Somewhere south of Rhy'Din

"We're going to start with the fundamentals. First: basics of operating your armor."

The area they were in was an open plain, for the most part, save for the forest to the north. Round them, tall grasses waved in a soft breeze, creating ripples that were deeper, and yet less defined, than those one might find on the top of the water. Around them jagged peaks rose, snow-capped heights that looked down on them like silent gods content to observe their realm.

The breeze was cold, but he didn't feel it, encased in the crimson and gold armor as he was. Looking at the display in front of his eyes, he noted that as his eyes moved, so did a targeting reticule. Turning, he directed the gaze towards the somewhat larger, black-and-silver armored figure standing some ways away.

Instantly the reticule turned green as he focused on the Ranger, and next to him appeared an array of information - range, speed (both relative and actual, both zero at the moment), and other targeting data. On the other side from that information appeared identifying information.

As he looked around, he heard Ed's voice in his ear, curiously without its distinctive drawling Cajun accent. "The augmented reality display has a laser eye-movement detection system that is part of the armor so that the movements of your eye over the field of vision can be followed, analyzed by the computer system, and interpreted to give you targeting and identification data, as well as allowing you to access suit systems - weapons selection, sensors, power readouts, OmniPulse configurations."

Leo nodded as he directed his gaze towards the helicopter that rested nearby, its rotors turning slowly in the breeze that stirred them, and again as he focused on it the reticule changed colors from a light reddish to a brighter green, and again the information showed on either side of the reticule, identifying it as a Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk. Once again Ed's voice came to his ears through the internal speakers in the helmet. "The other systems - propulsion, movement, and targeting - are accessed via haptic feedback sensors built into the chassis framework. These will change depending on what mode you're in - fight or flight, as it were. In fight mode, the targeting reticule becomes slaved to whatever weapons system you've chosen. Those weapons that are mounted at the arms - the OmniPulse generators and the LMGs - will automatically take over the targeting system, and the reticule will move to whatever point they're aiming at."

Leo's eyes moved to the weapons icon - a sword, he noted with a wry grin - and focused on it, and an instant later the selection menu popped up with a list of selections. 10mm light machine guns in each arm, OmniPulse directed energy weapons in each palm. Shoulder-mounted rocket launchers carrying ten optically guided mini-missiles each. An OmniPulse generator mounted in the chest plate capable of directed or area-effect blasts. And finally, ten heat-seeking missiles mounted along the outer thighs of the suit.

He selected the LMGs and raised an arm to test out the aiming system, and as soon as he did the aiming reticule bounced from his line of sight to another point. Slowly he moved his arm, up, down, towards the chopper and then towards Ed in his black and silver armor, a grin spreading on his face. "Sweet."

He hears a chuckle in his ears. "The missiles on your shoulders are guided by the optics in your helmet - all you have to do is look long enough for your sensors to get a snapshot of the target and shoot - the missile does the rest. The heat-seekers are fast-lock, fire-and-forget missiles. Get a look at your target, long enough for the sensors to memorize the heat signature, and fire. Both are ideally used against heavy targets, since the fire controls are optically operated. Once you get used to using the system you'll find it to be fast and efficient, but it'll take practice."

Lowering his arm, he turned back towards Ed in his black and silver armor. "What about voice commands? Will those work?"

There was a nod from the Ranger as he heard Ed's voice again. "Of course, but I'd like you to practice using the other control systems as well. Once you get the hang of it and learn to coordinate the three command methods - voice, optics, and haptics - you'll be able to work the suit systems as fast as thought."

Leo nodded. It made sense to him. "All right, so what comes next?"

He could practically hear the grin through the speakers as Ed spoke again. "Let's try the haptic feedback controls. Hold your left hand up and make a fist, then arch your wrist inward a tad."

Leo did as Ed said, lifting his left arm and balling up his hand, moving his wrist just so...and with a suddenness that was almost startling a long, sleek, straight blade telescoped out just behind his hand, glowing white-hot, with a ringing sound like metal and glass scraping together. "Wow." He looked from the blade to the Ranger, a grin on his features again. "Now that is some cool sh*t."

He heard another chuckle in his ears. "Thought you'd like that. The haptic sensors work by a combination of movement and nerve-conduction detection, but they're limited to the most basic of your suit functions. It takes some practice not to do some things accidentally, but I'm pretty sure you'll get the hang of it quickly - at least, you did when you still had your memory, and I don't see that it should be any different now. If you relax your hand, you should find that the blade retracts again."

Leo nodded and did so, and just like Ed said, the blade retracted with that same startling speed. "Awesome stuff." He looked to Ed again, still feeling the grin on his features. "So when do I get to play with all these wonderful toys?"

That gets a laugh from the black-and-silver suited figure, the motion seen with the eyes while the sound is pumped directly to his ears. "Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves, Leo. We have quite a few things left to cover on the suit systems portion of things before we get to that, and I for one would prefer to get the boring stuff out of the way first."

He nodded again, the grin on his lips turning wry in response as he lowered his arm again. "All right, I get that. But...just out of curiosity, how much training did I get before I got into my first engagement the last time?"

That got a shrug from the Ranger. "Just the basics of operation, really. In my opinion, not enough, but...you kinda wanted to jump in feet-first. I think you were counting on your combat training to help you, but there's a difference between tactics in and out of the armor."

He nodded to that. It would explain the ineptness that he had seen demonstrated in the video records that he had watched in his place - he might have been a decent fighter, but he wasn't taking advantage of the full scope of the armor's abilities.

Well...lesson learned. Next time he'll be going in with more knowledge and training under his belt.

"All right, boss. Let's move on and get the boring stuff out of the way."

The past few days had been spent almost entirely on flight training - every minute, since that first little disaster, they had spent in the air, learning how to maneuver sharply and effectively, under a variety of conditions. From takeoffs to landings, aerobatic maneuvers, turns, stops, hovers, loops, flips, evasive and combat maneuvering techniques, they had practiced, and practiced, and practiced some more.

Fortunately, Leo was a quick study, something Ed had pointed out with a mixture of enthusiasm and awe that managed to transmit itself even through the speakers in his helmet. But despite that, they had practiced, long, grueling hours that went from dawn well into the night, until both he and Leo had felt confident that the lesson had been learned, and learned well.

Leo, for himself, enjoyed every minute of it. Despite that first flight ending with himself face-up in the dirt, he loved the freedom of being airborne, he discovered, and he didn't see how his former self had not been more keen to take advantage of that aspect of the armor's design, whether he was in a fight or not. He supposed it had something to do with his past experience of fighting as a Marine - his memories of battle in the dirt, so to speak, relying on what he knew had worked before.

While he still knew a lot about combat tactics both on the ground and in the air, he couldn't help but think that in some way the loss of his past memory - those things that made up his sense of self, of identity - had freed him more than it hampered him. There was no burden of past experience, and while he couldn't say he felt as if he were able to adapt better to this style of fighting, with no frame of reference to refer to, he could see it in himself, remembering the video records of his old self fighting in the suit of armor he now wore.

There were things he wished he could remember. According to his personnel file his father was still alive, but whenever Leo tried to picture the man or any fond memories of a childhood with him, there was nothing there to be found...a total blank. No memory of his mother, either, whom his file said committed suicide when he was ten. No memory of riding a bike, playing football in school, no memory of past love interests or sexual encounters. There seemed to be at least as much tragedy as there was triumph in that file, and while he was glad to be rid of the bad memories, a part of him lamented the loss of the good ones too.

But now wasn't the time to ponder that - if what Ed told him was true, training to get back in the saddle and into the fight was what he needed to focus on. Besides, today was going to be fun.

He'd been looking forward to yet another day of practicing his flight training, but Ed apparently felt he knew it well enough, because as soon as they'd gotten out to this secluded valley today, he'd said the words Leo had been itching to hear ever since he'd seen the schematics for his personal armor.

"All right, enough with dancing around the sky - I think you've got that pretty well down, and it's time now to have some real fun. Today we're going to blow stuff up."

Under his helmet, Leo grinned wide. In this part of the valley there were a number of standing stones large enough to make some decent targets, black rock that looked very hard indeed. He'd been wondering how they would stand up to the rockets, guns, and pulse generators built into the suit - today it looked like he was going to find out. "Sweet. What do we start with?"

His enthusiasm must've shown in in his voice, because he heard Ed laugh through the speakers. "Patience, mon ami. First let's go over the weapons themselves, and their systems. Go ahead and arm your shoulder mounts."

Leo nodded to Ed, who was as always standing a little ways away in his own black-and-silver armor. Their first day, and the many days since, had given him sufficient practice to be able to do this fairly quickly, though he thought with time he could make it faster. He looked at the weapons icon on his AR display, and the selection menu appeared before his eyes, an outline of his armor with the appropriate weapons highlighted. He focused on the shoulder mounts, and the outline disappeared, replaced by a targeting reticle, ammunition count and a status indicator showing that the system was armed and ready. "Got it."

He saw Ed nod in his armor as he spoke again. "The missiles, as I said before, are optically guided warheads. All you have to do is choose a target - your sensor systems will take a 'snapshot' of the target, which will be relayed to the missiles. The missiles themselves will be programmed to recognize their target by visual recognition as well as heat and radar signature and will home in on their target. The missiles are encased in a tungsten alloy that allows for deep armor penetration. The warhead is a shaped charge composed primarily of octanitrocubane, which is close to being twice as powerful as HMX, the explosive used in most military warheads today. They can be fired singly or in tandem, up to four at a time, two from each launcher."

Leo nodded along as Ed spoke, quite impressed despite the seemingly technical explanation. He knew a fair bit about explosives, and the one Ed was talking about was still in the experimental stages as far as he knew. He had the feeling he didn't want to know how Ed had managed to manufacture the stuff without the military being aware of it.

Ed went on. "The heat-seekers in the outer thighs of your suit are of a similar construction, but with a continuous-rod warhead instead of a shaped charge. They're generally meant for air-to-air engagements, but they're extremely effective against ground targets as well. Now, on to the machine guns."

Leo nodded again to Ed, pulling up the weapons selection and this time focusing on the wrists. A similar display to the missiles popped up in front of his eyes as Ed went on talking. "The medium machine guns mounted at your wrists fire 10mm caseless, armor piercing frangible rounds at high velocity with an extremely fast rate of fire. You don't have to worry about the guns overheating, since the suit takes the waste heat and converts it to energy for storage, but your best bet is to fire in bursts so you don't deplete your ammo supply too quickly."

Leo nodded again, looking over the status display on his AR screen. The ammunition cound read a thousand rounds, five hundred per gun. It would be interesting to see how fast he went through that if he really opened up on something. "Cool. So that covers the secondaries."

He could hear Ed's grin in the man's voice as he spoke again. "Yep. Moving on to the primaries: the pulse generators. Go ahed and pull those up on your display."

Leo nodded as he pulled up the weapon selection and found the palm-mounted pulse generators, and a moment later the status screen was displayed before his eyes.

This was far more complex than the missile or gun displays. No ammo counter, but instead a variety of selections - power output, energy configuration, beam focus, duration of pulse, single or multiple fire, charge meter. He let out a low whistle in his helmet as he looked it all over.

Ed's chuckle reached his ears again as he looked it all over. "Yeah, there's a lot there, and for a while you're going to want to use voice commands for configuring them. Keep in mind that the pulse generators can be used for a lot more than firing at your target. A plasma charge can start a fire as well as burn a hole, a kinetic charge can be used as a distraction as well as a weapon, a sonic charge can take down an obstacle as well as bring an enemy to their needs. Remember, this is a weapon that can be used creatively, and a lot of times it may have to be. We don't necessarily want to kill the enemy...in fact if at all possible I'd rather we not, unless there's no other answer."

Leo frowned as he said that. Not in disappointment, but rather confusion. "If you'd rather not kill, why put so much in lethal weaponry into the armor? I mean, a lot of this stuff hits pretty hard."

There was another nod from Ed's armored figure. "That's true, but you designed that armor yourself for a battlefield environment. Most of the time, in that sort of situation, I suppose fatalities are inevitable, and as much as I don't like it, in the fights we're going to be in, it'll be hard to avoid. The only advice I can give you is to try to avoid it, keep the heavy weapons usage to a minimum, but if you have to, you have to...I won't be firing you over it. But above and beyond anything else, my one requirement is to avoid civilian casualties - we're not just here to take down the bad guys, we're here to protect the innocent."

Leo nodded to that once again before tilting his head towards some of the standing stones dotting the area with a grin. "Good enough. So...what say we blow some stuff up?"

There was a chuckle from Ed as the black-and-silver armor nodded before stepping aside and gesturing to the rocks. "Let's start with the pulse generators. Pick a configuration and take your shot when you're ready."

Leo nodded again, raising his right arm first, leaving it at the default setting of a plasma charge for the time being. As he did so, he saw the targeting reticle move, just as it had when he pulled up the weapons system the first time. He heard a distinctive whine in his ears as he pointed his palm outward, and the charge meter at the right side of his vision surged up to the full mark a second later. His eyes focused on the 'FIRE' indicator on top, and he felt his arm pushed back as the charge was released, a brightly pulsating ball of light that smashed into the rock.

The rock was harder than it looked - the bolt of plasma energy blew a significant chunk out of it, sending heated chunks of stone scattering around the area, but most of it remained, the crater he'd made in it smoking and glowing slightly with the heat he'd put into it. His eyes narrowed for a moment, a tight grin tugging at his features as he looked at the digital controls on the AR display. He went to the configuration first, adjusting it for a kinetic energy stream, tuning the focus for a harmonic resonance pulse, setting the duration up to a continuous stream, before bringing his hand up again and taking aim.

This time he fired, and the effects were much more dramatic. The stream of energy he poured into the rock wasn't nearly as bright, but seemed more focused, and he could see the rock heating up, going from black to glowing hotter and hotter in an instant before it blew up spectacularly.

Fragments of rock rained down all around them as he smiled wide, laughing with exhilaration. A moment later he could hear Ed laughing, and saw the man applauding in his armor as he looked on, a second later speaking through the speakers. "Now that's what I'm talking about, man! Very nice!"

He looked over at Ed with a grin he knew the man couldn't see, chuckling. "Man, that was fun! Let's do it again!"

He heard Ed's answering chuckle as the man gestured to another, larger standing stone. "Have at it, Leo. We have plenty of time."

With a grin, Leo pulled up the weapons selection and chose the missiles. As the reticle began tracking towards the rock, he chuckled again.

This was gonna be so much fun.