As expected, it seems Chris couldn’t pay a visit to the imperial palace every day after all. She couldn’t, but Her Highness, the princess, still made an effort to get in touch with her as often as she could. She’s, uh, she was kinda a little too into the story of my apparent love affairs or something.
“Now then, let me hear about the person called Dr. Shouko today.”
“Please give me a break already.”
Nothing happened between me and Doc Shouko, okay! We did kinda hit it off a bit, but because of the medical check-up, I had to– Ah, my repressed memories are bubbling back up again! But in the end, I lost to the princess’ enthusiasm and told her about my meeting with her anyway. Ugh. I don’t care anymore.
I gave up and spilled everything. And finally, the day of the space combat phase of the tournament came.
The space combat phase will be comprised of mock battles using real starships. The output of laser cannons and shields will be dropped, and live ballistic ammo will be replaced with training rounds, though they’re still powerful enough to turn a human body into mush. On top of those, the ships will run a damage management program specially used for mock combat scenarios, and a number of ships installed with a referee evaluation program will be deployed all over the event field. The ships that will serve as referees will be composed of members of the imperial military who opted to not participate as combatants this time around. The competition venue will also be another military training facility.
“Hiro-sama, I wonder what kind of people are going to participate this time apart from mercenaries?”
“I can only think of carrier-based spacecraft pilots, but there might be some other pros as well. What do you think, Elma?”
“I think some Mobile Knight pilots will participate as well.”
“Mobile Knights…”
What the heck is up with that cool-sounding job title? Are you telling me they ride humanoid mobile weapons or something? There weren’t any humanoid mobile weapons implemented in SOL, but if you have em here, can I get one too?
“They originated from the practice of skilled mercenaries swearing their fealty and service to an imperial noble and getting formally knighted. Their descendants serve the main family of the noble house they swore fealty to as Mobile Knights for generations. There are quite a few of them serving in imperial military carriers you know.”
“Do they also ride humanoid mobile weapons or something?”
“In any case, there doesn’t seem to be any of those present in the empire. Apparently, the Drawn Sword faction submitted a proposal for deploying a number of them here that were equipped with anti-ship blades, but I heard the proposal was indefinitely postponed due to problems with cost-effectiveness and maintenance.”
“So there really are humanoid weapons huh.”
Man, I got kinda fired up after hearing that. So their problem was not being easy to maintain to the point that the military held off on adopting them for widespread deployment huh. Well, there might be other reasons as well though.
“Are those Mobile Knights strong, Elma-sama?”
“Hmm?”
“You sound stupid when you imitate Mimi, so stop that. Well, they greatly vary in strength. There are Mobile Knights who still actively make use of old-model ancestral starships that were passed down from generation to generation after all.”
“In other words, some of them are pretty strong huh.”
“Yes, of course. There are actually a lot of Mobile Knights who are on par with Gold-ranked mercenaries you know. Mobile Knights usually often square off with pirates whose main spheres of activity are within territories held by the noble house they serve. Most, if not all, of them, serve as the main commanding officers of their noble house’s private forces. A few only serve as commanders in-name though.”
“So they have a wealth of live combat experience huh.”
“In some cases, they’re actually more experienced than a majority of imperial military commanders.”
I see. So, in other words, you can’t underestimate Mobile Knights huh. If they have a noble house backing them up, they shouldn’t be strapped for cash and have some of the best equipment money can buy. I think I’d have no problem with those old-fashioned types using ancestral starships though.
After all, no matter how good you are, it’s still pretty difficult to bridge the gap in ship performance with skills alone. On the flip side, even if you had the best ship in the galaxy, if you have no skills to speak of, the ship will only be going to waste without even exhibiting a fraction of its potential.
“Of course there are also people in the empire who’ve earned the title of Ace Pilot. People like those have a wealth of combat experience and skills to match as well, so they might be able to best you if you underestimate them.”
“I see. And then, there are the full-time mercenaries as well huh.”
“They’re the enemies you should be most wary of in my opinion. The Gold rankers and above have combat experience in spades, exemplary skills, and powerful customized ships.”
“Yeah.”
However, pirate activity in the surrounding sectors of the imperial capital is next to nonexistent. That’s why there aren’t that many mercs active here in the first place. Most of those that were here were mercenary corps that were contracted to escort mercantile fleets that came to buy and sell goods in the imperial capital. They aren’t lone wolf-types like me and were more specialized in group combat.
Consequently, most of them aren’t that good in one-on-one dogfights. So I surmise that most of the mercenaries around the imperial capital won’t be my opponent. But, of course, I can’t discount the possibility of some truly skilled ones coming to the imperial capital at this time as well.
“Oh well. Let’s just chill. It would be fine if we do the usual, I think.”
“That’s right!”
“Yeah. I’m not really that worried though.”
“It’s finally here, everyone! It’s the last event of this tournament! A mock space battle between combat starships! Since they will be mock battles, the output of their laser cannons and shields will be reduced, and training rounds will be used instead of live ones. But what do those exactly imply for our participants?”
“Even though their outputs are reduced, their weapons still have enough firepower to directly vaporize a person, so some danger is still present. And since their shield outputs are also reduced, direct collisions may cause serious accidents. In preparation for those, our imperial military has deployed a great number of rescue ships, so there is no need to worry. Please enjoy live mock ship combat that’s very close to the real thing to your heart’s content, everyone.”
The guest commentator today was a woman huh. Don’t tell me it’s Major Serena– Uh, she should be a lieutenant colonel now huh? Anyway, I thought it was Lt. Col. Serena, but it wasn’t. But judging from her outfit, she should also be from the imperial military huh.
“As expected, will Captain Hiro be the focus for today’s event as well?”
“But of course. He gave us a strong showing in both the swordsmanship duel and melee combat phases of the tournament after all. According to our info, space combat is actually his specialty. I’m looking forward to what kind of battle he’s going to show us today.”
Un, I can feel her burning passion from her words. Well, I probably won’t disappoint.
“Well then, it’s time for the first match of this competition. The first match will be between Captain Rex, a Gold ranker belonging to the mercenary corps『Arrow of Light』, and Ensign Nielsen, belonging to the 28th Defense Fleet of the Imperial Space Navy.”
“The mercenary corps『Arrow of Light』is–”
The female commentator began to tell the audience about the contestants. The mercenary corps『Arrow of Light』is a corps that usually acts as escorts for mercantile fleets, and the pilot named Captain Rex seems to be the one with the highest number of recorded ship kills among them. Ensign Nielsen, on the other hand, is an imperial military carrier-based fighter pilot and ace who had shot down a large number of enemy carrier-based spacecraft in battles with the neighboring Vereverem Federation.
“What do you think, Hiro-sama?”
“Hm, I can’t make an accurate judgment before the fight actually starts, but judging from the ships, Rex seems to have an edge.”
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