Star Child by Paul Alan Page A

tossing it to the concrete floor.
    The door opening led into another cavernous airshaft; there was only a small iron-grated platform for him to stand on. Metal ladder rungs descended along the shaft’s wall.
     
    Eying the long treacherous drop, Jason spoke into his visor. “Well, I can’t complain too much, Thacker did get me inside as promised.” Jason had made a deal with Mitchell Thacker and Rengar Falger. If they helped him out, he would not kill them, simple as that.
     
    Despite being dangerous, climbing down in the large suit would be slow, and cumbersome. Although, there was no way he was going to leave the Ersatz Suit behind. The planned mission would not succeed without its cloaking ability.
    Nervously searching for the first metal rail protruding from the concrete wall, he insecurely stretched his leg into the black bottomless pit. A stomach tightening sensation gripped Jason’s midsection. Something maddening inside of him was calling out, and driving his sinister processes into the black empty void. Pure veridical hatred carried his emotional weight into the darkest of descents.
    Matching his black visceral fortitude, a blind drunken aversion welled up in the eyes. “I will avenge Lexis’s death,” he thought while climbing down in the shadows. “There is a saying: When you go seeking revenge, dig two graves.” He thought, “Am I to become the righteous executioner for vengeance’s sake?”
    After descending for several hours, his muscles twitched and burned. Not only by the climb. He was physically exhausted from his journey, for the last several days he had traveled one-third the breadth of the Earth’s surface to get to this point. Overwhelmed by several factors; sleep deprivation, Lexis’s death, and an all-consuming rage had effectively eroded his physical and mental stamina. He was in a motley state when he decided to stop and rest.
    Locking the Power Suit’s arms through the rungs of the ladder, he would get some badly needed sleep. The exoskeleton outer-skin or otherwise known as Ersatz Suit System is comprised of a very complex polysynthetic fibrous blend of materials. Designers amalgamated Synthetic Spider Silk, Chromatophore Threading, and Reactive Smart Fibers to achieve military desired specifications. The inventers intertwined them all within artificial Dermal Denticle’s lattice.
    Also, the Power Suit could disappear in all spectral wavelengths. To do this, engineers first looked at tackling the visual range, and despite the extinction of Earth creatures, Mother Nature’s past held the answers. When they peered in the dead history, they marveled at the once ocean found cephalopod’s camouflaging ability. The extinct sea creatures could easily change the patterns of their skin to match against any watery background. SYNTECH was able to synthetically copy the biological functions of the creature, thanks to the vast genetic database the Polaris Corporation coveted; hence, the Chromatophore Threading was born, and used for the Ersatz Suit’s very most outer layer.
    To give the suit’s skin strength, regenerative properties, and the famed sharkskin feel, engineers looked at another extinct sea creature because of its incredible protective functionality against errant environmental factors. A synthetic selachimorpha dermal denticle structure was developed, creating the perfect matrix for the skin.
    Next they added more strength. The tensile strength of spider silk was nearly five times stronger than that of steel. However, SYNTECH people genetically improved this by a factor of two, improving the armor protection immeasurably.
    For full cloaking ability, and integrated skin control, Reactive Smart Fiber was meshed to govern functionality. Not only did the Reactive Smart Fiber control the Ersatz Suit System’s skin but its gold infused fibrous conductive properties helped generate the electromagnetic force field needed to shroud the wearer in a veil of spectral diffusion, causing the