Sortie

The imperial military's request officially came through via the Mercenary

Guild first thing in the morning of the following day. The particulars of the

request were pretty much the same as what we discussed the other day and

offered a salary of 400,000 Enels per day. Krishna and Black Lotus will

accompany Major Serena's Independent Anti-Pirate Mobile Fleet as part of

her forces for the duration of the mission and will be placed under her

command. The necessary supplies for the mission will be shouldered by the

imperial military. Black Lotus will carry part of the supplies and will serve

as both a part of the main fighting force and a supply ship. The duration of

the mission is set for a maximum of three months.

"A maximum of three months huh…"

Mimi muttered in a somewhat gloomy tone as she fiddled with her tablet

terminal. It's for a maximum of three months, but it may end earlier

depending on further developments out on the field. Even so, it's true that

we would have to go out there for an extended period of time.

"It's quite reasonable, I think. The specified duration takes the hyperlane

traveling time into account after all."

After saying so, I glanced at the imperial military's supplies being gradually

loaded inside Black Lotus's cargo hold from on top of Krishna's boarding

ramp.

The loading process was being carried out by the AI-controlled loading

system installed on Black Lotus, and seeing the loading drones going about

their work with absolute efficiency was an interesting sight to see.

"That's right. We don't know exactly how many star systems we'll need to

cross, but it would probably take more than a couple of days to reach our

target destination."

Elma was also watching the loading process with me, but it seems that she

wasn't really that interested. It looks like she didn't find the sight of the

loading drones as amusing as I did. As for me, I could watch industrial

machines like those working at peak efficiency without tiring of it.

"The only other instance that required us to be out on the field for a long

period of time was during that incident in the Alein system, right?"

"Yep. That's right. Well, we're surely in it for the long haul this time, so it's

better to take it easy instead of being all tense."

It's impossible to maintain an alert state indefinitely, so if you exhaust

yourself and fail to exert your all when it counts, that would be quite

counterproductive.

"Well, I don't really think we'll be out there for that long though."

"Is that so?"

"Really?"

"Yep. Uh, I'm not that sure about it though. It's just a feeling."

I managed to tell Major Serena about the info regarding pulsar systems after

all. It may not seem all that reliable in their eyes, but the current imperial

military and Major Serena still have no clue about how to find the nest of

the crystal lifeforms until now.

They would probably still investigate the pulsar systems near the Izrooks

system eventually with the feeling of grasping at straws when the

investigation fails to bring any results after some time. And there weren't

that many pulsar systems nearby to begin with. I've only gone through the

galaxy map briefly, but I believe I only saw about two neighboring pulsar

systems. I'm not really all that sure if the nest is truly located on one of

those pulsar systems, but there's still a pretty good chance since the

behavior of the crystal lifeforms was mostly similar to the ones in SOL.

"Boss!"

Tina, who held a tablet terminal under her arm, approached us in a rush.

Her stature was quite small, but she runs really fast. The sisters also

participated in our daily workouts, and her physical capabilities were

already more than a match with Elma, who was a five-year merc veteran. In

other words, she was probably stronger than me.

Her stamina was amazing as well. She could bench-press three times more

weights than Elma and five times more than me. Just where was she hiding

all that power and toughness in that small body of hers, I wonder. Don't tell

me she was actually storing alcohol inside her system and converting it

directly into energy or something? Nah, that's just silly. Hahaha.

"The loading process is almost finished. It'll probably take 15 minutes

more. The contents of the cargo are… pretty much the basics. Water, food,

and all that. There's a bit of some other stuff mixed in though."

"Okay. Go on standby once the loading process gets finished. We're

probably going to sortie soon."

"Roge r!"

"Safety first, remember?"

"Of course. You should rest up before departure as well, boss."

Tina waved goodbye and returned to her work. Mimi and Elma observed

our interaction and stared intently at my face. What's up?

"Hey, Mimi. Isn't Tina's atmosphere a bit different than before?"

"Yes, that's right… Um, it's like she's a bit gentler now… She's as casual as

before, but her atmosphere really is different, I think."

"It's nothing really… We just talked a little in the break room."

"What kind of things did you talk about?"

"We mainly talked about how I met the two of you in the Termaine system.

Oh, and I also told them about that amnesia cover story. That's about it."

"I see…?"

Mimi and Elma both tilted their heads. They were probably just imagining

things when they said Tina's atmosphere changed. She really did act nicer

in general, but she probably just took that story about my supposed amnesia

quite seriously and was simply worried for me… I don't think it was really

a cause for concern for these two anyway.

"Well, we still have some time before departure, so why don't you try

asking her yourselves?"

"Yes."

"I guess."

I somehow managed to convince the two with my words and set aside the

topic of Tina's change in attitude for now.

And just like Tina said, the loading process got finished exactly 15 minutes

later. Soon after, launch orders were finally given out.

"Well, the sortie order's out, but it's not like we need to go on full alert for

the time being."

"That's right."

"Yeah, that's true. But we still can't let our guards down too much."

I, Mimi, and Elma were already on standby inside Krishna's cockpit, but we

won't be launching unless a battle breaks out. May handled all of Black

Lotus's operations like always, so we really didn't have to do anything at all

for now.

But, just like Elma said, we have to be ready to move out just in case

something happens, so it's not good to act all lax.

"Maintaining a certain degree of alertness is really important, right?"

"That's right. We have to be ready to take action in case of emergencies, so

we can't relax too much, or it will bite us back hard."

"Yes."

"I'll keep that in mind."

In order to maintain a certain degree of alertness, we need to be able to

constantly monitor the overall situation. I operated my console to display

the feed from Black Lotus's sensors and cameras on Krishna's cockpit

monitor.

"Launching out with this many ships really is quite the sight huh?"

"That's right."

The cockpit monitor's visual feed not only displayed Major Serena's antipirate fleet, but also a great host of mercenary starships. We aren't the only

mercenaries tasked to accompany Major Serena's fleet for this mission.

Quite a lot of other mercenaries were participating as well.

"Un… We really do look like quite the hodgepodge fleet if you look at the

assortment of ships alone."

"Is that so?"

"But at least their skills and abilities are way better than your typical smallfry pirates. Well, even if the abilities of us mercenaries are differentiated by

rank to some extent, our equipment and weapons are largely different from

each other, so it must pose quite a headache to our dear commander when it

comes to fleet organization."

The reason a lot of mercenaries were accompanying Major Serena's antipirate fleet this time was to make up for their lacking short-range combat

capabilities.

"Basically, the military corvettes and mercenary ships will act as the

vanguard and the destroyers will protect the main force. The cruisers and

the flagship will then destroy the enemies via long-range bombardment."

"Oh, that's right. Wasn't there only two corvettes assigned to Major

Serena's fleet?"

The line-up of Major Serena's Independent Anti-Pirate Mobile Fleet

consisted of two corvettes, three destroyers, five cruisers, and one

battleship. Basically, it's a line-up that prioritizes preemptively shooting

down enemies before getting shot at in return.

If it were a battle between two nation's military forces where cruisers and

battleships played a leading role, this fleet composition was undoubtedly

ideal. But fighting with crystal lifeforms is a whole different ballgame.

Those things would often charge in without caring for losses after all. No

matter how powerful the main guns were, they would be nigh useless once

the enemies managed to close in.

"So in order to make up for that weakness, they employed a lot of

mercenaries to accompany the fleet."

"I see. Um, but wouldn't that mean we would be in a lot of danger if we

face crystal lifeforms later on?"

"We would probably be fine as long as the numbers are manageable."

The bombardment from five cruisers and one battleship would be enough to

annihilate a small swarm of crystal lifeforms in one volley after all. We

should be fine if we face at most thirty medium-types and one hundred

small-types. It should be okay as long as a large-type or two doesn't appear.

And when a battle does occur, we should also be able to use subspace

communications to request reinforcements from other scouting fleets in

nearby star systems.

"Okay, just stop right there. According to experience, we'll end up facing a

horde of enemies if you say something like that, Hiro."

"Oi, oi, that… shouldn't be the case… I think. Yeah. It shouldn't be."

"It looks like it's useless, Elma-san…"

"We should probably brace ourselves now, Mimi."

"Okay, guys, just stop. We'll really end up facing a horde if you say things

like that y'know."

"It's not good to shift the blame to us for your own faults, Hiro."

We continued to stand-by inside Krishna's cockpit as we repeatedly passed

the buck around.