What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[Golgotha]

Woohoo!
I'm also curious what elements suffered in the rush to build berserker.
I mean, other than the coolant evaporation instead of looking like blood. I honestly thought that was a happy accident to help the general mist field.

 

[lost star]

The College Clash was a yearly mech design contest sponsored by several colleges on the planet. So far as contests went it was more a vessel to show off their students than anything else. The prize was on the low side compared to other contests, the glamour wasn't particularly high, and the competition was essentially whomever signed up. Since it was open to the public, provided you had accepted credentials, this meant there was a fairly large large and eclectic crowd of participants. Bolt considered it a prime opportunity to get used to contests and see what working with other people was like. It also happened a few days after the first month, so Bolt would be able to adjust as needed for the latter contests.

To his mild annoyance there was a complication.

"Attention participants!" An official looking man called out soon after Bolt entered the waiting area. "Due to an overwhelming amount of designers deciding to participate in the competition, we will be adding an additional event. There shall be a test of your scholastic skill first. The top fifty percent will be allowed to continue."

"What?!" Someone shouted.

"We apologize for the last minute change. The test was only suppose to happen if we reached a certain number, and a few last minute participants hit that threshold. If you could kindly move to a nearby classroom, we will get this finished promptly." The man gestured to a side doorway. "This change was mentioned in the fine print of the sign up forms, so please do not waste your time protesting."

Some people most certainly did. Bolt simply moved to the other area and ignored them. He'd skimmed over the fine print before signing himself, and recalled something vague about 'we reserve the right to add or remove events based off contestant numbers.' It wasn't worth getting worked up over to him.

What was getting worked up over was the damned test in question. It was a mix of insults. Some questions were pitifully easy. Others were of local history, which Bolt had absolutely no interest in at all. There was even a religious question! Why was this on a damned test about mech design?! He wasn't even from the planet, how would he know what they considered correct?

Fortunately he just had to do better than half the competitors. The technical questions were easy enough that he was sure he aced them, so he got through with a decent enough score. It did make him more than a little irritated when he made his way towards his assigned team.

"We're doomed. Completely and totally condemned to the nine hells!" The words that met him as he approached were not encouraging. Then the speaker saw him and gestured. "Look, a sign of our impending demise, a meathead thinking he's a designer!!!"

"Excuse me?" Bolt asked as calmly as he could.

"Look at him, he doesn't even look like he knows the difference between a bolt and rivet!" The young man with shaggy brown hair gestured up at Bolt.

"He does look like he could snap you in two though." Another young man, this one with short cut black hair, coughed out with a bit of amusement.

"I would welcome the death over the humiliation!" The complainer said.

The words made the budding anger the designer have sputter. "I am missing somethin'." He said, perhaps a bit obviously.

"And a foreigner too!" The man mimed fainting.

"Please excuse Dai. He is lamenting many things at the moment. Namaste, I am Ando, that is Wu." The quieter boy said with a small bow before gesturing to the young woman with shoulder length black hair at his side that had been very quiet so far.

"There are plenty of things to lament." The now named Dai grumbled and crossed his arms. "Don't tell me you expect to win against him." The man hissed the last word out. "Especially as stacked as the teams are."

"Explain please?" Bolt asked Ando as it became apparent Dai was caught up in his own drama.

"Ah, the testing clause for this contest is only triggered when they want to stack the teams. Officially they try to balance the teams by averaging out the test results. Unofficially, they have their start student get a perfect score and then select aides purposefully get barely passing results." The boy explained with a small wince. "The other teams typically have people with actual lower scores as a result."

"It's very hard to prove, but we all know it happens." Dai grit out.

Bolt looked over his assigned team. "And I'm guessin that this is important to you all?" He asked curiously.

"Yes." Wu said into the silence and then looked at him with a complicated emotion on her face as she noticed his lack of care. "You don't care?"

"Not much. I have other contests I need ta win. This is just to get a feel for them and try working on a team." Bolt admitted freely.

"Perfect. We got a complete newbie!" Dai threw his hands up in the air. "How'd you even pass the test if you haven't done contests?!"

"Dai." Wu didn't put emphasis on the word, but the young man winced at the implied reprimand.

"Yeah yeah, sorry. This isn't the end of my life or anything, but I do need something so I'm not doomed to cup noodles and busy work!" The young man almost shouted before he huffed and gave a small bow of his own. "Nameste." Wu bowed as well.

"Uhmm. I'm sorry." Bolt drawled out as he tried to make sense of the greeting. "I don't get that?" He tried to bow but was sure it came out clumsy and awkward.

"Local greeting. Or rather nation wide to be more clear. The bow is fine. We don't expect it from foreigners." Ando replied with a small laugh. "Could we get your name though?"

"Yes! Sorry, I'm Bolt, and as you can guess I'm not from here." The young designer replied with a half smile as he straightened out. "So, could you explain how one designs as a team?"

"Oh for." Dai cut himself off.

"I believe I am the highest scorer of the group, so I can lead?" Ando gestured to table right next to him. "Have you worked with design tables like this?"

Wu had already moved up and started pressing buttons. A holographic three-D grid appeared in front of them and she began to outline a skeleton. Dai moved over and gave it a few twirls with a gesture of his hand.

"And they're already starting." Ando muttered and sighed. "Typically you have a designer lead and then assign tasks based on skill level. With a good lead it works out well. Without it you get this. Or that." He pointed to a nearby team just barely visible.

Nearby more designers were working on their own mechs. Or rather one person was working and the others were waiting. Some clever angles had it so that Bolt couldn't see the design, but he could tell that there was only a single person actually doing anything.

"That's the honor student. Golden crown, silk pants, ready to get a senior's mentorship." Dai muttered as he added wires to the blueprint.

"Ok, that explains some things." Bolt muttered as he watched the design. "Should I give input?"

Ando gave a shrug as he moved to the table. "Depends on the designer lead." He gestured very obviously to everyone working on things.

"And we don't really have one. Fine. What's the step after design?" Bolt felt the need to clarify just to be sure he wasn't missing anything.

"Design, build, test pilot through obstacle course, then the pilots choose and have two demo battles. The victor is based off obstacle course points and points scored in demo battles." The one woman in the group explained and then glanced a Bolt. "The demo battle points are damage done and taken over ten minutes, deactivation, or surrender." She headed off the next question.

"We have information the the demo and course?" Bolt watched as the mech took shape.

"Eh, it varies. They can't rig it too much or it becomes obvious, so it's usually just a gauntlet where you have to smack targets, dodge shots, and finish in time. The battle is a flat arena." Dai snorted as he started to fill out the torso. "I mean literally smack the targets by the way. They favor melee heavily."

He hadn't even started and he already felt a headache coming on. "Well I suppose the final question is who're the pilots?"

"Test pilot is some foreign girl that volunteered. The battle ones are from our local fighter colleges." Dai replied. "Those are both completely on the level by the way. The pilots would get pissy if someone tried to rig their fights so the rigging is elsewhere."

"Ah." Bolt gave a small laugh as he realized who had volunteered. "Small girl, long red braided hair?"

Wu glanced up from the design and noted his expression. "You know her."

"My fiancé, and likely why she volunteered." The young man admitted after some consideration.

"Bullshit." Dai shot back. "Since when did elite pilots associate with weaklings like us?" He asked, gesturing at the group and their rather skinny frames.

"Foreigner." Wu reminded, looking suddenly more interested than she had all day. "How'd you meet?" She inquired with a very serious look.

"I wouldn't mind talking bout it later. Right now, we need ta design a mech." Bolt said and stepped forward. "Umm, would you mind?" He gestured to the air in front of the holographic interface.

Both designers pulled their hands back.

"So, sorry for all the questions, but do local pilots only use staves?" Bolt began to fix the most glaring issues he saw in the mech as he spoke.

"What is he-" Dai was cut off by Wu holding her hand over his mouth.

Ando was the one to answer. "They're trained on all weapons, but you can safely say they know how to use staves."

"Ain't confident about fighting a prodigy who's been trained in building staffmen all the time. They'd be better. We at least know what he'd make. Trick is what would counter that in an open area." Bolt tapped out the wiring and the configuration, barely noticing that he'd mostly overwritten most of the work. It had started to clash anyway.

"So, ah, my friend." Ando spoke up as Wu slapped both her hands over Dai's mouth to keep the young man even more silent. "You said you've never done contests before right?"

"Nope. First time." The young designer continued to design as he absentmindedly answered the question. "Perhaps a spearman? No, glave. Something with a hook? I'd love a ranged thing, but I'm pants at them and I'm not confident of that in an arena. They'd get one shot."

Dai managed to pull Wu off him with a small glare at the utterly unrepentant woman. "Shotgun." He said and tapped open his interface, bringing up a weapon. "This one can be used to block and hit."

"Need the arms to be special for that but it could work. We could cut standard rifleman stability and reinforce the side arms." Bolt muttered and shifted the configuration.

"Did he just reconfigure the entire mech in a few seconds?" Ando asked Wu quietly.

"No, just the upper part." The girl whispered back.

"Oh, just that." Ando repeated incredulously. "JUST that."

Bolt didn't even hear them. "This guy's going to need to be good for one shot. I'm a bit worried about the obstacle course with that design though." He paused as something occurred to him. "No wait, it's Lilly. We just need it functional enough for her to handle that. She could probably do it with one arm."

"Hey peanut gallery. Work on the legs and boosters." Dai said over Bolt's words.

The designer paused and blinked. "Ah, sorry about that. Yes that'll help. We don't need anything special, and I don't think we have time for proper details. I need ta see about getting the theme. Ain't a good mech without one."

"Heh, reminds me of the old timey videos of men staring down a charging animal with just the gun." Dai observed out loud.

"Perfect!" Bolt said with a grin. "I'll adjust the targeting to account for what we have planned." He switched to another system.

"Why are you going into the computer systems?"

The young man paused mid-code. "You don't?"

Dai spoke up first and quickly. "We took other classes. Do what you think is best." He lowered his voice and hissed at his class mates. "Remember those oblivious young master cliches?"

Both young mech designers nodded rapidly in turn with very amused and only partially hidden grins. Bolt had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, but at least they were trying to contribute now. It did help split up the work for the more tedious parts.

 

[Luker number 5]

The sudden moment of 'Oh this guy knows his shit ' is always pleasant and I do enjoy the complete disconnect that people keep experiencing when meeting Bolt and Lilly

 

[Pyro Hawk]

The sudden moment of 'Oh this guy knows his shit ' is always pleasant and I do enjoy the complete disconnect that people keep experiencing when meeting Bolt and Lilly

Click to shrink...

Yeah... It really is.

On another topic, you know I'm left wondering if one of the ways they sabotage teams other than the Star Student is by messing around with part quality during the build phase. Nothing too overt, but something where most teams end up with some critical or just particularly useful parts end up as something that 'technically passed quality control' so the mech performs worse than it should, or has an accident when pushed just a bit harder. All the while the Star Student's team gets top quality parts where you can be sure they'll perform to spec and likely beyond.

Which is to say: that thing that Bolt has basically lived his entire life working around the problems inherent to it.

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

Which is to say: that thing that Bolt has basically lived his entire life working around the problems inherent to it.

Click to shrink...

"How the fuck is he doing this, all he had was a box of scraps?"

Bolt: "Oh fuck yes, name brand scrap. This is the high grade shit."

 

[lost star]

So, one thing about contests was that they were all timed. Bolt had sort of accounted for that, but his deadlines were typically a bit more fluid and less you have exactly this amount of time before we literally turn off the screens. Bolt found it more than a little annoying. He swallowed that annoyance though, and went back to his quarters in the MTA facility to rest and ready himself for the next day.

To his mild bemusement, he found that his team had beaten him to the construction facility when he returned. None of them looked well rested though. Wu had more than a few hairs out of place, Dai looked half dead, and Ando looked rather ruffled. Bolt was half tempted to make a joke or two, but it felt a bit out of place. They were invested. He wasn't so much.

Instead they entered the construction area and Bolt surveyed the area with clinical fascination. "Hmm."

"Got the bad bay." Dai observed with a shake of his head.

"This is bad?" Bolt asked.

It was several steps up. The fabrication unit was clean and looked functional, none of the cranes were missing parts, and the materials were all neatly sorted. (He still had to punch his cousin for that fiasco.) If anything this was a luxury!

"All the bays have identical fabrication units, but some were newer than others." Ando informed the young man. "Also, this one's slightly smaller, and not next to the snack vendor." He finished with a small chuckle.

"Those are very important." Dai said with a nod and a smile of his own before he moved forward. "Well, nothing to it." He rolled up the sleeves of his uniform.

"Ah, before we start, I do have experience in this." Bolt started. "Would you mind me being foreman here?"

The three exchanged glances before one of them gestured for him to start. Bolt smiled and gave the place another glance. He then moved to the fabricator and tapped it. It glitched slightly and he flicked the panel before finally reaching to the side and opening up a maintenance hatch. He was actually relatively familiar with this model and knew the most common failure points.

"Why does no one bother to clean things?" The young man muttered while peering inside. "All right, Ando, gather the skeleton materials. Place them on loaders two and three. Dai, place loader one towards the output. Wu. We need the blueprints printed out. Large as printout as you can. Place them up on the columns. We'll also need markers for them."

Mildly confused, but willing to follow his orders, the three jumped to things. In the meantime Bolt removed some of the obvious debris and then looked for the hand tools. They were in a box and dusty to his bewilderment. Grabbing a hammer he returned to the fabrication unit and began to hammer out the gunk and obvious buildup. No one wanted to get in and dirty on these things, so the stuff always built up on the inside and caused the strangest issues. They got absolutely filthy!

"This will be done in ten minutes. We have twelve hours to build our mech!" Bolt called out. "Prep, smoke em if you got em, and hit the shitter!"

Off to the side Dai snickered. "Does he know his accent's getting worse?" He asked Ando.

"Probably not, but this is entertaining in it's own way."

A few minutes later the parts printer was humming along and Bolt directed the others to start working. Assembling a mech was an old hat to him, as was directing other people. The college almost graduates were familiar with mech assembly, but only in the group project sort of way. Frankly Bolt would have rated anyone in his family as better workers. They knew their stuff in mech design, and they had enthusiasm, but they didn't know any of the tricks!

"What's with the markers?" Dai asked once the skeleton was finished and placed upright in the bay.

"Hmm, you don't mark what you need ta change on the blueprint?" Bolt asked.

There was a long beat of silence. "I was taught to follow the blueprint exactly." Ando said. "It's actually very bad practice to deviate."

The young designer frowned. "The way we do it at home, no, never mind." He looked up at the ceiling as he thought it could theoretically cause trouble in more advanced models maybe? More importantly though. "Will it cause issues in the contest?" He asked.

"I will look at the rules." Wu said.

Bolt nodded and continued to have the printer spit out parts. Pausing in their work was fine. Pausing in fabrication was less so. They had a limited amount of time there, and all of the parts needed to be checked for integrity.

"There's nothing about it in the rules." Wu called out after looking through things.

The lead designer nodded in turn before he reached down and picked up a cable bundle. "Then we do it my way for this. In retrospect it's probably a bad habit to adjust the mechs while making them for better mechs, but in this case we didn't have time to make everything right so we will see issues we can fix."

"That makes sense." Dai concluded. "Usually we calc everything out beforehand and adjusting things would cause cascading failures. Here we have a sort of slapdash rush job with errors we might not have caught. Also, isn't that heavy?" He asked Bolt as he saw what was being lifted.

"Hmm?" Bolt looked at what he was carrying. "I've had worse, and dealing with the machines is always a hassle with this cable."

It was one of the main power lines. The cables were as thick as a person's wrist and the entire bundle was long enough that it could stretch through half the mech. It was not a light part, but getting it aligned using the machines typically required you getting it up on a crane, slowly moving the crane into position, pulling the cable down with another crane, and then attaching it. Or you could just climb a ladder, bolt it to the skeleton with a temp bind and let it drop. It saved ten to twenty minutes if you were quick with the climb.

"Thinking about it." Bolt said as he dropped the cable and swung down to align it. "It is probably a bad habit I have there. Adjusting mechs while building them I mean." He spoke to the others, who seemed to be slowing a bit. "Chop chop. We can talk while working until the welding! There I expect proper safety precautions!"

They all startled slightly and began to rush again. The young designer shook his head and went for another cable. This mech wasn't going to assemble itself!

Admittedly it wasn't that hard either. This was a rushed mech for a third rate state using what amounted to generic licenses. It was not that much of a step up from Iron Spirit assembly. The largest issues Bolt had was he wanted to change everything while working. Now that his attention had been brought to it, that little niggling need felt like a bit of a problem.

Not that it hurt here. There were plenty of easy fixes. The wiring could always be better. The cockpit could use a few degrees of shift. Getting the gun flawless was obvious important!

Eventually the mech named simply Team Fifteen's Mech was finished. It was not the most complicated mech in the world. Bolt still felt proud of it. He'd learned a lot.

He also had time for a shower, he'd gotten absolutely filthy. Fortunately they did have one nearby. Fancy tools or not, sometimes you had to get dirty building mechs. It was good that was acknowledged here!

 

[eersc]

Man this fic is just competency crack and I love it. The characters are also actually unique and not Mary Sue. Also I think this fic would do better on SB, seems more their style.

 

[Tony Rexton]

I'd really like to see the pov of the students losing their shit over bolt just fixing an obviously sabotaged printer then proceeding to make a mech with -in their eyes faulty parts- and having no issues.

 

[Simonbob]

I'd really like to see the pov of the students losing their shit over bolt just fixing an obviously sabotaged printer then proceeding to make a mech with -in their eyes faulty parts- and having no issues.

Click to shrink...

I want some serious primadonna to freak out over him getting filthy.

He's so... Practical! Ug!

 

[lost star]

Lilly had probably been a tiny, tiny bit hasty. Volunteering to test mechs for the contest thingy that Bolt had gone to had seemed amusing at the time. She'd grown up with junk mechs. She knew how janky some designs could be. It was perfectly fine to do this behind his back and surprise him! It was a silly little joke!

She regretted everything.

The first mech had felt like it wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The mech did to clarify. She just wanted to help kill it. It jittered when it moved, the leg had an annoying little hitch on every other step somehow. The sensor data physically hurt to interpret. It also had a stupid little staff as it's one weapon. The arms weren't even designed to give her a full range of motion!

She was half tempted to make the entire thing fail, but pride and professionalism kept her from doing it. The obstacle course still hurt going through. She missed about half the targets because the arms couldn't move right, and the speed was nothing to write home about. It felt bad in other words and she was glad when she was finished with it. She'd foolishly assumed that that was going to be the worst of the bunch. It wasn't.

That honor went to the third of the twenty she was going to go through. That travesty had outright miss done the armor on several parts, and the endurance portion of the gauntlet with automated turrets had outright totaled it. Considering that particular portion was just meant to lightly damage the mech to test the durability, it was an outright failure potent enough to functionally disqualify the team. Lilly had never been so pissed off by the end of that one!

Number nine was the only one of the group that actually soothed her temper some. It was actually functional enough to work with. It was still a stupid staffman, but it flowed well enough that she could hit all the targets and move through the endurance gauntlet intact. It also felt cold, but in the clinical sense of the word. It was a mech that did its job, and there was nothing wrong with that. Lilly could even see some of the appeal to staffmen if the good ones were like that.

Nine wasn't perfect of course. It was on the slower side, so it got docked for time, the sensors grated against her own, and it was a design that the designer had obviously practiced repeatedly. There was no innovation. It was so utterly unimaginative that you could practically interchange it with another staffmen. It was another weapon with different details ultimately.

Fifteen was Bolt's mech. She could have told it apart just approaching the thing. It had a hint of style. There were a hundred little things that set it apart internally too, but probably the most important part was that it felt warm when she got in. It was nice and soothing.

To make her day even better, the machine didn't have a damned staff! It had a rather large two handed shotgun. Interesting choice, and different enough that Lilly did a test fire after starting up to get a handle on the heft.

She could immediately tell that the arms were not standard rifle variant. Too jerky. There was a noticeable twitch with the test shot and she couldn't maintain a stable platform when aiming. The blast cone on the rifle was very wide though, so she got the idea. More a Striker than a Rifleman. Those by necessity couldn't be stable firing platforms due to the need to move or defend themselves at short range.

In the interest of being professional Lilly didn't take her time and really familiarize herself. She got to the starting line and started up the mech. Then she boosted off like she had all the others.

The gauntlet was relatively simple. Lilly had gone through more than a few with the MTA and this felt outright primitive to be honest. It started with a straightaway to test speed and movement. Then an obstacle course to test lateral and vertical abilities.

Then another obstacle course, this time with targets. All of them were arranged such that it was close range, which was a rather large flaw really. Even the simplest MTA tests had things for longer and extreme range. Here it was just a series of targets around a corner, slightly above her head, a small cluster of them, and so on. Easy targets for a melee, less easy for anything with low rate of fire like the shotgun. Well, less easy if you couldn't line them up and blast them all at once.

This guy was a patient one. Unflinching. He would do the right shot when the time came, no matter the obstacle. Not her usual style, but it fit the design. His shotgun was meant to do real big damage. Or smack them with the butt when they got too close like she did with one target, heh.

After all of that was another straightaway with the automated turrets. There was no cover and no way around it. The shots were pretty light though, so if you moved fast and did proper dodging you could get through with anything less than paper.

Not a bad time. There had been one mech built for speed that had done better, but this one had achieved good scores all around. Lilly felt so professional! Especially when she went back to the rest of the less than pleasant mechs to finish off the testing.

There was just a little, tiny problem at the end of it. "What do we do when the pilot is too good?" One of the officials asked his compatriot in a low tone she could still hear.

"We smile and say thank you." The other replied, giving Lilly a bow before turning back to his companion. "Next time setup the gauntlet to be harder!" He ordered in a loud whisper.

"But our budget!!!" The man protested with tears.

Lilly quietly left before that conversation got too involved. It didn't seem like any of her business. Doing her job too well was not her problem!

Finding her hubby to be was a relatively simple matter. The mechs needed to be fixed up after the battle, the techs had assigned repair bays. Nothing fancy really, and very easy to get to. She was mildly surprised to find the designer sitting down at a small table with three other people. He was actually socializing!?

"Still can't believe we're done with the repair already." A shaggy looking man at the table muttered into his drink.

"Damage wasn't that bad." Bolt answered back with a shrug.

"I do have to agree. It was a treat to see someone physically lift the armor off though. You usually have to get the cranes and lifters involved." Another man said as he lifted his glass.

"Very impressive." The girl said, and Lilly decided to stop sneaking and start hopping because she didn't like that look towards her beefcake.

"Of course, he's the best!" The young woman cheered as she hopped onto Bolt's back and gave him a hug from behind.

"Well he wasn't lying about the fiancé, not that I doubted it." The man finished his statement quickly at the look at Lilly was sending him. "Also she's tiny!" He hissed to the others in a low tone.

"Bolt's too much of a sweety to lie. So, these your um teammates?" She asked and narrowed her eyes at them as she tried to place something. "I'd guess one does weapons, one did the boosters, and someone did armor too."

There was a long beat of silence. "How?" The noisy one asked plaintively.

"I'm guessing, but Lilly is very sensitive." Bolt tried to explain.

The pilot giggled. "I know my darlin's style. The best way ta describe it is he focuses on one thing well, I suppose? I was also guessin mostly."

"Introducing you, this is Lilly." Bolt gestured to his fiancé and then to the others. "Ando did armor, Dai did the weapon, and Wu did the boosters as you guessed."

Oh, proper introductions here. "Namaste." Lilly hopped down from her significant other's back and gave a proper bow.

"Of course the fiancé is a young mistress too." Dai groused.

"Hey, uh. Wait." Lilly almost protested before she realized the description might actually fit. "I suppose I could count sorta? I know Bolt doesn't." She counted off story cliches on her fingers. "Well, not really. He was decidedly middle class growing up?" She glanced at him with a question on her face.

"I don't get tha refences, but Wrench Rats could be lower middle class to barely scraping by. It's middle class for our planet, not for a nation like this. Also you understand that?" Bolt looked curious at that.

"Grew up learning from an old temple staff master for half my life. He told the best stories. Personally think it's the only reason I got a moral compass at all." Lilly admitted as she recalled those days. "Pity he died. Old man didn't have an arm and coughed till the day he died, but could still beat my cute little ass up and down inside and outside a mech."

"That's high praise." Her fiancé said softly.

"Don't feel sad, he mighta wanted ta die in battle, but he said I could carry on some of his legacy instead." Lilly smiled in remembrance. "Ain't like he had much admittedly. Ya know how our home goes."

"Is it too much to ask?" Ando chimed in with curiosity.

"We're from what you call Bloody Karma. Anyone not born there was left for some, likely painful, reason." Bolt explained with a small shrug.

The other junior mech designers exchanged a look and collectively decided not to press. Instead they chatted about mech stuff, which lost Lilly admittedly. She liked seeing Bolt happy and actually socializing. She did accept being pulled to the side by Wu though, mostly out of curiosity.

Her question surprised the pilot though. "Did you die your hair?"

"Nope!" Lilly flipped her braid over her shoulder and held up the bright red strands. "All natural."

"And gorgeous too." Wu muttered. "How did you manage with the helmets? That's far from standard."

"Either roll it up somehow or use an adjusted helmet. Bolt's designs usual add that, and I think there's standard adjustment on like half the mechs out there?" Lilly had to admit it was annoying to deal with, but the hair was a thing she didn't compromise on.

"It's definitely a warriors haircut then." Wu concluded with an almost proud look.

Another surprise statement there. That was a Serene Temple thing where you only cut your hair in a horrible loss. "Not, quite." Lilly admitted. "Sensi did tell tales about that thing, but I just wanted to be a girl when I decided to keep it uncut." It had been the first time she'd gotten into a fight with poppa in retrospect.

That memory still hurt, but she would not let it stop her. Fortunately the rest of the conversation was less of a minefield and more about self care tips. Probably her first time having girl talk, like ever. It was more than a little entertaining to realize in retrospect.

Sadly they couldn't talk forever. Eventually it came time to have the mechs picked and piloted.

 

[Pyro Hawk]

Yeah, I definitely feel like Bolt and Lilly have picked up some long term companions, at the very least friends, here. Good job writing it up in a way that truly sells it.

I'm also amused st the whole 'wait, the armour is already fixed and it didn't even need all the equipment to do it?'. I feel like that is one of the ways Bolt is better, by which I mean his armour layouts default towards something that is solidly 'battlefield approved' in how they work. Not duel approved, as that is a lot more accepting of intricate, complicated and slow repairs but actual battlefield conditions where you need something good for the role, solid even then and above all, easy enough to repair that you can make do if the repair bay ate an artillery strike an hour ago that broke important things and still get the mech out in a hurry without compromising the armour.

 

[I read novels]

I wonder how neither of them was not barred from participating/judging for the obvious conflict of interest.

 

[Pyro Hawk]

I wonder how neither of them was not barred from participating/judging for the obvious conflict of interest.

Click to shrink...

Part of it's the fact that this sort of thing isn't keeping the highest level of scrutiny (otherwise the organiser's own cheating would be obvious), part of it would be that element of Cultivator culture where not doing your best is offensive to the 'Cultivator' (or Mech Pilot here) themselves and accusing them of that unless it's extremely obvious means they're now going to be demanding an apology (in the best case) for shaming them and damaging their 'face'...

Not to mention the fact I wouldn't be surprised if one of the things that the MTA rated was a Pilot's 'contractual reliability' which basically means 'can you trust this Pilot to follow the letter of the contract, the spirit of the contract or just do what they want to get what they want and you'll have to be on top of them to make sure they achieve the aims you hired/recruited them for'. Something that I feel Lilly would do very well at, so long as there's a clause along the lines of 'won't betray others', because frankly the sort of 'honour' that her and Bolt's homeworld teaches would be a lot more practical than the rest of the galaxy really. Which means that because she took on the job, she'll do the job, do the best she can without letting her feelings interfere... And just remember that going forwards, to either influence her choices, make her more prepared on how to mitigate the dislike or start working on getting revenge in a way that won't splash back on her.

But a bigger part of it is that we're not talking a 'Western' cultural outlook on things here. We're talking an Eastern culture and in particular, a pre-Age of Exploration/Industrial Era/'Century of Humiliation' Eastern Culture. What does that mean?

It means that you should be looking a lot more at places like the Middle East, African, Central Asia, Southern Asia, Russia and I think also Latin America in terms of how things work. Just, not all the way because they aren't as openly blatant about the corruption and need for connections. So kind of a halfway step between modern East Asia and the other places perhaps? Because sure, you are going to be corrupt, you are absolutely going to be playing the favours game and using connections to decide who will get advantages and who will specifically be disadvantaged (if not outright quietly or not so quietly removed from consideration) but you'll be doing all of it with a pretence put up so everyone knows it is all being done 'respectfully', with both sides fully honouring the other.

The 'Arrogant Young Master/Mistress' types where everyone is talking snidely about them even if they don't stand up to them and do their biding, along with the whole 'Uncultured Bullies' that gets slapped on the lackeys of said 'Young Masters/Mistresses', bandits and the like is what happens when that whole 'both sides show the appropriate level of respect the other is due' is not followed. Because they aren't holding up their end of the 'Courtly Intrigue'/Game going on. Even if everyone knows half the people involved in any event probably are wondering how they'd be able to get a dagger stuck in the back of a quarter of the people there, with most of the half not considering it doing so because it's 'beneath them', they're too honourable, these are their allies/etc instead of enemies... Or they're hoping the poison and/or assassins they actually did organise work. Or you know, they've 'only' set up utter social embarrassment which serves most of the same role.

 

[Rustic]

Thank you.. just so I am not lurking. Nothing much happened this chapter but it was told well I guess. So good job author.

 

[lost star]

Dai had taken it upon himself to inform them about the contest's last part. The young man had a lot to say. None of it good.

"You'd think that being low stakes would mean that it'd be free of politics, but no. It's actually worse." The man told Bolt and Lilly as they watched the mechs position themselves on screen. "Our current golden boy is from a very prominent family. High class, rich, and influential. He's..."

"Smart." Wu finished when it became obvious Dai couldn't finish the sentence.

"Allegedly. I'm pretty sure he got enhanced somehow. He's as creative as a brick." Dai shook his head and leaned back in his seat. "Not that the local designs are that creative anyway."

"Staff users are very prominent, and there is a lot of innovation in that area." Ando commented but inclined his head towards Dai. "But I'd agree with the budding weapon specialist about his area of study."

The young designer flushed a bit and scratched at his cheek. "Yeah, moving on. This entire contest is a bit of a travesty. Points and a flat arena let them game the system without actually cheating. What's worse is that people typically eat it up." He gestured to the screen.

On screen two of mechs not of his design fought. They were staffmen, so that meant that they were trading blows with staves. It probably was interesting to people very used to the weapons.

"Hmm. The one on the left is hesitating too much and the one on the right isn't working with the hitch on the leg." Lilly muttered.

"Looks like a faulty knee?" Ando asked the group.

Bolt frowned. "Could be that or a muscle tie. It's too inconsistent to be sure."

"I'd say no one could be that stupid, but if you weren't extremely good at building we might have had to cut corners like that ourselves." Dai gave his own opinion.

"Who will win?" Wu asked Lilly directly.

The young woman's eyes scanned the mechs. "Righty will if he decides to get more aggressive. Lefty's caution will have him retreat and cede enough that the mech's quirks will provide enough openings."

"That takes a bit of fun out of watching." Dai complained good naturedly before chuckling and facing the large man. "Though, I suppose we should address something. You do know how absurdly talented you are right Bolt?"

"Hmm?" Bolt looked away from the screen in a bit of confusion.

He knew he was smart, but he'd always assumed his education was crippling enough that this didn't matter. Dai seemed serious, and so did the others. Lilly seemed both amused and proud and snuggled into his side as she waited for explanations.

"Your face makes me want to punch you and I know it's not your fault." Dai groaned loudly. "Why am I the one that has to bring this up!?" Wu patted him on the shoulder and then gave him a push. "Fine fine."

The young designer got to his feet and stepped in front of the screen. He did some pacing as he visibly tried to think before throwing up his hands. Only then did he begin.

"All right. You're new to designing in a team. You probably haven't had any peers then. I'll go down the list. Your grasp of the fundamentals is beyond all of us. Only specialists touch the computer system. I've never seen some of the tricks you used for the wiring and damage control. The armor was absolutely insane." Dai paused and gestured at Ando.

The black haired designer nodded. "I refined it, but yes, you anticipated most of my tricks."

"Your booster work was passible." Wu chimed in.

"Yeah, passible to someone trying to specialize in it." Dai waved his arms wildly. "You're matching graduates who are trying to specialize, and I get the impression we haven't even seen your specialization yet! To top it all off, your manufacturing and repair skills are frankly beyond us. What I'm saying is, you're just as absurd as your fiancé, and she completely broke the evaluation they were using for this contest! Plus you're younger than us!!!" Panting the young man staggered over to his chair and flopped into it. His face was a picture perfect expression of frustration.

"I-" Bolt was stopped from saying anything as Lilly reached up and grabbed his chin.

"No, no. No modesty. We're a pair hon." The girl moved his chin. "Say thank you."

Smiling a bit at the absurdity Bolt repeated. "Thank you."

"Adorable." Wu cooed out and Bolt flushed.

"Hahaha. I talk dirty to him every day and only that gets an actual reaction!" Lilly giggled at his reaction.

"It is adorable. Oh, our match is up now!" Ando said as he returned his attention to the screen.

"Yeah." Dai flopped further down his seat.

It started off relatively simple. The two combatants faced one another across the arena. As the mech holding the shotgun raised it, Lilly immediately began to groan and hold her face in her hands. The designers stared at her, and then at the match with a sinking feeling. Then start began and the staffman charged. The shotgun went off and completely, utterly missed.

"What is his malfunction?!" Dai exploded.

What followed next was a bit of a travesty really. Bolt winced as their mech took more than a few blows before the staff mech overextended and the shotgun got dead center. The explosive shot took out a significant part of the upper chassis, and the match was immediately called due to pilot safety. Bolt winced at the score.

"I don't like that." He muttered.

"Unless he plays perfect on the next match, we've lost." Ando said with a heavy sigh. "Did we get a poor pilot?"

"More a moron that can't aim a shotgun with aim assist at charging range." Lilly said, still covering her face. "They chose the mechs right?"

"They did, and no they wouldn't throw a match by accident. Sometimes you just get a bad pilot." Dai muttered.

Some part of him wondered if he should do something. The rest of him looked at how pointless this was and decided that it wasn't worth the effort. Lilly seemed angrier than he was at the moment.

"Assuming we lose then. Does that hurt you?" Bolt asked his companions.

They shifted uneasily and exchanged glances. Ando eventually spoke for them. "Some. We're graduating from college shortly. Having a poor showing here makes things harder."

"Not impossible." Dai was quick to clarify as turned his attention to the next match between two of their competators. "We have other opportunities, but doing well here is the difference between an apartment in a good part of town and the slums for me."

Bolt nodded slowly. The match after his looked like a slog. He could see how it would be more interesting than what his design had done to the audience at least. He paused a moment and looked down at Lilly, who was vibrating with emotion at the moment, with one hand slowly inching towards a nearby wrench. Very carefully he reached out and pushed it away.

The young woman noticed a few moments later after her hand finally reached for it. "Hey, I need that!" She turned towards her fiancé with a wounded expression as she noticed what he had done.

"No, you're not attacking anyone today. It isn't that big a deal." Bolt firmly stated as he picked up the wrench and held it away from the lunging girl.

Lilly growled and climbed him in response. Behind him the other designers looked torn between amused and alarmed. Bolt himself was pretty sure she wouldn't actually hurt the pilot, but he figured it'd be best to keep that from even being implied. Her waving the wrench around threatening would be a bit of a problem.

A few seconds of comedy later the girl had instead claimed a seat on his lap and was giving him a massive pout. Bolt considered that a win so he turned back to his companions, who looked bemused. He wondered how it looked to them before he mentally shrugged. Then something occurred to him. He could make things better for his fellows at least.

"In about four months and change there's another contest. It likely has less stacking, and involves Lilly as our pilot. You up for it?" He asked.

Dai stared at him. "You mean the Expert's Cup don't you? That's the only one in that time. The one that involves getting a personal duel with Venerable Goku and a crapton of money as a reward?"

"That does sound about right?" Bolt pulled out his comm to look at it. "Yeah, expert's cup. Seems fun and would have been just a date with Lilly, but I don't think she'll mind."

"I like watching you design, but I like winning more." Lilly commented from the side. "Plus ya'll aren't bad people, so if it'll help then do it."

"We'll take the offer." Dai answered before the others did, looking both eager and grateful. "I guarantee you won't be disappointed!"

Bolt felt quite pleased with this. Not only did it help someone, it got him more experience with working with others! It also helped them too, which was nice.

After that, the next match was far less painful. Admittedly the pilot did do better that time. Bolt and the others had tweaked the aiming a bit after repairs, which seemed to help. They managed to get a solid second, which wasn't the best showing in the world, but was also not considered a failure. It was an accomplishment that his teammates could point to for credit in the near future.

 

[Golgotha]

Yeah I would want to hit that pilot with a wrench too.
Imagine missing at close to mid range with a shotgun in a mech designed specifically to use a shotgun at that range

 

[Pollyamorous]

You know I felt the same bit of annoyance at the pilot, but we gotta remember that during the testing Lilly pointed out that the arms were non-standard and jerky.

We don't actually know the process behind how the pilots choose and pilot the mechs, so it could be that that was the first time the pilot properly fired in the mech and figured out how to properly compensate with it afterwards. Getting the silver medal in the tournament kinda proves that the mistake really was a one-time mess-up due to non-standard equipment.

So, yeah, props to the guy, he's actually good at his job.

 

[lost star]

"Hello and welcome to the Hundred Worlds Cup! I'm your your host Kimi, cohosting with Lady Galena. Pleasure to meet you, virtually." Kimi smiled widely at the other woman.

Galena gave a small nod. "It is a pleasure, despite the enmity of our nations."

The two girls were a study in different cultures. Kimi had a Chinese dress and her black hair was dressed in buns. Galena had a Victorian dress, complete with ruffles, and an elaborate braid. Virtual hosting allowed for some pretty elaborate setups, but simple was usually better for these events.

Kimi waved a hand dismissively. "Don't bring real life into my fantasy!" She scolded with a mock frown. "We're here to play Iron Spirit! And what a game today! Ten v Ten, with an unusual and new versus a tried and true!"

"Indeed. On Red side is the Howling Howlers. A Vesian team made up of a rather standard mix of shieldmen, spearmen, and riflemen. It is a classic setup with your typical Vesia twist. All of them have missiles, with their heavies being almost all missiles. Called the Exploding Porcupine in game, it's a brutal composition to approach." Galena brought up the composition showing of all the mechs.

"For those not in the know, the format for this has a limit on stars. Every team can have thirty, with five stars as the limit. We don't want some brilliant pilot in a seven star trouncing everyone! It also makes this a bit more accessible, since not everyone really cares for to level up their rank." Kimi explained to the audience.

"Thank you for that explanation. But I notice you haven't introduced your team yet." Galena noted with a slight tilt of her head.

Kimi laughed. "Of course. On blue team we have our new and spooky, the unconventional, the Undead Legion!" She flicked a hand and a new screen showed up. "It's a new fad that started on my very planet and one that has just begun to reach out. Some people are a big fan of horror apparently." The stats of the mechs showed up.

"I notice most of them are from one designer." Galena observed and then looked disturbed. "Ug, and such unsightly things." She mimed retching.

"They have some interesting synergy together. It's actually not that different than the Porcupine build and variations. We're currently calling it the Misty Murder build, and building into the theme and concept is actually very fun." Kimi explained before she gestured down to the map. "You can see it starting already."

"Ah yes, the mist, in which there is murder." The co-host stated dryly. "I'm quite glad we can see through it, otherwise this would be a boring match." With a gesture the mist became transparent and they could see through everything.

"Yep. Thank you devs for allowing fun to trump realism in some areas! Now we all know about sensor jammers. This one is all water with some additives to give it a kick, produced by several mechs in the formation, including the big one there." Kimi pointed to a squat, bloated looking thing trundling along the center of the formation. "And yes, he does look like a walking corpse. It's an undead legion you know?"

"I do not believe the Howlers are particularly familiar with that strategy, but you know what they'll do anyway." The Vesian host noted.

Kimi nodded with a few bounces and as predicted the Howlers opened by throwing several large volleys into the mist approaching them. Which actually just destroyed the big bloated thing that was emitting the majority of the mist. Even in death it served, exploded with an eruption of cloudy vapor.

"The newest build uses these Bloaters for team matches. They're deliberately sacrificial." Kimi explained with glee as it happened. "So, those missiles were mostly wasted on a one star!"

"Not the first time this happened." Galena growled out with displeasure. "We always have more."

"Yep! With the destruction of the Bloater, all it's gathered up mist is released! You can see it approaching in. Spoooky!" Below them the mist billowed in towards the Howler's formation.

"I'll notice that there was only one of those unsightly things." The other girl commented with narrowed eyes as they crossed off one mech on the list of combatants.

"Yep! You know as well as I that you don't want many sacrificial mechs. One stars aren't good, but they're still useful."

Galena nodded in return. "Like our riflemen there." She pointed to the riflemen in question. The Howlers had brought five of them, and were using them to fire out into the mist in warding shots. One stars meant to distract was a time honored tradition in this format. "They're in their classic formation now, ready to repel attackers with a deadly barrage!"

"It's a good strategy, but I'm sorry to say the Howlers aren't going to enjoy turtling up like that." Kimi informed the audience with a wide smile.

"For the audience's information, the Ugly Legion has a jamming mech as their one four star. You can see it in the center of the Legion's formation now, and also observe that it placed an object in the Bloater's destroyed body. Those are small jamming towers." Galena filled in the viewers as the mist continued to flow into the formation. "They also positioned themselves so that the artificial wind is blowing their mist into the formation. This has blinded and deafened the Howlers."

"Yeah, the strategy has come a long way since the beginning and it's conception. I have videos on it if you like. We've only had it for about two months so it still needs a lot of refinement." Kimi contributed happily.

"It likely won't catch on outside the game for those wondering. Modern sensors can get through the mist's obscurement with greater ease as the part that allows this is quite old and has not been updated in years at this point." Galena finished. "And I believe that's your cue, because it looks like the Vile Legion is making a move."

"This is why you don't fort up against this comp." Kimi said in a soft sing song tone.

On screen the two five stars from the Legion spread out around their opponents almost unseen. Some were spotted here and there, but the obscurement and jamming made the volleys of missiles and other weapons sporadic and uncoordinated. The shots from the Undertaker caused further disorganization. Each splatter of goo caused their joints to stiffen and added more obscuring mist. Eventually the Legion judged the time right and the two Berserkers charged in, smashing into the shield wall and causing absolute chaos.

Galena winced at the carnage. "A five star lancer? With the mist and the cover from the four star, it's devious." She gave a golf clap. "You are sacrificing them for that though."

"That's the beauty of it." Kimi explained. "They aren't. Bloody Berserkers do two things. Ram the enemy, and soak damage. They're hard to classify, but I'd set them as heavy offensive knights. I'd pay special attention to the punishment they're taking here."

A veritable rain of missiles came down on the berserkers since they were the obvious target, and far from killing them, that just seemed to make them angry. Worse for the Howling Howlers, it let the other team mates attack from the outskirts. Several of the front line were pulled out or off their feet by hooks from the mist, and this opened up the formation just enough for the skirmishers to hit the missile heavies doing most of the damage.

"The hooks are the Drowned Men. They're really good at picking off lone targets and they're also the ones keeping the mist active with the death of the Bloater." The hostess from Serene Temples pointed out. "As you can see they've pulled the formation apart enough that the skirmishers can get to the heavies."

"And when that happens they're basically dead." The other hostess sighed. "Much as I adore my fellows, this was not a good showing."

"You might be a bit hard on them." Kimi responded with generosity and pointed out several places where the mechs had been dropped or crippled by the wide volleys the heavies had thrown out. "As you can see here and here they've managed a fair bit. That missile fetish does help."

"It is not a fetish. Everyone likes explosions!" Galena snapped back. "We're not like you and your fascination with using big sticks to compensate for little ones."

Kimi gasped in mock offense as the battle drew to a close and the two girls began to snipe back and forth to provide further entertainment. The final score had the drowned legion win with one Bloody Berserker alive, their Undertaker, and a pair of Drowned Men. Despite the mockery the frequent use of missiles did make any fights with Vesian forces far more even than most teams liked.

 

[awesomecow]

"The newest build uses these Bloaters for team matches. They're deliberately sacrificial." Kimi explained with glee as it happened. "So, those missiles were mostly wasted on a one star!"

Click to shrink...

Yeah, a support/debuff bloatGOD makes more sense than one built to do damage. Stuffing one with enough explosives to take out a group of enemies wouldn't be cost-ineffective, not even mentioning the issue of getting into range.

 

[Golgotha]

Would hate to be its pilot in real life though. Feels like a game only strategy.

And yes, I'm aware of the irony in saying this when I defended the berserker before

 

[lost star]

There came a time when you had nothing to do. When actually doing something was counterproductive. Bolt was in one of those times. After the contest he'd resolved to do two things. Brush up on his studies, and forget completely about comparing himself with others. That he was ahead of the locals just meant that his future prospects were brighter. He had the ability to advance. He would not allow something like pride to cloud that progress.

Even with that resolve he had a small issue. There was only so much studying one could do. He also didn't necessarily want to do that until the next contest.

Another person would probably have tried to form contacts or something like that. Bolt spent time with Lilly and tried to define what needed to be fixed in his designs. The Bloody Berserker was pretty rough, but all the designs needed some work. He'd done them fast and for fun more than because he'd assumed they'd be good.

Since he had an abundance of game money for some reason, he'd decided to set a few long term goals to achieve before he left. Those goals were to make a one to five version of all his mechs. This meant a lot of part researching and adjusting things, but he felt as if it would help him practice. He also added a subgoal of making a 'perfected' five star mech over the next few months.

It wasn't the most typical way of learning as a mech designer, but Bolt wasn't a typical designer!

He did spend a bit of in game money to purchase a few designs by other designers though. According to his new designer friends, there was a list of mechs in Iron Spirit that were considered good lessons. Bolt obviously couldn't afford them all, but one or two of them were certainly useful.

One for instance was the Sunshine T23. It was considered one of the best mechs of it's time for lasers, which seemed relevant. As a three star it was ancient, but it had been apparently one of the original laser mechs, and was actually mentioned regularly in riflemen design.

Bolt could see why after purchasing and building one. The thing was not efficient. It had more than a few flaws. It's legs were as generic as they got for instance. It did however have some very delicate care done to the arms. They were meant to be as stable as possible, and completely forwent any sort of impact resistance. Which made sense. Lasers didn't really have kickback.

The rifle for the laser itself was mildly interesting to take apart too. There was a lot of heat handling in it. The Sunshine had boosted of one of the fastest and most accurate rates of fire in it's era and it was trivial to see why just looking over the rifle. It was almost a pity that the flaws had eventually killed the line. The rate of fire combined with the poor energy storage at the time made it last maybe one or two battles before it needed to recharge.

That was admittedly a consistent battle in mech design, and why Bolt had tended to favor melee weapons. Replacing ammo and recharging effected mechs at all levels. It was a surprisingly insidious problem too, because it didn't show up in arenas and a lot of battles. Logistics nowadays let most mechs repair and refuel after one battle, so they frequently didn't run into endurance issues until wars or they were deployed into the field away from mobile bases. Bolt had grown up where refuel and resupply was a luxury. It was something he always had in the back of his mind.

He was pondering logistics as he did the busywork of notating all of his designs when he heard a ringing. For a moment he didn't even realize what was going on. Then he realized his comm was connected to his simulation pod, and which mean someone was physically calling him. A bit of fumbling through the interface and he found a very familiar number.

"Pa?" The young man asked in confusion.

"Hey boyo! Bet ya didn't think that your old man could contact you like this didn't ya. Well guess what? The MTA decided that they ain't gonna deal with shoddy communication and stupidity and installed a comm tower in their new base." His father sounded very entertained.

Historically their planet had been a bit of a dead zone. Everything on it was considered a military target really. When one of the nations came in, they very frequently bombed the every loving shit out of whatever they could see. This made communication unit to unit, or in the case of the Wrench Rats, only through hidden relays.

If the MTA had a base and a comm tower now, that issue was fixed. No one would dare target that area. They'd still have to worry about people tracking personal comms, but that was an old hat. This meant they could actually connect up with the galactic network without painting a dangerous target on themselves.

"Holy shit that's big news." Bolt breathed out.

"Even bigger than you'd think. Fixed one big ol hurdle for your Pa and Ma. We're startin' up a business. Wrench Rat's Repair and Refurbish! We take yer old mechs, give em a spit shine and then return them good as new!" Pa sounded absolutely entertained.

"That brings up so many questions." The young mech designer muttered as his confusion started to increase. Who were their customers going to be?!

"Listen boyo. I know yer all tied up in things and worried about a lot. Let your Pa and Ma handle some of it. We got some clients already, and the MTA is hoverin' and taking it's sweet time to complete things so we got the best cover you could ever think of. When yer back things will get rough, but we'll be able to do more than just help ya build by then." His father said softly.

A small weight that he hadn't even been aware of lifted from his shoulders and Bolt took a breath. "That helps some."

"Good ta know. Now another thing. I hear you've been makin' a few waves in some little game." Pa continued with a small laugh. "See about getting a few designs ready for a printer. Polish em up real nice and we could probably sell a few here and there. Lord knows we have the space and tools ta do that now. If ya want, authorize me ta negotiate on yer behalf and I can even lease out a few designs if there's some bites."

"Excuse me? How'd ya hear about that, and how the hell are they somethin' we could sell?!" Bolt shot back.

"I don't think ya realize how gossipy some MTA guys can be. I can't say those mechs would be worth much, but negotiating is what I do aside from buildin'. I'm sure I could net some cheese here and there. I promise not ta skimp on the quality, and we could get a right proper business going if ya keep being brilliant." Pa paused. "Course I'll also keep records and ask fer yer approval fer big deals first. We both trust one another, but we both know Rat history ain't always kind."

The young man didn't want to consider it, but yes, that was something he needed to keep in mind. Backstabs and betrayal happened. He expected none of that from his family, but that did not mean he didn't need to be aware of things. There could even be accidental problems. Preemptively getting it in writing was good sense.

"Send me the details." Bolt finally ordered before smiling into his comm. "How's the rest of the family?"

"Doing great. Little Gadget is turning out to be just as smart as you, and we can actually get her lessons. Yer ma charmed one of the officials into showing her where the best online lessons are. Bit costly, but we managed to get the full works for her." Pa sounded both happy and proud to state that. "Still gotta worry about the whole college thing, but that's years away. Can get her and the other rug rats a good base!"

"That's great." Bolt had been forced to scrounge up everything. Hearing that his sister didn't have to do the same was a weight off his shoulders.

Knowing about that did galvanize Bolt though. He shifted his mental priorities to trying to make five star mechs out of all his current designs, and refining Berserker. They'd still be considered outdated, but that was almost a bonus. They'd be affordable to merc outfits and the like.

Lilly ended up having to drag him out of the simulation pod later, to his mild embarrassment.

 

[Luker number 5]

Aww how nice and heart warming, so glad things are going well for the family. Just completely ignore the Nobles Taskforce waiting in the background.

 

[lost star]

Time passed. Lilly had done a few contests now. Most of them had been for things she found interesting. Not all of them resulted in her victory. The reasons varied, but more than one of them was simply because the mech she was in was bad. Honestly in another time and place Bolt was pretty sure she would have been able to make a living off just that even if it frustrated her. Here it just gave her a decent amount of money and a break from the MTA testing. The officials seemed content to make time for it as an alternative to their methods of testing.

In contrast Bolt was just starting his second contest. The contest was relatively simple and it seemed more straightforward than the last at least. It only involved designing a mech using the sponsor's line of laser products. The designer could do whatever they wanted in the twelve hour timeframe. Once it was done the design would be thrown through a number of simulations. The top twenty would then be evaluated by judges. Those that passed the evaluation would then be built by their automated facilities, and the mechs would display their abilities in a testing arena.

This was blatantly a fishing expedition for good ideas. The company was looking for flashy, impressive designs. Functional was assumed, but they wanted something that would help with showcasing their product line. All of it was being judged in company and the judging criteria would all be public. The intent was obvious if you read the entry contract. Placed in plain text towards the end of the text was a clause that they'd be able to buy the finished design for fair market price.

That clause was better and worse than it sounded. It would mean that a newbie like Bolt could theoretically get a mech built on the company's dime. It would also mean that he'd get money for every mech they built. The amount of money would be a pittance because they'd very likely heavily adjust the design before selling. Assuming they produced a derivative using inhouse designers, Bolt would probably get a fraction of a percent of each sale. This was could theoretically be enough to maintain a low class lifestyle if it sold well.

Bolt wasn't particularly counting on that theory becoming reality. He preferred the laser licenses they were offering to the victor. He'd still have to pay dividends to the company for each production of his mechs, but the initial buy in was where the main costs were. Having the designs to play around with would be nice. (Contracts were enforced by the MTA and got complicated fast. If he adjusted any designs, the costs decreased due to him functionally creating an unlicensed derivative.)

Like the other contest, the number of applicants were rather high. These were all new mech designers trying almost desperately to stand out. The Serene Temples might have all preferred staffmen, but that didn't matter! Every designer wanted to make mechs. The opportunity to essentially pitch a mech to be built by a company was a reward in itself.

This high volume of applications did make spacing a bit difficult unfortunately. Bolt got a small designing station with privacy screens and that was it. It felt almost like he was stuck in an office doing some sort of company job. The thought made his skin crawl and he dove into designing to take his mind off that possibility even happening. He'd honestly prefer crawling through the dirt back home than do busy work in a cubical like this.

Fortunately the company design software was top of the line, and had full access to all their products so it was a pretty hefty distraction. Bolt had twelve hours, so he first looked through the lasers first to give himself a possible idea to design around. The catalog was very expansive, containing every single laser the company offered.

It was also mostly derivatives after some examination. There were fifty rifles with different frequencies for instance. Useful in that they were very refined for very specific purposes, but not for his purposes here. Once you built a rifleman you could basically use any rifle you wanted. Having fifty riflemen with different rifles sounded both silly and boring!

If he was doing missiles he'd be making fireworks! With lasers he was half tempted to try to do a disco ball. (Yes they still existed.) That'd be a bit funny really. Have a giant laser disco ball that destroyed everything around it.

Bolt barely restrained himself from laughing. As entertaining as doing another joke mech was, he didn't want to insult the contest judges. He also wanted to win. The reward for this was valuable!

The thought did trigger a minor need though. He wasn't going to get inspiration from the weapons. He switched to local searches and began to go through a few cultural keystones instead. The local staffmen were the most common yes, but that didn't have to be everything here. Running through a few search terms and looking at random pictures wasn't quite mech design, but sometimes you needed to trawl for other types of fish, to use a poor analogy.

It had to be said that legends had changed significantly since humanity had left their home. Earth had been relatively unique as a planet to grow up on. Technically all life bearing planets were, but Earth in particular had a prominent moon and a lot of legends and nomenclature had evolved around that. This had changed as other planets had been settled and the moon had slowly drifted away as a prominent thing in language and cultures. This planet for instance didn't even have a moon of note!

Yet some legends persisted. A pretty woman with a mirror was one of them. Her name varied. Her legends varied. It was still an iconic image and legend still referenced by the locals. It had been iterated a million times by now and still existed. Hitting upon ideal was what gave Bolt his inspiration. Lasers didn't use mirrors, but they were frequently associated with them.

Now how to make something functional from that seed?

Bolt went for the big cannons. There were a few large laser monstrosities that had various functions. None of them interested him. He just wanted something he could chop up into parts.

Hack off the barrel, widen the end, adjust how the lasers formed, all of that resulted in a subpar shotgun-like creation. Lasers didn't care much about momentum though, so Bolt could adjust the emitters to look like decorations outside the 'mirror.' This let him flatten it out even more and then focus it resulting in a relatively coherent focused beam.

Bolt was fairly sure that he was neglecting more than a few things. He was not a laser or weapon specialist. He'd studied up on lasers enough to make these changes, but he did not consider himself an expert. This contest wasn't about that though. It was about making something that looked good. The laser functioned and was destructive enough to be considered a weapon. That was enough.

After all of this was the design of the mech itself. The importance there was the impression of 'pretty woman.' Not of functionality. Bolt would die before he did a non-functional mech, but function would follow form in this case. Smooth lines, slight curves, slim in appearance, with long hair. He gave it a vague impression of lips, and made the eye sensors dark pools. The key was to hint, not actually make details. This was a gorgeous woman. One that someone could stare at. That it was a mech was irrelevant. Humans just needed specific visual cues.

The long hair in particular was meant to be functional as well as pretty. It was a heat sink, and if the mech knelt down they'd allow for her to dump heat into the ground. In fact, Bolt added a function to her armor that let that happen too. Add heat relays in the hands as it gripped the mirror and that gave it a surprisingly high fire rate despite the shoddy hackjob he'd done of it.

Lasers were hindered by two things. Power, and heat. They were sold as functionally infinite so long as you had power, but every tech knew that was a dirty lie. Power was not infinite. Fortunately, Bolt could add power cells in the ahem, padding with no trouble.

So, this girl took her knees in a prayer like position to do rapid fire from her mirror. Entertaining, but not flashy enough. She needed something more. What though?

By this time Bolt had six hours left. He couldn't spend time thinking. He moved on. Her movement felt like it need to be floaty, so he tried to reduce the weight and gave her boosters under her robe armor that could be fired frequently. The sims looked good there at least. To his surprise she was a borderline light mech, but that was more due to almost no armor. Purpose wise the new creation was supposed to be an artillery mech, which were traditionally heavies due to the need to carry a lot of ammo. So far it was functional mechanically. What next?

This creation was flawed.

The thought came to him and Bolt found himself frozen midway through tracing a power line. He followed that train of thought and then winced. The issue was line of sight. She needed it to shoot, and her firing position required immobilizing herself. Some mechs could handle that, but they had armor. She had none. It was tragically flawed in a way that meant she was just a pretty piece of metal. Bolt spent several precious minutes staring at his creation and realizing she was useless. Oh, she was lovely aesthetically, and that laser packed a punch, but that was really just a rifle in another form.

A creation like this didn't deserve to be brought to life as she was. It was a horribly flawed empty piece. There was nothing that made her special, or spectacular aside from looks. That was not a mech. It was a show piece.

Minutes passed as Bolt stared at his creation and did nothing.

He switched to the weapon catalog and began to flick through things almost mindlessly. Nothing, nothing, nope, not feasible. Rifles, shoulder mounts, inner body variants, and so on. Nothing fit. They were just added weapons.

There!

It was an innocent thing. One of the more exotic weapons had an angle in the barrel. It was technically a back mounted thing that allowed for the weapon to be mostly hidden by the back armor. The relay in it was useful.

He ripped it out and used it to refine the mirror. Then he expanded it the weapon size. This increased the laser and allowed him to adjust it so that it could fire one or multiple beams. Bolt then grabbed several drones. He shaped them into balls and made them look shiny from a distance. He put more relays in them and then linked them to the mech's computer.

Some programming and hackjob work on the computer let it use normal computational power differently when the mech knelt. It needed all of that and more to allow for the drones to be controlled properly. Angle the mirror up and have it fire on the drones. The drones would then relay the lasers where the mech wanted.

In effect, the mech would now kneel, hold it's mirror up to the heavens, and then the drones would redirect the lasers it fired into the air. This would give the mech range outside of line of sight, fixing the flaw of range somewhat. It promised to be a spectacular effect visually. It was however still firing on the drones. They'd all burn out in short order even if they redirected the power correctly.

Bolt didn't have time to really fix that. He barely had time to get it working! The concept was as sound as he could get it with what little time he had. He was going to have to rely on the pilot to handle the laser, which wasn't necessarily good considering the AI bit. He put in an alert and then called it finished.

Refining the frame, the appearance, and making sure the heat was transferred properly was the biggest thing. It wouldn't do to have the mech overheat while firing. Bolt tried his best to make sure it all lined up, but the time was starting to run out. His inexperience with the weapon even with study had hit him.

The time finished and he was left with a mech he couldn't say was finished. Yet what could you do? When you had such little time all you could do was try your best and hope that it was good enough.

 

[gaouw]

Holy crap that was cool.

I'd assume the mirror's esthetic will look akin to Tamamo's Eight Blessing of Amaterasu.

Just, yanno, from Tsukuyomi this time.

With a hint of Shinkiro's Zero Beam From CG and Fin Funnel from Nu Gundam, methink..

 

[Rustic]

If it doesn't get adopted. He could now use it himself. After all he is not really using the company laser rifle either he chopped that sucker up. Call it the Medusa or something. The fog from his other mechs could provide cover.

 

[Golgotha]

Very cool design. In some ways it's the laser version of a missile barrage, in that it allows firing over cover and allies.
A noble lady surrounded by her guards, carefully protected.

Which really breaks the entire paradigm of lasers really. Energy beams that track are usually restricted to magic girls and shouting half-monkeys with yellow hair, everyone else gets only direct fire.

 

[Negation]

Reminds me of the Shinkirō's Diffusion Structure Phase Transition Cannon.

 

[lost star]

Mech designers, much like pilots, came in levels of expertise. Pilots started normal, went to expert, then Ace, then God Pilot. Lilly was considered an expert candidate because she had a high chance to become an expert. She had all the tells. Designers were less obvious as to when and if they could advance and had their levels categorized more by what they'd made than anything else. Brilliance was only one factor. It took a mix of indefinable attributes. They started at Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Senior, Master, then Star Designer. Bolt was very technically an Apprentice due to him 'selling' Ghoul to Lilly and his work in Iron Spirit. To everyone else at large though he was just a Novice. They were so numerous that there were frequent attempts to weed out the ones with less potential. Colleges churned them out in small armies due to the overwhelming focus society had on mechs.

The founder of Little Big Light was a Senior Mech Designer. Seniors were typically as high as designers from Third Rate nations got. Getting higher required resources that Third Rate Nations simply didn't have an abundance of, so they frequently left for better pastures. Those that stayed gathered everything they could to advance in their studies. There were therefore on average fifty to one hundred Seniors in the nation at any one point. Little Big Light did all the lasers in the nation. The founder, Chen, was therefore someone with a significant amount of influence and prestige.

Publicly Chen was a philanthropist and a popular figure in the designing community. He frequently donated to various charities, and was very well known for being free with his advice. Most of this was even true! His numerous disciples simply emphasized his desire to give to the community! All of them backed him one hundred percent and were devoted to his vision.

Mei was one of them. As his leading disciple and a journeyman herself, she was frequently tasked to do things that he simply didn't have time for. She was considered his right hand in the company. She also handled a lot of minor things that came with a business that Chen could delegate to her, like the contest that had recently happened. She'd been one of the judges and was now reporting the results to him.

"Most of the contest entries are typical." She reported in a cold and clinical fashion as she met him in his design room. "Half are riflemen. A quarter various artillery, and the rest miscellaneous."

"Hmm. Not surprising." Chen noted and looked over the data his subordinate presented. "Stand outs?"

"Three. A striker with some alterations to make the lasers wide range." Mei pointed out the ones. "One that put the laser in the stomach and head. Another that did a rather unusual configuration with the chassis and butchered the weapons to make something thematic." She tapped one entry with a trace of emotion.

Chen's eyes sharpened at the behavior. "Careful, the ideal mech designer is one based on logic. I've reminded you of this before." His tone was warm and fatherly even as he scolded her and looked over the data. "Let's see that last one."

The woman brought up a video without further comment. It showed Bolts creation going through the sims with it's dummy pilot. The AI pilots weren't particularly good, but they did paint a clear enough picture for a designer of Chen's accomplishments. He stared a moment at the movement and gave a small harumph.

"We did emphasize appearance over practicality, but that weapon is almost offensive to everything calling itself a laser." The senior said with a grumble of irritation. "Let me see the blueprint before I comment more."

Mei brought up the blueprint with no comment.

"What insanity is this?" Chen asked incredulously while blinking several times to verify that he was seeing things right. "No school teaches like this. Do we have the contestants profile?"

"Officially no." Mei said softly.

Irritation colored Chen's voice as he gave the woman a look. "Girl initiative. You know what I mean."

"I would need authorization." The junior replied without a change of expression.

Chen blinked. "Ah, so it was in the back channels? Never mind. I'll get it." The older man flipped through his secured computer and then nodded. "Interesting. Self taught, no backing. That explains so much. It's the only standout that actually does something different though! I'm going to assume that he will be winning, do you believe otherwise?"

"The weapons lack stopping power." The junior designer pointed out.

Emotion bled from Chens gaze as he switched back to the design and rapidly dissected it. "They do. The concept is worth something though. Every design we've gotten in these contests has required complete revisions. The entire point is to get a new thought or two. We could probably market this mech to one or two niche markets around the more popular temples. It might be a failure of mech design, but as a pretty adornment it will be perfect. We'll pick up the mech, and make an offer to the designer just like all the others."

Mei inclined her head. "As you say master."

"You don't approve? No, you always did object when I found a new designer to bring in. I suppose from a logical standpoint it means less time for you." Chen mused and turned to look at Mei. "Do you believe you need more mentoring?"

The girl straitened up, being sure her suit and skirt were immaculate and clean. She already knew they were, but his look always reminded her of that. She shook her head.

"I am content with my current projects." Mei said.

"That's the laser swords right?" Chen gave a sharp snort and leaned back in his chair. "Any progress with that old impossible dream?"

"Our current experiments create a semi-sword like form that destabilizes after point five seconds, destroying the projector and causing a catastrophic explosion." The junior designer informed her boss. "The manifestation itself only lasts in a coherent form for point two seconds and causes no damage to the target before the explosion."

"Might get something out of that in another decade or two then. If it gets to a second or so of manifestation inform me. It will actually be worthy of my attention instead of an expensive side track." The senior designer analyzed casually and then gave his subordinate a once over. "Before then it might be time to have you venture out in your own too. You are trained enough not to embarrass me, and our satellite areas could use someone surveying them."

Mei didn't say anything to that. She just kept her self as expressionless as possible. What she actually thought was irrelevant.

"Yes actually that's a good idea. I'll set that order now. In a year you'll be doing a tour of our company to better facility your growth." Chen authorized a few things in his computer. "We'll use that time until then to train that new junior. Re-educating him to proper standards wouldn't be that strenuous. He reminds me of you a bit. What was your focus before you came to me?"

"It doesn't matter." Mei said the only words she could to that.

Chen chuckled out loud. "I do believe that is one of the most intelligent things I have heard you say. You're right." The emotions dropped and he waved the girl out. "Well go ahead and go to your duties. I need to go greet my future disciple. Actually, the design this Bolt made reminds me of another frustration! Get the irritant out of storage and into the secured bay nearby the contest area. Perhaps I can finally gather some insight on it!"

The young woman nodded and turned around to step out. She gripped that cold logic in her mind as she left. Chen was in all public appearances a caring, devoted mentor. His subordinates were all devoted to lasers as he was.

It was all completely and totally legal, official, and above board. Mei had entered a contest much like Bolt had. She'd taken up the offered mentorship gleefully even. She should have nothing to complain about. She was practically being gifted the resources of a company to play with.

That small broken part of her in that corner of her mind was her complete imagination. Everything was perfectly, perfectly fine. Work needed to be done. She needed to do the finishing orders for the contest, work with various techs, and catch up with her fellow disciples to be sure they were working as appropriately as possible. They were still doing a lot of basic calculations for the latest products. It was mind numbing work that was required for all designs to get the best results and keep their creations ahead of the curve. They could probably use some motivation.

 

[Pyro Hawk]

Well, there's going to be 'just a few' eruptions in the near future I predict...

 

[RandolphWill]

Damn he crippled her in the latter stages you need imagination to progress the x-factor.