Asaria Von Hoffen's Journal — Entry No. 1

The Kingdom of Albadia has brought me in with an offer as tempting as it is dangerous, and funding that would make any serious lab salivate. It seems a war of unprecedented proportions is coming, and they're willing to pay whatever it takes for a minimal advantage. I'm not complaining: as long as I can do my research in peace, I don't care what they do with my toys.

Some captains look at me with disdain, as if I'm an intruder in their world of steel and blood. Poor fools. They have no idea of my capabilities, my vision, what I'm capable of building with the money they've given me. They play with sharp swords, I will give them lightning.

Mechanical improvements in current weapons have reached a stalemate: bigger caliber, longer range, greater destruction. Predictable. But no one—no one with a real imagination—has focused on where it really matters: the soldier himself. I'm not talking about genetic alterations (that field is... complicated, to put it mildly), but about external reinforcements. About turning tired bodies into living weapons.

My first ideas revolved around muscle assistance systems, something modular, adaptable. But then came the epiphany.

I dreamed it.

Exum. A combat exoskeleton.

The perfect extension of the human body. Definitive reinforcements for the soldier of the future. With Exum, they'll be able to run without feeling the weight of fatigue, carry weaponry that once required two or three men, and withstand impacts that would tear a human torso in two. A single combatant will be worth a hundred opponents.

I can see it clearly. I can feel it.

Sometimes I wonder why being a genius, at my age, is so lonely. What a cruel fate. The money, though... it quiets the silence a little. I'm not complaining. Not yet.

This is just the beginning.

Log this entire audio, Aifirst.