It is the next day, Ido wakes up very early in the housing barracks. This is Ido's first time living in space and it is very hard for him to get adjusted both physically and mentally.
"My biological clock woke me up but I still cant figure out what time it is"
He looks around the barracks room and realizes the rest of the staff have already woken up to do their duties
"I remember Gill telling me that he wanted to give me a tour of the armory but I don't see him around, he must of been called to do something"
Ido gets up and heads to the sliding door area, as he grabs his coat he notices a piece of paper inside of the left pocket with another object inside. The piece of paper was written by Gill detailing that he was requested to report to the administrative area by Adric
"I had a feeling Gill was called to the administrative area; that's the section that Adric runs personally"
He grabs the PDA out of the pocket and attaches it to his right arm
"Alright I'll try and find the armory myself"
Ido heads out through the electronic door and takes a right into the hallway while looking at his new PDA. The PDA has data stored for a layout of the entire facility using GPS; he makes his way down the elongated spacious hallways arriving at the armory counter. The armory counter is caged up with electronic textiles lighting up the area; Ido can see a man working on something at a work bench with firearms mounted on the walls in front of him. Ido try's to get the mans attention but doesn't receive a response
"Hello? Sir? I was wondering if you could give me a tour of the armory, the person I was suppose to go with couldn't be here"
The man stops working and speaks after sighing
"I can never get anything done can I oh well, I'll open the door alright?"
An audible beeping sound can be heard and the door opens up. When Ido walks in the man turns around and asks what he wants. The man looks to be much older and is wearing a titans maintenance uniform with microscope eyeglasses on his head. Ido asks him a question.
"I'm interested in seeing the firearms, I noticed some of these weapons look experimental" Ido exclaims
"Oh yeah? you got a wandering eye huh, what's your name?" the man says
"Al-M'iraj Ido, and your name?"
Ido holds his hand out and the man shakes it, he notices both of his hands are wrapped in bandages. Ido feels something odd as if the mans hand is cold to the touch however he ignores this and lets the man talk
"Bendel Rhein, I'm basically the caretaker for this armory, that's my specialty, I don't do much else around here except sleeping"
Ido's first impression of him is that of a very sharp but cynical man who says what's on his mind
"I can show you what I'm working on now and that's it for today, I'm getting too tired so there will be no tour" Bendel exclaims
Ido nods and starts talking
"That's fine not a problem at all, what is this thing you're working on"
Bendel begins explaining the weapon on the desk, the weapon's length is so long that it goes off the edge on both sides. Multiple electronic heads up displays as well as wiring and microchips can be seen on the weapon.
"This is my latest work its an Anti Mobile Suit Weapon, as you can tell its a massive bolt action rifle that uses robotics to actuate the bolt; I based the weapon system with some influence from the Hazel OWSLA's long beam rifle but rather than equipping it for beam energy it uses conventional firearm ammo with a twist"
"What is the ammunition?" Ido asks
"Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordinance, or EXACTO for short, it uses a round bigger than twenty millimeter and each one is equipped with a ballistic computer; what this weapon system does is track mobile suit heat signatures and electronic signatures; All pilots are equipped with this as a self defense weapon because these are Adric's orders that's all I was told"
"This sounds familiar to me... DARPA technology prototype from way in the past, I'm pretty sure I've read about it, this is quite interesting; By the way there's a lot of things I don't know about the facility still, no one has really said anything to me or helped me out" Ido exclaims
Bendel then laughs in a snarky manner and responds
"They kept you in the dark about everything didn't they? That's not surprising, they do this for everyone who comes to this facility, let me break this down for you ok?"
Bendel folds his arms and looks directly at Ido
"This facility is classified, no one besides the people here are suppose to know about us and no one is actually allowed to leave either, you came from the moon via Von Braun right? A division member probably paid off the government there and gave you that shuttle, why do you think it was unmarked in the first place?"
Ido gives a thinking gesture and responds
"It makes sense thinking about this now, it sounds like you have a lot of knowledge for an armory person though"
"I have a lot of things I keep to myself, I don't like talking about crap from my past nor my past experiences, I will share something with you only because you seem like the one person here who actually cares but I was one of the five who met Wes Murphy when he was injured near the end of the Gryps conflict, we ended up saving his life" Bendel exclaims
Ido is surprised and responds
"You met Wes Murphy? he's still alive right?"
"That's right, he's still alive, he's an instructor for the Federation but I haven't kept in contact with him, its impossible up here" Bendel exclaims
Bendel makes a statement
"I need to get back to work but ide be willing to share more of my stories if you're willing to listen; very rarely do I get visitors who want to talk and most people seem to care more about the firearms than the person behind them making them"
Ido responds
"Trust me I understand, and I'm not the type of person who gets into conflict with others, nor do I judge people upfront; I like hearing and listening to peoples stories as well"
As Ido attempts to head out the door Bendel calls to him
"Oh Ido Before you go you need to see this"
Bendel starts unraveling the bandages on his hands, and holds his hands up at Ido. What Ido sees is not flesh but metal; they are mobile suit hands. The hands themselves are downscaled to human size with red finger tips, a trademark of all titans era mobile suits. This confirms his suspicion from earlier.
"Remember this, the Saturn Division is much different compared to those previous titan teams as you can see, we don't just specialize in experimental firearms and mobile suits; we have prosthetics that are downscaled from mobile suit blueprints and some could see us as weaponized cyborgs"
Bendel briefly continues
"I don't give a crap what people think though, I needed to keep working so the research team and medical facilities were willing to help me out this way, I do my own thing and I don't bother others so I expect the same in return"
Ido thinks to himself after seeing Bendel's mobile suit hands "I really want to ask him about what happened but that would probably just irritate him, I'll ask him about it at a later point"
"Get going, I'm sure the workers in the hangar need your help" Bendel says to Ido
Ido exits the armory area and heads down to the hangar bay area. He receives a warm welcome from the entire maintenance crew who were not present yesterday. Ido also notices more mobile suits have entered the hangar bay, one of them being the Gundam from last night. The Gundam itself is in the middle of the hangar area kneeling down as if it were a trophy centerpiece. Ido walks up to the machine to see what's going on but suddenly the cockpit hatch opens up as he is greeted by one of the workers who falls out of it on their back. Ido rushes to check on the worker.
"Are you alright?"
The young man gets up and introduces himself
"Oh hey there its no biggie Spec Haydels the name I'm eighteen years old, its nice to meet you Mr. Ido!"
Ido could tell Spec is a high energy person but also a hard worker at the same time
"I pulled an all nighter working on the Gundam suit, I ended up drinking two five hour energy drinks just to keep myself awake but then I crashed and burned inside the suit, I slept in it too and I think I may have hit a few controls by accident" Spec says
Ido then thinks to himself about the incident of the Gundam and the security camera from other night
"Oh so that was him then, I was getting too paranoid it seems"
"Don't overdo it please, I'm the superintendent for this area now so you are working under me, do you understand? Ido replies
"Got it boss, it wont happen again!" Spec says as he salutes Ido
A voice suddenly comes over the intercom speaker in the hangar, the voice is Adric's
"All personnel report to the briefing room, we have a lot of important things to discuss for the next few hours, again this is Adric Cillian the administrator of this facility requesting all personnel to the briefing room, thank you"
