The Future Is Closer Than You Think by Zaslow Crane

Author:Zaslow Crane [Crane, Zaslow]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Smoke and Mirrors
Published: 2019-09-24T18:30:00+00:00

Enemy Within

BY ZASLOW CRANE

B

ez, Chet and Chato hunched down in the protection of a gully. They were taking heavy fire and kept their heads low. Somewhere within shouting distance was Sarge, but then, he was always in shouting distance. Fuck, it seemed he was always shouting. He could be such a dick!

Bez looked in his heads up display. His tongue triggered the night scope function imbedded in his right, upper molar. It displayed on his viz’ screen over his face.

He tried to conclude where the fire was coming from. Judging by the pattern, there were two, maybe three gunners, tops.

Cap was still pinned down in a small stand of trees, maybe 30 meters and left, behind him.

As long as he stayed there, he was probably safe.

The new combat suits, or S O A’s, were more like a plasglas suit of armor, but the damn things weighed a ton! There were servos in the elbows and knees, hips and shoulders, so it was never difficult to run, or climb, or use their arms and legs in any normal function, fuck, in these suits, they were all fucking Swartzneggers, but then, there was the rain. Traction was a bitch!

The constant rain had turned the red Georgia dirt to mud. They were all sunk in to their ankles after only a few minutes. This was an ominous development. Their feet were leaden; mired and hard to move, even with the S O A’s servos.

All the advances in tek, in gear, in weapons, and they couldn’t do squat about a thunderstorm!

If the rain didn’t let up, they’d be mired for sure! Easy pickin’s for the more mobile and (they’d heard) quicker and lighter Gas Cartel’s troops.

More fireflies flew overheard; disturbingly close to his head.

Bez flinched involuntarily.

The Gas Cartel used incendiary bullets almost exclusively in situations like these, because in addition to occasionally finding unarmed crevasses in their armor, the fiery and unnerving flammable bullets could cause a lot of collateral damage.

The fireflies didn’t even light up until they were 30 or 40 meters out, and then, suddenly, they’d light up nearby, comin’ at you! Fast! It was freaky! That was another reason the Gas Cartel’s troops used incendiary rounds—the fear factor!

The PlasGlas suits could take three, maybe four direct hits in the same spot before degrading enough where the next hit might harm or even kill the wearer, but those little fires that didn’t go out. Those were the real problem.

They fucked up the night vision; the hot cinders always seemed to get into the fabric gussets—the supposedly fireproof fabric gussets! And they’d burn them away! And there was more. If the fireflies burned away a part of a gusset, where two plates of armor met, water would get in. On a night like this, water getting into a suit o’ armor, or “S O A,” it would cause short circuits. Short circuits could kill you.

While triple-redundancy was the watchword on planning boards of the General Mills Armories, there frequently was still hell to pay in a situation like this.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.