“Okay, so we’re all agreed, then?” I asked.
“Fine,” Granny Celestia answered, shrugging.
The conditions we’d finally settled on were as follows. First, the yields from an individual pirate ship—including its bounty—would go to whoever shot it down. As for the reward for destroying the base itself, we eventually agreed to split it evenly. Celestia’s party had two small ships, so they’d have had trouble taking down the base by themselves. Still, they’d scouted out and acquired the intel about the base to begin with; without that information, this operation wouldn’t be taking place. Strength was important, but info was just as vital, so we’d decided to go fifty-fifty.
Finally, for loot recovered from the base, we settled on a seventy-thirty split favoring my crew. Setting aside the Black Lotus, which didn’t even need to be mentioned, the Antlion was technically a medium ship with more cargo space than small ships had—though specialized equipment took up most of that space. The Antlion did, however, have low specs for a medium ship.
The Krishna could now rely on the Black Lotus’s cargo to resupply, so its cargo hold was also almost empty. Compared to Celestia’s fleet of just two small vessels, we had significantly more carrying capacity, so we would get a larger share of the spoils.
I might’ve been able to push for an eighty-twenty or at least seventy-five-twenty-five split, but I didn’t want to act too greedy. I wasn’t about to treat Celestia the same as my own crew members, but she was still Mimi’s grandmother.
“That’s a pretty interesting ship,” I said. “I have no idea what model it’s supposed to be.”
“It’s one of those legacy ships you see from time to time,” Elma replied.
We were examining Granny Celestia’s ship—the Annihilator, which was quite the name—on the holo-display.
Legacy ships were old ships that’d been renovated so many times that their base model wasn’t even clear. Some devolved into old, weathered vessels that were barely mobile, while others were turned into monsters bearing no resemblance to the original vessel either in appearance or specs.
Celestia’s ship was definitely the latter. It had four stalker-missile pods that fired small missiles with powerful guidance systems; it also possessed two wide-angle heavy laser turrets. Two multi-cannons were also fixed to the ship’s nose. In terms of firepower, the Annihilator wasn’t outshone by the Krishna. It was about the Krishna’s size—rather large for a small ship, but still within that category. It likely used projectile weapons like missiles and multi-cannons because it didn’t have a generator as powerful as the Krishna’s. In terms of plating, shields, and mobility, the Krishna was probably stronger defensively.
“Yeah, I use a legacy ship. So what?” Celestia thrust out her lower lip.
Nicholas spoke up, attempting to pacify her. “Its specs are good enough to compete with modern ships! And there’s a lot of freedom to change out its parts. Maintaining it is quite an effort, though.”
Lattis followed up. “You’ve taken gooood care of both its tangible and intangible qualities. It’s a greeeat ship.”
“If you can make full use of all its weapons, it’ll definitely be effective against pirates.”
Stalker missiles were slightly weaker than seeker missiles, but they still wouldn’t have a problem dealing with the lightweight shields pirates used. A ship like Celestia’s could take on a swarm of pirates in a frontal assault.
“And your other vessel is a fast recon ship,” I noted.
“Nothing much to say about that one,” Celestia said.
“Yeah. Toroni’s ship isn’t really suited to combat,” Nicholas added.
You didn’t see ships like that recon vessel often in the Empire, but you could more or less judge its capabilities just by looking at it. It was a small ship with a lot of thrusters, equipped with a Class-II laser cannon on its nose and two small seeker-missile pods. It was capable of battle, but it definitely wasn’t designed for that. It was definitely a recon ship; it seemed to be equipped with a multitude of sensors. I suspected that it also had an ace up its sleeve somewhere.
Toroni was another member of Granny Celestia’s crew, although we hadn’t yet met him. The man supposedly specialized in information gathering and covert operations.
“I’ve never seen a ship like yours before either,” Celestia told me.
“I’d be surprised if you had. Its origins are secret.”
“Hmm? Well, whatever.” Shrugging, Celestia added, “As long as it performs according to its specs.”
She’d just given me a taste of my own medicine. Well, her caveat only stood to reason, since the Krishna also required specialized maintenance. Fortunately, we hadn’t had any problems with its generator—which was still a complete black box—and the ship itself hadn’t yet suffered any serious damage.
In the event that the Krishna really was severely damaged, including parts adjacent to the generator, we probably couldn’t repair it at the moment. It’d be a write-off, most likely forcing me to get a new ship.
“We’ve agreed on a split, and we understand each other’s fighting power, so let’s get to work on a concrete plan of action,” I urged.
“Yeah. We don’t really need a complicated one, though. Your Black Lotus and my Annihilator will launch a frontal assault to attract the pirates’ attention. Then, while they’re distracted, you can launch reactive anti-ship torpedoes at their base turrets and destroy them. After that, we can just go with the flow. Oh—how about you go around the entire base and take out all their turrets?”
“You’re pushing the dirty work onto me so you can go hunt bounties. It’d be faster if you approached the base and blew up their turrets with your stalker missiles.”
“No thanks. I’d be shot down during my approach.”
“That’s why you want me to do it? Stop offloading dirty work onto us.”
This granny sure had a nice personality. But it was true that—from a big-picture perspective—it would be more efficient for the Krishna to clean up the remaining turrets, which it would be nearer to.
“Damn it. I guess I am closer.”
“That’s a good boy. So you do have some sense. Do your best to destroy them all, okay?”
“Yeah, yeah. I don’t think I have to mention this, but make sure you prioritize protecting the Black Lotus.”
“I’m not an idiot. Those pirates will definitely come out guns blazing, since we’re attacking their base.”
“We’ll have to look out for reactive munitions,” Elma said.
“Yeah. Getting hit by one of those is no joke,” Nicholas added.
Pirates didn’t use powerful weapons while hunting prey, since those would damage the goods they were targeting. But things would obviously be different if their base was under attack. They would indeed emerge firing with everything they had. They wouldn’t hold back from launching all their seeker missiles; they might even have reactive anti-ship torpedoes or large missiles with reactive warheads. It wasn’t unusual for people to underestimate the danger of attacking a pirate base and thereby suffer significant losses.
For the record, being directly hit by a reactive warhead would severely damage the Krishna, even through its three layers of shields. The Black Lotus wouldn’t be immune either. A single anti-ship reactive torpedo striking its shield-saturation device could take down the entire ship. Missiles and torpedoes with reactive warheads weren’t to be trifled with.
“Let’s set out as soon as my crew finishes checking over the Black Lotus.”
“Hm? Are you sure?”
“It’s best to act quickly. There’s no reason to delay either.” I answered, shrugging.
After staring at me for a while, Celestia smirked as well. “Nice. I like your decisiveness.”
It seemed she was fond of people who could make on-the-spot decisions. Good for her. In any case, it would be smart for me to start getting things ready, but first I needed to contact Mimi and the others.