Editing HEAVY OBJECT:EX Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 1===

It was late at night in the center of the Antsiranana District’s Experimental Battlefield Madagascar.

“Nhhhhn!!”

Heivia Winchell stripped off his fully soundproofed suit as if he could not restrain himself any longer. He did it because he was afraid of getting athlete’s foot across his entire body, but the night air was not as chilly or pleasant as he had expected. It was a normal hot and humid night.

He must have wanted to feel the comfortable wind as much as possible because he excitedly reached for his normal uniform as well.

Thus began the undressing scene that no one asked for.

“B-bodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!! This is true freedom. I can feel the earth on my skin!!”

Even if he was trying to relax after finishing a job, he was doing the exact same thing as an old man going around at night in only a raincoat.

The sight must have been unpleasant because a transmission came in from the Princess at Mach speed.

“Heivia, that’s disturbing, so stop it.”

“Oh? What an innocent young lady. Are you embarrassed seeing the beautiful body of Heivia, the super smart and attractive noble? No need to be shy, little kitten. Look! This is the male body!!”

He placed his hands behind his head and took the pose of a Greek sculpture.

“Heivia, the data from an Object’s cameras and sensors is stored in the black box. It can never be erased unless a high-ranking officer requests it and the military council gives their approval. And I think anyone would be able to view it if the military court requests that it be disclosed.”

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Heivia screamed like a childhood friend being peeped on in the bath.

The Princess held her head in her hands because that too was being recorded, but she decided to ignore him.

Frolaytia then gave a warning over the radio.

“Aren’t you getting a little too relaxed? Even if we destroyed the Trinity Style in a single blow, the area is still crawling with Faith Organization soldiers.”

“Heh. Even though we’ve got them all at our mercy with their Object gone? They’ll know perfectly well they don’t stand a chance against the Princess no matter what they try.”

“And that’s why they might make a desperate counterattack when you remove them from your sights. A ferocious animal acts more wildly when trembling in fear for its life than when it’s capturing its prey. You shouldn’t assume they’ll all act logically.”

“Sure, sure,” said Heivia as he zipped up his pants.

Frolaytia seemed confused by the absence of the other boy who usually acted as the brakes.

“By the way, Heivia, where is Quenser?”

“Pant, pant, pant!! A cutting-edge Faith Organization Second Generation is right over there! It can’t move, so I can peek up at it from below as much as I want!! W-wow! This is amazing!! I can touch it as much as I want too! I’d never get to touch even the smallest bit of this kind of classified information back in that safe country school, but there’s…there’s so much of iiiiiiiit!! I-it’s all leaking ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!”

“I see. So he’s being a pervert in his own way.”

Quenser had already stripped off his own soundproofed suit and he did not react in the slightest even though a beautiful woman was insulting him. The dam in his head had already broken and chemicals were pumping out in his brain, so his eyes were glittering in the moonlight.

No hint of the previous covert mission remained as armored trucks carrying reinforcements arrived with roaring engines and flashing headlights.

Heivia took and drank from a water bottle provided by a medic mixed in with the soldiers.

“So how long does this picnic last?” he asked.

“Three hours is probably the limit.”

“Even though we won this so thoroughly? The Faith Organization may be desperate to get that wreckage back, but it’s not like their leftovers can defeat the Princess.”

“True. It would take more than a day or two to send in a replacement Object. But things are different on the other side of the globe. There’s been a lot of unnecessary tension over some unnecessary national borders. They’re using the diplomatic route to threaten us with the massive costs of another battle if we don’t return the wreckage right away.”

“Wow. I can already imagine them giving us a teary upturned look, biting their lip, and clenching their fists on their skirt.”

“So the electronic simulation division, maintenance division, and technological analysis division need to swarm that sugar cube in the little time we have! How much of that five trillion dollar treasure trove we can make off with in the next three hours is up to you!!”

“Hey, no fair!! We risked our lives to destroy the Trinity Style, but you’re letting them show up and take all the credit!? Wait, wait!!”

“Kya ha ha ha! Yahoo!!”

Quenser threw his hands in the air and took off full speed like lovers running on the beach. He had reached a level of geekdom that Heivia could not hope to follow. The armored trucks with various analysis sensors attached drove toward the Object.

Heivia was an amateur when it came to Objects.

As nothing more than a noble that wanted some honorable deeds for his record, he looked to the Object illuminated in the darkness by the large lights set up here and there.

It was a Faith Organization Second Generation and the Legitimacy Kingdom’s codename for it was Trinity Style.

“It looks like a trendy lamp for a piece of imported furniture.”

He was likely commenting on the bottom of the Object. It was only a static electricity propulsion device, but its shape was rather unique. Three curved parts resembling a crescent moon or the grim reaper’s scythe were aligned like an Island Nation ''mitsudomoe'' and each part was supported separately.

“Hmm. Could that be to absorb any impacts?” speculated the Princess.

“You’d have to ask that bastard panting in excitement over there.”

“Ha ha ha!! Yes! Yesss! Maybe I should take some pictures from over there too! Ahhh, yesss!! This angle is the best!!”

Various shouted comments and camera flashes could be heard and seen. Most likely, Perverted Cameraman Quenser was taking pictures with his handheld device’s camera. In his head, the Object may have been anthropomorphized and wearing a slingshot.

The main cannon was on the Object’s right side.

The crank-like arm was supported by two rotating axes.

Based on what the pervert had said before, the Trinity Style’s main cannon fired physical shells with optical technology like a horizontal laser space elevator that launched metal containers. Of course, explosives, liquid nitrogen, etc. could be packed inside for additional effects. In order to switch between the many different types of shells, it had a giant magazine on the left side. Like with a Gatling gun, a tunnel-like ammunition belt curved around the back of the Object and attached to the bottom of the main cannon.

But due to the direct hit from the Princess’s ablative shell, the main cannon was bent and had a flower of metal blooming from within. A portion of the spherical main body was also torn away to reveal just how badly it was “out of commission”.

There had been medics among the support troops in order to provide humanitarian aid to the Faith Organization soldiers that had been exposed to the shockwave on impact. The enemy had raised the White Flag and put their hands in the air, so ending the match was the gentlemanly thing to do.

“But why is this thing called the Trinity Style?”

“Thanks to some unpleasant rumors,” replied Frolaytia over the radio. “The intelligence division and the electronic simulation division are constantly gathering data on enemy Objects. …However, there are a lot of mysteries surrounding the Trinity Style. Or maybe I should say nothing seems to match up between the reports that come in. The only point in common is how it searches for its target using sounds.”

“What?”

“On one battlefield, it will use a laser beam main cannon, but when we challenge it on that assumption, a railgun shell will fly our way. It might be using static electricity to move now, but on the next battlefield, it will be using an air cushion. Sometimes even the overall silhouette is different. And of course, the more our predictions are wrong, the less of an advantage we have in battle. That’s the biggest thing about its impressive records.”

“…”

“There’s even a theory that it uses different Pilot Elites for different battles. It’s hard to believe, but long-distance photographs have indeed shown different people and the tactics it uses completely change. This is unprecedented. This could destroy the idea of one Elite per Object.”

A strange feeling ran down Heivia’s previously elated back.

The spoiled noble hesitantly looked back to the metal corpse as Frolaytia continued.

“There are a number of theories. Maybe there are multiple Trinity Style Objects. Maybe it can take a number of attachments to share its main cannon with other models. Whatever the case, we haven’t found the answer. …It really was fortunate that the Princess took it out in one shot. I just hope we can answer these questions before returning it to the Faith Organization.”

That ominous atmosphere may have been why she was being so cautious and had sent the Baby Magnum in.

“Just be careful. The Pilot Elite probably hasn’t escaped the Object even though they’ve raised the White Flag. It’s probably just malfunctioning equipment, but we don’t know who they are. If you assume they’re some frail little thing, you might end up getting your brains blown out.”