“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 after my support duties are done.”
“I’m going to pull out a little later too~”
“After handing it over to the local AI!”
“I’ll leave the rest to Olive… good night, Commander (Onee-chan).”
Though worried sick, Commander (Eve) steeled herself and left the command center.
She decided to drink something warm to calm her nerves and then go to sleep.
“Ma’am. We have patrol aircraft in the air, and all sensors across the area are normal. I will also provide assistance, so please don’t worry too 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 remained close to her Ma’am, even accompanying her to bed to provide support for a good night’s sleep.
There was no helping it. None at all.
Utsugi and Erica interacted with the local strategic AI, deciding on future actions.
Basically, even if monsters approached, they wouldn’t attack first. If they got close to the defensive line, they would take intimidating actions. If the defensive line was breached, they would attack.
They had also seen a coordinated attack where one monster was used as bait, so they were also being cautious of such feints. If they saw one, they would assume another was lurking somewhere, thinking thoroughly.
Surveillance was conducted from the air and with composite sensors embedded in the ground. Real-time processing was already in place, but they temporarily increased the resources allocated to it.
Patrol aircraft were on their way from the Second Fortress 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, they would be able to easily spot 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 approaching monsters in advance for the time being.
“Olive, take control of the mining plant’s strategic AI. Integrate the sensor network and patrol aircraft telemetry. Repurpose the local tactical AI for the control and analysis programs. It’s okay to temporarily shut down the plant. I’ve ordered additional AI units 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.
However, a deep merge was impossible in the first place due to the distance being too great.
By performing a pseudo-merge, she could think and process information as if she were actually there.
The disadvantage was that the neural network of the other party’s brain unit would be completely transformed after the merge was released.
Normally, this would cause various problems, leaving no choice but to reset it, 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 the tactical AI, and streamed the control programs for the sensors and patrol aircraft. At the same time, she was building an information processing system.
Olive was the fastest at assembling these kinds of systems among the five sisters.
The assembled system had few bugs, and even came with automatic correction and improvement functions, which Ringo highly praised.
Commander (Eve) showered her with praise. Well, she praised not only 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 let the multi-legged mother ship’s strategic AI take control of the root node~”
Utsugi and Erica were reconstructing the network of the multi-legged mother ship and the multi-legged tanks.
Originally, they had adopted a flexible and highly fault-tolerant mesh format, but because maintaining the network consumed a considerable amount of resources, they changed it to a tree format.
In this case, the processing load would be concentrated on the root node, which served as the communication starting point, but the multi-legged tanks, which were the terminal nodes, would be able to move freely.
The command and control system could also be streamlined, making this more advantageous in a situation where the first combat deployment was in progress.
The root node would hardly move and would be used as a fixed gun emplacement.
“Calibration of the network change is complete. No problems. I instruct Utsugi and Erica to rest. Rotate in 10 hours.”
“Is Akane okay~?”
“It’s overtime~”
“No problem. I’ll hand over to Olive in two hours and go to rest. Ichigo, I’d like you to back me up for about six 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 bit of a fuss, and then returned to their respective jobs.
“Ma’am, the recovery of the scorpion carcasses is complete. We are currently conducting an autopsy inside The Tree.”
“Okay~”
In the morning, she received a report from Ringo about what had happened last night.
“The basic structure appears to be the same as that of a normal scorpion. The composition of the exoskeleton is quite special. Also, the crystal 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 body weight.”
“Hmm. Normal animals don’t have them, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Livestock obtained in Telek Port Town do not have them, nor do fish or shellfish that can be caught in the surrounding area. After all, it is safe to say that animals classified as monsters are determined by the presence or absence of this crystal.”
The mysterious crystal, which Commander (Eve) called a magic stone. In Telek Port Town and other places, it seemed to be expressed with a word meaning simply crystal.
However, this was probably because this crystal was not widely distributed.
Even in the city of Fratala, where it was somewhat distributed, the name didn’t seem to be stable. In the Afrasian Union Kingdom, it seemed to be recognized as a still unknown mineral.
“The Forest Country (Lebresta) seems to have made some progress in magic research. 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.
Cellulose cloth and other items had begun to be traded in certain quantities. For the time being, they were receiving coins as compensation, which they planned to spend on lease fees for the East gate city and wages for laborers.
They planned to increase the volume 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, taking it as a good experience.
“Yes, Ma’am. I will make every effort.”
As a last resort, they could also negotiate (physically) by arriving at the port with a combat ship. It would be a good card to play if they were being taken advantage of too much.
“Also, we have decided to deploy ground attack drones to Oil Port and the mining plant. We are currently airlifting them from the Second Fortress. Being able to attack from the sky will give us a considerable advantage in defense.”
These were attack 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 were not very high. They were attack aircraft that were premised on cooperation with other machines.
“There’s also a railgun-equipped type, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. It’s a prototype, but we’ve incorporated about three units. The heat dissipation problem hasn’t been solved yet, so they can’t fire continuously.”
Being able to unilaterally fire projectiles 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, and power storage and firing also generated a large amount of heat, so it was difficult to use it regularly unless this problem could be solved.
“That’s reassuring. Please continue to produce oil at this rate.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
◇◇◇◇
In a certain place. A large amount of sand suddenly erupted from a part of the spreading dunes.
Almost simultaneously, a giant creature slowly emerged from within the dunes.
As it shook off the sand on its body, it raised its massive form.
It was a massive scorpion, exceeding 40 meters in length.
Sensing the death of its kin, and acknowledging it as a threat.
It slowly began to move.