Empty Shell

After the sortie order was issued, the combined fleet split into the star

system blockade fleet and assault fleet and immediately commenced

the operation afterward. After arriving at the Shinoskia system, which

was right next to the Refill system, we headed straight for the space

pirate base together with the assault fleet.

"How do you think things are gonna go down this time?"

"I wonder. We probably won't encounter much resistance, I think."

"Is that so? They should have gotten some info regarding our

movements in the Refill system, so shouldn't they have made some

preparations?"

"I think we'll probably encounter a near-empty shell of a base though.

What about you, Elma?"

I answered Mimi who cocked her head to the side in puzzlement and

turned to Elma. She mulled over the question for a bit and opened her

mouth to answer.

"I don't think it'll be completely abandoned, but I do agree that we'll

probably encounter little resistance."

"So Elma-san and Hiro-sama both think it would be like that huh."

"No matter how many people and ships the Red Flag pirates have at

their disposal, they won't be enough to deal with a well-equipped

military fleet. If I were them and knew an attack was coming, I'd hurry

up and gather all the supplies I can before making my escape."

"I see. So that means we'll be in for an easier time today, right?"

"That would still depend. Again, if I were in place of the pirates, I

wouldn't escape before leaving some nasty stuff to harass the enemies

first."

"Harassing us?"

"For example, once the military rushes inside the base, I'd set it so a

self-destruct sequence would get triggered, or scatter some proximity

mines in spots where the enemy fleet would likely stop to organize its

formation. Well, I think it's more likely for us to encounter stuff like

those in the subsequent target star systems though."

"Right. Even if they decide to do those, they'll have to prepare the

manpower and materials needed. They're probably gonna use some

ready-to-use harassment methods this time around."

"Ready-to-use harassment methods?"

"Mimi, there's a ton of illegal stuff inside a pirate base. Some of them

are of the extremely dangerous kind."

"Uh, I have a bad feeling about this."

"Singing Crystals are pretty damn rare so I don't think they'll have some

in stock, but you never know..."

I pity the vanguard ships that are gonna rush right in. Normal BC

weapons are cute, but some among them are more than dangerous

enough. There are a lot of those types of weapons even in SOL, and I'm

sure there are far more dangerous things in this dimension too.

What kind of dangerous stuff exactly, you ask? Well, things like energy

creatures that parasitize the corpses of humans and other lifeforms

with intelligence, remodel their bodies and turn them into grotesque

monstrosities for one. Those pale blue things can replicate the feats of

movie zombies since they multiply by killing lifeforms and parasitizing

their bodies. Perhaps they were implemented in SOL as a homage to a

certain older game of that particular genre, but due to the shitty

difficulty, the players completely gave up on taking them on in melee

combat and instead chose to blow up the infested large-class mining

ship that served as the stage for that particular event.

There are more examples like highly lethal space spiders, murderous

aliens with body fluids corrosive enough to melt starship armor and

hulls, etcetera... Oh, and regular zombies were present too. But as one

would expect, the players dealt with those by using laser weapons and

power armor with high physical and biochemical defense capabilities.

"They'll most likely use biological weapons. The worst thing they can

use are victims who are loaded with booby traps."

"Victims?"

"They'll set up bombs, poisonous gas, and even more dangerous stuff

inside people who have been turned into their 'products' after getting

abducted. Then when those guys get rescued, the pirates will trigger

the traps and kill the victims along with whoever was near them."

After saying so, Elma shrugged.

"That's nasty... But they're pirates after all."

Anything goes for those guys. They aren't gonna get held back by things

like reason or ethics.

"The marines are going to have a hard time, aren't they?"

"Yeah. That's why no matter what Lt. Col. Serena says, I ain't

participating in a melee operation again."

Aside from their ships, you never know what sort of surprises would

pop up in your face once you're inside the pirate base. No matter what,

I'm not gonna join the raiding team. Well, most of the time, things end

with only some biological weapons being unleashed though.

–Approximately two hours later–

"There goes some dirty fireworks again..."

"It's really like what we thought earlier."

"Uwaa."

The main cockpit screen displayed footage of the pirate base being

destroyed by intense explosions and flames.

Yep, it was exactly like we expected.

The space battle was swiftly wrapped up with our forces overwhelming

the enemy. Most of the pirate ships have already escaped, and only the

anti-spacecraft cannons installed around the base gave us a bit of

trouble. There was no need for small and medium-class ships to

participate since the bombardment from the large-class ships was

enough to get rid of all resistance.

The problems began when the marines rushed inside the base. They

really seemed to have administered a drug or virus that turned their

'products' into irrational monsters.

The imperial space marine corps quickly encountered mutated

biological weapons made out of humans and other sentient species

when they rushed inside the base. After about an hour of fighting, Lt.

Col. Serena chose to make all troops withdraw and completely

destroyed the base through long-range artillery bombardment. It looks

like she came to such a decision since she didn't want to meaninglessly

expend troops in a battle with little to nothing to gain.

Well, since they could afford to set up such traps, I'm sure they would

have thoroughly destroyed the equipment which stores critical data

along the way as well. And that's why Lt. Col. Serena had the marines

pull back. I also think it was the right call.

As a result, the current impromptu stationary target practice session

was conducted. The sight of a large asteroid remodeled into a pirate

base exploding flashily while emitting dazzling brilliance under the

intense barrage of large-caliber laser cannon fire was quite spectacular.

"That's one flashy explosion. Did they manage to hit the oxygen tanks or

ammo depot?"

"Is that actually alright? The nasty stuff inside would get scattered all

over the place."

"Is there any biological weapon that can still infect stuff after getting

exposed to laser cannon fire and scattered into outer space?"

"Dunno? And even if there is, it would be impossible for that stuff to

breach the hulls of ships since it would get blocked out by energy

shields. Won't it get completely wiped out once it hits an energy shield

set to cruise output?"

"Now that you mention it, I guess that's true."

If you accidentally get in contact with a ship's energy shield while it's

set to security output when the ship is moored inside a starport or

something, you can only get numbed a bit if you're lucky and suffer

burn injuries at worst. But if you get in contact with the energy shield

while it's cruising in outer space, you'd be vaporized. The only

exceptions are crystal lifeforms and other creatures that are capable of

space navigation. Oh, and Mei can possibly survive getting in contact

with it once too. But her clothes, artificial skin, and hair would probably

all get burned away.

"But this time's a bust huh."

"Since there were only a few pirate ships, we couldn't earn that much

kill rewards and bounties."

"Well, at least we'll still get our daily salary. It's not that bad. We just

have to think of it as earning while doing nothing, right?"

"That's true, but..."

"Are you worried about something?"

"I'm worried about what's waiting for us in the next star system. Even if

the opponents are pirates, those guys aren't stupid. I'm sure they'll have

something in store for us. They wouldn't want to just keep getting

underestimated and beaten up after all."

"I see. That's true."

The question is what sort of stuff the pirates are gonna use to welcome

us. It wouldn't be strange if they used a method that's usually not

implemented in a battle between regular troops.

"How would you deal with us if you were in the pirate's shoes, Hirosama?"

"I'd immediately escape, but if I only did that, my pirate associates

might think I was just a coward who ran with his tail between his legs.

Even if that was the best move possible, I'd have to take into account

how it would affect my position in a large pirate organization like the

Red Flags. And that's why I have to at least leave a nasty surprise for the

military..."

Even so, there's no chance that the Red Flags can take the military in a

head-on clash. So some underhanded means were a must.

"I'd use a Singing Crystal and destroy it in the middle of the enemy

forces like what we did against the Vereverem fleet if I were them, but

it's not like those things are easily available."

"That's an option, but unless you can destroy it in the middle of an

enemy fleet, that thing is practically meaningless. Using something like

that is too difficult unless the pirates have a pilot capable of flying

straight inside an enemy formation just like you, Hiro."

"That's true. How about the mine trap Hiro-sama mentioned earlier?"

"They might use proximity mines equipped with reaction charges to

deal damage to the fleet. They might also use seeker missiles equipped

with reaction warheads for an all-out saturation attack."

Reaction warhead tech was already quite mature after all. The

manufacturing methods have long since spread everywhere, and as

long as you had the proper tech standards, know-how, materials, and

tools, it was pretty easy to produce them en masse.

But it seems that as a countermeasure, most of the essential materials

used for their production weren't that easy to obtain due to several

sanctions limiting their distribution in the market. But pirates can

probably obtain them easier through illegal means anyway. If one really

had the mind to do it, it's very possible to mass-produce reaction

warheads akin to the most manufactured assault rifle that's used in

almost all conflict zones on Earth.

Even if that's the case, space pirates still don't favor using reaction

warheads. That's because, with their power, they'd blow away the

pirate's prey entirely along with all the loot. It's also the reason why I

don't usually use reactive torpedoes when taking on pirates.

However, there's a good chance the pirates would not hesitate to use

them once they get cornered by a powerful enemy – like the imperial

military for example. When it comes to that there's a real risk of getting

showered with missiles sporting powerful reaction warheads. There's

nothing scarier than that.

"Well, I don't think the imperial military will allow the wanton mass

production or procurement of reaction warheads under their watch

anyway. I don't think we'll face an attack of that magnitude."

Of course, if such a wanton attack was truly employed, the imperial

military will likely use all means to completely annihilate the Red Flag

pirates. And they wouldn't be just facing a hastily cobbled up combined

fleet just like the one employed by Lt. Col. Serena here at that point.

They'd be going against the full might of the imperial military. Once that

happens, there's no way for the Red Flag pirates to escape annihilation.

It's possible that they'd hang the leader's heads on display as an

example to the other space pirate organizations. Of course, that's only

figuratively speaking. On second thought, they might really do

something like that. It's the Graccan empire after all.

"Anyway, even if we had it easy this time, we'll have to be on our guard

in the next system. Let's just hope they don't go up against Lt. Col.

Serena with a method that would make the empire get serious. I'm sure

she's also taken that into account and is trying not to provoke the

enemy to such an extent."

"Yeah. And it's not like all pirates are stupid."

"Normally, they only seem like dudes with crazy mohawks going all

'Yahaa!' and stuff though."

"Yeah. Those guys are easy marks... But, well, I'm sure that there are

at least some pirates with brains in a large pirate organization. If there

are none, then it's next to impossible to run a large-scale space pirate

organization after all."

"Is that the case?"

"Yeah, that's how it is. Anyway, just don't let your guard down later on

guys."

Unlike SOL, the space pirates here were living, breathing, and

intelligent... Uh, I'm not so sure about the 'intelligent' part, but they're

living, breathing people anyway. They might have set up some nasty

traps for us to fall into, so there's a need for caution. At least, we should

try to personally not get caught up in them and die in the process.