Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume14 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 4===

The 100 giant vehicles were being connected together into a maintenance base zone at an accelerated rate, but they did not have time to wait for the main conference room to be completed.

Thus, Frolaytia (who had changed back into her usual uniform) had gathered the fieldwork soldiers out on the scorching wasteland.

“Due to an unexpected accident, the electronic simulation division is not at its best, so we cannot put together as tight an operation as usual. Prepare yourself for this mission to be more dangerous than normal. Do not miss a word I say here.”

Next to Quenser, Heivia was already raising his hand.

“Just to check up front, we can start things next time, right? We can be the ones to fire first?”

“The uniformed officers in Paris aren’t going to like it, but protecting the civilians of the silo city will just barely make us look better. This is technically a blank zone and the people living here have no connection to the Capitalist Corporations or Information Alliance. If there is a pressing need to protect innocent people from the flames of war, we are to reach out a helping hand. …The clean war framework comes in handy here.”

It was a lot like an outside classroom. Frolaytia stood in front of a whiteboard that had been dragged out of storage and a few paper printouts were attached to it. They were primarily photographs taken by a drone or the Baby Magnum.

“The enemy is the Faith Organization’s Second Generation Jack in the Box. The Object is full of elastic alloy tech. In other words, it uses springs. The primary two problems are the metal shell main cannon and the tail it fires into the ground for a quick dash.”

“So what’s your feel of the situation, Princess? I mean, it looked like you were dodging its main cannon pretty handily.”

When Quenser asked, everyone’s eyes gathered on the Princess who was cooling down with a small handheld fan hooked up to a smartphone quick charger using a USB cable. For some reason, she was not wearing her usual blue special suit and instead wore a baggy T-shirt that left her legs entirely bare. Plus, she was outside. Since cooling sheets were visible along with glimpses of her bright armpits and thighs, the glasses doctor woman may have ordered her to perform an emergency cooldown. However…

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“I think I only managed that because of the close range. For them, it may have been like swinging around a flyswatter while peering through a telescope.”

“…”

“…”

“…”

“Wh-what?”

After finally noticing everyone’s focus on her, the Princess shrank down a bit, but that did not change anything. She fidgeted under the pressure of everyone’s gazes and she finally found a sanctuary.

“Nyah…Quenser…”

“That’s it. Once this is over, let’s drag that kitten-tamer out back.”

“That’s it. Once this is over, let’s drag that kitten-tamer out back.”

“That’s it. Once this is over, let’s drag that kitten-tamer out back.”

While all the male soldiers agreed on a plan, the Princess blushed a little while firmly but softly using Quenser’s back as a shield.

The guys would slam shut the door to their heart if someone said anything to them here, so Frolaytia asked a careful question.

“So it wouldn’t be that easy if they could keep the proper distance while they fought?”

“Hey, Princess. Which felt like more of a threat, the main cannon or the tail?”

The fidgeting Princess clung to him all the more and Quenser thanked his past self for taking off his backpack. That left nothing to impede the soft sensations he could feel here and there.

He had arrived in a wonderful bubble where a warm breath reached his ear if the Princess so much as opened her mouth. This paradise was sure to burst at some point, but that moment was not now!

“They were both a threat, but if I had to say, the main cannon, I guess. I think that quick dash is too fast, so the Jack in the Box can’t fully control it.”

“Can you tell me more?”

“Okay, Quenser. But keep in mind this is all just based on my impression… I don’t think it can accurately lock on and fire its main cannon while performing a quick dash. It can only switch between two modes: attack and evade.”

The Princess clung tightly to Quenser’s back and viewed the potatoes over the boy’s shoulder.

“I can predict which way it will dash based on the direction the tail is pointing. It would be a problem if it could dash back and forth in a lightning bolt zigzag, but since it can’t attack while doing that, I would actually just have more time to aim. Looking at it that way, only the main cannon really has any chance of doing real damage.”

“Let’s go with that plan.” Frolaytia snapped her fingers. “We will assume the Jack in the Box’s greatest threat is the spring-loaded main cannon that uses its simple structure to combine the vectors of the eight arms. On the assumption that the Princess can keep up with its speed head-on, the rest of you morons will focus on a support operation to destroy its main cannon.”

“How!? Are we supposed to mess with the main cannon attached to a Second Generation that has a standard speed of 500kph and a max speed of more than 700kph!? That’s like jumping onto a linear motor train moving at full speed! The instant we touch it, we’ll be blown away! It’s suicide!!”

“Listen through to the end, Chief Moron.”

Frolaytia breathed out the sweet smoke inhaled from her ''kiseru''.

“There’s no need to actually touch the main cannon itself. As Quenser explained earlier, the Jack in the Box uses its tail for more than just extreme high speed dashes. It also swings the tail in the opposite direction of the main cannon and drives the thick stake into empty air to negate the recoil. …That means it can’t support that metal shell cannon all on its own. Wouldn’t the 200,000 ton Object flip right over without the tail?”

Quenser and the others had nothing against the Jack in the Box, but defeating it would solve everything. In that case, it was enough to render it unusable without actually destroying it. Whether to kill or spare the helpless fool was a decision for the Princess whose warm pulse reached the back she clung to.

“Do we have an image? I want to know the exact process the tail uses to fire.”

“What materials do we have to work with?”

“About that baumkuchen shell made from liquid lead…”

“This is so tight in the chest and butt… Why does this uniform feel like it needs to show off my body?”

They must have wanted to avoid thinking about the approaching threat of death because the idiots got to work like someone pulling out a manga volume in the middle of cleaning their room. There was also a gal talking about something else entirely, but letting that distract you meant you had lost. Fail to prepare properly and only death awaited you. It was seriously a life-or-death issue!!

The worker ants’ thoughts went into overdrive as they grew weirdly overclocked in their fight against impure thoughts. It was looking like you could not expect much even if those potatoes drew out all their wisdom, but…

(Eight arms, springs, liquid lead baumkuchen shells, combined vectors, recoil control, force negation, a main column covered with gear teeth, and the main cannon and tail have to remain in constant balance. In that case, it’s all about moving its weight and both combining and negating vectors, so we don’t even need to touch the tail itself, do we?)

“Quenser, did you have an idea?”

“Eh? No, not really!?”

“You have no right to withhold information. You are obligated to report even the smallest thing.”

“Y-you’re overestimating me. I really don’t have any ideas. None at all. <span style="font-size:50%">Or none that aren’t terrible, terrible ideas…</span>”

Frolaytia silently raised her lit ''kiseru''.

“Explain. Now.”

“Eek!! O-oh, come on! Why did I have to think up something like this!? I’m so stupid!!”

Quenser clicked his tongue in utter displeasure before raising his hands and coming clean. He was pretty sure he felt his shoulder blades touch some kind of soft mounds when they moved, but that was a secret.

“Ad…adhesive.”

“Meaning? I bear full responsibility as the commander, so judging a plan good or bad is not your duty. You know about the Faith Organization’s actions and the hexavalent chromium, don’t you? This is an urgent issue either way, so out with it.”

“Umm, dammit…do I really have to say it?”

Quenser hesitated on and on while shaking his head.

He then gave a hypothetical as if shaking free of something.

“This entire area is a parched wasteland, so clouds of sand form pretty easily. The Object created something like a cumulonimbus cloud when it approached, for example. We could use a vaporizer to mix in microscopic adhesive and let that float through the air. The Jack in the Box’s tail is about 25 meters long and it grows to twice that when the spike inside is fired. And it used its extra-large springs and weights to kick at the air. Which means…”

“You want to change the viscosity of the air itself?”

“Air is a fluid too, so its response will change depending on the viscosity. The Jack in the Box’s kick will be more powerful than expected and it will be knocked upwards and lose control. Add that unexpected turn of events to the great recoil of firing the main cannon and it should flip right over.”

Someone in the crowd whistled and the Princess clung even tighter to Quenser’s uniformed back, but Frolaytia’s expression remained grim.

Yes, a theory alone was meaningless.

This was not over until the Faith Organization’s Second Generation had actually toppled over.

“Any ideas on a specific adhesive to use?”

“A polymer of dihydric phenol and epichlorohydrin, commonly known as epoxy resin. We should be able to use the filler for gaps in the base zone’s walls, so we’ll have plenty of it.”

“And the vaporizer?”

“Unlike wood or instant glue, this stuff hardens in reaction to heat, so you don’t have to worry too much about maintaining a vacuum inside the container. And it shouldn’t get clogged up during such a short mission. Let’s take apart a few air-conditioning units and use their large fans.”

“Hm,” thought the busty and silver-haired commander with her narrow ''kiseru'' in her mouth.

And then she spoke.

“So what’s the problem?”

“Umm, there’s a problem on the health front. This will be spread across the area as a fine mist and carelessly breathing it in could harm your trachea and lungs.”

“And?”

When she asked further, Quenser repeatedly poked his index fingers together and confessed.

“Since it reacts to heat and we need all the adhesive to react, we’ll have to fry all the air in the combat area. Wh-which means the conflagration might just reach the surface part of the silo city if the wind direction doesn’t cooperate…”