Gaius took a few uneasy steps from his pod, looking around. He was surprised by how well his new armor seemed to conform to his wishes; not just the operation but the design. It so many ways it felt like an extension of himself, but at the same time, there was something alien about it, and Gaius couldn't shake a foreboding feeling that he'd just become involved in something frightful. He shook his head, dismissing the thought. There was very little pondering it could accomplish for the moment.
Turning, Gaius looked over his apparent new companions. Their armor had such a wide range of designs. It seemed odd meeting people for the first time without really being able to see their faces, but considering some of the suit designs, Gaius wondered if seeing them like this might instead speak of their natures truer than a face ever could.
"So, he just wants us to say hello? Make fast friends...? I'm all for making friends, but this is alot to take in all at once, isn't it?" In spite of himself, Gaius couldn't help but to smile. He was a little bit nervous about the idea, but he was excited to see what his new armor could do. ...Time for that later, though. "Uhm, but I guess, my name's Gaius, alright? I'm very pleased to meet you all," he said in a polite, endearing tone.
One of the few, if possibly the only pilot the others could see the face of was Sigrun. The only teenager present had chosen quite a special design. The Heavy suit was concentrated in a set of elaborate heavy gauntlets, matching boots and a large pair of beautiful mechanical wings that lay folded nicely on her back. Besides that, all she looked to be wearing was a red form-fitting nerve suit.
Sigrun had spent quite some time discussing with the Soldier AI, which had been brought aboard to help with the security, but Sigrun had been adamant about being able to see and feel the world around her without any unnecessary layers of metal in-between. She looked around at her fellow recently equipped armour-pilots and nodded to herself. Yep, that had easily been the right choice.
A voice spoke over the radio and Sigrun started looking around to see who had introduced himself. The AI (who Sigrun has decided to call Wind, like the suit) helped her find him and she waved hello to the fellow Variable pilot.
"Heya, Gaius! I'm Sigrun. Nice to meet all of you!"
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!Lucinda had been made asleep during most of the procedure... after picking her through the computer in that pod for what seemed like magic, the sheer extend of her personal modification would require her to not be conscious. Otherwise she may had been made mad by pain as there was little in her that would be the same once she stepped out of the pod.
Opening her eyes and more importantly, realizing she didn't even need to do that to see now, was like being born again... And even though she had not spent even a minute outside and aware since her changes, she knew that from now on her life would be split in two parts... before and after she became what she now was.
There was a light pressure on the lowest, back part of her skull... where she now knew there was a chip connecting her as intimately as possible to the armor she now wore. Through it, her mind was now expanded... as in her minds eye and even overlaid on her normal vision she could feel, see and hear the world like never before. She had the utilities of her alien suit... and for a moment she allowed herself to experience them. To see the world in hues based on temperature, to feel with a pulse of radar all that lay around her... and then to feel her suit, her new second skin. All that it was, all that it could do and sense... all of it was connected to her conscious mind. It was near seamless the feeling of it... however, there was the marked contrast between what her biological mind could process and the speed of reply of what the chip communicated.
Lucinda was more than a little overwhelmed by it all... and in a few seconds, she took a deep breath and then opened up her suit... plates of armor parting neatly to allow her to simply step away from her human sized armor.
Her first step out of the suit was a strange experience... she felt both clumsy and yet, incredibly graceful. Her human memories, the way she knew how to move her body didn't quite measure up to this new body. She looked down upon her hands... what she could see of her body to try and inspect herself. She felt graceful, strong, beautiful... she felt a light rush just breathing, being what she now was. And then she let out a little chuckle as she realized the limitations in her thinking as she simply looked down to try and see her new self. Turning back lightly, she looked upon her open suit and then with her mind she moved it as one would move an arm. The armor closed shut as she glanced at the silver and blue suit... and it, she, looked back at her. It was an alien experience indeed to be able to see from two different points... however, everything else about all this had been beyond her wildest dreams... why not yet another impossibility?
She moved her suit, making her walk around her biological body... inspecting the changes wrought upon herself. Indeed, she seemed more lithe, her features alien, her ears longer, hair healthier... however, she could see herself in the being she had become. She had changed, and greatly, but she was still Lucinda Guerrero. Daughter of Tobias and Elena Guerrero. Taking another deep breath she walked again towards her suit, stepping into her and sealing herself within her second skin as she looked up, finally noticing in full the others around her. Specially Gaius and Sigrun. An avian sort of suit and an exposed lady with big gauntlets and wings.
"I am Lucinda Guerrero, last of my Clan... so far. I searched for something like this cache for many months... however, this that I am experiencing now is beyond all I could have dreamt off" She says, looking down upon the sleep silver fingers of her second skin, making a fist "Why did you, seekers, come upon this vault to attain this power?"
Gaius nodded to Sigrun. "Y-yeah. You, kinda stand out..." He felt like he ought to say more, but he was drawing a blank. Did... her pod malfunction? N-no, that doesn't make sense... I-I'm sure she'd notice the lack of... armor... Should I say something though...? Is that rude; or chivalrous? His wonderings were turning into a bit of an odd silence. Feeling embarrassed, Gaius turned away. Without looking, he stated, "U-uhm. I like the wings. It's a very regal design feature." At saying so, Gaius's own wings spread out and wrapped around his armor much like a cloak, though it was an involuntary action, and he didn't realize it had occurred.
In spite of the fact that there were a number of people around, Gaius was taken by surprise when another voice spoke, and introduced herself as Lucinda. Turning back to the others, Lucinda's suit was highlighted on his HUD, presumably the assistance of Ky, Gaius's suit AI. Honestly, he was actually relieved to hear a female voice coming from a seemingly complete suit of armor.
Gaius was surprised by Lucinda's question. "Wait, you were looking for this place? I just came here by accident. I was hoping to find some salvage and supplies for the people I met at the last settlement I visited. Their Rollers were all breaking down, and they didn't have the supplies they needed to fix them. But... something like this." Gaius held out his hand before him, moving and contracting his fingers and seeing the suit do the same. "This is... more than amazing. ...I-I've... kinda been squealing with childlike glee ever since I got here. ...On the inside; well, mostly... inside... Sometimes..."
edited 10th Jan '15 12:13:10 PM by Daecion
"Mendoza," a gravelly, male, Hispanic voice said from behind Gaius. It belonged to a man in lumpy-looking sweatclothes with a large backpack. "You can call me Mendoza," he said with a nod towards him. "I'll spare you all the long-winded bullshit," he glanced at Gaius before shifting his gaze momentarily towards the dark-heaired elf. "And keep it in my pants," he glanced towards the woman wearing half a suit. "But don't let me interrupt your chit-chat. I need a smoke."
He pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and lit it with a well-worn zippo, then took a drag of it, inhaling deeply.
Sigrun giggled at Gaius' reaction.
"Thanks for the compliment."
Then, a beautiful women stepped out of one of the suits and introduced herself as Lucinda. She was easily the most beautiful woman Sigrun had ever seen. However, Lucinda's nonhuman traits made Sigrun realize that this woman had probably also chosen the Progenitor nanites. It has been a obvious choice for Sigrun because of how healthy and long-living it would make her, but seeing Lucinda made her curious about how her own appearance had turned out.
"I want to explore the world! There are way too many outdated maps and too much people doesn't know about what's beyond the next town. So although I came here by chance while exploring, I'm gonna use this armour to find out all the secrets about the world!"
Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!Dominic finished his stretches and felt that he had a good idea of the suit´s ranges of movement. He willed the visor of his suit to rise up and tasked his AI to begin running a check of his new suit. The doctor was running his own diagnostics, but Dominic felt he should not take any chances with his suit.
Dominic gingerly caressed the back of his helmet. Commanding his armor through will alone still felt strange. But not quite as strange as his present company and situation. Dominic had figured he would find good pieces of tech out in the desert, but this was something else entirely. The technology used in the construction of the suits obviously ranged from merely cutting-edge to what was supposed to be merely theoretical at the moment of the fall. Dominic also felt vaguely unsettled that so many people had stumbled upon the same vault almost simultaneously.
Putting his questions on the back burner, Dominic approached the small group that had already begun to socialize. " You can call me Dominic. Dom for short if you´re into nicknames. I was hunting after rumors of preserved technology, but this ... was not quite what I expected."
Lucinda nodded her head at every introduction, regarding each person and their machines carefully, hearing the two explanations of those who offered it. So far, it didn't look like a bad group... and simply considering the vast amount of ruffians, raiders and thugs out in the wastes, she should consider herself quite lucky.
She turned her head to put her attention on Gaius to explain how she got here "Understandable... this we have found and the transformation does fill one with emotion" she says, looking down at her hand once again "I indeed was looking for this vault... I didn't know exactly what it contained, but I knew it, from the little intel I could gather that it would be revolutionary. If possible, I'd like to use this new found power to do good out in the world..."
"However, there is the voice of the professor" says Lucinda turning back to look at the room they were in "I don't know if he made these suits or merely studied them before... but he guided us into them and instructed us to make use of them. He wanted us to become what we now are... and we know nothing of his agenda or what he expects out of us"
"Consider the possibility that he may have an agenda and the means to force us, powerful as we now are, to follow it. We are now meddling with technology and powers beyond what we even believed possible when outside... so anything is possible. It was a risk being altered and obtaining these suits... but I couldn't turn back from the possibility of this. I do hope my fears are unfounded, but I would advice you all to be ready for anything and pray that the professor has good intentions"
Gaius watched on as two more of the new pilots introduced themselves. Mendoza seemed especially strange, his oddly matched sweats seemingly at odds with his appearance. Though, to be fair, Gaius couldn't help but feel that anyone would look a bit odd wearing them. He silently reprimanded himself, considering the thought to be quite rude.
Gaius's attention fell back to Lucinda as she expressed her own thoughts, and concerns toward Dr. O. "I don't really like presuming the worst of people. ...But I agree, with everything we've all just seen, and how much we all just received from him, even I can understand a certain degree of suspicion as to his motives. For all we know, he could be able to hear us have this conversation, but I'm sure he expects us to be at least a little suspicious, so even if he is, I don't think he'll mind."
After pausing for a moment to collect his thoughts, Gaius added, "I think for now, we should just hear him out when we get the chance. And as long as he doesn't ask us to do anything bad, we should try to help him. ...I think that's how we're expected to pay off these suits. But once that's done... Then, I think you have the right idea. There are too many people out there who get a little bit of power and use it to hurt people. I'd just like it if we could use the power we've got to protect people instead."
At that thought, Gaius hopped up excitedly. "Hey! And if we all keep traveling together, we could be like a team of super heroes! Traveling the world and helping the meek and forgotten!" he animatedly declared. The moment after, however, he couldn't help feeling a little embarrassed. "Uhm... Well, we all just met, so... we'd probably just end up going our separate ways, huh...?" he said, his voice sinking in disappointment.
"great, I'm not alone" she thought to herself as she looked at the rest of oh so lucky ones. Of course, it was never her alone that hits the mother load. Other than that, this seemed like a very sweet deal. She tested her new legs, that is the appendages extending from her feet giving her artificially digitigrade legs, hopping on each of them as the mobility thrusters over her armor twitched around. She rotated experimentally the 3 barreled auto-cannon, which fitted like a gauntlet over her right armored arm. She moved and stretched her right arm, upon its forearm a bulky casing housing the machine-gun. She looked at her new pets, smiling, the two medium drones looking like mechanical jackals. She liked to pull stuff like that where allowed as with the pair of the ear-like horns on her helmet.
Still she had to put up with these people... better not use her alias, someone might know it. Yeah, she'd buddy up with them until she could run away safely. She decloaked and approached the group, drones in tow "ah so here are the others" she said, her voice naturally husky "hello, the name's Anke"
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song."Oh baby." Charles stretched his new legs. Then he leaped into the air and started spinning and backflipping. He darted this way and that, drawing his beam shortsword and slashing the air, flickering in and out of invisibility as he did so. He laughed as he flitted around, then spun and landed on his heel. He sheathed his blade and snapped a salute.
"My names Charles, but please, call me Charlie. And I... am a fucking invisible cyborg jedi. And it is awesome." Charlie grinned, though given he was now fused to his suit, the gesture didn't show on his mask.
What is so amusing about this? Why do you take lives? How can you forget?Jerry had been ignoring the conversation. He'd been in his suit, sitting neatly in an idle position over to one side of the dome, slowly getting used to the sensations the nerve suit gave him while in it. It seemed like as long as he was in the suit, for all intents and purposes he was the suit. He slowly moved his head around, pinging off his radar, zooming in his vision. Then he tried moving around a little bit, realizing it would take some getting used to to move around on all fours and have a pair of wings; at least his front legs/arms still had mostly hand-like appendages, if he had to manipulate anything. It was coming to him more and more by the moment, that this was his now; he could use this as he pleased. He could use this. It was time to test out a little more.
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
The fortress class suit now finally made its presence clear, as Ziz moved forward closer to the center of the dome, still seemingly paying the others no mind except for not stepping on them. The long neck reared back and its jaws opened up, and with a mighty, mechanical roar, sprayed a gout of flame into the air. "THIS! IS! AWESOME!" Jerry yelled out through the communication line, having too much fun to realize that his voice sounded different than he was used to.
A little light on the side of the suit lit up a light blue color, and projected out the transparent image of some little pixie creature. Within a moment it seemed to gain some coherency to its image, though was still transparent; it then quickly flew up towards the suit's head and made some squeaky chittering noises at it, waving its arms.
>:( \(>_<)/
"What? I'm just having a bit of fun; ain't hurting nobody" Jerry responded to it. Then there was a slight pause. "... Wait, what the hell are you, and why did I understand what you said?" he asked the little pixie. It raised its arms up in the air and made some happier noises.
;D \(^_^)/
"You're the AI I chose? I thought you were just gonna help me with computer stuff; since when are you a little fairy thing?" Jerry said, turning the head of the suit to look around the dome. "Hey, doc' guy? I think there's been some mistake." The pixie's arms drooped down and it made a couple of quieter, sadder noises.
:'( (T_T)
edited 11th Jan '15 6:24:04 PM by FirockFinion
You are reading this."I have to say, I'm glad I can't justify coming out fully suited yet.
Gideon's pod had been opened for some time now, but he wanted to make a quick profile of the others that'd apperantly be accompanying him. He'd deciphered that he just fell victim to yet another bum distress signal, at the very least, but he was thankful than irritated at the moment. No one seemed to be injured (yet), and they seemed to be adjusting to their suits pretty quickly despite not having that much experience with them. Given that even he hadn't interfaced with suits of this quality for well over a decade, perhaps he didn't have a right to speak there.
"The name is Gideon," the mercenary said, approaching the group. The exo-suit he'd chosen was more like a bipedal tank than anything, standing at about twenty feet high and decked out in massive ceramic plates that almost gave it the appearance of some late-medieval knight. The bastard sword enveloped in plasma and bicep-high holo-shield likely added to that image. The damned thing fit like a glove despite its bulk, making his decision to shoot for a brainwave harness one that he was hardly regretting.
"Looks like ya'll are getting a hold of things pretty quick."
edited 11th Jan '15 2:37:08 AM by goodisgood
To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by."you could say that" Responded Anke to the Gideon as she looked down at him "the suit feels like a part of me and as far as I read in the console it should, right?"
The graceless warrior, wielder of the edgeless blade, prophet of the old religions, writer of fluent nonsense, saviour of soul and song.Gaius watched as more of the pilots introduced themselves. They seemed like a colorful sort. He hoped everyone would be able to get along. Regardless of what it might have actually been, it didn't feel like chance that they were all together now. He could only hope nothing bad would come of it.
The dragonic mech's stomping about was becoming a bit unsettling. For the time though, he seemed to be keeping out of the way. At the very least, he's having fun. ...I just hope he's not the reckless sort. ...Or worse...
Turning to Gideon, Gaius said, "I think walking around is pretty intuitive. But that's expected, huh? I guess we should use this time to get a feel for the things we couldn't normally do without the suits." Looking up, the dome's ceiling seemed high enough for what he had in mind. And he couldn't say that he hadn't been looking forward to it...
"I'm going to try to fly!" Gaius announced. As if on his command, the wings of his suit unfurled and spread. Gaius leaned down before springing upward into the air. As if sensing his intentions, the suits wings beat the air and its balancing thrusters sprung to life. With each beat of the wings the suit rose higher, shakily at first, but the motion soon smoothed, and as Gaius's confidence grew he urged the suit to bank and turn. "Heh! H-hey! Hey, this isn't so hard!"
Freely floating and falling and climbing again felt almost like a dream. In dreams, you can do anything. If you will it, gravity has no hold on you. That is very much how Gaius now felt. The steady rise and fall with the beating of the suits wings; with his wings, was a fantastic feeling. "I'm doing it! I'm not sure how, exactly, but this is amazing!"
"I am responsible for that, Pilot," responded an inhumanly calm and even voice from within the suit. "By your designation, I am Ky; your artifical interfacing assistant. I am capable of reading your motions and translating them to the hardware with a rough accuracy of 90%. This should improve with practice. Since you lack direct interface, I will bridge the gap."
"Huh..." Gaius spoke pensively. "...Neat."
"Yeah....." said Gideon to Anke, his attention divided ever so slightly by the draconic exo-suit. "Most suits that are still in tact utilize the basic analouge-controlls, nodes and levers, but it's pretty damned clear we're dealing with more sophisticated hardware."
Truthfully, he'd never felt so thoroughly integrated with an exo-suit himself. It was as if he wasn't even looking at the world around him through a screen, or even the suit status. It all was as visceral and clear as if he was looking at it all with his own eyes, the mech's additional functions being more like an extra set of senses. The operating A.I, passively feeding him information like a steam of subconscious thoughts.
It was all so uncanny, now that he thought of it.
"This is going to pan out real nice when shit hits the fan."
To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by."Doc'? You still there?" Jerry asked, turning his head again then moving it back as one of the smaller suits suddenly flew up into view. "Huh?" he muttered, glancing down and about at all the others in the dome as if only noticing them now.
"Wait, you must be the other guys I've been hearing; I thought you would've been... Bigger" Jerry said, slowly looking around at each of them in turn. "Though I guess I did take the biggest option" he thought out loud, seeing that so far only the medieval knight looking thing came even close to the size of his suit. His mech, more like.
"So what's the gig now? The doctor must have had some reason for giving us these suits, right?" Jerry asked nobody in particular. The pixie hologram looked at him and squeaked again.
>_>
"Well how was I supposed to know they already talked about that?" Jerry stated back at it. It facepalmed and squeaked one more time.
>_<
"They were?... Guess I missed it." Jerry turned the head of his suit back towards the others, remembering that he was effectively talking to them too. "... Hey, here's another question: Why are these things only being put into use now? Seems like they would've been pretty useful right after the fall" he added on, looking at the others now.
You are reading this.The audio of the radios crackled back, "Okay just attatch zis there and-" there was the sound of stumbling and objects falling over... "ow."
In the HU Ds of every suited user a image appeared, it was of a pale man, with coarse black hair, dark eyes behind a set of glasses, a beard and a pair of welding goggles on his forehead. There was a grin on his face from the still image.
His voice came in crisp and clear, "Ah! Vunderbar! There we go diagnostics are up, still a little bit left but as far as I can tell from the current computer setups. You are all healthy and in no danger of your suit crushing your bones!" He laughed, a little too cheerfully.
"Now this last little bit will take a few minutes, but after that I will open the vault and we can begin! It's a long journey out there with a lot to face," Dr. O paused, "Now does anyone have any questions?"
"Our draconic friend back there raises a good point.Why weren´t these suits used when everything went to hell? I am disinclined to believe that they got developed recently. I have occasionally seen cargo loaders being used for combat, but those were jury-rigged contraptions, not dedicated machines of war like these." At this point Dominic spreads his arms in a gesture encompassing his companions. "Near as I can tell at least part of the technology in these suits had been merely theoretically proven before the fall, yet here we are, wearing fantasies embodied. Do you have an explanation for that, Doc?"
Dr O hummed in thought, "According to the logs these are all advanced weapons from the 2 year war 10 years ago. Advanced technologies incorporated into a armored form," he responded.
"There was a lot of info about the war suppressed. Maybe the exo-loaders that were adapted into weapons of war were merely a cover up. We could debate about this for awhile, such as the whole "Why did the colonies fall" debate. But that would get us no where."
"I noticed that you might want us to kill something.", Gideon cut in. His sense of awe and confusion was slowly melting away, frustration quickly taking its place in the forefront.
"It's usually a good idea to tell the people you want to do that sorta' thing about why they're doing that, or at least who they're doing it to. I'd just hate to think that I'm bracing myself to do something heinous for no good fucking reason."
To the law and for the good of man. All I need to live by.The cheerful laughter returned, "Clever boy!" Dr. O said with pride, clapping could be heard over the suit systems.
"I was going to have you embark. There are 5 more vaults out there. And the final vault has a project of mine. If you look closely to your surroundings you can find my escape vehicle!" The HUD systems highlighted a scavenged car in green, it was shot to hell, "I was working on something in the 6th vault until I was pushed out of it by a roving band of mutants. No doubt some genetic engineering project from before the war. They have activated security systems. Security systems that I couldn't stand against. Not alone."
There was a pause, "So I want you to retake the Vaults. What is in it for you? Your suits are incomplete. there was 40 more upgrade points plus a finalization upgrade, but zis facility! Didn't have the capabilities. Help me retake the final vault and allow me to continue my project, and the suits, zey are yours. Everyzing is vunderbar and we can leave. Use them for whatever you wish."
"Now, before any of you ask why I didn't try to make a suit myself... why would I wish to test unknown pre war technology on myself? You think my surprise at you all not having crushed internals was for humor?" the Doc fell silent again. "Any of you are free to leave now... with your... incomplete suits. Those that wish to help, stay, and let me complete my diagnostics. I will continue to answer as many questions as possible. When this is done, you are to step out, and start marching for the first vault."
"40 more upgrade points... scattered around the 6 vaults or 40 more in each of them?" asks Lucinda for a moment, looking up to address the scientist now leading their quest. However, deep down, she was way relieved by the information provided... plus, she had already made her decision.
"I guess you won't be telling us what that project you're working on is, right, doctor?"
Marco took a long, deep thought at the current situation. Some sort of madman had given them all untested and possibly-unreliable pre-war tech and was now asking them all to be his glorified errand boys with 'points' as the only compensation they'd get.
"Okay," he said. "I'm in."
It sure beat the hell out of guard duty back home with all those tribal psychos.
"And do you have any cigarettes?" He glanced around the room. "What? It could be a long trip, I don't want to run out."

Signup
and Discussion
The pods hissed as the metal suits grasped onto their new wearers. Gleaming warriors and titans, ready to fight whatever came at them.
"WUNDERBAR!" Dr. O's voice screeched into their communication systems, "Simply VUNDERBAR!"
He paused, "Oh... pardon me, forgot that you can hear me just fine without the intercom system now. Now, feel free to introduce yourselves to each other. You're a team now, I need to run diagnostics on your armor and see how well my monitoring systems are doing. We will need zis to make sure none of you up and die or if there is any fault in ze suits,"
And just like that, the good(?) doctor's voice vanished, suit pilots were left alone in a giant dome.
edited 29th Jan '15 6:42:29 PM by EchoingSilence