The Engine Broke Down
A ship that continues flashing signals to its allies but gets no response heads this way.
The guys on the pirate ship’s bridge must be quite uneasy.
On the space frigate [Butcher] the pirates are aboard, they face this situation with great panic.
“Aniki~, whaddya think?”
“Strange for sure.”
“Don’t tell me they failed…”
“Don’t be stupid. That landing craft can hold forty at best. The destroyer had a hundred. And it’s just the weak Coast Guard, they’ve got the numbers so there’s no way they’d lose. Most of all, Big Bro is commanding them directly. No way they could lose if you think about it.”
“So the approaching ship is being steered by the captain?”
“No, that’s odd too. The captain would definitely send the return signal back. Even if, and I mean if, Big Bro couldn’t send it for some reason, someone else would definitely send it. It’s the signal we always use, nobody would get it wrong.”
“Then what do you make of that ship not signaling back?”
“That’s absurd. Everyone should have a device in their Power Suits. Just use any of them, and it’ll be fine.”
“Is there no one on the bridge?”
“That’s impossible! It must be a ghost ship. Ahahaha!”
“A ghost ship huh…Aniki, that ship’s heading straight at us.”
“Of course, to rendezvous.”
“No. It’s on a collision course!”
“””Huh?”””
The pirates on the bridge were struck speechless for a moment.
The next moment, they understood the shouting guy’s words.
That’s right, it’s the same as the plan Oyaji first ordered.
“E-enemy attack!”
“Aniki~, whaddya wanna do!”
“Come about, full speed! Avoid collision and run! Just hurry!”
“Reversing course, full speed ahead!”
The pirates must have panicked.
The one operating the ship’s propulsion immediately pushed the throttle levers to redline as ordered.
The one working the helm follows more slowly, turning them around after the speed change.
If done in the opposite order the impact would have been less, but in this sequence it invites the worst outcome.
The greater the ship’s speed during a major course change, the greater the inertia (centrifugal force to be specific) forcing it outward develops.
If they felt the inertia from the turn first, those aboard would brace themselves, realizing a turn was beginning.
The guys on the bridge at least know what forces are coming from the order, so they’re slightly better prepared, but even so a considerable number of pirates are slammed to the floor.
The others in different sections can’t possibly withstand the sudden inertia.
Almost all of them are flung about, slammed on the floor.
Also, the engines were pushed from near minimum output to over maximum instantly.
In combat, output might be raised to around 120%, but barring emergencies they would never go up to 140%.
An engine output they’d never use in normal conditions was pushed near the brink of overload.
Sudden added inertia along with completely overloaded output.
With conditions like these, most machinery would break.
This ship’s engine was one of those machines.
With a tremendous noise, alerts start appearing simultaneously on the monitors on the bridge.
“W-what happened!”
The leader addressed as Aniki barely got the words out as he stood up after being knocked down.
“Aniki~, big trouble! The engines broke! This ship won’t move!”
“Th-that can’t…”
He spoke, but the monitors in sight all turned solid red and the ship’s acceleration stopped.
At the same time, the artificial gravity also gradually weakened.
The gravity generation system seems to have malfunctioned as well.
Alerts of problems occurring started coming in from all over.
“Aniki~, life support switched to emergency batteries!”
“Any idea how long they’ll last?”
“I-I dunno! We killed the whole crew when we hijacked this thing. Nobody asked details like that!”
“Can’t be helped. All hands, abandon ship!”
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The emergency broadcast from the bridge informed everyone on the pirate ship to abandon ship.
Though the catalog listed under 200 crew for this ship, pirates can’t exactly gather that many people, so of course the number aboard was less than in the records.
And 70 had moved from this ship to the destroyer to attack the Coast Guard, so currently only around 60 remained here.
Luckily, though cramped they were able to escape by dividing up into landing craft, carrier craft, etc.
The pirates on the bridge also stumbled their way to the catapult closest to the bridge.
Naturally they wouldn’t bother confirming everyone had evacuated like a proper captain. They just fled as fast as possible.
Meanwhile on the space destroyer bridge where Nao’s group is, they noticed the pirate ship’s problems.
The first to notice the pirates’ abnormality was of course Maria.
She was monitoring the pirate ship on the surveillance monitors.
“Captain, captain, something’s strange over there.”
“Oh yeah, they stopped their turn halfway through.”
“Sis Meyrica, not just that. All sorts of things are flying out of the ship!”
“Boarding us?”
“No, the opposite direction. Looks like they’re fleeing…”
“Don’t be stupid. They’ve got the advantage.”
“What should we do, Captain?”
“Oh, halt the collision for now. I want to see what happens first. Maria, if you could stop us please.”
“Got it. Sto~pping!”
“Ah captain, that ship’s rapidly pulling away.”
“Yeah, it’ll keep moving from inertia even after the engines stop.”
“Captain, now what?”
“Maria, can you maneuver this ship precisely?”
“I think I can probably do it.”
“Then get us parallel to that ship. If possible, hmm, stay about ten km away to match position.”
Ten km is next to nothing in space.
He was trying to get as close as possible to observe the situation.
“Understood.”
After about ten minutes, she had the destroyer parallel the inertia-drifting pirate ship.
“Not moving huh.”
“Orders, captain?”
“No choice but to board it right?”
“I guess that’s the only option.”
“The captain who can’t use his power suit should stay here and take command of the ship.”
“Then Maria’s team stays here on standby for emergencies. Meyrica, sorry but could you take Kate’s team over? I think everyone fled but we don’t know what could happen.”
“I was thinking the same.”
“Can Kate’s team use Maria’s sunflower things too?”
“It’s fine. We’ve played with them plenty of times.”
“Then Maria, pass your team’s stuff to Sis Meyrica.”
“Ah captain. I didn’t say [Sunflower Mk. 3] earlier so you’d let it slide.”
“Just hand them over.”
“Yes sir! Everyone~, captain’s orders. Pass your [Sunflower Mk. 3]s to Sis Meyrica.”
“””Yes sir!”””
“With that decided, get us docked with that ship. Take it nice and slow.”
“Leave it to me captain!”
It took thirty minutes of careful maneuvering to dock the ships.
“I’m counting on you Meyrica.”
“Leave it to me captain.”
“If anything seems off, retreat immediately. In the worst case, flee on this ship. Unlike the landing craft, a ship has much better odds of survival. Absolutely don’t take unnecessary risks.”
“Understood. Well then~, let’s go!”
“””Yes ma’am!”””
Since there was an evacuation hatch on the floor right below the bridge, Meyrica took Kate’s team from the space destroyer.
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so in pirates panic they’ve basically disabled themselves and now mc who wanted to die has basically defeated over 100 pirates and captured 2 ships even if they’re in horrible condition so looks like he’s gonna get praise instead of dying
That’s probably the overarching theme the novel’s going for, I believe. Dude gets put in a dangerous situation, “yes! I’m gonna die this time for sure!” Somehow make it out and beat enemies, be labeled a “hero” and put into more challenging situations, and you’re back in step 1. Somewhere along the way, the prologue bitches will somehow regret and the end.
Thanks.