Volu 12, Day 1
Part 1
Morning ca early for the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion.
Even so, Quenser was not pleased as he rubbed his sleepy eyes in the triple bunk bed he was cramd into and glanced over at the glow-in-the-dark hands of the clock.
“You’re kidding, right? It’s not even four yet.”
It was an oppressively hot August night. He had been woken by the vibration of his wristwatch that was synced with his handheld device, so he sluggishly put his usual military uniform over his sweat-soaked shirt and boxers. To his displeasure, he realized he had been bitten all over by mosquitos and scratched at his arms and legs.
He had been received an urgent summons, so he did not have ti to brush his hair or wash his face. He descended the ladder and stepped out into the hall while making sure not to wake the other soldiers in the dark barracks. His face and body were uncomfortably sticky.
His handheld device provided details on the summons.
It was from Frolaytia Capistrano.
He left the normal soldiers’ barracks and hurried to the special barracks for officers. He was acting on orders, but he was still blinded by the bright light of a patrolling soldier’s military flashlight.
And that soldier turned out to be his awful friend Heivia.
“Huh? What are you doing out this late?”
“Heivia? You didn’t have patrol duty tonight, did you?”
“...”
“...”
The two of them exchanged a glance that transford into a wholehearted look of dread.
Waiting for them in the special barracks was a busty, silver-haired, and highly-educated(?) girl. Despite the late hour, that commanding officer of theirs wore her uniform impeccably.
“When do you sleep?” complained Quenser when he peeked inside her private room which was decorated by her love of the Island Nation.
“I’m more surprised that a battlefield student was sleeping the night away. The lights are still on in the Object maintenance bay, you know?”
Frolaytia tossed him a cylindrical bottle of wet tissues and he wiped off his oily face.
“Could I go observe their work now?”
“Absolutely not.” Their busty commander bluntly rejected the idea. “I called you two here for a reason. And sorry, but I want you to focus on this mission.”
“I don’t think I’m going to have much luck focusing on anything that isn’t peeping on the won’s bath or sneaking a late-night date with a sexually frustrated commander.”
“Do you rember forr Councilor Flide?”
“You’re just going to ignore my great sexual harassnt joke!? Please stop continuing the conversation like that. Especially when it ans bringing up such a super pain-in-the-ass of a guy,” complained Quenser. “Frolaytia, you forgot the part where you tell us there’s no turning back after we hear this and then give us the choice to leave or stay. You’re just dragging us into this without a choice!!”
“That sly old man has nothing to do with this, so calm down. Do you rember the Pilot Elite he raised like a protégé? The one for the Exact Javelin.”
The two idiots exchanged a glance and gave their answers.
“Oh, you an that one that rose up from its underground base to say hello?”
“No, you moron. It’s the one we fought on so test grounds overflowing with nature.”
“I think you’re getting confused with sothing else.”
“Hey, I’m dependent on my phone’s address book to make any calls. I doubt I could morize an eleven digit number. Exact Javelin? It kind of rings a bell, but I can’t quite place it...”
“But I do rember there being a 12-year-old little girl Elite with a blonde braid.”
“But I do rember there being a 12-year-old little girl Elite with a blonde braid.”
“Well, at least I know how awful you two are,” said Frolaytia as she wrote this off as a lost cause.
The two idiots continued tilting their heads, but she got on with the conversation while spinning around her beloved kiseru.
“This is a request from the top brass sitting around in their safe countries. They have finished questioning that 12-year-old Pilot Elite nad Catherine Blueangel. Based on the request from her case officer, she wants to retire and return to a normal life instead of living in a military facility while waiting for her ‘next’ Object to be completed...if one ever is. We have no objection there, but this girl was separated from the military as a whole as a part of that pig Flide’s personal troops. There are so legitimate concerns whether or not she can really live a normal life.”
“Isn’t this a job for a school counselor?”
“She is going through the Civilian Acclimation Assistance System. Before she is left with the nonresistance group Archaic Smile, she must have her claws and fangs filed down. As soone who is halfway between military and civilian and as the battlefield student who took part in the operation to destroy the Exact Javelin and rescue Catherine, you would be best for the job, Quenser. And Heivia, you’re only the second best option since you’re an official soldier. Do you understand the situation now?”
Seeing the blatant disgust on the two idiots’ faces, Frolaytia gave a large nod.
“Catherine will accompany you to low-danger battlefields in order to gradually shift her thought processes from those of a battlefield country to those of a safe country. Once her small hands no longer need a gun in them, we can feel comfortable passing her off to a normal school or tutor. We’ll chuck her into a safe country and call it a day. And it won’t take that long. It should be a month or two at most.”
“That explains it,” muttered Heivia.
They were not in a filthy battlefield country like normal. This was still a military mission, but they had received the kind of warm welco the 37th was usually never lucky enough to receive.
“But I don’t see why you had to wake us up at four in the morning to tell us that.”
“Catherine was the one who requested you two. And she seems to be accustod to an entirely different ti zone. Since the VIP arrived at the maintenance base zone before the newspapers were even delivered, we had to get started early.”
“What?”
Just as Quenser voiced his confusion, a modest knock ca at the door.
The two idiots had a bad feeling about this and hesitantly turned around. The door cracked opened, but instead of stepping inside, a 12-year-old poked half her head inside and peered up at the people in the room.
Then the tiny demon nervously spoke.
“Big...brother...?”
Part 2
“It’s August! Sumr is in full swing!! This is the season for Monica, the idol reporter who can both dance and sing in a dazzling bikini!! Umm, according to an announcent by the major sightseeing group Resort & Dolce, their affiliated private resorts are 47% busier than average for this ti of year. The heat wave caused by this abnormal weather pattern is sitting over a wide section of the world, so the sightseeing business is booming across the board.”
They sat below the scorching sun.
This was the south side of Second Venice. Major Frolaytia Capistrano, the busty silver-haired officer, had changed into a swimsuit and was lying in a beach chair as a cheerful swimsuit idol’s voice ca from a nearby waterproof pool TV.
“Ahh,” sighed the busty commander. “Bikinis really are in this year.”
Splashing and the shrill cries of young female soldiers could be heard not far away. The refreshing low-humidity breeze carried a hint of chlorine because this was an outdoor pool, not the ocean.
Villas for the rich were apparently well-equipped with palm trees and hibiscus flowers.
Several beach chairs were lined up along the poolside and the one next to Frolaytia’s was occupied by the delinquent noble nad Heivia Winchell.
“Should we really be doing this?” he lazily asked.
“If you don’t like it, you can change back into your sweaty uniform and get back to work.”
“...That’s the problem with this busty commander. She can be so inhumanly cruel.”
“Can’t you tell I’m doing my best to relax here? I’m not going to play along just because you ‘felt like saying it’. I know you have zero intention of getting back to your mission. Did you ditch Catherine Blueangel the first chance you got? She’s a 12-year-old girl, you know?”
“Boo. I an, yeah, I did, but a student like Quenser can handle sothing like this. And Catherine wants to attend a safe country school, right?”
“You’re worse than scum. You’re sgma.”
“What did I say about the inhuman cruelty!?”
Heivia really seed about to cry, but Frolaytia had no interest in that and rolled away from the idiot. She grabbed a toxically blue drink from the side table, took a sip through the straw, and spotted a female soldier (in a frilly pink swimsuit) approaching her.
“M-Major Capistrano! May I have permission to speak!?”
“You already are speaking. What is it, Myonri?”
“The evacuation of Second Venice’s villa district is complete. The people have been distributed between the concert halls, soccer fields, and indoor winter sports facilities and all 128,501 people on the island have been accounted for.”
“It’s possible the harbor companies hired so undocunted porters to cut down on labor costs. Don’t forget to search the empty city. Nothing good will co of only using those drones that are all the rage these days.”
“Um, I know what you an, but on what basis should we perform this second search?”
“Water consumption. You can fool the docuntation, but you can’t fool the ter. And if you check the water departnt, it doesn’t violate the individual’s privacy. Focus the search to the areas where the docunted number of workers doesn’t fit the water consumption. And don’t forget to check for water dispensers that use bottles.”
Myonri bowed, walked away, and began giving instructions over the radio.
Frolaytia sat up in her beach chair, raised her arms, and bent her back. This pushed out and accentuated her large chest all the more.
“Now, it’s about ti to get back to work.”
The wind was a little too strong to be called a diterranean resort breeze.
They were in a midair park located 150 ters from the ground.
The roof a modern ultra-high-rise building had been turned into a large villa. And this one was not the only one. Either due to limited land or as a status symbol, all of the countless buildings had white marble mansions built on their roofs.
They all had pools and tennis courts, but no one was there to use them.
The city was entirely abandoned.
As Myonri had ntioned, the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion was leading a large scale evacuation.
Frolaytia had been enjoying a brief break at one of the open locations, but now she spoke while staring up into the clear blue sky.
“An outdated satellite drop weapon, hm?”
She looked like she could see a venomous snake’s eyes glaring back at her from within a bush.
“Now, then. It’s ti for the world’s largest fireworks show.”
Part 3
“Should I go with this one or this one...?” asked a voice as clear as a bell.
Quenser wore casual clothing and watched the girl’s back as he tried to keep the boredom from his face.
He was with Catherine Blueangel.
She was a 12-year-old girl with her long blonde hair tied in a waist-length braid. And she wore a blue special suit that showed off her juvenile bodylines as clearly as the Princess’s did hers. Second Venice was known as one of the world’s largest resort cities and she had made a certain request as soon as she had arrived here with Quenser.
“I want to buy so clothes! Or a swimsuit!!”
(Why couldn’t she have been at least three years older? Whyyy!?)
It was disappointing, but he could not fast-forward or rewind ti. Idiot #1 did his best to motivate himself by deciding he would train her now to beco a wonderful beauty in the future. As an advertisent for an official tie-in, the G-cup Oh Ho Ho idol was winking and pressing her breasts together on the store’s flat-screen monitor. The contrast was incredible.
Catherine turned around, causing her long braid to sway, and showed Quenser the two products she held in her hands.
“Big brother, should I go with the bikini or the one-piece?”
“Catherine, they have a swimsuit known as a monokini for greedy people like you. It looks like a one-piece from the front and a bikini from behind, so it provides the sa enjoynt as a naked apron.”
“Ehhh? I see.”
It was not that she was disturbed by how seriously he took his answer.
“It’s not fun if you just give the answer. I read in a book that the fun is in trying on a bunch of clothes and trying to figure out what you like best!”
“Oh, so is it like taking your ti eating instant noodles so they fill you up more?”
“...How insensitive do you have to be to use a comparison like that in front of a girl?”
Catherine decided to try them both on and disappeared behind the fitting room’s curtain with both swimsuits in hand.
This mall on the south side had soft lighting, cool air conditioning, and music playing from the store speakers, but there were no other custors and no employees. For the operation to intercept the satellite drop weapon, the normal citizens had already been evacuated to sturdy facilities such as theatres and stadiums.
Quenser sighed and a transmission reached his earpiece.
“You seem to be enjoying yourself...”
“Princess?”
“You may not have had a choice since these were your orders, but keep in mind that you are being paid with everyone’s taxes, Quenser. Hmph.”
The Princess seed to be in a bad mood.
However, she needed to do a perfect job.
There was of course a good reason for the Legitimacy Kingdom’s 37th Mobile Maintenance Battalion to be enjoying themselves in this world-class luxury resort (and spy’s paradise).
“...The satellite drop weapon?”
“Yes.”
That was a bombing weapon that was placed on standby in satellite orbit and would damage an enemy nation by changing its orbit to drop down toward earth when needed.
The one causing problems now was a Legitimacy Kingdom one known as the Supernova.
The model was loaded with a thermobaric warhead that would turn a 1.2 kiloter radius into ashes and the satellite itself was designed for stealth. It normally remained on standby in orbit, so its boosters did not provide much of a heat source. That made it a powerful but difficult to track weapon.
“I wish this was so kind of joke,” complained Quenser Barbotage.
Most of the large shopping mall was covered in glass, so he could see the outside bay area from the swimsuit section. Second Venice was a giant artificial island that moved as it pleased through the diterranean Sea and it was currently “moored” at Malta to resupply. The protruding south side of the gafloat was attached to the natural island. The coasts almost looked like mirror images with their rows of high-rose buildings and a fifty ter mass was located near those coasts.
It was the 1st Generation Object known as the Baby Magnum.
It had a spherical main body, an upside-down Y-shaped static electricity propulsion device, and seven main cannons supported by the seven arms attached to its back. Those main cannons could switch between laser beams, low-stability plasma cannons, and other varieties like a microscope swapping out its lens.
Seeing it through a layer of glass made it look like sothing happening on TV.
But saying that would only piss off the Princess more, so he held his tongue.
“I really wish they’d done their job managing that thing up there. That bomb was supposed to have been abandoned more than twenty years ago, so why is it about to fall down on us now? And it’s going to fall on an Information Alliance villa region? If this causes any damage, it’ll start a war...”
“It can’t be helped,” said the Princess. “Disarming bombs is part of the military’s job.”
Quenser heard humming from beyond the fitting room curtain. Catherine’s little butt must have been bumping into the curtain because it would sotis nearly flutter open.
“And despite the impressive-sounding specs, Frolaytia said this won’t be a very difficult mission.”
“Yeah. A satellite drop weapon gives us a lot more opportunities to intercept than a ballistic missile. Plus you’ve got a Generation One, Princess. You have the ans to deal with normal weaponry instead of just other Objects. You’ve got a ton of anti-air lasers, so this shouldn’t be hard at all. I an, your Object was developed to handle an MIRV that breaks apart in midair and scatters twenty or thirty nuclear warheads.”
“H-heh. It’s not that impressive. Heh heh.”
The Princess must have enjoyed having her Object’s specs complinted because it sounded like she had grown imaginary dog ears and an imaginary dog tail.
While looking at the buildings, sea, and sky out the window, Quenser continued with clear annoyance in his voice.
“And I’m not too happy with Frolaytia either. More than half of this is cleaning up after her.”
“You an that ga of musical chairs?”
“This place is called Second Venice, right? And it was originally an Information Alliance luxury resort. But then 37th cos in, accidentally scares off the Object of the group protecting this area of sea, and then takes over Malta as a supply base.”
“But we couldn’t take over Second Venice because it’s a safe country.”
“I think that just put more of a burden on the people defending it. And on top of that, this is where the Supernova is going to fall. That thing was abandoned by the Legitimacy Kingdom and now we’re the only ones that can defend against it since the Information Alliance military withdrew. The timing couldn’t be worse! Why do we have to risk our lives to protect the bulldogs of an enemy nation!? Is this all I’m going to get to do this sumr!?”
“Are you that eager to get to the next battlefield, Quenser?”
“Why are enemy nations and battlefields the only options for my sumr!? And when I’m standing in a world-class resort no less!!”
Then another transmission reached the radio.
It was from Frolaytia.
“It’s about ti for the shooting star to arrive. The fireworks show will begin shortly. Princess, remain on standby in your cockpit.”
“Understood.”
“Done!” shouted a high-pitched voice before the fitting room curtain burst open.
“Heh heh. Bikinis are in this year, aren’t they?”
“I know. Anything but a bikini isn’t even an option. One-pieces are too kiddy.”
For so reason, the Princess agreed with her.
Catherine Blueangel had apparently chosen the black bikini. The student viewed her with the look of a classy gentleman walking through a quiet art museum.
(Yes, her taste shows promise for the future. Now I just have to hope she develops all the right curves.)
Frolaytia interrupted Art Appraiser Quenser.
“And Quenser, you need to regroup with Heivia and get to work.”
“Will we be taking Catherine’s little hand and guiding her to a shelter?”
It was unlikely, but there was a chance they would fail to shoot down the satellite drop weapon. And if it was shot down too low to the ground, the nearby windows could still shatter and create a downpour of glass shards.
Quenser focused on the conversation in his earpiece and used his empty hand to gesture Catherine over.
But...
“Unfortunately, we discovered soone on the list who was not evacuated. His na is Faires Appetizer. He seems to be an Information Alliance astronor, but the point is we can’t find the old man. Search the city before the fireworks show begins. Looking at the situation, you have less than twenty minutes.”
“Oh, goddammit! We’re stuck working to the very, very end!?”
“The site isn’t far. It’s in the south side where we are. We fortunately, picked up his smartphone’s GPS signal, so you can use that. If you don’t collect him soon, you’ll be caught in the middle of the fireworks show. Even if the Princess intercepts the Supernova itself, the shockwave could shatter all the windows in the buildings. If you don’t want shards of glass pouring down on you, then get this over with and find a building basent to shelter in. That is all.”
“That is all!? What about Catherine!?”
“Take her with you. Think of this as a form of recreation. You aren’t her guardian and when it cos to pure combat technique, she’s a hundred tis more powerful than you thanks to the various asures taken to artificially strengthen her.”
“...A hundred tis?”
“I’m not exaggerating. And I’m hanging up.”
The transmission ended.
Quenser sighed and the 12-year-old girl placed her hands on her bikini-wearing hips after listening in to the conversation.
“That’s right. A hundred tis. Nee hee.”
“Well, that’s good to hear. ...Princess, talk to you later.”
“Understood. Don’t do anything reckless, Quenser.”
As a Pilot Elite, Catherine seed to have quite a lot of money. She operated the card reader to pay for the swimsuit with electronic money. Being able to pay without a cashier present was convenient.
“Here, big brother, give a stamp!”
“Yes, yes.”
Catherine held out a waterproof case and Quenser pulled out sothing like a cardboard bingo card and made a round stamp on one corner. This was her quota for a normal life. Once she completed everything on the card, she levelled up to the next stage. This was effectively the first and last hurdle and she only had a simple interview afterwards. The process was known as the Civilian Acclimation Assistance System. It sounded strict, but it was actually made so hopeful participants could efficiently be given the go-ahead on moving to a safe country. It worked differently than the exams for an elite university or an international certification where failing was the standard outco.
“Heh heh heh.”
“Hm? You’re in a good mood, Catherine.”
“You don’t get it? A girl’s swimsuit has a special aning!”
Catherine stuffed her special suit inside the waterproof paper bag to a trendy store that would likely act as a status symbol itself. She then walked with Quenser through the large mall while still in her bikini. People must have dropped things during the confusion of the evacuation because bouquets of flowers and bead accessories were lying on the floor. Of course, they were all products with an egregious mark up to rip off ignorant tourists. Those tourist traps were apparently found in malls as well as along the roads near the airport.
After leaving the air conditioned building, they found Heivia in his uniform that had to be torture in the sweltering sun.
“Took you long enough.”
“What’s with the camo pants? Second Venice is all about operas and musicals, so there’s no place for a street dancer here. Yo yo.”
“Dammit, just you watch. Ahh, I shouldn’t have left her with you just because she’s outside my strike zone. All I did was enjoy the view of that busty commander in her bikini, and this is what I get. I’m right back into my uniform. Anyway, your bomb-filled backpack is in the sidecar.”
However, that awful friend of a noble was not on a motorcycle.
He was on a water scooter floating in a seawater canal. He must have been planning on picking up Quenser and Catherine to begin with because sothing like a motorcycle sidecar was attached.
“Let’s go nab that old astronor and get to shelter. I can’t stand seeing all this luxury. It’s pointless if I can’t visit here on my ti off!!”
The water scooter had two open spots: behind Heivia and the sidecar.
(Well, Heivia’s a pervert, so I guess I’ll sit behind him so Catherine can have the sidecar.)
With that in mind, Quenser stepped from the edge of the canal and toward the back seat of the water scooter.
Then he heard an odd voice behind him.
“On you go!”
“Wait, Catherine? Dwabh!?”
Just as he started shifting his center of gravity, she kicked him in the back. He flipped over, missed his target, and rolled into the sidecar.
And it did not end there.
The small 12-year-old in a black bikini hopped on top of his lap. She ignored the confused student and opened up the sidecar’s dashboard.
“ ‘Use a map to give soone directions.’ ...There it is. That’s another stamp!!”
“Check inside the dashboard if you like, but don’t lift your hips like that, Catherine. Your butt is in a pretty dangerous spot there. And it’s only covered by a black bikini.”
“Oh, whoops. How indecent of . A lady needs to sit properly, doesn’t she?”
“I’m not sure nestling down on my lap like that is better. Your butt just likes to cause trouble, doesn’t it?”
“You really are completely indiscriminate now, aren’t you?” comnted Heivia while holding the handlebars.
“I don’t like being blad when I’m the one under attack here. And I don’t know why she’s so fond of either. Hey, Catherine, why am I the only one you call ‘big brother’?”
“Hm? Because you’re big brother!”
She had plenty of energy, but her answer was not very helpful. anwhile, the clock was ticking and they could not wait around. Heivia twisted the handlebar grip, opened the throttle, and sent the water scooter racing along the canal that reflected the bright sun.
The scenery around them was an endless spider web of various-sized canals and countless bridges passing by overhead. A boat loaded with containers or an empty aquatic bus would occasionally pass them by, but they must have been unmanned.
To complete the task on her quota card, Catherine pointed out the way and Heivia steered them through the many canals. As usual, Quenser was nothing more than ballast as the young girl sat on his lap.
“It’s amazing how there really isn’t a single road in this city.”
“Second Venice is all about reminding you of the good old days. If you were making a city of slopes and stairs, adding an elevator would ruin it, right? They dug a bunch of grooves along the surface of the pizza and let the seawater fill them. This kind of ‘comfortable inconvenience’ is sothing you see in the hospitality industry as well as tourist sites. If everything is too perfect, people get tired of it pretty quickly. It’s the sa as a popular restaurant intentionally reducing the number of seats so a line forms out front or like increasing the difficulty level in a video ga.”
Their maintenance base zone was made from more than one hundred giant wheeled vehicles, so it was poorly suited for Second Venice where canals were the only form of travel. The base was deployed on nearby Malta.
They passed through the gap between high-rise buildings and squeezed past an aquatic bus as they continued on their way to the astronor.
“Didn’t they say the land here is twenty tis as expensive as in London? That’s why these tall buildings are all cramd in so tight.”
“The construction companies are the ones making the real money. They use fancy words like artificial island and gafloat, but it’s really a bunch of giant boxes made of aluminum. They’ve just marked up the price like crazy. It’s worse than the diamond or gold markets.”
“Yeah, the winners tend to win big. ...Catherine, don’t squirm like that. Try to keep in mind what your little butt is sitting on.”
“Nn,” was all the braid girl said, but she seed to be in a bad mood.
But not because she was focused on reading the map. She was having trouble breaking into the two idiots’ conversation.
“But it’s a hell of a coincidence that this is where the Supernova is falling, so I believe it’s partially a form of divine punishnt. God is watching and the commoner’s prayers are reaching him.”
“Aren’t you a super-spoiled noble?”
Quenser sat in the egg-shaped sidecar with Catherine on his lap. Like a human seatbelt, he naturally ended up wrapping his arms around her slender body to take a look at his handheld device.
It showed a map of Second Venice’s south side. But unlike Catherine’s paper map, it was zood in and their target was displayed as a dot.
“An astronor, huh? ...Why did that old man run off?”
“How should I know? Rumors spread pretty easily during disasters. Maybe he’s afraid the Legitimacy Kingdom has an ulterior motive for rounding all the tourists up in one spot. Maybe he thinks we’ll ransack the city while everyone’s away or slaughter everyone on the indoor ski slope. Putting unseen worries into concrete words is a stereotypical way of dealing with that anxiety.”
“A disaster?”
“You didn’t know, Quenser? Natural disasters aren’t the only kind. Our military receives funding for retrieval of unexploded ordnance as disaster relief.”
“So we bury the ordnance and then get paid to dig it back up?”
As they chatted, Heivia stopped the water scooter on the side of the canal.
“He’d probably notice if we drove any closer.” Heivia reached toward the sidecar. “Little bikini devil? There’s a pair of binoculars in the dashboard.”
“I can see without them. The package is 120 ters ahead.”
But since she could not share that information, Quenser reached below the girl’s arms and pulled out the binoculars. This required leaning forward, so he could not help but stick his nose toward the nape of her neck.
“Big brother, that tickles.”
“Hmm, so they have a feminine scent to their hair even at this age.”
“I get it, so just let do my job!!” tearfully shouted Heivia.
Quenser handed him the binoculars.
“Oh, there he is. That old man must be Faires Appetizer. But sothing isn’t right.”
“What is it?”
“He’s at the harbor, but there aren’t any boats. He’s holding his hands in the air. And there are several n and won around him. The one behind him is holding out sothing long and narrow. What is it? An assault rifle?”
Swimsuit Catherine added her own information from Quenser’s lap.
“There is a boat. Check the water’s surface more carefully. You can see a glimpse of a sunken yacht’s mast.”
Quenser was a complete amateur and had no way of checking on the situation, but he could tell this sounded like a pain in the ass. The old man had ignored the need to evacuate despite the risk and now soone had the kind of high-firepower gun unlikely to be found in the hands of anyone respectable.
“Who are they?”
“It doesn’t matter. As long as they aren’t amateurs.”
“We’re about 120 ters away, but do you think you can take them out with your rifle, Heivia?”
“I could shoot them easily enough, but don’t forget what I just said.” Heivia gave an annoyed shrug. “We have to check to make sure they aren’t amateurs. Simply put, we have to say ‘stop’ and ‘put your hands up’. We can’t shoot unless they show intent to resist. This isn’t a battlefield country after all.”
“Even though they have a hostage?”
“Waste ti doing that and they’ll shoot the old man,” said Catherine.
“Yeah.”
Quenser’s awful friend grinned.
And then he pointed up at the sweltering sun.
“I know a bit of a trick we can use. Care to try it, student?”
Part 4
The Princess sat in the cockpit of the Baby Magnum which had naval floats equipped. The transmissions from Frolaytia and the Legitimacy Kingdom were not the only ones she was picking up.
There were so from their enemies in the Information Alliance.
“Oh ho ho. That Supernova thing will be falling soon. This should be a good chance to see what you can do.”
“I know that.”
“Yes, I can see a Legitimacy Kingdom Object take responsibility for a Legitimacy Kingdom satellite drop weapon. Pu hu hu! You have beco the guardian deities of Second Venice, an Information Alliance luxury resort, haven’t you?”
“Again, I know that!!”
“I’d really like for you to get this over with. Oh ho ho. Unlike so filthy Elites I could ntion, I am quite busy. Right at this mont, I am in the middle of the final planning eting for an online concert. I will show you that a truly exciting Second Venice vacation involves a passionate musical performance in a swimsuit. Ho ho ho. Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho ho!!”
The angry Princess considered switching off her radio, but she just barely managed to resist.
(I could easily handle this ballistic weapon on my own.)
She pouted her lips, but more than one hundred thousand lives (even if they were from an enemy nation) rested on her shoulders. The more air defense weapons and anti-air lasers they had, the better.
She sighed and spoke to the other Elite.
“A Generation One will have better missile defense capabilities. I will take the lead role, so try not to get in my way.”
“Oh ho ho. Not to worry. I will leave this odd job to you.”
With a quiet beeping, new information was added to the monitor.
“Princess, the Supernova has begun reentry. As we suspected, it isn’t looking like it will burn up on the way. We are beginning the countdown based on the expected descent route. 30, 29, 28, 27, 26, 25...”
She did not wait.
A mont later, both the Baby Magnum and the Rush filled the entire sky with a spider web of blinding light.
Part 5
The entire sky was wrapped in flashes as bright as welding light.
Laser light itself could not be seen by the human eye. This light was the accumulated energy being released in every direction when the laser light struck the surface of the Supernova satellite drop weapon as it reentered the atmosphere.
And on the south side, Heivia used that exact timing to drive the water scooter full speed ahead while yelling.
“Attention suspicious people!! Put your guns down and your hands in the air!! You appear to have a hostage, so if you resist, we will follow the Legitimacy Kingdom peace preservation manual by opening fire!!”
“There’s no way they can hear you during this explosion...”
“That’s fine. If they did hear us, they’d probably actually shoot back.”
“You’re setting it up so we warned them, but they ‘just so happened’ not to hear it? You monster.”
As Heivia drove the water scooter with sidecar, they managed to arrive near the harbor in question while staying hidden behind an unmanned transportation boat loaded with containers. Heivia operated the throttle with one hand, and...
“I can’t fire my assault rifle with just one hand. Hey, student, I’ll give you the assault rifle, so you shoot.”
It was Catherine whose eyebrows twitched, not Quenser.
“Aim carefully and you can’t miss. This will start the second we move out from behind this boat. It’s shoot or be shot. That’s all there is to it.”
“Please no! I’ll probably end up shooting you right in the ass!”
“If you’re wearing casual clothes and you can’t even shoot, why did you even co along!?”
“I’m just a spectator!! Why couldn’t you figure that out!? You’re stupid and incompetent!!”
Heivia did not seem to hear Quenser’s complaints. His mind apparently filtered out all verbal abuse that did not co from a cute girl. He pulled out the large handgun that he kept as a sidearm and tossed the assault rifle to the sidecar.
Then sothing unexpected happened.
As the firearm flew through the air, two hands not belonging to Quenser grabbed it.
They belonged to Catherine Blueangel, the little black bikini devil.
“Oh, damn!”
“Hee hee hee. Since you can’t do it, I’ll help out☆”
Before they could say anything, Catherine hopped from the sidecar to the back seat of the water scooter. Then she built up her montum and climbed up onto the unmanned transportation boat.
“Catherine!”
“If I let you two go in without a real plan, you’ll just get killed. I’ll attack from a different angle, so let’s finish them off with so crossfire, okay? Big brother, make sure to give my stamp for giving directions afterwards. Adieu.”
They did not have ti to go after her.
Quenser ducked down as the gunfire started.
“Now she’s done it!”
“That kid’s got a light trigger finger!! I can see why they didn’t think an elegant safe country tutor could handle her. They’d get their hand bit!!”
With multiple enemies, Catherine on her own would get caught in so crossfire, so Heivia sent the water scooter out from behind the boat they were using for cover. He prepared to fire toward the harbor with his large handgun.
But then he ca to a stop because he could not believe his eyes.
“Wh-what!?”
Catherine Blueangel was there.
She was not firing the assault rifle toward the harbor from the top of the boat. She ran along the deck, made a large leap, landed directly on the harbor, and continued firing at point-blank range.
It looked like a dance.
Her young body was too light to fully suppress the assault rifle’s recoil. Instead, she actually let the explosive force of the gunpowder swing her around. She spun around and around to the left, to the right, vertically, and horizontally. She pulled off so acrobatic movents that would have normally been impossible. She was exposed to multiple guns, but she never once crossed even one line of fire. Each ti she swung her arms, raised her legs, or bent her torso, the flying bullets whizzed right past her but never even grazed her.
“What happened to that crossfire idea, you damn hornet? You’ve run out there on your own!!”
Her movents were so unconventional that Heivia could not even provide covering fire.
And before he could figure out what to do, it was all over.
The ard n and won had been wiped out.
Only the gray-haired old man remained and had collapsed into a sitting position.
“Ah, ahh, ahhhh...”
The black bikini girl used one hand to casually aim the assault rifle at the back of the old man’s head. And she asked an innocent question.
“Umm, am I supposed to shoot him or not?”
“Stop, Catherine!! He’s the package we’re supposed to protect!!”
“Nn,” was all Catherine said as she lifted the assault rifle up and away from the old man. As if he had suddenly realize sothing frightening, the old man tried to crawl away, but she did not hesitate to slam the rifle’s stock against the back of his head.
“Oops.”
Catherine seed to hug the rifle to her body.
No. She was quickly holding a certain piece of cloth in place.
“Biiiig broooother, my top ca untied.”
“Oh, honestly. Why would you start a gunfight in a bikini!?”
“Uuh... Could you retie it for ?”
She held the top with her hands and turned her small, bared back toward Quenser who sighed and grabbed the fluttering strings.
“Your fingers tickle.”
“Don’t move, Catherine. I’ll tie you a nice bow.”
Heivia looked at the old man who had been knocked out by the blow to the head, at the corpses littering the area, and at Catherine who was defenselessly showing off her dazzling back as if she were asking soone to apply sun oil. Finally, he sumd it all up.
“What a dangerous girl.”
“But we should have a chance to give so course corrections. We could make her into a class rep type that looks good in glasses or we could make her into a track girl with a dazzling brown tan. What matters is that we at least make her into sothing hot.”
Before they could say anything more, the blue sky was covered by another flash of light that could not be good for their health.
Quenser looked up in confusion.
“Wait a second... Wasn’t there only one Supernova dropping down toward here?”
“Then what-...”
Heivia trailed off when he seed to realize sothing.
Quenser had finished tying the bow, so Catherine could move again and she collected the mysterious old man who had been tossed aside like a garbage bag.
“Then what dropped down to create that second flash...?”
Part 6
After changing from her swimsuit into her uniform and boarding the antenna-covered mission command patrol boat stopped at the base of the high-rise building, Frolaytia listened to the report with a look of displeasure.
“What do you an!? That isn’t what we were told!!”
“N-no, but it seems there was more than just the one Supernova. Um, 15, 20, 40, 80...you’re kidding. The number’s still growing...!?”
“It can’t possibly be in the triple digits. Don’t fall for this deception! The Supernovas are scattering chaff or flares to prevent anyone from shooting them down. There weren’t that many satellite drop weapons left!!”
“But that ans...”
Even the operators in the sa patrol boat gave Frolaytia anxious looks.
“Right. These aren’t old abandoned weapons that just so happened to fall. Their systems are up and running and so idiot intentionally dropped them down on this trajectory!”
The screen displayed all sorts of information on the Supernovas. They would scatter chaff or flares to break any targeting locks. They would fire their boosters at random to move around like living creatures. They would hide behind another Supernova to use that one as a shield. They had several strategies for escaping an Object’s anti-air lasers.
They were old weapons that had been abandoned more than two decades ago.
Just like performing a cyber attack on a computer with no updates at all, anyone could hijack them. But...
“What idiot is borrowing them for so cheap plot?”
Frolaytia clenched her teeth.
No matter who did this or why, the Supernovas were loaded with thermobaric warheads capable of turning everything within 1.2 kiloters into ash. What if the Princess missed just one? If it landed on a dod stadium or soccer field being used as a shelter, tens of thousands of lives would be burned away in an instant.
And now dozens of those Supernovas were descending at once.
Part 7
The Princess also clenched her teeth.
“...Ksshh... Tch. There’s a drop in my accuracy...ksshh!”
“I think the Supernova fragnts are functioning like chaff.”
“How are you managing?”
“I am still fine.”
“Oh ho ho. Yes, I should probably leave this type of job to the First Generation.”
“That’s what I’ve been telling you.”
They had not been coordinating their actions. They had simply been aiming for the sa target with multiple laser beams to increase the density of their barrage. So even if the Information Alliance’s Rush began to malfunction, it would not create a hole right away. The Princess had not been relying on her to that extent.
She could still do this.
Everything was fine.
The Baby Magnum was designed to intercept a MIRV that broke apart at high altitude and scattered dozens of small nuclear warheads, so its anti-air defenses were more than enough.
However...
That was when sothing else happened.
“...?”
The Princess was overco by a sense that sothing was wrong.
Part 8
“It’s all over...”
The old man was muttering sothing as Quenser held onto him.
He repeated the sa thing over and over again.
“We’re done for. It wouldn’t take that trajectory. There’s only one explanation...”
“What are you on about?”
“It’s a little soon to get all apocalyptic, old man. Our Princess will blow away the Supernovas. You shouldn’t make those aningful sounding comnts. All those books explaining Nostradamus beca nothing but laughing stocks once the new millennium began. Of course, those people are just like the ones who write diet books; no matter how many tis they fail, they’ll always look for new material.”
“Should I make him talk?” asked Catherine with a tilt of the head.
Quenser held out his empty hand to stop her. She may have just wanted to show off, but he had to stop her from hurting or harming the old man. And this would not get her any stamps for her quota sheet.
“No, not that.”
Faires Appetizer’s shoulders shook as he cut in.
He looked to the two idiots and continued his confession.
“That puny manmade model doesn’t matter.”
“?”
“You don’t know?”
He actually looked shocked.
One of the Information Alliance’s leading astronors revealed a piece of trivia.
“Today we will receive an astronomy show that occurs only once every 500 years. This is the day the Appetizer Asteroid passes closest to earth.”
Part 9
“This is not good...”
Frolaytia gulped inside the mission command patrol boat.
She wanted to believe the report was in error, but praying would not change reality.
“Princess!! There’s another problem making a descent along with the Supernova! It’s a 500 ter mass. It’s almost certainly the Appetizer Asteroid!!”
“...What? No one told about that!”
“I only just learned about it. I want to punch that Appetizer old man who so casually announced the predicted trajectory of approach, but we have to respond to the situation as it is. We’ve left the safe track we all thought we were on. At this rate, it’ll fall right on Second Venice!!”
“But Frolaytia...”
“We have to do it. It’s 500 ters, so if it hits, we can’t avoid a new ice age. This problem is no longer isolated to the resort island.”
“My anti-air lasers can’t completely destroy an asteroid. And when it breaks apart in midair, a shockwave will puml the area!”
“...”
On occasion, a giant scorch mark with a radius of several dozen to a hundred kiloters would be found in the empty mountains or desert. However, that was not caused by a UFO crashing or an out-of-place artifact. It ca from the explosion caused by a teor or asteroid breaking apart in midair before striking the surface.
If the sa thing happened here, it would cause great damage to Second Venice and Malta.
At 500 ters, even the smaller fragnts were a serious threat. They could create craters across the artificial island and even knock over the high-rise buildings.
But...
“If we let it hit, the entire earth will fall into an ice age.”
“Kh.”
“So do it, Princess!! The responsibility falls on . Focus on that asteroid!!”
Part 10
In that instant, the Information Alliance’s Second Generation Rush calmly passed the baton even though it was ant to protect Second Venice. Was the Elite leaving this to the Legitimacy Kingdom First Generation because she was not used to this sort of ballistic interception, or was she refusing to take responsibility for any actions not in her manual?
The Princess clenched her teeth.
Her goggles read the movents of her eyes and targeted the giant mass.
Her fingertip touched the protrusion on the surface of the lever she held.
She breathed in and out.
She made up her mind.
Blinding light surrounded the Appetizer Asteroid and it was broken into six blocks in midair.
Part 11
They had no idea what had happened.
“Owwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!?”
Quenser and Heivia dove into a nearby building as a violent gust of wind blew gray dust toward them. The building seed to be a bank that specialized in the foreign accounts the wealthy tended to use. Quenser realized he no longer held onto Faires Appetizer, but now was not the ti to worry about that. All of the glass in the city shattered and a downpour of transparent blades poured down toward them.
“Are you okay?”
Catherine Blueangel alone did not seem particular bothered.
That little bikini devil’s specs were on an entirely different level, but they did not have ti to comnt on that.
“Cough! Cough!!”
“Dammit... What was that!?”
They heard the deep, unpleasant sound of sothing bending. Quenser got up using the small hand Catherine held out to him and then he looked to the ceiling. Large cracks were running through it and they were spreading.
“Oh, no. Oh, no! Is the building going to collapse!?”
“Idiot! Don’t just run outside! It’s more dangerous out there!!”
Quenser imdiately tried to run, but Heivia grabbed his arm and pulled him back just as an adjacent building collapsed. Gray dust spread like cotton candy and entered their building thanks to the broken glass.
“What? Cough. I don’t have any survival training. What’s the right thing to do!?”
“I don’t know either, dammit. Frolaytia! Hey, busty commander! Tell us what happened!!”
Beyond the thick curtain of dust, Heivia shouted angrily into his radio, but no one replied. Was the dust reflecting the signal like chaff, or were the people on the other end in no state to reply?
“Oh, good. My stamp card is safe.”
Catherine peeked inside the bag that held her special suit and gave a cheerfully out-of-place comnt, so Quenser grabbed her small hand and started to move.
“Hm? Wait, big brother. I think my bikini is about to co undone again.”
“Which knot!?”
“The one on my left hip.”
They broke through the dusty air as he took care of that.
They wanted to see what had happened.
They reached the elevator button, but it did not react. They climbed a few floors on the nearby stairs and entered an office full of computers that looked set up for investing. They approached the window whose reinforced glass had been broken by the shockwave and secured a view of the city.
“Wow,” said small Catherine.
It looked like the end of the world.
Several of the tidy-looking high-rise buildings had been knocked over and the giant villas on the rooftops had been slamd to the ground. One building falling must have affected those around it because the ordered cityscape had been crudely stained like an arrangent of dominos that had failed to topple properly. The residents and tourists had been evacuated, but they could still see fires here and there. There had likely been electrical or gas trouble. The resort island’s blue skies and sea breeze were surrounded by the color gray and simply breathing in the air made them want to go get a health checkup.
“The whole place is ssed up. But there’s a pattern to the collapsed buildings. It’s like there are a few different craters.”
“Did the Princess fail to intercept the Supernova?”
“That thing was thermobaric and would’ve turned the entire city to ashes.”
“Then...”
Quenser and Heivia exchanged a glance.
“Don’t tell that old man was right.”
“Did an asteroid really hit!? You’ve gotta be kidding !!”
Quenser cut across the floor so he could see the ocean. His radio was useless, but he still wanted to see the Baby Magnum with his own eyes.
But...
“Hey, look...”
“What is it, Quen-...what the hell is that!!!??”
Only Heivia’s yell rang through the air.
The broken window gave them a view of the coast through the buildings. The Baby Magnum should have reigned supre beyond that.
But its spherical main body had been badly torn apart.
The Object looked like an empty box of chocolates after it was stepped on.
This was dium to heavy damage. There was no chance it could move properly now.
“The Princess fought to the end.” Quenser blankly stated his guess as to what had happened. “But it wasn’t enough. She didn’t make it in ti. The asteroid broke into a few different pieces in midair and fell on the city. And one of those hit the Baby Magnum!!”
“That’s a big deal, but what do we do now? They aren’t going to bla us for failing to stop the asteroid, are they!? I don’t want to spend the rest of my sumr doing construction work to restore an enemy nation’s resort island. And all of these villas have to have been expensive!!”
The two idiots exchanged a glance, but blonde braided Catherine was innocently – if not cruelly – unfazed.
“What are you going to do, big brother?”
“If that was the last explosion, we don’t have to worry about any more glass shards raining down on us, right?”
“But entire buildings could collapse after a delay. Wouldn’t it be best to stay here until things settle down?”
“You have a point. ...But what if this bank itself falls over?”
Silence fell.
Heivia scratched at his dusty bangs before answering.
“I guess that’s not an option. Let’s get back to the maintenance base zone.”
“Is that fine with you, Catherine? Do you want to get back to Malta?”
Quenser and Heivia cautiously stepped out into the gray city. Catherine seed to be enjoying herself as she followed them, or maybe she was giving the boys an appraising look.
The oppressive sun was entirely gone now. A thick gray curtain covered everything instead. But this was not a normal raincloud. It was all the soot and dust produced when the asteroid had exploded in midair. Closer to the ground, dust rapidly expanded like dirty cotton candy near the collapsed buildings. All glass had been shattered, the buildings were tilted, and devices the size of vending machines – transforrs for the underground power lines – were bent and emitting sparks. Thick cables dangled down onto the ground and even into the spider web of canals.
“Looks like we should give up on using a water scooter.”
“I wouldn’t even know where to find one. Did they sink or were they washed away by the waves caused by the shockwave? Dammit.”
Luckily, most of the people had been evacuated to theatres and stadiums. The entire area was covered with glass, but they did not see any bloody people groaning in pain. If the place had been as busy as it normally was, they would have seen a true hell.
That was when they heard a low rumbling.
Quenser looked up and grimaced.
“Wait, really...?”
He felt sothing cold on his nose.
The next thing he knew, rain was pouring down on them.
“Damn. That was originally water vapor and dust, so can it really make rainclouds? And the broken transforrs are sending sparks everywhere!!”
This was not over yet.
Traveling had been easy enough when using a water scooter in the canals, but it took much longer once they had to walk through the ruined city on foot. And that was true even from the south side, which was closest to Malta.
Heivia wiped sweat from his brow and groaned.
“What the hell? The raindrops are dirty...”
“They’ve got the asteroid’s dust in them. It would be best not to let any get in your mouth, Catherine.”
“I won’t do that.”
Large raindrops poured down. It was a truly unnatural downpour produced by clouds of dust. It sounded like radio static and the three of them could only drag their heavy bodies along like zombies.
“We can’t get through here with the building collapsed...”
“Big brother, the way is clear over there.”
“We can’t use that because of the broken transforr. See how the area is soaked with rainwater? We don’t know how far the electricity is getting, so it would be best not to approach.”
“Hey, the building collapsed, but there’s still a way through in the center. We can’t just sit around. It would be faster to cut through.”
They walked down that path to return to the maintenance base.
Each step felt like a gamble. It was like betting the chips of their lives on information of dubious accuracy. They took each step slowly and cautiously, so when a bridge was out, it could take an hour to find another way across.
By the ti they were close to the maintenance base zone, it was already growing dark. They had known this was a midsumr resort, but the constant barrage of raindrops had a way of sapping their strength. It felt like they had soaked inside a hot bath until the heat had perated the core of their bodies.
And as they made that nerve-racking journey, sothing changed.
“Wh-what...?”
Quenser looked around while dragging along his uniform that was heavy with water.
“There’s a ton of people here. I thought they were all evacuated.”
“Don’t ask , dammit. Don’t tell this wave of people is-...yeah, I was right. They’re headed for our base, aren’t they?”
A lot of them had nothing but the shirt on their back. So were young won in rain-soaked swimsuits or bunny suits and so were macho n in thin armor made from light aluminum or sothing. Normally, those people would probably ask a tourist to take a commorative photo with them and then charge an outrageous fee. The people in berets and carrying art sets did the sa thing after painting soone’s portrait. So people were holding their surfboards up to keep out the rain and others were using several café parasols to create a hemispherical tent.
Perhaps because this was a world-class seaside luxury resort, a lot of people were carrying expensive caras.
“This is Monica, the idol reporter who can both dance and sing! It’s fine, it’s fine. I can review the five-star hotel in my bikini later! And how many tis are you going to wake up to try to scare !? I’m getting awful tired of it!! An asteroid hit? Let’s docunt that! We can figure out whether or not we can sell it to a communications company later!! Um, we are in front of the Legitimacy Kingdom maintenance base zone and...”
“!!!”
“Hm? What is it, Quenser?”
“Oh, nothing,” said the student as he ducked his head down. He had apparently spotted soone in the crowd who he wanted to avoid.
Also, so in the crowd were using their portrait art sets in an odd way.
“Hey, so of them are holding up signs.”
Once the little black bikini devil pointed it out, Quenser and Heivia finally noticed. The crowd grew denser as they drew closer to the base and that was due to more than confusion over the sudden disaster. There was definite anger there and it was focused on a single issue.
“What’s going to happen to us now!?”
“S-Second Venice is a manmade island. Without food and water, we’ll wither away!!”
“The military needs to take responsibility and protect us! I have a baby to look after!!”
Heivia looked puzzled.
“Tch. What? They’ve started protesting?”
“But Heivia, it’s true that food and water are a serious issue. How many people are there here on Second Venice?”
“Myonri said nearly 130,000.”
“Our unit can’t feed that many.”
“Are you serious about that? First off, our battalion has 1000 people. We keep enough supplies to feed us all for 30 days. And that’s assuming three als a day. Put up with so hunger and limit ourselves to one al a day and that number triples. That alone gives us enough for 90,000. And don’t forget that the Rush’s Oh Ho Ho has her unit stationed here.” Heivia sounded exasperated. “Besides, this isn’t a desert on the moon. It’s a diterranean resort. The Legitimacy Kingdom and Faith Organization’s ho countries are right there. Surviving on our own might be tough, but transport ships can reach us in a matter of hours. No matter how long it takes to recover, we’ll have plenty of supplies if we can last a day or two. We might actually head back fatter than we arrived.”
“Is that...how it works?”
“It is. Not to ntion that Second Venice is known as a spy’s paradise because the wealthy of all four world powers can relax here and forget all about war. No one’s going to abandon this place. In fact, it’s a great opportunity to do so favors to make so debts. Hand over our tasteless soap-like rations now and we might get gold bars the sa size in return.”
Heivia was entirely carefree.
And once they started listening, they could hear a voice answering the shouting crowd. A familiar voice was amplified by a handheld gaphone.
“Don’t push! Please don’t push! We have food enough for everybody, so please wait your turn!”
“Myonri got the short end of the stick again, did she?”
Quenser relaxed when he heard that awful friend’s voice.
But then he heard the unique dry sound of bursting gunpowder.
A fireworks-like sll mixed with a rusty flavor.
The crowd ground to a halt like a malfunctioning machine and then it tried to scatter in every direction. But that caused them to run into each other, knock each other over, and trip each other up.
anwhile, a high-pitched voice ca from beyond the human curtain. The scream passed over everyone’s heads and could have been a male or female voice.
Whoever it belonged to, it said the following:
“Like I said!! Hurry up and hand over the foooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooood!!”
Oh, no, thought Quenser.
The discomfort of the pouring rain vanished from his mind. This was no ti for that, so his brain automatically narrowed down his information to the absolute essentials.
He could sense an invisible pressure approaching through the gaps in the crowd.
He felt soone's eyes on him.
A large and enraged man in a tank top had tears and snot covering his face as he aid their way with a gun that was clearly not a civilian model. It looked like the fusion of a semi-auto grenade launcher and a close-range handgun. And he did not seem to care how many other people were around.
“This is really bad...!!”
Part 12
The Baby Magnum had grown terribly misshapen thanks to the direct hit from a piece of the Appetizer Asteroid, but the Princess remained in the cockpit. The reactor and the system’s core were still functioning. Even if she could not pull off any high-speed combat, she would still make for a decent threat as a stationary gun platform. It was not yet ti for her to leave the Object.
And as she took a short rest, so dangerous thoughts entered her mind.
(Just when I began to intercept the Appetizer Asteroid...)
She looked down from the sky and saw the Rush calmly leaving.
The Princess glared at the Object.
(She fired a jamming signal my way?)
Various suspicions filled her heart as a new war began.
Under the extre environnt of this disaster, international law and war treaties no longer applied.
A truly hopeless war was beginning.
External Docunt – A Will Written in Advance
They asked if I wanted my na to go down in history.
Currently, almost 36,000 asteroids have been observed and registered by astronors. They are nad after the Greek gods, after the discoverer, or after a product like a sports drink or a search engine.
Naming it the Appetizer Asteroid was a form of legacy right there.
But that achievent did not stand out and was unknown to the general public. Soone with unique interests would have to search again and again before seeing that legacy.
But the number of asteroids which have entered the atmosphere and hit the earth is much lower. Ones that did not break up in the atmosphere and retained their shape can be counted on your fingers.
It would be a top ten achievent.
No one could help but see the bright light of that legacy.
All they asked to do was overlook it. Just like any astronor would, I carefully observed the asteroid I had discovered and nad after myself. No one observed it more obsessively than . So I noticed sothing was wrong almost imdiately. They just wanted to overlook it.
I still have my doubts.
I don’t think I will ever rid myself of those doubts.
I don’t know what exactly they are trying to do. How can an amateur guess at what the military is after? But if the Appetizer Asteroid hits the surface, it will cause incredible damage. Enough to change this age of clean wars ruled by Objects.
I don’t know what kind of legacy this will be.
Perhaps this is how researchers feel when a strange parasite or killer virus is nad after them.
This legacy will undoubtedly leave my na in history.
But I will always have my doubts. Even if mankind is covered in a layer of ice and snow, I will forever wander that white and hellish wasteland as a ghost.
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