Swinging a large knife like a machete, three men ran.
They weren’t flailing their weapons around at random.
They were batting away 7 mm full-metal-jacket rounds being fired from a machine gun installed in the fortress ahead.
Despite the tremendous load, there was no wobble in their running posture.
To begin with, their legs were too fast.
In the blink of an eye, the men reached the base of the defensive wall.
A single slash.
The swung machete tore through the log-built barrier. Kicked-off remnants of logs scattered into the fortress like buckshot, injuring not a few soldiers.
The three jumped through the breach and immediately began taking down the troops one by one.
After {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} not even ten minutes, the only things moving inside the fortress were the three intruders.
They entered a makeshift tent and gathered intelligence. They checked maps and orders, grasped the positions of nearby resistance forces, opened stacked wooden crates, pulled out wine and food, strapped it on, and started running again.
They were the Prava Divine Kingdom’s strongest force.
The strongest warriors—formed with the goal of retaking the holy land—known as the Chimiya Family.
“So, that’s the situation.”
“Haa. No, thanks. This is why unfair fantasy sucks.”
Having <Ringo> explain the on-site situation, Eve shook her head.
That said, if it was a doll-machine communicator wearing an assist suit supplied with sufficient energy, similar movement would be possible. From the other side, which one was “unfair” might be the real question.
“Additionally, this is footage of a sniper engagement conducted at a distance of 1,400 meters.”
Inside a simple hut in the forest, camouflaged with grass and branches.
Inside it, a soldier braced a 13 mm anti-materiel rifle.
A sniper was, in some fashion, a specially trained soldier. By request from the Kingdom of Lepuitari, only those who had completed a certain training period were permitted to use that title.
In the scope was a Chimiya, apparently taking a short rest inside the fortress they had captured.
If a sniper scope entered the spy-bot network’s coverage, the image could be relayed.
It was a brutal system.
The footage jolted violently. The sniper had fired.
But the image stabilized almost immediately and began battle-damage assessment.
A sniper scope equipped with a degree of correction functionality could transform an unskilled soldier into a seasoned marksman.
The Chimiya flipped over. But not dead.
The sniper likely tried to follow up, but faster than that, the Chimiya rolled away and withdrew.
“Even at 1,400 meters, it is a supersonic full-metal-jacket round. It should have sufficient power to easily penetrate ordinary steel plate armor.”
“If that hit a human body, it’d blow them apart...”
In other words, it had deflected an armor-piercing round at human scale.
Threat organisms were unfair fantasy creatures that embodied big, strong, and hard—but humans, too, seemed to conceal ridiculous performance.
“Still, if it’s a direct hit, it looks like it takes damage.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. With appropriate follow-up, I believe elimination is possible. However, even if the round strikes the head, it appears capable of retreating without losing consciousness, so it will be difficult with the current front line’s equipment.”
Even so, if sniping was done well, it could slow that maximum force down. 7 mm was useless, but 13 mm could apparently contend.
“We’ll consult Amajio about changing the weapon ratio later.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.”
“How are our preparations?”
At Eve’s question, <Ringo> nodded once and newly displayed blueprints and an overhead view of transports en route.
“The transport convoy that departed Second Fortress Black Iron yesterday is currently sailing on the sea north of Stepping-Stone Fortress North.”
“Stepping-Stone...?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. A fortress the Kingdom of Lepuitari constructed in the Northern Islands.”
“Ah. Right, right. I remember.”
The Northern Islands the Kingdom of Lepuitari had secured to build a forward base. Under the original plan, they were supposed to use it as a hub to develop a sea route to the southern continent, but in the end, the plan had stalled amid the turmoil following the establishment of diplomatic relations with <Paraiso>.
“Arrival at the landing point is scheduled for eighty hours from now. At this rate, we’ll end up wanting a base somewhere in that region as well.”
“Yeah. With sea transport, deployment speed might be a problem.”
In an overhead feed from above, <The Tree>’s transport convoy was relayed.
A ring formation with transports in the center. The escort in use was the Fringhornir-class second ship, Blazablik. Air defense was handled by the Naglfar-class second ship, Myrkvids.
Both massive ships were on their maiden voyage this time.
And protected by those two ships and the surrounding convoy was an even larger transport ship.
“Semi-submersible transport ship, Midgards. A large vessel whose primary purpose is transporting large quantities of ground weaponry into enemy territory, as in this operation. To reduce visual detectability, it is capable of submerging ninety-five percent of its structure below the surface.”
“Hm... seeing it again, it really is huge...”
Overall length 745 meters, overall beam 93 meters. Since the Naglfar class was 388 meters, it was almost twice the length. They were stuffing massive quantities of ground warfare equipment into that enormous internal space. It had the capacity to carry supplies exceeding one million tons.
After deciding to deploy land battleships, they had rushed construction—building a dock at Second Fortress Black Iron and assembling it. Since <Ringo> had done the design itself, it could be launched in two weeks.
“Once we commit this, there’s no turning back, <Ringo>. Have you made up your mind?”
“...Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. There is no alternative.”
<The Tree> would secretly collude with the upper ranks of the Kingdom of Lepuitari and seize control of the southeastern portion of the Northern Continent.
The primary conquest target was the Prava Divine Kingdom.
They had finished measuring the threat levels of surrounding countries, and they had largely confirmed the threat organisms that would become obstacles. At least within the sphere of influence <The Tree> envisioned, they could be dealt with.
Seize a vast territory, and swallow its underground resources whole.
This planet was full of danger, but it seemed the resources remained untouched. The commander, Eve, had decided to secure at least a portion—quickly.
Slow expansion wasn’t bad, but out-of-spec threat organisms could appear suddenly. To stand against that, they had no choice but to maintain an overwhelming force. If they dragged their feet, there was a chance some ridiculous super-organism would flatten everything into wasteland.
“Leave that front as-is. Cut the rear supply lines and split their forces. Seize the home base. Then surround and annihilate the front line forces. Yeah, a wonderful plan. And thanks to the threat organisms, we even forced the Prava Divine Kingdom’s hidden trump card into the open. This time, things are rolling in our favor.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. We will clash eventually, but for now there is no need to lay a hand on them.”
Thinking that even Amajio Silverhead would flip out if he saw this overwhelming force, Eve scrolled the operational overview.
Progress was still only about five percent.
The operation plan was built from meticulous simulation by <Ringo>. It was a model that ingested real-time battlefield conditions and flexibly altered the plan to achieve the final objective.
It wasn’t that it created a timetable—it was more accurate to say it built the computational logic for executing the operation.
If one looked down on the theater as a whole, it would be possible to confirm each battle group coordinating organically, like a living thing.
“With this, we’ll end up releasing about eighty percent of the resources and units we’ve been stockpiling up to now...”
“The operation will succeed. And if it succeeds, we can acquire many resources.”
As <Ringo> said.
At minimum, multiple promising mines had been confirmed in the Prava Divine Kingdom, and seizing the surrounding regions should be possible without issue. To begin with, hardly anyone lived there.
And the Prava Divine Kingdom itself wasn’t much of a threat.
That Chimiya Family unit had individuals each as strong as a main multi-legged tank, but they were still human in the end. They couldn’t handle multiple units at once, and they couldn’t come flying in at supersonic speed. Their direct combat power was high, but they could be countered sufficiently with indirect methods.
“The only concern is the surrounding threat organisms.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am. According to Asahi, if we do not use magic, the chance of being noticed is extremely low. I do not understand it well.”
“She said something like, magic calls magic, or something. I can’t really understand it either.”
