The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1021

Quickly after the darkness fell, their underlayer vacsuits automatically enveloped their bodies in a thin fabric substance that protected them against the event of explosive decompression. It even came with a small emergency supply of oxygen, but it wouldn’t last that long.

Ves felt he entered a very precarious situation right now!

The guards escorting Lord Javier stopped standing at the sides and approached their charge. Their heavy combat armor lit up the surroundings that had turned completely dark and silent.

"You’re coming with us, Javier."

The noble shrugged apologetically to Ves. "I guess my babysitters won’t allow us to remain together. Stay safe, Ves. You’re okay for a Brighter."

Four guards surrounded the Vesian noble and marched him off to else, leaving Ves alone in the dining room. The magboots built into their combat armor kept them stuck to the deck despite the lack of gravity.

However, they barely reached the exit hatch before a barrage of ballistic projectiles impacted against the heads of the two guards at the front!

The loud impacts and torrent of firepower bounced off their helmets for a second before penetrating and killing the two guards!

"Hostiles!"

The remaining two guards hauled Javier away and aside from the open hatch so they wouldn’t remain in the line of fire of whoever was in the corridor.

As soon as the shooting started, Ves cursed and held on to the table. Without any functioning artificial gravity, he would have to be careful with his movements as he risked throwing himself in an uncontrolled tumble in the air if he pushed himself off the deck!

In a condition of zero-g, Newton’s laws of motion reigned supreme!

As a mech designer well-versed in mechanics, Ves knew that the last thing he should do was to move as if gravity still exerted a downwards force on him! Even walking was impossible under these circumstances!

"Goddamn cheap vacsuit! Why doesn’t it come with antigrav modules or magboots?!"

Ves found it ironic that the Tovars splurged on so many luxuries and premium materials when they commissioned the Felicitous Remembrance, but they completely neglected the need to invest in better vacsuits!

"Even if vacsuits aren’t as glamorous as fancy chandeliers and sturdy tables, they could have at least spared some attention to their quality!"

He had the impression that some Tovar family member or even Senator Tovar himself picked and chose the features of the Remembrance from an interactive catalog. Such a method of determining the attributes of a new ship was a popular service at many commercial shipyards, but among the millions of decisions a customer could make, they would only specify a couple of hundred choices before they called it a day!

For some reason, the standard underlayer vacsuits provided to every passenger and crew on the ship were basic quality junk that Ves could find on any cheap cargo hauler.

"Senator Tovar and his ilk probably make use of their own vacuum-sealed outfits." Ves surmised. It would explain the discrepancy. "I have to get a better suit before all the air gets sucked out!"

In the meantime, the two remaining guards huddled behind a counter, which bounced off the powerful ballistic rounds as if they consisted of mech armor!

"At least the cover on this ship is good!"

He quickly noticed a very big problem for the guards as they tried to resist the unknown assailants. The dining room had been built into an expansive space designed to impress the guests. While Ves admitted that it did indeed fulfill that role, it came at the expense of defenses!

The alternate explanation was that the dining room did in fact offer some formidable defensive installations, but the lack of power prevented them from deploying!

"What a stupidly vain design!" He cursed.

In fact, the Felicitous Remembrance shouldn’t have lost power so suddenly and so completely. Even if pirates jumped right on top of them, it would have taken them a lot of effort to shut down all the different backups and reserves spread across the ship.

At the very least, the backup power sources should have kicked in by now, providing much-needed air circulation and gravity to the impotent ship!

The sudden attack and swiftness and thoroughness of the Remembrance’s power affliction caused Ves to develop an awful suspicion.

The only way the Felicitous Remembrance lost power so suddenly and so completely was if their enemy sabotaged her from the start!

"Who the hell is in a position to sabotage a ship of the Tovar Family?!"

A creeping possibility came up to Ves. Could it be... another member of the Tovar Family? Someone who disagreed with Camden Tovar’s intentions for peace?

"Is this what Javier meant that a lot of people would be opposed to stopping the war?"

If this attack involved someone powerful within Senator Tovar’s own family, then the threat the Tovar Peace Delegation faced would be absolutely dire! How much information did the insider pass on and how many tricks did they pull off to render the Felicitous Remembrance impotent?

"This is too awful!"

Another question was how could the Remembrance be boarded so quickly and without warning? Could stealth shuttles have snuck up to the ship as soon as the fleet transitioned into this star system? It would be the only explanation that fit concerning the timing of the various attacks and setbacks.

Ves came to the conclusion that whoever they faced, they planned their assault meticulously. What he just witnessed might just be the tip of the iceberg.

Right now, the firefight happening close to the hatch of the dining room progressed rapidly. Unknown figures garbed in what looked like barbaric pirate armor poured into the dining room with military precision and began to fan out around the bar counter where Lord Javier and his two guards huddled behind.

They threw various grenades over the counter, but some laser interception system mounted on the shoulders of the guards zapped them out of the air before they could get anywhere near.