“Confirm the target. Shift to interception posture.”
“Roger. Interception posture. Target sighted. Lock-on.”
“Confirmation complete, all green. Begin interception as soon as it enters range.”
“Roger.”
The multi-legged tank, lowering its stance, aligned its line of fire on the target Big Moth. Matching the centerline of the gigantic body that flapped unsteadily, the barrel of the electromagnetic-acceleration cannon railgun made fine positional adjustments.
“Target within range. Fire.”
A roar.
The shell, accelerated beyond the speed of sound by Lorentz force, tore through the wall of air and flew.
“Second shot, follow-up. Fire.”
The two flechette warheads aimed at the torso and head pulverized the target points without missing.
With vital organs blown open into ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) huge holes, the Big Moth ceased life activity and crashed.
“Confirmed shootdown. Dispatch the recovery unit, Team D.”
The Big Moth we brought down would be recovered by the multi-legged heavy equipment unit.
Big Moth was a precious resource.
War expenses were certainly required, but being able to expect a return—was that a blessing in disguise?
“That makes it the memorable hundredth, huh... No, sorry. This really helps.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s work.”
To the words of gratitude from the defense officer, Bipinatus=<Cosmos> nodded without changing expression.
“Still, the numbers jumped all at once. How long is this going to continue...”
Right now, the place Team Gamma under Bipinatus was stationed was the westernmost village in the assigned region, the closest to the United Kingdom of Aphrasia.
“Message in from the recovery unit. Team C. Officer Reiriata, the cargo has arrived.”
“Roger. We’re going to run out of space soon...”
“The strength is sufficiently high. It may be better to stack it.”
“Yeah. Normally I wouldn’t even consider it, but in this situation...”
Range: 800 Tan, roughly 1,200 to 1,300 meters.
Every Big Moth—Giant Soul Butterfly—that entered this defense zone was being shot down by the multi-legged tanks.
That gigantic body, moving smoothly, a white-armored golem composed of curved surfaces that gave an oddly biological impression—at first it had been considered eerie, but now it was the guardian deity of the frontier village.
Naturally, the girls with beast ears and tails who operated it were also extremely popular.
“Report. Continuous firing count has exceeded the specified value.”
“Roger. As scheduled, we will conduct barrel replacement. MLT-E-04 <Hopper> C Gamma-A Alpha, advance to the designated position. C Gamma-B Beta, maintain an alert posture.”
“Beta, Roger.”
“Alpha, Roger.”
At present, Big Moth were intruding at a frequency that required more than ten firings per hour.
Each time the railgun fired, the surface of the barrel plasma-ized and gradually wore away.
Once the barrel wore down, the condition deteriorated at an accelerating rate—worsened accuracy, reduced heat dissipation, increased electrical resistance, and so on.
Even with a large safety margin, it still required barrel replacement many times a day.
This was the only flaw of the railgun, which was both high-powered and low-cost.
“Today makes it the second replacement...”
“The number of intruding individuals is increasing. It cannot be helped. There are still spare parts, so please be at ease.”
C Gamma-A Alpha, which had been waiting to rotate in, moved to the position where C Gamma-B Beta was dug in.
The position had been established at the highest point in the frontier village in order to secure visibility and line of fire.
It was an unstable rocky area, but this was exactly where the multi-legged tank showed its true worth. With six legs, it firmly fixed itself to the ground.
“Alpha has arrived at the designated position. Data received, handover complete. Takeover.”
“Roger. C Gamma-B Beta, begin withdrawal.”
“Beta, Roger. Disengaging posture. Beginning withdrawal.”
Team Gamma was currently operating the multi-legged tank <Hopper> in a two-vehicle system.
With this, they attached eight Android Communicators and acted as a single team. And for recovery of the shot-down Big Moth, five units of Multi-Legged Heavy Equipment. The teams dispatched to other frontier villages, Team Alpha and Team Beta, had the same composition.
Originally, the plan was to conduct defense while alternating the multi-legged tanks every other day, but because the number of Big Moth intrusions had increased, they were forced into a situation where they had to run at near full operation.
In any case, additional multi-legged tanks were scheduled to be dispatched tomorrow.
Although the dispatched force had been limited, in response to this assault situation, additional requests had been approved.
Of course, the ones who had been reluctant to approve were some of the central high officials, while the field had been eager...
“Lord Bipinatus should also take a break soon. I’ve had a meal prepared in the assembly hall.”
“Agreed. I will do so. Alpha, I am entering rest. Permission to attack hostile individuals that enter the defense zone. Execute interception at your own discretion.”
“Roger. Confirming transfer of command authority. Thank you for your hard work.”
Bipinatus=<Cosmos> removed the head-mounted display and lightly shook their head.
Hair that had been gathered spread smoothly, and the freed lop ears drooped down.
“Could I ask you to guide me?”
“Of course. This way, please.”
*****
Along a forest road that had been cut open, a caravan packed full of relief supplies advanced.
At the front was one multi-legged tank, followed by two multi-wheeled tanks. Behind them, protected, came four multi-wheeled transport vehicles.
The rear guard was one multi-legged tank and three multi-wheeled tanks.
However, the multi-legged tank had folded one of its six legs up into its torso, and while its speed had not dropped, it followed with slightly awkward movement.
“As scheduled, we will arrive at the campsite. We will be exchanging failed parts, so we apologize, but we cannot keep you company.”
“Yes, we understand. There is no need to be considerate of us. Rather, we are the ones imposing, and we apologize.”
In the caravan, four Levrestans were traveling along as negotiation personnel.
The stated role was “trade negotiation,” but in practice they were monitors—disguised as such—personnel to facilitate things at settlements along the way.
Elders’ Council Le Elphia had sent them in order to silence the noisy high officials in the center.
Since there was no particular reason to refuse, for the past two weeks they had continuously moved together with the caravan.
At the campsite established along the highway, the group deployed.
A multi-legged tank whose legs had failed during movement entered a parked state for module replacement.
Multi-legged units had many moving parts, and since they bore significant load, mechanical-part failures occurred relatively often.
That was why each section had been modularized so the moving parts could be replaced as a whole.
Once the failed leg was fixed to the replacement stand, the electric lock bolts released. The stand moved, and the enormous leg was pulled out.
It was a gigantic parts unit over two meters tall, and seventy centimeters thick. It was not something a human—rather, an Android Communicator alone—could possibly lift.
“It moves smoothly like a living creature, but when you look at it like that, it really is a golem.”
“If you take it to its conclusion, it’s no different from a carriage. If you just replace the broken part, it’ll be able to move right away.”
While watching that parts-exchange work, the negotiation personnel set up their own chairs and tables.
Tonight, they planned to spend the night at this campsite.
This was their third time on this route, and they were used to it. For the girl Communicators traveling with them, they continued right into meal preparation as well.
Well, strictly speaking, Android Communicators did not require elaborate cooking, but there was no need to conspicuously display that. Rather, it could be misconstrued as abuse, so equipment suitable to their appearance had been issued.
And then, while they were preparing for the night camp, the deployed tanks all moved at once.
A Big Moth that had slipped through the alert net had entered the identification zone.
Most individuals were drawn toward the three frontier villages that had hot spots, but on rare occasions, individuals that deviated from that appeared.
And most of those deviants were subjugated like this by the caravan unit in transit.
The western region of the Forest Kingdom of Levresta, thanks to the exploits of the <Paraiso> dispatch force, was defended almost perfectly.
Meanwhile, the regions from the north to the east seemed to have been mostly abandoned.
The situation was that they were pulling the battle line back while gradually assembling their forces.
The more they retreated, the higher the force density became, and the easier defense became. After retreating to a certain extent, they would hole up in a sufficiently large city and subjugate the Big Moth swarm, then conduct a counteroffensive—this seemed to be the basic strategy of the northern and eastern fronts.
Since they were able to extract most of the western front’s forces and commit them into the northern and eastern fronts, they were able to keep that retreat distance quite short.
Levresta’s stampede defense war had reached its climax.
