The Battle of Arcal Plain (1)
Lieutenant Yohan, commander of the Southern Army’s 3rd Observation Platoon, was climbing the hill with the observation equipment strapped across his back.
“Huff… huff… Damn, this observation gear is seriously heavy as hell…”
The position he had been assigned was a mountain that offered a clear view of the canyon at the entrance to the Arcal Plain. Time was short, so the moment he reached the base on horseback he had to run straight up the slope. All while carrying the heavy observation gear.
Had he not been an aura novice capable of handling some degree of aura, the forced march would have knocked him out long before he reached the top.
Still, the reason he had volunteered for this mission was simple. It was the chance to guide a battleship’s cannon fire. When he called out coordinates, divine-punishment firepower would slam down on that exact spot. How could any man pass up an opportunity like that?
Yohan and the rest of the 3rd Observation Platoon wanted to witness with their own eyes the power of the weapon that had obliterated Sarcen Fortress in a single strike.
“Come on, men! Just a little farther! The summit is right ahead!”
“Waaaaaaaaah!!!”
Even exhausted, the platoon members climbed with genuine excitement. The single thought of seeing the Dreadnought’s overwhelming might with their own eyes drove them forward. The instant they reached the top they began preparing for observation.
The first piece of equipment they unpacked was the stereoscopic rangefinder. The name sounded complicated, but the principle was simple.
The device resembled a long cylinder laid on its side, with lenses at both ends that funneled the two separate views into the center. Adjust it until the images overlapped perfectly, and you could measure distance.
Its only real drawback was that the thing weighed as much as a grown man; only aura users could carry it any distance.
“Huff… huff…”
After Yohan laboriously set the rangefinder in place, the observation team soldiers behind him brought up the rest of the gear—telescopes, spotting scopes, compasses, wind vanes, and more.
By the time everything was arranged on the mountaintop, the Western Army’s conscripted infantry units were just beginning to spill out of the canyon.
“Ready?”
“Yes, sir!”
The observation team was already in position, and the platoon members assigned to protect them had their rifles resting on rocks, waiting. After a quick check, Yohan pulled the communication crystal from his coat and tapped it lightly several times. The image of the battleship’s fire-control section appeared at once.
Confirmed. Acquire coordinates and transmit them.
Yohan passed the crystal to a soldier and immediately pressed his eye to the rangefinder. The canyon, still vomiting an endless stream of troops, formed a perfect arch just begging to be collapsed.
He delicately adjusted the lenses at both ends until the image in the eyepiece sharpened. Locking onto the spot, he called out the reading to the calculation soldier.
“Zero-three-two degrees due north! Distance two thousand eight hundred thirty-five meters!”
“Zero-three-two degrees, distance two thousand eight hundred thirty-five meters, confirmed!”
The soldier checked his map, then began calculating the canyon’s precise coordinates with a protractor and specialized ruler. The figures came quickly.
“Coordinates calculated! From reference point 31S 17G, zero-one-seven-three east, one-five-two-zero north!”
The report flew straight to the Dreadnought’s bridge. Escorted by five destroyers, the battleship floated majestically on the open sea as its main turrets began to traverse.
A deep metallic rumble rolled across the deck, followed at once by the wail of sirens warning of imminent cannon fire. The crew’s rhythmic footsteps thundered as they rushed below. The bridge itself had become a hive of controlled urgency. Reports snapped out from every station.
“Coordinates 31S 17G 0173 1520! Zero-nine-four degrees from the bow! Distance eight thousand three hundred forty meters!”
“Turret One locked!”
“Turret Two locked!”
“Turrets Four and Five report locked on target!”
The voices came one after another, crisp and mechanical, fitting together like perfectly meshed gears. The Dreadnought could bring eight 305mm guns to bear on a single broadside. Coordinating that much power required flawless teamwork.
“Standing by for observation team signal.”
All eight guns now pointed at the land. The silent bridge and motionless warship looked like a predator crouched before the spring. While that heavy silence pressed down on the sea off Arcal Plain, every man on the bridge waited for the observation unit’s final report.
Fifteen minutes later it came.
All conscripted infantry units confirmed clear of the canyon.
The claws of the giant steel beast were finally unleashed. The instant the gunnery officer received the report he gave the order without hesitation.
“Fire!”
KWAAAAAANG—!
A ferocious storm of flame erupted from the Dreadnought’s starboard side.
The simultaneous roar of eight 305mm cannons reached the observation platoon through the communication crystal. The sound of that steel monster howling was more terrifying than anything they had ever heard.
The 76mm field guns that could blow a knight off his mount in one shot? The 20mm anti-aircraft guns that spat out dozens or hundreds of golf-ball-sized shells? Those noises could not even be compared.
Even though they knew the monster’s guns were not aimed at them, an ancient, instinctive fear still crawled up their spines.
“Haa…”
Yohan forgot where he was and simply stared toward the canyon, dazed. His modest imagination could not begin to grasp that kind of power.
A mountain was exactly that kind of existence. Nature itself was. A colossal force that rendered all human strength meaningless. Humans had always been fragile things before nature.
Could it truly shatter a granite mountain range that even 76mm field guns could not scratch? The doubt had only just begun to form when—
—Time to impact, five, four, three, two… one!
There was light. Eight shells slammed into the mountain beside the canyon and erupted in blinding flashes. Yohan instinctively clenched his eyes shut; half a heartbeat later the blast wave rolled over him.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE—!
The sound was like the sky itself collapsing. Gooseflesh raced across his body. His heart hammered and cold sweat broke out.
When he finally opened his eyes, Yohan could only stare in disbelief.
“Huh…”
Thick smoke billowed from the mountain. The slope that had been covered in lush green forest only fifteen seconds earlier was now a shattered wasteland of raw earth. But that was not the end of it.
Another sound followed—deeper, heavier. It was the mountain screaming in agony. Granite bedrock fractured, the soil mantle slid away, and the arch forming the canyon cracked wide. Directly beneath that collapsing arch, the main body of the Western Army was marching.
The soldiers at the very front were buried alive as the mountain came down on top of them.
“So this… is the Dreadnought.”
A warship that knew no fear. The name fit its power perfectly.
“Lieutenant Yohan reporting. Impact confirmed. Short round… but the mountain collapsed anyway and took out the enemy main force’s vanguard.”
Even as he spoke the words, he could hardly believe them. They had missed the center of the canyon and struck the mountain instead. A clean miss, slightly long. Yet the 305mm shells had simply demolished the entire slope and achieved the objective anyway.
Short round. Adjust target data. Add two degrees right to Turrets One and Two. Decrease elevation three degrees.
Listening to the mechanical voice, Yohan could only think how incredibly fortunate it was that the monster was on their side.
Eric Smith was reviewing the operation in his head as his column passed through the canyon. The enemy weapons were certainly threatening. But if they drove the conscripts forward as living shields, they could still create a viable opening.
He had seen the battle records from Sarcen Harbor himself. Their anti-air weapons appeared capable of engaging ground targets as well.
So the plan was simple: push the conscripted infantry in first. Once the enemy’s anti-air guns were forced to depress toward the ground, the wyvern knights would sweep in. While the enemy was distracted by the wyverns, the cavalry would charge. If everything went according to plan, victory was assured.
But battles never follow the plan. Eric Smith’s operation collapsed before it could even begin.
RUMBLE-RUMBLE-RUMBLE—!
Without the slightest warning, a cataclysmic explosion shook heaven and earth.
“Wh-what the—”
In an instant one entire face of the mountain vanished behind a towering cloud of dust and flame. Before Eric Smith could issue a single order, a massive avalanche of earth and rock poured down into the canyon. Trapped beneath the collapsing walls, there was nothing a mere human could do.
“Raise your aura!”
That was all he could shout—hope that lifting his aura might let him survive. One-fifth of the main force disappeared instantly, buried under tons of debris.
The surviving soldiers fell into panic. Faced with an unidentified attack that had erased an entire mountainside, all they could do was tremble and pray.
“It’s an ambush! All units reform and retreat! Do not panic! Panic will only get you killed faster!”
Eric Smith desperately tried to regain control of his shattered army, unaware that the Dreadnought’s second salvo was already screaming down toward his head.