HALO 2: The beating heart

“A man who enjoys his work is always going to feel better at the end of the day.”

It’s these words that Dr Shen has lived by his entire life, tempered though they are against the backdrop of the on-going war against The Covenant.

Positivity is hard to hold on to, especially in dark times such as these, but there is a glimmer of hope. Folks need heroes, and we have one now. Our hero’s return from the destruction of Reach was reported in the news a thousand times over, and he’s now seen as a beacon of humanity’s brave stand against the unstoppable purple tide.

Since being posted to the weapons facility in Seongnam, Dr Shen has had one important task: miniaturising and increasing the output of the fusion reactor to be built into the next iteration of the MJOLNIR armour system. Dr Shen believes that it is the essential part of the platform, the beating heart of the system.

Fusion packs carried by regular UNSC soldiers are not exactly bulky to begin with, but Dr Shen’s task was to cut the size of them in half for integration into MJOLNIR. It was a tall order, but SPARTANS aren’t exactly regular soldiers, and their gear is far from regular.

Word around the labs are that the UNSC is pushing for early delivery of the Mark VI armour system to the Cairo Orbital MAC Platform, and Dr Shen is putting the final touches to his prototype assembly. A quick test run is all it needs and he allows himself a moment of relief. He asks his AI to find the next available slot in his supervisor’s schedule and begins to write up his notes.

He almost submits his notes to the supervisor’s AI, but he stops, pondering for a moment. He’s just built the beating heart so, with a smile, Dr Shen adds the suffix "BH" to the fusion reactor’s serial number then presses ‘Send’.