In Space With a Junkyard Ship chapter 171

POV: Baron of Rock, Krundiin

“Your vanguard fleet has arrived in the system, Baron Krundiin. Everything seems to be the way Captain Remi Graves reported. It seems that the pirate fleet was destroyed by the space monsters. The fleet commander thinks that this was not by coincidence.”

Pulling in the rock vapour, I took a mont to think. He seems to be even more capable than I originally thought.

“And the space monsters?” I asked, seeing him start to flip through so pages to find the relevant information. Before he could give it, he was interrupted.

“Sir, there’s trouble,” a person said as he rushed into my office. “The vanguard fleet is reporting so problem. It seems that they had an argunt with Captain Remi Graves. The fleet commander seems quite angered.”

“Go find out what’s wrong and co back here as soon as you solve it.”

“Yes, Baron.”

I watched them leave. The quantum net was a troubleso way of getting information, but at least it was a way to get instant communications, no matter where you were in the universe.

Should I have sent that commander? He’s a bit too young and rash. But this should be a good teaching experience.

Always trouble with the younger generation, most of them want too much. That reminded of an old friend and one of his children who seed to have been interfering in my business. He should be here in a week.

In the anti, I allowed myself to be read more information about other things happening in the galaxy. The galaxy was, with every passing week turning more hostile.

Not only were there more and more civilization wars, higher organizations and adventurers also seed to be fighting more frequently. This won’t change much for our state of living, as in any large red zone, the wars are constant.

Things have changed; everything seems different from how it was 100 years ago, but I do not understand why this has happened.

An hour later, he finally returned. He seed a bit nervous. This made drag on my pipe again, which always relaxed .

“Baron Krundiin, there are over 700 space monster corpses scattered all around the solar system, most of them completely intact. There are also nearly 30 new shipwrecks from the pirate fleet.”

Imdiately, I knew what was going to be said next. If that idiot tried to actually use physical force, then this would be bad for my reputation.

“The fleet commander tried to claim 50% of the wrecks as per your agreent with Captain Remi.”

A part of my table was crushed as I let my anger montarily take control. Everyone in the room flinched.

“Captain Remi denied that claim. He said that was not a part of the agreent, and by right, he owned every wreck. He said that we can buy the rights to the wrecks from him after he’s done salvaging what he wants from them.”

Not the most optimal outco, but in the grand sche, it doesn’t matter, and he does have that right. It seems he won’t be intimidated, that’s good. If he survives long enough, he will be powerful.

“They argued for quite a while, but I ordered the fleet commander to stand down. Captain Remi has now entered the portal to finish the final part of his deal.”

So that’s why he was a bit nervous.

“You did good. The fleet commander needs to be punished. I will leave that to you. Threatening my reputation is not to be taken lightly.”

“Yes, Baron Krundiin,” he answered, but I could still sense so nervousness. Good, that ans he’s thinking and understanding the gravity of the situation.

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After that, things fell back into routine. The reports I got in the following days seed to cent that Captain Remi Graves now has a nickna. So already knew him by this na, but now I would not be surprised when he ets new people, they would call him by his nickna, Pirate Bane.

I do not know what pirates have done to him or his ancestors, but he is most certainly the pain of them all. The way they seem to fail every ti he’s near can’t be a coincidence. Will that be his road to true power? If it is, then he will be hunted down before he reaches those heights.

“Baron Krundiin, he is here.” It had been over a week, but he finally made it. After I gave my consent, a few minutes later, a smaller robot walked stiffly in, taking a seat. A mont later, the head opened up and a platform extended.

From the depths of the robot, a small person erged, walking on all fours. He stood up on two legs and gave a bow. “I apologise for my mistake. I did not realise those pirates were targeting your operation.”

At least this one seed to have manners. He was a bit larger than his father, my old friend with whom I adventured with a long ti ago. His body was covered in fur, and I believe most species would call him a rodent, but this particular tiny species conquered their world.

“Your apology is accepted. I expect you to do more research the next ti, but sotis it’s not possible. From what you sent, you found out about my connection to the captain after he discovered your stealth ship?”

“Yes, Baron. His ship’s sensors were powerful, but not quite enough to find , at least when the ship wasn’t actively moving.”

That brought so shock to , to have him praise their sensors. It seed that Captain Remi was hiding more than I thought.

“It was just so strange, I needed to look into him more. Then I found his last quest and your na attached to it. I was already going to leave, as those pirates were not paying enough to tangle with a combat ship of that calibre, but as soon as I found the connection I had to co here myself so I could apologise directly.”

He once again bowed, their species’ way of a sincere apology.

“No need to worry. Tell more about Captain Remi and his ship.”

“It is an impressive ship. I do not know its make, but those weapons are truly scary. The only downside I can see is the overall size of the ship, but even that can be turned into an advantage.” That last part he said with pride.

He seed to be following his father’s footsteps. His father also had a small stealthy ship, which saved us from uncountable bad situations that could have ended in our deaths.

“We have gathered that he built that ship himself.” That seed to shock my small friend.

“Now that’s a scary revelation.”

“Oh, truly. Did you sense what truth he might hold, as I could sense that you have already taken your first step on that road?”

“There was no one mont, but as ti went on, he seed to be more in line with whatever truth he would be able to pursue. It was still quite faint.”

“So, no flare-up when the pirates made it there?”

“Not that I could tell.”

“Curious. That is curious, but also good news. Well, thank you for the information. Now tell what your father has been up to.”

I saw him relax, and I also saw that mischievous face he made that so reminded of his father. I was going to get so good dirt on him.

POV: Remi

I was still angry about that idiot fleet commander. He just would not let it go, but fortunately, it seed that the Baron interfered. The good thing was that the reports from inside the portal were distracting .

There were still plenty of space monsters inside, but most of them seed to be juveniles and quite small. The number was around 200, but they shouldn’t be a problem. The problem was the fourteen queen guards and the queen itself, although she didn’t seem to have any combat power or any ability to move.

On the tactical screen, we now saw a scene of a tight asteroid field with one large asteroid that had been cracked apart. The queen was there with thousands of eggs. Around the asteroid moved the fourteen queen guards.

They were bigger than the biggest ones outside, and I was pretty sure all of them had skills. They also seed to have ranged capability and had spikes along their armoured topside.

“What are our odds?” I asked FH, who quickly answered.

“They should be excellent, but skills can always change any outco.”

“Final checks on everything, and then move in.”

In less than 20 minutes, the ship’s engines pushed us beyond the portal’s threshold. As we made it inside, the sensors showed an imdiate reaction from the space monsters. At first, they were just looking towards us, then we actually picked up so types of sensors getting information about our ship.

A few monts later, all of the juvenile space monsters and the 14 Queen’s Guard started moving towards us. The Queen’s Guard didn’t rush forward but instead let the juveniles take point. Smarter than I thought.

“Fire at will, let’s keep them as far away as we can.”

We changed direction almost imdiately, going into a 10G burn nearly horizontally to the approaching space monsters. They were about 7000 kilotres away, which was a bit far for an engagent.

It was still strange how much ti could pass before an engagent could truly start. We were the first to fire, starting with only a few shots that were aid carefully. As the space monsters got closer, that fire rate increased, and so did our accuracy.

We were getting more and more experienced with every engagent, building up the necessary expertise so we could do even better in the future. Everything was going well until it didn’t.

The juvenile space monsters were a good enough screen for the Queen’s Guard that they got in range for their spikes before we could take them out. Soon, there were a couple of dozen spikes moving towards us, but then all of it changed after one space monster started launching them.

Each one that it shot multiplied, turning into dozens of spikes instead of just one. I held onto my chair as the ship started aggressive evasive manoeuvres while the point defence went into overdrive. FH pulled from us heavily, improving every tric of the ship.

We watched as the incoming spikes were shot down, but not all of them were destroyed completely, with so of the fragnts hitting our shields.

Those were now small enough that our shields could handle them, but so of those spikes were more resilient than expected. Most likely, another one had a skill that made them more durable.

The sensor AIs were good enough to notice everything, with the ship angling at the right tis and the shields coordinating perfectly. While we took so heavy hits, none of them did any real damage.

Now it was our turn. With the spikes gone, every turret turned its attention to the remaining space monsters. They did not survive for long. A few of them got pretty close, but not too close to threaten us.

“Well done. Let’s leave the queen alive for the mont. We don’t want the portal to close. We have a lot of space monster corpses out there; it would be a sha to lose them all.”

“Agreed, Captain, but we simply would not have enough room for everything. We should push what we don’t loot ourselves out of the portal and let the Baron's forces handle the rest.”

“Excellent idea, Bob. I will let you handle that. FH, get us close to the Queen’s Guard corpses. Those are the most valuable, and we have enough room in deep storage that we should be able to keep what’s truly valuable. You are certain that the queen cannot move on its own?”

“Yes, she seems damaged.”

“Excellent. Then, FH, you have permission to rank up. I know that it must be so uncomfortable delaying it so much.”

“Thank you, Captain,” she said, and soon her active mind faded. It was going to be fascinating to witness a rank-up inside soone who was ranking up.