Chapter 101: A Noble's Fancy Exclusive-use Mobile Coffin

“Man, it kinda feels like everything suddenly went into a very stupid direction……”

“There, there. We’re still on a job after all, Hiro-sama. Please do your best for a little while more.”

“Working is tough sometimes……”

I moved Krishna toward the flagship where the earl and Chris were while being gently consoled by Mimi. No matter how you slice it, the troops riding inside that suppression ship or whatever are way outnumbered by the earl’s troops stationed inside the flagship, but they still went for it anyway. And they’re actually doing quite well despite their disadvantage. But even so, there’s still a limit, and they were being gradually taken out.

“Seriously! What is with that ship? Are the designers idiots? Do the people that rode inside that thing have death wishes? If that’s the case, then just slap some anti-ship torpedoes onboard, and it would have been game over. It looks like an overgrown torpedo anyway, so why didn’t they go with that?”

“I heard the total production costs for that type of ship is roughly 25,000,000 Enels. It just wouldn’t be worth the astronomical cost for it to be a one-off kamikaze ship. And it would pose a safety issue if a ship meant for carrying soldiers had anti-ship torpedoes as payload.”

“But don’t ramming a ship and self-destructing immediately and ramming a ship in order to attack with totally outnumbered forces just lead to the same thing? They’re both suicidal acts anyway!”

Since both forces were preoccupied with fighting each other, nothing got in the way of our approach toward the flagship. Anyway, I moved Krishna close to the suppression ship to check it out first.

“Should we just get rid of this thing first?”

“The flagship will leak air if you do that. They probably have ways to deal with it, but it’s better not to carelessly remove that thing for now. It might even cause a sudden explosion if you did it poorly. It’ll greatly damage the flagship if that happens.”

“Yeah. That doesn’t sound good. Just what went through the developer’s heads when they made this thing…?”

Even if the shield emitter is powerful, it would probably still not be able to stand up to a direct hit from a battleship’s main cannon. Since it costs 25,000,000 Enels to produce each ship, the costs would pile up to unreasonable numbers even for a wealthy empire like Graccan. It’s also not a tactic that can be used frequently since it’s impractical.

It might be of use if you wanted to capture a sample of the enemy’s latest battleship model… Nah, probably not. The risk is way huge. In the first place, standard battles between rival starship fleets involve battleships and cruisers getting into a tight formation and blasting away at the enemy from long range. This kind of straightforward assault tactic isn’t usually used.

And I can’t even think of any other situation where a suppression ship with extremely limited use would be a viable option. Or rather, since I haven’t seen this thing in Stella Online at all, that means it’s a unit unique to this particular empire. So it’s a bit similar to my Krishna.

Actually, some players may even try to customize this thing since it does have a number of good things going for it, like the powerful shield emitter, generator, as well as that sharp pointy horn out front. It’s a ship that kinda smells of romance. So if they customize it a bit, slap some weapon systems on it, and make it so that horn charge could be used as a hidden special finishing move, I’m sure lots of em will have a blast with it. There’s a lot of eccentric guys who like that sort of stuff back on Earth after all. I’m almost a hundred percent sure some idiots would turn that horn into a drill.

“It seems the design was approved due to some intense lobbying by factions in the military with help from some of the more influential noble houses. By the way, this ship model was only officially used in battle a total of four times. It looks like this is the fifth one though.”

“And what about the success rate of the charging assault?”

“Including this instance, there’s now a total of three instances when the assault was successfully performed. So, based on that, the success rate is 60%. The other 40% is when the ship got shot down. It’s sometimes described as a noble’s fancy exclusive-use mobile coffin, a surprisingly effective decoy, and the imperial military’s most expensive secret weapon.”

“So that Balthazar guy was able to make use of this kind of eccentric ship to its full potential huh.”

“This man called Balthazar is probably a really skilled tactician. If an irregular like Hiro didn’t appear, his plans would have most likely gone without a hitch.”

“It looks like he was just unlucky to encounter Hiro-sama.”

Just what are you saying, girls? Do you really think of me as some sort of super dangerous guy? I’m just a bit skilled and blessed with a great ship and crew. That’s all. Probably. No, surely. Uh, maybe?

“Anyway, what do we do now? It looks like the other ships can take care of the other enemy ship out there with no problems, so should we charge in to help protect Chris and the earl?”

“I don’t know…… If we just boarded the ship without informing the crew, there’s a chance we’ll be attacked by both sides.”

“But we can’t just sit here while Chris and the earl are exposed to danger.”

“Well, that’s also true…… But charging in suddenly like that and going into a direct firefight will be quite dangerous you know? It’s way too risky.”

It looks like Elma didn’t want me to get into a firefight personally. I’m also a bit reluctant, but doing nothing would be going against the contract, and most of all, I really wanna protect Chris. If that Balthazar guy was somehow able to lay his hands on Chris and the earl, it would be game over.

Not only will that 250,000 Enels per day not be paid, but Balthazar would succeed in his ploy to usurp the position of earl, and he may even turn his wrath towards me and the girls. It would be more reassuring to get rid of that Balthazar guy now instead of letting a potential source of trouble run free.

“No, let’s do it. It’ll be dangerous if Balthazar ends up surviving this. In the worst case, even if the earl were to be killed, we have to at least ensure Chris’s life and try to get rid of Balthazar if possible.”

In the very worst case that both Chris and the earl get killed, we at least have to kill that Balthazar as well, or it’ll lead into all sorts of trouble. I have to protect my enjoyable life with Mimi and Elma after all.

“Mimi, send out a boarding request. I’ll charge inside using my power armor. I’ll leave Krishna’s controls to you, Elma. Once I get in there, lock the hatch, deploy the shields, and don’t let anyone else board the ship no matter what. You’re coming with me, May.”

“Y-Yes!”

“……Haa. Aye, aye sir.”

“Understood.”

Mimi, Elma, and May nodded and acknowledged my instructions. I’m actually nervous as heck, but I have no choice. Let’s go for broke then. I relinquished the main pilot seat to Elma and went to the cargo hold with May.