We've just confirmed it via satellite.
They've brought out their usual spare Object gun,
but this time, it's the Break Carrier's main gun,
the high-output rail gun!
Baby Magnum, you're in close range to their gun!
It's fully within reach of our main guns, too!
Get them! Before they fire on us!
I can't get a line of fire.
Princess!
Heivia! Heivia!
The road caved in!
Don't make any careless moves, Qwenser.
Or you'll get ushered in to the underground arcade, too.
You all right?!
Yeah, but I don't think it'll be possible for me to get up there.
I'll look for another way.
Got it. Be careful!
Back at you!
Baby Magnum, what's your status?
I can't get over the rubble.
At this rate...
Don't wanna die before we see our fire inside so...
We can fight!
In the distance, where your mud-covered expression is facing,
doromamire no sono hyoujou ga misueteru saki e
We can fight!
Our sweat that drips down, even knowing that everything will come to a futile end, Will still never forget how to fight!
nagareo chiru asa ga subete muda ni owaru to shitemo
tataku koto dake wa wasure wa shinai darou
You're so strong - able to smile in any situation, And no one has ever seen you cry...
itsudemo waraeru tsuyoi kimi no nakigao wa daremo shiranai kara
But that just leaves the bruises in your heart unhealed.
kokoro no aza wa kienai kedo
You always never gave up, you never gave up, So nothing's too late!
Just like that - Never wake up, you Never wake up
sou yatte Never wake up, you Never wake up
So let's just go on dreaming! We lamented this world, feeling unable to smile.
yume miteikou ze itsuka nageiteta waraenai sekai wa
But now we'll laugh to the ends of the Earth! That's right! Get Up, Get Up, Get Up!
dokomademo waratte sousa, Get up, Get up, Get up!
We just gotta blaze on through!
kake nukere bai
In a Cavalry Battle, Knock Down the Foothold
The All-Out War in Amazon City II
Qwenthur, couldn't you at least blow away the rubble that I'm stuck on?
I'll give it a try, but...
Qwenser, are you all right?!
Yeah.
Damn it.
Baby Magnum, this is Burning Alpha.
Looks like you're in trouble.
I've got 500 kilo bombs for airstrikes hanging off me, but...
Need some help?
Burning Alpha, the enemy currently has a spare Object gun in operation.
And there's a high chance they have anti-air lasers, too.
Flying in that kind of airspace will get you shot down!
I know that, Baby.
The key...
...is to fly a path that'll make it impossible for them to lock-on to me.
This is definitely suicidal, but...
I want to be the hero of the story once in a while, too!
Damn it! Is he trying to kill me?!
But...
I'm firing on the enemy gun battery!
You stay down where you are, Qwenser!
All right. With this, that crazy powerful rail gun will be...
But hold on.
Can you really stabilize such a powerful gun with anchors?
Look at what happened to even the sub-weapon rail guns.
If you take a main gun with that much power...
Don't tell me...
That's it. If there really were a second Object...
If they had the Unknown X, they wouldn't use rail guns in this way.
They really don't have an Object.
Instead, if they have anything else at all, that'd be...
Princess, the rail gun is a trap to lure the Baby Magnum!
There's likely a test prototype reactor buried in the ground!
Get away from there right this second!
Then does that mean you have no intention of declining to intervene,
Lieutenant Colonel Lendy Farolito?
No.
To be frank with you,
even if the Legitimate Kingdom and the Capital Enterprise go to war,
it would have no impact on our Intelligence Union whatsoever, so...
It's true that the Break Carrier's rail gun technology is unprecedented,
but you want it that badly?
No, no. What we want is not the rail gun,
but the mass driver space technology itself they have.
Are you trying to throw us for a loop?
Your space transport technology
should be the same laser-driven orbital elevators that we use.
To pursue mass driver technology at this time would be...
Conventional doctrines have a way of being overturned.
Even if the laser system is superior right now,
there is no knowing when some unknown problem will be discovered.
Counterplans are always necessary.
It is precisely this overwhelming accumulation of data,
which may seem to be of no use at first sight,
that will serve to protect us from this unpredictable world.
And once that curtain of data grows thick enough,
one day, we will surely gain the ability
to immediately deal with any problem the world might throw at us.
Perfect Browsing, is it?
And for this extravagant pastime,
you would condone this war, which is 100% certain to happen?
Yes.
It seems we will have to get rid of Sladder Honeysuckle at all costs
and eliminate your reason for intervening.
Then you will have to hurry.
For our preparations will be completed shortly.
And if the Mass Driver Foundation should end up destroying your Object,
there will no longer be anything left that can prevent our advance.
Give me thirty minutes and I shall be able to wipe out all there is.
You all right?
What about you?
I managed not to get barbequed. Somehow.
They got my feet real good, so I can't budge at all.
And because of that, the countdown has started, too.
The countdown?
Wait, you don't mean... for the self-destruct system?!
Yeah. I'm working to cancel the command,
but I probably can't catch up to the speed of the system.
Th-Then, does that mean the Baby Magnum is going to blow up?!
No, the system is probably in Pattern B.
In other words, I think it'll eject the Elite
and the unit itself will enter a standby mode,
ready to respond to a remote detonation command.
I'm sorry, Qwenser.
I know it'll be a huge burden on everybody if I lose the Object now.
I-It's okay.
We're the ones who made you fight to begin with, in spite of the damages.
You shouldn't let it bother you, Princess.
Qwenser...
Anyway, let's get away from here for now.
Can you tell where your estimated landing point is after ejection?
Yeah. I'll send it to you now.
It just showed 100 seconds to ejection.
I got the coordinates.
I'll move there now.
The people on our side are scattered.
It won't be any use to ask for reinforcements.
And I haven't heard a peep out of Heivia, either.
That bastard better not have up and died on me.
I think it's unlikely,
but they wouldn't have even anticipated the landing point
and set up anti-aircraft guns or anything, would they?
What was that?
A steel... net?
It's blocking the ejection hatch.
If the Princess is ejected while that thing's still there...
She'll smash into it at over 100 kph!
Princess, can you stop the ejection countdown?!
What?
Someone's deliberately blocked the hatch!
If the system activates like this, you'll be shredded by the wires!
No time to even respond...
Damn it!
Subroutine 1134B to the bypass program.
No good.
Disable security on 1157C. Enter debugging mode.
No good.
No good!
Saved...
Qwenser...
Qwenser!
Damn.
Legitimate Kingdom forces, are you?
Looks like that little missy is reasonably well-liked by her unit.
Who are you?!
Sladder Honeysuckle.
Military advisor to the Mass Driver Foundation's chairman emeritus,
one of the Capital Enterprise's foremost investors,
and an Object designer.
The man your Legitimate Kingdom is trying to kill first thing.
Seeing as how you aren't returning fire, I'm guessing you have no gun.
If you don't hurry up and kill me,
the Intelligence Union and the Capital Enterprise
will come invading, acting as though they own the place.
Surrender yourself!
Either way, you have no more Objects!
The high-output rail gun and the test prototype reactor
have both been used up as traps!
You've got no moves left!
That's a pessimistic outlook.
You know that we requested asylum with the Intelligence Union, right?
You think they'll deal with you in earnest?
Go over there and what'll be waiting for you is torture!
A bastard who sells his own country's intel?
There's no way some other country would trust him!
You must know that yourself, too!
If the only gift I come bearing is intel on mass driver technology.
What do you think this elaborate setup was all for?
Our Rizolette's maximum firing range is 3000 klicks.
If we had really wanted to,
we could have taken out your Object from the start, in the blink of an eye,
while it was on standby in the Antarctic Ocean.
Rizolette?
Must be the Break Carrier's official designation.
What are you after?!
The destruction of conventional doctrines.
Objects are synonymous with war.
Victory or defeat is determined even before the fight happens,
by their specs and how many are committed to battle.
These conventions of our clean-cut and highly safe modern warfare...
There are no few people who would like to overturn them.
That's what this is about.
Don't tell me...
To defeat Objects without using Objects...
It's the long-held dream of Object naysayers.
And in order to demonstrate that it can be done,
I set out to take concrete action.
The anti-tank position in Antarctica
with the emplacement of a vast number of small spare guns.
The trap utilizing the high-output rail gun.
And the point-blank explosion using the test prototype reactor here.
I was also able to collect some data that might be of interest
to the Intelligence Union, where we'll receive asylum.
Thanks to that, I was able to obtain a sliver of a dream technology
that's seemingly attainable, but still slightly incomplete.
As fodder for negotiations,
it's more effective than intel on perfected technology.
After all, if it's incomplete, they can't obtain it by means of torture.
I see.
This guy plans to use the potential as his trump card to protect himself.
Instead of using a fully built Object,
if you could crush the enemy with just the parts,
that would cost several times less.
No, it's possible that it would cost several tens of times less.
Whether it can be achieved or not isn't important.
By making them think that such a method might possibly exist,
he increases his own value.
And to do that...
And to do that,
you went to all that trouble to just let the Break Carrier die?!
The Break Carrier?
Oh, the enemy's codename for the Rizolette.
To tell you the truth, it wasn't premeditated as all that.
Coming up with the idea to seek asylum by using military technology
that can destroy Objects without using Objects
only came after the Rizolette got blown up.
What I'm doing right now
is sort of like the Plan B that I'd set up in advance.
Truthfully speaking, if we can just develop mass driver technology
to our hearts' content in an environment of our choosing,
we don't care about the rest.
Whether a free-for-all war breaks out between three forces,
or whether the balance of modern Object-centric wars crumbles...
Those giants...
All they can do is kill people anyway.
It doesn't look like you and I will ever understand each other.
How so?
You people let Objects and Elites wage your wars
while you just profit in the shadows.
But when a time comes that an Object of yours is defeated,
you won't have any qualms going, "It was all that bastard's fault.
All we did was build it. We did nothing wrong." That's how!
That's right. That's probably why I'm still in a place like this.
But I believe I'm at least better than you.
Better than you, who's tried to end wars with minimum casualties
by moving to destroy numerous Objects first and foremost.
Right, Qwenser Barbotage?
How does this bastard know my name?!
Is he coming?!
You're more famous than you think.
Especially among those who make Objects
by assembling the very best technology available to them!
Crap!
Cut the racket. It only grazed you.
I'm an engineer at heart,
so I'm practically an amateur when it comes to firearms
and even that was mostly pure luck.
Which is why, when I have the chance to kill you, I will.
That's right. For example, right now.
Like this very moment!
Then...
Rather than be satisfied with firing just once,
you should've wasted no time in emptying the entire clip into me.
It's because you neglect to make that kind of effort
that you get taken advantage of!
Like this!
Are you sure you should be taking your sweet time taking aim?
How dare he make a fool of me...
No, wait!
That switch...
Is it really connected to the bombs on those belts?
Don't move.
If you're such a genius, you can tell when it's time to give up, right?
Good grief. Looks like I managed to make it in time somehow.
Yeah.
This is checkmate.
In the end, it looks like the Mass Driver Foundation
is going to be tried under Legitimate Kingdom law.
Well, we did technically resolve things within our own borders, so...
The Capital Enterprise and the Intelligence Union
both came seeking the extradition of Sladder Honeysuckle, but...
We have no obligation to accommodate them.
What's going to happen to them?
They're bickering over that.
If you'd shot him to death right then,
it would've ended simply in so many ways.
The reason you weren't able to shoot him...
Was it because your circumstances were similar?
I couldn't really say.
It's just that...
If it's just about us staying alive,
I thought that there was no need to kill Honeysuckle right then.
They said repairs will take at least two weeks.
I won't be going anywhere until then.
You did good work. Thank you, Qwenser.
You did good work, too.
I'm glad you're all right, Princess.
The destruction of conventional doctrines, huh...
Huh?
It's something Sladder Honeysuckle said.
We're not the only ones.
People thinking to destroy Objects without using Objects
are starting to show up, little by little.
It can't be helped, right?
Historically, conventional doctrines
have been overturned with surprising ease.
Is that a good thing?
Who knows?
But you know, even this world of ours that revolves around Objects
is the result of something being overturned in the past.
Hey!
Incidentally,
we racked up quite a few military achievements this time, didn't we?
We blew up the Break Carrier, we prevented the destruction of the dam,
and to top it all off, we captured the enemy leader alive!
Yeah, that's right! Lots of plusses this time around!
Yeah!
What are you talking about?
The one who finished off the Break Carrier was the Princess
and with the dam, there's a chance that Corporal Saronna's strategy
will be deemed to be the one that's by the books.
What?
Even with Honeysuckle,
it wasn't a solo operation, but an operation we ran as a battalion,
so it shouldn't score you any individual points.
And this is where things start getting messy.
First, you went out of your way
to save the Capital Enterprise major general,
who was at a vacation home on the moon, so that's a minus.
Also, I hear you were leisurely having tea
at a coffee farm at our op site?
You received goods from civilians during an operation,
so that's yet another minus.
No way!
Furthermore, because Qwenser grabbed my breasts,
that's a super big minus for being guilty of insulting a superior officer!
You bastard!
What the hell did you do?! I'm so jealous!
Well, looking at the overall picture, I suppose
the plusses stand out more than the minuses.
Or more like, you have a fiancée!
In terms of military drills as punishment,
Why, you!
I guess that'd come out to roughly 300 lashes?
We'll end up flayed red from head to toe!
Or more like, you're still holding a grudge over your boobs?!
Sure, they were incredible,
but isn't the price for your tits a little too high?!
Then, we'll exchange every ten lashes for ten candles.
No, no! That doesn't mitigate anything at all!
That'd turn us into wax doll curios!
That's not even within the realm of bedroom games anymore!
I've got nothing to do with the superior officer's tits,
so it's unfair for me to receive the same punishment!
I don't handle candles well!
What do you mean,
you don't handle candles well?!
Then, a horse.
What are you going to do with a horse?!
Oh, so you don't want to die?
Yeah! Yeah!
Yeah!
Then, go get results and win back my trust.
I've got the perfect job waiting for you, but what'll it be?
Want to take a quick hop to the ends of the Earth
and try to go wreck an asshole Object?
What?!
The seasons run on by, our of breath.
kisetsu ga kaketeku iki o kirashite
I try to keep up on an impulse all too faint.
hishi ni tsuiteku awasugiru shoudou
By the time i take notice, everyone's changing their faces
kizuke ba daremo ga kao o kaeteku
Anxious of those around me, i call everything white, "black"
mawari o ki ni shite shiro o kuro to iu
But i don't want to lie to myself, 'Cause there's more than just one form of happiness.
jibun ni uso o tsukitakunai shiawase no katachi wa hitotsu dake janai kara
Rather than a flexible strength, I want a strength that never changes.
kawaru tsuyosa yori kawaranai tsuyosa kokoro ni te o atete jibunjishin o ima aishi tea geyou
Placing my hand upon my heart, I'll make an effort to love myself.
Rather than a flexible strength, I want a strength that never changes.
kawaru tsuyosa yori kawaranai tsuyosa
Not for anyone else's sake, Right now, as i head for the future.
dareka no tame janaku ima, mirai eto
The Graveyard of Junk is a Mountain of Rare Metals
Interception at the Site of the Alaska Battle I"