History Literature / RebornAsASpaceMercenaryIWokeUpPilotingTheStrongestStarship

[[caption-width-right:350:Meet the crew of the Krishna]]

Except one "morning," he wakes up shivering cold in the cockpit of a spaceship that matches his on-line ship, the Krishna. As soon as he gets his ship warmed up, he gets jumped by pirates.

* BeachEpisode: The bulk of Volume 3 has the Krishna's crew spending a lot of their time in the resort planet of Cierra III.

** The Krishna was the strongest ship of its size in the game by a significant margin, to the point that Hiro wondered if it was a mistake. When the space dwarves take a look at it, their non-destructive analysis tools can't figure a lot of it out, especially the power core that generates so much more power than a standard core of its size should.

* LightningBruiser: The Krishna is insanely overpowered, possessing no fewer than six Class III weapons, shields that can soak up an absurd amount of damage, and is one of the fastest ships out there, making it all but impossible to hit in the first place. With Hiro at the controls, it's a pirate's worst nightmare.

* SpaceIsCold: Played with. All the Krishna's systems are offline when Hiro wakes up in it. He nearly freezes to death before he gets life support up and running. That said, it's not known how long the Krishna was drifting unpowered before he appeared in it, and overheating risks and the ship's active cooling system are plot points elsewhere.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: The Krishna and, later, the Black Lotus both weaponize this, with their weapons [[HiddenWeapons folding away into concealment]], so that they look unarmed at first glance. When a pirate thinks he's found some easy prey, then the Krishna suddenly deploys a compliment of heavy lasers and flak cannons. The Black Lotus takes this even further, being made to look like a standard cargo or mining vessel, before it unfolds its own compliment of powerful weapons, including a high-power railgun, while also deploying that aforementioned Krishna. One of Hiro's favorite tactics is to play at being a merchant or miner to lure pirates in, then decimate them as soon as they take the bait.

* StealthInSpace: Spaceships mainly use heat emissions to track and target each other in space battles. Hiro figures out he can use the built-in cooling systems of the ''Krishna'' and low-power settings to sneak up and ambush enemies, to great effect. [[note]]This is actually one of the few notable mechanical differences between ''Stella Online'' ''Elite Dangerous'': In Elite, Silent Running mode traps the generated heat within the ship instead of radiating it out into space, drastically '''raising''' the internal temperature. In ''Stella Online'' stealth works by cooling the ship, '''lowering''' the temperature instead.[[/note]]

* WishFulfillment: And how. Hiro is reborn on the helm of an AceCustom ship with a hold full of valuable cargo, ace piloting skills, and intrinsic knowledge of all the languages of the setting. He instantly acquires a loving harem and makes a name for himself on the galactic stage.

** The crew settles on the name ''Black Lotus'' for their {{mothership}} in volume 5. Hiro comments that it makes the ship "sound strong and expensive" in a reference to a notorious ''TabletopGame/MagicTheGathering'' GameBreaker.

* CrackDefeat: The Belbellum invasion against the Empire in Volume 1 turns into this. Originally, the Empire's forces planned to HoldTheLine at Tarmein Prime, but Hiro carries out an incredibly risky gambit of heading StraightForTheCommander and deploying a [[EncounterBait Singing Crystal]] to attract crystal life-forms, which annihilates the invading fleet.

* FateDrivesUsTogether: Even when she ''isn't'' actually stalking him, Serena and Hiro somehow keep running into one another, with Hiro being pressured into accepting mercenary work from her. He lampshades the trope and desperately hopes that this trope is ''not'' what is happening, since he finds her an AbhorrentAdmirer. But since the {{Contrived Coincidence}}s he keeps running into are a subconscious result of his own PowerIncontinence over his WindsOfDestinyChange ability, they do infact share a destiny, romantic or otherwise.

* FlashForward: The aftermath of several major battles is reviewed not in a debriefing, but in a classroom, as a history lesson, with Hiro and (then) Major Serena Holz, as the focal point, of course.

* InherentInTheSystem: {{Space Pirate}}s are a problem in need of regular maintenance. Even though pirates are regularly cleansed from entire systems and they tend to have short lives, their lives and equipment are pretty cheap in the first place, so new pirates take the place of the dead ones very quickly.

* NoPaperFuture: Paper is seen as obsolete. Everything is either digital or printed synthetic material. Paper is no longer mass produced and relatively expensive.

* OneThingLedToAnother: The majority of Hiro's sexual encounters are described this way.

* ThePurge: The Emperor has numerous corrupt officials fired and imprisoned when he discovers that one of them arranged an "accident" for his nephew and almost destroyed his great niece's life.

* CurbStompBattle: Hiro specializes in dishing these out in SpaceBattles, often against small-to-medium sized pirate craft.

* StealthInSpace: Spaceships mainly use heat emissions to track and target each other in space battles. Hiro figures out he can use the built-in cooling systems of the ''Krishna'' and low-power settings to sneak up and ambush enemies, to great effect.

* NoWomansLand: It's a universe where women are ''incredibly'' vulnerable. Prisons are not segregated by gender, and men there see women as their rightful prey - and the prison is ''safer'' than the slums, where attractive women are routinely targets for gang rape and forced prostitution. And any woman who hires on to a man's starship crew is expected to be his sexual property, in addition to whatever her regular job is.

** Mimi had an ex-boyfriend who lost all interest in her after being gifted a Maidroid, which is exactly what it sounds like: a RidiculouslyHumanRobot in the form of a {{Meido}}. She is therefore not pleased when Hiro is given a custom Maidroid of his own by a resort planet's AI after going a bit nuts designing one during downtime (without planning to actually place an order).

* HerosSlaveHarem: {{Downplayed}}. Hiro rescues Mimi from an attempted gang-rape, buys out her debts, and hires her as a trainee crew member to work them off. Mimi insists on sleeping with him that night; he's initially reluctant but she succeeds in seducing him. A similar situation plays out later with Elma, an experienced mercenary pilot who incurs massive fines in an accidental collision. It's not until way later that either girl bothers to explain to him that, by local custom, if a man hires a female crew member, she's consenting to be his doxy in addition to her other duties; they mistakenly assumed he already knew. He's a little shocked by this, but decides that what's done is done, and the fact that both girls do [[RescueRomance actively love him]] and enjoy having sex with him doesn't hurt.\\

Once aware of the custom, [[{{Reconstruction}} Hiro specifically recruits only women whom he's mutually attracted to and who have useful skills]]: he accepts the android Mei (designed according to his own sexual fantasies) onto his crew after the Cierra III resort management AI has her built for him as a marketing ploy, and tries to hire the buxom Dr. Shouko as chief medical officer, though she turns him down...initially. Later on, she does join his crew (and harem). However, he actively refuses Serena Holz and Chris Daleinwald: Chris is way too young for him (not to mention [[ParentalMarriageVeto her powerful grandfather would probably have him killed]]), and unfortunately for Serena, [[AbhorrentAdmirer he finds her personality repellent]].

* LongTitle: {{Exaggerated}} even by isekai genre standards. You think the page name is bad? The title of the original novel was translated by Seven Seas as ''When I Woke Up, I Got the Strongest Equipment and a Spaceship, So I Went and Became a Mercenary in Order to Live as I Please While Aiming for a Detached House''. Even the author thought it was a bit much in hindsight.

** Coming from a democratic society, Hiro is extremely put-off by the FeudalFuture society of the Grakkan Empire he finds himself in, and has to be educated about proper customs and warned that pissing off a noble for any reason can end up with him being stabbed by a sword, beheaded, or thrown in prison forever, as nobles are considered AboveTheLaw unless they pick fights with other nobles.

* CultureClash: The protagonist, Hiro, comes from modern Japan and has no ulterior motive for inviting Mimi and Elma into his ship as crew-members, because the two of them were on hard times and genuinely needed his help to get back on their feet. He later learns that when a woman agrees to enter a man's ship, she's implicitly signing up to be his sex-toy, for which she gets a salary based on a percentage of his income. He doesn't learn this until ''after'' both Mimi and Elma have thrown themselves at him, and he accepted their advances.

* BountyHunter: The most common way mercenaries, like Hiro, earn cash is to blow up pirates and then head to either the military or mercenary's guild and collect the bounty. Loot and data recovered from pirate vessels can also be sold in the stations.

* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted: Hiro is one of the few mercenaries who bothers to have savings, while the rest usually blow through their earnings after each job.

** It's a RunningGag that other men, especially mercenaries, are jealous of Hiro having attractive women in his crew. They're also bewildered at all the things he can afford and one goes into a HeroicBSOD upon seeing the latest model of auto-cookers on Hiro's mothership.

* BountyHunter: The most common way mercenaries, like Hiro, earn cash is to blow up pirates and then head to either the military or mercenary's guild and collect the bounty. Loot collected from pirate vessels can also be sold in the stations.

** The Belbellum invasion against the Empire becomes an outright CrackDefeat thanks to Hiro. Originally, the Empire's forces planned to HoldTheLine at Tarmein Prime, but Hiro carries out an incredibly risky gambit of heading StraightForTheCommander and deploying a [[EncounterBait Singing Crystal]] to attract crystal life-forms, which annihilates the invading fleet.

* FantasticRankSystem: From lowest to highest, the mercenary ranks are Iron, Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Less than 5% of mercenaries reach Gold (after which they're considered a OneManArmy) while only 13 have achieved Platinum, which is [[RagsToRoyalty treated as a noble title]] equal to a viscount.

** It's a RunningGag that other men, especially mercenaries, are jealous of Hiro having attractive women in his crew.

* SinsOfOurFathers: Mimi is introduced in the slums because the government of her space-station, Tereima Prime, first pinned the debt for the damage caused by the industrial accident that killed her parents on said parents, but because they're dead, the debt, so big she could not possibly pay it, was shoved onto her, ''as a child.'' The concept of not inheriting a parent's debt exists, but requires legal action within a time limit, which Mimi didn't have the expertise or assistance to deal with.

* BlackBox: The Krishna was the strongest ship of its size in the game by a significant margin, to the point that Hiro wondered if it was a mistake. When the space dwarves take a look at it, their non-destructive analysis tools can't figure a lot of it out, especially the power core that generates so much more power than a standard core of its size should.

* CultureClash: The protagonist, Hiro, comes from modern Japan and has no ulterior motive for inviting Mimi and Elma into his ship as crew-members, because the two of them were on hard times and genuinely needed his help to get back on their feet. He later learns that when a man invites a woman onto his ship, and she agrees, it means she's signing up to be his sex-toy, for which she gets a salary based on a percentage of his income. He doesn't learn this until ''after'' both Mimi and Elma have thrown themselves at him, and he accepted their advances.

** The Belbellum invasion against the Empire becomes an outright CrackDefeat thanks to Hiro. Originally, the plan was to HoldTheLine at Tarmein Prime, but Hiro carries out an incredibly risky gambit of heading StraightForTheCommander and deploying a [[EncounterBait Singing Crystal]] to attract crystal life-forms, which annihilates the invading fleet.

* AFoolAndHisNewMoneyAreSoonParted: Hiro is one of the few mercenaries who bothers to have savings, while the rest usually blow through their earnings.

** Crystal life-forms are less durable than ships, but come [[TheSwarm in swarms]] and [[SuperPersistentPredator relentlessly pursue]] any signs of life.

** The elven homeworld once had multiple sapient races. They rejected all elven attempts at diplomacy. Ultimately, the Graccan Empire discovered their world and enacted a FinalSolution on the other races. Even if it seems ruthless, the Graccan Empire is actually one of the more ''lenient'' empires to other races.

* {{Magitek}}: Psionic technology, which makes it possible for machines to interact with PsychicPowers, enabling things like detecting them and blocking them. The Graccan Empire's materialist mindset means that they have only managed to develop the basics, but the Holy Vuelzarus Empire practically specializes in the subject, deploying technology like Psionic {{Deflector Shield}}s.

* PsychicPowers: One form of power in this universe. Some races, like elves, are psychic as an entire species, while among humans, it's uncommon. Borrowing power from spirits and augmented by certain tools, traditionalist elves can use spirit arts to do things like set fires and increase the power of arrows. There are also concepts like {{Telepathy}}, and far more rarely, WindsOfDestinyChange. There are certain forms of technology that can interact with psychic powers, though the Graccan Empire only has limited development in this field.

* UnderestimatingBadassery: The Krishna and, later, the Black Lotus both weaponize this, with their weapons folding away into concealment, so that they look unarmed at first glance. When a pirate thinks he’s found some easy prey, then the Krishna suddenly deploys a compliment of heavy lasers and flak cannons. The Black Lotus takes this even further, being made to look like a standard cargo or mining vessel, before it unfolds its own compliment of powerful weapons, including a high-power railgun, while also deploying that aforementioned Krishna. One of Hiro’s favorite tactics is to play at being a merchant or miner to lure pirates in, then decimate them as soon as they take the bait.

Once aware of the custom, [[{{Reconstruction}} Hiro specifically recruits only women whom he's mutually attracted to and who have useful skills]]: he accepts the android Mei (designed according to his own sexual fantasies) onto his crew after the Cierra III resort management AI has her built for him as a marketing ploy, and tries to hire the buxom Dr. Shouko as chief medical officer (she turns him down). However, he actively refuses Serena Holz and Chris Daleinwald: Chris is way too young for him (not to mention [[ParentalMarriageVeto her powerful grandfather would probably have him killed]]), and unfortunately for Serena, [[AbhorrentAdmirer he finds her personality repellent]].

* {{Magitek}}: Psionic technology, which makes it possible for machines to interact with PsychicPowers. The Graccan Empire's materialist mindset means that they have only managed to develop the basics, but the Holy Vuelzarus Empire practically specializes in the subject.