I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 434

No Rest for the Hounds

“Funny… my plan was to take it easy for a while until the independent fleet of anti-space pirates was ready.”

“Haha…I guess it can’t be helped with the client’s orders, can it?”

“Good luck with that, my Lord. I will do my best to help you.”

About half a day after the meeting with Colonel Serena, we were on patrol in the Volks system, not far from the Creon system, hunting for space pirates.

In other words, with the Black Lotus at the center, we formed a crane-wing formation – more of a “V” than a crane-wing formation for the three ships – and were scouting through the Volks system keeping our superluminal drive at the ready.

[We can’t move without regrouping, but you guys can move right now. There is a star system that we are planning to set an encampment on, so please make sure to get the area cleaned up.]

This was a notice sent by the higher-ups of Colonel Serena to us. Was that person a demon or something? 

[The military budget is not unlimited. You are first-class mercenaries with huge hourly expenses, so work hard.]

They followed up after we reached the Creon system and finished meeting with Colonel Serena, and the contract was concluded.

The Imperial Space Forces offered us 10 million Enel for 30 days of service as a basic reward, and 300,000 Enel for each day thereafter. In addition, the cost of ammunition and other supplies would be paid by the Imperial Fleet, and we would be free to capture and salvage any ships we destroyed, and we would also be given additional rewards for destroying enemy vessels.

In summary, they have concluded that it was wasteful to leave us idle because it would take some time for their fleet to regroup. It wasn’t like they were telling us to go rampage on the front lines while they were regrouping, so there was no reason to refuse the order.

“I was thinking that while they are regrouping, we’ll just be eating and sleeping, and the money will come to us, heheheh.”

“Um…my Lord, I hope you didn’t suggest to Colonel Serena to disperse the fleet forces for that purpose…did you?”

“I would be lying if I said that there was not a shred of that intention, but that was definitely a valid move. In this instance, having the independent fleet working as a single mass is like taking out a tuna knife to handle a small fish.”

“I see, good.”

Kugi said that with a slightly relieved voice. Seriously, she was such a mean girl for suspecting me to give that suggestion for personal gain. I would give her a good smack on the base of her tail later.

“But well, we don’t really see any space pirates around.”

“It’s our first time in this star system, and we don’t have enough information, so I don’t blame you. I should have visited the Volks system at least once before–oh?”

At that moment, Krishna’s subspace sensors picked up some kind of response. The details were unclear, but the Black Lotus, equipped with a more powerful subspace sensor, should have been able to pick up much more information.

“Hiro-sama, an emergency beacon from Mei-san has been activated.”

“Alright, Mei, we’re launching an assault. Elma, be ready to activate the gravity jammer when you verify the situation. Kugi, prepare for combat.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Yes, My Lord.”

“Be careful, we don’t know if they’ve got better equipment. We’re going to be on our toes.”

The Black Lotus slowly turned around and changed course to the source of the emergency beacon before diving into subspace by activating the superluminal drive.

Alright, alright. Now let’s see how well-equipped these space pirates were.

???

With a powerful flash, our ship dived into subspace. There we found that a group of ships were just about to finish their battle.

Two trading ships and two combat ships, which were probably trading ships’ guards, were barely moving while being attacked.

On the attacker’s side, there were a total of nine ships, including two medium-sized vessels, which were still in good condition, and the wreckage of at least five more ships seemed to have been scattered throughout the area of engagement.

[A rescue fleet!? Please help us!]

[Huh! Did they come to the wrong place? Only two escorts and an additional prey. Get ’em, boys!]

(T/N: Enemies assumed that out of Hiro’s three ships, two small ships were escort ships while the Black Lotus was a trading ship as it had its weapons’ concealed.)

One of the ships from the transportation convoy, upon seeing us when we dived in, called for cooperation, while the nine marauders changed their targets to us after announcing and tried to attack us. Well, they seemed to have concealed weapons, so I could conclude that they were part of our targets.

“This is Captain Hiro of the Mercenaries Guild. We have come to your rescue.”

[Please! Hey, send them the code for the friendly identification signal! Now!]

One of the two escort combat ships hurriedly sent the code for the friendly identification signal, and while accepting it, I observed the four marauding ships heading toward us. Four ships, two medium-sized and two small? Well, since we have one medium-sized ship and one small-sized ship, it was a reasonable decision to double their forces against us.

“They are certainly well-equipped.”

“They are not normal space pirate ships, are they?”

I opened the throttle gradually and accelerated slowly, visually checking the equipment of the enemy ships, while also lightly looking over the results of the scan Mimi was conducting.

The enemy ships’ hull may be slightly battered and old, but they had the frame of a proper combat ship. The equipment on board was also decent as far as I could tell.

At least enemy ships weren’t just good for shooting, but they only had equipment of normal quality that fledgling mercenaries normally use. The hull and armor, while ragged, looked decent, and the shields also looked like a proper piece of equipment.

“They are not hard for us to handle, but a fledgling will certainly find them difficult to deal with. Now then, we’re at a good distance. Let’s go.”

Just before entering the enemy’s range, I opened the throttle to full and blasted the thrusters to close the gap.

[Whoa! This guy’s fast!]

[Shoot! Shoot it down!]

The marauders rushed to fire lasers and multi-cannons, but their firepower was poorly aimed, and we succeeded in getting close enough to the enemy’s medium-sized ship before it could do any decent damage to Krishna’s shields.

“First one.”

With flight assist turned off, Krishna fired two large shotgun shells at the enemy ship’s cockpit area as we passed each other, silencing the first medium-sized ship.

No matter how decent their shields were, at close range, our shotgun shells could easily penetrate their shields without any mercy. A single shot into the cockpit and that would be the end of it.

“Two.”

With flight assist off and the ship moving by inertia, I used the directional thrusters to turn the ship around and destroyed one of the smaller ships that was hurriedly trying to turn toward me by firing four heavy laser cannon shots in rapid succession.

Then, with the flight assist turned on, my thrusters fired again to close the gap between the remaining ships. Repeating the same attack was a fundamental part of combat.

[You’ve got some nerve showing your back to me.]

[Aaaaaaahhh! Stop, you’re going to get us burned!]

One of the smaller vessels was burned from its unprotected flank to its back by Antlion’s high-powered laser beam emitters and exploded. The one remaining medium-sized ship was–.

[What? That was not a transport ship!]

The firepower of the Black Lotus’s twelve military laser cannons, which had removed their concealment armor and were fully deployed, was nothing to sneeze at. They tore through a very decent medium-sized combat ship equipped with decent shields and armor like thin paper. The poor assailant instantly exploded into pieces.

[Hey! The newcomers have destroyed the ships we sent after them!]

[Damn it! Did we just jump into a trap? Leave the dying ones alone and let’s get out of here!]

[Superluminal drive startup canceled! Error!?]

[Where the heck is the high-mass planet? Move! Move, you piece of junk!]

The remaining five small assault ships, which were still tormenting the transportation convoy, tried to escape, but Elma had already activated her gravity jammer, making them unable to activate their superluminal drive. Okay, that’s good.

“Let’s clean up the rest.”

“Yes, my Lord.”

The cleanup of the remaining enemies, who failed to escape without knowing what happened, went without difficulty. Clearing up a bunch of guys who were trying to flee while exposing their backs was like shooting ducks

???

[Thank you so much. You guys saved our lives.]

“We were just doing our job, so don’t worry about it. Take care of yourselves.”

We have now moved to the Volks Second Colony. After rescuing the transportation convoy, we salvaged what we could from the wreckage of the marauders that was scattered all over the battlefield.

On the other hand, we towed the medium-sized marauders ship, which only had an almost destroyed cockpit, and moved with the transportation convoy.

And as soon as we arrived at our destination, we received a thank-you message from the captain of the two escort combat ships. He was a mercenary belonging to a mercenary guild and was escorting those two trading ships at their request.

The two combat ships could not continue protecting the trading ships in their current state, so their client decided to stop by Volks Second Colony to repair their ships and fill in any vacancies in their guards.

“We don’t have any particular need to resupply… but let’s see what we can get.” (Hiro)

We should also inform our client, Colonel Serena, about the situation. We encountered something that looked like a group of space pirates with good equipment, just as we had been informed, and we were able to destroy them and capture a medium-sized ship that was almost intact except for its cockpit. Maybe we could get some useful information from them.

Oh, and by the way, we sent one of our battle bots into the medium-sized ship to secure the inside. There seemed to be no survivors, but inside the ship, not only supplies but also the personal belongings of the attackers were still intact.

Surprisingly, the information we could get from these items could even reveal the origins of the attackers and the ship, so we were not fooling around. Sometimes, important information could be contained in a small information terminal or tablet that was still intact.

And the mechanic sisters were already starting work, sorting and restoring salvaged supplies, equipment, and ship scraps. I laughed at the fact that even the combat bots were being sent out to work.

Whatever the case, the first thing to do was to contact Colonel Serena. As a collared ship, I have to report to the master that I have been working well.