Chapter 49: The Bond of Parent and Child

First, confirm the victory conditions.

This time it’s a frontal assault on a Bubble nest. The objective is to take it.

The nest, built in a colony of Tree Crystals, spawns Bubbles day and night. That makes it horribly troublesome.

So far, the largest Bubble I’d faced was the one that attacked a transport convoy on the last day of rookie training. They had the right drugs and numbers, so it didn’t leave a strong impression as a nightmare. After all, it was only a transport convoy. There’s a hard limit to the numbers.

The nest is different. The numbers are unlimited.

These are Bubbles that use numbers as their weapon. Their reproductive—or rather, production—capacity is terrifying. The nest is what supports that. To be honest, counting the Bubbles inside would be ridiculous, so following Shinzo’s example, let’s just call it “a lot.”

Obviously, complete annihilation is impossible.

So what do we do?

The answer is simple. The nest is attached to the Tree Crystal. Break the nest.

If you accept sacrifices, there are ways.

Basically, Bubbles move slowly.

If you make a mass wave—have a large number of people carry explosives and charge through—some lucky ones might get through.

It’s a blunt, mass-quantity tactic that even idiots can do. One of the worst kinds of strategies.

Still, if you can spare the personnel, it’s an easy solution.

Vulture and his crew were originally supposed to do that.

What idiots.

I thought that. What are these bald fools accepting?

I can understand not having better options. I have no sympathy for those who simply did not struggle.

I decided I would struggle.

I handed control to Horse Unit and gripped the spine necklace.

Think.

Efficiency that overwhelms sheer numbers.

I am a sniper. Sometimes I stop many enemies with few bullets. To do that, I need a nose for locating the enemy’s keystone.

Think about that.

Think about what the enemy values. Think how you can break that.

Cut off supplies? No. Bubbles have no concept of supply. They move without eating or drinking.

Assassinate the commanders? Impossible. As a swarm organism, such tactics don’t work on them.

What about bombardment? No. That might look promising, but they’d swarm us before we could destroy the nest.

“Rat Unit, what is the maximum effective range of the mortar?”

—Beep!

Answer: 2 kilometers; impact accuracy within a 75-meter radius.

“Not very good.”

Could cluster munitions make up for it? If the target were a fixed nest, maybe—

I scratched my head. Nothing good came to mind. So far the effective tactics we’d used were quantity assaults and hit-and-run, or rather, catch-and-run.

Lack of experience fighting nests bites a little.

We don’t know what works and what doesn’t. Still, think. Think. The nest is a base. Imagine what would annoy you if someone attacked your base.

The bone necklace bit into my finger. No blood. No particularly good idea surfaced. Sharp pain.

“Think things are going to work out, Ratchet?”

“I’m hoping my superior has brought some brilliant plan.”

“That’s impossible.”

Rikan shrugged his shoulders.

Lucky me, I get to serve under such a useless boss.

“…To be honest, I can’t see a vision where this operation goes well.”

Kamikaze-ing twenty-three kids was not going to solve anything. If twenty-three lives could actually do the trick, it would feel cheap.

“Ranked fourth, Schwantz.”

“?”

“He’s the man who pushed this operation through. He’s also the father of the previous number-six.”

“A power play, more like harassment aimed at you, isn’t it?”

Don’t drag humans into this, Tooth, I thought.

“No, it’s not my doing. I only rose because the previous man was shot dead by a human on the field.”

Oh? Is there a skilled human sniper around here? Rikan said with a wink.

I see. So it was my handiwork. That commander was that important, huh. Ah, so that’s why I suddenly found myself sitting at the lofty rank of seventh.

“I thought Tooth’s culture was to praise the strong even if they’re the enemy.”

“You can’t just cut away parent-child feelings, Ratchet.”

“I see. I almost feel like crying.”

Not because of some warm parent-child sentiment, but because I’m being forced into this operation out of someone’s filial grudge.

Still, useful information. If this is a personal push, if they’re forcing the mission through for private reasons, then the higher-ups must know it’s unrealistic. We don’t need a total victory. ‘A certain level’ of results will be enough.

“How much would satisfy them?”

“Partial destruction of the nest. The theft of a certain amount of rare crystal. The subjugation of any anomalous individuals. Something like that.”

“Anomalous individuals?”

A term I hadn’t heard—no, if they mean anomalous individuals in the nest, they must mean Mother Bubbles. I knew what the things that give birth to Bubbles were called. In a nest that size there’d be about ten of them. But—

“Aren’t those Mother Bubbles? Are they really that strong?”

I’d never heard they were that powerful.

“They’ll have many watchers. Didn’t I say earlier? Parent-child feelings.”

“I see. I almost feel like crying.”

So, realistically, partial destruction of the nest it is.

“Rikan, if I take some of your men on loan, how many would actually obey my orders?”

“All my men are the ones who faced you in that earlier fight.”

“Meaning?”

“You stood against us with only two men, had your left legs blown off, yet killed the commander. Do you know what you call a man who pulls that off for the sake of children?”

“An absolute lunatic,” I answered immediately. He’s an idiot. He ought to live smarter.

“He’s a hero. Don’t demean him. Keep your airs, Ratchet. And we love heroes. How many do you need?”

“Anyone who can handle a mortar, take as many as are available.”

Good. I’ll gather them.

I watched Rikan stride off, then ordered Sheep Unit and Monkey Unit into position.

When I gave that unreasonable command, Monkey Unit charged straight into my little toe. It hurt more than it should have.

***

The structure of a mortar is simple. Drop the shell into the tube, the firing pin strikes the primer, and it fires.

In the extreme, you could say all you do is drop it in the tube.

And so, Rikan’s whole squad showed up.

—This’ll be easy!

I heard voices like that.

These idiots were underestimating mortars. My head started to hurt.

“I brought them, Ratchet! Don’t worry, we’ll handle the carrying, it’s a piece of cake!”

“…”

Rikan threw back his head and let out a big guffaw.

So that was it. The commander himself was underestimating mortars. As if you could just drop shells and expect them to hit.

Apparently, it was the unit of the previous sixth-ranked officer that had blown off my left leg. At least, I hoped so.

A few of Rikan’s subordinates came over to me.

At their center was a youth with cat ears and glasses, almost indistinguishable from a human. He looked at me with eyes brimming, yet already dead, and then the tears finally spilled over.

“Thank goodness… I was afraid even you, Lord Ratchet, might be grinning and going along with them.”

With that one line, I understood the hardships he was under. I wanted him to hang in there. I wanted him to hang in there desperately.

“Let’s form an observation team. From our side, I can only field three Monoz as spotters and one Monoz to relay correction orders.”

“Then we’ll send out eight observers from our side. As for correction orders, I think it’s best to leave those to you.”

“Agreed. Also, let’s disperse the gunners, treat them as separate groups. It’s long-range bombardment; spreading them out has to be assumed.”

“May I hear the operation plan?”

“Of course.”

Saying that, I went to call Rikan—

“Ah, no need. Don’t bother with that idiot. I’ll sort things out later and pass the information along.”

“Is that so?”

The way the cat-ear-glasses dismissed Rikan was brutally offhanded.

Was that really okay?

Well, whatever.

Without touching the Leone clan’s internal shadows, I explained the plan to cat-ear-glasses.

“You’ve got a nasty personality, don’t you?”

He said something terribly cruel to me.