A Loli’s Space Odyssey

Just because I was scanned without warning didn’t mean the other party were definitely space pirates. It may be that it was a mistake due to my ship having a malfunction. Or maybe the other party was just someone who’s passing by and just happened to scan me.

Right. Let’s not kid ourselves. I’m most probably being scanned because I was hella suspicious.

An unknown ship containing a boatload gold moored in the middle of a desolate space sector was definitely suspicious as heck. 

[The unknown ship has brought its weapon systems online.]

Ah, how heartless Lady Luck is. Looks like she wasn’t inclined to bless me with her smile this time. The odds of suddenly getting threatened with weapons at the ready by an opponent who doesn’t even seem to be a bounty hunter right in the middle of nowhere was supposed to be a low 1 in 10 chance, yet here we were.

“Battle stations, everyone!” (Alisha)

“Cancel that order.”

“But, ojou-sama…”

“Alisha, don’t make me repeat myself. If I say something, what must you do?”

“Follow your words no questions asked.”

“Good girl.”

The face of a shady person was brought up on my screen. A message, huh?

“Hey there, missy. You taking a nap in a place like this?”

“Funny. There’s actually nothing of interest here folks. Now please don’t mind me and hurry along.”

“Huh? Don’t say that. Isn’t it a good thing that we’ve luckily managed to meet each other within this vast universe? How bout ya share some of the cargo ya have there with us poor folk. Ya do that and we won’t give ya much trouble, kay?”

“Huh? I’m generous enough to let you go, and you still want to bare your fangs at me?”

In the middle of our negotiations, three other unidentified ships suddenly warped out and arrived at the sector we were located on. All of their weapons were already deployed and were primed for firing at a moments notice.

When they closed in enough, info on the three unknowns appeared on my monitor’s screen. Their overall build was a great, heaping mess of haphazard modules forcefully joined together. All of them had moderate cargo capacity and were fairly capable of fielding weapons. It was just that their maintenance seemed severely lacking. There were lots of scratches and dents on them. They really looked like your typical pirate ships.

“Hm? Now that’s quite an unfamiliar ship model. Where’d the ship come from, kid?”

“You really don’t get the position you guys are in.”

I scanned the unknown enemy ships as well while thinking they were most probably bona fide space pirates. Yep, that’s a hit alright. Every ship had a bounty of 5,000 to 8,000 Sol.

“Hah, you’ve scanned us huh? Well, can’t be helped. Just hand over all yer cargo. Ya do that kid and I’ll at least leave ya with yer life intact.”

“Hah… Guess I really gotta do this huh? I really hate violence.”

I started to harden my resolve while gradually raising the energy output of the main generator from normal level to battle level. What am I resolving myself for? Well, for massacring some unfortunate folks of course.

If I were to get threatened with weapons in order to forcefully take these babies away from me, then I’ll have to respond in kind, in virtue of self defense. In other words, that means thoroughly crushing these fucking space pirates. 

“Yep. That’s a good girl. Ya don’t wanna kick the bucket just yet right?”

“Yeah. Guess so.”

It’s obvious what would happen if humans were to lose the protection of ships within the vacuum of space. In the first place, they’d get done in once they get caught up in a ship’s explosion.

Even though I was undoubtedly going to engage in a battle to the death moments away from now, there was no sense of fear within me. Maybe because the ship I’m helming right now was Ava.

The ships the pirates sported used civilian general purpose models as bases and were several generations old. The output of their main generators, shield strength and weaponry were all horribly lacking. They weren’t properly maintained and their armor was brittle as fuck. On the other hand, my Avalanche was a bona fide military model which has been modified to peak performance by yours truly.

The shield output and weapon firepower were lightyears beyond their trashy models, and its armor was also military grade.

Let me put this bluntly. There wasn’t even a tiny sliver of a chance that I’ll lose. This wasn’t going to be a battle, but a one sided hunt. Or rather, a deathtrap.

The generator output finally reached battle level.

“If you guys don’t want to die, then I suggest you surrender. I gave you the chance to back off, but I think I’d probably end up killing you anyway, so don’t hold a grudge, alright?”

“Ya sure bark hard for someone facing three opponents huh? Ya better not regret this!”

“Watch and learn girls.”

Although each of my girls was meant to operate a section of the ship, I can also pilot it all by myself. Observe the power of a loli.

The pirate ships surrounding me turned their bows toward me all at once. In that instant, I fired up Ava’s throttle to maximum.

“Gah!”

“What the—!?”

“That’s fast!?”

While being assaulted by Gs, I operated the touch panel and brought my ship’s weapons online.

The shape of Ava’s streamlined hull transformed and my four pulse laser cannons appeared from within. Weapon bays on each side of the cockpit opened up, and two gleaming large caliber cannon barrels stretched forward.

The auxiliary thrusters blasted out, allowing the ship to make a sudden reverse turn while preserving all its built up momentum. In mere moments, all four pulse laser cannons were aimed straight at the space pirate’s ships.

“The bitch just transformed!!!”

The military grade pulse laser cannons fired in succession and easily pierced the shield and physical armor of a pirate ship, causing a series of explosions within its hull. Its cockpit seems to have been burnt to a crisp as well.

“With just one attack!?”

I wordlessly accelerated and took the rear of a fleeing pirate ship. The heavy Gs caused my field of vision to darken. I fired the pulse laser cannons again once I felt a bit better.

“N— No! I don’t wanna die! I don’t wanna die! I don’t—!!!”

The four pulse laser cannon energy beams effortlessly smashed through the shield and ruthlessly pierced through the main boosters of the pirate ship whose pilot was crying desperately for dear life. When the beams reached the main generator, the second ship also exploded to bits.

“Ya f*cking bitch! I’ll f*cking kill ya!”

The third ship didn’t choose to flee, but challenged me to a dogfight instead. Does he want to get even after seeing his friends get killed? There’s almost no way to effectively avoid laser cannon fire launching out at the speed of light. So what does one do instead? Move erratically so your opponent couldn't get a proper lock.

“Kuh. I don’t even need both my hands for this.”

I placed my left hand behind my back and continued piloting the ship with one hand alone.

“Guh!? Arrgh…!”

I controlled Ava to make random maneuvers by using the various auxiliary thrusters while interchangeably accelerating and decelerating constantly. 

“Shit! Ya sure are slippery!”

As I thought, this should be treated as reality, and the one riding inside that thing was a human just like me. It honestly made me feel like vomiting.

Perhaps my urge to vomit had an influence on my handling of Ava, or maybe the pirate’s aiming adjustments managed to catch up to my evasive maneuvers, but laser cannon fire finally managed to hit Ava dead on.

“It— It didn’t even flinch!?”

The red laser fired off by the pirate ship was completely blocked by Ava’s energy shield, and could not even leave any burn marks on its armor. Guess that settles it huh?

I started to accelerate towards the pirate ship with its bow pointing towards me. The pirate ship frantically fired off its laser cannons in a last ditch effort, but it was ultimately futile. Even if the shots managed to hit Ava, they couldn’t even get past its energy shield.

“S— Stooop! Mommy—!”

Before I crashed into it, I maneuvered out of the opposing ship’s way, and fired off two canister rounds straight at it the moment our units passed each other by. The shards shot out at super-high speed and broke through the pirate ship’s energy shield, punching its hull full of holes.

Swiss cheese is ready to be served.

“Hah! And that settles it. Blame your own ignorance for not knowing your opponent. I am Queen Kizuna Amun Ra. And this name can never know defeat.”

I rapidly brought the ship around and adjusted my pose while gazing at the exploding pirate ship, decreased the generator output back to normal levels and turned the weapon systems offline.

Fireworks sure are pretty. But I’m surprised that I had no sense of remorse from killing another living being instead.

*Clap**Clap**Clap*

*Loud cheers*

I basked in the ovations of my girls.