The Exoskeleton

[Noah Corek]

Fondor
OHTF "The Pit"

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Noah sighed as he looked over the final product of months upon months of back breaking research and development. It was finally the day, the day that the OCE-1 would be tested in front of a large audience for the first time. Well by large audience that meant Potteiger and a handful of advisors. So basically Noah was the lab rat for a group of scientists and engineers, well he wasn't going to be the only lab rat, it was to be him, Gideon and Ilona.

Noah suited up pulling on the exoskeleton over his OACA Mk I just like Gideon and Ilona and picking up a OPR-2 and a OPP-2 off of a nearby by table Noah stood and waited for the testing to begin.

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

Sarge wondered if Ayden had ever felt like this. More specifically, if at any point in their relationship had Ayden gone why does he want this new toy? He had to imagine the man had, if only because of how many Sarge had. In fact, conservative estimates put him at the largest collection of powered armor in the galaxy. And it wasn't relegated to ownership of a mass produced amount of a single variant.

He had the suit from Dagobah.

One from the Plague.

And he was fairly certain there was still another two he had, one of which included a fist with disruptor energy around it. He'd never had the brass balls to turn that one on. It just sounded like he was going to lose a hand. Which, speaking of, he'd brought one of those old, old suits of his. It had been updated from its original design to be a bit more... outwardly appealing? That would, perhaps, make the most sense.

Tinted visor scanning the man, the Last of the Lord Protector's felt his lips pull at the corner. Not a smile, nor a frown. A smirk, really.

[member="Noah Corek"] was, in some ways, him a decade ago. Though he was fairly certain Corek was 'older' than he. Semantics.

Several of the generals around him seemed particularly disinterested, though it was only because set up was always boring. They'd be alert momentarily. "Begin, Corek." Sarge's baritone rumble says, echoing from within the confines of his helmet. Limitless supply of power armor, seriously. Why didn't Corek just ask him about stripping one down? Probably would have saved them some money.

Actually, why hadn't he proposed that to the man himself? Sarge mentally shook himself. He was far too private an individual for him to divulge just how much money had been spent on personal toys like the one he was presently wearing.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Sarge Potteiger"]

Noah nodded as he popped his neck to get rid of some of the stiffness that he had. Powering up the exoskeleton Noah saw a HUD readout of the exoskeletons readout. 'Boost Jump operating at 100% capacity. Mag-Gloves operating at 100% capacity. Grapple Launcher operating at 100% capacity. Auto-Stim Injectors fully loaded with focus and strength enhancers. Loading readout of auxiliary suites. Upper Body Strength Package operating at 100% capacity. Directed EMP Pulse operating at 100% capacity. Wrist Mounted Micro-Grenade Launcher Loaded with 2x Fragmentation Grenades, 1x Smoke Grenades and 1x Stun Grenades.' Smiling that everything was a-okay Noah turned to Gideon and Ilona and gave them a thumbs up to which they returned.

Up in the observation bay a nervous looking scientist stepped in front of the generals and Lord Protector and cleared his throat. "Generals and Lord Protector I'd like to welcome you to the first live-combat field testing of the Omega Combat Exoskeleton Mark I. I'd like you to direct your attention to the combat field below. The Omega Combat Exoskeleton is simply a stripped down set of power armor to the point that the strength enhancing and agility enhancing exoskeleton are the only parts left giving the strength and agility bonuses of a suit of power armor in a light eight point one kilogram package."

Down back on the combat floor Noah, Gideon and Ilona came up on a small obstacle a ten meter high stone wall. Running forwards and with a small press of a button in the palm of the exoskeletons frame the three of them went sailing over the wall.

"As you can see the exoskeleton comes equipped with a number of built in features one of which is small boost jumping jets that allow the wearer to vertically traverse walls, dash from sides and power slide."

The next obstacle was a twenty foot tall metal wall. Running up to it the three testers looked down to the small tacpads that were on the left forearm of the exoskeleton and quickly activated the mag-gloves and began to scale the wall.

"Another built-in feature we included were magnetic gloves that allow the user to traverse metal obstacles to tall for the exo's boost jumping capabilities to tackle."

After going up over the wall and climbing down the other side the next obstacle was a forty meter high stone wall. This time instead of going to the tacpad they went to the right forearm of the suit and activated a device on the exo. Shooting a small grapple up to the top of the wall the rocketed up to the top.

"When the mag-gloves cannot be used and the obstacle is too high to be traversed by the boost jumping capabilities the exo comes equipped with a micro-cable grapple launcher with a titanium-tungsten carbide grapple hook capable of piercing stone, metal and most other types of materials that would make up standard vertical obstacles. Along with those built-in features in also comes with a built-in stim injector and various optional suites. Such as Slicer Tools, a Wrist-Mounted Micro-Grenade Launcher, Slugthrower, Blaster and Flamethrower, Upper and Lower Body Strength Packages, a Quick Reaction Package, a Rebreather, Pneumatic Fists, Shock Gauntlets, a Directed Sonic Pulse and a directed EMP Pulse."

 

[Sarge Potteiger]

The more Sarge watched this, the more he felt like this was a formality, and the more he wondered if Ayden had ever actually believed in his own ideas when funding them. Said mental crisis was predicated by the notion that he could see, at this point in time, no reason to have a powered exoskeleton. Why not just go up for the powered armor? Or go down to save credits? This was looking more and more like a money sink.

He could never see regiments of Pyre soldiers using this, especially when he couldn't see a reason to come up with the idea to begin with. But perhaps that was the point of this - have Corek prove to him it was worth doing.

Or, maybe, he was reading to far into this.

Holder of the purse strings was he, and he was finding he rather liked the power. Though, at the same time, it bothered him to have so much.

No one said a word as they went through the motions. At least not at first. "So are they stopping every time they want to activate something?" He asks, noting that they stopped to not only activate the gloves, but also the grappling hook. At that point they were better off just leveling the walls or flying over them. Sarge had come into this looking for reasons to say 'no.'

Was that the right way to do things? He wasn't sure. So much doubt within himself.

[member="Noah Corek"]