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Saber's War

Chapter 3 - Assignments

By Goliath Wildcat

Saber and Temper walk into the crowded mess hall to the sound of dozens of muted conversations. Saber glances around and sees no immediately familiar faces in the crowd of morphs and humans. Getting their trays from the food dispensers the two felines glance around for a clear spot. Temper points out an unoccupied table and they walk over to claim it together. They start digging into their food when Saber notices Goliath and the tigress who was his tester enter the hall and head for the food dispensers. Upon seeing Saber sitting at the table he seems to brighten and gives a wave before walking over, the buff tigress in tow.

"Hey, mind if we join you?" he asks as he sets the heaping tray at an empty chair.

Saber motions with a fork to the seat across from him and Goliath takes it, the blond tigress taking the seat across from Temper as she greets her with a grin and a silent nod. Goliath starts to shovel the food down his maw and by the time Saber is almost finished he is leaning back rubbing his belly happily, a content burp slipping past his lips, "Excuse me," the big cougar mumbles. He lets a content sigh slip and starts picking his teeth with a casual claw, "At least the food here is good.

The two females are looking at him slack jawed. "How did you put that much food away so quickly?" asks Temper almost not believing what her eyes just saw despite his size.

Goliath gives a quizzical look before shrugging his broad shoulders, "What? It wasn't that much food and I always was a fast eater. Left time for a nap during lunch breaks when I was young and working construction." He looks down at his empty tray and licks his lips hungrily, "Any chance I can go back for seconds?"

Temper waves her fork towards the dispensers. "Help your-self, I don't think we're going to be on short rations here any time soon. We just had a supply ship arrive the other day and the base's hydroponics is the best in the system. We usually have enough to last six months or more at any one time, so we don't typically ration food."

He gives her a nod of thanks as he takes his tray and heads to the dispensers for seconds. The lioness takes another bite of her food as she watches the big guy walk away, his bulky frame moving with an amazing amount of grace for his size, his thick tail bobbing to help him navigate the packed room. "Saber, you knew him before you were changed I hear."

"Yep," he says between mouthfuls.

"Has he always had such an appetite?" she asks bluntly.

"Yep," he responds again without a change in his casual tone. "He was a big guy then too, and did a lot of physical work. Saw him eat five Whoppers once, made my stomach sick to watch him eat so much."

"Tiara, what were his metabolic test results?" she asks the tigress across from her.

Tiara looks upwards as a thoughtful expression crosses her face as she tries to recall the figures. Closing her eyes, she gives her head a dismissive shake and continues to eat, "You wouldn't believe me."

She gives the tigress a level stare, one corner of her mouth quirking in a nervous grin, "Why not, he couldn't have been off the chart like he was with the strength tests."

Slowly, Tiara starts to nod her head as she chews her food, her eyes locked with Temper's.

Temper's jaw drops in shock, "No way!" She looks over at Saber with the same shocked expression, "Congratulations, looks like your big friend there just qualified for one of our special projects."

He tilts his head to the side and looks at her, one ear quirked in query, "Huh?"

Temper looks back at her food and starts quietly eating again for a few minutes before she says anything. "It's not my position to tell you. The commander will get your results soon and he will decide where you can be of the most use to the base, and the Corps."

"I already have," the voice of Lupe comes from the direction of the dispensers. He's walking back with Goliath and together they sit down. He looks over at the pile of food on Goliath's tray and raises an eyebrow, "Hungry son?"

Goliath gives him a shrug, "I'll probably get more in a bit if that's alright. I've been starving since breakfast."

Lupe gives him a nod and a slight chuckle, "Don't worry son, and eat as much as you need, especially after your test results."

Goliath pauses to look up from his tray at the wolf with a mouthful of food, "Hmm?" He swallows what he has and continues, "What's that Lupe?"

Lupe waves his fork at Goliath's tray with a fatherly smile, "Finish eating first son, we'll discuss it afterwards in my office."

* * *

An hour later Saber and Goliath are sitting in comfortable chairs designed with a slot for their tails in Lupe's office. Lupe slides a data disk into his terminal and glances over the data streaming across the screen. "I'd show you two the data, but I don't think it would make much sense to either of you unless you're biochemists, but with these test results I can best judge in which program to put you."

He takes a folder from a drawer of his desk and hands it to Saber. "Here's your assignment lad, Project Titan, the first prototype walking armored assault vehicle. You get to help out with the testing and development of this weapon platform. It requires someone with your reflexes and concentration. It's as close to a star-fighter as you'll be finding on this base for quite some time sadly. If they ever let us off base I'll see what I can do about getting you back into something with wings. They're about to start weapon systems tests on the MK-I before they move on to the MK-II. I understand the MK-II is almost ready for power-up tests."

Saber thumbs through the folder and gives a nod. "Mind if I keep this to look through?" he asks as he holds up the plain looking folder.

Lupe gives him a nod, "No problem." He rummages around in the drawer again and pulls out another folder, which he hands to Goliath. "And here is your assignment."

Goliath takes the folder and starts flipping through it. Finally he comes to a picture of what he is supposed to test, "What's this? Looks like some funny armor."

"Project Aries, and yes, it is a type of armor. We're calling it power-armor for lack of a better term. Cliché I know, but it greatly enhances the wearer's strength, stamina, and speed. It can be equipped with a range of weapons and system that the wearer can bring to bear on the battlefield. One man wearing that suit could take on a tank division and probably come through without a scratch. The prototype suit is being over engineered they tell me, but they plan to scale back for production suits. They're currently trying to prove that the concept is feasible." He waves to the folder in Goliath's hands casually. "You can keep the folder too, and look through it this evening at your leisure."

Goliath looks down at the picture again, "So, I'm supposed to wear this?"

Lupe sits back in his chair and links his fingers behind his head. "Yep, you don't have to report to your respective areas until tomorrow. So I would suggest you spend the rest of today acquainting yourself with the layout of the base and going over what's in those folders."

He snaps his fingers and leans down to pick up two small boxes from under his desk, "Almost forgot, these are for you two."

Saber leans forward to take the one with his name on it. The box opens with a soft click. The silver feline pulls out a pair of dog-tags with his name and identity number on it. He also pulls out a small wallet and finds an identity card as well as a couple of credit vouchers.

"The dog-tags have microchips which can be read with full medical history on them. They're updated as needed by any medic with the proper scanner. They also serve as trackers within the base so we know where you are if you're needed. The ID cards will help give access to secure areas you've been cleared for. Most of the time you can just use a hand reader, but there are times that you'll be wearing gloves or some other kind of environmental suit."

Saber nods and holds up the small credit vouchers as Goliath looks through his own package, "Why not just give us standard credits?"

"Cause they would be a waste of space. Those vouchers are good for anything in the exchange or can be used through the planetary net to order goods from Earth on the weekly transports. The central system keeps track of your pay and such. Kinda like an old fashioned bank card." He taps the desk with a blunt claw tip, "Oh, I almost forgot. When the transport is on base, the hanger and all green zones are off limits to morphs. The pilots don't know what goes on here other than the base is a military secret. All top-side access points are heavily camouflaged and the nearest settlement is more than four-hundred miles away."

Saber nods and puts the wallet into a thigh pocket of his pants, "Anything else sir?"

Lupe shakes his head, "Nothing other than keep yourselves out of trouble. You've seen the reaction time of our security teams and after seeing these test results," he taps the screen before him. "I suspect that Deadeye will be adjusting his training regimen." Lupe gives a wolfish grin, "I won't be surprised if he tries to recruit you Goliath as an assistant to the security force. A few personnel are already taking bets on if you can bench-press a tank of not."

Goliath and Saber both give nods of agreement as they stand, Saber gives a crisp salute while Goliath gives a far more less formal gesture that resembled a salute before they exit the office. Lupe stares at the closed door for a few more minutes before he sits up again and inserts another file into his data reader and brings the data up on his screen with the tap of a few keys. "Hope those two do well with their respective projects, they sure could become a strong asset to our future."

* * *

Later that evening the two friends are relaxing in their common room, each looking through their respective folders and reading through the information found within.

Goliath tries to let out a whistle and instead gets a purr, "Man, this thing is going to be an interesting test. But, not just anyone could pilot these from what I'm seeing."

Saber looks up from his own folder; his ears erect and focused on the larger cougar, "How so?"

Goliath flips the folder to a certain part before holding it out to his friend, "Well, here for instance. The standard statistics for this suit indicate no one under about six foot six inches could possibly fit in the suit and still pilot it, but it can accommodate someone closer to eight foot tall easily. It also requires a strong person to operate, even with the enhancements built into the suit due to the oversized power unit and plating that could deflect a main battle-tank's cannon shell. And if I'm reading this right, the wearer of the suit needs to be able to withstand quite a bit of stress from the suit's feedback system."

Saber leans over and takes a look at the pilot requirements of the suit. "That's weird, it's almost as if it was designed for someone..." he breaks off and lets the silence hang in the air for a moment before looking up at his friend with his golden eyes and continuing, "Someone like you."

Goliath gives a sullen nod, "Yep, and look at this." He takes back the folder and flips through a few more pages before handing the folder back to Saber.

He looks at the indicated page and his eyes grow wide. "What the heck! There is no way someone is supposed to carry and fire that as a weapon, even with the suit to help them."

Goliath gives him a slow nod, "It's weird isn't it, that I would end up being perfect for a piece of equipment they are readying for tests up here? I wonder if they had this project in mind for me all the time while they were doing this to me?" He gets up and starts pacing the floor, his thick tail lashing in agitation behind him with a mind of its own.

Saber laughs, "How could they have known that my capsule would have been damaged though? Not to mention that I would have let you out?"

He pauses and gives his chin a worried rub, "Maybe... Maybe they planned to send an order to Lupe to wake me up and use me for testing that little toy of theirs? I don't know what their plans were, but it worries me."

Saber sees the worry on his face and can smell an odd odor in the air, he can only assume is his friend's apprehension as he rests a reassuring hand on the bigger feline's shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about it big fella. With what I heard happened during your test, there isn't much you got to fear from anyone. Especially not from anyone here on this base."

Goliath gives him a funny look, his ears quirked in a curious way, "What do you mean?"

Saber laughs, "You broke their strength testing equipment. I would think that means you're the strongest person they've ever seen."

Goliath raises one eyebrow and quirks an ear in a quizzical look, "Yeah, so?"

Saber starts scratching the back of his head, "You don't think the fact that no one here could take you in hand to hand is going to dissuade them?"

Goliath holds up his hand and pantomimes shooting a gun with his thumb and forefinger. "All the strength in the world won't stop a bullet. And even then there are forms of martial arts that are designed to use someone's strength and size against them."

"You okay man?" he gently rubs Goliath's wide back as the cougar hangs his head.

Goliath gives him a weary nod then looks up at the ceiling, "Yeah, I'm okay." A few minutes pass before he stretches and walks towards his bedroom, "Well, it's been a long day. I'm going to catch some Z's. Wake me in the morning for breakfast would ya?"

"Sure thing bud," he says as his friend walks into his bedroom and shuts the door with a soft click.

Saber stares at the door for a few more minutes before he settles back onto the couch thinking, "He seems a little depressed. I hope everything is going to be okay. I fear we'll be here for some time to come, like the rest of our lives."

* * *

The next day Saber and Goliath wake up and have breakfast together before they go their separate ways to their assignments.

Saber easily finds the lifts down to the lower testing bays and presses his hand onto the security plate at the indicated door. With a soft hum the light on the pad goes from red to green and the door opens with a soft hiss.

Entering the large room he looks around at all the hustle and bustle. It resembles a fighter bay on any of the many Earth star-bases. But sitting against the middle of the back wall is a large two-legged machine rather than a fighter craft with several other large machines in various stages of completion surrounded by gantries beyond it. A network of gantries and walkways encircle the massive machine and allow the crew crawling over it to have access to every nook and cranny of the massive machine.

He stands there and watches it in wonder for a few minutes while his presence is noted and a human in a white lab coat holding a data-tablet comes over. "Are you Saber?"

Saber comes to attention and snaps a salute to the man, "Yes, sir."

The human ignores the salute and instead extends his hand, "We're informal in here, and many of us are civilians, not military. Go by a first name basis and everything. I'm Jack."

Saber brings his hand down and shakes the outstretched hand of the man before him. "Pleasure to meet you Jack, nice looking piece of hardware you got there. Does it work?"

Jack turns to look at the machine, "Yes, the Mk-I looks nice, but we still haven't run it through any physical tests yet, just computer simulations and the start-up routine to test the power systems." He turns back to Saber with a grin on his face. "Ready to start the real test runs Saber?"

Saber starts rubbing his hands together in eager anticipation, "Oh hell yeah!" As they walk toward the machine Saber feels the familiar sensation of the thrill that comes with the job. He hasn't felt it since the first day he saw the Saber Star-fighter. "I live for days like this."

* * *

Meanwhile in another section of the base Goliath also enters a room, but one nowhere the size of the test bay holding the walker. Entering the lab he looks around as several people, changed and non-changed, turn to look at him. "Someone ordered a guinea-pig?" he asks in a gruff voice, ice blue eyes darting from person to person in the room.

This gets a general laugh from those in the room as it breaks the tension that was building since his entrance. A black fox with white points on his ears and tail comes up to him. "You must be Goliath then?" He asks as he extends his hand in friendship, "Name's Moonless, welcome to the test-team for the Mark I 'Aires' Battlesuit."

Goliath takes the hand carefully and shakes it afraid of his own strength after he broke the handle on his own door this morning by grabbing it too hard. "So, when do I start?"

Moonless puts his hand on Goliath's back and guides him further into the room. "Why immediately of course, we've been waiting on someone who could start testing out our little toy while we tinkered with it. But we've gone as far as we can without a physical test run of the suit. So we'll start getting you acquainted with the hardware and control systems. Soon as you've had some basic instructions you can start having fun big guy. That's the advantage of this powered armor concept, no weeks of training or endless classes in how it works. All you do is wear the suit. It takes commands from not only your own movements, but also straight from your nervous system."

The fox leads him into an adjacent room where the armor is stored. "Here you are, let's get you suited up and the armor powered up. Then we'll see if you and this suit are indeed made for each other."

The large cat looks at the alloy black suit of armor that stands in front of him and lets out a sigh. "Okay, let's get me into it and see if it fits like the specs say it should."

Two techs enter behind him and start gathering items from around the room. Moonless gives him a reassuring look, "We'll have to get you into a neural harness that needs to be worn under the suit. Even though the suit looks like one piece while in storage, and it is totally independent on life-support and environmentally sealed while worn, it is actually several individual pieces that are linked together. The harness aids in the transmission of your neural-input to all parts of the suit as well as providing feedback on the suit's performance."

Goliath gives him a curious look with a raised eyebrow, "And you're explaining all this to me because?"

The fox scratches behind his large ears as he gives a grin of embarrassment, "Because for the transmission link to be established, you're going to have to strip."

Goliath cocks on eyebrow as his ears lower into his hair, "How much?"

The black fox give him a sly grin, "All the way to your fur my friend, all the way to your fur."

* * *

Saber taps a few buttons on the panel in front of him and grips the control stick firmly as the lights on the control panel turn green. Depressing the comm button he speaks into the mic, "Test center Titan-One, this is Saber. Power-up complete and all systems read green. Reactor is showing only a ten percent drain from the system and I am waiting for further instructions."

"Roger that Saber. Confirm weapons are powered up."

Saber looks at his weapons load-out screen again. All the readouts confirm that the weapons are loaded and the capacitors are fully charged. "Confirmed, the board is green."

"Roger that Saber. Prepare for firing test alpha. Move thru the bay door ahead of you into the weapon range. Clamps are now free and you've got the controls."

Gently depressing the pedals under his feet he feels the large bipedal machine lurch forward into motion around him. "Roger that, she's a little rough on the movement." He follows the flashing red lines on the floor towards a portal that starts to inch open with the strobing of red lights and the hoot of a warning horn.

"Copy that, if we had the space we could try a faster speed, the design specs say that it should smooth out at higher speeds. But, that's also why we're changing to the MK-II next month. We hope it'll fix a few of the movement issues. But this was determined to be a fine test bed for the weapon systems and control layout."

As the large machine walks into the weapons range he eases off the pedals and lets it settle all its weight into a firing stance with the legs balancing the heavy piece of machinery. With a dull thump he sees the thick blast doors close in the rear-view camera.

"I'm on the firing line and ready to commence firing tests."

He hears Jack on the radio, "Glad to hear it's at least moving like the simulations say it should. Blast doors are secure and targets should now be visible at the far end of the range."

Saber turns his head to the left and looks out the cockpit. A hundred yards away stand three large metal silhouettes of modern tanks. "Copy that. Targets are at my nine-o-clock, turning to engage."

With a movement of the control stick the large bipedal metal construct twists itself at the waist to face the targets downrange. Soon the barrels of its many weapons are pointing right at the first target. Saber flicks the safety cap off the fire button with his thumb and holds his thumb over the glowing red button. "Control, the pickle is hot, ready to commence test firing alpha on your clearance."

"Commence fire at your discretion."

Saber lines up the HUD's crosshairs on one of the targets. He takes a deep breath and depresses the button on top of the stick. With a lurch, the large bore cannon mounted on the right shoulder fires a series of high explosive shells. The area around him is obscured with smoke for a moment that the exhaust fans struggle to clear it from the chamber. When the smoke finally clears there are a series of scorched holes clean through the large target on the right. The holes are almost a meter across and the backstop of the range has a similar hole in it where the shells impacted before exploding.

"Test fire alpha completed control," Saber says as he lets the safety cover drop over the firing button again.

"Copy that Saber, looked good from our end. You are clear to proceed to test fire beta."

Saber taps a few buttons on the weapon load-out console to his left causing some lights to change color while others go out. Soon he is looking forward again at the targets downrange. "Ready for test firing beta control," he says as he flicks the safety cap up again and holds his thumb over the small red button.

"Roger that, commence firing at will."

Saber lines up the middle target and depresses the button again. Two gatling-guns mounted above the cockpit open fire at the target and tracers form glowing beams of light that converge on the target. After a few seconds he lets up on the firing stud and waits for the smoke at the far end of the range to clear.

When it does clear the middle target is covered in hundreds of holes, but there is no concentrated focus, only a scatter of .50 caliber holes. "Control, the target is peppered, but the rounds are too scattered to have done much to a true armored target, might be effective against foot sluggers though."

There is a moment's pause from the radio before he gets a reply. "We copy that, looks like we need to add more recoil compensation to those guns if we're going to get a nice tight pattern. We'll work on it once we're done with the tests." There is another pause as they check over some of their monitors, "Ready for the last firing test Saber?"

Saber once more punches some buttons before lining up the reticule again. He licks his lips as it turns red as the targeting system locks onto the silhouette as an enemy target. "Roger that. Target is in my sights. I await conformation."

Jack says only a single word, "Fire."

Once again Saber hits the button, but whatever was supposed to happen doesn't. A whine fills his ears before there is a large explosion on the left side of the machine. Saber is shoved against his restraints and fights with the controls to keep his machine upright as the feet stumble under the force of the explosion. The two-ton gyroscope that helps to keep the large machine stable cries out in a squeal of protest as ruined bearings fail and metal explodes under the forces. Saber panics as he watches his damage readout start flashing what he can already feel through the controls. He struggles against gravity as he feels a lurch when the gyroscope shatters into thousands of pieces as the bearings finally seize into fused slag.

"God damnit you big iron bitch," he curses loudly as he fights to keep it under control, but all his skills are of no use. He can feel the left leg giving out as the hip joint fails and the slow tilting to the right suddenly swings the other way.

"Control, I can't hold her up any longer, I'm going down!" he yells into his mic, not knowing if they can even hear him as sparks shower him as several panels in the cramped cockpit overload and explode with loud cracks. The world outside his cockpit is awash with flashing red lights as he watches the world tilt outside his cockpit's windows. 'Just great, first day on the job and I got problems already,' is his last thought as his helmet impacts something hard and he passes out with a concussion.

With a resounding crash and a shower of sparks the machine crashes to the ground on its side. Within seconds there is a flurry of vehicles coming out of nearby bunkers as hoses lay down a thick layer of foam to quench the fires that are starting to spring up from the damaged vehicle and prevent a chain reaction of the ammo still onboard.

Several figures in both lab coats and coveralls start scrambling over the cockpit hatch to release the pilot still trapped inside. Jack motions the others away as he flips open a cover and grabs a red and white striped handle. "Clear!" he yells and the other rescuers duck away. Soon as they are clear he ducks himself and pulls the handle with a solid yank. The hatch shoots off the cockpit and skitters across the floor in a shower of sparks as the explosive bolts blow it free. He jumps into the now open hatch and crawls into the access tunnel to reach the pilot's seat.

Saber is still strapped into the seat but his head is hanging loosely to the side, his hands still gripping the controls in a death grip. One of the techs reaches in with a knife and hands it to the black fox. Taking it he severs the harness holding Saber to the seat with quick flicks of his wrist. Gripping his vest the two males struggle to pull him from the cockpit and ease him to a clear spot on the floor below where they carefully remove his helmet. Jack checks for a pulse and finds it strong and steady at the neck. "MEDIC!!!" he roars over the noises of the emergency vehicles.

A medic runs over and kneels next to him. He pulls out a scanner and starts running the hand unit over Saber before reaching into a pouch on his vest for a small vial. "Looks like nothing major, just the shock of being shaken around when the Titan landed on its side. He might have a slight concussion, but nothing serious." He snaps the ammonia vial and holds it under Saber's nose.

Saber gives a cough and he turns his head away from the vial. "Uh... What happened?"

They help sit him up, propping him against a tire of a large rescue vehicle. "Not sure," says Jack. "The techs in the bunker are still trying to find out what happened, but when you hit the button, the laser pod on your left shoulder blew like a stick of TNT. Might have been the capacitors, might have been something wrong with the circuitry. We don't know yet."

Saber slowly stands up and looks over the machine he was piloting only a few minutes ago, "Looks like it's going to take a while to fix this thing."

Jack gives him a nod, "Probably a week of hard work at least, but I think we'll scrap the MK-I and finish the MK-II that much faster." He turns his attention back to the silver feline next to him, "More importantly, how are you though?"

Saber moves each limb one by one, even his tail and gives a guffaw, "A little muscle pain, but nothing I'm not used to after a crash. At least I'm walking away from it. Nothing feels broken at least."

The medic checks his scanner that he had been running back and forth over Saber, "The readouts say your insides are fine, sir. You were one lucky guy to not break anything after that wreck."

Saber gives him a nod as he looks over the wreckage again, "Yep."

Jack rubs his chin thoughtfully, "We'll have to redesign the restrains just in case. You shouldn't have been whipped around enough to get knocked out like that."

Saber shrugs, "I wish you luck with it Jack. I'm just a pilot not a mechanic. You guys are the real miracle workers. By the way, I owe you guys a drink."

The techs around him give him a puzzled look, "Standard fare for rescuing a downed pilot," he says with a laugh, the others joining in as they get to work on salvaging what they can from the wreck.

* * *

In another of the underground labs Goliath feels the ground under his armored feet shaking as something heavy slams to the ground. "Did you guys feel that?" he asks the techs sealing him in the armor.

Moonless nods without taking much notice of the tremor, "Yeah, we felt that, probably one of the other labs working on something. Don't worry about it, happens often enough. As long as you don't see a blue light flashing we're fine here, that would mean a pressure loss."

"Roger that." Goliath settles back into the suit as the power-up procedure continues and the last piece of the armor, the helmet, is sealed over him. Secured in the darkness of the suit he is glad to see the HUD come up on the inside of the visor and the power settings slowly climb out of the red and into the yellow. "Power is slowly rising, but I think we need to work on the power up routine."

Moonless nods in agreement, "We have an emergency power up procedure that will have the suit up and running in less than five minutes, but there is a risk involved."

"And that is?" the big feline asks.

"That the matter converter goes into overload and blows this entire base into its component atoms," answers a young human tech, Tina if he remembers right, as she pushes her glasses back into place. "The material of the matter converter's containment vessel is one of the few alloys the system can't convert to energy. But spike the energy too fast, you can still create an out of control reaction."

"The odds," Goliath asks with a neutral tone.

"Less than one percent, but we'd rather not take the risk right now. We're working on a routine that will let us engage power-up in less than a minute with almost no risk, but we need more test data," Tina explains.

Moonless smiles at the younger woman, "Tina here is our resident expert on matter conversion. She is so far ahead of the civilian scientists that the military drafted her for their own uses."

Goliath gives the slightest of nods in the confines of the helmet, "My condolences, I know the feeling."

Finally after another fifteen minutes his HUD reads that the suit is at full power and all systems are active. "Okay Moonless, the systems are all up and running. I'm showing all readouts are in the green."

"Good," says Moonless as he settles behind one of the consoles in the testing center. "Just so you know, you could get the power-unit up to full power in only three minutes after initial startup, but it wouldn't last as long either. So for now we'll just stick to the slow and safe method."

Goliath grunts, "Slow and safe is fine by me."

Moonless nods to one of his assistants, "We're going to release the clamps holding you to the rack. Try to stand up, and take it nice and slow till you get used to the suit."

"Roger that." There is a loud clang and Goliath feels the suit shift slightly. He slowly raises his right leg and takes a cautious step down onto the floor. There is the quiet sound of servos and artificial muscles engaging to move the heavy armor and its large occupant, but when he sets his foot down it feels just like he had taken a step in the buff, nothing different.

"Walking feels no different, almost as if I was not wearing the suit," he says in surprise.

Moonless gives a quiet chuckle, "Good, that's the way we designed it. Sensors on the skin of the suit transmit feelings to your nervous system through the harness. And before you ask, no, it won't let you feel pain from anything that happens to the suit. You would just feel a pressure indicating you'd been hit. Better than a camera or any visual readout. We wanted to keep the HUD as uncluttered as we could, and a bunch of sensor readouts would just make a mess."

Goliath slowly nods his head as he sets his other foot on the floor, "Seems easy enough to move." He raises his right arm and flexes his hand into a fist. "Well, what now?" he asks as he turns to the window that he can see Moonless and his lab assistants through.

"Now, we're going to open up a door to your left. It will lead out into a testing bay. Once in there try giving the suit a few try outs in motion, running, jumping, etc. You'll find some obstacles you can use to try out the suits limits."

"Okay, open it up," he says as he starts walking towards the indicated door.

The room he enters is huge, almost a quarter of a mile square and easily a hundred feet high. Goliath grins inside his helmet, "Okay guys, I'm going to play now."

He hears a laugh over his radio as he takes off at a run. In only seconds he has reached the far wall and skidded to a stop his hand stopping him with a thud that dents the thick metal. He starts to run back and after his second step triggers his jump-jets with a hard jump into the air. He easily lands himself on the other side of the room with a short skid. With a concentrated thought, he fires a quick burst of thrusters again and launches for a platform over fifty feet off the floor and lands softly as if he had only jumped inches.

"Not bad. This suit does give great mobility and speed. What's the gravity in here, it feels like Earth norm, but I know Mars doesn't have that strong a field."

"You're right, we've got a gravity field that covers the whole base so there are no complications from low gee's on the personnel."

Goliath nods as he jumps and easily lands, his feet feeling the ground under him again but his eyes telling him he just dented the metal floor with the force of his landing. "Good inertial compensators I see."

"Glad to hear they're working as designed, even though the bay might need a few repairs with what you're putting them through," he says with a good-natured chuckle.

"Sorry about that," Goliath says with an unseen sheepish grin.

Moonless waves his hand dismissively, "Bah, it's what these rooms are for. So, you ready for some real fun?"

The large suited cat turns towards the bunker they are watching him from and nods, "Sure am."

With a smile the fox taps a few buttons on his keyboard, "Walk over near the door you came in." Goliath does so and a large hatch opens to reveal a large rifle looking item. "Take the gun and see how it feels to move with it."

"Okay," Goliath says as he reaches out and lifts the gun easily off its rack. In the suit it feels light as a feather even though it must clearly weigh several hundred pounds and no unarmored person could carry it, let alone fire it. He feels clamps secure the weapon to the underside of his forearm as he grips the top mounted handle. Moving the weapon around he watches a red crosshair follow across the inside of his visor, "Target tracking mechanism?"

Moonless nods, "Indeed, we thought it would be better than trying to aim down sights with the suit on. Once the weapon locks onto your forearm interlinks engage and the targeting system takes into account everything from wind to range from readings your suit provides it."

Once more he runs and jumps around the room, the rifle held easily and even with the bulk on one side he has no troubles with his balance. "Okay big guy," Moonless says over the radio, "I think it's clear that the gun doesn't slow you down any or limit your movement, now to test fire it."

At the far end of the bay another hatch opens to reveal a target. "You got a fifty round mag in that gun you're holding. See what you can do."

Goliath holds the gun in a firing position and sees the targeting display appear in his HUD. Centering it on the target he gives the trigger a gentle squeeze. The rifle fires and even with the suit he feels a kick that rocks his arm a tiny bit.

The target develops a hole in the center of it and Goliath lowers the muzzle to dismiss the targeting information. "Nice targeting system you got in this thing Moonless. Don't even need a four power scope."

"That's the idea lad. Select the auto feature and try a few bursts."

Goliath looks down at the gun in his suited hand and flicks the switch to the auto setting. Once more he raises the muzzle and takes aim. This time though he holds down the trigger and tries to hold the gun steady.

But after only a few rounds have left, only a fraction of a second, the barrel blows and he hears the sound of pieces of metal pelting off his armor as a gentle pressure exerts itself over his right side. He looks down at what's left of the gun and scowls. "Uh, guys. I think your gun needs some more work."

Coming over the radio he only hears static and grunts in frustration. He checks the smaller damage readout on his HUD and grimaces. While most of the suit's armor shrugged off the onslaught of fragments of the former gun, his radio hadn't had the same protection as he did. The radio was dead, a piece of the gun's barrel having shattered the transmitting coils.

He turns and walks back towards the door he entered and it opens as he gets near. Once through the door he drops the gun to the floor and waves at the black fox that appears to be trying to talk to him through his headset.

Goliath motions towards his helmet and shakes his head. It only takes the trained techs a second to realize what's wrong. They motion him over to the restraint clamps and he walks over and stands in the position. With a clang the clamps lock him down and the arms of the armor rack start to disassemble the armor from around him.

It takes a while, but finally they have him free of the armor and he stands there looking it over with them, wearing only a robe they handed him to let him have some modesty since he's still wearing the harness, which doesn't cover much and leaves nothing to the imagination.

"Think more shielding around the radio would be a good idea," he comments as he stands there while one of the techs points out where the pack unit's armor had failed.

The fox gives a nod of agreement. "Definitely, and we need to evaluate the data and find out what happened to the gun. There is no reason for a magnetic accelerator to blow that way."

"Well, if you guys don't need me for a while I'm going to get into some normal clothes and go get a shower."

The fox gives him a nod, "Yeah, you go get a shower and a rest. You've been in here for six hours and after getting out of the suit it's essential that you eat."

"Huh?"

"Go get something to eat before you shower. While you're in the suit you use more energy then you may realize because the suit injects you with stimulants."

Goliath gives him a shocked look before anger clouds his eyes, "You mean you drug me?"

"Not really, just stimulating adrenaline. Same thing you would be getting under battle conditions anyway to put you into peak combat status. But after you leave the suit and the nourishment it can give you, you need to replenish yourself in the natural way, eating."

The big cat throws up his arms, "Okay, I'll go eat, all this talk about it is making me hungry anyway."

* * *

Ten minutes later Goliath and Saber meet up in the dining room and find an empty table.

"Man, you would not believe the day I've had," says Saber.

Goliath gives him a grunt as he digs into his food. Swallowing a large mouthful he gives Saber a knowing gaze, "Oh, I think I can guess."

"How about we compare notes later tonight?" asks Saber.

Goliath doesn't even speak as he shovels the food in, barely sparing time for a nod.

James 'Saber' Storm is © his player (RIP my friend). All other characters unless otherwise stated are the property of Christopher Gilman. Story © Copyright Christopher Gilman 2002 all rights reserved

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