Aurelia.” He saluted once more and then fitted the headband over her head. The transducers sat directly ahead of her ears. They would send audio vibrations to her inner ear by way of her skull bones.
He placed her headgear armor and the band seated perfectly snug against a small ridge built into the helmet. Aurelia couldn’t even tell that she was wearing earphones at all. They were feather-light and completely flexible and soft all the way around. If there was any metal in them she couldn’t feel it for they felt like a singular piece of molded soft silicone.
Aurelia adjusted her helmet to her liking and said, “Okay, now what?”
Noonan produced a one and a half meter long polearm, not terribly long as far as polearms go, but it looked tactically useable. Aurelia shrugged. “Cool.”
She took the polearm from him and smacked it into a row of lockers with a sideways thrust. The polearm beeped and a synthetic voice emitted from it. “Critical!”
“That's polearm trainer. It is intelligent. Got a six-axis accelerometer and pressure sensors throughout. It calculates a critical blow to the enemy with the sensors. If the strike is non-critical or ineffective it will just bleep once with a quick bloopy sound.”
Aurelia said, “Well that’s cute as all hell. So is this how you determine the winner? A critical blow?”
“Three actually. Three crits and the winner will be declared.” Noonan paused and waited for Aurelia’s response as she studied the polearm some more. She considered that things were a little different with this venue than in her basic Military centre training days.
“So say she wins. Will this be for nothing? Will she give us any intel?” Aurelia asked.
“Doc Palmer thinks she will talk either way, but he also said, uhh, what was that he said. Oh yeah.” Specialist Noonan scratched his head. “Actually ma'am, I mean Aurelia, well hell the doc was kinda confusing on that point.”
“Right,” Aurelia smacked the polearm ends, right first then left against the lockers.
The polearm bleeped twice and responded in synchronicity to her strikes with a synthetic voice effect, “Critical! Bleep! Critical! Bleep !”
Aurelia gave a satisfied smirk and said, “Yeah.” And then she rested the polearm's end onto her right foot and said, “Okay let’s get this shit over with.”
“Great. Remember that Julian and the Doc will be able to talk to you and vice verse. Those bone phones are full duplex. They work both ways.”
“Lead the way.” Aurelia followed Specialist Noonan after he handed Julian a headband. They walked down the Pit’s corridor and stood just outside the door of Arena Five.
Noonan said to Aurelia, “Julian and the Doc will be watching from the Doc’s office.” He jerked his thumb at the doorway. “We got an eight-K dome camera installed in the Arena there. Doc has a curved organic display in his office. Camera takes sharp pictures even though the technology is really old. They will see everything.”
Aurelia remained silent and nodded while they stood at the Arena door. Noonan pressed his thumb and ring finger onto a two-finger scanner-lock and the door clicked with a resonant mechanical ker-klunk . He opened the door about quarter ways and said to Aurelia, “Now my orders are if anyone actually gets hurt we're gonna shut this party down right then and there. Okay?”
“Okay.” Aurelia stepped into Arena 5 and the door closed behind her, again with a respondent ker-klunk followed by something internal to the door lock that reminded Aurelia of a small whirling motor or perhaps a tiny hand drill.
She looked across to the room’s opposing side and there she was. Kama, the one and only, fully wrapped in her leather Raider battlegear, headdress and all. The headdress caused Aurelia to pause momentarily since she had not seen this piece before when they last met. Kama’s headdress nearly covered her entire head, even her nose and ears. The headpiece made Kama look
He placed her headgear armor and the band seated perfectly snug against a small ridge built into the helmet. Aurelia couldn’t even tell that she was wearing earphones at all. They were feather-light and completely flexible and soft all the way around. If there was any metal in them she couldn’t feel it for they felt like a singular piece of molded soft silicone.
Aurelia adjusted her helmet to her liking and said, “Okay, now what?”
Noonan produced a one and a half meter long polearm, not terribly long as far as polearms go, but it looked tactically useable. Aurelia shrugged. “Cool.”
She took the polearm from him and smacked it into a row of lockers with a sideways thrust. The polearm beeped and a synthetic voice emitted from it. “Critical!”
“That's polearm trainer. It is intelligent. Got a six-axis accelerometer and pressure sensors throughout. It calculates a critical blow to the enemy with the sensors. If the strike is non-critical or ineffective it will just bleep once with a quick bloopy sound.”
Aurelia said, “Well that’s cute as all hell. So is this how you determine the winner? A critical blow?”
“Three actually. Three crits and the winner will be declared.” Noonan paused and waited for Aurelia’s response as she studied the polearm some more. She considered that things were a little different with this venue than in her basic Military centre training days.
“So say she wins. Will this be for nothing? Will she give us any intel?” Aurelia asked.
“Doc Palmer thinks she will talk either way, but he also said, uhh, what was that he said. Oh yeah.” Specialist Noonan scratched his head. “Actually ma'am, I mean Aurelia, well hell the doc was kinda confusing on that point.”
“Right,” Aurelia smacked the polearm ends, right first then left against the lockers.
The polearm bleeped twice and responded in synchronicity to her strikes with a synthetic voice effect, “Critical! Bleep! Critical! Bleep !”
Aurelia gave a satisfied smirk and said, “Yeah.” And then she rested the polearm's end onto her right foot and said, “Okay let’s get this shit over with.”
“Great. Remember that Julian and the Doc will be able to talk to you and vice verse. Those bone phones are full duplex. They work both ways.”
“Lead the way.” Aurelia followed Specialist Noonan after he handed Julian a headband. They walked down the Pit’s corridor and stood just outside the door of Arena Five.
Noonan said to Aurelia, “Julian and the Doc will be watching from the Doc’s office.” He jerked his thumb at the doorway. “We got an eight-K dome camera installed in the Arena there. Doc has a curved organic display in his office. Camera takes sharp pictures even though the technology is really old. They will see everything.”
Aurelia remained silent and nodded while they stood at the Arena door. Noonan pressed his thumb and ring finger onto a two-finger scanner-lock and the door clicked with a resonant mechanical ker-klunk . He opened the door about quarter ways and said to Aurelia, “Now my orders are if anyone actually gets hurt we're gonna shut this party down right then and there. Okay?”
“Okay.” Aurelia stepped into Arena 5 and the door closed behind her, again with a respondent ker-klunk followed by something internal to the door lock that reminded Aurelia of a small whirling motor or perhaps a tiny hand drill.
She looked across to the room’s opposing side and there she was. Kama, the one and only, fully wrapped in her leather Raider battlegear, headdress and all. The headdress caused Aurelia to pause momentarily since she had not seen this piece before when they last met. Kama’s headdress nearly covered her entire head, even her nose and ears. The headpiece made Kama look
Similar Books
