Episode 341: Continental Affairs
It has been three days since ＜The Reflector＞ fled.
To monitor the inactive ＜The Reflector＞, ＜Iris＞ was deploying sensors.
They were drilling into the earth, burying sensors up to 400 meters underground.
What they wanted to detect were vibrations, such as sound waves.
Multiple long sensors, consisting of optical fiber cables a few millimeters in diameter with vibration detection units like nodes along the way, were being buried around the area.
This would allow them to confirm even the slightest movement in detail.
“Starting the deployment of the boring devices.”
In the magnified image, multiple boring devices, airlifted by transport planes, were dropped into the air.
Until now, such operations would have been carried out with extreme caution, but the situation was different now.
With the movement of ＜The Reflector＞, the surrounding Threat Creatures, Monsters, and animals seemed to be in great chaos.
In some areas, there were even signs of a Stampede.
However, thanks to this chaos, even if ＜The Tree＞ operated on a large scale, there was not much danger.
If possible, they wanted to take this opportunity to create a forward base, but the Demon Forest was apparently not so forgiving.
Although many automated machines had already been deployed, attacks were occurring in many locations.
It wasn’t just ＜The Tree＞ that was taking advantage of the chaos.
Large Threat Creatures with keen senses seemed to be starting to move as well.
Moreover, there was a risk that even if a base was built on land where a giant Threat Creature was buried underground, it could be destroyed from the roots, literally.
At best, they could only build a temporary castle to temporarily control the area.
“＜The Reflector＞ can be dealt with like this for the time being…”
“The distribution of Threat Creatures in the surrounding area has changed significantly. Along with this, attacks on Fortress ＜Gladiolus＞ are also on the rise.”
＜Ringo＞ nodded at Eve’s gaze and displayed data summarizing the number of attacks.
The attacks by Monsters on Gladiolus Fortress seemed to be increasing rapidly in both quality and quantity.
Apparently, the activity was significant immediately after the Magic Barrier was activated and with the approach of ＜The Reflector＞.
Of course, they couldn’t grasp everything, but there was no doubt that the power map in the surrounding Demon Forest was being significantly stirred up.
“So, that’s why the combat capability enhancement. Hmm…”
And what ＜Iris＞ had passed on at this situation report meeting was a request for approval to enhance the combat capabilities of Gladiolus Fortress.
The general content was the newly developed Multi-legged Tank and the enhancement of the Fortress Cannons.
“The Fortress Cannons are just being added normally. There’s no problem with increasing the transport routes either. And then, the new Multi-legged Tanks… well, the ones we’ve been using so far were the廉価版, and they’ve been pretty worn down.”
In fact, the land forces possessed by ＜The Tree＞ had been significantly reduced due to repeated combat operations.
This was, of course, partly because they had fought successively against powerful enemies such as the Prawa Theocracy and ＜Fenrir＞, but it was also due to the fact that they had been limiting replenishment for the purpose of equipment renewal.
And the next generation of land forces would be the Multi-legged Tanks with improved functions.
If this plan was approved, it would be the first practical deployment of the new Multi-legged Tanks.
“…The mass production line for the second-generation Multi-legged Tanks is operating smoothly… Because we use high-performance materials for the core components of the Energy Packs and actuators, mass production is limited, though…”
It was Olive, who had become an expert in manufacturing, who designed and mass-produced the new Multi-legged Tanks. As it was a new product unveiling, she was ordered to be the explainer next to Eve.
“High-performance materials, you say… are they related to Zero-G?”
“Y-yes… And we were also able to improve the performance of the ground furnace, so the overall functionality has been upgraded…”
Olive was not good at explaining things verbally, but Eve was used to it.
By asking Olive questions in a fairly accurate manner, she was able to extract information effectively.
＜Ringo＞ suspected that Eve’s indulgence was delaying the development of Olive’s language skills, but she left it alone because it was certain that this bias in growth was related to the improvement of Olive’s creativity.
In fact, no problems had arisen.
Information exchange between AIs was sufficiently covered by external modules.
Anyway, it was a story about equipment updates.
To summarize Olive’s words, the use of Zero-G Alloy improved energy efficiency, and the mass production of superconducting materials became possible, resulting in dramatic improvements in the performance of the materials and parts produced.
Incidentally, although there was a happening in which she continued to talk for about 30 minutes about Marangoni convection in a Zero-G state and countermeasures, Eve only became more knowledgeable about the theory of Zero-G furnaces.
It was a scratch.
“…Are there any other major movements in the Demon Forest area?”
“There are no other major events, Ma’am. Some equipment updates are being carried out, but there are no changes to the action guidelines.”
＜Ringo＞ answered Eve, who was stroking the satisfied Olive after she had talked a lot.
“The Afrasia United Kingdom is continuing to collect and research various materials. The Prawa Theocracy is in the process of determining its borders.”
“Both are taking time… Hmm, it seems like we have a little time to spare.”
Eve said, looking at the information displayed on the projection display.
The recent policy decisions and resource/equipment allocation of ＜The Tree＞ had been completed, and ＜The Reflector＞, the biggest concern, was not moving.
In other words, to put it bluntly, she had become bored.
“Speaking of which, I’ve been intentionally ignoring it, but…”
Eve continued, poking the world map in front of her with her finger.
“What about information from other continents? There hasn’t been a report, so I guess nothing strange has happened, but…”
“Yes, Ma’am. That’s right, it didn’t seem like there was any need to take urgent action, so everything was put on hold. Currently, acquiring resources was the top priority.”
“I see. I think we can assume that’s been resolved for the time being… In that case, what we should aim for next is space…”
Currently, ＜The Tree＞ is expanding its large-scale production base in the Northern Continent. With the resources produced here, it is expected that all the elements currently needed can be secured.
All that remains is to aim for efficiency and increased production.
The fact that raw materials that can be produced on the ground without special equipment are in sight means that the next goal is a special furnace that can manufacture more advanced materials.
And, special equipment should not be affected by the surrounding atmosphere such as air and Gravity, and stable Lagrange points are desirable if possible.
However, as expected, there is currently not enough capacity to build large-scale facilities in such places.
“It is possible to formulate a strategy assuming that we are in a state of war with some unknown force, but…”
“Wartime strategies are mainly aimed at annihilating enemy forces, so the damage to internal affairs is terrible. It’s the opposite of expanding resource production.”
In any case, it is necessary to secure a safe base area and Airspace Control.
“We are in this Northern Continent. There are five other continents. We are monitoring them with aerial photography, but we can’t find any civilizations that are particularly developed. There are also ships, but no large-scale fleets have been confirmed… So it’s as if we don’t know anything.”
“It might be a good idea to start reconnaissance on other continents soon.”
“We also need to develop sea routes. Speaking of which, shouldn’t ＜The Tree＞ create a fake headquarters somewhere?”
“That’s right. Let’s start investigating, including such things.”
Space alloys have a certain romance to them, don’t they?
It’s interesting how surface tension, which isn’t a problem under Gravity, becomes an issue.
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