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ARMOR (extended bio)
Archived Post
Posts: 1,156,071 Arc User
Edit (6/30/10) : This is mostly accurate as of now. Currently working on a re-write to match current character and thought process
OOC on : I'm not a big RPer in game, but all my characters have to have a backstory for me to really get into them. This is an idea I've been using and kicking around in several different games (online and off) for a few years. Too limited of a space in-game for even a cliff notes version prompted this post. Also, no spell check so bear with me...
OOC off :
======================================================================================
You're gonna keep my name out of this like last time, right? If it gets out this information came from me, my
career will be over. I'll be out in the desert on Grond patrol faster than... Anyway, you wanted to know about Zero. There isn't much I wouldn't do to protect this country, but I don't want to be a part of this so I'll tell you what I know and what I've heard.
Is VIPER threatening to blow up a critical oil pipeline? Send in an ARMOR unit.
Has an Irradiate army overrun Project Greenskin (again)? Drop in an ARMOR squad.
Let PRIMUS and MARS handle the clean-up and paperwork. Problem solved, no human lives lost or even risked.
That was the opening of the pitch he made before the funding committee. He is, or was, Dr. Malcolm Foster, some computer whiz from back East. How he got a meeting to pitch the idea in the first place is a mystery to me. Had to know someone high up...
The pitch didn't go that well at first. You could tell he wasn't that comfortable talking to people, at least in
terms most of us could understand. Don't get me wrong, the idea was intriguing and a bit scary at the same time... programmable robots doing the dangerous stuff out in the field, while your experts are safe at home. But the thought of everything you knew being able to be downloaded into a walking tin can as easily as ripping a MP3?
He called it memory imprinting, something he had been working on since he was a kid back in college. It was a new way of teaching a computer's artificial intelligence how to do something without having to write tons of code. Simply (his words, not mine) take several scans of someone performing an activity and his software could translate into the commands necessary for the computer to duplicate it. All of this tech housed in a robotic shell, adaptable to nearly any task quickly due to its' modular design. Bolt on anything you need for the task at hand, remove anything you don't and its' ready to roll quick as changing a tire.
Yeah, I know. Sounds ridiculous. I think a few of us even chuckled at first. You didn't see the demo that came next, though.
In advance of the meeting, he had asked us to bring 3 volunteers, any type of expert we could think of, that were willing to undergo a couple quick, painless scans for the demonstration.
The hardware the computer was running wasn't much to look at. It was big and clunky, looked like he had built it out of scraps of industrial robots he scavenged from the remains of Old Detroit. And I swear, I think it had one leg from an older Destroid model. Didn't bother to ask where he got his parts after the demo, didn't matter after what we saw.
One minute this thing is just a pile of scrap parts, next it's diffusing multiple configurations of explosive devices, calculating attack strategies and fire angles for an assault on a fortified target, and intercepting, translating, and jamming radio signals in THREE different languages without the need for a half-track full of
equipment.
Needless to say, Project ARMOR (Armed Response to Metahuman Occupation of Resources) was fully funded that day. Anything he needed to refine the technology, he'd have. And a standing order for 50 units at first availability.
We were in the process of moving his lab to a secure facility (for his benefit of course) when an explosion leveled the warehouse he had been using for his research. By the time the fire department got there, wasn't much left of the place. A few piles of molten slag was all that was left of the prototype. Couldn't even get enough of him out of there for a DNA match. The fire marshal ruled it accidental (faulty wiring in that old rat-trap), not arson, but we never were completely convinced...
Project ARMOR was shelved and forgotten, until recently. A few months back we started getting reports of this new 'high tech hero', claiming to be Dr. Malcolm Foster. It looked a bit different that before, someone had done some work on it, but we could tell what it was. The prototype.
The brass in DC wanted to bring it in, see if our eggheads could reverse engineer the thing, but after the Qularr attacked, they had to scrap that plan. You see, after the splash it made in Millennium City during the invasion, you guys put him on the cover of every magazine and paper in the country. Worse yet, it got on the Champions radar. We don't have a legal claim to the prototype, because Project ARMOR never got off the ground. Foster built the prototype out of his own pocket. And Defender and his crew aren't about to sit on their thumbs while we take it apart just because we want to figure out how to make more of them. He's got a bona fide alien and a talking monkey on his team for heaven's sake. In his eyes, just because there are no bloody bits inside the tin can doesn't make it less deserving of a fair shake. He's probably right, I guess if I didn't think so too, I wouldn't be talking to you right now...
Anyway, they are in negotiations with it(him) right now, trying to get he(it) to start up Project ARMOR again, but for now, it's a no-go.
I've heard that a few people higher up the governmental food chain want to get ARMOR classified as a threat to national security, so they can legally seize it. But making the charges real enough to get Defender to sign off on it, is a different matter.
Then, there is always the black ops outfit, that even off the record I won't admit to ever having heard of, that could make something happen, or disappear...
Like I said, keep my name out of this if it actually makes it to print. You might even want to skip the by-line on this one... I hear it can get pretty hot in the desert this time of year...
We all have to watch our backs nowadays, tin cans included.
OOC on : I'm not a big RPer in game, but all my characters have to have a backstory for me to really get into them. This is an idea I've been using and kicking around in several different games (online and off) for a few years. Too limited of a space in-game for even a cliff notes version prompted this post. Also, no spell check so bear with me...
OOC off :
======================================================================================
You're gonna keep my name out of this like last time, right? If it gets out this information came from me, my
career will be over. I'll be out in the desert on Grond patrol faster than... Anyway, you wanted to know about Zero. There isn't much I wouldn't do to protect this country, but I don't want to be a part of this so I'll tell you what I know and what I've heard.
Is VIPER threatening to blow up a critical oil pipeline? Send in an ARMOR unit.
Has an Irradiate army overrun Project Greenskin (again)? Drop in an ARMOR squad.
Let PRIMUS and MARS handle the clean-up and paperwork. Problem solved, no human lives lost or even risked.
That was the opening of the pitch he made before the funding committee. He is, or was, Dr. Malcolm Foster, some computer whiz from back East. How he got a meeting to pitch the idea in the first place is a mystery to me. Had to know someone high up...
The pitch didn't go that well at first. You could tell he wasn't that comfortable talking to people, at least in
terms most of us could understand. Don't get me wrong, the idea was intriguing and a bit scary at the same time... programmable robots doing the dangerous stuff out in the field, while your experts are safe at home. But the thought of everything you knew being able to be downloaded into a walking tin can as easily as ripping a MP3?
He called it memory imprinting, something he had been working on since he was a kid back in college. It was a new way of teaching a computer's artificial intelligence how to do something without having to write tons of code. Simply (his words, not mine) take several scans of someone performing an activity and his software could translate into the commands necessary for the computer to duplicate it. All of this tech housed in a robotic shell, adaptable to nearly any task quickly due to its' modular design. Bolt on anything you need for the task at hand, remove anything you don't and its' ready to roll quick as changing a tire.
Yeah, I know. Sounds ridiculous. I think a few of us even chuckled at first. You didn't see the demo that came next, though.
In advance of the meeting, he had asked us to bring 3 volunteers, any type of expert we could think of, that were willing to undergo a couple quick, painless scans for the demonstration.
The hardware the computer was running wasn't much to look at. It was big and clunky, looked like he had built it out of scraps of industrial robots he scavenged from the remains of Old Detroit. And I swear, I think it had one leg from an older Destroid model. Didn't bother to ask where he got his parts after the demo, didn't matter after what we saw.
One minute this thing is just a pile of scrap parts, next it's diffusing multiple configurations of explosive devices, calculating attack strategies and fire angles for an assault on a fortified target, and intercepting, translating, and jamming radio signals in THREE different languages without the need for a half-track full of
equipment.
Needless to say, Project ARMOR (Armed Response to Metahuman Occupation of Resources) was fully funded that day. Anything he needed to refine the technology, he'd have. And a standing order for 50 units at first availability.
We were in the process of moving his lab to a secure facility (for his benefit of course) when an explosion leveled the warehouse he had been using for his research. By the time the fire department got there, wasn't much left of the place. A few piles of molten slag was all that was left of the prototype. Couldn't even get enough of him out of there for a DNA match. The fire marshal ruled it accidental (faulty wiring in that old rat-trap), not arson, but we never were completely convinced...
Project ARMOR was shelved and forgotten, until recently. A few months back we started getting reports of this new 'high tech hero', claiming to be Dr. Malcolm Foster. It looked a bit different that before, someone had done some work on it, but we could tell what it was. The prototype.
The brass in DC wanted to bring it in, see if our eggheads could reverse engineer the thing, but after the Qularr attacked, they had to scrap that plan. You see, after the splash it made in Millennium City during the invasion, you guys put him on the cover of every magazine and paper in the country. Worse yet, it got on the Champions radar. We don't have a legal claim to the prototype, because Project ARMOR never got off the ground. Foster built the prototype out of his own pocket. And Defender and his crew aren't about to sit on their thumbs while we take it apart just because we want to figure out how to make more of them. He's got a bona fide alien and a talking monkey on his team for heaven's sake. In his eyes, just because there are no bloody bits inside the tin can doesn't make it less deserving of a fair shake. He's probably right, I guess if I didn't think so too, I wouldn't be talking to you right now...
Anyway, they are in negotiations with it(him) right now, trying to get he(it) to start up Project ARMOR again, but for now, it's a no-go.
I've heard that a few people higher up the governmental food chain want to get ARMOR classified as a threat to national security, so they can legally seize it. But making the charges real enough to get Defender to sign off on it, is a different matter.
Then, there is always the black ops outfit, that even off the record I won't admit to ever having heard of, that could make something happen, or disappear...
Like I said, keep my name out of this if it actually makes it to print. You might even want to skip the by-line on this one... I hear it can get pretty hot in the desert this time of year...
We all have to watch our backs nowadays, tin cans included.
Post edited by Archived Post on
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(re-write pending)