- Rainman89
- |
- Exalted Mythic Member
- gamertag: [none]
- user homepage:
Read about the Forgotten Spartan I Program
Butane: To protect the world from devastation!
sir_brilliant: To unite all people within our nation!
Rainman89: To denounce the evils of truth and love!
sir_brilliant: To extend out reach to the stars above!
SpaceGhostFlyer: Jessie!
Butane: James!
sir_brilliant: Team Rocket blasting off at the speed of light
Butane: Surrender now or prepare to fight
sir_brilliant: Meowth, that's right!
Allow me to explain. In an effort to freak you guys out, I wrote the preceding to make you think the story was done. The idea that this hundred some odd page story was to say who the Lieutenant in Fall of Reach who tried the Mjolnir armor out is absurd. I hope you enjoyed my playing your heartstrings, and now back to out original broadcast.
0400 Hours, May 22, 2525(Military Calendar)/ UNSC Frigate Midsummer Night en route to the UNSC Damascus Materials Testing Facility, planet Chi Ceti 4
Simmons had become quite good at boarding Pelicans by now. He was sure that he could have run through the entire procedure blindfolded. In fact, he thought, I ought to try that when I get back to Reach. Dr. Halsey on the other hand, may well have never even seen a Pelican before. She nearly knocked herself unconscious by banging her head on the low roof of the cabin, and fumbled with the d-ring for her bag for a full thirty seconds. Maybe she’s just not used to being up so early, Simmons conjectured. Serves her right, he thought, since she planned this mission.
“We’ve received clearance from the bridge. We’ll be under way in a second.” The pilot’s voice was not the same as the pilot of Romeo Thirty Six, which made sense, since this was Romeo Thirty Four.
“These Romeo guys are great. I’ve been with a couple of units, and only one beats ‘em. You’ll never hear a bad word about the Twenty Third Naval Air Squadron.” Keyes was trying to keep Roy’s mind off the flight after seeing him in the aftermath of his arrival. Halsey was tapping furiously on her data pad, and communicating to some one through her earpiece. In two hours they were on an excruciatingly long elevator ride to the Damascus facility.
The facility consisted of a large hangar and an obstacle course. Immediately outside the elevator were a dozen technicians and half a dozen AI’s. Two green suits of armor were laid out on tables in the center of the lit portion. “Lieutenants, here’s what we’re here for.” Doctor Halsey waved toward the suits and beckoned them to follow. “Lieutenant Roy, these people will help you over here and Lieutenant Simmons, if you’ll just step over here…”
Roy was helped into everything but the helmet, while Simmons was told to just put on the body glove. “Huh, looks good ma’am.” Roy seemed impressed with the suit as it was assembled around him.
“Ok. Power is on,” Doctor Halsey continued her experiment. “Move your right arm please.” Roy did so, and he moved faster than anyone could have thought possible. Then his faced showed surprise, shock, and pain all in that order. He screamed out and Simmons could hear his bones shatter. The suit’s speed and power was too much for the average Marine to handle. Roy’s own spasms were killing him.
“Power down! Power down! Stop it. Shut down all reaction systems!” Halsey tapped the nearest keyboard in a flurry of motion, but to no avail.
“We’ve got no control! He’s not hooked in,” someone shouted. All the technicians we’re flying across the room, but Simmons and Keyes were rooted to the spot. Roy twitched and moaned for maybe twenty seconds, and then he was still.
“There,” a technician cried. “Reactor powered down.” Roy lay on the ground, totally motionless, with a small snake of blood flowing from his mouth. The Doctor came running up, her high heals clicking and clacking all the way.
“Oh God,” she cried with her hand to her mouth. “That was horrible.” She bent down to search for Roy’s pulse, but there was no point. Even Simmons and Keyes knew he was dead. And a horrific death it was too. “It doesn’t make sense, the simulations…” the Doctor frowned as she ran calculations in her head. “The reaction system is too strong for a normal skeletal system. But maybe the augmentations…”
“Wait, Doctor, are you proposing to try this again?” Keyes’ voice was laced with anguish for Roy and concern for Simmons.
“No, of course not. It will take months of simulation to verify my current hypothesis. I shouldn’t have been so arrogant. Poor Lieutenant Roy…” she mused. She stared at his body with the deepest of sadness. Some might have thought she was afraid for her career, but Simmons and Keyes knew she was just tired of death.
“Doctor, do you believe the augmentations are enough to drive this thing?” Simmons looked at Roy, then at a computer readout, then at Doctor Halsey.
“Yes, I can say with relative certainty that with the augmentations, you and the Spartans should be able to operate the armor. But I’ll have to run hundreds of simulations. In the meantime the project will be reviewed and the brass will reevaluate its relevancy…”
“How sure are you Doctor?”
“Oh, say, ninety percent, why?”
“Then why wait? Help me get this on.”
“No. Didn’t you see what just happened?”
“Of course, but you say you are confident it will work. I have the utmost faith in you ma’am.”
“You realize it may be the death of you Lieutenant?”
“Only every day of my life ma’am.”
“Very well.” She turned to the nearest AI and said, “run the simulation on a Mark I augmented subject.” In a matter of seconds, all the AI’s rang out in a chorus.
“Well within operational parameters.” They replied.
“Then I leave it up to you Lieutenant.”
“Suit me up ma’am.” Halsey smiled at him and waved the technicians forward.
It took ten minutes to suit Simmons up, and he already had the body glove on. Halsey suggested they put the helmet on this time and mumbled something about reaction time. She just doesn’t want to watch another man die. Simmons thought to himself. He gulped and prepared himself. He was putting it all on the line for Doctor Halsey, and for once it seemed like she genuinely appreciated it. Keyes seemed terribly anxious, but he forced himself to watch.
“Ok, power on. Move your right arm Lieutenant. Good luck.” The whole room breathed in expectantly including Simmons. He thought about moving his arm and it moved, even faster than Roy’s had. Only instead of breaking his bones, the suit simply moved. “Good. Try walking slowly Lieutenant.” Simmons tried, but he couldn’t. Every motion he made was at superhuman speeds. It took Simmons twenty minutes of experimentation to slow his walking down to a normal pace. “Well, now we’ve covered the basics,” Halsey continued, “why not try the obstacle course?”
“Gladly ma’am. Ooh!” Simmons made the foolish choice to salute at that moment, and immediately knew his wrist would be bruised. If he hadn’t been augmented, his bones would have shattered. Simmons got through the course with no small success, and even Keyes was whistling with appreciation at what the Mjolnir armor could do.
When Simmons returned to the prep station, someone had had the sense to remove Roy’s body, but the small stain of blood in the floor would likely remain for some time. The suit took twenty minutes to remove, and Simmons was actually sad to have it taken off. The suit helped him achieve a new level of thought-motion reaction that was more than even Doctor Halsey had hoped for. He had thought the ‘ODST Drop Suit Mark VIII’ was nice to use, but it had nothing on the new Mjolnir armor.
As the rest of the people in the hangar returned to their tasks, the Doctor came over to Simmons as he put his fatigues back on. “Thank you for that show of trust Lieutenant. You have no idea what it means to me.”
“It’s the least I could do ma’am.”
“No, the least you could have done was told me to flip off. I want to thank you properly. I think you deserve this. It’s been in the works for a while, and I’ve been waiting for the right time. For all it’s worth I’m very…proud of you, Captain.” Halsey handed Simmons a small box with a small piece of metal resembling…a Marine Captain’s insignia.
“Ma’am this can’t possibly be…”
“What? Regulation, legitimate, real?” Halsey whispered. “I assure you it is all of those things, and what’s more, it’s a present from me to you. You have done all I asked without ever questioning me, and I want you to know that I truly appreciate that. Thank you for all you’ve done Matthew.”
Simmons tried to mumble some word of thanks but the Doctor was already off marshalling the techies nearby. Keyes walked over to Simmons and whispered his advice shortly after. “She gave me a box like that too, a couple years ago. Just know this. It never ends with Doctor Catherine Halsey.”