I wish I could do teleportation. That'd be a weapon worth having. Unfortunately, the sort of translocation I'll be able to do is more like Macross spacefolding than Nightcrawler's bamfing or even Star Trek transporters. It's not something even I could casually do, even by StrikerS- the calculations required make it impractical for combat.
You did give me an idea, though, and it'll be rather amusing.
**********
Entry 38 (Day 547)
By Thor, it feels good to move again! It's been too long!
So asking the doctor if I could remain conscious in the jar was another stroke of brilliant idiocy. On the one hand, I got about fourteen weeks more of mental uptime than I otherwise would've- plenty of time to digest a couple dozen more texts, mentally math out a handful of additional spells, and come up with a massive pile of new ideas to work on.
The bad news is that I had to lock myself out of voluntary muscle control for most of it, so that I didn't disturb the operations the doctor was doing. Yes, 'operations'. Being the sensible madman he (sometimes) is, Scaglietti took the opportunity to do a bit of additional work on my chassis. I've looked over the change log, and it's pretty good stuff.
The night I got into the jar, the doctor amputated the dead grav engine. The next morning, he inserted the mana regulator I needed, along with a framework similar to the ones used to grow replacement organs. According to the procedure notes I've been reviewing, the framework was there to give the mana converter the resources and structure it needed to expand... and also to make sure it didn't just grow to fit my entire torso.
It's happened before. I've seen the video. Subject 18 took weeks to die... and then the bastard did the same thing to Subject 19, apparently to 'ensure the accuracy of his results'.
Within three weeks, the converter had grown to fit the available space. The next three months in the jar were just to keep me from trying to use it early. Apparently, if I'd tried to activate it before the internals had matured enough, it would fry itself from the inside.
(Subjects 27-31, by the way. Four perforated digestive systems and one spontaneous cyborg combustion. He never did figure out why the rest of her caught on fire, either.)
Anyway, since I was already in the tube, Scaglietti took the time to update me to a nine-year-old form. I've gained a couple of inches in height, and a bit more muscle mass. That took a good bit of my jar time to get done, apparently, so the other big change was more of a firmware thing than a gross physical alteration.
So my original design was basically taken wholesale from Jail's 'Numbers XIII-XXIV' plan folder. The Number that might've happened would've been a dangerous melee combatant, able to fly in fast with her gravity manipulation IS, add about four gees to everything in the area, and then just deliver a few coups de grace while her hypothetical opponents were unable to move. Since she might not be able to exclude herself from the high-G field, this future Number was designed to be able to stand and move normally in five times normal Mid gravity.
The downside to that (and this, I gather, is why she wasn't one of the original twelve) is that muscles designed to lift and hold heavy loads aren't muscles meant for quick bursts of movement. Simulations showed that any design that could stand in 5G would have the reflexes, speed, and punching power of an decently-trained human- leagues less than the sort of performance the other cyborgs could produce.
I can personally attest to the accuracy of those sims.
Anyway, the last modification Scaglietti made while I was in the tube was to convert a few extra percentage points of my muscles to a fast-twitch model. I've lost about .2G of maximum grav tolerance, but the gains in speed were well worth it, I think.
More later. For now, I need to shake the rust off my CQB skills, and get Malleus some of my new spells to sim over.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
You did give me an idea, though, and it'll be rather amusing.
**********
Entry 38 (Day 547)
By Thor, it feels good to move again! It's been too long!
So asking the doctor if I could remain conscious in the jar was another stroke of brilliant idiocy. On the one hand, I got about fourteen weeks more of mental uptime than I otherwise would've- plenty of time to digest a couple dozen more texts, mentally math out a handful of additional spells, and come up with a massive pile of new ideas to work on.
The bad news is that I had to lock myself out of voluntary muscle control for most of it, so that I didn't disturb the operations the doctor was doing. Yes, 'operations'. Being the sensible madman he (sometimes) is, Scaglietti took the opportunity to do a bit of additional work on my chassis. I've looked over the change log, and it's pretty good stuff.
The night I got into the jar, the doctor amputated the dead grav engine. The next morning, he inserted the mana regulator I needed, along with a framework similar to the ones used to grow replacement organs. According to the procedure notes I've been reviewing, the framework was there to give the mana converter the resources and structure it needed to expand... and also to make sure it didn't just grow to fit my entire torso.
It's happened before. I've seen the video. Subject 18 took weeks to die... and then the bastard did the same thing to Subject 19, apparently to 'ensure the accuracy of his results'.
Within three weeks, the converter had grown to fit the available space. The next three months in the jar were just to keep me from trying to use it early. Apparently, if I'd tried to activate it before the internals had matured enough, it would fry itself from the inside.
(Subjects 27-31, by the way. Four perforated digestive systems and one spontaneous cyborg combustion. He never did figure out why the rest of her caught on fire, either.)
Anyway, since I was already in the tube, Scaglietti took the time to update me to a nine-year-old form. I've gained a couple of inches in height, and a bit more muscle mass. That took a good bit of my jar time to get done, apparently, so the other big change was more of a firmware thing than a gross physical alteration.
So my original design was basically taken wholesale from Jail's 'Numbers XIII-XXIV' plan folder. The Number that might've happened would've been a dangerous melee combatant, able to fly in fast with her gravity manipulation IS, add about four gees to everything in the area, and then just deliver a few coups de grace while her hypothetical opponents were unable to move. Since she might not be able to exclude herself from the high-G field, this future Number was designed to be able to stand and move normally in five times normal Mid gravity.
The downside to that (and this, I gather, is why she wasn't one of the original twelve) is that muscles designed to lift and hold heavy loads aren't muscles meant for quick bursts of movement. Simulations showed that any design that could stand in 5G would have the reflexes, speed, and punching power of an decently-trained human- leagues less than the sort of performance the other cyborgs could produce.
I can personally attest to the accuracy of those sims.
Anyway, the last modification Scaglietti made while I was in the tube was to convert a few extra percentage points of my muscles to a fast-twitch model. I've lost about .2G of maximum grav tolerance, but the gains in speed were well worth it, I think.
More later. For now, I need to shake the rust off my CQB skills, and get Malleus some of my new spells to sim over.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.