Vol 5. Chapter 16: Wyvern Breath
“High-energy reaction at the Wyvern’s head.”
The Wyvern was probably not acting from any kind of leisure, either.
Most likely, it had simply, reflexively, reached for the long-range, high-output attack method it possessed.
The flash that burst from the Wyvern’s mouth cavity was, as observed, traveling at 97% of light speed, with a margin of error of ±2%.
That flash pierced through the air just 15 meters below Titan’s belly.
“Confirming some manner of radiation phenomenon.
Titan has sustained thermal damage on its underside. Some sensors and weapons systems are now inoperable.”
They had avoided a direct hit.
However, a phenomenon that appeared to be radiant heat still inflicted damage on Titan.
“Commander Sis-ter, it is probably a bombardment by charged particles accelerated to relativistic velocity, or something closely analogous! In other words, a dragon’s breath attack, Dragon Breath! Amazing—this is way more amazing than I ever imagined!”
“Charged particles!?”
At Asahi’s report, her Commander Sis-ter, Eve, shouted. She really was shouting a lot.
Given the circumstances, though, that could not be helped.
She might be someone who unabashedly declared that “charged-particle cannons are romance,” but she had once had to abandon the attempt to «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» make them practical for ground use.
The abrupt deceleration from colliding with atmospheric molecules, the difficulty of preparing massive power supplies on the surface.
Above all, when you spent the same cost, mass-producing Multi-stage Electromagnetic Cannons (Coilguns) or railguns was far more practical, produced greater firepower, and demanded less electrical power.
“So that means its effective range is over 10 kilometers to begin with, right...? And it’s doing damage without a direct hit...?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. If we assume it is matter that can be accelerated to relativistic velocity, that suggests charged particles. However, the opponent is a dragon. They are residents of an unreasonable fantasy, so carelessly applying our common sense to them would be dangerous.”
Precisely because she had actually done design work on charged-particle cannons for use inside an atmosphere, she understood all too well just how “unreasonable fantasy” it was for such a weapon to be made practical.
There were too many hurdles to overcome, and the cost of overcoming them was immense—so much so that the conclusion had been, “The existing weapons are more than enough.”
“The local Strategic AI has begun combat maneuvers. It will enter effective railgun range within 30 seconds.
A saturation attack using armor-piercing rounds has been selected.
The escort fighters are taking up attack posture. A staggered-impact strike using missiles has been selected.”
“Can we do it?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. On paper, it is possible to saturate the defensive membrane.
However, because we cannot predict how it converts impact into acceleration, the outcome is presently unknown.
The local Strategic AI likewise rates the unknown factors as Yellow.”
Its total length exceeded that of <Rain Croyne>, and from that body plan it was projected that its mass was likewise considerable.
If they assumed that the “magic stones” discovered inside Rain Croyne’s body were the source of these magical phenomena, then it followed that the size of the magic stone was directly linked to the strength of the magic.
And investigations of other monsters had shown that body weight and magic-stone size were roughly proportional.
Asahi was in the middle of analyzing it as likely being dependent on blood flow volume and other such factors, but the sample size was too small; in either case, it was still at the hypothesis stage.
Nonetheless, if they took that trend as a given, then the Wyvern’s magic stone would be larger than <Rain Croyne>’s—and therefore, the performance of its defensive membrane was assumed to be superior as well.
“So in the end, we just have to try it.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. If it is judged to be effective, it will also be possible to provide supporting fire from Gigantia as she withdraws. In thirty minutes, the fighter wing launched from the Fratara Outskirts Base will link up as well.
So long as it is possible to saturate the defensive membrane through physical attacks, with our current capabilities, our chances of victory are more than sufficient.”
<Ringo> stated that flatly.
In practice, the shell stockpiles alone that each Titan-Class carried were enormous. The number of missiles they could launch was, likewise, substantial.
And the bombardment from the multi-legged tanks deployed on the ground would easily be within range if the target remained at around 10,000 meters altitude.
They wanted to believe this wouldn’t turn into a one-sided beating where they were the ones being beaten.
“Titan and Oceanus have begun banking descent.”
The altitude gap between them and the Wyvern was under 1,000 meters, but by descending they were converting potential energy into speed, and at the same time changing course to bring their more heavily armed backs to bear on the Wyvern.
“That breath... I suppose we can call it that, can’t we. The breath—it can’t fire repeatedly, can it?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. That appears to be the case. If it had looked like it was about to fire again, there had been an option for the fighters to ram it.”
The fighters were stuck tight to the Wyvern’s rear as it continued flying. If they detected any preliminary signs of another breath, they had been prepared to ram it, even at the cost of their own craft, to deflect its line of fire.
Fortunately, it did not appear to be a rapid-fire weapon.
The Wyvern seemed aware of the fighters trailing behind it, but it did nothing more than shake its body irritably.
It clearly did not perceive them as a threat.
“Titan and Oceanus have begun their attack.”
The gun mounts studding the Titan-Class hulls like the quills of a hedgehog all spat shells at once.
On their backs they carried two Multi-stage Electromagnetic Cannons (Coilguns), twelve short-barrel Multi-barrel Railguns, one Maser Cannon, and four laser cannons.
As the name implied, each Multi-barrel Railgun turret was a mount that bundled eight railgun barrels together. Because of the short barrels, maximum muzzle velocity was held down to around 3,000 m/s, but even so, each of the eight barrels could continuously spew shells.
The shells, fired with slight offsets in timing, converged on the Wyvern.
Separation between the sides: roughly 5 kilometers.
The shells would reach the target in under two seconds.
The Wyvern twisted its body.
First, it avoided half of the initial salvo.
As expected, it must have something equivalent to radar. Or it might simply have excellent eyesight.
And when the other half struck, the defensive membrane rippled outward in waves of light.
The shells that followed in quick succession, however, were largely evaded by the Wyvern’s bizarre acceleration.
The Tactical AI controlling each turret adjusted its aim based on that maneuver data.
The Wyvern’s acceleration fluctuated irregularly, and as a result the bombardment kept alternating between hits and misses.
“As suspected, it appears to be converting the impact of incoming strikes into acceleration through the defensive membrane. When it displays acceleration beyond our projections, it can evade the shells, but when that runs out, we hit it again.
However, so long as we do hit it, it seems to be able to obtain additional acceleration.”
“Ugh, what a pain...”
The directions of its acceleration also seemed to vary quite a bit. It was not simply along its direction of travel.
Because of that, although the local Strategic AI continued attempting to analyze it, it was having trouble producing reliable predictions.
“They’re going to conduct a missile attack from behind. Since it’s a pursuit from the rear, even if its course shifts somewhat, the missiles can compensate.”
The Wyvern was in the middle of a turn, aiming for Titan. Titan and Oceanus were both flying separate courses designed to keep their backs pointed at the Wyvern.
Its turn radius was between 2 and 3 kilometers.
Their altitudes were almost identical, both climbing on a gentle ascent path.
They had no intention of engaging in a dogfight, but from the outside, it looked very much like one. Both sides were simply far too enormous in total length and wingspan.
“Titan and Oceanus have launched missiles.”
From the twenty or so Vertical Launch Systems on their backs and the roughly four on their bellies, missiles were being fired one after another. A total of forty-eight missiles from the two ships were unleashed, each of them accelerating on rocket motors as they converged.
The Wyvern seemed to notice them as well, but that did not mean the bombardment had slackened. If it let its attention wander, its evasive maneuvers would grow sloppy.
And from behind that continuing bombardment, the anti-air missiles poured in.
From above, below, left, and right, eight missiles dove in almost simultaneously. Their terminal velocity exceeded Mach 5. The explosive shock alone was considerable, but the destructive power that came with that speed was nothing to scoff at either.
Normally, delayed fuses would be used against large targets, but that could not be relied upon this time, so they had all been set to contact fuses. Proximity fuses had been rejected because they dispersed their force too much.
Explosion.
With slight staggers in the exact impact timings, all forty-eight missiles scored direct hits in succession.
“—Gyuaaah!!”
A cry like that echoed through the surrounding airspace.
It was probably the Wyvern’s scream.
Unrelenting shellfire, and the direct impacts from the missiles. Together, they finally seemed to have stripped away the defensive membrane’s effect.
Something glittering scattered through the air.
They were the Wyvern’s scales.
“Damage confirmed. Continuing the attack.”
However.
There was nothing to say except that the timing was just about the worst it could have been.
Titan fired missiles from its Vertical Launch Systems.
At that very moment, light ran through the Wyvern’s mouth cavity.
They were at close range. The anti-air railguns, having completed their targeting in an instant, sprayed shells at full output.
The breath unleashed toward Titan. And into that head, the anti-air shells detonated.
The reconstituted defensive membrane converted the impact of those hits into acceleration.
The Wyvern, its posture thrown off, swept Titan with that flash all the same.
The air plasma, accelerated to relativistic velocity, descended on the missiles that had just been launched.
The particles that pierced their fragile outer casings heated their insides in an instant.
The explosives and fuel, scorched from the outside by the intense heat, detonated.