LIGHTNOVELWORLD Chapter 15: Repelling Aliens and Pirates
I stepped on the pedals without delay, pushing the boosters to maximum output and accelerating the Range Falcon forward. Meanwhile, I adjusted the reticles for all twelve turrets, which targeted one ship each. A bit dizzying letting my eyes dart across the bridge's 720° displays, but it wasn't anything I hadn't gotten used to.
"Twelve bogeys locked in. Fire!" I reported before pulling the big red trigger.
All the turrets fired at once, their aim shifting infinitesimally each second to keep the moving enemies locked in sight. Controlling twelve reticles with two levers was almost impossible, but skill and intuition were enough to desaturate their shields in three seconds. When their shields fell, the blue beams destroyed their hulls, and in the next second, brief red flowers bloomed in the void of space.
There were still more than half of them remaining, but strangely, none of them dared to counterattack or avenge their fallen comrades. Instead, they looked even more frantic now, pushing their boosters into overdrive in a desperate attempt to escape.
"They shouldn't be a problem anymore," I muttered, shifting my sights to the next target. "Now then, what the hell are these things...?"
In TSO, alien monsters were not a rarity. They varied in shape and size, with specific abilities or attributes that made them more of a hassle to hunt than others. But the creatures chasing these pirates were new to me.
They looked like some kind of bizarre octopus-starfish hybrid: tentacles sprouting from a central body, but what really caught my attention were the dozens of yellow, reptilian eyes on each green tentacle, swiveling around like a chameleons', searching for prey.
"Percy, run a biological scan on these creatures."
For now, keeping our distance seemed like the best option. There had to be a reason the pirates were so frantically trying to flee instead of fighting back.
[Command received. Scanning... Scan complete. Displaying results.]
The next instant, the display showed a 3D image of the alien creature. As I examined it, I frowned.
"... Volatile chemicals detected in its body?" I raised a brow.
In space, where there's no air, explosions are short-lived, if they ever happen at all. But ships have a small amount of stored oxygen, allowing for the brief, devastating detonations that result due to combat. But a creature filled with explosive chemicals? I couldn't imagine it detonating even if hit with lasers.
I shrugged and adjusted one of the blasters' sights forward. "Well, seeing is believing."
When I pulled the trigger, firing a concentrated beam at the nearest alien, I realized just how foolish that choice was.
The laser leaped forward at the speed of light, striking the creature dead center where its tentacles met. A moment later, a chain reaction occurred. A blinding white flash engulfed the Falcon's visor, overwhelming its extreme light shielding and searing our eyes.
"F-Fu—!"
I cursed, panicked. Instinctively, I rerouted the ship's total energy to the helm-side shield generator, cranking its output from 100% to an emergency 1000%. Even so, I could tell we were still far from safe.
The entire Range Falcon shuddered violently as all the shield's energy levels plummeted. The explosion was so powerful it was nearly comparable to a small supernova!
Thankfully, the shields managed to hold on. The light faded slowly, revealing that the space around us became eerily empty. Aliens and pirates vanished into nothingness as if they never were there. For a moment, I thought it could be hallucination, born from stress, but floating debris—a barely recognizable piece of a pirate ship or two—told me otherwise.
"What the hell was that?!" Eva cried out, holding her chest and shaking as her voice cracked. "That blast took the breath out of me!"
Hearing her complaint, I scanned through the readouts.
Shields were at woefully low levels—reaching dangerous levels below 10%—by the time the blast subsided. The helm shield's integrity had taken half the blow the explosion dished out, the energy use cresting to greater than 920%, effectively swamping the circuitry. Furthermore, the G-Forces recorded resultant from that blast reached an astonishing 11G! It was a mystery how we didn't faint from it!
"... The shields require immediate repairs," I murmured, feeling drained. "Let's make a detour to the nearest station first before heading to our destination."
Eva didn't answer, but I noticed that her pale face was pale. She was probably thinking about how things would play out if she had been out there in her Frigate instead of inside the Range Falcon. With its low-tier shields, she definitely would end up turning into space dust, just like the pirates around us earlier.
'At least we know to avoid these aliens next time.'
I took a deep breath and continued with the jump. This time, we traversed the space much more carefully.
---
[Docking complete. Welcome to the Ursula Space Station in the Kelfied Star System of the Jiguer Sector.]
On this day, the 15th of the 6th Month, Year 580 of the Yezra Unified Calendar, we arrived at our last stop.
As usual, Eva's MC Correction worked overtime. We ran into everything on our journey to this station: hundreds of pirate fleets, a dozen swarms of explosive alien creatures, and thousands of merchant and other ships sending SOS signals along the way. All of it within one Galactic week!
Imagine 350 hours stuffed with constant activity—laser fire, insults, and jammer's disruption. By the time we got here, we had amassed an ad hoc fleet of over a hundred ships: merchants, freelancers, and other wanderers all traveling in the same direction. Hyperspace jumping in sync with that many ships wasn't easy, but it was better than being picked off one by one.
Of course, bringing merchant ships was not exactly volunteering. I generously shared food and fuel when it was needed—at a steep markup for the hassle. Despite the unexpectedly large crowd, our resources lasted until the end, and we even made a good profit and some new friends. Helping others is a pretty low-risk investment, especially if they are begging you to take their money!
Anyway, now, with just two quests left, we were entering the final stretch.
One was the main quest: finding Major Terrence Greenwood. The other one was to investigate a gravitational anomaly near the Muzan Sector, a black hole system.
'Actually, these two commissions are connected.'
The Muzan Sector quest was the "legit" route to trigger the main quest, though it involved aimlessly poking around until the story unfolded.
The "shortcut" you get from Mercy saved time but required triggering a series of strictly hidden flags—impossible to get without prior knowledge. Either route we choose, we'd get to the same destination in the end.
But first, we have to stock up on consumables. Again.
"Then, Mistress Astoria, we'll take our leave," one of the merchants said, bowing his head. "May God Vivace bless your travels!"
"Fucking old man! I told you many times, I'm not a Mistress and not an Astoria either!" Eva exclaimed, flushing with anger.
I sighed. From the moment we met him, this stubborn old merchant had insisted on calling her "Mistress Astoria," clearly misinterpreting our relationship. I could see where he was coming from—it's rare to see a man and a woman traveling together without something going on. Still, he wasn't exactly helping the situation.
"Hahaha! No need to be shy, Mistress Astoria," he joked with a wide grin. "Once again, thank you for saving us. If fate allows our paths to cross again, I'll repay this debt a hundredfold!"
"Hey, damned geezer! Listen to what people are telling you!" Eva barked, stepping forward, fists clenched.
"Whoa, whoa." I grabbed her arm before she could lunge at him. "Let it go. He's just an old man—think of it as harmless nonsense."
"Let go! I'll beat some common decency into this moron!" she fumed, but eventually, the merchant troupe made their exit, waving their four arms in farewell.
It took another fifteen minutes for Eva to calm down. During the entire exchange, she hadn't cursed their ancestors at all, so I figured she wasn't truly furious—just embarrassed.
While Eva cooled off in the Range Falcon, I handled the pirate loot and resold the merchants' gifts. After crunching the numbers, we had burned through about 300,000 Credits on repairs and supplies but raked in 1.8 million Credits from pirate loot and "escort fees."
Not a bad haul.
Of course, Eva would get an even split of the earnings—after deducting expenses, savings, and other fees, her share came out to 400,000 Credits—a tidy sum. Enough to cover her mother's hospital bills, which ran 70,000 Credits per month. Not that she had to worry much—I was covering 90% of those costs, after all.
"At this rate, she'll be able to upgrade her ship from a Frigate to a Destroyer after this quest," I mused.
The cheapest Destroyer would cost around 300 million Credits outright or a down payment of 75 million with 24 monthly installments of 11 million Credits. A steep investment for most, but compared to the Range Falcon's value of 1 Billion Credit, it was practically spare change.
With supplies restocked, there was nothing left to do but wait for the repairs to finish. Then it was back to the grind—onward to the next step of our journey—the black hole sector, Muzan!