HEAVY OBJECT:Volume17 Chapter 3
Status: Incomplete
2/13 parts completed
Chapter 3: In Search of the New Year >> Mont Blanc Borderline Mopping Up Operation
Part 1
The year was truly at its end.
It was December 31 and they were at Mont Blanc, highest mountain in the Alps.
“Okay, we will be using this snowy mountain for some overnight combat training.”
“You really are trying to kill us, aren’t you!!!???”
The potatoes could not stop complaining in Chamonix, a blank zone at the foot of that famous mountain that had given its name to a kind of cake. However, if they wanted to survive this dangerous night in the mountains, they needed to be a little more observant than that. Major Frolaytia Capistrano had the eyes of a dead fish as she stood on the stage in front of them.
The temperature was currently 0 degrees.
But they must not take that too lightly just because they expected the base of the highest mountain in Alps to be a lot colder. Human beings were creatures who could get hypothermia and die if the temperature inside their ass dropped by just one degree.
In the line of potatoes, Heivia let out a white breath and spoke quietly while shivering.
“What good is having an Island Nation obsessed commander if she won’t let you spend New Year’s curled up below a kotatsu eating soba or something?”
“You hadn’t heard, Heivia? In that crazy country, they climb up a mountain in midwinter just to see the same sun you can see anywhere else in the world and they even swim in the frozen sea in nothing but a loincloth. In that sense, this fits right in.”
“Then she needs to strip down to an Asian thong and jump into a lake around here!! I’ll warm her up afterwards!!”
“Hey, tell her that, not me! You’re scaring me!!”
Those potatoes could get into a fistfight over nothing, but perhaps they had instinctually sensed they would freeze solid if they stayed still.
Frolaytia ignored them and continued on.
As the important commanding officer, she had a thick bulletproof coat that kept her nice and warm.
“The training scenario is to eliminate the armed force occupying Mont Blanc Tunnel, a shortcut between safe countries that passes through Mont Blanc to bypass the rest of Alps. The Aggressors have set up bombs inside the tunnel and are threatening to blow up the tunnel so it caves in if their demands are not met. The tunnel is only 11km long, but without it, you have to take a 200km detour through the Alps. The economic losses during the holiday season would be around 1.5 billion euros, which is worth far more than all of our lives combined. Everyone, attempt this recovery mission with the utmost care.”
From beginning to end, the introduction was just about the last thing they wanted to hear. Why should they care about the economic effect? Their motivation would have been 100 times higher if they were told a tearful little girl or a sexy young wife was being held hostage in the tunnel.
“A helicopter will be sent out to draw the armed force’s attention while our attack team climbs the mountainside from below. The goal of the exercise is to retake the tunnel. Simply killing the enemy is meaningless. Make sure you gather enough information before making your attack. At the very least, you need to work out the type, number, and detonation method of the bombs and secretly neutralize them before the fight begins.”
“What about the Object?”
“The Princess is a poor match for this kind of delicate job and the Baby Magnum is too big to act as a useful threat. Thus, she will be focused on gathering information with her radar and sensors while also keeping our communication lines connected. This is about as deep inside a mountain as you can get in Europe, so don’t expect your radios to work like normal.”
The Princess was silently puffing out her cheeks in obvious displeasure. She may have felt like she was being left out.
But no matter how much they complained, the military obeyed a strict hierarchy. They could not defy Frolaytia’s decisions and this may have been the result of Frolaytia herself being powerless to reject an order from someone further up the chain of command. The 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion was disliked by so many people it was hard to narrow down the list of who might want to harass them like this.
At any rate, they had to get started.
The city of Chamonix was seen as the entranceway to Mont Blanc, but it was already 1000m up. The white mountain they were headed for was over 4800m up, but Quenser and the others were not equipped to climb that far. Mont Blanc Tunnel was a part of the highway system and building it too high up would have been inconvenient.
“The Alps are surprisingly well-maintained for having a bunch of deadly mountains like the Eiger and the Jungfrau. Look, they’ve even got a cable car to the other side of the mountain.”
“The Alps are like the holy land of skiing and mineral water. You need to study up on noble past times, Quenser. Gearing up and skiing down from 3500m up is pretty common around here.”
“Who do you think the Aggressors in the tunnel are?”
“Whoever isn’t with us here. Myonri would be a pretty dangerous option. She doesn’t stand out at all, but she can do pretty much anything other than pilot an Object. You can never predict what she’ll do next.”
A bulky transport helicopter flew by over the two idiots’ heads. A combination of a floodlight and a heavy machinegun was attached next to the slide door. Quenser let out a white breath while looking up at it.
“They sure are taking this exercise seriously. Can’t they use that equipment to take out the Aggressors on their own?”
“In a real battle, they’d be too afraid of anti-air lasers to send in something like that. Also, if killing the enemies was enough here, I’d just cave in the tunnel. C’mon, let’s get going.”
They could see a humongous glacier clinging to the slope, but their workplace was in the area covered in soft snow below that. After climbing into the back of a canopied military truck, they rode to the scene along with the other Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers stuck doing the same thing.
“My friends back at school have got to be on winter vacation right now.”
“Don’t remind me. My family is probably relaxing in a lunar villa.”
Their destination was Mont Blanc Tunnel, so the road was of course well maintained. But since the scenario said it was occupied by an armed force, they could not head straight to the tollgate at the entrance. Once the guide in the passenger seat spotted something through their binoculars, the truck came to a stop and the potatoes climbed out onto the roadside.
“They work fast. They’ve already got a camera set up?”
“There’s just the one road in, so setting up traps would be easy.”
They were focused on the tripod and camera placed on the curb. It was a lot like the device used to crack down on speeding drivers, but there was no one there with it. A long, long cable was connected it to some clay. The technology was not to blame. It only did what it was told. Just like criminal organizations would search out traitors using forensic techniques or hunt down people who owed them money using facial recognition with social media photos and video sites.
“Now, a question: why aren’t they using drones, which would be even more convenient?”
“Because the mountain would reflect the signal to the point of uselessness. Not to mention the crosswinds and the cold. A toy’s rotors would lose their balance almost immediately and it would crash as soon as the axes froze.”
They discussed the matter while climbing over the guardrail and leaving the asphalt road. They had a panoramic view of the mountain, but the walkable paths were as limited as the veins on a leaf. They had no idea where they would run across any traps, so they were on the lookout for mines while climbing the slope. It was terrifying to think that the ubiquitous snow could be used to cover up traps.
The road itself zigzagged back and forth to climb the slope, so they only had to climb a few meters to complete their shortcut and reach the next higher level of asphalt.
They used the asphalt when that was an option and took shortcuts up the slope when there was a trap in the way.
After repeating the process a few times, their destination finally came into view.
“We have spotted the western tollgate of Mont Blanc Tunnel. No sign of any guards,” said Heivia.
They were in the parking lot of a log cabin rest area that looked like a combination of a small restaurant and souvenir shop.
However, this did not mean there was no one there. There could always be someone wielding a rifle past the tollgate or there could be a remote-controlled turret made from a camera and a swiveling heavy machinegun. For one thing, the criminals gained nothing by making an appearance when they were not making demands, making threats, or executing hostages. Doing so would be asking to be sniped.
Meanwhile, Quenser was already worn out, so he brushed the snow from the three steps up to the restaurant entrance and sat down.
“We’ve trained enough already. Gasp, pant. We’ve gotten stronger and gained some good experience, so let’s head back. Urp, I feel sick.”
“Grab your radio and say that again so Frolaytia can hear you while she scores us from her nice warm kotatsu, twig boy.”
“Heivia, you’re of noble blood, aren’t you? Set a good example for this exhausted commoner. By which I mean, carry me.”
“You can’t ask for noblesse oblige on demand!!”
It was currently sunset.
Even professional climbers would avoid climbing at night lest they become stranded, but soldiers like the potatoes were an exception.
And since disarming the bombs was a necessary part of retaking Mont Blanc Tunnel, they needed Quenser. They did have other people who could use explosives, but keeping as many of those people with them as possible was best. That way another could take over if one was lost in an attack.
Also, the tunnel was 11km long, so it would take more than just one or two people to search out all the bombs. On the other hand, they would be spotted if they moved in with too large a group.
“Looks like we have to use this restaurant as a base, split into a few teams, and head in with a time delay.”
“Do I really have to go?” asked Quenser. “It says right here the cheese fondue at this place is good.”
His desperate plea was rejected with a fist.
Quenser and Heivia were part of the lead group, but they did not head straight for the tollgate. A highway tunnel was sure to have emergency exits and smoke vents. They had plenty of ways to sneak in without using the dangerous front door.
“They do remote surgeries over fiber optic cable these days, so can’t I just give you instructions while you do the work?” asked Quenser. “Y’know, you could wear some kind of mech glove or something.”
“Try to get me to use something like that and I’m siding with the terrorists. To tear down the entire goddamn system.”
They left the asphalt road and started up the snowy slope again.
It did not take long to find an emergency exit seemingly cut out of the slope, but Heivia crouched down there. He tore off the end of a soap-like ration and tossed the piece toward that exit.
A slipper-sized creature chased after it while squeaking.
“No reaction to the rat. Looks like there’s no one there. No wires or IR either. Well, assuming they aren’t set up above knee level.”
“That thing’s huge! If I die here, will I have all the flesh stripped from my bones by those things?”
The transport helicopter passed noisily by overhead. Since their allies were drawing the Aggressor’s attention, Quenser’s group finally entered the emergency exit.
Once inside, they found bright fluorescent lights that still left the place looking dimly lit.
“Ugh, it’s so cold.”
“Waiting around in here couldn’t be fun. Glad I wasn’t chosen for the Aggressor side.”
It felt like a refrigerated warehouse.
The bare concrete must not have stored heat well because the inside felt chillier than the snowy night outside.
These emergency exits had to be installed every so often throughout the tunnel, but the tunnel ran through the highest mountain in the Alps. Simply adding a door was not enough to get out. That meant there had to be a smaller pedestrian tunnel that branched off from the main one.
“This tunnel is so narrow and straight. There’s nowhere to hide in a shootout.”
“I don’t see any bombs.”
Quenser sounded a little too carefree, so his awful friend gave him a skeptical look.
“Hey, you aren’t letting your guard down just cause it’s training, are you? We’re only 30 seconds in, so you aren’t going to claim to be psychic now, are you?”
“There’s no way they could use a radio signal in this thick tunnel, right? The armed force is stuck in here for an indefinite amount of time, so they also wouldn’t use time bombs that will detonate on their own eventually. That means a wired signal is the only option left. As long as we don’t see a bunch of thick wires bundled together, there are no bombs and we’re safe.”
That meant the disarming work would be in the main tunnel.
“Should we wait for the others?”
“When we have no idea when a door is going to burst open and masked soldiers will rush out at us?”
They slowly approached a metal door, checked for traps, and then cracked it open.
The one-way three-lane main tunnel was filled with orange light. They stuck just a mobile device through the cracked door and used its camera to view things out there. There were no obvious signs of people, so they opened the door the rest of the way and walked in.
Heivia aimed his assault rifle toward the tollgate at the closer entrance, but…
“Hm? There’s no one there. So where are the Aggressors lying in wait???”
Quenser looked down at his feet instead of deeper into the tunnel.
A long, long cable ran alongside the wall at the far end of the curb meant for broken down cars. It started at the tunnel’s tollgate and continued in from there.
“Found the bombs.”
Clay was attached low on the wall at even more frequent intervals than the landline emergency phones.
They were puzzle-like devices similar to those seen in movies, so this was not something often seen on the battlefield. Setting them up and disarming them took a lot of effort and a small impact could set them off, so the shaking of artillery fire could trigger them unexpectedly. (From a purely logical rather than emotional standpoint) this type was useful for setting up a time bomb that gave you enough time to escape outside the expected checkpoint area while also preventing the police from disarming them if they were discovered early. If you could detonate them remotely and immediately at any time, this design was entirely meaningless. You could just hit the switch once the bomb squad got close.
This time, they were inside an 11km tunnel.
First of all, there were a lot of them.
They used a wired detonation mechanism and all of the bombs had to be detonated at once.
Which meant…
“Fiber optic cable. I’m guessing they’re using a computer chip for the detonator.”
“Meaning?”
“We don’t have to use a knife or wire cutters to disarm every single one of these. Let’s find a way to destroy that chip. For example, if we sent powerful magnetism through the tunnel from one end to the other, it would neutralize all of the bombs set up along here.”
“Like a microwave oven?”
“High power microwaves would cause a malfunction in the delicate fuses and make them go boom, so instead-”
Quenser trailed off and stopped moving.
The delinquent noble frowned.
“What’s wrong, twig boy?”
“Hey, Heivia? This was surprise combat training, right?”
“Yeah?”
“While plastic explosives are relatively stable, they wouldn’t use real bombs for an exercise, would they? But this one-”
A heavy metallic sound rang out just then.
The cover to one of the drainage ditches popped up and then a soldier with his face hidden by a mask and helmet aimed a submachinegun their way.
Heivia fired a quick burst from his assault rifle, but the rubber bullets did not stop the man. Pissed, Heivia fired the rubber bullets toward the man’s forehead.
“Dammit man, follow the rules!!”
While the masked man’s skull was shaken, Heivia swung the stock of his rifle into the side of his head to finally knock him down.
Heivia tore off the collapsed soldier’s helmet and mask to see who this rule-breaker was.
“Hey, who’s this guy? I’ve never seen him before.”
The 37th alone had nearly 1000 people in it, so they would not recognize every single person there, but this man had a tattoo on his face. Some units would have everyone get the same tattoo to increase solidarity, but Frolaytia did not let the 37th do that.
Quenser used his mobile device to snap photos of the bomb and the collapsed man.
“Heivia, check his gun. Specifically, the bullets he’s using.”
“?”
“This bomb and its fuse really are real! This thing will go off, so this isn’t just training!!”
Loud gunfire erupted further down the tunnel.
The Legitimacy Kingdom issued 5.56mm rounds (supposedly anyway), but the enclosed tunnel meant the gunfire was earsplitting even at a decent distance.
However, who was fighting who?
The two idiots should have been the only attackers inside the tunnel at this point.
Quenser looked over in a panic, but Heivia grabbed his shoulders and dove toward the wall. He opened the metal door back to the emergency exit and used it as a shield.
Someone walked briskly out from deeper in the tunnel.
They were soaked from head to toe in the blood of their enemies.
“Elise?”
“Hey, what’s that she’s holding? That’s not the assault rifle we were issued.”
The two idiots watched as Elise Montana raised the carbine she held in one hand and aimed it straight up.
With a loud burst of gunfire, a bloody masked soldier fell along with the cover to a smoke vent duct on the ceiling.
“You need to get out of here. Hurry.”
Her voice was scratchy.
Either she was out of ammo or the barrel had gotten bent in the intense fighting earlier because the busty blonde glasses woman did not hesitate to throw aside the carbine. Strangely, she formed a smile on her lips.
“This training has been hijacked. They really do intend to detonate the bombs!!”
Part 2
From the far end of the tunnel to their end, the bombs detonated one after another, like a crowd doing the wave.
