Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume18 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 6===

Quenser and Heivia rolled into a crack in the dry ground while pursued by the roar of an automatically swiveling heavy machinegun that scattered 700 bullets a minute. And each of those bullets was the same size as the 12.7mm ones used in anti-materiel rifles. A graze to the thigh would be enough to tear off the leg like wringing a rag.

The bugs hiding in a gap in the ground groaned while protecting their heads with their hands.

“This is worse than I imagined!!”

“Why do you always do this!? You’re always so shocked every time some new Object shows up!! Why give the enemy the reaction they want!?”

Quenser had tried to use an attack that was harmless to people but deadly to machines: heat, EM waves, dust, dirt, static, moisture, etc. Unmanned weapons were giant communication devices encased in thick armor. Just like with a phone or computer, machines had plenty of weaknesses unique to themselves.

Or so the theory goes. But…

“Damn, it didn’t work. They’re completely airtight, so no dust or moisture can get in. What kind of cooling system do they use? I didn’t see the wire mesh for a radiator. Do those bastards use stylish fully-enclosed liquid cooling!?”

“Keep bragging about the enemy’s specs and I’m shoving my magnum in your yapping mouth, skinny boy!!”

They heard the sound of metal panels scraping together.

Those 3m box-shaped machines called Lunchboxes did not need any space for someone inside, so they were filled with armor instead. That made them heavy. They were only about 2 tons, but that was still too much for skinny tires that matched their size.

“Are you kidding me with these brand-new things? They’re all bright and shiny like at a motor show.”

“That isn’t just paint or wax.”

Quenser and Heivia were lucky the Lunchboxes’ weight prevented them from moving very fast. They traveled at about the speed of a scooter while suppressing the enemy with their machinegun and grenades. Instead of nimbly pursuing their target, they were likely meant to be placed at a particular point to prevent anyone from getting through. By generally surrounding a target with several of them, they could then slowly close in on the target.

But as Quenser and Heivia were pushed back by them, the fear was much like being slowly crushed by the moving walls in some ancient ruins. They were already within range of the barrage. At this rate, the unmanned weapons would catch up to them on their continuous tracks, but carelessly sticking their heads up from the crack in the ground would only get their torso torn in two by anti-materiel bullets.

Quenser looked up into the slice of the blue sky he could see out of the crack.

“From the way they move, I’m guessing they’re operated remotely instead of using a program to patrol a set area. Can’t our side jam them or something?”

“They refuse to attempt something when they know they’ll fail. Since it detracts from their score. Have you forgotten what we’re up against here, Quenser? The Mother Lady space elevator. That thing moves the elevator cars by blasting them with microwaves from the surface to get the motor running. And the Capitalist Corporations controls everything in space up above. Their signals are more powerful than ours, so we can’t forcibly jam theirs.”

“Wait, that would mean…ah, ah, ahhhh!?”

Deafening static pierced his head from right to left, so he grimaced and removed his earphone.

His mobile device might as well have been a ceramic tile.

The emblem on the corner of the screen said he had no signal.

“The data link is down.”

“So’s the radio. Damn, what century of warfare are we fighting now!?”

This is what happened when your side’s communications equipment was inferior. The guerillas protecting the space elevator could communicate and coordinate all they liked, but the 37th had to figure things out individually. Their maps were no longer updating, leaving them in the dark as to what was happening, where their enemies and allies were located, what the current timetable was, or even where they were located themselves. And since they could not share their own locations, there was a chance that the Princess would blow them away with an attack. Luring them in and then cutting off their communications was downright cruel.

The Legitimacy Kingdom was one of the four world powers, so they would not normally run into this kind of trouble.

That showed just how unusual this battle against the space elevator was.

“What do we do?” asked Heivia. “We’ll get lost out here if we’re not careful. Do we just charge toward Mother Lady as the most obvious landmark?”

“And die just like Frolaytia taught us to!? Anyway, be quiet, Heivia. One of those unmanned weapons is coming, so shut up!”

Some sand came away from the walls as the ground shook from continuous tracks similar to on construction equipment. It was close.

Quenser and Heivia curled up at the bottom of the crack just before the sunlight was blocked.

A Lunchbox was passing by directly above the narrow crack in the ground.

“––––––!?”

“(Settle down, you noble chicken! Do I need to stuff a handkerchief in your mouth!?)”

Dust was falling down on their heads and the sunlight could not reach them. Quenser felt a squeezing in his heart as the 2 tons of thick metal passed by overhead. If they were discovered, they were dead, but it could also lose its balance and crush them to death. At this point, his life was entirely in the hands of luck.

Looking up, he saw the metal belly of the machine and the track thicker than a chainsaw.

The bottom was not as shiny as a sportscar.

It symbolized death as much as falling rocks or a cave-in, but there was nothing more there. The lunchbox did not have any cameras or sensors to detect anyone below it. Of course, it was only 3m long and did not sit very high up from the ground, so there would not normally be enough of a gap for someone to crawl underneath it.

Yet Quenser saw no opening here.

A tank could not fire from too close to avoid being caught in the blast or hit by a ricochet, but this thing was unmanned. It would not have to worry about human damage. The instant it noticed them, the fireworks show would begin.

Unlike the tank Myonri had been using, he did not smell any exhaust. Was it actually electric despite weighing so much?

It must have only taken 10 seconds to pass by, but that felt maddeningly long.

The Capitalist Corporations unmanned ground vehicle passed above the two idiots, but Heivia still did not stick his head out of the crack for a while.

“What now? We’re past their defensive line!”

“Why should we do all the work? Myonri and the others have their tanks back there, so they can blast through that thick armor with-”

Quenser trailed off when he realized something.

The Capitalist Corporations’ Federation of Elevator Industries was jamming them using the microwave bases surrounding the ground base and the many military stations built up in space, so Quenser and Heivia could not communicate or use their datalink to tell their allies where they were.

What if the tanks began their own individual attacks right now?

The Legitimacy Kingdom would want to do something about the slow-moving but thick-armored Lunchboxes, so those would be the top priority target at the moment.

But. Would the others notice that the two idiots were hiding in a crack not 10m away from this one?

“W-we need to use a smoke bomb!! What’s the color for an emergency signal!?”

They did not have time for that.

A shell flew in from a Legitimacy Kingdom tank.

It very kindly knocked them unconscious as it blew them away.