Melee Shootout

Alrighty, folks. We're about to plunge straight into a close-range shootout right now. Oh, man. I wonder why a guy like me, who owns a highend 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.