SOS CH 21 (Patreon)

Omid and roughly fifty crew members were poised to descend from the suspended ships. As a precautionary measure, they chose to keep the ships at an altitude of roughly two kilometers from the ground.

This was lower than the cruising altitude that they had been traveling with but they still needed the ships to be at a somewhat accessible distance from them to be able to return once things went south.

So how could they reach the ships at such an altitude?

Well… They were not coming down simply with their power armor.

Omid was once a high-ranked soldier when he was still serving the royal family back on his home planet.

He might underestimate and look down on Noah as a small powerless child with a penchant for talent in his bodily capabilities, but he would never look down or underestimate the ruins of a world.

On the contrary, he would rather overestimate it as much as possible and if he was not limited by time, he would have called down the rest of his crew members who were still in space and even some of the Forty Thieves down to this planet to excavate the ruins.

｢Unit #01, ready for jumping.｣

｢Unit #02 ready.｣

｢Unit #03 ready.｣

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｢Unit #20 ready｣

｢Very well. Unit #00, starting the deployment process.｣

In a formidable arrangement, twenty large units loomed silently in the shadows, their uniform appearance adding to their imposing presence. These were true giants of steel, each standing at over 5 meters in height. [1]

In terms of how big Mecha could become when Dark Matter was involved in the equation, they were nothing short of being dwarfs. However, they couldn't obtain such high-tech Mecha that could seemingly easily reach hundreds of meters in height or even reach the height of a planet in some very rare cases in the case of Annihilation Type Mechas. [2]

But that did not matter in this case. When it came to actually fighting on the planetary level, then mechas similar to the heights they held were considered very close to ideal type.

They were extremely standard units that were rarely used by the pirates because each of the units would end up using a great deal of resources just to operate them for a few hours at most. If the rewards obtained did not make up for the usage of resources they would be incurring a loss— something that was the bane of all pirates/

The twenty mechas were humanoid in form, with a faded green and black color scheme that allowed them to wield natural camouflage. While the humanoid form might seem useless and even unnecessary for many, this design had not been made without serious thought.

The head segment of the mecha units contained visual sensors, radar, and computerized equipment for analysis in addition to other specialized sensors which gave a wider field of view to the user than their usual vision. There was also an option for 360 view with the usage of carefully implanted image processing machines throughout the mechas.

One of the most important parts of the mecha was the arms. It came as no surprise that, unless one had special psychic powers,  limbs such as hands with thumbs gave a great amount of maneuverability.

The maneuverable arms allowed the mecha to carry hand-held weapons in addition to performing tasks requiring fine motor skills such as picking up objects or the general tasks that a humanoid hand would allow them to do.

Vibroblades or electroblades were integrated into the arms for short-range combat. While the best option would be using laser-type weapons and energy type weapon, it was sadly something outside of their means of procurement, unless, of course, they were one of the seven prime leaders among the Forty Thieves. [3]

All of the pirates in the assortment of mechas and those on foot gazed at the Mecha in front of them.

Unit #00. A black and yellow themed Mecha that was nearly three times taller than the one they were conducting.

In a way, the mecha they had could only be called something akin to a superior version of a power armor that they wielded above their body while what Omid was operating could be called a True Mecha in every sense of the word.

With a towering height of 12 meters, the 6th Generation energy core was made from a mixture of gold metal and dark matter.

The internal mechanisms of the body were covered in golden alloys and circuitry made of diluted gold for efficient conduction of dark energy. Additionally, it was equipped with a large laser spear on the back and Energy Blaster rifles all over the body. The legs featured a high-speed hover with a gravity-lowering function to improve speed and mobility.

Finally and perhaps most importantly…

A Pseudo Neuro Link connected to the user.

Bulker Night Tornad type Mecha.

Code Name: Scorched

This was the titular mecha that made Omid who he was today and why he was known as Omid of the Scorched Earth along the sea of stars. One of the most dangerous individuals in the galaxy.

Sitting in the cockpit of his Mecha with his eyes closed, Omid bathed quietly in the rising excitement of his body.

His power armor was connected to the interior and thanks to the Pseudo Neuro Link, he could command this mecha with his thoughts alone without any hindrance or delay in action.

He needed to be extremely concentrated to bring the right commands when necessary.

This whole endeavor was very dangerous. A part of him, the cautious part of him, was telling him that he should give up on the attack and run with their tail tucked between their legs.

Go back in space, give Morgiana to Cassim, sell Noah to some collections, and sell the coordinates of the planets to whatever noble family or commercial groups he could find for the maximum amount of profit he could muster from those activities.

This was the surest way of staying alive and earning some form of profit. This was the best way to avoid all problems and ensure their survival.

But… Living such a life could be so boring and unsatisfactory.

No. That was not really the crux of the matter either.

‘I want to become stronger.’

Why could Cassim reach such a high level and become the leader of the Forty Thieves?

This was undoubtedly because of the ruins he had once explored in the past. After exploring those ruins, his rise to power had been nothing short of a miracle and a legend in the eyes of many among the Forty Thieves.

Was Omid happy staying as he was? Did he truly wish to always be known as nothing more than one of the Forty Thieves? Having to flee every time a big name like Dorothy might be about to intervene? With nothing to his name, receiving orders from Cassim and always being on the edge between life and death with a ragtag group of pirates?

No!

He wanted more!

Much, much more!

He wanted to rise! He wanted to soar through the skies! He wanted to become a legend! To be known throughout the entire galaxy as one of the strongest and mightiest existences out there and feared and respected not because he was part of a group but because of who he, himself was!

He was Omid!

Omid the Djinn!

Omid of the Scorched Earth!

Today, he would write the first page of his legend in the annals of history.

｢Everyone! Time to depart! Foot soldiers, prepare your hover devices! We will observe the entire zone and find the ruins.｣

His Mecha, Scorched seemed to answer to his own excitement. The head segment shone quietly and analyzed the terrain as the images were directly transmitted to his brain through the Neural Link.

The whole world seemed to have opened to him as a large amount of information was poured into his mind. Thankfully, the layer of security from the pseudo-link protected him from being overwhelmed by too much information.

Once in the past, Full Link had been the norm for any and all soldiers. But they were quickly abolished because of how dangerous they had been and how low the number of true pilots that could survive out of operating through those mechas.

Whoosh~!

The hover blasted large quantities of heat on the earth as they all jumped one after another. This was the start of a new adventure. One that would tremendously change their entire lives.

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Meanwhile, standing in the main room of Omid’s ship alongside ten crew members who were specially chosen to keep an eye on him at all times, Noah quietly observed the mecha flying through the air and departing toward the habitable part of Alpha Centauri.

This reminded him of many memories that he had forgotten through the years of his lonesome existence. Some of which had been buried in his mind even before he was stranded on this planet.

After all, becoming a mecha pilot had not been easy for him. Even more so when it came to the models used by the 13 Constellations.

Those had been truly painful days. After all… They were not initially only thirteen in number.

“Noah?”

— Noah. Your expression.

Noah touched his face slowly. He could feel the muscles being completely tight. He must have been completely expressionless for an instant there.

‘Heheh. This won’t do. A world without laughs is a boring world after all.’

Lifting the corner of his lips with his fingers, Noah chuckled and looked at the female Cyclops alien standing beside him. He still did not remember her name even though he heard it not long ago. He clearly needed to work on his memory which disregarded any information that wasn’t absolutely essential.

“Sorry. I was so surprised by those big giants! They look awesome.”

“Those are Mecha. Though they have different names across the galaxy. Many simply call them Space Knights or Knightframe.”

“Knightframe, huh? I like it. It sounds cool.”

Noah laughed to himself.

He liked Mechas.

Even if they were usually associated with the worst and most painful memories in his life.

‘Soon. Just a little more.’

He would soon be able to pilot his own Mecha or Knightframe as the woman called them. He just needed to do a little cleanup first.

A slight golden light flashed in Noah's blue eyes as he lowered his head.

‘Are you ready?’

— Always have been.

Truly, this was going to be a memorable day for them.

———

[1]: I once discussed with a reader how useless Mecha would be in actual life. At least humanoid giant mecha. This is pretty much a consensus between many people. But well, I guess this is the magic. Sometimes one gotta held their disbelief and gotta be honest. In a world where people go faster than light, fly in wormholes, and can use Dark Matter, I am pretty sure humanoid mecha is the most realistic of the group haha.

[2]: For example for visualization. Mecha in Code Geass like the Lancelot is 4.49  meters tall while The Gurren is 4.51 meters tall. Meanwhile, in Gundam, Gundam is generally between 16 to 25 meters. In Evangelion, while no exact number is known, the EVAs were theorized to be between 40 meters to 90 meters. Though in Evangelion Rebuild ArtBook we finally got a consistent answer that settled them at 80 meters. I hope this was helpful. Had to search and compare quite a bit. Finally in Gurren Lagann…Well. Haha. They go from 1.5 meters to Far Beyond universe Size. Yeah, For those who watched Gurren Lagann, those weren’t galaxies being thrown around but the universe when Simon fought Anti-spiral. They gave the appearance of a galaxy because they didn’t know what a universe was supposed to look like.

[3]: Did you know that the term Light saber is copyrighted by Star Wars? They initially tried to copyright the concept of laser weapon or laser sword but yeah didn’t work. So the term ｢Lightsaber｣ at least was protected. Now when someone used a laser weapon weapon well… They can only call it laser sword or whatever ingenious new name they find.