What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[Thomisannoyed]

A large part of Ves attitude towards Bolt is probably that bolt has never threatened him, or even talked smack, I'm pretty sure most designers he interacts with swear a blood feud with the hour.
Meanwhile Bolt here is taking care of Ves's family and having a Mech design battle in his own field with basically no stakes for Ves.

 

[lost star]

The introduction of the Einherjar Berserker was not a surprise to the Hexadric Hegemony. If there was one major success that had occurred due to the raid attempting to kill Bolt, it was the fact that they'd been able to retrieve one of the mechs while retreating. This was a major boon and allowed them to have plans in place before the mech reached final production and wide distribution.

Were the war at any other point, this would have resulted in a serious albeit temporary advantage. As it was, it blunted the Friday's Counter offensive by a small amount. This was quite valuable. It didn't really change the course of the war.

Ves' mechs did more in this case. Though the Hella Handmaiden could not stand up to the Berserker it still provided a significant amount of value. It wasn't a mech that could operate alone, nor could it eliminate significant swaths of enemies like the Berserker could. What it could do was give unconventional methods of attacking and bolster the weakening Hexxer forces. In crude terms it gave them free fodder to use for various tasks. When combined with the Valkyries ability to frequently get quick kills you had a small combo that could force enemies to become more cautious and mindful of everything. It granted them space to use other tactics.

Bolt considered it a minor win for Ves. The Einherjar Berserker was not a flop by any measure. The Handmaiden simply influenced the war more. Ves considered it more of a draw again, but that was more due to fog of war and the deteriorating situation on the Hexxer side. Truthfully the situation prevented any real conclusion.

With the lost momentum the main houses in the Hegemony were starting to scramble and fracture. Their vicious infighting started to escalate as people began blaming one another. Several major houses suffered severe 'unavoidable accidents.' More of them shifted forces into moving towards the Red Galaxy. Most of the latter were absorbed by Gloriana's family. Those that refused were quietly shuffled and delayed such that they were forced to expend significant effort to fight the war.

These internal movements caused absolute havoc on the frontlines. Supplies still were still being provided and reinforcements were happening, but it was all automated systems. The chain of command was being fractured in many areas. This resulted in conflicted orders across the front. Some forces advanced, others retreated.

Defeat and chaos compounded in on itself. Soon it became very obvious that the Hegemony was going to lose. The only real question was how much.

Here was where the Friday Coalition's internal politics came to the fore. They were still quite united, but that unity was showing cracks. The Gauge Dynasty was in ascendence due to positioning and careful maneuvering. They'd taken relatively little damage and were starting to push for various concessions due to that. The other factions were quite unhappy about this, so they were actually slow-walking the counter offensive.

This put the Gauge Dynasty into a small bind. With the Hexxers retreating and hemorrhaging forces, the other factions were under far less pressure. Every month of delay let them recover rather than lose more forces. If this continued the Gauge faction would lose their advantage. They couldn't force the others to attack harder either. Their solutions were either make concessions to their allies, push with their own forces, or wait.

Political decisions made for poor war. The Gaugers decided to push with a token force. Furthermore they tried to push with none of Bolt's mechs. This was again a political decision rather than a decision their generals made. One made in arrogance and pride. They used fresh troops with a conventionally overwhelming amount of numbers. Their target was one of the Friday Coalition's previous fortress world, taken by the Hexxer forces and then fortified.

Three days of fighting later the battle would become a textbook example of the folly of neglecting Glows. The Hexxers, some of whom had been in fights since the start of the war, had built their entire doctrine around Glows and fighting them. The shear aura and power inherent in them had been blunted by Bolt's contributions and it had given several ignorant people a false impression of how impactful they were. The last time many Gauger forces had fought the Hexxers they'd only had the Blessed Squire and a newborn doctrine around them.

A 'modernized' doctrine was far more formidable. The Hexxers shredded the push. Pilots were traumatized, frozen with fear, clawed by their own downed mechs, and more. Their morale frequently broke before their mechs did. The Gauger push had to be reinforced by several times over the three days, and it only broke when they committed enough tonnage to outright drown the enemy in bodies. The humiliation made many higherups furious and eager to lash out.

Their initial idea was to proclaim a public bounty of Ves Larkinson. Tentative inquires as to that got it shut down by internal factions immediately. The MTA took an extremely dim view of that, and the Gauger Dynasty was not in a good enough standing to manage that. Their next step was to commission an expedition to attack and kill Ves.

At this point in time both Ves Larkinson and then Bolt Silica initiated a public statement. Ves' statement was that attacking a designer or their family for successful design was both abhorrent from a morality standpoint and stupid from a progression standpoint. Designers should be fought on the field of ideas if humanity was to advance. He followed that up with a personal declaration that anyone that targeted Bolt's family would be in direct opposition to him. Bolt's statement concurred and specifically pointed out that his work would not have been possible without Ves' achievements in the field of Glows. He also further said that he'd oppose anyone targeting Ves' family.

It was an idealistic statement. (Ves didn't really believe all of it, but he knew how to make the best soundbites, and it was an idea he wished was true.) It was also something that had the MTA making a statement of support on. The organization didn't actually back that approval with anything more than words, but that was a lot in the first place.

This made the Gauge leaders increasingly furious. Not due to the sentiment, but due to the fact that the combination of statements made it extremely difficult to hire anyone to go after Ves or Bolt. Even their local Black Ops teams were quite hesitant to arrange something. The combination of statements had given both designers enough public support that a direct attack would be seen as outright villainous.

At this point Gary and the team of mercenaries he'd been working with found the remains of what was likely Cian Lewin, Lilly's mother. The woman had ODed on a particularly potent narcotic and the placed herself in cryostasis. The combination had resulted in a toxic shock that had essentially rotted her body from the inside out. The body would have to be examined at a different area, but the tentative confirmation of her death meant that the last remnant of one of the Friday factions was likely dead.

Politically, this was the equivalent of initiating a firestorm in the Friday Coalition. It also gave the Gauge leaders something like a target. They immediately went after the assets Cian had in her name with all their power. While this was very legal due to bankruptcy proceedings, it was also seen as the equivalent of robbery by the other factions in the Coalition. The normal course of things in this position was to allow the dust to settle and divvy up the assets to preserve power.

Lilly and Bolt naturally wanted nothing to do with this. Unfortunately in this case their wishes were going to be completely ignored.

 

[Negation]

Politically, this was the equivalent of initiating a firestorm in the Friday Coalition. It also gave the Gauge leaders something like a target. They immediately went after the assets Cian had in her name with all their power. While this was very legal due to bankruptcy proceedings, it was also seen as the equivalent of robbery by the other factions in the Coalition. The normal course of things in this position was to allow the dust to settle and divvy up the assets to preserve power.

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...wut? The Gauge leaders want to inherit debts from a crackhead?

 

[foo-jin]

...wut? The Gauge leaders want to inherit debts from a crackhead?

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I think they're buying out the debt so they can put pressure on Bolt and Lily through that.

 

[Mithril-blade]

@lost star my dude, will we ever get a clear picture of Lily's mom?

Like, she never appeared "on screen", so this begs the question: What sort of shennanigans were going on? Like, was this exactly what it looked like, a noble heir that utterly fucked up her life till the end? Or was there some other sort of fuckery going on behind the wings?

I ask this because, well, she is now dead.

 

[lost star]

Maybe! We'll see.

 

[lurkingkraken]

...wut? The Gauge leaders want to inherit debts from a crackhead?

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Several of those processes had put a lot of stuff into Lilly's name as the heir to the family's wealth. Some of them had happened years ago. They were just being informed because they were in the nation and in a stable area now.

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There were millions of credits worth of debts, assets, and other things tied up in their name. To compound the problem, Lilly's mother had completely mismanaged all of it before she'd disappeared. It was an extremely dense mess that people were attempting to dump into the couples lap.

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Summed up, stripping out the thousands of lines of text, people were trying to give Lilly a lot of debt because her mother had been a moron. It was maddening. It was also apparently legal in the Friday Coalition.

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status. If she's dead then you can officially disinherit yourself and no one can dispute it. If she's alive it's another legal battle.

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was mostly a series of debts instead of a behemoth of wealth now. In a way this was a lot of power still. A canny individual could probably leverage their name and their existing assets to recover.

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Yes, they do want to inherit debts from a crackhead.
Just because the House had a ton of debts doesn't mean it also doesn't have productive or valuable assets that aren't liquid, and we were outright told that inheriting debts is legal in Friday-land.

Given how Lily and Bolts entire purpose for their trip was to find the body so Lily could disinherit herself, it looks like someone will either one pursuing/assigning her the debts faster than she can say 'not it', or someone will make the argument that Lily's genetics are part of the assets that are to be reclaimed so hand over your children, or some of the assets are going to beg for help.

It'll undoubtedly be both exciting and infuriating to see.

 

[tanasinn]

Oh no. Bolt is going to end up as the leader of the Fridays by the end of all of this isn't he.

 

[Mithril-blade]

Oh no. Bolt is going to end up as the leader of the Fridays by the end of all of this isn't he.

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Probably not? The flags the story is setting in regard's to Lily's family, and Bolt's breakneck ascension, have very little to do with taking the reigns that the Gaugers are grasping.

 

[Negation]

Asset protection means that Bolt and Lily's personal fortune need to be held by a Trust in which they receive an allowance by an executor (Bolt's dad) so the Guagers cannot seize anything because Bolt and Lily legally own nothing.

 

[lost star]

Bolt was actually quite irritated at this point. They'd confirmed that Lilly's mother was dead. It should have been good news. It allowed them to start the process of separating her from the woman's legacy. Unfortunately, things had gotten very complicated due to factors beyond their control. Factors beyond anyone's control really. Even the other factions in the Friday Coalition.

All of this was because of how much money was involved. Cian Lewin, of the Lewin family, was one of the last heirs of the Puffer Clan. That clan had been one of the founders of the Friday Coalition. As such it had an immense amount of assets. Even as one of the weakest and least populous clan they had something on the order of a few dozen planets worth of wealth. This all needed to be accounted for, sold off, transferred over, and more.

Normally that could be handled by accountants and others. If this wasn't a heir's wealth it could have been delegated with a single signature. This was during a war when Bolt and Lilly were famous actors on the stage of politics. It couldn't be deligated. Furthermore, there were several 'pools' of assets that needed to be dealt with. One was the clan estate stuff. That was safely not their problem and was where about half the outstanding debt was. Another pool was the business stuff. That was all the rest of the debt and also not their problem. (Most of it had been horribly mismanaged and the embezzlement was apparently a new and exciting scandal in high society.) The third pool of assets were things specifically under Cian's name. Combined together it was all enough wealth to make nearly everyone lose their mind.

Truthfully, they could sort of ignore most of everything anyway, but that would be a very bad idea. You didn't delegate this sort of wealth transfer without supervision. They had to get it all sorted out so that they didn't get blindsided by something stupid. This meant heading to the main estate of the Lewin family and handling everything they could in person. It would also involve them in a lot of drama, because you couldn't sell off all those assets without an auction apparently. It was turning into an entire circus that the Wrench Rats were going to have to go right into to prevent worse problems in the future.

Bolt had decided that meant Typhoon had to be built now. Lilly needed a new and unexpected expert mech as a big stick. When Morning Star was rebuilt that'd give her three mechs to use with a wide variety of potential. That sort of unpredictability would be integral for future battles.

He needed a bit of help for that though. Master Olsen's work had helped finalize the Star-Shifter, but he couldn't use that exact model for Lilly's mech. It was very technically proprietary Friday tech at the moment. Variants were perfectly fine. He just couldn't use that model. Which wasn't really a hinderance truthfully. He still had a line open with Delicee, and the other designer was quite eager to help.

"I did say that I wanted to design something for her, and I would be absolutely delighted to do something with that new toy you made." The man said as they met in the mech bay and began assembly together.

"Didn't expect ya to come over though. Just needed a bit o' help with the design." Bolt responded while also shifting a few of the parts into place and setting up the frame.

"Oh pish posh. I wanted to meet our new Senior in person. You don't get to see someone touted as the next great genius every day." The taunting grin on the other man's face made it clear that he was teasing. "I will admit I was curious about these Glow things."

Bolt nodded in turn. "This one will have an interesting one. Hope ya learn something from the testing." He'd debated a bit on having it use a new Heart Crystal or just using Lilly's others. He'd gone with a new crystal for now. It made it easier to align what he needed for the lightning generators.

"I have no doubt about that." The First Rate designer said with a laugh.

Typhoon was looking formidable and deadly as they worked on it. The back mounted electrodes for the lightning attack had been adjusted to become more like swirling decorations. The twin gatling guns in the hands had been nicknamed hail-guns, and the Star-Shifter inside had been modulated using Delicee's specialization and turned into a resonance device called the Storm-Shifter.

If the mech worked as expected it'd become a walking storm with a deceptive speed. It wouldn't be fast, but it'd be faster than any heavy when the Storm-Shifter was active. This wasn't a mech you could replicate with normal tech. It was an expert mech using First Rate principles and at a near First Rate cost too. It was both expensive and a hell of a card to play. No one but him, Delicee and Lilly would know what it was capable of until it was deployed out in the field.

"Really surprised yer getting your hands dirty as well as helping with the design." Bolt noted as the mech came together, looming and dangerous.

"After our little collaboration how could I not? Working with your hands is surprisingly fulfilling. I only do it for personal projects, but I do agree that something is lost if you just hand the design off to something. I even noticed some notable performance changes." The First Rate designer smiled happily. "All of my recent work has most certainly moved me closer to Senior. After this I'll be making a fun little First Rate mech using a few lessons from this and quite probably advance."

"Really now?" The other designer asked with surprise.

"Others call what I'm doing slumming it, but they're still stuck at Journeyman." The man said as he dropped his levity a bit. "Efficiency, working with less, being careful with design, all of those have a place in mech design. You are not less intelligent because you grew up on a ruined planet. I believe you will prove that quite well going into the future."

"That is quite touching." Bolt said with a nod. "I'll be sure to sign an autograph for you later." He jokingly added.

"Hah! Please do. I want to put it on a wall and taunt everyone else when you make the big leagues!" Delicee laughed and they got back to construction.

The finished mech loomed as they slotted the final pieces in. It wasn't a masterpiece. Bolt had been certain of that going in. He had plans to deliberately try to make one later, but that was neither here nor there. He didn't need that for this baby anyway. Typhoon was even more of a weapon than the other mechs. Lilly would be using this one when she was feeling mean.

Sometimes you just needed something that could say screw that area. This mech would be that. Facing it on the battlefield would be like fighting a storm made manifest, even in space!

 

[Waruiko]

Sometimes you just needed something that could say screw that area. This mech would be that. Facing it on the battlefield would be like fighting a storm made manifest, even in space!

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Ah yes nothing quite like casting, "screw everything in that general direction!"

 

[Pyro Hawk]

Ah yes nothing quite like casting, "screw everything in that general direction!"

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"Temper temper!"