Kyle's POV

What!? Special mission!? By the time my brain had registered her comment, she had already started walking away to check on another patient. I called as loud as I could with the pain in my chest, "Wait! What mission!?" but she was already out of earshot. I looked to Jason and Cameron. "Any idea what that mission stuff is about?" They both shrugged and I sighed. Now I have to wait for her to get back. I slowly brought my legs up onto the bed and laid on the elevated backing so I could breathe better. "Does it look bad?" I asked, changing the subject and gesturing to my chest. I couldn't see it due to my armor. Jason's eyes darted down to it but he kept a grim face and looked elsewhere inconspicuously. Cameron however, walked forward to get a closer look, his expression showing extreme concern before he hastily masked it. "It looks pretty bad, I'm not gonna lie. But, that could just be the dried blood and bio foam making it appear so." he said with a grimacing smile.

I groaned internally. Come on, I just got healed and now I'll have to heal again. I heard footsteps as the doctor came back along with two assistants. "We have to do a scan to see how bad it is before we take off the armor so my assistants are gonna roll you into the room." She said and I nodded. She gestured for the assistants to move me and they got behind me and started pushing to a room at the end of the back. The doctor opened the door and I was rolled into a small rectangular room with rooms adjacent to it on either side. One of the side rooms had a glass window and was completely white except for the robotic arm mounted on the ceiling. I wonder what that's for.

She set me under some type of scanner and laid my stretcher flat. I closed my eyes as it scanned me and opened them when it stopped humming. The doctor was looking at a pad and frowned. "It seems that your armor has melted slightly and has contaminated the wound. We'll have to cut your chest armor off and take the melted bits out surgically, but the rest of the armor can be removed normally. Don't worry, we'll give you plenty of sedative so you won't feel a thing." She said optimistically. I had a feeling though that she wasn't telling me the whole story but dismissed the thought. How bad could it be?

"Ok, that seems fine to me." I replied. They always needed the patient's approval before doing anything to them unless they were unconscious.

"Alright then, here is the sedative, I'm going to inject it and I want you to lie back after I do so." She said, while holding a small syringe that was poised above my inner elbow

She had cut away a small section of my suit so she could access the vein. I nodded and felt a small prick as she inserted the syringe and injected the sedative. I looked at the ceiling and laid back. I blinked– the ceiling instantaneously changed. Surprised, I went to sit up and saw I was in a hospital garment. Did they really do it already? I took a peek under my collar, not sure what to expect... I gasped, the middle of my chest looked fine except for 2 small diagonal scars. Marveling at this, I looked up and saw the doctor coming over. I also noted that Jason and Cameron weren't there, probably assigned to another mission. The doctor stopped by my bed with a smile and said, "How are you feeling?"

"I feel great!" I almost laughed. "There's no pain, and almost no scar. Thank you!" I smiled at her. I hadn't felt this good in days. Not only was most of the pain gone, I felt refreshed, as if I had taken a 12-hour nap.

She smiled again, "Good. I can report that everything went as planned... but there was one complication..." The smile disappeared from my face, replaced by fear. "What complication?" She gave me a reassuring smile, "Nothing major, but due to the internal destruction of your chest plate and your armor on your arm being beyond proper repair, the set is no longer wearable and you'll need a new one. However, they don't have any more of that model apparently. It was one of a kind." My mood sank. That armor had protected me from a lot of things and it was the first I ever had. Now I can't even get a new set of the same armor.

"So I guess I have to pick a new set of armor now." I said glumly. She nodded and I sighed, slowly getting out of bed, testing my legs before completely setting them on the ground. It looked like she was about to help me so I held up my hand for her to stop and she crossed her arms across her chest, frowning. I took a few unsteady steps, and then walked confidentially towards her. "Show me my options please." I said.

"Here, you might want to get dressed first." She said and pointed to a pair of clothes on a counter that lined the room. I grabbed them and she left the room for a moment so I could have some privacy. I quickly got into the long sleeve gray shirt and pants and walked back up to her. She turned around when he heard my footsteps, and gestured to another woman next to her in a different uniform. "She will take you to the room, I have other patients to attend to. Make sure to follow the recovery instructions in your messages."

I nodded as she left and said to the other woman, "Let's go" She nodded "Follow me." She led the way out of the room and went down the hall. Whether we were in space or in the atmosphere above the planet I could not tell.

She tuned a corner and led me into a small room. There were four sets of armor on stands in the middle of the bare floor. They were all space gray with black under suits. "Why are they all gray?" I asked, going up to one and looking at the helmet and thrusters. "Once you've chosen one, you'll be able to customize the paint all you want, within regulations of course. Do you like what you see?" She said, watching me go between them. I went up to one with a curved but blocky visor that covered almost all peripheral vision, relatively small water drop shaped shoulder pads, and blocky thrusters and knee protectors. It also had a chest plate that was a few large 2 inch or more thick pieces that covered the entire front. "It's perfect" I said, admiring the mobility I would have and the complete protection it offered. The curved shoulder pieces would allow blows to glance off and the shoes had extra stabilizers, 2 long little pieces on the sides that stuck out. It would be slimmer than other armors but I had a feeling it gave more protection that it seemed to have.

She smiled, approving of my choice. "We though you would like this one based on your history, but be warned, its only worn by special guards now and its relatively old. In about three to four years you are going to need a new one. This is the Enforcer model. Also, do you know what colors you want?"

I thought for a moment. "Orange, kind-of dark, and bits of blue, also a bit dark." She raised an eyebrow at my choice of colors but said nothing and wrote it down. "Well then, you can return to your quarters. You have been released from the infirmary as mentioned and are requested to wait for further instructions about your mission." I was halfway to the door and stopped to ask her about the mission but when I turned around she was already gone.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

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Steele's POV

"Real armor? I'm not supposed to receive that until I've stopped growing." I said. They would have to refit me continuously if I received it now. Due to the augmentations, I would be growing dramatically over the next couple of years. I would technically have to have my own fitting team just to continue operating the suit effectively. It would be expensive at the very least.

"Yes, this I was supposed to tell you about. They've gotten a special team for it that will only need to take a scan of your body so they can use it to model the new suits on so you won't have too much of your time taken up. Actually, they wanted me to tell you to go to your temporary room where someone is waiting to take you to your armor options."

"Alright, I'll go there now." I said and turned to leave. I heard him say, "Be safe." Quietly just before I walked out and then the doors shut behind me. People keep saying some strange things to me recently, I thought, and shook off my confusion before continuing. I strode swiftly to my temporary quarters. They were at the very back end of the barracks so that I would be separated from the rest of the base's cadets and personnel.

I turned a corner into the barracks and stopped suddenly. The ODST'S from before were back. One of them cracked his knuckles and said, "Boy we've been looking forward to this." as he smirked angrily. I noted that his nose was a bit crooked so he was probably the one I had nailed in the face. His buddies had similar smirks on their faces. I stayed completely still, calculating my odds. Far-off I heard footsteps, unnoticed by the ODST'S. I got into a defensive stance, but one that could be relaxed easily.

The ODST whose nose I broke stepped forward and said, "No, we can't do it here. A more private spot is needed." He smirked and stepped closer, intending to grab my arm and drag me off but the footsteps had finally come close enough. It was a commander by the stripes on his jacket and he slowed when he saw the three ODSTs and me still in a defensive stance. "Is there a problem here soldiers?" He asked sternly. The ODST stepped back, saluted, and quickly replied, "No Sir!" The Commander stared at him for a second, and when the ODST didn't move he said, "Well, get a move on, all of you!"

The ODSTS gave me one last warning look and walked off, the guy with the broken nose purposely bumped against my shoulder and they walked past me. I turned my attention to the Commander, saluted, and walked to my quarters. I have to watch out for them, I thought. I walked into my quarters and saw that Commander Silas was waiting for me. I quickly saluted and he seemed shocked for a minute before he said, "At ease 118. You've grown a lot since I last saw you. Has your recovery been going well for you here besides the obvious success of the augmentations?"

"Affirmative Sir." Except for the ODSTs, I secretly thought, but he didn't need to know about them, I could handle my own problems. He nodded, and said, "Good, good. I suppose you are wondering why I'm here. The Sergeant Major wanted to have me check up on you in person. He also wanted me to show you the armor you will wear in combat. It's bit early for you to receive it but they got special permission. If you will follow me, I will show you to your armor now." He gestured for me to follow and made his way out the door. I followed and locked my quarters. I don't want any nasty surprises from those ODSTs. I walked after him and, due to my lengthened stride, I caught up to him easily. We were halfway there before he finally spoke up. "It seems like not too long ago, you were just a teenager, but now you seem like an adult." I nodded. "I'm not the careless cadet I once was anymore." He smiled. "No, you're much more than that." We fell into silence and I stared ahead awkwardly.

"Here we are." He said finally. We stopped in front of a gray sliding door and he typed in a quick code before it opened. I stepped inside, him closing the door after but leaving it unlocked. There were 2 single sets of armor in the middle and the room looked like it has previously been a classroom but everything has been cleared out.

The first set of armor was interesting. It had a tall spike like thing on the top of the helmet and a V shaped visor with two very much smaller smoothed spikes on the sides of the top shooting back with the visor, giving it a threatening look. I didn't think the spike on the top had any advantage but I'd ask. The shoulder pieces were circle and the thrusters were round. The main chest piece was also shaped like a V. The rest of the armor was smooth, curved, and slim.

The second set was remarkably different. It had an extremely curved helmet that swept up in the back and make it look a bit like a water droplet on its side, but where the tip would be it was flat and curved. The visor looked kind of like two pairs of bat wings missing the middle joint that swooped upwards. It had layered shoulder pieces and the first layer on the shoulder was wide and form fitting, and triangle like thrusters adorned the back of the shoulders. The arms and legs had layered armor in about 5 different, overlapped, but side-by-side, pieces. The shoes were also slim and separated the big toe from the rest. The chest piece was also extra thick.

"What's the advantage of the spike on top of the first one?" I asked. "That is a breakthrough in replicating Forerunner 'baffler' systems. To put it simply, it helps hide you from the sensor's of ships and other things using geometric distortions. It's not invisibility but it will work nearly as well in terms of anything but an organic being visibly detecting your presence." He said. "What about the other one?" I asked.

"That one was designed by a Sangheili prodigy who created the best armor she could. Everything is reverse engineered."

I thought for a moment. They were both good helmets and suits. I could always get camouflage added to the other suit. Wouldn't be too hard, or I could have something else, but I'll tell him about it later. The Sangheilios one seemed to have a thicker under-suit as well. Sangheili were the same species as Elite's, but they rebelled against the Covenant and were helping humanity. "I've made my decision."

Silas had been standing there quietly and he perked up when I spoke. "You have? Which one?"

"The Sangheli one with a few add-ons. Hidden knife holders and a few special requests."

"Oh, ok, that can be arranged. What colors?"

"Black and grey. And the visor dark grey. I want to be able to blend in with my background."

"Ok then, they'll work on that. It should be done in a few hours after you have been scanned. You might want to go over there now."

I nodded and turned to leave but he grabbed my arm lightly, "Hold on there, I wasn't done yet. I wanted to give you something. Here." He said, and placed a relatively small and long knife in my outstretched hand. "This is made from the toughest metal ever found, extremely rare and even has a few hidden features. One is that it will always come back to you. I'm having a button installed in your glove so that when you press it, the knife will teleport into your hand using technology developed with the help of the Sangheili. Though be warned, it only works after about an hour charge up because the range is so long, almost anywhere on an average sized planet, so use it sparingly."

"Thank you Sir!" I took the knife from him. I was shocked, no one had ever given me a gift before. Especially not something like this. He smiled, "This time try not to drop it like you did that one time. This one has extra grip just for you." He said jokingly. I even cracked a smile. "I'll never be able to repay you for such a gift."

"Don't worry about it. Repay me by fighting to protect humanity. You better get going. I'll have your requests filed asap so they know what to make." he said, giving me a pat on the shoulder. I nodded and saluted before walking away, a smile slightly prominent on my face.