Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 1 (section)

===Part 8===

Quenser removed the rope from the electromagnet attached to the side of the armor.

However, he was more than halfway down the spherical main body, so the wall was slanted more than 90 degrees. It was jutting out towards Quenser. An expert free climber may have managed easily, but a complete amateur like Quenser would have a hard time climbing up even with the help of the rope. It would have been easier if he was climbing straight up with the rope hanging down vertically.

However, he could hardly head back now.

He was over 20 meters from the ground. Even with snow on the ground, he would not fare well with a drop from that height. Meanwhile, the Object was picking up speed. It must have left the narrowest part of the ravine. With the Water Strider wreckage buried under the snow, jumping to the ground would be suicide.

(Both heading up and heading down leads to hell. I should really get paid overtime for this.)

While crouched down atop the small cannon, Quenser looked around to check on his climbing route.

“Quenser,” said Heivia from the radio tucked into Quenser’s uniform. “I get that you’re climbing up, but where exactly are you headed?”

“Dunno. But I need to find something I can use to slow down their maintenance! I could destroy the radar or the auxiliary sensors, or I could do something to the cockpit barriers to force them to open! After I get up, I need to find a way to buy us some time!!”

“We’re running out of time. If you don’t hurry, you’ll be taken along with the Rush to the Information Alliance’s impromptu maintenance area!! If that happens, it’ll be hard for me to provide a diversion while you escape!”

Hearing that, Quenser pulled a new electromagnet from the bag.

The electromagnet could be used as a powerful handhold, but it was useless in its current state.

Still on the cannon, Quenser connected the thick cable into the jack on the electromagnet.

Bluish-white sparks flew.

He forced himself not to flinch and threw the electromagnet a few meters up onto the Rush’s body.

With a solid click, a new contact point was created on the flat armor of the spherical body.

(The pilot can’t see a soldier attached to the surface from within the cockpit. But I have to make sure not to pass in front of one of the cannon’s cameras. The cameras are set below the cannons. I have to pass the rope around and get my feet on the cannon from above.)

“Quenser, not good!!” shouted Heivia in a sharp voice.

For an instant, Quenser did not know what Heivia meant, but he soon figured it out.

Over 200 cannons both large and small were installed on the Rush’s surface.

Those cannons were making small, ordered movements like a crowd in a stadium doing the wave. That flow was headed his way like a grassy field blowing in the wind.

(There must have been a slight error in the cannon’s movement, so it’s checking to see if anything is hanging from any of them or on top of any of them!!)

Quenser took his feet from the cannon he was standing on and hung from the rope with both arms.

Immediately afterwards, the wave of the cannons passed right below him.

He had managed to get through it.

But then Quenser felt an unpleasant jerking sensation reach his arms.

(The electromagnet…!?)

He had only one battery, but he had multiple electromagnets. The more electromagnets he used, the less power would be left in the battery. And that would lower the power with which the electromagnets clung to the armor.

He could tell the electromagnet attached to the armor surface was slowly sliding down. Quenser frantically got a better grip on the rope and tried to climb up as much as he could.

Luckily, he was almost at the center of the sphere.

The slope was greater than 90 degrees there, but once he got past the halfway point, the slope would work in his favor. Then, he would just be heading up a slope.

(Don’t fall…)

If he had received proper training like Heivia, he might have learned how to support his weight by grabbing the rope with his feet. However, Quenser did not know how to do that. He frantically climbed up using almost entirely his arms.

(Please, don’t let me fall here!!)

Quenser finally made it up the rope and grabbed the electromagnet itself.

He pulled himself up onto the upper portion of the sphere.

He just had an upwards slope left.

(Now I can make it…)

Quenser’s heavy breathing showed white in the cold air.

The effects would be even weaker, but he used an additional electromagnet to create another handhold. However, it no longer had to support his entire weight. He just needed something to help him with the steep slope, so he would be putting less of a burden on it. It would most likely be no problem.

“Heivia. Can you hear me, Heivia?”

He tried to contact the other boy over the radio, but he got no response.

He must have moved out of range. The Object was headed to the nearby site where the Information Alliance powered suit unit would replace the main cannon, but he had still ended up quite far away.

Quenser’s mind turned to the plastic explosives in the bag on his back.

(Now, what do I target? I’m not trying to blow up the Object this time. Where can I damage it to slow down the maintenance the most?)

He was not even sure if the bombs he had were enough to destroy any part of it. An Object was a monstrous weapon that could withstand a nuclear strike. Its sensors and radar would likely be destroyed in a nuclear strike, but that did not mean the Hand Axe plastic explosive would be enough.

(Trying to destroy something from the outside will be difficult. This isn’t something for a flesh-and-blood soldier to attempt. Which means…)

Quenser came up with a new plan.

If he was going to do something, this idea was his only option.

But he did not have time to slowly check that his plan would work. The Object he stood on took another new action.

Specifically, the cannons did.

The lenses of the cameras attached to them all made a slight whirring noise in unison.

That meant…

(Not good.)

Quenser’s throat grew dry.

(A simultaneous firing!?)