Author's Note: Oh crap, I'm sorry guys, did I say the exam was two months away in the last chapter? That's not right, I'll change that at some point in cause the actual exam is at the end of February. On a side note, remember that I changed a couple things around the events of Sam's death, mainly the loadouts they had so that way Sam has more to play with.
Disclaimer: I don't own Halo or MHA.
City Streets
1122 Hours, 12 February 2225 (US Military Calendar),
Downtown Mustafu, Japan,
2.5 months since initial incident,
14 days until UA Entrance Exam,
…[]
So there Sam was, walking along the sidewalk in downtown Mustafu without really any sense of direction. Now normally, Sam wouldn't have left his apartment unless he had something he needed or wanted to get done, things are just easier that way. The circumstances that had him more or less kicked out of his apartment were…odd to say the least, and now he was well out of his comfort zone.
Three hours earlier…
The morning sure enough, hard started out normally. Sam was up by 0430, made his bed, did his early morning hygiene, and got dressed for his morning PT and was out the door by 0500. His morning PT generally ran roughly an hour on average when including traveling down to the beach, and the preparatory and cool down drills on top of his PT which generally ran at thirty minutes. When he got back to his apartment, he would conduct personal hygiene again, prepare and eat breakfast, then proceed with the rest of the day.
Instead, right around when he was doing some basic house chores, he gets a knock at his door. He approaches the food cautiously, just because he's currently living the civilian life, it doesn't mean he should be any less alert. He peaks through the peephole and his eyebrow quirks upward at who he saw. He opens the door and-
"Hi Catherine!" came the bombastic voice of one Rumi Usagiyama, aka: The Rabbit Hero: Miruko.
There was also one other thing, when they were making up his fake life, they had asked him what he wanted his name to be. Turns out having numbers as your surname isn't exactly normal. He thought about having it hyphenated and would be read as Halsey-Mendez, that way he could honor both the project lead Dr. Halsey and their senior instructor CPO Mendez; their surrogate mother and father respectively. That idea was ditched as it was decided that having such a long last name was unnecessary, so Sam had Dr. Halsey's first name as his middle name instead. He was satisfied for the most part, but it also meant that Miss Usagiyama insisted on addressing him by his middle name whenever they saw one another.
She wasn't alone either. He was also greeted by Hawks, or…well, he didn't actually know his name. The winged hero had kept that rather close to his chest despite the several times he has met with Sam out of uniform. It didn't exactly bother him though, all the Spartans' identities were classified to the point they pretty much didn't exist. It was mentioned that Hawks' also had a legal obligation to keep his personal information hidden from the public, something Sam also understood very well.
The hero waves at him and with a warm and friendly smile, he cheerfully greets "Hello, Mendez-san."
This is an odd visit indeed. In the short time he's been in Japan, he has met with the two heroes on several occasions, but very rarely did they ever personally come visit him whether it be his apartment or one of his few hangouts. This was the first time he saw the two of them together out of uniform, Sam was suspicious right from the get go.
"Good morning," Sam curtly replied.
Quickly sensing the silent question that Sam's eyes had been asking, Usagiyama quickly explains "We both had a day off and decided to see what you've been up to."
Hawk's cuts in and adds "Well I am here to check up on you. She…" he jerks his thumb over to Usagiyama, "Tagged along because she felt like it and also because she's never seen your place before."
'Um, alright?' he thought.
He promptly asks "Would you like-?"
His immediate response was an enthusiastic nod and a cheeky grin from Usagiyama, she strolls past him and into the apartment.
"Don't mind if I do?" she lightly teases as she passes him.
While the Rabbit Heroine waltzes in, Hawks stayed behind with Sam. When Sam looks back to Hawks, he sees that his smile has faded slightly. It was clear they weren't just there for a friendly visit and checkup.
"Why are you really here sir?" he knowingly asks.
Knowing Sam hated people who beat around the bush, Hawks cut right to the chase.
"You've got exactly two weeks until the UA entrance exam."
"I'm already tracking, sir."
Hawks lets off a soft chuckle, the young teen was always on top of things, it seemed as if he could never catch him off guard.
"You don't have to limit your choices to one particular school if you don't want to, you know?"
There was a slight head tilt as Sam gave the question some thought, he wasn't aware that he had a choice in what hero school he was going to go to. It was to his understanding that UA was always intended to be his intended campus.
To him, it really didn't matter too much where he went in the end. All the school really needed were the necessary facilities, funding, resources, and connections in order to fulfill his mission requirements. He did take note that the majority of the heroes who were aware of Sam's origins and nature were employed at UA. Though he could argue that other schools such as Shiketsu would also have the ability to fulfill his requirements. Also for the most part, only the school's principal, senior medical examiner, and a select few others would actually have to fill in the relevant classified information.
Then his thoughts shifted to one Mirio Togata. He was quite literally his first genuine friend that he had made since his arrival in this dimension. Over the month and a half that Sam spent in Japan, he had found that he actually had grown to enjoy the goofy and incredibly enthusiastic blonde's company. Knowing him, it was an absolute guarantee that Togata would be applying at UA.
He politely smiles and answers "UA."
The Number 3 Hero comments in an unsurprised but humorous tone. "Of course."
With a shrug and a challenging smile, Sam confidently replies "Only the best."
"Oh, you'll fit right in," Hawks chuckles.
Suddenly, Usagiyama's gruff voice cries out. "What the hell?!"
As the other two continued chatting by the door, Usagiyama walked in and it was as if she owned the place. She immediately went to the kitchen and opened up the refrigerator. As her eyes scanned the shelves, she quickly took note of how well stocked and varied Sam's diet seemed to be, though she could clearly see he had a preference for protein. Her eyes lit up as something catches her eye, she reaches in and pulls out an unopened bag of baby carrots. With a triumphant smile, she opens the bag and pops a single carrot into her mouth. Her smile immediately flips upside down as she takes in the room around her.
"What the hell!" she cries out in disbelief. "Guys get in here!"
There was no way what she was seeing was real.
"What's up?" asks Hawks as he walks up with Sam in tow.
All Usagiyama did was point around at the living room, the very barren and empty living room. Literally all that was there was a single 65in, curved screen TV, a couple of light blue colored leather couches, and a plain birch colored coffee table. Hawks was quick to join her, he grimaces and they both turn back to Sam.
Confused at why the two off-duty heroes' deadpanned looks, he innocently asks "What?"
"You live like this?" Usagiyama asks in disbelief.
He blinked owlishly and commented "I don't follow."
Usagiyama frustratingly cries "Kathrine, this place looks like a prison!" She points back at the room and lightly scolds "What are you going to do if you have guests over?"
Her question was only met with confusion.
When the silence stretched on for longer, Hawks quickly reminded him "Remember I told you that you can speak frankly to us."
Confused, he asks "Why would I bring them over to my place?"
In his mind, he was going over all the many reasons why he didn't want to have guests over. At the end of the day though, he didn't see the need to decorate as this apartment suited his needs just fine as it was. The two then remembered that Sam was expected to be socially inept given that he was involuntarily inducted into his super soldier program since childhood. On paper, the training sans the surgeries mirrored the intensity of the indoctrination and spec ops training for Tier 1 operatives.
The US Army Special Forces for example, requires a minimum age of 20 in order to be eligible for recruitment, and must complete a course lasting 63 weeks of training. The Spartan IIs on the other hand, started at the age of six and had their training and indoctrination spread out across 8 years. They were also being taught advanced college level courses on the daily on top of that. Sam, while still able to socialize someone decently if not a bit isolated and distant, he still had military dialect embedded throughout his speech, even when speaking Japanese.
"Mendez-san," Hawks lightly scolds. "If you're going to try and pass off as a normal teen, you have to at least look like it." He points at the vacant room and adds "That also includes living like one."
"Potential security risks and invasion of privacy aside," he shifts awkwardly under their gaze and continues, "Aren't better places that can be spent for social gatherings rather than here…literally almost anywhere?"
Hawks shares a frustrated glance with Usagiyama, shakes his head and lets out a sigh.
Usagiyama then steps in and bluntly states "Look, if you're gonna try and blend in with other teens, you're gonna want to at least try to familiarize yourself with some of the social norms. You know, so you don't stand out so badly? Cause right now you sound and act like a vet in his mid twenties who's been in for eight years and just now decided to get out."
There was a brief moment as he considered their words, Sam definitely would've preferred to keep to himself and remain more reserved. It then dawned on him that he would ultimately be forced into contact with other people his age whether he liked it or not.
With a warm and comforting voice, Hawks says to him "Don't worry, it is our job to help you adjust." He takes one last look at the apartment and then faces Sam with an affirming smile, "Luckily there's an easy fix for this."
1230 Hours, 12 February 2225 (US Military Calendar),
Downtown Mustafu, Japan,
…[]
That was how Sam ended up on the streets of downtown Mustafu. They actually tell him when they'd be done, they simply promised to message him when they've finished making his apartment look respectable. They also knew that the only other place Sam tended to frequent around this time was his usual gym, so that was closed to him as well. It didn't help that Mirio was busy as well that day and wasn't able to hang out with him. He was officially on his own for the next several hours.
While walking down the street, Sam became keenly aware that there was quite a bit of attention being drawn towards him. Now, Sam has quite the imposing figure, so he's used to getting stares, heck both him and Mirio would both get them as they came back from their workouts together. He swore he wasn't wearing anything too conspicuous, it was simply a pair of blue jeans, a form fitting burgundy colored polo shirt, and a pair of gray Nikes. He even took the extra effort of growing out his hair to try and fit in with civilian life more. Nothing too major, after all military regulations are there for a reason and if he grew his hair out too long it would start to interfere with how well his helmet fit. His sides were kept at a solid medium fade, and he let the top grow out to an extent but kept just long enough for a simple, smooth comb over.
Over his stay, he's grown a little more comfortable in his casual civilian wear. He was definitely unnerved by all their stares, what he didn't know was that they all saw what could easily be described as a peak male figure. The form fitting clothing did nothing to hide Sam's tall and lean musculature which drew attention from both female and male observers, several of whom wore this strange hungry look. Unlike many others at his gym, Sam wasn't swol or cut, heck he wasn't even ripped if going by the proper definition. This was something he has gotten into an in depth discussion on with both Mirio and Miss Usagiyama. Due to his enhanced metabolism, his body fat percentage sat stably at 15% and he saw no reason to go any lower. There was absolutely no benefit for him in combat to have it any lower or to have his muscles unnecessarily larger. This was especially true when considering that it was going to be hidden under his armor which he had to still fit in anyway.
As it was approaching noon, Sam knew he would have to decide on what to do for lunch. He came to a stop at a ramen shop and curiously gazed at the entrance. With one last cautious glance up and down the street, he took a deep breath and then walked through the automatic double doors. Upon entering the shop, he was immediately greeted by a warm aura that seemed to permeate the entire building. It felt…nice.
He walked up to the ticket machine and ordering station and was once again stopped dead. He stood there absolutely bewildered by the many options of food he had never heard of before. The pictures did not help whatsoever. Turns out, it had just occurred to Sam that he hadn't taken the time yet to explore the food culture of the country he was currently residing in despite living there for two and a half months. He apologetically glances over at the server who just returns to him a patient and understanding smile.
"Excuse me," a voice calls out from behind him.
Sam turns around and immediately spots a tuft of periwinkle hair just out of his field of vision. He looks down further and lands on a set of big, curious, cerulean eyes. It was a girl around his age, and approximately two and a half feet shorter. Her hair extended all the way down to her knees and twisted around the back of her waist. She was wearing a scarf, a blue hoodie, a pair of tan jeans, and a pair of black joggers.
"Oh, I'm sorry," he quickly apologizes while taking a step back, "You go ahead I'm…" he looks back at the menu, frowns, and mutters "Still deciding."
"Thank you," she smiles as she steps up to his side and looks at the menu. Glancing over at the still confused spartan, she asks "You good?"
Sam was snapped out of his thoughts and he turns and asks "I'm sorry?"
"I mean, I like reading the menu too but you just looked so lost right there," she giggles. Her eyes suddenly widen as she gasps and shockingly cries out "Wait, have you never had ramen before?!"
Sam slowly shook his head no. The girl was completely flabbergasted, but instantly grew excited and she giddily ran up to the machine and ordered two tickets.
"This is definitely a special occasion," she excitedly chattered to herself. She turns to him and quickly adds "It's on me!"
She then takes off for the counter and pays for both tickets.
"Wait, miss!" Sam protests, "That's not necessary."
"Too late, already paid for it," she giggles as she walks back and hands him his ticket, "Come on, I insist."
She then starts off for the seating area and she makes it about ten feet before looking back expectantly at the baffled Spartan who just stood there like a deer in the headlights.
"You coming?" she asks with a very enthusiastic smile.
There were a few more seconds of just staring where she held that smile while Sam stared blankly back. Not wanting to be rude, he then quickly shuffles up to her side, strange or not, she did pay for his food. That and he ultimately found her bubbly and friendly attitude rather infectious. The two would sit down by a table near the serving window as they waited for their food.
"So…" the blunnett drawls out, she points at him and asks "You know, you really familiar, do I know you?"
He shook his head, Sam didn't know many people his age, or many people in general for that matter.
"No, I don't thi-"
Sam could practically see the lightbulb go off over her head.
"Oh I know!" she excitedly exclaims with her eyes wide in realization. "You're that guy who sprints like 24 kilometers every other morning up and day down at Takoba Beach!"
"Wait," his head was tilted slightly as he processed what was just revealed to him, "You've been watching me on my morning jogs?"
"Woah, those were just jogs to you?" she gasps as her eyes lit up with curiosity, "You weren't even winded, do you have a speed quirk no…." Somehow, she managed to get even more excited as she chatted away, "You were throwing around those refrigerators like nothing! It's gotta be a strength quirk, right?"
Sam was starting to see a pattern in the company he tended to glide to. Now, she wasn't quite like Mirio, but she definitely gave off the same positive attitude.
"Something like that," he cryptically replies.
"Ooh, mystery…that's neat," she whistles.
It was clear that the boy wasn't going to tell her anymore right now, so the girl made plans to get him to open up in the future. The lady at the counter calls over to them and presents two steaming bowls before them which the two picked up and brought back to their table.
With a satisfied and victorious grin, she practically announces to her new acquaintance, "There, and now everything is okay because now we have bowls of noodles….ramen!" As she sat back down, she quickly asked "You know how to use chopsticks right?"
He gives a curt nod and a reserved smile as he grabs a pair of chopsticks and begins to dig in. He could practically see the anticipation drip off of the girl as she watched him. As he takes his first bite, his eyes widen slightly and he lets out a soft, satisfactory hum. The broth was salty and had a light flavor to it while the noodles were thin, curly, and soft to bite. The girl gives a knowing smile before she begins to eat herself. The girl then suddenly frowns and smacks her forehead.
"Oh wait, I completely forgot," she moans. With a small innocent laugh, she says "I'm sorry, I haven't even introduced myself yet…." The girl extends her hand. "Hi, I'm Hado Nejire."
He accepted her gesture and replied "Mendez Samuel."
"It's a pleasure to meet you," she cheerfully beams. "Hey, can I ask about your quirk?" He eyes her suspiciously to which she bashfully giggles "Sorry, quirks really interest me. So can I?"
She didn't seem like a spy at the moment, but that ultimately would depend on the questions. He hoped she would accept his more vague responses, but his gut is telling him otherwise. Even if she didn't have any malicious intent, she could easily still be potential competition when he attends UA. He eventually gives her a nod to go ahead.
"You do have some kind of strength quirk right? No wait, maybe it's some kind of telekinesis quirk! Oh maybe it's both!"
The girl slowly grew in volume as she speculated out loud. Sam was impressed, he had finally met someone who may be able to rival Midoryia's energy. He even recalled having this almost exact conversation when he first met Midoriya.
"It's called Augment, it's just a simple passive mutation quirk that can augment my overall physical abilities a little," he explained offhandedly.
"A little?" she skeptically huffs.
His attempt at downplaying his abilities failed. It didn't help that she had seen him conducting his morning PT down at the beach. This would make lying almost impossible since she has also shown to be a rather observant one and would probably pick up on it. Conclusion is that the best course of action would be just telling the truth, but just not all of it in great detail.
He shrugs and quickly adds "Relative to the quirks of other people."
"So you're strong, but just not as strong as All Might?" she asks.
Sam smiles and taps his nose.
"Psshhh, so what if there are guys who are faster or stronger than you," she waves off dismissively, "Your quirk is still cool! You sound just like America's first superhero…" She suddenly frowns and gives him a suspicious look. "You're not related to him are you?"
Sam shook his head, he held back a bemused look at her sudden change in tone. Now it was his turn to ask her.
"What's your quirk, Hado-san?"
"Oh, it's called Wave Motion!" she instantly perked back up and showed an equal amount of positive energy for her quirk that she had for him. She excitedly explains to him "I can generate these really powerful shockwaves!"
She snaps her fingers and a small and faint spiral of yellow energy sparks from her fingers.
"I can also use the energy to fly!"
"Impressive," Sam murmurs.
Being able to generate sustained flight with her powers hinted at how much control she may have over her quirk. It could also give an idea of how powerful she might be….further data is going to be required before an official assessment can be made.
"What else can you do?" he curiously inquires, there's no harm trying the direct approach.
"Uh, uh, uh," she warns while playfully waving her finger at him, "If you get to be vague with your quirk, so do I."
Sam snorts and replies "Touché."
She got him there.
"Uh huh…hmm, oh look," Hado comments. "I think lunch is over."
She points at the two empty bowls.
He bows his head and politely says "Thank you for the meal."
"It's nothing," she shrugs.
As the pair made their way outside, Sam received a text message telling him that his apartment renovation was complete. He checks the time and takes note that the two of them had spent almost an hour and a half in the shop. Funny, he didn't even notice how quickly the time passed, that was a failure on his part in time management.
"Oh hey, gimme your phone," she basically demanded and she even held out her hand. Her eyes briefly glanced down at her hand then back at him before tacking on at the end "So I can text you."
Sam reluctantly handed it to her and she began adding her to his contacts.
"Are you applying to UA by any chance?" he asks.
She nods fervently and replies "Yep. That's also why I was down by the beach. You see, naturally my quirk drains my stamina, so I've been doing 10k runs in the morning to train for UA. You're going too aren't you?"
"That's right, same reason why I was down by the beach."
"There," she said, she held up her phone which had a text message sent by him. "Hey Mendez-kun, you're a super cool friend and I wanna hang out some more."
Wait, Sam blinks in confusion, just like that?
"Friends?"
"Yeah, who wouldn't want to go into a brand new school without any friends? Anyway, I gotta go, bye, talk to you soon!" she shouts while waving back and jogging away.
While Sam did declare earlier that Hado didn't seem like a threat to him, he was surprised by how open she was. She may not be a threat, but he'll still have to exercise caution for the time being. Little did he know, the girl would end up slipping her way into his life the same way Mirio and Mydoria had before. She's also right about having already existing friends going into UA. Still, he's a foreigner in a strange land, and it would be rather comforting to know that he wouldn't have to move through this world without anyone to turn to.
1345 Hours, 12 February 2225 (US Military Calendar),
UA, Mustafu, Japan,
…[]
Power Loader was making his way through the halls of UA towards Dr. Nezu's office. When he entered, he could see that Col. Misriah and Dr. Shields were present via video call as well. The quartet exchanged brief courtesies and quickly proceeded with their meeting.
Misriah was the first to go, the briefing about the UNSC weapons had already been covered before and didn't need further detail, so those were ultimately glossed over. The main purpose of his report was that the Army Core of Engineers would be able to reproduce replacement parts, ammunition, and explosives for him. They had certainly gone over more ammunition types which included certain specialty cartridges such as the HEAPs (High Explosive Armor Piercing) and HVAPs (High Velocity Armor Piercing) for his anti-material rifle.
More importantly, from his codex, they were able to recreate a handful of different less-than-lethal munitions. Stun rounds would make up the bulk, but would also include rubber bullets. They were successful as well in producing specialized cartridges such as TTRs (Tactical Training Rounds) which use a cocktail of anesthetics to numb and knock out the target. For his explosives, they had started production for certain specialty grenades such as flashbangs, tear gas, and concussion grenades for both his thrown grenades and 40mm rounds for his launcher.
Next to go was Dr. Shields and his research into the Covenant technology was also showing promise. The weapons themselves were easier to understand thanks to the technical manuals that Bobs a Little willingly provided. The plasma weaponry was the one of the main things that properly stumped them. Specifically, it was how the weapon was able to function as it does without any instrumentality. That meant that weapons had zero surface controls or triggers in a way the I-island scientists were able to understand without Bobs' help. They were truly alien in every sense of the word.
The biggest breakthrough they had was being able to understand how Covenant shield technology worked. It's important to note that they are still leagues away from even being able to recreate it anywhere more than just on a small scale with their own technology, but they should at least get them working again.
"From what we've seen, the armor has these emitters located in key areas of the harness…" he lectures while everyone looks over the PowerPoint slide.
The emitters in the photo were marked by a red circle drawn over them.
"They create an electromagnetic field of oscillating polarity in a complex pattern, it's actually amazing how precise the field density has to be in order to avoid collapse but yet not too close or else it would cause a short circuit."
The next slide showed the shields while being impacted by a projectile.
"The shield itself consists of highly charged plasma particles that have been injected in between the magnetic fields and otherwise remain invisible unless damage is taken causing them to flare. The color of the shield shows the level of energy remaining with blue at its peak and red at its lowest."
Power Loader comments to Nezu "It's actually similar to how a plasma torch creates a square barrier of plasma from one electromagnetically polarized side to the other. Compressed air is then pumped through the carrier to create a plasma cutting arc. It's the same basic principle, the only difference is that their shields use the magnetic fields to deflect and absorb enemy fire."
"Is that all?"
Shields nods and continues "As you've seen from the footage, they're capable of taking some serious punishment but are noticeably less efficient in comparison to the shield gauntlet that the Jackal's use."
"What do you mean?" asks Nezu, his face remaining expressionless the entire time.
"We noticed that the frequency of the magnetic fields are much higher than that of the energy gauntlet. Upon further evaluation we found out that the shields on the Elite combat harness actually consume significantly much more power than the gauntlet for the same relative strength per-square centimeter."
"This is actually something that is not limited to just their armor," comments Misriah, "We ran some tests on them and found that they radiate a serious amount when active."
The next photo was taken of the cloaked armor with an IR camera.
"We were able to spot them with NODs (Night Observation Devices). We're currently gathering more data on that as we speak and will report our findings in a future time."
Dr. Shields agreed with the Army colonel and concluded his part of the report. All that was left was Power Loader's report.
Nezu looks over to the Evacuation Hero and asks "And you Maijima? What has your team found?"
His voice held a wondrous tone as he replied "It's amazing."
He then places his slides onto the screen.
"Let's start with the armor," he turns the slide to a closer photo of the emerald green plates, "I'll bypass the scientific details, but just know that the titanium alloy is in a condition of what we call a single crystal super alloy. This means that there are no grain boundaries and no weakness to exploit, and the plates are then sandwiched together under multiple layers. The armor is completely immune to small arms fire, I've even seen them deflect multiple glancing blows from armor piercing .50 cal rounds."
The next slide was a photo of the black under armor behind and around the plates.
"The black parts of the suit consist of this nano-titanium composite material that is highly flexible and incredibly strong. It's pretty resilient to small arms fire in its own right, I would rate it at at least level IV body armor. The simulations showed that the under armor can actually stop a few AP 7.62mm rounds before the suit's vacuum seal is compromised, and a bit more after that to actually penetrate the armor. The plates and suit have been both specially treated and were designed to absorb and disperse the heat from Covenant plasma weapons. Definitely paints quite a picture on how powerful the Covenant's weaponry was in order to cause the injuries he had."
"Impressive," Nezu murmurs to himself.
"That's not all, under the armor is this reactive metal liquid crystal layer, which doubles his unarmored strength and multiplies his reaction time by a factor of five. Then there's this hydrostatic gel which would completely encompass the body and help cushion the wearer from impact damage such as falling from a high altitude. The crystal layer also regulates the body temperature and can absorb an astonishing amount of kinetic energy. Given how the armored plates are also ablative by nature, and that the armor's seals are rated for up to 12,000 psi…"
He takes a moment to take a breath as he barely even believed what he was about to suggest.
"...this leads me to believe that the suit, with the right equipment, may be rated to be dropped from orbit with minimal damage. He would probably be required to fight a battle after landing as well."
The room went quiet as they stared wide eyed at him.
Shields snorts incredulously comments "I don't think we're going to be testing that anytime soon."
"Would be one hell of a show though," Misriah reasoned, which was an idea no one could disagree with.
"Then there's the armor's crown jewel. Completely wrapped in a hardened case on the wearer's back, completely electro magnetically shielded, radiation proof, and incredibly resistant to shock…"
A rectangular object roughly two inches by twelve was shown on the next slide.
"That's a micro-fusion cell, and that alone is at least a century ahead of anything we got!" he excitedly exclaims.
Dr. Shields curiously asks "What does it generate?"
"3.4 gigajoules per second (GJ/ps)."
That absolutely floored the three other occupants in the room.
"Wait a second," breathes Misriah, whose eyes were wide upon hearing the number, "The energy industry has only recently made nuclear fusion profitable enough for power production…and you're telling us that this reactor can produce three times the energy output of an industry standard reactor in a package barely bigger than a TV remote?!"
"And it also can run for fifteen years with minimal maintenance before needing a refuel," Power Loader blankly adds.
"We got the same readings when we examined the Elite's power units as well," Shield's reported. "Though, they're in a z-pinch configuration rather than the stellarator used in Mendez-san's armor. It is similar in power levels, but as we've seen, the Mjolnir armor is much more efficient at distributing the power from the reactor."
"Is that everything?" asks Nezu, who was back in deep thought.
"It is for now," he then groans and gripes "Considering how our resident alien has the tendency to upgrade everything he touches. Hell, chances are he'll even start upgrading and combining the armor with Covenant tech. I can imagine our data looking quite a bit different by the time the school year rolls around."
"Col. Misriah," the headmaster sternly turns to the army officer, "What information do you have on attempts from foreign powers to replicate the armor and the alien technology?"
He pulls out a group of satellite photos and projects them onto the screen.
"As shown here, there are foreign militaries who are definitely attempting to create some sort of powered exoskeleton, though not necessarily ones like Petty Officer Mendez's armor." The photos are then isolated and then labeled under their respective country of origin. "Russia, China, Iran, North Korea…" he lists off, "Even our allies are trying…" and he pulls out shared photos from South Korea, United Kingdom, France, and Germany.
Dr. Shields comfortingly assured "If it's any consolation, even if they could replicate the armor, no one would be able to wear it. The power amplification from the liquid crystal layer is impossible to scale back or to limit in any way. If they are able to copy it, then they will have to figure out how to recreate Sam's very specific augmentations which the technology for either flat out doesn't exist or the technology is only in its infancy."
"You don't want to know what happens when someone unaugmented tries to use the armor," Power Loader cryptically warns. "We found a recording of a field tester in the codex and all I'm going to say is that he died…horribly, enough so that it scared off both the JSDF and the US Army…for now anyway."
"I wish other countries shared your sentiments," Nezu spoke frankly.
"Hmm," Misriah's eyes narrow a s he examined one of the reports and pessimistically says "It's only because we gave my superiors a detailed report on Petty Officer Mendez's physiology. My political leaders aren't exactly the brightest, but they know enough to understand that Sam's augmentations just aren't possible at the moment. That being said, you're still going to have corporations trying to lobby you to turn over all of Sam's equipment and all of the recovered Covenant weapons and tech."
"We'll prepare for that as those issues come up. Anyway, that concludes this meeting gentleman, thank you for coming," Nezu announces to the room. "I'll forward you all the reports that will be gathered from the entrance exam in two weeks and we shall convene again in two months' time."
The four people in the room all said their goodbyes and one by one, they signed off. After Power Loader left, Nezu was now alone and was already conceiving a plan for the coming school year.
1652 Hours, 12 February 2225 (US Military Calendar),
Chrysanthemum Apartment Complex, 4rth Floor, Mustafu, Japan,
…[]
The fateful meeting with a certain bluenet was still fresh on Sam's mind as he made his way towards his apartment. The rest of his afternoon was spent buying groceries, supplies, and replacing anything he was running low on. Normally he would have thought it was just a simple one off encounter, but like with Mirio, he has been wrong before.
As he places the key into the door, he pauses and braces himself for what lay beyond the entrance to his home. Sam practically ran over when Usagiyama and Hawks had announced that his apartment was finished. He really didn't care what they did, he just hopes it wasn't anything too flashy, he just wanted his apartment back. With an exasperated sigh and a deadpan look, he slowly opens the door to his home.
He turns on the light and is immediately met with quite a bit more furniture than when he had left that morning. While the walls were still lavender like he'd left them, everything else was different. There were all these things like random paintings on the walls, shelves filled with his stuff, potted plants, and rugs and curtains that helped compliment the new look. They kept the new design to a more conservative degree, with an impressed hum, he sits down comfortably on his new couch. He spots a note on his brand new coffee table and sees that it is addressed to him.
"There you go kid, now your apartment looks homely enough to have people over. Hopefully now you'll have an excuse to actually go out and meet people now. That way you don't have to be a giant dork all the time. Also, some of your stuff came for you while you were away, we piled it all in the living room. We'll be in touch.
P.S.
We got dinner you, it's in the fridge. Slay bodies Starship Trooper."
At the bottom of the note were two little drawings, one of a pair of wings and the other a pair of bunny ears. He places the note down and proceeds further into his apartment, quickly spotting a pile of matte green pelican cases stacked neatly into a pile with the larger and heavier ones on bottom and the lighter ones on top. Placed on top of all of that, sat a binder that was completely full of paperwork. With a lick of his right thumb and index finger, he proceeds to briefly flip through it and it confirmed his suspicions. The binder held a collection of manifests, already filled out tax documents, licenses and agreements, a summary of terms and conditions, and a laundry list of legal reminders for the items in the boxes, all of which awaited his signature.
Without second thought, he places the binder down and picks up one of the smaller cases and opens the locks. The lid slowly opens and light pours in revealing the contents. A small smile crosses his face as he pulls out an unmodified, matte black Misriah Armory's M6C/SOCOM. The box also contained a pair of eight round magazines, but that wasn't what Sam was looking for. He glances around the pile and spots three cardboard boxes that had serial numbers two the case the magnum came from. The largest of the boxes came with eight twelve round extended magazines, the second held a suppressor, and the last box had a smart-linked range finder and IR laser.
Funny story here is that each individual attachment on a weapon, actually equipment in general, each comes with their own serial numbers when they are issued out to each service member. Thus, they were extra pieces of equipment that UNSC service members would have to sign for and be legally and contractually accountable for if anything ever happened to them. If one thought this was incredibly tedious and pointless…they're right and they aren't faulted for thinking that way.
Here's the thing, no matter how hard someone works to make something idiot proof, the universe will always invent a better idiot. The reality is they have one too many lower enlisted service members failing to take accountability for their own equipment, in other words they either lost them or out right broke them. The signatures are there so that if anything happens, the service member would be held financially liable for the damages.
With no time wasted, Sam attaches the suppressor and IR laser onto the end of his magnum. He runs a basic functions check on the weapon, pulls back and locks the slide, before finally peering into the empty chamber. When satisfied, he thumbs the slide release and the bolt racks forward, directly into the battery. He aims the empty weapon at a wall, releases the safety switch, pulls the trigger and the weapon lets out an echoing metallic click. With the basic functions check completed, he sets the weapon back on safe and places it back into the case.
In the future, he would have to do a more in-depth look to make sure the laser was working, and he would also have to get it properly zeroed. He takes one last look at the rest of the crates and finds himself feeling both relieved and satisfied that they kept their word and are slowly returning his things to him. There is going to be so much work for him to do, and he'll need all the help he can get.
Author's Note: We're done, and I was finally able to pull myself out and figure out how to fully write this chapter. I really hope I didn't lose some of you guys, I know my upload schedule is pretty bad. Thank you for reading, I hope you guys are finding it alright. This is my first time writing something that isn't following the source material, so I had to come up with a lot of this stuff on my own. I have a feeling that I am not very good at it, so thank you for staying if you did like it. The next chapter is going to be the exam, I don't know how long I'll make the chapter.
Here's the videos I used for my research into Halo lore:
Installation00's Most Detailed Breakdown - Sangheili Combat Harness
Installation00's Most Detailed Breakdown - MJOLNIR MARK-IV
The magnum I am using is clearly going to be the Halo 3: ODST variant, my personal favorite and what I think the Spartans would probably be carrying as well since they fall under SOCOM as well. The unmodified model is the Halo 2 magnum, it turns out it and the ODST variant are the same model. For anyone morbidly curious, Sam's physique should look like Christian Bale's from Batman Begins.
Please follow the story if you like it and want it to continue, leave a comment if you want, I appreciate it. I'll see you around.