A morsel from my upcoming novel, TIC ONLINE. Please enjoy.
Various tests were conducted on the upgraded SmartSkin over a five-year period, with NAVYSPACE scientists discovering that there was no increase in physical attributes in all of the male test subjects. Female test subjects, however, outperformed their male counterparts 100 percent of the time, showing all the desired increases in speed, strength, and lethality with absolutely zero side effects. No one knows for sure why this is so but it is hypothesized and argued often that the female karyotype simply “works” with the special operations version of the S3BS, and because of this the special operations SmartSkin is more commonly known in the field as the 47XX. The 47XX allows its wearer to jump higher, hit harder, run faster, and kill more effectively than their male counterparts.
Considered the best of the best, Tameka Gates took the 47XX and rewrote the book on how to conduct special operations with over forty missions and a flawless success rate, making her the number-one-rated asset in the fleet. Lonewolf, Gates’s former pupil, planned to take that book and incinerate it. Thomas studied under Gates for three long, agonizing years. Three years of insults and hazing, nigh effective against Thomas’s unwavering confidence. Three long years of tagging along and taking unwarranted punishment from Gates while on missions gave Thomas the training and tools to quickly become the new go to asset in the fleet. Not much was known about this Georgia native, donning customized black armor and armed with a fuel cell accelerated .50-caliber sniper rifle dubbed “Cherokee Rose.” Thomas’s missions ranged from reconnaissance, sabotage, tactical extractions, and wetworks. Feeling her number-one spot quickly slipping away, Gates’s alpha female attitude, coupled with her explosive temper, had gotten her pulled from several jobs, opening the door for Thomas, among several other operatives, to move up the ranks. Gates now loathed her former apprentice and her rapid ascension to the special ops corps de’ elite, The Valkyries.
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