Scout Ship Normandy, Acrid Mothership, 190,000 km above Earth

With a smile Winona closed the lid of the laptop, "And that's that. The Virus is uploaded. Within ten minutes it'll propagate to the Destroyers, and then the shields will be down."

"How long before they're back up?" asked Hiller. He still wore his bulky orange NASA space suit, his name tape hastily switched form his flight suit and an incongruous green amongst the orange.

Shepard, who's full-face breathing mask was separate from the hockey-inspired helmet, just shrugged, "Ten minutes, maybe thirty on the outside. Depends on how good their IT department is. Ten minutes if they're a match for anything the US or UK military has in their cyber-warfare departments, thirty minutes if they're closer to the Russians or Chinese. Could be as little as five minutes if they're really good, but that's about the limit due to the lag of their communications system."

"Confirmation from Area Fifty-one should come through once the shields are down and the global forces make their attack runs," said Winona.

"You sure going for the weapon is the best idea?" asked Hiller.

"It's the only part that isn't armored to high heaven," said Shepard. "I'd rather send in a couple of missiles than lose a plane, if it's all the same to you. The hulls were designed for space travel as much as they wore for combat, so anything we can throw at them is a mere pittance. The weapon, though, is their vulnerable point. That's why we had to time it right. Sure, it means we'll likely lose the cities they're over anyway, due to the crash, but at least it'll end the invasion."

"And then we do our thing?"

"That's the idea, so, let's get ready. You're going to need to get out of that suit if you're going to come along though," said Winona, deftly climbing out of her seat.

"Why?" asked Hiller, as she attempted to do the same, but the mobility loss from the suit was enough to answer his own question. "And what'll I wear in the meantime? You two said I couldn't get one of those suits of yours."

"Well, I was thinking you could wear your flight suit, though you'll likely need some body armor," said Winona, pulling a black box about the size of a pack of playing cards out of the thigh pocket of her suit.

Shepard stood next to Hiller, "So, you a rifle or grenade launcher kind of guy?"

"What kind of question is that?" asked the Marine.

"Well, I assumed you're not an SMG guy, so did you want a rifle or a grenade launcher?" asked Shepard.

Just then Winona expanded the black box, until it was a meter wide, and half against as long. She undid a pair of latched and flipped open the lid, exposing enough weapons to arm a platoon and three suits of armor that looked closer to what a Stormtrooper in Star Wars would wear, rather than what Hiller was used to seeing.

"Damn," said Hiller with a low whistle.

Winona grabbed a rifle, though at first glance Hiller knew something was off, since it didn't seem to have a magazine, though he recognized the similarity to a bull-pup design, such as what the French, Austrians, or British used for their own service rifles.

"This is the CBR-1, a seven point six-two battle rifle. It's a bull-pup design, obviously," said Winona, holding the rifle in the palms of her hands to show it off. "As you can see, there's no magazine. That's because it uses a proprietary ammunition duplication process, firing caseless rounds, so no extraction port's needed either." She pointed to a selector thumb switch on the left side of the weapon, above the grip, "This is your selector switch. Safe, semi, burst, and auto. Since there's no magazine to remove or extractor port, the only way the weapon is safe is when it's in safe mode. You'd do well to remember that." She flipped the weapon over in her hands, and showed another selector switch on the right side of the weapon, though this one was forward of the trigger, so it was a finger switch as appropriate for that side of the weapon. "This is the ammunition selector switch. A bit different, but that's because it's a techno-thaumaturgical weapon. It had three modes: stun, kinetic, and kill. Stun is just that, converting the round fired into a bolt of magical energy. A single shot will knock out a human-sized target for two hours, while a three-round burst will knock out a giant or elephant for the same duration, or a human for a day. The weapon can only be used in auto-fire on stun. Kinetic is what you're used to, though it fires a depleted uranium sabot at a kilometer a second, yielding ten times the kinetic energy of a standard M995 round from an M16, and about a fifth of the stopping power of the thirty millimeter round from a Warthog's cannon. It's limited to three-round burst and semi-auto fire. The final mode is kill, and it's based on the killing curse, so if it hits something, they're dead. That's why it's semi-auto only. The switches are linked, so if you're on kill and semi, and switch to burst, it switches to kinetic. From burst and kinetic, it switches to stun when you go to auto. It doesn't do the reverse, thous, so going from auto to burst will still be in stun unless you switch to kinetic manually."

"Okay, seems simple enough, and good idea on the limits. I could just see some puke just out of boot killing their whole squad with friendly fire because they forgot to switch from kill to stun when they wen to auto-fire," said Hiller with a nod.

"Good, that's the CBR-1, a nice rifle. Obviously it's a niche product, mainly in use with Cerberus' magical PMC, though we've gotten some sales to the US Department of Magic," said Winona.

"What about the grenade launcher?" asked Hiller.

At that, Shepard reached in a pulled out a weapon that looked like an oversize shotgun, again in bull-pup configuration. It had a single, seven-position selector switch. "This is the CGL-2 forty millimeter grenade launcher. Like the CBR, it uses duplicated ammunition, so there's no magazine. It has six modes beyond safe. The first three are simple and what you'd expect in a grenade launcher: smoke, frag, and HEAT. Next, there's the flechette round, basically a one and a half gauge shotgun firing depleted uranium flechettes. Fifth is the slug, a thirty-millimeter DU slug on a gyro-jet sabot. It hits as hard as the Warthog's GAU-8, though obviously as a single shot and not quite as accurately. Last but not least is the stun grenade. Puts out a ten meter radius burst of the same magic in the CBR."

"What are you two using?" asked Hiller.

"CMP-4s," said Winona, setting down the rifle and picking up a weapon that looked not unlike an MP5K, though without the magazine. "Semi or burst only, and the kinetic is is only 3 kilojoules, a seventh of the CBR's, but still a good fifty percent more than an M16's. Recoil's low enough that it can be used one-handed without a problem, and I'm good enough so I can go akimbo if desired, so I prefer to keep a wand in my off-hand."

"CBR myself, though I keep a CMP as a holdout," said Shepard, setting down the grenade launcher.

"And the armor?" asked Hiller. "Looks more like something out of Star Wars than anything practical."

"Well, it's magically enhanced, so we can use plate armor without the weight hassle," explained Shepard, pulling an armor vest out of the crate. He tapped it, "Kevlar, ceramic, titanium laminate, enhanced with featherweight, repair, and shield charms. Pretty much immune to anything aside from a kill round or a killing curse, at least where the armor covers. As light as leather to boot." He put the armor on like any armor vest Hiller had seen donned hundreds of times, including the velcro straps to adjust the fit. Shepard then grabbed some arm armor that wouldn't look out of place on a knight of yore, "Spaulders, rerebrace, vambrace, and gauntlets; nearly full mobility at the joints, and full mobility of the hands. Again, protects against nearly everything, though it's not perfect, as the joints are still vulnerable." He attached them with a quick-release buckle hidden under the spaders, and then secured more straps to keep them tight against his arms and around his hand. They appeared to have the requisite allowances to be worn over the skin-suits both dimensional travelers wore.

"Last is the leg armor," said Winona, pulling out a longer assortment of armor. "Cuisses and greaves, as well as faulds for the hips. Again, quick release to the armor vest, and then straps to secure." It seems that while Shepard was showing off his armor, she'd put on her own vest, though hadn't added the arm armor that Shepard had. "Our boots are already armored, so no need from sabatons, so you'll have to be careful there."

"Speaking of which, how am I supposed to get out of this getup. Took me a good ten minutes to get it on in the first place," asked Hiller.

Shepard pulled a wand and with a silent spell Hiller suddenly felt lighter, and then spun as he heard a crash behind him, as his space suit fell to the floor of the Normandy's cockpit. Hiller looked down and saw that he was still dressed in the temperature controlling underwear they'd made him wear under the space suit.

"Thanks," said Hiller.

Winona waved her wand and conjured what looked like a flight suit similar to the one he'd left at Area Fifty-one, though in much better condition, "Here, wear this, and then put on your armor. We've only got fine more minutes before the virus goes active, and then we've got a ship to raid."

"Yes ma'am," said Hiller, snapping a salute.