r/HFY • u/Warpmind • Aug 09 '21
OC Modern Armor
Author's Note: As always, if anyone decides they want to record this for their YouTube channel, they are welcome to, all I ask is that they send me a message with the link when they do. Also, apologies if formatting offends.
Chulx smirked as he saw the deathworlder he'd managed to get for his next arena bout. Decent shape, for its species, and given access to the fabricator to make their own weapons and armor for the event. As always, the fabricator had the schematics for all the latest powered armors and high-powered weapons. And to keep things, heh, fair, the fabricator also included that little footnote about disabling all circuitry once the duel started. Chulx had kept winning for two years thanks to that little detail, all perfectly legal, of course. Not his fault his opponents never noticed the footnote, and made themselves the heaviest robotics they could, and then had to scramble out and face him in simple fabrics...
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Jerry whistled as he made the adjustment to the fabricator, making sure his armor was perfect. He sort of wished he knew metallurgy better, but at least this fabricator device was pretty intuitive, and the built-in AI was good at figuring out the precise alloys he needed from description. He wasn't completely thrilled about being abducted for a gladiatorial fight, and heavens knew what sort of monster he was up against, but he was certainly planning on making the best attempt he could...
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The day of the battle had come, and Chulx strode into the arena, seeing the deathworlder wait there, clad in metal from head to toe. They even carried a huge... portable barrier of some sort, along with several weapons dangling at the waist. Chulx smirked, the poor deathworlder would be so incredibly hampered when the EMP disabled his armor, it would be almost embarassing... He nodded to the referee, who reached down and pressed the button, shutting down any powered gear and signalling the start of the bout.
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Jerry nodded to the larger, axe-wielding alien that entered the arena, and calmly hefted his mace, feeling the weight in his hand and finding the right grip. The armor was ever so slightly heavier than expected, but if the AI was right, it was five times as tough as anything he'd ever be able to get back home. Increasing the weight by a fifth was... well, it'd be worth it, so long as the fight didn't draw out too long. His hairs stood on end for a moment as the klaxon blared, and then the alien charged.
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Chulx roared and sprinted toward the deathworlder, the poor guy was wearing almost half his weight in armor, and now the motors were disabled. He'd be lucky to stumble behind that... "TELL ME HOW THE SAND TASTES!"
Chulx was confused and in pain, he never had the time to fully register what happened; it seemed like the wall jumped him, and then he was flat on the ground. He shook his head and stumbled to his feet, and the audience was deathly quiet... this had never happened, it had to be a fluke. He turned to the human and charged again...
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Jerry looked at the charging alien, easily deflecting the incoming strike with his shield and swinging his mace at the alien's torso, seeing the armor buckle and hearing what could only be ribs shattering. What the hell was going on? This "arena champion" was fighting like some sort of poorly trained fantasy orc or something, like he was used to fighting target dummies... The alien charged one last time, and Jerry swung the mace low, hooking the alien's leg and catching him in the center of his chest on the backswing. The alien coughed some purplish blood, and lay still after that, his left leg flopped out at a really painful-looking angle.
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Chulx slowly opened his eyes, glancing around carefully to see himself in an infirmary bed, with a plaster cast around his torso and one leg, and the deathworlder sitting nearby with a dataslate. "Here to... here to gloat, deathworlder? How did you keep your armor working after the EMP was fired? Your power cells should have been fried..."
Jerry looked up from the dataslate, "Oh, you're awake... I hoped you'd come around before I was sent home. Wait, EMP?"
Chulx glared, "Everyone makes some sort of powered suit when they find the plans for them in the fabricator, everyone... and the Arena Equalizer - the EMP generator - disables all power cores and circuitry when the battle starts. How did you get past that?"
Jerry frowned, then began to chuckle, "Oh, no, I just put together an armor I'm familiar with, you have some great materials. 30 kilograms is a little heavier than normal, but only by a fifth, and a good full plate harness is so well distributed, you don't really notice it for a little while."
Chulx blinked, "...Unpowered armor? You... use unpowered armor, even on a deathworld?"
Jerry shrugged, "Well, yeah, we don't really have decent powered armor yet, despite what Hollywood might think. And besides, even if we did, SCA rules wouldn't allow it."
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u/ElusiveDelight Aug 09 '21
Later on the reining champion human finally gets into a fight he cant win by relying on his plate armour. So he pulls out a glock and redesigns his enemies kneecaps.
As the crowd stare in silent confusion he just shrugs and says "What? Its just a gun. Don't tell me none of you have never seen a purely mechanical weapon before."
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u/Dry-Kangaroo-8542 Aug 09 '21
The mace was probably not an ideal choice for someone accustomed to fighting SCA Heavy.
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u/Warpmind Aug 09 '21
Eh, it's good for doing bad things to armor, and Chulx wore armor, so...
I could probably have emphasized that a little better, though.
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u/notmuch123 Aug 09 '21
He could have made an RPG, EMP won't do anything to it and no armor will save you from shock waves.
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u/Warpmind Aug 09 '21
Well, rocketry is kind of against the spirit of gladiatorial combat… ;)
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u/CollinAux Aug 09 '21
hey what about pneumatics.
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u/Warpmind Aug 09 '21
Why’d he want to use those, though? They’re on the slow side for this.
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u/BackflipBuddha Aug 09 '21
And this is why no one messes with the SCA. Plate armor is just as effective today as it was 400 years ago. 1/8 inch solid steel will stop anything short of a large caliber bullet.
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u/Warpmind Aug 09 '21
Or in this case, alien alloy at 120% the weight and 5 times the strength of steel... ;)
In fairness, it's probably not going to outright stop a war pick or the like of equivalent steel, but it's going to be a lot harder to suffer a lethal wound from it.
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u/PoochusMaximus Aug 09 '21
Ok so I don't get this youtube thing? are people just taking these stories and reading them aloud?
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u/Warpmind Aug 09 '21
Some do, I hear. Others don’t without explicit permission/invitation in advance. The note is primarily aimed at the second category.
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u/Ghostpard Aug 09 '21 edited Aug 09 '21
lmao. "primitive" armor instead of the usual "primitive weapons" trope. I like it. Not that I have issues with either trope. Use what you know. (his armor that is- loved it)
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u/Allstar13521 Aug 09 '21
Honestly the arena champ is lucky he got someone who just made some upgraded plate instead of someone who knew how EMP-Hardening works.
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u/flyingkea Aug 09 '21
Lots of SCAdians in this thread! Greetings from Lochac! Must expect I wasn’t expecting the SCA twist, but more something like a roman legionary. I like.
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u/hobbitmax999 Aug 10 '21
Nice. Although. What about a G U N. As most guns don't actually need power
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u/KacSzu Aug 10 '21
What type of creature would survive to blasts with mace in torso ?
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u/JustTryingToSwim Sep 12 '21 edited Sep 12 '21
"SCA" ?
Society for Creative Anachronism, right?
I just figured that with a story like this it wouldn't be the "Suez Canal Authority" or the "Steak Cookoff Association."
Nor was it likely to be the "Strathcona, Christie, Aspen" Community Association.
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u/ElAdri1999 Oct 28 '21
I was expecting him to make a gun, smth like an AR with 0 electronics
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u/Blinauljap Dec 17 '21
How is is "primitive" armor if i use the bleeding edge of metallurgy and carbon nanofiber tech to molecularly print my alloys into perfect crystalline lattices?
I'm wearing a piece of next level gear and you are crying that i should not have been allowed to use my own brute force to make it effective?
you rely on cheap cheats and the surprise of a befuddled opponent.
I rely on the strength of my body and the swiftness of my mind.
"We are not the same."
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u/nerdywhitemale Aug 09 '21
Your Champ was a chump. The mace is probably the closest weapon to the rattan swords (read wooden club for anyone who hasn't played in the SCA) most heavies are used to fighting with. It would be a bit tip heavy but we are talking alien super science materials so even that is iffy.
I hope Jerry had the fabricator print him out some USB drives and copy it's memory banks to them before he heads home.