Chapter 153: Sortie

The imperial military’s request officially came through via the Mercenary Guild first thing in the morning of the following day. The particulars of the request were pretty much the same as what we discussed the other day and offered a salary of 400,000 Enels per day. Krishna and Black Lotus will accompany Major Serena’s Independent Anti-Pirate Mobile Fleet as part of her forces for the duration of the mission and will be placed under her command. The necessary supplies for the mission will be shouldered by the imperial military. Black Lotus will carry part of the supplies and will serve as both a part of the main fighting force and a supply ship. The duration of the mission is set for a maximum of three months.

“A maximum of three months huh……”

Mimi muttered in a somewhat gloomy tone as she fiddled with her tablet terminal. It’s for a maximum of three months, but it may end earlier depending on further developments out on the field. Even so, it’s true that we would have to go out there for an extended period of time.

“It’s quite reasonable, I think. The specified duration takes the hyperlane traveling time into account after all.”

After saying so, I glanced at the imperial military’s supplies being gradually loaded inside Black Lotus’s cargo hold from on top of Krishna’s boarding ramp.

The loading process was being carried out by the AI-controlled loading system installed on Black Lotus, and seeing the loading drones going about their work with absolute efficiency was an interesting sight to see.

“That’s right. We don’t know exactly how many star systems we’ll need to cross, but it would probably take more than a couple of days to reach our target destination.”

Elma was also watching the loading process with me, but it seems that she wasn’t really that interested. It looks like she didn’t find the sight of the loading drones as amusing as I did. As for me, I could watch industrial machines like those working at peak efficiency without tiring of it.

“The only other instance that required us to be out on the field for a long period of time was during that incident in the Alein system, right?”

“Yep. That’s right. Well, we’re surely in it for the long haul this time, so it’s better to take it easy instead of being all tense.”

It’s impossible to maintain an alert state indefinitely, so if you exhaust yourself and fail to exert your all when it counts, that would be quite counterproductive.

“Well, I don’t really think we’ll be out there for that long though.”

“Is that so?”

“Really?”

“Yep. Uh, I’m not that sure about it though. It’s just a feeling.”

I managed to tell Major Serena about the info regarding pulsar systems after all. It may not seem all that reliable in their eyes, but the current imperial military and Major Serena still have no clue about how to find the nest of the crystal lifeforms until now.

They would probably still investigate the pulsar systems near the Izrooks system eventually with the feeling of grasping at straws when the investigation fails to bring any results after some time. And there weren’t that many pulsar systems nearby to begin with. I’ve only gone through the galaxy map briefly, but I believe I only saw about two neighboring pulsar systems. I’m not really all that sure if the nest is truly located on one of those pulsar systems, but there’s still a pretty good chance since the behavior of the crystal lifeforms was mostly similar to the ones in SOL.

“Boss!”

Tina, who held a tablet terminal under her arm, approached us in a rush. Her stature was quite small, but she runs really fast. The sisters also participated in our daily workouts, and her physical capabilities were already more than a match with Elma, who was a five-year merc veteran. In other words, she was probably stronger than me.

Her stamina was amazing as well. She could bench-press three times more weights than Elma and five times more than me. Just where was she hiding all that power and toughness in that small body of hers, I wonder. Don’t tell me she was actually storing alcohol inside her system and converting it directly into energy or something? Nah, that’s just silly. Hahaha.

“The loading process is almost finished. It’ll probably take 15 minutes more. The contents of the cargo are… pretty much the basics. Water, food, and all that. There’s a bit of some other stuff mixed in though.”

“Okay. Go on standby once the loading process gets finished. We’re probably going to sortie soon.”

“Roge〜r!”

“Safety first, remember?”

“Of course. You should rest up before departure as well, boss.”

Tina waved goodbye and returned to her work. Mimi and Elma observed our interaction and stared intently at my face. What’s up?

“Hey, Mimi. Isn’t Tina’s atmosphere a bit different than before?”

“Yes, that’s right…… Um, it’s like she’s a bit gentler now…… She’s as casual as before, but her atmosphere really is different, I think.”

“It’s nothing really…… We just talked a little in the break room.”

“What kind of things did you talk about?”

“We mainly talked about how I met the two of you in the Termaine system. Oh, and I also told them about that amnesia cover story. That’s about it.”

“I see……?”

Mimi and Elma both tilted their heads. They were probably just imagining things when they said Tina’s atmosphere changed. She really did act nicer in general, but she probably just took that story about my supposed amnesia quite seriously and was simply worried for me… I don’t think it was really a cause for concern for these two anyway.

“Well, we still have some time before departure, so why don’t you try asking her yourselves?”

“Yes.”

“I guess.”

I somehow managed to convince the two with my words and set aside the topic of Tina’s change in attitude for now.

And just like Tina said, the loading process got finished exactly 15 minutes later. Soon after, launch orders were finally given out.

“Well, the sortie order’s out, but it’s not like we need to go on full alert for the time being.”

“That’s right.”

“Yeah, that’s true. But we still can’t let our guards down too much.”

I, Mimi, and Elma were already on standby inside Krishna’s cockpit, but we won’t be launching unless a battle breaks out. May handled all of Black Lotus’s operations like always, so we really didn’t have to do anything at all for now.

But, just like Elma said, we have to be ready to move out just in case something happens, so it’s not good to act all lax.

“Maintaining a certain degree of alertness is really important, right?”

“That’s right. We have to be ready to take action in case of emergencies, so we can’t relax too much, or it will bite us back hard.”

“Yes.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.”

In order to maintain a certain degree of alertness, we need to be able to constantly monitor the overall situation. I operated my console to display the feed from Black Lotus’s sensors and cameras on Krishna’s cockpit monitor.

“Launching out with this many ships really is quite the sight huh?”

“That’s right.”

The cockpit monitor’s visual feed not only displayed Major Serena’s anti-pirate fleet, but also a great host of mercenary starships. We aren’t the only mercenaries tasked to accompany Major Serena’s fleet for this mission. Quite a lot of other mercenaries were participating as well.

“Un…… We really do look like quite the hodgepodge fleet if you look at the assortment of ships alone.”

“Is that so?”

“But at least their skills and abilities are way better than your typical small-fry pirates. Well, even if the abilities of us mercenaries are differentiated by rank to some extent, our equipment and weapons are largely different from each other, so it must pose quite a headache to our dear commander when it comes to fleet organization.”

The reason a lot of mercenaries were accompanying Major Serena’s anti-pirate fleet this time was to make up for their lacking short-range combat capabilities.

“Basically, the military corvettes and mercenary ships will act as the vanguard and the destroyers will protect the main force. The cruisers and the flagship will then destroy the enemies via long-range bombardment.”

“Oh, that’s right. Wasn’t there only two corvettes assigned to Major Serena’s fleet?”

The line-up of Major Serena’s Independent Anti-Pirate Mobile Fleet consisted of two corvettes, three destroyers, five cruisers, and one battleship. Basically, it’s a line-up that prioritizes preemptively shooting down enemies before getting shot at in return.

If it were a battle between two nation’s military forces where cruisers and battleships played a leading role, this fleet composition was undoubtedly ideal. But fighting with crystal lifeforms is a whole different ballgame. Those things would often charge in without caring for losses after all. No matter how powerful the main guns were, they would be nigh useless once the enemies managed to close in.

“So in order to make up for that weakness, they employed a lot of mercenaries to accompany the fleet.”

“I see. Um, but wouldn’t that mean we would be in a lot of danger if we face crystal lifeforms later on?”

“We would probably be fine as long as the numbers are manageable.”

The bombardment from five cruisers and one battleship would be enough to annihilate a small swarm of crystal lifeforms in one volley after all. We should be fine if we face at most thirty medium-types and one hundred small-types. It should be okay as long as a large-type or two doesn’t appear. And when a battle does occur, we should also be able to use subspace communications to request reinforcements from other scouting fleets in nearby star systems.

“Okay, just stop right there. According to experience, we’ll end up facing a horde of enemies if you say something like that, Hiro.”

“Oi, oi, that…… shouldn’t be the case… I think. Yeah. It shouldn’t be.”

“It looks like it’s useless, Elma-san……”

“We should probably brace ourselves now, Mimi.”

“Okay, guys, just stop. We’ll really end up facing a horde if you say things like that y’know.”

“It’s not good to shift the blame to us for your own faults, Hiro.”

We continued to stand-by inside Krishna’s cockpit as we repeatedly passed the buck around.