poweredsuit

[poweredsuit]

Powered Suit Orientation: Configurations

Powered Suit Heavy and Light configurations.

Heavy Configuration: Durable, heat-resistant outer shell with high-capacity mist condensers mounted on the forearms. Redundant micro-reactors in chest and shoulder. Plated skirt to protect joints from debris and impact in difficult terrain.

Light Configuration: Streamlined, drag-reducing outer shell inlaid with Passive Mist Accumulation (PMA) channels. Redundant power cell affixed to decorative scarf. Exhaust barbs mounted on gloves to expel "junk" mist accumulated in the PMA system.

Configuration can be changed on-the-fly using a sophisticated (read: magical) process of calling automated displacement/replacement spellwork on a suit-exclusive RF channel. Suit is equipped with a telescopic arcano-aerial to facilitate rapid switching of configurations while in the deepest recesses of the Mists.

When operating the Powered Suit via control booth, monitor incoming heat and friction levels using the right-side indicator onscreen. At indicated thresholds, the indicator will change from blue to orange, indicating the need to change the suit's configuration from Light to Heavy, or vice-versa.

Your control station will randomly alternate calls for different configurations while in Training Mode. You are expected to address these calls during other tasks in order to ensure the survival of the suit.

Speak with your supervisor about entering Training Mode at the end of this chapter to begin practical assessment.

--Excerpt from Deep Mists Assessment and Reconnaissance Krewe training manual. DeMARK requires all new control booth operators to undergo a battery of tests before operating the Powered Suit. The Powered Suit is the sole property of DeMARK. DeMARK withholds all private intellectual property rights to the Powered Suit platform, including the names "Powered Suit and "Project Jotunmath."

[poweredsuit]

Signal detected. Quadrangulating...

The control booth whooped- chairs spun, furry paws slapped pointy Asura digits, and several scientists pulled on headphones linked to the powered suit's various receivers.

X coordinate bearing relative west. Adjusting.

Y coordinate bearing relative south. Adjusting.

Z coordinate bearing relative down. Adjusting.

W coordinate bearing relative past. Adjusting.

The suit's vocalizer was basic and internal- without a speaker, it transmitted only over radio waves, directly back to control. The voice was the mentholated, Oola-esque authority of the former project director, one of a couple thousand pre-recorded lines.

"Do you think it's a hit?" a young charr in thick goggles asked, curling a hand around the shoulder of a norn in headphones, his desk covered in platters of ceremonial incense.

"We've had half a dozen echoes of Tagachi in the past month. I would not expect anything too different in this region of the mists."

There was a collective groan at that. The Mists were full of pits and eddies, where echoes could bounce around. A thousand Jalis Ironhammers swinging a thousand iron hammers, each with a marginally different outcome, eventualities unfolding, separating, and slowing.

"We should set up a filter for Tagachi," the young charr suggested. At that, a square-jawed asura stood up in his chair.

"No filters. Last time we did that, we failed to catch the Reza Frequency, and we've been trying to find a new one ever since. There could be some mutant Shiro in the mix that can eat lightning and crap thunder, and I'm not missing it."

And so the boss had spoken. The control booth fell quiet, the operators to their instruments.

"It ain't Shiro. We'd have heard clanging and banging by now. It's quiet. It's something, but it's quiet."

They all heard it, but only the young charr cringed at the sound.

Coming over the exclusive frequency from the distant depths of the mists was a little tune, repetitious and inexpert, that sounded every bit like a little wooden flute.

[poweredsuit]

Powered Suit is Online

"Powered Suit" is the designation of a remote-controlled bipedal suit of armor designed to temporarily house and channel the energy of high-frequency mist echoes, ghosts, and legendary spirits.

An automated revenant, if you will, specializing in the channeling of dangerous, unstable, or overwhelming legends. It assigns each of these legends a frequency, which its operator must dial into.

Currently, it has access to frequencies for Master Snaff, Pyre Fierceshot, Vass, and Lord Odran.

A joint project authorized by Councillor Ludo and carried out by an enthusiastic melange of Statics researchers, Iron Legion mechanics, Mist-attuned havrouns, and dragonjade experts from New Kaineng, the Powered Suit is deployed in deep-fractal missions in search of new signals, and older, stranger wrinkles left in the fabric of the mists.

It is operated remotely via control booth, by a rotating staff of researchers who deploy it for projects.

Occasionally it moves on its own. The researchers at control are still trying to understand what's causing that, so they can iron it out.