Rune Troopers

Chapter 5.5

Chapter 5.5
RUNE TROOPERS VOLUME 1 PART 5 OF CHAPTER 5

 

Feeling danger, Hamieea, who had run out to the terrace of the castle, was terrified upon seeing the sky dyed red. If this world were to come to its end, surely this would be the color of the sky at that time. At least, this was the embodiment of this nation’s “end”.

Sweat formed on Hamieea’s brown forehead. Being quite the erudite girl, she knew that this color had some meaning. In the literature of the ancient legends, there are repeated hints that one can see.

“’Falling star’, is it?! That confounded empire! Dost thou desire so desperately to destroy this country?”

A maid rushed over to the girl crushed by despair.

“Y-your Highness, it is dangerous here! Please take refuge in the bas.e.m.e.nt!”

“… Will not the meteor destroy places like the castle and its bas.e.m.e.nts when it falls here?”

At that moment, Hamieea made a face fitting for her age. No matter how you struggle, the “falling star” was an attack that one could not be saved from no matter the measures one took.

“Even if they be military forces from realms beyond ours… This probably shalt remain impossible…”

She powerlessly bent her knees and sat on the terrace.

At the same time, Katou also squinted at the red sky. He had received communication from the fleet and knew that a meteorite was coming to fall on them. But, even for someone like him with knowledge in the “scientific” world, it was an unbelievable sight.

But, given his what can be called a talent for adaptability, he could accept this as reality. And, he thought  it could be a form of attack that had such a meteorite fall.

“Somehow, they’ve managed to have the meteorite pinpoint this location…!”

Katou’s guess was already about there.

With a handle on his occupation as a military member who rode on a destroyer, he grew an interest in how to guide attacks from long distances.

Even if this was brought about via magic, to have the meteorite target him and his crew to fall there must have a fitting difficulty, he thought. Somehow, the source of gravity for the thing might have to be around here.

“…No, it’s definitely like that.”

He looked at the sky’s disaster and glared at that monster that appeared.

“There’s no other choice.”

There was not a strange man who always didn’t seem like a self-defense force leader staring at his surroundings with weird eyes, but a major staff officer for the fleet burning with pa.s.sion for his mission.

He would definitely not give up. The purely self-defense policy – which is what the SDF has accepted and which guides it in all its ways without going beyond it – to a heart open to the truth, means to destroy a nation’s forces. After all, if a basic deal cannot be made, you cannot work to decrease a little the damage that is to be done.

“Commander Kaburagi… We’re counting on you.”

He stared at the Aegis warship floating in the bay

In the same hour——

The Aegis cla.s.s destroyer, the “Ibuki”. The main objective of the enemy has been surrendered, and suddenly the operations specialist overlooking the radar at the now-loosened up CIC raised his voice to yell.

“C-commander!”

“What is it?”

Kaburagi sent the same worried voice his subordinate had used right back at him.

“There’s a slight reading on the radar! There is a possibility it is a flying corps from outside the atmosphere!”

“What?!”

No one could imagine what this really meant. However, there was only a common bad feeling among those present.

“Get a precise reading on the target.”

“Roger!”

The waves of the 3D radar, which go in every direction, were focused only on the target. This method is possible because there were no other enemies around.

“Th… This is!?”

At the result of the data a.n.a.lysis, the crew member grew pale.

“I-it’s a meteorite! A huge meteorite is falling towards us!”

“Meteorite!?”

The CIC was confused. The spontaneously developed photo was too real. A meteorite at this time was falling, and what is more, towards them. They didn’t understand how this would be possible at all, but they imagined it was somehow some sort of artificial attack by an enemy.

The Aegis System’s super computer calculated the destructive force of the falling meteorite and displayed the result. Upon seeing it, everyone was at a loss for words. It was an energy that would rival that of an atomic attack.

——They can’t be saved. They are on the verge of danger that is incomparable to earlier. Understanding this, the crew members’ faces became stiff. Despair ruled all of their hearts. There was no wondering at what to do. It was an atmosphere of everyone looking at each other and seeming to want to cry out. But, Kaburagi calmly asked.

“What is the projected time of impact?”

“A-about 20 minutes, we think!”

“Gah…!”

To the display of the estimated simulation of the meteorite’s fall, Kaburagi could only hold in his uneasiness.
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