Chapter 24 - At the armory again

They soon found themselves in the armory again.

"We got a variety of combat suits here. But let us stick to the ones which are oriented towards defence," said Albert opening one of the cabinets.

He pulled out a silver shining suit out.

"You expect me to wear that? I would be standing out and be a target. Do you want to use me as a diversionary target or something?" asked Balthazar shocked.

"No. No. Hahaha," laughed Albert. "This isn't it's color. I mean this is its default color but it is a camouflage suit. You can have it any color you like. In general, we use it in black," he said.

"Just connect it to your wrist device and you can configure it as required," he continued.

"Oh, that's cool. I never heard of these at the military," said Balthazar.

"Yeah. Not used at traditional military. Can't have something like this known to the general staff either."

"OK. What other features does it offer?"

"Yeah, it is mostly a stealth suit but the best kind. You are totally undetectable to most of the detection mechanisms. You can even slip into a meeting with arms when wearing that. It is actually an old one which was used mainly for the stealth attacks. There are bunch of weapons attached into the suit. I used it once a decade or so ago," explained Albert.

"A decade ago? How old is this suit? Don't we have anything new?" asked Balthazar. He couldn't understand why he was being suggested such an old suit. He thought that he would be given something which would be defense oriented and probably something that would enable him to shield or protect Bolena too.

"Yeah, Winston messaged me that they intend to outfit you with a newly developed combat suit. But I don't have the security access for that. So, Leon sent someone to provide it. In the meantime, I thought it would be good to see what are the equipment that would be available for you once you join us," explained Balthazar.

"Oh! If that is the case by all means show me all that you can. Please."

"OK then, let me see. There is another combat suit that would allow you take a sniper bullet with a velocity of up to 2.7 km/s even when shot at the joints and vulnerable parts such as neck. it has some kind of force field constantly enveloping the suit. It instantly activates when its sensors detect fast movement or sudden changes within a microsecond. It can also be manually activated," said Albert pulling out a pitch-black suit.

"It also works as a flight suit and is extremely light weight. Also has quite an arsenal of manual weapons, garrotte, grapnel, etc. We fondly call it the batsuit," he continued.

"Bat? suit? What is that supposed to mean?" asked Balthazar.

"Oh! You don't know. There are these ancient novels, comics and movies you know about an action hero called Batman. That comics were in circulation for more than four centuries. You stay in the organization for some time, you will come to know of many such ancient stories, myth and so on."

"OK. Was this Batman like that vampires myth? A vampire wearing a combat suit. I can understand the appeal in that concept," said Balthazar.

"Not exactly. But I do understand your train of thought," said Albert nodding pulling out another red colored suit. It was like an inch thick and made of some kind of stone.

"This is a total fireproof suit. Has some kind of crystalline exo-skin. Can handle temperatures of up to 3000 K, while maintaining a normal temperature inside. But the main part is not fire-resistance. It is that it has been outfitted with a flame thrower within it. I heard it was once used to put an entire lab under fire," described Albert.

"A fire fighter's suit. Nice!" said Balthazar. "Why don't the alliance use something like that in the fire department?"

"Because the alliance can't afford to expend a ten million credits per fire fighter."

"Hmm. You got an underwater suit too?"

"Actually yeah. It is here somewhere," said Albert searching around for the suit. "It provides you oxygen for more than 48 hours and can tolerate a pressure of more than a thousand bars."

"What else?" asked Balthazar. He was very interested in the combat suits. Till now he had only seen two different types of combat suits in the military. They were stealth and warfare. But they the warfare ones were not as light weight as the bat suit.

Soon, Albert was showing him a bunch of suits of different costs and supporting different features.

"So, what do you guys use? You use any of these suits?" asked Balthazar.

"Yeah, we all got a couple of regular suits with us. Usually we keep a normal combat suit and a suit with supports stealth," said Albert. "We would go with the stealth ones for majority of the time, we will be at the planet BR-64."

"The same for me?"

"Planning to have a different kind from our standard for you? As I told before something with a bit more defense features than the usual," said Albert.

"I don't know what is delay with the guy. He should have been here by now," continued Albert and messaged someone. It had been more than 10 minutes since they reached the armory and he was clearly pissed off by the delay.

"Ok. Tell me about your team. If I am going to work with you guys, I need to know more about your team."

"Sure. There are six guys apart from me. Including us we would be 8 guys reinforcing Bolena's security. She already has 6 personnel in charge of the security," said Albert.

"Cool. So, what do they do? How do we work? What are you guys proficient in? What weapons you use?" started Balthazar.

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Stop there for a second. What do you need all these for? I need you to listen to me. You are just to liaison between us and Bolena. You see anything you run. You take your sister and escape."

"I agree. I don't intend to fight someone who is intent on killing me or my sister. I will run. But I need to know the patterns and behaviors of you guys. We already know about a traitor in the family and two of the targets managed escape from right under your noses. There is a high chance that someone else has betrayed us."

"What? You are saying you can't trust us. Then, why are you joining us?"

"Of course, I can't trust you guys. Even if all of the team members are loyal, two of them under your surveillance managed to escape and these were the same people who managed to kill my parents. There is definitely something that managed to escape your notice," said Balthazar in an open and frank manner.

Even if his words hurt Albert's pride and honor, he had to put out his concerns about it. His primary objective was to make sure that Bolena and he were safe from harm and nothing was more important than that.

"I just want to make sure that anyone who approaches me or Bolena isn't someone in disguise or some traitor," he continued. "You understand, that right? I believe in the fact that you would try your best to protect us. But I would also do the same and I need to know about you guys to not accidentally prevent you from your duty because I became suspicious. I hope you understand."

"Hmm. OK. I guess you are right. It is best to be prepared," answered Albert.

"Thanks for understanding," said Balthazar.

"Hmm, I understand now that I have misjudged you and that you are going to be a member of my team. You wish to be an individual authority and a liaison not one of my team. Am I right?" asked Albert.

"Yes, I don't want to be a member of your team nor do I think I can work at the same pace as the rest of your team or back up any member of your team. I am not capable of working as a member of your team. So, I just want to know them to make my own decisions if the situation requires," said Balthazar trying to explain his point.

"Ok. It's fine. I am willing to tell you as you have asked," said Albert accepting Balthazar's premise.

"So, let us start with you. What is your position once we are there? What would you be doing? What are the weapons you are proficient in? What kind of combat suit would you be wearing?" asked Balthazar.

"Well, I would be carrying a life-size force-field shield, a combat suit mostly defense oriented supporting flight and standard issue gun and a portable staff for close combat. I would be beside you and Bolena preferably at all times," said Albert.

"Ok. You are the person who is going to be stalking us. Cool!" said Balthazar smiling. "What about the rest?"

"There are six others, Lila, Lily, Charles, Jordan, Sean and Nolan. Jordan and Sean would be undercover in disguise as personnel working there. We don't want Bolena to know of any of my team, except me. Lila and Lily, the twins are in charge of monitoring all electronic surveillance at Apropos. They wouldn't be seen once we reach the planet. They will always be working indoors. Charles and Nolan would be at vantage points outside monitoring her whenever she is outside in open spaces."

"Why specially for open spaces. Why can't Charles and Nolan just follow Bolena in disguise as personnel. Do we expect something specially in open spaces?" asked Balthazar

"No. No. That is just their forte. They are good at observing in open spaces and outside," said Albert. Seeing the confused expression on Balthazar, he said, "Dude, they are snipers."

"Oh!"

"They will be wearing the batsuit you have seen. A modification which supports stealth and reconnaissance mostly."

"Oh! When can we meet them?"

"Let's get you fitted with your suit. Then we leave immediately."

"Yeah, the earlier the better I guess."

"Yeah! It is best, we don't have too many suspicious people around her. You are her brother, who came to visit, and I am your bodyguard after the explosion at the military base. So, none other than us would be in close proximity."

"OK. The ones who are already guarding Bolena? What can you tell me about them."

"They will be leaving Bolena entirely to us. They are mostly a scouting team and not really that good at protection details. If you see them observing Bolena after we take over, you can be sure they are working against us," said Albert. He had also previously had suspicions about the possibility of someone betraying them. So, his team were already informed to take care of suspicious elements.

"Wow. Never seen you being that frank about your team dude. What magic spell did you put him under kid?" came a feminine voice suddenly. The person was carrying a large white case with her.

"He sent you?" asked Albert turning to look at the person walking towards them. "Of all the idiots that he could send, Leon choose you," he continued with a bit of aversion and what seemed to be a slight amount of fear.

"Of course, I am the best there is at weapons design. Pleasure to meet you Balthazar," said the woman extending her hand. She was a little more than 5 feet tall, vanilla faced, had slit like irises and pink hair that fell to her shoulders. She spoke very fast as if she was in a hurry.

"This would be Miss Edgerton. She is one of the up and coming experts in designing weapons and combat tools," said Albert introducing her to Balthazar.

"Nice to meet you, Miss Edgerton," said Balthazar.

"Call me Ellie. Miss Edgerton's my mother," she said.

"Just don't follow her to any lab or help her with any experiments. Her assistants tend to get hurt periodically," said Albert looking sternly at her. He felt uneasy wondering if she was involved in making of the new suit. He had broken his leg wearing a combat suit designed by her and wary about her designs since then.

"He is exaggerating. It happened once. He is just a bit too squeamish. I am really good at it. Else why would they employ me? Huh!" she said to both of them.

Albert rolled his eyes. "Just give us the suit. Is it tested?" he asked.

"Yes, even Morgan tested it. It is perfectly safe and functional. No need to worry. Your boy is in safe hands," she said as she opened the case she was carrying. Inside it was dark suit. It was clearly armor plated and made of some coarse material. Even the entire head would be covered by it.

"Made of vibration absorbent materials that can resist temperatures of upto 1500 K. Has sensors that can detect any projectile near you and create an extremely strong force field about 1 millimetre away from the suit," said Ellie pulling out the suit and showing it off.

"Like the batsuit?" asked Balthazar pointing at it.

"Batsuit?" she asked looking at the direction he pointed. "Oh, that one! That is made to abduct and assault mostly. That is for a completely different purpose than this beauty. This is made to guard a target unlike that. It is meant to safeguard yourself against the worst possible outcomes. Though it has flight capabilities and has stealth capabilities and creates an illusion to appear as if you are wearing something else. It has a completely different purpose."

"OK. Wait is this supposed to protect me or enable me to protect Bolena?"

"It is to protect yourself. Although you can protect another person by extending the force field over the usual range in case of an emergency, it severely depletes the energy source of the suit and would last for a maximum of 40 minutes max. I wouldn't suggest doing it."

"So, I am not being equipped to protect Bolena?"

"You can carry firearms. But that is all. We have another suit, which we intend to be used for Bolena. It has similar specs. You want to protect Bolena. You best convince her to use it," said Albert answering his question.

"You are an alliance military colonel, right? Why don't you have a firearm equipped already? You have the permit to carry firearms and use it in case of an emergency. Right?" started Ellie.

"Let me show you some of my babies," she said catching Balthazar and pulling him.

Luckily, Albert stopped her. "We are in a hurry, Ellie. Why don't you two set a meeting for another time?" he asked. They had to go to the planet and do it as soon as possible.

"Yes. I would love to discuss, it with you sometime else. I am extremely interested in any sort of new weapons. Why don't we exchange contact details?" he said taking the case from her. The quickly took each other's contact details and waved goodbye as he left the armory along Albert.