The next day Luke was met with a surprise that literally made him cry.

  Tuesday morning he had shown up for training with Sandwich and Vanessa. Bumblebee’s class was well understood so he got an email instead of individualized training. The other two were brought into a smaller room and given specific exercises. Specialist White led Luke outside, all the way to the rear fence of the complex. Just outside stood three large vehicles.

  A M1126 Stryker, an Abrams tank, and a M1151 Humvee.

  “I figured since your class is called War Machine, I’d pull a few strings and get you some time with some machines built for war,” White said.

  “I take back everything I ever said about you, Specialist White,” Luke replied and activated Overcharge.

  The runes on his mech glowed brightly and Luke jumped over the fifteen foot tall fence. He was too excited to go the long way around. The three drivers from the army flinched as a thousand pound mech cleared the tall fence. Luke ignored their reactions, he knew from practice yesterday that he could jump that high with Overcharge activated. The benefits of a high strength stat and enhanced runes.

  He quickly climbed out of the mech and said, “Which one do I get to drive first?”

  “Start with the humvee. It’s got the device already loaded up, you just need to activate it. Take it with you when you switch vehicles. The Army sent some Privates with each one to help you if you need it, but they aren’t cleared to know anything. So don’t talk to them.”

  Luke glanced up to the M240 machine gun mounted on the humvee. “Do they come with ammo?”

  “Did you want to shoot up the Norfolk Complex?” White asked with a raised eyebrow. “I’ll have to disappoint you. They are all loaded with one or two blanks. Just enough for you to test your remote fire capabilities. Blanks are still dangerous, so don’t point the guns at anything.”

  “Yes sir. Who’s my copilot for the humvee? Private Gibson? Ok, gimme the keys, let’s go!”

  Luke hopped inside the humvee and turned on the mana diffuser. He turned the ignition and basked in the deep rumble of the engine. Then he placed his hands on the dash and attempted to bond with the vehicle. Machine Bond didn’t like it at first, the vehicle felt hollow and dry since it wasn’t magical. But the extra mana from the diffuser was enough to overcome that limitation and the skill snapped into place.

  Specialist White knew what he was doing. It was more than a little creepy that the man had discovered the name of a skill Luke hadn't shared. At least he was helping him train it. The man was doing what he promised he would. Luke couldn't do anything about White's information gathering class, so he might as well have fun. He slammed down on the gas pedal.

  Private Gibson grabbed a handhold while Luke bounced them up and down around the scrub brush near the complex. Luke juked and jived, going all out from the beginning.

  “Our orders are to stay within three miles of the complex, sir,” Gibson said, his voice tight.

  “Don’t call me sir, I work for a living!” Luke said with a maniacal laugh.

  He spun the wheel to the left and drove parallel to the fence. He checked the position of the machine gun above them and then pushed his intent into Machine Bond. He felt the skill thread through the machinery and instinctively knew where the weapon was pointing. The emplacement swiveled left and right.

  He could move the gun around with just a thought. He fired twice, the gun loud despite being loaded with blanks.

  Gibson flinched and said, “How are you doing that?”

  “I’m pretty sure he said you weren’t cleared to know.”

  The Private shut up for the rest of the ride. Luke tried out everything he had ever wanted to do as a boy and couldn’t. At one point, he steered hands free.

  Eventually, the lure of the Abrams Tank called to him and he returned to the fenceline. He hopped into the beast of a tank and flipped switches for the fuel and ignition.

  “Specialist White said you have had some training from the Guard, but these tanks are a lot different from the glorified truck you just drove,” Private Jones said.

  Luke put his hands on the metal around him. “Very different, you are right. It doesn’t matter though.”

  He laughed and sped away, the tank treads throwing up dirt behind them. He drove up and over hills and through dry creek beds. It took a little more work, but he was able to rotate the turret and fire the big gun once. He felt that one deep in his chest.

  The M1126 Stryker ended up being his favorite. It had eight large wheels and was able to handle any terrain the Abrams could. It had a Mk 19 grenade launcher and a M240 machine gun on the upper turret. The machine gun was basically the same as the humvee’s armament, but the grenade launcher was a beast.

  He aimed it at a distant bush and fired. To his surprise, a deep thump sounded and the bush exploded.

  “I thought he said they were loaded with blanks!” Luke yelled.

  Private Weyland’s eyes were wide and he looked like he was about to cry. “It was supposed to be a blank. I checked it out myself.”

  “I won’t tell if you don’t!” Luke cackled with laughter. He laughed so much tears streamed down his face.

  When he returned to the fence, the other two Privates had a hushed conversation with Private Weyland, but Luke ignored them. The mana diffuser had been loaded with a tier one core and it was already out. Fun was over. He grabbed it and climbed into his mech.

  When he met up with Specialist White he asked about the explosion, but Luke pretended not to know what he was talking about. Instead, Luke asked, “Do you think you could pull some strings and get me into a Black Hawk? I know the Guard has a few.”

  “We’ll see. If I can swing it, I doubt you’ll be able to take it off the ground. Way too many things could go wrong.”

  “Still. It would be so awesome. I want to try out all the vehicles.”

  “Maybe. We’ll see what I can arrange over the next few months. I won’t be back until November. I have some other ideas for things you can work on instead.”

  “You have proven by now you have good ideas. I’ll do whatever you suggest.”

  “First off, you are going to level up pretty quickly after you get back to Kalibutan and I want you to be smart about your stat distribution. You said you wanted to focus on Strength and Memory, but I think you should bump your Acuity up more. It speeds up your thinking, particularly in combat. After that, Dexterity and Perception will help you make the most of higher Acuity. Memory is good, it will help you get a larger mana pool, but get your Acuity up first.”

  “I get why you didn’t mention Constitution. If something makes it through my mech’s armor, I’ve already messed up. But what about Strength? The book I read and the experiments I did show that I get more out of the Strength stat than most classes.”

  White shook his head. “That may be true, but your fighting style doesn’t focus on melee. You have four spell guns, use them well and it won’t matter how strong you are because your enemy never gets close.”

  “I guess that makes sense.”

  “Speaking of spell guns, there’s no reason they should be embedded into your gauntlets. Your class requires that they be part of the machine, but they don’t have to be part of your arm. Add some over the shoulder rifles like the other War Machine. You know the one from Marvel?”

  “I’ve literally watched every Marvel movie. Even the shitty ones like Eternals. I’ve thought about a big old gatling gun like that before, but the treaty says I can’t bring guns to Kailibutan. If I walk up to the portal with those babies, they’ll have me arrested.”

  Specialist White waved away the concern. “No, spell rifles aren’t guns. The treaty is precise. A gun has to use gunpowder. Besides, you don’t have to have the guns out all the time, you can make casings so they are hidden, right?”

  “I guess. It would take a while to get the mechanisms right, and they would be easy to snap off afterwards.”

  “This is where Repair Craft comes in. You can afford to make flimsy guns, because you can easily repair them. Same thing goes with armor. Ablative armor is perfect for you. Normally having armor bits that fall off would be wasteful, but your skill negates that downside.”

  Luke sighed. “Sounds like I’ll have to make an all new mech.”

  “Power armor. Think Iron Man, not Gundam. If you are focusing on mobility like I recommend, your next set of armor needs to be sleeker, less bulky.”

  Luke tilted his head back and forth. “You have some good points, but I don’t think I’ll ever give up on my dream of owning a Gundam. Either way, I have to survive long enough to get rich enough to construct a Gundam. A faster and more mobile suit of armor would be a good idea. For now.”

  “We can revisit your plans for giant robots when I come back.”

  “What are you up to, anyway? There are only two portals in America, does the other branch of SPEAR really need that much help?”

  White smiled faintly and said, “I’m doing my best for the human race, same as everyone. Now, I’ve got to get back to Sandwich and Justvanessa. My spidey senses are tingling. I think they’re slacking.”

  The specialist jogged off and Luke shivered when he thought about the torture he was about to inflict on them. It wasn’t quite lunchtime, so Luke decided to get started on his new power armor. He went back to the warehouse and checked in with Allen before throwing himself into the work.

  The first thing he did was to redesign the pilot chassis. The old style was a bulky roll cage type thing, but he would need to make a smaller version if he wanted his Mark IV armor to be sleeker.

  He lost himself in the crafting process, only coming up for air to take Vanessa out for dinner. By the end of the day he had an all new chassis design and had sketched out plans for ablative armor. The only problem was that the layered armor required much more material than the old style and he didn’t have enough monster parts. He decided he would have to hunt Stone Beetles for their wing casings tomorrow.

  That would have to happen after he started new hire training, and after he learned his final rune from the inner runewright. Tomorrow was going to be a busy day.

  ???

  Allen finished helping the last new recruit into his padded pilot jumper and gave Luke a thumbs up. He nodded back and walked to the front of the warehouse.

  He clapped his hands together. “Congratulations, everyone. You made the cut. Two rounds of interviews resulted in an elite fighting force of badass men and women. You should be proud of yourself. You deserve this.”

  He walked over to his Mark II armor and slapped the metal. “Soon enough, you will be running around in one of these, killing monsters and making bank. But not quite yet. Now is the time for humility and a teachable mindset. For the next few days, only the original crew will be killing monsters and you will be watching us and learning how it’s done. This work is dangerous, and several people have died. I expect immediate obedience while we are out in the field.”

  Sandwich stepped up, wearing a set of power armor and looming over everyone. “Not only do we want to keep you all alive, we want to make money. These suits of armor are worth millions of dollars, if you break one our CEO and CFO will have to take time out of their schedule to fix it. Don’t be that guy. Treat these marvels of magitek with the respect they deserve.”

  Allen joined him and said, “You just heard Sandwich call me the CFO, which is true. I’m in charge of the company’s finances and your pay. I’m also head of HR. If you have any complaints and don’t feel comfortable talking to one of the squad leaders, you can come to me and I’ll help out. I’m also the guy you need to contact when you call out sick or need to use your vacation days.”

  Luke joined him at the front of the warehouse and said, “Some companies talk about how they are a family. I think that’s bullshit designed to make you work harder for less money. That’s not who we are. We aren’t here to exploit you, we are here to make a lot of money together. The better you are at your job, the more all of us make money. We are going to invest a lot into your training, safety, and well being. Your hard work is going to make all of it worth it.” He paused and then said, “Everyone get ready to go, we head out in five minutes.”

  They broke up then, grabbing their bags or taking a last minute bathroom break.

  Allen turned to Luke and said, “I think that went well.”

  “Yeah. Maybe it was a bit much for seven new recruits, but I feel like a real businessman today.”

  “Me too.”

  Vanessa stepped forward to stand between them. She folded her arms and said, “Yes, business, business, business. Numbers.” Then she stage-whispered, “Is this working?”

  “Yes. Very professional.” Luke nodded seriously.

  “Yay!”

  Luke laughed and climbed into his power armor. Vanessa and Bumblebee followed suit. Soon enough, the four mechs were walking across the complex with the new recruits following them like little ducklings.

  The guard near the entrance to the portal building was used to the four people in power armor and quickly scanned their passes. Then he turned and said, “And who do you have with you today?”