Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume12 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 4===

The Legitimacy Kingdom potatoes entered the east side before the sun reached its peak.

Second Venice contained a spider web of canals, so they could not travel by truck. And taking a transport helicopter would be suicide thanks to the Information Alliance’s Rush’s anti-air lasers. The crucial waterways were filled with sunken rubble which could pierce the hull of a boat if one was not careful. But after spending so much time in the inconvenient city, even those potatoes could come up with an answer.

“We could have used a hovercraft this entire time?”

Quenser’s voice sounded muffled as he viewed the scenery flying by.

“Why didn’t we realize this sooner? What was the point of all that effort?”

“It can’t be helped, big brother. That effort is what brought us to where we are now.”

Short Catherine comforted him from the seat next to him.

The hovercraft used the power of air to float above the water’s surface, so it was incredibly effective. It was not entirely safe since they still had to avoid the pieces of metal sticking up from the water, but it reduced the amount of rubble and wreckage they had to avoid by more than 99%. They also came close to hitting their heads on the lower arched bridges, but it was still far better than gasping for breath as they traveled through the ruined city on foot.

But…

“Frolaytia,” asked Quenser.

“What is it?”

His reply came via radio.

The student looked down at his own body which was surrounded by something like a giant steel egg as he sat in the hovercraft.

“What is with this situation? Why is even Catherine wearing a powered suit?”

“First of all, Catherine Blueangel is a Pilot Elite, so she can pilot vehicles better than anyone. Second, her risk is the same on the front line or waiting back here. We don’t know how much of a backlash there will be among the evacuees, so she is safest inside a powered suit. Third, Myonri specialized at this sort of thing, but she was injured and has to sit this one out. I want to use every resource available. Fourth, until the officers in their safe countries rescind their orders, I cannot remove Catherine from her rehabilitation program. Fifth, I received a report on what happened in the container yard. And Quenser, you’re probably the only one that can control Catherine. How many points am I up to?”

“That’s enough, dammit.”

“Just enjoy this like it’s a date with your cute little sister. But don’t let her remove the powered suit unless it’s an emergency. Even if she says she’s thirsty, don’t just give her some drink you find. She has been isolated to a lab and has had little contact with germs, so her immune system is weaker than a normal person’s. Her risk of infection is fairly high, so keep her from consuming anything we didn’t supply for her.”

They were in Second Venice’s east side. It was filled with countless high-rise buildings with shattered windows, but a complex arrangement of steel beams formed a giant metal tower that rose twice as high toward heaven.

That was the Pillar of Truth.

The giant broadcast tower boasted a height of 400 meters.

“A cable broadcast would have been enough to cover an artificial island, but they must have wanted their shows to reach the living rooms of the enemy nations on the closest coast. That’s about what I would expect of the Information Alliance.”

“Yeah, they’re completely insane.”

“They probably think the same of us.”

The journey was so much different with a hovercraft. They arrived at the broadcast tower in no time at all.

Sporadic dry gunshots reached their ears from overhead.

“Ahh, ahh. What is this?” complained Heivia. “Those are our people collapsed on the ground, aren’t they?”

“Don’t just watch, Catherine.”

“Right. We need to drag the injured into a nearby building. Leave it to me!”

Quenser tried to sound cool, but he moved stiffly and awkwardly when he actually stood up in his powered suit. The different motors and actuators assisted his own movements, so there were no levers or pedals for the pilot to control. However, the apparent weight and the actual weight were entirely different and the center of gravity was very different from a human’s, so someone who had never used one before could trip over nothing. And if he did trip and fall into the water, he would not float back up.

Meanwhile, Catherine nimbly hopped out of the hovercraft and onto the walking path. She then ran through the rubble to make contact with the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers lying in pools of blood.

And then Quenser’s powered suit stopped moving.

“Oh, no… I think it’s malfunctioning!”

“Big brother, if it won’t move, then hurry up and get out!! You’re a sitting duck!!”

“In this downpour of bullets!? I’d rather not!!”

“What if they fire a rocket while you can’t move? Powered suits aren’t invincible!”

After she more or less threatened him, her pathetic big brother tearfully stripped off the thick armor. But more surprises awaited him. For some reason, Catherine had opened her powered suit’s hatch.

“What are you doing, Catherine! You’re on the front line!!”

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“So hurry on in! An amateur like you will be turned into a sponge in less than a minute!!”

His balls shriveled up at that comment. Without thinking of the consequences, Quenser did as he was told and got inside Catherine’s powered suit with her. He was now holding the small girl from behind.

Yes, it was a lot like wearing a single mascot costume together.

“How should I put this…? What an amazingly girly aroma! And please, Catherine, stop fidgeting your butt.”

“We don’t have time for that. I’ll move, so you just relax, big brother.”

That began the world’s strangest form of teamwork.

They finally resumed their rescue work. Could they not move after being shot in the leg or were they being used as bait to draw other soldiers out from behind cover? Either way, they grabbed the male soldiers who had been left behind and brought them to a nearby bank.

They heard gunfire from above and something scraped across the powered suits, but it did little damage. They ignored it and ran.

“Sorry. We have a kit, so we can treat our own wounds. You need to prioritize the timetable.”

“What exactly happened?”

“The rogue Information Alliance soldiers are sporadically firing down from the observation deck. They’re using a shotgun. It’s probably a fully-auto model with a drum magazine.”

“A shotgun!? But there’s three hundred meters from the observation deck to the surface!”

“They aren’t actually aiming. Remember, they’re three hundred meters up. Dropping a pachinko ball, a screw, or a nail can be deadly at that height. They’re only vaguely aiming and then firing down a steel shower on full-auto. It’s like being hit by a spotlight.”

That sounded even more annoying than they had been expecting. It also somewhat conflicted with Frolaytia’s information. One of the powered suits had malfunctioned too, so nothing ever good came from a conversation with that busty commander. Idiot #1 swore in his heart that he would grope the hell out of those giant breasts later.

“Catherine.”

“Right.”

Quenser spoke to the blonde braid girl in front of him and the powered suit resumed moving to match Catherine’s movements. Shotgun blasts poured down from the observation deck, but they could ignore that.

Quenser sounded carefree as the gunfire hit them.

“This will get a lot worse if they pull out a grenade or grenade launcher. Even if they can’t break through the armor, the impact will still mess us up like being stuffed in a metal drum and having a bat pounding on the outside. So let’s get started already.”

“You’re the one taking the most time, big brother.”

As they spoke inside it, the shared powered suit ran to the base of the broadcast tower.

“I thought it was just a bunch of steel beams, but there’s a lot more to it, huh? There are maintenance stairways and catwalks…”

“But they’ve all been removed.”

That was exactly right.

Normally, the narrow stairways and catwalks would have run along the outside of the steel beams, but there was no sign of that now. Up to about ten stories up, all of that had been cut away so it fell to the ground. There was no reaching the surviving portion without a firefighter’s hook-and-ladder truck.

But that was not what Quenser and Catherine were after.

They were not going to grab onto the complex arrangement of steel beams and climb up.

They made their way to the main entrance. And instead of the industrial entrance for delivering supplies, they used the sightseeing entrance that led to the elevator and stairs up to the observation deck.

They stepped through the broken glass door.

There were plenty of LCD monitors above the ticket counter and they seemed to be playing footage from each of the stations, but they all had the same image now.

“This midsummer swimsuit concert is far from over! Oh ho ho. It is time for the next song. You recognize this intro, don’t you? Now, everyone, say the title on my cue. Three, two, one…”

Quenser sounded irritated as he watched it.

“They risked their lives to leave their unit, but they were drowned out by that jiggling G-cup bikini. I’d be desperate to accomplish something – anything – after that too.”

“Big brother, you should probably look away from the bikini before saying something like that.”

“There weren’t any landmines rigged with wires, were there?”

“They probably had their hands full sealing off the route up and couldn’t spare the time for that.”

The elevator was of course not running. When they used the powered suit’s leg strength to kick through the metal door, they found that even the emergency ladder had been cut away with a burner or something.

“We can’t use the ladder or the stairs. The metal emergency stairs were all brought down with what looks like explosives.”

“Then we can’t let our guard down. That means they can blow up the powered suits.”

On the inside and the outside, the way up had been cut away up to the tenth floor. And the bottom of that upper area would of course be guarded by enemy soldiers. If they tried to climb the wall or throw a rope up to climb, they would be exposed to the enemy’s concentrated firepower while defenselessly climbing.

The stairs, ladders, and elevator were all out.

So were Quenser and the others going to give up and leave?

Of course not.

“Then let’s go with the original plan. We need to support Heivia and the others from below, Catherine.”

“Right. Let’s cover the floor with pamphlets or whatever we can find and set some fires to smoke them out.”