9.6 – New Generation

E-UNIT · VOLUME 9 · GUESTS AND GHOSTS

CHAPTER 221

Outside the E-Police station in Bijou, the sky had gone white, not from rain, because there wasn't any, just cloud cover sitting over the blue like a canvas that hadn't been committed to yet. Even clouds have their uncertain days. Below all of it, the training range stood occupied for the first time in longer than it should have been, the space that had been sitting empty finally holding some life.

Raphael had arrived two days ago with one bag, one resignation file, and the expression of a man who had discovered that leaving the military was mostly paperwork wearing a uniform. He had not stopped working since. 02 had sent him. That alone had been enough for Pi to clear every access request before he finished making it

Pi, Raphael, and Albert faced the new arrivals. The new E-UNITs had cleared the bureaucratic processes that exist specifically to make ambitious projects fail, a few days spent wading through procedures before the city got what it needed. The duo had spent those same days running preliminary sessions, but the time had come. The city had been sitting without protection long enough.

Four stood in front as designated leaders. Six held position in the back, arms behind them, waiting for instruction. Pi went through each one with her eyes.

The suits weren't the standard format. No black hoodies, no cargo pants, no numbers worn like identification tags across the chest. What they wore was matte black tactical—segmented plates fitted close over a base layer that followed the body precisely, blue trim running the joint lines and the chest panel in a circuit pattern that caught the training range light at certain angles. Unit designations in the same blue sat small on each frame. They looked designed, not assigned.

She had tried to contribute her own data to the training sets, extracting from a crystal, she'd discovered, was approximately as practical as trying to plug a cable into a rock.

"Albert." She kept her eyes on the line. Same register as always. "Are the modifications complete? I'm hoping you put your own thinking into them too, you might have approaches that help the team in ways I wouldn't anticipate. I don't have deep experience with the E-UNIT frame directly."

The training range extended behind the group, a flat white metallic surface with numbered distance markers running out to a kilometer. Sensor equipment was visible at intervals, and the whole area sat behind glass fencing with the E-UNIT logo printed every fifty meters.

Albert nodded at Raphael, who moved immediately to a mobile storage unit. Albert walked to the nearest of the front four.

"Before anything else, names. I've always appreciated that the G-Bots have actual names. The E-UNIT's numbering system is efficient to document but difficult to distinguish in the field. I went a different direction."

He stopped in front of the lead unit. "I'll introduce the main four. The other six are completing their VR training and will introduce themselves when they're through, I could only bring four to full readiness in this window." He turned to the front-left. "This is Vega. She leads the unit. Two-sword combat at close range, comparable to 02 at that distance. I used 02's data set as the training foundation."

Vega saluted in silence.

Albert moved right. "Azure. The team's primary firearms specialist. I combined 03's sniper handling data with 05's precision pistol work, which produced the best gunhandler I've been able to build. The frame has been updated to support a crystal if we ever acquire one, with the right crystal, her ceiling goes considerably higher."

Azure's head dipped slightly in thought. ‘Crystal.’

Albert moved left and touched the third unit's head. She was already smiling before he got there.

"This is Frost—"

Frost raised a hand and waved before he could continue. "Hi! I really hope we build something great together. Dr. Albert showed us everything about the team's history and explained what he knew, I'm excited to actually be here, and I cannot wait to meet Captain 02 in person. I already understand why everyone respects her so much."

"Yes." Albert smiled despite himself. "Frost is trained on 07 and 06's data sets. Energy gloves, updated from the original design, and high-speed precision knife work. She can get excited quickly but I trust her to hold a group together in a tight situation."

Frost spotted Raphael approaching with the weapons case. "Already getting our own weapons? That's why we're on the range."

"Correct!" Albert matched her energy as best he could. He moved to the last of the four. She had been standing perfectly still since they'd arrived, head up, eyes on Pi, not moving, not shifting.

"This is Bellatrix. She produced the best results I've seen from any E-UNIT during training. The combination of 02's data set with 05's created something I didn't fully anticipate." Albert lowered himself to get level with her face. She didn't flinch. "I wanted to designate her captain. She declined, repeatedly. She's the shield specialist, same role as 04, with my revisions. Bella, for short, if she allows it."

Bellatrix's eyes had not left Pi. "We're here to be useful, sir. To meet the expectations of the team and honor the trust placed in us." She moved one foot to the side and produced a salute, the sound of it carried across the range. "Thank you for letting us protect these people."

Albert stood and pulled up his screen, still grinning. "And to protect the new team from the boot loop vulnerability, I rebuilt several systems from the foundation up. Brief version so Pi can take over."

He waved at Raphael, who came forward with the equipment.

"Their communication runs on a custom encrypted code with no tower dependency, the E-UNITs themselves carry the infrastructure internally, I added the components to each frame. Revival backup now runs on a five-minute cycle rather than continuous, and the system monitors for anomalies and stores a secondary copy preemptively."

Raphael stepped forward and began distributing.

"Vega." He held out double plasma blades. "Classic format, but updated, the length adjusts to whatever you're thinking in the moment. Exactly how it ran in training."

She accepted them on one knee. "I'll take care of them. Thank you."

"No ceremony needed." Raphael moved to Azure and handed her a compact backpack. "This holds modular components. If you want a different weapon configuration, return the current one to the pack, select the new type in your HUD, and draw it back modified."

Azure put it on without comment. ‘Delta's printing technology applied to a portable format. Reusing the same matter each time. I need to assess the conversion speed and the energy cost. This will take some getting used to.’

Frost already had the energy gloves before Raphael had finished extending them. She picked up the second pack, knives visible along one side, and held both with visible satisfaction.

"I don't even need an explanation. The gloves convert force on contact into kinetic energy, the improvement over the previous model is that I can strike dense objects without the impact returning into my own frame. And the backpack works the same way as Azure's." She looked at Raphael. "Thank you!"

"Thank you," Raphael said, trying to keep pace with her.

He moved to Bellatrix and bent slightly to reach her eye level. He lifted her chin gently and tapped her forehead. A menu appeared beside her face. He pressed update. Her eyes flashed fully blue for a fraction of a second.

"Three energy shields that can project independently within a fifty-meter radius around your position. The update is that placement no longer requires line of sight, you can set them anywhere within range, facing any direction, at any time." He stepped back to stand beside Albert. "You also have an energy pistol and one blade for offensive use."

Bellatrix brought up a salute. "Thank you, Dr. Raphael."

Albert pressed a button on his screen. Pi's HUD updated.

"Network access to their private channel," Albert said. He nodded at her.

Pi nodded back.

She took a few seconds, looking across the line of ten, the four in front, the six who would join them when the VR sessions finished. Then she stepped forward.

"Welcome to the E-UNIT. I am the acting chief of the E-Police. I won't use the captain title, that creates structural problems, so use 'Prez' or just 'Pi.' Your unit is active under the E-UNIT from this point. The designation is: The Navy Unit. Your function will be purely offensive, deployed on active missions while Tau holds the streets through multiplication." She raised her head and held the salute. "E-UNIT, out."

The new units filed toward their assigned training zones.

Pi turned to Albert as they went. "Thoughts on the unit."

"They're very capable—"

"You have a doctorate and you're giving me one sentence. I meant the name."

Albert exhaled. He closed his screen. "Yes. Very good."

"That landed as authentic as I expected." Pi looked at Raphael. "What do you think about the newcomers?"

"Their names really fit their roles—"

"I meant the capabilities. I wasn't involved in naming them." Pi shook her head. "And between the two of you, how many graduate degrees. Anyway, the Eve frame. Timeline?"

Albert's expression didn't do anything encouraging. "A few months."

"What?" Pi stepped back.

Raphael picked it up. "The frame is as complex as 02's Omega frame. Possibly more. Whoever built it was deliberately overengineering it, reverse engineering isn't a straightforward process. Having the red crystal would change everything. It can scan frames and hardware at a speed nothing else we have can match, but…"

"We don't have it." Pi looked at the ground. "I'm hoping 02 can bring 11 around when she returns. Even through the link, if that's what it takes."

"Have you told her yet?" Albert looked somewhere other than Pi. "About the team."

"No." Pi's eyes went grey. "I couldn't. She was already carrying the weight of four sisters in a boot loop. Now it's the full team." A pause. "We fix this before she comes back. For her."