Chapter 6 - A smoke break
Smoke left Lisa’s lungs as she blew out into the concrete room. Sat next to her on an uncomfortable bench, Hanna used one of her many tools, this one in particular was a pair of wire cutters, to gently hold the cigarette. The room had a few others but they mostly kept to themselves. The concrete box that was called the smoking room was pretty strange. Following the obscene restrictions for people on the base, nobody was allowed to go outside, so to fix the issue of the nicotine addicted soldiers; they had a room with three huge wall sized fans that silently cycled the smog out and pumped air back in.
“They really are keeping this place locked up tight.” Hanna broke the short silence while looking around. This was their first cigarette and she and Lisa had only met up a couple of minutes ago.
“Typical corporate.” Lisa breathed in another wave of smoke, breathing out a cloud of dark grey. She watched as it was quickly dragged to the fans on the far side of the room. “Be overcautious and fearful while making everyone bend over backwards to fill out forms and what not.”
“Yeah.” Hanna let out a nervous chuckle before looking around at the other smokers in the room. Most of them looked like they were in their own worlds instead of eavesdropping.
“Look at those scary death machines over there.” Lisa took out her cigarette with her two fingers and pointed to the large heavily fenced off fans. “I'm surprised we didn't have to go through eight different safety inductions just to see them, let alone be so close to them.” Her voice dripped with sarcasm, though it did get a smile out of Hanna. She quickly took another look around and put the cigarette to her lips, hiding her expression. Another wave of quiet fell on them both as they finished their first cigarettes. One of the only comforts allowed to corporate soldiers was the copious vices offered by the company and their various partners. Unlike Joe, Lisa never felt the appeal of the surgery slop sold at what feels like every break room on the planet; she did however fall into the trap of synthetic tobacco. Her wage wasn't the highest, but it was enough to get a large pack of smokes while still paying off the little debt she owed to the company. It was less than she wanted to pay off, but to get a pack every month was her only treat to herself. The silence dragged for a little longer before eventually Hanna spoke up again.
“You are a bit more… combative towards the company than most people I've met.” she said this in a quieter voice than usual, which caused Lisa to give her a sideways glance. Thinking on what to respond with, she tapped the burning end of the lit cigarette into the ashtray attached to their bench.
“I'm just saying what I'm thinking, is that a crime?” she asked rhetorically.
“I don't know if you got the luckiest squad or what- but if some of the nutjobs in mine heard me saying what I was thinking I would be in a lot of shit.” Hanna spoke with a little annoyance in her voice and then added “From HR…”
“Well I'm not going to report you for speaking your mind.” She pushed the now finished cigarette into the ashtray and left its butt. Moving her arm to her helmet that held her lighter and cigarette box she collected from her locker, she withdrew one and lit it. After more smoke invaded Lisa’s lungs she stole another glance at Hanna who looked at her with suspicion. Returning her gaze back to the fans on the other side of the room, Hanna spoke up.
“No, no. There is nothing I dislike about the Falling Mountains.” she robotically responded, slightly louder than her usual volume. Lisa could only roll her eyes and continue to smoke.
Apart from the constant noise of the fan, the room was definingly quiet. One of the orders for this deployment was to only bring non-networked items, so phones and other entertainment items were banned. This caused most people to just be standing around waiting for the briefing later on. Lisa was lucky that the on-suit storage was large enough for her lighter and a few packs, otherwise she wouldn’t know what to do with herself.
“What's your squad like? I haven't spoken to many people outside mine.” Lisa finally asked, as she tapped the now half finished second cigarette into the ashtray.
“Uhh well, they’re ok.” Hanna stumbled on her words, her arm shifting over to her prosthetic as she absentmindedly fiddled with one of the tools that resembled a pipecleaner. “I mean- I'm not an involved teammate when it comes to training exercises and I'm mainly put into the backline which makes sense… So I rarely see what they are like out on the field; but in the barracks they are… fine.” Hanna took a deep breath with the cigarette in her clawed grip, reducing it to its stub.
“My platoon leader is a dick.” Lisa blurted out, hoping to push back the encroaching silence that would have taken over the room again. “I remember vividly, just after taking over the squad from the last guy- he set off the emergency alarms in our helmets at four in the morning. Then he got us to run until we couldn't move. I fell on the concrete so hard I think I still have a scar… hold on.” Putting down the new cigarette, she took off her left glove. Her hand was hardened with calluses and tough skin. Flipping it over, she showed Hannah the side of her palm where an abrasion covered the skin from the base of the pinky to her wrist. “It's nothing flashy but after we all couldn't walk anymore the idiot decided that yelling at us would ‘motivate’ us to keep going.” Lisa couldn't help but smile as she stroked the scar. “Later that day, someone, not saying who, sent an anonymous tip to HR that an emergency alarm was unnecessarily activated. For the next three days we couldn't find Steve, our squad leader, and a training android took his place. Once he came back though- oh man his face. He had larger bags under his eyes than all of us and the look in his glazed over eyes was priceless. He got back to his dickish self after a week but he hasn't pulled any emergency alarms since.” Lisa slid her glove on with a grin and looked back at Hanna, who was looking off towards the fans but was smiling as well. Lisa turned to face the fans again, picking up the cigarette. Its chemically tinged bitterness filled her mouth and lungs as she slowly finished her second one.
Hanna finished hers and was cleaning off one of her many tools as Lisa put out the butt of the second one.
“Can I grab your information? It's always good to know a weaponsmith and my platoon only has a medic and heavy weapons team so we don't have one.’’ Lisa said, putting her helmet on.
“Sure.” Hanna said quickly and followed in donning her helmet.
The helmet came to life and as the spinning logo of the Falling mountains signaled that it was loading up, a warning appeared.
“WARNING: power supply not connected. Running on internal power. Approximately 1 Hour and 30 minutes remaining”
Dismissing the notification she looked at the time, “19:46:57.014”
“Should be enough time to grab some food and have a shower before nine.” she thought.
“Hanna Cole, ID number: 4273KD, TFM class 2 Elite Force - Weaponsmith. Platoon IZ-242 wishes to become a contact. Accept?” a notification popped up in the corner of her vision. With a
“Yes”, the contact was added. Taking off her helmet, Lisa stood up.
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“It was good meeting you, and I hope we can talk again during deployment. I've still got things to do and with a curfew of nine o'clock I should be getting them done.” Lisa gave a final wave before heading to the door to leave.
“Goodbye” Hanna said, her voice harsh with the helmet's voice distortion.
The mess hall was loud, a universal law no matter how new or old a base was. The long room was filled with rows of blue painted steel benches, each capped with a waste station at the grey walls. Apart from the train station, where everyone was dropped off at, this was the busiest room she had been in at this new base. Every bench capable of seating twelve people was full, only getting less populated the further away from the cooks and its long line of awaiting people. The walls had gaping holes opening up, with wires hanging out, and perfectly squared holes where to fit the advertisement screens. Fortunately for everyone, the screens haven't been fitted yet, so their constant barrage of sound and flashing lights didn't drown out the chatter of the room. Even though the emotions were mainly anticipation and nervousness, a few seemed to look forward to deployment; a group of soldiers loudly and openly talked about the slaughter they would enact on whoever they would be let loose on. Sitting down on a bench occupied by only two other people, Lisa looked at the now full plate in front of her. It was an old world food called a ‘Mash and Bangers’, it was a dark green coloured paste with flakes of artificial meat mixed in. As well as being bitter, it made her mouth cloggy. She had always wanted to learn more from the old world but every opportunity she had to try some of their food she always ended up disappointed.
“Not getting that again" she muttered, slightly upset but now used to the disappointment. Standing up with her helmet under her arm, she walked over to the waste station and discarded her plate into the hole. She slid her helmet on, and once it was powered up, she saw two notifications at the top of her vision. Before opening them, she moved out of the way of the waste bin, quickly exiting the mess hall.
Heading towards the showers Lisa had a look at the notifications.
“VOICE MESSAGE FROM: Joe Mortan - ‘ Hey, just checking up on you and seeing if you got that rifle serviced yet. I'm about to crash, we got an early start so the extra rest should be nice. If you need me just wake me up. Oh last thing, the showers here are quite nice, think we are the first set of sacrifices to use them, HA HA. let me know about your rifle tomorrow, that's it for now though, see ya.’ END OF MESSAGE“
Smiling at his newest message, she closed it and moved onto the second one.
“PLATOON MESSAGE FROM: Second Lieutenant Cook - ‘IZ-213, i have been informed that you are all to arrive in tier three armour to the mission briefing; this will exclude your sidearms. I have also been informed that you are able to collect your weapons after the briefing, so keep them in the armoury. On a more squad based note, arrive early; we can't be seen showing up after the other squads.’ END OF MESSAGE”
Lisa let out a sigh, coming to terms with her already little sleep will be even shorter than what she hoped. Glancing up at clock she had a look at how long she has left before needing to be in the bunks. “20:19:26.912”
“Fourty minutes.” she mumbled into her helmet. “Directions to the showers accessible to IZ-213 members”. With an almost instant response time, the blue ping directed her towards the barracks. The corridor linking the mess hall and the block where the barracks resided was fairly packed, however, apart from the occasional maintenance android rewiring a row of lights or maintaining and grouping the countless wires that run through the walls, it was only filled with IZ-200 platoon members. Some briskly walked towards the mess hall to try and eat something before the curfew, others sluggishly returned to the bunks with full bellies. They all wore their helmets so the muffled harsh words of soldiers replying to messages or asking for directions complimented the sounds of boots hitting the tiled floor. Reaching a fork in the corridor where nine pathways combined into the one corridor an electronic sign labeled the different routes.
“IZ-201 -> IZ-209”, “IZ-210 -> IZ-219”, “IZ-220 -> IZ-229”...
Taking the path labeled “IZ-210 -> IZ-219”, Lisa dismissed the directions and walked to the end of the corridor passing the room labeled “IZ-213”. At the far end, a doorless room accepted a flow of people entering and leaving. Joining the flow of people entering, Lisa's vision blurred slightly as slight steam fogged up her helmet. The entrance room was tiled a light blue and barren with only a man or woman symbol displayed electronically over the fogged glass doors. In two lines, the soldiers patiently waited in queues to the doors, the people at the front routinely inserted a wire that hung from a screen into the backs of their hands. After a moment of waiting, the screen would display text and glow green, opening the doors in the process. Joining the line of people entering the woman's signed door, she eventually got to the front, taking the dongle and pushing the needle into her wrist. The feeling of electricity rushed through her body and tingled her brain. The screen turned green while it displayed “Lisa Grim, ID number: 6229JV, TFM class 2 Elite Force - Soldier. Platoon IZ-213”, a brief moment passed and the sound of sliding followed the doors retreating into the walls, letting her pass into the showers. Lisa unplugged herself from the dongle and let it retract into the screen. Walking inside, she looked at the showers. The corridor extended forward for 30 meters with tinted glass concealing recesses that lined both sides of the blue tiled walls. Some people stood in their suits talking to one another, somewhat blocking the corridor, while others waited for a shower to become free. Making her way down the corridor she could hear the sound of water splashing against bodies and the floor, the sound of people humming to themselves or the people standing around talking. It was far more cordial than the mess hall, but it was still loud. Even though she had her helmet and body suit on, she could feel the hot humid air. One of the doors next to Lisa opened and a suited figure walked out, almost shoving past Lisa in the process; seeing an opportunity to not wait for another shower ,she dashed inside.
The recess was small but had everything Lisa was used to. To the left of the door, a small lock box held soap and a set of towels. There was also enough space to store her helmet and clothes. Directly ahead from the door, the steamed up showerhead hung from the ceiling. Directly under it on the far wall, a screen and dongle was fixed, the glass screen covered in steam and the dongle dripping water occasionally. A body length mirror stood next to the lock box. Taking her helmet off and storing it away, she started to take off the body suit. Taking the magnetic straps off at the back of her neck gave her arm enough space to slowly take out her arms, which were attached to pads in the suit to monitor her muscles, so disconnecting them took care and concentration. Finally taking out both arms she moved her hands down her torso and carefully disconnected more pads and three needle like sensors attached to mechanical openings her chest, belly and side, followed by pulling down the suit to her hips. She followed the same method of removing the pads attached to her legs, until she finally reached the hardened polymer shoes integrated with the suit. With a simple press of a button at the top, the tight hugging loosened and finally she stood out of the suit. Her eyes naturally drifted over to the steamed up mirror where she could see parts of herself in between the patches of water still covering the glass. One of the coin sized ports on her side was reflected back at Lisa causing her to click her tongue and quickly move to the shower. Connecting the dongle to her wrist her ID popped back up again along with a blue bar halfway filled.
“Your daily free water allowance is: 30L. Your allotted temperature is 37℃. Would you like to upgrade?” NEW DEAL!!! Get our new water package for only 50 Credits!! 60 extra Liters plus a ±5 degrees! Offer ends in: 4:59 if water usage goes over allotted extra water, price per liter will return to current set price, see TheFallingMountains.cor/water for more information. Terms and conditions apply.
Lisa let out an amused snort as the screen flashed with bright colours as the offer expiry time ticked down. The air suddenly left her lungs and the smile faded as she stared at the screen. “23.59%” the thought never left her mind but she had been attempting to push it back all day, all the busying herself with exploration and talking had helped but once she was alone it came crashing back. The clock ticked down and down, “4:32”, “3:54”, “1:21”. Time felt like it had frozen and the world was blurry, she felt like the floor was jelly and put an arm out to brace herself she felt nothing. Gravity pulled her unresponding body to the ground as she hit the wet tiled floor with a thud. It was the pain that snapped her out of her trance, an aching feeling encroached on her right side as she sat up. Her body felt sore and her mind told her to cry. She could feel her emotions overwhelming her, pushing her to the brink, while tears started to well in the corners of her eyes. The screen let out some dings. “DING DING DING, YOUR OFFER ENDS IN: 0:30” the sudden cheery voice of the machine helped her push her feelings back down. With a deep breath and a successful attempt to stand she clicked accept onto the offer. A small number at the top of her screen appeared, starting at 154 it fell down to 104. Lisa smiled to herself as the hot water splashed onto her body.
“Might as well live life to the fullest while I can.” she muttered to herself, as the hot steam enveloped her.
