Anthem of Creation
"Recruit, what do you think you are doing?"
Ash wiped the sweat off his forehead, his attention momentarily ripped away from the Storm Javelin he and Silver were trying to fix. Silver groaned as the "Sergeant of Tarsis" stomped over with a very unhappy look on his face. Ash elbowed his friend as subtly as possible as he turned to face Sentinel Jorge. The large Javelin that approached him could have resembled a Ranger type, but with armor that was silver with the faintest sky blue lining all around. The face plate had seemed to be permanently removed with even more metal been peeled back showing a gruff face that appeared to be in his late forties, the extra peripheral vision seemed to never fail catching a recruit doing something he wasn't supposed to do. Like what he and Silver were trying to mess with. Ash dropped his Cosmo -wrench, a highly advanced wrench that shifted itself automatically to fit whatever bolt up to a few inches.
Silver cursed as he saw the wrench fall and with his free hand, as the other was wrist deep in the circuitry of his Javelin, tried to catch the equipment as it fell. His fingers brushed the edge of it and the wrench tumbled, letting out a loud CLANG as it hit the ground. He sighed at the noise, removing his hand as he faced the Sentinel instructor with his partner.
"Sir, this recruit felt there was a better way to reroute some of the power of the reactor to strengthen the shields, making it more viable in combat." Ash knew this wasn't the best answer to give to the now purple in the face instructor, but he was no liar. He was not at all surprised by the anger that seemed to radiate off instructor Jorge as he stopped in front of Ash, Silver, and the partially deconstructed Storm.
"Oh? Is that so?", the instructor asked. "Recruit, are you part of the Javelin research and Development team?"
Ash grimaced, knowing all too well where this was going. "Sir, no sir."
Instructor Jorge cocked his head slightly, his deceptively calm voice not at all portraying the rage evident in his face. "Oh? Then you must be a part of the Mechanic squad, fully registered and able to take apart Javelins and putting them back together in such a way to make them not one hundred, but two hundred percent combat ready?"
Again. "Sir, no sir."
Instructor Jorge turned his head just slightly to eye Silver, who shook his head in response to the unasked question.
"Hm. Then I will ask one more time, and this time, I want a far better answer than what you recruits have been giving me. What. Are. You. DOING." Each word was punctuated by his voice getting louder and louder, drawing the attention in the other recruits who looked upon the two individuals with a look of pity on their faces. All of them have felt the wrath of the instructor over the past few weeks, and had no desire to draw attention to themselves.
Ash shifted on his feet a little, nervous energy hardly holding him in one place. He gave a glance over to Silver, who's idea this originally was, hoping he'd step up to take the brunt of it this time.
Silver caught the look, and gave a silent sigh. He stepped forward. "Instructor, this recruit was doing as you instructed. We complete the basic patch to the inner manifold to allow the javelin basic mobility functions." He paused as he watched the instructor's face, who's only indication for him to continue was an eyebrow that shot up. Silver continued. "Recruit Ash was reminding this recruit that various forms of javelins have different ranges of mobility, the Interceptor class coming to mind. This recruit felt that, while mobility is important, there should be a way to also activate emergency shielding to a Storm class Javelin to compensate for the lack of mobility. This recruit asked recruit Ash to assist in finding a way to reroute partial power from the reactor to specific sections of the suit to allow minimal but functional power to assist in dire situations."
Instructor Jorge eyed the young recruits before him. He had been tasked to help train many classes of Javelin pilots and Operators over the years. Many would join various ranks of the Sentinels, helping maintain the walls of Tarsis and various outposts they have tried setting up. Some would help out with various groups like the Mechanic Corp and the Javelin R&D. But for the free spirited and brave pilots, they would become Freelancers. A group that went out side of the walls braving what comes from beyond, this group held individuals that had to be quick, intelligent, resourceful, and most importantly, lucky. Life beyond the walls were rough. Deadly. And not every Freelancer came back from a mission. This class that he was training had some of the highest potential for Freelancer and Operator recruits. Including the two in front of him. While he wore a mask of fury, he had some pride that this class had been paying at least some attention to Sentinel Marek's lessons. Most classes he trained hardly thought outside the box with the few exceptions being those Freelancer recruits. This class had so much potential, that there had been many times they banded together to question mechanics, physics and history coming up with plans and strategies that, while lacking finesse, held some weight in the upper echelons in charge of creating such plans.
Yes. This group had potential. Ash and Silver attempting to reroute power to other systems was not a new thing. Groups in R&D had been trying to work on similar problems like that for months now after a recruit initially pointed this out. Normally, Jorge would dismiss the recruits efforts and scold them for being off task, but the way Silver described the idea to him gave him pause.
"And since you thought so hard about this," the Instructor growled while watching the recruits faces with some interest, "I am sure you could explain to me how to get flow to go through the suit in dire situations without the reactor pouring too much power through the suit causing either a malfunction or worse, a meltdown?" Silver shifted slightly. "Permission for this recruit to move in order to show the Instructor basic blueprints, sir?"
The Instructor paused a moment, then partially dropped the irritated look on his face. He was too interested in the idea and he knew when not to shut down a recruits idea, even if it was flawed. Such quick thinking questions and ideas are key to survive outside the walls, and there were to many potential Freelancers in the room to shut down such ways of thinking so quickly. He nodded his approval and glanced over to the R&D specialist in the room, Micheal to come take a look at the plans. Jorge may be an instructor, but he only knew as much as experience got him. He moved out of the way to have Micheal move to where Silver stood in order to look at his work. He watched intently as the two spoke, Ash awkwardly standing at attention next to the pair, staring straight ahead. Jorge motioned for the young man to step forward. Ash stepped forward in front of Jorge.
"You disobeyed my orders," he growled. "for that, you get to join Dragon in the Arena for a few hours."
To his credit, Ash did not show much expression, but the Sentinel could see the surprise in his eyes. Most punishments were cleaning duties, not facing virtual enemies in the Arena. What Ash did not know, was that he, Dragon, and Silver was on the Sentinel's list to be recommended as their own Freelancer team. They worked well together and any practice they get in training was less blood that was spilled in the field. For this, extra combat training was needed. He watched Ash march off toward the Arena and turned his attention back to the pair who talked over the blueprints that Silver had whipped out of nowhere. He stepped a bit closer to listen to them talk.
"...able to keep suit powers up? That would stop the suits current of power."
"Not if you create conductors on one or both the arms to use the power of the Anthem through them instead of the reactor's power." Silver countered.
Micheal opened his mouth to disagree with that but then suddenly snapped them shut. Jorge watched Micheal's eyes widen slightly. "You don't mean..." he breathed.
"What do we have here, Micheal?" Jorge growled as he leaned over the blueprints sprawled over the small workstation. His eyes quickly glanced over the blueprints. While his eye was not as practiced in this field, he knew enough and by the reaction of Micheal, could figure out mostly what the idea was. He waited for the R&D specialist to confirm his theory.
Micheal shook his head at Silver then looked up to the Instructor.
"The general idea is to use a mix of elements in order to create a power conductor that can safely portion a bit of power that only opens in times of emergency to power systems such as shields. Normally, having so much power exposed without proper tools could make the reactor melt the armor, but some materials we have worked on show this could in theory work. Our designs are a bit more refined than this, but the theory still stands." Micheal glanced at Silver who waved his hand as acknowledgment of the remark.
"The reason we have yet to implement the idea, is that it would almost completely shut off the power to any of the Storm's abilities over elements. It just simply can't draw enough power. So while we could, most Freelancers feel the drawback in combat is too situational. However, recruit Silver has pointed out we can put in Shaper Relic vents on the arms as conductors. This could effectively, even if theoretically, draw power from the surrounding Shaper relics and environments, and store them as emergency power instead for abilities. More refinements, could make it to where we can use it to only draw it's ability power from the environment."
Instructor Jorge cocked an eyebrow at Micheal. "This could work?"
Micheal shrugged. "I can have my boys look at it if nothing else. Anything we can do to improve the Javelin class will save Freelancer and Sentinel lives."
The Instructor grunted. "Do it. As for you, recruit."As Micheal started picking up the blueprints he turned to glare at Silver who snapped to attention knowing full well retribution for his meandering of the suit and allowing expensive equipment fall to the ground would cost him. "You are to join Ash and Dragon in the Arena. I will be there shortly to speak with you myself. Until then you are to run the Ramparts course until I arrive. Am I clear recruit?"
"Sir, yes sir." Silver responded automatically.
"Dismissed."
Silver saluted, turned around and jogged off towards where Ash left mere minutes ago. Instructor Jorge looked up towards the other recruits that had stopped to watch with interest. When he looked up, every recruit became highly busy in what they currently were doing, trying to avoid detection by the massive Sentinel. Jorge held the glare for a few seconds, then satisfied the recruits were doing what they were told to do, turned to Micheal has he finished organizing the last of the blueprints.
"Let me know if that actually works. When you do, come find me."