Episode 45: Monster ＜Rain Croin＞
I found it.
“Second Class Battle Stations.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
The location is bad. Southeast of ＜The Tree＞, only about 30km away. The solar-powered reconnaissance aircraft (Swift)’s panoramic camera confirmed that a whale-like sea beast that was swimming around had been bitten from directly below. ＜Ringo＞, who was monitoring, immediately contacted Commander (Mum), and Commander (Eve) shifted Fortress ＜The Tree＞ to high alert due to the proximity.
“Sisters, to the Second Command Post. ＜Ringo＞, you come with me.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
While calling back the monitoring Swift, I prepare to launch attack drones. At 30km, it’s well within our range of action. Microwave power isn’t an option this time, as we don’t have the equipment or facilities ready. Still, the target sea area is close enough that we can use battery-powered weapons.
“Ma’am, Second Class Battle Stations are complete.”
“Okay.”
She takes Ringo and rushes into the Command Room. It doesn’t have to be the Command Room, but, well, the dining hall isn’t exactly conducive to this kind of thing.
“Video feed.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
Various windows pop up in a row. It’s live footage from Swift. In the video, a group of sea beasts were being massacred.
“Whoa… what is that?”
A large creature. Its massive body moves with an uncanny agility. The analysis data extracted from the video is projected.
“Approximately 80m in length. About 60m excluding the tail. It closely resembles a crocodile. It seems to swim by undulating its entire body and tail. Its predation behavior is as follows.”
A group of sea beasts swims slowly. The smaller one in the middle seems to have been targeted first. Just after a shadow appeared in the water below, it leaped out. With its mouth wide open, it rose vertically and clamped down on the sea beast. It probably jumped 3-4m into the air. The expression “biting to pieces” was a perfect fit.
The sea beast, caught in its powerful jaws, was torn apart without resistance. One bite. The severed head and tail spilled out from either side of the large creature’s mouth. Almost simultaneously, its massive body landed on the surface of the sea. Bright red, blood-mixed spray scattered around.
“Whoa…”
And this is a real event happening only 30km away.
“Starting analysis. Defining various analyzer functions. Commencing calculation.”
＜Ringo＞ is analyzing the acquired video with all its might. ＜Ringo＞, who possesses absurd computational abilities that could potentially calculate the world itself, fully demonstrates its capabilities.
“Analysis complete. First of all, this large creature is a non-scientific entity.”
“Hmm…?”
“Based on its predicted athletic ability, it’s impossible for existing organisms with their body tissues to perform that action.”
The problem was the large creature’s predation behavior. Opening its mouth from directly below to swallow the sea beast and tear it apart.
“The resistance of the seawater during this movement is too much for a body of this size to withstand. No matter how much I calculate, the muscles would rupture, the skin would peel off, and the bones would shatter.”
“…Continue.”
“Yes, Ma’am. The assumed strength cannot be achieved by any existing organism’s body tissue. It might be possible if the skeleton was made of titanium alloy and the muscle fibers were defined by carbon nanotubes, but that’s nonsense. No such special molecules or structures were detected from the body tissue we previously recovered and analyzed, so we assume that some kind of unanalyzable mechanism exists.”
“…I see. So that’s what you mean by magical power?”
“Yes, Ma’am. The structure of the large creature is being enhanced by some method.”
In the video, the large creature that had scattered the sea beast’s remains was biting the head of the last one. It’s probably already dead due to the heavy bleeding. However, it doesn’t seem to be eating this last one. It’s moving its short limbs, confirming its position.
“What is it doing?”
“It doesn’t seem to be playing, so I assume it’s some kind of meaningful action.”
“It’s hugging it.”
“…Some activity in the lumbar region. I can’t confirm it in the video.”
Eventually, satisfied, the large creature separated from the sea beast’s body. And then, it stopped moving in a way that paralleled the drifting sea beast.
“…Is it sleeping?”
“Activity level is decreasing. However, this state is not good. It’s riding the current that flows near ＜The Tree＞.”
The large creature is gently washed by the waves. If it doesn’t move, it will drift to the rocky reef area where ＜The Tree＞ is located. Estimated arrival time is 4 hours.
“It’s coming here… Hmm, I guess I have no choice…”
She sighs.
“＜Ringo＞, First Class Battle Stations. If it looks like it’s going to move away from ＜The Tree＞, just track it. Set up an absolute defense zone, radius 5km. Attack radius is 10km, attack starts when it violates this. Use the fortress’s 150mm smoothbore cannon for the attack.”
“Yes, Ma’am. First Class Battle Stations.”
“Also, from now on, refer to the target as ＜Rain Croin＞.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Rain Croin, is it? That’s a minor one.”
Thinking that the name was a bit long, ＜Ringo＞ obediently changed the marker display on the strategic monitor to ＜Rain Croin＞.
“Well, it’ll be about 2 hours from now. Good thing it’s still morning, I’ll rest a bit for now. Let’s call the sisters too.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
“Rain Croin, attack line violation confirmed.”
“Commence battle.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Commencing battle.”
At Commander (Mum)’s command, ＜Ringo＞ immediately fired the 150mm smoothbore cannon. The muzzle velocity of the cannon shell is approximately 1,000m/s. A distance of 10km is a distance where ＜Ringo＞’s computational ability allows for sufficiently precise sniping.
The shell type is armor-piercing. The shell, which took 10 seconds to fly, directly hit the torso of the target, Rain Croin.
“Hit.”
The shell velocity is approximately 800m/s. The warhead weight is approximately 60kg. The hardened metal shell released its kinetic energy without reservation, causing Rain Croin’s body to float. The shockwave blew away the seawater, generating a huge spray of water.
“Assessing damage.”
The Swift in the sky captured the moment of impact from multiple angles. Predicting the state of Rain Croin, whose spray hadn’t yet settled, through video analysis.
“No damage confirmed.”
“What!? After that!?”
The shell definitely hit, and we even saw its massive body float up. Unable to confirm any significant damage, ＜Ringo＞ shook its head.
“Displaying video.”
The moment of impact is replayed in slow motion. The shell, which flew in at an arc, made contact with Rain Croin’s torso from a slightly upward angle. At that moment, a wave-like ripple of light ran across Rain Croin’s skin.
“This ripple occurred at the same time as the impact, centered on the point of impact. It can be confirmed that it spread throughout Rain Croin’s body in an extremely short time.”
And the crucial shell was reducing its length while shattering into pieces like a sugar sculpture.
It couldn’t penetrate Rain Croin’s skin surface at all, and it was shattering from the tip because it couldn’t withstand the impact. The fragments of the shell scattered as they were, plunged into the water surface, and stirred up spray. Some of the kinetic energy was probably transmitted to Rain Croin, as its massive body was pushed in around the point of impact and floated up, as if bouncing on the water surface.
However, even after confirming all that, it didn’t seem to have taken any damage.
“Rain Croin, visual confirmation. It’s swimming.”
As the spray struck the water surface, Rain Croin’s massive body began to swim underwater. Its speed was very fast, and it began to circle around the drifting sea beast’s body.
“It’s going over 50km/h. Still, no damage can be confirmed.”
“…It crushed an armor-piercing shell head-on? If it had been deflected, I would have thought it was an angle issue…”
“Yes, Ma’am. It seems that the current armor-piercing shells are ineffective. We can blow it away to some extent, so it will be a hindrance, but it will be difficult to destroy.”
Rain Croin continues to swim warily, but its speed is slowly decreasing. It’s behaving as if it was surprised by the sudden attack. Still, it doesn’t try to move away from the sea beast’s body.
“Hmm… it looks like it’s protecting it…”
“Ma’am, will you continue the attack?”
“…Well, I honestly didn’t think it would be this tough. If we can drive it away, it seems like there would be less risk. Okay. Continue the attack, keep the shell type as armor-piercing.”
“Yes, Ma’am.”