I Failed to Take Down the Flag

"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 smalltypes 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.