Melee

"This is Krishna, a ship affiliated with the Mercenary Guild. We'll be

assisting you from here on out. Do your best to hold out."

[Appreciate it! Damn! These guys sure are persistent!]

I changed the ship's heading as soon as we ejected out of the hangar

and immediately headed to the area where the battle was taking place.

From what I can see for now, the ones getting attacked were two

medium-class ships and… uh, three or four small-class ones. I wasn't

exactly sure because it's already turned into a chaotic melee.

"Hiro-sama, I've picked up the IFF signals. I'll display them on screen."

"Roger that."

Of the ships shown on the main screen, the friendlies were indicated in

green. The enemies were highlighted in red.

"Let's reduce the enemy numbers first and attract their attention. You

handle support, Elma. I'll leave the timing of firing off the gravity

jammers to you… Oh, but if you think you can bring them down, go right

ahead. We'd get more profit that way. And there's no need to worry

about resupplying, so just go nuts."

[Aye, aye, sir. It's been quite a while, so I'll rampage to my heart's

content.]

After replying, Elma's Antlion broke off from Krishna. I was heading

straight for the combat zone, but it looks like Elma was circling around

it. She was probably planning on bringing down the ships that would

decide to take some distance after Krishna begins attacking. In other

words, she was gonna hunt those pirates who'd retreat to a supposed

safe zone after suffering an intense attack.

"There sure are a lot of scrubs. Please participate in the attack as well,

Lotus. Make sure to keep an eye on those carrying torpedoes."

[Yes, Master.]

The overall firepower of Black Lotus was much higher than Krishna's.

Of course, it would still be in a disadvantage if it takes on a proper

combat ship of a similar class, but it's able to overwhelmingly suppress

small-class ships. In this sort of situation, it was better to have the Lotus

participate actively in order to annihilate the enemies faster.

"My Lord, we'll be engaging the enemies soon."

Even so, it will still take a bit of time for the Antlion and Black Lotus to

participate in the battle. That's why it's our and Krishna's turn first.

"Yosh, we're heading in!"

I rushed straight into the middle of the chaotic melee between the

explorer fleet and the pirates. Whoops, one small-class explorer ship

was in trouble. The explorer ship was getting ganged up by three pirate

ships and looked like it was about to get shot down, so I decided to help

it first.

"Sooi!"

[Uoaaaaaaaaa!?]

[Wha–…]

"Hyah–!?"

"Waaah–!?"

I rammed one of the three small-class pirate ships pelting the explorer

ship's rear end with laser fire at full speed and immediately hit another

one with the heavy-caliber laser cannons and shot-cannons. However,

the ones who screamed in surprise and fear after experiencing strong

shockwaves as a result of the collision weren't the pirates alone. Mimi

and Kugi also let out terrified shrieks. Oh, come to think of it, this was

the first time I performed such a rough maneuver huh?

"Kugi, activate a shield cell. Focus, Mimi."

"O-Okay!"

"U-Understood!"

The two started performing as instructed even though they were still

slightly shaken. It seems like the ship that ate Krishna's ramming attack

got its energy shield completely saturated and ended up half-destroyed

and incapacitated. The one that ate shots from close range got brought

down instantly. The remaining ship attempted to escape, so I chased

after its behind and hit it with two laser cannon shots in a row.

Krishna's shield, which also ended up getting considerably attenuated

by the collision, began to rapidly recover. The targeted explorer ship

also seems to have managed to escape the crisis and reinitialized its

shield. I was about to finish off the remaining pirate ship when

something flew at it from the side and scored a direct hit, bringing it

down.

[Sorry. I thought it was about to escape.]

"It's fine. You're doing great."

Apparently, Elma's Antlion brought it down with a seeker missile first. I

suppose even a veteran like Elma didn't expect me to bring down a ship

by ramming it. Mimi never experienced it, so it's only natural that Elma

hasn't experienced it as well. I guess that's how it is.

"It's an all-you-can-eat buffet. I'm gonna eat my fill."

The pirate ships that were previously absorbed in attacking the

explorer fleet were thrown into confusion. Even though the quality of

the Edge World's space pirates was generally a bit better than your

average ones, most of them were still using patchwork ships that have

been forcefully cobbled together using the wrecks of their victims. Once

their energy shields get brought down, their hulls were easy pickings.

[Dammit! Are the other guys not here yet!?]

"It looks like we can wipe you guys out before your reinforcements

arrive huh."

[Don't act all cocky, bastard!]

The pirates began focusing their attacks on Krishna. Oh, that's no good,

customers. Oh, dear, dear, dear. That's really no good you know?

If you only focus on me, something bad will happen.

[Alert!? Uwaaaaah!?]

[Geh!? Somethin' enormous just popped out!?]

[Uwah! Time out! Noooo!?]

A large amount of seeker missiles and laser fire came from behind

Krishna and blew the pirate ships to smithereens.

[Suppression complete.]

While I was rampaging and attracting the pirate's attention, the Lotus

fired a barrage and destroyed them all at once. Mm, a barrage from a

larger ship really is brutal.

"Hiro-sama, unidentified ships incoming. They will be warping out

soon."

"Got it. There's a high chance these are enemy reinforcements, so stay

alert."

"Yes, My Lord."

"Roger!"

[Aye, aye, sir.]

Boom! Many ships warped out following a loud boom. None of them

sported the same look, and many of them had plenty of gaudy

decorations that may or may not serve important purposes. They also

sported sloppily painted skull and crossbones symbols on their hulls…

No matter how you slice it, the ships that warped out were all pirate

ships.

There were only five of them.

"Don't let them get away, Elma."

[Of course. Gravity jammer, activate.]

A deep bass echo rang out. Nothing actually seems to have changed on

the surface, but the jammer did successfully manage to prevent both us

and the pirate ships from activating our FTL drives. The activation

switch of the FTL drive dimmed in an instant and became unusable.

The safety lock seems to have applied.

[W-What the heck!? We can't use the FTL drive!?]

[I can't release the safety lock! Stop! Don't come over!]

"Hahaha, just where were you guys planning on going?"

I chased after the pirate ships that scattered like baby spiders in an

attempt to get away and brought them down one by one. We shot down

four of them, and the last one was finished off by an explorer ship.

[Hahaah! I got em! You damn bastards!]

[W-We survived… I thought we weren't gonna make it this time

around.]

The explorers seemed to be very excited and relieved. But for us, this

was just the start of our work.

"Okay. Black Lotus, commence recovery work. Krishna and Antlion will

stay on watch."

[Understood.]

[Aye, aye, sir.]

We have to perform our work quickly. It would be lucky if another

round of reinforcements came while we were recovering the wrecks.

Oops. I almost forgot about that explorer fleet.

"Let me introduce myself again. I'm Captain Hiro. I'm a mercenary

affiliated with the Mercenary Guild. You guys are… uh, was it the

Screech Owls?"

[Yeah, that's right. Thanks for your help. I'm the main representative of

these guys, Captain Souls. As for your reward for the rescue, is it fine if

we discuss it after returning to the Dauntless?]

One of the medium-class explorer ships responded. It was a man's

voice. He sounded middle-aged.

"I don't mind. These guys have a bounty anyway, and we were hired by

the military to take care of pirates like them in the first place. So, you

got our services for cheap. Ain't that lucky?"

[Can you call getting attacked by these bastards lucky? Well, I suppose

we should at least be thankful for small mercies.]

Captain Souls replied and let out a sigh. Well, the small-class explorer

ship that suffered concentrated fire from the pirates earlier did look

like it was about to fall apart, so I suppose its repair costs would cause

them some headaches. I wasn't personally affected, so I could only feel

that it was a pity.

"Okay then. You should take some more spoils to cover your losses. You

have custody over the ship you shot down anyway. I'll throw in the ones

that will appear from here on out as extras."

[I'm so happy I could cry. Alright, let's do that. Oi, send out recovery

drones. Get Hector's ship back here before any accidents happen.]

It looks like they were gonna switch to post-combat work as well. We

should start working too. I and Elma only needed to keep watch and

look out for possible enemies though.