Wearing Power Armor to a Magic School (68/?) WiP 1 (Patreon)

Hey everyone! Here is the Work in Progress for Chapter 68 I hope you guys enjoy! :D

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Emma

I was floating.

I didn’t know how, I didn’t know why, I didn’t even know for how long.

All I knew was that I was here.

Calm.

Relaxed.

And tentatively at peace.

Though even that came with a caveat.

Hence the operative word tentative.

Because despite the initial wave of calm, and the subsequent flows of relaxation, a distant, looming, gnawing sense of dread began fabricating itself a home; turning those gentle waves into turbulent tides.

Like the looming feeling of anxiety on a night prior to an exam, or the sense of impending doom that came with spending your last night at your childhood home before moving out for good, that gnawing, unrelenting sense of worry just wouldn’t let up.

It just grew.

It just grew and grew and grew until finally, it came to a head.

As either complete unconsciousness finally takes hold.

Or, a complete departure from the fight between calm and anxiety manifests itself.

In my case, it ended with a simple question.

One that I myself muttered out into the empty nothingness.

“Are we ready?” My voice echoed until it became dull and muffled, its presence in the nothingness of the void seemingly acting as the catalyst for its change, revealing a smudgy hazy world that I couldn’t make heads or tails of; like I was staring out of a pair of glasses caked under ten layers of grease.

“What? Like, for the mission?” A voice suddenly responded, a familiar voice with an equally familiar face materialized in front of me, in the form of the ever warm and encouraging grin of the LREF Captain. “I think that’s a question only you can answer, Emma.” He continued, the blurriness of the world suddenly clearing up chunk by blocky chunk, as I found myself once more in the officer’s lounge; once more with a pile of practice paperwork strewn in front of me. “I mean, unless you mean to ask if you’re ready for the endless litany of paperwork in which case, trust me - you’ll never be ready.” He managed out with a teasing chuckle.

“No sir I-.” I paused, taking a look at the sample paperwork before me, before breaking out in a small chuckle first. “You have a point there, but that wasn’t the intent of my question.”

“Oh? Well what is it then?” The man leaned back, adjusting his gold-trimmed cape as it eventually came to a rest flush against his chair. “Is it about the equipment? If so, you’re second only to Dr. Mekis and the science team when it comes to understanding how much we’ve come in the field of anomalous exoreality energies-”

“No, no, it’s not about the equipment, or any other practical concerns sir. It’s about… the possibility of scenario E-10.”

“Ah, that.” The man’s features shifted suddenly, his expressions not necessarily darkening, but contorting to something that reflected the severity of the proposition at hand. Yet despite that, his gaze never left my own, even as I occasionally tried to deflect and shy away from his eye contact. It took a few moments before he finally responded. But not in the way I’d at all expected. “Yeah, no idea what that is.” He shot back with a complete shift in tone revealing his mischievous intent, his lips parting, revealing a toothy grin that all but shattered the tension of the room.

Confusion struck me at first, before a revelation struck me just as quickly as I realized the mess-up I’d made. “Ohhhhhhh! God, I’m an idiot…” I muttered out sharply to myself, prompting the LREF Captain to let out a sharp snicker, as he chuckled softly to himself.

“You’ve been spending too much time around the Soc-Sci departments, Emma.” He started, shrugging all the same. “But I can’t really fault you for that. This is a diplomatic mission first-” He paused, before flipping his hands back and forth through the air. “-aaand a scouting and recon mission as well but… I’m not going to be deducting points away from you not memorizing the exoreality strategic response protocols. That’s our job, following of course from the assessment of our civilian counterparts. But still, I get where you’re coming from.” His face once more shifted into something resembling that severe and thoughtful one he started off with. “Remind me, E-10, that’s using the Revised New Oslo criteria, right?”

“Yes sir.” I nodded sharply in response. “The five-step shorthand analysis for assessing diplomatic engagement. With A being Proactively Positive. B being Tentatively Positive. C being Neutral, unresponsive, and or ambivalent. D being Tentatively Negative, and E-”

“Pens down and guns out.” The Captain interjected with a sullen sigh. “With E-10 being the absolute worst of the worst case scenarios.”

“Yes sir.”

“Then I think what you’re referring to here is Protocol 12-01; something we’re gaming to initiate at the earliest signs of E-10.”

“Yes sir.” I acknowledged again, simply nodding as I clenched my fists tight. “I… I am concerned… not for my own safety at the hands of a potential enemy… but at the threat of E-10 being actualized, and 12-01 following suit. I’m worried about the very real possibility of war, Captain Li.”

A brief silence punctuated my response, as the Captain seemed to take every word spoken with genuine care and intent.

The man breathed in, before letting out a sharp exhale as he spoke. “I admit, it’s been too long since the last big one.”

“Sir?”

“Three hundred years, Emma. Three hundred years of uninterrupted peace. Barring that little blip that was the Jovian Insurrection, we’ve enjoyed a period of unprecedented peace and security. Now, while most might say we’ve been getting soft over the years, I’d say that couldn’t be further from the truth. Because now? Now we’re stronger than ever, more organized than ever, better trained, better equipped, and better prepared for anything. Heck, why do you think they brought me on Emma?”

“For your forward expeditionary expertise?”

The man furrowed his brows in response, as if expecting another, or a more detailed answer.

“That’s part of it, a big part of it, but just a part of it all the same. What was the LREF’s founding mission?”

“To act as the premier, foremost, self-contained arm of the armed forces with the capacity for the prolonged, protracted, large-scale projection of force beyond the traditional confines of the Army, EAF, and TSEC?”

“Correct. But more than that, we were founded because of a latent fear, Emma. Do you know what that fear was?”

“The fear of what’s out there?”

“The fear of what lies around the next nebula, what’s lurking behind the next star cluster. Correct. For the moment the first FTL drives spooled up, we knew we needed to be ready. And I’m sure things haven’t changed despite it being more than a millennium since that day. For the moment the first portals open up-”

“-we’re already ready.” I surmised, prompting the man to finally respond with an approving, cheeky grin.

“Correct.” The man shot a finger gun back towards me. “So don’t worry. Your job is to scout and report back. Reconnaissance first, and assessments if possible. For both our civvie overlords, and our chain of command.” He responded with a strong and reassuring smile, before placing a hand against my shoulder. “Don’t worry, Emma. We’ve been preparing and gaming for this day for the past half a millennium. Let’s just hope it doesn’t come to that though.” He offered encouragingly, as I closed my eyes and nodded.

Only to open them to see nothing there.

The room was empty.

What’s more… the emergency lights were on.

And the pre-recorded audio of voices calling for an immediate evacuation blared throughout the empty and blood-soaked halls.

“ATTENTION. ALL PERSONNEL REPORT TO YOUR NEAREST EVAC POINT. ATTENTION. MULTIPLE PORTAL SIGNATURES DETECTED! ATTENTION. ALL PERSONNEL REPORT TO YOUR NEAREST ESCAPE POD! ATTENTION! MULTIPLE PORTAL SIGNATURES DETECTED OUTSIDE OF THE CONTAINMENT AREA! ATTENTION-”