~Kori’s point of view~
“<This Genma, a Grassland one mercenary! Stop firing! Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!>”
We run through Reeril as fast as we can while hearing darling’s voice. With laser SMG in hand.
We keep firing on zoea that jump at us. They keep coming, probably because of all the noise! Geez! Be quiet!
“Miss Kori! To the outside!”
“Gya~~~! You’re kidding~!!!”
Iris punches the metal wall with her bare hands, opening up a big hole, and runs outside. And I peek behind me as I follow her.
The blue shell is slowly approaching. I regret looking back.
“I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead I’m dead~~~!!!”
“<What’s going on!? Don’t shoot! Answer me!>”
“Master, we are going outside! Retreat as well! You will be buried!”
“<Dammit! Emergency separation! Be careful you two!!>”
Going through the hole Iris punched into the wall leads us to another hangar. Or at least it was a hangar, now it’s full of scrap, and I can see the dark space outside.
Eek, I can see the color of a big laser flying through space I’m so used to seeing. The settings of the space work suit make it so I can see Tortilla Double’s laser.
“<Everyone hang on! We’re breaking the shutter and forcing our way out!>”
“<This is Grassland one mercenary Tortilla Double. Frigate of Mishun prime’s army, stop firing. I repeat…>”
Suzuri is transmitting to this whole area on an open channel. Frigate? The army is here?
“<Saratha! Question the soldiers! What’s going on here!?>”
“<I’ve already done it! It’s probably a smuggling group in the army with influence! That’s probably why they had the nuclear torpedo too! And they gave it to the Tamani Oishi ship too! This is just an hypothesis, but they were probably caught by the ship crab when they came here looking for these guys, and want to erase evidence because we found out about them!>”
“<Ah, come on! Why!? Why must we be attacked by such a thing!?>”
“<Why must we!?>”
“That’s not fair darling~. Don’t talk like Suzuri~.”
“Perhaps it is not.”
This is bad, do we have to cling to the outer walls? If I stare out into the void, I can see Tortilla Double. Uwah! A laser flew from outside my field of vision and bounced off Tortilla Double’s shield. Hyah, I might pee a little!
“<Kori!? Iris!? Are you okay!?>”
“No problem~!”
“We are hiding in the scrap.”
I can hear him click his tongue, as Tortilla Double goes up steeply to get away from us. It’d be bad if we got mixed up in it.
“<Don’t think you’re getting out of this alive!!>”
“They’d have an easy time with the frigate if we weren’t here~.”
“It depends on the frigate… Ah, it seems to be pushing towards them.”
That frigate’s pretty fast. They’re too far for me to see them fight, but I can see the dots creating lines. Wait, aren’t they too close?
“It looks like the enemy is going for close quarters combat. It is Tortilla Double’s weakness after all.”
“The frigate is probably more mobile~.”
We’re hiding in scrap because of stray lasers, but I’m scared of being crushed by the ship crab.
“At least zoea aren’t coming here~.”
“Oh? It seems the frigate is deploying unmanned combat drones.”
Wah, lots of lights are swarming the light I think is Tortilla Double! Are they okay… Ah, the lights are going out… Ooh, it’s firing the laser cannon!
“This is not good… Master is trying very hard to avoid collateral damage over here.”
“Ah~… I’m not gonna say don’t worry about it, but how can they tell when they’re going around like that?”
The light I think is Tortilla Double is moving slowly in a figure eight, and the enemy and its drones are flying around it like they’re orbiting it.
“Most likely because of the implants. Ah, it looks like Miss Suzuri marked our position so they do not accidentally fire this way.”
“Thanks for that~!”
The lights around it keep going out. Come to think of it, we can’t hear their communications anymore. Are they that far away?
“Fighting a military frigate~…”
“They have a destroyer class shield and a large laser cannon turret, so they can do something about a ship even if it is twice the size.”
“And with the small combat drones, can’t we do stuff like combat quests too?”
“I think it is possible, but I do not think master will accept them on account of the many unconfirmed factors. I also believe he purposefully avoids combat.”
“A peaceful mercenary~.”
The eel hunting season is almost over, so we’ll have to think of new quests~. Oh? Does Genma even know there’s a season where it’s suspended…
Uwah! An even bigger explosion! Is the frigate down~? The remaining light is coming this way, getting bigger and bigger.
“<Are you two alive!?>”
“Of course~!”
“We are unharmed.”
Tortilla Double comes as close as it can. Iris and I jump out into space from the scrap, and enter through the material collection hatch.
“Master, I apologize for losing the defensive drone due to the ship crab’s movements.”
“<That can’t be helped. We’ll buy another one with the money we’re going to make.>”
Ah~. That was awful~! And I think it’s going to get even worse!
▽▽▽
Yes, this really was terrible. First, calming down the old guys. A few had to go to cells because we started salvaging and they insisted they be part of it.
We left the ship crab, since it can only attack with its claws. Instead, we started salvaging the frigate that attacked us. I figured they’d have to hold back on the power because they were worried about stray lasers, but there’s still more left than I expected…
“Owah, is the hyperdrive okay~?”
“Is it!? Truly!?”
“Handle it carefully~.”
I hit the jackpot as I salvage from the cockpit with Suzuri.
Something that can throw a frigate into hyperspace costs millions of puni if it’s new. This one’s used, but we can have Saratha have a look at it and sell it.
We also get a few working small information devices. Iris finds information about that smuggling group on them, which will help us prove we were in the right.
We get the ship camera too, which shows them looking for their lost smuggler buddies, encountering the ship crab, finding us, and attempting to erase evidence.
That proves Captain Hasselback was with those smugglers~.
I’m really glad we found this information after Mishun prime’s army picked a fight with us.
Apparently other facilities were blown away. We have the alchemist crafter separate scrap into ingots, and put them all in the space expansion containers.
This will make us some money. Iron is cheap, but when we eject it, the old guys start being noisy again. It’s heavy and cheap, and there’s only so much we can store in the two containers that aren’t holding food.
Oh, and we collected that small combat ship the old guys were happy to see being let go. We can sell that too.
This operation takes a whole day, until finally, two transport ships and an escort of two corvettes from the Mercenary Guild arrive.
“Ah!? Mishun prime is confiscating the ship and the ship crab!? What kind of joke is that!?”
“<As I said before… The shield ship Reeril was not lost, it just appeared to be lost…>”
“That doesn’t make sense!!!”
“<Mishun prime asserts that it was never filed as lost. Checking the documents, it seems the Alliance received a request to scrap Reeril, but… Mishun prime insists that was not the case, and that not only is Reeril property of the prime, but so is the ship crab it raised. The Mercenary Guild states we have to choice but to comply…>”
Ahh.. Seeing darling all pissed off is kind of nice in its way, but this is terrible.
“I see. So there were those talks between higher ups. Okay, hold on a second… By the way, did you talk about the nuclear torpedo?”
“<Eh… No way! Firing it at the ship crab under the guise of disposing of it at this point would be…>”
“Okay, I’m leaving it, so do something about it.”
“<Give me a break… It’s going to take time for another transport ship to come from Mishun prime.>”
“It’s the Alliance’s job. Take care of it. Disposing of a nuclear weapon is too much to put on a mercenary’s shoulders. Ahh, this wouldn’t have happened if I just fired it at the ship crab from the start.”
It sounds like Mishun prime is getting fussy because they’re after the giant ship crab.
“<Seriously!! We’re already having to deal with the corruption in Mishun prime, so why won’t you dispose of the nuclear torpedo against the ship crab!?>”
“Shut up!! I don’t care!! It’s your corruption!! I’m making an honest living as a mercenary! I’m not using a nuclear weapon!!”
“<I understand not wanting to use a nuclear weapon! But is it really okay for the Mercenary Guild to lead a crackdown on smuggling?>”
“It’s all a pain.”
“<Well, it is. I understand. After the crackdown, a hundred thousand puni will be transferred to you as a reward for various information. Please confirm.>”
Darling says okay and cuts the transmission.
“Are you sure about that, darling~?”
“I feel bad for everyone, but I had to back down. As annoying as it is, I have to let them have the ship and the ship crab.”
There’s something weird about him. He’s looking at the small information device and sighing.
“What is it~? You can tell me~.”
“That conversation was encrypted, but some of the old guys down there can decode it.”
“Fue!? Ah, that’s true!”
“Let’s move them already. I wonder if space pirates will show up…”
Ahh…
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