Ghost Spark - Essence Engine

two

"Marcus, get up. We have 45 minutes to prepare for the drop," came a voice, rousing him from the shadows.

Marcus rolled out of his bunk, landing to his feet in his boots zipping up the sides before he realized he wasn't dressed. It had been a long time since he had down an actual extraction himself. But the money for this OP would open a new chapter of his life. It would help him focus on other things besides Maggie.

"Fuck...just fuck," he muttered as he unzipped and grabbed his dropsuit.

Pulling it halfway up, he attached the cooling hosing to the nodules inside. Instantly, he could feel the circulation begin. Piezoelectric actuators in the dropsuit turned his motion into electric power. The distinctive HUMP on the back of the suit was a small battery, computer and communications gear. Marcus pulled up the hood and cowling over his face. The enhanced reality system kicked in almost immediately and began to feed him data of his surroundings. Taping his fingers together in different sequences and rotating his wrists brought up different data and allowed him to sort through to find what he needed. The data selection wheel seemingly spun 12 cm in front of him. His fingers stopped taping when the wheel landed on syscrit.

"Syscrit answering all green. Twenty minutes till jump," the asexual voice whispered into his ears.

"Fetching missions parameters. You feel tired. Did you get enough sleep?"

"Yes...Enough sleep..." Marcus said.

"Mission downloaded." Said the suit's AI

"There will be new tactical gear used today that you have not trained for. Do you wish to begin training?" asked the AI.

"Yes."

Two small tendrils formed on the inside of the hood and attached to Marcus' temples. He could feel the cool wetness of the tendrils on his skin.

"Training in 5...4...3..2...1...."

Marcus knew what was coming, but it didn't make it any easier. The trick was not to resist the training. To resist would only make it hurt. He sat on the side of the bunk and tried to clear his mind. It started gradually, like a long forgotten memory floating into view. Slowly it filled his mind. He felt the weapon's weight; how it handled. It was cool to the touch. He could smell a trace of ozone leaking from the weapons charge cells. He to remember peculiarities about its handling and how he had used it in a firefight on the outskirts of Chicago back in June. Only these weren't his memories. Marcus hadn't fought in Chicago in years. Although the Memtech guys try to wipe clean any personal input by the creator of the memory, battlefield memories are "hard core" as the Memtechs described it. Difficult to clean.

Marcus could grasp fragments of what the person felt like, smelled like.
Fear. Definitely fear.

After a few minutes of training, it all began to recede from his mind. The tendrils detached from his forehead and recessed back into the suit cowling. Marcus opened his eyes. He now knew how to handle the weapon, from a field strip through a blind fire.

"You're due in OPS in three minutes. Is the suit temperature comfortable?" asked the suit's AI.

"It's fine. Can you brief me on the mission before we get to OPS?" asked Marcus.

"I can brief you on the way. It looks like a tactical extraction along the border of North California and the Narco State. You will be in command today. Four drones and a Bulldog."

"Jesus Christ. Is that it? Can you handle all that?" asked Marcus.

"I can. It will take some work on my part to set them up since today's extraction will be in a fluid environment, so I may need to activate each unit's AI."