085 Drifting Arc 25: Shadow Play

Somewhere • Secured Communications Chamber

"Then, Brother, I'll borrow your forces."

"Remember, this is a loan. I'll collect repayment someday."

"I understand. Brother."

"Ah, I'm looking forward to the results."

The transmission cuts out.

The Prince's smile vanishes. His face twists with rage. He kicks the chair violently, sending it skidding across the floor.

In the succession struggle for the throne, all sixteen princes are rivals.

And the Prince was steadily falling behind.

After his clash with Akira, he lost half his main forces.

The beastmen under his control rebelled. Lord Gilbert's forces were destroyed. Lord Douglas's forces fled in disarray. A complete disaster.

At this rate, he'd be outmatched even by his youngest brother, the twelfth prince.

Worse—he was already weaker than his youngest brother in terms of imperial lineage strength.

Now, even in raw strength, he was in danger of being surpassed.

Sixteen princes. Five of them were naturally born. The rest were all children of the current emperor.

The prince was the thirteenth among the emperor’s offspring—the weakest in imperial lineage strength, the lowest in the emperor’s genetic potency.

The three below him were naturally born princes—regarded as useful only for producing heirs for the emperor’s daughters.

In other words, the prince was the farthest from the throne.

Then came Akira’s official recognition as a prince—making that distance even greater.

A naturally born prince, yet recognized as the sixth—possessing a strong imperial lineage.

All he felt was envy.

Fortuitously, Akira was found within his own sphere of influence.

He’d been sent to the battlefield without revealing his princely status, then reduced to slavery—perfect. A clean disposal.

Before he could even say “wait, wait,” he’d already secured victories, discovered he was the sixth prince, gathered forces, and solidified his position.

“Kill or be killed.”

Challenging a higher-ranking prince meant being seen as a threat—even by the bloodline princes above him.

If he didn’t win here, he’d be crushed by the bloodline princes.

The Prince was frozen in obsession.

Whether it was luck or not, his eldest brother—the one who came before in line for the throne, not by birth order, but by birth—had lent him troops.

With that force, he’d strike at Akira. Reassert control over the beastfolk.

He had a trump card against the beastfolk. The daughters they’d sent as brides.

He’d never intended to marry any of them—he’d kept them working as servants. But now, after Akira’s death, he figured he could use them.

“Can I make Mina a concubine?”

Muttering to himself, the Prince’s face hardened into grim focus. He began plotting his strategy.

According to intelligence, Akira seemed intent on provoking the nest of rogue starships.

Which meant the enemy forces would be scattered.

"This is our chance to finish it all at once!"

The Prince spat the words out, venomous.

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Anoi Fortress — Executive Office

Intelligence from the True Empire suggests Earth’s orbit is likely under the Prince’s control.

Thinking of her sister, I’d love to liberate Earth as soon as possible—but we don’t have enough strength.

Even if we match their fleet numbers, the combat capabilities of the stations behind them are too overwhelming.

Even with Anoi Fortress, we’d probably just end in mutual annihilation at best.

Looking ahead to the larger war against the Empire, that’d be a strategic defeat.

Guess we really should’ve gone after that thing.

"Love, is the reconnaissance clearance for the feral starship nest confirmed?"

I ask Love, my organic terminal AI.

Love freezes up—just a beat.

That’s her usual move. Means she’s pulling data. Slowly.

Reasons for the delay? Slow approval process. Interference during access. Or just a massive data pool needing sifting. All possible.

This freeze? Just a simple check on approval status. So why’s she dragging?

Finally, Love stirs.

"Authorization’s granted. But when we traced access logs, we lost the signal. Sorry."

"Meaning someone else might’ve jumped in first."

"Yes. But that would be an illegal act. Anyone without proper authorization entering a wildspace vessel's nest will be punished."

"So, no authorization means someone else already slipped in."

"Yes. Confirmed."

"Troublesome... (Who's the target here?)"

Somebody else's scheming again. Even with princes fighting each other like this, the empire’s capital just ignores it?

Or is the Prince handling things well? Maybe we're just bad at making our case.

"Ayame, should we go public with Prince criticism?"

"Pointing fingers won’t change anything."

"Why not?"

"Because they’re bloodline, we’re natural-born."

"Ah. The current Emperor favors bloodlines, huh? So other bloodline princes might target us?"

"Princes watch each other’s fights closely—but they won’t join forces. To them, both sides are rivals."

...should I be worried about getting taken advantage of right after the showdown?

Even without a united front, the bloodline prince’s allies will probably just charge in on their own.

The weaker you get, the more likely someone’s gonna take advantage of it—like it’s some kind of prize.

The ones who got demoted after I was certified as the sixth prince—they’re the dangerous ones.

Dealing with a few princes is a hassle... and the combat strength is way too low.

Yeah. Guess we really do need a nest.

I’ve locked in the plan to seize the nest of the rogue starship.

The plan is this.

Fire an Erosion Bullet into the nest of a derelict starship. Leave it there until erosion is complete. Then subdue it with a Nerve Crack.

If things go smoothly, it’ll be over in a flash.

I decided to go into battle.

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Arrived at the Dimensional Jump Gate leading to the nest of rogue starships in the sub-space.

I’m operating the ship’s arms from my Personal Ship’s CIC.

Full power to the Wide-Area Communication Device and the Tactical Weapon Integration Control System.

I extend the cable from the base of my arm and plug it into the connector on the panel of the Dimensional Jump Gate’s control system.

That’ll unlock the gate.

I project a virtual panel in front of me and input the unlock command.

Enter the one-day password issued by the Empire—unlock the Dimensional Jump Gate.

At the same instant, the gate’s circular surface glows, its mirror-like surface rippling open—access granted.

I unplug the cable, then drive the ship straight into the mirror surface.

Before me, countless stray spacefleets and the massive nest of them—the motherships—filled the view.

"Five-centimeter railgun, activate. Fire erosion bullets—100 rounds!"

The long barrel five-centimeter railgun spat out erosion bullets in rapid succession.

Too fast for the stray ships to react.

"Good. Retreat!"

"Enemy! From behind…"

At that moment, the light from the dimensional jump gate abruptly vanished.

My ship was left stranded inside the nest of stray spacefleets.

All around, stray ships swarmed, enraged by the attack on their mothership.