Chapter 2: Creating Functions
Standing in front of the nanosuit, just 20 minutes or so after his volunteering to test it, Jeffery couldn't help but be honored. Not only was he about to step into one of the most advanced pieces of technology ever devised by man, he would be allowed to screw around with it, solely to find flaws and other notable details. It was a wonderful feeling, but still a bit chilling. To describe it well, it was like being in line for a roller coaster. You knew you would be scared to death, and be having the time of your life while doing so.
The room he was in was nearly a perfect cube. With high ceilings, wide open area, monochromatic colors, and a tiled sheen, it was a completely symmetrical chamber. In each corner and on the center of each wall, was a small, nearly unnoticeable camera. This fed live footage to the monitors on the other side of the wall. There was also a video recording software programmed into the visor of his nanosuit, so everything in his line of sight would be recorded. It also had a thermal tracking system, to mark anything with sufficient heat onto a radar and track it's movements.
"Alright, Jeff, the suit should open up automatically. Get in quickly, before it closes," crackled an intercom speaker.
Almost on cue, there was a hissing sound. The center of the suit split down the middle.
The gap in the chest split and continued down the arms and legs. The lines split again to accommodate his fingers. Hesitating a bit, Jeffery spun around and backed up into the suit, leaning backwards slightly as he did so. His form became completely surrounded by the metallic fabrics. Another hissing sound indicated that the split was closing again.
From inside the suit, there seemed to be no temperature, and even though he knew it was skintight, Jeffery felt nothing as the suit pressurized itself and gripped his flesh. A scratchy sound merged from a speaker next to his ear.
"Please place mask on."
Jeffery quickly grabbed his oxygen mask and it cliked into place, over his mouth and nose. He pulled down his visor.
"Oxygen flow: Initiated."
Projected over his visor, a list of statistics and performance measures scrolled over each other. After the systems check was finished, the suit functions powered on.
"Maximum Armor."
An odd feeling of power rushed over him. He felt like he had more energy, as if his suit was supplying his body with pure andrenaline. He took a step forward, to check his balance. When his foot came down, tiny gears shifted and his foot twisted slightly, to create an artificial center of gravity. He tried running. Each step felt perfectly executed, and he felt like a shotgun blast couldn't stop him. And to think, the extreme conditioning hadn't even started yet.
A voice crackled from his earpiece: "Alright Jeffery, first, we just want to record the movements. After that we'll do the human testing. Over."
"Alright then."
"First, I need you to run forward. With purpose."
"Can do."
Barreling forward at full speed, Jeffery easily crossed the room within a few seconds. A small gauge in the corner of his vision noted that his current peak was 20 mph, with his nano-augmentation.
On the other side of the white wall, Andrew and his team were switching between admiring their creation, and observing a small screen on the table. On it was a stick figure with red marked joints and significant body parts, resembling a motion capture feed. Well, to say "resembling" is a misnomer, because it essentially was a motion capture feed. Andrew bent down over a microphone jutting out from the surface of the table.
"Alright. Nice work. We have a nice recording here. Now I want you to jump. Just lightly, so the prerequisite will be easy to reach without exertion. And make sure you do it again in a couple of different directions."
"Anything else?... Good." Jeffery did what was asked of him.
More tasks were assigned and performed without question, and eventually they were all completed. Now it was time for some real fun. It was time to test the suit functions. What was once a sub-par human specimen would now become the fantasy of an Olympian.
"Maximum Strength." The suit uttered robotically. Jeffery's muscles tensed for a moment, as the nanomachines worked to bolster his muscle tissue. He puffed out his chest and breathed deeply.
"Come on. Let's have some fun," he smirked, "I need some exercise."
"Believe me, we have a helluva workout lined up for you." crackled Andrew's voice from the earpiece. "First, just make a fist, and hold up your arm."
A thick, wide portion of the floor in front of him rose up. Behind, more came up, and they soon looked like a trail of dominos, ready to be knocked over.
"Alright, now just close your eyes, and move it forward."
Jeffery swung his arm forward, and his fist made a good sized dent in the tile, exposing the concrete behind it. After about three seconds, the portion fell over and broke into five pieces.
"Now keep going."
The second punch was less hesitant, knowing there would be little to stop it. And with the momentum, each raised block was lighter (relatively) than the last. At the end of the set, the final block was ripped out of the floor and slid all the way to the wall. Out of his earpiece, Jeffery heard a faint voice, probably one of the programmers making a joke: say hello to the 21st century steroid.
The suit was almost out of energy, and Jeffery waited few seconds while it charged up again. He noted that the weight of the suit was adjusting his posture as the artificial strength wore out, and his physical power had to take over. As the energy filled up, his spine straightened out to a un-curved rod. He was ready again.
"What else do you have?"
"Do you need directions to the weight room?" remarked Andrew.
"I could use a treadmill, maybe bust my quads a bit."
"Coming right up. 40 mph be all right?"
"Make it happen".
"Maximum Speed."
While the scientists were having their fun, halfway across the world, outside a small camp near Iwon, a Korean private was running for his life. A few metres behind him, a small squad of American Reconnaisence Troops were giving chase. About a mile ahead of him, he saw lights from his camp, where he had been deployed from almost two hours ago, to gather information. Now he had to get back alive to report his findings.
Only a few moments ago, he was just outside an outpost made by the americans, and listening to the radio chatter from their signal. Through the static, he could make out some conversation about a suit, and some new operations being set up. But before he could get anymore, a patrol stumbled across him, and fired in his direction. Realizing his position was revealed, it was all he could do to get away before he was killed.
Back to the present, he was closing in, and now could see the details of his camp: the tents, a few Light Terrain Vehicles, and a makeshift airfield in the clearing. Closer than ever, he devoted all his energy, and every muscle in his body, brushing aside foliage and hurdling over boulders. Almost there. Nearly safe.
Sweat trailing off his face, he forced himself through the line of flora, and burst into the clearing, his momentum easily carrying him forward into the perimeter of the camp. He kept running, towards the largest tent.
As the americans followed, the were quickly felled by Shi-ten machine gun fire, from a tiny hut made of tin plates. Not one survived, and the calm silence was broken by the angry sound of bullets. Inside the command tent, the private ran up to his commanding officer, and Corporal facing the backwall, which was cover by a jungle of cables and monitors, seemingly low-tech because of the hasty build. In their own language, the following conversation was had.
"Sir, the americans are building something very big. They seem very sure of it to win the war."
"That might explain their slow retreat, and also movement to build up around Pyongyang. It seems as if they intend to invade the capitol to gain an advantage. But they don't have the manpower out here to do that."
"It may be a new munition, sir. That would be enough to take out Pyongyang."
"But that does not seem to be their goal. They always fight like insects, moving forward and swallowing everything up. It does not seem logical that they would blow up a city."
"I also heard mentions of some sort of suit, sir."
"Really? What kind of suit? A shipment of kevlar, or body armor?"
"No, just a suit. Actually, the referred to it as 'the suit'."
"Did they say where it was coming from, or how it would be shipped?"
"No, sir. I don't think it's even finished."
"Where was the signal coming from?"
"Somewhere on the eastern coast of the US, around the middle."\
"Can you punch up an exact coordinate?"
"I might be able to, sir. If I go back and get it, that is."
"Excellent. I'll prepare the VTOL for takeoff. Every covert trained troop better be on it. In 18 hours, we'll be there and extract whatever it is."
As the private left to glean more information, 3 words left the Corporal's mouth.
"Alea Iacta Est."
Shifting back to the U.S., the trials on the suit were nearly finished. Jeffery had spent all night following instructions as to what particular action to partake, and was beginning to feel extremely tired.
Andrew was about as tired as he was, and seemed bored as well.
"Alright. We're almost finished. I figure if we keep going, we should finish soon. Just get a good running start at that wall."
Jeffery ran towards the wall, albeit with less enthusiasm then before, and crashed straight through.
"You know what, Andrew, I don't have the energy for this anymore. I think I'm gonna head home."
"You and me both, buddy. Just step over to the port, so you can take the suit off."
"Sweet. I'm getting sweaty now."
Jeffery lumbered over to the port, the weight of his suit bearing down on him, almost too much to take. As he stepped into the port and straightened his back, the suit locked into place and he took off his oxygen mask. The suit powered off, and immediately, without it's power supporting him, and lost conciousness, nearly instantly. The suit's front opened up and he collapsed out of it. Andrew walked over to him, picking him up.
"Well, I'd say I'll be the designated driver tonight. Let's get you home."
Early the next day, Jeffery got up, feeling terrible. He checked his clock. It had been nearly 10 hours since he blacked out. He was late for work, and still couldn't muster the energy to get out of bed. Without the suit to help him in menial tasks, Jeffery could barely perform them, after his extended time inside of it. Just like, astronauts, losing muscle tissue in zero gravity, without exertion. Jeffery found this last thought amusing. A nanosuit in zero gravity. How useless.
Finally yanking himself out of bed, Jeffery realized he hadn't had a smoke in 2 days. Not that he was addicted, at any rate. He wouldn't let himself do that. But he still noted the change. He couldn't even remember where he had left the pack. Glancing out the window, he saw that it had snowed overnight. Up in the sky, a thick fogbank hung.
After a hasty dressing, a quick breakfast, and a recovery of some lost car keys, Jeffery was out in his car. As he sat down, he got a head rush, and decided to call for a taxi. It had been 30 minutes since he woke up. Crap.
After a long ride, and a brief stint in a traffic jam, Jeffery was outside the parking lot. He paid the cab driver, tipping generously since he couldn't be bothered to count the bills. He jogged across the pavement, rushed in the door, got in the elevator, 4th floor, and he was in. He went to go check with Graham about the suit's routine programming.
"Oh, man, it's going great." Graham assured him, "We've cut down conversion times by 70. And I've only programmed half the actions. That was some idea you got. We're nearly complete and ready to present."
"Good job. How's everything else holding up? Is the AI still running correctly with the new parameters?"
"Everything's running optimal."
"Excellent. I'm counting on you to finish this up, okay?"
"Count on it."
"Great."
Jeffery was starting to adjust to his old physical archetype, and walked briskly over to Andrew and his crew.
"Andrew, my friend, I think we're about finished. Everything is going perfectly."
"Ain't it good? We are sitting on top of the world."
"Higher, actually. As soon as Graham is finished, we have to a new systems check and we can present."
"Seriously? That was fast."
"I'm surprised myself. I just hope Lieutenant Strickland is impressed enough. He's a hard man to please."
"Believe me, it will."
Unbeknownst to these two colleagues, just inside the fog of the winter sky, there was a good sized aircraft, loaded with ten to twenty soldier's of the Korean People's Army, preparing to land. Specifically, it was a V-22 VTOL, named so because of it's capability to take off and land without a runway or stretch of land. As it came down, the rumble of its engines rocked cars, and as the plane twisted it's wings to land, they swiveled down, momentarily passing over an entire wall of windows and shattering them completely.
Inside the building, all the noise was creating pandemonium, and someone pulled the fire alarm, hoping for at least some kind of alert. Jeffery and Andrew were startled, and Graham suddenly ran out of the room, towards the elevator. When it opened, he was greeted by a tough, burly 5" 9' rifleman, who swung his gun around and caught him squarely in the jaw, knocking him over and forcing out some of his teeth. Andrew bolted behind one of his tables, urging Jeffery to follow. By now, the soldier was already out of the elevator, running towards them.
Through the broken windows poured a small lightly armored team of military men, clutching small pistols, spreading out and securing the area. Every engineer in the room was soon standing up straight, with a rather incendiary incentive to stay there. With the chaos finished and everyone in order, the rifleman who had beat down Graham was walking forward. He pulled off his helmet, and shook his head, to shake off some sweat.
"Hello, gentleman." He made out in accented english, "My name is Corporal San Hyang-Soon. I've come about a certain project the americans are working on."
"What project?" Andrew asked, trying to lie.
"I believe it has something to do with a suit. My intelligence man was quite vague, and I know only about some suit you've built."
"It's not a real combat suit. It's a video game controller." Jeffery insisted.
San inched close to Jeffery. He smelled like rainwater.
"Am I to believe that in a time of international war, you would be whiling away millions of dollars a day for a suit that is used for purposes of entertainment? Aegri Somnia! What is it's purpose? Combat? Sabotage? Scuba? You will tell us and we will take it. Do you understand?"
"Oh, yeah, Caesar, we understand."
"Then tell us. Better yet, show us. Turn it on, activate it, do whatever you need to."
"Fine. But I need someone inside to help start it." Andrew said. "Graham!"
Andrew remembered that Graham was unconcious.
"Jeffery, you can do it, right?" Jeffery realized where Andrew was going, and said "Yeah, I think so."
"Hold it!" San said. "Send one of my people in. I've been fooled before."
"Not to speak ill of your 'people', but do any of them have awards and years of experience in nanotechnology AI? I wouldn't expect it."
San was obviously suspicious of what they had in store, and ordered two of his gunmen to accompany Jeffery and make sure he wasn't planning anything. Jeffery walked through the door into the test chamber, where the suit was waiting in it's port for him. Despite the direness of the situation, Jeffery felt a pang of excitement to be able to step into it again. Andrew started the suit initiation sequence, a SOCOM barrel pressed against his ear. As it did before, the front of the suit opened up and made room for Jeffery to step inside.
"I bet you'd want one of these, wouldn't you? I'm the only one who can build it. So if I were you, I'd ease up on the firearm." Andrew said.
"낮은총합니다." San said to his soldier. "Now, make it work."
Jeffery turned around, so he faced the two soldiers, and backed into the suit. Hello baby, I missed you, he thought. The nanosuit quickly closed around him, and sealed up. The the suit powered on.
"Maximum Armor."
In that split second Jeffery weighed his options.
What's around me, guards, concrete. Bulletproof glass between me and everyone else, need to break it. Need to not die, need to keep everyone else alive. Need to do it now.
"Maximum Strength."
Without a second thought, Jeffery grabbed the first man by the throat and shoved him into the wall, easily seperating his vertebrae and leaving an indentation in the wall. The second one started firing at him, and he let out a groan of pain from the impact. Running straight at him, he picked him up, and threw him through the glass pane, shattering it and landing him on top of San. He jumped through the shattered window and pulverized one man's skull, knocking him back into a group of soldiers.By now, San was up, and grabbed the second man's pistol, which still had half a clip left. Jeffery was low on energy.
"Maximum Speed."
As San started to shoot at him, Jeffery felt time slow down around him. It was all relative of course, but he easily leaned away from the path of the bullet, where it flew by and hit a soldier, bringing him down by the shoulder. 6 down, 14 to go. San was still firing, and he was experienced enough to count his bullets. With 1 left, he grabbed Andrew, and pressed the gun into his ribcage.
"HOLD IT! Stop right now, and crouch down."
Jeffery turned and saw that San had a hostage. He ran towards him at full speed, hoping he wouldn't fire. San squeezed the trigger, almost enough to shoot.
"Ah, ah, ah. Do as I say, or he will die."
Not knowing what to do, Jeffery took his only choice. He got down on his hands and knees, and put his head down.
"Take the other ones. Leave him. He's too dangerous until we get our own nanosuit. Destroy the computer. I don't want them building more. Best to leave them without plans."
Jeffery looked up and saw each soldier (each one that was still alive) walking towards the broken window, each with their own engineer. Outside the window, the VTOL was taking off, and hovering just outside. Goddammit. There must be something. Everyone was now on the VTOL, and it was ascending, bringing up the ramp. He got up, and on an impulse ran forward at full speed. As he hit the edge, he jumped.
"Maximum Strength"
His momentum combined with his nano-augmentation catapaulted him over the gap and onto the back of the VTOL. He pounded on the metal to make a handhold, and used his spare hand to try to bash through the hull. The craft had now ascended to almost 70 feet off the ground. He made a small sized hole, and looked through it, only to find 7 rifles pointed at his head. The simultaneous impact onto his head snapped his neck back, and he soon found himself falling, nearly 300 feet down. He righted himself and shifted his weight, desperately trying to position himself over something soft, but the weight of the suit was too great for that.
"Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit, Shit,!"
The speedometer showed he had reached terminal velocity, and his chances were getting slimmer. 30 ft from the ground, he pulled into a fetal position and braced for impact.
"Maximum Armor."
Coming down like a meteor, he crashed down onto a flatbed truck, sliding along the back and crashing through the cab, coming to rest against the dashboard. As his senses came back to him, he felt a rising motion in his stomach, like on a dropping roller-coaster. He realized his impact on the back of the truck had forced it to pivot upwards, and it was now coming down again. The front tires smashed down onto the pavement, cracking it. With only a glimmer of consciousness left, Jeffery forced open the mangled door, fell out onto the road, and blacked out, Army marked trucks parking in front of him.
Back inside the VTOL, Corporal Hyang-Soon uttered, "Plene Indignus Pro Bellum."
End of Chapter 2