Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 4

Using the explosion as her sign, Mariydi began a counterattack with the carbine she held in both hands.

With intermittent short bursts, she quickly silenced the Athletica soldiers who had been injured by the grenade. Even if they were injured, they could still function as enemy soldiers as long as they had the strength left to raise their arms and pull the trigger and the will left to fight. Mariydi was relentless when it came to neutralizing them.

“Tch!!”

She heard someone click their tongue and then saw a figure fleeing.

Mariydi was conflicted over whether she should pursue the figure or not.

(…Huh. The other people around that person are creating an oddly thick barrage to let that person escape.)

She came to a quick decision using that information.

(That person must be important. If I defeat them, I can bring confusion to the Faith Organization ranks!!)

As stated previously, Mariydi was working under the assumption that she would lose this battle. But since she knew she could not stop the Ocean Substation from being taken over, she had set her goal to saving as many of the crewmembers as possible and preventing the giant transformer facility from functioning in order to stop the laser power transfer facility from being weaponized.

In other words, she was not at the final goal for the incident as a whole.

The fighting would likely continue.

And so she wanted to cause damage to the structure of the Faith Organization group for the sake of the next battle.

(Dammit. Can I still make it after that person!?)

If she simply chased after the fleeing figure, the barrage meant to hold her in place would probably take her out. Mariydi called up the diagram of the Ocean Substation on her handheld device and looked for an alternate route to where she guessed the fleeing figure was headed.

She needed to hurry, but she could not let her guard down.

Mariydi waited for the figure at the corner of a cross-shaped intersection between two passageways.

She heard someone speaking from around the corner. It seemed to be a radio transmission.

“It’s not good. The methane hydrate facility is deserted! And a few of the parts needed for the turbines that power the transformer work have been removed. What should we do, lieutenant colonel!?”

“Now they’ve done it!! Connect me to Warrant Officer Iris Aggravation!!”

Mariydi focused on regulating her breathing and adjusted her grip on the carbine’s grip.

She could hear footsteps approaching.

“Warrant Officer? Have you heard what happened?”

“Lieutenant colonel, please escape from there as quickly as possible. We will do the work here. I am sure we will need your planning abilities in the future, so hurry!”

“Sorry about this. I’m counting on you.”

Mariydi moved half her body out from the corner and aimed her carbine.

She fired without hesitation.

“!?”

A string of gunshots rang out. But it seemed the figure had noticed just before she fired. The figure had leaped into a different passageway and escaped harm.

Mariydi frantically resumed pursuit.

But just as she was about to head down the passageway the figure had disappeared down, she frantically moved back.

She then poked her head around the corner to check.

A recoilless rifle shell lay carelessly in the middle of the passageway. From this distance, Mariydi could not tell if it had any kind of radio-controlled fuse or an infrared sensor attached. But since either was possible, she needed to act as if it could detonate at any time.

(Shit. I don’t have time to be held up at every turn like this.)

Just as she reached for the sensor switch on her carbine, a few short burst of bullets came from further down the passageway. Mariydi cowered back a bit. The shell was meant to hold her back. If she tried to neutralize the fuse, a stream of bullets waited for her. That was the situation the enemy had constructed that prevented her from dealing with the shell.

Mariydi gave up and took a detour through a different passageway.

She knew where this enemy was headed.

No important facilities lay in the direction in which the figure had been headed. The only thing in that direction was an exit leading to the deck. Mariydi opened a different door than the one used by the figure and headed outside.

The deck was large and flat.

It contained four giant parabolic antennae and the complex arrangement of pillars that supported them. It was like a forest made of metal. It had countless areas to use as cover.

Mariydi headed directly below one of the bowl-shaped antennae while aiming her carbine every which way.

(Where is she?)

Mariydi moved from steel pillar to steel pillar and looked all around.

(She fled with the help of her subordinates. What is she going to use to escape? A hovercraft? A helicopter?)

It turned out to be neither.

A giant mass of metal sat in an open area free of the parabolic antennae and pillars.

It was a Legitimacy Kingdom S/G-31 fighter with VTOL ability.

More accurately, it was a Faith Organization Harpuiai fighter with the exterior altered to look like that.

Instead of a specialized ladder, the figure was using a wire to climb up onto the nose of the fighter. She was just about to climb into the cockpit.

“Shit!!”

Mariydi frantically moved to fire her carbine, but enemy fire came in from the side. Sparks flew from a nearby steel pillar and Mariydi frantically leapt behind the pillar. Meanwhile, the jet engine of the fighter the figure had boarded began to rumble and it slowly began rising vertically into the air.

The situation had been reversed.

If the fighter used its missiles or machine gun, Mariydi would be helpless to defend against it. The carbine’s rifle bullets were not enough to pierce the fighter’s armor.

(Not good…)

Mariydi scattered rifle bullets in the direction of the enemy soldiers firing at her to hold them in check and then she dashed below one of the parabolic antennae.

If the fighter wanted to, it could easily blow away the antenna.

However, the enemy would not want to destroy one of the parabolic antennae that received the microwaves.

Mariydi could survive.

She was not trying to go down with the ship.

Luckily, the necessary parts for the turbines needed to generate power for the transformer work had already been removed. The enemy could no longer use the weaponized laser even if the Ocean Substation surrendered to them. And so Mariydi felt it was wiser to safely retreat, prepare some large scale firepower, and then blow up the entire Ocean Substation with most of the Athletica force inside.

But then…

“Mariydi. Mariydi Whitewitch!! Get out of there now!!” A transmission of her bodyguard’s voice resounded in her ear. “The Ocean Substation’s weaponized laser is active. If you stay there, you will be in the center of their sights!!”

“What are you talking about?” asked Mariydi in confusion from atop the deck.

The turbines used for the transformer work were unusable. She saw no way the enemy could use the weaponized laser even if they took over the Ocean Substation. Also, Mariydi was directly below one of the parabolic antennae that received microwaves. Even if they could fire the weaponized laser freely, she doubted they would target that location.

But the situation had developed much further than she had thought.

She had overlooked one thing.

The Ocean Substations supporting Olympia Dome’s unmanned weapons numbered three in total.

It was possible the enemy had attacked more than one of them at a time.

And…

A different Ocean Substation could be targeting the ship Mariydi was onboard.

When she saw the giant ship cruising on the horizon, Mariydi finally realized what was going on.

“Shit…”

She did not have time to think of a way to escape. She fired the carbine to hold back the remaining enemy soldiers on deck and ran toward the ship’s handrail.

“Shit!!”

That figure had spoken with someone named Warrant Officer Iris over the radio. When she thought back, she realized it was possible that conversation was not being held with someone aboard the same ship.

She somehow managed to leap over the handrail.

But the massive strike came before she reached the ocean surface a few dozen meters below.

A tremendous flash of pure white light roasted Mariydi’s retinas. The Ocean Substation’s 500-meter-long form was blown away from the very center. The steel ship glowed orange and melted like a sugar sculpture. The incandescent metal struck the ocean water, causing a noise similar to that produced by Chinese cooking to reverberate throughout the area.

Mariydi had no idea what position she was in when she hit the water.

She struck the water’s surface and was tossed about by a horrible maelstrom of water that normal waves could never create. It was an unnatural water current created by the remnants of the giant destroyed ship sinking.

“Cough!! Cough!! Cough cough!!”

Mariydi somehow managed to get her head above water and searched for something to grab ahold of while coughing. She found a thin panel that was likely a remnant of something used in one of the ship’s interior walls. She clung to it for buoyancy.

“…They’re insane.”

The giant structure was standing up vertically, making it almost look like the Tower of Babel. It slowly sank down to the bottom of the ocean. That single blast had done that to a mass of steel as large as an island.

An explosive noise shot by overhead.

It was the Faith Organization Harpuiai fighter that had taken off via VTOL just before the laser had struck. It was no longer fleeing. The fighter was leisurely returning with the majesty of a victor.

It was returning to its new home base.

It was returning to the Ocean Substation equipped with that weaponized laser.

After Lieutenant Colonel Ramil Scofflaw landed the Harpuiai fighter on the deck, she used the movable ladder to climb down from the fighter.

Warrant Officer Iris Aggravation came out to meet her.

“Welcome.”

“So we only managed to get this one in the end.”

Originally, they had intended to take all three ships. They had planned to gain control of every single one of the Ocean Substations that doubled as control centers for the power generation satellite. They would then have used the three freely usable weaponized lasers to pull the trigger of war.

“Ocean Substation I was just destroyed by the weaponized laser. We failed to take Ocean Substation III, but the antenna facility used to control the power generation satellite was destroyed and the parabolic antennae used to receive the microwaves were smashed. Only this ship is still functional. We are the only ones that can freely control this massive amount of power. No one can stop us.”

“Couldn’t you have waited to fire on the other ship?”

“Unfortunately, a Capitalist Corporations PMC was waiting for an opportunity to board Ocean Substation I. Its satellite control center was still functioning, so we had to prevent them from taking control.”

“Understood.”

Ramil gave a small amount of thought to the soldiers that had still been aboard when the weaponized laser had struck, but she soon changed her train of thought. The plan could continue, so their deaths had built the foundation for their success.

“How is Olympia Dome’s management reacting?”

“We are monitoring their transmissions, but they have not done much of anything. They seem to be focusing less on dealing directly with us and focusing more on regulating information so the spectators do not panic and begin rioting. …They must have a groundless belief that the Objects can settle this if need be.”

And that was perfect for Athletica.

It was like placing a cooked turkey in front of a starving lost child.

“And what are the Objects doing?”

“Their information network is more secure which makes their transmissions harder to intercept. But from what we can tell by observing them from a distance, they are showing no signs of movement. They must be having trouble deciding whether this will end as a small conflict or if it will develop into a full-blown war. Countless international disputes both large and small are constantly occurring here in Olympia Dome after all.”

It would help if they would hurry up and make their move, but there was something Ramil had to check on first.

“How was the output of the weaponized laser?”

“The modifications went as planned. However, the output was weaker than expected. It is right on the line between being a threat to an Object or not.”

“Do you know what the issue is?”

“We worked it out with the data from the previous test firing.” Iris operated the small computer she was carrying. “When transferring power, the laser is set to supply an even and stable power supply. The program detects the powerful laser as an error and attempts to ‘smooth out’ the values. It is a software issue. There is no need to physically modify the equipment.”

“How long will this take to fix?”

“I am working on it as we speak. I should have it done in another hour.”

“Good.” Ramil looked around and spoke to the surviving soldiers. “Olympia Dome cannot use its unmanned weapons. But it is still possible their flesh-and-blood forces and PMCs from other world powers could attempt to interfere. We must stop them at all costs. This one shot is what matters. Whether we can get this shot off or not will greatly alter the history of the world. Do you understand?”

No one raised any objections.

Without rest, they all headed back to their posts.

A maintenance soldier set up an anti-air weapon in place of the defense system that had been destroyed in the attack. An infantryman checked on an autocannon bolted to the deck. The fighter pilots headed for their beloved fighters.

Ramil looked over at her Harpuiai fighter.

She was the Faith Organization’s Rocket Icarus.

Just like Mariydi aka Ice Girl 1, she excelled in the special field of the ace pilot.

She announced, “Let’s finish this.”