Chapter 102: Melee Shootout

Alrighty, folks. We’re about to plunge straight into a close-range shoot-out right now. Oh, man. I wonder why a guy like me, who owns a high-end starship packing plenty of firepower ended up forced to fight goons in a melee shoot-out? Dammit! It’s all that f***ing stupid noble Balthazar and his retarded suppression ship’s fault. F**k!

『We’re about to make contact, Hiro-sama. The enemy forces are concentrated away from the hangar bay so it should be fine for the most part, but don’t let your guard down.』

“Roger that.”

Well, it’s not like the firepower the enemies are packing will be able to easily breach my power armor’s defenses anyway. My partner’s… er, my custom power armor’s concept is heavy armor and heavy firepower after all.

It’s sporting Class III military-grade armor with extremely high laser tolerance, corrosion resistance, and bullet-proofing. It can also deploy an energy shield to further improve its already impressive defense.

“I will ensure Master’s safety. Please leave everything to me.”

May declared in front of me as she snorted defiantly.

She seemed as cool and calm as usual, but there was a lively and competitive air about her. Yep. Guess she’s really raring to go huh. I understand, so please stop swinging around that power armor-use laser launcher you’re holding like a bat. That’s not how you use that thing, okay.

As for why May has got that power armor-use laser launcher, it’s because she said her new generator can handle its energy requirements with plenty of room to spare. It looks like the generator she has right now is comparable to those used by most high-end power armors. It may even have a higher output.

And so, May is able to use a laser launcher made for power armors without any problems. By the way, she has a power cable sticking out of the back of her waist attached to the laser launcher. It looks like she has a power adaptor there. I can’t really see anything of the sort when we’re in bed together though… How curious.

As I was thinking of such things, the ship lightly shook. It looks like we’ve managed to land.

『Landing successful. Well, since we took the job, we’ll have to do our best, but be sure to take care of yourselves and don’t take any unnecessary risks, okay. Don’t go overboard and get yourselves killed.』

“Aye aye, ma’am.”

『Also, avoid getting cut by the noble-exclusive sword. Dodge it at all costs. Even power armors will be easily cut in two if they take that thing head-on after all.』

“Eh?”

Now just wait a minute! This is the first time I’m hearing this though.

『Oh, and nobles often get cybernetic implants that dramatically increase their information processing capabilities, so be wary of that as well.』

“……Uh, why?”

What’s the deal with getting some information processing upgrades anyway?

『In other words, they’ll have tremendous reaction speeds and will be able to block laser shots with their swords, and even deflect them in some cases.』

“You gotta be kidding me!”

What the–? Block laser shots with a sword? Deflect them, even? Are they J*di knights or something!? There’s such a thing? Oh, man. I have to think of some countermeasures then.

『Their bodies won’t be able to keep up with those increased abilities for long though, so there’s that. Or rather, can’t you do the same? That’s why I thought you were a noble when we first met you know.』

“Huh? I can? Oh……”

Maybe she’s talking about how everything would be in slow motion when I hold my breath? I see. So in their perspective, I was firing laser shots at incredible speeds huh.

“Well, no matter how fast their reaction speeds are, there’s only one guy who has that type of sword, right? At most, they’ll have two. If that’s the case, then there’s no problem.”

As I said so, I readied the weapons I brought with me this time. For this sortie, I brought two splitter laser guns with me, which are renowned for their anti-personnel capabilities among all power armor-use weapons. These babies can fire twelve laser shots with the same power as that emitted by a laser rifle simultaneously. They’re sort of like laser shotguns. Since I got two of them, I can fire off twenty-four laser shots in one go.

Of course, the split-mode of a laser launcher packs more punch since it’s of a higher caliber, but in narrow spaces such as ship corridors, these splitter laser guns will be easier to use. So I brought two of them for maximum coverage.

“Yosh! We’re barging in! Mimi, inform the ship crew so they won’t shoot us on sight by mistake.”

『Okay! Please be careful!』

“I will handle the navigation, Master.”

“I’ll leave it to you. Let’s go!”

The hatch opened and the two of us jumped off of Krishna.

Because the firefight was happening further away from the hangar, I spurred my power armor to a sprint with heavy-sounding footsteps. Man. The sound of the footsteps may give the impression of a slow, lumbering behemoth, but I was running at speeds several times faster compared to me without the power armor on. The shock absorbers and artificial muscles equipped on the power armor’s legs were doing a great job.

Compared to my clumsy gait though, May was running gracefully in front of me in fluttering maid clothes. But she was doing so while carrying a bulky-looking laser launcher. What a surreal sight. The sight of a villainous sumo-wrestler mecha running alongside a maid carrying a laser cannon was something straight out of a crappy B movie.

“We’ll be arriving at the battle site once we pass this corridor.”

“Got it. We’re breaking through. Get behind me. I’ll put up an energy shield.”

“Understood. I will look for an opening and sweep the hostiles.”

After hearing May’s acknowledgment, we finally passed through the corridor and arrived at a hall filled with enemy soldiers wearing tight-fitting body armor on one side and maids and butlers sporting laser guns on the other. Both groups were hiding behind makeshift barricades while glaring at each other. Oh, right. The crew of this ship wore maid and butler uniforms. It was another very surreal sight.

The soldiers on the other side looked very surprised when they suddenly saw me barge in wearing an evil-looking rikishi power armor. The maids and butlers looked equally surprised though. Sorry ’bout this folks. Coming through.

“Uraaaaaaaah!”

I leaped past the barricade created by the maid and butler-sans and fired my two splitter laser guns at the enemy soldiers ahead of me. Multiple crimson laser shots bathed the barricade made by the enemy soldiers and caused small explosions.

“Damn! A power armor! Shoot! Shoot!”

“Hahaha! It’s no use idiots!”

I deployed my energy shield and tanked all the laser shots fired at me. If I continue to take concentrated laser fire, my energy shield will end up being saturated sooner or later, but I wasn’t planning to just stand there in the first place.

“May!”

“Yes.”

May appeared from behind me, held the laser launcher up, set it to convergence mode, and fired away at the enemy’s barricade.

The bombardment was several times more powerful than my two splitter guns and effortlessly destroyed the enemy’s barricades. The shots penetrated through and hit the soldiers hiding behind the barricades, blowing several of them away.

“Yahoo!”

I set my energy shield to maximum output and charged at the enemies at high speed, blowing both the makeshift barricades and soldiers behind them away with the impact. This was the special move of my sumo wrestler-type power armor『RIKISHI – mk. III』. It was the『BUCHIKAMASU』move that made use of the power armor’s overwhelming mass and armor to devastating effect.

“Ora ora ora!”

I swung away at the enemies with the power armor’s hefty arms and sent them flying, fired my splitter guns at point-blank range at some, and kicked some more underfoot. No mercy for you all! May also jumped in to join the melee.

“Haa!”

May, who looked like a delicate lady at first glance, swung around her laser launcher and blew away the macho enemy soldiers wearing tight-fitting body armor like leaves at the mercy of a raging storm. Oooh. Those are some really nasty sounds. They’re all going ‘crack crack’.

“We’re going ahead.”

“Yes.”

After thoroughly destroying the enemy barricades, we decided to leave the clean-up to the maid and butler-sans of Earl Daleinwald and went on our way. It was lucky that the enemies didn’t employ power armors. It would be nice if everything went this smoothly later too.