~Kori’s point of view~
We’re goin’ to board Reeril, the ship crab’s ship, so Iris can take control. Then we’re either shooting down the ship crab and using the installations, or sending out a distress signal to the Zadar colony.
Genma was thinking about it a lot. The safer option would be to send out a distress signal, but we’re bettin’ it all on taking it down.
I’m fine with either, but it’s going to depend on what happens after we take control, so I was told to focus on exploring the wreck.
“Okay~! I’ll do my best~!”
“Yes, thank you.”
Iris isn’t wearing a space suit, she’s wearing something like full body tights. This is to make it at least a little airtight, and while she’s not relying on protection, she has her shield belt, so she says she’ll be fine.
A mechanical intelligence doesn’t breathe or need protection, but apparently she’s watching out for harmful substances clinging to the surface of her body or internal components. Cleaning is a hassle.
She’s also holding a low output small laser cannon normally equipped by armor or cars. It’s really big, two meters long and weighs forty kilos. Why is she carrying that to go around a shipwreck? At least she also has a laser pistol for combat at a closer range.
I’m using my dear laser machine gun. It weighs two point two kilos, has a forward grip, and is equipped with a flashlight and frontal personal shield. Genma said it looks like an MP7 SMG .
The frontal personal shield deploys a circular shield with a diameter of one meter in front of the muzzle, and Genma also said a transparent shield was way too unfair. Safety first.
“Darling~! Open the hatch~!”
“<Got it. Watch yourselves, Kori and Iris.>”
Darling worries too much. Iris is here, and we have five lil’ killer disk battle drones and an orb defensive drone with us. We don’t need to be careful.
A retrieval hatch on the side of Tortilla Double opens, and we’re hit by zero gravity. Apparently the shield ship Reeril didn’t use gravity control magic.
I’m pretty sure Tortilla Double used magnets or something to attach itself to the floor when it landed. Since it’s zero G, is it using spikes too? I wish I looked into that~!
“Unfortunately, there is no gravity. Maybe the lil’ killers should stay back.”
“Yeah~. Let’s go with just the defensive drone~.”
We motion to the defensive drone, and use the subthrusters in the space work suits to slowly head to the floor.
That slime really is a pain. How many space suits have I lost to those… Saratha was less worried about safety and more about having to buy or repair space suits, so I hate these slimes that melt clothes.
I tap the floor, but it doesn’t feel slippery. The old guys said it was greasy, but it’s all been burned.
“Miss Kori, we should aim to retrieve only mechanical equipment.”
“I know~! Let’s get out of the hangar first~.”
This hangar is pretty big. I think a one hundred meter corvette would fit. Spaceships are so big…
I hold the laser SMG as I walk and look around, but there’s no sign of a clothes melting slime falling from the ceiling.
“Come to think of it, Tortilla Double’s defenses are pretty soft on top~. What if a slime fell from the ceiling~?”
“<The large turret doesn’t have any gaps. I think we’d be fine even if that happened… But would they be visible with magic energy sight?>”
“<Slimes are known as magic beasts, so I think you can see their magic energy even through a monitor! If one falls from the ceiling, I’ll vaporize it!>”
Yes, Vasilisa, who is being considered as a candidate, is looking good. She can use magic and looks strong. She gets along with Saratha too, so could we invite her…
“Would Miss Vasilisa not be tough to convince?”
“We won’t know until we try~! Hn~!”
Making a harem for Genma is harder than I thought. I didn’t expect being satisfied with just me and Saratha to be a hurdle. Get more libido.
Suzuri and Iris got in because they have other perks, but it doesn’t look like he wants more people. Weird~. Doesn’t he feel happy about having lots of girls?
I want to make a bigger group~! Then everyone can have kids! We can all make money! I think it’s fun for all of us to share our hardships~.
Ahh, no no. This isn’t the time for that. I can’t see any more life forms in the hangar, so let’s go in.
“Iris~. Let’s head inside~.”
“Yes… But there seems to be a problem with the passage.”
The one we’re gonna use? I turn the flashlight towards it, and see five of what look like small versions of the ship crab.
They’re about forty centimeters tall, about as thick as my arm, and have the shape of a shrimp. They have small thin legs at the sides of their bodies, but also big claws in front of their faces.
“<Are they perhaps young ship crabs!?>”
“<They’re like lobsters…>”
“<Suzuri! Stuff a shrimp cracker in his mouth! I’m pretty sure lobster is the name of a shrimp!>”
I immediately burn the five lobsters with my laser SMG. Their shells are softer than I thought, one shot can pierce two.
“Apparently zoea don’t have salable materials, so we should leave them.”
“Okay~. I wonder what they’ve been eating~.”
There are space beings that eat mana, like slimes, but normally they eat plants and stuff. Did they prey on slimes?
But I get a bad feeling. If it’s propagating in this ship it’s borrowing, does that mean these things are all over the place? I wish we could’ve brought the lil’ killers.
“We should get anti-personnel drones for zero G~.”
“The cargo bay has been getting quite cramped lately. I think we could get at most one or two general use drones.”
I guess so. We have the alchemist crafter, four space expansion containers, the refrigerated container, power armors, and that big shield generator is so big that it spills out of the cargo bay.
Well, let’s think about that later. I’m sure we’ll get tons of rare metals if we can get this whole wreck!
Apparently this passage from the hangar runs alongside it. But isn’t it pretty big? This is typical for a big ship, this passage that’s wide enough for two cars to pass each other and three pedestrians to walk side by side stretches all the way ahead of us.
The ceiling is about high enough that Saratha would hit her head if she stretched her tail. Was it made with power armors in mind?
But there’s so much scrap that it’s hard to see. And there must be holes, since it’s a vacuum outside of here.
There’s something like an elevator deeper inside, probably to move armors and container cars. It’s broken though.
I can see what also looks like hangars above and below the one where Tortilla Double is~. I don’t know how many, but it’s probably to move people who get here by ship.
“Where’s that support AI~~?”
“<In shield ships with an axis, the control room is at the base of the umbrella. It’s probably in the sturdiest part!>”
“Thanks Vasilisa~!”
Yes, that’s nice to know. I’ve been a salvager too, but I’ve never hit something this big~.
“Then, left of the ship crab’s head.”
“Yes~!”
It’s right in the middle from where Tortilla Double is parked. I guess it’s an okay stop to attract outsiders.
We go over things that look like cars and bicycles that are now scrap, and Iris keeps eliminating the ship crab younglings we call zoea. I stopped counting at fifty.
I’m a little curious about the inside of this axis. Of course, the path is sealed, but there are places where the walls have collapsed, and I can see blue walls on the other side.
And these blue walls are writhing.
“<Try not to mess with it, we think that’s the body of the ship crab. We don’t want you screwing with it by accident and getting crushed.>”
“I won’t touch it!”
“<If you had a researcher with you, he’d be demanding a sample.>”
That’d be a pain~.
“<Ah! That door!>”
“<Is that not the control room!?>”
“<Looks like it. Watch out for traps.>”
“Yes yes~!”
“Should we use the defensive drone first?”
That’s why we’ve brought this heavy defensive drone in this zero G space. We strap it to the floor, and activate a semi-circular shield we call a bubble field.
This bubble field lets lasers go through from the inside, but not from the outside. It’s strange, but probably some kind of magic.
We face an automatic door we’re used to seeing in Tortilla Double, and Iris fires her laser cannon, while holding back its power quite a bit.
I hear a metallic sound like the ship is screaming, and there’s a big hole in the door. I can also hear transmissions from the people watching us.
“Oh, it looks like nothing is coming… I will go ahead, so follow me, Miss Kori.”
“Yes~. You worry too much.”
I push the defensive drone slowly, and squeeze the bubble field through the hole to secure it. Iris slips through the hole to confirm if it’s safe.
I don’t see lights or hear combat noises, but as I peek with the flashlight, I see what’s clearly a combat ship’s cockpit.
I figured it’d be different in a shield ship, but there aren’t any windows and there’s more chairs. Other than that, it’s pretty much the same.
“What do you think, Iris?”
“We have control. It seems Reeril was a shield ship from Mishun prime.”
“I wish they’d dispose of their stuff properly. Is there a jammer or something?”
“It seems it can all be remotely operated from here, master! Reeril was instructed to patrol this sector! Anything further than thirty kilometers away will be seen as an enemy and attacked!”
“<What happened within a thirty kilometer radius?>”
“It seems the close range IFF is either broken or has encountered an error, so everything is being treated as neutral.”
Ah… I see.
“<What about hyperspace!?>”
“It seems this ship also fulfills the roles of hyperspace jammer and catcher.”
“<Is the shield ship acting as a trap? The question is what it was trapping… Any info on that?>”
Iris shakes her head, which seems to make the people watching remotely dizzy.
“I would assume they deleted it all when they scrapped it.”
“<What were they up to? Can we stop it…? Can we cut the jammer and friend or foe identification separately?>”
“That would be difficult. We have to either physically block it all, or disable them at the same time.”
“<Mu, all right, listen up! We are disengaging the hyperspace block! Then I’m sending a distress signal to the Mercenary Guild and getting a transport ship for you! After that, I’ll look into disposing of the nuclear torpedo and the ship crab, and claiming this shipwreck as my own! Any objections!?>”
The old guys jeer and tell him to share, but he ignores them.
“<That settles it. Iris and Kori, standby. Suzuri, help out with the request. Once it’s done, let’s lift the interference.>”
▽▽▽
Iris is cutting lots of systems in front of me. It’s fun watching the lights go out. Genma and Suzuri are done typing and sending a message.
Ahh, I can feel the slight vibrations under me stopping too. And as the lights go out, Iris seems kinda nervous.
“What~?”
“It seems I finished off the systems… But they cannot be restarted. And the support AI backup system is not responding.”
“Oh dear~.”
That happens. Something’s been running for a long time, but then doesn’t turn on after you turn it off.
That can’t be helped. The big ship and big ship crab will be profitable, so let’s let it slide.
“<Hnu? Ship? Genma, take a look at the radar. I believe the Mishun prime army is exiting hyperspace… Open channel, this is Tortilla Double, the ship of the Grassland one mercenary Genma. Calling on an open channel, please respond.>”
Oh, more castaway~.
“<Hnu? This is Tortilla Double, the ship of the Grassland one mercenary Genma. We have your Captain Hasselback with us. Please respond.>”
“<They’re not responding… Vibrations… What!? Oh no! They’re aiming for the ship crab! Kori! Iris! Get out of there! Leave the defensive drone!>”
Ah?
I hear a low heavy noise that sounds like the ship screaming, and the sound of metal being cut echoes through my feet. Oh no! Are we being shot at!? Why!?
Ah, the ship crab~. That’s still dangerous!!!
“Evacuating!!”
“Eek~~~!!”
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