What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[lost star]

True to the hidden man's words, Bolt had been invited along, and he'd accepted the offer. You did not refuse the MTA, not if you wanted to win. He didn't resent it. Resentment implied anger at his circumstances. He was mostly still trying to process it all. Also Rats frequently didn't have choices in their life. Placating the more powerful to survive was just a fact of life.

"Hey Bolt, they found Ghoul too! I thought she was going to be left to rust. Instead they gave her to your parents and she's gonna be fixed!" Lilly bounced in the seat with more than a little glee. If the past few days had effected her it was impossible to say.

He wasn't going to press her though, especially here where they were likely under intense surveillance. "That's great to hear!" Bolt responded as he looked around the area. "Though if ya still wanna pilot her we'll probably need to revise the design."

He was probably more than a little uncomfortable despite his attempts at nonchalance. He'd never expected to leave the planet, and on an MTA transport at that. Sure it was an older model used for their sector, but it alone was probably worth more than their entire world. The decoration alone was so expensive that he was afraid to touch it. The seats were plush and comfortable, and there was enough room in just this holding area to build a mech. Most disorientating was that he was alone aside from Lilly. There'd never been a point in his life where he'd not been around at least a few family members.

Lilly hopped up and sat in his lap. "You do gotta relax you know?" She said into his ear.

"Bit hard, and this ain't making it easier." The young man said with a strangled tone as he suddenly recalled more than a few things he'd been putting off for later.

"Why? We're gonna get married soon and we're gonna do more than just this ya know?" The girl teased with a wide grin.

All right, time to address one thing he'd been putting off. "Lilly." Bolt breathed out before reaching down, grabbing her, and throwing her into the a nearby couch in a sudden motion. "Bit fast dear." He stated and leaned forward. "While I like you, and have no objections to the." He fumbled slightly as the idea struck again before continuing. "Marriage, lets actually get to know each other before then ok?"

Rather than looking dismayed the girl looked delighted. "That's perfect, and you have a pet name already! I'm perfectly fine with that, but I do expect a lot of cuddles now. Gimmie." She demanded.

"Fine." Bolt sighed and rolled his eyes as the girl hopped right back over and resettled herself on his lap looking very smug. "So, you were that attached to Ghoul?"

"It's the first mech you made for me. I plan on using a lot more, but I want to keep her." Lilly explained happily.

"As good a reason as any I suppose. What should we do to make her better though. Should probably shift her into a light mech configuration and adjust the weapons. Maybe find a good jump-" The girl poked him hard in the side. "Sorry."

With a giggle Lilly just nuzzled into his shoulder. "Ain't gonna complain about you getting lost in work, just expect me to demand me time when we're together sometimes. Now, I got a question that just occurred to me. What's the name of our planet?"

Bolt restrained a laugh and gave his girl a hug with one arm as he explained. "Oh that's complicated. The thing has five names. One official designation, three others from the nations around it, and what we call it. They like renaming it every time someone controls it a bit before the others grab it. If someone asks, call it G309 or the Rust Bucket. That's what we call it."

"And we're going to a place that won't even know that name." Lilly continued with an amused note in her voice.

"We're going into the Land of Serene Temples." Bolt confirmed with a small eye roll. "I got just the brief history, but they're an offshoot of an old Earth Religion called Buddhism. Really militant and like using spearmen or a local variant they call staffmen. They're the most open of the bunch, sorta. They'll invite people no matter who they are if they agree to fights. They called our place Bloody Karma."

Lilly's good mood dropped. "I remember one other one, Vesia or something like that."

"Ya got the name right. They're a feudal place, currently at war with someone else, dunno who. They like missiles, a lot of them. They're why we call most offworlders royals." Bolt explained before continuing. "The last one, since yer probably going to ask, is Empties. They're another religious offshoot, this one Catholic, but they follow something they called the Third Holy Book. Don't know the details. They're very isolationist. Think the history is they came in with the Buddhists and another group, then split hard over disagreements."

"And they like a weapon type too." The girl noted with a grin.

"Fire apparently. They're also very defensive and apparently the Vesians hate fighting them on their home turf, which is why they go to war with the other saps more often." Bolt gave a shrug. "I dunno much more than that. That's all my lessons on em. Got a few cousins that get really into safe handling for fire, which is why I even got that much."

"More than I got. All I got was they're all nobles and that guy that Poppa sold me to was so fake that it made me ill."

Well that was a loaded statement that Bolt wasn't sure how to process. He changed the subject to something inconsequential. Casual talk meant to pass the time. The ship they were in was an MTA auxiliary ship, so it took only a two days to travel to their destination. Both Lilly and Bolt took that time to relax and de-stress from their most recent trials.

Of mild amusement was that they both used the gym during that time. Bolt was used to hefting a few things around daily so he needed something to be active. Weightlifting turned out to be satisfactory for that and a rather soothing way to think. Lilly worked a lot on her flexibility and using various weapons to practice. It was a surprisingly companionable activity to do together, so they agreed to try to do it more often in the future.

The planet they were aiming for was called Bengalin. It was one of the better developed planets of that nation, filled with stately temples built in old earth Buddhist styles, and other religious icons, it looked more like a tourist spot than anything else. It was clean, just a bit gaudy, and loud. It was also not surprising to note that it had an absolutely thriving mech industry, with arena matches almost hourly somewhere on the planet. There were apparently even fights around temples an added local flavor. Those matches made it a point to deal damage everywhere but the temple.

Put simply, the name of nation was completely and utterly false. The Land of Serene Temples was filled with battle maniacs. Their children were raised up with staves in hand, and their battle lust was notorious. Even outsiders had heard of some of their exploits.

Despite, or perhaps because of this, they were very welcoming to outsiders. If you wanted to fight, you could find someone with a smile on their face ready to fight. If they died in battle? Then ah well, it was a good life. It was probably why Lilly and Bolt had been brought to the MTA facility on this planet. Getting people willing to fight Lilly was far easier here than any other place.

That was mostly a guess by Bolt. He had very little involvement in most of the decisions. In point of fact, soon after he landed, he was directed to a guest room and then ushered into a set of long tests that rather hurt his brain from the thinking required. He didn't get the point of half of them. Some of them were quite obvious tests of his ability. Others were less so. His best guess was that they were educational and cognition checks, but the physical checks were just a bit strange. You didn't say no to the MTA though, so even if it felt silly he went along with all of them.

It took three days before he they were finished with him. Lilly by contrast had started slow and was now spending most of the day piloting various things. Their brief contacts indicated that the MTA had thought her claims of being able to pilot anything an exaggeration and were now trying to test her on that.

Amusing as it was seeing the girl exhausted, it left Bolt fairly free. So he decided that he had to investigate what was available.

 

[Golgotha]

The hidden master was wrong, he claimed 2 days testing but it was 3!

This is a non issue, but I wanted to post something other than "thanks for the chapter"

 

[ThunderBasilisk]

I wonder why this story doesn't have a lot of traffic? Its not like it's bad and it's Mecha! Who doesn't like that!?

 

[lost star]

I blame the area it's in! More seriously, mecha actually isn't that popular outside a visual medium and the thing it's based on is a niche web novel with issues. TBH if spacebattles did have like 200 likes I would have dropped it.

As is I'm having enough fun and there's enough engagement across both sites that I'm content right now.

 

[Pyro Hawk]

And being fair, the fact it's on SB probably means most of the people who would comment over here are commenting over there instead. Now, if after the marriage there was certain scenes written, then you might-

Glances at which forum section this is in.

Ah. Yeah well, I guess you both won't get that attraction factor on this site and you also are in the 'Cursed Section'. That would absolutely do it.

 

[Golgotha]

Yeah, I found it by literal accident. As in, I accidentally clicked on the clean section rather than nsfw.
It's a bit of a circular problem, nobody reads in the creative writing because nobody writes creative writing section because nobody reads in the creative writing section.

 

[lost star]

Profile of Candidate Lilly, no last name. First Draft.

Name: Lilly, child of Wrecker (Deceased) and Cian Lewin (Alive, current location somewhere in the Farday Coalition, location pending)
Age: 18
Height: 149 CM (4'11'')
Hair Color: Bright Red
Eye Color: Bright Green
Aptitude: A

History: Subject was born on planet 70021-G309, AKA Rust Bucket, AKA Bloody Karma, AKA Shithole, AKA Honor's Graveyard. Current supposition is that the subject's mother produced her due to amusement or as a political statement of sorts. The woman has a history of erratic and self destructive behavior as well as a substance abuse problem. Subject was then left with subject's father, Wrecker, on planet G309. (Can someone please get a proper official name for that planet?)

Wrecker proceeded to raise the subject with as many benefits as a man of his station could allow. He had her tested in a undocumented facility by a black market medic and once he discovered her potential began a series of training exercises while attempting to make her malleable enough to take any order. This task failed.

The subjects father likely blamed the contact the subject made with subject fiancé. First hand testimony indicates that it likely failed soon after she became a teenager. The subject as an notable sensitivity in a variety of contexts, often to an excessive point and had correctly identified attempts to exploit her. She also has a psychosomatic reaction to various mech types, associating some with a cool sensation and others as scratchy, with a notable positive reaction to The Drowned Man. Some of it does appear to be testable, as 'scratchy' mechs have last been touched by technicians with poor attitudes, and cool mechs done by professionals or automation.

The above sensitivity is a known issue some mech pilots have, and typically fades with experience. Subject's sensitivity is on the high end of the scale, and will therefore require further testing. Regardless, the subject has been rated on the upper percentile of potential, and is considered an excellent pilot for her age and experience. She has proven able to pilot any mech configuration, up to and including animal style mechs, and learn to use any weapon with a minimal amount of time.

Were she raised or found earlier, the subject would be a prime candidate for the MTA piloting division due to lack of ties and sheer skill. Unfortunately the effort of both educating her in First Rate Mechs and addressing her flawed upbringing makes this unfeasible. Testing will be extended and then the subject will be returned to her planet of birth.

(Subject's mother used an unknown geneticist to produce her. We are currently unable to locate her or the doctor at this time. While it is not unusual for people to disappear from civilization, this render's the subject's birth highly suspect. Some of her alterations do not make sense. The freckles and short size are just the most obvious. There are a few other internal adjustments, including what appears to be minor dyslexia. Designer children have that removed as a matter of course. Report will be amended once this discrepancy has been addressed.)


Initial Profile of Candidate Fiancé

Name: Bolt Silica, child of two natives of 70021-G309, AKA Rust Bucket, AKA Bloody Karma, AKA Shithole, AKA Honor's Graveyard
Age: 19
Height: 185 CM (6') (Subject shows of still growing)
Hair Color: Dull Red
Eye Color: Brown
Aptitude: None

History: Subject is an aspiring mech designer. Subject has no official education, nor any official backers. Candidate Lilly considers only mechs he designs as fully acceptable and warm by her standards. This psychosomatic response my be associated with her attachment to subject. As there is only one current mech the subject has produced, further testing is impossible and will be placed on hold.

Subject is was born and raised as a technician, and has a paltry level of understanding of various technical tasks. Projected advancement is unlikely, and if so not past Journeyman Mech Designer due to faulty education. The subject is noted as having had created a masterwork mech in their family's workshop, named The Drowned Man. This does indicate possible skill in assembly, but Masterworks have been observed to appear at random in mass production lines as well. There are no other things of note aside from their relationship with Candidate Lilly.

Despite appearance, Subject is not genetically adjusted in any way. They are simply in the upper percentile of strength and size, which is only notable because his profession typically has people not interested in physical fitness. There have been two tests for genetic tampering, and an official analysis from an expert. Further testing is therefore denied. (Once was understandable, twice is just checking. We are people of reason. We are not doing it a third time. Remove this note before the official report is done.)


-Vesia Kingdom in the Selah Household-

Baron Selah set down the report that had recently crossed his desk and took a deep breath. He wasn't naive enough to think that was all of it. It was exactly what the MTA wanted him to see, no more, no less. Spies there existed at their behest and received regular reminders that the MTA knew exactly where they were. This was simply an invitation to play and a reminder of their place. They were at the bottom, but so long as they played by the rules they wouldn't be stepped on. They could even be thrown crumbs if they were good boys. It wasn't worth getting worked up about. They were peasants compared to the MTA, and being angry about that reminder would only hurt him.

His best guess was that this was a vague approval to pursue recruiting Lilly. An A rank potential was a prize worth his entire barony even with the problems that would come with recruiting what amounted to a savage from a wasteland. He had to pursue that no matter what. Failure to do so would at a minimum result in a severe political loss.

The problem was naturally that others would want to pursue her too. Conflict was inevitable. It might have already been started. His third son had taken the household forces to that little bloody planet in that little temper tantrum after all. In retrospect that was likely related to this report and he should have paid more attention to it, but the young man was a grown adult. Fighting there was almost a right of passage for their barony. There was a minor clash there every year sometimes. The boy should have gone over, gotten into a few fights and come limping home in triumph or failure. That would have been the end of it in any other year.

Baron Selah let out his breath and rang a bell. A second later his butler came in, silent and ready to serve. The noble didn't bother to do more than be sure he was present before giving his orders. "Arrange a expedition to Honor's Graveyard. A full battalion. Pack for a long expedition, and assume that those Bloody Monks and the Fanatics will be there as well. Have them ready to deploy there in six months." A few bribes had informed him that the girl would be in evaluation that long, which was good because it allowed him to get his people in place.

The butler bowed. "As you command sir." He said and waited a moment for further orders.

"While that is happening, arrange an accident for my third son. Make it painful, non-lethal, but something that will take time to recover from and force him to return." The Baron continued before frowning and looking back at the incomplete report the MTA had likely gifted him. That second entry felt suspicious somehow. No one cared about novice mech designers. Why had this one been reported? Aside from the attachment, something felt suspicious. "For that expedition, do we usually have Mech Designers with them?"

Still maintaining the bow the butler answered. "I do not have the exact numbers at this time sir. I know we have a single Senior assigned, but not what else sir."

"Then pass this report and note to the senior. Have him evaluate the report." The Baron pushed the report forward on his desk and did a quick write up of what he wanted. "Destroy both papers after he reads them. His eyes only. Pass on anything he believes might be needed, and inform him that he has full permission to request anything. He should be able to identify the value of this."

"It will be done sir."

Once his butler left the Baron settled back in his seat. With the war on the other side of the nation this was risky. Should the other two countries escalate then he'd have nothing to answer them with. The other barons could and would not add their own forces to something like this despite the possible rewards. Conflicts over that blasted planet brought no glory, only pain and bloodshed. Even the prospect of an Expert Pilot wouldn't draw them in.

Fortunately he didn't think it'd come to a full war. That idiot savant of a pilot called the place home. The other nations, should the be interested, wouldn't want to spook her that much. If he was right they were already planning something similar due to a copy of the report he'd just read. Sometimes the MTA was not subtle in what it wanted.

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

Sometimes the MTA was not subtle in what it wanted.

Click to shrink...

I mean naturally. She can't level up if she doesn't have flesh for the grinder proper opponents.

 

[lost star]

Say what you will about the MTA, but they were generous when it suited them. Doubly so because he'd been invited, or ordered, to come in depending on your viewpoint. They wanted him cooperative, so he'd been showered with a veritable wealth of options. Crumbs from the MTA's viewpoint, but priceless to him. Money, free transport to anywhere on the planet, educational materials, and a room on their facility that had the latest and greatest appliances of a second rate nation.

Of those, the educational materials were the most enthralling, but Bolt decided to limit himself on that. While he could and would pursue them, they were also a bit dangerous for him. They were excellently crafted mind you, but they were designed for aspiring MTA apprentice mech designers. That meant they were applicable to designing first rate mechs, needed enhanced mental abilities, and often assumed very advanced things that had already been taught. The aspiring designer had a sneaking suspicion that they were only allowed because the officials assumed he couldn't parse anything from them. That he could felt like a minor miracle, but he typically had a migraine that could become debilitating if he tried to push to hard.

In an effort to keep busy between lessons Bolt leaned upon another benefit instead. He had access to a high quality simulation pod. This meant he could access online games and sims. Normally that'd be just a frivolous expenditure of time, but one game prided itself on realism, and even the MTA facility admitted that it was used frequently for practice in this sector. Better for Bolt's purposes, it had a functional in game economy that traded mechs.

This sounded silly as a bonus. It was if he'd been looking for something to just pass the time. In truth this was immensely useful to him. Bolt had never actually sold a mech he'd designed. He'd kind of sort of done it for Lilly, but that was Lilly and their unique circumstances. As much as he'd been growing fond of the girl, he had to admit she was a distinctly unique customer. Bolt did not want to be just her designer. Not only was that limiting to him, it'd hurt her progress as well. He'd rather die than cripple her because his abilities were substandard.

Iron Spirit was the name of the game. It was also a game that tried to be as realistic as possible. It didn't always get everything right, and it made some sacrifices for the sake of making it a game, but it tried and succeeded in many respects. As a designer, you designed mechs, you made mechs, and you sold mechs in it. The pilots then piloted those mechs in matches. It had a few other rules to make it fun, but it was very close to real life in many respects.

His biggest complaint as a designer was that everything worked exactly as expected. That was nitpicking and he knew it. He was sure other people didn't have to worry about their printer or winch breaking down during construction. It made things really easy for him at least. After some time familiarizing himself with everything, Bolt was able to replicate Ghoul and The Drowned Man within a day.

This gave him his first annoyance. Or third more accurately. Licensing was two. The young man hadn't actually had to deal with that, and it was expensive! Fortunately the MTA had basically gifted him a small war chest once he'd joined the game, so he could do what he wanted. (Suspicious yes. He wasn't looking too hard.)

His third annoyance was that the closest replica he could make of Ghoul was rated at two stars. The Drowned Man at three. Stars were based on how the mech was assembled and the parts it was made of more than anything else. Since these mechs were using old parts, they got lower ratings. Bolt had a sneaking suspicion that they'd function at a higher level provided you could pilot them, but that could have been his bias talking. He had no idea how non-Lilly people would handle them.

"I should probably revise Ghoul." Bolt mused as he looked over the two mechs to his name.

The Drowned Man was functional enough that he didn't feel as if revising it would be worth it at the moment. Ghoul however was his first real mech, and it showed. She was a nightmarish mess of parts. Her role and form didn't mesh right. Her inbuilt weaponry was bad.

Well, Bolt had the time, and simulations were really good for wild and wacky ideas and changes. All he had to do was slim down the armor some, add boosters, and shift around a few parts for a quick fix. It took a few hours at best. This made her a light mech instead of a medium, but that made her role more obvious and easy to perform, which then made her more accessible. For the weapon problem he reinforced the jaw and teeth and then added a small acid sprayer in the throat. It wouldn't cause serious damage, nor did it have range, but it'd weaken the enemy's armor when used and would provide a surprise. This necessitated an alloy change for the armor on Ghoul so she couldn't hurt herself with her weapon, but she was using the most generic of the generic before so this functionally changed nothing in her performance.

It upped her cost slightly, but still kept her at two stars. That was enough for now in Bolt's opinion. He could add or adjust more later, but he wanted Lilly's opinion before he considered making changes in the real world. This was enough for the game.

Since he had a two star and a three star, Bolt then decided he needed a one star!

This was limiting even for him. He'd made his living on junk mechs. They were typically low profile, low power consumption, low everything. They were made of salvaged parts. You couldn't get good performance from that. One Star mechs in the game almost made them look luxurious. The only good thing about them was that they were cheap. They were meant for beginners ultimately. The new players and the like had to start with one stars and work their way up. It was both incentive and a way of keeping new players from straining themselves with really complicated mechs.

A terrible need filled the young man as he looked over everything. He couldn't do much, but he did already have two undead. Why not a third? This was because of one question and answer. What was the most generic and disposable undead? A zombie!

Now this was easy on the surface. You could make a zombie-like mech easily. There were actually a few very cheap frontline mechs that looked like that already in the game. Bolt didn't want just cheap though, he wanted it to be good too.

Starting from the ground up. Simple frame, simple generator. No boosters at all, this was a deliberate choice this time. Weapon was...

Tricky, tricky. Bolt wanted to be fancy. He'd managed to brush up on his weaponry and he did want to get better at them. He didn't want to bump the cost up too much. Also zombies didn't really use weapons!

Eventually the designer settled on a club. The vision came together more after that. He added extra armor to one shoulder and gave it a sort of swollen appearance. Then he shifted the musculature and how it would move by default. This was a shambling undead that didn't care about appearances. He wanted to lurch towards his enemy!

Zombie would move with the heavy armored shoulder forward and shamble a bit. The club would stay behind and be a bit concealed. Also drag slightly. It was basically a blunt metal bar. It wouldn't be damaged by that. Theme was more important here. Bolt didn't want just a mech, he wanted a zombie mech. It required some serious work on the programming and the skeleton to make it look just right, but the effect was worth it.

Bolt wanted this functional too though. All of this movement was good for the outward appearance but it could cause issues if he didn't specifically account for it. So he made sure the muscles were properly defined and smoothed out the targeting system so that the mech could swing the club just right despite the awkward angle it would frequently be in. The simulations indicated that the strike would have a terrific wallop, so Bolt felt satisfied with his work on the first pass. Zombie wouldn't be elegant, but the brute force had it's own charm.

There was one problem though. The mech lacked an answer to range and kiting. It was not fast enough to handle most of that. The deliberate low cost and focus on theme gave him a decidedly average movement speed compared to other mechs. He'd made sure the mech could sprint some to make it unpredictable, but it wasn't going to win speed contests.

His decision came after a bit of thought. "You know what? This is kind of a joke mech anyway." The young man scrolled through available parts and found a very big and free bomb.

He then placed it in the head and added a few small thrusters. There, perfect! If all else failed, you could throw the head at them! (Bolt added a backup sensor to make it so that the mech wasn't totally blind when this happened. Part of what made this funny was that it was still functional.)

Assembling his little joke was honestly a joy. The simple parts made it easy to put together, and he had a particular bit of entertainment in detailing Zombie to look very zombie like. Green painting with little details to make it look a bit decayed. He even added a speaker to do a loud zombie moan at the end. This was a proper undead monster.

Bolt finished far too satisfied with himself. It almost made up for the fact that it only occurred to him after he placed the mechs on the market that he had no idea how Iron Soul's markets actually worked! Would he sell instantly or something else? How did advertising work?

"Shit." The mech designer cursed to himself as he realized he had an entirely new thing to educate himself on.

 

[Golgotha]

Throwing your own head is hilarious.
But seriously, lean into it instead!
Take the senses out of the head, pack it full of more acid explosives than anyone else even carries, and curve the end of the club so you can use it as a makeshift spear thrower.
You would get some honestly insane range and speed from it.

 

[Luker number 5]

Now will Bolt keep with the undead theme or will the next challenge cause him to pivot? Will the four star be some multi-limbed abomination againsts gods and good sense? What about a land octopus mech?

 

[VCP]

Huh. Ya know, an explosive yeet-able head would probably work for a "Headless Horseman" themed mech.

 

[Simonbob]

His decision came after a bit of thought. "You know what? This is kind of a joke mech anyway." The young man scrolled through available parts and found a very big and free bomb.

He then placed it in the head and added a few small thrusters. There, perfect! If all else failed, you could throw the head at them! (Bolt added a backup sensor to make it so that the mech wasn't totally blind when this happened. Part of what made this funny was that it was still functional.)

Assembling his little joke was honestly a joy. The simple parts made it easy to put together, and he had a particular bit of entertainment in detailing Zombie to look very zombie like. Green painting with little details to make it look a bit decayed. He even added a speaker to do a loud zombie moan at the end. This was a proper undead monster.

Click to shrink...

The MTA pilot and designers reviewing this mech are going to have a laugh.

Then, they'll realise it's reasonably good, and wonder about that, too. Silly, but effective.


He does put some X-factor into his mechs, doesn't he?

 

[lost star]

He does. He does it differently as you can tell. His mecha have personality basically.

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

He does. He does it differently as you can tell. His mecha have personality basically.

Click to shrink...

Other people make mechs that fill a role.

He makes mechs that fit the role.

 

[lost star]

Bolt was a sweety. Lilly wasn't shy about admitting that. She still got surprised when he decided to give her something! She hadn't even heard of this whole video game stuff, and once he'd found out he'd literally had to spend a few hours helping her get through it due to her lack of ability to read. Now here she was in a place where she could kill for fun with absolutely no consequences at all. Or more correctly, no real world consequences. Some people would rage and protest and all that.

Not her though. This was mostly a break from the testing and stupidity that the MTA was making her go through. Yes she was an expect candidate, yes could pilot anything, no she wasn't exaggerating. All the mechs felt so cold or scratchy too. It was enough to make her actually irritated towards the end of the day despite her desire to be on her best behavior. The VR stuff was rather soothing in contrast, and Bolt's creations still felt nice even through the muffled feeling that VR gave her. Not as good as actually piloting his stuff, but still good.

Imagine, the boy has actually meant to give her a discount! Not only was that silly, he had to have the money to make more mechs. She could earn plenty by winning.

Though that was a bit hard with Zombie. Not that he was a bad mech, just that he was a low tier mech. There was only so much you could do with low level parts and performance despite your skill. If he ever got above his star class the poor guy would lose every advantage that made it possible to win. He was hilarious enough that it didn't matter much admittedly. You could get some surprising wins just because of how unexpected his entire design was.

"So, ah, you're local right?" Lilly asked her current opponent as he approached, staff raised up to fight.

"What sort of question is that? And what is this ugly thing in front of me?" The probable teenager replied.

"This is Zombie, and really, I'm just starting so I asked. Dunno the rules that well." Lilly shifted Zombie such that the armored shoulder was forward.

"Of course, a zombie mech named zombie, original." The mild disgust from the guy was actually a bit entertaining. "If you wish to waste both our time with a joke then so be it." The man shifted his staff mech and swung.

The local variants had started off rather amusing but had gotten kind of stale in Lilly's opinion. About half her opponents had some sort of staffman. It was interesting at first, but there were only about ten popular types of that sort of mech at the level she was at currently and they were all very similar. There were only so many ways you could swing a staff and the parts available at one stars meant you could do practically nothing interesting equipment wise.

Case in point, she could tell just based on how his feet were where he was aiming and she knew he had no other tricks so she just had to position properly. Zombie's shoulder just happened to be in the right way to block the strike and then the staff went clang as it hit the most heavily armored portion of the mech. The metal dented and her mech itself shifted form the force of the blow, but it was mostly cosmetic damage. In return her club came round and the staffman couldn't even block it as out of position as it was. Which was bad for, because unlike the staffman's more precise and controlled strikes, Zombie had been built to swing hard in one or two directions. It might have been predictable, but if you got a good hit there was going to be some sort of damage.

In this case, one good strike had basically broke his stance and parts of his mech. The mech wasn't so poorly built that it'd die from one strike, but the damage was enough for her to decide that it was time for the best part.

"Don't lose your head over this." Lilly called out.

The teenage pilot had a moment to question her words before her own head tumbled off towards him and then went flying like a missile mid drop. Like every other time it had happened the opponent had no idea what was going on, that is until the hidden weapon exploded right on top of him. Bolt had packed a monstrous amount of explosive ordnance in the appendage so a good hit typically ranged from a kill to a disable. That was what happened here. The already staggered mech was blasted to the ground and all that was left to club him.

"That's my job!" The young woman fished her joke while giggling at the bad joke and finishing her opponent off.

Another win. She had one or two more matches before she had to go to bed. Or maybe bug Bolt first and demand more cuddles. That was important to maintain.

The next match was in an arena. Mildly boring. Her opponent wasn't any of the sort though. It was another zombie! Lilly felt her eyes widen.

"Oh my god, someone else got one already?!" She practically shouted.

Her opponent paused and the young voice responded back with a bit of shyness. "Ah, yes." The young boy said. "Yeah, it looked uh fun when you did it?" He continued. "I didn't expect to fight you again so soon." They continued in a lower and more embarrassed tone.

"We're going to be friends after I beat you." Lilly immediately threatened.

"Oh, ah, umm." The mech twitched from the pilot's obvious uncertainty before he steadied himself and then threw his head at Lilly suddenly and without warning.

"Haha that's the spirit!" Lilly activated the boosters on her own Zombie's head and the two heads collided in midair to explode in a duel annihilation. Then she charged forward and met her opponent midpoint in the arena.

What followed next was less skill and more clubbing. Zombie wouldn't win many rewards for many things. He hit hard and had a funny explosion thing, that was about it. Without the head he'd be kind of boring really. With it he was entertaining. Also, sometimes you just wanted to hit something with a big stick and damn the consequences. Zombie was very, very good at that, and he could take a surprising amount of damage before he went down thanks to his simplicity and armored shoulder. Two of them fighting against one another was felt like a pair of primitives hitting each other with clubs than a mech battle though. Which was actually pretty cathartic, Lilly wasn't going to lie.

It became even more fun when she got friended the kid, who's name was Jun. Getting him and his friends to get zombies too and doing a zombie horde on five vs five teamplay was probably the most fun she'd ever had. It only won about half the time, and that was frequently because of her, but it was always hilarious. There was something funny about throwing five heads through the air at enemies. They always got so surprised at the action they couldn't respond in time and it always took out at least one foe. Once they even managed to get four of them at once!

Lilly got so into it that she missed cuddle time with her boy-toy and ended up having less sleep for the next series of testing. Not that the latter mattered much. Right now she was going through practice in animal mechs. Mostly just them trying to push her limits in her opinion. She liked dog mechs the best out of all of them, but bird mechs were a close second. If she ever got more than a few hours worth of practice she would probably have liked them more. Flying mechs were the closest she'd come to not being able to pilot something she found. She could, but she needed actual practice.

That discovery left her irritated, but only mildly so. She'd have to find a bird mech to practice eventually. She was still pleased enough to find Bolt during his studying and give him a poke. And then a cuddle from the back.

"I got to play through your new mech! Zombie's... Interesting." Lilly said into his ear and grinned at his shiver.

Bolt carefully set down the comm and the material he was looking through. "I was wondering why I'd seen a few sales. How'd ya like it?"

"In real life it'd be a failure. In game it works. It's a plodding target in open areas, but it's easy to use which is more than can be said for a lot of mechs. Once it closes in it's on par with melee mechs while it's shoulder armor lasts, and the head thing is hilarious. I made so many jokes." The pilot responded seriously before she continued in a more chipper tone. "I should rank up soon and be able to use Ghoul, then onto The Drowned Man. Those two are probably enough to get higher, where there's more team fighting." Lilly trailed off as something occurred to her. "How would that misty thing work if there were a lot of Drowned Men?"

It took a moment for the designer to think on it before he answered. "It should be able to run in moderate rain for about a day, but mist is less dense. Assuming they're closer together they'd increase endurance by a few minutes. There's too many variables to say how much though. A noticeable amount at least."

Now she had something she wanted to try. It shouldn't be hard. It might require some more online friends, but those were relatively easy to get. Potential experts were rather lauded in game apparently and she was flashy and obvious enough that even amateurs could spot her talent.

"So now I want to do an undead horde using what you've made." Lilly told Bolt as she began to plot things out. "Think you could make another one for that? We got decent coverage but we'd need a bit more of something."

Bolt gave a small chuckle as he closed his eyes in thought. "It's possible. I have enough for a four star that I was planning on. After that I'd need more sales though. I was looking through how to do advertising, but that all requires money, reputation, or familiarity with the local scene. To be honest once I made the four star I was going to show you and stop."

"Oh why?" Lilly did not pout at the fact her new toy was already going to go away.

She didn't turn down the hug that he gave her before he responded. "It's good for learning a few things, but it's not reality, and we have too much to do."

That was admittedly true. Once they returned home they'd likely get right back into conflict. This felt like more of a vacation from everything than a chore, despite the extensive amount of piloting she had to do.

"A four star now, then a five star when you get more sales." Lilly demanded.

"You got it." Bolt promised easily.