HARM by Peter Lok

HARM
     
    The heavy cockpit hatch set in the giant robot's lower chest sealed with a hiss then a dull thud.  Internal cockpit panels and displays immediately lit up.  Second lieutenant Joshua Scott finished strapping himself in then followed with the final plug hookups for his suit.  He then put on his silvery cybernetic helmet that would use his mental impulses to help control the machine.  You could clearly see his face through the wrap-around visor of the helmet, but the inside of the helmet showed a three dimensional view from the perspective of the robot’s head to the pilot.  He completed the biometric security check, and punched the red Start button.  The machine began to hum to life as its electronics powered up.  
    " Welcome back, Lieutenant Scott , " greeted the synthesized voice of his robot's AI.
    “Glad to be back X-14.” He replied.  He had been piloting X-14 for weeks now, and various experimental models of these ne w humanoid robots for months .  It was something he was adapting to, something that he was good at, but he missed flying fighters.   “Start up progress?”
    " HARM start up in progress… Master power on… System initializing… Control systems ready… Mobility systems ready… Sensors and targeting ready… Weapons ready… Communications ready… Network linkage ready… Control synchronization initiated…   Loading mission data … "
    Cockpit visuals showed technicians on the hangar floor uncoupling external power and data feeds after finishing the final checks on his robot.  The hangar was also bustling with additional activity.  Large trucks were being loaded with equipment, tools, and supplies. Everything that was useful and moveable was being packed up for a move to a safer General Automata Corporation facility.
    His tactical display showed friendly positions and the advancing enemy units in real time. Tactical orders, requests for support, and status messages scrolled down the side.  Things were looking pretty bad, Joshua thought to himself, as the alien a dvance was only 15 km from this facility.  The aliens, also known as the Blue Newts from corpses recovered on the battlefield, had made a surprise breakthrough of the main defensive line.  They seemed to be on a direct path towards Huntsville Alabama , otherwise known as Space City USA.  Unfortunately the path of the alien advance would take them right through the research facility where Joshua was.  Worse yet, the fighting was nearing a refugee camp of 40,000 that was also in the area.
    Joshua continued to listen into the chatter on the army com-nets, some of it panicked.  He was nervous too, but focused on his work while finishing the pre-start sequence on his HARM X-14.    HARM was short for Humanoid Assault and Reconnaissance Machine.  His machine was a 13 metre tall bipedal robot that vaguely resembled a medieval knight with its thick torso, massive joints, blocky armour plates, and a squat helmet with a horizontal slit on top.  There was no sword though.  Instead, his right arm had a coil-gun attached to it, an electromagnetic cannon which was his main weapon, and his left arm had a smaller automatic cannon built into it.  While large, the HARM was nimble for its size, with a near full range of human motion, the ability to rocket jump 2 0 metres up, and was able to run at 80 kph.
    The brains at General Automata Corporation had hastily assembled the robot he was in over a three week period.  It was the culmination of  work that built on many earlier prototypes and hundreds of simulated computer models. Sometime during development, everyone had started calling the big robots “mechas,” following a Japanese naming convention.  Joshua wasn’t big into science fiction, especially Japanese science fiction, but he sure felt like he was living it.
    His mecha was the first production prototype off the robotic manufacturing line.  It was so new that the cockpit hadn't been finished by the