Episode 353: Reconnaissance Mothership
There was a ship moving silently, as if melting into the sea surface.
There were no structures on the deck, and the seawater that occasionally washed over it simply flowed off.
The draft was deep, with the height between the ship’s edge and the sea surface being less than 1 meter.
This was a reconnaissance mothership built by ＜The Tree＞ for reconnaissance of other continents.
It was the Argo-class reconnaissance mothership, second ship ＜Typhus＞, packed with reconnaissance aircraft inside.
To reduce visibility from afar, all structures on the ship were built-in, with a structure that would only expose them when necessary.
It was a large ship with a total length of 210m and a total width of 30m, but most of its structure was hidden below the sea surface.
Surrounding surveillance was conducted using built-in reconnaissance aircraft, or only with information provided by reconnaissance satellites or high-altitude drones in the sky.
Using the observation mast was a last resort.
Such a reconnaissance mothership was currently sailing towards six points.
As a result of analyzing information from surveillance satellites, the six candidate sites were selected, including the distance from ＜The Tree＞.
And, in order to collect information that could not be obtained by satellite surveillance alone, automatic machine groups were dispatched to the site.
The built reconnaissance mothership was packed with reconnaissance aircraft and reconnaissance multi-legged machines inside.
In addition, most of the automatic machines were stealthy machines driven by built-in batteries in order to reduce the possibility of being discovered.
Although the radius of action was reduced, priority was given to reducing the possibility of being discovered by local civilizations or Threat Creatures.
If long-term operations or long-distance reconnaissance were required, an internal combustion engine type would be dispatched, or a charging station would be installed along the way.
If that was still not enough, another unit would be dispatched from ＜The Tree＞.
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“Is the information gathering going smoothly?”
“Yes, Onee-sama! The 2nd and 3rd ships have arrived! They are releasing reconnaissance aircraft! The 6th ship is also fixing its position! The 4th and 5th ships will arrive at their designated points within a day!”
On a map centered on ＜The Tree＞, it was displayed that two reconnaissance motherships each were dispatched to the three surrounding continents, excluding the Northern Continent.
The main purpose was to land actual units in areas believed to have large-scale mineral deposits nearby, or in places where oil fields were likely to be buried topographically, and to conduct geological surveys.
In addition, even in promising locations, if there was any civilization nearby, they planned to observe that civilization as well.
So far, observations from reconnaissance satellites have shown that there are no civilizations with threatening military power.
However, in the case of a civilization with an unanalyzed technology system called magic, there was always the possibility of suffering fatal damage.
“Even though we’re producing this much resources, they’re being consumed as soon as they’re made…”
“Yes, Ma’am. We are updating the equipment so that everything can be consumed efficiently, except for the reserves. Simulation analysis of resource production and consumption models has made it possible to predict almost perfectly at the current technology level. We will not waste anything.”
“My personal feeling is that even so, threat elimination is not enough. After all, expanding domestic affairs takes time.”
The scale of resource production at ＜The Tree＞ has grown to an incomparably huge size compared to the beginning. Along with that, the military power is also increasing.
However, even in this state, they could not rest assured on this planet.
In the Northern Continent alone, two types of Threat Creatures have been confirmed, which are expected to cause enormous damage if confronted head-on.
Since ＜The Tree＞ was trying to further expand its area of activity, Eve felt that no matter how much military power they had, it would not be enough.
There was also the option of maintaining the current sphere of influence and expanding military power.
However, as a result of examining various factors, ＜The Tree＞ decided to expand further.
This was because it was obvious that if they did not expand their sphere of influence, they would eventually hit a ceiling somewhere.
And, if they were going to expand, they had to start while they had余裕. Even if the construction of another base failed, they had to start in a state where they could move on to the next one.
By allocating resources to foreign expeditions, the expansion of domestic affairs in the current territory would slow down, but ＜Ringo＞ had suggested that the maximum use of resources could be achieved precisely because the expansion speed had already settled down to some extent.
Well, for the ＜Ringo＞-type AIs, whose raison d’être was to expand their sphere of influence, it was natural to seek expansion as long as there were no major obstacles.
Eve understood this, so even if there were some anxieties, she welcomed the move towards expansion itself.
“Some of the points have civilizations nearby, but what kind of direction can we consider…?”
“It depends on the civilization level of the other party. From the observation of infrared radiation, most of the places have hardly developed as scientific civilizations. At most, the level of steam engines. In that sense, the Repuytari Kingdom is one standard. However, magical civilizations are unknown. Even in the Forest Country (Lebresta), which was assumed to be undeveloped, magical technology is currently predicted to be very advanced. Even though infrared radiation is at the level of charcoal use, its national power is higher than that of the Repuytari Kingdom.”
“Well, yeah.”
Eve agreed with Akane’s answer. By confirming infrared radiation, that is, heat sources, from artificial satellites, it was possible to estimate how much activity was being carried out.
However, that could only measure civilizations that used heat sources as an energy source for civilization activities.
If they were using an unknown energy called Magical Power, it could not be observed as infrared radiation.
There was a Maso Meter, which measures the amount of Maso contained in space, but there was no index of how much Maso was consumed at all.
In the first place, it was unknown whether Maso was consumed by the use of magic.
Threat Creatures with magical barriers were deploying seemingly infinite and strong magic.
It was not certain whether energy consumption was occurring with the phenomenon.
Of course, it had been confirmed that Burnstone disappeared with heat generation, so it was certain that consumption accompanying the decrease was manifesting in some form.
“However, looking at the example of the Forest Country (Lebresta), it can be considered that even if they can control advanced phenomena that exceed scientific technology, it tends to depend on individual talent. If it could be developed systematically like scientific technology, the civilization should have expanded more.”
“You said that if we could just identify the individuals to be wary of, we could control the threat.”
“That’s right. As long as it depends on human resources, its expansion is limited. Also, if the form is one in which individuals hold power, it is difficult to expand as a group. They will not have more power than the top of the power can control.”
The technology system called magic was certainly a threat. But there were laws.
If there were laws, it was possible to control them.
And they could also estimate the unknown.
“If the top is a strong person, the groups will rarely merge. At most, familialization through marriage is the limit. If there is no way to control magical strong people, they will not be a threat to us.”
Come to think of it, Eve remembered.
In the Prawa Theocracy, which had a high degree of threat as a magical civilization, people with high combat power were creating a power structure.
However, there, people were incorporated into some kind of network, and it was structured so that strong people were less likely to wield strong power.
That being said, information gathering has already been completed as a sample, so it was easy to take measures if the opponent was a similar country.
“Onee-sama! If it’s just the level of the Prawa Theocracy, we can handle it with one hand! Asahi is concerned about cases where humans are becoming Threat Creatures!”
“Huh…?”
And suddenly, Asahi threw in some unpleasant information.
“Threat Creatures are thought to be the grown-up forms of existing species over the years! All living things have the potential to become that, so of course, humans have a high possibility of becoming that too!”
Rest assured. It’s Asahi-chan’s usual delusion.
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