From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars

In the attack area of ​​the Hermes's bottom hangar.

The No. 1 aircraft driven by Amber has completed preparations to stand on the lifting platform and will attack as soon as it enters the attack range.

Although Murat, who is responsible for driving the No. 2 aircraft, does not have to perform the assault mission, he still wears a heavy hydraulic anti-gravity suit and sits in the cockpit.

He will serve as a backup force to support Amber in an emergency.

As a destroyer, this Dragoon class can actually carry a squadron, that is, 10 HCPs.

However, Amber has not had time to fill this HCP squadron for the time being.

It is not difficult to buy new or second-hand HCPs. The difficulty is that it will not be possible to find so many skilled pilots in a short time.

Although Amber's current idea is to let Lilith refer to her idea of ​​​​rapidly developing a shipborne control personality and diverge her thinking to see if she can get a group of AI pilots.

After all, this is how Lilith played in her previous life.

But this work is obviously not something that can be completed in a short time, so the plan to supplement the HCP squadron is still on hold.

In addition to Amber and Murat, the Marines who were ready to board the assault boat also boarded the assault boat. They would eject after Amber launched the attack.

The driver of the assault boat was Tom, who had received training in driving small ships.

Although the Marines in the assault boat had been cheering him up, the driver, who had not driven an assault boat for several years and had only re-familiarized himself with the operation in the past two days, could not help but panic.

While everyone in the bottom cabin hangar was busy, the countdown to the start of the attack came to 10 minutes.

The indicator light group in the center of the hangar also lit up yellow.

"Ten minutes countdown!"

"Close the hatches of the hangar! All personnel turn on the constant temperature and oxygen supply system! HCP and assault boats, pay attention to activate the external oxygen supply pipeline!"

"The hangar gas is emptied! The maintenance team conducts the last attack inspection!"

The power amplifier played the slightly excited voice of a middle-aged man.

The maintenance squad leader, who was temporarily transferred to the assault team under Amber during the space elevator assault, also followed Amber all the way with his team members.

And now he has achieved his current life goal - to become the leader of a warship's vehicle preparation team, responsible for the maintenance, preparation, and attack of all vehicles.

Amber has few people under him, but he puts everyone in the right position.

Even the Marine who missed the target twice before can be competent for the position of part-time gunner after training.

In short, it is to constantly squeeze all their potential.

Big capitalists are undoubtedly.

Time continues to pass, and when the attack countdown reaches 3 minutes, the indicator light group lights up red.

The entire hangar also lowered the brightness of the lights at once.

"All personnel in the cabin, check again whether your safety rope has been fixed!"

"Open the attack hatch! Lifting platform, send the No. 1 machine into the attack catapult track!"

In the flashing red light, Amber, sitting in the cockpit, also followed the HCP to the outside of the ship.

The Hermes has now removed the optical camouflage, and the main energy circuit of the entire ship has also switched to the main gun.

As the countdown entered the final countdown, Amber in the cockpit could feel a huge amount of energy surging from the position of the fusion reactor in the middle of the ship.

"321 fire!"

At the same time, the Eric brothers in the operation base had received an early warning - a destroyer-class warship entered the warning circle and was heading here without any concealment.

Before the two of them gave any instructions, they saw a flash of white light in the direction of the enemy's attack through the skylight of the operation base.

Then, 80% of the air mines deployed nearby were collectively detonated in an instant.

"Brother."

Just as John was about to say something, he felt another flash of white light.

Having dealt with warships a lot, he also recognized that this was the standard shooting of the heavy particle cannon.

At the same time, the panicked voices of the younger brothers were heard in the communication channel.

"Boss! High-speed heat source detected, the other side ejected HCP!"

"Where are our HCPs? Hurry and send them out urgently!"

HCPs were also carried in the two "pirate ships" of the Eric brothers.

However, with their own methods, they could only get the last generation of HCP, four federal-made "Platypus" Block30.

Although it is a last generation product, at least it can still be used with an airborne heavy particle cannon, which is enough to ambush merchant ships.

But in the current situation, to be honest, Marvin has begun to feel unsure.

The other party can quietly reach a distance of 10,000 kilometers, which means that it is a military ship equipped with optical camouflage and black body components.

Although civilian ships also have similar optical camouflage, the effect is completely incomparable to that on military ships.

Not to mention black body, this kind of component that can absorb radar waves has always been only qualified for military ships.

So the attacking ships are either the private soldiers of the Timler family or the Imperial Navy called by them to "suppress bandits".

"Boss! Another assault boat was found! They seem to want to board?"

This time, the voice in the communication channel became a little hesitant.

After all, the patrol fleets they encountered on a daily basis would just open fire on these pirates without even thinking of capturing them alive, and naturally would not send out assault boats to board them.

"Isn't that right? Do these idiots not want to pay the ransom but want to rescue people?!"

Marvin was angry, but before he could release his anger, he saw two blue beams of light shining on an armed merchant ship docked nearby.

The charged particle cannon falling from the zenith easily tore open the top armor plate of the armed merchant ship.

These pirates do not have the discipline of the regular army, and wearing space suits is not as comfortable as wearing regular clothes.

Therefore, they did not evacuate the air in the cabin on alert and inject inert gas at key locations inside the ship.

The result was an attack from the charged particle cannon, which naturally caused a fire in the area hit.

These pirates under Marvin do not have professional damage control personnel, and usually rely on the civilian-grade automatic damage control system that comes with the ship.

It was okay to deal with minor injuries, but when attacked by such a military-grade weapon, it stopped immediately, so the fire quickly spread throughout the ship, and several explosions occurred.

Immediately afterwards, there was a violent flash of light.

The subcritical reactor of the armed merchant ship exploded.

The high-temperature plasma formed a huge fireball, and Marvin watched in pain as 50% of his belongings were reduced to ashes in the universe.

He realized that this time there was definitely no way to end well. If he wanted to survive, the hostages in his hands were his only trump card.

"Everyone! Bring all the hostages to the control room! And bring me those bombs and detonators!"

On the bridge of the Hermes, Leah, a 'ten-year veteran', was still reporting in real time the situation captured by the sensors.

"The charged particle cannon hit the target! It has been confirmed that the enemy ship No. 1 exploded! The main gun has an emergency cold cut and is expected to be able to fire again in 30 seconds!"

"It's not our turn to fire. The remaining ship is Amber's prey."

Randall looked at the HCP with the green logo of friendly forces and a long trail on the main screen, his expression relaxed.

"This ship begins to slow down, and the deflection field activates the automatic defense mode to prevent these pirates from jumping off the wall."