Heavy Object Volume 13 Chapter 3

Mariydi was pursued by a voice yelling "wait" over and over again.

She clicked her tongue and looked back while wearing a handmade ghillie suit to cover her lemon yellow special suit.

The glasses fried shrimp wore a tight skirt suit that looked terribly out of place deep in a conifer forest and her giant breasts bounced as she tried to catch up. And she was of course breaking branches and stepping in mud all over the place. She was little different from a guide waving a tiny flag at the front of a tour bus.

"aren't we both from the Capitalist Corporations where money is everything? Heh, eh heh heh. What don't you like about this? Please protect meee."

"You have zero credibility. If these lowly delinquent soldiers really did have 50 billion dollars, they'd use it to buy their own Object and maintenance base to invest in war. They would have no reason to continue this high-risk illegal business. I'm not digging through corpses for a story like that."

"Uuh…ow, ow, ow, ow, ow…"

"Ahn?"

"Th-the arm, uuh, the arm you shot, uuuh, what am I supposed to dooo…?"

The fried shrimp turned into one of those frightening young men who act like you broke his arm if you bump into him on the streets, so Mariydi put her hands on her hips and cooled the look in her eyes down to absolute zero.

"I see, I see. So that's it, is it? I suppose you're right. Even if the bone and major blood vessels are fine, you were shot through with a 9mm. I should probably do something about that."

"Eh? Really…?"

"Medical morphine should get rid of the pain. Hey, stick out your arm, fried shrimp, I'll show you a miracle of human pharmaceutics."

"Ah, wait, I don't like the sound of that!! Morphine!? Isn't the stuff that you can never stop using once you start taking it for some relief!? Wait, wait!!"

"This is a portable anesthetic supplied by the military, but there are rumors among the soldiers that if you're injured badly enough to need it, you should probably just ask for a bullet to the head instead. Now, I was at fault here, so I'll be nice and use 3 of them on you."

"Stop, stop, stoooop!! I don't want any help from someone who doesn't read the warning labellll!!"

"Then pack ice or cold water in a bag and hold it to the wounded area. Icing is a standard pain relief method. But if you want the pain to really go away, just ask."

"Aw, aww…"

Mariydi said it in a cruel way, but her instructions were not inaccurate. Filling a plastic bag with water from a nearby river (which would have been pure enough to bottle if not for the corpse floating in it) and holding it above the bandage did a lot to dull the pain.

But even if she had gotten sidetracked by the talk of a reward, that was not Mariydi's main objective. She had to destroy the mobile high-precision radar supporting the Thor's Hammer laser-blinding SAM network, call a recovery transport helicopter before the Information Alliance search team closed in on her, and escape to safety through the sky. That was her top priority. Gathering a mountain of platinum from some delinquent soldiers' artificial bones was meaningless if she was surrounded and killed by enemy soldiers.

"Come to think of it, where did you come from and how did you get here? Do you have a vehicle?"

"I think it's flipped over and burning at the bottom of the valley over there."

"Ah, that look! You think I'm completely useless, don't you!? I won't forget that, you know!?"

"Well, what can you do, fried shrimp?"

"My name isn't fried shrimp! It's Nancy Jolly-Roger!!"

She bent over and stretched her arms downward, which accentuated her already large breasts by squeezing them together from either side. She was apparently angry. Those seemed to express her emotions much like a dog's tail. Since her face was giving a tearful upturned look, it was hard to tell just from that if she was furious or asking for seconds, so Mariydi made a mental note to focus on the movements of her breasts from now on.

The Thor's Hammer could fire more missiles than there was gum on the pavement. Its high-precision radar was mobile, so it was not deployed to a fixed position. Searching for it could have been difficult, but Mariydi actually had a guess as to where it was.

A mobile high-precision radar might sound like an incredible piece of specialized equipment, but it still used normal electromagnetic waves. Just as a television or radio would have poor reception with mountains in the way, radar waves could be reflected and distorted.

"They don't have enough mobile radars for everything, so they would naturally want to place it in the optimal position to cover as wide an area as possible and allow as many missiles to fire as possible."

"? What are you talking to yourself abooouuut???"

"Did you decide I was talking to myself because you're a moron?"

Without even spreading out the map she had found in the log cabin, Mariydi looked around at the mountains and valleys in the area to figure out where they would have placed the radar. From there, she just had to head straight to those coordinates and blow away the radar to neutralize the Thor's Hammer. That would settle everything.

"Is that it?"

Even in this fog, she could see it clearly from 300 meters away.

It had likely been a mountain farm originally. The forest's trees had been cleared away and short underbrush covered the gentle slope. It looked large enough for a game of soccer if you did not mind the slope, but it currently looked like a trade fair for military trucks loaded with missile containers. All of the trucks were part of Thor's Hammer, so they were loaded with doubly cruel missiles that had high-level guidance and lots of disturbance lasers to blind the pilot. At the center of the missile-equipped vehicles spaced evenly across the area was what looked like a yellow school bus with the top opened like a cake box. A round Doppler radar was located inside.

"A radar disguised so it won't show up on satellites, hm? I've heard they change what it looks like each time."

"Hmm???"

"I beg you. Please put some effort into speaking human language."

"So how are you supposed to attack that?"

The girl finally asked a decent question.

Unlike the previous log cabin, this area had plenty of Information Alliance personnel and there would be a fair number of soldiers patrolling between the missile vehicles which were stopped in something like a chess board pattern.

Normally thinking, she could never hope to hit the radar from a distance with a shoulder-fired rocket launcher when it was surrounded by the military trucks positioned around it. It had too many shields. It looked like her only option was to sneak onto the chess board and directly place explosives on the radar in the center.

However…

"Including the personnel in charge of operating the trucks' missile containers, there have to be more than 100 people in all," pointed out the fried shrimp named Nancy. "I-I really don't think it will be possible to sneak all the way to the center without anyone spotting you."

Mariydi ignored the question as she put together a rocket for the shoulder-fired launcher. The warhead looked like a thin ruby ball and the two fuel agent cylinders were each about as long as two fists. She attached them all together.

Seeing Mariydi pass the rocket through the launcher tube and lock it in place, glasses Nancy asked a nervous question.

"I-if you fire that, won't it hit one of the 'walls' around it instead of the radar itself…?"

"That doesn't really matter," said Mariydi as she rested the launcher on her shoulder and peered through the scope sight. "This is what happens when you try to link wirelessly in the mountains. The electric instructions get all distorted like they're echoing, so they end up packing in all the vehicles close together. They might as well connect them with cables."

She continued in a singsong voice.

"Besides, look at all those missile containers with those laser-blinding SAMs arranged like a lotus root or a bouquet of flowers. How much explosives and fuel do you think there are in all those?"

With a loud fwoosh of white smoke, nervous and sexy Nancy was knocked back and to the ground behind Mariydi.

Normally, this would only have been powerful enough to transform a black bulletproof car into a pile of scorched scrap.

But the old farm here had plenty of missile container trucks packed together as tight as a full parking lot. It was a lot like an armory contained inside a somewhat sturdy case.

When the armor of the first truck on the outer edge was breached, the chemically-produced 2500-degree explosion burned through the entire interior structure. That meant setting fire to the explosives and fuel inside the 3 rows of 4 missiles inside each container.

When the one truck exploded from within, the patrolling soldiers and the nearby missile trucks were swallowed by the flames. Destruction wrought more destruction. The scarlet flower grew and grew and surpassed any kind of human control in the blink of an eye.

All sound vanished.

The old farm was engulfed in countless fiery explosions that fused into one giant explosion. It was like a volcano had erupted.

Mariydi had tossed the launcher aside and gotten down on the ground after firing and a shockwave passed by overhead one beat later. The underbrush was knocked back, the conifer trees shook, and a stinging pain reached her skin and eardrums. If she had stayed standing, she would have been knocked over, her head would have slammed into the ground, and she might have gotten a concussion.

"K-kyuuuuuhhh…"

Incidentally, the fried shrimp had already tripped on her own, so she was dizzy but not particularly injured.

The mobile high-precision radar supporting the Thor's Hammer had been blown away along with the missile trucks surrounding it.

The Information Alliance was sure to notice an explosion of that size, but it did not matter how large a ground force they sent out. The sky was safe once more, so the Capitalist Corporations could send out fighters and attack helicopters. Of course, the Information Alliance had their own AB, but they would have built their air-defense system under the assumption that they had the Thor's Hammer. If a Capitalist Corporations aerial force rushed in immediately after they lost the foundation of their defense, the Information Alliance would suffer a significant time loss before sending out the order to prepare the runways and scramble their fighters. Their ground forces would be exposed to a nightmarish downpour of lead and explosives.

"Now I can finally get back."

"Hmm."

She heard the somehow brazen sound of thick rotors approaching from the distance. A transport helicopter boldly flying so high looked like a declaration of victory.

"Wah, wah."

"Why are you tearfully putting your hands on your head? They're on our side."

"Hmm?"

"…It scares me that I'm starting to understand you. Look at the body of the helicopter. See the emblem that looks like a crane game arm? That means it's from a Capitalist Corporations recovery unit."

But the transport helicopter did not descend to the surface.

The fried shrimp finally removed her hands from her head.

"They didn't notice us… Oh, no. They're going to leave us. Sh-should we head to a more open area? I'm a bit scared of unexploded ordnance and gasoline, but if we go to that old farm…"

Mariydi had no real reason to save Nancy, but for some reason, she grabbed the suit girl's sleeve and tugged hard.

The cargo door on the side of the transport helicopter sat open. The gunner peering out from there produced a creaking sound as he turned the heavy machinegun bolted in place there.

A moment later, bullets larger than one's thumb were fired down toward the surface.

Mariydi practically threw herself to the ground while holding Nancy. If they had not rolled down what was more of a small hill than a slope, they would have burst like a red water balloon. And they could not stop moving. They continued rolling down the mountain while practically holding each other in their arms.

They hid in a thicker area of the conifer forest.

The green ceiling would hide them from the sky, but they could not let their guard down. The gunner's heavy machinegun was only bolted to the floor sticking out from the cargo door. If he only had an iron sight, he would not have the benefit of infrared or microwave anti-personnel radar, but a single hit would still mean instant death.

"Wh-why…why is the Capitalist Corporations shooting at uuussss!?"

Mariydi had no answer to that one. It might be Information Alliance equipment painted to look like the Capitalist Corporations and it might be delinquent soldiers from the Capitalist Corporations who were connected to the log cabin with their own side business. But whatever the case, their lives were being targeted. If they did not want to die, they had to do something about it.

And then…

"Hm, nn?"

Nancy let out an oddly sensual voice. Mariydi heard something vibrating from the inner pocket of Nancy's suit and that was apparently attacking her giant breasts. Nancy pulled out a military handheld device. Despite the circumstances, she stared at the small screen and accepted the transmission, but then she let out a hysteric cry.

"Wah!? Look at this!!"

She held the screen out toward Mariydi.

It was hardly the time since they were being targeted from the sky, but she read what it said:

Message Priority: Emergency (Rk. 5)

Flight Lieutenant Mariydi Whitewitch of PMC Air Force Sky Blue Inc.'s aerial division has been registered as an enemy on suspicion of Class 1 war crimes (intentionally leaking military technology, among others).

In Northern Restricted Zone Airspace D9, the suspect took unnecessary actions which exposed herself to danger and ultimately led to the destruction of her fighter. There is reason to suspect she intentionally had her cutting-edge Zig-27 multirole fighter crash in an enemy nation's effective territory along with the many military secrets it contains.

To discover the details of this issue, we would prefer she is captured alive, but if you determine she has contacted Information Alliance personnel or is attempting to escape, attack at your own discretion.

"What…is this?"

Even calm and collected Mariydi groaned at this one.

She knew nothing of this. She had exposed herself to the Thor's Hammer because it had been necessary to protect her blinded wingmen from the sea of lasers. She would never work with the Information Alliance to send her fighter's wreckage into enemy territory. Besides, calling a fighter "cutting-edge" was nonsense in the age of Objects. Fighters had essentially had the sky stolen from them by the surface-to-air laser (SAL) systems used by those colossal weapons. They were an endangered species that were only any use in the Northern Restricted Zone where Objects were banned. They were a protected weapon. Their only value was their possible ability to assist the development of Objects or Pilot Elites, so there was no real reason to talk them up like this.

But what came next was even stranger.

The previous contradictory statement was only the beginning.

The Northern Restricted Zone Conquering Cartel made up of several Capitalist Corporations companies has decided to post a reward for this suspect.

The total amount offered is 50 billion dollars.

Any who capture the suspect or provide information or actions that lead to her capture will be paid an amount from that total sum relative to the value of their contribution.

Mariydi and Nancy exchanged a glance.

That was a strange sign. They recognized that amount combined with that unit. It was the same as the platinum supposedly hidden in the artificial bones of the delinquent soldiers wandering across the Northern Restricted Zone.

"50…?"

"…billioooonnnn???"

The way she said "billioooonnnn" was really annoying, so Mariydi clenched her fists and rubbed them against the fried shrimp's temples.

Chapter end