Dealing with the Black River presence in Russia proved to be an easy mater. The Spetsnaz and I easily crushed the Mercs, allowing the Russian military to size their research and assets. Though I was skeptical of what Russia intended to do with the research, my mind was put at ease when Vasil's men doused the files in diesel fuel and lit it with a grenade. After the fight, Vasil told me that in exchange for my help, his team would be on standby if we ever needed to operate inside Russian borders, as well as presenting me with a customized AK-103 that was chambered in 5.56 and featured a quick change barrel to convert to 5.45, a Trijjicon optic, Magpul stock and grip and a Izhmash rail system. He also told me to give him a call if we ever needed a bit of brute force to brake through enemy lines. I shook his hand, told him I would keep it in mind, then boarded John's Chinook with Carlos, finally headed home.
The flight home was spent with Carlos sprawled in the back, while I was up in the front of the chopper, down to just the base layer of the power armor. The entire time I was thinking about Mercury and Trace, trying to prepare myself for the news I was sure I was going to be getting. But wouldn't you know it? The bad news didn't come from Mercury and Trace, it came from me. I was standing outside of the infirmary talking with Nina when I got so lightheaded I collapsed. When I got my head back, I found I was in the hospital bed, sore as all hell. Morningstar told me that I had suffered heart trauma from the impact of all the bullets that I ate during the assault on the PMC base. What had actually happened was a few AP rounds made it through weak points in the armor and dug into my scales. The Power Armor had medical systems on board that prevented me from dropping like a brick on the spot, but the punishment came once I took the suit off. On the bright side, there wasn't any serious damage and my accelerated healing factor meant I wasn't bed ridden for more than two days, though the fact that I busted the fuck out of my arm on the way down left me with only one usable hand, which was good because that was my shift hand.
Though my busted arm sucked, at least I still had both of them. Mercury was a depressed wreck after losing both his wings, his horns and his arms. He was a mess of usually bloody gauze and seemed to be unable to get a firm grip on the fact he was now right handed. He was having problems eating, had to relearn how to write and I'm inclined to say the worst of it was that game night, which we had every Thursday to mark the weekend, was now a no go for him, which sucked for everyone because Mercury was awesome at Call Of Duty AW.
Trace seemed to come back from it all pretty quickly and was more concerned with Mercury than herself, hell we all were. Hell we were even keeping his sidearm away from him because we were scared shitless he might just say fuck it all, even though we quickly found out he didn't have the strength in his right hand to pull the trigger.
"Mercury's got me worried", Rylar told me one day at lunch, "he just creepily looms around the barracks all day."
"He's probably got PTSD", I said trying to eat a burger with one hand, something quite difficult, "at least my arm will get better....but I cut his off."
Rylar sighed, "did what you had to do Ace, there were maggots in it."
"That doesn't mean I feel good about it", I said.
"It's been one hell of a week", Taro sighed setting his chicken down, "I lost my unit, I got friends losing limbs, Nick lost his dog, Trace may have lost her boyfriend."
"Shut the hell up Taro", Trace said, "I haven't lost him, not yet at least. I'm spending every minute I can with him."
"I know", Taro said, "but still what's stopping him from just finding a gun with a lighter trigger?"
"The only trigger he could pull is on my sniper rifle", Rylar said, "but I got that fucker locked up tight for just that reason."
"And I don't see how you could commit suicide with a sniper rifle", Mako said.
"Good point", Rylar said as the door opened, Mercury, Morningstar and a woman I hadn't seen before walked in, Mercury's mother by my guess. The three of them walked over to the table and sat down in front of us.
"Your looking slightly better", I said.
"Not feeling much better", Mercury said, speaking for the first time in days, "still sore as hell and still not right handed yet. There is good news though."
"That would be?", I asked.
"Green said he can replace my arm", Mercury said, "something to do with DNA, but I didn't understand a thing he said."
"No", Green said picking that exact moment to walk into the room, "I said I THINK, I can replace your arm. It's not guaranteed."
"I don't need guaranteed, I don't even need difficult", Mercury said, "I just need possible."
"I told you I'm going to do everything I can, just please don't expect me to come through", Green said.
"Like I said", Mercury said, "I only need POSSIBLE."
"Speaking of possible", I said, "I need to refresh the Civic's brakes and running fluid for the trip I'm about to take and I don't know if I can do it with one hand."
"I already took care of that", Carlos said from across the room, "I had Conner and Luke get you new pads, rotors, fluid everything. We got you new military tires as well."
I stood up, "Well then I guess I'm off. Rylar, wanna tag along with me to pick up my friends?"
"Sure", Rylar said, "nothing going on around here anyway."
"I should get going too", Nina said.
The three of us left the mess hall, changed into more appropriate clothes and then went to the hangar. The Civic and Nina's bright orange race car were idling just outside the hangar, looking like they were showroom new.
"I don't think I've ever seen this thing looking that new", Nina said
"Neither have I", I commented as I stuffed my bag into the trunk along with Rylar's stuff, "I guess I'll be seeing you later love."
"Drive safe Ace", Nina said kissing me before sliding into her car. Rylar and I followed her Corvette up to the Area 29 gate where Luke let us out. We waited for two or three cars to pass before Nina turned out into the Highway and gunned her engine. She went through two gears before I jumped in behind her and mashed my pedal down. My Civic easily caught her second hand race car, but passing it was a different story. Sure Nina's top speed was about 180 miles an hour, where as mine was nearing 250, but she'd get there in 4 seconds where it took me about 20 to reach my top speed of 245. When I eventually caught her Corvette, I still didn't get to pass as she had to get off the road we were on and head to Texas to get my buddy Austin and then off to get another friend of mine named Rachel, where as I was headed to Tennessee and North Carolina to see if I could recruit my friends Calen and Mallory.
"Long trip ahead of us", I sighed.
"I just hope we can come back with something to show for it", Rylar said.
"Yeah you and me both", I said.
YOU ARE READING
Project Venom #Watty's2016
Science Fiction19 year old Josh Miller is your average social reject. Doesn't go out on the town, only has three friends, is pretty sure he won't make it in the world outside of the car modding scene and spends too much of his time stuck underneath his Honda Civic...
