Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 13===

A short burst of gunshots resounded throughout the air force base.

The base had over 1000 professional soldiers, so the difference in military might was too great for Unicorn to have any chance in a straight fight.

However…

Trained soldiers had a thoroughly ingrained habit of almost reflexively hiding behind nearby cover if they suddenly heard explosions or gunfire. This spot was also known as the primary screen. If one knew the patrol routes of the soldiers, it was a simple task to know where all of those spots inside the air force base would be.

And what if…?

What if all of those spots known as the primary screen had been filled with bombs or other traps?

The answer was simple.

After that initial burst of gunfire, almost all of the soldiers hid themselves in foxholes that had been filled with bombs.

Sanya, Mars, Flat, and the others wandering around the air force base pressed the buttons on their radios in unison.

The second wave rang out.

It was almost humorous how those countless explosions wore down that great military force that would have been undefeatable via normal methods.



“What happened?” Sanya had once asked.

The actions leading to Princess Staivia’s assassination had already begun 5 years before. The White Bears of the 115th Private Royal Guard Company had tried to resist via the political power game, but Dimiksy’s faction had taken the offensive more powerfully and – more importantly – more quickly than expected.

Sogia had replied, “They’ve really done it now. They blew away the pilot Elite of the Assault Signal in a café. It was probably done to prepare a pawn for their Royal Duel. After going this far, nothing is going to slow them down. If we could gather physical proof of this conspiracy, they wouldn’t just be given a cup of sweet poison. They’d have their heads taken off in the public square.”

“How much time do we have?”

“At most, 5 years. At worst, 3 years.”

Sanya had sighed.

She had thought about her duties, career goals, and private goals, but then cast them all aside.

“…So what do we need to do?”

“We need to keep our focus on what will happen 5 years from now.”



“It’s begun,” muttered Sanya.

Mars replied, “Yeah, it has. I still can’t believe my very first mission upon joining the 115th was to kill my old self! What the hell!? And everything since then has been dirty work!!”

He may have been speaking lightly, but he showed no mercy with his gun. He was firing bullet after bullet to end the lives of the soldiers who had somehow survived the second wave attack using the primary screen locations.

Unicorn was not using assault rifles; they were using extremely small PDWs that were less than 30 cm long and had a grenade launcher forcibly attached to the bottom of the barrel.

They had originally equipped themselves with those full-auto weapons that could be fired with only one hand so they could lead Princess Staivia to safety while pumping out plenty of firepower.

But now they were simply bathing in the splattered blood of their enemies.

It may have been due to the sensors, but despite being deemed a “newcomer”, Mars had excellent firing accuracy. He was using a targeting correction device known as a multi-dot. The standard red point of light would appear in the center of the lens, but a blue and green dot would be added as well.

A PDW that used handgun bullets had a range of about 150 meters, but Mars could easily hit targets over 250 meters away.

At times like that, the blue dot was displayed below the center red one. If he aimed at the enemy using that light, the barrel would naturally be pointed upwards. Pulling the trigger then would send the bullet in a high-angle trajectory similar to a long throw in baseball. It could then reach farther than if fired straight.

Among the other modes it contained was one that displayed the estimated position of a moving enemy soldier. As long as one possessed the foundational physical strength needed, the device could improve one’s accuracy.

It gave the same feeling often seen in FPSs where one could aim arbitrarily toward an enemy and naturally target their vitals. That might be the simplest way to imagine it.



Three years before, Mars had shouted out in a South American desert just after joining the unit.

“Ahh, ahh! What is with this unit and all its pain-in-the-ass circumstances!? I just wanted to be able to brazenly walk in and out of the royal household despite being a commoner, so why is this my very first mission!? Why do we have to fake our deaths and hide all traces of our existence!?”

“…We aren’t forcing you to go along with it,” Sogia had replied as he scratched at his sandy face. “To be honest, this job really isn’t worth it. We have little odds of success. We have to cast aside all of our career goals to prepare for this. And even if by some miracle we defeat Dimiksy’s faction, all that awaits us is a court martial and some barracks. And since we have no sponsor, we will receive next to no reward. I’d have difficulty finding anything to entice you along with. But,” Sogia had paused for a beat before calmly continuing. “Even so, all the complete idiots who still want to save that girl from those pieces of trash and their lust for power are to come with me.”

“Chehh… I may be going along with this, but just know that you don’t play fair.”

“And if you’re willing to reluctantly agree to it despite saying that, then you must be quite softhearted.”

Mars had clicked his tongue, averted his gaze, and scratched at his head.

He had then asked a desperate question.

“So what do we get? You said we received ‘next to no’ reward, right?”

“We do get something,” Sogia had immediately replied with a small smile. “The pride as knights and the proof of justice. …That’s all we get.”

“Heh. You’re just greedy. That’s plenty for me.”



But…

“That was fast!! Sanya, Flat, that was super fast!!”

“Having to peer through the sight like that slows you down too much, newcomer!”

Sanya and Flat were not receiving help from their sensors. Instead of peering through the sight to aim, they were aiming and firing almost completely on instinct. One did not look down to check one’s hands for every chord while playing the guitar or piano. It was the same as that. Their firearms had become a part of their bodies, so they could fire accurately without having to painstakingly confirm everything visually. That was why they were so fast. As long as one allowed the recoil to escape properly, one did not need to hold the gun perfectly by the book either. Even if Mars was increasing his accuracy by following the standard methods, he could not catch up on a fundamental level.

That was the difference between someone who relied on the products of the modern clean wars and someone who had plenty of experience walking through battlefield countries around the world using dirty methods to make up for not having an Object.

“You people are monsters! It’s like you have no intention of letting me catch up!”

“It’s because you can’t catch up that you are still a rookie! Now stay away from that wall!!”

As Mars was just about to carelessly charge forward, Sanya grabbed the back of his neck and pulled him away. In the next instant, a powered suit crashed through the wall next to where he had been. If he had continued on, he would have received a blow as bad as getting hit by a car.

Still holding Mars’s collar with one hand, Sanya adjusted her hold on her PDW’s grip to prepare to fire the grenade launcher. She fired accurately at the powered suit. What she fired was actually a failed design for a handheld flare meant for infantry, but it emitted enough heat that sensors would mistake it for the output of a fighter jet engine. It used sodium nitrate and a few other chemicals to create a heat source of greater than 2000 degrees for around 60 seconds. Even if it did not melt the armor of the powered suit, it was more than enough to overheat the internal circuitry. All the delicate equipment would become no more useful than a tin can.

Flat then threw an anti-personnel fragmentation grenade. The blast knocked over the unmoving powered suit. The boarding hatch was underneath, so it would need to be flipped over with a crane or something for the soldier to get out.

“How did you see that coming? There was no warning.”

“If you try to detect everything with just your five senses, you’ll fall victim to surprise attacks. You need to think about what you would do if you were the enemy. Do you get it now, newcomer?”

With an explosive noise, black smoke began spewing from a side passage.

Some enemy soldiers came running frantically out, but they were soon accurately shot with bullets that came flying from the same side passage.

Finally, Sogia stepped out.

“C’mon, we need to get this done quickly. If we don’t do enough damage while they’re still panicking from this surprise attack, this is going to get really annoying!”



After the White Bears of the 115th Private Royal Guard Company had become the 202nd Mobile Support Company known as Unicorn, they had carried out all sorts of horrible deeds below the surface all over the world.

They had needlessly sullied their hands and created various connections in return.

After one such job was complete, Flat had said the following to Sogia.

“We’re going to hell, aren’t we?”

“It may not look like it, but this is the quickest path available to us. We don’t have time for anything else.”

“But will Staivia’s faction last long enough?”

“Her maid Mikfa is very capable. If she gives it her all, they should be able to last just long enough. But even if she does her very best, 2 years is our limit. We need to expand our network even further.”

“…But while we do this, Lady Staivia is probably crying all alone.”

She was not just a symbol or a name on a document to them. They knew Staivia Nikolaschka as a person.

They knew she got motion sickness and therefore did not like riding on ships or planes. They knew that no matter how bad a mood she was in, she could almost always be cheered up with some beef stroganoff.

It was because they knew those trivial bits of humanity that they could put up with it all.

And it was a disgrace for her royal guard unit if Princess Staivia shed even a single tear.

They wanted to go right that instant and beat the shit out of the bastards behind the plan to assassinate her. They wanted to crush the source of what was causing her to cry.

But they sealed up those feelings and focused on sharpening their fangs as soldiers.

“Then there is only one thing we can do,” Sogia had muttered quietly. “We must risk our lives to make it up to her.”



Sogia, Sanya, Mars, Flat.

Those four met up on the battlefield and headed towards their goal point while spraying bullets everywhere.

“Hey, did you three remember to destroy the armored vehicles? Oh, and the aircrafts. The powered suits aren’t the height of their firepower.”

“Team bravo and delta went around destroying those. They poured tons of sugar in their tanks. And as for the aircrafts…well, they spread flames through the ammunition space of the gunships waiting on the runway, and now it’s like hell on earth over there. I guess you could call it a giant and deadly pinwheel firework. When one thing catches fire it catches the next thing on fire, so the whole thing is still expanding.”

“Clear, clear!” shouted Mars.

“Mars, you missed one. Please do this right. Clear.”

They were headed for the central control room.

Their first and final trump card for the cutting edge Object the Dimiksy faction had prepared lay there.

“What was that about Mars!? Did that newcomer do something wrong again!?”

“Can you please not start that at a time like this!?” begged Mars. “Clear, clear!!”

And then Sogia casually said, “Oh, right. I forgot to ask. How did it go gathering evidence of Dimiksy’s faction’s treason?”

“We’re turning all that evidence into a sea of flames right now.”

“That’s not good! If we can’t prove anything, we’ll just be mass murderers!!” shouted Mars.

“Give up on the court martial, newcomer. We were plenty guilty from the moment we caused an entire military unit to disappear.”

As the chaos of that hellish firefight continued to create more and more chaos, Sogia reached for the large communications equipment an enemy communications soldier had been carrying.

He tapped on the microphone with a finger.

“Ahh, ahh. What? Is this thing working???”

“It’ll reach to the other side of the planet. Including to that girl stuffed inside that old Object.”

“Is that so?”

Sogia arbitrarily called up the frequency memory while wearing down the enemy’s numbers with short bursts of gunfire. He then casually brought the microphone up to his mouth

And he spoke.



His voice reached the Assault Signal’s cockpit where it floated in the ocean.

Staivia Nikolaschka’s eyes opened wide.

She definitely heard it.

She heard the voice she had once innocently relied on.

She heard the words of the owner of that large hand.

“Hey, baby. How long are you going to keep crying? It’s about time you smiled.”

It had taken 5 years of fighting, but the miracle was complete.

In that world of rotten wars, the groundwork of great bloodshed had led to a small miracle that showed the pride of knights and the proof of justice.