NOVPUBThe exit rift, as if detecting that everyone was already out, quickly sealed shut a few seconds later.
The few aliens that managed to slip through before it fully closed were immediately neutralized by a barrage of laser fire from the ships on standby. None were spared, leaving behind nothing but scattered, smoldering chunks of flesh.
I simply watched it all unfold with a lazy gaze, still trying to relax and gather myself.
"Status report…" I asked absenmindedly.
{Are you asking me...?}
But instead of Eva, it was Nyssra who replied. Right—she was still patched into our comms...
Turning my head slightly, I spotted Eva slumped over her console, waving her hands weakly, dismissively, above her head. Just like me, she probably felt too drained to care at the moment.
{No answer...? Well, I'll report either way.}
She mumbled faintly.
{We lost three small ships, and the remaining fleet suffered various levels of damage...}
She continued without pause, detailing the extensive damage each vessel sustained—hull breaches, thruster malfunctions, fried sensors, and more.
All in all, the projected cost of repairs had climbed into the hundreds of billions.
"Pretty cheap, considering how much loot we brought back..." I sighed aloud.
Though, thinking about it, not recovering the corpses of aliens we killed was a real loss.
If we could've managed to collect all those downed alien bodies, the payout would've been at least double, maybe even triple.
{Oh, and one last thing—I briefly lost track of your little Void Dragon earlier.}
"…What?"
{No need to panic, it came back shortly after. I barely had time to register it was gone. But now it's carrying this strange orb-like object...}
The Void Dragon disappeared, even for a moment? That simple comment was enough to trigger all kinds of alarms in my head. And to make it worse—it returned carrying something, and apparently brought it aboard Nyssra's ship without her consent.
"A... ball? Can you show me what it looks like?"
{I can't.}
Her response was flat and immediate.
{I tried to touch it earlier, but your little girl fiercely guarded it. I couldn't even take a picture of it—my visualizer shorted out the instant I tried.}
"What the hell… some kind of cursed artifact?" I muttered to myself.
"Well," I sighed again. "You can show it to me later. But first, let's figure out where we are—and plot a course to somewhere we can get the fleet patched up."
{I'm already working on that as we speak.}
About a minute later, a star map popped up on the console—clearly Nyssra had hacked into our systems again.
Displayed on it was the entire local cluster. And to my surprise…
"The nearest star system to us… is only two jumps away from Voltherian Empire space?" I gasped.
What an absurd stroke of luck. That meant getting there would be easy after repairs and refits.
"Well then. Let's head to this Ghetto System or whatever, and find a gray station to get our fleet serviced!"
{Copy that!}
With every ship in the fleet sustaining damage in some form, our overall speed dropped significantly. But that didn't matter much—hyperspace travel would bridge the distance all the same.
Still, I never imagined a forced side quest would leave us in this sorry, half-wrecked state...
"I just hope nothing worse comes our way after this."
That was all I could do now—hope.
---
Roughly ten hours of hyperspace travel later, we finally reached our destination. The system located just two jumps away from the Voltherian Empire's territorial space.
Of course, we didn't let the jump complete all the way. The exit point was a public transit hub—having us show up there in these ragtag, half-ruined pirate ships would've been suicidal.
Instead, we halted just at the edge of the system and started searching for gray or black-category stations.
Luckily, a gray one wasn't far, allowing all 183 surviving ships, plus Nyssra's, to dock safely.
And some time later, while resting in a common room—
"2.65 Quadrillion Credits?!"
—Eva's voice cracked in sheer disbelief after seeing the estimate for repairs and upgrades.
"This is daylight robbery!" she barked. "They're asking for that much just to fix up some scrappy pirate ships?!"
"Whoa, calm down."
Sure, if you just looked at the number, it was outrageously inflated—but this was a gray station. Overpricing was part of the service. If you didn't want the "premium," you'd have to risk docking at legit stations—and we couldn't afford that, not with our fleet needing full reskins.
And for us, anonymity was part of the package.
"Even if they charged a hundred quadrillion, it still wouldn't dent our budget." I shrugged. "We've got the funds from recovering the Herticalcium specimen some time ago. Just think of this as a necessary investment."
"…An overpriced investment at that," Eva grumbled, hopping down the couch and crossing her legs.
Having money really did make everything smoother. If I didn't have the war chest from that specimen retrieval, I'd have to scrap half the fleet just to re-arm the other half.
*Knock!* *Knock!*
Right then, a couple of gentle knocks echoed from our room's door. Without needing to even guess, I already knew who the one on the other side was.
I raised my voice just enough to be heard through the door. "Come in, it's not locked."
"Excuse us," a voice murmured softly, followed by the door being gently pushed open.
There, Nyssra stood, cradling a black creature in one arm—the little Void Dragon, snug and seemingly content in her embrace.
"How did it go?" I asked, getting straight to the point.
But as Nyssra was about to respond, the Void Dragon suddenly wriggled free from her hold and flitted over, landing flat atop my head with its limbs splayed out like it had just wiped out mid-flight. But what caught my attention more than its antics was the small object clutched tightly between its two front paws.
A round, compact item—roughly the size of a pincushion, and nearly as large as the dragon's head. The object shared the exact same pitch-black hue as the dragon's scales, as though it was molded straight from the void.
Even at a glance, I could tell this thing was special to the little one—likely the reason why it had been so excited before we entered the rift space.
Driven by curiosity, I reached toward it.
Nyssra had mentioned that when she tried to touch the object, the Void Dragon roared in outrage and scared her off. But when I extended my hand...
"...?"
There was no resistance.
The little guy simply let me do as I pleased, not even twitching in protest. My fingers brushed against the ball—it was soft and radiated a gentle warmth, almost like a living plushy.
The instant my finger made contact, a jolt of energy surged through my body—like a current of lightning shooting from my fingertip straight into the core of my brain.
Startled, I quickly pulled my hand back, flexing it with a confused expression.
"That... was weird..."
The second I touched it, something flashed inside my mind. Images, sensations, and scenes that didn't belong to any of my memories—completely new and foreign.
"You touched it?!" Nyssra exclaimed, her eyes widening in disbelief. "Tell me, what did it feel like? Is it actually another egg after all?!"
"What do you mean [after all]?" I asked with a light pout, shaking my head a little.
"The surface felt like felt cloth. I don't think it's an egg, or anything alive... But it's charged with energy. It's probably a battery of sorts—something that stores raw power."
I figured it might be something to help the little one grow faster, stronger. Maybe the Juvenile Void Dragon—the massive, immobile one—had passed it on to its tiny nephew. A kind of supplement, if we put it in human terms.
Although I was allowed to touch it, I couldn't take it out of the little one's grip. It was like the orb was fused to its paws, refusing to budge.
"Anyway," I shifted the topic back to the original. "How did it go?"
"How did what go...?" Nyssra tilted her head in puzzlement—before letting out a small gasp. "...Oh! Right!"
She quickly tapped her terminal, and a large projection window opened up for all of us to see.
"As you asked, I went ahead and formed a new pirate group with myself as the head, and even advertised it. I also finished integrating all your little slaves into it."
"Good."
That was necessary.
We couldn't just act like random raiders if we were going to pull off a grand-scale heist—especially one involving stealing the Primula right from under the Voltherian Empire's nose.
We had to act the part of a bold, intimidating pirate syndicate—one that even the Empire would hesitate to mess with.
"But what's with the name Shadowless Hawks? It sounds... too cool. Like, way too cool to be used by simple pirates," Nyssra asked, her head cocked slightly in wonder.
"PFFT!" Eva, who had been quietly sipping tea, sprayed it out in a graceful arc.
She sputtered and coughed a few times while we all stared, before finally catching her breath—and blurting out a question mid-gasp.
"D-Did you just say Shadowless Hawks?! You—Arthur, you bastard! How dare you use their name for this?!" she choked. "If they find out, we're dead! So dead!"
"...Huh?"
Nyssra still seemed lost—actually, Eva's outburst only added to her confusion.
But I, of course, understood why Eva reacted like that.
The Shadowless Hawks... A name feared across the stars.
The largest underground organization known to the galaxy—infamous, powerful, and utterly ruthless. Even whispering their name was enough to mobilize entire fleets in preparation for disaster.
Their reputation was carved in blood and shadow, and they were known to deal mercilessly with anyone who dared use their name without permission.
Clearly, Nyssra had no idea who they were.
Still, I'd already decided to take advantage of their infamy—and "borrowed" their name for our little charade.
