ry nearly shot by the police’s anti-terror suppression unit.”

“...Wow.”

“We were left with no option but to move somewhere where the Capitalist Corporations could not reach us. Even so, the Legitimacy Kingdom was hardly a paradise given the importance it puts on lineage. Immigrants with no established lineage are at a disadvantage in everything. To live a proper life, you must have some kind of necessary skills that are enough to blow away those disadvantages.”

If she said she had no regrets about leaving the Capitalist Corporations or the Japanese Islands behind, she would probably have been lying. The look on her face made that clear enough. However, she had abandoned it all in order to protect her family. It was possible her life had been a path covered in fights more dangerous than the battle that lay ahead.

“So where did your daughter and her husband end up? The South Great Britain district?”

“...An immigrant residential city on the eastern end of Victoria Island.”

As that was right in the middle of the current battlefield, Quenser regretted asking that question.

That must have been why the old lady was acting so oddly.

“During the battles with the Water Strider and the Rush, the city was temporarily evacuated to Europe. They had only just returned after things had calmed down.”

“I’m afraid to ask, but how is the evacuation going?”

“Right now, not even the CS staff in the maintenance base have had time to leave. Do you really think there was enough time for an entire city to evacuate?”

Part 4

Quenser was excitedly watching on as the special gas used in the low-stability plasma cannons was loaded into the main cannons, but he got a little too heated up and none of the crucial technological information made it into his head. Wondering why his studying was not going well, Quenser left the maintenance area and met up with Heivia who had just finished cleaning the inside of his rifle’s barrel.

“Hey, Quenser, did you get the old lady to fall for you?”

“It seems that old lady has lived a fairly heavy life. But with how much Froleytia is obsessed with Japan, her eyes would probably light up with excitement hearing that story.”

“Ahn?”

Heivia looked puzzled, but there was no time to explain further. He and Quenser could not take things easy any longer.

They had used the cargo planes to circle around ahead of the expected path for the Indigo Plasma, so the enemy would surely be coming. Lazing around would leave them at a serious disadvantage.

When they left the barracks that were constructed from those large vehicles, a middle-aged lieutenant was allocating the troops. They were being split into teams which then boarded different vehicles.

“Teams A through D will use the helicopters, and Teams E through H will use the trucks! Team I, you have a covert mission, so you use the electric snowmobiles! Before leaving, make sure to check the chains as well as the decibels they produce while running!!”

“Oh, god. We’re stuck with the trucks. That’s the most unrefined option. They treat us like we’re potatoes.”

“We’re fighting an Object that’s equipped with tons of anti-air lasers, so I’d say the trucks are better than the transport helicopters.”

“True. And they fly too low for parachutes to be of any use.”

“I heard a rumor that they were developing a unit that lowered your fall speed by ejecting water using compressed air. Do you know if that’s true?”

The middle-aged lieutenant yelled at them for chatting, so Quenser and Heivia frantically ran over to climb into the back of the military truck headed to Area F. Over 20 soldiers climbed aboard the covered bay of the truck.

“Quenser, a guy over here has a deck of cards. Let’s play poker to kill time.”

“I have no interest in playing when I have nothing to bet.”

“But you suck at poker,” spat out Heivia before joining the poker group.

Quenser blankly thought while watching the frozen landscape through a gap in the cloth covering the back of the truck.

(If I tried to keep track of numbers with this truck shaking so much, I think I’d get carsick in no time.)

Part 5

“Shut up. I don’t care about your situation. Continue the mission like normal!!”

Twenty minutes later, the soldiers were close to vomiting thanks to carsickness. The response they got from Froleytia was more or less what Quenser had expected.

“...Dammit. I didn’t need another reminder that our huge-breasted commander is a real sadist,” said Heivia.

“This was your own fault.”

“Don’t act so blameless. If you knew this would happen, you could have warned us.”

“I am not one to speak out against how others use their personal time.”

Almost half of those getting out of the stopped military truck were carsick. Those who had not taken part in the card game and those with a higher endurance were fine.

Quenser pulled some Hand Axe plastic explosive out of his bag and said, “I’ll set up the explosives along the road here. You go take some deep breaths while keeping watch.”

The higher ups seemed to have learned their lesson at the Kamchatka Peninsula because the radios they had been issued this time were much more powerful. Just the one Quenser had could cover a wide area.

Quenser was setting up explosives along a single small road cutting a line down the vast snowy plain. The road was not paved. It was nothing more than hard-packed dirt.

In vast areas of nothingness like that, people had a great tendency to head along roads or other paths. Fallen trees and sharp rocks threatened to puncture a tire and the tires could get stuck in a muddy patch.

In a freezing Arctic area with nothing as far as the eye could see, the risk brought by such troubles was unimaginable.

“If you’re so clever, what do you plan to do if they jam the signal, making those useless?”

“The point of the bombs is not to blow up all of the targets,” replied Quenser. “The trick is to throw doubt into their minds so they do not know where explosives might be set up. The more fearful they are of bombs, the less freedom they have in their actions. As that continues, we can keep getting the first attack. These just need to stop them from moving. Naturally, the battle will be ended by the princess.”

“I see. Ugh... Damn. Maybe I’d feel better if I just vomited once.”

Heivia crouched down groaning, but Quenser ignored him and got back to his work. He stabbed electric fuses into the Hand Axe and buried it in the unpaved road. As the purpose was to frighten the 24th’s foot soldier unit and then retrieve them later to ensure a clean battlefield, it was most effective to purposefully cover it up with dirt and snow.

“A clean battlefield, hm? That really is a phrase for the ones with all the power. It wasn’t too long ago that we were fighting Objects.”

“Are you in such a bad mood because you feel like vomiting? The times change from moment to moment. I hear the evacuated residents have already returned to the prefab city to the east.”

“Is this really okay? There are rumors that the soldiers abandoned when the Capitalist Corporations and Information Alliance militaries evacuated from the Alaska district have built igloos out in the snowy plain...Ugh.”

What they were preparing was not exactly meant to finish off the front line soldiers. If they saw any sign that the enemy foot soldier unit was coming to directly attack the maintenance base zone, the enemy vehicles on the road would be blown away or stopped. In the time that this bought, they could build up their defenses further.

“Let’s go. We need to seal up another route.”

“What if the 24th gets scared and decides to avoid the road?”

“There are fallen trees, sharp rocks, holes hidden by snow, and muddy patches. We just have to pray they get caught in those natural traps. Also, they have no idea what rules we used when setting up these bombs. They will be afraid regardless of which route they take, and that will slow them down.”

The carsick group was reluctant to get back on the military truck, but they were forced back on. Quenser and the others then headed out along the unpaved road once more. Each time they stopped at an intersection that connected multiple routes, they would set up explosives.

“It’s the princess.”

Heivia was staring off into the distance. Quenser looked over and saw the 50+ meter mass of metal heading their way. It had been forced into a harsh battle against the Wing Balancer on the Kamchatka Peninsula, but its maintenance seemed to have been completed en route. It looked as good as new.

Quenser and the others waved and the princess must have picked it up on the cameras because she waved a main cannon back at them. She headed on to the coast in order to wait for the Indigo Plasma.

Quenser lowered his raised hand and said, “Where are the other Objects. If I recall, the Snow Quake is going to attack the traitor from land.”

“Over there.”

Quenser looked in the direction Heivia was pointing and spotted a giant form passing by on higher ground a few kilometers away. There was not much something that large could do about it, but it seemed to be giving no thought whatsoever to hiding from enemy eyes as it moved. As a foot soldier who could be killed by a single bullet, Quenser was jealous.

“The Active Sledge is likely approaching along the sea route the Indigo Plasma is thought to have used. I don’t see how this can go wrong.”

“We’ve set up all the bombs, so what do we do now?”

“We join Teams A through D. That means exterminating the 24th’s foot soldier unit that is hiding around the Indigo Plasma in the hopes of sabotaging us in some way. It’ll be a lively firefight filled with mud and soot.”

“In that case, I kind of wish someone would give me a gun. I’m a student; I don’t have anything to protect myself with.”

“Yeah, well, I’m a radar analyst. Radar! Do you see any radars around here!? And yet that huge-breasted commander of ours is probably getting pizza delivered right about now!!”

Quenser and Heivia continued complaining as they began moving. They were only a few kilometers away from the front line on the coast. Once that close, it would be more dangerous to use the trucks which would show up as large metal objects on an Object’s radar. The 20+ soldiers of Team F split into 2-4 man groups and headed toward the coast with each group waiting to head out until some time had passed from the last group heading out.

“Wait, why are we the first group to head out?”

“Let’s just assume it means they think we’re reliable. The ones coming up behind us are the ducklings.”

“And that brings me back to wishing I had a gun. If I just had two handguns, I bet I could start shooting enemy soldiers 360 degrees around me.”

“Quenser, Heivia,” said Froleytia over their radios. “Cut the pointless chatter and get going. Team B has engaged the 24th’s foot soldiers.”

(Why do our radios have bidirectional mode on!?)

With that thought, Quenser and Heivia grimaced. That meant she had heard all of their complaining. Froleytia’s tone seemed colder than usual.

“Team B is having a bit of trouble, so go help them to earn some battlefield friendship.”

“What a pain.”

“Tell those side characters not to die before the protagonists arrive.”

A low rumble reverberated across the snowy land of Victoria Island. The Baby Magnum had likely begun fighting the Indigo Plasma at the coast.

“Hey, Quenser. This battle’ll be over before long anyway, so don’t you think it would be wisest to dig a random hole somewhere and hide until then?”

“Afterwards, Froleytia would probably beat the shit out of you, so I can hardly call that a safe plan.”

As they were about to pass over a low hill, Quenser and Heivia slowly got down on the ground. The coast lay directly ahead. Beyond about 300 meters of gently-sloping land was the white, frozen sea.

And on the coast, they saw...

“There they are. It looks like 20 of ours against 20 enemies.”

The sounds of the Objects firing almost drowned it out, but Heivia was watching a firefight. Team B must have had its helicopters shot down just before they landed, because they were holding rifles while hiding behind a few helicopters that were lying on their side. The soldiers from the 24th were using 4WD vehicles and armored vehicles for cover.

The 24th’s foot soldiers’ uniforms were not the standard Legitimacy Kingdom uniforms. They wore octopus-like protective masks and short but wide suits that made the contours of their bodies unclear.

As Quenser watched the firefight from the side like a tennis umpire, he said, “What are those? Powered suits?”

“If so, they wouldn’t be using cover. They’d be headed straight towards Team B. They’re probably just some kind of protective suit.”

“...They aren’t going to use germs or poison gas, are they?”

“Those suits don’t look airtight enough for that. It might be for some kind of flamethrower. They look a lot like firefighters.”

Quenser then noticed large gas cylinders on their backs. A hose was attached to the back of their large rifles. If it was not oxygen, it must have had something like naphtha for a flamethrower. Quenser did not want to think about the possibility, but it was possible the gun barrel doubled as a flamethrower nozzle.

“But...”

Heivia adjusted his grip on his rifle as he lay on the ground, switched on the various sensors he needed for midrange sniping, and attached a suppressor that was about as large as a 500 milliliter bottle.

“Time to get to work. Let’s work hard so we can get that large-breasted commander to kindly tread on us later.”

“There’s nothing for me to do.”

“Use your binoculars to confirm where my bullets hit.”

“You don’t seem too bothered by the fact that this is a fight with the Legitimacy Kingdom on both sides.”

“This is a fight between our enemies and our allies. I can’t speak for everyone, but I certainly feel no sympathy for them. It’s the same as when we fought Flide.”

“We sure have gotten stronger. I miss when you were trembling as you looked through the scope in Alaska.”

Heivia ignored him and pulled the trigger.

The 24th’s cover was a line of vehicles parallel to the coast, so it only functioned as a shield against the soldiers beyond it. It had no effect against Heivia’s sniper shot from the side.

With the muffled sound of firing, one of the protective-suit-wearing soldiers was knocked to the side as he hid behind an armored vehicle.

“What the hell?” Heivia frowned and looked at the barrel of his rifle. “This cheap piece of junk. It let out too much noise.”

The counterattack came immediately thereafter.

A great roar of gunfire rang out. Quenser and Heivia frantically crawled backwards to use the hill as cover. The 24th knew exactly where they were. However, if they tried to escape Heivia’s sharpshooting by heading to the other side of the vehicles they were using as cover, they would expose themselves to fire from Team B.

It was a stereotypical example of crossfire.

With nowhere to run, the 24th’s soldiers were sinking into the snow-covered earth in no time at all. With Heivia continuing his sharpshooting, it took less than 5 minutes to suppress them.

Heivia removed the suppressor from his rifle barrel and said, “Suppression complete. I will commend them for not having a single person raise their hands to surrender.”

“Let’s go check their radios. They use the same type as we do, so we can intercept their transmissions if we know the frequency and encryption method they use.”

“Digging through their corpses right after a firefight? You’ve come a long way, too.”

While remaining on the lookout for any remaining snipers, Quenser and Heivia headed down to Team B. They then checked the defeated 24th foot soldiers and the vehicles they had been using for cover. However, they were not able to obtain what they needed to intercept the enemy’s transmissions. The radios were locked with a passcode.

“These gas cylinders still bother me.”

Quenser looked over at the gas cylinders on the backs of the 24th’s foot soldiers. The hose connected to their rifles and the gun barrel seemed to double as the nozzle. It really did seem to be some kind of flamethrower.

“There were similar tanks in the vehicles. And they weren’t just to refill the ones the soldiers have. There’s a turret on the roof like a water truck used for riot control. The vehicles were clearly made to spray whatever’s inside.”

“But why?” Quenser frowned. “It wouldn’t have any effect against an Object that can withstand a nuclear explosion. Or were they trying to directly attack our maintenance base zone?”

“How should I know? Technically, we don’t even know if it’s really a flamethrower.”

A great roar rang out.

As the Baby Magnum, Snow Quake, and Indigo Plasma continued to battle, they were moving slowly closer.

The Indigo Plasma.

As its name suggested, that Second Generation Object had been developed to draw out as much power from low-stability plasma cannons as possible. All of its 100+ weapons were a threat, but the two main cannons sticking out parallel to each other from the front of the Object were the most characteristic aspect of the machine. What seemed to be spare tanks to supply the special gas required were lined up on the side.

Its propulsion device used static electricity just like the princess. It used two ski-like parts on the front and five on the back to move as if sliding across the ground.

However, there was an overwhelming difference in speed. Even while trapped between the Baby Magnum and the Snow Quake, the Indigo Plasma seemed to dance around the other two Objects.

“What the hell? Its output must be insanely high.”

“It uses static electricity to keep afloat like the princess, but it uses a different method to detonate the air and move forward. It uses low-stability plasma cannon tech for that,” said Quenser as he checked on his handheld device.

The Indigo Plasma was a Legitimacy Kingdom Object. Its basic design was stored in the database.

Heivia frowned and said, “If it’s that useful, I wish they’d let our princess use it.”

“It gives excellent speed, but it brings up heat-resistance issues. Basically, it produces too much heat. The Indigo Plasma seems to get over that with some electronic control, but it would normally result in melting the bottom of the Object.”

“...Wait, I thought it specialized in working alongside foot soldiers. It looks like it’s sending out some tremendous blasts of blazing wind. The foot soldiers would be wiped out by that.”

They were only able to speak so calmly about it because they had two Objects on their side. The Indigo Plasma was indeed powerful. The princess could not keep up when it came to speed. However, the Indigo Plasma would not be able to keep fighting unless it kept up that high speed constantly.

Keeping up that extremely high speed would cause the Elite piloting the Object to suffer. Other than some rare exceptions like the Information Alliance’s Rush, those monstrous weapons were piloted by humans. If the pilot was worn down via physical exhaustion, the movements of the Object would dull. Once the Indigo Plasma’s movements fell below an acceptable level, the princess and the Snow Quake would not hesitate to destroy the traitor with their main cannons.

Just as Quenser and Heivia were thinking that, they heard an electronic beep.

Before they could check to see where it was coming from, they heard a noise similar to a gas line being twisted open. The noise seemed to come from all around them and a strange smell reached their noses. It was a stink similar to melting plastic.

“Cough cough!? Hey, Quenser, what is this!?”

“Shit, it’s the corpses of the 24th’s foot soldiers!! Something’s coming out of the rifle barrels acting as nozzles for the gas cylinders! And from the vehicles!!”

“How!? Corpses can’t operate nozzles!!”

“How should I know!? Maybe someone opened them via remote control!!”

The air at Quenser’s feet wavered like sugar water being mixed. It seemed to be some kind of colorless and transparent gas.

“Dammit, is this some kind of chemical weapon!?”

“If they were using some kind of special gas, just a condom’s worth would kill us ten times over! This is something else! It seems to be heavier than the air, so let’s run up onto that hill over there!!”

Hearing Quenser’s words, Heivia gestured to tell the other soldiers to get to the hill. Then the two boys began to run. The 40+ soldiers of Teams B and F followed. They were about 300 meters from the top of the hill.

Quenser grimaced as he tried to shake off the horrible smell that was clinging to his uniform.

(It can’t be...)

Those gas cylinders had not contained poison gas or flammable gas.

The Indigo Plasma used low-stability plasma cannons for its main cannons.

That weapon used the massive amounts of electricity produced by the reactor to artificially create high temperature plasma out of a special gas.

(You’ve gotta be kidding me!!)

Due to a difference in muscular strength, Heivia reached the top of the hill first. He turned around and looked at Quenser with a relieved expression as he gasped for breath.

Quenser shoved the other boy down with all his strength.

Quenser then leapt over to the other side of the hill.

“Gweh!? Dammit, what’re you-...!?”

“Get down!!” Quenser shouted to the other soldiers while ignoring Heivia’s complaint. “The 24th’s foot soldiers were scattering the special gas for a low-stability plasma cannon!! It will detonate in response to the Object firing its cannons!!”

One of the Indigo Plasma’s cannons moved slightly as it continued to fight.

It was one of the smallest cannons it had.

It was being used almost as an afterthought in a gap in the main fight.

Nevertheless...

An explosive beam of light shot towards the coast.

When the low-stability plasma cannon struck, the entire area the gas had been spread over blew up all at once.

Had it been 100 meters? 200 meters? 300 meters?

Quenser was not sure how far the blast had spread. He had more pressing issues. Painful shocks stabbed into his eyeballs and eardrums simultaneously. His arms and legs convulsed, preventing him from even writhing around. His back bent of its own accord and it took him a while to remember how to straighten it out. He even lost track of which way was up.

And yet it could have been worse. Given the wind, the special gas should have covered a larger area. There must have been an ideal concentration for an explosion.

“Kh...hah...”

He could not speak properly. His throat was dry.

Quenser forced his throat to move and just barely managed to suck in some air. He looked around. The snow on top of the hill had been blown away and some of the ground hidden below it had melted slightly. He could not imagine what it must have been like on the other side of the hill. There had definitely been enough energy to turn the dirt and sand into another material altogether.

“Heivia. Hey, Heivia. Are you alive?”

“...God dammit. I think that Elite is the type who scorches the meat black when grilling.”

“Please stop talking about food when we have nothing but those flavorless rations.”

With that annoyed comment, Quenser grabbed Heivia’s arm and helped him up. None of the other soldiers from Teams B or F stood up.

“Don’t tell me they were all taken out...” muttered Quenser blankly, but Heivia approached one of the collapsed soldiers and checked on his condition.

“He wasn’t taken out by the heat. The shockwave just knocked him unconscious. He does look a bit burned, but it isn’t even enough to leave a scar.”

“Heivia, can you take care of first aid? I’m going to contact the princess. If I don’t tell her how the 24th’s foot soldiers are being used, she could be hit by low-stability plasma from a blind spot!!”

“Wait, that was targeting the princess!?”

“I’m sure that’s what the equipment is for. The Indigo Plasma holds the enemy’s attention while the foot soldiers spread around the special gas. Once an area has been regulated to the proper concentration, it can be detonated as an invisible bomb to bare its fangs against the Object from an unexpected direction. That is how the 24th uses its foot soldiers!!”

At the same time, another giant explosion occurred beyond the hill. A flash of light and explosive noise blasted out, and Quenser and Heivia were knocked down by the shockwave that swept across the ground. They had the hill to act as a wall and were still quite a distance away from the Objects. Nevertheless, those shockwaves that were nothing more than side effects squeezed painfully at Quenser and Heivia’s bodies.

“Shit...Were we too late!?”

Quenser stood up on unsteady legs and headed for the top of the hill.

A large area hundreds of meters across had been torn up on the other side of the hill. The area was glowing orange. Once it cooled, the ground could very well turn to glass. Walking over to that area would be a good way to get oneself burned to death.

And...

Quenser stood still and looked through his binoculars. A few kilometers ahead, the three Objects were battling. A similar orange crater existed below the Snow Quake. Serious damage must have been done to the Snow Quake’s propulsion device because its movements were dulled. The Indigo Plasma’s two main cannons were accurately aimed at it.

The Baby Magnum slammed into the side of the Snow Quake.

The Snow Quake’s static electricity device that kept it afloat must have still been functioning because its 200,000 ton mass slid to the side without resistance. The dynamic scene was almost humorous in how it looked like a giant game of billiards.

The Indigo Plasma’s main cannons moved slightly in the next instant.

(Not good...!)

In the instant after Quenser frantically took his eyes away from the binoculars, a flash of light stabbed into his retinas. Having immediately taken evasive actions, the Baby Magnum was merely scratched. Some of its armor was blown away and one of its seven main cannons melted like a sugar sculpture.

“Dammit!! Why is she so softhearted!?”

Quenser used both hands to protect his face from the shockwave that arrived belatedly.

Compared to the explosions from before, it was nothing much. He was not knocked from his feet. There was a difference in the strength of shockwave and heat between an explosion that spread out evenly in every direction and one that was focused in a different direction by a cannon.

The Indigo Plasma’s special combo had failed.

And the Baby Magnum and the Snow Quake were not going to take it sitting down.

The Indigo Plasma frantically resumed its high speed movements, but it was receiving fire from the other two Objects’ main cannons. It just barely managed to avoid having its central reactor hit, but a large portion was gouged out of the side of the spherical main body.

(Are they going to pull it off...?)

The severe damage to the Snow -->>

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