Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume11 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 5===

Inside the Baby Magnum’s cockpit, the Princess was irritated.

For once, her role was not to defeat an Object or to win a battle. This was the entrance to the home countries of the Capitalist Corporations and the Information Alliance, so the enemy was simply too powerful for that. The more she stood out, the more enemy reinforcements she would summon. Even the extraordinary firepower of an Object was no exception there.

She had to get close but not too close.

She was shaking up the Second Generation guarding the oasis and maintaining a stalemate. She had to keep the situation stable and unchanging and that perfect balance was her top priority.

This was of course a necessary role.

If the enemy Object ignored the Baby Magnum and focused on its surroundings, the hundreds of infantry crawling along the minefield would be blown to Valhalla in no time. The soldiers could not have appreciated anything more than having the enemy Object kept far away from them.

She understood that, but that was not the same as liking it.

(I want to go help Quenser and the others already.)

An Object could take a nuclear blast, so it could clear a minefield in an instant just by moving across it. That was the simplest solution, so it was wrong for the flesh-and-blood soldiers to be sweating bullets and risking their lives clearing the mines.

But despite her thoughts…

“Princess, leave your thinking until later. Maintaining that balance is what matters now. In a way, you need to view this mission as even more difficult than normal.”

“Understood, Frolaytia.”

She focused on the battle again.

The Capitalist Corporations Second Generation was known as the Antlion. As its name suggested, it was specialized for combat in the desert. In addition to the static electricity float directly below the spherical body, it had four arms attached to the top. They drove thick stakes into the soft sand to grab at the ground and pull the main body along for powerful short dashes in any direction.

But something else left the biggest impression.

“…?”

In addition to a rapid-fire beam main cannon on the right, it scattered a hail of something from the left.

The Princess took high-speed evasive action while opening a new window for analysis. The projectiles seemed to be tripods several meters long. They were a single spear when fired, but they would open up in midair so they could set themselves up on the ground. They looked something like the pyramid-shaped barricades made of metal bars that prevented parachute descents.

Then something changed.

There was movement, but not from the Baby Magnum or the Antlion. Everything else moved. The sea of sand making up the entire landscape undulated like a living creature. It looked like an area of several kilometers had suddenly turned to quicksand.

Again, the Object’s name was the Antlion.

“We saw that in the control room too,” said Frolaytia. “That’s its unique form of artificial quicksand!!”

“Unknown devices spotted. They’re probably antenna rods used for resonance. I have also detected some very high power HF waves. Unless it’s making sonar-like acoustic scans, it must be vibrating the rods to shake the sand.”

But the Princess was unsure what that mattered as she continued her high-speed battle.

Whether it used static electricity or an air cushion, Objects floated in the air. Even intense quicksand would not swallow them up or even obstruct their movement. This would probably be more frightening than a stormy sea to infantry or tanks, but was it really any use in an Object vs. Object battle?

But just as she was thinking that, something exploded right below the Baby Magnum.

“!?”

Nothing had been fired at her, but she could see new devices in previously empty parts of the wriggling sand. The spherical protrusions were as large as fighter aircraft and they rose and sank within the wriggling desert like a fishing float in the waves. There was no way she would have overlooked them. Which meant…

“Princess, those are mines! The quicksand must have pulled up the equipment they had hidden deep underground!”

“I know that.”

Of course, no matter how effective the explosive inside, the mines could not destroy the Baby Magnum. Not even the ultimate nuclear landmine could do that. Objects were built to survive a nuclear attack from any direction, so that was only natural.

But whether it used static electricity or an air cushion, the field that kept the fifty meter two hundred thousand ton Object afloat was delicate. Having a large explosion mess with the repellant was not exactly a good thing.

Even if it was only for a fraction of a second, an opening was an opening.

(Here it comes!!)

The Princess saw the Antlion’s main cannon blast coming from the movements of the cannon itself and its targeting lenses. She immediately moved her Object far to the right. All the while, the shape of the desert was changing.

An intense cannon blast followed, but she was on a course out of the way.

Nevertheless, the electron beam cannon bent in midair like a snake.

“Wha-…?”

[[Image:HO_v11_044.jpg|thumb]]

This was entirely unexpected. Time seemed to slow to a stop like when about to collide with an oncoming truck. She instantly figured it out. Electron beams were easily influenced by magnetism. Before firing its main cannon, the Antlion had created artificial quicksand using multiple ultrasonic resonance rods. Targeting her with landmines would be useless.

So what was the true purpose of creating the quicksand?

(Some iron sand was arranged systematically along the surface like a magic circle.)

The Princess gulped.

(And that iron sand cut off or guided the earth’s magnetic field so the electron beam would bend on its own!?)

The speed of time returned to normal.

A dreadful blast of fire rushed toward the Baby Magnum.

She could not dodge in time.

The heated onion armor on the left side was peeled up like a giant flower and a storm of alarms filled the cockpit.