Editing HEAVY OBJECT:EX Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 2===

The twilight burned red.

The Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers had gathered outside and they were chatting curiously.

“Why is the major sitting on top of Quenser and beating him?”

“Because she found out he was making honeycomb toffee in secret.”

“Sugar is one thing, but where did he get the baking soda? Is there a hot spring around here?”

“He apparently took apart a fire extinguisher to get at the foaming agent.”

“If you make candy, she’ll climb on top of you with that tight skirt? C’mon, hit me too!!”

Meanwhile, busty silver-haired Frolaytia must have wanted to take a break because she tossed Quenser over toward the other soldiers.

“Sorry about that distraction. Everyone line back up.”

The pre-mission briefing was beginning.

“Our satellite has detected the Trinity Style starting to move.”

The soldiers were gathered outside rather than in the usual briefing room. That meant there had not been enough available indoor space for the briefing. They had yet to recover from the damage done by the genetically modified insects.

The enemy was approaching while their equipment was malfunctioning and that was likely intentional on the enemy’s part.

“It will attack soon, but we are not yet ready to withdraw. At this rate, we would be hit as we tried to leave. Sending out the Baby Magnum and coming up with a countermeasure against the Trinity Style is looking like the more realistic option.”

As the rows of soldiers listened, Heivia muttered a complaint next to Quenser.

“And what are puny soldiers like us supposed to do? Go jack off in our bunks until the Princess wins?”

“I heard that, Heivia. And I have the perfect job for a volunteer hero who wants to stand out.”

“Why’d you have to say something!? Now we’re all being sent to the front line!!”

Frolaytia ignored the soldiers ganging up on Heivia and continued with the briefing.

“Currently, the Trinity Style’s combat ability is an unknown. The Princess had trouble last time, but that was partially due to it making a surprise attack after pretending to be defeated. However, we can’t be too optimistic. We have no idea what will happen in a fair one-on-one battle. It might be an easy victory and it might be a harsh battle. If we knew how we would fare, we could decide how much distance to keep between us, but we don’t know anything. We simply have too little information, so we have to assume this is the most dangerous situation. It’s 50/50…either side could win.”

The busy commander inhaled some smoke from her kiseru.

“Furthermore, the Trinity Style is a Second Generation made from small work robots that allow it to use entirely different shapes, main cannons, propulsion devices, and strategies. The thickness of its armor and most damage can be changed or repaired by shifting the position of those robots. …They’re sure to create a situation we can’t read and then move in to wear us down. The Faith Organization was able to put together a strategy in advance while we have to adlib, so they have a major advantage. Do you understand now that we can’t rest easy and leave this to the Princess?”

But Quenser hesitantly raised his hand because he did not want to set foot on the battlefield.

“But what can flesh-and-blood soldiers do? And I’m pretty sure the Trinity Style’s acoustic scans will locate anyone who’s hiding.”

“Does that mean we have to change back into those athlete’s foot suits!? What a pain the ass!!”

“Anyone without a death wish, listen up.” Frolaytia sounded indifferent. “I’ll start with your objective. The biggest problem in the Trinity Style battle is the changes to its armor and armaments. We are constantly monitoring it by satellite, but we need as many information sources as possible. You will infiltrate the battlefield and use various cameras and sensors to constantly scan the Trinity Style in real time to gather data on its shape, abilities, and armor. That data will be sent to the Princess so she can fire her main cannons at the thinnest point.”

She used her kiseru to point at the map on the whiteboard.

“This time, the Objects will be firing at each other from across a giant river. Large bodies of water are the enemy of static electricity systems, so that will function as a barricade. But that’s only true if it is using static electricity. If the Dvergr secretly rearrange to an air cushion system, it might suddenly cross the river. That is another reason to continue scanning and sending out the data. Static electricity and air cushions both have their unique traits and weaknesses. If we know its movable range, it shouldn’t be difficult for the Princess to predict its next move and fire her main cannon where it will be next.”

“Wow, setting up hidden cameras gets us praised as heroes now? Everything I thought I knew is crumbling away. War sure is scary. …But I think we’ll get more than a slap if their goddess notices.”

Frolaytia responded to Heivia while placing her kiseru back in her mouth.

“You don’t need to worry about the anti-personnel acoustic sensors this time. This will be an all-out battle between the Princess and the Trinity Style, so the entire area will be a vortex of explosive blasts. It’s going to be worse than a fireworks show, so the precision of those acoustic sensors is sure to drop and you can also set up plenty of those disturbance speakers that worked so well last time.”

“And the real reason for that?”

“I said this would be an all-out battle, right? A small infiltration team was one thing, but we don’t have enough soundproofed suits for all of our infantry. Unfortunately, the budgets for these clean wars are heavily biased toward the Objects.”

In other words, this had less to do with a safer situation and more to do with a cobbled-together way of making up for insufficient equipment. Quenser and the others only grew more disheartened.

“By the way, do we have a guess as to which form the Trinity Style will use?”

“That is what we need to interrogate Skuld Silent-Third about. Quenser, you come with me. You seem to have earned the POWs’ trust since the bug panic, so they might have a looser tongue around you than a strict intelligence officer.”