I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 439
Accident
[Why won’t Subliminal Drive start? No, don’t…]
“Sorry. Sorry, we’re sold out of mercy for Space Pirates.” (Hiro)
It was not like there was even any in stock in the first place.
The space pirates tried to escape by showing their backs to us, but we fired a heavy laser cannon at them and put the final nail in their coffin.
The thrusters of the space pirate’s ship were completely damaged, but their ship somehow managed to avoid an explosion. Lucky them… Normally their ship should have exploded after trying to supply a large amount of energy to their damaged thrusters in an attempt to escape.
“A proper ship must have good safety measures in place, right?” (Hiro)
“Yeah. Well, it will be a hassle to deal with space pirates that are still alive” (Mimi)
“If Mimi thinks that, then we’ll simply send in the battle bots as soon as the Black Lotus arrives.” (Hiro)
The reason why Mimi said it was a hassle to deal with the space pirates who might still be alive was because we couldn’t simply put them in the Black Lotus. After all, it may endanger Tina and Wiska. So, first, we needed to subdue those space pirates and take control of their ship.
If space pirates’ ship had exploded and scattered, there would have been no need to go through such trouble, so as Mimi said, it would be a hassle. The payoff would be huge, though.
“Um, my lord. Are we taking prisoners of war or…?”
“Normally, we don’t, but the situation is special this time.”
“Yeah, I thought so.”
Usually, space pirates were an enemy to us that must be killed. But now, according to Colonel Serena’s instructions, we have to take any prisoners we could get our hands on and hand them over to Colonel Serena. I guess they planned to pull information out of their heads directly.
“For now, I’ve instructed the battle bots to send space pirates a warning to surrender and to try to subdue them in a non-lethal way as much as possible. If they survive that, I’ll have Dr. Shoko treat them, and then maybe sedate, anesthetize, or otherwise incapacitate them and take them into custody.”
“Well, uh… my lord? What if they don’t survive?”
“Then, they were just out of luck. I wish them all the best in their next life.”
I shrugged my shoulders and Mimi nodded her head in agreement. I was deeply concerned about this, but I would be at ease when Kugi, with her fox ears, arrived by my side.
“But still, it’s peaceful this time, isn’t it, Hiro-sama?”
“Mimi, are you tired… we just had a rather dangerous conversation in outer space.”
“No, no, that’s right, but…! I mean, we haven’t been in a decisive pinch or in trouble, have we?”
“I think we’re already in enough trouble, being summoned to the front line by the Imperial Space Force under the Emperor’s decree, booked with Colonel Serena, and then hunting space pirates under Colonel Serena’s command. Aren’t you so used to trouble that you’ve become numb to it?”
“Ugh…but! But!”
“Mimi, I think you’re tired…”
“Hiro-sama, aren’t you trying to cover it up with that?”
“No, I’m not trying to cover up anything.”
I looked away from Mimi, who was leaning forward from the operator’s seat and giving me the eye. It was necessary to be prepared, but it was also a bad idea to be overly cautious about something that might come.
A great man in a heroic galactic saga once said, “Be resourceful while maintaining a high degree of flexibility”. No, now that I think about it, he was a complete and utter fool.
As we were talking about such things and keeping a wary eye on our surroundings, we heard a familiar ship’s shadow warp out with a roar: Black Lotus.
[Sorry to keep you waiting, Master.]
“We’ve been waiting for you. Start recovering the wreckage and taking control of the incapacitated ship. The captain’s tag has been struck.”
[Yes. Launching battle bots.]
If we were dealing with a medium or large ship, we would have used a dedicated transfer pod to send in the battle bots, but we didn’t need to do it in the case of a small ship. Therefore, we sent the battle bots directly. They flew through space, attached themselves to the hatch of the ship, and broke through the hatch to enter. It must be terrifying for the intruder.
Colonel Serena informed me, [Hiro, some of them are trying to escape into an area near you.]
“Well, we’re not busy right now… do you want us to intercept them?” (Hiro)
[Hmmm, wait, it looks like our ships are about to drive them into a kill zone.] (Colonel Serena)
“Alright, then, I guess we don’t have to do anything. We’ll just keep track of it just in case something happens.” (Hiro)
[Copy that.]
Elma’s Antlion was equipped with a gravity jammer as well as various sensors and electronic warfare equipment of higher quality and larger than Krishna’s, so its performance in that area was much better than Krishna’s. So, it could be used against the fleeing space pirates who had activated their Subliminal Drive.
You might ask, “Won’t the Black Lotus have a bigger, more powerful sensor?”. That’s correct. But the Black Lotus was slow. Antlion was already becoming indispensable in our hunting. I mean, it already was. It was a good buy, really.
[Master, we got them.]
“Roger. Keep them neutralized for safety first. Stick the battle bots on them until they are completely incapacitated and restrained, I’ll leave it to Mei to deal with them.” (Hiro)
Mei replied next, [Understood, we will soon escort them back to the Black Lotus, I will monitor them using the battle bots until they are completely neutralized.]
“Roger that.”
An equivalent of a star system blockade and chasing operation was also done before in the battle to defeat Red Flag, so the members of the independent fleet under Colonel Serena were quick and precise in their action. At this rate, we would be able to finish the job soon without too much trouble.
Just as I was thinking this, a request for a communication connection came in on Krishna’s main screen. What’s that? It was from Lestarius of Colonel Serena. Communication using a secret military line…I have a bad feeling about this.
“Yes, hello, this is Hiro, an obedient and capable mercenary.”
Colonel Serena responded, [What are you joking about? No, this is not the time for idle chit-chat].
“Is that so… may I cut off communication? I just remembered something urgent, or rather, I’m getting a stomach ache.”
[No. The offensive of the Belebelem Federation Forces has intensified. We have to temporarily suspend our response to the space pirates and head to a supply depot in the Creon system to stand by as a reserve force while we guard the supply depot.]
“Aah, Jeez, I knew it… Mimi.”
“It’s not my fault… okay?”
I looked at Mimi as she gave me a deceiving smile. I was sure it wasn’t Mimi’s fault, but…I must be cursed to be in this situation just when I thought I could finish the job without any trouble. I wonder if this was due to my ability to manipulate my destiny. If I seriously didn’t learn to control this ability, I wouldn’t be able to save my skin.
“Is the situation that dangerous? Shouldn’t we just have to do our jobs?”
[I agree with you on that, but because this was a request from the defense commander, we can’t just ignore it.]
Colonel Serena also looked very displeased. I was just about to catch the tail of those who were stirring things around here while naming themselves space pirates, and now we have been completely interrupted.
[It takes time to scrutinize information, so for now, let’s just assume that we have time to scrutinize and analyze the information we have gathered so far. I think it is unlikely that the Empire will lose considering the deployed forces and the reinforcements that will rush in using the gateway, but there is always a chance. You should not be too careless. I will send you the coordinates for the rendezvous, so please head there as quickly as possible.]
“Aye aye ma’am.”
Satisfied with my reply, Colonel Serena nodded and disconnected the communication. It was an offensive at a bad time… I hoped it wouldn’t turn out to be something strange, but I guess I had little hope. I should be on the lookout for anything that might happen.