Editing HEAVY OBJECT:EX Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 1===

The Battlefield Country of the Antsiranana District was also known as Experimental Battlefield Madagascar.

Baobab trees known to live for more than 5000 years rose from the vast land that was dyed orange in the evening sunlight. The ground was crawling with insects found nowhere else in the world, but few of the soldiers realized their value.

They were inside the Faith Organization’s maintenance base zone.

Several large military vehicles were surrounded by barbed wire barricades. Most of their base was covered by giant thick tents that would have looked more at home at a circus. Some of them were even larger than a school building.

But their maintenance base was made from more than just cutting-edge scientific rapid-response materials.

“Getting irritable is not going to improve the situation.”

That gentle comment came from a girl of about 18 who wore a skintight green special suit with a loose cloth wrapped around it like a swimsuit to avoid exposing the most important parts. Her long golden hair was bound in a single braid which increased her overall gentle atmosphere.

She was one of the three sisters who piloted the Faith Organization’s Second Generation Norn.

Her name was Urd Silent-Third.

She had set up a folding chair, table, parasol, and spot cooler on the orange wasteland and a variety of fruits were lined up on the table. The coconuts, mangoes, bananas, and sugarcane were normal enough, but the fon’omby<ref>Malgache (a native language from Madagascar) name of the introduced tropical fruit [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annona_reticulata custard apple], also known as bullock's heart.</ref> and tamarind were more unusual.

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They seemed to be local produce, but they would not have simply been bought at the market. Pilot Elites single-handedly influenced the outcomes of modern wars, so they were too valuable for that. To ensure a foreign spy had not mixed in some poison, the lowly soldiers would have gone to a lot of effort to procure them.

Another girl sighed. She had a harsh look to her eyes and her similarly blonde hair was crudely tied back into twintails. Instead of taking the seat her older sister had prepared for her, she crossed her arms and leaned against the thick stone wall.

Her name was Verdandi Silent-Third.

That girl of about 16 was also one of the Norn’s Elites.

If all three sisters had been together, it would have been clear that they all used the exact same hair bands.

“Is life as a vegetarian really that much fun?”

“A glance inside the bug cage should tell you what the base’s burgers and fries are made from.”

But despite that gentle comment, Verdandi took a bite of the burger she held in its wrapper.

Her food was also a special provision for the Pilot Elite, so it was a 100% pure beef patty, unlike the normal ones on base. However, the normal soldiers were unaware of the “bug cage”, so there was no jealousy there.

The second sister was not leaning up against one of the school-sized tents the Faith Organization had prepared. Instead, it was the kind of cathedral that one could find anywhere in a European safe country, but its majesty was not lost in Africa. And that was not the only building; there were enough of them to qualify as a small village. Or perhaps it would be better to say they had chosen to build their maintenance base alongside the remains of a village.

The term “Africa” probably brings a great variety of things to mind, but these European-style buildings were surprisingly common. There were historical reasons for that, but the familiar environment was probably a comfort for the people deployed here from afar. There was no fear of morale dropping for a reason as silly as homesickness.

Verdandi looked at the burger she had bitten into.

“Skuld had no trouble eating those things.”

“I think it had more to do with how she enjoyed eating alongside the normal soldiers. That little sister of ours has always prioritized what satisfies her heart over her body.”

“…”

The two sisters fell silent as they thought about the missing third sister.

And then they both resumed speaking.

“…We can’t just leave her out there.”

“No. And the higher ups will know how dangerous that would be. That is why I am not letting my irritation keep me from eating. Stress can influence our condition and that could influence this clean war.”

“So do you think we can make it in time?”

“Of course.”

Urd smiled.

With a sticky sound, she stabbed her fork into a ripe slice of fruit.

“If the alternative is allowing Skuld to escape to a foreign safe country, we must kill her here. No matter what. On that we agree.”