Editing HEAVY OBJECT:EX Chapter 6 (section)

===Part 2===

It was the middle of the night.

The military trucks carrying Heivia, Skuld, and the others had stopped 10 kilometers away from the Faith Organization maintenance base zone. Any closer and the rumbling of the engines would have given them away.

They were surrounded by a wasteland with nothing but baobab trees to be seen.

The soldiers held their breath and aimed trumpet-like speakers toward the maintenance base. While only letting their targets hear environmental noises like rustling grass, chirping insects, and gazelle or buffalo footsteps, Heivia took the lead, veered far off the most direct route, and approached their target.

An early warning directional microphone was set up on the ground.

That parabolic device stood on a tripod and would pick up a cough from a kilometer away. But at the same time, it could only pick up sound from a very limited angle. Once the soldiers were behind it, they had nothing more to fear.

While the environmental noises tricked the microphone, Heivia touched the plate-sized parabolic device from behind. He slowly tilted it back so the forward-facing microphone aimed into the sky. Now it could not pick anything up and would forever have nothing to report.

Heivia spoke into his radio a short distance away.

“I’ve safely neutralized the Muninn parabolic microphone. It’s all just like Skuld told us. Come on in, everyone.”

“Understood, Heivia. We also have to worry about the Huginn up in the air, so be careful.”

As the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers approached through the darkness, they would occasionally aim rifle-like devices with a trumpet-like end into the night sky. Those were the directional speakers that had fooled the parabolic microphone with environmental noises.

They were targeting a toy-like drone that used six rotors to fly.

It used a highly sensitive microphone to detect any manmade noise, but they hid their breathing and footsteps by sending various environmental noises right at it.

Heivia wiped sweat from his brow when he saw the drone flying away like normal.

“Is intelligence everything in war? Having Skuld with us has made all the difference.”

“Don’t let your guard down,” said Skuld herself. “You never know what kind of pitfall awaits us at the whim of a god.”

“But why are they so obsessed with using sound?”

“We made a major mistake once in the past. Do you know what a strobe light tactic is?”

“Yeah. By flashing a strobe light several times brighter than a muzzle flash in quick succession, the cameras’ light adjustment has to keep switching back and forth and the image analysis can’t keep up. I think it’s even more effective if you switch back and forth between different wavelengths of light. Man, did you ever fall for an old-fashioned trick.”

“Even the smallest thing can be traumatic. That’s why our unit prefers to rely on sound more than light.”

“Then I guess we’ll be giving them some fresh trauma here. Will they start relying on smell next?”

As they slipped past some more microphones and drones, some giant seesaw-like silhouettes came into view. They appeared to be open-pit mining devices for oil extraction, but they had likely been abandoned for some time. They were all badly rusted.

Heivia climbed onto one of the 10 meter seesaws to view their destination.

The Faith Organization maintenance base zone was right in front of them.

A cathedral and monastery had been left behind on sandy ground. Tents thicker than circus tents had been set up in the gaps between the buildings. Halogen lights must have been set up because the base shined brightly in the darkness.

After photographing it with his handheld device and sharing the information with the others, Skuld spoke up over the radio.

“They would be holding a prisoner in the monastery, but the front door is made of thick bronze and we won’t be able to force it open. We either need to get our hands on an authorization key or blow it open with explosives.”

“We can do that. There’s more than 100 of us, and we’re not all going to sneak in. We have a rescue team, a power source team, and an escape route team, but the most important one is the sabotage team that will take care of the Trinity Style. Skuld, are you ready?”

“Of course.”

Heivia climbed down from the giant seesaw and handed Skuld a brick-sized mass.

He spoke to everyone for one final check.

“Listen, no firing your guns. I might sound like your mother insisting you do your homework, but let me say that again: no firing your guns. If we’re discovered here, we’ll be completely outnumbered. And if the Trinity Style joins in, we’re completely screwed. We really will be slaughtered.”

Even if the enemy had 100 soldiers out on patrol, there were still 900 in the base. And they would all be armed with military rifles. Could the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers really sneak in to rescue Quenser without being noticed and without firing a shot?

This was an unprecedented mission for them.

“Got that? Then let’s work for the tax money they pay us.”