The battle is over, and the ships without hyperdrives and power armors were left behind.
Twelve combat ships and eighty-nine power armors were left. There were also a lot of escape pods and people wearing pilot suits. Over five hundred were captured.
It honestly feels like a pain to me, so can’t we just pretend we didn’t see them? No? Is there like a contract or something?
The Shiitake is handling everything in this prisoner of war and scrap area. We can’t make cells and hold them here, but since it’s a hundred puni per person recovered, we’ve been taking them.
Apparently the puni from the scrap will be distributed in accordance to merit in battle.
“There are a lot of prisoners, but what are they doing about them? They can’t just be thrown in cells, so are they going to kill them and take them to reprocessing facilities?”
“They are mostly like space pirates, but killing them all is not a commendable act. In these cases, they are either freed after a ransom is paid, or they are sold to slave traders. This is more economical.”
The ransom tends to be five thousand puni, and if it is not paid, they will go to slave traders and be turned into slaves through magic or implants.”
“There’s no way these people running around with armors have five thousand puni~. They’re going from slave traders to slave miners~. Digging ice for not much~!”
I knew there was slavery in this space age, but even slave traders…
“<Boss, we have twenty people in the cargo bay, can we dock with the Shiitake!?>”
“Okay, I’m going there. Have they been disarmed?”
“<Yes, all done.>”
It looks like Saratha and Vasilisa’s retrieval of the defeated soldiers is going well. While they’re at it, they’re collecting scrap and tossing it into the Shiitake.
But even with a shield ship and this giant structure, people still attack you…
“Oh, master, we have good news. The giant ring structure Huang is joining the Federation of Star Systems. They are accepting the arrival of people from the Galactic Credit Union Alliance.”
“I was surprised that they were not cooperating despite having this giant ring structure. Perhaps that was actually why.”
“Yeah, they can easily kick around pirates. It worked out for them so far.”
“I wonder if the Alliance did something nasty~.”
According to Sebastian, Huang is the property of one person, and it was managed by a private mechanical intelligence not affiliated with the Alliance.
It reminds me of a dangerous floating spherical AI manager, but that was fiction.
I checked before, and there really is a blue and green world on the inside of the ring. Sebastian also checked, and apparently it’s a rabbit heaven with an environment close to Earth’s. I hear there’s stuff like elephant sized rabbits.
You can’t mine in man-made earth, but you can produce food with farming, fishing, and livestock. There’s a star on the inside too, so it’s easier to produce electricity with solar panels compared to building and maintaining nuclear fusion reactors.
You can have factories, laboratories, and tourism on a scale hundreds, thousands of times larger than Earth.
And that Suyasuyalist (church of sleep) sleeps all day and ignores this mountain of treasure… It’s actually amazing how she had no intention of developing it.
I asked Hiiragi how someone like her even got Huang, and apparently she was transported and then suddenly she was on the ring. She spent a few years fishing with traps she made and grilling them, and became the owner of the giant ring structure after coming into contact with a mechanical intelligence.
“But I guess being a human from Earth isn’t enough to contact the administrator of Huang.”
“Eh? Yue from Huang~? You want her on the ship~?”
“I want to at least meet her, look at how special this is. It’d be nice if we got some work too.”
“Well, it is true that Genma received a designated quest from Shiitake due to his status.”
“You should have work available in Mishyltia too if you ask.”
Well, we’ll see how that’s going first. I got a lot of data like games, manga, anime, movies, and series from Hiiragi.
But a slow life feels so far away. In space, there really are many who will try to take what you have if you’re not strong.
▽▽▽
With the other mercenaries working too, capturing the prisoners was relatively easy. I’m surprised that only three mercenary ships were lost in battle, and since they all evacuated, there were zero casualties.
Thinking about being shot down makes me want some more things… I should buy pilot suits or barrier magic items that can withstand the vacuum of space.
We’re going to be standing by in the Shiitake for twenty-four hours. They’re calculating the salvaged scrap and the downed enemy ships, and Iris is lending her processing power. Now we wait for the puni.
We’re taking it easy in the living room like always.
Could a fish tank bolted tightly to the wall near the low table, between the L-shaped couch, work? That’s what I’ve been thinking while looking around.
By the way, officially joining the Federation of Star Systems means an expeditionary defense force of a shield ship and destroyer will be coming here.
We’ll be dismissed once reinforcements arrive and we get our puni. Although I think new patrolling quests will be added here.
“But we have nothing to do while we wait… What are you looking at, Genma?”
“I’m trading indoor entertainment with Hiiragi and Yue’s places. I’m in the red here, but not by much because I also have things to sell.”
“Ah! Doing business on your own again!? It’s troubling how the account keeps fluctuating in the tens of thousands!!!”
“Sorry? But this will disappear soon if I don’t do business…”
This time I’m getting four Famicom dragon slaying RPG, and the anime series and movies about demon slaying. I don’t see any manga.
I also manage to sell shoujo and shonen manga I got in another colony. I’m glad I got them.
Incidentally, there have been no talks about a ceasefire with the count that attacked. Apparently he protested this place joining the Federation of Star Systems, but…
The root of the problem is that the Federation of Star Systems doesn’t seem to have a problem with suddenly being dragged into a war.
This Count Dellaovonno has invaded star system nations several times in the last decade.
The only downside I can think of about Huang joining the federation is that they have to let outsiders in the circle.
Iris suddenly moves. The couches trembles and the moss ball shudders, and we all look at Iris.
“Master, calculations are complete. The final decision is up to Sebastian, but our share will be around eight hundred thousand.
“Isn’t that a lot?”
“Hum, we took down two frigates, one corvette, twenty-three combat ships… Twenty-three? I don’t remember that many.”
“Let me see… Ah, these are the ones we shot down using Shiitake’s missiles. See, the reward for this part is lower.”
Say Saratha and Suzuri.
“So I guess half the reward is what Iris took down~.”
“This really is a different world, if frigates and corvettes are worth more than a hundred thousand. I guess the armors I destroyed don’t count.”
Too bad, if we took down the destroyer ourselves, that would’ve been an extra half a million.
“That thick omelet destroyer really was tough.”
“They are small and specialized for defense. I think they’re built in the empire with an emphasis on cost.”
“I don’t believe cost or anything matters when it comes to destroyers…”
“They don’t cost anything if they’re shot down~!”
They are built with that in mind, says Iris.
Taking part in a war left many issues to be resolved. Not being fast enough means the enemy can rush us, and it’s tough to go at it with a destroyer without major firepower.
Isn’t there a stronger large turret?
The problem is that the torpedoes that are supposed to support there didn’t hit. I need to think about all sorts of things there.
Tortilla Double shot down a destroyer more easily in VR training… but actual combat didn’t go that well.
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