Steel Rising

Chapter 23: Ether

Meanwhile, just as Tellius was talking to the mechanics of Grand Gear, Sarah and Tina had just secured the ship's armories as they walked into the hangar.

"Wow, it's so huge!" Exclaimed Tina, having previously never been granted access to the hangar bay as both Sarah and Tellius had tacitly agreed that weapons were inappropriate for a young child like Tina.

Chuckling at the little girl's excitement, the female cyborg remarked as they stepped out of the elevator. "If that's already impressive to you, just wait until I show you my stealth suit."

"A stealth suit? Like a mech?" Quizzed the girl with wide, curious eyes as the two of them walked across the hangar and past the towering skeletons of rusty mech models residing inside the ship's six drop bays.

Nodding, Sarah affirmed with a big smile as she unlocked a nearby weapon cage in between the drop bays that doubled as an in-bay armory. "Technically yes, but it's much smaller and way cooler!"

*Creak!* The weapon cage's sliding doors rolled slowly open, as its motors had certainly seen better days.

"How so?" Demanded the little genius, eager to know as she followed Sarah inside the cage.

Filled with all kinds of war projectiles, ranging from smelter cartridges to missiles, the cage's main attraction was undoubtedly its centerpiece. Placed on a slightly elevated platform with a mannequin currently piloting it stood a white-and-gold accented stealth suit.

Boxy but not bulky, most of the armor's base shape was a white, upside-down arrowhead for the pelvis, a mostly white, oval-shape for the chest area, and dark, interlocking dura steel armor plates.

Built upon an exoskeleton instead of a full-sized, actual mech, Sarah's Prototype XS22  stealth suit was just 2.4 meters tall. Once one removed the backpack with its 30-centimeter-long stabilizer wings, the suit's total height could even shrink down to just 2.1 meters.

Yet the backpack was, in a way, the heart of the suit, as it not only contained the suit's boosters but also most of the electronics. After all, the suit incorporated reliable yet highly modified advanced cloaking technology, inclusive targeting systems, high-powered miniature shield generators, and a fusion core to power it all.

Boxy yet curvy as the entire suite was, it was unmistakably built for stealth, speed, and flexibility.

And yet, its main weapon was the two oversized, wrist-mounted, twin-barreled Smelter-Cannons. Technically classified as anti-tank weapons, they could reduce reinforced armor into molten slag in the blink of an eye up close and at maximum settings.

Combining these devastating weapons with the suit's internal target acquisition system, Sarah could identify and take out priority targets in the midst of battle at midrange.

In theorie, Sarah was planning on handing into battle with some additional help in the form of one to two drones, but so far she hadn't settled on what she wanted them to be capable of.

Yet as complete the stealth suit seemed, it was still missing a crucial headpiece, like a helmet.

"I am still working on a helmet..." Sarah stated and pointed to a nearby workbench where a helmet had been placed in a vice. Yet next to it lay a smart visor  with an integrated antenna and a similar-looking headset-antenna combo.

Noticing Tina's interest in the electronics, the female cyborg added, slightly embarrassed."... Yeah, I am still not sure if I'll ever be wearing that helmet, but the other two are great."

"Did you really make those from scratch?..." the little girl asked with shiny eyes. Seeing Sarah confirm her question with a smile and a nod, she pleaded. "... Can you teach me? Please?"