We approached Lumomo Fourth, and we’ve been standing by next to the hyperspace catcher.
This is what happened after we checked the quest with the guild and waited for instructions.
Stand by the hyperspace catcher and await instructions. The Mercenary guild is pretty lax!
“I’m bored… How long have we been standing by?”
“Three hours. Is it time to change shifts with Suzuri and the others?”
“I’m starting to get too relaxed, so can you call me if there’s a battle?”
I can see a lot of mercenaries through the cockpit window. I see power armors clinging to the transport ships and destroyers of the country that hired them, acting as small turrets.
I get up… And sit back down when an alert echoes in the cockpit.
It’s just me and Saratha in the cockpit. Kori and Iris rush in, followed by Suzuri and Vasilisa.
“<This is the special ship Trap Net, we caught enemies. Ejection position, thirty kilometers ahead of the group. One minute to ejection. Eighty enemies, and we confirmed a super large reaction. We are praying for you.>”
It’s a transmission from the special ship controlling the hyperspace catcher behind us.
Eighty is a lot. I slowly turn the large turret horizontally, checking for any abnormalities. The missiles loaded are all guided missiles, the torpedoes are fast types, and there’s nothing wrong with the defensive lasers or IFF.
I take a deep breath.
“I hope these ones are tasty…”
“We don’t have permission to salvage~.”
We mercenaries are on the front line, because we’re easy to use. There are two destroyers behind, six large transport ships, and thirty frigates and corvettes, deployed as if surrounding us. And five hundred combat ships deployed more or less where we mercenaries are.
There’s a shield ship in Brefilmora Prime, but it’s not here yet.
All sorts of things have been thrown into the front line, from frigates to power armors. They really don’t treat mercenaries well, do they?
The plan is for mercenaries and combat ships to mess with the enemy using our speed, and for destroyers to bombard the enemy one after the other. And they’re telling us stuff like don’t cross the line of fire.
“<Ejection from the hyperspace catcher in three, two, one, now!!>”
This is destroyer number one. It fires sixteen shots of its large laser cannon at something that appears. The destroyer deployed here has eight turrets.
Many giant octopuses appear in front of us, and are hit with the large turret. I don’t have time to check if it’s piercing them.
“Genma! I can see them as well! The enemy ships are quite crowded! I can see them!”
“The octopus confederation… I want to prioritize the ones that can’t be seen. How many reactions on radar!?”
“Sixty! Twenty less than reported!”
“I marked octopuses that can’t be seen! They are on the monitor!”
“That giant magic energy wave! Something’s coming!”
“Incoming communication! They say there are some invisible ones~!”
The moment they appear, all ships bombard them with missiles.
“<I can see! I can see!>”
“<Oraorah!! Bio guided missiles!!>”
“<Go go! Missile mk8!>”
“<What!? The one next to me got blown away!>”
“<U-urchin! Urchin came flying… Gyah! We’re taking a lot of damage ongya! The shield is deflecting them but they’re pretty big! But they’re not that fast! A large transport ship should be able to dodge them!>”
“You’re pretty relaxed over there!>”
I fire up the thrusters to move sideways, and something scrapes us a little.
“<All the bio guided missiles are being sucked into the urchin!?>”
“<There’s a catapult launching giant urchin! Urchinpault!>”
“<Who’s the idiot that said that!? I hope an urchin hits you!>”
There are giant octopuses in front of us ranging from a hundred meters to ten kilometers in size. And I see ones covered by shells.
“Are those chambered nautilus? Ammonite too!? Is this a cephalopod party!?”
“There are round ones and straight ones covered in shells. The round ones are going forward, while the straight ones appear to be seeking refuge in the back.”
“Hnu!? Are the sides of the round ones opening!?”
“Genma, those are like missile launchers!!”
I see it too so I point the turret at it and fire in focused mode. It’s going to be a direct hit, but then something blocks it.
“<Do they have bio shields!?>”
“<The torpedoes hit them! Apparently they can’t deflect them!>”
“<I’m so glad they have shield piercing abilities!>”
“<The snail ones are shooting something!!>”
I keep moving to the side with thrusters, and I have to keep checking the rear monitor to see if I’m not in the line of fire of the friendly destroyer.
“<What!? Something big is flying this way!>”
“<Octopuses with long range attacks!? Can they get through shields!?>”
“Dammit! Is it stuck to me!? Something’s on the ship… Ah, the window! The window! A tentacle…>”
“<Watch out for the ones that fire things! There are octopuses inside!!!! They are boarding!>”
“Small ships, intercept the things being fired!! One transport ship was infiltrated!>”
Things like laser and plasma are flying around with pretty lights, but I also see someone’s cockpit window get destroyed, causing him to be blown away. These octopuses can throw away a hatch of that maintenance area, so you really don’t want them clinging to your ship.
Tortilla Double is slow, and I’m doing my best to dodge, but we’ll get hit eventually. But I do have some leeway to focus on the snail octopuses.
“Focus fire on the snail octopuses. Blast them with torpedoes.”
“<Focus fire on the snails! Cut the guidance system of the missiles! Just hit them with something!!>”
The large laser cannon is fired at another group of octopuses, and since none of them have shields except for the ones with shells, they’re pierced. But they’re so big that I don’t think I’m hitting vital areas.
“Up ahead! Multiple urchin!”
“Dammit! Everyone hang on! Brace for impact!”
I fire the large laser cannon in spread mode in front, and launch four bio guided missiles. I try dodging using the right thruster, but three things hit the shield.
“Shield down to seventy percent! Each takes ten percent with it!”
“Good thing they don’t pierce the shield, Suzuri…”
I have to keep firing the secondary gun and the turret to reduce the number of urchin. Still, a lot of octopuses go down, including snail ones. We’re taking damage, but it’s going better than I thought.
“<Eek no way! Stop! No…>”
“<Who’s the guy whining!!?>”
“<Destroyer number two!? There’s an octopus wrapped around the ship! It’s breaking!! It’s cracking in half!!>”
“Vasilisa! Confirm!”
“T-there’s an octopus around the ship number two, cracking it like candy! It’s huge! There’s a shock wave from the destroyer… It’s gone!? The octopus is gone! Boss! The octopus disappeared!”
“It didn’t, is that a short jump? No, magic energy. It teleported and appeared in front again!! Mark it on the radar!!”
“Marked! It’s a prickly sphere!”
“Estimated length is six hundred meters, and we are calling it teleport octopus. We are unable to confirm any more on the field, and it has black and white stripes. It seems to be visible.”
“Vasilisa! Iris! Check if there are others that don’t look like the rest. Dammit, I can see two huge ones with weird patterns!”
“I’m also marking them! Prickly ball!”
I fire the large laser cannon in focused mode at a teleporting octopus twenty kilometers ahead, but it disappears and reappears right next to where it was.
It’s not transparent, I saw it release magic energy the moment it teleported. And I think it created a ball of magic energy where it ended up.
I fire again, hit the teleporting octopus, and it disappears. I fire another shot at the ball of magic energy five kilometers away.
The teleporting octopus switches places with the balls of magic energy, and the laser hits its round body. It starts writhing, but I keep firing in focused mode. Is it not going to run away?
The fifth shot turns its eyes white, and it stops moving.
“Open channel!! I killed a teleporting octopus!”
“<This is Tortilla Double~! One teleporting octopus is down~!>”
This is turning out crazier than I expected. Can I expect a nice bonus?
Join my patreon to support me and read ahead.
<<Previous Chapter Index Next Chapter>>
