Sizing up the Opposition
in High Orbit over the Comstar Compound, Hilton Head Island
South Carolina, Terra
August 15th, 3028
In the several weeks before the time comes to accompany the First Prince to Terra as his guest for the upcoming wedding ceremony between Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner, Tony Stark finalizes the designs for several projects that he’s been working on alongside Dr. Banzai; these include improved myomer muscle fibers, rangefinders, stabilization systems, improved targeting computers, improved heat sinks, an inertial dampener, an enhanced actuator control system and more durable armor.
As Stark has Hanse Davion’s complete confidence, he gets read into the plans for Operation: Rat. By his recommendation, the First Prince orders Stark’s creations into immediate production, and that certain specially-selected units are to be refitted at the earliest possible opportunity. Because of the shortage of time before the offensive against the Capellan Confederation kicks off, only the Davion Heavy Guards RCT, the First Prince’s bodyguard unit and his personal ‘mech will have their refits completed before it’s go-time.
Having arrived in the Sol system at the same time, Hanse Davion arranges for a meeting with Katrina and Melissa Steiner aboard his dropship after it detaches from the Jumpship. During this meeting, the First Prince introduces Stark to his bride to be and his future mother-in-law (along with explaining how he came to arrive on New Avalon. Already having developed an intense dislike of Comstar base do what he’s been told of the order’s activities since the First Succession War, Tony Stark pronounces “your highness, it’s plain to me that the Phone Company is going to do everything they can to interfere with Operation Rat. Once we make planetfall, how about you let me pay a visit to one of Comstar’s computers? I’ll put FRIDAY on the job and, within a half-hour, I’ll know all of the order’s dirty little secrets. I also didn’t like the way they tried to hack into my mainframe, so this would be an opportunity for a little payback. What do you say?”
Archon Katrina Steiner raises and eyebrow and says “Mr. Stark, how can you possibly get access to Comstar’s computer systems? They are very heavily-guarded, and you can be sure that ROM will be watching the wedding party like a hawk...”
“Archon, how about I give you a demonstration of my armor’s capabilities?” With this, Stark taps his chest pieces, and almost instantly, it seems like Stark’s suit is starting to cover itself with what seems to be flowing liquid metal. Within a few seconds, the metal stops flowing and Stark is covered head-to-toe in gleaming crimson and silver.”
Hanse Davion’s eyes widen with amazement as he says “Stark, how did you do that? I had assumed that your armor had to be put on and taken off piece-by-piece. Yet, here we see you conjuring up seemingly out of nothing...”
“Highness, if you were referring to one of my earlier suits, that’s just what would have happened. However, the suit I’m wearing is the Mark 85; it employs nanotechnology. Do you like it?”
“Where that material come from?”
“The nanoparticles are stored in my chest piece; the glowing circle you see in the middle of my chest is actually the front panel of my personal ARC reactor. The reactor originally powered an electromagnet that kept a cluster of shrapnel from crawling its’ way into my heart and killing me; now, the reactor serves as the power source for my armor. All I have to do to deploy the armor is to tap the chest pieces and FRIDAY does the rest.”
“Very impressive. That still doesn’t explain how you’re going to get to where you can access Comstar’s computers.”
A slight grin crosses Tony Stark’s face (as if he knows something that no one else does). The, he gestures to both arms as if he were a stage magician.
“Ladies and gentleman, there’s nothing up here (pointing to his right arm) and nothing up here (pointing to his left arm). Now, watch me pull a disappearing act.” Stark calls out, FRIDAY, activate the armor’s stealth systems.”
“Yes, boss.”
To the utter and complete amazement of the First Prince, the Archon and the Archon-designate, Tony Stark fades from view, as if he had never been there. Maintaining his silence, Stark walks around behind where Hanse Davion is standing and taps him on the shoulder. The armor’s faceplate opens up and Stark wisecracks “how’s that for pulling a rabbit out of my hat?”
“Stark, that’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen”
“I thought you might react that way. Not only do my stealth systems render me invisible to the naked eye, I also can’t be observed on radar (no matter how good the system is); as for thermographs, as long as I’m not using my jets, they won’t be able to see me either....”
The next question comes from Katrina Steiner, who asks “Mr. Stark, all the stealth in the world isn’t worth much if you can’t protect yourself from attacks...”
“Indeed, Madam. Let’s just say that my armor is invulnerable to small arms, and only the heaviest of ‘mech-grade weapons are a real threat to me; this assume that they can even hit me, a difficult proposition at best. You see, I can outfly the fastest and most agile aerospace fighters; shooting at me would be just as useless as using turbo-lasers to shoot at Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing during his run against the Death Star...”
