novelThe War Broker Closest to Heaven >> Intelligence Battle in the Cook District (2)
| ← Ch.043 | Ch.045 → |
A gap appeared in the conversation.
Quenser made sure to continue speaking in order to prevent any silence.
"I hear they have penguins in southern Africa."
"Yes, the African penguins. They're cute. Even the cities look out for them. They make tunnels especially for the penguins. They're sometimes used as UGVs for intelligence purposes, though. But, " added Claire Whist, "those tunnels are made only with the roads in mind. When it rains a lot, the tunnels fill with water. Penguins are meant to swim in the ocean, but they do not have gills. They sometimes get lost in the tunnels and drown. It's most unfortunate."
The mention of rain caught at Quenser's mind, but he decided it was too soon to push further.
He continued the conversation while only skimming his topic of interest. He cautiously kept some distance but not too much distance.
"They get lost in the tunnels?"
"Even though the tunnels are just straight paths, it seems they are just so dark and narrow that they can't tell forward from backward or up from down. They would actually leave the tunnels faster if they merely let the water wash them away."
"That sounds like a frustrating situation for an animal welfare group."
"It is. And so the water resource market is viewed as quite the villain."
Quenser continued to keep some distance but not too much.
He continued on his quest for information while forcing down his worried suspicions that she might actually be inviting him in.
Part 7
Heivia also took action. The actions of the Unicorn group disguised as the Night Edge Platoon on the Cook Addition Islands was one thing, but he had no way of investigating the actions of the main force in Southern Africa just by observing. He had to find a net terminal that could access the military database.
"What a pain in the ass. Why can't Quenser just look into it using a researcher's computer?"
"I doubt he'll have a chance to even touch one of those top secret computers. And the higher ups in the military can tell when a computer inside accesses something outside."
"Hey, marriage scam artist. Why did you come with me?"
"I've awakened to a sense of love and justice."
"... You're not part of Unicorn too, are you?"
Heivia and the others had originally been ordered to dispose of the large amount of excess ammunition stored up. None of the soldiers given that task had any motivation and plenty of them had snuck off somewhere else. The fact that they were all beginning to "rot" like that allowed the higher ups to inwardly smile while rebuking them. No one would place any serious blame on Heivia and Genelia for disappearing.
"Hey, where do you think the external lines are? Somewhere in the experiment building?"
"We'd be caught by sensors if we even tried to approach that place. The only facility removed from the classified information on Object design is in the living quarters for the soldiers like us. And that place is basically Night Edge's fortress."
"So we have to get the information out of Unicorn's computers?"
"That would be the fastest way to approach the truth. If they do have a hotline connected to someone else, they have to have a net terminal hidden from the higher ups."
Heivia wondered what it would look like he and Genelia were doing to someone else. It may have looked like they had grown bored of the never-ending inventory reduction so they were sneaking off to the living quarters to take a nap.
"Hey, I know a quick way to make us look less suspicious. Wrap your arms around my arm."
"... You don't look like you have any money, so no thanks."
"I am one of the Legitimacy Kingdom's foremost nobles, you know!! Even if it is true that every single member of my family is opposed to me being the successor!!"
"Presideeeent, what is the total sum of your asseeeets?"
"Hey, don't cling to me like that! It gives me goose bumps!!"
They walked across a large road-like bridge and arrived at the soldiers' living quarters. It was a large steel piece of land that resembled an offshore drilling platform. And instead of having buildings built on top, the barracks were built hanging down below.
"Night Edge's area is completely cut off from everything else. And the quality of the facilities on their side is better. I guess that's what you get when you're acting as bodyguards for those rich designers. I hear they get to eat dinner in the dining hall rather than just getting ready-made lunchboxes like us."
"I had thought they were just your stereotypical discrimination lovers, but it may have been a way to restrict information. A lot of data gets passed around during mealtimes in the form of chitchat."
"So they wanted to cut off any careless information leaks?"
"I'd say so."
"But then won't it be difficult to get into their area? They probably have tons of cameras set up."
"No, they won't."
"?"
"They're up to no good. Why would they leave any evidence of it?"
The two of them walked by the most obvious entrance to Night Edge's area and spotted an obvious human guard out of the corner of their eye. It was a masked member of the Night Edge Platoon. They used the human eye so their surveillance would leave behind no records.
"I want to just punch him and head on in."
"Do you want to fail?"
"Then I guess we have no choice but to find some other way in."
They checked the ceiling ducts, but they were made of pipes only 10 cm across. They were much too small for a human to pass through.
"We can't do this like an action movie then."
"We need to check everything one by one. We might get lucky and find a way in."
They checked the openings for electric wiring and plumbing, but they were too small and filled with too many twists and turns for a human or UGV to get through.
But...
"Here we go, " said Heivia after opening a steel door."This place is constructed like an offshore oil platform. Maintenance passageways and stairways are prepared around the large pillars. If the entire core construction is connected, we can use them to move between living areas. And that means we can access Night Edge's area."
"Why would that be so open? They went to such effort keeping the ducts and plumbing inaccessible."
"They were probably made by different contractors. Military facilities are often a complex collection of pieces made by different companies. It's the same as building a castle. But that means the countermeasures change between contractors. Some areas will seem overly sensitive and other areas will be wide open. The people making it don't always know how important it is."
The facility was not the same as a commercial facility. The passageways were narrow and dark, and the wiring and such were sticking out in the open. The walls had no wallpaper covering them. The passageways looked more like something from a military ship than a building.
"So what do we do once we make it into Night Edge's area?"
"We check the electric meters. This is a horribly hot tropical island. They're on the winning side of things, so they'll use the air conditioner 100% of the time instead of opening a window. The rooms the meter isn't running for are the ones without soldiers in them. We sneak into one of those and search for the terminal."
"I feel like a sneak thief."
"That's sort of what we are."
They walked down a long passageway, down some stairs, and then grabbed the knob of a steel door. They opened the door a crack and checked on the other side, but they saw no sign of Unicorn.
"Dammit. Where are the electric meters? Do we have to wander around in here when those masked bastards could show up at any moment?"
"Hey, hey. Wouldn't it be faster to just touch the door and see whether it's cool or not? That should tell us if the air conditioner is on."
Someone who ignored good advice to protect his pride would have a short life. And so Heivia did as Genelia had suggested. He placed his palm against one door in the room, being careful not to make any noise. As he repeated the process a few times, he came across a door that was clearly warmer than the rest.
"This is it."
"But an empty room will be locked. How do we get in?"
"... We might have to kick down the door."
"They'd hear that right away. But the deadbolt is made of polycarbonate, isn't it? That's usually used to make nonmetallic knives or shields."
"So?"
"It's weak to heat. It should melt if we heat it with a fire." With a metallic clicking noise, Genelia opened the cap of an oil lighter."Of course, they'll notice the melted deadbolt later. This is our only chance to investigate in here, so be prepared."
"Sure thing."
"And this will create the smell of melted plastic. That could draw their attention. We need to be careful."
"You sure know a lot about this."
"I exchanged information with other criminals before I was caught. And I learned some things at bars too. Unfortunately, just hearing about it wasn't enough to pick up some trickier skills like picking locks."
It took about 30 seconds to unlock the door.
It did indeed create a bit of an unpleasant odor. The smell made them feel uneasy, but fortunately Unicorn showed no sign of coming in from the other rooms.
"It's open."
"Sorry about the intrusion, " said Heivia jokingly as he turned the doorknob and slowly opened the door.
He peered in through the crack.
In the next instant, two arms reached out from the room and wrapped around Heivia's neck.
Someone was inside.
A dull pain spread from Heivia's neck and assaulted his entire body as he came to a quick decision. Instead of trying to remove the arms, he used his shoulder to tackle the door and the person inside.
The sudden impact sent the attacker rolling back into the room. Heivia charged in and straddled the person.
To Genelia, he said, "Shut the door. Damn this economical bastard! I can't believe one of them likes to stew in his own sweat!!"
Heivia grabbed the collapsed masked man by the collar to constrict his carotid arteries which quickly knocked him unconscious. Heivia lightly lifted up the limp soldier's black mask to check his neck.
Heivia grimaced when he spotted what he had expected to find.
"Scars from stiches circling around the neck. He's from Unicorn too."
Heivia bound the soldier's arms and legs with the cable to an electric hot water dispenser, stuffed his mask in his mouth to keep him from speaking, and tossed him in the bathroom.
"Did you kill him?" asked Genelia.
"If I had, I wouldn't have gone to all that trouble.... God dammit. I have nothing against bondage, but why does it have to be with a guy?" spat out Heivia as he looked around the room.
It looked like a simple business hotel room. It was mostly tidy, but a few bags had been left in one corner.
Heivia checked inside and found a high speed modem. He also found a parabolic antenna about 30 cm across. It seemed they had been contacting someone outside the base via a communications satellite.
"There's a metal fixture on the window's handrail. It's probably what they attach the antenna to."
"This building hangs down from the offshore oil platform. I guess they can receive the signal down here."
They could not find the actual computer used, but they found a small device when they checked what the man in the bathroom had on him.
"We can do this."
"What's the password?"
"That important information was carelessly left on a memo in one of the bags."
"... Sigh. This must have been supplied to him, so he hasn't had time to memorize the password."
They used the small device to access the network.
It connected to the information network used exclusively by the Night Edge Platoon... or rather, Unicorn.
"They were originally a unit that carried out missions undercover. It isn't surprising they would have a network set up that doesn't use the official military format."
"What have you found? Anything on their activity in southern Africa?"
"Wait, here it is. I have it. Something related to the water resource business using clouds in southern Africa."
That was when they heard several sets of footsteps on the other side of the door. They were not simply heading down the passageway. They were clearly gathering around the door.
They must have noticed something was happening.
"Not good... Genelia, move all that data over to your device!"
"How did they notice us? The man in the bathroom is bound and gagged, right!?"
"He may have only pretended to be taken out and actually woke up pretty quickly." Heivia approached the window and checked to see if it could be used to escape."If he kicked at the wall with his bound feet, he could send a message using Morse code. Maybe I should have just killed him."
"The data transfer is complete!"
"Okay, c'mere. This way!"
Just as Heivia and Genelia leaned out the window, the door to the room was violently kicked down and a stun grenade was tossed in.
Part 8
At the promised time, Quenser took his cell phone out of his pocket and pretended to pick it up off the floor. He then parted ways with Claire Whist.
That was the limit.
He could no longer head back to her room saying he had lost something.
He headed for the same corner of the building as before and tried to contact Heivia via radio.
"Heivia, Heivia?"
He received no response.
He had no idea if the other boy was receiving the signal.
He was worried, but he had no way to relieve those worries. He had no choice but to simply carry out his job.
"I don't know if you can hear me, but I'm going to tell you anyway. The Night Edge Platoon was not brought here to protect the Cook Addition Islands. It seems Claire herself used her authority around the world to have them brought in as her personal bodyguards. In other words, they are her private army. The odds are good she is using them to carry out her dirty work."
He still received no response.
Quenser clicked his tongue at the level of static he could hear, but continued nevertheless.
"What I learned from talking with her is that there is another large market in southern Africa in addition to the water resource business using clouds. Megasolar power generation. They fill dry land that cannot grow crops with a bunch of solar panels. They make an electricity plantation."
No matter what he said, he received no response.
That simple truth threatened to crush Quenser's heart.
"Claire was surprisingly careful about this. When I poked at it, she would immediately change the subject. It is true the megasolar power generation business is at odds with the water resource business since the former does not want it to rain and the latter wants it to rain, but her reaction still stood out to me. A large key to the side business is probably hidden there."
That was when he heard a loud noise.
It did not come from the radio.
The thick gate leading into the building had opened. Quenser looked over because he thought some researchers were going in or out, but he immediately hid behind a pile of railroad magazines when he saw who it was.
He saw black masks and carbines.
They were members of the Night Edge Platoon... or rather, Unicorn.
A girl who must have been one of the eccentrics (aka genius designers) exchanged a few words with the masked men as she jogged down a long passageway.
(Did they pick up my radio signal? No, they probably just thought I was taking too long to come out. )
Either way, he could not let them find him. In the worst case, he would be shot in the name of preventing the leakage of classified information. They could just add any charges they needed after the fact.
"... This isn't good. There are four of them, " he spat out.
Before he entered the building, his bombs and other weapons had been confiscated. And more importantly, Quenser would be crushed in a pure firefight even if he was equipped the same as them. Unlike Heivia, he had not undergone training in close quarters combat or how to handle firearms.
There was a blatant difference between a student and a soldier.
He had no chance of winning in a straight fight.
But...
"You could say the same thing about Objects, " muttered Quenser as he slipped out from behind the pile of railroad magazines and down a different passageway.
He first had to search for something he could use as a weapon among the things the genius girls (and women) had left scattered through the passageways.
"Compared to those monsters, four hysteric bastards should be easy."
Part 9
A stun grenade was a nonlethal weapon that used intense light and sound to rob the enemy of their senses and mobility. It incapacitated them for a few seconds to a few dozen seconds. Normally, the enemy would be finished off using a gun in that time.
Heivia and Genelia had already leaned their bodies out the window by the time it went off.
That allowed them to avoid a direct hit, but a slight white afterimage was still burned into their eyes. But they did not have time to rub at their eyes. Fortunately, a scaffold-like space stretched out beyond the window and they used it to flee.
"This is bad. This is bad, this is bad, this is bad!!"
"Is there a corner anywhere around here!? If we just head straight, we'll be shot in the back!!"
There was a corner not far away.
But before they could reach it, a masked Unicorn member stuck his upper body out the window behind them. He was aiming his carbine in their direction.
Heivia flicked off the safety on his assault rifle and brought his index finger to the trigger.
He fired a short burst of three shots.
And afterward, Heivia wanted to hold his head in his hands.
"I've finally done it! I fired on an ally!!"
"What are you talking about? You already strangled one of them. If we can't bring their wrongdoing to light, you'll definitely be headed to court martial."
It seemed the man had flinched back so he had not been hit. After Heivia and Genelia made it around the corner, they heard return gunfire.
They continued running and began climbing up a staircase for workers that was more or less a ladder built diagonally. As he climbed, Heivia checked his equipment.
"I have three magazines and two grenades."
"Aren't those the smoke grenades from inventory?"
"This stuff is completely useless!"
"That would be why so much was left for us to use up."
Sporadic gunfire came after Heivia and Genelia, but either the enemy's foothold was not sturdy or they were afraid of the strong gusts of wind signaling a storm was approaching because their aim was not settled. Heivia and Genelia continued up and up.
"Did you find anything in the data?"
"The water resource business using clouds and the megasolar power generation business are in competition."
"Yeah, both of those deal with the weather. If it doesn't rain, the water resources people are in trouble, but if the sky is covered in clouds, the megasolar people are in trouble. So which one is Claire involved with?"
"Officially, she works with the water resource business. In other words, the people who create clouds. But..."
"But?"
"It seems there is someone who is investing in both of them. Their name wasn't listed, though."
"But if one succeeds, the other one fails, right?"
"There is no guarantee the money actually belongs to the person." Genelia lightly licked her lips and continued."In other words, southern Africa is a financial black hole. No matter which one you invest in, you will lose money in the end.
It may look like there are times when you make money, but the more money you spend, the more it sucks out of you. But the ones paying will lose their cool and not realize what is going on until they have lost a huge sum of money. It's the same thing that happens in corrupt casinos. Now, a question: How much damage could one do by convincing individuals and groups you want to weaken to buy into this financial black hole?"
"... So the problem isn't Africa?" Heivia could feel an unpleasant sweat appearing on his body."Claire lures influential people and corporations within the Legitimacy Kingdom into that financial black hole and the continued losses weaken them. It all plays right into the hands of the Capitalist Corporations."
Modern wars were carried out with Objects. And so no one set out to raze a world power's capital or to eradicate an opposing race of people.
Wars cost money.
By robbing an enemy nation of their money, they could be driven into a state where they were unable to wage war. If that was Claire's goal with the financial black hole, her betrayal would do damage to the entirety of the Legitimacy Kingdom.
And in the long run, it could even do more serious damage than any clash between Objects.
"How can this be? This is a completely different form of war."
"If Claire and Unicorn have become pawns of the Capitalist Corporations, we absolutely must make sure this information gets out. It could act as a splash of icy water for the clients who have lost their cool." Perhaps because this could be classified as a scam involving huge amounts of money, Genelia seemed somehow excited about it."So what do we do? No matter where we run, the Night Edge Platoon controls the peace and justice of the Cook Addition Islands."
"The same cannot be said for the Objects protecting the islands. We need to find some way to get this information to them. Dammit. Will our radios be enough? We should have brought that satellite antenna with us when we fled."
That was when they heard the roar of something beating against the air.
Something was approaching from one of the other islands. What they saw flying through the sky looked like a compromise between an airplane and a helicopter. It was a propeller-driven craft called a tiltrotor. The angle of the propellers attached to the wings could be altered by 90 degrees to provide vertical or horizontal thrust.
To put it simply, it was a medium-sized aircraft that could take off like a helicopter so it did not need a runway.
"That's a transport plane... right? Is it going to drop down some soldiers?"
"No... This is bad, " groaned Heivia.
He had noticed the several gun barrels sticking out from the left side of the tiltrotor's body.
"It's a gunship!! It's a fortress of the sky that uses its large size to store tons of shells. I think that's a 150mm artillery gun, a 50mm howitzer, and a 30mm Gatling gun sticking out there. No matter which one it fires, we'll be blown to pieces! Even if we hid under a tank, it would just tear the tank apart!!"
The main advantage of a gunship was its ability to continuously fire down on an enemy from the sky. The many shells in the large-capacity gunship would be fired like crazy while it flew in a large circle with the target in the center. By switching between the armaments roughly meant for anti-building, anti-tank, and anti-personnel, it could destroy anything inside its circle so the target had nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. That was the kind of weapon it was.
"Wh-what if we flee downwards!? The thick layers of the building might protect us!"
"That's what they want. They're cutting off our escape from above so the soldiers coming up from below can capture us. No matter where we run, we'll only find a dead end!"
"Then what do we do!? There's no way we can shoot down that mid-sized aircraft with our rifles!"
"C'mere! I'll do something about it!!"
Since it was trying to fly in a large circle, the gunship did not head directly toward Heivia and Genelia. It smoothly flew into position like a record needle.
It would soon begin.
The endless circular flight and rain of bullets powerful enough to blow away a storm would begin.
Part 10
Trying to oppose professional soldiers using contraptions created out of things like metal pipes and old magazines was something that only worked in action movies. When you were already weaker than the enemy in skill and physical strength, you had no chance of winning if your equipment was also worse.
What did a combat amateur like Quenser need to defeat that group of four Night Edge members?
He needed enough firepower to overcome individual skill.
(This building's layout is too simple to play hide and seek in. They'll find me before long if I just keep running. )
And so Quenser quickly gave up on trying to advance quietly. The doors had no labels, but he found a room around which the carpet and wallpaper smelled of mechanical oil, kicked open the door, and entered.
"How nostalgic. It reminds me of my school's workshop."
A lathe, an electric furnace, a work table, and a water tank for plating. The room was filled with tools for various types of metalwork. One of them was a device that used the explosive power of gunpowder to mold metal. Such devices could be found in any facility with a certain level of funding.
Gunpowder.
That was Quenser's field of expertise.
"... Oh, dear. This is too sensitive. This kind will detonate just from static electricity, " muttered Quenser while he pulled out a container filled with pellets of gunpowder like it was fish food. He put it back in the bag and crushed it down to a complete powder while dividing it into a few smaller packages.
He tapped on the room's wall and heard a light sound. The sound was as light as the wall behind the vending machine where the material to cut off electromagnetic signals had been removed. As he had expected, the inner walls were not very strong.
"The enemy will be coming through the door. So they should grow a bit frantic if I create a different route."
The desk with the rather heavy lathe on it had small wheels on the legs. That allowed him to roll it over to the door. It was a simple method of protecting him from the bullets. He also set up some explosives on either side of the door. In his heart, he swore to blow away anyone who tried the cliché of "peering through the door while pressing up against the wall next to it".
"Now then. I'm going to assume they'll have expected all of this."
He was up against four enemies.
One of them would break in through the main entrance. The other three would take up position in the three rooms adjacent to this one to truly surround him. Even if he tried to blow away one of the walls with explosives to secure an escape route, he would find a soldier waiting for him.
The shockwave created when he destroyed the wall or door would make the enemy falter, but an enemy that was expecting it could put together a countermeasure.
Quenser thought while he once more cautiously tapped on the wall to locate the pillars.
To overcome his enemy, he would need yet another plan.
Part 11
The tiltrotor gunship.
Up until the introduction of Objects, that weapon was close to holding the primary role on the battlefield. Its overwhelming loading capacity gave it tremendous firepower and its ability to take off without a runway made it very convenient. Another factor that moved it closer to holding the primary role was the introduction of a variety that was filled with nothing but cartridge-style laser weapon units in place of the guns.
That allowed it to overcome the previous rule stating that a slow aircraft was powerless on a battlefield without air superiority already achieved. The gunship had become a fortress of the sky that could intercept fighters and even cruise and ballistic missiles. The appearance of such a fortress allowed a combination of the normal model and the laser model to rip through both the air and the land and one-sidedly conquer a battlefield.
But the introduction of laser weapons also strangled the gunship itself. Based on its use in gunships, armies began introducing laser weapons for air-to-air use, surface-to-air use, and for missile defense. Even the quickly moving air superiority fighters could not evade those laser weapons, so there was no hope for the gunships themselves to evade them. And once tons of anti-air lasers were equipped on the Objects that could not be stopped no matter what, the tiltrotor gunships had lost their spot in the primary role.
And now one of those weapons that had created an era and greatly affected the flow of history was being used against two flesh-and-blood soldiers.
To be blunt, there was no hope for them.
The pilot used the gunship's internal communications to speak with his comrades.
"The anti-personnel sensors are working great. I'm gonna make a nice circle around that center point. Let's show them this old thing still works."
"Pteranodon really is the perfect nickname for this old fossil. And it's a pretty cool name, too, " replied one of his comrades.
"Fossil? This is the latest model, " said another one."Some officer is probably still having them developed for nostalgic purposes. It's obviously not for any practical reason."
"Weapons control: standby. Auto-loading: standby. Chemical cooling: standby. All green. We begin in 10 seconds. Everyone make sure you have your noise canceller on!" said a third comrade.
The pilot's job was to continually fly in a large circle around the center point seen on the anti-personnel sensors. Even a trainee could fly that cruel merry-go-round. Since it was possible the target would use a shoulder-fired missile or something similar, he kept his fingers on the chaff and flare buttons just in case. He doubted he would really need them though.
(This is an easy job. )
But he suddenly noticed something while waiting for the countdown to finish.
"Wait. Do not fire! I repeat, do not fire!!" he shouted.
"Why not!?"
"I still have them in my sights. I can fire at any time."
"The target is fleeing to the bridge between islands, " explained the pilot over the internal communications while a cold sweat covered his brow."That bridge doesn't just allow transportation. It is the cornerstone of the plumbing, electric, and communications infrastructures. It would be easy to blow the target away, but we would be cutting our own lifeline at the same time. All of our weapons are too powerful!!"
Heivia and Genelia were not on the top road part of the bridge. They were down below. A normal bridge would have had a complex steel framework strengthening it, but the bridges on the Cook Addition Islands had pipes, power cables, and communications lines passing through.
"This is just a cheap trick. It won't be enough to survive."
"True. Dammit, they're jamming us so our communications can't reach the Objects. We have to do something about that gunship either way."
"You mean shoot it down?" Genelia frowned."That's a tiltrotor. A tiltrotor! This isn't some forcibly altered mid-sized transport plane with no flexibility. It can stop in midair like a helicopter and it can rise and descend however it likes. Hiding under the bridge just means it has to descend to an altitude low enough to peek under and shoot us."
"But they can't use the ridiculously huge guns installed on that gunship. Even the smallest Gatling gun would crush their lifeline."
"They don't have to use them. The tiltrotor was originally used as a transport plane. They can open up the back cargo door and target us with a sniper rifle. We're still in trouble!"
"That's what I'm waiting for, baby." Heivia removed the grenade launcher from the bottom of his assault rifle. He handed the rifle to Genelia."You handle this. Fire like crazy at the tiltrotor's engine. You probably won't hit much and it probably won't set fire to the engine even if you do, but it should make the pilot panic. If he flies erratically, it will shake the people aboard and lower their accuracy considerably."
"What will you do?"
"I'll use this."
Heivia lightly waved the 40mm grenade launcher he had removed from the bottom of the assault rifle's barrel. By extending a few attached parts, he gave it a grip and stock. Its silhouette changed from "tube" to "gun".
Genelia blinked several times.
"What range does an underbarrel grenade launcher have?"
"Two to three hundred meters."
"But they can aim from 1000 meters away!"
"While peering through a scope from inside a tiltrotor that's moving all over the place? They won't be able to snipe with that kind of theoretical value. No matter how hard they try, 700 meters will be their limit. If they want to be sure, they'll get as close as 500 meters."
"Are you so stupid you can't do simple subtraction?"
"I can make up for that with some addition."
Heivia spun a ring-shaped part on the side of the grenade launcher and attached an additional part to the bottom of the shell that was about the size of a can of coffee.
"What are you doing?"
"Supercharging it. This increases the gunpowder used to fire it. This is often used to increase the firing range of a mortar. It isn't popular when used with handheld grenade launchers though. There were reports of the barrel being unable to withstand the increased pressure and gaining small cracks after firing a few times."
"Why were we issued something that dangerous?"
"There are still a ton in stock because they're so dangerous, " said Heivia as if singing while he peered down the grenade launcher's sight.
The sensors were all on the rifle, so he had to aim with the naked eye for once.
"More importantly, you need to get firing, too. Target the gunship's wings and engine. It's descended and is about to peer in under the bridge. If you don't frighten the pilot and get him to shake the gunship, the snipers will fire."
"I'm doing it. I'm doing it. But isn't that a smoke grenade? Do you really think we can shoot down a gunship that was made to be fired on from below? The interior is probably filled with thick plates, " asked Genelia while firing the assault rifle on full auto for so long it seemed obvious she was not actually trying to fire accurately.
Heivia waited for the perfect timing with a thin smile on his lips.
"The tiltrotor is only meant to fly 3000 meters up, so unlike a transport plane meant to fly at high altitude, it has no ability to regulate its internal air pressure. In other words, there is no wall dividing the cargo area and the cockpit. That means the smoke will fill the cockpit as long as I can fire it in through the cargo door. Also, the tiltrotor was always less stable than a helicopter. It'll be done for in a few seconds if the pilot is blinded this close to the ocean surface, " he said while holding a finger against the trigger."After coming all this way for a tropical vacation, they need to go swimming in the ocean at least once."
A 300 euro riot suppression round brought a 2 million euro cutting-edge craft crashing into the ocean surface.
With the jamming gone, Heivia and Genelia now had a chance to inform the Objects on the ocean of the truth.
Part 12
Even a child who kept up to date with the news sites that had replaced newspapers would know Quenser Barbotage was proficient with explosives. After all, he had been awarded for blowing up Objects with them. It was perfect for a quick topic to discuss at mealtime.
And that was why the masked men from the Night Edge Platoon grimaced slightly when they realized Quenser had kicked open the door to the workshop and holed himself up inside. They knew about the gunpowder used for metalworking. And Quenser Barbotage was known for doing his own thing no matter what he was told.
"He's probably going to blow away one of the walls when we try to break in through the door. Ignore the passageways. Assume he can pass through the walls."
And then something exploded.
The four walls of the workshop were blown away simultaneously.
But something they had not expected also happened.
The workshop's ceiling must not have been able to support the load without the walls because it collapsed.
"... What? Did he accidentally kill himself?... I guess he is just an amateur."
Failures often appeared in the process of making a novel idea a reality. But when those ideas did occasionally succeed, they could slip past the standard theories of the experts and cause unexpected damage.
That was the truth of how the boy had managed to defeat those Objects in the past.
"Tch. Well, that was a dud."
The four Night Edge members stepped past the crumbled walls and into the workroom... or technically, its remains. The collapse of the ceiling made it impossible to tell what kind of equipment had been inside or even what color the floor had been.
"Digging him up is going to be a pain."
"Can't we leave that to the trash outside?"
"This facility itself is considered classified, so we can't let them in."
"......."
The fourth voice was not heard.
It seemed he actually had said something, but his voice did not reach any of the others' ears.
The reason for this was simple.
The second wave of explosives Quenser had set up in the room had detonated.
The shockwave swept out in every direction. Regardless of how trained the Night Edge members' bodies were, they were knocked out by the blast. Just as even the strongest person would die if thrown into a fire or dragged deep underwater, the shock did enough damage to cross the line between pro and amateur and overcome the basic limits of the human body.
Incidentally, Quenser was below the rubble.
He had set the first wave of explosives after checking where the pillars were. The explosives had been positioned so the ceiling would collapse with an empty space in the spot Quenser was curled up within.
And the explosions Quenser was causing were the type to create only a shockwave. They created no flames, shrapnel, or other dangerous side effects. The wall of sound that knocked out his enemies was not powerful enough to pierce through the shelter of rubble covering him.
"You should thank me. You don't often get taken out by a nonlethal explosion. More often, you just get shot by a normal bullet."
Quenser picked up a carbine from one of the unconscious masked men and swiped his handheld device. The Night Edge Platoon had a few dozen men spread across the Cook Additions Islands. Reinforcements would be immediately sent out once the rest realized what had happened here.
"That means I need to finish this before a large-scale battle begins. That laptop's communications are monitored by higher ups in the military. If I send out an SOS over that line, it will naturally reach them."
"That is a dangerous plan. And it isn't necessary, " said a sudden female voice.
Quenser held up the carbine and turned around to find the designer Claire Whist lightly putting up her hands while wearing her lab coat and bikini. She was surprisingly close by. She was close enough to charge at him if he looked away even for a second.
She grinned and said, "Do you actually understand the situation here?"
"A wall has been altered to allow communications outside the building without the higher ups monitoring it. You are suspected to have a connection with the Capitalist Corporations. There is competition between the water resource business and megasolar business in southern Africa. Communications from Heivia have stopped.... And on top of it all, you want to get rid of the Baby Magnum which is currently in southern Africa."
"The evidence you need to confirm your suspicions is on that handheld device. Why don't you check it?"
"I'm not stupid enough to take my eyes off you and give you a chance to attack."
"I won't do anything like that. You took them out with a shockwave, remember? You should probably at least check to make sure it turns on and wasn't broken."
"That's a good-... bh!?"
Just as Quenser used his thumb to try to turn on the device, Claire sent a kick in his direction. Quenser frantically tried to move out of the way, but a stabbing pain ran through his entire body before he could. Strength left his legs and he collapsed to the ground.
"A... stun gun!?"
"I showed it to you when we first met, didn't I?"
Quenser used his arms that he could still just barely move to keep himself from completely collapsing, but Claire calmly sat on his back. The boy in a crawling pose became her chair.
Claire pressed the electrodes of the stun gun against the back of his head and picked up the handheld device.
"Stay still."
"If you use the stun gun now, the current will flow into your ass too..."
"But it will be worse for you. What do you think will happen if 30 thousand volts are sent into your head? The user's manual listed it as the worst place to use it after the heart."
With that simple comment, Claire folded her legs and operated the handheld device with one hand.
"Are you going to erase the evidence?"
"No. This is as good a time as any, so I'll begin here."
"Begin what?"
"Giving some answers. It seems things have gotten noisy outside, and this will get troublesome if the Objects' maintenance units come to investigate the island. The Night Edge Platoon... that is, Unicorn won't be enough to stop them. And so I would like to finish this before that happens. Got it?"
Claire Whist used one of the handheld device's apps to begin a conversation. It seemed the signal was able to leave the building from where they were because Quenser had blown a hole in the ceiling. The person on the other end seemed to be a high official of the military.
But was he from the Legitimacy Kingdom military?
Or the Capitalist Corporations military?
"Brigadier general, I was thinking about pulling the trigger in southern Africa, " said Claire.
"This is a video chat, so I am receiving video of you. That is quite an... odd situation."
"I've recently taken a liking to this kind of thing. It's not like I have much else to do here, " said Claire in a casual tone.
The man she had referred to as brigadier general cut straight to the main topic.
"If you say the timing is right, I will go along with it, but isn't this a little early to pull the trigger in southern Africa?"
"The peak value is only theoretical. Aiming for it in reality will actually hurt us."
Claire then tapped on Quenser's head with the stun gun's electrodes.
Once she had his attention, she spoke.
Spoke to Quenser, not the handheld device.
"This is what is really going on in southern Africa. The water resource business using clouds and the megasolar power generation business are in conflict. That conflict is used to create a financial black hole. We lure influential people within the Legitimacy Kingdom to have us invest their money in this black hole and put them deeply into debt."
"Wait a second. Why are you telling him this?" asked the man.
"You may think I have a connection with the Capitalist Corporations, but you are wrong about that. There are people within the Legitimacy Kingdom itself who wish to weaken other influential members of the Legitimacy Kingdom. Political conflict, infighting... there are plenty of reasons for it."
"Shut your mouth!! Do you have any idea how valuable that information is!?" shouted the man Claire had called a brigadier general, but she merely grinned and continued speaking.
At this stage, it did not matter to her what anyone thought. Her body language made that clear.
"But certain events are needed to keep a financial black hole causing losses indefinitely. If it stays the same, people grow tired of it. The fire burning in their minds cools off. If that happens, the investors realize it is a dangerous deal. And so we need to arrange periodic events to ensure that does not happen. And one of those will be the Object you know being deployed to southern Africa."
"The Baby Magnum?"
"If it clashes with the Capitalist Corporations and loses spectacularly, the situation there will change greatly. The water resource business is supported by the Legitimacy Kingdom and the megasolar business is supported by the Capitalist Corporations. The investors' money will all go into megasolar. And the people of the Legitimacy Kingdom won't even know it because we are handling the investments. But it will not be enough to destroy the financial black hole. The more money they pump in, the greater the losses expand. My job, " whispered Claire Whist while removing the stun gun from Quenser's head, "is to uncover the idiots who are trying to wear down the Legitimacy Kingdom's own national power over internal conflicts when we are in the middle of a worldwide war. That is why I used Unicorn to set up an independent network that slips past the higher ups. I can't have the people I'm supposed to trap catching on to what we're doing."
"... !!"
Quenser heard a clicking noise.
The man Claire had referred to as a brigadier general had ended the connection.
But Claire showed no sign of worry.
"It's too late, " she said."Before he can even chug some whisky and shoot himself with his handgun, the Black Uniforms charged with barrier duty will capture him."
"... This was all a sting?"
"It just turned out that way this time. Sometimes I am the one doing the underhanded things. But that is why I'm not all that mad about you interfering in all this. I'm not some honor student that gets a stomachache when things don't go exactly according to plan. When you accept any means necessary, war can get even more twisted than this. In fact, when I think about how the situation must have looked to you, you made a refreshingly wonderful decision."
War.
That was what Claire Whist had called it.
Quenser very rarely had a chance to hold a gun, but that woman would have had even fewer chances. It was quite likely she had never once fired one from the day she was born.
And yet...
"You need to take this more seriously, Quenser. This is a war waged above your level. The wars using Objects cost a lot of money. And even more is gained from them. If that was not the case, no one would keep these troublesome wars going. This creates a lot of plans to profit from it all as well as quite a few conflicts."
"What about the financial black hole? Aren't those influential people from the Legitimacy Kingdom still pouring tons of money into it!?"
"It is just a dummy market made to look like a financial black hole, " replied Claire smoothly."The issue with southern Africa is that the water resource business using clouds and the megasolar business using sunlight are in competition due to the weather. Time after time, one succeeds and the other fails. In a seesaw market, the losses outweigh the gains no matter which one you invest in. That is why only the debt increases. That is what forms the financial black hole."
"And... ?"
"Oh? Didn't you know? We have completed a system to somewhat freely create clouds and make it rain." Claire sounded like she was enjoying herself."That just means we have to create multiple facilities. Area A is equipped with water resource pools and megasolar panels and area B is also equipped with water resource pools and megasolar panels. Afterwards, we just make it rain alternatively on area A and area B. While it rains on area A, it is sunny in area B. Area B can generate power and have water piped in. When it rains in area B, the opposite is done. That way you can perpetually supply both water and electricity. The two businesses are no longer in competition and everyone can get along and make money. Do you get it now?"
"Would that really work so well?" asked Quenser."Southern Africa is a battlefield. Building pipelines across territories belonging to different world powers would create friction. And even if it does not cross any borders, an enemy unit could attack and destroy it. It just wouldn't work."
"And that line of reasoning is why that brigadier general believed southern Africa really was a financial black hole." Claire still did not seem worried."I bought up all the stock of a construction company that worked at being charitable rather than on widespread advertising. They are well known and influential throughout different territories all across southern Africa. I can use them to expedite negotiations between different territories and I have Unicorn attack those that still refuse to cooperate. That is how I am building up the foundation. The pipeline will not be destroyed.... And people tend to be better off with stable infrastructure."
"..."
Claire had no intention of betraying the Legitimacy Kingdom.
She had been using Unicorn to take action without the traitors higher up in the military noticing.
In fact, she had actually been protecting the Baby Magnum from being used in the financial black hole project.
But...
Just as Quenser breathed a sigh of relief, Claire Whist lifted herself up a bit and then sat back down to put more weight on his back.
"Gyahh!?'
"And now it is time for you to give me an answer.... This workshop has been completely destroyed. Four members of Unicorn have been splendidly knocked out. And from what I have heard over the communications lines, a gunship made from a modified tiltrotor has been brought down into the ocean outside. How do you plan to logically explain this situation?"
Quenser's mouth flapped open and closed, but no words came out.
Claire folded her legs and smiled as she looked down at him.
"If you can't come up with anything, you will have to be sent away again. But I can't think of anywhere worse than here."
Part 13
And so they set a new record.
Quenser and Heivia were the first soldiers to ever be sent elsewhere after only two or three days since they were sent to the "gentle prison" of the Cook Addition Islands.
As Claire Whist stood in the corner with the vending machine, she watched the transport plane they were onboard in a window on her laptop. As she did, she received a transmission.
It was from a Unicorn member disguised as a Night Edge member.
"We could have falsified the records. Since it took place in the workshop, we could have said the gunpowder exploded due to static electricity. And once that was overlooked, couldn't we have worked him into our plans?"
"The tiltrotor would have been hard to explain away. And I get the feeling they wouldn't be as effective without being together."
"Even so, the mere fact that he had destroyed Objects as a flesh-and-blood soldier is a pretty big deal. It could even help in that 'higher war' you like to talk about."
"No, no." Claire seemed to be enjoying herself, but she still rejected the idea."He is the type to blow everything away and flee if he is surrounded on all four sides. It doesn't matter how many obstacles are in his way. So it is best to let him do his thing at a distance than to have him at your fingertips. That means there is no need to arrange for that transport plane to be shot down while making it look like it was a shoulder-fired missile fired by independent guerillas on a solitary Pacific island. He would just get in the way."
"..."
"Don't glare at me like that. Uncertain factors are profitable. But only when they are thrown into situations that have nothing to do with you. Let's keep an eye on them like we are watching a fire on the opposite river bank. They are like a jack-in-the-box that overturns stagnation. It feels like a waste to leave it unopened, but I would rather not open it myself. Do you know what I mean?"
Even then, many conspiracies were underway in the world powers of the Legitimacy Kingdom, the Information Alliance, the Capitalist Corporations, and the Faith Organization. Wars were being started over Objects clashing for the gain of entire organizations or of individuals.
A stable foundation prompted wealth to gather and that gathering invited stagnation and decay.
It was the standard course.
And even when you knew it was coming, it was surprisingly difficult to break free.
"Did you hear the higher ups have decided on the official date for a Royal Duel?" said Claire Whist while relaxing her shoulders.
However, the aura put off by the Night Edge member changed slightly.
"It's a battle between Objects that will decide who gets the crown of the Volga District. How ridiculous. Do the kings way, way, way above all of us not realize how much tax money and human lives are lost in all this?"
"Are you suggesting those two will disrupt that elegant duel?"
"I have no proof of it. Maybe I just want to see those arrogant royals panicking."
Claire's tone was completely casual even though her comment could be considered lese-majesty even if it was a joke.
"He is not suited to being a designer, " whispered Claire as she closed her laptop, leaned against the wall, and looked up at the ceiling."If he started putting together an Object with those dangerous ideas of his, he would skip past the third generation and straight to something like the seventh generation."
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