59 M1 - Term: 1 to 2 - Break (1/2)
Attendance at Fortescue Military Academy M1 Y:2142
House Thoth, Squad Leader, Squad Zero
M1 Rank: 1/1275, Tier 3 M-Rank: Null
Term: 2, Round: (holiday)
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Trace scratched his belly, ”are you sure Seb?”
”Yeah, Trace, I am sure. We are going to turn on the dampener. We need the creds and the win,” Seb replied solemnly.
Trace shook his head sadly. The dampener was an electronic warfare (EW) device which he developed fourteen years ago when he was stump fighting in demolition yards and disused lots. A standard sensor would not detect the micro-pulse signals the dampener sent every five seconds. The result was an opponent mech's internal power delivery was slowed due to the interference with its internal communications. The small delays were inconspicuous, anything noticeable to the human eye would send off alarm bells. But a fraction of a second here and there was all Smack Ninja needed to turn a fight.
”But, if we get caught, it's ova. Foreva,” Trace replied sourly.
”Look Trace, we won't get caught. If there was a chance of us being caught, I would never suggest it,” Seb stated.
”Ya don't know what sensors they have here in Munich. This ain't little league,” Trace said in desperation.
”It's my dosh and my name on the line,” Seb pulled rank. Trace was a great engineer, but he was never rich. He needed Seb's creds to get Smack Ninja upgraded and to fund their first season. Most of the time they worked as partners, but in reality, Seb was the majority owner.
”Seb, if its ova for you. It's ova for me too,” Trace sadly said.
”It's getting close to over without the win. We owe too many creds to different mobs,” Seb said. ”I'm sorry Trace, but we have to do this.”
Trace relented finally. He picked a module off a shelf and installed it into a small socket through Smack Ninja's rear access panel. After pulling up his interface, he activated the module and tweaked the setting to the shortest micro blasts possible. He tuned the power rating right down in an attempt to weaken the signal past a twenty-metre range.
”Ok, its done,” Trace said.
Seb nodded and patted his friend on the back. ”It'll be ok,” he said reassuringly.
The workshop afforded to seeded mechs at the Munich arena was better than most. With a forty tonne tower crane, knuckleboom with harness, plentiful storage, power and hydraulic line supply.
After last minute checks and tweaks, Trace announced, ”He's ready Seb.”
Smack Ninja stood six metres tall, his centre of gravity was at three point eight, which was just under the halfway point of his trapezium shaped torso. His electrolytic coat was jet black, with splotches of red added, indicative of blood splatter. Smack Ninjas arms and legs were almost relative to a humans. With the exception of a small amount of cheating on arm span. Reach was important.
The arm span was still well under the maximum allowance in the regulations. Trace knew the longer arms were, the slower the striking rate. There was a fine balance to maintain between power, strike rate and reach.
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Smack Ninja's dimensions
Height – 6m
Total Arm Span - 7m
Torso width – 2.25m
Arm Length – 2.375m
Leg Length – 2.8m
Centre of gravity – 3.8m (affected by structural design)
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Average Male Human 2140 (for reference)
Height – 1.8m
Total arm span – 1.85m
Torso width – 0.5m
Arm Length – 0.68m
Leg Length – 0.8m
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The semi-final was due to start in twenty minutes, Seb, who was the pilot paced the workshop, as he always got nervous when an important match approached. Seb used a state of the art bodysuit and a cybernetic implant. All the movements were controlled with his own kinetic movement. Modern cockpits interfaced with the pilot's cybernetic implant and bodysuit. The pilot was in a standing position, and as he threw a punch or kick so would the mech.
This was not an inefficient method of command, the punch didn't have to be a full punch, only indicative. Compared to a human a mech moved very slowly which meant nothing was lost compared to a push of a joystick or button. This method was popular because a pilot could focus on their HUD and the controls came naturally. Even when a pilot was caught off-guard and raised an arm unconsciously in self-defence, so would the mech.
An average pilot could focus on four objects or processes. By utilising the full motion control user interface (FMC), it allowed for instinctive reactions freeing up a thought process or focus for other tasks. Ergonomic scientists agreed this was the most efficient approach and the early adopter pilots loved it. It was extremely rare for a mech not to use this method.
The Military Brass loved this control method as well. Aside from all the sciency reasons FMC kept their Mech pilots in shape. By staying in shape, keeping the same movements as an exo, it allowed for cross-technology deployment. Cadets could be trained in exos and then put into more expensive mechs at a later date. As well as any other trainee or recruit. And if for some reason if Mechs were in short supply, they could put the remaining pilots into exos instead of becoming inactive.
Seb finished his warm-up and jumped into Smack Ninja. He was almost forty, he needed to limber up his muscles much more than a decade ago. He was warmed up, now it was time to fight.
Seb began to run through last second checks, ”Left arm, right arm, left leg, right leg.” As he announced each body part, he checked the full range of movement with Trace monitoring the technical readout on his own HUD.
”For someone so fat ya can still fight,” Trace teased. He said the same thing before every match. It was a Smack Ninja tradition.
”Thanks, bro,” Seb replied before throwing a keen strike into fresh air, followed by another. Seb wasn't obese, he just had a few extra pounds on his tummy that possibly shouldn't be there for an elite mech pilot.
Their opponent in the semi-final was Dead Beat. Dead Beat was a newcomer to the professional scene, and not much was known about the mechanic and pilot. There was no investor, it wasn't a rich kid from a wealthy family. Dead Beat had not been seeded and fought its way through the rounds to the semis. A bookmakers dream as the pundits expected it to lose each match.
Seb and Trace were not fooled, they analysed each of Dead Beat's matches, and that mech was no easy beat. It had earned its position in the semi-final, and the fact that Seb insisted on using the EW cheat only showed how concerned they were.