Before they left the apartment "Before we go if there are any things you think we should bring take me to them quickly." They took the personal computers witch weren't that big and two lockers, he didn't realize he would get an inventory of the contents witch was surprising. They would all have to talk soon.
Having his mother put him down he went to the battlesuit removed one of the bead guns and placed it in his storage.
They put their helmets on after Royce put the battlesuit back in his storage and held his arms up to his father "Put me on your back." Using his ability he had the pieces of armor on his chest and his father's back form a type of retractable cleat. Once out the door they headed straight for the elevator. To communicate they were using a private com link setup in their suits.
"How do you know they'll come?" his father asked while walking.
"The people that are trying to kill you or the people I sent a message to?" Royce replied.
"Ok. Both." Michael laughed.
"If the people that tried to kill you don't want to know how you survived a hole in your chest they'll probably want to put another one there at least. I'd guess they found a way to legally get the ship designs after you're dead." Royce said and then thought to himself 'if it's a paid assassin they'll want to finish the job as soon as possible.'
"And the message?" his father really wanted to know if someone from his previous life would be able to recognize him.
"Because the one that sent the message is like a brother even though I built him, wrote his code, made him the first member in my crew, He helped me design his siblings they became the rest of my crew, and we built their first bodies together. Also because I'm what we were after when I died, we were hoping for different results but I'll take what I can get." Since he was riding on his father's back he was able to watch his sensors and as they boarded the elevator about his parents know. "The elevator coming down has weapons in it" But their elevator had already started going up. "Mom does that tablet have any important meaning or is it just for work?"
"Well it's really expensive equipment and it's.... Yeah it's just for work." She finished and handed it over to him.
He used his ability and split it into two equal halves and then added them to his parents suits focusing on enhancing sensors and adding a HUD.
"That's going to make things easier." His father said as soon as he finished.
"The suit can do everything my tablet could now." His mother sounded excited.
'Almost out of MP I guess I should do something about that.' So he took 50 stat points and added them to Magic. Not seeing a cap pop up in his notifications and a hundred more MP available. He hoped this was enough to do what he had in mind.
When the elevator doors opened there was nobody in sight The shuttle garage was big enough for 14 small crew vessels or close to 23 smaller personal spacecraft. At the moment the only entrance was being blocked by a smaller ship with large flashy wings that reached up close to the top of the entrance way so there was no flying around it.
"Mom get our shuttle and park it nose to nose with that one Dad get us over there." expecting his father to start walking forward he instead shook his head.
"Nope I'm the pilot your mother can't fly worth a damn." His father laughed.
"Michael!" his mother said as his father handed him off to her He made the same manipulation in her suit and set right onto her back. His father took off at a jog his mother started walking towards the fancy ship blocking their exit.
Once they got close he could tell it was only a step up from what his father was going to grab. Fancy vessels like this probably went to a larger one in orbit or no farther than the next planet in the system.
"Can you bring me close enough to touch it." He asked his mother. since it wasn't his vessel he couldn't just hop in and see what the options were so he attempted to use his ability to try and steal specific items. With a little concentration He was able to go through a complete inventory of what was in the small ship. It was too perfect He found the item he wanted and removed it The tracking device that would allow the owner to follow them at that point his father landed a similar sized ship centimeters away from the nose of the other.
Reaching out and touching the nose of both vessels Royce formed an image in his mind of what he wanted to complete a whole list of details for weapons extra space how big the vessel would end up being upgrading the speed and maneuverability as much as he could and making sure his father stayed in control of the vessel, He activated Hardware manipulation.
The winged vessel seemed to go ethereal and weightless as he basically moved it to overlap the vessel his father was in and the two began combining and his mana began draining. focusing on upgrading the computer systems, the engines, thrusters, the power source that now more than doubled. Just as he finished and his father opened up the loading ramp for the cargo bay the vessel now had Royce passed out cold without realizing he drained his MP completely.
*Hardware manipulation lvl 06
*Notification.
*Hardware manipulation lvl 07
*Hardware manipulation lvl 08
When he woke up the situation had changed drastically. Royce was strapped into the navigation chair his father was piloting while his mother was controlling the weapons. They were definitely under fire but his father was a really good pilot.
He had only recovered two of his MPs. But he shouldn't need as much to finish what he was trying to do So he added another 40 stat points into magic bringing it to 104 and giving him another 80 MP. He then opened the buckle holding him into the seat and removed the battle suit from his storage.
Activating Hardware manipulation He focused on spreading out the suit's armor to add to the ship's durability adding the automatic targeting that went to the shoulder guns into the ship's weapons systems as well as combining its life support, tracking beacon, and sensors, finally adding its weapons into the ship's weapons to reinforce them.
"This ships weapons and armor are almost as good as an a-class fighter. We should make a couple runs at them" Royce suggested.
"You know about ships, that is good. Unfortunately the ones out there are S class. And worse they look like modified military vessels. The only thing saving us right now is we're a little bit faster thanks to the modifications you made and we seem to have gotten a little bit faster still." His father said while focusing on avoiding letting their ship get shot down.
"You're right I just upgraded the ship again. Just a little this time I added my battle suit into it. I'm not sure what else to do right now and I need to recover some Mana."
He did still have some mana. After hardware manipulation had leveled up so many times He noticed things were taking less mana to accomplish It only took 20 MP to add the suit So he still had 62 left. he just didn't have anything that would be effective.
"What about Mana manipulation? It says add mana for various effects. How close do I have to be to the device I want to add the mana to?" He had used the spell a few times before blew up a speaker on one toy melted parts on another toy but eventually figured out in addition to making something hold mana he could increase the effectiveness of something it did. Right now he was hoping if he added Mana to the engines he could make them go faster. "Head for the shipping lanes to Tellah." He told his father.
"It would take months to get to the shipping lanes. They'll just keep overtaking us I can't keep this up forever." Michael responded.
"That was the last place my ship was seen and I have another idea. Mom put the weapons on automatic and help me get strapped into this seat please." When she came over he told her. "Strap yourself back into your seat after but if this doesn't work I'm going to have to get as close to the engines as possible." After he got strapped in used hardware manipulation to maneuver the seat higher up and closer to the controls. Once his mother was back in her seat, He called out to his father. "If this works don't go straight for the shipping lanes head towards the other planet and aim passed it and when we're well out of their sensor range change course to the shipping lanes."
"IF?!" his father shouted back.
But Royce was already trying to add Mana to the engines through the console. Concentrating on sending the manna straight to the engines in the effort to make them go as fast as possible. He thought about all the connections the console had to the engines the route they took to get there which ones held power which ones were for information. He envisioned his mana flowing out of himself into the console and through those connections and into the engines to increase their speed. 5 MP spent then 6, and 7. The effects were noticeable at that point. He kept sending mana they kept going faster. 10 MP spent.
*Mana Manipulation lvl 4. 1 spell slot gained.
Their speed had leveled out before he got to 10 mana spent But after Mana manipulation went up a level. The vessels speed jumped a little bit higher. He couldn't help thinking about the description a little bit.
Mana Manipulation: required for enchantment utilize your manna on almost anything within and without, varying results and effects. More effective at higher levels.
Passive: higher levels will increase mana and mana regeneration. (+2 Mana per lvl. Mana generally regenerates at one point per hour. For every level this rate will go down one minute until level 60 for a result of one mana regenerated per minute. Level 61-100 Mana regenerated will go up 0.75 per lvl. Level 100 also reduces time by 30 seconds, for an end result of 1.03 mana regenerated per second.)
After reaching 12 mana spent he was able to get a count at 13 spent you was using one point every 30 seconds after 15. "I'm using a lot of mana is this going to work how far from the planet are we?"
His father laughed "We already passed the planet and just before we got out of sensor range the smaller ships still weren't on board the carrier ship. Making the maneuver now, and setting in the course. How much longer can you keep that up.
25 MP Down.
*Mana Manipulation lvl 5
Their speed increased again but he was still spending one point of mana every 30 seconds. "15 minutes at the most." He said while looking over the engines read out. and maintaining the supply of mana. "This is awesome the engines are reading normal optimal output."
His father turned in his seat and looked at him. "Were they not supposed to be?! Is this part of that, if?" When he said it, there wasn't concern in his voice. It sounded like he was having fun. Turning back to the console and checking their course. "At this speed if you can keep it up for another 10 minutes we'll be close to halfway there. If they know where to look they'll catch us just as quick but they shouldn't have any idea which way we went."