Major Serena’s Invitation

We were quickly given permission to dock at the imperial military outpost

without much fuss. Maybe they've already done the necessary procedures

in advance, or maybe the officer in charge of the approval process took into

account our cargo of luxury goods. Or perhaps they just really wanted to get

their hands on the newly developed special shells by Space Dwerg Co. Ltd.

and proceed with live testing as soon as possible… Well, whatever the case

may be, we've successfully landed at our destination. It's great that we

didn't have to wait for a long time before we got permission to land.

"Man. We really have nothing to do right now huh."

"Yeah, you're right… Haaah."

I and Elma were idling inside Black Lotus' break room since we really were

quite free right now. Mimi and May went out of the ship in order to

complete the delivery request and set up shop for selling leisure goods we

brought with us. Thus, Elma and I were left idling about.

Oh, and the mechanic sisters were busy performing maintenance on the

ships. They had to check Krishna out since I pushed it a lot in the earlier

battle, and Black Lotus fired its weapons like crazy too, so they had to

check those out as well.

"Go ahead and sleep if you want to."

"Nn… Okay."

Elma moved next to me and leaned on my shoulder as she prepared to take

a nap. Uh, I did say you could take a nap, but you didn't have to use my

shoulder as a pillow y'know. Well, I guess this is fine too.

Soon after, I heard Elma's soft breathing as she drifted off to dreamland. I

then picked up my tablet terminal and started to gather intel. May already

put together a detailed report earlier, but it wouldn't hurt to do some info

gathering myself.

I first searched for info regarding the crystal lifeform activity in this sector.

It seems that this base has a history of being sporadically attacked by the

creatures ever since its inception. The attacks have been growing fiercer

recently, so the imperial military has been deploying more and more forces

to hold the fort. I tried to search for info about the spawn point of the crystal

lifeforms next, but it looks like they haven't managed to find it yet.

That's strange though. Usually, finding the spawn point is of the utmost

priority, so why haven't they found it by now? They usually nest in systems

with pulsars after all. It shouldn't be that hard to find it. I don't know the

exact details, but I've read that the crystal lifeforms make use of the

electromagnetic waves and x-rays emitted by pulsars as energy sources, and

then encroach and devour the surrounding planets in order to propagate.

In SOL, before they implemented the crystal lifeforms, they first released

several chain quests that required players to investigate the new and

mysterious enemy units. That's where I got the info. I was already a veteran

mercenary player at that time, so I participated in quite a few crystal

lifeform extermination quests, as well as rescue and retrieval quests in

systems encroached by them. A large part of the info about the crystal

lifeforms was gathered by the hardworking explorer players.

"I wonder if the investigation regarding crystal lifeforms is still ongoing in

this dimension, so they still ain't aware of this particular piece of info…?"

I sighed as I continued browsing my tablet terminal. It's quite possible,

actually. This dimension really resembles SOL, but it's not like they're

completely similar. My in-game knowledge won't always apply, so I have

to keep my wits about. The specialty products and needed goods of star

systems that specialize in certain industries as well as the general specs of

the ships are pretty much the same as what they were in the game.

However, there were also quite a few ship models I haven't encountered in

the game here, as well as other factors that were fairly different from what I

remember. For example, maidroids like May weren't present in the game at

all. In fact, as far as I know, there didn't seem to be highly advanced

independent AIs implemented in SOL at all. It's these factors that are real

headscratchers for me.

In any case, I decided to postpone investigating the mysteries of this

dimension for the time being and put up the star map of the Izrooks system

on the break room's large holo-display. Let's see here. Where are the pulsar

systems within Izrooks system located…? Over here huh. 'It's pretty

close… ' I murmured as I took note of the coordinates of the pulsar system.

While I was immersed in gathering info, the ringtone of my portable

terminal went off. I made sure not to disturb Elma as I checked out the

caller ID and tapped the screen to accept the call.

[Ara, you picked up real quick… Were you actually waiting for my call?]

"Nope."

I moved my portable terminal so that the smiling Major Serena would be

able to see Elma sleeping blissfully on my shoulder.

[… Are you showing off your harmonious relationship, perhaps?]

When I moved the terminal back, the smile was gone from Major Serena's

face.

"I don't have any such intention. I was quick in picking up the call because

I didn't want to wake her up and was busying myself gathering info using

my terminal. So, what is your business with me today, Major?"

[I shall be direct with you then. We have a new request for you.]

"Let me guess. Does it have something to do with fighting off the crystal

lifeforms?"

[I'm glad you're quick on the uptake. We want to employ you and your

ships to help us fight off the crystal lifeforms. As for how long, it would

probably be for about thirty days for now.]

"For now, huh… Hey, I have absolutely no plans of wasting my time here

and get gradually cornered by you, okay?"

[You have the right to refuse, of course. You're not part of the military after

all. You're a bold and free pro mercenary. It would be impossible for us to

restrain you and keep you here in the first place. We also have to consider

our relations with the Mercenary Guild.]

"I see. So, what about our reward?"

This was the most important point.

[The accounting department is going over it now. I cannot give an exact

figure, but you can expect a fairly large sum for your contributions this

time.]

"I see. Okay then. I'll give you my answer once the reward amount gets

decided and after I look up the particulars of the request."

I won't promise anything though. There are also things impossible for me to

do. For example, there's no way I would have been able to resolve the

earlier battle all by my lonesome. I'll be really troubled if they put too many

expectations on me. And furthermore, I've been entrusted with the lives of

Mimi, Elma, and the newly joined mechanic sisters. Thus, I can't just rashly

accept requests without taking the possible dangers into account.

[I thought you'd say that. Anyway, I just wanted you to know our intention

to employ you in advance. And since we're the ones greatly in need of

assistance this time, you can expect additional rewards apart from Enels.]

"What sort of other rewards, exactly?"

[We can allow you to procure military-grade weaponry from us. There are

certain limits, of course.]

"I admit, that's certainly tempting."

It was quite difficult to procure military-grade weapon systems even in SOL

after all. You'll only be able to obtain them by doing a ton of troublesome

quests for the military and raising your affinity points by a great amount.

Their performance and specs were, not just one, but two or more ranks

above weapons sold to the general public. It was deemed an utmost priority

for top ranking mercenary players to obtain their fair share of military-grade

weaponry.

With that factored in, Krishna was a very unique ship, since it had such

weapon systems at its disposal from the get-go.

[Isn't it? Please do consider our request.]

"Sure."

It's a really tempting offer, but I'm still not making any definite promises.

There's just something off with that perfect smile of yours, my dear major.

"Let's set aside the reward amount first. What exactly do you want me to do

anyway?"

[Basically, we want you to help in the investigation regarding the location

of the crystal lifeforms' nest. We will dispatch fleets for this operation, and

we want you to tag along with them as an escort while they survey and

investigate the surrounding star systems.]

"I see…"

Dispatching survey fleets to the surrounding systems huh… It looks like

they really don't know that crystal lifeforms build their nests in pulsar

systems huh. If they knew, they wouldn't be doing something this tedious.

Well, I can't say it's completely pointless though. Those guys often

consume the asteroid belts of the surrounding star systems once they've

stored up enough energy from pulsars after all. Cleaning up the crystal

lifeforms that are consuming the surrounding systems is fairly important

too.

But unless you find and destroy the Mother Crystal, it'll just be an unending

game of whack-a-mole.

[What's wrong?]

"No, it's nothing. It's just I've heard from somewhere that crystal lifeforms

often build nests in pulsar systems."

[… Is that info credible? What's your source?]

"I just said I've only heard of it from somewhere. I also don't remember

where exactly I heard of it."

They'd probably just think I'm crazy if I told them I leaned it through

playing a game in my home dimension. And besides, I'm also not sure if

that info still applied here, so it's not like I can vouch for its authenticity. I

can only act like this to not cause any undue suspicion.

[… My fleet is actually the one scheduled to go on a scouting mission

next.]

"Heee… Oh, right. What are you guys actually doing here anyway, major? I

believe your fleet is specialized in dealing with pirates, so why come here?"

[Our flagship, Restalias, is one of the newest state-of-the-art models

fielded by the military right now. It can both serve as the command center

and has firepower and speed above most of its peers in the cruiser class.

We've built a reputation of covering a lot of ground ever since our

inception, so the higher-ups also make use of our fleet to deliver military

supplies via long-distance warps from time to time.]

"So while you were in the middle of that, you got caught up in the mess

here, right?"

[It's outside of our original purpose, but serving here would lead to the

safety of the imperial citizens under our protection as well, and we can't

really abandon our comrades to face the threat alone either.]

"I see."

Man. Folks in the military sure had a lot on their plates as well. Major

Serena was apparently the daughter of a marquis, so that might have

factored in as well.

[And so, please take our request, okay?]

"I'll discuss it with my crew first and then get back to you."

C'mon. That bright smile just seems shady as all heck to me, Miss major.

Please just cut it out.