Training Session 347
Noctura slams her heel into the side of the holographic assailant’s face, firing off a few shots of plasma in the other direction as she spins, taking out two more incoming enemies. Music echoes in her helmet, the voice of the computer drowned out by the lyrics of her training playlist. Three more holographs sprint toward her, two in front and one behind her in the mock alleyway. She grins. Easy.
Duck, roll, takedown. Two of the holograms take each other out, and Noct puts her plasma blade through the chest of the last one, just as a buzzer rings throughout the simulation room.
“Simulation over. Difficulty, expert. Score, ninety-six. Time, ten minutes and forty-seven seconds. Training session 3-4-7, concluded,” drones the computer, both in her helmet and throughout the room, just barely audible over the music. Still, the information is displayed on the visor’s screen, and she swipes it away with a sigh. She pauses her music, taking off her helmet and wiping her brow as the holographic cityscape collapses around her into pixels, leaving nothing but a dimly lit, enormous room. Every surface is covered in matte metal plating, no furnishings or obvious lights, only a window high on one wall and an open door below it.
This place is so depressing sometimes, she thinks ruefully.
“Oi, Noct, stop spacing out!” calls a familiar voice over the intercom. “Mari’s gonna blow up the kitchen if I leave her alone too long. Get your ass in here for dinner!”
“I’ll be there in a moment, Lei. Just gotta put away my gear.” Noctura laughs. “She’s doing curry tonight?”
“Yeah, and I told her to put extra spice in yours and next to none in mine, so if she mixes that up we’re gonna have issues. Now come on! I’m hungry.”
Noct walks out of the training area with an exasperated sigh, tapping a button on the outside of her helmet thrice when she gets to the locker room nearby. Her suit clicks and whirs, mechanics and nanotech folding and moving across her body to open itself up, allowing her to disconnect cords and circuits from her spinal attachments before stepping out of the suit with a slight stumble. I can never get used to switching between normal and enhanced biomechanics, can I? The suit compacts itself into a block of tech, humming and whirring as it calibrates and processes new data from the training session.
Meanwhile, Noctura pulls out a clean uniform to replace the combat jumpsuit she was currently in, double checking her prosthetics for wear and tear. A quick glance in the mirror lets her catch a glimpse of her spinal implants, and Noctura sighs. None of the cybernetics showed any damage, unlike her scarred, slightly misshapen body. Her chest is flatter than it should be, and she knows she’d never fit into anything smaller than boxers, no matter how hard she tried.
It was a tradeoff, she guessed. Get born in the wrong body, in the worst kind of family, and then in return she’s given incredible abilities thanks to technology after suffering for so long. Still not fair, though. I wonder when the waiting list will clear up-- hope it’s not while I’m on a mission. Noctura slips into a simple grey tee and slacks, not bothering to zip the standard-issue red and blue bomber jacket.
Then she reaches back into her locker, taking out a large, reinforced backpack. The bag has an internal metal framework, meant to house her inactive suit of armor, flexible solar cells lining the outside, similar to ones on the suit itself. However, they’re more discreet, so unless someone was really looking, the bag seems just to be a bit bulkier than average. The suit beeps and flickers a few lights, seeming almost cheerful as it begins to charge using the stored battery power once Noctura has hefted it and slid it inside.
“I know, you get some rest too.” She mutters, zipping up the bag and slinging it over her shoulders. It was more of a companion to her than some people she knew.
The trek back to her dorm is uneventful, for the most part. Noctura’s joints feel like they’re creaking pistons, per usual, the cybernetic implants in her brain and body wirelessly connecting her to the network, allowing her to listen and walk upright as any able-bodied person should be. She checks the mission bulletin and the newsboard for recent information. “Junk, junk, interesting but not useful, junk…” She mutters to herself, absentmindedly scanning her handprint and eyes as she enters her dorm room, the smell of spices and a bit of burned flour wafting out.
“Finally! Come on, Noct, sit and eat.” Lei chides, the fair-skinned, stout brunette pulling out another plate and set of utensils for the table. She moves with a smooth, silent grace, uniform neatly pressed and pristine.
“Did Mari burn something?”
“No I did not!” calls a voice from the kitchen. A darker-skinned woman with a thick black braid and patches of paler skin pokes her head into the room from the kitchen. “Some of the flour spilled onto the burner while I was working.”
“Mari, you sure it’s not something in your lab?” Noctura chuckles. “If I have to repair another hole in your jacket from an acid spill--”
“Jeez, Noct. You know I’m not that reckless” Mari groans. “That was one time!”
“And you nearly melted through the floor, not to mention your arm. You’re lucky these uniforms have reinforced materials.” Lei scoffs with a small smile. “I’m not qualified to patch up wounds that are that severe, even if I know how to, babe.”
Noctura watches the two girlfriends bicker for a few minutes with a small smile, unstrapping her bag and dropping it next to her chair as she seats herself. “Are the others back yet? I know Vigi and Semtex had a mission, and Uncle Drak is probably meeting with General Derino.”
“I’m not sure--” begins Lei, before the door opens and the latter of the aforementioned team members strides in. “Speak of the devil!”
Drakunov rolls his eyes. “The only devil around here is my niece. She puts enough heat into our food that hellfire would burn colder.”
Mari lets out a laugh, carrying out a steaming pot to set on the table. “I didn’t put too much in this time, you can season it to taste.”
The other agents look at the red, steaming curry with extreme suspicion, glancing at each other. They know what Mari considered moderate was close to the limit of spiciness for any sane person. Fortunately for her, most of her fellows enjoy the challenge. Still, the fragrant meal makes their mouths water, and everyone present sits down to eat, passing around beverages, extra additions, and utensils before digging in.
“Ah-ah--! Dammit Mari, I said easy on the spice!” exclaims Lei, as she takes a swig of soymilk. “That’s not anything close to mild!” The medic scowls at the offending chemical engineer-turned-chef.
Mari looks up from adding a heaping helping of hot sauce and pepper flakes to her own bowl. “I could barely taste it! Are you sure?” She grins mischievously. “Or maybe you’re just getting tired of my cooking.”
Lei grumbles a bit, rolling her eyes. “Don’t even start. Everything is wonderful and you know it, you just probably burnt off a few tastebuds with your capsaicin addiction.”
Noctura and Drakunov glance at each other, Noct giving a wry smile and a sigh before cautiously tasting Mari’s curry. Her mouth is on fire, and she sits up ramrod straight as she processes the sudden heat, Lei passing her the soymilk. After a swig and a few breaths, she turns to Mari with a mock scowl.
“You are trying to assassinate me!” Noct can’t hold back a chuckle. “It is good though, just…yeah, tone the spice dial back a little. She glances over just in time to catch Drakunov’s face going a little red, but he seems to have tolerated it best of all. “I wonder if your affinity for spicy food is genetic, Mari.”
Drakunov raises an eyebrow. “Or, you’ve been slacking on your training.”
Noctura rolls her eyes at that. “And you haven’t? What, has Derino been sparring with you while you two talk strategy, or is the bruise on your chin from something else?”
Lei leans forward. “Ohhhh! This I’ve gotta hear.” Her eyes sparkle. “Did he finally ask you out?”
“I do not have a crush on my superior officer, for the last time!” Drakunov snaps, and Noctura can’t tell if his blush is from the spicy curry or the embarrassment. “He accidentally hit me with one of his wild gestures-- you know how that man is constantly flailing about to make his point.”
“Uh-huh.” The three ladies respond in unison, bursting into giggles and returning to their food. The rest of the night is largely uneventful, with each agent returning to their private quarters within the dorm after dinner. Noct can hear Mari and Lei quietly chatting in Lei’s room, and Drakunov’s bed creaking as he sits down on it. However, despite the lack of outside noise, Noct finds herself browsing the files she has access to, rewatching video after video of previous missions, programs whirring to life, searching for any anomaly or connecting factor that she hadn’t noticed before.
“You’re not going to find anything by doing the same thing over and over you know.” Noct glances over at Mari in the doorway. “That’s just insanity.”
“Yeah, thanks Mari.” Noct grumbles, sitting up in bed. “What suggestions do you have?”
“First of all, try this.” Mari holds out a small wireless drive. “New files to match with what you have, plus what Vigi and Semtex sent back today.” Noct takes it wordlessly as Mari continues. “After that, I have a few program optimizations based on your training today, maybe those will help?”
Noct shrugs at that. “Maybe. You know the software better than I do, and I’m practically living in it. I wouldn’t be surprised if you turned out to be a simulation.”
Her friend laughs, shaking her head. “We’re not in a simulation, at least not that I can tell. Anyway, try that. I’m gonna go crash.”
“Don’t crash too hard, Lei probably has words for you.”
“Oh don’t you start on me, at least you know Lei and I are dating!”
“That’s why I can tease you so much more.” Noctura grins, beginning the download. “Thanks, Mari.”
“Don’t mention it.” Mari waves, padding back to whatever comfort awaits her while Noct continues to work well into the night. After a few hours of downloading and configuration, She finally starts the baseline analysis running, closing her eyes to try and sleep while the images flash by in the background.
The dreams come faster than usual. Shards of glass fly everywhere, and her legs hurt with phantom pains as she lands, rolling to take the impact before opening fire. Flashes and explosions blind her, and suddenly his face is there, horrified. How could he let her stay? After all, she tried to kill him, or made it look like she did. She was good at that. Being someone else, pretending to do something that has seemingly no purpose. Gaining trust and then breaking it like all the bones of others’ she’d shattered just to satisfy the woman she’d been torn out of. How many of her own bones had splintered so that the man responsible could prove he was superior regardless.
It made her sick with disgust and regret.
The beeping program startles her awake, the cold numbers and data washing away the panic as artificial hormones take over for a brief moment, and then she sees it. “No way…”
The program had identified a pattern within the runic carvings on the black stone ruins Vigilax and Semtex were currently visiting, and ones Noctura had explored so many times before. They were everywhere, under the cities, scattered through the wastes, even small pieces of the stone fueling the core of her armor. And, it seems, the strange symbols that covered every inch of their surface was a language of sorts, and an extremely complex one at that. Her suit hums to life within her bag, and Noct scrambles to open it, watching blue light emanate from the circuitry and then looking down at her legs, finding the same glow. It felt… familiar. Like the pieces of this ancient civilization that were keeping her alive suddenly recognized themselves.
And then everything fell into place.
The programs started whirring and beeping in Noctura’s head, a cacophony of analysis and data being rewritten, downloaded, converted, and uploaded causing her to clutch at herself. All of her missions and training sessions, all of the data brought back by others, all of the research compiled by historians and officials and the Lorekeepers’ Coalition, all of it needed reexamining, and her suit had decided now was the time. Noctura agreed. This was revolutionary, and if this was right…
They weren’t alone after all. There were others long before the Raising who may have known how to fix this mess. Or, at the very least, prepare for disasters like it. What other secrets were those ruins hiding?
It was only a matter of time before she’d know.
FIN
