LSDF Akahar, Deck 1, Launch Bay
Ny'za looked through the manual of the Winter II as the machine was running through the pre-flight checks, she was never really good with taking in knowledge from books and other text and it didn't help that this one was so complicated. However she couldn't just sit around and fumble through it so she opened her comm line and called the rest of the team.
"I have gotten into a frame that resembles the Winter model but it says it's a Winter-Two and there is a lot I do not recognize. Does anyone know how to pilot this?" Her voice was soft and meek but there was a hint of worry and desperation as she tried to keep her composure.
♫
Pilot Preist - "Body double"
"Good morning, this is your captain speaking" a voice tickled throughthe comms, the audio scrunched by jamming. The blank empty glassy dome of the machine's helmet came to life; white text rolling in rapidfire streams of terminal commands in the darkness. "You're going to want to lose the manual before the cockpit hard-seals; that's a maintanance guide and the cabin gets pretty cramped. Go on. Throw it. I'll walk you through this." It was the small pale consultant, Aiesu.
Ny'za blinked at the response she got, but not one to ignore direction, she literally tossed the manual out of the cabin, not sure where it landed afterwards. "I've tossed it out." She spoke clearly so her words weren't missed.
The spool of text now froze in place, the terminal stuck on some unknown prompt.
"Good girl. There should be two alcoves where your shoulders are like big long open sleeves. Stick your arms in those. There's a toggle-switch on the right side. I want you to pull it. Make sure all of you is inside the frame before you do this or you could lose something; the frame's going into scramble-mode and it'll do most of the startup for you."
The pilot took a quick look around to make sure she was properly situated inside, she wasn't very meaty in the first place so she only had important bits to lose. Once she was sure it wouldn't catch her when it closed she reached in the sleeves with her arms and flipped the switch like instructed.
With a low groan of what sounded like muscle, the cabin locked into place: parts neatly sliding together like a jigsaw before: sealing up slowly; a pop in Ny'za's ears as the cabin pressurized. It was tight around her body: Not a room with a seat but like an injection molding template with a front and a back, locking to hold her body in place. The exceptions were her head and arms. The whole thing adjusted itself to fit.
Red dots slowly lined up along through the front of the large open helmet like a bar-code reader: at first blinding. And then something strage: She could see her own hand and even the interior of the alcove including the controls as if the cockpit were transparent; even the depth real. Beneath each hand was something resembling the bastard child of an ergonomic mouse, a videogame controller, a throttle and an ejection lever, laden with buttons.
One stood out: Pulsating orange.
"On your right. Big glowing button. Push it."
"You mean this orange one?" Spoke Pitch as she pushed the button. She wasn't sure what exactly it would do but it couldn't result in anything stranger than what had just happwned. She reminded herself as well to look all this stuff up later too.
For a fraction of a second, every nerve in her body was on fire: excruciating: Gone as quickly as it came. The outside world began drawing itself in as if someone were painting it by hand in fast-forward: light and form beginning to fill itself in not flat like a painting but in three dimensions, even seeing thruogh surfaces and walls. The entire process skipped the act of eyesight: It was more like dreaming: imagery skipping her eyes and painted directly in her head. It was knowing, not seeing.
What she couldn't understand is why she could not only see what was directly infront of her but also what was aside and even behind her regardless of where she looked. She could see colors she didn't even know existed and the entire sense of scale in the deck-hanger had been adjusted: She wasn't in a tall machine but rather, everything felt smaller.
Vectors and numbers filled the corners as a HUD began drawing itself in as the machine ran an inventory and diagnostic on itself: a slow sense of awareness of a new body shape around herself slowly filling her senses.
While she'd expected it to feel like piloting, the experience was more like a brain transplant. Joints reacted. Posture adjusted. A low hum of a powerplant roared like a tiger where a heart-beat should have been, revving like a motor-cycle engine skewed through some bizzare bank of synthesizers.
"Don't panic; you've just handed your autonomic functions over to the frame: you're fine, don't worry. Its managing your breathing, heart-rate, all that. In return, you're managing the machine. Can you move?"
Pitch gritted her teeth as she felt the sudden jolt to her nervous system. She thought that would be all that was weird but it was followed by many more strange sensations she did not usually associate with piloting. The visuals felt almost sureal as she tried to adjust to what she was seeing. "This is...not like the original Winter.."
Rather than panic she was more curious with these new feelings, it feel like she had been given a new more powerful body, one with an ample backside as well. She was told to test the movement, but what was not too sure how to go about that, the controls didn't make sense to her. She assumed then Aiesu ment her own body then and tried to move her arms and legs around to make sure she wasn't stuck.
"I don't have time to walk you through everything. You'll notice your upper body can still move in the cockpit. That you're both the frame and inside it at the same time." a voice tickled through Ny's senses. Bizzarely, she could not only hear where the radio-transmission was coming from but even see it, its color and bizzarely its taste.
Outside, the metal giant was slowly coating itself with what resembled a laqeur coating of oily glossy black: drying into a matte black as its fingers flexed in Ny's vision. The strange hand of two thumb and two index fingers adjusted itself: Transforming like clockwork into a more familiar assembly of four fingers and a thumb.
"Our mutual friend here runs off a combination of regular hand-controls that you'll mostly recognise and something called intention recognition. Its a bit like how when you tell yourself you want to walk, you 'just do it' instead of putting one foot infront of the other: Almost all operation of the frame works in this way. You make decisions, it acts on them. Ballistics computation, evasion, close combat; it crunches numbers in simulations and comes up with the best way to do the thing you want."
With a resounding thud, the frame took its first step; turning slowly to glance over its massive shoulders: Long surf-board like winglets along the back of its hips adjusting and flexing. It felt almost like power-armor.
"Alright, see the armory on your right? You don't need a deck-crew to mount up. Let's gear up"
"Intention Recognition? Is that why so many of the controls for fine adjustments missing?" Ny'za was not sure if she was relieved or worried to hear that, but at least it meant she didn't have to memorize the position of so many things.
She looked to her right when the armory was mentioned and nodded reflexivly "Yes the armory is to the right. But should I do a sensor check first? I'm seeing things like radio signals visually should that be happening?" She chose to still make her way to the armory even if the sensors were weird, she didn't have time to just stand around after all.
"Yeah. You'll "see" pretty much any electrical field. Engines, reactors, weapons, shields... They'll have different smells and tastes that'll give you a best guess of what made them. Its a bit like hunting." Aiesu replied. The frame was already walking; each foot-step an intense thud as it brought itself before the equipment in question. It almost felt like riding a horse.
"The only thing you've got on manual right now is fuel consumption -- it runs on air and water -- master-arm to toggle weapons to live, and what we call radience trade-off. Its the big blue dial on your left: dial up for more power and mobility: Dial down for silent running. You'll feel the difference. See anything here you like?"
The hanger wall was lined with all manner of rifles and missile-tubes and blocks of unknown type and function. The strangest thing was that Ny'za recognised them despite never having seen them before. Somewhere, her unconscious mind knew the function of each and every single one of them.
The first was something long, large and familiar resembling a cross between a giant flame-thrower and an automatic machine-cannon: the packet rifle. They clipped neatly into those long hips on the fins and what felt like a second pair of arms: swinging powerfully to lock beneath the arms like a demented switchblade or pole-arm. She held them yet her hands were still free.
Second, the blocks. Those were missile-tubes, worn like pockets on the legs. All pre-loaded.
Without even realizing, her hands took a set of four conventional rifles: Structol ribbon streaming from the frame's fore-arm as she taped them together: the stuff oozing and hardening to form a new housing, mounted over-arm. Auto-cannon.
Smoothly, panels across the shoulders swivelled open. Each already filled with small round red objects. The same panels slid shut with a resounding thud.
Finally, something resembling a cross between a wine-bottle and a shark, taller than a person mounted itself: a shipping torpedo, one on the inside of each of those huge fins.
"Sorry, took over for a moment there. I think you know what most of it does already but holla if you don't. Ever see those cartoons where the heroes used to shoot from their fingers? You can project a plasma blade or pellet-shot from each. Variable spread, fire-sequence, all that. You don't need a saber to do it anymore. Also keep in mind: your wrists, on the big main arms: There's two hands at the end of each. One's locked down, holding that second weapon, so the barrel points toward your elbow."
"You can switch between it and the sabers in your fingers just by swapping hands. Or if you drop the packet-rifle, you've got ten fingers on that arm. There's also the personal-scale set on the chest. If you need to open doors, operate anything, shit like that they're useful. You okay? Sorry if this is all a bit sudden."
The situation was rather dizzying, sometimes the machine did what she told it and it felt like her own body, others Pitch would lose control to the override and it would move on its own. It was all very strange and took a lot of getting used to, thankfully she was not the type to get motion sick otherwise she might have thrown up already.
"I think I understand most of the weapons...there is a lot to work with however." Noticing that control had been restored to her, she gently did a fitting check just to make sure every thing was secure. "These missiles and packet rifles will see the most use I think...the beast can't survive in space right?"
"No, she's as good in space as you are" a Aiesu sighed. "Your frame's technically overweight now but the centrifuges will compensate for you so don't worry. You're going to need everything you're carrying, trust me. Open up with the missiles early if you can, alphastrike if you can. You'll need the advantage. Everything checks out. Ready to launch?"
♫
Gayane's Adagio - Khachaturian
Ny'za let out a whimper at being informed about the capabilities of the creature. She was hoping she could simply ai in blowing up the ship and everything would be fine but it sounded like it was likely that she would have to fight now. "Missiles first to lose weight..got it..I'm ready for launch." As she spoke she tried to navigate the machine to the launch platform on her own wanting to get one last chance at moving the thing around before she was in space.
"Go easy, okay?"
In spite of its weight, the frame moved fluidly; like a boxer getting ready to spar: feet off the ground then back down, shaking the hanger: hands moving, shoulder rolling smoothly. Briefly, Ny'za caught a look at her own reflection; like a suit of armor with big bulky shoulders and arms like a power-lifter, legs like long streamlined dolphins. Who was this person?
The frame's head turned to face the vacuum of space; determined as its feet locked into the catapult launcher; the stop-sign christmas tree of launch conditions on her right counting down in amber; a deep beep every time it stepped down.
Hitting green, the frame shook violently; flashing like a bullet out of the hanger, like it had been sucked out. The catapult platform came with it, still locked to her feet was ripped from its housing and carried along still attached to the frame: Like an arm ripped from its socket, the deck sparking and glowing hotly from the friction; a two hundred meter long twisted arm of metal ripped out of the flooring.
A wink of blinding plasma boiled the platform's mounting locks before kicking it away into the darkness. The Akahar was now a small figure behind her, glittering in the distance.
Ny'za was amazed at how delicate the supposedly overweight frame could move, and the launch went off without a hitch. Once she was a safe distance away from the Akahar she turned to look back at it, bringing herself to a gentle stop. "This is Pilot Ny'za in the Winter-Two, launch went smoothly and the launch path is now clear." This time she spoke not only to Aiesu, but to Ha'reiel as well, wanting to make sure he was aware.
Her vision was lensed as she looked back: The tiny spec of the Akahar some how as large and as detailed as if it were still near to her; like a sniper's scope but without the loss of peripheral vision, sense of scale or false proximity.
"Listen. You've never tried to kill one of these things before; If you think its dead, keep shooting until you're running empty; its the only way to be sure. Last thing. Saturation fire and alpha-strikes are your best friend but you should be able to outpace it in CQC using thrusters to assist your movement if you have to. If you have any trouble or you panic, remember the frame will do all the complicated shit for you; you just have to know what it is you want to do. On behalf of the consortium, I'd like to remind you that by using a prototypical product in a wartime scenario that we are not legally responsible for what happens to you out there; and would like to remind you that this isn't respective of the final product. Your statutory rights are not affected. Take care of yourself, kid."
Click.
Ny'za let out a sigh at the last bits of advice and then a chuckle at the business like conclusion "I guess that means I'm officially a test pilot now." She tried to relax her posture and looked around, keeping her eyes on the escape pod launch bay, wanting to make sure they all launch.
