Modern Age Online

Kaleb typed in the last line of code on the small handheld computer he found in the diagnostic station’s cabinet. With that he finished the last of the syntax errors in the Mark VII Exosuit. He sighed heavily as he set the small computer down. He felt lucky that the suits coding was close enough to what he used in his real life job. He wasn’t sure if it was the game making it easier for him or if he had the devil’s luck but he took the win, regardless.

He stretched out his neck as he looked at up at the 8-foot tall exosuit. He had ignored the mechanical problems in favor of solving the easier coding issues. But now all he had left was the various broken parts that needed to come out and be replaced. First, though, he needed to find them and identify what they looked like.

The diagnostic station displayed the error path but only to the general region of the suit. According to the station, six parts were in the lower body, five were in the upper body and one was in something labeled IBPCCU-000001. Kaleb stretched out his back before he squatted down and looked at the open access panels in the legs first. The error report listed one part in the lower body as an Electralateral Dampened Actuator and he at least knew what an actuator was.

As he peered into the dark access panel Obadiah spoke up, sounding bored. “Do you need a hint?”

“No, just better lighting. Nice to see I’m not the only one who forgets to add a flashlight to their tool set.” Kaleb answered trying to see better.

Obadiah sighed. “Fourth drawer on the diagnostic station.”

Kaleb got up and inspected the station finding a slim drawer just above the cabinet. Sure enough, there was a light-weight UltraBright flashlight in the drawer. Kaleb shook his head at his own ridiculousness before he searched the other drawers. There was an assortment of small tools throughout the station. Tape, drill bits, laser cutters, a small head lamp. Kaleb was kicking himself for not checking the thing sooner.

“You really forget to bring a flashlight?” Obadiah asked.

Kaleb gave a combination sigh/growl. “It’s slipped my mind. Numerous times actually.”

Kaleb set the headlamp on his head and went back to looking over the innards of the leg. With his new light he could make out several pieces of equipment and various bits of wire. He reached his hand and tapped on various components. He hoped that whatever was wrong would be easy to see or feel. Sure enough, he felt a large crack in the housing of something. Using his light he saw something attached to the inside of the thigh, it didn’t look like an actuator but that didn’t surprise him.

He used an Auto-tool to remove the housing brackets and pulled the unit out of the leg. The entire thing looked like a smaller version of the actuators Kaleb was used to. One side of the metal housing had an inch long crack near the top of the unit.

He moved over to the worktable Obadiah had provided and looked over the piece of equipment. Other than the crack though, it seemed to be in good shape. He figured he could remove that side of the housing and just replace it with another piece of metal. Unfortunately, while he had the metal, he couldn’t find a welder to attach it to the housing.

Looking up, he asked. “Can I get a welder or something? Or did you want me to just cover this with tape?”

Obadiah gave a loud sigh. “No, and no. you have to work with what you have. Besides the crack is easily fixable with tools at hand.”

Kaleb grunted and twisted his head quizzically before he looked down at the table. It held sheets of metal, various springs, different lengths of wire, heat sinks, and a bunch of other junk. He scanned the work table twice before he went back to the diagnostic station. He had been through the drawers and cabinets already but maybe he missed something.

He dug through the drawers and cabinets again before he found a small clear bottle. He had originally thought it was a lubricant but the label of the front read Recreo Metallum. Kaleb twisted the bottle in the light watching the grey liquid slosh around.

“Is Latin really that lazy?” Kaleb asked as he moved back to the actuator unit.

“That was Wolfgang’s decision.” Obadiah said before adopting what Kaleb thought was an offensive German accent.

“We should name new discoveries in the ancient languages as a reminder of how far we have come.”

Kaleb snorted a laugh as he removed the lid on the cap on the bottle. As he poured a dropped onto the cracked housing Obadiah added.

“I wanted to call it New Metal. But apparently that is a genre of music or something.”

Kaleb just nodded as he watched the liquid metal seep around the crack. The liquid seemed to attach to the side of the damage then grow out from there. Within a minute the crack had repaired itself, Kaleb held the bottle of metal and stared at it in wonder.

“This shit is cool.” He said.

Obadiah laughed. “Haha, Regenerating Metal. It’s rare but not exactly unheard of. I think Vulcan Industries builds a line of light armor out of such a metal. Not that tough but you save on repairs.”

Kaleb nodded as he replaced the actuator and ran the diagnostic test again. As the test ran, he went back to the leg and watched for signs of trouble. The actuator cycled up as the diagnostic sent a small pulse of power through the different sub-systems of the Exosuit. As he cheered silently in his head, he noticed a small spark off one wire.

He focused on the wire for a few seconds, memorizing what it looked like. It was a clear wire and Kaleb could see electricity flowing around the inner metal wiring. Once the current reached a socket down by the knee the electricity would spark harshly. So the problem was with the wire or at the end point where the wire connected.

Kaleb mentally noted the problem and refocused on the leg. He searched high and low in the thigh panel and found nothing else, so he moved down to the calf panel. As he peered into the calf, he immediately saw a power unit he could not identify. It was within a set of six similar power units, but unlike its brethren the outer fans on its housing weren’t moving. Kaleb smiled wide as he found the finally problem on the leg.

Kaleb sighed as he remembered that he still needed to find nine more mechanical problems. It would be a game of hit or miss. But with the help of the diagnostic station he could probably identify the problems easier. Kaleb stood and stretched as the diagnostic station beeped, finished with its jobs. Kaleb limbered up his fingers and went back to work.

First was the clear wiring. Once he could see better, he found that someone had scoured the coupling unit where the wire connected with a circuit board. It looked like someone had scratched at it with a knife or something. He had to remove the coupling off the PCB and search his table for a similar board. He found it rather easily and replacing the coupling proved a matter of moments.

He almost cheered as he moved down to the calf. Now that he found the problems, solving them was proving fun or at least new. He had to remove the entire set of power units, but once he did the problem made itself clear. Two of the four fan blades had been bent and were jammed up against sides, stopping it from spinning. Initially he tried to bend the fan blades back to their original position but unfortunately it broke off in his hand.

It took a few more minutes of work but he found a similar-sized fan. He had to replace the entire fan, but he got the new one into place fairly easily. He finished up by mounting the set of power units back into the calf and all the wires correctly back into place. Once he did, he found his vision obstructed for the first time in a while.

*Robotics Skill level up*

Repair speed increased

General knowledge increased.

“Hello old friend. it’s been awhile.” Kaleb joked as he looked over the other leg.

It stunned him that the Actuator on the second leg also had a small crack on it. Upon closer inspection he discovered that they had copied the same damage done to the previous leg over to the second leg. He growled loudly after he confirmed the damage to the power unit in the calf. Looking up to the ceiling he shouted.

“Oh, come on! Your people just replicated the damage between legs!”

“And?” Obadiah asked.

“And… That’s boring. It makes the whole test sort of pointless.” Kaleb finished lamely.

Obadiah snickered. “Does it? Is general maintenance supposed to be exciting. I understand the thrill of discovery for you here. Working on tech that far exceeds your own, but really. If this had been a simple blaster, the point of the test would be the same. Repair work has to be done. It’s tedious, time consuming, and makes you go over what you already know. But it is essential.”

Kaleb gave a none committal nod before Obadiah continued.

“If this essential bit of work already bores you, then I think you should reconsider how you do your work as a Super. You can be like the rest of them: Just buy new equipment every time it breaks. But you want to go down the path of the Scientist then you should realize that along with discovering the new, you need to maintain the old. And maybe while working on the old you may figure out something new.”

Kaleb nodded more resolutely this time. Obadiah was right. So far he had been more concerned with making new tech rather than maintaining the old. Even the first Shocky had been broken and replaced. He had been ignoring the more tedious aspects of his chosen profession. Jumping from one thing to the next. He really needed to slow down and get more into the science of what he was doing.

“Maintain and Improve.” Kaleb said out loud, nodding to himself.

“And Discover.” Obadiah interjected. “Science should also be about moving forward, always.”

Maintain, Improve, Discover. Kaleb thought as he moved back toward the second leg and removed the problem pieces. The idea of solving the same problem still kind of bored him. But he knew Obadiah was right.

“Don’t worry, Professor. I promise there are still many things for you to discover in 7. She is a wily old girl.”

Kaleb chuckled to himself as he placed the pieces of equipment of the worktable. “Really, gramps? Personifying your creations? isn’t that a little Mad Scientist?”

Obadiah snorted. “Please, all Scientist do it. I bet even you do.”

Kaleb found himself involuntarily patting Shocky 2.0 on his robot arm. He immediately stopped and went back to work.

“Shut up, gramps.”