The Exiled Count Acquired the Space Fortress of a Super Advanced Civilization - CH 5

The reaction of the provoked party was swift.

From the other side of the boat, I heard a few small voices saying, “What a bitch!” “I think it was the voice of the captain of the other ship we were chasing.”

“Queequeg, cut off the people who just made that noise. They’re not in the mood. They’re fifth-rate.”

“Hey. So the four of you didn’t get along this time.”

There is a terrifying amount of room on the other side of the screen.

We were supposed to have been attacked by a large fleet of 34 ships just a moment ago.

(It’s a trap after all.)

The captain was convinced.

All those who had gone before us had been destroyed.

“Well, it’s nice to meet the three of you who have been chosen. I’m Kitty, captain of the Black Silver Glory. I’ll give you a chance to escape with your tails between your legs.”

“Can I run away?”

“It’s okay. I’ll even give you a special deal on the cargo. Oh, sure, I’ll take it if you want to give it as a gift.”

“Unfortunately, I don’t even have a bouquet of flowers.”

“Well, you attack a pretty lady and you don’t even bring her flowers. You have one minute to slow down and reverse. I’ll leave it to your imagination what will happen if you don’t.”

“Just one minute?”

“Yes. How sweet of you to give her time to grab her bangs. Fifty seconds left. See you.”

Kitty waved her hand and the communication was cut off one way or the other.

“Captain ……, what do we do?”

“Reverse it. Tell the guys that got cut off that they have 40 seconds left.”

“Yes.”

The seven bounty hunter ships flip.

It’s a mishmash, I guess.

“Enemy ships are retreating.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

Mitsuki put it into words for me.

Setsueto nodded and turned to face Kitty, who had left her comms connected.

“Thank you, head.”

“No problem. I’m good at bluffing.”

Kitty looks completely at home. The Black Silver Glory should be making its way towards this fortress now.

“But I’m sure the enemy will be back soon, what do we do?”

What are you going to do? I mean how are you going to act?

The fortress main gun performed as prescribed.

However, it was something that had been abandoned for hundreds, if not thousands of years. Various parts of it were no longer able to withstand the torrent of high energy, and the function of the fortress was further degraded.

“Fusion reactor output has dropped to 10%, energy transfer circuits to the main guns have collapsed, and 94% of the main turrets have failed in some way”

That was what Mitsuki had reported.

If seven ships had rushed in without Kitty’s negotiation, the Black Silver Glory would have been in danger.

I wondered if Setsuko could call that a negotiation.

The following is a summary of the current status of the Varasskirve fortress.

The main source of energy, the degenerate reactor, is unusable due to the lack of a black hole, and the sub-reactor, the antimatter reactor, is out of fuel. The sub-reactor, a fusion reactor, is barely working.

Hyper-lightspeed navigation is impossible.

Having lost its ability to move, the fortress is now simply drifting through space.

The main turret group had just been disabled, and all other weapons were also out of service.

They originally had a variety of production facilities, but all of them were still unusable.

It is as if the coffin of the spacecraft has been upgraded to the coffin of the fortress.

When Mitsuki saw Setsuko’s disappointed face, she finally revealed what seemed to be her emotions.

“We have no choice but to abandon it for conservation purposes after its long dormancy, except for what we need to return. With time and supplies, we can restore the functionality of the fortress. It’s better than a coffin.”

Since the fortress was in such a state, the question was what to do in the future.

“Can’t we just pretend to be an asteroid, like we’ve been doing?”

“The use of the main gun has blown the disguise quite a bit. It will take some time to disguise it again. In terms of time, I think it would be faster to restore a minimum level of mobility.”

“How long until we can restore mobility?”

“Two days”

“Head, can you make it?”

“As long as they can observe us from a distance and not find us, we’ll be fine”

“I think the current situation is sufficient for electronic disguise and optical disguise for very long distances. We won’t be detected unless we get close enough.”

“All right. Let’s go in that direction then. Mitsuki, can you show me the plan when it’s ready?”

Setsueto felt the need to get to know this fortress better. At the moment, it was the only thing Settsu could count on in his life.

“It’s already there. Go ahead.”

A plate-like image appeared in the air in front of Setsu, showing the plan.

The arrangements for restoring mobility were divided into two major parts.

The first is to repair the living fusion reactor and restore the tractor beam and mining lasers by using the urgent equipment in the fortress as materials. This will allow us to attract what is around us and turn it into resources.

In the second, we will use the surrounding asteroids and the wreckage of the spaceship we just sunk to regain our mobility.

“I see. Do you have a stockpile of propellant?”

“No propellant is required. The main propulsion system of this fortress is an infinite propulsion system with energy conversion”

“What kind of system is that?”

“We’ll convert the energy we generate directly into kinetic energy for the fortress. Propulsion engines that are bound by the law of action-reaction, such as those that use propellants, are too vulnerable to attack.”

Rather than explaining the principle in detail, Mitsuki’s explanation was more for the purpose of understanding it as a function. But even Setsuko would not be able to understand the theoretical explanation.

“That’s convenient.”

In space, movement is a physical quantity of propellant.

Without propellant, it would be unable to accelerate, decelerate, or even control its attitude, and could only drift away like a shooting star.

Managing the remaining propellant level is fundamental to space combat, I was taught.

It can move without being tied to its propellant supply. The strategic advantages are immeasurable.

“Are you sure about this plan?”

Mitsuki will check it out.

“Yeah, no problem. Here, please.”

Setsueto nodded and stood up from the fortress commander’s seat.

I have to pick up the “Black Silver Glory” from the port.

The anti-matter carrier Bayledge.

It is a specialized ship for transporting antimatter from an antimatter production plant located near a star to a spaceport or mobile facility in the Nueve system.

Since it transports a large amount of antimatter, any accident would be a serious problem. For this reason, the carriers have multiple reactors and are heavily armored to the level of warships.

Kitty’s voice echoed on the bridge of the Bayledge.

“Stop the ship. Stop the ship, or I’ll hurt you.”

The Bayledge meekly complied with Kitty’s recommendation to stop the ship.

In the unlikely event that they were attacked and the airtightness of the antimatter was affected, the antipodal annihilation and the resulting calorific energy would obliterate the ship.

Anti-matter carriers were very vulnerable to pirates.

Stopping the ship is a pirate term referring to the prohibition of acceleration/deceleration and attitude change, since we are in space.

“Captain, would you be so kind as to dump the anti-matter container?”

“I understand.”

The captain followed Kitty’s instructions.

Antimatter, along with propellant, is an essential strategic material for spacecraft.

Both warships and civilian ships get their electrical energy from antimatter reactors. Without antimatter, they would have no energy and would not even be able to move. It was inevitable and common for antimatter carriers to become targets of space pirates.

The rectangular container that had been fitted into the belly of the Bayledge was removed and began to drift through space. The Glorious Black Silver slowly approached the container and placed it inside its hangar.

The “Black Silver Glory” is pulling away from the Bayledge.

“Well, here comes the hard part. We’ve got to get away from those dreadful Imperial troops that are probably chasing us.”

On the bridge of the Black Silver Glory, Kitty was on her usual couch, looking at the front screen.

The arrangement on the bridge was the same as usual. A new simple chair had been installed diagonally to Kitty’s right as Setsu’s seat.

“You could make a lot of money selling this much antimatter”

“Set, will you give me my share?”

“Yes, yes, yes. Ask Mitsuki, and take what we don’t use.”

Setsuko was observing the work of the Black Silver Glory. The men were working one after the other without Kitty giving them any instructions.

It was a lean and tame act of “piracy”. It was different from the neat and tidy operation I had seen when I rode with my father’s dragoon, but I thought it was another form of sophistication.