Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume6 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 5===

“He was just blown away.”

“That he was. Doesn’t this make us terrorists?”

A bright flash of light as if from welding could be seen in an area of the white snowy sky. It was all they could see of an anti-air laser roasting a transport plane. The main dish was of course the Legitimacy Kingdom lieutenant colonel who had ordered the Background Unit to their deaths.

Quenser, Heivia, and the others were not in the Legitimacy Kingdom military airport. They were instead in the city of Maple Queen, a civilian residential area in the Athabasca district. It had originally been a small town filled with lines of short buildings only 3 to 5 stories tall, but a lot of run-down houses had been constructed on top of those flat roofs, creating a very chaotic picture. The disorderly construction and piles of snow on top had even caused some of the buildings to collapse.

The roads were not in a normal state either. Some areas were blocked by the collapsed buildings and vehicles would sometimes drive through buildings that had lost their walls.

“Our mission was to transport the secret material to the military airport, not to be killed by the Information Alliance so they could retrieve the secret material. Their containers may have changed, our route may have been greatly altered, and the time schedule may have been thrown way off, but that isn’t enough to court martial us.”

“I see. So we can say we did our duty as long as we bring these unexploded shells to the military airport.” Heivia tapped on the bed of the beat-up civilian truck. “But are we really going to do the right thing and bring it in? This is worth more than a villa on the Aegean Sea.”

“Of course we are. But our mission was only to transport the secret material to the military airport. No one is left there who wants it, so who’s to say we can’t just load it onto our flight home?”

“That’s just wrong.”

“Yeah, it is,” agreed Quenser before beating on the nearby powered suit with his palm. “Let’s get something to eat before swapping out vehicles. We’ll buy something for you, so watch the truck.”

“I want a teriyaki burger,” replied the Perfect Idol.

“That’ll have a bite to it after nothing but flavorless rations. Let’s go, Heivia.”

Quenser and Heivia left the truck and headed for the filthy supermarket on foot.

“I wonder where we’ll be sent next. Will we be stuck in the Background Unit? It’s been pretty much destroyed.”

“Wherever we go, it’ll be hell. Even if the rate for that lithium is low, we should hurry up and cash it in and put the money in an electronic bank account. We don’t want it to be confiscated due to the restrictions on personal possessions.”

“Is there no way we could end up heading to a clean and safe office district where we would wear suits?”

“I don’t care where we go as long as it isn’t South America. The Amazon district would be the worst.”

“Why?”

“Read a newspaper sometime, you idiot. The Royal Duel to determine the successor to the throne of the Volga district is going to be held there. That means there will be a clash between Objects. I don’t want to end up caught in the middle of that.”

However, worthless soldiers like Heivia and Quenser had no say in where they were deployed. Since worrying about it would do nothing to help, they decided to forcibly change the subject.

“Hey, Quenser. What do people eat around here? Salmon? Seals?”

“Burger restaurants are the same the world over. I’m more worried about whether they’ll accept Legitimacy Kingdom euros or not.”

“A dirty battlefield country will have money-exchangers everywhere.”

But they were ultimately unable to purchase any burgers with their euros.

This was because the civilian truck loaded with lithium behind them suddenly exploded.

In all seriousness, they stopped breathing. Not only that, they were thrown several meters forward. Unable to stop their momentum, they continued to roll across the snow. Once they stopped, they looked at the site of the explosion while still collapsed on the ground. There was too much dust in the air to see the civilian truck. The wall of a nearby building had been completely ripped off. The powered suit with its thick armor was collapsed on the ground. It had to have been almost in the middle of the blast, but its armor must have been enough because its thick fingers were repeatedly twitching.

“Cough, cough! Shit, what was that? Wasn’t that our truck!?”

“There was no reason it should have exploded! All of the shells were filled with lithium. We made sure it was airtight with nitrogen and rubber, so it should have been stable!!”

“Then why did it blow up!?”

Quenser bit his lip slightly at Heivia’s question.

He began speaking as he got up from the snow that was strewn with fragments of wreckage.

“I can think of only one possibility: the truck was switched out with a different one at some point.”

“Switched-…What?”

“Switched out! The truck was moving slowly through this residential area and all its complex additions. Only the driver was onboard. We were scattered around protecting it. If that driver was an enemy, they could have secretly switched out the truck with an identical model while driving through one of the half-collapsed buildings!”

The truck and unexploded shells Quenser and the others had used were originally from that civilian city. If someone had given advance notice, it would not have been difficult to prepare an identical truck and shells.

That meant they knew what they had to look into first.

“We swapped out different drivers in shifts, right? Who was driving last?”

“The guy with the chef’s license. You know, the one who heated the engine oil to melt the lithium.”

“Then he’s the one that betrayed us.”

“Who is that damn cook working with!? The Information Alliance!?”

“If they knew the unexploded shells had the lithium in them, that rugby ball would not have let us leave. They would have used their infantrymen to slaughter us and take the lithium.”

“Then who’s the enemy here!?”

“How should I know!?” spat out Quenser. “But whoever they are, how did they detonate the shells? Was it a time bomb? No. They had no idea when we would realize the truck had been switched out. They would want to erase all evidence by blowing it away at the timing of their choice, so they definitely used a radio signal.”

“How does that help u-…Wait a second.”

“That’s right, Heivia. A radio signal wouldn’t reach far in this winding slum. …He’s nearby. The bastard that pressed the button is nearby! If we can capture him, we should be able to figure out who it is!!”

Heivia grabbed the assault rifle hanging from his shoulder and looked around the area.

On the second floor of a dirty building, a man peering out a window in their direction moved back at the sight of the gun barrel. But he was not simply panicking. It was a slight difference in behavior, but he was clearly assuming the barrel would soon be pointed in his direction.

“That bastard!!”

Trusting in the penetrative power of the assault rifle, Heivia fired a short burst toward the wall of the second story, but he doubted he hit the man. He heard the sound of a window shattering on the reverse side of the building. The two boys frantically ran in that direction and saw the man jumping down.

Their eyes met for an instant, but the man did not hesitate to turn tail and flee.

Heivia clicked his tongue.

“Dammit, I can’t fire! This rifle is too powerful. The risk of hitting a civilian is too great!!”

Heivia grabbed his handgun instead and Quenser stabbed a fuse into a plastic explosive to get the civilians behind cover, but the man was already gone.

But they still had a clue.

When the man had jumped down from the second story, his jacket had been blown open. And that had revealed a distinctive sign hidden around the man’s neck.

“…Did you see that, Quenser?”

“Yeah, scars from stiches reaching completely around his neck.”

That was the sign of the Legitimacy Kingdom Unit that had disguised itself as the bodyguard unit known as the Night Edge Platoon on the Cook Addition Islands.

The 202nd Mobile Support Company.

The dark team rumored to carry out secret missions around the world. The unit that’s mystique had supposedly saved dying tabloids that started following them.

“Unicorn!!”

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