Chapter 277: Empty Shell (1/2)

After the sortie order was issued, the combined fleet split into the star system blockade fleet and assault fleet and immediately commenced the operation afterward. After arriving at the Shinoskia system, which was right next to the Refill system, we headed straight for the space pirate base together with the assault fleet.

“How do you think things are gonna go down this time?”

“I wonder. We probably won’t encounter much resistance, I think.”

“Is that so? They should have gotten some info regarding our movements in the Refill system, so shouldn’t they have made some preparations?”

“I think we’ll probably encounter a near-empty shell of a base though. What about you, Elma?”

I answered Mimi who cocked her head to the side in puzzlement and turned to Elma. She mulled over the question for a bit and opened her mouth to answer.

“I don’t think it’ll be completely abandoned, but I do agree that we’ll probably encounter little resistance.”

“So Elma-san and Hiro-sama both think it would be like that huh.”

“No matter how many people and ships the Red Flag pirates have at their disposal, they won’t be enough to deal with a well-equipped military fleet. If I were them and knew an attack was coming, I’d hurry up and gather all the supplies I can before making my escape.”

“I see. So that means we’ll be in for an easier time today, right?”

“That would still depend. Again, if I were in place of the pirates, I wouldn’t escape before leaving some nasty stuff to harass the enemies first.”

“Harassing us?”

“For example, once the military rushes inside the base, I’d set it so a self-destruct sequence would get triggered, or scatter some proximity mines in spots where the enemy fleet would likely stop to organize its formation. Well, I think it’s more likely for us to encounter stuff like those in the subsequent target star systems though.”

“Right. Even if they decide to do those, they’ll have to prepare the manpower and materials needed. They’re probably gonna use some ready-to-use harassment methods this time around.”

“Ready-to-use harassment methods?”

“Mimi, there’s a ton of illegal stuff inside a pirate base. Some of them are of the extremely dangerous kind.”

“Uh, I have a bad feeling about this.”

“Singing Crystals are pretty damn rare so I don’t think they’ll have some in stock, but you never know……”

I pity the vanguard ships that are gonna rush right in. Normal BC weapons are cute, but some among them are more than dangerous enough. There are a lot of those types of weapons even in SOL, and I’m sure there are far more dangerous things in this dimension too.

What kind of dangerous stuff exactly, you ask? Well, things like energy creatures that parasitize the corpses of humans and other lifeforms with intelligence, remodel their bodies and turn them into grotesque monstrosities for one. Those pale blue things can replicate the feats of movie zombies since they multiply by killing lifeforms and parasitizing their bodies. Perhaps they were implemented in SOL as a homage to a certain older game of that particular genre, but due to the shitty difficulty, the players completely gave up on taking them on in melee combat and instead chose to blow up the infested large-class mining ship that served as the stage for that particular event.

There are more examples like highly lethal space spiders, murderous aliens with body fluids corrosive enough to melt starship armor and hulls, etcetera…… Oh, and regular zombies were present too. But as one would expect, the players dealt with those by using laser weapons and power armor with high physical and biochemical defense capabilities.

“They’ll most likely use biological weapons. The worst thing they can use are victims who are loaded with booby traps.”

“Victims?”

“They’ll set up bombs, poisonous gas, and even more dangerous stuff inside people who have been turned into their ‘products’ after getting abducted. Then when those guys get rescued, the pirates will trigger the traps and kill the victims along with whoever was near them.”

After saying so, Elma shrugged.

“That’s nasty…… But they’re pirates after all.”

Anything goes for those guys. They aren’t gonna get held back by things like reason or ethics.

“The marines are going to have a hard time, aren’t they?”

“Yeah. That’s why no matter what Lt. Col. Serena says, I ain’t participating in a melee operation again.”

Aside from their ships, you never know what sort of surprises would pop up in your face once you’re inside the pirate base. No matter what, I’m not gonna join the raiding team. Well, most of the time, things end with only some biological weapons being unleashed though.

–Approximately two hours later–

“There goes some dirty fireworks again……”

“It’s really like what we thought earlier.”

“Uwaa.”

The main cockpit screen displayed footage of the pirate base being destroyed by intense explosions and flames.

Yep, it was exactly like we expected.

The space battle was swiftly wrapped up with our forces overwhelming the enemy. Most of the pirate ships have already escaped, and only the anti-spacecraft cannons installed around the base gave us a bit of trouble. There was no need for small and medium-class ships to participate since the bombardment from the large-class ships was enough to get rid of all resistance.

The problems began when the marines rushed inside the base. They really seemed to have administered a drug or virus that turned their ‘products’ into irrational monsters.