Laser Bombardment

Boom! The light of the stars streaming around us like arrows returned to

being stationary after a thunderous boom.

"FTL Drive deactivated. Calculating the atmospheric entry coordinates to

the target location!"

"Ok. Everyone, make sure to drink plenty of fluids before we proceed with

atmospheric entry. Do you have any info about the target location for me,

Mimi?"

"Yes. Um… Found it. I'll put it up on the screen."

Mimi operated her console and displayed the info regarding the dangerous

lifeforms attacking the colonists of Comatt III on the cockpit screen.

"Those are some mean-looking creatures. They're plenty intimidating. Or

rather, they look plain evil. They seem like masses of evil will that have

taken physical form."

"Well, they certainly don't look like decent creatures, that's for sure."

What was displayed on the screen was something I could only describe as

terrifying. The creatures were mostly yellowish-brown in color and the

surface of their bodies was covered in hides that somehow eerily resembled

human skin, making them seem even more creepy.

Their appearance can roughly be divided into three types. One was about 5

meters tall. It had more than twenty legs that resembled human ones, and it

uses those multiple legs to move at high speeds to capture its victims. It

would then badly maul its victim with two arms, and then chew them up

with what seems to be its mouth. Its mouth was lined up with human-like

teeth and looked utterly revolting. The tips of both its arms were covered in

a sort of rocky epidermis that also seemed quite sharp. They really looked

like they could kill a human in one blow.

The other type also had multiple legs, but they resembled the legs of

elephants. Its body was quite streamlined and resembled an upside-down

seafaring ship. The front end of its upper body was covered in rocky armor

like the arms of the first type, and it seems capable of performing highspeed frontal charges. It was about 15 meters in length and 7 meters in

height. It was considerably larger than the first type. Its frontal rocky armor

looked pretty tough and solid, and it seems that handheld laser guns and

rifles were completely useless against it.

And of all three forms, the last one looked the most troublesome. It stood 2

meters tall and was quite smaller than the other types. It had multiple legs

as well – six to be exact. It didn't seem to be that fast and also didn't

possess rocky armor, but it was sporting a kind of biological laser cannon

on its body that seemed on par with standard laser launchers. Its power and

range far outdid the weapons the colonists were armed with, and they were

even capable of taking down unshielded aircraft, seeker missiles, and attack

drones.

"That's a full line-up huh. They have vanguards and rearguards accounted

for. Are there really naturally occurring lifeforms that shoot energy beams

from their bodies like these?"

"Well, there are the crystal lifeforms for example."

"Uh, yeah, those are incomprehensible creatures as well huh…"

It's certainly true that crystal lifeforms were one of the weirdest creatures in

the galaxy. They were extremely aggressive against all carbon-based

lifeforms, were capable of interstellar navigation, and spat out not only

lasers but mysterious energy bullets from their bodies as well. What I'm

trying to ask is whether or not there were really naturally-occurring

creatures that were so specialized in waging combat on terrestrial planets.

Spitting out a stream of powerful venom or acids is one thing, but these

things were even spitting out laser fire as destructive as laser launcher

projectiles y'know. That's a bit too over the top no matter how you slice it.

"Well… Like I said earlier, they really don't seem like decent creatures."

"Yeah. Oh well. Let's just go ahead and get rid of em."

"You sure are nonchalant about all this. Or rather, you don't seem to be

feeling any danger at all."

Zuia quipped as he sat on the sub-seat. I merely shrugged my shoulders

without glancing back.

"Whether there are ten thousand or ten million of these guys, they pose

absolutely no threat to Krishna after all."

"If their output is only on par with laser launchers, they won't have much

range within a planet's atmosphere. Krishna's laser cannons have much

higher output and range, so we can just unilaterally pick them off from

beyond their range of attack."

"And there's the Black Lotus as well. It can make use of the observation

data Krishna is constantly sending its way to bombard the surface with

multi-cannon and EML fire from the stratosphere."

Speaking of multi-cannons, they're sometimes unfairly labeled as mere

peashooters, but they're actually pretty deadly against unshielded enemies.

Their rate of fire is like that of submachine guns, but they're ship artillery

after all. I'm not familiar with their exact caliber, but I can roughly hold on

to just one ammo round with both arms. If a human were to get hit directly

with something like that, they'd be turned into minced meat in an instant.

Of course, those creatures rampaging on the surface of the planet will meet

similar gruesome ends as well.

But if you carelessly fired off an EML round at the surface, it might affect

the planetary colony as well. Anyway, we could always adjust the firing

angle and velocity of the EML round, and I'm sure Mei would not make

any mistakes.

"I see… In other words, the difference in strength between us and them is

just that overwhelming."

"That's right. I think this would be a one-sided affair, actually."

"I've finished setting the atmospheric entry angle! I'll display it on the

nav."

"Roger that. Make sure to have Black Lotus follow closely, Mei."

[Aye, aye, sir.]

We proceeded with atmospheric entry according to the course Mimi set and

descended upon Comatt III.

"Whoaaaah!? A-Are we really gonna be okay!?"

However, when we began our descent, Zuia suddenly wailed in fright.

Apparently, this was his first time experiencing atmospheric entry on a

planet.

"Yeah. Atmospheric entry sure does have a lot of impact, doesn't it?"

There's violent shaking and also unsettling noises. There's also the

atmosphere outside the shield burning bright crimson. I'm aware that

objects entering the atmosphere of a planet experience atmospheric drag

and aerodynamic heating caused by the compression of the air around the

object, but I wonder why energy shields also cause such phenomena. Was it

generating plasma due to the super-high temperature or something?

"We've arrived right above the target coordinates."

"Hey now. There they are."

Combat starship other than us were already flying above the target

coordinates and were mowing down the advancing waves of hostile

creatures on the ground as if they were parting clouds. High-powered laser

rounds were continuously fired off from the combat ship's laser cannons,

landing on the ground and blowing away the hostile creatures along with

the soil and rocks.

The process was often misunderstood, but laser cannons weren't really

weapons that would cause targets to explode directly due to their highpowered laser rounds. Actually, the surface of the target fired upon would

first evaporate due to the super-high temperature, causing the explosion

afterward, and the corresponding heat and impact would cause the target to

be destroyed.

In other words, the true nature of the destruction on the ground eliminating

the hostile creatures were storms of explosive blasts and heat caused by

high-powered laser irradiation.

"Activate weapon systems. Limit the output to the minimum and prioritize

rapid-fire capability."

"Roger. Adjusting the power output."

"As for Black Lotus, mainly use the laser turrets to attack. Don't use the

multi-cannons unless the planetary colony base gets placed in critical

danger."

[Aye, aye, sir.]

Both the multi-cannon and EML rounds are quite expensive after all. Since

the laser turrets are easier on the wallet, we'll use them instead.

"But there sure are a lot of them."

"Seeing them squirming around like that makes me feel a bit sick

somehow…"

It looks like most of the laser spewing creatures have been taken care of,

and there were only two types remaining – the vanguard-type and the

assault-type. This will be nothing more than a mop-up then. Since the

creatures couldn't fly, they had no ability to attack the combat ships

hovering around in the sky. We'll just need to be careful not to accidentally

damage the energy shield covering the planetary colony base.

Out of our four laser cannons, the lower ones targeted the creatures near the

base, and the upper ones destroyed those further away from it. Since we

lowered the output to the minimum, the laser irradiation period was longer

than usual and the firing interval was conversely shorter, so the mop-up

work progressed steadily.

"With this, the base won't have any worries when it comes to food for a

good while."

"Eh?"

"Eeh!?"

After hearing Elma's statement, Mimi and I raised surprised voices.

Eh? Food? You can actually eat these things?

"It's just a speculation, but they're biological organisms at the end of the

day. They can probably break them down into edible protein sources after a

bit of processing."

"That's seriously scary."

"I wonder how they'd taste?"

"Eh."

"Eh?"

I did a double-take and turned toward Mimi, who was sitting on the

operator seat. Mimi got surprised by our reactions and met gazes with me.

Uh, did you really not find their appearances the least bit disgusting? Or did

your desire for unknown gourmet food and ingredients win out in the end?

"W-Well, you know… Um, maybe they'd actually taste good when you try

them out?"

"Y-Yeah, okay. You have a point."

Those vanguard-types have multiple human-like legs though. I don't feel

like tasting them at all after seeing those. Well, Mimi's dream is to eat all

the galaxy's gourmet delicacies after all. I think that sort of brave

challenger's spirit is important in order to achieve it. Yeah.

Me? Nah. I'd rather pass, man.