novelBetween the Year's End and the Year's Beginning >> Uyuni District Salt Flat Suppression Operation (1)
| ← Ch.154 | Ch.156 → |
Part 1
Let's all enjoy the end of the year together!
The final big event of the year begins now!! Are you ready for the Royal Cleaner!?
"Hmph."
Now, this was a major problem.
Inside the maintenance hangar large enough to contain the entire 50m Object, the blonde Princess looked something like a small animal with too many acorns in its cheeks. It was honestly very cute, but she would probably hit you if you said that in front of her.
"It feels like no one even needs me anymore. Quenser and the others get to have all the fun."
"We were thrown out into the Arctic without those armor panels or even the bare minimum of a bulletproof jacket!! It was awful! It was so awful I can barely stand it! It was just the worst!!"
Quenser Barbotage was half speaking his mind and half trying to earn himself some sympathy, but the more he said, the worse the Princess's mood got. She was curled up in the corner and refusing to look him in the eye.
A short distance away, the old maintenance lady breathed an exasperated sigh while holding a huge hydraulic tool.
She could not believe that damn fool did not understand the basic fact that talking on and on about how "awful" everything was could be devastating to the kid who missed out on the field trip.
"I hear you met Santa, Quenser."
"Hmm?"
"The kids on that ship said Santa saved them, so you must have seen him, right?"
The information had gotten twisted along the way, but correcting her would not be the kind thing to do here.
"Ha ha ha. Well, it wasn't as exciting as you'd think."
"What kind of person was he?"
"I'm on the naughty list, so I didn't get a present."
Also, the Baby Magnum was the foundation of the 37th and only the Princess could pilot it. Any damage to her mental health could harm their future operations, so the old lady casually joined the conversation.
"Here, Princess. If you're so bored without anything to do, I have plenty of work I can give you. There's a lot of salt in this area, so we need to clean your Object as often as possible."
"Hmph."
"It isn't the quality of the work that helps make memories. Simply spending time together strengthens our bonds. And this can double as that Royal Cleaner event too."
She was still reluctant, but the Princess lifted her butt from the ground. More than just looking reluctant, she actually kept her lips pouted like a small child as she grabbed the cleaning equipment with both hands. The equipment was larger than a mop. It was most likely a larger version of the polishers that used polishing discs on the exterior of a car.
Meanwhile, Quenser actually looked surprised and glanced over at the old lady.
"You actually keep up with that kind of stuff? And here I was wondering why everyone was talking about that Royal Cleaner thing all of a sudden."
"Because I'd rather not become a geek who can't even make small talk."
"Agh!?"
That one hurt coming from a wrinkly old lady.
In reality, the old lady's geek levels far surpassed Quenser's, but that just meant she knew exactly what to say to hurt the kind of person who had gotten way too into one particular interest.
The battlefield student dripped with sweat and gestured wildly while trying to explain himself.
"I-I-I-I know what it is! I'm up on all the latest trends! That's the new event they created to fill the empty spot between Christmas and New Year's, right!? And it's a time for cleaning!! Everyone gathers together and cleans up the town!! I was only pretending. Yes, only pretending not to know so I would blend in!!!!!!"
The safe countries would likely be full of young people dressed in swimsuits, maid uniforms, and other outfits that kept the filth off of their normal clothes during this midwinter cleaning. While the event was meant to be about cleaning, it was mostly enjoyed for the sense of unity and to have a big party while dressed up in costumes. But since they were cleaning up as volunteers, the adults could not get mad at them like with the wild partying that happened at Halloween.
In fact.
Based on the cheers and excited cries coming from outside the hangar, the festival had reached the maintenance base zone as well. The maintenance team was simply too strict for that.
"(Well, life in the Island Nation was enough to see plenty of this before. Businessmen are always inventing and altering traditions to create whatever kind of event they need to make some money, so this hardly new. Just like with Halloween, Christmas, and Valentine's, the people just want to party and don't give a damn where the holiday came from or how it was originally celebrated. )"
The old lady sighed and tossed Quenser a metal water sprayer nozzle that was leaning against the wall nearby. It had a thick tube attached and it was far more than just a firefighting hose. That thing looked more like a small beam weapon.
"You can take care of the main cannon joints. Sand and salt are the enemy, so spray it all off. Use the ALS to detect any left behind."
"Sure, sure. What wavelength?"
"385 nanometers. It's nothing but normal salt, so stick to the basics."
The Baby Magnum itself was a huge sphere, which meant little space to stand on, so it was surrounded by steel beams and scaffolding like a jungle gym. It also had stairs and simple lifts, so it looked a lot like a small piece of modern architecture.
Quenser circled behind the Object, attached his lifeline to the metal railing, and then squeezed the trigger on the metal nozzle he held at his hip. He meant to start out with a weak blast, but the water pressure was so powerful he was nearly launched backwards.
"Bwah, ah!?"
The old lady looked as exasperated as ever from the floor below him.
"No one's interested in seeing a guy like you all wet. Get to work."
"Do none of you maintenance workers have a healthy fear of heights!?"
What he had to do was simple: blast the Object's joints with the powerful water gun to remove the caked-on salt. However, the stubborn salt could not all be seen with the naked eye, so he had to wear special goggles and shine a purple light on it to see where the "stains" were.
"Okay, " said the Princess from directly above him.
Her cleaning device was something like a monstrous electric toothbrush larger than a mop. It was primarily used on the sensors, so it was most efficient to let the Pilot Elite herself do that job. That meant Quenser had to work separately from her this-
"Bfhh!? Um, uh! Princess, what are you doing!?"
"You have to ask? This is the Royal Cleaner."
Something had changed.
The short-haired Princess had been rummaging around inside the crane's box seat, but when she emerged, she was wearing a classic maid uniform instead of her skintight special suit.
It was true people tended to wear things like that during the event, but...
"Wouldn't your uniform have been good enough!? If you were only worried about getting dirty!?"
"You don't like it?"
He was on a lower level and she was on a higher level, so the result should have been obvious. The classic type had a long skirt, but their positioning meant he could see right up it. However, she did not seem to have noticed that fact. But he could not let himself rejoice. What exactly he could see will have to remain unsaid!! Because if he rejoiced here, she would catch on!!
The old maintenance lady was working on the level below Quenser, so she would see the same thing if she happened to look up.
(How can I keep myself in this paradise for even one second longer!?)
"Hiyahh!!"
With a cry like the star of a Capitalist Corporations action movie, he somewhat bent the jointed light attached to the railing nearby. Using bright lights to cover up indecent things was a trick invented for Island Nation TV broadcasts. Who better to take inspiration from here than the geniuses who had first introduced Objects to the world?
"Hm? What is it, Quenser???"
"Nothing!! Just working to get out a stubborn bit of salt!! Out, damned spot, out!!"
He poured all his efforts into washing away her suspicion.
Meanwhile, the old lady did not seem to notice that her vision was unnaturally obscured.
"It's all about probability and statistics. In other words, they're after an economic effect. I bet the Royal Cleaner had its beginnings in the Capitalist Corporations and spread to the other world powers as word of it leaked out. The marketers were fine with any event they could use to get people fired up between the 26th and the 31st."
"Ehh? What's wrong with that if we can all have some fun together? Grin, grin."
(Th-this is working. I've finally set things up perfectly!! Now no one can intrude upon my paradise!! Oh, light blue, huh? I see, I see. Such a lovely and refreshing color reminiscent of mint ice cream. Grin, grin, grin!!)
"Nh."
The panties overhead made a weird noise.
She was still holding the monstrous polisher in both hands and carefully polishing up the area around the delicate sensors. That meant she had nothing left to hold down her skirt...or she shouldn't have, but that "umbrella" was unnaturally bent inwards.
She was working at close enough range that she had bent her arms in to hold the polisher up against her body as she worked.
She was holding the monstrous cleaning device like a body pillow while its powerful motor caused it to vibrate.
"Nhhh?"
(W-wait, is something awakening inside her? Princess, are you experiencing an awakening from that vibration traveling through your body, just like with a bicycle seat or the corner of an old washing machine!? Yes, this is fantastic news. This is a most wonderful thing, Princesssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!)
"Ah."
Quenser's thoughts were cut off by a silly sound of surprise from the girl.
Because he was staring so intently overhead, he saw something slip from the Princess's hands thanks to all the slippery cleaning fluid.
And a moment later, that mass of metal and a motor fell from the level above and hit the idiot square in the face.
Part 2
"Ohhhh. Ohhhhhhhh, Myonri!! How the hell are you still alive after your helicopter got shot down!?"
"Um, I'm really not sure what you're talking about, but I wasn't on a helicopter during the last mission. And, Heivia, if you use this outburst of emotion as an excuse to hug me, I will shoot you between the eyes and blame it on an accidental discharge."
"And farewell, Quenser! I'm choosing this capable jack of all trades as my buddy, so you can work with that clumsy young woman who can find a way to trip on a perfectly flat floor!! Hahhh hah hah!!"
"Nooo!! Don't shift all the blame away from yourself and run away! Why don't I get a break from this nonsense!?"
Quenser could only cry on his own after Heivia and Myonri abandoned him.
And Elise Montana was muttering to herself with an even darker look on her face.
"Why am I being treated like some kind of god of poverty by this king of the railroad nerds? Does no one in the goddamn 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion have a user's manual for how to treat girls?"
But their complaints meant nothing when it was a job.
Quenser and Elise climbed up the side of an armored vehicle parked nearby to reach the flat roof.
"Oh, and, Elise? We're headed into battle, so you should remove those cat ears."
"Eek!? What, no, you're kidding!? Now you'll know I wore cat ears and a school swimsuit and covered myself in soap bubbles to clean the bath with my entire body!!"
"That's not the right outfit for someone as curvy as you!! Why didn't you invite me!?"
Why hadn't she? Because Quenser had been busy looking up at the Maid Princess's panties. He could not be in two places at once, so if he wanted to attempt to enjoy multiple sexy events simultaneously, he would have to destroy the concept of an alibi and accept the existence of parallel worlds.
They ended up bickering like usual, but Elise Montana seemed in a bad mood. She removed her cat ears headband and pouted her lips like a child.
"Besides, I am a sergeant, you know? I outrank you, so you need to show me the respect I deserve!!"
"I dunno why you're expecting a student to care about rank."
"Respect!!"
"Okay, okay, Sergeant Pacifier."
"Ehh!? Not even a rank of colonel or general can hope to make a dent in a word like pacifier!! It's smothers all the other flavors like mayonnaise!"
Their uniforms were pure white this time.
But not because the higher ups were continuing to harass them by having them attend the battlefield in wedding attire.
"The Uyuni Salt Flat. Hyah, that's incredible, " said Elise."It's nothing but salt as far as the eye can see."
"It looks flat, but they say the elevation here is about 3600 meters. That's about the same as the Island Nation's Mt. Fuji, so make sure you don't get altitude sickness."
"Um, is that something you can prevent by being careful?"
It was December and they were in the Southern Hemisphere where the seasons were reversed, but it was still chilly at this altitude. On the other hand, they could feel the bright sunlight piercing into their skin. They were not on the midsummer beach, but they would probably get a tan in no time if they were not paying attention. That may have been another unique trait of a tall mountain environment.
"Allll of this is used to mine salt to be sold, right?" asked Elise.
"That's a real Capitalist Corporations way of looking at it. But that may be why we were given these weird things."
Quenser banged the heel of his boot against the flat roof of the armored vehicle they were sitting atop.
It was not a tank.
It was likely based off a tank's design since it used a continuous track (because that reduced development costs and was easier to maintain), but it did not have a rotating gun on the top. Instead, a device that resembled a giant pinecone was attached to the end of a thick shaft. That was a drill, so this was a tunnel-drilling vehicle used to quickly create shelters or tunnels during wartime.
Heivia and Myonri's vehicle was kicking white dust(?) into the air a short distance out ahead, but it had two mantis-like arms folded up and a bulldozer-like dirt-pusher attached to the front. That was known as a military engineering vehicle and it was used to move fallen trees out of the way or to level out the runways for an airfield.
Frolaytia's voice arrived over the radio.
"Our objective today is to defeat the Capitalist Corporations' Second Generation Police Queen."
"Let me guess, she's wearing a police uniform and carrying a whip, " commented Quenser.
"Our busty commander already has the dom in a tight skirt thing covered, " said Heivia over the radio."So enough of that creepily nice voice. Hit me with the whip already!"
Quenser frowned because Elise shook her radio up and down with a puzzled look and then scooted over next to him. All the salt in the air had apparently broken her military equipment already.
"Their entire military is a crazy collection of PMC forces, but this one is especially bizarre, " continued Frolaytia."This Object was built by their police special forces instead of their military."
"A police Object?" asked Quenser.
"What good is that?" added Heivia."Chase after a criminal in that and they'll reduce the entire city to rubble."
The military and the police were very different categories even if they were armed with the exact same machineguns.
If the military performed police work, it would mean they were aiming their guns at their own people. If the police did military work, it would mean they had crossed national borders to arrest someone and were thus forcing their rules on another country. That was why any threats were designated as either terrorists or another nation's soldiers and those two organizations pursued them accordingly. Of course, it would sometimes turn out that the supposed terrorists were really elite commandos trained in a military facility.
"The Capitalist Corporations always pursues the most efficient and profitable business model. Going to twice the effort is a waste of funds, so they have previously tried to combine those two organizations. The Police Queen is another example. Although it may be less of a serious answer and more of an extreme answer meant to shift public opinion in the direction they want."
"Wait, but don't Objects cost 5 billion dollars each?"
"It's the same as TV commercials and online banner ads. Manipulating public opinion is apparently worth the cost to them."
That was quite something. Quenser was more interested in getting access to tangible technology than in acquiring formless influence, so this felt a lot like someone paying large sums of money just to become first in their class.
"If the Capitalist Corporations military and the police are squabbling, we can us that to our advantage. We just have to widen the existing crack into a large rift."
"Hm??? Then why are we destroying the one police Object they're testing out? Wouldn't it be more effective to attack the plentiful military Objects to weaken that side of the equation?"
"Why am I hearing Elise's voice coming from Quenser's device?"
The two of them were sharing the one radio. The vehicle was shaking, so the busty blonde's soft cheek and the side of her glasses would sometimes bump into him while he exchanged information, but...
"And you need to look further ahead than that, Elise, " said Frolaytia."If the Capitalist Corporations military and police are fighting, everyone will expect the military to win with their superior numbers. Pretty boring conclusion, right?'
"..."
"But what if the police Object actually fights an enemy Object and is defeated and then the military adds insult to injury by continuing to attack the surviving police officers? They'll be attacking the allies of the people who just lost their precious Object, so can you imagine the backlash? We all know who everyone in the safe country will side with. They'll all curse the PMCs, say they don't need a military that attacks their own people instead of the enemy, and decide the police should build more Objects. Yes, all those people with too much time on their hands will let emotion get the better of them and support the losers. And they will never even think about what the ensuing chaos and standstill will cause."
Their mission was as godawful as ever.
This was not a lack of understanding how people's minds worked. The military intellectuals were out of control because they understood that too well and abused it.
"Wow..."
Busty blonde Elise Montana held the side of her glasses and stared off into the distance as if trying not to face the reality in front of her.
A giant form rose up there.
However, it was not an Object. It was a mass of salt the size of a large tour bus. Salt was rolled up in cylinders like the bales of hay on a farm and then stacked up in pyramids. It was not much different from how pipes were stored, but the sense of scale was entirely different.
Humans must have unconditionally felt awed when faced with enormous things or with a countless array of identical things.
"At 9000 square kilometers, this is the world's largest salt flat and salt producing region, " said Quenser.
"Those pyramids can provide cover for an entire Object, " said Heivia."Are we supposed to be the bugs crawling along the floor of a giant kill house?"
However, there was no sign of the Police Queen itself. There appeared to be a few more pyramids beyond the horizon as well, but where was it hiding?
"We cannot rely on the satellite images, " bluntly stated Frolaytia."The Uyuni Salt Flat is entirely made of salt, so it acts like a giant greenscreen. Normal photos come back entirely white due to the reflected sunlight and laser range-finding is thrown off by the reflectance. We are scanning with radar on the ground, but that will not detect something hiding behind those salt pyramids. It keeps vanishing and reappearing."
"But I guess that also means the Princess can hide from them too."
"The Princess is following behind all of you and she will provide the finishing blow. Your job is to construct beneficial terrain. The ground is all salt, so you can dig through it all you want. The Police Queen uses an air cushion system to keep it afloat with the power of air, so whether on land or water, it will be greatly influenced by the bumps and dips in the surface. Stop it with a pitfall so the Princess can shoot it. That will end this."
"There's no way it'll be that easy, " groaned Quenser while staring off into the distance.
"I would normally be right there with you in your pessimism, but not this time, " said Heivia."I mean, that walking disaster zone is with you!! Hahhh hah hah! You're carrying all the misfortune yourself, Quenser, so you can shield us from all the bullets! Meanwhile, we'll have a nice, relaxing-"
With a strange rumbling sound, Heivia's military engineering vehicle vanished from view up ahead.
Quenser quickly grabbed his radio.
"Stop! Stop for a moment!! What was that!?"
"Bgyah!?"
To make sure she was not thrown off by the rapid braking, Elise clung to and squished her large chest against the thick shaft of the drill rising up in front of them. It was nerve-racking how they slid forward a bit despite using the same continuous track as a tank. They must have been tearing off the top layer of salt on the white ground.
With the utmost caution, Quenser moved to the edge of the flat roof and peered down from the front of the tunnel-drilling vehicle. They had just barely stopped in time.
Stopped in time for what, you ask?
"Oh, ohhhh. A-are you for real with this?" someone groaned from below.
"Well, that's no fun, " complained Quenser."Heivia's just fine."
They had fallen.
The white salt flat looked like a single smooth mirror-like surface, but it actually had a large trench in it. This did not look at all natural. That abnormal blank spot was shaped like one of those tour bus-sized cylinders. More and more of those gaps were connected together to create a long, long labyrinthine series of trenches.
"I know they say the white salt flat messes with your sense of perception, but it looks like that works vertically too. You can't tell how deep the hole right in front of you is."
Frolaytia had said laser range finding from a satellite was unreliable on the all-white Uyuni Salt Flat, so they would have to walk around themselves to see how far that trench labyrinth went.
"Ughh. Is this an anti-tank trench?"
"You were driving that thing, Myonri?" he said into his radio."But you might be overthinking it. Couldn't they have just been digging out the salt they sell?"
Myonri really was a jack of all trades.
The military engineering vehicle had fallen onto its face(?), but its butt was wiggling side to side. But that mass of armor was not trying to seduce him. It was using the two mantis-like arms to try to right itself.
"Huh? It can do that?"
"This thing's arms have previously proven their worth by punching through a thick fortress wall and letting in a bunch of soldiers during a battle in Oceania, " said Heivia."As long as it gets close, it can tear away a tank's front armor with brute force alone. It's like using a sickle on an aluminum can."
"Yeah, but I feel like the 'getting close' part wouldn't be easy. I'll admit everyone loves crab claw weapons, though."
"If you have time for exasperated sighs, then how about you help out!?"
"I would very much love to, but how do you suggest we drag out a hunk of metal weighing nearly 30 tons?"
Quenser's exasperation continued, but then he realized something.
Elise Montana had not said anything in a while. That was usually a sign of her causing some kind of trouble that no one had asked for (which she would apologize for with her boobs).
"Elise?"
"Huh?"
She was not looking into the trench where Heivia and Myonri had fallen. She was staring off into the distance, so Quenser followed her gaze.
"Do you see some kind of shadow extending out to the side from behind that salt mountain?" she asked.
A short distance away, the white cylinders forming one of the salt pyramids collapsed without warning.
A 50m mass of metal came into view.
The giant rolls scattered every which way, some of them rolling their way. While they were made of salt, they were still the size of large tour busses. The relative density of salt was greater than 2, so they would weigh twice what an equally-sized tank of water would. A hit from that would flatten the average car.
They were a mere 1500 meters away.
They could not rely on satellite footage and it could hide from the surface radar scans by hiding behind things, but still.
"That's way too close!!!"
"What, did Elise step in something again!?" shouted Heivia from within the trench."I think it's about time we slapped those tits of hers!!"
"Am I the only one who feels like I already repaid my debt during the Arctic mission!?" protested Elise.
"Capitalist Corporations Second Generation Police Queen detected, " said the Princess over the radio."If I do not move in, everyone will be killed!"
"Understood, Princess. And the rest of you toilet brushes! If you don't want to be demoted to helpless baggage, then get to work!!"
"Get to work!? You're the one sitting back in your comfy command chair!!"
Danger was coming from ahead and behind.
Quenser gulped and grabbed Elise's hand just as the first wave arrived. They had no choice but to jump down into the trench where Heivia and Myonri waited. Just as they rolled off the flat roof instead of jumping down, the giant cylinders of salt smashed into the tunnel-drilling vehicle equipped with a pinecone-shaped drill.
Part 3
Things were not going well.
A mere 30 seconds into the battle and they had already lost their work vehicle.
"Wh-wh-wh-wh-what do we do!? We need to save the tunnel-drilling vehicle's driver!!"
"Wait, Elise!! Rush out there without thinking and you'll just inform the Police Queen that there were survivors!! That thing has thick armor and a first-aid kit, so as long as it doesn't blow up, they'll be safer inside that scrap metal!!"
"Dammit, " complained Heivia."Why do you two sound so much more serious about rescuing them than when it was me?"
A giant form cut by overhead, but it was not one of the salt cylinders rolling around. It was much bigger. It was hard to tell from the split-second glimpse of the underside, but it was probably the Police Queen. Air rushed into the salt tunnel like a solid wall shortly after it passed by.
"Bwehh!?"
"Cough, don't breathe!! It'll damage your lungs."
The ridiculously powerful gust of wind was a problem on its own, but it was also carrying fine salt. The amount was far different from what was found in the shaker on the dinner table. When it was dumped over your head, it was more like a slow-acting poison.
"What the hell is going on up there?" asked Quenser.
"Hey, wait!" shouted Heivia."That's our vehicle. You don't get a free ride after showing no interest in saving us earlier!!"
Quenser ignored that useless comment while climbing onto the roof of the military engineering vehicle that had finally righted itself. The trench's depth was about the same as a large tour bus, so standing on that tank-based vehicle and stretching up was not enough to see what was happening on the surface.
"Hey, a little help, Myonri?"
"Sure, sure."
Quenser tied his mobile device's strap to the end of one of the crab-claw arms, set it to video recording mode and had it lifted up like a periscope.
It had only been a minute, but being left behind for just that long was enough for impatience to burn in their chests. It felt like being in a foreign country during a disaster and hearing all the speakers play an urgent warning in the local language you did not understand. Was it saying you were in a safe spot and should not to move, or was it saying to get out of there because that area was dangerous?
They were starving for some accurate information.
They wanted to know what to do to survive.
The footage was mostly useless since they could not see what they were recording, but when freeze-framing it, they finally got a good look at the Police Queen.
The giant spherical main body had three arms attached at the top and evenly spread out along the front 180 degrees like a fan's frame. The weapons were hanging down from those.
"I-it actually has flashing lights on top? Is this some kind of joke to them!?"
"That's probably meant to emphasize that they're only the police."
The main cannons...were unknown.
Were they low-stability plasma cannons, laser beam cannons, railguns, coilguns, or rapid-fire beam cannons? There should have been some slight identifying features to figure that out, but the battlefield student could not find the answer from viewing those colossal cannons. They may have been able to switch between types like the Princess's could.
They had already known it used an air cushion system, but it specifically had two ski-like floats that extended back behind the spherical main body. Those were held together when moving straight, but during turns and rapid stops, it could apparently spread the backs out into a V-shape to adjust its balance.
"Damn, it's fast. And not just its top speed. It can move side to side faster than the Princess too! She'll be overwhelmed like this!!"
"I can see why our busty commander was so insistent we stop it for her. But why the hell are we challenging an opponent we know we can't beat spec-wise!? That's just asking for a painful battle full of sorrow!!"
At any rate, they knew that moving up onto the surface would end badly.
There was no saving them if that Capitalist Corporations Second Generation locked onto them. The unidentified main cannons were bad enough, but it could also directly crush them by approaching while it whizzed all over the battlefield.
And with that in mind...
"This thing's arm can drag the stuck tunnel-drilling vehicle down here, can't it?"
"Hey, didn't we just conclude going up there is a bad idea!?"
"I can't just leave them! We've waited this long and there's still no sign of the driver. Keeping the Police Queen from realizing there were survivors is our top priority, but there's no saving that driver if they're crushed again either by accident or on purpose. We're free to move down here, but we have to get them somewhere safe to wait for rescue!!"
Heivia scratched at his salt-covered head.
Of course he was hesitant.
It was all over if they were noticed. This was like climbing into the lion or gorilla cage to save a child who fell in. Even if you knew it was the right thing to do, the fear gripping your heart was very real. Doing it by the book would be difficult for anyone.
After a loud click of his tongue, Heivia finally gave a shout.
"Fine, let's do it!! Oh, hell, there's no escape is there? Nothing good ever comes of being around that walking disaster zone!!"
"Um, excuse me!? I had nothing at all to do with this one!"
They ignored the busty blonde glasses woman who grew tearful at this unfair criticism.
Quenser looked at his radio.
"Princess, where's the Police Queen!? The dot on our devices is based on the maintenance base's ground radar, so we can't see it when it's hidden behind those salt pyramids. Is Zone C5 safe!?"
"I am currently engaging it in Zone D5. That is fairly close to there. What are you planning?"
"I want to drag a stranded ally into the trench labyrinth."
"Understood. I will lure it to D3. Rescue them ASAP."
They only had one chance at this.
They started by crumbling the salt wall with a plastic explosive and using the military engineering vehicle's crab-like arms to smooth it out into a diagonal slope. The continuous tracks brought the vehicle up with a grinding noise, but a layer of softer crumbled salt got in the way. The student ducked down when he heard the loud squealing. If that 30-ton mass slipped down on them without warning, it could easily kill them while they watched on from below.
Once at the top of the salt slope, the crushed and stranded drill vehicle was right in front of it.
But a voice spoke over the radio while the vehicle's arms wandered hesitantly back and forth.
"It was damaged a lot worse than I thought. If I grab it with the claws and try to pull it down, it would probably tear apart. It might even explode."
"God, really!?"
Quenser rushed up to the surface where explosive booms continued shaking the air and pulled a thick wire form the winch reel on the back of the mass of metal Myonri was driving. He climbed on top of the scrap, made a circle of the pinecone-shaped drill turret to tie the wire in place, and then spoke into his radio.
"Pull now! Hurry!!"
"If the wire snaps, you'll be slapped by a piece of steel thicker than your thumb. Jump down!!"
The white ground was torn away as a fairly forceful game of tug-of-war began. Myonri was probably using a camera to see, but watching that heavy machinery back up like that was a powerful sight.
And a panicked voice cried out just as it was disappearing down the slope.
"Gyahh!!"
"Ah!? Myonri!!"
The military engineering vehicle descended the slope first and the tunnel-drilling vehicle followed afterwards.
That was simple enough, but the latter vehicle had been reduced to scraps and could not use its gas or brakes. The junk had apparently slid down the slope and collided with Myonri out front.
A normal tank or armored vehicle might have been pushed all the way down and crashed into the opposite salt wall, but that military engineering vehicle had two mantis-like arms.
"Ghhhhhhh, take this!!"
The crab claw ends held the scraps back while Myonri had her vehicle slowly descend the slope as if slipping back bit by bit. If she used too much or too little force, they could easily lose their surviving vehicle too.
The student shouted down from the surface.
"Is there anything I can do to help!?"
"Stay back! These are two 30-ton vehicles, so getting caught between them could take off a limb!!"
Instead of using the slope, Quenser jumped directly down from the edge of the large trench opened in the ground.
He had made the suggestion, but he could not find anything to do.
While he anxiously searched around, the two vehicles completed their one-minute descent down into the trench.
They were both safe.
"Well done, Myonri! I'll buy you a drink or something later, so figure out what it is you want!!"
"Please don't talk about what will happen 'after the battle'. It's bad luck. More importantly, can someone pull out the tunnel-drilling vehicle's driver? It would be safer to bring them in here with me, wouldn't it?"
Luckily, the hatch was not particularly bent. As instructed by Myonri, Quenser pulled out the driver and found it was a 13-year-old girl with bright brown skin.
"I'm so glad we didn't abandon them."
"Why are you treating her so differently from me?" asked Elise."Do this world's rules favor the small or something?"
She may have cut the inside of her cheek because there was a bit of blood dripping from the corner of her mouth, but there was no sign of broken bones or serious internal bleeding. The blood in her mouth was probably not coughed up from an organ injury. They worked with Myonri to load the injured girl into the functioning vehicle.
"U-ughh." A weak groan escaped the silver-haired, brown-skinned girl's young lips."Save me here and there's a good chance I'll fall in love with you..."
"That's an awfully self-interested reason for love. And I notice she's hedging just like those disinfectant sprays that say they kill 99. 9% of germs."
With the sound of scraping metal, several of the Legitimacy Kingdom's gold Christmas coins fell from her breast pocket. The filthy schemer had apparently been ensuring peace of mind by converting her money into pure gold in between battles.
"Yup, she's a member of the 37th all right. You call her type a fortune hunter, right? Y'know, the people who marry a much older rich person and then get divorced three days later. I won't be surprised if I see her on a millionaires list through nothing but alimony."
She did not look on the verge of death or anything, so Quenser let the fancy noble treat her wounds while he instead looked through the materials left over in the crushed vehicle.
"Here, Myonri. I brought over the first-aid kit and PDW from the other vehicle. Plus a shovel, a fire extinguisher, a smoke grenade, and a few rations. And if you can believe it, she had a whole coffeemaker set in there. And I mean one with a mill to grind the beans before putting them in the dripper. There's no point leaving it all in there, so store it all in here, will you?"
"Can't we ride in here too?" asked Heivia."Being outside scares the hell out of me."
"Sigh. You can if you like, but the trench's walls are made of fragile salt, " said Myonri."If they collapse and cover up the hatch, we'll be trapped in here until we all suffocate, but if that's what you want, be my guest."
The two idiots' balls shriveled up and they declined, as did the busty woman who had no balls.
They needed someone to dig the vehicle up if disaster struck.
After removing the winch wire from the scrap and retrieving it, they finally got back to work.
The Baby Magnum and the Police Queen were still locked in combat. Any chance they had was gone as soon as the Princess lost. Frolaytia had apparently been focused on the spec differences from the beginning, but that only meant they had no chance unless they could stop the Police Queen according to plan.
"Ksh, ksshh. Quenser, can I make a request?" asked the Princess."If you can do it, anyway."
"What are these?"
Some bright glowing dots were flashing on the map of the Uyuni Salt Flat displayed on his mobile device.
"I will drive the Police Queen into position, so please split open the salt ground at the point I give you."
"This is something human legs can handle, right? I'm getting dizzy just thinking about trying to keep up with your 500km/h speed!"
"Like I said, if you can do it."
The original plan had been to spread their troops out across the area and have whoever was at the requested point do the detonation or drilling, but it sounded like the unexpected circumstances had prevented the potatoes from reaching their designated positions.
"Where should we start?" asked Myonri over the radio.
"All of us survivors lose any support if the Princess loses, so we need to destroy the ground below the Police Queen, don't we?" said Quenser."We may not be able to cover all of them, but it seems safest to work out which spot is closest to the greatest number of points and wait there."
"Hey, wait, " said Heivia."We don't know where this trench goes, do we? Can we really reach where we want to go by following this? Doesn't figuring out the layout of the labyrinth come first?"
Both of them had a point, but they could do the computer work while checking out the labyrinth. They could work out the spot closest to the greatest number of the Princess's possible request points in advance.
So...
"Point F9. That's our goal!!"
"Now it comes down to whether or not this trench reaches that point. We might have to dig into the wall and climb to the surface."
Heivia was about to say more, but they once more fell victim to their inability to judge perspective or the flatness of the terrain.
It looked like a single straight path, but some men and women with carbines suddenly appeared up ahead. They were Capitalist Corporations soldiers. No, according to Frolaytia, these would be police officers and not soldiers. It was hard to tell since the dark blue bulletproof jackets and synthetic clothing would have been the same either way.
The only real difference was the distinctive flat police hats, the star-shaped badges on their chests, and the tight miniskirts on the women.
They were about 100m ahead, so there must have been a T-junction there.
The encounter came as a surprise for both sides.
However, the Legitimacy Kingdom group was in the middle of a straightaway and the Capitalist Corporations one could use the turn as cover. Once the latter group regained their cool and started shooting, the former group had no chance, so Quenser immediately shouted an instruction.
"Run them over!!"
"What, but the miniskirts!"
Panties could not save the world.
The tank-like continuous tracks tore into the salt ground as Myonri drove the mass of steel straight ahead. It bumped into the salt walls a few times along the way and tore off white chunks. The space was as wide as a tour bus, but that was barely enough. When they charged forward, the infantry would have a hard time dodging to the side.
The potatoes clinging to the roof were in a fairly risky position as well.
If this bluff failed, they would be riddled with bullets in no time, so Quenser felt the need to give a shout to seal the deal.
"Hah hah hah!! Don't blame us! Blame your bad luck and your lack of equipment! This is how things are when you're winning the battle!!!!!!"
Just as he was getting carried away, his vision dropped straight down.
To repeat, the pure white surroundings messed with their sense of perspective. That was why Heivia had not noticed the trench in the ground and why they had not noticed the T-junction that allowed these enemies so close.
Also, the ground was made of salt. There was no real limit there, so you could dig as deep as you wanted.
In other words, it was like a river interrupting the straight-line path.
The military engineering vehicle driven by Myonri fell to a second level of the trench labyrinth.
Part 4
Now that their vehicle had fallen, Quenser's group was in a bind.
They had to assume the worst at all times.
For example, what would they do if their opponents had fallen into a silly pitfall?
"Get down! Hurry!!"
Quenser kicked the busty blonde from the roof she was so stubbornly clinging to and then jumped down himself. A solid metallic thunk reached his ears before she could cry out in protest.
A grenade sans pin had been thrown down before bouncing off the military engineering vehicle's roof.
"!!!???"
They managed to shove themselves in the slight space between the two tank-like continuous tracks just before the powerful explosion erupted out. More than a simple explosion, it came with the added bonus of small metal fragments. If they had not gotten below the vehicle so quickly, they never would have survived.
Since the anti-personnel grenade used fragments to injure, it could not destroy the tank-based vehicle.
The ringing in Quenser's ears was too loud to hear anything, but he tapped Heivia's shoulder and pointed upwards.
The Capitalist Corporations group had to be delighted.
But just as they peeked over the edge of the cliff to check on the results, Heivia aimed his assault rifle up and let loose a quick spray of bullets. Heads were blown away along with their distinctive hats, but they could not relax yet.
"We don't know how many of them there were!! Find some way to check!!"
Their enemies were human too, so they were not going to just stand there after being hit by a surprise attack. They would likely fall back and use the salt walls for cover.
"Nhh."
A deep hydraulic sound rumbled without warning.
"Now I'm pissed!!"
Myonri appeared to be a tad upset about falling for a trap and then having a grenade thrown on her head, so she spread out the folded-up mantis-like arms and made a horizontal sweeping blow to the trench a level above them.
Except this functioned as more than sweeping the enemy's legs out from under them.
With a disturbingly raw slicing sound, the police officers (were they too privatized in the Capitalist Corporations?) had their upper bodies separated from their lower bodies.
Heivia quickly pulled his head back under the vehicle to avoid the shower of blood and gore.
"Not the women...ugh!!" shouted Heivia."Wh-wh-what is wrong with you!? I'm so sick of this war!!"
"Says the killer, " replied Myonri."Minding your manners now is not going to make you seem refined."
Myonri used one of the crab-claw arms to grab a grenade from one of the enemy's corpses. She could not pull the pin out like that, but it did no matter. She held the arm up on the higher level and crushed it with the hydraulic power to detonate it. The blast scattered metal balls across that entire space.
All the gunfire and screams ceased.
"Some might be playing dead, so please go up and check for me, " said Myonri.
"Who do you expect to do that? Because I know I'm not peeking up at that upper level full of mutilated corpses. That's the kind of thing that traumatizes-"
Myonri grabbed the stubborn child by the back collar of his uniform and lifted him up.
"Gyah! Not the sexy policewomen in tight skirrrrrrrts!!!"
Heivia's sensibilities were far from normal, yet what he saw up their still managed to elicit a scream from him, so Quenser and Elise huddled together like kittens below the bed while their teeth chattered in fear.
Human Periscope Heivia was slowly lowered to the ground while his soul tried to escape from his mouth.
"Okay, I checked. They're all dead. So very, very dead."
"U-um, they technically count as police officers, so should we have killed them?" asked Elise."I don't want to be accused of slaughtering foreign civilians."
"They have an Object. Once you've acquired the right to fight a battle, your life is fair game."
It was unclear how the trenches had been dug, but the second level ran perpendicular to the first level. It was like a river cutting across the path, or like an intersection shifted vertically. If they were not prepared to further crush those mutilated corpses with the continuous tracks, it would be better to continue along the second level instead of returning to the first. Although that was more about their mental health than pure logical reasoning.
Elise must not have wanted to sit on the roof while it was filthy with red blood and guts, so she sprinkled some salt all over the roof and then pulled a device out of the vehicle. It was a polisher, a car-washing device that used a motor to rotate a polishing disk that would get the exterior of a car nice and shiny in no time.
"Things are finally feeling in line with that Royal Cleaner event."
"N-now I'm worried there might be a third and fourth level as well."
"I will follow the second level for now, but the ceiling above us introduces even more risk if the salt collapses, " said Myonri."Be careful, everyone."
"How is being careful supposed to increase our odds of survival, dammit?"
Myonri was right that the salt above them made the second level a true tunnel, so they did not even have the sunlight anymore. She switched on the vehicle's headlights, but that felt terribly inadequate. This was very different from a highway tunnel that had orange lights installed every so often.
Heivia gave an annoyed look down at his staticky radio.
"What, did it get some salt inside and break?"
"Yay!" celebrated Elise."I'm not the only clumsy one!"
"Wait, I don't want people thinking I'm as clumsy as her! Anything but that!!"
Of course he did not. Heivia did not wear glasses, he was not busty, and he was not a young woman, so he would receive none of the breaks she had.
However, Quenser had a more optimistic view.
"I bet the connection is just blocked by the tunnel. Myonri, radio check."
"Feeling lonely, Quenser?"
That exchange proved two radios in the tunnel together still worked.
"Based on my mobile device, we should be approaching F9."
"Thank god the map was stored on the local device. But what if we reach the goal and find we still have a salt ceiling above us?"
Luckily, there were no traps that detonated the entrances on either end to bury them alive. After driving about 200m along, the ceiling opened up again and connected back to a large trench on the first level.
Quenser blew up the wall, Myonri used the arms to smooth out the ramp, and the military engineering vehicle drove up to the higher level.
"We're finally here, " said Quenser while walking out ahead of the vehicle instead of returning to the rusty-smelling roof."I see Point F9 up ahead. Now we can finally help out the Princess."
Part 5
Without the oppressive ceiling of salt, they could receive the blessing of EM signals again. Gaining updated data on their mobile devices was their top priority, but they could not stay still in the meantime.
"Myonri, a little higher."
On Quenser's instruction, the thick folded-up arm extended upwards. It was as thick as the steel beams used in buildings, so after it came to a stop in a diagonal position, Quenser climbed up it and straddled the crab-like end.
He had risen above the first level to arrive at the front line on the surface.
When he peeked out, he saw the vast expanse of salt and the white pyramids made from stacks of cylinders. He also saw the masses of salt rivalling large tour busses in size that were rolling every which way after those pyramids collapsed. There was also a trench labyrinth dug all over the salt land like the underside of a circuit board, but he could not see that with his sense of perspective thrown off. The battlefield was as hellish as ever. They did not want it to be as flat as a mirror, but all these things covering it also created more opportunities for death.
However, that was not the first thing he noticed.
He first noticed the odor that reached his nose.
(What's that burnt smell?)
He could see Legitimacy Kingdom military vehicles here and there. He could not believe they had actually driven up onto that dangerous salt land. A supply vehicle was relatively close by. It looked something like a boxy snowmobile on continuous tracks, but it was actually a support vehicle filled with replacement pinecone-shaped drills for the tunnel-drilling vehicles.
Since that supply vehicle appeared to be alone, the tunnel-drilling vehicle it should have been paired with may have been destroyed. It could have fled back to the maintenance base zone, but it must have been driven by an overly obedient soldier who wanted to continue gathering intelligence.
An intermittent low rumbling shook the air.
This was not anything as contradictory as a safe war and they were not an audience viewing a fireworks show. The Baby Magnum and the Police Queen continued their intense battle even now. Since the enemy was a police Object, it may have been doing some profiling based on the Princess's fighting style to work out her personal idiosyncrasies.
Quenser looked around and then brought the radio to his mouth.
He had left the salt tunnel and could finally send out a message.
"Princess, we have arrived at F9. We will now place explosives on the salt wall. Send us the request when the timing is right for you."
"Quenser? You need to get out of there!!"
He received an awfully urgent response just before a 50m colossus crossed the trench about a kilometer away from his position. He had lost sight of it until now because the fine salt swept up from the white ground had briefly obscured his vision like a thick layer of snow in the air.
The Police Queen had only slid a little bit, but he could still tell. Just like an ad for cleaning the bath pipes, that white wind was racing toward them with ferocious speed.
"Shit!"
"Please stay still. Relax!!"
Myonri's mechanical left arm grabbed him by the collar just as the fearsome gust of wind slammed into his body. A sharp pain ran through his cheeks as the fine salt struck them. He could not possibly open his eyes under these circumstances.
"Ugh, cough!! Heivia, Elise, you haven't been blown away like a leaf in the wind, have you!?"
"Don't worry, " said Heivia."I even had time to consider kicking her down in the middle of it all."
"Does anyone have a business ebook I can read?" asked Elise."Like 100 ways to get a fresh start after getting to know the absolute worst people?"
This explained why the Princess had told them to get out of there. Crawling around at the feet of those colossal weapons was suicidal, so there was no safe zone here.
Or he assumed that was the issue.
However...
"Quenser, go back underground! It's targeting you!!"
"Princess?"
Surely she meant it was "coming their way".
What did she mean it was "targeting them"?
It normally required another Object to destroy one of those nuke-resistant colossal weapons. That was supposedly the view all four world powers took, yet this one was ignoring the Princess to instead attack the infantry crawling along the ground?
He did not have time to think about it any longer.
A distinctive purple light washed over them. This was clearly not just a searchlight.
"ALS!? Oh, no!! It's scanning the terrain!!"
"What did it just do to us!?"
"That's a special wavelength of light used in forensics. Purple would be 385 nanometers. It highlights fingerprints, footprints, blood stains, and other samples needed to track the crime. You can think of it like a mechanical version of a police dog, so can we really escape this!?"
The air cushion Second Generation had just crossed to one side of the large trench and now it moved back to the other side. It seemed to be slaloming as it approached them. Arms covered the front side of its spherical main body like a fan or visor and the unidentified main cannons attached to those swept over to aim at them.
"This is bad, Myonri! Back up! Back into the tunnel!!"
He tried to shout, but it was too late.
As soon as the targeting lenses whirred, one of that bizarre police Object's main cannons gave a roar!!
The sticky splat that hit Quenser in the face was not at all what he had expected.
He was utterly baffled.
| ← Ch. 154 | Ch. 156 → |