"This is Commander James Eddings of the Home Logistics Department, Sir Stout"s immediate superior." Mandy introduced the man that the Ashdale military had sent to talk about the Wasps.""Good to meet you." Remian shook his hand.
"And I, you." James nodded. "I understand that I also have you to thank for saving the life of one Private Ryan from certain death behind enemy lines. He pa.s.sed your offer up the chain of command, something about agile aircraft that requires us to go to the Wildlands to buy? It didn"t seem like a big deal at the time, but now Sir Stout has urged me to consider it, and here I am. I a.s.sume this is the very topic we are here to discuss."
"Yes, it is." Remian nodded. "It came to my attention that Germat has a glaring weakness in their airships. They have heavy armor and heavy weaponry and taking them down with conventional airships is difficult and costly."
"Thus, the agile, light fighter idea." James nodded. "But I have my doubts that a small craft could carry the firepower needed to strike down such a heavily armored target. Far better to bombard them at extreme range with heavy artillery."
"You"d have accuracy issues, and they"d have interception spells to counter your artillery. The aircraft I"m talking about is fast, small, and capable of carrying explosives."
"Explosives? Not magi and mana crystals?"
"Aren"t you already fighting for whatever little mana is left? If you spend it all in war, what"s the point of fighting for it in the first place? No, mana crystals are too expensive."
"But how do you plan to get explosives to strike distant targets in the air?"
"They won"t be distant." Remian said. "That"s the beauty of these agile anti-air fighters. They"re supposed to get in close. Very close."
"Close enough to plant explosives on the hull of a battleship?"
"Close enough to drop them from above." Remian explained.
"You"re talking about bombers." James mused. "Like the Mendev Zeppelin bombers."
"Nothing quite so big. These craft should be smaller, faster, and cheaper. The bombs they drop shouldn"t be too large either, but they should be able to fly out there, drop their payloads on their targets, and return for another quick run." Remian took out some design drawings.
James inspected them. "How fast can these airships go?"
"Based on our current design? They"d cross a kilometer a minute."
James did a quick calculation. The last airship battle he fought was an exchange of artillery and counter-artillery across roughly 3 km. "That"s 3 minutes to make a single bombing run, and 3 minutes more to get back, maybe a couple minutes to reload in between… our Extra Long Range artillery can fire off eight rounds in those eight minutes."
"But can they strike targets 5km out? 10km? 20?" Remian pointed out.
5km was possible. 10 would require serious elevation advantages, would certainly be tricky and likely inaccurate. 20 was flat out impossible.
"Besides, if you wanted to send magi instead of explosives, it"s a simple matter of swapping them." Remian added. "You could fit six people in there comfortably, nine if you squeeze… or two people and a rather large bomb."
"Has it been tested?" James questioned.
"Not as a bomber, no. But we"ve used it as a shuttle and as a gunboat with a handful of crew and a turret. It"s worked out well for us so far."
"So there"s no proof that it actually works." James frowned.
"If it can carry people, it can carry cargo. That"s simple enough, isn"t it?" Remian shrugged. "How hard is it to drop a bomb out of the back?"
"Or down a trapdoor. I think your design needs some modification."
"That"s easy enough." Remian glanced at Mindy. Mindy nodded.
These designs were already somewhat different from their own Wasp anyway. Changing a few more things wouldn"t hurt.
After a long discussion, James and Mandy went aside to confer while Remian and Mindy sipped tea in her mansion"s main hall, pretending to relax while secretly listening in on their discussion with air magic.
"So…" Mandy hesitated.
"We"ll buy it." James said.
"Are you sure? I mean… something like this… with just the idea, we can do it ourselves, you know? It would be much cheaper."
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Mindy"s face turned grim hearing Mandy say that. "Ourselves", she said. And on top of that…
"Of course we can. As soon as we get the first batch, we can take one apart and reverse-engineer it. In a week, we could have shipyards all across Ashdale building the same thing."
"Then…"
"But even with all our shipyards, we won"t be able to turn the tide of the war. Not at first." James said, pausing. "Not until we have enough of these Wasps, and that"s going to take some time. Bombers like these, capable of long-distance strikes, plus the ability to hit ground targets as well as air targets… as long as we have enough of them, we can definitely turn the tides. Not only should we set all our shipyards to build them, we should contract out the production of these to as many manufacturers outside as we possibly could! Of course we"ll buy as many as your sister can make. We"ll buy as many as anyone can make… until we have enough."
"How many is enough?" Mandy asked.
"A thousand? Ten thousand? Losses will need to be replenished." James thought for a bit. "Two billion lir to win the war is cheap, I think. Two billion lir to save Ashdale is nothing."
"T-two b-b-billion…" Mandy was already stuttering.
"That"s using Mindy"s prices. I think if we build our own, it would be even cheaper." James mused. "So yes, we"ll buy them."
Remian let the magic fade as James and Mandy headed back. He glanced at Mindy. "Is this really okay?"
"It"s fine." Mindy said, her face dark, but her eyes determined. "It"s something I drew up for fun just to see if the idea would work. I was planning to design a better one soon enough anyway. Given a choice, I"d design everything from scratch, build engines and components much more suitable for their roles than simply using commercial parts. But that would have to wait for the Mark III version. The Mark II that I"m planning is a smaller, faster, three man craft with a turret above deck, not in the rear. I"m not even sure if I would call it a "Wasp" any more."
"And the Mark IV?" Remian asked, eyebrows raised.
"The Mark IV…" Mindy hesitated, then whispered. "Doesn"t use mana."
"WHOA!" Remian nearly fell over. "How…"
"Hush!" Mindy said, as Mandy and James returned.
They signed an open deal for "Batches of 100 fully functional Wasp Bombers" from "Mindy"s Shipyards" at 20 million lir per batch. The first shipment of 100 Wasp Bombers was promised to be due in a month, the second and third within two months. Mandy and James left Mindy holding a 60 million lir contract.
"Can we really manage a hundred in one month?" Remian wondered.
"I might need your help with that." Mindy said. "How"s the industrial zone in Fal"Herim coming along?"
***
Taking a very big detour around the war zone, it took them a day and a half to reach Fal"Herim.
There, Remian and Mindy set about adjusting, streamlining and renovating the entire industrial zone to the production of Wasp Type-A Bombers.
As they were closing up for the day, Mindy was suddenly pulled aside into an alley by a shrouded figure. "Ack!"
"Relax! It"s me!" a familiar voice said.
"Tim?" Mindy blinked. "What… why…?"
"Come with me." Tim said in a low voice. "I"ve got something to show you."
"Now? But…"
"Trust me. You"re going to want to see this."