| Reporting... |
Small town, small crime
Part 2:
Hiromi sighed as he looked over the tools laid out next to him. In front of him the four suits of armor stood, back in the garage in the makeshift precinct. His and Ian’s were fully assembled; they were virtually untouched and had only taken about an hour of maintenance a piece. Amber and JP’s would take a bit more work and as such were disassembled, with the obvious exception of JP’s beam rifle, which was not repairable and good for nothing more than spare parts now, the replacement due to arrive later in the day .
Amber’s armor was up first. Fortunately the Gouf’s Gatling rounds were fairly small to accommodate a larger ammo capacity, the ones that had struck her in the chest had barely scratched the tough Gundarium armored plate, unfortunately there were still weak points, and the enormous rate of fire of the Gattling dramatically increased the chance of finding one. In this case it was knee joint, two rounds had found the space in between the two armored plates covering the quad and shin, causing enough damage to lock the joint in place. Naturally Amber, who had been in full bum rush mode, had responded to the now unbalanced suit by running full steam into a brick wall. Cursing Hiro grabbed a pair of hydraulic pliers and began attempting to extract the two slugs.
___
“One killed while resisting arrest, the other wounded but stable, scrapped heavily damaged Zaku and Gouf, both probably good for nothing but parts.”
The precinct Chief thumbed through Ian’s report, as a matter of policy any time a Power armor engagements occurred he had to directly handle the after action review and debrief. Ian leaned casually against the shut door to his office nodding in agreement.
“Not bad Niel,” he said tossing the data pad on his desk. And he meant it; normally Mobile Armor engagements were synonymous with property damage, c collateral, and death.
“Thanks Chief,” Ian replied.
“Don’t suppose you’ll change your mind about staying on then?”
Ian shrugged, “fraid not Chief, after we’ve repaired I think we’re going to accept one of the offers on my desk, just not enough work close by to justify keeping the suits here.”
The Chief sighed, “You’re right of course, still can’t help but with you’d stay on.”
“Never know Chief, we might be back.”
“Well, best of luck to you then.”
Ian, knowing when he’d been dismissed, nodded and let himself out.
___
Hiromi took a long drag on his cigarette; Amber’s suit was more or less good to go now. I’d taken about four hours, a ton of lubricant, and a little creativity with a sledge and diamond edged chisel to get it back in proper shape, but at least now it could flex smoothly. He’d learned as a teenager that fixing Power Armor was about equal parts finesse and equal parts brute force. Of course that meant that no matter where he went he was basically the default mechanic. Oh well, it wasn’t as if he still didn’t find some enjoyment out of it.
Ian’s armor was next, and this one was a doozy, not much structural damage, but a loooooot of electrical work, while circuit breakers had saved the more important systems many were still fried, he’d have to find which wires were and weren’t serviceable, replace them, and any other hardware that had been burned to a crisp. Grabbing a crowbar he went to work prying off an armor plate exposing the circuitry below.
As he pulled out a voltmeter he heard the door behind him open. Turning he saw a water bottle come flying at him. He instinctively grabbed it out of the air.
“Not bad,” Amber said, walking over.
Hiromi shrugged, “Thanks, need something?”
“Just checking on my Armor.”
Hiromi gestured towards it with the Voltmeter. “Just finished, try and avoid the bullets next time.”
“Always the asshole routine huh?”
“Eh, it’s what I’m good at.” Hiromi decided not to call her on the hypocrite part.
To her credit she actually smiled. She always tended to be a bit nicer after battles, as though her bitchiness was just pent up aggression that needed release. She sighed as she inspected the leg of her armor closely. “Stupid old piece of junk,” she muttered. “Can’t believe he managed to hurt me.”
“You’re lucky you know,” Hiromi replied absently, yanking a bad wire out of JP’s central CPU.
“Yeah I know, if the leg hadn’t locked out and twisted it would have broken my leg too.”
Hiromi shrugged. “If it makes you feel better I’m still learning how to use these things too, there’s a reason Ian always beats me hand to hand in the sparring matches.”
She snorted, “I know better than trying to out pilot vets, but you, you’re fair game,” she said with a grin.
Hiromi put down the voltmeter and gave her a sarcastic look. “Well if it’s a game its certainly not one I plan on losing.”
“Good, it wouldn’t be any fun when I beat you otherwise.”
“Keep dreaming. And if you’re going to just stand there help me out and grab that wire cutter there.”
“Oh fine, don’t think I’m going idiot mechanic like you though.”
“Least you’d be good at something th… hey!”
She held the wire cutters over her shoulder while Hiromi rubbed the back of her head where’d she smacked him.
“Let’s get this over with already,” she grumbled. “I don’t plan on being here all night.
|
Preferences
Inbox 0
12:55 AM Aug 27