Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (39/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 39 I hope you guys enjoy! :D 

Main Gate. Crownlands Herald-Town of Elaseer, Transgracia.

25 Minutes and 47 Seconds remaining

I knew that things would pick up in intensity the moment I entered the town. I understood that there was no time for caution, and no opportunity for pause. I even had the EVI running at full blast, directing the three drones above the town to make sure I had as much situational awareness as possible as I exited the microcosm of gentrification that was the carriage, and stepped into the real world for the very first time.

Yet not even that was enough to prepare me for what I was immediately thrust into.

Because everything assaulted me all at once.

From the brilliant display of lights that gave the main street this almost picturesque look befitting of a fantasy-themed hallmark card, to the hundreds upon hundreds of conversations happening all at once across the entire breadth of the street, through to the gates, and all the way down each and every sidestreet and alleyway… this place both looked and felt alive.

I felt a brief pang of homesickness even, as part of me felt almost at home with the crowds going every which way. Each person living their own lives, going about their own days, each with their own story to tell.

Yet that sense of familiarity was tempered by the obviously fantastical elements of the place. From the constant and distinct clanging of metal on metal from what I assumed was a blacksmith or smithy hidden somewhere in one of the sidestreets, to the faces of each and every passerby that was most certainly not human, there was no doubt about where I was.

It was at that point that it finally hit me, a realization that had been left hanging in the midst of the overstimulation of both sights and sounds from the town, and the assault of battlenet notifications from the EVI.

I was actually outside for the very first time. This was the first time I was actually seeing the Nexus for what it actually was, beyond the political machinations of the elite, beyond the busy bodying of the ruling powers…

This was what life was actually like.

This was the true face of the Nexus.

And this was what was actually at stake.

We were no longer talking about the destruction of some cushy office somewhere within the maze that was the castle, or some souped up lab with priceless artifacts belonging to the Crown or the nobility, but a place where honest to god regular people spent their day to day. People who were completely oblivious and removed from whatever their so-called ‘betters’ were doing up there, hundreds of feet above their heads.

This only served to fuel my determination

It only added another layer of gut-churning anxiety to beat the clock before it was too late.

[Alert: Target location confirmed. Alert: Local area map scanned and digitized to 72.92% completion, suitable for navigation. Alert: Fastest route to target location plotted…]

[Alert: Begin nav-assisted pathfinding Y/N?]

“Yes, and try to make sure we use less congested routes, because we’re going to be using exoskel-speed-assist.”

“Affirmative Cadet Emma Booker.”

“Let’s fucking go.”

=====

“Can I talk to you about something else, Auntie Ran?”

“If this is another question about that Medal of Sol game they based loosely around my exploits, then I promise you I’ll be tripling the number of chillis in tonight’s curry-”

“No, no. I mean, kinda? There was a part of the Jovian campaign that just felt really intense, and just didn’t feel fair. It’s the part where instead of just jumping, shooting, and grappling-”

I remember my aunt visibly shuddering at any mention of that word.

“-you were actually tasked with doing stuff like reactor defusal while also at the same time still shooting enemies. There was a timer for this map, and that’s what I felt was really unfair because the timer doesn’t change even if you switch difficulties. It just changes the number of enemies, and it’s just really hard. I was wondering if that was actually what it was like and if you think that it was like, accurate and stuff?”

It was rare for me to see my aunt actually pausing anything she was doing. When she was committed to a job, she was impossible to stop, even if it meant leaving the door unanswered for entire minutes, or the phone ringing for hours on end. I remembered that this was one of the only times she actually took the time to actually stop cooking, to put both the wok and the spatula down, even if it was only for a few short minutes to carefully consider my question.

She didn’t even outright dismiss it or call it out for what it was: a dumb question by what was at the time, a dumb kid.

Which I remember made me extremely anxious, and that much more surprised and taken aback when she finally did respond with something completely unexpected.

“Yes, that’s accurate. Because if there’s one thing you can take from that map, Emma, it’s that while you could argue real life does have an easy, medium, and hard mode, that there’s one thing that’s the same across every mode… and that’s time. You can’t control time, and no matter who you are or where you are, whether you’re the High Admiral, or a freshly minted ensign, you can’t stop time. You can only do your best to make sure you get whatever that needs to be done within whatever time limit’s been imposed on you. Do you understand me, Emma?”

It was in those rare few moments that I both understood, but didn’t at the same time. I thought I knew what she meant, but it was one of those lessons that only became more and more relevant with age and experience.

“Yes Auntie Ran, I understand.”

It was definitely more relevant now, than ever before.

“Oh, and Emma?”

“Yeah?”

“Did they just have you shooting bad guys and defusing the reactor in that map?”

“Yeah, and solving minigame puzzles, why?”

“There was no escort mission? No evacuating civvies? No crisis management or collateral mitigation?”

“No?”

“Heh. Then there’s half of the real life campaign thrown right out the window. Because in real life, you’re not just sitting there worried about you and your friends getting blown up… it’s everyone else as well you have to be worried about. And it’s them that you have to protect, that’s the whole point of the job after all. Think about that for a bit before you sign up. Oh, and pass me the chillis.”

“You mean the chili-jam?”

“Where the hell did you get that? Get that out of my face before you disgrace this whole family with that nonsense.”

=====

Warehouse District (?). Crownlands Herald-Town of Elaseer, Transgracia.

10 Minutes and 47 Seconds remaining

My aunt’s words couldn’t have held more weight if she’d tried, because here even an entire reality away, they still rang clear and true.

My seemingly endless sprint across the entire length of the town had finally brought me to the source of the signal.