Mathew awkwardly walks up to the men and tries to start a conversation.
"Um... I'm Mathew,"
The men look at the one in the center, he looks to be the oldest. The older man speaks up.
"Listen up kid, we ain't your friends. Don't treat us like friends or as if you know us. Now scram"
Mathew was embarrassed and angered by the mans words. Mathew knows it's not something to fight over so he leaves the barracks. Outside was the remnants of a small airstrip. The majority of the airstrip was filled with makeshift shops. Bored, Mathew walks up to one.
The shops sold a verity of items from guns to food. One shop caught Mathew's eye. It was a mechanic shop. The reason the shop caught his eye was the MK3 assault suit sitting inside, visible through the garage door. Mathew approached the shop and knocked on the door frame. A voice inside responds
"Come in"
Mathew goes inside. There was a man bent over into the engine compartment of a pickup truck. The man grunted then said
"Come give me a hand"
"Okay" Mathew responded.
Mathew walked over and looks at what the man is doing. He is trying to take out a rusted bolt to free the engine to be removed. Mathew reaches to the wrench and pushes it down. The bolt make a horrible squealing noise as it comes free. The man was thankful and turns to Mathew.
"Thank yo-" the man looked at Mathew in shock.
"Everyone doesn't have to be surprised when they see me! Manterine isn't even a country anymore!" Mathew was upset about all of the attention he was getting due to his suit.
The man embarrassed about his reaction tried to fix his situation " thank you for your help.... could I ask your name?"
"It's Mathew, what's yours?"
"It's Samuel, it's a pleasure to meet you."
Mathew was happy that he was being treated properly. "Same here,"
"What brings you to my shop today?"
"The suit, is it yours?"
"Yep"
"Does it run?"
Mathew was simple curious because the MK3 was almost a decade old while Mathew's suits was a modern suit MK7. Even in the NHI his suit was the newest being his teammates suits being the MK6.
"No the suit doesn't run"
The two talked for a while more and Mathew helped the Samuel with removing the engine in the truck.
Night came pretty quickly. And Mathew went back to the barracks to sleep. He activated sentry mode on his suit and the front became 'liquid' and Mathew stepped out of it. The suit solidified as Mathew laid down and went to sleep.
Meanwhile, the town boss instructed his men to steal Mathew's suit and kill Mathew.