CH 248

Battleship Showdown 3

Multiple Noredian ships are withdrawing from battle while signaling their surrender. They are ships under House Angel and their vassals. Since they can not afford to risk killing their mistress, they probably had no other choice.

“Kukuku…..as I thought, their morale is pretty much nonexistent. To think that they would raise the white flag with just this much, how easy……..”

Diarzoe satisfactorily nodded to herself inside the cockpit of [Ex-Caliburn]. Nearly half of the enemy fleet has surrendered. Even if they dubbed the Angel fleet, most of them are aristocrats who have no close relationship with the duchess’s house as the duchess herself was only given command of the fleet by the Empress. It is also honestly unexpected that this many enemy ships would choose to withdraw.

“I was hoping that they would do everything to get their mistress back though……it seems they are not all that motivated huh.”

Said Kisesi while sharply turning his striker. A red beam from an enemy blaster rifle flew past the place he was. In return, his green beam homed into the [Jetta] that fired at him and disabled it.

Kisei and the others are currently fending off the enemy striker units at a distance from the Calencian main fleet. The enemy is constantly sending their anti-ship striker units to support their battleships’ assault. It would be a waste of opportunity to be pushed back when they are gaining the upper hand so this is also an important task.

“I told you before…….most of the aristocrats mobilized in this war were only those who had to be here to fulfill their military obligation. Most of them probably couldn’t care less how this war turns out.”

Vassals are obliged to dispatch troops at the aristocrats’ request. The system is called military service. In return, the high-ranking aristocrats give them various benefits such as protection and the likes…….

Unfortunately, no aristocrats are that motivated to fight a war out of such obligation. In many cases, they would quickly surrender when the danger is upon them and quickly withdraw, choosing to pay reparation instead.

“I’ve had my fair share of hard times dealing with these unmotivated aristocrats after all. Seriously, it’s a nice feeling. Kufufu……”

A dark smile accompanies Diaroze’s laugh. Seeing that, Kisei shrugged. No matter how strong he is, in the end, he’s just a single mercenary, he can’t possibly understand what she’s gone through as a commander.

Meanwhile, their fleets kept on bombarding the remaining enemy ships. Their gunfire looked like flashes of a camera. Green and red beams are making an impact on the enemy battleships. The Noredian also steadily fired back but with many of their ships having their FC radar destroyed, their counterattack was hardly effective. The battle was almost one-sided.

“Uuuh………”

At that moment, one of the Noredian battleships got hit in its main turret and powerfully exploded. Their ammunition depot probably got hit. At a glance, it’s good news but with such an explosion, the crew stationed near the main turrets would be dead.

With the I-con relaying their death directly to Kisei, he involuntarily clenched his teeth. The unpleasant sensation of pain and sadness is gnawing on his brain.

“………..”

It was horrible but he couldn’t tell them to stop. If they let their guard down, the ones who will be hunted instead would be the Calencians and Valentina’s soldiers. He wants to minimize the number of casualties but he also understands that a mediocre idealistic method would only bring more deaths.

“This is not fun at all, seriously.”

All he can do is defeat the enemies in front of him without killing them. Thinking so, he accelerated his striker and closed in on a [Vil]. the [Vil tried to intercept his charge with a photon saber but couldn’t make it. The pile bunker shot through its armor and pierced its phase transition turbine, killing its engine.

“Damn it! I haven’t heard that such a monster would be here!”

Little by little the Noredian strikers began to withdraw. Almost none of them wanted to throw their life away to get through Kisei. Like the Angel fleet, their morale also seems to be quite low.

“Ahhh, boring! This is not fun at all!”

“I’m not one to say this but, Master, you’re hard to please yourself you know…….”

Diaroze can’t tell if her Master actually loves or hates battle. With a bitter expression, she looked at the radar screen. A large number of light dots are approaching them from a distance.

“Enemy reinforcement? No, that direction should be……..”

Diaroze shifted her eyes to the tactical map. The direction they are coming from was a satellite in which they stationed their allies at.

“The reinforcement Schleer mentioned huh. I see, so this is the last push…….”

As she surmised, the approaching dots were the Calencian missile vessels. Although they are only around 50 meters in size each, they are equipped with a large grenade launcher. They are capable of launching missiles that can deal major damage to battleships with a direct hit.

The missile vessels are accelerating at full speed toward the enemy fleet. When they are already having their hand full dealing with Calencian battleships, the enemy would certainly find it difficult to fend off these missile vessels. Although some of the vessels were hit by secondary weapons and autocannons and destroyed, most of them managed to get inside their effective range.

“FIRE!”

As soon as the commander of the missile vessel unit issued her command, their grenade launchers immediately opened fire. Large torpedo-looking missiles flooded toward the Noredian battleships.

The enemy are trying to defend themselves using their AA turrets but they could not intercept all the missiles.

The next moment, a number of huge fireballs rose on the battlefield. Some were directly hit on the stern and hull, smoke spews from their pierced armor plate. With such powerful missiles, even battleships as robust as the Noredian wouldn’t be safe. Knowing that, their crews begin evacuating to their lifeboats.

“It’s over now.”

Diaroze gently stroked Kisei’s shoulder. In return, only a weak [I see.] escaped his mouth.