Chapter 459: 457
Between Mars and Jupiter lay an asteroid belt.
It contained hundreds of thousands of celestial fragments of every imaginable size.
If the gravity of Jupiter and the Sun did not hold so many of them in relatively stable orbits, the solar system would be an extremely dangerous place.
Earth in particular might have been battered into a crater-covered wasteland resembling the Moon.
Ship One had already departed the YoRHa's hangar and moved into position before the first test target.
The target was an irregular celestial fragment roughly the size of Australia. Its shape made it look like a massive chunk that had broken away from a much larger object.
Tens of millions, hundreds of millions, or perhaps even billions of years ago, it might have been part of the surface of a complete planet.
Then some unimaginable catastrophe had shattered that world.
"Target calibration complete."
"Backup power supply confirmed operational."
"Dimensional Wave-Motion Implosion Emitter, stand by!"
The tip of the ship's bow split apart vertically, opening like a bird's beak. A spiraling cannon barrel emerged from within, its interior unfolding like a kaleidoscope.
"Safeties disengaged!"
"Exciter connected!"
"Dimensional Wave-Motion Engine activated. Gravitational coefficient within the firing chamber is rising!"
"All circuits remain within safe operating limits."
"Firing chamber gravitational coefficient has reached the minimum firing threshold!"
The minimum firing threshold represented the lowest level at which the cannon could successfully discharge.
If it remained below that point, the weapon would simply misfire.
"Firing chamber gravitational coefficient has reached ninety-eight percent."
"Confirming target coordinates again. No discrepancies detected!"
"Charge at one hundred percent!"
"Commander, all systems are ready."
"Proceed."
From aboard the YoRHa, Kain gave the final authorization.
"Ship One, fire!" Commander White ordered.
The androids aboard Ship One immediately initiated the firing sequence.
In an instant, the light surrounding the cannon's muzzle seemed to be sucked inward, making the already dark expanse of space even darker.
When that darkness reached its deepest point, a beam of dark-blue light tore through the void and shot directly toward the test target.
The YoRHa offered a superior vantage point, allowing everyone aboard to clearly observe the firing process.
The Wave-Motion Gun's discharge looked slightly different from an ordinary beam weapon.
To Kain, it resembled a Kamehameha from Dragon Ball.
The head of the beam was somewhat oval, with a narrower column of energy trailing behind it.
Another, stranger comparison came to mind. It resembled a sperm cell carrying twenty-three chromosomes, dragging a long tail behind it as it swam straight toward the target.
The instant it struck, blue light flooded the dark expanse of space. For a moment, it looked like the blue sky seen from Earth during the day.
That blue radiance vanished almost immediately, consumed by an even more intense orange glow.
The asteroid appeared to ignite like a colossal fuel tank, transforming into a gigantic ball of fire.
During its firing process, the Wave-Motion Gun generated hypergravitational waves and streams of microscopic black holes. Those black holes evaporated almost instantly, converting their mass-energy entirely into Hawking radiation and producing tremendous destructive power.
In the series Kain knew that featured the Wave-Motion Gun, the weapon's exact principles and capabilities varied between different versions.
In one version, the weapon truly lived up to the name Dimensional Wave-Motion Implosion Emitter.
If a weapon had "dimensional" in its name, then it ought to be capable of affecting dimensions themselves.
That version of the Wave-Motion Gun created three spatial distortions, producing dimension-warping fields that attacked the target.
Once those distorted regions of space struck, they destroyed both the target and the three-dimensional structure of the reality it occupied.
The resulting dimensional collapse was somewhat similar to the dual-vector foil from The Three-Body Problem.
The difference between the two was fairly simple.
A dual-vector foil smoothly compressed an entire region into something resembling a photograph.
The Wave-Motion Gun shattered it instead. It was like putting a brick beneath a hydraulic press and crushing it into fragments instead of flattening it into a sheet.
Naturally, the Wave-Motion Gun they were testing now was not a dimensional weapon. It relied entirely on the energy released by evaporating microscopic black holes.
"Approximately seventy-five percent of the target's structural integrity has been destroyed."
That result meant this version of the Wave-Motion Gun was not powerful enough to completely destroy a planet.
Even so, a single shot would still be enough to cause catastrophic ecological devastation.
"Next, we will conduct a critical-output discharge."
Put simply, they were about to fire the weapon at nearly overload levels and test the absolute limit of its destructive power.
They could not simply enlarge this Wave-Motion Gun, install it aboard the YoRHa, and expect to obtain a planet-destroying weapon.
If they scaled up the existing design without making any other changes, the cannon would most likely explode.
They were currently incapable of constructing a larger version because the STC only provided the manufacturing instructions for this specific model. It was effectively a foolproof assembly manual.
To build a larger cannon, they would first need better materials and a complete understanding of every relevant parameter. Some of its components could not be improved by simply making them thicker or widening the barrel.
Entirely new manufacturing technology would be required.
They would also need to completely master the principles behind the Wave-Motion Gun.
That was not something they could accomplish in a short time.
They had previously claimed to be close to mastering stasis-field barrier technology, but even that merely meant they understood how to follow the foolproof construction instructions. They were still far from fully understanding stasis fields themselves.
Time passed quickly.
"Critical output reached!"
"Fire!"
A beam far thicker than the first ripped through the dark expanse of space and slammed into an asteroid twice the size of the previous target.
The explosion shattered it into countless fragments. The debris blasted into the surrounding asteroids, leaving their surfaces riddled with craters.
The resulting shock wave sent many smaller celestial bodies tumbling away.
Because they were in the weightlessness of space, the shattered fragments and nearby asteroids collided with one another and scattered in every direction.
The Wave-Motion Gun had struck the asteroid belt like a gigantic cue ball, slamming into a tightly packed formation and sending countless other balls flying chaotically across the table.
"Tessa, would you like us to install one aboard your TDD-1 assault submarine?"
"Uh, no. I think I'll pass."
Tessa shook her head.
If the submarine ever fell into someone else's hands by accident, the consequences would be disastrous.
Mithril did not need such a terrifying weapon yet. For now, it was enough to support the organization's growth with technology that was advanced, but not so impossibly advanced that it disrupted the balance of her world.
Once the right moment arrived, Mithril could eliminate Amalgam in a single decisive offensive.
Her world's circumstances were complicated, so Mr. Kain could not simply travel there and resolve everything in one overwhelming attack.
Ultimately, Mithril was still too weak, while Amalgam resembled Blue Cosmos in Miss Lacus's world. It secretly controlled more than half the world from the shadows.
Without enough power, all Mithril could do was overturn the entire table and drag Amalgam down with it, ensuring mutual destruction.
"White, prepare to depart for Mars. We'll conduct the next test there."
"Understood."
Hearing their exchange, Asseylum finally tore her gaze away from the scene of destruction. Nervousness and anticipation rose within her.
They were traveling to Mars to test something else.
If the experiment succeeded, Mr. Kain would be able to use the same method in her world.
It could solve the desperate problem facing the Martian population there, the very problem that lay at the root of the war.
(End of Chapter)
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