Pirate Cleanup, Complete!
"The most brilliant mind in our entire pirate crew—someone we can trust completely!"
"Shut up and move! No matter how strong that Super freak is, once we smash that thing and seize the base, they'll have no choice but to surrender!"
"Yes, sir!"
Orders from the boss had been given, and that was that. While their comrades on one of the pirate ships threw themselves into buying time, the rest of them would sink that pathetic patrol ship as fast as possible and strip the base of every scrap of intel and resources they could find.
Besides, taking down a single patrol ship that was, at best, their equal—or more likely even shabbier—shouldn't take much effort or time. Or so their calculations went.
But those hopeful projections fell apart almost immediately.
"Why the hell won't it hit?!"
"S-sorry, Boss!"
"But that patrol ship's evasion is insane!"
"Dammit, dodging like a damn eel."
Faced with two pirate patrol ships, the enemy refused to engage directly at all—just weaved and slipped past every attack. The time being wasted ballooned far beyond anything they'd expected.
They did land a particle beam once, sure. But even a flimsy patrol ship wasn't going to lose its shields to a single shot. That barely counted as progress.
And while they burned through precious minutes to no effect, the situation elsewhere was deteriorating fast.
A staccato roar of gunfire tore through the channel.
A wet, crushing crunch cut the transmission short.
The crew that had been buying time against the Super were being physically shredded—literally torn apart.
Not that the pirates had been completely brainless about it.
"Dammit, contact Ship Three and tell them to just charge the base!"
"Yes, sir!"
The pirate boss finally came up with a plan—keep that dancing patrol ship occupied while a subordinate vessel stormed the base and seized it. Too little, too late.
"Boss! Message from Ship Three!"
"What now?!"
"They're saying a Super flew onto their stern and latched on—they're begging for help…"
"…What."
By the time that idea had even crossed his mind, it was already far too late. And in the split second the boss heard the report and let go of the helm—
As if waiting for exactly that opening, a perfect crossfire erupted from the patrol ship and the base defense turrets.
"N-no!"
Faster than the pirate boss could scramble to correct his mistake, the barrage shattered his ship's meager energy shields, punched a generous collection of new ventilation holes through the thin alloy plating, and speared straight through the bodies of pirates still trying to figure out what was happening. The shells slammed into the fusion reactor and the munitions magazine in the same instant.
The resulting reactor overload and magazine cook-off—compounded by the pirates' habitual over-arming and overcharging—produced a spectacularly violent explosion.
KRAAAAAAAAAANG!!!!!
And the entire sequence played out in less than four-tenths of a second.
Pirate Raid — CLEARED!
System Evaluation
2 pirate ships captured (no survivors)
1 ship destroyed
The clean, crisp results window popped up, and I clenched both fists and shouted.
"Pirate cleanup—nice!"
"You did it, Commander!"
Right beside me, my adjutant Jessica was celebrating just as purely as if it had been her own victory.
Rewards are always welcome.
The moment the clear message appeared, the pirate flagship—well, calling it a flagship was generous given how pathetic it was, but still, the ship their captain had been riding—vanished in that glorious detonation. I let myself enjoy the big, beautiful explosion for a second, then turned to the glittering notification windows in front of me, grinning at the thought of collecting my loot.
> Critical hit on pirate ship!
> SUNK!
> Patrol ship level increased
> Rewards obtained: 0
What the hell is that supposed to mean, Status Window?
I'd worked my ass off to blow that thing to scrap, and all that damn pirate ship gave me was a patrol ship level-up. Nothing else. Irritation flooded through me.
Apparently it showed on my face.
"I am truly sorry, Commander."
"Huh?"
"Because of my own inadequacy, I put you in danger."
With the pirate attack over, Ignis—who had just towed the captured pirate ships back—was looking at me with an expression of deep, earnest apology.
Her reaction only left me baffled. Sure, right now the base only had me, Jessica, and Ignis, so it wasn't a problem yet. But later, once the permanent staff ballooned and we were fighting large-scale battles… if the person who'd just carried the whole fight started apologizing to me like this?
Ugh, loyalty drop event.
If I just stood there, the trust and loyalty of people who hadn't even done anything wrong would start tanking, and next time we attacked or defended we'd get slapped with debuffs. Absolute disaster. So I shut that attitude down immediately and made sure to praise the MVP of the battle.
"Nah, my life was never really in danger, so don't worry about it."
"…Is that so."
"Besides, thanks to you pulling your weight, both I and this base came through without a scratch. That's a good thing, isn't it?"
"I—if the Commander feels that way, then I have nothing more to say…!"
Ignis's cheeks flushed as red as her hair, and she looked completely at a loss for what to do with herself.
Having successfully neutralized Ignis (so to speak) and parked her in the base lounge so she wouldn't spiral into more weird thoughts, I set aside my disappointment over the wasted flagship bounty and decided to check what we'd actually gained from the pirate raid.
That was when I realized my original plan had gone completely sideways.
"Hmm…"
"What is it, Commander?"
"Jessica. Were the rewards for repelling a pirate raid always… capturing their ships?"
Normally, if you fought off a pirate raid, you didn't get a ship-capture event. You just sank every last one of the bastards who'd come to plunder you, then used the resources you got to upgrade the base or build new ships. That was how it worked.
This time, instead of resources, I got ships—pirate ships stuffed full of chopped-up pirate corpses, no less. What the hell was I supposed to do with those?
Running into an event I'd never seen or heard of left me thoroughly bewildered.
But the bewilderment only lasted a moment.
Wait. I can just ask.
Unlike the original game, I could just open the chat and ask people. I tapped the status window glittering in the corner of my vision, opened the chat, and threw out a question.
The second my questions hit the board, replies started pouring in.
"What the hell."
At first, most of the reactions agreed that something was off, so I started wondering if this was some kind of game bug—or maybe the classic "I alone start with three ships as a cheat" mode—and a little hope fluttered into my chest.