Ben chippered his way out back, Henry following reluctantly, as Jhonny slowly walked out last, measuring each step.
He was slowly getting used to walking with the exo-suit.
Most people would assume that an exo-suit was just body armour and that wearing it was like wearing clothes. But most people would be wrong.
Exo-suits were more than armour. They enhance a person's capabilities.
An exo-suit is made to boost a person's strengths to the maximum while offering protection, but not lowering their ability to pass without a trace,
Exo-suits were made explicitly for agents. They were tailored for stealth, protection, and maximum power.
Whether for assassination missions or infiltration missions, exo-suits were never meant for overt missions. And this one especially so.
"According to the manual, the NX32 is best used on maximum power short bursts. They say here that using it like this allows for agents to outperform even battle droids and, in some cases, take down war-walkers. But I wouldn't trust that too much," Ben said, reading the manual on his tablet.
But Jhonny, who was inside the exo-suit, had no trouble believing it. He might be unable to take down a war-walker with this, as he was now. But something told him that with enough training, there wouldn't be much that could stand in his way.
"This thing feels incredible," Jhonny's voice resounded over the speaker.
"I feel like I could take down an army!" he added, throwing a punch forward.
He used about fifty percent of the exo-suit's output, and Henry could tell he wasn't kidding.
'System. Estimate the lifespan loss of a strike with that power,' Henry said to his brain buddy.
After a moment, while Jhonny was stretching out his limbs, the system replied to him.
'By visual estimate, the lifespan would drop by approximately one week. Estimation has a ninety-five percent accuracy.'
'A week, huh? That's not that much, but I can tell that wasn't the maximum output. A full power strike would likely take a lot more,' he thought.
But he still wouldn't like to be on the receiving end, especially if the one in the suit was someone with an already high power.
Jhonny wasn't especially a strong kid. Now that he had trained with him for a while, he was stronger than average, but that hardly made him into a hand-to-hand or a martial expert.
Giving that armour to a man like Joseph Landon, or himself, would make killing machines out of them.
His greed for a suit like it intensified. But he would rather slit his own wrists than steal from the army.
It was a death sentence either way.
And he wasn't a crappy person who would lower himself to stealing from a child.
"Alright, shorty!" Ben's voice snapped Henry from his thoughts.
"We have an obstacle course for testing exo-suits if you want to give your hand at it. But I'll need a guarantee you'll purchase it. If you break the suit during the test run, I could get in trouble if you don't buy it."
As he finished his sentence, a ding resounded on his watch.
Looking at it, a massive grin appeared on his face. Jhonny had confirmed the purchase.
The suit was officially his, and Ben had made a nice divvy of five thousand credits. He was in heaven.
"You got it, hoss! Let me set that course up for you!" Ben exclaimed, running to the console at the side of the backyard.
Henry looked at Jhonny in the suit, green with envy.
"That was a lot of money for an exo-suit, Jhonny. You could have gotten almost as good for half the price, you know?" Henry said, making a sour face.
"Almost as good isn't as good," Jhonny's voice came over the speakers.
'Eh. He ain't wrong…' Henry thought, grimacing.
"Don't worry, Henry. I'll let you try it. But I'm not passing on a chance to get stronger. And you don't know half of what this suit can do. The manual doesn't do it justice."
Henry's curiosity got piqued instantly, and now he looked forward to knowing more.
Ben shouted from the side of the building.
"Alright! It's set! The suit will know what to do, so let it rip, shorty!"
As soon as he finished, a holo-timer appeared over the yard. And already, the suit was changing form.
From the full body cover it was in, it parted ways and morphed into a more skeletal look, focused around the limbs and joints, making Jhonny look like a space fighter from the old-time anime that Henry grew up on.
Jhonny smiled as the armour talked into his ear.
"Speed mode initiated. Power repartition flipped to ninety percent leg output. Stabilizers engaged."
Jhonny lowered his stance, ready to dash forward, as the holo-timer counted down.
Henry's eyes were already focused on the suit.
At first glance, he could tell the suit was adaptative, but he hadn't imagined it would be a suit with multiple forms. That was rare, even in newer models.
He quickly understood the price tag on it now.
As the holo-timer counted zero, a whistle blew, and a course appeared before Jhonny. It barely finished appearing, and Jhonny was already bolting forward.
The dirt kicked under his feet as he sped forward, instantly accelerating to speeds far from human capabilities.
Henry looked at him and talked to the system.
'System. Speed calculation. Compare to Tamarains.'
A moment later, what he had assumed was confirmed to him.
'Speed calculated. Sixty miles an hour. Now comparing to Tamarain fighters. Comparison made. Class C Tamarain fighter levels of speed.'
"What the fuck…" Henry mumbled.
This was insane.
There was no way the power could stay that high for long, right?
Jhonny completed the obstacle course within thirty seconds of starting, weaving, bobbing, and changing directions constantly. He had to touch specific holographic markers and hadn't missed one.
Ben, who had expected the suit to be good, stood at the side, his jaw slack.
"What in the shit just happened?" Ben muttered.
He had seen Class C Tamarains before, but usually, they were in combat with highly modded human officers. Not just a small man in an exo-suit.
"This model is insane…" he said, looking at the calculated results on his tablet.