AEGIS Program

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Summary
"'In order to defend all of which we hold dear, one must take a stand.'"The AEGIS program, defined as the Augmented Extraterrestrial Ground Interception System Program, was relegated towards the defensive and suppressive countermeasures of the SCO against Interstellar forces. It consisted of the AWSG and MESS Projects, with the latter being a collective of smaller prototype technology projects. It is also well known as AEG15, as its roster contains fifteen unique prototype units. These units, as the military would classify them, were known as MESSs.

MESS=Mobile Exosuit Surfacebound System: The signature title to an ace-designed Garrisai. Developed during the Interstellar era, these Garrisai were each unique, with custom weaponry and equipment to fit their pilot’s fighting styles or role. Due to being very expensive to produce each Garrisai’s specific parts and armor, they were in short supply by the conclusion of the First Great Conflict—only a few of these ancient machines still exist today.

History
When the Celestial Vanguard touched down onto the SCO for the first time, a hurried replacement was needed to the conventional military vehicles available in order to scale up to the massive robots they needed to fight. Thus, the proposal of an Anti-Warship Support Gun was developed (in tangent with the Instinct Corporation) to counter the threats to humanity. Their other developments included humanoid anti-mecha weapons known as Garrisai, which would serve as humanity’s defense force until the end of the aptly named Interstellar Conflict. For more on the history of the AEGIS Program, see here.

The Dangers of Solar Cannons: Sins of Humanity Article
Up until the beginning of the Interstellar Conflict, the Fusion Drives had only ever been for recreational use. However, a resource first designed to power the cars and cities of these nations would now begin powering weapons of war. The first known use of Ichor-powered weapons were military tanks and fighter jets, which would perform at astonishingly high levels in their own respects. However, the sheer size of the Celestial Vanguard's machines was too much for the standard armed forces to even lay a scratch on. That was, until the Solar Cannon was introduced.

While the armed forces dealt with the interstellar infantry and vehicles, divisions of each of the R&D groups in all seven nations of the SCO designed a cannon powered by Ichor that was capable of penetrating CS armor. Since they knew that Ichor beam technology was the most effective against the CSs, the Cannon would be using a number of Fusion Drives to fire the weapon. Each shot required a single Ichor Core, so the overall design was extremely costly. Despite this, numerous Solar Cannons were placed along the western coastline of Decholon, where the CSs approached from. Over twenty of these high powered guns defended the Santalis Core Order from incoming Superweapons for around a week, until it was realized that the cannons were consuming more ichor than could be refined. Clearly, there had to be an alternative to counter these costs or else the CSs would make their way through.

This was when the AEGIS project was introduced. It involved the development of a large machine carrying conventional weapons heavy enough to damage CSs, but mobile enough to make it adapt to situations. In order to reach these parameters, the AEGIS could not take the form of a tank or aircraft, as they were too slow to outmaneuver the shots raining down from an CS. It was then decided that a humanoid shape would be the best design, as it could be built up to a more balanced scale than a large aircraft or tank, while carrying weapons that didn't consume the Ichor core's power, but shell-firing rounds instead.

First Steps of AEGIS
The first of these units was the Ballista, as it served as a testing ground for pilots and how well they could operate with a humanoid machine. It wasn't necessarily a true humanoid from having treads instead of legs, but it still proved that weapons could be used on a human-like machine. It could be equipped with shaped-round cannons for combat, though they were less powerful than the Solar Cannons developed previously. The next AEGIS produced was the Catalyst, which was almost of a sidegrade of the Ballista, and an improvement of the Solar Cannon. In reference to the name, the machine would go out into the battlefield, and after lining up a shot, a base-mounted satellite would fire a beam into a Catalyst's back mounted generator. This would charge the compacted Solar Cannon mounted on its arm, firing in a similar way to the original Solar Cannon itself. However, Since the energy consumption of this machine was about the same to the original Solar Cannons, limited numbers of these units were deployed, and were only used on high-priority targets.

The final and most iconic of the early AEGIS units was the Harbinger, or Harbinger Ground Type. It was the first unit to be equipped with articulated legs instead of treads, and the first capable of using handheld and fixed weapons simultaneously. Due to its simplified control scheme inherited from the Ballista and Catalyst known as the METACOM System, the Harbinger was easy to train with by Santalis Core Order Militants and was subsequently distributed to all of the nations' armed forces. Hundreds of these units were manufactured and deployed into combat, doing exactly what the heads of the project anticipated. Their mobility allowed for streamlined assaults and defense tactics that would serve as the backbone of the Santalis Core Order all the way to the end of the war. With a much more accessible amount of resources at their disposal and the funding to do it, the heads of the AEGIS Project invested the remainder of their power into a number of projects. The alpha stages of AEGIS were getting old, it was time for beta.

While the Harbinger Ground Types were giving the Santalis Core Order an advantage, they kept their edge primarily from their numbers. The units produced per units destroyed ratio was starting to go into the negative, and there had to be a solution. Thus, the beta series of AEGIS began. With the technologies recovered from the CSs, a whole number of machines could be used to turn the enemy tech against them. Things such as shield generators, cloaking devices, and multi-directional attack interfaces were all being built into the new generation of AEGIS.

Armor Project
The first project was the Armor Project which, as the name implies, added a few extra layers of armor onto a unit. Taking inspiration from a Medieval Knight aesthetic, the Armor Project Units were slow, but well armored and used large melee weapons. The first unit was the Juggernaut, which was the poster child for the beta series of AEGIS. It wielded a body shield and a large broadsword, with armor that was almost impenetrable. The second was Megahammer, which used a hammer instead of a sword, and a pair of artillery cannons on its shoulders. Both units were seen running right to the front lines, tanking gratuitous amounts of damage like it was nothing. After some minor tweaks using the research gathered from the project, the Harbinger Ground Type got a more customizable and easily repairable frame, so that damaged units can get replacement parts much faster. This would be known as the Purge System.

Heavygun Project
The second was the Heavygun Project, which pushed the limits on how many weapons could be used by a single unit at a time, as well as the general effectiveness of the idea in the first place. While basically being a Harbinger Ground Type with a few extra guns, they proved to be a major powerhouse compared to their mass-production brethren. Artillery was first, with its automatically interchangeable weapons, Domino IV with a less than stable version of the Solar Cannon, atLAS with its Transformable Frame and all-range weapons, and finally the Dreadnought with its four massive weapons that packed a considerable punch. Each of these four were sent out wherever the Harbinger Ground Types were dropping in numbers, and had racked up a decent amount of victories.

Shield Project
The next was the Shield Project, which was derived from the CS's built in shield generators. In order to test a replica of said generators, they were mounted onto the chassis of a Harbinger Ground Type. The results of the final result were outstanding; the generator created a spherical cover around the machine using the discharge outlet atop its head, which could also be outputted from either of its two hands, serving as a large forward facing shield. This would become known as the Restoration Apparatus. Being able to take numerous hits before damaged, many of these units were fielded to defend other beta AEGIS, or become disassembled to serve as shield generators over important bases. The most notable of these units was the "Tactical Enforcer", which not only had the ability to generate longer lasting shields than its sister units, but also the addition of a Repair Apparatus. This would earn it the name TERRA, and would be the only known Unit from the Shield Project to have stayed intact beyond the Interstellar Era.

HMT Project
The fourth project was the HMT Project, also known as the High-Mobility Type Project. Being the near polar opposite to the Heavygun Project, these units traded out power for speed. In order to reach a speed fast enough to make dodging attacks easier, the Thrusters mounted on the calves and skirts had to have a high enough output to allow it to hover. The first HMTs had primarily balance issues, but these were eventually solved from counterweights located in the unit’s frame. Despite the balance issues being solved, the amount of fuel consumed during flight was significantly increased when using the Thrusters. Therefore, another Fusion Drive would be installed, making HMTs one of the only units to house a twin-drive system. The first of these units to be produced was Rocket, which served as the prototype unit of the HMTs for a good amount of time. Then came the Storm, which attempted aerial flight. The only way this was possible was by attaching a pair of large rocket boosters in place of the unit’s legs, ensuring that the sheer weight of the machine would not be the thing to take it down. For most situations, the Rocket would be deployed and it dominated the battlefield no matter what weapons it was given.

Stealth Project
The fifth project was the Stealth Project. Similar to the idea of the Shield Project, it was derived from CS cloaking technology, as well as audio disruption systems that muffle the sounds of movement. Due to the technology needing to be noticeably exposed in order to function properly, the armor of whatever machine it was equipped on would have to be minimal. The machine in question would end up to be the Whisper, which was relegated to reconnaissance and assassination missions during the later years of the Interstellar Conflict. Eventually, this unit was heavily damaged and relegated back to storage for potential improvements.

NU METACOM Project
The Sixth and final project would be the NU METACOM Project, which was by far the most advanced of all the projects. This was because of its focus on Human-Machine interfacing using neural links, which was assumed to have had reached its limit since the development of Nu Helix's METACOM System. However, this status quo would actually stay, as the two systems developed in this Project were only mock-versions of neural link device. In order to do this, two pilots were required for operation--one for movement and control, and the other for the operation of the weapons. The weapons themselves were placed into two projects--the Advanced Sub-Arms and Wire-Guided Rocket Forearms, equipped by the Jupiter and Saturn respectively. From the state of the public, it seemed as if the ADJM had developed near superhuman weaponry that was in-line with the weapons of the Celestial Vanguard. However, this idea would be properly introduced by the nation of Nu Helix during the event of Project X years later. This would come in the form of the Dreadnought II, the two successors of the Majestic, as well as the more linear Jupiter II and Saturn II.

AEGIS Project
- MESS-S1aD-001 Catalyst

- MESS-S1aB-002 Ballista

- MESS-S1aF-003 Harbinger

Armor Project
- MESS-S1bC-004 Juggernaut

- MESS-S1bC-005 Megahammer

Heavygun Project
- MESS-S1bB-006 Artillery

- MESS-S1bB-007 Domino IV

- MESS-S1bB-008 atLAS

- MESS-S1bB-009 Dreadnought

Shield Project
- MESS-S1cD-010 Terra

HMT Project
- MESS-S1cA-011 Rocket

- MESS-S1cD-012 Storm

Stealth Project
- MESS-S1cD-013 Whisper

NU METACOM Project
- MESS-S1cA-014 Saturn

- MESS-S1cC-015 Jupiter

Trivia
- The fifteen Garrisai of the AEGIS Program are each based off of the "Original 15" from the Green Sketchbook. Being the first unique mecha ever created by yours truly, it happened to be perfect for the role as the first 15 Garrisai in the Harbinger Universe.

- The only changes were really with names. The Harbinger replaced the Original M.E.S.S., and Saturn and Jupiter replaced the names of Cyclops and TwÏns, respectively.

- The Megahammer, atLAS and Domino IV were both made way after and outside the GSB, while Drax and Operator were taken out of the Original 15 and classified under the DPS Machines.