Armour. If there`s one thing that makes an icon in war, it is armour. For some it shows rank, the power of the person wearing it. This is true of all of the old Covenants followers. For others it shows a role, the light armour of a marine displaying the raw basics of human warfare, the armour of the Orbital Drop Shock Troopers showing recklessness, focus and strength, a cut above their lightly armoured brethren. This shows the value above their simple, less trained kin. Spartan`s are the embodiment of this of course, their armour above all human counterparts. It became a symbol, one so powerful newer Spartan`s still wear outdated mark VI armour of respect.
Today is about armour. New armour. I woke from my bed and donned a robe of white and black over my bare flesh, the gold trim a display of my rank. My skin was pale, unhealthily so. I glanced at the case of skulls by my bed, stroking the front of the glass case with a half grin on my face. It took a lot of time to collect these, each a symbol of a great victory over a mighty foe. We all keep symbols. Frail Humans, noble Sangheili, cowardly Unggoy, primitive Jiralhanae and even the Flood keep rudimentary forms, integrating the icons, armours and weapons of their hosts. I paced for a moment, then take the Magnum from my bedside, holster it and attach it to my hip. I walk out of my sleeping room, down the corridor. It had been a while since I left the head of the station and visited the quarters of the rear half. The hub contains all I need, my personal armoury and command, tactical rooms and sleeping quarters for full time staff.
Then though, I travelled to the rear, each member of the mixed race staff, members of all species excluding the San'shyuum, Flood and Prometheans watching. They knew that day was a day of Armour. That day, a new form was made and would be used. I walked into the primary armoury, half way down the ship. The walls were glaring white, each weapon and item suspended in the air with a tiny gravity unit. It was a forest of weapons and armour floating at three feet high from every arsenal in this galaxy. I brushed my fingers over a plasma pistol with a slight smirk on my face, remembering the comfortable weight of this weapon with my pistol, all the marks on my tally made by this combination of plasma and lead. The floor was bare, no one daring to stand where such an event takes place. Past the forest laid the armour bay for sophisticated pieces that require skinning stands. Each one was an advanced robot monitored by an AI, designed to quickly suit up the user. And by the stand was my team of non-combat personnel.
Each one was a specialist in their field, two humans males of note in their field, 049 Abject Testament who followed us once Installation 03 was disarmed, leading to his absence when the Didact arrived each time, a Sangheili craftswomen of great skill and an Unggoy with expertise in miniaturization. Each stared at me as I walked forward, the smaller human male smiling nervously. Around us on the higher tiers, overlooking the armoury stood most of the base watching this pivotal moment in our history. Before we had taken and used other's symbols, symbols of our origins; that day was the first day we instead showed our own symbol beyond anything our old kin made. Not as species individual, but as the collective, as the Peacemakers.
The armour was stood tall, held in place by the arms of the skinning stand; the surfaces pure white, purer then snow, purer then hope and love. Inside was a visible black shell, for the suit was open with each section open on hinges to allow the suit to remain whole and still allow the user to get in and out. It wouldn`t do if the sections ever came apart.
"Avatar Sierra One Three Seven, Kilo Echo Lima Yankee, please prepare for skinning." The voice was synthesised, the station's AI personally supervising this. I stepped forward one last time, within an arm's reach of the suit. Each curve was crafted expertly, runes and marks exquisitely crafted onto every inch of the surface. The arm bears each of the locations I`ve ever fought on. I traced my finger across "The Ark", written three times in English, Sangheili and our own runic scripts. I stepped back and took off my weapon, the female taking my weapon and holding it reverently as I shrugged out of my robe and stood naked for a brief second before turning and backing into the suit, spreading my limbs into the extremes of the suit. I felt the clamps come down on my fingers, then my palms and wrists. Each second brought another part of my body into the fold, closing me off entirely to the neck before the helmet assembled. And like that, I was blinded for a full three seconds before my Heads Up Display came online, cameras on the suit switching on and feeding an image to me. Then I felt the final stage engage.
One hundred and seventeen pinpricks stabbed into my sub-dermal armour and accessed my implants and directly contacted the armour and it`s residence to my body, suddenly going from armour to skin. I felt every breeze of the artificial air from the station on my body, the sounds of the room amplified. I could hear from a hundred feet away a hushed conversation of two recruits staring at me.
`Lekgolo, I wear your skin as you wear me. The wards are drawn, the loyalties made. I am Sierra One Three Seven, Avatar of the Peacemaker cause. I would seal this pact now, with your collective blessing and name.` I thought to the suit.
`Avatar, we hear your cries and obey your order now in body as well as mind, Sido Sierra Sido fights with you.` I heard the suits reply, the colony of Lekgolo bonded to me. Months of work and development cumulated into the ultimate hybrid armour, Flood traits, Lekgolo research and collective work fused into the ultimate battle-armour, better than Mjolnir or Sangheili combat harnesses.
I come down from the stand and see myself on the screens on the walls of the upper tier, my digital eye-sight infinitely better than my birth-sight. The suit sealed was seamless, a solid whit canvas in a vaguely human shape covered in the runes and scripts I`d noticed before on the suit. It was extensive, beautiful, terrifying. I looked like a walking piece of art. My face was completely featureless, the visor hidden behind armour and set to only come up and be visible at my command or with loss of power to the cameras. The faceplate was dedicated to a single, intricate rune, our logo, the Dove wrapped around a bloody tear.
"Activating secondary features. Arm me." I ordered, my voice synthesised though the Lekgolo and broadcasted though their own speech method, vibrating the air. I was felt, not heard. The Sangheili female clipped my pistol to the magnetic holster on my side, and Abject finally moved to float a Light-Rifle onto the magnetic holster on my back and the Unggoy attached a Plasma-Pistol to my other hip. I attached the rifle to my back and raised the Plasma-Pistol to my eye level and activated my new smart scope, triggering at a thought.
`Are you tapped into my Neural-Network?` I thought.
`Of course.` I smiled at their reply. I jumped then, activating my thruster pack and gripping onto the side of the rails on the upper tier and grappled over effortlessly, the Lekgolo and suits own artificial muscles shrugging off any strain that would go onto my body in any other suit. Then I disappeared, activating the camouflage system as the lights went off in the room, the on-board dumb AI hacking into them and triggering my night vision as I sneaked silently behind my Executive Officer and placed my pistols to her neck.
"It works." I`d said as the lights came on, ushering in a new era for our kind.