Chapter 1, Page 19
Research and Development Division 4-B
Development Engineer: Raymond Finkler
Log Entry: 768
Date: October 10th
The VX-II has surpassed all expectations. The live-firing exercise went well yesterday. The Gatling-arm performed flawlessly, and the back-mounted ammo magazine stored an impressive 4,000 rounds without jamming (unlike the debacle last week). Tomorrow we’ll try another live-firing with the 8,000 round “full blitz” attachment.
The higher ups are still undecided about the VX-II’s other weapons…we just keep going round and round with different suggestions, but nothing sticks. I’ve been pushing the addition of a ~100 MW free-electron laser attachment, but my design was met with resistance by nearly everyone. They said it wouldn’t be reliable enough…but I beg to differ. Then I suggested a portable rail gun, which attracted some interest, but it looks like that would raise production cost of the suit too much. Finally, I recommended that we bulk up parts of the suit to allow room for hidden missile pods. The Viper-R9 “mini-missiles” could be used, giving the VX-II a tactical leg-up on most other power suits. I think everyone liked that idea. Unfortunately, time isn’t on our side. If the missile proposal passes, we’ll have less than a week to install them. Looks like more late nights are in my immediate future. Maybe I shouldn’t have recommended the missiles…
Danger Zone One. Story by Midnight. Art by Katsu.
Spectacular but not particularly effective.
Obviously Raymond knew he had to over-use his ordnance because it would be ineffective otherwise.
If those R9s had been properly armed with anti-personnel warheads a single round would have sufficed and this would have been a very short story unless it included something like “resurrected hamburger” in the plot.
One assumes most of the live weapons available in the lab would be selected for demos/testing, not combat effectiveness. Big flashy booms make a much better impression than punching holes in your observers 500 feet away.
“You saved my life! You DO care!! I LOVE you!!! I want to have your children…”
* SLAP *
“Hey! I didn’t need that!”
That sound effect in the last panel…Where it concerns incoming missiles, yes it was quite appropriate.
O.O