novelA Deadly Firefight between Two Idiots >> Mock Battle in Oceania (2)
| ← Ch.052 | Ch.054 → |
"Oh, oh. You can tell at a glance." Heivia let out a whistle as he peered out with binoculars."Those clearly aren't harbor workers. Look at those giant assault rifles. I'm guessing there's between 50 and 90 of them."
"Eh? I can only see about 20 out there."
"But they'll have two or three shifts, so that makes 50 to 90. A soccer team isn't made up of exactly eleven people, you know?"
"Hey, Heivia. Is it possible these are harbor workers who were given money and equipment?"
"Not a chance. Their complexion is different. The tone of your skin can change a lot in a short period of time, but the brightness of the whites of your eyes won't change in just a week or a month. Based on what they've been eating, they're clearly higher up on the hierarchy. These aren't people hired for the day. We aren't gonna kill them and find out they were normal civilians."
In other words, they did not need to hold back.
Quenser looked back and forth between the map Sewax had spread out on the dusty floor and the actual dock outside the window.
"The first question is where Blue Bottle's group is keeping their 'merchandise', " he said."It looks like there's a mid-sized cargo ship docked here."
He pointed toward the ship loaded with the standard metal containers.
But Sewax immediately rejected the idea.
"They're not on the ship. The lifespans of the humans is directly linked to temperature and humidity. They'll wait until the last second to load them in the containers. It's just like shipping fruit. They'll last longer this way."
In that case, they could also rule out the hundreds of containers in the container yard.
If all of those were options, they might very well have had to give up.
"Then where are they?"
"Look at where the soldiers are, student." Heivia tapped Quenser on the shoulder and pointed out the window with his chin."They're at the exits, the points needed to look out for snipers, and on top of the cranes instead of lookout towers. All of those are standard spots you'll find in any textbook, but some of the soldiers are in clearly inefficient places. Those are to prevent any escapees. The 'merchandise' is within that office."
"Probably, " agreed Sewax."It has a roof to block out the sun and an air conditioner to prevent heat stroke. More importantly, it has four walls to prevent escape. And they don't have to worry about anyone spotting the shocking fact that they're holding people captive."
Quenser started to agree, but then he frowned.
He looked out the window once more.
"The outer fence isn't far from it. If they shouted, their voice could get out. Doesn't that give them a chance to escape?"
"And what would they do then?" Heivia grinned cruelly."This is a deserted city. Everyone digging for junk is working for the black market. They won't actively take part in the human trafficking, but they'll keep quiet if Blue Bottle yells at them."
"What about the harmless harbor workers?"
"They have to pass through the empty city to get back home alive. Do you really think they'll cause any unnecessary trouble?"
With that said, Heivia made a sign toward Myonri.
He then tapped on Quenser's shoulder.
"What was that?"
"You're working with the military, so how about you try to learn our language?"
Quenser and Heivia left the abandoned building, leaving Myonri and Sewax inside. They crouched down and made their way along while hiding behind concrete rubble in the road.
Quenser looked confused when he saw what Heivia was holding.
"What are you going to do with that?"
"The office with the 'merchandise' inside isn't far from the fence. You're the one that pointed that out, Quenser."
They approached almost all the way to the fence and stopped about 100 meters form the office. They could not approach any further. If they poked their heads out from behind the rubble, a firefight would begin with Blue Bottle's criminal organization.
Needless to say, a battle with a metal fence in between would put Quenser and Heivia at a disadvantage when they were trying to rescue the abducted people.
The office was a two-story building made of reinforced concrete. The staircase was attached to the outside of the building.
All of the first floor windows had the blinds lowered, so they could not see inside.
But on the second floor...
"There we go, " muttered Quenser with binoculars in one hand."I see an old woman. She's probably about 80. Now that's another kind of person who will make you want to protect them. She's perfect for one of their extras, dammit."
"Not again! Can we please run across a large-breasted waitress or beautiful secretary in a business suit!? I need some kind of motivation here!!"
"More importantly, " said Quenser in annoyance."She's the only one I can see from here. There's supposed to be around thirty of them, right? Where are the others? I hope they aren't locked up separately."
Suddenly, Sewax spoke up over the radio.
"That's probably where they're being fed their last supper."
"What?"
"The abducted people will be packed in containers and shipped across the ocean. How long they survive is influenced by temperature, humidity, and food supply."
Quenser turned his binoculars back toward the second floor of the office.
The small old woman was sitting in a chair by the window. The round table contained a hamburger and fries from a fast food restaurant as well as a cup filled with soda.
"After being packed in the container, they have to subsist off of water and salt, " continued Sewax."If they gave them proper food, it would quickly rot in the high temperature and high humidity. That's why they have them eat as much as they can ahead of time to maintain the freshness of their 'merchandise'."
"And so they would be in trouble if the people went on a hunger strike?"
"Even if they forced them to eat at gunpoint, the extreme stress could make them vomit, ruining the whole idea. That's why they give them some hope. They're in a comfortable air-conditioned room, the outer fence isn't far away, and they have a nice view from the second floor window. The people are made to think they might be able to escape and so they need to eat to keep their strength up. Once they eat of their own free will, they can be shipped out."
The small old woman had food in front of her, but she showed no sign of eating it. She simply hung her head down while sitting in the chair. The hamburger had grown cold and the grease from the fries had stained their container. Quenser could not guess how long she had been sitting there.
"She knows it's over once she eats."
"Damn them. It's been a while since I saw food less appetizing than our rations."
With that offhand comment, Heivia began assembling the military bow behind the rubble. It was a reinforced version of an athletic bow and it was covered in desert camouflage.
"Hey, are we really going to do this with so few people? If we know where all the abducted people are, Froleytia might take action."
"I'm not going to use this to kill anyone, Mr. Happy. The second-story window is 100 meters away. If I aim high, the arrow will fall through the window. It doesn't make much noise, so the guards wandering around outside won't notice."
Quenser realized what Heivia meant, so he scratched at his sand-filled blond hair.
"Are you going to shoot a radio to that old woman?"
"The arrows come with transmitters already. They're meant to tell an Object where to fire, but with some quick modifications, we can communicate over it."
"Who's going to modify it?"
"If you want to prove your worth, you'd better get busy, Quenser. Taking apart some headphones and removing the oscillator is easier than disarming a bomb."
"And who's going to pay me?"
"Come to think of it, I don't have an answer for that either! Why the hell am I taking this so seriously!?"
Without a soldering iron or wire cutters, Quenser had to pull a small knife meant for cooking from his survival kit. He used the knife to take apart the electronic device and combine the necessary parts. His movements were broad but accurate, so he looked a bit like a cook on a fishing ship.
After putting together the arrow, Quenser handed it to Heivia.
"How's the window?"
"It's open. They probably have the air conditioner on inside, but the open window increases the people's hope."
"You only have one shot at this. Are you sure you can get it in the room first try?"
"Easily, once I pass it through a ballistic calculation program. How about I fire it right into the hamburger on the table?"
"You got something that dangerous? Should that really be out on the black market?"
"Don't be silly. This is for golf lovers. It just so happens you can also use it to provide targeting corrections for mortars is all."
"So it's like using the club to break open an ATM and take out the money?"
"This is another difference between the rich and the poor. There are people who have to dig through the black market and haggle for food, but there are others who build a green golf course in the desert for fun. Otherwise, something like this wouldn't be there."
The ballistic calculation program worked by attaching a handheld device to the bow's grip and looking into a small screen. The footage from the camera would add lines along courses for baseball pitches.
It was almost all sports-related.
He held the bow up and fired a large arrow. It silently passed over the head of a guard, travelled in an arc, fell diagonally down toward the office's second story window, and shot accurately into the room.
Just like the flag on a kid's meal, the arrow stabbed into the center of the hamburger on the table.
"Heh. Did you see that, Quenser? That's what the super smart, beautiful, and wealthy noble Heivia can do. You don't get a hole-in-one by relying on beginner's luck. You need the skill and composure of a gentleman."
"You idiot, you scared the old woman so much she fell over backwards in her chair! And weren't you saying anyone could do this using that ballistic whatever?"
"If you're gonna be like that, then why don't you try it! You always leave the physical labor to me!!"
The two idiots very nearly started a light fistfight, but they remembered this was hardly the time. They would be fine if the panicked old woman fell silent from the shock, but they would lose their chance if she caused a commotion.
Quenser set the frequency on his radio and brought it to his mouth.
The modified arrow had the oscillator and electrode from some headphones added on, so they could communicate via their voices. Specifically, the amplitude of the vibrations in the air could be converted to electrical signals of 0 and 1. Simply put, it worked the same as a telephone.
"Hey there. This is Battlefield Student Quenser Barbotage from the Legitimacy Kingdom's 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion. If that's too much of a mouthful, you can call me hero or knight. I'd like to take the position of the red-clad hero, but unfortunately, my uniform only has the plain colors of desert camouflage."
"No fair!! You're acting like this was all your doing!"
"Sorry, Heivia, but I'll do anything for the slightest chance of seeing a wonderful micro bikini once this old woman introduces me to her daughter or granddaughter.... In fact, I'd probably just roll over and go to sleep if I didn't have that hope."
"Why do you think I said it wasn't fair!?"
The two idiots almost began grappling, but something happened over the radio. The old woman timidly approached the arrow stabbed into the table (through the hamburger).
"A-are you a soldier?"
"That's right. Do you watch the news on TV? We're from the coalition army. We're the cavalry that'll do anything from road construction to eliminating bad guys."
"Do you have a gun? Are you different from the people wandering around outside?"
"Piano, violin, foreign languages, and dance. There are a lot of things for ladies to learn, but there is one thing they have to remember no matter how old they are. Do you know what that is?"
"... ?"
"How to spot a decent guy. Being able to do that can change your entire life. How about I give you an example, 'young lady'? After this, you'll think the world isn't completely lost as long as there's one attractive guy left."
For a while after that, they heard the old woman say nothing more.
It was not that the transmission had cut out.
They heard intermittent breaths as if from sobbing mixed in with a bit of static.
As he monitored the dock from the abandoned building, Sewax explained what was going on over Heivia's radio.
"It looks like she's crying."
"You don't have to report every little thing like that, " said Heivia sharply.
He and Quenser continued to wait while hiding behind the rubble.
"I feel like smoking a cigarette right about now."
"You're a minor. What are you talking about?"
They waited for thirty seconds or maybe a full minute.
When the old woman spoke once more, they took it as a sign they could continue.
"What should I do?" she asked."How can I sneak out of here?"
"First, how about we get your name, 'young lady'. I'm Quenser, but what should I call you?"
"Dorothy."
"Also... I know. What about your home? We need to send you back there once we rescue you."
"South Britain territory."
Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance.
They had been expecting an Oceanian city, but Dorothy had mentioned a Legitimacy Kingdom safe country.
"Were you... a tourist?"
"Yes. My daughter and her husband were visiting a shopping mall. All the bright lights made me dizzy, so I stayed in the car. But it got as hot as a greenhouse under the sun and I couldn't bear it any longer, so..."
"(What do you think?)"
"(I'd say it's about 50/50 whether that's a justification. Civilian lives always take priority over military personnel and equipment, but we haven't actually checked to see if Dorothy is a Legitimacy Kingdom citizen. )"
Heivia let out a short sigh and poked just the barrel of his assault rifle from behind the rubble. Technically, he was sticking out the sensors attached to the rifle.
"(There are three guards circling the office. If we sniped the high points to the west and southwest, it would be possible break in, but... )"
Sewax continued for Heivia.
"But it would be risky. And we would have to give up on rescuing the others because we don't know where they are."
"We have two options, " said Quenser while choosing his words carefully. He was speaking to Dorothy who was closest to the information they needed."We can rescue you for sure or we can leave you there a little longer to figure out where the other thirty or forty abducted people are."
"..."
"We can't choose either option without your cooperation. You stand in the most important place, so you can make the decision.... Which do you want to do?"
"I will do it, " said Dorothy after thinking for a moment."Please let me do it. Until you gave me this chance, I could not even taste the food, but now I am human again. And now that I know how wonderful this chance is, I cannot bear to take that chance from the others in my position."
"Just to be clear, that option will increase the risk. You might be wasting this chance you've been given. Will you still do it for people you don't even know?"
"I do know them. We were thrown in a truck together and trembled together as they aimed guns at us. That may be all, but I do know them."
For a moment, Quenser was unsure what to say into the radio.
He could not decide which option was correct.
But he still said it.
There was no reason to let her know about his own doubts.
"An excellent answer."
"What do I need to do?" she asked.
Quenser turned toward Heivia. His friend handed him the same type of arrow he had just fired into the office window.
Quenser held the radio between his cheek and shoulder while he used both hands to disassemble the metal arrow.
"The arrow stabbed into the table there is made so the back can be removed. Twist it like a screw and a ballpoint pen sized part should come off.
"Yes, yes. Do I need to tell you were everyone is with this?"
"No, you don't need to say anything. We can tell where that ballpoint pen is. Dorothy, you just have to hide it in your clothes and follow the criminal's instructions. Before all of you are sent aboard the ship, you should be gathered in a single spot. As long as we know where that is, we can use the power of the military to take control of the harbor."
"I see..."
"You can't let them know you have that hidden under your clothes. As for the rest of the arrow... I know. There's an air conditioner near the ceiling, right? Use something as a stepstool and place it on top of the air conditioner. Eat the hamburger and... Oh, there's a hole in the table, isn't there? There's a chair in that office, right? Pretend the stress got the better of you and beat the chair against the table to destroy it. Make sure they won't notice that small hole!"
After giving all of his instructions, Quenser ended the transmission and tapped Heivia's shoulder.
"Let's go."
"Sure, sure. You're taking all the good parts, aren't you!? Are you the type that'll talk to anyone you lay your eyes on, whether they're a trap or a zombie girl?"
"We would lose too much time if we waited until Dorothy gave us our answer to request assistance from Froleytia. We need to get the unit moving now."
"How? Unless we give a justification for the military to act and prove that we can win, that huge-breasted commander will only yell at us. We'll be stuck waiting for word from lovely little Dorothy. You haven't escaped the delay."
"Dorothy will give us the right answer." Quenser raised his index finger."But Froleytia and the others don't know when. We can report that we've found the abducted people ahead of time and everything will fall into place as long as Dorothy gives us the answer before the unit arrives."
"Are you aware providing false reports is a crime?"
"I'll pretend I don't. After all, I'm just a student."
"Hah hah. That's no different from when council members say they 'have no recollection' of people's accusations. It won't work."
Quenser and Heivia were beginning to relax because of the difference in military might. The harbor dock was controlled by bad guys who were armed with old assault rifles and grenades, but that would be easily dealt with as soon as Froleytia sent in the power of the military.
For them, they were on the verge of having a legit military operation.
Dorothy was a Legitimacy Kingdom citizen and she would provide them the location of the others before long.
That was enough.
Froleytia would complain, but she would send in some soldiers. She might beat up the two idiots afterwards and they could even be thrown in the detention barracks, but that would be after everything had been settled.
With one word of approval, Dorothy and the others would be saved.
Quenser and Heivia had no more reason to stay there. A battle would begin if Blue Bottle's criminal organization spotted them before they had Dorothy's answer and the unit arrived, but that was the worst case scenario. They could prevent that from happening by leaving the rubble nearby the harbor and returning to the building Myonri and Sewax were in.
With that in mind, the two of them began to stand up.
And then a voice spoke from the radio.
It was Sewax.
"Wait a minute."
"What? What is it? Did god finally decide to show some pity on me by dropping a supermodel from the sky?"
Sewax ignored Heivia's casual comment as he continued.
"Something isn't right."
Part 14
Quenser and Heivia could not believe what Sewax said over the radio.
To check for themselves, they rushed back to the abandoned building. They pressed up against the wall next to the window overlooking the harbor and swiped Sewax's binoculars.
Without looking particularly displeased, the cameraman pointed toward one side of the harbor.
A mid-sized cargo ship was moored at the dock. A short pole was located near the bow of the ship.
"You've gotta be kidding me! Please tell me this is a joke!!"
Heivia clenched his teeth and checked through the binoculars again and again, but what he saw did not change. It was no mistake.
"Come to think of it, some of this didn't quite add up, " groaned Sewax."Blue Bottle's criminal organization may control one portion of the harbor with a shell company, but the coalition still has several naval Objects patrolling the ocean. The cargo ships would naturally undergo surprise checks. Anyone shipping out weapons, drugs, counterfeit money, humans, or anything else suspicious would need to control more than just the harbor to be safe."
Then what did they need to be safe?
The answer was displayed on the bow of the cargo ship.
"To hell with them." Quenser brought a hand to his forehead."I can see it! Yeah, I can see it! That's the Information Alliance flag fluttering in the wind on that pole!!"
"Does that mean the Information Alliance is involved in this human trafficking?" asked Myonri.
Sewax shook his head.
"Most likely, they aren't checking what's onboard at all. The soldiers just give the ships a free pass in exchange for money."
"That's just the excuse they'll use to prevent a war if there's a problem and this comes to light. It's no different than the politicians who insist their secretary was behind it all, " said Heivia in annoyance."I doubt the Information Alliance is interested in the human trafficking itself. Even if it's profitable, it would hurt their reputation too much. I bet they're interested in the criminal organization that has worked its way so deeply into Oceania. Their black market is directly linked to the livelihood of the people. If they can make a connection with Blue Bottle and form a pipeline to the criminal organization, they can freely manipulate public opinion within Oceania. This lets them create pressure both officially and unofficially. If they can gain the support of the local people, they can gain an advantage in the coalition's infighting over how much of this southern continent each world power gets."
"Probably, but if we accuse them on nothing but speculation, we'll be the ones left hurting." Quenser clicked his tongue."More importantly, what about Dorothy!? As long as the criminal organization is receiving this indulgence from the Information Alliance, they officially count as cooperating with the Information Alliance military. Froleytia won't want to attack them blindly!!"
"So they're technically civilians yet are partially treated like soldiers." Sewax seemed to be thinking."Yes, it would cause a lot of trouble if a large unit was sent in to annihilate them. The Information Alliance could easily cause a much larger battle in the name of stopping the Legitimacy Kingdom from unrightfully attacking civilians."
"Our huge-breasted commander can't do anything, " spat out Heivia."She isn't stupid enough to start a war over thirty or forty people! But then what do we do!? If we could use the proper channels and send in a large unit, they'd be crushed in five seconds, but does that mean the four of us can defeat them? It's impossible! Especially if we have to swiftly and accurately wipe them out so they can't take away the abducted people!!"
"Wait, where's Dorothy? We can contact her and save at least her."
"We can't!" Quenser kicked the floor."The communications device we gave her has moved to another building. That's probably where all the others are being held. Breaking in and rescuing just her isn't an option anymore."
Attempting an unwinnable battle would help nothing.
Making a heroic and moving charge on the harbor might reduce the number of bad guys, but they would eventually be overwhelmed and defeated. There was even a danger of the criminals shooting the captives.
Now that they knew Blue Bottle's criminal organization was under the Information Alliance's protection, they could only say a political problem had arisen. The criminals could claim this was an unofficial operation meant to let these people escape the poor conditions of Oceania and reach wealthier nations. The dead could say nothing, so they only had to kill all of the captives within the containers and claim it would never have happened if the Legitimacy Kingdom had not taken hasty military action.
At best, it would start as an argument between the higher ups of the two world powers and develop into a war.
At worst, Quenser and the other three would be treated as war criminals who slaughtered the civilians.
"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do." Heivia covered his face with his hands and let a heavy voice escape the gaps between his fingers."They set this up too well! Of course they did!! They've spent a long time building this up so it would be safe. Why would some people who just now showed up be able to ad-lib their way through it!?"
"Then what do we do about Dorothy?"
"Weren't you listening? We can't start a war over thirty or forty people!"
"But I was the one that asked her to help! I can't accept this. We're not watching a news broadcast about something happening on the other side of the world!!"
"Then you go fight on your own! As a student, you might be able to slip through the cracks of the war treaties. But you'll be slaughtered by the criminals. And more importantly!! That criminal organization is being treated like a group cooperating with the Information Alliance military. You're not just up against some thugs in the city. You'll be taking on an international military force here. Are you still going to pick a fight with them!?"
Heivia heard a light noise.
It was Quenser snapping his fingers.
"That's it."
"What?... No, wait just a damn second. What the hell are you thinking? Why are you grinning like that? I was in the middle of shouting at you until you gave up!"
"Military cooperators. Heivia, soldiers have a duty to rescue civilians in that position, right?"
"So what if they do? I don't see how you can twist that into keeping the Information Alliance away. If we attack Blue Bottle and his human trafficking ring, they're gonna show up. There's no stopping it!!"
The female soldier named Myonri then cut in timidly.
"Huh? Wait a minute. Then that means..."
"Dorothy has no reason to fight." Quenser pointed toward his own chest with his thumb."It was me, someone working for the Legitimacy Kingdom military! If I hadn't pressed her to cooperate, she wouldn't still be there in the middle of enemy territory. That means she's cooperating with the Legitimacy Kingdom military. It's obvious her life is in danger if we don't do something, so what should the military that was backing her do? Answer me, Heivia!!"
"You've gotta be kidding me, " groaned Heivia.
"I see." Sewax's lips twisted up in an interested smile."If Blue Bottle's organization is protected by the Information Alliance as a military cooperator, then they can't ignore the Legitimacy Kingdom if it claims the right to protect Dorothy for the same reason. If conflict breaks out between civilians, it's only natural for the militaries backing them to intermediate."
"Don't make me laugh." Heivia shook his head."There's no way it'll work that well! There isn't going to be a tear-jerking happy ending! Our huge-breasted commander doesn't know we hired Dorothy and she won't approve of it! We don't have any documents to prove it, either!! When war is about to break out, try bringing up someone named Dorothy that no one's ever heard of. They'll just stare at you funny. Justification or not, our unit isn't moving!!"
"Perhaps not, " admitted Quenser."But we do have justification for the four of us to take action."
"Do you have anything to prove she's a military cooperator!?"
"She's proof enough. But she needs to be alive to prove it, so we have to save her."
"What we want to do and what we have to do match up, " muttered Sewax.
They could act as heroic as they wanted, but they were the ones who would be exposed to gunfire. Heivia was growing irritated because the fear was beginning to sink in, so Quenser spoke to him.
"Also, we can't run away anymore."
"What!? Why the hell not!? There's no special bonus waiting for us. It's not like we have to shoot our way out to get back to the maintenance base. In fact, we shouldn't even be here. For once, I'm having trouble finding anything we'll get blamed for if we just run away!!"
"And then what? Are we going to report that we recruited a civilian without permission, didn't see it through to the end, and returned to safety while leaving her to die? Even if it doesn't break any rules, do you really think there will be a place for us back in the unit?"
"Goddammit!! So you convince Dorothy to do this and now it's going to bring dishonor on me? This'll affect my chances of inheriting my family!!"
But arguing was not going to solve anything.
If he truly had an issue with what Quenser had done, he should have interrupted while Quenser was speaking with Dorothy.
"But what now? What exactly do we do!? There're only four of us and two of those are a student and cameraman. Meanwhile, we're up against 50-90 soldiers and there might be reinforcements from the Information Alliance. That's too much of a difference to just charge in randomly like we're the cavalry!"
"Our objective is to rescue Dorothy and the other captives. All of them. We aren't just going to shoot up the place until nothing's left moving like in a Western."
"What?"
"We need to narrow down our targets. This is like a puzzle game. We don't have to take care of everything ourselves. If we destroy one, the rest will vanish in a chain reaction."
Part 15
The most important factor was that Quenser and the others knew where Dorothy was. They could detect her location from the communication device removed from the military arrow and hidden in her clothes.
After detecting that she had been moved to the mid-sized cargo ship, Quenser, Heivia, Myonri, and Sewax began to move.
"Honestly. This is no joke, " groaned Heivia."We have no boat. We have no flippers or snorkels! We have nothing!! And now we have to jump into the ocean at night? We're carrying rifles and missiles!! It's all so damn heavy I just want to throw it away!!"
"The ship is leaving the harbor while you waste time shouting. Let's jump in while we can catch up."
They had left the dock controlled by Blue Bottle's criminal organization and entered a block patrolled by the normal harbor workers. Instead of the main gate, they had cut a hole in the chain-link fence and snuck in. After slipping past the guards and cutting across the harbor, they threw themselves into the dark ocean at the tip of the harbor.
"Bwah! Dammit! They have a diesel engine. Can we really catch up to them like this?"
"The sea chart here is complex, " replied Sewax while skillfully treading water. He seemed to have no problem with being in the water, so his camera must have been waterproof."A lot of rubble from Object bombardments has been swept into the ocean. This is worse than reefs. To safely reach open sea, they have to travel back and forth in an S-shape. If we swim along that route, the cargo ship will approach us."
"The Information Alliance is in charge of security here and I hear they've blocked the sea routes with smart mines that distinguish between friend and foe. I don't know if they'll react to a human-sized mass, but try to be careful."
After swimming through the dark sea for a while, the cargo ship came into view. As it travelled along the narrow safe regions, it did indeed approach them.
"Wait, wait, wait. It's pointing searchlights everywhere."
"They're probably actually relying on radar, but human nature makes them want to see everything with their own eyes. But it's dark below the lights. The bright light will cause their pupils to contract incorrectly. As long as the light doesn't directly illuminate you, they won't see you, " explained Sewax.
"Heivia, do you have the rope ready?" asked Quenser.
"Just as you asked, Mr. Knight! Once again, I prepare the food and you get to eat it!!"
As it approached, the cargo ship's hull rose up like a cliff. It also tilted out toward them, so it would be impossible climb by hand.
Heivia and Myonri spun around ropes with claws attached to the end and used the centrifugal force to throw them straight up. After making sure they had solidly dug into the deck's railing, the two soldiers climbed up the cliff and onto the ship.
The cargo ship itself was a giant mass with a large volume.
As Quenser and Sewax waited in the sea for their signal, they were tossed around by the artificial current and forced to cling to the ropes.
And then something heavy fell down from above.
Quenser looked down at what had fallen next to him and found the corpse of one of the criminal organization's guards. The man's throat had been slit.
With a look of disgust, he brought his radio to his mouth.
"You show no mercy, do you?"
"If you have time to complain, climb up. Sharks are sensitive to the scent of blood."
But Quenser was only a student, so he could not climb what was essentially a building wall using only a rope.
Quenser glanced over at Sewax who quickly surmounted the wall on his own, but he needed Heivia and Myonri to pull his rope up.
"C'mon. I'm a noble and you're a commoner, so I shouldn't be pulling you up like this."
"More importantly, how much time do we have?"
"They'll figure out they've lost someone once the periodic report comes, so we have at most ten minutes. We have no time to spare after losing some time thanks to a certain idiot!"
Myonri looked down at her handheld device while covering the small screen with her hand to keep the light from escaping.
"Dorothy is at the front of the ship."
"Let's do what we can. There's no way we can seajack this thing in ten minutes."
After Quenser and Heivia formed a pair and Myonri and Sewax formed a pair, the two pairs travelled through the piles of containers on deck while covering for each other.
As an unpleasant sweat dripped down his face, Heivia muttered to himself.
"Don't use your gun. Rely on your knife. Don't use your gun. After a single gunshot, you'll have to jump into the ocean."
Fortunately, the large number of containers (which were likely there as decoys to hide the human trafficking) provided a lot of cover. The four of them carefully travelled toward the bow of the ship while making sure they did not run into any guards.
And suddenly, they heard the roaring of the wind.
Except this was no normal wind.
"(Get down, you idiot! Don't move!!)"
Heivia whispered quietly, grabbed the back of Quenser's collar, and got down on the deck. Ahead of them, Myonri and Sewax pressed their backs against metal containers and held their breath. Their faces were obviously covered with an unusual amount of sweat.
Quenser belatedly realized what was going on.
What he had thought was the wind was actually a disturbance in the air caused by the movement of a great mass. It was similar to when a train rushed by a subway platform.
A sealed tunnel was one thing, but not much could do the same on the open sea.
This was the symbol of war.
It was the trademark of the era that could destroy every other weapon on the battlefield.
In other words...
"An Object!!" he groaned while lying on the deck.
Even the mid-sized cargo ship towered above the ocean surface like a cliff, but the Object was on an entirely different level. Its spherical main body was around fifty meters tall and equipped with over one hundred different cannons. Despite the cargo ships' immense size, it looked like a plastic miniature next to the Object.
Its presence was overwhelming.
Its sense of intimidation was overwhelming.
The sense of danger it radiated was overwhelming.
Everything about it was overwhelming.
"They're from the Information Alliance, " said Heivia as he almost lay on top of Quenser and looked like he was about to cry."These are second generation Objects from the Information Alliance. I think that's the Simple Is Best and the Catapult Cargo. This is no joke. There's no way we can take on an enemy like this."
Heivia listed two names.
The meaning of that fact arrived along with despair as Quenser forced his neck around to observe the situation.
The cargo ship was passing between two Objects that were patrolling the dark sea. As he looked up at the towering armor and countless cannons, it somehow reminded him of a thick green tunnel made of trees.
If any one of those cannons was fired, Quenser and the others would be blasted into pieces too small to even make fish food.
But at the same time...
"We were right, " he muttered."Even if second generation Objects are specialized toward fighting other Objects, they would have detected us if they were making full use of their sensors. But they aren't attacking and they haven't contacted Blue Bottle to send out his men."
"That means this ship is not being checked. If they scanned it, they might detect all the people stuffed in the containers. The data would remain in the Object's recorder and it would be a pain to alter it."
But that did not mean they could move around freely.
Objects were the rulers of the battlefield. They were a non-standard monster with no natural enemies that could freely devour all other life forms before them. It was as if they had been born due to some kind of bug or mistake.
No one was stupid enough to stick their own arm in the beast's mouth to see whether it had been tamed or not.
No one wanted to be the pitiable guinea pig.
Quenser and the others held their breath and watched the two Objects slowly move away from the cargo ship. Even then, they did not move. An uncomfortable sweat grew below their uniforms.
It came down to their intuition rather than logic.
Once the Objects were several hundred meters away, Quenser finally let out a long breath.
That was still plenty close for the second generation Objects to attack, but he still felt the relief of being in the clear.
Heivia used his sleeve to wipe the sweat from his face as he got up off of Quenser.
"Try to remember what it is we're fighting, lady killer."
"Now that we're here, we have to go through with this regardless."
The four of them began moving at the same time.
Myonri jogged ahead from one pile of containers to another. She then pointed at the first level of containers with her thumb.
"Dorothy is in here. What should we do?"
"We might as well use this chance to rescue as many of them as we can. Quenser, set up your trick as planned!"
The four of them all moved in different directions.
Heivia and Myonri grabbed the metal lever.
But then Myonri frowned.
"Wait a second. I just noticed something."
"What is it? I don't see any tripwires."
"It isn't that."
Myonri let go of the lever to open the door and traced her finger across the string of letters printed on the metal door.
"This is a refrigerated container. This thing is basically a gigantic freezer."
"Why the hell would they throw an 80-year-old woman in there!?"
They forcibly pulled the lever and opened the door.
As soon as the metal door opened, chilly air seemed to cut at their cheeks. Just as Myonri had said, the inside of the wall was covered in white frost.
And...
A small figure was lying on its side in the fetal position.
And it was just the one person.
"What the hell... ? What the hell!? I thought Blue Bottle's group was working in human trafficking? Why are they freezing them from the get-go!?"
"Wait! Don't carelessly pick her up! Her exposed skin might be frozen to the container floor!"
Fortunately, Myonri's fears were unfounded. The old woman's hair seemed frozen, but her skin did not stick to the floor.
Heivia picked up Dorothy and carried her out of the container.
"They might have been trying to simulate hibernation, " said Sewax as he read the writing on the container.
"What?"
"There are cases of people surviving without food or water for over a month in cars buried in snow. Only one in nine survive, but their 'merchandise' can survive the long trip if the conditions are artificially recreated. It has better odds than leaving it up to luck after throwing them in a hot and stuffy container with water and salt."
"I see. So that's why they put them in separate containers." Myonri let out a groan as she thought about this demonic plan."It's the same as anesthesia. The temperature is carefully calculated out based on the person's weight, so they all need their own container."
"So what? This isn't going to work 100% of the time. For one thing, humans aren't meant to hibernate like a bear! If they force it, it has to fail and cause frostbite or hypothermia in a lot of them!!"
"True, but there's a countermeasure that's popular among people stranded in snowy mountains. If you warm the outside of the body with lukewarm water and eat food, it will cause an increase in body temperature."
"I guess a normal water bottle would be warm enough on a warm night like this. I only have disgusting rations for food, though."
"If they're conscious enough to complain about that, there's nothing to worry about."
Heivia and Sewax's discussion must have brought her back to her senses because Dorothy slowly opened her eyes while her skin was oddly cold.
She looked like someone who had just woken up in the morning, but the situation was completely different.
For one thing, she had not been sleeping. Her mind was muddled enough for her memories to be a bit vague.
"That... soldier... ?"
"Yes! That's right! We're here to save you. There's nothing more to worry about."
"Are you... the one named... Quenser?"
"Sorry, but there are even better guys than him in the world."
They could not force her to do anything more.
Heivia frantically pulled out a ration that resembled a tasteless and odorless eraser and a bottle warmed by the warm night and his own body temperature.
And then he heard a noise.
Someone was peering out from behind a pile of containers. Heivia did not know who it was, but he made up his mind when he saw the shoddily-made assault rifle in his hand. He was a criminal organization guard on patrol.
He was only seven meters away.
The assault rifle hung from his shoulder on a sling belt, but he was not holding the rifle. He held a different weapon.
But it was not a handgun or a knife.
It was a glittering black sphere about one size bigger than a golf ball.
All of Heivia's hair stood on end when he realized what it was.
"A grenade!?"
In that instant, Sewax held up his heavy camera as if pulling a handgun from its holster and he stared through the viewfinder.
(Oh, I'm dead. )
Time seemed to flow strangely slow, but he did not try to hide or cover his face with his arms. He stood stock still and continued to keep the armed man in the center of the small world cut off by his camera.
He held a Gr-021, the grenades used by the old Oceanian military government. They were rumored to be cheap copies of the Information Alliance's grenades. They had a kill radius of five meters and an injury radius of twelve meters. The soldier may not have known how to use it properly because he was liable to be caught in the blast that killed using shrapnel rather than the explosion itself.
If the guard holding the sphere relaxed his grip, pulled out the pin, and released the safety lever, over two hundred metal grains would fly in every direction with deadly speed exactly five seconds later. Man, woman, adult, and child alike would be turned to mincemeat.
Even so, Sewax operated his camera as if it were his mission.
He wanted to take a photo that would change the world.
War would never end no matter how many hundreds of bullets were fired. The people whose bank accounts grew every time the money-devouring Objects were sent out would continue applauding in dark rooms as more blood was shed. To truly end it all, the people's hearts had to be moved outside of what the people in charge had to gain. That was something bullets could not achieve. No matter how great a tragedy was, it would resound in no one's heart unless a battlefield cameraman recorded it.
He had wanted an opportunity to do just that.
It did not matter if it would take the lives of a few people here. It did not matter if that danger applied to him as well. He would not regret the loss of an arm or a leg. He was willing to lose half his body if that was what it took. If he could bring home the picture that would change history and bring peace, he would proudly say he had won.
As the person who had once relied on bullets in this very country, he felt this was something he had to do no matter what.
But...
Even so...
(Is that really okay?)
Through the viewfinder, he saw Heivia crouched down while frozen in place. At his feet was a small old woman who lay groggily on the ground after being rescued from an extreme low-temperature environment.
If they died, it would likely shake some people's hearts.
If he stored that shocking bloodshed in the small memory of his camera, he could use it to convey the truth of the battlefield.
(But is that really okay!?)
There was no point in saving just a few lives. It would mix in with all the other boring news and reach no one, so it might as well not exist. Information that reached no one was no different from information that vanished from the face of the earth. At that very moment, the people within safe countries thought the world was a peaceful place. They truly believed it. And yet the war in Oceania had yet to truly end. To ultimately end war, those people's help was needed.
And so...
To stop the tragedies, Sewax hoped for a tragedy to occur. That contradictory mindset led him to hesitate over whether to accept or reject this situation.
And...
He finally made his decision.
A metallic sound of impact brought Heivia back to his senses.
The battlefield cameraman named Sewax had removed the neck strap attachment to the camera he valued more than his life and he threw it at the guard holding the grenade.
"I'm not going back to the way I was. I swore I would stop doing that!! I swore during that war in Oceania!!"
As Sewax shouted out in desperation, Heivia began to move. The camera was heavy, but it was not enough to knock out that large man by striking his upper body. However, the man decided to prioritize his own safety by protecting his body with his arms. And he still held the grenade in his hand. He had not released the pin or safety lever.
They had a chance.
Heivia immediately let go of the ration and water bottle and drew his large military knife with a flowing motion of his right hand. He even had enough composure to cover Dorothy's eyes with his left hand.
He threw the knife without hesitation.
After rotating exactly ninety degrees, the tip of the blade stabbed accurately into the guard's throat.
(Damn. )
But Heivia's expression twisted silently.
The man did not collapse. It was a fatal blow but not enough to kill him instantly.
There was going to be a lag of a few seconds to a dozen seconds.
(I missed the center. The blade didn't hit his spine!!)
As Heivia watched, the man's fingers writhed like caterpillars and reached for the grenade's metal pin. One finger passed through the ring of the pin.
All he had to do was release it now.
Pulled by gravity, the explosive fell straight down. The pin attached to his index finger was pulled out. The shock of the round grenade striking the deck was enough to release the safety lever.
It was ready to detonate.
"!!"
Heivia saw Myonri immediately pull out her handgun, so he took action. While still crouched down, he ran forward like a beast. The man with the blade in his throat could not speak, but he glared at Heivia. The ring-shaped pin on his index finger glittered in the light like a cruel piece of jewelry.
The kill radius was five meters.
The injury radius was twelve meters.
It would explode in only five seconds.
(Just killing him isn't enough. We'll all be caught in the blast!!)
As the guard started to fall backwards, Heivia grabbed his collar. This was not a gentlemanly attempt to support the man. He grabbed the man's right arm, spun him around, and used the man's waist as a fulcrum to throw him to the ground.
He threw the man on top of the grenade he had dropped.
A muffled explosion arrived an instant later.
The cheap bulletproof plate and the living flesh and bone were enough to suppress the explosion of a grenade meant to kill with shrapnel rather than the blast. In textbooks, this method was given as a means of bravely protecting one's fellow soldiers.
Heivia was splattered with blood and guts and he desperately shouted out with a ghastly look on his face.
"Ugh, shit!! Is anyone hurt!? If not, jump into the ocean. That explosion will draw the rest of them here!!"
"Wh-what about Quenser!?"
"He'll have heard the explosion too!!"
Myonri grabbed Dorothy who could not move properly on her own and the girl frantically jumped over the railing. Sewax picked up his camera and followed suit. Heivia grabbed a few polyurethane foam floats from the railing and threw them in the sea before jumping into the dark water himself.
The shock of falling or having her entire body covered in lukewarm seawater seemed to have helped Dorothy recover a little from her hypothermic symptoms.
She repeatedly blinked while Myonri supported her so she would not sink.
"Where is everyone... ?"
As her mind cleared, her memories seemed to recover.
Her question was filled with panic.
"Where are all the others!? They were brought onboard that ship!! There are a lot more than just me!!"
It was a legitimate question, but Heivia and the others did not answer her.
The cargo ship would be on its guard now, so it would be difficult to make their way back onboard. It would be tough to fight a few dozen armed men with only four people. On top of that, there was no guarantee they would make it back safely as things were.
And then a new figure fell from the cargo ship and into the dark water.
It was Quenser who had gone elsewhere on the boat.
"Uuh... I'm gonna sink. Give me a float, too."
"Since you escaped with that stupid look on your face, I take it you at least completed your preparations."
"Who do you think you're talking to here? More importantly, what was with that explosion!? You sure screwed up badly!"
With a look of extreme confusion, Dorothy looked back and forth between Quenser and Heivia.
Quenser spoke to the old woman.
"Defeating Blue Bottle's entire organization with just the four of us would be difficult. The same goes for rescuing all of the people trapped in separate containers. And that cargo ship is under the protection of the Information Alliance, so we're unlikely to get any help even if we ask for it."
"Then you are going to give up? I don't want to be the only one rescued!!" shouted Dorothy.
Quenser smiled and waved his index finger.
"But there is a wonderful magic item that can completely turn around that hopeless situation."
"?"
That comment caught Dorothy off guard, so she stared blankly at Quenser as he spread out the "prize" he had won on the boat.
"This is it. Do you know what this is?"
Part 16
(This is a strange ship. )
The man referred to as Blue Bottle, the name of a poisonous jellyfish, thought blankly to himself as he sat in a chair in the cargo ship's control room.
Ships used fuel to move. Fuel efficiency was greatly affected by the weight loaded on the ship. Normally, cargo ships were almost entirely automated and had only around a dozen people in their crew. The people themselves weighed something and they needed food and water to last them anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, so the number of people onboard was kept to a minimum.
Nevertheless, this ship had a large number of people onboard.
Officially, they were exporting scrap metal from Oceania's ruins so it could be recycled in other countries, but a quick calculation would show some things did not add up.
"That was an explosion, " said Blue Bottle.
"We will look into it right away, " immediately replied a man staring at the instruments.
Blue Bottle doubted the refrigerated containers with the human trafficking "merchandise" inside could be opened from within and he doubted the merchandise inside could resist or escape after being kept at such a low temperature.
But his men were not proper soldiers or even trained mercenaries.
They were nothing but thugs. It was possible one of them had forgotten to lock a container or turn on its refrigeration mode.
Nevertheless, he seriously doubted they were stupid enough to let an unarmed civilian steal a gun or grenade and fight back.
Blue Bottle's expression showed no panic or concern.
"Tell them to be careful if they kill an escapee. Just like preserved fish, their value goes down if they die. And the amount it drops changes depending on how they are killed. Blowing them to pieces with a grenade is out of the question."
"I will tell them, but I can't guarantee they will listen."
Blue Bottle did not bother listening to what the other man said.
The cargo ship was not headed directly toward the country the "merchandise" was being shipped to. It would instead travel to a certain island just outside Oceanian territory and load the containers onto a different ship. Blue Bottle would remain with this cargo ship in its short journey back and forth. To make the best use the free pass given by the Information Alliance, he had wanted a setup that travelled through that area of sea as frequently as possible.
Suddenly, the same man as before continued speaking despite the conversation having ended.
"This is from the Information Alliance Object. They want to speak with you."
"Hand it over."
The man sitting in front of the console removed his headset and tossed it over. Blue Bottle caught it in one hand and brought the microphone to his mouth without putting it on his head.
"What is it? We paid the fee. If you cause any unnecessary problems here, the Objects from other world powers will notice. The Information Alliance doesn't want to damage its public image, does it? You can't have our arrangement come to light."
"That's why I contacted you, " replied a staticky and slightly irritated voice."Why are you not following our arrangement? Our free pass means nothing otherwise. We are forced to handle this normally."
"Wait. I don't understand. Explain what you mean."
"The flag." The polite Elite spoke slowly as if kindly speaking to a young child who was only just learning to speak."Our Information Alliance flag should be on the bow of your cargo ship. Without that, we cannot prove you are under our protection. If you do not obey our arrangement, we must perform a surprise check like we normally would."
As Quenser entrusted his life to a hard float in the dark ocean, he threw away a piece of cloth printed with the Information Alliance logo and spoke.
"Their ship was treated differently because they were announcing that they were under the Information Alliance's protection by displaying their flag. They have a free pass with the Information Alliance and it would cause conflict if the Legitimacy Kingdom or Capitalist Corporations performed a surprise check on a ship approved by them. They had intentionally set up that situation so they could carry out things they wanted kept secret."
"Th-then..." Dorothy looked toward the flag floating away on the waves."If you take that flag..."
"At the very least, they won't be treated differently anymore. The Information Alliance will have to perform the same check as with a normal ship. If they let them go, the Legitimacy Kingdom or Faith Organization would try to perform a check instead."
"B-but!" frantically exclaimed Dorothy because there were human lives on the line."Will that really save everyone? I thought the Information Alliance was friends with that ship. Won't they perform an intentionally insufficient check and give their approval without looking inside the containers?"
"Perhaps. In fact, that would be the best option from their point of view. They need to perform a check before the other world powers can. They can give their approval and announce that no one else needs to check the ship. Then no one will find out there are people in those containers."
"Th-then... !!"
"But, " said Quenser, cutting off Dorothy. He held a radio in his hand."That's why I set up another trick."
The Information Alliance's naval patrol boat rushed over.
The others in the cargo ship's control room muttered nervously, but Blue Bottle was not worried.
It was not that he had given up.
It was quite the opposite.
An Information Alliance group he held sway with had taken action before security teams from the other world powers could intervene. Once the Information Alliance group boarded the ship, they would perform an intentionally shoddy inspection and give them approval. Rechecking the ship would be seen as doubt in the Information Alliance, so doing so was implicitly stated to create cracks in the friendly relationship between coalition members.
Why had their flag vanished?
That mystery remained. One of his men may have forgotten his instructions, it may have been poorly attached and blew away in the wind, or someone may have maliciously removed it.
But no matter the reason, they could recover.
An oddity of that level would not defeat Blue Bottle.
"The Information Alliance security team is requesting permission to board. What should we do?"
"Hide nothing. Give them permission according to normal procedures. Do not leave any unnatural actions in their records. There is no reason to panic here. This group is in on it."
Having said that, Blue Bottle took several men and left the control room. He was on his way to greet the Information Alliance security team. And that was not a criminal euphemism for shooting them. He was truly going to greet them.
He stepped out onto the deck and found several thick metal devices attached to the railing. Synthetic fiber ropes were attached and men dressed all in black were climbing up from below.
One of the men gave a polite salute to Blue Bottle while carefully articulating each word and syllable of his script.
"This is a surprise inspection in order to stop international crime within Oceania. We will be inspecting your crew and cargo."
"Fine. Do as you wish."
Upon receiving permission, the men in black formed teams of two and scattered across the ship.
All of this was pre-arranged.
It was possible the other world powers forming the coalition were watching with a satellite or an Object's ultra long distance sensors, so they had to perform a bit of role playing for safety's sake. Nothing would go wrong and anything illegal would not be recorded. That was the agreement.
Blue Bottle spoke to one man in black standing nearby.
"How long should this take?"
"There are a lot of containers, so we would like an hour to check through them all."
"... That's a long time."
"We are not doing this because we want to."
That last comment sounded like an implicit accusation regarding the missing flag.
Even if it was meant to keep them safe, it was hard to put up with this when it would accomplish nothing. Every minute and every second seemed to stretch on forever. He had to maintain his expression and attitude in case they were being viewed from afar, but he felt as if he would yawn if he let his guard down.
But then he heard what sounded like a light explosion.
It came from the ship and it was clearly the sound of gunpowder exploding.
"I won't let it all go so smoothly, " said Quenser while pressing the switch on his radio."The leaders of this Information Alliance group and criminal organization have an agreement to get along, but not all the criminal thugs will be privy to all that information. After all, secret arrangements are made behind closed doors. The more the big boss handles those things on his own, the less the men working below him know."
"Heh. So even if this is actually all a farce, you're saying not everyone in the criminal organization will be aware of it? All they know is the Information Alliance security team has boarded them after some kind of mistake and the cargo ship is full of their half-dead human trafficking 'merchandise'. They can't let that get out, so they'll be staring at the Information Alliance's guns with their heart pounding."
The same naturally went for the Information Alliance security team.
The leader would know about the understanding with the criminal organization and the soldiers underneath him may have received an explanation. But could they really trust those criminals? They might have been lying. Who knows when those uncontrolled criminals would fire. They would be filled with those fears.
"So." Quenser slowly shook the radio."With a small impetus, the guns they have pointed at each other will start to go off. For example, a radio signal could lead an electric fuse to cause an explosive noise and they could mistake it for the 'first shot'."
Fuses were tools used to induce the detonation of an explosive by providing a strong stimulus.
They were made to create a more intense explosion than a firecracker.
And the ocean night was filled with countless bursting noises.
A few of them were the electric fuses Quenser had prepared ahead of time, but some of the noises were clearly different. If one paid careful attention, they were obviously different noises, but these people were not calm enough for that.
"Stop them!!"
Blue Bottle covered his ears with his hands and approached a pile of metal containers while yelling at the nearby Information Alliance man. If he had not yelled, his voice would have been drowned out by the explosive noises.
"Which side shot!? It doesn't matter! Stop them!! This is a meaningless battle. Didn't your higher ups explain this to-... !?"
Blue Bottle trailed off.
With a damp noise, the man in black he had been speaking to collapsed to the side. His head slammed into the container and red blood splattered across the wall as if a fruit had been crushed there. Simply slamming his head against the wall would not cause that much blood. A bullet had obviously disturbed the contents of his head. The cargo ship was enveloped in such chaos that it was impossible to tell which side of the conflict the bullet had come from.
"Shit!!"
Blue Bottle felt a chill run down his spine and pulled his handgun from its holster.
And then his gaze met that of an Information Alliance soldier.
A short pause followed.
As soon as his thoughts recovered, Blue Bottle realized he had committed a fatal mistake.
"N-no!! I wasn't trying to fight!!"
His words did not reach the soldier.
As soon as the soldier's gun barrel moved to target him, Blue Bottle reflexively fired three bullets into the foolish soldier's upper body.
Naturally, everyone aboard the chaotic ship witnessed it.
There was no going back now.
A hopeless battle with one of the world powers had begun.
Part 17
Froleytia Capistrano held her head in her hands.
A female operator's reserved voice filled the operation control room.
"The battle has ended aboard cargo ship Mistral near St. Frank International Harbor. Level of damage to the Information Alliance team is unknown. It appears they have successfully retreated. The bodies of the crew are still being counted. They have likely all been killed."
A sudden firefight had been detected aboard a cargo ship near Oceania. A Legitimacy Kingdom naval security team had intervened in the name of aiding the Information Alliance team being attacked.
The problem was the fact that Quenser and Heivia of the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion were floating in the ocean near the cargo ship. They looked pleased with themselves and carried an old woman with them.
"Thirty nine civilians have been discovered within the refrigerated containers. This matches the information from Quenser Barbotage and Heivia Winchell."
"I see."
"Also, a man closely resembling an important criminal known as Blue Bottle has been discovered among the corpses. His identity is currently being checked, but if it really is him, they are likely correct about the Mistral being owned by a criminal organization active across Oceania."
"One filthy man isn't enough to make up for this, " muttered Froleytia under her breath.
She changed her train of thought and focused on her transmission with a distant superior Legitimacy Kingdom officer. Even if Froleytia controlled an entire battalion, she still had to refer to this person as a superior officer.
"The human trafficking organization has been eliminated, but the Information Alliance has evidence that men from my unit intervened. They will begin applying diplomatic pressure before long. This might also start another military conflict."
"Oh, I'd say it's 100% guaranteed to do that, " replied the young man in a lighthearted tone."But this would have ended the same even if your men had not acted."
"?"
"What if they had learned of the human trafficking organization, but returned without doing anything? Or what if you had done nothing in response to the wrong number from the kidnapper? Once harm had come to Oceanian civilians, the Information Alliance would have anonymously blamed the Legitimacy Kingdom. They would have called us despicable cowards who sacrificed civilians to protect ourselves from the mafias and gangs. They would have said someone like that has no place on the coalition that is provisionally ruling the peace of Oceania. From the moment this began, we had no choice but to accept the fight they were picking with us."
"Then that wrong number..."
"It seems odd, doesn't it? Most likely, the Information Alliance intentionally gave the criminal organization the wrong number for the girl's home. I also read in your report that the girl was strapped with a bomb when she was rescued from the abandoned hospital. A bomb that would be activated with a phone."
"I get it now. If they simply planned to get as much money from her family as they could and never intended to release her, they would not have needed such a dangerous setup."
"They wanted to create an obvious civilian victim right away. If you had failed there, they would have their justification to say we were exposing the people of Oceania to danger and needed to be eliminated for Oceania's sake."
It made sense.
It was obvious what they gained from it.
The housewives in safe country living rooms watching variety shows with popcorn in one hand would accept that reason for war.
But...
"In that case, the Information Alliance dug their own grave, " said Froleytia."They created a pipeline with human traffickers of all things."
"I doubt they were careless enough to leave any conclusive evidence behind. They are the world power that puts the most emphasis on information, after all. No matter what anyone claims, they can insist it was nothing but a desperate bluff on the criminal organization's part."
The superior officer's tone remained lighthearted.
Yet his words cut accurately into the history of mankind.
"But if we are going to go to war regardless, it is easier for us on the political side if the reason has less of a bad aftertaste. You did well. And we will accept the fight they were so insistent that we begin."
"Understood."
The transmission came to an end.
Froleytia let out a long sigh before finally speaking quietly.
"Then let's begin talking about war."
Part 18
Quenser, Heivia, Myonri, Sewax, and the old woman named Dorothy were brought back to land by the Legitimacy Kingdom naval security team's patrol boat. A military vehicle from the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion picked them up there and took them to the maintenance base zone. On the way, they were repeatedly asked what had happened from people with curious looks. Each time they repeated their tale of heroism, they were struck lightly by a fist. However, the soldiers that complained and struck Quenser and Heivia all had smiles in their eyes.
"Where are we going?" asked Dorothy as she stared at the cityscape outside the window.
"You will be brought home... or to your hotel since you're a tourist. Anyway, it seems your daughter and her husband have been invited to the base, so you can have your emotional reunion there, " replied Quenser casually.
The military four-wheel drive vehicle returned to the familiar maintenance base zone. When the soldiers on guard duty at the gate heard what had happened, they stared at Quenser and the others like they were some kind of rare animal.
"Hey, Quenser. Doesn't it look like the rumor has already spread throughout the base?"
"I wish I could view that in as positive a light as you. We might be on our way to the detention barracks."
The maintenance base was made up of over one hundred large vehicles. They thought they were being led to the section used for lodgings, but the military vehicle stopped partway there.
They had likely been spotted through the window because a man and woman who looked like tourists run out of the lodgings.
Dorothy's eyes opened wide and she moved her trembling lips.
She looked like she was seeing people she had never expected to see again.
"That is my daughter and her husband... My grandchild is there too."
Quenser opened the vehicle's door.
Dorothy used all her strength to run through the maintenance base which was lit up by so many lights it did not seem like nighttime.
"..."
In that moment, the battlefield cameraman named Sewax naturally peered through his camera's viewfinder.
A photo of a family tearfully embracing may not have been sensational or shocking enough to be titled "the truth of the battlefield".
It was not going to win any world-famous awards and it was not enough to make one's name as a photographer.
But that photograph surely had something powerful enough to move the world.
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