I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary - Chapter 557

「You really can do anything, Serena.」

「Coming from you, that just sounds like sarcasm...」

Serena shot me a look of mild disdain as she finished her round of tests. Well, sure—I can handle most things a mercenary’s expected to do. Aside from electronic warfare and general knowledge, I’ve got just about everything covered. I can function as an operator if needed, and I’m decent enough at managing supply logistics and selling off loot.

But Serena? She’s well above average across the board—including electronic warfare and common knowledge. Her close-combat skills are top-class. She handles combat ships on par with mid-tier Bronze Rank mercs. I expected she would only know the basics, but she greatly surpasses the ability of greenhorn Iron Ranks. She’s got a handle on EW, can serve as an operator or co-pilot, handles inventory and loot sales without breaking a sweat—in fact, she’s absurdly good at it all.

And the crazy part? She’s still got room to grow. She clearly lacks experience in the merc business. Seeing how talented she is, once she gains some hands-on experience, she’ll only get better.

「Isn’t she just... too good at everything?」

「She’s on another level... Not that I plan to lose, though.」

Mimi looked mildly crushed. Elma, while trying to play it cool, was clearly feeling the pressure too. Don’t sweat it too much, girls, Serena is a legit high-ranking noble and elite military officer with heavy cybernetic and biological augmentations. Of course the strength of her enhancements and the implants she’s carrying are in a whole different class.

Elma’s undergone body enhancement as well, but as the daughter of a viscount, hers are only standard-issue—nothing like the neural upgrades given to heirs or heads of noble houses. She didn’t go in for military-grade mods either. So naturally, she can’t match Serena in terms of raw physical specs.

「Honestly, the weird part’s that you can beat Serena in close combat, Boss.」

「Yeah, it’s already strange for an unaugmented civilian to beat a high noble at anything. But you? You’ve beaten her at multiple things. That’s just straight-up bizarre.」

「Can you not call me bizarre to my face?」

I shot the dwarf sisters a protest. Since we’re all more or less the same age, and Serena’s younger than them, they’ve apparently decided to call her by name without honorifics—just like I do.

They were going to call her ‘Serena-neesan’ at first, but Serena politely asked them not to. Getting called ‘Neesan’ by someone older felt too awkward, apparently. Which, yeah, makes sense.

「Still, a reliable addition to the crew, my Lord.」

「Kugi, you’re awfully calm about all this... But yeah, as expected of a big noble, the body augmentation treatment she received is impressive. That kind of modification takes a seriously advanced facility to pull off.」

「...I’d advise against altering your body too much, though.」

Kugi was simply glad to have another capable ally. She really is unfazed by anything. Shouko-sensei looked intrigued by the technology behind Serena’s enhancements, while Neve, on the other hand, seemed a bit uneasy about it. Given her past, that reaction is only natural, I guess.

「So I’m starting at Bronze Rank, huh? I think I could’ve made it to Silver if my performance with the combat ship was just a bit better.」

Serena pouted slightly as she looked at her Bronze Rank mercenary ID on her handheld terminal. Figures—she’s a former soldier with strong upward ambition.

「When I first registered, I cleared the program for Gold Rank qualification easily, but I still had to start at Bronze. They said no matter how good you are, if you don’t have a record, they can’t bump your rank.」

「You started at Bronze too, Hiro? Then that’s fine.」

Hearing that I started the same way seemed to cheer her up instantly. Cute.

「So, you mentioned you had a ship in mind for me?」

「Yeah, it’s not exactly standard, though. I was thinking... a drone carrier.」

「...That’s quite the gimmicky pick.」

Elma frowned at the mention of a drone carrier. Okay, yeah, it’s definitely niche, but I really think it would suit Serena.

「It’s a ship designed to deploy a lot of space combat drones and overwhelm the enemy with numbers. Even the smallest drone carriers are mid-sized combat ships, and they usually launch four to six drones during battle. The tricky part is controlling them—if you can manage that, they’re powerful. But if you can’t, they get picked off one by one and turn into a money pit. Not exactly easy to handle.」

Depending on how you combine the drones with the carrier’s own weapons, you can field a wide range of tactics. If you can master the coordination, it’s very effective. I just never had the patience—it’s too much of a micromanagement nightmare for me.

「Sounds like a bad fit for a beginner.」

「It is. But I think Serena could handle it. There should be a few manufacturers dealing in that class in the Windas system. I’ll pull up some specs and have you test it in the simulator—see if it feels right.」

「Hmm... If you’re recommending it, I’ll give it a shot.」

She gave a thoughtful nod. Looks like I got her interested.

Assuming Serena ends up liking the drone carrier, the next issue is funding. I could just buy it for her, but we’re talking tens of millions of Enels here. That’s a lot for a gift. I can’t exactly drop that kind of cash on Serena and give nothing to the rest of the crew.

Then again, if it helps us rake in more profits as a mercenary band, the others might not mind. Still, I’ll need to be careful about balance. If it comes down to actually making the purchase, I’ll probably need to talk it over with Mei.