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424 – Pursuit

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“Sorry for the wait!”

“Sorry to have kept you waiting, My Lord.”

“It’s fine. I was simply near Krishna already. How about Elma?”

『I’m making a dash for the Antlion right now!』

When navigating, the Antlion docks alongside the Black Lotus akin to a suckerfish clinging to a shark, but it’s unable to remain docked whenever we enter a colony, so it enters port separately. Therefore, in order for Elma to board the Antlion, she had to leave the Black Lotus first and head to where the Antlion was docked.

“Do your best.”

I encouraged a frantic-sounding Elma and checked Krishna’s self-diagnostic results on screen. There were no abnormalities with the ammo, armor, and hull. The weapon systems, life support equipment, generator, and sensors were also in top working order. Finally, the thrusters and other propulsion systems were good to go as well. If I went ahead with a test ignition, I’d make quite a mess of the hangar, and the mechanic sisters would probably come at me with spanners and wrenches in hand, so I refrained from doing so. Various parts of my body would probably break down from that after all.

“Anyway, we’re gonna launch. Hartmut should have taken care of the procedures with the port administration.”

“Understood!”

Following my instructions, Mimi quickly sat in front of the operator console and began launch procedures.

“My Lord, it seems you were quite hasty in deciding to engage in this sortie.”

“Oh, right. Well, normally, I’d first go through the details with the Mercenary Guild and decide on conditions such as compensation before accepting a request. But it’s a bit different this time around.”

“What exactly is different?”

“First, if we take out sweet time, there’s a high chance of missing the target. I’ve also gotten to know Hartmut well enough, so there’s no worry of getting ripped off. I’ve also anticipated this happening to some extent.”

The Bloodies were cornered, and they didn’t have many options left. They only had three: running away, going into hiding, or simply surrendering. I guess they decided to run away and escape. But in the end, they couldn’t completely avoid Hartmut’s surveillance.

“I see…… Perhaps you have quite the talent for serving as a military officer, My Lord. Do you not think so?”

“Nah. I’m more suited for running around battlefields as I please as a private mercenary.”

I don’t think I had enough foresight to see through matters that people would consider as tactical or strategic acumen. Also, I wasn’t that good at academics either. That sort of job was more suited for the intellectual types.

“We can launch now, Hiro-sama!”

“Great. Let’s go then. Open the hatch.”

“Hatch, open. Electromagnetic catapult, operating at minimum output.”

If the thrusters were fired inside the hangar, it would cause serious damage to the interior. And if the electromagnetic catapult operated at maximum output, Krishna would end up crashing into the inner wall of the colony. That’s why the catapult was only operating at minimum output. The Krishna was ejected out of the Lotus at lower than regular acceleration, and I immediately flew her toward the airtight shield that separated the interior and exterior of the colony. Thanks to the arrangements made by the port administration, we encountered little traffic, so it was a smooth launch.

“It looks like it’s gonna take a bit more time before Elma can launch. Hartmut sent us some data. Can you verify it for me, Mimi?”

“Yes! Please leave it to me!”

I transferred the data from my portable terminal to Krishna’s database and had Mimi confirm the contents. Mei had thoroughly trained Mimi for this kind of stuff, so she was now only second to Mei when it came to information processing. I’m not very knowledgeable when it comes to that stuff, but I believe she might have already reached the level of a full-fledged hacker. Maybe I should confirm it with her next time…… If Mimi indeed had talent in that area, should I let her develop it more? The first thing that came to mind was enhancement surgery using bionics or cybernetics, but I’d like to consult with Dr. Shouko about it first. Dr. Shouko was definitely a professional when it came to that stuff after all.

“It looks like the data contains the target ship’s ID and temporary access to the star system’s radar network.”

“Wow. That’s pretty extravagant. Well then, please go ahead and use the system’s radar network to find the target.”

“Got it!”

The star system radar network was an information network managed by the system military that used military reconnaissance satellites. If used properly, it enabled the capture of targets even if they were fleeing via FTL drives. However, since ships using FTL drives were navigating in subspace, it was impossible to directly view their IDs.

“Do you think we can successfully find the target, My Lord?”

“It’ll be fine. We know exactly when they left the colony, so they can be traced easily.”

It’s impossible to get the ID and details of a ship while it’s navigating at faster-than-light speed, but if one knew exactly when the FTL Drive was activated, it wasn’t too difficult to sniff out its traces. Whenever an FTL Drive was used to travel at faster-than-light speeds, traces of subspace waves called FTL leaks remained in its wake.

I wasn’t that familiar with subspace theory, but anyway, as long as you utilized the causal relationship between the leaks and the drive, you can successfully track a target. After all, even if one doesn’t know exactly how a remote control works, it doesn’t prevent one from using said remote.

“Target acquired!”

“Great. Please send that data to Elma as well. Is it possible for the Antlion to catch up?”

“The target is relatively fast. I think Krishna can catch up, but it’ll be difficult for the Antlion.”

“Can’t be helped. Heard that, Elma? I’ll go ahead and stop them in their tracks, so please catch up later.”

『Got it! I’ll catch up to you as soon as I can!』

“Alright. Mimi, activate the FTL Drive.”

“Roger! Activating FTL Drive!”

Now then…… I won’t let you rats get away. Uh, but wasn’t calling those pirates rats disrespectful to real rats? Anyway, I won’t let them escape.

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It was now about thirty minutes since we activated Krishna’s FTL Drive and chased after the target’s wake.

“Hiro-sama! We’ve located the target!”

“Nice. I’m gonna close in.”

“I’ll begin analyzing the target!”

It’s difficult to monitor a ship traveling at superluminal speeds in subspace from normal space. However, it’s a different story if you’re also in subspace. Using a dedicated subspace sensor, it was possible to confirm a target’s ship ID.

“The interdictor’s ready to fire. How’s your end?”

“Verification complete! Target fully identified!”

“Okay. Then let’s go ahead and finish this already.”

I marked the target’s rear and used the interdictor to force its FTL Drive to deactivate.

“They look pretty desperate.”

Just as Mimi said, the other party seemed pretty damn desperate. In order to force a ship to stop using an interdictor, the ship in question needed to remain within the interdictor’s gravitation wave range for a certain period of time. Naturally, anyone on the receiving end of interdiction would swing their ship up, down, left, and right in order to escape the interdictor’s range and shake their pursuer off.

“Hahaha! Where do you think you’re going, buddy?”

“You look like you’re having fun, My Lord.”

Kugi’s warm-sounding voice rang out from beside me. It’s true that cornering prey in a one-sided manner was pretty fun, but wasn’t her impression of me a bit off? Well, it really is fun though.

The target’s desperate resistance was futile, and the interdiction was successful. The target ship was ejected to normal space. They’ll be unable to move for a while due to the recoil caused by moving around recklessly. The side that fired the interdictor will automatically return to normal space.

『Uwaaaaaaah!』

The appearance of the target ship was finally displayed on Krishna’s main screen. It was a small recon ship. It was currently spinning around chaotically while scattering space mines all over the place.

“Oi, oi……”

“Eeh……”

“Waa……”

Everyone was at a loss for words. The target was spewing out mines in a desperate attempt to ward us off, but they’d also end up getting trapped by their own mines at that rate. We’ll indeed be unable to close in, but we can just shoot them up from outside the minefield. Blowing up the mines themselves was also an option.

“Amateurs…… How troublesome.”

Sometimes, going up against amateurs like this one was more troublesome than taking on experienced guys. It’s because an amateur’s actions can be unpredictable. Now then, how should I handle this?