A Minor Conflict

Malphas patiently used a holographic projection to explain the functions of the armor custom-built for the Praetorian Guard. This was the Sovereign's order: Zero was to understand the Power Armor that would accompany him for the rest of his life. Once the Mars Foundry project was complete, some people would return to Earth and be brought fully under the Praetorian Guard's rule, producing weapons exclusively for them.

Zero knew that the Sovereign had not handed over all of his technological reserves to Mars. If he passed the trials, the mechanical scholars returning from Mars would, under the Praetorian Guard's—and especially his—supervision, gain limited access to some forbidden technologies. In fact, under the Sovereign's guidance, Zero had once examined Kamar-Taj's prison and the forbidden technologies the Sovereign had brought back. He knew that any one of those tightly contained things might destroy the world, and that limited research would help them understand their future enemies.

Even if specialists would be responsible for the Praetorian Guard's armaments in the future, the Guard still had to learn how to maintain their own weapons and armor.

How to inspect and maintain Uru Metal energy cables from the Dwarves' forge world, Vibranium transmissions from Wakanda, neural probes and pulse fibers from the Celestials, and how to identify problems through error codes. The data contained within a suit of Praetorian Guard armor was no less than that of a Helicarrier. Vast amounts of metallurgical data, mechanical models, and servo code cascaded across the screen, and Zero's modified brain rapidly comprehended them. He could understand the metallurgical achievements embodied in his armor, the light of human ingenuity reflected in its shock absorption, servo, and transmission systems. The artistic beauty displayed by the gorgeous gems painstakingly cut by craftsmen and the armor's sculpted decorations was merely the least