The fated day came, the kids were taken by their professors to the new museum, their dreams of getting close to a powerful exoskeleton would finally come true. But before that, they were taken to a big theater were a movie was projected on a huge screen.
"Good morning to all of you youngsters" a skinny, white man, with a sharp nose and well combed black hair, wearing a blue turtle neck sweater and blue trousers saluted the restless kids.
"I know you all are eager to see the exoskeletons exhibition, but before that we must remember why we had to create those machines, we have to remember how every day hundreds of exo pilots risk their lives and their healths to keep us safe from the invaders. The movie we will see know is the testimony of one of the officials that survived our first encounter against this alien enemy thirty six years ago along the coastal line of Hawaii in the pacific ocean, remember his words."
The man walked to one of the front row seat and sat down, Sammy and his close friends managed to get the middle theater seats. The room went dark and the screen came to live, a man in a uniform came into view, he was black, had a flat nose, crispy curly short hair, his hands trembled as he tried to calm himself with a smoke.
"Your name for the record" asked the interviewer, who could not be seen on the screen.
"Master Sargent Louis Foreman Smith, United States Air Force" the soldier answered.
"Where were you stationed?"
"Aircraft carrier USS Enterprise"
"How long were you serving aboard that ship?"
"Three years, until the day it went down" the soldier answered while lightning up another smoke.
"Could you explain with as much detail as possible the events occurred the fifth of August of twenty fifty seven?"
"Hell if I can, the problem is not remembering, the problem is forgetting. Nah! not really, I don't wanna forget, no one should"
The soldier inhaled deeply the smoke from the cigarette.
"One week earlier we got orders from command to participate in a surprise joint exercise with other nations, every big hitter was gonna be there, the Russians, the Chinese, most of Europe, India, even the Arabs, Iranians and sud Africans send some of their best mens and equipment over. Of course, that was just the official version, a story made up in order to not cause turmoil in the world population. The truth is that MARTA, the AI, warned the higher ups that something was about to go down in the coast of Hawaii. It was weird, but we are soldiers, we don't ask questions, we followed our orders, we got there and waited. On August the fifth at zero eight hundred hours, our ship and all the other crafts and personnel where on high alert as ordered, we were at the designated location and ready to go, but for hours nothing happened"
The soldier hit his smoke one more time as he went back in time to that day in his mind.
"By thirteen hundred hours we were bored out of our skulls, then, suddenly, our communications broke down, and the bullets started flying. We didn't manage to see the enemy attacking us, because it was friendly fire. All automated weapons systems started attacking our own ships, machine guns of our anti air defense systems went on line and opened fire upon our neighbors and sometimes our own ships, they attacked all our analogical systems first" The soldier laughed.
"That was nothing. When the fucking drones took flight and started suicide bombing their own carriers, thats when things started to move, pilots went on their planes to fight our drones, but after taking flight, their systems also failed, guided missiles fired on their own and came for us. Many systems malfunctioned and many aircrafts went down and then... then they came."
Silence was made for a few seconds on the screen.
"I managed to see one up close, it was two meters away. That thing landed on top of the deck right in front of me. Imagine a ten feet tall octopus made of metal, the head, the tentacles, everything was covered with dull gray metal plates, like if it was some kind of Lego construction. But in between the seams of the metal there were eyes, one of those things had at least a hundred eyes. They came out of nowhere, in all directions, from the land, from the skies, even from the depths of the ocean, all our heavy weapons were down or already destroyed by our own. We fought with our hand weapons; is what soldiers do, we fight; but our bullets bounced of that metal skin of them. I was about become minced meat when a javelin hit that thing. A direct hit; still, it did nothing. Damn alien was just pushed back like two or three meters away and that was it. It charged against the soldier who shoot at it, the tentacles coiled around his body and squeezed it, then they started rotating at high speed and made a pile of ground meat, bones, Kevlar and the rest of the uniform and let it drop on the deck like a dog shit pile"
The soldier looked at his feet's.
"I used the chance to jump overboard, more and more of those things were boarding the ship, I saw them reduce the crew to mincemeat, I saw them take the Enterprise apart plate by plate, bolt by bolt, I saw it sink, everything happened so fast. Meanwhile in the water more of those things hunted the survivors. The sea currents took me away and I let the sea drag me to wherever it wanted, I didn't care, it was okay as long as it took me away from the red waters stained by my comrades blood."
Seargent Louis eyes were full of tears.
"Thanks that will be all"
"No. Is not all, this is just the beginning" said the soldier getting up from his seat a bit agitated.
The screen went silent and the lights on the theater came back on.
The man with the turtle neck sweater that did the introduction rose to his feet's and addressed the young-lings once again.
"As you can see, contrary to what the religious fundamentalist and other traitors say, we didn't start this war, we were attacked by an unknown enemy, we were out numbered, out gunned, outmatched and were showed no mercy. But still; we prevailed, we survived, adapted and came on with our own solution to our weakness. Now, let me guide you towards the legendary first generation of Exoskeleton and exo pilots that gave humanity a chance to survive"
Lights on the floor guided the young students out. They got together with other museum visitors and followed the guides. The tour stopped in front of an old piece of military equipment.
"This is a javelin, it was once a powerful weapon used to pierce through the armors of tanks. It was useless against our enemy" the man signaled to the elongated rocket launcher.
"Here we have a wide collection of weaponry used during the first months of the war. We lost every battle. Tanks were too slow and not resistant enough against the enemy tentacles. Jet fighters were not fast enough in close quarters, they could not change directions or do sudden moves and got easily picked apart by the enemy. Drones and other automated machines had the ability to adjust fast enough to counter the invaders, but they all got hacked, it didn't matter what we did, even our outstanding artificial intelligences like MARTA were not able to stop the enemy from taking control of our systems. However, through bravery and a bit luck, we managed to get some small victories."
The guide kept walking until they reached another piece in the exposition. The monster they saw was taller than any man. It was made of metal organized in plates that varied in size from one to ten centimeters, between every union of the metal there was an eye with an rectangular pupil, one of the ten tentacles was peeled of its external metal skeleton, the flesh in the interior was a white slimy like substance. There was many other samples of the monsters, cut in different forms, one of them had the head cut down the middle, it was just like the rest of the body, a mass of white goo.
"We believe that this creatures are actually a huge nervous system, all of their cells are neuron like, even the cells that we suppose act like muscles and move the tentacles might also be able to transmit information like neurons do. We believe that every eye transmits the information to the rest of the body instantly, they can adapt to any situation on the moment. Unfortunately, we have never managed to catch one alive. They suicide as soon as they are catch, what you are seeing is actually a reconstruction made by the AI, this monsters decompose really fast as the result of a very complex accelerated enzymatic digestion"
"What does that mean?" one of the kids asked.
"It means they basically dissolve themselves to a gelatinous substance in seconds. We have tried to stop the process, but we have not been successful yet. All our attempts to inject some substance that allow us to gather viable tissue have failed."
"So we don't really know how they are on the inside, all we have is dead slime" a man in the guided group commented.
"Unfortunately, yes"
"Where do they come from?" asked a woman.
"We do not know. But we know many things, for example. The metal covering their body is an alloy of metals found in earth. We don't know how to produce it yet, it seems to be organically grown by the main body of the creature, like a clam or a snail would. The main body origin is still a mystery, some say it is a life form from outer space. Other scientist say it is possibly a natural evolution from the cephalopod species, they have many common characteristics that are familiar to this kind animals: tentacles, the bulbous head, their advance nervous system, the squared eyes, they are very smart and agile. The worst part is their fast reproduction speed, although we eliminate thousands in every battle, there seems to be more of them in every encounter"
"Come on! Take us to the Exos already, I wanna see the Stinger" one of the kids complained.
"Sorry to disappoint you, we don't have the Stinger in this exposition"
That made the kid moan in frustration.
"But we have others exoskeletons we can enjoy, follow me. The technicians that used to tend and repair this machines on the battlefields are working for our museum now, they make sure to keep them in their best conditions. Although they are not battle capable anymore, the weapons you see are exact replicas or are the originals that have been rendered inoperative"
As soon as they made it to the new exposition wing; Samuel ran away from the group and stopped in front of the Cristal of one of the huge mechanical exoskeletons.
"Grandpa!" yelled Samuel. "Look guys, is grandpa's Exo"
"Yeah! We know!" Cole complained.
The bronze plate in the front Cristal read "The executioner" on the left arm of the humanoid machine there was a drawing of a fat man in a hood holding an Axe. Engraved into the Cristal there was a picture of the pilot, and a description. Captain Magnus T. Carlsen, AA88J unit. Samuel grand father looked young and handsome back in his pilot days.
"So, you must be Sammy." An old man came close to the group.
Samuel nodded smiling.
"Hi kid, I'm Giorgio, but everyone calls me Gio for shorts. I was in the force with you Grandfather back in the day." The old man looked at the exoskeleton with some nostalgia.
"Nice timing Gio" The guide chimed in. "Giorgio is one of the technicians who worked alongside the pilots of the first generation. He and some of his colleagues work here as caretakers of this machines. Can you please share your experience with our visitors, Gio?"
"Sure, why not? Come here kids, lets start from the beginning"
Under Gio guidance the group moved away from the Executioner, they stopped near a crystal box of about ten centimeters in diameter. In its interior there was a lone squared chip of three centimeters, small strings like white hairs came out of the dull grey electronic component.
"This is the piece of technology that made possible the exoskeleton armor system. It doesn't look like much, but this little thing is a micro quantum supercomputer, it might not be at the level of the supercomputer that run The Hydra AI systems, but is powerful enough to work at the human brain speed." Gio went on to explain history.
"The main problem with all of our weapons is they are too slow, a tank or an airplane, are way too slow to turn around and react. Humans and drones, do it a lot faster in the right conditions, the problem is human body is weak and drones get hacked or shut down easily by the enemy. If you put a human in a heavy armor, he is not strong enough to move it, if you create a system of artificial muscle to move it, it becomes too slow. This is were this microchips system comes in. Every pilot went through a surgery and had many of this installed in their body. Those small white filaments link to human nervous system, then the order to contract independent artificial muscle fibers are sent at high speed. Do you guys understand what that means?"
"Not really" one of the men in the tour group answered.
"It is not just an Exoskeleton, the pilot and the machine are kind of fused. The machine time response depends on the pilot skills. Each time you move your body, your brain automatically makes thousands of calculations for every precise move. With this chips, we connect bot pilot and machine, every calculation the human brain does, is send to the exoskeleton in real time and the machine responds to it as if it was a human body. There is no AI or important computer in the armor; the computer is very local, basic and its main function is to control the vital support system, the human nervous system is the main computer." Gio turned to look at the Executioner.
"However, there is a side effect. The circuitry used as interface to link the humans and the machine has a defect, the energy current needed for our artificial system to work is too strong, it burns the human nervous system. The new models are a lot better than the first generation, and now days we also do aptitude test to select the candidates with the most energy resistant nervous system or the greatest compatibility with the implants. Back in the day we used to take out pilots from their cockpits whose brains and nerves were literally fried by the machines."
The museum guide coughed while looking at Giorgio. The old man turned around and signaled the group to follow him. Gio guided them towards a giant metal box.
"This is the cockpit, in here, the pilot nervous system fuses with the machine, this metal coffin protects the pilot from enemy attacks and the ridiculous amount of gravitational force that the sudden switches of directions at high speed cause. The amount of G force this thing can withstand is ridiculous"
Gio moved to another crystal cube. Inside was a half meter cartridge with several crystal tubes full of liquids of different colors and consistency.
"Getting current through your nervous system and damaging your nerves is really painful. Not many can withstand that amount of torture. So, the first exoskeleton systems were designed to keep the pilot conscious and fighting. There is enough stimulants, pain killers and other drugs on those cartridge to kill an elephant many times over, many pilots became addicts to this thing, but we didn't have another choice. The basic computer in the Exoskeleton used those substances to keep the pilot going even if he was an inch away from death. Those were brutal and desperate days, but relax, they don't use this poisons anymore."
The guide face made it clear that he was not happy with Giorgio crude and truthful descriptions. They moved to another part of the exposition.
"This is an arm of a exoskeleton, the external armor has been stripped. You can see the independent artificial muscle fibers and their insertion."
The exoskeleton part resembled a human arm, the mechanical and metallic articulation system could barely be seen under the black artificial muscle fibers and insertions. The group moved to another object.
"This is the power core, a Thorium based mini nuclear reactor. Its called a cold nuclear reactor and is the main source of power of most of the machines. It is well protected inside the torso. Although they were mostly safe, in some of the first Exoskeleton designs there was a little bit of radiation leak, but it wasn't that bad."
The nuclear reactor looked like a plain round metal ball of about one meter with a lot of wires coming out of it.
"This machines were the peak of humanity ingenuity back in the day, MARTA managed to bring together a team of experts of different fields and help them do the calculations to combine their works into this beasts"
The group went back to the place were the exoskeletons were being exposed.
"Back in the day our ballistic weaponry didn't do much to stop the enemy, So the first generation of Exoskeleton was mainly a melee combat unit. Ranged weapons were mostly secondary or support. The first weapons and armors we used were mostly the re purposed external armor we salvaged from the corpses of our enemies, although supply was short back in the day we managed to get more and more of it with every victory. Since then we have come up with even better alloys and materials."
Another old man in the distance waved at Giorgio.
"Well I have to leave now, got work to do, enjoy the show" Gio said goodbye to the group and winked at Samuel who smiled.
The museum guide took stepped in.
"Now you can all engage with you preferred domestic AI and listen to details of you favorite Exoskeleton and Exo pilot, enjoy your stay and don't doubt to ask the museum personnel any doubt that you might have" the guide gave the visitors free range.
Everyone moved to their preferred machine and admired this marvels of engineering. Samuel and a few of his school friends went back to the Executioner.
"Wow! Look at that Axe, that thing is huge."
"I know right? Can you imagine piloting one of those. Must be awesome"
The kids turned on their headphones and listened to the AI.
[First generation exoskeleton, Model 1.002. Code name: The executioner. Fabricated in a joint effort by: Germany, USA, China, South Korea. Assembled in Detroit, USA. Active duty November tenth, twenty sixty. Decommissioned march the tenth, twenty sixty four. Pilot: Captain Magnus T. Carlsen, AA88J unit. Thirty one deployments, seven thousand five hundred and twenty two enemies kills confirmed. Two mayor upgrades.
Specs:
Height, twenty feet. Weight, twenty four tons.
Power core: Thorium based cold salts nuclear reactor, model Shen Shi 3.0.
Autonomy: two days at full capacity.
Internal structure: Titanium based frame.
Locomotion: Electromagnetic Graphene/Talanio alloy, retraction multilayer artificial muscle fiver. Land Top Speed: 115 km/h.
Flight capability: Powered by engine Pegasus 17 MK 205, this machine had a Max speed of 2250km/h (mach 1.8). G force tolerance 15G.
Reaction time: 91.5 ms.
External armor: Titanium, repurposed Tenctopus plates.
Weapons: Main, Heavy Axe. Secondary, bowie war knife. Auxiliary, shoulder mounted long range Auto cannon, 113mm hollow point depleted uranium rounds]
While listening to the more technical description of the machine in front of him, like all the kids his age, Samuel dreamed of the day when he would pilot a similar machine and defend the world from the invading enemy.