That thing's still lurking in the area.
Now, it's time for revenge.
The codename our army gave that bastard is the Water Strider.
It was named that because of these legs.
It slides over the ground by levitating electrostatically, was it?
Yeah, fundamentally, it's similar to the Baby Magnum, but...
But its propulsion method is different.
The Water Strider used its legs to directly kick off the ground.
Just like the insect...
Oh, then!
How about we go for a big collapse to make a pitfall or something?
Maybe it'd get stuck and unable to keep gliding?
That'd be hard.
It's probably capable of walking normally on four legs, too.
Then...
Could we make the enemy's gun battery fire on their own people?
If we could use that Object's own weapons...
Even if we wanted to confuse our opponent,
we don't have enough weapons on hand.
A shoulder-fired missile and a little under 4kg of C-4.
One smart rifle.
And one handgun.
This is our entire arsenal right now.
I see...
Don't you have any ideas?!
You suggested this, student abroad on deployment!
Oh, how about we use the spare parts of our Object?
If we have a main gun in reserve...
We don't have an energy source to power it.
It's not like you don't know the output rating
of an Object's JP-level MHD power reactor, right?
Besides, even if we had a reactor,
we'd need a foundation to mount it onto.
Even if we had that, when we went to fire it,
the shock wave alone would probably kill us like it was nothing.
It was just a thought. Asshole.
And in the first place, the water bug made it its priority
to destroy the base's maintenance facilities
to eliminate any such possibilities...
Wait... Hold on!
Yeah!
We might not be able to destroy the Object itself,
but their base camp is operated by flesh-and-blood soldiers, too, right?
That monster is a weapon, too,
so without regular maintenance, it should grind to a halt, right?
Oh!
Hey brother, ready for this fight?
It's go for broke, live or die
ichi kabachu gonna live or die.
To those days of being scared and just coping, bye bye bye
obi e tearu sukosu take no kimini bye, bye, bye.
Don't stop! Plowing through bullets falling thick and fast
Don't Stop! kimi shiki e ru tangan kake wake
Get up! Brilliantly nail that 2-step
Get Up! asaya kare kimero 2-step
Shut Up! Stow that whining and try, try, try
Shut Up! maki moto nan kumimeru shimai konna try, try, try.
Right now, even if everyone and anyone and everything and anything...
i mata remo karemo waremo koremo
Look away and make a break for it
mewo somu kemi kena shite ne
You alone, I'll never abandon
yusu temo shinai kimi temi wai
Let's go, One more chance! Let's change this darn scene
Let's go, One more Chance! kae tearo kono scene
Right now, tens of thousands of times if need be
mana retse na makai demo
It's just about showing that I can overcome
nori koete miseru dake
Overcoming even those tears and that pain
shono nami namo sono mitsa mimo koeteru
Going on to that next, as yet unseen stage
daro mino tsuki no sutejie
That's right, as many times as it takes, one more try!!
sousa naben date one more try!
Let's go, One more chance! Show them that spirit
Let's go, One more Chance! mushi tereo sono spirit
Right now, tens of thousands of times if need be
mana retse na makai demo
I can just crawl my way there
haitsu kubate i kari
We believe, right?!
shin ji ten da ro?!
That pain will someday become strength that's there for someone
moi tami wai tsuka tawa e kai yasu yosari
That's right, we can make it happen, one more try!
sou saka te genzo one more try!
We're not gonna walk away!
Hey, there.
The Little Soldiers Who Tie Down Gulliver
The Snowy Deep Winter Battle of Alaska III
The lookout post that was abandoned when the base zone was completed?
Yeah.
Hey, have you noticed?
Yeah, most of the base is given over to radars.
Never mind fighter planes, they don't even have tanks.
So, they've eliminated superfluous personnel and outdated weapons
to pour all their money and strength into Objects.
Then, if we just do something about that water bug,
we might have a pretty serious shot at this.
But the problem is doing something about that Object.
Its legs.
Yup.
Levitating that giant body on just the surface area of the ends of those legs
has got to be quite a strain.
As I recall, the data collected at my station...
Found it!
Whoa, hey.
That water bug bastard...
Just on average, it doubles back to base
once every half a day for maintenance.
That's good.
Those legs must be more parts-intensive than we'd imagined.
Assuming it swapped out parts
just before it attacked the Princess's Object...
It's already been at least eight hours.
And it should've made some pretty extreme maneuvers in combat, so...
Its glass slippers will be full of cracks.
Then, if we blow up those spare parts,
they won't be able to swap them out anymore and...
The poor water bug will be rendered inoperative.
And everyone in our unit will have plenty of time to evacuate.
Good luck!
Sir Knight sure is a nice guy.
Huh? What's this all of a sudden?
You asked her to be the lookout...
In truth, the idea was so that even if we screwed up,
she'd be able to escape, right?
It's what you'd call "everything in my power".
In more ways than one.
Sure, okay.
Or more like, you seem to have grown quite motivated.
I guess.
If the alternative was being chased around by that monster Object,
I realized that it'd be less stressful
to charge into their base with the scrawny kid.
Almost no people around, either.
From their perspective, they're winning.
They must have their guard down.
The tracks have to be from when they moved the spare parts around.
That building's fishy.
You never know, the only thing in the base might be a strip bar.
But if that's the case, we'll be in for a gunfight
with a bunch of idiots with hard-ons.
Go!
I want to wrap things up here already.
Seriously. I can't wait to go home.
Wow! We're in luck!
Considering the laid back attitude of the guards,
I'm sure they never expected flesh-and-blood soldiers
to be infiltrating their base.
Or, if not that, they think the gods will protect them or something.
These folks of the Faith Organization...
On three.
One... Two... Three!
Bingo, you think?
Probably.
No question about it.
They're turbines that generate the electrostatic charge for the legs.
But what's up with this?
The output is double that of their main guns,
the low-grade stable plasma cannons.
Double?!
If I remember right, according to our Analyst Team's simulation,
it said they use at least ten turbines per leg.
Just as I expected, it's got a whole mess of sensors.
Well, if that kind of power went haywire, you'd have hell to pay, so...
Precautions to detect irregularities as quickly as possible
and shut things down, right?
Well, not that it matters if their parts are oversensitive or whatever.
Anyway, if we bust up all of these, the water bug'll become useless, right?
What's wrong?
A-All these...
If we can bust them up...
No, they'll notice for sure.
If it's just me, it's one thing,
but if they figure out that this is an attack against their base...
What do I do?
The enemy's top priority is the Elite who pilots the Object...
Damn it!
No matter how we look at it, it's still impossible!
Destroying this many with only the weapons we have on hand...
Then, how about we blow them up, building and all?
Even if we can't destroy each and every one,
if we crush them under the rubble...
Something like that will leave the possibility
that they can scrape together the surviving parts to make it like new.
Then, what do we do?
Damn it!
H-Hey!
Something... Isn't there something we can do?
That's...
You find something?
Crap! Did it come back?!
Damn it all! What's the Princess doing?!
Hey, Qwenthur! What're you doing?!
Damn it! We've come this far. We've got to strike back at them.
Hey! Staying here is suicide!
I know that! But...
Suicide...
Come on, now...
This combination with this quad sensor and the automatic switch...
Where are you going, Qwenthur?!
Which one is it?
If I can just figure that out...
What're you rummaging around for?!
You know we can't blow them up!
Hold on a second.
The Object's a stone's throw away!
Just a little more time!
Damn it! I swear...
Let's go.
Can we make it?
Thanks to a certain idiot taking a detour,
we've got ourselves a thrilling situation here!
Damn it! This is bad!
Here we go.
Hey, we won't be using the C-4 anymore, right?
We'll stick fuses in them and scatter them around.
We're using them as a diversion?
Yeah.
Not sure how useful they'll be, but...
It'll be better than nothing.
What is it, Hero? You forget something?
Yeah.
The Princess has been captured.
Son of a bitch!
What do we do?
"What do we do?"
Hey, Sir Knight, given our situation,
don't tell me you're still going to say we should save her?!
Then, you'd abandon her?
They don't just have flesh-and-blood soldiers.
They've got an Object, too!
Even if we had reinforcements, they'd never get here in time!
And even if they came, they'd only get clobbered!
So, if the Object was out of the picture, it'd be a different story?
What?
Tanks and fighter planes.
Normal reinforcements could take care of things, right?!
You're planning to ask Frolaytia for reinforcements?
There's no way she'd come!
So we're going to abandon the Princess?!
What did we leave our unit and come all this way for anyway?
It's because we can't abandon her, right?!
It's a hack I learned during training.
If we use an 8th gen shoulder-fired missile's infrared seeker
and pump its output to the max,
the military satellites will pick up our signal
and we'll be able to communicate.
If they intercepted us on comms,
we could kiss our reinforcements goodbye, right?
Havia...
But it'll be one-way and I doubt it'll last even a minute.
It'll be up to you whether you can convince Frolaytia or not.
Turbine exchange, huh?
Once that bastard's completely fixed up,
I'm sure nothing we do will be of any use, though.
All right! Got it!
This is the 37th Mechanized Maintenance Battalion.
Qwenthur Barbotage here.
Miss Frolaytia, we're in the Faith Organization's base zone.
The Princess has been captured by the men at this base.
We are going to take action in order to rescue her.
So please send reinforcements.
We'll do something about the Object on our end.
You can wait until you've confirmed that we successfully blew it up.
If you think we have a chance of winning,
please send anything, even just one tank.
Even that will be enough to turn the tide.
Please, I'm begging you!
You bluffing bastard.
We've done everything we can now.
Now, if we can just bust up the Object on our own,
we'll be totally in the clear.
No, for the moment, we've got a more pressing problem.
And that's what to do...
...about this situation.
You two. Why did you end up coming back?
A real tearjerker, right?
It's a great example of how the Knight will always come back
when the Princess is in jeopardy.
Though, he fell off his horse before his glorious charge.
So, you're the heathens of the Legitimate Kingdom,
who infiltrated our base?
Mm, you have the look of a savage.
In the name of our gods,
I sentence you to death by the Object's main guns.
Elite witch.
You, we'll interrogate using hypnosis and electrodes.
It won't take more than 30 minutes
before you've divulged everything that's in your head.
Though, I doubt you'll get your personality back.
And once that's done,
we'll hang you from the main guns, alive and stripped naked,
until you freeze to death...
Oh, no, I mean...
Even once you've frozen to death, we'll leave you exposed out there!
By seeing that, even those savages skulking out there in the wild
will surely learn something of the wrath of our gods!
Hah!
So, you blame your gods
and show no regard for the wartime conventions pertaining to POWs?
Who's the savage here, you piece of...
Shut up!
Ah! Maintenance is complete on our Prometheus!
The time of judgment is here!
Look after the Princess for me.
When I jump out there...
Get down!
Why you...
You damn heathen!
Get down!
You sure gave me a scare.
Boy! How did you rig that inside?
The turbine's serial number.
I worked out which parts would be installed on the Object
during the next maintenance.
I see.
Thought you could destroy it if you blew it up from the inside?
But too bad for you.
Our Object is not so frail
that a rank and file soldier rigging up some fireworks will affect it.
The superiority of Objects will never be overturned!
That is the absolute law of today's battlefield!
Is that right?
And do you know?
In most Objects, even without serious damage, if it's rendered inoperative,
there's a classified materials safeguard device
to prevent it from being seized by the enemy.
There's a built-in self-destruct functionality
that uses the special gas from the low-grade stable plasma cannons,
which is triggered autonomously by the system.
And your Object is no exception.
It's strictly regulated by a sensor
and very little can make it go haywire, but...
If that sensor's been removed and a turbine gets blown up,
you think the system would be capable of making the proper call?
Remember this. Objects aren't absolute.
Anything that's manmade can always...
...be destroyed by man!
Asshole!
Call out a warning before you do that!
The loud explosion had me panicking!
Can you run?!
Pick up one of the rifles lying around and return fire!
I won't let you escape!
F-Fighting in the flesh-and-blood and destroying an Object?
You... You damn Devil!
Qwenthur!
Flatten them!
Miss Frolaytia...
She came!
Well, gosh darn it!
Looks like that Japanophile is a seriously capable officer!
I'm about the only officer
who'd take a unilateral message like that seriously and actually come.
Remember that, you rank and file fools!
If we'd come this far and died, we'd be idiots!
I guess so.
Miss Frolaytia put her faith in us and came all this way.
We had to do something worthy of her faith.
Let's go, Princess Milinda.
Yes!
A flesh-and-blood engineer emerged victorious against that Object...
Objects and the very nature of war may change now.
To those people,
we might've seemed almost as monstrous as Objects.
Yeah.
This is war.
They're the ones who ignored the white flag first
and reminded us of that.
But thanks to Objects,
it looks like we'd all forgotten the gravity of the word "war".
Oh, here they are!
Those gentlemen are the ones...
Oh, my!
So, the hall's back there.
Or more like, you are nobility, right?
You're the first person I've seen who looks worse than me in formal wear.
Shut up. It's not like you're much better.
Your tie is crooked.
Whoops...
Awaiting us upon our return to our nation
was a barrage of praise, hailing us as heroes.
And today, it seems we're to be celebrated for our achievements
and given commendations.
I thought this was some kind of joke at first, but...
Looks like they're serious.
That's just how awe-inspiring your accomplished was.
Whoa-ho-ho!
Or more like,
isn't this way off-the-charts rewarding, Miss Frolaytia?!
It's almost brutal.
I believe I'm dressed appropriately for the time, place, and occasion.
So...
Come on.
Princess!
I thought I'd heard that you went on to the next battlefront
with the newly advanced and improved Baby Magnum...
It seems there's something she wants to say to you two,
so we delayed her departure a little.
Go on, Milinda.
Thank you, both of you.
For saving me.
I hadn't thanked you properly yet, so...
Neither had we. Princess, all that time...
...you'd been fighting those monsters by yourself,
and we'd never even thought about what that really meant.
So, thank you, Princess.
For keeping us safe.
Having become famous because of this incident,
I'm thinking I'll gain the privilege of accessing the nation's database,
letting me take a huge shortcut on my way to becoming a licensed designer.
And this also gave Havia plenty of stature to join the peerage.
After this, he says he plans to resign his post, return to the country,
and fully enjoy the lifestyle of the rich.
Hey, we're pretty big winners at life, aren't we?
It was worth almost dying, wasn't it?
And now, a big round of applause for the two men
who fought in the flesh-and-blood and destroyed an Object.
Such specialized and superb capabilities in battle!
With the hope that they will continue to utilize it for the good of the world,
let us smile and send them on their way to their next battlefront!
Huh?
Hey, what'd he just say?
Hey, listen up, Hero.
This doesn't look like a candid camera moment.
Those old men over there are talking.
About things like where to post us.
Post us?
Is that a done deal?
It looks like they plan to make us do joint operations
with the Princess's Object.
We've been had!
Hey, you know that medal?
It wasn't an advance for a double promotion, was it?
Hell if I know.
We're back...
...battlefield, you asshole.
Tom Thumb Races Through the Oil Field
Battle to Blockade the Gibraltar I