Nine thousand meters above Avignon, a Level 5 carrying a cane was onboard one of the 11 HsB-02 Supersonic Stealth Bombers. The Level 5 and a few maintenance crew members were the only things in the large space that would normally be full of bombs.
A high-pitched alarm was sounding from the speakers inside the bomber and a staticky transmission followed. One of the maintenance crew members turned towards the Level 5 after hearing the transmission.
"Part A is complete! We can now move to Part B. The wall there will open once Part C begins. You need to get your parachute on!!"
"I don't need one," responded the Level 5 in an annoyed voice.
The Level 5 calmly held his cane and stared at the flat-panel monitor on the wall.
(God, this is a fucking pain. I'm pretty busy and they go and kick me out of Academy City. I need to get this shit over with and get back to the real issue at hand.)
Seen from above, Avignon was a small city surrounded by ancient stone walls. Perhaps because the area was limited by the walls, the inside looked like it was packed full of tall buildings.
Looking at that, the Level 5 laughed.
"Ha ha. It's like a miniature Academy City."
"Huh?"
"Nothing. But this is a damn convenient world. We can get from Academy City to France in about an hour."
"Heh. I suppose it can be convenient." The maintenance crew member chose his words carefully as he spoke with the Level 5. "When flying at supersonic speeds, air resistance raises the surface temperature of the fuselage significantly. When going at full speed, it approaches 1000 degrees, so there are pipes for liquid coolant throughout the entire thing."
"Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen?"
"Yes. The pipes full of coolants with a low freezing point pass through these tanks to increase the cooling effect. Liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen are also used as propellant for space shuttles and are part of what is used as fuel here. But that means the cooling effect is lost as we use up fuel."
"So we really are going to London instead of making a U-turn and going back. I can't believe they agreed to give us supplies for the bombers. Japan hasn't even given us permission to have bombers."
While the Level 5 was speaking in amazement, the alarm rang over the speakers again.
After hearing the announcement, the maintenance crew member raised his voice.
"Part B is beginning!!"
As he spoke, 4 of the bombers flying nearby changed course.
They rotated and moved 15 km away like spreading out the radius of a circle.
Then they turned their noses and accelerated away.
The bottom of the bombers had a part on them that the one the Level 5 was on did not.
It was a jet black blade about half as long as the bomber itself.
The blade was elongated like a baton and its surface was made so it could electrically contract. In 1/100 of a millimeter units, the concavity/convexity and pattern could be controlled.
That long but sensitive blade sliced through the air as the supersonic bomber flew at 7000 kph.
From that alone, the wind currents created by the blade held tremendous destructive power.
But what would happen if a small amount of iron sand was mixed in?
The answer to that would soon be displayed.
The four bombers caused the ground to be sliced in a square with Avignon trapped inside.
Only a few grams of iron sand were disseminated from the side of the blade.
Because that metal powder reached a tremendous speed higher than 10,000 kph, an orange flash cut into the ground even though it started from a few thousand meters in the air.
The bomber the Level 5 was riding on shook.
The air had been disturbed by the passage of a friendly bomber.
"…"
The Level 5 put one hand on the wall without taking his eyes away from the monitor.
The first blast had created a trench 20 meters across and 10 meters deep.
Directly afterwards, the trench melted into orange and collapsed. The earth itself was being cooked until it was like magma. And just like that, the old city of Avignon was trapped inside a river of lava. The electricity and water lines and even the Rhone River flowing near the city were severed. The outer circumference had already started to flood.
Now everyone inside the old town of Avignon was completely trapped.
The city did continue on past the outer walls and the residents in the area that was going to become a river of lava had been forcibly removed by the powered suits, but none of them were going to be very thankful.
(Ha. So this is the "Earth Blade". With only 3 kilograms of iron sand and an hour, it could cut the entire supercontinent of Eurasia in two. Academy City certainly does make some fun things.)
Normally, bombers were protected by a few fighters.
Unlike small fighters, large bombers couldn't turn very sharply. If they did, they would immediately stall and might even succumb to inertia and come to pieces in midair. In other words, if an enemy got a lock, they had no way of avoiding the missile. Chaff or a flare could help to a certain extent, but they weren't perfect methods. Therefore, fighters would be deployed around a bomber to help prevent the enemy from making a lock.
But the HsB-02 supersonic bomber was different.
Since it could only fly straight, it was made so that it could shake off a missile just by flying straight.
Overwhelming speeds of over 7000 kph made that a reality. With air-to-air missiles fired by fighters and even surface-to-air missiles lying in wait at bombing points, the idea was to carry out the bombing and get out of range shortly after the lock was made.
The supersonic bomber changed the traditional rules of an air battle through pure power.
And when the Academy City high power stealth functionality was added in, it became next to impossible to defend against an attack from the HsB-02.
"The objective area is confirmed to be isolated!!" The maintenance crew member said loudly.
The bombers that had fired the Earth Blade went an ample 20 km away and decelerated. They must have altered the "pattern" of the blade's surface because the wind currents stopped.
"We will now switch to the aerial bombing of the entire mission area!!"
The Earth Blade gave the impression of being an overly imprecise attack, but, by electrically controlling the "pattern" on its surface, it could attack in a curve or in a single spot instead of in a straight line. It could cause destruction precise enough it could cut out a jigsaw puzzle piece. Apparently, a single bomber could make multiple lines at once if need be.
"This bomber will be altering course to ensure the path of the 8 bombers to be used in the next bombing. Watch out for unexpected shocks!"
The next target was the area inside the old city of Avignon.
They weren't just targeting the Palace of the Popes; they were targeting the entire old city. The powered suit unit was still down there, but the pilots were equipped with a type of transmitter that the bombers would detect and utterly burn the city of Avignon down to a sea of lava while avoiding those spots.
The plan was for the powered suits to be abandoned and melted down by the Earth Blade. The pilots would pretend to be locals and travel to the nearby coast of the Mediterranean where they would leave France in a waiting submarine. Travelling long distance in powered suits would stand out too much, so the unrecoverable equipment would just be melted down.
But for the plan to succeed, the unit on the ground would have to cross the sea of lava under their own power. They must have had some equipment to help them with that. With the city turned to lava, there would be plenty of updrafts, so perhaps they had some handheld gear that would allow them to slowly float across like dandelion seeds.
"…"
According to the monitor, there were still a lot of people who had not escaped the old city of Avignon. Those lucky enough to be near the powered suit pilots would be saved, but most of them would be killed by the 8000 degree blade.
"Change of plans."
"Huh?"
"We're after the Palace of the Popes, right? Focus your attack there first. If that doesn't work, I'll go down myself. If you don't hear from me after that, then you can attack the entire old town as planned."
"But…you're only supposed to go down under Part C. The calculations say that we should be able to eliminate the enemy forces with only Part B."
"Change of plans," the Level 5 repeated.
The maintenance crew member's back stiffened. He had remembered why the Level 5 was on board the bomber.
He was a bomb.
Just like an atomic bomb or a hydrogen bomb, he was a bomb loaded on the bomber to be dropped as part of the mission.
The maintenance crew member grabbed his radio and began making a transmission. He appeared to be negotiating with his superior who had command of the operation and he repeated himself again and again. Afterwards, he put down the radio and silently looked over at the Level 5.
"…Y-your request was accepted. The plan for Part B has been changed. We will concentrate our attack on the Palace of the Popes."
He must have been wondering why his stubborn superior had given in to this, because he had a curious look on his face.
Meanwhile, the Level 5's lips pulled up at the sides in a smile.
"Good."
"B-but why…?"
The Level 5 clicked his tongue in annoyance at the question.
The isolated city of Avignon and the tiny fleeing people who looked like grains of rice were displayed on the monitor.
"It may all look the same to you, but there are different kinds and different levels of evil."
An electronic sound resounded throughout the bomber in what must have been the preparations to open the bay.
Hearing that, the Level 5 turned towards the maintenance crew member and spoke.
"A first-class villain doesn't target honest lives."