I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 437

A Little in-depth Conversation About Space Pirates

I spent half a day with Mimi scrutinizing the vast amount of data brought back from the mercenary guild. After that, Colonel Serena, accompanied by her second-in-command, came to visit the Black Lotus.

“Hello, welcome to my ship, which I am very proud of. It’s not so gloomy…is it? Not too much… roomy… either. Well, please sit down and enjoy your stay, we’re cleaning everything up.”

The atmosphere of the ship was rather floral, as I was the only man in the room. My ship’s interior was luxurious and solid. To be honest, it was much more luxurious than Colonel Serena’s ship, the Lestarius.

“Those words only come out of your mouth when you are trying to use unfamiliar formal phrases. You don’t have to be so formal with me. By the way, what’s that?”

“It is information on the appearance of space pirates and missing merchant ships I got from the mercenaries’ guild. The military handles the same kind of thing, don’t they?”

I answered Colonel Serena, who asked me a question while looking at the map of the star system projected on the holoscreen with various symbols displayed on it.

Data such as the coordinates of the mercenaries’ battles with space pirates should have been shared with the Imperial Space Forces via the Star System Forces, as well as data on battles between the Star System Forces and space pirates and information on missing merchant vessels.

“What are these color-coded lines…? Oh, you mean that the incidents connected by these lines are the space pirates’ actions under one linked operation? That means this is the decoy, and the real target is this missing ship… Huh? Do space pirates plan and operate with such meticulous care?”

“Of course, not all space pirates are the ones who attack any ship they see while shouting ‘hoo-ha, hoo-ha!’ There are a handful of them who think as well.”

“So, what about the space pirates we usually defeat?”

“Well, the space pirates you usually defeat are mostly small fry space pirates of the hijacker type, I guess. Elite space pirates are cautious, so it’s rare to encounter them. Moreover, if they feel they are disadvantaged, they run away as fast as they can, which is not good.”

It was a long time ago that Dr. Shoko’s ship was attacked by elite space pirates. They fled as soon as they saw they were disadvantaged. But now, I have a gravity jammer on Elma’s Antlion, so I wouldn’t let them get away.

I said, “Well, it’s certainly meaningless if you can’t destroy the elite space pirates because it’s mainly their henchmen who are doing the damage, and they seem to have an unlimited supply of those henchmen. The elite space pirates are better overall, and often have a lot of information with them, making them a tasty target for mercenaries.”

I continued, “So from the standpoint of maintaining security, it’s probably better to actively focus on hunting them. The problem is that they show up less frequently, but they definitely cause damage… the question now is, why are they all clumped together in this area?”

Colonel Serena was frozen in place with a shocked expression on her face. Why was she looking at me like that? I couldn’t figure this out.

“What is this elite space pirates thing?”

“What? They are basically cunning, well-equipped, and rare space pirates. Do you think all space pirates are the same?”

“I thought so. This is the first time I have heard of this concept of elite space pirates. I have never heard such a term from anyone other than you. Could it be that it is a critical piece of information from an unknown source, as was the case with Mother Crystal?”

“No, I don’t think so… right?”

It might be possible that this concept of elite space pirates was only now revealed to them since I brought it with my knowledge from SOL, that’s what I called them in the game, but that didn’t mean that I created the elite space pirates, they simply were not recognized until now, so there was nothing wrong with the information I provided.

No, that’s not the point. What matters was that the anti-space pirates tactics and concepts I learned at SOL were directly applicable to the space pirates of this universe, which means that I may have critical information about space pirates that was not generally recognized in this universe.

“You don’t seem so sure. You’re still hiding something, aren’t you? If you’re going to throw up, now’s the time to do it, right?”

Colonel Serena, who had come right up to me while I was pondering this, put her hand on my cheek and smiled at me. Her eyes were not smiling, and I was scared.

“No. No. I don’t have any. I swear.”

I turned away from Colonel Serena, gently removing her hand from my cheek, and tried desperately to remember the information about space pirates in SOL.

There was no space pirate eradication event, so there was no critical information in that area. Similarly, there was no information on the origin of space pirates.

Was there a cloning plant somewhere in this universe that generates them? Or, maybe there was a large space colony of space pirates somewhere in deep space? There were hints of such things, but as far as I know, there was no confirmed information.

In addition, it was confirmed in SOL that there were cases of so-called ordinary citizens, or ordinary people, turning into space pirates, and this was true in this universe as well.

“Look me in the eyes and say it.”

“Close, close, Colonel-dono, you are too close. Also, my neck hurts.”

Colonel Serena held my face with both hands and turned it toward her, staring at me from a close distance. I could afford to think about how beautiful her red eyes were, or how pretty she was, so I wasn’t really cornered yet. Yeah, I wasn’t really cornered yet.

“Are you sure there’s nothing you’re hiding? If you don’t answer me honestly, I have some ideas.”

“No, no, no. I mean, if I had found any critical information related to space pirates, I would have been making a lot of money using it. And if I sell it to the Colonel, I’ll make a lot of money.”

“Hmmm…if you say so, that’s fine. As soon as you remember anything, please let me know.”

“Aye aye mam. By the way, isn’t this position and this distance not good?”

“I don’t think we are so unfamiliar that we will get upset over something like this. Besides, I like romance. I don’t think it would be fun to forcefully take each other’s lips in a situation like this, where there is no atmosphere whatsoever involved.”

Colonel Serena released me while saying so. Her face looked a little red, but I decided to keep quiet because if I pointed it out, she might pull out her sword. My crew and Colonel Serena’s second-in-command were also looking at me with jealousy and excitement.

Colonel Serena continued, “By the way, as far as I know, the space pirates’ tactical research hasn’t progressed very far at all.”

I said, “Hmmm… Really? But it’s not that difficult to understand them. I don’t believe that elite professional soldiers have never considered or even conceptualized something that a layman like me – or not really that much of a layman, but even a mercenary with no special education – can at least reach this conclusion. Isn’t that strange?”

“It has been studied several times in the past, but I remember hearing that it was all in vain. The degree of impulsive or ad hoc attacks was so great that they could not be patterned properly. Similarly, their origins have been investigated many times, and are still being investigated, but the origins of the [pure space pirates], excluding former imperial subjects who turned into space pirates, etc., are still unknown. Considering their high level of bioengineering technology, it is highly likely that they not only reproduce through normal methods such as pregnancy and childbirth, but also increase their population through cloning, and traces of such methods have been discovered. However, it is not known where this is being done. However, when their genomic information is analyzed, the genomic information of crew members of merchant ships and passengers of passenger ships that have gone missing in the past can be confirmed, so it is speculated that a small percentage of the personnel kidnapped by them may have been taken to what could be called their home base and used for reproduction.”

“Can’t you pull any information from the captured space pirates as well?”

“No. It’s either they possess a very strict memory shield, or their memories don’t exist in the first place. Most space pirates we have captured only have memories from the age of eight to ten, regardless of their age. The only exception to this is in the case of children born from other space pirates or from space pirates and their victims, who grew up in their pirates’ base through natural childbirth.”

“That’s very thorough… maybe space pirates are some kind of space monsters…?”

It was quite eerie to see a being of unknown origin, who understands human languages, could interbreed with humans, use human technology, and have advanced bioengineering technology that could be described as unique and hostile to humans. Were they some kind of space goblins, different from space elves? No, space pirates look no different from humans though, don’t they?

“Well, enough about space pirates…are we heading out?”

“Yes, that’s right. I was originally here for a little meeting before that. So can we get down to business?”

“Okay, Mimi, Kugi, sorry, but I need enough drinks for everyone. I’ll clear up the mess here.”

“Yes!”

“Yes, my Lord.”

As I watched Mimi and Kugi run to the mess hall together, I packed up the tablets and small information terminals in the break area and saved and stored the data projected on the holoscreen. I should also call Elma, who was helping the mechanic sisters in the hangar.