Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/Ikiryo Mini-Mecha

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The Ikiryo Mini-Mecha is a type of mecha used by the Katsuragi Protectorate. Planned to be voiced by.

History
"We like to do it on top!"

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As part of the doctrine to forge a bond of equality between the millions of draftees and volunteers during the war, a sprawling and extensive training course was developed to turn civilians into hardened warriors. One of the most important parts of this training was a series of nigh-impossible obstacle courses specifically designed to humiliate recruits.

With all the recruits meeting the same challenges and failing painfully and embarrassingly, it served to humble the trainees and put them on the same footing for the training ahead. Each obstacle course was specially designed to be humiliating both to perform in and to fail at, usually in the form of brightly colored, rolling, balancing, rotating, or moving platforms above muddy water or foam safety pits, which recruits must run, jump, climb, balance and, of course, inevitable fall from.

Props are used to increase the difficulty, including pogo sticks, unicycles, and safety padding that is both uncomfortable and unflattering. Though it is difficult to seriously injure oneself on these padded platforms, it very often looks quite painful. Unfortunately for the ones who watch on television, it is considered humorous. The training courses are so entertaining to onlookers that a popular Katsuragi broadcaster broadcasts footage from the training runs, as a further incentive to the recruits to try their best (and further embarrassment when they fall spectacularly from heights or on their butts, while on live television!), to the point it became a show called "Kitano's Castle", named after its broadcaster.

There was but one flaw with the concept, and that is that every once in a while somebody, somehow, manages to finish the course. The number is rather uncommon, around one in a couple thousand. However, it is noted that these few run into an unfortunate problem; the purpose of the training is lost on them. Compared to their humbled comrades, they become arrogant mavericks, the sort that can be a liability on the field.

At the same time that this was starting to become a concern, a new mecha had recently been approved for full-scale deployment. Straddling the line between battlesuit and walker, the small, stubby-legged, and lanky armed Ikiryo Mini-Mecha was designed to move quickly across the battlefield, escorting lone agents or engineers quickly to vital points. The Ikiryo was also capable of hopping onto enemy units and hijacking them with the "Sukunaru" Nano-scanner scanning the interior of the target unit and is equipped with its own nanite injector to forcibly take over the unit it was mounting.

The nanites have to be constantly in contact with the Ikiryo, or they will cease to function and the hijacked unit regain control of itself. This requires the Ikiryo to be on the hijacked unit at all times, something which isn't beneficial. However, risks are risks, all for the sake of the Protectorate.

The job is a hazardous one since the Ikiryo will be working away from the command tree, forcing the pilot to dodge enemy projectiles and patrols, run rapidly in the motion-capture cockpit over broken terrain, make snap decisions without oversight, and leap onto lone enemy units doing their best to kill them. There was a great deal of difficulty convincing anyone to use the thing on the field; test pilots began to refer to them as 'walking coffins'.

After the Ikiryo was shifted higher on the priority list, the Shogunate saw an elegant solution to both problems. By presenting the Ikiryo as a reward to recruits that cleared the obstacle courses, it would be presented as a challenge instead of a burden, and there would be no doubt that the pilot was skilled, determined, or perhaps simply lucky enough to use the machine to full effect.