Chapter 128: Gaining Traction

Summary: A Space Station starts to take shape...and Big Stompy Robots are officially a thing the military has!

Warning! Chapters 126-129 were all post back-to-back! Make sure to catch them all!

Chapter 128: Gaining Traction

A week after their first trip, the Inari 1 was back in orbit. The time had been needed not for the Inari, which had performed flawlessly, but for the final number crunching and planning of Orbit 1. Orbit 1 was to be several things all rolled into one. A testbed for their construction methods, a jumping off point for the larger stations they were intending to build out in orbit and out at the Lagrange Points, and the first place to stuff some scientists who were going to be working on concepts like artificial gravity. Oh, and techs to run the construction drone fleet. Who were less glamorous than the scientists but honestly probably more important.

As for the scientists, gravity was understood better now than it had been back when mankind last seriously explored space. Mostly, it had to be said, because there were Quirks that could create fields of it. Study of those fields had advanced understanding of how it worked, and there were at least a few theoretical models on how to create it in space. Three of them worked, in limited ways, on the planet itself. But no one was quite sure how well they would work, if they did at all, on a space station. So the single lab area of Orbit 1 was being assigned that task first. Artificial gravity would make their lives a lot easier if they could make it work.

Other parts of Orbit 1 would be staffed with people capable of guiding the construction drones that would assemble duplicates of Orbit 1, with much of the rest of Orbit 1's space being dedicated to a hangar that would service those drones. After all, just because Momo could make the parts in space, didn't mean she could assemble them. That was what the construction drones, another project that the UA Think-Tank had worked out, were for.

Crews on Orbit 1 would be working around the clock to actually assemble the parts, using the drones, with still more crews working to service and resupply the drone fleet. Orbits 2 through 5 would be similar stations, focused on increasing the size of the construction fleet. Then, after making any adjustments needed from the experience of building Orbits 1-5, they would begin construction of Forge 1 and Refinery 1. Those two stations would be much larger, each pushing nearly a full kilometer in size and representing the first true spaceborne manufacturing satellites.

By that time, if all went well, Momo and Izumi would have moved out to work on Dock 1. The first shipyard to be built out at the Lagrange Point, Dock 1 would be constructing ships designed for both asteroid capture and mining of other celestial bodies. Once ships began to be put together at Dock 1, those ships would begin supplying Refinery 1 with raw material, and Refinery 1 would supply Forge 1. If it all worked out the way everyone hoped, within less than six months they'd have the first true Earth-independent manufacturing loop going. Though Forge 1 would be working even before then, using Momo-provided material to begin assembly tests of some…special projects. Ones that might well help turn the tide of the war in the longer term.

Of course, all of that was dependent on the steps they were taking today. Today, Momo would be creating for hours to generate the vast majority of the framework parts for Orbit 1. They'd already released the handful of Construction Drones they'd brought up with them. Sadly, they were too complex for Momo to make easily. Though they had created their bodies up here, only carrying the 'brains' of the drones up with them in order to bring the maximum possible number of them along. That had allowed them to put two dozen Construction Drones in space, with them now station-keeping around the buoy-marked area, waiting for the parts that were to come.

"Alright, Momo. Ready to play Space Ikea?"

Ochako, standing next to a once-again mostly naked Momo and trying not to blush, snorted at Izumi's comment. Momo herself merely rolled her eyes, though there was a quirk at the edges of her lips that gave her away.

"Yes, oh great and mighty boss lady. Begin the assembly instructions!"

Grinning at Momo's own teasing response, Izumi opened the Inari's Transfer Chamber even as she consulted a list she honestly already knew. Really it was the form of the thing, rather than any need to double check. Even if you had a perfect memory, a moment of simply being scatter-brained could still do damage. Checklists and orders of operation were a good counter.

"Right. The backbone components are first. Deploying visual reference."

Momo's memory was good, but it wasn't perfect like Izumi's or 2B's. Which is why Izumi triggered the holographic projectors rigged into the cargo/construction bay to display their first piece of the day. It was one of the largest pieces they would be deploying for Orbit 1, a 100-meter-long, lightly curved, component of the 344-meter spine of the station. It wasn't overly complex, but it wasn't simple either. After all, it would need to hold power runs, relays, and junction boxes. Not to mention Momo had to account for the way the station was intended to fit together. They'd adopted a lot of methods from traditional Japanese wood joinery into the station's construction.

Rather than relying on welds, nuts, screws and bolts, a lot of the station components would hook together via interlocking parts. Of course, the drones would go over those interlocks with welds and a high-tech sealant that would help guarantee they were air-tight, but the design was intended to make it virtually impossible for the station to break apart even if the seals started leaking. The redundancy would mean safety, as the crew would have plenty of time to find and patch any leak. The complexity, combined with the sheer number of objects Momo would be making today, meant that the visual reference was needed. Momo looked it over carefully, then nodded.

"Alright. Standby, Ochako. Beginning creation in 5 seconds."

There wasn't a countdown, as that would distract Momo, but the warning was more than enough for Uraraka to get her game face on. When, seconds later, Momo lit up like a small star and the creation began at a slow-but-steady rate, their teammate was ready. She tapped the thick beam, so tall it was nearly brushing both the deck and ceiling of the construction area, and began guiding it on the holographic rails that Izumi was helpfully projecting onto her helmet display.

That display extended the rails well behind where she could actually see them, allowing the gravity girl to guide the massive construction as the slight curve began to develop. Her job, at least with the big pieces like this, was to make sure the thing didn't hit the ship, as well as pushing it away at the end of the creation so that it entered the construction zone gently for the drones to capture it. Her job was to deal with the inertia of such massive constructions, so that the pieces went where they were supposed to go and only where they were supposed to go.

The 100-meter creation took several minutes, both Ochako and Izumi grateful for the polarization ability of their helmets as One for All and Creation pulsed together in a near-blinding light only Momo was immune to. Momo had rarely created something so large before. In fact, she'd never done so outside the testing they'd done for this very mission. Creating football-field-long metal beams was generally not particularly useful on the ground, after all. Eventually, however, it was done. Uraraka used her increased control over her Quirk to push the beam toward the construction zone, where several drones latched onto it and began towing it into the arbitrary position in space that had been marked as their starting point.

"Alright, Momo?"

Momo nodded, even as she rested for a minute, breathing just a touch hard.

"More mentally draining than straining on my Quirk, thankfully. Give me another minute and we can build the second one."

Izumi nodded, queuing up the second such beam, one with just a bit less length and some minor differences to account for the interlock needs. It was good that this hadn't taken much out of her girlfriend, given they had a minimum of fifty major parts to produce just today. Enough for the drones to fully construct the basic, skeletal framework of Orbit 1. Something which would take them a couple of days to do. Then there would be another mission to deploy a massive number of simpler but far more numerous panels for both the interior and exterior. Then, a week after that, deployment of electronics would begin with the solar panels, backup powerplants, several dozen kilometers worth of cabling, and so much more…

Despite knowing how mentally tough she was, and how much One for All was helping her mitigate the costs of so much material generation, Izumi was a little worried about the construction pace. Particularly given it was only going to speed up for Orbits 2-5, the Forge and Refinery. After all, once Orbit 1 was staffed the drone fleet would become far more efficient at the construction process.

Well, there was nothing she could do about it but keep an eye on her lover and make sure she didn't burn herself out. At least delivery for the newly designated Shieldmaiden Mark 1, their Mech Armor which had been officially named against Melissa's protests, was being handled by others tomorrow. Hopefully there wouldn't be any complications Momo needed to be involved with fixing when the first 16 units of said design were sent out for field testing on the African front.

"Alright. Ready for Spinal 2. Starting creation in 5 seconds…"

The next creation began and Izumi forced her worries to the back of her mind. For now, they had a job to do.

… …

Melissa tried really hard not to blush as the 'Shieldmaiden' was announced to the box of mid-level officers. While several Generals and the like had been kept appraised of development and seen demonstrations, this group was the one that would be handling initial deployment of the 16 Mech Armors. They'd trained the pilots with the best tactics that they and the experts they'd brought in could come up with, teaching them to operate in pairs, squads of four, and right on up to a full 'Mech Company' of sixteen.

In all honesty, current operational estimates said they'd likely mostly be deployed in squads of four. There just weren't enough of them yet to train people in the larger formations and tactics outside simulators. Aside from the sixteen that would be deploying with these officers in charge, there were only an additional sixteen in existence for training pilots, with another 32 under construction. They were expanding both production and training as fast as physically possible, but they currently had more Momo-provided construction bays than they had people qualified to operate them.

They'd thought far enough ahead, knowing Momo would be busy almost full time with the Space Construction soon, to have her produce all the needed parts for a densely packed and multi-floor assembly facility. Each of the 100 bays she'd built in the giant multi-story warehouse next to the R building could handle assembly of a single Shieldmaiden Mech Armor from parts in about seventy-two hours. But, despite all they could do to automate it, it still required four people, multiplied by four shifts, to keep each bay running at that pace. All four positions required a significant degree of skill to keep up with the jobs involved, and finding and training the needed crews was proving time consuming. Everyone needed skilled hands, these days. So getting people with any sort of relevant previous experience was nearly a pipe dream, forcing them to train everyone from the ground-up.

Currently, they only had enough people to operate half a dozen bays at a time, though part of that was because they had as many people again purely focused on training new crews. Give it a month and they'd have at least half the bays running around the clock, assuming they could keep feeding them parts fast enough. Which was, of course, its own nightmare of logistics. Though thankfully one that Melissa didn't have to handle herself. Yaoyorozu Industries was handling sourcing for most of the parts, the largest single arm of the Yaoyorozu Group having the expertise to juggle the complex task.

Sighing as the event coordinator signaled her forward, she put on her best serious face and strode firmly up to the front of the room, taking over the demonstration.

"Ladies and gentlemen, all of you are military men and woman specifically vetted to trial integration of the new Mechs. As such, I will not insult you by giving you a dog and pony show about what its technical capabilities are. If any of you haven't read the specs yet, or watched the basic demos we included in the familiarization packages…then frankly get the fuck out of here. You aren't the right person for this if you haven't done your homework on your own initiative."

The strict, blunt comment obviously hit the right note with this particular group, as they all straightened and a few of them smirked and nodded in appreciation of the comment. None of them got up and left, of course. They had been vetted for this. This project couldn't afford to fail, not when it could be a major force amplifier in a battlefront that desperately needed such. No nepotism had been allowed to creep in with this group. Only the best and most flexible tacticians, ones with front-line experience against the Invaders, had been forwarded to this group. Nodding, she continued.

"There is a world of difference between seeing the trials and simulated combat scenarios and physically watching something similar. Which is why the primary reason for today's demo is to let you get a first-hand look."

Melissa gestured to the large window through which they could see the Shieldmaiden, currently standing at ease and waiting for the demo to start.

"First up, a run through of a single Mech Armor on the course set up. Before any of you ask, this course is not one that the pilot had seen before. So all reactions are real time responses to a new threat. Live ammo is being used as well, and all targets are armored to the best of our ability to replicate the defenses of the monsters in question. After this run, we'll see a group of two, then a group of four, do the same sort of runs. Any questions before we start?"

One hand went up, a female officer who spoke with a French accent when she asked her question.

"Will we not see a full company demonstration?"

Melissa shook her head.

"No. Not because we don't want to show it to you, but because our test facilities aren't big enough to do it justice. Most of the larger scale tactical experimentation has been limited to sims. We just don't have enough physical free space in a secure area to build what would be needed."

The woman frowned but nodded and lowered her hand. Melissa understood that frown, but what she'd said was the straight truth. Perhaps if this facility was located in the United States, they could have spared the military forces and securable land to make a larger facility secure. As it was, with needing to protect their test site from the enemy, they simply hadn't been able to find the space for it here in Japan. Even UA's training grounds would have struggled to handle sixteen 85-ton, 3-story-tall Mechs.

"Right, if that's it. Then we'll begin."

Keying her comm to connect with the mech pilot and course operator both, Melissa issued the order to begin and watched as the Shieldmaiden began to move…