Project THOUGHT was originally an independent effort by Shosa Kage Yaichiro to remove key bottlenecks from used Power Armor by designing a LAMIA-size machine which was controlled by thought alone, and did not have the joints of the Armor inhibited by the pilot's limbs being placed within. Not only did this increase the agility of the so-called Thought Armor, but it served various other key goals.
Whether or not this would replace normal Power Armor was debatable at the time, but a slightly larger Thought Armor had the capacity to include more powerful systems in addition to its higher agility. This gave the potential for yet higher performance, something which has since been realized in part by larger Mecha.
Project THOUGHT originally sought to study Power Armor and Mecha technology to find other bottlenecks which are not obvious by the base statistics alone, and to implement features to increase survivability. However, as time progressed, it became applied to general production efforts of Yaichiro's which were in a prototyping phase.
In YE 30; Kage Yaichiro participated in an operation to reclaim his Commanding Officer, Ketsurui Hanako. This mission required him to utilize a Power Armor, but unfortunately none which could accommodate him AND utilize stealth were available. Lacking these technologies, he was forced to again rely on an older Power Armor which had long been deemed obsolete by that point. This was the second time in his service that a Super Phalanx M1 Space Marine Armor's capabilities were insufficient when compared to the more modern and height-restrictive Power Armor of his comrades, and the second time it nearly cost him his life.
There were key features of the Super PHALANX, however; which he found useful, which got him contemplating about the old machines and what had been lost and gained in the march of progress. He began to look past the base specifications of speed, weapons loadout, and armor materials; to the actual technologies utilized. It was then that certain bottlenecks became obvious to him, and Project THOUGHT was initialized.
After deciding on the LAMIA to be the testbed, which was thankfully perfect for his needs and fairly plentiful, he began the process of analysis and refitting. Unlike most projects before, however, this was done on his own funds; independently from the major manufacturers. A major cause of this was that Star Army Logistics had declined selling the LAMIA to him, instead offering them in exchange for ownership of his results. As he was unsure of if the Star Army would even use said technology since it could essentially overturn the basis of Power Armor technology of the time, and that it could as easily be shelved so no one could ever use it if they held the rights. Due to this he got the LAMIA through other (still legal) channels. While pushing the Colonization Project of YE 30 and the construction of the Ayame Layer-class Logistics Ship in clear public view, Project THOUGHT initialized far more quietly. Though not a black project, it was fully independent simply because Yaichiro wanted to maintain full control rather than deal with assorted factions and corporations; at least during the early phases. However, as Yaichiro had shown general interest in using LAMIA for R&D to Star Army Logistics as well as returned the restricted elements of the LAMIA he had purchased to the Star Army anonymously, he proceeded with awareness that there was a slight chance that the Star Army would catch on to this effort if he did not proceed with care.
The project started in YE 30 with a single development LAMIA being tested in the shipyard at Nishitama City. An enlarged cockpit and four different limb configurations were tested in the cobbled-together unit for the gathering of data, to determine which configuration gave the greatest reaction time. The peacetime status and Yaichiro's personal life slowed down research for a time, but the appearance of the NMX and the emergence of assorted Mecha designs prompted the Officer to resume his work, giving Project THOUGHT its second wind as it entered the Beta phase.
With the NMX using captured SAoY designs and the possibility of an information leak, Yaichiro elected to keep his research quiet and independent through the Beta phase as well, though the designs hopefully would eventually aid the SAoY in gaining victory.