Episode 25: Subjugation (3 Minutes)
“Success in destroying the masts and paddle wheels.”
Naturally, the enemy ship’s crew was in an uproar. Though gunfire still hadn’t ceased, the gunners on deck were scrambling to escape the falling masts, and men who appeared to be officers were shouting something on the deck.
“Switched the 150mm smoothbore cannon’s ammunition to armor-piercing rounds.”
“…Penetration?”
“Yes. High-explosive rounds would cause too much damage.”
Next, they would target the cannons on the sides. Perhaps because of the brilliance of the earlier barrage, they were still firing away. It was highly likely they hadn’t noticed the commotion on the deck.
“Along with destroying the cannons, I will snipe the enemy commander.”
Normally, sniping with a main gun or autocannon would be impossible, but with the custom-made barrel and shells from ＜Ringo＞, and its abundant processing power, terrifyingly precise shots were possible. Armor-piercing rounds fired at a rate of 45 rounds per minute were being sucked into the barrels protruding from the enemy ship’s sides one after another. Furthermore, the 20mm autocannon intermittently fired shells, pulverizing the men giving orders on the deck.
The enemy ship’s cannons, struck directly by the 150mm smoothbore shells, shattered into pieces, scattering fragments in all directions. Naturally, the crewmen caught in the shrapnel died instantly. In the worst cases, no original form remained, and they were scattered around by the shockwave. The shells flew almost horizontally into the ship’s side, destroying the cannons and piercing straight through to the other side.
“Ah.”
In the video feed, the ship’s bow-side hull exploded.
“It seems there was a sympathetic detonation.”
Whether it was because they were loading at that moment, or there were shells nearby, the superstructure was scattered like it had burst apart.
“How flashy… Won’t it sink?”
“Well, if it does, we’ll just have to give up.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Even as they had this conversation, the enemy ship was being destroyed, losing its commander, and falling into chaos. After crushing one side of cannons, the 150mm smoothbore cannon ceased firing.
“Now then…”
A large sailing ship with all its masts broken, cannons crushed, and paddle wheels destroyed.
“For demonstration purposes, we will furl the sails and proceed under power.”
Now, it was necessary to drive out the surviving crewmen. To that end, they would approach under power, using warning shots to drive them away.
The Communicators nimbly climbed the masts, operating the winches and furling the sails. Their speed was, of course, beyond what humans could achieve. The enemy crewmen seemed to have noticed this, as they could be seen pointing and making a commotion.
“They really move well, don’t they?”
The Communicators moved nimbly around the masts with light steps. In just a few minutes, all three sails were furled. Immediately, the diesel engine started, and the paddle wheels began to beat the surface of the sea. As the ship began to accelerate and turn, shaking violently, the Communicators skillfully used ropes and rope ladders to descend from the masts. Since they were already within a few hundred meters, their movements would have been clearly visible from the enemy ship. Perhaps already losing their nerve, some of them began to untie the ropes of the fixed boats. More crewmen noticed this and joined in, and the ship became even more chaotic.
“…How are they going to lower them, I wonder?”
“Normally, they would be suspended by ropes. Let’s give them some leeway.”
The three Light Sailing Traders (LSTs) approached the drifting large sailing ship, turning their paddle wheels slowly. And, as if being chased by them, the crewmen were in a frenzy. The personnel who seemed capable of commanding had all been turned into minced meat by ＜Ringo＞’s sniping, so there was no coordination whatsoever.
“Oh, they jumped.”
“It’s quite high, are they alright?”
Men jumped into the sea one after another, without using ropes or rope ladders, presumably to get on the boats. About four boats were lowered, and they quickly became full.
“Can everyone get on?”
“I believe so.”
She and ＜Ringo＞ watched the progress while having a casual conversation. Before long, the boats filled with pirates had escaped a considerable distance. They must have been rowing with all their might, as they were escaping much further than ＜Ringo＞ had anticipated.
“Commencing boarding.”
From the ＜Paraiso＞, ropes were fired one after another towards the drifting pirate ship, securing it. From there, armed Communicators boarded in rapid succession.
“There seem to be survivors, so we will eliminate them.”
“I hope there’s something worthwhile left.”
Furthermore, drones were sent in through the holes in the bow and the upper loading hatches. To avoid trouble with any survivors hiding, they were using bio-radars at full power to subdue them one after another.
“It seems we can secure the cannons and shells. Bringing them aboard could cause an accident, so the analysis will have to be done on this ship.”
“Are there any drones we can use for analysis?”
“Yes. We can use general-purpose drones. If we sacrifice a few, we can estimate their properties to some extent.”
“Hmm. If we can expect to replenish the cost with the resources we seize, you can do it. It’s not so important that we have to analyze it at all costs.”
The drones scanning the hold were picking up a considerable amount of metal. ＜Ringo＞ calculated whether this would cover the war expenses (iron quantity) this time, and then had the three ships brought alongside to recover the cargo. The difference in ship size was too great, and they couldn’t load the cargo as it was. They used work drones to cut out the sides of the ships.
“The watertight structure is crude, so loading is easy.”
“I mean, it’s wooden, so it floats in the first place. Well, that kind of thing tends to be neglected.”
“That’s not always the case, but… at least this ship’s concept of watertightness is highly suspect.”
They roughly created openings and carried out the captured goods. They prioritized metal, and the cannons seemed to be cast iron, so they were carried out one after another.
“I’m glad we had the drones with us.”
“Yes.”
Incidentally, Communicators are not good at carrying out such cargo. Because they are manufactured based on humans, their muscle strength does not exceed the human range. It is better not to make them do heavy work as much as possible. If they are subjected to a load, their muscle fibers will rupture, and they will be unusable for several days. It’s what you’d call muscle soreness.
“Just recovering these cannons will be a considerable amount of resources. Warships might as well be called iron mines.”
“Hehe, is that so? Still, we can’t actively attack them…”
Each cannon uses tons of iron. And there are roughly 40 of them. It might even be more than the iron ingots we’ll get from this trade. Now that it’s come to this, destroying the cannons at the beginning might have been a bit of a waste.
“It would be nice if we could also recover the iron used in the hull structure, but that seems difficult.”
“Because we’re on the sea.”
They couldn’t recover it while disassembling it. They could only strip off what looked promising. If they had been equipped with steam engines or the like, the amount of iron would have increased even further, but unfortunately, this pirate ship was using a mysterious engine that seemed to use magic.
“I’d like to analyze this magic engine if possible.”
“We don’t even know if we can get it to work. Can we recover something that big?”
“No. As expected, something this big won’t fit.”
“Then, disassemble and analyze it as much as possible, then discard it.”
They sent in general-purpose drones to analyze the hull and the magic engine. By the time they had finished loading most of the recoverable metal, the sun had completely set. It was almost closing time for the Communicators. They needed to get enough food and sleep to be able to work the next day. But the drones could be fully operational while charging. They decided to complete as much analysis as possible at night and depart for the port city of Telek the next morning. The enemy ship would be detonated. The judgment was that it would have a major impact if it drifted somewhere.
“I’ll leave the rest to you~”
“Yes, Ma’am.”
＜Ringo＞ used the drones to analyze the enemy ship while quickly preparing her for bed with the Communicators. They undressed her, put her in her nightgown, arranged her hair, and put her to bed. She was being treated like a princess.
Incidentally, she would complain if they interfered too much when she was awake, but when she was sleepy, she was pretty much at their mercy. ＜Ringo＞ had learned this. It intended to continue taking care of her by exploiting gaps in her awareness.
“Good night.”
“…Good night.”