Chapter 27: Trump Card (2/2)

“The anti-ship reactive torpedoes are weapons specially developed to give critical damage to large ships with strong energy shielding and thick armor plating. They’re equipped with special energy shield saturation warheads. Two shots of those things are enough to sink a Galaxy-class battleship.”

“That’s amazing… But, if they’re so effective, shouldn’t their use be widespread?”

“Because they’re crazy expensive. One of them costs around 500,000 Enel after all. If they’re not used on prey with equal or more value, you’d just end up with huge monetary losses. So you won’t find a lot of mercenaries using such things.”

“One torpedo costs 500,000 Enel!?”

Mimi got paralyzed from shock after hearing how expensive the torpedoes were. 500,000 Enel really was a huge amount after all. Well, it’s not like they cost more than the advanced missiles back on Earth anyway.

“Anyway, You’ve already explained how we’re going to bring down the flagship. It’s a bit of a gamble, but that’s just how we mercs do things, right? If you say you can pull it off, then we’ll just have to follow your lead. But what are we going to do after we destroy the flagship?”

“Un, well here’s the rest of it. Once we successfully pull off shooting down their flagship, the enemy fleet’s chain of command would probably be thrown into chaos for a time, but it’ll also leave Krishna completely surrounded. We’ll probably just be taken down from behind if we attempt a normal retreat.”

“That’s right. So you do understand that point huh.”

As long as we’re in the middle of the group, the Federation fleet’s ships wouldn’t be able to use their more powerful weapons, but once we take sufficient distance while attempting to escape, I bet they’ll immediately shoot us down with their high-output laser cannons from behind. Even Krishna wouldn’t be able to take so much laser cannon fire, especially from an entire fleet.

“And so, we’re going to stick this little thing on one of the torpedoes.”

I opened up the secret cargo compartment and took something out. You guessed it. I took out the super-dangerous (not to mention sorta illegal) contraband – the 『Singing Crystal』. It was enclosed in a transparent glass-like capsule and exuded a faint glow. Even in its sealed state, it was still able to emit a peculiar humming noise that was seemingly able to penetrate one’s mind.

The sound was akin to that of a song that had the ability to bewitch those who hear it.

Just who or what was it that created this mysterious item that, upon being destroyed, was able to get a great number of space monsters – aggressive crystal life-forms to be exact – that attacked all in their path? Nobody knew. It was a popular topic of research, however.

“Huh!? That!? Isn’t that- !?”

“Singing Crystal~♪”

“Are you an idiot!? Just what are you thinking by carrying something so dangerous!? Wai- Don’t you dare drop that thing! Don’t drop it, okay!?”

“Whoops.”

“Hii~i!?”

I teasingly loosened my hold on it, which made Elma all panicky. Hahaha. How amusing.

“It’s such a beautiful crystal! And the sound coming from it is kind of……”

“That’s no good, Mimi! You can’t listen to the sound! If you listen to it for too long, there’s a chance you’d go crazy or even die!”

“Eeh!? Really!?”

Elma blocked her long ears with both hands. Mimi followed suit. They’re actually kinda cute; getting all flustered like that.

“Well, it does make one feel a little homesick… But its more of a hazardous material than anything else.”

I can’t even return home even if I wanted to right now. Mimi’s already lost her previous home to begin with. I don’t know about Elma, but she does sort of feel like an ojousan who escaped from her home or something, so I bet she isn’t really attached to the idea of homecoming all that much.

I ignored the sound coming from the singing crystal and moved it to the cargo hold’s ammunition depot.

The ammo depot was dark and cramped. The thing I was after was located far at the back. Yep, it’s the anti-ship reactive torpedoes.

“Round and round we go.”

I used the military-grade duct tape to stick the singing crystal onto one of the torpedoes. I wrapped it with several layers just to be sure.

“And that should do it.”

“‘And that should do it’, my foot!”

After I came out of the ammunition depot and wiped the sweat that accumulated on my brows, I suddenly found Elma giving my head a good whack. Ouch. Mimi gently caressed the place I was hit on. You’re seriously an angel, Mimi.

“Violence is no good, Elma-san.”

“Whaddya mean ‘no good’!? You have no idea Mimi, but that item is classified as ultra-dangerous illegal contraband! It’s a dangerous item that will release countless crystal space monsters that will attack on-sight!”

“Is that really the case, Hiro-sama?”

“More or less.”

“Whaddya mean ‘more or less’!? You didn’t even tell us you were carrying such a dangerous item on this ship!”

“Ok, ok. It’s my fault, alright. So calm down a bit. Don’t shout in such a loud voice.”

I raised my hands in surrender in front of the red-faced Elma-san.

“Anyway, that’s sort of like my trump card. If we release that thing in the middle of the Federation fleet, they’ll be overrun by crystal monsters in no time. We’re going to take advantage of that to escape.”

“Well, that thing’s certainly going to raise hell…… But it’s still far too reckless a plan.”

Can’t argue with that. I dunno about this world, but in the game, those crystal monsters were set to be the enemy of all organic lifeforms. They would immediately attack and attempt to assimilate any organic life they encounter. In other words, the Singing Crystal posed many problems if one intends to use it as a sort of weapon. It was a full-on biological(?) weapon of mass destruction after all.

“It’s all fine as long as we win!”

For that, I wouldn’t hesitate to use it. I place more importance on our survival than the lives of soldiers I don’t even know.

But isn’t it better to use normal delaying tactics within the asteroid belt, you ask? Don’t make me laugh. The enemy force has more than sixty ships larger than cruisers at their disposal. We’ll just be bombarded to bits by their large-caliber laser cannons and ship-to-ship missiles even if we did hole up in the asteroid field.

“Well, aren’t you confident… I do agree about the ‘as long as we win’ part though.”

“Let’s put that aside for now. The problem’s what to do from this point on.”

I gave a serious-looking gaze towards Elma, who had a peculiar expression on, and Mimi, who was still a bit stiff from shock.

“This plan definitely carries a high risk and is extremely dangerous. We’ll probably die if we make just one mistake. So, if you want to, you two could just– ”

Elma put up a hand to stop me before I could say ‘get off the ship’.

“I won’t get off the ship. I did join your crew knowing full well how dangerous being a mercenary truly is. Or rather, both I and Mimi owe our lives to you, more or less, y’know.”

“I don’t have anywhere I can go to if I did get off the ship anyway. I’ll go wherever Hiro-sama decides to go.”

“I can’t really promise that much… But, well, the plan does have some prospects of success, so I’ll tag along. You can’t board a mercenary ship without at least that much resolve anyway.”

“……I see. Understood.”

Looks like I was worried for nothing. I’m… a bit scared though. There’s a good chance of success. But there’s no absolutes. There’s a good chance of dying from just a tiny mistake. Moreover, I’ll cause the both of them to die as well if I ever screwed up. That thought scares me. I won’t think much about it if I were to die alone… Well, maybe not. I won’t be able to accept my death all that calmly.

“Well, let’s leave that for later.”

“Hm?”

I tilted my head in puzzlement at Elma’s change of tone.

“Don’t you think it’s unfair to the rest of this ships’ crew that you kept quiet about keeping such a dangerous item inside the ship without a word of explanation?”

“Guh…”

I can’t really refute that. I did keep mum because I didn’t want them to worry too much, but a part of it was just because of me fooling around. My crew placed their lives on my hands, so it was only right to disclose such a thing to them, especially because it was a pretty dangerous item.

“……I’m truly sorry.”

“That’s a good boy. Be sure to tell the crew the next time you get your hands on such illegal stuff in the future, okay. You’re fine with that, right?”

“I gotcha.”

“Fufu…… You really seem like Hiro-sama’s big sister, Elma-san.”

Mimi let out an amused giggle after seeing Elma and my exchange.

“Well, of course. I’m older after all. I’m also an experienced veteran.”

“A veteran who doesn’t even know the kinks of her own ship (trolling grin).”

“What did you just say?”

“I’m sorry. Please forgive me, big sis.”

I did another splendid dogeza in front of Elma, who looked like she was about to snap, even with a smiling face. I have some confidence when it comes to a firefight, but I’ll definitely lose in hand-to-hand combat y’know.

“Okay then. Shall we?”

“Yes!”

“Alright, let’s depart.”