Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (44/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here's the Work in Progress for Chapter 44 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

I woke up with a sudden gasp and a reflexive jerk. My whole body reeled back from another one of those microsleep-induced dreams, the ones where you slip and fall into the abyss, only to end up being propelled back to the world of the waking.

I was too groggy to make heads or tails about where I was, but I didn’t need to. Even though everything was weirdly hazy, the dread of a deadline, and the fear of sleeping on another assignment was more than enough of a reminder to my current situation.

It was another late night at the IAS’ staff-only rec room, and I needed to get this assignment done stat.

So with a tired breath, and a quick rub of my eyes, I went straight back into it. Reading what little I wrote in hopes of getting inspired to keep on writing. “Human tenacity knows no boundaries, but-”

“-but this hasn’t been without its price. Such as staying up all night in the rec-room for no good reason at 3am on a weekday.” Another voice suddenly interrupted. A cocksure, playfully dismissive voice, belonging to one of the many instructors at the IAS on loan from the military. Except instead of the usual rank and file army officers, the man was LREF.

That much was obvious though by the way he talked, walked, and carried himself. As everything about him screamed space explorer ‘bad boy’; this decade’s stereotype for a branch of the military steeped in as much historical prestige as it was marred in gross overspending.

The gold-trimmed blue cloaks they wore didn’t really do much to deter from that latter stereotype. Though to be fair, gold hasn’t had the same appeal ever since the mega-foundaries started roaring to life en masse.

“Captain Li, sir!” I stood at attention, but was just as quickly dismissed with a single hand barely a second after I’d lifted my mine’s up for a salute.

“At ease, at ease. Save the salutes and what-have-yous for Field Captain McCay. It’s late anyways, Now, what exactly were you mumbling about, hmm? Prepping for a speech or somethin’?”

“I’m just working on my SDS CCIDE, sir.”

The man stared back at me as if I’d just spoken some long-dead pre-22nd century Earth dialect.

“Erm, it’s an assignment. Homework, sir. For SIOP.”

“Oh! Right. Thought I was having a bit of a stroke for a moment there, Cadet. Jeez, don’t scare me with bureau-speak without warning me first!” The jabbed cheekily, before promptly taking a seat across from me, his eyes darting back and forth across the few hundred tabs I had opened across ten different holo and physical screens alike.

“I’ll keep that in mind, sir.” I shot back with a respectful smile.

“So, SDS… self-directed studies I’m imagining?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Aaand CCIDE? Never heard of that one.”

“Cross-Cultural Information Dissemination Exercises sir.”

This elicited a sharp, whistling sigh from the man. “Smooth. Memorized, rehearsed, and spoken like a true civil-servant. You know, if all of this doesn’t work out, you have a bright future ahead of you in one of the (). That being said, I bet you weren’t expecting homework of all things when you signed up for this job didn’t you?”

“Not necessarily sir, but it makes sense. Stepping into the unknown necessitates the mastery of both martial, and diplomatic aptitude.” I paused, placing a hand over my mouth, before letting it slip further upwards to hide my face, before ending up scrunching a good bit of my messy hair. “I went full bureau-speak there, didn’t I?”

“Gee, what makes you think that?” The man once more shot back with a sly chuckle. “Just make sure you get enough sleep, Cadet. We’ll be going over VI-Assisted Field Repairs tomorrow, and after we do… we’ll probably be going over why you shouldn’t over rely on VIAFRs, courtesy of Field Captain McCay via teleconference.”

I took a deep breath, nodding, before steadying myself by shutting my eyes and reaching for the energy drink sat atop another stack of e-ink documents with a hundred variations of the word [CLASSIFIED] plastered all over them. However, instead of being met by the cold, comforting embrace of a 10-alloyed can of caffeine and sugar-substitute infused beverage, I was instead met with nothing.

In fact, I suddenly felt constricted. My loose fitting nightwear was suddenly replaced by the skintight undersuit of my gear, and then enclosed within a thick, solid layer of unyielding composalite.

I was inside the power armor.

Opening my eyes, I wasn’t met by the mid-millenium chic of the IAS’ recroom.

I was instead floating in darkness.

An oddly familiar darkness.

Confusion consumed me. Followed closely by panic.

But those two gut-twisting emotions had nothing on what came immediately after, as I began hearing it again.

And it was just as otherworldly as when I last heard it.

It started out exactly the same way. A constant stream of distant chimes, pulsating in intensity from a barely audible pin-drop, to a soft whisper at its peak.

I instinctively reached for my ears, but found my hands unceremoniously slamming against the helmet again, unable to reach them as the incessant vibrations started tickling them, sending wave after wave of shivers down my spine.

“EVI!” I shouted.

But there was no response.

There was only the thrumming darkness growing ever and ever louder.

“EVI!!”

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!

“EVI!” I jolted up with a raspy shout, panting heavily as my eyes began darting around, my hand instinctively reaching yet again for my sidearm but finding it firmly trapped within a soft cocoon of canvas.

I looked down in confusion, just to be reminded of the sleepsack I found myself snugly tucked into. A sleepsack that I just about managed to squeeze inside the tent right before the rays of the early morning started to bleed through the dorm’s windows.

My bright idea of shoving the sleepsack into the cargo-airlock at the beginning of the whole repair process couldn’t have worked out better. This was because I’d just about managed to squeeze in repairs just as the mana desaturation process had completed, leaving me with the prize of actually sleeping on something that wasn’t just hard plastic.

MEDICAL ALERT: Detecting elevated Heart Rate, Blood Pressure, Respiratory Rate, and stress hormones; EEG patterns outside baseline standard. Patterns indicate [1] episode of variable-rate night terror. NOTE: This marks the second night terror logged.

“Noted, EVI, thank you.” I managed out with a sullen sigh, plonking myself back against the plasticky floor of the tent with a dull thud, cushioned by the padded canvas-like material of my sleeping bag.

“First the Null, and now our mysterious noisy Cthulian-wannabe inhabiting the space between spaces…” I paused, before slowly unzipping out of the cocoon of canvas, reaching lazily for my tablet. “EVI.”

“Yes, Cadet Booker?”

“Set a reminder for me to bring up the mystery of this noisy entity between portals to either Thacea or the Library when we have the chance. You know? The one that we encountered after jumping after Mal’tory through his portal? Set it for… I don’t know, a few days from now or something.”

“Affirmative, Cadet Booker. Reminder set.”

“Right…” I let out another sharp sigh, before getting up properly this time, rubbing the drool from the corners of my mouth with the backside of my forearm. “Diagnostics?” I spoke lazily through a yawn.

“QSR: All suit systems nominal, Cadet Booker.”

“Are my repairs holding?”

“Affirmative, Cadet Booker. I’ve run passive mechanical stress-tests whilst you were asleep. Repairs were completed within a 1.73% margin of error.”

“Good. Captain Li would be proud.” I let out a grin, realizing now just why my dream had started out with a direct callback to the IAS and the LREF Captain. “The night terror episode barely lasted for half of the dream, so I’m going to call this one a win. Plus, at this rate, I’ll be rid of them sooner rather than later.” I tried my best to reassure myself as I moved to stand in front of the armor, noting a few scratches on the paintjob. Superficial damage aside however, this avatar of technological exceptionalism was ready for round two. “Alright then.” I continued, as I began climbing into its vacant back, entering legs-first. “It’s library time.”