Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 7===

Quenser’s face paled when he heard the transmission from Froleytia.

“So that old lady headed off to save her family in the immigrant residential city!?”

“Yes. Honestly, she’s lucky the Black Uniforms are elsewhere. If they had caught her, she would have been shot on sight.”

From the sound of her voice, Froleytia must have been utterly shocked. She seemed to have thought she only had two people in her unit stupid enough to do something like that.

“I will be sending the maintenance unit’s vehicles to where you are. Help treat the wounded and make the necessary preparations. Check for any remaining enemy soldiers and use explosives to blow away any obstacles that will get in the vehicles’ way. Understand?”

“Will we make it in time?”

“It won’t be easy, but luckily the 24th’s Objects are travelling along with the foot soldiers. They have to match the speed of the military trucks and armored vehicles. If we can repair the princess’s propulsion device, she might be able to catch up. That is why we need to keep the time loss to an absolute minimum. Do not cut corners in these preliminary preparations.”

The transmission ended there.

However, Quenser and the others had nothing more to do. The wounded had already been treated, and they could see no obstacles across the vast snowy plain. All they could do was stay put.

“Hey, Quenser!! I heard that transmission. What do you think about what our giant-breasted commander said!?”

“Does it matter!? We’re the only ones that can move right now. If we’re going to save that old lady or protect the immigrant residential city, we have to act now!!”

“Wait. Sorry, but I was kind of hoping you would take this more in the direction of ‘Froleytia ordered us to wait here, so we have no choice but to give up this time’! Ah, what!? Hey, stop that! What are you doing!?”

“Just listen, Heivia,” said Quenser as he grabbed at the collar of the idiot who always seemed to chicken out when it mattered. “The 24th is approaching the immigrant residential city as we speak. Nothing says the Objects have to stay with the foot soldiers. If they head out at full speed on a whim, they will be there in no time at all. …Do you really think we have time to think about this? We need to act now. And you are the only one who can drive.”

“Don’t be stupid! Don’t get caught up in the situation!! You don’t seem to get this, so let me explain it to you. Seven Objects. The enemy has seven Objects!! How are we supposed to stand up to that with just the two of us!? We wouldn’t be able to do anything even if it was just one of them!!”

Heivia shook Quenser’s hand off of his collar and shook his head. He seemed to be letting out the trembling that he had been forcing down until then and his expression looked like that of a frightened child.

“What is our purpose in this war!? I’m working to gain the honor I need to inherit my noble family and you are working to become an Object designer as quickly as possible, right!? We’re not running around out here with rifles just to get killed!! We don’t need to do this! We’ve done plenty already!! Why are we the ones that have to head down into hell every single goddamn time!?”

That was the overwhelming fear people had of Objects.

That unreasonable situation held the underlying assumption that it could never be overturned.

What Heivia was saying was perfectly natural for anyone of that day and age. It was the people who felt nothing when suggesting they stand before those monstrous weapons that had something wrong with them.

Quenser understood that.

However…

“Calm down and think, Heivia.”

“How the hell am I supposed to do that!? Do you have any idea what you’re saying!?”

“Heivia, do you really think they have 7 Objects!?” shouted Quenser. 

Hearing that, Heivia suddenly stopped speaking. It was not that his emotions had cooled down. He was simply so confused he could not figure out what to say.

“How many people does it take to keep the Baby Magnum running? It takes an entire battalion. That’s 800 people. You need 800 people for a single Object. If they are using 7 of them, how many people, how much equipment, and how much money would they need? And how much time do you think it takes to raise a single Elite? There is no way they have been spending that much money this whole time!!”

“Then what are you suggesting!?”

“The Oceanian military nation!!”

Quenser suddenly spoke an unrelated term.

But it was not actually unrelated.

He continued, “They used gas tanks to look like nonexistent Objects!! Operations that attempt to throw the enemy into disarray with misleading appearances are hardly rare!!”

“That can’t be… They shot off the princess’s armor.”

“I didn’t say it was gas tanks this time.” Quenser shook his head. “But I doubt these are cutting edge Objects as that would require too great a constant expenditure. They are likely a budget model. Something lower than a Generation 0.5. The armor does not have proper craftsmanship, so it is much thinner and more brittle than a normal Object’s. Who knows if any of the non-main cannons are functional. They prepared a number of low-cost dummies to confuse the princess!!”

“We can’t know that!! What you’re saying makes sense. It isn’t normal for seven Objects to suddenly appear. But we have no proof! This is just speculation!! If they turn out to really be cutting edge Objects, our odds of survival are 0%! This is too much of a risk to base off of conjecture and speculation!!”

“Then I’ll prove it.”

“Hey, wait. Where are you going!! Hey!!”

Quenser headed for the coast while avoiding the areas heated by the low-stability plasma cannons. On the beach were the abandoned floats used by the six Objects that had come from the sea. As a designer, he was a bit interested in the device that allowed it to be easily attached or removed, but that was not the time to be caught up in that kind of thing.

“…Their basic form is that of an isosceles triangle. The sides are 50 meters and 20 meters. They’re 3 meters tall. The thickness is probably…and the material used is…”

“What is it? What are you checking on, Quenser?”

“I think the area inside the armor is filled with a gas lighter than air. By using something like AB-22 kept in liquid form, it could gain the buoyancy it needs by vaporizing the amount needed. But that doesn’t make sense.”

“?”

“It’s an issue of volume. Floats this size cannot allow a 200,000 ton mass to float even if filled with AB-22. 50,000 tons would be its limit. Do you understand what I’m getting at here?”

“So…”

“These floats can only carry 50,000 tons, so do you think they were attached to 200,000 ton Objects!? If a real Object sank down into the ocean with floats this small, it would never come back up! Their formation is a bluff!! They don’t actually have 7 Objects’ worth of military power!!” said Quenser as he lightly tapped on the side of the float with the back of his hand. “The armor must be less than a quarter as thick! And if they’re going to cut corners there, it won’t have the artisan-made high-level heat resistance!! The flexibility of the onion armor must be much lower than normal! Who knows if the reactor provides a proper output! They may be travelling with the foot soldiers to mask the fact that they can’t move any faster than that! If so, the non-main cannons may not be able to fire properly!! It’s possible we can penetrate its armor without using an Object!!”

Heivia remained silent for a bit.

He must have been thinking over what Quenser had said. Some of his thoughts were likely focused on the uglier side of the debate such as ‘what do I do to survive this?’ and ‘what choice do I get the most out of?’

Heivia finally slowly opened his mouth to speak.

“If we ended up blowing up 7 Objects at once, we would get quite a reward, wouldn’t we?”

“Yes.”

“And I need to do something that leaves quite an impact if I want to hurry up and take over my noble family rather than smoldering out here, don’t I?”

“If the alternative is moving from battlefield to battlefield facing Objects, wouldn’t your highest odds of surviving in the end lie in finishing things here once and for all?” Quenser shrugged. “And if we don’t do anything about City Slicker, he might cross the Atlantic Ocean and arrive at Europe. I doubt the home country would fall, but a conflict that escapes the boundaries of a ‘clean war’ could create an economic crisis. Commoners would not be the only ones to suffer from that. How would your family fare? Can you be certain it wouldn’t decline greatly before you could even inherit it?”

“Damn you,” swore Heivia. “Fine. I’ll go along with this!! But this is the last time!! This time, I will do enough to become the head of the Winchell family! This is the end! I’ve had it with war!! I’m never going to make a gamble with my life again!!”

“We need a vehicle. We should be able to figure out their route using the GPS map.”

“Hey, Quenser. The dummies left their floats here, right? So how are they planning to cross the Atlantic?”

“City Slicker supposedly has a weapons factory somewhere around here. There might be another unit waiting to attach the floats on the eastern end of Victoria Island.” Quenser lightly tapped on the side of the abandoned float with the back of his hand. “I have no intention of giving them a chance to use anything like that or to attack the immigrant residential city. That’s why I need a vehicle, Heivia. We need to head after the Indigo Plasma as quickly as possible.”

“Dammit. Where are the drivers? I need the key. Don’t tell me the key was melted by those low-stability plasma cannon blasts.”

“Can’t you just hotwire one like in movies?”

“I could if I wanted to, but it’s all over if I mess up. It would be easier to just use the key.”

As they spoke, Quenser and Heivia started back in the direction of the hill where the injured soldiers were resting.

Suddenly, gunshots rang out.

Sparks flew from the side of the float just ahead of where they were.

(…Are there still some of the 24th’s foot soldiers left!?)

“Get down, Quenser!!”

But before they could search for cover, more bullets were fired accurately at the ground just in front of them. It was an obvious warning. And it did not come from just one direction. They could not escape just by crouching down.

Quenser stubbornly looked around while halfway crouched down to the ground. It was unclear if the key was in it, but there was a 4WD off-road vehicle stopped a bit away.

In the next instant, the off-road vehicle exploded, sending out flames and a shockwave.

Despite how far away he was, Quenser instinctually brought both hands up to protect his face. He belatedly realized a portable antitank missile had been fired at it.

The battle formation was already complete.

Quenser saw no way for them to fight back.

The two boys slowly put their hands up. The ground looked level at first, but it actually had small undulations like the waves on the ocean surface. A group of five foot soldiers were hiding behind those undulations.

“(They have midrange sniper rifles and a portable antitank missile launcher. This is bad, Quenser. If we make any odd moves, we’ll be in heaven the next thing we know. We need to get permission before even sneezing to ensure there are no misunderstandings.)”

“(What’s with those ridiculous uniforms? And more importantly, the model of gun they’re using.)”

“(I know. It makes no sense. Why would the Capitalist Corporations show up here?)”

“Okay, enough whispering, you two,” said one of the Capitalist Corporation attackers in an oddly cheerful voice.

She was a girl with blonde hair and brown skin. She appeared to be a bit older than Quenser. Her outfit…was strange. The materials it was made out of were the same as a military uniform. However, its design was similar to that of a maid uniform. She even had cat ears on. Quenser could only think that it was meant to mock the enemy much like the faces painted on the noses of fighter planes.

All 5 enemies were girls of the same age. Paying no heed to Quenser or Heivia, they spoke among themselves.

“Will this be enough of a present?”

“It should be fine. At least I hope it is.”

“We’re almost out of rations, so we need to get a hit here.”

“Yes. At any rate, we need rescue to come for them.”

Quenser had a very bad feeling about what was to come, so he spoke with his hands still in the air.

“Hey, what is going on? Who are you people? What are you trying to do?”

“We are a battlefield cleanup service,” replied the blonde-haired, brown-skinned girl with a smile. “We are a type of PMC. You know what those are, right? They are mercenary companies. These outfits are…well, they were a request. That is one of the downsides of the service industry. We are out of business cards, so don’t ask for one. …However, we are not a big enough PMC to take over the maintenance of an Object. We are basically employees dispatched to help out a little.”

“So you’re money-obsessed freaks from the Capitalist Corporations…” spat out Heivia, but the brown girl did not seem to mind.

“Really, we ended up in a lot of trouble thanks to your Legitimacy Kingdom military taking control of the Alaska district. The Legitimacy Kingdom and the Information Alliance were supposed to wear each other down enough that we in the Capitalist Corporations could send in our Object. But instead you easily defeated the Information Alliance and took control of Alaska.”

“You mean when our princess was fighting the Rush’s ‘Oh ho ho’?”

“Hm? You use boring names like that in the Legitimacy Kingdom? …At any rate, the Capitalist Corporations forces here were left in quite the panic. Some communications mistake in the confusion of the large-scale withdrawal operation resulted in the transport plane we were supposed to be on taking off without us. Do you understand? We were left behind!! We had to risk our lives living out here with enemies everywhere and days that never got above freezing. This was no laughing matter. We have no choice but to make our way back to the home country on our own. …Anyway, we were in a bit of trouble because our armored vehicle’s fuel did not seem like it would last until the border. Western America is just too far away.”

Quenser clicked his tongue.

He had heard the stories of soldiers left wandering the Alaska district after a failed withdrawal operation. It seemed those five were some of those.

Heivia spoke while choosing his words carefully.

“…If you would like some hot soup and a blanket, just surrender. You will be temporarily treated as prisoners of war, but a deal can then be made between governments to have you returned to the Capitalist Corporations.”

“Doing that would affect people’s trust in the company. We decide people’s human rights based on the size of their bank account, remember? We wouldn’t be able to advertise after that.”

“Then what do you plan to do?”

“Deal with that,” said the brown girl as she pointed at the distant Baby Magnum. Even if the details were unclear, it was obvious even from that distance that it was damaged and unable to move. “We can probably get the Elite to eject by pretending to be maintenance soldiers, don’t you think? We just have to say the reactor has been damaged and is about to go critical. Then we can capture the Elite.”

“…Wait.”

“We know the current situation in the Alaska district. That is the Legitimacy Kingdom’s last Object. The seven owned by the traitors will soon head out into the Atlantic Ocean. What happens then? The Alaska district will be empty. The Capitalist Corporations will be free to return. The sooner that happens, the better for us. Every day and every hour counts. …Our rations are just about gone, and we have no guarantee we can kill a deer or reindeer whenever we need one.”

(This is bad.)

They were from the Capitalist Corporations. They did not care in the slightest about the Legitimacy Kingdom’s situation.

“…Just to double check, but you said you knew the current situation, right?”

“Yes. It was announced in an unencrypted transmission. But that does not matter. There may be some from the Capitalist Corporations among those immigrants, but they changed nationality of their own will. We have no reason to worry about them. …And most importantly, worrying about them will not make us any money.”

That last comment was likely the true reason.

That mercenary logic that took only money and profit into account made Quenser want to struggle. However, he just barely managed to hold himself back. 

Instead, he said, “You’re mercenaries, right?”

“We are a PMC, so yes. If you have a request, please use the form on our official website. The payment plans are a tad complex, but do not worry. It is programmed to automatically calculate it all out for you.”

“We have no time. I will hire you right here. If I do, you’ll fight for us, right? That’s all we need.”

Quenser responded seriously to her joking words.

“Quenser!!” shouted the noble named Heivia in an attempt to stop the other boy, but Quenser paid him no heed. He merely stared the brown girl straight in the eye.

In response the girl sneered at him.

“Ha ha ha!! Are you stupid!? It seems you don’t know what prices this kind of thing goes for, boy!! Your allowance is not enough to hire us!!”

As she smiled, the girl grabbed Quenser’s collar.

She drew him in close and some anger filled her smile.

“We view wealth and economics as above all else, so we hate it when people make a mockery of money. Our fee is a sincere reward given in exchange for the work we perform. The mere thought that we would lower it in a time of crisis out of a sense of charity or justice is an insult. You are essentially saying the value of our lives can change based on your own convenience.”

“I never said that,” replied Quenser as he stuck a hand into the pants pocket of his military uniform.

The brown girl overlooked it because she had gotten too close to him. The other mercenaries responded by raising the barrels of their guns, but Quenser ignored them and pulled out the contents of his pocket and threw it at the brown girl’s face. It was a small rubber box.

The next thing he knew, he had been punched.

While looking down at Quenser as he lay collapsed on the snow, the brown girl spat out, “It seems you still do not understand where your place is.”

“You’re the one that still does not understand,” replied Quenser with a smile. He pointed at the small rubber box that’s latch had come undone when it had fallen to the ground. “I am an important customer.”

“Wait. This is…”

“I would assume someone from the Capitalist Corporations like you would be more knowledgeable about this kind of thing than me. Or do you use too much cash and electronic money, so you know nothing of jewels?” said Quenser to the brown girl who was staring at the clear beads scattered across the snow. “They’re diamonds. They are from a military mine on the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Faith Organization hid the existence of the diamonds while mining them to fund their military.”

“Charm.”

The brown girl called out someone’s name and one of the mercenaries pulled out a special loupe. She picked up the clear beads, rolled them around in her gloved hand, and looked at them through the lens.

“They look real. And it does not seem any fakes are mixed in. I believe there are 15 carats here. Their grade is not bad either. The lack of a certificate is a major point against them, but by laundering them, we could likely get 80% market value on them.”

“That’s what I’ll pay you up front. You could always just shoot us and take them, but there are two more identical rubber boxes hidden below a rock near our maintenance base. If you help us, I will give you the remaining two regardless of the outcome of the operation. …What is the market value of a mercenary? How many years would it take you to make this much? Actually, would you even be able to make this much before you died?”

[[Image:HO_v03_17.png|thumb]]

“…”

The brown girl started trembling.

The trembling was clearly caused by a positive feeling such as joy. It was true that their trustworthiness as mercenaries would lower by helping an enemy nation. However, it would not matter if they received fewer jobs afterwards if they made two or three times the amount they could hope to make in their entire lives otherwise. In the Capitalist Corporations, people’s human rights were decided by the size of their bank accounts, so how much money was needed to simply retire and live an enjoyable life?

“You said before that your fee is a sincere reward given in exchange for the work you perform. That is exactly right. And that is why we are prepared to pay this much. What will you do? Will you accept our request?”

After Quenser uttered those final words, the brown girl knelt down, clasped her hands before her face, and gave her response with her eyes sparkling.

“You should have said so sooner, master!!”