Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume15 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 13===

The Underground Railroad seemed to weave through the gaps in Manhattan’s structure, but it only went so far.

Heivia Winchell groaned next to a metal shutter thick enough to be a submarine door.

“This is the worst, dammit. Couldn’t I go jerk off, take a nap, and wake up to find peace has come to the world?”

Silver-haired, brown-skinned Lendy Farolito responded with no movement of her emotions.

“If one of the four major powers is completely broken, the entire planet will plummet into an uncontrollable war. You need to give up on the idea of being able to escape.”

A mixture of several deep metallic noises approached. While pressed up against the wall next to the door, Heivia and Myonri looked puzzled and turned toward the source of the noise just in time to see the approach of a nice body with G-cups and long hair worn in gorgeous ringlet curls. 

[[Image:HO_v15_235.png|thumb]]

It was the Information Alliance Pilot Elite and top idol. However…

“She’s huge. Isn’t she just way, way too big!? Sh-she’s gotta be like four meters or something! She could probably make a slam dunk while just standing there!!”

“Oh ho ho. This is technically classified as a powered suit.”

“Powered…”

Myonri was shocked into silence, so silver-haired, brown-skinned Lendy explained.

“It is an impractical concept machine that was displayed at an Information Alliance robot show. There is almost no good use for it, but we receive maintenance and inspection funding just by having it sleeping in storage, so it is a profitable treasure for our unit.”

Its history involved some unbelievable grownup issues.

“Wh-what are those huge things it’s holding like double handguns?” asked Myonri. “They look more like exposed lab equipment than weapons.”

“Those are rapid-fire beam cannons meant to be carried by truck and fixed to a turret. They were originally meant for assassinations on the surface or in the air. I believe they were developed to vaporize VIP planes and armored cars that are using routes that avoid the Object and all its laser beams. Although they are apparently quite underpowered as they have no reactor to power them.”

“Hyehh. Is it supposed to be mimicking the Rush?”

“What do the weapons matter?” complained Heivia. “That huge thing could break through a tank’s hatch with nothing more than its fists…”

The sense of scale was way off, but the proportions were exactly those of the human G-cup idol. Whatever the actual bust size was, when you looked at it proportionally, the G-cups were still G-cups! And perhaps due to how it was maintained, it gave off a floral scent similar to shampoo or conditioner. It seemed idols really did smell of soap rather than perfume.

And when the 4m G-cups stood next to Heivia’s less than 2 meters, he could not help but have a low angle. He slapped his hand against the fake butt.

“Oh, ohh. Now this is a weird feeling. The fact that it’s soft is actually creepy. I feel a pressure coming from this ass. I’m afraid I’ll be buried alive…”

“The first time I can write off as an accident, but the second time will be considered intentional and I will kick. Oh ho ho. Just like a thoroughbred.”

This was no time to be focused on an enemy idol. He could not stop his balls from shriveling up in fear. After all, this would be more than an impact from dual-wielded steel construction beams. Those cutting-edge weapons were meant to be carried by truck and fixed to the ground with stakes, yet she was holding one in each hand. If that solid grip grabbed his balls, it would be the end of the world.

Myonri was also overwhelmed by rapid-fire beam cannons that looked like reinforced glass lab equipment forcibly covered with composite armor.

“Th-those aren’t exactly disguised. I thought you had to hide your actions from the main Information Alliance group here.”

“The best place to hide a tree is a forest. Melly’s side is skilled at gathering information, so we just have to use that against them. Look at this. Glance.”

“Made in…Nau Yoke?”

“That’s not even close to spelled right. And it has a price tag for $199.99! There’s no way truck-loaded weapons would be that cheap! What, are they like a used car that’s cursed to kill each of its owners in an accident!?”

No one would think those were real now. Heivia had trouble believing the way the Information Alliance did things.

“I-I guess it’s all about making them realistic, huh? Well, I don’t care. Just give me some Information Alliance VR goggles. I’ll shut myself in my own world and stroke my you-know-what, so go save the world without me.”

Whatever the case, if he hopped in a rowboat and left Manhattan, he would be vaporized by one of countless cannons the instant he was far enough away. Heivia, Myonri, and the rest of the Legitimacy Kingdom potatoes had to solve the Manhattan problem if they were to return alive.

“I don’t know or care what hand signs and footwork the Information Alliance uses. We’ll do things our own way, so try not to trip us up.”

“As long as you act as a shield or a diversion, I do not particularly care.”

“Okay, I get it. You can shut up now, plump commander. C’mon, let’s get onboard, Myonri.”

They could not seem to work together in the slightest.

Without even a basic three-count, the Legitimacy Kingdom and Information Alliance began moving independently.

The 30m, 12ton yellow school bus loaded with the potatoes broke through the thick metal shutter like it was wet paper.

The bright sunlight briefly blinded Heivia and the others as it stabbed into their darkness-adjusted eyes.

They were in Midtown West, Midtown.

“Oh, geez. Here we are on Broadway!!”

“I wish we could’ve seen it at night.”

Electronic signs and giant monitors surrounded a road as large as a runway. World-class theatres lined either side of the street. Needless to say, this was the pinnacle of the theatrical and film world. The flower or trumpet-like security cameras had detected their presence. Many eyes gathered on them. Heivia felt a definite pressure, like the air had solidified. Tires screeched as the giant vehicles were forced around. The three school busses knocked the poor civilian cars out of the way lightly enough to not kill anyone and finally arrived on Manhattan’s largest main street.

Lendy whispered quietly aboard the same large vehicle.

“We’ve been spotted.”

“Those Bullmites are looking pretty adorable now. We’re the big-ass mama who protects the kids on the way home from school!!”

Several boulder-like masses sat in the middle of the intersection. They were the composite armor bulls sitting with their four legs folded up below them. Those serverless unmanned weapons would use flexible actions with just their simple circuits. They would probably function as an immovable barrier in a head-on collision from a normal off-road vehicle, but the yellow school busses rode over them and crushed them instead of knocking them out of the way. Heivia’s group briefly left gravity’s grasp and passed through the intersection with a dreadful impact.

“Passing the Bullmites will increase the alert level. Keep an eye on the sky.”

“Then it’s about time we brought out the trick hidden up our sleeve. Let’s go, Myonri!”

Just then, a giant shadow appeared overhead. What was it? The silhouette resembled a broad, double-edged sword and it seemed to be loaded with a rocket engine. It even opened something like a square umbrella to make sure it did not overshoot them.

It did not feel remotely real to the potatoes, so Lendy shouted in their place.

“That’s a Smart Meteor. It’s an unmanned urban aerial bombing aircraft! Watch out!!”

Did it too coordinate using on-site decisions like a bee or ant? Including visitors, Manhattan had 10 million people walking around, but it did not matter that they were at Times Square, the most densely populated area there. The belly of the broad double-edge sword body opened and a precision-guided bomb was released high in the sky. That bomb used GPS and the movements of its tail fins to achieve a margin of error of only 30cm.

A moment later, an explosive was used to slice open the yellow school bus’s rear end from within. And like a sword being drawn from its scabbard, a smaller (but still large) truck slid out of the speeding school bus and onto the road.

The school bus was forcefully blown away and the flaming mass collapsed on its side and rolled away, but the large truck carrying the potatoes easily avoided the wreckage it had shed like a snake’s skin.

“Self-driving scares the hell out of me! You can just do it all with a smartphone, can’t you!?”

“It’s a good thing Dorothea’s plan using tanks was ended sooner rather than later.”

By this time, were the people of Manhattan panicking?

Or did they think a movie was being filmed?

Heivia and the others followed Broadway to leave Midtown West and entered the Upper West Side directly alongside Central Park.

They wanted to say something about the colossal cannon, but they did not have the time with their life being targeted from above in real time.

“The next one is coming.”

“Myonri! The next layer! These New Yorkers are connoisseurs, so a garter belt won’t be enough to turn them on!!”

The large truck had no one in the driver’s seat and the door on the back burst open to allow several bulletproof black off-road vehicles out. With each decoy, they were using up their extra lives and their armor was growing thinner, but it also made them lighter and nimbler.

They were in the nest. Even without a server, these unmanned weapons could coordinate using the social structure of ants or bees, so trying to eliminate the threat by destroying every single one would be a never-ending task.

They had to think up a way to continue forward without defeating them.

“The next is the last one!”

“The fun really begins once we’re buck naked.”

The luggage-loading door sprang up on the back of their bulletproof off-road vehicle and Heivia and Myonri burst out onto the road riding light off-road motorcycles.

This time, they had no armor whatsoever.

The wind seemed to slice into their flesh.

But it was also true that development of self-driving motorcycles was taking longer than with cars. That eliminated the worry of having them hijacked by a surprise cyber-attack.

“What?” asked Heivia. “There’s something other than the Bullmites. What’s that collapsible umbrella monster thing!?”

“That interpretation is not entirely wrong,” said Lendy over the radio. “It is a Gunner Bat. When folded up, it is no larger than a relay baton and it is an offshoot of portable grenade launcher design. When you throw it, the wings automatically open, it flies autonomously, and an external terminal is used to guide it over the enemy’s head where it can fire up to three explosives when instructed. Its accuracy is below average, but it can scatter more generalized damage when loaded with white phosphorous grenades or the like. It is a support weapon that uses a quantity over quality philosophy to force enemy soldiers out from behind cover with explosions and smoke.”

Heivia remembered the self-rolling grenades that Wraith had used on the Olympia Dome. Even without a server, their simple circuits could take the optimal action by mimicking the movements of insects. These were Information Alliance unmanned weapons. That electronic equipment filled Heivia with self-pity for using those pineapple-shaped explosives that required him to pull the pin and throw it like a rock. …On the other hand, these weapons would probably be vulnerable to an EMP or microwave attack.

“White phosphorous in a densely-populated area? What is wrong with them? Nothing about that makes me happy. …And what is that giant top!?”

“That is a Multi-Gyro. It is a reconnaissance drone that can travel through the air or on the ground. It has no obvious weapons, but it is loaded with a stun bomb. Get within 3 meters of it and it will scatter an 800,000-volt current. Since it does not need to access a server, it can do so without any adverse effects on itself. Not only is it harmful to human bodies, but it could easily cause a vehicle’s electronics to malfunction.”

Heivia felt his balls shriveling up as he had it calmly explained to him. And before any of those issues, if he passed out while straddling a motorcycle, he would be killed instantly.

The unmanned weapon had no tires or treads, but it still attempted to tackle the off-road motorcycle with nothing more than top-like spinning. Heivia focused on that while also desperately trying to think.

Even if Manhattan was an extraordinarily large Object, it was still only one borough of the giant city of New York. The distance from Times Square, where they exited the Underground Railroad, to Columbia University was about 10 kilometers at most. While ignoring all traffic laws and flooring it, they could travel that distance in less than 5 minutes.

“Columbia University is being used to house civilians, so it has been designated a noncombat area,” said Lendy over the radio. “Reaching our destination ASAP should be the safest plan.”

“More importantly, what happened with that Oh Ho Ho!? Did you develop a bike big enough for that fat suit and its huge ass!?”

“It is not fat, nor does it have a huge ass! Ho…ho ho…oh ho ho ho ho ho!! You need to look at the overall proportions. It has the perfect golden ratio, does it not!?”

“Besides, you are not authorized for that information,” added Lendy. “It can be easy to forget, but that girl’s very presence is a secret our unit must protect.”

By the time they heard Oh Ho Ho’s shouting and Lendy Farolito’s calm voice over their earpieces, Heivia, Myonri, and the others on the off-road motorcycles had entered the university campus.

Heivia clenched his teeth when a bomb fell just barely outside the campus. Those serverless simple circuits had done it.

“Ochre, Nex…!!”

“Keep your balance! Do you want to fall over and end up as mincemeat!?”

Myonri shouted directly at him while driving right alongside him. She had to have noticed the allies behind them had been blown away, but they could not use recovery magic that brought back the dead.

The Smart Meteor had been opening its square umbrella to adjust its speed and keep its broad double-edged sword shape overhead at all times, but it veered away so as not to enter the university campus. Heivia saw that as he rode his off-road motorcycle full-speed along the well-maintained lawn, but…

“!?”

He felt a sudden impact.

His off-road motorcycle’s front wheel was crushed like a cake dropped on the ground.

(A Bullmite…!?)

He did not have time to gasp.

He was thrown into the air, so he curled up and rolled across the lawn to reduce the impact. Meanwhile, the mass of composite armor planted its four legs on the lawn to accurately target him once more. The serverless bull used just its simple circuits to teach itself, so it began running in order to smash that soft human body.

Unmanned weapons did not fear death.

He could fire hundreds of 9mm bullets straight at it, but he would not stop it.

“!?”

Without bothering to get up, Heivia aimed his submachinegun (that he had swiped from a Manhattan resident). It was mostly just a reflex, like covering your face when a ball was thrown at it. His rational mind was screaming that firing would be useless.

He had to rethink this.

With all the unmanned weapons, this battle’s rules were different.

(Throw out the fundamentals. Work your mind to survive. Preserving your gun and ammo is useless if you’re turned to mincemeat. What would that bastard do at times like this?)

“Nwohhhhhhhhh!!”

He shook that from his mind with a bizarre yell.

As the mass of composite armor approached, he removed the submachine gun, grabbed the shoulder strap, and swung it like a caveman. He restrained his fear, stared straight ahead, and threw his precious gun toward the Bullmite’s forelegs like a cowboy’s lasso. This was only an option if he threw out the fundamental idea that a soldier’s gun was their lifeline on the battlefield.

The bulls used in bullfighting had outstanding speed and weight, but unlike an elegant horse, they lacked the strength to clear hurdles and other obstacles. The Bullmite could not avoid the submachinegun that spun at higher than knee height. It was over quickly once the firearm struck the forelegs.

The sling belt tangled around the mechanical legs and the heavy mass sank forward like a table with one of its four legs broken.

Its own speed and weight worked against it and it was incapacitated in no time at all. It plowed toward Heivia with the force of a rolling boulder.

“Watch out!!”

The delinquent soldier still could not get up, but he somehow managed to dodge by rolling to the side. If the Bullmite had all fours legs on the ground, it would have made an adjustment even a millimeter before contact to pursue him.

(This is awful. I feel like I’m being forced to kiss the contents of my own balled-up tissue…)

Had he done it?

It was just like a traffic accident. Humans were not strong enough to destroy a gigantic truck, but if they caused an accident, the truck would reduce itself to a mangled mess. He had lost his precious submachinegun, so he hoped for that level of results. However…

“…Damn,” he groaned.

A straight line had been gouged into the lawn, but the mass of composite armor stood back up at the end of it. The four mechanical legs stood firm on the ground in order to crush that inefficient mass of muscle.

There was really nothing he could do this time.

(What do I do!? Do I use my boot laces next!? Or remove my belt and swing my prized you-know-what around!?)

But just then, something changed.

With a sizzling sound like water on a hot grill, a giant, half-melted top flew in from elsewhere. It seemed to be a Multi-Gyro falling apart in midair. The stun bomb inside it must have malfunctioned because it scattered an 800,000-volt current that fried the Bullmite’s electronics. It no longer mattered that it was a serverless machine that ran on the insect colony theory.

“Owaaaaah!?”

It was more like a rapid series of narrow lights than a single stream of water from a fire truck. The destroyed target had fist-sized chunks torn from its armor, the number of holes grew, and the entire thing melted and was blown away in no time. It was an even worse version of Swiss cheese. Heivia wanted to avoid dying like that at all costs.

The attacks were rapid-fire beams.

Unlike the lasers which had become synonymous with anti-air weaponry, these were visible, but that actually helped them stimulate fear. Heivia doubted this was simply meant as assistance. When the orange spray of melted armor passed right by his face, he frantically got down.

The 4-meter nice body that was “made in Nau Yoke” had arrived later than the off-road motorcycles. The boobs jiggled perfectly in sync with its pace, so it was clearly a crystallization of the designer’s blood and tears.

“Oh ho ho. Make sure to thank your lucky stars and the goddess of victory.”

Heivia sounded annoyed as he looked at those weapons that looked like reinforced glass lab equipment forcibly covered with armor.

“A powered suit with prototype assassination beam weapons? It always comes down to tech, doesn’t it?”

“Of course it does. What do you think war is?”

He had only survived by working up a sweat and rolling through the mud, but she had cleaned it all up by wielding those giant rapid-fire beam cannons like an action star with dual pistols. And with her extra-large boobs jiggling all the while. It was clear she lived in a different world since she could take her time and arrive late while the unmanned weapons targeted her from the air in the Manhattan streets.

Myonri made a shocked comment after making a U-turn and returning on her off-road motorcycle despite the danger. …Except she may not have been motivated by the power of friendship. She may have simply been afraid of being hit by a stray shot of that futuristic beam weapon that was scattering its shots chaotically around.

“I thought Columbia University’s campus was a noncombat area!”

The ubiquitous floral security cameras remained silent. They would not disprove false charges and they ignored their own side’s rule violations, so their quality could not have been worse. Were they only good for peeping on highly-educated college girls?

“No, wait. I recognize these scratches,” groaned Heivia as he looked at the Bullmite that had flipped over like a dead bug. “This is one of the ones that rushed at us in Chinatown. These are definitely the same scratches. You can’t fool my clever eyes.”

The 4-meter ringlet curls girl tilted her head while firing her rapid-fire beam cannons at the Bullmites and Multi-Gyros that attempted to approach. Those dual cannons were devastating in an open area with no hills.

“I am not sure what you mean.”

“That can happen, can it? …Getting the Information Alliance to admit that feels like victory to me.”

The Chinatown in Downtown was the opposite direction from Columbia University in Uptown. Since Manhattan was full of these unmanned weapons, it was not logical for the same one to have come all this way.

That meant it was possible someone had brought it here.

That meant the Martini who was suspected of falling into active self-denial just like Piranirie. That brown girl with her butt inside a large swim ring.

And…

“Myonri. And the idol too. Keep your fingers on the trigger.”

“Eh?”

In place of his ruined submachinegun, Heivia reached for his hip and drew a handgun capable of firing the same bullets. Wealthy Manhattan was overrun with such things.

He would not have trouble killing someone.

“She’s coming. Wraith Martini Vermouthspray is coming!!”