Heavy Object

Seven or eight a.s.sault landing aircraft carriers were travelling north through the Atlantic Ocean centered on the flagship Charlemagne. They were headed for the Amazon district of South America which was Legitimacy Kingdom territory. Their destination was the sea near Port Braganca just below the equator.

A young male maintenance soldier slowly walked across the flat deck while occasionally leaning over. He was checking the takeoff catapult to ensure it had not warped due to heat. It had of course been designed to take into account a certain level of expansion and contraction just like rails for a train, but it was crucial to be extra sure. If that catapult lost functionality, the a.s.sault landing aircraft carrier would lose its value.

The maintenance soldier removed his helmet and looked up at the sun in annoyance.

“s.h.i.t, I can’t believe it’s so hot when we’re past Halloween. If we were given permission to enter port, we would have a plastic roof blocking the sun. This is a Legitimacy Kingdom port. They should let any Legitimacy Kingdom citizens in whether we’re civilians or military.”

As the maintenance soldier muttered, he heard the sound of the elevator. However, this was not the elevator of a high cla.s.s department store where a young woman pressed the b.u.t.ton for you. It was bringing up a small delta wing fighter. He could see the pilot waving from within the c.o.c.kpit.

The fighter carried only one person.

That was likely due to the research for Object c.o.c.kpit layouts being used. In that age, fighters were obsolete. With wars fought by Objects, military development was centered around them. All weapons tended to be designed such that they could also be used for Objects.

The maintenance soldier heard the pilot’s voice come over his headset.

“Quit complaining. Although I’ll admit I would rather not think about the fact that the port has enough vending machines and stores for us all to have as many cold drinks and ice cream as we could want.”

“As usual, you’re covered in more jamming devices than missiles. Do you really need to be that worried? The enemy Object was destroyed.”

“It’s a habit. …And I didn’t join the military to take part in dogfights. Do you think you could spare me the life saver and training wheels?”

“You’re not the only one. These days, the entire air force is like that.”

The maintenance soldier checked the catapult with measurement tools.

“With Objects implementing anti-air lasers, gaining air supremacy has lost its popularity.”

"There is a plane paradise in Scandinavia where Objects are internationally banned from entry.”

“There’s no point in that though. It’s like being an animal in a cage at the zoo,” replied the maintenance soldier, sounding bored. “The modern job of the air force is to transport personnel and equipment, to perform low alt.i.tude reconnaissance when chaff missiles have made the satellites unusable, and for aerial acrobatics at ceremonies. Which is your specialty?”

“The acrobatics. When I was going through aviation school, I did hope to get into dogfights or perform precise bombings though.”

“So you’ve been away from the battlefield for a while, hm?” The maintenance soldier took his eyes away from the measurement equipment and gave the success sign from the check sheet. “How does it feel nowadays?”

“I want to get a chance to actually do something, but I also don’t want to be stuck in a situation where I have to do something.”

Someone else was listening in on that radio conversation from elsewhere.

It was the Charlemagne’s captain sitting on the ship’s bridge. He cut off the frequency his subordinates used to chat and focused on the frequency used for official transmissions.

On the other end was Froleytia, the commander of the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion that the Baby Magnum belonged to. She had headed inland to the Amazon district ahead of time.

Also on the channel was the commander of the Legitimacy Kingdom military base that protected the Amazon district.

“After losing their Object, the remnants of the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate have moved north from the blank region and across national boundaries. Reports say they have entered the Amazon district which is our territory. Is that correct?” asked the captain to make sure.

The local commander replied, “We have not engaged in direct combat and have instead focused on evacuating the civilians from the general area. As a result, we allowed them to enter, but…”

That was when Froleytia cut in.

“Where is the Legitimacy Kingdom Object that protects the Amazon district? Our Baby Magnum was heavily damaged, so we would like to request a joint operation if possible.”

“Our Object, the Forest Roller, is undergoing scheduled maintenance. As for other units, one Object is undergoing emergency maintenance after taking heavy damage in a different operation and another is currently engaging a Faith Organization Object. We do not have any military force to spare for this problem. …Our Object was scheduled to be protected by the Bright Hopper while this maintenance took place, but it was destroyed in the previous battle. And ever since, its Elite, Major Halreed Copacabana, has insisted he return to the home country and refuses to listen to anyone saying otherwise.”

“Tch. Now that he’s been forced to wait, that dog is of no use.”

“?”

The captain frowned slightly at Froleytia’s strange comment. The local commander was likely making a similar expression. Froleytia ignored this and continued speaking.

“Understood. As originally planned, our Baby Magnum will deal with the remnants. However, we are not in prime condition either. The armor plates have been replaced, but the rest is not so easy. Three of the seven main cannons are unusable and the propulsion device was damaged, so it cannot carry out high speed battle.”

“Didn’t you gain supplies from the Amazon district base? They are both Legitimacy Kingdom Objects, so don’t they have the same standards?”

“N-no.” replied the local commander. “While the armor plates are interchangeable, the main cannons and propulsion device are almost entirely custom made. The equipment at our base is specialized for our Forest Roller. It is unlikely we can meet the needs of the Baby Magnum.”

“I know. That just means we have to do this as is,” said Froleytia.

She was unable to entirely hide her disappointment.

Her next statement seemed to be intended to sweep away that disappointment.

“Do you understand our situation now, Charlemagne? We would like as much military strength as we can get. We would like help from your fighters as planned.”

“I do not mind providing that.” The captain chose his words carefully. “However, we only have outdated fighters. They may not be able to keep up on this modern battlefield.”

“??? I thought the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate Object had already been destroyed,” said the local commander in confusion.

The captain gave no clear reply.

(…I hope that’s the case.)

Some reactor had been used to provide the ma.s.sive power needed for the spare cannons in Antarctica and on the Iguazu district coast. That raised a question as to the number of Objects owned by the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate.

Froleytia likely had similar doubts.

He heard her mutter, “Unconfirmed object X. If it really exists, things could get rough out there once more…”

Quenser and Heivia were completely unaware of that dangerous conversation as they helped construct the maintenance base zone. So that it could be set up anywhere in the world, the Baby Magnum’s base was made up of a group of more than 10 large vehicles. By linking the vehicles together front-to-back and side-to-side, setting up block-shaped rooms on top in multiple layers, and stringing up wires to support the weight like with a tent, buildings could be quickly constructed.

The two of them were not helping with the construction of the buildings. They were carrying boxes of packed equipment into the empty buildings that had already been constructed. They were doing the same thing as movers.

While he walked down a hallway carrying a cardboard box, Quenser said, “How can we know the remnants of the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate won’t escape while we’re moving this base along so slowly?”

Heivia walked along beside Quenser and occasionally glanced down at Quenser’s feet. Quenser’s sprain had healed, but he may have still been a bit mindful.

“If they do, the princess’s Object can move in to deal with them. From what I heard, they’ve started to build a base in the ruins of Amazon City about 20 kilometers ahead. Apparently, they hope to put up a counterattack here so they can cut off all pursuit before fleeing.”

“…What’s Amazon City?”

“The world’s biggest ghost town.” Heivia set his cardboard box heavily down on the floor of a strategy room. “There are a lot of things in the jungle. Coal, oil, iron, gold, jewels, and a lot more. There were also people who planned to use the rare location to make medicines from special plants and extracts taken from insects. The Legitimacy Kingdom set up an entire mining city.”

“But you said it had become a ghost town, right? Did the project fall through due to economic issues?”

“It was nothing that cute.” Heivia turned back to the hallway after Quenser set down his box. “While the jungle was being mined, they ran across a horrible virus. Apparently, it completely overturned what we knew about immunology. In order to keep the losses to a minimum, the Legitimacy Kingdom completely abandoned Amazon City and pulled out.”

“W-wait a second. Isn’t that where we’re headed?’

“All of that happened 20 years ago. A research group wearing protective suits came in a while back, but they could find no trace of the virus. And if that virus was still wreaking havoc on the area, we wouldn’t have to go to all this effort. We could just wait for it to wipe out the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate.”

“That’s right…” muttered Quenser, but he could not get rid of a strange feeling of unease.

Heivia entered a room filled with cardboard boxes and said, “Antarctica, that blank region, and now a city being swallowed up by the forest. Areas a lot of people have an interest in really do invite war. Ugh, what a pain.”

Heivia sat heavily in a large chair sitting next to all the boxes. It was covered in the plastic used for packaging, so they could not see it, but it seemed to be quite a nice chair.

“Hey, Heivia. If that’s an officer’s chair, you might want to get up. What if it’s Froleytia’s?”

“That j.a.panese-obsessed woman wouldn’t bring a chair like this into her room. And besides, my job is to a.n.a.lyze enemy Objects and yours is to learn about Objects. The problem lies with them for pushing this physical work on us.”

At that point, an unexpected new face arrived.

It was the Baby Magnum’s Elite princess.

“Nn? Oh, it’s here.”

“?”

Quenser and Heivia turned toward the princess and she replied with no facial expression.

“That chair is to go in the c.o.c.kpit.”

“Seriously? These hard things at my shoulder blades are electrodes for a low frequency medical device, right? Is that what Objects are like these days?”

“According to the old lady, this is one method of ensuring my concentration does not drop during long battles.”

“…And I heard you had a fridge and a microwave in there too,” said Quenser in slight shock.

Heivia shrugged while still sitting in the chair and said, “That’s quite the comfortable battlefield. How about you install a home theater system and a popcorn machine?”

He had meant it as a joke, but the princess seemed to take him seriously. She pulled a high spec handheld game system from one of her miniskirt-style pockets.

“I can watch anything I want with this.”

“Dammit!! You can just do anything, can’t you!? And do those headphones have a vacuum tube on them!?”

Both Quenser and Heivia had actually brought the same handheld game system along with their personal items, but they were unable to resupply with the latest movie disks each month. There was a way to purchase and download digital copies of the movies, but they were not allowed to use it over the military line.

Meanwhile, Quenser patted the plastic-covered chair with a low frequency medical device installed.

“I’ve never used a low frequency machine before. Do they really work?”

“Only one way to find out,” said the princess as she moved Heivia out of the way and removed the plastic.

She connected the power cable to a jack that connected to a normal household power outlet and plugged it into the wall.

“Should we really be doing this?”

“It is no real problem,” replied the princess, so Quenser went along with her suggestion.

Unlike a normal chair, this one had very low resistance, so it felt like his body sank into it and was fixed in place. He felt something hard that must have been the electrodes for the low frequency medical device against his back and legs. He began to wonder if it would really work over his uniform.

“Here goes.”

The princess pressed a few b.u.t.tons on the chair’s armrest.

Immediately afterwards, a feeling Quenser had never felt before rushed across his entire body.

“Hohhhhhh nyaaahhhhhhh!? Ahh, anthahh…fnyahhh. Styop, styop. Wyait, thyis! Styop it, styop-…fnyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!”

Quenser’s entire body started to pulsate unnaturally.

Heivia frantically pressed the stop b.u.t.ton.

With bloodshot eyes, he shouted, “What the h.e.l.l kind of noises were those!?”

“Don’t blame me!! Just try it! You try it too, Heivia!! You’ll be making the same noises! It’s completely involuntary!!”

Quenser pulled his body out of the low resistance material and Heivia took his place.

“You’re an idiot. A simple low frequency ma.s.sage chair isn’t enough to get a reaction out of me.”

“Okay, switch on.”

“Kyawynn!? Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnn!? Wai-…wyait, wyait jyust a second!! Quyenser, I thyink thyis mya.s.sage chyair is syupposed tyo be used thyrough thye pryincess’s syuit!! The byuttons of my uniform are vyibrating in syome weird places!!”

“See? This is no normal ma.s.sage chair.”

“I gyet it!! S-syo!! Dyon’t turn up thyat switch! Fwooohhhhhhhhh!! Hyaaaaaaahh!! Hehhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”

Private Heivia’s body twitched in pleasure.

When the princess saw the disgusting mess of sweat and such the two boys had left on her chair, she slowly pulled out her radio and covertly spoke into it.

“…Medical team. I need you to discard one of the c.o.c.kpit chairs ASAP.”

After they had carried all the boxes to their respective locations, Quenser gained a bit of free time.

Technically, that time was used to check on the wiring for the computers and radars, but that was a task for the specialists. There was nothing to do for the normal soldiers during that time.

Quenser parted ways with Heivia and headed to the supply area. He received a few flavorless rubber-like rations before running across Froleytia.

When she saw Quenser, a tremendous frown appeared on her face.

“…Do not stand behind me without permission. I am never allowing you to catch me by surprise again.”

“Fair enough, but did you have any other ideas for getting yourself out of that situation?”

Quenser’s shoulders drooped limply and the middle aged man at the supply area looked at him with a puzzled expression. Froleytia cleared her throat once and returned to what she had come there for: obtaining a small container of shampoo. With that task complete, she left the supply area with Quenser.

As they walked through the pa.s.sageway, she said quietly, “I would have a hard time coming up with anything else, but that doesn’t mean you can just do whatever you want.”

“Come to think of it, how did things go after that? It seemed that Copacabana guy gave up on the political marriage, but that’s all I know.”

“Right now, my perceived value has fallen by an amazing amount. There are still some old men who don’t care so much about an heir that are still sticking with it, though. Well, I wouldn’t be out here in this war if this could be solved so easily. You don’t need to worry about it.” Froleytia sighed and leaned her back up against a nearby door. “However, I’m also in a bit of trouble since my Capistrano family isn’t contacting me. Dammit. If I just out and out deny it, some of the candidates are sure to return, but everyone will treat me like a s.l.u.t if I don’t do anything. I just don’t know what I’m supposed to-…”

Suddenly, Froleytia trailed off.

The door she had leaned against had already been half open, so she had pushed it the rest of the way open. It led to a small room used to store the design doc.u.ments needed for maintaining the Baby Magnum. It was also the room Quenser spent a lot of time in studying as a battlefield student.

“Whoops,” said Froleytia.

She managed to avoid falling over, but she ended up stumbling two or three steps into the room. A bookshelf right next to the door was filled with training video disk cases. However, a single p.o.r.n video was mixed in.

Froleytia froze in place as she read the t.i.tle on the package.

It read: A Cool Female Soldier’s Secret Training of Pleasure and t.i.ts

She fell silent for a bit while squeezing the j.a.panese-style kiseru in her hand.

“…Quenser, is this your personal preference?”

“No, you’ve got it all wrong!! I didn’t bring that here! I only grabbed you in order to help you! But why is that here!? That’s the video that was on the bookshelf in the ammunition storage when we were loading magazines!! Is it just really popular in the Legitimacy Kingdom military right now!?”

Quenser was met with a great mystery, but Froleytia did not seem to trust him at all. She was slowly backing away from him with the look of someone who was faced with a wild beast.

“…Umm, I’ll be going then,” he said.

“No, I have work to do as well. I cannot alter my schedule due to my personal feelings. I have no choice but to accompany you partway.”

And so Quenser and Froleytia started walking down the pa.s.sageway once more. They were walking alongside each other, but they were keeping an odd distance between each other.

“So what is the plan for dealing with Amazon City?”

“So you’ve learned those ruins are where we’re fighting.” Froleytia sighed. “Around 500 people remain to the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate. Previously, it seems the pilot Elite of the Object was commanding them, so their command structure has changed thanks to the Object’s destruction. With this change, the command has probably shifted to Sladder Honeysuckle. When the princess’s Object attacks the ruins of Amazon City, we need to make sure we at least kill him. Without him, the rest will not be able to put together a proper strategy. Then we can slaughter them in the confusion.”

“Who is he?”

“He has various t.i.tles. He is an Object designer for the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate, one of the world’s leading investors, as well as a military advisor for the powerful president of one of the conglomerate’s companies.”

“…”

Quenser’s eyebrows twitched at the word “designer”.

However, he specifically avoided that and asked about something else.

“Military adviser?”

“The Capitalist Corporations take military actions at the approval of company shareholders. For this reason, they hire specialist strategist. The same goes for the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate even if it has a different structure from the other companies.”

At that point, Froleytia fell silent.

Finally, she spoke quietly as if speaking of her own worries.

“This should be a simple task if we really are only up against a maintenance base that has lost its Object. But…”

“I’ve heard the rumors.” Quenser frowned. “You’re talking about the possibility of a second Object that was powering the spare cannons in Antarctica and on the Iguazu district coast, right? …But is that even possible? Objects are monstrous weapons 50 meters across. How could one of those escape notice by radar, satellite, and the naked eye?”

“I don’t know.”

Froleytia shook her head.

At the same time, she spoke as if to herself.

“But that’s exactly why jack-in-the-boxes are so scary. You need to be careful too. If you take this lightly, you might not get by with a simple sprained ankle this time.”

And so they headed out for the attack on Amazon City.

However, Froleytia was not commanding the operation from the front lines. She was in the maintenance base zone constructed in a location far from the battlefield. With the kiseru in her mouth, she checked on the progress of the unit on a monitor.

Froleytia liked things in the j.a.panese style, but the interior of her room was relatively lacking in such things. This was due to the maintenance base having been almost completely destroyed by the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate Object in the Iguazu district. She was having a new collection brought in with the additional supplies, so she must have had quite a bit stored away in the European home country.

(…The stage this time is a jungle ghost town filled with buildings. It’s the perfect environment for hidden soldiers.)

That would not be an issue in a battle between Objects. After all, an Object was simply too large. With the exception of mountainous regions like in the Iguazu district, those giant machines could not be hidden by the terrain.

However, using one of those monstrous weapons to search for puny humans hidden in the jungle was a different story altogether.

Of course, Objects had various forms of sensors, so they could search for hidden people via body heat or magnetism. However, the jungle was filled with living things, so a ma.s.sive number of objects would be found even when searching for human-sized living creatures.

(Now then. Can we solve that problem by having foot soldiers work with the Object? Or should we focus on trying to pick up on human noises such as voices and footsteps?)

With the sensors on full power, the presence of allied soldiers could actually get in the way. The specific method could be handled by the people on the scene, but Froleytia had to take care of any problems that might arise because of that.

To make sure that she did not overlook even the smallest sign, Froleytia stared intently at the monitor once more. However, she then received a transmission.

It was from the princess who was piloting the Baby Magnum.

“I have a question for you,” said the princess.

“Has the situation changed since the strategy meeting?”

As far as Froleytia could tell, nothing had changed, but she asked to make sure. As expected, the princess denied that possibility.

“No, it is nothing like that. I suppose this is a more private sort of question. Is that okay?”

“?”

(This is unusual for her.)

Before Froleytia could realize what was odd about the princess, the princess herself cut to the chase.

“…Is it true you were groped by Quenser?”

“Bfh!?”

It felt like the long, narrow kiseru almost shot from her mouth.

However the princess had interpreted that response, she fell silent.

“…”

“Wait, don’t just fall silent. Don’t tell me you feel like your mental condition has dropped because of that! You know just how much the mental state of the Elite can affect the outcome of a battle, right? If we lose the war here, it will end up in textbooks. If that happens due to whether someone was groped or not, the higher ups of the military will faint and the history buffs will laugh their a.s.ses off!”

“…Oh, dear. You aren’t even trying to deny that you were groped.”

Froleytia wiped an unpleasant sweat from her brow as she felt a dangerous tension in the princess’s oddly low tone of voice. Froleytia felt like something had been off about herself ever since that incident.

The advance on the ruins of Amazon City began.

Quenser and Heivia joined a group of about 200 people and headed to the ruins on off road vehicles. They did not head directly into the city. Instead, they got off about 3 kilometers away, and split up further before heading to the city on foot.

From the point they stopped the vehicles on, they were heading through tropical jungle. Beyond the thick trees was a group of concrete buildings. That was the ruins of Amazon City. After it had been abandoned, it had become buried in green.

They had known the jungle was just south of the equator, but it was worse than they had been expecting. The heat and humidity was trapped there like inside a plastic greenhouse. When they breathed in, a lukewarm feeling gradually spread through their bodies.

Heivia looked fed up with it almost instantly.

“…Dammit. So we’re acting as human antennae again.”

“The Baby Magnum isn’t at 100%, so they probably don’t want to send it straight in.” Quenser wiped sweat from his chin with the back of his hand. “This place is horrible. The ground seems so soft. Isn’t there a better way to this place?”

“We would be a lot more comfortable using the remains of the highway created for Amazon City, but that would put us in plain view of the enemy.”

“Hey, Heivia. What’s that on the front of your rifle?”

“You can’t tell? It’s insecticide.”

“…Heivia, is the type of person that can’t touch bugs? To be fair, I can’t stand roaches myself.”

“You idiot.” Heivia brought his hand to his forehead. “This is the Amazon. It’s the world’s biggest jungle. There are rare and dangerous bugs that’ll sting you and bite you here. The giant spiders jump at you, so it’s dangerous to try to stomp on them with your boot. But it would be a waste of ammo to shoot at all of them. Also, it would be stupid to let the enemy know your location because of a bug. That’s why we need insecticide to deal with any dangerous bugs. Since we’re going for a bold attack here, we don’t have to worry about leaving any traces of our presence with dead bugs.”

“Is that so? I just hope it doesn’t leave a strange smell that military dogs can follow.”

“I’d be pretty excited to run across a Hercules beetle.”

Quenser and Heivia continued through the jungle as some strange bird cried overhead.

As Heivia used the various sensors attached to his rifle to check for hidden soldiers or traps, he said, “And what is that you have in your pocket? Looks like a book. Is it a camping manual for if we get stranded out in the jungle?”

“It’s nothing like that. It’s just a wild west novel. I was thinking I could read it if we had to wait around for the enemy to appear.”

“Oh, c’mon, Quenser. We’re taking part in a war involving giant Objects. Why are you reading a story about people shooting at each other with tiny pistols?”

“Heivia, you mustn’t forget the danger a single bullet can present.”

“Heh, you’re one to talk. You don’t even carry a single handgun. With how much you love to study, I would have thought you would be staring at Object designs during your breaks.”

Heivia spoke in light tones, but Quenser fell silent.

He could not tell Heivia he had been reading a paper by Sladder Honeysuckle.

That man was not normal.

All Quenser had been able to get his hands on was what was released online to the Legitimacy Kingdom. The Capitalist Corporations and the Legitimacy Kingdom were at war, so the information was likely of little importance. However, Quenser could see a fragment of that man’s genius hidden within.

Even a child could give a twisted response to a predetermined theme.

But that was only by using nonsense arguments.

An idea forced out while knowing it would never be useful in reality was no more valuable than an idle chat.

However, the place Sladder started from and where he kept his focus was not normal. He mentioned things Quenser had never noticed until then. Despite starting from some twisted idea that was something like a trompe l"oeil, the argument he constructed was perfectly logical and well-reasoned. He went through the proper steps needed to efficiently implement the theoretical idea.

The finished paper left its readers with a deep impression of a certain type. It was similar to seeing someone fit every single piece of a veritable mountain of luggage into a small storage box. It was close to that feeling of “oh, so you could put it in at that angle”.

However, Sladder’s text did not end there.

He also included a certain “possibility”.

If what he imagined was ever completed, it would be something unthinkable. And yet the reader was left with the desire to see a world where the ideas written there were made a reality. Even if that would only help the enemy.

That was the type of text it was.

It opened up a brand new dimension that would be unachievable just by memorizing the information in some textbooks.

It was no ordinary task to fight and win against someone with a brain as twisted as his.

Quenser was trembling in fear at the prospect, but Heivia did not notice. Instead, he held up his insecticide-equipped rifle and glared hatefully up at the sky.

“G.o.d dammit. This formation is a.s.suming a counterattack. We’re scattered about to reduce the losses in a bombardment.”

“If the princess’s Object was at 100%, there might have been a smarter way of doing this.” Quenser wiped sweat from his face. “But it’s odd.”

“What is?”

“If the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate had that high power railgun, why didn’t they just use it to target the moon base? They didn’t have to go with that roundabout method of using the satellite via the probe robot in Antarctica.”

“How am I supposed to know what they’re thinking? Maybe they felt there was meaning in carrying out their terrorist attack with a laser,” said Heivia offhand. “Also, their Object’s main cannon kept breaking up in midair due to frictional heat. They might have not thought it would make it out of the atmosphere.”

“…”

“Hey, don’t think about this so much. The Object is gone. It doesn’t matter to us how the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate insists on using their Object.”

“I hope we can be that optimistic.”

“Ahn? …Oh, are you talking about the possibility of the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate having a second Object?” Heivia sounded annoyed. “Only an Object can defeat an Object. I guess that’s why they want to preserve the weakened Baby Magnum. But sending us forward to check for an Object is more dangerous than removing landmines.”

“It would be quite a tragedy if we carelessly sent the princess in and she was destroyed by a surprise attack. We would lose our piece for checkmate. Do you want to continue on with a war of attrition that will never end?” asked Froleytia over the radio. She continued as if to make doubly sure. “Listen. Whether there is a second Object or not is vitally important to know, but we also can’t let the enemy scatter. We need to keep as many from getting away as possible and kill them here. At the very least, we absolutely must kill their leader, Sladder Honeysuckle. If he gets away, we cannot end this war here.”

“Fine, fine. Is this Honeysuckle guy really that much of a problem?”

“He is the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate’s prided Object designer. There is a risk of him even beginning construction on a new Object if he can make the proper preparations.”

“…You’re kidding, right? Doesn’t an Object cost at least 5 billion dollars?”

“He can raise that 5 billion on his own. He is a large shareholder and one of the most famous investors even in the Capitalist Corporations. I’m sure you know, but Object designer is a popular occupation because they receive ma.s.sive rewards. He knows ways of taking that ma.s.sive amount of money and making 10 or even 20 times the original amount. All transactions under the name Honeysuckle will have been frozen, but rumor has it that he has enough funds on hand for constructing an Object to be a real possibility.” Froleytia sounded annoyed. “That said, constructing an Object from scratch takes three full years. Unless he remains in hiding for a very long time, there may not be any real danger of this happening.”

“But if he joined forces with a third country that wants his skills, this could get bad,” said Quenser.

“Exactly,” replied Froleytia. “I have no intention of letting this war grow any further. Let’s exterminate these idiots as quickly as possible and stop the convoy near a hot spring. ...But to do that, we need to kill the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate here. We cannot let Sladder Honeysuckle escape no matter what. We need to make sure to get a picture of him, as well as get his fingerprints and a blood sample. We can negotiate with the Capitalist Corporations afterwards and use that information to confirm we completed the mission.”

“That’s only if the Capitalist Corporations go along with that.”

“We just need to create a situation where they have to.”

A different signal came in over Quenser’s radio.

He could hear a jet engine far, far above. The radio transmission was coming from there.

“This is Burning Alpha. We could scatter landmines around Amazon City to block their escape. We can drop them from the sky at any time.”

“I appreciate the suggestion, but no. I don’t want to contaminate our own land with mines. That would create a dangerous land that threatens to blow off someone’s leg even 50 years from now,” replied Froleytia.

“These are smart mines, so they can be detonated remotely.”

“If you can guarantee that not even one of those safety devices will fail, I will give approval. However, if one of them does fail, your unit will be plowing those fields. Do you still recommend this, Burning Alpha?”

“Don’t joke. Our job is to fly through the sky. We’re not used to trudging through the mud.”

Quenser looked up at the contrail overhead.

“Is the a.s.sault landing aircraft carrier helping out too?” he asked.

“Everyone is desperate to make sure the damaged Object can function. I thought Objects were synonymous with war. Did we find our way back to a war from a few decades ago?” complained Heivia.

Meanwhile, the texture of the ground changed. Instead of the soft, wet humus, they were now walking on a cracked asphalt road. They had made it to one of the countless roads that connected to the ruins of Amazon City that had been swallowed up by the jungle.

They were near the city that would be the battlefield.

Heivia frowned and looked up for no real reason.

“Wait, are we just going in? Isn’t the Object going to blow away the buildings in the way first? We have no idea how many enemies there are in these buildings.”

“They can’t hide an Object in them though. We can ignore anything that can’t,” replied Froleytia coolly. “The princess’s Object was damaged in the battle against the Break Carrier and her railgun and coilgun sh.e.l.ls have not been replenished. We want to avoid any unnecessary firing. And only a high power attack from another Object can damage it. It won’t be destroyed from a portable missile fired from a window.”

“…We’re in trouble, Heivia. It doesn’t look like they’re thinking about any protection for soldiers like us,” said Quenser with a sigh.

At the same time, he heard a great roar as many trees were knocked over.

He turned around to see a giant ma.s.s of steel approaching from behind. It was the Baby Magnum.

“Seriously? Let’s just destroy the entire environment here, why don’t we?”

“This is a lot more ecological than when they practiced slash-and-burn farming.”

Their field of vision was opening up.

They had entered the ruins of Amazon City.

Quenser and Heivia were standing on a surface covered in gray asphalt and concrete. However, the artificial ground had giant cracks running through it and trees were growing through those gaps in the center of the road. Most of the windows on the buildings were gone and plenty of the buildings were leaning. The traffic lights and streetlights were of course not lit. The rusty street signs were so worn down it was impossible to tell what had been written on them.

The one other noticeable characteristic was….

“This is a d.a.m.n wide road. It has 3 lanes on each side, but it looks 80 meters across overall. I think the road takes up more area than the buildings,” muttered Quenser.

Heivia replied offhandedly, “The main street was probably designed to accommodate a parade featuring an Object.”

Looking up, Quenser could see power lines running high in the sky between building rooftops. The power network was likely constructed from a combination of underground cables and those high cables so as to not get in the way of an Object parade. The subway and water system may have been set up to not pa.s.s below the main street for that same reason.

Half in shock, Quenser said, “It is true that a lot of large cities in safe countries are designed for those ridiculous parades, but it isn’t normal to keep that width for the roads other than the main street.”

“This city was made for jungle mining. They needed the roads to be wide and durable enough to allow the large machinery to pa.s.s smoothly through.”

“Hmm. The dump trucks for that kind of thing are as tall as a school building, right?”

“Yeah, the driver needs to climb a staircase to get in.”

Suddenly, they heard distant gunshots ringing through the blue sky. As if lured out by those gunshots, more gunshots followed. If they focused, they could notice a vague difference in the pitch of the gunshots.

Two different forces were firing at each other.

Heivia reached for the switch for his rifle’s sensors and said, “So it’s begun.”

“The princess is nearby too, so I guess we don’t really need to try so hard to remain so covert.”

Quenser and Heivia were not in the middle of the road. They were slowly moving along while keeping next to a pile of rubble a few meters tall that had likely once been a building wall. They were watching their surroundings closely as they advanced.

“What do you think?”

“We can probably ignore anything from above. As Froleytia said, I doubt there are any weapons that can critically damage an Object.”

“But those spare cannons that attacked us in Antarctica and on the Iguazu coast were railguns meant to be used on Objects. So…”

“Yeah, and they’re meant to be attached to a 200,000 ton Object when fired. When attached to the ground, you need to put an anchor over 10 meters deep into the ground to fix them in place. If you attached them to the floors of these rundown buildings, they’d knock the entire building over when fired.”

“Understood. So we just need to worry about snipers in a window while we search for any spare cannons on the ground.”

At that point, the princess contacted them over the radio.

“Quenser, Heivia, plug your ears.”

“?”

“I have received an order to a.s.sist with a bombardment. If you do not hurry up, your eardrums will be blown out.”

“G.o.d dammit!!” the two idiots shouted.

They did not only plug their ears, but also leaped down to the ground.

Immediately afterwards, a tremendous noise and shockwave rushed toward them.

A coilgun sh.e.l.l ripped through a few buildings ahead and flew off into the distance. It was one of the smaller cannons on the Object, but the word “small” only applied when talking on the scale of that monstrosity of a weapon.

Quenser got up within a cloud of dust and coughed.

“Cough, cough. Dammit, I think that kind of a.s.sistance is as dangerous as the enemy…”

“I-I’d certainly want to get 100 to 200 meters away from where it hits at the very, very least.”

That was the strength of a unit with an Object.

The strength of those foot soldiers was not just the a.s.sault rifles they held. As long as they could call in the coordinates, the Object could blow away the target with pinpoint accuracy. They were merely borrowing the power of the Object, but there was still nothing more frightening for their enemies.

Quenser looked around the area and said, “It’s possible there are hidden enemy soldiers or spare cannons around here. And now we have to be careful to make sure our own Object doesn’t blow us away with that shockwave. …Dammit. What ever happened to leaving war to the Objects?”

Froleytia’s voice then came from his radio.

“Those spare cannons are relatively small when it comes to Object armaments. They aren’t main cannon cla.s.s, so I doubt they can shoot through an Object’s armor. You do not need to be on the lookout for them.”

“Then remind me why we’re out here again.”

“How many times do I have to tell you that the Baby Magnum is damaged? One of the damaged areas is the propulsion device. Right now, it is possible the Baby Magnum cannot move across excessively tall piles of rubble. If that happens, the combat engineers are needed. You need to use your explosives to blow away those shackles as quickly as possible.”

Meanwhile, the princess’s Object had entered the city. The main street had been constructed to accommodate an Object parade, but the street signs and traffic lights would likely have been removed beforehand. They did not have time for that at the moment. The Baby Magnum simply smashed those obstacles as it advanced.

Heivia had been speaking over his radio, but he now turned to Quenser.

“It seems the others have entered the city from different points. We’re going to head inwards, slowly tightening the circle, until we have searched our way to the center of the city. The frequency of gunshots will likely increase as times goes on.”

“What exactly are we going to do? Are we going to head into each and every building to search for enemies?”

“First, we’ll destroy their transportation.” Heivia shrugged. “With 500 people, the enemy is on the level of a company. It can’t be easy to transport all of them. They must have a large convoy somewhere, so we just have to blow that up. That way, they can’t escape these ruins. We can take our time searching them out then.”

Quenser looked up at the contrails overhead.

“Can’t they find that from the sky? Y’know, using satellites or fighters.”

Even then, the delta-winged fighters flying through the blue sky were dropping large bombs into the middle of the ruins. Low rumbles were pa.s.sing below Quenser and Heivia’s feet.

“It isn’t that easy,” said Froleytia over the radio in an annoyed voice. “The satellite confirmed a large group of vehicles entered an underground parking garage in the middle of the city, but there is no guarantee there are no other vehicles. They might have additional transportation hidden ahead of time in a different underground parking garage.”

“So we need to start searching any underground areas?”

“You should also check any abandoned vehicles you come across. They might merely be disguised to look abandoned and Sladder Honeysuckle could escape using one.”

Multiple gunshots sounded in the distance.

There was no combat occurring near Quenser and Heivia, but that may have been because no enemy soldiers had been in the area by mere coincidence or because they had left formation to distance themselves from Baby Magnum.

“If Honeysuckle suggested that plan when they’re cornered, wouldn’t he just end up being ganged up on by the others? We see Honeysuckle as an important figure we must not let escape, but would they really see that as a means of victory? What the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate wants is a safe place to head to. If they were putting their lives on the line and then their commander headed for the goal on his own, I doubt the others would accept just being cast aside.”

“Quenser, let me tell you something. It does not matter what they think,” replied Froleytia with a short sigh. “We just need to achieve our own objective. Even if Honeysuckle was truly thinking of a means for world peace, we would shoot him and call it a day. All of this has surely led them to resent us. If they gain power once more, the odds are good they will turn their sights on the Legitimacy Kingdom.”

“Yes, yes. Our cool, beautiful commander is frightening,” said Heivia casually with a twisted smile on his face as gunshots and explosions sounded in the distance.

But then…

“…”

“?”

The two of them came to a stop.

The path before them had turned black. It began about 20 meters ahead. At first they thought some past earthquake had ripped up the asphalt and exposed the black soil beneath. However, they realized they were wrong as they approached.

Something like black tar was flowing from the entrance to a building on the side of the road…or so it looked. The black stain was flowing thin and wide so that it covered the entire width of that large runway-like road.

Yes.

That was what it looked like, but…

“Are you kidding me…?” groaned Heivia.

When they looked closely, it became clear it was not a black liquid that was spreading out. Many, many small objects were crawling up and down. Someone who watched some of the more unusual doc.u.mentaries might recognize what the collection of tens if not hundreds of thousands of small black objects was.

It was a swarm of army ants.

Quenser and Heivia both quickly moved instinctually back away from it. The great number of small bugs caused a physiological revulsion inside them and the smattering of knowledge they had caused fear to well up within them.

“Wait just a second! Aren’t these those things that move in groups of tens of thousands and will swarm over any cows or pigs nearby and eat them!?”

“That’s the Amazon for you. Nature is on an entirely different level here!!” shouted back Heivia as his eyes raced about the area.

He had no intention of charging into an area that had been taken over by the army ants. He was hoping to find a side road to head down, but…

He heard a rustling sound like a plastic bag being balled up.

It was the sound of a large tree growing near the two boys falling over so as to block the path back. The inside of the tree had been entirely rotten, but the confusion of branches growing out from it created natural intercrossing bars to block their escape. It was too thick for them to climb over or crawl through.

Heivia’s eyes opened wide.

“s.h.i.t!! What the h.e.l.l is going on!? That thing was sticking up through the asphalt just a second ago!!”

“It might have just been barely standing and the shockwave of the princess’s bombardment shook it a little too much…”

At any rate, they could not fall back any further than 30 meters.

The roads in the ruins of Amazon City were quite wide, but the giant tree was half broken so that it formed a V-shape on the asphalt. Between the building walls and the remains of the giant tree, Quenser and Heivia were completely trapped. Their one escape was through the area controlled by the army ants.

Quenser tapped Heivia on the shoulder as he stared at the swarm of insects.

“This is bad! If we don’t do something soon, we’ll be part of the ant and the gra.s.shopper’s winter reserves!!”

“What exactly do you suggest we do!? If I tried shooting that group of tens of thousands, I’d run out of ammo in no time at all. And if we tried stomping on them with our boots, they’d probably just climb up our legs and counterattack!!”

Quenser pointed at the object attached to the end of Heivia’s rifle.

“How about you use that insecticide you have there?”

“Oh!! I did supply myself with this special item, didn’t I!?”

Heivia must have completely forgotten he had it, but now he finally held up his rifle. He pulled the trigger of the insecticide attached like a bayonet.

The swarm of army ants had already approached about 10 meters.

The cloud of insecticide forcefully struck them. Instead of spreading out like a spray, the insecticide flew in a direct trajectory like a powerful water gun. Quenser optimistically thought about how it could be used to blind an enemy temporarily.

But then…

“Gyahh!? The insecticide just sent the army ants on a desperate rampage our way!”

“Get back, you idiot! We need to get some distance!! If they catch up to us, we’ll be bitten all over!!”

While fleeing with Heivia, Quenser frantically shouted into his radio.

“Baby Magnum! Can you fry these ants with a small laser beam or something!?”

“I can, but…”

“Then hurry! Do it now!!”

“If I fire it at the ground that near you, the light will make the light from welding look like nothing. Most likely, the two of you will be permanently blinded.”

“Agh, dammit!! So we’re blocked at every turn!!”

“Y’know, this is a pretty lame war we’re fighting if we’re about to be killed by ants!!” shouted Heivia as he sprayed about the water gun-like insecticide.

Quenser looked at a nearby building and said, “What do we do!? Should we head upstairs in a building and wait for them to pa.s.s!?”

“Didn’t the ant colony come from within one of those buildings!? And if the ants happen to head inside the building we flee into, we’ll be cornered eventually!!”

Quenser recalled the feeling of the bag he wore on his back. It was possible he could throw a plastic explosive and blow them away.

(But could I really take out all of those tens of thousands of ants? I could probably blow away a portion of them, but…)

At that point, Quenser reached for the smoke bombs inside Heivia’s uniform. The sudden action surprised Heivia.

“Kyahh, pervert! What are you doing, you molester!!”

“You still have the mental leeway to joke, Heivia? ...Anyway!! Hand over smoke grenades and smoke bombs for contacting helicopters!! Just hand over everything that emits smoke!!”

“What, why? How are you going to target the smoke toward them?”

Without responding, Quenser pulled the pins out of the drink can-sized objects and threw them one after another.

In shock, Heivia shouted, “You really suck, you know that!? Half of those didn’t even land in the ant colony! And the smoke’ll head up, so it’ll barely affect the ants crawling on the ground!!”

“This is fine.”

Quenser hurriedly reached for the Hand Axe plastic explosives in his bag, carefully adjusted the amount, and stabbed an electric fuse into it. This time he threw the ma.s.s straight up. It flew up a few dozen meters.

“And now a bomb?”

“This is to make sure that smoke doesn’t go to waste.”

Heivia frowned in confusion and Quenser hit the switch on his radio.

The Hand Axe detonated in midair.

The smoke that had flown high into the sky was slammed back to the ground.

It was like a giant fist had dropped down on top of it.

Depending on the model, the smoke grenades and smoke bombs let out white, red, yellow, and other colors of smoke. All those colors dropped back to the ground at once as if struck by that giant hand. When they struck the ground, they spread out in every direction.

The many ants panicked and tried to scatter in every direction, but they did not have enough time. After about 180 seconds in the smoke, they lost their momentum, started only twitching, and finally stopped moving altogether.

“…Ow… If that had just been a normal blast, you wouldn’t have been able to tell how much explosive was used.”

“Hey, Quenser. Are those things really dead? They’re not just playing dead, right?”

“How about you use that insecticide to check?”

Heivia cautiously sprayed the insecticide from a distance, but he got no response. The two boys finally breathed a sigh of relief, but they still didn’t enjoy the prospect of walking through that swarm of ants. They kept as far away from the middle as they could. In other words, they timidly headed across the carpet of dead ants while pressed up against the side of a building.

After crossing that carpet of ant corpses, Heivia looked around.

“We need to hurry. The Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate will head here to check on that explosion and the smoke. Even if a firefight is inevitable, I’d rather not be surrounded. We can at least leave a bomb or some kind of trap, though.”

“…No, look at that.”

“What is it?”

Heivia looked puzzled, but Quenser pointed inside a window of one of the buildings.

“Aren’t those Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate soldiers that are collapsed there? See, they’ve been bitten all over and have swollen up.”

“Seriously? …I guess that explains why we were the only ones to avoid a firefight.”

“War really can be pretty lame sometimes.”

Froleytia was on standby in the maintenance base zone that had been set up well back of the battlefield. The commander’s office prepared for her was properly covered in tatami mats ordered from the j.a.panese islands and a short table had her laptop sitting on it.

Froleytia was using that laptop to monitor the progress of the battle, but then she received a video chat. She placed her long, narrow j.a.panese kiseru in a j.a.panese tobacco tray and then opened a new window.

A solidly built middle aged man was displayed in the window.

It took some effort on Froleytia’s part to keep her expression pa.s.sive upon seeing the rank insignia on the shoulders of his military uniform.

(A Capitalist Corporations major general!! I had a feeling they would be calling before long, but…)

“I am Major General Buffer Planters calling on behalf of the Capitalist Corporations military. It has come to our attention that you are pursuing our Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate.”

(Buffer Planters…)

Froleytia recognized the name.

(Dammit. That’s the VIP that Quenser and Heivia carelessly saved from that moon villa attack.)

“I am Major Froleytia Capistrano, the commanding officer here. So you will not waste your time, let me inform you ahead of time that we will not discuss the means by which we will end this.”

As ranks went, there was a huge difference between major and major general, but Froleytia did not particularly care. What mattered more was that they were soldiers of enemy nations.

It seemed the man felt the same.

“Girl, we are not talking about ridiculous honor here. We would like to talk about profit.”

“Are you afraid we will gain information on Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate technology after we crush them?”

If the Capitalist Corporations was worried about something, it would be that.

It was also possible they wanted to make sure Sladder Honeysuckle, the Object designer involved in the construction of the Break Carrier, did not defect to the Legitimacy Kingdom.

“Even if Honeysuckle surrenders to us, we will shoot him, so do not worry. In the Legitimacy Kingdom, we value honor and law above all. After someone has opposed us as he has, we have no system by which to receive them with open arms.”

“No, that is not what we are worried about.” Buffer shook his head slowly. “For one, if the Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate truly intended to defect to the Legitimacy Kingdom, they would not have fought with your unit like that.”

“True enough, but…”

Froleytia finally began to frown.

In that case, why had that Capitalist Corporations military leader contacted her?

Not caring about the technological information Sladder Honeysuckle had was not like a modern soldier who sent Objects to the battlefield. If there was anything else he was thinking about, it had to be…

(Money…?)

Sladder had received ma.s.sive compensation for his Object designs and he supposedly carried out ma.s.sive stock trades using that money. He was such a ma.s.sive investor, it was said he could prepare an Object and start a war all on his own. It was possible the Capitalist Corporations would insist that money belonged to them. But…

(Is that really more important than the Object development race? It is true the Capitalist Corporations supposedly prioritize human rights by the amount of money people have saved, but does that thought process go so far as to…?)

“Oh, how rude of me. Did I confuse you by any chance?” Buffer Planters shook his head once more and then gave a bitter smile. “I merely said we are not worried about Honeysuckle defecting ‘to the Legitimacy Kingdom’.”

“You don’t mean…”

“This is no longer an issue of only two forces,” continued Buffer as if to reinforce Froleytia’s fear. “The Ma.s.s Driver conglomerate has requested a.s.sistance from the Information Alliance.”

Her face grew pale.

The Information Alliance was one of the world powers on par with the Legitimacy Kingdom that Froleytia belonged to. Naturally, many nations and Objects belonged to that force. And these Objects would not be like the princess’s. Those monstrous weapons would be in perfect condition and polished to look as good as new. Not only did the Information Alliance have plenty of Generation 1 Objects, but they also had plenty of Generation 2 Objects.

They were quite skilled on the technology front and it was said their military software surpa.s.sed even that of the Legitimacy Kingdom military. They were the ones putting the most research into projects to create unmanned Objects using AI.

(…Not good. If that’s true, we can’t have them interfering given our current exhausted state!!)

Froleytia clenched her teeth and pictured an image of the layout of power in South America. Currently, the Baby Magnum, Quenser, and the others were deployed in the Amazon district. The Parima district that was ruled by the Information Alliance lay right next to it.

Buffer Planters continued, “At this rate, the Information Alliance military is sure to send aid to the ruins of Amazon City. The one question is whether that aid will be nothing more than supplying firearms and additional supplies or if it will include a large scale movement of personnel, weapons, and at least one Object.”

Soldiers who had been taken out by the army ants were collapsed here and there.

It seemed they had been in the middle of setting up a gun platform hidden behind a building. One of the spare Object railguns and a crane equipped with a boring device for driving the 10 meter+ anchor into the ground were left with the work half complete.

In shock, Heivia muttered, “Were they so focused on their work that they didn’t notice the ants drawing near?”

Even on a battlefield ruled by Objects, soldiers would check their surroundings. However, they would focus on the routes by which people could approach. If a swarm of army ants suddenly came pouring out of a manhole directly below the equipment, that would easily slip through a gap in their guard.

Heivia crouched down and peered at one of the convulsing soldiers.

A bite from a mosquito would cause a slight swelling. The soldiers had similar marks covering their entire bodies two or three times over. The small ants had bitten them again and again. Even so, they had been fortunate enough to not have run across the types of army ants that would eat them down to the bo