It had been a long time in the making this. For many months H&M's science division had been hard at work developing a new vehicle for their own use and now, after months of hard work, the prototype was ready. It was fortunate the vehicle was based upon pre-existing technology and was only taking it to the next step or else the vehicle would not have been completed anywhere near so soon. Bipedal walker technology, A.I technology, armour plating, numerous avenues of energy weapon reason and ultimately a highly secretive "hot point" based technology had all come together upon today's date the day of the Aesir's completion when it would be demonstrated to other high ranking members of the GSU not that they would be allowed to acquire such things for their own branches of the GSU. 

Dressed in the very out of character military uniform of a soldier, complete with medals of valour from a few different conflicts, was Apolloyon. She stood at attention by a landing platform attached to a converted civilian warehouse district. These warehouses were located on a far-flung moon situated on the western border of the GSU's territory and had once been part of a now defunct trading company's holdings however what one should note is how far away it was from the GSU's other military facilities; after all shouldn't a secret military experiment be close to military bases for security? Heavy rain fell upon the surface of the Moon, which would have been classed as a planet were it not for the fact it orbited a much bigger gas giant, drenching Apolloyon's umbrella just as aggressively as the entirety of the Moon.

She looked at the watch she wore upon her right arm and grimaced irritated not only due to the foul weather but because they were late; all those big important GSU military and political leaders were late as to be expected. High ranking members of the chain of command tended not to be on time. Despite her impatience spawned annoyance Apolloyon remained standing at attention the white coloured rock beneath her feet drenched with water. Upon landing the guests would discover there was very little in the way of security that they could see; no anti aircraft guns, no soldiers on patrol nor any vehicles. It seemed to be rather a big lapse in security but one that had been planned purposefully by H&M's eccentric director but that was beyond Apolloyon; all the former heavy armour driver was expected to do was wait and be a glorified guide for the hopefully soon to arrive guests.

Admiral Yusuf Al Thani's dropship soon came into view in the sky. The dropship steadily descended until it hovered off the ground a few meters in front of Apolloyon. The dropship unfolded its landing gear and set itself down onto the surface. The rear bay hatch opened and out walked a Spartan clad in a Warrior-variant of the GEN2-MJOLNIR armour. He was followed by two queues of Elite Commandos (formerly the ODSTs) that flanked both sides of a number of GSU officials.

The first person in line after the Spartan was Admiral Yusuf Al Thani - a member of the GSU Council. Following him was the Commander-in-Chief of the Colonial Intelligence Agency,  after whom there were three other miscellaneous politicians and high-ranking military personnel. The Spartan flanked on the right side of the Admiral while an Elite Commando walked on the other. The others followed behind them in a group, with the other Elite Commandos surrounding them. All of them were heavily armed.

Upon reaching Apolloyon, the Admiral reached his hand out to shake and greeted her. "Greetings, I am Admiral Al Thani of the Galactic Systems Union Council. I assume you're our escort?"

Finally. Apolloyon observed the drop-ship falling from the sky as it came to land upon the rain soaked platform. The exhaust from the engine and assorted vents churned the falling rain up further soaking an already wet Apolloyon Luckily as the drop-ship's engines wound down the deluge of churned water relaxed allowing her a moment of dryness before the brass ventured out. Out of the drop-ship came a procession of important people: Spartans, the Admiral, a bunch of former ODSTS, the Commander in Chief of the CIA and numerous other miscellaneous people of import. Apolloyon marched forward and offered her umbrella to the Admiral to protect him from the rain. "Welcome to Istvaan X Admiral." Maintaining what could only be described as a professional expression Apolloyon's calloused hand firmly grasped that of the Admiral and shook it.

"That I am sir. The Director appreciates your visit however he apologises for being unable to greet you at the landing platform. He is currently inside working on final preparations for today's demonstration. However if you follow me I will lead you the briefing room." When the umbrella was taken from her, if it was, Apolloyon would walk into the facility automatic doors opening with a satisfying whoosh sound. Inside it was not the most elegant of locations being made mostly of industrial sheet metal and plastics with little in the way of furnishing. "Unfortunately we will need your escorts to submit to a security check and relinquish all weapons for security reasons. There was a reason beyond security as to why weapons needed to be relinquished but Apolloyon wasn't going to give the game away just yet.

The Admiral took the umbrella with a thanks and followed the lady into the facility.
"I understand, sometimes a man has to dedicate himself completely to his work, I respect that." The Admiral said as Apolloyon informed him where The Director was.

Upon hearing that they all had to hand over their weapons, the Spartan looked down at The Admiral. His expression was hidden underneath the helmet but if one could see his face, they'd see slight reluctance to relinquish their weapons. The Elite Commandos looked to the Spartan for approval. The Admiral paused for a moment before meeting the Spartan's gaze.

"It's okay Sebastian, order your men to hand them over." The Admiral said to the Spartan. Within a few minutes, a couple of Nightingale Plasma Rifles, Executioner sidearms, combat knives and fragmentation grenades were handed over to the security check. The process didn't go without a few murmurs however, amongst the Elite Commandos.
"Red flag for tactical error right there." One of them said.
"This facility's gotta be secure, we're safe." Another replied.
"Safe's not a word I'm comfortable with this far out in GSU territory."

The Spartan however, was completely relaxed and did not say a word. Instead, he examined his surroundings and after that, concentrated on Apolloyon, not caring for any discourtesy of staring. A decorated soldier, much like himself. Perhaps that was the reason why this.. Director, had her be the escort.

"Right then." The Admiral said. "Shall we continue?"

There was a sinking feeling in Apolloyon's gut that the admiral's escort would be reluctant to give up their weaponry; after all they could not do their jobs effectively without them. The insecurity of the Commando's was obvious as they turned their heads towards the Spartan looking for assurance on what to do. It was rather pitiable that these trained soldiers needed a nod from a veteran soldier in order to actually decide something but oh well; Apolloyon supposed other branches of the GSU didn't hammer independence into their soldiers as much as H&M did but oh well. Of course she was going to keep these thoughts to herself least she present Project H&M as anything less than a respectable military research project.

"I can assure you the facility is as safe as any other military base. This abandoned trading post is marked as unoccupied on the majority of local star charts. Additionally we have a signal dampener in place reducing the chance of long range detection and while we lack visual external defences I can assure you we have plenty of defences able to defend against large scale threats. Also this is a very important R&D facility. We have gone to great lengths to ensure its security" Finally, thanks to the influence of the Admiral, the soldiers relented and handed their weaponry over all of which was locked in a weapon cabinet. Apolloyon took possession of the cabinet's keys before gesturing 
 for the group to follow her.

"Follow me. The Director is waiting for you in the control room." Noticing the Spartan staring at her Apolloyon winked playfully her lips curling into a small smirk. She had never actually met a Spartan before so she had to admit her curiosity was piqued mostly due to the fact H&M's agents were meant to serve as a replacement for the Spartans; it was why Project H&M had reversed engineered Mjolnir armour to create Sleipnir armour after all. Eventually the group would be arrive at the control room a converted briefing room with a glass window looking over the hanger. In the gloom of the hanger the faint outline of a large humanoid figure could be seen but nobody, not even a Spartan using night vision, would be able to make out the details of such a thing.

Upon looking up at the large humanoid figure, Sebastian certainly was confused. Spartans were able to see in conditions that normal humans would deep as pitch black, so for him not being able to see what stood in front of them intrigued him.

Of course, the instinct to keep himself fully alert and combat ready was still there as it was constantly. Despite what the lady had said about the facility's security, Sebastian had learned over his years of service that nothing was completely secure. He no longer had his weapons but he didn't need them. Even if they stripped his armour away, he could do a lot more damage than what the highly trained squad of Elite Commandos were capable of behind him.

"Gentlemen. Thank you for accompanying me to this point. Sadly I have to take my leave but soon the Director will arrive once final preparations for the demonstration is ready." With a curt nod Apolloyon exited the room leaving the Admiral and his entourage alone for the time being. Lying out on the table was a series of information upon the demonstration but it was nothing really interesting; just basic outlines of the facility, why it had been chosen, the work going on here and such things. There was little to no details about what the this demonstration was for except for the name of the project which happened to be Aesir. There was a basic outline of the Aesir as well but that was all; it seemed without the Director present there would be little in the way of concrete information.

Moments later the whooshing of the automatic doors would open and in would come a cart pushed by a young lady. Her attire could best be described as air-plane attendant gear yet with a militaristic twist thanks to the GSU logo printed upon her left breast. On the cart she was pushing was numerous different drinks ranging from alcohol to soft drinks to fruit drinks, sandwiches, chocolate cooked food such as pasties or sausages rolls. It was not the biggest selection of food but it was food none the less. "Apologise for the delay." Even though there was no real delay, it would take as long as it would take after all, the attendant apologised attempting to be the pinnacle of politeness. She looked over the soldiers gathered but was most interested in the Spartan; you did not get to see one every day after all.

The GSU officials took some food and alcohol while The Admiral merely poured himself a glass of mango juice and took a sip. Sebastian looked over and nodded at the Elite Commandos. A few of them then promptly moved forward and retrieved some food to eat, taking off their helmets to allow themselves to indulge in the nutrition while some others held back.

Sebastian himself also refrained from eating and only returned the lady's stare. He looked down at her logo and then back into her eyes. "Bit of a cutie," he thought.
"Won't you have some, Sebastian?" The Admiral asked him. Sebastian broke the stare and looked down at his commanding officer.
"No thank you sir, I'm not hungry."

For now it seemed things would quiet down as the Admiral and his entourage were left alone for the time being to mingle, read over the sparse information provided and of course eat. Almost half an hour later the doors opened up and in marched a man of average height dressed in a suit unadorned with any sign of office or military accolades. Apart from his smart, if average, suit the dark haired man has combed his short hair down in a neat if uninspired hair style. "Admiral Yusuf thank you for accepting my invitation. I apologise for the delay. Final preparations were more time consuming than initially planned." The Director walked towards the viewing window and nodded at a security camera indicating it was time to begin the demonstration. Behind the scene support staff got to work releasing the Aesir from its docking clamps.

Behind the Director, in the hanger behind the window, lights erupted bathing the area in white. As people's eyes adjusted to the sudden, and painfully sharp, increase in light they would find themselves staring at a simple gigantic machine standing eight metres tall and coloured in bright orange marked with the logo of Project H&M. "Might I introduce the Aesir hard point walker. A rapid deployment vehicle equipped with a hard point based system that allows quick and easy changing of walker loadout in response to any situation. However what makes the Aesir so effective is that you do not need any advanced training to pilot the walker. Aiming, walking and firing are as simple as pushing a button or pulling a lever thanks to the onboard A.I taking on the brunt of the work. This allows, in emergency situations, even non-combat personal to put up a fight if needs be." There was a faint smile creeping across the Director's lips.

"No need to apologise Director, I understand." Admiral Yusuf replied. He squinted when the lights suddenly came on, as did everyone else with him apart from Sebastian whose visor tinted immediately in response.

Admiral Yusuf turned his head and blinked a few times before looking back up to see the massive walker standing in front of him. His eyebrows rose in genuine curiousity as he visually examined the machine up and down. One of the Elite Commando troops whistled in response to the sight. After the Director finished talking, the Admiral remained silent for a moment, thinking.
"Well shit, I'll be first in line to test one of those out." An Elite Commando said.

The Admiral finally turned to look at the Director. "This is looks like a very impressive feat of R&D, Director. May I inquire as to what types of armament the vehicle possesses?"

The Director's lips curled into a smile as he felt genuine satisfaction at the responses. The Admiral's mostly human entourage seemed to be pleased, well one of them, which was a good sign but who the Director really needed to impress was the Admiral himself and the Spartan. A Spartan's vote of confidence would be good for general morale and propaganda while the Admiral signing off on it would be even better; he was the only one who actually had the push to allot the needed funding to Project H&M as sadly without a bigger budget they would not be able to produce the required amount of Aesirs. "Unfortunately the Aesir is designed primarily for the usages of my own Project's staff. Still if you like you're more than welcome to sign yourself up for a more hands on demonstration." Of course that would occur later after the important business was over and done with.

"The Aesir has a highly varied one in fact I am confident that it has THE most varied arsenal. The unique hard point system allows quick and easy exchange of equipment both during and before combat situations. As for the actual arsenal it has a flamethrower equivalent, missile launchers, an energy sword, a cloaking system, a radar system, a hand held hard light riot shield, a rapid fire gattling weapon, a fusion blaster which is the equivalent of a main line rifle and lastly two forms of rail cannons. One serving as a long range weapon designed to crack open armoured targets while another functions as essentially a high powered sniper rifle." At this point the Director would take a seat before continuing. "Of course while it is not possible to equip all of the aforementioned weaponry onto a single Aesir we are planning to group them into fire teams of three" There was indeed more to say but for now the Director would hold his tongue and allow what he had said to be digested.

"An ultra-heavy infantry unit," the Spartan commented as the weapons had been listed. "I've seen something similar to the hard-point system being used before, on another Spartan. It was only experimental back then."
"Well it looks like we've come a long way from that, Sebastian." The Admiral said. "Indeed, the arsenal of weaponry is very impressive. The fire-team idea also makes sense given the wide range of weaponry available to these machines."

One of the high-ranking personnel stood behind the Admiral walked up to him. His uniform was decorated with many medals and he appeared to be slightly aged. "Sir, I strongly suggest we wait to see the walker in full demonstration before we make any decisions towards funding the project."
"Noted, General." The Admiral replied before looking back at the Director. "From what you have described, the project sounds promising, but the General has made a good point. We need a proper demonstration before we jump to any conclusions. You wouldn't mind, would you?"

"I won't deny my project is based upon pre-existing research however we took it that one step further." The Director's head twisted to look at the man that spoke up and listened intensely to what he had to say. It was only fair they would ask for a demonstration and fortunately one would be occurring soon. "If you want a demonstration then do please direct your attention to the monitor." With the press of a table mounted button a screen came down over the large window and showed a direct feed from an external camera which showed...a Scarab walker fully functioning and slowly approaching the facility. "Do not worry. It is one of our own piloting the walker for the sake of the demonstration." The Director smiled and picked up a phone from the table ringing a number.

"Apolloyon equip loadout five seven six. Standard anti-titan class equipment." The monitor switched to a view of the Aesir being equipped with large arm mounted cannons, shoulder mounted missile pods and a back mounted jetpack like device. The walker moved out of the hanger and flew across the surface of the moon as the monitor feed switched to display the Aesir and the Scarab in combat live fire too. It was a rather impressive display as the Aesir ran literal circles around the walker dodging its main cannon, blasting away at its legs to bring it down before jumping up onto its back and blasting away at the power core. Luckily the soldiers piloting the Scarab were evacuated with assistance from the Aesir walker and it zoomed away from the Scarab as it exploded. "That gentlemen is what one Aesir can do. Imagine more." The Director sat smugly as the Aesir returned to the hanger dropping off its' passengers along the way.

"Totaled a Scarab in less than five minutes." One of the Elite Commandos said. "It's got my vote."
The Colonial Military General observed the whole demonstration with a scrutinizing look on his face, which progressively softened until the Scarab was destroyed. Admiral Yusuf himself was also impressed with what he saw.

The General said something to another one of the officials, who wore a thoughtful look for a moment and then said something back. The other officials listened in on the conversation but didn't say anything. As soon as it ended, they all nodded to each other and the General walked up to Admiral Yusuf again and whispered something in his hear. Yusuf nodded and turned to look at the Director.

"We're willing to fund the Aesir project. How much do you need?"

The Director was happy with the fact the gathered officials were happy with the performance of the Aesir. He was fortunate the Aesir did not malfunction; sure it was pretty much finished but it needed a LOT of fine tuning before being deployed for proper field usage. "This much Admiral." The Director slid a data file, in the form of a memory card like device, across the table towards the Admiral. "That contains the full information regarding the proposed budget including how much gets spent on what." It was a very detailed and and well thought out budget plan which had been meticulously crafted to avoid putting off the Admiral and his staff from actually coughing up the cash. After all the Aesir was a very expensive machine and while it still worked the A.I that ran it often ran into....problems with its decision making process; resolving that little issue was going to be the first thing that the Admiral's money went into.

Admiral Yusuf took the memory card and looked down at it for a moment, before reaching into one of his pockets and withdrawing a mini tablet-like device. He inserted the memory card into the underside of the datapad and then turned it on. He opened the file detailing information on the project's expenses and examined its contents with a furrowed brow. The General and another one of the VIPs crowded around the datapad and also had a look.

Sebastian meanwhile had his eyes on the Aesir. The massive machine towered over all of them and stood still, yet he couldn't forget the impressive demonstration he had just witnessed. It's size and apparent weight definitely betrayed how much mobility it actually had, which was a lot. The amount of damage someone like him could do in a suit like that would be unimaginable, he thought. Too bad it was only for use of H&M staff though.

The Admiral nodded and looked back up at The Director after saving a copied version of the file to his datapad. He took the memory card out and handed it back to him.
"For what we've seen, you better make the investment worth it, Director. I have faith you will." He said the last part with a smile. "You can expect the money to arrive within under a week." The Admiral said as he extended his hand out to shake.

While the Admiral was looking through the budget breakdown Apolloyon had brought the Aesir back into the hanger, climbed out and returned to the boardroom. As the door opened in would walk the female soldier yet she'd be decked out in her Sleipnir armour (helmet included) which gave her the effect of looking like a miniature Spartan despite only being human. She walked through the boardroom and stood at the Director's side arms crossed behind her back. Her helmet may have been looking forward but her eyes were looking at the Spartan an amused grin crossing her face. "Rest assured I shall Admiral. We already have the walker working. Your funding will simply go to ironing out a few issues with the Aesir and full scale production." How the Project had acquired the money for the Prototype Aesir in the first place was a closely guarded secret one that could potentially bring the project down and put a lot of people in jail.

"Feel free to take your time Admiral. Your vessel is currently refuelling I am told." The Director rose from his chair at the top of the table and nodded respectfully before leaving. Her had left Apolloyon behind to serve as his representative but also to keep an eye on the Admiral and his staff; couldn't have them wandering around the facility and ending up getting lost now could we? Especially given the nature of the secrets at the base's heart. Apolloyon walked towards the Spartan and stood in front of him looking up at him. Despite the difference in their height she still held her back up straight confidently looking into the glass of his helmet. "So this is what meeting a Spartan is like in person. Odd I was expecting it to feel...different?" Apolloyon had indeed been expecting a meeting with the Spartan to conjure up something beyond mere interest. Still perhaps the brute giant of a Spartan might turn out to actually be interesting to talk to?

When Apolloyon walked into the room, Sebastian glanced over to her and examined her armour. It resembled the MJOLNIR GEN2, except... watered down noticeably. The woman clearly wasn't a Spartan. Perhaps another product of the H&M's enigmatic experiments, he assumed.

The Admiral nodded towards the Director as he left before turning to chat with the other representatives. The Elite Commandos likewise turned to chat amongst themselves. Sebastian was about to join their conversation before he noticed Apolloyon, who hadn't left with the Director, walking towards him. He turned to face her. He looked down at her and took note of her confident posture. She may have noticed that his movements were fluid - fast and precise almost like a robot.

"I'm sorry to disappoint, us IVs are the newest model." Sebastian replied, his American accent having a tinge of Hispanic in it. "They programmed us with actual emotions this time." He joked. Underneath his visor, his lips shaped into a slight smirk.

So these newer generations of Spartans actually had at least some amount of emotional depth to them? Wonderful. That would go a long way among soothing other the bad reputation they had with the common soldiery. Most of the Spartans were viewed as separate and apart utterly different beings by the common soldiers, at least those that Apolloyon had met, mainly due to their lack of emotion and their superior performance. Plus the fact they didn't sit down, chat with the other soldiers or engage in any kind of vice only served to further distance them. "Well. I suppose that's a plus in your favour no? Your cold exterior always put the other soldiers off....that said...." She flashed a sly smirk at the Spartan  well aware of what she was about to say.

"I'm the better soldier." Arrogant yes but there was a reason why Apolloyon felt that way. See her fighting skills and military success came not from physical enhancements but from hard work and practice. That was why she felt she was the better soldier as she actually had to work for it. She didn't just get it given to her for free and, unlike Spartans, she was actually significantly more human than a Spartan. Plus Apolloyon happened to have a little secret up her pocket that also explained why she felt "superior" to the Spartans. "But I do have a question....how does sex work for you? Or can you not have it?" Cutting to the point as always she sported a sly grin on her face well aware at the sheer audacity such a question contained. It was designed to see if these Spartans weren't a total bunch of boring stiffs.

Better soldier? Sebastian thought for a moment. That was a broad definition. Physically, he was superior in strength and speed. His knowledge of tactics on the battlefield were also above average, even for a Spartan-IV. It was one of the reasons Aaron had chosen him, wasn't it?

Cold exterior. Perhaps she was referring to the subject of emotions? Emotionally she was better? That didn't make sense to him. Perhaps she kept it together very well on the battlefield? Could be a possibility. Besides, he'd been a Spartan for eight years now. Perhaps she was more experienced than she let on.

Her second question caught him off-guard. However, he noticed how she was very straight-to-the-point in her communication.. combined with her posture, Sebastian guessed that she was playing with him most likely. Very well then, he'd play along.

"The repressed sexual drives were merely a side effect of the original augmentations performed on the SPARTAN-IIs. That didn't stop them from fraternizing however, as there was one documented case of such a thing happening. The SPARTAN-IV augmentations however are much superior and devoid of any side-effects as far as is evident." He explained as-a-matter-of-fact-ly.

"Yes, we can have sex and are much more likely to. But every soldier in his or her line of duty is well aware of military regulations against those practices. We also realize the importance of our duty over our personal desires."

"Ooooooh...very interesting. That's good. If I ever run you into again I might see how good you are at poker." Her lips curled into a feline grin as she placed her helmet back upon her head. As much as she did wish to drag the Spartan off to get involved in the more seedy side of being a solder but sadly, much to her own sadness, Apolloyon had other duties to attend to but on the other hand the Spartan was probably not the type to engage in such seedy behaviour what with his spouting of the offical line and all. "You're welcome to leave whenever you like big man." As Apolloyon exited the room to go carry out her next mission she realised, or more accurately hoped, that he wouldn't try and look into things he wasn't supposed to. Sebastian, the Admiral and the fellow officials would find themselves left alone in the board room with the food cart and attendant as the only company.

Sebastian brushed off the poker comment. He had a job to do and now that the demonstration was over, she was irrelevant to him. She needed to be.

"We'll leave now then." Sebastian said before turning to The Admiral and the others. "Commandos, get in formation. We're leaving." The Elite Commandos scrambled to their designated spots before the entire group left the complex, in the same formation that they had entered.

They got back onto the dropship, which after everyone was sat down and buckled in, took off from the planet.