The Landing Castles that had reached the surface were now engaged in battle with the United Forces of Earth.
Meanwhile, Kain had assigned each of the five interdimensional warships to monitor one Landing Castle, but none of them had entered the fighting yet.
For now, he wanted the United Forces of Earth to launch the initial assaults. By observing those battles, they could evaluate the destructive power of the Martians' weapons, combat aircraft, and Kataphrakts.
After all, this was the real world, not an anime.
An anime could only provide limited information through what appeared on-screen. That information could not be treated as definitive. Underestimating the enemy's actual capabilities might result in catastrophic losses.
The five warships could not use their Wave-Motion Guns against Landing Castles that had already touched down. As for their remaining weapons and onboard firepower, there was no guarantee they could overpower a Landing Castle in a direct confrontation.
They needed more intelligence and more precise data before drawing up an attack plan.
There was another reason the five warships had not joined the battle. They needed to keep watch over the sky for any additional Landing Castles attempting to descend.
Although the warships themselves would remain in reserve, Ho 229 fighters, XV104 Riptide Battlesuits, and several other combat machines would carry out probing attacks while supporting the United Forces of Earth.
"That's Tanegashima!"
The delighted voice belonged to the most optimistic girl in the group, Nina Klein. Her surname even sounded the same as Lacus Clyne's.
Nina was actually somewhat airheaded.
She had been frightened by Kain's slaughter earlier, but now she seemed to have completely forgotten about it.
Tanegashima was Kain's destination on this journey.
In Aldnoah.Zero, the United Forces of Earth had recovered an Aldnoah Drive from a Martian Kataphrakt destroyed by falling lunar debris fifteen years earlier. They had used it as the core of a new warship.
However, since Earth lacked an activation factor, the completed warship could not be operated. It had therefore been abandoned inside a storage facility.
Their purpose in coming to Tanegashima was to activate that ship and take it into space. Asseylum could then contact the Martian Knights who still supported her and organize a campaign against the traitors.
This was not because Kain believed the forces on Earth were incapable of destroying the Landing Castles that had already descended.
The real problem was that unless Asseylum reached space and established contact with Mars, Martian Knights unaware of the truth might continue descending one after another.
That would be troublesome.
If Asseylum intended to become empress, she also needed forces of her own.
If all the Martian Knights were wiped out, she would have no one left on her side. Facing the United Forces of Earth alone would be extremely difficult.
The problem was not military strength, but politics.
Kain doubted this princess could handle Earth's politicians without assistance. She would probably be deceived and manipulated.
Asseylum was certainly intelligent, but there was still a considerable gap between her and Lacus. She needed her own political and military leadership around her.
They could not simply use one of Kain's warships to fly into space, either. The five ships were far too conspicuous and were undoubtedly being watched like hawks.
Furthermore, those ships served as a deterrent, preventing the Martian Knights from recklessly descending.
The departure of even one ship would leave an entire section of airspace unguarded.
"Commander, I've detected an anomalous reading here."
None of them knew much about Tanegashima. They had no idea that a warship had been constructed here, much less where it had been hidden.
However, 6O's scans had detected a large object resembling a warship inside one particular area.
If the warship had not been here, Kain would have asked A2 to send another one over.
Ultimately, he wanted to avoid wasting Energy Coins unless it was necessary. Whenever possible, he intended to make efficient use of the resources already available in this world.
Fortunately, he would not need to spend another hundred Energy Coins to expand the transfer capacity into this world.
Opening a personal space measuring one hundred meters on each side as an interdimensional passage provided just enough capacity to bring through a warship equipped with a Wave-Motion Gun.
To bring over another vessel of the same size, he would first have to establish that passage, then spend an additional hundred Energy Coins to double its volume.
That additional expense was no longer necessary because Tanegashima really did contain the aerial warship they were looking for.
There was also a reason Kain preferred using this particular ship. Its power source was far more abundant, practically a perpetual-energy system, and its anti-gravity technology was even more advanced than A2's.
The small floating robots from A2's world also used anti-gravity technology, but their systems lacked the output needed to support extremely massive machinery.
They would use this ship's anti-gravity system to leave the planet without producing the obvious exhaust trails created by conventional engines. Combined with the large-scale optical camouflage equipment they had brought with them, it would be extremely difficult for the enemy to detect their departure from Earth.
"Captain Marito, what exactly are they planning to do on Tanegashima?"
"You'll find out when we get there."
Koichiro's answer earned him a displeased look from one of the people they had picked up along the way.
The woman was Darzana Magbaredge, the younger sister of his former comrade from fifteen years ago.
She was also someone toward whom Koichiro carried a deep sense of guilt.
After all, he had personally killed her brother fifteen years earlier.
When Tanegashima was invaded, her brother's leg had become trapped inside a burning tank. Unable to escape, he asked Koichiro to kill him.
Carrying out that request had left Koichiro with profound psychological trauma.
Darzana was now the captain of an amphibious assault ship. Since her vessel had been sailing near the site of the incident, they had located her and brought her aboard the transport aircraft.
Their intention was to make her captain of the warship hidden on Tanegashima.
The rest of the group included personnel from the amphibious ship and even a crowd of high school students. They would all become members of the new vessel's crew.
It was a hastily assembled team that hardly looked reliable.
However, using such an improvised crew reduced the risk of more spies infiltrating their ranks.
Furthermore, the widespread Martian interference made it difficult to communicate with United Forces units elsewhere. There was no time to contact the proper authorities, arrange for a trained crew, and argue over countless details.
Some of the mysterious man's personnel would also serve aboard the ship and help operate it.
Koichiro thought of Kain as mysterious because he seriously doubted the man belonged to any Martian faction.
But if Kain had not come from Mars, where could he possibly have come from?
Could that organization he had once mentioned as a joke actually be real?
The idea was far too absurd.
Before long, they arrived at their destination.
Boom!
Explosives tore through the rock wall. As the stone collapsed, it revealed an enormous hollowed-out chamber and the objects concealed within.
"What is that...?"
"A Martian warship?"
"And is that a Martian Kataphrakt? Did we capture it?"
"Of course we didn't capture it."
Koichiro gave a bitter, self-deprecating smile.
"It was destroyed and left behind after being caught in Heaven's Fall fifteen years ago."
That Martian Kataphrakt had been at the heart of Koichiro's nightmare.
It had landed on Tanegashima fifteen years earlier and massacred the troops stationed there, plunging them into despair. It was the disaster that had ultimately forced him to kill his own comrade.
The group passed through the newly blasted opening and entered the aerial warship constructed using Aldnoah technology.
When they reached the bridge, Asseylum spotted an unusual device and nervously approached it.
It was the Aldnoah activation system.
She was worried that it might have suffered some kind of malfunction and would fail to activate. If that happened, Kain would have to find another way to take her into space.
She gently placed her hand on the device and activated it the same way she normally activated Aldnoah technology.
She felt a connection.
It worked.
The machinery began to operate, and the dormant aerial warship awakened.
The darkened bridge lit up as its systems came online one after another.
Asseylum finally breathed a small sigh of relief.
Everything appeared to be functioning properly.
Their next task was to familiarize themselves with the warship's controls and learn how to operate the weapons Kain had brought with him.
Meanwhile, 6O would begin "dressing" the warship by installing the optical camouflage equipment. It would be like wrapping the entire vessel in a transparent cloak.
Mars also possessed optical camouflage technology. Asseylum herself had previously used it as a disguise. However, they did not have any equipment capable of concealing a warship this large.
Asseylum turned her gaze toward Kain and remembered something 6O had told her earlier.
There was a way for Kain to obtain Aldnoah activation authority as well.
It would not merely be the secondary authorization Asseylum could bestow upon someone. Kain himself would receive an activation code recognized by Aldnoah, granting him the power to activate it independently.
That way, if something suddenly happened to Asseylum and she lost consciousness, Kain could still activate the ship.
Even if she died unexpectedly, Kain would already possess the activation code contained within her genetic factors. He could take Aldnoah technology back to his own world and continue developing it without worrying that it would become unusable.
(End of Chapter)
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