“There's some deviation, but overall it's going according to plan.”
Eve muttered while looking over the progress chart.
If the number of Prava Divine Kingdom main-force cleric-soldiers and priests differed from estimates, the difficulty changed immediately.
On top of that, they moved independently, running alone across long distances, so mismatches in force ratios inevitably occurred.
Even so, the invasion plan had accounted for that.
Sometimes the expected damage occurred, sometimes it did not, but overall the operation was proceeding without problems.
“The total combat-strength calculation for the entire Prava Divine Kingdom is complete.
We have also gathered enough data to allow real-time measurement on the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) battlefield.
The fall of the Holy Capital can be carried out without issue.
The enemy’s rate of force concentration is also within predicted parameters.”
Commander Eve nodded at Ringo’s proud report.
Seeing events unfold exactly as expected felt satisfying—and apparently the AIs felt the same way.
“Ringo. How are things on the resource side?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.
Resource surveys are proceeding smoothly.
Coastal suppression is also on schedule.
We are currently constructing a breakwater for port development.
Unloading of vein-excavation equipment will begin in five days.”
Yaakari Port, the current invasion base, was already packed just with unloading combat machines.
It would be possible to expand sideways, but resource operations required warehouses and loading facilities, so the space would still be insufficient.
For that reason, they were planning to construct an entirely new port along a convenient stretch of the wide coastline facing the open sea.
“We’re getting pretty good at building bases.”
“I am honored, Commander Ma’am.”
Base construction was being handled by an O-class Strategic AI built on Olive’s neural backbone.
Olive herself seemed busy supervising initial activation and thought-pattern support.
Utsugi and Erika, who were assisting the invasion-force AIs, were the same.
With combat machines being deployed one after another, and U-class and E-class Tactical AIs coordinating them, their workload had been enormous.
“I suppose we’ve found most of the mineral veins we can detect from the air.
We still don’t know the reserves, but they seem fairly well distributed.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.
From the perspective of economic activity, many of these locations would not be profitable.
However, that is of little concern to us.”
Mining development required profitability if done by human labor.
But a science-fiction-level machine civilization could brute-force its way past that limitation.
Of course, deploying work machines into extremely harsh environments caused wear rates that could not be ignored, so there was still a break-even line.
However, that line was dramatically lower than in ordinary civilizations.
Especially in terms of time and energy, they could almost be said to have more than enough.
The scale of resources they could commit was on an entirely different order of magnitude.
“We have already landed work machines near the veins closest to the new base.
Geological surveys are ongoing, but the results look promising.
Near the surface we have confirmed copper ore, and traces of gold as well.
There may be a gold vein nearby.”
“Oh? Gold, huh.
Didn’t we already recover some from hydrothermal deposits?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.
However, gold is an extremely useful material for electronic components.
The more we have, the better.”
Machines manufactured by <The Tree> currently operated primarily on electrical energy.
Because of that, gold—which does not corrode in air and has high electrical conductivity—was a highly valuable material.
From the standpoint of thermal energy usage as well, gold’s high thermal conductivity gave it an advantage.
Copper and silver also had excellent performance, but oxidation was a problem.
“In the human world, they use it as currency, right?”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.
In that sense, Jotun may appear extremely valuable in their eyes.”
The land battleship Jotun was built using an enormous quantity of resources.
It carried three fusion reactors as its power core, and to efficiently utilize the massive energy produced, large amounts of precious metals had been used throughout its construction.
If Jotun were ever destroyed and captured by the enemy, it could probably supply enough precious metal for decades in this world.
Of course, anyone trying to salvage it would also be exposed to toxic heavy metals and compounds.
It would be a death mine.
“Well, more promising veins is always good news.
Resource output is skyrocketing.”
“Yes-affirmative, Commander Ma’am.”
◇◇◇◇
“Big Sis doesn’t seem worried, but that Amajio base we talked about... Trout Nursery, right?
Why do you think it got attacked by a swarm of threat organisms?”
“Insufficient data. Prediction impossible.”
Inside a flying craft cruising through the sky, Asahi—having nothing to do—was chatting with Ringo.
“If it suddenly appeared in a place like that, I can understand territorial threat organisms attacking it.
But looking at the data you showed earlier, it was like waves in an old tower-defense game, you know?”
“Tower defense... I see. That is an apt comparison.”
Presented with the example of an ancient game, Ringo searched its library.
A general term for games where one builds defensive facilities to protect a base and eliminates waves of enemies.
It was indeed similar to the situation where endless swarms of threat organisms had to be repelled.
“So it feels right to assume there was something at Trout Nursery that attracted them.
What do you think it was?”
“...Insufficient data. Prediction impossible.”
The same answer as before, but Asahi did not seem bothered.
That response from Ringo was exactly what she expected.
“I wonder what it was.
Something that existed at Trout Nursery.
Or maybe it’s still there?
Interesting... my imagination’s running wild!”
“If it still exists, that would be a serious problem.”
“Ah, right.
Then at least for now, it must be calm.
Still...”
Asahi glanced back at the cargo loaded with her.
“Do you think there’s any difference between <The Tree>, which we protect, and Trout Nursery?
This feels like information we really need to be careful about, doesn’t it?”
“Agreed.
This is information that should be examined immediately.”
And after roughly one hour of flight—
Asahi stepped down onto the pier, carrying an attaché case.
“Big Sis! Asahi is back!!”
“Welcome back, Asahi.
All right, let’s start the overhaul.”
“W-w-w-wait just a sec!
Give me ten minutes! Just ten minutes!”
She was about to be captured without discussion, but this time she had informed Ringo beforehand.
It would be fine.
“Commander Ma’am.
There is a matter that should be confirmed first, so the capture can come afterward.
Preparations have already been made.”
“Oh?
What is it, Asahi?”
After some flustered scrambling, Asahi placed the attaché case on the floor.
“Big Sis, this is the mana-density meter!
We’ve made a decent number of them, so I brought one to show off!”
She unlocked the latches, and the lid popped open with a click.
The inside was covered in all kinds of decorative attachments, but in the end the only important part was the number displayed on the panel.
Everything else was taken up by communication modules, energy packs, and nutrient tubes supplying the biological cells.
“We did a bunch of surveys over there, and set the lowest mana level we could find as zero.
Then we set the center of Northend City as 100, and adjusted it to display mana density as a percentage!”
“Oh? I see.
So this is what a magic device looks like?
It really is my first time seeing one in person.
You went out of your way to bring it?”
“Yes, Big Sis!
Praise me!”
“Asahi, you’re so honest about your desires... how cute.”
After roughly ruffling Asahi’s head while she puffed her chest proudly, Eve looked down at the mana-density meter on the floor.
“...Um, Asahi?
It looks like it’s over 1,000%, though.
Is this correct?
Isn’t it broken?”
“...Huh?”
