The Doyle Empire.
Inside a military base,
a super machine was running.
"My lords!"
Seeing two lords walk in, every researcher present bowed in salute.
These two were the other two of the Three Kings of Doyle.
One was nearly three meters tall; the other was round and squat, just like a ball.
"Can't you go any faster? Making three typhoons takes this long," the round, squat man asked with some displeasure.
A researcher beside him explained at once, "My lord, it isn't that we don't want to. It's that with the technological level of this machine at present, it can only go this slowly. If you gave us another year, the climate weapon we'd make could create an earthquake of over magnitude 10 right there in the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, and set off a super tsunami as well."
A year?
They had no time to wait a whole year.
"Can these three super typhoons destroy the Fierce Dragon Kingdom?" the fat one asked with some worry.
The tall one beside him spoke: "Destroying it outright is hard. But prolonged heavy rain can paralyze every coastline of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom, raise the sea level rapidly, and flood many places in the inland areas at the same time. Their ships can't leave port either. That way, the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's whole industrial system is as good as paralyzed. That will mean their carrier battle groups in the Middle-Sea Archipelago lose their aerial supply. They can't ship weapons to the Southern Continent anymore either. Keep that up long enough, and haven't we won? That's where the strength of a climate weapon lies."
This tall one had some attainment in science and technology, so he knew these things better and more thoroughly.
"I'd really like to see what a sorry state the Fierce Dragon Kingdom is in now," the fat one said, chuckling.
"Don't let your guard down. The reason we're speeding things up like this is also that we picked up broadcast signals sent out by other civilizations in this star system before. We have to hurry and integrate this planet's strength, so we can enter the interstellar age as soon as possible. Otherwise, if we wait until we're bottled up on the planet by other civilizations' starships, we'll truly be finished," the tall one said gravely.
"All right, it's only a Fierce Dragon Kingdom. Fierce Dragon… I seem to have heard a little about it before… but it's not very well known. They probably don't have much strength. They were just lucky; their spawn point[1] was on a large island of its own. Not like us; just integrating the Eastern Continent cost us a great deal of time and effort. Otherwise how could it ever have come to using a climate weapon?"
"How are things on King Biller's side now?"
"For now the situation on the Southern Continent has stabilized. Though because of those weapons the Fierce Dragon Kingdom supplied, the Southern Alliance we back can't keep attacking, once the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's supply is cut off, the last resisting forces on the Southern Continent will have a hard time withstanding our attack. Take the Southern Continent, then attack the Northwest, and in half a year at most all this can be settled."
"Good."
These two Kings of the Doyle Empire walked out of this laboratory
and looked at the blue sky overhead.
Compared with the wind and rain over the Fierce Dragon Kingdom at this moment, the weather on their side now could hardly be better.
Only what they did not know at all was this:
in space above their heads,
thirty-six satellites were locked onto the Doyle Empire below.
These satellites were like so many swords, pointed at the Doyle Empire below.
And on the side facing the Doyle Empire, they also used the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's newest "stealth technology," so that the Doyle Empire's radar could not scan these satellites over their heads at all.
There was no one aboard these satellites.
But the corresponding programs had been entered long beforehand.
"Sword of Damocles activating…"
"Countdown ten minutes…"
At this moment, these thirty-six satellites slowly showed their true faces.
At their forward ends, facing downward, panel after panel unfolded, revealing the weapons hidden beneath.
They were super nukes, one after another!
This was the plan the Fierce Dragon Kingdom had prepared.
Because this planet was very large, the long-range missiles they had at present could not get nuclear warheads from the Fierce Dragon Kingdom to the Eastern Continent at all.
Even launched from the Northern Continent, they could not cover the whole of the Doyle Empire.
As for bombers,
they stood even less of a chance.
So Zhao Chen and the others chose to use satellites.
For the tech tree Zhao Chen and the others had climbed had had mature satellite-launch technology early on.
Add to that the ideas of Annie and the other researchers, and they had made these "Sword of Damocles" satellites.
These looked like satellites, but were in fact nuclear launch platforms.
By means of the satellites, these nukes were sent little by little into the sky over the Doyle Empire,
and then dropped straight down from on high.
That way, even the rocket-propulsion section could be saved.
After all, for a super nuke falling from space, what need was there for any propulsion?
Gravity was their best weapon.
Still, Annie had, so far as conditions allowed, added some rocket-propulsion boosters,
partly to adjust the angle of the fall, and, if the angle was right, to give terminal acceleration as well.
Though they did not think the Doyle Empire's air-defense weapons could detect these nukes and intercept them,
she had still done it to be on the safe side!
The Doyle Empire's ground observation station.
"Strange, I thought I saw something flash past here." A staff member pointed at a spot on the display screen.
"Is there a recording?" the man in charge beside him came over and asked.
"Let me pull it up. Before, there was nothing. Look, it appears from just at five past twelve." The staff member played back the footage just recorded.
A very small black dot could be seen in the sky.
"How long has it been there?" the man in charge asked.
"As of now, it's been there over a minute," the staff member answered.
"Could something be wrong with our observation equipment? Doesn't it happen once or twice every month? Some unidentified object, some unidentified black dot. But really it's just a speck of dust that's settled on the equipment. Our equipment's sealing still isn't good enough; over time this kind of problem is bound to come up," another staff member beside them said dismissively.
The man in charge thought a moment, then said, "Contact the other observation stations. Compare this position. See whether they've found a black dot too. If other positions have found black dots as well, it can't possibly be such a coincidence that every observation station's equipment has gone wrong."
"Yes!"
A minute later,
a staff member reported tensely, "The other observation stations have found the black dot too, from the coordinates I gave them. And they've also found black dots appearing in other areas. So far, the number of black dots observed has reached fifteen."
The man in charge at once judged that this was certainly no simple matter.
"Quick! Report this to our superiors at once. Then use our most advanced telescopes and try to see just what these black dots are!"
The man in charge gave the order at once.
At this point he glanced at the time.
Three minutes had already passed since the black dot was first found.
This news went by the emergency line straight up to the general staff under the Doyle Empire's Three Kings.
After a short stop at the general staff, it was laid before the two Kings now in the Doyle Empire.
"Unidentified black dots in the sky?" That round King was at this moment sitting in a luxurious sedan; the sedan, escorted by a motorcade, was driving across an overpass.
"Have the departments concerned find out as soon as possible just what these black dots are." The fat one thought a moment, then added, "Order every air-defense combat department in the country to top readiness. All radars on, air-defense missiles at combat readiness! Above all the few important strategic sites!"
"Yes!"
The other King, the tall one, was in a square holding a weapon of unusual shape.
It was a traditional weapon of the Doyle civilization, one of the pastimes of high society among the Doyle civilization's upper ranks.
He received the notice and set down the weapon in his hand.
He glanced at the sky without thinking: "Black dots?"
"The general staff advises you to go to the nearest underground shelter at once," the adjutant beside him said gravely.
"Is there any need to be so nervous?" the tall one said somewhat dismissively.
"This is to be on the safe side. Please cooperate," the adjutant pleaded.
"Very well." The tall one tossed the weapon in his hand to the attendant beside him with resignation and followed this adjutant toward the nearest underground shelter.
At this time,
eight minutes had already passed since the black dots were found.
In space.
"Project Sword of Damocles: countdown 120 seconds…"
"Final confirmation of attack trajectories!"
"Attack trajectories confirmed correct; no further changes."
"Sword of Damocles fully deployed; ejection begins!"
"Project Sword of Damocles: countdown 60 seconds…"
At this moment,
red rings of light began to appear at the tails of these satellites; these red rings seemed like burning flames.
The moment these red rings appeared,
the Doyle Empire's observation stations everywhere felt still more plainly that these black dots were wrong.
This time they could be sure these were certainly no mere black dots.
"Report. This is the clearest photo taken by our most advanced space telescope. Those black dots that were photographed are suspected to be some kind of space weapon!" The adjutant in the front passenger seat anxiously passed the computer back to the fat one in the rear.
The fat one glanced at it.
In his heart he more or less knew.
"It seems we're still a step behind the Fierce Dragon Kingdom. They climbed their tech tree faster than we did. We chose climate weapons; they chose space weapons."
"My lord, we must hurry to shelter now. The overpass is jammed. We've arranged a helicopter to pick you up." The adjutant pushed open the front passenger door, then went around the car,
and pulled open the door beside the fat one.
But the fat one stepped out of the car with a calm expression.
"It may already be too late."
At this point, three helicopters appeared over the sea beside the overpass; these were the craft prepared especially for him.
But just at this moment,
a black object like a meteor struck, at astonishing speed, a spot on the river.[2]
That was their largest naval port.
There were their shipbuilding base, the research institutions concerned, and the naval barracks.
A huge explosion came.
A mushroom cloud slowly rose.
The fat one gazed at the mushroom cloud that had appeared in the distance; the guards around him at once closed around him, wanting to take him somewhere safe.
But he was on the overpass now; where was there anywhere safe?
"Stop hiding. It's too late." The fat one took a cigarette from his pocket and lit it for himself.
He blew out a puff of smoke.
He watched with admiration the fireball and the mushroom cloud in the distance, and the blast wave sweeping toward him laden with sand and dust.
"I've seen nuclear explosions in videos before. But it falls far short of feeling one in person."
He put the cigarette to his lips once more.
The next second,
the enormous shock wave blew this overpass apart outright, and the vehicles were flung away like toys.
Everything for tens of kilometers around the blast point was affected.
Because it had been dropped straight down from on high, even a slight earthquake could be felt.
And had one looked down from space,
one would have seen fireball after fireball and mushroom cloud after mushroom cloud appear one after another across the land of the Doyle Empire,
all within sixty seconds,
thirty-six of them in the end!
And every one of the impact points was an extremely important area of the Doyle Empire.
On a high mountain a hundred kilometers outside the Doyle Empire's capital, a man in a full hazmat suit stood here,
holding a professional telescope.
From here the situation over at the Doyle Empire's capital could be seen.
He saw the exploding fireball, the mushroom cloud, and the city destroyed by the blast wave.
"So this is the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's so-called high-tech weapon. This is too terrifying." This man was from the Fierce Dragon Kingdom's intelligence department.
Just a day before, he had received word to observe from this spot.
But what to observe, he had not been told.
His specific task had not been told him either.
He had asked.
The other side had said only: you'll know when you see it.
That's right.
He saw it now.
And he understood.
What he was meant to see was this weapon of the Fierce Dragon Kingdom before his eyes,
coming from space, destroying a city in an instant.
And at this very moment the Fierce Dragon Kingdom was still in wind and rain.
Zhao Chen sat in his office, drinking the somewhat bitter coffee before him,
listening to the sound of the wind and rain beating on the windows.
He glanced at the clock hanging in the room.
The time shown on the clock was already the time Project Sword of Damocles began.
He closed his eyes.
It was as if he could already see, on the other side of this planet, the scene of the Doyle Empire under his space bombardment of thirty-six nukes.
That land would be unusable for a long time to come.
Its resources too would be hard to extract.
He had never meant to go this far.
It was as good as losing a quarter of this planet's resources.
But there was no help for it: time waits for no one.