Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume17 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 7===

First, they wrapped plastic tape around their radios to cover up the pilot lights. That was good enough there, but the mobile devices were trickier since those would be useless if they covered up the LCD screen.

“We can’t use these anymore.”

Opening Quenser’s or the one Elise had stolen from a 21st soldier would be suicide. They had to put off figuring out whatever the Body File was. It was irritating to no end to have the answer in their hands but being unable to look at it. Especially when they were being pursued and a single wrong choice would mean having their lives snuffed out like a candle.

“Then how are we supposed to check the map?” asked Heivia. “Even pro climbers avoid traveling in the mountains at night and this is the highest mountain in the Alps! Wandering around without knowing where to climb will obviously be suicide!!”

“We can’t read a paper map without light either, can we?” added Elise.

“This is insane! I’m heading back! There’s an asphalt road right over there, so I can follow it as it zigzags down to Chamonix. I’m leaving!!”

That was when they heard a sound much like fireworks being launched.

The basic idea was the same as ordinary fireworks. These were known as parachute fireworks.

Except instead of a weight, these were attached to magnesium that scattered a bright white light similar to welding.

“Flares!?”

“Get down, Heivia. We’re dead if they see us!!”

Light shined down like on a baseball field during a night game. Quenser and Heivia hid behind a conifer tree and Heivia dove into the dark shadow cast by a large boulder. This was dangerous, but if they focused on the location of the light source, the unnaturally dark shadows worked in their favor.

The shrill squealing from the ground may have been hibernating marmots that had awoken in surprise.

Modern electronic assault rifle scopes could do IR and night vision, but activating those assistance features could produce enough light to give away their position. Allowing light to leak out entirely defeated the purpose of night vision, but it was a fairly common mistake in the goggle type due to defects in the rubber caps that covered the eyes.

Quenser clicked his tongue while sharing a single tree’s shadow with the busty glasses women he held in his arms.

The Body File.

He did not know what it was, but the 21st had attacked in violation of the military regulations once they decided Quenser’s group had found it. And that decision had happened before Elise had stolen that mobile device. He could not guess what had triggered this, but the other side would not have overlooked it.

Was it all a misunderstanding, or had they stepped on landmine without noticing it?

Either way, they were dead if they were located. Even if they threw down their weapons and put their hands up, they would only be blasted to smithereens.

They could not step out from behind the trees as long as the magnesium and other light sources were shining so brightly on their surroundings. And it did not look like they had time to wait for the parachutes to slowly descend to the ground.

“Heivia, can you shoot down those parachutes!?”

“Have you lost your mind!? I could, but the gunshot and muzzle flash would give away our position!!”

“The infantrymen that launched those flares are down here on the ground. If they get close, we’re done for!”

(So Heivia’s too much of a chicken to help.)

Some shrill squeaking ran between his legs.

It came from a slipper-sized rat, but while he felt fear clutching at his heart, the animal’s oddly-timed warning cry produced no reaction from the colossus in the distance.

He leaned his back against the thick conifer tree while still holding Elise in his arms.

(The Crystal Scrying is focused on light. It isn’t scanning using sound.)

“Sorry, Elise.”

“What?”

“I’m going to knock over this tree to take out the flare overhead along with it. That will take out their vision!!”

“Whaaat!? Um, then we won’t have a shield.”

There was no time to listen to complaints. He stabbed an electric fuse into a Hand Axe plastic explosive and attached it to the thick trunk protecting them.

The blast had a range of 2 meters.

He reached up to attach the clay fairly high up and then lay flat on the ground with Elise to just barely remain out of harm’s way.

The loud boom caused their eardrums to briefly forget how to function.

With a creaking sound, the tall conifer tree fell inwards and caught the small parachute supporting the flare still floating overhead. Once it was crushed, the bright light vanished too.

But two unfamiliar people were already racing toward them. One held a transparent shield in one hand and a one-handed machine pistol in the other. The one approaching from a little further back held a carbine that looked like a shortened assault rifle. If they tried to shoot these enemies, the shield would block it and the return gunfire would turn them to Swiss cheese.

Quenser grabbed some clay and raised his voice.

“Get out here, Heivia! Fight, you moron!!”

And…

“Hh!!”

He heard a sharp breath from Elise who he thought he had pushed to the ground.

She pushed the boy up with a knee kick and used the momentum of sitting up to throw a large knife. She aimed at the shin which was easily overlooked when holding that kind of shield. She showed no mercy even against a fellow Legitimacy Kingdom soldier. Once the knife scored a clean hit and the 21st infantryman collapsed to the ground, Elise ran over, swiped the weapon from the enemy’s holster, and aimed it at the carbine-wielding enemy further back.

She had not stolen the machine pistol.

This weapon was forcibly kept at the size of a handgun while having a barrel as thick as a shotgun.

“A flare gun!?”

The light meant to be fired straight up was launched horizontally instead. It struck the second 21st Mobile Maintenance Battalion soldier in the center of the chest.

“Gah, ah!?”

This was the same as a commercial parachute firework, so it was not deadly. The man aimed his carbine at Elise with the light source sticking into the bulletproof plates covering his chest.

“This isn’t over. The Body File must not be made public!!”

But he should not have forgotten what the Second Generation Crystal Scrying used to decide who to target.

“Wait, what!? No, I’m not the-”

His cry of sorrow was erased.

A metal shell flew along a complex path and ultimately dropped down from above like a bolt of lightning with enough force to obliterate a human-sized mass. The hit sent powerful shockwaves scattering in every direction, so Quenser’s group was blown backwards again.

Quenser had an awful headache and could not figure out how he was still alive.

He felt something odd while lying on the ground, so he wiped off his brow with the back of his hand and found something white and hard had stabbed into him there. It appeared to be one of the enemy soldier’s front teeth. That was so creepy he nearly vomited.

But regardless…

“The light source has been eliminated.”

Was this really something they could walk away from like they were crushing a cigarette butt below their heel? This was far worse than simple bad manners.

Quenser’s ringing ears picked up on a sound.

In addition to the squealing of the small animals running around, he heard a woman speaking in such an icy voice it sent a chill down his spine.

“Now, we need to leave this place while we still can. We must utilize this opportunity.”

“Elise?”

The Aggressors in Mont Blanc Tunnel had taken devastating damage in a surprise attack from the 21st Mobile Maintenance Battalion, but come to think of it, how had Elise survived?

She had previously been used so cruelly as a shield and bait, so how had she managed to return alive each and every time? She was always tearful on the surface, but she never seemed surprised by her own survival.

Why was that?

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Also, she was a very attractive glasses woman. If a busty blonde like her had been living in the same maintenance base zone as him, there was no way he would not have noticed, yet he had first learned of her existence in the Arctic.

“Since when can you fight like that? Who are you?”

“Ah ha ha. I arrived to fulfill a request from Major Frolaytia Capistrano who wanted to increase the average lifespan of her battalion members who rely too heavily on their Object and don’t know how to adlib.” She gave a quick salute while holding the machine handgun she had also stolen from the enemy. “I am Sergeant Elise Montana. My specialty is the military band…but I am also proficient in marksmanship, close-quarters combat, and every other skill necessary for the army special forces. I am an instructor for the 7th Special Training Unit and I was sent to the 37th from the Legitimacy Kingdom home country☆”