Editing HEAVY OBJECT:ShortStory1 (section)

===Part 5===

Meanwhile, the Object known as the Strategic Antenna to the Legitimacy Kingdom and as Aphrodite to the Faith Organization had detected the two enemy soldiers hiding behind the V-shaped “castle gate”. In addition to simple video data, it had accurately detected their location from the heat of their bodies, the sound of their pulses, and the faint magnetic field produced by a human body.

It had also confirmed the presence of the explosion generator and some other device buried in the sand.

But no matter what kind of trap it was, flesh-and-blood soldiers could not destroy an Object. It had likely been prepared to use alongside their Object.

Aphrodite did not immediately kill them because the pilot was curious about the enemy Object leaving the battle. Aphrodite was an Object that specialized in its sensors and radars. It had intercepted all of the enemy’s transmissions and signals. And based on that, the pilot began to wonder if those transmissions had been faked to lead him into some kind of trap. Those two soldiers could be bait.

But that seemed to be a needless fear.

From the information gathered in the battle so far, he had a decent estimate of the range of the enemy Object’s main cannons. And that enemy had moved outside of that range. The odds of a surprise attack were close to zero.

In that case, he needed to hurry up and kill those soldiers and then pass through the V-shaped “castle gate”.

Once he arrived at the maintenance base near Lake Carnegie, he could replenish the chemicals needed for the attachCOIL main cannon. If he succeeded in that, he would no longer need to act so carefully out of fear of running out of ammunition. He could fight all he wanted with the dangerous Legitimacy Kingdom Object and create all sorts of situations in which he could destroy it.

And just as he thought that, intense noise ran through the data being taken from the Aphrodite’s sensors and radars.

The Aphrodite was a cutting edge second generation Object developed to specialize in information gathering, but static ran across its monitors.



And that noise did not affect only the Strategic Antenna.

Quenser’s vision was robbed in an instant as he watched on.

He found it difficult to see even a few meters ahead. All Quenser could see was the general shadow of the giant Object.

The same was true for his ears.

He had no desire to open his mouth and try to taste it.

If he opened his tightly clenched lips even slightly, he felt his mouth would be instantly filled with sand down to the back of his throat.

Yes.

The static had a very simple cause.

It was a desert sandstorm.

Even the color of the sky had changed. The sunlight was partially blotted out. In dim light similar to a cloudy day, the roar of blowing wind and the sensation of fine-grained sand all over his body were both oddly clear.

The Strategic Antenna’s cannons moved as if writhing.

These were not the main cannon. They were the 100 smaller cannons installed all across the Object’s spherical body. However, that was no consolation to Quenser and Heivia.

Any cannon installed on an Object was enough to crush a human.

Quenser gave up hiding on the edge of the V-shaped “castle gate” and charged out toward the flat and open desert.

“Run, Heivia!!”

“Are you stupid!? Do you want to die!?”

“The Strategic Antenna has lost sight of us!! If we stay where we were, it’ll hit us!!”

Heivia’s eyes opened wide and he half-leaped out from behind cover.

Shortly thereafter, large-caliber coilguns let out a roar.

Two shells broke the sound barrier to the point of exceeding Mach 8. They struck the spots Quenser and Heivia had been hiding in and sent shockwaves scattering out.

The Strategic Antenna had lost sight of its enemies, so it had fired on their last known locations. The edges of the V-shaped “castle gate” broke and it was forcibly widened. Large chunks of rock rained down on the desert.

The two boys could no longer hear.

They had not been directly struck, but they had still been hit by a tremendous impact which sent them flying several meters through the air.

“Gbh. What?” As he rolled across the sand, Heivia spoke out of confusion more than pain. “Why can’t it find us when we’re right in front of it?”

“The sandstorm protected us.”

“Just hiding us on the video footage wouldn’t be enough. The Strategic Antenna has tons of different types of sensors.”

“The desert can exceed 40 degrees during midday. When the air is whipped up like this, it can’t distinguish our body heat from the air. The iron sand mixed in with the rest of the sand neutralizes the magnetic sensors. Why it can’t hear us is obvious: it sounds like metal sheets are being scraped together next to our ears and this din is covering the entire area. It can’t use any of its sensors.”

“That’s a nice explanation, but it comes down to being lucky, doesn’t it? If this sandstorm hadn’t conveniently occurred, what would we have done?”

“This is no coincidence.” Quenser gave a bitter smile while lying on the ground. “The princess headed for the Roadshow City area 40 kilometers away from here, remember? Her plan was to blow away the Faith Organization’s carbon weapon with a dust explosion.”

“You don’t mean…”

“That isn’t a simple explosive blast. A large-scale explosion consumes the oxygen in the air and creates a change in atmospheric pressure. All of that ultimately produces a local violent wind.”

Quenser had researched some things on his handheld device earlier.

In addition to the weather data, he had checked the electronic simulation department’s data. Also, the Great Sandy Desert had sandstorm weather sensors set up along the path of the wired internet connection. Quenser had acquired the simulation and the real data he needed to back it up.

“So that’s it. God dammit. So you’ve proven that this world occasionally rewards good people. I’m so happy I think I’m gonna cry.”

“There is one other thing I want to prove,” said Quenser as he began crawling forward along the ground.

Of all things, he was crawling toward the Strategic Antenna.

“H-hey, Quenser? What is it you want to prove!?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” answered Quenser without looking back toward Heivia who had frantically begun to follow him. “A method of destroying that Object.”