Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 5 (section)

===Part 1===

Mariydi Whitewitch dried her wet hair with a towel.

She was aboard a small motorboat the Capitalist Corporations bodyguard PMC had sent for her.

“So the Ocean Substation was hijacked.”

“Yes, but I wonder why they are waiting to finish this using the weaponized laser,” said her bodyguard.

Mariydi had no definite answer, but she had a guess.

“If that laser blast had the destructive power of an Object’s main cannon, I would not have survived being that nearby. Only blackened ash would remain for you to recover.”

“So its output was too low?”

“I doubt they’ve given up, though. They’ve come this far, so they will work to finish this no matter what it takes. They are probably working to modify the Ocean Substation’s main equipment.”

“That isn’t good. We have no way of knowing how much time we have.”

“I’d say we’re lucky they can’t fire it now.”

The motorboat arrived at Olympia Dome’s shore. There should not have been any work for anyone but the other PMC members working under the bodyguard, but for some reason Alicia and Stacy were waiting there too.

Mariydi stepped out of the motorboat and asked, “What cards do we have left?”

“The Capitalist Corporations Object at sea is requesting an explanation for all this confusion. It seems those at its maintenance base have begun gathering information on their own.”

“Tell them that everyone is done for if it moves.”

“But will the different Objects from the different world powers really be fooled so easily if the Ocean Substation fires that weaponized laser? They have so many sensors and radars equipped.”

“The Objects from the four world powers intentionally create a stalemate situation, but none of them actually want that. The odds are good that at least one of them wants to go on a rampage badly enough to use this as an opportunity. Even if no Object actually does anything initially, as long as there are rumors spreading that one has, the situation could explode. When it comes to the Objects, we need to assume the situation is incredibly delicate. …Dammit. Do we really have no cards left to play?”

If Olympia Dome ended up being drawn into a battle and the thousands of Technopic athletes were killed, people all around the world would explode with anger. An increase in large scale terrorist attacks and rioting would destroy the distinction between safe countries and battlefields. And that could easily destroy the system of monetary circulation that functioned as the gears of a stable society.

Stacy tilted her head to the side like an elementary school student.

“Can’t you just sneak in like before?”

“The difficulty level of getting aboard a completely controlled ship with a renewed defense system is simply too much greater than getting aboard a ship in the middle of a confused firefight. Who knows how many hundreds of soldiers are aboard that ship. Getting aboard would mean every single gun barrel would be pointed at us.”

“Blowing it away from outside would be fastest,” said the bodyguard quickly. “The electric power itself is supplied by the generator satellite via microwaves. If we could only destroy those huge parabolic antennae…”

“You mean fire a cruise missile at them? But they can use that laser weapon at any time even if it is imperfect at the moment. In all likelihood, they would intercept a missile flying in a straight line. The same goes for mortars that fly in a parabola.”

It was possible the laser interception could be overwhelmed with pure numbers, but the bodyguard PMC did not have any cruise missiles to begin with.

They needed some card that could slip past the weaponized laser and fire a large number of shells or missiles.

Without that, they could not stop the Ocean Substation.

If the trigger of a long-drawn out war was pulled with Olympia Dome caught in the middle of those Objects, the thousands of athletes and millions of spectators would be blown away.

Mariydi brought a hand to her chin and thought deeply.

“…Wait, there is something.”

“?”

“Where did I see it? There is some card we can use. I know I saw something. But where…?”

As Mariydi muttered those words, she went back through the information in her head, trying to follow that line of thought.

And then her head shot up like it had been struck.

“That’s right. Athletica’s storehouse!! It was filled with weapons that have nothing to do with the Capitalist Corporations!!”

“My unit already secured the place, but I don’t remember hearing that a cruise missile was found there.”

“No,” said Mariydi while thinking over it. “This is a weapon said to have lost its role when Objects made their appearance, but I don’t believe that for a second. No matter how restricted it might seem, the sky is always stretching out in every direction. Even if they are said to be obsolete, they will always be the stage on which the aces dance through the sky.”

“?”

The bodyguard looked confused, but Mariydi pointed at her own chest with her thumb.

“I am a pilot first and foremost. What I want is their Harpuiai fighter.”