We chatted for a while after Erin got the coffee put away, we were munching on some fresh pastries when the other two arrived. “Looks like you finally took a break from settling your differences.” Erin snorted next to me at my comment.

“Merely team building exercises”

“If that’s team building, I would hate to see what you do to your enemies.”

Exxes butted in before Jester had a chance to retort. “That fucking hipster bait coffee?”

“People still say, hipster? Has it gone so far around that it’s popular again?”

“I say it.”

“Got it.”

Erin helpfully offered an alternative to her coffee. “There is some of that institutionalized stuff in the cupboard near the sink. Doubles as paint stripper. Pretty sure that’s what you're looking for.”

“Thanks!” She merrily skipped over to the counter to start filling her mug with scoop after scoop of the coffee crystals. She didn’t stop until it was like 2/3rds full.

I just couldn’t help myself. “We are, from my understanding, not in a water shortage, nor do I think that counts as coffee at this point. I think that’s going to be a tar-like substance.”

“Indeed. Just the way I like it. Spoon dissolving, diabetes inducing, train wreck of coffee. It’s the only way.”

“I’ll just sit over here. Don’t mind my stares of bewilderment at the substance you referred to as coffee.”

“So, Wolfe’s prototype should be ready in the next 45 minutes.”

Jester decided to join the conversation in between bites of his pastry. “We saw it printing. That looks like a lot of hardware. Are you sure we aren’t going to just be cleaning you up off the floor and throwing you in a pod to recover after you pass out from using it?”

I attempted to mitigate his concerns, “ After extensive simulation runs, we think that it should work just fine. It works on a slightly different principle than the typical rig unit. I’ll discuss its features as we start our first co-op course.”

A long drawn out slurp noise interjected from Exxes, before adding, “We called ours in. We should all be up and ready within the hour.”

We made some idle chit-chat. Nothing important said, but we took some time to get to know each other. As the hour closed out, we heard the ding sound from an easy bake oven.

“Really?”

“What? I liked it. I thought it was endearing.”

I got up and walked over to the monitor to visually inspect it. “Yeah, I think I can work with that. It looks less bulky than I thought. Is that because you swapped out normal plating for the composite?”

“Yeah. I think you won’t notice the reduction in defense. We were able to get some better recharge rates by lowering some of the overall weight. Plus it should be easier to dodge it.” She winked at me during her last comment. She clearly thought it was going to be a good surprise.

“I would say suit up, but everyone is already in their flight pajamas.” Exxes cheerily piped in. “Since you are new to this. There is an interface plate on the front of the unit. I am sure Miss Knight has shown you it’s location. Once you place your hand on it and confirm the activation sequence, that’s when the magic happens! You should feel like you fall into it. At the point of activation, it connects you to the deadweight system, and you will lose your quantum state body and gain the ability to drive your rig. We often call it immersing. Some also call it dolphining. The weirdos…”

“Shall we get going?”

“I move to the plate and select rig training arena.” I once again find myself feeling launched away. I feel the landing sensation after a moment, greeted by my very own prototype rig. It’s a lot more black than I remember it. It’s black, with silver trim, and glowing red accent lights whether important or decoration, I’m not sure. “Well Hello there. Ain’t you a beauty” I take a few moments to study it in detail. Seeing how well it meshed with my visualization. Exxes and Jester popped in just moments behind me.

Exxes just lets out a whistle, definitely an ‘I’m impressed’ whistle. “Guess we should unwrap our toys. Let's go, Jester. Queue up situation 1-581, Erin. I think that will be a good place to begin. His rig looks like it should survive. Probably give him a chance to put it through its paces."

“Queuing now.”

Both Jester and Exxes moved towards the nondescript boxes that weren’t there before. “These are launch boxes. Rather than moving differently in time using Peragomancy they move through space. It is the same technology that replaced the shipping industry. It takes time to map the coordinate interdimensional positions, but once linked you just need an open space, otherwise, it’s messy. It just transposes things between the two points. We had these delivered from the Crews hanger, our personal units. Only the box is quantumly keyed so it has to completely contain what’s being transferred. Go get a feel for yours while we pop our crates”

“Got it. Well, here goes nothing.” I reach up to the smooth silver plate tucked behind the breastplate of my Rig. Once my hand makes a full connection. With the hand-sized plate, a voice feels like it penetrates my brain.

“Hold hand to plate for 3 seconds. Take a deep breath. Say your activation phrase. Activation will then commence.”

I followed the steps, and as soon as I finished saying “It’s nothing personnel, kid” It felt like the floor fell out from under my feet and I was starting to fall backward. My vision snapped back to upright, and I could feel the difference. I could feel the Aether pouring out of me into the charging array. My initial start-up making me feel unsteady.

Erin’s voice sounded like it came from right next to my ear. “Take a breath. With the way your rig works, you need to control the flow of Aether or you could pass out. Imagine a full body flex.”

I concentrated on flexing my whole body at once. I felt the flow settle down and I immediately began to feel less woozy. “Thanks. I don’t need to remain like that, do I?

“No. maybe just a few moments during boot up. Having everything draw at once will be taxing. I will set up a draw regulator for the startup sequence in the next model. I thoroughly expect you to destroy that one. 1-581 will be quite the first challenge.”

I tested relaxing and indeed felt a different sensation. It felt like a warm connectedness. It was quite pleasant really. “Wow, that’s a pleasant feeling. Like a warm blanket.”

“That is probably the charging array interface. Taking damage to it will probably be excruciating.”

“Right got it. Avoid chest damage at all cost.” I tried to take a step forward as I felt more stable now. It felt really light. “Wow talk about feeling light on my feet.” I hopped a couple times up and down in place.

“Says the man in a Rig that weighs around 2.5 tons.”

“I feel light on my feet. I actually feel really good. This shit feels like it could be addicting.”

“Interesting I wonder if it’s the charging array leaving you with lots of spare operational Aether for movement. Most people say it feels reassuring like wearing a full suit of armor. Depending on how this tests. It might be something we incorporate in other units on a smaller scale.”

Exxes piped in but sounded like it was over a mechanical radio. “Heads up. 1-581 is already starting. I’ll take point. Jester on overwatch. New guy, you respond to my call outs. Show me something interesting. Horde inbound.”

All at once a four-legged monster or did that count as six, clearly, a female unit, stepped out of one of the crates. It was missing one hand and it was clearly replaced with some type of emitter. The other hand had a 3 hand width length silver rod. The legs came out from her lower back, right at the hip line, making it look like she was sitting on an invisible throne. As she finished climbing out of the box her legs lowered and her feet were just off the floor. The hauntingly beautiful porcelain doll-like face turned in my direction. Exxes voice cut in over the com system again. “Like what you see, old man? Don’t drool too much.”

Just a moment behind her reveal, a somewhat spindly unit flipped out of the other box. “Overwatch reporting in.” Jester’s voice crackled in over the com as well. He looked like he was taking inventory or stock of his unit. He had something that looked unmistakably like some kind of sniper rifle emitter on his back. He had a few of a small rounded cube item on his belt. He had 3 palm-sized silver cylinders affixed there as well. He had some kind of boxy thing attached to his right arm. It just was just barely doubled up the thickness of his arm. I figured it was some kind of docking port. He had a very sleek head unit like a futuristic looking motorcycle helmet that was seamless. It had a port on the side of the head that looked like a fighter jets intake. On the side of the intake port, there was another hole that seemed to go straight in from the side. He grabbed an item from the side of his belt and locked it into place by sliding it into the port. It didn’t fill up the port completely, and it extended forward over one eye. As he turned to address me I noticed he had a pistol like unit strapped to his thigh. There was no trigger, and it looked like it docked into a socket rather than being held. He nodded in my direction. “Taking my position now.” He faced forward and hopped a little up into the air as a couple of what I could only describe as thrusters lifted him further up.

“You have an actual jetpack?”

“Yes. This is just its boost mode. It can hover and fly as well.” His ascent slowed as he reached a ledge that was behind and above us, as a turret like sniping position finished resolving itself. He dropped the rest of the way onto it. “In position.”

“I have vanguard position. I should be able to keep them off of you two. Show me what you can do Doc.”

“Do I have to wait or can I start now?” I asked Exxes.

“What?” Exxes confused retort came back just as shots started ringing out from above clearly hitting things as Jester started counting to himself.

“I have a couple of things that should help. Do you want me to wait till they get closer?”

“Do what you can do now.”

I reached behind me on my belt and pulled out 4 slightly larger than hand-sized units. Conveniently, they had handles so I could hold two in each hand. I tossed one to the left and right, and one slightly forward of those on each side. Crisp walls snapped into place forming up into a choke point that gave room for about 4 of Exxes at the mouth of it. It would stop the tide, but it would keep us from being flanked. I pointed my right hand in a gun-like shape and started miming shooting things 15 times twice. I pantomimed holding a flight stick and pulling a trigger. “Fire!” two barrages of dart like rockets launched up 7 meters into the air. before redirecting towards the rapidly approaching horde of enemies. The fired off like bolts once they got to height and reorientated. The first salvo crashed into the front line of the horde. A moment after striking with little fanfare, the front liners struck, erupted into spiky metal spears creating natural tide breaking obstacles. They tore and shredded anything that was unlucky enough to come into the unnaturally sharp jags of metal. The horde slowed as they now had to choose between going around the obstacles or try and move through. Just as the horde was starting to break up and disperse to go around the obstacles the second volley of projectiles hit. The ruined messes of Aether that marked the impacts declared quite loudly that these ones were intended to kill and maim. Often crippling the goblin-like horde monsters all around the ones that detonated. Jester’s shots rang out picking off those that attempted to go around the tide breakers.

While these actions were effective, it wasn’t halting the horde of little green monster things. I pulled the longer emitter from its back holster. Exxes clearly tired of sitting back moved forward, blasting away clusters that were starting to get clear the tide breakers. “Heavy infantry units moving in. Armored bruiser class! Jester slow them down, it would be nice if we weren’t overrun by them.”

“You want them one at a time, or just not in a big rush.”

“One at a time is a luxury. We need to avoid a big rush, at all costs-ish...unless Doc has some sort of plan for that.”