Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 15===

Unicorn’s attack on Flightburg Air Force Base had gone well, yet Sogia grimaced.

Mars spoke within the central control room they had taken over.

“…What is it?”

They had acquired the emergency shutdown code for the Broad Sky Saber. It was a numerical string represented by 13 hexadecimal digits stored on a flash memory card about the size of an eraser. The data was stored as an image rather than simply as numbers, so it had to be displayed, read by a human, and then manually inputted into the hotline that was disconnected from the military network and connected the control room to the Object.

This was of course to ensure an analog human had to take part in the process somewhere. Otherwise, the danger arose of external interference from hacking.

The flash memory card had a lock that required the thumbprint of the authorized user and it also checked for abnormalities in the perspiration and pulse rate in the thumb. In other words, the security could not be bypassed by “borrowing” the authorized user’s thumb by threatening them or knocking them out. Naturally, severing the thumb and carrying it with you was also out of the question.

But reality was very different from a rehearsed exercise carried out in a safe laboratory. It was only natural to be under extreme stress if that emergency shutdown code truly needed to be used in a situation that could alter the outcome of a war. And so the high military officials had prepared an emergency unlock method in case it falsely locked them out. However, this completely defeated the purpose of the primary security method, especially in a situation like this where Unicorn was aware of the alternate method.

That was thanks to approaching the designer known as Claire while disguised as the Night Edge Platoon.

“Dammit.”

But…

They all noticed something was wrong as soon as they stuck the flash memory card into the control console and tried to read the data inside.

The data was clearly corrupted.

At the very least, it was in no condition for a human being to read it.

The flash memory card had not been physically damaged during the fighting. The box meant to protect that final trump card was not that delicate.

Which meant…

“Did Dimiksy send a dummy emergency shutdown code to Flightburg Air Force Base? Is that what happened?”

“No, they would have used it once beforehand as a test to ensure mutual trust. But the foundation of your idea is sound. Dimiksy’s faction probably didn’t trust those at Flightburg.”

“Then what happened!?”

“They probably used a time-activated virus or something similar to make sure the data was corrupted once the day of the duel arrived.”

“It doesn’t matter what happened.” Sogia kicked the flash memory card while it was stuck in the console, breaking it. “If we can’t stop the Broad Sky Saber, we can’t save Staivia! Not only that, but Dimiksy will know something is wrong with Flightburg. That means we can expect a harsh counterattack!!”

That was when the earth began to tremble violently.

The Forest Roller that was displayed on the giant screen in the central control room had the red symbol for moderate damage added.

The attack had begun.

They all gulped because they knew what it meant for the trembling of that destruction to reach them several dozen kilometers away.

“Here it comes. We need to get out of here. This base is going to be blown away!!”

While sending instructions over radio to the other members of Unicorn who were still fighting in various parts of Flightburg Air Force Base, Sogia and the others fled the central control room. They needed to get as far away as possible from that base. They needed to escape an attack that was powerful enough to destroy a second generation Object.

But they did not make it in time.

They did not even manage to escape the grounds of the air force base.

The second strike fell.

The central point of Flightburg Air Force Base was dyed in orange. In the next instant, a storm of destruction raged.

The laser had not even lasted a full second.

But the intense heat it created was poured into the surface and that accumulated heat caused the air to explosively expand. This created a tremendously hot wind that reached over 100 degrees. A wall of air like that of a hurricane spread in every direction and the military facilities that had been created to withstand shell bombardments and aerial bombings were blown away.

Would it have been better to be inside a building or outside?

There was no escaping it either way.

Inside, one would be crushed by rubble. Outside, one would be struck as hard as if by large truck at full speed and all of one’s clothes and skin would have been scorched. If one did not stop breathing, the insides of one’s lungs would be in danger.

“God…dammit…!!”

Sogia and the others had just run out of the back entrance of the military facility and gotten down on the ground when the strike hit.

The massive scorching wind had swept over them after a few seconds.

The one piece of luck was that the laser had struck on the other side of the facility. Smashing the building killed some of the momentum of the raging wind and they were saved from the majority of the shock.

But they could not avoid the heat.

It was not enough to ignite their uniforms, but a pain still ran across them as if boiling water had been dumped on their heads.

“Gyaaaaaahhhhh!? I’m gonna die. Dammit. I’m gonna die!!”

“Bear with it!! It isn’t like your entire body has been covered in white phosphorus!! Quit crying over some light burns, newcomer!!”

“S-Sanya, the fire resistance of your collection saved us. I’m almost unscathed except for the parts that were exposed.”

“I have saline and coolant here. Sogia, contact the soldiers with anti-materiel rifles, machineguns, missiles, and any other heavy weapons! They should be able to use their equipment for cooling their gun barrels!!”

“Do we have time for that…?” Sogia dragged his aching body into a standing position, sucked in some of the stingingly hot air, and shouted into his radio. “All survivors, report in! Flightburg Air Force Base has lost its strategic value. All survivors are to split into small groups and leave the base. Do not all head in a single direction. Scatter in every direction. We’re being targeted from above. Flee to subway tunnels and anything else you can find!!”

But he received no response.

Was he hearing that steady static because the device had been destroyed by the heat or because there was no one left to respond?

Sogia gritted his teeth, but then he finally heard someone’s voice.

He thought it belonged to a survivor, but the voice betrayed his expectations.

It was a woman’s voice.

“That’s not the right course of action, Unicorn. This is no time to be falling back.”

“…? Claire Whist…the designer…?”

Primarily in order to learn about the development of the highly classified Broad Sky Saber, they had approached her to create a connection with someone in the Object design business. The Cook Addition Islands near the equator had been hot, but Sogia felt the memories from that time had been enough of a scorching hell to make that heat seem like nothing.

But why was Claire contacting them now? He frowned.

“Let’s go back over the situation,” she said. “ ‘He’ already has the answer. Dimiksy Nikolaschka has used every method available to him in order to legally assassinate Staivia Nikolaschka and inherit the throne. And yet his first shot went to the Forest Roller and his second shot went to Flightburg Air Force Base. Why? His target is right in front of him.”

“Isn’t that just because he wants to kill any interference so he can take his time and enjoy it!? That’s why he tried to crush us and the Object coming to help!! And he succeeded!!”

“Exactly. Even you are telling yourself the answer.”

“What…?”

As Sogia trailed off, he finally realized something.

The second generation Forest Roller was one thing. But why had he destroyed Flightburg Air Force Base?

The emergency shutdown code in the central control room had been a dummy from the beginning. There had been nothing they could do to the Broad Sky Saber even if Dimiksy had left them alone. And the flesh-and-blood humans of Unicorn had no chance of fighting back against that giant weapon. Even if they fired their rifles that were like peashooters to him, he could simply ignore them and fire on Princess Staivia.

And yet he had gone out of his way to use the Broad Sky Saber to destroy Flightburg Air Force Base.

Even though he had to be itching to get to the main dish of Princess Staivia.

“…There’s something here.”

“Yes, there is something there. There is something there the Broad Sky Saber wished to destroy even if it meant interrupting his otherwise perfectly progressing plan. And has that something really been destroyed? That strike from the heavens was powerful, but it was also a broad strike against the entire base. It is possible whatever it was has not been completely destroyed.”

“…”

Sogia thought as he stared at the red hot ruins of the building.

The odds of success were low, but they were not nonexistent.

However, their plan had been a tightrope walk with less than a fraction of a percentage point chance of success from the beginning. They were not about to despair at low odds of success now.

“I have a message from ‘him’,” said Claire Whist to Unicorn. “ ‘Leave the babysitting to us, papa. You need to get to work and dig up whatever it is that guy wanted to get rid of.’ ”