Recoil: chapter 7, Reflections.
After I slayed the tank, we shipped out back to base camp, which was about 50 miles away. My state of invulnerability only lasted 20. I dropped on the spot, not unconscious, but sore as hell. I dragged myself to a tree stump and tossed myself over it. "Get up dude, the trucks only a few miles ahead" Bone beckoned to me. Everything hurt, but nothing more than my upper body. It felt like a rubber band that was stretched way too far, and then snapped back to normal, about thirty times. "Poor thing's crashing, give em' a minute." Sargent Layton spoke out. "How you feel boy?" I lifted my jaw off the dirt enough to speak, even under the weight of my gear. "Like someone tossed me in a god damn jet engines turbine." They laughed a bit and tossed me an orange which bounced off my head. "Ouch..." I mumbled.
Having something in my stomach helped a little, even if some got in my eyes. Only adding to the overwhelming pain. I guess I've come a long way from my old standards of pain. Back in the days of high school a stubbed toe or a punch in the arm "killed", but now punching though solid steel and being shot on a daily bases seemed more of an annoyance then actual pain. After fifteen or so minutes, I felt strong enough to keep walking, which felt more tasking now that I wasn't pumped full of uranium for all I know. "What was that shot anyway sarg?" I asked swinging my pack over my shoulder. "Does it matter? It works, no deadly side effects, and there's plenty more back at camp." More? There's more? I couldn't help thinking how much a vile would go for street price. "Windsnarle whipped that stuff up a few days after you left, took your DNA and made a custom tailored adrenaline shot. For your body only, I may add. So don't go jabbing SWEETS," He slapped the solider in the back while he lite a cigarette. "Thinking you'll turn him to superman. Only thing he'll get is cancer." "Or a tail or some shit," Jackal chimed in. "Speaking of cancer, Sweets, can I get a light?" I asked the man. "Sure dude." He light one and handed it to me, I took a large lung-filling drag, just as I did in that dream-BMW a few.... Weeks ago? I had completely lost track of time, I just go with things. Approaching a dirt parking lot were two large olive drab colored troop carriers were parked, we organized our packs and other gear in the back of the long "Bus" looking vehicle, and secured them with a few ties.
The entire ride back to base was pretty dull. Foreseeing this, I sat cross legged on the floor and curled up, about ready to sleep for the next forty or so minutes. I thought subconsciously about what brought me to where I was now; Transforming, being captured, shot, tazed, beaten, kicked, treated like a god, then tossing that up to train for hell. Well, I could be in class, wasting my youth away on some knowledge of some man, who at some time did something worth writing in a high school text book.
But those adolescents. They would never get to even do that again. Never come home to their parents. Never sit down and have dinner with family. Never find love. Never forge the metal of their lives. And I'm to blame.
A coldness of guilt shot through me and into my chest, forcing my memories to flash quick images and sounds of that day. The blood. The screams. The scent of death lingering in the spring air, tainting the oxygen with dread. And luckily I didn't have to think about those things much longer, as I felt a jolt go up my body and sent me crashing down on the metal floor back-first. This was followed by sudden laughter and high fives. "What the fuck was that!?" I complained, rubbing my sides. "Drainage ditches man, their out to get chu'" Bone mocked a bit. "Sorry son, you looked so cute and compiled I just had to" Sarge hollered back, half laughing. Holmes helped me back up to one of the seats, "don't go dosing off again, we'll be at base in ETA 5 minutes." I nodded and took a seat, rolling my eyes.
A few hours after we got to the encampment, I lay on my cot, passed out, a wool blanket tossed over me like a used napkin. We had all unpacked and got credited for our completion of the final section of training, then we all kind of just, split up for the rest of the day. Seeing as though I have nothing else to do (or anything better in the manor) I just hit the hay until dinner. I didn't really dream, I was too tired. And I didn't want to think about the things I did. I didn't need to tear myself up anymore then I already was.
Several hours later, I removed myself from my nylon and wool cocoon to go eat. I just had my camouflage leggings on; I kinda forgot to do anything else. But it wasn't cold, since the rain dried up a lot, it had gotten much warmer outside, and there were breakings in the clouds for the last shards of light to leak through onto the earth's surface. I opened the creaky wooden door to the mess hall, a stampede of voices and chatter greeted me from all of the worn solders. After grabbing a tray and an assortment of meats, bread, and potatoes, I sat down with the rest of my squad. "They got our first assignment ready for us. 0500 hours tomorrow." "Already? Damn, they run us hard." "What did you expect when you got into all this? This is war, no spa shit." A little conversation between bone and I. "Well, what do they want us to do? Surly just some recon, I can't imagine that they'd want us doing hardcore stuff this early." Bone tore the flesh off the leg of some doomed, grilled animal, and then shrugged. "All I got dude, wait till' sarge gives us a briefing." Well, I liked surprises.
And no later than after I'd finished my meal, trusty Layton put a hand on my shoulder. "Come with me, son" "Looks like the briefing" I joked to the rest of my squad. We exited the mess hall, it was starting to get dark as we walked over the grass to a small piece of metal roofing, a clean looking cement bunker with an assortment of locks was placed under it. Why didn't I see that before? "How'd you like to guinea pig some hardware for us, while completing your mission you undoubtedly know about, for me and the techies?" Cool beans, worth a shot. "Yes sir." "Good, now turn your back solider, can't have you looking at the code." I heard some small beeps, and then a little chime as a heavy metal door opened. I turned back around and followed the man down a dimly lit flight of concrete stairs. Moments later, he opened another door; a harsh white light blinded me. "Careful what you touch, I don't even know what half this shit is." When my eyes adjusted, I looked around. We were in what looked like a lab, well, more of a medical lab. "This is under the infirmary, when a little off-home chemistry and work needs to get done, we accommodate such needs. With authorization of course." I had nothing to say, mostly because my time at Windsnarle Bio Tech had me exposed to plenty of this type of stuff. There was a group of scientists and technicians formed around flat screen monitor displays, wires, hard drives, and in the center, what looked like the largest massage chair in the country... I say that because I know japan probably has something bigger. "What we want you to test for us is something that they," He pointed to the men in coats, "call the MSTS. Multi Situational Tactical Suit." Just hearing the name gave me Goosebumps. And I immediately thought of when I used to play Halo with Stephen back in the normal days. "Ok, I'm just going to trust you guys know what you're doing." I said submissively. "Ok, first I'm going to need to put on this jumper, to allow full motion and protection while in the suit." A young scientist handed me a sleek, chrome jumpsuit. Black indented lines ran along the limbs, meeting to a circular point on the back of the neck. I slipped off my current attire and stepped into the jumper, it felt like wet plastic on my legs as I pulled it up. Magnets in the back snapped together, sealing it before I could react. "Ok, now what." I asked with a hint of confusion. "Before you proceed, move around a bit, make sure everything fits well." I rolled my arms, picked up my legs, knelt and got up. The skin-tight jumper fit like a glove. "Tis' all good". "Ok, now just lay back in the device to your right, and place your arms and legs in the indentations on the inside. I began to question myself. What if I lay down to have a vice sever my limbs off? Regardless, I lay down; my limbs and tail as well were cradled by the machine. "Good, now the suit itself must me assembled around the driver to assure maximum performance. So keep calm while the system does so..." Small, metal arms with various metal pieces extended around me, and hovered just millimeters above my flesh, touching the silver jumper. "Now, this is when we need you to remain calm as the deep layers and synthetic muscles are laced into place. You may feel some tightness and a struggle to breathe don't worry, this is as expected." I looked down to my chest were the largest of the devices lay suspended. Then very bright blue, stretchy, gel-like layers began to wrap around my body, up to my neck, but not my head. I heard a deep hum as the blue layer snapped to the exact form of my body, squeezing me a bit too tight for comfort. I felt my heart beat a bit faster, my breathing become a bit more laborious. The man instructing me turned to another, older male at a monitor, "Vitals stable, layer in place." The other nodded, "Make sure the conduits are not obstructed, then apply the main suit muscle..." The instructor held his tablet up and entered a small keyset, and then the machine hummed a bit louder, and then opened up smaller chambers along the side, exposing a shimmering, black-and-silver-hexagonal-patterned section of the muscle.
It wound round my limbs and latched to the conduits, making a high-pitched noise. It irritated my ears a tad. The last remaining conduit on my chest was met by multiple, much larger sections of the suit, winding into it. I'm guessing the main assembly was complete, because the instructor held two large combat plated slates, and snapped them over my main knee's caps. Kneepads, of course. Similar plates were attached to my elbows. "You're doing great sir, just two more critical systems to tune and apply, and then we can proceed to testing." I nodded quickly in compliance.
The humming under me wasn't letting up. But after about 2 minutes I felt a large click on my back, followed by the stopping of the humming. "Now we need to attach the shock system and the helmet portion of the suit..." The instructor mentioned half-mindedly as he typed. Three new gadgets rose around my head, and then sealed shut over my muzzle and head, clicking and locking into the suit. There was no airflow in this thing! I can't breathe! I began to panic and struggle to breathe. Faintly I heard the beeping of an EKG monitoring my heart rate as it accelerated. The soft hiss of air rushing into the helmet calmed me down, although all I saw through the suits visor was a deep red tinted version of the lab, some strange black ran lines along the edge of my vision. I felt a few more clicks and locks engage along the side of my legs, and up my spine. "Power unit installed, activate when ready." The high pitched sound of night vision goggles filled my ears as my visior's vision brightened and returned to its normal coloring. LED lights blinked and phased on the visor, displaying code, then the Windsnarle biotech logo materialized in a low opacity whitish-blue light, then faded. I didn't understand all the information being showed to me. "Ok sir, now I need you to slowly sit up, but do not stand please" I obeyed and rose. It took much more effort in the suit then it did normally. "Good, now follow this red circle with your head, not your eyes" He held up his tablet with a large red dot illuminating the screen, he moved it right, I looked right. He moved it left, I moved left. Same for up, down, diagonal, and small formations. "Ok, now slowly stand up please." I gripped the sides of the machine with my paws, aiding my ascension. Once at full stance, I felt much taller, but it was also much harder to stand. "Ok, you're doing great sir, now we need to instruct you on the operation and proper use of the suit". "Sounds good, I just trust you guys here, I don't want to break this thing." I joked slightly, my initial fear subsiding and being replaced with great curiosity. The instructor looked once more at his tab, then seemed to read off to me, "Located on the underside of your left wrist a the main interface device is housed, from there you can fine tune and adjust nearly all functions of the suit, as well as engage it's primary modes." He took a breath. "And keep in mind, if you wanted to know everything about the suit, you'd have to spend the next 3 months studying a nearly missile-proof textbook, so I'll just give the basics." I snorted a laugh. "There are two main modes pre-programmed into the suits syntax, Armor, and Torque. Armor is pretty self-explaining; it diverts power the rough exterior of the suit's synthetic muscle, as well as hardening and shielding other sections of the suit. But the drawback is it restricts movement significantly. Activate this mode by turning the dial plate counter clockwise until it locks." I crossed my heavy arms, "Sounds easy enough, anything else?" "Oh, and whenever you activate a function, it drains the suits energy supply, usage varies, but it recharges automatically over time. You can also charge it with every step you take." Well, that was important. "The second mode, torque, diverts power to the mid-layer of the suits muscle, enabling an incredible increase in strength, and movement speed, the downside is drains the suits power much faster than armor, because it requires more energy, But I'm sure you'll find value in the short time it can be used." Alright, this was all kind of happening too fast for me to honestly know what was going on right now... or at any point, on that matter. But during my little brain failure trying to think things over, the man was still talking to me. Well, can't say that's never happened before, just ask my 5th period teacher... if she's alive, that is. "And that's all you basically need to know, the suit was made to do the work for the solider, not the other way around, so I wouldn't worry about learning everything. He looked nervously at his tablet for a moment. Interesting. "But I am going to ask one more thing, and that is you're going to have to wear the suit for at least 6 hours before it can be removed, your DNA strain needs to be acclimated into the suit, for better overall performance." "So it's like my pajamas for a night?" I asked half-assly. It got a smile on his face for a moment. "Basically". Cool, nice comfortable armor to sleep in. Then Layton pushed some file folders and a book into my hand, "Your mission briefing, read it, you deploy at 0700 hours, and that's the manual for the suit, and suggest you familiarize yourself with it." Then he clapped me on the shoulder, "Get some shut eye boy, you'll need it."
I climbed orcilshly into my bed hanger, situating myself with a small bulb to read by. But through the visor I could barely make out a word. Remembering some info, I modified the dial plate on the inside of my wrist, the visor transitioned into a green tinted hue. Night vision to read a book. This was going to be a long night.