I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 535

Chapter 535: 「I Can’t Make Any Promises...」

「The sixteenth wave has appeared! Spatial tremors continue, the seventeenth wave is expected soon!」

「I’m just about full here...」

「I feel the same...」

「That said, we can’t exactly ignore it...」

After receiving the report of enemy reinforcements from the Holy Vuelzarus Empire Fleet, both Mimi and I couldn’t help but show our exhaustion. Even Kugi was wearing a wry smile, probably feeling much the same as we did.

The Holy Vuelzarus Empire Fleet’s A-class escort ships—fast-moving corvettes and destroyers—had decreased in number considerably. None of them had been destroyed outright, but after facing fifteen waves of enemy assaults, there were more and more ships with moderate to severe damage that were forced to withdraw from the front line. The larger, B and C-class ships were still intact, though.

「Isn’t the Holy Vuelzarus Empire sending any more reinforcements?」

「If they were coming, they’d be here by now... Only the A-class ships are taking damage, so they probably think there’s no need. Also, it looks like the sixteenth wave consists of photon lifeforms.」

「Seven photon lifeforms, huh... Well, Krishna can handle them on its own. Mimi, inform the Holy Vuelzarus Empire Fleet that Krishna will take on the sixteenth wave. Kugi, prepare for combat.」

「Understood!」

「Yes, my Lord.」

As Kugi responded, I pushed Krishna’s thrusters to maximum, propelling us toward the photon lifeforms that had appeared far in the distance. Under normal circumstances, the distance would make me consider using the FTL drive. It was far enough that, at regular speeds, the seventeenth wave would arrive well before we reached our target. But for the new Krishna, that kind of distance was practically irrelevant.

「Jumping now.」

The world lost its color, and the photon lifeforms ahead zoomed in as if viewed through a high-powered scope. We instantaneously moved a distance that would normally take over five minutes to even the fastest ship. It feels like the time and space got compressed.

As color returned to the world, Krishna passed through the corridor where the fabric of time and space were compressed and arrived at our destination in less than a second.

「Eeek... Th-this is terrifying, isn’t it?!」

「We changed places instantaneously after all, it’s hard for humans to adapt to this kind of unnatural movement ...combat preparations are complete, my Lord.」

「Mimi, are you good? Let’s go.」

「Yes!」

☆★☆

「Marvelous! We got a mountain of observational data! Hahaha!」

Upon returning to the hangar of the Black Lotus, I was greeted by Buubo’s enthusiastic celebration. It seems he’d managed to collect a wealth of valuable data from this battle. There is no sign of Ameno, the ship technology expert though.

「Welcome back, Boss. Glad to see Mimi and Kugi made it back safe too. It’s a relief everyone’s alright.」

「Yeah, thanks. I’ll leave the maintenance to you.」

「Leave it to me. Though, we’ve got a ton of data processing to tackle first.」

Tina shot an exasperated look at Buubo, who was practically dancing with a datapad in hand. Is he actually reviewing the data while spinning around like that...?

「Welcome back, Big Brother, Mimi-san, Kugi-chan.」

「Thanks, Wiska. Where’s Ameno?」

「Ameno-san went to check out the Antlion’s Gravity Jammer. He seems interested in its ability to slow down the movements of space monsters over a wide area.」

「...That’s Ideal’s secret tech, or rather, Imperial secret tech, isn’t it?」

「Yes, technically... However, there shouldn’t be any issues, we’re under contract not to sell it, but there’s nothing saying we can’t show it to others.」

「I see. Well, if they really want one, the Holy Vuelzarus Empire would have to request it directly from the Grakkan Empire.」

I doubt they’d try reverse engineering or stealing secret technology from one of our ships. After all, they know it’s Grakkan Empire tech.

「I’ll leave maintenance to you two. There’s still a chance more enemies will show up, so please handle it quickly.」

「You are a slave driver Boss... We’ll do our best though.」

「Sorry. 」

I pressed my hands together and apologized to Tina, who was scowling a bit. I’ll make it up to you two later, I’ll spoil you as much as you want, so please forgive me.