12 .

Jack had gotten used to the twists and turns that silver had him do within the armour. He had felt his head buzz when she had done those fast actions. He had gotten used to it soon enough.

They were easy enough when he didn't have to see those movements. Great stuff.

He could feel the impacts whenever an enemy was smacked around. No hit had managed to get to him. That's how he knew. He just wasn't aware how bad silver had kicked literal ass.

He could hear the clinking of the metal shells from rifles. He could hear the buzzing lasers as they burnt the purified oxygen within the cabin. Sound filtration systems saved his ears from the noise of the bullets as they left the muzzles.

He could hear all her messages as she read out the functional stats from the armour. She would report any change to him. He had a sarcastic remark to that, she was an automation.

Special she might be but the humour was wasted on her. One thing she would not understand. At least not for now.

[Elevated power consumption…]

[Cooling systems on cool-down…]

'Cooler on cool-down?' that was about the craziest thing he had ever heard. His brow rose. It was supposed to be a rather awesome expression, except that his hollow eye sockets made it horrifying.

[Core heating at 32%...]

She made a sudden jerk. He had gotten used to those, he could feel her rhythm as she bounced around the cabin, this movement though. Caught him completely off guard.

This was all crazy, that was until he realized that he was the one who had pulled the reins on that movement.

She jumped back. The move should have forced him to tumble forward. The armor was tight enough to hold onto him. It burned off the motion.

The armor outstretched both hands to regain balance. Jack knew something had gone wrong.

'The core hasn't overheated yet, power consumption is not high enough to force a shutdown, the cooling system can be on or off depending on the event without causing issues to the workings of the armor… what is it now?'

He was about to start a new train of thought when something clicked in his head. Why not just ask her.

'Am I getting stupider or something?' he wondered.

"Silver, is there an issue with your system?"

[Negative…]

And then they both went airborne. The tightly fitted armor hugged him, it prevented his head from crashing onto the inner surface of the helmet.

It spun, landed, rolled then stopped. One knee on the ground.

Something strong had managed to hit them.

His heart thrummed. The weapon used must have been extraordinary.

"What was that?" he asked.

[Enemy attack…]

'Ugh… why did I even ask?' he facepalmed

Thud!

The metallic hand noisily thumped against the helmet.

"…"

He took a deep breath.

"Any countermeasures?"

[Combat reference updating…]

'The best I could ever get… and also, we are fucked '

He felt a slight pain in his rib area. His hand reached out to it.

Chink!

A low metallic sound was fed back into the system, then to his helmet.

'Something penetrated…'

He had to take this more seriously.

'I'm blind...' he cursed. He hated the state he was in.

"Silver?"

[State of injury confirmed, pain suppressant available]

[Injection to the system]

"Wait..."

His words fell on deaf mechanical ears. How unfortunate...

"Argh"

Now he understood why autonomous armors were dangerous.

This thing never awaited instructions when in an emergency, or was this silver's special trait?.

'It is a good call though…' the pain slowly receded as the needle or whatever that was, got slowly pulled out of his back.

He gasped. He felt the numbness creep in.

'Pretty effective too…'

The armor suddenly rolled forward.

Boom!

A loud explosion followed soon after. The force from the explosion threw it off balance. These enemies were certainly no ordinary pirates.

The entire squad had been neutralized. Maybe only a few stubborn brats remained. They had been utterly unable to suppress him at all.

The current enemies, however, were much stronger. They had been tossing him and the armor all around the cabin. If silver was not that quick to react to those sudden attacks, he would be dead. Again...

"How many?"

[Three confirmed attackers]

She answered right back. Jack was too busy to notice that oddity.

What sort of weapons were they using? He was getting tossed around too much for comfort.

'They haven't made contact yet…' if their midrange weapons were that dangerous, then what would close combat look like.

He didn't have to wonder for long though.

Scree!!

The armor bent forward, sword held tightly in her hand. She had picked it up during her furious rolls.

Something swung past them, she spun on her toes, opening the distance from whoever had decided to get a closer observation of her beautiful masculine body.

It was then that he realized the attackers had decided to indulge him.

His arm moved upwards. Silver had decided to block something.

Clang! Boom!

Thick vibrations followed right after. They both flew off.

Swoosh! Bang!

The thinly armored shuttle wall bent inwards, it wasn't meant to react that way. The armor dropped onto the floor.

'Ugh…' Jack spat a mouthful of blood within the armor. The telemetry being read out worsened his ringing ears.

His head ached a bit. Good thing he wasn't controlling it.

One knee remained on the floor as the other bent at a ninety-degree angle. This was the calm position, readiness for the offence.

It then took a labored while before it stood and sprinted. His right arm powerfully swung the sword.

A delicate dance followed soon after. The armor bent in all manner of ways. Fighting three dangerous foes all at once was taxing. Jack mirrored its movements from within.

He would kick serious ass if he ever got his eyes back, or if he managed to adapt into his blindness.

Weapon clashes grated his protected ears. The impacts rocked him whenever the attackers made contact. He wondered just how strong their armors could get to throw him around like that.

Three steps back then a backflip. The tension decreased by just a little bit. They had managed to create some distance.

A loud weapon discharge had him sprint in a particular direction, stepped on the wall or something sturdy, then went airborne again.

'That's a bad idea, these weapons can puncture the armor there's no room for precise movement in the air… I need my eyes! '

Jack had the impulse to join in on the fight, his state, however, slapped him right in the face once more.

He could only gnash his teeth.

Bang!

The flight was cut short. They fell back to the ground.

Touch down. A kick dutifully awaited.

They had landed in an odd position. There was no room for evasion.

They took it like champs.

Smack!

Their armored feet screeched through the floor as they slid back. They didn't leave the floor. Thankfully...

'This won't do…' Jack thought

'We have to bail…'

Silver sprinted forward again. Giving the enemy more time to seamlessly adopt a better stance after an attack would be deadly.

A full swing had them make a full three-sixty degree spin. The attack went wide.

They left the ground, a half frontal flip and shoulder rolled on the ground. An attack missed, Jack presumed.

Stable on their feet. They both turned in a particular direction.

[There has been an alteration to plan c]

Jack froze. A weasel had gotten through. That was his only way out.

'Not totally unexpected…'

"Deploy secondary countermeasures. I hope it will last longer till we get finished here". He spoke back.

[Acknowledged…]

A moment of silence preceded the tense battlefield, or room.

Rumble!

The shuttle quaked. The contingency had come into play.

"Status".

[Unconfirmed. Scanner interruption]

'Well, shit… '

'I'll have to think of something else. Meanwhile…'

*******

Three attackers stood in a triangular formation. Their armored suits betrayed their feminine gender. The huge or somewhat moderate bust, slender body and all.

Right, left, front center. The one the right had a gun, specifically a pistol. It had revolving chambers that enabled firing of several shots without reloading. It had a rather peculiar design, a dark golden coat, classic and had no platform to insert an energy cell.

Most up to age standard rifles had a place to insert energy cells, this was because modern guns had severe railgun tendencies. The energy cells were an integral part in the weapons.

This made her choice of weapon very peculiar. even though pistols with charge cells were weak in projectile force, that was only in comparison with a rifle. Besides, laser guns were more popular in space.

It was worth mentioning that no human in existence used such weapons, it was a surprise that such a classic was still metallic and not ground dust...

"Not totally useless. I didn't know he had such spirit in him..."

The lady on the left had mundane warrior weapons. A great sword and a shield, these weapons were still in use, but not very common in infantry fights. Pirates did use them most though as energy supply could not be maintained for a long while if they went on a wild hunt.

She kicked the slumped form lying by her feet.

"Told you not to be too quick to judge. It is wondrous how they managed to meet him, that's all in comparison with how wide space actually is".

"Don't laugh at their misfortune, today it was them, we cannot be sure if that ends up to be us tomorrow" The one at the center was last to speak. She had two short swords strapped to her thighs, her hands held no weapons.

They slowly approached the downed armor. There was no caution in walk, there was no casualness to it either.

"Don't you find it a bit peculiar that he never used the shield, not even once?" The woman on the left added, they had no pause.

"Not sure, but it wouldn't have helped him much anyway". A response from the right.

"Now what?"

"What's with the questions, I've worked with you for a while, but never in all that time have you asked so many question within one scenario" it appeared left's questions were getting to center's nerves.

"Just curious, we did stay back and watch as he flattened heads in the entire confrontation".

"Would you have rather fought him in their stead? I don't remember you being this proactive".

"Maybe she got triggered, nothing to turn a big girl angry, than watching small girls get bullied and pummeled by a big bad man right before her eyes" right jested. She had no idea why left become so inquisitive all of a sudden.

"No, that's not it, I'm just asking why we let him kill off the others and only intervened when the captain engaged him"

"You know? I was wondering about the same thing..." A male voice interrupted their chatter.

The dark as night armor stood from the floor once again.

*******

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