Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 7===

Left all alone, Heivia started feeling jealous.

He left the handheld device and homemade cylindrical antenna sitting next to him. His assault rifle’s scope had enough sensors to make a decent mid-range sniper rifle and he followed Quenser’s progress with it.

“Oh, damn. I can see you. I can totally see you, idiot. You’re completely visible!! That blond hair shows up way too well in the black sea. If they shine a flashlight on you, you’re dead.”

A few hundred meters away, Quenser travelled along the embankment extending out into the ocean and slowly approached an outcropping with only his head visible.

Heivia saw no one on the embankment itself, but plenty of people were walking about on the scaffolding surrounding the Object. If they shined their light into the ocean on a whim, it was all over.

Quenser was about thirty meters from the acetylene tank.

(Isn’t there something I can do, dammit? Running after him wouldn’t help.)

Heivia cursed in his heart, but there was nothing to do.

He gave up and glanced toward Quenser’s handheld device left on the ground. New emails were continuing to pour in. The screen was filled with the “unread” mark and reading through them all would be exhausting.

Deciding to do what work he could, he opened a few of the emails.

“!!”

He then stiffened.

He grabbed his assault rifle again, left the handheld device and cylindrical antenna where they were, and slid down the slope in front of him. He moved to a spot from which he could see inside the window of one of the small barracks.

He had reacted to one of the emails.

(The Pilot Elite is resting in Building B’s simple lodging facility? If that information is legit, I can end this now! If I snipe that one Elite, no one can move the Megalodiver!!)

Banning radio contact between allies to keep the enemy from noticing him had worked against them. If they had been able to share that information, they might have been able to target the Elite from multiple angles.

He quickly located Building B.

Only one of the barracks had light in the window.

(I have to do what I can.)

He lay on the slope and peered inside Building B’s window using the assault rifle’s scope.

Quenser would blow up the acetylene tank soon, so he would use that timing.

During an explosion, a human would reflexively curl up. Lightning and gunshots produced the same reaction. There was a danger of his target’s position suddenly changing, but this was currently the best method of getting the shot without exposing his fellow soldiers to danger.

(My only choice is to use my sensors to cover the expected evasion point. Fortunately, the only cover is the barrack’s run-down walls. Even if the Elite hides from the window, a rifle bullet can still reach them.)

While making general plans, he removed the sensors that were attached to the barrel like a bayonet. He stabbed a nearby fallen tree branch into the ground and used the fishing line in his survival kit to tie the sensors on. He was using the machine as a replacement for a sniper’s spotter.

(It’s two floors, so which is the Elite on? They have to be in that building somewhere.)

He looked from window to window through the scope, but then he stopped.

Light came from one window on the second story and he could see a feminine silhouette inside.

(The Elite!!)

His index finger jumped to the trigger for an instant, but he then remembered he did not have a silencer equipped. He did not know where his allies were hiding and gathering information, so he had to avoid any gunshots if possible.

(If I fire during the acetylene explosion, it’ll hide the gunshot. Hurry, Quenser! She’s going to leave the window!!)

The Megalodiver’s Elite appeared to be a tall Asian. She was a woman with long, glossy black hair, but her silhouette appeared more nimble than voluptuous. The special suit covering every inch of her body was white with characteristic red lines. It may have been designed after the Island Nation’s flag before the country lost its name.

(An Asian woman. Is she from the Island Nation? If so, could she be Ichirei Shikon?)

She was frighteningly beautiful, but it would all be over if he shot her.

They would no longer need to come up with a weakness in the Megalodiver. Without worrying about the enemy intercepting it, they could radio a report of the Elite’s death to Frolaytia and the princess’s Baby Magnum would take care of the rest.

He wanted to fire right then and there.

He wanted to fire and be freed from the extreme tension.

He had to use the full strength of his rational mind to hold those almost animalistic instincts at bay.

Doing that would put his allies in danger. When a huge opportunity was dangled before your eyes, you had to avoid any impulsive actions.

For those reasons, he decided to wait, but then his eye narrowed as he looked through the scope.

Through the window, the Asian Elite suddenly unzipped her special suit.

“Nuhh!!”

He let out a groan like an elderly martial artist.

He looked more closely and spotted a clothes hamper and washing machine in the room.

Meanwhile, the black-haired Elite stripped down to nothing at all. Without suspecting that a professionally-trained soldier was expertly peeping on her, she entered the neighboring shower room.

That room’s window also had the curtains fully open.

The rumors that the Island Nation’s hot springs had a unique culture of steam-filled bath scenes seemed to be true.

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He could not hear anything from where he was, but she appeared to be humming.

“I-I guess I should wait a little longer. I can kill her at any time! Firing now would expose my allies to danger!!”

His motivations were 500% different from half a minute ago and his eyes were completely bloodshot.

But when he thought about it rationally, burning the image of the Elite’s naked body into his memory would not end well. He would soon be blowing away the head he could see through the scope, so his memories would all be of that smashed head. A sniper was forced to see a zoomed-up image of that instant.

The situation gradually grew harder to bear.

While lying on the ground, he force back tears and almost hung his head.

“Ahhhhh… The battlefield is starting to depress me.”

Supposedly, a sniper always worked with a spotter for both the simple technical reasons and to lessen the feeling of guilt when firing. The absence of the annoying student was working against him.

He looked away from the scope without thinking, but he recalled his job and started to look back.

But that mistake proved fortunate.

He noticed something in the instant he looked away from the scope.

(What is that?)

Heivia moved his assault rifle’s scope a bit from the Elite showering on the second floor of Building B and he closely examined something.

An Asian woman wearing a white and red special suit was walking outside. He could see her eating dumplings on a skewer.

“There are two Elites?”

He moved his scope around the dismantling harbor some more and spotted more women in special suits that were clearly different from the normal soldier uniform. A quick count showed more than five and he would likely find even more if he checked inside the barracks.

A single Object had a single Pilot Elite.

That was a standard of the industry.

Some built an Object for an Elite and some trained an Elite for an Object, but there was no such thing as “generic” when it came to controlling the ultimate weapon with the optimal movements.

He had never heard of multiple Elites taking turns piloting a single Object.

But then how did he explain the scene before his eyes?

What did it mean?

(The Island Nation can be strange, so did they develop a generic Object that can achieve consistent results when piloted by any Elite that’s gone through a set training program?)

That was indeed a frightening idea, but there was a more likely option.

(No, Quenser said the Megalodiver is empty. That’s why it hasn’t detected us with its large-scale sound sensors. We guessed the Elite was cooling off after so much time in that cramped cockpit at the bottom of the ocean, but if there are more than one Elite, they could just put another one in.)

In that case…

(Are they nothing more than body doubles!? It would be best to assume there’s a single real one that can pilot the Object!!)

There was only one.

If that one was killed, Ichirei Shikon and the self-defense PMC would be destroyed. That gave them a good reason to prepare body doubles. That would protect against enemy attack and an ally panicking in the extreme situation and taking her hostage.

That left a single question.

(Which one is the real Elite?)

It was an extremely simple question.

(Is the one showering in Building B the real one? Or is it one of the ones walking around? Dammit. If they’re doing it deceive their allies too, I can’t rely on the email. We can’t relax unless we kill all of them!!)

Heivia and the rest of the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers were split into several units and monitoring the harbor, but it would be difficult to simultaneously shoot all of the Elites without close radio contact.

If he could not distinguish real from fake, this opportunity would go to waste.

(Or should I just wait?)

He started to panic, so he intentionally calmed his thoughts.

(Either way, the real Elite will eventually board the Megalodiver. It might be best to shoot her then. Shit!! But Quenser blowing up the acetylene tank will get in the way of that. It’s faster to let them finish the work and have the Elite board the Object!!)

As he thought, the situation advanced further than he expected.

A brilliant flash of light covered the embankment.

Quenser had blown up the acetylene tank with his Hand Axe.

The darkness of the night transformed to pure white for an instant.

The explosion looked like a flash grenade multiplied several times.

That would produce a commotion much like poking a hornet’s nest, but it did not end there.

The real problem came next.

Heivia heard the sound of cracking glass.

He looked over and saw a small hole in Building B’s second floor shower room window. It looked like someone had jabbed at the glass with the tip of an umbrella and the inside of the glass was stained red.

Heivia had not done it.

One of his allies hiding somewhere in the harbor had made the shot.

(You dumbass!! We don’t know if that’s the real one or not!!)

The situation had gone too far.

The blood coating the lit window would be obvious from the outside. What looked like an accidental tank explosion had been elevated to an obvious attack.

Heivia switched on his radio and shouted into it.

“Retreat! Goddammit!! If that wasn’t the real one, the Megalodiver is going to be moving soon!!”

There was no more point in hiding.

He quickly stood and ran up the slope as quickly as he could to hide in the trees.

On the way, he grabbed Quenser’s handheld device and cylindrical antenna and hid in the tall underbrush.

He observed the embankment through his scope.

Quenser was slowly travelling along the embankment with just his head exposed, but the acetylene explosion had wiped away the darkness.

The unexpected situation had the enemy focusing on everything rather than just the exploded tank.

They would eventually find him like this.

(Shit!! You’d damn well better be thankful for Heivia the transcendentally smart, beautiful, rich and athletic noble! I’ll blow away the saying that bad things happen to honest people!!)

After clenching his teeth and gathering strength and resolve in his gut, he targeted a group of soldiers standing near the base of the embankment.

The first shot was a direct hit on one and he fired a few more shots into the soldiers as they frantically scattered.

He doubted any of those shots were direct hits, but he only needed to divert attention away from the coast and toward the mountain.

That would save foolish Quenser.

He was answered with repeated gunfire.

They were a few hundred meters away. If his bullets could reach them, theirs could reach him.

“Dammit!! This isn’t good!!”

He frantically crouched down as a bullet struck quite nearby. His only option was to run away as quickly as he could.

He heard a few sounds resembling champagne corks being removed.

“The bastards are using mortars!?”

Explosives flew in a large arc and fell from the night sky.

Tremendous explosions tore trees from the ground and sent them flying through the air. A safe and clean battlefield was nowhere to be found. Covered in sand and dirt, Heivia poured all his strength into running through the mountain.