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.

Part 3

After securing the motorcycle, Quenser and Heivia drove through the desert. Heivia was driving. They were headed for the fishing area where the ‘floor heater’ was waiting to be set up. If they did not complete the preparations before the Strategic Antenna arrived, that large catch would escape.

If it had not been for the low rumbling of the two Objects firing shells in the distance, the desert landscape would have held a sense of spaciousness not present in the noise of a city. The horizon could be plainly seen dividing the land of fine sand from the blue cloudless sky.

“Honestly, this scenery almost makes me forget about the war,” said Heivia in annoyance. “I hope this pain-in-the-ass war ends soon so we can get some time to rest. If we get some leave around here, do you think we could stop by Roadshow City? That city was developed by the coalition forces during the Oceania war as a symbol of freedom. I want some time to just relax, y’know? I need a hell of a massage to heal my aching muscles and I need to jump into a pool that looks like a blue cocktail.”

“Isn’t the signing ceremony for Oceania’s declaration of peace scheduled to take place there? You know, that thing were the Legitimacy Kingdom, Information Alliance, Capitalist Corporations, and Faith Organization were all going to gather together. But it seems Roadshow City has a lot of sandstorms, so it isn’t very comfortable. They have information on sandstorms in their weather forecasts.”

“Those things are even worse than fog or a blizzard. You can’t see in any direction and you can’t move. Before, we almost got stranded when we strayed from the unit.”

“Yeah, but it turned out the maintenance base was only three meters ahead of us. …But the military has used the people’s tax money to install special weather sensors throughout the desert as well as wired internet lines, so it must be affecting the military a fair bit,” complained Quenser lightly. “Come to think of it, that city also functions as a giant relay station for the wired internet lines, doesn’t it?”

“Wouldn’t a satellite connection be better in such a huge desert?”

“They have their reasons. Those sandstorms, for example.”

“?”

Quenser and Heivia’s radios beeped at the same moment.

The girl known as the princess who piloted the Legitimacy Kingdom Object was calling them.

“Will you have that ‘floor heater’ ready in time?”

“Well, we should have it done right away if you strip naked and put on cat ears and a tail.”

“Heivia, don’t forget to have her end every sentence with ‘nyan’.”

“If you can make jokes, I will assume you can make it.”

“Make sure to buy us some time. And also make sure the Strategic Antenna doesn’t catch on.”

If they communicated by radio for too long, the information could be picked up by the Strategic Antenna. Also, distracting the princess in the middle of her high-speed battle could end up leading to their deaths. Quenser and Heivia quickly ended the conversation.

Heivia must have been fed up with it all because he started complaining again.

“Dahh. I really want to go on vacation somewhere. Got any recommendations? I want a world heritage kind of place that will cleanse the heart just to look at it.”

“Inside a beautiful woman’s skirt?”

“That would be the nicest to look at, I’ll give you that, but there is no way in hell I’m going there with you.”

The two chatted, but they could not avoid talking about the war forever. After all, this was a problem that would decide their fate.

“The Faith Organization sure went on the offensive here.”

“The dispute started over how the land would be divided up now that the military dictatorship has fallen. But they must be as low as the mafia if they’re willing to bring out their guns just because they feel displeased with how much they got.”

“What are we supposed to say to the people of Oceania? The coalition force was meant to end the violence of the military nation.”

“I am a noble who wants to earn the achievements needed to inherit my family. You are a student who wants to learn about Object design on the battlefield. We’re in no place to act all self-important. In the end, war is fought for people’s personal convenience.”

“I know that.” Quenser almost impulsively said something, but stopped and carefully chose his words first. “I know that. But even so…”

“Well, another soldier is one thing, but I don’t want to get an Oceanian civilian involved since they have no choice but to leave their future up to us.”

Meanwhile, they arrived at the “fishing spot”.

They stepped down from the bike and glanced around.

A giant V-shaped cliff jutted up in front of them. It was 20-30 meters tall. Those natural castle wall-like cliffs continued on and on to the left and right. The only path through was a 100 meter opening in front of them. That was where they were to set up the “floor heater”.

“If it wants to, the Strategic Antenna can use its cannons to change the landscape and make its way through the ‘castle wall’ without using the V-shaped ‘castle gate’.”

“Even when it’s running out of railgun shells and the chemicals needed for its lasers and low-stability plasma cannons and when it’s fighting another Object at an even level? Also, this ‘castle gate’ is the shortest route. Trying to break through anywhere else would be taking the long way around,” explained Heivia smoothly.

Then again, he had no actual proof.

Quenser ran toward the V-shaped “castle gate”.

“The tools and equipment needed for the ‘floor heater’ have already been dropped down, right?”

“Yes, they were slipped in outside the range of the Object’s anti-air lasers. The presents dropped by parachute from a transport plane should be around here somewhere.” Heivia pointed at some large cloths waving in the wind here and there. “But the wiring for activating it has been untouched. We need to hurry. An Object’s top speed is over 500 kph. It can travel 30 kilometers in just a few minutes if it wants to.”

Quenser gathered the explosives and equipment scattered around the area, removed the parachutes, untied the ropes, and pulled the contents from the bags. The “floor heater” was contained within a cylinder the size of a metal drum. He connected several cords and cables to it, spread it out like a scroll, and covered it with a thin layer of fine-grained sand.

After spreading out several metal drum-sized bundles, the “floor heater” covered an area of 50 meters square.

Heivia had passed through the V-shaped “castle gate” and circled to the back of the “castle wall”. He was connecting several cylinders 50 cm wide and a meter tall. They reached several dozen meters in length all together.

That was their power source.

However, it was not a battery.

Quenser stretched a reel-shaped cable from the “floor heater” and approached Heivia.

“How’s the explosion generator looking?”

“The explosives look fine.”

“I’d heard of magnetic cumulation and MHD generators, but this is a really rough mechanism. A giant magnet is placed in the center of a long coil, and a powerful high voltage current is created all at once by firing it at extremely high speed.”

“Don’t mess up the timing. An explosion generator can only create electricity once. Honestly, our missions are always gambles, aren’t they?”

“A normal battery won’t create enough energy to stop an Object, so we have no other choice. Froleytia dragged out this relatively impractical explosion generator because we need to create a massive amount of electricity in an instant.”

Quenser and Heivia connected the “floor heater” with the explosion generator.

But this was not enough to activate it.

The explosives in the explosion generator had to be detonated with an electric fuse. In other words, they needed another, smaller battery.

They had to prepare that.

“The detonation should be handled by cable, right?”

“Wireless would be more convenient, but that might not work if the Object jams us.”

As Quenser answered that question, he recalled how impressive the Faith Organization’s Object was.

The Strategic Antenna.

“It’s a second generation Object with tons of radars and sensors, right? It uses its many different location and targeting systems to make sure its attacks hit. And on top of that, it uses jamming and dummy targets to prevent its enemy from even getting a lock. Its radars and sensors outweigh its cannons, so it obviously has no normal layout.”

Objects were 50 meters tall and weighed 200,000 tons, but they could pull off the footwork of a mixed martial artist at speeds of over 500 kph.

When two Objects faced each other and fired their main cannons at each other, they would not always hit. The princess belonging to Quenser and Heivia’s Legitimacy Kingdom army specialized in detecting upcoming attacks from the slight movements of her opponent’s cannons and then quickly evading.

Nevertheless, the princess had been hit several times and a few holes had almost been opened in her armor.

Fortunately, the Strategic Antenna had added an excessive number of radars and sensors and sacrificed the firepower of its weapons. In exchange for its amazing accuracy, it could not finish off an enemy in a single strike. However, the princess could not let her guard down. If enough damage accumulated, she could be incapacitated or even destroyed.

Quenser checked on the connections of the various cables, pulled out his radio, and stuck a cable into the wired connection jack. He looked at the radio and the long, long cable extending from it.

“We’re going to hide all this under the sand, but the Strategic Antenna’s various sensors can’t detect things buried in the ground, can they? I’m worried about the explosion generator’s coil, too. Will the V-shaped ‘castle wall’ shield it enough?”

“Our objective is to activate the ‘floor heater’ below its feet.” Heivia was crouched down elsewhere carrying out his own work. “As long as it’s driven here, that’s enough. If the Strategic Antenna notices the trap and slows down even a little, the princess will use that chance to fire a main cannon into it. No matter how pathetic and disgraceful the result, we win as long as the Object is blown away in the end.”

“I’d actually prefer that to happen. If the Object blows up here, we might be turned to ash along with it. Even if we hide behind the V-shaped ‘castle wall’, it could still crumble on top of us.” Quenser stroked his thumb over his radio button. “But what about you, noble son? Don’t you want the honor of a victory?”

“There are different kinds of honor. I can’t exactly inherit my family with the posthumous variety, now can I?”

As Heivia replied, they heard an ominous sound similar to thunder clouds approaching in the distance. That was the sound of a giant Object floating with static electricity.

“Dammit! It’s already here! We don’t have much time left!!”

“Did the princess relax once she saw us go on ahead? It looks like she’s leaving fate up to us,” said Heivia while moving his hands. But then he clicked his tongue quite loudly. “Wait a second, Quenser! Get over here!!”

“What is it? I’m busy with the final test!!”

“The ‘floor heater’s’ activation battery is messed up!!”

Quenser looked over in shock. Heivia was lightly shaking a box-shaped battery similar to a car battery. It had a few thick cables connected to the terminals, but the “awaiting activation” notification had yet to appear on the LCD screen of Quenser’s radio. It had no power.

“It didn’t run out of power like a cell phone left alone for too long, did it!?”

“It’s the sand, dammit! Too much fine-grained sand got in the terminal area and now it won’t work!! It’s completely shorted out!!”

Without that power source, the electric fuse to detonate the explosion generator’s explosives could not be used and that meant the entire device would not work. Without the massive amount of electricity created by the device, they could not activate the “floor heater” to stop the Object.

If they could not stop the Strategic Antenna, the situation changed completely. The princess was on the losing side of the one-on-one battle. She was likely assuming that she could win if she only lured the Strategic Antenna into the V-shaped “castle gate”. She was going all out and forcing her way into disadvantageous situations because of that assumption.

If they failed here, it was all over.

It was like a runner reaching the end of a full marathon and being told he was at the halfway point and had to run the same distance again.

The thunder cloud-like sound of the static electricity grew louder.

The princess’s Baby Magnum and the Faith Organization’s Strategic Antenna could be seen approaching while continuing to fight.

They would arrive in less than three minutes.

“Hey, Heivia! Can we use a brush or something to get the sand off the battery!?”

“The inside of the battery has already been fried!! Even if you risk electrocuting yourself by cleaning it out, the battery isn’t gonna work!!”

“What do we do?” muttered Quenser under his breath.

At this rate, they could not activate the “floor heater”.

The Strategic Antenna could not be defeated by the princess’s Object alone. In fact, a mistake here could lead to her Object being destroyed.

Quenser stood silently, but he was not thinking. He was mostly staring blankly at a hopeless situation.

But he caught sight of something in the corner of his eye and slowly turned his head.

“…The motorcycle.”

“What?”

“Check the amperage and voltage of that battery!! If the motorcycle’s battery is the same, we can swap them out and activate the ‘floor heater’!!”

Heivia moved as if struck.

He used his tools to remove the motorcycle’s battery and checked the numbers written on it. Even from a distance, Quenser could tell the battery was about two sizes smaller, but Heivia did not stop moving. It seemed to have the same values. Heivia hurried back to the V-shaped ‘castle gate’, removed the cords from the broken battery, and attached them to the motorcycle’s battery.

An electronic tone sounded.

It came from Quenser’s radio. A simple character indicating it was awaiting input appeared on the small LCD screen. The system for activating the ‘floor heater’ using an explosion generator now had power.

But they had no time to celebrate.

“Shit! Here it comes!!” shouted Heivia as he hid on the edge of the V-shaped “castle gate”.

Quenser leaped toward the exact opposite edge. The two of them stuck their heads out from the left and right and watched the approaching Object.

The Strategic Antenna was five kilometers away.

It could now enter the “castle gate” in less than a minute.

Despite being several kilometers away, it had such a sense of intimidation that they felt their throats dry up. They sweated for a reason completely unrelated to the heat of the desert.

“This is where hell truly begins,” muttered Quenser under his breath.

Part 7

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