Chapter 7 Gearing up Part 2 - home made power armor

The multipurpose loader that was originally used to assist workers to lift and move heavy items around the hanger was of an unarmored exoskeleton design, that was closer to a suit than a piloted mech. The only similarities it shared with a mech was that the operator's arms were not directly connected to the arms of the suit; the arms of the suit were instead, connected to the the main frame and the cage surrounding the operator. The legs were also a simple framed design like the rest of the suit, powered by hydraulics and electronic servos, but unlike the arms, the operator's legs were used to move and control the suit.

Working underground in a mass grave with centuries old corpses was terrifying, but Hunter was soon lost in excitement and quickly forget about the bodies surrounding him. Hunter began the repair by completely dismantling everything down to the frames, removing all the moving parts and the control components. The hangar was thankfully empty of any bodies and he was able to move and place all the removed parts around the broken down suit. After finding more spare parts and miscellaneous items in the rest of the store rooms and garages, Hunter was soon surrounded by a small pile of parts. Using the diagnostics tool of the printer, Hunter one by one sorted through everything, and reassembled the suit with the reusuable old parts and newly printed parts. To finish off, he repainted the bright orange suit with a woodland camo and he was finally ready to modify the suit for combat.

After a brief planning session with Glados, Hunter went to work on modifying the suit, and two days later, he was finally done with his homemade power armor.

Since the loader was not self powered and ran off a tether connected to the ceiling, Hunter fabricated an armored metal box on the back of the suit, that had space for his printer and the monster core to use as a power source. He also added a ammo box for his belt fed turret, and a tube loaded with drones to have a ready supply of drones when he needs them.

For weapons, since the arms of the suit was not dexterious, precise nor nimble enough for Hunter to hold and shoot the rifle with both hands like a human would, the weapons had to be mounted on the arms themselves. For use against fast moving targets, Hunter heavily modified his rifle to have electronic fire controls and to be belt fed, and mounted his modified TMC-103 on the right shoulder of the suit on a custom weapons station complete with optics and servos. It was not really ideal with the center of gravity that high, but the suit was not made for combat, so there was not much he could do.

For his 20mm anti material rifle, Hunter made a special mount under the right arm with a mechanism where, at the press of a button could quickly slide up along the back of the arm, and mount the rifle to his pack, freeing the arm to allow him to switch to his secondary weapons. For his secondary weapons, Hunter printed another compact version of the TMC-103 which could be fired one handed by the suit, and a large chainsaw as a last resort to wear down the alpha's shield at close range, giving him a chance at defeat it.

For protection, he covered the entire exposed frontal arc of the mech and crtical components like the controller and servos with crude alloy armor plates and repainted the entire exterior with the same woodland camo he used on the frames. He also added simple magazine pouches and dispensers all around for quick access to reload his weapons.

To stop projectile and melee attacks, Hunter decided to make a shield. He removed one of the heavy blast proof fire walls in the bunker and cut and trimmed the sides to be about 2/3 the height and width of the suit. Extra bright lights were installed to blind foes at night, the teeth at the bottom of the shield was sharpened, and a small viewport was added. At the back of the shield, the carry handle with a shoulder mount was welded in and a holster for the compact TMC-103 along with sheaths for his combat knife and the staff was added.

For vision and control of the suit; with some salvaged displays and cameras installed all around the suit, he was able to have a 360 viewing system inside the cockpit. He switched the control of the arms to Glados, since she could send his brain signals directly to the arms, and with some finishing touches like exterior lights, upgraded support for his legs, he was almost there. Since Glado was an advanced AI at the level where she could potentially control the suit by herself, Hunter added more structural modifications, so even if he was inside the suit, Glados could operate the suit remotely. After Glados added the remote control software and the targeting software for the guns, they were finally finished.

It was a shoddy job, but the suit still looked cool and menacing; standing at 2.1 meters tall, armed to the teeth with all the added armor and weapons he could fit. To finally test the suit out, Hunter opened the front hatch to the cabin and with the hatch still up, slowly practiced walking. After almost stumbling to the ground a few times, he got the hang of walking, and tried running but could only get the suit to a slow jog; the outdated servos and hydraulics not being able to keep up, even with all the upgrades. Hunter spent another hour getting himself used to the suit and making final adjustments.

After he was confident the suit was ready, Hunter finally decided it was time to leave the bunker. After collecting all the paperwork and storage devices he could find in the bunker, Hunter secured all his loot, and after one last look and a short prayer to the unfortunate souls in the bunker, headed back to base, with drones wizzing over his head.

His journey back home was fairly uneventful, too uneventful in fact, that hunter was slightly disappointed since he was eager to try his new gear out. However, Hunter soon got his wish, when the drones found a pack of twenty wolve look-alikes that decided to make his cave their new home. These ones were luckily not as big as the previous monsters he faced and were not too much bigger than the ones on earth, so when Glados concluded none of them were on the level of the alphas he faced before, Hunter decided to fight.

Hunter slammed his shield down on the dirt to make a mobile barricade, and a drone was sent in to annoy and lure the beasts out. Soon, the drone constantly buzzing around woke the entire pack up, and two of the annoyed wolves took the bait and rushed out of the cave, yelping and snapping at the nuisance that disturbed their sleep.

The pair of wolves were instantly blinded when Hunter switched all the lights on, and the turret controlled by Glados nailed the two stunned wolves. Startled from the rifle fire and the surprised whimper of the wolves, the entire pack rushed towards the exit of the cave, and it turned into a turkey shoot where the AI nailed the wolves with machine like accuracy and Hunter's solid 20mm slugs blowing through multiple wolves at once.

After the first twelve of the younger and more inexperienced members of the wolf pack fell, the remaining eight larger adult wolves who were behind them, unexpectantly began to use skills, and with a blue flash every time they dodged, zig-zagged at speeds defying physics, dodging shots with finesse. Although Hunter and Glados managed to pick more of them off with the overwhelming amount of firepower, the remaining five wolves were getting dangerously close.

Hunter cursed at the slugish arms of the suit and retracted the 20mm, removed the carbine on his shield, and picked his shield back up. The wolves were quick, but Glados with her inhuman reaction speed managed to nail two more of them before the last three of the wolves reached into melee distance. Two of the wolves pounced from the front aiming for the right arm not protected by the shield, and the the last one which went around and pounced at the turret.

Everything ended in a flash as Glados fired full auto into the wolf from the rear, finishing it off, and Hunter, trusting his armor, leaned in and gave his right hand willingly to the pouncing wolves.The momentum of the wolves almost knocked him over, but after quickly releasing his shield, he grabbed one of the wolves with his left arm and threw it to the ground, ending its life by stomping on its head. Hunter then gripped the head of the last remaining wolf strongly, crushing its skull, and held the wolf up and shot it with his carbine.

Hunter, high from adrenaline, quickly surveyed the aftermath looking for more enemies, but when he could not see one anymore and the drones confirmed the coast was clear, breathed a sigh of relief and left the suit after leaving Glados on guard duty. After a short time to catch a breath, he on habit, started to butcher all the animals up looking for cores.

"That was awesome Glados, the suit's protection worked much better than I expected and you totally kicked ass there with all those impossible shots. I couldn't hit any of the bigger ones and I don't know how we would have won without you. It is awesome that you are finally able to fight with me now."

'Something like that was a piece of cake for an awesome AI like me, aren't you glad you have someone like me with you?'

"I am going to shower you with all the praises you want, you smug bastard, you totally deserve it. Although, those wolves were fast as hell using those skills.. I think we need to assume any adult monsters in this place has some kind of skills in their pokets now."

After he was done, he was quite satisfied with his haul of 7 small monster cores minus the one loss from a slug shattering it, and stashed all his loot into the cave along with the wolf fur and fangs. Finally back home and feeling secure with Glados standing watch with the suit, Hunter was finally able to relax next to a fire after a satisfying meal and a long needed shower. Feeling the warmth of the fire, and thinking back on his journey at the bunker, Hunter decided it was time to take a look at the storage devices and paperwork he found in the bunker.