Slimy red substance. Her hands couldn't move. Her eyes could only see the same diagnostic screen of the lid. She knew multiple pipes were going as far as her lungs and her stomach as far as she knew. However, she still felt... nothing. She should feel suffocated, yet, she didn't feel anything.
The slimy red liquid slowly drained out of the pod as every tube retracted from Alina's body. The needles, the pipes, they were gone into the machine itself as Alina listened to the soft hum of the machine.
Eventually, after all of the liquid drained out, Alina regained her senses. She could move her hands, blink her eyes, and eventually, move her legs. The pod then slowly opened, letting Alina finally walk out of the healing pod. She felt refreshed as if every single bit of fatigue on her body was gone.
"Your clothes, ma'am," an android said, pointing its metallic finger at one of the beds.
On one of the hospital beds on the medical bay, a package of clothing was placed inside of a metallic container. Alina walked to the hospital bed, examining the contents of the container itself.
She lifted up every single article of clothing on that metallic container. The container was stunk of povine iodine solution, the clothing was probably sterile for all she knew about. The content was a suit of underwear with a full military uniform colored in a kind of camouflage with a mix of dark brown, green, and tan, maybe some kind of DPM camouflage pattern, Alina wasn't exactly familiar with it.
The underwear itself was more of a skinsuit rather than what she thought a traditional uniform would look like, mainly because it went as far as covering her whole knees like socks to the point of covering her whole hands like a glove. The only thing that wasn't covered by the underwear was her neck and her head. Maybe, it was some kind of flexible spacesuit, judging by the padding on her knees, elbows, chest, and so on.
"This is one hell of a weird underwear," Alina commented, looking at the strange underwear.
The android then replied, "It's a thermo-regulator multipurpose ballistic undersuit, ma'am, designed specifically to ensure optimal working temperature for adventurers and alike."
"Ballistic?"
"Yes, ma'am."
Was this only Ilya's tendency? Or was Ilya, both the real one and the fake one, simply a generous person? Thinking about it, for a stranger, to give some kind of emergency rescue like a hero from a movie, was something that Alina thought to be impossible in the real world, but hey, this was a new reality as far as she was concerned.
Alina wore the undersuit, the suit felt snug, and she noticed several parts that could be opened for 'reasons' that she already knew. Well, maybe going to the toilet in this thing wouldn't be as hard as I thought.
She then wore the uniform, alongside the boots and other things. She felt like re-entering the army again. Not that she hated serving, she merely disliked it, hate was a strong word for it. She was drafted, and in return, she had no student debt the moment she got out as a freshly graduated IM, sponsored by your beloved Uncle Sam.
Lastly, she put on Inggrid's watch, it immediately displayed her current general health status. She was as healthy as when she woke up from the coffin itself. She observed her uniform, an AEGIS Mercenary Corporation logo was stitched on her left arm. Well, it was official, wasn't it? She was a part of Aegis now.
As she tied down her hair with the provided hairband, Ilya then entered the room. She was already equipped with her combat gear, alongside her signature Bonnie hat. She didn't carry her large rifle, but instead, an SR-25 rifle chambered in 7.62.
"I thought 7.62 NATO is no longer effective," Alina commented, looking at the weapon Ilya was currently holding.
"Centuries and somehow, Stoner's design aged like wine," Ilya added. "This is not your regular 7.62x51 mm SR-25 rifle, this is an SR-90 rifle, with an integrated accelerating barrel alongside using a special magical propellant. Did Inggrid tell you this?" Ilya asked.
Alina nodded.
"She's a magic user, she doesn't know anything about ballistic," Ilya explained. "Inggrid's ballistic knowledge was still somehow stuck in the late 21st century in that regard even though her magical knowledge is out of this world."
"Alright, what do you have for me?" Alina asked.
"An easy job, we need to take out a group of goblin anarchists, nothing too fancy," Ilya answered. "We'll go there in three hours."
That ramped up the scale to 11, at least, that is what Alina thought. Killing monsters was another thing, but killing people was another. Then again, she had wiped out a village of druids with a bunch of covert operators from Valkyria, this wouldn't be any different.
Heck, this was a goblin, maybe this would be easier than she thought. There would be no tree monsters or something like that, maybe she would encounter an armed group, but that was all, nothing too insane if she thought about it.
"How about the pay?" Alina asked, wanting to know.
"100,000 Leas, we can split it in two, 30-70, it will be fair, right?"
"Ok, I guess?"
"70% for you, I mean, I don't need that much money, but I think you do," Ilya smiled.
"Is being generous your characteristic?" Alina asked.
"Yes, I guess? I mean, Inggrid said I gave out too much of my reward to her. However, I don't think my generosity is only limited to Inggrid if you think about it."
Ilya guided Alina down a series of sterile, brightly lit corridors until they arrived at a heavily secured door. With a swipe of her card and a biometric scan, the door hissed open, revealing a vast armory that looked like something straight out of a military enthusiast's dream.
The room was meticulously organized, with weapons ranging from high-tech rifles to traditional blades, each item displayed with precision on the walls and in custom racks. The air was cool and kept at a specific temperature to preserve the equipment. Anti-tank launchers, experimental energy weapons, and various models of ballistic armor lined the walls, alongside more exotic gear that Alina couldn't immediately identify.
She could point out several Javelin-like launchers, alongside several AR-15-style rifles on the armory racks. Not stopping there, there were also several pelican containers, marked with a radiation sign.
"Welcome to my armory," Ilya announced with a hint of pride. "Everything a mercenary could dream of, and then some."
"This is incredible," Alina murmured, her eyes wide as she took in the variety of weapons.
"Yeah, anyway, Aegis doesn't tolerate anything that is Terran-style, so, no knight armor or something like that. If you have any, you need to dispose of it," Ilya added.
"Right... "
Although she felt heavy, she pulled all of her armor out of her Blood Inventory and put it on the armory table. Ilya was impressed by the armor, since they were ballistic, it was simply a shame that Aegis didn't tolerate that kind of design.
They prefer a no-nonsense combat armor used by UN forces during the Earth-Terran war, which meant something that was much more similar to 21st-century combat gear. Ilya grabbed a plate carrier alongside with a combat helmet.
"Right, this is the basic equipment, a Gen-Tech 100 KJ shield carrier, a Crye Airframe 6A combat helmet, tactical gears, and your ballistic glasses," Ilya added, putting all of the combat gear on top of the table.
Yeah, it was combat gear Alina wore in Taiwan, appearance-wise. The whole equipment was colored dark green, probably to help her to blend in with the environment. The helmet itself had a high-tech visor attached to it.
Alina wore all of the combat gear at once, putting everything that Ilya gave to her on her body. There was a sense of safety after she wore all of the gears, maybe because she knew the gears would protect her, but if a mechanical dragon appeared again, she would have no idea.
"Are you sure you want to use that thing?" Ilya asked.
"What thing?" Alina asked her back.
"The LHMMGM-3? That thing is heavy as fuck," Ilya said.
"I have some sort of skill that reduced perceived weight, and besides, it's light for me," Alina replied.
"You call a 30-kilogram machine gun light? Girl, I don't know what to say," Ilya replied, surprised by her statement, then followed by a chuckle. She then lifted a Javelin from the locker and put it inside of her own magical inventory.
Alina was also given a Javelin from Ilya. She lifted the tube and she surprisingly found the launcher to be rather light. Reading the sticker attached to the launcher, it was not a Javelin, it was a CGM-50 Archer missile.
"What would we need an anti-tank launcher for?" Alina asked.
"You'll see."