Now, it’s time to counterattack!
“Kasumi, you know where we were attacked, right?”
“Yes, I can provide the coordinates immediately.”
“Excecutive Officer, stop the ship. We’ll return once our preparations are complete.”
“Navigator, set the course for the designated coordinates.”
“Understood.”
“Kasumi, can you estimate the enemy’s location from their earlier attack?”
I called Kasumi and the Excecutive Officer to the captain’s seat, using the panel there to plan our counterattack.
“Based on the angle of the laser from earlier, it should be around this area. We know the direction, but we can’t pinpoint the exact distance.”
“Right. Kate, come here for a moment.”
I called Kate over as well to discuss the counterattack plan.
“Listen up, Kate. We’re going back to the point where we were attacked. As soon as you spot the enemy, attack immediately.”
“Leave it to me, Captain. I’ll make sure to hit them hard.”
“But Captain, is this okay? It’s almost like an ambush. Attacking without confirming the target…”
“They attacked us first. It should be fine. We’ll send a surrender request over the radio, but that’s all.”
“Still, I’m worried.”
“I understand the concern, but we can’t just run away. It’ll be alright, won’t it, Kate?”
“Captain, Meyrica-neesan, you’re both worrying too much. It’ll be fine. Trust me.”
“Now I’m even more worried.”
“Captain, I feel the same way.”
“Captain, the ship’s alert level has been raised to combat status. Estimated time: 18 minutes.”
“It’s taking longer than I’d like, but it can’t be helped. Excecutive Officer, let’s return as planned.”
On my order, [Shunmin] turned around and began moving back to our original position.
“We’ll enter dimensional travel shortly.”
“Scout, begin exploration as soon as we exit dimensional travel. Communications officer, immediately issue the surrender request.”
“Aye, sir,” they replied in unison.
Soon after, we exited dimensional travel and returned to our original location.
Ahead of us stretched an asteroid belt, an area unsuitable for radar ship detection.
We’d have to rely on optical sensors, but in the dark of space, we can barely detect anything using infrared sensors.
The skill of the person handling the sensors makes a world of difference, but unlike earlier, we now have Kasumi, who’s exceptionally good at this sort of thing. We shouldn’t be caught off guard by an attack this time.
As expected, Kasumi seemed to have spotted the enemy before they spotted us.
“Captain, I’ve found them. Infrared reaction 23 points ahead of the designated coordinates. It’s definitely a spaceship reaction. Can’t identify the ship type.”
“No response to the surrender request transmission.”
“We’ll be in range of the standard main cannon soon.”
“Enemy ship has opened fire. This one also passed behind our ship.”
“We’ve entered the main cannon’s firing range.”
“Return fire!”
This is Kate’s first battle on this ship.
Her overenthusiasm is concerning.
She issued a series of commands, followed by the order to [Attack the target].
In the next moment, not only did the main cannon fire, but shots were confirmed from the morning glories, and all the torpedo tubes launched torpedoes towards the enemy.
Wait a minute.
If all of these hit, it’s clearly overkill.
The torpedoes will impact last, but at this rate, there might be nothing left of the enemy.
“Confirmed hit from the main cannon’s laser. Impact on the enemy ship’s rear.”
“Following that, confirmed hits from the morning glories. The enemy ship seems to have split in two.”
“What? The enemy ship split?”
“Yes, we confirmed on radar that it broke into two pieces.”
“What about the torpedoes? If the enemy ship split, they shouldn’t hit, right?”
“No, since the enemy ship wasn’t moving, we predict all torpedoes will hit.”
“Excecutive Officer, this is bad. There won’t be anything left.”
“Kate, initiate the self-destruct sequence for the torpedoes.”
“Eh? Self-destruct them?”
“Just do it quickly. If there’s nothing left, we won’t know where the attack came from.”
“All four of them? I’ll ask about it now.”
“What are you doing, you idiot Kate? Hurry up and self-destruct them!”
READ THE ORIGINAL TRANSLATION AT gadgetizedpanda.net
Each torpedo has a different self-destruct sequence registered, allowing them to be self-destructed individually from the bridge.
However, without knowing the sequence, you can’t send the self-destruct command to the torpedoes.
Kate is asking the torpedo launch control room about the sequences for the just-launched torpedoes.
But this is their first real combat situation too.
They hadn’t been managing the sequences properly, so no one knew them.
“Ah, confirmed torpedo hits. The enemy has probably been completely destroyed. Radar analysis only shows debris.”
Even if you have the ability to self-destruct from the bridge, you can’t do it without knowing the self-destruct sequence.
Naturally, all the launched torpedoes continue towards their target.
It seems the enemy’s ability to respond was taken away by the initial laser cannon attack, so they couldn’t evade, and all torpedoes hit.
Moreover, unfortunately, two torpedoes each hit the front and back of the ship’s hull, which had been split in two by the morning glory shells, leaving the target beyond recognition.
Sigh… I hope we can identify the enemy from the debris, but what should we do?
“Captain, we’ve confirmed the enemy’s destruction. What should we do next?”
“What to do… what should we do?”
“Captain, we’ll be able to visually confirm the enemy on screen shortly. I’ll project it on the main screen.”
Kasumi is calmly doing her job.
The image projected on the main screen shows the remains of the ship, now completely reduced to debris.
It’s not destroyed at the molecular level, so there should be some traces left.
“We’ll go to the scene and recover as much debris as possible. We can’t report anything without knowing the identity of our opponent. So, Excecutive Officer, set course for the site.”
“Yes, changing course, target coordinates…”
Meyrica-neesan is reading out the coordinates of where the enemy used to be.
Our crew has become capable of handling normal duties without any problems, but they still make various mistakes at crucial moments.
They still can’t act flexibly, so in cases like surprise attacks, we’re completely helpless. That’s why we retreated to regroup, but in this case, looking at the results, it could be considered a failure.
We had roughly located the enemy before retreating, so before entering dimensional travel, I had all the ship’s weapons prepared to fire immediately. That was the cause of our failure.
That Kate, she issued an attack order to all weapons simultaneously without thinking.
At least she didn’t order the meaningless side Pulsar cannons used for escort to attack… Oh, she did?
They just didn’t reach the enemy, I see.
Forget it.
I guess even advance preparations need to be thought through.
Or rather, being able to pinpoint the enemy’s location before attacking is only possible with stationary targets.
We were just lucky this time.
I called the Ice Mobile Squad Commander waiting in the rear hangar to the bridge and explained the situation.
“I apologize for the sudden request, but could you investigate that debris? Please try to find anything that can identify our opponent.”
“Understood. But Captain, you don’t hold back, do you? You’ve destroyed them completely.”
Even the Ice Commander is taken aback.
While this first battle left us with many challenges for the future, in a sense, we were fortunate that no one was injured.
[Shunmin] stopped at the enemy’s former location and began recovering the surrounding debris.
The Ice Commander’s mobile squad split into groups of five and spread out.
They said they’d investigate the far-off debris, so we’ll help with the debris around the ship.
“Excecutive Officer, have all the trainee crew members put on power suits and assemble outside the ship. Order each section leader to lead them.”
“What are you planning to do?”
“It’s extravehicular activity training. We’ll have them collect the debris around us.”
“But, the number of personal movers…”
“It’s fine. We’ll have them connect wires to the main ship and train them to move towards their targets using their own strength. It’s the perfect environment for that.”
“I see.”
“Have their section leaders instruct them. Make sure they don’t get lost in space. Before going out, have them connect to their leaders with wires.”
“Don’t worry, Captain. They’re all from the boarding party. They have more experience in space than anyone. Even rookies like Ryoko and Nina have been well-trained by me. We won’t have failures like in the previous training. Well, since this is their first time, I’ll assign experienced members like Rani and Kaori to accompany them.”
“That’s a relief. Thank you. And Kasumi, sorry, but could you keep an eye on them while monitoring the surrounding area? If anyone gets drifted away, please ask the Ice Commander to rescue them.”
“Understood… but Captain, where are you going?”
“There are trainee crew members on the bridge too. I’m going to lead them.”
“Eh? You’re going yourself, Captain?”
“Be careful.”
While the subordinates on the bridge seemed displeased with me going on the extravehicular activity, only Excecutive Officer Meyrica-neesan saw me off cheerfully.
“Thank you, Excecutive Officer. I’m counting on you to take care of the bridge.”
I took the trainee crew members from the bridge and headed to the airlock area next to the lobby one floor below.
Naturally, I ordered everyone to change into power suits and assemble here.
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Wow lmao. Enemy is KIA (Kaboom In Action)