Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume4 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 8===

Even though it was funded by the Legitimacy Kingdom, the Solomon district had long been treated like a blank area due to the confusion over the tyrannical regime in the Oceanian military nation. In other words, it was not defended by a dedicated Object. An Object was deployed to the precious metal ocean mining plant in times of political unrest, but it did not have a unit stationed there for its defense.

That was where Roybelz Oldnick arrived at the end of his swim.

The plant itself was similar to a cultivation facility. The entire facility floated in the ocean. Over 80% of it was made up of 10 meter square frames. The frames were made of reinforced plastic and they floated from the multiple drums that were attached to them. The insides of the frames had hundreds of filters hanging into the ocean. Those filters would gather the tungsten dissolved into the seawater.

“Cough…cough!! Cough cough!!”

Oldnick had arrived at one of the frames at the very outside of the facility.

A man working in the plant hesitated over whether he should help him or report him, but he was unable to even let out a scream when Oldnick held a handgun out toward him.

“Do you have a helicopter here?” asked the old man with bloodshot eyes. “Or a motorboat. Anything will do. Do you have any kind of transportation!? I need to get away from here as quickly as possible. This is a blank area. If I can lose them here…”

Suddenly, a high-pitched gunshot cut off Oldnick’s thoughts.

A bullet hole appeared in one of the drums keeping a nearby frame afloat.

From 500 meters away in the ocean, Quenser shouted, “You suck at this, Heivia!!”

“I can’t brace myself or aim properly when treading water in these waves, dammit!!”

Their target seemed to have resolved himself to shooting the worker who could get in his way.

Quenser pulled some Hand Axe plastic explosive out of the bag on his back and shouted as loud as he could.

“Jump in!!”

The worker immediately dove headfirst into the middle of one of the frames, but Oldnick moved to fire a bullet after him into the ocean water regardless.

After stabbing an electric fuse into it, Quenser chucked the Hand Axe toward the old man.

As Heivia had said, he could not brace himself while treading water. He had tried to throw it in a long arc, but the explosive did not even make it 50 meters.

He hit the switch on his radio regardless.

A loud explosive noise rang out and Oldnick got down on the ground despite being well out of range of the blast.

However, it had been meant as a psychological attack in the first place.

Oldnick did not seem like the type of person who was used to running through the battlefield. He had no idea what the range of danger from an explosion was, so he seemed to have frantically chosen retreat from just the slight pain on his skin and ears from the shockwave.

He looked over at the two boys and fired an occasional shot from his handgun (knowing he could not hit from that range) as he jumped from frame to frame. As there was no cover to be found in that area, he felt the need to make some preparations before a real firefight occurred.

While 80% of the plant was made up by those frames, the remaining 20% was different.

“When we climb up onto land will be the most dangerous part. Even if he just has a handgun, we’re goners if he targets us while we’re defenseless.”

“We have our oxygen tanks and aqua scooters. Let’s dive down and use the ocean water as a shield.”

Quenser and Heivia moved stealthily through the water. The outside of the square frames was made up of thin pieces of cloth one meter wide and a few dozen meters long. With all the frames lined up in a grid, those cloths stretching down looked something like rectangular pillars. They stretched straight down despite the slight rocking of the waves, so they must have had some kind of weight attached to the bottom.

“(Amazing. Is that stuff glittering like aluminum foil all tungsten? It looks like you could make all the construction equipment for a mid-sized automobile factory with just one of those filters.)”

“(Heh. It’s almost as dazzling as my sexy face,)” commented Heivia.

“(Man, I kind of want to take a souvenir home with me.)”

Meanwhile, Oldnick ran down a pathway on the exterior of the frames and entered a facility made of steel. Even that facility was built atop the type of large float that was commonly used for floating airports.

(My odds are not good in a straight fight.)

The former cardinal came to that conclusion.

After all, he was up against a professional military unit with the backing of a world power. They had better equipment and more ammunition. A soaking wet old man with a single handgun could hardly hope to oppose them.

He had also been abandoned by the submarine.

As a cardinal, he was supposed to be a symbol of the holy and just, so something was wrong from the moment he had to stretch out his arms in a desperate attempt to grasp any means of escape.

(I have always been right. I have always been on the right side.)

And yet he had shaken hands with Hyena, a group that had no problem with attacking civilian convoys and facilities that distributed cargo.

(If nothing was done about the expansion of the Greek power, the Christian Church would have lost its land, funding, people, and culture, one after another. I stood up to protect those things.)

To escape Valkyrie, he had shouted to the Capitalist Corporations that the Legitimacy Kingdom was Valkyrie’s ally and had brought about a real war in the sea to the south.

(My actions will shine brilliantly within the history of the Faith Organization! Everyone will sing my praises and revere my name! That is how it should be. Anything else would be nonsense! Yes, utter nonsense! It would be unjust! No one is looking at this properly!!)

However, Oldnick had been abandoned by his allies’ submarine, he had aimed his gun at a civilian worker of that plant, and had fled through the sea to save his own skin.

But the old man did everything he could to avert his gaze from that pathetic reality.

His hopes had not yet been completely destroyed.

He still had a trump card. So long as he had that, the Capitalist Corporations’ Object was on his side.

Oldnick arrived at a piece of equipment that was likely used to help with air traffic control for helicopters. He set the frequency on the large radio to contact the Capitalist Corporations military.

Of course, he was using a civilian piece of equipment that could not encrypt the signal, so Quenser and Heivia could easily intercept it.

The two boys recognized the voice that came in response.

A bit of age could be heard in the voice, but it maintained a core of discipline.

It belonged to the commander they had run into in the Loyauté district.

“Cardinal Oldnick. Do not use that device. Our transmissions must be properly encrypted. We gave you a radio to contact us with.”

“If I could use that, why would I be using this roundabout method!?”

Quenser and Heivia had already arrived at the bottom of the plant. They were now searching for a point they could safely surface and climb out of the water at.

“Send the Object this way as soon as possible!! I thought you were going to cut off the path of any Legitimacy Kingdom pursuers! How did these ones get through? Also…”

“You want to know why that plant you are in has yet to be destroyed, cardinal? Not all operations go precisely as planned. We are currently working to fulfill our quota.”

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance while underwater.

That comment had made it sound like the destruction of the plant had been part of the plan all along.

“Listen.” While too worried to even think about the possibility of his soaking wet state putting him in danger of electrocution, Roybelz Oldnick shouted into the radio microphone with an almost hysteric tone to his voice. “If I die here, you cannot acquire what you are after. Do not forget that!”

“And don’t you forget that just knowing the method does not allow you to produce it. Keep in mind that no one will give you better terms than us.”

After deciding on a point to surface, Heivia removed the scope from his rifle and poked it out of the water like a periscope in order to check for any guards.

While listening to the radio, Quenser muttered, “Platinum.”

“What do you mean?”

“Oldnick first came into contact with Hyena. They were stealing the Oceanian made platinum. And now he’s targeting a plant used to acquire tungsten. I can only think of one reason.” Quenser seemed to hesitate before continuing. “I’ve heard of a project that is attempting to create platinum atoms by artificially combining carbon and tungsten atoms. It’s called the Treasure of Electron Mathematics. It’s a technique in which an atom with an unstable number of electrons is stabilized by combining it with another atom. The old lady said research was being taken into mass producing industrial platinum, so I searched the military database for information on it.”

Basically, it was the technology to create incredibly valuable platinum out of 2 completely different types of atoms.

“Tungsten is classified as a rare earth, but it still isn’t as valuable as platinum.”

“While they are creating as much synthetic platinum as they want, they also want to drive up its value by obstructing any other means of producing it. The destruction of the tungsten plant is likely a means of keeping others from using the same method as themselves.”

While sending out his transmission from the control equipment, Oldnick started audibly grinding his teeth. He then reached out for the last thin life line remaining for him.

It was a connection made out of nothing but money.

The old man knew how risky that was.

However, no card was more effective in dealings with the Capitalist Corporations military.

“Once the system for producing platinum is in place, I will once more be able to stand on the center stage. A single Object costs more than 5 billion dollars, but that means one can start a war after gathering that much money. I will recover my territory from the hands of that Greek power.”

“Do you wish for a comeback that much? I thought the church council had yet to come to a definitive decision over whether this method of production was in violation of divine providence or not. I thought there was a danger that this constitutes bringing impurities into the world created by god.”

Most religions believed that god had either created the world or was largely involved in its origin and therefore all materials would have been unable to exist without having been created by god.

In that case, was it acceptable for humans to create materials that did not exist in the natural world?

Would that not be nothing more than bringing unnecessary impurities into the world god had created?

Many had whispered of that problem, but the central authority of the Faith Organization had not spoken out against the creation of things like plastics.

Creating water from oxygen and hydrogen was nothing more than rearranging a portion of the world god had created. The central authority felt that was nothing more than an extension of the world god had created and it therefore did not violate providence.

“But that reasoning does not apply for the Treasure of Electron Mathematics. Instead of combining atoms to create a molecule, the number of electrons between atoms is manipulated to create a different atom when two atoms are combined. That is different from simply using the atoms as building blocks.”

And that was not the only problem.

The created atom was not some brand new material. The fact that already existing platinum was being created was key.

“Even though this material is created by combining a tungsten atom with a carbon atom, it is exactly the same as a natural platinum atom. This foreign atom is completely indistinguishable from the real deal. Not only is an artificial substance being brought into the world created by god, but this artificial substance fits right in without any problems whatsoever. That may have caused the church to oppose this much more strongly than simply creating some toxic new substance.”

This was different from artificially recreating a natural environment to create an artificial diamond out of carbon.

This was a case of taking two non-platinum atoms and creating a single platinum atom.

It was not merely creating a different form of platinum that was seen as blasphemous.

It was the exposure of the vulnerability of the universal system of atoms and molecules that was seen as blasphemous.

However, Oldnick responded immediately.

The instantaneous response made it seem like he was only focusing on what was convenient to him rather than speaking from a deeply-held conviction.

“I will reclaim the land, assets, and people those savages stole. There is no valid reason to criticize me for that.”

“Even if you have the money, there are many other barriers to producing an Object.”

“It does not matter if I do not reach my goal of an Object in the end. Did you know that the Faith Organization’s exchange rate has been fixed? In order to deal with the exchange rate of the world market, transactions using diamonds and platinum are growing more common than those using our own currency.”

“Yes, but economic analysts have called that a roundabout method of dealing with it.”

“Greek’s primary exchange rate is tied to platinum. If its value crashes, their culture will fall into chaos. My true desire would be to personally send an Object in, but it does not necessarily have to be me who fills that role.” Roybelz Oldnick gave a cunning smile. “They expanded their influence through rather forceful methods. That has earned them a lot of hatred. Once their momentum has been slowed with the chaos over platinum values, others will tear into them.”

Quenser and Heivia approached the facility through the sea in that old man’s blind spot.

They double checked the point and then grabbed onto the edge of the giant float, but then a high-pitched gunshot rang out.

The edge of the float burst open slightly.

The two boys frantically let go and hid in the ocean once more.

“What the hell was that!? That wasn’t Oldnick! It came from the wrong direction!!”

They could not see far through the moving ocean surface. However, sticking their heads above the surface would bring the risk of being shot.

A bullet ripped apart the ocean surface and shot by Quenser and Heivia while accompanied by something like a spear made up of air bubbles.

“It looks like they don’t know exactly where we are.” Quenser and Heivia swam away from that spot while thinking about what to do. “Have some comrades of Oldnick’s arrived?”

“Or have some guards from the Capitalist Corporations been sent out here?”

Heivia floated up near the surface and poked just the scope of his rifle out of the seawater.

Using it like a periscope, he checked around the area.

“Not good. I don’t think those are Capitalist Corporations soldiers.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s Valkyrie. Some of those Faith Organization elites are clinging to one of the plant’s frames!!”

Quenser moved up next to Heivia and took the scope from him.

He checked for himself.

Sure enough, some women wearing familiar uniforms were there. Valkyrie was not running along on top of the frame. They were aiming their short-range sniper rifles with their elbows pressed against the frame for stability.

“It seems they’re as aware as us that there is really nowhere to hide.”

A small submarine could be seen sticking up above the water a bit away from them.

Quenser handed the scope back to Heivia.

“But why is Valkyrie here? Since they’re from the Faith Organization too, is it related to Oldnick!?’

“If so, this could be even worse than running across some Capitalist Corporations’ soldiers. But at the same time…”

Heivia trailed as more gunfire rang out.

The two boys hunkered down, but the bullets were not headed in their direction.

“What? Are they targeting our other comrades?”

“No, they aren’t… They’re firing at the giant float Oldnick ran onto!!”

“Why!?”

“That’s their standard job. Valkyrie is a global divine punishment group that executes any ‘enemies of god’ who have violated religious rules. They’re targeting Oldnick as members of the Faith Organization!!” Heivia reattached the scope to his rifle and then checked to make sure it was working right. “But we can’t assume the enemy of our enemy is our friend. Valkyrie is after the same target as us. At this rate, we can’t avoid a conflict!!”

They were targeting the same person, but any argument between them could provide Roybelz Oldnick with a chance to escape. And any extra time spent gave Capitalist Corporations’ troops more time to arrive to defend him.

“…” Quenser thought for a bit. “Heivia, hand me your rifle.”

“What? You’ve never had any marksmanship training. How the hell are you going to be of any use here!? Do you think they can’t hit us at this distance because they have short-range sniper rifles? With their skill, they can hit us easily!!”

“No, not that.” Quenser shook his head. “I know a more effective method than bullets.”

When he told Heivia what that method was, Heivia expressed his disapproval just as Quenser had expected he would.

“That’s crazy. I already told you, the enemy of our enemy is not our friend! We’re after the same target, so…”

“Just leave it to me.” Quenser knew it would make the contents unusable, but he opened his survival kit underwater. “As with everything, it depends on ''how'' you do it. So just hand me your rifle, Heivia.”