Elias noted in his implant Nikos quick thinking. “Nine man team, with light weapons. And most likely some kind of stealth system.”
“It has to be something new, I didn’t hear anything from research department.” Laura said.
“Probably. Alright this is what I want you to do. Niko can you program your implant to analyze the sound in real time and feed the locations of the sound origins to your HUD?” Elias asked.
Niko paused for a moment. “Yeah, I can do it, I’ll need to specify the frequency range for their gunfire, but I have the recording from the ambush so it’s not a problem, but I’ll need a few minutes to configure the suits HUD.”
“Good, I want you to send us the program when you are finished. John, how much juice you got left?”
“About 60%” John answered.
“I want you to go on a full burn, you are going to be our bait.” Full burn would deplete the suits power reserves rapidly but would also provide a big boost to wearers speed and strength.
“Oh joy, I get to be chased by bullets.” John responded sarcastically.
“Laura, Niko and I will remain here and shoot through the walls at them when they fire at John, set your firing mode to piercing rounds. John I want you to run full speed in a straight line, they are slower than us and our suits can take a few hits from their weapons.” Elias said.
“Great.” John said and then muttered a few curses that were barely audible across the line.
“Niko how much more?”
“I’m just about…. And done.” He said in a voice that clearly conveyed the grin he had beneath the helmet. Elias immediately noticed a notification on his HUD indicating a pending data download, he allowed it through his firewall, and executed the program Niko sent him.
“When they fire a red flashing dot will appear in your vision over the HUD designating where the source of fire is.” Niko explained. “It will remain at the same position for 2 seconds after the firing stops, and will move if the source of the fire is moving, you are going to need to adjust for the distance between the barrel and the weapons holder on your own, I didn’t have time to program that as well.”
“Good enough.” Elias said.
His HUD flashed and informed him that the suit finished repairing itself, he got up from the corner and crossed to the center of the room taking position facing the wall. Niko and Laura took similar positions, while John remained by the door.
“Ready?” Elias asked.
“Yes.” John answered.
“Go.”
John moved through the room leaving dents in the floor, it took him three steps to cross the room and then he exploded through the window, almost immediately the enemy opened fire. Elias’s HUD showed four red flashing dots indicating enemy positions. Elias adjusted his aim and fired four times at each dot, he could hear Laura and Niko doing the same. A moment later firing from the outside stopped.
“I got four. You?” Elias asked,
“Two.” Niko said,
“Three.” Laura said.
“We need to check and see if we got them or they just changed positions.”
“John you alright?” Laura asked.
“Yeah, I got hit in the shoulder once but the suit held.”
“Alright turn back and confirm that the targets are down, I’m sending you the coordinates.” Laura said.
“Niko go help him, we will cover you.”
Niko went out through the window, followed by Elias and Laura.
“I got five confirmed here.” John said.
A minute later Niko called in. “Two here. I’m moving to the last coordinates.”
“John get on the roof across the street I don’t want us ambushed again.”
“Yes sir.”
“I’m at the last coordinates, there is blood but no body, I’ll follow – shit!” Niko said followed by a short exchange of fire.
“Niko report!” Laura said.
“I’m okay, he just appeared in front of me, got him before he managed the get in position, he was wounded. I think his suit got damaged, I don’t think he planned on showing up in front of me, they definitely have some kind of cloaking suits.”
“Found the last one, dead.” John said.
“Alright, if there are more we won’t see them until they fire. We’ll move towards the evac point, John keep to the roofs, Niko get back here.” Elias said.
They covered ground quickly using suits power, they arrived and secured the evac point. Elias called in the evac team. Ten minutes later a transport came across the horizon and they boarded it. As they lifted off, the village and its surroundings started exploding into bright blue particles until they swallowed everything, including the transport.
Chapter Eight
Elias opened his eyes, and the top of the chamber he was in slid open. He swung his legs over the edge and sat up. The face that greeted him was that of Maria Nunez. They have met years ago when she worked on a project involving the alien ship. Now she was head of Olympus simulation program.
She smiled softly at him “You win again. What is it, Fifteen to six for you I believe?” she said.
“Sixteen.” Elias said.
“Yes that’s right I forgot the one with the assassination.” She said cheerfully. “That one was inspired.”
“It was. So they programed a stealth suit on their own?” Elias asked.
His eight team members were in the process of “awakening” all around the room. Maria motioned him outside of the room and towards her office.
“They got the specs from the research department, so they just programed the scenario, the suits capabilities were real.” She said.
Elias nodded, he and the security department have been competing with the programing team since the virtual technology became viable as a training tool. A fierce rivalry had developed between them. The programmers managed to score a few wins against his team, but mostly by programming impossible scenarios, and since a certain scuffle between one of them and one of his men they have been trying to win in a more balanced match, hence the use of stealth suits. The programmers tended to use more guile and creative tactics rather than brute force, and their score was much better against other teams. Which only made them much more motivated to win against Elias and his team with the same tactics.
“They, used very little in terms of firepower. And only one team.” Elias commented.
Maria nodded “Yes, they thought that their win would be much greater if they won with less rather than more. They’ll up their game next time.”
“They almost won this time. If our suits weren’t as armored as they were, we would have all fallen in the ambush.”
“So did you notice any bugs?” She asked.
“None, like the past three times it was perfect, it felt real. The integration with our implants was perfect. I believe you finally made a perfect virtual reality.” Elias answered.
“I hope so, but these sort of things need to be carefully examined each time.” She said.
“Could you forward Niko’s sound detecting program to the development? I want them to incorporate it into the default suit design.”
“Of course Elias. Are you staying for a while? I know that the programmers will want a rematch soon.” She said with a smile.
“I’ll have to disappoint them for now, Tomas needs me on the Cloud station.” He said.
“Space? I must say the weightlessness managed to became a pain really fast, I have no idea how those who live there deal with it.” She shuddered.
“Tomas tells me that they will be putting in the artificial gravity fields, they should bring the generator online in a few days for testing.” They had managed to build a gravity field generator two years ago, and they had them in use, just not on the station yet.