The Space Pirates

"Co-pilot, please provide me with an overall summary of these pirates, such as the number of battleships and their frequent locations."

"Those pirates usually appear between the N95 asteroid belt and the NF201 planet. They typically attack our cruise spaceships in groups of 5 to 10 battleships."

I calmly analyzed the situation and deduced that the pirates' habitation was somewhere between the asteroid belt and the NF201 planet. There are two possibilities for their dwelling place: either on the NF201 planet itself or on any other planet between the asteroid belt and the NF201 planet. The possibility of them residing in the asteroid belt can be excluded because the asteroids within it are completely chaotic and cannot accommodate the pirates for recuperation.

"Co-pilot, are there any identified dwarf planets between the orbits of the N95 asteroid belt and NF201 planet? Additionally, I would like information on terrorist organizations from the NF201 planet, including their backing and history of attacks."

I suspected that these pirates might have originated from either terrorist organizations on the NF201 planet or from habitable dwarf planets.

This simulation is remarkably realistic, presenting a completely different world with precise details and its history. The first time I played this simulation, I misunderstood that I was already dead and reincarnated in another world. That's why that fatty always immerses himself in this.

The co-pilot began summarizing information about terrorist organizations from the NF201 planet and their activities over the past 50 years. There were five terrorist organizations, with their primary goal being to disrupt the peace of a country or assist other nations in expanding their territories in the shadows. However, compared to the level of space pirating, I suspected they did not have enough backing. According to the simulation, the history of space pirating started more than two decades ago, while the level of terrorist activities over five decades on NF201 planet did not even reach one-tenth of space pirating. So, I finally excluded the possibility of some terrorist organizations being space pirates.

The co-pilot continued, "There are three dwarf planets near this belt. One is inside the orbit of the belt, and two are outside the belt. Research on one of the two dwarf planets concluded that it might be a suitable place for interstellar migration. However, the government has yet to take that step."

Now I have finally identified the possible origin of those space pirates; they are residing on a dwarf planet.

"Co-pilot, please share with me the details about those two dwarf planets, particularly the one that could accommodate human life."

I was around 80 percent sure that these space pirates were living there because these two planets are situated between the NF201 planet and the asteroid belt. I maintained a vigilant mentality against another dwarf planet other than the habitable one mentioned by the co-pilot.

"Captain, these are the photographs of those planets, DP-N0918 and DP-I16L. DP-I16L has the possibility of accommodating life. This planet is very close to the belt. The reason why the government is hesitating about migration is because we recorded some asteroids from the belt falling on the planet. Although the asteroids hitting the planet are not on a large scale, we cannot risk human lives. That's the reason for the government's hesitation."

A holographic screen was projected in front of me, displaying details of the planets and a video clip of asteroids hitting the DP-I16L planet.

Suddenly, a thought struck me.

"Co-pilot, kindly show the graphs of space pirate attacks over the period and asteroid falling frequency on DP-I16L over the same period."

"Yes, sure, Captain."

Two separate graphs were displayed on the screen. I rejoiced suddenly and jumped immediately because the frequency of asteroids falling on the DP-I16L planet exactly increased after every space pirate attack. This led to one conclusion: the enemy camouflaged themselves as asteroids and returned to the planet. The enemy is killing two birds with a single shot by wavering the government's decision over migration and using the planet to recuperate and develop before each attack.

Finally, I uncovered the mystery. Now the challenge is how to attack and destroy those pirates. Directly attacking them on the planet itself is like provoking a hornet's nest. As this is a simulation, I can't approach others for help. I pondered for a long time and organized the piloting skills in my mind. I concluded long ago that the simulation reduces pain and dizziness to a certain extent. So, for the past three times, when I entered the simulation, I did not focus on the given mission and instead worked on developing warship maneuvering skills.

During our free time working at the restaurant, Lucas and I would often watch space battles televised on TV. Miss Nancy, the manager, allowed us to do so after some despicable acting played by Lucas. Both of us caught glimpses of maneuvering techniques and were eager to try them out. So, the simulation became our place to experiment. In the last two simulations, I traveled rapidly against the flow of asteroids, dodging them skillfully. We both trained in the same way. My last record lasted around 3.15 hours in the asteroid belt. Lucas, being a bit more talented in this aspect, lasted more than 4 hours and boasted in front of me every day for over a week. However, that was a year ago. We eagerly waited for this year to see how much we had improved. Despite having no ground to practice and apply our skills, we dedicated our time over the year to develop our maneuvering skills and discussed piloting the spaceship. Without citizenship, it was challenging for us to afford a simulation pod, and even with citizenship, the cost was astronomical. So, the space war simulation became the most anticipated part of the eve of Peturia.

After pondering for a moment, I asked for videos of the previous space pirate fights.

I discerned some aspects of pirate fights, realizing that although it looked like real life, it was always a simulation. Once I found similarities in certain events, I could control the entire battle. I eagerly checked every clip.

"Yes, some systems are being implemented on the pirate crew."

Typically, the pirate crew consists of 5 to 10 battleships. According to the data, the unique battleships recorded over the past were around 45. So, I could safely conclude that I needed to destroy around 50 to 60 battleships to eliminate the complete space pirates. The mission this time was not difficult, only instructing us to defeat the encountered pirate crew. However, I was not satisfied with that. I planned on destroying the entire pirate organization.

As per my findings, each battleship crew would be operated by a commanding spaceship, and the remaining spaceships would follow its orders. The commanding spaceship was usually large, with high defense, and well-equipped, making it hard to destroy. However, with some effort, we could shoot down the other spaceships. Destroying the spaceships would not summon another group of pirate crew, but leaving the commanding ship alone would. This made the game challenging, and participants would give them all to destroy the mothership first so it could not summon another group when alone. After destroying the mothership, it became easier to destroy the other spaceships. However, as the mothership had a strong defense, this simulation had a very low passing rate. If we could pass the game, we would receive rewards in the real world.

Clearing the given mission itself is very challenging, while the difficulty level of destroying the entire pirate organization is unimaginable. Nevertheless, I wanted to give it a try. I am very confident in our self-developed maneuvering skills, so I plan to test them for some time before initiating my mission. I piloted my spaceship toward the asteroid belt, activated my defense, and started maneuvering against the flow of asteroids. I calculated the amount of energy being spent on this training and ensured that the remaining energy was sufficient for engaging in a fight with pirates. The best aspect of the simulation is that I can replenish my spaceship's energy level after destroying each pirate ship, so I am not overly concerned about the energy I am going to expend.

Asteroids constantly swarmed my ship from all sides, requiring me to increase and decrease the speed of my spaceship. Problems with smaller asteroids, below the size of a bowling ball, could be easily avoided considering the tenacity of the protective barrier, as long as I maintained the speed of my ship below 200 miles per second. I made sure the ship never exceeded this threshold to keep myself adjusted. Now, I wanted to try our new move for controlling the battleship, the butterfly combat. If I were to try this combat technique with a real battleship, I wouldn't know if there were any humans capable of bearing the G-Force produced by the moves I was going to perform. However, in the simulated world, it wouldn't be a problem at all.

For the past hour, I had almost mastered all the basic controls of spaceship piloting. There were a total of eight thrusters available in the spacecraft—two beneath the hand-like structure beneath the cockpit, four attached to the wings, and two at the vertical stabilizer at the tail of the warship. The thrusters at the tail could be rotated freely, and the other thrusters provided us with 180 degrees of movement. To produce a complicated movement, we needed to master control over all of these. For the past hour, I had been doing just that—adjusting the warship and dodging asteroids. Finally, I gained some knack for this.

My spaceship controls were designed only to clear the mission and provided me with simple control, resembling a joystick with an additional control stick and pedal. I could customize the control of various parts of the spaceship with this setup. However, even with these options, the available controls were still not enough to control the spaceship freely. So, I started associating combinations of keys with various functionalities of the ship and familiarized myself with them for a long time. Now it was time to test out our self-created skill.