It wasn't much past three when Aria called everyone to the main hall of my base. Someone had collected several chairs and arranged them in rows facing the door of the Forge. There was even a small table with a coffee machine and biscuits setup. The plain office chairs looked a little out of place amongst the Japanese temple styled hall and I made a note to design some chairs and other furnishings for the room that would suit the look. A stage would fit in well in front of the forge doors. I'd make it in two parts both able to fold in on themselves so when they slid to the side they would fit into the corners of the room whilst protecting the instruments and audio equipment.

It was the first time I had had for some time where I wasn't either focused on building armor and weapons or knocking myself out with my sleeping pill and I enjoyed being able to let my thoughts drift.

I could still sense the tower and the floating island waiting for me to let it appear, but it wasn't distracting. There was a little more weight to it now that there was before, and I had a sense that the pressure was growing. I assumed it was building up to another power. Pro – no more interruptions whilst the tower was blocking the path. Con – if the pressure and powers accumulated, I was likely to be swamped in the future. Didn't look like I was going to be able to put the progression off forever. Thankfully the pressure wasn't very strong and seemed to be building quite slowly.

I grabbed a couple of biscuits and sat down facing the forge and wondered who was going to be presenting. Taylor or Danny being my guess.

I was soon joined in the seats by Kurt and Lacey who had been spending most of their time assisting me. Operating machinery, moving parts and materials around and assisting with the assembly of armor, drones, and weapons. They were both skilled craftspeople and I was grateful to have them helping me on this project.

Mr. Hebert came in soon after with my dad. They had spent most of their time working with Aria. I wasn't sure about a lot of what they were doing, but I knew that sorting out the paperwork for an independent hero team, sorting out the legalities of a rescue and preparing information on the corruption and leaks within the PRT and Police. I only knew that because of the questions Aria or they had asked of either myself or addressed to both me and Taylor. I let Taylor take the lead on everything apart from the equipment.

Taylor came down with the troops shortly after. She was already suited up and I wondered if I should be as well. At least none of the troopers were so I wasn't totally out of place. Which reminded me I needed to hand out the suits and make sure everything was properly tested once worn. None of equipment had failed their start up tests but that was no excuse for not testing again. I had standards.

Parker and Blum were a pair of navy mechanics that knew their way around machines and weapons equally well. Jean Parker was a the tallest and most massive of everyone here, built like a body lifter with medium length curly black hair and dark skin. His face seemed to be set to a permanent scowl though I was sure I had spotted a brief grin when I had joined the simulation to run them through the proposed weapons modifications. He had selected the M240, a rather large machine gun. He was probably big enough he could have carried it without the powered armor. Marcus Blum was the shortest of the group and, whilst solidly built, it wasn't obvious when he was next to Parker. He was also the darkest and had his black hair in tight curls. He had chosen a Saiga-12 gas operated shotgun.

Next came Hopkins and Mills. Hopkins had very recently unevenly hacked his previously shoulder length blond hair short, that and his grin gave him a slightly unhinged look. It was a pity they were going to be behind dark visors as I imagined that look could put some of his enemies off their game. Alexander Mills was a close friend of Kurt and Mr. Hebert, he was heavily tattooed, but his work shirt covered most of them. He seemed pretty chill until he was holding a weapon when he turned very intense. Both Hopkins and Mills were going to be carrying Heckler & Koch MP7A1 submachine guns and had known each other since their days in the army.

Last to come down the stairs were Jones and Wash. Robert Jones didn't look anything like me. He was tall, lean, and dangerous looking with dark eyes and a swarthy complexion. He didn't talk much and seemed to have some serious grief with the gangs, I had no idea who he served with in the military. Russell Washington, Wash, was the only member of the troop that hadn't come from the military, he was ex-police. There was a bit of friendly banter about that, mostly between him, Hopkins and Mills. Each giving as good as they got. Jones was also taking a MP7 whilst Wash had selected a SIG Sauer 716 assault rifle.

It turned out there was a bit of confusion about who was presenting and in the end Taylor and Kurt elected Mr. Hebert to take the lead so he stood up and addressed everyone. He just stood in front of everyone. Luckily there wasn't that many of us otherwise he really would have needed a proper stage to stand on. I made a quick note to ensure that my stage was designed to be suitable for presentations as well as performances.

"Right. Final checks to make sure we haven't missed anything obvious, and to ensure everyone is aware of what everyone else is doing. Aria has confirmed that Coil is not onsite but we are still most likely looking at eight and twelve mercenaries. The maps we have are definitely out of date as we discovered payment records for building work, but no plans lodged anywhere. No drilling equipment was used so the overall size of the place is unlikely to have changed."

Aria projected a 3d image of the initial construction of the Endbringer shelter.

"Priority will be gaining access so Lycaeni can scout using her bugs and connect us to the security system Aria so can use and control the cameras."

I had provided a chemical concoction that would provide the bugs with increased resistance to insecticides. We hadn't had time to procure samples of those that Coil had purchased so I just had to base it off the ingredients listed for each.

I lost myself thinking about some of the alternative concoctions I could have used whilst Mr. Hebert talking about the entry point, the explosives they would use to break in if they couldn't bypass the electronics from the outside. These were demolition explosives, but I had modified them to allow for quick attachment and flexibility in explosive pattern/direction.

I yawned and hastily covered my mouth with my hand. I refused to look around to see who had seen that.

I looked up when Aria took over, she was going over the backgrounds of the mercenaries in broad strokes. No personal information but a list of the various training and experience and a summary of the various crimes they were wanted for. I didn't see the relevance of the list of crimes, but I guess someone had asked for it. It wasn't pleasant and I didn't think anyone would miss any of those people. Not that anyone would be hurt if things went well.

"Quartermaster. Can you go over the gear now?"

I quickly got to my feet and Aria had the motorized carts holding the armor and weapons roll out of the forge. Those had been a necessary build to make moving material between the forge and the smelter and constructors outside. I noted that my stage should also be able to function as two separate parts so I could have the forge doors open during a presentation.

One of the powered suits was on a stand. I talked to Danny, Kurt and Lacey since Taylor and the troops were all very familiar with the suit via their simulation practice even if they had never seen the real thing before.

"This is the Guard armor. It's roughly based on the Hyper Guardian armor that both mine and Lycaeni's armor is derived from but there are a few significant changes. For one there are no Jump Jets in this version. The armor is not as strong but is better suited to dispersing the lasers that Coil's men carry. Untested but given the results of his own testing against various materials I'm confident that as long as you don't stand in the beam for more than three seconds you are fine if unpleasantly warm. It has low powered shields. Rather than stop the rounds they will reduce their speed, against the weapons the mercenaries have there will be no chance of penetration. The shields will stay up for longer than ours but if you get shot numerous times in rapid succession or hit by a grenade they will still go offline and need to recharge. The shields also won't do anything against the lasers. Lastly the strength augments, at normal reaction speed you'll have an actual to applied strength of four to one. With constant pressure or a set move that can go up to ten to one without suit damage. It can be pushed higher if needed but it'll damage the suit fibers. In this version these aren't full body augments but cover eighty percent of common movements."

I was quite pleased with the armor. From a distance they looked like suits of modernized Roman lorica segmentata, armor made up of metal bands, with only a passing resemblance to our armor. Closer you could see that the metal strips were each embossed with complicated patterns that were based on a blend of Lycaeni's butterfly wing cell pattern and the MRI receiver look. The embossing process had also lightened the raised areas creating a strong contrast and making each piece effectively a piece of art. I had gone for Implacable as the emotion I was looking for and I could already see it influencing everyone else in the room.

I had found my ability to craft the armor getting faster and faster as I worked on them though I had to resist the strange desire to super scale them to thirty foot tall. How that would be practical for attacking an underground base I had no idea.

I couldn't stop smiling. This felt just like the scene from a 007 movie when Q was presenting the toys to Bond.

"Weapons. The both the M240 and SIG Sauer have been enhanced for greater velocity of rounds, digital scope and enhanced stability when moving. The digital scope feeds straight to the HUD of the user so it can be fired accurately when running at any angle and even around corners." Parker gave me a nod at this. He had put the M240 to devastating use in the simulator. Wash gave me a thumbs up with a wide grin.

"The Saiga-12 has been provided with a mechanized choke for controlling pellet spread as well as being reinforced and reshaped for melee use. It's strong enough to use to bash down a door with the barrel and still shoot straight." Blum imitated Parker and gave me a brief nod.

"The Heckler & Koch MP7s have been modified to use extended side stacked ammo boxes holding a hundred rounds each. The modified grip isn't suitable for use when not wearing the armor though. Muzzle velocity and penetration power has also been increased on all of them. Lastly each has a unique secondary mode augment added; incendiary rounds for Hound, compressed plasma bolts that explode on contact for Moses and a beam based taser style electrical mode for Raptor. These each use different ammo and have recharge times associated with them." I received three more nods for these.

Not only were the six weapons significantly modified from their original design they also each looked like a unique piece of art. Plain black stocks and shells had been replaced with engraved silver or burnished wood. Barrels were engraved with geometric patterns, war poems in decorative fonts and scenes of battle. Each looked like they belonged as a center piece for a world class gun collection rather than for use in the field. The emotion these provoked when on display was awe which changed to dread when held ready. I was incredibly proud of them.

I turned to face Taylor for the last pair of weapons, "And here is the M-3 Taser Variant. Based on my M-3 this has been modified to fire high powered taser rounds. Rounds are gel based and stick to targets. Strength and duration of the shock can be set prior to firing or set to automatically ramp up on contact till it reaches an effective level. They also have an alternative line mode allowing for sending the shock along a thin wire."

Taylor had already proved how effective the line mode was by using insects to stealthily runs wires to targets. I believe I should be able to do similar with my thread magic though I hadn't had time to test that. Both of our M-3s were still able to fire normal rounds and though there had been a heated discussion about that and promises of proper firearm training to follow that option was still available.

"Umm that's it." I looked to Mr. Hebert unsure if there was something else I needed to talk about.

He nodded with a small smile, "Thanks Quartermaster."

As he walked back to the front, I quickly returned to my seat wishing again that I had changed into my armor.

I had also upgraded mine and Taylor's pistols for more power, but we were not meant to be close to any shooting. That and whilst I had put a little work into making our suits resistant to laser fire they wouldn't hold up as well as the Guard armor. Both Taylor and my armor were due for a full rebuild soon.

Mr. Hebert discussed the plan to advance on Coil's base, for me to get close enough using my SEP field to allow Aria to hack their systems. My Dad, Mr. Hebert, Kurt and Lacy would remain in the base to work with Aria and provide remote support. We would have Aria controlled drones ready to enter the base and providing video. Aria would update maps and HUDs accordingly. Lacey's job was going to be receiving Dinah once she had been located and I opened a door for her. If there were any injuries Kurt and my dad were ready with the bandages, splints, T.L.A., my MRI receiver and a new external and matching MRI generator that I had created.

We had also built a temporary wall of heavy machinery in the entrance that you had to walk around to prevent stray shots hitting anyone inside my base when the door was open. I didn't think it was likely but still allowed the temporary addition. It was going to be temporary as it really messed with the look. I would build a matching internal door or entrance room if it was needed. After the stage.

I got suited up and headed out with the SEP field turned up to full.