The Mech Touch

is light combat suit, which magnetically held it in place.

 

“It's locked.”

 

“Oh, let me program you in.” Ves replied and took back the Amastendira long enough to add Melkor's biometrics to its security systems.

 

Not anyone would be able to take off with his valuable possession.
The Amastendira had a nasty surprise in store if an enemy attempted to pick it up.
Supposedly, the weapon was smart enough to distinguish between allies and enemies, though Ves had no clue how the automated systems inside the weapon accomplished such a feat.

 

Once Ves added Melkor as an authorized user of the gun, he carefully handed it over.

 

Melkor treated the weapon like a lover and a piece of art.
The way he deftly navigated the weapon's projected display and rapidly skirted over its specs made it clear that he was no slouch with infantry weapons.

 

“This weapon is crazy.
This is the kind of toy a noble of the New Rubarth Empire would wield!”

 

“I know.
It's actually a replica of some sorts.
Compared to the original, this copy still falls a little short.”

 

“A little short? Hah! I can carve my way through an entire pirate ship with this gun!”

 

Ves frowned as Melkor visibly grew more excited about the Amastendira.
It was as if Melkor seduced his wife!

 

“Hey, try not to fondle it too much! This is still my gun.
I'll lend it to you whenever we're together, but make sure to give it back to me when we're out of danger.”

 

“Oh, uhm, sure.”

 

After walking down a lot of flights of stairs, the group of motley Whalers arrived at the deck that led to engineering.
Fadah, who took the lead, slowed down.

 

“We're lucky we haven't met the Vesians yet, but it's highly likely the Vesians are on this deck.
Let's crawl forward and take it slow.”

 

Ves immediately interjected.
“We can't afford to take it slow.
The Vesians have control over engineering and who knows what they're up to.
Once they decide to destroy the FTL drive, we have no way of returning home unless we abandon ship.
We have to move faster!”

 

“Look I respect you, but you're a nerd.
I'm the one in charge around here.” Fadah pushed back.
“I'm not about to waste the lives of my men by moving too fast.
We need to scout them out first and figure out if they've split up.”

 

All of it sounded too conservative.
Ves did not know where Fadah's characteristic daring had gone to.
The man acted like a daredevil in the cockpit.
Without the comfort of his mech, the older Whaler turned into a timid mouse.

 

“Fine.
I'll do it myself.” Ves turned to Melkor and opened a private communication channel with his suit.
“Remember the time when we got ambushed in the streets of Bentheim?”

 

“Yes.
You pulled off something remarkable with your comm.
Can you do it again?”

 

“I can stealth us, yes.
It will last shorter than last time, though.
Do you think you can make use of five minutes worth of complete stealth?”

 

His cousin considered the matter for a few seconds.
“It will be tough.
We can make it to engineering from here in that time, but we won't have enough time to scope out the enemy.
We'll have to go into action immediately.”

 

“Time is of the essence.
I'm really worried at what the Vesians are cooking up in engineering.
The Happy Jelly's FTL drive can't take any abuse.”

 

They decided to move out immediately.
Ves spent a couple of seconds to inform Fadah of their intentions before he engaged his stealth augment.
Ves and Melkor's armored suits turned invisible before Fadah could let out a word of protest.

 

“Damn these Larkinsons and their toys!”

 

Despite their hasty movements, the stealth augment muffled all of their sounds and vibrations.
If any pirates had been in the way, they would have been completely oblivious about the presence that ran past their bodies.

 

They reached the hatch that led to engineering with roughly a minute to spare.
The only problem was that the boarders had locked it shut.

 

“Damnit!” Ves cursed.
“I should have figured the Vesians barricaded this compartment! This is one of the best-protected portion of the ship.
There's no way I can circumvent this barrier in a couple of minutes.
A plasma cutter will take at least half a day to get through the hatch.”

 

Melkor suddenly pulled Ves away from the hatch.
“Stand back.
Let me take care of hatch.”

 

“What are you doing?! Don't shoot it at high power inside a ship!”

 

Sadly, his cousin didn't listen to him.
Melkor dialed the power setting a couple of notches away from maximum power and fired a bright golden beam that burned a hole straight through the hatch and continued on to damage anything placed behind.

 

The pistol continued to emit a beam, and Melkor quickly aimed the weapon in the rough shape of a box before the weapon ran out of steam.

 

“Huh.
I underestimated its power.
This is a really fine weapon.” Melkor praised the Amastendira before he kicked down the cutout he made from the hatch.

 

As the alloy block fell down, a number of menacing black exoskeleton suits trained their weapon on the entrance.

 

“There's only forty seconds left on my stealth augment! It's running out of power!”

 

“There's nothing to it, then.
Follow me when I move in.”

 

Even though Melkor just fired a massively overpowered pistol, the stealth field still worked as usual.
One of the best aspects about the Amastendira was that it shunted almost all of its excess heat into its dimensional heatsink.
It only worked up to a certain point, but it was more than capable of absorbing the heat of a single high-powered beam.

 

“Alright, let's go!”

 

Ves and Melkor sneaked through the hole as the exoskeleton-suited assailants puzzled over whether someone would still show up.
Neither their visuals nor their other sensors revealed the source of the intimidating laser cannon that had cut through the hatch.

 

They had no idea what kind of danger slipped inside engineering.