I tried to posture like a general, but ultimately, I was just the Imperial Groom.
Even without me, the Edge of the Hero Route would have charged the Zork Mother and claimed victory.
Though that was a route where ninety percent of the population perished.
...If I failed, people would die by the millions. I decided to live with a bit more humility.
This was a war against an unknown civilization.
I could fight the Proone and Ghouls with a measure of confidence because the Ogre God Nation had provided data on their units. But the Pirate Guild was a complete enigma.
They didn't develop their own weapons. Instead, they plundered or traded for battleships and armaments from every civilization imaginable. If it came from a civilization that didn't do business with the Battle Dome, their specs remained a total mystery. There was even the possibility of them possessing some transcendental super-weapon from the upper echelons.
Then again, they wouldn't use someone holding a rare weapon as a mere vanguard pawn. I just needed to take them down swiftly.
I suspected that deploying those fighters was the crux of their strategy. They didn't care about the crew's lives, but they wanted our ship. The fighters were combat-ineffective, but they served as a foot in the door for understanding our technology. No matter how friendly we were, neither the Battle Dome nor the Ogre God Nation was going to just hand over their tech.
The enemy ship was roughly the size of an Imperial destroyer. Our fighters drew closer.
"Huh!? You think you're gonna attack!? Just try it! Behind the Pirate Guild is a Great Nation so powerful you lot couldn't beat them even if you stood on your heads! Yeah, go on, do your worst!!!"
"Thomas, do it."
"Commence attack!"
Wifey looked irritated. She opened fire without a moment's hesitation.
Now, these missiles weren't actually designed for destruction. They released spider-type drones amidst the smoke of the explosions. Only a few would likely reach the enemy battleship, but we had multiple drone operators managing them one by one.
They slipped through the gaps created by the missile impact and infiltrated the interior. I'd worried the drones might be incinerated by internal fires, but they made it inside safely this time.
The armor is thin... These guys were basically being forced on a suicide mission just to be killed.
"Wait, what! Hold on! Aren't we supposed to negotiate... Gyaaaaaaaaaaargh! They actually fired! Dammit, this wasn't the deal! We're fighting back!"
"Fire in the hull!"
"Shit! Put it out!"
Their chaotic internal comms were being broadcast right to us. This thing had the combat capability of a civilian ship with a few bells and whistles. One of the spider drones that had infiltrated the ship crawled onto the back of the commander's head and... self-destructed.
The drones proceeded to eliminate the other commanders in rapid succession. The middle-aged guy who had been acting so tough was the first to go. That was enough to cause a total collapse; they surrendered immediately.
Seeing this result from just one operator per unit made me realize once again how terrifying Kevin was for being able to control thousands—perhaps tens of thousands—of spider drones simultaneously.
However, these drones had plenty of weaknesses. They just hadn't been exposed yet. They lacked power, had short operating times, and broke easily.
As for the pirates who surrendered, no pleasant fate awaited them. We weren't aggressive enough to execute them ourselves, but per the treaties, we would hand them over to the nations that held grudges against them. After that, it wasn't our problem.
They could complain all they wanted. In the meantime, we recovered the hull as quickly as possible and began dismantling it on Wifey's battleship.
We removed any explosives first. I didn't think it was a suicide trap, but we had to be sure. To account for the possibility of the enemy having micro-drones like our spider-types, we fried the area with electromagnetic pulses. That was the spider drones' greatest weakness.
Well, in the case of our battleship, the Fairies were keeping watch, so we weren't at risk of infiltration. Naturally, we cut all radio transmissions as well.
Then came the disassembly. Kyoko-chan led a battalion of middle-aged mechanics to tear the thing apart.
"Let's start by stripping the interior. Everyone, let's give it our all!"
Kyoko-chan smiled, dressed in a spacesuit-style jumpsuit for extravehicular work.
"Yes! Oyakata!!!"
She really was the woman standing at the apex of all engineering graduate students and veteran laborers. They didn't call her by rank; they called her Oyakata...
Incidentally, I was also called in for the demolition work and electrical work. I-I have to work... Why am I trembling?
First, we cleared out the personal effects. Anything that looked like a home appliance or gadget was sent for analysis. We also planned to extract disk images of the software onto Imperial media for study.
Once the software was pulled and the databases copied, I'd turn them into text and ask the Ogre God Nation for translations. Right now, we were buying dictionaries, children's textbooks, and even Proone scriptures through the Battle Dome. A team of linguists was currently suffering through the process of mastering the languages. A Proone Guidebook compiled for the Imperial public had already been released, though the translation of the Proone scriptures was still tied up in meetings. We didn't want anyone getting brainwashed.
It was only a matter of time now. Hahaha, it was your mistake to let us get even a fragment of your technology!
The Empire isn't a country where soldiers reign supreme. It's a country where middle-aged men dominate through industrial might.
Eh? What is it, Fairy?
"What about me?"
Ah, right. It’s the Fairy and Pleasant Companions' Industrial Neverland.
Anyway, the interior had to be partially destroyed during the process. The décor—which looked like a Yankee's room with its gaudy reddish-purple tones—was a bit irritating, so I demolished it without mercy. Things stuck together with adhesive just had to be broken.
So, we smashed it and hauled it out for analysis. You can learn a lot from paints and adhesives, after all.
We had investigated Proone ships and humanoid fighters the same way... but they didn't have any interesting tech. Their technological breadth was extremely narrow. When I asked Saria, he said they didn't accept anything new because of their religious doctrine. I felt like that kind of thinking destined them for decline.
I was glad that this time, even if they were just pirates, we were dealing with people who integrated technology from other nations. Getting resources by defeating enemies in a rogue-like fashion is actually pretty fun.
I stripped the walls and stared at the materials. There weren't any Shinto altars or religious shrines. The Proone always had those weird boards, but these guys seemed secular.
Then, I checked the equipment. There was some humanoid heavy machinery. Let's haul that out. I slapped a [Requires Transport] tag on it.
"Ooh, we've got something interesting here."
"What's that? ...Oh, wow."
We found weapons. This was it. This was exactly what I was looking for.
"Kyoko-chan, weapon discovered."
"Understood. Sending the recovery squad immediately."
Since it was dangerous to touch them carelessly, I attached a tag that read: [Dangerous Material - Handle with Care].
Still... because it was a completely different civilization, I'd expected a grotesque interior, but it wasn't like that at all. If anything, the design was exactly what a delinquent would love. It even smelled like car air freshener. It made me a little motion-sick. No mirror balls, though, unfortunately.
There was trash scattered everywhere, but even trash tells a story. We recovered every last fragment.
Fuhahaha! Don't underestimate the persistence of the Imperial people! We're going to pick apart every last scrap of your lifestyle and culture!