Like all research institutes there are experiments that deal with applications of technology. There are some applications that are not for domestic purposes instead they are geared towards more military usage.

“Well what do you have to show me this year?” barked the general to the manager as he arrived in through a secretive side door.

“We’ve been working on precision laser technology, comfortable body armour and MAAS.” Ticked off the manager, “and the labs are this way.” She pointed to as the general had marched straight past the turn.

“Comfortable body armour?” the general roared and his eyes widened “These whippersnappers,” pointing to the two people who had arrived with him, “don’t need comfortable body armour. They need armour that chaffs, irritates and brings out the worst aggression in a fight. Not something they can sleep in.”

He stopped there with his mouth, his walking and turned to me.

“Just what is a ‘MAAS’?” he asked curiously.

“Machine Assisted Assault Suit.” the manager apparently unfazed by the pervious verbal assault replied.

“Just what is a ‘Machine ASS-isted ASS-ault Suit’?” the general had apparently recovered from the lack of knowledge and began marching down the corridor again ahead of the manager.

The manager turned to me and whispered, “The last general that came here too was an ASS.”

It was several corridors later and more verbal abuse by the general about how slow we walked, how inefficient we were, how slack our regulations were, and how he would run the establishment if he was in charge before we finally reached the demonstration arena.

The demonstration arena is basically a super sized indoor stadium with a dirt floor.

“Ok girls were ready to start.” Yelled the manager from the VIP box.

Two groups of several people of whom only some I knew by name ran onto opposite ends of the pitch. One group was quite normal. Half pushing and half pulling a desk on which was mounted the precision laser we were going to show the general. He did not seem to be very impressed at all as he sat watching through binoculars. On the opposite side of the pitch the other group was setting up watermelons on pedestals.

“This is the precision technology that we have been working on. The distance between from the laser to its target is one kilometre exactly.” The manager explained while he yawned.

He watched the laser fire its beam towards the watermelon and cause it to explode. Every time the laser hit a watermelon the watermelon exploded in a shower of skin and red meat chunks. He clapped twice as if to complement us on good aim. He was obviously not interested.

“Bring out the latecomer.” The manger said into a microphone, which relayed to someone down on the pitch.

The group that had set up the watermelons ran back into the corridor from which they came from. They soon emerge again but this time they were rolling a large metallic plate along its rim. There was nothing on its surface or so that I thought until they turned the plate around so that the other side showed.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/1

Manacled spread eagle to the plate was another girl, she looked terrified. The general turned to look at the newest target that had just been brought in.

“There’s no need to strain to see what is happening.” The manager reassured as she pressed a button in the VIP box. “Live audio and video feed is possible just relax and watch on the screen.”

I could see the girl clearly now and she was being mounted upside down so that her head was close to the ground and her long hair was touching it. I could hear her yelling, pleading, begging to the manager to let her go and she would never be late again for a presentation but the manager just ignored her.

It was then that the camera refocused on her right leg as the laser began to cut it way through the metal disk. We could hear her cry out that it was hot and see her leg spasm as she contracted her muscles to try to free herself. Try as she could she could not and that was a good thing. I don’t believe that the manager wanted her to injure herself by losing an arm or a leg.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/2

As I turned to look at the general I could see that he was rubbing his hands together. He was obviously enjoying this demonstration way more than the watermelon shooting.

Turning back to the screen again I could see that the laser had moved to the girl’s right hand. She had her hand clenched in a fist and was trying to pull her arm out of the manacle. The laser moved quickly around the outline and was soon on its way to her shoulders.

She had given up struggling by now and was silently mouthing a pray of some sorts as the laser cut around her head. The general was clapping madly as we saw her get a hair cut as it worked its way from the girl’s right to her left.

It was several minutes later that the laser had cut around the entire girl and she fell from her upside down upright position onto her back. Tears were in her eyes and she was muttering something that we could not quite hear.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/3

“Excellent! Excellent!” the general was musing, clapping his hands together loudly. “That’s the type of torture device we want.”

Several minutes later the admiration from the general that was broadcasted down to us had died down and the helpers had swapped out the laser for several different weapons of various gauges and ammo.

It was finally my turn. I had designed new armour that made use of nanites. In previous testing of my programming of them I had successfully completed a program that rendered any living object covered in the nanites to be impervious to next to all forms of damage. Next to because there is only so much testing one can do in a lab.

Containment was the next phase in testing. Metallic containers did not help as the nanites used them to repair themselves causing massive holes to appear in the container and allow the nanites themselves to leak out. The newest container I was holding is made from glass and is about two coke cans long with a rubber cap. It was specially designed as it contained the program for release and recovery of the nanites.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/4

I pressed the button for release and twisted the cap off. I cut my finger along the rim of the glass and I winced in pain. I watched the nanites spread thickly up my arm and over my shoulder. Taking a deep breath I kept both my eyes and mouth shut as long as the nanites spread. Feeling them move up and over my head, down past my waist and finally reaching my feet covering every inch of skin.

I heard the beep from the cap signalling the completion of the process. I carefully placed the glass container and the control cap inside my locker and headed out towards the stadium’s pitch. I passed the full length mirror that was next to the door on my way out. What it reflected was a metallic silver sleek looking woman.

I hurried to the centre of the pitch of the stadium and signalled that I was ready. Hopefully there was no programming glitch as I did not want to die. The first of the helpers walked up to me with a 9mm pistol and pointed it at my chest from no more than ten meters.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/5

The person that exhibited the new body armour looked weird. She was covered from head to foot in silver even her hair was silver. Her colleague approached her gun in hand and fired.

I had expected her to die on the spot from such a shot but from the screen in slow motion I could see that the bullet had been deflected form her skin. The woman who had just fired that shot retreated behind another. She was wielding an AK-47 soviet era weapon. She squeezed the trigger and the machine gun fire spitting bullets in the direction of the silver clad woman.

It was absolutely unbelievable. That woman just stood there and every single bullet that hit her bounced harmlessly off. I couldn’t understand it. The performance was getting even more dangerous as a shoulder fired missile had been aimed at her. It struck its intended target blowing dust everywhere and enshrouding her.

I had my images of her being blow to bits but as the dust cleared she was still standing there. Her arm outstretched. It looked as if she had stopped the missile with her hand. She stood there smugly with only her eyes showing a different colour from her body.

Whatever she was wear was from the stuff of fantasies as I finally saw a Challenger tank and Multiple-Rocket Barrage truck drive into the stadium. The tank and the barrage truck turned so that there aim was her. Then they let loose their attack. The woman in silver was again surrounded by explosions and dust.

This time the woman walked calmly out of the fray unscathed.

I had obviously impressed the general. He just sat there with his mouth open saying that what I had just done was impossible by strategic and tactical standards. I just waved to him and saw him meekly wave back at me before I walked back to the changing rooms.

I opened my lock and held in my hand the glass container that would tell the nanites to enter their container. Pressing another button on the cap I waited for them to move. I pressed again and again but the nanites were still covering me. I wondered what was wrong. Did I make a programming error?

I took out my laptop that had been in my locker, linked it up with the cap and ran the program. Its simulation showed that the nanites should have been contained again at the end. So why wasn’t this happening?

The program was executed again but in real time and I watched as huge blocks of errors were generated on the screen. I couldn’t understand a batch of the nanites were reporting functioning problems and causing the entire lot to stop moving as a safeguard.

Investigating further into the cause of the problem and the screen returned the command that iron was interfering with the nanites. ‘Iron?’ I thought. I had taken everything off and applied the nanites in the nude. Where was it getting iron from?

I looked at myself and then remembered that I had cut myself prior to the application of nanites. I looked at my finger and realized that until it fully healed I was going to be this colour for a long time.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/6

The last demonstration was going to be up soon. The Machine Assisted Assault Suit is still currently in development but should be functional as long as the wearer doesn’t push its abilities.

I could see her now entering the pitch. The suit’s current design consists of many hydraulic tubes and sensors. Its base programming is to amplify the strength of the user based on the electric signals that are sent through the wearers muscles. Being only in its skeletal phase has already proved to be a good base design as the hydraulic tubes follow the structure of the human body.

The wearer waved her hand at me indicating that she could start at any time. I spoke into the microphone again but this time I had the setting on speakers.

“Your demonstration is to tear apart the tank in front of you.” I told her.

I heard what the manager had said and I seriously doubted that the suit I was wearing would function the way it should. I was quite surprised when we were drawing lots in the changing room that the suit was still in skeletal design. ‘Skeletal design’ means that all the pipes, tubes and the wearer can be clearly seen.

I walked towards the tank and grabbed its gun mount. Lifting forcefully upwards I felt the suit automatically kick in and soon I had wrenched the gun mount free from the tanks body exposing a large gaping hole of the tanks engine.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/7

Unbelievable the gun mount must weigh several tons yet I was holding it easily with the suit on. I could hardly explain my surprise and began revelling in the suits potential destructive power. I had never known vehicle demolition was so much fun as I stripped the tank of its trends and began removing its plated armour.

I was so taken up by the delight of this new found power that I failed to notice a jagged piece of armour cut through one of the many exposed hydraulic hoses.

“That’s enough” I heard from the speakers. The manager had called an end to the demonstration. I walked back to the changing room and pushed on the door.

Suddenly the weight of the suit caught up with me and I crumpled to a heap in the door frame. I looked around. Why had the suit failed? I tried to move but the suit was too heavy and I could not reach the release mechanism that I was lying on. I stretched my neck and finally caught the answer to my problem. A thick brown oil trail, lead back to the pitch where I had destroyed the tank.

With the oil gone from its hydraulics the suit was only a lump of heavy metal. I cried out for help.

D3_M/Menarch's Research Institute Military/8

“That was an amazing demonstration this year again from the Menarch’s Research Institute.” The general said smiling his face off. “I will be sure to secure the additional funding that this fine establishment requires to help our country defend itself.”

He was soon on his army helicopter and began his journey back to base. Meanwhile our cleanup job had only just begun.