armor. On adjacent fields, Haywire and Shot-put were leading other classes of cadets in similar exercises.
I was watching it all from a wall that surrounded the playing field with all of its obstacles. In the corner of my HUD I saw a couple enterprising young men start bouncing around without their mag-clamps in an attempt to gain more maneuverability. The only real problem that I had with that was that their version of training armor had no thrusters in the backpack, so once they were off the deck they would have no way to navigate. It seemed like a serious oversight to me. I nailed two of them with enough paintballs and force that they went back to the deck and reactivated the gear in their boots. Unfortunately, I missed the third one and he went careening into empty space.
“I’ve got a kid gone projectile sited!” Spicy called over the com.
“I’ll get him; keep your eyes on the rest of them.” I returned.
I pushed off of the deck and accelerated towards the runaway cadet. For the potentially deadly position he was in, the boy was insanely calm. He kept reporting his position and occasionally a description to his squad mates about their opponents’ movements. I didn’t trust that calm to hold up much longer. Getting closer I applied a quick second burn from my jets to reverse thrust and caught him. Taken by surprise he tried to hit me.
“Stop struggling you idiot! Or do you want to die?”
He stopped moving immediately, his heavy breathing came in clearly over the com. I carefully used my thrusters to stabilize both of us, trying to take into consideration the increased mass. This kind of math never has been my strong suit. I prefer my feet on nice solid ground.
It took a few more minutes, but I finally got the spinning to stop and pointed in the right direction. I boosted us back toward the field and gave him a final shove. Altering my angle, I headed back to my look out.
A stray paintball hit me in the shoulder and sent me just barely off course. I calmly readjusted my angle. Something else hit me. Hard. Everything went black.
*****
Earlier that day, I had gone in for my appointment with Chief Ruiz. Heading back to the engineering bay to see what his surprise weapon was. Approaching the team working on the new armors for my squad, I couldn’t help but notice that the bay was virtually empty aside from the typical engineers. I thought I saw a flash of red hair and a grimy jumpsuit from the corner of my eye, but it was gone when I looked.
“Hey, why’s it so quiet here?” I asked.
“Well, we only have some minor repair work, and your team’s new armor. Besides, tonight that new series from the Corporations is being broadcast. You know how much everyone's been looking forward to that one. After three centuries it’s about time the Avengers got a decent live action show,” replied Bay Chief Ruiz. The wiry man gestured to a particular section, “Come over here, Castle.”
In this part of the bay were the new armors for my team, lined against the walls. Most were still missing plates, and showing the complex circuitry underneath. The helms were styled with eagle wings curving around on the sides. The eagles’ heads were above the brows and it seemed likely that they contained some kind of secondary sensors. The full effect placed stylized Norse decorations on helmets that were slightly more reminiscent of ancient Doric styles. It was beautiful.
“We’ve rebuilt the armor from the bones up using better materials and more up to date tech. Most of the suit customizations are finished, and the color scheme has been applied to all the finished pieces either with durable epoxies or anodizing techniques. Now we just need to have your men come in over the next few days to finish calibrating weapons,” Ruiz eyed Rhys appraisingly. “Some of them have interesting tastes in armaments.”
I grinned. “Well, I’ve always liked to give my men the freedom to express their inner creative violence. You
I was watching it all from a wall that surrounded the playing field with all of its obstacles. In the corner of my HUD I saw a couple enterprising young men start bouncing around without their mag-clamps in an attempt to gain more maneuverability. The only real problem that I had with that was that their version of training armor had no thrusters in the backpack, so once they were off the deck they would have no way to navigate. It seemed like a serious oversight to me. I nailed two of them with enough paintballs and force that they went back to the deck and reactivated the gear in their boots. Unfortunately, I missed the third one and he went careening into empty space.
“I’ve got a kid gone projectile sited!” Spicy called over the com.
“I’ll get him; keep your eyes on the rest of them.” I returned.
I pushed off of the deck and accelerated towards the runaway cadet. For the potentially deadly position he was in, the boy was insanely calm. He kept reporting his position and occasionally a description to his squad mates about their opponents’ movements. I didn’t trust that calm to hold up much longer. Getting closer I applied a quick second burn from my jets to reverse thrust and caught him. Taken by surprise he tried to hit me.
“Stop struggling you idiot! Or do you want to die?”
He stopped moving immediately, his heavy breathing came in clearly over the com. I carefully used my thrusters to stabilize both of us, trying to take into consideration the increased mass. This kind of math never has been my strong suit. I prefer my feet on nice solid ground.
It took a few more minutes, but I finally got the spinning to stop and pointed in the right direction. I boosted us back toward the field and gave him a final shove. Altering my angle, I headed back to my look out.
A stray paintball hit me in the shoulder and sent me just barely off course. I calmly readjusted my angle. Something else hit me. Hard. Everything went black.
*****
Earlier that day, I had gone in for my appointment with Chief Ruiz. Heading back to the engineering bay to see what his surprise weapon was. Approaching the team working on the new armors for my squad, I couldn’t help but notice that the bay was virtually empty aside from the typical engineers. I thought I saw a flash of red hair and a grimy jumpsuit from the corner of my eye, but it was gone when I looked.
“Hey, why’s it so quiet here?” I asked.
“Well, we only have some minor repair work, and your team’s new armor. Besides, tonight that new series from the Corporations is being broadcast. You know how much everyone's been looking forward to that one. After three centuries it’s about time the Avengers got a decent live action show,” replied Bay Chief Ruiz. The wiry man gestured to a particular section, “Come over here, Castle.”
In this part of the bay were the new armors for my team, lined against the walls. Most were still missing plates, and showing the complex circuitry underneath. The helms were styled with eagle wings curving around on the sides. The eagles’ heads were above the brows and it seemed likely that they contained some kind of secondary sensors. The full effect placed stylized Norse decorations on helmets that were slightly more reminiscent of ancient Doric styles. It was beautiful.
“We’ve rebuilt the armor from the bones up using better materials and more up to date tech. Most of the suit customizations are finished, and the color scheme has been applied to all the finished pieces either with durable epoxies or anodizing techniques. Now we just need to have your men come in over the next few days to finish calibrating weapons,” Ruiz eyed Rhys appraisingly. “Some of them have interesting tastes in armaments.”
I grinned. “Well, I’ve always liked to give my men the freedom to express their inner creative violence. You
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