“This place is a little unreliable for living, isn’t it?”
“Yes, Ma’am. We are conducting surveys for food procurement in parallel.”
“Yes, food is the most important, but there are many other things we lack. Towels, toilet paper, and… well, tableware, spare underwear and clothes, and no sheets.”
Seeing her count on her fingers, ＜Ringo＞ realized the need for such supplies for the first time. Feeling dejected, she added them to her task list.
“Roger. I will consider methods for procuring general daily necessities and consumables as well.”
She nodded at ＜Ringo＞’s response.
“So, is the surrounding survey progressing?”
“Yes, Ma’am. The High-Altitude Plane (Plane) will be ready for launch in about 20 minutes. It will reach an altitude of 20km in 3 minutes using rocket propulsion. After that, it will glide at high altitude and return to this Fortress using an electric fan at low altitude.”
“Heeh. We had such an aircraft left?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Presumably, it was something produced to unlock the Tech Tree that remained.”
According to the records, it was an aircraft produced using the early game atmospheric Aeroplane system Tech Tree. The rocket Booster is disposable, but it’s a reasonably excellent aircraft for emergency high-altitude reconnaissance. The aircraft itself is very light, and because it is made of Cellulose-based material, it has low radar reflectivity and a long flight time due to its variable mechanism. The ducted fan used during low-altitude flight is also lightweight and high-performance, and although it lacks stability in rough weather, fortunately, the surrounding area has calm weather conditions.
“Hmm… Are there any other atmospheric Aeroplane in stock?”
“Yes, various battery-powered Drones, various fuel-powered Drones, three Solar-Powered Reconnaissance Aircraft, fifteen Jet Multi-Role aircraft, thirty-three Fighter aircraft, twelve Ground Attack aircraft (Bomber), ten Anti-Ship Attack aircraft (Attacker), twenty Interceptor aircraft, eight Propeller Patrol aircraft, three Wide-Area Control aircraft, four Propeller Transport aircraft (Cargo), two Jet Transport aircraft (Cargo). There are also multiple Rotorcraft.”
Asked by the Commander, ＜Ringo＞ read out and displayed a list of currently operational aircraft. However, the number of aircraft that can actually fly is quite limited. A significant number of large aircraft originally require the use of an open-air runway, but there’s no way to prepare a runway.
“…I see. No runway, huh?”
Reclassifying them as aircraft that can move but not fly, the Commander sighed.
“Yes, Ma’am. There are aircraft that can operate on the short runway within the Fortress, but we have determined that continuous operation is impossible due to the limited fuel reserves.”
“I see… Haa, I guess the Fortress is hungry too…”
Feeling apologetic at the sight of the Commander rubbing her stomach, ＜Ringo＞ continued the report.
“For the time being, the only energy source we can secure is electricity. It is reasonable to prioritize operating battery-powered or Solar-Powered aircraft.”
“Yes. It’s better than nothing, but it can’t be helped…”
Battery-powered aircraft inevitably have a shorter cruising range. With the current number of operational aircraft, 24-hour surveillance is impossible.
“By the way, how much fuel is in reserve?”
“Approximately 50,000 kiloliters in aviation fuel equivalent. That’s enough for about seven full sorties, but it’s not a very meaningful number since there’s no runway. I suggest it would be more effective to use it for machine tools and other equipment.”
“Hmm… It feels like a lot, but also not enough…”
＜Ringo＞’s prediction is that it won’t run out in a few months, but it probably won’t last a year. Of course, it would run out quickly if we did a full sortie, and it would last longer if we prioritized battery-powered aircraft. We won’t know for sure until we actually start operating them.
“Speaking of which, any signs of the enemy?”
“Yes, Ma’am. There are none in the surrounding area. No artificial Electromagnetic Waves are observed in any band. We have observed the satellite orbit as much as possible, but no artificial objects have been found. From this, we can assume that there is no civilization that uses Electromagnetic Waves, and they do not have the technological level to operate artificial satellites.”
“Completely concealed… or something?”
Asked by the Commander, ＜Ringo＞ simulated the possibility for a few seconds.
“It’s a probability we can ignore, Ma’am. If there were a civilization that our current equipment could not detect, we would not be able to offer any resistance.”
“…I see? So, it’s a waste to think about it?”
“Yes, Ma’am. At this point, we cannot even observe whether they are friendly or hostile.”
＜Ringo＞ judged that there was no point in fearing risks that could not be observed or predicted. Besides, the Supercomputer’s resources are excessively abundant. If we allocate some of them to countermeasures, there won’t be any problems for the time being. There are too few physical terminals, and they are completely underutilized. If possible, we would like to increase the production of observation aircraft, but…
“Solar-Powered Reconnaissance Aircraft… Ah, the Swift. Can we launch the Swift?”
“Yes, Ma’am. It will take about half a day to prepare, but the wind is calm, so it can take off without any problems. Since we currently have three aircraft, I think it would be good to launch two and keep one on standby.”
“Okay, please do that. Is it possible to increase production?”
“…Yes, Ma’am. We can manufacture five aircraft with the resources we have on hand.”
There are resource reserves. However, since we have started constructing a nuclear reactor, we cannot allocate resources to that.
“…. I see… the current resource reserves are… ouch… No, we can’t touch this.”
The Commander looked at the resource list and her shoulders dropped. She understood that we were not just scraping by, but simply lacking. If we operate the equipment, it will inevitably break down. Resources are absolutely necessary for repairs. If we touch the few remaining resources, we will really be in trouble if something happens.
“Hmm… I guess we have no choice but to recycle the aircraft we don’t use…”
At the Commander’s words, ＜Ringo＞ realized the possibility. Feeling depressed that she hadn’t noticed it, she calculated the Recycling of large aircraft that would never be operational.
“Ma’am, by Recycling some of the aircraft, we can recover this amount of resources.”
When the calculation results were listed, the Commander nodded greatly.
“Okay, ＜Ringo＞. Let’s get to this right away. …Also, we should consider building ships in this situation. Aeroplanes are fast, but they have poor fuel efficiency…”
Ships. The Fortress The Tree is not equipped with shipbuilding facilities. In the game era, it was built as a mountain fortress in a steep mountainous area. There wasn’t even a river, let alone a lake, around it.
“…. Searching the library, I found information on shipbuilding. It is necessary to start with the construction of a dock, but I predict that we can build small ships of about 10m without difficulty.”
“Then, let’s do that too. Even so, we just don’t have enough resources… The sea, is it all sea around here…? Fish, Seaweed? It seems like we can extract metal from seawater, but…”
From the Commander’s mutterings, she searched the library to see if resources could be recovered from the plants and animals found around the Fortress. Then, she found some information on resource recovery from Seaweed and algae.
“Ma’am. Information on extracting Cellulose from Seaweed and extracting petroleum-based fuel from genetically modified algae has been found in the library. These also require the construction of facilities, but they will be sustainable resources.”
“Heeh…, let’s see… Hmm hmm… The efficiency isn’t great, but if you think about it as ultimately converting sunlight into resources, it’s not bad. Hmm, when it comes to the sea, there are undersea mines and oil fields, but we won’t find them right away. Okay, let’s do that too. Prioritize it highly, it’s a big deal to get construction materials anyway.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I will create a process chart.”
Immediately, ＜Ringo＞ began the instructed tasks. In any case, most of the facilities were in a dormant state. She reallocated the energy distribution and started with Recycling first. All aircraft that couldn’t take off from the short runway would be dismantled. Extending the runway was possible to some extent, but she decided that there were no aircraft that needed to be operated to that extent. If it was absolutely necessary, it would be better to convert them into seaplanes. She hadn’t researched the Tech Tree at all, but in this world, she should be able to start manufacturing them immediately.
“And then… my food supply, huh…”