Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 12===

That said, Quenser and Charlotte were not about to charge straight at the mining powered suit. Even if it was not a military model, it was heavy construction equipment designed to efficiently break through chunks of rock and to protect its pilot from falling rocks and cave-ins. It was not something they could handle with rifle bullets.

The one piece of luck was its slow speed. That was likely to prevent as much unnecessary vibration as possible and therefore avoid the risk of unnecessary cave-ins. When Quenser and Charlotte ran away, they were not caught immediately. And as a mining model, their enemy did not have any projectiles.

“This will not last long,” said Charlotte in a bitter tone. “The issue of stamina will rear its ugly head before long. The harsh slope of this tunnel will eat away our strength in no time. Then the powered suit will catch up. If we do not find a way to defeat it first, we will both be crushed into meatballs.”

“I am not putting distance between us to run away.” As he ran alongside her, Quenser pulled a Hand Axe plastic explosive out of the bag on his back. “It’s to make sure we don’t get hurt when I blow it away.”

“Come to think of it, you said your designation was combat engineer. But the shockwave will spread further in this enclosed tunnel than outside.”

“Yes, if you just used it normally. But if you use your head, that can be reduced.”

As he spoke, Quenser stabbed a fuse into the Hand Axe and threw it at the corner between the wall and the floor. While still running, he threw a smaller amount of Hand Axe at the ceiling. The clay-like explosive stuck to the plastic on the ceiling.

“You don’t mean…”

“Just to be sure, you should cover your ears,” Quenser said as he spun around.

Just as the mining powered suit stepped on the Hand Axe on the ground, Quenser used his thumb to hit the switch on his radio and send a signal to the two fuses.

There was an explosion.

However, it did not come from the bomb at the mining powered suit’s feet. It came from the smaller bomb on the ceiling.

The plastic wall crumbled and a shutter of dirt and rock closed between Quenser and the powered suit.

Then the other fuse activated.

Quenser had thought the wall of dirt and rock might affect the signal, so he had set the bigger bomb to detonate with a time lag.

With a large explosive noise, Quenser and Charlotte were knocked off their feet.

Despite being a good distance away and having a wall of dirt and rock in the way, the shockwave swept through the tunnel and knocked them to the ground. Cracks ran through the plastic walls. A large amount of dust shot through the tunnel like something out of an ad for a bath pipe cleaner.

“…You… Just…a bit more…and it would…have been like…we were hit…by a shrapnel…grenade…”

Charlotte seemed to be trying to complain, but Quenser’s sense of hearing had been temporarily thrown out of order, so he could not hear her properly.

He coughed and looked through the dust.

Suddenly, he felt a great movement of the air on his skin. The dust was split apart. Quenser could see something large approaching from beyond with awkward movements. It was the mining powered suit. Its legs were burned a bit black, but it seemed to be moving just fine. It was tougher than he had expected.

Charlotte grabbed his arm.

Quenser was forced away by someone tugging on his arm.

“That level of explosion wasn’t enough!!” 

His hearing had finally recovered. And the first voice he heard was filled with despair.

“But if I had used any more explosive than that, we could easily have been buried alive!!”

“We need to think of a different way to set it,” said Charlotte as she wiped dirt from her face with an arm. “Regulate the destruction by pointing the blast to focus in one direction. If the shockwave heads primarily away from us, the risk of being buried alive will drop as well. We just need some thick piece of steel or…”

She trailed off.

The mining powered suit approaching from behind did something new.

It used its metal glove-like arm to destroy the wall to the side. It then grabbed a mass of rock about the size of a soccer ball.

(Not good…!)

Quenser did not even have time to cry out.

The powered suit used its strength to its fullest and threw the mass of rock.

As it flew at them with the force of a shell, Charlotte pushed Quenser to the side. The rock slightly grazed Charlotte’s outstretched arm. Her slender body spun unnaturally and was slammed to the ground.

“Charlotte!!”

“Tch. I thought it just tugged at my clothing, but it managed to break my arm.” When Charlotte tried to stand up, she grimaced. “And my leg is hurt, too. It is only sprained, but I still cannot continue on.”

“Shit!!” shouted Quenser before grabbed Charlotte’s unbroken arm.

He wrapped it around his shoulders and forced her to stand up. He also took the assault rifle hanging from her shoulder.

“You, stop this. This will only get you killed, too.”

“Be quiet.”

The assault rifle had something like a grenade launcher attached to the bottom. However, when he checked closer, it was not a tool for firing explosives; it was a shotgun-like device made up of many different laser emitters.

While they were lasers, they of course could not tear through metal like the ones used by Objects.

It was a device intended to throw off the targeting device of an enemy’s guided weapon.

(…An IR jammer… It’s not much more than a toy laser pointer. How am I supposed to oppose a powered suit with this!?)

“I am not part of your unit, you are a battlefield student, and the situation is hopeless enough to allow emergency decisions. You will not be punishable under martial law if you abandon me here.”

“You say that, but we’re trying to save enemy civilians here.”

“You, listen.”

“No, you listen,” said Quenser, cutting her off. The mining power suit was slowly but surely approaching. “The first Object was created in a far east island nation. As someone who wants to become a designer, I have a certain amount of admiration for them. But there is one phrase they have there that I don’t like. Do you know what that is?”

“I do not know much about Eastern culture.”

“The beautiful die young.”

When Quenser said that in a single breath, Charlotte glanced over at his face.

Finally, she sighed and said, “Enough flattery.”

“If it was just flattery, I wouldn’t be risking my life.”

Quenser continued forward while supporting Charlotte’s weight.

But they would eventually be overtaken at that rate.

Quenser looked around and spotted a different path splitting off from the side of the tunnel. He peered in, and found a large area. The space looked large enough for a regulation basketball court and it was about three stories high.

“This must be the area for the work other than the mining itself. You can see a terminal for a number of slide lifts over there.”

Despite how large the area was, the inside was quite complicated. A lot of equipment had been brought in. There were conveyer belts that bent back on themselves again and again, creating a bellows shape, and large devices that looked like the concept of “outdated” in mechanical form. A number of large tanks for throwing away unneeded rock were lined up, and a long, narrow work table was set up for the final detailed sorting.

However, no workers were present.

The devices and table had split black rocks left on them.

Had they been on break? Or had they frantically fled once they heard the sounds of explosions and destruction? It was impossible to tell. However, sounds of activity could be heard from a few of the machines, and some of the devices were warm to the touch.

As she looked over the complexly laid out machinery, Charlotte said, “We might be able to hide in here.”

“If he just destroys everything in here, he’ll find us.”

“If we leave while he is searching and use a bomb to seal the exit…”

“That mining model will be able to dig through the rock blocking the exit.”

“Then what do you suggest we do? Are you going to use the larger space to use more explosives? Or are you going to use a slide lift to escape?”

“Well…”

Before he could continue, a large noise came from the entrance.

The mining powered suit had entered.

They had no time.

Because the work area was large and was filled with lots of large pieces of machinery, they would not be found right away. However, just holding their breath and hiding would not allow them to survive. The longer they hesitated, the closer to being truly cornered they would be.

Quenser whispered to Charlotte.

“(I’ll deal with him somehow. You hide over there.)”

“(…You!!)”

She called out to stop him, but Quenser ignored her and ducked underneath one of the conveyer belts. The conveyer belt was supported by pillars about as thick as his index finger, and he could move along beneath it by crouching.

Quenser pulled out some Hand Axe and approached the long narrow table for the manual work. A number of tools were scattered atop the table, but he clicked his tongue upon seeing them.

(No good. Just what’s here won’t cut it. But if this mine is what we think it is, there has to be some somewhere.)

Quenser looked around, but then suddenly stopped.

He had spotted a steel safe by the wall.

It was about the size of a bookshelf, and the door used an old fashioned dial lock.

“Is that it?” Quenser muttered before heading for the safe.

A toolbox had been carelessly left near the safe. It was likely used to maintain the large pieces of machinery and to create additional shelves or tables out of wood.

He opened the toolbox and pulled out an L-shaped crowbar.

He stuck the metal end into the gap next to the door and forced it open using leverage.

The sound of the metal breaking was louder than he had expected.

Quenser found what he was looking for in the safe and pressed them into the Hand Axe he had flattened in his palm. He grabbed the deformed explosive once more and forced off a maintenance panel on a nearby piece of equipment. The steel panel was half as thick as a notebook. He gave it a large dent by stomping on it, attached the explosive in the dent, and stabbed an electric fuse in.

At that same time, a group of machinery built up like a mountain of children’s building blocks collapsed all at once like a pillar beneath them had been removed. The mining powered suit had plowed through beneath them. It crushed the masses
of steel, tore through them, and headed straight toward Quenser.

“Kh…!!”

He had been found.

But given the noise he had made, that was not too surprising.

Quenser placed the explosive at his feet, flipped over a nearby table, and placed it over the explosive. He finished just as the powered suit attacked.

He just barely managed to evade.

Or so he thought. In the next instant, a great shock ran through him.

He had managed to avoid the giant steel powered suit itself, but the remnants of a device it smashed through flew about and a few fragments struck Quenser. He tried to just clench his teeth, but he could not hold back a cry of pain. He could not immediately get back up. He used his arms to drag himself along the ground.

The mining powered suit turned toward him.

Its thick arm slowly stretched out.

It had to know that Quenser had set something up. However, it seemed have determined it was not even worth worrying about. That may have been partially due to the thick armor withstanding one of Quenser’s bombs already.

It was true that Quenser could not defeat the powered suit with just the blast.

But…

“As an intelligence operative, you must have known what that powered suit was being used to mine, right?” Quenser smiled and operated his radio. “Diamonds. The world’s hardest mineral.”

An explosion erupted nearby.

The intentionally bent steel plate directed the blast, and several diamonds embedded in the surface of the Hand Axe plastic explosive scattered like a shotgun blast.

They opened holes in the thick metal of the devices in their path, A few cracks appeared in the smooth plastic wall, and needless to say, the mining powered suit right in front of the blast was hit by a storm of diamonds.

Diamonds were so hard they would shatter, so they were normally ill suited as bullets or shells.

However, while a military model may have been a different story, they had enough destructive power to penetrate the armor of a mining model.

The countless gems found their way in through gaps in the steel plates and became a storm of deadly bullets.

With a great noise and a burst of sparks, the giant mining powered suit seemed to float slightly. The armor split apart. The black oil used for the hydraulic equipment spilled to the ground. That oil was mixed with a liquid of a different color. This other liquid was red and smelled of rusted metal.

The powered suit ceased all movement.

Quenser slowly stood up and took a good look at the powered suit that had been destroyed by a scatter shot at close range.

“…Wow. It’s so shiny. It’s full of diamonds,” he said as if spitting out the words. “You should be glad. You got the world’s most lavish funerary makeup.”