Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume1 Chapter 3

The Tanami Desert was a desert in name only.

The area spreading out before Quenser and Heivia’s eyes was a giant tropical forest like the Amazon. There were relatively few animals for the amount of nature because the number of plants had been artificially increased in a short period of time. It would still take some time before animals would settle in.

“It would be best if we walked from here on out,” said Heivia as he stopped the off road vehicle at the entrance to the forest. He then grabbed the rifle and portable anti-tank missile from the back. “I’d rather not announce our presence with the sound of the engine. There will definitely be soldiers if it’s a dummy base and there will likely be soldiers if this is the right one too.”

“Also, if the vehicle gets destroyed, we’d have to walk back to the base.”

“Ha ha. Yeah that would be bad. ...Actually, that really would be bad. Let’s hide it.”

The two of them proceeded to camouflage the vehicle by putting fallen tree branches and the like over it.

After disguising it, Quenser took a step back to view it.

“Will we even be able to find this on our way back?”

“If we make it too obvious, the enemy soldiers might spot it. Let’s get going. No matter what we do, we’ll still be left with worries.”

And so Quenser and Heivia headed into the thick forest on foot.

It was exceedingly rare in that day and age, but people still fought other people in “old” battlefields where Objects were rarely used. In those cases, landmines and other traps were common. Quenser and Heivia advanced through the forest with extreme caution.

“Come to think of it, I heard that the ruler of Oceania disappeared along with the Object.”

“Yeah, as the pilot Elite. Otherwise, Oceania would have long since been liberated. How many times do you think we’ve attacked their capital with an Object?”

“Isn’t that a lot worse than attacking small villages?”

“The only ones allowed to live in the capital are the military and those profiting from the military’s actions. When the military regime came into power, they took all the normal citizens’ houses and kicked them out into the wild. There’s nothing wrong with blowing up some of the people left.”

“Shh. Look at that. Isn’t that the Object maintenance base zone?”

Quenser and Heivia stopped walking and crouched down. They hid in the tall grass growing from the ground and peered out at the facility in question.

It was a giant rectangular concrete building.

It was large enough to contain the entire 50 meter Object. Smaller buildings dotted the area around it. They were likely either related facilities or garrisons for the troops.

Quenser looked down at his military wristwatch.

“Okay, we still have 2 hours before the reactor should be ready. The Generation 0.5 shouldn’t be able to move. I don’t know how many soldiers are stationed here, but getting here before the Object can move certainly makes this easier.”

“Hey, doesn’t something seem odd?” asked Heivia.

When Quenser focused with everything he head, he felt a slight vibration under his feet. It slowly grew until the plants and trees around him were clearly shaking.

“This is bad! I’m pretty sure the reactor is going strong!”

“L-let’s hope for the best. Maybe the low-tech reactor is going critical after they tried to restart it after such a long period without being used.”

“If that’s what’s happening, it’ll blow up and kill us too. Well, I can’t help but expect the worst. Maybe they used some kind of secret weapon to shorten the time it takes to activate the Object,” replied Quenser.

Just after Quenser’s comment, a loud dull noise rang out.

The front wall of the giant maintenance building was actually a giant shutter. It had opened upwards.

At the same time, white steam poured out.

A giant form crept out from the maintenance building as if it was hiding its silhouette in the smoke.

“…Well, it certainly seems like it’s gone critical,” muttered Quenser.

Even from 500 meters away, he could feel the waves of heat emanating from the Object.

The spherical main body of the Generation 0.5 had multiple large constructions attached to it. It had an X-shaped propulsion device attached to the bottom and giant building-like masses attached to the back of the sphere like wings. Obviously, it could not fly. They were most likely used to release the excess energy created by the reactor that was so hard to control with their level of technology.

A single main gun was attached to the left side of the sphere.

[[Image:Heavy_Object_v01_325.png|thumb]]

It was a few dozen meters long and reinforced with numerous steel bridge-like wires. It would likely have been fine without them, but there was a risk of the gun damaging itself with its own weight while it was held horizontal for long periods of time. It was a cheap countermeasure that would never have even been considered for a normal Object.

In exchange for the stability, affixing the main gun like that robbed it of almost all ability to move the gun independently. For any small adjustments to its aim, the entire Object would have to move.

That unrefined construction made the Object lose its image as a modern smart weapon and instead have the image of a primitive and savage weapon. It would not give you a peaceful death. Its presence sent a chill down their spines.

From a distance, Quenser stared at the Generation 0.5 Object that had appeared amid that strange heat.

“Most likely, they used an electric booster to force up the temperature of the reactor. The Information Alliance Object has electrical outlets on it, remember? This is the opposite. I guess it’s sort of like the ignition of a gasoline engine. By pouring in a large amount of external electricity, they activate the Object’s internal laser emitters or something. That allows them to interfere with the reactor…but it failed. A small scale explosion occurred in the maintenance facility.”

With the Information Alliance’s high level of technology, it may have been possible to pull that off. However, Oceania’s Object already held the danger of fusing its inside parts if the reactor remained active for too long. Forcing the reactor past its normal functionality had simply been reckless.

“The maintenance workers in there must have been utterly annihilated. Actually, that might be why we haven’t seen any sign of soldiers around here. They may have been holding a ceremony to see the Object off and it blew away all of them at once.”

Heivia used the auxiliary functions of his rifle to check for any noise in the area, but he did not detect any human voices.

Quenser, Heivia, and the Generation 0.5 Object were the only things around.

If they could destroy it, the battle in Oceania would essentially be over.