What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[lost star]

Got the feeling that Ves started designing earlier than Bolt did too. Can Ves still grab that youngest Senior accolade?

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Nah, the dipstick could probably be a senior shortly, but part of the Senior advancement is convincing the backing system behind the mechs that you're worthy of trust. It doesn't take much. Ves is still a pretty large and self-centered dick, so he doesn't do it for years.

 

[Negation]

Can anyone think of pun name to call this tournament format in the future?

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Iron Chef. It's Iron Chef with mechs.

 

[Gilar]

Iron Chef. It's Iron Chef with mechs.

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Eh,i dont know if locals get the joke . I have thought of somethig like "Bolt's Cut out system". There is also "Rats Race" , but it's a bit insulting for noble scions.

 

[OZT]

Maybe "Salvage Scrum"? Its both descriptive and alliterative.

 

[Gilar]

And one missed letter from insult.

 

[Negation]

Eh,i dont know if locals get the joke . I have thought of somethig like "Bolt's Cut out system". There is also "Rats Race" , but it's a bit insulting for noble scions.

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View: https://youtu.be/W8DNmyDDUjw

...you can't tell me Bolt does not look like this right now?

 

[lost star]

The early founding of the Friday Coalition had involved a total of nine separate nations banding together due to mutual interest. Over time that had been dropped down to six. Vermeer, Konsu, Carnegie, Gauge, Vanguard, and Puffer. Of those the Puffer clan was on its last legs. Each organization had their own managing government and way of doing things, united by a hatred of their neighbors and inertia. The particulars of their governing structure weren't that relevant at the present point. What was important was that all the contestants were 'heirs' even if the titles weren't the same. Basically important, usually arrogant, and puffed up young masters.

Every one of them had been briefed and trained briefly before this contest. Bolt hadn't held back the conditions he'd be testing people in. Unfortunately for all of them, the training they'd gone through had been wholly inadequate. It'd been mostly briefings, physical conditioning appropriate, and some navigation courses for heirs. Not a single one was really prepared. Many weren't aware of the inadequacy of their training.

So, when the signal to start happened every contestant revved up their gifted trucks and flew into the fog full of confidence. Two crashed into terrain within seconds. One ended up flying high enough to stall out the hovering technology and nearly totaled themselves in a crash before recovering, praying that no one saw it. (They did.) Several of the contestants swerved to the side in a possible attempt to attack their compatriots early.

The latter action wasn't exactly the best decision. The trucks weren't really meant for offensive movements. Even with Second Rate technology they were rather unwieldy and ungainly vehicles. The makers had not created the salvaging tools for chases or anything related to that. They were meant to recover and carry heavy loads. A singular contestant managed to spot an opponent within the first few minutes, and the ensuing chase resembled a pair of turtles attempting to tip one another over rather than anything else. It was both comical and sad, and ended with both trucks slightly dented before they separated, likely from humiliation.

After the first hour there were no real standouts. The favored heirs of the particular organizations couldn't really show their brilliance in the fog or in salvaging. This was a test of patience, judgment, and will rather than intelligence. Most contestants hadn't even identified appropriate wrecks to salvage yet. A few had picked up some minor parts. Most of them had no initial value at all. Some could be valuable in the right conditions.

"Not sure if that's the best idea." Bolt mused about the current results out loud to the gathered nobles.

He wasn't really happy about it, but he did have to at least make an attempt at being a good host. This meant he was in a small lounge with a half-dozen screens that were displaying the contest. Several prominent nobles were with him. None were 'important' as in they were leaders, but all of them had influence and were considered important enough to be supervising their side.

"Oh?" The Vermeer representative asked. "How so?"

"Small parts are good ta grab quick, but the goal is building a functional mech. We deliberately scattered a lot of mechs around there. They might not pick up something compatible later as a base." Bolt wiggled a hand. "It's a gamble on the future."

"Ah, but a gamble means it can pay off." The man pointed out.

"That's why I'm not sure." Bolt replied with a small chuckle. "Personally. I'd be a bit more conservative, but it's not wrong to take a chance. It's a style choice that we'll have wait and see on."

"Looks like a Gauge candidate is circling. Lost or looking for another target?" The Carnegie representative noted.

"Might be lost. There's no one there."

The Gauge representative in the lounge had a pinched expression on his face as he watched his candidates flail around. Bolt didn't blame the man. The members from his group had started quite aggressive, and it was punishing them harshly. It wasn't as easy as you'd expect to find another person on a battlefield like this.

"Ohh, that is unpleasantly undignified." Someone breathed out.

Bolt looked to the view and winced. "Ah, damnit." One of the female candidates had been wearing a rather lovely looking outfit surprisingly suited for physical activity. Suited or not, it and her were now completely covered in mud. Had it been less than Second Rate it would also had been torn. As it was, it was just shy of indecent now. "Is she hurt?"

"All the contestants have the ability to forfeit on their own. Give them the honor of doing that rather than fretting about their injuries or dignity during the contest. Even warriors stumble can stumble into the most unpleasant situations." The Konsu representative said.

Bolt the man a nod of acknowledgement and sat back to watch. This wasn't going to be a quick contest. It was going to be surprisingly interesting though. The number of contestants allowed for some serious drama to be happening almost all the time. The injuries were making him wince though. All of them were amateur mistakes, but that wasn't surprising really. It was one thing to train and another to actually perform in a active environment.

"Anyone catch your eye?" The question was inevitable.

"At the moment no." Bolt replied honestly. "First few minutes ain't gonna show me anything. Give it say... Twelve hours?" He judged. "I'll give ya my honest thoughts after that.

"That is fair." The man asking the question replied with a nod. "I confess I cannot find anything very noteworthy from even our candidates yet."

"Well, none of em have broken, so I will praise them for that." The Senior said and flinched slightly at the sudden looks he got. "The contest involves driving into a fog-filled battlefield with loud noises of war, a high chance of violence, and a low chance of being killed. A very low chance, but accidents do happen with heavy machinery. If they weren't nervous I'd worry they were drugged."

"Are the precautions are not enough?"

"The drone attending them should be able to keep their heads from getting crushed." Bolt noted and gestured at the cameras they all had. "If one of them are stupid enough to drop a mech on themselves using the tools provided I think they'll go splat. You can't recover from that."

A few mutters and quite words occurred between the representatives before he got some nods of agreement. Accidents did happen after all. It just hadn't really occurred to them that their precious heirs were doing something actually risky. Thankfully anything short of instantly crushing their head was something the people could recover from. The planet had very top notch medical care.

Bolt let his words settle as he examined the contestants again. Like he'd said, no one was standing out. They were all young graduates trying to prove themselves. None of them had anything like experience in this field. He saw plenty of looks of terror and more than a little fumbling.

And then one young man broke and pressed the emergency escape. Bolt exhaled and shook his head as the real drama began from that. This was going to take awhile to smooth over. Fortunately it was recorded. Unfortunately, most of these people were very prideful. No one would be happy with being the first to drop out. Bolt was fairly sure that sort of action was going to linger for the rest of the candidate's life.

 

[Golgotha]

It would be a lot more entertaining than a normal competition, that's for sure

 

[Molder]

Should have had a few mechs stalking through the mist. Making sure to stay away from everyone of course, but a mech in the fog is a scary thing.

 

[Starfall15]

This is the Tony Stark "In a cave with a box of scraps" contest.

It's the here are the scraps make me something that can work. And it's going to be a revolution on how people are tested on making mechs. After all testing grounds can be reused and anything left behind from the first contest is usable in the next ones.