Mikoto stared straight ahead.
The night sky had started emitting a strange golden light, but she had no time to worry about that odd weather. If there was anyone who could think about that kind of thing when they were on the verge of a nuclear explosion occurring or not, that person deserved to be in the Guinness Book of Records.
"…"
The flames spewing from the bottom of the ballistic missile with the Nu-AD1967 had disappeared. The large missile could not stay vertical for long with the arm about to let go of it, so it slowly but surely tilted. After reaching a certain point, it fell over toward the ground like a tree felled by a lumberjack.
The missile could no longer be fired.
Mikoto sighed slightly and then looked around.
Black smoke was rising from the tanks and armored vehicles of the independent unit. They had been sliced cleanly apart by the friction of the iron sand that was vibrating at high speed and could stand up to the assault rifles and handguns the unit had been armed with. Given the destruction, it was odd that no one had died.
"…Well, I guess that's that," Mikoto said arbitrarily before looking for the Sister.
The Sister poked just her head out of the hatch of the tank sitting in the middle of the enemy lines.
"You managed to singlehandedly defeat a company of troops 200 strong. Seeing that, it seems to be giving Misaka a complex, says Misaka as she feels a bit downhearted."
"What are you saying? Your strength is on a scale close to 10,000 when you're all together. And you have your powers, your network, and you even have Academy City's cutting edge tactics inputted into you. These guys are nothing compared to you."
The Sister mumbled something about wanting that much individuality, but then her eyebrows twitched and she put her hand to her headset.
"What? Are you intercepting another Russian military transmission?"
"…They seem to be confused over being unable to contact the man who seems to be behind this, Nikolai Tolstoy, reports Misaka with a serious expression."
"You always have the same expression. So this guy ended up destroying himself? Or maybe an Academy City unit did it."
"The details are unknown, but the unit seems split on whether to continue the mission or not, adds Misaka."
"There's another unit? But if the boss character was taken out already…"
"It seems they have decided to continue, concludes Misaka."
"Ah, dammit! Why are they so fired up over this!?" Sparks flew in all directions from Mikoto. "Okay! Where's the next unit!? Don't tell me they can fire Nu-AD1967s from multiple places at once!!"
"From the contents of the transmission, it seems they cannot do that, says Misaka denying that possibility. The remaining independent unit has only 10 commissioned officers that can fight directly. It seems that Nu-AD1967 collapsed there is the only one they are able to use, says Misaka while listening to the transmission."
Even if they had multiple warheads or missiles, it seemed there were a few processes that had to be carried out before firing such as the arrangement of related vehicles and regulating the electrical foundation for controlling it. Mikoto had just previously defeated the people with the skills needed to do that. The commissioned officers remaining could not set up a missile or transport a warhead.
"But that missile fell over, so they can't use it, right?"
"They have not realized that fact, so they are attempting to forcibly send out the signal to fire it remotely, says Misaka in shock."
Mikoto blinked.
"That means…"
"Even if they send the signal out over the emergency remote, the missile will not fire, but the warhead may detonate here, says Misaka expressing her own prediction."
"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!!"
Mikoto frantically looked over at the collapsed missile.
"We'll die! If that happens, we'll definitely die!! You said they were sending out a remote signal, right!? So if I use my power to jam the signal…!!"
"It is an optical transmission that uses infrared, so your electromagnetic jamming will not work, warns Misaka."
"Gwahh!! C'mon! What is it, a TV remote!?"
Mikoto doubted the radioactivity would leak out so easily, but she timidly headed around the nuclear missile examining it. The missile itself was over 20 meters long.
"Maybe the circuits for receiving the transmission shorted out from my lightning spear…"
"The main circuitry is protected within thick lead and reinforced glass, reports Misaka. And ICBMs are made so they will not have errors even while cutting through cumulonimbus clouds, so they are made to be resistant to high voltage electrical currents, says Misaka announcing the obvious. The missile likely stopped before because the system in the launch vehicle was fried."
"If it uses infrared, then there must be a sensor to detect it. We should be able to block the signal by covering it in cloth!"
"Will we make it in time? wonders Misaka with a sigh. Do your best. Sigh. But when will I get to see him?"
"You sure are calm!!"