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âSo, Captain Serena aside, all that political stuff is supposedly out of our jurisdiction, butâŠâŠ what the heck was that f*câ I mean esteemed emperor thinking when he decided to throw us to a place like this?â
âPlease refrain from making disparaging remarks against His Imperial Majesty in front of me. Think of my position, will you?â
We were currently within the captainâs quarters of the Independent Mobile Anti-Pirate Fleet flagship Restalias, which can be described as pretty luxurious. Captain Serena responded to my remark with a smile on her lips as she held a teacup in one hand.
For Imperial soldiers, the emperor was a respected monarch to whom they all swore allegiance, but for me, he was just an eccentric old guy who liked to throw me into harsh circumstances just for fun.
âI personally cannot hope to fathom His Imperial Majestyâs exact intentions. However, I believe he didnât choose you simply due to your skills in exterminating pirates. You are probably a stone he cast upon the lake to create waves. In other words, heâs expecting you to be the catalyst for change in the current state of affairs.â
âState of affairsâŠâŠ State of affairs huh? In the first place, Iâm not even clear about the entire situation right now. Anyway, this is a disputed conflict zone between the Graccan Empire and the Vereverem Federation, and Iâm guessing enemy commandos have disguised themselves as space pirates to disrupt the empireâs supply lines. But the delinquent noble house who messed with House Dareinwald was sent here to get crushed, soâŠâŠâ
Suddenly, I had a really bad feeling about all this. What was the worst outcome in this particular situation? When I ran with that train of thought, it felt like I could already guess what that damn old man was expecting from me.
âWhat is it?â
âI hate to even imagine it, but I think His Imperial Majesty is actually expecting that troublesome noble house to raise a commotion. The worst that can happen in this particular situation is House Ixamal defecting to the Federation, right?â đŻđ§đđđđđ«đđ€đżđđĄ.đđ€đ
âIsnât that going a bit too far? Even if they are rotten, House Ixamal is still part of imperial nobility.â
âI might be preaching to the choir here when it comes to you, but saying something is unlikely doesnât mean itâs impossible. Thatâs a big taboo on the battlefield yâknow? Ignoring something just because itâs supposedly unlikely, that is.â
âThatâsâŠâŠ true, butâŠâŠâ
Captain Serena turned speechless. In my opinion, I wouldnât think it strange for guys to defect to the enemy side if they were to be cornered and sent to the front lines as a punitive measure. However, other imperial nobles seemed to find such a thing unthinkable.
âIs it really that unthinkable for an imperial noble to betray the Empire and join the Federation?â
I turned to Elma, who was sitting next to me and inquired.
âWell, if one defects to the Federation, theyâll lose both their status as a noble and the territory under their rule. If youâre an earl, youâll end up losing at least five star systems, right? The tax revenue one gets from their territories alone is already a huge amount, and there are many other benefits one gets from being a noble, so usually, one wouldnât even consider switching sides.â
âI see. Aside from pride, there are also practical benefits. But you seeâŠâŠ since Iâm already involved in this, it probably wonât turn out so well for us.â
âWhy do you sound like youâve half-given up already? Do you not have the courage to overcome adversity?â
Captain Serena gave me a reproachful look as she criticized me for lacking guts. This person looked like a typical beauty who was more suited to a dress instead of a military uniform, but she was surprisingly more of a musclehead than I gave her credit for.
âBased on past experiences, trouble isnât something I can simply avoid even if I wanted toâŠâŠ I mean, if you braced yourself for trouble right from the start, then you can avoid panicking when something really does happen.â
âArenât you being too much of a pessimist?â
âIâve simply learned my lesson. Well, I kinda get the political circumstances now. In any case, there arenât many things mercenaries like us can do when it comes to that aspect, so please keep an eye on them instead. So, give me the info you got on those space pirates nextâŠâŠ But they probably arenât real space pirates, right?â
âOther than the fact that their ships are extremely well-equipped, and their movements being systematic and relatively clever, thereâs no doubt that they truly are space pirates. Weâve already captured several of them, and they are pirates through and through.â
âHuh? So, itâs either they have sponsors backing them up, they were hired and are taking orders from someone else, or both.â
âMore or less. As a professional on the matter, whatâs your opinion?â
âThereâs no need for any particularly special methods to deal with them. The best thing to do is to keep beating them up and make them think continuing their activities is not worth all the trouble. They are pirates after all. If things donât go their way, they wonât hesitate to fall out with their sponsors to save themselves. If possible, it would be great if we could directly go for the enemy command unit thatâs ordering those pirates around.â
As long as the enemy isnât an idiot, they were probably moving their command center around constantly. Perhaps they were using a ship just as big or even a bit bigger than the Black Lotus as their flagship. A stealth-specialized mothership was highly effective in guerilla warfare as a mobile command post after all. Itâll be quite hard to detect once it hides itself within an asteroid or debris field.
âSo, the decapitation tactic is the most effective optionâŠâŠ Whether or not we can pull it off highly depends on luck though.â
âWell, yeahâŠâŠ Or rather, the supply lines are being targeted, so hasnât the Imperial Space Force put up a defense net or something yet? Even though weâre so close to the front lines?â
âAside from the immediate conflict zones, including the Creon star system, there hasnât been much security put up further back. Those pirates are active in the Xyram, Daomun, and Volks systems, which are further behind this system.â
âOh, I see. Itâs not the supply lines from here to the front lines that are being attacked. Instead, they are targeting the supplies being delivered to the supply basesâŠâŠ After all, the one in charge of delivering supplies from the supply bases to the front lines is the military, which isnât an easy mark.â
It was naturally the Imperial Space Forceâs transport units that were in charge of carrying supplies from supply bases like the one in the Creon system to the front lines, and they were always guarded by well-armed escort ships. No matter how well-equipped those pirates were, I thought it was strange that they were attacking such transport units. I see. So, they were instead infesting the star systems closest to the conflict zone that were further behind.
âIf thatâs the caseâŠâŠ then this will be quite troublesome.â
âHave you all understood the general picture now?â freewe bnovel.com
âYeah.â
âUhuh.â
âI have.â
The three of us responded to Captain Serena in unison. As for what exactly was troublesome about the situation, itâs that we had no concrete idea regarding the activity range of the pirates. All the star systems located behind the Creon system, or rather, the imperial borders, had at least three or four hyperlane entrances. And because they were relatively close to the front lines, there were lots of armed ships piloted by mercenaries and the like coming and going from them. If those ships were newly purchased combat ships, you wouldnât be able to visually determine if they were pirate ships. And if their equipment was top-notch even if they were relatively old, thereâs a possibility of them employing a device that would allow them to hide their bounty status.
âCanât we take control of the flow of weapons and funds?â
âYou canât set up a hyperlane stabilizer in a conflict zone after all.â
âAhââŠâŠ I see.â
Hyperlanes, which were subspace pathways that connected star systems, were quite convenient. However, to travel through them more quickly and reliably, a certain degree of preparation, or rather, several arrangements were required. Just as waterborne ships could traverse more efficiently and safely through well-maintained waterways or canals rather than large, winding rivers that had unstable water flow speeds depending on the location, hyperlanes also needed hyperlane stabilizers and subspace beacons to be installed at certain points to ensure navigation efficiency.
On the other hand, if stuff like that were to be installed, the coordinates where you could enter or warp out of the hyperlanes would be fixed in place to some extent. In other words, it was possible to set up an ambush. This allowed for a huge advantage for the defending side in a conflict. Of course, these devices were only effective when they were installed on both sides of a hyperlane in question, so in conflict zones, they were the very first things the attacking side would nullify.
If these devices were to stop functioning, the time it took to navigate a hyperlane would become longer, and the warp-out coordinates would end up at random spots over a fairly wide range. Because they were located outside star systems, the general directions were fixed to some extent, but the possible warp-out coordinate range was still quite large. Even when using an FTL Drive, itâd still take at least a few hours to scout the entire area out. This, on the other hand, was a considerable advantage for attackers, and it also made it easier for smugglers and space pirates to come and go from the lanes. However, this would also pose problems to those trying to perform an infiltration.
âWe conduct regular patrols to keep an eye on them, but weâre simply unable to cover them all. Theyâre also focusing on harassment tactics, so we often ended up too late when trying to deal with themâŠâŠâ
âIf we donât take any drastic measures, it looks like theyâre just gonna gradually bleed us out through these minor encountersâŠâŠ Well, itâs not something we should worry about right now anyway. In the end, we just need to do our respective jobs. Itâs not like they specifically ordered us to fight on the front lines anyway, right, Captain?â
âThatâs true. The main mission of our fleet is to subdue the pirates who are attacking our supply lines and disrupting our rear.â
âWell then, letâs just do our best to perform our respective missions so we can both come out of this smiling.â
âYou sure seem confident. Do you have something in mind?â
âItâs nothing special. As long as the opponent isnât acting randomly, thereâs still something we can employ.â
To pave the way for that, we had to collect more info first. If my hunch was correct, it should be possible to grab the opponent by the tail.