【ISCX-317 Antlion】

"I see."

The offer presented to us was about 12 million Enels. For a medium class ship, the price was rather reasonable. In fact, it could be

considered to be fairly cheap.

"This is the price of the base model, right?"

"Indeed. It's what you mercenaries call a [Base] or [Vanilla]

variant."

In other words, customizing the ship will incur additional fees. The socalled [Base] or [Vanilla] variant was the standard unmodified

ship model offered by ship makers. Usually, buyers would replace the

stock generators with more powerful ones, replace or add shields,

armor, and armaments, as well as arrange stuff like the life support

system, medical pods, and other interior amenities. Replacing the

power generator and armor was particularly expensive.

"Even so, the generator provided is a high-output military-grade

product, and both the Gravity Jammers and capacitors are exclusive

equipment, so I think this is still a good deal."

"Right… Especially that generator. According to this, it has higher

performance than most other high-output generators on the market…

Or rather, isn't this actually the latest type developed for use by military

corvettes?"

"That is indeed the case. Furthermore, Captain Hiro has been allowed

permission to purchase and sell military equipment, so we will have no

trouble providing him with those."

"I've been given permission to purchase and sell military equipment?

Well, I suppose it ain't that much of a surprise."

Perhaps the license came included with the Gold Star award. Or maybe

Lt. Col. Serena pulled some strings when I said I wanted to purchase

military combat bots back then? Either way, I'm glad I'll be able to freely

purchase military equipment from now on.

Usually, military-grade equipment had higher performance specs

compared to similar products out on the market. And even if the

performance was more or less similar, they were still generally more

reliable in the long run. However, they do tend to make use of older

model equipment often, so there's a tendency to draw a losing hand

from time to time. I gotta remember to pay attention when dealing with

them.

If I went all giddy and recklessly purchased military equipment, I might

suddenly end up with decades-old tech. Well, they might be old, but

they were tough and reliable, so there's that too.

"We can prepare genuine imperial military equipment for you, sir.

Armor, weapons. You name it, we'll provide it."

"Wow, you sure have some serious connections."

"It's Ideal after all."

The mechanic sisters displayed bitter smiles. Ideal Starway was the

empire's premier ship-maker and was the wholesaler of many ships

used by the imperial military. It goes without saying that they had solid

connections with armor, weapons, and other gear manufacturers as

well. They probably had direct lines to the bosses of said companies.

"Alright then, shall we purchase as much as our budget can afford?"

"Fine with me, but are you sure we can earn back the expense?"

"You'd have better chances of survival in battle if you have good

equipment. That in itself is already profitable."

"Is that so…? Well, I suppose you're right."

You'd get to save more in the long run if you purchased a highperformance starship with high survivability rather than using a cheap

ship that gets wrecked every time. And Elma's ship getting shot down

because we tried to save money is definitely a no-go. Getting shot down

after doing one's very best was one thing, but I'll regret it for the rest of

my life if I lost Elma just because I was too stingy.

"By the way, what's the name of the ship?"

"Its development code is[ISCX-317 Antlion]."

"Antlion… An antlion huh. Makes sense."

"Oh, you're familiar with the creature?"

Mr. Autumn displayed a surprised expression after seeing my reaction.

Of course, I knew a thing or two about antlions. Why is he so…? Oh,

right. People who were born and raised in colonies usually weren't

familiar with bugs, and even among those born in planetary colonies,

there weren't many who knew about them. That's because the

biodiversity on terraformed planets was pretty limited. In the first

place, I'm not sure how known the antlion was in this world, but

judging from Mr. Autumn's reaction, I guess it's pretty rare.

"It's an insect that creates a funnel-shaped hole on the ground to trap

and eat other insects. Well, its appearance isn't all that pretty to look at,

but it does look graceful in a sense when it emerges and flies off."

But I don't really remember the antlion being all that good at flying

though. Was I overdoing it?

"You really are quite familiar with it. Do you perhaps have an interest in

biological sciences?"

"I just happened to know a thing or two about it. So, the Antlion huh.

The name doesn't sound bad at all. What do you think, guys?"

"Let's see. Sure, we can keep the name Antlion for the ship. What are we

gonna get for the armaments, assuming the armor and thrusters will be

the highest military-grade level?"

"Isn't the loadout of two seeker missile pods, two Class II laser cannons,

and one Class III laser cannon fine already?"

"It's a pretty stable loadout."

The combination of powerful military-grade Class III and Class II lasers

and seeker missile pods capable of wide-area suppression and covering

fire was pretty solid.

"I don't think it's necessary to deliberately choose uncommon

equipment just because."

"That does sound pretty convincing, especially since we have Hiro here

who's a perfect example. I mean, shard cannons and anti-ship reaction

torpedoes? Talk about over the top."

"I'll have you know that my final loadout was the result of extensive

research and planning to achieve the most suitable equipment

combination for my ship."

Elma just shrugged her shoulders in response. Shard cannons that had

a short effective range but raw punching power and anti-ship reactive

torpedoes which were relatively slow, making it hard to get hits with

them, were loaded on Krishna mainly due to the characteristics of the

ship itself. While you definitely could choose to replace the shotcannons with medium-caliber laser cannons and the torpedo tubes

with seeker missile pods, that would drastically reduce Krishna's

effectiveness against large-class ships. The four heavy laser cannons

were more than enough to deal with most small and medium-class

ships.

"Well, if we find that this standard loadout configuration isn't that

effective later, we can always just customize it again. Anyway, the design

concept of this starship isn't particularly geared toward high-speed

combat in the first place."

"If anything, it's more of a combat support ship. It's not a ship meant to

zip around the frontlines and fight directly, so it's not necessary to be so

particular about its firepower, right?"

"Mm. But I think it's better to equip a Class III slot with a more highpowered weapon instead of a standard laser cannon because of the

large-capacity capacitors. Something that would allow it to deal with

other medium-class ships from long range. Doing so will increase its

combat effectiveness significantly. How about it?"

"Yeah, that's certainly a good idea."

Elma's suggestion was pretty good. The only way to quickly bring down

a medium-class ship with Krishna's equipment was to hit them with the

shot-cannons or an anti-ship reactive torpedo, and both of those

methods can be regarded as overkill, especially the torpedo. Black

Lotus' firepower allows it to easily bring down medium-sized ships, but

it's mostly up to luck whether or not those ships would end up within

its range in the first place. Not to mention shooting them with the EML

was still overkill. So it would be really useful to give the new ship

enough means to bring down other medium-class ships from a

reasonable distance.

"Two seeker missile pods and two military-grade Class II high-power

laser cannons are sufficient for defense against small-class ships. I'm

thinking of equipping it with a plasma cannon. What do you think,

Hiro?"

"A plasma cannon's not bad, but can you really get consistent hits with

that thing?"

The plasma cannon certainly packed a powerful punch, but its

projectile speed was relatively slow, making it hard to hit stuff with it.

Even sufficiently mobile medium-class ships would be a challenge, and

only large-class ships were somewhat easier targets. As for small-class

ships, it would be nigh impossible to hit them unless you get superclose and personal.

"I can always practice. On the other hand, if you want it to specialize in

dealing with small-class ships, I think a laser beam emitter would be

nice."

"That thing certainly has range and is hard to avoid, but both energy

and heat management will be troublesome…"

"Well, I don't mind it. I used it in the Swan too."

The laser beam emitter is a type of laser cannon that's commonly

known in SOL as the 'gerobi' (vomit beam). Generally, most laser

cannons are a type of pulse laser cannon which irradiates targets with a

powerful light beam in short bursts, causing the target's surface to

spontaneously evaporate, leading to explosions and major damage.

That's how the weapon works. At least, that's the way I understand how

they worked. Different explanations might be offered if I asked either

the mechanic sisters or Mei.

Compared to the pulse laser, the laser beam emitter irradiates targets

with a continuous stream of lower intensity laser that leads to burning,

melting, and in some cases, completely liquefying them.

When it comes to plain firepower, a standard pulse laser cannon

trumps over it, but the troublesome point of the laser beam emitter was

that energy shields can't completely defend against them. I'm not clear

about the exact theory behind it, but in SOL, about 30% of the attack

output goes through the shields and directly damages the armor and

hull.

This was a very troublesome yet convenient characteristic that allowed

it to deliver fatal damage to fast but thinly armored targets. It was

extremely difficult to avoid since the beam shoots out at light speed,

and scenes of ships getting done in by gerobi from range were not a

rare sight back in SOL. It also made short work of pirate ships which

had abysmally weak energy shields and thin armor. It's also suited for

intercepting relatively slower flying projectiles such as seeker missiles

and torpedoes – though I'm not sure if those can really be regarded as

'flying' out in space.

On the flip side, it's weak against ships with strong defenses against

heat and lasers. It was weak to the point of nonrelevance. The

opponents would go 'The heck's up with that peashooter, man?' and

proceed to kick your behind for a counter kill. It's no exaggeration to

say that it would be almost utterly useless against ships similar to the

Lotus.

"It's up to anti-ship reactive torpedoes and the EML of Black Lotus to

deal with big targets, so you want to deal with the small fry huh…?"

"I think it's also enough to deal with medium-class targets from long

range. Small ships would be instantly roasted. The life support systems

and fire extinguishing equipment of pirate ships are really poor, so

they'd be incapacitated immediately if I roast them a bit."

"If so, then how about getting a high-powered laser beam emitter used

by imperial battleships for weapon interception? It's compatible with

standard hardpoints, so it can also be equipped on the Antlion."

Mr. Autumn started promoting one of his wares again. The specs do

look good, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to get one. With that in mind, we

proceeded with the price negotiations, including armor and thruster

upgrades.