Mechanized Solution
Such a project doesn’t come about by chance or happenstance. Recently, an enormous scandal involving the armored branch of the “mighty” Alsinan army had been brought to light, with the abhorrent design of its tanks. The air force hadn’t been let off from the burner either, with its pilot training being called under suspicion following a series of repeated accidents. To avoid these sorts of ridiculous mistakes in the future, and following several month’s worth of stalled Parliamentary sessions where repeated filibusters dragged meetings along for many days, the “Free Design Act” was extended to the Army and Air Force, unshackling them from their previous design limitations and the toxin that was the corporation’s influence.
Two projects began concurrently following its passing – Project “Antiquity” and Project “Nemirai.” Both of these projects were separate, but had one very close linkage – both were interested in finding a better way to generate pilots, though, not exclusively for aircraft. Antiquity was the primary source of funding for this program, as it had both a more reasonable goal and a more appealing payout. It never reached completion, which was the intention – provide a logical front in order to appease the more conservative in the military and the treasury. Project Nemirai, however, was where most of that funding went under the greatest secrecy, to develop a new machine of war. Something which can fill the roles of artillery, tanks, and anti-air in one vehicle, while also benefiting from the “Pilot Training Regimen.”
These machines were to take a roughly similar form to their Alsinan pilots, with six legs and two arms, and a head filled with sensors installed all around its pentagonal pyramid shape. However, that is where most similarities end. Mounted to its legs, which were mountains of composite armor created in the program to develop the Alsinan droids and Ytrite cabling harvested from Curos’ recent mining resurgence, were armored boxes filled with “small” missiles. However, these missiles were capable of removing an enemy vehicle from the battlefield with great explosive power. Of course, on any machine of war this large which could be used either in space or in atmosphere, its missile armaments are not fixed, being able to be anti-ship missiles, AA missiles, anti-munition missiles, and even a prototype of a Lucium missile to be used against much larger warships to disable parts of them at a time. Each leg had 2 of these pods mounted to them. On the back and interior segments of the leg, comparatively less armored than the anterior and outside, were similar fusion thrusters to those seen on the tiny Alsinan corvettes which were soon to be rendered obsolete. Ytrite funneled power from the onboard fusion reactor located in the central body of the beast, a hexagonal prism with each side being host to one of the joints for the legs, impressively armored. A small outcropping on the machine’s back was home to a CIWS gun, repurposed from those seen on the lighter warships. Inside this hexagonal box was the cockpit for the pilot, and on the back wall of this cockpit, was a connection port to something. Filled with screens showing direct feeds of the sensors on top of the cockpit in a variety of views was the pilot’s HUD, and at their fingertips were the controls for all of the firepower on the machine. Towards the top of the hexagonal central body were the joints for the shoulders, which were covered in the same composite armor as the legs and other joints and yet more missile pods. Ytrite cables ran down the length of the arms, to their forearms where, underslung, was a massive railgun seen on the prototype AKOM-8C, rejected for being too large and drawing too much power. However, on this kind of behemoth, it was a perfect fit. Its “feet” are a set of three wheels angled to each other to provide 360 degree rotation throughout the machine with locking mechanisms all throughout in order to provide a steady platform to fire the weapons.
A secondary attachment to the rear of the hexagonal box which contains the vitals of the machine is its massive thruster suite, almost larger than the vital box of components. Equipped with massive thrusters for its size, this allows the Alsinan device to speed through the vacuum of space or the atmospheres on planets with great haste.
However, there was a flaw in these mighty machines – no “normal” Alsinan pilot, even one especially trained, could handle the information flow and had the reaction times which were required in order to effectively pilot these beasts. The second phase of Project Nemirai then began – the “Pilot Training Regimen.” While having an innocuous name, the “training” only selected the most exemplary of the Alsinan aircraft pilots who were deemed most suited for this role.
The first phases of this project were quite simple if challenging. The Alsinan nervous system is already decentralized compared to us humans, and the degree of precision needed to make piloting decisions in these machines were far beyond what normal pilots could do, so the first step was to implant direct connection ports to the nerve hubs across the Alsinan body into the recipient pilot so that signals from the pilot’s brain would be able to more quickly to incoming danger or make harsh moves which would take much strain out of an unaltered pilot. However, this process required…subjects. From the past riots and general civil unrest there was a plenty-large selection of prisoners to use, and a few unfortunate souls were plucked from the masses of crowded, horribly maintained and funded Alsinan prisons from their colonized worlds to be subjects. The following is a lab report of one subject’s test results.
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Date – 6-17-2566, 35:00 Hours on Cunicule capital city, to be assumed in following document unless otherwise specified
Subject – Riviera Karku
State of Subject – Comatose, recovery unknown
Test Date – 30:00 Hours
Test Log
30:00 Hours – Subject informed of test
Riviera accepts the test on the condition that he be released. Imprisoned, by his account, on false accusations. Subject, by our records, imprisoned due to drug charges.
30:05 Hours – Subject brought to testing chamber
Subject accepts agreement brought out to him.
Subject is placed under anesthesia.
30:20 Hours – Project Nemirai Phase 2 implant “Kotokian” received at facility.
Subject’s areas to be surgically operated on numbed.
Implant delivery split into its composite parts:
8x Leg nerve connectors
6x Body nerve connectors
4x Arm nerve connectors
2x Neck nerve connectors
30:30 Hours – Operation begins.
30:35 Hours – First leg nerve connector attached and grafted into recipient’s body. No signs of initial rejection.
30:55 Hours – ALl leg nerve connectors attached successfully. Remote monitoring reveals no signs of rejection.
30:65 Hours – First arm nerve connector attached, minor signs of rejection.
31:05 Hours – Remaining arm nerve connectors attached, signs of rejection appear to have been a fluke of the first attachment.
31:10 Hours – Procedure halted for 12 minutes. Confirmation from site director required and achieved.
31:22 Hours – First 2 body nerve attachments grafted into the subject's torso. Signs of rejection are minimal.
31:32 Hours – Next body nerve attachment series grafted successfully.
31:42 Hours – All body nerve attachments grafted successfully.
32:00 Hours – First neck nerve connector grafted. No rejection noticed.
32:05 Hours – Final neck nerve connector grafted. No signs of rejection throughout the entire procedure were detected.
33:02 Hours – Subject awakens from surgery.
33:03 Hours – After a short period of dazed confusion, the subject gets off of the operating table. Security attempted to stop him.
Subject vocalizes.
“What the fuck di’ you monsters do to me? I can feel…everythin’. Every twitch…You cops are gonn’ get yourselves killed like this.”
Security replies.
“Sir, remain on the table, don’t leave! We are authori-”
“You fuckers think you can keep me down?!”
33:03 Hours – A short confrontation with security began. Subject jumped at one of the guards and was immediately subdued through HEAP (Handheld Electrical Anti Personnel) means.
33:03 Hours – Subject was writhing on the ground, experiencing significant pain from the non-lethal HEAP.
33:08 Hours – Subject stops moving. Vital signs report massively increased heart rate and erratic nerve cluster activity.
33:10 Hours – Test concluded. Subject returned to his sleeping chambers.
Results
Satisfactory reflexes and precision noticed. Subject oversensitivity to outside stimulus not at implant sites were unexpected results. Minor tweaks to the system are needed. Fit for widespread use, ETA, 3 weeks.
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Following the many unsuccessful tests, a successful batch of production models were created. Following implantation and a period of recovery, usually lasting a week, the next phase of the pilot’s training began. Virtual simulations of the machines, now formally named as “P:N Class-001,” were in abundance to get the pilots used to this form of combatance and control of their machines, with precision they never had before in their aircraft or SDFs.
However, manufacturing these weapons of war would be a task too much to handle for the Alsinans alone, and they knew a potential manufacturer.
