Of Dogs, Men and Wolves, Part 1

Dogs had always been the greatest genetic experiments of humanity. They had started out as wolves that developed a bond with humans feeding them and being okay with living with the early humans in their caves and other hiding spots. Over the millennia, the dogs had become omnipresent in human lives, a constant friend, ally and partner in crime.

When Clan animal engineering came to Strana Mechty, both the new genus of wolves and coyotes had been created to fill out the planetary populations. The upgrades to both animals had been marginal, but, ingrained in their genes, was still that small bit of code letting them be domesticated easily. While this was not a “common” thing, a few were always around Clan warriors. And now, this new litter was ready to go.

To call those “wolves” or “coyotes” would probably be inappropriate, however. The genetic tailoring Scientist Emilio did on them was a clean combination closer to the hybrid genus “coywolf”. The first generation had been too aggressive, but they were then bred with a group of huskies and malamutes. The crossbreeding of this second generation had been somewhat difficult, trying to avoid congenital diseases and potential genetic defects. “Why are you not using iron wombs?” He was asked this by quite a few other geneticists. All the wombs were used to grow new warriors. Clan Wolf needed soldiers, not experimental animals, after the ilClan Trial. So, for a year now, he had worked out his hybrids the old fashion way. Those were the first ones that had properly accepted the next step in the experiment.

The first dog walked into his office, a medium sized male he had called Vlad. While not the biggest of the bunch, he was the clear alpha male, a trait which generally came up with wolves or dogs living in confined groups like these. “How are you doing, boy?”, Emilio inquired, taking the paw which was offered to him. Vlad replied with a head shake and controlled bark which he had been thought meant good. Engineering the dogs to actually speak was a bit beyond the scope of what Emilio had been doing but teaching them to give short responses was easy. Especially since these canines probably had the same intelligence as 12 years old sibkins or so. Pushing it higher would require too much of a change in the dog’s anatomy and brain composition.

Emilio calmly traced the lines on the dog’s face, outlining the Enhanced Imaging implant on the beast. “Does it hurt, boy?” Emilio’s voice quivered with worry, unsure how an animal would react to such an invasive operation. Two quick barks. A clear no from Vlad. Emilio nodded, and the dog nodded back. A wave of relief filled the geneticist. Emilio had been surprised all the pups had all survived the process. Two of the twelve subjects had suffered nerve damage from it, but they simply rejected the implant and would live the rest of their lives as, well, normal dogs. At least, until they would be used for further breeding. “Alright boy, let’s get you hooked up.”

The 8 ton Lupa-class protomech laid there, waiting for its pilot. The original design had been created for aerospace fighter pilots taking a dangerous drug combination and neural implants. A failure, Emilio’s predecessor foolishly uttered before being shot out of an airlock by an angry Galaxy Commander who had seen 4 years of investment “out the window”. Emilio had inherited of the project, and was asked to make it work whatever the cost. He was a geneticist. He was a biological implant specialist. He had no idea how battle armors, let alone this whole “ProtoMech” thing worked. But he had his new coywolf-dog hybrids.

Vlad sat in the machine’s “cockpit,” just an alcove where the dog’s senses would be transferred over to the mechanical body. The brace for the dog’s neck came down, connecting to the neural net and lower brain. Vlad twitched, but it was expected. Not a noise from him. Either he was taking in the pain, or he was not feeling it. Emilio had no idea what it was until the shell closed on top of the animal. His datapad then flashed with “I big now.” It was insane. He knew it would work, he had already tested the dog-machine-human interface, but now, disconnected from the “training apparatus” …

“Vlad, walk to the first set of cones please”, Emilio said, calmly and more politely than his assistants thought was appropriate. The dog was used to a prototype exo-suit weighing about a ton, his new “body” was 8 times bigger. Even without the weapon system active, 8 tons of ferro-fibrous, endo-steel and myomer controlled by the equivalent of a child was scary enough. Vlad had walked to the larger than necessary cones, and had sat down, patiently waiting another order.

The datapad flashed “BIRDS” and the machine made a barking motion towards a flight of Canada geese flying overhead. “It is fine Vlad. Those birds are okay,” Emilio said, worried for a second the weapon systems would activate. Emilio promptly commanded the oversized canine to run between two sets of cones about a half kilometer apart. He monitored the animal’s vitals carefully, trying to see the neural interface and enhanced imaging implant were causing other problems. Things looked fine to him.

“He is not pushing the machine to the maximum,” Scientist Marcia, his second, remarked. She had not lost the highfalutin tone of disbelief. Her plan to use a drone interface in the ProtoMech had been passed over because Emilio had actually brought the more sensible project proposal. Knowing Garner Kerensky reviewed all of them, and pick his was a scary thought. Emilio turned to her with a puzzled look on his face: “What do you mean?” The older woman pulled another datapad showing the specifications of the Lupa. Most numbers were in the green, at least from what he understood. “He is pushing the machine as if he was running a marathon, not a sprint”, Marcia pointed out, poking at the engine performance rating on the pad. “That is how dogs work, they are like humans, chase hunters”, Emilio had to say, trying to not go into genetic details with his more engineering minded co-worker. “But that is not how ‘mechs work. He can run the engine at peak. Founder, we would expect him to do so.”

The problem between the exo-suit training device and the final product was showing now. In the exo-suit, it was still Vlad’s circulatory system that limited the movement speed and duration. In a machine powered by a micro-fusion engine, he would not get tired running at full speed for extended periods of time. The datapad flashed from the translation device querying “Not Tired”? Even the dog was wondering what was going on. Brain activity was high, but that was it. The animal was overstimulated, but this was not even a workout for him. “You can go faster, Vlad. Run as fast as you can.”

Emilio was now standing next to Marcia, looking at the two datapads at the same time. Vlad’s biometrics were still normal, but now the protomech was strained at least a little bit. Myomer bundles were heating up, the fusion engine pushed to the green line. “Great, the animal can go in a straight line. Congratulations are in order in regards to this fantastic achievement. What is next, oh mighty leader”, Marcia’s voice thickened by her patented patronizing patois.

Emilio shook his head for a second and he asked Vlad to stop. A second later, the 8 ton machine was sat down, head turning left and right looking for something to do. “Look, Marcia,” Emilio started with his own trademark exhausted tone. “The fact we have gotten a hybrid animal to control a machine that size and he is not going insane is already a good start.” A few VTOLs brought the remainder of the agility course and dropped them on the testing grounds.

“Can you run the course, Vlad?” Emilio asked the dog, with a tinge of excitement. He remained polite and encouraging when dealing with the coywolves. He drew upon his evenings reading animal husbandry and animal training books to bond more with his charges. “Why no friend?”, the dog inquired. Emilio realized that normally, for these exercises, Vlad was normally with at least 1 or 2 other wolves… and a handler. “Today, you are doing this alone.”

“Do not like.” A simple response from the animal. While coyotes were solitary animals, the dog and wolf genetic material were dominant. This had been Emilio’s plan all along. “Just this once, Vlad. You will have friends next time.”

Emilio concentrated mostly on Marcia’s datapad for that part of the exercise. The protomech was working as expected, and that was what mattered to him at this conjuncture. It could climb a sharp ledge with agility. It lept over a small obstacle well enough. The fusion engine was not strained, the myomer kept warm and the sensors “saw” what they were meant to see. The dog adjusted to unexpected changes in the course as well as he could have without a handler. “What do you think, Scientist Marcia?”

The older woman smiled for a minute and nodded. “Your pup has not broken the ProtoMech. It even seems that it can handle it well enough compared to a normal pilot. I cannot guarantee it will work in combat operations, but as a proof of concept…” Emilio sat down, rubbing his forehead. He had not asked for an insane budget for his project, at least not compared to some of the weapons engineers the Wolves had now working on rebuilding their broken touman.

But would a man like the ilKhan accept “I have a workable proof of concept?” He would always need a handler with the dogs for now. He doubted things would ever go beyond that, because, again, improving the brain power of the canines would cause too large of a mutation. Normal points of ProtoMechs could run a single command unit with the other 4 dogs, but that would mean getting the whole EI/VDNI assembly working properly and not kill the pilot over time. The designs sold by Bergan was looking better and better.

Emilio had Vlad do a few of the tricks he usually had him do while doing an agility course. Agility was different between the protomech, the exo-suit and the actual dog, but it was still doing better than he had anticipated. “Next time, we will have to do weapons testing,” Emilio said, a slight worry mixed in this tired voice. Marcia clapped him on the back and smiled at him: “I will have something for you to pilot next to him when that happens, Emilio. While I do not agree with everything you are doing, I like to think we are helping the ilKhan repair what was broken with our fight on Terra.”