Chapter 24: CH 21

It’s been a while. I haven’t written much at all lately.

It’s been a while since I’ve written anything, so I’m posting this as a rehabilitation exercise.

I will post once every day until it is completed, so thank you.

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In 1957, the Soviet Union flew Sputnik 1 into space, and that was 1784 years ago.

More than 200,000 military satellites orbit each planet and moon in the Solar System.

“I wonder if there are more stars visible from Earth than there were a year ago.”

It was Major General Hart Amakawa of the Monarchy of Diete who likened the sparkle of man-made objects to stars.

Hart is an official Major General of the Royal Army, who was commissioned as a Lieutenant for wartime recruitment from the Military Academy’s Heavy Battleship department, and was raised by one rank for each merit suitable for promotion. His assignment is to Fortress Kerviel, where he held the post of Fortress Commander.

At the same time, however, he was still a third-year student at the Military Academy.

“There’s a year and a month left until graduation, so at the very least couldn’t he wait until then?”

“And he’s 18 years old. Won’t those of lower rank be perplexed by their 18-year-old superior?”

It is an extremely common sense opinion. Even so, the reason why Hurt is asked to serve in the same capacity is due to his irreplaceable high magic power.

Hart’s magic power value is 91,150. This is three times the power of the Monarchy’s second-highest, recorded by the Sovereign’s grandson, and is capable of operating the 90-kilometer Fortress Kerviel.

Protected by 8km-thick composite armor, Fortress Kerviel is a massive attack fortress with multiple magic element engines, a vast arsenal of weaponry and facilities, a military space port that can accommodate huge amounts of civilian ships, planetary improvement functions and urban construction facilities.

It is one of the Monarchy’s leading military bases, a huge arsenal and a shipyard, and with enough resources, you can continue to fight while manufacturing anything on your own. It also has the Monarchy’s largest transport capacity, with 21,217 cubic kilometers, which is 10% of the fortress’ interior.

The scale of the transport compartment is easier to understand when compared to the Royal Army transport ship.

The large container, which is the standard in the Monarchy, has a total length of 500 meters, a total width of 160 meters, a total height of 50 meters, and a volume of 4 million cubic meters.

In Japan, 1,700 years ago, when the maiden game that Hart played, ‘The Galactic Prince’ was released, the volume of a large container was more than three times the volume of the Tokyo Dome’s 1.24 million cubic meters.

A transport ship can carry one large container, and a million can be carried by Fortress Kerviel. Moreover, it is 1 million units with partitions and a surplus space for efficient loading and unloading, so the volume of the transport compartment itself can accommodate as many as 5,304,350 large containers.

Fortress Kerviel has the transport capacity of more than one million transport ships. This tremendous ability is why Hart is conscripted no matter what anyone says.

The solar system’s 200,000 military satellites were transported by Fortress Kerviel.

The size of a military satellite is comparable to that of a large container, and it is an unmanned weapon equipped with lasers and radio frequency weaponry that do not use magic element engines, artificial intelligence and surveillance systems, and independent power generators. If there is a dubious activity on the ground, the satellites are linked together and automatically attack from space.

A laser without a magic element engine cannot break through a warship’s shield. Still, it was effective against guerrillas who only had conventional weapons, so the resistance of the Earthers was suppressed from space.

“It’s still raining light.”

At the fortress command center, Colonel Yuna Strani, a Fortress Operation Assistant sitting to Hart’s right, muttered as she gazed at the satellites and Earth on the sub-screen.

She is engaged to Hart, who meets the conditions of “Women with high magic who marry or become engaged to high magic power holders will not be sent to the battlefield”, which is one of the systems to increase the number of magic powered individuals in the Monarchy of Diete, and is in a position not to be sent to the battlefield if she wishes.

Still, Yuna is here because her fiancé is here. Hart thinks.

In middle school, Yuna was a pure and innocent girl.

After enrolling in the Military Academy, she became mentally unstable after her fellow classmates were killed by the Coalition Fleet during a space flight drill, but settled down after Hart consoled her and they got engaged.

Afterwards, she and Philine fought over Hart, and perhaps due to receiving some shock therapy during the Loki Star System Battle, a shadowy part appeared behind the pure girl, giving birth to a two-sided nature.

Yuna, in her dark mode, is able to accept the painful reality as it is. It may be that she has gained a dual personality, in order to protect her pure side from being broken.

Hart gently grasped the left hand of his fiancée, Yuna.

“If you are at war, and you are armed, you have no choice but to be shot at by the other side. If you don’t want to be shot at, don’t carry a weapon. Besides, they’re the ones who started this war.”

The conflict between the Monarchy and the Coalition is deep-rooted.

In the late 2700s A.D., plans for interstellar immigration to the Diete system and the prospect of colonization to recoup the funds and resources invested were already in place.

In 2823 A.D., at the time of settlement in the Diete system, there was no exploitation, but as Diete developed, exploitation in the name of return on investment from Earth increased.

In 3167 A.D., the Diete government, unable to endure the excessive exploitation, ignores Earth’s demands.

In 3226 A.D., Earth’s punitive fleet executed the leader of Diete on charges of insurrection.

In 3263 A.D., humanity’s first interstellar war breaks out between Diete and Earth.

In 3282 A.D., Diete plunged a celestial body into Earth, leading to a natural truce.

In 3739 A.D., the Coalition attacked a Space Flight Drill convoy in the Frodi system, ending the natural truce.

There is no consensus on when the conflict began.

Whether it was at the beginning of excessive exploitation, when Diete ignored Earth’s demands, when the leader of Diete was executed, or when the interstellar war officially broke out.

The most recent opinion of Hart and modern humans is that “they started this war” when the Coalition side attacked the Monarchy’s space flight drill fleet in 3739 AD.

Since the truce had been in place for 457 years, there was an option to just end it.

Instead, they attacked Hart and the others during the flight training, and burned their fleeing classmates to death. In the Diete system, they have killed a billion civilians and turned three billion into refugees. At this point, the Coalition cannot be allowed to play the victim.

It is only natural that the Royal Army will not cease its military operation until the Monarchy and the Coalition reach a truce or the war is brought to an end.

However, in order to convince the Royal citizens of the truce, the one billion people killed by the Coalition would have to be revived and returned to their families.

The scene before him was unstoppable, and Hart himself had no intention of stopping.

“Don’t worry. I’ll protect Yuna.”

Were these lines spoken in the Maiden Game? Thinking as such, Hart spoke to Yuna, who is in Dark mode.

With Fortress Kerviel and the Spirit Crystals, they can escape to other star systems if the Monarchy is defeated.

Those of the fortress personnel who want to stay in the Monarchy will have to leave, but the Coalition’s treatment of magic power holders is too harsh. He doesn’t want the bad-end development of the maiden game, and he intends to protect Yuna as his fiancée.

“Will you really protect me?”

Hart smiles at Yuna, who looks sideways, with a relaxed expression.

“Leave it to me. If it comes to that, I’ll take you to the other side of the galaxy if I have to.”

“Oh. I see. Take me with you.”

When Hart nodded, Yuna clasped her right hand which was connected to his. Hart felt Yuna’s shadow clearing up.

“Oh, won’t you take me as well?”

From behind the command seat, where visibility and audio were usually blocked and access was restricted, Colonel Philine Carneus, also a Fortress Operation Assistant same as Yuna, appeared.

Philine walked up between Hart and Yuna, grabbing hold of both their hands, pulled in an attempt to peel them apart. Yuna, on the other hand, resisted with a silent smile, tightly clutching Hart’s right hand.

The two smiled at each other in silence, and Hart interrupted them.

“I’d take you too, Philine, but I have to consider the Marquis of Carneus. I’ll do my best to avoid having to take you in the first place.”

“Couldn’t you invite me a little more passionately, like you did with Miss Yuna?”

Philine had an expectant expression and Yuna put pressure on Hart with her eyes.

Troubled, Hart cast his gaze at Colonel Colette Listner, the third Fortress Operation Assistant who came in with Philine. Colette then tilted her head, with no understanding of what he wanted to appeal to, and took her seat without worrying about it.

“………… Okay. Let’s conquer the Coalition for the time being so we won’t have to run away.”

Hart grabbed Philine’s right hand with his left hand and brought it over his head to the left side of his body, pulling Yuna and Philine apart. He then operated the screen with his gaze and zoomed in on the end of the light falling to the ground onto the sub-screen.

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Philine looked at him as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, remained silent and sat to Hart’s left with a prim expression. With her left hand connected to Hart’s right hand, Yuna simply turned her gaze to the sub-screen.

The enlarged projection shows the territory of the Coalition of Humanity.

The battle had already ended, and several destroyed Coalition androids were lying on the ground.

“They’re so tenacious, even though there’s so much military satellite coverage and a lot of android soldiers and combat drones.”

Not a single flesh-and-blood Monarchy soldier has descended on to Earth during the battle.

Instead, vast unmanned combat units were filling Earth’s land, sea, and air. The Coalition, still showing its readiness to fight, hid weapons and factories underground and occasionally attacked the Monarchy’s forces.

The weaponry brought in by Fortress Kerviel was enormous, and they even brought in weapons manufacturing facilities. Since resources can be procured on other planets and celestial bodies in the Solar System, the Monarchy will not lose even if it becomes a war of attrition. However, it seemed the battle was going to be a long one.

“They must be desperate.”

Collette expressed the sentiments of the Earthers in a nutshell.

“Prince Gracian was reckless. It may have been General Bödeger’s idea, though.”

Hart also wholeheartedly agreed with Collette’s opinion.

Currently, Earth has a population of 6 billion.

2 billion people belong to the Coalition of Humanity, and the remaining 4 billion are non-members.

The Crown Prince Gracian Asteria, the Commander-in-Chief of the Earth Invasion Forces, made the decision to bring all of the magic power holders above the rank of Knight in the Solar System, as well as 1 billion out of 2 billion people of the Coalition Territories, to the Monarchy.

Taking Magic power holders from the Solar System to the backward system is an understandable measure as the Monarchy would be damaged if they turn hostile when armed with weapons equipped with the Coalition’s magic element engine.

On the other hand, 1 billion ordinary people will be used for hard labor such as space resource development. It seems that the elderly and the sick who cannot move will be left on Earth from the start.

Therefore, the Coalition people resisted thoroughly, and even now, when the suppression of outer space ended months ago, there is still fierce fighting on Earth.

“If you leave behind only the elderly and invalid, families will be torn apart.”

Hart nods to Philine’s point.

“Android soldiers that are being sent in don’t care about individual circumstances at all. Civilians will resist as much as possible.”

The Crown Prince aims to earn points against the Royal citizens.

Last year, the success of Valfrete, the younger brother of the Crown Prince, reignited the issue of succession to the throne, so the Crown Prince invaded the solar system with 19 of the Monarchy’s 29 fleets. The aim was to make the people accept his succession to the throne by citing the spectacular credit of conquering Earth.

The invasion of the Solar System left an opening in the defense of the Capital planet, which was then attacked by twice as many enemies, resulting in one billion deaths, three billion refugees, billions of people losing their families and their jobs.

If the crown prince were to brazenly return home, the 11 billion Royal citizens, filled with murderous intent after the death of their families, would rise up and attack him at once. That’s how the Diete War of Independence happened in the past.

The beleaguered Crown Prince had to earn merits immediately as a successor to the throne, so he went into action with a vengeance.

In the defensive battle, Hart achieved remarkable results in Fortress Kerviel.

Against the invading 16 enemy fleets and one mobile fortress, Fortress Kerviel dropped 60% of the enemy, comparable to 12 fleets, and one mobile fortress, and the remaining four fleets were also beaten with battleships and missiles. Moreover, the 12 fleets, which were destroyed, were made up mainly of large ships that were highly evaluated for their strength.

The evaluation of the capabilities of Fortress Kerviel is equivalent to 8,137 destroyers.

The evaluation of the defeated enemy’s ability is equivalent to 25,450 destroyers.

By defeating 3.1 times as many enemies, 11 billion of the 12 billion people on the Capital planet managed to survive.

It would have been beneficial if Hart were a member of the Crown Prince’s faction, but since his fiancée Yuna was the daughter of Valfrete, who was second in line to inherit the throne until last year, this added the fuel to the matter of succession to the throne on the basis that Valfrete was a better choice.

However, there was no option not to defend the Capital Planet due to consideration for the crown prince, and they could not stop the transport of resources of the Solar System to the home country for reconstruction.

The current Fortress Kerviel is synchronized with the Earth’s rotation in geostationary orbit.

The distance from the surface of Earth to the center of the fortress is 35,786 kilometers. At that position, eight 2-kilometer-square gates were opened on the surface of the fortress, and guidance rays were extended to accept transport ships and battleships carrying containers one after another.

Large containers are being transported one after another from Earth’s atmosphere, the supply depot of Jupiter’s moon Callisto, large satellites in geostationary orbit, and bases set up on the moon, and are swallowed up by Fortress Kerviel.

After two weeks of work, the fortress’s transport compartment was mostly filled.

“Commander Amakawa, communication received from His Excellency General Lautenbach, Commander of the Solar System Forces.”

“Put me through.”

The communications officer reported, and Hart and the others hurried out of their seats. Then, on the main screen of the fortress command center, a stern looking old man with a pruned head appeared.

[Major General Amakawa, will the delivery of supplies be completed as scheduled?]

Hart, who saluted at the same time as his grim face appeared, reports in a solemn voice.

“As planned, everything is scheduled to be completed by 14:00 today.”

It’s been more than three months since the Monarchy of Diete had taken control of the outer space of the Solar System. The supplies accumulated in the solar system had been confiscated, and it was a simple matter of transporting the containers carried by Fortress Kerviel to the site, filling them up, and returning them to the fortress.

If the personnel of the Grand fleet and the huge fortress mobilize all their transport ships, battleships, and even suppressors and work for two weeks, there was no way the work on the requisitioned supplies could have been carried out.

It was not the supplies that did not end, but human beings.

[How many Coalition People have been accommodated?]

“The number has reached 1,001,600,000 people. The criteria for the elderly and sick that can’t move are somewhat ambiguous, although some claim to be non-members of the Coalition.”

In order to meet the political condition of “taking a billion people” issued by the crown prince, a blind eye was turned on various matters.

How long does one need to be unable to move to be considered an elderly or a sick person who is immobile?

How do you distinguish between 2 billion Coalition people and 4 billion Non-Coalition people living on Earth?

In order to meet the absolute requirement of carrying a billion people, if they move even a finger, they are considered to be moving, and if they are in the Coalition territory, they are regarded as Coalition citizens for whatever reason… perhaps. The additional 1.6 million people seem to have been added in order to allow for a slight decrease.

Hart, who arrived in the solar system two weeks ago and was not involved in any local requisition work, only overheard the information and did not confirm it.

Lautenbach nodded briefly and gave the younger commander an admonition.

[Major General. The conquest of the Solar System was an achievement beyond our imagination. Not to mention the military supplies requisitioned, the labor resources are enormous. We also obtained data on technical research conducted by the Coalition. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince’s achievements are great.]

“Yes!”

Hart struggled to make a stern look, emphasizing a military character.

[The Lord’s task is to ‘promptly’ bring back to our home country the enormous achievements of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and help him win over the Monarchy. If delayed, we will miss the opportunity. This is an easy task to carry the container to the rear where it is safe, unlike the frontline, but don’t let your guard down and do it well.]

“Sir, Yes sir”

When Hart saluted again, General Lautenbach returned the salute and cut the transmission.

When he lost communication, Hart sat deep in the commander’s seat and sighed.

General Lautenbach has been promoted from Lieutenant General after the Subjugation of Earth’s Forces. He is one of the people responsible for the enormous damage to the Capital planet, and is in a position to earn points with the Crown Prince.

The side responsible for the defense of the star system was treated as the defeated because they were unable to completely defend the Capital planet, and could not be promoted unless they made a tremendous achievement like Hart.

On the other hand, the Solar System Invasion Forces, which had been absent while the enemy forces were on an expedition to the Capital planet, were recognized for military service one after another with the victory declaration by the crown prince, who as the Commander-in-Chief of the expeditionary force, and scattered new rank insignias in a good mood.

It is extremely unreasonable, and the Crown Prince not only offended the Royal citizens, but has also created a discord between the Solar System Invasion Forces and the other Royal Army Forces.

The first person to speak to the silent Hart was Colette, who had ignored him earlier.

“That was more like a lecture to Military Academy cadets.”

Hart, who recalled Lautenbach’s stern face, gushed involuntarily.

“The fact is that I’m still a Military Academy cadet.”

With a chuckle, Hart watched the footage of the last transport ship entering the port.

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