『We welcome your arrival to our port, Captain Hiro.』
“Thank you.”
While giving out an appropriate response to the transmission from the Port Administration Bureau, I operated Krishna’s console to check out the situation inside the port area of the Refill Prime colony.
“There are a lot of unfamiliar ships parked around huh.”
“Unfamiliar?”
Mimi curiously tilted her head to the side after hearing my comment.
Mimi’s confusion about my comment was certainly reasonable. For those of us who didn’t have a fixed home colony, almost all the ships moored inside port areas of colonies are basically ‘unfamiliar’ ships. It was unusual to encounter ships you knew like Lt. Col. Serena’s Restalias while traveling from colony to colony.
“Ah, you mean models you aren’t familiar with? There certainly are ship models I don’t recognize out there.”
“Are they mercenaries or maybe a deep space exploration fleet?”
“I can’t say for sure because there are a good number of models I don’t recognize, but it seems like their combat ability is a little too high for an exploration fleet or a standard armed convoy. If I had to say, they kinda look like a mercenary fleet.”
What caught my eye the most was the bright red small-class starship anchored in the middle of the unfamiliar ships. It was a small-class ship on the larger end. It was probably on par with Krishna when it came to size. That meant it was scraping the upper limit of small-class starship size. As for its armaments…… I’m actually not sure. At first glance, you could only spot something that looked like a large-caliber cannon mounted on top of the ship’s fuselage.
“That starship sure stands out.”
“Uhuh. I feel like it kinda resembles Krishna a bit.”
It kinda had the same design aesthetic, so to speak. The overall shape was different due to the large-caliber cannon mounted on its fuselage, but there was definitely a resemblance.
“What do you think?”
Elma asked while looking at the unfamiliar fleet lined up inside the port area. What do I think of this? In other words, do I think they have some sort of relation to the Red Flag pirates huh? I suppose that’s what she’s asking.
“Not sure. Maybe I’m just being too sensitive y’know. But it’s still better to be vigilant. As they say, it’s always the darkest under the lighthouse.”
“It’s always the darkest under the lighthouse…… If that’s really the case, then they’ve gone and done something pretty bold, Hiro-sama.”
“Well, they’re the type to pick fights with the imperial military after all. I’m sure they’ve got the balls to pull off at least this much.”
The Refill system was the first system where we wiped out Red Flag pirate influence during the large-scale subjugation operation spearheaded by the imperial military. It’s usually unthinkable that pirates would dare to just boldly waltz into the port of a star system’s main colony, but the brain circuits of space pirates are generally fried anyway, so I wouldn’t put it past them. It wouldn’t be strange no matter what absurd plan they come up with.
“Mei.”
“Yes. I’ve checked the security-related information of Refill Prime for the last two weeks, but there don’t seem to be any major problems. No evidence of deception has been found so far. Due to the recent subjugation operation, public order and security appear to have improved as well.”
“I see.”
There wasn’t any suspicious info, huh. Absolutely nothing. But I just can’t shake the feeling that something’s definitely up.
“Your face says it all. Do you think there really is something going on here?”
“I just have a very bad feeling about all this. It’s like a really strong premonition of loads of troublesome stuff coming our way.”
“Ah– ……So that means they really are bad news.”
“Definitely. Let’s act more carefully than usual guys.”
Mimi laughed bitterly while Elma sighed in resignation. It’s not like I got this bad feeling because I wanted to y’know?
Mimi decided to remain on the ship and continue processing the planetary descent application to Refill IV, or Theta as per the locals.
We’re going to be heading to the large starport located in the Rose clan’s territory later on. Unfortunately, there won’t be enough space for Black Lotus to land, but Krishna can do so without any problem. We could go to the integrated port facility that we used before, but there was a good chance we’d get swamped and pestered by the Minfa and Grado clans. The purpose of our descent this time around was to pay a visit to the Willrose clan, which was one of the subordinate clans of the Rose clan, so I’d like to keep a good distance from the Grado and Minfa clans.
“Would those girls be fine?”
“I don’t think they’d face any trouble as long as they stayed inside the ship. We activated the energy shield before we left anyway. And even if some hostiles manage to breach it and the hull, there are still the combat bots to handle them.”
“I’m constantly monitoring the condition of Black Lotus, Master. So there’s no need to worry so much.”
The security measures of Black Lotus were perfect today as well. They were especially tighter now that there’s a danger of being targeted by those Red Flag guys. I made sure to act 50% more carefully than usual. It wasn’t just me and Elma who headed to the Mercenary Guild this time. Mei also tagged along as well.
“The situation in the colony doesn’t seem to have changed that much.”
“You’re right.”
We carefully observed the surroundings as we walked out of the port area where Black Lotus was parked and made our way to the Mercenary Guild branch. A lot more ships were parked inside the port area than the last time we were here, but overall, there doesn’t seem to have been a lot of changes to the overall situation, and the port area operated like usual. But, as expected, that strange fleet didn’t seem to be a commercial one that could haul a lot of goods for trade.
“They look pretty disciplined. They remind me of soldiers.”
“It’s as you say, Elma-sama. A good number of them are keeping a watchful eye on our group, but they are making sure not to be too obvious about it.”
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