Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 8===

It sounded like someone was shouting his name.

It felt like someone was lightly shaking his body.

The first thought that came to Quenser’s mind was surprise that his eardrums had not burst.

The even more obvious truth that he was alive came a bit later for some odd reason.

“…enser…Wake up, Quenser!!”

“…Uuh.”

He opened his eyes and found Froleytia staring down at him rather than Heivia. Her hair was covered in mud and her always perfect tight military skirt was in complete disorder. A few of the long narrow kanzashi-like hairpins were missing.

“What…happened? …Where’s Heivia?”

“I don’t know.”

“…?”

Quenser was confused as he thought Heivia was right next to him, but then he looked over to the side. He was utterly astounded.

The land was gone.

Just before, that area had been a relatively flat plain, but now the ground had crumbled away, leaving a cliff right in front of him. The newly made pit was over 10 meters deep and a large amount of earth, sand, and rock had crumbled down and piled up below.

The area beyond the cliff had not simply sunk down 10 meters. If so, water from the coastline would have come in and submerged it.

As the area beyond the cliff had sunk, the area Quenser was on had rapidly risen. The ground itself had crumbled.

He had no idea if anyone had been in the area that had collapsed.

It was just as Froleytia had said.

(It hit the base which is about a kilometer from here. If the landscape itself crumbled an entire kilometer away…)

“Wh-what happened to the people in the base…?”

“It would be best not to see.” Froleytia shook her head. “But that isn’t to say it’s some horrible situation where there are bodies smashed to pieces so much you can’t tell how many people were killed, so don’t worry. It was nothing worse than some broken bones. Fortunately we fled into the sturdy base rather than outside.”

“What do you mean…?”

“It was not a direct hit.” Froleytia sighed. “Either there happened to be some damage to the shell or it was a manufacturing error. It must not have been able to withstand the air friction, so it exploded in the air before hitting. Do you know about the meteor that fell in a place called Tunguska? A 100 meter meteor exploded due to air friction before it reached the ground, but the shockwave was enough to wreak havoc on the area. This seems to have been something similar. There would be a crater if it had hit,” explained Froleytia. “Mach 25 is a ridiculous speed, so the heat from friction has to be quite something. A normal metal shell would melt and lose its shape in an instant. Most likely, their shells have some kind of special cooling system inside to prevent the shell from melting. Maybe liquid nitrogen.”

“So did the shell crack due to the extreme change in temperature?”

“Possibly. You can likely tell from the aftermath on the GPS map, but the Mass Driver conglomerate Object actually fired more shells than arrived here. About half of them exploded before reaching us. This main cannon of theirs may be a prototype.”

“…It has that much power without even hitting?”

Quenser felt a chill run down his spine.

Even nothing more than the aftereffects caused destruction on the level of a tactical weapon.

“But the Bright Hopper was destroyed in a single shot from 500 kilometers away. The Baby Magnum was only 50 kilometers away. Shouldn’t it have been easier to hit?”

“It may have just been luck.” Froleytia hesitated for a second. “But we know the enemy’s shells use a high-angle trajectory. They are shot high into the sky so as to aim for their target in a parabolic trajectory. It is possible the shell has to be fired up to a set altitude regardless of the distance to the target. If so, the parabolic arc must be more steeply curved the closer the target is. That may have led to the shells breaking up in midair for the princess.”

It made a certain amount of sense.

But…

“If that’s true, that Object has even less reason to approach. In fact, moving further away would allow it to more safely and more surely destroy the princess.”

“It does not need to use a high-angle trajectory,” replied Froleytia immediately. “The Mass Driver conglomerate cannot be resupplied, so they want to keep this short even if it is more risky. Heading forward and targeting the princess with a direct line of sight will end this much more quickly. Just before the base zone was destroyed, I saw the data on the damage to the princess. She will have difficulty participating in a high speed battle like that, so if an undamaged Object arrives, she will be unable to resist.”

A railgun shell’s speed was directly linked to its power, so the closer the target, the more destruction it could cause. If one of those Mach 25 shells was fired from close range, the princess’s Object would not fare well.

Quenser audibly swallowed.

He recalled the huge explosion from earlier.

“Will she be okay? Even the shockwave from a failed shot is enough of a threat…”

“But that shockwave is not enough to be decisive against an Object that can withstand a nuclear weapon,” said Froleytia. “Since the Mass Driver conglomerate Object has not continued with a second and third wave, its main cannon must have relatively little ammunition. They are on the run, so they may not be able to resupply whenever they want. They want to finish this while they have the advantage and they do not know if a chance like this will come again, so they have no choice but to approach. If they get close enough to take out the princess’s Object, she will not be able to escape.”

Froleytia placed her hand on Quenser’s shoulder.

“I am calling off the mission. I hate to admit it, but we have completely lost our ability to fight. We have no choice but to accept it. From now on, we should focus on evacuating with as few losses as possible. The wounded will be loaded aboard the hydrofoils and escape to the sea. You get aboard one as well. We are retreating for now. We have little chance of winning in this situation. We need to get far away from them and reorganize.”

“…”

“I will search for the missing soldiers up until the very last second. …The princess has not been found either. She is not even responding to our transmissions. I doubt she had ejected from her Object, so she might be trying to fight somewhere, but we cannot locate her via satellite due to the chaff missile.”

“No.” Quenser forced his battered body to speak. “It may be true that we can escape a land-based Object’s direct attacks if we head out to sea, but the assault landing aircraft carriers that will pick us up move so slowly. I doubt we can escape that Object’s main cannon.”

“I know that. It accurately blew away the Bright Hopper at a distance of 500 kilometers. And that was against a Second Generation Object that was moving at hundreds of kilometers per hour. It might be able to hit a slowly moving ship at even greater distances. We have no guarantee that all the shells will break up in midair.”

“Then…”

“I said the injured would head out to sea in the hydrofoils. I never said they would be meeting up with the Charlemagne,” continued Froleytia in a bitter voice. “Since the hydrofoils keep most of the boat above water, they can exceed speeds of 100 kph. If all of them spread out as much as possible, that should keep the losses down to a minimum.”

“But what about the Charlemagne…?”

“Unfortunately, their fleet is not mine to command. They will have to decide what to do for themselves. …A few hydrofoils should be left aboard the ships, so I hope they decide to abandon ship.”

Quenser could tell Froleytia was gritting her teeth a bit.

It was her unit’s fault that the fleet had been brought into such danger. She may have been feeling the weight of that responsibility.

“Luckily, a fleet under the command of the Legitimacy Kingdom flagship Sigmund has been deployed to the Atlantic Ocean about 700 kilometers away for a different mission. I’ll have them retrieve us even if that leaves me in their debt. That is best.”

“Best…? But will even half of us survive that? And we don’t even know if the hydrofoils have enough fuel to make it 700 kilometers…”

“I know it isn’t a pleasant option.” Froleytia scratched at her hair with one hand. “But there are no pleasant options here. This is the best option available to us. If we stay here on land, the Mass Driver conglomerate Object will eventually approach. The best way to escape a land-based Object is to head out to sea. …Even if that leaves a high risk of being sunk.”

A heavy silence fell over the area.

What Froleytia was telling him to do was turning tail and fleeing.

“Can you stand?”

“Ow!! My right ankle…”

Quenser grimaced as he tried to slowly walk. He looked down to find the area around his ankle inflamed and swollen. He could not freely move the joint.

Froleytia crouched down and checked his leg.

“It isn’t broken. It looks like just a sprain.”

“Th-that’s great.”

He could manage to slowly walk while dragging his leg along, but he could hardly run at full speed.

Froleytia silently took Quenser’s arm and wrapped it around her neck to support his weight.

“F-Froleytia?”

“Didn’t I tell you I was searching for the missing soldiers until the last possible moment? You’re one of those.”

It seemed she intended to take him all the way to the hydrofoils at the beach. Not only had he sprained his ankle, but the plain’s ground had been split to the point of creating a huge height difference. The terrain of the beach may have changed considerably from the way Quenser remembered it.

Just as they set off, an electronic tone sounded from Froleytia’s uniform. She pulled out her radio with her free hand and brought it to her ear. Since they were pressed together, Quenser could hear the voice coming from the radio.

It was a female voice he did not recognize.

“This is Corporal Bilany Saronno of the front lines scouting unit of the 52nd Mobile Maintenance Battalion.”

“?”

“She’s at the bottom rungs of Major Halreed Copacabana’s unit. They head to the battlefield before the Object to gather intelligence and set the foundation for the base,” explained Froleytia.

That meant they had been left with nothing to do after the Bright Hopper had been incapacitated. If they had headed to the battlefield first, they might be nearby and hoping to be picked up by an assault landing aircraft carrier.

However, Corporal Bilany’s view betrayed Quenser’s expectations.

“We have managed to contact the Baby Magnum of the 37th. We propose that the most effective means for us to survive is to work together to destroy the Mass Driver conglomerate Object. Unless we do something about that main cannon and its tremendous range and power, we cannot even flee.”

“How is the Baby Magnum and its Elite, Lieutenant Milinda Brantini?” asked Froleytia.

Without hesitation, Bilany replied, “The Object is hidden in between two mountains. We have no idea how effective it will be, but she has predicted the Mass Driver conglomerate’s movements and seems to be planning to keep multiple mountains between them at all times. It seems the predictions were made based on analysis by Private First Class Heivia Winchell.”

“Thank goodness. So both the princess and Heivia are okay for now,” said Quenser in relief.

“Given the emergency situation, I hope you will forgive us for proposing a strategy to Baby Magnum without going through you first. We should have done this earlier, but may we propose the same plan to you, Major Froleytia Capistrano?”

“Go ahead,” Froleytia responded.

“Currently, the damage taken from the enemy railgun has left the Baby Magnum with three of its main cannons unusable and with damage to its propulsion device that will make a high speed battle difficult. As such, we recommend that the Bright Hopper’s standard tactics be used instead of the Baby Magnum’s.”

“You mean targeting the enemy’s feet and then striking with a main cannon once the enemy has been stopped?”

“Yes. But since we do not have the high speed movement expected for such a plan, we will only get one shot. Assume that there will be no way to recover if this fails.” Bilany paused for a second. “The Baby Magnum will hide at the site of an abandoned alpine vegetation mass production plant in the Iguazu district. It can use the ruins of a hemispherical facility used for regulating atmospheric pressure. We have confirmed that it contains enough space for the Baby Magnum. If a low-stability plasma cannon is fired through the wall when the Mass Driver conglomerate Object passes nearby, it can be destroyed.”

“But how are you going to keep it in place? A surprise attack makes these complex and complicated actions less likely to succeed.”

“There is a large dam in the Iguazu district where your unit is deployed, major. Also, we have received no word that the Mass Driver conglomerate Object can travel over water without swapping out parts.”

Quenser had a bad feeling deep in his gut about what was to come.

But before he could say anything, Bilany smoothly continued.

“By destroying the dam, the area downstream will be temporarily submerged. That should be enough to keep a land-based Object in place. If the Baby Magnum fires during that time, the Mass Driver conglomerate Object should be unable to avoid it.”

Froleytia was used to calmly planning and carrying out war strategies, but even her breath caught in her throat.

“…Are you serious?”

“Of course.”

“I cannot approve that method. Destroying the dam will not merely submerge the battlefield. Tens of thousands of civilians downstream would be sacrificed. I cannot have my unit participating in an operation like that!!”

“This is within acceptable bounds. Those are not people of the Legitimacy Kingdom.” Bilany’s tone of voice did not change. “I repeat, destroying the Mass Driver conglomerate Object by any means necessary is our best chance of surviving this. We are at war. I would hope a major who is commanding troops would be more aware of that fact.”

“Dammit!! Either way, the destruction of the dam will be meaningless if the Baby Magnum does not act. What you are doing here will accomplish nothing!!”

“I could say the same thing to you, major. We are carrying out this operation regardless. If you do not want those sacrifices to be in vain, I suggest you have the Baby Magnum play its part. I will contact you again once we have a timetable for the operation.”

With that, Bilany ended the transmission. Froleytia clicked her tongue in aggravation. 

“Tch!! Our best chance of surviving this!? They just want to get revenge for their commander!!”

“She said they proposed this to the princess and Heivia, but did they really agree to this?”

As if to answer Quenser’s question, a different transmission arrived.

“I finally got through to you. I’ve been trying to contact you this whole time, dammit. I don’t know where you ended up passing out, but don’t get blown away where I can’t see you.”

“Heivia?”

“I know this is a bad time, but could I discuss something with you? The Bright Hopper’s unit is forcing some ridiculous proposed plan on us. I honestly don’t know what to do.”

“We’ve already heard about that,” cut in Froleytia. “It’s the plan to destroy the dam, right? As your commander, I order you to take no part in this operation. As originally planned, we will focus on retreating by sea. If the Baby Magnum does nothing, the Mass Driver conglomerate Object cannot be destroyed. Once they realize that, they should realize that destroying the dam is meaningless.”

“…I hope you’re right,” said Heivia in a strained voice “It looks to me like they only want to get back at them for destroying the Bright Hopper. All logic has left their heads. They might blow up the dam regardless of what we do. …Unless someone stops them by force.”

“…”

That was the exact fear Froleytia herself had voiced earlier. She had surely realized Bilany and the others from the front lines scouting unit had lost their cool.

“Hey, Quenser. Back to what I want to discuss. I may be about to ask something crazy of you. Will you hear me out?”

“I was just feeling a desire to have a serious chat about this with you. But it seems there’s not much left to discuss, so I guess I’ll stick with you on this one.”

Quenser and Heivia then spoke at the exact same time as if they had arranged it ahead of time.

“I’ll do something about the dam. However, stopping the dam from being blown up won’t finish this, so can I leave the Mass Driver conglomerate Object to you?” said Heivia.

“I’ll take care of the Object. However, that means I can’t do a thing about the dam, so can you stop the operation to blow it up somehow or other?” said Quenser.

The discussion was over after only 10 seconds.

Ending the transmission, Quenser looked over at Froleytia.

“…Froleytia, I have one request.”

“No, I cannot help you with this.” She immediately cut him off. “The retreat by sea is indeed a poor bet, but your plan is much too reckless. Especially since leaving the Baby Magnum here will give some hope to Bilany Saronno’s group. Also, I cannot think of any real way to destroy the Mass Driver conglomerate Object in this situation and I doubt you can either. I cannot let you do something so reckless.”

“Yes, but…” said Quenser, sounding a bit discouraged.

He then removed his arm from Froleytia’s shoulders. A dull pain ran through his sprained and swollen ankle, but he still took a few steps away from Froleytia.

“Then I really will ask for only one thing. Please report that you did not find me after that bombardment. I am a battlefield student. Whatever I do here will not affect the life of a soldier like you, Froleytia.”

“Quenser, you…”

“Please let me go,” said Quenser as his ankle throbbed with pain. “The only reason I came here was to learn about Objects. This is not my job. But even so, I cannot bear to just retreat. Saronno’s group is planning to blow up that dam no matter what. If the Mass Driver conglomerate Object settles here, we have no idea how much cruelty and violence will occur in this government-less blank area until an Object from some world power arrives to blow it away. We have no idea if any civilians were harmed when those shells broke up in midair. …Someone has to do this, and we are the ones standing here. I don’t know whether I should call it fortunate or misfortunate, but we are here!!”

Froleytia silently listened to his words.

She thought, looked down, chewed on her lip, and then looked away from Quenser.

“No, I can’t go along with that. I am the commander here. I am the one with the authority to give orders.”

“…!!”

Quenser suddenly became intensely aware of the plastic explosives in the bag on his back, but then Froleytia continued speaking.

“I could not find Quenser, so I had no choice but to continue my search. That is what I will go with. I will have the assault landing aircraft carriers ensure all but one of the hydrofoils evacuate. Will that suffice?”

“Froleytia?”

“What can you do with that ankle? If you aren’t at your best here, you’ll be killed,” continued Froleytia with an awkward expression. “Once I have decided to do something, I go all out and take every option into consideration. And if that means I have to act as a crutch for an incompetent subordinate, so be it. In Alaska, Gibraltar, and that Oceanian military nation, you showed your ability to destroy an Object as a flesh-and-blood soldier. I would like to see that skill firsthand.”