The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1734

Chapter 1734 Simultaneous Action

The bridge of a starship functioned as the primary control nexus of a starship. The captain held supreme authority over the vessel by virtue of his position and extensive experience.

Not even Lady Aisling Curver had the right to override the commands of the captain!

This was because the captain worked for the Coalition Reserve Force!

The captain appeared to be a middle-aged looking man with greying hair and steady eyes. He seemed to have spent all of his time on ships due to his pale skin that bordered on unhealthy.

None of the other bridge crew looked as remarkable.

Ves, still invisible and undetectable, distanced himself from Aisling's blond assistant. Though he retracted the field of his stealth augment in a very small radius, he didn't want to risk enveloping her in its range.

That would have given him away!

He swept his gaze through the rest of the bridge.

Frigate ship classes weren't as cramped as corvette ship classes. The Scarlet Rose was also a lot larger and more complex, so the bridge had to be large enough to accommodate at least six bridge officers and operators at minimum and double this figure at maximum!

Right now, the bridge only housed ten people: one captain, six crew, one assistant and two armored guards.

The latter concerned Ves the most. Both of them wore heavy combat armor that turned them into tall, metal beasts.

Ves did not dare to underestimate them. Unlike the infantry armor in places like the Bright Republic, the guards wore very resilient second-class combat armor!

These suits of armor not only protected their wearer from damage, but incorporated a huge amount of functions! They were like mechs in miniature form in that regard!

Due to their extreme threat, Ves had to take them out first!

Fortunately, Ves already expected their presence. Despite their intimidating gear, he just regarded them as obstacles to overcome.

His primary target remained the captain. Taking him would deprive the Scarlet Rose of a crucial leader during a crisis!

He quietly materialized the Amastendira. After spending so many days in peace, his Supreme-quality laser pistol felt a bit unfamiliar in his grip.

Each time he took the Amastendira from his Inventory, he marveled at its craftsmanship.

Now that he had built a masterwork mech, Ves possessed a much greater sensitivity towards masterwork objects.

He could tell that the Amastendira had touched this realm as well!

Too bad it was just a copy. Ves often dreamt of the true Amastendira. The original version should have been an awe-inspiring piece of gunsmithing!

Oh well. The System-generated copy he owned still exhibited most of the power of the original.

He adjusted the settings of his weapon before holding it firmly in a two-handed grip.

If he wanted to forestall any unpleasant surprises, then he had to kill each and every person on the bridge within a second!

Ves had two ways to accomplish this goal.

First, he could fire a wide-angle scatter blast, diffusing the energy of his weapon over a large area!

Second, he could employ a powerful penetrating cutting beam and rake the muzzle of his weapon from one end to the other end of the compartment!

When Ves formed his plan, he was torn over which option he should choose.

The first one would definitely kill the captain and every other unarmored crew member in an instant!

However, depending on the energy and heat resistance of the terminals and control panels, Ves might render every interface useless, which would pose significant hindrances to his attempts to take over the ship!

The second option would certainly be deadly enough to cut through the armor of guards, but the brief amount of time needed to sweep over the rest of the crew might give them some time to activate some defense functions!

In addition, while the cutting beam wouldn't demolish the entire bridge at once, it would probably cut through a lot of delicate systems beneath the surface!

Between the two choices, Ves eventually settled on the first one.

He wanted his attack to encompass as many people as possible! In addition, so what if the scatter blast melted all of the surface equipment? As long as the internal electronic systems remained intact, he could easily tap in to them with some replacement interfaces!

Therefore, Ves crept up to a good position right in front of the hatch he just passed through.

At this position, the angle of his attack would definitely encompass the bridge crew sitting at the periphery!

He raised his pistol and waited for the appropriate time.

In the meantime, he listened to the dialogue between the assistant and the captain.

"Captain, please lock down the ship. Mr. Larkinson is on the loose."

"We are trying, but half of our signals aren't getting through." The captain gritted his teeth as he continually manipulated his projected interface. "There is something wrong with the primary and secondary command networks! According to the diagnostics, many systems aren't responding!"

The assistant looked alarmed. "What?! How?"

"Sabotage!"

As the two exchanged their worries, the bridge suddenly shook a bit!

At the security department, a couple of off-duty guards approached the armory in order to don their combat gear.

The monitoring system detected both the comm calling for help and the active jamming field heading for the escape pods. This immediately alerted the guards, prompting them to prepare for action!

As soon as the armored hatch slid open, the interior of the armory became exposed.

At this time, all kinds of equipment suddenly exploded! Their abrupt and simultaneous blasts damaged many other equipment such as grenades and explosive rounds, causing a portion of them to detonate almost instantly!

The entire armory became awash with fury! Not only that, but due to the opened hatch, the high energy explosions also poured into the main security compartment, causing many armored and unarmored guards to be swept up by a wave of white-hot heat and energy!

Back to the bridge, some of the consoles blared in alarm!

"Report!"

"Sir, an explosion occurred within the armory of the security department! Preliminary analysis suggests that every energy cell and every explosive ordnance has blown up! We have lost contact with over half of our security officers!"

Shortly after this, bad news came from another direction!