Chapter 111: Tony: Isn't This Just a Refined Iron Monger?
Stark Industries. The weapons testing range.
The facility had been built specifically for testing new weapons systems. After Stark Industries announced it was leaving the arms business, the range had gone quiet along with everything else.
Stark Industries was in the middle of a full transformation now, converting from what it had been into something new: a technology company with serious commitments in clean energy. The Iron Man name had done the rest. Rather than collapsing, the company's market value had climbed past what it had been at its peak.
None of that was particularly relevant to the matter at hand.
What mattered right now was that Tony needed a fight that would show him where the Mark VI had gaps, and he needed to actually believe what the results told him.
The range was open and empty, the way purpose-built test facilities always were.
Matthew stood in the center of it and looked around. Tony moved up beside him and offered the background without being asked. "This used to be for medium-range weapon systems. After I closed the weapons side of the business, I started using it for armor calibration and weapons systems testing. For what we're doing today, it's perfect."
He looked around. "So where's the Nemesis? I've been thinking about this since we agreed to it. I want to know which one actually comes out ahead."
He was rubbing his hands together with visible eagerness. The memory of the Nemesis stepping out of that container in Afghanistan, the sheer crushing weight of its presence, had never entirely left him.
"Give it a moment." Matthew said it quietly, and let his attention drift toward the range entrance.
An Umbrella Corporation cargo van was pulling through the gate. It was moving slowly. From the way the rear tires were deforming under the load, the cargo inside was substantial.
Both of them watched as the van came to a stop in the center of the range. The rear doors swung open.
A large, heavily built figure stepped down.
It was not the Nemesis.
It was the Astartes Prototype, wearing the full power armor. In one hand, carried inverted at its side, was a weapon roughly the length of a grown man.
A chainsword.
This weapon had been Matthew's concept, designed and manufactured by Osborn Industrial. Osborn had a genuine talent for this kind of work, and with a full engineering department behind him and Ivan Vanko's reactor technology as the power source, the design had moved from drawings to finished hardware quickly.
Tony looked up at the 2.8-meter armored figure in front of him. His gaze traveled across the power armor's surface. The excitement that had been building since Matthew's office evaporated.
He turned to Matthew. His mouth twitched.
"...Matthew. What happened to the Nemesis?"
Matthew cleared his throat with deliberate composure. "Tony. Allow me to introduce one of our newer products: the Astartes."
"Compared to a standard Nemesis model, this one operates at a significantly higher level of intelligence. That increase in cognitive function allows it to execute complex orders the way an actual soldier would. To make sure it survives in the field, I worked with Osborn Industrial to have the armor built specifically around it."
He paused. "You can also call it a combat suit, if you prefer."
Tony looked the armor up and down, and JARVIS ran a rapid scan of the structure in parallel. When the scan returned results showing something resembling an arc reactor built into the armor's interior, Tony's eyes narrowed slightly.
He was about to ask where that reactor had come from. Matthew, reading the question before it arrived, provided an answer.
It was, as usual, half true.
"Tony, I assume you've already identified the armor's power source."
"Something that functions like a reactor." Tony nodded. "But compared to the real thing, it's crude. The energy output is unstable and considerably lower than mine. This is what Osborn Industrial came up with? A knockoff?"
He said knockoff. He was also, privately, more impressed than he let on. He hadn't expected anyone to produce a functional arc reactor replica in this amount of time.
"Knockoff is a strong word. Strictly speaking, it isn't one."
Matthew explained: "Osborn Industrial recently brought in a Russian scientist named Ivan Vanko. His father was involved in the early development of the arc reactor alongside your father Howard Stark, before being expelled from the country on espionage charges. Ivan inherited whatever technical knowledge his father had managed to keep, and with Osborn Industrial's backing, built this version."
Tony absorbed this and nodded.
That made sense. He'd been wondering how anyone could replicate the reactor concept at all. A second-generation descendant of someone who'd actually worked on the original project was a reasonable explanation. Nothing particularly surprising about it.
Still.
"It's crude work." Tony shook his head, not hiding the bone-deep confidence underneath. "This version doesn't even match what I was building right after I got back from Afghanistan, let alone what I have now. The new reactor puts out ten billion joules per second. That's three times what his knockoff manages."
Given that Ivan's father had been a legitimate contributor to the original project, and given that Ivan had built this version entirely from inherited knowledge, Tony wasn't inclined to make too much of it.
The knockoff was inferior in every dimension. That was simply the fact of the matter.
He turned his attention to the power armor itself.
Clearly Osborn Industrial's imitation of his own work. The same way their reactor was a copy of his reactor, this armor was a copy of his design. A knockoff standing on another knockoff.
Did a collection of imitations think it could stand against the real thing? He found that faintly amusing.
Tony looked at the armored figure in front of him and let a quiet contempt settle across his expression.
The Astartes.
Looking at it plainly: wasn't this just a refined Iron Monger?
"Matthew, you're actually sending this thing against me? Size isn't everything in a suit. The bigger they are, the less it usually means." The dismissiveness in his voice was completely unconcealed.
Matthew had to actively suppress a laugh.
Out of genuine goodwill, he managed to keep his expression in order and offered a warning instead. "Tony. I'd strongly advise against thinking of him as a larger Iron Monger variant."
"His performance metrics are well beyond Iron Monger's across the board. I'd take this seriously."
Tony laughed outright. "My Mark VI has multiplied its previous numbers several times over, and I'm supposed to watch out for this thing? Matthew, I think you're overselling it."
"No. You're underselling the Astartes."
Seeing that Matthew was apparently going to keep making the same point, Tony stopped arguing.
He rolled his shoulders and moved back to put enough distance between himself and the armored figure, then looked over at Matthew.
"Since you seem to think I'm underestimating it, let me find out exactly how badly I'm underestimating it."
He turned to face the Astartes with open anticipation.
Though what he was anticipating wasn't any surprise the Astartes might produce. What he was looking forward to was watching the Mark VI perform.
Matthew looked at Tony, who had produced zero caution and was standing there practically vibrating with excitement, and let out a resigned breath.
"In that case. Begin."
The word landed.
The Astartes, which had been standing still, came off the ground like something fired from a cannon. A hundred meters crossed in an eyeblink, and a raised fist was already in front of Tony's face.