Chapter 25 - Preparing for Battle

The next morning I woke early but all of my concubines were already awake and waiting for me. "Sorry master," Bethany said. "We got up early so that you couldn't sneak out. We were serious about helping."

I nodded. "That's fine, I wanted you there anyways. The armor is going to be hard to put on, so I figured you could all help me."

"All?" Brittany asked.

I smiled. "Just the first time. Most likely two of you will be enough in the future. Also we should find out when Kitty might be awake. I think Meiko and Brittany should try to visit her."

Bethany smiled. "That's a great idea. Oh, I've been checking with the other's concubines. Most are already trying to get into the sleep trainers so they can do command post duty. They are excited about it."

I nodded. "Good, because we are very short staffed, and I don't think we can call to Ruth or Manuel for extra people. Now if we all are ready, let's get to the laser pod and find out what we have to work with."

We left as a group and headed to the laser pod, where Brad, Xavier and Linus were waiting. All had concubines with them and I was going to speak when Terrence ran up. "Fred and Tyson will be late. Both have concubines in sleep training for command post duties and wanted to be there when they wake. They should be here within the hour."

I nodded and then turned to the door. It opened slowly and we could hear a rush of air as the seal around the door broke. The AI spoke. "This room has an independent air system, that is why there is a pressure differential."

Linus looked a bit nervous. "This is going to be different," he said.

We looked inside and found a small triangle shaped chamber with doors in the opposite walls. I stepped in and the others followed. The outside door closed and then the AI spoke. "To where do you wish to exit?"

"How about the left laser?" I replied. "Let's designate it laser one and have that put on the door, the other one can be laser two. That should help everyone keep track later."

"Egress commencing," the AI said as the left door slowly opened with another hiss of air.

The door opened and fifteen of us stumbled forward into a rather Spartan chamber. Along one wall was a small array of readouts and controls. A lone chair sat in front of the display. To the right was a strange wall seemingly made of a thin plastic, with a red line running from ceiling to floor and exposing a small passage.

Linus walked up to the display and readouts. "This looks like the display I saw in the training sessions. Most of this is just support and tracking information for the gunners."

I could hear Xavier say in awe. "I guess we need to check out the guns then. I'm guessing through there." He pointed through the passage indicated in the plastic.

Brad jumped up and moved into the passage first, but everyone hurried forward to see what wonder lay beyond. We nearly ran into trouble when Brad paused at the mouth of the passage, but a nudge from his concubines reminded him that others followed and he got out of the way.

The chamber contained a huge and impressive laser mount. The quad mount barrels reached a good ten feet past the body, and a large seat stood behind the body of the weapon. The controls matched those of the training, with a joystick for fine control, foot pedals for fast left and right rotation and a left hand pitch control for raising or lowering the barrels. Targeting was handled by a trio of view screens and a repeater which routed through a wire in the joystick into a socket in a battle armor glove and projected an image on the inside of the operator's helmet.

The laser stood silent testament to its power, but the rest of the chamber was no less impressive. A faint mist was falling, and one could see seals and special soak flows everywhere. It was Xavier who realized what it all was. "My god, the chamber has its own acid neutralization system. That must be the mist; it's probably some kind of de-ionized water for washing acid particles out of the air. It should make recovery a bit easier as once the laser is back inside, the chamber will already be purifying the air."

Linus appeared thoughtful. "That should help, but the recovery team might not have battle armor. Right now, we have to wait for the air to purify before we can run in to help remove armor."

Xavier and Brad nodded. "We need to think up a better way, but for now, we need to start drilling on how to get someone up on one of these and get it into the atmosphere fast," Brad said.

"No taking them up unless it's for real," I said. "We need to limit the amount of time they are exposed to the air."

Everyone approved and we started a walkthrough of how to mount the laser. Getting into the chair proved to be a bit difficult. The laser was tall and the steps up were rather awkward. Brad and I figured out a method, but Xavier struggled to get up in the chair and ready. We suggested he use the crew ladder and jump, but that added time and we were not convinced that he would be able to get behind the laser when in full armor.

Tyson and Fred arrived about an hour later and joined in the sessions. Tyson proved to be endlessly patient and observant. He quickly noticed what Xavier was doing wrong and asked the AI to start playing a hip-hop beat. He then led Xavier through the steps while showing how keeping the music in mind would get him to make the one hop that kept eluding him earlier. Xavier was quite thankful and after watching how each gunner related with Linus and Tyson, it was decided to pair Brad and Xavier with Tyson, while Fred and I would work with Linus. We kept on the drills for another hour before we decided to break. By this time everyone including the concubines was exhausted.

"This adds a lot of hope for our defense, but it's a lot more physical than I expected," Fred said as we all headed over to the recreation center. "I hope the battle armor helps make the climb easier."

Janice sighed. "I know you are doing this to protect all of us, but I can't imagine just how dangerous using those lasers will be. I mean we know that the air here can eat a missile. I just fear for my master."

Her concern was mirrored in the faces of many of the concubines, but we all tried to convince them that we knew what we were doing. Fortunately the excitement of the recreation room and the many games there allowed us to create a feeling of ease and we passed forward to the afternoon without any arguments.