Chapter 5

Everyone was at the ship bright and early the next day, though looking less haggard than the day before. Mitch asked if they could come to main engineering first, he had a surprise for everybody. They all agreed and made their way towards main engineering. When they got there, they saw four battle suits hanging from hooks in the wall. Mitch asked Mike to come forward first and pointed to the suit on the far left. Mike looked at this suit taking in every detail he could. The suit looked exactly like the battle armor in Halo, even the face plate on the helmet was identical to the one in the game. Mike notice his name was stenciled in black Roman lettering on the breastplate over the heart of the suit. The suit looked perfect, it was the color of cobalt and had rank marks by the collar of the suit. Mike looked expectantly at Mitch who indicated that he should try it on. Mitch told Mike that the suit would fit over his cloths without any complication. Mike found the opening in the back of the suit and slowly closed it up. Mike thought that this suit was like putting on a wet suit, but instead of having a zipper in the back it kinda closed by itself when he had the suit up to his shoulders. Mike was a little worried about how to get the suit off, seeing as there was no apparent zipper or seam at all. Mitch looked at his face and told him when he wanted the suit to come off all he had to do was give a voice command that would only work for him and no one else. Mike only shrugged and continued to put the suit on and when it was complete, he only had to put the helmet to finish the effect. The helmet went on and it was dark for a second, but a little heads-up display came online giving him a180 degree field of vision.

"Wow, the picture on this display is crystal clear."

"Yeah, you think so now, try giving a voice command and access the main menu."

Mike called up the main menu and saw that he several options for his suit; stealth camouflage, shield control, communicator, environmental control, visual spectrum control, and damage indicator. He decided to switch on the stealth camouflage and heard a collective gasp from the others. He asked what was the matter and Emily said to look down. When Mike did he wasn't prepared for what he saw or lack there of. The battle armor was still there but it was like the skin of a chameleon, blending almost perfectly with the background. No one would be able to see him unless he made any quick movements. Mike switch off the camouflage and the suit shifted back to its' original state. He thought that these suits are cool and are getting better by the second. He asked Mitch if there was any more to them.

"Yeah, there is a lot more. First off the suits are made with a mix of platinum, duranium, and tritanium. Without the shields the armor itself can handle small munitions, heavy automatic weaponry, and small incendiary devices. In other words, most common guns, explosives, and a variety of energy based weapons won't even leave a scratch on this armor, let alone dent it. The armor is not invulnerable, but it can take up to five thousand pounds of pressure, so unless someone drops an elephant on top of you, you don't have anything to worry about. The shield can handle heavier energy based weapons, and a small tactile nuclear explosion, about 20-megaton payload. Anything over that and your screwed, but I doubt anyone's going to drop a nuke on you anytime soon so try not to worry. The shield protects you from radiation, and any airborne diseases. The environmental controls basically keeps your body comfortable under any circumstance, and filters the outside environment so you can breath easily. So if by chance you end up in an environment that is hostile to our lungs the suit will convert whatever the atmosphere is on the outside into fresh clear oxygen for you on the inside."

Mike asked if the suit came with a microwave oven, because he wanted to cook some soup on those long out of town trips. Everyone laughed at this including Mitch.

"Ok, I know it sounds like I'm going overboard with this but I'm almost finished explaining the battle armor. The communicator has a range of several million miles, so it's from here to lets say Mars. You'll have crystal clear reception so don't worry about interference. The damage indicator works with your HUD display and shows you where you're damaged. Now the visual spectrum control allows you to change how you see things around you. You can switch from normal to; night vision, thermal vision, and ultraviolet. With the faceplate you can see out, but no one can see in. Now that I've explained everything, Mike, why don't you get your sword. Attach the sheath to the back of the suit. When that's done allow your sword to interact with the suit."

Mike walked over to the corner and retrieved Crimson and walked back to the center of the room. Mike attached the sheath to the back of the suit and drew Crimson out of the sheath. Mike asked Crimson to try and interact with the suit. Crimson said he would try. Seconds later Crimson was glowing and the glow spread over the suit. Slowly the suit began to change color form cobalt to scarlet. Mitch asked what had happened and Crimson said he was connected to the suit now, the armor was just reacting to Crimson's presence. The same would go for the rest of them when they put on their suits and connected their swords to the suit. Jack asked if Crimson could alter the color of the suit. Crimson said he would try, a few seconds later the suit started to change color. Scarlet turned into emerald and back again. Crimson said that without him here the suit could only change to emerald color. Mike said that either cobalt or emerald were fine for suit colors and wanted the alternative color kept low key just in case.

Mike decided that everyone else could try on their suits later, right now he was focused on the new power test they were planning for today. He removed the suit without too much complication, though it took him ten minutes to figure out how to take it off. Mike had Jack and Mitch go set up the test for the new power source, while Emily and him would monitor their progress from the bridge. It took a few minutes for Mike and Emily to reach the bridge, they had Sam bring up a display of the ship to monitor the power fluctuations. A two dimensional schematic of the ship appeared on the main viewing screen, showing that the current power levels were at thirty percent.

"Sam inform Mitch and Jack that whenever they're ready they can begin the power test." Mike said.

"Yes, Captain."

Three minutes later Mitch commed the bridge and said they were inserting the crystal into the new chamber now. Mike and Emily stood watching the display, hoping that this test was the answer to their problems. Slowly the power started to climb, in less than two minutes it went from thirty-five percent to fifty percent. The power started to rise faster, it jumped from fifty percent to ninety percent. Suddenly a warning klaxon sounded throughout the ship, the power reading was at hundred and fifty percent above normal and rising. The klaxon stop blaring moments after, Mitch commed the bridge to tell them everything was fine he just underestimated the power of the crystal.

"What would have happen had you not shutdown the chamber?" asked Mike.