I’m going with a big ship big gun doctrine! Take aim at a slow life! ~I was thrown out into space, but I took over a spaceship by coincidence, so I’ll work as a mercenary while playing with the dirt.~ – Chapter 15 – A week after the station defense

I’m watching the giant monitor in the living room.

There’s a few decorative plants and a fake blue sky background in this studio with simple desks lined up. And behind them, reporters are sitting down while bowing.

There’s a light cheerful background music playing, and when the reporters raise their heads, they have iffy expressions on their faces.

“Good morning, this is the Zadar news. Our top story today is the occupation of a metalworking station of the Zadar colony. A week has passed, and operations have returned to normal, including transportation lines. The soaring prices of metal are also gradually coming down.”

They switch over to pre-recorded footage. There’s an ad for the sponsor of this program, a medium-sized combat ship with a streamlined form molded in silver. Once it fires up its engines, the camera follows it, and a large transport ship with a few large turrets appears.

The streamlined ship moves swiftly with a shine and evades lasers while firing two torpedoes. The armed large transport ship’s defensive system tries to shoot down the torpedoes, and while it manages to take one down, the other is propelled by the explosion right into the armed transport ship.

In an instant, a small explosion repeats itself ten times, and the camera cuts to the streamlined combat ship. And in the background, the big transport ship explodes in a big, really flashy way.

It then cuts back to the two reporters with smiles on their faces, and the sponsor’s name and the streamline ship are in the background.

“The footage you just witnessed was an AI recreation of the battle where a mercenary shot down the main culprit behind the occupation, the pirate ship Herald of Autumn.

Despite the overwhelming difference in firepower, a daring quick decision led the mercenary to approach the enemy and shoot it down with torpedoes from a close range! The sudden turn the battle took and the ship that made it possible surprised even experts!”

They cut to something else again, this time to a tall person wearing a pilot suit with a full face helmet beating a dirty beast person with animal ears, asking ‘what the hell’s your goal!?’ with a baritone voice. The beast person says something, and the other person rushes out.

Then it cuts back to the smiling reporters.

“Said mercenary also played a big role in this incident, not only suppressing the space pirates who took control of the station and fully exposing this plot, but also taking down eleven ships, including a corvette, completely unharmed! This combat ability is becoming the talk of the galaxy.”

“It was quite the sobering performance. It was an unexpectedly bold move for space pirates to take over a heavily guarded station, but there was a reason behind it.”

It switches again to pre-recorded footage, showing a bottle of alcohol with the label ripped off, and a white powder being poured into it. A thin beast man with a clearly suspicious face takes it, and hands it to someone wearing a uniform of the station.

It switches back to the studio, where the sharply-dressed reporters read from a script.

“According to testimony from the space pirates, they outfitted transport ships and interacted with the staff on-site several times, gaining their trust so they could drug them. Once they were out of action, they managed to swiftly take control. This was their reprehensible plan.”

“The Galactic Credit Union Alliance has long warned that accepting gifts is against the rules for the on-site personnel. But it appears that disregard of the rules is a serious problem in this organization that is supposed to be under the Alliance.”

“Furthermore, the space pirates not only took control of the station, but were also going to use a large transport ship to leave with all of its equipment. If this plan succeeded, it would be a big loss not only for the Zadar colony, but also Mishun Prime.”

They cut to a background of a lot of bookshelves, and a man with glasses and a sharp suit was being interviewed.

“According to an expert in space pirate activity, they have been active in an asteroid belt, but without the means to refine resources, they attempted to steal whole facilities. Such incidents have been on the rise in recent times.”

They show what looks like a hangar, and men with slightly messy military uniforms sitting on top of missile containers, laughing while playing cards and chatting.

“Thankfully, this was stopped in its tracks through the efforts of the mercenary. What is the army of the Zadar colony doing? Lack of training and decline of discipline have long been pointed out, but there are no reforms in sight.”

“Such incidents could happen again. We should rely not on mercenaries, but instead request that the authorities take swift action to…”

▽▽▽

“Tortilla Double’s cool, uh?”

“Buha!”

Kori can’t help but laugh, but isn’t it turning into a cool ship? Even I’m surprised.

“Well, it is… They even created this scenario where you interrogated a survivor of the Herald of Autumn and gallantly dashed your way to the station.”

“There are cool mercenaries out there, uh?”

We’re on the second floor of Tortilla Double, in the living room, taking it easy on the rug supported by pillows. And we just happened to catch the news as we watched the colony’s TV programming. I’m glad we did, but this has turned into something interesting.

Too interesting in fact, as Kori is still hitting a pillow while laughing.

“Ahh~, that’s so funny. You walkers don’t even try to hide your discrimination~. How awful~.”

“It happens a lot, but it’s because of stuff like this that the gap between races can’t be bridged.”

By walker, she means a human with a head, two arms, a torso, and two legs. They have various skin colors, and are called walkers because they spread and walked into various lands. This has been the case for a long time, and everyone on Earth could also be called a walker.

“Well, leaving that aside, we got money again, so what now?”

We not only received money from the bounty, but also an additional million puni from the Mining Guild and Mishun Prime. Prime is the collective term for the home planet and all the colonies and stations in a star system.

That means a total of a million and ten thousand puni. And the scrap I salvaged is worth about thirty thousand puni. I’ve already made back the money I spent on the life extension procedure, so that’s nice.

I guess whether this is a great amount of money or virtually nothing depends on how the battle was. The battle itself makes me think it’s a big sum, but thinking about what I protected makes it seem trifle.

But the Mercenary Guild’s assessor deemed it to be a fair amount.

“Yes! I want a high quality food printer~!”

“I would be more for drones and armament. Enough for Genma too, but you should add a few more implants as well.”

“We could get armament here, but a high quality food printer and implants are another story.”

I press buttons on the remote control, and switch from the news to a flat map of the galaxy.

“You said there isn’t much good stuff in Zadar, and the closest to us is… Tu Akul Prime?”

“Hn, Akul Prime doesn’t have bad net reviews, and it looks like they have EMP missiles and thought assistance implant devices.”

“Yes~. Let’s go there~! I haven’t been out of Mishun Prime, so I can’t wait~.”

“It should take about ten days with the hyperdrive… That’s pretty incredible.”

“It’s because the hyperspace lane is ready, so the time traveling between star systems should feel shorter, right? Not that I’d know.”

“We should get things to pass the time… We’re going to be away from here, so do you want to say goodbye to anyone?”

“Nope~!”

“I’ll use the messenger app to tell people I know.”

That’s it uh? I was surprised to learn these two are town one rank in the Mercenary Guild, but I guess that’s how it is.

“I’m going to say goodbye to the old guy in the mercenary guild… And if there’s transport escorting duty, I’d like to make use of that.”

“I think there might be, or maybe not~.”

“It’s worth checking.”

That’s it then. I lay my head on a pillow, close my eyes, and rest. I’m tired from the interviews and stuff this week…

<<Previous Chapter Index Next Chapter>>