Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume12 Chapter 4 (section)

===Part 5===

The blue sky was visible.

The heavy black rock covering everything overhead had been removed.

Pieces of insulating material and cushioning larger than cars were raining down, but Quenser did not bother getting down on the ground.

Heivia groaned and was helpless to do anything but watch through his gas mask.

“H-hey. Is this okay? If we didn’t decontaminate all of the deadly mold, it might get out!!”

“Quiet, Heivia. Dump the lime powder in that bag over my head. And take care of Catherine. With the top open, our radio signals should get through now, so tell Frolaytia to send in some fully-protected doctors and medics.”

“What about you!?”

“You have to ask?”

Quenser left his awful friend with the body bag containing the survivor. After the sterilizing lime was poured over his head, he looked up at the most dangerous weapon in the world.

And he spoke in a horrifyingly emotionless voice.

“We need to have Catherine retrieved as soon as possible. I’ll destroy everything that gets in our way.”

“Are you serious… Quenser!?”

He did not listen or wait around any longer.

The surface was about three stories up, but the large pieces of rock(?) dropped by the mystery Object proved useful. By climbing up a pile of rubble, he managed to crawl to the surface even without the knowledge and physical fitness of a mountain or cliff climber.

He appeared in the west side which was especially damaged and was mostly a giant pile of rubble now.

The partially-destroyed skyscrapers had all fallen now and a new giant structure had taken root on the ground. This had to be the first time to actually move the weapon after landing. Its multiple cannons moved around and the lenses and sensors whirred, so it seemed to be checking on its functionality like some warmup exercises or stretches.

Quenser ignored that.

He paid the Object no heed and ran into a half-collapsed discount store nearby.

There was one thing he wanted.

(It can be cold medicine, sugar, vaporized gasoline, hydrogen peroxide water, or whatever else. Even if it isn’t as powerful or stable, I need something I can use in place of Hand Axe!!)

Quenser stuck a basket inside the shopping cart and ran around the store dumping in product after product from the half-collapsed shelves. After making a full circuit and reaching the register counter, he tore off the packaging without paying. He put the necessary substances in the necessary containers to create explosives and detonation fuses.

He could perform a number of chemical experiments, but what he needed was separation and synthesis.

He could distill things with a vacuum coffee maker and he could manage centrifugal separation with a lawnmower that’s blades rotated with a gasoline engine. Soaking things in high-purity alcohol or using a water purifier filter would also be effective. The hand-cranked generator for an emergency radio allowed electrolysis and the drying agent in snack packages meant he could dehydrate things. By drawing out only the “pure components” from the various commercial products, he could concentrate them and easily recombine them into a devilish invention.

A heavy tremor ran through the area.

The Object had likely done something outside. Even the slightest mistake on his part could blow off his fingers or his face and it was possible he could be buried alive, but Quenser’s expression did not change. The modern alchemist’s eyes were focused on the movements of the chemicals as he closed them inside 500mm beer bottles. He could have used soda cans or water bottles as containers, but glass had always been the strongest to chemicals. Its fragility to impacts was a downside, but it was better than having the bottom burn away as soon as he poured the contents inside.

He ended up with ten bottles.

He wrapped different colors of plastic tape around the top to indicate what was inside each one.

He placed them inside a cushioned camera bag he found in the store and stuffed balled up newspaper between the bottles to fill the gaps as much as possible.

“This really isn’t going to help much.”

With a self-deprecating smile, Quenser zipped up the camera bag.

Even after all this, a heavy impact from outside would easily break the bottles and Quenser would be blown away if conditions were just right, but he could not be picky now.

He needed to focus on time more than anything.

Time was what Catherine did not have.

After a nod, he carried the camera bag in one hand and ran out of the half-destroyed discount store despite the danger.

He once more looked up at the mystery Second Generation.

Whatever its reason, this Object had made sure to appear on Second Venice itself, so that allowed him to make some guesses.

“I was right. It is an air cushion type. And it uses multiple legs instead of a flat skirt.”

Four long ski-like floats extended back from directly below the spherical main body. They were not all the same length. The outer two were longer in the back and the inner two were shorter. The inner two were likely there to supports its weight while the outer two were there to help with quick turns and high-speed mobility. On the front, it had insect-like legs that spread out to the left and right.

After all, Second Venice was a city of countless intersecting canals, so not even a car could drive through it. Unlike the Baby Magnum on the coast or the Rush watching over the island from the ocean, a static electricity method that required separate floats would not work in the city.

Also, the mystery Object had lifted itself up to the surface with no assistance. A skirt-style would not be able to overcome that large height difference.

That eliminated some unnecessary work for Quenser.

Every minute and second counted for his small savior.

“Its main cannon looks like it uses metal shells. …Is it a railgun? No, it might be a simpler coilgun. They’d want the simplest method to prevent anything from breaking during the impact of landing.”

It had a single main cannon sticking out from the front, but it was short for how thick it was. A coilgun used the power of electromagnets to accelerate a steel shell, so the more electromagnets, the greater the power. That was why the barrel was usually as long as possible.

But this mystery Object had not done that.

Quenser’s attention turned to the secondary cannons attached all around it. They and the main cannon seemed to be built from similar units. It was like they were cobbled together from the same toy blocks. If the secondary cannons were a single block, then the main cannon was three of those blocks attached end to end. Either they were hoping a single blast would be powerful enough or it was specialized for battling other Objects, because it had fewer secondary cannons than a normal Object.

(Were they trying to reduce production and maintenance costs by reusing the same parts? Or are they spares in case the main cannon is taken out?)

It did not matter either way.

All that mattered to Quenser was the main cannon’s relative lack of range.

An Object shell would blow him to pieces either way.

The student unzipped the camera bag while bringing his radio to his mouth.

“Can you hear me, Princess? Can you target the mystery Object?”

“What’s going on, Quenser? Your voice sounds weird.”

“I don’t care if it’s only as a stationary gun platform. Can you target the mystery Object?”

“I can’t avoid a counter punch, so I have to take it out in one shot.”

“Then I’ll give you that chance. You pull the trigger and kill it.”

The handmade supplies gathered from a discount store by a combat engineer in training had more or less zero chance of destroying a cutting-edge strategic weapon that cost 5 billion dollars.

But things changed when he could borrow another Object’s firepower. He did not need to worry about the nuke-resistant armor and he only had to give his ally a chance to fire.

He had to do everything as quickly as possible.

The mystery Object’s legs shook. Its greatest threat would be the Rush out at sea, so it may have been planning to use its air cushion engine to head out onto the ocean. Once truly started using that air cushion engine, Quenser would be blown into the wall by the violent winds just from being nearby.

So he took action before that could happen.

He pulled a bottle with red plastic tape from the camera bag and made an underhand throw toward the ground below the floating mystery Object.

It happened as soon as the bottle broke.

A mass of bubbles grew larger than a tour bus.

Certain chemicals would release a large quantity of gas when they reacted to something.

The most common examples were found in fire extinguishers and airbags. Some people had their nose broken by the safety device meant to protect them, so it could become a weapon if used right. However, it would be difficult to damage an Object with that.

So that was just one step.

Mixing that chemical with detergent would great a massive amount of bubbles as soon as the air burst out. (Assuming you chose one that did not interfere with the chemical reaction) mixing it with acid would add a powerful corrosive effect to the bubbles.

No matter how hard they were and even with the muscle-like shock absorption ability of the multi-layered onion armor, it still used special steel at the base.

And there was no need to dissolve all of the armor. The air cushion engine used the power of air to keep the entire Object afloat. If the separated pieces of armor and bubbles rushed in and filled those holes, it would stop for maybe a second or two.

And that second was enough.

That was all the time Catherine had after it had been carved away by some inconsiderate bastard.

As soon as he saw the mystery Object come to a jerking halt, Quenser whispered into his radio.

“Do it.”

Bluish-white light filled the world. From ten kilometers away, the Princess’s low-stability plasma cannon wove through the gaps between Second Venice’s buildings and mercilessly pierced the center of the mystery Object.

That meant the utter destruction of the reactor and the cockpit.

The out-of-control energy would quickly cause the Object to explode and the nuke-resistant armor would open like a flower.

No.

That was what ''should'' have happened.

“Wha-…?”

The lenses attached to the sides of the main cannon continued to whirr.

The mystery Object had a donut-like hole through the center, but it ignored that and quickly turned toward the attacker. It aimed its large caliber coilgun toward the Baby Magnum.

Quenser’s eyes could not keep up with the rest.

The air cushion gale lifted him from the ground and slammed his back into a nearby pile of rubble.

“Gah…ahhh!?”

His scream was drowned out by another roar.

The mystery Object’s coilgun had fired. He was only watching from the side, but his entire body was pierced by a shock that seemed to damage both his eardrums and his lungs.

The Princess was stuck as a stationary gun platform and could not move. Now that the first shot had failed, she would be unilaterally destroyed.

But she still sounded calm over the radio.

“Quenser?”

“Cough! Cough!! Sorry. I have no idea what happened!! Why is it still alive!? And why are you!?”

“That short barrel coilgun isn’t suited for long-range battles, so my onion armor somehow managed to stop it. But if it gets close, I’m in trouble. It’ll blow me away.”

“Ugh. But only if it has the chance.”

The mystery Object began moving for real.

However, it did not approach the Baby Magnum. It raced through the city of rubble to reach the nearest coast and quickly head out onto the ocean.

“So it’s top priority is the undamaged Rush.”

“That pisses me off.”

“How can you say that when that means you’re safe for now? More importantly, continue acting as a stationary gun platform and fire your main cannon if you see an opportunity! Even if that doesn’t work, continue targeting it to restrict its movements!!”

“Where exactly am I supposed to shoot it? I already shot through that Zombie Object’s heart…”

Quenser ignored the creaking pain in his spine and got up. The camera bag…was fine. His body had cushioned the blow.

He was unsteady, but he ran through the city of rubble. He would never even dream of catching up to an Object on foot. Some fancy pro-sports motorboats that had to cost $200,000 each were stopped alongside a wide canal and he jumped from one to another.

“Frolaytia! How much have you heard about Catherine? The Zombie Object is on its way to the ocean. Can you retrieve Catherine and Heivia from the infection base!?”

“We can’t send any helicopters with the Rush and the unknown Object out there. I sent out a doctor and some medics on a spare hovercraft, but if that Object fires even the smallest cannon at them on a whim, it’s all over. That Second Generations might be made for fighting other Objects and not people, but it should be able to easily locate a target as big as a boat.”

“Then I’ll open the way.”

As he jumped across the boats and peered in near the helm, he spotted something.

One of them had been abandoned during the asteroid detonation with the key still in the ignition.

The boy could not drive a car or motorcycle, but for some reason, he had a fair bit of experience with marine sports.