“Mast and paddle wheels destroyed successfully.”
Naturally, the enemy ship’s crew was in an uproar. Although the firing hadn’t completely stopped, the gunners on the deck were scrambling to escape the falling mast, and men who appeared to be officers were shouting something on the deck.
“Changed the 150mm Smoothbore Cannon Shells to Armor-Piercing Shells.”
“…Penetration?”
“Yes. High-explosive shells would cause too much damage.”
Next, they would target the cannons on the side. Perhaps because the initial barrage had been so brilliant, 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 commanders.”
Normally, sniping with a main cannon or autocannon would be impossible. However, ＜Ringo＞’s specially made barrel and Cannon Shells, combined with her excessive processing power, enabled terrifyingly precise shooting. Armor-Piercing Shells fired at a rate of 45 rounds per minute were being sucked into the barrels protruding from the enemy’s hull one after another. Furthermore, the 20mm Autocannon intermittently fired Cannon Shells, pulverizing the men commanding on the deck.
The enemy ship’s cannon, struck directly by a 150mm Smoothbore Cannon Shell, shattered into pieces, scattering fragments around it. Naturally, the crew members who were showered with these metal shards died instantly. In the worst-case scenario, nothing would remain of their original form, and they would be scattered around by the shockwave. The Cannon Shells flew almost horizontally into the ship’s side, destroying the cannons and piercing straight through to the other side.
“Ah.”
In the video, the ship’s bow side exploded violently.
“It seems to have been a sympathetic detonation.”
Whether it was because they were in the middle of loading, or there were Cannon Shells nearby, the superstructure was scattered like it had burst open.
“How flashy… Won’t it sink?”
“Well, if it does, we’ll just have to give up.”
“Easy for you to say.”
Even during such a conversation, the enemy ship was being destroyed, losing its commanders, and falling into chaos. After destroying the cannons on one side, the 150mm Smoothbore Cannon ceased firing.
“Now then…”
A large sailing ship with all its masts broken, cannons destroyed, and paddle wheels wrecked.
“For demonstration purposes, we will furl the sails and proceed under power.”
This time, it was necessary to drive out the surviving crew members. To do so, they would approach under power, using warning shots to drive them away.
The Communicator Dolls scurried up the masts, operating the winches and furling the sails. Their speed was, of course, not humanly possible. The enemy crew members seemed to have noticed this, as they pointed and began to make a commotion.
“They really move well, don’t they?”
The Communicator Dolls moved nimbly around the masts with light steps. In a matter of minutes, all three sails were furled. Immediately, the diesel engine started, and the paddle wheels began to beat the sea. As the accelerating and turning ship swayed greatly, the Communicator Dolls skillfully used ropes and rope ladders to descend from the masts. Since they were already within several hundred meters, their movements could be clearly seen from the enemy ship. Perhaps already feeling defeated, some began to untie the ropes of the fixed boats. More crew members noticed this and joined in, causing the ship to become even more chaotic.
“…I wonder how they’ll lower them?”
“Normally, they would use ropes to suspend them, but. Let’s give them some leeway.”
The three Light Trade Sailship (LST)s slowly approached the drifting large sailing ship, turning their paddle wheels. And the crew members were driven by them into a frenzy. All the personnel who seemed capable of commanding had been turned into minced meat by ＜Ringo＞’s sniping, so there was no coordination whatsoever.
“Oh, they jumped.”
“It’s quite high, I wonder if they’ll be 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, quickly filling up.
“I wonder if everyone can get on?”
“I believe they can.”
She and ＜Ringo＞ watched the progress while having a casual conversation. Before ＜Paraiso＞ could come alongside, the boats filled with pirates had fled a considerable distance. They must be moving the oars with the determination to die, as they were escaping much further than ＜Ringo＞ had anticipated.
“Starting boarding operations.”
Ropes were fired one after another from ＜Paraiso＞ onto the drifting pirate ship, securing it. From there, armed Communicator Dolls 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 methodically suppressed while fully utilizing Bio-Radar.
“It seems we can secure the cannons and Cannon Shells. Bringing them in could cause an accident, so the analysis will have to be done on this ship.”
“Are there any Drones that can be used 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 them with the resources we seize, we can do it. It’s not so important that we have to analyze them at all costs.”
The Drones scanning the hold were picking up a considerable amount of metal reactions. ＜Ringo＞ calculated that this should cover the cost of the battle (Iron quantity), and then had the three ships brought alongside to recover the cargo. The difference in ship size was too great, making it impossible to carry out the cargo as it was. Working Drones were used to cut out the ship’s side.
“The watertight structure is crude, so unloading will be easy.”
“I mean, it’s wooden, so it floats in the first place. Well, I guess that kind of thing is neglected.”
“That’s not always the case, but… at least on this ship, the concept of watertightness is quite dubious.”
They roughly created an opening and carried out the captured goods from there. Prioritizing mainly metals, and since the cannons also seemed to be cast iron, they were carried out one after another.
“I’m glad we had the Drones on board.”
“Yes.”
Incidentally, Communicator Dolls 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 to avoid making them do heavy work as much as possible. If they are subjected to excessive loads, 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 provide a considerable amount of resources. A ship-of-the-line might as well be called an iron mine.”
“Hehe, is that so? Still, we can’t actively attack them…”
Each cannon uses several tons of Iron. There are roughly 40 of them. It might even be more than the Iron ingots that could be obtained in this trade. In that case, it might have been a bit wasteful to destroy the cannons at first.
“It would be nice if we could also recover the Iron used in the ship’s hull structure, but that seems difficult.”
“Because we’re on the sea.”
They couldn’t dismantle and recover at the same time. They would only be able to strip off what looked promising. If it had been equipped with a Steam Engine or something, the amount of Iron would have increased even further, but unfortunately, this pirate ship was using a mysterious engine that seemed to use magic.
“We would like to analyze this Magic Engine if possible.”
“We don’t even know if we can get it to work. Is it a size we can recover?”
“No. As expected, we can’t load something of this size.”
“Then, dismantle and analyze it as much as possible, and then dispose of it.”
General-purpose Drones were sent in to analyze the ship’s hull and the Magic Engine. By the time they had finished roughly loading the recoverable metal, it was completely dark. It was almost closing time for the Communicator Dolls. 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 during the night and depart for Telek Port City the next morning. The enemy ship would be detonated. It was judged that allowing it to drift somewhere would have a significant impact.
“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 Communicator Dolls. 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 seemed sleepy, she would let them do almost anything. ＜Ringo＞ had learned this. She intended to continue taking advantage of opportunities to take care of her in the future.
“Good night.”
“…Good night.”