Chapter 29 – Happiness Is Slavery
She wasn't sure what it was, a separate personality or just a body willing to follow external commands contrary to the desires of its consciousness, but Valla found herself doing exactly as ordered. She thus stood in an armory with the redheaded Bokat-Anne Vizsla.
The biggest difference between a crossbow (possibly infused with magic) and the MR-7 was the recoil. The shoulder-bruising recoil. Magnetic dampers made it better, but the laws of physics were not suspended in this case, and extended use was not recommended. Ironically, usage of the Synchronized Control Targeter actually improved the recoil, as allowing one-handed operation (with a special stabilizing element holding both guns) necessitated drastically reducing each weapon's overall power.
Much to the amusement of Bokat-Anne, Valla insisted on trying to fire the MR-7 standing. Only half-jokingly, Vizsla called in a standby medical team.
"You only avoided damage to your shoulder because you got thrown on your ass" laughed Bokat-Anne afterward. "With great power comes…great potential to be blown across the room by your own gun."
The Demon Hunter mentally reminded herself to mark this down as yet another reason to minimize gunpowder usage in her world, if she ever got back there. A blossoming bruise on her rear would also serve as a deterrent to trying such antics again.
The dissonance between her burning hatred of WET and, frankly, enjoyment of the equipment/training on offer drove her nuts. But if she couldn't control her own body and wasn't being made to harm anyone yet, why not have some fun?
Next came the bodysuit and light plate armor (no J117 heavy power armor, not yet anyway). Miniaturized power sources, often derived from 0-10-4s, let SPEAR (and thus, WET) build devices well beyond the capabilities of "the outside world," such as 'Merida' or the system Valla now wore. Said setup allowed her to retain her rapid battlefield movement while offering more protection than her previous garments.
[…]
Some might call it poor security—that the Heroes were able to track down Nova and after only minor sneaking get to her. Others would retort the new arrivals had everything in their favor in ways nobody, not even SPEAR, could have planned for (crawling through air ducts, mental links, FSP links). In the end, a sleepy Nova found herself roused by ten of her compatriots.
It was at this point Jim Raynor found out he'd been underutilizing his resources—as Brightwing seemed unfazed by the darkness.
"Wow…even with bed-hair, Brightwing thinks you still very pretty!"
"At least we never had Tychus" griped Nova. "He'd have a field day—he's always imagining me with my armor off…"
"So you don't wear your armor everywhere, then" said Johanna, sounding slightly surprised.
"And you do?"
"If you lived in a world where demons could come bursting through the wall at any moment due to incompetent leaders letting the forces of hell fester, you would wear your combat gear as often as possible."
"Armor? You call that armor?" snarked Kerrigan. "You're the most fragile person I've…"
She stopped her line of comment, seamlessly using her greater psionic powers to switch tracks before inadvertently reducing Nova to a blubbering mess.
"…ever seen pack such a nasty punch" she finished.
"Do you know anything about the device that made you bigger?" asked Malfurion. "The more we find out, the easier it will be to take the fight to these people of ill repute!"
"Well, it exists…"
Brightwing's glow caught unwanted attention as an orderly, assigned to do rounds, peeked his head in. Seeing it, he hit an alarm, causing the room's lights to come back to maximum and several full-3D images to be taken of the scene in fractions of a second.
"Paging Dr. Grimes, paging Dr. Grimes, we have an anomaly in room AA23!"
Grimes, herself roused from slumber, was still yawning as she complained that "this better be something really important to drag me out of bed at this hour!"
Upon seeing her patient surrounded by almost a dozen small things that appeared to be people (or in some cases, creatures) her attitude immediately changed. One keystroke cancelled the alarm. Another blamed it on a "system malfunction." She manually deleted all holos taken before they could be backed up or archived. Finally, she turned to the orderly.
"I'm sorry Jenkins, but I'm going to put this blame on you. I'll explain later. Just go! Take my badge back to my quarters and have the rest of the night off."
Closing the door, drawing the privacy shade, and speaking in whispers, Kara Grimes couldn't believe her luck. If she and others suspicious of WET wanted to undermine them from the inside, these newcomers might be the best way to do it. Nova even seemed far less burdened by her memories in the presence of these, acquaintances? Friends? She wasn't sure—though it was very intriguing to see that the cafeteria talk of "other little characters" wasn't just more WET saber-rattling.
"As you can probably guess, I'm not supposed to be here, at least not beyond checking the alarm, which I got rid of. Hopefully, I can tell you everything I know and what we're trying to do without anyone catching on…"
