Chapter 22 - Ready, Aim, and Fire at Wil.

Sleep comes and goes, and waking up you feel less of the lingering headache that's been nagging you. But you feel, not hungover, but not quite sober. You feel Zoraida kiss at your ear as her hand travels down your bare chest. Her fingers are smooth and cool, at first, but they warm up as they trace circles over your stiffening nipples. You groan as she shifts against you, her breasts sliding and squishing against your arm and over you. She brings a leg up and you feel her juicy thighs squeeze against your growing erection.

"Morning, Sleepyhead." She whispers into your ear. "We're going to have to get you onto a normal sleep schedule, soon." She slides her leg upwards, and your cock grows thick and hard it flexes against her softer, gleaming, flesh. You reach around her back and grab at her ass, your fingers dig deep into her cheeks and she moans into your ear. Her breath is hot and you shudder as she paws at your chest, while you pull her up, and onto your lap.

"Meh," You dismiss the idea, for the moment. Getting on 'normal' time might do you some good. But that's for later. Zoraida leans back and you watch as her hair spills around her shoulders in flaxen sheets, and her breasts shake and squish between her forearms as she presses them together. You smile as she shifts her hold on them, and takes a breast in each hand. Her fingers dig into her soft flesh as she rolls her hips forward, grinding the lips of her cunt against your cock. 

But you've let her warm you up before, already, haven't you? You take hold of her legs, feeling her warmth spread through your fingertips before you shift your weight and roll her onto her back.

"WHOA!" She calls out, "SoOOH, LORDS!!" She cries out as you duck your head down and run your tongue against the hot, dripping, slit of her sex. "Oh, yes, please, thank you." She mutters as you lap at the entrance to her cunt. One hand slides down while another massages her leg, brushing over the tender space at the back of her knee. She shivers, and you press your fingers against the swelling mound in front of your face. 

Your fingers grow slick and sticky as your press into her and spread her lips. Her breathing becomes heavier as she silently watches you press deeper, and deeper, into her. You press at her walls, curling your fingers and spreading them wide. Zoraida gasps and you feel her toes curl against your skin, as one of her legs pulls you close to her. "Sol." She whispers your name. "You know you don't have to," But you press deeper with your fingers, not quite finding what you're looking for. "AH!" She shivers as she releases one of her breasts to grab you by the hair, and pull you into your sticky handiwork.

You run against the slick folds, and squeeze your lips against a thick, swelling, nub of bundled nerves. As your fingers curl upwards and pull down against a tight knot of tension, the compression and contrasting teasing pushing Zoraida to a sticky, shuddering, oh wow that's quite a bit of a mess, isn't it? "Oh, Damnit, Sol." She sighs as you pull back and thick runnels extend from her cunt to your face.

You quirk an eyebrow as Zoraida blushes and curls her arms under her chest, almost like she's trying to hide her face in her incredible cleavage. Your cock throbs as you watch her breasts shake in front of you, as Zoraida rolls her shoulders, and sends rippling shimmies into her heaving bouncing breasts. You kneel forward and pull her close, pressing into her and reveling in the soft warmth of her body.

She tightens around you as your press inward, your cock spreading her walls as they close in to fit your cock perfectly. You suppose by know she's known it for years, every vein and every throb of your cock. The way it pulses and pushes at her. The feeling of your flesh within her as your heat radiates and hers surrounds. You kiss her, suddenly and deeply, and she moans into the kiss as you burn the the haze of dreams away within each other's arms.

A short while later, after showering, you've dried off and are sorting through the clothing you in your dresses. Black boxer briefs fit you snugly, and you examine the interior of your closet. Besides what you can guess is more formal attire for a 'breathable' planet, judging by the sashes and open sleeves, you see a suit that, while containing the cloves and sealed limbs of a space suit, appears more in line with something you'd wear to a very fashionable gathering on a word where the air is likely to melt your face.

Probably a mine being opened or some over touted race. Imperial functions, and while you've modded both formal outfits out of Imperial Regs, they are, at their base, still recognizable.

You also notice a sort of underlayer, not unlike the Augmented Human survival suit you'd found in the bathroom off the cyro-tube room. This one lacks the ports that fit into an Augmented individual and is more like a single thermal underlayer. You recognize it as an emergency duty layer. If the ship were to suddenly decompress, it'd be useful to have it on.

You probably don't have to worry about that now, but... with only six hours until you were at Aulus.

"I should probably put on something more suited to piloting than getting drunk and pinning you to the mattress."

"So much for fun and games," Zoraida sighs. "Come on," She gets out of bed as her clothing forms on her body. The two of you head to the Ready room, and you start to head for the locker you where you stashed the Flight Suit.

"Hold up!" Zoraida raises a finger and walks over to what looks like the back wall of the ready room. She looks over her shoulder and winks at you, before running a hand over the wall. It shudders and slides with the pop and woosh of a sealed compartment. You approach, and get a good look at what's inside.

The armor is, well it's beaten to hell. The plates on the chest have a narrow gap between them to allow for flexibility, but with a reinforcement over the sternum to protect it from attacks, or maybe as a mount?  The abdominal plates are segmented to allow similar flexibility. Across the plates you see maybe ten or so burns, patched. But evident. It might have had a black gloss at one time, but it's been bleached off.

You lay one hand over your chest, then reach out to the armor, your armor.  

"Need a hand?" Zoraida asks as she tugs a piece of the armor off its mount. It doesn't take long for her to gird you with the armor. It's light, and easy to move around. But still. You think about what punched through it, and nearly killed you. This isn't bad plate either. It's meant to diffuse energy blasts. The damage though, was enough to burn some of the coating that made that possible.

"Where's the helmet?" You look around as you stand in your armor. The plates resting on your shoulders, and she pulls it out. DAMN. A black visor splits the helmet into three, forehead and two cheek side panels, before they wrap around to the back. The carbon scoring on the one cheek makes it clear that whomever shot it put the blaster right up to your face before they pulled the trigger.

"I think I know where all my luck went." You tap the face plate.

"I dunno." Zoraida shrugs, "I think we've got a bit of luck left." She lifts the helmet up, and you duck your head to let her slip it on. It slide on perfectly, and as it goes flush with the suit, you feel it link and lock tight. It feels good, like a second skin. The helmet displays a number of functions missing, as it links to your Ring. But the names are shorthand and coded and going to fast to recognize. Still, it carried it's own weight, and that was a start.

"This isn't gonna be cheating on the other tests, is it?"

"No." Zoraida shook her head, "But your game is gonna have to step up a notch."

"You've been watching?" You ask, and she taps her forehead and points at the ceiling, "Right, part of the ship." You nod and stop. Somethings been bugging you, but you can't place it. You're almost at Aulus... Eh, can it wait? You think as you look over your shoulder at Zoraida, who meets your visored gaze, and your almost certain she can see through the black panel to your eyes. Maybe you'd remember after you get your eyes looked at.

You walk down to the Trooper Barracks and the Orange Machine. You bring up the menu, only this time you notice some icons in the corner. They look like cartoonish versions of Rumble, Tricks, and The Madame.

Rumble: Whoa.
Tricks: Very Nice, Captain. Good to see it still fits!
Madame: Pink is gonna be made she didn't get to see you herself but...

There's a flash and you realize you've just had your image taken.

Madame: I'll send her the goods.

"Okay, girls, can I get at the menu?" You see the icons nod in unison and your select >Visual Acuity Exam.  You're wondering at first what kind of test this is going to be, and how it's going to trigger some memory or another but... as you see the visor's tint shift and fade out, you feel the warmth of light in your eyes. 

Was it really just a basic retina scan? Suddenly, there's flash and you're standing in the clearing of a forest.

Apparently not.

The forest.... it's alive around you. You hear in your ears the sounds of birds and lizards, in the fight for dominance and survival. But things start to go quiet. Something strange is in the woods. Something unnatural. Your hand falls to your hip and your suit tightens around your fingers. It's simulating a grip and you pull it from you hip. It's a heavy looking blaster, one that makes the hold out blaster you had before look like the peashooter it was.

You spin on a heel as you pan around the clearing, gun aimed high. By the time you've completed a circle, you've seen three glints of scopes. Damn. Surrounded. You inhale, as you let your arm relax for a moment, as if you hadn't seen anything.

Then you strike. The first pulls of the triger fire blasts blue and bright into into the underbrush. Each exploded in a flash of green punctuated by a scream. Your third blast veers wide, and you drop to a knee to avoid the red and white blast that fires where your heart would have been. Instead it flies over your shoulder. You grip the blaster with both hands and fire, and the bolt, blast, and scream repeat.

There's rustling around you, and so begins a dance. You pivot, dodge, sight, and fire.  Bolts fly from your blaster endlessly as you feel only the bare heat of the blasts coming from around you.

Really they should just chuck a grenade or two at you, if there aim is this bad. Oh. Damn. You see a cylinder with a glowing core in the air a few yards It's veering to the side, but it'll land in range of you. You fire a blast from the hip, and it knocks the side of the grenade. It send it spinning away, and out of range when it explodes. You hold your arm out and fire a shot into the brush where the grenade arced from. Scream.

You hear more boots on the ground and see a number of troops in pale white armor, their visors like skull holes in the white polymer helmets. DR's. Poor saps. Still there's eight of them and one of you. This was going to get dicey.

Oh. Your visor showed that there was a Sniper, linked to your Helmet, lining up a shot. It was aimed length wise. Okay... You smile inside your suit and turn to face the line of troopers. They line up in a shallow half circle, from the angle of the line, three of the eight wouldn't be caught up in the shot. Far left, Middle, and Far Right. Fair enough.

"Are ya ready, boys?" You ask, and hear the battle rattle of the troopers raising their assault blasters. Easily produced, quick to overheat, as disposable as the Troopers holding them; in the Empire's eyes. Real shame. "Draw!" Your first shot goes right over the middle trooper's head, but as he ducks forward, his head is in the way when the white whisp of a vapor trail connects his head with four other troopers. 

It's fine though, as you shoot the trooper on the left right in the center of the face, and the last trooper is reeling from the carnage to dodge a shot straight to the chest.

"If I may say: You are quite a lucky man, Captain." You hear a rough and raspy vox voice behind you. A Trooper in modified armor walks up to you. Her gait is calm as she hefts the long sniper rifle over her shoulders. "Still, that's why we're a team." The brown and green camo of her armor shifts to a light brown to match the underbrush under her boots. The front of her helmet flips up, and you see the black stained lips of your squad's sniper. "Hecate." The trooper smiles as she presses on you hard and fast, pushing her lightly covered hands against your crotch, and cupping your cock and balls as she does. Your helmets clack together as she does, but it's not a ringing or bad feeling. 

It's not smart to drop your helmet when there's snipers about.

But the sound of trooper boots draw near, and your HUD isn't showing any other friendlies. 

"Given the circumstances: We should resume this at a later time, sir." Hecate promises, and the two of you slip off into the trees, and the images fade. You see the menu on the screen, though the Assistants' icons are gone.

>Strength Output Assessment: Complete: Rating 13: Acceptable. 
>Visual Acuity Exam (21) Less than previous Ratings: Still Advanced.
>Stamina Test 
>Reflex and Flexibility Test 
>Memory and Knowledge Exam: Complete: Processing Memory. Knowledge Rating 21: Equal to Saved Goal. 
>Interpersonal Test 
>Probability Awareness Test: 14 Fortunate 
>Anagyros Calibration (4/7) Locked 
>File Available: Remaining_File_02 
>File Available: Remaining_File_07 
>File Available: Remaining_File_06 
>File Available: Remaining_File_03 

Trooper <IDC X-HK-S5-3224-1-3226-4-0047>, Additional Notes: Reminder: Aim then shoot, Captain.

You sigh as you remember Hecate's 'unique' way of speaking. You hear a clack from the side of the Orange Machine, and you see that, from the side, a panel has opened, and inside, is the very blaster you were using in the simulation. You take it, and it links to your Suit. You see it has a full charge, but it can draw from your suit if need be. Very nice.


Looking around, you see Zoraida sitting on a bench, watching you. She's eating snacks from a bowl, and around her there are holographic projections of the three Helpers still communicating through FTL.

There's only a few hours left before you reach the politically charged system of Aulus. Do you continue with the Tests? Or maybe prepare in some other way?