*Stare*
For the past couple of days, Leila watched her husband. She had read the compiled research material he had on his Innovator abilities.
It was a boost throughout the whole board. The transformation has improved everything! Especially the 'sixth sense': he can tell what she is thinking; he can tell that she was looking at him from a considerable distance!
Hell, sometimes he can do things before she even says, it's like he was… psychic!
Then, of course, she learned that Euphemia was an Innovator as well.
And the Pink Princess was in a similar boat. Sometimes those two would act without even thinking, cuddle and kiss, doing things before even talking about them.
It's like Innovators are living a couple of seconds in the future and the rest of the people are a couple of moments behind… all the time.
It began to make Leila jealous… again! Only this time, it was not kids but synergy with her husband, and that started to rile her up with frustration.
"That's it! Let's do it!" She declared all of a sudden.
"Do what? You want another kid?" Marcus joked as he began working on his next project.
He dubbed it… Combat Armour.
This little project will reshape space battles and boarding of enemy ships.
Space is a hostile place, and he doesn't want his marines to get spaced or tricked when boarding enemy ships, so… his solution is Iron Man-like armours.
Of course, it's more than just something Marines would wear.
Flying in one, fighting, and wielding weapons to get one on the enemy is essential in a war.
He realised that he was focusing a bit too much on giant killer robots. While they are his answer to space fighters, he needs smaller armours for his troops. Lloyd highlighted this specific ideal in his doodles that he took from him. It was a facepalm moment for the Inventor Emperor.
How did he forget that he could just make Iron Man-like tech!
"D-Don't be ridiculous!" Leila's reply brought him back from his thoughts. He turned around and gazed at her. His comment caught her by surprise.
"Hmm, well, we have been doing some naughty stuff in the past couple of days, who knows?" He teased her for a second, making her bite her lower lip.
Her husband was right; she got carried away for a bit. But still…
"That's not the point! I want to start this whole Innovator thing!" The blonde Empress flicked her hair as she changed the theme of conversation.
"Oh? You want GN Particles to bathe you? You should have said so." Marcus sighed, pretending to do something major for his wife; the way he did it made her eyebrow twitch.
It's like he has no other options, and he is doing it for her…
"Legion, remove the two drives."
[As you wish.]
"Eh?"
Leila's eyes widened as she watched the AI begin to remove the two cone-shaped reactors from his new Gundam!
'Wait! He was serious!'
The Empress thought he was messing with her, but it was not the case!
"Hold it! Do you need to remove parts of your Gundam for this!?" She walked over to him. Already thinking of stopping him.
"Relax, it's okay. Celestial Being designed these for easier removal." He smiled at her. Leila was still super cute when she was like that.
Marcus used that opportunity to pull her onto his lap and hug her from behind.
"I-I see…" The blonde ended up leaning into his back as she got comfortable.
"Indeed. So relax and get comfortable." He smiled as he returned to his designing work.
Leila watched him do something she had not seen for a considerable amount of time.
"Now this brings back memories." She commented with a nostalgic look.
"It has been years since you worked on prosthetics."
"Not quite… It's a piece of armour, but it could be considered a prosthetic." Marcus swirled a pen designed to interact with holograms.
"You see… I was thinking that once we are a proper space-faring empire, there will be spaceship battles at some points.
So I decided to make proper combat power armours. What I mean by that is that some of the Marines could get spaced, but with these armours… they won't care as they would have means to move around in the void." He explained to his wife.
"...So like miniature gundams… or even… Knightmares?" For a second, she needed to use a word she had not used for years. Knightmares… that brings back memories.
"Not even that… these don't have cockpits, it's literally a piece of medieval armour crossing over to modern society.
The best part is that I don't need to invent anything." Marcus smiled while saying that.
"I have prosthetics that will assist in movement and carrying all the extra kilos, a neural interface that will assist in HUD control, servomotors for joints, and gravity resonance for flight,
And batteries for prolonged operating time.
Of course, this design is just a prototype, but once we have foundations in place, we can build around it." He flicked forward, and the pieces came together, showing a cross between a Gundam aesthetic and medieval heavy plate armour.
"Interesting. I suppose, if we apply this, the soldier's losses will be even lower, and it's part of our culture to wield a form of mech.
We could use these to identify and weed out the best pilots for mobile suits as well.
These armours would be perfect starting ground." Leila swiftly got sold on the idea of utilising a form of such armour. Most importantly, getting comfortable with a neural interface.
Because it's becoming essential when piloting a mobile suit. If one's body is bad at resonating with a neural interface, then that person is not meant for the mobile suit pilot role.
But this armour, it could change that as well.
Even then, the Holy Byzantine Empire's technology is getting better, and its interface with technology is becoming easier by the year.
At some point, they will have military gear implants…
'Wait… there is no need for them… Innovators solve all of the problems! Quantum Brainwaves improve neural interface connection.
If we scale it up…'
Leila trembled as she realised that even their most common foot soldier would be in the realms of a super soldier!
"Indeed, I was already moving towards that kind of military gear."
Marcus showed her A.S.P. black tactical gear. The most common 'advanced' military gear in his military. He has been using these since the days of Anaheim Robotics.
One could say it's a relic of the past that requires an upgrade.
"Oh… I always wondered if these armours had anything special." Leila asked him curiously, hinting at what makes this gear special.
"The helmets actually went through three separate revisions to improve the HUD.
"Different types of vision, support for the anti-gravity rifles they use, they possess group vision as well, so they don't have blind spots in their deployments.
On top of that, they have Legion support. These guys also wield a form of AI. There is rarely a door that they can't access."
"You don't say, they shoot anti-gravity. What kind of door could resist that?" The blonde rolled her eyes.
"That too. But in general, the AI can rip any security apart."
"Great, but these guys are utterly useless in space, no? Those rifles will punch through hulls."
Marcus stopped in his tracks for a second. She was right, he completely forgot that!
"You are right. Not even my nano steel can resist that. Not to mention E-carbon." He stroked his chin for a second before looking at his wife sitting on his lap.
"I was thinking something like a plasma thrower, for these marines, it will be perfect for cleansing warships they dock to capture."
He showed her a version of a flame thrower, but based on a GN particle.
"I was thinking of a smaller, miniature version of those." The Inventor Emperor looked at the GN drives that Legion's robotic hands stored in the middle of the workshop at the moment.
"I already have the data necessary to build the black boxes for these. So in a worst-case situation, they can self-destruct and take out the base or workshop with them."
"Oh, your technology protection scheme… I still remember how much you traumatised your father's round table knights." Leila giggled, recalling a certain knight who got locked up in a Knightmare Killer.
"Indeed. Celestial Being's technology fits so well with my style." He smirked at the prospect of making those aliens freak out about exploding tech.
"Good." She looked at the cone engines that were beginning to fill the particle tanks in the workshop.
"Legion, tell the girls to come here, as well as my son."
[Understood.]
"I am a bit surprised that you got those two girls like that. I thought most of the Celestial Being staff ended up in Academy City or your G-Force." The blonde mentioned those two.
More specifically, the pinkette, the girl had a pink ball-shaped robot… Trajan immediately got curious about her toy.
Especially, since she was not talkative and could program robots and mobile suits.
"They were brought here by Milly before she decided to dip out and return to our reality."
"Oh… of course she did." Leila rolled her eyes.
"Well, it is good. Trajan needs more interactions, so does Feldt." Marcus chuckled, recalling Feldt's expression when he got curious about the Haro she had.
Those robots are literal databanks and partial AI, so his kid got curious.
"Hmm… big sister type of thing… I am jealous… my older brothers… well…" The blonde recalled her family, from whom she ran away.
"You rarely speak about them." The Inventor Emperor asked her, growing a bit curious.
"...There is nothing to speak about." She shrugged as the four of them arrived moments later.
The blonde prince swiftly became the favourite of Wang Liu Mei and the two CIC girls from Ptolemaios.
Honestly, Marcus wouldn't mind if Feldt and Christina babysat him and taught him their computer skills.
"Good, you four are here. The particle tanks will fill up soon." The Emperor said to them as he motioned for Leila to stand, and he followed after her.
"Ohh… so these are the ones who will help us to become Innovators!?" Trajan dashed over as he watched the cone engine parts rotate.
"Indeed. These are GN drives."
"Oh…"
The particles gave quite a light show; it's perfect for kids' distraction.
As the Prince got distracted, the pair of Emperor and Empress walked over to the pinkette.
"I hope he didn't get annoying," Marcus commented, making the girl shake her head in denial.
"Not at all… I am a bit surprised by how competent someone at that age is." Feldt replied, making Leila puff her chest in pride.
"Well, I do try to raise him properly." The blonde replied.
"Yes, and his knowledge in robotics… is humbling." The pinkette looked at the boy.
This time around, Marcus smirked.
"I taught him from an early age." The Emperor commented.
"Especially since I know how curious children like that can be, so I am satiating their hunger." He smiled as he looked at his son.
"...Yes… But it doesn't explain the fact that Prince Trajan is designing a Gundam already." Feldt replied, looking at them with concern.
"Oh, he showed you his Unicorn Gundam?" Marcus nodded back with a proud look.
"Yes, that… while still childish… to some extent. " Feldt recalled the mech shooting eye beams… " The Prince is halfway to becoming an engineer."
"And he is not even ten years old." The CIC girl said that with a strained smile.
"I know, and that is why it is amazing." The Emperor declared proudly.
"What she means to say by that is that you should let him be a bit more of a kid." Wang Liu Mei chipped in with a smile. She was a bit concerned as well.
"And he is. The difference is that we are paying attention to him and spending as much time with him as we can.
Teaching skills in the form of a game, and at the same time confirming certain things related to upbringing." Leila replied with crossed arms.
"Instead of just throwing toys in children's way and letting them play, we are part of that play process. After all, we confirmed long ago that children copy their parents.
So we simply use that to make sure they learn things early and can start improving at a young age."
The blonde Empress explained to them with a smile. Their Empire's education system is one of the things they are most proud of.
~~~
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