Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume3 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 13===

Quenser and Charlotte decided to head above ground.

As Heivia and Myonri had gone on ahead, Quenser and Charlotte did not know what path led to Point 1.

“It seems Heivia and the others made it away.”

“By now, they have likely released that worker you were worried about.”

“…Are you still mad about that?”

“No, you were right this time. But only in hindsight. To be honest, I am glad I did not kill her.”

Quenser was still supporting Charlotte. He was also still carrying her assault rifle.

"It would be better to head up rather than waste time in these labyrinthine tunnels.”

“Will we head to Point 1 aboveground?”

“I would like to contact the maintenance base zone first. They still do not know what is going on. I do not know what we can do, but it would be best to at least get that information across. We cannot transmit long distance with our radios, but we can contact them if we approach the base.”

They headed up a sloping path that turned back on itself again and again until they arrived at an exit to the underground mine.

They stuck their heads out to check on the situation outside.

In the darkness of night, they could see a scene that looked like the end of the world.

Two monstrous weapons over 50 meters tall were firing at each other. The blasts that seemed like physical masses spread across the ground and caused the occasional cliff to crumble like a cookie. High-pitched noises slammed into their eardrums and shockwaves hit their guts like body blows. Coilgun shells drew orange trajectories through the sky, and bluish-white beams flew from low-stability plasma cannons. The Arctic darkness was forcibly ripped apart by manmade weapons.

“I don’t see the UAVs.”

“With all this going on, they would lose control and crash, so they must have called them in. They do cost 50,000 euros each after all.”

Did that at least slightly increase the odds of Heivia and Myonri reaching Point 1 and inserting the interference program?

(But that’s only if Heivia doesn’t decide it isn’t worth it and run away.)

With Quenser and Charlotte still showing no sign of meeting up with them, those two probably thought they had run away. But there was no time to eliminate every misunderstanding.

Quenser went over the situation in his head once more.

The Legitimacy Kingdom had the disadvantage militarily.

The Wing Balancer was a distinctive Object. It had around 20 legs connecting the double concentric circle-shaped propulsion device and the spherical main body. It had a giant coilgun on the center of the front of its main body. And it had “weight wings” to help it keep its balance with its center of gravity and the inertia when it made rapid turns. The video data from the previous naval battle did not show it, but it was now repeatedly jumping over the gaps between cliffs.

“Amazing. Heivia wasn’t kidding. That giant thing really is jumping…”

“They were either hiding it in past battles or it never felt the need to jump on the relatively flat sea. Either way, this is a dangerous enemy.”

Charlotte was not wrong.

The main advantage the Wing Balancer had was its range of movement. The Kamchatka Peninsula was split up by a multitude of cliffs like cracked glass. It was a difficult terrain for the Baby Magnum. The Baby Magnum’s range of movement was limited and this made it much more difficult to take evasive actions. Meanwhile, the Wing Balancer could jump over the gaps between cliffs. By freely jumping around, it could maintain an advantageous distance, evade easily, and otherwise trouble the princess.

The one piece of fortune was that all the focus on the Wing Balancer’s maneuverability had left something lacking in the destructive power of its weapons. The princess’s Object had dents in various places and a few of its 7 main cannons were twisted, but she had no damage on a level beyond that. She had already been struck by the enemy’s main cannon a few times. Normally, that would have been enough to shoot straight through the reactor.

Quenser lowered Charlotte to the ground near the mine’s exit.

“Charlotte, use your radio to contact the base and inform Froleytia of the situation.”

“We are still too far away. Our radios will not reach the maintenance base zone.”

“Contact the base via the Object. The Baby Magnum’s antennae can reach the base.”

“I see.” Charlotte Zoom pulled out a small device. “But the Faith Organization’s interception antennae might pick up on the signal.”

“We just have to trust in our encryption.”

Charlotte used the small communications device and began to explain the Faith Organization’s intention to the maintenance base. The princess must have realized her equipment was being used because she contacted Quenser.

“…Quenser, are you still alive?”

“When I introduce myself to people, I’m beginning to think I should start saying my special skill is stubbornly surviving,” replied Quenser as if spitting out the words. “What’s the situation?”

“Exhausting. The base zone is beginning the process of retreating, but just getting out to sea does not mean they have escaped. The Wing Balancer can head out onto the water without switching out parts.”

“So it can jump and it can go out over the sea… I guess this really is the age of air cushions. It is a pain how you have to exchange parts every time.”

“But its speed is not all that great,” added the princess quickly, sounding a bit miffed. “If this battle was in a normal environment, my Object would definitely have won.”

“Come to think of it, the Information Alliance’s Rush had treads for high speed movement on top of its primary air cushion.”

“…Why are you bringing up that horrible girl?”

The princess’s tone dropped even further.

She seemed to truly detest that “Oh ho ho”.

It was unbelievable that she was continuing to make small movements to evade the Wing Balancer’s weapons' fire.

“I’d love to help out, but I don’t have enough information,” said Quenser. “Have you figured out any characteristics of the Object while fighting it? Like what areas its movements suggest it is more carefully protecting or something like that.”

“It seems everything related to chassis is rather delicate. When I try to aim my main cannon at its lower portion, it makes a large jump over to the other side of the cliffs.”

“Well, from the power of its cannons, it would be pretty much done for if its maneuverability was lost.”

“Also, it put up a violent counterattack when I took out one of the wings on its back. I think it was panicking.”

Quenser looked again and noticed that the Wing Balancer had only 3 wings attached to its back. It was an odd balance. It would have looked more even with four of them.

(I suppose it would be best to start by thinking of a way to target the Wing Balancer’s legs. It has a device that keeps it afloat using massive amounts of compressed air and wings to keep its balance even in midair. Is there any way to counterattack using that?)

Suddenly, the Wing Balancer made a clear change in its movements. Previously, it had been using all of its countless weapons, including its main cannon, to fire at the Baby Magnum, but its aim now changed.

Yes.

It was targeting Quenser now.

“It noticed me!?”

[[Image:HO_v03_14.png|thumb]]

Its cameras and sensors may have determined his location. Or perhaps it had tracked down the source of the radio signal. In either case, there was nothing he could do when targeted by an Object. Even if he tried to run away, the shockwave and aftereffects of the cannon firing would be enough to blow away his flesh-and-blood body.

The Wing Balancer showed no mercy.

As soon as it lined up its sights, it fired.

“Quenser!!”

The Baby Magnum quickly interposed itself between them. Several loud metallic noises rang out. A 50+ meter Object had acted as a shield for a flesh-and-blood soldier.

In that same moment, the Wing Balancer’s aim suddenly veered off.

Quenser had not done anything. The Baby Magnum had stopped in order to act as a shield. There was no reason for the enemy’s aim to be off in that situation.

Except one.

(Did Heivia and Myonri input the interference program at Point 1!?)

But the Wing Balancer did not stop.

Quenser heard the sound of compressed air being emitted.

In the next instant, he saw a shadow over the aurora in the night sky. It was the giant form of the Object. Using the same technique it did to jump from cliff to cliff, the Wing Balancer was trying to jump clear over the Baby Magnum.

The lower portion of the Wing Balancer had nothing but the mechanisms related to the chassis and no weapons at all. However, those mechanisms could create a blast of air strong enough to support such a giant machine. A violent wind would blow across the entire area when it landed. If that happened, Quenser’s puny body would be blown dozens of meters away even if he tried to take cover.

“!!”

The princess immediately aimed her weapons straight up. Around 100 weapons both large and small roared. Unfortunately, the few main cannons that were specially made to attack upwards were malfunctioning. The non-main cannons held enough destructive power to make a tank look like nothing, but they could not do any real damage to another monstrous Object.

As Quenser looked up, he saw the two concentric circles of the propulsion device split apart into around 20 pieces. The many fan-shaped pieces looked like canned pineapple slices. To Quenser, they looked like spears preparing to stab down at him. The part he was seeing was analogous to the bottom of a human’s foot. Quenser spotted many large lenses there.

That became the small beginning of an idea.

Quenser instinctually grabbed the assault rifle hanging from his shoulder on a sling belt and aimed it straight up.

But…

(I don’t have enough time!!)

The Wing Balancer fell down nearby.

Immediately before it did, the Baby Magnum fired its smallest coilgun. It was not firing at the Wing Balancer. It was firing at a large stone a bit away from Quenser.

The broken stone was moved to a position where it shielded Quenser.

Just as Quenser was knocked off his feet by the shockwave, the Wing Balancer landed. A violent wind spread out in every direction from where it landed.

Despite being protected by a large stone and lying down in the snow, Quenser’s body was lifted a few meters up into the air. But that was better than the alternative. Without the cover he had, he would have been blasted dozens of meters away.

The Wing Balancer’s main cannon roared twice.

The princess immediately took evasive actions, but the very right edge of the spherical body was torn away.

Just as the seven main cannon arms moved into place for a counterattack, the Wing Balancer’s split legs portion began creaking once more.

It jumped.

It leaped over the Baby Magnum to maintain its position in the blind spot of the other Object’s main cannons.

That position was dangerous.

Quenser immediately realized that fact.

The previous two main cannon shots had been nothing more than preparations driving the Baby Magnum into checkmate.

The first shot after it landed would be a direct hit on the princess.

As Quenser rolled across the ground, he opened the cover to the rifle’s targeting assistance device. Currently, he did not have enough output.

Yes.

He was not planning to use the destructive power of the rifle bullets.

Those would never have any effect on an Object.

(An air cushion that uses compressed air as a cushion should work best with a large bottom surface area. So why does the Wing Balancer split apart its chassis and negate the advantage of that large bottom surface area?)

The Wing Balancer passed by over Quenser’s head.

He saw the glittering of the many lenses installed in addition to the compressed air ejection points.

(It must be to match the ups and downs of the terrain. With an air cushion, it is important to ensure the bottom surface of the craft and the ground are parallel while emitting the compressed air. That’s why air cushions are more often used over water rather than the land. A piece of the terrain bulging up could cause problems. The Wing Balancer solves that problem by having the chassis split into around 20 pieces. The ups and downs of the terrain are calculated and those pieces are arranged to match it. And the means to calculate that would be…)

Quenser used the tip of the cooking knife from his survival kit to turn a small screw in the targeting assistance device. It functioned as a dial to set the output of the laser.

He then aimed the assault rifle straight up without bothering to close the cover.

(…Those lenses!! It uses infrared!!)

He moved his finger.

The targeting assistance infrared laser was emitted straight up.

It hit the lenses on the Wing Balancer’s legs meant to calculate the makeup of the terrain.

By using the same type of infrared rays used to do the calculations, he would cause malfunctions.

“Give up, you piece of shit!! Come crashing down right here!!” shouted Quenser.

But that was not enough.

The bottom of the Wing Balancer was covered with hundreds or even thousands of infrared sensors, while Quenser just had a puny targeting device on the end of the rifle in his hands. He could not completely throw off the enemy’s sensors with that.

(Is this still not enough!? Shit! Is there nothing else!?)

But…

Quenser’s assault rifle had a special additional device attached.

An IR jammer.

That special device emitted a number of laser pointer-like infrared lasers like a shotgun in order to mess with the targeting of guided weapons.

He pulled the trigger.

It was invisible to the human eye, but the density of beams increased all at once.

The numerous lenses on the Wing Balancer trembled as if convulsing. They could no longer detect the ground.

The Wing Balancer had lost its basis for landing.

But the 200,000 ton mass continued to fall.

“Get out of the way!!” needlessly shouted the princess.

Quenser had already started moving to the side as quickly as he could.

Immediately afterwards, a great crater was created on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

A shockwave roared.

Quenser’s body was thrown farther than he had expected. He rolled across the hard ground, receiving cuts and scrapes all over his body. But it was nowhere near as bad as when the air cushion had been functioning. The malfunction had been successful.

“Shit…What happened to that damn thing…?”

Quenser forced his aching body to get up.

The Wing Balancer had been unable to stop its fall, so over half of its around 20 legs had directly struck the ground and been destroyed. The remaining legs had been unable to support its giant weight. The Wing Balancer sank down and stopped moving.

It must have not yet given up the fight because it tried to move its main cannon. However, the Wing Balancer could not turn itself around, so the Baby Magnum was easily able to move out of range by circling around. The Baby Magnum could fire its main cannon at any time. It was checkmate.

Quenser sent a short transmission to the princess.

“Ask them to surrender.”

“First, I will fire from the side and destroy the Wing Balancer’s main cannon.”

With a great roar, the Faith Organization’s last hope of resistance was suppressed. The shockwave sent Quenser rolling once more.

Quenser spat out the snow that had entered his mouth and looked over at Charlotte where he had left her at the entrance to the mine. She was waving at him with her back still leaning against the rock face. She seemed to be uninjured.

With that, the battle surrounding the Kamchatka Peninsula was over.

The Faith Organization’s planned slaughter of the anti-war group and national policy of heightened war against the Legitimacy Kingdom had failed.

As Quenser reflected on that fact, he received a transmission from Froleytia.

“Point 1, Point 2, are you still alive!? We couldn’t reach your radios, so we assumed you had been wiped out! How many of you were fortunate enough to survive!? At any rate, get out of there now!!”

“Froleytia?”

Quenser sent a transmission to the maintenance base zone via the large scale antennae equipped on the princess’s Object.

He received a response almost immediately.

“We know what those behind this were after. They wanted to use the confusion of the battle to slaughter the Faith Organization civilians working in the mine on the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula!! That way they could continue the war between the Legitimacy Kingdom and the Faith Organization and gain more power!! They wanted the credit for victory, but if the war ended according to the plan, the victory would not be theirs. That was why they created circumstances where they could cause the war to continue!! They used the mine to that end. Anyone who can move needs to get as far away from the mine as possible!! You will get caught in the bombardment if you do not!!”

“You don’t need to worry about that,” said Quenser, relaxing.

Something seemed to have led to a delay in the information arriving at the base, so Froleytia’s fears were needless.

“The Faith Organization Object can no longer move. The Wing Balancer has lost all ability to harm the civilians in the mine.”

“…Yes. The Wing Balancer has.”

There was an ominous tone to her voice.

Quenser felt the same kind of unease as when a time bomb’s counter continued to countdown despite the cord having been cut.

Froleytia continued, “But the Wing Balancer is not the only one that wants to exacerbate this war.”

“You don’t mean…”

How many Objects were deployed to the Kamchatka Peninsula?

1. The Legitimacy Kingdom’s Baby Magnum.

2. The Faith Organization’s Wing Balancer.

And…

3. The Legitimacy Kingdom’s Indigo Plasma that had withdrawn out to sea.

A few facts suddenly hit Quenser.

Nutley had not been a Faith Organization spy.

The Faith Organization military was not the only group that wished for the war to grow larger and fiercer.

In other words…

Nutley had been a spy sent by the 24th Mobile Maintenance Battalion of the Legitimacy Kingdom.

Quenser heard a low rumbling. At some point the Object that had supposedly fled beyond the horizon had approached the Kamchatka Peninsula once more. Its main cannon slowly moved as it aimed.

It was not aiming at the Wing Balancer. The Faith Organization Object was no longer functioning. It was not aiming at the Baby Magnum. It had no reason to fire on another Legitimacy Kingdom Object.

The Indigo Plasma’s main cannon was creaking in the direction of empty terrain.

No.

The terrain may have appeared empty at first glance, but the Object was aiming at the diamond mine located underground.

“Stop…”

The anti-war group’s publication and the face of the worker with the first aid kit entered the back of Quenser’s mind.

The statistic of 10,500 people came back to him.

The princess’s Baby Magnum moved before his eyes. However, it was not moving to attack the Indigo Plasma. It was too far away and there was the issue of military regulations. She could not decide whether she was allowed to fire on the Object or not.

Instead, the princess was moving to protect Quenser and Charlotte as she had before. She had foreseen the destruction and tragedy that was about to occur.

“Stooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppppp!!!!!”

The puny battlefield student’s voice echoed through the battlefield.

Immediately afterwards, the Indigo Plasma opened fire.

The bluish-white beams of light of a low-stability plasma cannon tore through the dark night of the Kamchatka Peninsula. Explosion after explosion erupted. This was more than just a couple of shots. The areas hit had been carefully calculated to ensure that the holes would allow freezing seawater to fill the entire mine. The overwhelming destruction became a maelstrom that swept through the mine. The underground area caved-in and the terrain itself changed. A portion of the bedrock melted into lava which mixed with the seawater and created cumulonimbus cloud-like masses of steam. The mine became more than just a hell of being buried alive. A deluge of seawater poured in to completely finish off the people trapped inside.

Quenser did not have the leeway to just watch that utter massacre. Even with the Baby Magnum acting as a shield, the shockwave came around the Object and assaulted his ears. In an instant, his body lost all strength and he collapsed to the ground. His fingertips trembled. He forced them to stop and tried to stand up.

The bombardment continued for more than 10 minutes.

An Object held enough destructive power to roast the insides of an aircraft carrier in an instant, but this one continued firing on civilians for 10 minutes.

“…”

After that nightmarish bombardment came silence. Quenser was at a complete loss for words. He did not even wipe the dirt and soot from his face. In the scene before his eyes, absolutely everything had been destroyed. Red flames, black smoke, orange molten rock, and white steam. It had all the colors of a painting of hell. The one thing that would have made it worse was if the color of human flesh or the red of fresh blood had been visible from that distance. Either way, everyone in the mine had surely been killed.

The Indigo Plasma turned around.

The slaughterer calmly moved out to sea as if it was the true victor.

Quenser did not have the willpower to even think about pursuing it.

His conditions for victory would not be achieved by simply destroying it.

“Point 1, Point 2, any survivors report in,” said Froleytia over the radio. Quenser honestly wanted to reply that he was dead, but then his silver-haired commander said something else. “Do not worry. The 10,500 members of the Faith Organization anti-war group are unharmed. Fortunately, that coal mine was secretly a diamond mine. They had an escape route prepared.”

“…?”

“I explained that the eastern coast of the Kamchatka Peninsula has been turned into a terrain similar to a complex ria coast by an earthquake in the Bering Sea and their fourth submarine base construction plan, right? Well, there really was a submarine base there. Normally, costs prevent submarines from being used for transport. However, the Kamchatka Peninsula was producing ores valuable enough to make up for those costs.”

“They were using submarines to transport the diamonds…?”

“And it wasn’t just 1 or 2 hundred of them. Well, they wanted to prevent such expensive military funds from being stolen in transit. They needed enough to cover the actual group and a diversion. To use them here, they must have really wanted to hide the existence of the diamond mine. Those working in the mine managed to use them for themselves. This plan was calculated to efficiently destroy the mine. But that means you can get by if you find an oversight in the plan. The Indigo Plasma used seawater, so I was a bit worried the submarines would be swept into some hole.”

“But,” said Quenser in denial. He still did not believe it. “But how?”

“Those in the mine contacted us via radio. It seems someone from the anti-war group recovered the equipment from one of our dead. Using the frequency data in that equipment, they used the mine’s large-scale antenna to contact us. We are the Legitimacy Kingdom and they are the Faith Organization. I honestly had no proof they were telling the truth, but they actually listened to what I had to say. Also, they explained everything they knew about the equipment in the mine. That was why we were able to tell them how to take shelter. But it was still quite close. After all, there were over 10,000 of them. They began moving 2 hours ago, but they still just barely finished taking refuge. They are currently asking about the process required to defect to the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

It was around that point that it all started to feel real to Quenser.

(I see. The worker we first ran across in the tunnel had a first aid kit because of those communications.)

“As I said before, we thought Point 1 and Point 2 had been wiped out because we could not contact you via radio. That is why your view of the situation is inconsistent with ours. Honestly, I almost panicked when you suddenly appeared right in the middle of the battlefield.”

The Indigo Plasma’s plan had not come to fruition.

The people in the mine had not been meaninglessly slaughtered.

“We were just contacted by Heivia and Myonri. It seems they are sheltering a single civilian worker and are unharmed.”

There had been no civilian sacrifices.

Not even one.

“We were victorious here because we all trusted the words of strangers,” said Froleytia in conclusion.