2023-03-28: Talking Shop

• Cast: Christina MacKenzie, Koji Kabuto
• Where: Fujinomiya City - Old Photon Power Laboratory
• Date: U.C. 0097 03 28
• Summary: While fixing up Sayla's Photon-Powered Hi-Nu Gundam, Koji and Chris talk shop about Photon Power and the future.

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<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

The Old Photon Power Lab is the icon of Japan's defense against Doctor Hell in the mid-late 0080s, but now it's... well. Old. Slumbering unused, an industrial fence warning pedestrians off for a demolition scheduled... sometime in the future, the once-pristine white facade is stained with dirt and scorches from the various battles it's withstood.

However. The interior remains well-serviced, part of its facilities devoted to housing Banagher and Mineva Zabi... And underground it's livelier than it's been in ten years, as the engineers and scientists who owe their friendship and loyalty to Koji and Sayaka are hard at work keeping Mazins old and new up to spec with the demands of the final decade of the Universal Century and the need for these titans of Super Alloy Z to stand in defense of the downtrodden once again.

One project in particular is getting special attention from the Research Institute's Head of Experimental Development: A Gundam. Patterned off the RX-93 flown by Amuro Ray against Char's Rebellion, the Photon Powered Hi-Nu Gundam is still being painstakingly rebuilt and re-armoured after its defeat at Kowloon Walled City Park.

Koji Kabuto is currently overseeing the Gundam's reactor. A number of panels have been stripped from its core, the electromagnetic suspension array within currently empty as he re-lays stripped-out wiring.

"Hey, Chris," he says without looking up, "Do you still need the solder over there? Gonna need to seal these in soon."

<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.

        Chris had heard much of the coveted wonders of Photonic energy, though she'd spent the early 80s in space, so her impressions had initially been that of the newsfeeds. When she'd arrived, it hadn't really looked anything like the reels from her memories, and if Koji hadn't already directed her inside, she might have thought she was at the wrong place. That misapprehension had been immediately dispelled with her first three steps past the derelict concrete shell. The floors below didn't stop impressing her, either.

                "XAIRO." She held up her hand, and the large scale Haro ferried the soldering tool over the edge of the gantry, repulsor humming as it descended. "On its way. Seriously, Koji, if you hadn't sent me the rebuild blueprints, I'd think your power couplings on these funnels to be some form of magic, or maybe madness."

        ("Even missing, you're still pushing me out of my comfort zone..."), Chris chuckled to herself. Despite their mutual friends and common interests, this was the first time they'd really had the chance to spend much time on the same project. The remarkable thing is how quickly they found their workflow. Though maybe that isn't as surprising, to anyone knowing both of them... "I know psycoframe is a really tricky tech to work with... how do you quantify its reactivity in a Photonic system like this?" Chris leaned over the gantry to check the other side of the funnel for additional circuitry damage, still marveling as she checked the diagnostics against the blueprints on her hand terminal.

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Well," Koji begins as he takes the soldering tool from XAIRO, offering the flying Haro a high-five as he does so, "the problem most funnel arrays have is power draw. The ones used by Neo Zeon during Char's uprising were basically one-shot wonders unless you built a secondary plant just to recharge them into their deployment rack. Part of the advantage of using a Photon Reactor is we have as much power as we need, in theory."

"Psycoframe itself... Well. It's still a barely-understood science. The Federation banned any research into it after Axis, so any experts would be... survivors from Char's Zeon, I guess. Good luck meeting any of those on Earth. Fortunately, the cockpit block has a huge number of additional instruments to monitor and record the state of the material and the psyche of the pilot as well as the reactor output." He lowers his goggles and sets about to sealing the wiring of the reactor in.

<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.

        "Even with unlimited power, it's amazing that you aren't getting heat buildup in the circuit crosstalks. Tristan's INCOMs are tricky enough to find parts for, and they're wired in. If I don't get the voltage conversion just right, the whole thing tries to catch fire. These circuit patterns at the charging dock to minimize transfer heat... I'll have to pick your brain over tea, later."

        Chris stepped onto the gantry lift, and stood still for a second, before remembering that this isn't one MAIRO is ghosted into. She tapped the lift controls and came down to Koji's level, though giving him a respectful clearance until the cables are in place. "Anaheim was too fractionated then for a consultant to access the psycoframe data..." Even dealing with the humanitarian disasters in 92, she'd heard about the development of a mysterious breakthrough in psycommu machines. "Wait, it monitors the state of the pilot? Is it that hazardous a system to use?"

        Chris had literally zero standing to be concerned about anyone else, but she can't help it. Two people in this machine, two of the most sensitive and reckless souls she's known. "I wish I understood it more, but if that's the case, I've got no time to sit around. MAIRO, can you wire into the crane and bring me the next funnel? I'm coming back up."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

"Waste heat management is one of the marvels of grandpa's inventions when dealing with Japanium and Photon Power. In addition to the feedback channels that go back into the reactor's capacitor to keep it running, check the inner lining of the fins. They use similar materials to the extrusive heat sinks on Mazinger Z's chest. Sayla specified that in addition to the beam emitters so that they could do similar heat-based attacks. Miniaturizing it to fit on the fins was the tricky part, to be honest."

"As for monitoring the pilot's condition, well, we are dealing with a material that responds to and amplifies a Newtype's will, and this is a prototype, so we need as much data as we can get our hands on to keep the Gundam in tip-top shape. We're long past the days of the Hell War when we had to rush our ideas out the gate barely finished just to keep up with the Kikaiju. Now that we know what we're doing, we should spend more effort on nailing down the areas we know much less about."

Koji of course is no stranger to recklessness, which is exactly why he's putting so much stock in keeping the pilot of this machine safe and their condition under full observation during operation.

"... Okay, the wiring looks good here. Close the panels up and let's do a test fire! Goggles down, people!" Koji manipulates a crane to place a sphere of Japanium inside the reactor's electromagnetic suspension apparatus and personally seals the last panel onto the octagonal chamber, before dropping into a chair and wheeling over to a computer console with a big lever next to it, tapping in some operational parameters. "Five, four, three, two, one, ignition!" He throws the lever.

The reactor begins to hum intensely, glowing from within.

<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.

                "Heat attacks, is that what those ventforms are?" Chris recalls the combat recordings. "That's...remarkable." She falls silent for a moment, reconciling the washed out gouts of flame on the grainy Kowloon traffic cams, the bright and blazing streams from the Nu's own partially damaged blackbox that she insisted on seeing, and the fantastic technology gracefully integrated in front of her face. "That explains the elegance of the circuits...Permitting energy backflow without causing a short or diverting upstream power..."

        Chris thinks back to her late night discussion with Leina... ("Psycoframe, and a Newtype's will... Is moving the machine like instinct?") she murmurs under her breath, still feeling immensely out of her depth, but she felt a little thrill pass through her from the opportunity to iterate on prototypes again. "I understand... Back in '79, I don't think anyone really knew what a Gundam would come to represent. It was all we could do to put prototype after prototype together. Then, before we knew it, machines like this... Sometimes I worry we're moving faster in destruction than we have in reconstruction."

                "Roger that, goggles down! XAIRO, MAIRO, sensitivity low!" Chris pulls her own pair over her eyes, repositioning to watch the engineered magic of Photon Power transform from potential into miracle. She can't help but stare (carefully and with sufficient protection) in wonder... "Incredible..."

<Pose Tracker> Koji Kabuto has posed.

Koji monitors the readouts for thirty seconds, then nods and shunts the power off. As the reactor dims back down, he motions for the Japanium core to be double-checked - he knows it will be unchanged once cooled, but you always double-check - and saves the readouts for later review. "Yeah, the only real limit to Photon Power is our ability to harness the output with the materials we have at our disposal. A reactor is - okay it's a lot more complicated than a bunch of solar panels built around a stimulated Japanium core, but that's the basic concept of the system - and solar panels need maintenance, wiring needs replacing... Y'know. The ordinary stuff. We've made a few advances in engineering, but our theoretical projections require advances in manufacturing and miniaturization before we can commit to them."

Sighing, he manages a smile, waving for the team to load the reactor back into the Hi-Nu Gundam, and sits back in his chair. "Okay. Reactor's fixed up. Break time." He digs a bottle of water out of the cooler next to the computer console, waving one of Chris's Haro's over to take a bottle up to her too. "You holding up okay up there?"

<Pose Tracker> Christina MacKenzie has posed.

                "I'm certain you'll find inspiration in unlikely places. Like you said, you had to improvise and iterate to get to where you are. I was disappointed to miss your panel timing at HaroCon, so it's a real treat to see you and your team do work, Doctor Kabuto." Chris leans over the railing, smiling down at Koji.

        The pulse of XAIRO's repulsors rise in pitch as the Haro floats back up to the gantry with the bottle. The earthbound MAIRO still hops over to Koji, watching him. Observing. Warbling. "Haha, having been in such a rowdy environment, they've really come out of their shell when it comes to new people. Me? I'm alright, it's been a while since my last collaboration. It's just...amazing, the PPL. Not what you can build in terms of weapons. But...that you think far beyond that. It's no wonder Sayla always spoke so highly of you." Her eyes flicked upwards, past the ceiling, for a brief moment. "Not to mention, your new tenants."

                "I really appreciate you inviting me to get my hands dirty. It helps, with all this going on. And as an engineer, I know what it's like to keep an eye on your own creation's shortcomings..." She took another big swig from her bottle, and smiled. "But you're diligent to a fault, Koji. I'll be counting on your guidance. Tell me what needs done, and we'll get it done."