Project Rhino: Military Smart-Armor

You opened up the binder, flipping through the pages, surprised at the contents for a military smart-armor prototype. This wasn't at all in your wheelhouse, or so you thought, other than the sci-fi games you and James would play on consoles at home. "I didn't realize Hideki was contracting with the military," you said, brow furrowed.

"Normally, we're not," Zoe replied, nodding to the other girls. Emily and Ela weren't on the project, they had other work to do, so that left Zoe and Chloe in the lab to discuss everything. "But, this is similar to a project that I'd pitched for a while, for an electronic exoskeletal structure that can connect with a human pilot. It's kind of near and dear to my entire existence, one might say." Zoe stood up, pacing a little. You could see the concern in her eyes, before she looked over at you directly. "This is a trade-off. Because for every smart-suit with a gun in its hands, we hope to make ten carrying a wrench instead. This could revolutionize all sorts of construction and emergency response programs. The order to win this military contract comes directly from the Hideki US director, as they think the company has fallen behind Yabusa Robotics in their own sort of cyborg-warrior program with their Seraph system."

You flipped through some pages, at all the different sections. The concept was particularly complex: The pilot would be encased within some sort of living tissue--presumably something like Zoe the bodysuit--which would itself be interfaced with the electronics of the armor. The 'brain' of that suit, however, is very much electronic in nature, distributed throughout the suit's systems. Chloe had already highlighted certain pages for you and you immediately saw your task on the project: you were meant to help design a non-invasive interface so the pilot could control a bio-digital entity. It sounded familiar to you, but backwards: you had AI controlling your living body to a degree, now Hideki wanted it to go the other way, with enough of a safety net so the armor doesn't over-compensate and harm the pilot or something.

Looking up, you glanced back at Zoe and Chloe. "You mentioned there's already a living exosuit, why not use that?"

"Tina's not suited for military purposes," Chloe replied, oozing out of her seat herself to find some other files on Tina, putting diagrams and photographs down in front of you. "She's got a sturdy chitinous layer that is pretty much like an insect, and indeed a wearer could exist in various extremes like space with her. But I'm not going to let a being like her anywhere a battlefield. The electronic nature of these suits is at least more agreeable to me, even though there's still a biological component as the interface for the pilot. And the armor is substantial, so the bio-tissue inside should be well protected from hazards as they arise. There's... more, we'll get to it later. You'll want to learn about Zoe's physiology in those cases."

You nodded, flipping through more pages, before you stopped at the hardware part of the neural interface. Engineer, James Hunter, your husband, was attached to that component. That part, at least, made you quite happy! Being able to design something alongside James, working with him, having you then share the same set of arms to bring the components all together... you shivered a bit, and smiled up at Zoe and Chloe.

"And, how often will we be working with James on this stuff?"

Chloe grinned. "I was wondering when you would ask about the team! Officially, only Kazumi Ishida will be on-site for official work when we are combining the interface from the biological and digital sides to tweak it, and she'll be here probably twice a week. Hideki higher-ups made it abundantly clear that he doesn't have proper clearance, and can't set foot in this lab. Unofficially? James can access this lab through you, or he could wear Zoe to get in physically. If it were up to me I'd say let him work here all the time with you, but he'll have to work out times to come in here that won't interfere with anything he has to physically be on the Tech campus for. But, I don't mind him visiting as long as work gets done. You know I'm plenty fond of him and you and I like seeing you two happy."

Zoe glanced at Chloe, curiously. You quickly inferred that this was not Chloe's normal mode of behavior. Did she have ulterior motives in bringing you in? Or were you and James simply something she truly did care about in some way different from the others on this floor? It was hard to say, but even Zoe thought something was odd about her colleague...

The rest of the day went by smoothly, as you moved your work belongings up to the fifth floor. Chloe gave you one of the smaller lab areas, but it suited you just fine, having all the equipment you would need to monitor bio-signs while programming electrical impulses from a digital stimulus. There was still so much to know about this project, still so much to read! But from the sounds of it as you continued to talk to Zoe and Chloe throughout the day, it was just in its infancy, so there was still a lot of time for you to input your design ideas on brain-machine interfaces, your particular specialty.

It was a long day of mostly back-and-forth from the first floor to the fifth, with the real work set to begin after all your research is complete, however long that might take. For the evening of day one, though, all you wanted to do was go home and find some creative ways to spend the evening together while unwinding.