The Sever is still a long way away from the beast mecha of the Forerunners but is the closest to date any human has come to independently creating an artificial life form of comparable size. In a lot of ways you can think of it as a "false-beast mecha."
The late Doctor was an expert in robotic engineering and computer science but his side hobbies were archaeology and paleontology. Osprey also loved ornithology and was said by his family and peers to have been an avid birdwatcher. He tried his whole life to make mecha that had movement similar to the hunting patterns of his beloved Falconiformes and theorized that ancient raptors behaved in a similar manner on prehistoric Earth.
This is most evident in his crowning glory, the Sever Mech. On purchasing one, I christened her the Eagle II and after installing Battle AI software on a CAL 9000 in Eagle's cockpit, discovered for myself as I used her to fight that the Eagle II wasn't in the strictest sense just another machine, but also a pet dinosaur.
I swear the Sever seems to actually "enjoy the thrill of the hunt." The bond a pilot shares with his or her Sever is about as close as you can get to that experienced by pilots of Giguses, Skriags, Nakshis and Jadoons without using a biological interface.
I booted Eagle's CAL and turned on the Battle AI. Her eye gleamed and beak clicked. "What is it girl, do you want to hunt?" I strapped myself in. Eagle's engines roared to life and within moments we were out charging our way across buttes and mesas, running down pirates in the canyon all afternoon. To an observer, watching a Sever Mecha in action is comparable to seeing a hawk go after mice.
I collected their bounties that evening, told Eagle she was a good girl and the next day after I gave her a nice new coat of MechWax in the morning we repeated our little routine.
It's kind of a shame that Dr. Osprey never got a chance to see the Sever Mech completed within his lifetime, since it is truly a unique and remarkable Mecha.
Submitted by Mycobacter #712744