You Again!

We collected the ion blasters which I don't plan on using but would sell for

a pretty good price, the fairly powerful shield generators that could be

reasonably employed by both rookie and seasoned mercs, as well as other

valuable-looking parts and items. While we were busying ourselves

recovering all the loot, Mimi's expression suddenly changed as she operated

her console.

"What's wrong?"

"Um, I'm not sure yet… It seems the movements of the imperial forces and

the system guards who are storming the pirate base have gotten more

frantic."

"I wonder what's wrong? Did the pirates do something unexpected?"

"Like a Singing Crystal or something?"

"That's way too overboard already… But perhaps the pirates really have

launched a counterattack through some unexpected means."

"And we've already taken control of most of the sector. No matter how

much the opponents fight back, the worst that could happen is the entire

base being blown up and turned to space debris."

No matter how much they push back the combined forces of the imperial

military, the system garrison, and Earl Dareinwald's private troops in

ground melee combat, since we've already taken control of the sector,

there's no way they'd be able to turn things around anymore. After all, apart

from having no way to escape the base, there's also no way they'd be able

to defeat the rest of the troops surrounding the entire sector.

That's why in situations like this, the enemy pirates would usually surrender

promptly to save their skins.

"It seems there's a particular group that's continuing to stubbornly resist,

and they're the ones giving our ground forces trouble."

"Huh? How are they even fighting back against highly trained imperial

marines sporting the latest cutting-edge power armors…? Ah–"

"Have you realized it too?"

"Yeah. But is that really possible?"

"No… is what I wanted to say. But we can't dismiss the possibility. In fact,

it might be exactly what happened."

Apparently, Elma came to the same conclusion as me. Mimi and Wamdo

tilted their heads bewilderedly at Elma and my exchange.

"There aren't a lot of normal folks who could fight it out with trained

imperial marines. However, there's a particular group of people who could

tear through power armor like paper, block laser shots, and in some cases,

even repel them back to the shooter."

"Eh… Y-You mean…?"

"Nobles, right? And they might even be part of the so-called Drawn Sword

faction…"

"We still can't say for sure though. Who knows? It might be mutant

creatures just like the ones released on Comatt III that escaped and are now

going on a rampage inside the base."

"Yeah. Even trained imperial marines will have trouble against those."

I meant that in the physical sense as well. Power armors might be able to

resist one head-on clash though. Or maybe not? Those creatures were pretty

well built and huge as heck after all. I continued searching for loot as I

thought about the feasibility of blocking those creature's head-on charge

with power armors, but before long, I noticed some flashing lights in one

corner of the pirate base.

"Hey guys, I think something just lit up inside the pirate base–"

Within moments, Krishna's radar registered something heading over in our

direction with great speed. Of course, our trusty operator Mimi swiftly

noticed the incoming object as well.

"Something is– No, wait… This is… a suppression ship is heading in our

direction at full speed!"

"Oh c'mon!"

"There, there."

I unknowingly got wrapped in a negative aura. Elma approached me from

the side and tried to console me.

Explanation time! Suppression ships are empire-exclusive products that

sport ultra-powerful propulsion thrusters that leave even Krishna in the dust

coupled with equally powerful energy shields that even Krishna's firepower

can't breach easily. Its entire purpose is to directly ram against enemy

starships and penetrate their armor after going through their shields. It's an

outrageous weapon that a portion of the imperial military is super proud of.

After successfully ramming an enemy ship, the suppression ship will

release a host of elite noble swordsmen who can match hundreds of

enemies individually in order to wreak havoc and take control. Anyway, its

design entirely revolves around that particularly ridiculous concept. Perhaps

the proposer of the plan, the approver, and the ship designer all had drugs

when they came up with that thing.

[Captain Hiro! Stop them!]

Anyway, while I was in the middle of monologuing about stuff unrelated to

making money, Lt. Col. Serena called me up via wide-range comms– Or

rather, she plain ordered me. Eh…?

"Uh, this is Krishna. Is it okay if we destroy it?"

[You can't destroy it! Capture it instead!]

"Can you not make us do something so unreasonable?"

It's next to impossible to take down a small-class ship that flies even faster

than Krishna and sports a really tough shield without destroying it. It might

be possible to take it down by firing a continuous concentrated barrage of

the heavy-caliber laser cannons at its bow and hammering it with the shotcannons once it closes in or by hitting it with a reactive torpedo, but that

would probably reduce it to scrap.

[In any case, you have to stop it! If that's impossible, then do your best to

track and chase it!]

"That's just absurd…"

"It's the same as always."

"Right."

"I see. So this is the rumored 'trouble magnet' disposition."

"Stoop! I'm close to giving up, but I really don't want to admit such a fact!"

Anyway, it looks like I have to take down that f***ing suppression ship.

And that's without destroying the damn thing.

[I believe a Platinum-ranker like you can definitely do it. Eh? You're not

actually telling me you can't, right?]

"S-Sure I can!"

"Hiro acts really dumb sometimes, doesn't he?."

"I think he's just easy to provoke and gets toyed around with as a result

though…"

As expected of Mimi. She understands.

I ain't afraid of no suppression ship! I'm gonna crush it!

[So, it looks like you let them get away in the end.]

"Yes…"

I couldn't overcome the suppression ship's toughness and speed… Well,

I'm currently tracking the ship while using FTL navigation though. The

suppression ship has an FTL drive but doesn't have a Hyperdrive, so it

probably won't be able to escape outside the Comatt system for the time

being.

"I'm currently tracking it down so…"

[The suppression ship won't be able to navigate between star systems on its

own, and its cruising range is pretty short as well. The suspects would

surely meet up with collaborators along the way in order to resupply and

change to another ship. Imperial space navy scouts are heading over as

reinforcements, so please continue to track them.]

"Aye, aye, ma'am."

I replied with a crisp salute. Lt. Col. Serena nodded in response and cut the

transmission.

"Well, it was inevitable anyway."

"Right."

Aside from directly destroying it, there's no way to take down a suppression

ship that sports such overwhelming speed. The heavy-caliber laser cannons

can't penetrate its shield, you basically can't hit it with the shot-cannons

which have high shield penetration capabilities since you can't get in close

enough, and it's also hard as heck to hit it with an anti-ship reactive

torpedo. And even if the torpedo hits, you'll be left with nothing but space

dust in the end, so there's no point since they wanted us to capture it intact.

"We ended up leaving the Black Lotus behind huh."

"It wouldn't be able to keep up with Krishna's speed after all. Well, it's not

like we're in a lot of danger since our job is just to chase and track the

enemy down. Mei will probably catch up to us when she finishes with

collecting the loot."

As long as we're in the same star system, Krishna and Black Lotus would

be able to track each other's position easily. They said it's due to the

information network spread throughout the entire star system, but I don't

know the specific workings. In SOL, we simply attributed it to the Party

system.

"So, about this route… At this rate, we'll end up on Comatt IV, right?"

"It looks that way."

"That's right. If we stay on this course, we'll find ourselves right within

Comatt IV's orbit. Are the ones we're chasing planning to descend on the

planet?"

"I have a bad feeling about this… I hope we can take them out before

they're able to enter the atmosphere."

It won't be outside expectations if they headed over to Comatt Prime in

order to change ships, but since their destination was Comatt IV which is

still under the terraforming process, I can't help but get a bad feeling.

Since it was still undergoing the terraforming process, I bet the environment

of the planet isn't really all that good yet. Yeah, I'm sure that's the case.

The entire planet is being subjected to environmental adjustments that

would transform it into a place suitable for the civilization terraforming it. I

bet abnormal phenomena in the level of natural disasters occur frequently

on the surface of the planet due to the terraforming process.

"Hiro…"

"Hiro-sama…"

"Nn…? Ah–"

Goddammit! I let my guard down! I ended up saying something like hoping

to bring them down before they enter the planet's atmosphere!

Please gimme a break already! I definitely don't want to land on a planet's

surface while it's in the middle of being terraformed! Please, nooooo!