HARM by Peter Lok Page A

technicians.  Inside the cockpit, there were unpainted surfaces everywhere, empty electronics bays, and both the electronic camouflage and ejection systems weren’t even operatio nal.  More importantly, the onboard visual displays, key instruments, and r obot controls were fully functional .  Despite looking new on the inside, they had been busy field testing it for the last week.  The yellow, external paint job was now dirtied, scuffed, and scarred on the outside from the operational tests, and shooting exercises.  He was quite nimble at piloting the machine now, but had resigned himself to his robot’s yellow paint scheme as it was originally a test model that was never supposed to see combat.  Combat that was now necessary as an alien breakthrough in the last day had changed things dramatically.
    Inside the cockpit, a pair of joysticks with thumb controls were located in front of the pilot.  These were the manual backups to operate the machine, but this could just make it walk and work its arms in the simplest manner.  The real controls for the HARM were linked the cybernetic 3D display helmet and the motion capture suit that the pilot wore.  The tight-fitting suit was plugged into a skeletal support frame that provide d both physical support for the human operator and force-feedback to show how the machine was responding to commands.  Even though their cockpits were 9 metres off the ground, pilots felt like they were wearing the 30 ton machine in a manner similar to how battlesuit infantry felt when they were wearing their powered exoskeletons.  When you first piloted a HARM you had to adjust to the disorienting size perspective and the actual capabilities and limitations of the machine.
    Initialization error 22 - cerebral sy nchronization requires restart .   The error message flashed on Scott's helmet display.  “ It appears the interface pickups require adjustment , ” the AI responded, “ I will attempt to correct . ”
    Crap, Joshua thought to himself, not again.  He'd have to restart again through the neuro-syncing interlocks again.  The mecha systems themselves were ready as he had green lights right across the board, but the vitally important cybernetic control interfaces were being difficult again .   The cybernetic interfaces read his mind to enhance the motion capture control of the robot to a new level.
    "Don't worry," Janet Chan, the chief engineer, spoke through the visual com-link.  "We see it.  Fred's working on it right now too .  Once we get it going, you'll be fine.”  Janet was an older Chinese lady, a formidable woman with a keen intellect.  She actually scared Joshua a bit with her personality.  Some of the staff referred to her as the Dragon Lady.  If you didn't do your job right  you would hear about it.  “They're adjusting the primary protocols right now - the threshold values shifted on the last set of replacement neural sensors."
    "It better work or I'm a sitting duck in this tin can," Joshua replied with a hint of sarcasm.  There had been serious glitches with the mecha before, but they seemed to have been ironed out. "I'd be better off with a battlesuit and a rocket launcher.   Better yet, get me a fighter. " 
    "Why don't we let our security boys play with the gorilla suits," Janet replied with just a hint of a grin, "we need to get the big guns out there to back them up – and you didn’t do all that well last time you were in a plane if I recall. ”  Joshua was surprise to hear her joke – it was rare.  She then asked, “How are the power levels on your end?  The chemical fusion plant was fluctuating just a little last night but our telemetry shows a clean curve now."
    Joshua checked his visor HUD, thought power status and noted the displayed readings matched.  "Power's good.  We'll see how it goes at full output."  He did expected problems, but not serious problems as the HARM had proven itself already, but the machine still unnerved him a