Chapter 45

45 Cleanup

The Dartmouth eased itself out of the orbital station’s docking collar.

Orange lights swirled all around as the crew at the end of that collar peered through large pressurized viewports and waved goodbye at the crew on the Dartmouth.

The cruiser had finished loading and unloading some of its cargo, and wrapped up its business at its second trading stop. She was a short-haul trader and was filled to the brim with a variety of juicy cargo.

She had also refilled her fuel in preparation for the third stop, which was on the other side of Lombard IX, the planet they were orbiting.

The entire Lombard system had sixteen planets, and more than half of them were populated. Each of those populated planets had multitudes of orbital stations that served as the main supply hubs for the colonies below.

This meant that commerce within the system flourished, as the different colonies and space stations traded between each other. They needed the goods that the others provided, so it was only natural that their trade routes would be rich within the system.

The Dartmouth was simply one of the many contracted vessels who greased the wheels of commerce here. And although the routes were well-traversed, it didn’t mean that they weren’t hounded by pirates and thieves.

Space was indeed vast, and danger always lurked out in the wilderness. The only truly safe zones existed where other people were.

Or at least, where trustworthy people were.

.....

The Dartmouth was armed, but only just so. A normal cruiser its size had at least three times as many gun turrets and missile emplacements. However, she was a vessel designed strictly for hauling goods and unfortunately munitions took up valuable space.

Since guns were the first to go, this meant it absolutely needed an armed escort. Otherwise, she was little more than a sitting duck against bandits and other chaotic, sticky-fingered undesirables.

Eva tweaked a few of her controls as she flew alongside the cruiser. She, along with Miko, counted among its escort. Of course, those two were probably the most experienced fighter pilots out of everyone there.

The two of them chatted over private comms genially, but Miko suddenly turned slightly sour.

“Remind me to slap you once we return back to shore,” said Miko.

Eva was taken aback slightly.

“What? What did I do?”

“You went and threw around some felons without me!” she replied. “I would like to enjoy that activity as well.”

Eva frowned. Miko was literally a thirteen year old, and in no way would she ever have taken her into that situation. But not only that, it was something she had to do alone.

“Ah, I’m sorry,” said Eva. “I just had some things on my mind that I needed to work out.”

“All the more reason to have me by your side... Imagine if things did not go your way. What would have happened to you then? I may be a small girl, but it does not mean I am weak.”

Eva nodded. What she did was a bit reckless, without a doubt. If that entire bar had joined the fight, it was very likely that she would have been gravely injured.

Or worse.

“Next time,” she said. “I promise I’ll take you next time... We’ll crack skulls together? It’ll be fun?”

“I accept. Do not forget your promise!”

Eva had experienced what it was like when promises were broken. She knew it was impossible not to break them sometimes, but it was completely different if they were broken all the time. Still, fulfilling them was easy – just go do them.

Eva motioned over her heart with an X.

“Cross my heart.”

The cruiser lurched forward now that it had fully separated from the station, and was able to fly clear of it. It set a course for the next station on the route, and sped up to a hundred meters per second.

Although it wasn’t very fast compared to the fighters, they would still arrive within a few hours.

Its escorts – a couple of frigates and a dozen fighters – flew in formation alongside it, Eva and Miko with them. They had previously gone on a similar run before, and found it to be easy money.

The pay honestly wasn’t all that great, but this was a relatively safe route, and attacks rarely happened. Usually, only the idiotic or truly desperate attacked traders on such a standard route.

Not that they had no chance to win – usually those who took the route were up-and-coming traders that sought to start their fortunes. Their equipment usually wasn’t up to par, and their hirelings were also at the beginning of their careers.

In all, they were disorganized and underequipped, but they still packed a punch. Plenty enough to ward off most hostile pilots.

Against an experienced crew, they would have been easy pickings. But those experienced crews often sought after fatter livestock to pinch.

Basically, beginners attacked other beginners.

“What did you have to work out in the first place?” asked Miko.

“Ah, it’s because of streamer mode,” answered Eva. “I turned it on again, and saw that I had messages... from my ex from my old life. So I talked to him for a little while.”

If that’s what you could call talking..

Miko’s eyes went wide when Eva had mentioned her old life. She was able to connect with the people from back then? Incredible! Did that mean that she could connect with her family, too?

“What?! That is amazing!” said Miko. “I mean, not the part where you had to deal with your former lover. Rather, the part where you have connected with your old life. That is quite unexpected.”

In almost every isekai that Miko was familiar with, the protagonists were often completely cut off from their old lives. So this was a rather strange development for her.

There were very few isekai protagonists who had access to both their old world and the new one. She remembered one of them. It was about the Japanese Self-Defense Forces fighting off an invading medieval army that had poured out of portals. It was enjoyable, but too nationalistic for her tastes.

Her thoughts turned towards her beloved manga, and wondered if she could get copies of the newest books, somehow. Excitement coursed through her.

“What else happened? Tell me more!” she exclaimed.

“We, er, had a bit of a fight,” Eva explained.

That was a little bit of an understatement. It was more like she got wrecked pretty hard, but she didn’t feel the need to expound on that.

“I got a little mad,” she continued, “and needed to let off some steam. Thus the thugs. Don’t worry, they deserved the beating.”

Also a massive understatement through and through.

Miko nodded, but she couldn’t quite understand. She was still too young to have felt heartbreak of that scale. Not to mention the fact that Eva was clearly downplaying it all, and she couldn’t accurately gauge just how much her friend had been hurt.

“I understand why you did what you did,” said Miko. “I am sure you had to confront some painful demons. However, was your connection not amazing? You were able to talk to someone from your old life! Did you figure out how? Or why?”

Eva shook her head. She wanted to talk to her grandparents, but the simple act of seeing Mack threw her heart into chaos. She needed to tame that if she wanted to get anywhere further.

“I think,” she replied, “that ‘home’ means the PC where Bellum Aeterna is installed. Or at least where I played it last. I think he stole my PC, which is why he saw my stream.”

Eva then rambled about how her precious rig was going to get broken and he wasn’t going to clean it or take care of it, then ended with a few curses and epithets.

Miko got the sense that Eva was having a hard time. It felt as though she was suppressing her emotions as best she could, so Miko decided not to bring him up for a while. She didn’t know how to help her in that regard, anyway.

“I see,” Miko said. “Perhaps that is why I have not been able to see what is happening on my end. I think perhaps my parents have already packed away my computer. I do not think they would keep it visible, as it would remind them of me.”

“Maybe we can get a hold of them as well?” Eva mused. “I still need to fix things with him – I want to talk to my family and right now, he’s sort of in the way. But once I do that, we can reach out to everyone we want to.”

Their MFDs suddenly erupted in alerts, and red targeting pips appeared on their displays. The captain of the Dartmouth appeared on their comms display, his face plastered with worry and irritation.

“Ah, it looks like we’ve got company. Let’s try to polish ’em off quick, so they don’t cut too hard into our profits.”

Everyone in the escort replied with the affirmative as they positioned themselves defensively around the hauler.

The enemy consisted of sixteen fighters and four frigates, which was a bit more than their escort’s number. But then again, they had the benefit of the cruiser’s turrets to help, even if it didn’t have a full complement of cannons.

A rather scruffy pirate came on their comms, and immediately started to make demands.

“Drop your cargo, or be blasted into dust!” he said.

“Hmm, let me think about that,” replied the Dartmouth’s captain.

The Dartmouth pointed its portside towards the pirates and aimed its guns right at the incoming frigates.

“How about you come ‘n’ try to take it instead?” he continued.

The pirates screamed as they charged forward chaotically. The defending wings simply advanced themselves to intercept and engaged on their own terms.

“Taste the steel from the Blight Brigade!” taunted a pirate.

Weaponsfire began to stream in both directions as the two fleets clashed.

Eva and Miko flew into the mix, their hard-earned training bore some of its fruit as they helped demolish the pirates before them.

But they weren’t too worried about it. These pirates were low on the totem pole, and they didn’t have the skills to outmaneuver or outsmart the two women.

After hearing them scream their fleet’s name, a thought shot through Miko.

“Have you given any more thought to our organization name?” she asked.

The two had been discussing their future, and about building a business partnership together. There were many types of organizations in the galaxy, and a company was simply one of the classifications. Syndicates were a kind of organization, as were guilds, governments, and religions.

Organizations were necessary for any civilization to thrive.

“I like the idea of ravens,” replied Eva. “I just feel a kinship to them. Not just the birds themselves, but what they represent, too.”

Ravens, and crows to a lesser extent, had deep symbolic meaning for many human cultures, ancient or otherwise.

In Norse mythology, Hugin and Munin were the two ravens that stood on the shoulders of Odin, the raven god. The two of them whispered in his ear every secret they uncovered about the world. It was those two who helped grant him his great wisdom.

In Japanese mythology, Yatagarasu was a raven that helped establish their country and people. The raven itself was divinity and was asked by Ameratsu, the great sun goddess herself, to lead the first emperor to settle ancient Japan’s fertile lands.

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“Nn. I like this as well,” said Miko.

As the two of them had a casual chat about their organization name, their fleet dismantled the pirates one by one.

Eva and Miko simply swam through the enemy and disabled or destroyed them swiftly. While other fighters operated in wings of four or even six, the both of them were only in a wing of two.

.....

The way wings operated was rather simple: while one was bogged down by attacks, the others could back them up and destroy the hostile.

Eva and Miko were so proficient at this, that they were able to slip between the two roles rather easily. It wasn’t so much about their training, but rather their protectiveness over each other. The moment one of them was targeted by a hostile, the other would bear their guns on them.

On top of that, the two of them were devastating if they attacked the same target. Miko often hacked in and threw their systems into chaos. It overwhelmed them long enough for Eva to perforate them with exacting fire.

“You know how a group of crows is called a murder? Well, for ravens, it’s called a conspiracy. Isn’t that cool?” Eva followed up.

“Conspiracy of Ravens?” asked Miko. “I believe I like it. If we are going to retain a morally ambiguous company ethos, the name is certainly fitting.”

“Yeah. I imagine illegal work is as plentiful as legal work. Probably even pays better, too.”

“I agree. However, we should perhaps keep the illegal work off of any future streams.”

Miko thought about it a little more as Eva smashed through another pirate.

“And we should definitely stream it when we beat up thugs,” she added. “People enjoy justice being enacted. They even pay for it to happen. I think they consider it entertainment.”

“They always have,” replied Eva.