Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume9 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 18===

“That’s right, Heivia. Something was bothering me about that killer radar because it seemed unnecessarily over-the-top. I could understand it if we were in some complicated array of trenches or the deep rainforest, but do you really need something like that to kill people on the open ocean? Just tackling them with the two hundred thousand ton Object would do the trick. So it seemed natural to assume it had some other purpose, right? The radar and anti-personnel usage was just some chemical seasoning used to hide the true purpose.”

“And that purpose was wide-area microwave power transmission tech, huh?”

Millia spat out the words as she grabbed the edge of the plate-like part and found it moved around like a sunflower.

“Normally, there isn’t much point in sending out Object-class cannons and letting them borrow the reactor’s power. The shockwaves of firing a railgun or coilgun and the residual heat of firing a laser beam or low-stability plasma cannon would destroy the thing. On the other hand, if they add on enough armor to withstand that, the tank or bomber would be crushed by its own weight.”

“But that doesn’t matter with these. They’re only emitting highly directional magnetism, so there is no recoil or residual heat. And as an added bonus, it only uses technology originally used to protect reactors or cannons, so it fits in quite well.”

“Come to think of it,” cut in Heivia with another question. “These ‘spears’ are being randomly switched on and off to prevent analysis using the three-body problem, right? But would they be able to communicate properly through all these microwaves?”

“Heivia, what’s the only main cannon that can get through the pseudo three-body problem made with magnetism?”

“The laser beam… Oh, so that’s it.”

“Look, it has an infrared emitter. It probably uses that. Laser transmissions can be harder to use than electromagnetic waves, but there are ‘spears’ all over the place. I bet they have a spider web of a network set up.”

As he spoke, Quenser covered the infrared emitter’s lens with rubber adhesive.

That would prevent the electromagnet from suddenly activating and swallowing them up.

“We probably should have brought laser transmission equipment of our own. Then we could have coordinated with the Princess and Putana up top.”

“It’s almost impossible to use laser transmissions between the ocean and the surface. The surface bends it too much. Haven’t you ever done the experiment where you shine light diagonally into a water tank?” After explaining that, Quenser went over their conditions one by one. “A float, an electromagnet, wireless power transmission, and laser communications… The pieces are gradually coming into view. As long as we know what it needs, we can get rid of that to interfere with them. The real problem is the number of ‘spears’.”

“Do you have an idea?” asked Millia.

“Yes,” answered Quenser. “I’ll explain on the way. But this is just a theory, so could you leave some of the intelligence division to continue investigating this thing in case we hit a dead end?”

“Sure, that’s fine. But ‘on the way’? Where are we going?”

“The fleet. I need to prepare some things to take out all of the ‘spears’ at once. I’ll get what I need from the fleet.”

“Hey, Quenser, will you really find exactly what you need? We’re not talking about ammunition cases in a zombie game here.”

“Not to worry. We’ve already seen what we need.”

“?”

Quenser and the others left their fellow intelligence division members as they turned back toward the fleet.

However, the situation soon changed.

They saw the entire small aircraft carrier before rising to the water’s surface.

There was a simple reason: it was filling with water and beginning to sink.

“Dammit!! Were they not able to push them back!?”

Heivia frantically operated his radio and Frolaytia’s staticky voice reached them.

“Ksshhh. Due to the great damage, we abandoned the ship and…ksshh…moved to the neighboring one. The powered suits…kssshhh…happily stayed onboard to…ksshh…declare victory, so we blew them away…kssshhh…by setting alight the fuel pipes. Overall…ksshh…it wasn’t a problem, but more importantly…kssshhh…why have you turned back? Kssshhh… Is there something you…ksshh…need?”

As he approached the sinking aircraft carrier, Quenser grabbed some wooden boxes and metal drums floating in the ocean.

“Electric pumps, tubes several meters long, bags to hold air, and some electrified coating powder. …I should be able to manage with what’s here.”

After grabbing what they needed, Quenser and the others turned right back toward the battlefield.

Meanwhile, he explained the plan forming in his mind.

When Heivia and Millia heard it, they smiled quietly in the water.

“I see. Quite a unique idea.”

“Honestly, I’m not some detective. If you you’d told me right away, I wouldn’t have been so worried.”

After returning, the intelligence division soldiers took the equipment and scattered across the battlefield on Millia’s orders.

The remaining three could only wait until those soldiers arrived in position.

In the meantime…

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“…?”

Quenser did not recognize this voice and it was using a different bandwidth. It was not being transmitted by the Legitimacy Kingdom, but nor was it from the Oriental Magic on the water’s surface. The powerful microwaves for the killer radar…no, for the wireless power transmission kept almost any communications from reaching the ocean.

In that case, where else could it be from?

“It wasn’t supposed to be like this.”

“The…Nataraja?”

Quenser’s words brought a harsh look to Heivia and Millia’s eyes too.

This could be their best chance to locate the Nataraja, but they did not have the appropriate equipment and they could not coordinate with the fleet or the Objects.

Did this person know that or not?

In fact, were they calculating the risks at all?

“I don’t know who you are, but why are you getting in our way? We aren’t trying to conquer the world or destroy the existing civilization. Yes, we wanted to be reborn. We will stop our hearts with cold sleep and be born anew when the breath of life returns to us. This planet will be the same. We will redo it all with the Nataraja. That is all.”

“And how much have you wasted for that selfish desire? How far have you moved the hands of the World Clock? There had to have been lives lost, too. That counts both the ones you eliminated because they were ‘in your way’ and the ones you’re using up on the surface. …You’re free to hope for some other place to live, but we’re going to make sure you make up for the damage you’ve done.”

“Hey, how long do you think this world will last?” asked the mocking voice. “The answer is it won’t last. It’s already ending. It sounds strange, but it’s true. The World Clock? That thing had reached the end before we were even born. The world was done for from the moment the UN collapsed and the world map shattered like stained glass. Its heart has already stopped and the blood in its veins is only moving on inertia. That’s the age we live in. A long-term space flight? That was nothing but Capitalist Corporations propaganda. The most they could do was bluff by making a ship in the desert that would never fly. Not even the VIPs devouring this planet were able to escape into space, so no one at all will be saved. All that remains is to see how long it takes for the planet to remember. It’s already dead and it’s only hope is to be reborn. Do you understand now, boy?”

“…”

“The Faith Organization, the Legitimacy Kingdom, the Information Alliance, and the Capitalist Corporations may look like solid new categories, but they’re all frantically trying to cover up the contradictions and errors. For example, the Faith Organization contains every single religion. There’s no way that would work. They either refuse to accept any other or see themselves at the top. When you gather those religions together, it only brings conflict. That’s why they’re constantly hoping for a common enemy to bring them all in line. If they don’t find one, then they start an internal witch hunt that ends up burning each other at the stake. Lost Angels is just one obvious witches’ forest, a breeding ground to safely secure the easiest internal troubles. And to be clear, that’s just one example.”

“…”

“By our estimations, we’ll be lucky if the planet’s anesthesia lasts for another two hundred years. There’s no way it will last for three hundred. So there’s no point in thinking about world domination. Once people lose all of their fuel and resources, they can’t even wage war. Even Object maintenance relies on existing energy sources. All the desperately gathered water and food will start rotting on the edges and the explosive growth of saprophytic bacteria will reach the clothing, homes, forests, and mountains. Entire cities, countries, and continents will rot. And after the one type of saprophytic bacteria covers the world, it will be easily wiped out by a single cause. But this ending is one you all created yourselves. We have only shown you the future that awaits you. …That’s all we’ve done, so why are you so persistent? You were the ones that created this destruction.”

“…”

“You’ll only be left with dried-out trash heaps that will never rot, but the rain and mist will turn them into a sticky world of sludge. That will prevent animals, plants, and even germs from reproducing. The ground will quickly decay with the sun blotted out and the supply of rain and air cut off. Of course, it’s possible the sludge will become a new type of fuel if it’s dried out, but that would be interesting, too. After all, the cities, countries, and continents would be covered in piles of solid fuel. Even a tiny spark from friction or static electricity would set a continent ablaze. Forest fires spread at about fifty kph, but this would be much faster. It would devour the people like an underground pack of beasts.”

The world had no chance left.

The current age saw war as normal.

The population had grown without control, no one seriously tried to conserve no matter what they claimed, they greedily consumed the food supplies, they erased forests for their own luxury, they were about to tap out the resources, they were ignoring all non-war technological development, and they were losing themselves in the fighting while looking away from all else. Winning or losing would not save anyone, but the soldiers were still obsessed with victory as if only to get the right brain chemicals pumping and the civilians mocked others for not thinking for themselves while they themselves blindly accepted the information they were given.

The planet was overflowing with those things.

This was the age ''after'' the World Clock’s hands had reached the end.

So they would reset it all.

They would turn back the hands of the clock.

They were not doing anything as savage as carrying out a mass slaughter. This was more than just stealing fuel and resources so the rest of the world would dry up. Unusably massive amounts of solid fuel would cover the world and the fires on the earth’s surface would chase the fleeing people to the edges of the continents. They would not be killed because there was not a drop left. They would be killed because they drowned in it all. It was a frightening reversal.

And after considering what that meant and weighing it against the current age, Quenser Barbotage gave his answer.

“Give it a rest, you brat. Your delusions don’t matter.”

He heard someone gasp on the other end of the radio.

But not at the fact that Quenser had spoken.

Yes, Quenser had seen through this unseen individual and determined they were a “brat”.

And he continued.

“Are you in middle school? No, you’re even younger. You talk with an air of importance and you might have a machine altering your voice, but you’re actually around ten I bet. That was obvious enough after I heard this great plan of yours. If a brat like you is the leader, were all the adult geniuses considered expendable?”

“Wh-wha…?”

“You want to go somewhere else? Who is it that says they want that? Who is it that says the world is filthy and the adults are ugly, yet tries to run off without working to resolve all that in your own generation? With cold sleep, an artificial planet, and escaping the earth, your actual methods are on a huge scale, but it all comes down to the childish reasoning that wants to abandon all responsibility. You think we’ll all die off without you having to do anything, but that just means you think someone will eventually make your dream come true. …Don’t look down on this world, you brat. Thinking you can get away with anything because you’re a kid is just more childish logic.”

Quenser spat the words out.

“Listen. It only looks like kids get away with what they do because, unbeknownst to you, someone else is covering for you. It’ll be your parents, your teachers, or one of the other adults you hate so much. So you can’t use your special privileges forever. Once the adults can’t cover for you anymore, it’ll all come crashing down on you. …To sum it up, you’ve gone too far and now it’s time to pay the piper.”

“Don’t joke.”

The voice grew lower than before.

What would these oozing, sticky words have sounded like without the alteration?

“They were covering for us? ''Them!?'' Don’t joke!! You have no idea what kind of environment we came from!!”

“So what?”

“You saw Lost Angels, didn’t you? But that’s only the model room version of a criminal city created for Faith Organization propaganda. They faked it as a convenient example of what happens when people lose their faith. The real thing is nothing like that. You haven’t even seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to real malice!!”

“What does that matter?”

It was true that just hearing about talent trafficking made it impossible to imagine the kind of ugly benefits and smirking adults that had surrounded the geniuses that went to the Nataraja. And that was probably only one small portion of it.

But…

Even so…

“From the moment you thought you could unconditionally trample on other people’s convenience for your own convenience and not let them complain, you proved you’re just some brat. If you were just swinging a stick around, someone would have taken the blame for you, but once you’ve gone this far, no one’s going to cover for you. You brought this all on yourself.”

“Like I said…”

Something caused an odd sound on the other end of the radio transmission.

“Nothing that convenient actually exists in this world!!!”

“It’s the very fact that you can’t see it that makes you a hopeless brat.”

Escaping earth.

Going somewhere else.

Finding a world with no ugly adults where they were the oldest.

“You can cry, but I won’t forgive you,” said Quenser indifferently. “There aren’t any chances left in your life.”

They had predicted that the Nataraja project was split between the cold sleep group that actually boarded the artificial planet and waited for the next earth and the surface group that would fight to keep the artificial planet hidden.

The surface group was willing to die and they were likely motivated by guilt.

They had seen the children’s dream and it was so bright that those adults cursed how small they themselves were.

That probably explained it all.

It went beyond the ugly leaders that the young geniuses considered their enemy. They saw everyone but themselves as ugly and had no problem eliminating them. That included the adult geniuses who had grown up under the same circumstances. They kicked them down, laughed, and said it was their just deserts. This was a war brought about by those childish dictators.

Quenser reached a new understanding of the situation.

From the middle of the battlefield, he mercilessly presented the truth to the mastermind who claimed he could keep things clean because he had not dirtied his hands.

“I will destroy it all. If you want to dream of the stars, then curl up with your pillow, cold sleeper.”