July 6th, 2009, 4:35am AKDT.
I zombied my way through a day of work, but managed to keep it together. On the way home, though, I very nearly lost it. In a panic, I very nearly
got pulled over. I caught myself in time and managed to pull the full-sized van (8000 pounds of steel and hardware!) down from 90 to a more sedate 70 before I
got into the speed trap. I was coated with sweat by the time I got home, and the pile of armor was still in the bathroom.
I'd left the bowl helmet sitting on top of the pile, and the 'cigar' prop next to it. Seeing them, I went cold, and snorted laughter at myself. The
admittedly minor chuckle popped the panic bubble I was building, and I managed to almost keep my hands from shaking as I hauled the armor out into the back
yard and put it on. The final piece went into place, and...
The big aviator-style glasses that were part of the outfit rezzed up a HUD, and with a 'snap' I felt more than heard, the armor powered up. Instead of
wearing a bunch of metal plates and heavy chainmail, I was encased in the technological cradle of an active suit of power armor. I cautiously moved around a
bit, and everything felt perfect. I stood motionless for a moment, thinking. I had never defined Mag's control set in-game, but I had had a couple of
ideas.. I looked upper-left, and a menu popped down in the HUD. I looked down the menu to 'drunk mode', and puffed on the 'cigar'.
USER INCAPACITATED: CONTROL SENSITIVITY 10%
USER INCAPACITATED: COLLATERAL DAMAGE AVOIDANCE ROUTINE ENGAGED
USER INCAPACITATED: COMBAT JUMPING ENGAGED
USER MESSAGE: PLEASE SEEK MEDICAL ASSISTANCE
I heaved a sigh of relief, and started paging through the menus.. thank god Paragon-me had a good working relationship with
Nene, and thank god she did better documentation and online help facilities than I did...
An hour later I was a thousand feet in the air and rising, blasting up the slope of what I later found was 'Skyscraper Mountain', above Hatcher's
Pass. The flickering blue glow occasionally visible under the bottom edge of the glasses was a reassuring reminder that the armor fields were active, providing
pseudogyroscopic attitude control, inertial dampening, strength enhancement and collision avoidance.. and other stuff that wasn't handled under the
simple 'Super Jumping' toggle. I snagged a spruce on my way up and poled around it. An icicle shot out of my armor and pulverized it, and I slammed
facefirst into the mountainside.
Staring at the rock I had fetched up against, I laughed maniacally as I squatted and did the exaggerated 'Jump' motion that the suit wanted. Again, I
blessed Nene for the 'tutorial' function, swearing to give her a big kiss and a freaking entire cake if I ever met her. I ran out of mountain before I
ran out of jump, and I flew upwards through the evening air. my hometown of Wasilla spread out before me, and at the peak of my jump, I shrugged. I was
probably actually dead anyway, sooo... Altering my glide angle, I missed the mountaintop that was my original target, and plummeted feet first through several
thousand vertical feet of mature spruce, rocky terrain, one extremely surprised moose, and some poor bastard's yard.
Status updates showed all green as I fetched up into a perfect stompy landing in a hayfield, except for 'hp', which was tinged yellow, but rapidly
climbing. I took the knee, and the suit kicked into 'Rest' mode, dosing me with near-straight o2 through the 'cigar', and disabling movement
and defensive fields to regenerate structural ones. The gauge reading 'HP' snapped back to 100%, and the 'Endurance' gauge, which I had figured
out was primarily my blood chemistry and o2 saturation, returned to 100% as well.
The internal chronometer in the suit read '1:15am (GPS)(Cell)', and I bounded into the yard at home again. Letting myself in, I deactivated and shucked
the armor before throwing myself through a shower and into bed.
Tomorrow was going to be AWESOME.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies
I zombied my way through a day of work, but managed to keep it together. On the way home, though, I very nearly lost it. In a panic, I very nearly
got pulled over. I caught myself in time and managed to pull the full-sized van (8000 pounds of steel and hardware!) down from 90 to a more sedate 70 before I
got into the speed trap. I was coated with sweat by the time I got home, and the pile of armor was still in the bathroom.
I'd left the bowl helmet sitting on top of the pile, and the 'cigar' prop next to it. Seeing them, I went cold, and snorted laughter at myself. The
admittedly minor chuckle popped the panic bubble I was building, and I managed to almost keep my hands from shaking as I hauled the armor out into the back
yard and put it on. The final piece went into place, and...
The big aviator-style glasses that were part of the outfit rezzed up a HUD, and with a 'snap' I felt more than heard, the armor powered up. Instead of
wearing a bunch of metal plates and heavy chainmail, I was encased in the technological cradle of an active suit of power armor. I cautiously moved around a
bit, and everything felt perfect. I stood motionless for a moment, thinking. I had never defined Mag's control set in-game, but I had had a couple of
ideas.. I looked upper-left, and a menu popped down in the HUD. I looked down the menu to 'drunk mode', and puffed on the 'cigar'.
USER INCAPACITATED: CONTROL SENSITIVITY 10%
USER INCAPACITATED: COLLATERAL DAMAGE AVOIDANCE ROUTINE ENGAGED
USER INCAPACITATED: COMBAT JUMPING ENGAGED
USER MESSAGE: PLEASE SEEK MEDICAL ASSISTANCE
I heaved a sigh of relief, and started paging through the menus.. thank god Paragon-me had a good working relationship with
Nene, and thank god she did better documentation and online help facilities than I did...
An hour later I was a thousand feet in the air and rising, blasting up the slope of what I later found was 'Skyscraper Mountain', above Hatcher's
Pass. The flickering blue glow occasionally visible under the bottom edge of the glasses was a reassuring reminder that the armor fields were active, providing
pseudogyroscopic attitude control, inertial dampening, strength enhancement and collision avoidance.. and other stuff that wasn't handled under the
simple 'Super Jumping' toggle. I snagged a spruce on my way up and poled around it. An icicle shot out of my armor and pulverized it, and I slammed
facefirst into the mountainside.
Staring at the rock I had fetched up against, I laughed maniacally as I squatted and did the exaggerated 'Jump' motion that the suit wanted. Again, I
blessed Nene for the 'tutorial' function, swearing to give her a big kiss and a freaking entire cake if I ever met her. I ran out of mountain before I
ran out of jump, and I flew upwards through the evening air. my hometown of Wasilla spread out before me, and at the peak of my jump, I shrugged. I was
probably actually dead anyway, sooo... Altering my glide angle, I missed the mountaintop that was my original target, and plummeted feet first through several
thousand vertical feet of mature spruce, rocky terrain, one extremely surprised moose, and some poor bastard's yard.
Status updates showed all green as I fetched up into a perfect stompy landing in a hayfield, except for 'hp', which was tinged yellow, but rapidly
climbing. I took the knee, and the suit kicked into 'Rest' mode, dosing me with near-straight o2 through the 'cigar', and disabling movement
and defensive fields to regenerate structural ones. The gauge reading 'HP' snapped back to 100%, and the 'Endurance' gauge, which I had figured
out was primarily my blood chemistry and o2 saturation, returned to 100% as well.
The internal chronometer in the suit read '1:15am (GPS)(Cell)', and I bounded into the yard at home again. Letting myself in, I deactivated and shucked
the armor before throwing myself through a shower and into bed.
Tomorrow was going to be AWESOME.
"No can brain today. Want cheezeburger."
From NGE: Nobody Dies, by Gregg Landsman
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5579457/1/NGE_Nobody_Dies