“Vibration sensor alert. Infrared sensor normal. ＜Ringo＞, requesting assistance.”
“Acknowledged. Akane, assuming emergency situation.”
“Proposal accepted. Excavation plant and Oil Port to Combat Readiness Level 1. Instructing Fortress Two to provide support.”
Night. The sun had completely set, and the temperature was dropping rapidly. It was then that the installed composite sensor detected an anomaly.
Akane, who was stationed in the Command Room, immediately requested assistance from ＜Ringo＞. Although she hadn’t visually confirmed anything, she believed that some kind of monster was approaching.
In the event of combat, the presence or absence of support from ＜Ringo＞ would have a significant impact.
And ＜Ringo＞ immediately responded to the request for assistance.
＜Ringo＞ highly valued Akane’s judgment.
Although the situation couldn’t be fully grasped from the sensor information alone, the possibility of a monster approaching was deduced from prior information. Furthermore, she judged that it was beyond her capabilities and made the decision to request assistance from the higher-level AI without hesitation.
When irregular processing is transferred to a higher-level AI, it naturally interferes with the higher-level AI’s original processing tasks, so there is a bias towards trying to make judgments on its own as much as possible.
Therefore, when the learning progress is low, the contact to the higher-level AI is often delayed even in important events.
In other words, it becomes a judgment error due to lack of experience.
In practice, when inexperienced nodes are placed within the AI network, the higher-level AI allocates resources to prevent or address errors resulting from such inexperience.
And as the number of such AIs within the node increases, the more resources are consumed for monitoring, which degrades the performance of the entire network.
Conversely, if there are many experienced AIs who can make appropriate judgments, monitoring becomes unnecessary, and performance increases.
Akane responded appropriately to the irregular problem.
＜Ringo＞ is making the final judgment on whether Akane can function as a completely independent AI. The day when Akane becomes completely independent from ＜Ringo＞ is near.
“From ＜Ringo＞, transmitting awakening signals to Utsugi, Erika, and Olive. To avoid overload, Ichigo’s awakening is planned for 1 hour later. Akane, move forces to the designated point. Designate Utsugi and Erika as local commanders, but if they are not available in time, you will respond.”
“Understood.”
Although it would have been fine to simply communicate via comms, Commander (Eve) had rushed into the Command Room in a panic due to the emergency, so the instructions were given verbally.
“＜Ringo＞, what’s the situation!”
“Sensors on the outer edge of the excavation plant have detected suspicious vibrations. We are dispatching patrol aircraft, but it is likely that a Threat Creature is approaching.”
“Here we go!”
The time was 20:00 at night. It was still before Commander (Eve)’s bedtime. ＜Ringo＞ was determined to resolve the situation before bedtime, if possible.
It wasn’t that she didn’t have some sympathy for Ma’am (she) being sleepy, but it wasn’t good for her health.
From the sky, its figure was confirmed by night vision devices. As expected, it was the same species of Scorpion that had been discovered a few days ago.
The surrounding ground temperature and its body temperature were almost the same, so it couldn’t be detected by infrared sensors.
Slight fluctuations were confirmed, so it would be possible to make judgments based on that in the future.
This time, it was discovered by detecting the slight vibrations generated during movement. Such weak movement vibrations could easily have been dismissed as noise.
The sensor sensitivity, which had been set sensitively for detecting Worms, seemed to have done a good job.
“Dispatching one Multi-legged Tank. Other units are also moving. Transitioning to immediate response posture.”
“They’re approaching without much hesitation. I wonder if they have a specific objective…?”
The Scorpion was approaching the excavation plant in a straight line. There shouldn’t be anything there that would serve as food, but the fact that its actions were unwavering was a point to be noted.
“Moving the Multi-legged Tank to the direction of travel. Initiating intimidation maneuvers.”
It would be fine to attack immediately, but in order to confirm the opponent’s reaction, the Multi-legged Tank was ordered to perform intimidation maneuvers.
It stretched out its legs, raising its front high, and swung its forearms.
From directly in front, it would look like a wall was standing in its way.
However, the running Scorpion didn’t care at all and charged in at the same speed.
“Speed unchanged. Remaining time until contact: 8 seconds.”
“Gah!”
“Commencing support fire.”
At that moment, a Multi-legged Tank that had rushed in from another location fired its main cannon.
With the intention of keeping it in check, an Armor-Piercing Shell with an initial velocity of 1,000 m/s was fired from the upper turret.
0.3 seconds later, the Armor-Piercing Shell pierced the Scorpion’s torso.
“Hit.”
There was no light in the surrounding night darkness.
Therefore, the light was clearly visible.
A ripple of light spread out, centered on the point where the warhead made contact.
“This one has a Defense Membrane too!!”
And the Tactical AI installed in the Multi-legged Tank in front of it was confirming the phenomenon in real time.
Originally, that possibility had been anticipated. Immediately after confirming the generation of the Defense Membrane, it slammed in the command.
The Gatling gun on the lower turret, which had already completed aiming, spewed out a large number of bullets as instructed.
The Defense Membrane didn’t last even a second. A large number of bullets rained down from diagonally above onto its torso, which had been pressed to the ground by the Armor-Piercing Shell from the side.
The Defense Membrane deflected the first few shots, but then disappeared. Full Metal Jacket bullets struck the Scorpion’s carapace.
The warheads slid along the rounded carapace, scraping the surface but not penetrating.
However, the objective had been achieved.
A metal warhead projected from another Multi-legged Tank impacted at a speed of approximately 2,000 m/s.
The warhead, which collided with the carapace, transmitted the impact while transforming into a liquid state due to plastic flow. The carapace structure, unable to withstand the pressure, shattered one after another, and the warhead penetrated the body.
The Scorpion’s torso exploded.
And immediately after that, two more Scorpions jumped out from the sand. A surprise attack, and a completely coordinated movement.
But the Tactical AI dealt with it calmly. It had grasped the number of approaching individuals using vibration sensors.
As the jumping Scorpion thrust out its pincers, the work arm was brought down in a counterattack.
The front work arm of the Multi-legged Tank was made quite sturdy, anticipating direct strikes.
The striking protrusion was slammed down onto the Scorpion’s head, using the force of Gravity.
The Defense Membrane emitted light, but disappeared immediately after. The momentum of the jump was killed, and the two additional Scorpions were pressed to the ground as they were.
Confused, they moved their legs violently,挟み込み the work arm that was pressing them down with their pincers.
And from above, the tail’s poisonous stinger, which had been raised high, was thrust in.
The poisonous stinger easily penetrated the Multi-legged Tank’s composite armor.
Then, venom was ejected from the tip of the needle.
Originally, that poison would have been a deadly attack to kill prey. But the opponent was a frontline weapon designed to withstand even direct hits from tank cannons.
The structure was not such that it would be impaired by a small amount of liquid being poured in through a perforation in a part of the armor.
The upper turret aimed at the torso of the Scorpion on the right, and immediately projected. The Cannon Shell, accelerated to 2,000 m/s inside the turret, pierced the Scorpion’s torso from directly above.
Similarly, a Railgun shot destroyed the torso of the other one.
Lingering awareness.
To confirm that there were no abnormalities, the Multi-legged Tank remained silent in the same posture.
Exactly one minute later. Confirming that there was no movement, the Multi-legged Tank slowly returned to its original posture.
“Multi-legged Tank at the location has completed combat operations. Transitioned to patrol mode. Damage is minor. Some sensors are no longer responding. Corrosion due to venom is suspected.”
Hearing ＜Ringo＞’s report, she exhaled a large breath. She sank into the chair.
“Well, we managed to get through it somehow. I didn’t expect them to have that Defense Membrane, but is it possible to deal with it?”
“Yes, Ma’am. We have collected the information, so there is no problem. It seems that we will be able to obtain valuable samples as well.”
And so, the desert night raid was successfully overcome.