2095 UNPC Universal Calendar
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Charles "C3" Mitchell
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The shop was massive, hard to take in as the door eased shut behind me on the hydraulic cylinder, and closed with a clang in the metal frame.
Three overhead doors, 100 feet by 150 feet. One side exit at the middle of the left wall, and another at the back right corner along the back wall. Long LED lights hung from the ceiling, ample heating and cooling with dehumidifiers making sure the air was completely free of moisture.
My boots, nearly obliterated by heavy use, with the steel toe showing through the toecap sounded small as I walked across the painted concrete floor, the oil and slip resistant coating, with blue/grey speckles unmarred.
Just as I looked to the right, towards a large workbench, my workbench, a 10' long mass of 4x4's with four feet of depth to it, I was startled.
"Nice place, Ja?" A voice said behind me, almost making me jump out of my skin.
Eric "B7" Muller stood, with Dr.Raine behind him near the very left wall, relative to the three doors.
"You scare me like that again, and I'll slap the taste smooth out of your mouth Muller" I said as I walked towards them, pointing a finger at him.
Dr.Raine chuckled, and Eric just looked at me with a shit eating grin, matching his dumbass blue eyes.
"Go off and make someone else believe in ghosts, I'll be here a while." Dr.Raine told Eric, who looked to the left slightly as she spoke to him. He nodded, and turned on his heel, heading out the door they'd just come in.
"Like it?" Dr.Raine asked.
"Love it" I said, chuckling, making her smile.
"Your list of requests was most peculiar, but I made good on every one of them, just as we agreed." she said, walking over to my workbench, and leaning her elbows on it.
"Yes ma'am" I replied, unsure of where she was going with the conversation.
"I'll have all of the sea-cans dropped off outside the shop there," she said, gesturing towards the three wide overhead doors.
Sea Cans, a slang term for shipping containers that I could never pick up, "connex" just rolled off the tongue better.
"Don't get the wrong idea, this is your shop, you can do whatever you like with it," she said, tracing a knot in one of the 4x4's the bench was made out of.
"Can you remind me of our agreement?" she asked, making sudden eye contact with me.
I sighed, feeling a bit of shame, even towards the woman who was my mother of sorts, the feeling somehow making it worse.
"Because I'm unfit for a combat role, my required service has been reset and doubled, and I'm to fix whatever you send me." I sighed, looking down at the pristine blue/grey concrete once more.
"And?" she asked as I put a hand in my left pocket, finding what I was looking for, and flipping it with my thumb.
I chuckled, catching it and smiling. "I can do whatever I want, say anything to whoever I want, as long as I'm a good boy and fix the children's toys" I said, my tone dripping with sarcasm as I studied the coin in my palm.
Grey, precision engraved, with a stylized key on one side, and on the other "UNPC" in recessed letters.
"Not a very professional explanation of what I told you, but yes, that's the implications of it," She smiled, adjusting the green cutting mat to align with the wood seams in the top of the workbench.
I stayed silent, looking at the coin in my palm, wondering what the hell my first project was going to be in all of this shop space, where I was going to organize everything, and how I was going to settle in.
God, how long it was going to take.
"Thank you, really," I said, pocketing the coin again.
She waved it away, "you've always been a smart man, and from what I'd seen of you beforehand, I wanted you to do this in the first place, you've been, and no doubt will be such a help to the coalition." she said, adopting her motherly tone, which always made my chest hurt.
"Your knowledge is unparalleled, you make even the most skilled mechanics of ours look like minnows in a fishing pond, that's why I gave you this option." she said, looking up at me.
"You're a damn good mechanic, a damn good fabricator, machinist, everything under that umbrella," she assured me, making me close my eyes and sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. "There's no shame, some people are good at doing what the Augment Corps is known for, others just need options." she said, her tone final.
"This is an option." She told me, making me open my eyes, and meet her gaze.
I nodded slowly, and licked my suddenly dry lips.
"I'll be back in a few months, I'm sure you'll settle in just fine." she said, stepping away from my bench, and walking towards the side door she'd come in.
This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.
Not fit for a combat role
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Three months later.
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The door made its usual clang, and I slid out from under the OSHKOSH LMTV I was working on, my armor's delrin plates cladding my back letting me slide across the coated concrete floor with ease.
I stood up, putting the wrench I'd just been holding onto the magnetic apron attached to the waist of my armor, and ducked around a Bradley Fighting Vehicle to see who'd come in.
"Charles, good to see you." Dr.Raine said, waiving. She wasn't the one that caught my eye however.
"Hi there Doctor Raine," I said, lifting my right hand as I walked towards her.
He was equal height to me, with a partially opaque faceplate, wearing thick cowhide gloves, with both gloved hands resting on a central pouch of his ECA chestplate. A flamethrower ejector hung over his right shoulder on the tank rig I'd designed for him, and helped him make.
"Charles," Brian "B4" Kugler greeted me, his Mexican accent still ever present as he dipped the chin of his weathered and scorched looking helmet.
"Kugler" I replied, stepping over to the sink, and removing my own leather gloves.
I still remember the screams of the soldiers as they were hit with the magnesium enriched fuel.
"Settling in well?" she asked me as I shook my head, clearing away the memories, and grabbed a spurt of hand cleaner from the dispenser on the wall. The dispenser hesitated, needing another push till it dispensed the rough & thick pumice filled liquid.
No matter how good the gloves I wear are, my hands still get dirty.
"Yeah, it's everything I could hope for and more." I said, working it into my hands, the smell of the Zep Cherry Bomb hand cleaner bringing me back to the shop, and out of Mount Obsidian, helping clear my head.
"I'm told you've already completed over two hundred projects, many of them very in depth repairs," she said, her tone proud as I stepped on the metal bar below the deep plastic sink, turning on the water.
I nodded. "I really enjoy a challenge, just keep throwing stuff my way and I'll have it finished." I chuckled.
She smiled at that, something I caught as I glanced over towards her, seeing Kugler look around the shop.
"Mind if I take a walk and look?" he asked me.
I shook my head, "Go for it," I said, stepping off the bar and standing up straight, wiping my hands on the outsides of my thighs. The LSS like fabric cladding my thigh armor wicked away the water, and I reminded myself that I'd need to empty the little compartment it drained to in my RMP when I got the chance. It was probably full of oily sludge.
Kugler walked away, and Dr.Raine swept her gaze around as well. "You've been busy, it looks completely different than the last time I was here," she said, panning her eyes across the shop slowly.
I chuckled, "I've got everything where I can find it now." I replied.
"That reminds me, is there anything you need, or want?" she asked.
I squinted, staring through her, zoning out and really thinking about it for the first time since I'd written the 10 page list of things I'd requested when they built the place for me.
I took a deep breath, and let it out slowly. "A Bridgeport milling machine, and a lathe," I paused. "Broken or not, I don't mind, just..... nothing computerized, I don't want a brand spanking new Haas" I said.
She smiled at me, seeming to think. "I think I can manage that," she smiled. "Will that be all?" she asked, looking to the left, presumably at Kugler, who had probably been told to keep her constantly within eyeshot.
I shrugged. "More hand cleaner and gloves?" I asked. "Not the stuff I've been using, I've used it for over a hundred years by now." I paused, thinking. "I heard Goop is good, and more of these gloves are fine." I said
She nodded, crossing her arms. "How much?" she asked.
"I think they sell it in drums, if not, a pallet of the big containers should be fine." I supposed, shrugging. "Another box of gloves. Even if I use them till I blow a hole in the forefinger, they still don't last very long."
Her eyes widened. "You use that many? I remember seeing a bunch of the stuff just three months ago" she said. I nodded. "I made you cancer resistant" she sounded outraged.
I chuckled. "I don't like harsh chemicals leeching into my skin. Period." I said.
She gave me a "get to the point" look.
"If you want to, you can buy me a bunch of different pairs and I'll see what lasts the longest. Until then, I'll keep putting holes in these" I gestured to my current pair next to the sink, "and lots of hand cleaner."
Her expression softened as she seemed to grasp my point.
"We can't all be like Kug and roll around wearing oven mitts all the time." I said, smirking.
"Heard that," Kugler hollered from across the shop, turning my smirk into a grin as Dr.Raine chuckled.
"Okay, I get it, more gloves, hand cleaner, a lathe, and a milling machine." Dr.Raine rattled off. Hearing her say the two somewhat inconsequential things followed by $100k+ pieces of machinery sounded funny.
"Everything else I'll bother the clerks with, good lord the laundry list of small stuff." I shook my head as I adjusted the few tools I had attached to my apron, noting a tear in the rubber I'd have to repair.
"Are they giving you trouble?" She asked me.
"Something like that," I supposed.
"Me and Kugler will go on down and have a chat then, we were going to head there anyways for a similar issue. I was very clear with the 'you get whatever you want' rule." She said, her expression suddenly going cold.
"Thanks?" I asked more than stated.
She just nodded, and I walked over to my workbench as she followed. I whisked up my canteen and took a swig of water.
"You do damn good work" Kugler said, rounding the OSHKOSH LMTV and standing in front of it.
"Thanks" I said after taking another drink, smiling at the man's bewildered expression.
"In three months, how many jobs did you say you did?" he asked, I saw him squint through his amber colored faceplate.
"Two hundred and six" I said "I could've got three or four a day done, but I had to wait on parts," I shrugged.
He seemed to process that for a moment, then looked at the truck beside him. "And I thought I was at least somewhat of a mechanic," he said, "I'm small pez compared to you" he held the tips of his gloved fingers a centimeter apart, using the Spanish word for "fish."
I scoffed. "I'm just good at what I do, I've got the gift," I said.
"Fuckin' A" Kugler grinned, then turned to Dr.Raine. "Am I going to have to crack some heads? I wore my nice gloves." He said, winking at me.
Dr.Raine narrowed her eyes, looking at him like a hyperactive child. "Yes Kugler, we're going to have to apply some pressure to certain individuals because they're not doing as I told them to," she said, straining the "professional" wording.
She turned to me, smirking."Can you believe he was sixty two when he got my gifts? He acts five," she said, making me snicker.
I saw Kugler roll his eyes, making the nerve damage in his scarred face flicker. "Whatever" he said, waiving it off. "I'm tired of being everyone's father."
"You chose to do that yourself, and you can't expect to give off that energy and not have most of the personnel come to you expecting to be met with the figure you expressed." Dr.Raine told him, doing the mother tone on him again.
"Here we go." He said, looking at me with a pleading look.
I threw my hands up in a "don't shoot" expression, and walked back over to the truck, sliding back under it in a fluid motion and getting back to work.
They carried on their conversation for a while, and Kugler eventually told her he'd wait by the doors and think about what she'd said.
"Hey" Dr.Raine broke my focus, kicking me in the sole of my boot.
"Yes?" I said, sticking my head out from under the truck.
"I need you to fix my car....." she said, and continued to speak, detailing the problem she was having, but I didn't listen as I got busted up laughing.
"What?" she finally said after I laughed at her for a second.
"I wondered when you'd hit me with that one."
Took her long enough.