Armor Tesing
Chapter 7: Armor Testing
***
(Lacyus)
Ennica and I were walking down the corridors of the Bounty Hunter Guild Misier Base, navigating our way to General Fay Jueng. He wanted to see us before anything happened. The base was already very busy. Misier base was mosty a technology base. Here advanced weaponry and armor were build and put through their initial paces. I was ready for action, wearing my pilot suit, the comms link already in my ear.
"What do you think he'll be like, my Lord?" Ennica asked. I didn't mind her using my proper title when I was in unform.
I glanced around, eyeing everyone in the eye, a bad habit of mine. "Dunno."
We got to a door. The nameplate read Gen. F. Jueng. I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.
A voiced called from the other side. "Come in."
I opened the door and smartly snapped to attention and saluted. "Private Lacyus Akival reporting for duty as requested sir."
General Jueng, a fearsome looking tiger looked up from his desk. He seemed a bit older but generally friendly. "Take a seat you two."
Ennica and I crept forward nervously and claimed a seat for each one of us. His office was a generic office for an average officer. He sat in an overstuffed chair with a nice redwood desk. The walls were adorned with pictures of famous Bounty Hunters.
Jueng held out his hand to me and smiled. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you Mr. Akival."
That caught me off guard. Jueng was the thinktank the spearheaded the entire Paladin system. "Thank you sir, but it's really unneccisary."
He chuckled a bit. "Unnecissary?" He picked up a folder off of his desk and waved it to me. "Your personal file." He opened it. "Private Lacyus Akival. Enlisted July 3, 2007. Former pilot of Experimental Paladin Unit One. Current pilot Candidate for the Phalanx project. It says you have yet to bring in any bounties, but you have clocked 249 hours in the Paladin MAS." He closed it back up. "I say that would be an excelent record having joined over a month ago. On behalf of the staff and crews here at Misier Base, I'd like to welcome you to our humble 'outpost'"
"Thank you sir." I said, baffled.
He turned to Ennica. "As for you, Ms. Mykai, I am aware that you are a member of the Order of the Realms."
Ennica eyes went wide. "H-how did you know?"
Jueng gave a sly smile. "I'm the liason for the Order in this base. They informed me of you in advance." He got up. "I'd like to give you two a tour of the base before we start in on the armors."
We followed him out the door into the hallway. "As you probably saw on your way in, this base is divided into three blocks: the administration block, the armory and the test hangar and arena. We're in the administration block. I'll take you to the armory where you can pick your new pilot suit up Mr. Akival."
He opened a door and motioned to us. "After you." Ennica and I walked through and entered the grand courtyard. "You may have not noticed, but these building are beefed up majorly to stand up against major assaults. This base was converted from a millitary base to a Bounty Hunter Base, so the building are made to withstand extended bombardments and electromagnetic pulses." As Jueng talked, he lead us across the courtyard to the armory. "It's kinda ironic. Misier Base is mostly an engineering outpost where we test weapons and armor for the Guild. The Paladin was our crown achievement. Now, we've taken it one step further with the Phalanx and Paladin Unit 4." He opened another door and let us into the armory.
"What's so special about the Unit 4?" I asked, confused.
"Unit 4 is not much different. It does, however, use a Mobile Operations System that allows for more profiecient processing of combat information and resource managment. It has a more efficient reactor and more versatile weapon mounting points."
We got to the quartermaster table. The clerk saluted. "Hello sir, what do you need?"
Jueng pointed to me. "This is the pilot candidate for the Phalanx system. I expect you have the new pilot suit?"
The clerk nodded. "Just came in yesterday sir." He opened a box on a shelf and pulled out a bit of clothing wrapped in plastic. "Here the soft portion..." He turned to another shelf and pulled a box down. "And here are the plates." He took a clipboard off the wall. "Okay.... Your new suit is more bullet resistant than your preivous. It's got a built in computer to interface with the computer on the Phalanx as well as monitor your vitals. Oh crap, another..." He turned and looked at the shelves and pulled out a third, smaller box. "Here's the computer. Just sign here to confirm you recieved it and it's yours." He indicated a line on the paper.
I signed it and picked up the boxes. Jueng indicated to us that we should follow him. "Alright, let's get you into the armor."
***
(Two days later, Lacyus)
"Phalanx here. Nav point one reached, planting beacon."
The last two days were full of tests and operations. I had to push the Phalanx past it's limits in order to test it's combat abilities and manuverability. This was the Phalanx's maiden mission, if it could be called a mission. Some of Misier Base's sensor beacons had run down due to old age. I was tasked with replacing them, the new beacons strapped to my back. I only had a simple straightblade sword, a .454 cal Castull Auto pistol and a electric stun rifle just in case.
"Phalanx, this is Control. Copy position, over."
I took the beacon, a large pole with a bulb on the end of it and slammed the botton into the ground, embedding it firmly. I unwound the data cable from the gauntlet and plugged it into the port on the beacon.
"Control, Phalanx, ready to calibrate beacon, over."
"Copy that, standby......................... Calibration complete, stand by for next Nav Point...."
I tapped into the beacon's wide ranged of sensors and scanned the area. Everything was green. At least for a second.
"Control, I have a irregular thermal and sonic signature north-east of my position. Request permission to investigate."
"Stand by for orders."
I had the onboard computer for the Phalanx do a sillouette analysis on the thermal sig.
"Control, my computer is reporting a 60% sillouette match on thermal. Prediction is male draconian xenomorph. Zones recognized are muzzle, wings and torso."
"Confirmed, cleared to proceed. We are marking signature with a Nav Point. Shadowcat has been dispatched for back-up.
Shadowcat was Ennica's callsign. "This is Shadowcat. Entering area of operation."
"Shadowcat, Phalanx. Be advised, I will be moving straight to Nav Point Two. Don't expect me to wait at One."
"Shadowcat confirmed."
Despite its weight, the Phalanx was surprisingly nimble. At top running speed, it could exceed 100 km an hour. However, I was going for a slower, more cautious approach. As I got closer, I heard whimpering and growling. I readied the stun rifle and approached the signature. As soon as I saw it, I could feel a knife go through my instinctual heart.
A wild, non-xenomorphic dragon, about one and a hald times the size of a german shepard, laid bleeding near the base of a tree. The dragon looked very young, only three feet long and was ruby red and green. It had several deep gashes in it's haunches, and bite marks on it's neck. If it didn't get help soon it would bleed out.
"Phalanx here. I dunno if this is right but I am declaring a vetrinary emergency."
Jueng's voice became confused. "Err.... Okay, what's the problem?"
"I found a badly injured wild dragon. If he doesn't get help soon, he'll bleed out."
Jueng's voice regained confidence. "Okay, we're dispatching a medical team with a vetrinarian on hand. ETA fifteen minutes."
I slowly aproached the dragon, compelled instictually to help one of my kind. I turned on the external speakers. "Hey there buddy."
The dragon looked at me and bared it's teeth, growling as fiercly as it could in it's sorry state.
I popped the Phalanx's helmet off. "See, I'm just like you." I popped the gauntlet off and held out my bare hand.
The dragon curiously sniffed my hand before it licked it, giving me the go-ahead to touch it. I reached for the small medkit the Phalanx carried in one of the shoulders. Opening it, I took out some bandages and a small canister of biofoam. Biofoam was a corn starch based foam than expanded to plug wounds and aid in healing. I began patching the gashes on it's haunches, then stuck the nozzle of the biofoam through the bandage and sprayed some into the wound. The dragon hissed and snarled.
"It's okay bud. It'll hurt for only a second."
Dragons were among the smartest animals out there. They could understand fluent english, although they couldn't speak it. They were also highly social, but were also known to leave their pack and live on their own.
There was a rustling further away. The medical team, along with Ennica emerged from the forest.
***
(Three days later, Lacyus)
"Come on Ruuk, let's go."
Ruuk yipped happily and ran up to me, water from the fountain dripping off of his muzzle. Ruuk was the wild dragon I found injured in the forest. Since then, he became very fond of me, following me everywhere. He was very smart and I had no trouble with adopting him as a pet.
Ennica smiled. "He really likes you. I'm not much of a pet girl."
With that Ruuk tackled Ennica over and began giving her sloppy lick-kisses.
Ennica laughed, trying to force Ruuk up. "Okay, okay! I never said I disliked dragons!"
The two of us, along with my new companion, were heading home. It would be another three day train home. Both Ennica and I had backpacks on as we led the Bounty Hunter tech teams to the car we were staying in. It was a special car that was half cargo space, half living quarters. The armors would be in the same car for security reasons. The technicians pushed carts that had the Phalanx and the Paladin Unit Four on them. The armors were in pieces, as an added security feature and for smaller space occupied.
We got to the car and the techs began hoisting the armors onto the cars, chaining them down. After all that was done, we bid them a final goodbye and boarded the train. The wheels creaked and the train jerked as it started moving into the night.
The interior of the living quarters had one chair and two couches which could be pulled out into beds. They were covered in red leather, while the walls were wood paneled. Ruuk hopped onto the chair, curled up and shut his eyes.
"I think Ruuk has a good idea." I said yawning, pulling out one of the couches and spreading my blankets over it.
"Meh." Ennica shrugged. "I'm not tired yet so I'm going to the observation car."
She left and turned the lights out. I laid down and quickly drifted to sleep.
***
(In General Jueng's office)
"He's grown quite a bit."
A ruby red and black dragoness stood across the room from Jueng, leaning against the wall. Horns jutted from her head, facing back. Helldragon horns. Her eyes were cinder red, the same as Lacyus. She nodded in agreement. "He has."
Jueng casually typed on his computer. "And the panther, whats-her-name..... Ennica right?"
The dragoness smiled. "She was quite a handful when she was young but now I can't even see any trace of that little mischief maker anymore."
"And Mira."
The dragoness laughed. "Please! It's the people that aggrivate Mira that I'm worried about!"
"Do you think Lacyus'll make it as Lord of the Order?"
"Yeah. He's everthing we need him to be." She turned to leave. "I'm not going to put him in any dangerous situations though."
Jueng looked up. "It must be hard to be their mother and just watch them Alora."
Alora sighed and nodded in agreement. "It is. But I don't think they're ready yet."
Alora left the office behind. Her escort was leaning against the wall, a white bat, 16 years old.
"We're leaving Rayfall."
He sighed. "Whatever."
The two walked down the hall. Alora broke the silence. "Did you finish your search.
Rayfall nodded. "I only had couple seconds to search the cabin."
"Why so short?"
"I ran into a bit of resistance."
Alora nodded. "Continue."
"I found this." Rayfall held out a piece of paper with writing on it. "It's her parent's adress."
Alora raised an eyebrow. "Her parents?"
"Lord Akival found them for her."
Alora's face was lit up by a proud smile. "Good boy Lac." She mumbled under her breath. "Best thing you can give your mate."
Rayfall went on. "When do you want me to deploy ma'am?"
"Not yet."
Rayfall stopped. "With all due respect, I've been waiting for a high priority assignment ever since I joined. Why can't I deploy?!?"
"Because, I'm not dead yet."
"What?"
"I'm not dead so I'm still Lady of the Order. Neither is Nakur. He's still Lord of the Order. I still have authority. And until I see Lacyus and Sunset go from teens to true adults, they are not in command."