HEAVY OBJECT:Volume5 Chapter 4
Status: Incomplete
Chapter 4
Part 1
The situation had grown quite troublesome.
Athletica’s ultimate goal was causing a battle between the Objects of the world powers protecting Olympia Dome. Olympia Dome would be caught in the middle and sunk.
That large scale military might was there, but they were unable to ask for help or even explain the situation to them.
The lives of the thousands of athletes, the millions of spectators, and even Mariydi herself could only be saved with the old style of military might that was usually called obsolete.
(Modern wars do not happen unexpectedly. The heads of the world powers only go to war after weighing the gains and losses against each other and carefully calculating everything out. Since Olympia Dome exists outside all that, they might not be able to deal with any disorder here using their usual methods.)
Mariydi thought while charging out of the storehouse.
(I’m sure the higher ups will use all their political tricks to keep the chaos to a minimum. This may not develop into all-out war. But the same cannot be said for the masses at the bottom. The Technopic athletes may be produced behind the scenes, but they are still representatives of the people. If they are killed off, the people won’t just sadly back off.)
She gritted her teeth as her speculation headed in a horrible direction.
The worst part was that this speculation had a possibility of becoming a reality.
(If the several thousand athletes are all killed, terrorist attacks within safe countries will increase at an explosive rate. It’s already been pointed out that the rates of attacks in safe countries increase after the “accidents” during the Technopics. This could deteriorate into a situation where the distinction between battlefields and safe countries completely collapses. That would mean the complete destruction of the system supported by Objects that allows for a clean era of clean wars. All sorts of economic activity will grind to a halt and society itself will collapse!!)
The vehicles of the bodyguard PMC team gathered in front of the storehouse that was tinged with the orange of twilight. Lucas Westernrose of Catwalk TV was trembling amongst them, but he then started berating himself when he realized he forgot to film what had happened.
Mariydi grabbed her main bodyguard and said, “What is Olympia Dome’s management saying!? Have they increased the security for the Ocean Substations!?”
“Who knows.” The bodyguard shrugged. “They seem to have been thrown into quite a bit of confusion thanks to the Blank and everything else that is going on. We can’t get through even using the emergency lines. Everything is tied up.”
“Dammit!”
Mariydi snatched the bodyguard’s binoculars and looked out toward the sea.
She could see a ship over 500 meters long stopped a few kilometers out. The shape of the ship was nothing special. It was basically a tanker, but it had four parabolic antennae a few dozen meters across lined up on its flat deck. They were likely meant to receive the microwaves.
“I can’t contact Miss Alicia anymore either. With Olympia Dome’s own communications network cut off, everyone is using the radio transmissions now. There are so many transmissions being sent out at similar frequencies that everything is filled with noise.” The bodyguard clicked his tongue. “In other words, we have no way of knowing what the sponsor’s opinion is. I doubt they would actually listen to us though.”
“This isn’t the time for those intellectuals. If we wait for them to sign off on our actions, Olympia Dome is done for!!”
As soon as she said that, an explosive noise shot by over Mariydi’s head.
She put down the binoculars and looked up to see three fighters heading for the Ocean Substation with long, narrow contrails behind them.
They were the VTOL fighters disguised as Legitimacy Kingdom S/G-31s.
“They’re making their move! It’s Athletica!!’
Lucas Westernrose must have decided anything was fine as long as it recorded because he pulled out his smartphone, started up a video app, and pointed the small lens into the sky. He spoke with his own men who had come directly to him as they could not contact him remotely.
“Hello? Yes, yes, according to the other filming group, yes, yes, the spectators have not begun to panic yet, yes. Yes, with the broadcast cut off, the events have been stopped as well, but most of the spectators are waiting in the dome for the systems to recover. They may have mistaken the fighters, yes, yes, for an acrobatic show to celebrate the end of the women’s shootathlon, yes. …And even if they view it as combat, yes, yes, they seem to be accepting it with open arms as more of the standard trouble between athletes here, yes.”
The bodyguard looked up at the source of the contrails and muttered, “The UUV ships in this area are unusable. I’m sure they can operate the Ocean Substation’s defense systems manually, but…”
“We can’t count on those things! A battle between air and ship is practically over by the time the fighters can approach the ship!!”
Orange lines from tracer bullets scattered from the deck and white trails of smoke signified the launch of anti-air missiles.
But no apparent damage was done to the fighters.
When the three Athletica fighters passed over the Ocean Substation, over half of the defense systems were blown away by machinegun fire. After pulling some distance away, the fighters circled around and approached again. This time, they shot up the soldiers who were using shoulder-fired anti-air missiles.
The bodyguard groaned and said, “It’s just a slaughter.”
“But it isn’t over yet. Once the defense systems on the deck are destroyed, the main Athletica force will move to board it. Once they gain control, they will use the laser power delivery system to attack the Objects. And then the Objects will begin fighting amongst themselves. Once that happens, Olympia Dome will be destroyed.”
Mariydi operated the handheld device she had acquired from the Faith Organization Athletica soldier she had killed.
She had no idea where they had gotten it, but it included a supposedly classified diagram of the Ocean Substation.
“The Ocean Substation is nothing more than a transformer facility. The actual power generation is carried out by a satellite in orbit. The power is sent to the ship via microwaves, transformed into a laser, and then transferred to Olympia Dome.”
“If the satellite providing the power is stopped, won’t it lose the foundation it needs to produce the high-output laser?”
“The Ocean Substation has control of the satellite.”
“How? It’s constantly receiving a ton of microwaves, right? It seems to me that would overpower any control signals sent back.”
“There are three ships total. They aren’t all receiving microwaves at all times. Two carry out the transformation and the remaining one controls the satellite. By swapping out which ones undergo the burden and which one gets to rest, they can perform maintenance without any downtime.”
The bodyguard lightly shook his head and said, “But Athletica needs the Ocean Substation’s laser. That means they have to receive the microwaves. If they can’t do that and control the satellite, it might be possible to stop the satellite with a signal from one of the other ships.”
“Yes, but only if the signal isn’t being jammed. The power generation satellite will continue to send the microwaves like normal unless it receives a stop signal. It can continue just fine without any control signals for a while.”
“Dammit,” cursed the bodyguard.
While operating the handheld device, Mariydi said to him, “So what do you think we should do?”
“What do you mean? There’s nothing we can do,” he muttered. “We may have firearms and the authority to take military action, but that’s only if your life is in danger. Olympia Dome is the target this time, not you. Unfortunately, we cannot use our guns.”
“If that ship is hijacked, this giant artificial island will ultimately sink into the Atlantic!! That will kill me. That seems like reason enough for you to act as my bodyguard!”
“If I fire without authority to do so, it’s a crime!!” shouted the bodyguard as if to cover up her words. “Everyone who attacked you were professional spies who took all the necessary preparations to slip through the gaps of an investigation before they attacked. We don’t have that kind of protection, so we will definitely get arrested. And this isn’t a part of the Capitalist Corporations. I don’t want to be tried in a court that speaks a different language and uses a criminal code I don’t understand. There’s no way I could win!!”
“…”
“And the same goes for you. Boarding the Ocean Substation to save it would probably have earned you praise in an older era. But nowadays it’s nothing but a crime. It could even have you stripped of your medal. If that happened, everyone on your team, the sponsor companies, and maybe even the entire Capitalist Corporations could be after your head. The risk for you makes mine look like nothing!!”
She could be charged for breach of contract.
Simply failing to obtain good results in the event could bring a serious risk to her ability to live a normal life, so if she had her medal stripped from her due to dishonorable and criminal conduct, the sponsor companies that had expected to earn millions of dollars advertising through her would certainly be furious.
In the Capitalist Corporations where finances were valued higher than human lives, it would not be surprising if they would take revenge with military action.
“Then what do we do?”
“I am going to do my job as your bodyguard. I will do the bare minimum that is required of me.”
“…You’re saying we should flee?”
“Luckily, you already won the gold medal in the shootathlon. If we just say your health deteriorated due to side effects of doping, you need not attend the closing ceremony. We can get you on a charter plane right away that should be able to escape before Olympia Dome is destroyed.”
“It’s being destroyed as we speak!!”
“We can’t get on that charter plane with you!!” snapped back the bodyguard.
Lucas Westernrose of Catwalk TV looked shocked, but he finally turned his smartphone’s lens towards the two and spoke.
“Hello? Yes, yes, well, the most our crew can call in is a helicopter. Yes, given the location of Olympia Dome, it cannot continue flying for the distance required to reach land, yes. Also, yes, as a member of the Information Alliance, yes, I cannot allow myself to turn tail and run in the face of this kind of ‘truth’, yes.”
He had made up his mind to stay using his own form of logic.
Mariydi, the only one with a ticket allowing her to escape, somehow actually felt left behind.
She had no idea what to say, so the bodyguard said, “I’m telling you to get on despite that. If you have any chance at all, you need to survive this. You earned that medal with your own skill. No one will blame you if you live your life a bit pridefully for a while.”
“…What will all of you do?”
“Find some way to contact Olympia Dome’s management. I hope we can find a loophole that allows us to use our weapons. It doesn’t matter how much we have to split hairs, as long as we are allowed to fight, we can head to the Ocean Substation. It’s better than doing nothing.” The bodyguard seemed to be checking over all of the conditions. “And then…right. If we can contact Miss Alicia, we can check on the sponsor’s opinion. If a large company can expedite Olympia Dome giving us permission to fight, that would be a huge help…but there will probably be a lot of barriers in the way given the average condition at the Technopics.”
Also, he had no way of knowing if they could even defeat Athletica in a straight shootout.
And their actions could get in the way of some political and legal issues.
The bodyguard had to know that there was no way he would make it in time after jumping through all those hoops.
And there was Alicia, who was so earnest when it came to finances and contracts.
And Stacy, who secretly enjoyed gathering famous autographs.
Whether they could fight or not, everyone who happened to be on Olympia Dome would soon be killed.
They would be utterly blown away by the tremendous firepower of those giant weapons known as Objects.
With the one exception of Mariydi, who could fight but had the privilege of being able to flee.
“…”
“C’mon,” urged the bodyguard as he led her to a nearby vehicle.
Once they were behind the vehicle where the other surrounding soldiers could not see them, Mariydi stuck a military knife against the bodyguard’s side.
“Give me your gun and the key to the vehicle.”
“Dammit, not again!! When did you steal my knife!?”
Lucas Westernrose aimed his smartphone’s lens in their direction, but Mariydi ignored him and continued her demands.
“Just hand them over. Your method won’t make it in time. I’m sure you know that. So hurry up and hand over your gun and the key.”
“You really might have your medal stripped from you.”
“This is the only way.”
“The sponsor companies might continue hunting you for decades! Are you really okay with that!?”
“If it comes to that, I can just win another medal to make up for it.”
Mariydi moved the tip of the knife slightly and the bodyguard winced. While putting up with the pain, he handed Mariydi his handgun and the key to the vehicle.
Mariydi opened the vehicle’s driver side door and Lucas Westernrose shouted after her.
“Hello!? If I would be in the way, yes, yes, at least take this smartphone with you! Yes, yes, you will likely be the closest to the truth!!”
“Sorry, but the amount of blood will probably force the rating too high.”
After Mariydi’s blunt refusal, the bodyguard spoke up.
“I’m not going with you.”
“I’m not going to tip you and I can’t guarantee your safety. I’m not brazen enough to ask you to come with me despite that.”
“…I’ll have to take a bit of a detour, but I will catch up with you. So head on to the Ocean Substation ahead of me. Got it?”
Mariydi gave a slight nod and then stuck the key in the ignition.
