Chapter 223: Becoming a Space Pirate, Part 2
However, when facing powerful enemies in the future, Tolle knew he couldn't afford to be so reckless again. Letting his guard down could easily mean getting himself and his mobile suit scrapped together.
After fully experiencing the Alaya-Vijnana System, Tolle had played around enough. He turned his attention to the three Gjallarhorn assault battleships and targeted their gun turrets and missile launchers.
The Heavy Firepower-Type Bael Gundam raised its twin Gatling cannons, and the armor-piercing gun on its right shoulder locked onto its targets.
Following his usual habit, Tolle launched a full barrage, firing at dozens of targets at once. In less than a minute, the weapons of all three assault battleships were completely disabled.
Meanwhile, Zola, piloting her Phantom Kai, was single-handedly entangling all fifteen Graze units. With a machine gun in her left hand and a solid-blade sword in her right, she danced among the enemy machines with dazzling agility.
Under her control, the Phantom Kai wove and darted through the battlefield, deftly evading incoming fire while occasionally blasting the Grazes' main monitors with machine-gun fire.
In just a short time, all fifteen Grazes had their main sensors destroyed, drastically limiting their vision and greatly reducing both their attack accuracy and evasion efficiency.
At that moment, Masahiro and his five teammates joined the battle. Wielding flails and massive hammers, they targeted the Grazes' weapon-holding arms, occasionally striking the cockpits as well. The blunt impact of their physical attacks made the Gjallarhorn pilots inside suffer bitterly.
Tolle quickly realized what their tactic was about—knocking out the enemy pilots to seize the mobile suits intact.
As expected of Zola—she was taking this "space pirate" role quite seriously.
But Tolle liked it. It reminded him of his own early days—after all, most of his suits back then were "taken" (or rather, scavenged) the same way.
After a fierce battle lasting more than ten minutes, the Gjallarhorn forces were completely incapacitated. All Grazes on the field had been disarmed and disabled, yet almost no one had been killed.
Zola then opened a wide-channel broadcast to the Gjallarhorn troops:
"Gjallarhorn soldiers, surrender. We are the Spark Space Pirate Crew, and you're already surrounded on all sides. Hand over your cargo, and we'll spare your lives."
Just then, the Spark battleship surged forward, and Nami used holographic projection to display several more warships nearby—creating the illusion of a full fleet encirclement.
The Gjallarhorn captain opened his own channel and responded angrily, "Damn space pirates! I will never bow to the likes of you! We—"
Before he could finish, Zola fired a burst from her machine gun, shredding the area right below the enemy bridge. Then she aimed directly at the bridge's glass viewport and warned coldly:
"If you're so eager to die, by all means, keep talking. Either way, once you're dead, the cargo's still ours."
She continued, her tone sharp and commanding, "As punishment, all your remaining personnel are to gather aboard that one battleship. The other two ships and all your mobile suits now belong to us."
Faced with Zola's unreasonably domineering attitude—and her readiness to open fire without hesitation—the Gjallarhorn captain broke into a cold sweat. "Uh, ma'am, perhaps we could—"
"No," Zola cut him off flatly. "There's nothing to discuss. I'll give you twenty minutes to transfer your crew from the other two battleships. No cargo, no mobile suits. Once the time's up, anyone still aboard will be executed without mercy."
Overwhelmed by fear, the captain chose survival over pride and surrendered the two battleships.
In the end, the fifteen slightly damaged Grazes and two Gjallarhorn assault battleships were seized intact.
The Spark's pirate crew immediately donned their powered armor suits, stormed the captured ships, and quickly piloted them away from the battle zone.
Once they reached a safe area, the original 300 crew members were evenly distributed among the three assault battleships. The newly acquired ships were renamed Spark No. 2 and Spark No. 3.
Over the following weeks, Tolle's crew continued absorbing smaller pirate groups, assimilating their members into the Spark Fleet.
As for those who were truly heinous, Nami scanned their memories for confirmation—and once verified, they were mercifully executed.
After more than a month of expansion, the Spark Fleet had grown to over a dozen battleships and seventy or so mobile suits of various types.
In a concealed asteroid belt, they constructed a large-scale, fully equipped spaceport using the remains of heavily damaged warships and mobile suit wreckage.
Powered by several large Ahab Reactors, the port generated its own artificial gravity, allowing life there to feel just like living on Earth.
Its living facilities could comfortably sustain hundreds of thousands of people, fully self-sufficient. The outer hull was covered with thick layers of nano-armor and lined with numerous gun turrets and missile launchers.
This base would be their trump card for future battles against the Gjallarhorn forces.
Before long, the Spark Space Pirate Crew became infamous across the system. Yet, in truth, they only carried out one or two actual raids—encounters with small Gjallarhorn fleets were far too rare.
One day, as usual, Tolle led Spark No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 on a patrol to hunt other space pirates.
They soon came across a single assault warship—Hammerhead—under attack by two pirate-painted vessels.
Tolle instantly recognized the three mobile suits involved: the pink Hyakuren piloted by Amida Arca, the tan Hyakuri piloted by Lafter Frankland, and the blue Hyakuren that could only belong to Azee Gurumin.
That meant the attacked ship belonged to the Turbines, a transport organization under Teiwaz, led by Naze Turbine and his "wives' warship."
Tolle couldn't help but feel a twinge of envy. Back in the day, he had greatly admired that man—an entire ship full of wives, all devoted to him.
Unfortunately, Naze Turbine had eventually fallen victim to Teiwaz's internal power struggles.
Still, Naze had been a man of honor. He had even extended a helping hand to the fledgling Tekkadan, lowering himself to become sworn brothers with Orga.
If things truly unfolded like they had in the anime, Tolle thought, maybe he could get along with the guy—and perhaps even "borrow" a few of his wives.
After all, Naze had so many that even his good-natured self didn't seem to mind when his wives sought out "true love" elsewhere.
(I salute you, O King of Cuckolds!)
———
Hyakuren (Amida's Unit)
Class: C+ Mobile Suit
Terrain Adaptability:
Sea C / Land B / — / Space A
Fixed Armament: Assault Rifle ×1; Solid Sword ×1; Combat Gauntlets ×2
Optional Armament: Rotary Grenade Launcher ×1; Short Rifle ×1; Large Club ×1
———
Hyakuri
Class: C+ Mobile Suit
Terrain Adaptability:
Sea — / Land C / Air B / Space A
Fixed Armament: Knuckle Shields ×2; Assault Rifles ×2
Optional Armament: Quad Rocket Launcher ×1; Rotary Grenade Launcher ×1