dragonrazor
Boobies...BOOBIES....
- Joined
- Mar 5, 2006
- Posts
- 74,066
Sturm Chaser was a little unusual. At age sixteen, he had gotten accepted to a prestigious university. He was expelled for a thesis indicating that the present standard for the EFA's infantry mech had over one hundred catastrophic failure points. He'd gone into precise detail on that and those who had been in charge of the university had seen it as a pointless, baseless effort to make the design look bad.
The problem with that was that he was right. But who was he to argue with people with money? So he got a job testing mobile suit designs. He had been hired right away, on a contract by an unknown patron. He was paid well, but no mobile suit he'd ever inspected or tested had passed his scrutiny. Some thought he'd be fired soon, since many designs had gone into production anyways. But things were going to change in more ways than he'd ever imagined.
He was asked to test pilot a prototype airframe. The airframe was the first of its kind. He tested it. He had been given no information on the mobile suit it would go in at all. But he was impressed with the airframe. Its design was flawless, and its light weight would benefit the intended pilot greatly. He was surprised after the test to be approached by a man in a black suit and dark glasses. The man introduced himself, and asked him what he thought of the new framework. When Sturm approved of it, the man dropped the bombshell that would change Sturm's life.
"That airframe was built based on your recommended changes to the design of the current standard infantry suit. In other words, it was built to counter the problems you stated in your thesis. It'll be a prototype. We'd like you to test the prototype during its construction phase, Mister Chaser. Whether your old professors wanted to admit it or not, you are literally the foremost expert on the design of Mobile Suits at this point. This is your baby as much as it is the people who manufactured it."
Sturm stared in shock for a few moments, then sighed, and shook his head. "So you're military. I figured you weren't government from the suit. You look uncomfortable in it. Very uncomfortable. Ranking Officer uncomfortable. So that means they sent someone important out here to try to bully me into helping them. Sorry, I make it a rule to never work with soldiers."
The man in black smiled, and looked over the dark glasses. "The enemy is using Gundams, Mister Chaser. The Earth Federation Alliance is at war. And the enemy is using our greatest idea against us. The only way to stop them is to make a better Mobile Suit. And besides, you want to prove the people at Terra University fools, don't you? By helping design a better Mobile Suit, you prove your thesis was right. And to remind you of your own record, that airframe in there is the ONLY one that has ever passed your testing. Even the old Gundams, some of our better manufactured hardware, failed your scrutiny. What does that tell you?"
The man in black started to walk away, firing one last shot over his shoulder. "Think about it, will you?"
Sturm watched the man walk away, muttering to himself. "Think about it...think about it. What's there to think about? Produce another weapon of war?" He started to walk towards the other side of the room, before his eyes fell on the airframe. He frowned, staring at it as it stood there, high over the heads of those working on it. Pure Gundarium, he thought, as he stared at the air frame. It would cost a fortune. The military was really the only one with the budget to pull off something like this, other than private investors who wouldn't even consider attempting it.
Two months later, he was in a fresh flight suit, running the new airframe through its paces. They hadn't put the new armor on yet, and were instead using an old Luna Titanium Alpha shell. Heavier than Beta, the alloy more commonly known as Gundarium, and less protective, it had to be thicker. To compensate this, he'd insisted on a much more powerful power plant for the prototype. He'd been granted it immediately, in the form of a newly designed, high-output system designed for a mobile weapon three times the size of the standard Mobile Suit. The surprise had quickly been replaced by joy, both by him and the development team, as they mounted the power system and got it perfectly tuned. He was testing the newly mounted system in a mock combat scenario, and was so far impressed. But things quickly changed. The only initial warning was a high explosive round impacting against the armor of the suit. The damage was minimal, but it was definitely a live round, and his boards lit up warning indicators.
"Control, this is Stormseeker one. I just got hit by a live rocket, repeat, a live rocket. Did I miss a memo?"
"Stormseeker, this is Control. Enemies have entered the testing grounds. There seem to be only a small number of enemy Mobile Suits, however. We're switching the control systems to Live Fire mode for you. Treat this like an authentic combat drill. We can't get any men from the base up here in time to deal with them, so you have to slow them down."
Sturm rolled his eyes at that, as several indicators on his boards changed color. "Try to slow them down. Right." He shook his head, then sighed, just as several very distinctively styled Mobile Suits landed nearby. "Oh look, Gundams." He heard a burst of static over his radio, and then a harsh voice ordering him out of his Suit. He raised an eyebrow at that, and as one of the Gundams moved in closer, he decided to test out just how effective the new suit was.
The movement caught all three Gundam pilots offguard. One second, they were all on their feet. The next, two of them were on the ground, having been thrown off balance in a charge. The remaining pilot took to the air, intending to shoot the new Mobile Suit. Intended to, but couldn't, because the suit was nowhere to be seen. Until the pilot saw the shadow. He looked up just in time to take a drop kick to the head of the Gundam, sending it plummeting to the ground below. The damage to the Gundarium alloy armor was minimal, though, and he got back up with ease, only to find his gun flung away in the impact. The pilot still thought he had the upper hand then, and reached out to try to throw a punch with the Gundam's arm. The punch never connected, as Sturm's mech grabbed the arm just below the wrist joint. The pilot was very surprised when the fingers of the new mech closed tightly on the Gundam's arm, bending the plating as if it were folding paper. That caught Sturm offguard, and he let go, which was enough for the pilot to knock the new mech over and take off, followed by his companions.
Hours later, as the men from the base helped the mech into the research team's hangar and help him out of it, he took off the helmet and hurled it across the room. A few of the soldiers looked at him in shock, before the man who recruited him parted the crowd. "Something's on your mind, isn't it, Kid."
Sturm growled, walking over. Several of the soldiers reached for their guns, only to be stilled by a motion from the man in black. "That was a recon patrol. They HOPED to capture the prototype without trouble, so clearly the pilots wanted glory. But they bugged out of there faster than should have been possible. That's not the half of it. Those things aren't Gundams. They may look like Gundams, and may have the capabilities of Gundams. But their armor buckled like a belt under the fingers of the new airframe. Gundarium doesn't do that. So again, what the FUCKING HELL is going on?"
The man looked at the soldiers around them, then motioned for Sturm to follow him. Sturm didn't hesitate in the slightest, following behind quietly. They entered an office, and the man closed the door. All sound outside the room disappeared, and the man spoke slowly, hesitantly. "Our intel, such as it is, is spotty at best. What we do know is the Gundams are mass produced. And it IS Gundarium alloy that they use for the armor. But it's not normal Gundarium alloy. For one thing, Gundarium is expensive to produce anywhere but on the moon right now, and even then, it's still not cheap. This stuff... They have far too much of it. Our suspicion is that someone's found a way to synthesize the elements used in Gundarium, thus making a far less expensive, easier to produce alloy base for these new Gundams. As I'm sure you've realized, that leads to issues like the buckling of their armor under the prototype's enhanced capabilities. Now that they know that, they'll be searching for a way to counter it. Or, more likely, they'll try to steal the prototype. Which means we may have to deploy it early. And unfortunately, we can deploy it with the armor it's intended to have. That armor is currently being developed for it at the top secret location currently occupied by Task Force Wendigo. Which means you'll need to get your new suit up there to get its skin on and its weapons implemented."
Sturm blinked, surprised by the revelation that it was a synthetic material he had dealt with. Still, it made sense, he realized. He nodded slowly, and then blinked. "Wait. What do you mean I have to get it up there? I thought you'd already selected a pilot?"
"We have, kid. You're going to be the one to pilot it. You know it better than anyone else. Don't worry, you'll be fine."
Sturm sighed, looking at the shuttle they were preparing. The base would be evacuated once the Gundam was onboard and away. That was the plan. Now that the enemy had discovered the testing facility, it was only a matter of time before they attacked. He turned away from the shuttle for a moment, and spoke to the one person who'd taken everything in stride the whole time. A young woman who worked in the lab, he'd gotten to know her through the various simulations and other tests. She'd seemed nervous the last few days.
She'd wanted to talk to him about something. Fine tuning, as she put it. She'd had him come to the lab as everyone else was evacuating, and spoken about choices and faith. She looked like she was about to say more, when an explosion rocked the complex. Sturm's eyes widened, and he was going to charge off when he heard the distinctive click of a handgun hammer being cocked. He stopped, frowning, and didn't turn around.
"So what now? You betray humanity for some religious nutjobs who only want justification for violence? For war? For injustice?" He was met with silence for a few moments, and half expected it to be over right then and there. He didn't dare turn around, but then he heard her voice, soft, quiet.
"Do you think...that if a pilot isn't a soldier, they can fight without worrying about who's right and who's wrong?" Sturm blinked, confused by the question. He tilted his head, giving it some thought. He didn't have time to answer, however, as the young woman started working the controls. She was replacing the armor plates on the Gundam with something more protective. It wasn't Gundarium, but it was more durable than the old Luna Titanium Alpha plates they were using until it could get to the task force. More than that, she was loading up the weapons they had for it, and downloading all the information on the concept, as well as everything collected for intelligence by the base, onto discs that she put in a pouch.
He turned to watch her as she worked, frowning. When she was done, she tossed him the pouch, and started messing with the controls again. She looked up for a moment. "You need to take the Gundam and get out of here. Go...as far as you can. Go to Vanus Station. Visit a man named Collin in the shipyard there. Now would be nice."
"What about you?" He asked, suddenly concerned for what she had in mind.
"Someone has to clean up this mess. I've set the computer system to completely wipe itself. Just after the wipe, it'll initiate self destruct protocol. The Order is going down the wrong path. I just hope you can put them on the right one. That blue disc is for Collin. Give it to him, and tell him Saia finally started listening."
He blinked for a few moments, then nodded slowly. He ran for the Gundam, and found someone else there trying to get it started up. He immediately realized it was one of the Believers, and knew now that the attack was solely an attempt to steal the Gundam. He drew his sidearm, and stepped into the man's line of sight. When the guy lunged for his own weapon, Sturm fired twice, hitting both kneecaps. Then he yanked the man out of the seat, and threw him to the elevator. "You should be thankful I've seen too much death today."
With that, he climbed into the cockpit, and in moments, the Gundam, codenamed Valkyrie, was blasting its way off the base through a legion of Believer troops. Only a few Gundams had been present, and none of them had been the caliber he'd been expecting. These hadn't been shock troops, they'd been a recon team sent to try to steal the only hope the EFA had. As Valkyrie took to the air, achieving enough speed to set it outside the blast radius, the sensors lit up. He turned slowly, expecting another fight, but found the shuttle coming up with its bay doors opening for him. He nodded, and docked the Gundam, setting it into its restraints.
When he got to the cockpit of the shuttle, the shuttle's equipment was registering the detonation of the base. He closed his eyes, saying a silent thank you to the young woman who had betrayed her religion to save the EFA.
The problem with that was that he was right. But who was he to argue with people with money? So he got a job testing mobile suit designs. He had been hired right away, on a contract by an unknown patron. He was paid well, but no mobile suit he'd ever inspected or tested had passed his scrutiny. Some thought he'd be fired soon, since many designs had gone into production anyways. But things were going to change in more ways than he'd ever imagined.
He was asked to test pilot a prototype airframe. The airframe was the first of its kind. He tested it. He had been given no information on the mobile suit it would go in at all. But he was impressed with the airframe. Its design was flawless, and its light weight would benefit the intended pilot greatly. He was surprised after the test to be approached by a man in a black suit and dark glasses. The man introduced himself, and asked him what he thought of the new framework. When Sturm approved of it, the man dropped the bombshell that would change Sturm's life.
"That airframe was built based on your recommended changes to the design of the current standard infantry suit. In other words, it was built to counter the problems you stated in your thesis. It'll be a prototype. We'd like you to test the prototype during its construction phase, Mister Chaser. Whether your old professors wanted to admit it or not, you are literally the foremost expert on the design of Mobile Suits at this point. This is your baby as much as it is the people who manufactured it."
Sturm stared in shock for a few moments, then sighed, and shook his head. "So you're military. I figured you weren't government from the suit. You look uncomfortable in it. Very uncomfortable. Ranking Officer uncomfortable. So that means they sent someone important out here to try to bully me into helping them. Sorry, I make it a rule to never work with soldiers."
The man in black smiled, and looked over the dark glasses. "The enemy is using Gundams, Mister Chaser. The Earth Federation Alliance is at war. And the enemy is using our greatest idea against us. The only way to stop them is to make a better Mobile Suit. And besides, you want to prove the people at Terra University fools, don't you? By helping design a better Mobile Suit, you prove your thesis was right. And to remind you of your own record, that airframe in there is the ONLY one that has ever passed your testing. Even the old Gundams, some of our better manufactured hardware, failed your scrutiny. What does that tell you?"
The man in black started to walk away, firing one last shot over his shoulder. "Think about it, will you?"
Sturm watched the man walk away, muttering to himself. "Think about it...think about it. What's there to think about? Produce another weapon of war?" He started to walk towards the other side of the room, before his eyes fell on the airframe. He frowned, staring at it as it stood there, high over the heads of those working on it. Pure Gundarium, he thought, as he stared at the air frame. It would cost a fortune. The military was really the only one with the budget to pull off something like this, other than private investors who wouldn't even consider attempting it.
Two months later, he was in a fresh flight suit, running the new airframe through its paces. They hadn't put the new armor on yet, and were instead using an old Luna Titanium Alpha shell. Heavier than Beta, the alloy more commonly known as Gundarium, and less protective, it had to be thicker. To compensate this, he'd insisted on a much more powerful power plant for the prototype. He'd been granted it immediately, in the form of a newly designed, high-output system designed for a mobile weapon three times the size of the standard Mobile Suit. The surprise had quickly been replaced by joy, both by him and the development team, as they mounted the power system and got it perfectly tuned. He was testing the newly mounted system in a mock combat scenario, and was so far impressed. But things quickly changed. The only initial warning was a high explosive round impacting against the armor of the suit. The damage was minimal, but it was definitely a live round, and his boards lit up warning indicators.
"Control, this is Stormseeker one. I just got hit by a live rocket, repeat, a live rocket. Did I miss a memo?"
"Stormseeker, this is Control. Enemies have entered the testing grounds. There seem to be only a small number of enemy Mobile Suits, however. We're switching the control systems to Live Fire mode for you. Treat this like an authentic combat drill. We can't get any men from the base up here in time to deal with them, so you have to slow them down."
Sturm rolled his eyes at that, as several indicators on his boards changed color. "Try to slow them down. Right." He shook his head, then sighed, just as several very distinctively styled Mobile Suits landed nearby. "Oh look, Gundams." He heard a burst of static over his radio, and then a harsh voice ordering him out of his Suit. He raised an eyebrow at that, and as one of the Gundams moved in closer, he decided to test out just how effective the new suit was.
The movement caught all three Gundam pilots offguard. One second, they were all on their feet. The next, two of them were on the ground, having been thrown off balance in a charge. The remaining pilot took to the air, intending to shoot the new Mobile Suit. Intended to, but couldn't, because the suit was nowhere to be seen. Until the pilot saw the shadow. He looked up just in time to take a drop kick to the head of the Gundam, sending it plummeting to the ground below. The damage to the Gundarium alloy armor was minimal, though, and he got back up with ease, only to find his gun flung away in the impact. The pilot still thought he had the upper hand then, and reached out to try to throw a punch with the Gundam's arm. The punch never connected, as Sturm's mech grabbed the arm just below the wrist joint. The pilot was very surprised when the fingers of the new mech closed tightly on the Gundam's arm, bending the plating as if it were folding paper. That caught Sturm offguard, and he let go, which was enough for the pilot to knock the new mech over and take off, followed by his companions.
Hours later, as the men from the base helped the mech into the research team's hangar and help him out of it, he took off the helmet and hurled it across the room. A few of the soldiers looked at him in shock, before the man who recruited him parted the crowd. "Something's on your mind, isn't it, Kid."
Sturm growled, walking over. Several of the soldiers reached for their guns, only to be stilled by a motion from the man in black. "That was a recon patrol. They HOPED to capture the prototype without trouble, so clearly the pilots wanted glory. But they bugged out of there faster than should have been possible. That's not the half of it. Those things aren't Gundams. They may look like Gundams, and may have the capabilities of Gundams. But their armor buckled like a belt under the fingers of the new airframe. Gundarium doesn't do that. So again, what the FUCKING HELL is going on?"
The man looked at the soldiers around them, then motioned for Sturm to follow him. Sturm didn't hesitate in the slightest, following behind quietly. They entered an office, and the man closed the door. All sound outside the room disappeared, and the man spoke slowly, hesitantly. "Our intel, such as it is, is spotty at best. What we do know is the Gundams are mass produced. And it IS Gundarium alloy that they use for the armor. But it's not normal Gundarium alloy. For one thing, Gundarium is expensive to produce anywhere but on the moon right now, and even then, it's still not cheap. This stuff... They have far too much of it. Our suspicion is that someone's found a way to synthesize the elements used in Gundarium, thus making a far less expensive, easier to produce alloy base for these new Gundams. As I'm sure you've realized, that leads to issues like the buckling of their armor under the prototype's enhanced capabilities. Now that they know that, they'll be searching for a way to counter it. Or, more likely, they'll try to steal the prototype. Which means we may have to deploy it early. And unfortunately, we can deploy it with the armor it's intended to have. That armor is currently being developed for it at the top secret location currently occupied by Task Force Wendigo. Which means you'll need to get your new suit up there to get its skin on and its weapons implemented."
Sturm blinked, surprised by the revelation that it was a synthetic material he had dealt with. Still, it made sense, he realized. He nodded slowly, and then blinked. "Wait. What do you mean I have to get it up there? I thought you'd already selected a pilot?"
"We have, kid. You're going to be the one to pilot it. You know it better than anyone else. Don't worry, you'll be fine."
Sturm sighed, looking at the shuttle they were preparing. The base would be evacuated once the Gundam was onboard and away. That was the plan. Now that the enemy had discovered the testing facility, it was only a matter of time before they attacked. He turned away from the shuttle for a moment, and spoke to the one person who'd taken everything in stride the whole time. A young woman who worked in the lab, he'd gotten to know her through the various simulations and other tests. She'd seemed nervous the last few days.
She'd wanted to talk to him about something. Fine tuning, as she put it. She'd had him come to the lab as everyone else was evacuating, and spoken about choices and faith. She looked like she was about to say more, when an explosion rocked the complex. Sturm's eyes widened, and he was going to charge off when he heard the distinctive click of a handgun hammer being cocked. He stopped, frowning, and didn't turn around.
"So what now? You betray humanity for some religious nutjobs who only want justification for violence? For war? For injustice?" He was met with silence for a few moments, and half expected it to be over right then and there. He didn't dare turn around, but then he heard her voice, soft, quiet.
"Do you think...that if a pilot isn't a soldier, they can fight without worrying about who's right and who's wrong?" Sturm blinked, confused by the question. He tilted his head, giving it some thought. He didn't have time to answer, however, as the young woman started working the controls. She was replacing the armor plates on the Gundam with something more protective. It wasn't Gundarium, but it was more durable than the old Luna Titanium Alpha plates they were using until it could get to the task force. More than that, she was loading up the weapons they had for it, and downloading all the information on the concept, as well as everything collected for intelligence by the base, onto discs that she put in a pouch.
He turned to watch her as she worked, frowning. When she was done, she tossed him the pouch, and started messing with the controls again. She looked up for a moment. "You need to take the Gundam and get out of here. Go...as far as you can. Go to Vanus Station. Visit a man named Collin in the shipyard there. Now would be nice."
"What about you?" He asked, suddenly concerned for what she had in mind.
"Someone has to clean up this mess. I've set the computer system to completely wipe itself. Just after the wipe, it'll initiate self destruct protocol. The Order is going down the wrong path. I just hope you can put them on the right one. That blue disc is for Collin. Give it to him, and tell him Saia finally started listening."
He blinked for a few moments, then nodded slowly. He ran for the Gundam, and found someone else there trying to get it started up. He immediately realized it was one of the Believers, and knew now that the attack was solely an attempt to steal the Gundam. He drew his sidearm, and stepped into the man's line of sight. When the guy lunged for his own weapon, Sturm fired twice, hitting both kneecaps. Then he yanked the man out of the seat, and threw him to the elevator. "You should be thankful I've seen too much death today."
With that, he climbed into the cockpit, and in moments, the Gundam, codenamed Valkyrie, was blasting its way off the base through a legion of Believer troops. Only a few Gundams had been present, and none of them had been the caliber he'd been expecting. These hadn't been shock troops, they'd been a recon team sent to try to steal the only hope the EFA had. As Valkyrie took to the air, achieving enough speed to set it outside the blast radius, the sensors lit up. He turned slowly, expecting another fight, but found the shuttle coming up with its bay doors opening for him. He nodded, and docked the Gundam, setting it into its restraints.
When he got to the cockpit of the shuttle, the shuttle's equipment was registering the detonation of the base. He closed his eyes, saying a silent thank you to the young woman who had betrayed her religion to save the EFA.
