“I wonder if they’re alright…”
Commander (Eve) was worried about the Five Sisters, as a shocking event had occurred.
“There are no problems. In this response, we are not assembling tactics based on predicting the opponent. We have considered some countermeasures in advance, but we have a large buffer so that we can respond immediately even if those fail. The basic tactic is to respond immediately to the opponent’s actions. We have not educated them to be shaken by the unexpected.”
“I-I see. That’s reassuring…”
In fact, when that Scorpion was thrown, several Multi-legged Tanks had aimed at the Scorpion flying through the air.
To be precise, all the Multi-legged Tanks were assigned targets and continued to aim as long as they could detect them. They were ready to fire immediately if anything happened.
“The Scorpion… it seems to have landed now.”
The Scorpion, which had been flying through the air, naturally did not have the ability to move in the air, and was pulled down to the ground by gravity.
However, thanks to the effect of that Defense Membrane, it didn’t seem to take any particular damage, quickly righted itself, and waited there, swaying its body.
Presumably, it was waiting for Tefen’s arrival.
＜Ringo＞ observed. The Five Sisters and the Local Strategic AI were fully occupied with just responding, and had no余裕 to allocate resources to unnecessary processing.
This was known from the beginning, and it was originally decided that ＜Ringo＞ would handle such analysis-related tasks.
In the future, it will be necessary to prepare AIs with sufficient processing power for Fortress Two and the Oil Port, but at present, ＜Ringo＞ manages everything.
Tefen and his swarm, and the combat machine group of the deploying ＜The Tree＞.
The distance was closing to within 2km. On the map, it was a stone’s throw away.
However, in reality, 2km was a considerable distance.
For example, considering whether a Communicator Doll could observe the details of a Multi-legged Tank 2km away, it would be difficult due to the performance of its optic nerves.
However, Tefen was huge. This meant not only his body, but also that the eyes on his head were large.
And although much smaller than Tefen, the eyes of the 7m-long Scorpion were also correspondingly large. This simply resulted in good eyesight.
Well, there was the question of whether they even had a nervous system to process the images, but it would be foolish to optimistically assert that they didn’t.
If so, it would be better to analyze them on the premise that they could see properly.
Tefen was walking slowly for his size, constantly moving. He skillfully moved his eight Legs, continuing to walk at a constant speed.
His head did not waver, and was always kept level at a constant height, ignoring the unevenness of the ground.
(There is a high possibility that they have visually recognized us.)
That was the conclusion reached by ＜Ringo＞.
In the first place, the dissection of the Scorpion carried into ＜The Tree＞ had yielded the result that its nervous network was remarkably developed.
Whether that development was necessary to support its massive body, or whether it was for intelligence, was not yet known.
However, even when compared to the normal Scorpion’s biological information stored in ＜The Tree＞’s library, it was difficult to believe that it had simply grown larger.
In other words, Tefen was likely observing ＜The Tree＞ in the same way that ＜Ringo＞ was observing them.
Earlier, when the Scorpion was thrown.
The Multi-legged Tanks that were aiming at the thrown Scorpion were raising their Cannons and continuing to aim, as per their assigned role.
The Scorpion in the air quickly regained its posture and was flying with its head facing up. For most of its flight time, it was in a state where it could not physically see the ground.
Nevertheless, the individual currently on the ground was facing its head towards the Multi-legged Tanks. It continued to visually recognize the Multi-legged Tanks that were aiming at it.
(They are sharing information with Tefen in some way.)
From that perspective, she re-examined Tefen’s entire swarm. She traced back the timeline and analyzed the movement paths of all individuals.
(There are individuals that frequently change course and meander. It seems like they are probing the Multi-legged Tanks. Or, they are observing what actions the Multi-legged Tanks are taking.)
At the very least, they were not simply moving aimlessly towards a decided goal. However, not all individuals were taking any action, and some were moving in a straight line.
＜Ringo＞ continued to observe, and Tefen continued to walk. The Multi-legged Tanks continued to aim steadily, and the reconnaissance aircraft slowly circled.
And when the distance closed to 1km, Tefen and his swarm slowly stopped moving.
“They stopped!”
Commander (Eve) raised her voice in surprise. This was because the Monsters they had fought so far had all been belligerent.
＜Rain Croin＞ had launched a preemptive strike, but they had immediately approached the point of attack.
The Worms had attacked without question, and the Monsters (Hyenas) they had fought after that had also attacked them.
The first three Scorpions had also charged straight in, so it was surprising that Tefen had stopped.
“There are no major movements.”
Both forces were completely locked in a staring contest. Some of Tefen’s Scorpions seemed to sway their bodies occasionally, but as a whole, they did not move forward.
And this staring contest continued for several tens of minutes.
Or rather, if a human (Eve) had been in command, she might have become impatient and taken some kind of action.
However, the Local Strategic AI was entrusted with this situation, and the policy decisions were made by the Five Humanoid Machine (Android).
They did not feel any pain in simply waiting.
It was Tefen’s side that lost patience first.
Just one individual, who had landed far ahead as a result of aerial swimming. It slowly began to advance.
And that was the act of crossing the defense line set by ＜The Tree＞.
“Performing a warning shot.”
This was an option that fell into the moderate category among the several prepared operations.
The Multi-legged Tank fired the Railgun on its upper Turret.
The Cannon Shell, flying at 800km/h, landed in front of the Scorpion’s eyes.
The full metal jacket bullet blew away the point of impact, scattering sand all over the Scorpion’s body.
“……”
The Scorpion was probably surprised, as it stopped moving abruptly, and then shook its entire body to shake off the sand. It lowered its raised tail, spread its pincers horizontally to the left and right, and started walking again.
Originally, they were planning to start the attack at this point. However, ＜Ringo＞ intervened here and stopped the attack.
Since it became highly likely that this entire swarm led by Tefen had intelligence, they switched their goal to at least making them retreat, even if communication was impossible.
Since the premise had changed, ＜Ringo＞ reissued instructions to the Five Sisters. She kept direct intervention to a minimum, and supported them so that the Five Sisters would command as much as possible.
With the operation objective updated, the Local Strategic AI immediately began to act.
It advanced the Multi-legged Tank that had fired the warning shot earlier. It was a performance to show that there was no active will to attack.
It pointed both the upper and lower Turrets in completely different directions, and spread its work arms to the left and right, just like the Scorpion. This would convey that it had no intention to fight.
In the first place, there was a possibility that they had completely different intentions, but there was no point in thinking about that.
The two continued to advance as they were, and finally stopped, leaving a gap of about 5m. They continued to face each other for a while.
Suddenly, the Multi-legged Tank jumped back.
“The Local AI has entered Shutdown Mode. This is an emergency.”
“W-What!?”
The ally markers on the map were all painted gray (offline).
The relay video was cut off, and switched to the telescopic video from the reconnaissance aircraft that had been waiting in the rear.
In the video, a great cloud of sand was rising around Tefen.
“The Multi-legged Tank group is firing Railguns.
All warning shots.
All units are retreating.
The aerial reconnaissance aircraft and bombers have also begun to retreat.
Request for support from the Oil Port Strategic AI.
A large missile loaded with a Fuel-Air Explosive has been launched from Fortress Two.
The situation is unknown. Analyzing received data.”
“There’s no damage, is there!?”
“From the final received data and video analysis, no damage has been confirmed.”
“Based on their behavior patterns, they are estimated to be retreating to the second defensive line.”
“Estimated time until retreat completion: 12 minutes. A Fuel-Air Explosive attack will be executed in 5 minutes.”