The Circumstances of the Imperial Ground Forces

A certain great person once said: Battles are all about numbers, aniki[1]!

And the scene before my eyes right now is proof of that very concept.

"Man, our forces are pretty overwhelming huh."

"They're not your forces you know."

"Yes, I'm well aware ma'am."

A human-sized combat bot fired lasers (death rays) from its two weapon

arms, and even when it was swarmed by Twisteds, it tore them off itself

with even greater force and crushed them with ease. The attacks of the

medium-sized combat bots with a height of 2-3 meters were even more

fierce. The firepower of the medium-sized combat bots, which consisted of

not only lasers but plasma launchers as well, easily decimated the enemy

Grapplers and the type with dense frontal armor we designated as Bulls.

And the ultimate master of the battlefield was the large-sized combat bot

sporting a towering height of 5 meters.

"That big guy sure is amazing."

Even though it was huge, it was surprisingly agile. It looks like it was the

lead unit. It continuously slaughtered the large enemies with its ranged

weapons and grappling attacks while blocking their counterattacks with a

sturdy energy shield. Its energy generator sure can pump out some serious

juice.

"A Titan-class combat bot is the key unit for ground engagements after all.

In fact, the imperial ground forces at present are mostly comprised of

combat bots."

"Cuz they're easy to replace and even easier on the wallet huh."

Lt. Col. Serena silently shrugged after hearing my words.

It takes at least 15 to 18 years to train an individual to be a qualified

combat-ready imperial soldier on average. Fifteen years is still a bit too

short in my opinion, but you'd at least be able to build up their physical

capabilities to at least a respectable degree in that amount of time. If they

didn't care about their methods though, they'd be able to pump out soldiers

in an even shorter period.

In other words, they can achieve that result if they were willing to go the

route of using child-soldiers and clone soldiers produced by using advanced

biotech. Well, I haven't witnessed that kind of thing so far. And judging

from the combat bots before me, it seems that the empire hasn't gone in that

direction at least… Or haven't they? In a sense, aren't the Twisteds proof

that they've dabbled in such research.

The existence of the Twisteds at least proves that there's a faction within the

empire that has already made use of biotechnology for military purposes.

Anyway, I've gone off-topic. I mentioned the bots being easy to replace and

easy on the wallet, right? Well, in other words… training and fielding

human soldiers are simply very costly.

However, what about fielding combat bots? Although it also costs a lot of

money to manufacture them, it was definitely cheaper than training people

to become soldiers within 15 to 18 years. Not only was the cost cheaper, but

the time invested was also drastically lowered.

For combat bots, once a production line is built, it's possible to continue

mass-producing battle-ready combat bots as long as the resources allow for

it. Moreover, in the case of gaining combat skills, you only needed to install

the requisite battle data in order for them to function effectively.

Furthermore, unlike human soldiers, even if they get harmed in combat,

they won't need to be given a survivor's pension. They don't need food,

water, clothes, medicine, and you certainly don't need to pay them any

salary, so the logistics costs are very low as well. If you think about it,

fielding them truly had a lot of advantages.

"They're easy on the wallet after all."

"Why did you have to say the same words twice?"

"Uh, I just thought the imperial military really has its own share of troubles

after all."

"It's none of your business."

If they also employed space-use combat bots in starships instead of a

regular crew, I'm sure they'll be able to further cut the costs, but I wonder

why they're not doing so? Hm. Well, the Graccan empire seems to have

suffered under AI in the past, so maybe they were just not too into the idea

of fielding combat bots as their main combat force due to that. So it looks

like the combat bots are only mostly used in ground combat huh. Perhaps

that's because they'd be able to easily take care of them via orbital

bombardment if things go south for some reason? I'm a bit curious now.

"But how'd you prepare a force like this in such short notice?"

"They were originally meant to be dispatched to handle the aggressive

lifeforms that attacked the Comatt III colony bases. We merely transported

them here to Comatt IV."

"Ah, I see."

It's been a couple of days since the aggressive lifeforms like the Grapplers

appeared on Comatt III. The Comatt system isn't that far from the nearest

gateway, and it wouldn't take that long to contact the capital and transport

the required forces over.

Compared to the so-called frontier systems like Izrooks where we fought

the crystal lifeforms and Termaine where we met Mimi, transportation was

very accessible here.

"But this is getting boring y'know."

"Ara. I won't try to stop you if you want to jump right in the middle of that

you know?"

"I'll pass, thanks."

If I rushed in the middle of a chaotic melee between the dangerous

lifeforms and the combat bots, it won't be enough no matter how many

lives I had in stock. Although this dimension resembled SOL in my eyes, it

was also unmistakably real. Unlike games, once you're dead here, you're

dead for good. I think? Anyway, I have no intention of testing out that

theory.

"Well, we still don't know how much resources our target has at his

disposal. I believe this will take a bit more time to get settled, so just go

ahead and try to relax for the time being."

"Gee, thanks a lot."

It looks like we'll be watching the 'wargames' for a while more. I looked

up at the new drop pods rapidly descending as I reached out for the water

canteen hanging on my waist.

[We're also seeing everything over here! It's amazing! So cool!]

[Mr. Wamdo is on cloud nine after getting a lot of good footage.]

"That's nice."

I talked to Mimi and Elma through the universal mask. The fighting

between the Twisteds and combat bots was still ongoing, but the Twisteds

seemed to be constantly getting pushed back due to the seamless

cooperation and intense firepower of the combat bots. At this rate, it was

only a matter of time before the Twisteds out here were completely mopped

up by the combat bots and they proceed to invade their base.

[The moment when you rushed at that huge fellow with swords was pretty

intense.]

[That was just too cool! I got the data from Wamdo-san so I'll send it

over!]

After Mimi said so, a small window opened on the HUD of the universal

mask which played the scene of me and Lt. Col. Serena heading straight for

the Grappler taken from an exquisite camera angle.

"The camera angle's pretty good."

After saying so, I moved my attention to the sphere floating around my

shoulder. This sphere was an autonomous camera device that followed my

every move in the same way as the Gravity Sphere we use to bring our

drinks inside the cockpit. It combines hologram tech and other advanced

stuff to record our every move on the ground. First, it was the Gravity

Sphere, and now this. Don't you think the humans in this dimension have a

weird tech tree progression?

"So you're finally being relieved from air support duty huh?"

[The main ground attack forces from the imperial military have arrived

after all. And also, ships specialized in air to surface attacks have arrived

with them, so we no longer have any role to play. We're still gonna stick

around to guard you and your companions though.]

"Oh, I see. Military vessels specialized in air to surface bombardment huh?

I'm sure their air support capabilities are top-notch."

I nodded and turned my attention to the green-colored plasma bolts that just

rained down from above.

Plasma artillery was developed by applying energy shield tech and basically

worked by trapping ultra-high temperature plasma within a weak energy

shield and then launching it out. Since the projectile was slow and the range

was short, mercenaries rarely equipped them on their ships since they

engaged mainly in space combat. There's also a newly developed plasma

accelerator, but the projectile was still quite slow and it was generally hard

to handle… Even if there was a limit to the number you can stuff on your

ship, anti-ship torpedoes were still comparably more convenient. Large

ships were generally slowpokes after all.

As for plasma weaponry, the combat bots battling in front of us also had

them equipped. They were plenty powerful. They were equipped with both

the 2nd generation plasma weaponry that shoots out plasma trapped within

a weak energy shield and the 1st generation plasma weaponry that fires a

physical cannon round that causes a plasma explosion the moment it hits

the target.

Their destructive power was roughly on par with each other, but one

advantageous feature of the 2nd generation weapons is that there's

technically no limit to their ammo. Since the plasma was enclosed in an

energy shield, the stress on the barrel was next to non-existent, and it had

the ability to fire almost an unlimited amount of rounds as long as the

generator output allowed it.

[This scene also has plenty of impact as well.]

[That's right. The imperial combat bots look really reliable as they slay the

dangerous creatures.]

"It really resembles a scene from an action holo-flick huh… There aren't

that many movies where combat bots play leading roles though."

There were also plenty of movies for entertainment available in this

dimension. In them, imperial elites often fight against alien species that are

hostile and impossible to reason with, and scenes similar to the one we're

currently witnessing were pretty common. But in those works, it was

imperial soldiers – including non-human ones – that take on the main

fighting roles. But in reality, combat bots like these played a more active

role huh.

"Well, when it comes to imperial troops fighting… It's not like I'm an

imperial soldier but there were plenty of instances where imperial troops

fought the creatures earlier as well, so I'm sure Wamdo knows what to do."

[That's true.]

The nobles of the Graccan empire tend to not leave any truly crucial work

to machines and AI after all. Well, perhaps the imperial nobles only wish to

avoid completely relying on the AI and want to work hard themselves. I'm

not sure though.

"Once the combat bots are done with sweeping away the creatures, I

wonder if it would be my and Lt. Col. Serena's turn to finish things with the

boss by clashing swords with him?… Man, it really is like an action holoflick."

[And it's standard to have a fight that's either done barehanded, with

knives, or swords while being surrounded by flames at the end huh.]

[A-Ahaha… It really sounds like something like that might actually happen

later.]

So those kinds of scenes are also classic staples over here huh. The final

fight scenes where the main characters had to fight in the flesh I mean. But

how about we go for a smarter method in reality? I mean, like, chucking a

poison gas canister or two inside the boss room or something.