"True," Skippy agreed over the speaker in the bulkhead. "Thuranin battlegroups include support ships with full fabrication facilities, individual warships only have limited ability for fabrication."

"That was a serious problem," Giraud continued, "until Sergeant Thomson thought of the spacesuits on our Kristang ship. These suits are armored and powered for combat, motors in the limbs enhance the wearer's movements, so the weight will not be a problem for humans."

The Kristang suit did look cool, I walked up to it and rapped my knuckles on the armor. It was solid. Weapons could be attacked to brackets at the wrists, so the wearer only needed to control the trigger. The faceplate was some kind of smoked glass, maybe it wasn't even glass. Ironman, or a mech suit from Halo or a dozen other video game, came to mind when I looked at the suit. "Good thinking, Sergeant. The next question is, are these suits too big?"

"That is a problem." Giraud admitted.

Thomson went around to the back of the Kristang suit, where the back hinged open, and carefully stepped inside it. Giraud helped him suit up, and get the back closed. Status indicators lit up on the wrist displays, and the suit took two careful steps forward, then the faceplate retracted so I could see Thomson's face. "It's not ideal," Thomson said, his words distorted. His face was hidden from the nose down. "My chin hits the bottom of the helmet, I can't open my mouth all the way too speak properly."

"Sergeant Thomson is almost two meters tall," Giraud said.

"That's six feet four to you, Joe," Skippy added helpfully.

"And he is barely able to use the suit effectively," Giraud continued. "The suit can be adjusted, and Skippy says he can fabricate some components for us."

"A limited number of components," Skippy cautioned, "don't get too excited."

"How much of an adjustment?" I stood on my toes to look in the helmet. Thomson did not appear to be comfortable.

"The maximum adjustment, for practical use in combat, is limited to people six feet and taller." Skippy stated.

"I'm six three," I mused, "who else?" Thomson and Giraud were tall, so was Chang.

"Seven people," Giraud ticked off on his fingers, "me, you, Sergeant Thomson, Colonel Chang, Specialist Putri, Private Marsden, and privates Marsden, Darzi and Putri."

"Seven people? Is that enough for a successful raid?" I asked.

"Six people," Giraud corrected me. "You're not going on the raid, sir. You need to remain aboard the Dutchman, and command the operation."

"He's right, Joe," Skippy added. "I'll be here flying the dropships and monitoring sensors, somebody needs to tell me what to do."

Trying to keep the irritation off my face, I said tersely "We'll discuss that later. Are six people enough to achieve the mission?"

"No." Giraud stated flatly.