013 Training Arc 13: Personal Ship Completion

Thanks for the initial evaluation.

Deeply grateful.

Guess it's true— the more debt you rack up, the more you just go full nihilist.

I’ve got a 100 million G debt to the Directorate.

Signed the contract in a white (restricted) room, ironed out repayment plans and fine print.

Appreciate them letting me prioritize tuition payment over debt repayment, and the interest-free terms. Nice.

Also, moving forward, I’ll need a hangar that can store both my Personal Ship and the new R10.

The expansion cost for that hangar? Free.

The Directorate’s conditions: I can’t leave SFO until the 100 million G is paid off, must accept every quest they assign without question, and prioritize Personal Ship development.

That includes combat missions against enemies (•) beyond the Sol system.

I got a memo saying I shouldn’t just stick to the R10 now that I’ve got both my Personal Ship and the R10.

SFO’s pushing hard for Personal Ship development, so they wanted it clear: the R10 is just supposed to be a backup, sitting idle while it gets repaired.

To leave the Sol system, you need a Dimensional Jump (Warp) drive. But the only ships with those are the stations themselves.

And stations? They’re basically stuck in place, anchored to the Sol system.

So for the vast majority of ships without warp drives, they’ve set up Dimensional Jump Gates.

Basically, giant versions of the transfer ports you’d find on a station.

Apparently, they’re linked to the nearest gate—nearest in terms of dimensional corridor distance—and let you zip across interstellar distances in minutes.

There’ve been instances where enemies have hijacked the gate system—linking it to their own territory, and that’s why the Sol System’s been invaded.

Prince mentioned the enemy’s existence casually the other day. He’d planned to go through the details step by step, now that he’s got his Personal Ship.

So now we’re expected to hit back—reverse invasion into their territory.

Thought I was just scraping together tuition. Now I’m being forced into a life-or-death fight.

Huh? Wait—didn’t they say my older sister went through a gate too?

Oh right… no reply yet. If I latch onto her, could I get a hundred million G?

“Hey, did you hear from your sister?”

I ask Prince, who looks utterly drained.

“Unfortunately, no. Direct communication beyond the gate’s not possible. We’d have to send a relay ship.”

She’s crossed through so many gates already, so we’ll need a relay ship just to get in touch. Should take a while, though.”

‘Pip-pip!’

A chime rings out. Looks like a comms signal just came in on Prince’s wristband.

Prince doesn’t bother with spoken words. He opens a virtual screen right there.

After reading it, he turns to me.

“Good news. Ayame’s Personal Ship has just been completed.”

He expands the virtual screen, showing me the vessel’s image.

There it is—side view of a starship, with specs displayed beside it.

200-meter hull, two arms. Left arm equipped with a physical-impact and beam-resistant shield.

On the upper hull: a small bridge, large radar dish, communication antenna, and two single-mounted 10cm Laser cannons for anti-orbital and debris defense.

One laser on each side of the ship.

One Long Barrel 5cm Railgun is mounted per unit.

"Feels like the armament's kind of weak..."

That's right. The ship class is 'Fleet Command Ship,' aka the 'Fleet Flagship,' you know.

I ask, hesitantly.

"...Is this normal for a Personal Ship?"

No, this is a rarity among rarities. Congratulations.

"But isn't single-ship combat effectiveness a bit too low?"

"Ah... but the Personal Ship determines its type based on the gamer's DNA and play history.

The station’s central mainframe decided this ship class was best suited for you, Yaezashi.

So just have Yaegashi gather some allies and form a fleet!

No, I don’t know anyone at SFO (here). And honestly, there aren’t any gamers under the command of a rookie commander with a seven-day pro contract…

Would you even want to count me as a fighting asset?

……

The Prince could only manage a dry smile.

My debut was set to be solo operations. Lone wolf. That’s the plan.

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