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和訳開始 和訳しつつ更新 ツイッターとかで感想くれると本人も頑張るStarted translation 2015-12-10
綺麗な日本語にするには相当な時間と技量とセンスと知識がいるので、機械的な和訳ですがご了承ください。
Huge amount of time, sense and knowledge are required if I tried to translate
it to perfect, poetic and story-telling Japanese-written novel, so this
translation will be very straight and direct.
執筆者は積極的にWikiをGoogle翻訳で楽しんでくれていて、よくスカイプで質問してくれますが、やはり海外勢には設定が深く待っで行き渡っていません。
生放送なので慣れ親しんだ世界設定を知っていると「おお?そうくる?」という場面があるかもしれませんが、そこは気にしないでください。
そもそも、二次創作というものはこれくらいであるべきです。あまり敷居が高すぎても困りますしね!!
Nobody knows what started the battle of Folio Greens. One day on the Folio
Greenspoint, a large fertile island sixty-eight miles off the shore of
Anansalad, there were Fow Kingdom and Crundalt Empire forces. Then, nine days
later, they were shooting at each other. It's not even clear any of them had
radioed home.
グリンフォリオ戦役の発端が何だったかは誰も知らない。
ある日、フォリオ・グリンスポインにて大きな肥沃な島―アナンサラドから6～8マイル沿岸の―にて、フォウ王国とクランダルト帝国の両軍がいた。
9日後、彼らは砲火を交えていた。彼らが生還したかは誰も知らない―
Captain Ilin Burak was in command of A Kiss for Yntil before She Becomes Cold,
one of the new Dzazd-class dreadnoughts that Fow had been putting out. She was
floating some hundreds of meters off the ground trying to intercept Crundalt
fighter groups as they strafed ground forces and intercepted fighter groups
going after the Crundalt battleship. The Kiss for Yntil was a light
dreadnought, but faster than anything in her class. She could easily
outmaneuver anything in her class as well.
イリンブラークは風邪で寝込んだユンティに代わって機長をしている、最新装備の一つであるズザッド級ドレッドノートが配備されてから。ズザッドは離床し、数百メルト上昇して帝国戦闘機隊を迎え撃たんとしている。地上部隊に機銃掃射を加えた奴らだ。
The name was perhaps ominous, coming from a piece of classic Fow literature.
The phrase meant something like “Flowers for Algernon.”
フォウの古典文学からきている"アルゲルノンの花々"とかいうフレーズはひょっとしたら不吉かもしれない
The sister ship, The Beauty of a Bullet Breaking the Silence at Sunrise, was
taking some heavy fire from a ground anti-aircraft group that had managed to
score a penetration using heavy bio-driven gun platforms.
姉妹艦の 美しき静曙の弾斬 は生体機構を用いた破格の貫通力を誇る、帝国の地上からの激しい対空砲撃にあった
Telemetry officer Stales called in, “Grazalanker attack group coming in at
one-sixteen bearing us at one-two-five, count twelve. Atlatl coming in at
thirty-six bearing us off five forward at seventy-seven, count two.” All of
this made perfect sense to Captain Burak, but it essentially meant that twelve
high-speed ship-killer fighters and two gunboats were coming from different
directions in perfect attack placement.
測距士官のステイルスが言った「グラザランカ攻撃隊、1-6から当艦へ1-2-5空域ヘ向けて、およそ12機!! アトラトルが13-6から16-7にかけて2隻!!」これらの報告はブラーク機長にパーフェクトな勘をもたらした、それは別々の方向からくる12機と2隻の敵軍が絶好の攻撃地点へ向かいつつあるということだった。
Burak almost looked distracted, but gave orders. “Visturen, come about ten
left. Svenek, order ack-acks to concentrate on Granzlanker inbound, tell
fore-right and right-side eighty-eights to gun down the Atlatls.”
ブラークは気が散っているように見えたが、命令を下した。「ヴィストレン、10時方向へ転舵。スヴェネク、グラザランカに集中砲火をめいじろ。右舷前方、そして右舷にかけて88ミリをアトラトルに指向せよ。」
The anti-aircraft guns were essentially 14mm machine guns with gravity-adjusted
sights allowing for target adjustments for barrel elevation. The 88mm
repeating cannons fired steel shells with impact-fuse explosives, and fired
them at one shot per second. Each weapon was well put to its task, but the
enemy aircraft weren't going to blindly accept the fact.
弾道修正されたされた14mm対空砲が敵を捉えんとゆっくりと動く。閃光火薬入りの88mmは1秒毎に立て続けに火を噴く。射撃は性格だったが敵も持ちこたえているようだった。
Stales called in again, “Shots fired, all contacts, incoming.”
ステイルスが再び言う「発砲を視認、。砲弾、来ます。」
Burak didn't hesitate. “Visturen, lift evasive.” There were two things that
set a Dzazd apart from other aerial dreadnoughts. One was the flight organ, a
technology obtained from Arkilia. The flight organ provided lift, meaning the
craft did not rely on aerodynamics to stay in the air. This meant it didn't
need (and didn't have) wings. This optimized the other unique quality – jet
and rocket thrust. It used jet turbines for basic thrust, augmented by burners
for additional thrust. But this system was unique – the output ports on the
thrusters were directional. This “vectored thrust” system gave it the ability
to move with great versatility in battle.
ブラークは動じない。「ヴィストレン、下降回避。」ズザッドがほかのドレッドノートと一線を画する点が2つあった。
1つは浮遊機関だ。あー切る連邦から得た技術。浮遊機関は浮力を司り、機体は浮くために揚力を必要としない。つまり、翼が必要ないのだ(こいつにもついていない)。これはユニークに見えるかもしれない
ジェットとロケットスラスト組み合わせ、リヒート噴射とスラストによるパワー。
しかしこのシステムはユニークだ。指向性のスラスターが付いているベクターノズル式なのだ。戦場ですさまじい起動が可能となる。(和訳しながらなんじゃこりゃと
かっこいいぞ)
The center engines shifted directionality down and to the right, and let out a
short burst of flame. Gravity suddenly increased then shifted to the right as
the craft lifted fifteen or twenty meters and slipped left. A loud thunk
followed by a hull shudder told them that an armor-piercing round had ruptured
some part of the exterior hull.
真ん中のエンジンは直下と右に志向し、炎を吐いた。右方向のGがかかり15～20メルト機体が空中をスリップした。そして機体内で幾つかのヒンジやら部品やらが弾ける音が聞こえた。
Captain Sistra Nara was one of the “Three Furies” of Fury Division. The
Division's nickname came from the three of them – Captain Sistra Nara of the
Beauty of a Bullet, Captain Ilin Burak of a Kiss for Yntil, and Captain Mar
Laquesta of the ground forces. This was backed up by their general commander,
Delict Pursand. They called it the Women's Division. Mar was lying dead in a
flaming puddle of incendiary fluid, Ilin was coming under large volume
armor-piercing howitzer fire, Sistra was taking heavy anti-aircraft ground
fire, and Delict was busy trying to make a clean slate of a royal mess. Seems
the reputation of the division was going to change soon.
The Beauty of a Bullet shuddered as multiple launched flechette mines poked
holes into the superstructure. Individually they didn't by definition do much
harm, but they did undermine the integrity of the hull, allowing the heavy
anti-aircraft shot to rupture the vessel. Every time the craft shuddered, she
was closer to her ship dropping out from underneath her.
Nara turned to her communications officer. “Denken, I need Pursand on the wire
right now. We're coming under heavier fire, and she's told us to hold
position. Unless we get some kind of fire support, we'll be holding air as the
ship falls apart around us.”
Captain Del Yeago was in command of the Krushaltsha, one of the new line of
Gariagull-class light cruisers out of Crundalt. These “light” cruisers bore
enough firepower to have been light dreadnoughts in early years, but times had
changed, and rather incredible firepower and defensive capability was now in
his command. Unfortunately, despite the two new-model heavies floating about
the battlefield for the enemy, Yeago had to hang back because the Gariagull
didn't have the ability to thwart fighter assaults. She instead remained
behind air cover and ground-based protection.
The general commander, Felind Murmura, felt confident of victory. Yeago did
not. He didn't have as much experience in battle, but he knew how to count
flies as they perished in the smoke, and more of their flies were dying than
the enemy's. It was clear to him that, despite the Krushaltsha keeping the
enemy warships at bay, the enemy was obtaining air superiority.
Fortunately, his orders gave him some discretion. “Kredlin, approach seventy
to coordinate G-19. Burcante, prepare gun assault on ground forces for when we
arrive.”
He'd keep out of the gunsights of anti-aircraft while clearing them out, thus
freeing the air fleet to focus on the air. It's what they had been doing. It
was boring work that didn't earn much in the way of glory, but it was useful
work that won battles. Plus, the ground forces were terrified of it, so at
least he got respect from somewhere.
Somewhere in the Beauty of a Bullet, something ruptured. A shudder went
through her hull as a critical system decided it wasn't going to work half as
hard as it used to, and it was taking as much of the rest of the craft along
with it as it could.
Captain Nara spun to face her deck officer. “Priscean, tell me what that
was.”
Dini Priscean, who had hoped to live long enough to see his own command one
day, listened to the comm. “Engineering reports a reserve aeronautic fuel tank
burst and ignited. Damage control underway.”
Nara turned towards communications. “Denken, where's the commander?”
Denken finally chimed in. “Commander instructs that you may pull back minimal
distance to ensure survival, but insists we keep this position clear of enemy
forces.”
Nara could have choked somebody. “It's already swarming with enemy forces, how
the hell are we supposed to stop them? Tell her to get ground forces over
here. We're leaving.” Just as she started to issue repositioning
instructions, her telemetry officer called out.
“Captain, Crundalt cruiser has adjusted course and is now en route, bearing
us.”
Nara stopped for a moment and, while calling out instructions to her helmsman,
moved to the side view. There was the cruiser, coming down in their direction.
In between them… no friendly anti-aircraft, and a gap in the air cover.
Somehow, the Red Sea had parted, and now Moses was coming down to beat her
with his stick.
“Crundalt support cruiser mobile, bearing towards coordinate 128-92.” Captain
Burak stopped as she heard Stales announce this. She looked at the map and
realized that it was a course direct to the Beauty of a Bullet.
She said to nobody in particular, “It's bearing down on Sistra.”
The aircraft coming in on them had lightened a bit, and she looked out. For
all the air war going on, it was suddenly quite peaceful. That was when it
dawned on her.
“Visturen, set course heading thirty right, four-fifths burn. Prepare to turn
ninety left at full burn on my mark.” The initial course would set them into
the area just clearing of the cruiser's control, but the second course would
tend to put the Kiss for Yntil directly in its area of control.
Deck officer Radley was a bit concerned. “Captain, request plan update.”
When Captain Burak smiled in peacetime, it was a pleasant smile usually at
someone's expense. When she smiled in wartime, it was an unpleasant smile of a
wolf looking at a pig with a lacerated belly.
Burak smiled. “So do I, Radley. So do I.”
Captain Yeago turned to look at his telemetry officer. “Repeat that,
Moran.”
Telemetry officer Lojodien Moran repeated himself. “Attack ship two has set
course just outward of our original position.”
Yeago paused, and thought it through. “So, it's going to break up some of the
support we gathered as we break up its sister. Very well.” Yeago had reason
for confidence – the first craft… would it be a heavy destroyer? A light
battleship? Whatever it was, it was already in danger, and the main guns on
the Krushaltsha should disable or kill her rapidly. Then it would be a quick
about-face to confront the other interloper.
Moran called in, “Attack ship one coming into range.”
The moment was coming.
Moran then called in again. “Attack ship two has come about, heading in our
direction at… very rapid speeds.”
Yeago spun to face him. It didn't make sense the attack craft coming after a
ship-killer… except he realized he was facing his fanny towards it. His eyes
narrowed. Attack ship one would come into optimum range just about the time
attack ship two would bear him down.
“Moran, identify precisely the approach vector of attack ship two.”
“Attack ship two coming in one point five off left, speed one seventy and
rising.”
He leaned back in his chair. “Tzerin snare. Kredlin, on my mark cut thrust
and come about one-seventy right. Burcante, prepare forward guns to rapidly
adjust and fire. The bunny's going to hop over us and into our mouth.”
Jagor Yeland, telemetry officer on the Beauty of a Bullet, called in, “Kiss of
Yntil is now bearing one point four off of Crundalt cruiser at full burn.”
Captain Nara turned to her telemetry officer. “What the fucking Hell does that
stupid bitch think she's gonna pull?” The answer seemed obvious. A Tzerin
snare was a Fow maneuver first employed in the Third Battle on Tzerin Valley,
when a Vizelve came up behind a battleship at high speed, pounding it in the
ass, then shifted to a collision course. The other craft attempted an evasion,
but the Vizelve just nosed-up and went high, then cut thrust and pulled the
rudder hard. The Vizelve pitched around, its body acting as a wind-sail to cut
velocity. The fall of the Vizelve hit the rudder, causing the craft to
pirouette, and the thrust turned it into the motion of the enemy craft, giving
it a second look at its ass.
The problem is, everybody knew this maneuver.
Nara made a quick decision. “Come about. We're going to support Ilin. She's
going to owe me a fleet of hookers and more booze than I can drink.”
The forward guns of the Dzazd weren't guns at all. They were rocket launches.
Their range wasn't incredible – they were more devoted to deploying a large
amount of explosive with enough penetrating force to get it on the other side
of armor before it blew. The first launch from a Kiss for Yntil's two heavy
tubes went out as she approached. The cruiser shifted to one side, and one
rocket missed. The other glanced target, detonating outside of the craft,
doing moderate damage. The forward 88mm guns started pounding on it, causing
some more damage. The rear of the craft wasn't heavily defended, but the
cruiser's rear guns made the chassis of a Kiss for Yntil's shake hard.
“Visturen, on my mark set forward jets back, set mid jets front, set rear jets
back. Fire one will be front left rear right. Fire two will be front right
rear left. Fire three will be both mid. Confirm.”
Visturen, who was ever curious as to what the captain was going to do to kill
him before the enemy got the opportunity, prepared the facing commands.
“Forward to back, mid to front, rear to back. One is front left rear right,
two is front right rear left, three is mid.”
Burak nodded and leaned back. She took the comm from Radley, an act that for
any deck officer was rather like pulling down his pants. “All hands, violent
maneuvers ahead. Prepare for sudden G-force without warning.”
Radley then hit the button for shipwide comm. “You may want to repeat that,
ma'am.”
Burak looked at him like he'd rather she had taken his pants from him, then
repeated the instruction.
Moran called in, “Sir, attack ship two's vector is too narrow for a Tzerin
snare.”
Captain Yeago turned to look at him. “What's the vector?”
Moran looked up at him. “It's going to approach to within 150 meters of us
broadside.”
Yeago was baffled. “On what planet does it think it's going to broadside us?
No… it's doing a Tzerin snare. These new airships aren't using aerodynamic
lift. This captain's too certain of her craft's maneuverability. He forgets
that he still needs room to make the turn.” He turned to the flight officer.
“Visturen, adjust trajectory for where she would be if we were… one hundred
thirty meters to our right. That should be correct. We may need to make a
sharp banking turn.”
The rear observation deck of the Krushaltsha had several persons looking in
horror as the face of the attack ship got closer and closer, veering ever so
gently to their right. The gunners opened fire as much as they could, but the
Krushaltsha didn't have a great many guns to her rear. They did have a great
many guns on their flank, so it was only a matter of time. The Tzerin snare
would be filled with failure.
The Krushaltsha's drive system shifted, propelling forward and to the right in
a short horizontal adjustment and a moderate-speed pirouette. The rear deck
observers felt their bellies lariated by their belaying straps.
But they didn't watch a Tzerin snare.
“What… the… fuck…?” After the fact, nobody on the command deck of the Beauty
of a Bullet would be certain who had said it, not even the person who said
it.
As they came about, they watched as a Kiss for Yntil didn't adjust direction.
Instead, its jets burned it into a spin, retaining its forward velocity while
doing a midair twirl. The main guns launched another pair of heavy rockets
that took gouges out of the sides of the Crundalt cruiser before exploding,
shrapnel going so far as to scar the face of a Kiss for Yntil. Her forward 88s
fired over and over again at absurdly close range, close enough that the burst
blew back onto the firing craft.
As the cruiser came about to face where it thought its enemy was going, a Kiss
for Yntil did a full forward velocity 180º vertical axis spin, a maneuver for
which there hadn't yet even been a term. In layman's terms, it kept going
forward at full speed while spinning around to face backwards, all the while
the butt of the Crundalt attack ship in its face getting pounded by her
guns.
It would've been beautiful if Captain Nara didn't know what must've been
happening to the interior of a Kiss for Yntil.
Captain Burak tried to give a coherent order, but the safety straps on her
chair were clenched so tight against her chest that she couldn't take a breath.
She was jammed against one side of her chair, her back threatening to crack
for being bent over the armrest. Her command crew continued their duties, half
of them shoved up against their control consoles and half of them clutching
those consoles in hopes of keeping the controls in reach. One deck officer
lost grip on a railing and flew to the other side, striking his head on a
bulkhead. A large amount of blood remained where he hit.
Visturen shouted, “Firing two!”
The vessel's spin suddenly stopped as the jets fired to halt its rotation.
Burak clutched her head for the headache she was under, and looked around.
The whole crew looked punch drunk. Then again, the deck itself looked punch
drunk. It occurred to her that maybe she was punch drunk.
Just then, the missile crews launched the second salvo. Burak had to remind
herself to give a commendation to them, since they managed to reload in record
time and fire while under significant gravity in the wrong direction.
The forward observation crew of a Kiss for Yntil would've introduced themselves
to the rear observation crew of the Crundalt attack ship, or maybe tossed a
grenade across the gap, if they hadn't been falling in the wrong direction,
wrenched around their waists by their safety lines. For the better part of a
quarter of a second, and for what felt like a full minute, they were less than
fifteen meters apart.
The blasts from the impacts on one ship caused minor injuries to the other ship
as the two battered each other, one with main cannonade and firepower and the
other with rearward chasers. Both craft strained under the pressures.
As the two craft finally parted company, like dancers with one partner spinning
out into a twirl, a Kiss for Yntil managed a second missile launch. This time,
both missiles struck the rear side of the Crundalt cruiser, blowing huge pieces
off of it. The forward observation crew of a Kiss for Yntil was happier now –
if they had introduced themselves, they'd have known the names of those flight
staff now dead.
An echoing whine sounded, the sound of metal crushing, as portions of the craft
became structurally unsound. Continued hammering showed that the Crundalt
craft's shots were still finding marks, and the strain of the maneuver had just
jeopardized hull integrity. A subsequent sound of something metal getting
gashed across the ship confirmed that the hull's structural stability was
completely gone. The ship would, sooner or later, fall apart.
That was just what Radley reported to Burak. She paused for a moment, and saw
that the Crundalt craft was continuing its turn about. It was still going to
try to meet its foe face-on. In its present condition… it could still
withstand a full volley before going down, and she couldn't get herself behind
it a third time, so it would have many more guns on her.
“Visturen, can you hear me?”
“Yes, ma'am.” She sounded rather far away, but it occurred to Burak that she
may have lost hearing.
“All jets to rear, nose up twenty and full burn for a half second. Then cut
all lift and thrust.”
Visturen paused, then completed the command sequence. “Dragonfly,
confirmed.”
Captain Yeago picked himself up from the slump he ended up forming in his seat.
The sudden repeated impacts of some super-heavy explosives lurched the ship in
all the wrong ways. He turned to the helmsman, who was now unconscious, his
safety line having snapped allowing him to pitch head-first into his control
panel. Someone was pulling him out and sitting down in his place.
“Helm, continue bringing us about and face this bitch. Burcante, set all guns
to fire the moment they have arc.”
Moran coughed and choked out a call, “Attack ship is gaining elevation and
bearing us on the horizontal.”
Yeago didn't have time to reply. Just then, the Fow attack ship dropped down
directly on top of the aft of the Krushaltsha, having hopped into the air and
then cut all lift and thrust. Retaining forward momentum and impelled by
gravity, the craft shattered against the stern hull of the larger Krushaltsha,
causing the Krushaltsha to angle upwards at the nose. The reverberation hit
like a solid object throughout the craft, throwing people backwards and
knocking them to the ground. The nose pitched up twenty degrees as the
exploding wreckage of the Fow vessel finally slid off and let go, letting the
vessel come to rights.
Yeago looked around the bridge, seeing it in general disarray. He realized he
was on the ground, his chair having dislodged from the floor. He disconnected
the safety straps and got up. “Is anybody awake? Sound off!”
One deck hand walked over to telemetry. “Sir… I, ah… there's a large ship
bearing down on us, sir.”
Yeago paused. “A large ship?” Then he remembered.
There was a term for what Captain Nara just saw – an aerial “death from above”
ramming attack. It was called a “dragonfly's mating charge.” There was also a
word for what she was about to do. It was called “killing a cripple.”
“Main guns fire.”
At long range, the rocket launches on the Beauty of the Bullet were not
especially accurate. Still, she only needed one to hit, and one did hit,
directly into the weakened stern of the cruiser. The missile managed to
penetrate into the guts of the craft before detonating. The blast came out the
front of the craft, and the whole thing split apart like a banana skin on a
stick of dynamite.
The wreckage mostly landed on top of the wreckage of a Kiss for Yntil.
The Battle of Folio Greens ended indecisively, with both sides eventually
withdrawing, leaving behind people they could not transport. The running gag
is that they ended up forming a massive nudist commune and becoming licentious
sex addicts. The reality is winter set in, and they formed a single community
for warmth and to pool their supplies. By the time relief came, they couldn't
tell who was Fow and who was Crundalt.
The battle goes down in history as demonstrating the potential maneuverability
and firepower of the Dzazd, and also for bringing us the name for a new
maneuver, called the Folio Reverse or Folio Facing.
