Excerpt of History of the Eras abridged

***3rd ERA***

Prosperity through adversity

The new more aggressive environment made it hard for humans to adapted, the massive loss of infrastructure only complicated this. Still humans kept fighting, making safe places to live, recovering more technology, even reclaiming some of the mega cities, at least part of them. All of this with their exo suits.

Powered exoskeleton suit or more commonly known as exos existed since many millennia and were used in multiple applications, they were normal tools. Now in a time of need they became the main tool for working outside the city where any beast could kill easily without the needed protection. However, exos were limited, low autonomy, low cargo capacity and their equipment was also limited to this. Protecting themselves against small beast was possible but not against bigger ones. Not to mention the biggest problem of all, the plants.

How do you cut a tree that is over 1 meter of girth and has the hardness of unrefined iron in a possibly hostile environment?

It took time and effort and even then, progress was slow but constant.

A single piece of technology from the Coalition gave humanity a needed boost.

The Neural Interface, a device that looked like an oversized open helmet that allowed a human to control a complicated machine with their mind.

While the helmet had a complicated design it still could be printed by most manufacturing machines and the Coalition had released the software required for it to work.

With a new tool in hand humanity adapted once more, now exos could be bigger, have more functions, be stronger. This was the coming of the mechs.

And yet it wasn’t the only progress.

Humans prospered always due to our adaptability to adapt and our knowledge, not because our bodies changed but because we created the tools needed to change.

With the mechs providing protection and increased power humans started to analyze the mutated flora and fauna discovering new uses.

A mega flora was found to grow in some destroyed cities that could absorb different metals into its leaves, so it was used as a natural recycling tool, the leaf would be collected for later smelting and trash that needed recycling would be used to feed the plant.

Animals and insects also presented new capabilities, from this discovery many new technologies where created, from artificial muscles for both human’s prosthesis and mechs to new biological components, collapsible armor plates and more.

Even when you consider the limited capabilities of the time, humanity begun to grow, to become prosperous and to reclaim what had been lost.

This marked a new beginning and the time for reclamation

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The automatic transportation bus was quiet, a rarity, usually this bus route was filled with Vigiles, mech pilots for all external tasks and all the people that worked in any of the shops near the entrance.

He was paying more attention than normal, trying to find if his perception had changed. He had detected mana in very close proximity but maybe he could be able to do it on long distances too. He tried but the city didn’t reveal any new secrets. Metal, concrete, and glass where everywhere that he could look, the protection dome had a dim glow from the sun, shining in soft orange colors from the sunset, the clean streets and, as they got closer to the housing district, some people walking or jogging around. A perfect picture of normalcy.

He got out of the bus and walked into his house like in a trance. Still reviewing the events of the day on his mind. ‘It was weird’ Marcus thought, that he was being so introspective while he walked and had nothing to do.

Inside his house, laying in the sofa and looking at the ceiling he started to wonder how did all of that meshed with the things he knew. Mana was supposedly an immaterial energy; it shouldn't give you an electric shock nor make you feel things.

"Touching the blood was strange and the jolt could be attributed to the generator’s energy, but I felt mana inside the blood when I was close" mused Marcus "However I didn't feel the mana inside the Inter...face..." the though made him remember his birthday gift. Augustus's Neural Interface was right there in a display on top of the side table "Maybe...".

Still stretched in the sofa he could see the black helmet just there, within his reach. He stretched his hand towards it, a strange mix of apprehension and curiosity filled him. 10 cm, 5cm, 3, 1, touching it aaaaand nothing. Disappointment and relief flooded him.

He started to look at it moving it between his hands. It was a bent metal plate that covered the top to the back and narrowed into the neck. Marcus had to admit that the fancy model was fancy, it had a soft covering on the inside and the sensors where hidden just beneath that.

"Why?" that single question kept ringing in his head so he started to think, to infer.

"A Neural Interface is actually a metal plate with multiple sensors that read brainwaves and general electric movement. The part that goes in the neck is what interacts the most, connecting directly with the implant that pilots have, sending and receiving data. It should remain inert to the touch. Even more, without energy it shouldn’t be active, even if I where to put my head inside there should be no interaction" Marcus said thinking aloud "I also don’t feel any mana inside so that shouldn’t have anything to do and yet the only change in me has been mana"

He thought about that moment when it happened in the mech, what had happened that triggered it. He was coming out of the capsule, the capsule had shifted slightly, he looked at it and missed his step, then he should have been falling… FEAR? "It resonated?" confidence completely absent in his words.

"Maybe, just maybe I have to feel something that can resonate with it"

What followed was a multitude of attempts to feel different things while touching the Augustus's Neural Interface but no dice. No attempt was successful and Marcus kept feeling more and more annoyed.

Figuring that he wasted too much time with that already he focused, he needed to make a mech, an excellent first mech to try to demonstrate his worth and start his career as a Mech Designer, he was smart, he will eventually figure things out and then it clicked.

CONFIDENCE, CONVICTION, CONQUER

He felt invincible, perfectly capable of designing ANY mech, the best of them.

Pure power flowed in him, completely assured that he could do it, WOULD do it. A mad grim flashed in his face, he stood, his back straight, he radiated pure POWER.

It would be GLORIOUS, standard human design, 2 legs, torso, 2 arms and a head, it would be PERFECT, it would ANNIHILATE those trees... why annihilate, he needed to harvest, THEN HE WOULD MAKE IT SO IT HARVESTED ALL TREes...?

Suddenly he released the Neural Interface which fell into the table. Sweat drenched him running down his clothes.

"what in the hell..." he felt weak and tired, his arms and legs shacking, almost falling into the sofa, he was wheezing, his heart racing, like he had just finished sprinting 20 km. He felt drained.

‘The Interface’ said Marcus ‘by some reason, I felt something tied to the interface, a very strong feeling left there but. How and why?’ none of this made any sense, he knew mana was strange, he knew it was different but he hadn't felt mana, it had been a pure rush of emotions and even a bit of attitude.

It took a shower, a sonic massage, and a cup of tea to relax him again. Then he went back to the living room to see the Neural Interface sideways over the table.

Apprehensively he picked the Interface using an old shirt and placed it back on top of the side table not wanting to trigger another episode.

He knew that there was much to learn about this but he didn't feel prepared for that, the first one had been short and strong but nothing compared to that. That feeling had overwhelmed him and yet he could focus, he knew he had to make a mech and even realized that the feeling went against the required tasks it had affected him, made him act differently but was still partially him, it was totally different from the previous time.

He cleared his head, he was feeling better and he had a task to do, that’s what he would focus his attention. He would eat something, take a chair and design, but instead of the "glorious" mech he previously had in mind he would do it properly. Analyze and design. Function over form. Food first though.

A printed burger dish later he started the Designer program using the virtual display. A 3d light sculpture rose over the table while Marcus thinking about the possibilities.

"So, it has to remove bark from a tree that reacts to heat and damage, saws would heat up the fibers causing contraction and is supposedly incredibly hard to cut against the fiber so it would be time consuming and dangerous"

"Then there is the issue of the owls that live on the trees however the information here is a little light, while the beak and talons could be dangerous a thick armor plate should be more than enough"

"The information on the package is useful but seems a little incomplete, I should contact the research company and try to speak with anyone in the team that took the samples"

Marcus started searching for the research company name or the contact information, it took a bit of time but the only information he found was that it was requested by Minerva's Lab.

Minerva's Lab was founded by a very wealthy Roman Citizen during the 3rd era to find a cure to the xenos plague and while they were unsuccessful at that they did started to get renown thanks to their biological studies about mutated beings which was also incredibly useful during the 4th era too.

Doing a quick search online he found that they had a research lab in world. The chief researcher was someone named Albus, but they also had a researcher called Evander doing advance research on mutated trees. That looked like the appropriate man to ask so Marcus started to look for his published research and then his contact information.

He sent a communications request introducing himself and started to craft a missive with all the questions and information he wanted when his data pad pinged with a notification.

"Evander is calling huh?" exclaimed Marcus "That was fast" and signaled for accepting the comm request.

The virtual screen flickered and took the image of a man of medium age with round face, short brown hair and, curiously, glasses.

“Hello, would it be correct to presume that you are Mech Designer Marcus Caelum?” a determined and energetic voice came from the man.

“That is correct. That must make you Researcher Evander Gaius, thank you for contacting me in so short notice”

“There is no problem at all. You said that you wanted to contact us due to a design request we posted, correct?”

“Yes, that is correct. Thanks for calling me back”

“Please, you are the first in contacting us about the design, if your design can help us get more material, we could continue with our research so we thank you” excitement clearly seen in his face.

“If you don't mind, I do have a couple questions for this design and maybe you could help me with?” asked Marcus

“Maybe. I'm not the best person to ask these questions. My boss Albus is the head of the research project” said Evander cautiously.

“Actually, I contacted you because it was your name in all the reports and I wanted the most accurate data of someone who had actually been there” Marcus stated matter-of-factly “I do have a resumed report from the government but I would like to request more information for clarity’s sake”.

“OK, I'll answer all I can then” replied Evander with a small smile.

The following hour was spent in asking particularities, from the property of the fibers, how did they harvested them, what did they try, he asked more information about the owls (‘hardened feathers that some specimens could throw, usually less than 10 feathers per specimen, nice tip’), about the general location and quite a few more. It was invigorating for Marcus to learn so much that he could use. Eventually he run out of questions and had all the information he needed.

“Thank you very much for all your help Evander. Would it be ok if I called you if I have further questions?”

“Sure Marcus, it would be my pleasure”

A quick farewell was given and the communication terminated.

Starting once again the designer program he started with the most basic logic.

"Since the area around the trees is complicated 2 legs is too little, the sound of the step must be quiet too, also the height of the trees varies and without special equipment it would be impossible to reach the higher parts so the harvesting tool has to be something that can extended or shortened. Maybe an arachnid sort of body with multiple legs that can stretch or shorten as needed"

He started to look at the provided maps and saw that from the harvesting point till the edge of the forest was an expanse with some crevices but after that was mostly a controlled flat area so he could hide some wheels in the upper part of the legs, make them fold over so the mech could travel faster and when it needed the precision of the legs it would simply extend its legs and use a stable type of feet.

Then came the body. First it needed autonomy but also be cold and silent and they were antithetical to the other. The best solution he could come was unorthodox but could accomplish both.

He would have a removable abdomen that would host a reactor for energy generation but could be disconnected and left on the edge of the forest near the support equipment to remove both the heat generation and noise. This now empty abdomen space could also be used to store the stripped bark to transport it.

It would also host in the main part or thorax a big number of batteries to provide energy while making it silent enough plus the control capsule and 3 liquid carriers, 1 with growth liquid, 1 with water and 1 with liquid nitrogen connecting to different hoses.

"Let’s say 6 legs for stability and 2 harvesting arms with the end of the hoses" mumbled Marcus "the harvesting arms should be able to work in multiple nodes at the same time with different jobs, pressure, a calculated jab to discharge the pressurized water in a safe angle, use image recognition to find the optimal size for harvest, freeze the edges, use a suction cup to secure the bark and then impact drivers to cut through the frozen bark finally it would spray the growth liquid on the recently removed bark" Marcus felt pretty good, he had been working for a few hours now looking at different ways to do this and this one felt as the most practical

"I still need to figure a way to carry the collected bark into the deposit without having to stop the collection nor moving the arms" In this way it could cut and move constantly without problems nor stopping.

Once the deposit is full it would leave the forest silently, drop the rolls of bark reconnect to the generator and recharge it’s batteries.

As for the owls. They drank the water from the tree in the branches which held very little pressure and there were few predators in the area. They would behave aggressively by pecking and using the talon to attack anyone close to the trees, they were territorial but would stop pursuit after leaving the area of their nest.

For security measures Evander explained that a normal thick mech armor plating would be enough to stop penetrating attacks but the birds themselves were smart enough to attack at different places to find weak spots and should not be ignore for they could gather and attack the mech rending most of the external armor easily in big numbers also destroying any visible appendage. However, it was also observed that they were afraid of the pressurized water from the trees which gave Marcus 2 ideas.

First a fake mist maker, it would spray small amounts of water around the mech to simulate normal mist as the owls didn’t flew too close to the floor if it was misty, they may not be able to harvest the top part but it would be safe for the main body.

The harvesting arms also should emit some mist to hide them and to simulate how the tree dispersed some mist when under pressure.

If not, he also placed 6 nozzles on top of the abdomen to shoot pressurized water plus extra small nozzles in the harvesting arms, this should make the owls believe that it was the tree and not attack it.

He would need to add multiple cameras with thermal overlays in the legs, harvesting arms, top and bottom part of the body to be able to keep a constant sight of everything around itself because the mist could potentially blind the pilot.

Marcus saw the design taking form and it filled him with pride and joy. It was what he wanted, everything he expected to.

Sure, there were lots of problems to take care, designing and equipment choices, testing for loads, torsion, disposition of internal structure and much much more but he wouldn't change it for nothing, he would become the BEST Mech Designer.