Just by a Hair’s Breadth

With the arrival of the independent fleet helmed by Major Serena, the

chaotic battle came to a halt… Or at least, that was what we hoped

would happen.

"Aren't they fighting more fiercely than before?"

Yep. The enemies didn't stop. The battleship Krishna was sticking to

still kept trying to lose us, and the remaining small combat craft were

still trying to tear us off said battleship.

[I repeat! Immediately halt combat and depower your generators! Your

acts are severe enough to be court martialed by the military

disciplinary council! If you do not comply, we will be forced to bring

down your ships in accordance with article six, paragraph three of the

imperial military codex! Halt combat and depower your generators

now!]

Major Serena bellowed her orders through the comms once more. She

was obviously getting irritated, as evidenced by her voice. However, the

enemy ships just wouldn't stop. Or rather, they're completely ignoring

the Pelican IV and concentrating their fire on us. Their objective is as

plain as day.

"Will they stop?"

"I don't think so?"

"Is it really impossible?"

"Their objective is obviously me. I do not know just how my uncle was

able to enlist their services, it's evident that there's no more path of

retreat for them."

Chris calmly analyzed the situation. I couldn't let my concentration

break for even a moment, so I wasn't able to see her expression, but she

sounded rather down. I'm sure she was making a cute frustrated

expression. That uncle of hers was definitely a bona fide villain for

trying to kill such a cute and loveable girl. There's no doubt.

[Make sure to avoid damaging the Vuestor as much as possible. All

ships, weapons free!]

[... Roger. All ships, weapons free!]

A shrill alert rang out within Krishna's cockpit. At the same time,

several heat signatures were simultaneously released by all the

remaining combat craft and the two heavy cruisers.

What weapons free meant was to unleash every available weapon at

one's disposal in order to eliminate one's enemies. And that meant they

didn't care about involving the battleship in their attack and fired all

their weapons in order to bring Krishna down! Hahaha! You damn

bastards!

"Are these guys insane!?"

"Multiple missiles incoming!"

[All ships, weapons free! Bring down the rogue ships! Begin firing!]

Major Serena finally ran out of patience and ordered the independent

fleet to attack. Now that it's come to this, there's no point in using the

battleship as a shield anymore. They really were serious about not

caring if the battleship gets damaged. If we take on all of those shots,

we'd be toast. And Krishna would definitely get destroyed before the

battleship does.

"Nuuuuuoooooh! Dammit!"

"Kuh!"

"Hiuu!"

"Guuu!"

I disengaged from the battleship's rear and jumped straight through the

hail of lasers and missiles. I fired consecutive shots of the shot cannons

in order to clear out the seeker missiles heading our way. I then

plunged the ship inside the resulting explosion.

"Yeah! That went well!"

I used the resulting explosion as cover in order to disappear from the

enemy's sights and took that opportunity to break away. Elma also did

great by discharging all the remaining flares just as Krishna plunged

into the explosions of flames, causing even more seeker missiles to go

off. As expected of Elma. I'm really impressed.

But this doesn't mean we've escaped danger. We ended up right in the

sights of an enemy heavy cruiser instead. The enemy heavy cruiser's

main laser cannon charged up and prepared to fire at us.

"Chaaaff!"

"Roger!"

Krishna dispersed chaff in order to obstruct the lock of the enemy ship

as I made evasive maneuvers. However, since we were right in front of

the ship, we weren't able to avoid the entire brunt of the attack.

Another shrill alert rang out inside the cockpit, and Krishna's energy

shield began flickering weakly. Even Krishna's shields wouldn't be able

to bear a direct hit from a military heavy cruiser's main cannon.

"T-The shield!?"

"It's fine. It's nothing to panic about just yet."

"Y-You sure are calm, Hiro-sama."

As I calmed down the flustered Mimi, I managed to get around the

enemy heavy cruiser. But extremely powerful-looking crimson laser

rays were still persistently blasting away at Krishna from behind. The

enemy heavy cruiser must have changed bearings and turned around in

order to target us once more.

"Man. I'd had my fill of thrills today. Please don't add any more."

"Now I'm sure you're already a hopeless case, idiot."

"If we got hit by that just now..."

"It's okay. It's okay, I tell you. It's all according to plan."

I was lying through my teeth though.

If we took a hit from that earlier blast, Krishna would have been

damaged severely. It would probably manage to survive though.

Krishna's hull was military grade after all. And it's of the highest quality

to boot. It's insanely expensive though.

I actually experienced taking a direct hit from a heavy cruiser during

my time playing Stella Online. I wasn't able to evade in time, and it was

ugly.

"That was dangerous."

Before long, Krishna was able to escape the range of the heavy cruiser.

Of course, the other cruiser and combat craft were still hot on our tail,

and we were again chased by enemy fire.

But they exposed their flanks to Major Serena's fleet in order to target

us, so they took heavy damage from the independent fleet's support

fire.

"That was really close."

"We were right in the middle of the battle, so it couldn't be helped."

"If we ever took a direct hit, we would have been shot down."

Even if they were both using military models, the independent fleet had

more advanced ships, so they were able to successfully neutralize the

enemies one after another. One ship got its main engine blown right off,

one got its thrusters melted, and one had its upper deck, which housed

a majority of its weapons, damaged beyond repair.

The combat crafts and corvettes were all shot down, so the only

remaining ship that was combat capable was the battleship.

"Oh boy. It's finally over."

I was currently hiding at the blind spot of an enemy heavy cruiser that

had its propulsion systems destroyed. But there was still a danger of

the enemy detecting Krishna and firing its main cannon at us, so I was

being real careful about it.

"Um, do we still need to hide?"

"It's best not to take any unnecessary risks."

"That's right."

"Yes. Exactly."

I answered Mimi's question. Elma and Chris agreed with me as well. At

this point, me revealing Krishna's position would be a real stupid thing

to do. I'm sure they'd immediately shoot us down with their powerful

main cannon.

In any case, the ones who attacked us are probably members of the

imperial military, so I can't just carelessly attack them without

justification. The battle earlier was okay because it was an act of self

defense. And there were other members of the imperial military

present on the scene after all. One wrong move and we'd be in more

trouble than we bargained for. That's why I held off on using anti-ship

reactive torpedoes and avoided firing on the enemy cruisers. I only shot

down the small combat craft that came after us.

If Major Serena didn't make it, then I would have had no qualms with

exchanging fire with them, but I'm sure Krishna would have taken

considerable damage as a result. And the possibility of us getting shot

down wasn't zero as well. In fact, Krishna's shield nearly got saturated

and brought down during this battle.

[I repeat. Depower your generators. Further sacrifices are

meaningless.]

After a short silence, the remaining enemy ships finally depowered

their generators.

[This is the battleship Vuestor's first mate, Major Romando Kestrel. Our

ship has obeyed your command and depowered our generator.]

[Very well. What about the captain?]

[Our ship's captain, Colonel Eugen Herrassmith, has chosen to

voluntarily take his life, and I have taken over command.]

[... I see. Proceed with rescuing the survivors. Prepare to be boarded

as well.]

[Ma'am!]

Just what drove these proud imperial soldiers to desperately attack us

like that? Anyway, it looks like the situation has been resolved for the

time being. Major Serena's flagship, Restalias, has approached the rogue

flagship, Vuestor, and her men were now preparing to board it. Cruisers

assigned to the independent fleet also proceeded to approach the other

moored rogue cruisers. They will now proceed to assume control of the

rogue ships.

But voluntary suicide huh? What an unpleasant affair.

"So it's finally over...?"

"Probably. We still can't let our guard down though."

"That's right. There's still a risk of the enemy ships powering up again

and attacking us the moment we show ourselves. Let's watch the

situation for now and head back to the Pelican IV later."

After saying so, I leaned back on the pilot seat and reached out for the

gravity sphere floating beside me. I brought out the straw and took a

sip out of the non-carbonated cola inside the sphere. Man, having a

sweet drink right after an intense battle sure hits the spot.

Eh? Whatever happened to the carbonated drinks, you ask? They're all

stored inside the cargo hold. When I opened a bottle inside Krishna, the

contents burst out even if I didn't shake the bottle, resulting in

everyone (myself included) getting drenched. So the girls expressly

forbade me from opening any carbonated drink while onboard the ship.

Just why did it suddenly go off like that though? Is it due to the lack of

natural atmospheric pressure? Was there a problem with the artificial

gravity inside the ship? I have no idea.

"Are you alright, May?"

[Yes. There seems to be no problems with my functions. I did not

receive any damage.]

"Great. The battle's mostly over, but be prepared for the possibility of

unexpected tactical maneuvers until we get back to the Pelican IV."

[Understood.]

Now then, guess we'll just have to wait it out. At least, we'll wait until

Major Serena and her men finish taking control of the enemy ships.