Heavy Object (ヘヴィーオブジェクト)

In the end,

mankind could never sate the appetite for war.

Nearly every inch of Earth had been developed

and claimed by one nation or another.

High-powered lasers regularly lobbed shuttles into space.

There was even a small group of the world's elite

that took to building their vacation homes on the moon.

Yet still...

Even amidst these wonders,

mankind couldn't eliminate the inherent urge for conflict.

Yep.

Although, there was one change.

All those people intent on pointlessly killing each other?

Well, they perfected it.

The super-large-scale weapon.

The Object.

The body of this new weapon

measured over 50 meters in length.

And with its arrival,

it completely rewrote the conventions

of modern warfare that had come before it.

This enormous weapon,

first introduced by a certain island nation.

It took a barrage of fire

from the allied forces of fourteen nations.

And kept going.

Not only that, but it fought them off, too.

Its shell was modeled after an onion

with layers upon layers of armor

forged by patiently mixing in a powder

of high-performance anti-fire reactant.

The armor plates were then laminated

with conductor and insulator materials,

enabling them with a printed transmission system

that could transfer power throughout the object.

Power from the reactor at its core

to the external armament.

All without laying a single line of cable.

The innovation and cutting edge technology were boundless.

Traditional craftsmanship

combined with precision machining

were all poured into creating this ungodly machine.

It was the twisted apex of the intelligence of man.

Ultimately, it was submerged in a baptism

of nuclear fire, but it withstood the attack.

With half its body melting like ice cream,

it proceeded to wipe out the allied fleet

with its remaining armaments.

To this day, that awesome spectacle

can be found in our history books.

Naturally, in the wake of such obvious success,

Objects have become synonymous with war.

After the breakdown of the United Nations

in the first half of the 21st century,

a large number of countries and sovereign republics

collapsed or underwent a drastic reformation.

As a result of this breakdown,

the world became divided into four separate coalitions.

But the division of territories

was about as jumbled up as a shattered stained glass window,

which resulted in different powers

sharing borders across the globe.

This inevitably led to a constant rash

of small scale border skirmishes and local wars.

You could say that the Objects

were a natural byproduct of this world.

Necessity gave birth to her most warped invention.

Which brings us to now.

The fight for sovereignty

amongst the coalitions carries on,

but they're now determined by "clean wars"

solely conducted by the Objects.

So then...

What about everybody else?

That's it, I quit!

I'm a freakin' radar analyst, dammit!

I didn't join the army to just shovel snow!

Busy work is all that's left.

I mean, every other aspect of conflict in the world

is left up to Objects.

But we're livin' off the taxpayers' dime,

so we've gotta at least look like we're working, right?

Oh, yeah, right.

Freezing our butts off working in the snow!

No one cares about us lowly soldiers, huh?

Well, those are just the hard knocks of modern warfare.

Now it's all up to the Objects

and the Elites who operate them.

That's the thing!

How am I supposed to feel motivated to do anything

when all we have to do is meaningless busy work?

We're totally worthless!

You've got a point.

We're about as useless as fighter planes

going up against Objects equipped with anti-air lasers.

Isn't the kill ratio something like 1 to 500?

Pretty sure it's worse than that.

Jets are about as powerful as horseflies up against Objects.

And ground-based armored units?

They're about as effective as ants.

Everything's equally useless in the shadow of Objects.

No, a tank could be useful.

Huh?

Right here.

Just mount a huge shovel

to the front of one of those bad boys,

plow it through, and we'd be done

before you even know it!

What the hell are we doing with our lives?

Look at it this way.

Thanks to the Objects,

at least we don't have to see combat.

Probably not something a soldier should say,

but that is a good thing.

There's nothing cool about getting your head blown off

in battle.

Oh, hey.

You're nobility, aren't you, Havia?

Yeah, born with blue blood.

All that means is I have to prove myself even more.

Otherwise I won't have the stature to inherit the estate.

Oh, thank you.

And that's why I'm here.

Racking up achievements.

So how heavy's that cross you've got to bear?

You came out to this frozen wasteland

just to study abroad?

Well, I'm just a commoner by birth.

Only chance I have to make it is to learn a trade.

So the idea's to become a licensed designer

focused on Objects, right?

Hey, ya can't beat on the job training.

I'm well on my way to becoming a millionaire.

Maybe so,

but that doesn't make this awful army food

taste any better.

What, were you expecting a tax-subsidized

four-course gourmet meal?

But you're right, it's terrible.

I'd so much rather catch one of those deer out there

and grill it up than eat this crap.

Now that's some brilliant commoner thinking!

You really are a genius, y'know.

Uhh...

Let's just forget this.

We'll catch hell if our CO busts us.

And besides, can you even take down a deer?

We're talkin' about a target that moves.

No problem.

That's why I loaded up on plenty of smart bullets.

As long as I aim in the general direction,

the bullets will do all of the work

and we'll have us a tasty four-legged buffet. Ha!

Good grief, those are some expensive rounds.

Even if we were suddenly faced with combat,

it's not like the decorated senior officers

would do anything other than drink coffee in a warm room

while waiting for the Object to make its victorious return.

Such a tough job they've got.

Not that I'm one to talk.

Hey! You comin' or what?

I'm gonna try going after some different game.

I'll leave the deer to you.

Ha. Whatever.

Now this is the golden age of Objects.

Talk about a waste of taxpayer money.

Sounds like Havia's going at it.

I can't imagine the taxpayers would be too happy

to know those costly bullets are being shot at deer

instead of people.

But at least it's another peaceful day.

What are you doing out here?

We're having barbeque tonight.

I'm catching some fish and Havia's hunting down a deer.

This is a dumb question since I suggested it.

But is deer meat even tasty?

I've never tried it before so I'm starting to get worried.

You need to eat some vegetables with your barbeque

or you'll eventually give yourself a heart attack.

And where are you off to today, Princess?

The Object's in for routine maintenance.

I had a little time to kill so I went for a walk,

but then I heard gunshots and started to get curious.

Oh, crap,

you can hear the shots from inside the base?

We're gonna get chewed out for sure!

I don't understand why you would do something

when you know it's going to get you scolded.

Remind me...

You came here to study Objects, didn't you?

I did.

What made you choose this base?

I'm just trying to make sense of your logic.

You know what kind of Object I operate.

Well, of course,

it's a first gen multi-role comprehensive Object.

In other words, it can be operated in any region

across the world and under any weather conditions.

It's the most standard super-large-scale weapon

operating today.