Chapter 190 – Prototype


    Del looked at the clock in his hand. 1900 Hours. Yup, he needed to forge a fake sick letter. There would be no way for him to arrive at Sneggor before tomorrow. What were they doing? What kind of major operation did they partake in? They arrived two hours ago, but it seemed that they also captured a lot of POWs from the imperial side from their cargo aircraft.


    He was sitting down on a bench overlooking thending strips. Behind him was the ATC andmand center of the air force base. He was waiting alongside Mira. Anna was transporting the captured "prisoners" into the prison.


    "You know, this is the first time I''ve been here," Mira said.


    "I know."


    "Why do you bring me here? Are you really trusting me this much?" Mira asked.


    "Am I? Perhaps I don''t trust you, but to be honest, after these past few months, it seems that you don''t have any intention to betray us or anything."


    "Why would I? You fulfill one of the deeds that I requested. Remember the letter?"


    Ah, yes. Mira actually got a letter signed by the dean on Lullin State Medical University that signified she was epted as a student in that university alongside a schrship for her study period. It made Del a little jealous, but again, he only needed to ask if he wanted it. Still, the records about her past activity hadn''t been erased yet.


    "Still, I thought mercenary is only about money."


    "I''m a merc, not heartless. I still fulfill my deeds, even though I disliked it. And by the way, do you notice something odd?" Mira asked.


    "About. What?"


    "Well, in case you didn''t notice, but it seems that Anna became much more cheerful nowadays. You know, when I first met her, she didn''t even strike me as the friendly type. She stroke me as the type that would do anything necessary to get a job done."


    "I don''t think she changed in that regard."


    "No, I mean, look at him. She giggled every once in a while, tell me, do you think that person will even smile around four months ago?" Mira asked.


    "Thinking about it. The answer might be a no. I wouldn''t expect her to be that cheerful, even at this moment. By the way, what''s with the question?" Del asked.


    "Nothing, I''m just wondering."


    Anna came out of themand building. She walked in their direction. She was holding a piece of paper. It might be the recent report about the situation on the imperial side. Still, well, unless Anna told them, they wouldn''t even know.


    "There isn''t a telekinesis spell. It''s all just a rumor forged by Van Bosch to give initiative for the bounty hunters to hunt her down. Still, Aveline was pretty much cooperative," Anna said.


    "How cooperative?"


    "I don''t know. Cooperative enough for someone her own good," Anna said.


    "They tortured her?" Del asked.


    "I don''t know. The report doesn''t suggest that though. Anyway, should we return home now?" Anna asked.


    "I don''t think so. We can returnter. My butt is still stiff from sitting that long. We can request for an airlift tomorrow. Anyway, do you have any idea what they were doing?"


    "Task Force Servitude. The group is formed in coalition between internal security, external affair, and Ilbisitirum army. Their assignment is to do long-range strategic strike against the imperial government. Last night operation was capturing one of the airfields in imperial territory," Anna exined.


    "Damn, they''re expanding this fast?" Del asked.


    "Well, mass recruitment on Ilbistirum SF has been started since months ago. You might notice several unfamiliar faces. Those people are the freshly trained people from three months ago, apparently."


    "Expansion is good, you can''t argue with that. Anything else that you got from them? Do they give us green light on assassinating our target, or do they still want to wait for a while?" Del became impatient about this Bosch thing.


    Because without him, the terror attack on Sneggor would have been reduced significantly. It should put less stress on the military stationed there. So far, there had been six failed bombing attempts in Sneggor. One was botched by Del and the other people in the intelligence. One was botched by Mira and Anna during a raid to an abandoned warehouse. At the same time, the rest could be thanked the military.


    Not that this terrorists were a fool, but they were certainly on the losing side with how advanced the equipment used by the majority of the strike team. In case of Del, he was apanied by special force soldiers. In case of Anna and Mira, they raided it in midnight blizzard using silenced weaponries. Blizzard was the friend of these trio. Every single blizzard was an opportunity to strike.


    "They still told us to stand down. Besides, you know, Del, with how the security division is mostly against us, we need a solid strategic n to counter them. Lara gave me a suggestion to stand down," Anna said.


    "I agree with that tactic. They have no evidence against us whatsoever. Well, they''re still in the dark about what was going on. Look, Anna, if they started doing something against you, tell Morris first."


    "What? Do you really expect them to do something against me? The elite in their organization?"


    "Just in case, Anna. Just in case. If that''s not the case, then we focus on another thing. Still, I wonder what''s going to happen next to us," Del said.


    "We''ll be probably sent to deal with something in Sneggor. Task Force Servitude might need us next year, when they have established themselves. For now, Zastava wanted us to stay at Sneggor," Mira said.


    "Well, if that''s what he said, then it would be what we do."


    "By the way, we are invited to a gadget test. They are waiting for us at Hangar #4. Let''s go."


    ============


    Hangar 4. It was an ordinary hangar by any means. However, what made them different was the appearance of a table in the middle of it. What was so special about these things though? One looked like an insert ballistic te, one looked like a radiomunication device, and the other looked like some kind of helmet with a ballistic visor.


    "What do these prototypes do?"


    Anna lifted up a ballistic te. "Alright, ording to the document, this is supposed to be an upgraded version of the standard ceramic boron te that we always wore. It uses Etarifine alloybined with improved Aramid fiber instead of regr boron carbide, resulting in better multi-hit capability and the invention of level V armor."


    "Level V ballistic armor? That''s nuts. What kind of performance can I expect?" Del asked.


    "Well, let''s see, multi hit from .416 Barrett, and a single hit from .50 cal FMJ," Mira said.


    "That''s quite insane. For a te made from boron carbide, that will be too heavy, but I notice this te is also thinner. Well, it can be useful, I guess?" Del said.


    "The inner construction of this te uses multiple small tiles of Etarifine Alloybined with Aramid and carbon fiber to bind it all. Basically, a good lightweight armor. Yeah, it only has half of our tes weight."


    "Impressive," Del nodded as he held the te using his hand. It felt thinner, and yet, level V armor wasn''t exactly a normal in this regards. "Still, is this only produced in limited amount?"


    "No, in fact, this has been standard in Task Force Servitude. We just happened to know now," Anna said. "Let''s just say, they only revealed to us after some rigorous testing inbat zone."


    "Alright, basically, they don''t want us to use experimental stuffs."


    "Correct."


    Del picked up the helmet, "What''s next? This is a helmet, right?"


    The helmet had significance resemnce to standard Ops-Core helmet instead of the regr FAST helmet used by them. It also included the chops and ballistic visor. The helmet was colored in ck.


    "What''s this then?"


    "A regrbat helmet induced with kic energy absorbing magical program, improving the rating of the armor to NIJ level IV. Nothing too special, to be honest. Still, it''s quite a development for a helmet," Anna said.


    "How''s the multi-hit rating?" Del asked.


    "Quite bad. This is just a prototype, I heard they''re introducing better Aramid fiber for helmet. The special part is the ballistic ss. This this is rated BR6. It''s made from Kruserine ss alloy."


    "You sure this is BR6? What''s even BR6?" Del tried to move the visor up and down, It felt lighter than regr ballistic visor, but it was also more rigid, evidenced by how easy it was to lift it up and down.


    "BR6 is an armor designed to survive a direct hit from Russian .50 cal."


    "Russian .50 cal? You''re not high, aren''t you? That''s a cartridge way stronger than .50 BMG. How did they even manage to do that with this thinyer of visor?" The visor was thinner, probably around half an inch thick. And yet, it imed it could stop .50 caliber. "I''d broke my neck way before the round prated my face."


    "Well, it''s only a prototype so we will get an improved version, eventually. However, the ballistic pate has be standard issue."


    "Is that all?"


    "That''s all."