NOVEL NEXT Power Armour Was The Imposter
His chaingun revved up again and I threw myself down on the ground once more, the bullets from his weapon once again tearing through the space I had been occupying just moments ago.
Crap, crap, crap… How the hell am I supposed to deal with this guy?!
I only have a rifle and a blaster for crying out loud! Neither of these could pierce through that armour even if I was shooting him at point blank range!!
And since my ship was docked outside the freighter, it’s not like I can lure him to it and use my ship’s guns to obliterate him!!
Wait… Outside…
This is a loading bay, which means that there must be a way for these containers to be loaded in here in the first place…
That’s it! There must be a loading bay door that leads to the outside! I can vent him out into space if I could open those doors and disable the atmospheric shield that would protect things in here from being sucked outside!
I could use my Codex to obtain wireless control over the console panel and activate the doors after getting to a safe location!
But… Amber’s still outside and if I do that, she would most likely be caught up in that as well…
Argh!! Think, think, think!!
My eyes landed on the corpse of the gang member that I had killed with the pencil and an idea slowly formed in my head.
Under the hail of bullets, I crawled over to the body and slowly dragged it towards the shattered window, waiting for him to stop shooting.
I wondered if he would actually be a retard and empty all his bullets while I was hiding behind my cover. This would make my plan useless but it would certainly make it easier for me to deal with him.
As I had expected, the bullets stopped firing but I could still hear the whirl of the chaingun spinning and I had an idea what he was trying to do.
I hefted the corpse of the gang member up so that the top half of his body appeared over the console.
Predictably, another hail of bullets were fired from the gun and literally tore the poor guy’s body to pieces.
I didn’t try to keep the body upright and simply let the corpse crash down on the ground next to me while I covered my head protectively.
A laugh came from the guy in the power armour, “Hahaha! Looks like even your friend couldn’t save you Amber! Didn’t think you would meet your end here, did you?”
Amber spat back in response, “And how sad that a former Merc like you ended up being in such a pathetic state. Your crew is dead, your ship is blown up and you’re stuck in this disabled freighter with nowhere else to go.”
“Oh, that’s where you’re wrong you bitch. Didn’t you just give me the perfect escape pod? Your little ship that’s docked with the freighter! In fact, I could also claim your little friend’s ship too! You coming here actually made my situation even better!”
“Fuck you… You’re a disgrace to us Mercs. And to think you were a Gold rank too.”
Ah… That guy in the power armour must be that Voidshade guy… Guess after he escaped to the freighter, he put on that power armour and used it to ambush Amber.
Also, while they were busy talking, I had already linked the console to my Codex and I had full control over the entire room using my Codex.
Now I just need to be able to get Amber out of here before opening the loading bay doors.
I was actually half hoping that he might get out of the power armour now that he thought I was dead but either he did not want to or he was afraid of facing Amber without it since he started stomping his way towards her.
“How does it feel, Amber? Some hotshot Merc you are who got done in by me of all people! You know what? I’m not going to kill you, how about you join me instead? I’ll even let you keep your ship! Of course I’ll be the captain of it and you can spend your days kneeling by my feet as my pet!”
“Hmpn… Can’t get a girl of your own without using force? I should have known you were that pathetic.”
“Oh now you’ve done it, you think I’m going to just kill you? No, no, no… I am going to thoroughly enjoy using your body before I take you away with me as my slave. I think that would be a more fitting end for you, don’t you think?”
I already managed to make my way back to the door while they were talking, keeping out of sight by moving from cover to cover.
Peeking around the corner, I found Amber still seated with her back against the container, the blonde haired Merc looking quite resigned despite the words she was spouting.
“Oh please… I wouldn’t want you to humiliate yourself further. Bet that you can’t even last three seconds with me given how inexperienced you are.”
Voidshade growled, “I will break you, you bitch.”
“Hahaha… Says the guy needing a power armour of all things to fight a weak little Merc like me.”
“Say what you will, but it still doesn’t change your situation. I’m going to--”
I tapped on my Codex right as he reached the same place that the container fell on him, activating the crane once more to detach the claw on the crane.
There was a soft hiss before the claw dropped down towards the ground, smashing onto the destroyed container and bouncing towards that bastard.
I took that opportunity to dash out of cover and ran towards Amber, spotting Voidshade throwing his arms up in surprise as the claw rolled on top of him.
Unfortunately, the claw did not crush him and he managed to catch onto the claw with both hands, though that also meant he needed to drop the minigun he was holding.
Amber was clearly surprised to see me as her eyes widened when I reached her.
“Te… Tera?”
“No time to explain, let’s get out of here!”
I picked her up in a princess carry and started running back to the exit, risking a look over my shoulder to see Voidshade shoving the claw aside to turn his head towards me.
Even though I couldn’t see his face since it was hidden behind his helmet, I could tell that he was definitely pissed.
He started moving towards his dropped minigun and I realised I didn’t have time to reach the door before he would reach his gun and fire at us.
I changed my direction quickly and went towards the walkway in between the door and Voidshade, hiding both Amber and myself behind the metal railing of the walkway.
Amber looked like she wanted to say something but I was already tapping on my Codex frantically to open the loading bay doors.
There was a loud hiss followed by a metallic groan as a giant part of the wall on my right started to slide open.
Amber must have realised what I wanted to do since she grabbed onto the railing while her other hand held on to me.
I tapped on the button to disable the atmospheric shield and just managed to move my hands to hug the railing as the air started being sucked out through the still opening doors.
Things started flying past us as a torrent of air was being vented out into space, blowing up a storm within the loading bay.
I fought to keep myself anchored but I found the lower half of my body slowly lifting up towards the air.
Amber was not in a better position either as she too started to lift into the air, using only one hand to hold on to our lifeline.
Voidshade was also sliding towards the open doors but it was a slow process, which told me he most likely had some kind of magnetic boots on it or something.
The good thing was that his minigun had been sucked out before he could grab it so he had no way of shooting at us at the moment.
That was when Amber let out a groan and I noticed that she was bleeding from her side.
The pain from the wound must be causing her to loosen her grip on the railing and I quickly grabbed her arm with my right hand just before she lost her grip on the railing.
I almost lost my own grip as well when I jerked her back from flying off into space, gritting my teeth as I held on for dear life.
I turned to look at Voidshade who was desperately trying to find something to hold on to to prevent himself from flying out.
Too bad he had nothing and his fate was inevitable
Then a loud crash came from in front of him and one of the containers flipped and smashed into him, causing his power armour to lose its grip on the deck and sending him flying off out the door.
Ok… Objective achieved… Now how the hell do I reach for my Codex to stop this?
Err… Err… Voice commands?
“Codex! Turn on the atmospheric shielding!!”
Nothing happened.
Fuuuuck! Why isn’t there a voice function on this thing?!
I could even see the button needed to tap on the screen to turn it on right there!!
Fuck fuck fuck!! Can I use something else to tap the button?! Fuck it, let’s do this!
I gritted my teeth and pulled Amber closer to me until my wrist was close to my face.
I then stuck out my tongue and used it to touch the button on the screen.
Almost immediately, the gale stopped and both Amber and I fell on the ground.
Ok… Ok…
We’re alive…
Fuck yeah.