"That's why we're going to sortie as soon as possible huh?"
"That's right."
I initialized the Krishna's systems and ran the self-diagnostics program as I responded to Mimi. The mechanic sisters were performing constant maintenance on Krishna, so it should be fine. But I always made it a point to run the self-diagnostics program every time before a sortie to check its condition for myself. I can't just assume that since it's being maintained by the highly skilled mechanic sisters, everything's always gonna be fine and dandy. They were only human, err, dwarves after all. That's why it's also possible for them to make mistakes.
"Um, Hiro-sama. Sorry. I'm really sorry for always causing you trouble like this..."
"I'm not bothered by it at all, and even if you do cause trouble–"
"...Even if I did?"
"Well, y'know. It's for your sake anyway, Mimi. So I'm fine with anything."
"Mou. Why did you suddenly turn all shy? Ahaha."
Mimi let out a cheerful laugh. Actually saying something so cheesy like that to another's face felt really cringy y'know? Gimme a break.
"..."
When I glanced at the sub-pilot seat, I saw Kugi displaying a forlorn expression, so I stroked her fluffy fox-eared head. Kugi's tails swayed in delight as I did so, which was a really cute reaction. But since I'm not really a natural-born lady-killer, I'm already at my limit from doing this, so please don't be too hard on me guys.
I'm sure you guys wanna say I'm just suffering from the consequences of my own actions, but I probably would act similarly even if things started over again... That's why I've simply accepted this as my fate, or something like that. Yeah. Let's just accept it all and move on. Yep.
"Um, are we going to perform the thermal stealth tactic again this time?"
"I'd like to, but that's gonna be difficult to pull off this time around. The base we're after this time is also in an asteroid belt, but judging from the data Granny Serestia sent, it seems like it's impossible to approach it using thermal stealth."
While explaining, I projected the data that Granny Serestia handed over onto Krishna's main screen. As I said earlier, the target base was situated in an asteroid belt, but the asteroid density was pretty high except for the area directly in front of the base. In other words, it was necessary to avoid all those asteroids in order to successfully approach the base.
And using thrusters will instantly make the ship drop thermal stealth, so we can't make use of that tactic this time around. Unfortunately.
"If that's the case, then how will we... Oh, right. I guess we're doing that huh?"
"Yup."
"What exactly are we going to do?"
Kugi was the only one who was clueless. What will we do? There's only one thing we can do, and that's–
"My Lord! Crash! We will crash!"
"It's okay. Don't worry."
Kugi raised a panicked voice as if the world was ending, but I think she was overreacting. It's true that we're now hurtling straight through the asteroid belt at almost the ship's maximum speed, but I wasn't the type of pilot to crash onto an immobile space rock. I think.
I couldn't take my eyes off the main monitor, so I couldn't see what kind of face Kugi was making, but I bet she was all teary-eyed, and her fox ears were probably lying flat on top of her head.
"Instead of worrying about this, keep in mind that we're gonna go straight into battle as soon as we break through here, so make sure to concentrate and do your job properly. Concentrate, okay? Concentrate."
"Y-Yes!?"
"It's okay, Kuu-chan. There's no way Hiro-sama will collide with an asteroid that can't chase after him. In fact, he was fine even when we were in the middle of a crystal lifeform swarm that was even denser than this."
It kinda felt like Mimi's tone was strangely flat as she was reassuring Kugi though. Are you guys really okay? But, as expected, I had to fully concentrate in order to break through this dense asteroid belt at this speed, so I couldn't really give them that much attention.
"Hiro-sama, I'm picking up some sensor reactions."
"Well, it looks like they're not completely defenseless after all."
Even if pirates were usually crazy and reckless bastards, they would still pay attention to the security of their base. There were plenty of them who remained relatively sloppy even in base security though, but it looked like these guys weren't of the sort.
"They should be here soon"
"Yes. Not long now– They're here!"
In the corner of my field of view, a point of light indicating an allied ship appeared on the radar screen. There were still ten-odd seconds before Krishna successfully leaves the asteroid belt. It was impeccable timing. It was just like Mei to pull off a warp-out from FTL navigation with such precise timing.
Krishna's sensor indicated that the newly warped-out allies and the forces of the pirate base have already engaged one another in combat. The first shot should be from the EML of the Black Lotus.
The pirates, who were initially preoccupied with Krishna which was breaking through the asteroid field at high speed, were late in responding to the sudden arrival of the Black Lotus, Antlion, and Granny Serestia's Annihilator.
And since they already went at it on their end–
"Anti-ship reactive torpedoes 1 and 2, launch! Or something like that."
Two anti-ship reactive torpedoes were fired out from Krishna's lower hatch, passed through the asteroid belt, and flew straight toward the bunched-up defense turrets of the pirate base at high speed.
The anti-ship reactive torpedoes themselves didn't have that much propulsive power. If fired normally, they'd be as slow as heck, but it was a different story if they were fired from a ship rushing forward with this much momentum. The fired torpedoes will make use of the resulting inertia and will fly forward at tremendous speed.
"Prepare to use the shield cells at any time, Kugi."
"Y-Yes."
The moment I heard Kugi's flustered reply, a ball of light expanded on the surface of the pirate base directly in front of Krishna. A huge amount of light and heat was generated by the explosions caused by the reactive torpedoes. The powerful heat and force caused by the explosions engulfed the asteroid's surface, including most of the defensive turrets installed on the pirate base, and reduced the turrets to shreds. The resulting debris peppered Krishna's energy shields.
"I-I've used a shield cell!"
"Okay. Good job. Next, we'll be heading straight for the base to take care of the remaining defensive turrets."
About 70% of the turrets deployed around the pirate base should have been blown to bits by our initial attack, but we should also take care of the ones remaining. I suppose I should prioritize taking out the missile-type turrets that posed a higher danger to starships.
"Mimi, link up with our allies and pinpoint the locations of the missile turrets."
"Got it!"
Krishna's sensors were of the high-performance category for use on small-class ships, but they still lost out to the ones equipped on Black Lotus and Antlion. So it was better to link up with them to get more accurate data.
"Brace yourselves, guys. We're going for the second round!"
""Yes!""
I heard two energetic replies. It seemed that Kugi had somewhat recovered her composure already. That's good. Now then, let's gradually pick off the prey, shall we?