Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 4===

Ramil Scofflaw used hand signals to give instructions to her subordinates.

They fired a recoilless rifle which blew away the crew’s cover. She and her subordinates then quickly began moving once more.

“The satellite control facility has been taken.”

“The bridge has been taken.”

“The microwave reception control facility has been taken.”

As she listened to the reports from other units coming in over a special radio frequency band, Ramil fired a carbine at the resisting crew. She purposefully fired a bit away from them and her subordinates actually shot them once they determined the crew would counterattack.

“That just leaves the laser transfer control facility and the engine room at the bottom of the ship.”

Despite using unmanned weapons for their primary force, Olympia Dome had a surprising amount of flesh-and-blood fighters on the Ocean Substation itself.

But…

“It looks like most of them are workers for maintenance and the like, so they haven’t undergone any specialized training.”

“Then this shouldn’t be a problem,” said one of Ramil’s subordinate soldiers with a recoilless rifle hanging from his shoulder. 

But Ramil did not smile.

“This means we must eliminate everyone onboard including the noncombat crewmembers. And we will have to perform a search of every nook and cranny of the ship to do so. That will be quite a pain.”

“We can carry out the search once the main facilities have fallen. Lieutenant Colonel, you and the others construct a barricade around the main block and carry out the work to weaponize the laser as planned.”

“I would rather not have to fear an attack from some hidden enemy. Be thorough.”

Just as Ramil gave that order, she heard a short burst of rifle fire and the subordinate she had been talking to was mowed down.

Ramil frantically hid behind a corner in the passageway, but she looked puzzled.

(That sounded like one of our weapons. Did someone steal one of our rifles?)

She was in what was commonly referred to as a crank-shaped passageway.

The shape was easy to recognize when drawn on paper. It headed straight, turned ninety degrees to the right, and then turned 90 degrees to the left at the next corner. What mattered was that it had two corners that were not too far apart.

The two sides of the firefight were each using one of the corners as cover and the passageway between had been turned into a pathway of death with bullets flying every which way.

Neither side could land a decisive blow while firing from the corner.

How would they pass that pathway of death?

The side that accomplished it would be the victor.

Ramil reached a fiberscope lens that was similar to an endoscope around the corner, but it was destroyed by a rifle bullet before she could get a good look at the passageway.

(Dammit. They must have the better ability to view the passageway.)

This was not a situation where she could carelessly stick her head around the corner.

She used the directional microphone on her carbine to pick up the enemy’s voice. She could hear a girl speaking from the other side of the crank shape.

“You do not need to defend the ship with your life. Let them have the Ocean Substation. As long as they are unable to weaponize the laser, their plan can continue no further.”

“But…”

“No matter how many microwaves are sent pouring down on the ship, the transformer work requires another power source. They can do nothing if they cannot use that. There are three Ocean Substations. Even if one of them is made unusable and destroyed from the outside, Olympia Dome can continue functioning. All of you need to leave as quickly as possible. Do you understand?”

(Not good!!)

Ramil distinctly felt a bad feeling run down her spine. She frantically grabbed her radio and gave orders to her subordinates.

“Alpha! Charlie! Change your current route and head to the engine room! That is your top priority!! Do not let them destroy the equipment related to the methane hydrate!!”

(Shit. Who is this? She didn’t just happen to be here during the attack. The way she spoke, she obviously knows what our plan is!!)

Ramil used hand signals to give attack instructions to her remaining subordinates.

She did not know who that girl was, but she knew her mere presence would negatively affect their plan.

As a true member of the Faith Organization, Ramil was spurred to action by something other than logic. With her instinct giving an extra push beyond her inspiration, Ramil immediately began the attack once more.

Her subordinates stuck only their arms out around the corner and fired their low-recoil handguns again and again. Meanwhile, Ramil poked her head around the corner and took accurate observations of the length and width of the passageway, the material of the walls, and other things.

“Wah!!”

She heard the girl’s voice from the other end of the passageway. It was accompanied by the squeaking of shoes against the floor.

(Is she falling back?)

As soon as that question entered Ramil’s mind, one of her subordinates creating the diversion stepped out to pursue the girl.

But Ramil grabbed his shoulder to stop him.

“Shooting and falling back was the strategy used in the counterattack while creating the Blank, wasn’t it?” she muttered while calmly firing a 50mm grenade.

She did not fire it straight down the passageway so that it would hit the back wall.

The enemy was around the ninety degree corner in the passageway, so Ramil fired the grenade against the side wall.

The explosive bounced off the wall and landed around the corner.