by Mark Harritt
Dr. Humphreys face glowed at the understanding on Mike’s face, “Exactly. With that data, we were able to map your neural activity with each movement of your body. And, the more we had you do, the broader a roadmap we havefor your neural activity. With this roadmap, we’re able to interface you with the mecharmor for integration, which will allow you to fully control the suit. That plus the pressure controls allow you to move almost instantaneously, as if your mech armor was part of your body.”
Mike pursed his lips and thought about this. It seems that these guys thought about everything.
“Plus, you won’t be able to do basic controls with your hands, such as flip switches, so you have to think about what you want, and have it happen.”
Mike asked, “Such as?”
“Such as being able to talk over communications, zoom in your visual, increase your audio, turn on targeting, fire your weapons.”
The last made Mike’s ears perk up, “Weapons? These things have weapons? What kind of weapons?”
Dr. Humphreys chuckled, “Well, unfortunately you don’t have the need to know, or have clearance for that information, so I can’t tell you what kind of weapons.”
Dr. Humphreys put his hand on Mike’s arm, moved in and looked into Mike’s eyes, “Which is a shame, because it is just as cool as the Mech armor.” He leaned away from Mike.
“Wicked,” Mike whispered, in awe thinking about the weapons.
Bob shook his head, “Dr. Humphreys, you shouldn’t tease him like that.”
Dr. Humphreys winked.
Mike was really warming up to Dr. Humphreys and Bob.
Dr. Humphreys turned to Mike, “Would you please go ahead and put on the suit?”
Mike nodded, “Sure, I can do that.”
Mike walked over and picked up a suit and thenproceeded to a screened area to put it on. He stripped down completely to put on the suit. It was sized to fit him. He took off his civilian clothes and put on the jump suit. The armored codpiece was odd, uncomfortable for him to arrange. He wondered about urinating in that suit. He hoped he wouldn’t end up with a lapful of urine. But, if you can hose down the inside . . . No harm, no foul.
He got the jumpsuit on. The body of the shirt was tight, and the sleeves and legs were loose. He stepped out from behind the screen. Bob was standing there with the body armor.
Mike could tell that it was made from the same thing as the Mech suit. It was so light compared to the ballistic armor that he had always worn. Plus, there was some kind of foam cushion behind the graphene plating. He assumed that it served the function as the foam in the Mech suit to disperse energy from any hits on the graphene plate.
The other guys on the team drifted over to see the get up that Mike was dressed in.
“Sexy, I like the basic black look.” That was Mickey, being his usual self.“You need a bow tie.”
“Can I just get the t-shirt with the tux printed on it?” Mike asked.
“Heathen, I always wondered what Jo sees in you.” Mickey stated.
“Well I can cook and I have a large . . . “ Mike started.
“Bank account?” Lieutenant Pang asked.
Mike looked at her, and shook his head, a sad look on his face.
“I’m just sayin’,” she said as she pointed to the tube that was dangling from the groin armor.
Everybody laughed, even Mike. The team, Bob, Dr. Humphreys, Dr. Ed, and Lieutenant Pang were present. Everyone else was over at the Mech armorrunning diagnostics. Mike was getting a feeling about who the misfits and malcontents on the engineering team were.
Bob swept his hand towards the hanging outfits, “Gentlemen, if you please.” The team members went over, grabbed their clothes from the hangers, and went behind the screen to change, or stand in line to wait.
Everett made it to the screen first.
“Age before . . .,” he started.
“Wait a minute, that doesn’t work,” he finished.
“No,” Tom said, “but it is appropriate, because I’m a beautiful man.”
Bob was chuckling, “No egos on this team.”
Rob nodded, “In our line of work, a healthy ego is a good thing. It drives you on to get things accomplished. Plus, it looms and kicks you in the ass if you start to lag.”
“That’s not the only thing that kicks you in the ass, amigo,” Everett threw out from behind the curtain.
Mike knew that. Everett was an animal. He was older than anybody else on the team, and still did a four hundred on the extended Army Physical Fitness Test, or APFT. It didn’t matter how much Mike trained, he still couldn’t catch Everett on a run. That was one of the things that made Everett such a good team sergeant. He could kick anybody on this team in the ass if he felt they were half stepping. The only thing that he couldn’t physically do was lift as much as Mickey could. But if it came down to a fight, Mike’s money was on Everett.
Mike spoke up, “We may be young, but Everett has one thing going for him.”
Everett spoke up cautiously, “And that would be?”
“Young men are idyllic, old men are treacherous.”
Everett stepped out from behind the screen, “Don’t knock it, treachery is recommended by the greats, Machiavelli, Sun Tzu, Clausewitz.”
Mike finished, “Stalin, Mao, Castro, Che, Pol Pot.”
Everett conceded defeat, “Okay, you got me there.”
Bob looked at the team of soldiers with new respect, “Wow, read much?”
Tom nodded, a mournful look on his face, “The bane of my existence. I can’t figure out half the stuff they talk about.” He had just finished dressing, the last of the team to do so.
The group was laughing as they walked over to the mech armor.
They arrived at one of the suits. Bob motioned them around to the left arm. There was a name tag on the forearm. It said Torres.
“How do I get up?” Rob asked.
Bob pointed out the cleats on the back leg and the hand holds that were present to allow him to climb up onto the back of the mech armor.
Torres started climbing up the leg of the suit.
“Remind you of any of your girlfriends, Rob?” Mickey asked.
“No, but it reminds me of a few of yours.”
Mickey remembered that Lieutenant Pang was standing with them, “Ah, sorry Lieutenant.”
“Don’t worry, I have three brothers in the Marine Corps. You won’t say anything that I haven’t heard before,” she replied.
Mike asked, “If you have three brothers in the Marine Corps, why did you join the Air Force.”
She looked at him in all seriousness, “Because I have three brothers in the Marine Corps. I get tired of being treated like little sister whenever I’m around them. At least in the Air Force, I stand on my own merit. Plus, I don’t think the Marine Corps needs a Bio Mechanical engineer, and this project does.”
“Good on you,” he thought, impressed that the Lieutenant wanted to stand on her own feet and not walk in the shadow of her brothers.
Mike watched as Rob climbed up to the opening in the back of the suit. He felt a tug on his sleeve. It was Lieutenant Pang.
“Are you ready to check out your mech armor?” she asked.
Mike nodded yes.
She smiled, “good, your suit is right over here.”
She walked to his suit, which was the next to last in line. When she got there, she stopped, and did a move from ‘Let’s make a Deal’ with her hands.
“And this is your new suit,” she said.
“Why thank you, Vanna. You or me first?” he asked.
“I better go up first, that way I can get into position to advise you on getting into the suit,” she replied.
It was easy for her. She scrambled up handily. She beamed down at him, “I’ve been practicing for a few weeks.”
Mike replied, “I can tell, you shot up there like a squirrel after a nut.”
“Well, youth has its perks.”
Mike shot a dirty glance up at her, “M
ake sure you aren’t in the way. I’d hate to ‘accidently’ knock you off of the mech armor.”
She grinned.
He walked over to the leg of the suit and climbed up.
“See, that wasn’t too bad, now was it.”
He nodded, “Nope, not at all.”
He took a few steps to the open door of the mech armor. Lieutenant Pang was squatting on the shoulders of the suit.
He looked in. The interior of the suit was a dark green, in contrast to the black that he was wearing, and the exterior of the mech armor
“You’llnotice, your body, to include your arms and legs, will fit entirely inside the body of the mech armor.” She said.
He had been wondering about that. “So, how do I control the mech armor arm or leg?”
“Well, your control of the arms and legs will be based off of the slight movement of your arms and legs against the contact foam of the mech armor and your neural interface. Notice the separate tubes that your arms and legs fit into. These expand to keep you snug in the suit. Then, there are gloves in the suit, blue toothed. There will be a space large enough for you to move your hands. The suit tracks the movement of your hands. The suit will use the data produced to manipulate the mechanical hands on the end of the mech armor. So, in you go.”
He maneuvered himself into the back of the suit. It had more room than he thought it would, but that would probably change when the foam expanded. Lieutenant Pang had a headset strapped to her belt. She pulled it off the belt and put it on. Mike sat down and looked at the mech armor. It also had small pits that looked like the lenses on his helmet, but the camera lenses were all over the body of the mech armor. He pulled his helmet on, and adjusted the chin strap. He hadn’t turned it off, so it was still transmitting images to him. He lowered his body into the suit, maneuvering his legs into the legs of the suit. He heard Lieutenant Pang in his helmet.
“Can you hear me, radio check, over?”
“Roger, read you five by five.”
He laid down on his stomach and pushed his head into the dome that comprised the head of the mech armor. As he looked at the inside of the dome, he noticed a panel at the front of it.
Lieutenant Pang started, “Okay, before the foam expands, we have a few things that need to be done. You see the heads up display on your helmet. Don’t be alarmed, but when you turn on the mech armor, your helmet will be slaved to the cameras of the armor, and you’llsee what surrounds the suit. But, until you turn on the suit, you’ll just see the inside. Notice, you have a panel directly in front of your face. You can move your hand forward and touch the screen. Please do so.”
He moved his hand forward to touch the screen.
She continued, “Okay, you notice a series of commands on the screen, correct?”
“Yes.”
“What’s the first command prompt that you see, and what color is it?” she asked.
“It says power, and the color is red.”
“Okay, touch the prompt with your finger.”
He did so, and the prompt turned yellow, then quickly it turned green. He felt a difference in the suit, though there was no sound. It felt like the suit was tensing in anticipation of being used.
“Okay, what’s the next prompt?” She asked.
“It says, ‘Hatch,’ and the color is red,” He replied.
“Okay, let me move,” he heard her shift on the outside of the Mech suit, “Now, touch the prompt.”
When he did, it turned yellow, and then green. He heard servos and he knew that the hatch was closing behind him.
“What’s the next command?” she asked.
“It says, ‘Lock,’” he replied.
“Okay, go ahead and touch the lock prompt.”
He heard the locks seal when he touched the prompt.
“Now, just so you understand, if the suit powers down, the locks will disengage. The electrical system has to be on and working for the locks to be engaged. This is to ensureyou aren’t stuck in the suit for the rest of your short life if you sustain extreme damage,” she explained. “There is also a mechanical switch in case you need to keep the door shut. If you move around, you can feel it behind you. All you have to do is move the mechanical handle up, and the hatch is secure.”
“Glad to hear that. I have plans for the rest of my life, and I don’t want to waste them in a tin can.”
“Carbon, not tin,” she corrected.
He smiled, remembering his exchange with Bob.
“Now, you’ll find a tube on the left side of your helmet, and one on the right side of your helmet. Ordinarily, you would go ahead and place them into the holes on your helmet where they would fit. You can take the time now to put them in if you want to, but it’s not necessary.”
“In for a penny, in for a pound,” Mike said as he hooked them up into his helmet, “might as well go all the way with this.”
Lieutenant Pang continued with the walk through, “Are you firmly seated?”
“Yep, I’m comfortable.”
“Okay, now what does the next icon on screen say?” she asked.
“It says, ‘Neural Interface,’” he replied.
“Okay, this is where you turn on the neural interface of the helmet, and it will take over for you. Now, go ahead and touch the icon for ‘Neural Interface.”
Mike touched the screen. The icon for neural interface went amber, and then turned green.
“At this point, you no longer need to use your hand to press the icons,” she said, “Now, look at one of the Icons.”
Mike looked at one of the icons on screen. As his gaze lingered over the icon, it grew just a little bit larger, and turned a shade lighter, indicating that it was active.
“Did the icon change?” she asked.
“Yes it did. Is that part of the neural interface?”
“Well, partially. The helmet tracks where your eyes are, and then you can activate the icon by speaking, and as the neural interface gets used to your brainwave activity.”
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“Well, for instance, if you wanted to arm the weapons system, then you would look at the weapon system icon, and say or think, ‘Weapons, Arm.” That’s the command to arm your weapons. The neural interface will only be able to help you make the armor move right now, but the computer interface will begin to learn how you control the machine, and eventually, you’ll be able to do a lot of things without having to consciously thinking them.”
He looked at the icon for weapons.
“Weapons, Arm.” The icon started flashing amber, went to flashing black, and then shifted back to red.
“Sorry, cowboy, no shooting today. What happened as you relayed the command?” Lieutenant Pang asked.
“Well, it turned from red to flashing amber, like the other icons did, and then flashed black, and then turned back to red.”
Lieutenant Pang confirmed that the system was working correctly, “Yes, that’s what it’s supposed to do. The amber means that the system is running a check. Black means that the system is damaged, or not present. Red means that the system is offline or turned off.”
“Damn, so no weapons on board,” he replied.
“What, and have you burn down the facility. I don’t think so.”
Mike grinned, “So it’s an energy weapon?”
There was a pause on the other end, “Please don’t repeat that. You’re not cleared for that information and it would end my career.”
Mike said, “Mum’s the word. I won’t say a thing.”
“Thanks, Chief.”
“Please Lieutenant Pang, call me Mike.”
She replied, “And please, when we’re away from here, call me Jennifer, or Jen.”
Mike said, “I guess your boss doesn’t like his officers to use first names.”
Lieutenant Pang replied, “It’s not just him, we have a lot of junior Airmen here, and it’s bad for discipline.”
Mike nodded. He was so used to his team he sometimes forgot ab
out the problems conventional forces had. Of course, this unit wasn’t necessarily what he would call conventional.
Lieutenant Pang continued with her checklist, “Okay, so we have everything going well, all lights are green. Now, go ahead and stick your arms in the tubes for the arms.”
Mike complied. He pushed his arms in. At the bottom of the tube, he could feel what seemed to be a glove.
“Okay, I have what feels like a glove down here.”
“Yes, that’s the control for the hand of the suit. Go ahead and put your hand inside of it.”
Mike put his hands inside both gloves.
“Alright, now once you have full control of the suit, you’ll be able to make a fist, or grab with an open hand. You’ll even be able to pick up equipment, and throw it if necessary.”
“Texas Rangers, here I come,” he replied.
She chuckled, “Nope I don’t think that fifteen foot suits of mech armor are allowed to play. It gives an unfair advantage to the pitcher.”
He replied, “And the pitcher wouldn’t have to worry about anybody charging the mound, either.”
“That’s very true,” she answered.
“Okay, there are three more things we’re going to do, and then we’re going to break,” she said.
“Break? I’m just getting started,” he replied.
“You may be just getting started, but it’s almost lunch time, and I want to get something to eat. I’m hungry.”
“Food’s a crutch.”
“But it’s a crutch that I like to use.”
He conceded the point, “Okay, what are we going to do?”
“Well, you’re going to foam up. See the icon?” she asked.
“Yes, I see it.”
“Okay, go ahead and activate it. Just look at the icon, and say, ‘foam activate.’”
He looked at the icon.
“Foam, activate.”
He felt the foam expand around him. As it expanded, it didn’t feel too uncomfortable. He could feel foam at the back of the helmet, but there wasn’t any in front of his helmet, or to the sides of his helmet.
“Hey, there is no foam in the dome of the suit,” He exclaimed.
“We did that for a reason,” she replied.
“Why is that?” he asked.
“Well, you’ll see once you do two more things for me.”
