Perhaps the pilot of the Saber IV wasn’t expecting my sudden all-out charge. His reaction was one step late. But the delay was just for an instant and within moments he also gunned his thrusters and headed straight for me as well. It looks like he’s up for a head-on clash too.
“He’s got some pretty decent firepower.”
It looks like the Saber IV’s main armaments are two heavy-caliber laser cannons. They aren’t as powerful compared to Krishna’s own laser cannons, but they still provided ample firepower to a small-class craft. They’re either procured from the military or state-of-the-art prototypes from a weapon manufacturing company.
“He’s certainly far better than your average pirate.”
However, it only took mere moments for our ships to close the distance with each other. We exchanged a few volleys of laser cannon fire, and the moment the Saber IV came into my shotgun cannon’s range, it immediately pulled out and took some distance. It looks like he’s done his homework, as expected.
“He’s wary of the shot-cannons huh.”
“Well, of course, he is.”
“Suits me just fine though.”
Because the other party veered off and pulled away, I calmly gave chase. The shot-cannons can be quite deadly to opponents unaware of their existence, and even if they did, the cannons will still serve as effective deterrents against head-on clashes, just like this. It would also make it easier to target their behinds when they pull away.
Combat between fighters not employing shield tech can be settled in an instant with one well-placed missile or a couple of direct hits to the power generator, but combat between starships employing energy shields is a whole different ballgame. Combat between starships primarily consists of neutralizing the enemy’s shield first and damaging the hull.
Normally, the usual method is to use laser cannons or seeker missiles to saturate the shield first, blow the armor open, and then deal fatal damage to the hull. But some weapons were made to eschew this process entirely. The shot-cannon is one such weapon.
The effective range of shot-cannons was quite short, but the submunitions have the effect of easily penetrating an enemy ship’s shield by almost instant energy attenuation. They can also easily penetrate even some of the toughest armor plating that allows them to deal great damage directly to ship hulls. It looks like the cannons employ some specialized tech to achieve such effects.
Well, the trade-off is that if you fire them from long range, their power will be greatly reduced. They’d turn into shitty small fry weapons that’ll earn you endless amounts of scorn if you use them wrongly. Even with that shortcoming, they still serve as excellent defensive weapons that could be used to intercept incoming seeker missiles and other live projectile weapons.
“Hahaha! Where do you think you’re going, pal!?”
“Hiro-sama is really fired up.”
“It’s been a while since he piloted the ship, so he’s probably quite excited.”
That’s exactly it. We’ve been confined inside the imperial palace all this time after all. It’s been a while since I’ve felt this sense of oneness with my ship. It’s incredibly exhilarating.
“Well then, what’s your move now, bub? If we continue like this, you’ll just end up eating laser cannon fire on your behind y’know? Can’t have that, right?”
I then turned my attitude auto-correction system off. The moment I did so, the Saber IV piloted by Sir Weisel pretended to make a turn and suddenly decelerated as if responding to my taunt.
Yeah, I thought you’d do something like that. You want me to overshoot with that maneuver, right?
I fired up the attitude control thrusters and made Krishna’s bow point downwards right on top of Sir Weisel’s Saber IV the moment our ships overlapped and hammered him with consecutive shot-cannon shots. The shots fired in quick succession pierced Saber IV’s shield and caused sparks to go off all over its armor instead of piercing it like normal.
We’re using training ammo after all. If we weren’t, the Saber IV should have already been torn to pieces and exploded to bits. The buzzer signaling the end of the match rang within Krishna’s cockpit.
“Whoaah!? Just what happened there!? The instant Captain Hiro’s Krishna overtook sir Weisel’s ship, it’s already gotten shot down!”
“Let me check the data… Huh? This–”
“Ms. Miroku, just what happened back there? Can you give us a detailed commentary?”
“At the start of the match, Sir Weisel’s Saber IV ended up getting one-sidedly chased down by Captain Hiro’s Krishna. In order to reverse his precarious position, Sir Weisel pretended to make a turn and then immediately decelerated in an attempt to make Captain Hiro’s Krishna overshoot. In other words, he intentionally wanted Krishna to overtake him. Once that happens, Saber IV would freely be able to aim at Krishna from behind.”
“I see. But how come it was Saber IV that was judged to be shot down?”
“Captain Hiro should have already predicted Saber IV’s maneuvers. The moment he passed by the upper side of Saber IV, he turned off the attitude auto-correction system of his ship and had Krishna stand vertically mid-flight by using its attitude control thrusters, with its nose pointing straight downward, right on top of Saber IV. And then, he fired continuous shots from his ship’s large-caliber shard cannons directly on the defenseless upper side of Saber IV. Shard cannons are only effective at extremely close range, but they can easily tear through shields and armor at the proper distance. In that distance, small-class ships have no chance of surviving. Captain Hiro’s battle awareness, predictive abilities, and piloting skills have reached the realm of the divine.”
“I see…… Ah, we’ve just received footage from another angle folks. I see. You can easily determine what actually happened in this footage. It’s like a big and bulky starship had transformed into a skilled acrobat and did a stunning performance in space. And it even launched attacks during such a maneuver. Truly breathtaking.”
By the way, even if the shot-cannons were to fail at finishing off the opponent, I could easily switch to a salvo of laser cannon shots. Since Saber IV’s shields were down for the count, it would have been child’s play to bring it down with those. If by some miracle, Saber IV still manages to survive all of that, I can smoothly transition to strike mode and chase it down all over again. Either way, it would still be my win.
Eh? Don’t I account for being on the losing end of an exchange just in case? Of course, I do. But worrying about stuff like in the middle of combat ain’t good, and it’s not like an opponent can easily get the drop on me anyway. I’ve tried to minimize the chance of landing myself in a disadvantageous position to as low as possible when I customized my ship after all. For me at least, Krishna’s current configuration is the best one possible that covers for most, if not all, of its weaknesses.
The announcer and the guest commentator were still busy about my move to turn off the attitude auto-correction system, but I ignored them and headed straight for the imperial military dock. This dock was built adjacent to the training sector of the imperial military, which was the venue for today’s event, and is a facility used to maintain the training ships employed in the training sector. There were also several other participant’s ships parked within the dock.
“My ship’s not damaged, but do a full check just in case. And please replenish the shot-cannon ammo.”
『Roger』
I relayed my instructions to a mechanic of the imperial military and sank my body into the pilot seat.
“Are you tired?”
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