View source for HEAVY OBJECT:Volume8 Chapter 1

===Part 2===

A ten-man fishing boat raced toward the luxury cruise ship while jumping from stormy wave to stormy wave. Yes, it was racing. The entire engine had been swapped out, so it was moving “above” the ocean while practically popping a wheelie. It was moving at about 80 kph. As hydrofoils made quite evident, boats could move at three digit speeds if the water resistance was lessened. And the fastest way to do that was to lift the boat itself above the water.

Thick metal panels were bolted to the sides of the fishing boat and heavily suntanned men were crammed inside. They held old rifles and submachine guns with an extra coat of paint to hide the scrapes and to stop them from rusting. Those tools were clearly not needed for fishing.

They were pirates who had butted into the transmission to put the ship where they wanted. A suntanned man returned a small microphone to the radio hook and whistled at the feast before him.

“Okay! Our prey is extra special today!! It’s got a giant antenna on top. That’s a satellite connection. They use it to check the black cards used in the casino. There must be tons of rich people on there!”

As the first man gave them some motivation, the other pirates started to grow rowdy.

“Eh? I thought it was for Wall Street which is so popular lately. They need to mess with their stocks and exchanges while on their cruise.”

“This is the Legitimacy Kingdom, so it would be the London Stock Exchange.”

“Who cares as long as they’re a bunch of rich ladies and gentlemen? More importantly, how are we on anti-ship missiles? We need at least two. The first acts as a demonstration. We need to make sure they know we’ll sink them if they don’t do what we say.”

“Leave it to me. There are four of them hanging on the sides of the ship.”

“You idiot!! Now I know why our fuel consumption’s been so bad!!”

An amateur pirate group could never mass produce missiles that were a collection of cutting-edge military secrets.

But nothing said they had to be “cutting-edge”.

What if they added modern technology to weapons produced fifty years prior?

Just as a hard disk sold in a home electronics store’s clearance sale would have been highly classified government technology fifty years ago, amateur groups could manufacture weapons.

In the festivals of Southeast Asia, rockets measuring three to five meters long were created to launch exciting fireworks 5000 to 10,000 meters into the air. If they were laid on their side, they made a decent starting point for a rocket motor.

Meanwhile, the other pirate ships gathered.

The suntanned man grabbed the radio again.

“Okay. A through F, go in front of the luxury cruise ship! Scatter some mines to stop them. G through I, take the starboard side. J through L, use anti-ship missiles to surround them from behind.”

“Shut up! You aren’t the leader!!”

“Don’t try to board the ship and earn some extra money just because it’s full of rich people. The plan is to make them lower their rescue boats. You don’t want to be killed by the peashooters they have for self-defense, do you?”

He heard a light noise.

One of his allies on the same boat was tapping the large radio.

And he whispered a question.

“Where do we fire the missile?”

“Don’t use it like you’re supposed to. If we sink the ship right off the bat, we can’t take any hostages. Don’t hit it on the waterline. Aim higher.”

He pointed into the distance while still holding the radio’s microphone.

As his finger jabbed toward the Scarlet Princess, it scooped upwards.

“For example, the control room.”

A seven meter tube shot from the side of the fishing boat. The anti-ship missile used solid fuel (aka gunpowder) to fly diagonally up from the ocean surface. In this “improper” usage, it was directly targeting the ship’s crew.

They all thought it was a success.

Blowing up the control room at the top of the luxury cruise ship would not immediately sink the ship. As previously stated, a ship’s weak point was the waterline where the seawater could surge in. However, the refined ladies and gentlemen would not realize that. If all of the professional crew was taken out at once and there was a fire on the ship, they would try to escape on the rescue boats no matter what. Afterwards, the pirates could surround the boats drifting powerlessly and carefully take hostages.

But…

The next thing the pirates knew, composite material shutters lowered over all of the luxury cruise ship’s 1000 or more windows.

The shutters covered both the outside and inside of the bulletproof glass which was already over thirty centimeters thick. This was obviously out of place on a civilian ship.

(Huh?)

For an instant, a complete blank filled the suntanned man’s mind.

The homemade anti-ship missile struck the control room, but its explosive flames and black smoke looked terribly unreliable. Once it all cleared away, only a slight dent remained in the shutters.

And then the ship began to fight back.

Strange metallic noises rang out again and again. From the bow to the stern, 20 mm Gatling guns of a close-in weapon system rose up along either side of the deck. They looked a bit like trees lining a road. The pools on the three layers of the deck split apart and 21 cm rapid-fire cannons rose high above them. The pirates could not see it, but a portion of the roof split into small sections like a chocolate bar or a honeycomb and countless vertical missile hatches opened in order.

They had stepped on a figurative landmine.

A horrible, horrible landmine.

Once they finally realized that, the captain of the luxury cruise ship spoke over the radio.

“Disguised Cruiser Scarlet Princess has confirmed an attack from the target.”

He essentially gave a death sentence.

That order opened the gates of hell.

“Begin Operation Codename ‘Blood-Soaked Princess’. Engaging target now. Pirates, this is your last chance to write your wills.”

With those words, the wolf in sheep’s clothing exposed its hidden claws and fangs.

After conceitedly thinking they could surround it with only about 15 boats, the pirates’ luck had run out.

The foxhunt had begun.