“Enemy ships and turrets eliminated.”
“That was easy. I’m dropping you guys off now.”
We’d been able to destroy the antiair cannons and turrets immediately, as well as the pirate ships that tried to take off from the mysterious structure—well, pirate base—on Riche III’s surface. That was like taking candy from a baby for the Pirate-Hunting Unit’s fighters and the Krishna, piloted by Elma. She really is a skilled fighter pilot.
Once we’d landed on the surface, I watched Colonel Serena’s power armor-equipped subordinates exit the Krishna’s cargo bay. Serena and I were the last ones out.
“Don’t let your guard down, and watch my back, in case I need help.”
“Yeah, yeah. Don’t go get yourself hurt, okay? Mei’s express delivery should arrive soon.”
“Got it. Oh—that must be it now.”
Looking up at the sky, I saw something engulfed in flames flying in our direction. The flames gradually dispersed as the object continued to fly at an insane speed. Wait. It’s going to crash right into—!
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground shook as the roars of multiple impacts rang out in succession. Having been launched from orbit, transport pods carrying combat bots had come down next to the main-gate entrance of the pirates’ base, crushing everything nearby. Hang on a sec… Are the combat bots inside the pods okay?!
“Mei, are the bots all right? Can we even retrieve them?”
“They’re fine. The Black Lotus will land and reclaim them later. We launched the bots in surface-attack assault pods—a sample product Eagle Dynamics provided to us.”
Tina butted into the transmission. “They were just sittin’ around, takin’ up space! Glad we got rid of them.”
I see. I did buy the full package, so I guess they must’ve thrown some bonuses in. Not that I knew about those, since I left all that in Tina and Wiska’s hands.
“We haven’t got any more ‘Bikkuri Dokkiri’ mecha like that, do we?”
“We’ve got a bunch, since we bought the full package,” Tina replied.
“Please provide me with a full list of what we bought next time.”
I should’ve paid more attention to what we’d acquired from Eagle Dynamics. Well, it’s not really a problem; I just don’t like getting surprised like that.
“This does change our plans a little, but shall we get going?” I asked. “I’ll attack from the back. Sorry, but could you work with our combat bots and take over covering the main entrance?”
“Something like this happens every time we work with you,” Serena complained.
“I really am sorry…” It wasn’t on purpose. Really. “Anyway, please take care of the rest.”
“Yes, very wel—”
Before the colonel could finish her sentence, I’d jumped. Oh, well. A gigantic telekinesis-boosted leap allowed me to soar right over the pirate base and land on the opposite side. Was that jump about three hundred meters?
“What the heck was that leap just now?” Serena asked over her transmitter. “Are you still human?”
“How rude. Yes, I’m a normal human who hasn’t even undergone physical enhancement.”
“You should apologize to actual normal humans. They don’t deserve to be lumped in with you.”
I wanted to protest the colonel’s rude comment but thought better of it. If our positions were reversed, I’d likely say the same things. In addition, it wasn’t my ninja armor that had allowed me to accomplish that leap; I probably could’ve pulled it off even without my equipment. I remembered being creeped out by how Konoha was able to go from motionlessness to covering a great distance in a single jump, but I could now do the same or better.
Of course, that didn’t mean I was stronger than Konoha. In terms of psionic output, I was much more powerful; I had more power than even Kugi. But I only possessed a few psionic abilities, and I didn’t have much experience using them. In short, I wasn’t good at applying my powers. I was now capable of using telekinesis to propel myself, increasing how far and high I could jump, and to cushion my landing when descending from high up. But I couldn’t use it to slice or tear enemies to pieces at will, like Konoha could. Still, my monstrously powerful psionic output in itself did enable certain usages.
“Now then…”
I already heard gunfire in the distance, so it would be best to make as big a commotion as I could. I wanted the pirates to know they were being attacked from two sides; that would serve to divide their forces.
I unsheathed the two blades mounted on the back of my ninja armor. I had already started using them more often than laser guns. This base must be made from the same high-density metal used to build colonies. No… Since it’s on a terrestrial surface, it’s likelier to be some stone, rather than metal. Or it might be a form of silicon. In any case, it’s some material strong enough to maintain a habitable environment in this planet’s thin atmosphere.
To melt a material like this, extreme heat from something like a plasma grenade was generally more effective than a sword, but my goal today was to understand and practice my abilities.
“Hiyaah!”
I formed an invisible telekinetic fist and slammed it into the structure with all my might. When it made contact, several things occurred at practically the same instant. First, a booming sound erupted from the wall as countless cracks formed when I struck it. The wall had exploded from within. If I had to guess, I’d say that once the cracks in the outer wall reached the other side of the structure, the pressurized air within had gushed out.
Second, the section of wall I’d attacked had flashed for a moment—as if struck by lightning—before it exploded and collapsed. I wasn’t sure what caused that, but in any case, that part of the wall had blown up.
Fortunately for me, the giant telekinetic fist I had manifested had served as a shield, protecting me from the shock wave and debris. Unfortunately for the wall, it now looked as though a seeker missile had just blasted it open.
“That’s a lot more damage than I expected. I guess it’s fine.”
We’d planned on destroying this place and killing all the space pirates inside anyway. Colonel Serena had no reason to be upset with a little additional damage.
“That was really loud. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, I’m fine. I just opened a hole in the wall so I could get in.”
I stepped inside the structure. Entering enemy territory so casually was usually dangerous, since they could be waiting there to ambush you, but such ambushes no longer worked against me. Even humans who lacked psionic abilities emitted faint thought waves, allowing me to easily detect how many enemies were nearby.
“Eat this—huh?”
Pirates had poked their heads and upper bodies out from behind cover and around walls, pointing weapons at me, but I immediately snuck behind them. A combination of holding my breath to slow time down and speeding myself up with telekinesis allowed me to pass through their number before they had a chance to raise their weapons, target me, and pull their triggers.
✦ ✦ ✦
✦ ✦ ✦
“Mwgh?”
“Guh!”
Of course, I made sure to slash them with my sword as I rushed by, delivering fatal blows. This combination move is a bit tiring… It’s not very cost-effective, so to speak. It’s also hard to control and takes a lot of focus. As long as they can’t hit me, I have nothing to fear, but there must be a more efficient method.
As I ran around inside the pirate base, I tried thinking of a more efficient way to utilize my abilities. Meanwhile I sliced, slashed, and diced a good number of pirates.
“No! Damn it! Die!”
“Gah! Blrrgh!”
In the end, the most efficient technique I came up with was the following: I first struck with telekinesis, sending enemies flying into walls or knocking them to the ground. Once they were down, I finished them off with my swords or simply stomped on them with my power armor. I would probably need to come up with a different strategy against enemies wearing heavy power armor, since they’d be harder to knock over, but this should remain effective enough against lightly equipped enemies like pirates.
The pirates must’ve felt very distressed as they were mysteriously bowled over and massacred, but might made right. The strategy’s main drawback was that stomping on pirates felt a little gross. It was best to kill as many with my swords as I could.
Serena got in touch. “Um…I’m receiving reports from subordinates that enemies they’re engaging are sometimes being sent flying before an unknown fighter in power armor shows up and eliminates the foe.”
“What do you mean, ‘an unknown fighter’? You should be able to tell that’s me from my identification signal. I’ll take care of the rest of the pirates; just make sure to retrieve the goods.”
“Hah…”
Why was she sighing? I was just doing my job. I simply didn’t understand her.