No, it is unthinkable. What an absurd idea.
Even regardless of Shin’s ability, that theory seemed impossible, Theo thought angrily. His anger mostly came from the fact that Annette had been taken away right before his eyes, and he’d been powerless to prevent it. The MPs had conducted themselves courteously enough, but it stopped with their conduct. Annette had clearly been confused and scared at having been suddenly surrounded and taken away. Theo had tried to step in and stop them, but one of the officers predicted he would and moved in to intercept.
He’d asked the officer what this was about, but all the officer said was that it was a “security measure.” Theo knew the military operated on a need-to-know basis, but emotionally, he wasn’t satisfied with any of this.
Having seen the whole thing play out and aware of how chagrined he was, Theo’s colleagues left him alone for now. But the program on TV continued prattling on, unaware of it all.
“Or perhaps it’s some Legion biological weapon. Either way, it’s possible that the Legion are mingled in with the large-scale, reckless criticism the military’s faced since the start of the second large-scale offensive.”
He could hear his colleagues, who were likewise watching the large TV, mumble in annoyance.
“‘Biological weapon’? What is he on about? It’s not like some virus turns people into bombs.”
“No, he probably thinks they’re monsters that came from some lab or something.”
“He watches too many movies. Has he ever even seen a self-propelled mine in real life? You’d have to be blind to mistake one for a person.”
Not only did self-propelled mines have no eyes, nose, or mouth, but their limbs also bent in impossible directions, and they crawled on all fours like animals. People got fooled by them in combat because battlefields were chaotic places and they were able to sneak up on them, but they weren’t so well-made that anyone could mistake them for human after taking a good look.
“I mean, you wouldn’t be able to tell if they actually designed them to look human…but the Legion can’t make weapons that look like humans, nor can they make biological weapons.”
There was one anecdote that was passed off as a joke among Federacy soldiers. The Empire had forbidden the Legion from creating and utilizing biological weapons, to say nothing of the kind of “biological weapons” one might see in a movie.
And to keep these mechanical weapons, which were capable of learning and maturing, from coming up with loopholes, they were given an overly strict definition of what counted as a biological weapon. As a result, friendly units that only so much as carried a knife counted as breaking the protection, causing the Legion to force them to disarm. Because of this, the Legion, created to serve as weapons for the Empire, hadn’t been able to fight alongside Imperial soldiers.
“Besides, if there was some virus that could turn people into self-propelled mines, everyone fighting out there would be mines already. Especially the Eighty-Six—they’ve been battling them for years.”
“…Cut it out.”
As another soldier chided him, the soldier’s expression froze. He glanced at Theo awkwardly, but Theo simply raised his hand and waved it dismissively. This time, he didn’t say it was all good, though.
And the news program went on, still indifferent to the awkward atmosphere it created.
“We can presume, then, that conditions are similar on the front lines. In other words, it’s possible our Federacy soldiers have been unknowingly fighting shoulder to shoulder with self-propelled mines. For all we know, everyone on the front lines might be self-propelled mines—”
“““No, that’s not possible!””” everyone in the room shouted in unison.
✦ ✦ ✦
Watching commentators make such outlandish theories in a tense, overly serious manner did provide the soldiers on the front lines, who had little by way of entertainment, some levity.
“Wait, did you hear him, guys?! We’re self-propelled mines!” one soldier shouted in exaggerated surprise, and all the soldiers sitting around the radio gave a hearty laugh.
“Oh no, I’m gonna blow up! Mommy, I have to go to where the Legion are!”
Everyone cackled, hugging their bodies in laughter. They started bringing up the names of people who might actually be self-propelled mines—disliked commanders, selfish new recruits, or Republic volunteer troops.
—What if self-propelled mines really did get inside the country, though? That was where their families lived, and the thought of them getting hurt made the soldiers anxious. And so they needed to laugh the idea off.
✦ ✦ ✦
Jonas spoke, his black eyes cold and emotionless.
“Surely, you’ve seen the series of serial bombings on the news. The culprits—albeit, those girls—are certainly the victims here…”
✦ ✦ ✦
Amari spoke, her walnut-colored, Eighty-Six eyes wavering in sorrow.
“Those girls are called the Actaeon. The Republic used them—used Eighty-Six—to turn them into suicide bombs.”
✦ ✦ ✦
The assorted proteins that made up the human body were composed of amino acids based on the RNA within the body’s cells. When a virus invaded the body, infected cells started replicating based on the virus’s RNA instead of their own. There were also fungi bacterium called diazotroph that synthesized nitrogen from the atmosphere to create ammonia, like small, elaborate, cell-size chemical plants.
Republic military researchers were able to use RNA to create artificial cells, protein-based structures that converted nitrogen into nitro compounds. Other artificial cells that coexisted with it had RNA that converted the nitro compounds and glycerin, which was the raw material fat was created from, into another substance.
Normally, when these two cells were placed inside a test subject’s body, these two cell groups remained dormant, but once they became active, they spread to other cells in the body like a virus, injecting their RNA and transforming the cells into chemical plants that produced a certain chemical that was based on nitro compounds.
In other words—nitroglycerin. The raw material for creating dynamite.
✦ ✦ ✦
Somehow, the Federacy was able to discover the top secret Actaeon research and associate it with the suicide bombings.
When asked why they did such a thing, Primevére only bit her lips. Researchers and high-ranking officials in the Republic military, as well as Republic government officials, had been taken in for questioning in a Sankt Jeder police facility.
“…We tried to re-create the self-propelled mines.”
She couldn’t speak of the real reason in front of people who weren’t her fellow Celena. No one could know about it, not the Federacy and not even their fellow Republic Alabaster and Adularia citizens.
—They did this to defend the noble Celena race.
The nitroglycerin-creating cells (dubbed “Dear”) were injected into the Actaeon. If they could implement it fully, there would be no need to train soldiers anymore or worry about insufficient troop numbers. There’d be no more need to consider if they were able or willing to fight, or fret about age or one’s stamina. Anyone could work.
In the end, the Alabaster and Adularia who were subordinate to the Celena would become an ample source of people they could convert into weapons that would defend the country. So even if the Eighty-Six were to all perish before the Legion, the Actaeon could be used to defend the country. This was much more efficient and simple than the Eighty-Sixth Sector, which required both Processors and Juggernauts.
“Our country’s armored weapons, the Juggernauts, have fallen victim to self-propelled mines in the past. In which case, self-propelled mines could be effective at defeating the Legion, too.”
And so she couldn’t speak of its true purpose to anyone who wasn’t Celena. Instead of giving the actual reason, Primevére took the means—the utilization of self-propelled mines—and turned it into the reason.
The interrogator sitting before her didn’t enact any violence on her, but he gave off a vicious air that implied he would resort to it without any pangs of conscience if necessary. Because of this, she had no choice but to talk out of fear.
“The Eighty-Six were thankfully human-formed, and more intelligent than dogs or cats. By turning them directly into self-propelled mines, we’d be able to fight the Legion without having to rely on Juggernauts… What reason would we have to not develop this method, then?”