The Path to Valor

[Kazinsal]

Petrov led Jasmine into a large room with rows of exoskeletons and armoured suits, not unlike his own. Each suit was locked behind its own pane of transparent steel. They were sorted by gender and size all down the length of the room.

"What size are you?" Petrov asked.

Jasmine looked at him. "None of your f***ing business, ratbastard!"

"Sorry, go find your size in the rack and slide it on over your clothes. They're tight enough to be skin anyways."

"You of all people would notice, you pervert."

"Kinda hard not to."

She tried to find a way to put on the suit, but couldn't figure out how. There were too many solid pieces and no intuitive way to don the beast.

"Here," Petrov said, sliding up a small panel on the side of the suit and pressing the button underneath it. He slid the covering back down and one entire side of the suit popped open as if it were hinged. He opened the suit and closed it around Jasmine's body. It fit like a glove.

"If this weren't cool, I'd swear you're a sick freak."

"It's okay. I'm your superior and your dad is my boss. How awkward would that be?"

"Just shut up and tell me how to use this thing."

"It's a custom exoskeleton," he said. "Each one was designed by the Lane Hackers. The suit is made of layers of extremely flexible alloy, plus insulation and padding. There are multiple pockets; each one is armoured. There are slots in your suit's legs that can contain light weapons. The back of the suit can be magnetized to grip onto larger weapons, like assault rifles. The suit has accompanying boots and an internally-stored helmet. The boots seal to the suit as soon as you put them on, so does the helmet. There's an advanced targeting system and a reflex booster of some sort, not sure how it works, as well as a comm device and this nifty little program that can remotely fly your ship. Neat, huh?"

She blinked. "Yeah, well, you had me at 'weapons'."

"It's what we do," he said, making sure his suit and Jasmine's were both secured shut. "We're heading back to the zero-gravity room. I'm going to show you how to use that thing. Make sure your boots are secure."

She nodded and did so.

---

Retired, permanently.