Chapter 4(1/3)
Part 1
The Battlefield Country of the Antsiranana District was also known as Experimental Battlefield Madagascar.
Baobab trees known to live for more than 5000 years rose from the vast land that was dyed orange in the evening sunlight. The ground was crawling with insects found nowhere else in the world, but few of the soldiers realized their value.
They were inside the Faith Organization’s maintenance base zone.
Several large military vehicles were surrounded by barbed wire barricades. Most of their base was covered by giant thick tents that would have looked more at home at a circus. Some of them were even larger than a school building.
But their maintenance base was made from more than just cutting-edge scientific rapid-response materials.
“Getting irritable is not going to improve the situation.”
That gentle comment came from a girl of about 18 who wore a skintight green special suit with a loose cloth wrapped around it like a swimsuit to avoid exposing the most important parts. Her long golden hair was bound in a single braid which increased her overall gentle atmosphere.
She was one of the three sisters who piloted the Faith Organization’s Second Generation Norn.
Her name was Urd Silent-Third.
She had set up a folding chair, table, parasol, and spot cooler on the orange wasteland and a variety of fruits were lined up on the table. The coconuts, mangoes, bananas, and sugarcane were normal enough, but the fon’omby[1] and tamarind were more unusual.
They seemed to be local produce, but they would not have simply been bought at the market. Pilot Elites single-handedly influenced the outcomes of modern wars, so they were too valuable for that. To ensure a foreign spy had not mixed in some poison, the lowly soldiers would have gone to a lot of effort to procure them.
Another girl sighed. She had a harsh look to her eyes and her similarly blonde hair was crudely tied back into twintails. Instead of taking the seat her older sister had prepared for her, she crossed her arms and leaned against the thick stone wall.
Her name was Verdandi Silent-Third.
That girl of about 16 was also one of the Norn’s Elites.
If all three sisters had been together, it would have been clear that they all used the exact same hair bands.
“Is life as a vegetarian really that much fun?”
“A glance inside the bug cage should tell you what the base’s burgers and fries are made from.”
But despite that gentle comment, Verdandi took a bite of the burger she held in its wrapper.
Her food was also a special provision for the Pilot Elite, so it was a 100% pure beef patty, unlike the normal ones on base. However, the normal soldiers were unaware of the “bug cage”, so there was no jealousy there.
The second sister was not leaning up against one of the school-sized tents the Faith Organization had prepared. Instead, it was the kind of cathedral that one could find anywhere in a European safe country, but its majesty was not lost in Africa. And that was not the only building; there were enough of them to qualify as a small village. Or perhaps it would be better to say they had chosen to build their maintenance base alongside the remains of a village.
The term “Africa” probably brings a great variety of things to mind, but these European-style buildings were surprisingly common. There were historical reasons for that, but the familiar environment was probably a comfort for the people deployed here from afar. There was no fear of morale dropping for a reason as silly as homesickness.
Verdandi looked at the burger she had bitten into.
“Skuld had no trouble eating those things.”
“I think it had more to do with how she enjoyed eating alongside the normal soldiers. That little sister of ours has always prioritized what satisfies her heart over her body.”
“...”
The two sisters fell silent as they thought about the missing third sister.
And then they both resumed speaking.
“...We can’t just leave her out there.”
“No. And the higher ups will know how dangerous that would be. That is why I am not letting my irritation keep me from eating. Stress can influence our condition and that could influence this clean war.”
“So do you think we can make it in time?”
“Of course.”
Urd smiled.
With a sticky sound, she stabbed her fork into a ripe slice of fruit.
“If the alternative is allowing Skuld to escape to a foreign safe country, we must kill her here. No matter what. On that we agree.”
Part 2
The twilight burned red.
The Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers had gathered outside and they were chatting curiously.
“Why is the major sitting on top of Quenser and beating him?”
“Because she found out he was making honeycomb toffee in secret.”
“Sugar is one thing, but where did he get the baking soda? Is there a hot spring around here?”
“He apparently took apart a fire extinguisher to get at the foaming agent.”
“If you make candy, she’ll climb on top of you with that tight skirt? C’mon, hit me too!!”
Meanwhile, busty silver-haired Frolaytia must have wanted to take a break because she tossed Quenser over toward the other soldiers.
“Sorry about that distraction. Everyone line back up.”
The pre-mission briefing was beginning.
“Our satellite has detected the Trinity Style starting to move.”
The soldiers were gathered outside rather than in the usual briefing room. That meant there had not been enough available indoor space for the briefing. They had yet to recover from the damage done by the genetically modified insects.
The enemy was approaching while their equipment was malfunctioning and that was likely intentional on the enemy’s part.
“It will attack soon, but we are not yet ready to withdraw. At this rate, we would be hit as we tried to leave. Sending out the Baby Magnum and coming up with a countermeasure against the Trinity Style is looking like the more realistic option.”
As the rows of soldiers listened, Heivia muttered a complaint next to Quenser.
“And what are puny soldiers like us supposed to do? Go jack off in our bunks until the Princess wins?”
“I heard that, Heivia. And I have the perfect job for a volunteer hero who wants to stand out.”
“Why’d you have to say something!? Now we’re all being sent to the front line!!”
Frolaytia ignored the soldiers ganging up on Heivia and continued with the briefing.
“Currently, the Trinity Style’s combat ability is an unknown. The Princess had trouble last time, but that was partially due to it making a surprise attack after pretending to be defeated. However, we can’t be too optimistic. We have no idea what will happen in a fair one-on-one battle. It might be an easy victory and it might be a harsh battle. If we knew how we would fare, we could decide how much distance to keep between us, but we don’t know anything. We simply have too little information, so we have to assume this is the most dangerous situation. It’s 50/50...either side could win.”
The busy commander inhaled some smoke from her kiseru.
“Furthermore, the Trinity Style is a Second Generation made from small work robots that allow it to use entirely different shapes, main cannons, propulsion devices, and strategies. The thickness of its armor and most damage can be changed or repaired by shifting the position of those robots. ...They’re sure to create a situation we can’t read and then move in to wear us down. The Faith Organization was able to put together a strategy in advance while we have to adlib, so they have a major advantage. Do you understand now that we can’t rest easy and leave this to the Princess?”
But Quenser hesitantly raised his hand because he did not want to set foot on the battlefield.
“But what can flesh-and-blood soldiers do? And I’m pretty sure the Trinity Style’s acoustic scans will locate anyone who’s hiding.”
“Does that mean we have to change back into those athlete’s foot suits!? What a pain the ass!!”
“Anyone without a death wish, listen up.” Frolaytia sounded indifferent. “I’ll start with your objective. The biggest problem in the Trinity Style battle is the changes to its armor and armaments. We are constantly monitoring it by satellite, but we need as many information sources as possible. You will infiltrate the battlefield and use various cameras and sensors to constantly scan the Trinity Style in real time to gather data on its shape, abilities, and armor. That data will be sent to the Princess so she can fire her main cannons at the thinnest point.”
She used her kiseru to point at the map on the whiteboard.
“This time, the Objects will be firing at each other from across a giant river. Large bodies of water are the enemy of static electricity systems, so that will function as a barricade. But that’s only true if it is using static electricity. If the Dvergr secretly rearrange to an air cushion system, it might suddenly cross the river. That is another reason to continue scanning and sending out the data. Static electricity and air cushions both have their unique traits and weaknesses. If we know its movable range, it shouldn’t be difficult for the Princess to predict its next move and fire her main cannon where it will be next.”
“Wow, setting up hidden cameras gets us praised as heroes now? Everything I thought I knew is crumbling away. War sure is scary. ...But I think we’ll get more than a slap if their goddess notices.”
Frolaytia responded to Heivia while placing her kiseru back in her mouth.
“You don’t need to worry about the anti-personnel acoustic sensors this time. This will be an all-out battle between the Princess and the Trinity Style, so the entire area will be a vortex of explosive blasts. It’s going to be worse than a fireworks show, so the precision of those acoustic sensors is sure to drop and you can also set up plenty of those disturbance speakers that worked so well last time.”
“And the real reason for that?”
“I said this would be an all-out battle, right? A small infiltration team was one thing, but we don’t have enough soundproofed suits for all of our infantry. Unfortunately, the budgets for these clean wars are heavily biased toward the Objects.”
In other words, this had less to do with a safer situation and more to do with a cobbled-together way of making up for insufficient equipment. Quenser and the others only grew more disheartened.
“By the way, do we have a guess as to which form the Trinity Style will use?”
“That is what we need to interrogate Skuld Silent-Third about. Quenser, you come with me. You seem to have earned the POWs’ trust since the bug panic, so they might have a looser tongue around you than a strict intelligence officer.”
Part 3
“I don’t know.”
Quenser pressed his forehead against the table when that was the very first thing she said.
The student and Skuld were not speaking in specialized detention barracks meant to hold war criminals and POWs. That facility had collapsed during the attack by the genetically modified Draupnir insects, so the infantry barracks had been divided in two with the Faith Organization occupying one half. They had of course added locks to the doors and welded scrap materials to the windows to prevent the POWs from escaping.
As Quenser slumped down, the twintail girl was lying directly on the table.
Not only that, but she wore no clothes and only had a white sheet covering her.
“How am I supposed to know what exactly the Norn will try to do? I mean, there are two other Elites besides me and-...what is it?”
“...”
Quenser kept his head pressed against the edge of the table and glanced to the side. The green special suit, boots, and gloves were all draped over the back of a nearby chair.
After a moment, she finally caught on.
“Is this any time to be getting distracted?”
“It’s kind of hard not to.”
“It is my right as a POW to receive the treatment necessary to for my vital fine-tuning as an Elite.”
“Well, yeah. But still...”
“And in my case, that means this.”
As the twintail girl lay face down below the sheet, she tapped at the corner of the table.
A few aroma candle containers sat there.
The music player situated on a small stand was playing highly soothing environmental music at a moderate volume.
Perhaps to reap the benefit of negative ions, there were even pots with mossy plants growing inside.
Her pillow was small but made from an expensive-looking low-resilience material.
And this riddle led Quenser to a certain answer.
“Come to think of it, the Trinity Style’s cockpit was full of sleep products too, wasn’t it?”
“Honestly, I was pretty sure you wouldn’t have any of it, so I wrote down everything I could think of. But look at all this. You had pretty much all of it. I’m not sure if that means you’re well-prepared or overrun by personal items.”
Curse that busty commander. What kind of a luxurious life are you living? wondered Quenser as a grinding sound came from his mouth.
“It’s not so much about sleeping though. It’s really about using the hallucinations seen on the verge of falling asleep.”
“Oh, you mean that thing where you can easily have a mystical experience by playing the right kinds of low frequency noise?”
He thought that sounded exactly like something the Faith Organization would do. Then again...
“But why are you naked?”
“Unfortunately, I can’t make that tightrope walk without the optimum performance. I can’t be awake and I can’t fall asleep either.”
But Quenser had to question whether he was really close enough to Skuld for her to let him approach while she was so defenseless. He had protected her from the Trinity Style before and maybe the bug panic had been the final push.
The battlefield student coolly analyzed the situation.
(Hm. Whatever the case, a naked girl is a wonderful thing. Hmm!! It feels something like waiting to remove the ribbon from a present, but I am 100% okay with that!)
“?”
“Now, don’t worry about me. Don’t worry about me at all and continue! If it’s a humanitarian thing, I guess it can’t be helped! Yes, if you don’t do this, you’d probably get a migraine, lose your appetite, or feel sick!! So we have no choice in the matter!!”
Quenser stared at the smooth curves visible through the sheet and did his best to activate any latent clairvoyant powers he might have, but Skuld got back on topic with a blank sleepy look in her eyes.
“So, um, where was I? ...Mumble, mumble... Oh, right, right. The Norn has two Elites besides me. Urd and Verdandi. The distance they fight from and the way they attack are completely different.”
“...The way they attack?”
“Urd fires a thorough barrage to cut off her enemy’s escape in something like a chess problem. Verdandi goes for a one-hit kill and never wastes a shot. Completely different, right?”
“Wow...”
“Urd prefers long-range attacks because she focuses on taking no damage while Verdandi prefers close-range attacks because she tries to finish off her target as quickly as possible to reduce the overall damage. But even that is only the standard. It’s possible they will move in close while pretending to be Verdandi only to attack with Urd’s tactics.”
That difficulty to predict worked to the Trinity Style’s advantage. A battle began before the actual fighting did, but this Object destroyed any pre-battle preparation and forced its enemies to adlib. Just as Frolaytia had said.
(But this time the battle is divided by a large river. If the Princess can use that to keep her distance and continue fighting, she can seal off the close-range attacks. That might just draw out Urd who prefers the long-range.)
“Skuld. Tell me how exactly Urd fights. Long-range battles can take a lot of different forms, right?”
“Chemical warfare.”
Quenser initially had trouble comprehending what the twintail girl said.
But as he repeated it under his breath, he grew pale.
“Chemical...warfare?”
The term was enough to distract him from the sheet-covered feast before his eyes.
It seemed to linger on his tongue.
Skuld must have felt she misspoke because she clarified.
“Oh, I’m not talking about poison gas or anything like that. Although it is possible it might produce some gas as a side effect.”
Skuld rolled over under the sheet.
She was now facing up and the curves around her chest were especially emphasized.
Plus, the sheet nearly pulled back from certain areas as she turned, so Quenser’s focus grew to more than 400% of normal. He felt like he was going to blast off into space at this rate.
“The Trinity Style’s main cannon is basically a laser space elevator tilted on its side. Urd’s container-style shells tend to contain various chemicals.”
Quenser replied coolly.
“When you say chemicals...you don’t mean an anti-personnel gas weapon, do you?”
“No matter how large the scale is, Object armor is still essentially special steel. And there are a variety of chemicals that can dissolve or damage steel, right? Sulfuric acid, aqua regia, liquid nitrogen, aluminum and iron oxide, etc.”
“...”
This was different from railguns or coilguns that punched through with overwhelming mass or kinetic energy.
Nor did it burn through with tremendous heat like laser beams or low-stability plasma cannons.
It used a chemical reaction.
It cut through the Object armor using a chemical approach.
“My sister Urd is an expert at that. She doesn’t just fire a chemical-filled container; she sometimes fires several containers to mix them directly on the battlefield. The Capitalist Corporations fearfully named it the murder cocktail strategy. Yawwwwn...”
She must have been growing drowsy because Skuld yawned and twisted her body. This stuck a full bare leg out in front of Quenser’s eyes. The student debated whether to lightly nibble at the thigh or to see how far up to the base of the leg he could see, but he made the mistake of hesitating too long and failing to do either before the bare leg was pulled back inside the sheet.
With a smile on his face and tears in his heart, Quenser replied with a cool voice.
“That doesn’t sound good... Even if it isn’t meant for flesh-and-blood soldiers, she’ll be firing a bunch of sulfuric acid around and the dissolving metal will produce chemical smoke.”
“Even if Urd isn’t after them, you should probably have your infantry prepare some chemical warfare defenses.”
But could they do that?
They already knew they lacked enough soundproofed suits for everyone. A small team would be one thing, but did they really have enough special equipment for a group of hundreds?
(The gas mask filters use activated charcoal, right? Maybe we should take apart some deodorant and try to figure something out.)
He made a mental note of that and Skuld made a comment.
“You seem confident.”
“Does this tearful face really look confident?”
“It does.”
The twintail girl answered his joke while squirming below the white sheet.
“I honestly thought you would line up the Faith Organization POWs on the front line, aim machineguns at us from behind, and order us to charge. No, it isn’t just that. When the detention barracks were destroyed, you didn’t build some fences outside and keep us there like farm animals. Giving up your own living space isn’t normal.”
“There are two major reasons for that. Do you know what they are, Skuld?”
“?”
“First, soldiers who are being forced to fight are useless. And if we carelessly sent the Faith Organization soldiers in front of the Trinity Style, it would probably blow up only our armored trucks to bring you all back to your unit. Plus, an infantry charge isn’t going to change anything here. We have to infiltrate the front line, so a machinegun induced charge would be meaningless.”
“What’s the second reason?”
Quenser grinned at that.
“It’s about our barracks. We’re actually quite thankful for that one. After all, we’re all crammed in together due to the reduced space. The guys and girls are normally separated, but now we’re all living together! But we have no real choice!! I mean, it’s only humane to give the POWs a roof over their heads! Ah hah hah hah hah!!”
An officer like Frolaytia and a Pilot Elite like the Princess had their own private quarters and their defenses was still as strict as ever, but that was a different matter.
And the twintail girl naturally looked at him like he was a dung beetle.
She still looked sleepy, but she grabbed the edges of the sheet and curled up like a human spring roll to protect herself.
“...You’re utter trash, aren’t you?”
“Bloodline is everything in the Legitimacy Kingdom, so our culture can’t exactly reject the act of baby-making. But I guess that might look strange to the Faith Organization and all its strict ideals that ignore our biology. Wait, but isn’t Norse Mythology pretty lax about that stuff?”
Quenser did not seem to mind at all.
“Personally, I find it stranger that you’re so willing to give us information on the Trinity Style.”
“Does it seem so easy that you’re starting to suspect a trap?” Skuld sighed with just her head poking out of the sheet. “Didn’t I tell you my sisters are going to kill me? If the entire Faith Organization sees it that way, I can’t return to the Norn. I don’t gain a thing by holding onto its secrets.”
historical
“Then are you trying to defect to the Legitimacy Kingdom?”
“It’s hard to say.”
Skuld seemed to be enjoying the situation rather than keeping her cards close to her chest.
But if she really did try to join the Legitimacy Kingdom, the Faith Organization would never allow it. Having information on the Trinity Style leaked to another world power would be especially bad for Urd and Verdandi who had to continue piloting that Object and could not switch to another variety.
So they would kill her, no matter what it took.
It did not matter if she was their blood-related sister.
“I’m expecting a lot from you.”
That was all she said.
One of the world powers that colored the map was after her life and had sent in one of the Objects that had ended the nuclear age. A student like Quenser could not imagine what kinds of feelings were whirling through the girl’s chest.
Part 4
The mission began.
Before the Baby Magnum was sent out, Quenser, Heivia, and the rest of the infantry set out into the orange-dyed wasteland aboard multiple military vehicles.
However, these were not normal armored trucks. There was no thick hose, obvious siren, or crane-like ladder attached to the rectangular body and the color was different, but they had a familiar silhouette. These were the maintenance base zone’s damage control firetrucks.
The soldiers clung to the flat roof and even the sides. It looked like the images of trains packed absolutely full.
Quenser was on the roof, but Heivia had failed to secure a spot there and was on the wall.
“This is ridiculous. We’re sending out chemical firetrucks now? We’re here to fight a war, not provide disaster relief.”
“The Trinity Style’s elevator main cannon might fire a ton of container shells. Those things are worse than giant Molotov cocktails. And even in this wasteland, chemical incendiary rounds will spread a fire like crazy. We want every chance we can of avoiding being baked to death.”
“Either way, these obvious targets will get hit as soon as the battle begins! They’ll be blown away by the Object’s shells before anything else, and it’ll be just like a well-shaken beer!!”
Just as Heivia got heated up, the firetruck drove over a large stone. The vehicle shook violently and the idiot noble shut up. He must have almost fallen off.
And he nervously looked down below.
“And what is this? We’re supposed to be using the colossal nuke-resistant weapon as a shield, so why are we out front? If the Trinity Style fires a shell, we’ll be blown to pieces.”
“We just have to try to stay positive. If we do die, we won’t suffer. Think of it as saving us the cost of anesthetic and you can laugh it off.”
As they joked back and forth, Frolaytia contacted them via radio.
“The battle is moving at the Faith Organization’s pace this time. We’re fortunate to have the giant river between us, but we’re still at a disadvantage when it comes to placing our pieces on the board. Simply put, our maintenance base zone is close to the front line. Their top priority will be assassinating Skuld. That goes for the Trinity Style too of course, but make sure they don’t use that giant thing’s rampage to distract us while they send infantry across the river. If that happens, you all need to fight. Shoot them or hit them with a shovel; I don’t care which. Just don’t let them get close.”
“How has the Trinity Style been crossing the rivers so far?”
“We don’t know. Maybe they temporarily dammed the rivers or built makeshift bridges.”
Quenser and the others’ job was to hide within the battlefield and scan the changeable Trinity Style in real time. By sending that data to the Princess, she could locate and fire on the weakest point.
That meant the infantry could not gather in one place. They had to spread out as much as possible, so the chemical firetrucks would stop here and there while the soldiers set out into the wasteland on foot.
Quenser and the others arrived at a river that looked 100 meters wide.
As far as they could tell with the flame-like evening sun reflecting off the water, it did not seem to be all that deep. That said, it was still enough to stop the Princess’s static electricity propulsion device.
When the firetruck stopped alongside the river, Quenser and some others climbed down. Nearby, a giant vehicle was folded up like an accordion, but then it extended forward with a crane-like sound.
It slowly but surely formed a bridge long enough for a truck to cross the river.
“Since she sent that bridge truck with us, it looks like that busty commander was prepared to send us on quite the exciting field trip.”
“But we only have the one, so they’ll have to swim back if it’s destroyed.”
The two idiots watched the chemical firetrucks cross the river and disappear. Since the battle would take place with the river in between the Objects, they needed more soldiers on the other side if they were to scan the Trinity Style.
And that was of course Faith Organization territory.
“Did you see the rifles the POWs had? They had a long staff-like magazine attached along the side. With that, they can fire 200 times without swapping out for a new one. I don’t want to even think about running across some of them.”
“Yeah, their infantry are called berserkers, right? But didn’t the old lady say the grouping was pretty bad and they’re essentially useless beyond 300 meters?”
“So you think we can push them back with a sniper rifle? Thei-->>