Chapter 2(1/3)
Part 1
It was late at night in the center of the Antsiranana District’s Experimental Battlefield Madagascar.
“Nhhhhn!!”
Heivia Winchell stripped off his fully soundproofed suit as if he could not restrain himself any longer. He did it because he was afraid of getting athlete’s foot across his entire body, but the night air was not as chilly or pleasant as he had expected. It was a normal hot and humid night.
He must have wanted to feel the comfortable wind as much as possible because he excitedly reached for his normal uniform as well.
Thus began the undressing scene that no one asked for.
“B-bodyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!! This is true freedom. I can feel the earth on my skin!!”
Even if he was trying to relax after finishing a job, he was doing the exact same thing as an old man going around at night in only a raincoat.
The sight must have been unpleasant because a transmission came in from the Princess at Mach speed.
“Heivia, that’s disturbing, so stop it.”
“Oh? What an innocent young lady. Are you embarrassed seeing the beautiful body of Heivia, the super smart and attractive noble? No need to be shy, little kitten. Look! This is the male body!!”
He placed his hands behind his head and took the pose of a Greek sculpture.
“Heivia, the data from an Object’s cameras and sensors is stored in the black box. It can never be erased unless a high-ranking officer requests it and the military council gives their approval. And I think anyone would be able to view it if the military court requests that it be disclosed.”
“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”
Heivia screamed like a childhood friend being peeped on in the bath.
The Princess held her head in her hands because that too was being recorded, but she decided to ignore him.
Frolaytia then gave a warning over the radio.
“Aren’t you getting a little too relaxed? Even if we destroyed the Trinity Style in a single blow, the area is still crawling with Faith Organization soldiers.”
“Heh. Even though we’ve got them all at our mercy with their Object gone? They’ll know perfectly well they don’t stand a chance against the Princess no matter what they try.”
“And that’s why they might make a desperate counterattack when you remove them from your sights. A ferocious animal acts more wildly when trembling in fear for its life than when it’s capturing its prey. You shouldn’t assume they’ll all act logically.”
“Sure, sure,” said Heivia as he zipped up his pants.
Frolaytia seemed confused by the absence of the other boy who usually acted as the brakes.
“By the way, Heivia, where is Quenser?”
“Pant, pant, pant!! A cutting-edge Faith Organization Second Generation is right over there! It can’t move, so I can peek up at it from below as much as I want!! W-wow! This is amazing!! I can touch it as much as I want too! I’d never get to touch even the smallest bit of this kind of classified information back in that safe country school, but there’s...there’s so much of iiiiiiiit!! I-it’s all leaking ouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttttttttttt!!”
“I see. So he’s being a pervert in his own way.”
Quenser had already stripped off his own soundproofed suit and he did not react in the slightest even though a beautiful woman was insulting him. The dam in his head had already broken and chemicals were pumping out in his brain, so his eyes were glittering in the moonlight.
No hint of the previous covert mission remained as armored trucks carrying reinforcements arrived with roaring engines and flashing headlights.
Heivia took and drank from a water bottle provided by a medic mixed in with the soldiers.
“So how long does this picnic last?” he asked.
“Three hours is probably the limit.”
“Even though we won this so thoroughly? The Faith Organization may be desperate to get that wreckage back, but it’s not like their leftovers can defeat the Princess.”
“True. It would take more than a day or two to send in a replacement Object. But things are different on the other side of the globe. There’s been a lot of unnecessary tension over some unnecessary national borders. They’re using the diplomatic route to threaten us with the massive costs of another battle if we don’t return the wreckage right away.”
“Wow. I can already imagine them giving us a teary upturned look, biting their lip, and clenching their fists on their skirt.”
“So the electronic simulation division, maintenance division, and technological analysis division need to swarm that sugar cube in the little time we have! How much of that five trillion dollar treasure trove we can make off with in the next three hours is up to you!!”
“Hey, no fair!! We risked our lives to destroy the Trinity Style, but you’re letting them show up and take all the credit!? Wait, wait!!”
“Kya ha ha ha! Yahoo!!”
Quenser threw his hands in the air and took off full speed like lovers running on the beach. He had reached a level of geekdom that Heivia could not hope to follow. The armored trucks with various analysis sensors attached drove toward the Object.
Heivia was an amateur when it came to Objects.
As nothing more than a noble that wanted some honorable deeds for his record, he looked to the Object illuminated in the darkness by the large lights set up here and there.
It was a Faith Organization Second Generation and the Legitimacy Kingdom’s codename for it was Trinity Style.
“It looks like a trendy lamp for a piece of imported furniture.”
He was likely commenting on the bottom of the Object. It was only a static electricity propulsion device, but its shape was rather unique. Three curved parts resembling a crescent moon or the grim reaper’s scythe were aligned like an Island Nation mitsudomoe and each part was supported separately.
“Hmm. Could that be to absorb any impacts?” speculated the Princess.
“You’d have to ask that bastard panting in excitement over there.”
“Ha ha ha!! Yes! Yesss! Maybe I should take some pictures from over there too! Ahhh, yesss!! This angle is the best!!”
Various shouted comments and camera flashes could be heard and seen. Most likely, Perverted Cameraman Quenser was taking pictures with his handheld device’s camera. In his head, the Object may have been anthropomorphized and wearing a slingshot.
The main cannon was on the Object’s right side.
The crank-like arm was supported by two rotating axes.
Based on what the pervert had said before, the Trinity Style’s main cannon fired physical shells with optical technology like a horizontal laser space elevator that launched metal containers. Of course, explosives, liquid nitrogen, etc. could be packed inside for additional effects. In order to switch between the many different types of shells, it had a giant magazine on the left side. Like with a Gatling gun, a tunnel-like ammunition belt curved around the back of the Object and attached to the bottom of the main cannon.
But due to the direct hit from the Princess’s ablative shell, the main cannon was bent and had a flower of metal blooming from within. A portion of the spherical main body was also torn away to reveal just how badly it was “out of commission”.
There had been medics among the support troops in order to provide humanitarian aid to the Faith Organization soldiers that had been exposed to the shockwave on impact. The enemy had raised the White Flag and put their hands in the air, so ending the match was the gentlemanly thing to do.
“But why is this thing called the Trinity Style?”
“Thanks to some unpleasant rumors,” replied Frolaytia over the radio. “The intelligence division and the electronic simulation division are constantly gathering data on enemy Objects. ...However, there are a lot of mysteries surrounding the Trinity Style. Or maybe I should say nothing seems to match up between the reports that come in. The only point in common is how it searches for its target using sounds.”
“What?”
“On one battlefield, it will use a laser beam main cannon, but when we challenge it on that assumption, a railgun shell will fly our way. It might be using static electricity to move now, but on the next battlefield, it will be using an air cushion. Sometimes even the overall silhouette is different. And of course, the more our predictions are wrong, the less of an advantage we have in battle. That’s the biggest thing about its impressive records.”
“...”
“There’s even a theory that it uses different Pilot Elites for different battles. It’s hard to believe, but long-distance photographs have indeed shown different people and the tactics it uses completely change. This is unprecedented. This could destroy the idea of one Elite per Object.”
A strange feeling ran down Heivia’s previously elated back.
The spoiled noble hesitantly looked back to the metal corpse as Frolaytia continued.
“There are a number of theories. Maybe there are multiple Trinity Style Objects. Maybe it can take a number of attachments to share its main cannon with other models. Whatever the case, we haven’t found the answer. ...It really was fortunate that the Princess took it out in one shot. I just hope we can answer these questions before returning it to the Faith Organization.”
That ominous atmosphere may have been why she was being so cautious and had sent the Baby Magnum in.
“Just be careful. The Pilot Elite probably hasn’t escaped the Object even though they’ve raised the White Flag. It’s probably just malfunctioning equipment, but we don’t know who they are. If you assume they’re some frail little thing, you might end up getting your brains blown out.”
Part 2
Ominous rumors or not, Battlefield Student Quenser Barbotage still had the juices flowing through his brain.
“Uhohoi!! I see! I see!! The secret to the supports’ shock absorption isn’t a damper or suspension! It’s bearings!! Oh, hell. Why didn’t I think of something so simple!? Ohhh!! I need to take a note of this, but writing it all down’s too much of a pain!! Where’s the voice recording app!?”
Annoyed, the old maintenance lady spoke to him with a toolbox in hand.
“I do understand how exciting it is to see all this cutting-edge tech, but please try to control yourself. The rest of us don’t want people to start thinking you’re representative of all technicians. You understand, don’t you?”
“I don’t understand in the slightest! I snuck deep behind enemy lines with my heart in my throat to reach this moment! So I’m making the most of this. Whoa!! This is what cleans the terrain sensors on the supports! I love the little bits of technology hiding in the corners like this!!”
“If you get it, then out of the way, amateur. If we can’t get our scaffolding set up, we can’t check over the entire machine.”
The old lady operated her tablet and several transport helicopters cut through the night to surround the Trinity Style. Flying aircraft was a task for the suicidal in the modern age of anti-air lasers, but once they were flying around like this, it was proof that the battle was over and the enemy Object had been completely stopped. It demonstrated the same arrogance as an animal napping calmly on its back with its belly exposed. Sour looks came over the Faith Organization soldiers tied up around the area.
The transport helicopters opened their cargo doors and threw several wires down. However, they were not simply to lower people down. The soldiers grabbed onto the spherical main body and manipulated the wires by swinging their arms. Some wrapped them around small cannons and others wrapped the wires together like a spider web or a cat’s cradle.
Next, they tied sandbags to them to complete makeshift elevators. It was an extremely primitive design that lifted up the one side when the other side was dropped down.
They only had three hours, so they did not have time to put together metal scaffolding.
The old lady placed one foot on a small loop made from a knot and gave instructions via the glowing screen of her tablet.
“By the way, boy, you can’t get any Object tech if you’re going to cry about a fear of heights.”
“Ah! No fair!! Let me on too!!”
Quenser grabbed at the wire just as a sandbag was dropped from above. The two of them were carried up to the top of the sphere quite quickly.
A man in a black assault uniform saluted the old lady at the top.
“Excellent work, Mrs. Ayami. ...By the way, who is that?”
“Leave him be. He has no lifeline, so if he falls, it’s his own responsibility.”
“Wh-whoaaaaaa! Standing on this round body is pretty scary. I better hold onto these wires.”
Some of the elevators were meant for humans and could carry several dozen kilograms while others were meant for equipment and could carry several tons. In addition to the ones dropped from above by the helicopters, the armored trucks on the ground fired their own wires up. Instead of using gunpowder, they used five meter crossbow-like devices on their roofs. They resembled the ballistae used as siege weapons since the time of the Ancient Greeks.
“That’s dangerous!! Our own people are shooting arrows up at me!?”
“This is still war. Did you think you could make a ton of money without any risk of death?”
The arrowheads did not stab into the armor that could withstand a nuke. Instead, they used chemical reactions such as aluminum or iron oxide to weld to the armor upon impact. Quenser saw flashes much like from a camera and he smelled a very unhealthy odor.
The student was losing his nerve already, but the old lady ignored him with a sigh and shouted instructions to the maintenance soldiers around her.
“We don’t have much time! Run nondestructive tests and take samples! Don’t think about stealing the technology in its entirety as that wouldn’t be possible. Focus on taking back some cheap but clearly-defined data over some vague classified information. Start by sounding it out and grabbing at the soft points for some souvenirs!!”
“Sir, yes, sir!!” energetically shouted the maintenance soldiers.
Even if they were technicians, they were still soldiers. They always had an athletic side to them.
Quenser was only a burden, so he received no orders and had nothing to do. He decided to start investigating the nearby area.
First, he moved to the omnidirectional microphone at the top of the spherical body.
“I see. They combined directional parabolic mics like a soccer ball to make it omnidirectional. I’m not sure if that counts as analog or high-tech.”
When he approached the microphone and glanced around, he quickly found the giant magazine that stored the main cannon’s container shells. It looked like a diagonal roof covering the entire left side of the Object. A closer look showed a row of long and narrow magazines sticking into it.
The Baby Magnum’s cameras must have been viewing the same thing because a transmission arrived from the Princess.
“That’s a drink vending machine.”
“Hm? Oh, I get it.”
Quenser caught on after a short delay.
“The container shells are divided up by type and the proper type is supplied on demand,” explained the Princess. “Are the shells supplied in order from the top or are the entire narrow magazines pulled out?”
“It can probably work either way. But...”
From near the very top, Quenser looked to the back of the Object. He could see the thick tunnel-like ammunition belt connecting to the bottom of the main cannon on the right.
“Those heavy shells have to slide a few dozen meters in the middle of a high-speed Object battle, but wouldn’t that create a time lag? It doesn’t always use the same type of shell, so they can’t be stored in the belt like with a Gatling gun.”
“Most likely, it uses an air conveyer.”
“That thing used to sort postcards? But those container shells have got to weigh several tons.”
“Oh? But the vacuum pumps for wind tunnel experiments can create Mach 7 winds.”
“...”
She was talking about a world that defied imagination.
That alone sounded like a deadly weapon to a flesh-and-blood human.
He pulled himself together and looked in a different direction.
The main cannon that used a laser space elevator was located on the right side of the Object.
“Are you interested in that?” asked the Princess.
“Of course I am. The reactor, the main cannon, and the propulsion device are the standards. Although...”
He trailed off.
As previously stated, the Trinity Style’s laser space elevator main cannon had taken a direct hit from the Baby Magnum’s ablative shell, so it had bent and had a metal flower blooming from within.
“It looks like a shortcake some hysterical person threw against the wall. Well, I guess there’s still a chance I can steal the pastry chef’s recipe by tasting it.”
“...Well excuse me for being so rude.”
“Huh? Why are you in such a bad mood all of sudden?”
He was hesitant to touch the jagged edges and it was also sizzling from the residual heat. For the time being, he aimed his handheld device’s lens and snapped a few pictures. It was smashed to pieces, but he decided to view this as a chance to see the internal parts that would normally not be visible. It also revealed their damage control structure. How did one have to hit it to crush it and how had they intended to divert the damage? That was valuable information too. He doubted the Princess would smash her own machine just because he told her he wanted to see this.
“?”
But then...
“What is it, Quenser?”
“Well...what is that?”
He sounded puzzled as he peered inside the destroyed cannon through the giant flower.
A brick-sized mass was caught inside the barrel. It had tires with countless small suction cups, so it was probably some kind of work robot.
“Is it a cleaning robot for the inside of an air conditioner? But...”
He took a picture while frowning.
There was a depression inside the barrel, almost like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle was missing.
(Could it be...? But surely they wouldn’t go that far.)
His mind began racing, but...
“Hey, I know you’re having the time of your life here, but have you managed to cool your head yet?”
A voice from behind snapped him out of his thoughts.
He turned around and found an exasperated noble boy.
“Huh? Heivia, why are you up here too?”
“It’s simple. First, since they have so little time, the old lady insisted I look after you to make sure you don’t get in the way of their work.”
Then that awful friend pointed over his shoulder with his thumb.
“But second, it looks like they’re going to force the cockpit hatch open, so all those technicians want someone who knows how to fight. Come with me and you can get the first shot at the piloting system and the Elite. What’ll it be, pervert?”
“I’ll go, I’ll go! Of course I’ll go!!”
“I see you’re too worked up to deny the pervert part,” added the Princess.
He walked across the spherical surface with Heivia to reach the back of the machine. Several maintenance soldiers were already gathered there and they were using a metal mask and a welding torch.
Quenser and Heivia spoke to the old lady who was waiting for them to finish.
“What’s this about?”
“Objects can withstand a nuke, right? Can a welding torch really get it open?”
“Not normally, no. But we found an external ejection device for when the Elite loses consciousness. ...In fact, it’s a lot like the kind the Legitimacy Kingdom uses. As a defector, I’m not one to talk, but Frolaytia’s probably got her head in her hands over this information leak.”
Still, that had given them a way in.
Stolen technology was both good and bad. If one stole enemy technology and used it “as-is”, it was just like heading onto the battlefield with a glow-in-the-dark arrow pointing to your weakness.
A young maintenance soldier removed his metal mask and faced the old lady.
“It looks like it’ll work. Who’s going in?”
“Thanks for volunteering, youngsters. Now, go get yourselves some valuable life experience.”
She shoved on Quenser and Heivia’s backs, forcing them into the open tunnel.
“Wow. Are you sure you should be giving me a present when it isn’t even my birthday or Christmas?”
“I’m impressed. I really don’t think that was sarcasm.”
The old lady gave them one last instruction.
“This is already over. Avoid a firefight and do your best to get the Pilot Elite to surrender.”
“Is that because you don’t want bullets flying near the sensitive cockpit and reactor?”
“I want to hear some things from the Elite. ...Let’s leave it at that.”
“Roger that,” casually replied Heivia.
The two of them did not hesitate to slip inside the Trinity Style.
Part 3
The inside was a lot like a slide made from a two meter tube. The only strange part was how it did not take the shortest route like in the Princess’s Baby Magnum. Instead, it took a large curve like a highway off-ramp. It seemed inefficient, but there may have been some design reason for it.
They reached the deepest portion.
There were no lights, so they only had Quenser’s flashlight and the light on Heivia’s rifle.
There seemed to have been seventy barriers in total, but only the final one was still closed. The Elite may have locked it from inside. However, only the outside needed to withstand a nuke. Heivia fired his assault rifle at the important points, kicked down the door with the sole of his military boot, and stuck the rifle barrel inside.
“Freeze!! ...Huh?”
historical
It was a two meter wide cylindrical space. The front was covered in large monitors, but they were dark. There was a single chair in the center, but there were far fewer control columns and buttons than in the Princess’s cockpit. Instead, there was a single cable curled up on the floor. It also contained a mini-fridge and microwave oven just like the Baby Magnum. However, this one also had a travel pillow, a bottle of aromatic oil, a blanket, and other goods. The Elite seemed to be picky about getting some quality shut-eye.
But that was all.
The two of them were met with the stagnant atmosphere of a school at night.
“Hey, where’d they go?” Heivia asked a ridiculous question. “Where’d the Pilot Elite go!? This was supposed to be the world’s most solid sealed room!!”
“...”
Quenser peeked inside the cockpit and carefully tapped around the walls and floor while thinking. However, he did not find any obvious seams or handles.
“Hold on. This isn’t some ninja mansion. I doubt there are any hidden doors.”
“If it wasn’t here, it must’ve been in the tunnel on the way.”
They continued the search after borrowing some sodas and ice cream from the government-issued fridge. They checked through the upwards-sloping tunnel with their lights on and soon found it.
Quenser brought his radio to his mouth.
“Old lady! We found a hatch near the cockpit that’s probably a maintenance hatch for the react-...huh? Damn, are the walls too thick for the radio waves to get out!?”
“This stuff is good. They must give the Elites all the best food. So what are we gonna do, Quenser? Keep going or head back for reinforcements?”
“To be honest, I want to head back,” admitted Quenser. “But you heard me say this is probably the reactor’s maintenance hatch, right? We’ll be in trouble if the Elite is desperate enough to mess with the reactor. If it loses control, this two hundred thousand ton mass will be blown away and only a giant crater will remain.”
“Just once, can’t war give us a break!?”
Heivia tossed aside the empty container of ice cream and aimed his assault rifle toward the maintenance hatch. Quenser crouched down and grabbed the hatch’s handle.
“Here I go.”
“One question. An Object’s heart won’t rupture from a 5.56mm bullet, will it?”
As they spoke, they threw the hatch open.
Immediately, gunfire burst out from within.
“Wah!”
With their plans immediately ruined, Heivia frantically pulled back while orange sparks scattered from the walls around him. Not only were bullets flying, but they were ricocheting like pinballs too.
“Close it, idiot! Close the hatch, Quenser!”
“We can’t fall back! If they go the self-destruct route, not even one of our trucks can get us to safety! Fire, fire!!”
Quenser forcibly urged Heivia on and Heivia sprayed bullets through the hatch in near desperation. Even with all its sensors, he was not going to hit anything like this.
But Quenser was not expecting him to hit.
While their opponent flinched back from Heivia’s gunfire, Quenser ducked through the hatch. Their opponent did not know he was a student and they must have been afraid of gunfire or a grenade because they moved further and further back while firing quick bursts back at the two boys.
“Just surrender!! We’ve already received the White Flag signal. You were abandoned!!”
Quenser courteously shouted into the darkness, but he of course received no response. That meant their opponent was not done fighting.
Heivia stepped through the hatch too.
“Ugh. What is this place?”
“A maintenance passageway positioned along the reactor. I doubt it was meant to be used while the reactor is active, though.”
It was a curving passageway only two meters wide. A pipe wider than the passageway itself covered the inside of the curve. There were other pipes for power and steam positioned along the ceiling.
If Quenser was right, the entire passageway formed a donut shape. Reactors came in a variety of shapes and varieties, but the Trinity Style was likely using the kind that resembled the fusion reactors of an older age. In other words, a circular frame was surrounded by powerful magnetic lines to manage a plasma flow with such overwhelming heat it was often referred to as a small sun.
“That sounded like a submachinegun, but the whizzing of the bullets was a little too high-pitched. Those were probably bullets designed specifically for PDW use,” said Heivia. “If that’s the Elite’s hidden weapon, then there probably aren’t any spare magazines. After all, they’d take up valuable space and be less useful than a fire extinguisher. It probably has at most fifty bullets inside.”
“Meaning?”
“If they’ve got limited ammo, this can act as a barometer to how desperate they are. They’ve already fired about thirty shots, so if we don’t capture them soon, they’ll turn one of the valves in here to cause an explosion.”
In other words, their opponent had already used up half their tickets to survival. They had to be feeling tragically heroic.
“Anyway, did you see that? I only caught a glimpse of them as they vanished around the curve, but they had twintails.”
“That’s the best news I’ve heard all day. ...But if it’s a guy with twintails, I’m filling them with lead.”
The passageway was donut-shaped, -->>