Three hours after the habitat was mounted, Arthur Vance conducted Echo’s first formal combat baseline test.
The testing ground was a secluded limestone cove two hundred meters north of the refugee camp. There, a natural underground spring bubbled up from a deep fissure into a calm, five-meter-deep pool. The water here was undisturbed by the noise of the railway spur, shielded by thick dark rock curtains that dampened sound and prevented aetheric leakage from alerting Silas Kane’s sonobuoy pickets down-channel.
Arthur stood on a flat limestone shelf beside the pool. He held his clipboard, a stopwatch, and his magnifying glass. Titus rested in the shallows, his shell half-sunk, with Echo floating freely in the open water beside the tortoise’s left flank. Grimm sat attentively beside Arthur’s knee. His amber eyes tracked every movement in the pool. Meanwhile, Pip perched on a stalactite above, acting as an aerial observer.
Arthur tapped the frame of his Zeiss monocle, opening the updated species tracking data slate:
“The physical metrics are exceptional,” Arthur analyzed aloud, studying the glowing slate. “Bone thickness has increased by four hundred percent. Muscle pulling strength is at six hundred tons of pressure. But the true test is the spatiotemporal intron. In tactical squad combat, timing is the difference between an amputated limb and a clean kill. Echo, baseline ability test. Ability: Spatiotemporal Bubble.”
