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

“Alright, I get it.
I get it already, so please stop being all formal with me.
Only Robbitson and I are present tonight, so just talk to me like you usually do.”

I crossed my arms without picking up the knife and fork and shrugged my shoulders in response.

“Fine, as you wish then.
Honestly, I really thought about giving you a good smack in the face at one point, but when I calmed down and thought things through, I really didn’t have to go that far, so don’t worry about it.”

“Since you said you didn’t have to go so far, I suppose you still feel indignant about it to some extent, right? I’m not sure about how you feel, but I personally think that you’re someone who’s truly hard to come by.
That’s why I invited you over like this so we can speak frankly with each other without reserve.”

“I see.
That’s nice and all.
But frankly, there’s no need for you to care so much anyway, Lt.
Col.
Serena.
You have full control over every aspect of combat as our commander, so it’s natural that we have to obey your commands.
Even if your command might lead to my ship getting shot down and exploding, if you judged that it would reduce our overall losses, it’s my job to follow through.”

“Do you really think that way?”

“Of course.
I perfectly understand in my head.
My heart is another story.”

I leaned back on the surprisingly comfy backrest of the dining chair.
If you think about it logically, it’s exactly as I said.
Since Lt.
Col.
Serena was our combined fleet’s commander, we can’t really complain no matter how she’d like to make use of us.
Of course, since her command placed us in danger of dying, you really can’t fault me for having ill feelings about her order as well.

“If you have something to say, I’d appreciate it if you just go ahead and say it without holding back.”

“It’ll just lead to us being uncomfortable with each other even more though.”

“I’d really hate it if you distance yourself from me because of this.
I can’t do it officially, but I’m willing to bow my head and apologize in private.”

When I saw Lt.
Col.
Serena’s ambiguous expression, it really made me think she was one heck of a femme fatale.
Being beautiful really is convenient huh.

“……Haa.
You know, a small ship charging straight ahead while being showered in anti-spacecraft fire for five seconds is nothing but suicidal.
A military corvette with military-grade hardware and armor plating might barely pull it off, but something like that is normally impossible.
Any other ship would melt in just three seconds.”

“Yes…… It’s as you say.”

Lt.
Col.
Serena meekly replied and sighed.
Judging from her reaction, her subordinates might have told her off regarding the matter huh.
And that’s why she hastily organized this dinner.

“Well, it all turned out okay in the end, so I suppose your judgment wasn’t wrong after all.
However, we can’t reliably use the method that allowed us to deflect the laser fire, so we really were just lucky this time.
If you make us do the same stunt again, we’ll probably get shot down and explode, so please just keep that in mind while giving out orders.”

“I understand.
However, you still obeyed my order despite the danger, right? I thought mercenaries valued their lives more than obeying orders.”

I looked straight at Lt.
Col.
Serena, who cocked her head to the side curiously, sighed, and explained why I still followed through with her order.

“If I made any other maneuver after you ordering us to maintain our course, there was a danger of getting hit by the allied ship’s laser cannon fire from behind…… That’s why I had no choice but to fly straight.”

At that time, if I flew in any other direction other than straight ahead, we were nearly guaranteed to get hit by friendly fire.
In that particular situation, attempting evasive maneuvers against orders was highly dangerous.

“Ah, I see…… But even I didn’t think you’d really fly straight ahead in that situation.”

“You hired me as a mobile raider, right? In that situation, my job was to attract enemy fire and smoke out their firing lines, so– Ah, so that’s it.”

So that’s actually it huh.
The standard tactics of players when attacking a pirate base in SOL aren’t that compatible with Lt.
Col.
Serena and the imperial space navy’s standard tactics when they assault a pirate base.
The largest ships the players can actually own in SOL are cruisers.
And those who owned cruisers were just a few of the top players, so essentially, a destroyer was the largest ship an average player can use when attacking a pirate base.

However, the imperial space navy can deploy a large number of cruisers and battleships that have much longer range and much more firepower compared to standard destroyers.
They are absolutely capable of reducing large chunks of the enemy numbers from outside their range.

When Lt.
Col.
Serena was still a major, the force at her disposal was still relatively small, so I could still work alongside them using the tactics I employed in SOL.
However, since her rank increased, Lt.
Col.
Serena’s ships also increased accordingly.
So that’s why our tactics didn’t really mesh with each other at present.

“No, it looks like you really don’t have anything to apologize for, colonel.
My tactics were simply not up to snuff.
I’m sorry that things had to develop to this point.”

“Eh…… U-Umm?”

Lt.
Col.
Serena’s eyes darted around as she got flustered by my sudden apology.
Yeah, I guess her reaction’s natural.
It was just too sudden, so I suppose she doesn’t get why I actually apologized.

“It’s alright.
While we were talking, I simply realized that I didn’t view things from the correct perspective.
I’m really sorry about my earlier attitude.
I’m so embarrassed that I even feel like crawling into a hole right about now.”

This dimension does resemble SOL a lot, but there are also plenty of things that aren’t similar at all.
I should have realized it way earlier when I got dumped into this dimension, but I was simply too used to the standard tactics in SOL, even if those tactics might not be the best ones to use in certain situations.
That’s why I haven’t noticed such a thing until now.

This won’t do at all.
Being hung up on prior experiences and stereotypes is the same as drinking poison on an ever-changing battlefield.
I have to reflect on this.
I really dropped the ball this time.

“Um, so does that mean we’re good now……?”

“Yeah, of course.
Or rather, there was no need to get upset with you in the first place.
My stupidity just led to some pointless resentment on my part.
Actually, I’m the one who needs to apologize here.
Sorry.”

“Eh……? Well, if you yourself say so, I suppose……?”

Lt.
Col.
Serena still looks like she didn’t get what was going on, but she nodded in response anyway.

Yeah, she really doesn’t get it huh.
But if I explained my reasoning in detail, I can’t avoid spilling the beans about how I possibly came to this dimension from a different one, so that’s not an option.
Anyway, it looks like Lt.
Col.
Serena already agreed to put everything behind us, more or less, so what’s left is me reflecting on my mistaken view and update my tactics accordingly.

I won’t say it to her directly, but I’ll consider this as me owing Lt.
Col.
Serena one.
She made me realize something crucial, so I can at least agree to one unreasonable request from her in exchange.

I’m not gonna do it if her request was something far too crazy though.