Armor Upgrade
To resolve the issue of experimental equipment, Russell reached out to HYDRA.
Although he hadn't done anything since joining HYDRA, he believed they wouldn't refuse him the temporary use of their resources. After all, he was destined to become the leader of HYDRA.
In order to swiftly tackle the laboratory problem, he wasted no time and directly contacted Bakshi.
After hearing his request, Bakshi was momentarily stunned before responding. Although he wasn't sure what Russell intended to do, upon learning that Russell planned to study the Endosymbiotic Battle Armor, Bakshi immediately agreed without further ado.
What was a bit of laboratory equipment for? No problem, everything was at his disposal!
Not only laboratory equipment, but if Russell wanted a blonde-haired, black-stockinged female assistant, there wouldn't be any issue either.
With HYDRA's assistance, Russell's military technology laboratory was swiftly established.
The Octopus Monster Military Technology Laboratory!
Russell, who lacked naming creativity, directly used the name of his detective agency.
Once the laboratory was set up, Russell personally drove Peter to the laboratory.
The laboratory was located in Manhattan. Although it wasn't situated in one of the well-known office buildings, the surroundings were decent, and transportation was convenient.
The laboratory comprised three floors.
The first floor had a hall, reception area, and cafeteria. The second floor housed the laboratory, while the third floor was dedicated to offices.
Although Peter had extensively studied military technology for more than half a month, upon arriving at the laboratory on the second floor and seeing various instruments whose names he couldn't even pronounce, his youthful face involuntarily displayed a look of shock.
Apart from Russell and Peter, there were more than ten assistants in lab coats on the second floor.
These assistants were exclusively women, all of whom were young and possessed good figures and appearances.
Perhaps recognizing Russell's preferred criteria, these female assistants are all Caucasian and Asian.
Seeing the assistants that Bakshi had arranged, Russell increasingly felt that it was necessary to steer HYDRA, this long-established organization, back onto the right track.
While HYDRA and Bakshi had initially intended to send a few experienced scientists over, Russell turned them down without much thought.
Having HYDRA's scientists collaborate with Peter to study the Endosymbiotic Battle Armor was a recipe for disaster, and Russell didn't need to think twice to realize that.
Though Russell didn't mind giving HYDRA a taste of sweetness, like revealing some less critical derivative technologies from the battle armor, he wouldn't provide them with the core technology of the battle armor.
Whether it was the full liquid-state intelligent metal technology of the battle armor or the energy core and operating system used by the battle armor, he wouldn't share any of these technologies.
These technologies, such as the energy core of the battle armor, were more advanced than the miniature Arc Reactor Tony Stark currently used.
The reactor Tony was using still employed palladium, which, if used for an extended period, would lead to poisoning. He needed to discover a new element from Howard's exhibition model to address this problem.
After the somewhat bashful Peter greeted the curvaceous female assistants in their black stockings, Russell went alone to the office on the third floor.
Closing the door, he materialized the Endosymbiotic Battle Armor from his system space.
Rather than donning the suit, he activated its Sentry Mode.
The so-called Sentry Mode was essentially allowing the battle armor to perform tasks independently when no user was present.
As there was no wearer, the helmet of the battle armor was in its normal armored state rather than the "discreet" state that revealed the face and hair.
With the Endosymbiotic Battle Armor appearance, Russell went straight to the sofa chair behind his desk, addressing the artificial intelligence No. 3 within the suit. "Inspect all the laboratory systems, change permissions, reset the firewalls, establish private servers and databases. I want the laboratory to be clean and secure."
"Understood, sir!"
The battle armor's artificial intelligence system No. 3 promptly responded, and a synthesized electronic male voice sounded.
Performance-wise, the artificial intelligence No. 3 used by the Endosymbiotic Battle Armor was on par with Tony Stark's J.A.R.V.I.S.
However, unlike J.A.R.V.I.S., which had the backing of Stark Industries, No. 3's capabilities were currently limited. It couldn't match J.A.R.V.I.S.'s extensive resource mobilization.
J.A.R.V.I.S. could mobilize and utilize all of Stark Industries' resources, such as satellites and servers.
Although No. 3's performance wasn't inferior to J.A.R.V.I.S., it currently only had access to various systems on the battle armor.
Of course, if Russell agreed to let No. 3 perform hacking tasks, allowing it to infiltrate devices of other corporations and organizations while giving it time to develop, it could achieve similar feats as J.A.R.V.I.S.
However, at the moment, Russell didn't have such intentions.
The world was chaotic enough as it was, and he didn't want to provoke a technological crisis similar to Ultron's in this world.
As No. 3 controlled the battle armor to come before the desk, its right index finger transformed into an electronic plug and plugged into the computer interface in front of Russell.
Since the laboratory was established with Hydra's help, it was a given that Hydra had likely concealed quite a few surprises within it.
Although Russell wasn't a top-tier hacker like Skye, it didn't matter. He had No. 3.
Even if it were internal system intrusions within the laboratory, not to mention external intrusions, the difference was merely a matter of time for No. 3.
As No. 3 followed his instructions to inspect the laboratory, Russell picked up a blank piece of paper and started sketching.
Although Peter was a bright kid, developing an entirely new set of military technology from scratch wasn't an easy task.
Russell had high hopes for Peter, but at the moment, he didn't plan to have Peter undertake tasks beyond his current capabilities.
Peter wasn't Tony; he couldn't independently develop a battle armor from scratch. Thus, Russell's initial plan for Peter was relatively straightforward.
Upgrade the weapon system of the Endosymbiotic Battle Armor!
The current Endosymbiotic Battle Armor had only the arc pulse cannon in its palms and the particle cannon in its chest as its main weapon systems.
While the arc pulse cannon and particle cannon had several different modes, overall, the battle armor's weaponry wasn't particularly diverse.
Even when factoring in various scattered auxiliary combat systems, the battle armor was still a bit far from Russell's ideal.
Unlike Tony, Russell possessed formidable personal strength.
Thus, his approach to the battle armor differed from Tony's.
Artillery Platform!
He didn't require the battle armor to possess astonishing close-combat capabilities. What he needed was an artillery platform that could deliver large amounts of firepower at any time.
From this perspective, his approach to the battle armor leaned more toward being a firepower output similar to the War Machine's artillery platform.
The War Machine that Colonel Rhodes initially used was modified from the blank Mark II armor.
After being upgraded and modified by Hammer Industries, the originally lightly-armed Mark II became the heavily-armed War Machine.
Since Russell didn't plan to involve Hammer Industries in the battle armor's modifications, he'd delegate the task of enhancing its firepower to Peter.
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