Hendricks Training Facility - Parade Ground
Circe Base, January 31st 3050
Kerry was silent for a moment, as three large tractor-trailor combinations hove into view and came to a halt in front of the reviewing stand. Hegemony soldiers started setting up a small stage as well as a pair of tents, while Kerry took a minute to check over some notes.
"Alright, now we come to the fun part of what we had planned." she said, clipping a small box to the mic and moving towards the stairs. "Normally, if we were doing a normal sort of thing, about now the infantry would be marching past, drums beating and flags flying and looking quite martial. But after seeing the reactions of Racetrack and Skulls to our infantry..." she paused a moment as she hopped down to the ground and out the gate towards the stage. "We realized if we did it the normal way, we'd probably have a riot on our hands. Not to mention the reaction to our BattleMech's."
"Well, we did a little brainstorming, discussed things with Admiral Adama and President Roslin and the Quorum, and came up with a way to do this right. First, we raided your museum." she said, as some of the soldiers manhandled the deactivated Centurion that had once graced the Galactica's museum up onto the stage. "I'm sure you all recognize this thing, right?" An answering growl answered her, and she simply nodded. "I knew you would. Cylon War era Centurion, with all the bells and whistles." she looked at it, as the soldiers set it down next to her. "Ugly thing too. But therein lies the problem, it looks like a humanoid, kinda sorta, only made out of metal, right?"
"So, we had to do some thinking 'How do we make it clear that our infantry are WEARING armor rather than BEING armor.'..." she trailed off, then chuckled slightly. "The solution was obvious, so we asked for volunteers. If the volunteers would come on down?"
On the reviewing platform Vice President Zarek stood up and headed for the steps, while in the stands Kara Thrace likewise stood up and made her way down.
"OK, one volunteer, I had to bribe Starbuck with a box of cigars" Kerry drawled as the two joined her on the platform, causing a laugh as Starbuck shook her fist at her.
"And I don't get any cigars?" Zarek asked, politician enough to ham it up a little for the crowd, and drawing another laugh.
"But you volunteered, Mr Vice President Sir!" Kerry replied, pouting a bit. "And Nuevo Havana cigars are expensive!" Zarek grinned in reply, then he and Starbuck headed into the large tent that had been setup behind the stage.
"Now, I know you got a bunch of Marines with you, and I'm pretty sure they'll all tell you that getting shot is not on their top ten list of things that they want to have happen in battle, but that if they are, they'd vastly prefer it if their body armor turned the bullet, right?" she asked, looking over at the Colonial Marine contingent in the stands and receiving a rather hearty affirmative. "But let's be honest, you can only carry so much before you can no longer move, and armor is pretty heavy. Throughout history it's always been a balancing act between protection and mobility. It's always been quite possible to make a fully bulletproof suit of armor, but moving in it would be just a tad difficult, actually, make that damn near impossible. The main limitation, always, has been human strength and endurance. Now, back in the day before the first Cylon War, your forebears decided on one way around the conundrum, make robots to do the fighting for you. And, well, that didn't work out all that well, did it?"
"We went a different route, took a long time, alot of trial and error, and was helped immeasurably by our having developed some technologies in totally different directions from you. Specifically, the invention of myomer fibers and actuators. We never took the actual soldier out of the equation, we just gave that soldier a suit of armor that augmented his strength and allowed him to carry more mass around, including armor and heavier weaponry. Now, the end result looks pretty similar, but is radically different in concept. So instead of just marching on by, we thought 'hey, if they saw a suit being fitted and put on, they'd know they aren't cylon machines'."
"Now you all heard the announcement, I hope, about our making contact with the Cylons and convincing them to sit down and talk. Well, and keep this between ourselves, no blabbing to the Cylons here, they are already making the same assumption about our infantry, specifically our Marines, as we were afraid you would, and have decided that our Nighthawk Mark 42 suits are actually Centurions of some sort, and they've been pounding the table demanding that we 'free your Centurions' blahh blahh blahh. Our Marines haven't been keeping their faceplates polarized and installed LED's to further the deception, not Marines, never! OK, stop laughing" she said, as the Colonial Marine contingent was indeed laughing rather loudly. "This little demonstration is for your benefit, not theirs, so like I said, no blabbing! We're kinda looking forward to making the Cylons brown their shorts for a change."
As she was speaking, both Zarek and Starbuck exitted the tent, now wearing digital camoflauge patterned jumpsuits. Zarek held a helmet under his arm while Kara didn't, but otherwise they looked like they were dressed identically.
"OK, Kara, you are first up." she said, pointing towards where a small cluster of technicians were standing on the side of the stage. "Now, we cheated a little and already took measurements last night, so despite what a certain individual proposed. Yes, I'm talking about you." she said, although she didn't name any names.
Kerry and Starbuck crossed over to the techs, who had already set out what looked like a massively oversized pair of metal boots with a rather puffy 'suit' spilling out of them. With a bit of effort, Starbuck put the suit on, which made her look remarkably like she had gained about a hundred pounds or so, and settled her feet inside the 'boots'.
"Alright, when fitting a suit we always start with the feet, after all, if we started with the helmet even Brigadier van Hausen, remember him? The giant? Even he wouldn't be able to stay upright, this particular suit weighs 1000 kilograms, not sure how that translates into your terms, but suffice to say it's alot. Now, the puffy stuff that would make a supermodel look fat? That's the interior padding, fully inflated for fitting purposes. Once the suit is fully assembled, just deflating the padding makes it quite easy for the trooper to get in or out of the suit."
"Now, as you can see the techs are starting with the innermost layer of support structure, the parts were already pre-measured for Starbuck, as they have to be for every wearer. There are certain tolerances, for example, I'm too short to wear a standard suit. Now, the inner support structure is designed to bear the weight of the suit, and is also where the coolant, power and control runs are located." as she spoke, the technicians were inserting assemblies of metal and micro-conduit into the 'boots' and connecting them to pre-positioned links on the padding, securing the padding to the frame.
"Next up, the myomer bundles. They're already pre-strung and measured, and insert into the upper and lower braces to hook into the foot and knee actuators. Now notice, already the leg is thicker than those Centurions, including Tin Boy here." she pointed at the museum model. "And we haven't even gotten to the armor plate, this is just the myomer bundles."
Patting Starbuck on the shoulder, even as the techs continued hooking up the multiple myomer bundles, Kerry walked over to a small test bench that had been setup. A single bundle of Myomer, an actuator, and a large weight were setup.
"Now, this is what makes these suits work, myomer. While you were perfecting artificial gravity and those really cool jump drives of yours, we were perfecting this stuff. Think of it as an articial muscle, a proper amount of current and..." she flipped a switch, and the weight was hoisted into the air as the bundle of myomer fibers contracted rapidly. "Just like a real muscle, allows for very precise movement and control, and, speaking for myself, makes for absolutely awesome electric guitar strings. Bundles of these provide 'power' on all battlesuits and BattleMechs."
"So, back to Starbuck, as you see, they finished up stringing the myomer bundles, and are now fastening the outer shell of the lower leg armor into position and sealing it. Battle Armor needs to be environmentally sealed, after all, for operations in space or hostile environments. Next they'll be hooking up the knee structure, actuator and armor."
"While they are doing that, Mr Vice President?" she smiled at Zarek, who nodded. "Now, with this one we cheated too, and he's already taken the Groundhog out for a test ride last night to get comfortable with the controls. Amusing as it would be to show you the video of that, under threat of being made to listen to speechs about how naughty I am for the next ten years I stole the tapes." she then grinned over at Zarek, who was shaking his head and chuckling. "Now, since I have the blackmail material, no stepping on my toes when you are driving that thing, OK? Now, by way of explanation, what he's wearing is similar to the coolant suit that Starbuck has on, with a few differences. Most importantly, the coolant system is more robust, with that belt-mounted heat exchanger and pump, plus there's the neurohelmet." Zarek held the helmet up, which looked similar to what a Viper pilot would wear, only somewhat bulkier. "Now, an IndustrialMech like the Groundhog doesn't absolutely require a neurohelmet, but it's much easier to pilot with one than without. Without getting into all the technical jargon, I'm ComCorps, not a Tech, it's just a better way to keep the Mech balanced and provide extra control input."
"Now, I know alot of you folks are miner's and such, right? Industrial workers? Well, the Groundhog is designed for that sort of work, so some of you might, if you want, be learning how to operate them. Think of them as real fancy and capable construction machines." she said, then nodded to Zarek, leaning over and saying something to him with the mic off, to which he nodded and headed towards the largest of the trailers.
"Now, back to Starbuck." Kerry said, as Zarek vanished inside. "As you can see, the knee assemblies are fully fitted as are the upper legs. The techs are working on the lower torso and waist assemblies now, and as you can see the frame is designed to 'split' open at the waist, that's for making it easy to get in and out of the suit without requiring a huge support staff. You can probably also tell that the torso frame is even thicker, proportionally, than the legs. That is for balance reasons, primarily, as the weight of the powerpack and back mounted missiles need to be compensated for, plus it accomodates the life support gear. There's 24 hours of air, a filtered water supply, and even food, although I recommend against eating it... trust me, know that cardboard stuff you folks were suffering with? That stuff is pure ambrosia compared to this so-called 'food paste'."
By now Starbuck was looking rather odd, as the armored suit 'grew' around her from the labors of the techs. As the techs continued working, now installing the upper torso structural and control elements, she stood as still as possible, although she occassionally made a rude gesture towards her fellow pilots at the odd catcall. The outer plates of the suit were gunmetal grey, with the joints being a darker slate grey. On one heavy knee-pad was a somewhat stylized '1' while on the other was a copy of the Galactica crest.
"Now, to answer a question I'm sure some of you are asking, no, there aren't any significant differences between male and female versions of the suits, so yes, if you are well endowed it may be a bit uncomfortable." Kerry pointed out, before shutting off her mic and talking with Starbuck for a moment and getting a nod. "OK, they should be connecting up the full breastplate soon... yup, there they go, as well as the backplate and shoulder assembly. Next will be the arms. Now, as they do those you'll probably notice that neither will end in hands. That's normal for this model suit, it's the Nighthawk Mark 43, so on the left hand is what we call a 'battle claw', a three fingered doohickey used for the delicate art of ripping armor plates off of mechs and other fine artistic endeavors. On the right is a modular weapons mount, while an anti-personnel mount is underslung on the left. For this suit there will be a small laser in the modular mount and a support machine-gun in the anti-personnel mount, in addition to the backpack missile launcher. If my name was Lee Adama and I had thought it a great idea to have Starbuck change into the thermal suit on stage with everybody watching, I'd be worried right about now." she and Starbuck both pointed at Lee, who somewhat theatrically threw his hands up in surrender. Moments later Admiral Adama was laughing, pointedly leaning away from Lee, and the crowd was roaring at the byplay.
On the right chest of the suit was a larger version of the Galactica crest, while on the left was written 'Captain Kara "Starbuck" Thrace' in black block letters. The armor itself was the same gunmetal grey, with the rotation ring at the waist and the still exposed joints at the shoulders and neck being the darker slate grey.
"Now, we did up the suit in what we figured would be the sorts of colors and markings you'd use, if and when you started using these in your own military. For those of you interested in buying stock, they are made by a consortium led by Lockhead-Boeing and the stock for that consortium is trading at 42 Hegemony Dollars as of the last update I got. That's up one from yesterday, so..." she chuckled then, turning to check on the Tech's progress, while a rumbling sound could be heard from within the parked semi-trailer. "I think the Vice-President just powered up the demonstration Groundhog, he should be out shortly."
The techs had finished fitting the upper arm assemblies as well as the shoulderpads, on which were painted the Colonial insignia, and were working on the elbows while Starbuck kept still now. Kerry picked up a small radio and spoke into it, then listened to a reply before nodding. "OK, he'll be a few more minutes. Now that the techs are fitting the arms, you can again see how much thicker they are than those Centurion's arms, which are spindly little things in comparison. Again, that's to accomodate both the full myomer bundles and the human arm. Takes alot of practice to get used to the different bulk, but I'm told that once a trooper gets familiar enough with it that they can do full acrobatics in their suits. I'd never try that, I'd probably hurt myself. Now, some Mech jockeys are able to do some really amazing things with their machines, if you ever see an Atlas doing a handstand you'll know what I mean. That's 100 tons of alloy doing a handstand... it's almost as amazing as seeing an Urbanmech fly or, for that matter, trying to beat an Atlas in a foot race."
"They are almost finished with the base suit, just the lower arms to go, and as you can tell the lower arms actually extend down past Starbuck's hands. As I said, once the assemblies are finished the battleclaw and weapons mounts will be installed, as will the backpack mounted missile and energy pack. Now, the lower arm assemblies, where the cover her hands, include additional controls, specifically for the weaponry as well as an alternate way of selecting menu items from the suits computer system. Normally that is handled by a retinal scanner, but can be done with the finger controls as well."
The radio beeped and Kerry picked it up, listening to the other end then nodded. "Alright, while they finish up the suit, please direct your attention to the ramp on the trailer over there. Looks like there's no obstacles so it shouldn't be too dramatic and... here he comes!"
Out of the trailer came a yellow and orange painted machine, with a prominent cockpit surrounded by crashbars and a plexiglass canopy in which could be clearly seen Tom Zarek, working the controls as he guided the walking machine down the ramp. He actually managed to keep it under a reasonable amount of control as it stumped forward on birdlike legs. There were four 'arms' on the machine, two with oversized 'gripper' claws and two others with far more precise looking manipulators. Exposed actuators and light plating showed rather clearly that this was a civilian type machine, while small clouds of exhaust came from the heavy duty diesal engine that ran it.
"And this is the Groundhog IndustrialMech, 25 tons in mass, most often used for construction, mining and agriculture with differing arm assemblies. Now, it's similar to a BattleMech, only it's not intended for combat so it has a nice wide open cockpit and AWRKKKKK!" Zarek was grinning as suddenly one of the more dextrous looking arms, which had slowly swung over the linguist, darted down and picked her up by the collar. "TOM ZAREK PUT ME DOWN THIS INSTANT!"
Kerry certainly looked indignant, shaking her fist at Zarek in the cockpit. Over the loudspeaker, though, Zarek replied "After you give me the tapes, Kerry." he said, although there was a definate chuckle to his voice. Oddly enough, none of the other THiE personnel seemed to react at all.
"Fine, fine, there will be tapes in your office, NOW PUT ME DOWN!" Kerry said, still shaking her fist even as the arm lowered and deposited her back on the stage, where she did her best to straighten herself out and recover some dignity, before moving to stand right next to Starbuck as the technicians finished hooking up the weapon mounts and battle claw.
The crowd had rustled a bit when the big machine had walked out, even with the visual evidence of one of their own at the controls, but the byplay drew enough laughter that it settled things down before it got out of hand. Seeing that, Kerry gave Zarek a sheltered 'thumbs up' from where the crowd couldn't see her, even as the techs hoisted the bulky missile pack onto the back of Starbuck's battle armor.
"Now where was I before I got interrupted? Oh yeah, the Groundhog has a nice open cockpit, we figured that would make it far more obvious that there's a pilot on board, yes? Even if said pilot has a horrendous sense of humor and absolutely no respect!" she glared over at Zarek, hands planting on her hips. "It's a very versatile design, we use this particular version for construction work and, with the right attachments and a skilled operator, just one of these can do all the work required to build an entire single family home, plus it is far safer than traditional methods."
While she spoke, Zarek piloted the IndustrialMech about, pacing up and down the length of the fence and managing to keep it on a straight line, even while he had only one hand on the controls, the other waving to folks in the crowd.
"Now, that's an IndustrialMech, not a BattleMech, there are some significant differences between the two in appearance, for one thing the cockpit isn't as obvious in most cases since you kinda don't want to give the other side an easy target. However, they are fairly spacious still, and many of the designs actually have room for a single passenger which is normally used to pick up pilots who were forced to eject. Starting later this afternoon we'll have signup sheets posted up to sign up for ride-alongs on the base's Battlemech's, it's actually alot of fun so please do sign up. Also, we have about a dozen of our training Mech's here at the base which we'll be making available to any military types who want to try their hand at them, it's about a three hour basic course for piloting and such and the weapons aren't live."
The techs had just finished hooking up the missile pack to Starbuck's suit and had brought out the helmet. "And finally, we've got Starbuck here, almost fully fitted out, once the helmet is on the suit will power up and be operating independantly of external support. For movement and such she'd just be walking as if she weren't wearing the suit, the sensors pick up the pressure from her limbs and send the appropriate signals to the actuators. And there we go..." the helmet was settled in place and secured, the 'neck' wide enough for Starbuck's whole head to easily fit through. On the back of the helmet was another large '1' and the visor was left open.
Kerry switched off the mic again and spoke softly with Starbuck, who nodded and did something, which caused the visor to smoothly slide shut while still remaining clear. Faint green light could be seen on the visor, as the heads up display activated.
"Alright, now take it slow and easy, the balance is different than normal." Kerry said, flipping the mic back on as Starbuck took a somewhat hesitant step, looking a bit awkward. "Just make small movements, nothing dramatic... alright..." Kerry stepped aside as Starbuck manuevered the suit down a ramp at the side of the platform. "Unfortunately Starbuck only has had an hour or so in a simulator, given enough practice it would be much smoother... and guys..." she pointed towards the pilots, who were hollering out catcalls and jokes at Starbuck's waddling progress. "Be nice..."
After a few minutes Starbuck was moving more easily in the suit, enough so that she was able to actually look somewhat more graceful in it as she manuevered it back up onto the stage.
"Now, as I said exitting the suit is pretty easy once it's properly fitted." Kerry said, as Starbuck got back to roughly where she'd been when she started. "First, you initiate the suit shutdown sequence... OK, then see the 'exit suit' icon on the HUD? Select that... and it now should be automatic from here. First the padding deflates, then the suit opens..."
As she spoke, the battlesuit split open at the waist, the chest armor spreading apart like a clamshell and the 'neck' lifting up a couple inches. Starbuck then ducked out of the helmet then rather easily swung out of the suit, using two of the chest structural supports as handles. Meanwhile, Zarek piloted the Groundhog back into the trailer, not without several false starts, but managing to get it parked.
"Alright, now I'm gonna ask ya folks, that settle any concerns about these suits and mechs being robots like the Cylons?" Kerry asked loudly, smiling as the crowd reacted with a fairly solid 'yes'. "Remember, folks, you can sign up for Mech rides afterwards, most of the Mechwarriors are good folks even if they can't yet understand your language and vice versa. As a reminder, we've got translation booklets available and we've been adding more phrases to them so feel free to pick up a new one at any time."
--
In the conference room, the five biocylons were reading through the translated text, the taped message being unintelligible to them. The One's and Two's both looked fairly stiff and disapproving, while the Fours simply looked even more curious. Caprica and Boomer, on the other hand, were smiling slightly as they finished reading the transcripts.
"So let me get this straight, completely seperate from any final status or peace talks between us and the Colonials, the Hegemony is demanding that we permit a search-and-rescue expedition back to the former Twelve Colonies to find and recover any survivors?" Caprica said, finger resting on the relevant portion of the transcript. "Why should we make such a concession without gaining anything in return? It seems that most of the Hegemony requirements are pretty one-sided, demanding that we do more and more before they will even substantively talk."
Piachi listened to the translation, and frowned a bit. "Demand is not the phrase the Director-General used, Caprica, we will be sending such an expedition and are formally advising you of such. The question becomes whether the Cylons will support or oppose such an expedition, that is all. We did not engage in a pre-emptive genocidal strike against a civilian population, after all, you did. We are willing to still sit down and talk with you, and even open up peaceful relations with you, but do not think that we like you or will cater to your whims, is that clear?"
The translator hesitated, then started translating, not sounding all that comfortable with it.
One slammed his fist on the table, looking angry. "We are not your inferiors, to be ordered about and treated as such! That is OUR territory now, and any movement into it is with OUR permission or is an act of war." the Two and the Four both nodded, and both Boomer and Caprica looked at each other for a moment and then sighed.
"It looks like you want a war with us, Major" Boomer said softly, fingering the package slightly. "We agreed to come here on the premise that your people wanted peace, yet you, personally, have been acting as if you would like nothing better than to get an excuse to fight."
There was silence for a long moment after the translator finished, Piachi and One glaring at each other before Piachi transferred her glare to Boomer, who simply smiled alightly and leaned back.
"Kerry was the one empowered to act as the official emissary to us, therefore, from this point on she is who we will deal with, not you." Caprica finally said, standing up. "Meanwhile, it is a waste of energy arguing with somebody who just wants to cause offense."
Boomer joined her, and after a moment the others did as well, while Piachi visibly fumed, glowering as she rose. "Very well, if that's how you want it." she said, restraining herself visibly before stalking to the door and leading the group back out to the observation platform.
In the distance, in front of the huge crowd of Colonials, a stage was being dismantled and several semi-trailers were pulling away.