Adventures of a Drunkard Pilot

Chapter 6: Same shit......

The silence in the room  only lasted a few seconds.

"Tex, Smith, Mack, take them out on a run around the complex," Arthur ordered as he put his cigar out on the table, "Make them sweat." The assistant squad leaders snapped to attention and saluted.

"You heard the man, let's go!" Tex shouted at the others and ran out of the room with the other 2 assistant squad leaders on his heels. The trainees filed out, and only then did I realize how young they were. One girl ran past that looked to be no older than 15. As the last one cleared the door and the automatic door silently closed, I turned to Cameron.

"now, about that door..." i inquired.

"Do you have a key for it?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips. Man, she had nice hips

"Guys," Arthur said. I turned around in time to catch a key. I looked at it then back at him with questioning eyes. "Look at it." I looked closer and saw the Lazarus logo etched into it.

"Where..." I started.

"Just found it in one of my many pockets," he said sheepishly. I looked at Mitch. Suddenly, we both burst out laughing.

"Sirs, ma'am," Tex said from the door. We hadn't noticed him come in. "We need you. Someone high up is raising a stink about us "using the halls like a horse track" and is getting really mad."

"Give us 5 minutes," Cameron told him.

"Ma'am," Tex replied. He saluted, then turned and ran down the hall.

"Oh man, let's go get our shit. Then we'll deal with this," I said, looking at Cameron.

"Right this way," she said. She turned down the hall and took off at a jog. We followed her down the hall and into a section of the base we had never been in before. The walls were not the usual medical white paneling, but dirty corrugated metal sheets. We took a few turns and came to a dead end with a large blast door with the Lazarus markings painted on in white paint. There was a small panel to the right of the door, but other than that there was nothing to suggest a way in. Arthur walked over to the panel and looked at it. He held his hand up to me and whistled. I tossed him the key, which he used in a small key slot that was in the middle of the panel. It clicked, but nothing else.

"Well?" I asked him.

"I have no idea," he said, stepping back from the panel.

"Look for the big red button labeled OPEN," Mitch offered.

Arthur turned to him, pointing at the panel. "There's one fucking thing on the panel, and it's for the key."

"Did you turn it the right way?" Cameron jumped in. Arthur looked at her, but before he could come up with a response Delta's image popped up.

"Sorry, but I just realized you got here, Staff Sergeants," his life-sized image appeared in front of the door.

"Hey D, long time no see," I jeered. "Any luck on the pass key?"

"We are approximately 29 days, 17 hours-" he started.

"Got it," I interrupted, "long time. Now, mind helping us with this door?"

"I can't," he said simply.

"And the reason is...." Arthur inquired.

"I do not know how," he responded. "Only the three of you know how."

"Shit," Mitchell swore under his breath. "Well, any hints?"

"It is voice activated," Delta said. "Now, I will get back to work." He disappeared without another word.

"Voice activated, huh?" I said. I stepped up to the door, thinking.

"Vega, Mitchell Ashley. Call sign Reaper." Mitchell spoke up. "Authentication: One, Seven, Mike, Victor, Romeo, Two, Two, Five."

"Pass code," A robotic yet unmistakably female voice asked.

"Pass code Aces High." Mitch confirmed. The door made a loud click, like a lock was disengaged. I raised an eyebrow at him. "Just hit me," was all he responded with.

Arthur spoke up next. "Pendrake, Arthur Dwayne. Call sign Saber. Authentication: Three, Three, Alpha, Papa, Sierra, Nine, Six, Nine."

"Pass code," the same voice asked.

"Pass code Blood Born ," He replied. Another click resounded from the door.

"Guess I'm up," I said. I racked my brain for my authentication code, but I just couldn't remember. The more I thought about it, I couldn't remember my middle name. I stood there like an idiot for a good 15 seconds before it all hit me. I blurted it out before I forgot.

"Maxwell, Duncan Flynn. Call sign Misfit. Authentication: Eight, Four, Delta, Mike, Delta, Six, Six One."

"Pass code," the voice inquired one last time.

"Pass code Thresher Maw," I smiled at myself for remembering it all as one last click resounded throughout the metal hall and the door hissed. It slowly slid to the side, revealing a small room about the size of two cargo containers side by side. There was a stack of crates under three different names, ours, painted on the wall. There was also some armor hung up.

The armor looked like someone had fillet a human from the front and spread them open. I could only thing to stand it it, which i carefully did. right away, the gloves clasped down around my hands like a skeleton frame. next, scale-like sections starting at my wrist clicked together and spread up to my shoulder. my legs were locked in at the boot and the same style scales clicked together at my ankle and spread up to my hips. as my hip and shoulder armor latched, sections of heavy plating slid around and covered my elbown and knees. the butterflied suit closed around my torso with the same style scales. i felt a sliding motion as more heavy plates slid from my back to cover my vigal organs and my collarbone. the chest peice formed a inverted v-shape that, as i looked down, covered my entire mouth and nose. next, to my suprise, the armor on the shoulder blades split in half and wrapped around the sides of my neck and my upper arms.

As my new suit finished clicking and the last of the scales found their place, i noticed something really familiar sitting on top ot the crate  next to the armor stand. picking it up, i looked over what seemed to be a metal handle, about a foot long and 2 inches in diameter with a slight oval shape to it, that was connected to a block of metal, about 4 inches square by an inch thick.

"What is this?" I asked myself. A brief memory of flicking my wrist came to mind, so i flicked my wrist out. To my surprise, the handle extended to around 4 feet. As it locked out, the block on the end shifted and extended itself, coming to a point at the end of a now 7-inch block. As i finished my movement, the block rotated so the pointed wedge-like end was at a 90 degree angle to the handle. It was an axe. I chuckled to myself and spotted a flask sitting on one of Mitch's crates. I flicked my wrist again and collapsed my Combat Axe and clipped it into a hard point on my right shoulder. As stealthily as i could, i crept over to Mitch, shoved him down, grabbed the flask, and walked back to my gear, laughing the entire time.

"Asshole," was all I heard from Mitch.

"You said next one was on you," Arthur spoke up. I looked at him. He had his armor on, but instead of a COIL he had a sword handle on his left forearm.

"Well, I couldn't find my bow staff," Mitchell said, shooting a joking glare at Cameron who returned it in good humor. "But I did find this." He held out a cylinder about a foot in length and an inch in diameter. He flicked his wrist, and the cylinder extended to a full four feet.

"Nice," Arthur and I said together. Before we could continue our gear inspection, however, Tex came sprinting up to us once again.

"Sirs, ma'am, you need to come now." He was out of breath.

"What is it?" I asked him as I grabbed a revolver from my gear and slipped it into the holster built into the thigh of my right leg armor.

"Lord Rojas just executed a trainee," was his response.