Chapter 36 – Norn and Bjorn

  “Who can hear you talkin’ like we can’t,” said Bjorn.

  Cole looked down. “I just didn’t know we hosted otherworlders.”

  Jeff clapped a hand on his shoulder. “Believe it or not, there’s about one hundred and twenty otherworld refugees resettled in the DC area. Mainly defectors who helped us extract kids in exchange for asylum from a dying world—like Bjorn and Norn, here. Most of them have useful skills, and most of them are completely harmless without a Lewis Field."

  “‘Cept to your kneecaps, if you touch me tools,” said Norn. He cracked his knuckles in a way he probably thought was menacing—and might be if he came up higher than Cole’s belly button.

  “The twins make our specialty ammo and magazines for the otherworld armaments. Their classes let them make minor alterations to the guns without turning them into useless slag, as well. Things like drilling sling mounts, threading barrels for suppressor adaptors, adding rails for modern optics, that sort of thing. But it only works in a Lewis Field. If I tried to do that, it would destroy the piece—let the magic smoke out, as it were. But what you can do is take it a step further by using defunct or outdated armaments to enhance current ones.”

  “Brick-man finally got his arquebusier?” asked Norn (or maybe Bjorn, since once Cole looked away he couldn’t tell which was which anymore)

  The other dwarf smacked his brother. “You twit! An arquebusier is someone who uses arquebuses.”

  The first dwarf’s face reddened. “T’weren’t my fault. 'Tis this mad language where every word means many things and none of them what they ought when you say ‘em.”

  Jefferson cleared his throat. “I believe you have something for Mr. Colton, don’t you lads?”

  Norn’s face lit up, and he waddled off, returning a moment later with Cole’s MSV, only now shoulder pads had been attached, made out of what looked like…

  “Are those the dog scales from Curahee?” he asked. He took the vest, which only seemed to weigh slightly more, and looked at the layered scales. “How are they attached?”

  Bjorn came forward and pulled back one of the shoulder pads with a tearing sound, lifting the edge so that Cole could see the Velcro on the underside. The dwarf grinned. “Your world’s best invention,” he said.

  Cole laughed and handed the vest back. “Well, I’m mighty grateful. Let me know if I can get you back.”

  “Have you a Crunchyroll account?” asked Norn. He prodded Jeff. “Jefferson refuses to allow us to have one. He is a cruel slave driver.”

  “As heartless a taskmaster as the ones we fled,” added Bjorn.

  “Afraid I don’t know what that is,” Cole admitted.

  Both dwarves tsked and glared daggers at Jeff.

  Jeff rolled his eyes. “I’ve got a workstation set up here for you. I checked the log on your abilities, so I know you’ve got cooldowns. But once in the morning and once in the afternoon, if you could come down here and fill a couple work orders, you’ll be doing everyone a huge favor. And these are people you definitely want to owe you favors, Cole.”

  He glanced down to the twins. “And no, he won’t steal your tools, or your jobs, fellas."

  Jefferson took him to the workstation and showed him how to view work orders—what weapons were to be field stripped, and what attributes Kickers were looking to add to another weapon, if possible. A dozen requests were already in the system. It looked like there would be no shortage of work.

  “Seems straightforward,” said Cole. “What’s the priority on these?”

  Jefferson shrugged. “First come first serve? Mission proximity or criticality? It’s up to you, really. As long as you’re enhancing gear during business hours, Bricker will be happy. Just pick one of these work orders. That’ll send it to my terminal and I’ll bring you the materials and make sure you melt down the right ones. If you want to help the twins with their workload in your spare time, that’s up to you. Oh, and if you ever get the bright idea to take an otherworld armament part off-post and install it in a personal firearm like I heard you did with my AR-10, forget it. Instant 86.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Cole pursed his lips, but Jeff waved his hands to hold off the response.

  “No, no! It was fine for Curahee. That wasn’t an issue—'cept when I went to clean the damn thing and found caked up spores in the receiver.” He shivered. “But Bricker and the other agency directors from our sister orgs have been fighting tooth and nail to make sure guns with otherworld upgrades are never put in the hands of anyone but Kickers or used in any Earth conflicts. Some higher-ups in the DOD want otherworld armaments in every Delta and SEAL team, along with a portable LF generator.”

  “Why not?” asked Cole. “Kickers could end the war in Syria in a week, from what I’ve seen. Seems like that could do a lot of good on the world stage.”

  “Ask them how much good that did,” said Jeff, waving his hands to the twins. “Think about it this way. We’re not the only ones doing this. We’ve got partner agencies in Japan, South Korea, China, and Europe. And we’re sure there are others we don’t know about. Otherworld armaments and Kickers start making their way to the front lines, it kicks off the biggest arms race in seventy years—one we might not be as prepared to fight. Keeping the Kickers away from Ukraine, Syria, Taiwan… well, it’s like keeping the first nuke from being dropped that starts off WWIII.”

  That made… a certain sort of sense. No doubt Bricker was coordinating with whoever led these other agencies to make sure they were all on the same page about denying unconventional otherworld warfare from spilling over onto the battlefields of Earth. Cole looked at the terminal.

  “Alright, let’s try one of these. I’ve got the work order here. Lot numbers are the guns to be enhanced. Where are the parts coming from?”

  “Defunct list. We’ve got ten years of weapons in storage, most of which are from Kickers who were KIA, MIA, or retired. I’ll fetch weapons with relevant traits for you to field strip, and then you can install the parts they generate.” Jeff leaned in and looked at the entry. “Shoulder-fired anti-tank rifle… wants an anti-shield property for an RI-3 operation.”

  Cole leaned in and looked at the description. “So, like, armor-piercing?”

  “Magic shield, I’m guessing. Wizards may walk around in robes, but they’re sometimes almost as tough as the guys in the magic armor. Hold tight.”

  Jefferson went back up to the first level. After a few minutes, he came back down with a rifle, a pistol, and a shoulder-fired launcher clearly of otherworld origin. It looked more like a rifle than a rocket launcher, albeit one with a bore the size of his fist and a top-mounted magazine. Jeff put the weapons down. Cole picked up the revolver first and burned his Field Strip ability. It was sluggish, the weapon resisting at first. He narrowed his brows and concentrated until the weapon melted away over the course of a couple minutes, leaving a cylinder and a hammer.

  “That was tougher than on Curahee,” he admitted. “Is it cause the Lewis Field here is fake?”

  “Could be. Maybe it’s the higher-quality weapon you’re melting down, too.”

  Jeff looked down at his results with a frown. “Does your ability let you fit anything together with anything else?” he asked.

  “I haven’t had much time to experiment with it,” said Cole. “But it seems like it gives some leeway. With the field up, I can tell at a glance if two parts are compatible or not. But I’m not sure it would let me put a revolver cylinder in a magazine-fed gun without turning it into a revolver, you know? Don’t want to run the risk of ruining the launcher by Frankensteining it too hard.”

  “I’ll mark the parts for later use, then. Less storage space. I’ll also bring down some defunct pieces to practice with so you can really dig in and learn your left-right limits. Try the rifle.”

  Cole took the rifle, applying his ability again and still encountering the resistance. By the time he got it melted down to a barrel and bolt, he was sweating—despite the chill of the underground lab. While he recovered, Jeff scanned each piece with the LF analyzer.

  “Pay dirt,” he said, hefting the bolt. “Reduces the effectiveness of shields by 3%-5%. That’s a lesser increase. Gun itself was average, so 9%-12%. Hmm...”

  Jeff tapped his chin.

  “You’re wondering if I strip down one gun to multiple minor parts, if I could reconstitute a new gun that was greater than the sum of those parts,” said Cole. “I’ve been wondering that as well.”

  Jeff grinned. “It’s the rare Kicker ability that has an old goat like me interested. Now’s the moment of truth, though. Whether you can install parts on guns you’re not keyed to. Ready?”

  Cole cracked his knuckles. He picked up the bolt and moved it toward the magazine-fed anti-tank rifle. The rifle itself probably had a much more massive bolt, considering the rounds looked to be at least twenty millimeters. This was the kind of thing they’d have used to shoot early tanks in World War I. He held the bolt in place and concentrated on marrying it up to the anti-tank rifle. It resisted, as the other weapons had resisted being field stripped. But the surface of the gun shimmered, and the bolt sank through the metal skin to the internals.

  When he was done, Jeff rechecked the launcher with the analyzer and grinned. “It worked,” he whispered. “It God damn worked. I don’t believe it.”

  Cole sat back, still breathing hard. “Well, Unfortunately I only got two charges of Field Strip, and they’re both on cooldown, now. Unless you got something that can use those other parts?”

  “The barrel enhances the accuracy of explosive launchers. I’m thinking that would be more useful on another weapon. Once I get a list rolling, we’ll try and find homes for all these parts. But if you’re out of charges, no sense keeping you down here. You’ll only recharge about half the speed outside of a Lewis field. Bright and early in the AM?”

  Cole stood up. “I’ll be charged up and ready to go,” he said.

  Jeff shook his hand and clapped him on the shoulder. “Cole, you really don’t understand how big a difference this is going to make to the Department. I can’t wait to see how this improves as you gain levels.”

  “Well, we may get to see sooner rather than later,” said Cole. “I’ve already got a support request, and I want to see what these extractions look like firsthand.”