Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 7===

Soldiers who had been taken out by the army ants were collapsed here and there.

It seemed they had been in the middle of setting up a gun platform hidden behind a building. One of the spare Object railguns and a crane equipped with a boring device for driving the 10 meter+ anchor into the ground were left with the work half complete.

In shock, Heivia muttered, “Were they so focused on their work that they didn’t notice the ants drawing near?”

Even on a battlefield ruled by Objects, soldiers would check their surroundings. However, they would focus on the routes by which people could approach. If a swarm of army ants suddenly came pouring out of a manhole directly below the equipment, that would easily slip through a gap in their guard.

Heivia crouched down and peered at one of the convulsing soldiers.

A bite from a mosquito would cause a slight swelling. The soldiers had similar marks covering their entire bodies two or three times over. The small ants had bitten them again and again. Even so, they had been fortunate enough to not have run across the types of army ants that would eat them down to the bone.

Quenser counted the soldiers.

“…It looks like they’re still alive. What should we do?”

“Tie them up and abandon them.” Heivia replied offhand. “If they don’t intend to fight, we can just leave them alone. I’d rather not go through and shoot mostly incapacitated people one by one.”

“Well, I doubt they would be able to fight even if fellow Mass Driver conglomerate soldiers found them, cut their ropes, and give them guns.”

“But I see no reason to worry too much about the possibility of some other animal or insect coming by and biting them while they’re tied up.”

“…Can’t we treat them or rescue them?”

“After it’s all over, we can come back to pick them up if we remember,” said Heivia as he looked around. “But this is strange.”

“What is?”

“Hasn’t the Mass Driver conglomerate backed themselves into a corner?” Heivia pointed at the partially set up spare railgun. “There’s no advantage for them in setting up something like this and trying to hold out here. The longer they spend here, the more time the Legitimacy Kingdom has to send in more Objects. Even if they have a second Object, this strategy will only shorten their lives.”

“Come to think of it…they are doing this backwards. What they want is a way of escaping, not a way of putting up a fight in a single spot. In fact, what did they come to the ruins of Amazon City for in the first place?” Quenser thought for a second. “What if we assume they are sticking with the original plan of escaping?”

“But they’re setting up these spare cannons to put up a final fight to the end. And even if they try to sneak away, the military satellites will see them. Then we just have to send an Object after them. …What are we doing running around on our own two legs?”

“Maybe there is some route the satellites can’t see. That would be a problem.”

“Ahn?” Heivia looked puzzled, but Quenser pointed down at the ground.

“The subway.”

“…You’re kidding…”

“Amazon City was originally created to be a large city. They must have put some effort into the transportation network. It wouldn’t be surprising if there was a direct subway connection to some other city.”

“Wait, wait, wait! So they’re setting up these spare cannons to….!?”

“To buy time! While we’re panicking up here, the Mass Driver conglomerate is going to try to flee through some long tunnel!!”

Quenser pulled out some of the Hand Axe plastic explosive and looked around the area. He quickly found a stairway leading down to the subway. He had no idea if he could make it in time, but he had to destroy that subway line.

“Hey, Amazon City was a large city meant for a million people. The subway has to run all over the place like a spider web, right!?”

“In the city, yes. But there will only be so many lines connecting to other cities. Most likely, there are only 2 or 3	! Heivia, you get on the network and find a subway map from when the city was occupied!!”

“Dammit, this has gotten to be a real pain in the ass!!”

Heivia frantically tried to contact Froleytia, but he also kicked an assault rifle lying on the ground at the same time. It had belonged to one of the Mass Driver conglomerate soldiers who had been taken out by the army ants.

Heivia froze in place when he saw the magazine come out from the impact.

“What is it, Heivia?”

“Um…The Mass Driver conglomerate is a Capitalist Corporations organization, right? They should be getting their weapons from there, right?” As he spoke, Heivia poked at the magazine with his foot. “But these are 7.62mm bullets from the Spear Rifle Company. Isn’t that Information Alliance ammo?”

As Heivia was muttering that, a transmission came in from Froleytia.

“All units, hurry up in this pursuit!! The situation has begun to change. If we do not take out Sladder Honeysuckle right away, the flames of war could spread!!”

“Froleytia?” Quenser looked confused, but then he recalled what he had to do. “I know how Honeysuckle and the others are going to escape. Most likely, they’re using the subway tunnels! They’re setting up spare cannons around the city to buy time while they use the subway to escape while hidden from the satellites!!”

“Sorry, but that’s wrong, Quenser. This isn’t going to be so easy,” replied Froleytia without a second’s delay. “The Mass Driver conglomerate hopes to defect to the Information Alliance. If we do nothing, the Information Alliance will advance into the Amazon district in order to ‘rescue those who wish to seek refuge’. Apparently, the defection has already been officially recognized. In their opinion, it is wrong for Honeysuckle to not be with the Information Alliance.”

“You mean…”

“They really do intend to put up their final fight here!! If we do nothing, the Information Alliance will be here with an Object and all its strength as a world power, so they just have to hold out until then!! Dammit! It really is a simple plan on their part!!”

“That’s crazy…” groaned Heivia.

Protecting refugees who had already safely crossed the national border was one thing, but Quenser had never heard of a country crossing national borders like this to rescue someone who technically belonged to an enemy nation. If this kind of thing was permissible, national boundaries would lose all meaning.

But…

“Heivia, you saw how they used their Object, right? They must really want that technology. And the Legitimacy Kingdom and Information Alliance are already in conflict. If things between us are so bad they can hardly get worse, advancing into one of our countries isn’t completely out of the question for them.”

“That’s right, Quenser,” said Froleytia. “Also, the Capitalist Corporations fear their Object technology will be leaked to the Information Alliance if Honeysuckle defects. If the Information Alliance military does advance into the Amazon district, the Capitalist Corporations military is prepared to send an Object of their own into the Amazon district to stop this defection at all costs.”

“Seriously? This was bad enough with just two sides!” Heivia shouted.

If what Froleytia said was true, the Amazon district could turn into a hell in which Objects from four different forces clashed: The Legitimacy Kingdom, the Information Alliance, the Capitalist Corporations, and the Mass Driver conglomerate. Only ruins were left of Amazon City, but it was possible everything within those national boundaries could be swallowed up by a storm of destruction if the flames of war spread. This would of course affect the civilians as well as the soldiers.

Quenser frantically opened his mouth. “I-if that happens, how many Objects will there be here!? Will we get reinforcements!? Will we gather all our Objects in the Amazon district!?”

“They’re all either tied up in other operations or undergoing maintenance. Either way, this is not a situation where we can count on reinforcements. If we had Objects to spare, we would not have used the princess’s Object in its damaged state.”

“Could this be any worse…?” muttered Heivia.

Froleytia must have agreed because her tone was one of annoyance.

“That’s why we need to crush Honeysuckle as quickly as possible so we can end this on our own. If the Mass Driver conglomerate is completely destroyed, the Information Alliance will lose its reason to interfere. That will in turn take away the Capitalist Corporations’ reason. If we can’t do that, we will be the ones cornered. You know what condition the Baby Magnum is in, right?”

“Dammit. This is bad, Quenser,” groaned Heivia.

The princess’s Object had been heavily damaged in the battle with the Break Carrier. And it had been sent here before receiving proper repairs. It was more than enough firepower to take care of the remnants of the conglomerate, but not so much when it came to a clash against cutting edge Objects sent in by other world powers. If her Object was at 100%, the outcome would have been unknown, but it was obvious what would happen in this damaged state.

Quenser felt like his vision was going dark, but he forced his dizzy head to start working again.

“Froleytia, what’s the time limit? Do we know how long we have until the Information Alliance military is coming?”

“We don’t have any real information on their timetable. However, they have no reason to wait around. If it was me, I would head out as soon as possible. The satellites have confirmed the Information Alliance is constructing temporary prefab buildings on the border of our Amazon district and their Parima district. That is likely their Object’s maintenance base zone. Once that is complete, they will likely send their cutting edge Object across the border.” Froleytia must have been tapping her fingers on her desk because a slight tapping noise could be heard as she carefully chose her words. “The base zone will likely be complete in 2 hours. If we do not crush the Mass Driver conglomerate and kill Sladder Honeysuckle in that time, both the Information Alliance and the Capitalist Corporations will invade.”

“Shit!!” swore Heivia. “If the Mass Driver conglomerate has a second Object hidden somewhere, our odds would normally be 50/50 at best! But now that we have to rush this, we could make a fatal mistake!!”

“Hey, Heivia. Since they were going to use a spare railgun here, that means they have an Object to power it, right?” Quenser checked around the partially set up railgun. “If we follow the power cable, we might find the Object.”

“Well, we need to hurry it up. Even if we find their Object, who knows if we can deal with it in such a short time!!”

However, that work was rendered needless.

They heard a heavy explosion in the distance. The low rumbling resounded deep in their guts as, a few kilometers away, gray dust shot up behind the intervening buildings.

“Wh-what!?”

“Quenser, Heivia!” shouted Froleytia. “Get away from there!! The Mass Driver conglomerate has made its move! They’ve used explosives to blow a huge hole in the roof of the underground mall!!”

“What…?”

Heivia was confused, but Quenser pulled out his handheld device and called up the satellite map. Quenser was left speechless, so he could not explain what he was seeing, but Froleytia’s pressured voice continued from the radio.

“They’re doing the same thing as in Antarctica or on the Iguazu district coast. It’s a spare Object cannon. But this one is different! They’re using a spare of the high power railgun used as the Break Carrier’s main cannon!!”

“…!!”

The two boys were frozen in shock.

That demonic cannon had pierced straight through an Object in a single shot from 500 kilometers away. If that was fired, the princess’s Object could be taken out instantly, not to mention the soldiers like Quenser and Heivia.

“What do we do, Quenser!?”

“We can still make it in time…” Quenser grabbed his radio while frantically keeping in mind the map that was about to disappear. “Baby Magnum!! The cannon is just over 3000 meters away! That’s well within range of your main cannons! Take it out before it takes you out!!”

She must have been thinking the same thing because the princess immediately took action.

Several buildings stood between the Baby Magnum and the high power railgun. Even if the princess fired a main cannon there, the obstacles would very likely alter the trajectory of her shots. However, the Break Carrier’s main cannon held enough destructive force to fly in a straight line while ignoring the obstacles.

She could not do it there.

The princess came to that conclusion and then began moving her Object in a sideward slide. She was moving in a large circle with her target in the center. Once she reached the straight highway, there would be no obstacles. If she fired her low-stability plasma cannons or something then, she could finish it off.

But…

“…!?”

A gasp came from the princess over the radio.

Either due to the Object’s sudden movement or due to natural deterioration, one of the nearby buildings had suddenly fallen over. Quenser and Heivia frantically fled into a back alley to avoid getting hit by the debris. The 10 story building had broken in half at the center and fallen into the road. The mountain of concrete acted as a giant barricade.

A tsunami of dust swallowed up Quenser and Heivia a few seconds later.

“Ugh…cough!? Heivia, Heivia!?”

“Quenser, don’t move!!”

Quenser could not see, but he could tell Heivia’s voice was coming from an unnatural direction.

It was coming from directly below.

“The shock of the building collapsing caused the back alley to collapse. If you aren’t careful, you’ll be headed straight to the underground mall!!” From the sound of Heivia’s voice, he likely had not received any serious injuries in the fall. “I can’t climb back up from here. I’ll search for a different exit, so don’t you die before we can meet up again!!”

He said nothing more.

Most likely, he had left just as he had said he would.

Quenser was worried about Heivia, but he had other concerns. He altered his focus and spoke into his radio.

“Cough, cough. Baby Magnum! How are things on your end!?”

“I cannot get over the rubble!! At this rate…!!”

As he listened to the princess’s bitter voice, the dust finally cleared up. While paying careful attention to his footing, Quenser ran out. As he headed for the Baby Magnum, he pulled out some Hand Axe plastic explosive, but he stopped moving before he could stab the electric fuse in.

It was too much.

The mountain of concrete blocking the road was nearly 10 meters tall. With that much, a single combat engineer did not have enough explosives to blow it all up.

“Baby Magnum! Can you blow away the wreckage with your main cannons!?”

“Not from here…!”

“Then try moving back a bit and-…!!”

Having realized something, Quenser trailed off.

The Baby Magnum’s propulsion device was primarily located on a reverse Y-shaped part extending below the spherical main body. The bottom of that part produced massive amounts of static electricity to make the giant Object hover. Then laser reflection was used to rapidly expand the air and move it forward. However…

“Shit. Are the ‘legs’ trapped in the rubble!?”

“Quenser, you don’t have to blow it all up. Could you just take care of the rubble that is keeping me from moving?”

“I’ll try!!”

Quenser looked up at the rubble that had piled up like a mountain. It did indeed seem simpler to use the explosives rather than trying to move the rubble. However, there was no guarantee that it would free the Baby Magnum. It was possible that removing that portion of the rubble would only cause more to slide down and trap it once more.

All the while, the Mass Driver conglomerate high power railgun would be rotating its barrel their way.

Quenser grabbed at the rubble that looked like a stone wall destroyed in an earthquake.

“What will you do once you get your ‘legs’ out of this rubble!? Can you go around another way!?”

“There are not many paths large enough for an Object, so I would have to go well out of my way…!!”

“Shit,” swore Quenser as he tried to climb up to a spot where he could set up a bomb. To blow away the rubble holding down the reverse Y-shaped propulsion device, he had to climb up over 7 meters.

However, he could not do it.

The mountain of rubble was not a single piece of rock like the cliffs rock climbers loved. The concrete he grabbed as a handhold crumbled and Quenser fell back down to the road.

“Quenser!!”

“Dammit. Would it be faster to just throw the bomb up there!?”

The destructive power of a bomb changed depending on how it was set up. To destroy such a large amount of rubble, it would be more effective to bury the bomb in the rubble than to just place the bomb on top. He was unsure if he even had enough to blow it all away under the best conditions, so he could not be negligent in how he used the explosives.

“Quenser go into the building to your left. It would be quickest if you climbed onto a protrusion of the rubble from a 3rd story window and then climbed down!”

“Shit. Do I have time to do that!?”

Quenser got up and ran into the building as he gritted his teeth. There was a large area inside. The first few floors created an atrium.

And then he was left speechless once more.

He could of course not use the elevator, but the escalator used in place of stairs had crumbled partway up. He could not reach the third floor.

(Is there…Is there an emergency staircase somewhere!?)

Quenser looked around, but he was in such a rush that he found nothing.

Three thousand meters away, the Mass Driver conglomerate Object might have been beginning to send out its targeting signal.

But then…

“This is Burning Alpha calling Baby Magnum. From what I can hear, you seem to be in trouble. I have a 500 kilo bomb here, so do you need me to drop it on top of that rubble?”

Quenser was left in shock at that transmission from the fighter flying through the sky.

It would be great if he could use that huge bomb, but in all likelihood he could not. The odds were good he would be shot down by the Mass Driver conglomerate’s anti-aircraft fire before he was able to drop the bomb.

Quenser frantically grabbed his radio and said, “Burning Alpha! A spare Object cannon has been confirmed to be operational in the ruins of Amazon City!! They likely have anti-air lasers, too! Get out of here! If you fly in here, you’ll be shot down in no time at all!!”

“I know that, baby!” The fighter pilot smiled as he replied to Quenser. “That just means I have to choose a course that won’t let it get a lock.”