Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume19 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 7===

Out at sea, the Princess had stopped the Baby Magnum one step away from the Tiber’s mouth. The Rush stopped alongside her even though they technically weren’t allies.

Two or three of the many explosions were of a different type than the rest. The Princess could tell the difference since a First Generation Pilot Elite’s missions often included shooting down missiles.

(Those were FAE warheads.)

She stared through her special goggles. The flammable aerosol must have burst before spreading out enough because the explosion was small and simply resembled a somehow sticky flame.

Had they hidden their precious FAE missiles among the many ordinary ones to reduce the odds of them being shot down?

Not that it mattered when all 200 missiles were shot down at once.

Septimontium.

The Faith Organization tended to name their Objects after gods, so they must have seen those seven hills as sacred. Or had a faction wanted to make their land seem sacred by naming an Object after it?

The monitor capped the brightness of the footage it showed her, but the Princess still felt a pain in her temples.

But the loud signal noise was even worse.

“Ksh, kssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!! Prin…cess. Commun…check. Ksh!! …an eye…your surroundings…kssssshhhhhh!!!”

“Kssshhh!! This is…ksh…the same laser…as the…!!”

(No, this isn’t lasers. To cause this much interference, it must be plasma or some other kind of beam.)

“Oh ho ho. The answer is laser beams.” Oh Ho Ho rejected her idea over an unusually clear transmission due to their proximity. “Rapid temperature changes and vaporizing the moisture in the air can cause signal interference. Do not be deceived.”

Apparently the unexpected attack had not been aimed at the Princess and Oh Ho Ho approaching from the ocean. The shot passed by well above them.

And that had seemed to dye the blue sky white.

But they were not actually seeing the laser’s own light. They could only perceive the afterimage created by burning the dust and moisture in the air.

The number of beams fanned out at a high density had to be more than ten thousand. Instead of aiming at the enemy and targeting a specific point, they used a massive wall to tear through the entire space. It looked like the 200 cruise missiles had been hit, not any kind of aircraft, but it was still astonishing to see. The Faith Organization had responded faster despite being further inland than the Princess and Oh Ho Ho. They knew exactly what that meant: the Faith Organization’s radars were vastly superior to theirs.

A dull rumbling followed.

It came from near the Tiber’s mouth. Several colossal structures slowly moved along set paths. An Object’s reactor and cockpit were contained within giant main cannons standing more than 100m tall.

They really were colossal gun emplacements at that point.

It was unlikely a single cannon could produce such a high density of laser beams. The sides must have been covered with smaller openings that could fire their own beams.

They now slowly bent and tilted to take aim at the Princess floating on the ocean.

Oh Ho Ho actually sounded impressed by the overly simple concept.

“A railroad? Are they actually moving Objects along metal rails? Oh ho ho. Those idiots! Is the Faith Organization completely insane!?”

“They have found a loophole.”

[[Image:HO_v19_BW9.png|thumb]]

Once, there was a plan to bury a JPlevelMHD reactor below a city in the Northern Restricted Zone to supply power for its 5 million residents. They had also placed several layers of stationary cannons around the city, providing them with solid defenses. …Which was why the attacking Object had no choice but to slaughter all five million civilians living in the city to blast deep enough. That tragedy was the reason behind the one area in the world where Objects were banned.

To avoid the same taboo, Rome insisted they were using mobile Objects instead of stationary cannons. Of course, Objects that could only move along metal rails at the speed of a scooter could not keep up with a high-speed Object battle.

They had to win in a single shot.

They used their wall of more than a million laser beams to tear through the battlefield and the enemy Object, slaughtering any enemy, whether they were alone, in a group, manned, or unmanned. They had created a literal defensive line that was impossible to avoid, defend against, or strike back at.

Their seven hills created the perfect seven-Object system.

By surrounding Rome from seven directions and using their deadly wall of nearly 10 million lasers to repel any enemy with brute force, they had created a true sacred ground.

And in that case…

(The Faith Organization isn’t all they’re cracked up to be.)

The Princess sighed while reaching that conclusion.

Whether they had noticed or not, a radio transmission arrived from the coast.

“This is Viminalis 02 of the Faith Organization Home Country Defense Force. Unidentified Objects, please respond. If you do not, we will assume you are hostile and attack. You have already entered our territorial waters and violated our sovereignty.”

“What should we do?” asked Oh Ho Ho.

“I am not here to battle them,” replied the Princess while considering a few attack options. “This is the Baby Magnum of the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion. We have discovered a critical security hole in your defenses and you have ignored our advice on three separate occasions now. Are you aware of this?”

“You mean your plan to cancel the carnival and hold a mass evacuation of our home country’s residents? I assumed those messages were meant as a provocation.”

The response came with a snort of laughter.

Attackers were always thinking up new methods, so if you weren’t willing to consider the unlikely, you made for a poor defender. If you truly understood that the residents of a world power’s home country and all its tourists lives depended on your actions, it was best to take seriously even what sounded like a drunk’s bad joke.

“This is an important group ritual for the Faith Organization, so we have a duty to keep the event running smoothly. Why would we listen to outsiders like you?”

“If you do not comprehend the threat, then you have no right to obstruct our actions. Now, I will translate that into terms simple enough for even your feeble mind to understand: get lost, you worthless excuse of an Elite.”

“Hostile intentions detected. Now you don’t get to complain when I blast you to kingdom come.”

Someone panicked when she heard that: the G-cups idol Oh Ho Ho.

“W-wait! Oh ho ho. Why does it sound an awful lot like you’re picking a fight with them!?”

The Princess expressionlessly stuck out her tongue.

“I am not here to battle them, but I have no choice if they insist on it.”

“Y-you stupid Legitimacy Kingdom potatoes!! Is everyone in the 37th like this!?”

“Fortunately, the Septimontium system has a loophole.”

“?”

How was she still confused?

Now the Princess felt guilty for expecting her to understand. Oh Ho Ho really needed to remember the Legitimacy Kingdom and Information Alliance were not allies here.

So the Princess just came out and said it.

She slid a bit to the side, silently placing the Baby Magnum behind the Rush.

“They attack with a solid wall meant to destroy everything in its path, so if I use you as a shield, I can rush in and attack them before they can charge up their next shot.”

“Bwfaldfhdslf!? Oh ho ho! Give me a break, you potatoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!”

The wall of light filled the world evenly.

Nearly in tears, Oh Ho Ho fired her Gatling-style main cannons straight down. Her main cannons were rapid-fire beams, so when they hit the seawater, they vaporized it and formed a massive cloud wall at 0 above sea level.

Needless to say, laser beams were easily bent.

Their path could be widely diverted by dust, dirt, and differences in air temperature and humidity. Create a wall of steam hotter than a sauna directly above the chilly February ocean and the sudden temperature change would alter the path of the lasers.

It felt a lot like jumping into the water to avoid a hail of bullets.

Once the fanned-out volley of death wasn’t quite so evenly distributed, she only had to shove her Object into the gap that created. No matter how sturdy they were, bent metal bars couldn’t hold a prisoner in their cell.

The Princess followed this up with a cute comment.

This was how girls treated each other once their crush wasn’t watching.

“Neat, I just found a flaw in rapid-fire beam attacks☆ You did it by firing into the ocean, but I bet a magnetic field or powerful ocean wind could alter their path too. I need to jot this down in my notes.”

“I want to kill her so much more than Septimontium!!”

At any rate, they had dodged the first slap.

Now it was their turn. If they didn’t silence their enemy before the double slap arrived, they would be critically damaged, so the Princess and Oh Ho Ho approached the coast. The other side was the first to abandon peaceful talking and open fire, so it was time to slaughter them in fully justified self-defense.

The two Objects raced across the ocean.

At 10km, they entered within range of direct shots instead of curved shots falling from the sky above. The Princess selected weapons for her seven main cannons. She set the odd ones to low-stability plasma cannons and the even ones to laser beams. The trick here was to fire the plasma first but have the faster laser beams hit first. And the wall of heat from the plasma would bend the light in ways the enemy would have trouble predicting.

“I hope you die a multitude of deaths so everyone can see your pathetic corpse!!”

“Oh ho ho. Your mother must be so ashamed.”

That slow Second Generation could only move along its metal rails, but it was doomed either way. If it followed her main cannon’s movements and responded to the first ones to fire, it would attempt to avoid the low-stability plasma cannons. Then the bent laser beams would burn right through its 100m main cannon.

And a split-second before precisely that happened, something unexpected occurred.