Travis looked around, but all he saw were metal poles. "Ummm Tay, what weapons?"
She sighed, and gestured towards the longest pole, about three meters in length. "Go ahead and pick that one up."
He did and as soon as he did, a glowing purple blade shot out of the two ends extending it to a total of 3.5 meters long. The blades looked wicked sharp, and he spun it around, realizing the glaive was perfectly balanced. "Woah, this is incredible! It's perfect!" He exclaimed.
"It gets better, drop it on the ground." He did as ordered and let the glaive fall from his hands. "Now, say 'return' and hold your hand towards it."
"Return." The weapon flew back into his hands. When it made contact he instinctively closed his hand. "Ok that's amazing. Whoever designed this is my new favorite person."
Taylor pouted at him. "Oh so I'm chopped liver now?"
"Yup. Did you make this? No? Then you're chopped liver." He responded.
She kept the pout for a couple more seconds before smiling. "Its not good to tease your sister like this, keep it up and I'll hit you so hard you'll go back into a coma."
"Alright alright, so are all of these poles weapons?"
"Yes, go ahead and pick them up and activate them. That will link them to you so they automatically activate when you draw them."
They completed the process with each of their weapons. "Alright, now say deactivate."
They did, and all of the blades disappeared, leaving just a few poles. "You can attach them to your armor, the long weapons on the back and the others around the waist. Victor instead of a clip your zweihander attaches to your back with magnets. Go ahead and holster them and follow me. We all are gonna head to Trav's room."
○○○
When they arrived he opened the door and let them all in. Tay walked to the tube on the wall and gestured to him. "Come and place your hand on the door, doesn't matter where, the say 'open inventory'"
He did, and a door slid open revealing that a meter of the space was taken up by shelves that had indentations clearly meant for specific pieces of gear. The other meter was empty space.
"All the gear goes there on the shelves, you go in the empty space. These tunes get shot out the cannons for rapid deployment from here to anywhere in the world."
Justin turned pale at that last part. "Ummm... can we survive a landing like that? Cause slamming into the ground at terminal velocity doesn't sound conducive to being alive."
"Nah you'll be fine. A regular human would die instantly, but we aren't regular humans. So you'll be fine. Go ahead and put up your gear. I have another group to go pick up so I will see you later."
○○○
The others returned to their rooms to put their own gear away and unpack their bags. Travis took off his armor and put it in its spot, then hung the weapons on the clips on the wall, and lastly hit the button on the watch and retracted the protective layer.
After that he set to work on his own luggage, sorting and storing everything neatly. Afterwards he decided to take a shower. He walked in and turned on the water. It was an overhead shower, which made him feel like he was showering in the rain.
He got out, nice and clean when he heard voices he didn't recognize coming down the corridor. He threw on his clothes and walked outside to find a couple at the door across from his own.
"Hey." Travis said, and they both turned around. The man was 7'4" an inch taller than himself. He had short brown hair, dark skin, and brown eyes. The woman was 6'6" slightly tan with bright red hair and blue eyes. The weirdest thing was she was holding a baby in each arm.
"I'm Private Travis Miller. Nice to meet you." He extended his hand to them, then put it back down realizing between the babies and the bags neither had a free hand to shake.
"Corporal Lance O'Neil, this is my wife Rebecca O'Neil, and our kids Jacob and Kimberly. Nice to meet you."
"Shouldn't they have assigned you an house rather than making you stay in the barracks since you have a family?"
"Thats how it was when I was in the first time, but I guess with the amount of people they're conscription and the amount we're losing its easier to just make people stay in the barracks."
"That sucks, well I'm right across the hall, so if you need anything feel free to ask."
"Thanks, I'll keep that in mind."
With that Travis headed back into his room, wanting to give the O'Neils space to settle in to their new home.
○○○
After a couple hours, he got a text from Tay. It was in a group chat she created named "First Platoon, First Squad" and it read: everyone, drill hall time now. He ran down stairs and others joined him as he ran.
They got to the drill floor and fell into formation in front of Taylor. On her side was Lance and a man who's name tape read Jackson.
"Welcome everyone," she began. "This is first platoon's first squad. To my left is Corporal O'Neil, to my right is Corporal Jackson. Miller, Turner, Gonzales, Campbell, O'Neil, you are Alpha Team. Your team leader is Corporal O'Neil. Smith, Murphy, Arlen, Wilson, Phillips, Bravo Team. You'll be under Corporal Jackson. In order for us to get to know each other, we are going to do a squad dinner tonight in an hour. Training will begin tomorrow.