“Even if we say we’ll get involved... in the end, how far should we intervene, I wonder.”
While looking over the Kingdom of Lepuitari’s data, Commander Eve muttered to herself.
“Amajio seems like he’d be fine with us going all-in, though.”
Duke Amajio Silverhead—who was requesting comprehensive cooperation—had said that, considering their relationship going forward, it was basically fine to proceed under <Paraiso> leadership.
No... that might have been more like words from the player Amajio Salmon.
As a duke ruling a country, he would want to keep intervention from other powers to a minimum.
“We are different from a normal nation, so it is likely they are unsure how to handle us.”
Ringo, the coordinating AI gathering intelligence from many angles, added that.
The <Paraiso> side making contact with the Kingdom of Lepuitari was, for now, continuing the relationship as one nation dealing with another.
But if they were to carry out full-scale intervention, they might end up behaving in a supranational way.
“Even if we’re just exporting weapons, there’s the problem of whether they can prepare compensation for it.”
“There is also the option of a loan, but the problem is whether they can repay it.”
“I don’t want to do a free handout, either.”
Firearms produced by <The Tree>, at least from what they had observed, represented a technological gap measured in centuries.
If they provided those weapons in bulk, they could grant an overwhelming advantage.
However, this world contained an un-analyzed technical system called magic.
That was interfering with Ringo’s simulations.
“Because we cannot measure the Prava Divine Kingdom’s combat power, I cannot propose an appropriate volume of support.”
“Right. That can be solved with time, but... will we make it in time?”
The Prava Divine Kingdom’s invasion continued, even as its pace slowed.
The pace was slowing because the front was expanding.
The target countries’ resistance seemed to be producing no effect at all.
“Still, for now, we only have this information through the Kingdom of Lepuitari, don’t we... Hmm. Should we send out our own recon?”
“...Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. I propose the option of launching Vulture 2 from Gigantia. Operating it with Gigantia as the takeoff-and-landing point secures range and also makes it easier to respond to unforeseen situations.”
“Huh. So you had Vulture 2 ready.”
The supersonic high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft LRF-2 Vulture 2.
LRF-1 took off and landed from a ground runway, but LRF-2 was an airframe developed to be carried on Gigantia.
It inherited LRF-1’s base performance, while also supporting microwave power supply to dramatically extend its energy capacity.
It could now do something LRF-1 could not: use sensors and armament at the same time.
With that, it could also perform things like ultra-precise multi-layer laser irradiation by linking multiple aircraft.
From an extreme altitude of 27 km, it could strike the ground with pinpoint accuracy.
“What even is a ‘recon aircraft’...”
It probably could not handle gigantic monsters.
But for most living creatures, sending just a few Vulture 2 aircraft would be enough to roast them from overhead.
Naturally, even if the target were a structure, it could slam it with extreme heat.
“Unfortunately, the sonic-boom problem has not been completely solved. We do have technology that organically changes the surface armor’s irregularities to cancel flight noise, but because it has difficulties in control during supersonic flight, it has not reached practical use.”
“So it’s pretty loud, right?”
The phenomenon where the shock wave generated the instant you exceed the speed of sound is heard on the ground as a deafening blast is called a sonic boom.
If it occurs at low altitude, it is powerful enough to cause damage on the ground.
Well, even if it had not been put into practical use, it was highly likely that for Ringo, it was already solved on the simulation level.
“They’ll be startled, but it’s probably fine, right? Nobody’s going to realize it’s a sonic boom.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. Then we will dispatch Gigantia to the northern region of the United Kingdom of Aphrasia. From there, we will launch Vulture 2 heading west and conduct reconnaissance of the battlefield.”
“Yeah. For now, I want to keep it quiet that we’re intervening. I don’t think Vulture will be detected, but let’s be careful.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.”
*****
Gigantia was flying at an altitude of about 8,000 m.
To avoid provoking Unknown monsters, it kept radar emissions to the bare minimum.
Instead, it deployed patrol aircraft across a wide area.
On Gigantia’s back, the launch hatch slowly opened its mouth.
A catapult—covered by armor to reduce aerodynamic drag—rose into position and prepared for launch.
Riding up on an elevator was the supersonic high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft LRF-2 Vulture 2, redesigned to be carried on Gigantia.
Two aircraft were placed on two catapults.
A deflector for exhaust-flame protection slid out and locked into place.
After a slight delay, the rocket motors mounted on Vulture 2 belched flame.
Lock release.
The electromagnetic catapult shoved the Vulture 2 airframe into the sky.
Vulture 2 was launched at an initial speed above 1,000 km/h.
With the rocket motor’s acceleration, it broke the sound barrier in seconds.
Maintaining acceleration, it climbed sharply in altitude.
The second aircraft climbed into the sky the same way.
Upon reaching an altitude of 20 km, the two Vulture 2 aircraft began flying in formation—one leading, the other diagonally behind.
They continued accelerating, then purged the rocket motors that had finished their job.
They switched to acceleration by ramjet engines.
Gradually increasing altitude, the airframes continued accelerating.
In the end, they reached 27 km altitude, and a flight speed of Mach 3.4.
Maintaining that altitude and speed, they would photograph target points one by one.
There was the issue of airframe vibration, but reconnaissance satellites needed to maintain at °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° least around 200 km altitude.
Compared to that, this was a far lower “orbit” from which to photograph the ground.
In other words, it could obtain more detailed images.
The two Vulture 2 aircraft continued flight and reached the target point roughly 1,500 km away in about 25 minutes.
They captured images from multiple angles.
After turning and finishing the required points, the two aircraft entered the return course.
No particular events occurred; it was a return exactly as planned.
Gigantia also had a mounted-aircraft recovery system prepared.
Vulture 2 glided down from high altitude and, with accurate, precise control, touched down on the recovery system.
Once secured, the airframes were stored inside Gigantia as-is.
The reconnaissance took about one hour.
The reconnaissance information extracted from the aircraft’s onboard recording devices was collected via Gigantia by the Aphrasia Royal Capital’s Strategic AI <Ginkgo>.
After cleansing the information for viruses and the like, it was transmitted to <The Tree>.
“We have obtained battlefield information.”
“I was watching, but that’s fast.”
While analyzing thousands of high-resolution images and video taken from above, Ringo picked out several images and displayed them.
“I will not claim we captured everything, but we succeeded in photographing most of the front. The Prava Divine Kingdom’s combat power is currently under analysis. The front is assessed to have been pushed back roughly 500 km from its pre-war position. Four countries have already been completely subjugated, and two countries have had their borders breached.”
“Mmm... What should I do... Is it really okay to give this to Amajio?”
This was frontline information obtained at a speed that could fairly be called real-time.
Having it versus not having it would exert a major influence on strategy formulation from here on.
If they provided this, would it create any major problems for <The Tree>’s side?
“The impact is assumed to be limited. There is no air power that enables rapid movement. Even troop movement by powered ships would take at least five days. Rather, I believe it is more efficient to both demonstrate our power and provide material for considering the next move.”
“Yeah... We can basically monitor all their movements anyway, so... it’s probably fine...”
After that, an anecdote was added about how Amajio rolled his eyes back upon seeing the battlefield images that were sent.
But since it was not particularly important information, it was not conveyed to Commander Eve.
