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A flat video appeared in the air. It showed a Marine officer, a Lieutenant, being fitted with theMJOLNIR armor. “Power is on,” someone said from offscreen. “Move your right arm, please.”
The soldier’s arm blurred forward with incredible speed. The Marine’s stoic expression collapsed intoshock, surprise, and pain as his arm shattered. He convulsed—shuddered and screamed. As he jerked inpain John could hear the sounds of bones breaking.
The man’s own agony-induced spasms were killing him.
Halsey waved the video away. “Normal humans don’t have the reaction time or strength required todrive this system,” she explained. “You do. Your enhanced musculature and the metal and ceramiclayers that have been bonded to your skeletonshould be enough to allow you to harness the armor’spower. There has been . . . insufficient computer modeling, however. There will be some risk. You’llhave to move very slowly and deliberately until you get a feel for the armor and how it works. It cannotbe powered down, nor can the response be scaled back. Do you understand?”
“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.
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“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 MJOLNIRsystem 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 wasencased.
They set the helmet over his head.
Health monitors, motion sensors, suit status indicators pulsed into life. A targeting reticle flickered onthe heads-up display.
“Everyone move back,” Halsey ordered.
The Spartans—from their expressions, they were concerned for him, but still intensely curious—cleareda 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 movingyour 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 motiontranslated his thought to motion at lightning speed. It had been so fast—if he hadn’t been attached to hisarm, 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 andcomplexity of his motions. After fifteen minutes he could walk, run, and jump almost without thinkingof the difference between suit motion and normal motion.