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A.E. 0074
Kehlos stared in awe at the sight before him.
It was large.
Larger than most of the shining towers in the Garathan capital, there were patches of scales that were pearl gold in colour, there was three sails on its back, it’s beak was cracked and from what he could see of its limbs, it was missing a claw from both its left arm and right leg. Large, gunship-sized makeshift clamps held down it’s body as it seemed to struggle to breathe.
“Director Thales…. what is this?” he questioned.
The older man sitting behind him responded.
“Our new weapon”
“What do you mean?” He inquired. “Where did this creature even come from?”
“One of the bodies in a formerly unexplored sector. When we arrived, the surface was scorched, paths of destruction carved across the terrain, any form of sentient life seen from long distance observation were seemingly gone” Thales Explained.
He continued “It took some time before we encountered this large fellow, along with several others in similar states. By the time adequate transport came, only this one was left alive”
“And now we’ve been assigned to study it, enhance it, then ready it for deployment against possible threats to our people. ‘Speed of a fighter craft, with the firepower of a capital ship’ they demanded”
“Something caused the destruction of an entire planet, and it has those above us terrified” He added at the end.
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A.E. 0079
His eyes started to close again before the feeling of his shoulder being slapped woke him up. He glared up to his right, to see Gahrea smiling innocently as she looked down at the table.
“Welcome back to the land of the waking, dear brother” She quipped. “Don’t you think you have somewhere to be?”
“What?… oh, OH RIGHT!” His eyes bulged as the inner workings of his mind snapped onto a particularly important day, “The demonstration!” he thought. He rushed to get himself ready, running out of their shared domicile and towards the transport station.
Later
“D-Director Thales! Has the combat demonstration bee-“
“You’re too late, Kehlos. It’s already ended,” Said Thales.
“I apologize for my absence sir! …A-And what did they say?” He asked, looking towards the hangar area where they stored it. The words “GIGAN” visible on some of the monitors. If he recalled correctly, Kronya was the one who suggested the name, derived from an archaic pre-expansion era weapon used for hunting. It seemed to respond well enough to being called that, thus it stuck.
Gigan was different in many ways and kept similar in others. It still had the three sails on the back and portions of its body kept the golden scales. Most of its body was now covered in a material that was an aquatic green, made to act as a form of flexible armor. The claws on its hands and feet were replaced with metallic hook-blades that could cut through buildings, the beak had healed and encased in the same metal to the one used for the blades.
An artificial horn was attached to the head for ‘intimidation’ at Kronya’s insistence. Its eyes were now covered by a protective visor that connected to a recorder. And the chest area was equipped with more armor that held a blade that could superheat itself, running down from the base of the neck to the bottom of its belly. The blade was driven by a reactor integrated inside Gigan’s body.
In short, it was currently a high-speed close combat-oriented beast.
“They were unsatisfied with our progress to say the least. Claimed that it was too underpowered, that the lack of ranged and heavier weaponry would leave it dead on first contact with any suitably competent force” The director explained.
“What!? But we’ve made it clear what our projected rate of progress would look like! We devised and charted out the development plan mere cycles after Gigan arrived here! A plan they agreed upo-“
“It doesn’t matter what they agreed to then, all that matters is what they want now” Another voice interrupted. Cleobulus, the second eldest behind the director, though Solon always argued otherwise.
“Now then, let us get back to the drawing board, shall we?” She said.
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A.E. 0083
While Kehlos was late then, and even late for several subsequent trials, he made sure to not be late this time around. And the results were as he and others expected. While most were continually impressed by the heavier, flashier weapons Gigan sported practically all over his body. Others, including General Epimenides who was not present in previous test trials as far as Kehlos knew, paid close attention and could already see the glaring flaws with this current direction.
Gigan’s shoulders now held up two high energy beam cannons, with a third high mega-beam cannon placed on it’s head. Attached to the artificial horn and connected to the new targeting system placed on Gigan’s visor. The metallic single hook-blades on Gigan’s arms were converted into two dual chainsaws with a lower output beam cannon inserted between them. And it’s tail, previously untouched until now, was now enhanced with blades in a clawed form.
The blade on Gigan’s chest was now replaced with a rotating buzzsaw, it was more invasive than it’s predecessor and could not heat itself, though it was found to be more reliable. And surrounding that was more armor which held six mega-beam cannons, while these ones had an even lower output than the one placed on the head. Their beams could scatter and cover a much broader area.
The back had more armor that covered the three sails and a backpack where the new, larger reactor to drive these beam weapons were placed, they also drive the high-power thrusters placed to compensate for the burden the new weapons had on Gigan, necessitating two large external fuel tanks to increase operating time. Several panels on the backpack could slide open, revealing six three-tube missile pods. The legs were equipped with another pair of of three-tube missile pods on each leg and had more thrusters placed on the back of them, needing smaller additional generators and smaller fuel tanks.
This made for a weapon that had significantly higher firepower, comparable speed, and was more capable of adapting to a wider range of combat situations than the previous iteration.
At least, it should have based on the paper specification.
The problems started when the additional armor and weapons showed signs of taking a toll on Gigan’s performance in space. Doing anything besides accelerating in a straight line highlighted that maneuvering and general mobility was significantly harder for Gigan, even with the armor being shaped to accommodate its body. To add on to that, despite the generators being the best in their size class. They could not power the weapons and thrusters reliably within the expected operating time. And that was ignoring the numerous internal cooling issues found in-between deployments.
Combat under any form of gravity only magnified these problems. Clear-as-day showing Gigan’s sluggish movement with the heavy equipment weighing it down, even when the thrusters were pushed to their limits. Gigan, in its current state. Was barely serviceable during space combat. And downright unreliable during combat under gravity. With effective operating time being cut down to a fraction of what it was originally.
Afterwards, this current iteration was given an equally low evaluation. Despite the wishes of many. Shouts were thrown, compromises made, plans were changed, weapons would be removed, bulk would be shed.
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A.E. 0083, Three cycles later
“Thank the gods for that” Kehlos thought. Looking up towards the current iteration of their ‘little’ project.
Most of the previous heavy equipment had been removed. While the dual chainsaw-beam cannon hybrid was changed again to a longer and less curved version of the simpler blades, both were changed to be more modular so they could be easily switched between deployments if need be. The buzzsaw on the chest was kept. As well as the blades at the tail.
The only true ranged weapon currently on Gigan was by the head where the high mega-beam cannon used to be. Placed there was an integrated beam cannon above its visor, also connected to the targeting system. Its output was the same as the ones on the dual chainsaw attachments’ beam cannons. And with Gigan’s now more refined internal reactor. All three beam cannons could be used reliably.
Though, there was also additional pincer blades that came out the sides of Gigan’s head. Kehlos still had no idea how Kronya got that approved.
And yet… “Our work isn’t done” He thought as he ran his hands through his hair. While the heavy weapons iteration was poorly received. A good portion of the committee still agreed to the requirements for at least battleship-level weaponry. And with their current technology, they were nowhere near where it needed to be for that to be practical!
“Oi, Kel! Come over here for a nano-cyc!” He heard Kronya calling for him. He rolled his eyes, got up and walked and expected the usual from her.
What he did not expect were plans detailing two entirely different projects unattached from their own.
“Kronya... what is this?” He asked
“Oh come one now. Use that big brain of yours and put two and two together!” she replied.
On one screen showed the design plans for a failed high-speed carrier. From what he heard, that had hit a roadblock when it came to ensuring the safety of anyone onboard during flight. The average Garatha resident’s body couldn’t handle the forces put on them by its movement. Not without some extensive augmentation, anyway.
And on the other screen was schematics showing some form of brain augmentation, the words “PSYCOMMU” visible on the top right. From what he could gather, this was essentially a device that analyzed the thoughts of the user and then converted those thoughts into computer commands. Though from what he knew, the only way for this to even be feasible with current resources was if the brain-
He turned his head towards Kronya, and her smile became wider as his jaw dropped even lower than before.
“Kronya no-“
“Yes“
“No“
“Yes“
“No!“
“Kronya Yes!“
“How did you even get these?! Kronya this is ridiculous! The Director-“
“How about this, we’ll both go into Thales’ office and simply ask him what he thinks, if those above us approve, you owe me a meal of my choice, what say you?”
An eye twitched “…Fine” he huffed out.
And so they went.
And after mata-cycles of waiting. They received their response.
They got the go-ahead. And Kronya got to eat a high-end six course meal for free.
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A.E. 0087
“How are our little toys doing?” The Director’s voice called from behind as he approached.
“Gigan’s doing just fine, no issues there. And his ‘partner’ is keeping up quite nicely-“ Kehlos stopped as two massive objects blitzed past the viewing port of the station. One following the other
While Gigan remained the same from an outside view. Significant changes were placed onto his brain. All for the purpose of establishing near-instant communication with a new addition through thought alone.
The Daedalus was a self-powered support craft that was wider and almost twice as long as Gigan was tall if the four large booster tanks were taken into account. With enough fuel capacity to last for a dozen two-way trips from the station they were currently on to Garatha. Though the tanks could disconnect if a situation came where they did run empty. Smaller sub-thrusters allowed it to perform complex maneuvers to keep pace with Gigan’s own mobility. The onboard computer lifting some of the burden off of its user
Aside from the multitude of adjustable output beam cannons and railguns that were on it. The Daedalus’s main weapons was the pair of rotating high mega-beam cannons on the topside of its body. And behind them were eight panels that could open and reveal twelve-tube missile pods behind each one.
Along with that, the left and right of Daedalus’s body had a mechanical limb that each were attached to flexible shields that also acted as containers, so that Gigan could exchange arm attachments in the middle of combat if he wished. With four compartments on each shield, the shields could hold not just the current arm attachments but also accommodate two pairs of any other possible attachments developed in the future, as long as they had the same connection port. In addition, each shield had panels that could open and reveal two scattering beam cannons that had their own dedicated reactors to drive them
While the Daedalus was mainly meant to operate as Gigan’s ‘partner’ in combat. Gigan could dock and connect with it to operate as one. The shields could also retract inwards and form a casing around him. This action allowed Gigan to go through atmospheric re-entry and launch from a planet’s surface on his own. Something that until the support craft’s introduction, was done via transport ship. And while it was harder to control, the Daedalus could achieve sustained atmospheric flight, though not on the level of Gigan’s own natural flight capabilities.
Thales raised an eyebrow, “His?” He questioned.
“oh- I meant-“ He tried to answer. But the director interrupted with a raised palm.
“No need, I suppose it’s only natural since we’ve have come this far.” He looked onwards as Gigan made a sudden sharp turn. The Daedalus following suit.
“….Right” Kehlos said. Watching on as Gigan and the Daedalus proceeded circled around each other.
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A.E. 0093
Alarms blared as the hallways of the station were painted in red from the lights. All the while they were staring at the main monitor of the control room. Gigan had suddenly woken up and started trying to break out of his hangar. The Daedalus activated soon after and was struggling against the clamps holding it down.
“None of our failsafes are working, we’ve been locked out completely!” Kehlos thought as he saw the director arguing with the General.
“Has something like this ever happened before?” Epimenides questioned.
“No sir, in the entire time that Gigan’s been in our custody. It has never attempted a sudden breakout” Thales answered.
“Have there ever been-“ Epimenides tried to question further. But he stopped when his eyes caught another alert on one of the secondary monitors. One of the stations nearing an unexplored sector had reported catching sight of a massive unidentified object that was possibly on a course towards Garatha. He ordered for it to be brought up.
The entire room went silent when images of said ‘object’ was out on the main monitors.
It was larger than both Gigan and the Daedalus combined. The report stated that its size rivaled that of their largest ships. They would have thought it was just an enormous formation of crystals if it weren’t for the beast that was attached to it.
Its scales was a dark blue with the ones on its stomach being a crimson red. The top of its head had a crest made of the same crystals comprising most of its mass. It had clawed arms yet no visible legs. Its eyes looked as if they were aflame on the inside.
Before anyone could say anything, a large boom reverberated throughout the facility, the room shook as everyone tried to stay upright. Kehlos ran to one of the viewing ports just in time to see Gigan docking with the Daedalus. Shooting past the nearest asteroid field.
Towards the direction where the station that sent the report was.
Towards where IT was.
“Gigan… did you sense it even before our people caught sight of it? How could that be? Was this something you could always do? Was it brought about because of us?” Before More questions filled his mind. He noticed Kronya walk up beside him. Both just watched as Gigan left their view.
“Do you think he’ll be enough?” Kronya questioned.
He stayed silent. None of them knew the answer to that question.
“Not long before we find out though” He thought