Heavy Object

His name was Cardinal Roybelz Oldnick of the Faith Organization.

"So he was the idiot that made those problematic statements," muttered Froleytia as she looked at the photo displayed on her laptop while distracted by her hangover headache.

While she was alone in the officer room, she was not speaking to herself. A voice chat application was running on the laptop.

Instead of someone from the military, she was speaking with the aide of a politician who dealt with diplomatic issues back in the home country. Basically, the situation had grown complicated enough that a politician like that had to get involved.

An elderly voice spoke over the voice chat, "The Faith Organization began by advocating any and all religions. The religious power that lost the most in that deal was the Christian church. After all, when religions of an older era are revived, the amount of land and number of people they have effective control over will become further divided. It was only natural that some spoke up in fears of their power weakening."

In reality, they were not having their power taken away from them. Instead, the balance of power was being restored to how it had once been. However, after 2000 years had pa.s.sed, they no longer saw it that way.

Froleytia put her long, narrow kiseru in her mouth and said, "So this cardinal who feared losing his power took control of the military and went nuts. He caused a civil war with a Greek power and ended up being utterly defeated in a counterattack."

"It sounds simple enough when you put it like that, but over 5000 people died in the process. The conflict did not fall within the boundaries of a clean war. A lot of civilians from safe countries charged into the battlefield based on some inappropriate remarks he made."

"Yes, and Oldnick says he merely said the words and he cannot be held responsible for how people interpreted them. What a joke."

The words of those with power would spread and therefore those people had to be more responsible about the things they said.

It was clear what would happen if some idiot who did not understand that repeatedly made careless statements during a time of war.

Oldnick was a truly dangerous speaker. He had made repeated inappropriate off-the-cuff statements which had led the military and civilians to take action. Many had died from this, but Oldnick only made worse and worse statements when he tried to explain away his previous statements and escape any blame. It all continued to escalate like a s...o...b..ll rolling down a hill.

For someone with no power, the statements would have been nothing worse than an old man finding fault with a baseball player while watching a game on TV, but things changed when it was someone with the power to move an entire nation.

"The Christian power within the Faith Organization insists the entire incident was Cardinal Roybelz Oldnick"s individual actions, but they are primarily saying this to avoid further investigation from the central power of the Faith Organization. Oldnick has already been excommunicated from the Christian church, and they agreed to send Valkyrie after him as the central power suggested."

"And now this old man has started shouting even more nonsense now that he is in real danger."

"At the very least, he wants to avoid being a.s.sa.s.sinated by Valkyrie. That is how he has been acting ever since the Loyauté district."

"Does anyone really believe this nonsense about the Legitimacy Kingdom being an ally of the Christian power within the Faith Organization because the ceremonies for royalty and knights have Christian elements to them?"

"If any idiot truly believes that, they need to be taken to the hospital immediately. However, there are plenty of people who will claim it is true to take advantage of the situation. These people think this skirmish is an excellent opportunity to attack some Objects."

Even in a clean war, a battle between Objects was still expensive.

Part of war was striking a balance between income and expenditures. If that could not be done, the idea of the clean war would come crumbling down.

The elderly voice said, "We do not wish for people to head to war based on the nonsense coming from this cardinal. Even if a conflict with the Faith Organization cannot be avoided outright, we would like for it to be based on something with more value to us."

"So..."

"We need you to quickly silence this problematic statement emitter. You have three days. How you eliminate him does not matter so long as his ident.i.ty can be confirmed via DNA."

"So even our Christmas break went exactly as the higher ups had planned."

Quenser and Heivia were speaking within the Baby Magnum"s maintenance area.

The princess was listening in with as little expression on her face as ever.

"This Cardinal Oldnick had contacted Hyena from the Loyauté district. Some data we found in their headquarters after blowing them away made that clear enough."

"But why? I would think a cardinal would insist on keeping things clean. Would he really contact a group that is using the restoration of Oceania as a chance to rob people?"

"We still don"t know what he"s after. He"s causing quite an uproar, but we still can"t figure out what he hopes to achieve in the end. It"s possible he"s just fleeing to save his own skin," pointed out Heivia offhandedly. "It"s possible he wanted to use them against the Faith Organization"s Valkyrie. Those grim reapers are quite something, but they"re still flesh-and-blood soldiers. There is a chance he was planning to use Hyena to deal with Valkyrie."

However, Quenser and the rest of the Legitimacy Kingdom had eliminated Hyena before they and Valkyrie could cross paths.

Since Oldnick himself had not been turned to ash, he must have detected some kind of harbinger of the bombardment and fled.

"We know Valkyrie was lurking around the Loyauté district, but I guess he must have escaped them."

"He must have. After escaping the island, Oldnick likely tried to escape to Oceania where he could slip in amongst the confusion of restoration. With the coalition force confusing everything, a single organization has a harder time moving around than elsewhere. He probably hoped to escape to somewhere else of his choosing after losing Valkyrie in Oceania," said Quenser as he leaned up against a large piece of machinery. "But before he could, our unit came to rest at the north end of Oceania...and that was exactly where Oldnick was expected to land. That meant he couldn"t land without being blown out of the water, much less disappear into the confusion. Since we had already crushed all of Hyena after he contacted them, Oldnick would have been cautious about approaching us. Just as the higher ups hoped, he had no choice but to head north by sea."

Roybelz Oldnick was currently using a civilian charter boat to head to the Solomon district which was north of both Oceania and Loyauté.

"The reason he isn"t using an airplane is likely that he is afraid of being targeted with anti-air lasers, but that changes little. Objects can travel at over 500 kph on the sea. Even if the charter boat is a high-speed hydrofoil, he can"t escape."

The princess then cut in.

"By the way, Quenser."

"What?"

The princess pointed at one wall of the maintenance area and asked her question while still expressionless.

"Why is Heivia writing curses on the wall while speaking with you?"

"I honestly couldn"t tell you..."

"Like h.e.l.l you don"t know!!" shouted Heivia while he glared at and grabbed Quenser. "I heard what happened!! I know what you were doing while I was struggling to save Oceania and our unit! You were keeping all the best parts to yourself!! Why do I keep hearing about a huge-breasted miniskirt bikini Santa!?"

"...That was a type of h.e.l.l in its own way."

"You and your d.a.m.n "let them eat cake" att.i.tude!! You monster!! Are you asking for a fight!?"

Heivia then realized that all the yelling in the world would not get rid of the empty feeling within him, so his mood dropped to a point three times lower than before.

The princess also seemed slightly miffed, but those two idiots were completely oblivious to that fact.

"I honestly think I was the hero this time. I was shining in the spotlight. That cruise missile targeting the maintenance soldiers was similar to our idea of destroying the computer in the Loyauté district to make the Object unusable. The Deep Optical"s unit from the Capitalist Corporations had to be behind it somehow, so I felt like I was opening the first page of some grand epic of a story!! But now that I think back on it, something wasn"t right about the whole thing! Why wasn"t there a single beautiful girl in that story!! All I got was some middle-aged guy named Royce! What the h.e.l.l kind of miscasting is that!?"

Suddenly, an electronic tone came from one of their radios.

However, it did not come from Quenser or Heivia"s.

It came from the smaller, more expensive one used to inform the princess it was time to scramble the Object.

"What?"

"The situation has changed. Our plan was to intercept that troublesome old man as he headed north through the ocean in the Solomon district, but a Capitalist Corporations Object has appeared cutting off our route."

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance.

"It is the Deep Optical, a Second Generation Object from the Client Security company. I had a feeling we would be engaging it in the near future, but this timing is odd. It is possible Roybelz Oldnick has some connection with them."

"What exactly is the change to the plan?" asked the princess.

"We had planned to simply have you pursue Oldnick, but we will now have you face the Deep Optical. A separate group will head after Oldnick, but I will explain it all in more detail at the pre-mission briefing."

Quenser had a question, so he simply asked it.

"Froleytia, do you think the Deep Optical is standing in our way for more than a personal grudge against us?"

He then heard an odd clattering noise come from over the radio.

It sounded like Froleytia had tried to draw back from the radio but had failed as she was sitting down. As a result, she had fallen back in her seat.

"...Qu-Quenser...You were there?"

"Um, Froleytia? Is there a prob-..."

"No!! Don"t say anything!!"

For some reason Froleytia shouted back at him before he could finish speaking.

"Forget everything that happened yesterday!! I don"t remember a thing, so I have no idea what I may have said, but I can tell it was something horrible from the reaction of those around me!! So don"t say a single thing about it!!"

Something had been said that was causing Froleytia to blush out of delighted embarra.s.sment. When Heivia heard that, his self control finally reached its limit and he punched Quenser.

Quenser used the short time until the pre-mission briefing to skim through a science magazine.

The old maintenance lady walked over in annoyance.

"If you have time to read that, how about you learn about a real Object?"

"I"ve been feeling some desire for infidelity lately."

"?"

The old lady looked confused, but Quenser showed her a page of the science magazine.

"This is about the Capitalist Corporations" liquid prism technology. The Legitimacy Kingdom still hasn"t developed that tech far enough to make a practical weapon. They say the end product ups the output of laser beams by quite a bit."

"The Legitimacy Kingdom is carrying out research on this. They are a standard component of laser s.p.a.ce elevators. They are used to send lasers fired from multiple oscillators in the same direction."

"Eh? So we do have the actual technology?"

"Yes, but only when it does not have to stand up to the high speed battles Objects go through," she replied. "Liquid prisms are created by filling transparent containers with a special liquid. The inside of the container is covered with electrodes and electrochemical control of the chemical interface is used to artificially alter the concentration of the liquid. Differences in concentration are used to bend the light."

"I see. But what does that have to do with high speed battles?"

"Sudden turns cause high G forces that will disturb the liquid within the liquid prism. The artificial alterations to the concentration of liquid within the container will be undone, bringing the liquid back to an even concentration. That is why it is difficult to put liquid prisms on an Object that makes quick movements and shakes with the firing of sh.e.l.ls. Another problem is that the high temperatures created when the laser pa.s.ses through will agitate the liquid as well," explained the old lady. "The key to the Capitalist Corporations" technology is not the liquid prism technology itself. It is the shock resistance technology and temperature countermeasures used to prevent external interference with the liquid prism. For example, they could use laser vibration detectors, fast-acting coolants, or cartridges. But even with all those technologies, an Object with a liquid prism aboard will have limited combat options. It will avoid making quick movements like our princess does. That means liquid prism technology has limited uses for Objects. Or at least it does not match the needs of our unit."

"It"s a shame the technology doesn"t fit in more nicely than that."

"If there was no risk to using it, Objects around the world would be using them. Also, that science magazine will only have the information they see no problem with letting the public know about. I would say there is more value in watching maintenance on an actual Object rather than reading that thing."

"It"s in my nature to try to find a shortcut."

With a grumble of complaint, Quenser stood up.

Once again, it seemed his only option was the standard path.

The pre-mission briefing began.

A projector displayed a map of the ocean in the Solomon district. Froleytia spoke as a few arrows were added on top.

"Our primary target is Roybelz Oldnick who is travelling north through the Solomon district sea. Do not forget that every action during this mission should be taken in order to carry out that objective."

However, a giant shape had interposed itself between the north of Oceania and Oldnick"s boat.

"But the real danger lies in the fact that the Capitalist Corporations" Deep Optical has been deployed in order to cut off our path. Unless we do something about it, we cannot finish off Oldnick before he flees. As such, the Baby Magnum must engage the Deep Optical."

Heivia asked a question.

"Are we to remain on standby until our princess has sent the Deep Optical to rest on the bottom of the ocean? Or are we going to head after Oldnick by taking a large detour around the Object while the princess is drawing its attention?"

"That would be the best option, but we do not have time." Froleytia added an arrow pointing to the west of Oldnick"s boat. "An unidentified submarine has surfaced. We do not know if it belongs to the Deep Optical"s unit or if it belongs to the remnants of Oldnick"s military force, but this could become much more difficult if Oldnick"s boat rendezvouses with the submarine."

"So we have to crush him before that happens. ...But how?"

Froleytia"s shoulders stiffened a bit at hearing Quenser"s voice, but her self control won out.

"As I said, the princess will engage the Deep Optical." Froleytia added another arrow heading right along the arrow indicating the shortest route. "But there is more to the ocean than the surface. A different group will head straight there while travelling deep under the ocean. Currently, we have no other way to catch up to Oldnick."

Froleytia drew a large circle around an area of sea even further north of where Oldnick was.

"One other thing. Just north of the operation area is an precious metal ocean mining plant financed by the Legitimacy Kingdom. Simply put, small filters are used to collect the metals dissolved into the ocean water and the metals are then condensed. The higher ups fear that valuable tungsten deposits will be lost in this battle. Make sure you do not forget that."

After the naval battle floats were installed, the Baby Magnum travelled north from Oceania and through the Coral Sea.

The Capitalist Corporations" Deep Optical was waiting at a point that cut off its path to the Solomon district where Oldnick had fled.

This was a true battle. It was a fight to the death. And like the battles in the many wars of the past, the girl piloting the Object exchanged no words with her opponent. She did not even know if the pilot of the enemy craft was male or female.

In a way, it was a clean battle. In a way, it was an empty battle.

The two faced off at a distance of about 10 kilometers.

"The intelligence group has carried out unofficial reconnaissance operations concerning the Deep Optical, but we still do not have any complete information. Do not get carried away in attack. Keep evasion a priority at all times."

"Understood," replied the princess.

In the next moment, the Deep Optical began to move.

They were 10 kilometers apart.

The Object fired a brilliant white laser beam at that range.

"...!?"

The princess just barely managed to evade by predicting the action from the subtle movements of the targeting lenses and other equipment.

An explosive noise followed the beam of light.

The laser beam roasted the dust and moisture in the air which produced a ma.s.sive amount of heat, causing the air to expand explosively.

The Deep Optical had a very unique shape. Eight legs spread out directly below its spherical main body. All eight of those legs functioned as air cushion engines so it could remain accurately level even amidst waves.

For a main cannon, the Deep Optical had a giant laser beam cannon on its upper right side. Also, eight thick cylinders were attached to the spherical main body with the base of the main cannon at the center as if they were the face of a clock. The energy produced by those eight cylinders was likely collected for the main cannon.

According to some footage the princess had seen during the pre-mission briefing, it had two giant parts attached to the back. They were thought to be cooling devices.

It also had countless lenses unnaturally positioned on the front of the spherical main body like some kind of crop circle. The Object gave an overall ominous impression.

"Do not falter. The enemy"s main cannon is a laser beam! Its strength is attenuated with distance, but its speed remains the same. Approaching will only put you at a disadvantage!!"

"I know that!!"

After somehow managing to avoid the first shot, the princess forced the Baby Magnum on forward.

At the same time, she moved the main cannon arms.

The Baby Magnum could change what type of main cannon it used to match the situation. The backs of the barrels rotated like revolvers to choose laser beams just like the Deep Optical used.

The princess fired without hesitation.

The Deep Optical reacted immediately.

But its evasion speed was slow. It moved at only half the speed the Baby Magnum had. The princess saw no way it could avoid the laser beam like that. However...

"What...!?"

"..."

As everyone watched on, the laser beam the princess had fired suddenly changed trajectory. It headed off into the empty sky rather than to the Deep Optical.

"The heat produced by the laser altered the refractive index of the air!!" concluded the princess.

"Not good. Are they calculating it out using a super computer?"

The back of the seven barrels rotated once more as she chose the coilgun.

As she was directly firing a metal sh.e.l.l, the heat of the air would have minimal effects.

All seven main cannons fired in unison.

As before, the Deep Optical"s evasion speed was low. It only moved far enough out of the way to protect half of its body.

However...

Bright white beams of light burst out.

"Again!? The Deep Optical altered the course of the sh.e.l.ls just before they hit!"

"It must have focused its smaller laser beam cannons on them. By gouging holes in the side of the sh.e.l.ls, air resistance would cause them to fly off course!!"

Simply put, it was a type of laser parry.

It was a stunt only possible with dozens of weapons that travelled at the speed of light.

The princess fired the coilguns several more times, but the laser parry was very accurate. Even at the close range of 1 or 2 kilometers, it proved difficult to do any damage with metal sh.e.l.ls.

All the while, the enemy"s tremendous laser beam cannons fired back at the princess.

As this intense battle progressed, the princess calmly continued to a.n.a.lyze the situation.

Suddenly, one of the giant coilgun sh.e.l.ls deflected by the laser parry landed in the ocean right next to the Deep Optical.

(Does it not have accurate control over what direction they are deflected in?)

Just as an explosive splash of water threatened to flip the Deep Optical over, something strange happened.

The Object regained its balance with an unnatural movement. It was as if its center of gravity was located in the wrong place like with a self-righting doll.

"We detected high power lasers coming from the side of the spherical main body when it recovered its balance. It must have a system to explosively expand the air and use the momentum to forcefully right itself. It can likely right itself even when tipped as far as 70-80 degrees to the side."

With that in mind, the Deep Optical seemed to be a craft that was designed with a focus on stability.

It would stay in one place and fire its accurate and powerful laser beam cannons. Speed was sacrificed to ensure its main cannon would not malfunction. It seemed to be designed to have the upper hand when it came to the speed of its weapons rather than the speed of the entire Object"s movements.

(If Quenser saw this, he would probably get excited.)

"That must mean the Deep Optical does not have much in the way of quick bursts of speed."

"Its top speed probably is not too bad, but it may only be able to reach those speeds via smooth acceleration. Laser technology can be delicate. It may have to be careful in order to ensure that it does not destroy itself with the G forces created by its own movements."

That meant...

"I can defeat it by drawing in close and firing relentlessly!!" shouted the princess as she accelerated the Baby Magnum forward.

She knew the enemy could interfere with the laser beam and coilgun options for her main cannon, but the Baby Magnum still had one trump card left.

The low-stability plasma cannons.

She could avoid the Deep Optical"s main cannon by monitoring the subtle actions made before firing. If she could fire her seven main cannons again and again while not getting hit herself, she could sink the Deep Optical.

Or so she thought.

(Huh?)

Doubt came to her mind.

The princess was taking evasive actions based on the subtle movements of the enemy"s sensors, lenses, and cannons. With an enemy like the Deep Optical that used laser beam cannons, it was impossible to evade if the princess only detected it once the cannon had fired. To do that, she would have to overturn the theory of relativity.

But that was exactly why the princess found something odd.

She was evading the main cannon and the other laser beam cannons perfectly well. She was reading the subtle movements of the lenses and sensors just fine.

And yet...

The crop circle-like group of lenses on the front of the Deep Optical was not moving at all.

Unless they were simply malfunctioning or they were just a bluff, the enemy still had some kind of trump card remaining.

It was at that time that all of the lenses on the front of the Deep Optical moved at once.

(Here it comes!!)

The princess focused every nerve ending in her body.

By her estimation, it was likely a system to drastically raise the enemy"s accuracy. For that reason, she concentrated more on taking evasive actions than on attack.

However, her estimation was incorrect.

No sound was made.

And yet the Deep Optical multiplied.

(What...?)

There were exactly ten of them.

When the princess saw the many Deep Opticals that suddenly appeared in a line, the princess"s thoughts stopped for a moment.

(No, the Deep Optical has not multiplied.)

"Is it using 3D images!?"

A simple fake image would be meaningless. The Baby Magnum could use several methods to perform a lock, so she merely had to use her infrared sensors or her ultraviolet sensors to see which one was real.

However...

(The lock cursor is reacting to all 10 of them? I see. It is also manipulating infrared rays and ultraviolet rays to fool my computer!!)

In the next instant, the image blurred greatly.

Only one of the Deep Opticals was real.

The trick was especially insidious because they moved like the real one would and a virtual image was created to cover the location of the real Deep Optical as well.

The trick used high level 3D images and optical interference to confuse the other sensors as well. The princess determined the situation outside via her monitor, so this trick had the same effect on her as some mysterious ninja technique.

And...

(Oh, no. I can"t just sit here!)

Even if she should have taken action sooner, the loss of data to base her decisions on put her at a serious disadvantage regardless.

The princess frantically moved straight to the side while ignoring the intense Gs this put on her body, but the Deep Optical"s main cannon blast still struck one of the Baby Magnum"s main cannon arms. The laser beam created from combining 8 main cannon-cla.s.s laser beams blew away the Baby Magnum"s main cannon arm like it was a sugar sculpture.

"d.a.m.n. Is it using diffractive waves to create 3D images!? The principle is used in commercial 3D projectors, but they"ve altered the naked eye 3D image to work on an Object"s lenses!! As it is creating diffractive wave image data to match the number of lenses used by the Object, you might be able to cause a flaw in the image by cutting off a portion of your lenses, but they can simply detect which lenses are active from their subtle movements and immediately recreate the image accordingly!!"

Merely listening to the military radio frequency was enough to grasp the complexity and depth of the problem.

"My infrared and ultraviolet locks are being fooled as well!!"

"Use a radio lock! Do not rely on optical data!! Determine the truth using radar!"

"The radar is not functioning right either!! The number of blips is increasing!!"

"Dammit. In a broad sense, both light and radar are electromagnetic waves, so are they dealing with them all at once!? And your directional microphone and sonar will be obstructed by the wall of air that explosively expands whenever they fire their main cannon!!"

As he listened to the transmissions on a small boat stopped in the sea to the south of the operation area, Heivia naturally looked over toward where the Baby Magnum was fighting...and then he started to feel dizzy.

He brought his hand to the handrail and said, "Ugh...dammit. Does that really look like a realistic 3D image to her? From here, it looks like some twisted aura you would expect to have coming from Cthulhu."

"Just like the normal 3D images which are created using diffractive waves with an image for both the right eye and the left eye, the various images simply become chaos when not seen from the princess"s vantage point. Also, that is not meant for the naked eye. It"s creating images for all the many lenses on the Object, so it just looks like a mess to humans like us."

"The Information Alliance idol Elite I saw in Oceania was a h.e.l.l of lot nicer than this."

"I kind of want to see a strip show displayed on this scale."

However, Quenser and Heivia had more important business to take care of.

They were part of the separate group that had changed out of their normal military uniforms and into black diving suits. The rest of the group was jumping out of the small boat and into the sea one after another.

They would dive down below the area in which the two Objects were fighting and pursue Oldnick.

"Dammit. I know bringing a large submarine this close would get noticed by the Deep Optical, but Oldnick"s boat is over 20 kilometers from here. That isn"t a distance flesh-and-blood humans should have to swim."

"Yeah, and there"s nothing pretty about a bunch of filthy guys swimming through the ocean."

Quenser and Heivia had oxygen tanks on their backs and plastic fins on their feet. However, that was clearly not enough for them to reach Oldnick. For propulsion, they had aqua scooters. Simply put, they were something like kickboards with giant motors attached.

Supported by that electric power, the group of about ten including Quenser and Heivia travelled through the sea.

During peaceful times, that clear blue ocean water with tropical fish poking their heads out from the gaps in the coral would have been a wonderful sight to see, but they had no time to focus on such things.

Even with the electric propulsion, the long period of time spent underwater seemed to rob them of their sense of time.

They could not actually see their target and they had nothing but their compa.s.ses to tell them they were even headed in the right direction.

Also, this was no calm rest in a cradle. The clear risk of death was pressing against their backs the entire time. They felt a silence that seemed like it would drive them mad if it continued for too long.

All the while, giant shadows would occasionally pa.s.s over them and block out the light of the sun.

Needless to say, those were the Objects. As the Deep Optical used air cushions for its propulsion device and had no shark anchors, it did little to disturb anything but the very surface of the water, but a sharp trembling still wrapped itself all around their bodies. The bombardments above the water also caused slight vibrations to spread throughout the ocean water.

And...

"s.h.i.t!! The princess has those naval battle floats and shark anchor attached, doesn"t she!? She"s agitating the water like crazy!!"

"Continue on! If we turn back, our fate will be no different from a plastic doll that gets swept into the drain!!"

Quenser and the others continued their desperate pursuit of Oldnick even as their ally seemed more likely to kill them than their enemy.

The Deep Optical could not capture humans under the water because it was a Second Generation Object specialized for fighting other Objects.

"I beg you. Don"t fire any stray shots this way. If all the water around us suddenly boils, we"ll have no way to escape."

"These vibrations in the water aren"t going to destroy the oxygen tanks" valves or the aqua scooters" motors, are they?"

Suddenly, the Deep Optical fired its main cannon while moving above them at high speed.

Laser light could not actually be seen by the naked eye when viewed from the side. However, it roasted the dust and moisture in the air which was not something one wanted to look directly at.

For that reason, Quenser and the others kept their heads down and looked toward the depths of the ocean like someone in a swimming race.

And yet the brilliant white light stabbed into their eyes nevertheless.

"Gwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?"

Quenser let out a meaningless cry as he felt an intense pain as if his eyes and even his skull had been pierced.

He lost his sense of up and down.

It did not matter if he looked at it directly or not. Even the light that could find its way around was enough to rob a flesh-and-blood human of his senses.

"Quenser...Don"t let go of your aqua scooter!! Focus on that feeling!!" shouted Heivia.

Quenser grabbed the aqua scooter tighter as if he was clinging to it and his numbed head finally began to feel gravity once more.

"d.a.m.n. We"re only 100 meters away. That is way too close to a monster with that much laser technology."

"If you can see, help me with the others. Some unlucky idiots were looking straight up at the surface. They have their oxygen tanks, so they won"t drown right away, but we still need to give them support."

At Heivia"s urging, Quenser grabbed the arm of a middle-aged woman who had started to sink towards the bottom of the ocean. She must have been in pain because she was screaming, but Quenser had already shut off the personal channel on his radio. Listening to it would do no one any good.

And the Baby Magnum and Deep Optical"s battle continued on above the surface

"I"d rather not have the side effects of their battle crush me any further. If we can just get away from them, the negative effects of the optical weapons will lessen. We need to get away from this area of sea as quickly as we can."

Quenser and the rest of the group somehow managed to escape the area of intense fighting as they trembled in fear.

However, they did not head up to the surface even then. They were not about to underestimate an Object"s sensors. At the very least, they had to get far enough away that the enemy Object"s focus on the princess would take precedence.

"Look, Heivia. Isn"t that Oldnick"s boat!"

"Tch. He"s gotten pretty close to the sub!!"

The two decided they were far enough away and rose to the ocean surface.

They removed their goggles and took the oxygen hose out of their mouths, but the submarine"s hatch had already been opened and a crew member had just stuck his head out. An old white man jumped down from an expensive-looking charter boat, but messed up his landing. However, he managed to climb up onto the submarine just as it looked like he would be swept away by the waves.

"The end is finally in sight!"

"Let"s finish this with a hole in one."

But the distance was too great.

The submarine was about 1500 meters away.

"d.a.m.n, I can"t shoot him with my rifle at this range!!"

"Heivia, what about an anti-tank missile!?"

"I thought it might come to that. A hole in one might be tough, but I can try for an albatross."

"Aren"t albatrosses actually harder?"

"Yeah, but people get more excited about a hole in one."

As they spoke, Heivia pulled out a large tube that was inside a clear plastic bag that had been sealed with duct tape. He tore apart the packaging and threw it away. That sort of weapon was not too affected by a bit of water, but that could change if water got into the targeting computer or the path for the combustible gas. At the very least, it did not hurt to keep the water out.

Heivia rested the missile launcher tube on his shoulder as he treaded water.

"s.h.i.t! I can"t aim right with these waves!! Quenser, hold me in place!!"

"No!! I don"t want to embrace a guy in this blue sea!!"

"I don"t want you to do it either!! But if that troublesome cardinal reaches the submarine"s hatch, we"ll be getting a bogey rather than an albatross! That"ll just get us another lecture from our huge-breasted commander! If you don"t want that, then help me!!"

Quenser seriously thought he would much rather have that beauty"s boots digging into him, but the situation required some sacrifice. Since a position behind Heivia would get him blasted by the missile"s blowback, he supported Heivia from the side.

"Here goes! Hold on tight to make sure I don"t get knocked over!!"

"Just get it over with!! ...Oh, G.o.d. I need to find a way to invite the princess out swimming so I can blot out these memories."

With the roar of compressed air searching for a path out, the explosive shot towards the submarine.

The submarine was designed to withstand extreme water pressure, so something like that was not about to sink it.

However, they had made a mistake in opening the hatch to let Oldnick in.

When the crewmember saw the projectile, he frantically attempted to close the hatch, but the missile struck the wall just below the hatch before he could. A shockwave burst out along with an explosive roar, but the metal hatch survived the blast. However, the intense force pushed the hatch closed even though the crewmember still had his upper body leaning out of it.

Heivia winced slightly when he saw that human body being "eaten" through the sight. However, he did not have enough of a conscience to regret his actions.

"I got lucky!! I hit with the first shot! Heivia, the genius, beautiful, and rich n.o.ble, is just too amazing!! It looks like that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Oldnick was knocked off. He fell into the ocean."

"The sub is leaving."

"They must have decided it isn"t worth sticking around. ...d.a.m.n that old man!! The lucky b.a.s.t.a.r.d is still moving!! Quit finding fault with Heivia, the genius, beautiful, and rich n.o.ble!!"

"I guess an albatross was too much to hope for. I hope we can at least make par."

Oldnick waved at the submarine in hopes that it would save him, but the black ship showed no sign of responding.

The cardinal continued waving for a bit, but he finally gave up. He then desperately moved his arms and legs to take him in a different direction.

"What now? Is he just swimming off in desperation?"

"No, isn"t there a precious metal ocean mining plant financed by the Legitimacy Kingdom just north of here? It uses various filters to draw out and condense the tungsten dissolved in the ocean water."

"Not good... Not good! That place is like a bunker!! And if it gets caught up in the battle, that huge-breasted commander is going to completely erupt!!"

"Heivia, can you directly target that old man with a missile?"

"I can"t reload in the ocean like this." Heivia reequipped his goggles and oxygen tank, and then grabbed his aqua scooter. "Life isn"t always that easy. Our only option is to get close and shoot him with a normal bullet."

"I suppose this is still better than having the enemy Object head this way. Getting out of the bunker isn"t going to be easy, but we may still be able to get an eagle."

Froleytia gritted her teeth in her officer"s room.

The higher ups had hoped to deal with Roybelz Oldnick in the same way they had fought Hyena, but things had ended up being completely different. She had no idea how the old man had arranged it, but now that the Capitalist Corporations" Deep Optical was involved, the problem had turned into a war.

On top of that, the Deep Optical had a special blinding weapon that interfered with their ability to take evasive actions.

It had created a number of clones of itself.

It created images using diffractive waves and used optical interference to disturb the various locking sensors.

Froleytia and the others back at the base constantly received information from the Object, so they understood what the princess was seeing.

Froleytia opened a line to the electronic simulation department as she tried to think up a countermeasure.

"Do you know how that blinding weapon works!?"

"It can freely emit 70 types of light waves at once and it can change the wavelengths as needed!! By simultaneously sending several wavelengths at one point in s.p.a.ce, the normal light waves and the diffractive waves come together to create the image that is viewed as three dimensional. At the same time, it interferes with the infrared rays, ultraviolet rays, and every other optical device used to make a lock and the electromagnetic data from radar and the like!!" explained the operator from the electronic simulation department. "The angle of emission and distance are unknown! But with enough distance, the diffusion of the light waves would interfere with each other, so it should be within a few kilometers!!" The operator was practically yelling. "Also, a normal 3D image brings together footage for the right eye and the left eye, but this is using enough images for the number of lenses equipped on the Baby Magnum and is regulated by the diffractive rays. Intentionally cutting off a portion of the lenses should cause a disturbance in the image. That could be used to determine where the real one is, but..."

"They can immediately determine which lenses are active from their subtle movements and recreate the image to match, right?"

"The time until that happens is getting shorter! If the parameters of the 3D image continue to be changed liked this, even that slight "out of place feeling" could disappear!!"

For the moment, the princess was not fooled at all. It was partially due to the fact that she would never believe that a single Object had suddenly become 10 Objects. The princess was seeing through the false footage and continuing the battle.

But...

"With 1% of doubt, you lose the ability to trust the remaining 99%," commented Froleytia.

"The false images are obviously false for the moment, but if a false image that is harder to tell apart from the real one is mixed in once she grows accustomed to these, the risk of the princess being caught off guard grows!!"

And the time spent with the false images continued to grow.

Being able to see through the false images was important, but looking at the false images for too long was a problem too.

"Right now, she is just barely managing to take action in advance because she knows her sensors are being interfered with, but if she does not make it in time, she will take a direct hit..."

The blinding weapon displayed its greatest effects within a range of a few kilometers. In that case, the princess could escape the threat by falling back further than that and beginning a bombardment from there.

But...

(No. The first shots from 10 kilometers were easily thrown off course. That 5 kilometer range is the best range for the princess to defeat the Deep Optical. Also, I doubt the Deep Optical would let her leave. If she tried to, it would do whatever it could to stop her.)

"What if we link the foot soldiers" cameras and the satellite to the Object to provide different points of view!?" suggested the operator.

"Those would have a slight lag and some noise. She wouldn"t be able to keep up with the high speed of the battle while relying on those!!"

They had no options.

This was not an offensive cannon or defensive armor. The 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion"s predicament was caused by something else entirely.

But then...

"...?"

Froleytia frowned.

The Deep Optical should have been drawing in and attacking repeatedly, but it was merely sitting in place and only occasionally firing. It was clearly overlooking an opportunity. In fact, it was actively moving backwards away from the princess whenever it had a chance.

Its actions seemed completely meaningless.

(What? Why would it abandon its advantage here and begin to retreat...?)

What was behind the Deep Optical?

What was to the north?

What lay beyond the battlefield?

Even though it was funded by the Legitimacy Kingdom, the Solomon district had long been treated like a blank area due to the confusion over the tyrannical regime in the Oceanian military nation. In other words, it was not defended by a dedicated Object. An Object was deployed to the precious metal ocean mining plant in times of political unrest, but it did not have a unit stationed there for its defense.

That was where Roybelz Oldnick arrived at the end of his swim.

The plant itself was similar to a cultivation facility. The entire facility floated in the ocean. Over 80% of it was made up of 10 meter square frames. The frames were made of reinforced plastic and they floated from the multiple drums that were attached to them. The insides of the frames had hundreds of filters hanging into the ocean. Those filters would gather the tungsten dissolved into the seawater.

"Cough...cough!! Cough cough!!"

Oldnick had arrived at one of the frames at the very outside of the facility.

A man working in the plant hesitated over whether he should help him or report him, but he was unable to even let out a scream when Oldnick held a handgun out toward him.

"Do you have a helicopter here?" asked the old man with bloodshot eyes. "Or a motorboat. Anything will do. Do you have any kind of transportation!? I need to get away from here as quickly as possible. This is a blank area. If I can lose them here..."

Suddenly, a high-pitched gunshot cut off Oldnick"s thoughts.

A bullet hole appeared in one of the drums keeping a nearby frame afloat.

From 500 meters away in the ocean, Quenser shouted, "You suck at this, Heivia!!"

"I can"t brace myself or aim properly when treading water in these waves, dammit!!"

Their target seemed to have resolved himself to shooting the worker who could get in his way.

Quenser pulled some Hand Axe plastic explosive out of the bag on his back and shouted as loud as he could.

"Jump in!!"

The worker immediately dove headfirst into the middle of one of the frames, but Oldnick moved to fire a bullet after him into the ocean water regardless.

After stabbing an electric fuse into it, Quenser chucked the Hand Axe toward the old man.

As Heivia had said, he could not brace himself while treading water. He had tried to throw it in a long arc, but the explosive did not even make it 50 meters.

He hit the switch on his radio regardless.

A loud explosive noise rang out and Oldnick got down on the ground despite being well out of range of the blast.

However, it had been meant as a psychological attack in the first place.

Oldnick did not seem like the type of person who was used to running through the battlefield. He had no idea what the range of danger from an explosion was, so he seemed to have frantically chosen retreat from just the slight pain on his skin and ears from the shockwave.

He looked over at the two boys and fired an occasional shot from his handgun (knowing he could not hit from that range) as he jumped from frame to frame. As there was no cover to be found in that area, he felt the need to make some preparations before a real firefight occurred.

While 80% of the plant was made up by those frames, the remaining 20% was different.

"When we climb up onto land will be the most dangerous part. Even if he just has a handgun, we"re goners if he targets us while we"re defenseless."

"We have our oxygen tanks and aqua scooters. Let"s dive down and use the ocean water as a shield."

Quenser and Heivia moved stealthily through the water. The outside of the square frames was made up of thin pieces of cloth one meter wide and a few dozen meters long. With all the frames lined up in a grid, those cloths stretching down looked something like rectangular pillars. They stretched straight down despite the slight rocking of the waves, so they must have had some kind of weight attached to the bottom.

"(Amazing. Is that stuff glittering like aluminum foil all tungsten? It looks like you could make all the construction equipment for a mid-sized automobile factory with just one of those filters.)"

"(Heh. It"s almost as dazzling as my s.e.xy face)" commented Heivia.

"(Man, I kind of want to take a souvenir home with me.)"

Meanwhile, Oldnick ran down a pathway on the exterior of the frames and entered a facility made of steel. Even that facility was built atop the type of large float that was commonly used for floating airports.

(My odds are not good in a straight fight.)

The former cardinal came to that conclusion.

After all, he was up against a professional military unit with the backing of a world power. They had better equipment and more ammunition. A soaking wet old man with a single handgun could hardly hope to oppose them.

He had also been abandoned by the submarine.

As a cardinal, he was supposed to be a symbol of the holy and just, so something was wrong from the moment he had to stretch out his arms in a desperate attempt to grasp any means of escape.

(I have always been right. I have always been on the right side.)

And yet he had shaken hands with Hyena, a group that had no problem with attacking civilian convoys and facilities that distributed cargo.

(If nothing was done about the expansion of the Greek power, the Christian Church would have lost its land, funding, people, and culture, one after another. I stood up to protect those things.)

To escape Valkyrie, he had shouted to the Capitalist Corporations that the Legitimacy Kingdom was Valkyrie"s ally and had brought about a real war in the sea to the south.

(My actions will shine brilliantly within the history of the Faith Organization! Everyone will sing my praises and revere my name! That is how it should be. Anything else would be nonsense! Yes, utter nonsense! It would be unjust! No one is looking at this properly!!)

However, Oldnick had been abandoned by his allies" submarine, he had aimed his gun at a civilian worker of that plant, and had fled through the sea to save his own skin.

But the old man did everything he could to avert his gaze from that pathetic reality.

His hopes had not yet been completely destroyed.

He still had a trump card. So long as he had that, the Capitalist Corporations" Object was on his side.

Oldnick arrived at a piece of equipment that was likely used to help with air traffic control for helicopters. He set the frequency on the large radio to contact the Capitalist Corporations military.

Of course, he was using a civilian piece of equipment that could not encrypt the signal, so Quenser and Heivia could easily intercept it.

The two boys recognized the voice that came in response.

A bit of age could be heard in the voice, but it maintained a core of discipline.

It belonged to the commander they had run into in the Loyauté district.

"Cardinal Oldnick. Do not use that device. Our transmissions must be properly encrypted. We gave you a radio to contact us with."

"If I could use that, why would I be using this roundabout method!?"

Quenser and Heivia had already arrived at the bottom of the plant. They were now searching for a point they could safely surface and climb out of the water at.

"Send the Object this way as soon as possible!! I thought you were going to cut off the path of any Legitimacy Kingdom pursuers! How did these ones get through? Also..."

"You want to know why that plant you are in has yet to be destroyed, cardinal? Not all operations go precisely as planned. We are currently working to fulfill our quota."

Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance while underwater.

That comment had made it sound like the destruction of the plant had been part of the plan all along.

"Listen." While too worried to even think about the possibility of his soaking wet state putting him in danger of electrocution, Roybelz Oldnick shouted into the radio microphone with an almost hysteric tone to his voice. "If I die here, you cannot acquire what you are after. Do not forget that!"

"And don"t you forget that just knowing the method does not allow you to produce it. Keep in mind that no one will give you better terms than us."

After deciding on a point to surface, Heivia removed the scope from his rifle and poked it out of the water like a periscope in order to check for any guards.

While listening to the radio, Quenser muttered, "Platinum."

"What do you mean?"

"Oldnick first came into contact with Hyena. They were stealing the Oceanian made platinum. And now he"s targeting a plant used to acquire tungsten. I can only think of one reason." Quenser seemed to hesitate before continuing. "I"ve heard of a project that is attempting to create platinum atoms by artificially combining carbon and tungsten atoms. It"s called the Treasure of Electron Mathematics. It"s a technique in which an atom with an unstable number of electrons is stabilized by combining it with another atom. The old lady said research was being taken into ma.s.s producing industrial platinum, so I searched the military database for information on it."

Basically, it was the technology to create incredibly valuable platinum out of 2 completely different types of atoms.

"Tungsten is cla.s.sified as a rare earth, but it still isn"t as valuable as platinum."

"While they are creating as much synthetic platinum as they want, they also want to drive up its value by obstructing any other means of producing it. The destruction of the tungsten plant is likely a means of keeping others from using the same method as themselves."

While sending out his transmission from the control equipment, Oldnick started audibly grinding his teeth. He then reached out for the last thin life line remaining for him.

It was a connection made out of nothing but money.

The old man knew how risky that was.

However, no card was more effective in dealings with the Capitalist Corporations military.

"Once the system for producing platinum is in place, I will once more be able to stand on the center stage. A single Object costs more than 5 billion dollars, but that means one can start a war after gathering that much money. I will recover my territory from the hands of that Greek power."

"Do you wish for a comeback that much? I thought the church council had yet to come to a definitive decision over whether this method of production was in violation of divine providence or not. I thought there was a danger that this const.i.tutes bringing impurities into the world created by G.o.d."

Most religions believed that G.o.d had either created the world or was largely involved in its origin and therefore all materials would have been unable to exist without having been created by G.o.d.

In that case, was it acceptable for humans to create materials that did not exist in the natural world?

Would that not be nothing more than bringing unnecessary impurities into the world G.o.d had created?

Many had whispered of that problem, but the central authority of the Faith Organization had not spoken out against the creation of things like plastics.

Creating water from oxygen and hydrogen was nothing more than rearranging a portion of the world G.o.d had created. The central authority felt that was nothing more than an extension of the world G.o.d had created and it therefore did not violate providence.

"But that reasoning does not apply for the Treasure of Electron Mathematics. Instead of combining atoms to create a molecule, the number of electrons between atoms is manipulated to create a different atom when two atoms are combined. That is different from simply using the atoms as building blocks."

And that was not the only problem.

The created atom was not some brand new material. The fact that already existing platinum was being created was key.

"Even though this material is created by combining a tungsten atom with a carbon atom, it is exactly the same as a natural platinum atom. This foreign atom is completely indistinguishable from the real deal. Not only is an artificial substance being brought into the world created by G.o.d, but this artificial substance fits right in without any problems whatsoever. That may have caused the church to oppose this much more strongly than simply creating some toxic new substance."

This was different from artificially recreating a natural environment to create an artificial diamond out of carbon.

This was a case of taking two non-platinum atoms and creating a single platinum atom.

It was not merely creating a different form of platinum that was seen as blasphemous.

It was the exposure of the vulnerability of the universal system of atoms and molecules that was seen as blasphemous.

However, Oldnick responded immediately.

The instantaneous response made it seem like he was only focusing on what was convenient to him rather than speaking from a deeply-held conviction.

"I will reclaim the land, a.s.sets, and people those savages stole. There is no valid reason to criticize me for that."

"Even if you have the money, there are many other barriers to producing an Object."

"It does not matter if I do not reach my goal of an Object in the end. Did you know that the Faith Organization"s exchange rate has been fixed? In order to deal with the exchange rate of the world market, transactions using diamonds and platinum are growing more common than those using our own currency."

"Yes, but economic a.n.a.lysts have called that a roundabout method of dealing with it."

"Greek"s primary exchange rate is tied to platinum. If its value crashes, their culture will fall into chaos. My true desire would be to personally send an Object in, but it does not necessarily have to be me who fills that role." Roybelz Oldnick gave a cunning smile. "They expanded their influence through rather forceful methods. That has earned them a lot of hatred. Once their momentum has been slowed with the chaos over platinum values, others will tear into them."

Quenser and Heivia approached the facility through the sea in that old man"s blind spot.

They double checked the point and then grabbed onto the edge of the giant float, but then a high-pitched gunshot rang out.

The edge of the float burst open slightly.

The two boys frantically let go and hid in the ocean once more.

"What the h.e.l.l was that!? That wasn"t Oldnick! It came from the wrong direction!!"

They could not see far through the moving ocean surface. However, sticking their heads above the surface would bring the risk of being shot.

A bullet ripped apart the ocean surface and shot by Quenser and Heivia while accompanied by something like a spear made up of air bubbles.

"It looks like they don"t know exactly where we are." Quenser and Heivia swam away from that spot while thinking about what to do. "Have some comrades of Oldnick"s arrived?"

"Or have some guards from the Capitalist Corporations been sent out here?"

Heivia floated up near the surface and poked just the scope of his rifle out of the seawater.

Using it like a periscope, he checked around the area.

"Not good. I don"t think those are Capitalist Corporations soldiers."

"What do you mean?"

"It"s Valkyrie. Some of those Faith Organization elites are clinging to one of the plant"s frames!!"

Quenser moved up next to Heivia and took the scope from him.

He checked for himself.

Sure enough, some women wearing familiar uniforms were there. Valkyrie was not running along on top of the frame. They were aiming their short-range sniper rifles with their elbows pressed against the frame for stability.

"It seems they"re as aware as us that there is really nowhere to hide."

A small submarine could be seen sticking up above the water a bit away from them.

Quenser handed the scope back to Heivia.

"But why is Valkyrie here? Since they"re from the Faith Organization too, is it related to Oldnick!?"

"If so, this could be even worse than running across some Capitalist Corporations" soldiers. But at the same time..."

Heivia trailed as more gunfire rang out.

The two boys hunkered down, but the bullets were not headed in their direction.

"What? Are they targeting our other comrades?"

"No, they aren"t... They"re firing at the giant float Oldnick ran onto!!"

"Why!?"

"That"s their standard job. Valkyrie is a global divine punishment group that executes any "enemies of G.o.d" who have violated religious rules. They"re targeting Oldnick as members of the Faith Organization!!" Heivia reattached the scope to his rifle and then checked to make sure it was working right. "But we can"t a.s.sume the enemy of our enemy is our friend. Valkyrie is after the same target as us. At this rate, we can"t avoid a conflict!!"

They were targeting the same person, but any argument between them could provide Roybelz Oldnick with a chance to escape. And any extra time spent gave Capitalist Corporations" troops more time to arrive to defend him.

"..." Quenser thought for a bit. "Heivia, hand me your rifle."

"What? You"ve never had any marksmanship training. How the h.e.l.l are you going to be of any use here!? Do you think they can"t hit us at this distance because they have short-range sniper rifles? With their skill, they can hit us easily!!"

"No, not that." Quenser shook his head. "I know a more effective method than bullets."

When he told Heivia what that method was, Heivia expressed his disapproval just as Quenser had expected he would.

"That"s craz