Vol 5. Chapter 15: Engagement Begins
The response for when they encountered a monster that approached aggressively, or one that was outright belligerent, was something Commander Eve and Ringo had discussed and decided in advance.
For the time being, they would slug it and see how it reacted.
That was The Tree’s policy.
No, in their defense, they actually had spent quite a long time talking it through.
They had considered all sorts of patterns: what responses were possible, whether they could avoid full-scale confrontation, whether they could probe the opponent’s range of activity in advance, and so on.
But in the end, the opponent was an unknown life-form.
One with which communication would be extremely difficult.
If it acted with clearly defined intent like the swarm of scorpion-monsters, Serqet, then it would be easy to understand—but the rest of the monsters were not like that.
The sea monster Rain Croyne had technically been attacked first by them, but even after being beaten half to death, it had shown no sign of trying to flee. It had continued to try to attack them.
In the end, even the juvenile they still kept in captivity was so belligerent that they had been forced to divide its enclosure out of fear it would resort to cannibalism. Its meek cuteness had lasted only the first year.
Then there had been the gigantic earth-worm.
That one had attacked without so much as a word.
The wolf-like monsters that had appeared afterward had also been highly belligerent.
And from gathering stories in various towns as well, they had learned that creatures classified as monsters were, generally speaking, extremely aggressive.
Looking back on it carefully, even Serqet had attacked without a word at first.
It might only have been because they had shown they could oppose it with force that it had adopted a cautious stance afterward.
And so—
“The Wyvern is within maser-cannon range. Local Strategic AI has ordered the attack to commence.”
“Titan and Oceanus have initiated preliminary maser illumination!”
The attack had begun.
By illuminating it with multiple radar beams, the target Wyvern’s silhouette stood out sharply in electronic space.
However, at this distance it was still not visible to the naked eye.
Dust clouds kicked up from the ground covered the airspace, and visibility was poor.
Even so, the electronic eye of radar clearly projected the state of the surrounding airspace.
With a separation of 50 km, live-shell bombardment was poorly suited; the time to impact would be far too long.
Missiles would become an option if they determined that kinetic attacks were effective.
Laser cannons, in poor-visibility conditions, were not particularly useful. If they pumped in enough energy to burn away every obstruction along the line of fire, the beam might reach—but the oscillators themselves would not be able to withstand their own heat.
For those reasons, they were opening with the maser cannons.
While they had carried out countless test-firings and training exercises, this was the first time the Gigantia group was engaging in attack operations against a clearly defined target. They had done airborne drops of cargo, but that could hardly be called “attack operations.”
In appearance, a maser cannon looked like an oversized radar installation.
Roughly speaking, it was a weapon that attacked by emitting radio waves, so it did not require a gun barrel.
On the Titan-Series, one was installed on the dorsal side, one on the ventral side, and one on each flank.
At the moment, the target Wyvern was flying below them, and Titan and Oceanus, which were on climbing trajectories, were using their ventral maser cannons.
They carried out low-output preliminary illumination to confirm that the target was being locked on correctly.
At the same time, the flight wing that had been following behind dispersed into the surroundings, positioning themselves so as not to get caught in any collateral effects.
The fired maser beams reached the Wyvern at the speed of light.
The Tree’s in-house radar systems and fire-control systems were extremely capable. The maser cannons’ aim was, with almost no error, precisely aligned on the Wyvern.
If someone had witnessed this while able to perceive microwaves, they would have seen the Wyvern glittering, its body sparkling with diffusely reflected microwaves.
Once they had confirmed that there were no problems with the aim, the maser cannons’ output was raised in one go.
Irradiation output: 3 M mega-watts. Since Titan and Oceanus were both focusing on a single point, the combined output came to 6 MW.
“Maser irradiation on target has begun.”
“Nngh... Commander Sis-ter, it’s reflecting this back at us!”
Apparently Asahi had been watching the electromagnetic-wave map via direct connection, because she let out a scream.
The display on which she had pulled up the electromagnetic-wave map at her side was glowing pure white.
“Analyzing. It appears the emitted maser is being diffusely reflected.
We hypothesize that the cause is its body-surface scales.
Image analysis: we have confirmed a glow phenomenon similar to that of the problematic defensive membrane. We judge that some effect is attenuating the maser.”
“Wait, it even deflects masers? These things can do anything, huh!”
In the footage projected from a rearward viewpoint, the Wyvern twisted its body under maser irradiation.
“The point of irradiation has been shifted. Calculated reflectivity: above 40% and below 60%. However, the increase in body-surface temperature is within the margin of error. It is possible that over 40% of the thermal energy is being neutralized by a barrier.”
“So those silver scales aren’t just for show...!”
“At this rate, it might scatter lasers too!”
According to Ringo’s calculations, roughly half of the irradiated energy was being reflected.
However, that did not mean the remaining half was penetrating.
From computing the infrared body-surface temperature measurements, the temperature increase was less than one degree. Considering body-temperature fluctuations and solar radiation as external noise, this was within the margin of error.
In other words, half of the irradiated energy was being nullified, and the remaining half was being scattered away as reflected energy.
“The maser cannons are heating up! Twenty-six seconds until the continuous-irradiation limit!!”
“It’s impossible to tell whether we’re even getting any effect...!”
If that familiar magic barrier was manifesting, then some amount of damage was likely being generated.
However, they could not determine whether the pressure they were exerting was enough to negate the barrier.
They knew that continuous pressure damage could neutralize barriers, but they had no way to observe whether they were contributing meaningfully to that barrier attenuation.
“The Wyvern’s rate of acceleration has increased. It appears to be aware that it is under attack.”
“The Wyvern’s speed has exceeded 1,000 km/h!”
“It can still go faster!?”
They could not afford to be too laid-back about this. Titan and Oceanus were also flying at full power, but they did not have enough output to break the sound barrier.
If you could not win on top speed, that was effectively the same as being unable to run away.
“Distance to the Wyvern, 30 km.
Local Tactical AI is proposing long-range interception with Multi-stage Electromagnetic Cannons (Coilguns). Strategic AI has granted permission.”
Judging that the maser cannons’ attack had been almost completely neutralized, the Strategic AI switched to interception using kinetic weapons.
The selected shells were anti-air HE ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ shells: types that, once the target entered their damage radius, detonated and scattered small ceramic submunitions along the direction of travel.
Given the considerable distance, it had judged that direct fire with armor-piercing shells would be difficult.
At present, the Wyvern, apparently displeased by the maser irradiation, was spinning in a corkscrew while still accelerating—an aerodynamically abnormal flight pattern.
Its flight path was unstable, making it difficult to deliver shells to it with pinpoint precision.
Even if they launched at an initial velocity of 8,000 m/s, it would still take more than four seconds to reach the target.
“Titan and Oceanus are now laying their ventral coil cannons... complete. They’ve fired.”
Large coils installed in stages along the inside of the barrel were fed massive current, accelerating the shells.
Initial velocity: 8,194 m/s. A hypersonic speed exceeding Mach 24.
The shells that were fired flew straight ahead, shrugging off air resistance. While aerodynamic heating did heat the shells, their evaporating surface coating prevented that heat from being transmitted to the interior.
Roughly three seconds after firing—
The high-performance explosives inside the shells scattered the packed submunitions in the direction of travel.
“Impact confirmed.”
At Ringo’s report, Commander Eve leaned forward, staring hard at the footage.
In the video, the Wyvern flared pure white.
Clearly, its barrier was functioning.
“Visual confirmation. No damage. Flight speed increasing further.”
“No good, huh!”
The first blow had landed. As expected, the bombardment was nullified by the magic barrier.
“The impact of the hits was either nullified or converted to acceleration! At the moment of impact, the Wyvern’s speed clearly increased!”
“You’re kidding! That’s a thing it can do!?”
Certainly, Rain Croyne had not actually nullified incoming kinetic energy either; it had still been physically flipped over.
The internal shock had not been transmitted, but it had been releasing the absorbed energy in some form.
If the direction of that release was opposite to its own direction of travel, then yes, acceleration would result...
“High-energy reaction detected at Wyvern’s head.”
“Now what!?”
As the situation shifted dizzyingly, Commander Eve let out a scream—
And from the Wyvern toward Titan, a single beam of light was unleashed.