Dennis sparked in his mind. "Sir, may I remind you that with proper training, it is 100% safe to use these suits for orbital drops?"

Dane raised an eyebrow. "100% safe?" he asked, baffled. "What if the suit fails? What if the thrusters begin to falter? What if the pneumatic landing system built into the armor of the legs malfunctions in some kind of freak accident? What if... what if I just freak the fuck out?"

"Sir, you do not have time to... freak the fuck out." When said in D.N.I.I.S.' proper British tone, it caused a slight laugh to escape Dane's lips.

Dane waved at the nonexistent entity and nodded. "Fine. How do I do this? It has been a while."

"I thought you had the proper training?"

"Emphasis on had. It has been two years since my last one."

D.N.I.I.S. audibly sighed into Dane's mind. "Ah well, then there is nothing to be worried about them."

Dane entered the liquid polymer LNE applicator—the circular device in the center of the room— and tapped a holo button on the side with a light bleep.

The circular op slowly lowered around him and a flap of black rubber-looking material with small lines that extended all throughout slowly lowered over his head.

When the black liquid touched his body, it began to strain against Dane's body. He actually had to push up to keep from being dropped to his knees as the rubbery substance began to slowly cover his entire body. He strained against the continued pressure as he felt the system slowly lower until it was at his ankles when it stopped. Two small arm-like systems extended outward and removed the pieces of the liquid polymer from his eyes, nose, and mouth, then placed a small breathing apparatus over the mouth and small bug-like goggles over his eyelids.

Dane stepped from the applicator unit and walked over to the glass that housed the armored suits. A holo-pad with a security code square was highlighted next to the door. "Dennis, can you open it?"

"Yes, sir. One moment."

A few seconds later, the security screen blipped green the word READY across the screen?

With a depressurizing hiss, the containment for the suit was released, and two pneumatic springs pushed the suit forward and to body height.

It was sharp and edged, with the same dark sheen of the troopers, but with long pointed ends, designed to be aerodynamic. Multiple flaps extended from the arms, waist, back, legs, and feet—designed to control flight—and there was a thick shield made of the same black material that was attached to the arm, almost as tall as the suit itself. The eyes of the suit were a sapphire blue.

A small clicking came from within the suit and it automatically opened from the inside, beckoning for him to enter.

A sudden beep from within Dane's mind caused him to straighten. "Sir, it seems they have found us and are initiating countermeasures."

He grimaced. "Damn."

He stepped forward, folded his arms, leaned back, then slowly slipped his hands into the armholes of the suit, all the way to the end, where he took hold of the grasping mechanism with his hand. With the suit still open, Dane reached up and slowly lowered the helmet over his head. At first, the inside was dark, and he could not see anything beyond, except for a subtle blue tint of the room, but then the lights of the suit came alive and it closed in on him completely.

A polite feminine voice spoke from within the suit. "Welcome to the MKII Shadow stealth reentry system. The room will depressurize briefly and then you will be free to enter space.

From the door, Dane heard the slamming echo of a guard trying to break it down. But the room had already fully depressurized itself, and when the guard realized that, the banging stopped.

The polite feminine voice chirped. "Thank you for using the Shadow stealth reentry system. Goodbye."

And with that, a dual set of bay doors on the other side opened, and he was sucked out violently.

"Damn!" he yelled at the top of his lungs as he hurtled into the black of space.

Dane found himself staring at the massive visage of the planet earth before him. It was grand, beautiful, white and elegant, with clouds that graced the sky and the seas underneath. For a mere moment, he forgot where he was and what he was doing. The sight before him was magnificent.

D.N.I.I.S. snapped Dane from his reverie. "Incoming MKII shadows behind you. They are the countermeasures I was telling you about."

Almost immediately, as if to reinforce that point, the helmet began to beep, displaying green dots to alert that there were “Friendlies” behind him. “Not so friendly,” he grumbled.

He looked back and saw five MKIIs flying out from all edges of the massive space station.

Orbital outlook 6 was quite large. It took up the majority of Dane's immediate field of vision. It was circular and had a revolving wheel on the outside, followed by multiple smaller revolving wheels that were connected at hardpoints throughout.

Long streaks of blue fire blasted out from the space station, quickly alerting Dane to where his pursuers were. Funny how those sapphire eyes and the black armored carapaces looked that much more menacing now.

He turned about with surprising agility in the bulky suit he was wearing and dashed toward the planet. Flaps opened at the base of the feet to expose small rockets, which shot bursts of a quick burst of blue to propel him forward.

The chase was a hectic dash, made all the more ominous by the utter silence of space. There was no roar of the engines, no rattling of cages, just an empty feeling of movement, which was only made real in Dane's mind by the quickly-approaching planet.

The feminine voice chirped in his helmet. "Please get behind TPS shield now."

He quickly brought the shield up in front of his body and curled himself behind it.

The fires of reentry suddenly flared up around the shield and rocketed toward Earth.

The other troopers followed suit, not far behind. Like six black meteors they plummeted well past terminal velocity, protected only by the shield and the MKII Shadow suits they wore.

Despite the protection, He could still feel the temperature in the suit rising considerably. "Safe temperatures nearing the breaking point. Current reentry temperature at 1600... 1614... 1635... 1650... cap reached."

Then they were through. The feeling of gravity hitting his body was like a sudden jolt that sent Dane into an uncontrollable spin.

The MKIIs behind him did likewise, but they quickly righted themselves and threw their hands to their sides to make themselves more aerodynamic. They were obviously more experienced at this.

The troopers slowly angled out and slowly brought their shields under their legs, then clamped them down to the feet like sleds. Each trooper angled in and tucked in close to their newly-appropriated shield, riding it like a surfboard toward him, who had yet to get his shield under his legs.

Dane struggled about and finally managed to get his sled under him while using the flaps on the armored suit to right himself through their automatic systems.

The temperature in the suit slowly dissipated.

The MKIIs behind him tapped buttons on their backs and a small projectile system looped up over each of their shoulders.

Suddenly, Dane was pelted repeatedly by their guns.

He felt the impacts quite acutely and the lights inside the suit's helmet reacted immediately to the damage. "Damn it, Dennis! 100% tested my ass! This thing is going to fry!"

"Sir, I did not take into account any pursuers using projectile weapons on us."

He felt one of the projectiles hit the sled. The impact caused it to rock violently as they descended.

Another suit angled closer and aimed one of his fists at Dane. The fist opened at the wrist, and a small weapons tube revealed itself. It began firing armor-piercing rounds at him.

Dane tried to fumble with the suit to do the same but quickly found out that he had no idea how to activate any of the weapons systems. "Dennis! I need something, anything!"

Dennis was quiet for a moment. Meanwhile, Dane could still feel his suit getting pelted with multiple fragments. A light in the HUD of the helmet lit up. "Critical damage detected. Unable to initiate orbital drop mechanics."

"Goddamn it!"

"Sir, I have found access to the weapons systems. They are ready for use."

"Too late Dennis... Wait! Are there any grenades?"

"Yes sir, but I do not know how you would need any grenades in a situation like this."

"Just do it!"

"Releasing dual hip hatches to allow for grenade access."

Flaps on the suit's outer shell near Dane's hips opened to reveal a small feeding system for grenades.

He searched through the critical system failures and found that the only current working system still active were the thrusters on the feet that had been protected by the sled. "System, eject sled! Initiate rocket propulsion system and initiate slow down!"

The boots let go of the sled and a blue light lit up the area around Dane's feet. He felt his momentum slow considerably over a course of two seconds. Then he saw the lights start to flash again. ROCKET PROPULSION SYSTEM FAILING was displayed in bright red letters.

Dane began to struggle from within the confines of the suit. "System, eject user!"

The suit opened, and he was thrown into the air. Bullets immediately impacted against parts of the black LNE suit.

Dane grabbed hold of the MKII Shadow suit and put it between himself and the encroaching gunfire.

Incoming bullets shredded the LNE suit behind him.

He redirected his attention back at the ground, angled himself so that he could grab hold of the suit as he was falling, and reached for the suit's hips. He gripped a grenade in each hand and then rebounded off of the suit, angling himself back toward the fast-approaching ground.

He breathed in deep.

It was at that moment that he felt the air around him grow still, and he had his moment of revelation. Time seemed to cease for him as he thought about what had happened in his past and what was about to happen in the future. He resolved himself to the situation, even allowing a small inkling of grief to enter his mind, which was then quickly stuffed away for later.

D.N.I.I.S. snapped He from his thoughts. "Sir, the ground is fast approaching. The suit does not have enough energy to shorten or stop the fall. Do something or the fall will be fatal."

- End of Episode 3 -

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