The Mendel colony before him was being consumed by its own flames, its structure rapidly breaking apart.
Eventually, it would become nothing more than a cloud of space debris and be pulled out of its current orbit by Earth's gravity.
Even so, they intended to finish the job to ensure that no danger remained.
After all, the colony had originally been abandoned because of a biological disaster. No one knew whether any viral samples were still hidden inside.
Weapons systems activated.
At Kain's mental command, ripples spread through the electronic world around him, while the vessel's metallic body began to transform.
Weapon systems that had been retracted into the hull opened, and the missile launch cells released such a dense swarm of warheads that the sight alone was enough to trigger trypophobia.
The missiles blanketed the entire Mendel colony, drowning it in blinding light.
For a moment, that region of space looked as though someone had scrubbed it with a glowing eraser.
When the light faded, not even a fragment of Mendel remained. It truly looked like a drawing that had been completely erased from a sheet of paper.
Kain watched with a hint of disappointment.
This hardly counted as the Moon-class cruiser's true combat debut.
Nearly every man had dreamed of commanding his own space battleship and fighting in dangerous, exhilarating interstellar wars.
Kain had piloted a spacecraft in the Warhammer universe and activated its dimensional weapon before, but that had been different.
It had felt like using a cheat. There had been none of the tension or excitement of a proper battle.
Now, however, he was controlling the YoRHa directly through the Lambda Driver. It almost felt as though he had become a shipgirl.
No, a shipman.
That sounded strange too.
Perhaps it was more accurate to say that he had become something like a Mental Model. He was eager to put this massive new body through its paces.
The reason Kain had immediately taken control through the Lambda Driver was that the battleship had never truly sailed before and possessed no accurate star charts of this universe.
Although the two solar systems were broadly similar and the Earth-Moon Lagrange points were in roughly the same positions, humanity in this universe had constructed countless facilities throughout space. There could also be many vessels traveling through the surrounding region.
YoRHa's personnel could not navigate with sufficient precision. At high sublight speeds, they might collide with something before they could react.
That left Kain with only one option. He had to use the Lambda Driver to become the battleship's central mind, draw out the full capabilities of its systems, detect every object along their route, and avoid them.
There was also a reason the battleship had not been equipped with a more advanced artificial intelligence.
A similar problem had once caused an android rebellion.
Furthermore, YoRHa's androids wanted to become more like humans. They did not want everyone connected through a single network where they could see one another's thoughts.
An excessively advanced artificial intelligence might also be capable of secretly accessing every piece of data belonging to lower-ranking personnel, or even altering it without their knowledge.
For those reasons, they tried to avoid creating any unusually powerful individual intelligence.
They were preparing several upgrades, however. Core members such as A2, 2B, 6O, and White would be among those receiving them.
They also intended to build devices similar to the Lambda Driver for controlling entire battleships. Anyone who wanted to take command of a vessel would have to physically connect through one of those devices. Remote infiltration through wireless networks would be impossible.
Supervisors would also remain nearby at all times, ready to disconnect the user if anything went wrong.
Now that the YoRHa had revealed itself, it was time to move on to the next stage.
Since they had already brought the ship out and spent 100 Energy Coins to maintain it here for an hour, there was no reason to waste that time by immediately sending it back.
They might as well deliver a decisive show of force. That would make the upcoming negotiations easier and lend credibility to the explanation they intended to offer.
...
Earth Alliance Eighth Fleet.
It could now be described as humanity's most powerful fleet, having absorbed the forces of the previous fleets under its command.
The Eighth Fleet had been closely monitoring the upheaval within P.L.A.N.T. It had even set out to support the operation to capture Jachin Due Fortress.
Events had unfolded far too quickly, however. Jachin Due fell before the fleet could arrive.
Before anyone could breathe a sigh of relief, a new crisis emerged.
Another one of those terrifying weapons had been hidden at the Earth-Moon L4 Lagrange point, and it was aimed directly at Earth.
Just as the madman prepared to destroy the planet, events took an almost theatrical turn.
It might have been dramatic, but no one found it amusing. They felt only fear.
After the mysterious battleship erased the Mendel colony without leaving a single fragment behind, it vanished in an instant.
Several seconds later, it reappeared near the Eighth Fleet, startling one officer so badly that he nearly fired his weapons by accident.
The vessel then transmitted an invitation to discuss humanity's future.
General Halberton ordered his flagship to enter the enormous ship's hangar.
It might have been a hangar to the super-battleship, but to General Halberton it resembled the military harbor of a space fortress. He could even see numerous other warships docked inside.
These were true vessels of the interstellar age, motherships capable of crossing the gulf between stars.
Compared to them, the Earth Alliance's warships belonged to an entirely different dimension.
After disembarking from his flagship, Halberton found himself greeted by uniformed personnel who looked human. That alone offered him a measure of reassurance.
Ten minutes later, Orb's leader and several senior officials arrived aboard one of the other side's shuttles, a craft roughly one hundred meters long.
...
Aprilius City, the capital of P.L.A.N.T.
Several members of the Supreme Council nervously boarded a small shuttle sent to collect them.
As it departed Aprilius City and approached the mothership, the sheer pressure created by the vessel's colossal size was almost suffocating.
"Humanity's future?" Ted murmured.
"I hope this means something good," Eileen replied.
The two silently prayed that would be the case.
Only now did they realize that the young man who had accompanied Lacus possessed a far more terrifying identity than they had imagined.
Every member of the battleship's crew addressed him as Commander.
As Coordinators, Ted and Eileen also quickly noticed that the soldiers' movements were far too precise and uniform.
Everything about their words and actions was so orderly that it made one wonder whether they were robots.
...
The region surrounding Jachin Due Fortress.
After being gone for nearly twenty minutes, the super-battleship returned to the place where it had originally appeared.
A delegation led by Chairman Clyne, Lacus, Captain Ramius, and several others began making its way inside the warship that surpassed everything their era could produce.
Hm?
Cagalli felt someone grab the edge of her clothing.
It was Invira.
Despite normally acting as though nothing in the world could frighten her, she was visibly nervous now.
In truth, Cagalli was nervous as well.
The occasion was simply too formal and serious.
Everyone must have felt the same way.
"Ah!"
A startled cry suddenly rang out.
It came from the younger of the two sisters serving as Lacus's assistants. Apparently, she had been so nervous while climbing the steps that she had missed her footing.
The soldiers standing rigidly nearby like machines showed no reaction whatsoever. Only the people leading the delegation turned to look.
Cagalli recognized two of those guides.
One was named 2B, while the other was 6O.
They were the same two androids who had protected Lacus before. This time, however, these were their true selves: artificial intelligences possessing their own independent consciousness.
When they reached the end of a corridor, Cagalli found several people already waiting there, including her father.
Once everyone had assembled, the massive doors before them slowly opened.
Within the chamber beyond, the fate of this world was about to undergo a profound transformation.
(End of Chapter)
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