...The Decline...Short4

Commander Geno Cide's life; Chapter 4:  Intermission

Geno got up out of his chair, dismissing his crew and putting Samantha in charge of basic ship controls.  Geno took Jana down the corridor to the mess hall.  Most of the other officers were going straight to the cryogenic sleeping chambers so that they would only have to deal with the last few hours of travel.  Geno didn't like to think of the fact that he had missed up to two months of his life sleeping in the cold, which was one of the things he disliked about the Navy.
"So, how do you like the new capital ship of the Velenumian fleet?"  Jana asked of the newly promoted Commander.
"It's great.  Are there any extras on this ship I should know about?"  Geno inquired of the girl he has grown attached to over the two days he had known her.
"Well, we decided to add plasma turrets on the sides for a more constant firing system than the Arc rockets.  They are unmanned and are controlled by the AI, which is Samantha."
"Is that it?"
"No, there's that and some newer fighters which we are calling Nevadans.  A Nevadan has a crew of two, one gunner and one pilot.  Its arsenal is one plasma machine turret, two plasma torpedo tubes, and even a bombing compartment for those bigger ships, or even in the atmosphere if there are no real bombers available."
"That's great.  Do we have both Sabers and Nevadans?"
"Of course, there would be too few fighters if that was the case."
"Great."  The two then ate in peace.  Ten minutes later, Jana kissed Geno on the cheek.
"Well, I'm going to go freshen up, why don't you go and try on that new armor and run some simulations?"  With that, she exited the mess hall.
"Alright,"  Said Geno to himself quietly as he left for the other exit.  He soon entered his room which had his own Cryo-tube and was the entry to his personal armory.  He went in and his armor was put on in the same manner as that of a regular base.  When he exited the chamber, his armor was slightly different somehow, as if there was one piece missing that would make the suit function more properly.  It was then that he realized there was a video message waiting for him on his personal communications center.
Geno went and hit the button that would play the recorded message.  An image of Jana appeared on the screen.  All that was visible was her head, but there was nothing that indicated that she was wearing anything special.  She licked her lips for a second and started speaking in a soft, warm voice.
"Hello Commander Cide.  This is a message to tell you about how your exo-tech armor will function properly.  This particular armor is experimental.  Its model number is E-TA 502S_ai.  Since this is the first of its kind, but it is basically the same as the E-TA 501S, but it has a better cloaking device and has a longer air supply tank.  There is big difference in this armor than the E-TA 501S, that is it requires an artificial intelligence chip, which is inserted at the base of the helmet.  The AI designated for this purpose is SR-786543001, or as you know as Samantha Rose.  You may have remembered this from dinner last night, in which case, this is a reminder."  Jana was about to turn of the message, but jerked her hand back with the dawn of remembrance hitting her face.  "Oh, almost forgot, there is an AI designated to the functions of the ship while you are in the simulator and is in a dormant stasis which can be canceled by his serial number being typed into any keyboard in the ship.  The serial number is OB-12k89j42P.  I wish you good luck Commander."  She winked and shut the message off.  Dracomancers didn't blush the same way as any other alien species or humans did, their eyes changed color.  Geno knew that his eyes were that read with pink specs that he saw in another's eyes.
He forgot all about the details from the dinner that he and Jana went to.  Geno also knew that certain features in his E-TA 502S_ai like the cloaking and the life support.  He then hit on the keyboard the serial number that Jana had told him, just then a mechanical voice sounded from the speakers of the communications unit.  "OB piloting and service unit online.  Welcome Commander, how may I be of service?"  It dawned on Geno that the AI was built into the ship itself so that if the ship crashed landed, it would then wipe the navigation and communication memory and then it too would go into a dormant stasis so that only Vele Corp or someone of high rank in the Military would be able recover any information about any survivors in the ship.
"Just tell SR-786543001 that you will monitor the ship and pilot for the duration of the Inter-Space jump until I come in for the re-entry."
"Very good sir."  Geno then went to the bridge and ejected Samantha out of his chair and inserted her chip into the designated slot into his helmet.  Then, he heard a voice inside of his head which was smooth and organic along with being mechanical.
"Welcome, sir.  I am glad to be helping you understand your new armor better."  Samantha said to him via the armor's speakers.
"Alright then, so let's go down to the holographic battle simulator on G-deck and test out this new armor."  Geno said with enthusiasm.
"Of course sir."  Geno then went to the lift and hit the button that had the letter G printed on it.  The lift doors closed and the car went down the many deck levels until they reached the desired deck.  Geno stepped out and turned right and found the simulator.  He picked up a sim AG-250, which used clips that was used in the simulation room.  There were clips that simulated bullets and a simulated missile pack.  Geno grabs them both and loaded five clips into the gun and but the rest into the clip bag.  The simulator was already in use, so Geno waited for the thirty excruciating minutes that it took for the person inside to finish.  It turned out to be the Vice Admiral, and by the looks of the computer, he was doing a flight simulation.  Geno nodded to him and reset the simulation for crash landing battle scenario with the location being Earth, setting the spawn point to random to where the ship would crash randomly on the planet.  He set the sim mode to evac point.  He also set the items in the sim module to random so he would have to think on his feet.  He then hit the set button and soon the light turned green above the door.  Two more omega marines appeared to do the sim also.  Geno kindly invited them to join and they excepted.  Geno and the two other marines stepped into the simulator.
It took a few minutes for the simulation to start up, but it soon did and what was white space was now the interior of a downed battleship.  The regular lights were broken and the emergency red lights were on.  Sam then put the simulation's map and overlaid the radar and put it in the bottom left part of his heads up display.  He saw that there was a hangar not too far from their position.  Geno spoke over the sim com channel to his team.
"Alright, here is the objective.  We are to get to the evac point and get air lifted out by a troop transport.  We are on Earth and there is a hangar and armory near our position.  If possible, we can take a recon vehicle to the EP.  Now, there might be enemy soldiers on board.  Use any force necessary."  Geno saw thumbs up from both fellow Dracomancer Marines.  The three went down the corridor and then opened the closed door to the hangar.  The hangar was half way in the earth.  The half to the right was completely in the ground and rendered it inaccessible, but the left side was out of the earth and Geno saw a recon vehicle that could possibly be usable.  Geno also saw an armory full of discarded clips and even a mountable E.M.P. missile launcher.  Geno pointed to the clips and the E.M.P. launcher and then at the RV-154.  The other Marines nodded and ran toward the weapons and ammunitions while Geno went straight to the recon vehicle known among the soldiers as the Artlight because of it looking like a piece of art and being so light.  Geno jumped into the driver's seat and closed the door.
He pushed the start button and the engine roared to life.  Geno thanked the Dragon god Shoma even though it was a simulation.  The other marines came and mounted the E.M.P. missile launcher and loaded the spare clips into the back.  One of the marines stood in the back to work the launcher and the 50mm chain gun in the back while the other marine got into the passenger side of the vehicle.  Geno then hit the gas pedal and the vehicle launched out of the hangar and that is when Geno realized that the battleship was halfway out of the ground and the rest from the beam particle cannon to the halfway mark of the battleship was utterly destroyed.  The engines were sticking out.  Geno was happy that it was a simulation and that he didn't have to live through it.
Then there came on five pings on his radar.  Four of them seemed like infantry from the size while the fifth was large enough to be a tank.  Geno spoke again into the com system.  "Alright gunner, get one of the E.M.P.-72s ready.  We got infantry and a tank waiting for us."
"Roger that Commander.  E.M.P. 1 is loaded and armed.
"Wait for my mark."
"Yes sir!"  The recon vehicle traveled over the crest of a hill and there were four U.E.R. Rangers and a tank.  Geno yelled "Now!"  Geno heard the missile launch from the back part of the vehicle and then he saw a smallish missile launch toward the tank and saw it explode and a small shockwave rippled through the small gathering.  Some of the rangers took of the helmets and shoved the scope of their SK-37s to their eyes.  The tank didn't move.  Geno then heard the simulated gunfire of the chain gun and saw all of the U.E.R. soldiers fall.  The simulation kept on for another twenty minutes and the team was finally at the EP.  Soon the simulation was over and Geno exited, feeling tired and went back up to his personal room, got out of his armor and then got into the cryogenic sleeping pod, but didn't activate it and slept for the simulated night of the ship.


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