"Man, it kinda feels like everything suddenly went into a very stupid
direction..."
"There, there. We're still on a job after all, Hiro-sama. Please do your
best for a little while more."
"Working is tough sometimes..."
I moved Krishna toward the flagship where the earl and Chris were
while being gently consoled by Mimi. No matter how you slice it, the
troops riding inside that suppression ship or whatever are way
outnumbered by the earl's troops stationed inside the flagship, but they
still went for it anyway. And they're actually doing quite well despite
their disadvantage. But even so, there's still a limit, and they were being
gradually taken out.
"Seriously! What is with that ship? Are the designers idiots? Do the
people that rode inside that thing have death wishes? If that's the case,
then just slap some anti-ship torpedoes onboard, and it would have
been game over. It looks like an overgrown torpedo anyway, so why
didn't they go with that?"
"I heard the total production costs for that type of ship is roughly
25,000,000 Enels. It just wouldn't be worth the astronomical cost for it
to be a one-off kamikaze ship. And it would pose a safety issue if a ship
meant for carrying soldiers had anti-ship torpedoes as payload."
"But don't ramming a ship and self-destructing immediately and
ramming a ship in order to attack with totally outnumbered forces just
lead to the same thing? They're both suicidal acts anyway!"
Since both forces were preoccupied with fighting each other, nothing
got in the way of our approach toward the flagship. Anyway, I moved
Krishna close to the suppression ship to check it out first.
"Should we just get rid of this thing first?"
"The flagship will leak air if you do that. They probably have ways to
deal with it, but it's better not to carelessly remove that thing for now. It
might even cause a sudden explosion if you did it poorly. It'll greatly
damage the flagship if that happens."
"Yeah. That doesn't sound good. Just what went through the developer's
heads when they made this thing…?"
Even if the shield emitter is powerful, it would probably still not be able
to stand up to a direct hit from a battleship's main cannon. Since it costs
25,000,000 Enels to produce each ship, the costs would pile up to
unreasonable numbers even for a wealthy empire like Graccan. It's also
not a tactic that can be used frequently since it's impractical.
It might be of use if you wanted to capture a sample of the enemy's
latest battleship model… Nah, probably not. The risk is way huge. In the
first place, standard battles between rival starship fleets involve
battleships and cruisers getting into a tight formation and blasting
away at the enemy from long range. This kind of straightforward
assault tactic isn't usually used.
And I can't even think of any other situation where a suppression ship
with extremely limited use would be a viable option. Or rather, since I
haven't seen this thing in Stella Online at all, that means it's a unit
unique to this particular empire. So it's a bit similar to my Krishna.
Actually, some players may even try to customize this thing since it does
have a number of good things going for it, like the powerful shield
emitter, generator, as well as that sharp pointy horn out front. It's a ship
that kinda smells of romance. So if they customize it a bit, slap some
weapon systems on it, and make it so that horn charge could be used as
a hidden special finishing move, I'm sure lots of em will have a blast
with it. There's a lot of eccentric guys who like that sort of stuff back on
Earth after all. I'm almost a hundred percent sure some idiots would
turn that horn into a drill.
"It seems the design was approved due to some intense lobbying by
factions in the military with help from some of the more influential
noble houses. By the way, this ship model was only officially used in
battle a total of four times. It looks like this is the fifth one though."
"And what about the success rate of the charging assault?"
"Including this instance, there's now a total of three instances when the
assault was successfully performed. So, based on that, the success rate
is 60%. The other 40% is when the ship got shot down. It's sometimes
described as a noble's fancy exclusive-use mobile coffin, a surprisingly
effective decoy, and the imperial military's most expensive secret
weapon."
"So that Balthazar guy was able to make use of this kind of eccentric
ship to its full potential huh."
"This man called Balthazar is probably a really skilled tactician. If an
irregular like Hiro didn't appear, his plans would have most likely gone
without a hitch."
"It looks like he was just unlucky to encounter Hiro-sama."
Just what are you saying, girls? Do you really think of me as some sort
of super dangerous guy? I'm just a bit skilled and blessed with a great
ship and crew. That's all. Probably. No, surely. Uh, maybe?
"Anyway, what do we do now? It looks like the other ships can take care
of the other enemy ship out there with no problems, so should we
charge in to help protect Chris and the earl?"
"I don't know... If we just boarded the ship without informing the
crew, there's a chance we'll be attacked by both sides."
"But we can't just sit here while Chris and the earl are exposed to
danger."
"Well, that's also true... But charging in suddenly like that and going
into a direct firefight will be quite dangerous you know? It's way too
risky."
It looks like Elma didn't want me to get into a firefight personally. I'm
also a bit reluctant, but doing nothing would be going against the
contract, and most of all, I really wanna protect Chris. If that Balthazar
guy was somehow able to lay his hands on Chris and the earl, it would
be game over.
Not only will that 250,000 Enels per day not be paid, but Balthazar
would succeed in his ploy to usurp the position of earl, and he may even
turn his wrath towards me and the girls. It would be more reassuring to
get rid of that Balthazar guy now instead of letting a potential source of
trouble run free.
"No, let's do it. It'll be dangerous if Balthazar ends up surviving this. In
the worst case, even if the earl were to be killed, we have to at least
ensure Chris's life and try to get rid of Balthazar if possible."
In the very worst case that both Chris and the earl get killed, we at least
have to kill that Balthazar as well, or it'll lead into all sorts of trouble. I
have to protect my enjoyable life with Mimi and Elma after all.
"Mimi, send out a boarding request. I'll charge inside using my power
armor. I'll leave Krishna's controls to you, Elma. Once I get in there, lock
the hatch, deploy the shields, and don't let anyone else board the ship
no matter what. You're coming with me, May."
"Y-Yes!"
"...Haa. Aye, aye sir."
"Understood."
Mimi, Elma, and May nodded and acknowledged my instructions. I'm
actually nervous as heck, but I have no choice. Let's go for broke then. I
relinquished the main pilot seat to Elma and went to the cargo hold
with May