The Void

CHAPTER 11

Alex couldn’t help the grin spreading across his face as he headed to the secure elevator that would take him down to the secret armory of USSTRATCOM’s research and development weapons division. It was situated deep below the base, and accessible only to a handful of people.

R&D weapons division, or as the HAWCs referred to it the ‘toy store’, gave the HAWCs special access to new weaponry. They acted as guinea pigs for the new weapon tech, and in return they got it before anyone else. Ninety-nine out of a hundred times it worked, and rarely did anyone get vaporized anymore.

Alex stood before the featureless silver doors, and waited for them to scan his facial features and sniff his DNA.

As he waited he used the technical note pad to call up the bios of the HAWCs he had available. He’d take a large team, eight players, including himself. He knew each HAWC would be the equivalent of half a dozen standard Spec Forces operatives from anywhere in the world.

He smiled grimly. With that many HAWCs at his back, he could take down a city if he needed to.

“Captain Hunter.”

Alex looked up to see a solid looking young soldier, whose face he recognized. He quickly looked down at the pad, and saw the same features staring back from the new HAWC inductees list.

“2nd Lieutenant Steven Knight.” Alex said and the soldier came to a rod straight attention.

“Yes sir.” He had shortcropped blond hair, slight sun damage to his nose and cheeks, telling of either days on the beach or the farm — the Midwestern accent told him of the latter.

“I just want to say, it’s an honor to meet you, sir, I’ve been wanting to…”

“Says here, you’re ex-Ranger stock.” Alex glanced again at his bio.

“Sir, yes sir.” He stared straight ahead. “Best shot in my squad.”

Alex nodded. “Peak fitness, high pain threshold, excel at hand-to-hand combat, weapons tech expertise…” Alex nodded as he read. “…and climbing experience.”

The man’s lips curled up slightly at the corners. “Free climb down at Devil’s Lake in Wisconsin, every chance I can, sir.”

“Devil’s Lake is for weekend hikers.” Alex stared hard at the young soldier, and his smile dropped. “And you’ve no HAWC mission experience.”

Knight’s jaw firmed. “I’m ready, waiting and mission fit, Captain Hunter. Just say the word, sir.”

Alex leaned in real close, and gave the man the stare. Knight continued to look straight ahead, not blinking, not moving a muscle. Alex knew his glare could reduce grown men to puddles of nerves; Knight didn’t budge.

“2nd Lieutenant Knight, then consider you’ve just had the word. Authorization will be sent, you will communicate to no one and you will be ready and waiting down at rallying center five for kit-out and mission briefing in two hours.”

Knight’s lips compressed as he tried to hold in the grin. He saluted and Alex did the same. He looked about to say something else.

“Go!” Alex yelled and then chuckled as the man spun and raced back down the corridor.

He turned back to the elevator and the scanners checked him again. Satisfied, the two-feet thick doors slid back slowly. Both the doors and shaft were constructed of almost solid titanium, and if through some miracle they were breached, then the shaft itself would be immediately sealed with a plug of solid steel, ten feet thick.

Stepping inside, Alex felt the momentary claustrophobia of being shut in an iron box, but he set the feeling aside as he reopened the technical note pad. Alex brought up the first bio — Casey Franks. The brutal-looking woman stared hard back at the camera lens. She was tougher than many of the bigger men she worked with, and in a firestorm, she wasn’t afraid to be the first through a door. He’d just finished a job with her, and he couldn’t ask for a better agent to have at his back.

Alex pushed her profile into the mission folder and slid to the next. He couldn’t help grinning. Why take a few armored vehicles when he could take a bulldozer? Sam Reid’s image filled the frame, and not just because it was a close-up; the man was physically huge. Sam was a few years older than Alex was, and probably the closest thing Alex had to a friend in the HAWCs. They’d been on many missions together, and it was on one of them, in the jungles of South America, that Sam had his spine crushed, rendering him a paraplegic.

But Sam wasn’t finished with the HAWCs, and they weren’t finished with him either. Sam had enthusiastically volunteered to try out the new MECH technology. The Military Exoskeleton Combat Harness was the next generation heavy combat armor. On Sam, the synaptic electronics were a molded framework that was built on, and into, his body — light, flexible and a hundred times tougher than steel. Sam was as good as new, except now, the big man could run faster than a horse and kick a hole in a steel door.

Sam also possessed an intellect that made him one of the best military tacticians they had. He was an unbelievable asset to have on a team. But much as Alex would have put him on the mission list immediately, he had been concerned that the weight of the MECH suit would render him far too goddamn heavy and cumbersome for the high-altitude mission.

Rather than reject him, he’d wait. The Hammer had said he was getting an upgrade — Alex would find out soon enough exactly what that meant.

He scrolled to the next group of HAWCs. There were several others he had worked with before: Drake Monroe, Anita Erikson, and the big Aussie, Max Dunsen. Dunsen, or Dundee to the other HAWCs, was big and as tough as boot leather. If Alex could keep him and Casey Franks from killing each other, then they made a formidable team.

He looked over the others, some new blood that Hammerson himself had rated well off the scale — Andy Garcia — and he then added in Steve Knight. He slid all the profiles to the mission folder that would automatically send a call up alert to them no matter where they were in the world.

With barely any sensation of slowing, the elevator eased to a stop several hundred feet below ground. The entire subterranean complex was encased in sealed titanium and lead shielding that made the basement levels impregnable to a nuclear blast and impervious to electromagnetic pulse attack.

The design was like an upside-down wedding cake, with the larger test facilities at the top and moving down to the smaller R&D laboratories, and then onto the lower level containment cells for biological specimen testing and hazardous materials work.

The doors slid open, and a huge figure lunged in at him so fast, Alex only had time to raise arms to stop being pushed off his feet.

“Jesus Christ.” Alex pushed the big bear of a figure off him and back out of the massively thick doors before they closed again.

“I remember when soldiers used to have respect for their senior officers.” Alex grinned and looked the man up and down. “So, the new and improved Samuel Jefferson Reid.” He cocked his head. “They couldn’t do anything about the face, huh?”

Sam threw his head back and laughed. “Hey, I earned every lump, crease and scar on this ugly mug.” He saluted and stood at attention.

“At ease, soldier.” Alex walked around him. Sam was six-five and about two axe handles wide at the shoulders. He had arms that were straining the sleeves of his all-black HAWC uniform, and where once before he had an external exoskeleton MECH suit covering his legs and lower back, now he just looked normal.

“So, where is it?” Alex asked.

Sam held his arms wide and turned in a circle. “All new and improved.”

Alex’s enhanced senses picked it up then, the small whine of hydraulics as Sam turned. He also felt the small tingle in his head he always got when he was close to a source of radiation.

“Surgical implants?” Alex raised his brows.

Sam nodded. “Tungsten chromium blend; it’s lighter than bone, and the tungsten blending gives it a tensile strength of 1,510 megapascals — titanium only has 434.”

“And the chromium would give it flexibility.” Alex tilted his chin up at Sam. “Your legs were the problem, so why am I picking up a residual trace from your upper body?”

Sam grinned. “Why do you think I was able to push you off your feet? First time ever.” He held up an arm, turning it over, and then making a fist. “They inserted the full-body kit while they had me on the table. I’m the first to trial the internally bonded advanced MECH endoskeleton. The next generation of combat suits will be internal. I can armor up if needed, but now the core infrastructure is inside me and powered by a miniature shard of radioactive material — my own nuclear power plant. I have the mobility of a normal soldier, plus the added speed and strength of a horse.”

“Good, because you can never have too many pack horses on a mission.” Alex held out a hand. “Welcome aboard.”

Sam reached forward to take his hand and Alex turned his large mitt over, looking at it. He could just make out the tiny lines running over the back of his fingers, hand, and wrist before disappearing under his uniform.

“Long surgery?”

“Tag-team of fourteen doctors and thirty-six hours. They had to weave the nano-mesh over every bone, integrate them into my muscle fibers to act like nerve endings, and finally link them to each other — over a million micro-stitches. The final bit was making sure I had control of everything. And for that, they needed me conscious.”

“Sounds painful,” Alex observed.

“Pain just lets you know you’re still alive. It was a small price.” Sam began to squeeze Alex’s hand.

Alex grinned. “How could I not know you were going to do that?” He squeezed back.

Both men stared into each other’s eyes, both just smiled as if they were doing little more than taking in the scenery, but both was exerting enough pressure to pulverize stone. Sam’s hand was now more like a flesh-covered vice. But Alex was no ordinary human being either. Where Sam’s hand was a vice, Alex’s was an industrial press.

Pain to Alex was nothing more than a supercharger that he felt, absorbed, and then used. The more Sam squeezed, the harder Alex was able to squeeze back.

Alex watched his friend’s face, seeing the temperature change on his forehead and his cheeks begin to redden. Perspiration broke out on his brow and an almost imperceptible grinding noise came from their hands.

Sam tried to maintain his grin, but Alex could see the pain behind his eyes now. He pressed a little more, prepared to stop soon if he thought he might damage Sam’s hand. He didn’t need to.

“Uncle!” Sam gasped and let go. “Okay, I’ve still got some catching up to do.” He smiled ruefully and shook his probably throbbing hand.

“I’m impressed. If only I had someone like you on a mission I’m putting together.” Alex punched his large friend’s shoulder. “But I guess you’ll be busy opening all the stuck jelly-jar lids up in the mess hall.”

“Oh, I’m mission-ready. Maybe you’d like to go again, double or nothing?” Sam stuck his still very red hand out again.

“You want to prove yourself, big guy? Well then, consider yourself off the wait-list as of two minutes ago.” Sam beamed. “I’m taking a large team — seven HAWCs.”

Sam’s brows went up. “That’s a lot of muscle.”

“Yep, and it’s for a retrieval, from about ten thousand feet up in the Revelation Mountains.” It was Alex’s turn to grin. “Just to make it interesting.”

Sam whistled. “Climb or drop?”

“Depends on weather conditions. Mission profile has been sent down to Grey,” Alex continued. “We need to review the toolkit, and then link up with our NASA people. We’re in the air in…” Alex checked his watch. “…five hours.”

“Got everything I need right here,” Sam said pointed with his chin. “Heads up; our favorite geek.”

A small man bustled down the surgically white corridor, hands jammed in lab coat pockets. He lifted one free to throw them a small wave that turned into a sort of salute when he spotted Alex.

Chief research scientist Walter Grey came to a stop. “Captain Hunter, Lieutenant Reid.” A nervous smile flickered on his lips before fading.

“Grey,” Alex said and thrust out a hand. “Good to see you again.”

The smaller man took it. “Yes, yes, likewise, Captain.”

Alex tried hard not to smile. Grey looked anything but pleased to see them. Simple reason was Alex and the HAWCs scared him. They were like a different species — big, aggressive, and with an intelligence that pushed the boffins hard. They also had a bad habit of destroying his ‘toys’.

He let his hand slip from Alex’s. “I’ve seen the mission profile — extreme cold, significant altitude, and possible toxic air. Also, not very conducive to optimum firearms performance, so best leave the HKs home this time.”

“Makes sense,” Alex responded. “But I’ll still take the full Ka-Bar set.”

“Fine.” Grey shrugged.

The trio headed along the corridor. Grey’s voice rose as he talked faster, nervously pointing to different sealed doors as they passed: laser technology, biologicals, handguns, rifles, combat body armor, sensory enhancement. Alex nodded, but stayed silent. He knew all these weapons labs intimately as he’d trialed many of their tech in the field.

Grey slowed as they approached the ASU — the Armored Soldier Unit — the center for all physical shielding for the field operative. A soldier’s combat fatigues of old had been replaced by new materials that were more a mix of body armor and computer system. The new lowest level infiltration suits had active camouflage with micro-panels capable of altering their appearance, color, and reflective properties, enabling the wearer to blend into their surroundings. The next level up for a front-line solider was full confrontation gear with hyper-strong body armor that came in various levels of defense — lower level micro-mesh that could stop a 9mm slug and be worn under normal clothing, moving up to full ceramic or biological plating, able to defray direct hits from a shotgun or assault rifle.

“I understand from Colonel Hammerson there’s a risk of contamination,” Grey said. “We’ve been developing an armored HAZMAT suit. Might be ideal for this mission.”

“Cool.” Sam rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

Grey stopped before a silver door that looked like a sheet of solid steel. He laid a palm on a glass panel, the outline of his hand was briefly illuminated and then the door soundlessly slid back into the wall. He led them into the cavernous space and the lights automatically came on around them.

There was a mannequin wearing an all-black compression suit with biological plating over the chest, biceps and thighs, and with smaller armadillo-like scales over the stomach and neck.

Alex had worn similar suits, and had found them both tough and pliable. For colder environments, they even had warming cells built in. This one was new in that the stand-out feature was that it covered the head and face. The flexible scale-like plating extended up the neck, each plate overlaying the one below it, but stopped at the forehead and chin where there was a clear oval panel acting as a full-face visor.

“What do you think?” Grey beamed.

“I think it looks a little stifling,” Alex said, frowning.

“Ah, but just wait.” Grey stepped toward it and touched a small stud beside the faceplate; it fully retracted up and away. He touched it again to bring it back down and then adjusted something that made four lenses protrude from the visor, making the face look totally alien.

“Whoa, quad vision,” Sam said, grinning. “Like the Warrior system?”

“Oh yes.” Grey nodded enthusiastically. “But where that had four separate tubes for light enhancement, this image intensifier can be adjusted to amplify thermal, light, and also deliver macroscopic vision.”

“I like it,” Alex said. The quad vision looked weird, the four tubes making it seem that the wearer had four eyes, but in fact the image kit had a computer application that overlapped the images, giving the wearer vastly superior peripheral sight with an almost wrap-around 98 percent field of vision.

Grey reached up to tap the faceplate. “Impact resistant polymer; you could take a direct hit from a shotgun blast, and still walk away with a face.”

“But will the face still be on the neck?” Sam winked at Grey.

“Of course.” Grey looked indignant. He turned the model around, indicating what looked like two pads between the shoulder blades. “Compressed oxygen cylinders can give you breathable air for forty-eight hours. Pumps and heating cells all work off a miniaturized nuclear chip.” He pointed at Sam. “Similar to the one powering your internal MECH Suit, Lieutenant.

Sam nodded. “No complaints.”

Alex stepped forward and lifted the dummy’s arm. The gloves over the hands had ribbed fingers for grip, and plating over the knuckles and back of hand. Good. If they needed to get physical, using the suits was like having built-in brass knuckles; they tended to finish arguments real quick.

Sam walked around it, his brow creasing. “One question: how the hell does someone, ah, take a leak in that thing?”

Grey looked bemused. “Inside; where else?” He swung the model around on its plinth and showed them the back. There was a barely perceptible rise in the rear armor plating.

“Waste conversion system — filtered and converted to drinking water. Body temperature, of course.”

“Nice one,” Sam said. “And if I need to…”

Grey shook his head. “For that, you’ll need to peel yourself out of the suit in the cold, I’m afraid. Solid waste presents a contamination and storage problem.”

Sam grunted and looked skeptical.

Alex scoffed. “For Christsake, Reid, just go before you get into it.” He grinned. “And no vindaloo curry before dust off.”

“No promises.” Sam grinned back.

Alex turned to Grey. “Good work. There’ll be seven HAWCs including myself, and we’re out of here in a few hours.”

“No problem, send the bios. I’ve got all your measurements so we can engineer them right now. Be ready in an hour.” He made some notes.

Grey clapped his hands. “And now. Let’s go and look at some sub-zero environment weapon tech.” He headed toward an adjoining door that linked them to the next R & D lab.

Alex and Sam followed him in. The new room was longer than it was wide, and at one end there was a target set up — a half torso. The hangar-sized room also sported multiple firearm racks.

Sam spotted some of the newer light-emitting weaponry. “Lasers?”

“No can do,” Grey threw back. “Our analysis indicates an environment high in methane and hydrogen. You fire a laser in that, and it’s liable to ignite the entire mountaintop.”

“Ouch. What else you got?” Sam pulled a gun from a rack and checked it over.

Grey came and took it from the HAWC. “Well, we can’t use anything that has either ignition-based initiators, propulsion or impact detonation devices, so that rules out a lot of the standard weapon tech.”

“What about compressed air or EMP?” Alex folded his arms.

Grey snorted. “Old tech. I’ve got something even better. Magnetics.”

Alex raised his eyebrows. “Rail design?”

Grey held up a finger and waggled it. “Well, we’re still trialing rail-gun tech in our airforce and naval assets. We know we can get much greater muzzle velocities from lower energy than weapons powered by conventional propellants — means we can deliver bigger payloads faster and with greater accuracy.”

“Faster is right,” Sam said. “I’ve heard using electromagnetics to achieve a high velocity can make the projectile near invisible,” he said. “But my understanding is that the tech is freaking huge, like tank-sized huge.”

“Oh yes, the heavy conflict weaponry still requires a good-sized hardware footprint,” Grey agreed. “Our rail guns can deliver tungsten armor-piercing shells with kinetic energies of nine megajoules at two miles per second — at that velocity a tungsten rod projectile could penetrate down to a bunker buried beneath a mountain. But you’re right, the big power systems are still truck sized.”

“So, no rail gun.” Sam’s mouth turned down.

“I didn’t say that.” Grey showed a row of neat little white teeth.

“You’ve miniaturized it?” Alex smiled.

“Yes, we did. We lose some delivery speed, and they’re only down to rifle size, but even then, we still managed to achieve muzzle velocities of 1.1 miles per second, and with enough kinetic energy to punch a tiny hole through six inches of solid steel.” He shrugged. “If that’s all you wanted it to do.” He held his smile, waiting.

Sam chortled. “Okay, I’ll bite. What else can it do?”

“I’m glad you asked.” Grey rubbed his hands together. “You might not want to achieve a surgical-sized pinhole in your target. Instead, you might want something a little more… meaningful.” He lifted his chin. “I believe in the past, there have been a few of your adversaries that fit into that category, hmm, Captain Hunter?”

Alex just grunted, remembering his last mission — the creature he had encountered beneath the Antarctic ice was something that had evolved separately from the surface world. Maybe once it had been some sort of cephalopod, but it had developed into something massive, horrifying, and with a cold intelligence that had cost them a lot of lives. Back then, he’d wished he had a howitzer.

Grey went to one of the gun racks, and lifted something that looked more like a flattened box than a gun. The object had a shortened barrel and bottle shape molded into the square design.

Grey telescoped it out to a length of about three feet, turned it on its side and held it out.

“I present the RG3 — Generation-3 Rail Gun — field of combat ready.”

Alex took it from the diminutive scientist. It was heavier than it looked. He turned it over in his hand. There was a front grip, rear handle, standard trigger and guard, but with several studs on its side plus a small round dial.

“It’s got some weight.” Alex ejected a magazine that was about the size of a packet of cigarettes; this was where the bulk of the weight came from. He looked inside at the rounds — there seemed to be many hundreds, all packed in tight, like needles.

He also saw that they weren’t smooth but were more like tiny machines than solid material. He jammed the clip back in.

“How many?” he asked.

“Standard clip has a thousand rounds.” Grey beamed. “Some operatives may find they don’t have to reload for an entire mission.”

“We’ll take some spare clips. We might go duck hunting on the way home.” Sam held out his hand and Alex handed him the gun. Sam hefted it.

“The weight you feel is from the ammunition pack, but also in the lead casing for the radioisotope thermoelectric chip. It powers up the twin parallel conductor rails.” Grey leaned closer to point along the gun’s body. “Along here we have a sliding armature that would be accelerated by the electromagnetic effects of a current flowing along the rails, and—”

“Hey, aren’t electromagnetics susceptible to EMP weapon attack?” Alex knew the Russians were working on several devices to knock out battlefield electronics. “Be a pain in the ass to be caught in a firefight with a dead box in my hands.”

“Of course it would. You were paying attention when I mentioned the lead casing for the radioisotope, weren’t you? It has a nuclear power source, and is impervious to electromagnetic pulse. It only charges the rails for.003 seconds before firing. Even if the pulse wave knocks out that charge, it’s ready to fire again in under a second.”

Sam pointed to one of the target dummies. “Well?”

“Go ahead,” Grey said. “It’s currently set to single shot, but it can be ramped up to full metal storm if needed.”

“What about the heat?” Alex asked. “A thousand rounds, and using it on rapid fire, should generate enough friction heat to melt the casing.”

“Very good.” Grey waggled a finger again. “And it did with the earliest versions. But…” He grinned. “…that’s why we now use ceramics in the conductor rails.”

Alex nodded, satisfied.

“Only one thing left to do then.” Sam pointed and fired, only holding the weapon in one hand. He kept his finger down on the trigger. There was barely anything above a whisper. Alex detected the dummy moving fractionally, so he knew there’d been a strike.

“Did I hit it? What happened?” Sam looked at the gun. “I felt a little recoil, but…”

“Let’s see.” Grey went to a panel and pressed a few buttons, causing a small screen to lift. “I’m going to rewind.” He hummed for a moment. “Okay, now watch.”

Sam and Alex looked over his shoulder. The target dummy filled the screen, and just when Alex was losing patience he saw a tiny hole appear in the center of the head — even in slow motion the projectile was moving too fast to capture. All that was revealed was a small puncture in the dummy’s face, and then another indicating where the projectile had exited out the back.

“Oh yeah, in and out, I hit it good.” Sam nodded. “But you’re right, these pinpricks will have low stopping power. Some big badass might think he’s only been stung by a bee.”

“Hold that thought.” Grey grabbed the gun from Sam’s hands and moved the dial up to half way. “Now try.”

Sam walked back into position, raised the RG3 and fired. Almost magically a golf ball sized section of the impact gel vanished from the center of the head, splattering down to the end of the room.

“Whoa.” Sam grinned.

“Still think they’ll feel like they’ve been stung by a bee?” Grey cocked an eyebrow.

“Maybe a giant one.” Sam went to fire again, but Alex took the gun from him.

“My turn.” He set the dial to its highest setting, aimed and fired. The entire head of the dummy disappeared in an explosion of gel.

Grey folded his arms. “You can thread a needle, or put a hole the size of a softball through anything you aim at.”

Alex fired again, blowing away another section of the dummy. He looked at the weapon. “Oh yeah, this’ll do.” He smiled grimly. “And don’t forget our spare mags.”

“Really?” Grey looked unimpressed. “Just make sure you take it off maximum setting before hitting any ducks, won’t you?”

“Hey, I hear they’re pretty big ducks up there.” Sam took the RG3 back from Alex, and fired again at the remains of the dummy, obliterating the bottom half completely. Boom, he mouthed through his smile.

“I’ll have your weapons, spare ammunition and armor ready for you.” Grey scowled at Sam and took the weapon from him. “Now, I understand this will more than likely be an adversarial engagement, yes?”

“We hope to avoid it,” Alex said. “But they send HAWCs for a reason.”

“I know, expected confrontation,” Grey agreed. “So, now, something for defense I think you’ll both like.” He pressed a small stud in the wall and a drawer slid out. In it was what looked like gauntlets that fit over the lower arm. Grey took one out and slid it up his forearm.

“Um…” The scientist opened another drawer and selected a 9 mm pistol. He handed it to Alex. “Take this.”

Alex took it — a SIG Sauer SP2022 — he drew the slide back, but already knew it was fully loaded from the weight in his hand. He paused.

Grey adjusted something on the gauntlet, walked twenty feet down the shooting range and turned to face the two men. “Fire at will.”

Alex looked briefly at Sam, shrugged, and pointed the gun. Grey brought his forearm up and a faint whirring sound began. In front of him a three-foot disc shaped area began to become less distinct.

Alex fired twice directly at the man, and the bullets were pushed away — not ricocheted, but more like they hit something that absorbed their energy and then discarded them. Alex fired three more times — same result.

“Hold fire,” Grey yelled from behind the disc.

“Impressive.” Alex lowered his gun arm. “What the hell is it?”

Grey dropped his arm, the whirring stopped and the air in front of him cleared. He lifted his chin. “Personal combat shield — it’s basically ionized air trapped in a circling compression wave.” He grinned. “We accelerate the molecules in the air to near speed of light, and actually create an artificial gravity field using the centripetal force to keep it in a confined area.” He looked down at the gauntlet and patted it. “So far, we can only do it on a small scale, but we hope one day to be able to use it as a city-wide missile shield. Just think of that.” His eyes lit up.

“What can it stop?” Alex asked.

“The personal shield can stop multiple caliber projectiles from 9 mm up to a 7.62 mm battle rifle rounds.”

“Hoooly shit.” Sam clapped. “Let me see that.” He held his hands out.

Grey removed the gauntlet and adjusted it to fit on the much larger man’s forearm. He gave Sam a few seconds of instruction and then stepped back.

Sam switched it on and moved it about. “No weight.”

Grey shrugged. “Why would there be? It’s just using the surrounding air, but reorganizing the molecules into a rotating lattice formation.”

Sam backed up several steps. “Okay, boss, let me have it.” Alex aimed and fired off three quick rounds. Every single one struck and dropped away.

“Nothing — didn’t even feel the impacts.” Sam lowered his arm. “It’s a shield, but near see-through.”

Alex stepped forward and reached out a hand toward the circle of compressed air. He felt solid matter beneath his fingers. Even though the circle of air was slightly oily in appearance, like swirling water, his mind still told him that he should have been able to reach through it. However, his hand told a different story.

Sam turned it off and handed him the gauntlet. Alex slid it on, and repeated what Sam had done, and initiated the shield. Alex also backed up a few steps.

“Okay, big guy; charge.”

Sam grinned and lowered his brow. He was a large man, at 250 pounds easy. He was also assisted by the internal MECH suit technology that gave him the power of a battering ram. He dropped his shoulder and sprinted at Alex.

Alex raised the shield and widened his stance. Though Alex was stronger than Sam, mass and velocity were on the bigger HAWC’s side. Sam crashed into Alex and the shield, and Alex skidded backwards from the massive impact. But it was Sam that was flung aside.

Sam sprang to his feet. “That shit is tough — combination shield and battering ram.”

Alex nodded to the scientist. “Well done; add them to my shopping cart.”

“Good. Been wanting them to get a run in the field — and no one tests out our stuff like you guys. I want a full report on all the new tech when you get back.” Grey waved them on and then led them out through a different set of vault-like rooms.

Alex felt the presence as soon as he entered one of the darkened chambers. He pulled up hard, his head turning.

“What the hell is that?”

Grey looked sheepish. “Yes, I wanted you to see her.”

“Her?” Alex frowned. He could sense he was being watched even more strongly now that he was inside — or a better description might have been that he was being scanned.

“Lights up,” Grey said. “Spot.” Immediately more lighting came on and a single stronger beam came down directly over a lone, seated figure.

Alex couldn’t help his mouth dropping open. “You have got to be kidding me.” He crossed to the figure. “It’s a robot.” He bent to look into the blank face.

Sam joined him. “Pretty ugly.”

Grey went and stood beside it, placing a hand on its slim shoulder. “Oh, it’s more than a robot. She’s part of our Synthetic Warrior Program.” He glared at Sam. “And she’s a thing of beauty, as well as being the ultimate in autonomous mobile computing and communication packages.” He smiled. “And much more.”

The slim human shaped figure sat wired into a chair-type capsule. It shone dull silver as if made of pewter or brushed steel. Except for a slight slimness to the frame, it looked in proportion to someone approximately five feet nine or ten.

Grey then jogged to a console in the far corner and spoke over his shoulder. “Go ahead, touch it; it’s not powered up just yet. Just give me a minute here.”

Alex placed his hand against the cheek. The smooth silver skin of the face was featureless with just some bumps and depressions giving a hint to facial features. The synthetic skin was smooth and just below body temperature, but still warm. Alex dropped his hand to the shoulder and squeezed. The material gave slightly and he could feel a definite hardness beneath, like scaffolding or bones.

“It feels like skin, and it’s warm.” He laid a hand flat against the chest. “And by the way it’s already on; I can feel it.”

“No, not yet; maybe just some residual energy release or heat diffusion from the power plant,” said Grey. “It’s experimental HiPER fusion — High Power Energy Release through fusion reaction — stable, clean, and allows miniaturization without energy sacrifice or even degradation.”

“Nuclear powered.” Alex felt the chest again, sensing the slight buzz of enormous energy residing just under the synthetic skin.

“Oh, yes.” Grey worked at the console for a moment before looking back at Alex. “The power plant fuses the lighter nuclei together and releases enormous amounts of energy. Thanks to a little help from our Canadian cousins we were able to package it in a reactor the size of a human heart — the only real difference is the human heart outputs about five watts of power, but Sophia’s here will give her nearly a megawatt of energy and beat for a thousand years… or for as long as the casing stays intact, anyway.”

“Sophia, huh?” Alex ran his hand over the arm. “I can’t feel any seals; no joins on the surface at all.”

“There are seals, but they’re internal folds and can only be opened on command.”

“Yours or hers?” Sam asked.

“Both.” Grey shot back. “What you’re seeing is the result of ten years work, and many billions of dollars in investment.”

Alex lifted one of the arms, turning it over to look at the hand and palm. “Feels like steel, but soft; I’m assuming some sort of synthetic woven alloy.”

“Correct,” Grey responded. “Twenty times tougher than Kevlar and more akin to spider silk for its pound-for-pound tensile strength. In effect, it’s molecular chainmail covering advanced technology and hydraulics, and don’t be misled by the slim design. Due to the advancements in microtechnology, size does not mean strength. Sophia is probably stronger and faster than both of you combined.”

The scientist fiddled behind a console and immediately two glowing, almond-shaped orbs appeared where eyes should be on the almost blank face. The figure turned to Alex, and he could feel an examination taking place. And more, he felt a tingling in the center of his head.

“She’s scanning me.” Alex returned the analysis, and detected a level of complexity that was astounding before he was suddenly cut off, like a steel door slamming shut to block him. “I can feel her in my head.”

“She undoubtedly finds you interesting. She can link and target, uh, I mean, find anyone we designate.” Grey smiled as he fiddled at the console. “Vocalize please, Sophia.”

“Good morning, Captain Alexander Hunter and Lieutenant Samuel Reid; nice to meet both of you.”

“It knows us?” Sam asked.

“Sophia has access to our military personnel database, so knows your basic details from there. That’s all.”

There was a slight tingling in Alex’s head before the figure spoke again.

“Captain Hunter, I detect you have a different neural architecture, possibly resulting from the penetration by a small caliber bullet fragment lodged within the core of your cerebellum at the mid-point between the hypothalamus and thalamus.” Sophia’s head titled as though to examine him further. “Your brain has compensated for the trauma by developing a benign internal mass, but… there is also some foreign material still there — that is unidentifiable. You are now different.”

Alex rubbed the small scar above his eye, and Grey chortled. “No secrets from Sophia, I’m afraid.” He came around from behind the console. “Well, shake her hand, captain.”

The silver figure silently rose from its seated position in front of Alex, and offered him its slim hand. The being stood shorter than he and its slight body made it look significantly less powerful than his broad frame as he loomed over it. Alex reached out, took hold of the hand and squeezed slightly. The android squeezed back with equal pressure.

“Don’t be shy, you can’t hurt her; go on, squeeze harder.” Grey watched them both closely.

“Take it to school, boss. And don’t hold back.” Sam grinned and looked at Grey. “Hey, how much do those hands cost? Hope you got spares.”

“I’ll try not to break it — like I nearly did with you.” Alex grinned at Sam, and then looked briefly at the science officer. “Remember, this was your idea.”

The slim hand compressed slightly like normal flesh and bone, but didn’t buckle.

The head titled again. “Three hundred psi — you are an extraordinarily powerful human being, Captain Hunter.” With that, Sophia squeezed his hand back, harder.

Alex applied all the force he could bring to bear. Enough to pulverize bones, and even compress steel tubing if he so wished. It was impossible to tell what the effects were as Sophia didn’t flinch and there were no facial features to gauge an expression of pain or even irritation.

Alex then felt the bones in his own hand start to bend and the veins in his arm stood out like thick chords. He ground his teeth together. Shit. Pain began to flare in his hand. Immediately the pressure stopped. Alex’s hand now throbbed mercilessly.

“Phew.” Alex nodded at Grey. “Thanks, that was getting nasty.”

Grey shrugged. “Don’t thank me; it was Sophia that decided to desist. She has a lot more hydraulic power than your enhanced physical strength. She read that you were at the limit of your physical capabilities. She could sense your physical pain and she shut it off.”

Sophia still held Alex’s hand, her blank face turned toward him. “You are different.”

“He sure is,” Sam said. “Careful, boss, Aimee better not find out you’re down here flirting with the new weapon tech.”

Sophia released Alex’s hand. “Aimee?” She turned to Sam.

Grey went back to the console, worked for a moment, and then Sophia sat back down. The soft glow in her face dimmed, as though the eyes had gently shut.

“The power I felt there; unbelievable.” Alex continued to rub his hand and then turned to Sam. “Looks like we’re out of a job, big guy.”

Sam just scowled down at Sophia.

Grey laughed softly. “Not quite; physical power is nothing; anyone can build a bigger battering ram. Our first prototypes were as powerful as all hell, but couldn’t tell the difference between friend and foe, and the dozens of distinctions in between.” Grey pointed at the android. “Sophia’s conscious decision to release you rather than do you harm is where the bulk of our investment went. The hyper-tough chassis was easy. But what we wanted was something that could be auto-dependent, could make life or death decisions in differing environments, and could learn and adapt. In effect it needed a brain, with human-like deterministic logic. We wanted it to make the right decisions.”

Alex stared at it. “I’m still feeling redundant.”

“Not quite yet.” Grey smiled down at Sophia like a proud parent. “The original problem was no matter how many human psychological applications we tried, it continued to make flawed decisions based on a save thyself first self-preservation model. Also, in battle situations, it sometimes wanted to compete. But, it wouldn’t stop competing. Sometimes it seemed to get…”

Alex scoffed and looked at Grey from under lowered brows. “She got angry, didn’t she?”

“Maybe some would call it that.” He smiled flatly. “Then we had a stroke of luck when we came across the brilliant work by the German scientist called Frans Knopper on ‘machine learning and the female brain’ — groundbreaking, and just what we were looking for. She wrote a paper on neurological gender differences, and how females have more white matter dedicated to communication, problem-solving and connecting information, which gave them an inbuilt species cooperation trait.”

He placed his hand on the android’s shoulder. “We just needed an appropriate logic model. And we found one. It’s called ALP — Applied Logic Patterning. But one that could handle stress, and women can do that five times better than men.”

Alex folded his arms. “We want our technology to be like us, yet we humans have some deep psychological baggage — little things called emotions.” He walked around the android. “Who wants a robot that feels envy, greed, hate, and… vengeance, right? Some emotions can be deadly.”

“Yes.” Grey’s eyes locked momentarily on the HAWC leader’s, and Alex suddenly wondered how much the scientist knew about his own psychological storms.

The scientist’s eyes slid away. “Anyway, Knopper’s ideas provided the seed for our software teams, and became the genesis of a new line of thinking. The female traits were ideal to include in a being that would be required to work as both an individual and as a member of a team. It needs protective instincts — maternal instincts, if you like. Remember, it is more than just a mobile military logistics computer or weapon, it’s a guardian.” His mouth quirked up. “A guardian angel, in fact.”

Alex smiled. “And we need all the help from the angels we can get.”

“And who guards the guardians?” Sam stared hard at the seated android. “It can learn, huh?”

“Oh yes,” Grey said.

“So, Sophia,” Alex said softly.

Grey nodded proudly. “Sentient OPerational Heuristic Interactive Android — Sophia. The key thing being heuristic; it means she learns by trial and error, just like we do.”

“Sophia was the Greek goddess of wisdom,” Sam said.

“Correct; it kinda fit.” Grey beamed. “Eventually, she’ll make better and better decisions, and even make best-guess judgments. She’ll be our guardian against, uh…”

The man paused, and Alex felt evasion. “Against what?”

“Threats,” the scientist said, keeping his eyes on the android.

Alex continued to watch him, and suddenly felt there was a reason Grey had wanted him to meet Sophia. Or perhaps he more wanted Sophia to meet him. “From threats, huh?”

“Hmm, hm.” Grey gave him a crooked smile. “Shall we?” He motioned to the exit.

They headed for the silver door and Alex stopped briefly as Grey turned out the lights. He stared back at the seated figure. He frowned. Did it just move? He had the distinct sensation he was being watched again. He went to turn away from the darkened room, and for a split second, he thought he saw two small lights slowly come on as though eyes had gently opened in the dark.