“It’s… a ship without an identification signal is approaching.”
“So it’s a suspicious ship?”
“Yes. It might be a pirate ship.”
Just then, the communication device received a warning from the suspicious ship.
“If you try to escape, we’ll attack.”
Hearing that, Sario and I were certain it was a pirate ship.
“Wait, that ship looks familiar.”
I realized I had seen it somewhere before.
“Ah, that’s the corvette ship that Melora first showed us, right?”
So, there was a connection between Melora and the pirates. This encounter probably wasn’t just a coincidence.
“That Melora…”
“What should we do?”
“This ship isn’t armed. I’ll try attacking with tactical magic, but the corvette should have a barrier equipped.”
According to the [General Knowledge] I received from Zolfienne, it’s common for warships of corvette class or higher to be equipped with barriers. I wasn’t sure if tactical magic could penetrate it. I headed to the combat room. Meanwhile, Sario piloted the Lunadagger to escape. Naturally, the corvette-turned-pirate ship pursued us.
I went to the combat room and located the pursuing pirate ship. The Lunadagger seemed faster, so I held onto the hope that we might escape. However, they attacked with laser cannons and charged particle beams. Laser beams and plasma bullets passed around the Lunadagger. To avoid the attacks, we had to zigzag, which slowed us down. As a result, the distance between us and the pirate ship began to shrink.
“This is bad.”
I glared at the approaching pirate ship and fired a reinforced particle bullet. I poured all my Heavenly wave into it at Open Level T. The bullet flew toward the pirate ship, but just before it hit, it was blocked by the barrier and exploded.
“No good. The reinforced particle bullet can’t break through the barrier.”
My voice was picked up by the microphone in the combat room, and Sario seemed to hear it in the cockpit.
“Did you not fire the particle bullet at Open Level 1?”
I heard Sario’s voice. I had told Sario about my fight with the Mother Spider, so he was asking if I could do the same thing now.
“Let’s try it.”
I set the control gate to Open Level 1. Immediately, a massive amount of Heavenly wave and Bosol particles flowed into my body. I released the Bosol particles outside the ship, shaping them into a sphere. Particle bullets are easier to form than particle blades, but it still took all my mental strength. I fired it at the pirate ship. Unfortunately, the Open Level 1 particle bullet missed its target. It seems the accuracy drops.
“Is that all? Too bad.”
Melora’s voice came through the communicator. It seemed Melora wasn’t just an accomplice of the pirates—she was the pirate.
“This isn’t over yet.”
“Hmph, your tactical magic didn’t work. What else can you do? That ship of yours doesn’t have any weapons.”
If the Open Level 1 particle bullet had hit, it could have pierced the barrier, but I wasn’t confident in my aim. So, I switched back to Open Level T and fired a reinforced particle penetration bullet. But it was stopped by the barrier.
“Stop wasting your time and surrender.”
Melora’s grating voice echoed in my ears. Even as she spoke, the pirate ship didn’t stop attacking. A plasma bullet passed close to the combat room. I shuddered at the realization. Then, I remembered the Soaring Strike Dagger I had obtained from Zedegger. I took out the Soaring Strike Dagger and, using Heavenly wave, controlled it as I released it outside the ship. The combat room had a small airlock-like mechanism built into it.
I poured Heavenly wave into the Soaring Strike Dagger. At Open Level T, it would take too long to fill the dagger to its limit. So, I switched to Open Level 1, and within two seconds, it reached its maximum capacity. This worked because the Soaring Strike Dagger had a function that supported Heavenly wave control up to Open Level 1. The fully charged Soaring Strike Dagger emitted a faint green light, making it appear several times larger. In the next instant, I launched the Soaring Strike Dagger toward the pirate ship. The pirates noticed the glowing dagger and changed the ship’s course. Seeing them try to dodge, I cursed.
“Damn it, if you’re pirates, face me head-on!”
I knew I was being unreasonable, but I couldn’t help shouting. Then, using the thin thread of consciousness that connected me to the Soaring Strike Dagger, I focused all my mental energy to alter its trajectory. It worked.
“Gotcha!”
The light surrounding the Soaring Strike Dagger pierced the pirate ship’s barrier, creating a hole. It seemed the light itself had power. The Soaring Strike Dagger continued straight through the ship, exited the other side, and then made a U-turn. The pirate ship’s speed dropped sharply. As the Soaring Strike Dagger returned near the combat room, I poured Heavenly wave into it again. The pirate ship seemed to have lost its barrier. I launched the Soaring Strike Dagger once more. The second attack easily pierced through the pirate ship. Immediately after, the ship exploded. The explosion was massive, and Melora must have died. Relieved, I retrieved the Soaring Strike Dagger and returned to the cockpit. As I entered, Sonya jumped at me.
“Zen, that was amazing!”
Sonya was grinning with excitement. Sario gave her a gentle smile. Then, the three of us started talking.
“Having no weapons on the ship is still worrying.”
“But we’re out of funds. We’ll have to go hunting again.”
“Should we go somewhere other than Planet Volan?”
“No, first we’ll return to Volan to practice with the Soaring Strike Dagger and improve the particle armor.”
After defeating the Mother Spider, I obtained the technical information for [Basic Magic Armor], but I haven’t had time to study it thoroughly. I prioritized studying [Basic Dragon Orb Engineering] and acquiring the ship.
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After discussing our future plans with Sario, I wondered what to do about the pirate ship’s aftermath.
“In cases like this, should we report it to the local government?”
I asked Sario.
“It’s tricky. If the pirates have the government in their pocket, we might get arrested instead.”
According to Sario, it’s not uncommon for pirates and the government to be in cahoots. We checked the radar, but it seemed the pirate ship was acting alone. The Lunadagger is an unarmed ship, so they probably thought one ship was enough.
“Let’s investigate that pirate ship.”
We brought the Lunadagger closer to the exploded pirate ship and examined it. It seemed the Soaring Strike Dagger had struck one of the two engines, causing the explosion. Checking the radiation levels, there was no sign of radioactive leakage. So, I changed into a spacesuit, and Sario and I headed toward the pirate ship.
Using the thrusters on our backs, we approached the pirate ship and entered through the hole caused by the explosion. First, we checked the engines. Both engines were beyond repair, so we decided to head to the engine room. The ship was dimly lit, but there seemed to be power. Probably from the emergency battery. On the way to the engine room, we encountered the pirates’ corpses. Their bodies were torn apart by the explosion. Sario noticed something and checked one of the bodies.
“This one has an identification ring.”
The identification ring is essentially a ring version of a key card. Along with Sario’s hacking tool, it could supposedly open most doors. Sario used the recovered identification ring and hacking tool to unlock the engine room door, and we stepped inside. The engine room was surrounded by sturdy walls, so it hadn’t been heavily affected by the explosion. The pirate ship, which was a corvette, was equipped with a high-performance military-grade compact fusion reactor. That compact fusion reactor remained intact. However, it seemed the ship’s control system had detected the explosion and initiated an emergency shutdown of the reactor.
“Can we use this?”
I asked Sario after checking the reactor’s condition.
“Probably. Can you bring out the maintenance robot?”
I took out the maintenance robot from my inter-dimensional bracelet and activated it. Sario ordered the robot to remove the compact fusion reactor. Leaving the robot in the engine room, Sario and I headed to the bridge. Along the way, we found a few more corpses. Sario opened the bridge door. Inside was a gruesome sight. The first strike from the Soaring Strike Dagger had entered the left side of the bridge and exited the right, killing all the pirates inside. Melora was probably among them, but it was impossible to tell in such a state. Even though they were pirates, seeing this scene made me feel sick.
“This is horrible. There’s nothing salvageable here.”
“Yeah, this is a no-go.”
We quickly abandoned the bridge and started searching other rooms. In the storage room, we found a small attaché case with a backpack-like shoulder strap and waist belt. Upon inspection, it turned out to be a brand-new powered armor. Not the low-performance goblin-powered armor we had used before, but a civilization-level D MM-type powered armor.
The MM-type powered armor, short for Micro-Machine powered armor, is made up of millimeter-sized machines that attach to the user’s body to form the armor. The advantage of this MM-type armor is that the micro-machines automatically adjust to fit various body types, making it usable by most sentient beings. However, there was a drawback: it was less durable than standard armor. That said, it was still strong enough to deflect bullets and blades. It also had a strength-assist function, boosting the user’s power by seven times.
“There are eight MM-type powered armors here. Let’s take them.”
“Are they usable?”
“If the pirates stored them here, they should be. Provided they weren’t damaged in the explosion.”
We decided to check their functionality later and stored the eight MM-type powered armors in our inter-dimensional pendants. Then, heading to what seemed like a hangar, we found something resembling a small fighter. However, there was a large hole in the center of the fighter, making it beyond repair. While the fighter was a lost cause, we discovered a disc-shaped reconnaissance drone in the hangar. It was slightly damaged but repairable, so we took it.
Among the weapons on the pirate ship, the 12-light-path charged particle cannon and the 8-light-path laser cannon seemed repairable, so we had the maintenance robot remove them for recovery. The compact fusion reactor had also been successfully removed, so we took it as well. Around that time, the Lunadagger received a communication. It was from the control brain, alerting us to an approaching spacecraft. Sario and I quickly retrieved the maintenance robot and returned to the Lunadagger. In the cockpit, Sonya was waiting with an anxious expression.
“What kind of ship is approaching?”
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