I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

573 「What the hell is that shiny thing!?」

「Ah—seriously! Really! I mean it—REALLY! I’m not forgiving you for this, you hear me!? I’m gonna rip you a new one later, so brace yourself, dumbass!」

「N-no, uh… I mean, I know I messed up, but do you really have to be that mad…?」

I was seeing red as I strapped Lucia into the sub-operator seat so tight she could’ve been part of the frame. There. Done. I don’t care if she is wearing a diaper or not; she can piss all over herself, for all I care. Let her sit in it. I don’t have time to waste hauling this idiot back off the ship.

「Of course I’m mad, you idiot! You absolute moron! Brain-dead piece of—! If you get hurt, or die—if there’s even a one-in-a-billion chance—Isolde and the others get executed on the spot, you dumbass! And it won’t stop there! It’ll drag me, my crew, Chris, Serena, and their whole houses into it too, you damn fool!」

I smacked Lucia on the head with an open palm—smack.

What, you ask if it’s okay for me to hit her? Shut up! This is my ship! My rules!

Lucia clutched the spot I’d hit, staring at me like a pigeon that just got blasted with a beanbag round. What—never been hit before in your life? Yeah, no kidding. You’re an imperial princess. Who cares! No forgiveness! Sit there and reflect!

「Mei. We’re talking later. You know why.」

「Yes, Master. I understand everything.」

「Good. Mimi, Kugi—prep for emergency launch.」

「Y-yes…」

「Understood, my lord.」

Those two—and Mei too—are getting chewed out later. Well, Mimi and Kugi probably just got begged into it and bullied into cooperating, so they get off light.

But Mei? No. If she’d wanted to, she could’ve used Krishna’s security systems to lock Lucia out. Sure, that would’ve locked Mimi and Kugi out too, but once I reached the ramp, I could’ve subdued Lucia and refused her boarding.

Which means Mei either helped Lucia… or she saw it coming and let it happen.

That earns a lecture. The one I can least forgive is Lucia herself—and the four useless scarecrows who failed to stop her. Those worthless idiots… what should I do with them? Make them open their guts on the spot?

No—bad. I’m getting so mad my brain’s turning into a Satsuma warlord’s. I’m not a Satsuma Hayato, though! 1

「Minimum checks only. The moment we’re back in normal space, launch via catapult.」

「Understood. I’ll run the self-check in the background.」

「Sub-system check complete. Generator at combat output. System all green. We can go anytime, my lord.」

「Alright. Once the Antlion and the Morrigan are in position, disengage the FTL drive like usual—from your side. And don’t tell Elma or Serena that Lucia’s aboard the Krishna. Not the Donner either.」

「Understood, Master.」

Not long after, a thunderous rumble rolled through the ship. The FTL drive disengaged, and the Black Lotus returned to normal space.

Almost simultaneously, the Krishna was hurled out of the Black Lotus’s hangar by the electromagnetic catapult, slammed into acceleration, and shot into the void.

「Now then… let’s see what those idiots brought… oh.」

「Three large pirate ships is unusual…」

Mimi murmured in a grim tone. She’s right—large pirate ships are rare.

Most pirates favor maneuverability. Lots of small craft, plus one or two medium craft—that’s the standard. With that kind of fleet, it’s easier to shake off pursuit from the system military, who often operate destroyer-class ships—or larger, that mercenaries and pirates don’t use.

Big craft has the firepower and cargo capacity, sure. However, they are slow, which makes them a poor fit for pirate work.

Unless you are hunting prey that was big enough to justify it.

If you target large ships or higher, you need big craft—small and medium craft can’t haul the loot, and they can’t tow a captured large ship back as raw material for building a new pirate flagship.

So yeah—some pirate crews do run those monsters.

Like the idiots who decided to pick a fight with us.

「W-wow… It’s huge. Can we win?」

「If we lose, every last one of us becomes pirate toys. We’re winning. And shut up—you’ll bite your tongue. Mei, have the Donner cover the Black Lotus. Elma and Serena, intercept any small and medium craft that tries to close with the Donner and the Black Lotus. Coordinate with the combat craft launching from the Donner.」

「Roger. Once the tide turns, I’ll use the Gravity Jammer to pin any survivors.」

「Understood. Will the Krishna move forward?」

「Yeah. I’m taking the upgraded Krishna for a spin. This time, we prioritize kills.」

As I spoke, I poured my psionic power through the controls—straight into the Krishna.

Krishna’s Relic Generator woke up.

I can’t see it from the cockpit, but right about now, three pairs—six total—of maneuvering light-wings should’ve unfolded along the rear flanks, and a gigantic, flamboyant psychokinetic halo should’ve manifested behind the ship.

Just like I told Elma and Serena: kills first.

No looting. No captures. No prize ships.

Nothing.

「What the hell is that shiny thing!?」

「It’s a merc ship! They love standing out—what is that movement!?」

「Hey, it vanished—WHOA—!?」

I punched through their vanguard with maneuvers that flat-out ignored acceleration, inertia, distance, space—every physical law that was supposed to matter.

And while I was at it, I split the telekinetic halo into smaller rings and scattered them like confetti—turning the pirates’ small and medium craft into scrap.

The Telekinetic Halo—Sudarshana Chakra—is an absurd psionic weapon that automatically homes in on locked targets, punches through shields and armor, and carves them apart.

And by the way, the lock-on is normally handled by the Krishna’s fire control system…

…but I could substitute it with mental-wave detection using telepathy.

Which means: I can control it with just my mind, too.

Fuhahaha. Be afraid, little ants.

「Homing lasers!? Missiles!? What is th—!?」

「What is this!? What is this!? Stop—don’t come here—Aaaagh—!」

The pirates were in full screaming-pandemonium mode.

Naturally.

A bunch of rings they’d never seen or heard of were flying everywhere, and their buddies’ ships were getting sliced clean in half and detonating all over the place.

This is beyond ‘unfair.’ This is murder-by-confusion.

As their small and medium craft vanished at an accelerating rate, I closed on one of the pirate large craft—again, with the light-wings that transcended physics.

Normally, this is where their point-defense would vomit lasers, multi-cannons, seeker missiles—the whole package.

But the Krishna’s nonsense movement—short-range warps included—was too fast. Their intercept systems couldn’t even get a proper track.

「Alright. Boom.」

Four graviton cannons drew blue trails through space, punched straight through the large craft’s shield, pierced the armor, and passed clean through the hull.

…Huh. So, structurally, this is an attack that shields can’t block?

It doesn’t look like their shield was saturated by damage. It just… didn’t matter. The shots simply penetrated and drilled straight through.

「The generator got punched out!? This is bad! All hands, abandon ship!」

A single hit cored a vital section and killed their power. Panicked voices erupted over comms.

Why do pirates always scream on an open channel? Is that just… their culture?

「Run! Run! We can’t win this! Retreat!」

「That monster coming in from port—!」

「FTL drive activation error!? We can’t escape!」

Fast decision-making. The moment the first large craft lost power, the second and third tried to run.

But their FTL drives were failing to start.

This is Elma’s Gravity Jammer at work. Perfect timing.

「Next. This one. Boom—again.」

I closed with the second large craft and fired Krishna’s other main gun—the one that had replaced the Large Caliber Scattershot Cannon:

The Telekinetic Impact Cannon, ‘Kaumodaki’.

A bluish-white distortion—like warped space itself—shot out from the muzzle. Everything along its path shattered and detonated as if reality had been scraped away.

And if that happens to a vital section that includes the generator?

Yup. Explosion confetti.

The second large craft burst apart from a single hit, spraying a massive debris field in every direction. The ones who’d just escaped from the first ship… might’ve gotten shredded by that mess.

「Damn youuu! If I’m gonna die, I’m taking at least one of you with meeeee!」

The last large craft began a headlong charge toward the Black Lotus and the Donner. True to pirate design philosophy, it accelerated fast for something that big.

But ‘fast for a large craft’ is still ‘slow’ by Krishna standards.

And it doesn’t even matter.

「GWAAAAA—!?」

Before the Krishna even needed to lift a finger, the third large craft was obliterated by concentrated fire—the Donner’s heavy cruiser guns and the Black Lotus’s gunship-class firepower tearing it apart.

It was quick, sure. But its shields and armor were trash.

「Uh… enemy fleet annihilated. We’ve already notified the system military, but… what do we do?」

「Let the system military handle the survivors. As for loot…」

What should I do? There are simply too many wrecks. Salvaging everything would take forever.

If we were just traveling normally with no schedule, we’d sit down and do a proper sweep.

But right now, we are rushing to the Dexer System for the wedding reception.

「Fine. We’ll sell the salvage rights to scavengers this time. Mei—find a salvage team on the system network and sell them the rights.」

Scavengers are basically salvage contractors—people who don’t fight, but swoop in after battles to pick through what was left after mercs took the good stuff.

Even back on SOL, that was a classic beginner money-making method.

This time, we are selling the post-battle salvage rights wholesale for Enel.

For scavengers, it means an upfront cost—but also a fat payout. For us, it means instant cash and zero time wasted.

A clean win-win.

「Understood, Master. I will begin immediately.」

「Good. We’re heading back. Lucia—once we’re aboard, you’re getting the lecture of your life. Prepare yourself.」

「Ugh… yes. I’m reflecting.」

Lucia put on a pathetic, drooping face.

Is she actually sorry? Maybe.

Either way, she’s getting a proper scolding—and a punishment.

Honestly… what a troublesome princess.

TN1: Satsuma Hayato is a common name given to the warriors of Satsuma (present-day Kagoshima, Kyushu) during the Sengoku, Edo, and Meiji periods. These men were extremely fierce and relentless during battle, gaining the respect and fear of their contemporaries. They were said to fight like ‘shuras’—demons—without regard for their life.