You did what?!

Who: Zodar
Where: Disused Cargo Bay 56
On the flicking of the ignition switch, the confined cockpit lit up
with the expected array of blinking lights and gauges.
All readings were nominal. Apparently. I mean, the gauges could have
been faulty and nobody would be any wiser.
Disregarding this, the pilot continued with the test. Taking a step
forward was easy, but the act of jumping was a whole different
matter. There were millions of gyro calculations and servo
adjustments that worked together via the core CPU in an instant to
land safely back on the ground.
In the early prototypes, most of the hard work had been done by the
pilot, who, incredibly, had to perform all the adjustments manually
and then maintain balance, while walking.
It was for this reason that early prototypes, as a rule, never jumped.
But, after some adjustments and additions to the design
specifications, the jump landing sequence was now fully automated and
a brand new LED was positioned on the dash that was activated
whenever the landing systems were initiated.
Zodar didn't really know why he'd put that there, but it was blue, so
it looked cool and he liked making his things look cool, so he left
it where it was.
Chris Zodar looked around the cockpit he'd designed. It wasn't the
most spacious of places to be, but this was after all technically a
suit. A Mech Suit to be more precise. The Pilot was pretty much
suspended in the torso of the Mech, with most of the suit's functions
controlled by two joysticks, but some more basic motor functions were
accessed though foot controls.
The suit was capable of running faster than a normal human and was at
least 3 times stronger, doubling as an environmental suit when the
cockpit was sealed up. With the new jumping systems, it was now the
most manuverable thing on the ground the Blue Dwarf had, except for
perhaps the model 320 mining suits, but they were recalled after one
blew up under the stress of, um, Rocket Propelled Grenade, and they
simply didn't have the armor and weapons loadout that the Mech Suit
had. These weapons consist of mining lasers and general stuff Zodar
found lying around. To be more exact, shoulder mounted bazookoids,
wrist mounted mining lasers, several live ammo automatic rifles in
the legs and one rubber band gun in the palm of the right hand.
To top it off, The suit was only slightly larger than an average
human body, enabling it to walk down Blue Dwarf's corridors without
it scraping along the edges, making that awful screeching sound of
metal on metal that everybody hates.
Zodar ran in the suit to one end of the room, slid to a metallic
halt, then sprinted the other way as fast as he could. He ended with
a long jump which was cleanly executed.
He drew his clipboard closer to the cockpit viewscreen in one of the
suit's hands. The other hand held a pen which Zodar used to tick off
all the checks he'd tested.
"All the basic systems seem to be in perfect working order." He said
to himself, powering down the suit and exiting from it.
"Hmm, it needs a name..." Said Zodar, walking around it, looking it
over. He began pondering several different possibilities in his head,
when he stumbled on the perfect one.
"I'll call it EVE1." He said confidently while dialling up Jay
Chrylser's Comm link. "Jay, It's Zo here. I have something down here
in Disused Cargo Bay 56 that I think you might be interested in
testing for me."
"Is it dangerous?" Jay asked.
"Absolutely." Chris responded.
"Be there in 10." Jay finished.
<TAG>
OOC: Has it really been *that* long since I've written <TAG>? Yeah?
Well, uh, never mind then... (Yes, Zodar's back. *grins*)