Chapter 7: Drills and More Drills

Later that day, after I had finished an intense upper body workout followed by some careful stretching and range of motion exercises for my leg, Naomi directed me to the workshop. I walked in and was startled to see a stranger standing there in the corner lit by a pair of floodlamps. I quickly learned that this was my new stealth suit, and it was armored!

Like the old suit, this one had augmentation to increase my strength and speed. Not much of an increase of either though, as the bulk of the suit’s augmentation was meant to compensate for the heavy suit. I inspected the suit closely. Instead of the previous one’s resemblance to a skin-tight wet suit, this outfit resembled a thickly padded snow suit. It was covered in hexagonal scales much like Ohmu, but these scales were larger and much, much thicker.

The arms had flat raised areas on their upper surface which I learned was for mounting weapons. The back had an integral backpack mount for an auxiliary power supply. I just needed to align myself to it and it snapped into place magnetically. The helmet, or hood, as it was flexible, had a drop-down reflective armored faceplate. I found myself grinning as I learned the details.

Ohmu came into the workroom from the bat cave.

“Let’s get you into your bat suit, John.”

Bat suit? Hell, Ironman suit ... except it could not fly. I expressed that thought verbally.

“Oh, I’m sure you will be flying soon enough,” was all she said, cryptically.

The suit came apart like an old suit of armor. The boots, legs, groin area, upper torso, arms, gloves, coif, and helmet were all separate. When I put them on in order, they sealed themselves to each other. Ohmu instructed me on where to place and move my fingers to trigger the seal / unseal functions for each piece.

Walking around felt both amazing and isolating at the same time. I had good freedom of movement, but I lacked a sense of touch. My senses were also filtered through the lenses and earpiece of the hood. Ohmu explained that the suit would shield me from directed energy weapons such as laser welders or plasma cutting beams. It would also provide some protection from flying shrapnel. I noted fusion explosions were not mentioned.

I spent an hour in the suit learning and practicing the basics. How to get in or out of it by myself. How to move, walk, and jump. I struggled with the manual controls for the camouflage and thermal protection features but finally had those down too. The suit’s brain would also respond to verbal commands for much of this and there were backup switches, in case its higher functions were scrambled by an electromagnetic weapon.

After Ohmu was convinced I would not kill myself in the suit, she announced that later tonight, we would be flying to Española Island for more detailed battle suit practice. There, we would have room to move around and even get to test the weapons.

At 20:00 I found myself struggling to fit through the starboard sponson’s deck hatch. Ohmu had brought Habu up on deck and I was attempting to make my way up to join her. I finally figured out that I had to have both arms raised up to make it through the hatch. This required me to brace myself with my back against the shaft as I pushed up with my legs a rung at a time. I finally managed but learned that it was a slow process.

Ohmu popped open Habu and changed places with me. She would be riding in her bomb bay storage compartment and I would fill the cockpit in the bulky suit. As I approached the open cockpit hatch I saw that there was a pair of the four-legged assault units hanging from racks directly below the center of the aircraft. Each was folded in on itself compactly and resembled lumpy fat bombs. They must be part of our night’s practice.

I took my place in the cockpit. This was the first time I had flown in Habu since the Indian Ocean and I was excited. When the hatch was closed, the inside of the small space came alive and displayed the enhanced view of the outside as if the aircraft shell was invisible. I looked around and saw the outline of the submarine sitting on the surface as well as the island five kilometers off to the northwest.

—You have the controls, John. The skies are clear of enemy aircraft and there are no low altitude satellites currently overhead. Proceed as you will to the southeast shores of Española Island. Do not exceed 1,500 meters altitude please.—

The suit’s gauntlets interfaced with Habu’s controls so my hand motions inside the gloves allowed me to manipulate the aircraft. I increased power and once the four fans were up to speed, I changed their pitch to vault us upwards. Vault up we did, and I was pushed back into the rotated seat! I had forgotten how overpowered Habu was and gave out a short, “Hell yeah!” I quickly tilted us forward and got us moving towards the island.

We were flying along a few hundred meters above the water and I was comforted by the fact that Habu’s A.I. or Ohmu would mitigate my stupidity. Within minutes we were over Española Island. I banked us around a few times looking for areas with less scrub and groundcover. A kilometer in from the ocean I spotted a dry streambed and circled the aircraft around. It looked big enough to safely land so I took us down.

After landing and exiting the cockpit, I was joined by Ohmu who was carrying a gear bag. The two assault units had dropped off as we were landing and were now deployed, forming a perimeter, with one on each side of the clearing. Each was facing out from the clearing towards the rest of the island, on guard for anything unexpected.

Ohmu’s eyes lit up and illuminated the bag she had brought allowing me to have an unenhanced look at the new weapon attachments inside. There were two. The first item was like a short double-barrel shotgun without a stock or grip. This attached to the top of my left arm. I learned that it was a double-barrel eighteen-millimeter grenade launcher. It looked familiar and Ohmu explained that it was a slightly larger version of the weapons mounted on the upper arms of the assault units. I walked over to one of the spooky little drones and compared them. She was correct.

Each barrel of the grenade launcher held five rounds stacked one atop the next and fired electronically. I was told that I could fire them one at a time or in burst mode up to all five at once. The right barrel held high explosive grenades and the left shaped-charge penetrators. I was concerned about shooting my own left hand but was reassured by Ohmu that the launchers would not fire if my hand was flipped up in the line of fire. Next, I asked how I was supposed to fire them since they had no trigger.

—There are multiple ways to fire your weapons, John. The first is to use the integrated suit intelligence to select and fire either weapon. Just say ‘Select: High Explosive’ or ‘Select: Penetration’ either out loud, subvocally, or by using the menu. The suit will then prime either barrel, or both, and a targeting reticle and overlay will appear in your visor. The ‘render safe’ command will unselect the primed weapon. Try all three commands, John.—

I did so and cycled through both barrels trying the commands. When selected, the active barrel appeared, highlighted in my HUD. I noticed that when my left arm was in view, that barrel was pulsating with a clear indication of its status. These messages only appearing in my display so there was nothing to give me away externally.

Ohmu continued, —To designate a target after selecting a weapon, just focus on it and either say ‘Designate’ or widen your eyes twice quickly while focusing on your target. After designating the target the weapon will be locked to that target until you release it. To fire, say ‘Fire: High Explosive’ or ‘Fire: Penetration’. Or, simply hold your eyes wide after designating a target. The active launcher will fire after one second of your fixed wide-eye expression. The launchers are currently loaded with practice rounds. Please expend the rounds now.—

I did as she instructed and tried the right barrel first.

“Select High Explosive.” My left arm vibrated and PRIMED – HIGH EXPLOSIVE appeared in my heads-up display.

I pointed my arm around and the enlarged view in my HUD changed to show where my arm was pointing. I stopped when a large outcropping of volcanic rock appeared in the view. I sub vocally said ‘Designate’ and the aiming reticle locked onto what I was staring at. I widened my eye twice on another part of the outcropping and the reticle switched and locked onto the new target. Cool!

‘Fire: High Explosive’, instantly there was a Thump! A fraction of a second later a splat appeared on the rock outcropping. The practice round had a thermal dye that illuminated in my night vision for a few seconds.

—Good!— I heard.

I did the same with the armor-piercing ‘Penetration’ barrel, also scoring a ‘hit’ on the piece of rock I had targeted. I continued firing both barrels using all three methods of selecting, aiming, and firing each. When I was empty Ohmu handed me a handful of new rounds.

—Simply hold the rounds near the ends of the barrels. They will magnetically align themselves and be drawn into the appropriate barrel.—

No way! I tried it and she was correct. When the handful of rounds was near the barrel mouths, I could feel each round being pulled towards either the left or right barrel. They would spin around in my loose grip and be sucked into the correct barrel.

As the rounds were loaded, a counter would appear in my HUD and an actual visual overlay indication would appear directly on the barrel if it was in my field of view. Ohmu handed me a second handful and I repeated the loading process until I topped off the right barrel. The left still needed two rounds.

“How do I just grab one type of round, Ohmu?”

—Just say ‘Retrieve: Penetrator’ as you reach into the ammo pouch. The magnets in your gloved hand will only lock onto that type of round. You can even add a number to your instruction.—

I subvocalized, “Retrieve: Penetrator, Two,” and reached into the pouch she was holding. I felt two slugs contact my open hand and withdrew the two slugs! Sure enough, they only loaded into the left barrel. Impressive! Ohmu then attached an ammunition magazine to the front of my battle suit just below my chest. It was a flat sealed shape that I was told would not be hurt if I crawled on my belly.

I could access this ammunition by simply holding either barrel over the magazine. Rounds would be ejected and magnetically drawn into the appropriate muzzle. The magazine held five full reloads of both types of grenades. The visuals I saw in the HUD when I reloaded reminded me of the cool graphics from those demon shooter video games I had watched Abby’s older cousins playing back when we’d have family get-togethers. Ohmu interrupted my reminiscing.

—There is also a manual way to select and fire each weapon, John. At the rear of each barrel is a small lift-up cover. Lifting the cover selects and primes that barrel. Pressing the detent below the cover will fire that weapon. Please practice this now. Note, aiming will be by intuitively pointing so your accuracy will be affected.—

I did as she asked. Manual mode was fun as I felt like a kid pointing my arm at a target with my other hand ready to press the firing button. My first shot was a meter off the target rock but I soon found how to adjust and became surprisingly accurate. After expending both barrels, I reloaded and waited. Ohmu explained how to fire more than one shot using the Salvo command instead of Fire. We did not practice that.

Next up was the weapon for the right arm. This was an electromagnetic pulse gun. It had a single barrel that bulged at its rear where its twenty rounds were stored. The rounds would cause an intense but short-range electrical discharge that would fry or cause a reboot of anything it contacted which included small electronic circuitry.

We practiced with this weapon using active ammunition. Our targets were a series of small aerial drones which Ohmu launched from out of Habu’s storage bay. The right arm gun worked and fired the same way as the left grenade launcher did and I was able to designate the drones as they flew or hovered in the air. I found that each round had the ability to maneuver in flight a few degrees so I could hit moving objects ... sometimes. After a short minute of fun, we were surrounded by the wreckage of all the little drones.

The last bit of weapons practice involved the two assault units. I ran drills with both and was taught how to command them using multiple methods. I had them moving around and responding vocally, with hand signals, and by using the HUD’s menu. I could even direct their targeting and fire their weapons remotely similar to how I had fired my own.

It got real towards the end when we drilled on having the two units retrieve my body. Ohmu caused first my suit’s legs to become paralyzed, then my suit’s arms and torso, while the drones dragged me around the island. They were even able to get me up and supported across both their backs which allowed them to carry me much faster than dragging. The bouncing around about caused me to throw up though.

At some point during the drills, I’d started referring to them as ‘Hans’ and ‘Franz’. Ohmu said that the pair would be my personal bodyguards and that she would have a large ‘H’ and ‘F’ painted on each. The last part of my nighttime jaunt on the island was speed and range of motion drills using the battle suit. I ran sprints, climbed, jumped, crawled ... you name it, I did it.

I even swam after jogging to the island’s coast and climbing down the short rocky cliff which took the place of the beach in that area. The suit was heavy, and I sank like a stone until it deployed small inflatable bladders on my upper arms, torso, and thighs. For short immersions though, it would be better just to walk on the bottom. The hood supplied filtered air and had a good fifteen minutes of onboard supply so I could stay underwater for short periods if needed.

When it was time to return to the ship, Ohmu stopped me before I could climb the cliff and return to the aircraft. As I waited below treading water, the aircraft flew over and hovered directly above me. I yelped as I was yanked out of the water by a short retracting manipulator. It pulled me quickly up to the underside of the craft and I felt additional grapples secure me like a human torpedo. Off we went flying across the water very fast!

“You little bitch!” I yelled as Ohmu flew Habu down low, just skimming the waves.

I felt her laughing in my head as we pulled up a bit higher. I suddenly remembered her cryptic comment when I had first been shown the suit. Oh, I’m sure you will be flying soon enough. Well, she had warned me.

Soon, we were hovering over the flight deck of Nautilus. The manipulators holding me relaxed a bit and I found myself standing on the deck. The two quadruped assault units dropped off and landed next to me and together, we moved off to the side as Ohmu landed the aircraft. The drones followed Habu down into the front hangar hull while Ohmu and I used the starboard deck hatch.