novelA Resource Which Cannot Be Made Plentiful >> Landing on the Island Nation's Ame-no-Darin (2)
| ← Ch.061 | Ch.063 → |
They added other embellishments to the bombs: a dangerous cleanser that expanded as a mist when heated combined with a bleaching agent that caused intense pain and inflammation when it contacted skin. They found both of them in the lockers along the corridor.
Ultimately, they laid around thirty traps.
"Will this really work? A fat old man working on his home on the weekends makes better-looking stuff than this."
"It's a tragedy you can't see the golden ratio to this. No matter where they try to evade, they'll trip a different trap. It's like a tangle of strings; they can't just untangle one string at a time. I should get a medal for making something so artistic on such short notice."
"You might find some fans in a prison. They'd probably all be skinny little guys, though."
Just as Quenser and the others turned around to head to their ambush point, they heard an explosion up ahead and a great impact hit them.
The corridor wall had been destroyed from the other side.
Gray dust filled the corridor and cut off their path.
"Goddammit!!" shouted Heivia from the ground."What is with today!?"
"What? My ears are ringing and I can't hear you!?"
"Those Moss Green fuckers took a shortcut! Our escape route's been cut off, so we can only fall back. And that means going through the corridor we just filled with traps!!"
It seemed unlikely they were being monitored via cameras or sensors.
The enemy had simply used their intuition and experience to accurately predict their actions. And that enemy had cut them off on the worst route possible. That level of accuracy made them seem like espers.
Multiple sounds of gunfire reached Quenser's ears as they recovered.
He could no longer leisurely talk about thinking this through logically.
To escape the threat before his eyes, he charged into the spider web of traps he himself had laid.
The Moss Green soldiers peeking out from the hole in the wall were not courteous enough to aim for each soldier one at a time.
They accurately fired a bullet into a rocket warhead set up as a trap.
And an explosion swallowed up Quenser and the others.
Part 10
A woman named Angela Hibiscus commanded Moss Green and she frowned after hearing the explosion.
"What? They're still moving."
"They must have kept their traps non-lethal. Their own kindness saved them."
"Then go finish off the passed-out fools. Just as they planned to do to us."
A blond combat engineer twitching on the floor moved his hand. He grabbed some fishing line to set off his own trap.
As the corridor filled with a white mist, Angela's men spoke delightedly.
"Wow, a chemical weapon. They violated the war treaty, captain."
"Undiluted bleach, hm? You can have fun if you want, but do you have protective masks and suits prepared for us?"
"Eh? Well..."
"I don't recall supplying any. The air conditioning is blowing their suicidal smokescreen this way, so we need to fall back. If we let something like this gave us any casualties, it would affect the unit's reputation. I don't want to owe the advertising firm a favor."
Meanwhile, Heivia was very nearly screaming after being thrown into the toxic smokescreen.
"Quenser, you idiot!! We already had a full course of hell lined up for us, so why did you have to order dessert!? What the hell is this? Cough, cough. Bleach!?"
"If you don't want to destroy your throat, stay quiet. And you have your diving suit's mask, remember? Your throat will hurt, but the mask will keep it below a lethal level!"
"You're kidding. So we have to crawl through this!?"
"They can easily get rid of this impromptu smokescreen with the air conditioning and then we'll need enough body bags for all of us. Would you rather stay here and end up filled with lead!?"
Either way, they could no longer return unscathed.
Quenser and the others put on their oxygen masks and continued through the corridor while experiencing some chemical inflammation. On the way, they set off even more of their non-lethal traps, but they finally arrived at the stairwell.
"N-now what do we do, you moron? They hold the area above the stairs. If we charge in, they'll just shoot us all. And if they sense any danger, they'll drop more grenades to finish us off."
"Heivia, do you have any rope? Can you rock climb?"
"Yes, but how does that help?"
"Then we don't even need these stairs, " spat out Quenser as he pulled out his Hand Axe plastic explosive."I'll blow them to smithereens. After blowing up the structure and their soldiers, there will be nothing but a vertical hole left. We climb that with rope."
"Are you serious? Even if they hold the area up there, that won't be all of them. They came from the heliport. The more we climb, the closer we are to the center of their forces. Climbing just means more of those monsters! Can't we just give up on the mission and escape from the sea down below?"
"If we did that, Frolaytia's fists would send us to heaven before long anyway. Plus, they've been able to predict our actions so far, so we need to think about this in reverse. We're below the waterline right now and no water came out when we blew up the pipes in the walls. They must be used with the emergency pumps in case of flooding. If we held the upper floors, how would you wipe out an enemy down below?"
"... You can't be serious."
"If they close all the waterproof bulkheads in one area, they can fill it with water. Instead of risking their own men in a firefight, they can wipe out their enemy with the turn of a valve. In a boring fight against weaklings, they'll definitely choose the easier method. I'd be surprised if they didn't flood the area."
"B-but! We have diving suits and oxygen tanks. Even if they filled a block with water, it wouldn't kill us."
"It would. I don't know how many tons of water would come rushing in per second, but it would definitely be a horrific deluge. We'd be swept on and on while being slammed along corridors and stairways. It would be like tying yourself to a car and being dragged through gravel. Our limbs would be torn off and the oxygen tanks would rupture."
"Ugh, " groaned Heivia through his mask.
"It looked like they didn't expect the suicidal wall of bleach and their pride probably demands a flawless victory. But this is the moment when we can escape the cage of Moss Green's expectations. If we don't head up now, it will all be downhill. As soon as they decide which valve to open, we'll be swallowed up by the deluge and torn to pieces!"
Part 11
The 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion's fleet remained on standby away from the battle. Frolaytia received various reports in the small aircraft carrier's mission command center. A controller's panicked voice reached her ears.
"Something is approaching the radar. It's very fast!! It's flying just off the ocean surface at around Mach 2. It might be a cruise missile or... no, it's an aircraft!!"
"On the same battlefield as three Objects!?"
Objects contained a reactor that produced near-limitless energy and they were covered with anti-air lasers, so the complex evasive actions of an ace pilot were meaningless. Lock, fire, destroy. That was the standard of the modern battlefield, but this enemy was easily ignoring it.
Frolaytia's eyes opened in surprise and the controller continued the report with a bewildered look.
"From its movements, it does not appear to be unmanned. The CIWS... had no effect! Here it comes!!"
"Dammit! All hands, brace yourself!!"
In that instant, the old maintenance woman was waiting on the flight deck in order to maintain or repair the Baby Magnum. From there, she saw a Capitalist Corporations' air superiority fighter pass less than a meter over the steel surface.
It was a fli-21T.
That was a modified version of the normal fli-20. Its development had been stopped just before mass production and deployment, and it was currently undergoing its final tests in the Northern Restricted Zone.
It was tilted ever-so-slightly, so the top of the craft was visible from the old woman's side.
The short girl in the cockpit wore an anti-G suit resembling an Elite's special suit. Blue paint on the right wing drew a girl's silhouette bearing a giant snow crystal on the back.
As the old woman saw the words "Ice Girl One", a rugby ball-like mass below the wing was released.
It was an anti-ship aerial bomb.
Normally, its weight and the potential energy of the fighter's altitude would break through the ship's armor before it detonated, but when released just above the flight deck, the rugby ball bounced off the armor rather than penetrating it.
The old woman made an immediate decision upon seeing the bomb bounce into the air.
She watched the 200 kilogram explosive that had been perfectly left in the air so that the blast and fragments would efficiently spread over a wide area.
(The enemy has no interest in the fighters stored in the metal belly of the ship. They're after the Object maintenance unit and its equipment. In other words, us!!)
"Jump into the water if you want to live!!"
She threw aside all her tools, turned around, and did not hesitate to jump from the nine meter height of the flight deck. She heard the tremendous explosion before hitting the water. The small island of steel behind her creaked ominously.
Her body produced a pillar of water as it vanished below the surface, but her head appeared soon thereafter.
She did not know how many of the maintenance soldiers had followed her.
"How... ? How did it... get through the network of anti-air lasers?" groaned a young maintenance soldier floating nearby.
The old woman clicked her tongue.
"The air isn't uniform. There are temperature differences, humidity differences, dust, dirt, and even salt content when over the ocean. The changes in those things will bend light just a bit. Mirages are the simplest example."
"But... But... You couldn't measure all that even with sensors."
"No, but an ace pilot from the Northern Restricted Zone can sniff it out on intuition alone! Who is that pilot? Her senses are equal to or even greater than a pilot Elite's!!"
Part 12
Placing even a single bomb was a risky process.
As Quenser attached the plastic explosive to the base of the stairs, Heivia and a few others fired their assault rifles up the stairs. They were trying to hold the enemy back. By creating a barrage without even a gap to poke one's head out, the enemy could not throw down a grenade.
But it only lasted thirty seconds.
"Shit! Here comes a grenade!!"
"I'm done here!! Fall back!! Fall back!!"
Quenser, Heivia, and the others practically rolled back to the corridor.
A moment later, the first grenade exploded.
Quenser then placed his hand on his radio and detonated his Hand Axe plastic explosive.
Just like when a building was demolished, the spiraling staircase smoothly crumbled and almost seemed to sink down underground. A great cloud of dust surged out toward them, but the corridor was already much worse due to the bleach and cleanser.
However, a problem presented itself.
"What the hell!? The door's filled with rubble! We can't escape through here!!"
"Then we just have to destroy the wall and ceiling to widen the hole. Outta the way, everyone!!"
After destroying the wall and ceiling enough to widen the "gap", they entered the vertical hole which had been a stairwell.
Several moaning and bloody figures were mixed in with the piles of rubble.
"Don't, " said Heivia quickly.
Even so, one of the enemy soldiers pulled out a handgun despite being unable to stand.
After a few assault rifle shots, the groaning stopped.
Heivia clicked his tongue and spoke to Quenser.
"I've had enough of this. Let's climb on up."
They had no specialized device to fire a rope to the top, so they gathered a random weight from the bloody rubble at their feet. It was a fist-sized piece of concrete with twisted rebar sticking out of it in places. They tied one end of a rope to it, swung it around like a morning star, and tossed it straight up.
"Oh? Ah? What? I didn't get in on the first try."
"And now it's falling. Move!"
After the second and third try, they were shedding tears over how wonderful the helmets supplied by their fellow soldiers were. Finally, Heivia tossed the rope and felt it firmly stick. It seemed the rebar sticking out from the concrete weight had caught on the remains of the staircase on the wall. And it had caught right next to the door on the upper floor.
Heivia put all his weight on it to thoroughly check it.
"If the enemy starts firing down while I'm climbing, there's nothing I can do, so make sure to cover for me."
"Then why don't you give me a gun? I'm confident I can at least fire right up your asshole."
With a parting raise of the middle finger, Heivia started climbing up the rope. Meanwhile, the other soldiers threw more ropes and secured a second and third route up.
Unsurprisingly, scrawny Quenser could not rock climb on his own, so the others had to pull him up last.
After exiting into the corridor, Quenser glanced at the sign on the wall.
It said 0m.
This floor had none of the pipes travelling around like blood vessels and the floor and walls were a shiny white. Nevertheless, some of the panels were still missing.
"It looks like we've made it above the waterline. They can't flood us now."
They were all battered and they had lost the soldier who had protected them from the grenade.
Their uniforms were covered in blood from god knows who, were ripped in places, and stank of chemicals.
"I get that they can't flood us, but what do we do now?"
"We can't just run. We have to wear down the numbers of those monsters from the Northern Restricted Zone. To ensure the civil war drags on and causes a great depression for the Island Nation's economy, we need to wear down the stronger side."
"I've had enough. We can't beat them. What do they eat anyway? Pure protein? Steroids?"
An Object had not even shown up and yet Heivia was already in full complaining mode, so the Moss Green PMC was clearly quite skilled.
Heivia contacted the other units by radio, but it seemed they had already received their baptism from Moss Green as well. None of them wanted a direct fight with them.
However, they could not leave enemy territory until someone produced some results.
That left deciding the loser by drawing lots.
"Moss Green will be heading down, right? That means we have to head down to fight them, but we'll be wiped out if they flood the area. What are we supposed to do?"
"I have an idea." Quenser sat with his back against the wall."All the pumps here are electronic. The manual valves will only let a trickle out, so we don't have to worry about them."
"Are you saying we attack the power source? The Ame-no-Darin is shaped like a ship's wheel. In addition to the central power source, it has secondary power sources in each of the twelve spokes. Do you really think we can wander around such a huge facility and destroy all of them? If we could, we wouldn't be in so much trouble right now."
"We only need to take out one."
"They'll just switch to another power source."
"Normally, yes." Quenser grinned."Think about the handheld game systems popular in the safe countries. They have two power sources: the AC plug and the DC battery. If you repeatedly insert and remove the plug a whole bunch, it can cause an error in the power source switching process and the entire system will die. But it might wipe out your save data, so I don't recommend trying it yourself."
"And you want to try that in a legit war?"
"There's no better answer for us right now. We want to stop them from sinking this thing and we want the war to continue, so we can't completely destroy their power source. If we did that, the war would be over."
Hearing that, Heivia glanced over at the other surviving soldiers.
None of them shouted support, but no one spoke up in protest either. They likely wanted the correct answer whatever it might be.
Heivia clicked his tongue.
"If no one has any other ideas, we'll have to go with that. If we hang around here, we'll just end up cornered. It's kill or be killed."
"Where's the closest power source?"
"The sixth secondary power supply is three hundred meters ahead."
After eating some tasteless soap-like rations and drinking from their water bottles, the group started walking toward the sixth secondary power supply with guns in hand once more.
Because they had risen above the waterline, one wall was covered in windows. The cold gray ocean spread out beyond the glass and what looked like an embankment was visible two or three kilometers away. That was likely one of the harbor blocks sticking out from the center just like the one they were on.
As soon as Quenser turned toward it, someone strongly grabbed his shoulders from behind.
Heivia tackled him to the shiny white floor and a high-pitched sound rang out a moment later.
At first, he did not know what had happened.
It was only when he heard the gunshot that he finally realized it was a sniper.
"Get down, you idiots! Get down!!"
As Heivia shouted, his follow soldiers frantically dove to the floor.
Quenser moved just his eyes to look at the window. It only contained a small hole and crack as if the tip of an umbrella had pierced it. The rifle bullet had been travelling so quickly that it had passed through the glass before the force of the impact could propagate.
"How did you notice that!?"
"My rifle's passive sensors just happened to pick something up. He's using microwaves that react to motion! It's a necessary item when doing long-distance sniping without a spotter!!"
A few of their allies held up their assault rifles while crouching down. They connected a line between the hole in the glass and the hole on the opposite wall and they followed that to determine where the sniper had fired from.
But Heivia spoke up from the floor.
"Don't try it. He'll have already moved and you couldn't reach him without anti-materiel rifles anyway. If he's using microwaves, he's the type that shoots and runs. If he's set the equipment somewhere else and is linked to it through his radio, that won't tell us anything either. If you pop up to fire back, he'll just shoot you from his next point!"
"How about we continue on along the floor?" asked Quenser."If we stay below the windows, the walls will protect us."
"I'd love to, but do you have any guarantee he isn't using an anti-materiel rifle? And if he pulls out a missile or Gatling gun, he can rip us and the walls to pieces."
Part 13
It was like shooting fish in a barrel.
That was the honest opinion of the ace pilot girl of Sky Blue Inc. , a Capitalist Corporations aerial PMC. She surrendered herself to the hard rock loudly playing from the smartphone she had brought into the cockpit.
The blue sky beyond the clear canopy was interrupted by several streams of black smoke, but the losses were not from her side. The Legitimacy Kingdom warships were being set ablaze one after another.
It would not have been this easy in the Northern Restricted Zone where she normally fought. The powerful long-time fighters of those never-ending death-filled battlefields did not rely on Objects. They would have seen right through this disturbance tactic and used manual targeting to swat down the bothersome flies. Destroying a heavy cruiser with just a handful of aircraft was worth a hero's medal, so the girl found it almost disturbing that they were about to reach double digits so easily.
(The company ordered me to score some points here, but I guess this is what it's like in the outside world. The only way to die on this battlefield is falling asleep because it's so boring. )
She gave instructions to her colleagues over the radio.
She could see their next target.
It was a small aircraft carrier used as a flagship. To distribute the risk, there were a few identical ships in the fleet, but the thickness of the defensive barrages made it immediately obvious which was the flagship.
"Ice Girl 1 to Ice Unit. On my signal, perform a unified attack on the aircraft carrier's bridge. Attack from the top to throw the bottom into chaos. And if I'm correct, that ship is connected to the Object. Hopefully the panic will spread to the star of the battlefield."
The ship's Gatling gun close-in weapon system began firing once they arrived within 100 meters, but a few thousand shots a minute was not enough to eat into their fighters. The bullets simply travelled across the ocean and tore into the neighboring ship.
Ice Girl 1 flew on through.
She even looked through the thick bulletproof glass and saw a silver-haired woman who appeared to be the commander. The woman was staring quietly at her.
But Ice Girl 1 did not care.
Her thumb gently stroked the button on top of the stick that fired a missile.
The pack of wolves would crush the head of the fattened herbivore.
But something happened just before that.
"CT to Ice Unit! Defense Charlie detected at nine o'clock. I repeat, an AAM Defense Charlie detected at nine o'clock!! Cancel it ASAP!!"
(... !?)
There had been no missile alert.
Or rather, there were so many meaningless targeting signals coming from the surrounding ships that she had not noticed this sudden intruder.
After Ice Girl 1 gave instructions to the others, they stopped attacking and took scattered evasive actions. The four fighters split into groups of two and flew past either side of the bridge at tremendous speed. The supposedly bulletproof windows shattered, but the aces did not have time to check on that.
"Ice Girl 1 to CT! Cancel confirmed! #4 was hit by some fragments, but it's still active!!"
"There was no targeting signal just before it fired. The enemy is likely using visual identification. It's using semi-active targeting and the pilot seems to be directly targeting you by sight!!"
In that instant, Ice Girl 1 felt a chill run along her spine.
It did not come from fear.
It did not come from unease.
It did not come from terror.
The vector of this emotion was in the exact opposite direction.
"Here it comes."
The girl named Mariydi Whitewitch smiled fiercely.
"Something's coming and it lives in the same world as us! Ice Unit, remember the real battlefield. The practice run ends here!!"
A moment later, someone sent out a transmission on an open and unencrypted band.
"Don't grin like that with a job this boring. I'm sure you're getting tired of tripping up those who have grown rusty thanks to the Objects. How about you let another ace pilot join you in this outdated sky, Ice Girl of the Capitalist Corporations."
The man's pretentious manner of speech reminded Ice Girl 1 of a certain fact.
The Legitimacy Kingdom had their own ace. While she and her colleagues stuffed everything necessary to fly into a human shell, this pilot flew a delta-wing fighter that looked like a beautiful sword and was created by removing all but the absolute necessities from the flying machine. He was a steel grim reaper who supposedly preferred using inconvenient semi-active targeting and would occasionally toy with the enemy fighters by "redoing the targeting" of missiles that flew off in the wrong direction.
When she recalled his name, she licked her lips.
"Burning Alpha. I never thought I would run across the Legitimacy Kingdom's scarlet evil eye!!"
"Stop it. That's embarrassing. Unlike you, I'm much too old for those childish nicknames. Now I'm just itching to shoot you down."
Even as they spoke, the fight to the death had already begun.
They weaved between the warships, chased and were pursued, and performed countless combat maneuvers as they attempted to take up position behind the other.
The line of ships momentarily got between them.
"By the way, hard rock during a dogfight? You have terrible taste. It's just too cliché. Did you get it from a Hollywood movie? Or maybe a video game? Just so you know, classic is best no matter what you're doing. You need to grow out of that childish stuff and maybe grow some breasts too."
"You might think you're being intellectual, but you're just polishing a fossil. I can't stand how the Legitimacy Kingdom thinks anything's good as long as it's old and musty. It's disgusting. You might as well be praising cheese that smells like wet socks."
"..."
"..."
Silence fell.
A slight gap in the line of ships appeared and the wall dividing the two fighter units disappeared.
The masses of metal crossed paths as they weaved through the slight gap.
The ace pilots began their battle as they worked to rule the sky.
Part 14
Angela Hibiscus, who commanded Moss Green, clicked her tongue when she received a report from the sniper.
"The lost children are after the sixth secondary power supply. Anything else would be sad even for them."
There were several secondary power supplies, so stopping just one or two would not affect the entire Ame-no-Darin. They were also located at the end of the structure, so causing an explosion with their fuel would not sink the Ame-no-Darin.
Which meant...
"They must be trying to interfere with the power supply's emergency switching system to cause an error in the whole power system and create a blackout. A foolish idea for a group of fools."
The civil war surrounding the Ame-no-Darin was being fought between two Capitalist Corporations forces. One was trying to protect the Ame-no-Darin and the other was trying to sink it.
Angela's Moss Green unit had been hired by the group trying to sink it.
"Sergeant major, how is the marking going?"
"It is already complete. Team C has secured the central power supply. We know the locations of all 2500+ valve release points, so we can begin the flooding at any time."
Moss Green was trying to sink the Ame-no-Darin and a float that large could not be sunk with anti-ship missiles or torpedoes.
They had infiltrated it, calculated out how to sink the giant float under the weight of the water, and were prepared to fill specific blocks with water.
Water was a simple weight that simply increased with volume.
Merely filling an apartment's cramped bathtub would secure two hundred kilograms. Due to the large size of the float, they could use leverage to split it down the middle like a cookie or biscuit.
In other words...
"If power is lost and a blackout covers all of the Ame-no-Darin, can we continue our mission?"
"Yes, if we set up explosives at each and every valve release location. But that would be in the quadruple digits and we would have to force our way into every part of the Ame-no-Darin."
"In that case, it would be faster to make our move before those lost children arrive at the sixth secondary power supply."
With that said, Angela Hibiscus brought her radio to her mouth.
"Teams B and D, gather our wounded and attack #6. If you can't secure it, go ahead and blow it up. We hold the central power supply, so losing one of the many secondary ones won't affect the mission."
The man she had referred to as a sergeant major tilted his head a bit like a hunting dog awaiting orders at its owner's feet.
"You aren't sending in the whole unit?"
"Don't forget our objective. Those lost children are outsiders. We were hired to sink the Ame-no-Darin, so that is what we must focus on."
Part 15
The two Objects were named the Mad Cooker and the Be Ablaze.
They took different sides in the civil war, but they both belonged to the Capitalist Corporations. The princess's Baby Magnum fought them both while quickly moving about the ocean surface.
At first, she had planned to interfere little by little from a distance to disturb their fight, but battles did not always go as planned.
She had been forced to approach them and it had developed into a three-way battle.
The princess was trying to extend the civil war surrounding the Island Nation by destroying the Be Ablaze which was trying to exterminate the self-defense PMC and the Ame-no-Darin, but she could no longer attack just the one Object.
In order to survive, she was forced to engage the Mad Cooker.
If the Baby Magnum was lost now, the thousand members of the battalion would be in danger.
"... !!"
As the princess withstood the high Gs caused by her lightning-fast evasive actions, she accurately kept track of the enemies and fired back with her seven main cannons.
The Be Ablaze used various fuels, oxidizers, and other chemicals to create flamethrowers. It used those to create a multilayer wall of heat called the Hiding Clothes of Flame and it prevented various types of targeting by distorting light.
The Mad Cooker fired a railgun that used molten salt and was theorized to automatically replenish its shells using the salt and metal in the ocean water.
(Fortunately, the two of them aren't working together. With them scattered, I can interfere from here. My only choice is to destroy them one at a time and return safely. )
She was of course targeting the Be Ablaze.
She fired her seven main cannons in different directions to cut off her opponent's escape and then fired them all together once her target had stopped.
Everything was progressing perfectly and yet she could not hit the Be Ablaze through the flames.
"Heh heh heh. Hah hah hah, " laughed the enemy Elite over the radio."I feel like a matador. But I guess I shouldn't expect too much from an unintelligent Legitimacy Kingdom Elite."
"I don't want to hear that from a rookie who has to rely on a system because he can't evade on his own. Did you feel like showing off because your parents bought you a new bike?"
"You seem to be focusing on me, so I take it you're trying to extend this war by helping the side protecting the Ame-no-Darin.... Are you serious? We sent Moss Green in there. They'll sink the Ame-no-Darin no matter what happens. You're wasting your time here."
"My fellow soldiers won't lose."
"Bullshit. This isn't about winning or losing. Moss Green is disposable. If they fail, I just have to sink the Ame-no-Darin myself. The other side never stood a chance."
".................................................................................................................................... I see you have a death wish."
"Ha ha! What do you think war is!?"
"Then I'll roast your escape hatch before blowing up your reactor."
Meanwhile, the Mad Cooker had taken up a position from which it could attack both the Baby Magnum and the Be Ablaze. As it aimed its main salt railgun, its Elite hesitantly cut into the conversation.
"Um... Have you both forgotten about the true star of the battlefield?"
"Shut up!!"
"Get the hell out of here!!!!"
After a great flash of light, the Mad Cooker was attacked from two fronts and bloomed into a giant flower on the battlefield.
"Oops."
The princess finally realized what had happened once the operator gave the damage report.
She had destroyed the self-defense PMC's Object.
If she did not do anything, there would be no one left to prevent the Be Ablaze from destroying the Ame-no-Darin. That would be a problem, so the Baby Magnum had to interfere. The two Objects put an appropriate distance between them and the battle line started gradually approaching the Ame-no-Darin.
"Heh heh heh! Hah hah hah!! Leave it to the Legitimacy Kingdom to act as a shield to protect the enemy! Even your stupid Elites try to act heroically!!"
"Honestly, why am I risking my life for this?"
The princess did a wonderful job of synchronizing her thoughts with the other Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers fighting to protect the Ame-no-Darin.
Baby Magnum vs. Be Ablaze.
The second round of the open-weight fight began.
Part 16
Quenser heard a quick burst of gunfire.
His fellow soldiers collapsed nearby.
"Shit, they're here!" shouted Heivia."It's Moss Green!!"
They could not raise their heads for fear of the sniper, but the mercenaries had shown themselves by blocking the pure white corridor that led to the sixth secondary power supply. They were about 250 meters away and they numbered between 10 and 20. The straight corridor had no cover, but they had loaded several push carts with thick metal pipes and used them as shields.
On the other hand, Quenser's group had nothing to use as shields.
And they would have to travel several dozen meters to fall back. They would be shot in the back well before they reached safety.
"Oh, c'mon!!"
Still on the floor, Quenser reached for his back and pulled out a Hand Axe plastic explosive. He attached a pen-like electric fuse, tossed it toward the ceiling, and hit the switch on his radio.
The explosion was followed by the ceiling collapsing.
As he coughed, Heivia pressed up against the pile of rubble and used it as cover.
"Dammit, Quenser! Leave the firefight to us and treat the wounded. There's nothing more for a bomber to do here!!"
"I'm not a medic!"
"No one else has their hands free!! If we don't push them back, they'll throw a grenade and wipe us out!!"
Heivia and the others started firing and left Quenser alone, so he nervously turned toward the fellow soldiers who were collapsed on the floor. The pools of blood were growing and he had no idea where to start.
Along with the ones whose injuries were light enough to still move, he searched through his pouch for anything usable and lined them up on the shiny white floor.
"What's this? Did the bullet leave the body!?"
"How should I know? But stopping the bleeding comes first. He'll die if you keep hesitating! Hold that leg. We can wrap a bandage around the thigh to stop the bleeding!!"
"Saline? What is this and how do I use it!?"
"The same as a blood transfusion!! You pour that in instead of blood to regulate the blood pressure!"
"How do you do a blood transfusion!?"
"Just like a normal IV! You find a vein on the elbow and stab in a needle!!"
Quenser's group was surprisingly lively. They sounded like students preparing for a school festival. As they desperately fired bullets from behind the rubble, Heivia's group would occasionally turn a jealous eye behind them.
"Ow... Stop, you idiot. That hurts. Don't dump disinfectant on there. It stings!"
"Ha ha ha. I'm not gonna treat you gently if you refuse to pay back the money I lent you."
"What!? Wait. Is that glue!? You're gonna seal the wound with that!? I'll pay you back with interest!!"
"Of course you will. By the way, the only other options we have here is a stapler or safety pins."
"Are there no medics over there?"
"There's one! Hey, you! The one firing the submachine gun! Being an angel in white suits you more than blood and smoke. Stop filling your body with adrenaline and get over there!"
"Eh? Eh? But my boyfriend here asked me to help out."
"It's time to ditch him! C'mon over here!!"
Heivia was finally unable to stand the flirting mood of afterschool festival preparations developing behind him, so he shouted angrily at his allies.
"Don't go stealing our nurse!! She's our one refreshment up here!!"
"What are you talking about?" said Quenser."If you need a blonde twin-tail in a nurse cap, you have me. You should count yourself lucky because I'm too good for you."
"I get it now, Quenser. You want me to kill you, don't you!?"
Suddenly, an explosion drowned out all nearby voices.
"Bwapph!!!???"
"Dammit.... They've started firing 25mm grenades! We just don't have enough firepower!!"
Those grenades had been developed to kill humans, so they did not destroy the rubble.
But if they were fired in an arc over the rubble, there was nothing Quenser's group could do. The explosive blast and shrapnel would wash over them.
The previous explosion had not been a simple missed shot.
They were firing a few test shots to calculate the ideal course.
Once they fired for real, Quenser's group would be slaughtered as they hid behind cover.
Heivia clicked his tongue.
"Gather all our rockets, missiles, and whatever other explosives we have! Let's blow away the push carts they're hiding behind!!"
"I'll leave it to you if you can manage it, but they're better shots than us! They'll put a bullet between your eyes while you're holding up the launcher and taking aim. And the best barrage we can manage isn't fazing them at all!!"
"Who the hell even are you!?"
"That's just mean!! I've been protecting your back this entire time!!"
Boy A started sobbing despite not looking at all feminine, so Heivia ignored him and turned toward Quenser.
For some reason, Quenser was operating his radio with bloody hands.
"What are you doing!? The cavalry isn't gonna show up if you send out an SOS!!"
"Don't be so sure."
"What?"
Heivia looked confused and his mocking expression turned to a serious one.
Quenser lightly shook his radio.
"We made our way above the waterline to escape their flooding, but I thought of another way to make use of it."
"You mean the sixth secondary power supply!? Sure, we might be able to bring down all the power supplies by messing with the emergency switchover system, but we can't get near the thing! Charging in will just get you driven back by bullets and grenades!!"
"There's something else, " said Quenser without a moment's pause. He began explaining as if he had been planning this all along."Heivia, the cavalry has changed quite a bit these days. They have armor that can resist nukes, they have gigantic cannons that can split open the earth, and they're piloted by beautiful girls."
"You don't mean..."
"What else could I mean but an Object?"
Their sight and hearing were completely blown away.
This went well beyond an explosion.
This was meant to aid Quenser's group, but they were thrown to the pure white floor. The soldiers already on the floor were sent rolling.
"B-babh!? Bbah!? Bbgweh!!"
"D-don't worry. I understand, Heivia. This is time for explanations, right? I received a report that the princess destroyed the Mad Cooker. That increased her range of motion, so I had her assist us during the openings in her battle against the Be Ablaze. Wink☆"
"Bh... I was trying to ask if you had any last words!!!"
Object shells generally could not attack deep below the sea. In order for Quenser to request assistance from the princess, they had to make their way above the waterline.
The Ame-no-Darin's corridor had twisted like a sugar sculpture and some of it had been torn off. The first shot had been near Quenser's group in order to mark off their safe area. The subsequent shells gradually moved farther away and brought death closer and closer to Moss Green.
Metal pipes on push carts were not enough to protect them from this ferocity.
The Moss Green mercenaries frantically tried to retreat, but the entire structure shook with tremendous force and they could not run properly.
The corridor was destroyed as if being bitten into.
The pure white corridor, the structure, and the soldiers were all crushed and thrown through the air.
Quenser covered one ear with a hand, pressed his radio against the other ear, and shouted into it.
"Stop!! Stop firing!!"
"There's too much noise on your end, so I can't hear you, " replied the princess.
"You just fired on the sixth secondary power supply!! Our destination is gone!!"
The metal door three hundred meters ahead was blown up from the other side and it spewed flames and smoke.
Heivia tapped Quenser's shoulder in resignation.
"Our luck ran out once our great demon god had to take part in a conflict between humans. If it was blown up, there's nothing we can do. We'll have to go to the next closest power supply."
The embankment-like place a few kilometers over the ocean was struck by the Baby Magnum's shells. The structure was torn to shreds where the sniper was presumably lurking.
"The other secondary power supplies are still okay, right?"
"I want to leave the rest to the princess and go home."
"I'd love to, but our mission will end in failure if the Ame-no-Darin splits in half and sinks. We need to put in a little more effort to lengthen this civil war."
But then they spotted motion beyond the rubble that no longer functioned as a corridor. It was 250 meters ahead at the corner from which the Moss Green group had appeared.
They saw a woman with long silver hair and brown skin.
She was part of Moss Green, but the simplified medals on her ample chest suggested she held a fairly high rank.
"Now you've done it, Legitimacy Kingdom dogs! This is a Capitalist Corporations problem."
"No, it's an Island Nation problem! We're both outsiders here!"
Heivia targeted the brown woman with his assault rifle, but the Ame-no-Darin lurched disconcertingly as an aftereffect of the Baby Magnum's bombardment. He could not aim steadily and his bullets hit the wall next to her.
The thorough Object bombardment had destroyed the walls, the ceiling, and even the floor.
It felt like Quenser and Heivia were separated from Moss Green by a 250 meter ravine.
Quenser raised his middle finger.
"Let's call this a tie, so withdraw your unit! Whether you're from the Northern Restricted Zone or wherever else, flesh-and-blood soldiers can't withstand the ferocity of an Object!"
"Is that so? Don't forget your goal, sheltered little boy."
The Ame-no-Darin shook once more and the ground below their feet felt like a small boat on a stormy night.
"What was that!?" Heivia paled."That didn't match the timing of the princess's bombardment!"
"Our goal is to sink the Ame-no-Darin. We can operate the necessary bulkheads and seawater valves from the central power supply, so now we only have to wait for leverage to bend the giant float until it breaks down the center like a biscuit."
The ground shook even more.
It sometimes reached a tilt of thirty degrees. Quenser wanted to grab onto something so he did not fall, so he reached for a crack in the floor. However, he heard a gunshot and orange sparks flew from nearby.
The silver-haired brown woman 250 meters away held a handgun.
Normally, 150 meters was the limit for a handgun even with careful aim. The fact that it had taken her only one shot to accurately fire right next to his hand while everything shook showed just how well-trained she was.
Quenser reflexively drew back his hand like a turtle sensing danger and drawing its head into its shell.
And that was exactly what the woman wanted.
"Wait! Watch out, Quenser!!" shouted Heivia.
But as if he were slipping down a slide, Quenser was thrown into the giant "ravine" opened in the pure white floor.
After seeing that, the brown woman licked her lips and jumped in after him.
They would be below the cold ocean there.
The Object could not provide proper support for anyone down there.
Part 17
"Gah!?" gasped Quenser as something struck his back.
The thick metal pipes running everywhere like blood vessels reminded him that he had fallen to a lower level.
Something must have happened to the wiring because the lights were out. The area was dark and his back was soaking wet because a giant puddle of seawater covered the entire floor. This was below the waterline, so he hoped it was from a burst pipe. A broken exterior wall would be truly terrible.
He stood up, leaned against a nearby column, and thought.
(What do I do? I can't get back up the way I came, so I have to find a different set of stairs. Can I get the lights on? Or would that tell the enemy where I am?)
He then heard some static from his radio.
He hoped it was from Heivia or the others, but it was not.
"A rat in the birdcage."
He grimaced.
That was the silver-haired brown woman he had spoken with before. She was most likely Moss Green's commander here.
(When did they break our encryption!?)
"Listen. I said a rat, not a little bird. Raptors prefer lively prey."
"You've already won. Ame-no-Darin really does seem to be sinking. We can't turn this around and the Legitimacy Kingdom can't keep this civil war going if it sinks. So what more do you want? Don't you have to retreat as well!?"
"It's simple."
Quenser looked around as he listened to her.
The area was dark and his enemy had to be skilled at remaining hidden. A near-amateur student would not be able to find her by effort alone.
"Sinking the Ame-no-Darin was our top priority and we got that over with quickly. That means we can veer off course and deal with a more personal and meaningless objective. As long as we accomplish our mission, the higher ups will turn a blind eye to a short detour."
"Don't tell me you're taking revenge for your killed men."
"They weren't the type to die in a place like this."
For the first time, human emotion poured into her voice.
Trusting the chill running down his spine, Quenser checked over his equipment again. He had a balled-up diving suit, an oxygen tank, and the Hand Axe plastic explosive. In his survival kit, he had a small knife and a metal skewer, but he could not use them very well. Not even Heivia would think of handling a Northern Restricted Zone warrior with only a knife.
"I couldn't bear to throw them into the ruthless Northern Restricted Zone right after they finished boot camp. Before showing them true hell, I wanted them to prove themselves in these lukewarm battlefields and earn a few medals. But look at this. Now I have to bury them without anything decorating their chests. How can this happen? With a funeral as pathetic as this, they'll never live down the shame even in heaven."
"I thought the people who lived where Objects are banned would know just how unreasonable this line of work is. If you didn't like it, you should have claimed they weren't suited for this and swept them aside. You were in a position to do that!!"
"This is where that was supposed to be tested!! They were supposed to shoot you sheltered snot-nosed brats like it was a walk in the park!!"
Quenser finally felt he had seen where her anger was coming from.
She was not simply angry that her men had been killed.
If they had died in their actual battlefield in the Northern Restricted Zone, she may have written it off as unavoidable.
But this was below them.
She had looked down on it.
As a warrior, she was unable to forgive the fact that they had been killed by scrawny Quenser and the others who could only fight while protected by an Object. If someone died in single combat with a great warrior or a hero, their name might remain in history, but that death would be meaningless if they were instead killed in their sleep by wild dogs or bandits that were digging through the dead on the battlefield. This was no different. They had never been treating Quenser or his fellow soldiers as human.
She had said her men were not the type to die in a place like this.
That proved it more than anything else.
"You're twisted. I feel like an idiot for thinking I did something wrong even for a moment."
"I will take off your head, you damn poodle. It's high time you learned to fear the wolf who was born in the forest and rules the mountain. I'll leave you in such a tragic state that they won't know what to carve on your grave, but I'll at least stuff your head and offer it in place of fruit."
In that dark place, the thoroughly trained wolf began preparing for her silent hunt.
If Quenser did nothing, his throat would be torn out.
Even if he gave this a normal level of effort or tried to protect himself with the standard methods, his weak poodle legs would not accomplish much.
He checked over his equipment again: balled up diving suit, oxygen tank, Hand Axe plastic explosive, small knife, and metal skewer. However, he doubted any of that would be of much use.
What could he do with only those supplies?
If he did not find an answer, his fate was sealed.
Part 18
Naturally, Angela Hibiscus did not let her guard down even when facing a foolish poodle.
She had judged the enemy's equipment at a glance before even luring him down here.
He was a combat engineer.
The plastic explosives on his back would be his primary weapon. He did not carry a rifle or even a sidearm handgun, so he may have been a battlefield student. Other than the explosives, he would likely have an insignificant knife in his survival kit and he also had the balled up diving suit on his waist and an oxygen tank.
She focused more on the diving suit than the explosives.
Anyone with half a brain would never think of actually defeating her in a straight fight. She was only armed with a large military knife and a handgun, but she was confident in her ability to execute him without a scratch on her even if he were armed with a light machinegun.
If he was hoping to win, he would not try to attack at any one point.
In other words, he would use an attack that thoroughly filled the entire space. With that, he could defeat her while ignoring her combat skill.
They were below the waterline and he had a diving suit and an oxygen tank, so the most obvious method would be to fill the area with water.
(But he won't do that. The valves won't function in this blackout, but he could open them by destroying them with explosives. But if he causes too fast and powerful a surge, he won't escape unscathed either. )
It was similar to a drowned corpse being swept down a mountain stream filled with rocks. With the powerful current striking the body against the hard outcroppings again and again, entire limbs could be torn off. The boy's synthetic diving suit could not withstand that sort of impact.
(If he slowly opens the valves manually to avoid that danger, the flooding will take too long. I can slit his throat a hundred times over before it takes effect. )
The diving suit was made to withstand a certain level of water pressure, but it was not solid enough to stop the explosive blast of a bomb.
That meant he could not place bombs around the area and cause a giant explosion.
That left only one option.
(There's a puddle of seawater at our feet. )
She used her night vision to observe her surroundings.
She could see her foolish target's back from where she was.
(That synthetic diving suit is an insulator. He can use electricity as an attack that will only affect me. )
She grinned and adjusted her grip on the knife and handgun.
(Sorry, but the Object attack destroyed the circuitry. There's no electricity to send through the seawater in this blackout! The very bombardment that tore my men to pieces has spelled your doom!!)
She took in a short breath and began to move.
Despite the seawater puddle covering the floor, she moved swiftly yet almost silently toward Quenser's back.
But at that very moment, he took a strange action.
There was no way he had noticed her approaching from behind, but he suddenly put on his diving suit's helmet and held something in his hand.
She had one more step to go.
In just one second, the knife in her hand would cross his shoulder and reach his windpipe.
And he reached a hand toward the button on his radio.
(A bomb!!!???)
She did not have time to judge the meaning of the action.
An instant later, an explosion compressed the air in the entire area.
Part 19
The aerial PMC named Sky Blue Inc. was working alongside Moss Green. Mariydi Whitewitch, their ace pilot, frowned as she received instructions over the radio.
That lovely blonde-haired girl was filled with fierce anger.
"You're calling off the attack? You're telling us to retreat!? What is going on, CT!? Don't get in my way! I'm one attack away from shooting down Burning Alpha!!"
"CT to Ice Girl 1. Getting this worked up is a sign of danger. We came here to unilaterally earn some points, not for a 50/50 battle. Don't forget the entire reason we are here."
"Just one more and my kill count will be a nice round number and I want a good story to tell. Give me this one!!"
"CT to Ice Girl 1. The Legitimacy Kingdom's first generation has sunk the Capitalist Corporations' Ningyo and Yuuhi. Surprisingly, it won despite being outnumbered two-to-one. Its Elite is very skilled. With that burden gone, it can now move over a wider area. If you don't finish up soon, you'll be its next target. Sky Blue's only job was to destroy some ships and spread confusion through their chain of command. We have no clear goal like Moss Green. Do you want to be known as someone who never returned from this lukewarm battlefield?"
"But!!"
"Stop complaining, Ice Girl 1. You have already done more than enough for a bonus and an aircraft can't hope to oppose an Object if it is actively targeting you. This has nothing to do with your skill. Turn back immediately. Or do you enjoy putting your men in danger because you were blinded by the prize of shooting down an ace?"
The girl clicked her tongue and angrily raised the volume of her smartphone.
The Legitimacy Kingdom ace named Burning Alpha spoke cheerfully over the open band.
"What? Are you leaving in the middle of our date? Well, maybe you need to grow up a bit before you can handle anything more. Go on. Get home before it gets dark. Don't get lost."
"Come visit the Northern Restricted Zone. I'll kill you in an instant!! And don't act so tough when your left wingtip is spewing smoke! You have your hand on the eject lever, don't you!?"
"You say that, but you had one of your men cut in and take one of my AAM locks for you. I will praise you for using smoke to escape my visual identification afterwards, though. Without that, you'd be swimming in the middle of enemy territory right now. Were you too scared to go on a date without your big brother to protect that cute little ass of yours?"
"I-I'll kill you!! I'll kill you right now!!"
Mariydi tried to tilt the stick, but three fellow members of the Ice Unit had her marked on the top and either side. They were only a few meters apart, so she would collide with them if she tried to turn.
She held her head in her hands and let out a large sigh.
She kicked the flight recorder at her feet and spoke.
"Those pieces of shit got lucky this time."
In her irritation, she cursed Burning Alpha and all the other major targets she missed out on.
That included base commander-class officer Frolaytia Capistrano on the flagship aircraft carrier.
"I hope I see you on the battlefield again soon."
Part 20
What Quenser had done was quite simple.
He did not use the blast to kill.
He instead modified the amount of explosive to keep it nonlethal. It was just enough force to apply tremendous pressure to the inner ear that controlled balance.
If he had simply set it off, he would have collapsed along with Angela.
And that well-trained woman would have recovered faster than a scrawny boy like him, so she would have killed him afterwards.
But that was why he had put on the diving suit's helmet. The helmet was made to withstand a fair bit of water pressure. It could not withstand the pressure of an explosion that could smash a human skeleton, but it could hold off a blast weakened so it only affected the inner ear.
He removed the helmet, looked around, and finally realized that Angela had approached within a step of his back. The discovery did not please him.
"I'm glad I didn't try to say anything clever before setting it off."
As he spoke, a rope fell down from the top of the "ravine".
"Hey, Quenser!" shouted down Heivia."Get on up here!!"
"Sure, " he answered as he grabbed the bottom of the rope.
He could not climb up on his own, so he would have to let those with some strength left pull him up.
But then he glanced over toward the many pillars.
The base of one of them appeared to have been opened up, but it was not due to the explosion. A part had been removed.
He had seen something similar before.
With a very bad feeling in his gut, he frantically pulled out his handheld device. He found similar opened spots in the photos he had previously taken in the Ame-no-Darin.
He had assumed construction of the facility had stopped before it was complete.
But if that was not the case...
"Wait."
After tying Angela's hands with the end of the rope, he slapped her cheek.
He had to check on something.
"What is this? Why are there pieces missing here and there from the walls and ceilings as if this is an unfinished jigsaw puzzle!? It's almost like the parts needed to build something else were secretly shipped in during the construction of the Ame-no-Darin!!"
"You didn't know?"
Angela opened her eyes a bit and grimaced after noticing how tightly her arms were bound.
"This was a giant workshop that the Island Nation... no, that the rogue self-defense PMC prepared in order to construct a new model of Object without anyone interfering. And if it isn't here anymore, that means it was completed and let out into the world."
The trigger of the next war had long since been pulled.
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