I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary Chapter 143 – I Failed to Take Down the Flag

Translator: SFBaka

The battle situation wasn’t progressing all that favorably. However, it wasn’t that bad either. If we kept going like this, we would probably eke out a victory. There’s a good chance of a number of ships getting devoured by the enemy, but if the base defense forces persist even while sustaining losses, we would be able to barely win. The problem was-

“We’re gradually getting tied up here.”

“There’s still a bit of leeway, but……”

Once that delicate balance crumbles, our good fortune will crumble along with it.

Yes. The problem was this ship, the Restalias, was probably going to be part of those aforentioned losses before long.

“If the ti cos, please escape on your own, Major-”

“There’s no use fleeing via a shield-less escape pod with enemies swarming us from all sides. And furthermore, I cannot possibly make my escape while my crew sacrifices themselves. That’s my decision, as the captain of this ship, and as a proud imperial noble.”

This ship was slowly getting pushed back, but we can still hold on for a while. If the situation on the other parts of the battlefield turn for the better, they may send us so reinforcents. Once that happens, the chance of this ship’s survival will rise.

“That said, without so sort of irregularity happening……”

As I sighed away at our hopeless situation, we noticed sothing. There was a ship hailing us.

“A ship affiliated with the rcenary Guild is saying it’s moving in to assist us.”

“rcenary Guild? But wasn’t the rcenary detachnt deployed on point S-02?”

“It seems they just arrived on the battlefield. It’s a Skizbrazunil-class ship. It’s also fully ard.”

“Fully ard……? That’s good to hear, however…”

I don’t know how much firepower that ship was sporting, but if I rember correctly, a Skizbrazunil-class was a dium-sized mothership model developed by the Space Dwerg company. Getting its help was a promising prospect.

“Please give instructions for it to move behind Restalias. We’ll leave intercepting the small-type enemies to-”

As I was relaying my orders, a bright light flashed in the distance, and a dium-type crystal lifeform that was directly in our line of fire was shot down. The combat capabilities of the middle-type were reduced to near zero due to the hit, as its rear was virtually pulverized and scattered crystal debris.

“……What was that?”

“It was support bombardnt from the rcenary ship. It seems its na is Black Lotus. As for what that attack actually was… I believe it was from a large-caliber EML.”

“It’s my first ti witnessing an EML shot……”

“It had really low accuracy so our military didn’t adopt it in the end. Even if its power and destructiveness were high, it would be no use if we couldn’t hit anything with it after all.”

I operated my handheld console and checked out the appearance of the Black Lotus captured by the external caras of Restalias. The dark blue, almost black, colored ship kind of reminded of that person’s ship. They used the gateway and went to a faraway sector while escorting Earl Daleinwald’s fleet, so I could no longer track their movents, however…… is he doing well?

“That’s quite the firepower.”

“Yes. It sure is sothing for a rcenary ship.”

The ship nad Black Lotus retracted parts of its armor and deployed a great number of laser cannon turrets and seeker missile pods. It then launched a concentrated bombardnt on the enemies. It had a total of twelve laser cannons and ten missile pods. There’s also that large-caliber EML on its bow. It probably made use of concealed armor in order to disguise itself as an unard civilian ship and fool others.

Fool who? Well, since it was a rcenary ship, it was probably aiming at fooling pirates. They would disguise themselves as an unard cargo ship, but they were actually fully ard and dangerous. It was a poisonous black flower that kills off all the hapless prey that dared approach it after letting their guards down.

“No……”

We learned that particular baiting tactic from him and managed to pile up quite a number of achievents because of it. Due to our success, there were also rcenaries who requested to tag along with our fleet as observers to check out our tactics. And their thoughts were basically as follows: ‘The imperial military actually thought of and employed such a dirty and despicable tactic…? How scary.’ And that black ship was a textbook example of such a tactic. It’s quite suspect.

That large-caliber EML on the bow made it even more suspicious. If I rember right, that ship also had hidden shard cannons for close-range engagents. There’s a huge resemblance in their employing of EML and shard cannons as hidden highly destructive weapon systems.

“Please find out who the owner of that ship is.”

“Eh? Y-Yes!”

The adjutant sported a look that virtually scread ‘Why are you asking that now of all tis?’, but still perford my order. He operated his console and accessed the online databank.

“M-Major!”

“What is it?”

“There’s a ssage from the Black Lotus. Um……”

“Hurry up with your report, soldier.”

“Um, this may sound ridiculous, but…… it seems that a small-sized rcenary combat starship just plunged deep into the crystal lifeform swarm.”

I was almost certain of my conjecture now. There just can’t be another huge idiot who would unhesitatingly perform such a suicidal act within this galaxy.

“Major.”

“It’s him.”

“Yes, it’s probably him.”

I moved my gaze toward the main monitor. Out there was a battlefield completely filled with a huge swarm of crystal lifeforms. And I just witnessed part of that gigantic swarm collapse with my own eyes.

“The pressure from the enemies is getting reduced! Use this chance and push through!”

“””Aye, aye, ma’am!”””

The bridge crew responded spiritedly to my orders. It looks like he saved once again.

“This is bad! Badbadbadbadbad!”

“Hahaha! You ain’t seen nothing yet!”

“Nooo! This is impossible! Impossibleeee, Hiro-samaaaa!”

Elma and Mimi raised agonized screams, but I ain’t panicking just yet. The radar screen was just a bit filled with red guys. It’s just a swarm of small-types chasing after us. This much is no problem. I can handle it.

“Gyaaaaaaaaah! In front! Frooooont!”

“Ooops.”

“Hiii……”

A couple of dium-types tried to block Krishna’s course, but I managed to evade them by a hair’s breadth by passing through a tiny gap between their shining gigantic bodies. The small-types in hot pursuit ended up crashing with the dium-types instead. Just as planned guys.

“W-What are we gonna do next?”

After calming down a little, Elma posed a question.

“Well, we already used up all our reactive torpedoes.”

I weaved through the enemies while taking care not to get in the sights of more dium-types and swatting down the small-types in the way with the shotgun cannons. Since we did major damage to the large-types using the reactive torpedoes already, there’s no more need to pay attention to aggro control. In other words, I can attack as I liked.

Now that it’s co to this, I’ll just have to clear a path while avoiding getting boxed in by the enemy swarms. And then I’ll just count on the imperial forces and May’s Black Lotus for the rest.

“So we’ll just run like heck and pray the support fire of our allies clears a path for us!”

“That’s not a plan at all, idiot!”

“It can’t be helped. We did ss up the battlefield quite a bit after all. But if the imperial forces stationed here are at least half-decent-”

Laser bombardnt launched out from the direction of the defending imperial forces and swept away the small and dium-type crystal lifeforms hot on our tail.

“There you go. We just have to pay attention in order to not get caught up in the imperial fleet’s bombardnt, and we can slip away just fine.”

“Hiro-sama! The imperial fleet sent us their bombardnt trajectory data just now!”

“Seriously? Okay then. Overlay the data on the radar display and HUD. We’re gonna guide the enemies right into their sights.”

“Yes!”

Has May secured their cooperation? And they were keeping up with my maneuvers pretty darn well to boot. It’s like they’re already familiar with them-

“No. It can’t be……”

“What? Why are you getting all ominous on us at this timing!?”

“Yeah, yeah. Let’s hold out for just a little bit more guys.”

The image of a certain blonde female major just flashed in my head earlier, but there’s no way she’s out here with her anti-pirate fleet. I’m sure it was just May being the skillful negotiator she is. I fird my thoughts as I led the crystal lifeform train behind around by their nonexistent noses.

“Man, that sure was thrilling. But I wonder how much we’ll get as a reward this ti?”

An hour later, the crystal lifeform swarm was finally driven out of the sector. Once the balance crumbled due to our actions, everything proceeded swimmingly. The dium-types were shot down one after another, and the small-types that lost their support were herded up and destroyed as well.

They would have been able to press on much longer due to the large-types spewing out new lifeforms in droves, but we ended up shooting down 4 out of the 6 large-types hanging out at the back of the swarm with anti-ship reactive torpedoes. Since they lost most of their key units, they ended up being beaten down by the imperial defense fleet’s bombardnt.

“I’m drained already…… I wanna rest up soon.”

“ too……”

Mimi and Elma slumped on their consoles with pale faces. They really were drained. ntally that is. They wouldn’t be so listless now if they just relaxed a bit more earlier. They had at the helm anyway. But I guess I did overdo it a bit and ended up frightening them. I should just act as the understanding captain that I am.

“What’s with that expression, buster? I’m gonna sock you, y’now.”

“Please don’t. I’ll die.”

Even though Elma had a lithe and delicate-looking build, she possesses near wild animal-like power. She defeated in seconds when we arm-wrestled a while back. Just where was she getting all that power from with thin arms like that? Maybe she was supplenting her physical strength with magic or sothing.

“This was the toughest jam we’ve found ourselves in by far……”

“It was really hair-raising. Any misstep would have caused us to die.”

“And soone’s all nonchalant about it.”

Elma gave a grudge-filled stare. But I often found myself battling swarms like those during my ti playing SOL on Earth. Battles like these were presented as raid events in the ga, and the numbers we faced there was even more overwhelming. It’s to the point that I can already correctly identify their anatomy by heart now. Well, I guess it’s different now that I’m facing them in the flesh, but I still made sure I had enough of a safety margin.

“Let’s return to Black Lotus, Mimi.”

“Yes. I’ll contact May-san right away.”

I headed in the direction of Black Lotus’ guide beacon. But when I arrived, I saw the familiar silhouette of a ship that was beside Black Lotus.

“Um, Hiro-sama. Isn’t that ship…?”

“Hahaha, it can’t be. I’m sure it’s just the sa model.”

“I’ve already confird. It’s Restalias.”

“How in the world!?”

Why do I keep crossing paths with this troubleso major in this wide universe? In the first place, this ain’t sowhere the independent anti-pirate fleet should be in anyway. Rather, we already used a gateway, man. Why are we eting them again here?

“Um, Hiro-sama.”

“Yeah.”

“There’s a call from Restalias……”

“……Okay.”

I definitely can’t ignore this call. As for why; that’s because I need so sort of connection in the imperial military in order to maximize the rewards for our efforts this ti. We did record battle data, but I’m sure that with the help of an imperial military officer and a bona fide noble daughter like Major Serena, the process would significantly speed up. There would also be the possibility of even more benefits.

“Yes, this is Captain Hiro.”

『It’s been a while, Captain Hiro. We really owe you this ti.』

“It’s my honor to help.”

『……Hmm. Soone’s polite today. Why don’t you talk to brazenly like always?』

“Please stop, major. I’ll seriously die y’know.”

It’s the sa for Elma and Major Serena. If you ss around with them, the only thing waiting for you is a violent beating. Violence is no good y’know. What about , you ask? No, no. Can’t you see I’m a peace-loving guy? I only slap people’s faces with money after all.

『Anyway, you can follow Restalias back to the base once we put everything back in order. We’ll take your battle records as well. Don’t worry. We won’t take advantage of you.』

“Yes, ma’am. Do you guys need so more help?”

『There’s no need. Please return to your mothership and rest up for the ti being. We’ll contact your mothership if anything happens.』

“Roger.”

I cut the call with Major Serena. Mimi and Elma displayed relieved expressions on their faces. The two of them really look tired, so I guess I’ll just take Major Serena’s suggestion and rest up at our mothership.

“Yosh. Let’s go back then.”

“Roger.”

“Yes.”

After hearing their replies, I flew Krishna toward Black Lotus’ hangar.

Now then. She did say they won’t take advantage of us, but how reliable was that promise, I wonder. I’m getting a bad feeling again. This is probably gonna get troubleso.