Knights Apocalyptica

Chapter 21: Vallum

Erec practically ran to Workshop C with Gwen. Every second he waited to see his new Armor felt like torture. For her part, she laughed and went along with it, letting him speed her along to his heart's content.

At the entrance, a lazy engineer looked over his wristband. Erec tapped his foot until the man ushered him in—though he had to go alone and collect the Armor from its rack.

"I'll be back fast, alright?" he told Gwen before darting in.

The workshop's interior was strewn with welders, spare twisted metal, and dissected Armor. Towards a dark corner was an empty frame with a hundred wires poking out of it. All of the haphazard bits and bobs transformed this place into an accident waiting to happen.

Erec counted off the numbers on the racks until he reached it. Number 23.

The Armor hung on a bright yellow rack; the first thing that stood out to him on the pristine Armor was the large black and green sigil of an oak tree. It decorated both pauldrons.

The plating on the pauldrons was also asymmetrical—the right had a smaller plate that he guessed was for enhanced maneuverability. Below the shoulders were sleek metal arms and a set of decent gauntlets, though the right side had a unique modification. It had one-inch spikes across the knuckles.

Were they for cheap shots? Some sort of last desperate maneuver in a fight to catch a monster off guard? A few potential scenarios danced through his head.

But something else demanded his attention.

Green fabric hung from the back, along with a hood—a cloak of some sort? Erec clutched the fabric; its texture felt plastic-like with the flexibility of cloth. Corrosive resistance? That might be a stretch. He could request the schematics and details of the model from the Academy’s library. In fact, Gwen had recommended that as one of the things he could do over the next couple of days. Though, once he let VAL get ahold of it, he doubted he’d need to sit back and do research.

The helmet of the Armor was distinctive. It had a manual visor with reinforced tinted glass between the five slits of steel. The top of the helmet came to a point and curbed outward to deflect any blows to the head without letting it catch.

This was a mean feat of engineering, a pure blend between the old-world knights and undoubtedly a catalog of modern features from this Era. The past and the present fused together to give mankind a weapon to take their world back.

Erec scratched the back of his head, unable to stop his wide smile.

[Put me next to it.] Val commanded.

Oh, right. If nobody was watching them... Erec glanced around the workshop—a couple of engineers were talking near a design schematic, another busy working on bulky Armor in the corner.

Erec leaned his leather bag close to the Armor—and VAL zoomed out; he hit the steel plating, and it rippled like the surface of a pond. In less than a second, VAL merged with it.

[Ah—now this is a much better workspace. I was impressed when I was running my scanners over the other Armors in your group. But it is another thing entirely to get a look at a piece of equipment and start testing it yourself. Based on the preliminary findings, this isn’t quite as impressive as theirs. Well, for the two advanced models. Yet this is a massive improvement to that faulty Markos II and a clever design for something crafted by unassisted humans.]

Of course not; the ducal lines paid through the nose for those personalized Armors.. If issued initiates Armor came anywhere close to that, the Academy would blow their budget. But hey, the Markos II served them well enough to get to this point.

[There’s the model name: Vallum. First generation. A couple of distinctive features—made for long-distance treks, along with several enhanced environmental protection measures. Other than that, it appears relatively basic in terms of physical enhancements. Very generalized, which is acceptable for its stated purpose. Though… That’s interesting—watch this.]

Erec tilted his head—and the green fabric hanging off of the Armor suddenly bled into a tan and brown color, holding the dull color for a few seconds—before slowly converting back to green. “Whoa.” He gave another glance to the engineers, though they hadn’t bothered looking in his direction at all.

[Remarkable, though I do not understand how they’ve achieved this by running a current of the core’s energy to the cloak. It shifts the color in what’s helpfully labeled as a “camouflage” mode. Though I am familiar with a certain line of research utilizing fiber optics, the way they achieve it here is truly odd—]

“Are there any color patterns it can shift to?” Better not to let the nostalgic ancient robot stoke those rambling flames of old research projects.

[No, only the placid green and tan blend; the green, I imagine, is for blending into growth or forests. Aside from your caverns and city, I predict a lack of such lush nature. At least not in this state. Theory. The green is to match your silly ‘Order’ colors. Oh, silly humans and their tribalistic tendencies.]

Erec stopped listening to VAL and disengaged the rack from holding up the Armor. In a second, its boots were flush with the ground. He circled around it and climbed in—it only took ten seconds for the Armor to seal.

There was just a single clean notification informing him that the Armor activated; No flashing barrage of failures. And no visual clutter. Though, it lacked the targeting and advanced scanner of Colin's Cserula IV. Hard to say if the minimal display was its natural state or if VAL was already tweaking the Armor.

Erec stepped away from the rack. No whirring servos filled his ears. There wasn't any jerky lag in the movements; it flowed as smooth as water.

What were the limits to the Vallum? It might not stand up to damage as well as an advanced custom model, and true, he didn't get any features to compliment his Virtues specifically. But this generalized Order of the Verdant Oak Armor felt better than he'd dreamed.

[It will take a day for my integration to complete. Unlike the Markos II, this model appears to have a more sophisticated design, including some systems I’m unsure how to streamline; or the purpose of. Digging into the data provided might allow for a better judgment call. Annoyingly, I suspect that the conclusion will be that they correspond to your ‘anomalous energy’]

“Fine by me,” Erec curled a hand, watching the fingers of the Armor move in sync with his own, despite the inches of steel plate. “As much as I hate to admit it, I think we can’t leave Gwen waiting any longer.”

[What, not excited to see your new housing?]

“Not nearly as much as I was to get this thing.”

[Ah, Intern. You don’t know how lucky you have it. At Vortex Industries, we kept capsule rooms for low-level employees like yourself to minimize space and maximize science. With such convenient housing nearby, you could’ve worked all day and then crawled into your capsule and woken up on alarm to work again—]

Erec walked out of the workshop and caught up with Gwen. She was waiting with a smirk and a thumbs-up “Nice. Same Armor as me—trust me, it’s pretty handy. The rest of the Orders always complain that we get the cool cloak, so make sure to rub it into their face.”

[Press her for data.]

Erec was a little thrown off by VAL’s sudden request, but the Vallum’s helm luckily obscured his confusion. “Uh, they’re using different models?”

“Well, duh. Each Order has its specialty. What sense would it make to design basic models for their Order and not add a few useful features to their roles? That cloak isn’t the only thing, by the way. Notice how quiet your steps are?” Gwen asked.

Erec looked down at the boots. Sure enough, he’d noticed that the servos were far quieter—but they didn’t really ‘clink’ on the ground as one would expect from the heavy metal.

[They’ve utilized an advanced shock absorbing material. What a streamlined design. If only Vortex Industries was still headhunting for talent…]

“I can see how it would be useful; I wondered how Sir Boldwick moved around without making any noise,” Erec said.

“Well, I’m sure he’s using something better than we are. But same principle. You’ll find that you’ll want to tend towards more lightweight and sleek designs. There are some exceptions, of course, but we often go on long-range scouting operations outside the wall.” She shrugged. “You’ll get your first taste of that at the end of the month if they’re still sticking to the same course design.”

Erec tilted his head. He’d get to see more of the outside world? So soon?

“Anyway, let’s get you to your dorm. You’ll want to drop off your stuff and switch into your Academy uniform. From there, you’re free to go on your own. By the way…” Gwen trailed off.

“Yeah?” Erec asked, already wondering if it’d be better to test out the Armor in a gym—or to go and check out the rest of the Orders; then there was the Academy itself—so many options. He didn’t doubt that he’d be running around and busy until courses started.

“If you need anything, tell me. Bedwyr’s done me good, and I’d do good by his little bro if I can.”

Erec sighed. He wanted to forge his own path through this place, but perhaps that stubborn thought had been a bit naive and pig-headed. It was okay to accept someone holding out their hand. “Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind. I appreciate all the help.”

Gwen flashed him a quick smile.