Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 14===

The machine suddenly stopped.

Quenser was thrown across the floor, but he was not the only one damaged by it.

The immense inertial force caused by that truth stopped even the Rush’s Elite girl’s breathing for an instant.

“Gah…!? Wh-what!?”

The girl was coughing, but her voice held more confusion than pain.

The Information Alliance’s Second Generation Gatling 033 operated based on high speed decisions made by the Strategic AI Juliet. The Elite girl did not completely pilot the Object. Instead, she selected and deleted the bugs and errors amid the hundreds or even thousands of commands Juliet created each second. Basically, she held the reins of a rampaging horse and guided it in the direction she wanted.

Nevertheless, the Gatling 033 was not moving.

It was not that the strategic AI had stopped. Juliet was still calculating at maddening speed.

However…

None of the seeming inexhaustible supply of commands it calculated out at high speed led to the Gatling 033 doing anything.

No matter how skilled a coachman the Elite girl may have been, she could do nothing when the horse stopped to think and did not take a single step forward. When the horse refused to move no matter how much she kicked it with her heels or struck it with her whip, the very value of the coachman was brought into question.

It was like a gear connecting the thoughts of the strategic AI to actual movement had been removed.

No matter how high the Juliet’s specs were and no matter how skilled the Elite girl was, there was nothing that could be done if the Gatling 033 could not move.

“Ho…ho ho. Oh ho ho.”

The Elite girl looked around while seated in the cockpit.

She then looked over at Quenser as he lay collapsed on the floor.

She was forced to view him as an actual opponent.

“What…? What did you do to my Gatling 033?”

Quenser did not reply immediately. The inertial forces that had squeezed at his body had done some damage. His mouth opened and closed wordlessly as he took deep breaths. 

Finally, the boy gave a thin smile and said, “Are you hoping…to start a quiz show…?’

“Oh…ho ho. I can tell some of it from the situation.”

The girl’s small shoulders were trembling.

Trembling in bewilderment and anger.

“I can tell that Juliet is carrying out unnecessary ‘learning’!! I can tell that has caused various bugs and errors which are causing a conflict over which commands to prioritize!! The bugs and errors are spreading so quickly, my ‘revisions’ cannot keep up!! I am asking about something beyond that! I am not asking what is happening! I am asking why!! What did you do to Juliet!?”

“It is reevaluating the risks,” said Quenser despite being unable to even sit up.

Fatigue and pain seeped into his voice, but there was no weakness there.

That boy had successfully become an equal opponent to that Elite who piloted a giant weapon known as an Object.

“The Juliet has keenly noticed some changes to the situation that you cannot see. These changes have made a major change to the priority of what the Rush should do.”

“Wha-…?”

“It’s unfortunate, though. This strategic AI pilots an Object that can alter the outcome of a war, and yet it seems not to have the ability to raise the white flag and surrender. Thanks to that, the Juliet has no choice but to continue calculating out a way to resolve the situation despite being in clear checkmate. The Rush has come to a halt because the Juliet is vainly trying to think up a way out of the situation.”

“That’s…That’s ridiculous!!” denied the Elite girl reflexively. “Oh ho ho!! My Gatling 033 had the overwhelming advantage!! There is no way I would have lost to that unrefined Legitimacy Kingdom First Generation Object here! Even if you were advising her via radio, there is no way I would have been in checkmate!!”

“I was not advising the princess,” said Quenser decisively and the Elite girl froze in place. “Like hell I have a childhood friend named Angelina. And what kind of nickname is Etta? That was a surprisingly simple code referring to a report in the Legitimacy Kingdom military database.”

“Angelina…report…Etta…Juliet… You don’t mean…!?”

“Since you’re the one that went out of your way to contact your enemy, you should have known that the transmission being sent to the Baby Magnum could be picked up by other soldiers’ radios too.”