Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume2 Chapter 3 (section)

===Part 8===

With the partially set up railgun and the spare Break Carrier main cannon hidden in the underground area prepared, it was highly likely that the anti-air laser beam cannons equipped on Objects were set up in the ruins of Amazon City as well.

Normally, a fighter had no way of resisting anti-air lasers that flew at the speed of light.

The instant after a lock was made with electromagnetic or infrared targeting, the aircraft made of composite materials would explode. The pilot would not even have time to pull the ejection lever.

However, there were a few exceptions to this.

The first was to use jamming devices, chaff, or flares to prevent the Object from getting a lock. Since Objects used multiple methods of gaining a lock, this was not always successful. But with some luck, the fighter could escape for a few seconds or even a few dozen seconds.

The second was to fly at an exceedingly low altitude.

Lasers were made of light. At low altitudes, there was a lot of dust in the air, so the power would often decay and the trajectory would often be thrown slightly off. Above asphalt, the urban heat island phenomenon could even cause mirages, so the odds shot up that the laser would miss its target. However, flying at low altitude was no guarantee of safety, so the fighter usually flew at full speed.

However…

That meant it would be flying at over 1200 kph through a city riddled with countless buildings and complexly crisscrossing power lines.

Staccato Raylong, the Legitimacy Kingdom pilot codenamed Burning Alpha, poured all his concentration into his right hand gripping the control column.

He was only 5 meters off the ground. The shockwave created by flying at supersonic speeds blew away trees growing from the cracks in the city, but Staccato did not have time to notice.

Mach 1 or 1200 kph meant he travelled more than 300 meters every second. As he travelled down the center of the straight highway, he occasionally turned his fighter so that the main wings created a vertical line in order to cut between buildings and occasionally flew beneath rusted pedestrian bridges. All the while, he flew through the ruined city at tremendous speed.

(This is practically suicide.)

A large building drew closer and closer.

The building grew to fill his vision like a giant monster opening its maw to devour him. This time, he could not avoid it.

(Unfortunately, it’s my love for this kind of thing that led me to becoming a pilot!!)

The small delta wing fighter flew straight on.

However, it did not crash.

The building had lost all of its windows, and the fighter flew in at the 4th floor. It flew across that entire floor and back out through a window on the other side.

The small fighter Staccato was piloting was used on assault landing aircraft carriers. The runway it had to land on was 150 meters long. That was about half the length of the runway on old style aircraft carriers. For that reason, the small delta wing fighters Staccato and the other pilots used had several sensors on the bottom to accurately measure the distance to the ground or the runway.

Staccato was using those sensors.

Before flying into the city, he had fired a laser in a completely straight line to confirm he had a straight shot through. That included the path through the building.

However, flying through the building was close to acrobatics because the floor and ceiling drew as close as 50 cm away at the tightest point. He placed his faith in the sensors that drew accurate information on his location from the surroundings shooting by at high speed and boldly charged straight through the empty building without hesitation. If he had not had the piloting skill to control his position down to the millimeter, he would have immediately slammed into the side of the building.

No sane person would have attempted it.

However, Staccato opened the throttle up even more with a savage smile on his lips. He lit the afterburners to truly bring out the fighter’s full speed.

His reason was simple.

(Objects rule the battlefield. There aren’t many places left for fighters to shine.)

As Staccato gathered information from both his vision and from the sensors, he piloted the fighter with frightening accuracy.

(Sometimes, I want to play the lead role!!)

Staccato flew through several empty buildings at supersonic speed and then felt as if his vision had suddenly expanded.

Before him was one of the giant Objects that symbolized war. Below the Object was a veritable mountain of rubble.

Staccato used a fingertip to release the safety on the 500 kilogram bomb.

They would only cross paths for an instant.

Staccato dropped the bomb directly above the rubble, but it felt more like he was placing it in the air than dropping it.