The neural link was activated.

Pain lanced through his skull—a hot wire driven directly into his brain, seeking to connect human neurons to mechanical systems.

This was completely different from the virtual pod. It must be because it came from the future, and this one hadn’t been polished yet.

[ERROR]

SYNC RATE CRITICAL.

[ERROR]

PILOT VITALS UNSTABLE.

[ERROR]

RECOMMEND IMMEDIATE TERMINATION OF—

Neville closed his eyes and let go.

The transformation began in his hands. Scales began to climb from the tips to the arms, then to the chest. Slits opened behind his ears, edged with silver filigree. His hair, that he carefully dyed in a hazel-brown disguise, bled to silver from root to tip.

It was a half-transformation that maintained his human legs. It was only in this form that he could withstand the neural load.

The mecha’s warnings cut off abruptly upon transformation.

[SYNC RATE: 97.3%]

[PILOT STATUS: OPTIMAL]

[COMBAT SYSTEMS: ONLINE]

Neville opened his eyes—and saw the universe.

The neural sync was nothing like the simulation games. In Mecha Warfare Online, piloting felt like wearing a very responsive suit. You controlled the machine, gave it orders, and it obeyed.

This was... something else entirely.

The Tempest wasn’t a suit. It was an extension of his body.

Its sensors were his eyes. Its thrusters were his muscles, coiled and ready to propel him through the void. Its weapons were his claws, his teeth, ready to rend and destroy.

[Navigation locked,] Shelly reported with data flooding his eyes. [Starship vessel bearing 273 mark 15, distance approximately 4,000 kilometers and increasing. They’re trying to accelerate, but the ship itself has limited their speed. You have a small window, host.]

"Then let’s not waste it."

The Tempest launched.

Neville felt the pressure even though he was inside the mecha. A mecha might’ve been smaller than starships, but it was visibly much faster. It didn’t take long for Neville, who was operating at the fastest speed Tempest could do, to reach the rear of the Star Pirate’s starship.

As soon as they came close to it, Neville realized how huge a starship was compared to a mecha, and worse, there were three of them.

Which of these three starships had Grayson? How could he find Grayson as fast as possible?

Neville began to surround the vessel to see an opening. But the Star Pirates weren’t stupid. As soon as he came close to a certain distance, their alarms started blaring.

[Host, the star pirates detected us.] Shelly reported.

Neville was annoyed but said, "Plot me an intercept course. And calculate the structural weak points on that vessel."

No sooner than he said that, a mecha flew from the Star Pirate’s starship.

Before he could think of how to fight this unknown mecha, he heard Shelly reply, [Course plotted—weak points identified and marked on your HUD. The tractor beam emitter is located on their ventral hull—take that out and the shuttle goes free. Their weapons systems are concentrated forward, so approaching from below and behind gives you the best angle of attack.]

Neville felt his lips curve into something that wasn’t quite a smile.

[And host? Don’t get too excited. It will interfere with the efficiency.] Shelly calmly advised.

"I’ll see what I can do," he said, pushing the Tempest to maximum burn.

The mecha screamed toward the pirate vessel.

Within seconds, the enemy mecha had pivoted on its axis, bringing its forward weapon arrays to bear. Plasma bolts seared through space. The starship’s point defense systems activated, filling the void with a deadly lattice of overlapping fire.

Neville didn’t dodge so much as flow. He banked and spiraled through the gaps in the defensive fire that existed for mere fractions of a second.

[Incoming missile cluster] Shelly reported. [Recommending countermeasures.]

"No."

Neville pushed the mecha into a sharp dive, letting the missiles track his trajectory, then cut thrust entirely.

The Tempest went dark, power systems cycling down to minimal levels for a half-second. The missiles, designed to home on heat and energy signatures, lost their target and sailed past, exploding harmlessly against the backdrop of stars.

Power cycled back.

Thrust ignited.

The Tempest burst forward like a predator lunging deep.

The enemy mecha tried to turn, to bring more weapons to bear, but Neville was already on them. His approach had taken him below their plane of orientation, exactly where Shelly had calculated their defensive coverage to be weakest.

The Tempest’s arm came up. It was an integrated light pulse gun burst that carved through armor plating and internal circuitry.

One enemy mecha died.

Of course, the star pirates were not going to take this lying down.

Other enemy mechas began to fire, spinning around the starship—secondary weapon systems deployed from hidden housings.

[Multiple target locks detected.] Shelly announced.

"Fire."

The Tempest’s shoulder-mounted missile systems activated. It wasn’t the standard triple-shot projectile lasers that came as factory equipment.

He fired everything.

The missiles screamed outward in a swarm, splitting and diverging to approach the pirate vessel from multiple angles. Point defense turrets swiveled to track them, picking off some, but not all.

Explosions blossomed across the Star Pirate’s starship. It wasn’t destroyed, but it was badly wounded.

Let them come, Neville thought grimly. Let them collect what’s left.

He turned the Tempest around, searching for an entry point while firing away at the persistent enemy mechas.

Then he saw a particular cracked window.

Through the mecha’s enhanced sensors, Neville could see the live view of the window. He could see an imposing figure looking his way.

Even from this distance, even through layers of metal and glass and space, he could still recognize that figure.

It was Grayson.

Neville felt something in his chest flutter. He instantly became excited.

[Host, there were still enemies around.]

Neville unhesitatingly fired at those mechas and flew towards Grayson. As soon as he came over, Grayson’s body dropped in a free fall. He panicked and hurriedly stabbed the broken glass to push the Tempest’s hand inside.

He was just in time.

Neville opened the Tempest’s cockpit and gently placed Grayson inside using the mecha’s hands.