Yesterday we left the technician colony Akul and went to an asteroid general-purpose processing station to patrol and hunt monsters hiding in the asteroid belt. And today we’re docked in the station, accepting the next patrol duty.
“<Ahh, good morning Tortilla Double. Was yesterday profitable?>”
“Good morning. We only got eight eels yesterday, so I’m hoping to make a little more today.”
“<…What did you say?>”
“What did I say?”
“<Only eight eels?>”
“Yes… Is there a problem?”
“<Hold on a second.>”
Hm? What is it…? They’re not going to say it’s too many or anything like that, right? And they’re really keeping us waiting. It’s been fifteen minutes.
“Were you not just reporting?”
“I was, Suzuri, but things got weird when I was trying to accept another quest.”
“What happened~?”
“Was there an issue?”
The girls, who were taking it easy having breakfast in the living room, rush to the cockpit. Everyone’s dressed, right? They can’t see them through this communication, but still.
“<Ahh, Tortilla Double, is your radar range as you reported?>”
“It is. Is there a problem?”
“<You hunted less than half of what was predicted. You really did patrol, right?”
“I sure did. Should I present the ship camera?”
“<No… Fine. You went to a safe route yesterday, so you want a profitable one today, correct?>”
“Yes, that’s the idea. I got some practice yesterday.”
“<Understood, I’m sending the route. And…>
“What?”
“<Be aware that it’s not rare for ships to not return, but until yesterday, two mining ships are reported to not have returned from that route. If you see them, rescue them.>”
“Understood. So they were scheduled to return at this time?”
“<Yes. It’s not like it’s rare for miners to miss their schedules, but…>”
“I feel like you’re being a bit evasive.”
“<It hasn’t happened here in decades, but… There’s this thing called an outbreak of monsters. I feel like it’s close to a sign of that. If you have a good reason to break contract, you won’t suffer a penalty. It’s just a standing quest. Do you understand?>”
“It sounds like it’s hard to gauge what’s a good reason, but I get it. Tortilla Double out.”
I get up from the cockpit and face the girls.
“You heard it. There weren’t any reports from other mercenaries, right?”
“Don’t you think this is fishy?”
“But it sounds profitable~.”
“Perhaps it would be wise to consider when to break the quest…”
▽▽▽
We get dressed, and jump through hyperspace to that profitable patrol route, meaning a route with a lot of eels and turtles.
“At a glance nothing looks weird…”
“Looking at the radar, it looks like the concentration of the asteroids is different from yesterday.”
“There are a lot of them, more than ten times the day before. There appear to be many mining ships around here.”
“With this many, it’s hard to tell what’s hiding~. Uwah, look at that thick air plant! It’s gotta be a kilometer tall~.”
It’s time to leave the wonders of space aside and get to work. Not making a lot of money is bad in more ways than one! I input the course, and have the AI go at cruising speed. Now we just have to watch the radar and hunt. That said, since mining ships are working here, I don’t think…
“Genma, space turtle sighted at 9 o’clock forty kilometers from here. Marking.”
“That was fast~~!”
“Uwa, and an eel at eleven o’clock. They are really biting today!”
“Fast and many.”
I change course towards the turtle, and get closer to shoot with the secondary cannon. After getting within five kilometers slowly at cruising speed, I stop and look at it with the electronic telescope. I don’t know what it’s doing, but it’s like it’s basking in the sun belly up like turtles on Earth. I guess the sun is over there…
I can sell the shell. They are supposed to be stripped off and sold separately, and if I want them in the best condition possible, I need to kill them with a head shot.
The large laser cannon turret is easier to aim from a distance, but it’s too strong.
Tortilla Double has two secondary cannons. Only one is online, and aimed at its head. I take position so I’m looking at it from the side and only hit the head and… Fire.
The space turtle suddenly changes where it’s looking, and the shot hits and bounces off the shell of all places.
“Oh no. Wait, it bounced off. This is strong enough to destroy a small transport ship used by pirates though!”
“It’s a space being, so it makes sense for it to be repelled.”
“That’s why you can sell it as materials~.”
“Genma, it has not spotted us yet.”
Eh? uwah, it doesn’t even care that it was hit! It’s just changing where it’s facing. I guess it can’t see us from five kilometers away. There’s no sign that it will move, so I go around, and this time I shoot its head off.
“Kori, take care of salvaging.”
“Yes~!”
“How big is that turtle?”
“Hn, probably about five meters in diameter. If it is undamaged, it should be worth a thousand puni!”
Eel magic stones can be used as substitute catalysts for small laser cannons, and turtle shells as substitute structure preserving fields. Once processed, they’re strong against corrosion and can be used as ship parts for decades without noticeable degradation.
Lasers go without saying, but structure preserving fields are super small shields that go on the surface of power armor and combat vessels to protect them against debris. Demand is very high, so they sell as much as can be provided. Which is nice for me.
“But it feels like it’ll take a while.”
“Of course, we’re talking about ripping the shell off…”
“No matter how hard one tries, there will always be meat attached, so it is hard to clean…”
“I’m~ working~ here~!!”
Everyone shuts up after Kori gets mad while doing delicate work.
▽▽▽
Eh… Cruising speed takes too long, so we patrol at combat speed and hunt forty-three eels and twenty-one turtles in six hours. That’s about ten an hour. Processing the turtles also got much simpler along the way, and we decided to use stuff like servicing drones while docking.
And we came back with thirty-three magic stones and thirteen shells.
That means we got a three thousand puni wage, thirty-two thousand for rewards, and if we sell everything we took, that will be thirty-one thousand, to a total of sixty-six thousand puni. I see, so someone with a ship can make six million yen in a day… That’s more than what I made in a year in Japan…
The crew can expect to make six hundred and sixty puni a day, and since there’s too much salvaging work to be done, Kori is off radar duty.
While Saratha and Suzuri are in the cargo bay busy with post-processing, we, I mean, I am in Tortilla Double’s bath, soaking in cola float.
“How did this happen?”
“I’m tired~.”
“Yes, you did a good job today. I wasn’t really expecting that…”
“There were a lot of them~. And money too~.”
“That’s nice and all, but do you think you can keep going tomorrow?”
“I’ll do my best~.”
This living cola float is very warm. It’s warm, but the carbonation tickles.
Kori’s softball sized slime core that contains all of her internal organs is jiggling in my hand. When I trace it with my finger a little harder, the carbonation increases and it ripples, and I find that funny.
If I do it too much she’ll splash my cheek, but I’m just rubbing her core, so it’s fine. It’s soft like cherry fruit dipped in syrup, but it clearly bounces back. I start poking it, and she splashes me.
“We made a lot of money~.”
“Yeah, but it’s funny how much money flies away by just buying a piece of equipment.”
It’s probably like maintaining a medium to large fishing boat.
“That makes sense~! Spaceships cost money~! If you think that’s funny, you’ll laugh out loud when you see how much it takes to maintain one of those motherships you talked about~!”
“If I was just buying a large transport shop, I’d be about ten million, right?”
“A destroyer that can fight properly goes into the hundred million~! If anyone’s even selling~!”
I have a long way to go!
Then I hear an electronic noise. Geh!
“Dammit, Kori! Get my phone.”
“Ah~. Here we are flirting and you’re going to other girls~.”
“It’s Tortilla Double’s communications device.”
Kori gets my phone, and it shows it’s the asteroid general-purpose processing station.
“Tortilla Double! What!?”
“<This is an emergency to all docked vessels. The following is a recording.>”
Let’s put it on speaker.
“<This is the asteroid general-purpose processing station! A warning to all docked ships! A super giant space turtle is approaching! This is being announced as a clause of a state of emergency! Mercenaries and adventurers, prepare for combat under the stipulations of your guilds. I repeat…>”
“Call Saratha and Suzuri to the cockpit. I’m heading there too.”
“Got it~. Put on some underwear~!”
Kori’s voice sounds somewhat tense too, but it’s a super giant turtle. Is it bad if I laugh?
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Gamera!
Thanks for the treat.
Space turtle ship vs giant space turtle~
The battle of defense, noice~