LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 19: Relaxation & Designing - 19
Aqua's POV
yawn Okay, so the meeting's over. I'm currently lounging on top of the outdoor bed I built as I bring up the Hunter-Seeker blueprint.
These tiny buggers come equipped with cryo bombs and mini lasers underneath. Let's see how cheap they are as I remember spamming lot of War factory and just call use this support power.
[Copy function activated]
SUPPORT POWER #1: Hunter-Seeker
Cost: $800
Recharge Time: 5:30
Requires Power: Yes
Requires: Allied War Factory
Affects Players: Enemies
This support power will release up to 5 Hunter-Seeker drones (one per Allied War Factory built). They target high-priority enemies and deal massive damage upon impact. The drone also fires a small laser at nearby targets during its flight.
"So it's a full-on support power, huh? I mean, it's cheap… if I can reduce that cooldown to 30 seconds, I'd absolutely love it," I mutter while willing a fluffy pillow into existence and tucking it under my chin.
As I glance up, I see the other girls relaxing and doing nothing. I direct my nanoswarm to start digging under the residential building when Hestia notices me first. "Aqua-chan, what's you doing?" she asks.
I just smile and send her the basic layout of the second base. It's going to be an underground facility, 2 km below the surface. That's deep enough to shrug off most nuclear bombs. Elevators go up and down, then we add a few reactors, vertical farms, and a simulator for fun. I'm not putting anything critical like the Wisdom Cube factory down there, that's for sure.
"This might sound crazy, but I'm going to build the largest simulator ever!" I declare, laughing like a maniac. "It's going to be 10 km x 10 km with 1 km in height. We'll have fun games since we've got at least a few years before things start to speed up."
Hestia pinches my cheek.
"Ehh!" I groan. "Why?"
"Aqua-chan, you looked absolutely evil," she says, still pinching me while nodding to herself. I look to Amy for help, but she just nods along with Hestia.
"Help!" I cry out as Helena sneaks up behind me and joins in the squeezing. Not fair! I'm getting double-teamed!
After some more teasing, they finally let me go. Sulking, I retreat to my bed, only to feel someone stepping onto it. I turn to see Amy smiling at me. Traitor. I pout and look back at my designer app to finish the Raptor project.
Amy pats my head, and fine, she's not a traitor anymore.
pull up my research list:
[Research box #1: 'Fleet-wide Submarine Hull Integration' Estimated time: 1 week, 4 days][Research box #2: 'Counter-Intelligence' Estimated time: 1 week, 4 days]
[Research box #3: 'High Atmosphere Stealth Surveillance UAV' – Finished]
[Research box #4: 'Spy Satellite' Estimated time: 2 months]
[Research box #5: 'Super Graviton Laser' – Finished]
[Research box #6: 'Wave Front Armor' Estimated time: 4 days, 8 hours]
[Research boxes #7–16: 'Sensors Nullify Hull Layout' – Finished]
I sigh at myself—this is what happens when I don't multitask hard enough. Time to clean house and finish the backlog.
[Research boxes #3, 5, 7–16 switched to 'Wave Front Armor' – Estimated time: 2 hours]
Finally! I've got a Super Graviton Laser, and that's going to be fun. Now I can focus on completing the Raptor before retrofitting myself.
The Raptor blueprint I saved—yesterday? Two days ago? Can't remember. I based it on real-life 5th-gen—or is it 6th-gen? I don't know. I'm an AI, why is my memory spotty?
Anyway, I used the Stormchild hull layout as a baseline. No VTOL this time—better aerodynamics and more space for resources and self-repair systems. It's equipped with two Graviton autocannons—comparable to battleship secondary cannons in AOE potential—and a few onboard reactors for infinite ammo. Four reactors should do it.
For missiles, since Raptors focus on alpha strikes, I added two missile rails. Now, for something unconventional—melee weapons. Most planes avoid melee, but having options better then no options also Strikes witches are mostly bloodthirsty. My concern is whether she can clear out enemies fast enough to avoid being swarmed.Titanium alloy wings with enhanced sharpness via plasma? Wait, I've got cryo tech—liquid nitrogen bombs and an air-to-liquid nitrogen conversion method? Energy-intensive, but cool. Twin-element blade wings it is.
I'll need additional nuclear fusion reactors on each wing to power the Solar & Lunar system yep cool name for a plasma layer paired with liquid nitrogen system. It's energy-intensive but awesome. The first impact freezes the target, and plasma melts it faster than defrost speed, breaking it into chunks that melt just as fast.
I swear, putting that on a plane... she's going to try Touhou-style grazing maneuvers, except this time, grazing will actually deal damage—at least as long as it's not against energy-based projectiles, of course.
Then I added this standalone melee sword as a memento. Honestly, I think I just made something even more overkill than chainswords from Warhammer 40k. I mean, freezing affects nanoswarms, and heat melts them, so yeah—it can punch through fortifications easily.
Although now that I think about it... if I turn off the sword and it's just the hilt, doesn't that make it a lightsaber? But more complex? I sigh to myself and shake my head as I turn it off and yep just sword hilt. Solar & Lunar sword equals lightsaber—I'm going to kill myself for this blunder.
as I facepalm and sigh.
Anyway, the Raptor is nearly completed. I added two Fleet of Fog thrusters and coated the airplane with sensor-nullifying material. Now it's invisible to radar. To be honest, an invisible plane sounds bad for balance. I mean, fighting the USA, who already have Stormchild in Skirmish matches, is bad enough. Now I've made the Raptor. If she's as wild and bloodthirsty as I think she'll be, nothing's going to survive her airspace—except maybe that flying Fortress of Epsilon. I kind of want to see a one-on-one between them.
As I hit 'generate':
[Raptor - Strike witches - Wargirl/Abyssal]
Cost: 3000 x 10 (Wargirl)
Speed: 45 (flying)
Hitpoints: 500 + 1000 (Wargirls)
Armor Class: Medium Aircraft
Prerequisite: Wargirl's Wisdom Cube Factory + Wargirl's Strike Witches Airbase
Purpose: Air superiority
Weapons: 2x Graviton autocannon laser / 2x corrosive missiles / Solar&Lunar
Range: 16 / 22 / Close
Additional Info: Immune to mind control. Self-repairing. Invisible to sensors.
"Fun~" I muttered as I looked at the gray-haired girl. She looked absolutely maniacal... and is she wearing a skirt? I don't even have skirt blueprints! Anyway, she's got a basic form with no thrusters and a combat mode where her legs are replaced with thrusters. Her dual swords are mounted on her under her forearms. Hidden blades? But sword-length? I shook my head.Nanoswarm tech means that space doesn't need to make sense, so hidden blades that extend into full-length swords? Sure. Moving on—she's got hand-mounted laser cannons on both of her upper arms. So, really, her arms contain most of her weapons. As for missiles, they're mounted on her shoulders and back—yeah, that makes sense.
She's going to be fun. I want to see if Amy or Helena can fight her in a simulator. It's kind of unfair to pitch a fighter against ground targets, though. Oh! I know. I'll just make two Raptors and let them fight it out. Whoever wins gets... something. It'll be good combat data too.
Well, since that's done, I still need to wait two hours for the shield to finish. Maybe tanks first?
Let's see... I have a massive forward base tank. She's slow—super slow. I need something faster. Actually, an IFV should work. Wait—let's first figure out what I need. For land and ground-based operations, resource hotspots need to be contested. Otherwise, the enemy gets time to build up.
Now that I think about it, denying resources is a valid tactic. I need something with enough range and defense to deny mining operations. Being able to carry two T-Dolls should help with that task too.
Let's start with the tank design. I want to base it on modern IFVs, but making it too similar to the USA or European IFVs feels lazy. I'll need my own design.
Instead of chasing enemy harvesters, denying access to resource locations sounds worth it. A siege tank? That's the first thing that pops into my mind—huge range and AoE attacks.
So, some kind of deployed ability. A siege tank implies actual projectiles, and since it's gonna be deploy near resource spots, this idea works.
Firstly, I'll use a medium tank frame. Scale up the height and space by a few meters to make it look like an IFV. Add a turret casing on top with an air-to-liquid nitrogen generator. This tank's going to have three nuclear fusion reactors, normal tank treads, and two nanoswarm deployers.
Next, the tank barrel—railgun style, loaded with liquid nitrogen rounds. Add one PD graviton turret as well.
In its default state, it should carry two T-Dolls—four if the resource storage is empty, though it shouldn't be empty since resources are required for weapons.
Now for siege mode. Stabilizers drop to the ground, deployers can create more air-to-liquid nitrogen devices along with reactor to overcharge railgun that should enhance railgun to become rapid firing as Cryo tech act as cooling in itself. I'll also give her fortification blueprints so she can make her own bunker. She'll mostly be stationed in outposts or lookout positions anyway.
As I hit 'generate':
[unnamed - Tank girls - Wargirl]
Cost: $2,500 x 10 (Wargirl)
Speed: 12
Hitpoints: 2000 + 1000 (Wargirl)
Armor Class: Heavy
Prerequisite: Wargirl's Wisdom Cube Factory + Wargirl's Tank factory
Purpose: Siege engine / Artillery
Weapons: Cryo railgun / 1x Graviton PD turrets / 2x Nanoswarm deployer
Range: 16 / 4 / 4
Additional Info: Can build and repair structures, vehicles, and T-Dolls. Siege mode. immune to mind control. Self-repairing.
My back feels cramped, like I didn't lay down in the right position. "Ahh~" I groaned, stretching to work out the kinks. Apparently, Lib's hosting an UNO game? That explains why no one's giving me head pats. Fine—I'll join soon. But first, I checked the results.
Why not before, when I was making the shark-class? Although now that I look at her, she got gray hair, ears, and tail and it look so fluffy... I really want to hug her tail and pat her head. I shake my head. That's for later. Wait, she's carrying an assault rifle? Cryo rounds, huh? Well, that works. She's got a laser pistol as a sidearm and a railgun strapped to her back. Okay, she's cool.
"Uno!" I heard the shout—probably means the game's nearly over. I don't know which version they're playing, but if it's the 'No Mercy' version with 10+ players, it's going to be chaos.
Anyway, I'm going to name her 'Lunar' since it's associated with the moon and indirectly about wolf, and I can't think of a better name right now.
Stretching again, I decided to join the girls playing UNO. On the way, I noticed Belfast and Sakura cooking some meat on sticks. Kebabs? No, there are no vegetables. Still, I'm going to try the food. I turned toward Belfast, and just as I was about to speak, she lifted the meat plate with nanoswarms and floated it toward me. Okay, her sixth sense is off the charts. I grabbed the plate with one hand and took a stick in the other, biting into the meat. Delicious.(Author's note: I forgot the name of this food in English, no it not BBQ stick there no veggies or fruit just pure meat sticks.)
I spotted Sakura picking up a plate and heading toward the cliffside—probably to enjoy the view. Carrying my plate, I walked toward the table where the others were playing UNO.
"Can I join?" I asked, yawning a bit and willing my nanoswarm to create a chair for me.
"Sure, master~ We're playing UNO No Mercy." Apparently, Helena is the dealer right now. She shuffled the deck and was about to start another game. I'm pretty sure that deck is not standard size—it's too tall. Probably around 100 cards or so.
"Assuming the rule is 25 or more in hand equals a loss?" I asked. Helena nodded with a smile.
Well, time to relax. Also, I'm pretty sure there's going to be in-house entertainment after this UNO game, probably with lot of chaos.
Rupture's POV
Nature is calm. The birds are chirping. I'm resting my back against a large tree when I hear footsteps. I turned my head to see who it was—pink hair. Sakura.
"Team leader, I brought some snacks," she said with a smile, sitting down next to me. She showed off a plate loaded with meat sticks. Yesterday's meal is similar to this snack and it was pretty delicious, so I nodded accepting the snacks.
"Thanks, Sakura," I said, grabbing one of the sticks. Still tastes great.
"So, leader, why not join the rest of the group? Even the Commander is staying with us," Sakura asked.
I sighed. Too much noise, and there's not much to do.
"I hate crowds, especially when it's too chaotic. I don't even know how the Commander can block out all the noise while lying so close to the chaos," I said, glancing toward the UNO table. Helena shuffled the deck. Lib, Hestia's crew, and the Commander's crew were all at the table. Yeah, it's a 12+ player game, and the Commander joined too?
I sighed again and looked at Sakura. "So, why don't you join them?" I asked. I had a feeling her reason was similar to mine.
"Ehh, I hate arguing, so I'm not playing," she said, grabbing another meat stick and taking a bite as she stared off into the distance.
"Nice view, isn't it?" I asked, following her gaze.
Our residential buildings and this area were built on a slope. Below us, the forest stretched for a few kilometers, with mountains in the distance blocking the view of the city. That's good, though. From up here, we can only see one Allies base on the coast, and it's far away.
"Yeah," she said, leaning her head back against the tree like I did. I grabbed another meat stick and chewed thoughtfully. "I'm kinda jealous of Hestia for having someone who can cook this well on her team," I said, noticing movement in the forest. I zoomed in—a boar.
I didn't notice that Sakura about to say something but stop herself.. as she look at what I focus on..
I didn't notice Sakura was about to say something until she stopped herself, looking at what I was focused on.
"Maybe I can try cooking too," Sakura said.
"Would boar meat work?" I asked.
"Probably," she answered, but she sounded unsure.
"Well, I'm going to hunt some boars then. Maybe get a few extra for dinner—after I finish eating these meat sticks," I said with a grin.
"Can I join? I heard Belfast complaining about no spices and vegetables, so I might find some," Sakura said.
I nodded. "Sure," I replied with a smile.
---
More Slice of Life? will probably count as Filler.. but yeah lot of things happen in the background and that not counting other factions just Wargirls.
Also can probably put more life in to each girls and their interactions more.. but I understand sometime you want timeskip.. so yeah.