If the enemy was trying to occupy the region, they would have set up a jammer to interfere with spatial distortion navigation after reducing the local army’s strength to a degree. That way only they would be able to use the junction. Moreover, a ground battle meant that the Imperial Army had likely lost some of their fleet’s fighting power. But the enemy hadn’t occupied the area yet. That might have been because they wanted to wipe out the rest of the Imperial fleet, or perhaps because they didn’t have the numbers, or any other number of reasons. Regardless, the area would have been occupied if enemy reinforcements had arrived. If Kiriha’s conjecture was correct, they had arrived in the nick of time.
“Then the enemy should be coming to intercept us,” Clan said somberly. “The enemy fleet is still present, after all.”
If the Imperial Army had been forced down to the surface, then the enemy fleet should still be around. It wouldn’t be strange if it was in position to intercept any reinforcements.
“It would appear Clan-sama is right,” Ruth reported. “Eight enemy ships have appeared above our direction of travel.”
As if waiting for Clan to finish speaking, the ship’s radar detected enemy ships approaching. Ruth remained calm in spite of being overwhelmingly outnumbered.
“Four times our number, huh... Hahaha, this is getting interesting!” Theia, on the other hand, was excited. She laughed fearlessly as she stared at the eight dots that had appeared on the screen. She was eagerly awaiting the enemy.
“The analysis of their fleet’s silhouette and identification code is completed. They are all disguised, but the majority belong to the old Vandarion band of knights. It is safe to assume that the enemy is the Forthorthe Liberation Army,” Ruth confirmed.
“There’s nowhere near enough of you!” Theia taunted. “I will show you the power of this new Blue Knight!”
Ruth’s calm and Theia’s excitement came from the same place. They were confident in the abilities of the new Blue Knight, sure that when it was combined with their own powers, there was no way they could lose.
“All ships get ready for battle,” Koutarou ordered. “We will destroy the enemy fleet. Princess Nefilforan, if you would.” Koutarou, too, believed in himself, the girls, and the engineers. The new battleship was a power granted to them by the people of Forthorthe. It would never lose, and it could never be allowed to.
“Understood, Your Excellency! Hidden Leaves, open your gunports! Follow the Blue Knight!” Nefilforan followed suit and got ready for battle.
Their general positions remained the same. Hidden Leaves remained behind and somewhat below the Blue Knight. Nefilforan would have preferred to launch the first attack, as the Glendads were a warrior family who had made a name for themselves, but this time, she ceded the first strike to the Blue Knight. She hoped for the ship to make a splendid debut.
In Forthorthe fleet battles, surprise attacks were hard to pull off. A single ship with stealth technology like that of Hazy Moon could exist, but gathering an entire fleet of that caliber was hard. The reason for that was warp travel. Everyone would want to attack the enemy when they exited warp, but because of the margin of error, the appearance point was more or less random. Outside of having a massive fleet covering all potential appearance points, it wasn’t a realistic way to intercept the enemy. That left intercepting the enemy on the way between the appearance point and destination the only option, but space didn’t have any terrain to lend itself to an ambush. Asteroid belts existed, but few ships ever passed through them due to the danger they presented. So unless there were other circumstances, such as betrayal or an attack by ships disguised as civilian vehicles, fleets would face each other in empty space.
“This is the Blue Knight of the Royal Guards of the Holy Forthorthe Galactic Empire Imperial Army. Unknown fleet, disarm and surrender yourselves.” Koutarou followed standard procedure and called for the enemy fleet to surrender. He always believed it was best if there was no fight at all. However, never once had an enemy obeyed those instructions.
“The unknown fleet is keeping its channels closed. The spatial distortion energy is increasing. They are planning on fighting!” Ruth reported.
“I guess we have no choice...” Koutarou sighed. In the end, the enemy had responded the same as always. His shoulders dropped in disappointment, and he got up from the commander’s seat to head for the pilot’s seat—or, more accurately, the concentric circles behind it. He planned to steer the ship himself.
“Master, the armor’s and ship’s systems have been linked,” Ruth said.
“Start it up,” Koutarou said.
“Understood!” Ruth answered with a nod.
Standing in the center of the concentric circles, Koutarou’s body floated up. The armor he was wearing and the circles on the ground were part of the piloting device. Since the Blue Knight was a humanoid spaceship, aside from normal piloting, it could also be controlled by his movements. He was used to moving in his armor, so through the same method, he could intuitively move the ship. It was a piloting method that was easier to use, but it came with some drawbacks: Since Koutarou had to move his body, it used up his stamina, so it didn’t work well for drawn-out battles.
“Leave the shooting to me,” Theia said, jumping into the gunner’s seat. “You just focus on steering.”
Koutarou could shoot without Theia, but she was more accurate. It also reduced the strain on him, so her presence was welcome.
“Don’t miss, Theia!” he cried.
“Who do you think you’re talking to?” she shot back.
“Koutarou, Koutarou, those ships are a little strange.” That was when Sanae-chan’s astral projection appeared, floating in the air. It was more convenient to talk next to each other, so the soul had left the body.
“What do you mean? What about them?” Koutarou asked.
If Sanae was calling them “strange,” it must have been something spiritual, but he couldn’t see anything himself.
“I feel like they’re lacking power. There might not be many people on board.”
The strangeness that Sanae was sensing was a distinct lack of spiritual energy from the enemy fleet. People aboard a battleship should have been emitting more spiritual energy, yet Sanae wasn’t feeling that much. The difference was obvious when compared to Nefilforan’s Hidden Leaves.
“What do you think, Kiriha-san?” Koutarou asked. He couldn’t immediately come up with a reason for the lack of spiritual energy, not to mention he wanted to focus on piloting. So he asked for Kiriha’s opinion.
“I can think of several possibilities.” In contrast, she already had several ideas. “The first is the possibility that there just aren’t many people on board. Having sent soldiers to attack the surface, they don’t have much of a crew.”
Spiritual energy roughly corresponded to the number of people. Her explanation was simple, but it was possible. Since the battle had shifted to the surface, any combat troops on the ship had left. Depending on the situation, personnel might have been reduced even further. The outcome of the battle was extremely important to the Liberation Army, so they could have sent out even the noncombatants.
“I see, so there’s the possibility that they’re in a bigger rush than we are,” Koutarou said with a nod. “Clan, how would that affect the battle?”
If crew members who were noncombatants had been sent out as well, there wouldn’t be enough people to properly handle the ship. Koutarou wanted to know how that would affect the space battle.
“In that scenario, the AI would be responsible for handling more of the ships, and their performance would drop to a degree,” Clan explained. “At the same time, choices will be made quicker, so we should avoid a contest of speed.”
Battleships were typically piloted by people and AI working together. When one side was lacking, the overall performance would drop. For example, it would no longer be possible to disengage safety devices on the generator to swiftly retreat. Unless given special orders, AI couldn’t break the rules. So when left to the AI, ships would be piloted in a much more honest, straightforward way. That did come with some benefits, though. With more reliance on the AI, there would be fewer discussions between people, which meant that actions would be taken faster. In short, the ship would be able to handle chaotic situations where everything constantly changed. Specifically, the ships would have an advantage when dogfighting with lasers.
“So a dogfight is out of the question,” Koutarou said. “Well, the Blue Knight isn’t suited to that anyway.”