novelWe've Started Lending Out Weapons >> Technical Analysis Operation in the Hawaii District (2)
| ← Ch.142 | Ch.144 → |
Regardless, they knew this artificial island held something that had led the Over Cavitation to exacerbate the war. And the damaged Baby Magnum had no time. They could not come to a stop just because the place was so unsettling. They wanted accurate information on that Second Generation's undercarriage. And they wanted it now. No matter how suspicious this felt, they had to investigate.
"If this was a horror movie, continuing the mission would be what gets us all killed."
"Would you prefer waiting out here all alone? That's the guy who always gets killed almost immediately."
They also could not leave Hina by herself. It was the Capitalist Corporations who saw value in her intellect, so the arms dealer might see no reason to keep her alive.
With no advance knowledge, the artificial island would have looked like a square piece of land covered in factories and pipes. The buildings were of varying heights, which created a warship-like silhouette. The space was crammed full.
"The arms dealer is all about being cheap and reliable. You can see that in the experimental monkeys with printed guns and you can see it in the modernized undercarriage for the Over Cavitation. The ideas are really out there, but they're still sensible. This is not going to be a fun opponent."
That was when they heard some quiet noises in the distance. These were not gunshots or explosions. It was more like steam valves opening. The island was an air pump facility, so it was sure to have tons of that sort of equipment.
So they assumed that was all it was.
But then a squall of metal balls rained down right next to Quenser.
"Eh?"
It was such an extreme change that his mind failed to keep up at first. They had been relaxed a moment before. They had been smiling together about how no one had died. They had breathed a definite sigh of relief and they had all been alive.
Yet now orange sparks tore away the asphalt.
Metal ball bearings larger than a pachinko ball crashed into the hard ground and bounced back up.
They had been dropped from a great height.
But worst of all, the colors red and black were splattered across the ground.
That was all that remained of their allies. There were no recognizable uniforms, weapons, human flesh, or even dog tags.
They had been reduced to something like jelly.
Their merciless death had been like an invisible giant crushing a row of ants underfoot. If that squall had been directed just three meters to the side, it would have been Quenser and his immediate group that were killed.
"... !!"
Quenser belatedly got on top of Hina to cover her young eyes, but then he heard the same sound again.
It sounded a lot like air escaping something. The breath of the grim reaper was quiet enough to entirely miss it if you were not focused.
"We need a roof! It doesn't matter what, just get below something that will shield you from the sky!! Quenser, you take care of Hina!!"
Heivia gave a shout while Myonri and the others took off running. It was no time to worry about moving as teams or staying in formation. Quenser had both his hands free, so he scooped up Hina's small body in a princess carry, pushed open a nearby metal door with his back, and practically fell inside.
The deadly squall filled the outside once more.
"Wh-what is that, Que'ser? What is that!? Don't go away! I'm scared!!"
"Never fear, lady. It can't hit us now that we're inside the building!"
Quenser decided explaining the details would only worry her, so he got straight to the point. And if he kept holding her, he was afraid she would notice he was trembling.
Sometimes people would fire a handgun straight up as a warning shot. It was a common sight in movies and dramas, but where would that bullet land? Just as a screw or bolt could become a weapon when dropped from a skyscraper roof, the bullet had to land somewhere and it would be quite deadly from the fall. In major metropolises, that probably took more accidental lives each year than lightning strikes.
The arms dealer had properly weaponized that phenomenon. A thick tube was probably stuffed with metal ball bearings and then compressed air or carbon dioxide gas launched them more than 100 meters into the air. That created a squall-like quantity of weapons to suppress a general area when accurate targeting was not needed.
You could not hope to dodge it.
It was a lot like being crushed by a falling ceiling covered in spikes.
It took a bit of work to set up, but it was far cheaper than a standardized machinegun. After all, durability, fire rate, precision, and accuracy could all be ignored. You just had to launch them into the air. If you could ignore its quality as an industrial product, you could cut a lot of corners.
Cheap and reliable.
This new product took lives with cost efficiency.
Quenser clenched his teeth and grabbed his radio.
"Heivia. We can't take the shortest route to regroup outside! Can we find a route that stays below a roof at all times?"
"That squall shot down our drone. We have the general aerial photos on our mobile devices, but that doesn't tell us the exact internal layout. This place is as cluttered as a warship, right? There's no guarantee we can regroup right away. Everyone, use what range of movement you have to eliminate the enemy. Let's clear one safe zone at a time until we can finally regroup. Like water droplets joining together on the window."
"I don't have a gun..."
"But you have Hina who should know a lot about these facilities. You haven't abandoned her, have you? Get her advice as you move along. You came here to fight a war, didn't you?"
"Are you serious?"
"We all got the short end of the stick here. Dammit, I swear I'll survive and meet that legendary maid. I'd love to go on a personal scouting mission in search of her."
"(Is no one on my side anymore!?)"
Quenser clicked his tongue and pulled some Hand Axe plastic explosive from his backpack. He could use that like a grenade if need be... but that raised a crucial question: could he win this labyrinthine indoor battle with nothing but grenades?
(In the worst case, I'll blow myself backwards with my own blast. )
The arms dealer would have more than just the one weapon. The first weapon had eliminated the outdoors area as an option, so the next step would be to pick off the separated potatoes one at a time.
He would have to protect himself here.
And he was not allowed any mistakes with Hina clinging to the side of his hip and giving off a sweet scent from the hibiscus decoration in her black hair. His death would mean her death.
"Lady."
Fortunately, her small size was an advantage here.
Quenser found some duct tape, copy paper, and plywood nearby and created a rectangular shield she could fully hide behind.
"It's a bit heavy, but if you hear any noises, hold this out toward it with both hands. Press the bottom of the shield against the floor so there isn't a gap."
"..."
"Despite what movies and dramas would have you believe, you can still die of blood loss when shot in the hand or foot, so make sure you stay fully hidden behind the shield. Got that?"
"What about you, Que'ser?"
"Me?"
He would be entirely exposed.
He did not have a single bullet to fire.
They had no idea how many enemies there were or what kind of equipment that enemy had.
Heivia and the others could not rush in to save him no matter how much he asked for help.
The girl's question forced him to focus on those various aspects of reality, but he forced down those thoughts.
He could not let Hina notice his fear while she looked worriedly up at him with the handmade shield, so he shook his head and spoke.
"I'll be fine. C'mon, let's get going."
He had given Hina the shield to protect her from the arms dealer's bullets and from any nearby explosions. He knew he had to do it, but he could not predict what exactly would happen once he started throwing bombs around in this labyrinthine space.
Also, the shield might double as a blindfold and prevent her from seeing the splattered corpses.
"Hina, let's ignore the arms dealer side of things for now. How many workers would they need to keep this place running purely as an air pump facility?"
"Hm. Probably none."
He had not expected that answer.
"They stepped outside their field of expertise and developed an unmanned factory OS for it. Although I think they keep three people here in case of any trouble."
"How can I tell them apart from the bad guys?"
"They'll understand the local language. The foreign soldiers only ever look puzzled when they hear us speak."
"You mean like aloha?"
"Que'ser, that means both hello and goodbye. Did you know you say that at funerals?"
Heivia had been right. Hina was a valuable ally. Maybe even more than an industrially produced handgun.
In this case, they did not have a single set goal such as destroying a turret or reaching the power station. They had to check every room they came across to make sure everything was as safe as possible and eliminate any enemy soldiers they came across. It was a lot like walking around a minefield to find the explosives. You wanted to detect them in advance so you could dig them up. Eliminating them by stepping on them would not be fun.
The corridors were unlit, perhaps because the place was designed to be unmanned. It was all plain concrete. As Quenser walked along with Hina, the imitation ball-and-chain unavoidably made a scraping noise as she dragged it behind her skinny ankle. The chain was too short for her to carry it around in her hands and wrapping a towel around it would not actually help all that much. On straightaways, he tried to make sure there was always a door they could jump inside at a moment's notice. The light through the windows highlighted the dust in the air like a projector bream. There was no air conditioning, so both the heat and the tension made it hard to focus. He felt like he was rotting from the fingertips.
They continued further in while Hina explained that they were in a transformer room or in a storage room for the hunks of salt that came from the seawater due to electrolysis. The salt sounded like it would be easy enough to sell, but the impurities were apparently concentrated along with it and people could not eat it. Pufferfish and shellfish toxins were gathered from the plankton the animal had eaten, so you could not underestimate concentrations of anything from the sea.
But there was no one around.
The arms dealer had weaponized monkeys to keep anyone out of the lab and an enemy waiting behind a door would have been enough to defeat Quenser when he only had bombs to work with. The tension only continued to grow, but there really was no one there.
"This is weird."
He had not wanted a tour of the factory or to explore an abandoned building. The metal ball squall was enough to know the enemy was definitely there. They were not simply in the wrong place. The arms dealer had intentionally let the potatoes cross the bridge and only used the squall once they were on the artificial island so they would flee indoors. They had essentially been split up and trapped. He was certain there would be further attacks. And yet...
"Que'ser."
Hina moved right up next to him while holding the handmade shield in both hands. As if covering him with the shield too. Was she worried and trying to protect him?
Her high body temperature and faint sweet scent reached him.
Quenser longed for his radio. Or rather, he missed the presence and reactions of other people. He knew it was meaningless, but he pressed the switch.
"Heivia, has anything happened there?"
Only static answered him.
"Heivia?"
The enemy was here.
The arms dealer had intentionally invited them in. There was no escape inside this building or on the artificial island as a whole. While trapped in that double prison, they could be easily finished off.
In that case...
"Hina, have your shield at the ready."
"Why? Are the others being attacked?"
The brown girl looked worriedly up at him, but he said nothing more.
... That was not it.
The jamming was affecting Quenser and Hina. That meant they were the ones being separated from the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers. They were the ones surrounded by the hounds.
The battle was approaching.
(The jamming means I can't detonate the fuses via radio. )
This eliminated one of the few cards in his deck. The pen-like fuses could be set to a timer, but timing it right probably took practice.
And as he carefully checked inside each of the doors around them, he noticed something odd.
"What is this?"
There was a large space there.
Whatever the space had been originally designed for, there was now something sitting in the center of it.
It was a flat cylinder that glinted with a silver light. It looked thick and solid and it was larger than a school classroom. The airtight door on the side had a round handle that was turned to open it, just like on a submarine. If not for that door, he probably would not have recognized it as a room.
This was clearly different from everything they had seen so far.
It did not fit in with the rest of the facility.
Hina tilted her head too.
"I don't recognize this. What is it? A pressure cooker?"
She had a good reason for saying that. The scale was different, but the safety valve on the top used the same principle as a pressure cooker. She looked like a small girl, but she was already in college. She may have had even more knowledge than Quenser and it was that knowledge that led her to view this as a pressurized container larger than any she had ever seen.
"Is it a hyperbaric oxygen chamber?" muttered the boy.
Come to think of it, wasn't this an air pump facility meant to increase the valuable shark population by artificially infusing oxygen into the hypoxic Sea of Death?
It was part of the Oxyocean Operation.
It was true that facility's horsepower could be used to run some extraordinary equipment, but...
"That isn't possible."
It was not that Hina had lacked the knowledge.
In fact, it was her knowledge that had prevented her from considering the idea and that now led her to oppose Quenser's suggestion.
"Hyperbaric oxygen chambers are used for medical therapy, not industrial work, right?"
"..."
"This island's air pumps are especially large so they can dissolve oxygen into seawater at a rate of 90, 000 liters per minute. If you put a human in such a giant pressure cooker, they wouldn't just hyperventilate. Their red blood cells would rupture or they might just be crushed by the pressure."
"Maybe for a normal human."
It was gradually coming into view.
He was gradually realizing why the Over Cavitation's undercarriage had been secretly modernized and why it had wanted to protect this air pump facility that contained a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. How had the arms dealer made themselves indispensable to the Capitalist Corporations? Also, what crucial core component for the Object had they supplied?
And.
Why were civilians like Quenser and Hina being targeted ahead of Heivia, Myonri, or the others?
That was when he heard a sound like an electric razor coming from outside that large space. It was not particularly loud, but he would have heard someone dropping a ball-point pen in this deserted place.
(Is it some kind of drone?)
"Que'ser."
"(Sh! Over here, Hina. )"
They circled behind the giant pressure cooker of a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
The sound came from the hallway.
This was a large space, but it had no other exit. He did not know if his explosives could break through the wall and an explosion could ignite the highly concentrated oxygen in the pipes. Detonating one in an open space like a grenade was one thing, but attempting to blow down a thick wall made of who-knows-what would be too risky.
They just had to wait it out.
They just had to hope whatever this was continued right on down the hall.
However...
"(The sound... )"
Hina fearfully squeezed the handmade shield in her hands.
The electric razor sound had stopped near the door. It was not continuing on. It was staying. It was sealing the exit while waiting to see what happened. The machine(?) knew they were here.
"(I'm scared, Que'ser. Is there anywhere with a lock? Oh, I know. Let's close ourselves in the oxygen chamber. )"
"(They could operate the machinery to knock us out with the pressurized oxygen. )"
This was no time to panic.
The train known as reality was still roaring down the tracks. Gathering the resolve to jump off was useless if it had already passed the station you wanted to reach.
They had to change how they viewed this.
This was still an opportunity.
There was just the one entrance.
Whatever this enemy was, it would have to pass through there. The plastic explosives were not the easiest thing in the world to use, but he could hit the enemy with the blast if he tossed one toward the door. It was too late if he waited until it was already in the large room and could move wherever it wanted. This was the neck of the gourd or hourglass. Taking out the enemy here was his best bet.
"(Hina, wait here with your shield at the ready. )"
"(You're going on your own? Wait, Que'ser. )"
The hyperbaric oxygen chamber in the center of the large room was a flat cylinder much like a petroleum tank. Unlike a boxy building, it had no corners. That made it difficult to tell how far he could go while staying just out of sight.
"(Que'ser. )"
The tearful girl ended up following him. If he was killed now, the enemy would not just leave, assuming they had killed everyone. If he died, they both died. The look in his eyes grew a bit sharper. He had to take this seriously. Ensuring their safety by crushing the enemy was the only option left.
While leaning against the curved metal wall and slowly moving forward, he rolled a ball of plastic explosive and stabbed in a pen-like electric fuse. The jamming kept him from using a remote detonation, but the timer would work fine. If he set it to three seconds, he could use it just like a grenade.
Although that was still a problem since Quenser was not all that familiar with using normal grenades.
"..."
He was pretty sure he had gone as far as he could without being seen from the door.
He would be spotted if he went any further.
He silently came to a stop and raised the ball of plastic explosive to shoulder height. He of course held it in the hand opposite the wall to his side. This would be a side throw. It was basically the same as a grenade, but it was soft like clay and he could not expect it to bounce and roll. He had to picture it flying in a parabolic arc and landing right where he wanted it.
The electric razor sound continued.
But he also heard some light footsteps.
(Feet?)
This was not just a drone. Was there someone with it? He was still confused, but the situation did not wait for him to figure it out. The sound of the footsteps changed.
The person had moved from the hallway to the large room.
He had no idea who this was, but they had just walked through the door. That was the neck of the gourd or hourglass. The difference in skill was irrelevant. This was his first and last chance for an amateur's explosion to actually work!!
"Hh!!"
His life was on the line, but... no, so his thoughts were of secondary importance. The fuse was set to three seconds. The pressing situation led him to lean out and throw the hunk of clay. It was a side throw that sort of tossed it around the wall of the oxygen chamber.
And he realized something once he leaned out.
The enemy was a human woman.
But he was not sure if he should call her a soldier. After all, she was not wearing a military uniform. She may have been that kind of person because other than her military boots, she only wore a small bottle hanging from her neck by a thread and a thin ribbon wrapped loosely around her. The tall woman with radiant skin walked casually through the door with her long red hair fluttering behind her.
And she had giant red wings behind her back.
"Wha-?"
Was she not actually human?
This was a greater shock than her radiant nudity.
What was she? What in the world was she!?
With a loud compressing sound, the wings roared to life. It looked all the world like they had melted into a streamlined shape, but that was not it. The electric razor sound remained and the wings were technically not connected to the naked woman's back.
(That sound... is it the same rotors that drones use? Did she attach armor to a flying car!?)
He did not have time to speak out loud.
The wings roared through the air and accurately struck the clay to knock it back toward Quenser with a sound like a metal bat.
With the jamming in effect, he could not use a remote detonation and had instead used a timed one.
He had set it to three seconds.
It was just like a grenade.
"Oh, shi-... !?"
He did not have time to hit it back into his opponent's court like a game of badminton.
The Hand Axe mercilessly detonated above his head.
Part 8
More than his ears, it felt like all the organs in his gut were being squeezed. It may have been an issue of pressure instead of the noise or shockwave.
"Ghhh!!"
Quenser doubled over but was not blown to bits. There were a few reasons for that. First, he had not modified the plastic explosive for anti-personnel use, such as wrapping a hard zip tie around it or filling it with metal balls. Second, it had blown up in the air a short distance away from him instead of right at his feet.
And third...
"Hina!?"
"Que'ser!!"
Hina Liqueurball had stepped forward and held the handmade shield overhead. The one blast broke through the cushioning made from copy paper and snapped the plywood in two, but he would have been killed without it there.
Hina was defenseless without the makeshift shield, so he picked her up with both arms and moved back on unsteady legs.
The woman with only a loosely wrapped ribbon covering her nudity had yet to do anything.
"Now, then."
She spoke for the first time.
She was finally taking action.
Were the red wings meant to make her look like an angel or like a demon?
She grabbed a red flower petal from the small bottle hanging from her neck and placed it on her tongue like it was the forbidden fruit.
In what almost seemed like an afterthought, the symmetrical weapons – probably an armored version of a flying car – moved casually out.
They gave a roar of their electric razor sound.
Now it was Quenser's turn to save Hina. He got on the ground with her below him while the wings passed by overhead with a weight closer to a car than a motorcycle.
"Eek!?"
"Don't worry, lady. We're still alive!"
A single hit would kill them instantly.
Hina's body temperature and sweet scent were the only things proving they were not yet ghosts.
Flying cars might sound impressive, but some were modeled after airplanes and some after helicopters. These were something like multicopter drones weighing more than a ton. Their streamlined bodies did not have the crane fly shape of the recon drones, but that was only because the rotors were contained inside and the air was released through vents, just like fans that hid their blades.
"Wait, I thought they were all about cheap and reliable!!"
Quenser gave a shout and somehow managed to get back on his feet. He grabbed Hina's warm hand and half-dragged her back some more. Being in that naked woman's field of vision was too dangerous. The red wings had not returned after passing by, so they must have circled all the way around the cylindrical hyperbaric oxygen chamber so she could retrieve them. They were cars, after all, so they moved much faster than people.
An unhealthily saccharine voice reached him from around the curved metal wall.
Had his comment drawn her attention, or was she trying to distract them while she planned an attack from behind?
"These are actually surprisingly cheap."
Once they saw each other once more, one side or the other would lose their life.
And at this rate, it would be Quenser and Hina.
"We have already built a commercial model. As long as you don't have any weird dealers acting as middlemen, you can buy these for as much as a used car."
The cost of various different military vehicles varied wildly, but the most expensive tanks could cost as much as 10 million euros each. Not even hitting the jackpot at the lottery would be enough for that. Given the price of vehicles that could survive in this field, that probably was incredibly cheap.
"Who are-... ?"
"Dora Blue-Hawaii. You can address me as queen, mistress, honey, or whatever you like really."
He was not about to just believe her. That was indeed a Capitalist Corporations last name, but it seemed a little too convenient to find someone with "Hawaii" in their name while actually in Hawaii. Plus, he doubted someone from a criminal arms dealer would offer their real name so easily.
"I assume you already know what this place is used for. And why I ignored the others to eliminate you first."
"..."
Small Hina tugged on Quenser's uniform. She pointed past the cylinder wall behind them. She probably wanted to say that continuing to move back would take them all the way around and back to the exit where they could escape the room, but Quenser doubted it would be that easy. When he patted the top of her head to calm her elevated heartrate, she had a somewhat ticklish reaction. They would only have an instant to act. For example, if Dora sent the two wings around the cylinder in different directions, Quenser and Hina would be caught between them at some point.
(If they really are as bulletproof as an armored truck, a normal gun won't work. Throwing a randomly balled-up bomb won't work either. I need something made to pierce armor. I don't know how we win without a shoulder-fired missile like Heivia carries around. )
It was a lot like a driverless car with impenetrable tires charging straight toward a checkpoint. If you could not shoot out the tires or the driver, stopping it with bullets would be no easy task. And what if the entire thing was covered with thick bulletproof armor?
These things could crush the enemy with their speed and weight and they could also act as a shield to protect their user from gunfire. This special equipment was the best of both worlds.
"Your product wasn't a new propulsion device. It was a much more important core component."
"That is correct."
"What we saw out there was no more than an optional feature added for balancing purposes. It was not the main point."
"Exactly. Which is why I must kill you for revealing our precious Parasite Plan. Although after coming this far, I would still silence you even if you were completely off base."
Either Dora felt no need to carry a gun herself or she was not accustomed to using her own "products". He had no definite proof, but Quenser decided not to be optimistic. No matter how absurd it might look, this woman had found a way to survive on the front line. And she did so without joining a world power or using the clean war system. That was a shocking thing for someone who was protected by the system.
"That explains why the Capitalist Corporations couldn't ignore you. And why they immediately sent out the Over Cavitation to protect a foreign criminal group."
"Oh, is that what you call her? The Second Generation Antoinette is already ours. The parasite process is complete. It now works for us more than the Capitalist Corporations. Nh, hh."
She punctuated her sentence with an odd breath because she had removed a flower petal from the small bottle and placed it in her mouth.
That said, if she was following them around, there was a way to fight back. He could not change the plan on the fly with the remote option removed, but if he set the timer to 30 seconds or a minute and placed the explosive on the metal wall or a corner bordering the floor, he could lure Dora into the blast range.
(And those wings are flying cars. She can have them charge toward a destination point, but they shouldn't be able to remove any garbage located around the corner. That's the hardest part of designing a cleaning robot!)
They no longer had the handmade shield.
Simply circling around the curved metal wall was not enough. At the moment of detonation, Quenser tightly held Hina's warm body and curled up.
A deafening boom filled the space and a faint sweet aroma scattered around.
This one had not been knocked back. It would have exploded at her feet.
However...
"So did you really think you could kill me with that?"
(It definitely went off! Wait, did she do what I think she did!?)
"My shields are much more precise. Do you want to try a chemical round next? Maybe some napalm or white phosphorous? These multirotor 'flying cars' are giant fans powerful enough to keep a 1-ton mass afloat at all times. Did you honestly think flesh-and-blood soldiers stood any chance against their control of the air currents and air pressure?"
That powerful wind pushed up a literal ton of metal.
They could divert the current of poison gas or a flamethrower. It was possible even a long-range sniper rifle would be useless against her.
Either the thick shields would deflect it or the air power would divert it. Either way, her defenses were impregnable.
(What do I do?)
There was no time.
She was not going to wait around for him to think.
(Normal explosions don't work. I can't even touch her without doing something about those wings first! But how is she controlling them with this jamming in effect!?)
Due to the explosion, they had circled a good bit around the cylindrical hyperbaric oxygen chamber. When viewed as the face of a clock, Quenser and Hina were at 4 o'clock, Dora was at 9 o'clock, and the exit was at 12 o'clock. Hina tugged on his uniform again, but this was not really their chance to escape. Dora was trying to end this inside the large room. That meant 12 o'clock was their time limit. It was a giant hornet's nest. If they thoughtlessly arrived there, she would immediately send both red wings their way. She would have them circle around on either side at more than 100km/h. They would be trapped between the two weapons with no escape.
(All signals are being jammed. IR would be easily blocked by fire. Ultrasound would be affected by the strong winds. Are they just fully autonomous using an offline program? No, that would put her life at risk. If they malfunctioned like a shoplifting sensor, she'd be screwed, so she wouldn't rely on that. There must be some kind of wireless interface that lets her make direct adjustments!!)
He would only be able to make one or two more moves.
There was little time left until the flying armored cars made their final charge, but he could not afford to make any mistakes.
"The Parasite Plan? You mean your product was the Pilot Elite, don't you!?"
"The Antoinette was an excellent Second Generation, but it seems her Elite came down with an endemic disease. It would have taken a while for them to finally die, but it was not difficult for us to 'fine-tune' a new one."
That had to be a lie.
It could not have been that easy, but Dora made it sound like nothing.
"That said, Objects are generally only compatible with the one pilot. It is not easy for two Elites to pilot the same Object at the same level. So the Parasite Plan needed to alter the structure of the Object for the new Elite while keeping the basic frame the same. So we had to create the world's best Object for her specifically."
Even the best Object was worthless without someone to pilot it. A weapon that only absorbed maintenance expenses would only create greater and greater losses as it sat in storage. It would have to be scrapped.
But the arms dealer had said they could breathe new life into it.
For the Capitalist Corporations, it must have felt like selling their soul to the devil.
"This hyperbaric oxygen chamber might look like an execution device, but it was actually used to make adjustments to the Pilot Elite, wasn't it?"
"It apparently feels like a comfortable hammock to her. But, well, it has made her very concerned about weather data. She apparently gets headaches when the pressure changes."
Quenser doubted the outside pressure could actually affect someone inside an Object cockpit, so it was probably a psychological thing. What had happened to the original Elite who fell ill? Had they had headaches, or had they requested the meteorological data for some other reason? There was no way to know now.
Quenser came to a stop.
Hina kept tugging on the side of his hip and turning toward the exit with a sweet scent coming from her black hair, but they could not fall back any further than this.
They had arrived at the oxygen chamber's submarine-like door and console.
(Think. )
Quenser fought with his pounding heart.
(She has those armored flying cars, she's naked and doesn't have a gun, and those things always stay by her side to protect her. The jamming isn't causing her any trouble and they can manipulate the air. There has to be something there. There has to be a logical solution!!)
"Que'ser..."
While clinging to his hip, Hina looked up at him and spoke as if her heart could not bear the pressure.
And he looked down at her.
He saw the tears welling up in her eyes, her healthy chocolate-colored skin, her glossy black hair, and the hibiscus decoration on her head.
(Could it be?)
It was like a piece of trick art.
He had not noticed it at all before, but once it occurred to him and he observed his surroundings again, something was definitely off. It made no sense for that to be here. And if that meant Dora must have snuck it in for her own purposes.
He had to bet on this.
He gripped some of the clay-like Hand Axe plastic explosive.
"Dora!!"
"Come to think of it, I never got your name."
A single hit would mean instant death.
Neither one knew the other's real name, but they both prepared their deadly weapons as the final clash began.
Part 9
There was no reason for concern.
Dora Blue-Hawaii only had to do the same thing again.
She audibly swallowed the red flower petal in her mouth.
She sent it to her stomach.
She had one of the red wings remain by her side to protect her while she sent the other toward the target. A 1-ton mass of armor would collide with them at 80km/h. That would be even more deadly than an anti-materiel rifle. Her opponent would be torn to pieces even if they wore a full-body powered suit.
This would end it.
Or so she thought.
"Que'ser!"
"?"
But the naked woman frowned in confusion when she walked casually around the curved metal wall. The boy in what appeared to be a Legitimacy Kingdom uniform had indeed been knocked to the ground, but something was wrong. He was too clean for someone hit by a head-on collision with a 1-ton mass moving at highway speeds. The figure the local girl was tearfully clinging to did not look at all broken.
Dora toyed with the ribbon wrapped loosely around her.
(Did it miss? Did it only catch at the end of his clothing?)
However.
The machine would not malfunction without a reason. There had to be an explanation for why it had missed. Dora removed a red petal from the small bottle, placed it on her tongue, and tried to call back the wing she had sent out, but then she gasped.
She took a step to the side in her boots.
The red wing maintained its speed and violently crashed into the floor. The solid floor dented in. If she had stayed where she was, it might have turned her to mincemeat.
This was a first.
It had looked casual, but Dora had still taken evasive action.
"What happened?"
She saw the other one – the one she had kept with her for defense – wobbling unnaturally. It was not completely out of control, but it could stall and fall to the floor at any moment. And it was a literal ton of metal, so it could easily be a disaster if it so much as fell on her little toe.
What had that uniformed boy done at the last second? It had not looked like he threw a plastic explosive as the one trick he knew.
Just then, Dora Blue-Hawaii finally noticed something on the curved metal wall. The airtight door to the hyperbaric oxygen chamber sat partially open and the console's light was flashing.
Plastic explosives were a special kind of explosive made by combining normal explosives with malleable rubber. They were stable enough that they would not explode without a special fuse, but they also inherited the traits of the rubber. If you dumped them in hot water, they would melt. If you removed the plastic packaging and left them in the open air for a long period of time, they could grow cracked and dissolve.
Left in the open air.
Oxygen.
So if you threw one into that hyperbaric oxygen chamber that used the air pump facility's power to produce enough pressure to kill the person inside...
"It wasn't EM, IR, or ultrasound."
"Kh."
The boy spoke from the floor.
He was weak, but he smiled and raised his middle finger.
"It was the smell. They use an ion absorption sensor. You're naked because you control them using the adrenaline or whatever that's mixed into your sweet sweat. That's also why you keep taking petals out of that bottle and eating them. You didn't want to use a gun because you had to keep the gun smoke smell out of your hair. Those giant fans don't just blow out air; they're made so one of them absorbs the air and the other blows it back out. Although that means you can't send them very far even though they're unmanned."
"Dammit!!"
"When I hold Hina, I can sense a sweet scent from her hair.... You never know what will give you the inspiration you need to turn everything around. Hina can smell like that since she's a civilian, but I shouldn't have sensed the same thing from someone on the battlefield like you."
Of course, not just any scent would have done the trick. Dora had said she could handle poison gas and white phosphorus.
But everything changed if he could guess what she used to make the judgment. He hated to admit it, but Dora had a nice body. It was hard to imagine a bitter or sour smell coming from her skin or hair.
It was sweet.
The unique stench of melting rubber could sometimes seem sweet.
That had confused the controls.
Dora gave a shout and sent in one of the red wings. The boy in the military uniform pulled the brown girl close and rolled to the side. Normally, that would never be enough to dodge it, but things were different now. It failed to keep up with his amateurish movement, just barely missed him, and crashed into the half-open door to the hyperbaric oxygen chamber, slamming it shut.
A failed attack was acceptable.
But she also had to question the precision of their defenses. A single mistake there could literally cost her everything. That was the much bigger problem.
Dora Blue-Hawaii made a swift decision.
She still had an overwhelming advantage. It would be a problem if the intruders destroyed the hyperbaric oxygen chamber, but there was no need to finish this here. She could fall back and try again later. She could escape elsewhere and then make an attack with the pair of red wings to turn those small fries to mincemeat in a single second.
But.
But.
But.
A floral scent snuck into Dora's nose.
"Ugh!?"
The wings casually fell to the floor. The naked woman came to a complete stop. The flying cars had not completely ceased functioning, but they weighed a literal ton each. If she tried to send them out while imbalanced like this, they might run wild like a pinwheel firework and crush her instead.
That boy had said you never know what would give you the inspiration you needed to turn everything around.
"..."
It was that chocolate-colored girl who Dora had thought was powerless.
She had a hibiscus decoration in her hair. Was it not just an imitation? The boy had grabbed that flower and crushed it in his hand. All so he could scatter the sweet scent created by mixing a girl's sweat with a flower's nectar.
That was the same as the scent created by the contents of Dora's bottle after it passed through her female body.
She could not have wielded these weapons like this on a normal battlefield. Soldiers generally wanted to remain odorless to not give away their position to the enemy, so they would avoid not just perfume but soaps and clothing starch too.
But things were different here.
All four world powers had a presence in the Hawaii District and it was not a battlefield country. It was a blank zone that belonged to no one. The civilians living in the cities would be covered in all sorts of scents.
Dora heard someone tearing a plastic explosive away from collapsed Quenser's hand. It was Hina Liqueurball.
The deadly weapon looked entirely out of place in the 12-year-old girl's hands.
She nervously turned toward the naked woman.
"Oh, what do you know, " said Dora."I recognize you."
"..."
"I visited the Rocky Coast Ocean Meteorological Research Lab a few times, so you recognize me, don't you?"
But she was not asking the girl to spare her.
In fact...
"But I'm surprised. I thought you were more obedient... no, more powerless than this. I mean, the Oxyocean Operation run by that lab is increasing the population of dangerous great whites. Surely you aren't going to say you have forgotten how your parents died."
It was Quenser and not Hina who gasped at that.
And Dora's words continued as if mercilessly digging into an old scar.
"You gave up and decided it was useless to resist when they threatened you with guns and brought up your debt, didn't you? You knew you could not fight the grownups. And you used the very intellect your parents rubbed your head and praised you for to assist a program creating more of the very sharks that ate them! Ah ha ha!! So is this a belated attempt at a moving revenge scene? Don't make me laugh! We both know you're just a weak little puppy that wags her tail for whichever side the seesaw is currently tilting toward!! Do you really think you can take back your life now!?"
Thinking back, it would be hard to say Quenser had not noticed anything out of the ordinary.
When the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers had blown up the lab's prison-like walls and stormed the facility, why had Hina stuck so close to Quenser? Why had she followed him here instead of returning to her safe home?
She had wanted the power to fight.
Even if she did return home, she would not have found any warmth there.
She had wanted someone to rely on.
He was just some older boy she had happened to meet that day. He was little more than a stranger, but she had longed for someone who would take her side. She had wanted to hear someone speaking out against the increase in man-eating great whites.
So she had felt like maybe it was possible to go back to the way things were.
"Do it."
With only the loose ribbon to cover her nudity, Dora gave an odd smile and spoke to the girl.
She was one of the arms dealers that had tried to absorb even the greedy Capitalist Corporations military.
"We both know you can't do it. You would come to regret it. Do you think the Legitimacy Kingdom will accept you as one of theirs if you help them!? They'll be gone before you know it, you'll be left all alone again, and the seesaw will tilt back toward the Capitalist Corporations! But you'll have been branded a traitor, so who will save you then!? First your parents, then the soldiers!! Everyone will abandon you, just like they did m-..."
She was cut off by a quiet sound.
Something had bounced off the center of her bare chest.
It was a pen-like electric fuse Quenser had tossed over from the floor.
The timer was set to three seconds.
The fuse alone produced a bang louder than a firecracker. The small bottle at her neck shattered, the ribbon wrapped loosely around her shredded, and her soft flesh burst with a dark red color. With a hole the size of a ping pong ball torn in the center of Dora Blue-Hawaii's chest, blood gushed out and she collapsed backwards.
"Shut the hell up, " spat out the boy in an unusually violent tone of voice.
Quenser took his time standing up and pulled out his mobile device. He was of course targeting the red wings Dora had used. He attached a cable to those armored flying cars, extracted their data, and cut off the jamming.
He could finally use his radio again.
"Heivia, I have the Over Cavitation's plans. And this is the complete version that includes the modernized parts the arms dealer added in their Parasite Plan. Use this to support the Princess."
"You weren't responding, so I was afraid you'd died. Where are you? We were just starting to withdraw!"
"Withdraw? Was Dora not the only arms dealer using some bizarre weapon?"
"Don't be dumb!! Do you have any idea how bad things have gotten while you were being jammed? It's the Object! The Over Cavitation is headed this way!! Just like when the coastguard attacked and got turned to Swiss cheese!!"
"..."
Just like then.
But Quenser had to wonder if it really would be just like then. What if the Over Cavitation's new Pilot Elite could detect Dora's defeat through brainwaves, an EKG, or something? It was possible the Elite would ignore all previous assumptions and blow away the entire island to get back at Quenser.
What had the Elite really wanted to protect?
If the answer was not the equipment used to maintain her, then she would be wailing in the cockpit right now.
"Hina, I have the data we need, so let's get out of here. Hina?"
She did not respond, so he looked back to find the chocolate-colored girl named Hina Liqueurball slowly approaching the arms dealer woman.
Dora Blue-Hawaii.
The naked woman.
But she did wear solid military boots on her feet. That had been curious, so Hina crouched down and removed the right boot to reveal the foot below.
There was an old scar around the woman's ankle.
It was the unique scar of someone who had spent a long time dragging around a ball-and-chain just like Hina's.
"Sur... prised?"
Just like they did me.
This woman had used whatever tricks and underhanded methods she could to break free of that closed-off life.
That arms dealer had traded something for great wealth and celebrity status.
And with her dying breath, she left behind just the one word with the smile of a mischievous child.
Part 10
They finally managed to regroup.
With young Hina in tow, Quenser exchanged a look with Heivia and Myonri. While Quenser had been fighting Dora, the others had searched the facility on their own and they had secured the few ordinary workers stationed there. That explained the few unfamiliar faces in Hawaiian shirts.
"Holing up inside isn't going to help. In fact, there's nothing but pipes and tanks full of concentrated oxygen around here. If an Object fires one of its huge-ass cannons, who knows how much of the place is going to blow up!"
They heard a loud sound from outside that was more like spraying steam than a metal shell.
They hesitantly approached a window to check.
"The bridge is falling."
"I guess it isn't going to let us escape."
They were already within the Over Cavitation's firing range. If they stood in front of it, they would be crushed immediately. They were afraid to use their radios, but they had to check on the situation.
It was unclear how much good it actually did, but they used some of the facility's radio equipment to help disguise their signal.
"Princess, are you still alive!?"
"Just barely. And I wouldn't be if the Over Cavitation hadn't made an unnatural course change."
"If you can still move your Object, then let's end this. We have the accurate plans, including the Parasite Plan part. The new leg-like propulsion device disguised as a bipod at the base of the main canon is really just a form of aircushion. It uses a layer of air to kick off the ocean surface like it's stepping on an invisible balloon. It only works on the water. Princess, if you follow my instructions, you can strike back at it. Do you think you can do that!?"
"Just get to the point."
She really was a great girl who you could rely on. Just having her nearby gave you plenty of opportunities. Quenser shared the plans he had taken from Dora's device, explained his idea, and urged them all to action.
Of course, success was not guaranteed.
They had run across plenty of accidents and unforeseen circumstances while reaching this point and more than a few of their comrades had fallen along the way.
Quenser had no way of taking responsibility if this failed spectacularly.
But everyone still set to work.
They were sick of waiting around to be killed. If there was any chance at all, they were on board. That was the thought process pushing them onward.
"Hina, if you're going to run and hide, use that storage room over there. It looks like they added on an empty space not in the original plans. There is a panic room in case of an explosion, but if their Elite knows the layout, that will be the first place she targets. Thick walls can't save you, but a location the enemy doesn't expect can. Hina?"
"..."
The girl felt like she was being left behind.
She simply stood there with her head lowered, so Quenser crouched down to look her in the eye from below.
"How?"
"Hina."
"How can you stay so positive?"
Finally, she got the words out.
"I couldn't do anything. I knew dad couldn't swim and mom never would have forced him to go into the ocean. It made no sense that they were attacked by sharks while surfing, but I had to believe what the grownups said!"
"..."
"I was afraid of the Object! I was afraid of all the grownups in army uniforms!! We found the arms dealer, but all I did was tremble in fear!! You were the one that ended it, Que'ser. Even though I had the bomb in my hand and the enemy was right there!!"
... Who could blame her?
She had a gun pressed against her head, her debt was used against her, the police, the military, and the law were all stacked against her, the entire adult world around her had viewed her with scorn, and the parents who should have protected her were no longer there. Who in the world could blame her and call her a coward for holding her tongue to protect her own life?
But.
Just because no one blamed her did not meant it had not built up inside her little by little. Until it was too much to bear.
"I always knew it wasn't an accident. Mom and dad welcomed in all the foreign people who moved here. And they said it was wrong to treat some of them better than others, so they got into arguments with people from the Capitalist Corporations who claim to be in charge here! They knew what the Oxyocean Operation would do, so on that night, they said they were going to discuss it with the people running the program! They said those people would understand if they talked it out!! But they... !!!!!!!"
"Hey."
Quenser spoke lightly to interrupt her increasingly erratic words.
"I think you're confused about something, lady. We aren't saints. Just because the people who fought di the right thing doesn't mean the people who didn't fight did the wrong thing. We only say that to keep the wars running smoothly. If we don't make the soldiers look like badass heroes, no one's going to enlist. So throw out that idea of justice and focus on the dumber things you can actually believe in."
"But they... my mom and dad and I couldn't do anything!!"
"Hina, your parents stayed true to themselves to the very end."
Little Hina's eyes opened wide.
She looked like she had stopped breathing and Quenser had more to say to her.
"Increasing the shark population for profit will get the ignorant tourists eaten first. And your parents would have known how dangerous it was to aggravate the professional killers of the military in private talks.... But they still did it. They still didn't rely on guns. Nor did they rely on terrorism or guerilla warfare. They decided they would fight with their words and they stepped up onto the final stage with that as their weapon."
"..."
"That's a noble thing. The lies we tell to facilitate war have nothing on that. Lady, your parents risked their lives to stay true to that path, so are you going to defile it now? It isn't violence that decides who's strong and who's weak or who's right and who's wrong."
He could not say anything more.
Hina's face crumpled as she hugged crouching Quenser and exploded into tears.
She had not avenged her parents.
It may have been the most difficult decision she had ever made.
But it was a much stronger and more human decision than someone who icily held a gun or knife over the corpse of their hated foe. Hina Liqueurball was smart enough to have pulled it off if she had put her mind to it, but she could remain a kind girl for now.
Heivia and Myonri waved over at Quenser from a short distance away.
They were done with their preparations.
With Hina still hugging him, Quenser nodded and used his empty hand to grab something that had fallen to the floor.
It was a tool that looked like a pair of wire cutters enlarged to the size of a two-handed pair of scissors.
It was a pair of chain cutters.
"Don't worry, lady."
He kept it short.
And he made his point clear.
"We'll take care of all the dirty work. You don't need to dirty your hands over this."
There was a snapping sound.
It was a clear sign of a counterattack. It was the sound of him cutting the chain holding that binding metal ball to the girl's ankle.
Part 11
The Over Cavitation was fast.
Its target was defenseless and stationary, it knew the facility's internal structure, and it had no need to hold back any longer. It fired spears of white steam and air bubbles while circling that 1km square of land given a warship-like silhouette by the many buildings of various sizes.
The thick concrete walls and the pipes large enough for someone to stand in were shattered and blown away like styrofoam.
Heivia's eyes widened and he got down on the ground as rubble fell from overhead.
"Watch out!!"
"We expected this, remember? Okay, it's keeping a distance of 3km. This is our chance. That's a lot closer than I expected!"
"This is our chance? This!?"
"After hiding and crying all alone for so long, Hina made a choice none of us could. She chose not to fight despite the situation. I can't let that go unrewarded!"
"Tch. Fine, then!! I guess we can be the cavalry for just the one day!!"
Since Objects fought from ranges of 10km, the enemy had essentially rushed right up to them. Even though its special main cannon used steam, this was unthinkable when up against a stationary target. The Pilot Elite must have been furious.
But both sides had a reason to kill the other.
That criminal group had further corrupted the already awful Capitalist Corporations military. Quenser had made a promise to Hina who had resisted the temptation even though her parents had been killed. He would show his respect for that strength. Quenser and the others were not going to let those pieces of shit have free rein in the Hawaii District any longer.
As expected, the Object skewered the crucial parts of the facility, such as the compression tanks, the power room, and the panic room.
But that knowledge of the internal structure could be a problem. Either the Elite was unaware of the room added after construction was complete, or she simply did not even consider the sturdy storeroom where Hina and the others were hiding.
That relieved Quenser's concerns.
Now the wolves could focus on hunting their large prey.
"Let's get started, Heivia. We only have one shot at this."
"You really are a freak for licking your lips at a time like this."
The air pump facility, which removed the oxygen from the seawater via electrolysis and then sent that oxygen back into the ocean, was badly damaged, but it had already completed the action they required.
The Object was 3km away.
Quenser's group on the island could not approach. They would be slaughtered before they could get the rubber boat out there.
Quenser slapped Heivia on the back.
His awful friend was resting a missile launcher on his shoulder.
"Fire that thing."
With a fwoosh reminiscent of a firework being launched, the explosive flew off in a straight line. They did not have time to watch its progress to see if it did its job. It was powerful and convenient for a handheld weapon, but the smoke tended to give away the launch point and staying put was a good way of being hit by a counterattack.
A Second Generation loaded with laser beams would have any number of chances to shoot down the missile. But the laser beams and low-stability plasma cannons gathered on the three towers built on top of the Object wavered back and forth in a weirdly human sort of hesitation. The missile was not headed toward the Over Cavitation. It would fall into the ocean before reaching the Object.
But that accomplished what Quenser's group wanted. As long as it hit the ocean surface, they did not care if it was shot down along the way.
They just needed a ball of flames to land in the ocean.
"This facility takes in tons of ocean water, uses microbubbles and a high pressure environment to dissolve oxygen into it at a rate of 90, 000 liters per minute, and sends it back to the hypoxic Sea of Death found in the deep ocean pits."
Quenser could not stop smiling as he rolled out and dove toward more cover. He could not help but smile when he did this, so he could never walk the same path as Hina.
However, there were things he could protect because of that nature.
"But using electrolysis on the ocean water gives you more than just oxygen. You also get hydrogen. What happens if you dissolve a bunch of that into the ocean instead? And what happens if you ignite it?"
The Over Cavitation was knocked upwards from below as if all the seawater below had become a single giant bomb.
It was a hydrogen explosion.
The basic concept was the same one seen in simple experiments done by elementary school children everywhere. But the scale here was very different. The shock was enough for that 200, 000-ton mass to literally float up into the air.
"Modernization? A new propulsion device? Bipod-like legs? I don't give a shit about your Parasite Plan! Did you really think I'd give you a chance to use your secret weapon!?"
Quenser yelled out at the Object, but it was not over yet.
That impact would have split the average warship in half, but the Over Cavitation had not sunk yet. It endured. Its presence seemed to loudly announce that only an Object could defeat an Object and that message was meant to squeeze at the puny soldier's hearts.
Even its small cannon could blow them to smithereens. The two idiots had dived behind cover out of habit, but if the Object was serious about attacking them, it could break through that cover like it was wet tissue paper.
But the Legitimacy Kingdom potatoes were still smiling. They had all gone pale and were soaked with a nervous sweat, but they saw no sign of an unforeseen accident.
Yes.
All of this was still part of the plan.
Quenser, the originator of the plan, shouted into his radio.
"It's about to react! Everyone get ready!!"
Part 12
Hina Liqueurball could not just sit there.
She and the air pump facility workers had hidden in the sturdy storeroom added after the initial construction, but she could not stand it any longer.
Quenser and the others who had cut the chain from her ankle were fighting on her behalf.
If they lost, they were sure to die. If they won, they could not escape the label of murderers. But they had not hesitated in the face of that harsh choice.
"Nn!"
She opened the heavy door and left on her own.
She gave no concern for her short skirt and ran out with the legs now freed from the GPS ball-and-chain. She swayed unsteadily and tilted a bit diagonally as she ran down the corridor. She had meant to head to the exit, but the third floor wall had crumbled away, revealing the scene outside.
"Ah..."
There, the chocolate-colored girl became a witness of history.
"Ahh!?"
The ocean had changed color.
It was no longer the beautiful clear blue with a hint of green used on postcards and tourist sites. It had a sinister fury. Something like a dark clump of rock jutted out from it. It must have been quite hot because steam was rising into the sky with more intensity than smoke from a chimney.
It was a submarine volcano.
Quenser and the others had filled the air pumps with hydrogen and sent it into this area of ocean. But how far had it gone? Not just in length or width, but in depth. If the "single bomb" that had created reached the ocean floor, it would have violently shaken the earth's crust itself.
The pumps had been designed to send oxygen-filled water to the deep pits where the hypoxic Sea of Death was most common.
To start with, heavy pressure had bene used to infuse the seawater with lots of hydrogen and that was sent to the depths of the ocean.
Even if the pressure of those depths was insufficient and some of the hydrogen separated from the water, hydrogen was the lightest element. It would only rise, so large bubbles of hydrogen would have been rising from the bottom of the ocean like an upside-down waterfall.
In other words, it had all been connected.
If one point was detonated, the explosion would instantly spread to the entire area.
That created an artificial earthquake.
And that led to a forced eruption.
The Hawaii District was known as a disaster-prone area due to its many active volcanos and more than 30 hurricanes each year.
As all that lava flowed out, it had rapidly cooled in the seawater and hardened into rock. As that rock continued to grow, the ocean bottom broke the surface and formed an island.
The Over Cavitation, or Antoinette, was a Second Generation built for naval battles, so it was like a fish out of water. It could not move on land even with the new bipod-like legs.
A heavy rumbling arrived.
The battered Legitimacy Kingdom Object used a barely-functioning main cannon to slowly take aim from the distance.
As badly damaged as that Object was, it would never miss a stationary target that had been flipped onto its side to reveal its belly.
This was checkmate.
"..."
Hina had skipped all the way to college, so she understood the science behind the trick.
But she still softly gripped the ID card at her flat chest. No, she was reaching for the cartoonish character sticker she had placed on the card.
The character was from a legend known all across Polynesia, which included the Hawaii District. The generous man had never grown out of his mischievous nature no matter how much power he gained and he had taught humans how to use fire.
Maui Tikitiki.
That god of hers was said to have fished their islands from the bottom of the ocean in order to save someone's life.
With a deafening blast, the Baby Magnum's low-stability plasma cannon pierced the wicked monster.
Part 13
"Princess."
"What is this weird frequency? This isn't our encryption format."
"You're already pretty badly damaged, so can you do one last thing for me? Purge one of your destroyed main cannons. If possible, break the laser beam's solvent tank so its contents leak into the ocean. The brighter the color the better."
"Hm? What good does that do??? It will break down on its own."
"It doesn't have to actually do anything. As long as it ruins their brand's image."
"Wait..."
"Defeating the Over Cavitation doesn't actually stop the entire Oxyocean Operation. Even if we destroyed all of the air pump facilities, they could always rebuild them. So I want some other way of stopping the Capitalist Corporations' plan."
"They're increasing the shark population because the fins are a luxury ingredient, aren't they?"
"If their ruined image causes the price to plummet, that business plan fails, right? Whether used as a luxury ingredient or a collagen gel for makeup foundation, the shark fins are targeted toward the wealthy. Money is everything to them. The facilities will be a liability for as long as the plan is placed on hold, so they'll make some adjustments before they start losing too much money. The Capitalist Corporations will be forced to stop."
"It won't make Hina sad?"
"She won't let a trick using fake pollution get to her. She's smart enough to see what's really going on. More importantly, let's drive out those filthy SOBs who aren't as smart as her."
Part 14
It was all over and they had returned to that destroyer battleship.
"The next time that busty commander gives us bad intel, I say we make her bow down in apology. How many people does she think died this time?"
"Have you ever heard of the Island Nation's fantastic culture of bondage? We can also have her sit in their 'seiza' style and place a heavy stone slab on her knees."
"Are there any energy drinks around here?"
"Not going to let her sleep tonight, huh? I'm in."
The commander only consolidated the information gathered by her subordinates, so this could not be entirely blamed on Frolaytia. But the exhausted idiots could be unforgiving.
And the busty silver-haired commander did care for her subordinates, so she could not bring herself to get after them too strongly.
"... Don't you forget how you're treating me, you two."
"Oh, there are two things I never, ever forget: convenient loopholes and other people's weaknesses☆"
"You're wearing a bunny suit at the next pre-mission briefing. You got that?"
At any rate, Frolaytia placed her long, narrow kiseru in her mouth to distract herself from her irritation.
"We received a few new pieces of data from the support device belonging to the arms dealer Quenser killed and from the destroyed Over Cavitation. The electronic simulation division has finished decrypting it, so we have learned a lot about their organizational structure and their Parasite Plan."
"We still don't get any time off? But I really want to go searching for that legendary maid."
"Frolaytia, please kill him by restricting his sleep and overworking him."
Everyone ignored Quenser's rapid comment.
"I'll omit the specifics and get right to the point: the arms dealer is known as Woodstock. They appear to have begun when an Eastern European gang joined with an engineering group who found no place for them in the Indian peninsula."
"An engineering group?"
"You saw the flying cars that woman going by the name of Dora Blue-Hawaii used, didn't you? Due to the population explosion in that region, the entrance exams and fight for employment have overheated. The people in this group were only lacking in connections, so their skill is real. They were exactly what a criminal organization would have been looking for. That is the group supporting the products used for the Parasite Plan."
Frolaytia sounded exasperated. The look on her face said she wished they had come to the Legitimacy Kingdom for employment.
"Woodstock has a presence in more than just the Hawaii District. All over the world, they have been locating defective Objects from all four world powers and effectively hijacking them through modernization. That is the Parasite Plan. Although now that the plan has been revealed, it seems they have started a disappearing act to avoid mass arrests."
"So is our next mission to attack their headquarters? What a pain in the ass. Aren't there police for that? Do the special forces really have better things to be doing?"
"You might want to hear this first: Woodstock has added or replaced core components to make up for the defects in more than 10 Objects in all. It might be the undercarriage, a main cannon, the radar, the armor, the cockpit's electrical system, or the reactor itself."
"Wait. You don't mean... ?"
"Altogether, they have the parts for a brand new Object of their own. The Parasite Plan's true goal was the construction of a cutting-edge Second Generation. The manufacturing process for a whole Object takes years, but this method changes that. Or rather, it doesn't matter if their actions are discovered even if it does take years. I propose we call it the Gangster. Those arms dealers are apparently waiting for us with a cutting edge Second Generation the likes of which no one has ever seen. That undoubtedly makes this a job for the military."
Between the Lines 2
Yes.
That's right.
To be honest, this was a crossroads.
And I really would have preferred for things to go more smoothly. I mean, doesn't it feel so nice when the government and the people join forces in corruption? Everything is so much easier. There is more than one path to our goal, so there's no reason to actively choose the harder one.
But the easier path is no longer an option.
Cruel, isn't it?
But this is not a problem. In fact, this is just the beginning of hell for them.
If spoiling them didn't work, we'll just have to get tougher. It's time to switch from the carrot to the stick. If the government and the people won't join together in secret, then we the people must crush the useless government. They are the ones that swatted away our outstretched hand, so it's time to teach them a lesson. Traitors must be harshly punished and we use the fear of that retribution to control both our own people and our enemies.
I really hate doing this.
That's why I wish they had just accepted the corruption in the first place.
I was trying to keep things peaceful so this wouldn't happen, but they took a wrong turn at the crossroads. So we must respond accordingly. Let's show them what the real bad guys can do.
We are Woodstock.
We are the arms dealers who fell the bloody trees of the cursed forest and transform their wood into weapons.
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