HEAVY OBJECT:ShortStory1
Status: Incomplete
Sandy Short Program >> Second Oceanian Struggle
Part 1
There was a country known as Oceania.
It was famous for its koalas and kangaroos.
A military nation had suddenly risen there several decades before and that dictatorship had continued until very recently, but the intervention of an international coalition force had brought the age of those rulers to an end. The dark military which had spread fear among the people could no longer threaten the lives of all who lived there.
It was a perfect example of love and peace.
The countries which had previously been fighting each other had formed a coalition force and attacked a single evil. The good of mankind had protected the smiles of Oceania’s people and built the bridge leading to new hopes and dreams!
However…
“Gwaaaaaaaaah!! Why are we all trying to kill each otherrrrrrrrrr!!?”
Quenser gathered strength in the depths of his gut to shout out as loud as he could while rolling across the desert sand.
He was a boy with silky blond hair, but his sex was hard to tell from his appearance. The impression he gave could change 180 degrees depending on whether he was wearing pants or a skirt.
Incidentally, there was a reason he was rolling.
The sandy ground was not perfectly flat. It had large ups and downs like the ocean surface on a wavy day. Quenser had wished to use the landscape itself to hide from his enemy, so he was rolling down one of those downward sloping hills.
Yes.
War had broken out in Oceania once more. And of all things, it was a dispute between the supposed allies of the coalition force. Otherwise, there would have been no reason to become so covered in sand as he hid behind cover.
However, he was not sure how effective hiding would be.
The enemy army’s electronic equipment included several extremely sensitive sensors, but there was another extremely simple reason why this cover might not be effective.
The weapon Quenser was up against was over 50 meters tall.
It was a colossal weapon known as an Object.
Its reactor was cleaner and more powerful than a nuclear reactor and its spherical main body was covered by walls as thick as a nuclear shelter’s. Over 100 different cannons both large and small extended in every direction from that main body. The Object looked less like a smart weapon that was equipped with the optimal equipment for the job and more like a bizarre machine that had gathered every weapon its designer could think of. Gathering 100 tanks would not be enough to defeat it. Even after a direct hit from a nuclear missile or two, that monstrous weapon would continue to move as its body melted like ice cream.
Naturally, a giant Object’s line of sight was overwhelmingly higher than a human’s.
The sand dunes that looked like cover from the ground might leave him completely exposed from a higher angle.
However…
(Even if it’s only a 1% chance or less, I have to try everything I can to survive!! This isn’t an opponent I can stand still and hope for the best with!!)
After he finally finished rolling down the sand dune, Quenser lay on the ground while covered in sand. The sand was quite hot from the powerful sunbeams beating down on it, but this was no time to worry about that.
The one piece of luck was that Quenser was not the enemy Object’s top priority.
Quenser’s side had an Object, too.
In fact, he and his comrades’ entire reason for existing was to ensure the battlefield was in the best possible condition for their Object.
For that reason, the actual battle was fought between the two Objects.
For the blunt reason of the flesh-and-blood humans being unable to do anything, there was no need to fire on them.
However, this did not mean Quenser and the others were safe.
To repeat: Objects were monsters that measured at over 50 meters. When two of those monsters clashed, the scale was simply too great. The shockwave of firing a shell was enough to blow away the soldiers and one fragment of the armor pieces that were blown off and scattered about was enough to take their lives.
Every soldier on the battlefield had a single thought.
And that thought that Quenser and the others all had was…
(I’m not going to let myself get killed by my ally’s shell or my enemy’s armor!!)
As Quenser trembled and lay on the ground with all his strength, he heard his commander speaking over his radio. Her name was Froleytia, she had long silver hair and huge breasts, and she was obsessed with Japan.
“Continue the operation!! Don’t think you can be paid from the country’s tax money if you do nothing but lie around on the battlefield!! Stand up and support our big-sized princess!! If the Faith Organization Object breaches the defensive line at the ‘castle gate’, this will develop into a long, drawn-out war!!”
“Dammit. I’m going to have nightmares about this,” groaned Quenser as he glared at the enemy Object which was emitting a pressure similar to a great demon god.
(Why are members of the coalition force starting to kill each other?)
As the coalition force, they had all worked together to defeat the villains of the Oceanian military nation.
And now this Object was being used to take the lives of Quenser and his comrades.
“So that’s the Faith Organization’s second generation Object, the Strategic Antenna.”
Part 2
In the first half of the 21st century, the organization known as the United Nations collapsed.
A cynical journalist had once said that the world had turned to stained glass afterwards. A few new alliances were formed and the countries around the world were divided between a few different colors: the Legitimacy Kingdom, the Information Alliance, the Capitalist Corporations, and the Faith Organization.
The Strategic Antenna trying to kill Quenser and his comrades was an Object belonging to one of those world powers, the Faith Organization.
“Hey, Mr. Student! Your arms, legs, and head weren’t blown off, were they!?”
In the confusion of the Object battle, Quenser had been separated from his companion, a boy named Heivia, but he came rolling over from a different sand dune.
Quenser and Heivia were the same age. However, Heivia was a bit more muscular. Compared to Quenser, he wore his military uniform better and the rifle in his hands did not look out of place. However, Heivia was actually an analyst who observed an enemy Object’s actions on radar and sensors to find a means of fighting it using its characteristics and idiosyncrasies.
With sand covering him from the top of his head to the inside of his boots, Heivia spoke in annoyance.
“I wish they would give us a break. The shockwaves alone are going to make me deaf.”
“Speaking of ears, I’ve gotten a lot of sand in mine. Is that bad?”
As they spoke, the Objects continued to fire shells and earthquake-like vibrations ran through the ground. The detailed sand dunes were changing from moment to moment. As the Legitimacy Kingdom Object and the Faith Organization Object continued to carefully change their location and fire at each other, they gradually approached the two boys. Quenser and Heivia were forced to crawl along so as not to be swallowed up by an avalanche of sand. They of course tried to maintain some cover between themselves and their enemy whenever possible.
The mixture of sand and sweat was uncomfortable, but they did not have time to be bothered by it.
Heivia spat some sand out from his mouth and spoke in a displeased tone.
“Did you hear their Object’s name?”
“Strategic Antenna, right?”
“That’s what we call it in the Legitimacy Kingdom military.” A corner of his mouth twisted upwards. “Its official Faith Organization codename is Aphrodite. That’s the goddess of love and beauty!! Supposedly, they arranged the parabolic antennae and cannons to be reminiscent of a ring of blooming flowers!!”
“Wasn’t Aphrodite the goddess that started the Trojan War? …So does that mean the Strategic Antenna’s unit belongs to the Greek mythology area?”
“That’s a pretty big organization even in the religious Faith Organization. And that means they’ll have a pretty good Object at their disposal. As usual, we’re up against a brand new second generation Object,” said Heivia while half spitting out the words. “According to the report from the electronic simulation department, its radars and sensors were given more focus than its cannons. It has various methods to thoroughly jam any signal for 3000 kilometers around it and its own radars and sensors are modified to pinpoint anything’s location even in the middle of that jamming.”
“That explains that high-speed battle,” muttered Quenser in displeasure. “And our princess’s movements were odd, too. If the enemy is using a strategy like that, she probably can’t use any of her mechanical targeting aids. She has to manually target the Strategic Antenna while it moves around that fast.”
“It was originally meant to be used in the mountainous regions of Eastern Europe. I remember hearing something about the cliffs of Mount Olympus. That means this is better than it could be. If that thing was moving around this quickly on steep slopes while using its powerful jamming in a mountainous area that already affects radar signals, it would be almost impossible to find it.”
“…I hate them,” said a sudden girl’s voice from Quenser’s radio.
It was coming from the Legitimacy Kingdom’s Object, the Baby Magnum. It seemed its pilot was chatting while fighting at high speed with the Strategic Antenna.
As a countermeasure to the Strategic Antenna’s jamming, they were using special radios that could open almost 200 ports simultaneously to send and receive data. The partial remnants of the data that managed to penetrate the jamming on each port were compiled by the machine to form a single voice. However, they had no idea how long that would keep working. They were up against an Object that specialized in this after all.
“They pointed at me and called me a whore and slut that is trying to seduce the Greek soldiers.”
“Wow.”
“That isn’t something you should say to a girl. It’s like asking to be slapped.”
Quenser and Heivia began arbitrarily cursing their enemy, but then a stray railgun shell struck the ground a short distance away. The steel shell was over a meter wide and it blew away the sand dunes around it.
A great explosion burst out.
They sensed it more from a vibration over all the skin on their body than they did from a vibration in their eardrums. The great mass of sand they had been using as cover vanished. Just as Quenser felt as if gravity had disappeared, he was thrown almost three meters through the air. It did not matter that the shell had not directly hit them. The side effects were enough to send intense pain through that boy’s body as if he had been punched and to almost rob him of all the oxygen in his body. He collapsed on the sandy ground and desperately tried to suck in air, but the only thing that entered his mouth was the fine-grained sand that had been blasted into the air.
“Ugh, dammit!! If it’s not one thing, it’s another!! Cough cough!?”
He had almost lost his sense of direction in that thick cloud of sand, but he could not stay where he was. While still lying down, Quenser began rolling across the sandy ground toward another sand dune.
The fun of seeing them joking around must have worn off because Froleytia’s angry voice called out to them.
“Have you forgotten what your mission is? If not, repeat it back to me.”
“We have to stop that giant ball!!”
“Yes. Due to the long period of battles, the Faith Organization’s Strategic Antenna has been unable to receive its specialized maintenance for a while now. Its main cannon is the attachCOIL. Now, a question for our student, Quenser. What is a COIL?”
“A chemical oxygen iodine laser!! It’s a traditional laser weapon that has been continually developed as far back as the age of bombers!!”
“The Strategic Antenna uses a combination of an Object reactor and an old-style COIL to create a relatively powerful main cannon. That is the attachCOIL.”
Some might wonder how one could avoid a laser weapon that fires at the speed of light. If one carefully observed the laser main cannon, one could apparently detect minute movements such as the focusing of the lens just before it fired. The princess calculated her evasion timing by watching those pre-firing movements.
“According to the electronic simulation department’s estimations, the Strategic Antenna should be running out of the chemicals it needs to fire that optical weapon. The maintenance for its main cannon must be carried out at the maintenance base near Lake Carnegie 550 kilometers away from here. Our first interception operation carried out on its expected route through the Great Sandy Desert failed. If this second interception operation fails, the Strategic Antenna will almost certainly regain its full ability to fight. …Do you understand how important this is?”
“We do. The problem is that we can’t move no matter how much we understand!! How about you come here and try!? Dammit. Is this really Oceania? Just to be sure, wasn’t Oceania a peaceful country after the war ended!?”
“Quenser, let me give you a piece of advice. No matter how much you complain, you are the one who will be thrown into an even greater hell if this operation fails.”
“I’m only a student sent to the battlefield to learn about Object design!!”
“I am in a good mood today, so I will give you a second piece of advice. Whether you are a baby, an old man, a sickly boy, or an unfortunate heroine, you are a soldier as soon as you stand on the battlefield with a weapon in hand. No one can complain if you kill and no one can complain if you are killed.”
“Dammit!! I thought modern wars were fought between Objects and deadly battles between flesh-and-blood soldiers were a thing of the past!”
“Oh? You seem to have a lot of complaints, Quenser. I am not fond of rebellious subordinates. However, I try to do my best to help obedient subordinates.”
“Then can you at least change into a sexy swimsuit before giving us our orders!? If you do, I’ll be 100 times more motivated!!”
“How could you even tell over the radio?”
“Whether I can see it or not isn’t the issue! What matters is having a woman in a sexy swimsuit giving orders in an overbearing fashion!!”
Froleytia must have gotten fed up with it all because she ended the radio transmission.
Quenser clicked his tongue fairly seriously and glanced around. He found Heivia half buried under a crumbled sand dune and dug the boy out.
“Hey, Heivia! If you’re gonna die, at least be of some use to me first!!”
“Thanks, Quenser. That comment lets me abandon you without guilt if I’m ever in a pinch,” groaned Heivia as he began rechecking the parts of his rifle to make sure they had not been affected by the sand. “When Froleytia had her ass covered in that tight skirt and was pointing at a whiteboard with a pointer, she explained that our main mission is to set up an ambush, right?”
“Right. We have to bury that special ‘floor heater’ in the sand.”
Objects were monstrous weapons that could continue running after receiving a nuclear attack or two. Normal explosives were not enough to handle them.
What Quenser and Heivia were discussing was not a plan to destroy the Strategic Antenna. It was a diversion meant to take away its mobility.
Objects used various different propulsion methods, but the primary method used static electricity. The massive energy produced by the reactor would create a great amount of static electricity below the Object which would allow it to hover above the ground.
In other words, if an electrical mat was placed on the ground that produced enough static electricity to disturb the power used to float the Object, the Object’s movements could be stopped.
The Object sprayed out a large amount of static electricity repellant to more efficiently keep itself afloat, but a substance could be placed on the surface of the mat to neutralize that to a certain extent.
While lying on the sand, Quenser spoke as if confirming something with himself.
“Normally, this strategy would be meaningless. Even if you caught the Object in the trap, it could blow away the ‘floor heater’ with a large caliber railgun or a low-stability plasma cannon. That would free it from the trap instantly.”
Heivia replied in an offhand manner.
“Yeah, Object armor can withstand a nuclear blast. If they need to get rid of a trap at their feet, they could probably use the weaker cannons on the very bottom to blow away the ground itself. No normal trap can strike a fatal blow.”
“But the conditions are different now. If we slip into a blind spot and activate the ‘floor heater’ below the Strategic Antenna’s feet in the middle of this tense Object vs. Object battle, we can stop it for anywhere from a few seconds to a dozen seconds. Our princess can finish it off with a main cannon blast in that time.”
“The problem,” continued Heivia, “is that our wonderful ‘floor heater’ is set up 30 kilometers from here. And it isn’t ready to activate because they counter attacked with everything they had before it was finished!!”
Thirty kilometers through a sandy desert was quite a high hurdle if they had to travel on foot.
“I thought we would have this finished already. Don’t they understand it just makes everything awkward if you show up before the party is ready?”
“Since the fish showed up before we could finish preparing the net, they’re all going to escape. We need to find a way to get that net ready before the battlefield reaches that point.”
“I have an idea,” said Quenser as he wiped sandy sweat from his brow. He pointed in what looked like a random direction. “Do you see that?”
“Eh? You mean that porn magazine someone dropped there?”
“No, not there! Can’t you see the off-road vehicle partially buried in that collapsed dune about 50 meters away!? Do you think we could run over there and get to the fishing area ahead of them?”
“But there’s no cover. I know these sand dunes aren’t much a shield against Object shells, but something is better than nothing. We’ll be filled with holes not even five seconds after we start running out in the open like that. Can’t you see all those Object armor fragments flying everywhere?”
“I thought you would say that, so I’ll suggest another option. Look in the opposite direction. A motorcycle is lying about 300 meters away.”
“It has a fair bit of cover, but that’s a long way. A stray shell could hit us while we make our way there.”
Heivia hid behind a sand dune and looked back and forth between the off-road vehicle and the motorcycle. But he eventually got sick of thinking.
“Let’s decide with a coin toss. Heads is the shorter route to the off-road vehicle.”
He flicked a silver coin a few meters straight up with his thumb.
Would it be heads or tails?
Before the answer arrived, the coin vaporized. A brilliant light similar to welding almost blinded the two boys.
The Strategic Antenna had fired one of its laser beam cannons.
“Okay! That sure as hell wasn’t heads!!”
As soon as Heivia yelled that, he and Quenser began running toward the motorcycle. Soon thereafter, the giant body of an Object cut through, leveling the spot they had been lying in not long before.
