“We have confirmed a direct hit. Assessing damage now.”
“A luminous phenomenon from the magic barrier was observed immediately beforehand.”
The warhead, diving in at roughly Mach 6, delivered its kinetic energy without restraint. Perhaps the impact could not be fully negated, because <Froze>’s body was sent flying.
“We estimate that roughly twenty to thirty percent of the kinetic energy reached the main body.”
Ichigo repeated <Iris>’s calculation.
In the footage, <Froze> slammed into the ground, rolled several times, then recovered its footing and glared at Jotun A.
“<Iris> is temporarily halting the attack. It is conducting a deterrence action.”
<Iris> judged that it had inflicted clear damage and changed its tactical objective to intimidation. The surviving automated machines kept their gun barrels trained on <Froze>, then held fire.
“Continuing image analysis. Blood has been confirmed around <Froze>’s mouth. Most likely internal damage.”
“It didn’t get hit in the mouth, after all.”
“Coughing up blood?”
Blood dripped in heavy drops from the corner of its mouth. It was proof that the force of the impact had penetrated inside. At last, they had managed to land an attack that was truly effective against <Froze>.
Even so, as far as Eve could tell, it did not seem to be visibly injured anywhere else.
So it was not hurt badly enough to impair its movement.
“Well then... I think both sides have shown their strength now...”
No one knew how intelligent the <Fenrir> species really was, but an analysis of its behavior so far had shown that it acted with considerable rationality.
Which meant that if it understood the odds of victory were poor—or that winning would be extraordinarily troublesome—there was a chance it might choose to withdraw as is.
<Froze> inched its limbs along the ground, and the muzzles aimed at it made minute adjustments to match.
A brief standoff followed.
Then, at last, <Froze> began to edge backward.
“It appears <Iris> intends to simply observe.”
The confrontation continued as the distance between them slowly widened.
Once there was enough space between them—more than a kilometer—<Froze> turned on its heel and started running. It accelerated so violently that it kicked up an explosive cloud of dust and vanished from sight in an instant.
“<Iris> has declared the battle over. It is calling in the reconnaissance craft.”
“We have begun collecting the damage reports.”
Hearing that report, Eve gave a large nod and stood up.
“All right, first round goes to us! We still can’t let our guard down, but we’ll analyze the combat conditions and be ready for the next one!”
“““““Yes, Big Sister.”””””
And so, the first contact between the <Fenrir> species and <The Tree> came to an end.
They had managed to land effective attacks, but they had not actually succeeded in exterminating it. Whether that result would ultimately prove fortunate or disastrous, no one could yet say.
◇◇◇◇
Additional land battleships came ashore at Yaakari Port.
There were three of them. They were to be deployed to the frontier village near the <Demon Forest>, where they would serve in ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) place of fixed gun emplacements and also as power sources.
If the opportunity arose, they might even be used for land leveling.
The land battleship <Jotun> possessed formidable striking power, but its defensive performance was, unfortunately, lacking.
Or rather, for a gigantic structure, it was sufficiently durable.
Its opponents were simply too powerful.
Even so, if things continued this way, it risked being branded as a weapon that was too unwieldy for the cost.
Mainly inside Commander Eve’s head.
“But still... the flames that <Froze> spat out were terrifying...”
That said, it would have been unfair to judge the usability of the Jotun solely by how poorly it matched up against the <Fenrir> species. Ground targets that could move at supersonic speed and survive direct hits from heavy shells had never appeared even back in the game era.
Apparently there had been things like that in space.
“We recovered the heavily damaged Jotun B, but most of its internal structural frame had melted. There were also signs that even the tungsten carbide surface had partially melted, so it is possible that the heat generated in that instant exceeded three thousand degrees Celsius.”
“Three thousand...”
At that temperature, an iron-based alloy would not merely melt—it would boil and evaporate. If a projectile carrying that much heat struck them, then at the very least, <The Tree>’s current arsenal had no means of stopping it.
Armor made from pure tungsten coated generously in heat-resistant paint might possibly endure it, but that would create problems with other forms of resistance, and in the first place tungsten was a rare element that could never be mass-produced in such quantities.
“Hm... does that mean we finally need to make something like an energy field—some kind of non-material armor—practical?”
“To go up against monster fantasy, we might need equipment on that level!”
Asahi agreed happily with Eve’s words.
For Asahi, merely thinking about equipment that could stand against fantasy was apparently exciting in itself.
“Energy fields react with atmospheric molecules, which imposes severe limitations on their use on planets. Simply moving while a field is deployed would consume an enormous amount of energy.”
An energy field was a form of non-material armor ordinarily used in space to protect a ship’s hull from interstellar matter and the like. Its most common function was to generate repulsive force and deflect approaching matter.
Because of that mechanism, using it on a planet with an atmosphere meant repulsive force would constantly be generated, placing an immense burden on the field generator.
“At this point in time, I still think the best answer would be to use threat organisms’ <Magic Stone>s to power magic barriers.”
“You really won’t give up on that, will you, Asahi?”
Eve gave a wry smile, but she was beginning to think she might have to grant permission for experiments using them before long. At least when it came to developing the <Demon Forest>, failing to use magic barriers could mean suffering enormous losses every time something happened.
They could not afford to have land battleships turned into scrap every time a threat organism showed up. Not from a balance-sheet standpoint.
“Even if we can’t uncover the principle, we can still make predictions from results. Science has advanced that way in the end, too. Refusing to use something just because we can’t explain it is nonsensical even from the perspective of us children of science.”
“Well... yes...”
In the end, the truth was that she was refusing because she just somehow didn’t like it.
Eve had been dimly aware of that herself.
“For now, let’s think that over again after we’ve dealt with this matter. Come on, we’re moving on to the next phase.”
“Yes yes, Commander Ma’am.” “Yes, Big Sister.”
◇◇◇◇
A-class Strategic AI <Iris> had won a provisional victory.
One Jotun was destroyed. One was heavily damaged. One hundred twenty-five four-legged tanks were destroyed, with fifty-six damaged. Thirty-eight multi-legged tanks were destroyed, with twenty-two damaged.
Those were the losses from this single battle.
Jotun B and the multi-legged units deployed around it had been wiped out almost wholesale.
Jotun D had also accumulated heavy damage in its running gear, and it had already been decided that it would be dismantled for disposal.
Still, if they wanted to inflict meaningful damage on the <Fenrir> species, then large, high-output weapons like the Jotuns were indispensable in a way multi-legged units were not.
If they massed the laser batteries of the multi-legged units, they could probably punch through and deal damage. But there was simply no way they could keep up with that movement speed. They would be unable to track a target that leapt around at supersonic speed and would be picked off one by one.
Only by preparing something as obvious as the Jotuns—an enemy, or rather, a target—could they finally land attacks.
<Iris> considered.
At this point, there was no need to care about losses.
If so, would using decoys to destroy it not be the most efficient approach?
This time, they had somehow managed to force <Froze> to retreat.
But from <Froze>’s perspective as well, the bottom line of their strength should now be estimable.
Judging from its behavior so far, <Froze> was thought to possess a fair degree of intelligence.
If so, there was every possibility that it would return to attack them again—this time with some form of countermeasure.
