Episode 236: Microwaves Descending
“Support supplies for the Edia-Beastin United Kingdom, delivery complete!”
“Good work. The transport unit is granted leave until the 4th bell tomorrow morning. You, however, will submit your report first.”
“Understood, Captain!”
The support supply transport unit belonging to the Repuytari Kingdom safely arrived at the border city and completed the transfer of goods, including the carriages, to the other country.
With no particular cargo to bring back, they planned to pack the personnel into the carriages and make a quick return.
Even so, the morale of the transport unit was high, thanks to the greatly improved ride quality of the carriages.
Incidentally, what they handed over were ten ＜Paraiso＞-made carriages for transporting weapons and ammunition.
At this border city, the horses would be switched, and from then on, the Edia-Beastin United Kingdom would be responsible for transporting them to the front lines.
Naturally, the Repuytari Kingdom would not be involved in the distribution or usage of the weapons.
“…Well, it’s none of our business how they use them…”
The captain snorted and returned to his assigned lodging to finish his last task.
He had a meeting with the city’s dignitaries coming up.
This border city was the furthest from the front lines, and there was a fundamental lack of awareness of the crisis.
He would probably be subjected to a troublesome barrage of hospitality.
He had repeatedly stated that he had no authority, but it had little effect.
“The home country told me not to worry too much, but, well…”
Troublesome things are troublesome.
In the first place, in this country with a lower level of civilization compared to his homeland, he couldn’t really enjoy the food either.
The transport unit captain sighed again and headed to the bathhouse to wash off the dust.
◇◇◇◇
“Electromagnetic wave communication has secured sufficient bandwidth. Link level is above the specified value. Confirmed normal operation of each device. Power supply voltage is normal. No impact on the surrounding environment has been confirmed.”
“Commander (Onee-chan), it’s a success…”
The microwave power supply network from satellite orbit, which Olive had been entrusted to construct, had successfully completed its operational test.
“Alright, well done, Olive!”
“…Ehehe.”
Olive responded with a shy smile to Commander (Eve), who stood up from the command seat and praised her.
“We’ll monitor the situation at minimum output for at least a month. After that, we’ll gradually increase the power output. Olive, I’ll leave the fine-tuning of the plan to you.”
“Okay… Leave it to me.”
If energy could be supplied from satellite orbit, the range of activity of ＜The Tree＞ would increase dramatically. The demonstration experiment was progressing without any problems so far.
The location chosen for this experiment was a trading city located on the border between the Edia-Beastin United Kingdom and the Franca Republic.
They embedded a microwave receiver and a reconnaissance bot into a carriage treated as support supplies from the Repuytari Kingdom, and then performed microwave power transmission from satellite orbit to it.
The results were very good.
The straight-line distance from ＜The Tree＞ was about 2,100km, but the surrounding area was full of countries with no diplomatic relations. It was also more than 900km away from the nearest base within the Afrasia United Kingdom.
Even if power-supplying Drones were floated over the Afrasia United Kingdom, it would barely be within range, but the fact that ＜The Tree＞ forces could continuously operate in that situation was very significant.
The power supply device in satellite orbit was also newly built for this experiment. To minimize the impact on the surrounding environment, the directivity was increased as much as possible. Therefore, the positioning mechanism also required very delicate control.
In the first place, the power supply device itself was orbiting at an altitude of 600km.
The power-supplying Drones used until now were at an altitude of 20km. The required control precision was tremendous.
“For the time being, we plan to use a method of supplying power to the surrounding area via power receiving spots.”
“Because there aren’t enough transmitting antennas yet… It’s impossible to individually power all the devices unless we create a power supply grid in satellite orbit…”
“Haa. Well, that’s true. Even now, we’re launching a lot of power-supplying Drones.”
It was still possible around the bases where power transmitting antennas were set up, but right now, they were moving power-supplying Drones according to the devices being dispatched.
Even this power supply experiment from satellite orbit used only three satellites.
With this, 24-hour power supply could not be achieved. It would only be possible to supply power to local devices a few times a day when they passed overhead.
“Well, at least it’s good that we can secure power even on the front lines. Will it be easier to operate the bots?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Deployment bots are already installed in the carriages. We plan to deploy them sequentially in suitable locations.”
“Yes, yes, things are going smoothly.”
In this way, ＜The Tree＞’s intelligence network would expand even further.
◇◇◇◇
With a deafening roar, a long rocket ascended into the sky from the rocket launch site.
What ＜The Tree＞ launched was a reconnaissance satellite for early warning.
It was a three-stage rocket that would launch three reconnaissance satellites into an altitude of 400km.
The first and second stages would automatically return to the ground and were reusable.
The plan was to launch a total of nine reconnaissance satellites using these rockets.
It also served as an operational test for the reusable rockets.
Incidentally, the third-stage rocket would enter the atmosphere as is after putting the satellite into orbit. Because the flight speed was very high, recovery was difficult, and because it was a low-function rocket, it was more efficient to dispose of it.
It was a ＜The Tree＞-made rocket that had already successfully entered orbit many times.
Although it was a new model, it was a product that ＜Ringo＞ had meticulously simulated repeatedly, so it completed all missions without any danger.
As ＜The Tree＞’s range of activity expanded, its警戒line became very long.
It was not possible to have security machines stationed in all of them.
Therefore, it was necessary to increase the surveillance from satellites. By monitoring from above, it was possible to grasp almost everything that could be visually confirmed.
The satellites themselves were also equipped with simple AI, so there was no need to worry about putting a load on the processing capacity on the ground. ＜The Tree＞ was steadily expanding its sphere of influence.
However.
Still, the area that ＜The Tree＞ controlled was only a small part of this vast planet.
“All reconnaissance satellites have completed deployment. Each unit is entering operational testing.”
“Telemetry received normally. Automatic analysis started. Communication link confirmed. Starting calibration.”
While listening to Ichigo and ＜Ringo＞’s reports, Eve vaguely stared at the world map.
Spread across one wall was a rectangular planetary map displayed in Mercator projection.
The terrain data had been explored, and the coastlines of each continent had been determined. However, the altitude was an approximate value. She really wanted to obtain an accurate topographic map using laser exploration, but she was prohibited from emitting lasers from satellite orbit.
She was wary of it being mistaken for some kind of attack and being shot down from the ground.
She couldn’t laugh it off as being too cautious.
Even the human species, which was evaluated as being fragile compared to Monsters, could fly a mere arrow up to an altitude of 20km. It would not be surprising if a powerful Monster species could launch some kind of attack up to satellite orbit.
“All functions are receiving normal signals. Permission granted to adjust each device.”
The reconnaissance satellite group autonomously began operating. Although they did not have as much ego as a Brain Unit, they were given the authority to make some self-judgments. However, basically, they only monitored the ground, and at most, they only had the function of performing orbit corrections for detecting debris.
“After confirming the satellite’s functions, we plan to focus on observing that point.”
“That point?”
“It’s the point where electromagnetic wave reflection phenomena have been confirmed.”
“Ah, that place.”
One of the reasons for increasing the number of reconnaissance satellites was simply to increase the number of surveillance eyes, but the main purpose was to observe a certain point in the Demon Forest.
As far as could be confirmed in the images, it was an ordinary, green-covered rocky mountain. There were fewer trees compared to the surrounding area, but due to the rocky mountain’s geology, it was an environment where large trees were difficult to grow, so there was nothing particularly strange about it.
However, because electromagnetic waves were emitted from that point, ＜The Tree＞ was strengthening its警戒.
However, what was confirmed was a reflected wave. The radar waves emitted by ＜The Tree＞’s flying machines simply returned as they were.
If that was all, it could have been dismissed as just some kind of radio wave reflecting material being buried there.
“The electromagnetic waves are oscillating 0.3 seconds later than expected. If it were simply a reflection, there would be no reason for the electromagnetic wave arrival to be delayed.”
“It’s eerie… the delay is far too significant to be considered an error…”
In the world of electromagnetic waves, a delay of 0.3 seconds, even if the waveform is the same, forces one to assume a different source.
However, the location is in the relatively deep part of the Demon Forest, and it is a bit too far to send investigative equipment.