starcraft: dilation

presenting

I slowly wipe down the long berrol as the dirty liquid easily wipes off of the cold steel. I go over it a few times as the berrol glistens in the sun as I got all of the rust off, inside and outside of the weapon. I gently set the berrol down on the towel I've spread out as the colonel carfully looks at my work as I pick up the trigger assembly and do another inspection. The cleaner has softened up the rust and grime. I grab the dentists pick and a clean rag as I gently weave the fabric onto the rifle as I make sure it won't fall off. "I don't even see a speck of dust on this." Exactly. "This berrol is also spotless. I don't even know if it's been used dispite knowing it's been used." I gently start wiping dirty and rust away as I change out the fabric every time as I get in the trigger assembly, under and on top as I remove every bit of dirt and rush on it so it has a smooth pull and correct timing for each shot. I slowly and carfuly re-assemble the rifle as I make sure each piece perfectly fits as with rust gone, some parts changed out and everything set, it'll all perfectly set in. This rifle is compact and powerful. Even if one thing is out of place, it'll mess the whole system up. "How is he doing this?"
"It should be impossible." I slowly lower the full assembly back into the hand grip, but stalk and slowly align the assembly for the berrol assembly. "I thought he was bluffing." I lift the butstalk to my shoulder as I aim down the rear sight as it's perfect for the berrol to be attached. I carfully grab the berrol as I slide it into the socket as the whole assembly comes down and locks into place. I turn the rifle five clicks before turn it one click back as bolt cocks back and sets. That tells me that everything is set correctly and has fixed intself. I lift the rifle as I turn it and put my hand on the grib, leaving my finger off the trigger, bringing the butstalk up to my shoulder, aiming down the sights as it's aligned. I take my right hand off of the grip as I reach for the charging level as I slowly pull it back and hear each piece inside move as the bolt comes back, sets the firing pin, and hits the end of the butstalk. I could bearly hear anything. Perfect. I let the level go as the bolt rides forward and the only thing I could hear was the bolt slamming into the chamber, locking and getting ready to fire. These rifle don't have simple saftys so I'll need a magazine to do the rest of the functions check. "H-he did it." I lower the rifle as I grab the optic and slowly set it on the rifle as the sighs fold back. I pull the scope back a little more than what other ghosts do as it helps me focus that much more and keep my other senses fully active. The optic clicks as it sets to the rifle and automatically adjusts to the rifle. I peer through the scope as the cross hair remains sitting in the middle as I see with my left eye the Lazer shoot out as it's level with the berrol before adjusting to where the bullet will hit at the standard 700 meter rang. It's old but it still works. Just needed and little cleaning. "I can't believe you've manage to do this, with three hours to spare to." I pack my cleaning supplies, set the in the middle of the towel as I grab each end and fold it in words. I keep the rifle close to my chest as I grab the fore corners and lift as I stand up. "I thought you were bluffing but you seem to know what your doing." I remain stoic. "Now we just have to wait to go to the range." The colonel turns around before lifting his hand to his face. "I don't know what to say." I turn around and head for the entrince. "Where are you going?" I pouse and turn around. "I came out here to get away from the noise and to clean the rifle. I'm going back to the bay, Sir." He gives me a suprised look before shaking his head. "Right, right. Carry on." I turn around and continue. I get to the door as I push it open and head for the bay doors as when I push it open, I see everyone is playing with thier weapons. Those guess rifles deserve better than this. I head for my locker as I gently lay the rifle on my bed and go to my locker. I plug in the pass code and pull down on the lever as my locker opens, revealing a organized inventory of cloths, cleaning supplies, bags and two of my personal belongings. I sort everything accordingly. "Where have you been sheep?" I don't want to see his face right now. I fold the towel as I gently lay it next to my cleaning kit then grab my book. "Sheep." I open it to a random page as I look at the first line. 'Don't worry about what you don't know. The more you learn, the more you'll know. So make sure you know everything before you learn a new thing.' A good practice. I close the book as I set it back next to my bunny pendant. I pull back and close my locker as I take in a deep breath. "Hey. Earth to sheep." I'm forcfuly turned twords Simon as I instinctively go to punch him but I stop myself for landing the crushing blow. I stay like this for a second before straightening out. "I don't want to be bothered. Leave. Now." I go to my bed and lay down as I make sure to have the rifle half way under me so nobody can steal it. "You know you can't sleep right now." I close my eyes as I reach out with my mind. "Just piss off Simon. You've done enough damage as is." Borry. She always has a calming presence. "And what are you going to do to about it?" He's stomping. "Hey! Don't get routy again Simon! Your already on your third strike for today!" He chuckles. "And yet, I'm still her bipshit!" I open my eyes as I see borry standing to my left as she staring at Simon. "Now, tell me what your ganna do? You think you can fight me?" Borrry looks down at me as I can see the worry. Why did I let myself get like this? I get up as I stand between borry and Simon. "Leave." Simon smiles at me as he chuckles. "You haven't even done much the whole time you've been here. What can you do to me?" He gets an inch away from my face. "You don't have to do this sheep." I turn to borry as I get close to her ear. "You might want to step back. I don't want you to get hurt." I gently push her back as I feel something wrap around my through. "Don't you dare turn your back to me!" I lean forward as I reach up and grab Simon's arms as I lean back, hit his jaw with the back of my head then lean forward again as I lift him off my back and slam him into the ground as the bay echos with a gaint bang. I look up to see borry staring at me with horror. "What the hell is going on?!" Everyone freezes as senor drill Sargent rushes in. He looks at me standing over Simon as he struggles to breath. "What happened?!" He walks over to us as borry is frozen in fear. "He..." I look down at Simon who's trying to spit out words. I look back up at senor drill Sargent as I go to parade rest. "He attacked me for stepping between him and borry, drill sargent." He shakes his head. "How am I not suprised..." he turns around and brings his hand to his face. He's more disopointed then frustrated. I look at the door to see the commander walking in as he stomps in. "Attention!"
"As you were!" The commander's panicked. He rushed over to the drill Sargent as he holds his face in his hand. "What's going on?" The commander stops Meer feet away from the drill Sargent. He folds his arms. "Same old bullshit." Drill Sargent removes his hands as the commander looks at Simon. "I figured as much." The commander turns around as Simon finally gets up. "I should out you all in front leaning rest for just letting Simon do this." He's scared. I can taste it. "But I know how this can be." The commander looks at me. "Looks like you get to start earlier than expected sheep." I look at the commander as two fully suited marines walk in. The fear in the room doubles. "I'm only going to say this once so you all better lision very carfully." He glances at Simon who's scared shirtless now. "We have a V.I.P joining us today. If any of you even as much kick dust up 25 feet near him, I will personally smoke the dog shit out of you and make the rest of your time here a living hell." He's terrified of this man. Wait...this person isent even...a man? The commander turns twords the door as the decorated marines stand at attention as their visors are closed. Thier also well trained to slow down psyonics from reading thier minds. Slowing us down, not stopping us. More marines walk on as these guys are holding guess rifles. Armed escort. The raiders never took thier high ranks visiting places lightly. Puts the dominion to shame. I'm also sensing a diffrent presence. Three more...thier commig up the stairs. I look closely as a well decorated officer waltzes in. "Attention!" The voice was powerful. It was one of the marines. All of the marines form up as they don't move an inch as everyone goes to attention. I look at the decal. I look slightly up at her shoulder. Admiral. Her ribbons are staggering. Not even they had that many. The three strong psyonics are around her. I can see the faintest outline of one of them. Ghosts. "So these are this cycles graduates?" She looks around as the commander approuches her slowly. "Yes ma'am." Quick. "I read that this is also the one of the most dispersed group regarding thier upcoming jobs. Is this correct?" She carfully starts looking around as the three ghosts break off. I can bearly hear thier footsteps. One of them stops less than an inch infront of me as I remain straight. I will not move. I cannot move. No one can ever move me. "Yes ma'am." I can sense his mind. It's focused. No energy is waisted. I Can bearly hear his breathing. He knows I can sense him. He's also looking in my mind. I close him out as his mind starts to wonder around, trying to break in but I don't allow it as he's an open book to be. "I'm also told that this platoon is the best out of the battalion." I can sense your fear. He knows it. "Yes ma'am. We pushed then hard and everyone here fight harder to stay in and get through." She chuckles. "Good. The war might be over but we still need strong soldiers. We always remain focused." The ghost decloaks infront of me as I remain stone faced. "What the-" the fear just skyrocketed. Everyone is surprised but me, the commanded, drill sargent and the marines. The ghost is also holding a modern C-20 canister rifle. An advanced piece of buitiful technology. "It appears we have one, ma'am." The ghost remains fixed to me as I stair back into his goggles. "Oh?" She slowly walks over to us as she pouses at Simon. "Surely you don't mean him?" The ghost doesn't even tilt his head. "This one." His breathing aporatis makes a noise every time he opens his mouth. The sheer energy emanating off this man alone would make anyone take a step back. "You mean this one?" I remain fixed as the admiral approuchs me. "Isn't this an old canister rifle to?" One of the marines can be heard picking up the rifle off of my bed. "The ghost takes a step to the side and approuched the marine as the admiral steps into my view as I don't let down. "Is this him, captain?" The commander walks over as the drill Sargent follows closely behind. "Yes ma'am. This is the one I spoke to you about." She smiles as I can read her mind like a book. She's surprised to see so many people in this room. Let alone a psyonic. "Ma'am. This is the rifle that an old  ghost used to fire." The ghosts voice alone drives more fear into the others. "Bring it here please." The ghost walks over to us as holds the old rifle out. She turns to the ghosts and carfully grabs it as she starts to inspect it. "It's just been scrubed ma'am. It looks like the kid has some skill when it comes to restoring a relic of the past." The ghost looks at me again. He's impressed by my handy work. "It appears so." She slowly pulls back the charging handle as you can hear the bolt sliding back without any problems. Not even the sound of rust can be heard grinding agenst the old metal. She pulls it back the rest of the way as she let's the bolt go as it instantly shoots forward without any resistance. He slowly pulls the trigger as the old girl had a hair trigger. She's very supprised that she bealry had to put any pressure on the trigger to pull it back. 'Exactly to the point.' Her thoughts are quickening. The ghost also looks at her as the other two approuch her as thier boots bearly make any sound when the take a step. "What model is this rifle?" She glances at me as the ghosts look at me. "Ma'am. This is a C-10 canister rifle, ma'am!" An old model. "A model that's been in serves ever since the second wave of ghosts." It's clear these ghosts have used every weapon they could get thier hands on. She faces me as she holds the rifle out. "It's clear you took a long time to restore this rifle cadet." I slowly reach our and carfully grab the rifle as I point the berrol up, grab the tip of the berrol, gently set the rifle down next to my hand then bring my left hand back to my side. The ghosts are suprised I know how to do this. Thier wondering why they can't read my mind. "Does anyone else feel like someone's in thier head?" The marines are starting to get anxious. I haven't felt this much fear and anxiety in a long time. "It's him. He's the only one I can't read." The admiral turns around quickly as the ghosts look at her with suprise. "Your kidding right?" She's not afraid. She's suprised. She hasn't shown an ounce of fear. Even the ghosts aren't showing any fear. Just confusion. "No ma'am. Like everyone else here, I've felt someone lingering in the back of my mind ever since we entered the room." She turns back around and looks at me. "What happens when you open your mind, cadet?" She's curious. "I'd suggest we don't find out." One of the marines is more scares if me then of the three ghosts standing infront of me. I'll humor her. I open my mind to ghosts as they all freeze. Thier minds are blank. "What's going on?" One of the ghosts hunch a little bit as they gather themselves. "I felt that to." The admiral turns around to see the ghosts staggered a little bit. "What is it?." They look at eachother before looking back at the admiral. "I'd suggest we speak in privet ma'am." They look at me as I never thought I'd get the stair from a ghost again. "Away from him." She looks back at me before turns and looking at the commander who's visibly shaking. "It looks like the stakes have rision captain." She's excited now. "I always keep my promises ma'am." She chuckles. "Either way, I'm leaving with one hellva story." She starts to head for the exit as the ghosts linger a little bit before turn and following closely behind. "Alright! Get changed! We're moving out in 30 minutes!" The marines are staying. Theirs a plan in effect bit everyone has done well enough to keep me off its trail. "And sheep." The commander looks at me as a marine approuches me. "You'll be wearing this today." I look at the marine as he sets down a box. "Let's see how good you really are, private." His visor opens, revealing a scared scared face as smoke comes out of his suit as he blows more smoke out. One of the ghosts haven't left. I look to his right as the ghost decloaks next to the marine as he smiles. "This is a 1rst generation combat environment suit the first ghosts ever trained used. It's old, tight, and bulky but very powerful when you put it on correctly and move specifically." The ghost hands his rifle to the marine. "Admiral Hanner has tasked me with inpecting your gear before you move out to the range." The ghost kneels down and puts his hand on a scanner as the case pops up as four joint on each corner spin and unlock as the top splits open as mist comes out of the case. "This is your objective for today." The marine walks past me as everyone rushes around but I remain stoic. "And relax. Your not being court martialed." Senor drill Sargent walks over. "Not only will you re-inspect that rifle, you will also equip yourself with this suit. You will wear every piece of this suit, test every functionality of the suit and make sure it is working properly. After that, you will equip the issues visor this suit has had ever since it was released." I kneel down as I impact the body suit. "That this crap is ancient. Good luck even getting it to start." Everyone is looking at me closely. "After that, I will inspect everything. If it isn't up to my standard, you will go to the range without anything but that rifle and whatever magazines they give you. If you get past that, we will conduct a full functional check of your hostile environment suit. If there aren't any problems, then we'll move out to the range." The ghost stands up as he folds his arms. "Here, I'll even help you." The marine holds out his metallic hand. "I'll hold your rifle for you." Hes planing on hiding it. "Give the marine your rifle." I follow the command as I gently hand the rugged marine the rifle as I grabs it and stands back up with a chuckle. "You hide that rifle and I'll hide your right arm." The marine freezes. "You have one hours to equip yourself. Your time begins now." I start to strip as the marine holds out his hand to shield his eyes. "What the hell are you doing kid?!" I continue. "This is a Gen one suit." I drop my shirt as I take off my necklace and set it down gently next to the box. "You need to be buck ass naked to have it fit properly." The marine quickly grabs a towel as he walks around me right as I drop my pants. The ghost keeps his eyes trained on me as I grab the cold and heavy suit as I start to fit it. Just like back in basic. I slide my feet in and adjust my feet to the suit then pull it up to my hips. The marine drops the towel. "Could have warned us first man." The ghost stay stoic as I carfully lift the skin tight suit up and fit my arms and hands into it as I adjust it as needed. These aren't the ones these guys have. I can't just put it on, tap my chest and it shrinks. I have to adjust every inch of the suit. I go from my hands to my arms, up to my shoulder and armpits. I can feel the shit tighten around my muscles as it fints its grip and lashes on. I move to my feet as I come up my legs and to my hip as the suit seemingly falls into place. It's off however. It's being finicky. "45 minutes left." I keep calm as the ghost keeps his eyes on me as I try to figure out what's going on with my Back. It's twisted. It's stretched acorssed my stumic to. Great. They gave me a defective suit. They made one mistake though. "What are you thinking?" I stretch to one side as I reach over and the neck piece and lift it up as I take in a deep breath. I stretch the suit up as the air rushed in but the suit tightens up as I slowly lower it down as when the colour hits my neck, the suit tights perfectly around my body. "Resourcful." He's suprised I managed to get the suit to lision. "The body suits on. Time for the armer pieces. I don't expect you to know where every piece goes so I'll give you one hint when you ask for it." Cute. I reach into the box as I start to equip every armer piece as I know exactly where each piece goes as my body starts to get heavier. Just how I want it. "Looks like you know your way around ghost armer." Now he's slightly impressed. I fit the rest of the armer on as I tap the side of the chest piece as everything clicks togeather and tightens around my body tightly. I stand still for a few seconds as the armer calibrates. The ghost starts to walk around me as when the suit stops squeezing togeather, I move my arms around as I tap the toes to my new boots onto the ground as their air tight. Everything moves with my body, and my body with the armer. The ghost does another circle around as I tap on the pieces that always give me trouble as today they seem towant to cooperate. "Okey. The kids holding back if he knows this." I do another stretch as I've equipped everything but the visor. "Suits ready for inspection sir." I move to attention. "Everything was done to satisfaction. Now for the visor." I reach into the box and slowly pull out the old visor as it looks like advanced sunglasses with many moving pieces and tiny telescopes. I haven't used these ones in a hot minute. "Equip the visor and ensure it activates." I put the visor in as I cover my hears with the mufs as I make sure each piece folds and slides correctly as I slowly lower the visor as a blue hue comes on along with a hud, data of my surroundings, number of contacts around me and a small map of my current location. "Coms check." I tap the left earmuff. "Coms check." Both side work now. "Coms check confirmed sir." The earmuffs clear out as I can hear my surroundings again. "Commancing visor tests." I go to attention as my visor starts to bring up data as it begins to update. "Right now it should be updating to the latest update these things had before the next generation came out." The update finishes as soon as he finished that sentence. "Update finished. Ready for next step sir." The ghost takes a step back. "If you did everything correctly, then your cloak will activate without any problems. If you messed up, your cloak won't even activate." My hud comes in as everything reads fully operational. The ghost lifts a pad as he starts to type as my visor shows everything being enabled. "I've just granted you access. Let me know when everything is calibrated." The coms, scan, data....everything finished quickly witch us surprising for tech this old. "I've also patched into your hud. I can see and hear everything you can. Your hud should show your data here in a second." My hub comes up as it shows my face and brings up a error door corrupted files. The only thing it brings up is my rank when the project was shut down and I was left on the streets. "Good afternoon colonel Sheep. I hope everything is going well." I hear the ghost take in a shallow breath. "Did that adjutant just say 'colonel'?" The ghost looks at me with confusion. "Your history is covered in black ink. This'll be interesting." The ghost is exited now. "How did this happen? There's no way this kid is a colonel in basic training!" I turn around and grab my rifle as the suit automatically scans it and brings up the specs. "Scan complete. Ready for deployment." I turn and face the ghost as he's stunned. "Looks like a full inspection of the rifle won't be required." He's looking into my records. "Looks like you were part of something before this. If your record is to be believed then you'll put on more then just a show." The marine is stunned. "You best the time by 25 minutes." Good. Wasn't my best time but it passes this ghosts standards. I can live with that. "The admiral is asking for us. Let's move out before she starts to wait for us." The marines start to move out as the last of the platoon does to as they were staring at me getting ready and forgot about the time hack. "You'll stay by me unless your captain or admiral say otherwise. Stay close and show us what kind of killer you really are." I lift the visor. "Sir, yes sir." Man it feels good to have this equipment. That spector gear didn't feel nearly this good. The ghost turns around and starts to walk as I follow closely behind. "One more thing." The ghost stops at the door. "If my hunch is right, do expect the ghosts to go easy on you. Your lucky you manage to get the suit to work, let alone do what we have planned for you if the admiral thinks you can handle it." I smile. "If it's even slightly more challenging then the past 2 months, I'll take whatever you've got head on." The ghost pushes through the door. "You'll regret saying that if you value your sanity." I realish the thought of a ghost giving me a challenge.