Star Force: Capitulation (SF95) (Star Force Origin Series) Read online

  “Neck buttons,” the tech instructed. “Press the far left.”

  Rio scanned his neck with his Pefbar and found four. Rio touched his covered hand to the one indicated and suddenly the material around his body snugged up, with his fingers materializing as the pouch transformed to fit his digits perfectly and the stretchable coverings on his feet were now slick and shiny as laceless boots.

  “From your left…on/off, attach helmet, lock form, and power assist. Use your telekinesis for the lock form or you’re going to have a hand to your neck when you do it.”

  “Hmmn,” Rio said, grabbing the last bit of cloth and pulling it over his head. He couldn’t see anything through it until he hit the second button, then an interior HUD lit up and he could see out without having to rely on his Pefbar. He noticed it had also sealed to his neck, meaning the armor now covered him head to toe with no skin showing and no breath mask plate. The air was going straight through the material somehow.

  He poked a finger against his arm, finding the armor wasn’t firm. It felt like clothing, so he hit the ‘lock form’ button but as Bessmot had told him, his entire body froze in place with him unable to move. He used his telekinesis to release himself, realizing that he couldn’t have moved his finger to do it anyway, then gave the tech a look he couldn’t see through the solid black face covering. In fact his entire body was covered in an oily black that seemed to soak in whatever light hit it.

  “How do I get the armor to firm up without locking it?”

  “It is firm,” the tech said with a satisfied smile as he picked up a metal rod nearby and poked Rio in the chest with it gently. There was a ‘clank’ on impact, then the tech hit him with it on the arm and to his surprise it didn’t dent. The clothing held its form exactly, not even twisting his arm back, but taking the momentum against his entire body as if he were a solid piece of rock.

  “Whoa,” Rio said. “Now that is impressive.”

  “The armor is solid once you form it to your body, but it adjusts to where your body wants it to move. No telepathy involved, it just acts like clothing and lets your body movements dictate how it moves. It obeys your interior movements but defies exterior movements.”

  “Any shields?”

  “No. Just a pure prototype. It’d have to be a lot thicker to have additional equipment added.”

  “Thin as hell and you still got a HUD in,” Rio pointed out.

  “Your head doesn’t flex, so I squeezed some more basic thickness there to hide it. This isn’t a replacement for your standard armor by any extent, but I figured you guys would figure out a use for it regardless.”

  “Armor in a box? Hell yes. How small will this compact?”

  The tech held up his hand. “A little smaller than my fist, all three pieces combined.”

  “Emergency survival gear for sure,” Rio said, moving around and checking his flexibility range…which appeared to be infinite. Even with regular Archon armor being gymnastic friendly, there was always some restriction. Here he was feeling literally none.

  “It is thermal resistant to decent extremes.”

  “Air?”

  “Basic filter right now. Will shut down when submerged. I haven’t worked anything more into it than that.”

  “Armor rating?”

  “17,” he said with a shrug, which meant it was far lower than the standard adept armor rating of 37, which increased with rank and later with armor type variations.

  “And you can add more material if you want?”

  “I can, and will have to if more features are needed.”

  “What’s the power feature? I assume it’s already powered to match my movements?”

  “It is, but it will give you a strength boost if you need to lift something or punch through a wall and can’t based on your natural strength.”

  “Alright, count me impressed.”

  “Thought you’d be. Any initial suggestions?”

  “How is it powered?”

  “Solari reactors, microscopic. No recharging capability yet, but that’s on my list.”

  “How big a person will this fit?”

  “It stretches, but armor density will be less with the increase.”

  “Can I put it over my standard armor?”

  “You could, but I don’t know why you’d want to. It doesn’t require flesh underneath to mimic movement.”

  “Battlefield patch to cover armor damage. Is this airtight?”

  “You can take it into vacuum, but you’ll suffocate yourself. I guess if you had your other armor underneath you’d be fine for air, as long as your backup worked. Good idea, actually.”

  “It’s a way to get people through airless environments without having to try to patch damaged armor…or cargo. I can put anything in this, right?”

  “The buttons are exterior, so yes, you can.”

  “This is definitely going in our inventory as a supplement. Work on incorporating a stealth field and we’ll have ninja clothes.”

  “Additional or variant?”

  “Variant.”

  “Alright. Anything else?”

  “Nice work,” Rio said appreciatively, pressing the button to disconnect the hood but leaving the rest intact as he pulled it off his head as if it were nothing more than a soft hat. “You mind if I put it through some quality control tests?”

  “Please try to break it,” Bessmot urged. “I have several spares and need to know where the failure limits are.”

  “You’re just saying that to make me happy.”

  “I assure you, I’m not.”

  “Well then, I’ll go play with this and report back. How long do the batteries last?”

  “About 40 weeks of continuous combat.”

  “So…for an Archon about 2 hours?”

  “40 weeks,” he reiterated slowly.

  “I’ll get back to you,” Rio said with a smile, carrying the hood with him as he left the lab and headed for one of the interior training parks to do some terrain tests. He had concerns about the soles of his feet and holding form too much, but maybe Bessmot had that covered. If not he’d have something to criticize when he got back to him.

  When Rio got out into the hall and out of view of the tech he hopped up and down, then did a few jumping jacks followed by a backflip then a cartwheel, drawing some odd looks from the few people in the corridor ahead of him. Rio ignored them and did a few more agility tests before returning to a casual walk, suppressing the huge grin that he felt inside. This was supercool, and now the idea of clothing having an armor rating in videogames didn’t seem so absurd.

  Now he could throw on a T-shirt and have it block bullets for real…or a Batman outfit.

  “Cape,” he said to himself, already thinking up potential applications. “I definitely need a cape.”

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