Valkyrie Rising (Warrior's Wings Book Two) Read Online Free PDF

up its opinion of the meal in real time.
    Amusingly, her computer wasn’t impressed with her father’s cooking.
    Capable of hyper-spectral analysis, the new lenses in her eyes were able to break down chemicals in substances by the color of the light they reflected. It wasn’t exactly new technology, Sorilla had worked with handheld units before, but this was the first time she’d even heard whispers of it having been compacted to this degree.
    The downside of it all was that, after a few moments of reading the analysis, Sorilla turned off the display and tried to eat her meal in peace. She really hadn’t needed to know all the trace elements in her food; despite being knowledgeable enough to know that it was neither uncommon nor truly harmful, it was nearly enough to put her off her meal. Her new implants were several generations ahead of the latest civilian tech, which was an uncommon situation, to be frank. Normally, the military was issued tech a generation or two behind the curve, for various reasons that ranged from older tech being generally more durable and reliable to the fact that it took years to pass through government testing to be cleared for issue. Some units, like herself, were designated for advanced testing, however, so she’d field the latest stable release and come back and tell them what needed to be fixed before they shoved it into some grunt’s innards.
    The multi-core processor in her chest was one thing, but Sorilla could swear that the ones implanted through her neural and endocrine systems were itching every time she thought of them. The last time, they hadn’t had to cut open her head, and the idea of it was just creeping her the hell out.
    The military had considered various combat-oriented drug programs for years, even to the point of implanting them in some soldiers as part of the combat set, but the negative factors of such setups had always kept them from doing it on a large scale. Sorilla now found herself the proud owner of the Army’s alternative program to such things, a series of tiny processor implants designed to trigger her own glands’ production of chemicals used in fight-or-flight situations.
    A little more adrenal production here, a little dopamine to smooth out the shakes and anxiety, and so on until they got the effect they wanted. The whole cocktail list was several pages long, but they were all produced by the human body and weren’t subject to being used up. Given time, her body would be able to replenish the implants reserves, which was a real asset for someone whose job description included living off nature’s land along with mixing things up hand to hand.
    All of which was great, but she was going to be another month in rehab, just getting her body back into proper conditioning, and then at least two more months in training to learn to optimize her use of the implants. At least three months before she was back on active duty, and the worst of all of it was the fact that she was going to be spending nearly all of that time answering whatever inane questions the brass came up with about her encounters on Hayden!
    Training she could hack. Hell, even the pain of rehab wasn’t anything but weakness leaving the body. But she joined the Green Berets to get the hell out of offices and conference rooms!
    Next time I hide in the bush until the fucking shuttles leave, she thought sourly.
    *****
     
    USF Cheyenne
    Ares, high orbitals
     
    “Tether checks out, Admiral,” Commander Elize Vasquez said from the screen she was on, “and we’ve completed full transfer of weapon stores and supplies.”
    Nadine nodded thoughtfully. “Very good, Commander. We won’t be staying much longer, so you’ll be on your own soon.”
    “Understood, ma’am.”
    “Now, you’re going to have a couple refitted destroyers under your command, but take my advice on this, Elize,” Nadine said, leaning forward. “Keep your head down. Observe radio silence, police any and all