Winning Peace - Chapter 24

“Okay, so it's been three months since Gundam: Reality was released by the Ministry of Entertainment and Culture. As the title indicates, it's the latest in the nearly two-century spanning list of titles in the titular giant robot franchise originally started in 1979. Now, while the franchise had ventures into AR and simulated VR before, this is its first proper 'full-dive' VR treatment and has faced wide-spread acclaim in most regards. Now, we would be remiss if we did not also mention this is the first post-Short War major Gundam project. Although the original media has long-since passed out of copyright protection, the media's owners have nonetheless made their best attempts at policing the 'canon' of the various universes. As with many licensed mecha-fighting over the years, this title features mechs from many different Gundam timelines and thus, would likely be considered non-canonical on that basis alone.”

The reporter, a woman wearing an avatar skin derivative of Rain Mikamura, from G Gundam, leaned back as she set the stage for her interview. Across from her was a man whose avatar was in a similarly altered skin of McGillis Fareed of Iron Blooded Orphans. Both were seated at a table laden with decorative models and a tumbler of alcohol to one side. Beyond them, the faint conversation of a large gathering could be heard, indications that this was a public venue which had been set aside for their conversation.

“With me today is one of the current highest-ranking players from the last global tournament. The number five, if I recall correctly?” The reporter asked, turning to him from the camera.

The blonde avatar nodded. “That's right. The handle I use in FFFreedom. That's a bit hard to verbalize, so feel free to call me Triple F or TF like most people do. And I know you introduced yourself in the video chat, but...”

“Of course! For the record, I'm Juniper Slytherin. For those just joining us; yes, that's my real name. My great grand-parents were new-age wizarding weirdos and no one since then has wanted to jump through the hoops to change back. Go ahead and make the jokes, I've heard them all.” Giving a dry chuckle, she turned back to the bemused-looking man in a white uniform and clapped her hands eagerly. “Okay, so let's dive right into it, then! The topic that so much of the neo-net has been abuzz with: Are giant robots viable weapons?”

TF chuckled and leaned back as he picked up his drink and took a large draw from it. “Ahh... well, if you want the completely honest answer... it depends.”

Juniper pouted. “You're making it awfully hard to get a spicy headline or caption and we're just out of the gate, TF. C'mon, gimme something juicy!”

The blonde sighed and shook his head and set his glass down to gesticulate with his hands. “Sorry, but what you're asking about is actually really technical. The fact of the matter is that circumstances matter when talking about weapons of war. Audiences tend to look at fictional material as something simple to make unilateral judgments on, when it's usually anything but. I mean, imagine if someone asked you whether or not a sword or a set of bow and arrows was a practical set of weapons?”

Juniper pursed her lips in thought. “Well, if they did it out of the blue, I'd probably say 'no.' Or, at least, I would have fifteen years ago. These days...”

TF wagged a finger at her. “That's my point. Context matters with weapons. Prior to the Short War, even third-world nations had well-stocked armories full of drones with heat sensors and laser-guided weapon pairing for smart munitions. These days, those stockpiles have run dry and whatever's left is almost too valuable to use without spare parts or technical knowledge to repair what isn't already broken. People are grabbing guns that were outdated by my grandfather's time to use down on Earth. When those fail, a machete or knife is better than nothing at all.”

“I... suppose I never thought about it like that,” Juniper admitted.

“There are a lot more considerations that go into whether or not a weapon is actually viable on the battlefield, too. What environment are you fighting in, who are you fighting, what weapons are they using, why are you fighting and what do you hope to achieve, what are your victory conditions... This is the reason a lot of the War on Terror essentially failed even with a string of tactical victories. Hell, the same is true for conflicts like the Vietnam War. Methodology matters just as much in warfare as the weapons you're using, if not more in some situations.”

Juniper nodded slowly, now visibly more invested in the topic. “Okay, so it's less a question of whether or not giant robots, mecha, are viable weapons of war and more a question of under what conditions would they be viable?”

TF grinned as he pointed at her. “Now you're getting it. The big question is whether or not there are any conditions under which mecha could be... if not the best choice in warfare, then at a choice that doesn't actively inhibit your operational goals.”

“So, don't keep us waiting. What circumstances are we looking for?”

TF sighed and adjusted himself in his seat, his eyes fixing on the distant middle-ground past Juniper thoughtfully. “There are a few things that mecha have going for them, admittedly. The first and most obvious is that they have a humanoid body plan. That is, a bipedal frame with two legs, two arms, a central torso, one head, and prehensile grasping hands on the end of each arm. With the new advances in man-machine interfaces, that's an especially significant point in their favor.”

“I see where you're going with this,” Juniper nodded. “If the machine they're piloting is already human-shaped, the individual pilots will already be familiar with how they move and function, therefore requiring less training.”

TF nodded and took a drink. “Now, I have to qualify what I say next with the idea that my assertion rests on what size mecha we're talking about. Most types of what we consider 'power armor,' that is mechanically-assisted exo-suits, are automatically a good idea under about four to six meters. That's where viability starts being questionable due to the simple fact that a bipedal figure, even a heavily-armored one, produces a uniquely-targetable silhouette. Under six meters, or about twenty-feet for my fellow UNAS expats, there's still a lot of viable cover in most terrain types and it's not too hard to get camouflage netting or other kinds of scan-disturbing material over them.”

Juniper's eyebrows rose. “So you're an UNAS expatriate? Can I ask-”

FFFreedom cut her off by waving a hand. “Honestly? I'd rather keep things to the topic of the interview. I understand asking questions is part of your job, but let's just say that there are good reasons I'm living Luna-side these days.'

“Of course, of course. I'm sorry for prying,” Juniper grinned awkwardly.

TF waved her off again with his glass. “Anyway, getting back on topic... The real issue of gundams, giant robots in general, is the giant part of the equation. On a normal terrestrial environment, there's just not much cover that a giant robot can hide behind that will meaningfully shield it. Gundams alone are about the same height as a six-story building, to give you some idea of the problem we're facing. Even with sufficiently-tall cover, though, most pre-Short War engagements were performed with stealth vessels controlling large swarms of comparatively cheap and mass-producible drones.”

Juniper nodded, trying to show she was following. “So even if a gundam, or other mecha, were to take cover behind a large building, it's very likely that the enemy could still target them from other angles fairly easily with expendable drones.”

TF wagged a finger at her. “Drones can also provide telemetry data for a larger munition. And speaking from a position of... well, an undisclosed amount of experience, a six-story building provides a lot less protection than you'd think it would against modern ordinance. Anything that would be rated to take down a gundam would tear through a civilian building like it was paper mache.”

Here the blonde man's avatar paused thoughtfully, his mouth half open for a long moment before he began speaking again. “Pre-war construction, at least. I actually filed a freedom of information request with the Stellar Council, or whatever they call it. The actual name slips my mind right now, but apparently everything built after the SC's formation uses beyond military-grade materials and could probably take a hit that would level anything except hardened bunkers back on Earth.”

Juniper grinned. “That was before I got into reporting, but after the Chinese nukes almost impacted during the Short War, there were plans drawn up to make sure that, if someone was successful, the resulting moon-quakes wouldn't destroy virtually everything.”

TF blinked, cocking his head and nodded slowly. “Yeah, yeah... I remember something about a study-” He shook his head, banishing the thought. “Anyway, just for the sake of argument, I'll say that anyone who needs to take out a giant mecha can reasonably expect to be able to shoot around reinforced buildings with smart or loitering munitions if they can't or don't want to shoot through something.”

“I think that's a fair assertion,” Juniper granted.

“Mecha also run into a lot of problems with moving parts, joints and things,” FFFreedom added, “which is only magnified by their size. So to make them viable you have to make sure all of those weak spots can take a high intensity explosive or a suitably-powerful penetrating high-caliber round.”

“I'm beginning to see the problems,” the reporter admitted with a grimace.

“Now, in the interests of full honesty, there are a great many problems that have been alleviated in the past decade and a half. Specifically in the realm of logistics.” FFFreedom paused to take another sip of his drink and swirl it around his mouth before swallowing. “The bigger the war machine, the bigger the parts and the more parts you need. Especially when we're talking about extraplanetary deployment, logistics limitations like that can be seriously limiting, and that's before you'd get into any interchangeability issues between different models. Not all tanks use the same gearbox, after all.”

Juniper took a deep breath. “I'm beginning to feel a little out of my depth.”

TF chuckled, grinning knowingly. “Thankfully, with your fancy nano-fabbers, we don't have to talk about any of that. That's a huge game changer. Any broken part gets pulled, thrown in the machine, it spits out a new one. Hell, I've even seen some speculation on installing one inside a mecha to solve some problems on the go with internal robotic assembly units. I don't think that's actually viable yet, or will be soon, but it bears mentioning as a possibility. Breakthroughs do happen.”

“All of this seems rather insurmountable,” Juniper admitted with a grimace, then snorted. “You're probably going to irritate a lot of robot nerds.”

“Well, buckle up. Because I'm about to turn right around and tell you we're probably going to see some kind of mecha in military service within five years,” TF grinned, drained the last of his drink and slammed the glass down dramatically.

“Hah! Now there's the kind of thing I like to hear!” Juniper cheered and clapped her hands as her source poured out another glass. “So, hit me!”

“Okay, so long-time aficionados of this argument will probably ping me if I don't at least mention power and expense as drawbacks before I get into why we'll be using them anyway. So, both are essentially non-factors at this point. Modern compact fusion reactors can be rendered safe enough to put in most military equipment. The UNAS had an experimental aircraft carrier in the works with one of those before everything went down and that's before Dr. Lopez refined them further. With modern q-computers running simulations and nano-fabbers to the rescue again, expenses are basically down to man-hours, insurance, utilities, and that type of thing.”

“Okay, I'm feeling cautiously optimistic,” Juniper admitted eagerly.

“I'm also going to get something else out of the way before we go on,” TF cautioned. “The Stellar Council is already rolling out testbeds of exo-suits for construction on the new colony compounds. These are basically powered armors without the weapons. You can look this up and I'll send Ms. Slytherin a few links to check them out and maybe paste in some footage here-”

TF pointed up in one direction, then blinked and pointed to another.

“-or maybe here?”

Juniper giggled and shook her head. “I'll make sure it gets in during editing, don't worry.”

TF chuckled. “Sorry, always wanted to do that. But, yeah, small mechs are on their way in for construction purposes. I think, now that we've got things under control politically, there's talk of using some for prospecting out in the Belt and a few other exploratory missions.”

Juniper cleared her throat, interjecting into the conversation. “A reminder to everyone in the comments' section that nano-fabbers are not perfect matter converters. Sure, if you feed enough rock through them you'll eventually get enough gold or platinum to tile your bathroom with, but it's still necessary to source large deposits of raw materials to bring more into circulation.”

TF, meanwhile, leaned back and chuckled. “Incipient flame wars over barely-relevant minutia. I suppose there's some comfort to be found in the fact that humanity and the internet never seem to change.”

Juniper sighed and slumped. “My official postings are all on the neo-net legit sites that are being licensed by the Ministries. So anyone who posts on them will have their comments tied to their citizen ID number, but if you find my videos on the old net or the new wild sites, you get all the unregulated free speech you ask for.”

“True that,” TF nodded, sighing. After a moment of quiet commiseration, he stretched and flexed. “Alright, so getting back to the heart of the matter. When we're talking about giant robots, I have a hard time imagining them ever being really viable on planets. Even with the advantages of human-like movement, machines of that size are too obvious a target moving at too slow a speed unless they have flight capability. Stick one in a gravity well and you're asking for a long-range munition or an orbital vessel to wipe it off the map.”

“What about force fields?” Juniper asked, her expression a mix of impish and innocent curiosity.

FFFreedom pulled an ugly face. “Listen, I can't endlessly debate 'what-ifs' for developing technology.” He sighed then, and took a large pull from his glass. “I've seen some electromagnetic chaff, reactive-defense lasers, and other stuff that just wouldn't do any good if you drop a really heavy thing from orbit on a machine like that. If and when we figure out force fields or energy shields, I'll reassess my judgments here.”

“More than fair,” the reporter granted.

“But here's the thing,” TF explained. “Space combat? That changes things. I've seen and taken part in some simulations that put gauss-fired and railgun round engagement ranges at about ten-thousand kilometers. Even dropping something as large as a six-story mech into a battlefield that large? Outside of the heat signature, you're not going to be easily tracking that thing, and lightspeed lag is still problematic even there.”

“So gundams are viable in space combat,” Juniper smiled widely.

“Provisionally,” FFFreedom stipulated, dimming her enthusiasm slightly. “I see giant robots working on the same mechanics and logic as fighters. For them to be viable, you have to be able to equip them with a weapon that can damage something much larger, much more important, and/or much more valuable. If you do that at a decent range, I think you can have gundam-type mechs in void combat.”

“I've seen some objections filed by a few people in terms of tensile strength of joints and the g-forces a human-type frame would be subject to,” Juniper stated, flipping the script. “Just to play devil's advocate, of course. I think giant robots are awesome just as much as the next person.”

TF chuckled and extended a hand, the reporter obligingly bumping fists with him. “I consider that a solved issue, truthfully. It was a concern and an argument for a more geometric and stable shape like fighters generally have, but with the material sciences now available... Well, going back to what I said about new Armstrong constructions being able to take a lot of punishment. These are different kinds of stresses we're talking about, but I think my point still stands.”

“We'll chalk that up to theoretically-viable, then,” Juniper nodded in agreement, then leaned forward. “What about optimal?”

TF gave a long grunt, reaching forward and waggling a hand. “Not really. But, to be perfectly fair, 'optimal' is a bit of a high bar for human beings in general. Warfare itself is pretty suboptimal to begin with. But meeting the question face-to-face, I'm going to refer back to another earlier point I made about pre-war militaries using a lot of drones in their engagement doctrines. Despite that, though, we still put pilots in the air and seamen in and under the water.”

Juniper nodded slowly. “I think I see where you're going with this.”

The blonde man nodded as well. “I don't see Gundams going in alone to combat zones, but as a larger ORBAT? I see some serious viability. Especially as a heavy-weapons platform that doubles as a dedicated drone controller. Something like the Wingman Program that was adapted from the old US pre-UNAS. Or, if you want to stay in-media, the Witch from Mercury series did something like that before it eventually got refined in Battle Beyond Mars a few decades later.”

“You know, I went into this pretty pessimistic about everything, but I have to admit you're getting me pretty fired up now.,” Juniper grinned.

“There's a lot more that I could say on the subject, but it boils down to the idea that mobile suits, Gundam, mecha... whatever you want to call them, they could very well have a place in a space-faring military. Deploying them from ships with a complement of drones to control would put another layer of protection and distance between a mothership or carrier and the battle itself. Considering this would mean putting only one pilot at risk per suit instead of an entire crew, there's a cogent argument to be made here.”

“As long as both the drones and the mechs can carry weapons sufficient to damage an enemy's larger vessels,” Juniper added proudly.

TF drained his glass again with a smile. “Good to know you've been listening, but yeah. Depending on how technology develops, I could maybe see mecha in a few other niche roles as well, but I think that's enough for your video without getting into the weeds of fighter doctrine and screening ships.”

“Probably for the best. Maybe I'll have you on again and we can talk those out too?” Juniper asked with a flirtatious wink. “Any note you'd like to leave our audience on?”

FFFreedom sighed, pursing his lips thoughtfully before nodding and beginning to speak.

“The thing to remember is... giant robots are not an optimal path to develop technologically. But, humans are seldom optimal beings. More to the point, technology isn't solely, or even mostly about warfare or practicality or whatever you want to point to in debunking the usefulness of any given branch of development. In a way, mecha are more about filling a deep and abiding need in the human psyche to outsize problems and situations that so commonly outsize us. Being big enough, in other words, to shape our destiny with our own hands.”

“And on that note of surprisingly deep philosophy, I think we're done!” Juniper cheered.

With each of them waving goodbye, the screen went black briefly before playing an outro tune and displaying other recommended videos.

...

I hung loose in the digital void of cyberspace, finding myself pleasantly surprised.

'Huh, looks like I don't always need to do all the work myself… though I did basically make the game to hype up giant robots. Still, I'll have to try to remember to do something nice for them.'

Turning towards the swirling galaxy of programming and computational power, I looked over the program that had finished compiling and nodded.

'Alright Azathoth, we'll be moving to the next stage now that the solar lifters are in production.'

A pulse of affirmative data was my only reply as I sent acknowledgments to Thonis-Heracleion and her cohorts. It really was nice finally seeing things get off the ground in a real and material way.


~~~

...and it's done! A 3.5k treatise on space warfare and giant robots!

Next chapter will be... literally anything else. This one did some brain frying, but it was so fun I couldn't not do it.

I'll update again in a few days with... probably Nexus Event. Where Your God is also calls to me, so we'll have to see.

Until then, I hope everyone is doing well and thank you again for all the support you've given me. I really can't say enough how much I appreciate it!