Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume12 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 4===

A girl dangled from a cliff by a single rope in the late night rain.

She was the Pilot Elite of the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion, aka the Princess. And the cliff she dangled from was known as the Baby Magnum. The badly damaged Object was floating in the ocean, but no scaffolding had been built around it and no maintenance soldiers were working on it. She had been told over the radio that the technicians had been sent out to build quick residences to hold the many civilians, so no one could be spared for her yet.

(I just hope that awful Rush doesn’t try anything during this lag.)

“There we go.”

The Princess had changed into a blue bikini. She had her feet on the armor panels to balance herself with the single rope, so she ended up sticking her small butt out behind her. She of course had a work belt around her waist and it held a radio, so she could return to the cockpit on a moment’s notice.

(We were supposed to get some free time after dealing with the Supernova. Frolaytia apparently wanted to keep that as a surprise for Quenser and the others, but now that’s all ruined.)

“Yes. Anything but a bikini isn’t even an option.”

With that comment, she checked on the area illuminated by the penlight stuck above her ear.

(The main cannon joint took a lot of damage too. I wonder how bad the marine floats were hit. At least the compound eyes of radars and sensors were all attached to their own cannons.)

Even if the Princess grabbed some tools in slender arms and fought the damaged components, she could not fix the Baby Magnum. But if she finished surveying the damage before the maintenance soldiers arrived, she could save them a lot of work.

And in addition to any logical reasons, she may have been doing this as a way to make up for the guilt she felt.

(I’m the only one with power, water, and food. Not that I can output the reactor’s electricity in accordance with civilians standards.)

She pulled a hammer and micro-mic from the emergency tool set wrapped around her waist as a belt and she tapped lightly for a test. She immediately grimaced. The reverberation she heard was powerful. Onion armor was made to absorb any impacts with a spring like motion using the multiple armor panels layered like mille-feuille, so it was not supposed to sound like that.

(It must have been crushed while still bent.)

Even the zones that looked fine had several spots that were not functioning. If she was hit with a main cannon there, it would all be over. The impact would barely be absorbed and the attack would pierce right on through.

With her slender body exposed to the rain, the Princess calmly thought to herself while wiggling her small butt behind her.

(The engine room’s reactor is still responding properly, so I thought I might be able to get past the damage and start moving again, but I guess that would be too dangerous.)

At any rate, modern wars were all about Objects.

The future did not look bright for a battalion that had lost theirs.