Episode 1

–Space Era (SE) – October 12, 4512–

Albion Kingdom Officer Cadet Clifford Cuthbert Collingwood, who was just recently assigned to the sloop ship HMS-L20034 Bluebell 34, knitted his brows as he self-studied navigation calculation by his lonesome.

(Lacking spatial awareness ability, lacking mathematical thinking aptitude……)

He remembered the final evaluation results he got from the military academy when he graduated and glumly sighed.

(I’m really not good with subjects requiring lots of patience. Navigation, organization, accounting, ship maneuvering, communication, personnel affairs……)

Clifford was a 19-year-old young man who recently graduated from the Lionel Military Academy based on the third planet of the Camelot system in August 4512.

For some people, his slender and tall build coupled with his delicate facial features was pretty appealing. However, if judged based on people’s typical impression of soldiers, he’d just seem like a lanky and timid-looking wet-behind-the-ears cadet.

Unlike what his appearance might suggest, he actually graduated from the academy with relatively good grades and was eventually allowed to board the Flower-class sloop Bluebell 34.

As for his military academy evaluation, subjects requiring quick on-the-fly decision-making and great insight such as commanding and tactics were his forte. His grades for the units he took related to ground warfare were also top class. Unfortunately, his overall evaluation was hampered by his less-than-ideal results for subjects like navigation, organization, accounting, and the like. In the end, he graduated within the top 10% of all students in his batch. Even though this was a relatively good result for most people, he was still devastated because he failed to enter the top 100, which would have guaranteed him a stable career.

Moreover, he was the son of a baronial house, and he would be demoted if he failed to present notable achievements such as qualifying for the top 100 in the academy. Currently, though, he’d mostly made his peace with this fact and didn’t mind it too much anymore.

As an aside, the aristocratic system employed by the Albion Kingdom was quite peculiar. Life peerage might be the most appropriate term to describe it.

For example, if one’s father had accomplished feats befitting an earl, one needs to achieve merits befitting that rank as well, or else, one’s future children would get demoted to a viscount.

His own father already accomplished achievements suitable for the title of baron, so he’d have no problems inheriting the title himself, but for the sake of his future children, Clifford needed to accomplish merits of similar value at the very least.

While he was engaged in a pitched battle of wits with the navigation calculation reference materials, the ringtone of his personal digital assistant (PDA) went off, and shortly afterward, he heard a soft gender-neutral voice address him.

『Cadet Collingwood, please report to Deputy Captain Gresham in the CIC (Combat Information Center) immediately.』

「Roger.」he muttered in reply to the PDA’s microphone, straightened his appearance for all of five seconds, and ran out to the aisles; heading straight for the CIC.

After five minutes, he finally arrived in front of the CIC’s entrance, took a deep breath, and announced himself; saying「Cadet Collingwood, reporting as ordered!」as he waited for the hatch to open.

The hatch finally opened up accompanied by the sound of pressurized air gushing out. Clifford immediately entered the CIC.

After entering the CIC, the first object that came to view was the large screen display installed within it. Clifford quickly turned away from the screen and headed straight in front of Deputy Captain Gresham, who was currently sitting in the commander’s seat.

Deputy Captain Annabella Gresham was a 26-year-old small-statured red-haired female officer. She was currently displaying an expression akin to having swallowed a bitter bug, evidencing her stress as she performed her duties.

「At ease. We will be exiting the Spartan system by 1800. Please calculate the FTL navigation values until the Tribune system. Submit the results to Chief Navigator Denzel by 1600.」

「Aye, aye, ma’am!」

Clifford gave his superior a crisp salute, quickly plopped himself down on the assistant navigator’s seat, and started conversing with the console’s AI as he operated it.

The Deputy Captain’s husky voice called out to him from behind.

「Please give us a satisfying result this time around, Cadet. That last one was a total disaster……」

The deputy captain nagged at him further, but Clifford already shut her words out completely as he desperately calculated the navigation values.

(Assuming we maintain a speed of 0.1 parsecs, after passing through the Spartan system’s JP (Jump Point), we’ll reach the Tribune system’s JP in… um……)

Deputy Captain Gresham watched on as the flustered officer cadet desperately performed navigation calculations.

(It’s certainly good to have a serious and earnest attitude, but…… his impression is totally different from what you’d expect when you look at his grades. I thought he’d be more like those usual genius-types……)

Her lips inadvertently curled into a soft smile as she continued to watch the young cadet’s efforts, but she quickly composed herself and returned to her usual stern expression.

(Seeing him getting all flustered as he calculates desperately like that certainly is cute though…… Oh my. That’s no good, me. Ever since getting promoted to deputy captain, I’ve become completely like your typical middle-aged auntie. Ah. I’ve really become the deputy captain of a small-class ship, haven’t I……?)

She became the deputy captain of the sloop ship Bluebell 34 a year ago when she was just 25 years old.

When she got promoted from a combat frigate’s gunnery officer to a lieutenant (leftenant), she was asked to choose between serving as a heavy cruiser’s tactical officer or a sloop’s deputy captain.

Back then, she naively thought ‘deputy captain’ had a nice ring to it, so she eventually chose the latter.

(The deputy captain is more like the clerk of a micro-enterprise in charge of general chores like managing the procurement and expenditure of supplies, health management of one’s subordinates, administering punishment, and the like. I don’t really feel like I’m a military officer nowadays, honestly……)

She inwardly whined about her circumstances like usual as she confirmed the current situation in the CIC.

「Filana, contact Daisy 27. Tell them we want to compare the navigation calculation results before we go through the JP.」

「Roger. There’s no time lag, so we can contact them right away,」First Lieutenant Filana Quinn, Bluebell’s Information and Communications Officer, promptly replied while working on her console.

She was a 24-year-old officer who always had a bright and cheerful smile on her face. She was one of the youngest commissioned officers on the ship together with her colleague, Nadia Nicole. Despite her relatively young age, she’s been assigned to the Bluebell 34 for two years already, and she knows the ins and outs of the ship like the back of her hand.

She thought about their current mission that was revealed to them by the captain ten days ago, when he briefed them about it while in a conference with their allied ships.

(We’re responding to a distress signal sent out by a private ship huh… It doesn’t sound like a very interesting mission……)

Their mission this time was to rescue an Albion-registered merchant ship that had gone missing in the Tribune system if possible and investigate the cause for their disappearance.

(But having three ships in a row go missing does sound quite suspicious. The Tribune system isn’t exactly a safe haven, but it shouldn’t be that dangerous once you’ve gone past the asteroid belt…… Was it pirates? Or maybe privateers? If that’s the case, then I wonder which country is messing around with us this time?)

There were roughly four powers ruling over the outer reaches of the Perseus Arm.

One was the power they belonged to, the Albion Kingdom.

Then there’s the Zonfa Republic as well as the Svarog Empire. They formed a neat triangle, with the fourth power, Free Star Union (FSU), smack dab in between the other three.

The level of science and technology in this area was relatively the same. Moreover, the national strength of the first three major powers was almost the same as well, with their populations ranging from 6.5 to 8.5 billion.

The Albion Kingdom was a constitutional monarchy founded by British immigrants and controlled two star systems – Albion and Camelot. Due to its relatively free and easy atmosphere, beautiful capital star system, and strong military presence, it had not allowed any major incursions of rival powers so far.

The Zonfa Republic was a nation founded by Chinese immigrants and was a totalitarian nation outwardly claiming to be a republic. With a population of 8.5 billion, it was the largest of the three major powers. Due to the pressure resulting from its quickly burgeoning populace, it had recently been exhibiting ever-increasing expansionist tendencies. For the last few decades, its leadership had adopted a hereditary succession system, and in order to divert domestic dissatisfaction, they weren’t bothering to hide their expansionist ambitions in the least.

The Svarog Empire was an imperial nation founded by Slavic immigrants. In addition to its main star system, Svarog, it also held another two systems, Dazhbog and Stribog. The nation was quite rich in resources. It had a small population of 6.5 billion, and even though there were more than enough resources for it to flourish domestically, it followed after the ancient empires of old and wouldn’t hesitate to expand its territories if given the chance.

However, in addition to the emperor, Dazhbog and Stribog were ruled over by their respective lords, and things eventually erupted into a full-scale civil war. But just recently, Dazhbog’s lord, Alexander, had at last claimed victory, and he had finally started placing his attention outward.

Surrounded by the three major powers was a coalition of five smaller star system nations, known as the FSU. It was basically a group of nations aiming for mutual prosperity through free trade.

Although the strength of each individual system was inferior to that of the three major powers, if all five Union members pooled their strengths, they would boast numbers surpassing the other three. However, their militaries had little experience when it comes to actual combat, and seeing that was the case, the Union leaders opted to make use of diplomacy to prevent invasions from other nations instead.

The FSU star system closest to the Albion Kingdom was Yashima, which was founded by Japanese immigrants.

The Bluebell’s mission this time was to investigate the incidents involving merchant ships navigating through the Tribune system, which was part of a trade route between Albion Kingdom’s Camelot system and the Yashima system. Fleet Command concluded that the possibility of the disappearances being the result of a commerce raiding operation being conducted by either Zonfa or Svarog was quite high.

The Tribune system was a neutral area not affiliated with any power. Therefore, in order to dispatch a large fleet there, it would need coordination with the neighboring states. In this case, they needed to coordinate with Yashima first, but since this would take time, there was a possibility of rival nations such as the Zonfa Republic interfering. That’s why Joint Operation Headquarters decided to dispatch two small-class sloops for the mission instead.

First Lieutenant Quinn was worried that privateers affiliated with either Zonfa or Svarog were engaging in acts of piracy and targeting commercial vessels affiliated with Albion.

Even though privateers basically used their own ships, they were more heavily armed than ordinary commercial vessels since they had the support of large nations behind them, and their ships might even rival a military light cruiser in overall firepower. But, of course, Albion was also regularly sending such privateers to the enemy countries in order to conduct commerce raiding operations as well.

(It’s gonna be troublesome if it’s really privateers. But we should still be able to take them on with two sloops.)

As she pondered over such matters, the comm channel with their allied ship, the Daisy 27, had finally connected.

「Ms. Quinn, the comm channel to Daisy 27 is now open.」

Filana promptly offered a quick thank you.

「This is HMS-L2502034, Bluebell 34……」

She began communicating with the allied ship.

***