Chapter 16 - Weapons

  The room given to IZ-213 was cramped. 12 double decker beds took most of the space while two small storage boxes hung from the footboard of each bed in that frame. The frame was made of steel tubes with a single mattress, pillow and duvet. To the side of the bed there were two manikins of sorts to store each soldier's armor.

  Lisa lay on the mattress, her second and third layer armor was hanging on her manikin, nobody really wanted to test if their new flimsy looking beds would withstand the heavy suits, so everyone lay in either the baggy chemical resistant second layer, or the tight body suit. Lisa always preferred the body suit as the buckles and belts of the second layer were uncomfortable to lie in. The mattress Lisa was testing out was awful, especially compared to the heavenly mattress of the previous facility. Sitting up and almost bashing her head against the frame holding up the bed above her she was about to stand up but then got a foot to the face. Maranda Garret, the person now sleeping above Lisa swung her legs off the side and hit Lisa with the ball of her reinforced shoe.

  “FUCKS SAKE” Lisa yelled while covering her nose, a sufficient trickle of blood now oozing from it.

  “Sorry.” The woman responded with no actual care for the other, before dropping down and walking off to talk to her group on the other side of the room. Lisa grit her teeth as she squeezed her nose shut in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Her body was already tense as she had been craving a cigarette for hours now but the barracks had no smoking signs plastered everywhere.

  As her foot tapped the floor in frustration Joe came and sat next to her causing the bed to creek and bow, he was in the baggy second layer while his helmet was under one arm.

  “Not a good day huh?” Joe tried to joke

  “NO IT FUCKING HASNT BEEN.” Lisa raised her voice in anger, drawing a few glares before they returned to their own conversations.

  “Sorry” he apologised, looking at the floor.

  “Well what the fuck do you think I'm going to say, ‘man today has been something huh?’ of course not.” Lisa tried to regulate her breathing and calming down. “I need a smoke, if it turns out that the fucking air outside isn’t fucking breathable…” She started to rub her eyes, stopping herself from ranting.

  Joe just sat there, wiping a smudge mark from his helmet and waited.

  “Sorry Joe.” She eventually sighed, “It hasn't been a good day. I just want to smoke and to sleep.” She let out a small chuckle at the end. The twenty four of them have been in the tent for about an hour, they have found out a few things during this time about the living space though. Each tent was set up to house twenty platoons with a mess hall for them all, Each platoon room had a small private room for the squad leader and just recently all of the IZ-200s have now passed through the Bridge. The last bit of information was confirmed as the tent was filled with noise, the meagre walls didn't dampen any sound at all. It didn't take long after Lisa's nose naturally stopped bleeding for all the platoon leaders to return, including Cook who was holding a small device.

  “Line up, I have an access key for your suits to connect to the CMC, just show me your identification ports.” He addressed the room. The squad all lined up as asked and he connected the retractable wire from the egg shaped device to the identification ports at their wrists. Once it was Lisa’s turn she saw Cook scowl slightly before returning to his neutral expression. Feeling the jolt of electricity, Cook disconnected the wire and moved on to the next person. Once the last person had been disconnected, Cook addressed the room again.

  “With that you all are now connected to the CMC, this will allow us to communicate with you while in the influence of the CMC and also now update your time and date accordingly. We are now going to the armory once there and you have collected your weapons. You have about two hours free. At 8 O’clock we will begin work so be here.” he pointed down to the ground, hearing a collective, “YES SECOND LIEUTENANT" he nodded and donned his helmet

  “Mess hall, 5 minutes.” he left the room with those departing words.

  Joe nodded at Lisa and went to his bed on the other side of the room. Lisa returned to hers and started to put on the armor. She stepped into the baggy overalls and zipped it up, after pulling the straps taught and checking the anchoring positions where properly in place she started attaching the third layer. Sliding her foot into the large metal boots, her foot rested on the angled soul like she was slightly on her tiptoes, once her foot was in place the hiss of pistons closed around her leg, tightly securing it in place. Lifting her leg up with difficulty, she checked that everything was connected properly and the boot didn't slide off, which it didn't, adding pressure down her foot easily moved downward while the force applied to the ground gradually increased. Before she caused any damage to the concrete floor she returned to the normal position. Using the metal anchoring points on the second layer and lining up with the boots she attached the holster and storage compartments on her outer thighs, giving them a quick shake they were stable and with a press on both compartments they opened smoothly. As she looked at the storage compartment and the squashed cigarette boxes she took out three of the four boxes and put them in her bedside storage. After that she attached the front and back plates to her legs now fully incasing them in the third layer. Moving up she attached the groin and spinal lock protector, the breast plate that extended down to her stomach, the fusion reactor back plate; taking special care while connecting it to the suit. Once everything was properly connected she tried to lift her leg and it lifted up like there was no weight at all. Finalising with shoulders and upper arm protection she slid her gloves on, similarly to the boots once her hand was in place it hissed as each finger was adjusted for and clamped down on. Giving one final overview she tallied off all the parts in her head checking if parts were loose until ultimately she donned her helmet with a hiss and saw the red hue of the AI. Looking up at the time and date she was shown: “06:01:02:994” “Date not verified: estimated date: Mid summer”

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  “How handy.” Lisa thought while looking at the date. Standing up she made her way towards the mess hall with the crowd of her other squad members.

  Going through the mandatory small inspection they marched into the airlock, got decontaminated and continued outside. Her helmet adjusted quickly to tint out the sunlight now peaking over the tree tops, the clouds that gathered above the camp were still present and dark but towards the horizon the sky was a light blue.

  Even Cook stopped once outside the airlock and just stared, transfixed at the light blue sky, with a golden orb of warmth bathing their whole world. Lisa stared deeply at the sunrise. The cascading pinks and oranges melted into the soft white clouds that layered the atmosphere. Her mind went back to Izlathis, the mornings were mostly foggy with the grey- green sky hanging overhead, the sun was present but compared to now, it was like a memory of one.

  “We have no time for staring at clouds.” Cook composed himself with a cough and continued to march. This snapped to soldiers out as well and they continued along the steel path to the armory.

  An orange tent with the foundations of a large multilayered building constructed around it stood near the heart of the camp, near the current power plant and its two constantly smoking chimneys. Guarding the tent another combat android scanned the area and verified the people seeking entry. Once the platoon reached the entrance and Cook spoke to it, his voice masked by the voice changer. It allowed them to enter.

  Inside there was only a temporary bay where Cook bee-lined towards. After connecting the identification wire to his wrist port, the racking sound of hundreds of weapons going past the bay erupted before coming to a stop and laying out his two main weapons. A laser spread shotgun and a machine pistol. Holstering the pistol and throwing the shotgun strap over his shoulder he moved out of the tent, probably with a grin on his face. As Lisa was the last she saw everyone's guns of choice. Most were the standard rifle, it was effective and reliable but a few had specialised weapons. There were six individuals with specialised weapons including Lisa and Cook, there was: a flamethrower, a rocket system, a grenade launcher and a heavy machine gun. With the shotgun and laser rifle Cook and Lisa had, the platoon was able to deal with a large variety of threats.

  Lisa felt the surge of electricity and then the rattling of the bay. After a small moment it shook to a stop and the bay doors opened with her rifle, pistol and thankfully her lighter. Picking up the lighter and stowing it into her storage, she grabbed the rifle. The frame was blocky with its barrel being rectangular, the magazine-less rifle instead had heat sink tubes to disperse the heat on the side of it. At the top following with the design the scope was also a square prism however the integrated rangefinder and AI added far more information for the user compared to the red dot sights that are inbuilt on traditional rifles. After slinging the marksman rifle over her shoulder using the strap, she opened her holster and took out two loaded magazines for her pistol, each bullet being .20 caliber and 12 bullets per magazine. Picking up the heavy handgun, that the common man would call a cannon, it resembled the same design as her rifle but used a digital display where the hammer usually would be and using iron sights rather than a scope. Loading a third magazine, flicking the safety on and slotting it into the holster; she pushed the compartment closed and walked out of the tent and to the Platoon.

  Cook looked them over once over making sure each soldier was in formation and had their weapon he nodded and cleared his throat. “You have until 8 to be ready at the barracks, do not cause trouble. I would recommend having a quick sleep before the day begins. Now I have another meeting to attend. IZ-213 Dismissed.” he turned to the side and walked off towards the building housing the Bridge. Once he left eyeshot the platoon let out a breath and filtered to their groups again.

  ____________________________________________________________________________

  Colonel Muller stepped through the Bridge with ease and looked at the world around him, locking eyes with Mrs. Holland, who gave him a nod, and waited beside her. Strolling out shortly after the military man was the white suited director. He walked with confidence as his shined shoes clacked against the concrete. A detail caught the colonel's attention as Mr. Walker entered the space, a large crease in his suit, easily able to cover his chest ever so slightly ruined the expensive suit, following the crease a shimmer of light behind him flickered for a split second. The shimmer appeared larger than the director but that and the crease vanished before his next footfall.

  “That was a lot easier than I thought, even with the reports sent back, I still wasn't expecting that.” the director mused.

  “Yes Sir,” Mrs. Holland followed up, “there was only one incident with soldiers or supplies traveling through the Bridge.”

  “Oh? How so?” The Director asked, still in thought. Even Muller was slightly interested in how something can mess up an easy trip.

  “A soldier came rocketing through the portal at approximately 44 miles an hour. They said they were fine but if the padding for larger supplies weren't there to cushion their fall they would have certainly damaged something.” Mrs. Holland read from a tablet given to her by a Soldier on duty in that room.

  “How interesting, who was it?” Mr. Walker asked this time, giving his secretary his full attention.

  “A member of IZ-213, Sir.” She flipped around the tablet showing a looping video of an elite soldier spinning and crashing into the padding over to the group of three’s left. “Her name is Lisa Grim, Marksman of IZ-213.”

  “Lisa Grim, huh?” he mumbled to himself. “How soon will the medical tent be up and running? I would want Elite Grim to submit the full telemetry for her suit while we record her account on what happened.” he started to nod to himself.

  “The tent will be operational before the end of the day. Are you concerned about her wellbeing? If so, I can ask her squadleader for an update.” Mrs. Holland replied skeptically, not seeing why the director was interested.

  “No nothing like that, I just want to know if it can be repeated and if so how not to, lots of expensive and explosive toys are heading though soon. We don't want a repeat of what she did.” he said this then started to walk to where his temporary office would be.

  “Ahh of course.” Mrs. Holland then started to type on the tablet.

  This prompted the Colonel to speak up. “ I will exempt her from the exploration team that will be sent out today and I will inform her platoon leader in my meeting within the hour.”