M081
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lost star
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"I had expected more trouble." Bolt observed once he'd settled back in on Blubbles' ship and they began to leave MTA's territory.
"Being polite and willing to work within the system tends to keep the obvious trouble away. With you officially registered I can handle most of your MTA contact now, which will keep the less obvious problems away as well because most reports will route through me." The senior said as she brought up a familiar looking hologram. "Now I get you home and you can pretend you're a nice normal Journeyman."
"Why am I detectin' some sarcasm there?" The young man asked with a half frown.
Bubbles batted her eyes. "I have no idea what you mean. I'm more focused on the funsies! We're going over Morning Star. Once we're done we can order the appropriate materials and get it done right when we arrive. That will conclude the last part of official business."
There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask about what had happened. There were far too many things that were going over his head politically. At the same time Bolt figured that there was precious little he could do about it. All he could do was address what was in front of him.
Morning Star did need a rather large touchup admittedly. His inspired design for her had resulted in issues in more than a few places. The largest one was that according to the techs back home, fixing her was an absolute nightmare. The wings and armor required some revised documentation and designs to make them less of a pain. If they weren't, she'd be something close to a Hangar Queen, and no one wanted that. (Except maybe Morning Star.)
Fortunately addressing that shouldn't be that difficult, just time consuming. It might not even be necessary to get to it immediately. They were going over the entire design right now so things were going to change. Starting with the largest performance issue that had been found.
"Need ta revise the weapon system completely." The designer started with a sigh. "That's a failure."
"Don't be too hard on yourself. You're not used to what an expert mech needs for offence. It's really common when you get into exotic weapon configurations." Bubbles consoled. "My suggestion is that we remove some armor on the gauntlets and add some specialized capacitors. They'll store the electricity and give more burst to the entire system. Also, we're adding spare daggers. That part I heavily advise."
Bolt agreed and made the notes on their planned revisions. "We can store them on the inner part of the wings. There's six on each gauntlet because that was the best balance of number and force. The base charge can only throw so many without degradation in some area. I thought the Gluttony system could handle rearming, but it's too slow when you need daggers now."
"Ammo is something you have to account for on all mechs to be fair. We don't want to overcompensate and add too much either." Bubbles sketched a few quick changes before moving on and highlighting a few areas. "I'm going to show you what a Senior can do by touching up the Envy and Sloth systems. I'd like more information on Greed before I start though. I see the physical parts in the feet, but mechanically they shouldn't work." The senior said while flipping through the blueprint layers.
"Shit." Bolt muttered and frowned at the hologram. "You have my old notes?"
"Some. Your naming sense is horrid by the way." Bubbles brought up a series of files.
"I want to dispute that." The designer shot back with a fake scowl. "I can't use the word spiritual on this, so let's call this the psionic layer of the mech." He switched to a layer of the blueprint just showing the outline. "Actually, let me try something. Could I get a pair of glasses? As basic as you can, and just clear glass."
A few seconds later a rather cute and pink pair of glasses appeared next to Bolt. The young man sighed at the design and held them in his hands. Bubbles already knew about this, so the MTA likely had an entire report on him, so there wasn't a point in hiding this ability. It was extremely taxing and hard to do without tools or supplies though.
"Oww." Bolt winced at the flash of pain when he was finished. He'd gotten close to straining himself again. "Put that on and look at the blueprint."
With bemusement the woman did and then her eyebrows raised. She pulled the glasses down and then pulled them up again. She did that several times while Bolt closed his eyes and let the headache fade.
"Interesting." The senior said.
"That, based on my guessing, is the psionic layer of a mech that is applied when the mech is built. Those glasses also just show things based on your interpretation, so I'm not sure how useful it is to show you this. I actually found that feeling mattered more than sight to me. I'm showing you because it gives us a base to work with." Bolt explained.
With a nod the senior turned to Bolt and paused before lowering the glasses again. "It confirms psionic presence in the design, but the need to interpret things hinders it's use so I agree it's not extremely helpful. By the way, you have a refinery in your head."
Bolt chuckled. "Yeah, that tracks. Lilly saw an ouroboros. Like I said, personal views matter a lot I think. So, let me try something." He began to write out things on the blueprint. "I'm going ta have to use my own notation. Spirit, er psionic constructs work in ideas rather than physical parts. You can make a lever, but it would be the idea of a lever. That's important because I did seven sins and called the mech Morning Star. That resonates with a human idea to create a unified form and aligns the concepts together in a unified theme that is greater than the sum of it's parts."
"We're going to have to workshop at lot of the terminology, but..." Senior Bubbles stared at the blueprint through the glasses again. "I'm actually seeing something different now. Intriguing."
They eventually had to start creating their own terms and calculations. This actually wasn't that unusual. Many Journeymen and Senior designers had to do that to estimate and simulate the functions of their more unique works. Bubbles ended up leading Bolt through the process and he picked it up quickly, even if spirituality tended to be a bit fuzzy around the edges. Since it worked a lot more off ideas and concepts rather than direct one to one functions, it could waver a lot. Some of it could probably still be calculated. They just needed tools that Bolt couldn't provide at the moment. This again was something most designers eventually got into. Seniors and above could spend years just measuring various outputs of their own designs.
"This is something you're going need to address in your how-to guide. It does allow me to work with the Greed system though." Bubbles said when they had something workable. "Do you want the glasses back?"
"They're something I make in a few minutes even if it gives me a headache. If you think they'd be useful take them." Bolt waved it off. It had taken a few minutes and time.
"We'll see. I need to experiment more with them to see what use they are." The senior said with a shrug. "But that will be later. Right now, I'm going to make your Envy system more efficient, make Sloth significantly better, and tidy up the Wrath. Then I'll add the resonant materials to the gauntlets to give it a lot more omph. After all of that we can work on Greed on the physical side so it can't potentially fry the internals if you pull too much."
"Yes we do need more omph." Bolt said with a very serious nod of his own that made Bubbles roll her eyes.
Jokes aside, the resonant material choice was actually pretty obvious. Something that generated more electricity. This had an added benefit of being a relatively common exotic. With combined with the tweaks they made, Morning Star had no real upper limit to how much power she could channel through her offensive systems. Lilly could now store electricity for a surprise shot, use it immediately, or discharge it at close range and electrocute someone.
Bolt had to admit it was a treat watching the Senior work. Bubbles looked like the sort of trophy wife that was hanging off an important person's arm. Her mind and ability made that appearance a complete lie. It also showed him what it was like to see a compatible specialty reinforce your idea. Her specialty was almost tailor made to work with Morning Star.
The changes she made were not significant structurally. The armor alloy was shifted, the lines changed, and the segments adjusted. It reduced the cost slightly, increased the effectiveness, and made how it distributed power better. Sloth would activate smoother and work longer. Wrath shot the daggers faster as a base, and could scale indefinitely. There were a lot of small changes like that.
You didn't need to do significant changes to really improve a mech. Bubbles was a trained MTA Senior. They were the top of the line. All her small changes boosted the entire mech's performance by a good ten percent. Not in one factor. All areas. Morning Star had already been a monster defensively. Bolt really didn't think there was a match for her now.
They were even able to adapt her for Space Combat too, which was a thing that Bolt had been dreading trying to learn on his own. He had no experience there, and it was enlightening to see what was needed. You didn't just need to seal the cockpit. You needed to have the entire mech insulated from a half dozen things. Frankly had the mech not been an expert mech it wouldn't have been possible.
If there was a serious flaw it was that Morning Star was Bolt's most expensive mech to date. Any damage to the armor would be pricy, and the wings would be hell on a pocket book. (They were easier to fix now at least.) She as close to Second Rate a Third Mech could be in form and function though. This made her unmatched in her niche and very dangerous outside it.
About the only problem they ran into in their improvements was trying to define a lot of the Greed system. Bolt would have to have extensive testing done later to verify a lot of numbers. That was the peril of using creating an entirely new system. You had to spend days gathering data about its capabilities.
"Being polite and willing to work within the system tends to keep the obvious trouble away. With you officially registered I can handle most of your MTA contact now, which will keep the less obvious problems away as well because most reports will route through me." The senior said as she brought up a familiar looking hologram. "Now I get you home and you can pretend you're a nice normal Journeyman."
"Why am I detectin' some sarcasm there?" The young man asked with a half frown.
Bubbles batted her eyes. "I have no idea what you mean. I'm more focused on the funsies! We're going over Morning Star. Once we're done we can order the appropriate materials and get it done right when we arrive. That will conclude the last part of official business."
There were a lot of questions he wanted to ask about what had happened. There were far too many things that were going over his head politically. At the same time Bolt figured that there was precious little he could do about it. All he could do was address what was in front of him.
Morning Star did need a rather large touchup admittedly. His inspired design for her had resulted in issues in more than a few places. The largest one was that according to the techs back home, fixing her was an absolute nightmare. The wings and armor required some revised documentation and designs to make them less of a pain. If they weren't, she'd be something close to a Hangar Queen, and no one wanted that. (Except maybe Morning Star.)
Fortunately addressing that shouldn't be that difficult, just time consuming. It might not even be necessary to get to it immediately. They were going over the entire design right now so things were going to change. Starting with the largest performance issue that had been found.
"Need ta revise the weapon system completely." The designer started with a sigh. "That's a failure."
"Don't be too hard on yourself. You're not used to what an expert mech needs for offence. It's really common when you get into exotic weapon configurations." Bubbles consoled. "My suggestion is that we remove some armor on the gauntlets and add some specialized capacitors. They'll store the electricity and give more burst to the entire system. Also, we're adding spare daggers. That part I heavily advise."
Bolt agreed and made the notes on their planned revisions. "We can store them on the inner part of the wings. There's six on each gauntlet because that was the best balance of number and force. The base charge can only throw so many without degradation in some area. I thought the Gluttony system could handle rearming, but it's too slow when you need daggers now."
"Ammo is something you have to account for on all mechs to be fair. We don't want to overcompensate and add too much either." Bubbles sketched a few quick changes before moving on and highlighting a few areas. "I'm going to show you what a Senior can do by touching up the Envy and Sloth systems. I'd like more information on Greed before I start though. I see the physical parts in the feet, but mechanically they shouldn't work." The senior said while flipping through the blueprint layers.
"Shit." Bolt muttered and frowned at the hologram. "You have my old notes?"
"Some. Your naming sense is horrid by the way." Bubbles brought up a series of files.
"I want to dispute that." The designer shot back with a fake scowl. "I can't use the word spiritual on this, so let's call this the psionic layer of the mech." He switched to a layer of the blueprint just showing the outline. "Actually, let me try something. Could I get a pair of glasses? As basic as you can, and just clear glass."
A few seconds later a rather cute and pink pair of glasses appeared next to Bolt. The young man sighed at the design and held them in his hands. Bubbles already knew about this, so the MTA likely had an entire report on him, so there wasn't a point in hiding this ability. It was extremely taxing and hard to do without tools or supplies though.
"Oww." Bolt winced at the flash of pain when he was finished. He'd gotten close to straining himself again. "Put that on and look at the blueprint."
With bemusement the woman did and then her eyebrows raised. She pulled the glasses down and then pulled them up again. She did that several times while Bolt closed his eyes and let the headache fade.
"Interesting." The senior said.
"That, based on my guessing, is the psionic layer of a mech that is applied when the mech is built. Those glasses also just show things based on your interpretation, so I'm not sure how useful it is to show you this. I actually found that feeling mattered more than sight to me. I'm showing you because it gives us a base to work with." Bolt explained.
With a nod the senior turned to Bolt and paused before lowering the glasses again. "It confirms psionic presence in the design, but the need to interpret things hinders it's use so I agree it's not extremely helpful. By the way, you have a refinery in your head."
Bolt chuckled. "Yeah, that tracks. Lilly saw an ouroboros. Like I said, personal views matter a lot I think. So, let me try something." He began to write out things on the blueprint. "I'm going ta have to use my own notation. Spirit, er psionic constructs work in ideas rather than physical parts. You can make a lever, but it would be the idea of a lever. That's important because I did seven sins and called the mech Morning Star. That resonates with a human idea to create a unified form and aligns the concepts together in a unified theme that is greater than the sum of it's parts."
"We're going to have to workshop at lot of the terminology, but..." Senior Bubbles stared at the blueprint through the glasses again. "I'm actually seeing something different now. Intriguing."
They eventually had to start creating their own terms and calculations. This actually wasn't that unusual. Many Journeymen and Senior designers had to do that to estimate and simulate the functions of their more unique works. Bubbles ended up leading Bolt through the process and he picked it up quickly, even if spirituality tended to be a bit fuzzy around the edges. Since it worked a lot more off ideas and concepts rather than direct one to one functions, it could waver a lot. Some of it could probably still be calculated. They just needed tools that Bolt couldn't provide at the moment. This again was something most designers eventually got into. Seniors and above could spend years just measuring various outputs of their own designs.
"This is something you're going need to address in your how-to guide. It does allow me to work with the Greed system though." Bubbles said when they had something workable. "Do you want the glasses back?"
"They're something I make in a few minutes even if it gives me a headache. If you think they'd be useful take them." Bolt waved it off. It had taken a few minutes and time.
"We'll see. I need to experiment more with them to see what use they are." The senior said with a shrug. "But that will be later. Right now, I'm going to make your Envy system more efficient, make Sloth significantly better, and tidy up the Wrath. Then I'll add the resonant materials to the gauntlets to give it a lot more omph. After all of that we can work on Greed on the physical side so it can't potentially fry the internals if you pull too much."
"Yes we do need more omph." Bolt said with a very serious nod of his own that made Bubbles roll her eyes.
Jokes aside, the resonant material choice was actually pretty obvious. Something that generated more electricity. This had an added benefit of being a relatively common exotic. With combined with the tweaks they made, Morning Star had no real upper limit to how much power she could channel through her offensive systems. Lilly could now store electricity for a surprise shot, use it immediately, or discharge it at close range and electrocute someone.
Bolt had to admit it was a treat watching the Senior work. Bubbles looked like the sort of trophy wife that was hanging off an important person's arm. Her mind and ability made that appearance a complete lie. It also showed him what it was like to see a compatible specialty reinforce your idea. Her specialty was almost tailor made to work with Morning Star.
The changes she made were not significant structurally. The armor alloy was shifted, the lines changed, and the segments adjusted. It reduced the cost slightly, increased the effectiveness, and made how it distributed power better. Sloth would activate smoother and work longer. Wrath shot the daggers faster as a base, and could scale indefinitely. There were a lot of small changes like that.
You didn't need to do significant changes to really improve a mech. Bubbles was a trained MTA Senior. They were the top of the line. All her small changes boosted the entire mech's performance by a good ten percent. Not in one factor. All areas. Morning Star had already been a monster defensively. Bolt really didn't think there was a match for her now.
They were even able to adapt her for Space Combat too, which was a thing that Bolt had been dreading trying to learn on his own. He had no experience there, and it was enlightening to see what was needed. You didn't just need to seal the cockpit. You needed to have the entire mech insulated from a half dozen things. Frankly had the mech not been an expert mech it wouldn't have been possible.
If there was a serious flaw it was that Morning Star was Bolt's most expensive mech to date. Any damage to the armor would be pricy, and the wings would be hell on a pocket book. (They were easier to fix now at least.) She as close to Second Rate a Third Mech could be in form and function though. This made her unmatched in her niche and very dangerous outside it.
About the only problem they ran into in their improvements was trying to define a lot of the Greed system. Bolt would have to have extensive testing done later to verify a lot of numbers. That was the peril of using creating an entirely new system. You had to spend days gathering data about its capabilities.
