Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (13/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hello everyone here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 13 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

Sleep would not come as easily to me as it would with Thacea and the rest of my peers. All they had to do to retire for the night was to decide on which of the two soft, plush, magical mattresses they preferred before casually slipping under the covers to enjoy some much needed shuteye. Me on the other hand? Well, I was stuck with one of two choices: either sleep in the armor, or get my tent set up so I could sleep properly. The problem was, the latter option was going to take hours to set up properly.

So as Thacea began her long drawn out beauty routines for the night, enjoying the supple warmth of our en suite bathroom, and the five star hotel treatment that was the limitless supplies of amenity kits she used to care for her feathers, I was stuck unfurling and unfolding both the tent and the various kits necessary to get it up and running.

It was an ordered sort of chaos, something you’d expect from the deployment of a DRASH shelter before the predesignated human technicians or their engineer drones came in. However, whereas even the most understrength units had the benefit of an extra pair of helping hands, I was stuck doing this solo. With nothing but my two hands and the power armor’s exoskeleton to compensate for my exhausted and worn out muscles. The extra manipulator claw that extended from my backpack was nothing short of a godsend, as it aided me at points where my arms found it particularly difficult to reach.

Indeed, this whole setup procedure really stretched the definition of what individual assembly meant.

I’d requisitioned a good section of the bottom floor for my base of operations. Thacea, to her credit, seemed understanding and very much tried her best to ignore the mess that was quickly taking hold of an otherwise well appointed room. Couches, armchairs, and a coffee table or two had been pushed aside so that I had ample space to work with.

The tent itself resembled the self-assembling rapid assembly shelters that had been popular during the third extrasolar wars. It consisted of a rectangular main frame, with an angled ‘roof’ that Thacea had mentioned resembled the working class homes commonplace within the Nexus. However, whereas the titular tents it resembled were in fact self assembling, the tent I’d been assigned was anything but.

Self assembly was often reliable, yes, but failures did occur. Automated systems had a tendency to malfunction sometimes, and even after fully deployed, there was still a chance that something could go wrong after all was said and done. As a general rule of thumb the IAS demanded that a majority of mission-sensitive equipment was to be simplified as best as possible to lower the potential risks for a malfunction that would’ve necessitated complex, time consuming repairs or worse… replacement parts or supplies that simply could not be shipped.

It was an exercise in thinking outside the box for a majority of the logisticians who were used to the UN’s endlessly reliable supply chains. As a result, most of the advisors on the project were on loan from the UN’s Long Range Expeditionary Forces; the sole arm of the UN’s armed forces that were meant to go beyond the generally accepted sphere of expansion. They were meant to operate independently from UN supply lines for years on end, and so this necessitated the designing, planning, and implementation of novel solutions to what would otherwise be simple fixes offered by an unending stream of readily available supplies. The LREF’s logisticians and engineering corps were a godsend for the IAS, and for the planning of a mission of this caliber.

I had to thank them for creating everything that would ensure my long term survival here in the Nexus. However, I also had to remind myself to give them a piece of my mind when I got back home, because despite it supposedly being user friendly, it’d taken nearly a full hour before the entire tent was finally set up.

By that time, Thacea had found herself wrapped up in what I could only describe as a 10-piece set of fine silken and fur-lined robes. Each one looked comfier than the next, as they wrapped her arms, wings, waist, torso, legs, and tail independently of one another. Whilst she distinctly lacked hair, even her head feathers were wrapped up as well, reminding me of the stereotypical image of a spa-addicted suburbanite having just come off of a particularly overly complex spa treatment.

“I just wished to bid you a good night, Emma.” The princess spoke with a tired, composed, coo. Both of her hands wrapped around a steaming hot mug. My filters made sure that whatever aroma it was exuding was completely lost to me.

“Ah, Thacea, you really didn’t need to do that.” I responded, raising a single arm behind my head as I instinctively went in to scratch behind my neck, only to have my gloved hand make contact with the upper part of my backpack.

“Well I insist on it. After all, it’s the least I can do since I cannot offer you a cup of my night time tea.” She continued, hiding a yawn as she did so. “I shall retire for the night now. I suggest you do so as well, Emma. And please, try to relax for the night. Worrying now will only hinder the trials we will inevitably face in the morning.”

“Sure thing, princess. I’ll try my best.” I smiled back, as I entered the tent and began the slow, gradual process of demanafication within.

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Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30. Local Time: 0700.

The removal of mana had taken longer than the anticipated 1 hour as outlined by the field operations manual. In fact, it’d taken about twice as long. A combination of the machines needing constant recalibrations throughout the entire night, and power fluctuation and cycling issues from the dual generator systems caused a great number of unexpected delays to the actual operation of the mana extractors made the whole process one big clusterfuck to navigate through.