Episode 142: Great Horsetown
Great Horsetown, despite its name, is a peaceful countryside town.
It’s a town that makes its living by raising horses, utilizing the vast land.
Located beside a lake, it maintains its pastures using the abundant water resources.
It also engages in fishing and meat livestock farming, making it a rare self-sufficient, practically independent territory within the Afrasia United Kingdom.
In lieu of taxes, they used to send a certain number of horses to the Royal Capital, but even that hasn’t been done in recent years.
In the first place, there were no demands from the Royal Capital, making it a city abandoned by the country.
Well, the Royal Capital itself has a vast grassland area on its north side, so there’s also the circumstance that they aren’t lacking in horses.
However, it doesn’t have enough population to function as a city-state, so it survives by being under the umbrella of the nearby West Gate City.
Also, horses are valued as trade items.
It was recognized as a reasonably important town by West Gate City.
In the chaotic Afrasia United Kingdom, the relatively normal-living Great Horsetown was, on this day, occupied by an unidentified force.
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“Airspace control secured by escort fighter groups.”
“Airborne troops will be released from the transport aircraft at an altitude of 2,000m.”
“Transport aircraft Group A entering the operational airspace.”
The rear hatch of the transport aircraft, having reached the designated point, opened.
From the installed electromagnetic rails, airborne Multi-legged Tanks were released one after another.
“Transport aircraft Group A has begun releasing Multi-legged Tanks. No delays in operational actions.”
“Successfully released 48 units. Multi-legged Tank Group A has ignited their descent boosters. Beginning acceleration towards the planned descent point.”
The Multi-legged Tanks, equipped with rocket boosters on the front and rear four of their eight Legs, began flying towards their target point.
With a total length of 10m and a total width of 9m, their appearance was, by any measure, that of giant spider Monsters breathing Fire from their Legs.
“Next, transport aircraft Group B will enter the operational airspace.”
“Beginning release of Multi-legged Ground Carriers. Successfully released 12 Multi-legged Ground Carriers. Deploying attitude control fins.”
“Multi-legged Ground Carriers beginning to glide. All units are attitude stable. Descending normally towards the descent point.”
The Multi-legged Ground Carriers, due to their massive size of 25m in total length, cannot perform accelerated flight. If they were to accelerate, the thrust of the standard boosters would not be sufficient to decelerate. Therefore, they glide using fins, and perform a rapid deceleration by igniting the boosters just before landing.
They lack the speed of the Multi-legged Tanks, but being in near free-fall makes them a sufficient threat.
“Multi-legged Tank Group A has landed at the planned point. Booster jettison completed normally.”
“Transport aircraft Group C will enter the operational airspace shortly.”
“Multi-legged Tank Group A has completed its search. No obstructing forces have been confirmed in the surrounding area.”
“Multi-legged Tank Group A has begun advancing towards the target.”
With the initial descent, 48 Multi-legged Tanks were used to completely surround Great Horsetown.
It has already been confirmed that there are no groups to restrain in the surrounding area. If no one escapes from the town as it is, half of the operation’s objectives will be achieved.
“Transport aircraft Group C entering the operational airspace. Beginning release of Multi-legged Tank Group B.”
“Multi-legged Ground Carrier group, booster ignition confirmed. Landing at the target point.”
The Multi-legged Ground Carriers, which serve as motherships for small aerial support Drones, also landed at the planned points in sequence.
“Multi-legged Ground Carrier group, deployment completed normally. Beginning Drone launch in sequence.”
The Multi-legged Ground Carriers continued to move while deploying electromagnetic catapults. They launched anti-personnel Drones one after another.
The anti-personnel Drones flew at a speed of about 100km/h and deployed to their planned points.
And, in conjunction with the arrival of these anti-personnel Drones, Multi-legged Tank Group B descended directly into the town of Great Horsetown.
“Multi-legged Tank Group B, beginning reverse thrust.”
The residents, surprised by the roar and beginning to gather on the main street, wondered what was happening.
The Multi-legged Tanks, having finished their booster injection, passed over their heads.
The Multi-legged Tanks landed without affecting anyone, as per the pre-calculation (simulation), among the residents who screamed and scattered like spiders.
The Multi-legged Tanks descended one after another into the spacious town, where there was plenty of land.
“Multi-legged Tank Group B, landing completed at the planned point. Assessing. No damage to residents confirmed.”
“Resident movement routes are within the predicted range. Anti-personnel Drone deployment completed, beginning forced guidance.”
The Multi-legged Tanks and anti-personnel Drones chased after the fleeing residents, driving them to the squares as per the simulation.
And while they were doing so, the priority target began to move.
“Garrison deployment confirmed. Commencing operation.”
Without even grasping the situation, the Garrison soldiers stationed in the town ran out from their posts.
Pushing through the fleeing residents, they finally arrived at the location.
Before their eyes, a giant Multi-legged Tank (Golem) stood blocking their path.
“Executing neutralization attack.”
The Multi-legged Tank swung the club (Heavy Stick) held in its forearm down onto the ground near the Garrison soldiers.
The blown-away dirt and pebbles assaulted the soldiers who screamed and fled. Carried away by the momentum, most of the soldiers rolled on the ground.
“Reassessing enemy forces. Within the pre-assumed range. Permitting the deployment of Communicator Dolls.”
“Permission confirmed. Transport aircraft Group D has begun releasing Assault Pods.”
The intimidation tactics by the Multi-legged Tanks were neutralizing the forces stationed in Great Horsetown. All of the stationed soldiers had been marked in advance, and their locations were all identified by the sensors of the anti-personnel Drones and Multi-legged Tanks.
After that, all that remained was to hunt them down one by one.
“Assault Pods, beginning reverse thrust. All units have reached their target points. Landing normally.”
“All Communicator Dolls, vitals normal. Detaching from the pods.”
From the Assault Pods that had pierced into the ground, Communicator Dolls clad in enhanced exoskeletons emerged.
The Communicator Dolls shuddered, shaking off the attached shock-absorbing liquid material. Then, from the deployed pod’s storage, they took out an Assault Rifle and its magazines, an Electromagnetic Baton for close combat, and a combat knife, and equipped them.
“Communicator Dolls, transferring control to the local Tactical AI. Success. Commencing suppression operations.”
The Tactical AI installed in the Ground Carrier in the rear controlled the Communicator Dolls and began neutralizing the stationed soldiers.
The number of Communicator Dolls dropped into the town of Great Horsetown was 72.
All of them organically linked with the surrounding weapons, including the Multi-legged Tanks, and successively defeated and restrained the soldiers.
＜Ringo＞”I see, they’re tying them up behind their backs.”
＜Ringo＞”Yes, Ma’am. We are using aramid fiber bands, so there is no need to worry about them being cut. We can neutralize them without harming them more than necessary.”
Of course, some of them tried to counterattack against the Communicator Dolls.
However, there was no way that they could physically compete with the Communicator Dolls, which exerted more than 10 times the strength of an adult male due to their exoskeletons.
The thrust-out sword was evaded, or slashed away with a combat knife, and then they were knocked unconscious by a blow from the Electromagnetic Baton.
“Enemy forces, 30% neutralized.”
“Regular soldiers, Group W confirmed.”
“Tactical AI, commencing firing.”
Around the time that the majority of the Garrison soldiers stationed in the town had been restrained, the standing army that had been urgently dispatched began to move.
Although small in number, they were soldiers or knights dispatched from West Gate City who continued to train as soldiers.
They had been completely silent for the past year or so, but they were real strong individuals stationed in preparation for attacking bandits.
Even so.
“Reaction speed is within the assumed range. No Magic (Fantasy) phenomena have been confirmed.”
Even so, they were just humans.
They were riddled with rubber bullets scattered by the Communicator Dolls, and that group was easily neutralized.
“Completed the encirclement of the lord’s Mansion. Confirmed the presence of the target in the room. Communicator Dolls beginning to breach.”
“Tactical AI reports threat level: E. No hindrance to the operation. Suppression will be completed as planned.”
Thus, Great Horsetown was completely subdued in a mere hour, and disarmed over the next several hours.
The groups and individuals who had left the town were also carefully tracked down, and without a single casualty, ＜The Tree＞’s invasion operation was complete.