Sixty kilometers.
The Hellhammer topped out at twenty-five.
Twelve tubes, eighteen rockets. The first twelve could leave immediately, while another six waited inside the System reserve until the launcher had empty tubes to receive them.
Across all ten completed launchers, that meant one hundred eighty rockets before any refresh.
Salvo One’s crew waited beside the vehicle while Hans moved toward the PSML.
It shared some resemblance with the MLRS from the front, but the rear assembly was different. Four much larger enclosed launch cells occupied the launcher instead of a rack filled with smaller rocket tubes.
Hans brought up the panel.
------
[ Callsign: Launcher One ]
[ Vehicle Type: Precision Strike Missile Launcher ]
[ Star Promotion: 0 / 3 ]
[ Assignment: Commander-Held ]
[ Crew ]
4 Personnel
Commander
Fire-Control Officer
Systems / Launcher Operator
Driver
[ Mobility ]
Maximum Speed: 60 km/h
[ Firing Setup Time: approximately 60 seconds ]
[ Defensive Armament ]
Remote 12.7mm Heavy Machine Gun
Current Ammunition Allowance: 750 rounds
[ Defensive Systems ]
Smoke Charges: 6
[ Missile System ]
Physical Ready Cells: 4
Current Missile Allowance: 6
Ready Missiles: 4
Virtual Reserve: 2
[ Engagement Envelope ]
Minimum Practical Range: approximately 20 kilometers
Maximum Physical Strike Range: 150 kilometers
[ Launch Cycle ]
Launch Interval: approximately 15 seconds between ready cells
Virtual-Reserve Reload: approximately 45 seconds per missile
[ Baseline Warhead Families ]
Unitary HE / Blast-Fragmentation
Penetrating HE
[ Guidance ]
System-Aided Inertial Navigation
Terrain / Scene Correlation where available
Terminal Active-Radar / Electro-Optical Matching
Compatible Laser / Terminal Designation Handoff
[ Precision ]
Fixed Target at Maximum Range: approximately 5-meter CEP
Maintained High-Quality Terminal Designation: approximately 1–2 meters under favorable conditions
[ Targeting Integration ]
Surveyed fixed coordinates may be attacked without continuous Radar tracking.
Moving targets require a sufficiently precise continuing track from an eligible System sensor or observer.
[ Current Network Limitation ]
Maximum missile range may exceed the current System Tactical Data Mesh in some geometries.
Long-range moving-target engagements require an actual sensor and network path capable of maintaining the track.
[ Remarks ]
Deep precision-strike platform.
------
One hundred fifty kilometers.
The missiles could reach farther than Sentinel One’s Radar could see and as far as its longest anti-ship or land-attack weapons.
Except Launcher One was sitting on a road.
Fixed coordinates did not need continuous tracking, which made most of the network limitation irrelevant for what he had in mind.
The thing in the Core had spent months growing roots through the center of Grefort. Whatever else could be said about it, running away had not been one of its habits.
The remaining support vehicles could wait; their names already told him enough about their broad roles, while Matilda could sort the actual attachments once the Rank 4 reorganization began.
Salvo One and Launcher One were different. Those two already had work waiting for them.
...
The northern Cinderrow command post had changed little since Hans left for Saicine.
The defensive line sat outside the inner Core, with artillery positions and cleared roads spreading behind it. Farther ahead, the retreating haze had exposed more damaged buildings and sections of root through the streets.
Matilda was waiting beside the operational map when Hans arrived.
"Commander." She saluted. "Congratulations on your promotion."
"Not without your help, Matilda. How’s our super Tree?"
"Dormant for now, but the red marker around it has grown."
The marker had expanded while Hans was in Saicine.
"The haze is keeping us from seeing enough to tell whether the organism itself grew or the root network simply spread."
Hans brought up Salvo One and Launcher One beside the Core map. Sixty kilometers for saturation fire. One hundred fifty for precision strike.
"Both can fire from well outside the Core."
"Tyrus expects regeneration. I don’t want to feed it one attack at a time and give it hours to repair."
"I’ve been working on one concentrated fire mission, with the new launchers and bombers timed into the same window," Matilda said.
Two Phantoms were already in production. "Double the B-2 order and add another pair of both launchers."
"We’ll need more resupply vehicles."
Mule One carried four allocations. Four more ARSVs would raise that to five vehicles and twenty allocations in one trip, enough to cover twelve MLRS and six PSMLs once the new batch finished.
"Four more Mules. Two more Ammo Depots and Quartermasters as well."
He added another pair of Airfield Bases with the rest of the order.
The first two additional Airfields were still under construction from the previous night. Hans still did not know how many fixed-wing equivalents the Phantom would consume once it physically arrived, and he was not waiting for another capacity problem to prove itself first.
------
[ Additional Rank 4 Strike Expansion ]
[ Aircraft ]
[ Phantom B-2 Saturation Bomber x2 ]
[ Gold Cost: 216,000 ]
[ Ground Fires ]
[ Multiple Launch Rocket System x2 ]
[ Gold Cost: 56,700 ]
[ Precision Strike Missile Launcher x2 ]
[ Gold Cost: 72,900 ]
[ Ground Sustainment ]
[ Armored Resupply Vehicle x4 ]
[ Gold Cost: 38,880 ]
[ Logistics Infrastructure ]
[ Ammo Depot x2 ]
[ Gold Cost: 45,000 ]
[ Ammo Quartermaster x2 ]
[ Gold Cost: 2,000 ]
[ Aviation Infrastructure ]
[ Airfield Base x2 ]
[ Gold Cost: 72,000 ]
[ Total Gold Cost: 503,480 ]
[ Orders assigned to available production and construction queues. ]
------
The three Ammo Depots would take considerably longer than their Quartermasters, but the fire mission wasn’t happening today.
"Build the fire mission around the full package."
Hans was crossing the outer room when another notification appeared.
------
[ Phantom B-2 Saturation Bomber x2 ]
[ Production Complete. ]
[ Aircraft transferred to assigned Airfield Base. ]
------
Hans stopped.
The ground inspections had taken long enough for the first Phantom pair to finish in the background.
Both aircraft were already registered to the Airfield network.
Kimmy and Yunera were together when he found them, and Kimmy recognized him before he reached the room.
"Hans, you’re finally—" she paused. "You, what happened to you?"
"What do you think?"
Yunera looked at Kimmy in confusion first. When she shifted back to Hans again, she suddenly took a step back.
"Your aura, how did you just—"
"Trade secret." Hans smiled. "I had some... opportunities in Saicine."
"Then why did you not bring us over?!" Yunera gritted her teeth.
She had been obsessed on getting strong lately, and the culprit was no other than the woman beside her.
"I already told you it’s a trade secret. And no, it was not Tyrus. You should follow Tyrus’s scheme. It’s far more compatible than what I’ve been through."
"Fuck the compatibility. I wanted to know how you did it."
"That I can’t tell."
"Fine then. I hope you drown in your own greed." Yunera dropped the subject.
Kimmy chuckled. "Sister, don’t worry. I think Dr. Tyrus will be able to help you soon."
"Ah, you too?"
The couple ignored her. Kimmy asked.
"We’ve been looking for you. Where have you been?"
"I’ve been back for hours. Matilda got me first."
"That explains why you only remembered us now."
Hans looked at Yunera.
"Did she practice that?"
"No. She’s getting better."
Kimmy smiled. "Where are you going?"
"The Airfield. Come with me. I want to show you something."
"Another flight?"
Hans offered her his hand.
"Not this time."
...
The Airfield was busier than the last time Hans visited.
Aircraft moved between the hangars and active sections of the base while ground crews worked across the aprons. Raptors occupied several familiar positions farther down the complex, with Falcons and Strikers spread around the rotary-wing side.
Hans led Kimmy and Yunera toward one of the larger fixed-wing areas.
Yunera slowed as the aircraft came into view.
"What the heck is that?!"
A broad black aircraft occupied the far end of the apron.
Its wings blended almost seamlessly into the body, forming a wide flying-wing shape completely different from the Raptors elsewhere on the field. There was no conventional tail rising behind it, and most of the upper surface flowed through one continuous angular profile.
Even sitting still, it dwarfed the fighters around it.
Kimmy stopped beside Hans.
"That’s... a strange plane. Hans, what is this?"
"The Phantom bomber."
"The Phantom?"
Kimmy repeated the name while Yunera kept staring at the aircraft.
Kimmy’s senses spread outward as the nearest edge of the wing entered her perception and more of the aircraft took shape.
"It’s... wide."
She walked closer.
"Where’s the tail?"
"There isn’t one."
Kimmy turned toward him.
"How does it fly?"
"Very carefully."
Yunera looked at Hans. "Do you actually know?"
"Of course I do. I’m the Commander."
Kimmy kept moving, and more of the aircraft entered her perception. Internal partitions appeared beyond the outer skin, followed by equipment spaces, narrow passages and the much larger enclosed sections inside the airframe.
There were none of the obvious weapons hanging from the Phantom that she had felt on some of Hans’s other aircraft. Even the engines sat buried inside the body rather than hanging somewhere outside it.
"Why does it feel like it’s hiding everything?"
"Because that’s exactly what it’s doing."
Kimmy reached the aircraft and rested her fingertips against the cold outer surface.
"It’s true to its name. A real Phantom."
Hans opened its information.
------
[ Callsign: Phantom One ]
[ Aircraft Type: Phantom B-2 Saturation Bomber ]
[ Star Promotion: 0 / 3 ]
[ Branch Assignment: Air ]
[ Crew ]
2 Personnel
Pilot
Mission Systems / Weapons Officer
[ Flight Characteristics ]
Maximum Speed: approximately 1,000 km/h
Strategic Cruise: approximately 900 km/h
Unrefueled Planning Range: approximately 10,000 kilometers
Operational Altitude: Very High
Maneuverability: Low
[ Primary Armament ]
[ Saturation Load ]
24 x 500kg-class Heavy Conventional Gravity Bombs
Physical Bomb Positions: 24
Current Bomb Allowance: 36
Ready Bombs: 24
Virtual Reserve: 12
[ Standard Warhead Families ]
HE / Blast-Fragmentation
Delayed-Fuze Anti-Structure
[ Release Modes ]
Single
Paired
Programmed Strings
Full-Area Sequence
[ Virtual Reserve Cycling ]
Four bomb positions per approximately 30 seconds while the internal bomb bay is closed.
[ Alternate Loadout ]
1 x 12,000kg-class Heavy Strategic Demolition Bomb
Special Strategic Ordnance.
Replaces the complete Saturation Load.
Carried quantity remains one.
No in-flight virtual reserve.
Loadout changes require an Airfield rearm cycle.
[ Bombing System ]
Gravity bombs are unguided after release.
System-aided release sequencing controls spacing, timing and the planned bombardment corridor.
[ Defensive Systems ]
Very-Low-Observable Flying-Wing Airframe
Radar-Warning Receiver
Laser Warning
Missile Warning
Electronic Countermeasures
Chaff / Flare Dispensers
Terrain-Avoidance / Navigation Suite
Redundant Flight-Control Systems
[ Self-Generated Local Radar ]
Detection Radius: 5 kilometers
Supports local navigation, immediate threat awareness and weapon release.
Does not replace strategic reconnaissance or Physical Radar Facility coverage.
[ Secondary Armament ]
None.
[ Sustainment ]
Standard aircraft ammunition and aviation stores refresh on the established 12-hour aircraft cycle.
[ Remarks ]
Strategic heavy-bombardment aircraft.
Designed for large-area destruction and heavy surface demolition while relying on low observability, altitude, mission planning and supporting forces for survival.
------
The loadout finally gave Hans the numbers Matilda had been missing.
Two Phantoms carried seventy-two standard bombs between them at his current allowance, or twenty-four tonnes of strategic demolition ordnance split between two aircraft.
The second pair would double either package once it finished.
Hans forwarded the loadout to Matilda. She could finish the fire mission with actual numbers now.
Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!
Use arrow keys (or A / D) to PREV/NEXT chapter