Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 5===

The advance on the ruins of Amazon City began.

Quenser and Heivia joined a group of about 200 people and headed to the ruins on off road vehicles. They did not head directly into the city. Instead, they got off about 3 kilometers away, and split up further before heading to the city on foot.

From the point they stopped the vehicles on, they were heading through tropical jungle. Beyond the thick trees was a group of concrete buildings. That was the ruins of Amazon City. After it had been abandoned, it had become buried in green.

They had known the jungle was just south of the equator, but it was worse than they had been expecting. The heat and humidity was trapped there like inside a plastic greenhouse. When they breathed in, a lukewarm feeling gradually spread through their bodies.

Heivia looked fed up with it almost instantly.

“…Dammit. So we’re acting as human antennae again.”

“The Baby Magnum isn’t at 100%, so they probably don’t want to send it straight in.” Quenser wiped sweat from his chin with the back of his hand. “This place is horrible. The ground seems so soft. Isn’t there a better way to this place?”

“We would be a lot more comfortable using the remains of the highway created for Amazon City, but that would put us in plain view of the enemy.”

“Hey, Heivia. What’s that on the front of your rifle?”

“You can’t tell? It’s insecticide.”

“…Heivia, is the type of person that can’t touch bugs? To be fair, I can’t stand roaches myself.”

“You idiot.” Heivia brought his hand to his forehead. “This is the Amazon. It’s the world’s biggest jungle. There are rare and dangerous bugs that’ll sting you and bite you here. The giant spiders jump at you, so it’s dangerous to try to stomp on them with your boot. But it would be a waste of ammo to shoot at all of them. Also, it would be stupid to let the enemy know your location because of a bug. That’s why we need insecticide to deal with any dangerous bugs. Since we’re going for a bold attack here, we don’t have to worry about leaving any traces of our presence with dead bugs.”

“Is that so? I just hope it doesn’t leave a strange smell that military dogs can follow.”

“I’d be pretty excited to run across a Hercules beetle.”

Quenser and Heivia continued through the jungle as some strange bird cried overhead.

As Heivia used the various sensors attached to his rifle to check for hidden soldiers or traps, he said, “And what is that you have in your pocket? Looks like a book. Is it a camping manual for if we get stranded out in the jungle?”

“It’s nothing like that. It’s just a wild west novel. I was thinking I could read it if we had to wait around for the enemy to appear.”

“Oh, c’mon, Quenser. We’re taking part in a war involving giant Objects. Why are you reading a story about people shooting at each other with tiny pistols?”

“Heivia, you mustn’t forget the danger a single bullet can present.”

“Heh, you’re one to talk. You don’t even carry a single handgun. With how much you love to study, I would have thought you would be staring at Object designs during your breaks.”

Heivia spoke in light tones, but Quenser fell silent.

He could not tell Heivia he had been reading a paper by Sladder Honeysuckle.

That man was not normal.

All Quenser had been able to get his hands on was what was released online to the Legitimacy Kingdom. The Capitalist Corporations and the Legitimacy Kingdom were at war, so the information was likely of little importance. However, Quenser could see a fragment of that man’s genius hidden within.

Even a child could give a twisted response to a predetermined theme.

But that was only by using nonsense arguments.

An idea forced out while knowing it would never be useful in reality was no more valuable than an idle chat.

However, the place Sladder started from and where he kept his focus was not normal. He mentioned things Quenser had never noticed until then. Despite starting from some twisted idea that was something like a trompe l'oeil, the argument he constructed was perfectly logical and well-reasoned. He went through the proper steps needed to efficiently implement the theoretical idea.

The finished paper left its readers with a deep impression of a certain type. It was similar to seeing someone fit every single piece of a veritable mountain of luggage into a small storage box. It was close to that feeling of “oh, so you could put it in at that angle”.

However, Sladder’s text did not end there.

He also included a certain “possibility”.

If what he imagined was ever completed, it would be something unthinkable. And yet the reader was left with the desire to see a world where the ideas written there were made a reality. Even if that would only help the enemy.

That was the type of text it was.

It opened up a brand new dimension that would be unachievable just by memorizing the information in some textbooks.

It was no ordinary task to fight and win against someone with a brain as twisted as his.

Quenser was trembling in fear at the prospect, but Heivia did not notice. Instead, he held up his insecticide-equipped rifle and glared hatefully up at the sky.

“God dammit. This formation is assuming a counterattack. We’re scattered about to reduce the losses in a bombardment.”

“If the princess’s Object was at 100%, there might have been a smarter way of doing this.” Quenser wiped sweat from his face. “But it’s odd.”

“What is?”

“If the Mass Driver conglomerate had that high power railgun, why didn’t they just use it to target the moon base? They didn’t have to go with that roundabout method of using the satellite via the probe robot in Antarctica.”

“How am I supposed to know what they’re thinking? Maybe they felt there was meaning in carrying out their terrorist attack with a laser,” said Heivia offhand. “Also, their Object’s main cannon kept breaking up in midair due to frictional heat. They might have not thought it would make it out of the atmosphere.”

“…”

“Hey, don’t think about this so much. The Object is gone. It doesn’t matter to us how the Mass Driver conglomerate insists on using their Object.”

“I hope we can be that optimistic.”

“Ahn? …Oh, are you talking about the possibility of the Mass Driver conglomerate having a second Object?” Heivia sounded annoyed. “Only an Object can defeat an Object. I guess that’s why they want to preserve the weakened Baby Magnum. But sending us forward to check for an Object is more dangerous than removing landmines.”

“It would be quite a tragedy if we carelessly sent the princess in and she was destroyed by a surprise attack. We would lose our piece for checkmate. Do you want to continue on with a war of attrition that will never end?” asked Froleytia over the radio. She continued as if to make doubly sure. “Listen. Whether there is a second Object or not is vitally important to know, but we also can’t let the enemy scatter. We need to keep as many from getting away as possible and kill them here. At the very least, we absolutely must kill their leader, Sladder Honeysuckle. If he gets away, we cannot end this war here.”

“Fine, fine. Is this Honeysuckle guy really that much of a problem?”

“He is the Mass Driver conglomerate’s prided Object designer. There is a risk of him even beginning construction on a new Object if he can make the proper preparations.”

“…You’re kidding, right? Doesn’t an Object cost at least 5 billion dollars?”

“He can raise that 5 billion on his own. He is a large shareholder and one of the most famous investors even in the Capitalist Corporations. I’m sure you know, but Object designer is a popular occupation because they receive massive rewards. He knows ways of taking that massive amount of money and making 10 or even 20 times the original amount. All transactions under the name Honeysuckle will have been frozen, but rumor has it that he has enough funds on hand for constructing an Object to be a real possibility.” Froleytia sounded annoyed. “That said, constructing an Object from scratch takes three full years. Unless he remains in hiding for a very long time, there may not be any real danger of this happening.”

“But if he joined forces with a third country that wants his skills, this could get bad,” said Quenser.

“Exactly,” replied Froleytia. “I have no intention of letting this war grow any further. Let’s exterminate these idiots as quickly as possible and stop the convoy near a hot spring. ...But to do that, we need to kill the Mass Driver conglomerate here. We cannot let Sladder Honeysuckle escape no matter what. We need to make sure to get a picture of him, as well as get his fingerprints and a blood sample. We can negotiate with the Capitalist Corporations afterwards and use that information to confirm we completed the mission.”

“That’s only if the Capitalist Corporations go along with that.”

“We just need to create a situation where they have to.” 

A different signal came in over Quenser’s radio.

He could hear a jet engine far, far above. The radio transmission was coming from there.

“This is Burning Alpha. We could scatter landmines around Amazon City to block their escape. We can drop them from the sky at any time.”

“I appreciate the suggestion, but no. I don’t want to contaminate our own land with mines. That would create a dangerous land that threatens to blow off someone’s leg even 50 years from now,” replied Froleytia.

“These are smart mines, so they can be detonated remotely.”

“If you can guarantee that not even one of those safety devices will fail, I will give approval. However, if one of them does fail, your unit will be plowing those fields. Do you still recommend this, Burning Alpha?”

“Don’t joke. Our job is to fly through the sky. We’re not used to trudging through the mud.”

Quenser looked up at the contrail overhead.

“Is the assault landing aircraft carrier helping out too?” he asked.

“Everyone is desperate to make sure the damaged Object can function. I thought Objects were synonymous with war. Did we find our way back to a war from a few decades ago?” complained Heivia.

Meanwhile, the texture of the ground changed. Instead of the soft, wet humus, they were now walking on a cracked asphalt road. They had made it to one of the countless roads that connected to the ruins of Amazon City that had been swallowed up by the jungle.

They were near the city that would be the battlefield.

Heivia frowned and looked up for no real reason.

“Wait, are we just going in? Isn’t the Object going to blow away the buildings in the way first? We have no idea how many enemies there are in these buildings.”

“They can’t hide an Object in them though. We can ignore anything that can’t,” replied Froleytia coolly. “The princess’s Object was damaged in the battle against the Break Carrier and her railgun and coilgun shells have not been replenished. We want to avoid any unnecessary firing. And only a high power attack from another Object can damage it. It won’t be destroyed from a portable missile fired from a window.”

“…We’re in trouble, Heivia. It doesn’t look like they’re thinking about any protection for soldiers like us,” said Quenser with a sigh.

At the same time, he heard a great roar as many trees were knocked over.

He turned around to see a giant mass of steel approaching from behind. It was the Baby Magnum.

“Seriously? Let’s just destroy the entire environment here, why don’t we?”

“This is a lot more ecological than when they practiced slash-and-burn farming.”

Their field of vision was opening up.

They had entered the ruins of Amazon City.

Quenser and Heivia were standing on a surface covered in gray asphalt and concrete. However, the artificial ground had giant cracks running through it and trees were growing through those gaps in the center of the road. Most of the windows on the buildings were gone and plenty of the buildings were leaning. The traffic lights and streetlights were of course not lit. The rusty street signs were so worn down it was impossible to tell what had been written on them.

The one other noticeable characteristic was….

“This is a damn wide road. It has 3 lanes on each side, but it looks 80 meters across overall. I think the road takes up more area than the buildings,” muttered Quenser.

Heivia replied offhandedly, “The main street was probably designed to accommodate a parade featuring an Object.”

Looking up, Quenser could see power lines running high in the sky between building rooftops. The power network was likely constructed from a combination of underground cables and those high cables so as to not get in the way of an Object parade. The subway and water system may have been set up to not pass below the main street for that same reason.

Half in shock, Quenser said, “It is true that a lot of large cities in safe countries are designed for those ridiculous parades, but it isn’t normal to keep that width for the roads other than the main street.”

“This city was made for jungle mining. They needed the roads to be wide and durable enough to allow the large machinery to pass smoothly through.”

“Hmm. The dump trucks for that kind of thing are as tall as a school building, right?”

“Yeah, the driver needs to climb a staircase to get in.”

Suddenly, they heard distant gunshots ringing through the blue sky. As if lured out by those gunshots, more gunshots followed. If they focused, they could notice a vague difference in the pitch of the gunshots.

Two different forces were firing at each other.

Heivia reached for the switch for his rifle’s sensors and said, “So it’s begun.”

“The princess is nearby too, so I guess we don’t really need to try so hard to remain so covert.”

Quenser and Heivia were not in the middle of the road. They were slowly moving along while keeping next to a pile of rubble a few meters tall that had likely once been a building wall. They were watching their surroundings closely as they advanced.

“What do you think?”

“We can probably ignore anything from above. As Froleytia said, I doubt there are any weapons that can critically damage an Object.”

“But those spare cannons that attacked us in Antarctica and on the Iguazu coast were railguns meant to be used on Objects. So…”

“Yeah, and they’re meant to be attached to a 200,000 ton Object when fired. When attached to the ground, you need to put an anchor over 10 meters deep into the ground to fix them in place. If you attached them to the floors of these rundown buildings, they’d knock the entire building over when fired.”

“Understood. So we just need to worry about snipers in a window while we search for any spare cannons on the ground.”

At that point, the princess contacted them over the radio.

“Quenser, Heivia, plug your ears.”

“?”

“I have received an order to assist with a bombardment. If you do not hurry up, your eardrums will be blown out.”

“God dammit!!” the two idiots shouted.

They did not only plug their ears, but also leaped down to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a tremendous noise and shockwave rushed toward them.

A coilgun shell ripped through a few buildings ahead and flew off into the distance. It was one of the smaller cannons on the Object, but the word “small” only applied when talking on the scale of that monstrosity of a weapon.

Quenser got up within a cloud of dust and coughed.

“Cough, cough. Dammit, I think that kind of assistance is as dangerous as the enemy…”

“I-I’d certainly want to get 100 to 200 meters away from where it hits at the very, very least.”

That was the strength of a unit with an Object.

The strength of those foot soldiers was not just the assault rifles they held. As long as they could call in the coordinates, the Object could blow away the target with pinpoint accuracy. They were merely borrowing the power of the Object, but there was still nothing more frightening for their enemies.

Quenser looked around the area and said, “It’s possible there are hidden enemy soldiers or spare cannons around here. And now we have to be careful to make sure our own Object doesn’t blow us away with that shockwave. …Dammit. What ever happened to leaving war to the Objects?”

Froleytia’s voice then came from his radio.

“Those spare cannons are relatively small when it comes to Object armaments. They aren’t main cannon class, so I doubt they can shoot through an Object’s armor. You do not need to be on the lookout for them.”

“Then remind me why we’re out here again.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that the Baby Magnum is damaged? One of the damaged areas is the propulsion device. Right now, it is possible the Baby Magnum cannot move across excessively tall piles of rubble. If that happens, the combat engineers are needed. You need to use your explosives to blow away those shackles as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, the princess’s Object had entered the city. The main street had been constructed to accommodate an Object parade, but the street signs and traffic lights would likely have been removed beforehand. They did not have time for that at the moment. The Baby Magnum simply smashed those obstacles as it advanced.

Heivia had been speaking over his radio, but he now turned to Quenser.

“It seems the others have entered the city from different points. We’re going to head inwards, slowly tightening the circle, until we have searched our way to the center of the city. The frequency of gunshots will likely increase as times goes on.”

“What exactly are we going to do? Are we going to head into each and every building to search for enemies?”

“First, we’ll destroy their transportation.” Heivia shrugged. “With 500 people, the enemy is on the level of a company. It can’t be easy to transport all of them. They must have a large convoy somewhere, so we just have to blow that up. That way, they can’t escape these ruins. We can take our time searching them out then.”

Quenser looked up at the contrails overhead.

“Can’t they find that from the sky? Y’know, using satellites or fighters.”

Even then, the delta-winged fighters flying through the blue sky were dropping large bombs into the middle of the ruins. Low rumbles were passing below Quenser and Heivia’s feet.

“It isn’t that easy,” said Froleytia over the radio in an annoyed voice. “The satellite confirmed a large group of vehicles entered an underground parking garage in the middle of the city, but there is no guarantee there are no other vehicles. They might have additional transportation hidden ahead of time in a different underground parking garage.”

“So we need to start searching any underground areas?”

“You should also check any abandoned vehicles you come across. They might merely be disguised to look abandoned and Sladder Honeysuckle could escape using one.”

Multiple gunshots sounded in the distance.

There was no combat occurring near Quenser and Heivia, but that may have been because no enemy soldiers had been in the area by mere coincidence or because they had left formation to distance themselves from Baby Magnum.

“If Honeysuckle suggested that plan when they’re cornered, wouldn’t he just end up being ganged up on by the others? We see Honeysuckle as an important figure we must not let escape, but would they really see that as a means of victory? What the Mass Driver conglomerate wants is a safe place to head to. If they were putting their lives on the line and then their commander headed for the goal on his own, I doubt the others would accept just being cast aside.”

“Quenser, let me tell you something. It does not matter what they think,” replied Froleytia with a short sigh. “We just need to achieve our own objective. Even if Honeysuckle was truly thinking of a means for world peace, we would shoot him and call it a day. All of this has surely led them to resent us. If they gain power once more, the odds are good they will turn their sights on the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

“Yes, yes. Our cool, beautiful commander is frightening,” said Heivia casually with a twisted smile on his face as gunshots and explosions sounded in the distance.

But then…

“…”

“?”

The two of them came to a stop.

The path before them had turned black. It began about 20 meters ahead. At first they thought some past earthquake had ripped up the asphalt and exposed the black soil beneath. However, they realized they were wrong as they approached.

Something like black tar was flowing from the entrance to a building on the side of the road…or so it looked. The black stain was flowing thin and wide so that it covered the entire width of that large runway-like road.

Yes.

That was what it looked like, but…

“Are you kidding me…?” groaned Heivia.

When they looked closely, it became clear it was not a black liquid that was spreading out. Many, many small objects were crawling up and down. Someone who watched some of the more unusual documentaries might recognize what the collection of tens if not hundreds of thousands of small black objects was.

It was a swarm of army ants.

Quenser and Heivia both quickly moved instinctually back away from it. The great number of small bugs caused a physiological revulsion inside them and the smattering of knowledge they had caused fear to well up within them.

“Wait just a second! Aren’t these those things that move in groups of tens of thousands and will swarm over any cows or pigs nearby and eat them!?”

“That’s the Amazon for you. Nature is on an entirely different level here!!” shouted back Heivia as his eyes raced about the area.

He had no intention of charging into an area that had been taken over by the army ants. He was hoping to find a side road to head down, but…

He heard a rustling sound like a plastic bag being balled up.

It was the sound of a large tree growing near the two boys falling over so as to block the path back. The inside of the tree had been entirely rotten, but the confusion of branches growing out from it created natural intercrossing bars to block their escape. It was too thick for them to climb over or crawl through.

Heivia’s eyes opened wide.

“Shit!! What the hell is going on!? That thing was sticking up through the asphalt just a second ago!!”

“It might have just been barely standing and the shockwave of the princess’s bombardment shook it a little too much…”

At any rate, they could not fall back any further than 30 meters.

The roads in the ruins of Amazon City were quite wide, but the giant tree was half broken so that it formed a V-shape on the asphalt. Between the building walls and the remains of the giant tree, Quenser and Heivia were completely trapped. Their one escape was through the area controlled by the army ants.

Quenser tapped Heivia on the shoulder as he stared at the swarm of insects.

“This is bad! If we don’t do something soon, we’ll be part of the ant and the grasshopper’s winter reserves!!”

“What exactly do you suggest we do!? If I tried shooting that group of tens of thousands, I’d run out of ammo in no time at all. And if we tried stomping on them with our boots, they’d probably just climb up our legs and counterattack!!”

Quenser pointed at the object attached to the end of Heivia’s rifle.

“How about you use that insecticide you have there?”

“Oh!! I did supply myself with this special item, didn’t I!?”

Heivia must have completely forgotten he had it, but now he finally held up his rifle. He pulled the trigger of the insecticide attached like a bayonet.

The swarm of army ants had already approached about 10 meters.

The cloud of insecticide forcefully struck them. Instead of spreading out like a spray, the insecticide flew in a direct trajectory like a powerful water gun. Quenser optimistically thought about how it could be used to blind an enemy temporarily.

But then…

“Gyahh!? The insecticide just sent the army ants on a desperate rampage our way!”

“Get back, you idiot! We need to get some distance!! If they catch up to us, we’ll be bitten all over!!”

While fleeing with Heivia, Quenser frantically shouted into his radio.

“Baby Magnum! Can you fry these ants with a small laser beam or something!?”

“I can, but…”

“Then hurry! Do it now!!”

“If I fire it at the ground that near you, the light will make the light from welding look like nothing. Most likely, the two of you will be permanently blinded.”

“Agh, dammit!! So we’re blocked at every turn!!”

“Y’know, this is a pretty lame war we’re fighting if we’re about to be killed by ants!!” shouted Heivia as he sprayed about the water gun-like insecticide.

Quenser looked at a nearby building and said, “What do we do!? Should we head upstairs in a building and wait for them to pass!?”

“Didn’t the ant colony come from within one of those buildings!? And if the ants happen to head inside the building we flee into, we’ll be cornered eventually!!”

Quenser recalled the feeling of the bag he wore on his back. It was possible he could throw a plastic explosive and blow them away.

(But could I really take out all of those tens of thousands of ants? I could probably blow away a portion of them, but…)

At that point, Quenser reached for the smoke bombs inside Heivia’s uniform. The sudden action surprised Heivia.

“Kyahh, pervert! What are you doing, you molester!!”

“You still have the mental leeway to joke, Heivia? ...Anyway!! Hand over smoke grenades and smoke bombs for contacting helicopters!! Just hand over everything that emits smoke!!”

“What, why? How are you going to target the smoke toward them?”

Without responding, Quenser pulled the pins out of the drink can-sized objects and threw them one after another.

In shock, Heivia shouted, “You really suck, you know that!? Half of those didn’t even land in the ant colony! And the smoke’ll head up, so it’ll barely affect the ants crawling on the ground!!”

“This is fine.”

Quenser hurriedly reached for the Hand Axe plastic explosives in his bag, carefully adjusted the amount, and stabbed an electric fuse into it. This time he threw the mass straight up. It flew up a few dozen meters.

“And now a bomb?”

“This is to make sure that smoke doesn’t go to waste.”

Heivia frowned in confusion and Quenser hit the switch on his radio.

The Hand Axe detonated in midair.

The smoke that had flown high into the sky was slammed back to the ground.

It was like a giant fist had dropped down on top of it.

Depending on the model, the smoke grenades and smoke bombs let out white, red, yellow, and other colors of smoke. All those colors dropped back to the ground at once as if struck by that giant hand. When they struck the ground, they spread out in every direction.

The many ants panicked and tried to scatter in every direction, but they did not have enough time. After about 180 seconds in the smoke, they lost their momentum, started only twitching, and finally stopped moving altogether.

“…Ow… If that had just been a normal blast, you wouldn’t have been able to tell how much explosive was used.”

“Hey, Quenser. Are those things really dead? They’re not just playing dead, right?”

“How about you use that insecticide to check?”

Heivia cautiously sprayed the insecticide from a distance, but he got no response. The two boys finally breathed a sigh of relief, but they still didn’t enjoy the prospect of walking through that swarm of ants. They kept as far away from the middle as they could. In other words, they timidly headed across the carpet of dead ants while pressed up against the side of a building.

After crossing that carpet of ant corpses, Heivia looked around.

“We need to hurry. The Mass Driver conglomerate will head here to check on that explosion and the smoke. Even if a firefight is inevitable, I’d rather not be surrounded. We can at least leave a bomb or some kind of trap, though.”

“…No, look at that.”

“What is it?”

Heivia looked puzzled, but Quenser pointed inside a window of one of the buildings.

“Aren’t those Mass Driver conglomerate soldiers that are collapsed there? See, they’ve been bitten all over and have swollen up.”

“Seriously? …I guess that explains why we were the only ones to avoid a firefight.”

“War really can be pretty lame sometimes.”