The Beast

The Beast - Part 11

"You know the bed is for you, not the gift." A cold voice woke him up, followed by a scream.

He fell down, laying down he opened his eyes, Aina was standing next to him, her head looking down on him. The Hyee was huddled into the corner of the bed clearly as surprised about Aina as he was.

"Why did you sneak into my room, is privacy not a thing you understand?" Gabriel stood up.

"I wanted to see what you did with my gift and I have to say, I'm disappointed. But let's drop the small talk you slept through the resupplying. Your armor arrived." She was standing in the doorway waiting for him to follow..

He had no choice but to follow her commands, so he looked back to the Hyee one last time before he left. Gabriel was still tired: "I have a question. Why didn't I understand the Insects my translator worked just fine with everybody else."

"I knew you would ask that someday. I deleted their language, thinking it would limit your mercy but my concerns were unfounded. You showed none at all, I can still hear their screams echo through my ship when I think about it." Aina showed no signs of emotions, hinting that the screams weren't hunting her; on the contrary Gabriel suspected that she was delighted by them.

That ended the conversation.

Until they reached a small hall filled with all kinds of weapons and equipment. Aina started talking: "This is the cargo hold, I hope you remembered the way down here." Then she stood silent. Gabriel was thinking of something to reply to her just stating a fact when Chip walked in behind them.

"Are you excited, Gabriel? I would kill for a power armor this good, I bet it costs a fortune."

Aina cut her off before she could continue: "You are late. Start to calibrate the suit to his needs. You will pay if it doesn't fit on his next mission." Aina walked away, leaving them alone in storage.

Chip watched her walk through the door, before starting to talk:"I know exactly what you're thinking right now and yes it has a forearm cannon." Chip took him to a box.

"I'm actually thinking about leaving, Aina said you'd pay, if didn't fit me and I'm sure she doesn't mean money." Gabriel wasn't just gonna forget that Chip put weaponized parasites inside him.

"I'd probably suffer excruciately but she wouldn't hesitate to send you into combat without the armor so please just shut up and let me transform you into a God of war." Chip opened the box revealing the armor. It was white and thicker than the plate armor he was used to and it left no spaces to shoot in between at.

"Wanna start with the helmet or boots? Let's do Helmet." Chip took it off the rest of the armor and handed him the helmet. He put it on activating it, a whole bunch of numbers lit up in front of his eyes. Chip grabbed his head and pointed at the top right indicator: "this thing is your Hazard indicator, it will analyse the suit and your surroundings and inform you when the suit is damaged or you're getting surrounded by danger. Yellow means pay attention and if you ever see anything in red scream for help." Her finger moved to the top left corner:" Communications is self explanatory but look to you bottom left this number is your kill count I installed it myself."

He was getting used to looking around with a helmet when Chip picked up his left leg, put it in the armor boots and then repeated the same with his right foot. "Comfortable?" She didn't look up.

"It's a bit too tight" Gabriel didn't want to be picky but pain was not an option.

Chip changed the size: "Better?" "Yeah."

"The legs shouldn't be an issue. Tibi measured you very detailedly." Chip was right, the armor fit him perfectly, moving his legs around was hard but doable.

"WHAT THE FUCK!" Chip looked up at him with a dead expression. "The power unit is in the chest compartment. What just moved your leg?"

"I-I did." Gabriel was afraid he broke the armor. "Is that bad?"

"Don't scare me again, not everybody is fine with you being an innate killing machine." Chip pointed at the rest of the armor. "I won't carry the chest plate to you, come here"

He did, the equipment so far felt just like wearing ski boots with a motorcycle helmet. He helped Chip lift the upper body armor onto him where it snapped into place. He was holding his shoulder plates when the armor turned on with a rhythmic hum.

The Top right corner was blinking red, scaring him: "Hey, Chip is it supposed to blink red?"

"It thinks you lost both arms in combat dummy, finish putting on the armor and it'll stop." Chip was chuckling at his stupidity ignoring the fact that he had no way of knowing anything.

They put on his arms until Chip held his left forearm before him: "This is your arm cannon, it has one explosive bullet in it so there's no reloading, don't waste it. A precise shot with this beauty could rip a hole in our hull."

She followed up with:"How do you feel, I can't think of anything scarier to meet on the battlefield than who I'm looking at." He heard awe in her voice.

"I feel good, thanks." Gabriel was pleased by the upgrade but wanted to go back to his room, he couldn't stop himself from thinking about the Hyee he left behind.

Chip read his mind: "The suit is self standing, just go." she was visibly frustrated about him not being as excited about the suit as she was.