The Tournament: Space Battle Part

As expected, it seems Chris couldn't pay a visit to the imperial palace every

day after all. She couldn't, but Her Highness, the princess, still made an

effort to get in touch with her as often as she could. She's, uh, she was

kinda a little too into the story of my apparent love affairs or something.

"Now then, let me hear about the person called Dr. Shouko today."

"Please give me a break already."

Nothing happened between me and Doc Shouko, okay! We did kinda hit it

off a bit, but because of the medical check-up, I had to– Ah, my repressed

memories are bubbling back up again! But in the end, I lost to the princess'

enthusiasm and told her about my meeting with her anyway. Ugh. I don't

care anymore.

I gave up and spilled everything. And finally, the day of the space combat

phase of the tournament came.

The space combat phase will be comprised of mock battles using real

starships. The output of laser cannons and shields will be dropped, and live

ballistic ammo will be replaced with training rounds, though they're still

powerful enough to turn a human body into mush. On top of those, the

ships will run a damage management program specially used for mock

combat scenarios, and a number of ships installed with a referee evaluation

program will be deployed all over the event field. The ships that will serve

as referees will be composed of members of the imperial military who

opted to not participate as combatants this time around. The competition

venue will also be another military training facility.

"Hiro-sama, I wonder what kind of people are going to participate this time

apart from mercenaries?"

"I can only think of carrier-based spacecraft pilots, but there might be some

other pros as well. What do you think, Elma?"

"I think some Mobile Knight pilots will participate as well."

"Mobile Knights…"

What the heck is up with that cool-sounding job title? Are you telling me

they ride humanoid mobile weapons or something? There weren't any

humanoid mobile weapons implemented in SOL, but if you have em here,

can I get one too?

"They originated from the practice of skilled mercenaries swearing their

fealty and service to an imperial noble and getting formally knighted. Their

descendants serve the main family of the noble house they swore fealty to

as Mobile Knights for generations. There are quite a few of them serving in

imperial military carriers you know."

"Do they also ride humanoid mobile weapons or something?"

"In any case, there doesn't seem to be any of those present in the empire.

Apparently, the Drawn Sword faction submitted a proposal for deploying a

number of them here that were equipped with anti-ship blades, but I heard

the proposal was indefinitely postponed due to problems with costeffectiveness and maintenance."

"So there really are humanoid weapons huh."

Man, I got kinda fired up after hearing that. So their problem was not being

easy to maintain to the point that the military held off on adopting them for

widespread deployment huh. Well, there might be other reasons as well

though.

"Are those Mobile Knights strong, Elma-sama?"

"Hmm?"

"You sound stupid when you imitate Mimi, so stop that. Well, they greatly

vary in strength. There are Mobile Knights who still actively make use of

old-model ancestral starships that were passed down from generation to

generation after all."

"In other words, some of them are pretty strong huh."

"Yes, of course. There are actually a lot of Mobile Knights who are on par

with Gold-ranked mercenaries you know. Mobile Knights usually often

square off with pirates whose main spheres of activity are within territories

held by the noble house they serve. Most, if not all, of them, serve as the

main commanding officers of their noble house's private forces. A few only

serve as commanders in-name though."

"So they have a wealth of live combat experience huh."

"In some cases, they're actually more experienced than a majority of

imperial military commanders."

I see. So, in other words, you can't underestimate Mobile Knights huh. If

they have a noble house backing them up, they shouldn't be strapped for

cash and have some of the best equipment money can buy. I think I'd have

no problem with those old-fashioned types using ancestral starships though.

After all, no matter how good you are, it's still pretty difficult to bridge the

gap in ship performance with skills alone. On the flip side, even if you had

the best ship in the galaxy, if you have no skills to speak of, the ship will

only be going to waste without even exhibiting a fraction of its potential.

"Of course there are also people in the empire who've earned the title of

Ace Pilot. People like those have a wealth of combat experience and skills

to match as well, so they might be able to best you if you underestimate

them."

"I see. And then, there are the full-time mercenaries as well huh."

"They're the enemies you should be most wary of in my opinion. The Gold

rankers and above have combat experience in spades, exemplary skills, and

powerful customized ships."

"Yeah."

However, pirate activity in the surrounding sectors of the imperial capital is

next to nonexistent. That's why there aren't that many mercs active here in

the first place. Most of those that were here were mercenary corps that were

contracted to escort mercantile fleets that came to buy and sell goods in the

imperial capital. They aren't lone wolf-types like me and were more

specialized in group combat.

Consequently, most of them aren't that good in one-on-one dogfights. So I

surmise that most of the mercenaries around the imperial capital won't be

my opponent. But, of course, I can't discount the possibility of some truly

skilled ones coming to the imperial capital at this time as well.

"Oh well. Let's just chill. It would be fine if we do the usual, I think."

"That's right!"

"Yeah. I'm not really that worried though."

"It's finally here, everyone! It's the last event of this tournament! A mock

space battle between combat starships! Since they will be mock battles, the

output of their laser cannons and shields will be reduced, and training

rounds will be used instead of live ones. But what do those exactly imply

for our participants?"

"Even though their outputs are reduced, their weapons still have enough

firepower to directly vaporize a person, so some danger is still present. And

since their shield outputs are also reduced, direct collisions may cause

serious accidents. In preparation for those, our imperial military has

deployed a great number of rescue ships, so there is no need to worry.

Please enjoy live mock ship combat that's very close to the real thing to

your heart's content, everyone."

The guest commentator today was a woman huh. Don't tell me it's Major

Serena– Uh, she should be a lieutenant colonel now huh? Anyway, I

thought it was Lt. Col. Serena, but it wasn't. But judging from her outfit,

she should also be from the imperial military huh.

"As expected, will Captain Hiro be the focus for today's event as well?"

"But of course. He gave us a strong showing in both the swordsmanship

duel and melee combat phases of the tournament after all. According to our

info, space combat is actually his specialty. I'm looking forward to what

kind of battle he's going to show us today."

Un, I can feel her burning passion from her words. Well, I probably won't

disappoint.

"Well then, it's time for the first match of this competition. The first match

will be between Captain Rex, a Gold ranker belonging to the mercenary

corps [Arrow of Light], and Ensign Nielsen, belonging to the 28th

Defense Fleet of the Imperial Space Navy."

"The mercenary corps[Arrow of Light]is–"

The female commentator began to tell the audience about the contestants.

The mercenary corps[Arrow of Light]is a corps that usually acts as escorts

for mercantile fleets, and the pilot named Captain Rex seems to be the one

with the highest number of recorded ship kills among them. Ensign Nielsen,

on the other hand, is an imperial military carrier-based fighter pilot and ace

who had shot down a large number of enemy carrier-based spacecraft in

battles with the neighboring Vereverem Federation.

"What do you think, Hiro-sama?"

"Hm, I can't make an accurate judgment before the fight actually starts, but

judging from the ships, Rex seems to have an edge."

The ship the mercenary called Rex is flying can be classified as a highspeed missile platform. It's a ship that throws off enemies with quick

maneuvers and overwhelms them with swarms of seeker missiles. If there's

enough leeway, the pilot can also allocate a larger part of the energy

generator output to combat functions, and doing so will allow the ship to

perform well in close combat. It's a ship you can't let your guard down

against.

On the other hand, Ensign Nielsen was piloting your standard imperial

carrier-based fighter. It's a unit that's a testament to masterful design and

ease of use, but it has no notable quirks at all. It's an agile multi-role fighter

equipped with lasers, multi-cannons, and seeker missiles. It was quite a

plain craft, but the unit Ensign Nielsen is flying seems to be heavily tailored

for military use. Since the performance of each of the parts and weapon

systems of military ships are generally one or more times better than your

average mercenary ship, it would still serve as a troublesome opponent

depending on Ensign Nielsen's piloting skills.

"It's going to depend on Ensign Nielsen's skills."

"Yeah. In my case, I find it easier with someone like Ensign Nielsen

though."

"It's a pain to deal with enemies who unload swarms of seeker missiles at

you freely after all."

"That's it."

Saturation attacks from packs of seeker missiles are quite terrifying after

all. Krishna can probably shake them off with its mobility, but that

particular enemy ship would probably move in to restrict our maneuvers as

well if we fought it, so fighting it would be quite annoying. We can use

flares and chaff to deal with some of the missiles, but the pilot of the enemy

ship should have accounted for that happening as well. He must have

cooked up a strategy to deal with that.

"Huh, as expected of a Gold ranker, I guess. He's good."

"Yeah."

The match proceeded with the Gold-rank mercenary Rex dominating. He

kept hunting down his opponent with saturation attacks from seeker

missiles at long range. The opponent was firmly at his mercy and couldn't

do anything to retaliate. Ensign Nielsen was hanging on so far with the use

of flares and other equipment, but he couldn't mount a counterattack at all.

"I guess the merc will get the win huh?"

"As long as he doesn't let up on the attacks."

Rex is making excellent use of the seeker missiles. In addition to direct

attacks, he's launching them in directions where his enemy could possibly

escape while implementing a time lag in their tracking functions. That's

how he's steadily cornering Ensign Nielsen's ship. However, seekers

missiles have a main weakness you can take advantage of.

"It looks like he made it through."

"Yeah."

Rex had been hunting down Ensign Nielsen for a good while now, and it

looks like his missiles have finally run out. Ensign Nielsen's ship didn't

come out of that onslaught unscathed though, so I guess Rex is banking on

finishing him off with laser cannons. Ensign Nielsen also finally moved in

to launch an offensive. The two ships ran rings around each other at a

dizzying pace, and light rays illuminated the void of space.

"What do you think?"

"If it were me, I would have closed in before I completely ran out of ammo.

Maybe he still has missiles he's hiding in reserve?"

"Yeah, I think so too."

It happened as Elma and I just finished our short exchange. The moment the

two ships intersected once more, an explosion occurred. It looks like Rex

really did have some missiles in reserve, just as we thought. He probably

launched his remaining missiles at Ensign Nielsen's craft at close range

coupled with the momentum of his approach.

But it looks like the battle was still on.

"Man. Those military ships really are tough. So it hasn't been shot down yet

huh."

"It certainly is."

Another intense dogfight started, but this time, Rex, who now really had run

out of missiles, was gradually cornered by Ensign Nielsen and was finally

shot down.

"The fact that he failed to deal enough damage in the first heavy offensive

is the cause of his defeat huh."

"Ensign Nielsen's calm judgment when he weathered through the first wave

of attacks and when he got baited in the final moments of the match was

key as well."

"I see… How would you have fought them, Hiro-sama?"

"If I were fighting against Rex, I'd spread flares and chaff and use the shotcannons to deal with the missiles, break through the field in one go, and

perform a blitz attack to take him down. I don't feel like I'll lose to Ensign

Nielsen in a straight-up dogfight as well, so I'll just go after him directly

and shoot him down with the laser cannons."

We waited for our turn while listening to the post-match commentary. This

time, our match was slated pretty late. Or rather, we weren't even listed as

seeded participants. 'It's your own field of expertise, so you should be fine

without special treatment, right?' The face of that f**cking emperor

suddenly popped in my head. Hahaha. Nah, that can't be it.

"Now then, folks! It's time for the entrance of the main man of this event,

Captain Hiro!"

"I also took a look at his combat data records myself, and I saw some pretty

unbelievable combat maneuvers. I'm certainly looking forward to what

kind of fight he'll show us all this time."

The voices of the announcer and the lady guest commentator were

broadcasted from the wide-area comm channel.

"Hiro-sama, she says she's looking forward to our performance."

"That's kinda troublesome. I'm not planning on intentionally performing

out-of-place acrobatic maneuvers y'know."

"It's fine if you just pilot like usual. You're flashy enough as it is."

Elma commented nonchalantly and shrugged. Well, I guess she has a point.

In that case, I'll just do as usual then.

"His opponent is Sir Weisel, who serves actively as a Mobile Knight of the

house of Earl Redran! He usually keeps the peace within Earl Redran's

territories, and has a lot of experience under his belt fighting pirates."

"Captain Hiro's ship is quite an unfamiliar model, but the ship used by Sir

Weisel is a small-class combat starship widely used by the imperial military

as well. It's larger than carrier-based combat ships and has a more powerful

generator as well. It's a ship very similar in nature to those piloted by

mercenaries."

"I see. Which one has the advantage in terms of unit performance though?"

"Krishna, piloted by Captain Hiro, is a completely unknown never-beforeseen ship model, so it's difficult to evaluate it. However, according to the

data handed out, it seems to be a very aggressive ship with both high

mobility and firepower. On the other hand, Sir Weisel's craft – the Saber IV

– is also a high-performance ship known for its mobility and firepower. On

that note, the pilot's skills as well as their combat awareness will be the

keys to this match."

"I see. It looks like we can look forward to some fierce combat. Well then,

the countdown for the match will start now!"

The match countdown timer started ticking. I then promptly activated the

weapon systems and deployed the four high-caliber laser cannons and two

shot-cannons.

"What's the plan?"

"What plan? We'll blow him away head-on."

The moment the countdown reached zero, I pushed Krishna's thrusters to

maximum output.