A Loli’s Space Odyssey

After the ship maintenance ended, normally I should do a run down to make sure they didn’t do anything suspicious to it. I’m not really a good judge for these things since I don’t actually know what to look for, but I did give the ship a tour. Laundry room, kitchen, medical bay, training room, cockpit and cargo hold. Nothing suspicious. Since we still had some time before the mission deployment, I wanted to eat something.

Since I was hungry, Rose set the Auto-cooker to prepare a menu using artificial meat and activated it. She selected the large serving for myself and the normal amount for everyone else. After a few moments, the Auto-cooker let out a ping which indicated that the meals were ready.

 

“Hm. So this is the so called artificial meat dish… It’s white colored, but it does seem fairly delicious huh?”

 

“Please, don’t hold back, ojou-sama.” (Rose)

 

What appeared on our plates were meat resembling fish fillets covered in sauce, with pilaf and potato salad on the side. The amount on my plate was quite a lot since I ordered a large serving.

 

“It’s delicious.”

 

This artificial meat thing was delicious. It was sweet and juicy, non-greasy and with just the right texture. And the sauce used was also quite exquisite. The pilaf had also soaked up the artificial meat’s juices, which served to enhance its umami flavor. The potato salad? It tasted like your normal potato salad.

“Would you perhaps like to work out afterwards?” (Rose)

“No thanks. I’ll skip that for today.”

Ava also had a well stocked training room. The various exercise equipment are all designed for preventing muscular degeneration while out in space. I’ve also basically spent most of my time since coming to this world carefree, so I need to exercise inside the training room to avoid putting on weight. But that can wait for now.

A ring soon came and Ava’s AI displayed a message.

[Mission will commence shortly. All captains are to deploy their ships]

So the show is starting huh? Let’s see how fun this can be.

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“Battle stations, girls! This time I will let you handle the positions I assigned you for. I will only pilot the ship. You're responsible with shooting down enemies, managing the shields and so on.”

“Understood!” (unison)

 

“The pirates have come out of hyperdrive.” (Stella)

“Kek. Their numbers may be big, but at the end of the day, ants are just bugs, no matter how many they are. Drop our comms to silence. Wreak havoc!” (Kizuna)

“Hyahaaa! Just look at those big, fat preys! You’re mine bitches!” (Lisa)

 

Once the order to commence the operation was given, Ava’s generator output was raised to battle level in one go and we began accelerating.

 

“We’re entering the battle! Brace yourself for the impacts and Gs.” (Stella)

 

“Understood!” (unison)

 

I felt my entire body get strongly pressed against the pilot seat from the sudden acceleration. A feeling of tension welled up from deep within me. My hands began sweating lightly. But this loli is overpowered. Something like this won’t phase me. Now let’s kick ass!

 

“An unknown ship’s closing in fast! What the heck is that?!” 

 

“It’s an unknown model! Keep your guard up boys!”

“Take it head-on! Shoot it down! We greatly outnumber it. Surround that ship and fire at will. Tear down its energy shields and shoot it to pieces!”

 

There were a total of four enemy pirate ships in front – two transport ships and two fighters. They’re going after me head-on – right from the front. All their weapons were deployed.

 

“Looks like they want a frontal shoot-out huh. Let’s oblige. Shiro…”

“Target lock on!” (Shiro)

 

Shiro aimed the pulse laser cannons at one of the fighter crafts in front and the large caliber live ordnance cannons at another. The enemies seem to plan on concentrating their firepower, but my Ava’s laser cannons have a longer range compared to all their weapons.

 

“What the– !? Our shield– You gotta be kidding me!?” 

 

“This ship’s way dangerous! Let’s get outta here, you lot! Escape–”

Too late. Shiro fired two canister shots on its vulnerable guts in succession.

 

A great number of destructive projectiles rained down on its shield and brought it down in an instant. Its hull was then mercilessly punched through with countless holes. Another serving of Swiss cheese is served. The two fighter ships were swiftly shot down in mere moments.

 

“Gyaaaah!? That’s a goddamn monster! Re- Retreat–”

 

The remaining two transport ships tried to escape as well, but escaping from me was impossible.

 

“I can’t shake em! No, no, no! I can’t possibly die in a place like this!”

 

“No mercy girls.” (Kizuna)

 

“What about the escape pods?” (Lisa)

“Ignore them. The wanna be mercenaries can handle scraps. We’re heading to the next battlefield.”

 

“Y- Yes, understood!”

 

“Announce: I’m going to bring down that other ship.” (Shiro)

 

“Wha– Godammit! Things aren’t supposed to be like this…!”

 

The captain of the lead enemy ship scathingly replied to his other remaining comrades, who asked him what to do in a pathetic-sounding voice. In my humble opinion guys, you have next to no chance of surviving, so just obediently hand your asses over and get shot down to save us all from the trouble. I downed the pirate ship that was giving it all to escape, and then Shiro successfully shot down the lead ship as well. 

 

At this point we were basically flying around leaving a trail of explosions behind. Weak. So weak that I might fall asleep. Let’s aim for bigger targets.

I checked the weaponry and equipment of the hostile medium-sized pirate ships.

 

They were also heavily modified civilian-use starships, just like the missile support cruiser we fought earlier. Pirates commonly used these types of retrofitted ships. They would attack civilian ships, disable their main thrusters, dispose of all the passengers and crew and would then take the ships for themselves.

 

Anyway… those modified medium-sized pirate warships are equipped with rapid-fire multi-cannons for close-range defensive fire and a medium caliber laser cannon for support bombardment. They probably operate by supporting the small attack crafts from behind through long-range laser cannon fire. The multi cannons are most likely of the auto-targeting turret cannon type.

“I’ll maneuver under them. After that, Shiro, Lisa. Let them taste hell.”

“Yes!”

 

Once I’ve confirmed that we were completely positioned in the blind spot of the medium-sized pirate ships, I gave the signal to my girls.

 

“Eh!? There’s a hostile enemy ship signature right below us! Shit, it’s completely in our blind spot!”

“What!? What the heck were you doing!? Were you actually sleeping the whole time!?”

“Dammit, evade! Evade you fucking idiots!”

“It’s no use! We’re losing power! Abandon ship! Abandon shiiip!”

“There’s no escape. You’ll all die here.”

“Hiiih!? This thing’s a monster!”

“Dammit! Stop that freak! Hold it down!"

“There’s no f*cking way we’ll defeat that thing! AAAAH!!”

 

Lots of small explosions occurred inside the damaged hulls of all lined up medium-sized pirate ships. After a final large explosion went off on each of them, they completely shut down.