Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 19===

Meanwhile, Heivia Winchell was very seriously about to die in the underground portion of the float as it began to sink, but no one seemed to care.

“Cough cough!! Th-this is not what is supposed to happen to the star!! Cough, cough! Where is today’s beautiful woman!?”

Heivia finally gave up on running and started swimming through the passageway that was half-filled with water as he headed for the exit. However, the float was sinking at a tremendous rate and the space filled with air was rapidly decreasing. On top of that, the water was flowing into the float through the exit, so Heivia had to fight the current the entire way. He simply was not going to reach the exit.

But the goddess of destiny did smile on him on occasion. (Even if it was a horribly cynical smile.)

With a deep rumble, cracks suddenly began running along the wall next to him. Heivia prepared himself for the flooding to grow even worse, but the situation went well beyond that.

The several kilometers long float was unable to withstand the bombardment of the Broad Sky Saber targeting the ECM equipment, so about a third of it broke off.

Heivia happened to be right along that crack, so he was tossed and spun around by large quantities of seawater. The next thing he knew, he had been dumped into the ocean outside of the float.

The third that had broken off lost its balance and headed for the ocean floor.

Heivia headed for the surface while feeling truly grateful that he was not still stuck inside the float. Due to being suddenly thrown out, he had little oxygen left in his mouth.

His head started to pound painfully due to lack of oxygen, but he somehow managed to breach the surface.

“Bhahh! What the hell!? I finally get some air and it’s as hot as a sauna!!”

He flipped past all the wreckage floating in the water and approached Quenser.

“Hey, Heivia. In a bad mood? There’s a maid here waiting for you.”

“Thanks, knight! This is perfect timing. It’s like that first salt butter ramen after returning from being stranded in a snowy mountain! Its value shoots up! And it really soothes you!!”

“…I get the feeling I am being tormented in your inappropriate imaginations.”

Mikfa glared at the two idiots like she was looking at wild beasts, but the two did not attempt to argue as she was not exactly wrong. For boys of the Legitimacy Kingdom, about half of what came to mind upon hearing the word “maid” was highly inappropriate.

“Anyway, Heivia. You have a grenade launcher, right?”

“And what are you hoping to shoot it at!? It isn’t going to do a thing to that third generation cutting edge weapon!”

“I don’t want an explosive. When we were rescuing Mikfa, you said most of your grenades are signal markers used to pass targeting data to an Object. That’s what I need. Do you have any ultraviolet markers?”

“I do, but who are you hoping to contact?”

Quenser snatched the assault rifle away from Heivia and stuck an ultraviolet marker round into the grenade launcher attached to the bottom of the barrel.

But…

“Eh, what!? A rifle is this heavy!? I can’t tread water while…gbghbg!!”

“Ha ha ha!! What are you doing, Quenser? Are you trying to kill yourself!?”

“Oh, honestly!!”

The maid Mikfa had completely bristled with irritation and she frantically dived down into the ocean. She dragged up Quenser who had begun to sink and made him grab onto the piece of wreckage she had been using as a float.

“Lady Staivia’s life is on the line! Leave your gags for later!!”

“Cough…H-hey, Heivia. Receiving verbal abuse from a maid is a pretty rare experience, don’t you think?”

“I experienced that every day of my life back in the home country.”

Heivia looked puzzled, but then he noticed something.

As Quenser leaned his upper body up on the piece of wreckage, he aimed the grenade launcher at Staivia’s Assault Signal rather than the Broad Sky Saber.

“Wait, what!? Don’t tell me you’ve gone over to Dimiksy’s side after all this!”

“I haven’t.”

Quenser pulled the trigger and fired the ultraviolet marker. A mass about the size of a can of coffee flew through the air like a long throw in baseball before a small parachute opened.

“Hey, Heivia. Don’t you think the Broad Sky Saber has a really annoying design?”

“What?”

Heivia looked confused.

Quenser removed the empty cartridge and loaded another ultraviolet marker.

“It has the main body on the surface and the main cannon up in orbit. At first glance, it really does look like a weapon with a new design. But it must suck having to send energy up into space for each shot. They could have just put a JPlevelMHD reactor directly on the orbital main cannon. …And yet Dimiksy didn’t do that. Why not?”

“Well…”

Heivia thought while he watched Quenser fire another grenade into the air. This time, Quenser fired the ultraviolet marker out towards empty air rather than the Assault Signal.

“Dimiksy had this Object prepared for the Royal Duel, right? Well, the rules require him to be here. An Object in orbit would be deemed against the rules,” said Heivia.

“There is that, yes. But they also could have had the main body on the surface but given the orbital main cannon its own reactor. No rule says an Object can have only one reactor. We even fought the Tri-Core which had three. But Dimiksy didn’t do that. If he only needed a few seconds between shots with that laser, he would already have defeated Princess Staivia. Hell, he could probably take over the world with something like that. So why didn’t he?”

“…Are you trying to say he had a reason other than the development costs?”

“It’s a simple issue.” Quenser fired ultraviolet marker after ultraviolet marker as he spoke. “Dimiksy has obtained the ultimate weapon. But he is afraid of the power he has created. If he put someone in the orbital sky saber to fire it for him, they could betray him. And even if he left it completely automated, it’s possible someone could hack in and have it shoot Dimiksy himself. And so he did not want to create a perfect system that allowed the orbital main cannon to be fired on its own.”

“So the roundabout energy transfer system is a sort of safety feature? Even if someone takes it over, he does not have to worry about it going out of control or betraying him because it does not have the energy needed to fire? Dimiksy made sure he holds the final key by providing the energy for each shot individually?”

“Dimiksy is bold yet cowardly, so he will have prepared several safety features.” After placing several ultraviolet markers throughout the sky with parachutes, Quenser gave a satisfied smile. “For example, an emergency targeting evasion system. I just received word from Unicorn at Flightburg Air Force Base. Dimiksy’s sky saber has an isolated emergency targeting evasion system that prevents an attack on the coordinates emitting a special signal from an ultraviolet marker. Even if the sky saber has been taken over by a hacker, it supposedly cannot fire on those coordinates. That way he cannot be stabbed by his own sword even if it is stolen from him. And in case the firing cancellation process can’t kick in fast enough, it automatically moves its aim to a location away from the marker.”

Some static then came from Quenser’s radio.

An unfamiliar deep male voice came through.

“This is Unicorn calling our beloved friend. I will transmit the ultraviolet marker signal pattern verbally. Don’t input it wrong.”

“I’m thankful for your help, but I’m still going to kick you in the balls later.”

Quenser inputted the number he was given into his radio and the powerful ultraviolet lights floating on parachutes began blinking in a set pattern. That blinking light that human eyes could not see made its way all the way up to the weapon in orbit.

The Broad Sky Saber’s camera lenses all audibly moved. It seemed to be only once those ultraviolet signals were sent out that it realized what those things floating around the area were.

“It’s too late!! The emergency targeting evasion system will automatically re-input the targeting information to ‘safely avoid its allies’. You scattered the seeds, so it’s time your own sword stabbed you right in the ass!!”

“Wait, it isn’t just avoiding us? Have you guided it so it targets the Broad Sky Saber!?”

Once Heivia finally caught on to Quenser’s plan, he was dumbfounded.

But then he realized something.

“But that won’t work! The Broad Sky Saber has its own ultraviolet light! No matter how many of those markers you scatter around, it will never misfire on that third generation!!”

“Not necessarily.”

Quenser gave Heivia his assault rifle back and pointed toward the Broad Sky Saber with his right hand in the shape of a gun.

More specifically, he pointed toward the top of the laser space elevator tower on the back of the spherical main body.

“I said I received information from Unicorn, remember? According to the maintenance diagrams, its ultraviolet light is set at the top of that tower. Dimiksy had it hurriedly added later on to keep as few people as possible in the know about his weakness. It seems he did manage to keep it a secret, but it isn’t very durable.”

That was when Heivia saw it.

Vague bluish-white lights were flickering off the tips of the cannons extending from the spherical main body of the Broad Sky Saber. No, it was not just the cannons. The end of every single protrusion was glowing. And this naturally included the steel tower of the elevator.

“St. Elmo’s fire. It’s a type of coronal discharge created when the area is electrified. Unicorn saw this phenomenon at Flightburg Air Force Base after the bombardment from the sky saber. And just after they saw the St. Elmo’s fire, lightning began striking all over the place!”

The seven minutes of preparation time before the sky saber fired were almost completely gone.

In the next moment…

With a brilliant flash of light, a bluish-white lightning strike stabbed straight into the laser space elevator tower. A great roar ripped through the air and orange sparks scattered around like a high voltage power line had been ripped apart.

Mikfa cowered down, but Quenser had a fearless grin on his face.

“The coronal discharge of St. Elmo’s fire acts like a lightning rod. And what is the tallest thing on this battlefield? That should tell you where the lightning will fall!!”

[[Image:HO_v06_16.jpg|thumb]]

And if the Broad Sky Saber’s ultraviolet light stopped working even temporarily, how would the sky saber view it?

The combat area was crammed full of ultraviolet markers giving off signals telling it not to attack there.

And there was a single wide open point in the middle of it all.

The sky saber obeyed its programming and unhesitatingly fired on the Broad Sky Saber.

A great explosive noise rang out.

It seemed the Broad Sky Saber tried to take immediate evasive action, but it did not escape unscathed.

The high power laser fired by the sky saber grazed the elevator tower, twisted it, and ripped it from the Object’s spherical main body. Orange light gathered in the wreckage of the tower floating in the air.

“Heivia! Dive down!!”

Quenser grabbed Mikfa’s collar and forced her head underwater.

Immediately afterwards, the superheated air began to explosively expand. It happened at such high speed that walls of air that were like shockwaves scattered in every direction.

The destruction swallowed up everything within a few kilometers of the Object.

The water must have cushioned them because Quenser and the others were just barely saved from both the shockwave and scorching wind.

But the seawater had been shaken up by the explosion, so they still felt dull pain across their entire bodies like they had been stuffed into a metal drum which was beaten with a metal bat.

“Bhahh!!”

Quenser frantically brought his head above water, but the air was horribly dry. He felt like he had been thrown into a sauna and his throat stung as he breathed in.

Heivia who had also somehow survived shouted out, “What happened to the Broad Sky Saber!?”

“It should have been heavily damaged, but-…!!”

It had lost its laser space elevator, but it had not sunk.

Due to having that elevator tower attached, the Broad Sky Saber’s normal center of gravity was located quite high up. Naturally, having the tower torn away would greatly change that location.

Normally, it would have easily capsized in this situation.

But the Broad Sky Saber had withstood it.

It could no longer move at high speed, but it was still just barely keeping its balance like someone on a tightrope.

And as it balanced, the Broad Sky Saber turned its six large cannons toward the Assault Signal. It fired again and again, but it could not destroy the Assault Signal since they were not main cannons.

And without the elevator, it could no longer send energy to the sky saber.

“Did…did we win?”

“Staivia did. But he can still fire on us in revenge!!”

The strike from the sky saber had caused some large waves. But it was unlikely to be enough to make the Broad Sky Saber miss. An Object was not such a simple weapon.

Its cannons aimed accurately.

The aiming lenses repeatedly zoomed in and out like the Object was glaring at Quenser and the others.

They had no hope of winning.

They did not have enough firepower to blow away an Object, so they could only wait for the attack to come.

And no matter what attack it was, the Object would blow them to pieces.

“…Did you really think I hadn’t thought this through?”

But…

Quenser alone continued to smile.

It was possible even Dimiksy had lost his smile and his features were now twisted in anger.

“I didn’t just interfere with the sky saber to cause some friendly fire. If I created such a tremendous result, you would mistakenly believe that was what I was after. You relaxed because you thought the attack was over. That is why you overlooked it. …You overlooked the other thing I set up. You overlooked my other reason to scatter all those ultraviolet markers.”

He brought his thumb to the button on his radio.

Heivia had seen that motion many times before. It was what Quenser always did when blowing something up with Hand Axe plastic explosives.

But he had a different reason this time.

He had not set up any explosives. And his thumb was continually pressing the button in a set pattern.

And something was emitting that pattern at the same time.

The ultraviolet markers floating above the ocean. He had originally used them to send a signal to the sky saber in orbit, but Quenser continued to send out a blinking pattern even after that was over.

From the beginning, the sky saber had not been his only target.

He was using those ultraviolet markers to send a signal to some other place as well.

But where?

“We got some help from a top ranking Legitimacy Kingdom Object designer. And we have an Object she designed.”

“The Assault Signal?”

“And the Assault Signal had a few pieces of technology added in that were never recorded on the official diagrams. Dimiksy’s faction only checked the database, so they wouldn’t have known. And one of those features can be activated at any time if it receives a specific signal.”

The supposedly stationary Object.

The Assault Signal.

It was a remote control system originally meant to be used to slowly regain balance if the pilot Elite lost consciousness.

Quenser opened that point of contact and used his radio to contact a tropical island.

“Calling our beloved comrade in arms. If you want a medal, I’ll give you one.”



Claire Whist sat in the vending machine corner of the research facility on the Cook Additions Islands. A cable running from the laptop on the floor was connected to some giant device.

It normally sat in the corner of her room as a complexly folded piece of plastic.

The remote control system she had once created to protect the pilot Elite named Excelsyla was unfolded around her like a huge control console for a giant robot game.

Normally, the remote control method required a few dozen to over a hundred personnel to simply right the Object.

There was simply no way it could keep up with the high speed battles between Objects.

But…

In the Amazon district, the Broad Sky Saber’s center of gravity had been thrown off due to the loss of its elevator tower. It could no longer move and its remaining cannons did not have the firepower to destroy the Assault Signal.

In other words…

Claire may have been an amateur at controlling an Object and she may have had to painstakingly check each command before inputing it, but she could still fire the main cannon and blow away Dimiksy Nikolaschka.

“…Excelsyla,” muttered Claire as she operated a control-column-like lever with one hand and brought her index finger to a trigger-like button.

Her expression looked somehow lonely but it also displayed a clear smile.

“Do not worry. I may not have been able to protect you, but I can at least protect your dignity.”

And…

On a battlefield thousands of kilometers away, a shot that would change history was fired.



Dimiksy Nikolaschka may not have been able to comprehend what happened in that instant. Or perhaps he had but was unable to escape the danger due to the elevator tower having been destroyed.

The result was the same either way.

The Assault Signal’s main cannon emitted a tremendous beam of light and explosive roar. Dimiksy had clearly made a mistake when he made sure the enemy Object was properly maintained in order to avoid any complaints about the fairness of the Royal Duel.

The right side of the unmoving third generation Object was mercilessly pierced by the beam of a low-stability plasma cannon.

The beam dug deeply into the thick armor. The internal systems must have been destroyed because the Broad Sky Saber completely lost its ability to just barely remain floating. The giant weapon tilted to the side and began sinking into the ocean.

And Quenser and the others let out a cry.

But this was not a cry of victory.

They thought they were going blind.

“Gyaaahhh!! This is the problem with having your enemy and ally be Objects!!”

“Quenseeeerrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!! If you knew our ally was going to fire, you need to stop trying to act cool and actually tell us!! Then I could have searched around for some protective glass meant for viewing melted steel!!”

Dimiksy struggled, but the ocean coolly swallowed up that giant weapon as if that power-hungry man was being dragged down into the depths of hell.

With his eyes still hurting, Quenser snapped his fingers and said, “Heh. That third generation may have been a truly powerful Object, but people seem to forget that every Object is a true monster. You can’t underestimate any of them.”

Just as he had finished everything off while looking cool, Mikfa chimed in.

“So how do you suggest we avoid this giant wave approaching from where he sank?”

“Waahhh!!!???”