Senshi Sabers

Chapter 44

"We've got a prototype? Already?" Seiya Kou blinked, the black haired man hurrying down the hall to the lab.

"Your source sent us very detailed plans," Dan Wisner noted. The lead tech was a bit miffed they had gone to an outside designer... though admittedly, no one in house had come up with such a innovative light weight battlemover.

"How soon can we go to mass production?" Seiya asked.

Dan looked nervous as he said, "Sir, we really would like to run the suits through a series of safety tests first."

Seiya gave him a LOOK. "We have a unknown but probably high chance of a huge bioboomer attack, soon," he noted.

"We'll rush things as much as we can," Dan stood up to him as he said, "but we need to be sure they don't fail in combat."

Seiya was mildly surprised the tech resisted. He nodded, "Fair enough."

The testing room was a large, open space. No obstacles and such were deployed this time, they were just testing the suit's basic mobility. The outer shell was plain, unmarked armor, probably carbon fiber based. The suit was less form fitting than the Sabers' suits, but moved gracefully.

"Go for test run plan B," Dan ordered.

The suit pilot went through a fighting routine, throwing punches and kicks. It was remarkably fluid, as if the person wasn't wearing a armored combat suit. They then went through maneuvers as if they were carrying a gun. Again, remarkably smooth.

"Well done," Dan said, "come over and say hi to the boss."

The armor, interestingly, made the pilot slightly taller than Seiya. They flipped up the armor faceplate, then smiled.

"Loni?" Seiya blinked.

"Hey," Loni smiled. She explained, "They asked for volunteers from the security teams to try the suit out."

"Ah," Seiya blink. "Is that safe.. I mean, with your wrist and all."

"This is probably better protection than our uniforms," Loni noted.

"Fair enough," Seiya agreed. "How does it feel?" he asked.

"Well, it chaffs in places that are going to be REALLY unpleasant later...," Loni winced, gesturing to her breasts and hips.

Dan muttered, "Adjust fitting. Padding?"

Loni ignored that, "OTHER than that, though, it's really impressive."

Seiya nodded thoughtfully. "How long until we're ready to deploy?" he asked them.

"Weeks," Dan said firmly, "we need to do both full pilot tests as well as stress test the suits, so pilots know what the limits are."

Seiya nodded, "Try to expedite the tests as much as you can."

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Setsuna Meiou was faintly surprised to see a familiar name in her appointments for the day. She also arrived a few minutes early...

Makoto Kino strode in, the attractive brown haired woman smiling faintly. "Thank you for making the time to see me," Makoto smiled.

"It's my pleasure," Setsuna smiled. After getting her seated and pouring them both some coffee she asked, "How can I help you? I would assume Ami..."

"It's a seperate thing," Makoto admitted.

"Hmm," Setsuna nodded encouragingly.

"Do you know about why I joined the Sabers?" Makoto asked as she drank a bit.

"You were a martial artist, someone slipped in a bioboomer as a ringer in one of your bouts," Setsuna recited calmly.

"Correct. And we never found out who it was," Makoto agreed. She continued, "I want you to take a look at it."

Setsuna raised her eyebrows slightly, "It's been over a year."

"I'm willing to pay whatever," Makoto said flatly. At Setsuna's questioning look she added softly, "The whole thing really bothers me. Someone I knew at that time... was willing to see me beaten, maybe killed."

Setsuna nodded sympatheticly. "Well, I can look into it," she finally agreed, "but I'm not promising anything."

"I appreciate it," Makoto said, leaving her a file on what they knew so far. As well as paying the retainer for the first week.

Setsuna sat down with the files as she finished her coffee. The story had mostly been hushed up... clearly the Mixed Martial Arts organization hadn't wanted the bad PR. But there was the AD Police report, as well as some media coverage.

"Makoto BEAT IT?" Setsuna blinked.

Yes, apparently a only bare handed Mokoto had beaten a hugely stronger and more resilient bioboomer. It had done her a lot of damage in return, but... it was still really impressive. Which probably explained Ami recruiting her.

"Anything I can help with?" her assistant, Kakyuu, asked.

"Hmm. Just going over the Kino case," Setsuna mused.

"I skimmed the file when I was copying it to our database," Kakyuu admitted.

"Any thoughts?" Setsuna asked, wondering if she spotted what she noticed.

"There was more than one suspect," Kakyuu observed.

Setsuna nodded, "I think that too. There were multiple parts of this operation that would requite more than one person."

"Which doesn't mean Makoto is wrong about it being a rival, but it does complicate things," Kakyuu agreed.

"There's also something about the timing that bugs me. Not certain what...," Setsuna admitted.

"We could cross reference a one month window around when the attack happened with our Infinity files," Kakyuu suggested.

"Make it two months," Setsuna decided, "there would be prep time involved too."

"Got it," Kakyuu agreed.

Setsuna picked up the phone to do some old fashioned calling around. She might get lucky and get a name from someone at the Martial Artist federation...

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Haruka's new armor was mostly orange, with red highlights. It was slightly sleeker than the other Senshi's armor, and was optimized for high speeds.

"How does it feel?" Ami asked over the radio.

"Very nice. Sleek," Haruka grinned.

They were is a deserted section of old Tokyo, that had yet to be rebuilt after the quake. There was a long, flat stretch of intact highway, perfect for their needs.

"So what's the plan?" Rei asked, her mostly red armor gleaming as she waited nearby.

Ami calmly said, "We're testing the rocket thrusters. Rei, I want you to follow Haruka at a safe distance, in case things go wrong."

"Assuming you can keep up," Haruka noted cheerfully.

"You don't understand my job here," Rei replied, "I'm here to scrape you off the pavement if you crash and burn."

"Rei!" Ami scolded.

"Ha!" Haruka chuckled. "Okay, let's do this."

"Ok, start running," Ami instructed, "then try to engage the rocket boost."

Haruka took off, the armor's power enhancements already propelling her very fast. Rei followed on her cycle, watching warily.

"How fast?" Haruka yelled.

"Nearly 75 KMH," Rei reported.

"All right, hitting the rockets..," Haruka said.

The backpack on the suit opened up, revealing the tubes containing short burn chemical rockets. At the same time fins on the arms and legs deployed, for stability and added down force to keep the suit on the road.

"Three! Two! One!"

FWOOSH! The suit shot forward, instantly racing away from the bike. Rei floored it, but could barely keep the suit in line of sight. A few moments later the rockets cut out, and the suit tumled to the ground, rolling and skidding to a stop.

"Haruka!" Rei yelled, somewhat alarmed.

"I'm fine! I'm fine!" Haruka replied, laughing. "How fast did I go?"

"Well over 150," Rei rolled up to her on the bike, "I stopped keeping track when I was trying to catch you."

"Whoo, hoo, what a rush," Haruka sighed as she got up. Her formerly pretty suit was battered as hell. The rocket pack itself was half melted, also not a good sign. "Ami, you better not add this system to the regular suits. The g-load was so bad, I think a human would get knocked out."

"All right, back to base," Ami ordered. "Back to the drawing board...," she muttered.

To be continued...