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Have Design, Will Build
Posted By: hipboyscott<hipboyscott@earthlink.net>
Date: 17 October 2002, 11:52 pm
Read/Post Comments
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0950 Hours, May 15, 2552 (Military Calendar)/
Epsilon Eridani System, ONI Weapons Research
Facility, Planet Reach
It was cold in his office, goose bumps ran up his arm as he scribbled the stylus across the tablet. Displayed on the screen was a sketch of James McFadden's new design. A new rifle designed for multiple roles, that utilized everything the UNSC had asked Provov-Trell to produce. McFadden had just been transferred to the ONI weapons research to take care of the adoption of his project, but it was bloody cold in there. He scratched his head. There seemed to be no snags, and for being a youthful man of 25, already serving four years in the Army, and getting a degree just to go work at Provov-Trell, he was doing very well. He had a brand new outfit he had just ordered from the Jennifer Melody's site, and although it was a bit pricey for most folks at 550 credits, his hefty salary from Provov-Trell could leave him rich within a few years if he played his cards right. He pulled back on his brown hair, and stretched. He stood to look out of the window, he could see a personnel shuttle appear from behind the second tower of the ONI facility, escorted by a privately hired Raptor Escort Fighter. He closed his eyes, for a moment, and cleared his mind, then thought about where the sling attachment points should be positioned. He sat down and started to scan for the best possible points.
He turned from his head from his tablet when he heard a noise from down the hall. A familiar face emerged from behind the door frame
'McFadden, how's it going my man?'
McFadden turned to look at his tablet and save the document, then he closed it.
'Chuck, I'm having a tough time with the temperature, deadlines, and work in general, but besides that, Everything's going fine, how about you?'
'not much to say, I suppose, I got this gut feeling though, like these Covenant fellows are going to be the end of us. I try not to dwell on that fact, but sometimes its all I can think about. Anyway, that stupid machine isn't working, again.'
'again? I though they fixed it yesterday?'
'they did, but Its stopped this morning, maybe the covenant got a virus or something in here.' he laughed a little, looked around and stepped inside the office further. He shut the door behind him.
'Now, James. I know something else. I caught some careless talk about a covenant spy ship in the area, straight from ONI officers, not big brass or anything, but they had official memos. It really DOES scare me when I think about covenant coming here, this is my home, I know you lived on Earth and with the Cole, you have little to fear, but this place is MY home, I cant stand to hear this talk and not believe it, especially from such official places.'
'Chuck,' James started, 'I hope nothing does happen to Reach, or Earth, I know how you feel, but you should feel somewhat safe here, Reach is so heavily defended. I think that dwelling on speculation is futile, if we do our jobs, and well, we may be able to help. Whatever tiny bit, if we help, than we have done more than asked.'
'Well, I'm trying, and Im getting by, that's all anyone can ask, right?' Chuck stood, and pressed the pad on the door, it slid open.
'See ya Chuck' James said, as Chuck started into the hallway.
James opened up the sketch on the new rifle, and looked it over. he examined every aspect. It was his totally new design, an idea that stemmed into a ONI project. A new rifle that contained everything and more, it was perfect in every aspect, but the prototypes were not yet finished, and although computers could test the action, test the accuracy, report, cyclic rate of fire, only the actual product could tell how it would feel. If something had to be changed, there was little time to fix it, the final product was due in two months, and Provov-Trell still wanted to conduct their own evaluations first. James tapped the corner box on the tablet's screen with the stylus, and tapped in the number of the shop. It connected.
'Shop A-7, what's up, uh, Mr. McFadden?'
'I want to know how my project is coming, model number CR-21M-527.'
The man in the shop's control room turned and verified the numbers the voice-recognition system had entered. A small window opened displaying the objects position in the system.
'um, Mr. Mc Fadden, um It appears that your CR-21M is in final fabrication stages now, the estimates put it at about 10 minutes till completion, I'll make sure to notify you as soon as it's done, as requested in the subject information, is that all sir?'
James smiled, the rifle was going to be ready BEFORE the schedule, HE would have enough time to give it a good look before taking it to the testing facility.
'Yes, that's all for now thank you.' James sat back, and just closed his eyes. It had been five months since the word came to start designs, and after countless hours of fine tuning the schematics, charts, drawings and documents, he would have time to feel the real deal in his hands, get a feel of how this marvel would be like operating the action.
But Field testing was his concern, he didn't like the idea of actually putting a work in progress into the hands of soldiers who's life depended on it. If it was finalized it would be no problem, but what if it were to fail, what if the effects of real combat were greater than those of the simulated ones? James wasn't comfortable about making soldiers entrust their lives on something that might not function properly. So he was going to personally make sure that his new bolt would function perfectly, every single time, before giving approval.
It had been fourteen minutes, maybe more, but James' daydreaming had surpassed his sense of time, and he wondered why the shop hadn't contacted him yet. He looked over and peered out the window. Outside he could see a flight of Pelicans incoming from the nearby airbase, dropping off the new security shift. He got up. He hadn't been out of his office in four hours, and the shop was quite warmer. He saved his file, and deactivated the tablet computer.
He approached the entrance to the shop. It was in an odd section of the facility, and had to be accessed through tight security it sometimes made him wonder why shop A-7 had a security checkpoint, the shops in the basement, B-1 through B-10 were for secret projects. But no one could be too careful, a total scan was required that accessed all files, looking for foreign viruses, or bugs, and even his CNI transponder, left from his four years in the Army, was scanned. As he got closer to the large door he was stopped by an MP
'Please state any known, non clothing, objects on your person for electronics scan.'
James produced his tablet, pen, and 10Gb disk. The MP took them, placed them in a tray, and it was sent into a large tube, reminiscent of a CAT scan machine of old. He stepped between the two thin towers, and no alarm sounded. The MP had an MA5B slung over his shoulder, James wondered if within the next year even this guard would be armed with the soon to be MA12C.
; I will continue this story within a short time. During the interim period, you can e-mail me any private suggestions, or criticisms.
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