Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume14 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 11===

Now that he was at his destination, he no longer needed the wire. In fact, letting it swing him around any longer would take him elsewhere.

The part wrapped around his torso was not so bad, but the part digging into his right hand was a problem. Once he concluded he could not get it off in a hurry, he pulled out a pen-like electric fuse and taped it to the finger-thick wire.

He detonated it without attaching an explosive.

“!!”

There was a bursting sound several times louder than a firecracker and Quenser looked away. But he had managed to burn through the wire and free his hand. He pulled it off of the hand and retied the part on his torso to his backpack’s shoulder straps. Just like a parachute, he could avoid the previous pain as long as the weight was distributed appropriately.

“Quenser, it’s about to move.”

“Hahh!!”

He wrapped the excess wire around a nearby secondary cannon.

Even if it was secondary, it was still more than a meter thick, making it the same as a small, centuries-old tree.

He just barely finished his preparations before the Jack in the Box jumped again. He clenched his teeth as he felt a strange floating sensation and prepared for the drop.

Immediately after the force that launched him upwards, his body was floating freely.

The idiot thought the wire’s knot may have come undone, but that was not the case. The entire loop of wire had risen up and come off the end of the secondary cannon.

“…Ahh…”

He did not have time for sorrow.

With his support gone, the small human flew more than 50 meters from the ground like a fallen leaf in the wind. If he fell to the ground, he would die on impact. No amount of flailing his arms and legs would help.

But he came to a stop once more.

The Object had more than 100 cannons covering its surface like a sea urchin or chestnut burr. After being thrown through the air, Quenser’s loop of wire had caught on another cannon.

(I-I can’t expect that to happen again…)

In a weird stroke of luck, he had been thrown in front of the Object.

He was right in front of the Jack in the Box’s face.

The main cannon had a silhouette similar to a collapsible parabolic antenna or an auto-open umbrella. The main pillar stuck straight forward and eight jointed arms blossomed out from that like flower petals. Each arm was equipped with the kind of powerful spring used in the earthquake-proofing to support an incredibly tall building that weighed between several hundred to several thousand tons. All eight concentrated their power on the central pillar to fire the lead shell that was shaped like a baumkuchen.

The springs themselves were exposed.

The giant springs could be seen as thick pieces of wrapped metal connecting the two ends of the arms which were bent in a V-shape. When they were extended, the springs would be positioned right alongside the arms.

But why were they exposed like that?

Every part of an Object’s design had a purpose, so there had to be something there.

“The size is different, but the springs themselves are normal coil springs. Are they just chromium steel without any kind of trickery? …But wait. Normal chromium steel…???”

“Quenser, it’s about to jump again.”

“…!!!???”

As soon as he received the warning, Quenser leaned his body weight backwards while still supported by the wire. Just as he managed to fix the wire in place by getting it caught in the indentation of the swiveling pedestal at the base of the secondary cannon, the Jack in the Box made a great leap.

He was in a good position now. This would all be for naught if the loop came off and he was either moved to another secondary cannon or slammed to the ground.

While feeling an odd floating sensation, Quenser turned his head to view the main cannon that looked like a metal bridge from this close up.

“I was right. This is weird. If they were just using the hexavalent chromium to make steel springs, this system wouldn’t work!!”

“Quenser?”

He felt the impact of landing.

One of his backpack’s shoulder straps tore and he was just about tossed out into empty air. This was his only opportunity to act, so he had to make it count.

“No matter how much force they build up, they’re still made from normal chromium steel. So when they release their own power, the springs should glow red hot from the excess energy!!”

Recoil was also a type of force. With the space elevators seen in SF movies that dangled a single vertical wire down from space, having that taut wire snap would release such an immense amount of energy that it produced an explosion rivalling a nuclear weapon.

The same was true of the springs and steel panels containing energy on the level of an Object’s main cannon.

And if the springs were nothing more than metal…

“If they’re constantly exposed to the immense heat they create themselves, the springs wouldn’t last. They should lose their elasticity and stop working pretty quick. The Jack in the Box has to have a countermeasure for that. Does it cool them with liquid nitrogen? No, repeatedly heating and cooling them would only wear out the metal faster. So it isn’t that. In fact, it would be weird if they were reliant on a single system.”

“Get to the point.”

“They’re swapping out the springs. Frequently, and on the battlefield! The earthquake-proofing of high-rise buildings doesn’t support the entire building with a single spring. This would be why they’re having the people of the silo cities make so many springs. They make sure they always have extras and its designed so the other springs support it while each one is being replaced!!”

The Jack in the Box jumped again.

No, that was not it. It had released the springs of the eight arms arranged like a parabolic antenna, combined the vectors to direct them all straight forward, and launched an incredibly powerful lead shell.

He did not have time to follow along and see if the Princess had managed to dodge.

He was thrown through the air from an impact on the level of being hit by a light car from behind. He could not control where he flew. And as his arms and legs flailed meaninglessly through the air, he saw the Jack in the Box actually use its tail pile bunker to jump this time.

“…!!!???”

There was of course no way for him to dodge.

His inertia cancelled out some of the force, but it was still a 200,000-ton mass. It was a bit like being swatted by a giant wall.

He could not breathe.

Something entirely different from spit rose from deep in his throat and clogged his windpipe. Even so, he desperately worked to grasp his situation as he lay sprawled out on some kind of surface.

Not only was he flattened against the flying Jack in the Box almost like a squashed frog, but he was on the main cannon’s central pillar now that the arms had folded up like a closed umbrella after firing. The eight arms had folded up alongside the main pillar and he was caught inside one of the grooves that looked a lot like gear teeth or Island Nation ''naruto'' before it had been sliced. That was why he had not fallen. His back was stuck to the side of the main cannon while ignoring the common idea that gravity should be directed downward.

He could hear some kind of creaking or straining sound.

He initially thought it was his spine or ribs, but bones did not sound that metallic.

(The main cannon has a repair factory in the center.)

To repeat, the Jack in the Box’s main cannon used giant springs and it was structured a lot like the frame of an auto-open umbrella. When aimed, it would open up like a crossbow. When fired, it would close up along the main pillar.

And when closed, the center was not visible from the outside.

During that time, the inner side of the extended arms was positioned right alongside the main pillar. While the two points were in contact, what if metal shutters opened and replaced the heat-weakened springs with new ones?

(…We don’t have to destroy the whole thing…)

He pulled all the Hand Axe he had from his backpack. It was 10 kilograms in all. But attaching a fuse and detonating it would not even scratch a nuke-resistant Object.

That was not his intent.

He desperately used his arm strength alone to knead the clay-like Hand Axe and stuck it to the side of a folded arm while doing his best to remain conscious.

(Even the largest clock tower’s gears will stop moving if a small pebble gets inside. A warship’s rapid-fire gun can malfunction from soot or dust. That shutter opens up, produces a new spring, swaps them out, and closes once more. If I can keep any one step from working…)

The cross section of the main pillar and eight arms looked a lot like a gear, so he shoved the clump of clay into the gap between the main pillar and an arm.

He did not have a specialized spatula, so he used his hands over and over again.

He did not have time to include a fuse.

It was no more than clay like that, but he did not have time to worry about that.

After a few seconds of hang time, the Jack in the Box landed.

Finally, Quenser flew through the air with nothing at all to support him.

He had no plan for how to survive this.

He might die here. He was more than 20 meters up. Those facts blankly filled his mind as he meaninglessly flailed his limbs around during the awfully long hang time.

A tremendous impact struck his entire body.

He thought he had fallen face-first into concrete.

“Gh, bgh…!!!???”

The impact of falling caused his body to sink even further. Something slimy pressed in at him from all directions. He could not process the oddly damp sensation and he started to panic, but then he realized what it was: water.

He had been thrown from the Object and into a river running across the dry land.

“Cough!! Ubwah, bwah!?”

(Damn, it’d be a tragedy if a guy this good looking broke his nose!)

He was fortunate the water was too deep for him to stand in.

The fundamental fear of drowning gripped his heart as he struggled at the water’s surface.

The Jack in the Box was still alive.

“Quenser, if you failed, just say so,” said the Princess. “We need to come up with a new plan. The Jack in the Box is approaching the silo city while crashing into the ground, so the entire geofront might cave in.”

“No…just watch.”

After grabbing onto some rocks rising from the center of the river, Quenser gasped for breath and spoke.

“Everything’s all set up.”

That was when the Jack in the Box stopped moving.

This was not due to the tail-like pile bunker.

It was due to the main cannon that folded and unfolded like a collapsible parabolic antenna or an auto-open umbrella.

The enemy Object probably did not understand what had happened. It kept doing the same thing, but the main cannon would not cooperate, just like someone repeatedly pulling the trigger after their handgun jammed.

It did not matter if the cannon had actually been destroyed or not.

The shutters moved along rails.

So just like a train being derailed by a pebble on the track, the slightest foreign object could throw the whole thing off.

“Its main cannon has two modes: a firing mode and a spring replacement mode. But the two modes are mutually exclusive. So if you interfere with the process and prevent it from switching between modes, the Jack in the Box can no longer switch its main cannon to firing mode.”

“What did you do?”

“The shutters are a series of connected panels running along rails. The structure is the same for a 200,000-ton mass as it is for a small shop downtown. Shove some clay into the gaps in the rail, and it won’t be able to move.”

No fuse had been necessary.

The ten kilograms of clay he had kneaded together with all his arm strength had been enough.

“Your static electricity propulsion system and the elastic metal shell cannon using your prized springs have both been taken out. If you’re willing to keep up the fight with only the tail pile bunker, then I will praise you for having guts.”

Quenser snapped his fingers.

“Now say it, Princess. Tell them this is their last chance to send the white flag signal. Because this is checkmate.”