Part 9
(November 10 – Over Lanai – Inside the cargo hold of a transport plane – From a maintenance control camera)
Mikoto's lightning attacks flew and destroyed the cubic containers in the transport plane one after another. She was trying to destroy the Trigger that was supposedly in one of them.
However, only what appeared to be military livelihood kits came from within. Items such as frying pans with handles that folded in and small lamps scattered about. Kamijou may not have known what the Trigger looked like, but he could tell that those items were nothing more than basic kitchen goods. He could think of no way that they would help artificially control volcanic activity.
"(…What is going on?)"
Kamijou thought of a few possibilities.
For instance, there had been three planes total. It was possible the Trigger was on one of the other planes, but Saronia had been controlling the base commander who had decided where it would be loaded. She had to have known which plane it was on and there was no merit in splitting herself and the Trigger up.
Also, the plane had taken off before all the containers had been loaded. It was possible they had taken off before the Trigger had been loaded, but Saronia must have known the number of the container it was in. That was why she had been willing to take off before they were all loaded and why she had not seemed worried when Kamijou had unlocked one of the containers to use as a shield. Otherwise, she should have been worried that it could fall out of the open cargo door.
Which meant…
"You didn't know…? You had only been told that the container was one of these?"
The organization that was Gremlin would unhesitatingly use magicians as powerful as Saronia in order to realize their overall plan. They had manipulated her with false information, leaving her looking like a fool.
Cendrillon and Saronia A. Irivika were not the only ones behind the incident.
Someone else was there.
Most likely, this person was hidden even deeper.
"…"
For a while, Saronia remained motionless.
She must have been analyzing what had happened to her.
However, neither Kamijou nor Saronia had much time to think.
Saronia realized Mikoto was adjusting her aim and the magician immediately moved her handgun. However, she did not aim toward Mikoto. Instead, she aimed for the front of the plane and fired every last bullet she had.
"The pilot!!" Roberto Katze cried out.
Kamijou and Mikoto faltered slightly upon realizing what he meant. While they did, Saronia grabbed a bag-like object from where it hung on the wall. It was an emergency parachute. The plane naturally and gently ascended and Saronia used the slant toward the back cargo door to charge toward the exit.
Just before she passed by Mikoto, the #3 desperately fired a lightning spear that struck Saronia full on. Saronia's body went slightly limp and her consciousness seemed to grow dim, but she still unhesitatingly jumped from the edge of the sloped cargo door with a smile on her face.
Mikoto clicked her tongue and cursed.
"There's no point in heading after her! The president takes priority!!"
Kamijou headed next to Mikoto on the cargo door and grabbed Roberto's arm. A wrong move could have sent all three of them tumbling into open air, but they managed to drag the president into the plane.
"…H-how much do you weigh? I think you've been eating too many burgers."
"I may not look it, but I don't even weigh ninety kilos. I only use the burgers to appeal to the younger demographics. Roseline is always telling me I would get more votes if I lost weight, but I think I'm pretty slim given my height."
After catching his breath, Kamijou recalled the situation they were in.
"Misaka, check to see if there are any more parachutes."
"What about you?"
"I'm going to check on the pilot. If those bullets made it through the wall, he might be injured."
"I'll go too," added the president. "I doubt you'll be able to communicate properly with just Japanese."
"The pilot might attack you on Saronia's orders."
"If he's doing well enough to try, then I'll be happy."
Kamijou and Roberto stepped over the wreckage of the containers and headed for the cockpit.
Part 10
(November 10 – Over Lanai – From the video records of the cargo plane's recorder box)
As Kamijou had expected, the handgun had fired straight through the thin wall separating the cockpit from the cargo bay. Not only had some of the numerous bullets that had passed through the cockpit hit the pilot, but some had cracked the canopy. It may have only been the lack of a pressure change due to the open cargo door that had prevented the canopy from shattering.
And…
The white man who looked around thirty was bloody and leaning against the console. It was unclear whether he was still under Saronia's control or if she had simply abandoned him, but it really did not matter.
Kamijou ran over and shouted at the pilot while grabbing his shoulder with his right hand.
"Shit, are you okay!?"
"He seems to be conscious, but he was hit directly in the back three times. All of the bullets left his body, but these aren't wounds for which first aid is going to cut it."
"All I can think to do is cover the wounds. Is there anything else?"
"That's enough. With a limb, we could tie it off to temporarily cut off the flow of blood, but for the body, it would just crush his organs."
They tried to tear the pilot's jacket that they had removed to get a look at his wounds, but the tough military uniform would not tear. They managed to prepare a few strips of cloth they could use for first aid by cutting it with the knife hanging at the pilot's waist next to his handgun.
That was when Mikoto entered.
"I found a few parachutes!"
"…That could be difficult for him," said the president quietly as he looked at the pilot's wounds. "The shock when the parachute deploys is the same as landing from a fall of a few meters. It just knocks the breath out of someone with a healthy body, but it wouldn't be a good idea for someone who has possible internal injuries."
"…I…don't mind…" said the pilot while still leaning against the console, moving his lips that were sticky with blood. "You all go ahead and jump. I will at least make sure to aim the plane for the ocean…"
Kamijou and the other two exchanged a glance.
Mikoto sighed and tossed the parachutes to the ground.
The pilot's eyes filled with a vague doubt.
"What are you…?"
"We are going to help you," the president said as he placed his hand on the pilot's shoulder. "However, we are not helping you crash into the ocean. Let's aim a little higher and try for an emergency landing."
Part 11
(November 10 – Hawaii – Volcanoes National Park – From a bird watching camera)
The mystery men left after twenty minutes.
Even though he knew waiting for them to leave was the best strategy, watching a device that would take 500,000 lives be set up was not exactly good for Hamazura's heart. He could not believe how casually Misaka Worst and Kuroyoru Umidori were taking it.
After he saw the group that was likely related to Gremlin leave in a four-wheel drive vehicle, Hamazura slid down the side of the caldera and approached the crater at the center. He could smell the sulfuric gas and could feel the temperature rise suddenly. The Gremlin group must have been wearing some kind of special suit under their clothes.
"What do you think!?"
"It's probably set up to send powerful vibrations underground from multiple angles at once in order to regulate the pressure of the magma. There are no cables connecting the individual devices and no wireless signals, so the detonation must be timer controlled and each one is a completely isolated system."
"So we can't stop all of them by destroying one central system." Hamazura looked around. "At a glance, I see over twenty of them and we have no idea what the time limit is. Don't tell me our only option is to open the cover and cut a cord like in a movie for each and every one of them!"
"…There's a simpler way," said Kuroyoru as she pointed toward one at random. "They went out of their way to stake the legs down. Most likely, the explosion is highly directional and it sends its shock wave directly into the earth like a spear. And that means…"
"We just have to remove the stakes or destroy the legs and then knock over the drums!"
"Well, Misaka would hurry if she was you," said Misaka Worst with a grin. "Even if these are meant to control volcanic activity, they're still basically bombs. We have no idea when they're going to detonate and Misaka would rather not get caught up in the blast. And that goes for the simple blast of the explosives as well as the blast of Hawaii's largest active volcano erupting."
Part 12
(November 10 – The Ocean near Lanai – From the video records of the cargo plane's recorder box)
The transport plane's pilot did his best to carry out his duty, but he could barely move. Kamijou, Mikoto, and the president followed his instructions and dealt with all the controls other than the control column.
"…First close the back cargo hatch. Use that button. If the plane is sealed, the air inside will act as a float. That's necessary for an emergency landing on the ocean…"
Kamijou and the others pressed the buttons as they were instructed, but they had no real feel for what effects the buttons were having. However, they could clearly tell that their altitude was dropping. Even so, they were not stable. The floor lurched beneath their feet and unpleasant changes in gravity threatened to bring up the contents of their stomachs.
It was much too dangerous a situation to call it a journey through the sky.
The threat to their lives showed them just how unnatural it was to disobey gravity.
"…There are no do-overs for an emergency landing on the ocean. We have one chance. If you want to give up, now is the time. Once our altitude drops below a certain point, those parachutes will be of no use. Are you sure you want to do this…?"
Kamijou smiled once he received a translation from Mikoto.
He ignored the numbers quickly scrolling by on the altimeter and said, "I've already made up my mind on that, so just tell me what I need to do to land."
"You've got guts." The bloody pilot lifted up his upper body once more. "But protecting the president is my duty."
Part 13
(November 10 – Hawaii – Volcanoes National Park – From a bird watching camera)
Kuroyoru Umidori and Misaka Worst were the only ones that were any real help.
Giant spears made of nitrogen sliced directly through the legs supporting the drums. Misaka Worst accelerated iron nails in her hand that blew away the stakes connecting the legs to the ground. With their supports, even a Level 0 like Hamazura could easily push over the drums. That way, the Trigger could not carry out its proper function.
However, the drums were numerous.
And they had little time.
As Misaka Worst watched, a red light appeared in the center of the side of one of the toppled drums. Guessing what the ominous light meant, she frantically looked around. Just under half of the drums were still standing. They all had the same red light.
"Not good…" Misaka Worst muttered before yelling out to Hamazura and Kuroyoru who were still working. "Not good!! We aren't going to make it! They're going to detonate!!"
"There are still some left on the other side of the crater!!"
"If we stay here we'll be caught up either in the shockwave from the explosives or the lava from the volcano!!"
"500,000 lives are at stake! Are you saying we just let them die!?" Hamazura yelled back.
However, Kuroyoru's arms dropped down limply as if they had been switched off. Misaka Worst had likely done something to her.
The girl shrugged her barely moving shoulders and said, "If you want to keep working on your own, feel free."
"Dammit…!!"
The legs and stakes holding the drums in place could only be destroyed with Misaka Worst or Kuroyoru Umidori's powers. Hamazura alone could not change the situation no matter how persistent he was.
That was likely Misaka Worst's intention.
Misaka Worst heard a footstep. Her cheek twitched slightly when she realized it was from Hamazura heading back for the Trigger.
"Hey! Misaka really will abandon you here!! She has no obligation to stick around!!"
"You're not going to convince him," said Kuroyoru as her unmoving arms swayed. "Hit him with your high voltage current."
A loud zapping noise rang out.
After she confirmed that Hamazura had collapsed to the ground, Misaka Worst gave Kuroyoru control of her arms once more.
She pointed toward Hamazura with her chin and said, "Carry him. If we don't get out of here soon, we'll be surrounded by lava!!"
"Can you not see how much bigger than me he is?"
"My arm is broken, so I can't do it."
After making sure Kuroyoru was carrying Hamazura over her shoulder like a bag of rice, Misaka Worst looked back over at the still functioning Trigger.
"They set up over twenty units to get the result they wanted. With about half of them down, things shouldn't go quite as they planned!!"
"How about we run rather than talk? I don't know where exactly the lava is going to flow, but the inside of the caldera is going to be a lake of lava!"
The two girls started to flee.
To get out of the caldera, they had to climb up a slope.
They ran as quickly as they could, but running out of a caldera that was over ten kilometers across would have been difficult for even a professional marathon runner. Kuroyoru clicked her tongue, removed her right arm, and shot it away like a rocket by firing a nitrogen spear. After ensuring it had a strong grasp on the ground where it landed far ahead, Misaka Worst used her magnetism to pull the three of them to the arm.
"How about we join forces as the villain girl combo?"
"If you keep fucking with my systems using your magnetism, I really will scrape your brains out of your skull!!"
By picking up her arm and then repeating the procedure a few times, they finally reached the edge of the caldera.
But that was the limit.
There was a deep explosive noise that started as a trembling deep in their stomachs.
Immediately afterwards, everything was covered by a blast of wind and tremendous heat that made the heat from before seem like nothing.
Part 14
(November 10 – The Ocean near Lanai – From a patrol camera)
A military transport plane floated in the gentle ocean.
However, Arc Daniels felt more bored than relieved as he held the helm of a marine patrol boat. He had been piloting all the way from the Third Pearl Harbor Marine Base on Oahu. Normally, a base on Lanai would have handled it.
"There he is! Just as reported, Mr. Scandal and the others are standing on top of the transport plane!!" shouted one of his colleagues on the deck.
Most likely, similar excitement was occurring on the other patrol boat alongside him. Only those at the helm remained anxious.
"That was completely reckless. Does he have any idea how dangerous an emergency landing like that is?"
"This is probably another one of his stunts to get votes. They'll probably start calling him the man loved by lady luck or something."
The marines may have said those kinds of things then, but they quieted up once they were within earshot of the president. About half of the plane had sunk underwater, but the roof was still a few meters above the surface. It was quite a bit higher up than the small motor boat that had been modified into a patrol boat. They fastened a rope to a lightning rod-like unit on top of the transport plane and lowered down those needing rescue.
The original plan had been to directly return to Oahu, but the pilot had been shot. They had no choice but to stop by a hospital on the much nearer Lanai.
The transport plane had reached an area forty meters from Lanai's coast. If it had gotten any closer, the belly of the plane would have scraped the bottom which could have led to a different result.
The pilot was in real danger, but he could still be saved if they acted quickly.
The successful emergency landing alone was worth celebrating.
However, the president and the others who had been with him were not celebrating their survival. They were not looking at the plane they had been on or at Lanai where they were headed. They were all looking in the same direction and had nothing but urgency and tension on their faces.
Arc turned his head in the direction they were looking and then understood.
The blue sky had turned black.
What looked like a pitch black thunderhead was actually volcanic ash. It was coming from the direction of the Island of Hawaii. The first thing that came to Arc's mind was Kilauea.
"It really…erupted!?"
"You've gotta be kidding me. We couldn't stop the Trigger…? Weren't 500,000 people's lives counting on that!?"
"No." The president started saying something in Japanese. "Kilauea is the type of active volcano that sends a lot of soft lava spewing out when it erupts. To cause huge amounts of damage to the areas at the base of the mountain, they would only have had to cause an eruption like that but on a greater scale. Something is odd about this. There shouldn't be that much volcanic ash in the air…"
"So you're saying the explosion didn't go how Gremlin planned it to?"
"I don't know. …Corporal! This ship can access the internet in order to connect to the smart system for linking units, right? After all the money we gave you, I won't let you say no. I want to hook up my Imperial Package and gather some—"
The president suddenly stopped speaking because of a long, narrow trail of smoke.
A somehow spear-like trail of white smoke was approaching from the coast of Lanai. However, it was not coming from the closest point of the coast. Instead, it was coming from a point jutting out from the island over ten kilometers to Arc's right.
Arc immediately understood what it was that was flying just above the ocean surface toward them.
"An…anti-ship missile!?"
"Shit, jump into the sea!!" someone yelled.
Seconds later, the missile mercilessly struck the side of the other patrol boat accompanying the one Arc Daniels and the others were on. The small ship continued in its original direction, but the blast sent it arcing through the air where it slowly passed over Arc's head.
The soldiers who had managed to dive into the ocean came up for air.
The fact that they had escaped relatively unscathed meant…
"Mr. President! That was most likely the Narwhal that was joint developed by the EU!! It's an anti-ship missile designed solely to open a hole in the side of a ship. Its power and size are kept to the bare minimum to minimize price and transportation costs. The shockwave is sent straight ahead like a spear, so the blast can be escaped by just getting a few meters away!!"
"But who is attacking us…? What is going on…?"
"More are on their way!! Jump into the sea! Hurry!!"
More long, narrow trails of white smoke sliced through the air toward them. Their patrol boat could move quite quickly, but it could not maintain the kind of speed that would be needed to lose a missile.
The president and the Asian teenagers who were accompanying (?) him did as they were told and jumped into the ocean. With his serious injuries, the pilot could not be exposed to the seawater, so Arc's fellow soldiers sealed him inside a reinforced rubber bag and dove into the ocean. It was hardly the time to worry about the fact that it was actually a body bag.
After making sure everyone else had gotten out, Arc Daniels followed suit.
Immediately afterwards, numerous anti-ship missiles struck the abandoned patrol boat and mercilessly blew away their transportation.
"Is the bombardment over…?" asked Arc tentatively.
Using his "official" tone of voice, the president replied, "I doubt they have sensors that can detect individual people. They are going to send out a unit to see if we are dead, so we need to thank our lucky stars that we are alive and get out of here."
"S-send out a unit? What is going on here!?"
"Don't ask me," said the president.
"Th-this means war… I don't know what country is behind this, but if they're trying to kill our president on such a large scale, we need to get revenge…!!"
"Mister, as long as they don't actually kill me, it doesn't matter. I'm not going to waste our soldier's lives on something like that."
The anti-ship missiles had been a model that had been joint developed by the EU, but bombing Europe over it would have been beyond stupid. Even if the weapons had had flags drawn on them, the evidence would still have been weak. If it was intentional misdirection, the United States would end up targeting completely unrelated people.
"Mister, you said those missiles were Narwhals, didn't you?"
"Wh-what about it?"
"Do you know the specific model? Were they Ds or Rs?"
"I-I'm sorry, sir. I've heard before that the different models sound different, but I can't actually tell them apart that way…"
"Not only are Narwhals relatively easy for other countries to get their hands on due to being a joint project, but the D model was specifically designed as an export model to obtain foreign currency. However, they are quite expensive and their maintenance format is too unique, so no non-EU countries have bought any. …Only a few Gray Flags have bought them."
"…Gray Flags?" Arc audibly gulped. "You're saying mercenary PMCs are behind this!?"
"Perhaps. I can't deny the possibility of it being some other country, but there would simply be too much of a risk of us taking revenge on them as you suggested before. This simply does not seem like something anyone with a set homeland would do," spat out the president. "But whoever it is that has been sneaking around behind the scenes has now shown themselves in a big way. It isn't going to end here. Most likely, they're beginning an avalanche-like offensive."
"S-so they're declaring war on us?"
"This would be a lot easier if we were up against people gentlemanly enough to do something like that," Roberto said as he pointed straight up. "Even if it wasn't complete, Kilauea still erupted and it looks like that ash is going to cover the sky. Do you know what that means, corporal?"
"That airplanes can't fly through here?" cut in the Asian girl in English.
"Yes. That means no emergency reinforcements from the mainland in the form of fighters or bombers. And," added Roberto Katze, "if those anti-ship missiles are deployed across the Island of Hawaii as well as Lanai, then we can't expect any bombardments from ships or landing operations using landing ships. Evading anti-aircraft missiles in a fighter that can fly at Mach speeds is hard enough, so there is no real way to evade anti-ship missiles with ships that cannot go any faster than a few dozen kilometers per hour."
"So the Hawaiian Islands are completely isolated…?"
"Since they waited to carry out such a brazen attack until after causing the eruption, it seems to me that they were trying to create this isolation. The isolation itself may have been their objective or it may have been nothing more than preparation to give them the freedom to do something else."
"B-but the Hawaiian Islands have more bases than any other region in the Pacific! The firepower we have here should be more than enough to—!!"
"That assumes this will be a simple clash of firepower," said the president with a bitter expression. "But our enemy has a kind of power to which common sense does not apply. I have seen it with my own eyes. And this missile attack shows that they also have plenty of power to which common sense does apply. …They have the power of numbers that is supposed to be the strength of our United States."
As the president spoke, he seemed to be arranging all the information in his own head.
What would happen when those two powers were brought together?
How much damage would be done?
He gritted his teeth and said, "At any rate, their plan has advanced beyond a certain point, bringing everything more to their favor."