Vol 2. Chapter 4: A Message from 20 km High
“...An arrow was stuck?”
“Yes, ma’am. A solar-powered Swift reconnaissance drone experienced a malfunction and was recalled. Upon inspection, we found an arrow embedded in the right wing.”
“...”
The report was nothing short of shocking. A Swift drone, flying over the forested region east of the Afurasia United Kingdom, where Telek Harbor was located, had been attacked.
“...Ringo. Just to confirm, what was the Swift’s altitude?”
“The altitude was approximately 20,000 meters, ma’am.”
“An arrow hit the wing of a Swift flying at 20 kilometers?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
She was dumbfounded. Twenty kilometers in the air. For perspective, the Swift’s wingspan was about 40 meters, making it appear as a tiny dot from the ground.
Of course, Ringo’s computational capabilities allowed her to hit targets 20 kilometers away with artillery, but that required immense computational resources. Moreover, this was not horizontal fire—it was aimed at the sky.
Gravity’s influence would make this vastly different from shooting a target 20 kilometers away in a straight line.
To make matters more complicated, while the Swift wasn’t particularly fast for an aircraft, it cruised at around 200 to 300 km/h.