Thirty six years later, the war against the invading life form still rages on. In a suburban area an old man knocked on one of the houses door, he was white, with clear blue eyes, recently shaved face with prominent cheekbones, and a partially white hair that made it look like a blend of salt and black pepper. His body was covered by a full armor like black suit, with a small one centimeter yellow line along the arms from the middle finger to the shoulder. It had a small pouch on the left leg.
A younger man, with some resemblance to the old man, but a full black scalp and a well trimmed mustache, opened the door "Hey dad! What you doing here?"
"Grandpa!" a ten years old kid with black hair, brown eyes and white skin, ran towards the old man. The boy had the same sharp, thin nose of his father and his grand father.
"Happy birthday Sammy" the old man lifted up the kid with ease and hold him up to his face.
"It was a week ago gramps"
"I know, I know, my suit malfunctioned, sorry I couldn't make it"
"You are here now. Oh! Did you got me a present?"
"Of course I did"
"For real? What is it?"
The old man gave the kid a paper sheet that he took out of the pouch. The kid read the paper.
"No way! No way! No way! Dad look, look at this, I can be an exo-pilot"
"What? What have you done?" the father of the kid looked at the old man with clear anger.
"William, he has the right to know, is his choice"
"No! He doesn't!" William yelled. "He is just a kid, his head is full of tales of your glorious battles and government propaganda, he doesn't know what it is like"
"But I wanna kill Tenctopus like grandpa did"
"Keep quiet Samuel, this is not a joke, your grandfather need to learn his boundaries."
The kid looked at his father and his grand father argue in silence.
"I just want him to know, I never forced you to join the program, I won't force him either"
"First, even if you want, you can't force my son, to do anything. Second, you always looked at me like with disdain, in your eyes I am just a coward, all because I didn't want to throw my life away as a pilot"
"Throw your life away? Take that back young man! You know how many good man died and still keep dying so you can have this peaceful life?"
"Too bad for them"
"You ungrateful..."
William looked at Samuel and then turned towards the old man.
"Show him!"
"What!?"
"Show your grandson what you look like under that suit, show your grandson how Exo-pilots ends up like"
"Thats not fair, technology has improved in the last twenty years, now we have..."
"Show him, dad!"
The old man looked around, troubled.
"Lets go inside"
A few of the neighbors were watching and gossiping. This was a family issue, they had no reason to know, the two men and the kid went inside the house.
"Grandpa, whats going on?"
"Show him!"
The old man sat down in the sofa and manipulated what looked like a watch on his left wrist. The suit he had on deflated. His breathing turned heavy.
"Help me" he asked William, who didn't move.
"Please, you know I can't do it alone"
William finally complied.
They removed the trunk part of the suit. The old man was pure bones and skin, there were a few squared bulges under the skin of his arms, chest and back that looked like tumors of about ten centimeters and many other bigger implants, on his abdomen which was full of scars. There was almost no muscle mass. The man who effortlessly lifted his grand son a few minutes back, now looked like a emaciated living mummy. The old man and William put the suit back on and activated it. The little boy was shocked.
"This is what could happen to you. Most pilots end up like this. Those tumors you saw are the artificial neural synapse for the exoskeletons and some artificial helping organs your grand father needs to survive after his body got destroyed by the exoskeleton. That is why he could not come to you birthday, his suit suffered a malfunction and had to be repaired, the life support unit he has at home doesn't allow him to move around freely"
The boy got closer to the old man and gave him a hug.
"Thanks grandpa"
The old man held the kid on his arms, his eyes wet. The kid turned around and looked into his father eyes like only a decided men would.
"I will be a pilot, dad"
William was taken aback.
"Yeah well, you are just a kid and you still need to pass the nervous system compatibility lab test, half of the candidates don't pass. You still have six long years to wait. I really hope you change your mind."
"I won't" said the kid.
"Go play to your room, I need to talk to your grandpa"
The kid left the room as instructed with the results from the lab test still on his hand. Once on his bedroom he still could hear his dad and grandfather arguing.
"Are you happy now?"
"It is not about what I want, son"
There was an uncomfortable silence that lasted for a few minutes.
"It seems we have reached a stalemate. The news say that the enemy can't pass through our pilots, but some people say is the other way around, that we are running short on pilots and that every year the number of recruits is dwindling" William tried to change the subject.
"That is classified information, I am retired, I don't have first hand information anymore and even if I had it, I wouldn't give it to you, you are a civilian."
"You really hate the fact I didn't follow on your footstep, don't you?"
"It is not about that. It is just how things are. You are not a soldier, stop asking for a soldier information"
"Such a father you are"
"I did the best I could" the old men got up.
"Say hello to mom from me"
The old man nodded. "come visit some day, you mother would love to see you and Sammy"
"Sorry about that, I been too busy"
"I know"
They said their goodbyes. Samuel saw his great father depart from his window in the second floor and weaved away at him. The old man weaved back.
The next day at the local primary school, the kids went all crazy.
"Wow! you got a positive test result. Nice" said one of the kids.
"That means nothing, I know there is another test you must pass, they take a huge needle and stab it in your brain, so I know you won't do it, you are a coward" a blond kid with blue eyes and a bulky body said.
"I will do it, I will pass that test, my grandpa was a pilot, my dad had the aptitude too, I will become a pilot" Samuel assured.
"You will run away when you see the needle going into your head, like your father did" taunted the blond kid, irritating Samuel.
"Thats enough Cole, and for you information the brain biopsy is not used anymore, now days they only take a small sample of a never from the hand and use it for the neural tolerance test" the professor called to attention. Once the kids had calmed down the class started and the day went by smoothly, however, before the class was dismissed the teacher made an announcement.
"I just spoke to the school principal. The city is opening a new Exo exposition museum, old decommissioned exoskeleton armors from the first generation will be exposed to the public. The schools got granted a free first opening, full trip."
"Yeah!" the kids went crazy with the news.
"Okay, okay, calm down, the trip will be in two weeks, get permission form your parents and prepare accordingly, that is all for today, class dismissed" the teacher got out while the kids collected their belongings.
All the kids dreamed of seeing at least the machines from thirty years ago up close. Most of the kids had all the models from the first three generations, the fourth generation was about to drop, it was delayed two years in order to refine the technology even further.
"I hope they have the Saboteur, that was a brutal machine from the first generation" one of the kids said.
"Nothing beats my grandpa Executioner when it comes to a close quarters fights" said Samuel proudly.
"Please! That tin can of you grandpa had no chance against The Stinger" Cole rebutted.
"Pft! The Stinger was only powerful in a straight line, is true the Executioner had a superior mobility, but the best brawler was the Bloodhound" another kid chimed in.
They spend all their time arguing which one of the old machines was the best weapon. Meanwhile the girls laughed at them.
"Captain Broflosky would beat all those old machines in a minute" one of the girls mocked.
"Thats not fair Emma, the Femme Fatale is a modern machine, if it was an old machine there would be no way for her to compete, there is no way she could beat my grandpa in his prime"
"Excuses, we girls are just better pilots"
The discussion was just getting heated when the teacher came back.
"Enough, go home already. You lot better behave, don't want the trip to be canceled, do you?"
The kids went silent. The threat proved effective. They collected their stuff and walked down the hallways.
"The stinger is the best"
"Shut up, is the executioner"
The discussion continued in a whispered voice.