I Woke Up Piloting the Strongest Starship, so I Became a Space Mercenary

「What… is this?」

After testing out the new Krishna’s movements, my thoughts were simple. What the hell is this?

First, let’s talk about mobility. It could accelerate and decelerate rapidly, yet there was no strain on my body. None at all. Zero. Watching the footage of the small craft equipped with the maneuvering light wings, I had wondered how something could move like that without the pilot getting torn apart by the inertia. But now, here I was, doing even crazier things without feeling any pressure. It’s unbelievable. Where did the laws of physics go?

And then, there’s the firepower upgrade.

「This is seriously overkill.」

The four large caliber pulse laser cannons hadn’t changed much. Well, the lasers used to be green, but now they were blue. Also, when firing, some kind of magic circle-like pattern appeared around the gun barrels. I hadn’t done precise measurements yet, but after firing at an asteroid, it seemed like the ‘penetration power’ had been massively upgraded.

Yes, I know that should be physically impossible. A laser cannon works by focusing high-energy beams to instantly vaporize and blow apart the surface of the target. A massive, high-output battleship-class laser cannon could theoretically vaporize everything before that process even begins. But penetration? That’s not how lasers work.

Does this blue laser somehow have mass, like a charged particle cannon? Or is it being enhanced by something psionic? I have no idea. I’ll need to investigate further.

What concerned me even more was the loss of my beloved scattershot cannons. The two large caliber scattershot cannons that fitted my combat style and aesthetics perfectly, were gone. They had evolved into something called a telekinetic impact cannon. What the hell is that?

Naturally, I fired it to test it out. The result? It obliterated an asteroid bigger than Krishna into tiny pieces. The original scattershot cannons were pea-shooters compared to this thing, and I even shot them at a longer distance…My instincts tell me that this telekinetic impact cannon can pierce through regular shields.

Apart from the evolution of the existing weapons, a new, unidentified weapon was installed as well. Sigh… Well, I’m not blaming Krishna, ok? It’s something I thought would be useful, but it still feels a bit strange. Near the rear thrusters, there was this mysterious device. When I activated it, a glowing halo was projected behind Krishna. The ship now had a massive, flashy halo in addition to the six pairs of wings. How many things are growing out of Krishna now?

When I locked onto a target and pulled the trigger, this enormous halo fired off smaller halos, each large enough to slice a small ship clean in half. The halos instantly reached the target, shredding it into pieces. Literally. Wow, those are some clean cuts. Oh, and by the way, I can’t even track these with my eyes. Are they short-leaping or something?

This weapon was listed as the ‘Telekinetic Halo Sudarshana Chakra’1 in the system. For the record, the telekinetic impact cannon was formally listed as the ‘Telekinetic Impact Cannon Kaumodaki’2. The large caliber pulse laser cannons, on the other hand, still showed no changes in their labeling. There is another thing that changed designation though, and the name is reaally suspicious.

「It says ‘Teleportation Launch Tube’… doesn’t it?」

Normally, it would be labeled as a torpedo launch tube, with the type of torpedo loaded displayed next to it. The torpedoes themselves haven’t changed, the display shows they are anti-ship reactive torpedoes, but the addition of the word teleportation to the name of the launch tube is suspicious.

I won’t know if my suspicions are true until I try firing it.

「Just fire it! We made sure we’re in a blank region at the edge of the star system, so you’ll be fine no matter what happens!」

Buubo irresponsibly urged me to try the torpedoes. If something goes wrong, the fault is yours.

「Target: asteroid at 1,000 kilometers ahead. Firing anti-ship reactive torpedo.」

The moment I pulled the trigger, the asteroid 1,000 kilometers away vanished in an explosion.

「This is way too much…」

「Isn’t it amazing!? The moment you fired, it hit the target instantly! Did the warhead teleport? I wonder what the range is!」

After using the remaining three anti-ship reactive torpedoes to test it, I figured out that the teleportation launch tube had a range of about 1,500 kilometers. If there was an object within 1,500 kilometers of the firing path, it hit instantly. If there was nothing within that range, the torpedo appeared at the 1,500-kilometer mark and then began propulsion as if it were fired from a regular launch tube. The torpedo inherits the same inertia as when launched normally.

「This is too much… way too much…」

As for defensive capabilities, we couldn’t exactly have a ship from the Holy Vuelzarus Empire fire at Krishna for testing, so we’ll need to set up a special environment for those measurements. But the performance we had already tested was too much. This much powercreep is absurd! I haven’t tested it yet, but with six pairs of wings, Krishna can probably do both short-distance teleports and long-range system-to-system travel.

What am I even supposed to do with this? These specs are way too much for just dealing with space pirates. It’s like a mecha from a super-robot anime, posing as one from a real robot anime.3 It’s reached the point where people will begin to think Krishna alone will be able to take care of everything!

「Hmm, considering the measured potential, I think it’s still lacking… but for the first stage, I suppose we can be satisfied with this! Wow, to witness a relic evolve before my own eyes! Let’s hurry back and conduct all kinds of measurements and experiments!」

「You damn relic-obsessed lunatic…」

What am I going to do? Can Krishna even go back to its previous state? Also, what happened to the ammunition of the scattershot cannons? Did they get absorbed when they evolved into the telekinetic impact cannon? I need to get Krishna back home and have Tina and the others investigate.

☆★☆

「……? ……???」

Tina and Wiska stood there staring at Krishna’s dramatically altered form, having the face of a cat that had just witnessed the ultimate truth of the universe. I understand, I really understand. I mean, I probably had the same expression every time I tested out Krishna’s new mobility using the light wings or fired its upgraded weapons. But this is reality. I need you to accept it.

「Hahahahaha! What is this?! What did you do to change it so much? Hahahahaha!」

Dr. Shouko, on the other hand, was clutching her stomach, laughing uncontrollably at Krishna’s dramatically altered form. Seriously, this woman has nerves of steel. Out of everyone in our group, she’s the only one who’s laughing this hard.

Krishna’s overall form had become sharper, more menacing, like the head of an arrow with multiple wicked barbs. The ship looked more aggressive, almost organic in a way, like it had taken on some biological characteristics. To be honest, it now has this dark hero vibe. It looks like something a final boss would pilot—definitely villainous.

「Hey, get it together. You need to investigate it, remember?」

「Huh!? Yeah, uh… what even is this…?」

「Sis… I think we’re going to need to redo the maintenance manual entirely…」

「Aaaaaaahh!!!」

At Wiska’s words, Tina’s face went pale, and she let out a high-pitched shriek that sounded less like a person and more like… a beaver? Or maybe a marmot? Apparently, in real life, they make adorable little ‘beep’ sounds when startled. But that’s beside the point.

「Ah, I see. Since the internal structure and everything else may have changed drastically, there’s a high chance that the maintenance manual used by the maintenance bots, might not work anymore.」

「Nngh… Nngggghhh…」

Tina was trembling as she hunched over in a state of utter despair, either nodding in agreement with my statement or simply overwhelmed by shock. Her body shook as she let out sobbing sounds. I’m really sorry, I can only apologize. Sorry, Tina.

Meanwhile, the rest of the crew, aside from the engineers, were speechless or baffled after witnessing Krishna’s absurd new mobility and weapon capabilities.

「…」

「Mimi, your mouth is hanging open. But seriously, what the hell is this? This is beyond ridiculous. Who are you and Krishna planning to fight with this?」

「I don’t know… it just ended up this way.」

「Captain, I’m not sure ‘it just ended up this way’ really covers it. I mean, this thing would be hard to intercept even with a barrage, and with those movements… I don’t think even laser cannons could track it properly.」

Neve, who used to work as the fire control and biological command unit of a Vereverem Federation battleship, wore a troubled expression. Sure, laser cannons hit at the speed of light, but you still have to aim the turrets accurately. Krishna’s ability to ignore inertia with its erratic movements would likely confuse any targeting correction programs used in combat.

「As incomprehensible as this may be, I believe it’s a good thing that Master’s Krishna has been enhanced.」

「Mei, you’re unshakable, aren’t you…」

In the end, Mei was the calmest out of everyone.

I’m exhausted. I really just want to sleep the rest of the day away…

TN1: The Sudarshana Chakra is a divine discus belonging to Vishnu.

TN2: The Kaumodaki is a mace also belonging to Vishnu.

TN3: Super robot anime mechs are usually extremely powerful, unique, their whole existence bends the laws of physics, and sometimes are even sentient. Examples are Mazinger Z, Getter Robo, and Gurren Lagann. Real robot anime mechs are more grounded in reality, they are usually military units, are often mass-produced, need maintenance, and don’t throw the laws of physics out of the window (mostly). Examples are the mechs from Gundam, Macross, Patlabor, or Full Metal Panic.