Chapter 143: I Failed to Take Down the Flag

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 aforementioned losses before long.

“If the time comes, 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 some reinforcements. Once that happens, the chance of this ship’s survival will rise.

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

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

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

“Mercenary Guild? But wasn’t the mercenary detachment deployed on point S-02?”

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

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

I don’t know how much firepower that ship was sporting, but if I remember correctly, a Skizbrazunil-class was a medium-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 medium-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 bombardment from the mercenary ship. It seems its name is Black Lotus. As for what that attack actually was… I believe it was from a large-caliber EML.”

“It’s my first time 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 cameras of Restalias. The dark blue, almost black, colored ship kind of reminded me 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 movements, however…… is he doing well?

“That’s quite the firepower.”

“Yes. It sure is something for a mercenary ship.”

The ship named 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 bombardment 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 unarmed civilian ship and fool others.

Fool who? Well, since it was a mercenary ship, it was probably aiming at fooling pirates. They would disguise themselves as an unarmed cargo ship, but they were actually fully armed 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 achievements because of it. Due to our success, there were also mercenaries 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 remember right, that ship also had hidden shard cannons for close-range engagements. 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 screamed ‘Why are you asking that now of all times?’, but still performed my order. He operated his console and accessed the online databank.

“M-Major!”

“What is it?”

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

“Hurry up with your report, soldier.”

“Um, this may sound ridiculous, but…… it seems that a small-sized mercenary 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 me 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 medium-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 medium-types instead. Just as planned guys.

“W-What are we gonna do next?”

After calming down a little, Elma posed me 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 medium-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 come 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 mess up the battlefield quite a bit after all. But if the imperial forces stationed here are at least half-decent–”

Laser bombardment launched out from the direction of the defending imperial forces and swept away the small and medium-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 bombardment, and we can slip away just fine.”

“Hiro-sama! The imperial fleet sent us their bombardment 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 firmed my thoughts as I led the crystal lifeform train behind me around by their nonexistent noses.

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

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 medium-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 bombardment.

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

“Me too……”

Mimi and Elma slumped on their consoles with pale faces. They really were drained. Mentally that is. They wouldn’t be so listless now if they just relaxed a bit more earlier. They had me 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 me 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 supplementing her physical strength with magic or something.

“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 someone’s all nonchalant about it.”

Elma gave me a grudge-filled stare. But I often found myself battling swarms like those during my time playing SOL on Earth. Battles like these were presented as raid events in the game, 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 same model.”

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

“How in the world!?”

Why do I keep crossing paths with this troublesome major in this wide universe? In the first place, this ain’t somewhere the independent anti-pirate fleet should be in anyway. Rather, we already used a gateway, man. Why are we meeting 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 some sort of connection in the imperial military in order to maximize the rewards for our efforts this time. 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 time.』

“It’s my honor to help.”

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

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

It’s the same for Elma and Major Serena. If you mess around with them, the only thing waiting for you is a violent beating. Violence is no good y’know. What about me, 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 some more help?”

『There’s no need. Please return to your mothership and rest up for the time 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 troublesome.