“Position Compromised”, I hurriedly speak at a normal volume. No use hiding now. Touching Bertha with my right hand and my storage collar on my neck with my left, I say, “Activate spatial storage. Store”. Bertha is sucked into the Magica device and my girl appears in the bottom right slot on my visor.

I run towards the trunk of the massive tree calling, “Emergency extraction required”. Leaping across to another large branch, I look around briefly confirming the escape plan I developed over the last months and leap up onto another branch. I picked this tree for two reasons: first, it has a line of sight to the target area from four kilometers away; second, it has numerous large branches within leaping distance to others. Finding that exact combination in a rainforest this size is surprisingly difficult. Yea, this op took months to plan for a reason. No, that does not mean I was in the rainforest for months; it means the entire plan from infiltration to exfiltration, including innumerable contingencies, took months to plan.

I proceed to run across branches and leap from tree to tree until I reach the climbing lifter I had set. Jumping into it I press the down button and the mana-fed engine quickly lowers me to the forest floor right next to a good sized river. It is a glacial runoff so it’s fresh and clear and freezing cold.

“Activate Spatial Storage”. Man I wish I didn’t have to say it out loud every time, but only Specials, those with active nanos, can do the mind meld thing. Looking at the top middle box I say, “Retrieve” and a thick black belt appears in my right hand. Then I strip off my nature affinity infused camo gear and am standing in the buff (except for the black storage collar and the visor) in the middle of a rainforest trying to escape from interdimensional monsters. Yep, I’m awesome. I’m not ashamed to say the ladies at MagiTech R&D called me a “hottie with scars” when I’d had to strip for various equipment sizing and tests. Not that I would ever do anything about it. Anywho, back to not dying a horrible painful death by Troll King.

Speaking the right words, I store the camo gear in the collar. The belt looks like a solid piece of shiny black metal but is completely flexible. I put the belt on the ground, step inside the middle, bend over and pull it around my waist. Touching the middle front of the belt I say, “Connect diving belt”.

“Connection Established” appears on the visor.

“Activate diving belt!” I call hurriedly.

“Activating” and a progress bar appears below the words on my HUD. Way too slowly in my opinion, it moves from empty to the right, filling up. I start hopping in place doing some deep breathing exercises preparing my lungs for a dive.

Finally the bar fills and “Activated” pops up on my visor. The belt starts bubbling and it sort of melts and begins covering my body like a thick liquid. It looks and feels kind of freaky but it’s Magica-based tech so what can you do? The Liquid Steel eventually covers my body tightly to my skin, and melds perfectly with my visor which starts melting too, expanding to cover my whole face. So cool. I need to tell Nicci she rocks when I get back.

“Diving. Heading to the extraction point. Confirm pickup.”

I then splash my way into the river, dive in the middle and start swimming down.

My visor HUD is a little different. On the left there is displayed a new set of information for me:

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Environmental seal active

Breathable time at current consumption rate: 00:00:42:08

Depth: 15.02 Feet

Pressure: 1.453 ATA (Maximum supported: 3 ATA)

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So I can go as deep as 15 meters or so. That’s more than good enough. I push deeper and, using the not-insubstantial current of the river, I swim away from the raiders.

“Activate Map.” A translucent map appears on my visor with my current location. I see it is zoomed to a 5 km radius; that’s perfect. “Activate targeting for extraction point alpha. Fastest approach point over land.”

The map updates with a line between my dot and the target pickup zone. I will leave the river in 1.3 km and hump it for another three quarters of a km to the cleared area. Man, Nicci rules.

I just realized, I never did receive a response to my request for confirmation on extraction.

“Confirm pickup.” I say out loud in my sealed suit.

Nothing. . .

“Base, confirm emergency extraction. Response requested”, I say, starting to feel a little nervous.

That’s not good.

“Base, can you hear me?”

“Activate self-diagnostic.” Ok, so maybe I have some complaints and Nicci isn’t as awesome as I’m thinking. Not that it is all on Nicci either way, I just like giving her shit since she’s my MagiTech handler. Excuse me, Liaison. Sure, if it makes them feel better.

A bunch of words roll across my visor HUD.

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Self-diagnostic request confirmed

Processing request

Running self-diagnostic

Testing voice recognition system. . . . . . . . . . . . Confirmed

Testing communication system . . . . . . . . . . . . Confirmed

Testing interface system . . . . . . . . . . . . Confirmed

Testing spatial storage system . . . . . . . . . . . . Confirmed

Testing targeting system . . . . . . . . . . . . Confirmed

Testing diving system . . . . . . . . . . . . Confirmed

Testing subsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ########

Testing complete. Possible fault in diagnostic system. Determining possible resolution.

There is nothing for another minute until more text appears:

Diagnostic system unable to find fault. Please return to MagiTech for further testing and resolution.

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“Well that can’t be good.”