Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 3===

The sun began sinking below the horizon.

As Quenser stood in that wild land that was being dyed orange, Heivia spoke out to him.

“Come to think of it, what exactly are we going to be doing?”

“Isn’t that what we’re about to find out at the briefing?”

“I’m sure the various coalition dignitaries are plotting to have their own Object take all the glory. Don’t you think there’s gonna be some argument over who gets to finish off the enemy?”

“We can only pray an actual fight doesn’t break out like dogs going after some meat.”

As Quenser walked along, he pulled out a folded up map. It was of the Oceanian military nation. When Heivia saw the old map, an annoyed expression appeared on his face.

“What the hell are you doing? Did you lose your handheld?”

“If the battery dies or sand gets in it, it’ll be useless. If you don’t learn when to use digital means and when to use analog means, you’ll get yourself killed.” As he spoke, Quenser refolded the small map like someone reading a newspaper on a crowded train. “From what the people maintaining the princess’s Object said, the plan is to attack the Oceanian military nation’s secret base and blow away the enemy Object.” Heivia peered over at the map from the side as Quenser continued to speak. “According to the higher up’s information, the Oceanian military nation’s level of tech is actually quite low. It’s to the point where we’re not even sure if they could create an Object or not. The electronic simulation group has created an estimated design for the enemy Object based on what has been brought into or developed here, and it only comes out to what they’re calling Generation 0.5. Basically, their level of tech is too low to evenly give the Object normal functionality, so it’s really just a piece of junk. The armor is especially crudely made, so the analysis says a nuclear warhead might actually be enough to destroy it.”

“Then this should be easy. We have a coalition force giving us over 20 Objects spread out across Oceania. Objects are synonymous with war, so we can crush Oceania by numbers alone, right?”

“Actually, they say it isn’t going to be that easy.”

Quenser showed the folded map to Heivia.

It had red circles in places.

“The Oceanian military nation knows that their precious Object will be destroyed in an instant if we attack in earnest, so they’ve hidden where its base is. That’s why, even with all the Objects we have, we can’t attack it right away.”

“Ahn? But I thought an operation was beginning at sunset. Surely that means we know where this secret base is, right?”

“We have a possible candidate.” Quenser pointed at one of the red circles on the map. “It seems the Oceanians have constructed fake base zones across the land to throw off our analysis. We’ve attacked what looks like a base zone a few times, but they’ve ended up being completely empty. They were talking about having done a more thorough investigation this time, but they must still not know if this one is real or not.”

“Objects are fucking huge. Can’t they tell where it is from the satellites?”

“That’s been used against us. The higher ups have gotten all excited upon seeing a giant 50 meter form and sent out a large force only to find a giant gas tank covered in decorations. From what I heard, those in charge of monitoring the satellites broke out crying in humiliation.”

“That’s quite the indirect attack,” replied Heivia.

The military nation had scattered dummy gas tanks about Oceania because they knew they were being monitored by satellite. Apparently, they had been trying to say, “Look how many Objects we have. Wah hah hah!”

Of course, the coalition force was not stupid enough to fall for all the dummies, but they still had to act carefully because they never knew when what they were approaching would turn out to be the real Object. This needlessly wore down the soldiers’ morale and rapidly consumed the people’s tax money. Because of all this, the higher ups just wanted to bring the war to an end quickly.

“So this is likely to end up being nothing but target practice against fakes?”

“The worst part is that looking at it like that could easily get you blown to pieces.”

No longer needing it, Quenser folded the map up even smaller and stuffed it in his back pocket.

Heivia looked around the area and said, “By the way, we’re working with a coalition force this time, right? So there’ll be Objects other than the princess’s. I hope we don’t end up working alongside a country we ran into in Alaska or Gibraltar. I’d rather not have a supposed ally shoot me in the back over personal issues.”

“Are you sure you want to ask that? You aren’t going to like the answer. I asked the same thing to the princess’s Object’s maintenance team. It’s only a rumor, but-…”

Before Quenser could continue, a giant building passed by in front of them.

Actually, it was an Object.

The giant 50 meter form passing by was all it took to blow sand up into the air like a sandstorm, but Quenser and Heivia had more important things to worry about.

The flag printed on the Object’s armor was enough to almost give Heivia a heart attack.

“Gyahhh!? You’ve gotta be kidding me! That’s the Information Alliance!!”

“Yeah, I just heard about it before. It seems we’re working with those crazy people.”

The Object’s information collection devices must have picked up their voices because the 50 meter form slowed as if in response and a female voice was transmitted over a speaker.

“My, my. If it isn’t the dogs of the Legitimacy Kingdom’s military. It seems we will be working together. Oh ho ho.”

The Object’s air cushion engine keeping it afloat then blew out extra air, blowing even more sand about and making Quenser and Heivia cough.

“Dammit. This is why they shouldn’t let immature people pilot Objects!! Do we really have to go on this mission along with someone like that!?”

“It’s still better than dealing with the Capitalist Corporations or the Faith Organization, so you should probably quit complaining.”

A satirical journalist had once likened the world map of that age to stained glass. Where it had once been divided into many small nations, it was now divided into just a few “colors” showing what group was in charge.

One was a group that insisted the accuracy of information was what determined good and evil and that was trying to create a network that covered the world. One was a collection of super capitalist corporations that felt the amount of money in one’s bank account determined your precedence in the world and what human rights you had. One was a kingdom that was a collection of cultures that wanted to resurrect the old system where legitimacy of one’s bloodline and one’s honor determined one’s social standing.

Food shortages, energy shortages, increasing populations, and many other things were touted as the “official reasons” for the world ending up like that, but it seemed the real reason was the failure and utter shattering of the United Nations in the first half of the 21st century. The shattered pieces continued on in the directions they wanted and eventually reformed into a few different alliances.

No longer did a map of the world’s power balance have a single continent simply filled in with one color. Instead, the countries of a single area freely joined whatever force they wished, making the power balance overcome geographic boundaries. This indeed made the map look something like stained glass. As this made neighboring countries often also be enemies, small scale battles were quite common in that world.

However, all of this had become completely normal by the time Quenser had been born, so he could only tilt his head to the side in confusion when the elderly shook their heads, fed up with it all.

“However, two Objects are being used for this operation, so I doubt flesh-and-blood soldiers like you will even be needed. Oh ho ho,” said the Object pilot.

“Then can we just go to bed?”