Froleytia stood within a cargo plane.

There were a few dozen of them in all and they were all filled with various vehicles and equipment. The one Froleytia was on had nothing but high quality furnis.h.i.+ngs that were privately owned by a certain officer. In fact, the entire plane had been added specifically for her things.

Froleytia felt there was no need to split it apart like that, but the air force group that had supplied the cargo planes seemed to enjoy providing that kind of hospitality. As flashy dogfights had fallen out of fas.h.i.+on, they had learned the etiquette of making deliveries.

“The Legitimacy Kingdom military’s 24th Mobile Maintenance Battalion and the Second Generation Indigo Plasma it controls seem to be trying to return to Europe by pa.s.sing through Alaska and heading over the Atlantic Ocean. Currently, they are headed east while breaking through the thick ice in the ocean around the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the Arctic. They should soon realize that is inefficient and head up onto land. The nearby Victoria Island seems the most likely landing point.”

As Froleytia listened to the female operator from the electronic simulation department, she quietly exhaled some tobacco smoke.

“…I can’t believe it is taking us so long to attack. If we had just blockaded the Bering Sea, we could have cut off the Indigo Plasma and the 24th. Then they would surely have run out of material. Due to our slow response, they were able to meet up with the unit hidden in Alaska and resupply. They might very well be throwing a victory party right this very instant. …I wonder if the higher ups in the Sovereign Parliament are secretly negotiating with both sides.”

“This is a rare occurrence even in historical terms. The 24th may have taken that into account when they made their plan.”

“Fortunately, we had the CS broadcast team here for the interviews. That gives us video evidence for the entire thing from beginning to end. I doubt the production staff for a variety program thought the footage they were taking would ever reach scowling top-level military officers, n.o.bles, or royals.”

“The coast guards who could only sit idly by and watch as a clear enemy pa.s.sed by might be seeing the scene again and again in their nightmares for months.”

“Soldiers zealous enough to do that are rare these days. And I am not one of them.” Froleytia gave a mocking smile. “But the 24th are finally officially considered our enemy. We can now blow them away with impunity. Even if they are an entire battalion with an Object of their own, they only have one.”

“Yes. At the very least, I do not think they have enough strength to handle the entire Legitimacy Kingdom military.”

“What about our strength? How many Objects can we use?”

“Three are currently deployed to the Alaska district. Our Baby Magnum, the Snow Quake, and the Active Sledge. In a week’s time, it seems 5 more in Europe should be able to cross the Atlantic and reach us.”

“…I’m sure those 5 are primarily there because the VIPs on the Council put self-preservation above all else so they want to build a defensive line across the Atlantic. They will not be cooperating with us. Even if our Objects are destroyed, they will be ordered to not take a step in our direction.”

Also, it did not take an entire week for Objects that moved at around 500 kph to cross the Atlantic Ocean. They would claim that transporting the equipment needed for the maintenance bases was what was taking so much time, but it was clear what their real reason was. They wanted to keep that large force in the Atlantic Ocean.

“More importantly, the Snow Quake or the Active Sledge are not going to join the 24th’s side, are they? We could easily be shot in the back in this situation. Just because they see this disorder in our ranks does not necessarily mean the other forces will take action.”

“I am sorry, but do you really think anyone else would agree with the 24th’s radical views? Black Uniforms are being sent to those other units for barrier duty, but it is likely a waste of tax money.”

“Yes, I guess this is just the crazy ideas of a n.o.ble.”

“So how shall we carry out the interception of the 24th?”

“Well…”

Froleytia looked over at the giant map attached to the whiteboard. She took the quill sitting on the table and forcefully stabbed the tip into a point on the map as if she was throwing a dart.

“If they continue on, they should end up at Victoria Island. That is where we will blow the Indigo Plasma to pieces.”

Quenser and Heivia stepped down from the open back of a cargo plane and onto icy land.

They were at a hastily constructed airfield on the Arctic Victoria Island in the northern portion of the Alaska district.

“I can’t believe they can land somewhere this frozen. Is this supposed to be a runway? You could play ice hockey on it,” said Heivia in shock, but he frantically moved out of the way when a truck horn blared.

Several large military vehicles were driving down the lowered cargo door and onto the runway.

Quenser held his arms around his body for warmth even with his heavy coat on.

“Where’s the princess?”

“She got here long ago. We came later to construct the maintenance base. We don’t get sent to the front lines every time,” said Heivia before bringing a hand to his forehead and staring straight up. “I thought the Indigo Plasma was doing some crazy things, but I never thought that was the infamous Prizewell City Slicker’s unit. I hadn’t heard much about him for 2 or 3 years now. I wonder when he was scouted and secretly started heading down the path of an Elite.”

“Who is he?”

“A hardcore lineage advocate. Basically, he’s the stereotypical example of the kind of n.o.ble you don’t want to have to deal with,” cut in Froleytia from the side with her long, thin kiseru in her mouth. She must not have had much to do until the maintenance base was constructed because she looked bored. “Basically, he’s an idiot who has mistakenly decided his ultimate objective should be to ensure a set group of people centered around him controls the wars and government. He advocates reinstating the slave cla.s.s that was utterly abolished a few decades back. He claims the stagnation of the Legitimacy Kingdom economy is due to a lack of a working force.”

“He is trying to use language to bring about this reform in social cla.s.ses. City Slicker is an ardent language preservation activist.”

“You mean he discriminates based on whether you can speak the language or not?”

“Yes. City Slicker fears the decay of the Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language more than anything else. He is rumored to have been behind a few terrorist attacks involving things such as a.s.sa.s.sinations of foreign language band members and bombings of foreign language schools. There was never enough evidence, though,” said Heivia.

Quenser frowned and said, “It is true that you occasionally hear about languages dying out because not enough people used it and it was not pa.s.sed on to enough people, but this is the Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language City Slicker is talking about, right? It’s the official language of one of the major world powers. It isn’t going to die out so easily.”

“The Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language is primarily based on French with influences from the languages of the other European cultures added in. You know that much, right, Quenser?” With a smile, Froleytia tapped her shoulder. A few letters were written on the unit insignia there. “But what language is used on the military’s unit insignias?”

“…English.”

“Things like military jargon, internet tags, and programming languages are often based around English even now. It is a relic of an age before the arrival of Objects, but I would be lying if I said it wasn’t easier to just keep using the existing terminology. But City Slicker will not allow that. Unless everything down to the last restaurant menu is in the Legitimacy Kingdom’s official language, he will not be satisfied.”

“It sounds more like he’s the one destroying a linguistic culture. So did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d Nutley shoot us in the back over that?”

“If you add in some clever seasoning, language preservation activism can seem like quite a beautiful thing,” Heivia said, grinning. “If n.o.bles and commoners spoke the same language, everyone could get along. Men could get along with women, adults could get along with children, and people of every skin color could get along. If we could just speak to each other in the same language, everyone could smile together. Isn’t that just wonderful!? …Their sales pitch is something like that.”

“Of course, they don’t bring up the reverse side of the coin. That worldview shows that you have no intention of smiling together with those who cannot speak your language. In fact, it shows you do not even intend to treat them like fellow human beings.”

“Nutley was black.”

“True, but Cookman was black, too. And Myonri was Asian. The Legitimacy Kingdom may be based on the culture of a bygone era of kings and knights, but black n.o.bles are not exactly rare these days. There doesn’t really seem to be a foundation for those words to work off of and lead him astray.”

“It does not matter if the foundation actually exists or not. As long as Nutley had even the slightest doubts along those lines, Prizewell City Slicker just had to find them and use them.”

“But you also said City Slicker was a lineage advocate…”

“Yes. Just like with the mafia, he surrounds himself with blood relatives. Deep down, he will never trust a stranger. He uses language when choosing his ‘p.a.w.ns’.”

That talk left a bitter taste in Quenser’s mouth.

City Slicker may have seen it as nothing more than using tactics from his field of expertise.

“He does not care about anyone besides himself,” muttered Froleytia in an evaluation of the leader of the 24th. She gently blew out some smoke. “That is why he did not fit in even among the n.o.bles. That made him feel the need to rush things. This entire incident seems to be his attempt to gain more of a right to speak within the Legitimacy Kingdom through his military contributions. Then, he can continue with his language preservation activism. …But you saw what happened. His slaughter of the Faith Organization civilians was stopped and he failed to create the spark he wanted. His information manipulation that was meant to take advantage of the confusion also failed. His political maneuvering was exposed and his influence has plummeted. Before long, his position as a n.o.ble will likely be officially revoked and will be treated as a pitiable ‘fallen n.o.ble’.”

“But he took action before that could happen,” muttered Quenser.

Froleytia shrugged lightly and said, “He might be hoping to cross the Atlantic, threaten the Sovereign Parliament, and correct his political trajectory, or he might be hoping to attack an Information Alliance city in eastern America to restore his influence. Whatever he plans to do, it is nothing but a nuisance and the higher ups of the military do not want any of it to happen. After he came so far, I almost feel sorry for him. Not that I intend to hold back,” she said offhandedly. “Prizewell City Slicker’s goal is not to overthrow the Legitimacy Kingdom. He simply wants to retain his position within the current system. From there, he wants to obtain a position that gives him overwhelming military force that he can use to prod the Sovereign Parliament in the direction of his own views.”

“They only have the Indigo Plasma, right?”

“Yes, but this area is something like Prizewell City Slicker’s manor. Rumor has it he privately owns an unofficially operated weapons factory somewhere around here. It is possible they were resupplied while on the move and that the Object is now equipped with weapons not in the diagrams we have. If we let our guard down, we could run into a most unwelcome surprise.”

“But we have three Objects while they have just the one,” said Heivia to Quenser in a joking tone. “Whatever equipment they may have gained, the numbers are just too different. Our victory is ensured. The only real problem is the bad taste shooting fellow Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers will leave in our mouths.”

“Yes, we will almost a.s.suredly achieve victory in the end,” agreed Froleytia. “But do not forget that we could take damages in the process. The son of the Winch.e.l.l family does not intend to get killed by a stray bullet with victory before his eyes, does he?”

Heivia’s jocular expression froze in place at Froleytia’s cold tone.

A few hours later, the maintenance base zone made up of a convoy of large vehicles had been constructed. Froleytia gathered the members of the unit and began the pre-mission briefing.

“The enemy will be here soon.” She used a projector to display a map on the screen behind her. “We are up against the 24th Mobile Maintenance Battalion and the Indigo Plasma. There is no need to think of them as fellow Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers. They sullied the name of the Legitimacy Kingdom enough for the Sovereign Parliament to officially declare them an enemy force. To prevent any unnecessary damages such as any to civilians, we must eliminate the unit and its leader Prizewell City Slicker.”

This did not cause a stir in the crowd.

They had all clearly seen the true nature of the Indigo Plasma when it tried to slaughter civilians on the Kamchatka Peninsula, even if those civilians were from an enemy nation. Modern war made a clear distinction between safe countries and battlefields. The true nature of Froleytia and the 37th she commanded had also been made clear when they had led the civilians to the submarines even when doing so had no real merit for her unit. A force that crossed that line had to be destroyed before it could grow any more powerful.

“As its name would suggest, the Indigo Plasma is a Second Generation Object that specializes in the use of low-stability plasma cannons. It is quite powerful on its own, but it seems tactics have been put together for it that include working together with a unit of foot soldiers. …That is because they were part of the Legitimacy Kingdom military. They a.n.a.lyzed our victories and tried to add that into their own force.”

A few people in the crowd gave some sarcastic applause, but Quenser was taken aback. He had not been fighting Objects in order to help slaughterers grow more powerful.

To get rid of the heavy atmosphere, Quenser asked, “What exactly will we be doing?”

“Basically, we will take them out here on the coast of Victoria Island. The Baby Magnum and the Snow Quake will obstruct their path on land while the Active Sledge will cut off their retreat on the sea. The 24th will not try to take us on in a straight fight. Their foot soldier unit will likely try something. They have no chance while it is 3 to 1, so they will enact a strategy meant to destroy our unity.”

“Is there any information that needs special attention?”

“The 24th is taking this action because they believe they will end up with better odds even than 1 on 1 if we sabotage each other. I doubt the battle will go exactly as they wish it to, but there is a real danger of unnecessary confusion causing damages to spread farther than necessary. If you do not wish to die needlessly in a battle we end up winning, make sure to stay on your guard.”

After that, she explained specifically what different units would be doing. More foot soldiers were being deployed than usual. The fact that Froleytia was sending out over 100 foot soldiers showed just how worried she was about the 24th Mobile Maintenance Battalion’s foot soldier unit.

When the pre-mission briefing was over, Heivia slipped into the group of soldiers heading for the exit and worked his way over toward Quenser.

“Hey, hero. What area are you headed to?”

“Area F.”

“Then we’ll be together.”

“We’re setting bombs along the 24th’s route to stop their foot soldiers and vehicles, right?”

“C’mon now, stop that. Reconfirming what we’re doing right before we head out is just going to make us more nervous. When did you get to be so smart?”

“I don’t want to be treating this like I’m cramming before the night of an entrance exam. Hating things like that was what led me to becoming a battlefield student. But I might die if I don’t do it. Rumor has it the Indigo Plasma has had additions using private funds. If that’s true, the Legitimacy Kingdom military’s blueprint won’t be reliable. Just the other day with the Wing Balancer, we saw how dangerous misreading an Object’s abilities is.”

“…Yeah, no one expected to find an Object that could actually jump,” said Heivia in disgust.

As they left the a.s.sembly room, they spotted a few unfamiliar men sitting with their backs against the corridor wall. Their clothes made it clear they were not military men. They could only be described as dirty middle-aged men.

As they pa.s.sed the men, Quenser asked Heivia, “Who are they?”

“The CS broadcast staff I would a.s.sume. The one for that military show. We came straight here from the Kamchatka Peninsula. The Black Uniforms withdrew to help with the mission, but there was no time to deal with the TV crew. They have to stick around here until the cargo planes head back to a safe country.”

“I’m surprised the media isn’t restricted from coming outside while a scandal like this is going on.”

“Normally, they would be thrown into detention cells in the name of intelligence preservation. Our huge-breasted commander may be generally frightening, but one of her good points is her ability to be oddly allowing about these kinds of things.”

“…But a battle is about to start, right? Is that really okay?”

“How should I know? But they came to a maintenance base on the front lines, so they had to have been prepared for some kind of trouble to occur. At the very least, it would have been written in tiny letters at the bottom of whatever paperwork they signed. Otherwise, that huge-breasted commander would never have allowed it.”

(So is she kind or is she not…?)

Quenser turned around once and looked at a cameraman who looked entirely exhausted. Had they been expecting a clean battle between Objects that was like an official sports compet.i.tion?

However, there would be no point in speaking to them.

Quenser did not have the authority to send them back to a safe country and he could not pilot a cargo plane.

“…Does that mean their star is still here too?” wondered Quenser.

“Oh, she was amazing. She reminded me of a nostalgic idol from the old days. She had white and pink camouflage on. She must have been preparing for a firefight in a gla.s.s of strawberry milk.”

“I wonder if it would be inconsiderate of me to ask for her signature in this situation.”

“You can probably manage it during the confusion of the victory party.”

Suddenly, the princess walked around a corner of the corridor while holding a few ration packages. She spotted Quenser and Heivia and approached them.

“Oh, are you on your way to board the Baby Magnum?”

“Ugh, those rations look as disgusting as ever. Hey, how about we go on strike when things are a little more peaceful?”

The princess ignored Heivia’s suggestion that could have been interpreted as treason and looked over at Quenser.

“…The old lady was acting oddly.”

“Hah?”

“I guess you do not know what is happening either.”

The princess gave a heavy sigh. She must have been worried.

Heivia must have overlooked how serious she was taking it because he said, “Everyone gets a little nervous just before a mission. This time there will be a lot of foot soldiers on the front lines in addition to the Objects. Maybe she’s worried about us like we’re her family.”

“Could it really just be that?” said the princess with a puzzled look as she headed to the Object maintenance area.

“…”

Quenser stared at her back as she left, but then…

“Ahn? Hey, Quenser, where are you going? We’ll be heading out soon.”

“I’m taking a detour.”

“I see. Go off and hear out that old lady’s worries if you like, but be quick about it.”

“I’m not that softhearted. It’s just that all these battles have left me with little time to study Object design. I have enough time to make a quick visit to the maintenance area. I need to cram my head full of as much knowledge as I can.”

“Enough with the excuses, lady killer. Go make that old woman’s heart go all aflutter.”

Ignoring Heivia’s one-sided conclusion, Quenser headed for the maintenance area. The princess must have headed for the Object as quickly as she could because he did not catch up to her on the way.

The flow of time felt different inside.

Everything was much, much faster.

The speed at which things and people moved was much greater than normal.

A fair amount of damage had been taken in the battle with the Wing Balancer on the Kamchatka Peninsula. And now they had another battle coming up. They wanted to repair that damage as much as possible. After all…

(We are up against a traitor that has left the Legitimacy Kingdom. The normal rules of war no longer apply. We cannot use the white flag, so a loss means a slaughter.)

It was like there was a cliff one step behind them. The desire to get as much done as possible was understandable.

“Boy,” said a voice from behind him.

He turned around and found the old maintenance lady approaching with a toolbox.

“This is an emergency battle preparation. I do not have time to lecture an amateur.”

“You’re always telling me to steal as much information as I can using my eyes. I came here to test just how much I can absorb during the real deal.”

“Hmph,” said the old lady before making a motion telling Quenser to follow her and then beginning to walk once more.

As the princess had said, she was not being very talkative. Also, it seemed to be more than just pre-battle jitters. The other maintenance soldiers were in oddly high spirits as they forced themselves into an explosion of activity. Their att.i.tude was the more common one for maintenance soldiers.

The old maintenance lady did not head for the metal framework of scaffolding around the Object’s main body. Instead, she headed for a crane a bit away from the Object. It was one of the types used at ports and s.h.i.+pyards that had the operator’s seat located a few dozen meters up into the air.

Instead of lowering the crane’s operator’s seat to the ground, the two of them jumped from scaffolding sticking out into empty air and onto the open area attached around the operator’s seat. The method was not exactly good to Quenser’s heart.

“Th-this isn’t the usual type of crane we use.”

“It is a Legitimacy Kingdom military format, but it is one of the pieces of equipment we borrowed from the unit already on Victoria Island. We could hardly fit everything aboard the cargo planes.”

That meant a few of the 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion’s proper vehicles had been left behind on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

As Quenser thought about that, the old maintenance lady tossed him a pair of binoculars.

“You can steal with your eyes best if you’re high up, right? Also, we can’t have someone who doesn’t understand the rhythm of things wandering around down there.”

“You sure are harsh…”

Quenser entered the enclosed area that contained the crane’s operator’s seat.

It was a large area. He felt like an entire 10-person van could fit inside. A single seat was installed in the center and various b.u.t.tons and levers were installed around it. Also…

“Wow, the floor’s transparent. If you threw someone who was afraid of heights in here, they’d probably tell you anything to be let out.”

“Cranes like this need some way to see what is going on down below.”

“But is this crane really being used? I see an electric hot water dispenser, magazines, sleeping bags, and other small things in here. It looks like people are living in here.”

“As I said, we borrowed it. A lot of the equipment they use is not all that useful here. We thought it could at least function as a break room.”

“Hmm,” said Quenser as he looked around.

There were a lot of tools to kill time scattered about. A few board games were spread out on the floor. He saw a few mechanically-focused magazines he did not recognize strewn about. He also saw a horseracing magazine that let you buy tickets online. It had things highlighted throughout. Amid it all was a digital picture frame. It showed an ephemeral-looking girl with black hair.

Quenser picked it up and asked the old lady, “Whose is this?”

“It’s mine.”

“Hehh. So is this your daughter? Or your granddaughter?”

“It’s me.”

“!!!???”

Quenser quickly looked up from the digital picture frame and then back down at the image data.

“…D-do you have the special ability to turn young again on nights with a full moon?”

“You idiot. This was taken a long time ago. You should be able to tell that from the cityscape in the background. That kind of scenery no longer exists on the j.a.panese Islands.”

“Eh…?” Quenser froze in place. “The j.a.panese Islands?”

The old lady clicked her tongue at that question. She seemed to regret letting that slip out.

Finally, she sighed and said, “I am an immigrant from the Capitalist Corporations. You could even say I was a refugee.”

Yes, the j.a.panese Islands were Capitalist Corporations territory.

They were actually divided between east and west. The western portion of the islands was controlled by a power that wished for a revival of the Imperial Court system and they had made a large-scale secession to the Faith Organization. The Faith Organization and the Legitimacy Kingdom were in conflict over whose power the Imperial Court system should be reinstated under. Also, the Capitalist Corporations side had their values change whenever maintenance was done to their advanced information infrastructure and they were mocked as beginning to transfer over to a more Information Alliance-like system. All in all, it was a very unclear and possibly explosive situation. However, the j.a.panese Islands were officially known as belonging to the Capitalist Corporations.

“But as you can clearly see, I am not a pure Asian.”

“Well, they did start letting in a lot of immigrants to combat the effects of the low birthrates and high age of the population.”

“Historically, that is what helped allow the technological information on Objects to spread so widely.”

“So what was this about being a refugee?”

“It was due to my daughter and her husband.” Quenser had expected her to refuse, but she answered quite readily. “They did some charitable work. Specifically, they worked to bring steady agricultural technology to areas short of food. They advertised their work with the phrase ‘We can save people suffering due to a lack of crops simply by lowering the grade of the convenience store bentos we eat for lunch’. That was what led to us becoming refugees.”

“Why? There’s nothing wrong with that.”

“Oh, yes there is. The Capitalist Corporations is a world power where the economy and the corporations control the government and the wars. A large convenience store group grew angry. They treated it as information terrorism that was applying serious damage to the economy using words. My daughter and her husband were very 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 j.a.panese 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?”

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 j.a.pan, 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, G.o.d. 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.)

“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 s.a.d.i.s.t,” 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… d.a.m.n. 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 ma.s.s 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 pa.s.sing 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 a.n.a.lyst. 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 pa.s.sed from the last group heading out.

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

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

“And that brings me back to wis.h.i.+ng 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 friends.h.i.+p.”

“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 s.h.i.+t out of you, so I can hardly call that a safe plan.”

As they were about to pa.s.s 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. .h.i.t.”

“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 s.h.i.+eld against the soldiers beyond it. It had no effect against Heivia’s sniper shot from the side.

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

“What the h.e.l.l?” 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 pa.s.scode.

“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 h.e.l.l? 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!?”

“s.h.i.+t, 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 ma.s.sive 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 eyeb.a.l.l.s 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?”

“…G.o.d 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.

“s.h.i.+t…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 gla.s.s. 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 ma.s.s 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 Quake’s propulsion device was a problem, but the Active Sledge was approaching from the sea to help. The two Objects used all their installed cannons and the princess was gaining the upper hand in the battle. The Indigo Plasma would soon be destroyed.

Or so Quenser thought.

He then heard some unbelievable words over his radio coming from a controller back at the base.

“The Active Sledge has been destroyed!!”

“…What?”

“I repeat, the Active Sledge has been greatly damaged and has sunk!! The pilot Elite is confirmed to have escaped. The Object cannot continue fighting!!”

“How!?” shouted Quenser as he grabbed at his radio. “The Indigo Plasma was supposed to be the 24th’s only Object!! So how was the Active Sledge sunk!?”

“I do not know. It was suddenly blown away. We are checking the satellite imagery as we speak!!”

“s.h.i.+t,” swore Quenser as he pulled out his handheld device.

He could view the GPS map, too. He called up the data on the area of sea the Active Sledge had been pa.s.sing through. Sure enough, the friendly Object had disappeared. It had sunk to the bottom of the ocean.

What Quenser could see was something he simply could not understand.

He saw 6 giant forms.

As if to replace the Active Sledge, six shapes just as large as the Active Sledge could be seen.

That was what had blown away the friendly Object.

Quenser could not believe it, but they could only be…

“Are all these 6 things…Objects…?” gasped Quenser.

He then heard the controller speaking from his radio.

“We went back through the footage and checked. They came from the sea. They rose up from within the sea!! Radar signals on the sea are attenuated by the thick ice, so they have difficulty reaching the waters below. The satellite and radar have difficulty staying in focus when trying to target an Object in the sea. We should have been on our guard for submarines coming from the sea!!”

“From the sea?” Heivia looked like he had just heard a really bad joke. “What do you mean from the sea!? Did these Objects take a replicant inspiration from orcas or dolphins!?”

“Dammit…”

As he stood atop the hill, Quenser looked blankly off into the distance.

He could see something gigantic approaching beyond the white horizon.

“I can see them!? They really are Objects. The 24th really does have 6 more Objects in addition to the Indigo Plasma!!”

The overall silhouette was similar to the Indigo Plasma’s. The two main cannons had been reduced to one and the 5 ski-like parts on the back had been reduced to two, but the design was still basically the same.

And an Object was an Object.

No one could stop their advance.

The six Objects forcefully broke through the ice covering the ocean surface in a straight path for Victoria Island. They had isosceles triangle-shaped floats for moving along the sea, but they automatically detached when they approached the beach. With a thick metallic noise, the six Objects separated from the floats and smoothly moved up onto land and to the front line of the battlefield.

Quenser and the others could not do anything.

There was nothing they could even hope to do.

As the Objects approached, Quenser leaped to the side. He lay flat on the ground and placed his hands over the back of his head. The 50+ meter machine pa.s.sed by relatively nearby. It paid him no heed whatsoever.

“Heivia? Hey, what is it? Pull yourself together!!” shouted Quenser.

Heivia remained on the ground, refusing to stand up. His arms and legs were trembling eerily. Six new Objects had joined the battle. Heivia was in a state of shock at the new development.

Even as he shook Heivia’s shoulder, Quenser’s mental state was pushed to its limits.

He had no idea what had happened.

He could not understand what they had done wrong to end up in that situation.

He started having trouble breathing and it felt like the connections between thoughts in his mind started to snap.

But…

The seven Objects of the 24th Mobile Maintenance Battalion took action to end the battle before anyone had time to think.

First, they fired through the Snow Quake that’s movements had dulled due to its damaged propulsion device.

Now that it was isolated after losing its two friendly Objects, the Baby Magnum was attacked.

Even with the power of an Object, it was left helpless while on its own.

Low-stability plasma cannons fired from multiple directions at staggered intervals ripped away piece after piece of the princess’s armor. It lost all ability to function in less than 60 seconds.

(This is insane…)

Quenser could not even force out his voice.