SoV-P1

=Scars of Victoria=
==Prelude – PROJECT: SILVERBACK==
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05/08/3047 Salamander River Industrial Zone, Skytower City Sprawl, Luthien, Draconis Combine
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Thin metal walls shuddered as a train passed by causing the five teenagers, four boys and an Azami girl, within the dimly lit workshop to stop and nervously watch whether their reinforcing angle brackets would hold. “Minoru, why did we have to pick this spot?”
Minoru Kurita labored away on the latest prototype of the ‘powered’ armor, codenamed ‘Silverback,’ his small group from Hachiman Technical Institute had been working on since last year. “It was available, Dereck.”
Dust fell toward the epoxy floors dulled by use, Dereck, Ryuun, and the other three teens set about sweeping it up to prevent it from contaminating their electronics. “With good reason.”
Dereck Hatomuchi, looked toward Minoru and past his other companions. “Minoru, You are the smallest, you should test it.”
Minoru looked the suit over again and again, “I’ll wear the haptic suit but I’m not getting in there yet.”
“You said Silverback is ready for testing. Are you just chicken?”
Minoru looked toward the taller, heavily tattooed, and muscled teen, and the rest of his companions most of whom were well ahead of him physically, even Aria, the only girl in the group was taller than he was. “Very soon,” his voice broke slightly, “I am going to catch up to you.”
They all laughed slightly, “We know, but you will continue to suffer, Minnow, jokes until that happens, even if you are a Prince.”
He shook his head, ‘I bet Hohiro never had to deal with this treatment.’
Ryuun and Dereck attached the power cables to the seven-foot-tall robotic suit, they were still working to miniaturize an appropriate power pack capable of operating the suit’s motive systems and leave space for an operator, so it was presently an experiment in tele-robotics. William and Aria helped Minoru get in the tight jumpsuit equipped with a haptic feedback frame and power pack. Minoru’s gauntlet computer came to life then synchronized itself and his soft neurohelmet/sensor plate (‘borrowed’ from a DEST Sneak Suit) to the nearby mainframe which would interpret his motions and return the appropriate feedback. 
“Stand clear while I put it in Shadow mode.” The cage was cleared of all personnel for their own protection.
Yellow lights started spinning above Silverback before it stepped free of its storage frame and into its cage. Standing tall at seven feet the powered armor walked forward on split tabi style boots maintaining trim with the help of an internal gyroscope. Minoru lifted his hand and moments later the motion was ‘aped’ by the ‘Gorilla’ suit’s own four fingered manipulator (with the ring and pinkie fused together.) 
Haptic sensors developed from the same type used by Industrialmechs allowed Silverback functional dexterity as Minoru made a fist then put his hand out flat and did several other permutations. As the system learned his neural signals the hands responded with greater speed. “Silverback’s OS is mapping pretty good Minoru; this will be useful data.”
‘Silverback’ stepped toward a rack of items in various sizes and strengths and Minoru carefully pulled a wooden baseball bat from it. “Let’s see how good its reaction time is.”
“and your skill at bat.” Dereck’s cutting comments were fed directly through his soft cap.
“I made the team.”
“It’s an intramural team Minoru, of nerds. Hardly a high bar.”
“Still one I surpassed.”
“Whatever makes you happy, princeling.”
The robot’s middle finger stretched out toward Ryuun. “What a fine display of dexterity, Minoru-kun.”
“Sorry, was just stretching my fingers.”
“Right, get in position and give yourself some practice swings. You are going to need to get timing down solid.”
Silverback walked toward the impromptu batting cage fabricated from ‘spare’ steel they found throughout the complex and a borrowed pitching machine. “No cheating with that auto-targeting system.”
Minoru chuckled in his helmet as he swung the bat several times, once accidentally releasing the bat which clattered to the concrete before being retrieved. “Oh, you know I think I forgot to install that module. William wasn’t that your job?”
William Yoshimara sat up till his glasses displaying the console in reverse atop them. “Wouldn’t compile, still trying to debug it.”
“and here I thought you were a software genius.”
“Only when it comes to illegally modding video games and hacking payment software. Not writing sensor integration. The Combine doesn’t exactly have OTS software for this kind of task, and I don’t have military clearance to look at one. You’re lucky I can get it to transmit the sensor feeds clearly. Most of that is OTS but some of it was ‘discovered,’ right, Ryuun?”
Ryuun Sugawara, one of Franklin Sakamoto’s former Black Dragon bozos, tried to look as innocent as a large black man with irezumi tattoos and a sleeveless jumpsuit could. “Yeah, ‘discovered,’ You can’t imagine how much stuff Imperial Buda just leaves out in the open. 
Not being useful to anyone or thing. 
We’re doing them a favor using them here.”
As Minoru swung the bat, he started to better control the pitch and speed until he was ready to bat off a tee. Three solid strokes caused the ball to rattle within the cage and fall to the ground, the first one was however struck so hard it stripped off the outer layer. Minoru did the iconic Babe Ruth ‘call’ and Silverback mimicked it before he got into stance. “This thing is going to be so epic when we figure it out. Way better than anything Ibuki has put out so far. Start it up slow Aria.”
Aria ibn Al’Nair loaded the baseballs into the machine and took up position at her own console observing the myomer muscle map that was gradually developing within the mainframe. “Give it a couple of good flexes Minoru. Hip actuators are not quite in sync. I’ll have to adjust the gyro’s stabilizing rate particularly if you move your foot and lean in like you should otherwise Silverback will fight you.”
She triggered the pitching machine which proceeded to spit out balls at a slow speed and predictable rate. Each attempt at bat was adjusted for on the muscle map. Minoru shouted toward her, “You keep screwing up my timing Aria. Quit adjusting it for a few strokes!”
Aria pulled an emery board out of her purse, “Fine, I’ll just do my nails and look pretty I guess.”
Silverback turned toward her, “It’s not that. I just can’t adapt to your constant refinements. It may look small on your console, but this is tricky. It’s like having ghost limbs and very disorienting.”
Without Aria’s meddling Minoru managed to connect with the ball although his aim was off until he put an actual object in his hand and mapped it to the virtual but real one in Silverback’s. A slight rotation circle appeared as Aria and William adjusted the sensor inputs and updated his HUD which greatly improved his ability to interpret the robot’s motion. With the adjustment in place Silverback was batting an impressive 400. Minoru returned the bat to the object rack. “Great I think we got this down pretty good actually.”
“Let’s move on to those martial arts your hot sister taught you.”
Dereck waited for a snide remark or laughter, but none was forthcoming, “She’s not behind me, right? I thought she was away.”
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A woman in a brightly patterned kimono appeared from shadows as long and dark as her hair. “Omiko-san is away, but I am not.”
The large teen swallowed hard but didn’t turn to face the smaller woman behind him, “Lady Tomoe-sama, I meant no offense.”
“I know Dereck-kun,” she dug a finger into his nerves and all feeling in his right arm ceased before it was replaced by a sharp burning sensation, “Don’t worry it’ll probably wear off in a few minutes.”
He tried as hard as he could to talk without showing the pain and worry, “What if it doesn’t?”
“Well then an hour, anything more than that and you’ll need medical attention.”
Minoru lifted the sensor plate and turned to face his mother, Lady Tomoe Sakade, “What brings you all the way out to Aichi Hahaoya?”
Tomoe gracefully strode past the pained Dereck, nervous William, admiring Aria, and awestruck Ryuun. “You of course Suekko.” She pushed up a skylight with a nearby pole letting in sun and acrid Luthien air, “You and your friends need some sunshine instead of playing with your robots. Maybe play baseball for real. 
I was wondering if you would have a picnic on the Copper Sea. You never spend any time with your mother.”
“Neither does Hohiro.”
“But Hohiro is in the soon to be former Capellan Colonies hunting rogue Ghosts with the Eleventh Legion (of Vega) and you are here on Luthien,” she pinched his cheek drawing embarrassing looks from his friends, “for now. Until you leave to undergo Void Dragon Training.”
He pointed to himself, “You want me to do Void Dragon Training?”
“Your father, the Coordinator, insists.”
“What does he have planned for me?”
“You’ll find out soon enough.”
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Prelude 1