What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[lost star]

It was interesting seeing his mech crafted by different hands. Something had been lost in the process. Something was, as much as Bolt hated to use the term, colder than the ones he'd made himself. There was still a presence to it, but it was faint. Bolt wondered if anyone else could tell. He felt as if there was something important in that observation, but he couldn't say what.

Regardless, the mech he'd tentatively titled Praying M had far too many flaws to his eyes. Bolt was reminded again that he had a horrible habit of needing to correct things after the design. It was fine when he could make them, but other people would just follow the blueprint. Until he fixed that habit he would need to make the mech first and alter the blueprint afterwards, which felt unpleasant to realize. This was doubly so because he wasn't even sure he could break that ideal. It was ingrained into himself. Every part of his upbringing was building and fixing things as they were built. Perhaps he'd need to lean on the virtual sims more in the future? It'd save money if not time that way.

Personal flaws aside watching the pilot get into the mech and move to the testing arena was oddly anti-climactic. The demonstrations were going to be relatively simple, as befit the process. There would be targeting popups, then automated attackers, and then ranged testing. It was completely sans risk and utterly boring. This part of the test was more to find out how it looked and felt in real life than anything else.

At least M looked good while doing it. His work on getting her movement and appearance down made her walk into the center of the arena pleasant to look at. Most mechs had a sense of stomping power. This was a picture of elegance and stately steps. He was fairly sure the pilot wasn't even intentionally doing it, that was just how he'd done the gait and how the small boosts made her float a bit.

He definitely didn't program the next part though. The targets popped up around Praying M and the mech just ignited her boosters and twirled, holding up the mirror weapon. The focused laser section of it blasted each target and scored hits quickly. None of them were big damage, but the spectacle was evident.

It became more of one when the automated attackers started up and the mech danced. This resulted in more than a few hits on her armor, but still, very showboaty. Bolt had no idea what the pilot was thinking. He was pretty sure even Lilly wouldn't have put the mech through a dance routine in the middle of being shot at! Her armor did not hold up well against that either!

The finale was where the mech worked as intended though. Range testing. Here Bolt felt a bit proud, seeing the mech kneel down and the drones rise up into the air was a properly cinematic start. It looked even better in reality. The mirror firing upward looked exactly how he'd envisioned it. The drones caught the light as programmed and the entire thing became a lightshow that brought to mind old tales of divine intervention and the like. It was everything he'd hoped when brainstorming and made him very proud to see.

Even the sight of the drones hitting the ground almost felt like part of an act. Sizzling and broken, it ended the show dramatically. Bolt thought it was one of his best works yet from a theme standpoint.

From a practical standpoint he had to admit it was bad. The damage to the targets was anemic, and those drones weren't necessarily cheap to make. Fixing it was impossible with his current knowledge as well. He still had far too much to learn.

"You have the look of a man contemplating his inadequacy." A voice made Bolt look away from the demonstration.

Walking up to him was a man on the older side. He looked timeless in a way that indicated life extension, with a long grey beard and hair, he looked like the most stereotypical wise old elder you could get. It wasn't a bad look on him mind you, it was just very obvious he was playing into it.

"Somethin' like that." Bolt eventually responded and nodded at the man with a trace of wariness. "Name's Bolt, but ya probably already know that."

"I do. You may refer to me as Senior Chen. I am one of the founders of this company, lead developer, and senior mech designer." The man gave a stately and shallow nod. "I heard of your design and believed I had to see it." He turned to where the mech was wrapping up. "I am glad that our little contest here appears to have born more fruit."

"More fruit?" Bolt asked before dismissing the odd statement and giving Chen a nod of his own. "I'd assume that ya mean you've gotten other designs from this contest right Senior?"

Everything about this approach screamed danger despite the friendly attitude. No one important approached a Rat unless they wanted something and Bolt had grown up with that attitude in mind. Play along, play passive and respectful, and then run with your tail tucked between your legs afterwards. Live, survive, and never let pride lead to a fall.

"Yes. Designs." The man said with a self satisfied grin. "I'm sure you know the flaws, would you care to tell this old what you believe is incorrect?"

"Boosters are too focused on cosmetic results, hips need ta be redone, armor seems are bad on upper shoulder, rear shoulder, mid back. Sensors are likely drawing the power incorrectly, and aren't good for how her range is shaping up to be. The mirror is absolute shit, and the drones are not made for this." Bolt rattled off quickly and winced. "Apologies for the swearing Senior."

"No, don't mind me. I might not look it, but I have handled a wrench and heard far worse. My students wouldn't say that, but you aren't one." The man said with a wave and a chuckle. "But that was a very good recital. You missed the joints in the hands and if we were to look at the blueprint I could point out a good hundred changes you could make for the energy distribution and heat shunting. The only part of worth out of the entire design is your tight commitment to the entire ideal. It was why I had to come over. A focus towards a goal and a new idea are worth something."

"I'm afraid I don't follow. It's a decent mech, but hardly something spectacular." Bolt responded with a frown at the mech as it finished the tests and began to leave.

"Walk with me." Chen said simply, and Bolt stepped quickly to catch up as the man turned. "As simply as possible, the concept is innovative. We had over a hundred submissions and none of them did anything special. Your Praying M is flawed in many ways yes. It drew the eye. Sometimes you need that, especially in marketing. I can refine this into something useful. We already have a few people drawing up plans to market the product to shrines and the like. To put it extremely bluntly, you've already won."

"Oh." Bolt breathed out and felt his alarm increase rather than drop.

"Bit shocking to realize is it not?" The old man asked with a small grin of nostalgia. "Ah I remember my first commercial mech. It was a little front line thing with the tiniest laser possible. Absolute trash, but I treasured the ten sales I made from it and used it to move up in the world." His smile continued as they passed several security points without stopping.

Bolt glanced around as they walked. There was a lot of security here. A lot of guards too. Exit was going to be tricky. He didn't have his tools. Then the old man continued and he switched his attention to that.

"But enough of that. Your mech was so unique it reminded me of something else, and I believe you'd be able to get something from it. Consider it another reward, off the books." The old man chuckled again and gestured into the mech bay.

Bolt stared, alarm briefly forgotten as they approached a strange mech. It was alien and human. Crystals were artistically placed around it's form, and a laser rifle was set by it's side. A mech unlike any other he'd seen. There was a presence too. Familiar and yet not.

"So odd." The young designer breathed out and stepped forward. "Do you feel that?"

"I'm afraid you are likely feeling it more than I. I'm an old man!" Chen joked back with a complicated look on his face. "We've had plenty of reports of unusual feelings, but I'm afraid they're all contradictory and useless."

"There is something backing this thing." Bolt tapped the foot of the machine and closed his eyes as he attempted to feel out the problem. "No idea what, but it's a sort of... Ug, I don't have the words."

Chen's warm demeaner dropped and he stared at the mech with something resembling hate. "Yes, that is something I've contemplated some myself. My specialty is lasers, but this Crystal Lord has confounded some of it. It is frustrating." Contrary to the words the tone was cool before he shook himself and seemed to put on the mask again. "Anything else?"

"I really want to tear it up." Bolt muttered and shook his head. "Sorry Senior."

"My boy," Chen sounded absurdly happy about that particular desire. "If it hadn't cost me far more than I'd like, I would have you rip this down to the nuts and bolts. I can say that physically it's not that different than any mech. There is some alien technology involved, but that I have already analyzed. It isn't what's causing the strangeness people are reporting."

The young man nodded and found a ladder before going up and popping open the cockpit to root around a bit in the nearest internals. He poked around a few areas and had to conclude that yes, there wasn't something physical causing his strange feeling. Eventually he had to give up and dropped down to the ground feeling irritated.

"Sorry I can't help anymore on this Senior. All I can say is that it's like it's got another layer? I don't have words for it. Was this built by another Senior Designer?" Bolt stared at the mech as he reviewed what he'd learned and frowned. "It seems too er, crude for that?"

"No." Chen replied with something almost like disdain on his face. "Just a designer at your level, with some help of some sort. Ves Larkinson. He's a fair distance away so you'll likely not see most of his work, but I watch for everything related to lasers and this came up."

Bolt nodded and stepped back from the mech before looking over it again. There was a clue here. He knew it. Something that would help him significantly.

"Well just staring won't help us. You could look at it later if you like as an incentive! You could call it a sign on bonus." Chen stepped forward before reaching up to pat the young man on the shoulder and offering his other hand. "How would you like to become my student and join my company?"

The young man very carefully did not show any sort of real reaction to that as his panic returned, though muted now that he could see the angle. "I'd have to think on it." He instead said with a warm smile as he stepped away without taking the hand. "I'm currently staying at the MTA facility due to personal reasons and don't want to many any sort of commitments while they are processing things." That was hopefully neutral enough to keep from immediate retaliation.

Nothing showed on Chen's face either as he replied while dropping his hand. "Fully understandable. Please do let me know. I'd love to show you all the wonders of lasers, if you'll pardon my obsession! Actually, thinking of it." He nodded decisively as if deciding something. "I'll do a quick revision of everything and send it your way in a few days. You show many signs of being self taught, and it'd be a pity to let such a talent go without any guidance at all. Be sure to treat it as a learning opportunity all right?"

Bolt nodded with easy acceptance. Internally for once he wished he knew more about politics. There was a trap looming and he hadn't dodged it yet.

 

[lost star]

A few days after the contest, and well into his third month of being the MTA's guest, Bolt was deep into research. This was different than his normal stuff. It was research into this Ves and his mechs. There wasn't much unfortunately. He was two nations away and getting information at that distance was hard even with the communications they had. He had a few news articles, some public information, and that was basically it aside from the accusations of being a cult leader, which was rather weird. Something about insisting that mechs be assembled by hand and forcing people to adhere to his beliefs. Living Mechs came up too, which he was obviously missing context on.

Strange stuff, but ultimately not particularly helpful. The Iron Spirit mechs Ves had made were more informative. With Lilly's help he could identify that they had that strange feeling that Bolt had gotten. She considered them warm, but in a different way. 'Like a blanket versus a heater.' Which both was and wasn't helpful. Mechanically there was nothing that could cause what he and Lilly were noticing. Bolt seriously believed that the only way he was going to get full answers was getting a mech built by Ves and taking it apart. It was a strangely potent urge.

A disassembly would have to happen later though. It was going to be horribly expensive. The transport fees would be hellish! He could probably afford it if he converted some MTA credit, but not while he was at the mercy of the MTA and their hospitality. He wanted his tools and some help before he really dug into analyzing a fellow designer's work. There was something important there that he knew he could find if he just had time.

In the meantime he had to get back to work elsewhere. Chen's revisions were coming in soon, and while Bolt didn't want to work with the senior more than he had already, making an enemy this way seemed unwise. He could also really use the money considering his increasingly large list of needs.

He was admittedly rather confused as to why the entire thing had certain parts censored when he received it though. He assumed most of it was proprietary stuff after some thought and got right to work on reviewing. Despite his minor distaste, Chen was a more experienced designer and had a lot of input to give. Bolt hadn't even thought about half of how the power lines were supposed to go, and the way it distributed heat was inspired. It didn't quite fit the mech all over though. Some places changed the lines of the profile and it felt like some of the personality was lost. Also the man had removed the firing stance.

"I get that it's functionally better, but why not lean into it?" He asked the display of the mech in front of him out loud. "Removing it removes one of her unique features."

It wasn't his mech anymore. It was a laser mech made using the chassis of his idea! Bolt wasn't so arrogant as to assume he could improve upon a Senior Mech Designers work, but this entire design was just ick now! There was no other way of defining it in his head. The appearance hadn't changed much but it didn't feel good anymore! Bolt made a copy and adjusted a few things here and there, using the changes as a base. If he were to make the girl look right again while maintaining the good stuff he had to adjust the wires here, shape out the hips more there, and redo the firing stance. He wanted that there even if it didn't make much sense!

A few hours later Bolt felt less disgusted and more amused. He then moved to delete his adjusted design. He could reply back to Chen and thank him for the lesson. It wasn't like he learned nothing. He felt like he had a good grasp of lasers now! That was about it though. It felt almost disappointing in a way. He'd expected more from a simulation.

The simulation he was in glitched right after he hit delete. Everything went black. Bolt immediately got ready to hit the emergency override and get the hell out of the sim pod.

"One moment. A flag has been raised." The ominous text scrolled across his vision in an oddly friendly manner and Bolt paused. "Hidden Master has been alerted due to automated protocols being tripped. One moment while you are connected. Please remain calm and in the VR pod."

"What?" Bolt asked the text.

"Encryption engaged. Protocol handshake established. Master connected. Apologies for the alarm." The ominous text dropped and the design he'd been working on appeared in front of Bolt again.

"Curious." The text accompanied by the voice felt like ice in the simulated VR designer, and Bolt knew exactly who was talking now. "You appear to be developing a knack for drawing my direct attention. This may become an issue in the future. I have precious little time I can allot to the one designated Bolt Silica."

Bolt swallowed, feeling suddenly very, very scared. He didn't say a word, just stared at the text. He knew for a fact there was nothing he could say here that would change things.

"You need not worry at the present time. You are far from any point of concern and might never reach them at all. I am merely informing you that you are setting yourself apart from the others I am monitoring. My time is very limited for those at your level. Consider this a statement of clarification rather than a threat. " The voice and text paused a moment and then continued. "But this is likely not comforting. Let us move onto the reason I have been alerted. Senior Mech Designer Chen has committed a rather grievous social faux paus."

Bolt was still trying to deal with being scared shitless at this point, so he didn't say anything. Not that this hidden master cared much. They continued in that same clinical and robotic tone and text with only a single brief moment of silence.

"To clarify the problem, he sent you a design containing no censoring. This is not appropriate for a master to do for reasons that you will not understand at present time. It was censored by automated programs set around you and no harm was done. Any more information would be actively harmful for your development. The problem will be resolved without further action from you. Do not bring this incident up to others and do not accept any further work from Senior Mech Designer Chen. That designer was attempting to exploit your ignorance and will be occupied for some time after this." The text stopped there and a light illuminated the designs as they were deleted from the VR environment.

"Got it!" Bolt wasn't ashamed to admit he squeaked a bit as he responded. There was a surprisingly long pause before the text continued.

"A small possible misconception should be clarified to prevent future harm. Courteous Mech Designers do not do what he did to a another's design, even with your skill disparity. Your initial design was not traditional or efficient. It was functional and contained your insights. Senior Mech Designer Chen's revision fixed some problems and removed significant and deliberate choices. It was in essence an attempt at overriding your style with his own. This is extremely offensive to most designers and has been known to provoke lethal feuds if done without permission."

Several news articles were brought up in rapid succession. Bolt skimmed over them briefly and felt his eyebrows raise. Some of those were outright brutal.

The voice and text seemed almost soft as it continued. "As a matter of professional courtesy, I will provide a proper teaching blueprint, appropriately censored to your level. This is how another Senior or higher designer should act. The design will also provided back to the offending designer. The mech will be produced with full co-designer rights, which means you would be considered a co-owner. Consider it your first officially marketed mech. Congratulations." Incredulously that statement was accompanied by party streamers.

The simulation went dark a few seconds later, and not for the first time Bolt wondered what the hell was going on.

Later that night, the news reported that Senior Mech Designer Chen was admitted to the hospital due to an accident in his office. He was expected to make a full recovery and he attributed the accident to spending too long designing the newest line of mechs. Called the Shining Shrine Maiden, it was a mech deliberately aimed to work with Shrines and Temples as a cross between a decoration piece and a practical defense. It would start out notorious due to his injury and rapidly became a cult classic due to it's beauty and rather quirky firing stance. Favored for festivals and the like, it was not bought in great numbers, but it rapidly became a cultural icon. Especially because the mirror and other decorative parts could be easily adjusted to fit the various temples at no loss in functionality.

Chen would withdraw from public appearances immediately after revealing the mech. Bolt would know very little of this, due to deliberately trying to avoid all of the news after his scare. Instead he reviewed the revised blueprints and watched his bank account go up.

The changes were utterly fascinating. He now knew what the hidden master had meant by a proper teaching aide. Everything had been subtly adjusted to fit alongside his desires instead of override them. The firing stance especially. He'd never even thought of some of the changes! It made the mech actually rather deadly if it could set up and made sense as a feature rather than just a quirk he'd tried to ham-fistedly implement. The drone configuration alone made him take notes. They were still expendable, but they were affordably expendable!

Whom or whatever this master that had picked him was, they were a designer that knew their stuff. Bolt was almost curious enough to wonder, but then the feeling of ice came back and he was quite sure he was better off not knowing. All he could do was move forward and try not to depend on whatever old monster was interested in him.

 

[lost star]

Spoiler

AN: So it's been brought up that the Iron Spirit in the fic isn't completely compliant with the canon Iron Spirit. I'm ok with that, because the completely cannon one also makes no sense as being a popular game. It's galaxy wide, which is frankly an insane number of players.

So, here's how it is in the story. Iron Spirit is a galaxy wide game, technically. More practically it has departments in each sector that don't have any interaction with one another. It's an MTA backed simulator / game.

The way it works is you pay money to get in game money. You then use that in game money to buy mechs or licenses depending on if your a pilot or designer. Money only goes in. It doesn't come out. Iron Spirit makes a lot of money my just letting companies advertise in it, so it's actually rather generous to pilots. If they win a lot, they typically only need an initial small buy in. This makes it so that kiddos can start with say a 20$ buy in so to speak, and the parents don't need to break the bank.

Star rating is how mechs and pilots are evaluated. Pilots start at one stars and go up. Star ratings for mechs is actually done by simulations. All mechs designed go through a few standard simulations and are rated by stars. Benchmark wise, each star is a generation. 6 Stars are 3rd rate modern day mechs. 5 stars are previous generation. This means that 1 stars are -5 generations. They're not that good in other words.

5 1 stars cannot win against a 5 star. They get basically one to two tapped. They can however provide firepower, and bodies. This relates to the tournament previously. A bunch of 1 star fodder is useful as bodies, additional firepower, and so on.

Mech designers have to make mechs once after designing them. Once they do they can have them mass produced. Mass produced mechs have a small penalty to encourage people building them. You get a surprising amount of people that do it for fun. (They even get discounts!)

Finally, 5 star mechs are typically the most popular mechs. Not only are 6 stars a bit less common, 5 stars can be insta repaired for a sane amount of in game money. 6 stars and up are basically $$.

As an additional note, Iron Spirit is not popular in the first rate nations.

---

Bolt had a tiny, little, barely there problem of his own making. It wasn't related to incident that should not be named, but it was something that reminded him of it. The problem was that he still didn't know how to work with people in his capacity as a designer. Dai's phone call, and subsequent VR meeting rectified it, but he felt more than a little bad about forgetting completely about it.

"It took Wu reminding us that you likely had no idea what was expected here." Dai gestured emphatically at the simulated cafe they were in. "So, here's the first thing. We have two months to get coordinated together and settle on a series of preliminary designs. That means regular meetings."

"Am I too late?" Ando asked as he appeared.

"Nope, just going over what we need. Tests go well?" Dai asked back.

"I believe I passed, but only as above average." The young man said and took a seat, not that it mattered much in a digital area.

"For your information, that means he's basically screwed." Dai informed the other designer. "There are what, several hundred graduates from our school? And we're not a bad school. We're top of the line in the city. You want a career you need to be the best, have connections, or have achievements."

"Yes." Ando replied very simply as he gave Dai a very flat look. "Much as I appreciate the reminder, I would rather not speak of it further."

"Hi." Wu appeared then. "Barely passed." She said as she flopped down on a chair. "Give me whisky."

"Ouch." Dai winced.

Bolt stared as a bottle appeared. "You can get drunk here?"

The young woman chugged the bottle. "Sort of. It's semi-simulated. Won't do this in real life."

With a sigh Dai met Bolt's eyes and tried to imply something. Bolt took a moment to get it before he cleared his throat. Somehow, he had better prospects at the moment than three near college graduates. It was just a bit daunting.

"I've been informed that we need to practice together and coordinate." The designer told the others. "Since I have somehow been designated lead, I suppose I'll have ta arrange something." He tapped a virtual interface. "Do you all have Iron Spirit accounts?"

"Yep." Dai answered for the group. "Standard thing if you want to go anywhere. Get an account in each of the popular mech games. Can't say we used it much, but we all have one."

Bolt grinned. "Perfect. The game does allow for collaboration. I propose we do it through there. I have the following designs and we can meet every day for a few hours until the contest starts." He brought up his designs. "I've been working on making them all refined five star mechs for possible sales back home."

There was a long beat of silence and then Dai hit his head on the table. He did it again before Bolt could ask a question. Wu chugged at the bottle again almost desperately and Ando stared at him before heaving a long sigh.

"There are so many things that I want to ask Buddha once I meet him." Ando eventually said.

"Is there something wrong?" Bolt looked at the designs in front of him.

Dai hit his head again. Bolt would probably have been concerned had it been real life. That looked painful. "We're over here working on things to avoid being relegated to a sweatshop mechslop shop, and you're working on making commercial mechs. You are also responsible for the damned Undead Legion fad that's been blazing around. Is there anything else I should know about?!"

"Wasn't there something about a Shrine Maiden too?" Wu asked everyone after a moment of thought.

"You know what, no." Dai said immediately. "Let's do mech design for a few hours. I'll break down in my bed later! We're good, just pick one to start on."

Rather confused Bolt decided to just go along with that. "Let's do Bloody Berserker first then. He needs the least amount of parts changed. Just some refinement."

"I'm familiar with that one actually. I wondered some, but you probably haven't heard of the more exotic armor designs right?" Ando asked immediately and began highlighting areas. "You reinvented more than a few things to get this done. It works, but it's pardon my expression, shoddy. Most of the attachments are inefficient."

"Oh?" Bolt watched as Ando made a few changes as a demonstration. "Ahhh. I get it." He did a few himself. "Like that?"

"Stop being shocked when he picks something up in a few seconds." Dai advised his fellow once he saw the look Ando was giving the changes. "I like the axes but I don't recognize the design."

"Made them." Bolt admitted.

Dai frowned at them and nodded decisively. "That'd explain the simple alloy. Give me a moment. For axes specifically we want different alloys at different points. I can also give that detailing some refinement. I get the look, but it's not exactly visible. We want style there."

"That's a good point. Hold up on the work though." Bolt glanced at Wu.

"I'm apparently bad at boosters if you take my test scores into account. I can run the sims to get those smoother and give better thrust though." The woman set her bottle down and peered at the design. "Unusual choice admittedly. Why?"

Ando was the one to say something about that. "It's deliberate. It's essentially a pseudo lancer in the initial stages of combat."

Bolt nodded before flicking the design to the side. "We can get deep into it later. Let's call this a quick notes section. I'm actually curious what you have to say about these." He brought up version one and two of Ghoul. "On the left is the first real mech I built. The right is one I refined some for the game. I'd call them my worst work at the moment really."

That got a small chuckle from the group before Dai spoke up. "I can see why. That first one." He hissed out. "Well, it's functional."

"It was made out of scraps that I could find." Bolt explained with no shame. Why would he have any? That was what his life had been.

"You can actually see the designs improve between the two. Again though, the armor. This time I get the function, but I'd want to complete redo it." Ando said slowly.

Dai was less kind. "Claws suck without something propping them up and that acid is useless. Skirmishers need to be able to do damage in a second or less."

"I like the way it's designed to leap, but I don't think the arms would like it if you impact wrong and the arrangement makes it so that you'd want to hit with them." Wu gave her input.

That aligned up with a lot of what Bolt was thinking. Trying new things each time wouldn't always result in complete hits. Lilly was really attached to this girl though, and he wanted to do something for her using it. Especially because their wedding was still coming up, as unreal as that sounded.

"Keep wanting ta update this into a modern mech." Bolt mused out loud as he stared at the design. "But the claw thing keeps running into issues. I love the concept, but it's hard ta make work."

"There are examples of claws out there." Dai said. "All of them use exotics though, and I'm assuming you're still on budget of sorts."

"Making anything has ta be outta my personal pocket fer this." The explanation drew winces. "Got a big old wad of money in Iron Spirit, not nearly enough outside it. Makes it easy ta experiment at least." That fad was really giving him money there.

"Why the mouth and teeth?" Wu asked and poked at that point in the design.

"Oh, the first version was from salvaged parts. The head was missing the jaw so I just made something to fill the gap. Lilly used it a few times for fighting and because it was scary." Bolt explained happily before chuckling. "That girl will push every machine to the limit and use everything in it. Ghoul more than most, every engagement has her arms nearly break and I've seen the jaws need to be remade more than once."

"There should be a function in Iron Spirit that shows your damage reports if you have access to her account." Ando said with fascination at the description.

So informed, Bolt immediately looked for it. Some fumbling through the interfaces brought up her match record, and some directed work had a list of damages repaired. The list was both long and mildly horrifying. Lilly didn't wreck mechs, but she did certainly redline all of them routinely. It seemed like even Iron Spirit was struggling with her ability to really push everything to the limit. One match had her entire mech damaged!

"Well, there's a reason she likes your stuff aside from you being her fiancé." Dai breathed out. "Damn girl, settle down. If Bolt didn't make durable stuff they'd be ridden to death." Wu gave him a light smack before she paused and began to open up things.

The group looked at her and then exchanged glances. Sometimes you felt inspired, and Wu did seem like she looked inspired. They waited a moment and watched as she located what she wanted.

"Do you think you can work with this?" She brought up a few articles.

"ASMAS?" Bolt frowned at it. "What is this? Some sort of Nanomachine brand? These exist?"

Coughing made him glance at the others. Dai scrolled down and pointed at the cost. Bolt wasn't shocked easily, but the number depicted there did get a reaction.

"It costs how much?!" The designer practically shouted.

Wu winced. "No good?"

"No-wait." Bolt scrolled up and down and then opened a few more windows as he forced himself to look everything over. "Interesting. Why does it, no. I see. Calculations would be something like this then." He put in a number. "We'd put it right here. Would it work then? We'd have to process the stuff. It's the only way, and it would not do full repairs."

"Mind explaining for the class." Dai said after some more muttering from their lead.

"We can use it and I think it would be something worthwhile to try as well. The idea is to have Ghoul eat the parts and use an internal processor to extract what's needed. We'd have to use some specific sensors and well figure out a way to extrude the waste, but we could have her refuel and repair by consuming fallen mechs." Bolt explained and tapped at the number he'd written down. "I'd need about this much, and it'd have to be very specifically configured but it would be affordable enough to justify the hassle of getting it bought."

"I'll do that. We can do it in game to see if it works first." The young woman immediately volunteered.

"Sounds like a solid project! I can see about finding something we can fit to give the claws more omph." Dai said.

"We're going for a long term skirmisher I assume? I'll find something there to add with my talents as well." Ando volunteered. "We'll need a very specific armor for that I assume."

"Let me know then and I'll get it all coordinated together." Bolt finished the session with a wide grin. "This will be a modern mech, a six star." He lowered his voice a bit. "I plan on revising Ghoul back home and making it sort of a wedding gift. Don't worry about keeping it a secret though, we'll have to have Lilly test it in game and give it another polish afterwards. It'll likely be her sole mech for awhile. I want it to be as good as possible."

All three of the other designers nodded very seriously. Bolt completely missed how much prestige this sort of thing meant for completely new designers. Even had he gotten it, he likely wouldn't have cared honestly. It was very, very good practice for the future.

 

[lost star]

They didn't just focus on Ghoul of course. They did all the mechs. It was both good practice and helpful for them all. As eager as they were, it took time to learn how others did things. Bolt especially had issues. He sympathized with Lilly a bit more now. He knew they were average students from their college. As time passed he could see their limitations compared it him. Sometimes those limits frustrated him. He made sure to identify those times and kill the building pride fast. Over time he learned to appreciate the different viewpoints, and the added eyes and hands were worth all the problems.

Of the revisions, Zombie was the hardest to do overall. Pushing him up from a one to five star was hard. Doing it incrementally was hard and expensive parts wise. The only reason they were even able to do it was the wealth Bolt had in game and the fact that older parts were really cheap. The tricky thing was that his gimmick was only really legitimate at one star due to the limited and primitive parts. Past that a one shot missile didn't matter nearly as effecively.

What they ended up doing, and it was just a bit hilarious in retrospect, was changing out the head payload for each star. Low level, it was just explosives. High level, it became a sort of mix of everything that fragmented and caused chaos. It became less a finisher and more a disruption that was best used at a critical moment. They also ended up putting most of the sensors in the shoulder and making the head completely expendable as a five star. It was a bit awkward to pilot in that regard, but it worked well enough to function. Especially because Zombie was a borderline frontline mech at all levels.

The ugly looking mech appeared to be clumsy and hard to pilot on the surface, but the truth of it was that he was actually a pretty durable and deceptively easy melee mech to use. Basically a shield-knight in zombie form. They'd specifically leaned into that and his affordability as his main real benefit. Functionally he was still pretty wasted as anything more than fodder, but just having a durable and cheap body that could take a hit and keep going was sometimes all you needed.

Ghoul had the most revisions due to it being Lilly's main choice for most tasks. They removed the acid and made the jaws viable as an attack method. Past two stars, her claws and hands had a specifically revised design that made them able to get into the armor seams on a mech and pry open the armor with a single smooth motion. It required precision and skill, but it was a distinctly different sort of attack that set her outside your standard skirmisher. They also changed her internal structure so that she could run on all fours, and pounce on things without actually damaging herself. Finally her bite was now a viable attack. She was faster and more durable at five stars, but pretty similar in function across all levels. Light Skirmishers had narrow applications and few pilots frankly. It was a useful, but extremely high skill level niche.

The Drowned Man was the least changed. Upgrading and downgrading his designs to fit various stars was fairly easy. What wasn't easy was the fact his fog generator wasn't exactly being updated anymore. Modern sensors could peer through it with relative ease. They didn't have a fix for that from the company, or the knowledge to do it themselves. The most they could do was update what they could and leave the generator for later with a small note to revise if they got a good substitute. Ando had some fun fixing the armor on it at least. The semi-stealth alloy was an interesting thing to work with and took some finesse to layer with other armors. At five stars he was mostly a swordsman with a small gimmick in his mist. Respectable but unremarkable aside from that. (Not all of them could be utterly unique.)

Undertaker was something Dai took a personal offense to in contrast. The designer ended up completely redoing the gun and the ammo in a long frustrated fit. From the outside it looked the same, but even the four star design had a good twenty percent more range and area coverage. It also sent out significantly more mist, because he'd added a sort of grapeshot mist bombs that launched with the shells. Downgrading it turned out to be the hardest task, since the jamming and communication protocols just didn't scale down tech wise. They ended up having to remove that for the two and one star models which frankly made the mech a less than useful cannoneer at those levels. The five stars was a surprisingly capable support mech for small teams though.

The Bloody Berserker was probably the most commercially viable of Bolt's creations. It was also a mech he'd rushed to create. Bolt had done some serious mistakes while making it. The armor for instance. It had been so bad that on his first pass Ando had both decreased the cost and increased the durability in one swoop. The twin generators had to be redone completely as well. Bolt's work on the power distribution had been very hasty and required some dedicated work from everyone to make it properly functional in all edge cases. Finally the boosters actually caused damage to the mech. The damage itself was small, but it did add to the repair bill at the end of the day and could be potentially catastrophic if ignored. Wu spent an entire day fixing that issue while retaining the deadly acceleration the mech needed to be a threat.

Appearance wise, Berserker looked exactly the same after the revisions. Internally there were a lot of changes. They'd chopped off about five percent of the cost, it was slightly easier to repair, and the boosters were no longer damaging. It also lacked a serious flaw that hadn't come up in the game. The Bloody Berserker's runtime was actually pretty shitty. The dual generators guzzled twice the fuel a single generator would. This sounded obvious, but generators scaled up very well. A single instead of two smaller ones was far more efficient. Heavies weren't exactly known for endurance either. Fixing that had required a mix of letting one generator idle when not in actual combat, and expanding the fuel storage. This required some creative part shuffling, but they managed it. (They also left in and actually enhanced the steam burst that happened when the armor dropped.)

Berserker also held up surprisingly well when you downgraded it. The top speed took the largest hit, but the rest was really just it's base design. A one star Bloody Berserker was still a very deadly and durable close ranged monster with very heavy and dangerous axes. It was just pretty slow and sluggish at that level. That did make it rather useless in the niche it was designed for, but one star mechs were based off old, low performance designs in the first place.

Amusingly, over time the largest arguments were over the appearance of the mechs rather than anything else. Marketability was one area that Bolt knew he was absolutely horrible at. Inside the game, the appearance was a fun novelty. Outside the game, the undead aesthetic was decidedly less acceptable. Bolt wanted to keep it anyway. If his family every built the mechs outside the game, it'd be for niche users that wanted those specific mechs. Bolt didn't anticipate there being any other buyers really. In the end there was a small compromise where they simply had different looks available. It required a few minutes adjusting the profile and outer armor for all the mechs but was ultimately just a day's worth of work for all of them.

The largest accomplishment was the conclusion of the only six star Mech Bolt planned on. Ghoul's final version had a central processor that used nanomachines and a refinery to process mech parts. Her main sensors could identify components that that processor would use, and then she could eat them. She would then use those materials to repair herself or give herself more fuel.

Visually the process was a bit gross. She'd eat something, and then seemingly 'drool' out a compound that would fix her wounds when the mech spread it over her body. It was not a pretty thing to witness. It also didn't guarantee an indefinite operational capacity or repair ability. The repairs would be the equivalent to patches, and anything that hit the skeleton or vital points wasn't possible to repair. It still doubled her theoretical deployment time.

In addition to the survivability, Ghouls claws and teeth were significantly better than even the five star version. Iterating on the claws effects had given them a good understanding of how to make it lethal to other mechs and they could use some trace exotics to further enhance the damage at six stars. Iron Spirit had a bit of trouble simulating that sort of thing, but it managed. Ghoul could rip a mech's armor off in a second, then use her bite to theoretically both take out a mech and refuel herself with one pounce. This made her a light, fast, long living mech that could live behind enemy lines for a very long time.

For giggles, Bolt named the thing Dowery and then added a little red lily-shaped adornment on her head as the finishing touch. He then sent the concluded product to Lilly in Iron Spirit to get it tested. While that was going on, he and the others did the finishing touches on a set of plans for the big contest.

They could not bring in their own designs. They would actually have outside communications blocked off while in the testing area. What they could do was memorize a few possible designs. This contest would be a series of battles in a series of prepared battlefields. It would all be live, and they'd have to repair the mech between bouts. The battlefields themselves would be chosen at random out of a series of one hundred of them around the planet. To further complicate things, there would be additional events or changes to each arena to keep things interesting for the pilots and audience.

It was not going to be easy or quick. Lilly seemed very enthusiastic though. (Also she loved Ghoul's newest form.)

Bolt in his haste did make on very, very minor mistake in his perpetrations. He'd listed Dowery as a public mech. It was a mistake he wouldn't catch for awhile.

 

[lost star]

He'd underestimated the entire thing. Bolt had known from his team that the contest was considered a big deal. He'd even acknowledged that. He had not expected crowds, cameras, and cheering upon entry though. It was more than a little overwhelming. To be fair, the others seemed equally overwhelmed. Lilly was hiding behind him, the other designers were clumped together, and for some reason he was in front of it all.

"Pilot Lilly, pilot Lilly, do you have a moment to answer a few questions?" A woman walked up to Bolt with a grin and something hovering behind her.

Bolt stared at her in absolute confusion. "Huh?"

"How does it feel to be considered the dark horse contender?" The reporter asked immediately. "You have been winning an inordinate amount of contests these past few months. Any plans for the rewards? Any comments for your growing fanbase? Is there a reason you're with your design team right at the start? Some sort of comradery?" She continued with a bounce.

Behind him Lilly began to snicker into his back. Bolt finally managed to reboot his brain at this point and answered. "You have me confused. I'm not Lilly." He muttered.

"Oh, I'm terribly sorry!" The reporter gave a bow. "This is the entry for the team, and you very much look the part. Are you a bodyguard then?" She asked. "If so I must commend your work. We've not managed to get a picture or even a description of the pilot at all! The public demands to know!"

How the hell had she managed that?! Bolt tried to turn around to ask the young woman, but she managed to keep right out of line of sight of him and the reporter. He felt his eyebrow twitch.

"Oh, is that them?" The reporter bounced around and Lilly shifted so that she was at his side instead. "Ah, you must be one the designers! I have the descriptions of our proud college graduates, so Bolt was it?"

The three college students looked absolutely entertained as the pilot grinned and held her boyfriend's arm, while also staying silent. The slight blush and wide eyes made her look either shy or scared, and the reporter stopped pressing due to the time starting to tick down and their need to get into the contest area quickly. The team managed to get into the design area before the contest officially started, but it was a bit tight.

Only once they were secured did the three graduates start laughing loudly. Bolt heaved a sigh and found a seat himself. Lilly giggled as she sat opposite him.

"How?" He asked the girl.

"Apparently they don't expect the tiny girl to be the big bad pilot." Lilly replied with a shrug. "After that first contest I mostly just went in and did the piloting stuff before leaving. I think I met a few of the pilots, but in retrospect well..." She trailed off and shrugged again.

"I'm more entertained by someone calling well him Lilly." Ando gestured emphatically at Bolt.

"Yes, he's a very delicate flower." The delicate flower in question said with a nod.

"Well, enough of that." Bolt told everyone. "Do we have information on the battles?"

That sobered the graduates up, and they began to bring up the computers and interfaces the contest area had provided. There was a lot. Bolt actually didn't know what sort of fabricator they were using, but it looked fancy. This was essentially their workplace for roughly the next week. It even had cots for them, good ones!

Speaking of that, he looked over the specs for it while his teammates worked on the rest. He didn't expect to have to maintain it, but all fabricators had a 'stupid' and 'actual' interface. They weren't named that way, but that was what his family called them. The stupid interface was very technically for easy and general jobs, and it wasn't something he ever liked to use.

"We have the details on the hundred, but that doesn't help much. What does is that we have our first match. The pilot favors lancers, and it's in a forest. We each have a tower that will fire mortars at flares as they appear on the battlefield." Dai said to the room.

"That seems a bit boring." Lilly observed.

"It's the first match of twenty person bracket. I think they want to ease people into things." Dai explained and brought up the matching brackets. "Tricky part is we have two days to make the mechs and two hours between matches to adjust and repair until the finales, where we get three. There's some additional rules, but that's what's relevant for us."

Bolt sucked in some air. "That's rough." They had six matches, and that sort of repair pattern was brutal.

"What would our plan for the mech be?" Ando asked the only really relevant question.

They had prepared some for this. The problem was they needed a generalist of sorts. What would work in this one match wouldn't necessarily work in the rest. To be doubly problematic, they had a serious worry about being countered.

"Lilly's a bit more famous than I realized. Ya'll know what videos they have of her?" Bolt asked. "We're going to leverage her versatility."

The pilot in question looked very amused as she watched the debate. Wu and Ando brought up a few videos attributed to her. After a minute or two it became very apparent what was most commonly brought up.

"They really like the acrobatics." Dai stated his observation.

"It is fun moving." Lilly confirmed. "Ain't like I can't do slow, just a lotta designers preferred that."

"Light and mediums are easiest to do." Ando said clinically as he examined the data. "Most people will think you prefer that sort of thing as well, so they'll default to that if they could. High movement, high skill."

"Bit silly there. Some slow mechs are very hard to pilot right. It's twitch reaction versus judgement." Lilly gave her opinion as to that.

"Care for a shield knight then?" Bolt asked.

"Give me something for ranged harassers and I'll shine."

Endurance, one versus one, uncertain terrain? It was meant to simulate war just a bit, but wars weren't clean and simple one on ones. They were messy things. Bolt had seen wars. This was something you could game with something you wouldn't use in reality.

This was going to be a duelist mech. Their preliminary design had been a light, but based on the circumstances they shifted it to a medium. A bit heavier, and not vulnerable to wide area attacks. Adding a shield. That was the outline.

As always, the big part was in the details. This wasn't going to be a conventional shield mech. Those frequently had body covering heavy shields that had to be practically fixed in place. They were meant to take big hits and stay stable.

"Grab one of the smaller shields from the weapons list." Bolt ordered as he made the preliminary sketches. "Ando, think you can handle that? Be sure to make it usable as a weapon."

"I can, but might I question the weapon part?" The designer asked as he brought up the appropriate specs.

"Use every part of yer mech to fight." Lilly chimed in as she kicked her legs.

Bolt nodded. "You wouldn't believe the mechs I've seen win because they just jabbed a hand into the opponent. Saw a swordsman downed because it ignored a rifleman just jabbing the severed hand into the head and then pulling the sidearm." He explained.

"What sort of contest was that?" Dai asked curiously.

"Contest?" Bolt paused in his designing and decided to explain. "No, was scavenging, a pair o' pilots were fighting over the loot and the fight ended when the riflemen shot the guy in the gut a few times. The swordman had to eject and I ended up getting a nice payout from the parts left."

"Heh, the guy actually survived?" Lilly asked over the silence of the others.

"Yep. Can't say he was happy about it. Not sure how long a walk it was back." Bolt responded.

"I only have more questions, and this isn't the time." Dai eventually answered for all of them.

Bemused Bolt continued. "Dai, get a sword going. Rapier style if you could. Wu, we're going to need short burst boosters and the legs to be working for that." He highlighted the areas.

Both mech designers nodded and began to work on the requested areas.

"Theme wise..." Bolt hummed to himself in thought.

"Why do you insist on theme if you don't mind answering?" Ando asked curiously.

"It helps get me in the mindset. Also there's something about focusing hard on a personality of sorts. Lilly can tell when there's nothing there. Really strange." Bolt gave Lilly a small smirk. "I've actually seen a bit of that elsewhere. There's another designer, a Ves Larkinson that does it better and that's what clued me into there being something more than just raw misplaced feeling. I haven't seen it in other mechs, so it's some strange technique of sorts. You sorta focus and align the mech to the ideal and you get a sort of presence. You'll see after we build it. I think I've made strides in refining the style and it's actually something you can feel." He had a few suspicions that this would confirm.

"Can say he's tellin' the truth there." Lilly chimed it.

"We are willing to take your word for it." The armor designer said with a hint of skepticism. "Do you need us doing it too?"

"Don't think so. I just need to do the overall design and fix it into my head." Bolt muttered. "Now theme. Honorable duelist?"

"We do need another weapon before that I think." Dai said. "Ranged harassers with this would not be fun." He tapped on the sword blueprint for emphasis.

Bolt fully understood that. He did the preliminary sketches anyway. A duelist, with a long red ribbon coming out of the helmet that trailed behind him. Sword and shield. Not particularly mobile, but agile. Deadly, with a lethal thrust when needed.

No need to be complicated here. This wasn't the time. Missiles weren't typically hard counters, but they'd mess up most other mechs that wanted to play keep away. They'd have to reload after every round, which could be a bit time consuming, but he could manage that.

This was going to be a guy with flourishes. A bit flashy, but good at his job. A valiant fighter and entertainer. Also one who could recover quickly, because they did not have much time to repair this guy after each round! Hopefully the shield would help some, and there was no rule they couldn't make spare parts in the time they had.

Bolt's eyes narrowed at the design. Easy to repair was fine. Everything looked good there. The missiles though, those felt unpleasant in some way. They were there as a ranged option alone. Endurance wasn't a problem here was it thought? He switched the standard multi-missile launcher to a four missile launcher. Four large projectiles was not a lot. There was a reason most launchers shot a cluster.

"Dai, Wu. Change of plans." Bolt highlighted the back. "I'm putting four tubes here. Make large missiles for them. Area of effect, and as disrupting as possible."

"That's an interesting choice." Dai said as he looked at the part. "I can pack a lot into that amount of space, but the payload will have to be special to make it worth." He frowned at it. "This will take some time."

"It's why I'm putting you on that. I can handle the rest." Bolt paused. "I'm going to have the fabricator start printing out the parts we know we'll be using." He sent a few orders to that machine. "We don't have that much time, so let's get going!"

With great enthusiasm, the designers all got to work.

 

[lost star]

There was a rather large problem with mech contests. It was one that various organizations had been attempting to work around for a long time. Designing a mech both took time, and was very boring. The most commonly used process was have the design happen before the actual start of the tournament. People could see the designs and debate for an hour or two and then see the mechs fight. A tournament would still take a full day plus to happen then, but it'd be an actual event rather than a series of brief battles broken up by extensive waiting.

It was for this reason that the reporter had asked the question about Lilly entering the contest area in the beginning. Lilly actually had very little to do for the next two days. She didn't seem that broken up about it though. Bolt honestly couldn't spare that much attention to her to be certain. He was technically doing two things at once. One getting the base blueprint done, and two, getting the parts made once they'd confirmed what was certain in the blueprint. It was admittedly a bit of a juggling act, but doing it right would give them all the time they needed.

"We're using these for the payload." Dai held up a red ball the size of his palm midway through the first day. "This is about as small as the fabricator can get and retain detail."

"What is it?" Lilly asked from the side.

"A sort of gel." Wu explained as she took the ball and squeezed it. "Completely inert until it's primed, it will then dissolve and expand into a cloud of superheated gas after a few seconds."

"It won't go through armor, but it lasts a second or two, and will do some very good heat damage." Dai took the ball back and set it to the side. "We fill the missiles with it, have them explode in the air to scatter these and then the timer goes off. There's some really exotic stuff in the weapons catalog if you know where to look."

"Interesting. I can work with that." Lilly nodded and glanced at the ball on the table warily. "That's not dangerous right?"

"Without the priming signal it's just a squishy ball." Wu said dismissively.

"Put it in the live munitions area anyway." Bolt ordered absentmindedly as he continued to work out the details. "Are you done with the design then?" While he asked that question Lilly promptly grabbed the ball and moved it like the thing was a live round.

Dai and Wu shook their heads before Wu answered. "We still need the missile design finalized. Are you certain of the back mount?"

"I'll be adding some rough detailing, but you can fabricate them once you do so." Bolt highlighted the dimensions needed for the weapon to fit into the launcher.

"Getting some food." Lilly called out from the containment area. "Ya'll care what I get ya?"

"Noodles please!" Ando said back. "Also, Red Robin?"

Bolt looked at the name on the blueprint. "Does it not fit?" He'd given the helmet a beak like look, and the back missile launchers looked a bit feathery now.

"Let's use a predator at least. Red Crane." The young man said with a small chuckle.

"I did like the alliteration, but I suppose that works." Bolt changed the name and continued on the work.

"Call it Vermillion." Dai practically demanded.

"Seconded." Wu called out as she started up the fabricator.

"Fine, fine. We're not changing the name again though!" The lead designer altered the name again with a growl.

Vermillion, as they were calling it now, was going to be a solidly medium mech. It focused on short, agile movement, with a rapier sword and small shield as primary weapons. The secondary weapon would be a napalm-like area of denial missile. The primary design was done to be a good duelist, with a side function of ease of repair.

It was not a perfect mech. That was utterly impossible. It was actually deliberately flawed. It had absolutely no margin of error in endurance. It would last about an hour in operations. This meant they'd have to refuel it on each repair, which was added maintenance time. Bolt was gambling that the ease of repair would overcome that flaw. Ando had specifically used the space that usually held fuel or energy cells to design it so that they could drop and replace the armor in seconds.

Likewise the missiles were a deliberate choice. Four of them meant easy replacement. It gave Lilly very little margin of error. Four shots were practically nothing, even as large as these were.

Designing this all took most of a day. Bolt had to assume that a normal leader would have had one day on design and one on creation. He would be doing something different.

First was that they had prefabricated most of the standard components. The skeleton, most of the wiring, and the internal computers were all fairly consistent across designs. At home they had a wall filled with cables already made for instance. A contest might not have had them premade, but once you knew the voltage you could print them in mass. Lilly had actually helped a lot there just because they needed someone to move things around. It was probably considered grunt work that a pilot wouldn't do, but there wasn't any rules against it!

Second was that on day two they did do the assembly, but would be doing a partial one. Using the free time the prefabrication had given them, they'd do a skeleton structure and pre-check everything. Bolt's bad habit of revising a blueprint could actually be somewhat useful in that regard. Sometimes you had to see the thing implemented to know where the problems were.

As an added bonus, they could stick Lilly in the cockpit and get some additional feedback as to what to tweak. Little things, like adjusting the seat, changing the feedback, altering the sensors and such. According to the girl was was rather novel sensation wise. Something like running around without clothing, which made Wu flush.

Even with four hours of sleep and barely any time for necessities, they still ran very close to the time limit. Bolt was an old hand at mech assembly though, so he'd scheduled things just right. The last two hours were not frantic speeding. It was all finishing touches that were typically skipped. Getting the armor welded properly, making sure the computer acknowledged everything and was cleared of errors, testing the limbs and oiling the joints, being sure the coolant was already running, and so on. These things didn't stop a mech from functioning, but they did make a mech run better. (Bolt also had spare parts of the armor, and twelve missiles made for the future. The fabricator was running non-stop until the last second.)

Since Lilly was there she got some extra practice time as well. This was decidedly non-standard, but still quite welcome. This allowed them to identify a few things they could still further adjust and tune.

The end mech looked surprisingly valiant. While they had no time for actual decorations, it was trivial for the printer to add more than a few details while printing. The head looked vaguely avian like. There was a long red trailing ribbon that made it look like the mech had a red ponytail. The armor was sharp and angular. The back mounted missile launcher looked vaguely like folded up wings. Thematic and appropriate to the appearance.

"It looks predatory." Ando gave his observation. "Why do I feel that? It's not just the cosmetics." He sounded troubled as he spoke.

Now wasn't the time for that though. "We have just enough time to paint it." Bolt looked at the time remaining with mild amusement. "I'm giving it red with gold highlights."

"No seriously, what is that technique?" Dai asked out loud with narrowed eyes. "I built it and I still don't get it."

Bolt initiated the automated cranes and paint started to coat the mech while ignoring the question. He didn't have the answers for them. All he had was an additional clue. The paint was typically skipped as well. It was mostly corrosion resistance and a minor layer of protection against environmental damage. Contest mechs usually forewent it for a variety of reasons. Here he was going all out. It was almost like a taunt really.

"Heee. He's gonna be fun!" Lilly muttered from the side.

Ando immediately seemed to remember something at those words. He turned to her and gave a bow. "Thank you very much for helping. That was far beyond what a pilot would normally do."

"Yeah, what he said." Dai gave another bow, along with Wu.

The expert candidate gave a disdainful snort. "Of course they wouldn't. Most don't bother with designers. Dunno why ya'll stay separate like that. Bolt made me wings, and I'll never forget that."

"To be fair, this was a two day cramming session. If we did this in a month you'd be bored out of your skull after the first day." Bolt commented as the paint finished.

Lilly bounced over and jumped up to hug him around the neck. "I'd still visit you whenever, because you're my darling." She told him before letting go. "Now time to go out and strut my stuff!"

"Good luck." Bolt said warmly before turning to the others. "Go ahead and nap everyone." He ordered.

They were still going to be isolated after all. The format was very strict. They'd only be able to watch the match and that would happen after the opening ceremonies. They couldn't even run the fabricator. Everything was locked down now. Best to just catch up on their sleep while the ceremonies were running, watch the match, and then plan for that.