sliceitwithwind

The pair that entered were mismatched at first glance. One spartan in heavy armor and a classic example of things going right. The other was a good two feet shorter and her armor was lighter. One lighter, blue eyed, and blonde; the other darker, sloe eyed, and sable haired. They were both carrying their helmets on their hips though, and they wore the same, slightly bored look of spartans taking in details without seeming to.

The scientists weren't military, technically, so the pair didn't salute when they came to a stop at their side of the table, but they did get quick nods. "Spartans 176T and 194T reporting," the shorter one stated simply. They hadn't met with this pair of scientists directly before so they were playing it safe and simple for now.

"

"Nevada and Aya." the taller one agreed, waving towards the seats, "Yes. I am Dilan, this is Braig. We are the scientists responsible for Aya's armour. We've requested your presence here today so that we can go over the upgrades and programs and get first hand reports of what works and what doesn't."

"We have all the readings." the shorter one added, "But those are just numbers. We want to know what you use, what you don't use, what gets in the way, what needs to be tweaked."

"The heat sinks," Nevada noted, pulling a chair out for his partner. "Do not forget those."

"Yes, that was an issue." Aya nodded, setting her helmet on the table as she sat. Nevada stayed behind her, hands on the back of her chair. "Hello, sirs. We were wanting words with you." Harsh words at the time but they were calmer now!

"We took the gear on a scouting run through Nassum. Some light engagement, no direct warfare."

They didn't try to make Nevada sit. Spartans did as Spartans would do, and they weren't going to try to force them to change. That would negate the training done, after all.

"Good! Well. Bad that something went badly enough that you wanted words, but I'm glad that you are happy enough to talk to me!" Dilan said, smiling. It was a little rough at the edges; again that nerve damage, but it was genuine. "Braig, make a note about heat sinks to ensure we go over it."

Braig nodded, "I was worried about that, but your commander wanted you to try it now rather than wait another month. My apologies."

"Don't apologize," she offered a small smile in kind. "It's part of our job at the moment. We all get rushed sometimes." More than sometimes these days with the threat of war on the horizon.

"And there was a dual heat sink issue," Aya admitted with a wry grimace. "General use the heat sinks don't kick in soon enough. Active camouflage mode and the sinks work too well and don't turn off again. I almost got freeze burned." She could understand cold when invisible to avoid heat detectors, but there were limits.

"Also the jamming field prototype interferes with internal spartan frequencies," Nevada noted softly. "When active we had feed back static enough to drown out the radios."

Braig took notes for both of the scientists, although Dilan also had a small recorder going, "Hmm. Is it the same set of sinks, or were there two different sets? I'm not sure which design the engineers implemented." the big man asked quietly, "I wanted a dual system, which would be easier to fix in the end."

Braig addressed Nevada; "Was it the ordinary Spartan frequencies, or the dedicated one for the two of you?"

The pair shifted so they were obviously facing each of the people addressing them. Aya shook her head. "I don't know. As far as I can tell through contact the sinks are both situated in the legs of my suit. Beyond that I need schematics to be sure. I was carrying a lot of gear."

Nevada lifted a hand to tap his temple. "Dedicated was static we couldn't shut out. The regular frequencies were also jimmied."

Dilan turned to a special screen set up for him and started pulling up specs, "Please come here, Aya, and show me where you feel the majority of the freeze? You can draw straight on the screen, there is a regular tablet pen at the top."

Braig nodded, "Good to know. Not something we expected, or we wouldn't have sent you out like that. Happily it's something that we can fix for now by taking it off the array...it'll be gone before you leave the room."

Aya reached up to tap Nevada's wrist, signalling she'd be stepping away without intruding on his conversation, then rose from her seat to look the screen over. "Here, here, and creeping up at the armor chilled." She circled areas along her outer thighs then waved the pen in an 'up over the hips' manner. "The cold spots made the jackals curious after a while. I needed a new gun anyway, so it worked out but..."

"I'd appreciate it," Nevada admitted. "We don't close the link and the static was getting annoying." More than annoying really but spartans didn't complain of headaches. "The drop field was effective though. It halted a fall of fifty feet or more and had her settle softly."

"Hm. They didn't use the optimal design. I'm not pleased." A slightly shaking hand tapped at the circles, "We'll get that fixed as soon as we can, I promise. I can have Braig rig a bypass for you today that will let you manually turn them on and off...won't give you fine control, but you'll at least be able to keep from burning or freezing."

"That's what we're here for." Braig said, smiling a bit, "We're your own personal scientists...we've been following the two of you since you agreed to partner with Aya. We've been following her even longer."

"Anything would be an improvement." Aya admitted, tapping the board and trying to think of useful things to mention. "Whatever they did with the shock absorbers works well though. And the inertia field against projectiles was wonderful." She highlighted the areas she knew those portions were in then smiled.

"Personal scientists?" she asked, amused and worried at the same time. Generally teams didn't meet their scientific handlers without real cause. "And you've been watching Aya? How long?" There was the barest hint of warmth in the tone. He wasn't sure that the situation warranted worry, but instinct said strangers watching his partner could be an issue.

"Good. I'm doing my best to give you as much protection as Mjolnor armour, but in a more lightweight form. It's not going to be fast...but the ODST are already using some of what you've tested. I have another set of tweaks to the shock absorbers that we'll be installing soon, it should increase your drop ability by another six meters."

"Since it became obvious she wouldn't grow." Braig said without pausing in what he was doing, "We were part of the group that had ideas on ways she could still be a Spartan instead of a washout like we are."

"I appreciate the defense," she admitted. "Even I get caught out sometimes." It happened when scouting. Coming around a boulder to meet scouts from the opposite team; even before there was a covenant to come up against there had been human factions to run afoul of. "Will you need me to take the armor off for adjustment?"

Nevada rolled that information around for a moment then nodded. "Thank you." What else could he say? "She's a necessary member of the spartans."

"Yes." Dilan said, "I'm afraid so. We do have an older version that you can change into if you'd prefer to be armoured even while we fix things." he looked apologetic, "I just don't have the dexterity to work around your legs."

Braig nodded in turn, "She is. What we're doing with the two of you has the chance of doubling the number of people who get through the program."

"If you won't be too long it's alright," Aya admitted. "I just need to be able to leave here in a decent set." Because they might get sent out again at a moments notice! "Don't apologize. It's alright. Besides, you want to pull some of the useless stuff out of the suit so how could I possibly complain?" She smirked and started on the buckles securing the armor to her legs.

"Not bad for a runt," Nevada noted fondly. "Do you have anything you need us to add to the array at this meeting?"

"Not yet." Braig said, shaking his head and digging in to remove what needed to be removed.

When Aya got the pants off, Dilan started tinkering carefully with the heat-sinks, moving with a very carefully re-trained set of motions. He was good...but this wasn't easy.

Aya watched Dilan for a while, just as comfortable in her sync-skin layer as in her suit. It was interesting to watch the inner workings really, even if she couldn't follow all of what he was adjusting. Plus watching meant maybe being able to patch a suit if they were caught out and damaged. "Sorry I haven't had a chance to apply all the items I was sent out with." she offered at last.

"We couldn't find a deep enough puddle for her to try to drown in," Nevada chuckled. "So the venting ports and rebreather are untested."

"That's fine." the big man murmured, he was paying attention...he just was paying more attention to what he was doing. Three tries on one thing and, "Damn it. Braig."

The smaller man stood up from his tablet and moved over to make the adjustments that the larger one told him to. Dilan looked up at Aya, "This is a kludge fix, your next set of armour won't be like it. For now, that once-useless button on your thigh now controls the heat sinks."

Aya slid back out of the way entirely when Dilan called for his partner, drifting back to stand by Nevada as a matter of course. "Toggle on toggle off?" she noted. "Or a dial up before shut off?" Important to know!

"And why did she have a...wait." Nevada made a grab for his helmet as something fuzzed through on the general radio. "Suit wasn't getting that. Repeat. Repeat." Damn. "Static."

"Toggle, it's the easiest." Both scientists froze when Nevada grabbed his helmet, and then Braig finished the kludge and waved Aya back into her armour.

Aya started slapping clips and armor slats home the moment Braig allowed her, movements having the controlled speed of a worried spartan. "Interior network channels shouldn't static. Anyone in the facility working on a jammer that could have jumped into overdrive?" Just in case.

Nevada tossed Aya her helmet after locking his own on then checked his weapons. "Doesn't matter. Braig, Dilan, get into armor. Anyone in the area you meet get them suited up too. We'll be back as soon as we have something concrete."

Aya nodded and unhooked a beacon pin from her belt. "We'll find you."

Braig gave them a room number, "We'll be in there, gathering what we need."

Dilan didn't wait, he was heading towards their room. "My cats..."

Braig added, "His armour is in there, too. So's mine."

She tossed Braig the pin anyway, "In case you have to move." In case it wasn't a drill and circumstances changed. Just in case. Best to be prepared.

"Signal for evac if you can get a signal through," Nevada also recommended. "Better if we're overreacting."

Braig caught it, then trotted after Dilan.

By the time the two Spartans got to their room, Dilan had three cats in a bullet-proof carrier (it's not paranoia if you were raised to be a Spartan) and Braig had an unconscious Halsey in a set of armour that had apparently been glued shut.

"She argued." he explained.

Aya came in and squatted on her knees beside Halsey, looking the woman over. "She would," she sighed. "Just like she would be here instead of in one of the main compounds or labs."

"We're isolated," Nevada supplied. "No signals because all the nearby towers on the ground were slagged. We're under orbital assault." Which was, in general, bad. They'd managed to get up to a level of the lab where super heated rock was leaking through rents torn into the building. That had given them a pretty good look.

"Good news there's a supply shuttle. We hump it there, cram you all in, get it into orbit." Aya sighed and tapped her fingers lightly on the woman's faceplate. "It'll be rough and there almost no shielding on the supply mule but it's all we have record of in dock here."

"We encountered no one else." Alive. "Who was stationed here? It is an isolated lab..."

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