Chapter 208: Another SOS Message

Although we just left port not too long ago, we still decided to return to Comatt Prime space colony in order to take care of our spoils. We’d face various inconveniences if we continued patrolling around with our cargo capacity full after all.

Nonetheless, it would be getting our priorities backward if we allowed this fact to hinder our patrol duties, so we just threw the scrap we got from the pirate ships and the rest of the loot into the loot storage space we arranged with the Comatt Prime space colony.

“We’ll stay in the colony to start with the repair and modifications of the captured ships, Boss.”

“Gotcha. I’m sure there won’t be any problems, but be careful anyway.”

“Yes!”

We’ll have the mechanic sisters stay in the Comatt Prime colony. They would be proceeding with the repair and modifications of the two medium-class and two small-class ships we managed to capture. They wouldn’t be in any danger while staying inside the maintenance docks, so there should be no problem. The port area was especially secure since the imperial military and colony security were conducting strict regular patrols and were always on the lookout.

“We will also remain in the colony to interview the two lovely ladies who will be modifying the captured ships.”

“That’s fine, but don’t get in the way of their work.”

“But of course.”

It seems Space Dwerg’s Mr. Wamdo and his staff will be remaining in the Comatt Prime space colony as well. Fomalhaut Entertainment’s Zuia has boarded Krishna while the rest of his staff together with the folks from Nyaatoflix and Mobius Ring will board the Black Lotus and continue their coverage there.

“You just don’t stay put, do you, sir? Or rather, you’re surprisingly quite diligent when it comes to working.”

“Un? Really?”

“Yes. You are quite different from our image of mercenaries.”

Krishna was currently parked inside one of Black Lotus’s hangars, and while we were in the middle of taking a short breather inside the break room, Mobius Ring’s Allen began to say such things.

“I’m not really familiar with that so-called typical mercenary behavior though.”

I’m not really a native of this dimension, so I didn’t really get the standards the folks here would consider ‘normal’. Of course, it’s not like I don’t study about their norms and customs, but I’m just too used to common sense I cultivated back on Earth, so I found some of the norms and values here pretty peculiar and just couldn’t get used to them.

“Uh, how should I put it? The typical mercenary we know makes a lot of money in one go, loses that money in one go as well after playing around without restraint, and would generally live a slovenly lifestyle as long as they had the money to spare.”

“That’s right. Compared to them, Hiro-sama is really diligent, or should I say, stoic.”

“Stoic huh……”

Uh, I do flirt around a lot with Mimi, Elma, and Mei, pig out on delicious food prepared by Tetsujin V every day, and buy stuff without restraint as long as they catch my eye though.

“To put it more straightforwardly, since you’re together with two ravishing beauties, we thought you were spending most of your time flirting around day in and day out without restraint.”

“You wanna get deducted points again?”

“No, no, I’m saying that’s how others would normally think as well! Right!?”

Nyaatoflix’s Nia turned to Fomalhaut Entertainment’s Zuia and Mobius Ring’s Allen to back up her claim, but the two just laughed dryly and didn’t make any comments. The two of them didn’t voice their agreement, but since they didn’t deny it as well, I guess that’s really what people from this world would normally think.

“Well, the point deduction was just a joke, so don’t worry. Anyway, is that how it is? If I acted like that, it would take me ages before I’m able to upgrade my ships. Also, my piloting sense would become dull and my skills won’t improve much.”

“That comment itself is a perfect example of being stoic.”

“For some reason, Hiro really doesn’t let up on his self-discipline, doesn’t he?”

“It won’t be good for my skills to get dull after all. I don’t wanna die, and I definitely don’t want my crew to die either. We’re risking our lives constantly, so it’s only natural to not cut any corners, right?”

Since I was shouldering the lives of Mimi and Elma as well, my responsibilities are quite heavy. If I mess up, my life isn’t the only one at stake.

“As a Gold Star awardee and Platinum-rank mercenary, you really have quite the different outlook huh.”

“But maybe I’m just too much of a workaholic. Alright then. After the break, we’ll launch out in Krishna immediately. We have to go back to patrol duty. Please proceed with the analysis data caches, Mei.”

“Yes. Please leave it to me.”

“Is there really no way to have more rocky developments?”

“What does routine patrol duty have to do with ‘rocky’ developments anyway?”

It’s been two hours since we left Comatt Prime’s port once more. We were able to perform our patrols without encountering any sort of trouble until now. At the behest of Earl Dareinwald, we were granted a bit of discretion when it comes to our activity range while within the Comatt system, but if we didn’t encounter stuff like pirates while acting within that range, our patrols would just resemble leisurely sightseeing drives. We literally rounded up all the perpetrators of the attack on that civilian ship in one fell swoop today, so I guess the rest of the pirates would be wary of acting up for a while.

“Ah, we’ve received an emergency message from the command center of the Comatt III defense forces.”

“Oops. A rocky development really came. It’s because you said some ominous stuff, Zuia.”

“Heck yeah!”

“Hey! Don’t just go celebrating on your own, you…… So, Mimi. What’s the contents of the message?”

“Um…… It seems the planetary colonies on Comatt III are being attacked by aggressive native lifeforms and all ships capable of air to surface attacks were being told to rush back to Comatt III to provide air support.”

“Air to surface bombardment……?”

I inadvertently let out a weird-sounding yelp when I heard the incomprehensible contents of the message.

Even though colonization has just barely started, it’s a bit strange to request for the forces deployed out in space to rush back just to deal with attacks from native lifeforms.

Well, they weren’t like the military, so they probably didn’t have too much firepower, but they should at least have possession of laser guns and rifles which are more powerful than guns that fired physical bullets. The planetary colony base should be equipped with laser turrets and multi-cannon turrets which would be more effective for base defense compared to energy shield generators and hand-held weapons.

Moreover, it’s strange that we were not informed that there were still such highly dangerous native lifeforms lurking around before the colonization project formally commenced. Investigations should have been conducted on-site before and after the terraforming process, and at this stage, harmful lifeforms should have already been long discovered and dealt with accordingly.

“That sounds kinda strange. Are you sure the message was from the Comatt III defense forces?”

“Um, there’s no mistake.”

“……Please confirm it with the command center of the defense forces. And just in case, confirm it with our client as well. Also, make sure to save the message on the ship logs.”

“Understood!”

Since we had Zuia onboard, it would be better not to mention Chris’s name directly. Well, even if we hide it, it seems they already suspected that we and Chris had a rather dubious relationship though.

“What are we going to do?”

“If it’s really from the command center of the defense forces, I just can’t ignore it. Mimi, tell Mei we’re heading to Comatt III.”

“Yes!”

Mimi really gets busy during situations like this. Well, since she can already effortlessly handle communication relay work, I guess Mimi has really become quite a seasoned ship operator. It appears it won’t be long before we need to revise her salary again.

“Set course for Comatt III.”

“Aye, aye, sir. The course has been set.”

Mimi’s hands were full with contacting the relevant parties, so I had Elma set the course for Comatt III instead. Since we were already navigating via FTL Drive, there was no need to restart the sequence again.

“What do you think though?”

“It’s quite suspect. Well, it’s not like something’s definitely up.”

It looks like Elma also found the air to surface bombardment request quite strange.

“Was it due to an oversight that caused drastic mutations during the terraforming process?”

Did the research team overlook the existence of dangerous lifeforms, or did the drastic changes in the environment caused by the terraforming process have a serious impact on the lifeforms that were judged to be harmless?

“Or perhaps, it’s a plot put into motion by a third party.”

“Yeah, that’s something to consider as well.”

This might possibly be an intentional obstruction caused by a third party. In other words, they might have dropped biological weapons with extremely high aggression on the planet and secretly propagated them. We certainly can’t discount such a possibility. If there were parties that wanted to prevent Earl Dareinwald from making any headway on this massive project, they might have employed such means.

They would tighten the noose on their necks if they were to get caught, but as long as nobody found out, it would serve as effective harassment. In any case, if the planetary colonies were to receive severe damage here, it would certainly affect the colonization project began by Earl Dareinwald negatively.

“Since it’s an SOS request that can’t be dealt with by the local forces……”

“There’s a good chance it’s the third-party theory huh.”

“Oh……”

“Like I said, don’t go rejoicing about rocky developments!”

“I don’t know what sort of threats we’ll face later on, but be sure to delete our earlier conversation from your records. That’s unless you guys want to involve yourselves in the secret conflicts between aristocrats.”

“Hahaha, of course. Flashy and tension-filled content is way better for us than those sorts of shady stuff after all. Though I believe those guys from Nyaatoflix would happily latch onto something like that though.”

Ah, yeah, they probably would. Nia does seem like she preferred these sorts of shady, murky developments.

Well, anyway, it looks like we’ll be fighting under the duress of gravity after quite some time. The opponents are harmful lifeforms, so they would only serve as target practice though. Oh well. I’ll have to be careful not to mess up and crash on the ground though.