Member
FourtyTwo
wintersoldier
Pen Name
Lunamaria Hawke
Eventua
Snowdrops
Ivar
Sky Blue
TriantafylloAdvice from a Master
Samantha Dalton
Samantha was struggling to come to terms with her near death experience. The American western culture part of her couldn’t help but wonder if she was losing her mind. Was she going crazy? Was she too traumatized to be of help to the team? Would she crack under the pressure when they needed her most? That was her biggest fear, that she would let the team down when they needed her the most. Her exposure to Japanese culture from her adopted grandparents had taught her to accept the experience as real. That the Kami had taken the rare step to interfere in her life’s journey to ensure she stayed on destiny’s path. The two ideologies conflicted and so she found herself at war with herself over the experience. She was struggling to process it. The team psychologist had of course poked and prodded at her over the experience. It was protocol after such a close call. They of course gave her the psychological perspective that her brain put the experience in terms she could understand her close brush with death and created a reason for her to fight to live.
Samantha was normally confident in her abilities and skills. She didn’t seek confirmation of her skills from others. Samantha had spontaneously decided to share that experience with Ban. She felt at least hearing his opinion might at least help her resolve some of the feelings she had regarding the Kami. She felt like a child asking a parent to validate their feelings and emotions. She hoped his response would help her know if what she was feeling was normal or not. Samantha struggled with that as she was a high functioning autistic. Her brain was simply wired differently. She typically didn’t give a shit what other people thought about her or how she did things. This experience seemed to invade all her thoughts. It was like a drip of water that she couldn’t turn off. Her brain fixated on this experience. She needed to find a way to function. She had tried distraction but that was obviously not working since she had felt compelled to ask Ban about it. She kept coming back to the feeling of dread, that something bad was going to happen. She had this sense that they wouldn’t be ready for whatever Rose did next. She couldn’t help feeling like time was running out and she needed to be doing something.
Samantha waited anxiously as she explained her experience to Ban while he cooked. Sam felt the inner tension knot that had been wind tight in her chest release some of the tension as Ban seemed to understand and accept her experience, validating how she was feeling. She felt a little guilty for feeling so relieved to hear his take on her experience. She lowered her head as her cheeks showed her embarrassment. She gave him a bow of respect as relief and tension flowed out of her. She gave his hands a quick squeeze before he let them go.
“Arigato Ban-San. Your words are wise and welcome. I thank you for allowing me to share this burden with you. Your wisdom is a healing balm for my uneasy soul.”
Then in true chef fashion, Ban offered to feed her more.
Ban: "Ah but enough hard stuff. More food?"
Samantha just laughed at that question and shook her head. “Ban-san, how big do you think my stomach is? I still have over a half a plate of food!”
Samantha laughed as the hungry crowd of soldiers cheered Ban’s statement about seconds and were obviously ready for more. Samantha gave Ban a smile as she watched him go back to his pots and pans to feed the hungry crowd. Samantha still felt a need to be doing something and like time was running out but she no longer felt so unsure of herself. She no longer questioned her experience or her reaction to it. She didn’t finish much more of the food Ban had given her. He had probably put enough on her plate for three meals. She chuckled as she considered that for Freya or Chuck it was probably an appetizer.
Preparing for Chaos Part 2
Samantha Dalton
Skye Lyons
Samantha felt better having something constructive to do. When Rose popped up, their team needed to be ready. She began making a list of what gear absolutely had to be repaired or replaced before the team saw action again. Then she made a list of potential new gear to hopefully give them an edge. The entire team had come back from the last mission but it was a close thing. Her armor was trashed and couldn’t be repaired. Chuck’s armor was trashed and would have to be completely remade as well. Others needed repairs to theirs. Skye needed a new exoskeleton armor set. Tahlia could use something for camouflage and some protection when she was in the field. Maybe she could design a prosthetic that would help her move around easier. Athena’s armor could use some repair and maybe some upgrades. She could easily add jump jets and upgrade her power system based on her designs for Chuck’s new armor. Adam’s armor needed quite a bit of repair. She thought about his armor and felt it wasn’t really set up for his job. He needed a new upgraded set of armor. He needed something with better team lead supports, better protection, and some shielding capabilities. Purna and Ban’s armor just needed some repairs. She would like to create some new weapons and gear for them.
Samantha turned her thoughts to their support team. Enri might not make it into the field but she could probably use some light armor as well. She would have to check to see what kind of gear she was using. Maybe Samantha could help her out with better hacking gear. That gave her an idea for some hacking gear she could add to her inventory to help out the folks hacking from a distance. She needed some new tricks. Artemis was proving to be a smart adversary and every time she used a broken piece of their cyber security against them, they fixed it. She never got to use the same exploit twice however, she did take out Rose’s hacker on the blimp. Maybe they won’t have time to change much in regards to changing security codes. She did wipe out Rose’s network, maybe there is a way for her to exploit any weaknesses there. She would have to chat with Enri and find out how good she was at controlling drones. That might be another way that could be a force multiplier for them in the field without compromising more agents.
Samantha had spent all evening working up new designs. She had done some research on materials to see what she could possibly upgrade for her teammates as she worked on gear. She had fallen asleep curled around her laptop after working far into the night. She woke up the next morning starving. She realized she had been so hyper focused on her task that she had worked through lunch and dinner. She moved carefully and quickly to the bathroom since her bladder was screaming at her. She took a quick shower and then got dressed for work in the shop. She didn’t have much so she put on black cargo pants, her boots, and a long sleeved t-shirt. She pulled on her heavy winter jacket and went to find some breakfast.
Samantha felt excited to be doing something. She went in search of Blue Sword’s armor and weapon techs. There had to be a place here where she could work on stuff. She grabbed some willing helpers and headed into the armory to get a first hand look at what needed to be done. She had not actually seen what was left of Chuck’s armor. Samantha blanched as she saw the holes in his under armor suit. The entire hard shell of heavier armor was completely missing. The only thing that remained of his heavier armor was the legs. The jump jets on them were trashed. There was nothing salvageable. Chuck would need an entire rebuild. She inspected everyone’s armor and began doling out repairs to the technicians. She had them begin on those who just needed repairs such as Ban and Purna. Samantha had already been called out by Chuck for over taxing her healing body. She accepted that she needed help and she asked for it this time. She willingly taught anyone who wanted to know what she was doing and why.
While the techs got busy on the armor that just needed repairs, Samantha got busy experimenting with some new materials. She had researched a new ceramic and metal alloy mixture. It was supposed to be harder than titanium, heat resistant, and nonconductive. The scientists that had developed it were looking for new materials for a new space shuttle. They wanted something that could launch into space and survive reentry over and over. This material was lighter than the original space shuttle coating and stronger. Samantha ran some field tests after she created some of the material. She was satisfied after shooting it with several calibers of bullets and tested its piercing strength. She did some calculations and the new armor made from this material would weigh less than a straight metal alloy and should shrug off up to 30 to 50 caliber bullets depending on how thick she made the plates. Samantha knew from working with the experimental batch of material that it didn’t like hard angles and preferred curves. Sharp angles created a weak point for it whereas a curved surface increased its strength.
Samantha decided to go with it. She took elements from her last suit design and combined it with this new material to create her new armor. The result was the layered ballistic gel lined flexible suit from her previous armor with vital areas covered in this hard shell armor. Samantha’s new armor had a hard shell breastplate and reticulated hard pieces over the abdomen and back area for flexibility. There were hard armor pieces that rounded over her thighs, calves, shoulders, and arms. She kept her helmet design since it had worked well for her. The only thing she redesigned on it was to embed Bob into it. She managed to shrink her AI’s size by embedding the individual components between the padding and outer shell. She had managed to shrink his processor size by upgrading him to a new quantum chip since the special ballistic gel she had used for lining her suit dealt with the heat for it. The gel acted as a heat sink pulling the heat away from the chip. The helmet was just a touch larger in a few places but it was not noticeable to the naked eye. The gloves had built in haptics to better support her ability to hack in the field using Bob, her onboard computer system and AI without compromising her ability to fight and protect herself.
Samantha had to ask some of the armor technicians to help her. She was still not up to much strenuous activity. Working heavy equipment and moving around heavy materials would have Sophie sedating her and locking her in the infirmary. She decided not to push the doctor any further than she had already. The suit was almost identical to her last one except for the addition of the hard outer plates on the surface of the armor. While they did the heavy lifting on her armor, she got busy on the new weapons and heavy armor for Chuck.
She was going to design Chuck’s armor along the same lines as hers. She was going to ramp it up though so it could take more damage. This armor would be a little different for him. Since Samantha felt like he needed higher grade protection. She started by building Chuck a sleek ballistic suit like her old suit to wear under his heavy armor. This would stop handguns and smaller rifle fire all by itself. There was a moisture wicking soft material that laid against the skin and was embedded with sensors that kept track of vital signs. The next layer is a woven titanium infused carbon fiber that acts as an artificial polymer muscle or tendon and armor. The material had been put through a special bonding process that resulted in a material that naturally harvests kinetic energy that allows it to stretch and rebound with strength adding strength and power to the wearer's movements. The user retains flexibility speed, while gaining protection and strength. The next layer is a ballistic liquid gel cooling system lined with a tough but soft material that keeps the gel in place and provides padding for the user. The outer layer of the under armor suit is another layer of the tough titanium weave that harvests kinetic energy.
The heavy armor outer shell power armor would be made from the same strong ceramic metallic composite of her armor but it would be thicker. Samantha’s molded plate armor pieces were only about a half inch thick. Chuck’s armor would be at least an inch and a half thick. This should allow him to shrug off all small weapons fire and most rifle fire. There are flexible tubes of hydraulic fluids that help keep the suit cool and moving. The internal workings of actuators, hydraulics, electronics, and sensors live in between layers. There was another thin gel layer for padding and more ballistic protection. The inner layer of the power armor was lined with another layer of the kinetic titanium weave.
Samantha designed the heavy combat power armor to open up in the back. The under armor suit had the kinetic energy return technology in it that would help to keep Chuck’s suit powered and moving. Samantha improved the chemical reactor from his old suit to last longer. With the kinetic assist, Chuck should be able to get almost 48 hours on one charge now. He could keep the suit moving by building up the kinetic charge if he had to. Chuck would just step into the calf high boots. Once his feet locked in place the armor would close and seal around him. Sam designed a cool interlocking zipper of flexible hex shaped disks that would move and magnetically lock him into his armor while providing armor over that area. This flexible join would give Chuck more flexibility in his torso. Samantha reviewed the trouble he had navigating with it underwater and had added some internal special ballast bladders and maneuvering jets that would work underwater or in space. Once the helmet was on, the suit could be pressurized for use as a hazmat, underwater diving, or space suit. The suit has a sealed air system with air filtration and carbon dioxide scrubbers. She had left the jump jets off. Chuck had only used them in battle a few times.
She was going to give him heavier weapons this time. That meant he needed a more stable armor base to fire them from. The power armor used a combination of hydraulics and synthetic muscle fibers to move the suit. Chuck could run faster, hit harder, and pick up more with the armor. She designed the suit to have a modular weapon mount that would work with all his weapons. Giving a few options for heavier weapons to take on the field. She designed a special holster for Lucille that rode on a sling across his back. Samantha designed Chuck a 50 caliber gatling gun that was autofed from a large capacity pack built onto the back of his suit. Samantha deliberately kept the rate of fire low since she expected Chuck to be using it as an anti personnel weapon. Samantha designed the gun so Chuck could change the firing rate from a small burst of 5 bullets up to 200 bullets a minute. This would allow Chuck to snipe with the large caliber gun. On the other shoulder, she redesigned his small missile launcher. Chuck’s armor could fire 6 missiles at a time but his armor only had room to carry 12. Chuck could fire missiles one at a time or in pairs, so he can fire 1, 2, 4, or 6 missiles at a time. The shoulder mounted weapons would work with Chuck’s Hud for targeting. Samantha built in a holster for his carbine on his upper leg armor. She included a metal mesh combat tactical harness that Chuck could carry peripheral weaponry in such as grenades and extra magazines. Samantha decided to paint Chuck’s new armor in a radar reducing stealth coating which she colored a dark navy blue to reflect his marine background.
There are sensors and high-definition cameras embedded into the outer layer in key places feeding information back to the user. The helmet is a transparent titanium alloy in a crystalline matrix, an upgraded version of bulletproof glass. This allows the user to see out and is used as the screen for the Heads-Up Display. There is an AI system onboard to help the user with the suit’s systems and targeting. The suit has an embedded communications system. Cameras allow for heat, infrared layover, and night vision. The suit is powered by a small chemical reactor and has a rechargeable battery backup. The suit is good for about 24 hours of heavy use and battle before it will need to be recharged. If just worn, without any heavy fighting or power draw needs the suit can be powered for up to 48 hours. There are directional jets built into the legs, torso, arms, and feet of the suit. On each shoulder is a heavy weapon mount. Samantha designed a 50 caliber gatling gun specifically for Chuck’s use. There is a small missile launcher that mounts to the other shoulder. The missiles are small and don’t have much range. They allow for a high payload to a target no more than 500 yards away. The missile launcher is a modified miniaturized LAW design. There is an onboard medical sensor suite monitored by the AI. The AI can help him deal with injuries in the field by injecting the Raven Squad cocktail of stimulants, pain killers, vitamins, and antibiotics. There are built in tourniquet systems so that if he loses a limb or gets a severe injury on an arm or leg the AI can apply pressure to stop the bleeding and save his life. The suit is designed to be used in numerous environments. Samantha was happy with the design on Chuck’s armor. She worked with a few of the techs to get it made. The new composite was a pain in the butt to work with but it was worth the effort.
Her next large scale project was new armor for Adam. She took the design for Chuck’s armor and just scaled it down for Adam. Instead of a large caliber gatling gun for his armor, she mounted him a smaller missile launcher. It would shoot one missile at a time and he could carry six. She built into his suit an embedded AI that could act as a targeting system. The AI would work with his HUD for a targeting display. There was an optional toggle that would allow Adam to check on a variety of team information such as vital signs, locations, and assets in the area. She built in an embedded communications suite that would allow Adam to run encrypted team communications from his suit. She built in a powerful transmitter and receiver to boost his signal. She improved his electronic suite to include lidar and radar that was limited in range but would give him some tactical advantages she hoped. Adam’s armor had the same kinetic assist technology and chemical reactor as Chuck’s. The hard outer armor on his power armor was only an inch thick making it lighter than Chuck’s. The hydraulic actuators and synthetic tendons allowed Adam to move faster, punch harder, and lift more. She painted Adam’s armor in the same stealth coating she had used on Chuck’s armor. She designed Adam’s armor so that the hydraulics could give a force punch that would allow his arm and fist to act as a hydraulic ram. She included a trophy system so that Adam could better shield himself and his team. There was a magnetic holster on each hip that was angled to allow Adam to carry long guns with him.
Samantha enjoyed the challenge of designing something for Tahlia. She designed a holographic sight for her sniper rifle. She then decided to make her holographic hide. It needed to be very lightweight and easy to set up. Samantha had just the thing. She took some of the titanium weave kinetic fabric. She designed a popup tent for Tahlia to lay down in or she could drape the fabric over stuff to hide behind. She attached the holographic projector and control box to the edge of the fabric. It was about the size of a cigar box. Hit the button the projector would pick up the image of the onboard mini cameras or an image of Tahlia’s choosing. She designed a prosthetic leg that was based on the flexible blade styles that runners preferred. She designed a support that came up over her knee. It would wiggle around less and reduce the pain and irritation Tahlia suffered from the prosthetic slipping around. She padded the area where her stump fit in with the ballistic gel for comfort and support. The synthetic tendons behind the knee joint would help her walk more normally. This would give Tahlia more stability walking in uneven terrain. The prosthetic leg was designed to absorb the impact from running and provide a return kinetic assist. The result should mirror or even be better than the flexible blade prosthetics that running amputee athletes used.
Samantha redesigned Athena’s armor to be more energy efficient. She added in jump jets that were a little larger and used a new biofuel. That should provide enough thrust to propel the giantess up and over almost any obstacle. She made sure the new armor design supported her special weapons. She then turned it over to the technicians to complete. Samantha was sad that had to turn so much of the work over to the other techs. She sighed but she did it. She enjoyed the process of beating metal into submission and soldering wires into place. She enjoyed putting together her designs like a wonderful puzzle. Her stomach rumbled and she realized she had once again worked through a meal. She knew she needed to remember to eat for the nanites repairing her body. She took off in search of food.
Samantha came back and checked on the armor techs. She corrected a few minor issues and then set to work on the weapons she wanted to make. She smiled as she began working on the components for Ban’s new weapons. She purposely designed them to look like traditional Japanese weapons but upgraded them with modern tech. She started with a naginata. The long sweeping blade was a folded titanium instead of steel to increase its strength. She coated in a matte black carbon and etched Ban’s household symbol into the blade. The handle could be shortened so he could use it as a sword. There were two small buttons on the collapsible handle. One would cause the springs to release and extend the handle to make it a spear. On the opposite end from the blade was a metal dragon head cap which hid a set of taser contacts. If you hit the other button, the dragon head would act like a cattle prod taser delivering a stun charge. Samantha found Temari balls easy to adapt based on her work producing upgraded grenades. She designed metal Temari balls that could be loaded with any powder. They had spring loaded openings that would pop open after a 5 second count. A small pressurized air blast would blow the powder into a cloud around the ball. They were refillable and could be used to create any variety of poisons or smoke bombs. She then made him a Kusarigama. She kept it more traditional with folded steel like one would use for a katana for the blade. The curved sickle-like blade of the weapon on a leather braided titanium handle which was connected to a titanium chain with a weighted spike bob on the other end. She then worked on the special piece of this collection, a special rifle that looked like a Sengoku era rifle. She hid a modern magazine in the handle of the rifle that would hold 20 bullets. The rifle would only shoot one bullet at a time though. The rifle would shoot the same bullets as a M80.
While she was working on new toys for Ban she decided to make something special for Purna. She decided to make Purna special ammunition. She thought about the logistics and materials needed. She got to work with the molds and presses available in the workshop. She made him four boxes of ammo for each of his guns. It was armor piercing fragmentation hollow point rounds. The special part was the hollow cylinder in the middle of the bullet. He could use a hypodermic needle to fill that reservoir with a poison or chemical of his choice. The end would be sealed with a low melting wax. When the bullet fired through the gun barrel the heat generated would melt the wax. The force of the bullet flying through the air would keep the poison contained until it hit its target. The round would fragment upon impact spreading the poison. Even if the round failed to pierce all the way through the armor, if the person handling the armor was not careful or didn’t know the poison was there, they could still be harmed by it. She put together a kukri style blade for him using the technology that mirrored her hand held laser welder that she carried in her gear. The power supply for the laser was in the handle. It was a very nice folded damascus steel which embedded a lovely pattern in the blade. The laser head was hosed in the end cap of the blade. The hinge popped open and he hit the button that was hidden as a stud in the ceramic metallic alloy handle. So on one end a lovely damascus dagger and the other end was a portable laser welder. The charge would not last long, maybe 10 minutes but Samantha was pretty sure that Purna would find it useful in the field.
She created a set of grappling hook guns for the team. She knew some of them would find them more useful than others. The grappling hook was fired out of a rifle-like device. The hook was attached to a 50 foot long super strong thin titanium alloy braided cable. There was a small but powerful winch on the back of the rifle with a motor strong enough to pull and hold four hundred pounds. Once the grappling hook was set, you could activate the winch attached to the cable which was located on the side of the handle. An operative could hold onto the metal reinforced handle or clip it to a harness for hands free lift support. The winch would pull them up or whatever was attached to the handle of the grappling gun up to the grappling hook. The only challenge with the grappling hook gun was it did weigh about 20 pounds. Samantha made a few smaller grappling hooks that were spring loaded with serrated titanium hooks. She had reels of the braided cable available to go with them. She created those for the operatives that wanted portability. The grappling hook was lightweight and could fold up in a cylinder about two feet long. She made sure Purna’s armor was repaired and tinkered with the power system to make it a little more energy efficient. She also made him some optional plates out of the new ceramic metallic alloy she had developed for the new armor she was making. It is lightweight and stronger than his current plates.
Samantha thought about gear for herself and Enri. She used a few of the quantum chips she had to build Enri a laptop computer like hers. She would let the hacker set it up her way. She built some drones especially to help her hacker friends out. They were small about the size of a baseball. They were round and would pop open when tossed into the air. The inside was a powerful transmitter and receiver that used the encrypted technology she had developed for Raven. Also inside was a small powered articulated arm with a gold plated sharp toothed alligator clip and a mini laser. The mini laser would burn its way through a housing or wire covering allowing the alligator clip to clip to communication wires. This would give them a hard dock to hack whatever the drones could access. The drones were designed to be used as a swarm and would be controlled by Bob. Once she had a hard dock with the tech she could turn the signal over to Enri and Rafeal back at the base. She did a little dabbling with the communication systems on the larger flying drones that Raven had. She upgraded them to the new encrypted sealed communication network to prevent Artemis hackers from taking them over again. That would allow them to call on the drones for air support again as well. Raven Squad had avoided using drones after the drone was hacked and attacked their team in the desert.
Samantha looked around and was tapping her fingers against the worktop. She couldn’t help feeling like there was still more to do. She had pulled up the designs for Skye’s exosuit. Samantha was reviewing the designs since she was not the one who had put it together for her. The tech had come from reverse engineering Rose’s suit. She knew the technicians were busy with all the work she had them doing. She had not turned Skye’s suit over to them yet for a rebuild because she wanted to see how much she could upgrade it. That was where she was as she had high tech schematics pulled up on her screen when Skye found her in the armory workshop.
The inquisitive Skye walked in, watching Sam at work, a smile on her face, firmly seeing the American in her happy place. She was hard at work putting everything together, nearly a single-woman engineering department, almost reminding her of Laura. Perhaps even a bit more than Laura. What Sam may have lacked in brute force, she made up for in absolute precision.
Skye glanced across the designs, whistling looking at the new kit.
“You have been busy.”
Skye sounded blunt, smirking back to Sam, running her hand over the grapple, the mantle-like device able to be rifle fitted, or for her purpose, something else she wanted.
“Thank you for this. This is all amazing work. The team are gonna be giddy when this all gets set. A lot of it came from prototypes sent to us but some of this is exquisite.”
Skye added, the redhead glancing back up, her tall height making it sometimes a little more awkward, but definitely nowhere near as bad as say, Athena would have.
Samantha looked up as she heard the whistle. She blushed a little since everyone including Sophie had been after her for over doing it lately. She suspected Chuck had snitched on her and told everyone else to keep an eye on her. She smiled at Skye feeling a little more at ease. Grateful that Skye didn’t give her a ribbing for trying to do too much as well. She simply nodded and pointed at the row of finished armor that the techs were putting the last touches on. The new gear laid across the work table.
“Thanks. I have been feeling restless and I want us to be ready for whatever Rose does next. We both know when she pops out of her hole like the sick weasel she is, it's going to be bad.”
Sam didn’t bother to hide the worry that had been eating at her since the blimp. She knew Skye would understand. She pointed to her computer screen and the schematics she had pulled up on it.
“Right now I am looking over the schematics for your exosuit. I want to see if we can make some improvements.”
Skye smiled, nodding back at Sam, looking at the screen and going through it. She seemed a little pensive, deep in thought for a moment, before she looked back.
“Interesting. I like the design. I like how you’ve linked up the fatigues and the exo’s clip points. That was always annoying. Though, being an early adopter I guess….I suppose it was time I made some changes. Alright, if you have me here, then why not. Let’s have a look. I know you like being busy, even against doctor’s orders, but, who am I to say no.”
Skye said, almost as if she was speaking to herself, pulling up details of pneumatic-hydraulic systems, plating, composite material, from the thin layer of carbon fiber that overlay a predominantly composite chassis backed by titanium and dragonskin where it had to be.
“Hmm, maybe tweak this bit here? See if you can mount a grapple on the arm. If we’re going clean sheet, let’s try that.”
Skye added, looking over something else. The exo seemed to have a similar charm to her old one- not as bulky as Adam’s, but much more a frame built around her body. The armour came with actuators, a jump-pack on the back of her hip that allowed her to double-jump and run on walls, as well as basically leap up three storeys at time, like her old one, but seemed to have more in the way of accelerative and movement-based capability.
Samantha pulled the keyboard over to her and began to type and draw changes on the screen.
“If you don’t want the grappling hook to take off without you, why don’t I design an armored gauntlet or an armor piece that guards your arm from wrist to elbow that I can mount it to?”
She continued to talk as she designed on the screen.
“You know the new tension polymer will be an improvement over your old ones. They are stronger and less prone to tearing. I designed some new jump jets for Athena’s armor. I can scale them down for you and place one off each hip for balance.”
“Go for it. Stick to a pack design though, smaller but with a bit more bite to them rather than a continuous lift design. Athena’s got a fat ass, I’m not exactly like that. Tends to be if you oversize them, they send you everywhere, so even if the jets are smaller, they’re….well, a bit more like just getting pushed. Trust me. I fiddled with it before.”
Skye added just nonchalantly with a grin, looking it through further, the design a lot more sleek- a black rather than the old tan-colour, that then meshed with her fatigues. Given the type of operations, it made sense to go with black and then have her usual fatigues under in a different fashion, although she’d less go for an undersuit and more for a composite, more advanced next-gen fatigues system with cooling and a skin-tight feel just for that extra little bit of comfort. It didn’t offer any armour of its own, but it did keep Skye cool or warm, which was a little nicer than just usual MTP fatigues she rolled with.
Samantha nodded along as she continued to make changes to the schematics while Skye was talking.
"I see what you mean. Do you want the jump jets to be optional?”
She made a few more taps on the keyboard before turning her attention to what Skye was saying.
“Put them in. It’s integral.”
Skye was fast to the reply, peeling up the ammo stores, amending them Freya’s M31 mods, the battle rifle now basically a railgun requiring a new mount for power. Where her MG3 ammo had gone in a small ammunition pack on her back, Skye tweaked it while Sam did her bits, putting the power source for the rifle there, running a cable through her arm and into the rifle, through a clever modular socket already found on it. She wasn’t an engineer or a designer by any means, but, it would at least put the weight off her arms and more onto her core, something Freya might not have needed to worry about given she could probably dual wield one, but even with an exo, 30kg was a lot.
“There we go. Open face is nice, I know Adam and Ebrima like theirs sealed, but I prefer a bit more visibility. Just need to add those tactical glasses in and….there. All you.”
Skye smiled back, brushing her burgundy hair out of the way as she headed over towards the corner of the armoury, letting Sam get back to it.
“Can I get you a tea or coffee, by the way?”
Samantha smiled as she noted the changes Skye was requesting. She made some notations on upgraded materials and some modular designs to make maintenance easier for the techs. She upgraded the power core and tweaked the power routing to be more efficient and reduce the bulk. She checked the composite for the frame and suggested some materials that would be a little lighter but just as strong. She looked up as Skye asked her if she wanted some tea or coffee.
“Tea please. If I drink any more coffee, I will still be here sometime tomorrow for inability to sleep.”
Skye chuckled, putting on the kettle, letting it boil away and preparing two cups of tea, lobbing in the teabags like it was another day in the office.
She had learned to appreciate this a hell of a lot. Little things like this. Mundane, stupid, silly things. Some people who lived like adrenaline addicts and on the edge got bored of reality, but for her, nearly dying, an awful lot, and enjoying the little things as the leader of this little task force to help out her colleagues meant a lot more. Boring was boring, but at least it got to exist so long as they kept going after people like Rose. And that brought some small joy to Skye at least.
“Milk or sugar?” Skye asked, as she poured the now boiled water in, filling each cup.
Samantha kept tweaking the design here and there moving some things around to make the profile sleeker.
“Sugar, no milk. Thanks.”
She looked over the revised design with a thoughtful look.
“Do you want any kind of on board AI? Or how about a slim under suit like mine with that temperature controlling ballistic gel?”
With that, Skye added just that, leaving her own black, bringing both over after a short but vigorous stir
“Here.” And the mugs went down, Skye letting hers cool off, before giving a gentle slurp. The Scot wore a cream yellow fleece and jeans combo, as casual as could be for an operator that normally was out tearing pieces out of people. There was this civilized nature to Skye, she looked over the design, responding back to Sam.
“Keep the fatigue underlayer as is. I’m just not that attractive in one of those undersuits. But yeah….I mean, it’s good, but I prefer the tactical appeal of mine. It’s got a little cooling to it here and here. Bit more basic, but it works. As for AI….I guess having another voice in my head might be good. I have Raven’s already networked, so maybe just some iterative improvements.”
Skye giggled at the first bit before getting more serious, smirking at Sam, the Scot doing her absolute classic understatements, her face and hair beautiful for someone who seemed to have a body that was more like some pentathlete’s frame, not to mention the litany of cuts, bruises and scars she had. In Singapore, she’d shown that off- she was able to become a siren on demand, but typically, she was much more tomboyish, especially with her hair only just about growing back from the pixie-short level she’d had in Nagoya.
Samantha’s nightmares had eased up after she began working on the gear. She still had that underlying sense of impending doom. She didn’t feel as manic and unsettled though. Having something to focus on had really helped. She would have to remember to thank Chuck for pointing out the obvious to her. She turned and accepted the hot mug from Skye and took a grateful sip. Her stomach gurgled, reminding her she had not eaten lately. She laughed at Skye’s comment.
“You would look fabulous in it and we both know it. The challenge is it distracts the men in our team. How about some optional lighter stronger plates for your plate carrier?”
Skye peeled it up on the laptop, pulling in the plate carrier.
“Go for the carbon-composite and dragonskin. It’s light, and segments. Means it takes hits, not like Adam, but keeps the overall figure down.”
Skye picked through, this suit more of an iteration on her previous one, but it being nice to work on this, the plate carrier covering the shoulders, with a thin plating on the forearms, thighs and legs that was pure composite, rather than backed by significant plating. Skye realized she had been here for a hell of a while, and hadn’t moved from this spot. It was in her body language, the kind that Skye didn’t even need words to see, that and her rumble.
“I mean, Athena distracts the men in our team. Between us, Natalie back in the day was something. It’s so strange how similar they are. Crazy. Anyway. That’s my little aside…”
Skye giggled like a schoolgirl, looking through the design again, pointing out another thing.
“Better absorption of drops would be nice. Mine throws me onto the floor at the moment. So a teeny bit more give, perhaps a coil rather than an air spring? And while we’re looking at stuff….do you want something to eat? You sound like you’ve been here a while….don’t know how cabin fever hasn’t hit you yet!”
Skye gently pulled in on the legs on the CAD drawing, particularly where the exoskeleton’s absorption mechanism sat, actually allowing the thing to be thrown off a building and hit the floor, superhero pose. Though it felt more like still, it just did a practical, functional job rather than a cushioning one.
Samantha just shook her head giggling with Skye. "Athena was in a league all her own and bold as brass to boot.” She sipped her tea while Skye explained what else she wanted. Samantha thought about the problem with landing. She needed to improve stability and a way to absorb that kinetic energy. Samantha had a thought and yeah that would work. She could layer that tension kinetic weave over the springs which she redesigned to absorb and rebound giving Skye a little assist back up.
“This should absorb the impact and then push you back up a bit. It might give you a little hop up. Would that work?”
Samantha had been lost in the design and startled as she realized that Skye had been asking her a question. She sheepishly pushed the laptop back a little.
“Well yeah…. Maybe I have spent most of my time here lately. But Skye! We need to be ready! It’s driving me kind of crazy. The only thing that has helped has been working.”
She looked away realizing she had not shared that experience with Skye. She took a sip of her tea. She sighed and stood up stretching out her stiff neck and back muscles.
“I know you are right. I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Feel like a trip to the dining room?”
Skye nodded, hearing her response, agreeing on that design.
“A little spring in my step. That works. Add it to this bit of the heel and…..voila. Perfect.”
Skye smiled, hearing Sam’s anxiety come back a little, sipping her own tea as well.
“That might be a good idea for food. We might make it for the end of lunch, if we’re lucky, so yeah, take a break. And while this thing is definitely making all of us anxious….only thing we can do is just do what we can. Have the gear we can. That’s why we drill, train, and push ourselves. So it all becomes normal. That’s the best way, but….you have done a hell of a job with this. Just don’t remember you’re not alone. There’s techs who can help you.”
Skye smiled back, masking her own feeling of unease about just about everything that had gone down.
Samantha nodded and felt a little silly. She knew that Skye had to be impacted by this too. Rose was technically her clone sister. They were very different people but it had to be difficult knowing that Rose was out committing who knew what atrocities and she had the same face as Skye. She sighed and pulled Skye into a hug.
“I am sorry. I have been so preoccupied with how I was feeling that I forget we are all going through it.”
She hugged her friend.
“I need to be a better friend.”
She chuckled a little determined to talk about something else.
“You know I heard that Chuck had the talk with the family and has been cleared to date Freya. How adorable is that? The man asked her mom’s permission to date her.”
She tucked her arm in Skye’s and led the way towards the food.
Skye returned the hug, feeling very much like a big sister to Sam at this point, even though professionally she knew she had to be incredibly careful. Yet, Sam had taken well after her. Skye was all aggression, capability, and Sam had been getting moulded into something approaching that. And the Scot felt a certain type of responsibility in herself to keep that, nodding back.
“It’s alright Sam. Don’t worry about it. So do I, I didn’t spend much time with you after everything went down. But we’re a team. And we always carry each other over the line. We all have a lot to deal with, but that’s what makes us the best.”
Skye kept herself stoic, to the point, but from a place of warm care, even though that didn’t melt out as often- yet still, it was more than ever before. With it, Skye followed Sam, heading out, hearing what she said.
“Brave man. But not a stupid one. The last person that Freya saw, she slammed a hammer into her gut. Probably best to clear it with family first.”
Skye smirked, already aware, and well, not one to pass up on some dry humour.
“Come on then. Let’s grab some grub. I hear they’re doing pasta bake. That reminds me of how much I miss Corsica from our last place, and Domenico’s cooking on base…man, that was good.”
Skye smiled, thinking back to an old team-member, and another time, sipping the rest of her mug of tea down, putting hers and Sam’s back, before following.
Samantha still didn’t feel like she had done enough when she left the workroom later that evening. She showered and fell into bed exhausted. For the first night in a while, she slept well that night. Her nightmares stayed away. She woke up late the next day. Her body finally forced her to get the rest she needed to heal. She woke up groggy and pulled on some workout clothes. She headed for the gym. She needed to start working on her flexibility now that the skin grafts were holding. She settled down for some easy and light yoga before heading out on a run. When she got back, she showered and went to get breakfast. She ran into Ban in the dining room. She asked him to do some light sparring with her. Her martial arts skills were getting a little rusty from not having used them in a while.
Samantha was sweaty again as she lay panting on the mat in the gym. Ban had been a man of his word. He didn’t take it easy on her. He was fitter than her at the moment and taller and stronger. He had the advantage over her. She suspected once she was back in top shape he wouldn’t find it so easy to put her on the mat. Sophie had warned her that while technically her ribs were healed that they still would re-break easily until the bones fully knit and the calcium sleeves over the breaks hardened. Ban waited patiently for her to get up.
Samantha groaned and tapped the mat. “Ban-san I think I am done for the day.” She slowly and with only some minor pain rolled wearily to her feet. She gave Ban-san a deep respectful bow. “Arigato gozaimashita.” She straightened her back and twisted from side to side to loosen tight muscles. She gave Ban a big smile. “Before you go I have some things for you.”
Samantha crossed the gym to the storage locker where she had been putting all the finished gear she had been working on. She pulled out the weapons she had made for Ban. She laid them on a table in a row and then turned to him with a bow. “Thank you for being a friend when I needed one, for understanding. I made these for you. I tried to honor your heritage. I hope you like them.”
