John Ringo - East of the Sun, West of the Moon

“No,” Herzer said, sighing. “You did not.”

“Forgot that layer,” Peterka admitted. “The skin suits have an outer layer of xatanium. Very dense material developed in the twenty-third century specifically for suits. We’ve scrounged up enough of it over the years that we had a decent stock. At least for one thin layer. Very rad resistant but not totally. You’re only going to be good for about an hour exposed to the sun. That’s up where you’ll be working, mind. In closer to Earth, don’t get out of your vehicle if you can avoid it. Van Allen belt will have you making two-headed kids in about five minutes.”

“Got it,” Herzer said, sighing.

“The armored boyos will be a bit better off,” the dwarf admitted. “But not much.”

“How long for us to have minimal training gear?” Herzer asked.

“Years,” Peterka laughed. “You’ll have most of your team fitted in a few weeks, if I can find seamstresses we can trust. I’ve got six right now, all dwarves. They can only work so fast, even with powered sewing machines.”

“I’ve got one,” Megan said. “A very good seamstress. And trustworthy; one of my aides.”

“Seven,” Peterka nodded. “Everyone on the team will have to be carefully measured. The armor will have to be refitted, helmets refitted, we can mostly use those from the last team except for the locks. The packs for the armor suits will have to go outside the armor and we’ll have to run support from the suits to the armor.”

“Megan gets armor,” Herzer said. “Councilwoman Travante is not expendable and she’ll have the best you can get her in the time available.”

“Absolutely,” the dwarf said. “There’s a set of armor that will probably be the right size to modify and I’ll get my wrights to work on that right away.”

“Okay,” Herzer said. “There was nothing in the briefing materials about fighting in zero g. Thoughts?”

“Don’t if you can avoid it,” Peterka said with a bitter chuckle. “If you’re free-floating, especially on the surface of the ship, you’re totally screwed. You can grapple, maybe, if you can even get near your opponent. And we’ve got some devices for that,” he added, pulling aside one of the other cloths to reveal a selection of devices. One of them was a large pick-axe but the rest were a mystery.

“Right, this is a punch-stiletto,” Peterka said, picking up one of the devices that was a long tube with metal spikes sticking out to either side. “If you’re grappling, you can press it against your opponent and…” He touched a stud and a spike slammed out of the end of the tube. “Penetrate a soft suit easy enough, a hard suit if you’re at a joint, maybe. But if you don’t have a good hold, it will just spin you off into oblivion, got it?”

“Got it,” Herzer said, holding up his hand.

“Hold on.” Peterka picked up another tube and slid the spike into it. There were cutouts for the spikes on the side and he pressed the assembly down on the table, grunting in effort as the weapon was reset. “Cocking one of these things is a bloody beast,” he noted. “Safety,” he added, pointing to a switch. “Release,” he said, pointing at the stud.

“It’s safe if it’s on green?” Herzer asked, handling the weapon carefully.

“Yes.”

Herzer took it off safe and pressed the stud. He was surprised by the recoil of the thing; it nearly flew out of his hand without being pressed against anything. “Hard to use.”

“Won’t be anything easy about fighting in space,” Peterka said. “Generally, though, the whole inertial thing is overrated. You’re going to be using mag-boots. You won’t be able to jab without worrying if you or your opponent is going to be doing a flying Dutchman—”

“Sorry,” Megan said, “term?”

“Flying Dutchman,” Peterka said. “Floating off into space forever.”

“Ah,” Megan replied with a grimace. “Thanks.”

“But you can use your weapon’s momentum,” Peterka said, picking up the axe. “Ever trained with an axe?” he asked.

“Not lately,” Herzer admitted.

“Then don’t try anything fancy,” Peterka said, lifting the axe. “Set up a figure eight. Swing up and down one way, bring it around, swing up and down the other,” he continued, demonstrating. “Use the pick end for armor, the axe for soft suits. Don’t try to drive through your opponent. If you’re pushing down when it hits, you’ll be lifting yourself up. Use the momentum of the weapon only . Don’t try to maneuver; if you lift a foot you’ll probably go flying off. You’ll have safety lines, but I don’t think you’ll have time in combat to use them. We thought about installing small thrusters but they’re damned hard to use so… no thrusters. If someone does a Dutchman, you might be able to use a shuttle to recover them.”

“Two handed,” Herzer noted. “No shields. No way to form a shield wall.”

“Nope,” Peterka agreed. “Shield wall’s easy enough to break in space.”

“How?” Herzer asked.

“Reverse the figure eight,” the dwarf said with an evil grin. “Hit the shield coming up. You’re being pressed down into the hull, your opponent just got a couple of dozen kilos of impetus away from it. Shield goes or he does.”

“Range weapons?” Herzer asked.

“Don’t bother in zero g,” Peterka said with a grunt of laughter. “You know an arrow bounces up as it’s fired, right?”

“Sure,” Herzer said then shook his head. “Completely off the target.”

“It’ll just head off to nowhere,” Peterka said, nodding. “Same problem with a crossbow for different reasons. We’d considered a type of air-gun but it’s probably not worth the time on training.”

“Interesting assortment,” Herzer said.

“We considered a bunch of other things,” the dwarf admitted. “Clamping and severing weapons, for example. Got a few of them around if you want to carry them. They’re damned slow to use, though. Recommend you have a few boyos with the polearm version, though.”

“Why?” Megan asked.

“Well, they’re dandy for keeping Celine’s little toys off aren’t they?” Peterka said with a grin, revealing the last table, which had only a long pole with complex devices at both ends. One end looked very much like a scorpion pincer while the other had a winch of some sort on it. “Spread the jaws,” Peterka said, pressing a stud at which the jaws flew open. “Press it against a target,” he continued. When it was pressed onto the arm of the bronze armor it quickly ratcheted down to a snug fit. “Then crank,” he said, twisting the crank on the end. The jaws moved very slowly but as they watched, the armor began to deform. After a period of about ten seconds of hard cranking, the jaws suddenly snapped most of the way through the armor.

“Like I said,” Peterka told them, letting go of the weapon and dropping it to the floor, “it’s slow. But thorough.”

“Oh, now this is homey,” Courtney said, looking at her room. “And where is Mike going to sleep? And the kids?”

“We’re going to move beds into one of the rooms for the children,” Lieutenant Commer said nervously. “Mr. Boehlke will have the room adjoining yours.”

“Well, there’s indoor plumbing,” Courtney said, opening up the door. “That’s a change…”

“So, how do you like the digs?” Herzer asked, knocking on the door of the room.

“Tell me that Megan’s got better facilities than this?” Courtney said.

“Nope,” Herzer replied, shrugging. “Okay, a little better. A bit more room and her own bathroom, complete with shower and toilet.”

“You dragged us up here for this?” Mike asked incredulously.