre-war deployment.
The defeat in the Mitoten direction also turned Wokinsk and Roshek into exposed salients.
The advancing Wokingmeh mercenary forces could not break through Roshek’s immovable defensive line and were forced to withdraw, joining another Church force to hold Chernit City.
This enraged the Dmitria Church delegation.
At the Seven Nations alliance meeting, they repeatedly cursed the Seris Alliance diplomats.
They strongly demanded that the Alliance stop supplying weapons to the Tsarist Nation.
However, this demand was opposed by the Tsarist Nation of Roshek.
Furthermore, the Seris Alliance was not even a member of the Seven Nations alliance.
Strictly speaking, it was an outsider and had no obligation to listen to the Church.
On top of that, the two leading empires themselves were already fighting each other and had no time to deal with such matters.
As a result, the incomplete alliance meeting ended in discord.
The proposal to impose sanctions on the Alliance simply faded away.
The Seris Federation’s ambassador displayed remarkable composure.
Even after being scolded by the Church delegation for half an hour at the meeting, he kept smiling calmly without changing expression.
After the meeting ended, however, the Alliance quietly increased the price of weapons sold to the Church by 15%.
When Church merchant caravans asked about it, the arms dealers explained that international arms supplies were tight and raw material prices had risen, increasing production costs.
As for why only the Church’s prices had increased, the dealer merely gave them a meaningful look.
Not long afterward, the Church representative within the Seven Nations alliance was replaced.
The Alliance’s old acquaintance—Oligovich, the former Pontiff of the Subcontinent—was transferred back to the Church homeland.
Officially, he would accompany newly recruited Church troops to the front line to conduct battlefield mobilization.
His foul mouth had effectively forced the Church to pay a large additional sum of money.
Even the nobles within the Church were extremely dissatisfied with him.
The current Pontiff was also displeased with Oligovich.
No matter how poor the Church’s opinion of the Alliance might be, this was not the time to cause trouble.
Seeing Oligovich still engaging in verbal attacks while relying on the Alliance for weapons revealed his political incompetence.
He was clearly unfit for important responsibilities and might as well be sent to the front lines to contribute his final usefulness.
The Church had not ignored the idea of copying Alliance weapons.
In fact, they had been trying constantly.
However, the results were never ideal.
Reverse-engineering bolt-action rifles after obtaining samples was not particularly difficult.
But producing them domestically turned out to be more expensive than simply buying them, and the quality was worse than the Seris exports.
Most critically, their self-produced rifles had a firing range more than 300 meters shorter and much lower accuracy.
Furthermore, because the chemical threshold for propellants was relatively high, they were unable to produce new propellants like nitrated fiber.
If they used old black powder, rifles still required a ramrod for loading.
However, the magic potion powder propellant that Mitia had previously experimented with was successfully reverse-engineered by the Church.
This substance was indeed not difficult to replicate.
Unfortunately, the Church’s barrel casting quality was already poor.
Using magic potion powder caused barrels to explode.
When they reduced the charge to a safe level, its power became almost identical to black powder—an extremely awkward situation.
Nevertheless, they still purchased a batch to maintain their military industry and allow it to continue iterating, preventing a complete cutoff from Alliance supplies.
However, that arms factory was soon acquired by John.