Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 7===

And so Quenser and Heivia were finally able to leave that area of red clay surrounded by barbed wire.

The two of them walked through a thick jungle while wearing Capitalist Corporations military uniforms and armed with Capitalist Corporations weapons. The continuing squall had created small rivers of water between the trees and they tried to leave as little trace of their passing as they could as they walked through those rivers.

“We aren’t getting paid for this. There are no beautiful women around. And yet we’re being told to go fight a Second Generation Object with nothing but puny rifles.”

“Yes, but our savings here will let us go nuts once the day of swimsuits arrives.”

After chatting a bit, the two boys lowered the tones of their voices.

“What do you think?”

“They aren’t just going to let us run off. They’re watching us from a distance. We could probably spot a few of them, but we have no way of knowing if we’ve spotted them all. The locals would probably know better how to hide around here than we would.”

“They can keep an eye on us all they like, but if they don’t tell us where they are, we’ll have to deal with them as soldiers of unknown affiliation if we spot them.”

Since Froleytia was not watching over them, Quenser had a relatively low-recoil 9mm submachine gun hanging from a sling belt.

“What’s wrong with that?” said Heivia who was more used to the smell of gun oil than Quenser. “If we make a mistake, we make a mistake. …To be honest, I have no intention of protecting them. If we accidentally shoot one of them, I can only see it as one less annoyance we have to deal with.”

There was a great difference in the extent of their actions, but Quenser and Heivia may have been as much outsiders as the Deep Optical was.

However, Quenser and Heivia could hardly be blamed for having a bad impression of the locals from the beginning.

“How far until we reach the destination?”

“15 kilometers. But we have this torrential rain and wet red clay to deal with. A normal vehicle wouldn’t be able to get through and something with too much horsepower would make too much noise. …If only we had something with a powerful electric engine.”

“With the weather the way it is, the enemy probably doesn’t want to be out in it either. The patrol routes are set in stone in the documents, but the actual soldiers may not be covering them properly.”

“Let’s pray they’re watching a 3D porn movie or something in the checkpoint log house. When it isn’t gonna get you paid any more, heading out with the possibility of getting caught in a landslide just to be on the lookout for enemy soldiers who probably aren’t even coming will do nothing but earn you an early grave.”

Their commander Froleytia would have hated to hear that, but that was how people felt in the age of the clean battlefield filled with Objects.

“Our goal is the Deep Optical, not the maintenance base. We can’t sit around here forever, so let’s get a move on. We can’t spend too long on just the first step.”

“Heivia,” said Quenser as he looked down at the ground.

With a look of confusion, Heivia said, “What? Are you worried about the footprints you’re leaving in the mud? Don’t be so worried. They’ll be washed away 10 minutes from now.”

“No, not that. …I think I see some kind of box sticking up.”

“Ahn?”

Heivia looked back down where Quenser was looking and spotted something made of plastic sticking up from the red clay mud. It was a box about the size of a computer’s AC adapter.

“…Not good. Isn’t that an anti-personnel landmine? And it’s one of the horrible nonmetal types. It can escape detection by a magnetic mine detector.”

“They didn’t tell us about this! If there are mines, they should tell us!!”

Of course, mines were meaningless if not hidden. But if you did not set them up so that you knew where they were, you would end up blowing your own leg off.

That was why the trees would normally have some kind of sign on them or the area would be divided into a safe zone and a dangerous zone. However…

“It’s this rain. Some of the mines must have been swept away from the signs.”

“So no one knows where they are? And we have to walk 15 kilometers through this!?”

“It’s probably not even worth reporting for them. And that includes any legs that might be blown off,” said Heivia in disgust. “What ever happened to the modern battlefield being a clash between two Objects? Why are they using landmines that blow off people’s legs? Where did that clean battlefield go?”

As he spoke, Heivia reached for the switch to the sensors on his assault rifle.

Quenser frowned.

“I thought you said a mine detector wouldn’t work?”

“I said the magnetic ones wouldn’t work.”

“So we die when the sensor’s batteries die…”

With Heivia in the lead, the two boys headed on into the forest.

Thanks to the tremendous squall, there were few bugs, but the chill of early morning disappeared as time went on. All that was left was the horrid heat of a bath with a broken ventilation fan.

As expected, the Capitalist Corporations soldiers were not performing their guard duties with much enthusiasm. Footprints might be washed away, but the tire tracks of trucks did not disappear so quickly. However, they saw very few of those.

“Everything is soaking wet. Who knows what areas could crumble under our feet.”

“With the risk of landmines and landslides, it’s no surprise they don’t want to go out on patrol. Everyone wants to shove any dangerous work on the Objects and the Elites that pilot them.”

Heivia looked down at a Capitalist Corporations handheld device that contained only the bare minimum of data.

“I think we just passed the defensive line for the outermost checkpoint.”

The area seemed more like a mountain than a forest.

The slope of the ground made the rainwater flow even faster past their feet.

Quenser pulled a clear bag out of a pocket of his waterproof military uniform.

“Dammit, Capitalist Corporations rations are actually good. This one tastes like Salisbury steak.”

“Stop it. Getting too excited will just make it worse when we get back. …Wait.”

Quenser and Heivia stopped moving and slowly crouched down.

The trees of the forest and the pouring rain of the squall made it hard to tell but there were some figures hiding behind some thick tree trunks about 300 meters ahead.

From what they could see, there were 3 of them.

As they were all wearing the same uniform and armed with the same guns, they were likely all part of the same unit.

They were all women, but that may have had something to do with their unit.

It was unlikely they would be able to hear him from that distance, but Quenser still whispered as he spoke to Heivia.

“(It doesn’t look like they’ve noticed us. Are they from the Capitalist Corporations?)”

“(No. Look at their guns. They’re from the Faith Organization. And those are short-range sniper rifles…)”

“(Short-range sniper rifles?)”

“(They’re for shooting robbers who have taken hostages in an urban setting. Their penetrative power is purposefully kept low so the bullet won’t cause any damage to the surroundings after hitting someone.)”

“(If the bullet stays in the target’s body, couldn’t you also say it’s designed to make the wound as bad as possible?)”

One of the distant figures turned its head in their direction.

Quenser and Heivia could not move carelessly. Even the smallest movement on their part would cause a surprisingly large movement in the underbrush around them. The squall was still pouring down heavily, but an unnatural movement would still stand out.

“(But where are they expecting urban warfare to take place? In a safe country?)”

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“(They must not be a military group. My guess is they’re some kind of police special forces. Maybe they’re the group known as Valkyrie. That’s a global divine punishment group that goes around to various Faith Organization owned areas and eliminates those who breaks religious rules. They use specialized equipment and the group is entirely made up of women.)”

“(Valkyrie, hm? It looks like they’re wearing something like a garter belt over their uniform…and is that a shell cup bra? A bra that doesn’t actually cover up the breasts is kind of getting your priorities backwards, isn’t it? Are they wearing that for some kind of ideological reason?)”

“(It’s probably just the tastes of the higher ups. Dammit, it’s a shame they’re from the Faith Organization. That is one nice ass.)”

“(You should probably stop that. Valkyrie is basically the enforcer of public morals in the Faith Organization. I get the feeling they wouldn’t appreciate jokes like that.)”

“(That depends on their specific religious sect. If they worship a god of fertility or a mother goddess, they can be rather proactive about sleeping around a lot. The stories about the Greek Dionysus are pretty amazing.)”

“(…So they’re police rather than soldiers, hm?)”

Soldiers left all the fighting to Objects while the police often had shootouts in urban areas. This meant it was entirely possible that a police officer working in a safe country would be more skilled than a soldier.

“(Why are they here?)”

“(Well, I doubt they’re working with the Capitalist Corporations. They wouldn’t be sneaking around like that if they were.)”

“(They do tend to not get along with the Capitalist Corporations who try to use religion for nothing more than to make money or the Information Alliance who use the internet to publish scientific analyses of traditional stories.)”

The woman who appeared to be the leader of the three Valkyries had some kind of cloth wrapped around her arm. It was possible they had already had a few run-ins with the Capitalist Corporations soldiers. Either that or they had other enemies.

Quenser calmly observed them.

“(But they aren’t allies of the Legitimacy Kingdom either. We could end up in a firefight if we aren’t careful.)”

“(It would be difficult to take them out here.)”

The three they could see already outnumbered them and there could be more hiding. Also, gunshots would likely draw in the Capitalist Corporations soldiers protecting the Deep Optical.

Heivia slowly held up his rifle.

“(Hopefully, we can get past them without being noticed.)”

One of the figures gave instructions to the other two with a gesture.

The two subordinate women silently moved out of a short thicket.

“(Slowly, slowly. Good, they’re leaving. Damn. Now the trees are in the way and I can’t target them.)”

After the two subordinates moved on ahead, the third figure headed after them.

They were headed in a different direction from Quenser and Heivia. They either had no business with the Deep Optical or were circling around using a different route.

“(Looks like they’ve gone.)”

Just as Quenser was wiping away some of the rainwater running down his chin, one of the figures stopped and looked back around the area.

“!”

“(Wait, Heivia!!)”

Quenser called out to stop Heivia as his trigger finger twitched.

The figure remained still for a bit, but finally disappeared into the forest.

“(Looks like we made it.)”

“(What is Valkyrie doing here anyway?)”

Heivia’s question was a good one, but they had no time to think about it.

Deep Optical was enough of an issue on its own.