“Well hello Galen”, greeted a middle-aged man wearing a stained blue jumpsuit behind the counter of the weapons and armor workshop that he worked at. Which, served as a supply depot for members of the Davison privateer guild noted by the emblem that was displayed at the entrance.

“Hi Allen, I expect that you called me here to tell me that my stuff is finished, it’s about time,” Galen Katrain responded as he approached the counter. He was a well muscled man that stood at one hundred eighty-nine centimeters. At the moment he was wearing a zipped up leather jacket with a pear of cargo pants.

“Oh come on Mister Katrain, customizing powered armor is not a fast process not adding the fact that the helmet needed a new visor.” Allen pointed out.

Galen sighed, “So you’re saying I should blame the previous owner for not having the quite the same physique as mine and letting himself get shot in the face with the blast shield up”

“Right.” Allen agreed as he went to the back room and wheeled out a suit desert camouflage armor along with a rather large rifle-style weapon and a carbine with a bullpup configuration, the larger one was obviously a type of laser the carbine a coilgun. He picked up the laser. “First lets talk about your Tactical Laser-”

“Why not just call it a TacL (pronounced Tackle) like everyone else!” Galen interrupted.

Allen snorted, “It makes me sound smarter.” He continued, “There wasn’t much to do with it except replace its mirror assembly with a better one and its superconductors with newer higher temperature ones so it won’t need as much cooling to be effective. As for your carbine, I just replaced the coils with the same superconductors as the laser.”

“Alright then that makes it a little more efficient, now how about the armor?”

Allen then turned to the suit of armor and picked up the helmet, “As you already know the visor had to be replaced, because of the hole in the previous one. The replacement isn’t much different, holographic heads-up-display that can display just about anything and when you pull down the blast shield over the visor it will display what you would see if it weren’t down, you can try it on the range later.  The helmet also contains an on board computer which can interact with that brain chip.”

“It’s a neural interface and storage chip or more appropriately, nisc”

Next, the under-suit, it’s a newer one made of silk-armor and has a thin layer of shock-foam over it, the frame is also built onto it. Now the main suit has synthe-muscles built into the frame that are five times stronger than human muscles. As for the plates they are layered with a light steel alloy, ceramic and composites, like most armor. Lastly the armor uses a high-energy fuel cell for power. What do you think Galen?”

Galen was now rubbing his temples in exasperation, “I used to be a Solar Union Commando, Allen, so what makes you think that I know nothing about powered armor in general.”

Allen laughed nervously, “Heh, so do you want to try it out on the range?”

“About time you asked I’ve been itchin’ to try it out ever since the armor was offered by the guild as payment for joining.” Galen replied..

Allen then handed the undersuit to Galen who changed into it. About a minute later  he was securing the plates with some help from Allen. When he was suited up he flexed his arms and legs, “feels good,” Galen mentioned.

“As it should, now pull down the blast shield,”

Galen then reached up and pulled the armor plate that was the blast shield over the visor. Immediately his visor’s HUD provided the visual information that the blast shield was hiding. He then pushed it back up saying, “Alright, now if you don’t mind I’d like to try the strength enhancement.”

“On the testing range,” Allen said leading Galen through a sealable door into the large room connected to the shop, when they were in, he picked up a remote and said, “Alright then try it out on those weights.” Pointing to a set of weights.

Galen then grabbed a large ninety kilogram weight with one hand that was there for this purpose and tossed it in the air and caught it as if it was nothing, and then he did the same with the other hand, then set it down. “Okay, that works now I want to test out my TacL”

Allen went over and picked up the bulky laser and handed it to Galen who hooked the weapon up to his armor’s power supply. Then Allen pulled out a remote and lowered some targets that were a conventional bull’s-eye style about fifteen meters away. Galen dropped into a kneeling shooting stance, aimed with the laser acting as a designator on the center of the target, and then he pulled the trigger. There was a crack that sounded like lightning caused by the heat expansion of air along the laser’s path, as for the target, the center of the metal plate exploded it a small shower of sparks as it was vaporized. Galen then stood back up and looked over the laser again and lowered the power on the laser and fired again this time merely melting the target plates.

“Ah, nothing like the smell of molten metal in the morning.” Galen remarked looking over the laser.

Allen chuckled, “Now I assume that you want to try the carbine.”

“Yeah I suppose” Galen said, unplugging the laser and handing it off to Allen who gave him the bullpup carbine with two clips one with standard bullets the other with flechettes each had thirty rounds. He checked the carbine and loaded the bullets into the stock and aimed at a target that was made of Kevlar. When he pulled the trigger, there was a crack from the bullet moving at supersonic speeds with a barely audible snap of the capacitors. He fired a few more single shots then switched to three round bursts, fired, then to full auto and fired the rest of the clip. The bullets were stopped by the Kevlar near or on the center. He then ejected the spent clip and put in the flechettes, pointed at a different target and did the same thing with them. This time they pierced completely and impacted the foam covered steel wall behind it.

Galen ejected the clip and said, “Looks like everything is working fine, the guy who signed me up with the guild was right, you get it done.” And handed the weapon to Allen

Taking the carbine Allen responded, “Course I do, it’s the reason they have me working here. So where are you going to be assigned?”

After exiting the range, Galen then started removing the armor’s gaunlets while Allen came to help him get the breastplate off, “They said that I was going to be going on the Dark Nova which they said was a light freighter converted into something like a marine insertion ship” he explained. He then removed the undersuit and changed into original clothing.

As Allen was putting the gear away he mentioned, “I heard they recently lost their heavy weapons specialist and a rifleman in a raid on a drug base.”

“So I’m a replacement for two people?”

Allen nodded, “Probably, unless you are not the only guy they are getting, which is not likely.”

“Lovely, I suppose because I used to be elite makes them think I can replace two people.” Galen sighed.

“Well you’re a laser specialist, which are hard to come by as they are a hard weapon to master, because of that little thing with blooming and how weather can easily change the effectiveness. As you must know, a laser’s strength as you must know is in its flexibility. On high power settings it can be a an excellent precision weapon or an armor at close range, while on lower power levels it can burn through infantry at close range, even function as a makeshift laser designator.” Allen explained.

“You’re absolutely right in the function of a laser and that I full well know that, make sure my gear makes it there, cause a laser specialist losses a lot of effectiveness without a laser.”

“I will, and good luck out there.” Allen said as he watched Galen leave.