Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 10===

Valkyrie of the Faith Organization aimed toward the giant float and fired their short-range sniper rifles again and again. They did not use full auto, but this was not in order to raise their accuracy. They wanted to be constantly firing, and so they wanted to lower their rate of ammunition consumption.

As could be seen by the fact that they were not particularly concerned with accuracy, Valkyrie were not trying to hit their distant target.

They were providing cover fire for Quenser and Heivia as they climbed out of the water and onto the giant float.

They were ensuring that Oldnick would not shoot the two boys during that dangerous period by preventing him from coming out from behind cover.

“Shit!! They’re firing pretty intensely!! Are you sure this is cover fire? They’re not actually using this as a chance to kill us, are they!?”

“They can’t aim too accurately at this distance with those short-range sniper rifles. Of course, that isn’t exactly reassuring even if they aren’t intentionally targeting us.”

Quenser and Heivia climbed aboard the giant floating plant and headed for the control equipment while keeping low to the ground. Quenser pulled out a clay-like bomb, attached it to the center of the metal door leading into the facility, and stabbed in an electric fuse.

That was when Oldnick noticed them.

He aimed his handgun at the door and fired several times.

Quenser and Heivia frantically leapt out of the way.

“Shit! Let’s get away from the door, Quenser!! That way you can blow it out of our way!!”

“I hope this kills him!!”

While remaining down on the ground, Quenser hit the switch on his radio.

With an explosion, the steel door was blown off its hinges and into the room. It did not hit Oldnick directly, but the shockwave seemed to have hit him. They saw him thrown forcefully against the communications equipment inside.

Heivia fired his rifle into the now-doorless entrance and sparks flew from several devices within. But Oldnick moved his unsteady legs and ran towards the staircase further within the facility.

“That persistent bastard!!” shouted Heivia as he ran for the stairs after Oldnick.

Repeated gunshots rang out.

They did not come from Heivia’s rifle; they came from Oldnick’s handgun.

When Heivia arrived on the 2nd floor, he leaned up against a corner in the passageway. Oldnick was periodically firing his handgun, so Heivia could not carelessly poke his head around the corner. When he did take a peek around the corner despite the danger, he saw that the old man had knocked over all the furniture along the wall of the passageway to create a simple barricade.

“What a pain in the ass.” Heivia brought his radio’s microphone to his mouth. “Quenser. Hey, Quenser!! Give me one of your electric fuses! Toss one up to me right away!!”

“Why? And what about the explosive?”

“Just toss it up the staircase!!” shouted Heivia.

Quenser did as he was told and tossed the pen-like fuse from the bottom of the staircase. Heivia crouched down to pick the fuse up from the ground, and pulled out the spare round for his handheld anti-tank missile launcher. He then stuck the end of the electric fuse into the connector on the side.

He could now detonate it remotely.

“Just fucking die already!!”

While drawing back from Oldnick’s gunfire, Heivia stuck just his arm around the corner of the passageway and threw the explosive.

Heivia immediately pressed his back against the wall and used his thumb to flip the panel off the switch on his radio.

He could detonate it at any time.

Even if Oldnick survived, the barricade between the two would have been blown away. Heivia could easily finish off the enemy while his movements were dulled by the shock.

Just as Heivia was about the hit the switch…

“Wait! Wait!!”

The old man’s voice suddenly came from down the passageway.

Heivia could not peer around the corner. He preferred not to be shot between the eyes.

“I can give you information on the Capitalist Corporations Object!!” said Oldnick. “You aren’t from Valkyrie, are you!? You must be from the Legitimacy Kingdom then. You need information on the Capitalist Corporations Object you are fighting, right!?”

“Planning another slip of the tongue, are you? Sorry, but our primary target is you, not the Deep Optical. You really need to learn how to keep your mouth shut. Also, without you, the Legitimacy Kingdom and Capitalist Corporations have no reason to continue fighting.”

“This time, maybe. But you will meet again on the battlefield someday. Wouldn’t it be better to learn how that Second Generation Object works now?”

(Tch. He knows where we stand. Has he gotten some information on us from somewhere?)

“Also, the information could be used in developing your own Objects. It uses a liquid prism to safely combine multiple laser beams and it uses laser vibration detection to help absorb any shocks. Information on those technologies could help make them exclusive to the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

It was true that information on Object technology could earn someone massive amounts of money. A hopeful designer like Quenser might even drool at the thought.

Oldnick continued speaking as Heivia remained silent.

“Stay your hand here. I will wait here for things to calm down. I do not wish to make an enemy of the Legitimacy Kingdom. All I care about is destroying Greece. And if that means I must oppose the entirety of the Faith Organization, it could work to your advantage.”

“…I see.”

Not only would he hand over information on some Object technology, but he would also destroy a major power within the Faith Organization.

After thinking on it, Heivia came to his conclusion.

“Then I think you need to die.”

“Shit!?”

Just before Heivia unhesitatingly pressed the button on his radio, Oldnick leaped to the side in an attempt to get as far away as possible from the explosive. When he landed, he slid across the ground like a baseball player sliding headfirst into base.

With an explosive noise, dust was blown into the air.

“Gaaaahhh!?”

“Tch. So he can still scream!!”

The type of explosive and distance from the explosive were also important factors, but Heivia had seen a report saying the deadliness of an explosive blast differed by over 70% depending on whether the target was standing or lying down.

Oldnick tried to pull up his hurting body, but it would not move the way he wanted it to. The old man could only breathe heavily as he lay on the ground.

“You…idiot. Do you not know a good deal when you see one!?” said the old man.

“It’s true that nothing could be better for us than for the Faith Organization to weaken itself with internal conflicts.” Heivia carefully walked out from behind the corner and kept his rifle aimed at the old man. “But you aren’t distinguishing between the battlefield and the safe countries when you say you are going to destroy this Greek power. I have no intention of helping someone like that.”

“…!?”

Meanwhile, Quenser remained in the room filled with large communications equipment on the first floor of the facility.

(Dammit, Oldnick. I know you don’t want to die, but where do you think your goal is here?)

Quenser searched for a map of the facility to see if there was a heliport on the rooftop.

A handheld device sat atop the control panel. The plastic exterior was cracked, but the display was still lit.

(Is this Oldnick’s?)

Quenser picked it up.

(It might have some information on him. If we know the scope of his power and what exactly he is after, we can figure out what to do next!!)

He found external links and collections of encryption codes, but the device’s wireless functionality was broken, so he could not access any information stored on external servers. However, he did find a few temporary files still on the device. Quenser worked for a bit and finally found a way to read those temporary files.

''Changes in the Value of Platinum

''How to Use Tungsten

''The Treasure of Electron Mathematics

He found a few fragmentary titles, but he could not access the full documents they linked to. Quenser clicked his tongue and called up more information.

''Oceania

''Domed Livestock Facilities = Information Alliance Made

''The Food Supply Situation

''Self-Sufficiency and Importation

“What…?”

Quenser frowned.

He found some data on Oceanian agriculture. Yet he had thought the Capitalist Corporations and Oldnick’s connection was based on the Treasure of Electron Mathematics that created manmade platinum using tungsten. He saw no connection to agriculture or the food supply.

(No, wait…)

''The Unstable Balance of Oceania’s Natural Environment

''The Impossibility of Future Dairy Farming Based on Grazing Land

''70% of Meat Imported from the Capitalist Corporations

''The Effect of Manmade Livestock Facilities Supplied by the Information Alliance

Quenser audibly gulped.

“Due to the unstable balance between vegetation and desert in Oceania, grazing land was banned. This meant they had to rely on imported meat which mostly came from the Capitalist Corporations. But Oceania plans to use the funds from the platinum mined there to purchase dome-shaped livestock facilities from the Information Alliance. That means…”

A certain world power did not want Oceania to use artificial livestock facilities.

They wanted to drive down the value of the source of funds for those large-scale dairy farming facilities.

To do that, they had to destroy the value of platinum.

It was in the Capitalist Corporations’ interests to cause a crash in the value of platinum using the Treasure of Electron Mathematics.

However…

The Information Alliance-made livestock facilities were needed to improve the unstable food supply situation.

Robbing them of that option meant…

''The Negative Effects of Cyclones

''Worries Over the Possibility of Import Routes Becoming Blocked

''Severe Food Shortages

''Estimated Starvation Levels of Over Half a Million

''Up to 750,000 Could Die Before a Solution is Found

“Those monsters!!!!!”

Just as Quenser very nearly crushed the handheld device in his grip, a staticky voice came in over the large communication equipment that had been partially damaged in the firefight.

“Oh, right.” The speaker must have thought he was still speaking with Oldnick. “Cardinal, there is one last thing I would like to make clear. It is about the method of creating manmade platinum you call the Treasure of Electron Mathematics. The truth is, we do not really need it.”

“…”

“Basically, we just need the price of Oceanian platinum to plummet. The thing about the market is, an expected crash is enough to cause a panic even if there was never any real threat.”

Quenser knew what the man was trying to say.

His face paled as the man continued to speak.

“And so we do not actually need to learn the details of the method from you, cardinal. We just need it to be known that we worked with you in some way or another. In fact, if you are captured or killed by the Legitimacy Kingdom or Faith Organization here, some might decide you never actually managed to give us information on the Treasure of Electron Mathematics. That would be a problem.”

“Heivia!!” Quenser brought his own small radio to his mouth. “Get out of here now! Now that Oldnick is cornered here, the Capitalist Corporations is going to-…!!”

“In that case, wouldn’t the best way to keep those useful doubts alive be to turn you to ash there?” continued the man.

Quenser had no time to wait for Heivia’s response.

He ran out of the facility as quickly as he could and leaped into the sea. Seawater got in his mouth, but he did not care. He covered his eyes with his right arm.

In the next instant, a great flash of light exploded out. It seemed like the light of welding multiplied several dozen times.

Even with his arm covering them, the light stabbed into his eyes. He could not even calmly deduce that the light came from a massive laser beam burning the structure away.

In all seriousness, Quenser went blind for a bit.

That violently bright light was the proof that it was an attack from a ridiculously huge weapon.

It was a Second Generation Object.

It was the Deep Optical.

(Uuh…!?)

“Cough!! Cough cough!!”

His vision started to come back, but an afterimage remained as if a film was being draped over his eyes.

Quenser started to panic. He completely forgot about the tube right next to his mouth leading to the oxygen tank on his back and headed for the ocean surface for air.

When his face breached the surface, the change to the environment became abundantly clear.

The giant, lightly-colored float had been polished like a silver mirror.

Except that was not what had happened.

(A portion of the steel facility was vaporized!?)

The metal had turned into a hot vapor, had been sprayed across the giant float, and then had cooled and hardened there. That made the surface of the float shine like it had been silver-plated.

(God dammit…)

As always, Object cannons were in a league of their own.

Quenser knew he had escaped the blast, but fear still filled him from the tips of his fingers and toes to the very core of his body upon seeing those effects. He could not feel any relief over having avoided it. He had to use his intellect to its fullest in order to come up with a plan to survive, but he could feel his thoughts falling to pieces in the face of his emotions.

That was when the upper floors of the facility fell to the ocean because the middle floors had been destroyed.

The sudden waves this caused tossed Quenser around, but he managed to not drown thanks to his oxygen tank.

When he surfaced once more, he spotted Heivia’s head sticking out of the water nearby.

He had likely jumped out a window just before the laser beam struck.

“I almost died! Dammit, I almost died!! I can’t think straight and I can’t feel pain properly!! I still have all my arms and legs, right!?”

It seemed Heivia had begun to panic.

Quenser then heard a female voice come in over his radio.

It was from Valkyrie.

“Hey, we saw what just happened! What happened to Roybelz Oldnick!?”

The reply came from Heivia who had been pursuing the man up to the very last second.

“How the fuck should I know!? That old man was acting like he had all the answers while talking about liquid prisms and laser vibration detectors, but he sure got blown away with the entire 2nd floor easily enough!! I doubt there’s enough left of him to feed a single fish!!”

“Tch!!”

Quenser heard someone click their tongue and then the radio transmission cut off.

Quenser tried contacting them again a few times, but he received no response.

“I think they ran off…”

“I want to join them!! Our huge-breasted commander told us not to let anything happen to the plant, and look what happened!! How many yellow cards is that now!? Can you even stock up red cards!?”

Quenser ignored Heivia and muttered to himself to gather his thoughts.

“Valkyrie was after nothing but Oldnick from the start. They have no reason to stick around to help with the Capitalist Corporations or Deep Optical.”

But Quenser and Heivia were not so lucky.

The Deep Optical was fighting with the Baby Magnum. If the princess lost that battle, Quenser and Heivia at the very least would be persistently pursued if not the entire mobile maintenance battalion.

After all, they had given the Deep Optical enough of a reason to focus its fire on them with what they had done in the Loyauté district.

They had no idea when the Object’s main cannon would be fired at them in the name of destroying the plant to drive up the price of tungsten.

“As always, we have to charge through the heart of hell in order to survive.”

“Oh, what the hell! Why is it always an Object in the end!? We’re getting a little too close to actually ending up in heaven here!”

While cursing their luck, the two boys reequipped their goggles and the mouth pieces for their oxygen tanks, and then dove down once more.

They were headed for the Capitalist Corporations’ Second Generation Object.

They would not leave alive unless the Deep Optical was destroyed.