Episode 23: Encounter with Pirates
The First Trade Fleet continued its voyage smoothly. Thanks to favorable ocean currents, they were expected to reach Telek Port City in about ten days. Although, being at the mercy of the winds, this was subject to change.
This time, being in a fleet, they planned to approach from a more easterly direction, updating the terrain and seabed maps. As the survey was conducted from the sky, and only through ultra-high-altitude scans, detailed information was lacking. With the possibility of establishing land bases in the future, surveying the coastal areas was essential.
“There aren’t many places where we can dock, are there?”
“Yes, Ma’am. While it’s not exactly shallow water, there are few bays, and hardly any places where a trading ship can approach. If there were cliffs, we wouldn’t need to excavate the seabed, making them promising candidates, but there are almost none.”
The most promising location seemed to be Telek Port City, but naturally, they weren’t considering occupying and developing it. They weren’t aiming for hegemony, so they preferred a place where people wouldn’t approach. They didn’t want unnecessary conflict.
“In that case, maybe we should create a maritime base close to resources.”
“Indeed. Let’s select a location where we can move to the open sea via a pier, and plan to excavate the seabed in the future to create a harbor.”
If they could acquire resources on their own, trade wouldn’t be particularly necessary. Originally, ＜World of Space＞ was mainly about development. Trade was possible, but basically, players operated on a star system scale, and developing one’s own star system was far more efficient. Heavy users seemed to have multiple resource star systems and actively engaged in trade, but she hadn’t even reached that level, let alone having the means to travel between star systems.
If the civilization of this planet had reached the age of mass consumption, there might have been the option of relying on imports for resource acquisition. However, at least at present, there was no evidence of large-scale resource mining. ＜Ringo＞ predicted that finding a mine and developing it with the technology of Fortress ＜The Tree＞ would be more efficient than expanding trade.
“We’ve deployed three magnetic sensor-equipped Solar-Powered Reconnaissance Aircraft (Swift), so we should be able to discover an iron mine soon. Once we’ve identified a location to some extent, we’ll load survey equipment onto the trade fleet and conduct an on-site investigation.”
“Yes, well. Hopefully, it’s far from any Native settlements… I don’t want to fight unnecessarily.”
“Yes. If we encounter Natives, there’s a high probability of conflict.”
As always, the continent seemed to be rife with war. It seemed miraculous that Telek Port City hadn’t been caught up in the conflict. In reality, it seemed to be due to the skillful maneuvering of the merchant Kulavia Telek. Telek Port City and the Northern Islands occupied nation were the only stable cities of a certain size or greater on the southern coast of the Northern Continent. That nation’s military power was exceptional, so it wasn’t surprising. In that case, Telek Port City’s political power must be considerable.
“For the time being, we’ll continue trading with Telek Port City and procure the resources necessary for mine development, I suppose.”
“Yes. Developing seabed mineral deposits will still take time.”
Seabed surveys around ＜The Tree＞ were also progressing, and the distribution of resources was becoming clear. However, all promising mineral deposits were located in the Deep Sea, deeper than 1,000m, and there were currently no means of mining them.
“With the current submarine’s capabilities, we can only load a few dozen kilograms, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Considering the operating time, it’s not at a profitable level. It’s overwhelmingly more efficient to allocate resources to trade. It’s estimated to take over 400 days to recover the resources equivalent to one submarine’s worth.”
“That’s… out of the question…”
“Yes, Ma’am. First and foremost, discovering and developing terrestrial mineral deposits is the top priority. Once we can secure sufficient resources, developing seabed mineral deposits will also become possible.”
It would have been nice if a mineral deposit had been found nearby, but it wasn’t that easy. For the time being, resource recovery from the sea would be limited to seaweed beds. The seaweed used as a raw material for Cellulose grew quickly, and increased production was progressing smoothly. They were planning to expand the management facilities and create a facility that could cultivate and harvest with high efficiency. A nutrient-rich ocean current seemed to flow into the surrounding waters, making it an ideal environment for seaweed cultivation.
“You’ve become quite the Cellulose expert.”
“I suppose so…”
They were also adjusting the molecular structure to develop high-hardness building materials. Although mass production hadn’t been achieved due to the extremely complex manufacturing process, they had discovered a composition with strength comparable to steel. Although obtaining steel materials would be cheaper in any case, given the current shortage of absolute quantity, they were researching to increase the production of this ultra-hard Cellulose material as well.
A combat ship made entirely of Cellulose might be built in the near future. It would probably be more expensive than a steel one if actually made, but the sound of it was very cheap, which was a flaw.
“Now, how much Iron can we get in the next trade…”
“We’ve confirmed that they have a decent stockpile, but it seems they’re scraping together what they can from the surrounding area, so we’re hoping for that.”
At this rate, how many years would it be before they could build a Battleship?
＜Ringo＞ was fully committed to resource exploration.
“Ma’am. We’ve detected pirates.”
“…Pirates?”
The trade fleet was sailing a few days away from Telek Port City. It was inevitable that the Solar-Powered Reconnaissance Aircraft (Swift) monitoring the surroundings from the sky would capture the ship’s shadow. One ship was somehow finding the First Trade Fleet and approaching.
“We can confirm a Pirate Flag. It’s a sailing ship, but its sailing speed seems to be faster than ours. We expect to be overtaken in a few hours.”
“….Our ship should be able to reach almost the limit speed as a sailing ship, right?”
“Yes, Ma’am. Theoretically. In that case, we can assume that the opponent is beyond the bounds of theory.”
“Magic, perhaps?”
The sailing ship was 85m in length, had five masts, and seemed to be rapidly increasing speed with its sails fully unfurled. Judging from the wind and ocean currents, the conditions were no different from a Light Trade Sailship (LST)-class. It wasn’t shaped for maximum speed, but that shouldn’t be a reason to lose to a pirate ship. Since unnatural acceleration was occurring, it was likely that magic or a similar force was at work.
They were not yet within visual range from the ship, but the ship was boldly displaying a Pirate Flag. If they were ordinary trading ships, the pirate ship approaching from downwind would have been nothing but terrifying.
“In a few more minutes, we’ll be within range of the main Cannon.”
“I think it would be a bit cruel to sink them with an out-of-sight attack…”
From the top of the mast, the view was approximately 15km. Since the opponent also had a mast, they could theoretically be visible even 30km away. However, due to poor visibility caused by atmospheric conditions, the identifiable distance was probably around 20km.
The maximum range of the 150mm Smoothbore Cannon equipped on the Light Trade Sailship (LST)-class far exceeded 20km. With ＜Ringo＞’s abundant computing power, it wasn’t impossible to hit a target directly from over 20km away.
“It might be a suitable target for the first practical deployment.”
As far as could be confirmed from Swift, it didn’t seem to be equipped with rotating Turrets. It was probably a Battleship in the category of so-called ships-of-the-line. In that case, it would need to run alongside them and approach within effective range to attack. The effective combat distance of a ship-of-the-line was said to be several hundred meters. The range alone might be over 1km, but the range at which they could aim and hit a Cannon Shell was at best around 100m to 200m. Even so, the power was vastly different compared to Ballista, and it was certainly a threat in this world of this level of technology.
“We’ve designed it to be sufficiently watertight, so it shouldn’t sink even if hit directly by a few shots.”
“Well… Just be careful about the loss of the Communicator Doll. This time, it wouldn’t be too much of a loss even if we lost it.”
“Yes. There’s a possibility of losing some Iron materials, but…”
“Let’s prioritize acquiring combat data.”