“At laaast, we can send Titan back into the sky...”
A Titan-Class Aerial Escort Ship, the first ship, <Titan>.
It had taken fatal damage in the fight to the death with the Wyvern, and repairs had been ongoing for a long time—but those had finally been completed.
“Feels like rebuilding it would’ve been faster, but it’s the first ship, so...”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We were also able to gather valuable information, such as repair experience on the hull structure, so there is no issue.”
Battered all over, Titan somehow managed to land on the runway at the ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) Fratara Outskirts Base. However, the Fratara Outskirts Base was a supply base, and while it had maintenance facilities, it still did not have facilities capable of full-scale repair.
Therefore, it was necessary to begin by constructing repair facilities.
The simplest option was to dismantle it on the spot, recycle it into resources, and build a new hull.
However, since that would be too cruel, they carried out a large-scale repair accompanied by a complete overhaul.
They performed a detailed investigation of the structure and carried out the necessary reinforcement and replacement.
They conducted detailed investigations such as what kinds of forces were applied where due to flight, combat maneuvering, or damage, and whether any malfunctions had occurred.
Incidentally, Gigantia and Oceanus and Coeus have continued aerial flight as-is.
As with Titan, there was also a proposal to overhaul them and investigate, but they prioritized collecting operational data while continuing flight.
The Gigantia group has been made to circle the skies above the United Kingdom of Aphrasia with radar output lowered, so as not to provoke Wyverns or other threat creatures.
Because their search capability is reduced, they covered it with surveillance by reconnaissance aircraft and satellites.
‘Titan will begin takeoff.’
Wederia, the U-class AI installed on Titan, began reporting.
Wederia is a Tactical AI newly built using Utsugi as a base. Strategic AIs mainly handle setting basic policy and analyzing information, but Tactical AIs place emphasis on executing given instructions.
It is also possible to operate by bundling multiple Tactical AIs and treating them as a Strategic AI, but basically, it is desirable to treat them as separate things.
In particular, they are often installed and operated on tactical-grade weapons, and they tend to have high performance in the function corresponding to what, in humans, would be the motor cortex.
In other words, they can fully handle the operation of the machine or weapon they are installed in.
‘Fusion reactor output within normal range. Each engine output increasing. All sections of the airframe, no abnormalities. Takeoff sequence proceeding normally.’
Utsugi, who left especially good results in machine operation, would have her neural connection network—her neuro pattern—used for Tactical-grade AIs.
The first of those was this Tactical AI <Wederia>.
‘Engine output has reached prescribed values. Booster ignition. Releasing airframe locks. Titan will begin takeoff.’
Up to now, control of huge structures like this relied on external operation, managed by a large-capacity AI system installed at the base.
Going forward, the policy is to hand over control authority to the AIs installed in each device.
This aims to improve response-speed delay that accompanies remote control. If sufficiently high-performance AI can be installed, the benefit of bothering with remote control disappears.
Naturally, the AI’s Brain Unit installed onboard is protected under strict security.
‘300 km/h. ... 400 km/h. ... 500 km/h. Taking off.’
After accelerating along the runway, Titan slowly raised altitude with the help of boosters.
Once it secured a certain flight speed and altitude, the rocket boosters used for takeoff were jettisoned.
‘Booster jettison complete. Flight speed has reached 700 km/h. Airframe stable. All-section check: no abnormalities. Fusion reactor output within normal range. Supplied energy amount: no abnormalities.’
The Titan controlled by Wederia completed takeoff without a hitch.
In simulation it had produced good results, and even in live operation it was controlling with no particular issues.
“Good, it’s going smoothly. Wederia, good work. I’ll have you keep flying solo for about another week, but if there’s no problem, we’ll be installing you on Oceanus and Coeus, too. Do your best.”
‘Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Thank you. I will devote myself.’
Going forward, they also plan to install an E-class AI, Eremurus, onto Gigantia.
Because there is room in the airframe capacity, it will be swapped while continuing flight. More precisely, it will be operated in parallel with the current Strategic AI, and if there is no problem, it will be unified into Eremurus.
“So that means we’ll have <The Tree>’s first fully independent group. If it looks like operations won’t have issues, let’s have the sea fleet also install independent-type AIs.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We will plan it accordingly.”
At minimum, preparations for communications satellites had also been made.
They had not secured bandwidth enough to enable real-time control, but with independent-type AI control, even if communications were cut at the worst, flexible response could be expected.
“Up to now it felt like we were barely keeping up with just eating, but we have to start putting more effort into intelligence gathering, too.”
It was the same for space expansion.
At minimum, they continued operating for communications and aerial photography, but it would be fine to increase the operating number a bit more, or deploy higher-performance platforms.
“Resource collection volume is increasing, but because the controlled area expanded, consumption has also increased. For a while, let’s maintain the current situation and work on expanding internal administration.”
“Right. Haven’t heard ‘internal administration’ in a while...”
In real-time strategy games, you often use the word internal administration in contrast to expanding military power.
Now that it was said, this was probably the stage of internal-administration expansion.
They expanded the controlled area and secured ore veins.
From here on, it was the turn to convert the secured ore veins into resources.
‘Titan has reached the designated altitude. Transitioning to cruising speed.’
On the three-dimensional radar, it could be confirmed that Titan had reached an altitude of approximately 10,000 m. Titan’s cruising speed was around 800 km/h.
At this speed, no unnecessary air resistance would occur, and sufficient lift could also be secured.
‘Beginning operational verification of each piece of equipment. Verification is scheduled for three hours. After that, we will transition to the set route.’
“Okay. It’s going smoothly, Wederia. Keep it up like this.”
‘Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.’
◇◇◇◇
The Gigantia group traveled the skies.
At present, because no particular conquest target had been set, it continued flying its patrol route.
Even so, just flying was a waste.
At present, a wide escort-fighter group was deployed around it, and in the order of Oceanus, Gigantia, and Coeus, they formed a single-column formation.
Viewed as a whole, it might be a ring formation.
And behind Coeus, an aircraft group specialized in data collection was deployed.
They were searching the ground and underground with radar.
The territory of the United Kingdom of Aphrasia is vast.
If you investigate on the ground one by one, it would never end no matter how many years it took.
Therefore, first, they estimated the terrain to some extent from satellite imagery, and based on that information, they conducted surveys from the sky.
Observing underground with radio waves is difficult, but not impossible.
However, if overly powerful electromagnetic waves are used, there is the possibility of attracting threat creatures.
For now, the data-collection group is recording components exposed on the ground.
If they can find exposed ore veins, that would be ideal, but metal components can also accumulate on the ground mixed into groundwater and the like.
By detecting such traces over a wide range and performing calculations, they predict underground ore veins.
For that reason, the Gigantia group has been sighted in various places.
Naturally, it was confirmed not only by the United Kingdom of Aphrasia, but also by the countries beyond the border line.
Among these countries, the one that showed the most excessive reaction was the Forest Kingdom of Levresta, with which only meager exchange still continued.
Information that the <Paraiso> faction had taken the United Kingdom of Aphrasia into its hands had already been communicated through the embassy in East Gate City.
However, because the situation was what it was, the Forest Kingdom of Levresta side could not gather further information beyond that. Since their appearances differed, sending spies would have been difficult as well.
In that situation, if some huge machine was flying in the air, it would stand out whether you liked it or not.
As for the western states of the United Kingdom of Aphrasia, they had some prospects.
Next, they should also turn their eyes to the east.
