Editing HEAVY OBJECT:EX Chapter 8 (section)

===Part 1===

Let us review the situation.

Due to a virus injected during the operation to rescue Quenser, the Trinity Style’s emergency ejection system malfunctioned. Urd and Verdandi were ejected from the Object, leaving Skuld in complete control.

The Object used a single main cannon on the side. A powerful laser beam fully vaporized a container shell to create plasma, which formed a blade 5km long.

The ground flooded due to the heavy rain, forcing any Objects to use air cushions.

The river was only about waist deep, but the current was too swift for anyone to stand and drowning was entirely possible. The water was too muddy to see inside and even acoustic sensors had difficulty.

Quenser and Heivia’s boat was upstream of the Trinity Style.

They were retrieving empty drums and plastic containers drifting down the river.

Why?

Their boat was equipped with a ballista, a crossbow several meters long. It fired arrows thicker than a metal rod with aluminum and iron oxide powder in the tip to induce chemical welding. When those hit the Object’s armor, they would instantly heat up to nearly 3000 degrees, welding them on.

Quenser and Heivia were removing the contents and filling the drums and plastic containers with them.

To detonate them, Quenser included some Hand Axe plastic explosive with an electric fuse attached.

Then they kicked them into the river from upstream.

The current swept them toward the Trinity Style.

Of course, detonating them below an Object which could survive a nuke would not blow the Trinity Style to smithereens.

They were aiming for something else.

As soon as Quenser pressed the switch on his radio, a blinding light surged out of the river directly below the Object.

At the same time, a lot of water vapor erupted from the river.

The Trinity Style would be using an air cushion so it could travel on both water and land. Needless to say, that system worked by blasting a bunch of compressed air straight down to create a layer of air between the ground and the Object.

What if that thoroughly calculated and equalized air current were disturbed?

What if it were made uneven so the weight was focused on a single point?

The answer was simple.

The Trinity Style had been moving so smoothly, but now it stopped and it sank into the river. It was only a difference of about a meter, but that was enough for the 200,000 ton mass to sink into the water. The layer of air vanished, the gap was filled, and the advantage of the air cushion vanished. It was just like pressing two wet palms together. Its movement was sealed.

On the boat, Quenser brought his radio to his mouth.

And he shouted to the Princess with all his might.

“She’ll recover in less than 10 seconds!! But she’s stopped! Blow her awayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

“Understood, Quenser.”

Quenser had no idea what Skuld was thinking as she piloted the Trinity Style in that moment, but the plasma blade main cannon was still aimed toward the Baby Magnum and the spherical main body’s many secondary cannons were still aimed at her older sisters as they floated down in their parachutes.

She would kill as many people as she could kill when and where she could kill them.

That stance must not have changed to the very, very end.

The low-stability plasma cannon fired by the half-melted Baby Magnum pierced straight through the murderer’s weapon.

This time, there was nothing Skuld could do.

The countless Dvergr work robots could rearrange themselves, but that was meaningless when the central JPlevelMHD reactor had been destroyed. The nuke-resistant armor swelled out from within and then burst.

The light was blinding and the noise deafening.

Urd and Verdandi’s calm flight was interrupted by the shockwave slamming them into the river and Quenser and Heivia’s rubber boat was flipped entirely over.

The two idiots grabbed onto the capsized boat for buoyancy because the powerful current pulled at their legs and threatened to drag them away.

“Ugh, cough!!”

“Dammit… Is it…over for the time being…?”

They were exhausted.

They could not just let the current carry them away. They had to return to the maintenance base zone somehow. They knew that, but they did not have the energy.

“Man, we moved a long way. We’re right on the edge of the combat zone. It might be easier to have the village in the forest pick us up. Waiting for the rescue chopper in a bed might not be so bad, even if it’s a cheap one.”

Quenser just about responded to Heivia with an exhausted laugh…but then he tensed up.

“Right on the edge of the combat zone? The village in the forest? Hey, Heivia, are you saying there’s a civilian residential area near here!?”

“Y-yeah. What about it…?”

“…”

Skuld was supposed to be extremely myopic and only chose the option that let her kill he most people in her current situation.

What if?

What if she had known about that village and had surreptitiously shifted her battle with the Baby Magnum toward the edge of the combat zone?

And what if her utter disregard for normal benefits had led her to focus on the village from the beginning?

“Verdandi to anyone who is listening, Verdandi to anyone who is listening. This is on an open channel, so the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers need to listen up too!!”

The voice of an enemy nation cut in over the radio.

“I received Skuld’s emergency ejection signal just before the explosion. She escaped. This isn’t over yet!!”

“Impossible…” Quenser ignored all military regulations and grabbed his radio. “Impossible!! If she was floating around in her parachute, someone would have noticed!!”

“That’s why she didn’t use her parachute. She ignored the 50m drop and launched herself right into the flooded river. She’ll try anything if it means spilling the blood of even one more person!!”

“…”

It was obvious where she was headed.

“This is bad. If Skuld has a handmade snorkel, she can let the muddy water carry her right to the village. She’ll slip past all of us!!”

Frolaytia must have been aware of the situation because her voice arrived over the radio next.

“Experimental Battlefield Madagascar is a treasure trove of rare animals, so it has a lot of smugglers. There will be ships on the coast and even charter planes and helicopters that can leave under a falsified flight plan. If she changes clothes at the village and secures the funds needed to negotiate with some smugglers, she has good odds of escaping. And then that serial killer will arrive at a safe country. We must prevent any civilian sacrifices above all else!”

“What should I do?” asked the Princess.

“There’s nothing you can do in a dense village. But the simple presence of your anti-air equipment will restrict Skuld’s options. At the very least, she won’t be able to leave straight away even if there’s a helicopter in the village. You keep her in check like that!”

“Hey, Quenser, what should we do?” asked Heivia.

“What else?”

Quenser let go of the capsized rubber boat.

He let the current carry him away to follow the same route Skuld would have taken.

“It’s time to settle things with that twintail piece of shit once and for all!!”