Editing Toaru Majutsu no Index:GT Volume15 Chapter3 (section)

===Part 7===

Hamazura and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet made sure to give the drone airbase a wide berth.

So they took a circle with the base as the center point.

The Black_Oneday user had to be hiding in the drone airbase waiting for their next chance to act. Whatever their ultimate objective was, it wouldn’t be something anyone else would enjoy.

Hamazura and Blodeuwedd the Bouquet knew that, but they were hesitant to act right away because they didn’t want a repeat of the Hotel Town.

The Anglicans wandering around the danger area were a nuisance. If they were simply ignorant, reconciliation and negotiation may have been an option, but not so if they were all traitors. Hamazura had to assume they were his enemy.

“Then what exactly are you going to do?”

“Aneri,” bluntly said Hamazura. “First, check to see if the Board Chairman was telling the truth about the rapid-fire guns. After that, give me a list of any other defense weapons you expect around the airbase.”

“You’re a real power user, huh?☆”

Was that even a compliment? He was really just getting the AI to think for him.

Less than ten seconds later, the phone’s cracked screen displayed the answer he was dreading.

“So not even Aneri can find a convenient loophole.”

“But you can’t just break in by brute force, right? What’s the last defense weapon you want to run across?”

“Not those rapid-fire guns. It’s this: the Boom Wall.”

That anti-air weapon used a large amount of explosives all at once to send an amplified shockwave wall from the giant trumpet-shaped barrel. It didn’t require any detailed guidance calculations because the thick wall could be sent over an area several kilometers across. It was meant as a low budget way to shoot down a saturation attack or swarm without missing anything.

“Um, let me get this strait.” Blodeuwedd the Bouquet held a finger to her narrow chin and began counting on her fingers. “If we approach the base, we get hit by those hundred-twenty-something millimeter rapid-fire guns. But if we approach in an airplane or helicopter, we’ll be shot down by dense anti-air fire. And all the underground loopholes like the fuel pipe have been blocked. …Then how do we get in?”

“…”

Not even Aneri had provided an answer to that. Maybe there wasn’t a correct solution here.

Hamazura no longer placed his hopes in the righteousness of justice. He would force his way through with cheap, underhanded tactics, even if it that counted as evil.

After a moment of silence, he answered.

“No matter how brutal it is, the Boom Wall is an anti-air weapon. That means it isn’t designed to target the ground. If we skim around five meters above the surface, the barrel shouldn’t be able to aim at a low enough angle.”

“Even if you drive full speed in a car, I think like you’ll still get shot up by those rapid-fire guns.”

“What if we were moving faster? Like Mach 10 or higher?”

Blodeuwedd the Bouquet blinked.

This was unusual. He had surprised that condescending Transcendent.

“What I mean, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet, is that. Why not use that?”

He pointed to the side.

They had already brought it up in conversation several times.



The Morning Star above ground mass driver.



Instead of using an underground silo, this one looked just like a cannon the size of a broadcast tower.

It wasn’t like a chemical rocket that flew to space using fuel and an oxidant. Electromagnetic induction was used to launch a projectile outside the atmosphere.

“Are you serious?”

Even Blodeuwedd the Bouquet was dumbfounded by this one.

“That can slip past both the surface and anti-air weapons, right? Aneri, can you hack it?”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait! That’s meant to launch things into space. Can it even be used along a line only 5m from the ground? Screw it up and we’ll crash ''into'' the ground!!”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“…”

“We’re not talking about a plane or rocket here. A mass driver is basically a giant railgun, so it apparently has a lot of freedom of movement. So it’s no different from a gun. …We can use the ricochet. ''If we intentionally hit the ground at a shallow angle, we should be able to fly just off the ground''.”

“……………………………………………………………………………”

It was like skipping a rock on the water’s surface.

And the drone airbase had equipment resembling giant yacht sails. They were meant to catch flying drones.

Hamazura would just have to hit one of those in something like a billiards shot.

“Umm, I have one last question.”

“Yes? Hurry it up.”

“How many Machs is escape velocity? Even at a shallow angle, we’ll be hitting the ground at extreme speed, right? I don’t care how tough the mass driver’s payload fairing is – won’t we be smashed to bits by the impact!?”

Hamazura couldn’t answer right away.

He asked a serious question.

“Hey, Blodeuwedd the Bouquet. …You survived that exoatmospheric shuttle’s gigantic engine blast, right?”

“…Wait.”

“Can I get you to do that one last time?”

“I am supposed to be the weak but clever summoner! Not the tough and heavy tank!!”

She could complain, but this really did seem to be their only option.

Using that, he was pretty sure they could survive the hit with the ground.

It was fortunate there weren’t any workers or a security team at the drone airbase. He didn’t know how big a crater the ricochet would create, but he at least didn’t need to worry about hurting any living humans in the process.

“Aneri, let’s get started. Hack the Morning Star mass driver and give me control! Please!!”