Halo_ The Fall of Reach - Eric Nylund [47]
“Yes, Ma’am,” the Spartans answered.
“Questions?”
John raised his hand. “When do we get to try them, Doctor?”
“Right now,” she said. “Volunteers?”
Every Spartan raised a hand.
Dr. Halsey allowed herself a tiny smile. She surveyed them, and finally, she turned to John.
“You’ve always been lucky, John,” she said. “Let’s go.”
He stepped forward. The technicians fitted him as the others watched and the pieces of the MJOLNIR system were assembled around his body. It was like a giant three-dimensional puzzle. “Please breathe normally,” Dr. Halsey told him, “but otherwise remain absolutely still.” John held himself as motionless as he could. The armor shifted and melded to the contours of his form.
It was like a second skin . . . and much lighter than he had thought it would be. It heated, then cooled— then matched the temperature of his body. If he closed his eyes, he wouldn’t have known he was encased.
They set the helmet over his head.
Health monitors, motion sensors, suit status indicators pulsed into life. A targeting reticle flickered on the heads-up display. “Everyone move back,” Halsey ordered. The Spartans—from their expressions, they were concerned for him, but still intensely curious—cleared
a ring with a radius of three meters around him.
“Listen carefully to me, John,” Dr. Halsey said. “I just want you to think, and only think, about moving your arm up to chest level. Stay relaxed.” He willed his arm to move, and his hand and forearm sprang forward to chest level. The slightest motion
translated his thought to motion at lightning speed. It had been so fast—if he hadn’t been attached to his arm, he might have missed that it had happened at all. The Spartans gasped.
Sam applauded. Even lightning-fast Kelly seemed impressed. Dr. Halsey slowly coached John through the basics of walking and gradually built up the speed and complexity of his motions. After fifteen minutes he could walk, run, and jump almost without thinking of the difference between suit motion and normal motion.
“Petty Officer, run through the obstacle course,” Dr. Halsey said. “We will proceed to fit the other Spartans. We don’t have a great deal of time left.” John snapped a salute without thinking. His hand bounced off his helmet and a dull ache throbbed in his
hand. His wrist would be bruised. If his bones hadn’t been reinforced, he knew they would have been pulverized.
“Carefully, Petty Officer. Very carefully, please.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
John focused his mind on motion. He leaped over a three-meter-high wall. He punched at concrete targets—shattering them. He threw knives, sinking them up to their hafts into target dummies. He slid under barbed wire as bullets zinged over his head. He stood, and let the rounds deflect off the armor. To his amazement, he actually dodged one or two of the rounds.
Soon the other Spartans joined him on the course. Everyone ran awkwardly through the obstacles, though they had no coordination. John expressed his worries to Dr. Halsey. “It will come to you soon enough. You’ve already received some subliminal training during your last cryo sleep—” Dr. Halsey told them, “—now all you need is time to get used to the suits.”
More worrisome to John was the realization that they’d have to learn how to work together all over again. Their usual hand signals were too exaggerated now—a slight wave or tremble translated into full-force punches or uncontrolled vibrations. They would have to use the COM channels for the time being.
As soon as he thought of this, his suit tagged and monitored the other MJOLNIR suits. Their standard-issue UNSC neural chip—implanted in every UNSC soldier at induction—identified friendly soldiers and displayed them on their helmet HUDs. But this was different—all he had to do was concentrate on them, and a secure COM channel opened. It was extremely efficient.
And much to his relief, after drilling for thirty minutes, the Spartans had recovered all of their original group coordination, and more.
On one level, John moved the suit and, in return, it moved him. On another