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Dataset card Data Studio Files
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"Of course," Mendro continued, "we aren't exactly talking about space-chuting you in with a laser rifle in one hand and a radio in the other. If you choose t...
Bai laid his comboard beside his chair and started to stand up-and halfway through the motion he shot toward the ceiling.
Caught by surprise, Jonny saw only the blur as Bai leaped-but the twin thunderclaps from above and behind him were the gut-wrenching signs of a rocket-assist...
Bai was standing calmly by the door, a hint of a smile on his face as he looked around at what must have been some pretty stunned expressions. "I'm sure all ...
His knees bent a few degrees, and with the same thump-thump he was back on the dais. "All right," he said. "Who saw what I did?"
Silence . . . and then a hand went tentatively up. "You bounced off the ceiling, I think," the recruit said, a bit uncertainly. "Uh . . . your shoulders took...
"In other words, you didn't really see," Bai nodded. "I actually flipped halfway over on the way up, took the impact with my feet, and continued around to be...
Jonny's mouth felt a little dry. The ceiling was no more than five meters up. To have done that much maneuvering in that small a space . . .
"The point, aside from the power and precision of the jump itself," Mendro said, "is that even you, who knew what was going to happen, couldn't follow Bai's ...
He broke off as the door opened and one more recruit came in. "Viljo?" Bai asked, retrieving the comboard at his feet.
"Yes, sir," the newcomer nodded. "Sorry I'm late, sir-the registration people were running slow."
"Oh?" Bai waved the comboard. "Says here you went through the line at 1450. That's-let's see-seventeen minutes before Moreau, who got here seven minutes earl...
Viljo turned a bright red. "I . . . guess maybe I got a little lost. Sir."
"With all the signs posted around the complex? Not to mention all the regular Army personnel wandering around? Um?"
Viljo was beginning to look like a hunted animal. "I . . . I stopped to look at the exhibits in the entry corridor, sir. I thought this room was closer than ...
"I see." Bai gave him a long, chilly look. "Punctuality, Viljo, is a mark of a good soldier-and if you plan to be a Cobra it's going to be an absolute necess...
"Yes, sir."
"All right. Now come up here; I need an assistant for this next demonstration."
Swallowing visibly, Viljo unglued himself from the floor and threaded his way through the chairs to the dais. "What I showed you a minute ago," Bai said, onc...
From his tunic, he produced two metal disks, each ten centimeters in diameter with a small black inset in the center. "Hold the one in your left hand sideway...
Mendro had meantime gone to one of the room's back corners. Taking a few steps off to the side, Bai checked positions and bent his knees slightly. "All right...
Viljo lofted the disk toward the door. Behind him, Jonny sensed Mendro's leap and catch, and an instant later the disk was shooting back toward Bai. In a smo...
"Good," Bai said briskly, getting to his feet and heading over to retrieve the first disk. "Viljo, show them yours."
Even from his distance Jonny could see the small hole just barely off-center through the black inset. "Impressive, um?" Bai said, stepping back up on the dai...
This shot hadn't been nearly as clean. Only the very edge of the black showed the laser's mark, and when the light hit it right Jonny could see that the adja...
Or where they were now, for that matter.
"That gives you an idea of what a Cobra can do," Mendro said, returning to the front of the room and sending Viljo back to find a seat. "Now I'd like to show...
Another touch on the comboard and the piebald skeleton faded to dull gray, forming a contrast to the small yellow ovoids that appeared at joints all over the...
Jonny thought back to Bai's incredible jumps and felt his stomach tighten. Servos and bone laminae were all well and good, but a trick like that could hardly...
On the dais, the hologram had again changed, this time marking several sections in red. "Cobra offensive and defensive equipment," Mendro said. "Small lasers...
"Recruit MacDonald, sir," the other said with military correctness, a slight accent burring his words. "Are these optical enhancers like the targeting lenses...
Mendro shook his head. "That sort of thing is fine for medium- and long-range work, but pretty useless for the infighting you may have to do. Which brings us...
"This," Mendro said, wagging a finger through the green walnut, "is a computer-probably the most powerful computer of its size ever developed. These optical ...
Jonny glanced at MacDonald, saw the other nodding slowly. It wasn't a new idea, certainly-computerized weaponry had been standard on star ships and atmospher...
And Mendro wasn't even finished with his surprises. "In addition to fire control," he said, "the computer will have a set of combat reflexes programmed into ...
He let the image stand a few seconds before switching it off and laying the comboard back on one of the chairs. "As Cobras you'll be on the leading edge of t...
He paused and looked around the room. "Having said all that, though, I'd like to remind you that you're here because we need you. Every one of you has tested...
"So. The rest of the day is yours to get settled in your rooms, get acquainted with Freyr Complex-" he glanced in Viljo's direction-"and perhaps look through...
* * *
Jonny spent the day as Mendro had suggested, meeting his roommates-there were five of them-and walking through the buildings and open-air sections of Freyr C...
Besides which-he was honest enough to admit-the whole Cobra concept smacked of the superhero books and shows that had thrilled him as a kid, and the chance t...
The discussions in his room later that evening went on until lights-out, but Jonny managed to tune them out and get a head start on the night's sleep. When r...
Several times in the next two weeks that confidence was severely strained.
* * *
"All right, Cobras, listen up!"
Bai's voice was a rumble of thunder in the half-light of Asgard dawn, and Jonny suppressed a spasm of nausea that the sound and the chilly air sent through w...
"-rough for you, but from personal experience I can assure you all the postoperative symptoms will be gone in another couple of days. In the meantime, there'...
"Now, I know you're all wondering why you're wearing your computers around your necks instead of inside your skulls. Um? Well, you're all supposed to be smar...
Jonny glanced around, feeling the soft collar-like computer rub gently against his neck as he turned his head. He was pretty sure he'd figured it out, but di...
"Recruit Noffke, sir," Parr Noffke, one of Jonny's roommates, spoke up. "Is it because you don't want our weapons systems operational until we're off Asgard?...