Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 7===

A tremendous shockwave slammed into Quenser and Heivia’s ears as they attempted to return to the maintenance base zone. However, this was not merely a noise that vibrated their eardrums. It was a mass of noise that resounded in their gut like they were listening to death metal from a speaker larger than they were.

“Wh-what was that!?”

“This is Charlemagne!! Something has happened to Bright Hopper outside of the chaff missile cloud. It was heading here from 550 kilometers north when it was seriously damaged. I repeat, the Bright Hopper was seriously damaged on its way here!!”

“Wait a second.”

Heivia had thought something nearby had exploded, so he had gotten down on the ground. He now stood up and could tell his body was trembling.

“I thought the Mass Driver conglomerate’s Object was more than 50 kilometers from here. Was the sound of it firing just that loud? Not even plastic explosives detonating nearby would resonate in your gut that much!”

“And what do you mean 500 kilometers away? This is a mountainous region! Did they blow away the mountains in between!?”

“It used a high-angle trajectory.” Quenser’s question was answered by Froleytia over the radio. “It’s the same as a baseball. They fire the railgun at a high angle and let it fall back down! That is more effective for long distance bombardments and it eliminates the problem of the mountains to a certain extent!! Since the clouds were not blown away after the shot, it may not have ever reached higher than 2500 meters!!”

“But…”

Quenser’s doubt was still not completely gone. The Bright Hopper was a cutting edge Second Generation Object that specialized in high-speed movement. It was not normal to have something like that destroyed in a single shot.

However, the situation did not give him time to calmly think. A further transmission came from the assault landing aircraft carrier.

“This is Charlemagne!! We have been unable to confirm the ejection of the pilot Elite, Major Halreed Copacabana! We cannot detect an emergency rescue signal either!!”

“…You’ve gotta be kidding me. It was really destroyed in one shot?”

Objects generally fought at ranges of 5 to 10 kilometers. While their main cannons could fire farther than that, the speed and power of the railguns and coilguns dropped as the distance increased and laser beams decayed as they travelled through the air. The same went for the heat of the low-stability plasma cannons, so it was assumed that they had to get that close in order to pierce the enemy Object’s thick armor.

In fact, it was quite rare indeed for a weapon to preserve its deadly ability at a distance of 500 kilometers while under 1 atmosphere of pressure. High altitude fighters or ballistic missiles that could be brought down with the slightest damage were one thing, but Quenser had certainly never heard of a valid strike being done to an Object from that distance.

And yet…

“It seems Bright Hopper’s reactor has been completely destroyed. The estimated speed is…!? M-Mach 25!? Was that really a metal shell!?” came the report from Charlemagne.

“I-impossible!! That has to be a measurement error! R-right. That was a railgun fired at a high-angle trajectory, right? If it was fired at Mach 25, it would just continue up into the atmosphere rather than falling back down!!”

“Don’t ask me!! It might have special changeable grooves on the side of the giant shell to alter its trajectory to a certain extent, but don’t ask me for details!!” replied the Charlemagne.

“This is just ridiculous…” muttered Quenser. “This must be why they fired the chaff missile. It wasn’t to flee. It was to prevent us from knowing when they were going to fire!!”

He frantically pulled out his handheld device and switched to the GPS map. A large area was covered in white clouds so the various sensors could give him no information, but he caught a glimpse of a giant form through a gap in the clouds. The chaff missile was a type of meteorological weapon, so it used natural clouds. It must not have been enough to cover absolutely everything up.

“Dammit. Not only do they really have an Object, but it’s clearly Generation Two.”

Quenser suddenly felt faint.

That was the Mass Driver conglomerate Object.

Their job had changed from a one-sided interception using an Object to a war between their Object and another Object that odds were good they could not actually defeat.

Quenser stared at the screen of the device.

He saw a round body and a main cannon over twice as long as that body.

All Object main cannons were gigantic, but this one’s was especially huge. The reactor was not the core of the machine. The main cannon was the center and the parts needed to use it in actual battle were gathered around it.

The long weapon was supported by something like a sniper rifle’s bipod. When Quenser saw it, he thought his heart would stop.

Every few seconds, the GPS map would refresh its data.

From that, he could tell the giant form on the map was slowly rotating. It was as if the giant main cannon was now being aimed their way…or more accurately, at the Baby Magnum.

That was when the gap in the clouds closed and the Object was completely hidden once more.

If it got her in its sights, it was all over.

There was no way to avoid a shell flying at Mach 25.

But…

“How can it aim so accurately from such a great distance?”

Quenser gave voice to the unreasonable question that had come to him.

(That was 500 kilometers away. Does it just use infrared lasers or electromagnetic waves? No, the area between the Mass Driver conglomerate Object and the Bright Hopper is filled with mountains. If it was sending out a signal from ground level, the mountains would have prevented it from getting a lock.)

Quenser first thought it must be using satellite lasers to accurately aim despite the terrain, but he immediately rejected the idea.

That would leave no reason for them to blind the satellites with the chaff missiles.

The Mass Driver conglomerate had gone out of their way to fire a chaff missile directly above the Bright Hopper just before it had been hit. That had been effective as a means of cutting off the Bright Hopper’s access to any military satellites, but it also prevented the Mass Driver conglomerate’s satellites from using its various cameras and sensors in the areas below the clouds.

Since they had chosen to use the chaff missiles, they must not have been relying on a military satellite.

Which meant…

“Wait a second…”

Quenser raised his head in a sudden realization.

He looked up at the clouds spreading above his head.

“They’re actually using the clouds!! It’s the same as how they fire the Railgun up at an angle and have it fall back down. The chaff missile created clouds that reflect electromagnetic signals. They send their locking signal up at an angle so it is reflected back down by the clouds and at the target on the ground. That way they can accurately lock onto their target while keeping their own location hidden. That way they can aim from above even in a mountainous area that tends to cut off electromagnetic signals!!”

“That would never work! Sure, they might be able to use the clouds to get their targeting signal to the princess, but the signal wouldn’t just be reflected straight back to them. It would be reflected in pretty much every direction, so they wouldn’t have a strong enough signal to accurately aim with!”

“What if they have some kind of compensation program? Something that can accurately pick up on the location of the target from the weak signal that is sent back amongst the diffuse reflection!! They specialize in space development, right? They could have based it on some project to intercept signals or lasers from military satellites that have been slightly reflected by the earth’s atmosphere!!”

Quenser then grabbed his radio.

He gathered up all his strength and shouted.

“Baby Magnum, this is Quenser!! The enemy Object is using the meteorological weapon to reflect their targeting signal off the clouds! Use your low-stability plasma cannons or something to blow away the clouds above you!!”

The giant Object responded to his words.

The seven main cannons supported by its seven arms aimed for the sky. Instead of focusing on a single point, multiple clouds were targeted at random. With a tremendous noise and flashes of light, giant holes dozens of meters across appeared in the clouds. Quenser was well removed from the Object, but the noise was enough to send pain rushing through his eardrums.

However, the entire 50 kilometer space between the two Objects was covered by clouds. Just opening a few holes was not enough to clear away all of them.

Most likely, the targeting signal was still accurately capturing the princess’s location.

“Shit.”

Quenser estimated the locations of the two Objects on the map displayed on his handheld device.

“Run to the weeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssttttttttttttt!!”

The princess must not have been able to get rid of that sense of danger either. The movements of her Object looked frantic.

Full power was sent to the propulsion device that used static electricity to make the Object hover and used lasers to expand the air. The Baby Magnum moved as if it had suddenly jumped.

It moved so a small mountain was exactly between the two Objects.

But…

A deadly shell tore mercilessly through the air at Mach 25.

It looked like an orange beam of light. It must have actually been flying in an arc, but the scale was so large it looked like it was falling down diagonally to Quenser. The railgun shell seemed to fly in a straight line past the small mountain and for the Baby Magnum.

Its aim was off slightly, but it was unclear if that was due to the mountains causing problems with the radar signal or due to the princess’s excellent reaction.

But even so, the powerful railgun still grazed the Baby Magnum.

An explosion rang out.

However, it went beyond what the human ear could detect.

The Baby Magnum’s armor was peeled up, and about half of the mass of the nearby small mountain was gouged out.

Quenser and Heivia were over a kilometer away, but their bodies were still slammed mercilessly to the ground. Pain exploded from each and every one of their internal organs. They could no longer hear any noise. The great noise had temporarily deafened them. Quenser sluggishly reached into his pocket and pulled out what looked like a hearing aid. He plugged a cord into his radio and stuck it behind his ear. It used what was known as bone conduction.

“…Baby Magnum has been partially damaged!! Main cannons 1 through 3 are no longer functioning!!”

“I can…still go on… As long as I have just 1 of the 7 cannons…”

“Something is wrong with the propulsion device! It is unclear if you can pull off the high speeds needed for battle!! I recommend the maintenance soldiers perform an emergency check of the leg area!!”

Something like a small contrail could be seen overhead. It had likely been created by the disruption in the atmosphere caused by the railgun shell passing through.

Still collapsed on the ground, Quenser grabbed his handheld device. Looking like someone checking their alarm clock after waking up, he operated the small device. He could see Baby Magnum on the GPS map. He should not have been able to see it due to the effects of the chaff missile, but the shock wave from the blast had apparently blown the clouds away. A round hole had opened up above it.

The armor on the Baby Magnum’s right side had burst open like a crushed can. The sharp edges fluttered like the wings of some strange insect. It seemed the center had not been blown out, but it still must have experienced quite a shock. It was no exaggeration to call it a miracle that the princess was still alive.

And…

Another gap in the clouds had appeared over where the Mass Driver conglomerate Object had been, but no Object could be seen. However, it was visible through a different gap in the clouds. It was moving. And it was not moving away from Quenser and the others.

Quite the opposite.

It was approaching them.

(…What is it trying to do?)

Putting more distance between them should have been best for the Mass Driver conglomerate. After all, the Baby Magnum would have no chance of fighting back.

Meanwhile, Quenser noticed circular holes of blown away clouds in various places across the GPS map. They showed where giant explosions had occurred. They were all in areas between the Mass Driver conglomerate Object and Quenser’s unit.

(Early detonations…?)

The sound of firing the shells caused a tremendous roar, but Quenser had not heard any. It was possible they had been fired while his hearing was still gone.

(Could the shells not withstand the tremendous speed of Mach 25?)

Naturally, the faster the shells flew, the greater the air friction. Quenser could not even imagine how much heat would be created at Mach 25.

In that case, it may have been approaching to a distance where it could be sure to destroy its target.

And why was that?

Because this was not a modern battle between Objects where the enemy would overlook you if you raised the white flag. If the Mass Driver conglomerate did not finish off its enemy while it had the advantage, they would be at the disadvantage as they were on the run and would have difficulty receiving supplies. The Legitimacy Kingdom military had plentiful resources, so they did not have to worry about that. With time, they could even have more Objects sent in.

Even if it carried a risk, the Mass Driver conglomerate had to destroy their enemy when they had the chance.

If that was the enemy’s objective in approaching, the Baby Magnum had no chance of victory.

Just after having that thought, Quenser’s body stiffened.

He had realized something.

If the enemy was planning to destroy the Baby Magnum with certainty, what would their first action be?

Quenser could not get up, but he still desperately grabbed for his radio. He removed the bone conduction headphone leaving him in complete silence. He ignored that and started moving his mouth.

“Run…”

He was not speaking to anyone in particular.

He was speaking to everyone in the Baby Magnum’s maintenance base zone.

“Ruuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!!”

Someone who was trying to utterly destroy an Object would never ignore the base zone that was filled with the materials and people that repaired it.

That railgun possessed the accuracy needed to score a direct hit on a quickly moving Object, so hitting a stationary base zone would be no problem at all.

And…

The Mass Driver conglomerate did not follow the rules of war or possess a human conscience.

The railgun shell mercilessly flew toward the base at Mach 25.

Something was blown away, a shockwave spread out, and Quenser’s body was blown up into the air.

Quenser had no way to know how many people had managed to escape the base.

The impact of the shockwave knocked Quenser unconscious.

All the while, the Mass Driver conglomerate Object continued to approach at a few hundred kilometers per hour.