- Chapter 9 - Salvage -

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"Captain… I-I'm sorry…"

"It's okay. You've tried your best. If I had to blame someone, it would have been those 'geniuses' who chose this awfully imbalanced loadout."

Ares comforted the sulking catgirl who was sitting on his lap. He hugged her tightly from behind, petted her head, and lightly caressed her soft, fluffy ears.

Although his disappointment towards the battleship was immeasurable, Ares did not voice out his complaints. The sight of the weeping Syntia pricked his heart like a stake, and thus he lifted the catgirl from her seat and placed her in his embrace instead.

"Do you feel better now?"

"Mm… Y-yes…"

"That's good to hear. Don't push yourself too hard. It's not worth it if we lose more than we gain, and even worse if we don't gain anything."

"Understood, Captain. I… I will remember that."

"Great, now let's get back to proper business. Hmm… About the other weapons that we have…"

Shortly after Syntia went back to her post, Ares raised a crucial question.

Since the heavy artillery turrets, the <Mass Driver Cannons (Requiem)> and the <Plasma Bolt Cannons (Chorus)> were incomparably bad against small and agile opponents, Ares could only hope that the final weapon that he had access to could be of use.

"I think we need to reload <Cluster Missile Racks (Grim Hymn)>."

"That… It will cost us… Four hundred points per shot, Captain."

"Wh-what the fuck?"

Ares wiped his forehead despite not sweating. He knew that there would be some tricky conditions, but he did not expect the price to be that enormous.

<Grim Hymn> was an array of four missile racks, each containing five seeker missiles. At first, it might seem insufficient. However, each projectile could split into six submunitions when required. That meant, <Synthesis> could engage a whopping 120 targets in one full salvo.

It sounded marvelous, but <Synthesis> had emptied its clip back in the "great battle" millenniums ago. If Ares wanted to deploy the missile racks, he needed to order a reload. Upon receipt of the command, the ship would synthesize the ammunition through unknown means.

"Damn it, we only have… let me check… around 2500 points left. And then, we have three damaged <Chorus> turrets to repair due to the overheating… Why are these missiles so expensive?"

"Um, about that… Sorry, I don't know. I can only relay what the system tells. M-maybe, it's the size?"

"Oh, right. I forgot the check its dimensions— Oh, what the…?"

From the schematics, Ares learned that a <Grim Hymn> missile had an approximate length of 56 meters. The submunitions, at one-third of the container's length, was twice as big as the largest torpedo in <EPO>.

— That purple-haired bitch!

The starship pilot scowled in his heart. The creators of <Synthesis> loaded the ship with yet another excessively powerful weapon.

Ares worried that due to the sheer size of the missiles, they would be easy to shoot down by point defense turrets. Furthermore, speed and maneuverability were a huge concern. In his memories, torpedoes were the worst weapons in the game due to their tragically low cruising speed.

But he had no other choice. He didn't even have the option of ramming his ship into the enemy like a battering ram, as the difference in their mobility was too immense.

"I've made my decision. Just two. That's all we can afford for now."

"Understood. Now initializing the reload sequence of <Grim Hymn>. It will cost a total of 800 points and will take around 20 to 40 minutes. The two missiles will be loaded in racks 1 and 2, respectively."

"Alright. Let's pray that it will work for pest extermination… It's gross overkill though, like using a flamethrower to eliminate an itsy-bitsy spider…"

"Spider?"

"No, it's nothing."

Looking at the scanner map displayed on the HUD, Ares was reminded of an important matter that he forgot out of frustration. The hostile starships had retreated, but their victims were still floating in deep space.

"Oh, shit! This is bad!"

"Huh? What happened, Captain?"

"We were here to respond to a distress signal! Syntia, please check… Is that signal still being transmitted? I mean, S-O-S."

"No, it isn't. Allow me to pull up the records… Captain, we've stopped receiving the signals right after the confirmed destruction of 'Target 7.'"

The distress signal seemed to originate from the starship that was sunk shortly after <Synthesis> had announced its arrival.

"Ah… But, the scanner… Why do the purple dots persist, even if the poor thing should've been blown to kingdom come?"

"Since our scanners detect mana waves… There are two possibilities. One, manarium. Two, lifeform. But we exclude signatures under a certain threshold so if it's the latter, the entity in question should be mana-capable."

"You mean that it's possible that someone's still alive among the debris, right?"

"Um… Affirmative, Captain."

"That's some great news! Quick, we need to rescue them before it's too late!"

Ares was delighted after knowing that there might be survivors. Perhaps, the victims had ejected from their doomed ships in escape pods. Such a mechanism existed in <EPO> and was the main reason why player respawns made sense in the game's lore.

"We'll approach Target 7 first. Then, 9 and 8 in order, sorted by distance."

"Roger that."

After about 20 seconds of cruising, the cluster of debris that once constituted a starship came into view. Ares brought <Synthesis> to a complete stop before starting to search for signs of life. The telescopic view of the target's remains was projected on the "virtual canopy".

"No way…"

Ares's heart sank into the depths of harsh reality when he caught sight of dismembered human body parts. A severed forearm with bones protruding from its end was floating in the vacuum. In addition, the discovery of a helmet with a cracked visor cemented the fact that there were no survivors.

No one could survive in outer space without a helmet. It was impossible for a person to be alive with their spine hanging down from their neck either. Ares gagged uncontrollably on the horrendous sight. The owner of the head had their body ripped apart when the ship exploded.

"C-captain, are… Are you alright?"

"Urgh…I-I'm fine. Tell me about what you've found."

Ares facepalmed at himself for neglecting an important fact — a working escape pod should send out distress signals constantly while deployed. In reality, the escape pod wouldn't teleport itself back to the last-docked station. Someone must pick it up and give it a ride.

The absence of signals meant that there were no escape pods. Either the sunken starships' crew members did not manage to eject, had their pods destroyed, or didn't have such a method of escape.

Nevertheless, Ares's efforts were not in vain.

"Captain, we've pinpointed the source of the mana signatures in this area. It originates from one of the larger pieces of the debris. After analyzing the wave spectrum, we have confirmed the presence of manarium in its crystalline form."

"I see. That means… The civilization of this galaxy could be using manarium in their technology as well. We need to be aware of that."

"Should we salvage the item? We can extract the manarium crystal to replenish our reserves."

"Yes, please do. But don't consume it until we're critically low on supplies."

"Roger that."

Syntia operated her console and sent out salvage drones from <Synthesis>'s deployed cargo hatch. The drones latched on the wreckage and pulled it towards the ship. The purple dot representing that object disappeared from the scanner map. Due to time constraints and other reasons, Ares did not continue with the salvage of additional parts.

"Next should be Target 9. If I remember correctly… It was already 'dust' when we first arrived in this sector. Let's just collect the manarium crystal and call it a day. I don't think there'll be anyone who could survive that."

"Understood."

It took <Synthesis> three minutes to reach its destination and another five minutes to complete the salvage operation. As expected, the mana signature was emitted by one of the fragments in the wreckage as well.

"Now, for the last target…"

"Yes, Captain. The mana waves that Target 8 emits are significantly stronger. We detected it the moment we exited hyperspace."

"Prepare a wave spectrum analysis then. I'll get us close enough for the scan to work."

Ares steered the capital-class starship towards the final salvage target. The starship wasn't completely obliterated like the other two. The trapezium-shaped starship reminded Ares of one of the most popular ships in <EPO>, which was a balanced multi-purpose model.

<Synthesis> approached the drifting starship in order to perform a close inspection.

It was heavily damaged and had multiple indentations and perforations on its hull. The canopy was broken. Through a large hole on the tinted glass panes, Ares could see a person slumped on the main pilot's seat.

The pilot was wearing a helmet and a spacesuit, which, in theory, could protect from the outside vacuum and provide a suitable atmosphere through oxygen synthesis. However, they didn't seem to be breathing, judging from the complete lack of chest movements.

The pilot had already long succumbed to either asphyxiation or physical injuries.

"Wait… We… We could've saved them, right…?"

Ares muttered in a trembled voice. He gritted his teeth, trying to repress the lump in his throat. If only he didn't choose to flex <Synthesis>'s offensive capabilities out of spite and majestically failed in doing so, but instead, provided immediate aid to the subject in distress…

But it was too late for regrets.

"Damn it, I…"

"Detailed spectrum analysis of the captured mana waves has been completed. It's complicated. Captain, you'll need to review the results."

"Huh? Hmm… Let‘s see…"

Ares checked the analysis results displayed on the monitor and found that there were actually three mana sources within the damaged starship. The largest source has overshadowed the others, preventing them from being identified without an in-depth scan.

After inspecting the three-dimensional scanner map, Ares speculated that the largest mana source was stored as cargo while the second largest was a passenger or a second crew member stationed in a separate internal compartment. The other mana source identical to the salvaged debris was found near the starship's engines.

If his hypothesis was true, that meant that emergency life support was installed in the cabin and was still working. Time was clearly running out. As soon as the oxygen supplies were depleted, demise would befall the for the poor soul trapped in the metallic prison. In the worst-case scenario, they were already suffering from asphyxiation and were on the verge of death.

"Syntia, we need to make this fast. Retrieve and store the entire vessel inside our ship."

"Acknowledged, Captain. In fact, preparations were already underway. I've acquired permission from Central System to activate the docking facilities. Life support system and artificial gravity generators for the involved compartments were initialized."

"Splendid!"

<Synthesis> was equipped with a dock and a hangar. They were used to store and launch ship-launched fighters. Unfortunately, all of the carried fighters were lost and were never replenished. It was fortunate that the salvage target was eligible to be stored in the hangar bays.

"Dock system initialized. Access corridor setup completed. Environment regulation system, all green. Internal gravity set to 0.6 g. Atmospheric oxygen content set to 35%. Linear catapult system…Captain, we've encountered a problem."

"What kind of problem?"

"We need to disable the energy shields to enable our port's dock interface."

"Let me collect my thoughts for a short while…"

Ares took a deep breath while exclaiming "What the fuck?" in his heart. That was a huge design flaw that made the ship extremely vulnerable while the dock was deployed.

He remembered that the energy shields couldn't deploy when there were obstacles in its vicinity. The hatch doors might be counted for obstruction. However, the cargo hatch and weapon hardpoints could be deployed without any issues. Ares decided not to pry into the designer’s vile choices to preserve his sanity.

"Make it as fast as possible."

"Acknowledged, Captain. Now preparing the port interface."

After the energy shields have been fully powered down, Ares felt anxiety creeping up into his head. He could only pray that no hostiles emerged before the end of the salvage operation or, at the very least, until the shields could be deployed again.

The hologram of <Synthesis> on the HUD showed the bottom of the hull extending outwards. Then, the extended panel split into two and retracted to the sides.

Ares ignited the thrusters and moved <Synthesis> on top of the damaged starship slowly. Then, he tried to align the dock's bay door with the target.

"Captain, tractor beam ready."

"Alright, let's start with the real deal."

Tractor beam emitters were deployed from within the dock. It targeted the trapezium-shaped ship and made it flip 180 degrees. The dock's orientation was upside-down because the artificial gravity generator pulled towards the center axis of the battleship.

Then, the target ship was pulled inwards and finally landed on the dock with a thump when subjected to the artificial gravity field.

"Retrieval completed. Now transferring Target 8 to Hangar 1."

"Thank you, Syntia. Good work, as always."

Ares gave the catgirl head-pats, ruffling her hair as a reward while <Synthesis>'s hull returned to its normal configuration.

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