Artificial

New Gear

Operator Evo

The armor looks amazing. Dozens of armor plates, perfectly placed to deflect and absorb impacts, coated in a beautiful woodland camo variant.
"What is it?" Vel asks.
Casey steps forward, a wide smile revealing all of his pearly white teeth.
"We got you a brand-new DRAGON Heavy Assault Exoskeleton, then integrated it to work with your systems. I present to you, the Omni-Armor 2.0."
"It's beautiful," I comment, inspecting the arm.
"Do you want to put it on?"
"No, Casey, I want to leave it in the box— of course I want to put it on! Come on, man, let's do this shit already!"
"You'll have to lose the sleeves. Interferes with the bonding process, leads to less precision."
"No problem." I take off my jacket, revealing a camouflage tank top, and hand it to Vel, who places it on the stage. A loud wolf whistle rings out in the open air of the training yard. Vel goes into defense mode: standing slightly crouched, hands at low ready, on her toes, with feet separated. Every single muscle stands ready to fight. No matter how many times I see it, it still amazes me whenever I do. She kicks ass.
I look up at Ayala, who tucks her hands into her pockets, trying to look innocent. Vel follows my gaze, and looks up as well.
Ayala clicks her tongue and rolls her eyes at Vel's jealousy.
"What? Somebody had to do it. Synthetic or not, you don't let a body like that go unappreciated." Vel shakes her head in disbelief.
"I can look, but I can't touch," Ayala responds calmly, hands folded behind her back.

The legs of the armor collapse down to shin-level, and the chest and abdomen of the armor split open, folding backward, as does the neck guard and helmet. I step into the boots, and hold my arms out to the side. The chestplate folds back over my torso, locking into place. The sleeves slide over my arms, then attach to the synthetic muscle that dominates them. The neck guard secures itself above my shoulders, and finally, the helmet seals over my head. I take a step out of the pod, and find the armor extremely bulky and heavy. Vel looks up at my struggle.
"It's okay to struggle, Evo. You can train with me for a bit, we'll get you carrying that armor like it's nothing!"
Ridicule. Real classy, babe.
I catch a notification in the corner of my eye, appearing in the same pale yellow of the rest of my HUD.
Solar Battery: Online
Without warning, I charge forward, and throw Vel up on my massive shoulder plate. She begins screaming.
"Actually, Vel. This is a powered armor, so it's sort of like I have been  strength training.
"Put me down, Evo," she orders, and begins pounding on my back with her fists.
"You can punch that as much as you want, honey, that's 3 inches of reinforced titanium plating. You're not getting through that." I turn and carry her to the supply depot to grab her armor.

About a half-hour later, Vel and I stand behind the starting line for the Dyad. I roll my shoulders, stretch out and try to loosen up. It's been a while since we ran this. I turn around and see Vel approaching, walking tall and proud with hips swaying.
The display brings a lyric to mind:
"Feel the fire where she walks."
This intro always brought to mind images of power and confidence, and she fits the profile perfectly. Vel's always strong and resilient, ready to prove wrong anyone who dares doubt her. Mind you, that song's about a girl named Lola Montez, but I'm pretty sure Vel would kick her ass and change the song if she wanted.

We take our starting positions, and Ayala approaches. She pulls out her pistol and chambers a round. I open my visor, look up at her, and smile.
"Are those sim rounds, Captain?"
She shakes her head and smiles back.
"Not on your life, Operator. Now put your damn visor on."
The metal seals over my face, and the gunshot thunders to my right. Vel and I take off.

She pulls ahead, her lean frame better suited for running than my heavy build. She gets to the wall, and clasps her hands together.
"You sure about this, Vel?"
"Absolutely. Let's do this."
I place my heavy boot in her hands, and she lifts me up and over her head, straining with effort. I grab the handholds and dig my boots into the wall below me. I watch as Vel turns around, lifts her visor, and raises an eyebrow toward the Recruits. Then she holds her hand up, and I grab it and easily pull her up to the handholds.
We ascend in a matter of seconds, then we're running again. The next obstacle is the elevated wall, with a baton resting atop the wall and in a gap below it.
"I don't think I can fit the bottom gap," I call in the comm channel. "Get your slender ass down there, I'll take the high one."
"Alright, but only cause you complimented my ass."
She slides below, and I leap up, pushing down forcefully with my left arm as I swing my legs over. As I clear the wall, I snatch the baton with my right hand, then land superhero style, fist into the ground. I look up to see Vel is already far ahead, and gaining ground.
Fuck.
I start running.
She inserts her baton, and my bridge drops. I catch up and slide mine into position, and hers starts to fall, but gets caught halfway down. Vel cracks her neck, then sprints up the incline and jumps. She flies through the air for a second, then lands with catlike agility. I whistle a single sustained note, impressed.
She stands up, dusts herself off, and says, "Shut up and give me the combo."
"Three-zero-niner."
"Got it. Five-eight-two."
This time I've got the slide.
"Vel, give me the—"
"It's already airborne."
I look up and see the frame rapidly approaching. I snatch it out of the air, pull the slide onto it, then insert a magazine. Release the slide, immediately snap into firing position. The targets drop as soon as they appear, my not-so-naturally quick aim tempered by combat experience. However, the last target does not drop when I shoot it. I know I hit it, and everyone saw the round punch through the wood. It just didn't tuck back like the rest. I find myself in combat mode by instinct.
Neutralize the target, now.
I reach down, grab my combat knife, and flip it in my hand, catching it by the blade. I let the knife fly, and it flips end over end until it strikes the target, which folds back into its stowed position. Vel cheers, and the rest of the crowd of Recruits follows suit. I vault off of the tower, and roll to break my fall, breathing heavily. My adrenal response, although simulated, is intense. Ayala and Casey greet us at the finish.
"Forty seconds. I'm impressed, you two," the Captain admits, looking at her stopwatch. "You still managed to beat all of the Recruits with two course malfunctions."
I throw my arm around Vel's shoulders, and pull her close.
"We still got it, babe."
"Damn straight. We put those Recruits in their place."