“Begin the invasion at daybreak.”
“Fog’s rolled in. Perfect timing.”
Cold air chilled over land during the night flowed onto the warm sea surface, and the water vapor turned into fog.
The port town designated as the invasion point was wrapped in that fog, and visibility was in a pretty bad state.
“Okay then, Big Sis, I’m gonna do it now—”
“Bombardment, begin—”
Off the port, the Fringhornir-class battleship Blazablik had advanced to within just 1 km, along with four Hedgehog-class destroyers.
The Fringhornir-class carried the heavy armament befitting a battleship: four triple-mounted main turrets, and eight single-mounted secondary guns.
The Hedgehog-class, true to the name, was a destroyer with a huge number of turrets: three triple-mounted main turrets, and eight eight-barrel secondary mounts.
All of them fired at once.
Every shell landed on target within the anticipated margin of error.
The watchtowers were snapped off at the base, and the central church was shattered into fragments.
Dormitories whose foundations were destroyed collapsed, and two warships had their keels blown out and split in half.
The stone paving for transport was blasted high into the air, and enormous craters appeared.
With continuous blasts and clouds of dust, residents and cleric-soldiers alike fell into panic, doing nothing but crouching where they were.
Ninety seconds.
In only that span of time, the military strength of Yaakari Port—the largest outer harbor of the Prava Divine Kingdom—was annihilated.
Every turret tower with ballista emplacements collapsed, every moored battleship sank, and the churches and dormitories packed with cleric-soldiers were blown away one after another—along with the cleric-soldiers who lived and slept there.
Though for one reason or another, some clerics who were not there did remain.
“Multi-legged tanks are beginning the landing.”
“Drones, deploy—”
“Multi-legged ground carrier platforms, begin advance—”
To mop up remaining forces and seal information, the multi-legged tanks that had been waiting underwater began moving at once.
In addition, from the Naglfar-class aircraft carrier Myrkvids, rotorcraft carrying multi-legged ground carrier platforms slung under their bellies poured out one after another.
The enemy’s anti-air measures were scarce, and everything had been carefully crushed by naval gunfire anyway. Even slow transport craft could be operated safely.
From a Nigra-class cruiser that had approached the port, multiple drones were launched.
Ground-attack drones for confirming battle results.
“All target structures have been confirmed silent.”
“Tactical AI <Rochester Two>, direct link with the multi-legged tanks is terminated. Multi-legged tanks will begin autonomous action.”
“<Heath Two> has taken control of all multi-legged attack craft—starting neutralization of survivors now—”
“Multi-legged tanks are starting to block the roads—so far, there are no escaped life signs—”
Yaakari Port was a port town primarily exporting grain. After the invasion war began, there was no longer any surplus grain to export, so the current population was not that large.
And originally, only port-related residents lived there, so the town was at most about 2 km across; with the large force possessed by <The Tree>, occupying and encircling it was easy.
By the time the Prava Divine Kingdom noticed this invasion, all necessary cities would already be occupied.
While neutralizing the cleric-soldiers who bravely came at them one after another, <The Tree>’s combat machine group invaded the port town.
One hour passed after the operation began.
By the time the sun had burned off the fog completely, <The Tree> had seized all of Yaakari Port.
“Operation complete.”
“...Beginning the fortification phase.”
Invasion command transferred from Ichigo to Olive.
Ichigo continued on, beginning the push inland.
Olive rapidly turned Yaakari Port into a fortress.
Utsugi and Erika issued commands to the combat machine group as needed while feeding combat experience back.
Akane handled overall management.
“Good, good. Phase one went well. Everyone, well done.”
“There were no particular problems. I’ll continue leaving command to everyone.”
The survivors of Yaakari Port had all been gathered in the central square.
Driven along by the multi-legged tanks and multi-legged attack craft, everyone huddled together with nothing but what was on their backs.
“Sorry, but it’s war.”
Watching that scene, Commander Eve muttered to herself.
Naturally, there were many injured. Minor injuries were left as they were for the moment, and since there were also quite a few severe injuries that could not be moved, those were shoved as needed into the life-support devices mounted on the multi-legged ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) carrier platforms. As long as they were not dead, something could be done.
“Big Sis... we’re going to start unloading Midgards, okay...”
“Oh. Sure. This is it.”
Nearby hostile forces had been wiped out. In addition, the launched patrol aircraft and fighters had secured air superiority.
At last, the semi-submersible transport ship Midgards revealed itself.
Pushing aside a massive volume of seawater, Midgards surfaced.
The full-length flight deck broke the surface and rose, seawater pouring off both sides like waterfalls.
“Upper deck opening... Beginning deployment of the overland rail...”
Midgards’ long deck split down the middle and slowly lifted. The bow also separated left and right, and a monorail for cargo transport thrust out from within.
Multi-armed, multi-legged work machines latched onto the monorail and began extending it. They combined parts hauled out one after another, installing floating structures.
“Releasing seabed work machines...”
To transport heavy loads, they installed load-bearing structures on the seafloor. They drove in piles, joined fixed blocks, and laid reinforced rails with a truss structure toward the port.
“Overland rail deployment complete... Beginning transport of work machines...”
Using the floating monorail installed in advance, multi-legged heavy machinery was landed one after another. The multi-legged heavy machinery immediately began demolition work at the landing point—smashing the rows of warehouses and leveling the ground.
They would build a base and unload, manage, and store the vast supplies carried by Midgards.
While that was happening, reinforced rails connected at the edge of the port.
“Beginning the landing of Jotun...”
The land battleship Jotun.
That colossal body slowly emerged from the open bow of Midgards.
Pushed out along the reinforced monorail, Jotun touched down on the sea surface. The installed transport floats canceled out the extreme weight, and it began moving while cutting the water.
“Hah. Yeah, that’s huge...”
Overall length 176 m, overall width 62 m. Ground height 32 m, with the antenna section reaching up to 69 m.
A multi-wheel structure, equipped with a large number of gigantic wheels roughly 5 m in diameter. Every wheel had an integrated drive and could operate independently.
A true mobile fortress that could crush every obstacle in its path and keep moving.
Jotun climbed up onto the stone dock. The transport floats had done their job. From here on, it had to move under its own power.
Jotun’s wheels rotated, pushing that massive body forward.
Naturally, a simple stone embankment could not support such a body. The dock collapsed as it was caught up in the wheel rotation, but the long hull did not so much as shudder.
Kicking up an enormous cloud of dust, the land battleship Jotun hauled itself fully onto land.
“Jotun has landed normally... Next, beginning the landing of the second and third ships...”
The first Jotun had landed safely. There were three land battleships transported this time. Using each of the three as a core, they would subdue the Prava Divine Kingdom on three fronts simultaneously.
“I mean, I know the theory, but... seeing something that heavy run without sinking in—it’s hard to believe, visually...”
By arranging a large number of wheels, ground pressure was dispersed. Naturally, moving them required a large amount of energy.
To supply that, Jotun carried three fusion reactors.
The first Jotun, which had landed ahead of the others, advanced while crushing warehouses, homes, and even the outer wall beneath its bulk.
Buildings in this port town were at most two stories, around 5 m high. With the main structural height at 32 m, the land battleship would have been visible from anywhere in town.
What, exactly, was happening to them? What was attacking this town?
Faced with that immense body that sprayed out devastating destruction simply by moving, Eve found herself feeling just a little sympathy for the residents.
