บท 435: The D's of Development.
Afton is back in the forbidden dome laboratory after helping the injured in Novac for a couple days. He could've stayed longer to tend to people, but he felt getting this project completed sooner would be better for everyone in the long run.
He'd gotten news that one of the 'guests' had required a psych evaluation, but he ignored that for now and instead marched inside the lab.
It doesn't take long for him to locate Mobius and Klein who were already arguing about something while in front of what could only be the prototype chest plate. It looked very different from the T51b armour it was based on, instead of having large plates that'd limited agility for added protection, this armour was more akin to thick lamellar.
Thick plates intersected one another but were placed in a way to allow the utmost agility while not giving too much protection. The fact the scientists were able to use Saturnite probably gave them more options than the US Military had when designing their armour... Saturnite was simply just lighter and stronger, even with its few negatives.
Its chestpiece of course was one large piece of Saturenite that encompassed most of the upper body. You'd likely need a few thousand .50cal bullets shooting at one specific point to get through it, that's how thick and sturdy it was.
It traced down and had more lamellar-like metal plates on its abdomen to allow movement. Of course, at Afton's request, the armour also had significant crouch protection... Though, that part of the armour was covered by a synthetic cloth that had many tiny plates of Lamallar reinforcing it. It looked like any old plate skirt, it ended at the thigh and didn't go any longer to avoid potentially restricting movement.
After asking the scientists, the synthetic material's protection was better at absorbing energy weapon fire than actual bullets... The reason for this was obvious, one too many laser shots to the crotch would have his balls literally frying in the armour... Not fun.
The armour's arms were sturdy and plated in a way to protect the joints from lucky shots. Honestly, Afton thought that the scientists had taken massive inspiration from the medieval armours of old... Which wasn't a bad idea since move of their armours actually worked.
The hands were the same, riveted plates that'd protect the hands from a couple .50cal shots if needed, but still allowed you to grab, gesture, and interact with objects with acceptable dexterity. Of course, the knuckles had small serrated blade attached to them, Afton wasn't sure if they were more useful for combat or for intimidating folks...
The legs were more heavily armoured than the arms were, more metal over the joints, knee, and ankle. There were spiked bits of metal on the knee guards and feet, to allow Afton or anyone else wearing the armour to 'kick the shit and internal organs out of someone. Afton certainly wouldn't want to be on the opposite end of one of those attacks...
Back to the scientists, they were still arguing about what they should actually put inside the armour, as they had been last time when discussing the helmet. Apparently they couldn't decide on whether or not a jetpack would actually be useful to its user... It provided a massive target, and if the fuel compartment was breached it'd probably lead to instant death.
Plus, there wasn't really all that much the jetpack would be used for... The Mojave is essentially just a flat plain with a few canyon's here and there.
"Having air superiority would make the armour 400% more efficient in combat!" Mobius exclaims.
"THAT'S NOT WHAT AIR SUPERIORITY MEANS YOU IMBECILE! THE JETPACK YOU ARE PROPOSING WOULD ONLY ALLOW FOR MINUTES OF BARELY WALKING-SPEED FLIGHT! YOU ARE JUST IGNORING THE 300% INCREASED LIKELIHOOD OF DEATH TO THE USER!"
"Guys, guys." Afton walks in between them with a dull expression, turning towards Mobius first, "I like the idea, but for the mission this armour is built for a jetpack would be a liability... Perhaps if you developed a more efficient fuel and propulsion system it might be viable, but for now keep it out of the designs... Until we want a battalion of flight-capable soldiers..." he says placatingly.
"Afton?.. Hmmm. Very well..." Mobius says as if he were pouting...
"LOBOTOMITE!... EX-LOBOTOMITE! WE WERE JUST WAITING FOR YOU TO ARRIVE SO WE COULD DISCUSS THE ARMOUR'S FEATURES!"
Afton crosses his arms, ignoring the 'Lobotomite' name Klein continues to use for him and just nods for him to continue.
"WE HAVE ALREADY INTEGRATED THE VARIOUS DEFENSIVE OPTION YOU WISHED FOR, HEAT RESISTANT MATERIAL, ENERGY WEAPON DEFENCES AND THE LIKE. WE HAVE ALSO ADDED A PORT THAT WILL ALLOW YOUR STEALTH SUIT'S AI TO INHABIT THE ARMOUR AND MANUALLY ACTIVATE CERTAIN FUNCTION SHOULD THAT BE REQUIRED." he explains and Mobius continues.
"Indeed. Unfortunately, as you are urging the progress to be completed as soon as possible,we were unable to add the forcefield additions that you wished for... The devices still need to be downscaled enough to properly fit in the armour... We were able to create the HUD you wanted however, it will assist in targeting, identifying, distance estimation, and mapping.
Using your Stealth Suits inbuilt proximity sensor, it should be able to map out a small amount of territory around you, though, there are many factors that could scramble this data, so try not to rely on it."
Afton nods, "I hope you remembered that I wanted two suits made, right?"
Both scientists nod their bodies, "We have, though, without the Stealth Suit and it's AI the other suits functions would be limited. No mapping, no AI, etc." Mobius explains.
Afton shrugs, "That doesn't really matter, we can look to upgrading them more in future. Think of the mission as a stress test for them." he says but begins thinking about the servos... "Hey, do you think I could try it on for now? I think we may need to calibrate the servos to my strength specifically... I'm not really normal in that regard."
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