XCOM
Location: Coruscant, geosynchronous orbit over the Jedi temple
As quickly as she came, Colonel Carter has departed, leaving her attaché behind. "Just once can we have a CO present for most of the war?" Central chuckled, with the Commander shooting him a dark look: "Not like I had a choice, Bradford. You took your sweet time getting me out of that tank." The older man seemed unpassed by the comment. "Well, Major, no time to spare. Shen! Take the Major and make sure we have a data pipeline to the Hammond. Link us with ours and theirs security protocols too, just in case something needs to be said without the rest knowing. Central, take the Major on a tour afterwards unless the Colonel has a need of her. Might as well have her deliver a report on what forces the Colonel has available. I'll be pouring over the scans." Black ordered, just as a technician called out a 'Coming up now'. The console in the middle of the bridge lit up, and a holographic representation of Coruscant appeared, with tactical data starting to fill in where the Avenger was scanning.
Some tinkering with Shen later, the hologlobe was pulling data from whatever scans the Hammond was able to provide as well. Central picked up the Major at engineering: "Enjoying your stay so far, major?" He asked, leading the way to the deck one level up from the manufacturing area. "It's not the most clean or modern setup I have ever seen, but I have to say Shen seems able to take nothing much and MacGuyver a flying drone out of it." Hailey commented.
Bradford smiled. "You should have seen what her father had in the pipeline back when we had the funding provided by the wealthiest nations on Earth and before we were stabbed in the back. Looking back at it, I don't know whether we were desperate or mad, but some of the stuff would have certainly been good to have right about now. We might have to dust off the blueprints for the Firestorm to be a bit more useful out here." he remarked offhandedly as they entered another room.
Avenger, bar
"Is that a bar on a warship?" the Major's eyes bulged.
"Warship heh, good one." the central officer grunted as they went towards one of the walls. As Hailey approached, she could see it was decorated in two areas. One seemed like a trophy room, adorned with the figurines of what she thought were soldiers of the occupying force, some of them looking human, some clearly alien. On the top, the stylized heads of three blue skinned beings were mounted. "Are those the Ethereals?" she observed, remembering something from the meeting in between worlds. "I'm almost tempted to say worse. Those were the chosen. Three psions, modified to the extreme and fuelled by the powers of the Elders themselves. by the end game, only the Hunter was left, but he has evolved to almost unkillable level of skill and tech by that point. Compared to him, the Avatars we faced later were not that dangerous. Lost most of the squad that day." he looked to the other side of the wall a she said so, and Hailey did not need asking what that part was for, the posters and pictured stuck to the wall saying it all.
Avenger, barracks
After a few moments, they made their way another level up. "Here's when it gets fun." the CO grinned as they passed the bunks int he barracks and entered the range. "The commander is a bit hands off when it comes to meeting dignitaries ever since ours surrendered, so I was attending the meeting with Daniel. If I recall correctly, the Replicators are not susceptible to energy weapons, but break into splinters under kinetic force. We may have something to increase the lethality compared to what you have. Fancy taking a few shots?" he said, shoving a ballistic assault rifle into Hailey's hands. Curiously, the Major took the weapons, finding it quite intuitive and not unlike firearms she was used to, albeit the caliber seemed rather extreme. When she fired, the weapon gave her a decent kick. "Nice, but hardly sci-fi. That all you got?"
Grinning in response, Bradford swapped her old school slug thrower for something that seemed like a science project weapon cobbled together from scavanged parts held by a wire frame. Pointing it downrange, Hailey had to withdraw her earlier statement. The magnetic weapons packed a lot of punch in only a slightly larger package. "Battery life?"
"Enough to not be a concern. You do need to swap mags though." Bradford answered, "Want to try the plasma rifle as well, or do we see if we have a set of armor small enough to fit you?"
Jennifer bit back a remark about Bradford's age and made a grab for the plasma rifle. One blue beam later, she did whistle in respect. "And you made these not with the multinational backing, but while you were playing partisans?"
"Yep. Meaning it should be easy to make more if they are in demand. Still, that's not the most impressive thing we developed. Colonel Starke? Mind showing the major some of our armor?" Central called out to the barracks. "Sir! Be there in a minute." came a woman's reply. Minute later on the dot, a woman in her thirties walked out of the armory, a happy face plastered on her head, which was covered in a blond bob and a transparent visor. Instinctively, Hailey snapped into attention, only to be waved off. "Ranks in XCOM are not exactly your standard fare, Major. This is what we call a Wraith suit, a stealth and high mobility unit. Usually, we assign this to our snipers, but some of our rangers are also insane enough to make use of it." Colonel Starke said, giving Bradford a meaningful look, who could only shrug in response. "Heads up." the colonel said, tapped a control on her wrist...
...and walked straight through Hailey, the table behind her, and into the area of the range, earning herself a quiet 'Fuck!' from the air force major. "That's it, you're showing me everything."