Searching for a Military Communications System

[Core Room]

"Mint, even that self-destruct drone of yours seems like it could be used for reconnaissance, at least. Though the attrition rate looks like it'd be high."

"Self-destruct drone, or rather a drone that ends up self-destructing."

"And the next thing we'll need, once an interception unit is deployed, is a 'communications system.' If we could carry out saturation attacks with self-destruct drones, we wouldn't need it, but."

"Director, our production capacity can't keep up. This dungeon simply can't obtain proper machine tools, and even if we had them, I'm not in the Mechanical Engineering department, so they'd be beyond me."

"I'm Architecture and Mint is Electronic Engineering, so we've no specialist in machinery, or chemistry, or metals, or civil engineering. We'd need at least four more, then."

"Master, even granting that Rāja doubles as warrior-general and administrator, the next thing we need is an agricultural specialist, and…"

"Isn't Marie doing a fine job with the farming?"

"I'm not from the Agriculture faculty, and it isn't my specialty, but if the Master says so, then leave it to me."

Flatter an Asura even a little and she'll immediately get a swelled head.

"Master, this dungeon can't afford to keep a drone in the air at all times, so we'll take observation from the tower as our basis. Mint, what's our current surveillance range?"

"Aide-de-camp scribe, with cameras and telescopes we can keep watch out to about 20 km."

"So then, Rāja-san, assuming we can confirm out to 20 km?"

"If we spot them at 20 km, then prepare and intercept, our defensible range is 7 to 8 km. But if there are two raiding bands and they come in from opposite sides with a time lag, the range at which we could turn back and still drive them off is 6 km. So we shouldn't give chase too far, and should meet the enemy within 6 km."

"I see. Mint, what means do we have to communicate over a 6 km range?"

"Mobile phones need a great many base stations, so the quick-and-easy option is radio sets. They require a license, of course, and while we can transmit from here, a reply from the field would be illegal."

"Mint's a ham, but, Master, do we have to summon up an additional Shiso (Asura) on the interception side who holds a radio license too?"

This "ham" means amateur radio, not the herb-flavored ham (the foodstuff).

"Director, there's also the option of cutting our losses: don't give the field receivers any transmission capability, and stick to issuing orders from the dungeon side. That way we don't break the law. The usefulness drops considerably, though."

"But who, exactly, is going to enforce it when we violate the Radio Act? Will police come from another world? And for that matter, we're Asura, aren't we… There won't be any provision about Asura even in Rāja's Six Codes Compendium. Even granting that a Beast is legally an animal, and a Preta a mineral."

"Under the law, killing a Beast is a violation of the Animal Welfare Act, and killing a Preta is destruction of property."

By that reasoning, an Asura would have to be regarded as a plant.

"So-called transceivers are sometimes used to keep in contact with staff in the depths of the stacks, which is probably why they can be summoned, but their use requires registration as a 'Digital Simplified Radio Station.' Generally, business-use mobile phones are used instead, but to use a mobile phone you need a base station and a switching station."

"Wouldn't one happen to be sitting on the roof of some library or other?"

"Director-dono, even with a base station, it can't be used without a switching station, so at present it's beyond us."

"It's times like these that having no industrial base really bites. We could just keep a deft-fingered Preta around, even… no, on second thought I'd rather not lay eyes on a Preta."

"Mint, setting the law aside, what communications system is 'technically' possible at present?"

"What I can ready right away is a one-way system using radio. Radio receivers come as appendices to study materials, so they're obtainable, but there's no way to apply for a broadcasting-station license, so legal broadcasting is impossible. This library-city dungeon is effectively something like an independent nation, so it would be fine if an assembly approved it, but we don't have an assembly yet."

"Two-way is out of the question, then?"

"It's possible if everyone carries radio sets, transceivers included, but that's completely illegal. As for the radio sets themselves, for use over a few kilometers outdoors, since there are no other radio sources around, the low output of a transceiver is plenty."

"Without an assembly we can't enact laws. And to open an assembly we'd need an election… could the settlers as they are now even hold an election?"

"Director, no matter how you look at it, it's impossible."

"Come to think of it, even if we did open an assembly and pass a bill, we couldn't promulgate the law. No, before that, we couldn't even publicly call an election or convene the assembly. Let's check with Rāja."

These being acts of state, the Dungeon Master and Marie naturally had no authority over them.