There were a total of thirteen enemies behind us. Having our backside exposed to enemy fire right from the start of the battle isn’t amusing in the least.

But we still had an overwhelming advantage in terms of shield capacity and firepower. We have a full batch of shield cells ready as well. I guess taking a brute force approach every once in a while ain’t so bad.

“We’re going for a frontal shootout this time, girls.”

“Are you serious?”

“Very.”

I immediately deployed the ship’s four manipulator arms equipped with heavy laser cannons and the two ballistic shotgun cannons on both sides of the cockpit block as I fired up the thrusters to maximum.

『What the hell? So yer runnin away? Ya coward!』

『Gyahaha! Do you think you can escape with thirteen ships surrounding you?』

I’m not really trying to run away though. I inwardly thought so as I kept taking distance from the pirates. Even though I said we were going for a frontal shootout earlier, it doesn’t mean I planned on staying put while trading shots. It would be troublesome to take enemy fire from all sides after all.
“Are we going to run away like this? Our ship is certainly faster so we do have a good chance of escaping, but…”

“There’s no way we’re bailing out.”

“Um……?”

“We’re gonna do this instead.”

『Crap, that one’s faster than expecte–!?』

I made the Krishna do a high-speed turn by firing out a couple of the attitude control sub-thrusters while maintaining the momentum built up earlier by rushing forward at top speed. As a result, Krishna, that had its backside completely exposed to the enemies earlier, was finally able to face the thirteen pirate ships head-on while still maintaining its earlier escaping speed.

“Well, that pullback maneuver sure was smooth.”

“Course it was.”

Krishna fired all four heavy lasers against the enemy pirate ships giving chase while maintaining distance using the sub-thrusters in front of the ship. Pirate ships generally prioritize firepower, so their shield strengths were relatively poor.

The azure light projectiles fired out by the heavy laser cannons easily penetrated the flimsy energy shields of the enemy pirate ships like they were nothing more than shoji paper, melting their armor and blasting through their hulls.

『The shield was penetrated in one hit!? Gaaaaaaaaaa!?”』

『M-Missiles! Fire everything at em!』

Four of the enemy ships exploded, but the remaining nine fired heat-seeker missiles at us. It looks like they fired all they got in order for the deaths of their comrades to not be in vain or something like that.

That sure puts a tear in my eye guys. But it’s meaningless.

『W-What the–!? The missiles!–? Guwaaah!?』

I intercepted all the heat-seeker missiles by firing off the two ballistic shotgun cannons, causing a large chain explosion. I then used said explosion as a screen in order to land more hits using the laser cannons. The pirate ships fired back using their own laser cannons and multi-cannons, but they were unable to put even as much as a scratch on Krishna due to our high-output shields.

『Crap! We thought this was delicious prey, but we ended up provoking a monster! We’re gonna run for it, you bastards!』

I shot down another four ships. That leaves five more. Did that lead ship manage to survive until now because it was always hanging out back while the others took the heat? I mulled over such pointless stuff while picking off the remaining pirate ships with the heavy lasers.

『Crap! Craaaap! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die! I don’t–』

The last ship took the full brunt of our four laser cannons and exploded. Did that guy have a habit of saying ‘crap’ over and over again? Oh, yeah. It sure takes back to my FPS days. There was a guy who kept saying ‘crap’ all the time back then as well. He sounded like a broken radio.

“Situation clear. Hm. The difference in our specs was just too huge, so it was pretty one-sided.”

“This ship is just too much of a cheat. Isn’t the generator output just absurd? It looks like a small ship, but the output of its generator and its firepower rival that of a large warship.”

“I don’t deny that it’s a cheat. But the handling of this thing is quite peaky you know.”

“Well, that’s right too, I guess. It’s not as much as the Swan though.”

“I’ll worship you as a goddess if you ever master that kind of ship, Elma…… That one’s just too much for me as well.”

While talking casually with Elma, I moved Krishna toward the pirate ship wreckage in order to commence salvaging operations.

“They’re always like this, but, I mean……”

Mimi turned a complicated gaze toward me and Elma, who were busy talking animatedly with each other in a harmonious fashion. Fumu. Was she bothered that we didn’t really care about the deaths earlier?

“What’s wrong? Are you wondering why we’re so calm even after killing people?”

“Um……”

Mimi hesitated to reply after hearing Elma’s question. I’m sure that’s exactly how she feels, but she’s just afraid of rubbing Elma and I the wrong way, so she’s keeping mum instead.

“You know Mimi, if you keep worrying about things like that, it’ll just become a vicious cycle. Those were space pirates who attack and kill innocent civilians like it was nothing, okay. But I do understand it’s hard to reconcile with one’s feelings at first even though you understand the logic.”

“It’s just as Hiro says. There’s no need to pay attention to the dying screams of those kinds of idiots. Those scum have always ignored the screams and begging of their victims after all. It’s their just desserts, so to speak.”

“……Yes.”

Mimi answered us in a downhearted voice. My seat was a bit far from hers, so I couldn’t see her face, but I’m sure she was displaying a depressed expression right now.

“Well, this might sound rather callous, but I think you’re better off being that way, Mimi. I and Elma are like this, y’see. I think someone like Mimi, who still holds on to your compassionate heart, can act as the voice of conscience and reason for this ship from time to time.”

“Hey, I also have a conscience you know…? But Mimi, you absolutely cannot show any mercy to pirates, okay. If you ever let at least one escape, tens, or even hundreds of innocent lives will be the price to pay.”

“……Yes.”

Hmmm. The tension just won’t go back down. I’m not sure about what exactly I should say to lighten the mood at times like this. Sorry, Mimi.

“They don’t seem to be carrying much cargo.”

“Yeah. We only got some canned food, alcohol, and a small number of rare metals. Is there some equipment that’s worth taking away with us… Oh.”

As I was controlling the drone to look for loot, I managed to find something that made me involuntarily sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

“I might have found something troublesome here.”

“Eh? What is it? Another singing crystal?”

“Nope. Here, take a look.”

I sent the image data to Mimi and Elma’s terminals.

“This is…… a cold sleep pod? Geh. And it looks like it has someone inside.”

After seeing the images I sent, Elma let out an unwilling voice.

A cold sleep, simply speaking, is an emergency escape pod usually equipped on passenger ships. Humans who enter inside them are put into a state of suspended animation under really low temperatures, suppressing their metabolism to extremely low levels, which would allow them to survive with limited resources for a long period of time.

A rescue signal is set to be emitted from the pod at a set period of time after being ejected from a ship, and it is a system that would give the escaped person a chance to be recovered by other passing ships while they are kept alive under the cold sleep state. By the way, in Stella Online, it’s merely treated as a cash item. But in this world, it won’t be the case for sure.

“It has someone inside…… So it’s a survivor?”

“That would be the case if nothing’s wrong with the pod…… And we can’t exactly leave it drifting around like this.”

“Yeah, you’re right.”

The discoverers of such pods are also obligated to rescue them under universal law. If it was ever found out that you ignored one such pod, it would become a capital crime, and you’d get a bounty put on your head. Mercs and merchants who blatantly ignore things like these while betting that they won’t be found out mostly end up with a big, fat bounty on their heads.

“Well, better retrieve it then…… and head as fast as we can for the nearest colony.”

“We came here for a vacation and encountered something so troublesome right off the bat…… Well, getting attacked by pirates is also quite unlucky as well though.”

“Um, why does it sound like you’re not very willing, you two……?”

After hearing Mimi’s question, my and Elma’s eyes met. The main pilot seat and the sub-pilot seat were adjacent to each other, so we can freely meet eyes like this.

And right now we were trying to pass the responsibility of explaining what’s up to Mimi on each other with our gazes…… Oh man. Mimi already took a hit earlier with the pirate deaths, so telling her about the reason for our reluctance to rescue the pod is a little awkward.

In the end, Elma gave in first. She sighed and began explaining.

“When using a cold sleep pod, there’s a good chance of the person inside having some gaps in his or her memories as a side effect. That’s why the rescuer is obliged to take care of the person inside the pod for a week or so. Once their memories return, the rescuer can also charge the expenses incurred during that one week period.”

“In other words, we can’t go on our planned vacation for at least one week, and we can’t hunt pirates either…… Well, we’re rescuing a person, so I guess it can’t be helped.”

“I see. But I think rescuing people is a good thing. I and Elma-san were rescued by Hiro-sama after all.”

“……That’s right, I guess. It feels like we’re gonna get punished or something by thinking something like this is unlucky. But I do hope there’s nothing wrong with the ‘contents’ of that pod.”

“The ‘contents’ huh…… That sure makes me think twice about opening that pod or not.”

It would be nice if the person inside can stay rational even after being put into cold sleep…… But according to Elma, there are lots of cases where survivors behaved pretty unreasonably.

“In any case, let’s hurry and head to the Sierra Prime colony first. We’re done with recovering the loot anyway.”

“You’re right. Mimi, set a new navigation route for us please.”

“Yes, I’m updating the navigation data now.”

After the navigation data for the Sierra Prime colony was set, the main monitor inside the cockpit displayed our new route.

“Yosh, let’s go. FTL Drive, charging start.”

“Roger. Charging, start.”

And so, we shoved the cold sleep pod with unknown contents inside the cargo hold and headed for the Sierra Prime colony.

All the while unsuspecting of all the trouble the mysterious ‘contents’ of that pod will bring us later on.