2290 UNPC universal calendar
---
"hey, she wants to see you" Kate said, holding the phone to her ear, covering the microphone with her right hand.
"She?" Anton asked.
"yes, she, Raine" Kate replied.
Anton's face lit up.
Dr.Raine is the 313 year old scientist that made the augments, and helped design the armor.
She was also the only one with enough courage to test the anti-aging process she'd designed herself.
Anton stood up from the table, and moved over to Kate, he motioned for her to hand him the phone
---
They arrived at installation 001, Dr.Raine's home. The installation being the main distribution facility for all supplies shipped under the UNPC's flag to North America.
Driving through the main gate, they found Doctor Raine's lab, a massive sprawling complex three stories high and 280 thousand square feet.
They walked through the entrance, and over to the front desk.
To the left and right of the room were two armored D-series augments.
"wonder what they did to get guard duty" A9 thought.
Behind the desk sat a blonde man with green eyes, who greeted them as they approached.
"ahh, you must be the two Dr.Raine was talking about, she's waiting for you in room ten" The man said, handing them both a small ID placard on a lanyard. "please wear these, they allow you to open doors"
"I've got the chip" A9 said, raising his right hand.
"oh, that's why she said you wouldn't take it" He replied, putting the placard back down on his desk, C7 slipping the lanyard over her neck as she held her helmet in her left hand.
"what goodies do you think she has for us this time?" She asked A9 as they walked to room, finding it was easy, it was the biggest room in the facility, with R-10 printed on the door in bold blue letters.
"something good, that's for sure" he replied, as they reached the door.
A9 grabbed the handle, and the door automatically unlocked for him, allowing him to swing the door open.
He motioned Kate inside.
They were met with a massive white room as the hydraulic cylinder squealed shut behind them, large tables, all with things strewn across them, and Dr.Raine seated at the leftmost table, writing something.
"Oh it's so good to see you" she said, walking to meet them. "please ignore the clutter" she said, throwing her hands around the room.
"it's been too long" she said, "please, come see what I've got for you" she put a few strands of her deep brown hair behind her ear, motioning for them to follow her.
They did, and she stepped over to a keypad on the wall, and typed in an unlock code.
She hit "enter" and the wall to the right of the keypad recessed half an inch where it'd been completely seamless a moment prior, and slid to the side, all without making a sound.
She stepped inside, and motioned them in.
The room within was half as long, but just as wide, having many cardboard boxes and plastic Pelikan cases lined up along the walls.
"there's a little bit of everything in here" she told them, walking up to a black case, looking down at it.
The case had a label out of a label maker, black text on a simple white strip of plasticy feeling paper, printed simply "A9"
she pointed at it "this is yours,you can set it on that table" she said, hooking a thumb towards the table behind them.
A9 walked over to it, and picked it up. By his suit's servos, it was about 200 pounds.
"the hell is in this thing?" he asked, setting it on the metal table with a thunk.
"you'll see" Dr.Raine said.
A9 opened the case as Dr.Raine and Kate watched on, and was met with over a dozen items.
Doctor Raine had the habit of taking things that she thought A9 or C7, among other augments, would like, and giving them to her "children" as gifts.
There was a Maxim pistol, almost the exact same as the worn and tattered one A9 had in his holster, two dozen "9-banger" flash grenades, a new pair of Rocky S2V boots, a new knife and sheath, and a thick woven wool blanket like piece of folded fabric in the corner of the case.
There were also six large bottles of fountain pen ink of varying colors, four 16oz bottles from Noodler's, a 350ml bottle from Pilot, and a 1 liter bottle from Pelikan.
He laid them out on the table one at a time, setting the bottles upright, and running a function check on the pistol with fast practiced movements.
Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.
"what's the story behind this" he asked, handling the pistol.
"that's a modified Maxim Nine" she said, smiling. "I had it modified to be both lighter and accept a ten millimeter cartridge for enhanced stopping power"
"thanks for the boots" A9 said, "these are about to have their third resole"
"no problem, I know you love those, and Rocky went out of business about forty years ago, so I thought I'd find you a pair." she replied, happy to give a story for every item.
"and this?" he asked. Picking up the knife.
"it's a Ka-Bar, exactly the same as your D2 extreme, but the blade material is tungsten carbide" she said, smiling at him.
"hmm" he said, studying it, "not bad, shouldn't be any harder to sharpen than my D2"
He slid his old, tattered Ka-Bar D2 extreme from his sheath, the leather wrapped handle familiar to his hand, and sat it on the table, putting the new knife into the old sheath.
"what about this?" A9 asked, picking up the thick fabric and unfurling it, revealing it it be a cloak of sorts.
"that's a cloak that deadens your thermal signature, it also calibrates to appear near invisible to any thermal optics when you remain still, it can also output a thermal or IR signature" Dr.Raine said. "it can also charge your armor, acting like a solar panel, since I know you prefer the cold cells."
"wow" A9 said.
C7, who was to his left, was clearly jealous.
"No Kate, I haven't forgotten about you" Dr.Raine told her. "you can have your toys in a second"
"thanks for the nine bangers by the way" A9 said.
"those were very hard to find" Dr.Raine said, picking one up and studying it. "I can see why you like them so much, even though they're weapons grade unobtainium"
C7 snickered as Dr.Raine sat the flash grenade back down on the table.
A9 picked up a 16 ounce bottle of Noodler's fountain pen ink off of the table, "I'm always going through these" he said.
he rolled it in his hand and looked at the label.
just to the left of the "Noodler's ink" logo was "Lexington gray" with a picture of the USS Lexington aircraft carrier at port, it's crew leaning against the ropes along the top of it's flight deck.
Along the waterline of the carrier there was text that read: "Bulletproof on cellulose paper" and in the water itself: "washes off plastic with tap water"
"the ghost ship" A9 muttered, referencing the fact that the Lexington was reported sunk no less than 4 times during the second world war.
"I was looking for more ink for myself, and got a good deal on these, thought about you, so here you go" she said.
"That Pelikan ink is a proper blue black, it's iron gall, so if you let it dry out it will cause clogs" Dr.Raine added. A9 nodded.
"It's a wonder I haven't used this ink before" he said.
"now you can" Dr.Raine smiled.
"No, onto your gifts" Dr.Raine said to C7. "Anton, would you be so kind" she asked.
"Sure" A9 said, lifting her case onto another table.
"well, go ahead, open it" Dr.Raine egged C7 as A9 watched on.
C7 obliged, and popped the two clasps, revealing the contents.
She reached inside, and set a pale white shimmering cloth onto the table, then a large very long rifle.
"only two things?" she asked, a "I'm fucking with you" smile on her face.
"I've known him for longer" Dr.Raine shrugged.
"this thing is huge" C7 said, staring at the rifle.
"an Anzio magazine fed twenty milimeter rifle, with a shortened barrel and lighter weight materials bringing it's overall weight to just sixty-four pounds" Dr.Raine rattled off.
"and this" Dr.Raine said, picking up the fabric. "is a cloak just like A9's but makes you naked eye invisible as well as masking your thermal signature, don't worry, the shimmer goes away when you connect it to your armor"
"once you hook it up to your armor, it'll use your 360° cameras to display what's behind you, making it look like there's nothing there. If you are not wearing your helmet, or your view is obstructed, your onboard computer will use any nearby cameras instead, or just as a backup" Dr.Raine continued, "it can also be up to 40% damaged before failing completely.
"consider me angry jealous" A9 said, smiling at her.
"I've got a new set of uppers for you two, stronger arm servos, better power usage, boring things like that" Dr.Raine said, "it's over here" she said, walking over to another two cases.
"we're going to run out of tables at this rate" A9 remarked, setting the case on the table.
They flipped open their cases, and took their new armored arm exoskeletons out.
"please, try them on" Dr.Raine said, placing two fitted LSS suits on a table.
"thank you, sincerely" A9 said.
"no problem, I'll leave you two to it, I'll be in the other room." Dr.Raine replied, leaving.
They each took off their armor, then their LSS skinsuits, both of them standing naked on the cool concrete floor.
They swapped glances and smiles, then put on their new, dark grey LSS skinsuits, then all of their armor again, swapping their old exoskeleton uppers for their new, but bearing the same battered armor plates.
A9 walked over to the table where his cloak sat, and picked it up. He noticed there were two hooks at what he decided was the "top" of the cloak, which fit perfectly into the parachute mounts on the back of his RMP.
He donned it, and found it very comfortable to wear, not impeding any movement, not too heavy, nor too loose on his back.
He looked to C7, and found her wearing hers as well.
They both walked out of the room back into the main one, the door sliding closed behind them automatically, and found Dr.Raine sitting at her desk writing again.
"they look very good on you" Dr.Raine said, "comfortable?" she asked.
A9 nodded, as did C7.
"good" Dr.Raine said, "one more thing" she tapped a few times on her tablet that only she could see, presumably projected into her eyes by her glasses.
A9 suddenly had a tingling sensation on his skin, which quickly subsided, and he could feel his armor afterwards.
"woah" he said, C7 mirroring him.
"Thought you'd like it" Dr.Raine said, a sly smile on her face. "When you wear the new gray Life Support Suits, it interfaces with your plating to let you feel your armor, but you won't feel pain, don't worry, and if you don't want to, you can turn it off or just not wear the new suits"
"thank you so much" A9 said smiling. "this is amazing"
"I'm very glad you like it, Triple A just nodded and walked out" She chuckled, referring to Alex "Triple A" Anderson, better known as Alpha Three.
"oh, and if you want to, you can set it up to feel each other's armor, or just the LSS if you connect it to your Rear Main Plate" Dr.Raine added.
A9's eyes lit up, "wow, and that sounds about like him, how'd Terror take it?" A9 asked, referring to Tim "the terror" Wright, better known as Bravo One.
"About like you two actually" Dr.Raine said, looking over to C7 who was playing with her new cloak.
A9 looked too, and saw that she was practically invisible, only a small portion of her gauntlet holding the cloak, the toes of her boots, and the top of her helmet visible to them.
"the power drain is less than running" she said, "this thing is cool"
Dr.Raine laughed, then opened a drawer on her desk.
She tossed A9 a package. "taste this" she said as he caught it.
"what is it?" he asked.
"it's a new ration, tastes better" she replied.
A9 opened up the thick plastic, and found a regular looking calorie brick, and took a bite.
"very good" he said after swallowing. "like dark chocolate and pecans, dry but doesn't leave that film when it re-hydrates, nothing like the chocolate flavored nasty of the old sawdust ones" he said. "great actually" he said, he then took another bite.
"here's a new Wrist Mounted Display too" She said, tossing him a new one "yours is almost a hundred years old"
He caught it, still chewing, and unclipped his old one, tossing it underhanded to Dr.Raine, who caught it and put it on her desk.
He held the calorie brick in his teeth as he clipped the new one on, then took another bite after affixing it.
"that's all folks" Dr.Raine said, leaning forward and steepling her fingers with her hands against the top of her desk. "would you like to stick around and talk for a while?" she asked.
"sure, I don't think we've got anywhere else to be at the moment" A9 said, "and me and her have got some questions about starting a family, us being augments and all" he added, looking at C7, who nodded.
"well, I can tell you one thing, it won't be easy" Dr.Raine replied.
it's never easy in the UNPC