Marchand, or March for short, is a suit of armor and integrated AI possessed by Peregrin Holzmann.
Armor[]
The armor is painted a cobalt blue,[1] with gold highlights in places, such as the faceplate.[2]
Durability[]
The armor is designed to withstand bullets, even high-caliber ones, but not artillery. An old-fashioned cannon is a serious threat.[3]
Motors[]
The suit's motors can augment Perry's strenth, allowing him to punch harder, run faster, and jump higher.[4] He can run and leap faster than the sword can fly. The suit can also go rigid, which Perry routinely uses when flying to avoid flopping around like a balloon behind his sword.[5]
Cameras & Display[]
The suit has no eye holes. Data from the external cameras, as well as any other data supplied by March, is projected directly into the wearer's eyes.[6] It is consistently depicted in the cover art as having a gold stripe across the face that mimics a visor, however.
Shoulder Gun[]
The armor has a shoulder-mounted gun.[1]
Ammunition[]
Aquiring ammunition for the shoulder gun is often a problem. Perry had only seven bullets remaining when he arrived in Teaguewater.[1]
Drone[]
Marchand can launch and control a drone for reconnaissance.
The drone launches from the small of the suit's back, shooting into the air before unfolding and activating it's blades, in what was probably a dramatic flair by Richter.[7] It then folds itself up and has to be manually slotted back into the charging nook in the back.[8]
In Teaguewater, the drone was able to spot cannons, purcussion-cap pistols, and telegraph systems "powered through electrochemical batteries" in use.[9][10]
Marchand can create maps of a region using the drone.[11]
Atmosphere Systems[]
The suit is airtight,[12] and has small "gill" can filter oxygen from air or water, allowing the wearer to breathe in almost any conditions.[13] March can detect most forms of atmospheric pollution, but the wearer is completely insulated from outside air, preventing them from smelling anything directly.[14]
Microphones[]
Marchand excels in sound analysis, and is capable of creating detailed maps and detecting occupants of buildings through sound if Perry is touching something structural.[15]
Power Supply[]
The suit is powered by a microfusion reactor which charges the batteries over time. Unfortunately, the reactor doesn't supply enough power to allow for flight; if the suit had jets, it wouldn't be able to power them for more than a minute.[4] Even leaping around too energetically is a drain on the batteries.[5]
Radio[]
March contains a fairly powerful radio which can scan for signals,[16] even potentially picking up telegraph signals at close enough range,[17] as well as sending radio transmissions.
Earpiece[]
The suit has a single detatchable earpiece which March can use to communicate with the wearer via radio.[18]
Skinsuit[]
The armour came with a "skinsuit" designed to be worn under it.[19] It was destroyed in Teaguewater, making the armor less comfortable, especially when trying to sleep in it.[20]
Artificial Intelligence[]
Although "almost human" on Richter's world, March was originally designed to lean heavily on Richter's private servers for knowledge and computational power.[21]
History[]
Richter's World[]
Perry recieved the armor from Richter before she died. The pair of them used to dive down and walk on the sea floor together, Richter wearing a similar, lighter suit of her own.[12]
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 He was encased in the cobalt-blue armor, tense, sword already out. There were only seven bullets left in the shoulder-mounted gun, and they were irreplaceable until he found somewhere with a high-precision machine shop. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ The armor was imposing, cobalt blue with highlights of gold, especially around the faceplate. - Thresholder (web serial), Chapter 5
- ↑ The armor could take a hit from even a relatively high-caliber bullet, which Richter had shown with a test in her garage, but it wouldn’t be able to handle a direct hit from artillery. He was more vulnerable here than he’d been in the fantasy world then, but only if he was stupid enough to get in front of a cannon. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 The suit, to his initial disappointment, could not fly. It could make enormous leaps, punch with incredible strength, and did so much augmentation of his natural power that he could have been a one-man wrecking crew even as a weakling, but flight was out of the question. According to Richter, this was because of the energy requirements: even if the suit had jets, the microfusion reactor wouldn’t be able to sustain them for more than a single minute. It was still incredible technology, but nothing like he’d seen in movies or read in books. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Flying with the sword was like being a balloon pulled in the wake of a car, and he needed to make the power armor rigid in order to not sway and twist as the sword moved. It was a slower method of travel than leaping from building to building with the suit, but took none of the suit’s limited battery, and was quiet as a whisper. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ The helmet of the armor had no glass or slit to see out of. Instead, cameras on the exterior of the suit were used to gather visual information, which was then projected onto Perry’s eyes, in what felt like a very roundabout way of doing things. The upside to this was that augmented reality was readily available, and an unobtrusive ‘screen’ popped up in the corner of Perry’s vision, giving him a map of this new city. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ Perry removed his backpack and leaned forward slightly to give the drone the best angle. It shot up from the small of his back, just barely clearing his helmet, then unfolded in mid-air, righting itself immediately and spinning up its blades. It was, he had to admit, a very cool method of launching, but it felt very much like something that Richter had done for the purposes of being cool, since it could just as easily have been removed and taken off gently from the palm of his hand. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ Perry held out his hand, and the drone landed on it, folding itself up until it was small enough to fit inside its nook on his back. He pushed it in gently, feeling a bit of relief when it clicked into place and began recharging. The drone was small and delicate, and there was no way he could replace it or make repairs. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ “March, send up the drone,” said Perry. “Scan what you can, make a map of the surroundings, get me a feel of the tech level. [...] Make a note of electronics, if you see any,” said Perry. “Vehicles, power sources, power lines, that kind of thing.” - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ “No one in armor at all. You had asked about the technology levels, sir, and there were a number of people with percussion-cap pistols. I also spotted cannons at the coast, sir, pointed outward, and cannons on a number of the ships. [...] I’ve found crude telegraph systems which appear to be powered through electrochemical batteries.” - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ “Mapping complete, sir,” said Marchand. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 The power armor was airtight, largely because Richter had lived on the Pacific coast and loved to go diving. She’d had her own, smaller power armor, and they’d gone together, descending down in the heavy armor until they were walking on the seafloor. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ A small ‘gill’ filtered out oxygen from the air or water, making the suit perfectly breathable in virtually any conditions. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ Perry had become aware that he was being protected from the smells of the city.
“Marchand, open up the helmet please,” said Perry.
“Outside air quality is unacceptable,” said Marchand. A small indicator showed up in the bottom-right of Perry’s vision, ‘AQM 342’, which meant nothing to him, and below that, a list of pollutants in parts per million. Arsenic, sulfur, carbon monoxide, and lead were all listed. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World - ↑ “Sonic scan,” said Perry, placing his hand against the roof at a place that looked like it might have a support beam.
“Scanning,” said Marchand.
Sound was where the suit excelled. It might have been nice to have penetrating thermal cameras or X-ray vision, but instead the suit had Richter’s speciality, which were microphones. As Perry sat with his hand against the house, Marchand was taking in sounds from dozens of microphone and doing inaudible pings, some of them through the outstretched hand. The sounds would help to build a map of the house, along with the locations of the people within it.
After five minutes, a map popped up on Perry’s HUD, showing all the house’s rooms, along with all seven of the occupants. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World - ↑ “March, scan for radio signals,” said Perry.
“Scanning,” Marchand replied. “Nothing yet.” - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World - ↑ “If you can move close enough to the telegraph lines, I should be able to intercept the signals, if a transmission is in progress,” said Marchand. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ The faceplate was still up, but Marchand could still talk into his ear. In fact, there was a detachable earpiece so they could stay in communication even at a distance, if Perry had to step out of his armor for an extended period of time — which it seemed like he would. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ He hoped that gold was worth something here, and that he’d be allowed to walk into a store while dressed like a relatively wealthy medieval nobleman. His two sets of outfits were that, or the skinsuit that he wore beneath the armor. Of them, he thought that the medieval tunic and tights would be less noteworthy. - Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World
- ↑ "I don’t think I can spend every single night in armor though.” “Why not?” asked Maya. “It’s uncomfortable,” said Perry. He had grown to feel like that was a sadly overlooked fact about armor, a detail that sailed straight by most modern depictions of what it was actually like to wear the stuff. “Huh,” said Maya. “Mine breathes like fine cotton.” “I had a cloth undersuit,” said Perry. “It’s toast though, nothing but scraps, and I don’t even have the scraps.” “I had a cloth undersuit,” said Perry. “It’s toast though, nothing but scraps, and I don’t even have the scraps.” - Thresholder, Chapter 29 - Tea Time
- ↑ The suit’s on-board AI had been smarter when it had been connected to Richter’s massive computing resources, powerful enough that it was almost human. With the hop to another world, it had been cut off from half its brain, and working around the limitations had become a routine part of Perry’s day. Certain concepts hadn’t been coded in, and where Marchand would normally be able to compensate, that was no longer possible.- Thresholder, Chapter 1 - A Whole New World