Chapter 67: Multi-Legged Airborne Unit, Birth!
A flying boat equipped with six propellers soared 10,000 meters above. With escorting flying boats flanking its sides, it slowly opened its rear hatch.
As the doors fully opened, small parachutes popped out.
Attached to them were 5-meter-long cylinders, released into the air. These cylinders, succumbing to gravity, began to fall rapidly.
Another flying boat released an identical cylinder.
Once sufficiently clear of the flying boats, the cylinders detonated explosive bolts, purging their outer shells.
Emerging from within were bunker busters. As they began their free fall, stabilizing fins deployed. They rotated gently, adjusting their entry points.
Ten seconds after the fall began, with their entry trajectories locked, the rear rocket motors ignited. The rockets burned for approximately ten seconds, accelerating the bombs to the necessary impact velocity.
The two bunker busters struck their designated targets with pinpoint accuracy. Their high-strength warheads, designed to penetrate hardened targets, pierced through layers of rock, reaching the required depth.
And then—explosion.
The resulting blast pressure, as calculated, blew the underground target into the open.
◇◇◇◇
It had most of its sensory organs destroyed and was cowering underground.
It had found a moving prey and attacked it as usual, but it managed to escape.
Furthermore, it was attacked in a way it couldn’t understand, and a part of its body was torn off.
Instinctively, it retreated, holding its breath in the hole it had dug.
It sensed that the damage to its body was not critical. It would probably regenerate soon.
However, it regretted the lost flesh. It needed to somehow replace what it had lost.
There was plenty of “bait” in this area, so moving around wasn’t a problem, but it needed “food” to grow.
It couldn’t move much now due to the severe damage, but once it healed, it would be back to its old ways—
Something pierced the ground nearby.
The moment it heard the sound, it reflexively tensed up—
◇◇◇◇
“Bunker busters detonated normally at the set depth.”
“Whoa.”
On the projection display, the ground was erupting as if being peeled away.
“That’s some serious power. I wonder if the sandworm is completely pulverized?”
“Analyzing the images… confirmed. An object resembling the sandworm’s main body appears to be exposed on the surface. No activity detected so far. It might just be stunned.”
Amidst the rising dust cloud, a wireframe representation of the analyzed sandworm’s body was displayed.
The plan to detonate two bunker busters simultaneously underground, using the blast pressure to attack and push it to the surface, had worked as calculated.
However, the fact that the sandworm emerged without any noticeable damage to its body was unexpected.
“We calculated the sandworm’s toughness based on its resistance to railgun attacks, but it seems it was tougher than anticipated. We should have been able to penetrate with sufficient force, though.”
“I see. According to the calculations, it was highly likely to be split into multiple pieces, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. In some areas, it should have experienced impacts greater than the armor-piercing rounds fired by the railgun, so we expected the pressure difference to cause the body tissues to rupture.”
Due to the layering of the surrounding strata, the shockwaves from the two explosions reached the target sandworm with a slight time difference. This pressure difference should have caused damage.
The sand and dust were blown away by the wind, revealing the epicenter on the screen.
“That’s quite a sight…”
A massive crater had appeared. And the sandworm’s body, partially buried in the rubble, could also be seen.
“Good thing the road wasn’t damaged.”
“Depending on the sandworm’s position, the road might have been affected, but this level of damage can be repaired quickly, so there’s no problem.”
Ringo said that because the road was just a simple track of ruts.
It was a path used by caravans that traveled back and forth regularly, and basically, it could be restored by simply filling it in.
Indeed, if The Tree deployed a few of its heavy machines, the road could be restored in less than half a day.
“Really? Well, still, I’d like to fill in this crater if possible. It’s near the road, and it would be bad if water accumulated.”
“Yes, Ma’am. Understood.”
“Please do. …So. The sandworm isn’t moving, huh?”
The sandworm’s body was buried in the crater. It showed no signs of movement, and its condition was unknown.
Given the impact that created the crater, even if its outer skin was tough, its insides should be in terrible shape.
However, if it had undergone structural reinforcement similar to Rain Crowin, it might have survived unscathed.
“Hmm… For now, let’s send in a helicopter for transport. We also need to dismantle it and level the ground, so we need to transport heavy machinery as well.”
“Yes, Ma’am. I’ll arrange it. We’ll drop the heavy machinery with the SR-1 (Albatross). For recovery… well, there seems to be a lake nearby, so we can use that.”
“Oh, right, it’s a flying boat. It can land on the lake too.”
And so, various heavy machines and helicopters were prepared. During that time, they continued to monitor the sandworm, but they never confirmed any activity.
“Starting the deployment of the multi-legged heavy machines.”
Parachutes popped out from the rear hatch of the Albatross that had reached the sky, and the connected multi-legged heavy machines were dragged out by the air resistance.
As they began to fall according to gravity, multiple parachutes were deployed immediately, supporting their weight.
“Oh, what a spectacle.”
“This was also carried out to gather information on future airborne units. However, descending by parachute takes time. If the enemy has sufficient anti-air weapons, there is a risk of interception.”
Commander Eve was innocently cheering as she watched the descending multi-legged machines, but Ringo didn’t seem to like it.
“I don’t know much about this, but isn’t this something you do after securing air supremacy?”
“Yes, Ma’am. However, assuming a situation where tanks are actually airdropped, it means that the enemy’s position is so strong that tanks are needed. If the suppression of anti-air positions has been completed, the deployment of drones would be sufficient.”
“Hmm… is that so?”
“Yes, Ma’am. I am not well-versed in tactics, so there may be gaps… but for airborne units, it would be better to decelerate forcibly with rocket motors or the like after free-falling or accelerating. The structure of the parachute itself is very simple, so if parachutes are sufficient, we can manufacture them again at that point.”
While the concept of The Tree’s airborne mechanical unit was being developed in this way, multi-legged tanks and multi-legged heavy machines were landing one after another.
The biggest advantage of multi-legged machines is that they can easily operate on uneven terrain. They can also absorb impact with their legs when landing.
The disadvantage is that they are prone to sinking because they need to support their weight with their feet.
However, this can be solved by actively burying the feet in the ground to increase the contact area.
The landed multi-legged machines began to walk towards the crater where the sandworm was buried, reeling in their parachutes.
“They’re collecting the parachutes.”
“Yes, Ma’am. This is to minimize the leakage of technical information, even though they are not reusable.”
“Hmm… well… I guess. If someone sees it, they might realize the possibility of airborne deployment…”
From the structure of the parachute, it was certainly possible to realize that a huge object could be safely brought to the ground from the air at a safe speed.
There was almost no possibility of this information leaking in this area right now, but it was important to be thorough about these things from the start.
“Reached the crater. No reaction from the motion sensors. The sandworm is completely silent.”
“I see… If we don’t know, we have no choice but to dig. Start digging carefully. What about self-defense measures?”
“The deployment of the multi-legged tanks has been completed. We can attack immediately if anything happens. …Checking infrared images. As expected, the sandworm’s body temperature is almost the same as the underground temperature. It cannot be detected by infrared sensors.”
There was a lot that was unknown about the sandworm, but it was clear that precise vibration detection was necessary to detect the approach of this monster. Outside of areas thought to be outside the sandworm’s habitat, the only option was to have wide-area surveillance drones constantly patrolling.
“I don’t really want to stand out.”
“Ma’am. I think you should give up on that, now that you’ve deployed the multi-legged machines.”
Ringo thought that Commander (Eve)’s sense of the world might need a little correction.