The Suit-Maker 33 A Clash Of Design Philosophy

The police officer floated in mid-air and for a moment nothing happened. There was no sound in the video but I guessed the officer must be offering the crew the chance to surrender. Like that's going to happen.

As I expected, bullets began flying moments later. Several sparks appeared on the suit of the officer. I took a good look at the police suit but can't recall the make or model of it. That's not surprising. There are literally thousands of different battlesuits available on the market and there's no way even a suit designer like myself could recognize all of them. Whatever the police suit was called, it had an advance armor system and the sparks were caused by bullets. .h.i.tting it. The officer treated the bullets as nothing but annoyance and just continue to float in the air. The officer was an idiot.

I may not have official operator training but even I could tell that no matter how armored the suit was, bullets will chipped away at it and an operator should always avoid getting hit if he can help it. The police officer should have gone for cover and attack. Instead he was trying to show off.

The left shoulder pad of the police suit rose and two lasers shot out. The loadout was some sort of rapid fire laser weapon as a pair of short lasers kept shooting out of the laser slot. Unlike the officer, the robbers did not stay still.

The camera immediately began moving. The robber with the camera kept an eye on the police officer and I wonder if he had some sort of formal training as he zip and zap to avoid giving the officer a clear target. I also realized that the two Trackbot-P had managed to flank the police officer and were now on either side of him. The police officer was either badly trained or inexperienced because instead of retreating, he turn to shoot at the other Trackbot-P. The police officer was showing his back to the robber with the camera and he took the chance to rush the officer.

The police battlesuit must have some sort of sensor because the police officer somehow notice the approaching robber. He turned, pointed his right arm at the operator, and a gun barrel pop-out. Bullets flew out at a rapid rate. This time the robber did not dodge but instead kept on charging. The operator may be a robber but he knew my suit, and he was confident that the Trackbot-P was tough enough to handle normal ballistics. Maybe it was my pride speaking but I can't helped but nodded my head in agreement. It's always nice to know that someone competent was operating a battlesuit you had designed.

To his credit, the police officer quickly realized that his gun was ineffective and shut down the weapon. Thrusters appeared at the bottom of the police suit's heel and the police officer shot up into the air. The officer finally decided to be smart and was now trying to put distance between himself and the robber. To his surprise, the police officer was too late.

I saw the camera rus.h.i.+ng towards the officer transit to a higher height without stopping. This robber definitely had some training. After the show by Salma from SOFS, I had tweaked the commercial version of the Trackbot-P so that it is now possible to transform without coming to a full stop. It was still not an easy move to pull off and Jaya told me that some operators of the Trackbot-P considered it a sign of skill to do it. This robber had done it without a hitch. Not only that, he immediately activated the Trackbot-P's jumping mechanism. The camera soared towards the police officer and I swear I could see the surprise on the officer's face through his suit's helmet. The officer was caught out by the jump but the surprise didn't stop there. Instead of attacking the officer with the IK Battle-axe like I expected, the operator instead grab hold of the officer.

A clash of design philosophy took place. The police officer was wearing a modern suit that had flight capability. Most modern battlesuits were designed to be light and maneuverable with modern synthetic and compound armor to give the operator protection. This allows the designer of the police suit to make the suit light. The lighter the suit is, the easier it would be to make it fly and the less energy it would consumed. The Trackbot-P went the other direction. It is a variation of the Steambot which is anything but light. The Trackbot-P does not have modern lightweight armor but instead the thick strong armor of the Steambot. It was designed to withstand a lot of abuse and more importantly in this instance, it was a heavy suit that weight a lot more than the suit the police officer was wearing.

Once the robber grab hold of the police officer, gravity took over. Both suits began to fall and the next thing I saw was the camera shaking violently as they hit the ground. The robber of the Trackbot-P stood up. He had somehow maneuvered to land on top of the officer and after taking a moment to look down at the p.r.o.ne, seemingly unconscious officer, the robber raise the IK Battle-axe over his head and slashed downwards. The axe cut deeply into the chest of the officer and only the modern armor of the police suit prevented the officer's death. Maybe the pain of strike woke him because the officer immediately pointed both palms at the operator. From the camera, I saw a bright light shooting out from the palms. The camera was blinded by light and the next thing I know, the camera was pointing towards the sky.

The blast must have sent Trackbot-P flying. Even without the sound, I could guess that the suit had been seriously damaged. For several seconds nothing happened, then I saw something flying across the screen. It seems that the fight was still going on off-camera. Then the camera moved slightly and I saw the chest of the Trackbot-P opened up. The robber climb out of the damaged Trackbot-P and the other Trackbot-P came into view. The robber ran towards the other Trackbot-P and the video suddenly ended. I immediately shot Jaya a question.

"Is this real?"

"Oh yes, it is very real."

"Where was this? When did it happen?"

"Abu Dubai about twelve hours," Jaya said.

My mind whirl to recall all I know about Abu Dubai. It wasn't much. It is one of the megcities in the Gulf Coalition and I recall something about it being a combination of two small cities; Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

"Jaya, how much trouble are we in?"

"I'm not sure about us being in trouble but that cop in the video; he's dead."

"s.h.i.+t!"