Bodacious Space Pirates (モーレツ宇宙海賊)

While the Galactic Empire expanded its power

and began absorbing neighboring star systems,

some of the outer frontier planets

maintained independent governments.

The third planet in the Tau Ceti system, Sea of the Morningstar,

was a newly-settled colony planet.

As with most planets on the frontier,

once generations passed and its population increased,

relations with its overseer, the Stellar Alliance, worsened.

And a war of independence began.

To complement their meager fleet,

the government of Sea of the Morningstar

issued a new type of edict,

the Letter of Marque.

Papers in hand, space pirates attacked Stellar Alliance vessels,

greatly contributing to the revolution's success.

This story begins more than one hundred years later.

Time for some piracy!

Even at the furthest fringes of the universe I think of you

Countless shooting stars surround me and I make my wishes

So close, yet so far,

and every day my eyes fill with tears

Whom can I blame? Fate? Destiny?

I'll devote all I have,

and explode, combust, blow up, detonate, erupt

Rage!

Even if I should turn into cold stardust

I would continue to love you

My feelings burn

like the scorching flame of Antares

I don't care how many lightyears I have to cross

because I love you

My wishes won't falter

The star children will continue to protect you

Rage!

Jamming remains strong.

All radar systems still offline.

Very well done.

I'm told that these pirates have a new captain, a young girl.

There hasn't been a female pirate since Blaster Ririka.

I'd love to see her.

And there we go.

Video footage from the enemy ship!

Top-rate service.

Nice work.

I'm the Captain of the space pirate ship Bentenmaru

Captain Marika.

Silence!

Or do you want to be torn apart by Captain Marika's big guns?

Now, hand over your gold,

money, and other valuables...

I wonder how things are going for Chiaki...

Worry about your own ship, not hers.

Right.

What's our situation?

Same as ever!

Thick dust, rough gravity waves...

And this is all we get, even with the radar at max power?

Flying a spaceship here is absolutely insane!

I'm sorry.

Perfect place for a ghost ship.

There's a lull in the storm, negative 3 minutes and 2 seconds off the bow.

Elevation, plus 1 degree and 2 minutes.

Get us there!

Output's stable...

All ready!

Roger!

This is a break?

We're in unstable space.

You'd have to be a miner of rare metals or an explorer

to venture into these seas.

Firing recon probes.

The wind's going to get stronger.

Keep us on course!

Gotcha!

Output rising!

We won't be retrieving those,

I'm sorry to say.

We can't worry about our probes right now.

Just gather as much data as you can.

Um...

The Serenity Royal Family will compensate you for your expenses.

Sure, that's great.

But the problem is that

our search becomes much less efficient without them.

I hope we can find it before then...

It's all right.

If it's needed, the ghost ship will come to me.

If it's needed, huh?

It's almost time.

Right.

Okay, thanks, you two.

Wh-What?

That completes the hours that minors are allowed to work.

Both of you, grab some food and get to bed.

Me too?

It's included among the Hakuoh Academy rules.

Students are limited to an eight-hour workday.

So...

Let's eat!

Sorry...

We don't have a personal chef to prepare meals,

but the food's pretty good.

I'm not concerned about the food.

Everyone's searching for the ghost ship,

while I'm just sitting here relaxing.

That's...

It's bothering you?

Yeah.

I'm supposed to be the captain,

but the adults are still protecting me...

So it's the same for you, Princess?

Oh, I'm sorry I compared myself to you!

No, I'm happy.

For someone to say they're like me.

That makes me very happy.

I wonder what Chiaki is doing now...

No way! I'm not enjoying this!

Maybe I'll adjust this part a little bit.

We go from here to here, and then set a course...

So the captain's battle is tomorrow, huh?

Okay.

One more time.

Morning!

Huh?

A bakery?

Sorry...

I've gotten accustomed to eating here.

I've been staying up all night.

All night?

You haven't experienced this before, have you?

When things get really busy,

we stay on the bridge all night.

Then shouldn't I have stayed here, too?

The Bentenmaru isn't in such bad shape that it

requires its underage captain here overnight.

You just make the decisions when you need to!

Relaxing is part of your job.

Right...

So what's the situation?

I'll give you the abridged version.

There are numerous observation buoy arrays, set here by the Serenity search teams,

which are still active.

The seventeen search teams created a fairly wide observation network,

which continues to compile detailed data.

Isn't that awfully lucky?

And the authorization code?

You should need a royal authorization code to access them.

Why didn't you wake me?

Well...

Cracked it.

Easy.

What?!

Of course, it took a lot of prep work.

Especially in the middle of this storm.

It kept Schnitzer and Hyakume up all night.

They finally went to sleep a little while ago.

So that's where they are.

But it's strange...

Search team 17 occurred fifteen years ago.

And the princess is...

Thirteen.

Yup.

Using your authorization code on a network that

dates from before your birth seemed pointless.

But I entered it anyway, just in case.

Your full name and biometrics.

And it worked...

Yep. Just like that...

A name and genetic pattern that works, regardless of when it's used...

I guess the royal family really might be special.

Are you born that way?

I believe so.

That is why the royal family was able

to maintain Serenity's independence.

Well, um, how's the network doing?

Find any data on the ghost ship?

The difference is like night and day.

See how clear it is?

Huh?

What's this?

Not sure. But probably multiple spaceships.

Battleship-class, too.

They want the same thing we do.

I was going to trade places with Chiaki and slip away...

But apparently it won't work.

What should we do?

Pursue?

Not now.

They're not close enough to worry about.

If we want the same thing, we'd just end up fighting.

Roger.

Okay, then I'll keep analyzing the data.

Thanks.

What's up?

What's going on?

Checking right now.

Observation buoys 15 to 78 have detected a major spatial irregularity.

It's huge.

Six lightyears away?