Title: Introducing Unit D-HEX-23675
Journal #1 in the D-HEX-23675 Journals series.
Author: Aerisnoir
Permalink:
Summary:
Emphisa, Chief Scientist of the Aphos wing located in the Khalanxis facility on Quintessa introduces his latest prototype to a discerning council.
Appearing characters:
Emphisa (Single-faced Quintesson, Chief scientist of the Aphos wing, Hextaida's creator/custodian.)
Fernicius (Three-faced Quintesson, Scientist, co-creator of Hextaida's programming and design.)
Salaxorius (Five-faced Quintesson, Master of Inquisition)
The Overseer of Khalanxis (Five-faced Quintesson)
The Assistant (Single-faced Quintesson, Emphisa's assistant)
Cindermaw (Allicon, Named)
Unit D-HEX-23675/Hextaida (One of Emphisa's experiments, functioning 'protagonist')
Chapter: Design Discussions
[Location: Khalanxis Research & Court facility, Aphos wing, lab G-20.17]
It was a late evening as far as day and night cycles were concerned in the facilities that existed on planet Quintessa. They towered high up into the sky but had very few windows in their exteriors. They seemed more like giant high-tech monoliths jutting out from the landscape, surrounded by twisted metal arches, spikes and other sharp, savage forms of natural elements. Waterfalls were a prominent sight around these towers, almost as if the presence of a tower in a location dictated a higher count of lakes, rivers and plateaus to cascade the silvery-bluish liquid from. Apart from planetary elements, the surroundings were cleared of native flora to allow the energy-shields around such a tower to activate without a stray leaf or branch causing false alarm. Just beyond the edges of the protective bubbles the primordial state of the planet was allowed to flourish without restraints. Still, it was only the planet's outer shell that nature could claim; the facilities delved deep into the ground. A single tower could count as many as 300 floors skywards but it would have at least double as much going down into the soil. These facilities were massive and they sounded as such, their monotone thrumming echoing far across the planes.
One such tower on the planet had several exterior buildings. It was one of the main facilities and one of the few that had an official link to the space station that was situated around the planet. The name of the facility was Khalanxis, and it was both a multi-wing research facility as well as a high court of law. In one of the underground wings, the Aphos wing, most rooms were locked for the night. One of the labs, however, was still occupied by the two Quintessons that shared it. Both were always hard at work, and very absorbed in their projects.
The lab was mostly strewn with robotic parts. Materials and blueprints were projected on the walls. There were several tubes with purple liquid arranged on tables, sensor probes dipped into them to display readouts on a monitor. A few large specimen vats were filled with a translucent blue slime. They held various kinds of metal limbs and torsos suspended from cables. On one side of the lab there was a large setup of monitors and input devices. On the other side, a workplace with various tools and other devices meant for the assembly of machines. In one of the walls, there was a massive vault door, heavy with locks. A sign above it read 'prototype chassis storage vault'. Another wall featured a rack with numerous helmets and faceplates of various stages of completion and tech levels.
"I have made the changes to the transformation cogs as discussed. Please check them for integrity." One of the hovering Quintessons, the kind who bore three faces, instructed his partner while diligently entering code into a console at the multi-monitor setup.
"Very well" Emphisa, a singlefaced Quintesson scientist, grabbed a transformation module from the workbench as his colleague Fernicius mentioned. He used a commander tool to force the device through the changing of mode. "It seems to work, did you build one of these cogs into a tester yet?"
"I have. Look over here." Fernicius hovered over to another bench where a 6-axis factory arm held a leg by the hip-joint. Cables ran from the hip connector to a computer console and a hydraulic fluid pump. He rotated the arm so they could view the inner thigh, and pointed, "Two support struts connect the hip to the knee axis. The upper turbine seals the hip joint and gives both form and strength to the thigh area. Two clasps and local magnetization prevent it from sliding away when the product uses its bipedal gait. The lower part of the appendage below the knee axis is of course the turbine as we designed it in earlier versions."
Emphisa nodded, examining the limb for himself, "Good form, feels strong. Can you run it through the process of changing modes as well?"
"I can, step back; you do not want to get caught between the shifting gears." Fernicius typed a command into the console. The cables spasmed when code and hydraulic fluids were pumped through. The leg responded by turning 90 degrees backwards, two clasps on the thigh released and the upper leg rotated another 180 degrees further, folding outwards. It no longer resembled a leg, and without knowing what it is supposed to be and lacking an example of the whole unit, one might not be able to guess what the limb is supposed to resemble now. Of course, Emphisa and Fernicius didn't design it to mimic anything. They didn't design for disguise, but for pure functionality.
"I don't suppose you could activate the turbines?" Emphisa murmured, curiosity evident in his request. Fernicius shook his head, "I could, but that would be highly inadvisable. Without a proper counterbalance, emergency breakers and being restrained like this, the turbines could very well spin themselves out of their casings. Such an event would be highly catastrophic to the workplace. They use energon for fuel, Emphisa. I don't want that stuff splashed up against the walls as if Macetail took it to slaughter. Not to mention have all that energon drip over my devices and schematics."
The reply he got was a bemused chuckle. "Of course, Fernicius, I understand your caution. Still, we must have a prototype soon to properly test the new design. Let's get started on the rest of the product's hardware."
"Hmm, yes, let us do so." Fernicius agreed. At times, he found his colleague and chief's innovative zeal a bit too experimental to feel entirely comfortable with. He supposed it was his job to provide the appropriate restraints and keep activities within the borders the council desired.
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[End of chapter: Design Discussions]
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Author's notes:
Hello! First and foremost, thank you for reading the first chapter of the first journal in the D-HEX-23675 series!
I will not bother you too much here, just wanted to drop a quick note that this chapter is awfully short and that that is not supposed to become standard. The above was only one page long since I want to make use of the option to divide a story into multiple chapters for navigation ease.
The next chapter, 'Prototype Introduction', is about four pages long. So the setup is like this: Each journal has their separate story entry, and each story will have their chapters separated over… well…. physical chapters selectable in the menus.
A few pointers:
● Please check the rating for this series if you haven't yet: they are Mature.
● I can be very busy at times making it impossible to predict updates; using story alert might be a convenient option for you if you wish to follow the stories as chapters are uploaded.
● Journals take place in the G1 universe.
● Absolute timestamps are omitted to give you your own room for interpretation.
And that's it. The next chapter will reveal what the two Quintessons were working on.
Thank you for hearing me out and I hope you have fun reading!