“Alright, everyone. Sorry to bother you, but I’ll leave the rest to you.”
“Okay. Good night, Commander (Onee-sama).”
“Good night, Commander (Onee-sama). I’ll take a break too once the support is finished.”
“I’m going to pull out a bit later too~”
“After handing it over to the local AI!”
“And then, leave it to Olive… Good night, Commander (Onee-chan).”
Though worried sick, Commander (Eve), steeling her heart, left the Command Room.
She decided to drink something warm, calm her nerves, and go to bed.
“Ma’am. We have patrol aircraft in the air, and all the sensors in various locations are normal. I’ll assist as well, so please don’t worry so much.”
“I know, but—! I can’t help but worry!”
As she walked, sighing repeatedly, ＜Ringo＞ placed a hand on her back, snuggling close to comfort her.
Having no other choice, ＜Ringo＞ stayed close to Commander (Mum) and even provided support for a good night’s sleep.
There was no helping it. None at all.
Utsugi and Erika, while communicating with the local Strategic AI, decided on future actions.
Basically, even if Monsters approached, they wouldn’t attack first. If they got close to the defense line, they would take intimidating actions. If the defense line was breached, they would attack.
They had also seen a coordinated attack where one Monster was used as bait, so they were also made to be wary of such diversions. If one was seen, they were to assume that another individual was lurking somewhere.
The surveillance was conducted from the air and with the composite sensors embedded in the ground. Real-time processing was already in place, but the resources allocated to it were temporarily increased.
Patrol aircraft were on their way from Fortress Two as reinforcements. In a few tens of minutes, the number of patrol aircraft in the sky would double.
Although the resolution would be lower at night, it would be sufficient to detect Monsters moving on the ground.
Those burrowing underground could be detected by vibration sensors.
After that, if they installed more of the composite sensors, which they were currently increasing production of, over a wider area, they would be able to detect any Monsters infiltrating in advance for the time being.
“Olive. Take control of the mining plant’s Strategic AI. Integrate the sensor network and patrol aircraft telemetry. Divert the local Tactical AI for the control program and analysis program. It’s okay to temporarily stop the plant. I’ve instructed for additional AI housings to be airlifted.”
“…Okay… I’ve taken control.”
Following Akane’s instructions, Olive performed a pseudo-merge with the local Strategic AI. Unlike a Deep Merge, a pseudo-merge is a neural integration that can be undone later.
Of course, a Deep Merge was impossible in the first place because the distance was too great.
By performing a pseudo-merge, it became possible to think and compute as if she were actually there.
The disadvantage was that the Nervous System (Neural Network) of the other party’s Brain Unit would be completely transformed after the merge was released.
Normally, this would cause various problems, so it would have to be reset, but since the local AI was almost in its initial (neutral) state, there should be almost no problems.
Olive immediately established a link between the local Strategic AI and Tactical AI, and poured in the control programs for the sensors and patrol aircraft. At the same time, she was building an information processing system.
Olive was the best among the Five Sisters when it came to the speed of assembling these things.
The assembled system had few bugs, and even came with automatic correction and improvement functions, which earned her high praise from ＜Ringo＞.
Commander (Eve) praised her to the skies. Well, the target of her praise wasn’t just Olive, but everyone.
“Akane, the optimization of the Multi-legged Tank’s Tactical AI network is complete~”
“I changed the link format from mesh to tree. I had the Multi-legged Mother Ship’s Strategic AI take control of the root node~”
Utsugi and Erika were reconstructing the network of the Multi-legged Mother Ship and Multi-legged Tanks.
Originally, it had a flexible and fault-tolerant mesh format, but since a considerable amount of resources were being allocated to maintaining the network, they changed it to a tree format.
In this case, the processing load would be concentrated on the root node, which would be the starting point for communication, but the Multi-legged Tanks, which would be the terminal nodes, would be able to move freely.
The command and control system could also be streamlined, which would be more advantageous in a situation where the 1st Class Combat Readiness was in effect.
The root node would hardly move and would be used as a fixed gun emplacement.
“The calibration of the network change is complete. No problems. I instruct Utsugi and Erika to rest. Switch in 10 hours.”
“Is Akane okay~?”
“It’s overtime~”
“No problem. I’ll hand it over to Olive in 2 hours and go to rest. Ichigo, I’d like you to back me up for about 6 hours from now. Is that okay?”
“Yes, I’ve had the minimum amount of rest, so I’m fine. Leave it to me.”
The girls exchanged high-fives, made a fuss for a while, and then returned to their respective jobs.
“Ma’am, the recovery of the Scorpion corpses is complete. They are currently being dissected inside ＜The Tree＞.”
“Okay~”
In the morning, she was being reported on the events of the previous night by ＜Ringo＞.
“The basic structure seems to be no different from a normal Scorpion. The composition of the exoskeleton is quite special. Also, the crystal in question was found inside the torso. The size is as expected compared to previous samples. For now, it seems that the size of the crystal is somewhat related to the weight.”
“Hmm. Normal animals don’t have it, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. It doesn’t exist in the livestock obtained in Telek Port City, nor in the fish or shellfish that can be caught in the surrounding area. After all, it’s safe to say that animals classified as Monsters are determined by the presence or absence of this crystal.”
The mysterious crystal, or Magic Stone, as Commander (Eve) called it. In Telek Port City and other places, it seemed to be expressed with a word that simply meant crystal.
However, this was probably because this crystal wasn’t widely distributed.
Even in Flattala City, where it was somewhat distributed, the name didn’t seem to be stable. In the Afrasia United Kingdom, it seemed to be recognized as a still unknown mineral.
“The Forest Country (Lebresta) seems to be making considerable progress in the study of magic. We are continuing negotiations to try to extract that knowledge as compensation, but it seems quite difficult.”
Trade negotiations with the Forest Country (Lebresta) were continuing.
A certain amount of Cellulose cloth and other items had begun to be traded. For the time being, they were receiving coins as compensation, but these were planned to be used for the lease of the East Gate city and for wages for the laborers.
They planned to increase the amount of trade in the future and purchase Lebresta’s specialty products, but they also wanted to import magic technology if possible.
“It would be nice if we could figure out what the Forest Country (Lebresta) wants.”
Even for ＜Ringo＞, who still had little experience with interpersonal interactions, negotiations were progressing in fits and starts.
Well, they had no choice but to continue negotiating, resigning themselves to the fact that it would be a good experience.
“Yes, Ma’am. I will do my best.”
As a last resort, they could also negotiate (physically) by bringing a combat ship to the port. It would be a good card to play if they were being taken advantage of too much.
“Also, we’ve decided to deploy ground attack Drones to Oil Port and the mining plant. They are currently being airlifted from Fortress Two. Being able to attack from the sky will give us a considerable advantage in defense.”
These were attack-type Drones equipped with machine guns, rocket launchers, or missiles.
They were basically intended to be used as fixed gun emplacements in the air.
Therefore, their detection capabilities weren’t very high. They were attack aircraft that were premised on being linked with other machines.
“There’s also a Railgun-equipped type, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. It’s a prototype, but we’ve incorporated about 3 of them. We can’t fire them in rapid succession because the heat dissipation problem hasn’t been solved yet.”
Being able to unilaterally fire Cannon Shells with an initial velocity of 8,000 m/s from the air would be a considerable advantage.
Due to the characteristics of microwave power supply, the power receiving device tended to generate heat easily, and power storage and firing also generated a large amount of heat, so it was difficult to use it regularly unless this could be resolved.
“That’s reassuring. I’m counting on you to produce oil at this rate.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
◇◇◇◇
In a certain place. From a part of the spreading sand dunes, a large amount of sand suddenly erupted.
Almost simultaneously, a huge creature slowly emerged from the sand dunes.
As it shook off the sand on its body, it raised its massive form.
It was a giant Scorpion, exceeding 40 meters in total length.
Sensing that its minion had been killed, and acknowledging it as a threat.
It slowly began to move.