Chapter 3: Pursuers

Chapter 3:
Pursuers

 

THE NEXT DAY…

“Delicious!” First thing in the morning, Lady Christina here chomped into something like a hamburger.

Last night, we had the Steel Chef 5 make us some imitation hot dogs and pizza. Chris wasn’t intimately familiar with the junk food creations of the automatic cooker and had been taken prisoner by their charms. According to her, eating such rich foods made her feel naughty. The automatic cooker made food that tasted almost exactly like the junk food I was used to, but it was all nutritious, so it wasn’t actually bad for you. Truly the food of dreams.

“Are you sure about this?” Elma looked at me. “I don’t want her grandpa getting mad at us.”

“There’s nothing wrong with learning what kind of foods the masses eat.”

“We’re the masses?” Mimi said. “This ship does have a high-performance cooker, after all…”

The cooker we had before the Steel Chef definitely wasn’t bad by any means, but it was one or two…nah, three levels below the Steel Chef in terms of taste. The Steel Chef 5’s creations couldn’t be called those of the common masses.

We should have her try out the not-so-great food from a normal cooker some time. Maybe some of that gross stuff from Arein too.

Apparently, there were weirdos out there who would just open up their food cartridges and eat the contents as they were. According to them, the best-tasting ones were aged somewhere between one and two years. I didn’t get it.

But I digress.

So how did Chris sleep last night? Any nightmares or anything? I asked Mimi, texting while I ate.

She’s had no issues so far. She slept like a log. I guess she must have been tired.

Really? Good to hear. I was worried she’d have nightmares or flashbacks about the attack. It was the first night, though, so who knew what might happen.

“What should we do today, girls?”

“We don’t have anything to do other than ship maintenance.” Elma shrugged. “It’s too dangerous to go out, and we don’t know what they might try to do to our supplies if we leave the ship.”

“Is it that easy to tamper with the colony’s shipping system?” Mimi asked. It was a good question.

“I don’t think it’s easy, but they could put reactive explosives or something in our luggage, and then, bam, we’re dead.”

“It wouldn’t matter from the outside, but even the Krishna can’t stand up to explosions on the inside.”

Reactive explosives were seriously dangerous weapons. They were like the reactive warheads installed in the Krishna, but smaller and easy to carry. They were strong enough to destroy half a colony, so it was technically illegal for anyone but the military to have them. And yet, Elma was confident they could be used against us.

“Would they go that far…?” Mimi seemed unconvinced, and I understood why. Chris had come aboard just yesterday, so it was hard to imagine that her uncle would have such plans in place already.

“They tailed Elma yesterday,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, they’re quick to move,” Elma agreed. “Err on the side of caution, I say.”

“Oh… True,” Mimi said. “We shouldn’t be careless.”

“My survival alone will ruin my uncle,” Chris added. “I believe we should act with the worst-case scenario in mind.” After finishing her hamburger, Chris dabbed at her mouth daintily with a napkin. You could really see her upbringing in how she ate. I would wipe my lips if I got food on them too, but with a lot less grace.

“Won’t they get suspicious if we do nothing at all?” I asked.

“Don’t worry about that,” Elma said. “They know Chris has told us about what happened, and they expect us to be on guard. It’ll look more natural if we stay inside like good little idiots.”

“Can’t argue with that.” The moment we learned about the whole situation with Chris’s uncle, we became his targets too. It would be natural to be scared motionless.

Chris’s face clouded over. “I’m sorry for getting you all wrapped up in this.”

“Seriously, don’t worry! This guy here can’t let girls like you go, anyway. It’s pretty much… Yeah, it’s fate that this would happen.” Elma smacked me with a playful blow.

It was just beyond me to abandon cute girls in need. Keeping that policy might lead to a lot of trouble in the future, but I wanted to do what I could. And hey, maybe I’d get close to some cuties along the way. I loved Mimi and Elma, and I planned to take responsibility for as much as possible, but they were a separate matter. You never knew when you might die or end up in another world, so it was my policy to enjoy what I could, transitory or not.

I had also worked secretly with the mercenary guild to make sure that if I died or disappeared, ownership of the Krishna and my belongings would go to Mimi.

And Elma? She hadn’t cut ties with her family or their connections, and if I died or disappeared, she could just stay on the Krishna with Mimi. Those two would manage together, so I hadn’t done anything special for her. Mimi was all alone in the world and would need a home.

“Hm?” Mimi raised an eyebrow as I stared at her.

I shook my head to tell her it was nothing. “So basically, we’re free today,” I mused.

“Hmm… Should we hunt pirates?” Mimi asked.

“I wonder…”

If we went pirate hunting with the count’s granddaughter on board, would her uncle take the opportunity to attack us? That might expose our combat techniques too. It’s nice to see Mimi getting used to the mercenary lifestyle, though. Why else would she suggest hunting just because we’re bored?

“Not a bad idea,” Elma said, “but we don’t want the enemy seeing our tricks. Let’s just keep our heads down. At times like this, we should stay calm and ready.” She pulled a beer out of the fridge.

Hey! “Really?” I sighed. “You just woke up.”

“We can’t go out, so what’s wrong with having a drink? Put up the shields, and nobody will bother us.”

“Yeah, I guess, but…” I pulled one of my non-carbonated sodas out of the fridge. I got one for Chris too. Mimi didn’t like it, so I didn’t push it on her. “Chris, if you’re gonna have burgers, hot dogs, and pizza, then you’ve gotta have soda with it.”

“Is that true?” Chris opened the bottle excitedly, raised it with both hands, and began to drink it down. “It smells like medicine…but it’s quite sweet.”

“Right? It goes perfect with burgers. Try it out during lunch.”

“Okay!”

“Hiro…” Elma groaned. “First junk food, and now your weird drink? Stop giving Chris all that stuff—the count’s gonna get mad.”

“If you want to talk about teaching her the wrong stuff, then how about you stop drinking beer in the morning? C’mon, have some sense.”

Elma locked eyes with me.

What? You wanna go? I can’t beat you in a fight, so let’s not, please. I raised both hands in surrender. Some might have seen it as pitiful, but Elma’s joint locks hurt, even if there was no lasting effect or wound. She was practically an expert in it. What a rude gal.

Chris giggled. “You two get along so well.”

“They do! Sometimes I get jealous.”

“Don’t you get along with him too, Mimi?”

“Erm, eh heh heh… Yes, I do.” She pressed her hands to her cheeks and smiled bashfully.

Ha ha! Mimi, you’re too cute.

“Hiro isn’t nice to me, and he never holds back,” Elma complained. “Be nice to me like you are to Mimi!”

“You’d hate it if I treated you like I do her.”

“Nuh-uh… That’s not true.”

“If you were as sweet in bed, I’d totally think about it.”

“Gah?! Wha—?! D-don’t say that in front of Chris!” Elma blushed furiously.

Aww, what’s wrong? Already tipsy?

“Th-this is quite the adult conversation…” Chris chimed in.

“A-ah ha ha…” Mimi laughed nervously.

Nah, just your usual pervy teasing. It’s fun to prod Elma—until she gets really mad, anyway.

We spent a second calm day caring for Chris. Although, considering we had the shields up, it would be a huge problem if things weren’t calm.

Chris and Mimi spent most of the day chatting in their room, and at dinner, they were both glancing at me, red-faced. No way. Mimi, you’re not telling her about what we do at night, are you? Although there’s nothing I can do about it if you are. I’m never going to touch Chris, and I’ve told the girls as much. And she won’t try anything with me. She’s a child. I acted as though I’d seen nothing, exercised, took a bath, and went to bed. Tomorrow was shaping up to be a big day.

 

***

 

Hi! Good morning. It’s me, Hiro. The Hiro who, for the first time, locked his door before going to bed last night. The very same Hiro who, upon checking the door’s access log in the morning, shuddered to find two entries in the middle of the night. What had happened? Who could it have been?

Still shaking, I went to the cafeteria to find Elma in a strange mood and the other two hiding their faces, as if they didn’t want me to see them. When they all made eye contact with me, there was an uncomfortable silence.

“Let’s just have a nice, calm talk,” I began. “First off, I’m not going to do anything to Chris. Hell, I can’t. That would be an awful thing for a bodyguard to do, and I don’t wanna get in trouble with the nobility. If I were Chris’s grandfather and I found out some crappy mercenary was taking advantage of my granddaughter, I’d kill him.”

Mimi and Chris averted their eyes.

“And Elma, I locked the door last night because I thought something might happen. I wasn’t trying to lock you out.”

“Okay, no harm done.” Elma’s displeasure melted away, and she smiled at me.

“So anyway, uh…” I stammered. “Since Chris is here, we should probably avoid doing stuff.”

“We don’t have to be that considerate.”

I turned to Chris. “Would it bother you at all?” She shook her head, face red. What? Doesn’t it bother you? That doesn’t sound right. What’s gotten into all of you girls?

“I just feel rather left out is all,” Chris said.

“Don’t say that, ugh. It literally cannot happen, and I already told you why. You understand, right? And it’s been a single day; you’re going way too fast to begin with. I can see why you’d be overexcited with all that’s going on, but you have to be calm. The suspension bridge effect might be partly responsible, given the dangerous situation we’re in, but I’ll protect you even without anything going on between us. All of this going on makes things less comfortable.”

It was a stern lecture, but Chris still looked unsatisfied. Had her noble upbringing taught her all the details of sex? For her age, she was way too ready. Or maybe she was just too innocent to know better.

“Or,” I continued, “are you willing to prioritize your emotions and cause strife between me and your grandfather?”

“No…” she responded sadly.

“There’s a process to everything, okay? I imagine your grandfather has some noble pride or whatever. Wouldn’t he hate it if you did something really illogical in the spur of the moment?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“Absolutely so. I hear the imperial nobility are very proud and upright.” I smiled at Chris, happy my attempt at persuasion seemed to have gone well. Do I feel guilty for arguing with a little girl? Not at all! It’s for her sake, and for my own safety! “Anyway, there you have it. Mimi and Elma, be careful not to give her any funny ideas. And I will be too, of course.”

“Urk… Y-yes, sir.”

“Loud and clear, boss.”

“Chris, you should watch yourself. I’m calm now, but a man’s restraint can be blown away with relative ease.” Especially mine.

“Mrgh… Okay.”

With Chris’s agreement secured, I worked out in the training room after breakfast and took my turn in the shower, getting nice and clean for the day.

“Is this how life is every day?” Chris asked.

“Yes. On this ship, at least,” Mimi answered, causing Chris to make a strange face.

“I always expected life on mercenary ships to be more…unrefined.”

“Trust me, no other ship has equipment this classy,” Elma said in an awfully negative tone.

What’s wrong with a nice living environment? We all get to enjoy good food, clean beds, and pleasant baths.

“Quality of life is more important than mercenary chic,” I declared. “Anyway, today’s the big day; we’re going to the resort. We’ll probably be chased, so be ready for that.”

Mimi braced herself. “Yes, sir!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Elma answered, bored. It would honestly have been a little bizarre if she were as excited as Mimi. She did her job well, so there was no reason for me to get on her case.

We all went to the cockpit, where I sat in the pilot’s chair, Mimi in the operator’s seat, and Elma in the copilot’s spot. We put Chris in the sub-operator’s seat. Now all of the cockpit’s seats had butts in them.

“Is it okay for me to be in here?” Chris asked.

“This is the safest place in the ship, and the inertial control system works best in here,” I said. “We can’t let you near the controls this time, though.”

I checked the Krishna’s status. There hadn’t been any attacks, which was to be expected on the colony. Still, we’d had our lowest shields up just in case. They most likely knew of our reservations and planned to attack us on the way. That would be less risky than attacking us here, as the Imperial Fleet would go hog-wild on them if they attacked us in the colony. And if they investigated the attack, the enemy would be done for before Chris’s grandfather even caught a whiff of the situation.

“Okay,” I began. “Mimi, let’s get that departure request in.”

“Yes, sir!” Mimi used her console to send a departure request to the Port Authority.

They gave us permission in no time, so we safely exited the port district. We had our shields at maximum so nobody could “accidentally” charge us and wreck us right then.

There hadn’t been any suspicious ships so far. Are we being too careful? Nah, prudence is always good. Small ships wouldn’t do too much, but a large container ship full of cargo would be a major problem if it charged into us.

“Phew,” I sighed as we left the colony. “That was nerve-racking.”

“It’s only just begun,” Elma said. “I’m going to put us on a difficult-to-follow route to the resort planets, so follow my navigation, Hiro.”

“Understood.” I moved the ship to follow Elma’s route, which would make it hard to figure out which of the planets we were going to. “Time for FTL drive.”

“Okay,” Elma responded. “Charging faster-than-light drive now.” I raised the generator output, and a high-pitched charging noise filled the air. “Counting down. Five, four, three, two, one… Activating FTL drive.”

Boom! The Krishna entered faster-than-light travel, the stars melting into lines flowing behind us.

Chris gasped in amazement. “Wooow. So this is what faster-than-light travel looks like from inside a small craft!”

Did it look different from the windows of larger ships? “I’ve gotten used to seeing it, but the first time—” I started, but then alarms went off in the cockpit. It was the same alert we’d heard on our way to the Cierra System. “That didn’t take long.”

“Yep,” Elma replied. “I thought they’d let us go for a while to see which planet we were going to, but I guess not.”

“Maybe they figured it didn’t matter, since they’re gonna kill us and all.”

The cockpit’s main monitor showed a warning that we were being interdicted out of FTL drive. I could escape the interdiction if I really tried, but our plan was to kill our pursuers, so I let it happen like last time. It would be easier to recover from than being thrown back into normal space.

“Mimi, prepare for battle. Elma, control sub-parts. Like last time, we give no mercy.”

“Understood!”

“Aye-aye, Cap’n.”

“Wh-what about me?” Chris piped up.

What about you?

“We’re going to perform battle maneuvers, so try not to bite your tongue. The inertia control works well, so the g-forces on your body will be reduced, but they’ll still be pretty bad when I do crazy maneuvers. Also, try not to scream too much.”

“O-okay. I’ll do my best,” she replied nervously.

Screaming would mess up my concentration. Honestly, I’d been worried that Mimi would scream, but she never had; she just stiffened in fear and went quiet.

I reduced the generator’s output and slowed the ship down, returning to normal space without resisting the interdictor.

Boom! The stars turned back to singular points. As soon as they did, I returned the Krishna to max power.

“Whoa, settle down there!” I took evasive maneuvers and turned on the weapons system. Just then, the place where the Krishna had been was pierced by several red rays of light. No warning whatsoever—they were out for blood.

“Enemy ships spotted!” Mimi announced. “Twenty small craft, four medium!”

“Deploying chaff,” Elma added. “Flares and shield cells are ready anytime!”

“Okay. Here goes!”

I turned around, aiming my four laser-weapon arms and two flak cannons toward the enemy.

Time for a counterattack. I won’t let a single one of you escape this sector!

 

***

 

“They don’t look like pirates!” I yelled, flying around in an attempt to throw off the incoming blood-red lasers. The twenty small craft were all middle-class battleships, while the four medium ships were all old but military-grade and still powerful.

“Their ships and equipment are too unified,” Elma noted.

“And they’re tough too.”

The enemy small craft took our four lasers head-on. My lasers broke through their shields, but their armor withstood the attack. Pirate ships would have exploded almost instantly under a focused laser attack from the Krishna. In other words, their shields, plating, or both were worlds apart from space pirate scum.

“How’s their offensive power?” I asked.

“Their gear is one or two ranks higher than common space pirates,” Elma answered. “Their shields have a high attenuation rate.”

“Gotcha. Mimi, have you informed the fleet?”

“I can’t! We’re being jammed!”

“Sounds about right,” I groaned.

Elma groaned as well. “Yep…”

If we could buy time, the fleet might notice the radio interference and step in, but it would be faster to deal with them ourselves. As long as I presented my flight recorder records, we wouldn’t be blamed.

“Enough watching and waiting,” I said. “Let’s go! Chris, don’t bite your tongue!”

“Aye-aye, Captain!”

“U-um, aye-aye!”

“Okay!”

I heard three distinct responses from the girls as I took minute evasive maneuvers, accelerating and braking as necessary, to shake up the enemy’s encirclement.

“Woo! Here goes!”

I shot my four lasers and two flak cannons at one small ship before me. Then I used the resulting opening to escape. I had been firing sporadically and reflexively, so they were surprised by my sudden change of strategy, sending a ripple through their teamwork and creating an opportunity I could not miss.

“Let’s start with the big boys!”

The medium ships peppered us with lasers, trying to keep the Krishna away, but I dodged them with a barrel roll and charged in. Any lasers I couldn’t dodge were deflected by our shields. Meanwhile, I picked a ship to zero in on.

Still, the medium ships were tough. I hit one with two waves of heavy laser fire, but it refused to go down. They must have had shield cells. Buuut…

“How about some of this?” I gave them a load of the two large flak cannons installed on the front of the ship. The countless bits of shrapnel broke through their weakened shields and filled the body of the ship with holes. Flak was weak at a distance, but in close-range combat, it had unparalleled firepower.

“I’m gonna stick to these medium ships,” I informed the girls.

“Let’s see what you’ve got,” Elma replied.

I circled around the downed ship, cutting myself off from the small enemy crafts as I closed in on my next medium target. If I stayed close to the other ships, the small ones wouldn’t be able to shoot the Krishna. If they shot at me and were willing to hurt their friends in the process, hey, that was all right with me. As such, I was able to mow down the enemy medium craft while being careful to take cover from smaller ones behind them.

“What a dirty way to fight,” Elma said accusingly.

“Look, you’ve gotta be creative when you’re outnumbered.” Otherwise, we would get shot down in an instant. The Krishna’s shields were strong, but they still had their limits. “What’s our damage at?”

“We’ve been shot a few times, but our shields haven’t gone down yet,” Elma replied. “They can’t shoot us much, for fear of hurting their allies.” She operated her console at blinding speed.

I was taking evasive maneuvers to keep out of the enemy’s sights, but it was impossible to dodge every single light-speed laser coming this way. When we were hit, Elma would strengthen shield output in those spots for a moment and use shield cells to replenish them, controlling the amount of damage we took. She also tricked enemy aim by using chaff and electronic countermeasures.

“Whoops!” While I fought close to the enemy medium ships, the smaller ships ran out of patience and came my way. They were doing all they could to peel me away from the medium ships. “Fools!”

I used the altitude control boosters to do an instant turn, turning my flak cannons against the incoming ships. Then I fired away. Shrapnel cut through their shields and filled them with holes. They looked like Swiss cheese with a slight metallic finish.

“Nice, nice. I know how they move now, so it’s almost time to counterattack.” I stuck to the back of the escaping medium craft, showering incoming small ones with heavy laser fire. If they didn’t go down in one volley, well, I was willing to give them another!

“You drive like a madman,” Elma said. “How are you able to stick to them while facing away?”

“I’ve figured out the radar and their movement quirks.” It was kind of like walking backward while using your phone. Get used to it, and you could do it with ease. Outer space just had more directions. A friend and I had practiced this backward-floating, forward-shooting style endlessly in Stella Online. “It’s about time I crush these guys.”

As the enemies had decreased in number, I shot down the medium craft I was sticking to, finishing it off. Then it was time to mop up the smaller ships. Medium craft were slow, so without their front line of small craft, they were much easier targets, though they could still pack a punch.

I charged into the remaining small ships and peppered them with flak as I passed by. Some tried to escape, but I hit them from behind with heavy laser fire. Medium ships tried to use heat-seeking missiles as a last resort, but I dragged them behind me and flew back into the cloud of small ships, deploying flares as I went, causing the missiles to harm them instead. With their numbers so low, it was a throwaway match now. Before long, we finished destroying all of the ships.

“That was pretty tough,” I sighed. “Their training and equipment were way better than average.”

“Yeah…” For some reason, Elma was frowning.

“Th-that was scary…” Mimi was pale from the drawn-out battle.

The last time we’d had such a close fight was probably when we jumped into the Federation fleet at Tarmein Prime. This time was a little easier, since we didn’t have to use anti-ship reactive missiles.

“Let’s go recover our spoils quickly. Those data caches will be decisive evidence for Chris’s grandfather. The small craft probably don’t have anything, so I’ll just go for the medium ones.”

“Aye-aye.”

“Y-yes, sir!”

I brought the Krishna over to the enemy’s ships and harvested what I could. They had good equipment, so I would’ve loved to take some if we had the time, but staying too long could attract the fleet, and I didn’t want to pay off these guys’ damages. We split up the work and grabbed food, water, and data caches from the four ship carcasses. With three people controlling drones, each ship was quickly cleaned up.

“The data caches are nice, but they probably don’t have much else that’ll be useful. I doubt they were on orders to stay out here for long,” I commented.

“I disagree,” Elma said. “Medium ships usually have a crew of four to eight people, y’know. They’re supposed to keep two weeks’ worth of resources in stock, just in case their propulsion systems fail.”

“Is that so?”

On closer inspection, Elma was right, and we found more food and water than I expected. Four medium crafts’ worth of stuff could last us a month with ease.

“This was a bigger haul than I expected,” I said, satisfied. “We could just live off these resources and run around until Gramps gets here.”

“If hiding in the resort planets doesn’t work, then let’s do that.”

Once we got the loot, we quickly went back into FTL drive and left the battlefield.

“Now we can rest easy. Are you okay, Chris?” I looked over at Chris, who just nodded.

Her face was whiter than a sheet. She had both hands on her mouth, probably trying her best to obey orders and keep from screaming. I then turned to Elma, who was drinking from a straw jabbed into her gravity sphere, composed as ever. I still thought that the drink holders that always held your drink upright were really cool. Mimi had already calmed down and was checking over the resources we’d recovered and our ship’s status. She was becoming quite reliable. Before long, she could call herself a full-fledged operator.

“I’ll get our navigation set up again,” Elma told me. “Be careful of your angle when you approach the planet.”

“Leave it to me.”

On planets with atmospheres and high enough gravity, you had to manage your entry angle carefully, or you’d be in big trouble. The Krishna had safety systems and shields, however, so even charging into the planet in FTL wouldn’t cause us to explode or burn up in the atmosphere. Still, ship behavior changed once you entered the atmosphere, and if you tried to fight the air resistance, you’d crash into the ground. Or decelerate into a rough stop.

I followed navigation for a while until a blue planet came into view. Almost the whole surface was covered in water. We had reached the third planet of Cierra III.

“Okay. Time to land!”

“Aye-aye, Captain. I’ll support the landing. Mimi, watch what I do,” Elma said.

“Okay!”

We decided to leave the quivering Chris alone as we began our descent to the resort planet for a well-deserved vacation.