OOC:

Crest
(A23) Experimental Gear Tester
Second of F4/Level 0-4 weeks by 10 posts

Crest’s foot pounded into the floor of the airspeeder, perfectly in sync to the pounding beat of the music being played into his ears. It both pained and pleased him to get away from his squad. The pain was because he had no idea how they were faring without him. The pleasure was because they were not getting onto his back and bugging him to death. The pain easily outweighed the pleasure, and it was really starting to get on his nerves.

Eventually, the unbearable time passed, and the airspeeder touched down on the ground. As Crest got out of the airspeeder, he was aware of the figure in the bright-white lab coat.

Recognizing the face, Crest called, “Dr. Oikj? Weren’t you a part of the weapons program?”

“Hello to you, too. Nice to see you remember me. Yes, I was. But after you and your comrades gave back a very successful test on my SX-92, I was then shunted into integration of the three components of our project. You do remember those three components?”

“The weapon, the armor, and the gear. Yes, I remember.”

“Do you happen to remember anything specific about those components?”

“Yeah. There’s the exploding armor which should not be exploding. There’s that neat weapon you designed, SX-92. And then there’s some stuff that’s supposed to help us do something.”

Dr. Oikj looked less than pleased at Crest’s casual response. Crest noticed it also.

“What’s the matter, doc? I’m really not going to concern myself with stuff that’s above my head.”

Dr. Oikj just sighed in response and, with his hand, beckoned Crest into the labyrinth. Security had definitely improved ever since Crest’s first test. Now two guards stood on the outside of the entrance, there was an airlock that served more of a security purpose than its intended purpose, and two more guards on the inside.

“What’s with the extra muscle, doc?”

“Oh, that. Ever since you four guys submitted stellar reports back to those bureaucratic paper-pushers, somebody decided what we were doing was really important to the Army.”

Crest filed that information away, asking no more questions. He continued following the doctor until they reached the Nomad project’s armory.

On the ground, there lay three objects. The first was a bulky jumpsuit, which seemed to have no armor, despite the bulk. Its weight would be easier to carry, since it would be evenly distributed. It was the only one that seemed to a finished product. Then there was a...backpack was the right word for it, but it did not quite fit. The thing was more of a cross between a piece of luggage that would hold enough for a family and a backpack, at least in the regards that it had straps to hold it over the shoulders. The last was a complicated rigging of cameras and sensors, including one tall antenna. As a rough guess, Crest estimated it weighed somewhere around ten kilograms, and it at least doubled the bulk of the trooper.

“Uhm, doc? I know you and your colleagues don’t have much combat experience, but that stuff, especially the rigging, is going to be very impractical on the battlefield.”

“Just put them on, will you?”

Shaking his head, Crest first slipped into the jumpsuit. It was better than he had expected; it was much lighter than it looked. Next, he pulled the backpack over his shoulders, but this time he was wrong. It was much more heavier than it looked. Lastly, he slipped the complicated rigging over his shoulders. As he identified and tightened straps on the rigging, he idly wondered what institution was he going to recommend that the army put these scientists. There were a few on Tadath that he knew, but none of them used shock treatment from the start.

As Crest tightened the last strap, Dr. Oikj looked carefully upon Crest’s handiwork. Seemingly satisfied, he nodded once.

“Alright, now I suppose you want to know what this is all about, right? First off, be glad that you’ll only be wearing the jumpsuit in its current form on the battlefield, even if it has to be used in conjunction with the armor. The backpack will be integrated into its own compartment on the armor. As for the rigging, well, that’s only to simulate the sensors and stuff that’ll be in the armor. What you really are testing with the rigging is what’s on this little disk.”

Even as he said it, Dr. Oikj twirled a small, shiny disk on his forefinger. Crest tilted his head in curiosity.

“This little disk, my combat-oriented friend, is what is you will thank me and my colleagues a thousand times for. Now hold perfectly still and let me put the finishing touches on this stuff.”

As he finished his command, Dr. Oikj produced a crude, dull-gray, and bucket-shaped helmet and slipped it snugly onto to Crest’s head. From there, Crest lost sight of the doctor as he slipped to Crest’s back. He heard a few wires being attached and a few other unidentifiable sounds.

“Alright, there...we...go. Now, Crest, I’m going to connect the power supply to this stuff. Now, really do not move or you’ll be in danger of setting off a catastrophic explosion that could blow this planet in half.”

Crest seriously hoped that the doctor was joking, but, for some reason, he could not make himself believe that.

Though it was contrary to Dr. Oikj’s orders, Crest flinched in shock when a soothing, female voice piped through the speakers in the helmet.

“This is Virtual Intelligence, model nine three zero two. Unpacking and initialization begun.”

“What the hell is this thing, doc?!”

“Don’t move an inch more! Please, I’m only trying to keep this facility intact. To answer your question, that is Athena. I suppose you realize what s--it is?”

“I wouldn’t be asking the question if I knew, doc. Besides, I have no idea what any of this stuff is, remember?”

“It would take too long to tell you in words. Wait for a few moments until it’s up and running, and then I’ll give you a demonstration.”

Crest waited patiently, racking his brains for any clues that would help him figure out what this ‘Athena’ was. It was a futile search, though. Eventually, ‘Athena’ came back on.

“Virtual Intelligence, model nine three zero two. Unpacking and initialization finished. Personality program online. My name is Athena. I await the command to begin my functions.”

“Uhm, doc? It’s done with the unpacking-and-initialization stuff.”

“Good. Just wait a few more moments while I...do...this...final...thing. There we go! Alright, now, very, very carefully roll your eyes counter-clockwise.”

“Counter-clockwise to you, doc, or counter-clockwise to me?”

“Counter-clockwise to you, Crest.”

Crest rolled his eyes counter-clockwise. It must have been some type of command, as Athena accepted it.

“One voice recognition file on disk, labeled as Crest. Do you wish to use this file?”

Dr. Oikj must have memorized how Athena spoke, because he started speaking before Crest could ever ask the question.

“It’s been programed to accept some eye gestures for common answers. For example, two rapid blinks followed by a second-long pause is a yes. Three rapid blinks followed by a second-long pause is a no. So, answer yes to her question.”

Crest blinked twice, and then made sure that his eyes stayed open for a second.

“Voice recognition file loading... Voice recognition online. ”

“It’s done, doc. What’s next?”

“Alright. Say, ‘Athena, activate heads-up-display.’”

“Athena, activate heads-up-display.”

“HUD activating.”

As it came on, a green overlay was placed on top of what he was seeing. A small, green X was placed right in the center. A motion sensor came online on the bottom left of his screen.

“Ok, Crest, now say, ‘Athena, bring health monitor on screen.’”

“Athena, bring health monitor on screen.”

“Health monitor on screen. Health is normal.”

Even as she said it, a crude human-shaped figure appeared on the lower right hand corner of the screen. Currently all of it was shaded a nice, healthy shade of deep green.

“That shows what it is currently the general state of any part of your body, Crest. Obviously, green is better than yellow, and yellow is better than red. We try to make this stuff user-friendly.”

Dr. Oikj slipped in front of Crest and handed him one of the training E-11’s that were used in the Academy, but this one was slightly different. It had what appeared to be a dataport on the right hand side, right under where the right palm would rest when it was held by a trooper.

“Alright, now, Crest, this will be the stuff you’re going to love us for. You see that little dataport? And do you see that orange wire--the only orange wire in the entire rigging, in fact--that is trailing down your right arm? Take that and plug it into the dataport on the E-11 and wait for the fun to begin.”

The orange wire turned out to extremely thin, with a small off-white connector at the end. Crest easily and precisely plugged it into the E-11, and then shifted the E-11 into the way it was usually held, with the barrel pointing down. The HUD started changing. In the center of the screen, the small x changed into a more traditional crosshairs, with a circle surrounding it. Then it shifted blindingly fast off the screen. Alarmed, Crest brought up the barrel up and found the vague suspicions in his mind confirmed. The crosshairs moved in response to the barrel, providing a very rough area of where the shots would go. That would be extremely helpful.

“Alright, now, Crest, here comes the best part of the entire Athena system, at least the best part that it can execute independently. Wait just a second so I can get into position.”

Dr. Oikj took a position roughly twenty feet away.

“Alright, now, listen to me. Athena can switch the type of view you receive. If you say ‘thermal’ it will change to a thermal view.  ‘Night’ switches it to low-light view. You can cycle through them later. I bring this up for another reason. Athena is programmed to track certain signatures, or, as a better word, abnormalities. Though, you have to point it out using the grid, and you have to use the words ‘visual’, ‘thermal’, and ‘night’ to point out which screen has the abnormality. You can, of course, mark the abnormality on more than one screen but the order in which you say it does matter, as Athena does assign priorities. To bring up the grid, all you have to say is ‘Athena, bring the grid on screen’. Understand?”

“Is it bad if I say no?”

A wry smile touched Dr. Oikj’s lips.

“Not quite. I suppose I should’ve foreseen that. Alright, first bring the grid up.”

“Athena, bring the grid on screen.”

“Grid on screen.”

Green lines dissected Crest’s screen into multiple squares.

“Alright, what’s next, doc?”

“Now, you need to assign me as a target. What square am I on?”

Crest checked and responded, “G5.”

“Then you need to say, ‘Athena, mark Target 1, G5, visual, thermal.’ That marks the abnormality in square G5 as Target 1, though you can name it whatever you want. It places priority on visual pattern of the abnormality, and using the thermal as a back-up. Try it.”

“Athena, mark Target 1, G5, visual, thermal.”

“Target 1 marked, primary visual, back-up thermal.”

As Athena finished speaking, a lime-green ‘Target 1’ appeared beside Dr. Oikj on Crest’s visual feed. No matter how quickly, nor how rough maneuvers Crest put himself through, Dr. Oikj’s position was perfectly marked.

“Sweeeeeet, doc. What’s next?”

“We’re going to see you do some stuff with the other gear. Come on, follow me.”

As Crest started following Dr. Oikj, he became aware of a slithering sound. Turning around, he saw a thick cord extending behind him.

“Doc? What’s with the cord?”

“Well, you see, this stuff takes a lot of power. For testing purposes, we have to resort to battlefield-impractical methods--”

“Isn’t your point of all this to make sure a Nomad does not have to be dependent on anything?”

“Yes. I’m getting to the part before you so rudely interrupted me. As I said, for testing purposes, we have to use battlefield-impractical methods. However, once we finish the armor, it will supply the power to the SX-92 and all this gear.”

“Oh.”

Crest’s genius response seemed to greatly amuse Dr. Oikj.

The next ‘test’ was essentially what was a huge chasm, cut into artificial rock. There was a metal bridge about two meters to the left. For some reason or another, Crest doubted he would be allowed to use that. In front of Crest, a good nine meters away, was the other edge. Even though the bottom was padded, Crest did not feel good about his chances to make the jump, especially not with all the gear he was wearing. Even if he was not encumbered with the gear, he would not be exactly thrilled with the idea.

“So, doc... what’s the test?”

“You haven’t guessed? Come on! It should be insanely easy for you to guess.”

“I have to jump across the thing?”

“Yes. Without a running start. But give us a second first. We have to test update procedures for Athena. We’ve got to load the controls to your jumpsuit.”

As Dr. Oikj started talking into his radio with some out-of-view technician, Crest idly went back to mentally scouring the galaxy for an institution. Nine meters? That was not a distance any human could cover, even with a running start and especially not when they were fully encumbered. Some aliens, maybe. Humans? Definite and resounding no.

“Alright, Crest, standby for three seconds.”

One. Two. Three.

Athena’s voice came softly in Crest’s ears, “Executable file received. It appears to edit control procedures of attached apparatus. Do you wish to execute the file?”

Crest blinked twice and then kept his eyes open.

“Executing file...control procedures over the Repulsor/Tractor Suit established. Awaiting further commands.”

“Ok, doc, she says that she has got control over some Repulsor/Tractor Suit. What now?”

“That midnight-black jumpsuit you have on is the Repulsor/Tractor Underlay, meant to be worn under a Nomad’s armor. Though the suit is dependent upon Athena so that the user can manipulate it, it gives an edge to a Nomad within an urban setting, or, if used very carefully, even in hand-to-hand combat. The suit is made of two layers. One layer that is a repulsor that is activated when a current is run through it; the other layer is a weak omni-directional tractor beam. However, the layers only activate for a second, as otherwise it would take too much power. Also, both layers cannot be used at the same time. Activating one disables the other. Used in conjunction, this allows a Nomad to jump from and to any object in short bursts. Get it?”

“Uh, I think so.”

“Good. The code-word to activate the repulsor layer is ‘Repulse’. The code-word to activate the tractor beam layer, is ‘Tractor’. Get it?”

“Um. Maybe.”

“Excellent! Let us test out your skills. Go to the edge, activate the control procedures and then launch yourself over the edge using the repulsor layer. Drag yourself to the other edge using the tractor layer. Try not to fall, will you? I’d hate to have to delay this test by a few weeks because you have to be floating in bacta. I would hate even more that I had to try to repair this gear, so make both of us happy and don’t fall. ‘kay?”

“Sure, doc. I’ll try.”

Nodding once, Dr. Oikj quickly walked to the metal bridge and crossed the chasm. Crest looked over the chasm, thinking on what was the best way to use the suit. Eventually, he settled on jumping and then, just after he jumped, he would activate the suit’s repulsor layer. When he reached closer to the other edge, he would use the other layer and drag himself in.

Feeling quite foolish and extremely nervous, Crest threw his body into a jump even as he activated the repulsor layer. Crest felt as the repulsor field established around him, pushing on the ground and on him. Since he was obviously the thing that would move more easily, the repulsor field shoved him into the air, as if he were a feather.

Nothing Crest could have done would have quite prepared him for being launched into the air. However much the boost the repulsor layer had given him, Crest knew he would still be about a meter or so short. He waited until he arced to the top of the jump and his body began falling. He forced himself to be calm. The bottom, after all, was padded. When he judged he was close enough to make a sliding landing, Crest activated the second layer. Despite all of Crest’s inertia, the suit snapped him forward, like a piece of iron pulled to a magnet.

His landing was nowhere near graceful, but Crest was too busy reveling in the marvelous results of the suit.

“Alright, doc, I’ve got a confession to make. I thought that you guys were insane. I even picked out a nice mental institute on Abrae for you all. I wholeheartedly take that back. Seriously. You guys are geniuses. Now, what’s the last piece of gear? This oversized backpack?”

“That...that, my friend, is one of the epitomes of our achievements. That is a Hibridium-based cloak. Renders you completely invisible to the naked eye and every sensor. That’s starship-grade stuff, miniaturized to a personal level. The only thing that works against it on the starship level are gravity sensors, but your gravity signature is negligible that even that sensor doesn’t work. However, there is one very, very severe drawback.The cloak works both ways. It both hides you from everything, and hides everything from you. This is where Athena  really helps out. She reconstructs the visuals for you, based on what she has seen and recorded, but be very careful. She can only show you the recording. If anything moves, you will not know, and you might even be exposed by running into it. So be careful. The codeword to activate the cloak is ‘Conceal’. The counterword is ‘Reveal’. Try it.”

It took Crest a second until his brain fully processed what he was being told. It took even longer for him to break out of his shock. It was not until Dr. Oikj snapped his fingers under Crest’s nose that he came back to his senses.

“Alright, doc, I’m back with the program. Give me a sec.”

Taking a deep--very deep--breath, Crest muttered, “Conceal.”

The cloak shimmered into existence around him. Then the next second everything went black. Crest’s heart seemed to be in his throat, pounding furiously. Crest wondered if they would ever even find his body if he died this way.

“Reconstructing local space from recordings,” Athena’s voice calmly spoke in Crest’s ear. Crest’s heart started to calm down. Somewhat.

After four measured breaths, a monotonous, steel-gray world came to life on Crest’s visor. Even Dr. Oikj, seemingly cut and molded from a single sheet of steel was there. Crest hesitatingly took a step forward, only to have his head ram into something very hard and very metal.

“OW! Reveal, dammit, reveal, Athena!”

The cloak shimmered back out of existence. Standing to the side of Crest, with a crowbar extended into Crest’s path, stood the actual Dr. Oikj.

“What was that for, doc?! You trying to kill your test subjects?”

Despite having a very angry stormtrooper beside him, Dr. Oikj responded very calmly, “Just emphasizing a point. You won’t forget this. Small price to pay, compared to what would happen if you forgot on the battlefield, Crest.”

With the pain somewhat receding from his head (and, by extension, the return of his logic functions), Crest saw, and agreed with, what Dr. Oikj’s point had been.

“Alright, doc. I stepped out of line there. I see what you did and why you did it. Thanks. Is there anything else we need to test today?”

“No, you just need to file out the paperwork saying how great we are.”

“I’ll also put in a note on how the army should let you at the enemy with just a crowbar,” Crest remarked, absently rubbing his head.

OOC:

Word Count: 3,441
This link contains a summary of the gear being tested.

OOC:

About the Hibridium Cloaking Device:

I do realize how it is only possible to use it on some of the larger starships (in canon). But I took a small leap, seeing how this is experimental stuff.

The main reason I chose it, though, was that I needed a suitable drawback to it. After all, just having a cloaking device left it a bit overpowered. The blindness it inflicts on the user is the a good balancing thing. I also tried to emphasize that as much as I could.

OOC:

Most of this gear is very reliant on the power that only the armor can supply. I thought this would be a good way to make sure that this gear has some drawbacks. Athena, though technically not restrained by power, is still very much dependent on the armor, since she needs a helmet and a suite of sensors to work with.