Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (37/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 37 I hope you guys enjoy! :D 

[ALERT: GENERALIZED SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED, 2195% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS]

[ALERT: CRITICAL FAILURE DETECTED IN TELEMETRY SYSTEMS. STANDBY, STANDBY.]

You know that feeling when you miss a step on a flight of stairs? That feeling where you suddenly feel like the world’s been pulled right out from under you? Where that one misplaced foot causes the mundane rhythm of walking to turn into a sudden and unexpected adrenaline-fueled, stomach-twisting, palpitation-inducing panic?

[ALERT: MULTIPLE SYSTEM FAILURES DETECTED… THE FOLLOWING PROCESSES CANNOT BE EXECUTED: VISUAL DATA, AUDIO DATA, RADAR DATA, LIDAR DATA…]

Well, that’s what I felt the moment my foot left solid ground, and I went all in into that portal.

[INITIATING TROUBLESHOOTING RUNTIMES… STANDBY]

[REBOOTING 3(s)… 2(s)… 1(s)…]

[RECALIBRATING 3(s)… 2(s)… 1(s)…]

[REINITIALIZATION PROCESS FAILED. ATTEMPTING TROUBLESHOOTING RUNTIMES… STANDBY.]

Except unlike missing a step on a flight of stairs, where the whole thing lasts about a handful of skipped heartbeats at most, my experience lasted for minutes.

[ALERT: ERRONEOUS SENSOR READINGS; INVALID VALUE.]

Entire minutes of constant disorientation and a gut-twisting feeling of constant acceleration, as I fell further and further into an impossibly empty void that even the suit’s sensors found impossible to quantify.

There was nothing around me but blackness, worse than the vacuum of space, because even then there was some light in the form of stars in the far distance.

There was nothing like that here. Not a single twinkle of starlight, not a pinprick of light of any kind that the suit could discern.

There was nothing for the suit to pick up, no information for it to relay to me.

[ALERT: UNSTABLE SURGE OF MANA-RADIATION DETECTED: 2593% ABOVE BACKGROUND RADIATION LEVELS… WARNING ANOMALY DETECTED… RECALIBRATING… RECALIBRATING… ERROR! DETECTING 29 + 1 DISTINCT TYPES OF MANA-RADIATION.]

That was, until I heard something. A constant stream of otherworldly sounds that could only be described as a resonant chime. It came and went with every other second, pulsating in intensity from just barely audible to as loud as a half-hearted whisper.

It tickled my ears, sending wave after wave of shivers down my spine. Each wave stronger than the next, each whisper relentless in its assault. My whole body began to shudder, as I tried to keep it together, twisting this way and that in the lightless vacuum of the void, before I finally yelled out in frustration.

“TURN IT OFF! EVI! SHUT OFF THE EXTERNAL AUDIO SENSORS!”

“Unable to comply, Cadet Booker. All sensor suites are currently offline.”

“T-then shut off whatever static you’re playing! Turn all internal speakers off!”

“Unable to comply, Cadet Booker: All internal speakers are currently generating no sound other than my verbal responses.”

My whole world came to a screeching halt at that, as my palpitating heart came to a complete stop, just to sink into my gut as my fear and anxieties grew.

If everything was off, if the sensors weren’t even detecting anything… How was I hearing that noise?!

I thankfully didn’t have much time to ponder that though, because as quickly as that thought hit me, so too did I finally feel the tug of gravity pulling at my form. The world quickly shifted from that void-filled nothingness, and back into reality.

With that, came the unfortunate realities of an uncontrolled descent.

[ALERT: SENSORS BACK ONLINE.]

[ALERT: TELEMETRY RESTORED.]

[ALERT: UNCONTROLLED DESCENT DETECTED, 39 FEET ABOVE GROUND-HEIGHT. ACTIVATING EMERGENCY BRACE PROTOCOLS]

CRACK

I hit something.

CRASH

And I hit it hard.

I felt the tell-tale signs of the suit’s controls taken away from me for those few decisive seconds, as my body became nothing more than a passenger riding backseat as autopilot took the wheel, overriding my inputs to ensure that A. I didn’t die and B. I didn’t accidentally break something on my fall.

The EVI was right to do this though, as I was literally unable to make out anything on my way down to solid ground.

The best I could make out was a blurry mass of green whizzing by me, before it all came to a head in the span of a handful of seconds.

THUD

That hard landing knocked the wind right out of me, as the armor did its best to compensate for the sudden force of impact that would have resulted in a broken mass of Emma if it wasn’t for it being built to handle this very sort of thing.

The suit began running its emergency diagnostics now, as I took those tentative few seconds to just lie there for a bit. My eyes continued to be assaulted by a barrage of notifications as system after system reliant on the telemetry readings were quickly restored.

Speaking of which…

“EVI, quick-status report.” I managed out under an exasperated breath, when all of a sudden, the suit’s controls were suddenly, and unceremoniously, given back to me.

“Parsing QSR Request, standby…” The AI spoke calmly just as my night-vision sensors were quickly switched on, clueing me into my surroundings almost immediately.

There was nothing in my immediate field of view but trees.

“Where the heck are we-”

“Suit integrity: (stable). Environmental Control Systems: Nominal. Mechanical Functions: Nominal. Suit Systems: Nominal. No damage registered. No field-maintenance required. Continuing QSR Query: Current Location. Current location in relation to established area of operations is unknown… conclusion: Current location unknown.”

The AI paused, as I saw the litany of sensor systems from proximity radar through to active lidar being activated in rapid succession in the form of picture-in-picture screens dotting my field of view.

“Logging current location: Unknown Forest #1, unknown distance in relation to established area of operations. Continuing QSR… Scanning for potential hostiles, standby.”

I took my time scanning the area around me, not once moving my head as my field of view was artificially enhanced by the litany of picture-in-picture screens as well as an artificially projected FOV enhancer courtesy of the suit’s situational-awareness programs designed explicitly to improve the density of visual information being relayed to my eyeballs.

I couldn’t see anything so far, but I wasn’t taking any chances as my hand preemptively moved towards my holster.