A fanfiction of The Mech Touch. Follow Bolt as he tries his best to be a Mech Designer in a place where Mech dominate war and blood is spent easier than coin.
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M001 - Intro
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
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AN: So, another new fiction by me. Placed in the safe for work section even, so don't complain about no lewds. I'm not particularly sure about this one, and I'm very, very likely not going to match the fiction I'm doing fanfiction for. This is from The Mech Touch, a mammoth fictional setting that, has good parts and bad parts. Read it until you get tired of it imo. It starts great but sorta degrades over time. (Which considering how long it is is more impressive than anything else.)
---
Hanging upside-down was not a pleasant experience. It made the blood rush to your head, it was mildly disorientating, and it was surprisingly tiring. Bolt Silica was already regretting doing it to himself, but he could not have figured out another way of getting to this particular part.
From the outside it probably looked ridiculous. Picture a young man at the cusp of adulthood, heavily muscled, red haired, brown eyed. Now stick him inside the torso of a ruined looking mech and have his legs in the air with a few chains securing him in place. That was Bolt right now. It was supremely uncomfortable. It was also necessary.
The mech needed to be fixed. His family had made the effort of lugging the parts into the bay, assembling the nightmarish blend of parts into something coherent and taken the time to screw and bolt it all tight. Hours worth of work had been spent creating this Junker mech, and all it had resulted in was a slab of metal that couldn't walk. That was both unacceptable and expensive.
Bolt Silica and his family were rats. Well, they were human, but also Rats. People considered the dregs of society. The planet they lived on was a war torn place on the edges of the galaxy sandwiched between three separate Third Rate Nations. Too worthless to be valuable in peace time and too disputed to be claimed too long in war time, the planet's only claim to fame was the extensive graveyards of mechs. In other words it was a junkheap filled with mech parts that were too much effort to take off the planet and had no functional government.
It still had life naturally. The survivors left behind and deserters of various battles had mingled and made families over time. These Rats eked out a living scavenging metal and the scant resources available on the surface. Most of them hid in burrows and barely came to the surface, afraid of life in general after generations of warfare. Pitiful and frequently killed for the flimsiest of reasons, it was barely called living. They had no rights to the rest of the galaxy, and even the most noble visitor could barely stand looking at them, less because they were unsightly and more because they were considered the least of humanity. Their hopes and dreams were typically non-existent.
Bolt was not one of them. He was part of the Wrench Rats. They were a semi-formal group that built, maintained, and sold junkyard mechs to others on the planet. These mechs were barely dangerous to anyone competent, and only a step up from trash, but they were still mechs and could still squish a person with their feet if need be. It would have been a semi-respected position on any other planet. Here they were in more danger from their profession. From being forcefully enslaved, stolen from, or just killed because they were 'disrespecting mechs' they had a wealth of new ways to die. The Wrench Rats knew this and still persisted. They loved mechs in their own way, because they were a ticket to a better life. None of them could pilot so they did the next thing, worked with mechs.
Hence all of this. Bolt grunted and cursed as he reached into the pelvis of the Mech. In a more advanced area this sort of thing could be handled by manipulators. They had one machine capable of it here, and it was in the fritz. Not that it worked well in the first place, because it was what had helped assemble this mess before Bolt had gotten to it.
"Spend half our cheese on newfangled automated shit and end up with just expensive shit." Bolt cursed again as his hand finally got the wire.
The young man had been born with the Wrench Rats. He'd grown up toothing on mech bolts. He'd known how to assemble a piston before he could walk. He was by all accounts brilliant and only held back by the fact that his education was non-existent. Everything he knew was practical through working on junk mechs like this one, so he knew how to fix it. All it would take was threading a cable from the very tip of the mech's toe to the cockpit. The task was actually pretty easy with the proper tools.
Bolt had none of those. Hence the cursing. "Lousy pain in the ass damned hellish." He tugged and the wire slowly threaded through the various cable management areas and then the young man was finally able to attach it to the cockpit framework.
"Fire and Brimstone boy, what are ya up to there?!" His mother called out as she entered the mech bay.
"Trying ta get this thing actually going clank instead of sputtering!" Bolt called back as very carefully spliced the wire into the appropriate connection points. "I'm not gonna make us all the cheese even if I have ta bleed ta do it!"
"Yer cousin said that monster was kaput. Paw and I were going to cut it up after the Biters came by." The woman yelled up and frowned, not that he could see it. "Also, yer going to bust open your fool head trying that. At least use the lift!"
"Lifts broke, again, like everything else." Bolt grunted out and grabbed at one of the nearby tools needed to seal everything up. "Mind hittin' the remote power? Got it set I think."
His mother frowned still deeper. "Ya aren't by any power cables right? I ain't frying my son cause he had less sense than a rock."
Bolt very carefully didn't turn towards the woman. He was secured, but if he actually tried to move too much he was very afraid of spinning and getting more nauseous than he already was. "You know I'm not near the reactor, or main lines." He said eventually. His mother was a very experienced tech, like most of their family.
"Always double check ya know the rules. Never take anythin for granted! First lesson o' repair! Don't make me get out the big book o' stupid deaths again!" The woman stepped over. "Initiating first stage startup."
In front of Bolt the engine in the mech began to warm up. Bolt leaned forward and pressed his ear against the armor. This was the equivalent of putting a car in idle. Or it should have been. The problem with junk mechs was that everything was mismatched. There were sputters and he could almost feel the heart of the thing lurch as it struggled to work with the configuration. They'd had to splice two separate power conduits into this beast and it was not happy about it. It managed.
"Power's flowing." Bolt grunted and reached up. The cockpit seating and monitors had been ripped out and the outputs were complete mess even for a junker, but there was an interface screen they'd left specifically for this. He found it after some fumbling. "Hah! It's registering the legs now." He made a note that he'd have to redo the programming after this. It was still the default, which was horrid for junk mechs. "Can power it down Ma! Got the issue! Was just the command wires through the pelvis."
"That's all well and good Bolt, but it's getting late and we still need have the Biters coming by tomorrow." The woman called up as sternly as she could despite the smile already building. "Tis why I was out here in the first place. We need ta be sure your furs are straight and ya'll are ready."
The young boy nodded slowly. "Ok, I can..." Bolt paused as he tried to pull himself up. "I'm uhh, gonna need some help." He said as he realized he'd secured himself a bit too well.
His mother laughed. "Smarter than his father and half as wise." She joked before pausing and really looking at how he'd secured himself. "Actually looking at that mess ya got yourself in, I'm going to have to get your father and the saw." She mused.
"It's not that bad."
"Boyo, I ain't a big woman and ya used the chains we use for our big-ones for that fool position!"
---
Hanging upside-down was not a pleasant experience. It made the blood rush to your head, it was mildly disorientating, and it was surprisingly tiring. Bolt Silica was already regretting doing it to himself, but he could not have figured out another way of getting to this particular part.
From the outside it probably looked ridiculous. Picture a young man at the cusp of adulthood, heavily muscled, red haired, brown eyed. Now stick him inside the torso of a ruined looking mech and have his legs in the air with a few chains securing him in place. That was Bolt right now. It was supremely uncomfortable. It was also necessary.
The mech needed to be fixed. His family had made the effort of lugging the parts into the bay, assembling the nightmarish blend of parts into something coherent and taken the time to screw and bolt it all tight. Hours worth of work had been spent creating this Junker mech, and all it had resulted in was a slab of metal that couldn't walk. That was both unacceptable and expensive.
Bolt Silica and his family were rats. Well, they were human, but also Rats. People considered the dregs of society. The planet they lived on was a war torn place on the edges of the galaxy sandwiched between three separate Third Rate Nations. Too worthless to be valuable in peace time and too disputed to be claimed too long in war time, the planet's only claim to fame was the extensive graveyards of mechs. In other words it was a junkheap filled with mech parts that were too much effort to take off the planet and had no functional government.
It still had life naturally. The survivors left behind and deserters of various battles had mingled and made families over time. These Rats eked out a living scavenging metal and the scant resources available on the surface. Most of them hid in burrows and barely came to the surface, afraid of life in general after generations of warfare. Pitiful and frequently killed for the flimsiest of reasons, it was barely called living. They had no rights to the rest of the galaxy, and even the most noble visitor could barely stand looking at them, less because they were unsightly and more because they were considered the least of humanity. Their hopes and dreams were typically non-existent.
Bolt was not one of them. He was part of the Wrench Rats. They were a semi-formal group that built, maintained, and sold junkyard mechs to others on the planet. These mechs were barely dangerous to anyone competent, and only a step up from trash, but they were still mechs and could still squish a person with their feet if need be. It would have been a semi-respected position on any other planet. Here they were in more danger from their profession. From being forcefully enslaved, stolen from, or just killed because they were 'disrespecting mechs' they had a wealth of new ways to die. The Wrench Rats knew this and still persisted. They loved mechs in their own way, because they were a ticket to a better life. None of them could pilot so they did the next thing, worked with mechs.
Hence all of this. Bolt grunted and cursed as he reached into the pelvis of the Mech. In a more advanced area this sort of thing could be handled by manipulators. They had one machine capable of it here, and it was in the fritz. Not that it worked well in the first place, because it was what had helped assemble this mess before Bolt had gotten to it.
"Spend half our cheese on newfangled automated shit and end up with just expensive shit." Bolt cursed again as his hand finally got the wire.
The young man had been born with the Wrench Rats. He'd grown up toothing on mech bolts. He'd known how to assemble a piston before he could walk. He was by all accounts brilliant and only held back by the fact that his education was non-existent. Everything he knew was practical through working on junk mechs like this one, so he knew how to fix it. All it would take was threading a cable from the very tip of the mech's toe to the cockpit. The task was actually pretty easy with the proper tools.
Bolt had none of those. Hence the cursing. "Lousy pain in the ass damned hellish." He tugged and the wire slowly threaded through the various cable management areas and then the young man was finally able to attach it to the cockpit framework.
"Fire and Brimstone boy, what are ya up to there?!" His mother called out as she entered the mech bay.
"Trying ta get this thing actually going clank instead of sputtering!" Bolt called back as very carefully spliced the wire into the appropriate connection points. "I'm not gonna make us all the cheese even if I have ta bleed ta do it!"
"Yer cousin said that monster was kaput. Paw and I were going to cut it up after the Biters came by." The woman yelled up and frowned, not that he could see it. "Also, yer going to bust open your fool head trying that. At least use the lift!"
"Lifts broke, again, like everything else." Bolt grunted out and grabbed at one of the nearby tools needed to seal everything up. "Mind hittin' the remote power? Got it set I think."
His mother frowned still deeper. "Ya aren't by any power cables right? I ain't frying my son cause he had less sense than a rock."
Bolt very carefully didn't turn towards the woman. He was secured, but if he actually tried to move too much he was very afraid of spinning and getting more nauseous than he already was. "You know I'm not near the reactor, or main lines." He said eventually. His mother was a very experienced tech, like most of their family.
"Always double check ya know the rules. Never take anythin for granted! First lesson o' repair! Don't make me get out the big book o' stupid deaths again!" The woman stepped over. "Initiating first stage startup."
In front of Bolt the engine in the mech began to warm up. Bolt leaned forward and pressed his ear against the armor. This was the equivalent of putting a car in idle. Or it should have been. The problem with junk mechs was that everything was mismatched. There were sputters and he could almost feel the heart of the thing lurch as it struggled to work with the configuration. They'd had to splice two separate power conduits into this beast and it was not happy about it. It managed.
"Power's flowing." Bolt grunted and reached up. The cockpit seating and monitors had been ripped out and the outputs were complete mess even for a junker, but there was an interface screen they'd left specifically for this. He found it after some fumbling. "Hah! It's registering the legs now." He made a note that he'd have to redo the programming after this. It was still the default, which was horrid for junk mechs. "Can power it down Ma! Got the issue! Was just the command wires through the pelvis."
"That's all well and good Bolt, but it's getting late and we still need have the Biters coming by tomorrow." The woman called up as sternly as she could despite the smile already building. "Tis why I was out here in the first place. We need ta be sure your furs are straight and ya'll are ready."
The young boy nodded slowly. "Ok, I can..." Bolt paused as he tried to pull himself up. "I'm uhh, gonna need some help." He said as he realized he'd secured himself a bit too well.
His mother laughed. "Smarter than his father and half as wise." She joked before pausing and really looking at how he'd secured himself. "Actually looking at that mess ya got yourself in, I'm going to have to get your father and the saw." She mused.
"It's not that bad."
"Boyo, I ain't a big woman and ya used the chains we use for our big-ones for that fool position!"
M002
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
- Messages
- 14,237
- Likes received
- 449,352
For all that the planet was a junkyard, it did have things of merit. Some things. Enough to have it visited frequently when it wasn't being used as a staging ground for territorial pursuits. It had a space port and a nice 'city' for a given matter of the word. The city was actually more of a mess of buildings that were made for storge really. In times of peace it actually had people, and something resembling tourism.
The tourism was odd by most metrics. It consisted of idiots and thrill seekers mostly. The idiots came by trying to find something useful in the salvage. The thrill seekers came to fight.
Biters were the Rats that dealt with both of these outsider groups. They'd do anything for money, or cheese in the local parlance. For those attempting to scavenge, they nipped at the scavengers heels. For those looking for a thrill, they'd fight, for a price. They even had a local reputation for being a decent trial by fire for people looking to be bloodied. Just strong enough to be threatening, but not really dangerous to anyone with sense.
It actually took a lot of work to do the latter and live through it. Mech pilots could tell when there wasn't a threat. The Biters actually took a bit of pride in being a whetstone. Well as much pride they could have. No one was under any illusion as to their status. Rats were at the bottom eating crumbs and they knew it. Being used as chaff for various reasons wasn't much of a living, but it was a living. Better to lean into it and survive than be nothing at all.
Wrecker exemplified that. He was a fat and large man with a beard and a deliberately slovenly appearance. He looked like a man you wanted to kick the teeth in. He was also rich for a Rat and a canny business man. It took effort to be fat when you lived off mostly ration packs and piloted a mech.
As Ma said, the atmosphere did half the selling. That was why Bolt was in 'furs.' He had a mask on and brown robes as he stood by his father and mother. They were the faceless techs that dealt and sold dirty equipment. Untested, unproved, but ultimately the best they had on the planet. Again, something to lean into.
"Gonna need like... Three mediums today. Got a big Royal welcome planned." Wrecker laid out his request.
Pa breathed out heavily and deliberately to make himself seem more formidable. "That will cost a lot of cheese." He said through his mask.
"Ya know I'm good fer it. Might need ta wait till after the welcome, but you know how that goes." Wrecker replied with a heavy shrug.
"Nothing on credit." Pa countered with another heavy breath, the mask causing a loud hiss as emphasis.
"Umm poppa, do I really need to be here?" A small girl to the side of Wrecker asked.
"Well darlin, if ya want that toy, we gotta buy it from these ones." Wrecker noted with a wave. "Speaking of that, she could use one herself. Don't suppose you could show her a few? My little princess needs the best ya got."
"We don't let customers see storage." Pa hissed out slowly and ponderously.
"Ya could for her. She's special don't ya know!" Wrecker patted the small girl on the shoulder. "Tell you what, if you can find her a good one and I'll give ya the cheese for that and the three mediums."
Pa was silent a few beats as he thought before he jerked his head towards Bolt. The boy gave a careful nod and made a gesture for their guest to follow him. The girl grinned and bounced as she fell in line behind him, seemingly very glad to be away from the negotiations.
Bolt took a moment to glance at the girl. Smaller than him, young looking, long red braided hair, and far too many freckles. She did not look like a native Rat. Natives had red hair, but tended towards size and didn't have green eyes like her. Off world genes then, and strange ones likely. She was far too energetic for a normal Rat. There was no caution or hesitation either. She'd grown up safe.
"So, what's your name? Do you have one, or are ya'll like one of those faceless mooks?" The girl began to chatter.
"You read too many stories." Bolt replied back with a snort.
"Nah, I can't read." The girl replied back.
That made Bolt pause. Even the lowest of Rat at least had the ability to figure that out. What passed as the government here was at least able to pass around some educational material. This girl was a mech pilot too, so that was doubly bad.
"How do you not know?" Bolt had to ask as he stopped and turned to face the girl.
"Ain't piloting so I didn't bother. Poppa said that all I needed ta do is learn how fight." She replied with a shrug.
"But damage updates, radar reports, everything!" Bolt asked with a wave of both hands.
"Flashy lights, red dots, and feel." The girl looked proud of that.
"That's stupid!" Bolt practically shouted.
He didn't expect the punch thrown his way. He was a Rat however. Violence was part of life. He took the punch head on with barely a flinch and moved to grapple immediately, focusing on using his larger frame. To his complete surprise the girl wove around him effortlessly, and then leaped onto his shoulders. He had a brief moment of shock and then she wrenched her legs to the side and did flipped herself off.
Whatever the maneuver was supposed to do was hard to say. What it actually did was just rip his mask and part of the cloak he used to conceal his build off. It was mildly disorientating and a bit painful, but did little else. Bolt snarled as he turned to face his opponent and found her looking disappointed.
"No fair." She complained as she backed up.
"What the hell was that?!" Bolt snarled back.
"That should have brought you down! Also, you called me stupid!" The girl shot back.
"First, I'm probably twice your weight so of course that wouldn't work. Second, I said not learning how to read was stupid, not that you're stupid!" The young man snapped out in reply.
The words immediately calmed the girl. "Oh, that's ok then!" She nodded and looked up at him with a small flush. "Sorry, poppa said don't tolerate disrespect. I'm Lilly. Pleased ta meet ya!"
Completely caught off guard by the change in attitude Bolt rubbed at his head. "Oh, ahh." He fumbled harshly before grunting and refocusing his head. "I'm Bolt, but you didn't hear that from me." He reached down for the mask and cloak. "Damnit, the straps are broken." He muttered.
"Oh you don't need them. You can fix it later." Lilly grabbed at the items and got into a small tug of war with Bolt over them. "First, uh, show me the mechs!" She blurted out.
"Fine, fine. So long as ya don't mention this later." Bolt gave up on the mask and ignored the triumphant look the girl got. "We got a half dozen clunkers here at the moment, and a good dozen in storage elsewhere. All the ones here are medium and light. Our one heavy is elsewhere. Mind you, these are just salvaged mechs. None o' them will last against anything shiny."
"Shiny?" Lilly repeated as they began to walk through the bay.
"New mechs that the Royals come by in. Shiny and new." Bolt explained and gestured to the Frankenstein messes that were in front of him. "We do our best, but they're all flawed."
The one in front of him for instance was very technically a sword mech. Made up of a dozen different mech types, it had a half dozen obvious flaws and even more less obvious ones. It would run and was in Bolt's opinion better than anything else on the planet, but he held no illusions that it was shit.
"Poppa said I'd probably be best with a heavy. I'm supposed to be somethin' special and he wants me protected. Can't say I care that much. Am looking for somethin' that feels warm." Lilly commented as she looked over the things. "Can see what ya mean about the flaws though. That one will fall over if ya hit the knee." She pointed at the knee in question.
Bolt gave a grunt. "Good eye. Had to patch that from two types. Fraid you ain't gonna get anything real good unless ya want to pay the cheese for a new one." He laughed at that.
Lilly made a face. "If we had the cheese we wouldn't be here." She pointed out peevishly.
That she even thought it was an option was telling. Wrecker likely had enough connections that he could probably get something arranged. Bolt and his family knew for a fact that trying it on their end would end up with them in chains as a best result. History was not kind to lesser Rats. The young man put it out of his mind and continued the tour.
The tourism was odd by most metrics. It consisted of idiots and thrill seekers mostly. The idiots came by trying to find something useful in the salvage. The thrill seekers came to fight.
Biters were the Rats that dealt with both of these outsider groups. They'd do anything for money, or cheese in the local parlance. For those attempting to scavenge, they nipped at the scavengers heels. For those looking for a thrill, they'd fight, for a price. They even had a local reputation for being a decent trial by fire for people looking to be bloodied. Just strong enough to be threatening, but not really dangerous to anyone with sense.
It actually took a lot of work to do the latter and live through it. Mech pilots could tell when there wasn't a threat. The Biters actually took a bit of pride in being a whetstone. Well as much pride they could have. No one was under any illusion as to their status. Rats were at the bottom eating crumbs and they knew it. Being used as chaff for various reasons wasn't much of a living, but it was a living. Better to lean into it and survive than be nothing at all.
Wrecker exemplified that. He was a fat and large man with a beard and a deliberately slovenly appearance. He looked like a man you wanted to kick the teeth in. He was also rich for a Rat and a canny business man. It took effort to be fat when you lived off mostly ration packs and piloted a mech.
As Ma said, the atmosphere did half the selling. That was why Bolt was in 'furs.' He had a mask on and brown robes as he stood by his father and mother. They were the faceless techs that dealt and sold dirty equipment. Untested, unproved, but ultimately the best they had on the planet. Again, something to lean into.
"Gonna need like... Three mediums today. Got a big Royal welcome planned." Wrecker laid out his request.
Pa breathed out heavily and deliberately to make himself seem more formidable. "That will cost a lot of cheese." He said through his mask.
"Ya know I'm good fer it. Might need ta wait till after the welcome, but you know how that goes." Wrecker replied with a heavy shrug.
"Nothing on credit." Pa countered with another heavy breath, the mask causing a loud hiss as emphasis.
"Umm poppa, do I really need to be here?" A small girl to the side of Wrecker asked.
"Well darlin, if ya want that toy, we gotta buy it from these ones." Wrecker noted with a wave. "Speaking of that, she could use one herself. Don't suppose you could show her a few? My little princess needs the best ya got."
"We don't let customers see storage." Pa hissed out slowly and ponderously.
"Ya could for her. She's special don't ya know!" Wrecker patted the small girl on the shoulder. "Tell you what, if you can find her a good one and I'll give ya the cheese for that and the three mediums."
Pa was silent a few beats as he thought before he jerked his head towards Bolt. The boy gave a careful nod and made a gesture for their guest to follow him. The girl grinned and bounced as she fell in line behind him, seemingly very glad to be away from the negotiations.
Bolt took a moment to glance at the girl. Smaller than him, young looking, long red braided hair, and far too many freckles. She did not look like a native Rat. Natives had red hair, but tended towards size and didn't have green eyes like her. Off world genes then, and strange ones likely. She was far too energetic for a normal Rat. There was no caution or hesitation either. She'd grown up safe.
"So, what's your name? Do you have one, or are ya'll like one of those faceless mooks?" The girl began to chatter.
"You read too many stories." Bolt replied back with a snort.
"Nah, I can't read." The girl replied back.
That made Bolt pause. Even the lowest of Rat at least had the ability to figure that out. What passed as the government here was at least able to pass around some educational material. This girl was a mech pilot too, so that was doubly bad.
"How do you not know?" Bolt had to ask as he stopped and turned to face the girl.
"Ain't piloting so I didn't bother. Poppa said that all I needed ta do is learn how fight." She replied with a shrug.
"But damage updates, radar reports, everything!" Bolt asked with a wave of both hands.
"Flashy lights, red dots, and feel." The girl looked proud of that.
"That's stupid!" Bolt practically shouted.
He didn't expect the punch thrown his way. He was a Rat however. Violence was part of life. He took the punch head on with barely a flinch and moved to grapple immediately, focusing on using his larger frame. To his complete surprise the girl wove around him effortlessly, and then leaped onto his shoulders. He had a brief moment of shock and then she wrenched her legs to the side and did flipped herself off.
Whatever the maneuver was supposed to do was hard to say. What it actually did was just rip his mask and part of the cloak he used to conceal his build off. It was mildly disorientating and a bit painful, but did little else. Bolt snarled as he turned to face his opponent and found her looking disappointed.
"No fair." She complained as she backed up.
"What the hell was that?!" Bolt snarled back.
"That should have brought you down! Also, you called me stupid!" The girl shot back.
"First, I'm probably twice your weight so of course that wouldn't work. Second, I said not learning how to read was stupid, not that you're stupid!" The young man snapped out in reply.
The words immediately calmed the girl. "Oh, that's ok then!" She nodded and looked up at him with a small flush. "Sorry, poppa said don't tolerate disrespect. I'm Lilly. Pleased ta meet ya!"
Completely caught off guard by the change in attitude Bolt rubbed at his head. "Oh, ahh." He fumbled harshly before grunting and refocusing his head. "I'm Bolt, but you didn't hear that from me." He reached down for the mask and cloak. "Damnit, the straps are broken." He muttered.
"Oh you don't need them. You can fix it later." Lilly grabbed at the items and got into a small tug of war with Bolt over them. "First, uh, show me the mechs!" She blurted out.
"Fine, fine. So long as ya don't mention this later." Bolt gave up on the mask and ignored the triumphant look the girl got. "We got a half dozen clunkers here at the moment, and a good dozen in storage elsewhere. All the ones here are medium and light. Our one heavy is elsewhere. Mind you, these are just salvaged mechs. None o' them will last against anything shiny."
"Shiny?" Lilly repeated as they began to walk through the bay.
"New mechs that the Royals come by in. Shiny and new." Bolt explained and gestured to the Frankenstein messes that were in front of him. "We do our best, but they're all flawed."
The one in front of him for instance was very technically a sword mech. Made up of a dozen different mech types, it had a half dozen obvious flaws and even more less obvious ones. It would run and was in Bolt's opinion better than anything else on the planet, but he held no illusions that it was shit.
"Poppa said I'd probably be best with a heavy. I'm supposed to be somethin' special and he wants me protected. Can't say I care that much. Am looking for somethin' that feels warm." Lilly commented as she looked over the things. "Can see what ya mean about the flaws though. That one will fall over if ya hit the knee." She pointed at the knee in question.
Bolt gave a grunt. "Good eye. Had to patch that from two types. Fraid you ain't gonna get anything real good unless ya want to pay the cheese for a new one." He laughed at that.
Lilly made a face. "If we had the cheese we wouldn't be here." She pointed out peevishly.
That she even thought it was an option was telling. Wrecker likely had enough connections that he could probably get something arranged. Bolt and his family knew for a fact that trying it on their end would end up with them in chains as a best result. History was not kind to lesser Rats. The young man put it out of his mind and continued the tour.
M003
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
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There were six mechs in the bay. Three mediums, three lights. Had they been in pristine condition it would have been a rather massive force multiplier. These mechs were not that. Most Mech Designers and Pilots would have been horrified at the state of the machines. Junk mechs were rightfully disdained and even with Bolt's best effort the ones in the bay were simply functional rather than anything else. By the standards of the planet that was actually pretty good admittedly, but nothing to be proud of. It was still junk.
"Bad hip, arms are horrid for that frame, that one feels really cold." Lilly rattled off as she passed them and then squinted. "Is that one even functional?" She asked in mild confusion.
Bolt looked at the mech he'd just barely gotten online before this meeting. "Limbs show as green, the cockpit would have to be re-set and we'd have ta get the Operating System to recognize the new configuration." He responded with a shrug. "Could get it done in an hour or two and it'd work."
The girl stepped forward and held her palm to the foot of the mech before scrunching up her face in concentration. "Hmm. Doesn't feel as cold as most of em."
"Don't know what ya mean by cold, but it'd have the least problems once it was finished." Bolt gave a shrug. "Ain't a salesman so I can't rattle off much. Made it from I'd say about six different mechs, redid the legs twice, and armor is as sound as you can get these parts. It's a lightweight skirmisher by specs. Arms are better with melee weapons and we got a pair of daggers that should work."
"I can use anything, but light melee with that configuration is just askin' to get popped." Lilly gestured emphatically to the entire setup.
Bolt really had to agree. While he'd done the armor up best he could, but light mechs didn't have the omph for anything more than the basics. It was essentially a suicide mech, doubly so because there was nothing else to it. Just a pair of daggers and a higher than normal speed.
"If I had em I'd add some chaff grenades or somethin'." Bolt add with a small wince as he tried to imagine what would happen if the thing was used. "But we deal with what we have. Could add some slots for grenades and ya can buy em elsewhere?"
"Nope!" Lilly shook her head. "What 'bout the heavy in storage ya got?"
"Big gun boy. Prob the best of the lot. Actually pricy though." Bolt looked around and then gestured to a nearby terminal. "Since ya can't read I'll bring up the picture and ya can ask."
Lilly bounced over and leaned against the boy as he brought up the specifications. It was as he explained, a heavy artillery mech. Salvaging it had been a pain, but it was actually the closest to being a proper mech instead of a junker. It had heavy legs and back mounted mortar guns, with big guns on the arms. Solid, useful, and unimaginative.
"Ya'll don't sound happy when you describe it." Lilly said as Bolt finished explaining.
"Most mechs we make are all based on what we can find rather than what we want. We don't got fancy part printers, and even if we did we don't have the licensing to fix the stuff. Technically we shouldn't even be selling cause the MTA hasn't certified, but we're in a grey area." Bolt knew for a fact that the MTA was aware of them all, but so long as they didn't do something stupid the organization was content to ignore things. "So the best we can do is focus hard on the basics. All our stuff runs solid and off the fuel we use here, which is a whole 'nother mess."
Lilly poked him and frowned as she met his unamused gaze. "No, seriously, ya sound bored. I know I heard a bit of fire in there when you were talking about what you'd do."
"Hah. Thinking about what I could do is like..." Bolt trailed off and turned away. "I dunno why I'm even trying to talk about this."
Lilly leaned further into him. "Cause I'm cute and ya gotta get it off yer chest?"
The young man sighed and stared up at the mech. "So, this is gonna get a bit technical. I've been doing mechs since I could walk. I know the basics. I can run a power cable through the entire frame. I know what voltage each model outputs and can get all the little fiddly bits going. It's all kinda useless if I wanna do more."
"What would you mean by more?" The girl's voice was soft.
"Designing em. Actually building from scratch. Don't get me wrong, actually salvaging em is good, but more often than not all we do is slap whatever is compatible together as fast as possible. I've done some good ones, but most of em are boring and standard cause that's what works and what we need." Bolt stared down at his hands. "If I wanna build a shiny mech I can't do it with just this."
The girl grabbed one of them and grinned as she met his eyes. "Well then, what would you need?" She asked and frowned as he failed to respond. "No really."
Bolt had trouble keeping her gaze as he actually put his mind to it. "That'd be getting off the planet without getting press ganged into debt slavery or worse. Then it'd be getting into a proper education, which ain't happening cause while I can put together a mech in an hour I ain't got all the fancy grounding and education that'd work in one of them. Askin' me to write an essay would be like asking a pig to pilot a mech."
"Eh, reading is overrated and I've seen a few pigs pilot." Lilly chirped back with a wider grin.
That got a laugh from the young man. Then a terrible, terrible idea came to him. Bolt grabbed his companion's hands back and voiced it before reason got to him. "Yer special. One of those potentials right? What if I build you a mech? A proper one, just fer you! It'd be something special at least!"
"Why Bolt, that's a very bold proposal you know. We barely know each other!" The girl responded with teeth showing in her grin.
The young man sputtered as he dropped her hand like it was burning. "What?! That's not what I meant and you know it!"
"I totally accept. We'd make a great couple. You make my death machine, I bring the death! Make sure it has all the chrome plating and a heart with our names on it." Lilly brought her hands to her cheeks and gave a loud girlish sigh. "Imagine the tales they'd tell of our marriage! I'd want two kids and a white pike to stab everyone!"
"No, no, no knock it off right now! You're a pilot, and probably an important one based on what your father said. Even just dating would be a target on my back!" Bolt tried to stop her words with wild swings of his arms.
Lilly laughed. "Just teasing, mostly." She brushed her hair back and gave him a wink. "I would consider it a nice courting gift though. Medium, all the speed you can stuff into it and any weapons ya can salvage. I keep having to go solo against group or duels so work with that in mind. Make it feel warm and I'll even put a good word in with Poppa."
"Still don't know what you mean by warm." Bolt responded before he paused and closed his eyes. "And if you're actually serious I er... Wouldn't mind." He barely got the last words out.
Lilly leaped up and wrapped her arms around him before kissing him on the cheek and giving a giggle. "That'd be great! Until then, I'll tell poppa that we'll take the heavy. Ain't my style, but it'll make him happy and big booms can be fun."
The man barely heard her. He was just a bit lost in the kiss, and then what he'd done. Mechs were expensive damnit! He'd just promised her a veritable fortune!
"Bad hip, arms are horrid for that frame, that one feels really cold." Lilly rattled off as she passed them and then squinted. "Is that one even functional?" She asked in mild confusion.
Bolt looked at the mech he'd just barely gotten online before this meeting. "Limbs show as green, the cockpit would have to be re-set and we'd have ta get the Operating System to recognize the new configuration." He responded with a shrug. "Could get it done in an hour or two and it'd work."
The girl stepped forward and held her palm to the foot of the mech before scrunching up her face in concentration. "Hmm. Doesn't feel as cold as most of em."
"Don't know what ya mean by cold, but it'd have the least problems once it was finished." Bolt gave a shrug. "Ain't a salesman so I can't rattle off much. Made it from I'd say about six different mechs, redid the legs twice, and armor is as sound as you can get these parts. It's a lightweight skirmisher by specs. Arms are better with melee weapons and we got a pair of daggers that should work."
"I can use anything, but light melee with that configuration is just askin' to get popped." Lilly gestured emphatically to the entire setup.
Bolt really had to agree. While he'd done the armor up best he could, but light mechs didn't have the omph for anything more than the basics. It was essentially a suicide mech, doubly so because there was nothing else to it. Just a pair of daggers and a higher than normal speed.
"If I had em I'd add some chaff grenades or somethin'." Bolt add with a small wince as he tried to imagine what would happen if the thing was used. "But we deal with what we have. Could add some slots for grenades and ya can buy em elsewhere?"
"Nope!" Lilly shook her head. "What 'bout the heavy in storage ya got?"
"Big gun boy. Prob the best of the lot. Actually pricy though." Bolt looked around and then gestured to a nearby terminal. "Since ya can't read I'll bring up the picture and ya can ask."
Lilly bounced over and leaned against the boy as he brought up the specifications. It was as he explained, a heavy artillery mech. Salvaging it had been a pain, but it was actually the closest to being a proper mech instead of a junker. It had heavy legs and back mounted mortar guns, with big guns on the arms. Solid, useful, and unimaginative.
"Ya'll don't sound happy when you describe it." Lilly said as Bolt finished explaining.
"Most mechs we make are all based on what we can find rather than what we want. We don't got fancy part printers, and even if we did we don't have the licensing to fix the stuff. Technically we shouldn't even be selling cause the MTA hasn't certified, but we're in a grey area." Bolt knew for a fact that the MTA was aware of them all, but so long as they didn't do something stupid the organization was content to ignore things. "So the best we can do is focus hard on the basics. All our stuff runs solid and off the fuel we use here, which is a whole 'nother mess."
Lilly poked him and frowned as she met his unamused gaze. "No, seriously, ya sound bored. I know I heard a bit of fire in there when you were talking about what you'd do."
"Hah. Thinking about what I could do is like..." Bolt trailed off and turned away. "I dunno why I'm even trying to talk about this."
Lilly leaned further into him. "Cause I'm cute and ya gotta get it off yer chest?"
The young man sighed and stared up at the mech. "So, this is gonna get a bit technical. I've been doing mechs since I could walk. I know the basics. I can run a power cable through the entire frame. I know what voltage each model outputs and can get all the little fiddly bits going. It's all kinda useless if I wanna do more."
"What would you mean by more?" The girl's voice was soft.
"Designing em. Actually building from scratch. Don't get me wrong, actually salvaging em is good, but more often than not all we do is slap whatever is compatible together as fast as possible. I've done some good ones, but most of em are boring and standard cause that's what works and what we need." Bolt stared down at his hands. "If I wanna build a shiny mech I can't do it with just this."
The girl grabbed one of them and grinned as she met his eyes. "Well then, what would you need?" She asked and frowned as he failed to respond. "No really."
Bolt had trouble keeping her gaze as he actually put his mind to it. "That'd be getting off the planet without getting press ganged into debt slavery or worse. Then it'd be getting into a proper education, which ain't happening cause while I can put together a mech in an hour I ain't got all the fancy grounding and education that'd work in one of them. Askin' me to write an essay would be like asking a pig to pilot a mech."
"Eh, reading is overrated and I've seen a few pigs pilot." Lilly chirped back with a wider grin.
That got a laugh from the young man. Then a terrible, terrible idea came to him. Bolt grabbed his companion's hands back and voiced it before reason got to him. "Yer special. One of those potentials right? What if I build you a mech? A proper one, just fer you! It'd be something special at least!"
"Why Bolt, that's a very bold proposal you know. We barely know each other!" The girl responded with teeth showing in her grin.
The young man sputtered as he dropped her hand like it was burning. "What?! That's not what I meant and you know it!"
"I totally accept. We'd make a great couple. You make my death machine, I bring the death! Make sure it has all the chrome plating and a heart with our names on it." Lilly brought her hands to her cheeks and gave a loud girlish sigh. "Imagine the tales they'd tell of our marriage! I'd want two kids and a white pike to stab everyone!"
"No, no, no knock it off right now! You're a pilot, and probably an important one based on what your father said. Even just dating would be a target on my back!" Bolt tried to stop her words with wild swings of his arms.
Lilly laughed. "Just teasing, mostly." She brushed her hair back and gave him a wink. "I would consider it a nice courting gift though. Medium, all the speed you can stuff into it and any weapons ya can salvage. I keep having to go solo against group or duels so work with that in mind. Make it feel warm and I'll even put a good word in with Poppa."
"Still don't know what you mean by warm." Bolt responded before he paused and closed his eyes. "And if you're actually serious I er... Wouldn't mind." He barely got the last words out.
Lilly leaped up and wrapped her arms around him before kissing him on the cheek and giving a giggle. "That'd be great! Until then, I'll tell poppa that we'll take the heavy. Ain't my style, but it'll make him happy and big booms can be fun."
The man barely heard her. He was just a bit lost in the kiss, and then what he'd done. Mechs were expensive damnit! He'd just promised her a veritable fortune!
M004
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
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Momma didn't raise no quitter. Bolt kept that in mind as he went about his day. Once Wrecker and his daughter had left, things had mostly gone back to normal. He had Lilly's contact information and a discrete way to contact her in a spare comm unit. He'd shown her how to do text-to-speech, and the girl had promised to try to learn how to read using it to help. All he had to do now was get the parts for the mech.
Hah, look at him thinking that. All he had to do. As if getting the parts wasn't the hardest part of the whole endeavor.
The surface of the planet was a blasted wasteland. Dusty with almost no vegetation, the only reason it wasn't a desert was the lack of sand. Frequent bombardment and mech battles had killed almost everything resembling life in most of the more trafficked areas. On sunny days it was a hot and hellish daymare. If the wind picked up, sand and grit got into everything. If it rained, the land became such a quagmire that even mechs had trouble moving. Walking on foot during the rain was an elaborate form of suicide. Rats lived underground for a variety of reasons, the land was one of them.
Life still existed of course. There were a few valleys filled with greenery outside of the typical battlefields, and a few farms provided feed stock for a variety of ration makers. His clan had one, and there were more dotting the planet, all of them carefully hidden away so that the various invaders didn't decide they were strategic targets.
All of this made the fact that the vast majority of the planet was ruined worse. The planet was a wasteland of humanity's own making. If Bolt didn't need parts he wouldn't have been out here at all. No one sane would.
He could picture the alternative now. Some fancy designer in an air conditioned room could press a button on their fancy expensive touch screen, and then they'd get it assembled right in front of their eyes. They wouldn't even have to get their hands dirty! Not like poor little Bolt. No, Bolt had to go out with a mechanical mule and slave away.
The man laughed at himself and adjusted his mask. No sense in envy. As amusing as it would be to picture someone from an elite college in his position it was pointless. You dealt with the scrap you had, not what you could see others using. He tapped the controls for his mechanical mule and began to walk down the rocks and through a particular path towards his destination. There was a battlefield nearby that he could scavenge from and every minute outside was another minute of danger. Not much since there wasn't a war, but enough to mean that dawdling was a bad idea. Other Rats could be just as deadly as any foreigners.
His destination wasn't much to look at really. If you had seen one battlefield you had seen them all. Metal littered the area, and there was the distinct scent of cooling fluid, oil, and spent explosives. The only thing that made it different than a battlefield of old was the lack of human bodies. Mech battles, for all their violence, didn't result in extensive casualties. Even the worst mechs were designed to protect the pilot. From ejection seats to armor plating to shock absorbers, it took dedicated effort to kill a pilot.
Bolt passed by one mech and winced through his mask. There was also a more grim reason for no bodies. A hit from a mech typically obliterated the pilot if it hit the guy, like the one poor victim in the obvious spot. Looked like a lancer hit right into the cockpit. Not the best way to go, but quick at least.
His loss was Bolt's gain though. The salvager scrambled closer to the downed mech and peered into the hole. One clean strike right through the cockpit. Nasty and brutal, but also clean in a way. There was no blood, just a hole where the pilot would be. This was a very large prize even if the mech itself was rather shitty. They could get this working within an hour with minimal work.
"Got a brain-dead mech here." Bolt called out over the radio. "Tagging it."
Family would take it and fix it up before selling it cheap. He wasn't going to use any of it for Lilly though. Bad luck, and poor fit. The design looked like a lightweight knight, which was a rather stupid decision in his opinion, but it was likely just a guard for someone important based off what he could see on the battlefield.
He found a severed mech hand later that confirmed his analysis. The hand was expensive, with high quality, articulated fingers. A swordsman mech's hand based off how it was configured. Bolt immediately hefted that onto the mule for later.
What most non-techs didn't know was that swordman's hands were the best of all the classifications. They had to heft heavy weapons that required delicate movements with the fingers. If you did not do the fingers right the mechs were just waving slabs of metal around like sticks instead of the artful movements you needed for a proper sword fight. Sword users were very particular about that and a high quality one was very rare. It was a great find.
No other parts around though, which painted an interesting picture. Bolt circled around the area and tried to simulate the battle in his head. Assume two sides. A swordman vs a lancer with fodder on each side. The lancer took out the fodder first and how did it manage to get the hand off?
An ejection seat answered who won at least. It was a fair distance away from the hand, expensive, and similar in design to the swordman hand. Ejection seats weren't meant to be re-used, but his family had long since cracked how to change that, so it went on the pile. It wasn't that valuable. It was useful enough to take.
This was a fantastic haul already. Just the cored mech alone would give them a hefty hunk of cheese. All Biters loved that sort of thing for their shitty pilots. The other parts were a good start to a wide variety of possibilities that Bolt was already running through in his head.
Bolt paused in his circling as he noticed something buried in the distance. A few commands to his mech mule and a shovel had it unearthed in short order. The result was surprising. A mech's head. Older model, but better than any he'd seen. The chin and neck was gone, but the upper part was practically pristine. The sensors in the eyes were almost perfect. He'd never seen anything so advanced. (Only third rate, outdated mechs were used to fight on the planet. An elite mech part, even from a third rate state was more than a match.)
Something about it twigged his sense of danger though. He couldn't tell what. The part was weathered right. There weren't signs of sabotage. The surroundings were as secured as an area could be. Something just screamed at him that there was something wrong. His mind said everything was fine, but his gut said danger. It was like there was a looming mech just waiting for him to take the bait.
Thoroughly unnerved Bolt backed away. He grabbed his binoculars of the mule held them up to his mask. He surveyed the area with them quickly and then stepped away from the prize. Nothing was on the horizon, and the sensors in the mule weren't picking up anything. He was still very, very spooked.
"Shit," Bolt looked at the part again. "Damnit, if I didn't need it I'd be leavin' it." He muttered and rummaged for something specific. "Come on dum-dum."
Eventually he found the child-sized drone and pulled it out. He set it on the ground and the machine trundled forward towards the buried head. After a few minutes of careful direction it managed to burrow under and get a look at the underside of the part.
"Where else would they put a boom?" The young man muttered to himself as he directed the drone around.
More than one scavenger had gotten killed because someone had left a present behind. It was not uncommon for explosives or worse to be planted behind for one reason or another. Dum-dum was Bolt's answer to that. Other scavengers had other ways, up to and including just sending someone stupid to get the part. (They had far too many of those.)
After a long moment Bolt had to conclude that he was jumping at nothing. The part was perfectly fine for a part. He didn't have the time to indulge his paranoia anymore.
The head went onto the mule and he continued to scavenge. An idea was coming to his head as to the configuration. He needed another good hand, and one of the broken swordman blades that littered the area. They were usually too much of a hassle to salvage, but the tempered metal would be perfect for his needs.
Lightyears away from the boy another being watched his actions through a spying device that had been placed long, long ago in orbit. Interesting. Human intuition always had ways of surprising them. What had tipped the boy off? There were plenty of small clues that the part had been planted, but they would have all required sensors that the boy did not have.
Was one of their experiments was getting results? It was hard to say as of yet. The boy and his family had not been directly introduced into the variables, but that was the point of doing real world tests. What to do then?
The figure made several orders after a few seconds of thought. It was too early to say this was worth their true attention, but it was a trivial effort to order others to take the time to properly monitor things. They'd have a report and eyes on the planet shortly. Perhaps it would become worth actual time later. Right now it was a footnote of a footnote.
Decision made, the being moved onto other things. Thousands upon thousands of monitors sprang to life and they began to watch for anomalies once more. One, two, ten, one hundred, it didn't matter. They'd find their answers eventually.
Hah, look at him thinking that. All he had to do. As if getting the parts wasn't the hardest part of the whole endeavor.
The surface of the planet was a blasted wasteland. Dusty with almost no vegetation, the only reason it wasn't a desert was the lack of sand. Frequent bombardment and mech battles had killed almost everything resembling life in most of the more trafficked areas. On sunny days it was a hot and hellish daymare. If the wind picked up, sand and grit got into everything. If it rained, the land became such a quagmire that even mechs had trouble moving. Walking on foot during the rain was an elaborate form of suicide. Rats lived underground for a variety of reasons, the land was one of them.
Life still existed of course. There were a few valleys filled with greenery outside of the typical battlefields, and a few farms provided feed stock for a variety of ration makers. His clan had one, and there were more dotting the planet, all of them carefully hidden away so that the various invaders didn't decide they were strategic targets.
All of this made the fact that the vast majority of the planet was ruined worse. The planet was a wasteland of humanity's own making. If Bolt didn't need parts he wouldn't have been out here at all. No one sane would.
He could picture the alternative now. Some fancy designer in an air conditioned room could press a button on their fancy expensive touch screen, and then they'd get it assembled right in front of their eyes. They wouldn't even have to get their hands dirty! Not like poor little Bolt. No, Bolt had to go out with a mechanical mule and slave away.
The man laughed at himself and adjusted his mask. No sense in envy. As amusing as it would be to picture someone from an elite college in his position it was pointless. You dealt with the scrap you had, not what you could see others using. He tapped the controls for his mechanical mule and began to walk down the rocks and through a particular path towards his destination. There was a battlefield nearby that he could scavenge from and every minute outside was another minute of danger. Not much since there wasn't a war, but enough to mean that dawdling was a bad idea. Other Rats could be just as deadly as any foreigners.
His destination wasn't much to look at really. If you had seen one battlefield you had seen them all. Metal littered the area, and there was the distinct scent of cooling fluid, oil, and spent explosives. The only thing that made it different than a battlefield of old was the lack of human bodies. Mech battles, for all their violence, didn't result in extensive casualties. Even the worst mechs were designed to protect the pilot. From ejection seats to armor plating to shock absorbers, it took dedicated effort to kill a pilot.
Bolt passed by one mech and winced through his mask. There was also a more grim reason for no bodies. A hit from a mech typically obliterated the pilot if it hit the guy, like the one poor victim in the obvious spot. Looked like a lancer hit right into the cockpit. Not the best way to go, but quick at least.
His loss was Bolt's gain though. The salvager scrambled closer to the downed mech and peered into the hole. One clean strike right through the cockpit. Nasty and brutal, but also clean in a way. There was no blood, just a hole where the pilot would be. This was a very large prize even if the mech itself was rather shitty. They could get this working within an hour with minimal work.
"Got a brain-dead mech here." Bolt called out over the radio. "Tagging it."
Family would take it and fix it up before selling it cheap. He wasn't going to use any of it for Lilly though. Bad luck, and poor fit. The design looked like a lightweight knight, which was a rather stupid decision in his opinion, but it was likely just a guard for someone important based off what he could see on the battlefield.
He found a severed mech hand later that confirmed his analysis. The hand was expensive, with high quality, articulated fingers. A swordsman mech's hand based off how it was configured. Bolt immediately hefted that onto the mule for later.
What most non-techs didn't know was that swordman's hands were the best of all the classifications. They had to heft heavy weapons that required delicate movements with the fingers. If you did not do the fingers right the mechs were just waving slabs of metal around like sticks instead of the artful movements you needed for a proper sword fight. Sword users were very particular about that and a high quality one was very rare. It was a great find.
No other parts around though, which painted an interesting picture. Bolt circled around the area and tried to simulate the battle in his head. Assume two sides. A swordman vs a lancer with fodder on each side. The lancer took out the fodder first and how did it manage to get the hand off?
An ejection seat answered who won at least. It was a fair distance away from the hand, expensive, and similar in design to the swordman hand. Ejection seats weren't meant to be re-used, but his family had long since cracked how to change that, so it went on the pile. It wasn't that valuable. It was useful enough to take.
This was a fantastic haul already. Just the cored mech alone would give them a hefty hunk of cheese. All Biters loved that sort of thing for their shitty pilots. The other parts were a good start to a wide variety of possibilities that Bolt was already running through in his head.
Bolt paused in his circling as he noticed something buried in the distance. A few commands to his mech mule and a shovel had it unearthed in short order. The result was surprising. A mech's head. Older model, but better than any he'd seen. The chin and neck was gone, but the upper part was practically pristine. The sensors in the eyes were almost perfect. He'd never seen anything so advanced. (Only third rate, outdated mechs were used to fight on the planet. An elite mech part, even from a third rate state was more than a match.)
Something about it twigged his sense of danger though. He couldn't tell what. The part was weathered right. There weren't signs of sabotage. The surroundings were as secured as an area could be. Something just screamed at him that there was something wrong. His mind said everything was fine, but his gut said danger. It was like there was a looming mech just waiting for him to take the bait.
Thoroughly unnerved Bolt backed away. He grabbed his binoculars of the mule held them up to his mask. He surveyed the area with them quickly and then stepped away from the prize. Nothing was on the horizon, and the sensors in the mule weren't picking up anything. He was still very, very spooked.
"Shit," Bolt looked at the part again. "Damnit, if I didn't need it I'd be leavin' it." He muttered and rummaged for something specific. "Come on dum-dum."
Eventually he found the child-sized drone and pulled it out. He set it on the ground and the machine trundled forward towards the buried head. After a few minutes of careful direction it managed to burrow under and get a look at the underside of the part.
"Where else would they put a boom?" The young man muttered to himself as he directed the drone around.
More than one scavenger had gotten killed because someone had left a present behind. It was not uncommon for explosives or worse to be planted behind for one reason or another. Dum-dum was Bolt's answer to that. Other scavengers had other ways, up to and including just sending someone stupid to get the part. (They had far too many of those.)
After a long moment Bolt had to conclude that he was jumping at nothing. The part was perfectly fine for a part. He didn't have the time to indulge his paranoia anymore.
The head went onto the mule and he continued to scavenge. An idea was coming to his head as to the configuration. He needed another good hand, and one of the broken swordman blades that littered the area. They were usually too much of a hassle to salvage, but the tempered metal would be perfect for his needs.
Lightyears away from the boy another being watched his actions through a spying device that had been placed long, long ago in orbit. Interesting. Human intuition always had ways of surprising them. What had tipped the boy off? There were plenty of small clues that the part had been planted, but they would have all required sensors that the boy did not have.
Was one of their experiments was getting results? It was hard to say as of yet. The boy and his family had not been directly introduced into the variables, but that was the point of doing real world tests. What to do then?
The figure made several orders after a few seconds of thought. It was too early to say this was worth their true attention, but it was a trivial effort to order others to take the time to properly monitor things. They'd have a report and eyes on the planet shortly. Perhaps it would become worth actual time later. Right now it was a footnote of a footnote.
Decision made, the being moved onto other things. Thousands upon thousands of monitors sprang to life and they began to watch for anomalies once more. One, two, ten, one hundred, it didn't matter. They'd find their answers eventually.
Last edited:
M005
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
- Messages
- 14,237
- Likes received
- 449,352
AN: Went over this a few more times than normal. It's sorta something that should be central to the thing, mech design!
---
Creating a junk mech was far different than designing a mech from the ground up. It was more akin to a puzzle than a design, and one that didn't lend itself to precision. Junk mechs by their very nature were slap-dash and Frankenstein creations made up of mis-matched parts. You were never going to get the best results unless you spent an inordinate amount of time on them and the quality of parts could cause serious variances. Bolt had heard tales that students frequently did it as practice and for prizes, which was mildly hilarious to him. He wondered how they'd match up to one of his family? It'd probably blow their little ivory tower minds. They also probably had the luxury of having parts they were certain would work.
Admittedly his people had their own flaws and prides. Some Wrench Rats considered what they did the pinnacle of 'real' mech design. They were mostly delusional, but in that delusion there was a bit of a point. In wartimes you didn't have time to make a perfect mech. You frequently didn't have time to make even a good one. You just needed something now. Bolt's family could slap together a functional mech from parts in an hour if needed. It'd be a mess, but it would be able to pick up a weapon and shoot. That was a very good skill to have. It was also one that led to very bad habits if you let it become a habit instead of a necessary evil.
Bolt himself had specifically had to train himself not to go for the fastest route once he'd realized this. His family had helped upon his request, but frankly didn't have the precise mindset or training for his needs. Designing a mech from the ground up and then building it was absolutely foreign to everyone. They dealt with practical problems. It kept them fed. It had taken a few actual paper books and long hours of hard work with various freeware designers before he'd been able to really get the point of it all and even then he'd rarely been able to implement it in real life.
This was honestly the first time he approached a problem from the beginning. Designing Lilly's mech from the parts he'd salvaged and had yet to salvage instead of just using what he had available was something he had never done. It felt both strange and good. He was taking a step beyond just living in the moment and into something that the rich people did. Bolt had to restrain a few laughs once he thought of that.
He got to work quickly to prevent the inappropriate giggles and more delays. The biggest thing he had to account for in designing was that he had to build around what he had or could trade for. There was no getting new parts or adjusting the ones he had too much. He could in essence adjust the form factor, not the proprietary machinery that made up the important sections of the mech.
That meant he had to build around the most important parts, starting with the head. It might have been an older model, but it was an older model from an expensive mech and extensive customization. The sensor suites in it needed more power. This meant heavier power lines and proper seating on the skeleton and framework. The thicker neck would have been a problem had he not needed to remake the neck and chest anyway, so that was easy to compensate for. The better sensors would be worth the hassle.
Next was the hands. He had one swordman hand and had been able to trade some metal and that fancy ejection seat for another one in less than stellar condition. This was a benefit in a way because if he'd found two good ones he would have been obligated to use them to make a swordmen for his family instead of something custom built for Lilly. This way could keep them for his own project. His family was good like that.
Tactically, based on his probably shaky understanding, swordman mechs were meant for close range duels. They wanted to cut down heavies quickly. They were in essence duelists. That was not good for Lilly's circumstances. She specifically said she fought groups, so Bolt wanted something medium designed for rapid engagement and disengagement. He would have needed to direct most of the power to the arms with a swordmen too, and the head was already hogging a good portion of the theoretical output. The energy budget was too low to do the head, arms and then legs for speed.
However, strong hands could be weapons too. Brawler mechs used those extensively and Bolt knew he could make the adjustments to mimic something with that. Using the sword metal he'd gathered he could tip the fingers with claws and seat them into the strong musculature necessary for wielding those heavy swords. Change the programming some, customize the arms for that specific weapon configuration and he could visualize something deadly. Reach in, claw open the armor, and cause damage in one quick grab. It'd be a beast to use correctly, but Lilly should be able to handle that. He'd have to spend some extra time on the arms, but it'd be worth it, and the energy profile would fit his budget.
With that decided the rest of the design coalesced around rapidly building vision. He was making a monster that leaped at the enemy quickly before fleeing. Make the legs good for leaping and quick bursts of energy, then adjust the armor to match that attack profile. Thankfully a significant part of this was all stuff he could just get together from spare parts and their very basic printers.
That was a good thing because the salvaged head was still missing the chin and neck. The neck in particular was a delicate weak point on a mech. If something did enough damage to crack the head armor the neck was typically going to need to be replaced as well. No one wanted a mech that couldn't turn its head so almost all of it was made of materials that were considered 'standard.' Only the chin would require finesse.
On a whim Bolt adjusted the design to make the jaw have teeth and even put in a motor to let it bite. It cost practically nothing and it looked entertaining. Combined with a few adornments and form alterations and he had a vaguely feminine mech that looked just shy of murdering and eating something. It fit in far too many ways and upon inspection Bolt realized he might have gotten a bit carried away with the entire design. It didn't look like a junk mech. It looked like a shiny one. Could he even make this?
The newbie designer hesitated far more than he should have before he convinced himself that yes he could make it. Snapping a picture of the design and doing a quick write up he sent it to Lilly before he let his doubt overcome him. Bolt then went to finalize the trades and tried his best to focus on the process, not his fears. Lilly's reply both helped and hindered that.
'I love it, gimmie. Kisses.'
Stifling a flush and a nervous laugh, Bolt decided that he would at least try.
A few things became rapidly apparent. One was that his blueprinting talents were horrible. He'd done the internals wrong on the diagrams and had to struggle to correct them mid construction, the legs were misaligned and inconsistent with reality, and the arms had been designed completely incorrectly. Practical experience let him correct things once he realized the issues, but it was a painful reminder that he was essentially self taught and would miss very obvious stuff. (Had Bolt known about a simulator he would have tried that and it would have caught it, but that required both education and money.)
Unable to see a way to fix that deficiency aside from practicing and taking copious notes of what he'd done wrong however, Bolt just continued to work. To his mild shock all their power tools were working at the moment so he didn't have to do anything by hand, which was very rare. That meant he could assemble the mech solo. Without those tools he would have had to manually winch the torso into the air after he attached the legs, which was a three person job at a minimum.
"I'm going to name you Ghoul." Bolt told the mech as he finished securing the frame upright and began to work on the teeth and chin.
He really didn't expect it to be able to actually bite something. It was very entertaining to make them a functional weapon anyway. It cost nothing but some time. Getting them nice and pointy made the entire design click. He almost felt like the mech agreed with him as he continued to work on the musculature and then began the armor plating. The decorations and finishings would come once he got everything set to his satisfaction, but he could already see the shape of the mech.
Ghoul was tall for her weight class, with a lanky profile due to extended arms, and claws that looked more than a little threatening. The natural resting profile gave the impression that the mech was hunched as well, as if she was ready to pounce on an enemy even at rest. Bolt couldn't help but love her even if he knew she was far from perfect. There was just an air of menace that fit the entire concept. It flowed together in a way that was impossible to describe.
"I wish I could do you justice." The boy muttered to her as he started on the heart of the mech. His lack of resources and knowledge had never felt so potent as it did now. Envy burned in his heart, but he soldiered through it and pushed that into the final parts.
Out of all the mech parts the reactor and the engine were the easiest things to do. They were, like the armor and muscles, something Bolt could print out on their substandard printers. They were also considered 'mature' technology, whatever that meant. (Bolt's education was on how things worked, not the history or terms.) The standard reactor was actually horrible for local circumstances. The dust frequently got into the air intakes and the reactor needed cleaner fuel than what they could source locally.
There were more than a few ways to tweak that sort of thing, which was where Bolt spent the rest of the time he had. His family practically built these for a living. Reactors were typically the first thing that mech pilots killed. Making and adjusting them was an old hand, and he knew exactly what to do to fit the local environment. The air intakes had to be shifted a bit to keep dust out and a filter needed to be placed just right. After that there needed to be some robustness added to handle the shit they called fuel here. He even had time to tweak it so that the thing with a few power cells that could surge with power for a few seconds on command, giving giving Ghoul even more burst at the cost of needing to recover for a few seconds.
The end result was not a pretty mech. She felt right in a way he couldn't explain. Bolt was confident that she would work for Lilly. He was also pretty confident that she'd run half dead because he'd made damned sure the design was solid and robust. If there was one thing he knew, it was how mechs broke. (He was so going to make that joke to Lilly.)
---
Creating a junk mech was far different than designing a mech from the ground up. It was more akin to a puzzle than a design, and one that didn't lend itself to precision. Junk mechs by their very nature were slap-dash and Frankenstein creations made up of mis-matched parts. You were never going to get the best results unless you spent an inordinate amount of time on them and the quality of parts could cause serious variances. Bolt had heard tales that students frequently did it as practice and for prizes, which was mildly hilarious to him. He wondered how they'd match up to one of his family? It'd probably blow their little ivory tower minds. They also probably had the luxury of having parts they were certain would work.
Admittedly his people had their own flaws and prides. Some Wrench Rats considered what they did the pinnacle of 'real' mech design. They were mostly delusional, but in that delusion there was a bit of a point. In wartimes you didn't have time to make a perfect mech. You frequently didn't have time to make even a good one. You just needed something now. Bolt's family could slap together a functional mech from parts in an hour if needed. It'd be a mess, but it would be able to pick up a weapon and shoot. That was a very good skill to have. It was also one that led to very bad habits if you let it become a habit instead of a necessary evil.
Bolt himself had specifically had to train himself not to go for the fastest route once he'd realized this. His family had helped upon his request, but frankly didn't have the precise mindset or training for his needs. Designing a mech from the ground up and then building it was absolutely foreign to everyone. They dealt with practical problems. It kept them fed. It had taken a few actual paper books and long hours of hard work with various freeware designers before he'd been able to really get the point of it all and even then he'd rarely been able to implement it in real life.
This was honestly the first time he approached a problem from the beginning. Designing Lilly's mech from the parts he'd salvaged and had yet to salvage instead of just using what he had available was something he had never done. It felt both strange and good. He was taking a step beyond just living in the moment and into something that the rich people did. Bolt had to restrain a few laughs once he thought of that.
He got to work quickly to prevent the inappropriate giggles and more delays. The biggest thing he had to account for in designing was that he had to build around what he had or could trade for. There was no getting new parts or adjusting the ones he had too much. He could in essence adjust the form factor, not the proprietary machinery that made up the important sections of the mech.
That meant he had to build around the most important parts, starting with the head. It might have been an older model, but it was an older model from an expensive mech and extensive customization. The sensor suites in it needed more power. This meant heavier power lines and proper seating on the skeleton and framework. The thicker neck would have been a problem had he not needed to remake the neck and chest anyway, so that was easy to compensate for. The better sensors would be worth the hassle.
Next was the hands. He had one swordman hand and had been able to trade some metal and that fancy ejection seat for another one in less than stellar condition. This was a benefit in a way because if he'd found two good ones he would have been obligated to use them to make a swordmen for his family instead of something custom built for Lilly. This way could keep them for his own project. His family was good like that.
Tactically, based on his probably shaky understanding, swordman mechs were meant for close range duels. They wanted to cut down heavies quickly. They were in essence duelists. That was not good for Lilly's circumstances. She specifically said she fought groups, so Bolt wanted something medium designed for rapid engagement and disengagement. He would have needed to direct most of the power to the arms with a swordmen too, and the head was already hogging a good portion of the theoretical output. The energy budget was too low to do the head, arms and then legs for speed.
However, strong hands could be weapons too. Brawler mechs used those extensively and Bolt knew he could make the adjustments to mimic something with that. Using the sword metal he'd gathered he could tip the fingers with claws and seat them into the strong musculature necessary for wielding those heavy swords. Change the programming some, customize the arms for that specific weapon configuration and he could visualize something deadly. Reach in, claw open the armor, and cause damage in one quick grab. It'd be a beast to use correctly, but Lilly should be able to handle that. He'd have to spend some extra time on the arms, but it'd be worth it, and the energy profile would fit his budget.
With that decided the rest of the design coalesced around rapidly building vision. He was making a monster that leaped at the enemy quickly before fleeing. Make the legs good for leaping and quick bursts of energy, then adjust the armor to match that attack profile. Thankfully a significant part of this was all stuff he could just get together from spare parts and their very basic printers.
That was a good thing because the salvaged head was still missing the chin and neck. The neck in particular was a delicate weak point on a mech. If something did enough damage to crack the head armor the neck was typically going to need to be replaced as well. No one wanted a mech that couldn't turn its head so almost all of it was made of materials that were considered 'standard.' Only the chin would require finesse.
On a whim Bolt adjusted the design to make the jaw have teeth and even put in a motor to let it bite. It cost practically nothing and it looked entertaining. Combined with a few adornments and form alterations and he had a vaguely feminine mech that looked just shy of murdering and eating something. It fit in far too many ways and upon inspection Bolt realized he might have gotten a bit carried away with the entire design. It didn't look like a junk mech. It looked like a shiny one. Could he even make this?
The newbie designer hesitated far more than he should have before he convinced himself that yes he could make it. Snapping a picture of the design and doing a quick write up he sent it to Lilly before he let his doubt overcome him. Bolt then went to finalize the trades and tried his best to focus on the process, not his fears. Lilly's reply both helped and hindered that.
'I love it, gimmie. Kisses.'
Stifling a flush and a nervous laugh, Bolt decided that he would at least try.
A few things became rapidly apparent. One was that his blueprinting talents were horrible. He'd done the internals wrong on the diagrams and had to struggle to correct them mid construction, the legs were misaligned and inconsistent with reality, and the arms had been designed completely incorrectly. Practical experience let him correct things once he realized the issues, but it was a painful reminder that he was essentially self taught and would miss very obvious stuff. (Had Bolt known about a simulator he would have tried that and it would have caught it, but that required both education and money.)
Unable to see a way to fix that deficiency aside from practicing and taking copious notes of what he'd done wrong however, Bolt just continued to work. To his mild shock all their power tools were working at the moment so he didn't have to do anything by hand, which was very rare. That meant he could assemble the mech solo. Without those tools he would have had to manually winch the torso into the air after he attached the legs, which was a three person job at a minimum.
"I'm going to name you Ghoul." Bolt told the mech as he finished securing the frame upright and began to work on the teeth and chin.
He really didn't expect it to be able to actually bite something. It was very entertaining to make them a functional weapon anyway. It cost nothing but some time. Getting them nice and pointy made the entire design click. He almost felt like the mech agreed with him as he continued to work on the musculature and then began the armor plating. The decorations and finishings would come once he got everything set to his satisfaction, but he could already see the shape of the mech.
Ghoul was tall for her weight class, with a lanky profile due to extended arms, and claws that looked more than a little threatening. The natural resting profile gave the impression that the mech was hunched as well, as if she was ready to pounce on an enemy even at rest. Bolt couldn't help but love her even if he knew she was far from perfect. There was just an air of menace that fit the entire concept. It flowed together in a way that was impossible to describe.
"I wish I could do you justice." The boy muttered to her as he started on the heart of the mech. His lack of resources and knowledge had never felt so potent as it did now. Envy burned in his heart, but he soldiered through it and pushed that into the final parts.
Out of all the mech parts the reactor and the engine were the easiest things to do. They were, like the armor and muscles, something Bolt could print out on their substandard printers. They were also considered 'mature' technology, whatever that meant. (Bolt's education was on how things worked, not the history or terms.) The standard reactor was actually horrible for local circumstances. The dust frequently got into the air intakes and the reactor needed cleaner fuel than what they could source locally.
There were more than a few ways to tweak that sort of thing, which was where Bolt spent the rest of the time he had. His family practically built these for a living. Reactors were typically the first thing that mech pilots killed. Making and adjusting them was an old hand, and he knew exactly what to do to fit the local environment. The air intakes had to be shifted a bit to keep dust out and a filter needed to be placed just right. After that there needed to be some robustness added to handle the shit they called fuel here. He even had time to tweak it so that the thing with a few power cells that could surge with power for a few seconds on command, giving giving Ghoul even more burst at the cost of needing to recover for a few seconds.
The end result was not a pretty mech. She felt right in a way he couldn't explain. Bolt was confident that she would work for Lilly. He was also pretty confident that she'd run half dead because he'd made damned sure the design was solid and robust. If there was one thing he knew, it was how mechs broke. (He was so going to make that joke to Lilly.)
M006
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AN: Been inspired, so you get a chapter today.
--
Lilly had not been able to get Bolt's creation immediately. It had taken some whining, some pleading, and far too much cutesy talk. The girl, and it was a girl mech obviously, didn't look pretty or worth the asking price. Her specs on paper were narrow and limited. She handled like an animal that was trying to buck her off, and the weapons were anemic. Claws were not a common weapon for a reason. Yet Lilly had wanted her and upon piloting her had absolutely adored her. Ghoul was a mech that actually worked with her instead of against her!
"Ahaha!" She laughed over open comms as the latest victim screamed as she leaped out of cover and right next to them in a surge of motion.
The mech she was opposing brought the sword in a wide warding arch in a predictable attempt to keep her away. Lilly dropped down and under the swing in reply, using the superior balance and footing of the mech to do the near impossible maneuver. The hands dug into the ground and she angled the head up to leer at the enemy. The atypical movement and behavior spooked her opponent and he lurched into a hasty follow up downwards cleave.
Lilly let the weapon approach and then lashed out an arm to interrupt the flawed swing. The deceptive reach on the limb let her connect with the limb holding the sword. The claws scraped against the armor and caught at a seem, then held. The combined momentum and the tight grip dug deep and the armor on the mech was peeled off with a snap. Lilly completed the motion and for a brief moment the mechs were almost face to face, likely showing off the teeth really well. Utterly horrified and thoroughly broken, her victim attempted to backpedal.
Surging the power again and throwing her mech forward, Lilly pounced on the weakness and continued to tear. So utterly outmatched, the pilot and he didn't even see her claws grab at the limb she'd stripped and rip. The mech couldn't withstand that sort of pressure and the arm came off with a wrench of metal.
"Mmmm. Tasty." Lilly purred out as he brought the arm up to her mech's mouth and had it bite down. The armor and musculature screamed as the mouth shredded it and she could almost imagine it was her biting into something meaty instead.
Her opponent went silent at the provocation and then the mech fell to the ground with a thud. The girl blinked several times in surprise at the action, momentarily struck dumb. Did he, did he just pass out?
Lilly couldn't help the maniac giggle as she bent over and began to dig into the torso immediately. Biter Rats weren't particularly good pilots, nor were they very brave. What they did have was a very good fight or flight instinct. That she'd managed to make one pass out was absolutely hilarious in that context. Just needed the reactor out to confirm the kill and then she had another kill to her tally.
Ultimate evaluation? Ghoul had her flaws. They could be worked around to make her useful. Some of them were actually rather minor even. She really needed better padding in the cockpit for instance, the cockpit was not built for the acceleration it could output, especially when she had to juke something. The rest of the flaws just came from the fact that she was a skirmisher in the truest sense, an opportunist that used superior sensors to find fights she could take. It was actually fairly fun to use her in that vein so Lilly would have been happy with just that even had it not had another intangible benefit.
Ghoul felt warm to Lilly's senses. Even the icky sticky residue from the techs poppa had enslaved didn't cling to it. Every other mech started to feel scratchy and cold after a few repairs, but not this one. No mech was perfect, but Lilly found that she was starting to love Bolt just a bit for making something that worked so well.
"That's the last of them." Wrecker called out over the radio and interrupted Lilly's giggles. "Those boys won't be trying for our territory again any time soon. Very good showing princess."
Lilly sighed. Poppa didn't sound happy at the win, which meant trouble. "Is something wrong Poppa?" She asked.
"No dear, you did great. Just thinking about things." Wrecker said and offered up an explanation. "The Rat I put in that artillery mech you used needs more practice that's all."
Liar. Lilly didn't say. Instead she turned up the cute. "Well if you want me ta get in it again I can! I can go boom boom and blow them allll up!"
"No, no. You're fine in that. I can tell how much you love it." Wrecker said. "But I'm going to go talk with the others, idle your mech and watch your shows if you want. We might be a bit."
The girl narrowed her eyes and clicked off the communicator. After being sure there was no surveillance in the cockpit. (She'd learned to check from a young age.) She pulled out the comm Bolt had given her. Then she flicked one of the monitors in Ghoul and put on a random show poppa had approved at high volume. Cover given she put an earbud in her ear and began to scroll through the comm.
Not being able to read didn't means she was stupid. Lilly was an intuitive pilot and had spent all her life being taught how to read people inside and out of mechs. Poppa had always said everyone was a liar and she should learn how to identify that. He obviously hadn't meant himself, but she'd figured out early on that that statement applied to him as well. So with her new tool she'd finally been able to confirm a few things.
Ya know, that war of yours is looking pretty big and you're all stuck in the boonies with us. I got that lovely flower still ready for pickup. It'd be great for showing off! The only problem is that they take a lot of proper cultivation and time and I'd need some compensation for it. It'll come with a free wrap up at least!
That was the latest email he'd sent out. Lilly's eyes narrowed as it was read off by her comm again. She got more and more infuriated each time she heard it. The code wasn't that hard to decipher once you knew how poppa thought. Calling her a flower and selling her like some sort of beast. She wanted to say she was surprised. She wasn't.
But she couldn't do anything about it quite yet. She had ideas. She just needed to be careful about them. Having something she could rely on was important. Her problem had always been that everyone was a liar. Everyone except Bolt. He hadn't lied to her, and still wasn't lying to her even now. Lilly wasn't even sure he could lie, at least convincingly. He was so focused on his own thing that it had never occurred to him that he could lie.
Speaking of that. Since she had time. She set the speak to text active and had to send a message to him.
"Just finished a test run of Ghoul. She handles like a dream and she's so warm!" She said.
A few seconds later Bolt responded. 'That is fantastic. So, what didn't work?'
Lilly laughed. "Getting right to that? Ya can accept some praise you know? Or maybe flirt. A pretty girl like me could always use some compliments."
There was a small pause before a reply, and Lilly was sure she'd flustered him with her comments. Cute! 'I'll accept it when I think I earned it. Ghoul as I made her is a shadow of what she could be.'
Should she give her honest opinion? Well, she couldn't lie all the time and Bolt had been honest with her. "Honest evaluation then. She's a terror mech. Against unprepared and inexperienced pilots she can shred them. The speed and legs are fantastic for her weight class and let her exploit vulnerabilities. The offense is so bad it almost makes her fail in her role though. The claws alone are barely adequate. She's also not built to fight equals. If I ever meet a good pilot or a heavy that knows what they're doing I wouldn't want this mech as is. Her acceleration kicks like a maddened mule, and if I were a delicate flower I'd be bruised and she has no thrusters, though that last bit is sorta common for mechs at our level."
The reply wasn't immediate. For a long moment Lilly wondered if she should have told a fib. She liked Bolt. The mech he'd designed was enough to make her even think she could love him. But if he couldn't take her being honest, what should she do?
'I'd need the following to fix that:' What followed was a long list of possible solutions, complete with what that solution would be.
Lilly laughed at herself and the ridiculous boy. "Hey, hold up. Ya know I can't read. That sorta thing will take forever ta go through. I trust ya you know? If I find something fun we'll work from there k?"
'Of course. Stay safe Lilly.'
Oh dear, she'd embarrassed him again. Lilly giggled to herself. Then Poppa's voice came over the radio again.
"Sorry to interrupt your shows darlin', but we got another Royal Welcome we need planned. Gonna need to do some work on your mech to make it in tip top shape so get it in here."
Lilly narrowed her eyes at the radio. That both ruined her good mood and made her suspicious. Ghoul had taken no damage at all, and Poppa hated wasting money. What was he planning and why did it involve her new favorite?
--
Lilly had not been able to get Bolt's creation immediately. It had taken some whining, some pleading, and far too much cutesy talk. The girl, and it was a girl mech obviously, didn't look pretty or worth the asking price. Her specs on paper were narrow and limited. She handled like an animal that was trying to buck her off, and the weapons were anemic. Claws were not a common weapon for a reason. Yet Lilly had wanted her and upon piloting her had absolutely adored her. Ghoul was a mech that actually worked with her instead of against her!
"Ahaha!" She laughed over open comms as the latest victim screamed as she leaped out of cover and right next to them in a surge of motion.
The mech she was opposing brought the sword in a wide warding arch in a predictable attempt to keep her away. Lilly dropped down and under the swing in reply, using the superior balance and footing of the mech to do the near impossible maneuver. The hands dug into the ground and she angled the head up to leer at the enemy. The atypical movement and behavior spooked her opponent and he lurched into a hasty follow up downwards cleave.
Lilly let the weapon approach and then lashed out an arm to interrupt the flawed swing. The deceptive reach on the limb let her connect with the limb holding the sword. The claws scraped against the armor and caught at a seem, then held. The combined momentum and the tight grip dug deep and the armor on the mech was peeled off with a snap. Lilly completed the motion and for a brief moment the mechs were almost face to face, likely showing off the teeth really well. Utterly horrified and thoroughly broken, her victim attempted to backpedal.
Surging the power again and throwing her mech forward, Lilly pounced on the weakness and continued to tear. So utterly outmatched, the pilot and he didn't even see her claws grab at the limb she'd stripped and rip. The mech couldn't withstand that sort of pressure and the arm came off with a wrench of metal.
"Mmmm. Tasty." Lilly purred out as he brought the arm up to her mech's mouth and had it bite down. The armor and musculature screamed as the mouth shredded it and she could almost imagine it was her biting into something meaty instead.
Her opponent went silent at the provocation and then the mech fell to the ground with a thud. The girl blinked several times in surprise at the action, momentarily struck dumb. Did he, did he just pass out?
Lilly couldn't help the maniac giggle as she bent over and began to dig into the torso immediately. Biter Rats weren't particularly good pilots, nor were they very brave. What they did have was a very good fight or flight instinct. That she'd managed to make one pass out was absolutely hilarious in that context. Just needed the reactor out to confirm the kill and then she had another kill to her tally.
Ultimate evaluation? Ghoul had her flaws. They could be worked around to make her useful. Some of them were actually rather minor even. She really needed better padding in the cockpit for instance, the cockpit was not built for the acceleration it could output, especially when she had to juke something. The rest of the flaws just came from the fact that she was a skirmisher in the truest sense, an opportunist that used superior sensors to find fights she could take. It was actually fairly fun to use her in that vein so Lilly would have been happy with just that even had it not had another intangible benefit.
Ghoul felt warm to Lilly's senses. Even the icky sticky residue from the techs poppa had enslaved didn't cling to it. Every other mech started to feel scratchy and cold after a few repairs, but not this one. No mech was perfect, but Lilly found that she was starting to love Bolt just a bit for making something that worked so well.
"That's the last of them." Wrecker called out over the radio and interrupted Lilly's giggles. "Those boys won't be trying for our territory again any time soon. Very good showing princess."
Lilly sighed. Poppa didn't sound happy at the win, which meant trouble. "Is something wrong Poppa?" She asked.
"No dear, you did great. Just thinking about things." Wrecker said and offered up an explanation. "The Rat I put in that artillery mech you used needs more practice that's all."
Liar. Lilly didn't say. Instead she turned up the cute. "Well if you want me ta get in it again I can! I can go boom boom and blow them allll up!"
"No, no. You're fine in that. I can tell how much you love it." Wrecker said. "But I'm going to go talk with the others, idle your mech and watch your shows if you want. We might be a bit."
The girl narrowed her eyes and clicked off the communicator. After being sure there was no surveillance in the cockpit. (She'd learned to check from a young age.) She pulled out the comm Bolt had given her. Then she flicked one of the monitors in Ghoul and put on a random show poppa had approved at high volume. Cover given she put an earbud in her ear and began to scroll through the comm.
Not being able to read didn't means she was stupid. Lilly was an intuitive pilot and had spent all her life being taught how to read people inside and out of mechs. Poppa had always said everyone was a liar and she should learn how to identify that. He obviously hadn't meant himself, but she'd figured out early on that that statement applied to him as well. So with her new tool she'd finally been able to confirm a few things.
Ya know, that war of yours is looking pretty big and you're all stuck in the boonies with us. I got that lovely flower still ready for pickup. It'd be great for showing off! The only problem is that they take a lot of proper cultivation and time and I'd need some compensation for it. It'll come with a free wrap up at least!
That was the latest email he'd sent out. Lilly's eyes narrowed as it was read off by her comm again. She got more and more infuriated each time she heard it. The code wasn't that hard to decipher once you knew how poppa thought. Calling her a flower and selling her like some sort of beast. She wanted to say she was surprised. She wasn't.
But she couldn't do anything about it quite yet. She had ideas. She just needed to be careful about them. Having something she could rely on was important. Her problem had always been that everyone was a liar. Everyone except Bolt. He hadn't lied to her, and still wasn't lying to her even now. Lilly wasn't even sure he could lie, at least convincingly. He was so focused on his own thing that it had never occurred to him that he could lie.
Speaking of that. Since she had time. She set the speak to text active and had to send a message to him.
"Just finished a test run of Ghoul. She handles like a dream and she's so warm!" She said.
A few seconds later Bolt responded. 'That is fantastic. So, what didn't work?'
Lilly laughed. "Getting right to that? Ya can accept some praise you know? Or maybe flirt. A pretty girl like me could always use some compliments."
There was a small pause before a reply, and Lilly was sure she'd flustered him with her comments. Cute! 'I'll accept it when I think I earned it. Ghoul as I made her is a shadow of what she could be.'
Should she give her honest opinion? Well, she couldn't lie all the time and Bolt had been honest with her. "Honest evaluation then. She's a terror mech. Against unprepared and inexperienced pilots she can shred them. The speed and legs are fantastic for her weight class and let her exploit vulnerabilities. The offense is so bad it almost makes her fail in her role though. The claws alone are barely adequate. She's also not built to fight equals. If I ever meet a good pilot or a heavy that knows what they're doing I wouldn't want this mech as is. Her acceleration kicks like a maddened mule, and if I were a delicate flower I'd be bruised and she has no thrusters, though that last bit is sorta common for mechs at our level."
The reply wasn't immediate. For a long moment Lilly wondered if she should have told a fib. She liked Bolt. The mech he'd designed was enough to make her even think she could love him. But if he couldn't take her being honest, what should she do?
'I'd need the following to fix that:' What followed was a long list of possible solutions, complete with what that solution would be.
Lilly laughed at herself and the ridiculous boy. "Hey, hold up. Ya know I can't read. That sorta thing will take forever ta go through. I trust ya you know? If I find something fun we'll work from there k?"
'Of course. Stay safe Lilly.'
Oh dear, she'd embarrassed him again. Lilly giggled to herself. Then Poppa's voice came over the radio again.
"Sorry to interrupt your shows darlin', but we got another Royal Welcome we need planned. Gonna need to do some work on your mech to make it in tip top shape so get it in here."
Lilly narrowed her eyes at the radio. That both ruined her good mood and made her suspicious. Ghoul had taken no damage at all, and Poppa hated wasting money. What was he planning and why did it involve her new favorite?
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Lately it was like he'd found a good luck charm. Fortune had been favoring him for the past few days, and his cousin's latest find was just a cherry on top. They'd found an entire series of mech design books and given it to him on cheap. Bolt had only recently really decided to commit to the profession, and this was definitely going to give him a leg up!
It sounded more exciting and impressive than than it was admittedly. Whichever mech designer had brought them along hadn't bothered to categorize or organize them. They'd just thrown almost a hundred books in a small storage container. The books themselves were also very boring. They were thick, a few years old, and not particularly easy to get through. They were only valuable to Bolt and possibly for a library later. Due to the outdated nature of them they'd probably be disdained by any mech designer from an actual nation.
But to Bolt they were an invaluable glimpse into what he was missing. Actual equations, history, ideas. Bolt actually had numbers and definitions for things he'd had to simply intuit. He had theoretical mech designs even! Simple stuff, but it told him how to actually design and notate things. If he managed to get through all of them he imagined he could actually be educated enough to get a degree in Mech Design. All he needed was time!
His family was generous enough to give him some of that at least. After making Ghoul his parents had decided to shift him into making fancier mechs and organizing the assembly of their other assets. The former hadn't come up yet, and the later was just saying which parts went where. That was pretty easy and something that everyone was glad to see him work on for some reason. The work was so easy it left him with plenty of free time to study, with some caveats. He had to babysit.
"What ya doing?" The young voice made him look up from his book and Bolt gave the small girl a grin.
"Hey sis, I'm reading. What are you doing?" He asked back.
"Bored." The girl held out a crude looking comm. "Made it, test it?"
The young man gave a small laugh as he took it from her. It was an almost right of tradition to make a comm unit from spare parts while young. Wrench Rats lived and breathed tech after all. Getting introduced early was just good sense, and simple comm units were ridiculously easy to assemble if you had the parts made.
"This is very good." Bolt praised as he examined the assembly with a critical eye. He didn't recall doing half as good himself. "You stuck the board to the frame with the proper glue and even got the battery connected the right way." That was the hardest part. "Did you turn it on?"
"Non." The little girl shook her head.
Bolt found the power button and eyed the connectors. "Good, you followed precautions. Do you recall why you ask for help before turning something on you made?"
"It can go boom." His sister said.
"Yes, it can go boom." The older boy confirmed.
Comms units specifically could set themselves on fire if incorrectly assembled, not that they gave the children batteries with enough charge to do that. It was good to get safety in their heads early anyway. He had fond memories of deliberately disregarding safeguards in controlled situations for demonstration purposes.
Turning this thing on required just attaching it to a charger and hitting the power button. It came on with a small bing and Bolt grinned at the successful launch. He then handed the comm back and handed the girl a few program chips.
"So, you got it working, here's some games, the operating system, and a few tricky things." Bolt said as the girl grabbed them. "Your next task is to see if you can get it working."
"Yes. Gimmie." The little tech in training took the items from her brother and got to work.
It was probably fortunate that Gadget was easy to work with. The other rug rats were more trouble. Bolt couldn't say he minded the work so long as he could keep reading the books he had while they were playing. He gave them all an eye before moving back to his books.
Mech design was an ever evolving field that required extensive work and study. Bolt was starting from a very strange position from what he could tell. Rat education was whatever they could scrounge. Wrench Rats were ahead of everyone on the planet just by necessity. You couldn't figure out voltage by intuition. You needed to know how to read documentation. He'd actually memorized the manual for one of the generators. None of that was taught in the books he had. They were all how to use designers, ratios to various parts, how to modify things, and so on. Some of it was things he'd developed intuition for. Others were entirely new concepts.
If Bolt had to guess, he'd rate himself as very good at the basics. He knew balance and skeleton structure. How power was distributed, how a mech actually functioned. He could put a very basic mech together by pure feel, and probably blindfolded. He'd spent all his life working on junk mechs with very mismatched parts. Getting the terminology did help a lot at least.
It was the peripheral things he was less familiar with. Bolt wouldn't be confident modifying weapons or sensors. He could do generators, but that was because they all followed similar concepts. He could probably create a mech rated for space, but he'd want to test the sealing before throwing it out there. Drones, ECM, stealth? Good luck there. He'd never even touched that stuff, and he would need to dedicate serious time to work on them.
Bolt would also rate his repair work and jury rigging as spectacular. He could slap together a mech from parts in minutes if he needed. That was what he and his family had done all their life after all. How that measured up to the higher levels of designers he didn't know, but he was confident in that area at least.
Equations and simulations was where he would fail horribly as a designer and what he judged should be his next thing to address. This was a big flaw based on his understanding. As mechs grew more complex, the calculations needed grew as well. You could not build complicated mechs without extensive planning. The young mech designer had absolutely no grounding in any of it and if he wanted to progress past jury rigged monstrosities build by feel and hand he absolutely needed to address that problem.
So he picked up some paper, found a pencil, and slowly, laboriously began to go over the equations, one by one.
It was inefficient. It was slow. It was not physically possible for some of the more complicated ones as they would take up an entire page. Bolt still did it day after day. Why, he couldn't quite say. He did do a few through the free and crappy simulations he had access to. He just felt as if that was the best way to learn. He was not a fancy high tech college student. He was a Wrench Rat with nothing but junk and time. He'd learned through his hands, so he was going to teach himself through his hands too.
Days passed and the young man painfully made his way through the books. All told, about half of them weren't particularly useful to him. They covered things he already knew but couldn't verbalize properly. He took a few notes of the proper terms and moved on. A quarter of them were novel concepts, and going through them was actually entertaining. The rest were painful slogs that he knew he was going to have trouble with and focus on later.
Lasers for instance. They were just high enough tech wise that they weren't something he'd worked with a lot. Most of the local weapons were 'gunpowder' based, though calling what mechs used gunpowder wasn't really accurate. The complicated mix of chemicals that propelled most firearms resembled old gunpowder like copper resembled high quality steel. Bolt was actually up to speed on projectile weapons to his surprise, and melee weapons. That just meant his knowledge matched the out of date books, not that he was good there.
Jumpjets, boosters, thrusters, or whatever people called them was a larger flaw. This one was completely on Bolt. Even their junk mechs had them typically. Bolt just never really considered them until Lilly had brought it up, and he'd realized that was a big gaping hole in both his knowledge and application. Mildly embarrassing to note and more than a little galling. More advanced mechs had them by default and he'd actually never touched it all!
Time passed as Bolt tried his best to remedy his deficiencies. One month after he sold Ghoul and far from fixing them he got a message from Lilly. This wasn't uncommon. The girl would message him at odd times with sometimes random things. He couldn't say he hated that, but he still wasn't sure what to think of their entire relationship. He honestly hadn't expected to keep contact like this after Ghoul was sold. It was something he had no experience with and was literally just playing by ear.
This message was different and far less playful. 'What does anomalous modifications mean and why is it showing in text?'
Bolt frowned at the message before he wrote out the reply. 'I did some work on the internal sensors and programming because it's all practically hand-made and the standard setup isn't meant to deal with that. That message means that modification was done without properly registering it with the internals. Sloppy work by your maintenance crew. I did put it in the documentation.'
'Maybe. I'm showing you a picture, tell me what to press to get more info.' A picture came through and the mech designer's frown deepened. That wasn't a critical alert, but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.
'You won't get much. Press third button down on the right, then second. That'll throw up a diagnostic image. Send me another picture because it's not intuitive.'
The next image was a series of lines and numbers over a wireframe, complete with standard notation that most techs were familiar with. Bolt eyed it and then rolled his eyes as he confirmed what it said. 'Morons. The errors are around right knee. Based on the area it's likely they didn't tie down the muscles to those joints properly. If it's that, they deserve to be thrown into the rain. That sorta thing is basic mech repair and something that all of them should know.'
'Good to know! I'll likely be contacting you later!'
Bolt frowned at his comm. He then tapped on a nearby table. Finally he made a decision. One of his cousins was called in to watch the rug rats and he took one of the all terrain vehicles they had handy. It was typically pretty easy to find where battles were. He'd likely miss most of it, but he did want to see something.
It sounded more exciting and impressive than than it was admittedly. Whichever mech designer had brought them along hadn't bothered to categorize or organize them. They'd just thrown almost a hundred books in a small storage container. The books themselves were also very boring. They were thick, a few years old, and not particularly easy to get through. They were only valuable to Bolt and possibly for a library later. Due to the outdated nature of them they'd probably be disdained by any mech designer from an actual nation.
But to Bolt they were an invaluable glimpse into what he was missing. Actual equations, history, ideas. Bolt actually had numbers and definitions for things he'd had to simply intuit. He had theoretical mech designs even! Simple stuff, but it told him how to actually design and notate things. If he managed to get through all of them he imagined he could actually be educated enough to get a degree in Mech Design. All he needed was time!
His family was generous enough to give him some of that at least. After making Ghoul his parents had decided to shift him into making fancier mechs and organizing the assembly of their other assets. The former hadn't come up yet, and the later was just saying which parts went where. That was pretty easy and something that everyone was glad to see him work on for some reason. The work was so easy it left him with plenty of free time to study, with some caveats. He had to babysit.
"What ya doing?" The young voice made him look up from his book and Bolt gave the small girl a grin.
"Hey sis, I'm reading. What are you doing?" He asked back.
"Bored." The girl held out a crude looking comm. "Made it, test it?"
The young man gave a small laugh as he took it from her. It was an almost right of tradition to make a comm unit from spare parts while young. Wrench Rats lived and breathed tech after all. Getting introduced early was just good sense, and simple comm units were ridiculously easy to assemble if you had the parts made.
"This is very good." Bolt praised as he examined the assembly with a critical eye. He didn't recall doing half as good himself. "You stuck the board to the frame with the proper glue and even got the battery connected the right way." That was the hardest part. "Did you turn it on?"
"Non." The little girl shook her head.
Bolt found the power button and eyed the connectors. "Good, you followed precautions. Do you recall why you ask for help before turning something on you made?"
"It can go boom." His sister said.
"Yes, it can go boom." The older boy confirmed.
Comms units specifically could set themselves on fire if incorrectly assembled, not that they gave the children batteries with enough charge to do that. It was good to get safety in their heads early anyway. He had fond memories of deliberately disregarding safeguards in controlled situations for demonstration purposes.
Turning this thing on required just attaching it to a charger and hitting the power button. It came on with a small bing and Bolt grinned at the successful launch. He then handed the comm back and handed the girl a few program chips.
"So, you got it working, here's some games, the operating system, and a few tricky things." Bolt said as the girl grabbed them. "Your next task is to see if you can get it working."
"Yes. Gimmie." The little tech in training took the items from her brother and got to work.
It was probably fortunate that Gadget was easy to work with. The other rug rats were more trouble. Bolt couldn't say he minded the work so long as he could keep reading the books he had while they were playing. He gave them all an eye before moving back to his books.
Mech design was an ever evolving field that required extensive work and study. Bolt was starting from a very strange position from what he could tell. Rat education was whatever they could scrounge. Wrench Rats were ahead of everyone on the planet just by necessity. You couldn't figure out voltage by intuition. You needed to know how to read documentation. He'd actually memorized the manual for one of the generators. None of that was taught in the books he had. They were all how to use designers, ratios to various parts, how to modify things, and so on. Some of it was things he'd developed intuition for. Others were entirely new concepts.
If Bolt had to guess, he'd rate himself as very good at the basics. He knew balance and skeleton structure. How power was distributed, how a mech actually functioned. He could put a very basic mech together by pure feel, and probably blindfolded. He'd spent all his life working on junk mechs with very mismatched parts. Getting the terminology did help a lot at least.
It was the peripheral things he was less familiar with. Bolt wouldn't be confident modifying weapons or sensors. He could do generators, but that was because they all followed similar concepts. He could probably create a mech rated for space, but he'd want to test the sealing before throwing it out there. Drones, ECM, stealth? Good luck there. He'd never even touched that stuff, and he would need to dedicate serious time to work on them.
Bolt would also rate his repair work and jury rigging as spectacular. He could slap together a mech from parts in minutes if he needed. That was what he and his family had done all their life after all. How that measured up to the higher levels of designers he didn't know, but he was confident in that area at least.
Equations and simulations was where he would fail horribly as a designer and what he judged should be his next thing to address. This was a big flaw based on his understanding. As mechs grew more complex, the calculations needed grew as well. You could not build complicated mechs without extensive planning. The young mech designer had absolutely no grounding in any of it and if he wanted to progress past jury rigged monstrosities build by feel and hand he absolutely needed to address that problem.
So he picked up some paper, found a pencil, and slowly, laboriously began to go over the equations, one by one.
It was inefficient. It was slow. It was not physically possible for some of the more complicated ones as they would take up an entire page. Bolt still did it day after day. Why, he couldn't quite say. He did do a few through the free and crappy simulations he had access to. He just felt as if that was the best way to learn. He was not a fancy high tech college student. He was a Wrench Rat with nothing but junk and time. He'd learned through his hands, so he was going to teach himself through his hands too.
Days passed and the young man painfully made his way through the books. All told, about half of them weren't particularly useful to him. They covered things he already knew but couldn't verbalize properly. He took a few notes of the proper terms and moved on. A quarter of them were novel concepts, and going through them was actually entertaining. The rest were painful slogs that he knew he was going to have trouble with and focus on later.
Lasers for instance. They were just high enough tech wise that they weren't something he'd worked with a lot. Most of the local weapons were 'gunpowder' based, though calling what mechs used gunpowder wasn't really accurate. The complicated mix of chemicals that propelled most firearms resembled old gunpowder like copper resembled high quality steel. Bolt was actually up to speed on projectile weapons to his surprise, and melee weapons. That just meant his knowledge matched the out of date books, not that he was good there.
Jumpjets, boosters, thrusters, or whatever people called them was a larger flaw. This one was completely on Bolt. Even their junk mechs had them typically. Bolt just never really considered them until Lilly had brought it up, and he'd realized that was a big gaping hole in both his knowledge and application. Mildly embarrassing to note and more than a little galling. More advanced mechs had them by default and he'd actually never touched it all!
Time passed as Bolt tried his best to remedy his deficiencies. One month after he sold Ghoul and far from fixing them he got a message from Lilly. This wasn't uncommon. The girl would message him at odd times with sometimes random things. He couldn't say he hated that, but he still wasn't sure what to think of their entire relationship. He honestly hadn't expected to keep contact like this after Ghoul was sold. It was something he had no experience with and was literally just playing by ear.
This message was different and far less playful. 'What does anomalous modifications mean and why is it showing in text?'
Bolt frowned at the message before he wrote out the reply. 'I did some work on the internal sensors and programming because it's all practically hand-made and the standard setup isn't meant to deal with that. That message means that modification was done without properly registering it with the internals. Sloppy work by your maintenance crew. I did put it in the documentation.'
'Maybe. I'm showing you a picture, tell me what to press to get more info.' A picture came through and the mech designer's frown deepened. That wasn't a critical alert, but that didn't mean it wasn't dangerous.
'You won't get much. Press third button down on the right, then second. That'll throw up a diagnostic image. Send me another picture because it's not intuitive.'
The next image was a series of lines and numbers over a wireframe, complete with standard notation that most techs were familiar with. Bolt eyed it and then rolled his eyes as he confirmed what it said. 'Morons. The errors are around right knee. Based on the area it's likely they didn't tie down the muscles to those joints properly. If it's that, they deserve to be thrown into the rain. That sorta thing is basic mech repair and something that all of them should know.'
'Good to know! I'll likely be contacting you later!'
Bolt frowned at his comm. He then tapped on a nearby table. Finally he made a decision. One of his cousins was called in to watch the rug rats and he took one of the all terrain vehicles they had handy. It was typically pretty easy to find where battles were. He'd likely miss most of it, but he did want to see something.
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In the knee. Lilly closed out the menu by instinct and continued to walk forward in Ghoul. No, Bolt had said around the knee. Why would the techs mess that up? On mild instinct she bounced a bit on the next step and then flexed the neck. The casual motion made the mech lurch and would have made a lesser pilot fall over or break something, but she compensated for it without trouble. Had it been a flawed fix she would have noticed a catch in the movement.
Wait, Bolt was a cutie who couldn't lie. He wouldn't think of other options. The techs were terrified of poppa and slaves as well, though he didn't call it that. (What else would you call twelve hour shifts, no pay, and hovels for homes?) The wouldn't do anything Poppa didn't like, so what would he like? Poppa liked performances and money. Poppa was also trying to sell her.
Lilly snorted to herself once she'd concluded what was likely going to happen. "Really?" She muttered to Ghoul. "He'd hurt you to what, put on a performance?"
She could almost imagine her mech growling at that. Unfortunately Lilly didn't have a good way of preventing it at the moment. They were already on their way to a Royal Welcome. A group of offworlders were here and had paid to fight. They'd paid extra for blood too, which meant everyone was doing live rounds and had a chance of death.
It was less stupid than it sounded for them. They were in top of the line previous generation mechs from a functional government. Lilly and her allies were in junk mechs. The power disparity alone was horrible, but the pilots on Lilly's side were all pretty horrible. She could tell that just based on how they moved to the rendezvous. Compared to trained mech pilots? This was dangerous for her opponents in name only. It was not an uncommon thing. More than one off-planet pilot had come here just to fight something living instead of in simulations.
Lilly let herself feel angry as she continued to march. She couldn't even have a good fight now! Think stupid, think. She had to think of something!
"Greetings Salutations fair warriors! I am Lord Selah of the Vesia Kingdom! You have agreed to be our opponents? I have heard that one of you is very talented!" The obviously rehearsed greeting over the open line reminded Lilly that she was out of time.
The young woman took a deep breath and put a grin on her face as she responded. "Yep. Name's Lilly! I'm here ta kick your ass!"
"Hah, you are welcome to try fair lady!" Selah responded with great cheer.
Despite already steeling herself, Lilly shuddered. He sounded noble. His mech even looked noble, with a long flowing cape, shield and sword, but everything about him made her feel ill. Literally she felt as if she was going to throw up.
Regardless, she had a job to do. First, order the chaff to begin. She had two rifle mechs and one swordman with her. They were functionally worthless. The swordman just knew how to swing his weapon without hurting himself and the rifleman could shoot in the vague direction of the enemy. Bottom of the barrel Biting Rats that were probably high on something to make the fact that they were walking to their doom easier.
Against the noble and his two guards it was like ordering a coughing baby to fight a grown adult. The riflemen actually had to move forward to get a better bead on the enemy for crying out loud! Lilly wanted to cry, especially because the noble obviously wanted to duel her. It was the worst possible condition for Ghoul to fight in, and was likely very intentional on Poppa's end.
Fortunately Poppa hadn't demanded she throw this fight so much as set her up for failure. He knew that ordering her to throw something was just asking for her to disobey. So Lilly threw everything she was thinking of out of her mind and then dialed up the power to max. Ghoul lurched forward into a sprint and she was slammed back into her thankfully more padded seat. (The techs were terrified of her too, but at least they knew how to add padding damnit.)
Three seconds. That's how long the power cells would last before she had to recharge them. They'd recharge quick, but that took about six seconds. Lilly cut off one second in and pivoted. Ghoul's legs screamed. She probably screamed too, but that was irrelevant.
The Nobel's guard had a moment to shift in surprise as she pivoted to him. Lancer configuration, and he'd been aiming at the swordman while building up speed, so he was slightly out of position. Credit to his training, he had two options to avoid damage. Give up hitting his charge on the original target and take a long detour as he bled off speed or shift to face her. He decided to shift and had his lance between as he skidded across the ground and bled momentum in a surprisingly skillful almost drift.
Power up again. Two point five seconds of power thanks to recharge. The angle of the lance didn't matter until the last second. Two leaping steps, zigging and zagging to prevent him from just firing his boosters and hitting her. Lilly rattled in the cockpit as Ghoul kicked off the ground and she felt them both grinning. The lance was there to intercept them as they approached and perfectly dead center on her reactor.
She dropped and twisted at the last second, almost hitting the ground. The hands dug into the dirt as they supported her briefly and almost cracked as she put some of the weight of her mech on them. This maneuver was typically impossible, but the frame could just barely handle it thanks to the sturdy construction and lack of other things in the hand. The near impossible maneuver put the weapon through her shoulder and the armor there rather than anything vital. The sharpened tip critically did not do damage to the joint or muscles as she continued forward. More importantly it got her close enough to bite at the lance.
The servos in the jaw screamed but held as the teeth skidded forward and past the handguard as she forced her mech to rise and push the Lancer off balance for a brief moment. One claws latched onto the plates nearby the pelvis and she put all her weight into the motion. Coolant sprayed across the hand as she practically eviscerated the mech.
Then she wrenched backwards, causing some of her mech's teeth to go flying along with the lance. The lancer mech tumbled to the ground as its systems bled to death and Lilly laughed wildly over the open channel. Part of her categorized the damage even as she turned to view the rest of the battle. One arm was not happy. The servo in the jaw was done, so the mouth couldn't close anymore. Shoulder was completely stripped of armor. She was out of boosted power for six seconds. Her claws were still sharp and the hands could still flex though, so she had options.
Tactically she was still in a horrible position. Selah was already close enough that she couldn't get the other guard. Engagement still did not favor her and the damage made things worse. He was not a bad pilot she could tell. A bit too boring, but not bad. That alone meant she was going to have a rough time, and with the rest of the battlefield as it was she was not going to win.
Her 'allies' were down to one already. The other guard had been a rifleman and she could guess how he compared to the junk mechs trying to fight him just based on how pristine he still looked. If the now downed swordman hadn't distracted him she would likely already be taking fire. Well, probably not, the noble seemed eager for a duel and would probably have warded his ally off.
Ghoul went still as Selah approached as Lilly tried to think of something. His approach was so slow that Lilly eventually just went through possible options on her mech, using the scanner, looking around the battlefield, even the body she'd left. The results didn't paint the best picture. The enemy mech was in good shape and well maintained. If he were confident and reckless she'd have an opening, but he was advancing slowly and methodically. The only obvious weak point was in the shoulder behind the shield. It wasn't an obvious flaw, but the arm was less mobile to let it brace better. Stupid, but usually not something that was exploitable. (People, and especially mech designers, didn't consider shields weapons and usually focused on making them far less mobile.)
Power cells were filled at least. No point in dithering anymore now. Lilly stopped evaluating and started approaching in a slow easy lope as she let the moment live. On instinct she aimed for the shielded side. One benefit to Ghoul's configuration was that she had endurance in spades if you ignored the cell part. She could theoretically fall back or simply pace around her opponent.
That'd be both boring and actively detrimental though. The simple sword and shield combo mech was likely designed custom for the noble. He could very likely feed targeting data to his allies and likely had one or two hidden weapons. Even if Lilly used him as a shield she'd still have to worry about the shots from the rifleman. Annoy the noble enough and he'd discard the duel and just using the sword and shield.
Instead Lilly did the most counterintuitive thing possible. She had Ghoul leap forward at full power directly at the shield. The completely unexpected action had the Selah respond on instinct. His shield rose up to intercept her and he braced, exactly how Lilly wanted.
Stiff and unresponsive, the Mech's shielded side was designed to block projectiles and quick strikes more than Ghoul's unusual configuration. It could not stop Lilly from grabbing it with her claws, and the sword was at an awkward angle. She couldn't rip the arm off without weakening it, but she could apply leverage. The mech's entire frame dipped and bucked as it fought against Ghoul's weight and Lilly grinned.
Then the knee gave out in an explosion, and Lilly went from using leverage to being propped up by the shield. Awkward angle or not, the sword could easily stab her then, and it hit her midsection with a crunch, cutting through the area and damaging some vital areas. Power readings blared red and Lilly felt a burning sensation in the stomach as the sympathetic pain hit.
"Ho fair lady! Your mech seems to have been sabotaged!" The noble got out with a audible shake in his voice. "My apologies for taking advantage of that, but your vigor left me no choice. I would request you yield now."
Lilly growled out before she opened the comm. "Fine, you got me." Ghoul could probably go for longer, but with one leg and no leverage she'd lost it here. She carefully disentangled herself and let the mech lower so that she could get out.
"Good! You have impressed me greatly, so much so that I'd like to offer to host you at my camp. I'm sure there are plenty of luxuries unfamiliar to you there and I'd delight in your company." The words were completely innocent on the surface.
The nausea came back and Lilly finally realized what Poppa had arranged. For a moment she contemplated something wild. Then reason reasserted itself and she powered down her mech. Playing pretend was an old hat at the moment. She was just growing tired of doing so.
"Did you have that low an opinion of my judgement poppa?" Lilly asked the empty air.
Really, had Bolt's work not been so good and her poppa's techs so bad she might have been almost convinced. It was a decent setup. Have her fight, get sabotaged and then rescued by a shining knight. If the man didn't make her skin crawl with his very presence she might have even gone along with it.
As it was now, she wanted a knife to stab something with.
Wait, Bolt was a cutie who couldn't lie. He wouldn't think of other options. The techs were terrified of poppa and slaves as well, though he didn't call it that. (What else would you call twelve hour shifts, no pay, and hovels for homes?) The wouldn't do anything Poppa didn't like, so what would he like? Poppa liked performances and money. Poppa was also trying to sell her.
Lilly snorted to herself once she'd concluded what was likely going to happen. "Really?" She muttered to Ghoul. "He'd hurt you to what, put on a performance?"
She could almost imagine her mech growling at that. Unfortunately Lilly didn't have a good way of preventing it at the moment. They were already on their way to a Royal Welcome. A group of offworlders were here and had paid to fight. They'd paid extra for blood too, which meant everyone was doing live rounds and had a chance of death.
It was less stupid than it sounded for them. They were in top of the line previous generation mechs from a functional government. Lilly and her allies were in junk mechs. The power disparity alone was horrible, but the pilots on Lilly's side were all pretty horrible. She could tell that just based on how they moved to the rendezvous. Compared to trained mech pilots? This was dangerous for her opponents in name only. It was not an uncommon thing. More than one off-planet pilot had come here just to fight something living instead of in simulations.
Lilly let herself feel angry as she continued to march. She couldn't even have a good fight now! Think stupid, think. She had to think of something!
"Greetings Salutations fair warriors! I am Lord Selah of the Vesia Kingdom! You have agreed to be our opponents? I have heard that one of you is very talented!" The obviously rehearsed greeting over the open line reminded Lilly that she was out of time.
The young woman took a deep breath and put a grin on her face as she responded. "Yep. Name's Lilly! I'm here ta kick your ass!"
"Hah, you are welcome to try fair lady!" Selah responded with great cheer.
Despite already steeling herself, Lilly shuddered. He sounded noble. His mech even looked noble, with a long flowing cape, shield and sword, but everything about him made her feel ill. Literally she felt as if she was going to throw up.
Regardless, she had a job to do. First, order the chaff to begin. She had two rifle mechs and one swordman with her. They were functionally worthless. The swordman just knew how to swing his weapon without hurting himself and the rifleman could shoot in the vague direction of the enemy. Bottom of the barrel Biting Rats that were probably high on something to make the fact that they were walking to their doom easier.
Against the noble and his two guards it was like ordering a coughing baby to fight a grown adult. The riflemen actually had to move forward to get a better bead on the enemy for crying out loud! Lilly wanted to cry, especially because the noble obviously wanted to duel her. It was the worst possible condition for Ghoul to fight in, and was likely very intentional on Poppa's end.
Fortunately Poppa hadn't demanded she throw this fight so much as set her up for failure. He knew that ordering her to throw something was just asking for her to disobey. So Lilly threw everything she was thinking of out of her mind and then dialed up the power to max. Ghoul lurched forward into a sprint and she was slammed back into her thankfully more padded seat. (The techs were terrified of her too, but at least they knew how to add padding damnit.)
Three seconds. That's how long the power cells would last before she had to recharge them. They'd recharge quick, but that took about six seconds. Lilly cut off one second in and pivoted. Ghoul's legs screamed. She probably screamed too, but that was irrelevant.
The Nobel's guard had a moment to shift in surprise as she pivoted to him. Lancer configuration, and he'd been aiming at the swordman while building up speed, so he was slightly out of position. Credit to his training, he had two options to avoid damage. Give up hitting his charge on the original target and take a long detour as he bled off speed or shift to face her. He decided to shift and had his lance between as he skidded across the ground and bled momentum in a surprisingly skillful almost drift.
Power up again. Two point five seconds of power thanks to recharge. The angle of the lance didn't matter until the last second. Two leaping steps, zigging and zagging to prevent him from just firing his boosters and hitting her. Lilly rattled in the cockpit as Ghoul kicked off the ground and she felt them both grinning. The lance was there to intercept them as they approached and perfectly dead center on her reactor.
She dropped and twisted at the last second, almost hitting the ground. The hands dug into the dirt as they supported her briefly and almost cracked as she put some of the weight of her mech on them. This maneuver was typically impossible, but the frame could just barely handle it thanks to the sturdy construction and lack of other things in the hand. The near impossible maneuver put the weapon through her shoulder and the armor there rather than anything vital. The sharpened tip critically did not do damage to the joint or muscles as she continued forward. More importantly it got her close enough to bite at the lance.
The servos in the jaw screamed but held as the teeth skidded forward and past the handguard as she forced her mech to rise and push the Lancer off balance for a brief moment. One claws latched onto the plates nearby the pelvis and she put all her weight into the motion. Coolant sprayed across the hand as she practically eviscerated the mech.
Then she wrenched backwards, causing some of her mech's teeth to go flying along with the lance. The lancer mech tumbled to the ground as its systems bled to death and Lilly laughed wildly over the open channel. Part of her categorized the damage even as she turned to view the rest of the battle. One arm was not happy. The servo in the jaw was done, so the mouth couldn't close anymore. Shoulder was completely stripped of armor. She was out of boosted power for six seconds. Her claws were still sharp and the hands could still flex though, so she had options.
Tactically she was still in a horrible position. Selah was already close enough that she couldn't get the other guard. Engagement still did not favor her and the damage made things worse. He was not a bad pilot she could tell. A bit too boring, but not bad. That alone meant she was going to have a rough time, and with the rest of the battlefield as it was she was not going to win.
Her 'allies' were down to one already. The other guard had been a rifleman and she could guess how he compared to the junk mechs trying to fight him just based on how pristine he still looked. If the now downed swordman hadn't distracted him she would likely already be taking fire. Well, probably not, the noble seemed eager for a duel and would probably have warded his ally off.
Ghoul went still as Selah approached as Lilly tried to think of something. His approach was so slow that Lilly eventually just went through possible options on her mech, using the scanner, looking around the battlefield, even the body she'd left. The results didn't paint the best picture. The enemy mech was in good shape and well maintained. If he were confident and reckless she'd have an opening, but he was advancing slowly and methodically. The only obvious weak point was in the shoulder behind the shield. It wasn't an obvious flaw, but the arm was less mobile to let it brace better. Stupid, but usually not something that was exploitable. (People, and especially mech designers, didn't consider shields weapons and usually focused on making them far less mobile.)
Power cells were filled at least. No point in dithering anymore now. Lilly stopped evaluating and started approaching in a slow easy lope as she let the moment live. On instinct she aimed for the shielded side. One benefit to Ghoul's configuration was that she had endurance in spades if you ignored the cell part. She could theoretically fall back or simply pace around her opponent.
That'd be both boring and actively detrimental though. The simple sword and shield combo mech was likely designed custom for the noble. He could very likely feed targeting data to his allies and likely had one or two hidden weapons. Even if Lilly used him as a shield she'd still have to worry about the shots from the rifleman. Annoy the noble enough and he'd discard the duel and just using the sword and shield.
Instead Lilly did the most counterintuitive thing possible. She had Ghoul leap forward at full power directly at the shield. The completely unexpected action had the Selah respond on instinct. His shield rose up to intercept her and he braced, exactly how Lilly wanted.
Stiff and unresponsive, the Mech's shielded side was designed to block projectiles and quick strikes more than Ghoul's unusual configuration. It could not stop Lilly from grabbing it with her claws, and the sword was at an awkward angle. She couldn't rip the arm off without weakening it, but she could apply leverage. The mech's entire frame dipped and bucked as it fought against Ghoul's weight and Lilly grinned.
Then the knee gave out in an explosion, and Lilly went from using leverage to being propped up by the shield. Awkward angle or not, the sword could easily stab her then, and it hit her midsection with a crunch, cutting through the area and damaging some vital areas. Power readings blared red and Lilly felt a burning sensation in the stomach as the sympathetic pain hit.
"Ho fair lady! Your mech seems to have been sabotaged!" The noble got out with a audible shake in his voice. "My apologies for taking advantage of that, but your vigor left me no choice. I would request you yield now."
Lilly growled out before she opened the comm. "Fine, you got me." Ghoul could probably go for longer, but with one leg and no leverage she'd lost it here. She carefully disentangled herself and let the mech lower so that she could get out.
"Good! You have impressed me greatly, so much so that I'd like to offer to host you at my camp. I'm sure there are plenty of luxuries unfamiliar to you there and I'd delight in your company." The words were completely innocent on the surface.
The nausea came back and Lilly finally realized what Poppa had arranged. For a moment she contemplated something wild. Then reason reasserted itself and she powered down her mech. Playing pretend was an old hat at the moment. She was just growing tired of doing so.
"Did you have that low an opinion of my judgement poppa?" Lilly asked the empty air.
Really, had Bolt's work not been so good and her poppa's techs so bad she might have been almost convinced. It was a decent setup. Have her fight, get sabotaged and then rescued by a shining knight. If the man didn't make her skin crawl with his very presence she might have even gone along with it.
As it was now, she wanted a knife to stab something with.
M009
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Bolt lowered his binoculars and thought over what he'd seen. One part of him loved the fact that he'd gotten to see his mech in action. The carnage and destruction had given him so many ideas. The rest of him was utterly enraged. Some dipstick had sabotaged his mech! They hadn't even done a good job of it! Just a damned explosion in the knee? Not only was it obvious, it was absolutely trivial to repair.
He wanted to message Lilly, but the girl seemed very occupied as she clambered out of her downed mech. That sort of thing had to be done carefully considering the awkward angle it was at from the damage. Actually trying to speak with her at that point would be both suspicious and endanger her. Instead he pulled the camouflage tarp closer over himself and adjusted his mask to be sure the seal was fine. Then he settled down to wait. Right now he was letting the salvage instincts come into play. He wanted to see what they did with everything before he made a decision.
There was an order to things after a battle. First you recovered the pilots. Lilly looked like she was being taken prisoner by the Royal. This wasn't common, nor was it good for the pilots typically. Lilly was a pretty and young girl as well...
Only sense and caution kept Bolt from making a rash decision. He did not have a mech. Lilly was also important. She was not going to be turned into some toy like the more belligerent Royals did. (The ones that sometimes ended up shanked in the middle of the night.)
After the pilots had been recovered, the victors typically tried to pickup what they could. Bolt noted that the Rats that had been piloting the other mechs were completely ignored. The Royals recovered their mech with relative ease and speed, denoting long practice at this sort of thing. That was his opening. He just had to follow them and he'd find out where they were going. They'd have less sensors and alertness than the still active mech and he could find out where they took Lilly.
It took time. The sun was setting by the time they finished and he managed to follow them to their base. It was as expected, a prefab camp right next to the buildings that consisted of the only city on the planet. Sloppily done, with the bare minimum of guards, and set next to one of the larger and more expensive buildings. The noble had likely commandeered the thing for himself, which was actually what they were there for.
The young man pulled back into a small hole just in sight of the area and pulled out his comm. He sent a text to Lilly. 'Saw the fight and end. You need help getting out?'
'I'm in a noble's camp. There's a hundred people here. How could you help?!' The text didn't convey much emotion but it did convey enough.
Bolt's face stretched into a smile as he surveyed the area. 'Pretty easy actually. You in the big building?'
'Top floor, corner room. One entrance, guards outside. Bathroom's fancy with good running water, which is what I'm using to cover me talking, but I can't do it forever.'
The plan came together easily. 'Give me until 3AM and then get to the window.' He sent.
'What sort of-shit gotta go.' The text stopped there.
The young man snorted and got back into his vehicle. His plan was very simple and something only a native could pull off. There was a tactic agreement of more than a few things on the planet. One thing was that Noble camps were great for loot. They were also a great way to get killed too. It led to a rather peculiar situation that he would need to exploit to get this rescue going.
A few hours prep after the sun set he approached that situation. On one side was the noble's camp. It was a sprawling area of pre-fabbed buildings and walls, lit up like it was daylight and patrolled by a few guards armed with rifles and other weapons. On the other side, more than a few Rats lurked in the shadows just far enough away that they weren't in the line of fire or that obvious.
These weren't the educated Wrench Rats or Biter Rats. These were the dregs of a planet that was already filled with dregs. Poor, improvised, desperate. People that could and would shoot or stab for something shiny to feed an addiction or just feed their bodies. They were not particularly good people, and even the most harmless trash scavengers carried a knife and were more than a little ready to surge into violence for some reason or another. They were the true rats of the world, and what people frequently thought of when the visited the planet.
Seeking them out was dangerous even for Bolt as a native, but his size and the obvious equipment he had was enough to make them wary. Bolt had spent his life lifting heavy parts. He was not a small lad, and combined with his furs and mask he looked outright intimidating. It was enough to let him approach without immediate violence, and his obvious native origins let one of to them hear him out.
The one to meet him was an older fellow. Wrinkled, covered in cloth, and smelling of old garbage. His gaze was not friendly, but he carried no weapons, which meant he was willing to talk rather than try to rob.
Bolt didn't lead with pleasantries. "Got some time for some crumbs?" He began simply.
He got narrow eyes and a frown in reply. "What's a Wrench like you doing here leading with that?"
Bolt shrugged and glanced at the lit up min-fort in the distance. "Something in there that I want. Ya know the deal, show me your holes inside and you get the crumbs."
The old man spat to the side before he replied. "Ain't stupid, pay now."
"Some now, some later." The young man held up a ration. "Crumbs, then this." He held up one of the blank comms he had.
That more than anything else got the old man's attention. Comms might have been easy to make for Wrench Rats, but they were still valuable, and frankly a Wrench Rat's comm was doubly so. They tended to be custom made for the local environment and were almost considered a local trade good.
"Throw in another crumb and I'll lead you." The man said after a moment.
"Done." Bolt replied and turned to his vehicle. A second later two ration packs flew through the air towards the Rat, who made them disappear into his dirty clothing in an instant.
He didn't quite trust the man, but Rats were canny and had a decent amount of ingroup loyalty. Not enough to not betray one another for the good cheese, just enough to like insiders more than outsiders. Also Bolt was giving them a really good deal. He wasn't telling them to risk themselves, just show him one way to get in. There were plenty of those.
This made the next step relatively quick and easy to get to his target. He was led into a fissure in the ground that wound halfway around the camp and through a hole that led into a small basement of one of the buildings that was inside the permitter. From there it was a simple matter of climbing a ladder out of the basement and he was past the walls and practically right next to the big building.
Inside wasn't that different from outside really. The prefabbed buildings were generic and unremarkable. The ground had been paved with the bare minimum, and there was dust everywhere. This late, there was absolutely no people out at all, and only the guards at the perimeter were awake.
"Got you in, now pay." The old man practically ordered Bolt before he scurried back the way they came, one comm richer.
Bolt surveyed the area. The guards might have been non-existent in this area, but it was lit up enough that he was sure the ones in the watchtowers could see him if they looked this way. He pulled out his binoculars and flipped though the settings carefully. He then looked up at the big building that Lilly was in.
It took a few minutes to locate the area she was in. Thin walls and a good idea of where she was made it relatively easy. Corner room, third floor. He could actually see her through the window, pacing. He supposed it wasn't surprising that she couldn't sleep. That did make things easier.
These buildings were old things, made up of a specialized brick-lookalike, they were durable and insulated. Frankly they were also the cheapest construction one could do. There was no security features at all on them, and they had a wealth of flaws. This meant that all Bolt needed to do was pull out a hook, some rope, and scale the wall practically in plain sight.
It was more than a little dangerous admittedly. All it would take was one guard looking his way, but Bolt was fairly certain that all of them were looking outside. He made sure to be quick about it though, and was breathing hard as he reached the window.
"Hey." The young man said as he met her eyes through his mask.
The girl said nothing, just met his eyes with genuine shock. Bolt didn't mind. He needed to be a bit careful and not make noise as he pulled out one of his cutting tools and began to carefully cut out the window.
Eventually the silence got a bit much for her. "I dunno what to say." She admitted quietly.
"Don't need ta say anything." The mech designer, and now infiltrator responded. "Now since you're tiny, you should be able to get out through just this." He finished the cut and carefully pushed the parts into the room before dropping down on the rope to give her room.
Lilly made a rude gesture but grabbed on and they both lowered themselves to the ground carefully. Mission almost successful. He just needed to recover the rope to leave less evidence and then he needed to do was guide them to the exit. First though.
"Spare robe and mask." Bolt handed Lilly the items in question. "Get them on. So far as everyone's concerned, your just another Wrench Rat."
The girl nodded quickly and threw the items on. Then Bolt began to guide them to the basement. It was a paltry disguise, but the rats outside the base wouldn't even care, assuming they even saw them as they left. Two Wrench Rats in their robes weren't the most standard thing, but they were frequent enough that it wasn't worth noting.
It was still a horribly tense affair, made doubly so by the fact that a mech started patrolling the area as they left. Bolt was extremely thankful that the robes were made for obscurement as then. It wouldn't fool dedicated watchers, but a casual patrol from the distance? They'd show up as brown blobs not even worth looking at.
Mission successful! Now came the aftermath.
He wanted to message Lilly, but the girl seemed very occupied as she clambered out of her downed mech. That sort of thing had to be done carefully considering the awkward angle it was at from the damage. Actually trying to speak with her at that point would be both suspicious and endanger her. Instead he pulled the camouflage tarp closer over himself and adjusted his mask to be sure the seal was fine. Then he settled down to wait. Right now he was letting the salvage instincts come into play. He wanted to see what they did with everything before he made a decision.
There was an order to things after a battle. First you recovered the pilots. Lilly looked like she was being taken prisoner by the Royal. This wasn't common, nor was it good for the pilots typically. Lilly was a pretty and young girl as well...
Only sense and caution kept Bolt from making a rash decision. He did not have a mech. Lilly was also important. She was not going to be turned into some toy like the more belligerent Royals did. (The ones that sometimes ended up shanked in the middle of the night.)
After the pilots had been recovered, the victors typically tried to pickup what they could. Bolt noted that the Rats that had been piloting the other mechs were completely ignored. The Royals recovered their mech with relative ease and speed, denoting long practice at this sort of thing. That was his opening. He just had to follow them and he'd find out where they were going. They'd have less sensors and alertness than the still active mech and he could find out where they took Lilly.
It took time. The sun was setting by the time they finished and he managed to follow them to their base. It was as expected, a prefab camp right next to the buildings that consisted of the only city on the planet. Sloppily done, with the bare minimum of guards, and set next to one of the larger and more expensive buildings. The noble had likely commandeered the thing for himself, which was actually what they were there for.
The young man pulled back into a small hole just in sight of the area and pulled out his comm. He sent a text to Lilly. 'Saw the fight and end. You need help getting out?'
'I'm in a noble's camp. There's a hundred people here. How could you help?!' The text didn't convey much emotion but it did convey enough.
Bolt's face stretched into a smile as he surveyed the area. 'Pretty easy actually. You in the big building?'
'Top floor, corner room. One entrance, guards outside. Bathroom's fancy with good running water, which is what I'm using to cover me talking, but I can't do it forever.'
The plan came together easily. 'Give me until 3AM and then get to the window.' He sent.
'What sort of-shit gotta go.' The text stopped there.
The young man snorted and got back into his vehicle. His plan was very simple and something only a native could pull off. There was a tactic agreement of more than a few things on the planet. One thing was that Noble camps were great for loot. They were also a great way to get killed too. It led to a rather peculiar situation that he would need to exploit to get this rescue going.
A few hours prep after the sun set he approached that situation. On one side was the noble's camp. It was a sprawling area of pre-fabbed buildings and walls, lit up like it was daylight and patrolled by a few guards armed with rifles and other weapons. On the other side, more than a few Rats lurked in the shadows just far enough away that they weren't in the line of fire or that obvious.
These weren't the educated Wrench Rats or Biter Rats. These were the dregs of a planet that was already filled with dregs. Poor, improvised, desperate. People that could and would shoot or stab for something shiny to feed an addiction or just feed their bodies. They were not particularly good people, and even the most harmless trash scavengers carried a knife and were more than a little ready to surge into violence for some reason or another. They were the true rats of the world, and what people frequently thought of when the visited the planet.
Seeking them out was dangerous even for Bolt as a native, but his size and the obvious equipment he had was enough to make them wary. Bolt had spent his life lifting heavy parts. He was not a small lad, and combined with his furs and mask he looked outright intimidating. It was enough to let him approach without immediate violence, and his obvious native origins let one of to them hear him out.
The one to meet him was an older fellow. Wrinkled, covered in cloth, and smelling of old garbage. His gaze was not friendly, but he carried no weapons, which meant he was willing to talk rather than try to rob.
Bolt didn't lead with pleasantries. "Got some time for some crumbs?" He began simply.
He got narrow eyes and a frown in reply. "What's a Wrench like you doing here leading with that?"
Bolt shrugged and glanced at the lit up min-fort in the distance. "Something in there that I want. Ya know the deal, show me your holes inside and you get the crumbs."
The old man spat to the side before he replied. "Ain't stupid, pay now."
"Some now, some later." The young man held up a ration. "Crumbs, then this." He held up one of the blank comms he had.
That more than anything else got the old man's attention. Comms might have been easy to make for Wrench Rats, but they were still valuable, and frankly a Wrench Rat's comm was doubly so. They tended to be custom made for the local environment and were almost considered a local trade good.
"Throw in another crumb and I'll lead you." The man said after a moment.
"Done." Bolt replied and turned to his vehicle. A second later two ration packs flew through the air towards the Rat, who made them disappear into his dirty clothing in an instant.
He didn't quite trust the man, but Rats were canny and had a decent amount of ingroup loyalty. Not enough to not betray one another for the good cheese, just enough to like insiders more than outsiders. Also Bolt was giving them a really good deal. He wasn't telling them to risk themselves, just show him one way to get in. There were plenty of those.
This made the next step relatively quick and easy to get to his target. He was led into a fissure in the ground that wound halfway around the camp and through a hole that led into a small basement of one of the buildings that was inside the permitter. From there it was a simple matter of climbing a ladder out of the basement and he was past the walls and practically right next to the big building.
Inside wasn't that different from outside really. The prefabbed buildings were generic and unremarkable. The ground had been paved with the bare minimum, and there was dust everywhere. This late, there was absolutely no people out at all, and only the guards at the perimeter were awake.
"Got you in, now pay." The old man practically ordered Bolt before he scurried back the way they came, one comm richer.
Bolt surveyed the area. The guards might have been non-existent in this area, but it was lit up enough that he was sure the ones in the watchtowers could see him if they looked this way. He pulled out his binoculars and flipped though the settings carefully. He then looked up at the big building that Lilly was in.
It took a few minutes to locate the area she was in. Thin walls and a good idea of where she was made it relatively easy. Corner room, third floor. He could actually see her through the window, pacing. He supposed it wasn't surprising that she couldn't sleep. That did make things easier.
These buildings were old things, made up of a specialized brick-lookalike, they were durable and insulated. Frankly they were also the cheapest construction one could do. There was no security features at all on them, and they had a wealth of flaws. This meant that all Bolt needed to do was pull out a hook, some rope, and scale the wall practically in plain sight.
It was more than a little dangerous admittedly. All it would take was one guard looking his way, but Bolt was fairly certain that all of them were looking outside. He made sure to be quick about it though, and was breathing hard as he reached the window.
"Hey." The young man said as he met her eyes through his mask.
The girl said nothing, just met his eyes with genuine shock. Bolt didn't mind. He needed to be a bit careful and not make noise as he pulled out one of his cutting tools and began to carefully cut out the window.
Eventually the silence got a bit much for her. "I dunno what to say." She admitted quietly.
"Don't need ta say anything." The mech designer, and now infiltrator responded. "Now since you're tiny, you should be able to get out through just this." He finished the cut and carefully pushed the parts into the room before dropping down on the rope to give her room.
Lilly made a rude gesture but grabbed on and they both lowered themselves to the ground carefully. Mission almost successful. He just needed to recover the rope to leave less evidence and then he needed to do was guide them to the exit. First though.
"Spare robe and mask." Bolt handed Lilly the items in question. "Get them on. So far as everyone's concerned, your just another Wrench Rat."
The girl nodded quickly and threw the items on. Then Bolt began to guide them to the basement. It was a paltry disguise, but the rats outside the base wouldn't even care, assuming they even saw them as they left. Two Wrench Rats in their robes weren't the most standard thing, but they were frequent enough that it wasn't worth noting.
It was still a horribly tense affair, made doubly so by the fact that a mech started patrolling the area as they left. Bolt was extremely thankful that the robes were made for obscurement as then. It wouldn't fool dedicated watchers, but a casual patrol from the distance? They'd show up as brown blobs not even worth looking at.
Mission successful! Now came the aftermath.
M010
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It took a long moment before they could breathe again. Bolt kept glancing at the crude sensors of his vehicle, expecting the mech to be behind them and gaining. On terrain like this, rocky and devoid of cover, the mech could outpace them. It didn't have to worry about hitting a divot and flipping or something else in the dark.
Lilly probably felt similarly wary based on how she kept looking behind them. Eventually though, they had to concede that they'd managed the impossible and gotten out. Slowly, but wildly the girl began to laugh.
"I can't believe you managed that!" She said between breaths.
Bolt grinned behind his mask. "Got a bit lucky." The noble had been stupid on security. He had counters for more automated stuff, but that would have taken more time to prepare and been more risky.
"No, no, I was thinking I'd have to get a knife and start stabbing. Instead you just walk right into the base and cut me out!" Lilly pulled off her mask. "Stop a moment."
Bolt raised an eyebrow and stopped before turning to her. He was not prepared for her to lunge at him and pull off his mask. He was completely unprepared for the kiss. Or how it basically made him forget about everything for an unknown amount of time.
"Not the best payment, but it will do." Lilly said before reclining on her seat with a very smug look on her face. "Will pay ya more later."
"Er... Yeah looking for-." Bolt started to reply before shaking his head to clear it and starting to drive again. "Fun later. Work now. While you can stay with me for a bit, it's not the best place fer you and your pops will be real mad if he finds your with us."
The noise of disdain Lilly made at that was derisive. "That's if he bothers. He did just sell me to that guy and with the way ya pulled me out like that he likely won't even know where I am. Gonna keep it that way. I'm outta the cages and I ain't going to go back into another one willingly."
There was likely a story there. One that Bolt wasn't inclined to explore at the moment. "Got a few places you can lay low then. If there's one thing we're good at it's finding places to hide. We'll wait it out and you can do what you want to do then." It was the default fallback and usually fixed more than a few issues for Rats.
A crackle interrupted their talk. Bolt turned to look at the radio in the vehicle with alarm. He had not turned it on, or even touched it. He wasn't even sure if the thing had power actually!
"That would not be a positive solution for you." The voice that came over the radio was almost alien. Robotic, filled with static, and utterly devoid of emotion. "Currently, the one you call Wrecker is gathering up forces to assault the place you call central storage."
"What?!" Bolt shouted out. "Why, how? For that matter who are you?! How did you activate that?!" The young man swerved his car by accident before putting in park and grabbing at the radio.
"Irrelevant. Pilot Lilly, would you dispute that your father would do that action?" The robotic voice asked.
Lilly stared at the radio. "If he knew where they were and thought he could, he'd do it in a heartbeat."
"He is currently informing others that Bolt's faction has sabotaged your mech and has reported numerous violations, including a neural helmet alteration. If he discovers your current location and status he will double down on the accusation and most will likely believe him."
The young mech designer paled. "I'm dead." He breathed out.
It didn't matter if he'd never even touched the part that connected the mech to the pilot, nothing had been recorded with the Mech Trade Association. They handed all mech trade. The only reason the junk trade his family did wasn't part of it was because they couldn't register with a place that had no offices on the planet. That meant that everything had to be word of mouth, and an accusation like that was not only ruinous, it was almost blasphemous. It'd make his family free targets, which meant their standard tactic of running wouldn't work because other Rats would gleefully hunt them down.
"Hey, I can smack a few people that say that and I'll make it better!" Lilly tried to reassure him with a flex of her arms.
"That would not help." The voice corrected mercilessly. "Not that it will matter much. Wrecker will be leading his forces to eliminate the area. He's timing it to happen when the local storm cell is in your area to be sure the people cannot escape."
"The nursery is there too. There's bunkers, but if he's brining mechs he'll likely just bury people. It'd be a massacre." Bolt let his head hit the wheel. What could he do?
Still robotic and still cold, the radio continued. "I can have the accusations cleared. I can even grant you the ability to fight back."
Lilly was the one to answer. "But you want something."
"I want something." Was the confirmation. "Not monetary, nor in favors. I want to see potential. Make yourself worth more than a second of my attention. Return to your hovel. Your printers will have access to a series of blueprints I have provided for the purposes of this test. Create a mech for Lilly. She will have to fight Wrecker's crew with that mech. Do not use the other things you call mechs in storage. If you survive, we will speak more."
"And then you'll detail what you want in exchange for this?" Bolt asked after lifting his head from the wheel.
"Then I will decide what will push you more. To clarify my intentions and leave you no doubt I will state them." The voice continued tonelessly. "You are attempting to be a mech designer. Your actions so far have shown that might be possible. So, I will give you a single chance to prove it. Participation now and in the future is voluntary on your part. If you desire to die or fade into irrelevance say so and I will no longer offer further incentive. Understand that I will not be gentle, and you will always be in danger of death."
"Ah yes, feeling very willing right now." The young man muttered to himself before speaking louder. "I'll become the best mech designer you have ever seen then." He promised as firmly as he could.
"Good." The radio cracked on the word and there was a vague sense of satisfaction.
"Hey, what about me?" Lilly asked quickly.
For a moment there was no reply before the radio started up again. "You are a mech pilot with a higher than average level of potential. Your worth is irrelevant to me, but others will consider you invaluable and I will have to account for that. Do not interfere with the development of Bolt Silica and I will turn a blind eye to your actions." There was a brief pause. "Sexual intercourse and children would not be considered interference."
Lilly frowned a moment before giving a nod and ignoring the way that Bolt bounced his head off the wheel. "Ok mysterious voice. I can accept that, so long as you don't lie to me." She said.
"You are too small to me to bother with pretenses." With that the radio stopped and would no longer respond to any inquiries.
"Think they're telling the truth?" Lilly asked after they gave up waiting for more information.
"Easy enough to verify." Bolt shifted the vehicle to drive and decided that it was time to compartmentalize a lot of things. "We'll have to check when we get there and if the printers can print out different parts then it's the truth. That'll still give us a hellish amount of issues. I got what, like maybe a week to make something that you can use to fight your pops? That's when the storm should come in."
"Poppa's group is mostly chaff. I wanna say like two to three dozen people. He'd probably be able to get about half that in a week. Ain't the biggest group. I was most of the muscle." Lily gave her evaluation of their odds. "I could probably do most of it if I still had Ghoul. Only problem is that heavy they got from you and Poppa's."
"The heavy was an artillery mech with back mounted mortars and two arm missile systems." Bolt recalled out loud. "Nasty piece of work. Very slow but good enough to be dangerous."
"Ran it once. You could put anyone in it and it'd be functionally useful, which is more than one could say about a lotta the mechs. Good low skill thing really. Probably why Poppa put Sticks into it." The girl recalled. "Poppa has the nasty one. It's a custom previous gen called the Gorilla with laser in the shoulders and two big weapons on it's fist that really do a lot of damage."
That seemed off somehow. Bolt's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think of what was tickling his brain and saying it was wrong. The configuration felt bad somehow.
"It's not the best mech, but it's better than anything we have here. Thinking Poppa got it for cheap." Lilly correctly identified what was likely causing his issues.
Bolt nodded at that and focused on the ground in front of them. "Makes sense. But we still have our work cut out for us. Do you have any preferences?"
"When I say I can pilot anything, I mean it. That said we'll need ta think about what would win here." The pilot of the mech to be observed.
"General tactics first and then specifics when I know what parts are available." The designer stated as he tried his best to speed up.
It was not a productive drive thanks to his distraction and worry. Bolt appreciated that Lilly made the effort to try anyway. What had he gotten into?
Lilly probably felt similarly wary based on how she kept looking behind them. Eventually though, they had to concede that they'd managed the impossible and gotten out. Slowly, but wildly the girl began to laugh.
"I can't believe you managed that!" She said between breaths.
Bolt grinned behind his mask. "Got a bit lucky." The noble had been stupid on security. He had counters for more automated stuff, but that would have taken more time to prepare and been more risky.
"No, no, I was thinking I'd have to get a knife and start stabbing. Instead you just walk right into the base and cut me out!" Lilly pulled off her mask. "Stop a moment."
Bolt raised an eyebrow and stopped before turning to her. He was not prepared for her to lunge at him and pull off his mask. He was completely unprepared for the kiss. Or how it basically made him forget about everything for an unknown amount of time.
"Not the best payment, but it will do." Lilly said before reclining on her seat with a very smug look on her face. "Will pay ya more later."
"Er... Yeah looking for-." Bolt started to reply before shaking his head to clear it and starting to drive again. "Fun later. Work now. While you can stay with me for a bit, it's not the best place fer you and your pops will be real mad if he finds your with us."
The noise of disdain Lilly made at that was derisive. "That's if he bothers. He did just sell me to that guy and with the way ya pulled me out like that he likely won't even know where I am. Gonna keep it that way. I'm outta the cages and I ain't going to go back into another one willingly."
There was likely a story there. One that Bolt wasn't inclined to explore at the moment. "Got a few places you can lay low then. If there's one thing we're good at it's finding places to hide. We'll wait it out and you can do what you want to do then." It was the default fallback and usually fixed more than a few issues for Rats.
A crackle interrupted their talk. Bolt turned to look at the radio in the vehicle with alarm. He had not turned it on, or even touched it. He wasn't even sure if the thing had power actually!
"That would not be a positive solution for you." The voice that came over the radio was almost alien. Robotic, filled with static, and utterly devoid of emotion. "Currently, the one you call Wrecker is gathering up forces to assault the place you call central storage."
"What?!" Bolt shouted out. "Why, how? For that matter who are you?! How did you activate that?!" The young man swerved his car by accident before putting in park and grabbing at the radio.
"Irrelevant. Pilot Lilly, would you dispute that your father would do that action?" The robotic voice asked.
Lilly stared at the radio. "If he knew where they were and thought he could, he'd do it in a heartbeat."
"He is currently informing others that Bolt's faction has sabotaged your mech and has reported numerous violations, including a neural helmet alteration. If he discovers your current location and status he will double down on the accusation and most will likely believe him."
The young mech designer paled. "I'm dead." He breathed out.
It didn't matter if he'd never even touched the part that connected the mech to the pilot, nothing had been recorded with the Mech Trade Association. They handed all mech trade. The only reason the junk trade his family did wasn't part of it was because they couldn't register with a place that had no offices on the planet. That meant that everything had to be word of mouth, and an accusation like that was not only ruinous, it was almost blasphemous. It'd make his family free targets, which meant their standard tactic of running wouldn't work because other Rats would gleefully hunt them down.
"Hey, I can smack a few people that say that and I'll make it better!" Lilly tried to reassure him with a flex of her arms.
"That would not help." The voice corrected mercilessly. "Not that it will matter much. Wrecker will be leading his forces to eliminate the area. He's timing it to happen when the local storm cell is in your area to be sure the people cannot escape."
"The nursery is there too. There's bunkers, but if he's brining mechs he'll likely just bury people. It'd be a massacre." Bolt let his head hit the wheel. What could he do?
Still robotic and still cold, the radio continued. "I can have the accusations cleared. I can even grant you the ability to fight back."
Lilly was the one to answer. "But you want something."
"I want something." Was the confirmation. "Not monetary, nor in favors. I want to see potential. Make yourself worth more than a second of my attention. Return to your hovel. Your printers will have access to a series of blueprints I have provided for the purposes of this test. Create a mech for Lilly. She will have to fight Wrecker's crew with that mech. Do not use the other things you call mechs in storage. If you survive, we will speak more."
"And then you'll detail what you want in exchange for this?" Bolt asked after lifting his head from the wheel.
"Then I will decide what will push you more. To clarify my intentions and leave you no doubt I will state them." The voice continued tonelessly. "You are attempting to be a mech designer. Your actions so far have shown that might be possible. So, I will give you a single chance to prove it. Participation now and in the future is voluntary on your part. If you desire to die or fade into irrelevance say so and I will no longer offer further incentive. Understand that I will not be gentle, and you will always be in danger of death."
"Ah yes, feeling very willing right now." The young man muttered to himself before speaking louder. "I'll become the best mech designer you have ever seen then." He promised as firmly as he could.
"Good." The radio cracked on the word and there was a vague sense of satisfaction.
"Hey, what about me?" Lilly asked quickly.
For a moment there was no reply before the radio started up again. "You are a mech pilot with a higher than average level of potential. Your worth is irrelevant to me, but others will consider you invaluable and I will have to account for that. Do not interfere with the development of Bolt Silica and I will turn a blind eye to your actions." There was a brief pause. "Sexual intercourse and children would not be considered interference."
Lilly frowned a moment before giving a nod and ignoring the way that Bolt bounced his head off the wheel. "Ok mysterious voice. I can accept that, so long as you don't lie to me." She said.
"You are too small to me to bother with pretenses." With that the radio stopped and would no longer respond to any inquiries.
"Think they're telling the truth?" Lilly asked after they gave up waiting for more information.
"Easy enough to verify." Bolt shifted the vehicle to drive and decided that it was time to compartmentalize a lot of things. "We'll have to check when we get there and if the printers can print out different parts then it's the truth. That'll still give us a hellish amount of issues. I got what, like maybe a week to make something that you can use to fight your pops? That's when the storm should come in."
"Poppa's group is mostly chaff. I wanna say like two to three dozen people. He'd probably be able to get about half that in a week. Ain't the biggest group. I was most of the muscle." Lily gave her evaluation of their odds. "I could probably do most of it if I still had Ghoul. Only problem is that heavy they got from you and Poppa's."
"The heavy was an artillery mech with back mounted mortars and two arm missile systems." Bolt recalled out loud. "Nasty piece of work. Very slow but good enough to be dangerous."
"Ran it once. You could put anyone in it and it'd be functionally useful, which is more than one could say about a lotta the mechs. Good low skill thing really. Probably why Poppa put Sticks into it." The girl recalled. "Poppa has the nasty one. It's a custom previous gen called the Gorilla with laser in the shoulders and two big weapons on it's fist that really do a lot of damage."
That seemed off somehow. Bolt's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think of what was tickling his brain and saying it was wrong. The configuration felt bad somehow.
"It's not the best mech, but it's better than anything we have here. Thinking Poppa got it for cheap." Lilly correctly identified what was likely causing his issues.
Bolt nodded at that and focused on the ground in front of them. "Makes sense. But we still have our work cut out for us. Do you have any preferences?"
"When I say I can pilot anything, I mean it. That said we'll need ta think about what would win here." The pilot of the mech to be observed.
"General tactics first and then specifics when I know what parts are available." The designer stated as he tried his best to speed up.
It was not a productive drive thanks to his distraction and worry. Bolt appreciated that Lilly made the effort to try anyway. What had he gotten into?
Last edited:
M011
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Bolt's family was relatively well off for Wrench Rats. Not particularly rich, but above the standard. They had two holdings, though without a central government that meant little. It just meant that they controlled the areas with a mix of force and occupation. One was their shop front, a warehouse and presentation area next to a hill and fairly obvious. That place was disposable but fortified with more than a few traps. Their main home was about an hours drive away.
That place was set into a small mountain. The main way in was through a dug out area and a set of steel doors. A pair of cannons were set into the side walls to dissuade hostile attackers. The defenses were enough to discourage casual raids, but not enough to deal with more than that. The primary form of defense was obscurity, extensive armor, and the fact that if necessary they could cut and run. All of those defenses were useless at the moment because they had a grand total of Lilly as a pilot and nothing that could really fight mechs. It was frustrating to acknowledge.
"Wow, I love the look." Lilly breathed out.
In any other time Bolt would have been proud at that. Here he was just irritated. "Looks ain't gonna help us live." He grunted out before taking a breath. "Sorry, yeah, it's nice."
"You're worried. We can do this." The girl nudged him.
Bolt nodded as they drove through a small entrance in the side for vehicles. The scent of oil and metal greeted him, as well as his parents. Both were sans mask. They were on the older side for Wrench Rats. His mother had red hair and wrinkles. His father brown hair and a beard. They were rather typical of techs, muscled, with some grease on their clothing, but nothing exactly unique about them. You wouldn't be able to tell that they'd basically built this operation from the ground up. They also looked very worried.
"Boy, the printers are showing something strange. You didn't hack something right?" His father began without even a greeting.
"Shit." The young mech designer breathed out. "No time then." He got out of his ride and strode past them. "Lilly? Mind telling them?"
"Huh?!" The girl squeaked.
"I trust her, and she's important. Be nice ok!" Bolt called out to his parents.
"Wait, don't just leave that on me like that! It won't take that much time for you to explain!" Lilly protested as she pulled herself out of her seat.
"Wow, that's a mighty fine endorsement. I knew he was sweet on someone, but the pilot?" Bolt's mother began as she closed in with a sudden menacing grin. "I suppose we have a lot ta talk about honey."
Ignoring the calamity heading Lilly's way wasn't intentional. The young man honestly would not have done it in another circumstance. He literally didn't think he had the time. Fortunately his rushing seemed to convince others that he couldn't be interrupted, so he was able to get to a good room to design in quickly.
Once seated he immediately began to pull up the data. In particular what he now had access to. The list was staggering. Before he'd had the most generic of the generic. If he wanted something special he would have had to design it, and considering his shaky basics that would have been impossible.
Now? Choice paralysis almost kicked in. He could scroll down the list and take hours reviewing all the parts. He could literally spend months actually.
Bolt firmed his spine and ignored most of them. He decided to focus on a central concept. Lilly and he had gone through more than a few scenarios on the trip. With these he could do one of the more extreme ideals. He could make a heavy rifleman or artillery mech. Simple, well armored, and filled with weapons. Overwhelming firepower to solve an overwhelming force coming at them.
The initial sketch was relatively easy. Put together a big heavy. Rifle with good ammo. Missiles on the back. He could also add a laser, and a small sidearm for close range. Armor plating all over, decent reactor and energy cells. In essence something that could simply kill everything. Scrolling through his options revealed a lot of things he could further add.
"It's shit." Lilly's voice interrupted Bolt's flow and the young man looked up from his work. "Compete crap. Looks cold too."
"Still don't know what that means." Bolt said before he blinked. "Ah, sorry for-" He was cut off by Lilly's finger pressing over his lips.
"Ain't happy about siccing your Ma and Pa on me, but we've come to an agreement. We're gonna get married in a year after this." The girl said seriously with a half grin that turned into a full grin at the look on his face at that statement. "And cold means the mech ain't got any style. It's all junk or random parts. There's just a feeling to it. Ghoul was perfect! There's like a presence to it! It was there on one or two you repaired too. I could tell when you put a lot of emotion into it you know?"
Bolt stared at the girl for a more than a moment, honestly just a bit overwhelmed. Eventually Lilly grabbed at his collar and tried to pull him. The size disparity made that bit hard, so she used both hands and heaved, which moved him a little at least.
"What exactly did you eat?! Aren't techs supposed to be little weedy runts?!" The girl demanded mid yank.
Bolt got to his feet with a small chuckle that was strangled slightly as she wrapped her hands around his neck and mimed strangling him. "Urk. You're gonna kill me doing that." He got out before Lilly glared. "You're not the first to ask that. I did haul a lot of parts when I was growing up, and we didn't want for food." If you called ration packs food.
"You got all the luck." Lilly muttered before grinning. "Well, I'm part of it so that works out for me too. But back to mech stuff. Go to bed. Erase that shitty mech you have on the design and sleep on it."
He couldn't do that. "We don't have that much time." He pointed out.
"We don't, but you've been up all night and driving half that. Sleep. Make better decisions in the morning. I'll be patrolling tomorrow with one of those junk mechs you have already to get a lay of the land, but I expect you to get at least some sleep and then you can break out the stims." Lilly practically ordered as she tried to drag Bolt into his bed.
Unable to argue with that, the young man went along with her demands. He got a cot, a pillow, and then some sleeping drugs because he could not trust himself to not stay up in thought. He was out within an hour.
Nine hours later he was up again and in front of his designer. Lilly had somehow managed to wipe his previous design despite the fact she couldn't read and was currently outside so he couldn't shout at her. He couldn't even review the thing to see how bad or good it was!
Grumbling to himself Bolt decided to completely ignore the part catalog he had access to. That was a bad way to design. Vision first, then outline, then fill in the details, and only then would he look through the parts.
So, vision, vision. Bolt would like to live for more than a few days thank you very much. That was not a coherent vision though.
"Shit, I should probably plan to be finished a day early." The young man muttered. "How though?"
"Well I can answer that one." His father commented and Bolt jumped.
"Damnit! Why is everyone interrupting me?!" He demanded.
"Eat son. I was here for a few minutes waiting for you ta notice me." The older man said quietly as he set a small brick of what could be considered food between them. "We're starting to pre-fab a lotta new parts. Some things are pretty universal. Send us yer initial blueprint on day four. Do the finishing touches on day seven. Storm should be here at day eight, so daughter-in-law will have a day ta practice. It'll be tight, but we can make it work."
"That... Yes that will help some." The young man responded after a few minutes of thought.
"Yer not alone. Don't forget that." His father advised and got a grin in reply before Bolt went back to work. He could do this. He had to.
That place was set into a small mountain. The main way in was through a dug out area and a set of steel doors. A pair of cannons were set into the side walls to dissuade hostile attackers. The defenses were enough to discourage casual raids, but not enough to deal with more than that. The primary form of defense was obscurity, extensive armor, and the fact that if necessary they could cut and run. All of those defenses were useless at the moment because they had a grand total of Lilly as a pilot and nothing that could really fight mechs. It was frustrating to acknowledge.
"Wow, I love the look." Lilly breathed out.
In any other time Bolt would have been proud at that. Here he was just irritated. "Looks ain't gonna help us live." He grunted out before taking a breath. "Sorry, yeah, it's nice."
"You're worried. We can do this." The girl nudged him.
Bolt nodded as they drove through a small entrance in the side for vehicles. The scent of oil and metal greeted him, as well as his parents. Both were sans mask. They were on the older side for Wrench Rats. His mother had red hair and wrinkles. His father brown hair and a beard. They were rather typical of techs, muscled, with some grease on their clothing, but nothing exactly unique about them. You wouldn't be able to tell that they'd basically built this operation from the ground up. They also looked very worried.
"Boy, the printers are showing something strange. You didn't hack something right?" His father began without even a greeting.
"Shit." The young mech designer breathed out. "No time then." He got out of his ride and strode past them. "Lilly? Mind telling them?"
"Huh?!" The girl squeaked.
"I trust her, and she's important. Be nice ok!" Bolt called out to his parents.
"Wait, don't just leave that on me like that! It won't take that much time for you to explain!" Lilly protested as she pulled herself out of her seat.
"Wow, that's a mighty fine endorsement. I knew he was sweet on someone, but the pilot?" Bolt's mother began as she closed in with a sudden menacing grin. "I suppose we have a lot ta talk about honey."
Ignoring the calamity heading Lilly's way wasn't intentional. The young man honestly would not have done it in another circumstance. He literally didn't think he had the time. Fortunately his rushing seemed to convince others that he couldn't be interrupted, so he was able to get to a good room to design in quickly.
Once seated he immediately began to pull up the data. In particular what he now had access to. The list was staggering. Before he'd had the most generic of the generic. If he wanted something special he would have had to design it, and considering his shaky basics that would have been impossible.
Now? Choice paralysis almost kicked in. He could scroll down the list and take hours reviewing all the parts. He could literally spend months actually.
Bolt firmed his spine and ignored most of them. He decided to focus on a central concept. Lilly and he had gone through more than a few scenarios on the trip. With these he could do one of the more extreme ideals. He could make a heavy rifleman or artillery mech. Simple, well armored, and filled with weapons. Overwhelming firepower to solve an overwhelming force coming at them.
The initial sketch was relatively easy. Put together a big heavy. Rifle with good ammo. Missiles on the back. He could also add a laser, and a small sidearm for close range. Armor plating all over, decent reactor and energy cells. In essence something that could simply kill everything. Scrolling through his options revealed a lot of things he could further add.
"It's shit." Lilly's voice interrupted Bolt's flow and the young man looked up from his work. "Compete crap. Looks cold too."
"Still don't know what that means." Bolt said before he blinked. "Ah, sorry for-" He was cut off by Lilly's finger pressing over his lips.
"Ain't happy about siccing your Ma and Pa on me, but we've come to an agreement. We're gonna get married in a year after this." The girl said seriously with a half grin that turned into a full grin at the look on his face at that statement. "And cold means the mech ain't got any style. It's all junk or random parts. There's just a feeling to it. Ghoul was perfect! There's like a presence to it! It was there on one or two you repaired too. I could tell when you put a lot of emotion into it you know?"
Bolt stared at the girl for a more than a moment, honestly just a bit overwhelmed. Eventually Lilly grabbed at his collar and tried to pull him. The size disparity made that bit hard, so she used both hands and heaved, which moved him a little at least.
"What exactly did you eat?! Aren't techs supposed to be little weedy runts?!" The girl demanded mid yank.
Bolt got to his feet with a small chuckle that was strangled slightly as she wrapped her hands around his neck and mimed strangling him. "Urk. You're gonna kill me doing that." He got out before Lilly glared. "You're not the first to ask that. I did haul a lot of parts when I was growing up, and we didn't want for food." If you called ration packs food.
"You got all the luck." Lilly muttered before grinning. "Well, I'm part of it so that works out for me too. But back to mech stuff. Go to bed. Erase that shitty mech you have on the design and sleep on it."
He couldn't do that. "We don't have that much time." He pointed out.
"We don't, but you've been up all night and driving half that. Sleep. Make better decisions in the morning. I'll be patrolling tomorrow with one of those junk mechs you have already to get a lay of the land, but I expect you to get at least some sleep and then you can break out the stims." Lilly practically ordered as she tried to drag Bolt into his bed.
Unable to argue with that, the young man went along with her demands. He got a cot, a pillow, and then some sleeping drugs because he could not trust himself to not stay up in thought. He was out within an hour.
Nine hours later he was up again and in front of his designer. Lilly had somehow managed to wipe his previous design despite the fact she couldn't read and was currently outside so he couldn't shout at her. He couldn't even review the thing to see how bad or good it was!
Grumbling to himself Bolt decided to completely ignore the part catalog he had access to. That was a bad way to design. Vision first, then outline, then fill in the details, and only then would he look through the parts.
So, vision, vision. Bolt would like to live for more than a few days thank you very much. That was not a coherent vision though.
"Shit, I should probably plan to be finished a day early." The young man muttered. "How though?"
"Well I can answer that one." His father commented and Bolt jumped.
"Damnit! Why is everyone interrupting me?!" He demanded.
"Eat son. I was here for a few minutes waiting for you ta notice me." The older man said quietly as he set a small brick of what could be considered food between them. "We're starting to pre-fab a lotta new parts. Some things are pretty universal. Send us yer initial blueprint on day four. Do the finishing touches on day seven. Storm should be here at day eight, so daughter-in-law will have a day ta practice. It'll be tight, but we can make it work."
"That... Yes that will help some." The young man responded after a few minutes of thought.
"Yer not alone. Don't forget that." His father advised and got a grin in reply before Bolt went back to work. He could do this. He had to.
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M012
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Chewing on the block of nutrients was not exactly a pleasant experience. It grounded him. Despite the brave front his parents were presenting, there was a lot of problems in the background. He hoped and prayed that his family would all handle it, but it was not something that he should help with. Instead he needed to design.
Back to the original problem. He could design a heavy. They had the materials and the parts. His only cost limit was on materials, and they had a lot to feed into the printers. Heavies were literally designed to be expensive beasts. It just didn't fit here and he couldn't say why.
After a moment he smacked his head and rooted around for his comms. He called up his... Fiancé now? Bolt compartmentalized that and tried not to think on it. He needed other information. The device rang for a bit and he got no answer. He tried again. Then again. Finally Lilly picked up.
"Gaaah! You know I can't read! Quit flashing at me and do something else!" The girl's shout was accompanied by some loud crashing. "Which button makes you stop!?"
"Remind me to tell you later how to answer the comms." Bolt said dryly before he continued as something occurred to him. "Also remind me to get you a faraday bag. Comms can be trackable by more sophisticated people."
"Bolt? How, oh wait, I forgot that you can use this for talking, haha." Lilly sounded more than a little sheepish as there was more rattling.
"Yes. I'd love to talk more, but we don't have time. I was going to do a heavy, but something says no. Got an idea why?" Bolt got right to the point.
"Hmm. I think so too. Why though?" Lilly hummed in thought and then began to sing a bit before stopping. "Got it! Big stompy big gun boys aren't good alone, especially versus a lot! Also the fist thingies on Poppa's mech are real good against armor. They break the internals more than the surface."
Fist thingies. Bolt got a small chuckle about that. It also confirmed his instinct on not making a heavy was right. He'd probably read about that at one point and not remembered.
That left light and medium. He immediately ruled out light. Light mechs were good in proper areas, but they would not be suited for his needs. Mediums covered a wide range of things, but it gave him a good basis to start off.
Unfortunately that didn't solve his main issue. Were Lilly a full expert he could slap her in junk and she'd wreck twice the number against them. Without that, there were precious few mech types that could handle that many numbers unsupported. Most would require very special circumstances.
Special circumstances. That thought triggered something. The mech designer turned back to the parts catalog he had access too in a direct contradiction to his early decision. He needed to see if this was possible before he continued further.
The largest problem was that their part makers were bottom of the barrel. Actually, that was being generous to the bottom. They were below the bottom. They only functioned through constant repair, grit, and dedication. They lacked the resolution to do more than a few things. Who or whatever had given them the catalog had accounted for that, but it would still stress the printers to the max if Bolt wasn't careful.
His idea had merit though. There was an armor alloy that they could build that had reduced emissions at the cost of, well everything that made it armor. He'd use a layered method with that on top. There was also a mist emitter that was specifically rated to work in the rain.
Stealth devices were out of Bolt's skill and ability, but pseudo stealth? That he was familiar with.
The design came through quickly then. This would not be an assassin so much as a fighter that used stealth to pick good fights. This mech would have to dismantle a lot of different mech types after all. It could not afford to be too specialized.
Larger then. Bulky with more than average armor. This made it on the slower side. But made it feel deliberate. That was the best word. Very technically it would be a swordman. One hand would have a serrated sword meant to stab into an enemy and tear. The other would have a hook. Bolt attached a winch and chain to that one, along with a specialized tip that could engage and disengage upon command. Grab an enemy and pull them in, or just grab a limb to disable it, and then stab.
Some part of him imagined this monstrous man that grabbed people and drowned them. That wasn't feasible with mechs, but the image helped immensely. The form followed the ideal, and the mech took shape.
The largest part and what would make it all work was next addition. Mounted upon it would be a mist emitter. It was a relatively simple device that used water and a small addition to confuse sensors. It wasn't strong, nor advanced. There were plenty of other ECM devices that worked far better or more consistently. It also needed water, and that condensed poorly, which probably made it unpopular. It was perfect for Bolt's needs. Doubly so because it's simplicity and reliance on water made it very efficient.
He placed it on the back and shaped the armor around it so that the mech looked like it was wearing a coat. Added to that were several long tubes that were made to look like tassels. Those tubes could absorb water and use it to refill the generator. Pointless in clear weather, but in the rain? It would make the emitter last as long as the rain did.
Time passed. Bolt designed and filled in things past the general outline. Parts were printed out and put together. He went with a low output generator for this mech. It would keep the heat down very low, and reduce the sensor profile still further. Extra power cells would give it power when it needed. This mech would not win races. It would have power for days and burst when needed.
He made sure to put in boosters this time, and used low profile ones. Theoretically quiet, they'd be good for a quick maneuver out of sight or slight adjustments when needed. They'd lack the power output for long flight, but that wasn't the point.
After four days Bolt realized he hadn't accounted for the sensors. The mech's eyes so to speak. He couldn't go with the standard stuff because it would routinely be using mist to blind enemies. It would be indiscriminate! This stumbling block took hours of scouring his books and parts. Eventually he hit on a layered solution.
Layer one was the eyes (cameras.) He grabbed the ones designed for lowlight vision. They'd reflect in the darkness, but that was fine. They'd work. Then he moved from active to passive sensors. One was shining a flashlight, the other was listening in the dark. There was an interesting one that could be placed around the body he used. Then he added sound and vibration sensors.
All of this required significant programming to work properly. Each sensor came with some proprietary programs that did not play well with one another. Bolt didn't have time to properly work them out, but he did manage to kludge something together that would hopefully not overwhelm Lilly's interface. (He put manual adjusters in just to be safe.)
Five days into it, and with barely any sleep, Bolt stopped the general stuff and just focused on finishing out everything. Barely coherent he added some special bits to the sword, attaching a small capacitor and linking it to the hands so it could be charged. Lilly would be able to cause it to fry something once every few seconds if she wanted to.
Days six and seven would be assembly. The storm was definitely coming in on day eight. Bolt crashed on his cot and let his family do most of the pre-assembly while he caught up some sleep. The job was half done and he needed to be alert around heavy machinery.
Assembly was frantic. Even with the lead time and preparation, their equipment was poor. The blasted winches were on the fritz again, and half the lifts were down, so they had to manually move a lot of parts. Bolt and the rest of the techs ended up stripping down to just pants and a wrapping for the girls while they worked. They lifted, they welded, and they assembled. The entire chassis had to be made water resistant, so that meant more than a few sprayers had to be pulled out.
Morale was oddly high despite that. The new mech came together with clacks and a clicks. Nothing was going right, and yet it was all going right. They had to refit half a dozen armor parts and wires because the printers were shit. The generator ended up needing some additional reinforcement because whomever sold the plans hadn't accounted for the metal they were using.
The damned generic programs still didn't like what Bolt and his family did, so he had to get into the half assembled piece of shit and do some on the fly programming. Yet that didn't stop them. At some point someone starting singing nonsense and everyone all added onto it.
Bolt called them family. They weren't all related really. His mother and father called them cousins, but most of them were there for the love of mechs and the desire for a better life. Those who had none of those things had fled. They were Wrench Rats. The lowest people, sans citizenship, sans money, sans anything resembling worth to those above them. Yet they lived, they breathed, they loved.
At some point even the kids and Lilly joined in to help, though Lilly kept getting distracted, much to several people's amusement. They didn't help much, but it was a team effort. The mech stood up, the mech started, the mech lived. (So to speak.)
The Drowned Man finished just before the end of the seventh day, and he looked spectacular.
Back to the original problem. He could design a heavy. They had the materials and the parts. His only cost limit was on materials, and they had a lot to feed into the printers. Heavies were literally designed to be expensive beasts. It just didn't fit here and he couldn't say why.
After a moment he smacked his head and rooted around for his comms. He called up his... Fiancé now? Bolt compartmentalized that and tried not to think on it. He needed other information. The device rang for a bit and he got no answer. He tried again. Then again. Finally Lilly picked up.
"Gaaah! You know I can't read! Quit flashing at me and do something else!" The girl's shout was accompanied by some loud crashing. "Which button makes you stop!?"
"Remind me to tell you later how to answer the comms." Bolt said dryly before he continued as something occurred to him. "Also remind me to get you a faraday bag. Comms can be trackable by more sophisticated people."
"Bolt? How, oh wait, I forgot that you can use this for talking, haha." Lilly sounded more than a little sheepish as there was more rattling.
"Yes. I'd love to talk more, but we don't have time. I was going to do a heavy, but something says no. Got an idea why?" Bolt got right to the point.
"Hmm. I think so too. Why though?" Lilly hummed in thought and then began to sing a bit before stopping. "Got it! Big stompy big gun boys aren't good alone, especially versus a lot! Also the fist thingies on Poppa's mech are real good against armor. They break the internals more than the surface."
Fist thingies. Bolt got a small chuckle about that. It also confirmed his instinct on not making a heavy was right. He'd probably read about that at one point and not remembered.
That left light and medium. He immediately ruled out light. Light mechs were good in proper areas, but they would not be suited for his needs. Mediums covered a wide range of things, but it gave him a good basis to start off.
Unfortunately that didn't solve his main issue. Were Lilly a full expert he could slap her in junk and she'd wreck twice the number against them. Without that, there were precious few mech types that could handle that many numbers unsupported. Most would require very special circumstances.
Special circumstances. That thought triggered something. The mech designer turned back to the parts catalog he had access too in a direct contradiction to his early decision. He needed to see if this was possible before he continued further.
The largest problem was that their part makers were bottom of the barrel. Actually, that was being generous to the bottom. They were below the bottom. They only functioned through constant repair, grit, and dedication. They lacked the resolution to do more than a few things. Who or whatever had given them the catalog had accounted for that, but it would still stress the printers to the max if Bolt wasn't careful.
His idea had merit though. There was an armor alloy that they could build that had reduced emissions at the cost of, well everything that made it armor. He'd use a layered method with that on top. There was also a mist emitter that was specifically rated to work in the rain.
Stealth devices were out of Bolt's skill and ability, but pseudo stealth? That he was familiar with.
The design came through quickly then. This would not be an assassin so much as a fighter that used stealth to pick good fights. This mech would have to dismantle a lot of different mech types after all. It could not afford to be too specialized.
Larger then. Bulky with more than average armor. This made it on the slower side. But made it feel deliberate. That was the best word. Very technically it would be a swordman. One hand would have a serrated sword meant to stab into an enemy and tear. The other would have a hook. Bolt attached a winch and chain to that one, along with a specialized tip that could engage and disengage upon command. Grab an enemy and pull them in, or just grab a limb to disable it, and then stab.
Some part of him imagined this monstrous man that grabbed people and drowned them. That wasn't feasible with mechs, but the image helped immensely. The form followed the ideal, and the mech took shape.
The largest part and what would make it all work was next addition. Mounted upon it would be a mist emitter. It was a relatively simple device that used water and a small addition to confuse sensors. It wasn't strong, nor advanced. There were plenty of other ECM devices that worked far better or more consistently. It also needed water, and that condensed poorly, which probably made it unpopular. It was perfect for Bolt's needs. Doubly so because it's simplicity and reliance on water made it very efficient.
He placed it on the back and shaped the armor around it so that the mech looked like it was wearing a coat. Added to that were several long tubes that were made to look like tassels. Those tubes could absorb water and use it to refill the generator. Pointless in clear weather, but in the rain? It would make the emitter last as long as the rain did.
Time passed. Bolt designed and filled in things past the general outline. Parts were printed out and put together. He went with a low output generator for this mech. It would keep the heat down very low, and reduce the sensor profile still further. Extra power cells would give it power when it needed. This mech would not win races. It would have power for days and burst when needed.
He made sure to put in boosters this time, and used low profile ones. Theoretically quiet, they'd be good for a quick maneuver out of sight or slight adjustments when needed. They'd lack the power output for long flight, but that wasn't the point.
After four days Bolt realized he hadn't accounted for the sensors. The mech's eyes so to speak. He couldn't go with the standard stuff because it would routinely be using mist to blind enemies. It would be indiscriminate! This stumbling block took hours of scouring his books and parts. Eventually he hit on a layered solution.
Layer one was the eyes (cameras.) He grabbed the ones designed for lowlight vision. They'd reflect in the darkness, but that was fine. They'd work. Then he moved from active to passive sensors. One was shining a flashlight, the other was listening in the dark. There was an interesting one that could be placed around the body he used. Then he added sound and vibration sensors.
All of this required significant programming to work properly. Each sensor came with some proprietary programs that did not play well with one another. Bolt didn't have time to properly work them out, but he did manage to kludge something together that would hopefully not overwhelm Lilly's interface. (He put manual adjusters in just to be safe.)
Five days into it, and with barely any sleep, Bolt stopped the general stuff and just focused on finishing out everything. Barely coherent he added some special bits to the sword, attaching a small capacitor and linking it to the hands so it could be charged. Lilly would be able to cause it to fry something once every few seconds if she wanted to.
Days six and seven would be assembly. The storm was definitely coming in on day eight. Bolt crashed on his cot and let his family do most of the pre-assembly while he caught up some sleep. The job was half done and he needed to be alert around heavy machinery.
Assembly was frantic. Even with the lead time and preparation, their equipment was poor. The blasted winches were on the fritz again, and half the lifts were down, so they had to manually move a lot of parts. Bolt and the rest of the techs ended up stripping down to just pants and a wrapping for the girls while they worked. They lifted, they welded, and they assembled. The entire chassis had to be made water resistant, so that meant more than a few sprayers had to be pulled out.
Morale was oddly high despite that. The new mech came together with clacks and a clicks. Nothing was going right, and yet it was all going right. They had to refit half a dozen armor parts and wires because the printers were shit. The generator ended up needing some additional reinforcement because whomever sold the plans hadn't accounted for the metal they were using.
The damned generic programs still didn't like what Bolt and his family did, so he had to get into the half assembled piece of shit and do some on the fly programming. Yet that didn't stop them. At some point someone starting singing nonsense and everyone all added onto it.
Bolt called them family. They weren't all related really. His mother and father called them cousins, but most of them were there for the love of mechs and the desire for a better life. Those who had none of those things had fled. They were Wrench Rats. The lowest people, sans citizenship, sans money, sans anything resembling worth to those above them. Yet they lived, they breathed, they loved.
At some point even the kids and Lilly joined in to help, though Lilly kept getting distracted, much to several people's amusement. They didn't help much, but it was a team effort. The mech stood up, the mech started, the mech lived. (So to speak.)
The Drowned Man finished just before the end of the seventh day, and he looked spectacular.
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Lilly did not have much time to practice with The Drowned Man. She had a night and some of the day if she wanted to push it. That was fine though. She'd been well rested beforehand and an all nighter wouldn't hinder her. Unfamiliarity with the mech would though. She was good, not an instant expert!
The Drowned Man was far different than other mechs she'd piloted in a lot of ways. He was noticeably slower than Ghoul all round. He wasn't a long range monster like artillery and rifle mechs. He prowled rather than walked. He stalked. He was also very quiet. Bolt had somehow managed to make a nearly silence mech, which opened up so many options. Everything about him made her want to be silent rather than manic, which was ok. It was actually perfect for this! Lilly didn't want to be happy. She wanted to kill. This mech would help with that. (Honestly, this guy and the girl Bolt had made her were spoiling her. They practically purred when activated.)
Poppa wanted to kill the Wrench Rats and steal their things. She still loved Poppa, but she wasn't going to let him do that sort of thing. She liked Bolt, and she liked his parents. His little sister was cute too! The cousins were a bit annoying, but they'd made her a gym in the short time they'd been there, so she would forgive them and protect them too. It hurt, but that was ok. She was doing what she wanted finally.
This meant she was going to be mean today. As the storm rolled in and the rain began to fall, she roamed out from the mountain towards where Poppa's group was coming in. She wanted a big playground for this, so no dwelling right outside the fortifications. She was going to meet them.
Sensors in general ranged wildly in effectiveness. Lilly didn't know the exact specifics. She went by feel. And her mech had a very unique feel to it.
Most mechs gave the feeling of looking through a camera to her. The better ones had higher resolution. Ghoul had given her a crisp clarity and a decent amount of information aside from the visuals thanks to the good sensors. The Drowned Man's senses were different. It felt almost monochromatic, but wider and more encompassing. She could almost feel the rain coming down on the ground nearby.
"This dial right?" Lilly asked her mech as her body twisted one of the sense dials up.
A shiver ran down her spine as the sonic sensors moved to near max. She felt like she could hear miles now. It was mildly euphoric, so she turned up the other ones. There, at the distance, she could feel the mechs, and knew they were looking for her.
Lilly grinned savagely as she started up the mist generator. Around her visibility began to drop. To the enemy it was like a sudden fog rolled in. It grew thicker and thicker and started to obscure their other sensors as well.
Half of Wrecker's forces were junk frontline mechs. Best described as barely put together heaps of metal, most had visual sensors and the most basic of basics. This meant they were effectively blind. The ones with better sensors could see where they were going and their allies but had visibly dropped significantly.
Wrecker was not an inexperienced pilot or commander though. Once the mist started to actively cause ghosts on his sensors he knew it was enemy action. Normal mist did not cause this sort of interference. Lilly could tell exactly when noticed that and watched patiently as he ordered his people to group up.
It was a sound tactical order. Grouped in a small circle, facing out, they could fire their ranged weapons without worrying about enemy fire. The closer range mechs were in front, and the few with shields were also all ready.
The storm was going to last most of the day and into the night. It would turn the area into a quagmire of mud, mud, and more rocks. It wouldn't hinder the mechs that much, but this information was important for Lilly, because it meant she could let her mech go to low power and just pump out the mist. So long as it was raining, The Drowned Man could do this effectively indefinitely, and his design meant she could be practically right on top a mech before they'd notice her.
Time passed. Seconds turned into minutes. Lilly closed her eyes and waited. Her mech settled. Patiently, quietly they waited together. There was an art to hunting. One that she'd rarely put into practice, even though she knew how. She'd intercepted them midway to their target. Probably thirty minutes of walking at a slow pace. If they sprinted they could likely be there in half that. Their mechs had the fuel for that and far more. Yet every second ticking and waiting would press against that operation timer. They would start to worry at fuel, at why the enemy wasn't moving, at more. Those worries would press at them.
Wrecker knew this. Staying when the enemy wasn't even attacking would just wear at their nerves. Eventually he gave the order to move again.
Lilly opened her eyes. The Drowned Man's eyes gleamed through the mist as she moved again. Silent as death she stepped into the rear of the formation. Her first target wasn't the one in back. It was one to the side, a ramshackle piece of junk piloted by someone very nervous.
Her hook lashed out and hit around the mech's neck. He was pulled into the mist and then fell into the mud. The Drowned Man stepped on his back and stabbed before he could do more than start to scream. Lilly's felt a thrill of triumph but restrained herself from doing more. Softly she stepped back and away.
Such violence was impossible to conceal even with her mist and armor. The enemy mechs lashed out in her general direction with all of their munitions in an attempt to kill her before she got out of sight. Some of it even hit her, but it was all poorly aimed and her mech was not a lightweight. The damage scuffed her paint mostly. The alloy her mech was using wasn't the best for durability, but it was still armor, and layered with better armor as well. Without a heavy direct hit she wasn't going to be hindered at all.
The next victim she didn't even bother to kill. She just hid the hook in the mud at full extension and pulled his leg out from under him. The light junker mech wasn't totaled, but the damage made it functionally useless and perhaps more a hinderance had she just done a kill.
Cowardly by nature, this was enough to cause Wrecker to order a retreat. This was unfortunately bad for her. He still had most of his forces! Lilly couldn't allow that, so she pursued.
It made things harder, but not much. The mist needed time to spread in the rain. The Drowned Man was not fast. Wrecker's crew still had that heavy though, and while it was doing an admirable job of making Lilly wary, it was slow as shit.
More mechs fell, and then the enemy broke into four groups, whether on orders or because their morale had fallen enough that they didn't want to stay in formation. It didn't matter. What did matter was that Wrecker stayed by the heavy and two more intact mechs. Not the best fight, and they were durable enough that she didn't expect a quick fight.
"Oh?" The girl tilted her head and dropped the slasher smile she'd been wearing as she contemplated things. "Almost clever I suppose."
One of the groups was stopping right nearby. It felt like a setup. They hadn't accounted for her senses so she could tell exactly where they were. Assuming they were in contact with one another, when she hit one the other would try to pin her. She had to assume the others had similar orders. This was an actual threat. The Drowned Man was camouflaged, not actually invisible. If they got close enough she was going to be detected and would have to shake them which would likely cause chip damage she could ill afford.
Decisions, decisions. Lilly couldn't wait them out again. They were fleeing despite the new tactics. She did not want them to come back without a storm to back her up.
Ultimately what did she want? She wanted to win. She wanted to be free. She wanted to get married. She wanted this chapter of her life to be over with. She wanted power too.
She was a girl with a lot of wants wasn't she?
"So what do you want Mr Drowned?" Lilly breathed out and then laughed. What sort of question was that? He obviously wanted one thing.
The Drowned Man stepped forward, soft as a cat on a hunt. The mist was so thick at this point that she was not detected until she was close enough to use her hook. At that point it was far too late. The weapon was already in the air and in the back of the heavy. She pulled, and a mortar was pulled with it.
It wasn't actually shoddy construction that allowed that. The back parts for that mech were meant to detach first rather than the entire mech being dragged down. This left the thing with one mortar and two missile launchers, not even accounting for the others.
There was one rifleman and one spearman with her Poppa. Safe, generic, and useful mechs. Their pilots were nothing special based on how they moved and what she remembered of them. A step up from chaff and competent enough to be threatening if she was stupid. Wrecker though? He was a good and bloodied pilot in a mech that wasn't junk. He immediately turned towards her the second he spotted her.
Now the real battle started.
The Drowned Man was far different than other mechs she'd piloted in a lot of ways. He was noticeably slower than Ghoul all round. He wasn't a long range monster like artillery and rifle mechs. He prowled rather than walked. He stalked. He was also very quiet. Bolt had somehow managed to make a nearly silence mech, which opened up so many options. Everything about him made her want to be silent rather than manic, which was ok. It was actually perfect for this! Lilly didn't want to be happy. She wanted to kill. This mech would help with that. (Honestly, this guy and the girl Bolt had made her were spoiling her. They practically purred when activated.)
Poppa wanted to kill the Wrench Rats and steal their things. She still loved Poppa, but she wasn't going to let him do that sort of thing. She liked Bolt, and she liked his parents. His little sister was cute too! The cousins were a bit annoying, but they'd made her a gym in the short time they'd been there, so she would forgive them and protect them too. It hurt, but that was ok. She was doing what she wanted finally.
This meant she was going to be mean today. As the storm rolled in and the rain began to fall, she roamed out from the mountain towards where Poppa's group was coming in. She wanted a big playground for this, so no dwelling right outside the fortifications. She was going to meet them.
Sensors in general ranged wildly in effectiveness. Lilly didn't know the exact specifics. She went by feel. And her mech had a very unique feel to it.
Most mechs gave the feeling of looking through a camera to her. The better ones had higher resolution. Ghoul had given her a crisp clarity and a decent amount of information aside from the visuals thanks to the good sensors. The Drowned Man's senses were different. It felt almost monochromatic, but wider and more encompassing. She could almost feel the rain coming down on the ground nearby.
"This dial right?" Lilly asked her mech as her body twisted one of the sense dials up.
A shiver ran down her spine as the sonic sensors moved to near max. She felt like she could hear miles now. It was mildly euphoric, so she turned up the other ones. There, at the distance, she could feel the mechs, and knew they were looking for her.
Lilly grinned savagely as she started up the mist generator. Around her visibility began to drop. To the enemy it was like a sudden fog rolled in. It grew thicker and thicker and started to obscure their other sensors as well.
Half of Wrecker's forces were junk frontline mechs. Best described as barely put together heaps of metal, most had visual sensors and the most basic of basics. This meant they were effectively blind. The ones with better sensors could see where they were going and their allies but had visibly dropped significantly.
Wrecker was not an inexperienced pilot or commander though. Once the mist started to actively cause ghosts on his sensors he knew it was enemy action. Normal mist did not cause this sort of interference. Lilly could tell exactly when noticed that and watched patiently as he ordered his people to group up.
It was a sound tactical order. Grouped in a small circle, facing out, they could fire their ranged weapons without worrying about enemy fire. The closer range mechs were in front, and the few with shields were also all ready.
The storm was going to last most of the day and into the night. It would turn the area into a quagmire of mud, mud, and more rocks. It wouldn't hinder the mechs that much, but this information was important for Lilly, because it meant she could let her mech go to low power and just pump out the mist. So long as it was raining, The Drowned Man could do this effectively indefinitely, and his design meant she could be practically right on top a mech before they'd notice her.
Time passed. Seconds turned into minutes. Lilly closed her eyes and waited. Her mech settled. Patiently, quietly they waited together. There was an art to hunting. One that she'd rarely put into practice, even though she knew how. She'd intercepted them midway to their target. Probably thirty minutes of walking at a slow pace. If they sprinted they could likely be there in half that. Their mechs had the fuel for that and far more. Yet every second ticking and waiting would press against that operation timer. They would start to worry at fuel, at why the enemy wasn't moving, at more. Those worries would press at them.
Wrecker knew this. Staying when the enemy wasn't even attacking would just wear at their nerves. Eventually he gave the order to move again.
Lilly opened her eyes. The Drowned Man's eyes gleamed through the mist as she moved again. Silent as death she stepped into the rear of the formation. Her first target wasn't the one in back. It was one to the side, a ramshackle piece of junk piloted by someone very nervous.
Her hook lashed out and hit around the mech's neck. He was pulled into the mist and then fell into the mud. The Drowned Man stepped on his back and stabbed before he could do more than start to scream. Lilly's felt a thrill of triumph but restrained herself from doing more. Softly she stepped back and away.
Such violence was impossible to conceal even with her mist and armor. The enemy mechs lashed out in her general direction with all of their munitions in an attempt to kill her before she got out of sight. Some of it even hit her, but it was all poorly aimed and her mech was not a lightweight. The damage scuffed her paint mostly. The alloy her mech was using wasn't the best for durability, but it was still armor, and layered with better armor as well. Without a heavy direct hit she wasn't going to be hindered at all.
The next victim she didn't even bother to kill. She just hid the hook in the mud at full extension and pulled his leg out from under him. The light junker mech wasn't totaled, but the damage made it functionally useless and perhaps more a hinderance had she just done a kill.
Cowardly by nature, this was enough to cause Wrecker to order a retreat. This was unfortunately bad for her. He still had most of his forces! Lilly couldn't allow that, so she pursued.
It made things harder, but not much. The mist needed time to spread in the rain. The Drowned Man was not fast. Wrecker's crew still had that heavy though, and while it was doing an admirable job of making Lilly wary, it was slow as shit.
More mechs fell, and then the enemy broke into four groups, whether on orders or because their morale had fallen enough that they didn't want to stay in formation. It didn't matter. What did matter was that Wrecker stayed by the heavy and two more intact mechs. Not the best fight, and they were durable enough that she didn't expect a quick fight.
"Oh?" The girl tilted her head and dropped the slasher smile she'd been wearing as she contemplated things. "Almost clever I suppose."
One of the groups was stopping right nearby. It felt like a setup. They hadn't accounted for her senses so she could tell exactly where they were. Assuming they were in contact with one another, when she hit one the other would try to pin her. She had to assume the others had similar orders. This was an actual threat. The Drowned Man was camouflaged, not actually invisible. If they got close enough she was going to be detected and would have to shake them which would likely cause chip damage she could ill afford.
Decisions, decisions. Lilly couldn't wait them out again. They were fleeing despite the new tactics. She did not want them to come back without a storm to back her up.
Ultimately what did she want? She wanted to win. She wanted to be free. She wanted to get married. She wanted this chapter of her life to be over with. She wanted power too.
She was a girl with a lot of wants wasn't she?
"So what do you want Mr Drowned?" Lilly breathed out and then laughed. What sort of question was that? He obviously wanted one thing.
The Drowned Man stepped forward, soft as a cat on a hunt. The mist was so thick at this point that she was not detected until she was close enough to use her hook. At that point it was far too late. The weapon was already in the air and in the back of the heavy. She pulled, and a mortar was pulled with it.
It wasn't actually shoddy construction that allowed that. The back parts for that mech were meant to detach first rather than the entire mech being dragged down. This left the thing with one mortar and two missile launchers, not even accounting for the others.
There was one rifleman and one spearman with her Poppa. Safe, generic, and useful mechs. Their pilots were nothing special based on how they moved and what she remembered of them. A step up from chaff and competent enough to be threatening if she was stupid. Wrecker though? He was a good and bloodied pilot in a mech that wasn't junk. He immediately turned towards her the second he spotted her.
Now the real battle started.
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M014
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With only a week to work Bolt had not put together a perfect mech. He had done his best to take into account what the mech and how the mech was going to fight. One of those factors that his mech was going to get in a direct confrontation. It was going to fight alone without support against multiple enemies. That was inevitable. There was literally no way of avoiding it. So the Drowned Man was built to account for that. He took traits from skirmishers and stealth specialists, but he was ultimately a mech designed to slug it out when he needed to.
That was why he didn't crumble from the missiles flew his way once the heavy faced her. Oh, Lilly did a superb job of avoiding the volley from the heavy, and the mist and the armor's baffling helped a surprising amount too, but there was a limit to how much you could avoid from a mech designed to saturate an area. Damage alerts blared their warnings as Lilly took some actual damage. Yellows mostly, with some greens still. (The girl had to praise Bolt later, the visuals and lack of text were so nice.)
Despite the threat of the heavy reloading, Wrecker's mech was the more dangerous of the pair. Looking like a cross between a boxer and an ape, Gorilla was not a particularly pretty mech. Nor was it a stellar one. It was still probably one of the best mechs owned by a Rat on the planet. The thing moved into a boxer's stance fluidly and smoothly before it stepped forward in a strange shifting stride. Mid move, one of the shoulder mounted laser blasted out and right towards Lilly and The Drowned Man.
Dodging it completely was impossible. The mist and Lilly's piloting merely had it glance off the shoulder of her mech. She felt a line of fire trace across her shoulder bone in sympathetic pain, but it was trivial damage. It did emphasize Gorilla's danger. The mech was designed to bob and weave, using the fists to conceal where the lasers were aiming, and then crushing them with overwhelming force.
Lilly knew the way the thing moved already though, so she felt little threat. Her attention was more on eliminating the adds instead of Gorilla. They moved to flank as Wrecker moved in, and Lilly knew that was death.
Another pilot would probably have worried. Lilly just saw options. The Drowned Man was at his core a swordsman mech. A mech's sword was a deadly and tempered weapon that you had to track at all times, and in the mist that he made it was hard to follow the thing while it moved. The serrated blade shifted through the cloudy fog like a concealed snake and then struck out the second she saw an opening, not at her father, but at the spearman attempting to jab her side. The strike was light, barely scraping the armor around the wrist. Normally it'd be a trivial blow. The sudden lightning and wild shock caused the entire limb to spasm and the mech's spear jerked wildly. Lilly then twisted and threw her hook right through the mech's head in the sudden opening.
This wasn't a kill so much as a sensor removal. Most mechs had multiple sensors, they just put the visual ones in the head. It made it far easier for the mechs to function that way. A good pilot could stay in the fight with damage like this. This wasn't a good one. Lilly pulled the mech off balance and then forced the hook to detach as she threw the staggering mech at the rifleman.
Biter Rats were not good pilots. That had to be said again. Even those that practiced were hindered by a plethora of issues, one of the biggest ones being that the ones without issues left the planet the second they could. This led to the rifleman firing reflexively in her general direction and accidentally killing his teammate.
Wrecker and the heavy didn't care. They'd barely waited to fire upon her once she'd engaged hooked the spearman. The Drowned Man took more fire and Lilly saw the last of her greens turn yellow. Good defenses or no, not many mechs could stand up to stuff like that and she had no more cover.
Engaging further was suboptimal anyway. Lilly faded back into the mist, and the next volley of missiles missed entirely. True to her predictions, the others groups were coming in. The Drowned Man was limping at this point, but Lilly felt confident could win this still.
Actually, how many missiles did that heavy have again? The mortar would require targeting data that it wasn't going to get on her so that was out. Hand carried missile launchers did not have a lot. Lilly had an evil idea once she realized that.
One of the approaching groups was nearby and not nearly as wary as they should have been. One of them fell to the hook stab combo again and Lilly then propped the mech up with some creative maneuvering. When the heavy got nearby, she gave it a sharp jerk with the hook. Inexperienced in piloting, the man immediately unleashed all his missiles again at the hint of movement. Absolutely delighted, Lilly did the same trick again shortly thereafter.
By this point Wrecker's crew had mostly given up. They were fleeing in ones and twos at top speed without a hint of discipline. Only Wrecker's core group was sticking around, and they were obviously running low. Only Wrecker himself was good. The rifleman was hanging back and obviously completely unnerved.
"You know Lilly, I didn't expect you to be such a pain in the ass right when you were about to leave." The communication on the open channel from the mech was enough to make the girl pause and frown. "Don't try to deny it's not you. I raised you brat, and I know how ya pilot. The mech is different, but it ya ain't fooling your poppa."
Lilly wanted to be silent so bad. Some part of her still loved her father though. "Getting some fatherly feelings now?" She asked back.
"Hah, girl, you're wasted here. You're wasted off planet even! You have no idea how much yer worth! I had you all setup for a good life. Ya didn't even need to do much, just go along with it for a bit. Instead you're here, fighting your poppa with some piece of trash for trash mongering con-artist." Wrecker shifted his mech.
"I notice you don't mention selling me." The valuable pilot in question pointed out flatly.
"Princess, that's how the game works. Me getting a few benefits from the relationship ain't a bad thing. Hell, you got the better of the deal ya know? Them Royals would have made you another royal flat out. You'd live better than poppa here." The mech made a gesture into the mist. "Now we're likely both gonna die. Me killed by his darling daughter, and you because you pissed off a Royal."
Lilly just shook her head. "Poppa, had you told me I might o' gone along with it. As is, I think you're full of shit."
"Tch, just like your mother. All her first, no thought for anything else. Remember me telling you how she dropped you into my lap? Complete truth. Look up the records later if you live. Total piece of work worse than anything I've ever seen." Wrecker shifted again and then fired his lasers.
Both of them cored right into The Drowned Man's head and blew the top half of it clear off. The sympathetic pain hurt, but what was worse was the lack of vision. The Drowned Man staggered.
"Neat trick with the mist and all, but it only confuses sensors, doesn't stop them." Wrecker said conversationally as he approached her reeling mech.
The young mech pilot closed her eyes and fumbled for the dials. They were already at max, but she tried to push them up more anyway. Bolt had put more than a few sensors outside the head. None of them were visual, but that didn't matter. She was a good pilot. She could fight blind if she needed to.
"I swear, I never cared about how mechs looked, but damn if indulging you caused me no end of trouble. Did you know that noble fop was so concerned about that last one that I had to sit there and reassure him that we'd pull you out if it?" Wrecker continued to chat. "Ah well, doesn't matter that much. Sticks, quit dithering. Mortar the damned spot. We'll sort it out."
Some part of Lilly knew she could reach more. She could become more. There was a wellspring of power if she just let it come in. The girl rejected that notion entirely. She would advance when and where she chose. She would grasp that power when it was needed for more than a rebellion against her upbringing. If she couldn't win now, as she was, she was unworthy of more.
Right now she just needed to move. The Drowned Man obeyed her commands without question or hesitation and lurched to the side. It was an almost ungainly lurch, but it was a lurch that avoided the mortar. Wrecker made a sound of disgust and clicked off the communicators as he moved forward.
Lilly snorted and stepped in to meet him even as she dodged a half-hearted shot from the rifleman. The sensors were not designed to substitute sight. They were designed to compliment it. Gorilla could only move so many ways though. She knew how he was stepping. She could hear the rain patter off his frame. That was enough.
Wrecker led with would have been a quick boxing jab on another mech. There were two flaws with his weapons. One was the range was poor compared to her serrated sword. The other was that they were on the slower side. That was why it had been built with lasers. The trick was basically jab, shoot, jab shoot in theory. It was why Lilly thought of it as a failed design. Once you knew the trick it didn't work nearly as well.
Poppa had taught her though. He wasn't going to let her counter him like she normally did. He'd stopped sparring with her several years ago, likely for a scenario like this in retrospect. So she let herself go into a mindless flow of dodging as she waited for the trick. He sword darted in and out to keep him from getting ideas and she just waited and backpedaled through the increasingly muddy terrain. She let the hook drop and start to unspool as she did so, trusting the mud to hide it. She had to hope that this would be enough.
Then Gorilla stopped advancing and stepped to the side, away from Lilly and the mud-hidden hook. He'd seen through her trap and instead set one himself. She could hear the thumps as the mortar fired off once more and knew for a fact that the heavy had fired again right at the place she'd been herded to. The Drowned Man shifted into a lunge in desperation, just clearing the blast zone but moving right into the Gorilla's punch. Lilly parried with her sword and activated the electric charge again. Lightning cracked through the air. The sword dented and bent from the impact while the arm sparked and spasmed. (The constant rain had compromised the internals of Gorilla. Normally maintenance would seal those internals against things like this, but the techs Wrecker had were doing the bare minimum.)
Unable to see the damage, Lilly could still hear that side twitch. She triggered the winch and wound in the hook, then whipped it as she moved into the damaged side. The lasers drew harsh lines over her armor and more damage went red. Barely holding on but still moving, The Drowned Man hooked a leg and then pulled. Wrecker went to the ground in a titanic thud and splash.
This did not kill Gorilla. It was already attempting to recover. Lilly hit the booster for the first time in combat, and The Drowned Man shifted forward. She aimed the dented sword down and the serrated edge dug into something with a crunch.
Everything went still. Lilly took a deep gulping breaths as she tried to listen for the others, or a sign of Gorilla moving. There was just raindrops though.
"That was the cockpit." It took Lilly a moment to identify the voice. It was Sticks.
The words made no sense for a long moment. "Oh." The girl observed with a word that was more a breath of air than actual voice. Then she remembered her position. "You two want to fight still?"
Her answer was silence and the sound of both mechs stepping back. The funny part was they would probably win if they pushed. More Rat mentality crippling them.
That was to her benefit today though. "Go." Lilly said flatly.
The retreat was slow. Lilly listed to it, and then the rain for a very long time. Was it worth it? She had to wonder. Did she have to do it this way? She waited for movement. Hoping perhaps vainly that she hadn't actually gotten the cockpit. That her father had managed to escape. It'd be more trouble, but some part of her would feel better. There was nothing but rain.
Carefully she turned The Drowned Man back to the mountain base. It would be a bit of a pain to walk all the way blind, but she could and would. Despite it all she was still a Rat wasn't she? Pain and death were part of that life. It was cheap. She hated that fact, but it was a fact. No one here was worth a damned in the eyes of the galaxy. (Except her, and she hated that more.) That was fine though. She'd seize the good parts with both hands and damn the rest of the galaxy in turn if need be.
That was why he didn't crumble from the missiles flew his way once the heavy faced her. Oh, Lilly did a superb job of avoiding the volley from the heavy, and the mist and the armor's baffling helped a surprising amount too, but there was a limit to how much you could avoid from a mech designed to saturate an area. Damage alerts blared their warnings as Lilly took some actual damage. Yellows mostly, with some greens still. (The girl had to praise Bolt later, the visuals and lack of text were so nice.)
Despite the threat of the heavy reloading, Wrecker's mech was the more dangerous of the pair. Looking like a cross between a boxer and an ape, Gorilla was not a particularly pretty mech. Nor was it a stellar one. It was still probably one of the best mechs owned by a Rat on the planet. The thing moved into a boxer's stance fluidly and smoothly before it stepped forward in a strange shifting stride. Mid move, one of the shoulder mounted laser blasted out and right towards Lilly and The Drowned Man.
Dodging it completely was impossible. The mist and Lilly's piloting merely had it glance off the shoulder of her mech. She felt a line of fire trace across her shoulder bone in sympathetic pain, but it was trivial damage. It did emphasize Gorilla's danger. The mech was designed to bob and weave, using the fists to conceal where the lasers were aiming, and then crushing them with overwhelming force.
Lilly knew the way the thing moved already though, so she felt little threat. Her attention was more on eliminating the adds instead of Gorilla. They moved to flank as Wrecker moved in, and Lilly knew that was death.
Another pilot would probably have worried. Lilly just saw options. The Drowned Man was at his core a swordsman mech. A mech's sword was a deadly and tempered weapon that you had to track at all times, and in the mist that he made it was hard to follow the thing while it moved. The serrated blade shifted through the cloudy fog like a concealed snake and then struck out the second she saw an opening, not at her father, but at the spearman attempting to jab her side. The strike was light, barely scraping the armor around the wrist. Normally it'd be a trivial blow. The sudden lightning and wild shock caused the entire limb to spasm and the mech's spear jerked wildly. Lilly then twisted and threw her hook right through the mech's head in the sudden opening.
This wasn't a kill so much as a sensor removal. Most mechs had multiple sensors, they just put the visual ones in the head. It made it far easier for the mechs to function that way. A good pilot could stay in the fight with damage like this. This wasn't a good one. Lilly pulled the mech off balance and then forced the hook to detach as she threw the staggering mech at the rifleman.
Biter Rats were not good pilots. That had to be said again. Even those that practiced were hindered by a plethora of issues, one of the biggest ones being that the ones without issues left the planet the second they could. This led to the rifleman firing reflexively in her general direction and accidentally killing his teammate.
Wrecker and the heavy didn't care. They'd barely waited to fire upon her once she'd engaged hooked the spearman. The Drowned Man took more fire and Lilly saw the last of her greens turn yellow. Good defenses or no, not many mechs could stand up to stuff like that and she had no more cover.
Engaging further was suboptimal anyway. Lilly faded back into the mist, and the next volley of missiles missed entirely. True to her predictions, the others groups were coming in. The Drowned Man was limping at this point, but Lilly felt confident could win this still.
Actually, how many missiles did that heavy have again? The mortar would require targeting data that it wasn't going to get on her so that was out. Hand carried missile launchers did not have a lot. Lilly had an evil idea once she realized that.
One of the approaching groups was nearby and not nearly as wary as they should have been. One of them fell to the hook stab combo again and Lilly then propped the mech up with some creative maneuvering. When the heavy got nearby, she gave it a sharp jerk with the hook. Inexperienced in piloting, the man immediately unleashed all his missiles again at the hint of movement. Absolutely delighted, Lilly did the same trick again shortly thereafter.
By this point Wrecker's crew had mostly given up. They were fleeing in ones and twos at top speed without a hint of discipline. Only Wrecker's core group was sticking around, and they were obviously running low. Only Wrecker himself was good. The rifleman was hanging back and obviously completely unnerved.
"You know Lilly, I didn't expect you to be such a pain in the ass right when you were about to leave." The communication on the open channel from the mech was enough to make the girl pause and frown. "Don't try to deny it's not you. I raised you brat, and I know how ya pilot. The mech is different, but it ya ain't fooling your poppa."
Lilly wanted to be silent so bad. Some part of her still loved her father though. "Getting some fatherly feelings now?" She asked back.
"Hah, girl, you're wasted here. You're wasted off planet even! You have no idea how much yer worth! I had you all setup for a good life. Ya didn't even need to do much, just go along with it for a bit. Instead you're here, fighting your poppa with some piece of trash for trash mongering con-artist." Wrecker shifted his mech.
"I notice you don't mention selling me." The valuable pilot in question pointed out flatly.
"Princess, that's how the game works. Me getting a few benefits from the relationship ain't a bad thing. Hell, you got the better of the deal ya know? Them Royals would have made you another royal flat out. You'd live better than poppa here." The mech made a gesture into the mist. "Now we're likely both gonna die. Me killed by his darling daughter, and you because you pissed off a Royal."
Lilly just shook her head. "Poppa, had you told me I might o' gone along with it. As is, I think you're full of shit."
"Tch, just like your mother. All her first, no thought for anything else. Remember me telling you how she dropped you into my lap? Complete truth. Look up the records later if you live. Total piece of work worse than anything I've ever seen." Wrecker shifted again and then fired his lasers.
Both of them cored right into The Drowned Man's head and blew the top half of it clear off. The sympathetic pain hurt, but what was worse was the lack of vision. The Drowned Man staggered.
"Neat trick with the mist and all, but it only confuses sensors, doesn't stop them." Wrecker said conversationally as he approached her reeling mech.
The young mech pilot closed her eyes and fumbled for the dials. They were already at max, but she tried to push them up more anyway. Bolt had put more than a few sensors outside the head. None of them were visual, but that didn't matter. She was a good pilot. She could fight blind if she needed to.
"I swear, I never cared about how mechs looked, but damn if indulging you caused me no end of trouble. Did you know that noble fop was so concerned about that last one that I had to sit there and reassure him that we'd pull you out if it?" Wrecker continued to chat. "Ah well, doesn't matter that much. Sticks, quit dithering. Mortar the damned spot. We'll sort it out."
Some part of Lilly knew she could reach more. She could become more. There was a wellspring of power if she just let it come in. The girl rejected that notion entirely. She would advance when and where she chose. She would grasp that power when it was needed for more than a rebellion against her upbringing. If she couldn't win now, as she was, she was unworthy of more.
Right now she just needed to move. The Drowned Man obeyed her commands without question or hesitation and lurched to the side. It was an almost ungainly lurch, but it was a lurch that avoided the mortar. Wrecker made a sound of disgust and clicked off the communicators as he moved forward.
Lilly snorted and stepped in to meet him even as she dodged a half-hearted shot from the rifleman. The sensors were not designed to substitute sight. They were designed to compliment it. Gorilla could only move so many ways though. She knew how he was stepping. She could hear the rain patter off his frame. That was enough.
Wrecker led with would have been a quick boxing jab on another mech. There were two flaws with his weapons. One was the range was poor compared to her serrated sword. The other was that they were on the slower side. That was why it had been built with lasers. The trick was basically jab, shoot, jab shoot in theory. It was why Lilly thought of it as a failed design. Once you knew the trick it didn't work nearly as well.
Poppa had taught her though. He wasn't going to let her counter him like she normally did. He'd stopped sparring with her several years ago, likely for a scenario like this in retrospect. So she let herself go into a mindless flow of dodging as she waited for the trick. He sword darted in and out to keep him from getting ideas and she just waited and backpedaled through the increasingly muddy terrain. She let the hook drop and start to unspool as she did so, trusting the mud to hide it. She had to hope that this would be enough.
Then Gorilla stopped advancing and stepped to the side, away from Lilly and the mud-hidden hook. He'd seen through her trap and instead set one himself. She could hear the thumps as the mortar fired off once more and knew for a fact that the heavy had fired again right at the place she'd been herded to. The Drowned Man shifted into a lunge in desperation, just clearing the blast zone but moving right into the Gorilla's punch. Lilly parried with her sword and activated the electric charge again. Lightning cracked through the air. The sword dented and bent from the impact while the arm sparked and spasmed. (The constant rain had compromised the internals of Gorilla. Normally maintenance would seal those internals against things like this, but the techs Wrecker had were doing the bare minimum.)
Unable to see the damage, Lilly could still hear that side twitch. She triggered the winch and wound in the hook, then whipped it as she moved into the damaged side. The lasers drew harsh lines over her armor and more damage went red. Barely holding on but still moving, The Drowned Man hooked a leg and then pulled. Wrecker went to the ground in a titanic thud and splash.
This did not kill Gorilla. It was already attempting to recover. Lilly hit the booster for the first time in combat, and The Drowned Man shifted forward. She aimed the dented sword down and the serrated edge dug into something with a crunch.
Everything went still. Lilly took a deep gulping breaths as she tried to listen for the others, or a sign of Gorilla moving. There was just raindrops though.
"That was the cockpit." It took Lilly a moment to identify the voice. It was Sticks.
The words made no sense for a long moment. "Oh." The girl observed with a word that was more a breath of air than actual voice. Then she remembered her position. "You two want to fight still?"
Her answer was silence and the sound of both mechs stepping back. The funny part was they would probably win if they pushed. More Rat mentality crippling them.
That was to her benefit today though. "Go." Lilly said flatly.
The retreat was slow. Lilly listed to it, and then the rain for a very long time. Was it worth it? She had to wonder. Did she have to do it this way? She waited for movement. Hoping perhaps vainly that she hadn't actually gotten the cockpit. That her father had managed to escape. It'd be more trouble, but some part of her would feel better. There was nothing but rain.
Carefully she turned The Drowned Man back to the mountain base. It would be a bit of a pain to walk all the way blind, but she could and would. Despite it all she was still a Rat wasn't she? Pain and death were part of that life. It was cheap. She hated that fact, but it was a fact. No one here was worth a damned in the eyes of the galaxy. (Except her, and she hated that more.) That was fine though. She'd seize the good parts with both hands and damn the rest of the galaxy in turn if need be.
M015
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Bolt did not see the victory. How could he? Watching mech battles required good sensors and more than a few other things that he had no access to. He'd also been asleep, mostly because his family had hidden some sleeping aids in his drink soon after everything had been finished. The young man had spent an entire week and extra on minimal rest and stimulants, so they'd been justifiably concerned about him staying up any longer.
The mech designer woke up two days after the battle, feeling like absolute shit, but well rested. He was alive at least so he had to assume something went right. He got off the cot with a crack of his back and then groaned as he made his way into the common area.
"Really gotta get a room of my own sometime." The young man grumbled.
"After you're married." His mother commented to him, not even looking up from the spreadsheets on her comm. "Welcome back ta the land of the living."
Bolt blinked several times before his brain actually started. "Ah, Lilly won?" He had to assume that since he was, well there.
"Tore up her mech somethin' fierce, and was quiet for a few hours, so we gotta assume something unpleasant happened, but she did. She perked up after we got it fixed and she's having a bit o' fun with it outside now." The woman frowned. "Did ya do something different with it? It feels different than even the shiny mechs."
"It did come together strange, but about the only difference from Ghoul is that The Drowned Man has actual new parts." Bolt flopped onto a chair and grunted. "Blocks?" He poked at the brick masquerading as food on the table.
"Rations are better, but they're fer storage. We might be able to scrounge a meal-fabricator at some point with the salvage. Lotta people are thinking we might finally be able ta do proper repairs now. The salvage from the battle was a big windfall, and with Lilly we have some good protection. Be a big step up for us."
Bolt paused mid bite at the words before continuing. Actual mechs instead of franken-mechs was certainly ambitious. It was also something that most Wrench Rats didn't do. Not only was it hard, the finished products were expensive enough that most of their clients wouldn't bother, and they ended up being a target when the inevitable war rolled around.
"Your Pa has a few ideas. We need to workshop it still, and it'd require some actual starting capital. Tis why I'm playing spreadsheets instead o' wrenching." The woman waved her comm in emphasis before an incoming text made her look at it again. She went pale.
"Is there a problem?" Bolt sputtered with alarm.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." His mother said reflexively before some color came back. "Ok, your mystery voice came through. I'm calling all hands on deck and getting yer girl back in. We got an honest to god MTA rep here and we ain't going to screw this up. Get your good clothing on, no mask, and be polite." She ordered quickly as she got to her feet and began to practically run out.
Only the fact that Bolt was still pretty burned out at the moment kept him from panicking himself. The Mech Trade Association ruled mechs. They had the best tech, the best people, and the best everything. God himself had less power over them than the MTA did. The only thing worse would be the Common Fleet Association visiting, and they'd not even think about visiting the planet unless they wanted to kill everything on it.
So Bolt made sure he was as presentable as he could be. This was not much unfortunately. A shower and clean clothing. It wasn't much, and the representative probably didn't even notice him. He was too occupied looking at a holographic display in front of him.
Polite, professional, and disinterested. That was the sum total of the man. An offworlder with precisely no interest in anything around him.
"Per regulations we will have to take the mechs or the appropriate parts in question in for a full test, but I can already see that you've kept the neural interface standard and not made any alterations." The man explained as his eyes flicked over the screen. "We'll render a full inspection and return everything within a month, pending your decision on the reward for the mech named The Drowned Man."
"We'll have ta think that part over." Bolt's father said with a slightly awkward shuffle. "Yer just need ta figure out what would be best."
"We are open to negotiations, and your cooperation is noted, but your situation does admittedly make it difficult to properly use our standard payments." The man paused as something came in on his screen. "Ah, I even have another variant of the offer. A complete remodeling of both your front facing shop and main storage. We can remodel it, bring everything up to third rate standards, and even grant you both a shield and an option to upgrade to second rate standards with the appropriate merits. Would that work for you?"
The older man paused with visible shock at the offer. The bureaucrat waited patiently in turn, seemingly well aware that the deal was very tempting. Eventually Bolt's father grimaced.
"Lord knows I'd take that deal if I didn't have to worry about theft and being a big juicy target." Bolt's father eventually said. "And leaving, since I'm sure you'd suggest it, has it's own host of problems." After a moment he took a deep breath. "I will have to default on giving it a day to think and discuss with the family. Sorry fer wasting your time and not giving you an immediate response."
"I do have to be on site to supervise the security of the mechs." The MTA man pointed out with a trace of amusement before continuing in a tone every official used when explaining things. "You have a month before you'd actually be wasting my time. I would suggest you do take into account the fact that making a masterwork mech already places a target on your back. While there is no discernable pattern to creating a masterwork, shops that have done so once become quietly famous to those willing to investigate."
"And with those damned Royals making a mess, we're likely going to be noticed no matter what we do." The leader of the family grit out. "We're gonna be lucky ta just get a missile up-" He cut himself off before he started ranting.
"Commenting on local politics is strongly discouraged by the MTA. While the investigation is going, and in the interest of Candidate Lilly, we will be extending a temporary protection to this area and your facility, consider it an additional unsaid payment." The bureaucrat finally looked up from his screen to glance over the area. "Once the investigation is done the protection will be lifted. I believer you understand what that means."
Bolt's father nodded. The MTA representative turned off his display and began to walk away. Everyone kept a very respectful distance and posture as he did so. They didn't let it go for several minutes after he left.
"What the hell?" Bolt asked once it became clear the encounter was over.
"The Drowned Man was apparently something called a masterwork. Don't know exactly what that means, but it means the thing's valuable somehow. They wanna take it off world. Lilly's also going with it for a bit too. Apparently she wasn't properly tested by her pa, so they want ta do those things together." The older man said as he sagged and rubbed at his forehead. "God above give me strength."
"That sounds horrible." Bolt muttered before an alert to his comm made him look at it.
'I believe your most recent guest verifies that I have fulfilled my promise.' The message came from no number, and the boy swallowed as he realized what that meant. 'On a related matter, and to head off future issues, I would be considered a hidden master by the MTA. They have appropriate protocols in place for that should the topic come up. It is considered rather insulting and carries conations if you mention me casually or for personal benefit, so refrain from it unless needed. There are several monitors in place to alert me if my attention is required, but assume you are on your own as they are for rather specific events, not actions that would result in your death.'
"Got it." The young man breathed into the air.
'We shall go over your current status and how to continue your professional development now. Your current circumstances are relatively rare in that you current lack obligations aside from your family and my task. You also have no backing or support aside from your family. The former is good. The latter is potentially lethal. I shall give you hints on how to rectify this through the following series of actions. Suggest your father take the offer for a remodel.'
Immediately the young man turned up. "Pops, our, er." Bolt paused in mild consternation as to what to say. "Our friend is suggesting that we take the remodel."
The man raised an eyebrow before nodding. "Far be it for me to turn that a suggestion like that down." He said quietly. "When the big man suggests it, we'll do it."
Bolt didn't know whether to laugh or be scared at what was happening. He was getting so much, but it was all done at the tune of someone else. Should he be glad for the help, or worried?
'While that remodeling is happening, you will be invited to accompany Lilly. Accept that offer. You will both be brought to an MTA facility in a nearby nation. Then you will both go through some testing. You will done after two days. She will be testing for six months.'
"Six months?" Bolt repeated. "Wasn't that going to take a month?" He winced as he realized the question could be considered rude.
'It and the protection the MTA offers will be lengthened to six due to internal and external political considerations. Use those six months will be to your advantage. You will be there on the MTA's credit and will be given several paltry rewards to ensure compliance. Exploit them to the best of your ability and look for opportunities. Your test is going to be in making advantages for yourself. As a designer you will often have times where you are not in direct danger but will still need to gather resources while being limited in other ways. This is one of them.'
Bolt nodded rapidly, already willing to do whatever was needed. "Er yes." He said after he realized the person on the other end might not be able to see him.
'Projections indicate that this will be one of the less strenuous times for you, but you would still be wise to grab everything you can. In particular you may be able to find designing contests. Use them to evaluate yourself. Victory or defeat is irrelevant. What you do to learn is irrelevant. Only advancement and your development mean anything. Your only goals should be to use what you have access to to secure your family's future and progress as a designer.'
The young man restrained a hiss but nodded again. "I got it. That's still a lotta pressure."
'You are free to resent me for this. It would be very human. It also does not matter. The cold reality of humanity is that there will always be people with interest in you, and as you grow the number will only increase. Deal with them with the tools provided. I will contact you if you do something notable once more, or advance. Otherwise my actions here have used up the sum total of time I have allotted to you.'
With that message Bolt got the impression the conversation was done. He was sweating he realized. He hadn't even been threatened. It had just been that tense.
The mech designer woke up two days after the battle, feeling like absolute shit, but well rested. He was alive at least so he had to assume something went right. He got off the cot with a crack of his back and then groaned as he made his way into the common area.
"Really gotta get a room of my own sometime." The young man grumbled.
"After you're married." His mother commented to him, not even looking up from the spreadsheets on her comm. "Welcome back ta the land of the living."
Bolt blinked several times before his brain actually started. "Ah, Lilly won?" He had to assume that since he was, well there.
"Tore up her mech somethin' fierce, and was quiet for a few hours, so we gotta assume something unpleasant happened, but she did. She perked up after we got it fixed and she's having a bit o' fun with it outside now." The woman frowned. "Did ya do something different with it? It feels different than even the shiny mechs."
"It did come together strange, but about the only difference from Ghoul is that The Drowned Man has actual new parts." Bolt flopped onto a chair and grunted. "Blocks?" He poked at the brick masquerading as food on the table.
"Rations are better, but they're fer storage. We might be able to scrounge a meal-fabricator at some point with the salvage. Lotta people are thinking we might finally be able ta do proper repairs now. The salvage from the battle was a big windfall, and with Lilly we have some good protection. Be a big step up for us."
Bolt paused mid bite at the words before continuing. Actual mechs instead of franken-mechs was certainly ambitious. It was also something that most Wrench Rats didn't do. Not only was it hard, the finished products were expensive enough that most of their clients wouldn't bother, and they ended up being a target when the inevitable war rolled around.
"Your Pa has a few ideas. We need to workshop it still, and it'd require some actual starting capital. Tis why I'm playing spreadsheets instead o' wrenching." The woman waved her comm in emphasis before an incoming text made her look at it again. She went pale.
"Is there a problem?" Bolt sputtered with alarm.
"Don't talk with your mouth full." His mother said reflexively before some color came back. "Ok, your mystery voice came through. I'm calling all hands on deck and getting yer girl back in. We got an honest to god MTA rep here and we ain't going to screw this up. Get your good clothing on, no mask, and be polite." She ordered quickly as she got to her feet and began to practically run out.
Only the fact that Bolt was still pretty burned out at the moment kept him from panicking himself. The Mech Trade Association ruled mechs. They had the best tech, the best people, and the best everything. God himself had less power over them than the MTA did. The only thing worse would be the Common Fleet Association visiting, and they'd not even think about visiting the planet unless they wanted to kill everything on it.
So Bolt made sure he was as presentable as he could be. This was not much unfortunately. A shower and clean clothing. It wasn't much, and the representative probably didn't even notice him. He was too occupied looking at a holographic display in front of him.
Polite, professional, and disinterested. That was the sum total of the man. An offworlder with precisely no interest in anything around him.
"Per regulations we will have to take the mechs or the appropriate parts in question in for a full test, but I can already see that you've kept the neural interface standard and not made any alterations." The man explained as his eyes flicked over the screen. "We'll render a full inspection and return everything within a month, pending your decision on the reward for the mech named The Drowned Man."
"We'll have ta think that part over." Bolt's father said with a slightly awkward shuffle. "Yer just need ta figure out what would be best."
"We are open to negotiations, and your cooperation is noted, but your situation does admittedly make it difficult to properly use our standard payments." The man paused as something came in on his screen. "Ah, I even have another variant of the offer. A complete remodeling of both your front facing shop and main storage. We can remodel it, bring everything up to third rate standards, and even grant you both a shield and an option to upgrade to second rate standards with the appropriate merits. Would that work for you?"
The older man paused with visible shock at the offer. The bureaucrat waited patiently in turn, seemingly well aware that the deal was very tempting. Eventually Bolt's father grimaced.
"Lord knows I'd take that deal if I didn't have to worry about theft and being a big juicy target." Bolt's father eventually said. "And leaving, since I'm sure you'd suggest it, has it's own host of problems." After a moment he took a deep breath. "I will have to default on giving it a day to think and discuss with the family. Sorry fer wasting your time and not giving you an immediate response."
"I do have to be on site to supervise the security of the mechs." The MTA man pointed out with a trace of amusement before continuing in a tone every official used when explaining things. "You have a month before you'd actually be wasting my time. I would suggest you do take into account the fact that making a masterwork mech already places a target on your back. While there is no discernable pattern to creating a masterwork, shops that have done so once become quietly famous to those willing to investigate."
"And with those damned Royals making a mess, we're likely going to be noticed no matter what we do." The leader of the family grit out. "We're gonna be lucky ta just get a missile up-" He cut himself off before he started ranting.
"Commenting on local politics is strongly discouraged by the MTA. While the investigation is going, and in the interest of Candidate Lilly, we will be extending a temporary protection to this area and your facility, consider it an additional unsaid payment." The bureaucrat finally looked up from his screen to glance over the area. "Once the investigation is done the protection will be lifted. I believer you understand what that means."
Bolt's father nodded. The MTA representative turned off his display and began to walk away. Everyone kept a very respectful distance and posture as he did so. They didn't let it go for several minutes after he left.
"What the hell?" Bolt asked once it became clear the encounter was over.
"The Drowned Man was apparently something called a masterwork. Don't know exactly what that means, but it means the thing's valuable somehow. They wanna take it off world. Lilly's also going with it for a bit too. Apparently she wasn't properly tested by her pa, so they want ta do those things together." The older man said as he sagged and rubbed at his forehead. "God above give me strength."
"That sounds horrible." Bolt muttered before an alert to his comm made him look at it.
'I believe your most recent guest verifies that I have fulfilled my promise.' The message came from no number, and the boy swallowed as he realized what that meant. 'On a related matter, and to head off future issues, I would be considered a hidden master by the MTA. They have appropriate protocols in place for that should the topic come up. It is considered rather insulting and carries conations if you mention me casually or for personal benefit, so refrain from it unless needed. There are several monitors in place to alert me if my attention is required, but assume you are on your own as they are for rather specific events, not actions that would result in your death.'
"Got it." The young man breathed into the air.
'We shall go over your current status and how to continue your professional development now. Your current circumstances are relatively rare in that you current lack obligations aside from your family and my task. You also have no backing or support aside from your family. The former is good. The latter is potentially lethal. I shall give you hints on how to rectify this through the following series of actions. Suggest your father take the offer for a remodel.'
Immediately the young man turned up. "Pops, our, er." Bolt paused in mild consternation as to what to say. "Our friend is suggesting that we take the remodel."
The man raised an eyebrow before nodding. "Far be it for me to turn that a suggestion like that down." He said quietly. "When the big man suggests it, we'll do it."
Bolt didn't know whether to laugh or be scared at what was happening. He was getting so much, but it was all done at the tune of someone else. Should he be glad for the help, or worried?
'While that remodeling is happening, you will be invited to accompany Lilly. Accept that offer. You will both be brought to an MTA facility in a nearby nation. Then you will both go through some testing. You will done after two days. She will be testing for six months.'
"Six months?" Bolt repeated. "Wasn't that going to take a month?" He winced as he realized the question could be considered rude.
'It and the protection the MTA offers will be lengthened to six due to internal and external political considerations. Use those six months will be to your advantage. You will be there on the MTA's credit and will be given several paltry rewards to ensure compliance. Exploit them to the best of your ability and look for opportunities. Your test is going to be in making advantages for yourself. As a designer you will often have times where you are not in direct danger but will still need to gather resources while being limited in other ways. This is one of them.'
Bolt nodded rapidly, already willing to do whatever was needed. "Er yes." He said after he realized the person on the other end might not be able to see him.
'Projections indicate that this will be one of the less strenuous times for you, but you would still be wise to grab everything you can. In particular you may be able to find designing contests. Use them to evaluate yourself. Victory or defeat is irrelevant. What you do to learn is irrelevant. Only advancement and your development mean anything. Your only goals should be to use what you have access to to secure your family's future and progress as a designer.'
The young man restrained a hiss but nodded again. "I got it. That's still a lotta pressure."
'You are free to resent me for this. It would be very human. It also does not matter. The cold reality of humanity is that there will always be people with interest in you, and as you grow the number will only increase. Deal with them with the tools provided. I will contact you if you do something notable once more, or advance. Otherwise my actions here have used up the sum total of time I have allotted to you.'
With that message Bolt got the impression the conversation was done. He was sweating he realized. He hadn't even been threatened. It had just been that tense.
M016
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True to the hidden man's words, Bolt had been invited along, and he'd accepted the offer. You did not refuse the MTA, not if you wanted to win. He didn't resent it. Resentment implied anger at his circumstances. He was mostly still trying to process it all. Also Rats frequently didn't have choices in their life. Placating the more powerful to survive was just a fact of life.
"Hey Bolt, they found Ghoul too! I thought she was going to be left to rust. Instead they gave her to your parents and she's gonna be fixed!" Lilly bounced in the seat with more than a little glee. If the past few days had effected her it was impossible to say.
He wasn't going to press her though, especially here where they were likely under intense surveillance. "That's great to hear!" Bolt responded as he looked around the area. "Though if ya still wanna pilot her we'll probably need to revise the design."
He was probably more than a little uncomfortable despite his attempts at nonchalance. He'd never expected to leave the planet, and on an MTA transport at that. Sure it was an older model used for their sector, but it alone was probably worth more than their entire world. The decoration alone was so expensive that he was afraid to touch it. The seats were plush and comfortable, and there was enough room in just this holding area to build a mech. Most disorientating was that he was alone aside from Lilly. There'd never been a point in his life where he'd not been around at least a few family members.
Lilly hopped up and sat in his lap. "You do gotta relax you know?" She said into his ear.
"Bit hard, and this ain't making it easier." The young man said with a strangled tone as he suddenly recalled more than a few things he'd been putting off for later.
"Why? We're gonna get married soon and we're gonna do more than just this ya know?" The girl teased with a wide grin.
All right, time to address one thing he'd been putting off. "Lilly." Bolt breathed out before reaching down, grabbing her, and throwing her into the a nearby couch in a sudden motion. "Bit fast dear." He stated and leaned forward. "While I like you, and have no objections to the." He fumbled slightly as the idea struck again before continuing. "Marriage, lets actually get to know each other before then ok?"
Rather than looking dismayed the girl looked delighted. "That's perfect, and you have a pet name already! I'm perfectly fine with that, but I do expect a lot of cuddles now. Gimmie." She demanded.
"Fine." Bolt sighed and rolled his eyes as the girl hopped right back over and resettled herself on his lap looking very smug. "So, you were that attached to Ghoul?"
"It's the first mech you made for me. I plan on using a lot more, but I want to keep her." Lilly explained happily.
"As good a reason as any I suppose. What should we do to make her better though. Should probably shift her into a light mech configuration and adjust the weapons. Maybe find a good jump-" The girl poked him hard in the side. "Sorry."
With a giggle Lilly just nuzzled into his shoulder. "Ain't gonna complain about you getting lost in work, just expect me to demand me time when we're together sometimes. Now, I got a question that just occurred to me. What's the name of our planet?"
Bolt restrained a laugh and gave his girl a hug with one arm as he explained. "Oh that's complicated. The thing has five names. One official designation, three others from the nations around it, and what we call it. They like renaming it every time someone controls it a bit before the others grab it. If someone asks, call it G309 or the Rust Bucket. That's what we call it."
"And we're going to a place that won't even know that name." Lilly continued with an amused note in her voice.
"We're going into the Land of Serene Temples." Bolt confirmed with a small eye roll. "I got just the brief history, but they're an offshoot of an old Earth Religion called Buddhism. Really militant and like using spearmen or a local variant they call staffmen. They're the most open of the bunch, sorta. They'll invite people no matter who they are if they agree to fights. They called our place Bloody Karma."
Lilly's good mood dropped. "I remember one other one, Vesia or something like that."
"Ya got the name right. They're a feudal place, currently at war with someone else, dunno who. They like missiles, a lot of them. They're why we call most offworlders royals." Bolt explained before continuing. "The last one, since yer probably going to ask, is Empties. They're another religious offshoot, this one Catholic, but they follow something they called the Third Holy Book. Don't know the details. They're very isolationist. Think the history is they came in with the Buddhists and another group, then split hard over disagreements."
"And they like a weapon type too." The girl noted with a grin.
"Fire apparently. They're also very defensive and apparently the Vesians hate fighting them on their home turf, which is why they go to war with the other saps more often." Bolt gave a shrug. "I dunno much more than that. That's all my lessons on em. Got a few cousins that get really into safe handling for fire, which is why I even got that much."
"More than I got. All I got was they're all nobles and that guy that Poppa sold me to was so fake that it made me ill."
Well that was a loaded statement that Bolt wasn't sure how to process. He changed the subject to something inconsequential. Casual talk meant to pass the time. The ship they were in was an MTA auxiliary ship, so it took only a two days to travel to their destination. Both Lilly and Bolt took that time to relax and de-stress from their most recent trials.
Of mild amusement was that they both used the gym during that time. Bolt was used to hefting a few things around daily so he needed something to be active. Weightlifting turned out to be satisfactory for that and a rather soothing way to think. Lilly worked a lot on her flexibility and using various weapons to practice. It was a surprisingly companionable activity to do together, so they agreed to try to do it more often in the future.
The planet they were aiming for was called Bengalin. It was one of the better developed planets of that nation, filled with stately temples built in old earth Buddhist styles, and other religious icons, it looked more like a tourist spot than anything else. It was clean, just a bit gaudy, and loud. It was also not surprising to note that it had an absolutely thriving mech industry, with arena matches almost hourly somewhere on the planet. There were apparently even fights around temples an added local flavor. Those matches made it a point to deal damage everywhere but the temple.
Put simply, the name of nation was completely and utterly false. The Land of Serene Temples was filled with battle maniacs. Their children were raised up with staves in hand, and their battle lust was notorious. Even outsiders had heard of some of their exploits.
Despite, or perhaps because of this, they were very welcoming to outsiders. If you wanted to fight, you could find someone with a smile on their face ready to fight. If they died in battle? Then ah well, it was a good life. It was probably why Lilly and Bolt had been brought to the MTA facility on this planet. Getting people willing to fight Lilly was far easier here than any other place.
That was mostly a guess by Bolt. He had very little involvement in most of the decisions. In point of fact, soon after he landed, he was directed to a guest room and then ushered into a set of long tests that rather hurt his brain from the thinking required. He didn't get the point of half of them. Some of them were quite obvious tests of his ability. Others were less so. His best guess was that they were educational and cognition checks, but the physical checks were just a bit strange. You didn't say no to the MTA though, so even if it felt silly he went along with all of them.
It took three days before he they were finished with him. Lilly by contrast had started slow and was now spending most of the day piloting various things. Their brief contacts indicated that the MTA had thought her claims of being able to pilot anything an exaggeration and were now trying to test her on that.
Amusing as it was seeing the girl exhausted, it left Bolt fairly free. So he decided that he had to investigate what was available.
"Hey Bolt, they found Ghoul too! I thought she was going to be left to rust. Instead they gave her to your parents and she's gonna be fixed!" Lilly bounced in the seat with more than a little glee. If the past few days had effected her it was impossible to say.
He wasn't going to press her though, especially here where they were likely under intense surveillance. "That's great to hear!" Bolt responded as he looked around the area. "Though if ya still wanna pilot her we'll probably need to revise the design."
He was probably more than a little uncomfortable despite his attempts at nonchalance. He'd never expected to leave the planet, and on an MTA transport at that. Sure it was an older model used for their sector, but it alone was probably worth more than their entire world. The decoration alone was so expensive that he was afraid to touch it. The seats were plush and comfortable, and there was enough room in just this holding area to build a mech. Most disorientating was that he was alone aside from Lilly. There'd never been a point in his life where he'd not been around at least a few family members.
Lilly hopped up and sat in his lap. "You do gotta relax you know?" She said into his ear.
"Bit hard, and this ain't making it easier." The young man said with a strangled tone as he suddenly recalled more than a few things he'd been putting off for later.
"Why? We're gonna get married soon and we're gonna do more than just this ya know?" The girl teased with a wide grin.
All right, time to address one thing he'd been putting off. "Lilly." Bolt breathed out before reaching down, grabbing her, and throwing her into the a nearby couch in a sudden motion. "Bit fast dear." He stated and leaned forward. "While I like you, and have no objections to the." He fumbled slightly as the idea struck again before continuing. "Marriage, lets actually get to know each other before then ok?"
Rather than looking dismayed the girl looked delighted. "That's perfect, and you have a pet name already! I'm perfectly fine with that, but I do expect a lot of cuddles now. Gimmie." She demanded.
"Fine." Bolt sighed and rolled his eyes as the girl hopped right back over and resettled herself on his lap looking very smug. "So, you were that attached to Ghoul?"
"It's the first mech you made for me. I plan on using a lot more, but I want to keep her." Lilly explained happily.
"As good a reason as any I suppose. What should we do to make her better though. Should probably shift her into a light mech configuration and adjust the weapons. Maybe find a good jump-" The girl poked him hard in the side. "Sorry."
With a giggle Lilly just nuzzled into his shoulder. "Ain't gonna complain about you getting lost in work, just expect me to demand me time when we're together sometimes. Now, I got a question that just occurred to me. What's the name of our planet?"
Bolt restrained a laugh and gave his girl a hug with one arm as he explained. "Oh that's complicated. The thing has five names. One official designation, three others from the nations around it, and what we call it. They like renaming it every time someone controls it a bit before the others grab it. If someone asks, call it G309 or the Rust Bucket. That's what we call it."
"And we're going to a place that won't even know that name." Lilly continued with an amused note in her voice.
"We're going into the Land of Serene Temples." Bolt confirmed with a small eye roll. "I got just the brief history, but they're an offshoot of an old Earth Religion called Buddhism. Really militant and like using spearmen or a local variant they call staffmen. They're the most open of the bunch, sorta. They'll invite people no matter who they are if they agree to fights. They called our place Bloody Karma."
Lilly's good mood dropped. "I remember one other one, Vesia or something like that."
"Ya got the name right. They're a feudal place, currently at war with someone else, dunno who. They like missiles, a lot of them. They're why we call most offworlders royals." Bolt explained before continuing. "The last one, since yer probably going to ask, is Empties. They're another religious offshoot, this one Catholic, but they follow something they called the Third Holy Book. Don't know the details. They're very isolationist. Think the history is they came in with the Buddhists and another group, then split hard over disagreements."
"And they like a weapon type too." The girl noted with a grin.
"Fire apparently. They're also very defensive and apparently the Vesians hate fighting them on their home turf, which is why they go to war with the other saps more often." Bolt gave a shrug. "I dunno much more than that. That's all my lessons on em. Got a few cousins that get really into safe handling for fire, which is why I even got that much."
"More than I got. All I got was they're all nobles and that guy that Poppa sold me to was so fake that it made me ill."
Well that was a loaded statement that Bolt wasn't sure how to process. He changed the subject to something inconsequential. Casual talk meant to pass the time. The ship they were in was an MTA auxiliary ship, so it took only a two days to travel to their destination. Both Lilly and Bolt took that time to relax and de-stress from their most recent trials.
Of mild amusement was that they both used the gym during that time. Bolt was used to hefting a few things around daily so he needed something to be active. Weightlifting turned out to be satisfactory for that and a rather soothing way to think. Lilly worked a lot on her flexibility and using various weapons to practice. It was a surprisingly companionable activity to do together, so they agreed to try to do it more often in the future.
The planet they were aiming for was called Bengalin. It was one of the better developed planets of that nation, filled with stately temples built in old earth Buddhist styles, and other religious icons, it looked more like a tourist spot than anything else. It was clean, just a bit gaudy, and loud. It was also not surprising to note that it had an absolutely thriving mech industry, with arena matches almost hourly somewhere on the planet. There were apparently even fights around temples an added local flavor. Those matches made it a point to deal damage everywhere but the temple.
Put simply, the name of nation was completely and utterly false. The Land of Serene Temples was filled with battle maniacs. Their children were raised up with staves in hand, and their battle lust was notorious. Even outsiders had heard of some of their exploits.
Despite, or perhaps because of this, they were very welcoming to outsiders. If you wanted to fight, you could find someone with a smile on their face ready to fight. If they died in battle? Then ah well, it was a good life. It was probably why Lilly and Bolt had been brought to the MTA facility on this planet. Getting people willing to fight Lilly was far easier here than any other place.
That was mostly a guess by Bolt. He had very little involvement in most of the decisions. In point of fact, soon after he landed, he was directed to a guest room and then ushered into a set of long tests that rather hurt his brain from the thinking required. He didn't get the point of half of them. Some of them were quite obvious tests of his ability. Others were less so. His best guess was that they were educational and cognition checks, but the physical checks were just a bit strange. You didn't say no to the MTA though, so even if it felt silly he went along with all of them.
It took three days before he they were finished with him. Lilly by contrast had started slow and was now spending most of the day piloting various things. Their brief contacts indicated that the MTA had thought her claims of being able to pilot anything an exaggeration and were now trying to test her on that.
Amusing as it was seeing the girl exhausted, it left Bolt fairly free. So he decided that he had to investigate what was available.
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Profile of Candidate Lilly, no last name. First Draft.
Name: Lilly, child of Wrecker (Deceased) and Cian Lewin (Alive, current location somewhere in the Farday Coalition, location pending)
Age: 18
Height: 149 CM (4'11'')
Hair Color: Bright Red
Eye Color: Bright Green
Aptitude: A
History: Subject was born on planet 70021-G309, AKA Rust Bucket, AKA Bloody Karma, AKA Shithole, AKA Honor's Graveyard. Current supposition is that the subject's mother produced her due to amusement or as a political statement of sorts. The woman has a history of erratic and self destructive behavior as well as a substance abuse problem. Subject was then left with subject's father, Wrecker, on planet G309. (Can someone please get a proper official name for that planet?)
Wrecker proceeded to raise the subject with as many benefits as a man of his station could allow. He had her tested in a undocumented facility by a black market medic and once he discovered her potential began a series of training exercises while attempting to make her malleable enough to take any order. This task failed.
The subjects father likely blamed the contact the subject made with subject fiancé. First hand testimony indicates that it likely failed soon after she became a teenager. The subject as an notable sensitivity in a variety of contexts, often to an excessive point and had correctly identified attempts to exploit her. She also has a psychosomatic reaction to various mech types, associating some with a cool sensation and others as scratchy, with a notable positive reaction to The Drowned Man. Some of it does appear to be testable, as 'scratchy' mechs have last been touched by technicians with poor attitudes, and cool mechs done by professionals or automation.
The above sensitivity is a known issue some mech pilots have, and typically fades with experience. Subject's sensitivity is on the high end of the scale, and will therefore require further testing. Regardless, the subject has been rated on the upper percentile of potential, and is considered an excellent pilot for her age and experience. She has proven able to pilot any mech configuration, up to and including animal style mechs, and learn to use any weapon with a minimal amount of time.
Were she raised or found earlier, the subject would be a prime candidate for the MTA piloting division due to lack of ties and sheer skill. Unfortunately the effort of both educating her in First Rate Mechs and addressing her flawed upbringing makes this unfeasible. Testing will be extended and then the subject will be returned to her planet of birth.
(Subject's mother used an unknown geneticist to produce her. We are currently unable to locate her or the doctor at this time. While it is not unusual for people to disappear from civilization, this render's the subject's birth highly suspect. Some of her alterations do not make sense. The freckles and short size are just the most obvious. There are a few other internal adjustments, including what appears to be minor dyslexia. Designer children have that removed as a matter of course. Report will be amended once this discrepancy has been addressed.)
Initial Profile of Candidate Fiancé
Name: Bolt Silica, child of two natives of 70021-G309, AKA Rust Bucket, AKA Bloody Karma, AKA Shithole, AKA Honor's Graveyard
Age: 19
Height: 185 CM (6') (Subject shows of still growing)
Hair Color: Dull Red
Eye Color: Brown
Aptitude: None
History: Subject is an aspiring mech designer. Subject has no official education, nor any official backers. Candidate Lilly considers only mechs he designs as fully acceptable and warm by her standards. This psychosomatic response my be associated with her attachment to subject. As there is only one current mech the subject has produced, further testing is impossible and will be placed on hold.
Subject is was born and raised as a technician, and has a paltry level of understanding of various technical tasks. Projected advancement is unlikely, and if so not past Journeyman Mech Designer due to faulty education. The subject is noted as having had created a masterwork mech in their family's workshop, named The Drowned Man. This does indicate possible skill in assembly, but Masterworks have been observed to appear at random in mass production lines as well. There are no other things of note aside from their relationship with Candidate Lilly.
Despite appearance, Subject is not genetically adjusted in any way. They are simply in the upper percentile of strength and size, which is only notable because his profession typically has people not interested in physical fitness. There have been two tests for genetic tampering, and an official analysis from an expert. Further testing is therefore denied. (Once was understandable, twice is just checking. We are people of reason. We are not doing it a third time. Remove this note before the official report is done.)
-Vesia Kingdom in the Selah Household-
Baron Selah set down the report that had recently crossed his desk and took a deep breath. He wasn't naive enough to think that was all of it. It was exactly what the MTA wanted him to see, no more, no less. Spies there existed at their behest and received regular reminders that the MTA knew exactly where they were. This was simply an invitation to play and a reminder of their place. They were at the bottom, but so long as they played by the rules they wouldn't be stepped on. They could even be thrown crumbs if they were good boys. It wasn't worth getting worked up about. They were peasants compared to the MTA, and being angry about that reminder would only hurt him.
His best guess was that this was a vague approval to pursue recruiting Lilly. An A rank potential was a prize worth his entire barony even with the problems that would come with recruiting what amounted to a savage from a wasteland. He had to pursue that no matter what. Failure to do so would at a minimum result in a severe political loss.
The problem was naturally that others would want to pursue her too. Conflict was inevitable. It might have already been started. His third son had taken the household forces to that little bloody planet in that little temper tantrum after all. In retrospect that was likely related to this report and he should have paid more attention to it, but the young man was a grown adult. Fighting there was almost a right of passage for their barony. There was a minor clash there every year sometimes. The boy should have gone over, gotten into a few fights and come limping home in triumph or failure. That would have been the end of it in any other year.
Baron Selah let out his breath and rang a bell. A second later his butler came in, silent and ready to serve. The noble didn't bother to do more than be sure he was present before giving his orders. "Arrange a expedition to Honor's Graveyard. A full battalion. Pack for a long expedition, and assume that those Bloody Monks and the Fanatics will be there as well. Have them ready to deploy there in six months." A few bribes had informed him that the girl would be in evaluation that long, which was good because it allowed him to get his people in place.
The butler bowed. "As you command sir." He said and waited a moment for further orders.
"While that is happening, arrange an accident for my third son. Make it painful, non-lethal, but something that will take time to recover from and force him to return." The Baron continued before frowning and looking back at the incomplete report the MTA had likely gifted him. That second entry felt suspicious somehow. No one cared about novice mech designers. Why had this one been reported? Aside from the attachment, something felt suspicious. "For that expedition, do we usually have Mech Designers with them?"
Still maintaining the bow the butler answered. "I do not have the exact numbers at this time sir. I know we have a single Senior assigned, but not what else sir."
"Then pass this report and note to the senior. Have him evaluate the report." The Baron pushed the report forward on his desk and did a quick write up of what he wanted. "Destroy both papers after he reads them. His eyes only. Pass on anything he believes might be needed, and inform him that he has full permission to request anything. He should be able to identify the value of this."
"It will be done sir."
Once his butler left the Baron settled back in his seat. With the war on the other side of the nation this was risky. Should the other two countries escalate then he'd have nothing to answer them with. The other barons could and would not add their own forces to something like this despite the possible rewards. Conflicts over that blasted planet brought no glory, only pain and bloodshed. Even the prospect of an Expert Pilot wouldn't draw them in.
Fortunately he didn't think it'd come to a full war. That idiot savant of a pilot called the place home. The other nations, should the be interested, wouldn't want to spook her that much. If he was right they were already planning something similar due to a copy of the report he'd just read. Sometimes the MTA was not subtle in what it wanted.
Name: Lilly, child of Wrecker (Deceased) and Cian Lewin (Alive, current location somewhere in the Farday Coalition, location pending)
Age: 18
Height: 149 CM (4'11'')
Hair Color: Bright Red
Eye Color: Bright Green
Aptitude: A
History: Subject was born on planet 70021-G309, AKA Rust Bucket, AKA Bloody Karma, AKA Shithole, AKA Honor's Graveyard. Current supposition is that the subject's mother produced her due to amusement or as a political statement of sorts. The woman has a history of erratic and self destructive behavior as well as a substance abuse problem. Subject was then left with subject's father, Wrecker, on planet G309. (Can someone please get a proper official name for that planet?)
Wrecker proceeded to raise the subject with as many benefits as a man of his station could allow. He had her tested in a undocumented facility by a black market medic and once he discovered her potential began a series of training exercises while attempting to make her malleable enough to take any order. This task failed.
The subjects father likely blamed the contact the subject made with subject fiancé. First hand testimony indicates that it likely failed soon after she became a teenager. The subject as an notable sensitivity in a variety of contexts, often to an excessive point and had correctly identified attempts to exploit her. She also has a psychosomatic reaction to various mech types, associating some with a cool sensation and others as scratchy, with a notable positive reaction to The Drowned Man. Some of it does appear to be testable, as 'scratchy' mechs have last been touched by technicians with poor attitudes, and cool mechs done by professionals or automation.
The above sensitivity is a known issue some mech pilots have, and typically fades with experience. Subject's sensitivity is on the high end of the scale, and will therefore require further testing. Regardless, the subject has been rated on the upper percentile of potential, and is considered an excellent pilot for her age and experience. She has proven able to pilot any mech configuration, up to and including animal style mechs, and learn to use any weapon with a minimal amount of time.
Were she raised or found earlier, the subject would be a prime candidate for the MTA piloting division due to lack of ties and sheer skill. Unfortunately the effort of both educating her in First Rate Mechs and addressing her flawed upbringing makes this unfeasible. Testing will be extended and then the subject will be returned to her planet of birth.
(Subject's mother used an unknown geneticist to produce her. We are currently unable to locate her or the doctor at this time. While it is not unusual for people to disappear from civilization, this render's the subject's birth highly suspect. Some of her alterations do not make sense. The freckles and short size are just the most obvious. There are a few other internal adjustments, including what appears to be minor dyslexia. Designer children have that removed as a matter of course. Report will be amended once this discrepancy has been addressed.)
Initial Profile of Candidate Fiancé
Name: Bolt Silica, child of two natives of 70021-G309, AKA Rust Bucket, AKA Bloody Karma, AKA Shithole, AKA Honor's Graveyard
Age: 19
Height: 185 CM (6') (Subject shows of still growing)
Hair Color: Dull Red
Eye Color: Brown
Aptitude: None
History: Subject is an aspiring mech designer. Subject has no official education, nor any official backers. Candidate Lilly considers only mechs he designs as fully acceptable and warm by her standards. This psychosomatic response my be associated with her attachment to subject. As there is only one current mech the subject has produced, further testing is impossible and will be placed on hold.
Subject is was born and raised as a technician, and has a paltry level of understanding of various technical tasks. Projected advancement is unlikely, and if so not past Journeyman Mech Designer due to faulty education. The subject is noted as having had created a masterwork mech in their family's workshop, named The Drowned Man. This does indicate possible skill in assembly, but Masterworks have been observed to appear at random in mass production lines as well. There are no other things of note aside from their relationship with Candidate Lilly.
Despite appearance, Subject is not genetically adjusted in any way. They are simply in the upper percentile of strength and size, which is only notable because his profession typically has people not interested in physical fitness. There have been two tests for genetic tampering, and an official analysis from an expert. Further testing is therefore denied. (Once was understandable, twice is just checking. We are people of reason. We are not doing it a third time. Remove this note before the official report is done.)
-Vesia Kingdom in the Selah Household-
Baron Selah set down the report that had recently crossed his desk and took a deep breath. He wasn't naive enough to think that was all of it. It was exactly what the MTA wanted him to see, no more, no less. Spies there existed at their behest and received regular reminders that the MTA knew exactly where they were. This was simply an invitation to play and a reminder of their place. They were at the bottom, but so long as they played by the rules they wouldn't be stepped on. They could even be thrown crumbs if they were good boys. It wasn't worth getting worked up about. They were peasants compared to the MTA, and being angry about that reminder would only hurt him.
His best guess was that this was a vague approval to pursue recruiting Lilly. An A rank potential was a prize worth his entire barony even with the problems that would come with recruiting what amounted to a savage from a wasteland. He had to pursue that no matter what. Failure to do so would at a minimum result in a severe political loss.
The problem was naturally that others would want to pursue her too. Conflict was inevitable. It might have already been started. His third son had taken the household forces to that little bloody planet in that little temper tantrum after all. In retrospect that was likely related to this report and he should have paid more attention to it, but the young man was a grown adult. Fighting there was almost a right of passage for their barony. There was a minor clash there every year sometimes. The boy should have gone over, gotten into a few fights and come limping home in triumph or failure. That would have been the end of it in any other year.
Baron Selah let out his breath and rang a bell. A second later his butler came in, silent and ready to serve. The noble didn't bother to do more than be sure he was present before giving his orders. "Arrange a expedition to Honor's Graveyard. A full battalion. Pack for a long expedition, and assume that those Bloody Monks and the Fanatics will be there as well. Have them ready to deploy there in six months." A few bribes had informed him that the girl would be in evaluation that long, which was good because it allowed him to get his people in place.
The butler bowed. "As you command sir." He said and waited a moment for further orders.
"While that is happening, arrange an accident for my third son. Make it painful, non-lethal, but something that will take time to recover from and force him to return." The Baron continued before frowning and looking back at the incomplete report the MTA had likely gifted him. That second entry felt suspicious somehow. No one cared about novice mech designers. Why had this one been reported? Aside from the attachment, something felt suspicious. "For that expedition, do we usually have Mech Designers with them?"
Still maintaining the bow the butler answered. "I do not have the exact numbers at this time sir. I know we have a single Senior assigned, but not what else sir."
"Then pass this report and note to the senior. Have him evaluate the report." The Baron pushed the report forward on his desk and did a quick write up of what he wanted. "Destroy both papers after he reads them. His eyes only. Pass on anything he believes might be needed, and inform him that he has full permission to request anything. He should be able to identify the value of this."
"It will be done sir."
Once his butler left the Baron settled back in his seat. With the war on the other side of the nation this was risky. Should the other two countries escalate then he'd have nothing to answer them with. The other barons could and would not add their own forces to something like this despite the possible rewards. Conflicts over that blasted planet brought no glory, only pain and bloodshed. Even the prospect of an Expert Pilot wouldn't draw them in.
Fortunately he didn't think it'd come to a full war. That idiot savant of a pilot called the place home. The other nations, should the be interested, wouldn't want to spook her that much. If he was right they were already planning something similar due to a copy of the report he'd just read. Sometimes the MTA was not subtle in what it wanted.
M017
New
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- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
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Say what you will about the MTA, but they were generous when it suited them. Doubly so because he'd been invited, or ordered, to come in depending on your viewpoint. They wanted him cooperative, so he'd been showered with a veritable wealth of options. Crumbs from the MTA's viewpoint, but priceless to him. Money, free transport to anywhere on the planet, educational materials, and a room on their facility that had the latest and greatest appliances of a second rate nation.
Of those, the educational materials were the most enthralling, but Bolt decided to limit himself on that. While he could and would pursue them, they were also a bit dangerous for him. They were excellently crafted mind you, but they were designed for aspiring MTA apprentice mech designers. That meant they were applicable to designing first rate mechs, needed enhanced mental abilities, and often assumed very advanced things that had already been taught. The aspiring designer had a sneaking suspicion that they were only allowed because the officials assumed he couldn't parse anything from them. That he could felt like a minor miracle, but he typically had a migraine that could become debilitating if he tried to push to hard.
In an effort to keep busy between lessons Bolt leaned upon another benefit instead. He had access to a high quality simulation pod. This meant he could access online games and sims. Normally that'd be just a frivolous expenditure of time, but one game prided itself on realism, and even the MTA facility admitted that it was used frequently for practice in this sector. Better for Bolt's purposes, it had a functional in game economy that traded mechs.
This sounded silly as a bonus. It was if he'd been looking for something to just pass the time. In truth this was immensely useful to him. Bolt had never actually sold a mech he'd designed. He'd kind of sort of done it for Lilly, but that was Lilly and their unique circumstances. As much as he'd been growing fond of the girl, he had to admit she was a distinctly unique customer. Bolt did not want to be just her designer. Not only was that limiting to him, it'd hurt her progress as well. He'd rather die than cripple her because his abilities were substandard.
Iron Spirit was the name of the game. It was also a game that tried to be as realistic as possible. It didn't always get everything right, and it made some sacrifices for the sake of making it a game, but it tried and succeeded in many respects. As a designer, you designed mechs, you made mechs, and you sold mechs in it. The pilots then piloted those mechs in matches. It had a few other rules to make it fun, but it was very close to real life in many respects.
His biggest complaint as a designer was that everything worked exactly as expected. That was nitpicking and he knew it. He was sure other people didn't have to worry about their printer or winch breaking down during construction. It made things really easy for him at least. After some time familiarizing himself with everything, Bolt was able to replicate Ghoul and The Drowned Man within a day.
This gave him his first annoyance. Or third more accurately. Licensing was two. The young man hadn't actually had to deal with that, and it was expensive! Fortunately the MTA had basically gifted him a small war chest once he'd joined the game, so he could do what he wanted. (Suspicious yes. He wasn't looking too hard.)
His third annoyance was that the closest replica he could make of Ghoul was rated at two stars. The Drowned Man at three. Stars were based on how the mech was assembled and the parts it was made of more than anything else. Since these mechs were using old parts, they got lower ratings. Bolt had a sneaking suspicion that they'd function at a higher level provided you could pilot them, but that could have been his bias talking. He had no idea how non-Lilly people would handle them.
"I should probably revise Ghoul." Bolt mused as he looked over the two mechs to his name.
The Drowned Man was functional enough that he didn't feel as if revising it would be worth it at the moment. Ghoul however was his first real mech, and it showed. She was a nightmarish mess of parts. Her role and form didn't mesh right. Her inbuilt weaponry was bad.
Well, Bolt had the time, and simulations were really good for wild and wacky ideas and changes. All he had to do was slim down the armor some, add boosters, and shift around a few parts for a quick fix. It took a few hours at best. This made her a light mech instead of a medium, but that made her role more obvious and easy to perform, which then made her more accessible. For the weapon problem he reinforced the jaw and teeth and then added a small acid sprayer in the throat. It wouldn't cause serious damage, nor did it have range, but it'd weaken the enemy's armor when used and would provide a surprise. This necessitated an alloy change for the armor on Ghoul so she couldn't hurt herself with her weapon, but she was using the most generic of the generic before so this functionally changed nothing in her performance.
It upped her cost slightly, but still kept her at two stars. That was enough for now in Bolt's opinion. He could add or adjust more later, but he wanted Lilly's opinion before he considered making changes in the real world. This was enough for the game.
Since he had a two star and a three star, Bolt then decided he needed a one star!
This was limiting even for him. He'd made his living on junk mechs. They were typically low profile, low power consumption, low everything. They were made of salvaged parts. You couldn't get good performance from that. One Star mechs in the game almost made them look luxurious. The only good thing about them was that they were cheap. They were meant for beginners ultimately. The new players and the like had to start with one stars and work their way up. It was both incentive and a way of keeping new players from straining themselves with really complicated mechs.
A terrible need filled the young man as he looked over everything. He couldn't do much, but he did already have two undead. Why not a third? This was because of one question and answer. What was the most generic and disposable undead? A zombie!
Now this was easy on the surface. You could make a zombie-like mech easily. There were actually a few very cheap frontline mechs that looked like that already in the game. Bolt didn't want just cheap though, he wanted it to be good too.
Starting from the ground up. Simple frame, simple generator. No boosters at all, this was a deliberate choice this time. Weapon was...
Tricky, tricky. Bolt wanted to be fancy. He'd managed to brush up on his weaponry and he did want to get better at them. He didn't want to bump the cost up too much. Also zombies didn't really use weapons!
Eventually the designer settled on a club. The vision came together more after that. He added extra armor to one shoulder and gave it a sort of swollen appearance. Then he shifted the musculature and how it would move by default. This was a shambling undead that didn't care about appearances. He wanted to lurch towards his enemy!
Zombie would move with the heavy armored shoulder forward and shamble a bit. The club would stay behind and be a bit concealed. Also drag slightly. It was basically a blunt metal bar. It wouldn't be damaged by that. Theme was more important here. Bolt didn't want just a mech, he wanted a zombie mech. It required some serious work on the programming and the skeleton to make it look just right, but the effect was worth it.
Bolt wanted this functional too though. All of this movement was good for the outward appearance but it could cause issues if he didn't specifically account for it. So he made sure the muscles were properly defined and smoothed out the targeting system so that the mech could swing the club just right despite the awkward angle it would frequently be in. The simulations indicated that the strike would have a terrific wallop, so Bolt felt satisfied with his work on the first pass. Zombie wouldn't be elegant, but the brute force had it's own charm.
There was one problem though. The mech lacked an answer to range and kiting. It was not fast enough to handle most of that. The deliberate low cost and focus on theme gave him a decidedly average movement speed compared to other mechs. He'd made sure the mech could sprint some to make it unpredictable, but it wasn't going to win speed contests.
His decision came after a bit of thought. "You know what? This is kind of a joke mech anyway." The young man scrolled through available parts and found a very big and free bomb.
He then placed it in the head and added a few small thrusters. There, perfect! If all else failed, you could throw the head at them! (Bolt added a backup sensor to make it so that the mech wasn't totally blind when this happened. Part of what made this funny was that it was still functional.)
Assembling his little joke was honestly a joy. The simple parts made it easy to put together, and he had a particular bit of entertainment in detailing Zombie to look very zombie like. Green painting with little details to make it look a bit decayed. He even added a speaker to do a loud zombie moan at the end. This was a proper undead monster.
Bolt finished far too satisfied with himself. It almost made up for the fact that it only occurred to him after he placed the mechs on the market that he had no idea how Iron Soul's markets actually worked! Would he sell instantly or something else? How did advertising work?
"Shit." The mech designer cursed to himself as he realized he had an entirely new thing to educate himself on.
Of those, the educational materials were the most enthralling, but Bolt decided to limit himself on that. While he could and would pursue them, they were also a bit dangerous for him. They were excellently crafted mind you, but they were designed for aspiring MTA apprentice mech designers. That meant they were applicable to designing first rate mechs, needed enhanced mental abilities, and often assumed very advanced things that had already been taught. The aspiring designer had a sneaking suspicion that they were only allowed because the officials assumed he couldn't parse anything from them. That he could felt like a minor miracle, but he typically had a migraine that could become debilitating if he tried to push to hard.
In an effort to keep busy between lessons Bolt leaned upon another benefit instead. He had access to a high quality simulation pod. This meant he could access online games and sims. Normally that'd be just a frivolous expenditure of time, but one game prided itself on realism, and even the MTA facility admitted that it was used frequently for practice in this sector. Better for Bolt's purposes, it had a functional in game economy that traded mechs.
This sounded silly as a bonus. It was if he'd been looking for something to just pass the time. In truth this was immensely useful to him. Bolt had never actually sold a mech he'd designed. He'd kind of sort of done it for Lilly, but that was Lilly and their unique circumstances. As much as he'd been growing fond of the girl, he had to admit she was a distinctly unique customer. Bolt did not want to be just her designer. Not only was that limiting to him, it'd hurt her progress as well. He'd rather die than cripple her because his abilities were substandard.
Iron Spirit was the name of the game. It was also a game that tried to be as realistic as possible. It didn't always get everything right, and it made some sacrifices for the sake of making it a game, but it tried and succeeded in many respects. As a designer, you designed mechs, you made mechs, and you sold mechs in it. The pilots then piloted those mechs in matches. It had a few other rules to make it fun, but it was very close to real life in many respects.
His biggest complaint as a designer was that everything worked exactly as expected. That was nitpicking and he knew it. He was sure other people didn't have to worry about their printer or winch breaking down during construction. It made things really easy for him at least. After some time familiarizing himself with everything, Bolt was able to replicate Ghoul and The Drowned Man within a day.
This gave him his first annoyance. Or third more accurately. Licensing was two. The young man hadn't actually had to deal with that, and it was expensive! Fortunately the MTA had basically gifted him a small war chest once he'd joined the game, so he could do what he wanted. (Suspicious yes. He wasn't looking too hard.)
His third annoyance was that the closest replica he could make of Ghoul was rated at two stars. The Drowned Man at three. Stars were based on how the mech was assembled and the parts it was made of more than anything else. Since these mechs were using old parts, they got lower ratings. Bolt had a sneaking suspicion that they'd function at a higher level provided you could pilot them, but that could have been his bias talking. He had no idea how non-Lilly people would handle them.
"I should probably revise Ghoul." Bolt mused as he looked over the two mechs to his name.
The Drowned Man was functional enough that he didn't feel as if revising it would be worth it at the moment. Ghoul however was his first real mech, and it showed. She was a nightmarish mess of parts. Her role and form didn't mesh right. Her inbuilt weaponry was bad.
Well, Bolt had the time, and simulations were really good for wild and wacky ideas and changes. All he had to do was slim down the armor some, add boosters, and shift around a few parts for a quick fix. It took a few hours at best. This made her a light mech instead of a medium, but that made her role more obvious and easy to perform, which then made her more accessible. For the weapon problem he reinforced the jaw and teeth and then added a small acid sprayer in the throat. It wouldn't cause serious damage, nor did it have range, but it'd weaken the enemy's armor when used and would provide a surprise. This necessitated an alloy change for the armor on Ghoul so she couldn't hurt herself with her weapon, but she was using the most generic of the generic before so this functionally changed nothing in her performance.
It upped her cost slightly, but still kept her at two stars. That was enough for now in Bolt's opinion. He could add or adjust more later, but he wanted Lilly's opinion before he considered making changes in the real world. This was enough for the game.
Since he had a two star and a three star, Bolt then decided he needed a one star!
This was limiting even for him. He'd made his living on junk mechs. They were typically low profile, low power consumption, low everything. They were made of salvaged parts. You couldn't get good performance from that. One Star mechs in the game almost made them look luxurious. The only good thing about them was that they were cheap. They were meant for beginners ultimately. The new players and the like had to start with one stars and work their way up. It was both incentive and a way of keeping new players from straining themselves with really complicated mechs.
A terrible need filled the young man as he looked over everything. He couldn't do much, but he did already have two undead. Why not a third? This was because of one question and answer. What was the most generic and disposable undead? A zombie!
Now this was easy on the surface. You could make a zombie-like mech easily. There were actually a few very cheap frontline mechs that looked like that already in the game. Bolt didn't want just cheap though, he wanted it to be good too.
Starting from the ground up. Simple frame, simple generator. No boosters at all, this was a deliberate choice this time. Weapon was...
Tricky, tricky. Bolt wanted to be fancy. He'd managed to brush up on his weaponry and he did want to get better at them. He didn't want to bump the cost up too much. Also zombies didn't really use weapons!
Eventually the designer settled on a club. The vision came together more after that. He added extra armor to one shoulder and gave it a sort of swollen appearance. Then he shifted the musculature and how it would move by default. This was a shambling undead that didn't care about appearances. He wanted to lurch towards his enemy!
Zombie would move with the heavy armored shoulder forward and shamble a bit. The club would stay behind and be a bit concealed. Also drag slightly. It was basically a blunt metal bar. It wouldn't be damaged by that. Theme was more important here. Bolt didn't want just a mech, he wanted a zombie mech. It required some serious work on the programming and the skeleton to make it look just right, but the effect was worth it.
Bolt wanted this functional too though. All of this movement was good for the outward appearance but it could cause issues if he didn't specifically account for it. So he made sure the muscles were properly defined and smoothed out the targeting system so that the mech could swing the club just right despite the awkward angle it would frequently be in. The simulations indicated that the strike would have a terrific wallop, so Bolt felt satisfied with his work on the first pass. Zombie wouldn't be elegant, but the brute force had it's own charm.
There was one problem though. The mech lacked an answer to range and kiting. It was not fast enough to handle most of that. The deliberate low cost and focus on theme gave him a decidedly average movement speed compared to other mechs. He'd made sure the mech could sprint some to make it unpredictable, but it wasn't going to win speed contests.
His decision came after a bit of thought. "You know what? This is kind of a joke mech anyway." The young man scrolled through available parts and found a very big and free bomb.
He then placed it in the head and added a few small thrusters. There, perfect! If all else failed, you could throw the head at them! (Bolt added a backup sensor to make it so that the mech wasn't totally blind when this happened. Part of what made this funny was that it was still functional.)
Assembling his little joke was honestly a joy. The simple parts made it easy to put together, and he had a particular bit of entertainment in detailing Zombie to look very zombie like. Green painting with little details to make it look a bit decayed. He even added a speaker to do a loud zombie moan at the end. This was a proper undead monster.
Bolt finished far too satisfied with himself. It almost made up for the fact that it only occurred to him after he placed the mechs on the market that he had no idea how Iron Soul's markets actually worked! Would he sell instantly or something else? How did advertising work?
"Shit." The mech designer cursed to himself as he realized he had an entirely new thing to educate himself on.
M018
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
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- 449,352
Bolt was a sweety. Lilly wasn't shy about admitting that. She still got surprised when he decided to give her something! She hadn't even heard of this whole video game stuff, and once he'd found out he'd literally had to spend a few hours helping her get through it due to her lack of ability to read. Now here she was in a place where she could kill for fun with absolutely no consequences at all. Or more correctly, no real world consequences. Some people would rage and protest and all that.
Not her though. This was mostly a break from the testing and stupidity that the MTA was making her go through. Yes she was an expect candidate, yes could pilot anything, no she wasn't exaggerating. All the mechs felt so cold or scratchy too. It was enough to make her actually irritated towards the end of the day despite her desire to be on her best behavior. The VR stuff was rather soothing in contrast, and Bolt's creations still felt nice even through the muffled feeling that VR gave her. Not as good as actually piloting his stuff, but still good.
Imagine, the boy has actually meant to give her a discount! Not only was that silly, he had to have the money to make more mechs. She could earn plenty by winning.
Though that was a bit hard with Zombie. Not that he was a bad mech, just that he was a low tier mech. There was only so much you could do with low level parts and performance despite your skill. If he ever got above his star class the poor guy would lose every advantage that made it possible to win. He was hilarious enough that it didn't matter much admittedly. You could get some surprising wins just because of how unexpected his entire design was.
"So, ah, you're local right?" Lilly asked her current opponent as he approached, staff raised up to fight.
"What sort of question is that? And what is this ugly thing in front of me?" The probable teenager replied.
"This is Zombie, and really, I'm just starting so I asked. Dunno the rules that well." Lilly shifted Zombie such that the armored shoulder was forward.
"Of course, a zombie mech named zombie, original." The mild disgust from the guy was actually a bit entertaining. "If you wish to waste both our time with a joke then so be it." The man shifted his staff mech and swung.
The local variants had started off rather amusing but had gotten kind of stale in Lilly's opinion. About half her opponents had some sort of staffman. It was interesting at first, but there were only about ten popular types of that sort of mech at the level she was at currently and they were all very similar. There were only so many ways you could swing a staff and the parts available at one stars meant you could do practically nothing interesting equipment wise.
Case in point, she could tell just based on how his feet were where he was aiming and she knew he had no other tricks so she just had to position properly. Zombie's shoulder just happened to be in the right way to block the strike and then the staff went clang as it hit the most heavily armored portion of the mech. The metal dented and her mech itself shifted form the force of the blow, but it was mostly cosmetic damage. In return her club came round and the staffman couldn't even block it as out of position as it was. Which was bad for, because unlike the staffman's more precise and controlled strikes, Zombie had been built to swing hard in one or two directions. It might have been predictable, but if you got a good hit there was going to be some sort of damage.
In this case, one good strike had basically broke his stance and parts of his mech. The mech wasn't so poorly built that it'd die from one strike, but the damage was enough for her to decide that it was time for the best part.
"Don't lose your head over this." Lilly called out.
The teenage pilot had a moment to question her words before her own head tumbled off towards him and then went flying like a missile mid drop. Like every other time it had happened the opponent had no idea what was going on, that is until the hidden weapon exploded right on top of him. Bolt had packed a monstrous amount of explosive ordnance in the appendage so a good hit typically ranged from a kill to a disable. That was what happened here. The already staggered mech was blasted to the ground and all that was left to club him.
"That's my job!" The young woman fished her joke while giggling at the bad joke and finishing her opponent off.
Another win. She had one or two more matches before she had to go to bed. Or maybe bug Bolt first and demand more cuddles. That was important to maintain.
The next match was in an arena. Mildly boring. Her opponent wasn't any of the sort though. It was another zombie! Lilly felt her eyes widen.
"Oh my god, someone else got one already?!" She practically shouted.
Her opponent paused and the young voice responded back with a bit of shyness. "Ah, yes." The young boy said. "Yeah, it looked uh fun when you did it?" He continued. "I didn't expect to fight you again so soon." They continued in a lower and more embarrassed tone.
"We're going to be friends after I beat you." Lilly immediately threatened.
"Oh, ah, umm." The mech twitched from the pilot's obvious uncertainty before he steadied himself and then threw his head at Lilly suddenly and without warning.
"Haha that's the spirit!" Lilly activated the boosters on her own Zombie's head and the two heads collided in midair to explode in a duel annihilation. Then she charged forward and met her opponent midpoint in the arena.
What followed next was less skill and more clubbing. Zombie wouldn't win many rewards for many things. He hit hard and had a funny explosion thing, that was about it. Without the head he'd be kind of boring really. With it he was entertaining. Also, sometimes you just wanted to hit something with a big stick and damn the consequences. Zombie was very, very good at that, and he could take a surprising amount of damage before he went down thanks to his simplicity and armored shoulder. Two of them fighting against one another was felt like a pair of primitives hitting each other with clubs than a mech battle though. Which was actually pretty cathartic, Lilly wasn't going to lie.
It became even more fun when she got friended the kid, who's name was Jun. Getting him and his friends to get zombies too and doing a zombie horde on five vs five teamplay was probably the most fun she'd ever had. It only won about half the time, and that was frequently because of her, but it was always hilarious. There was something funny about throwing five heads through the air at enemies. They always got so surprised at the action they couldn't respond in time and it always took out at least one foe. Once they even managed to get four of them at once!
Lilly got so into it that she missed cuddle time with her boy-toy and ended up having less sleep for the next series of testing. Not that the latter mattered much. Right now she was going through practice in animal mechs. Mostly just them trying to push her limits in her opinion. She liked dog mechs the best out of all of them, but bird mechs were a close second. If she ever got more than a few hours worth of practice she would probably have liked them more. Flying mechs were the closest she'd come to not being able to pilot something she found. She could, but she needed actual practice.
That discovery left her irritated, but only mildly so. She'd have to find a bird mech to practice eventually. She was still pleased enough to find Bolt during his studying and give him a poke. And then a cuddle from the back.
"I got to play through your new mech! Zombie's... Interesting." Lilly said into his ear and grinned at his shiver.
Bolt carefully set down the comm and the material he was looking through. "I was wondering why I'd seen a few sales. How'd ya like it?"
"In real life it'd be a failure. In game it works. It's a plodding target in open areas, but it's easy to use which is more than can be said for a lot of mechs. Once it closes in it's on par with melee mechs while it's shoulder armor lasts, and the head thing is hilarious. I made so many jokes." The pilot responded seriously before she continued in a more chipper tone. "I should rank up soon and be able to use Ghoul, then onto The Drowned Man. Those two are probably enough to get higher, where there's more team fighting." Lilly trailed off as something occurred to her. "How would that misty thing work if there were a lot of Drowned Men?"
It took a moment for the designer to think on it before he answered. "It should be able to run in moderate rain for about a day, but mist is less dense. Assuming they're closer together they'd increase endurance by a few minutes. There's too many variables to say how much though. A noticeable amount at least."
Now she had something she wanted to try. It shouldn't be hard. It might require some more online friends, but those were relatively easy to get. Potential experts were rather lauded in game apparently and she was flashy and obvious enough that even amateurs could spot her talent.
"So now I want to do an undead horde using what you've made." Lilly told Bolt as she began to plot things out. "Think you could make another one for that? We got decent coverage but we'd need a bit more of something."
Bolt gave a small chuckle as he closed his eyes in thought. "It's possible. I have enough for a four star that I was planning on. After that I'd need more sales though. I was looking through how to do advertising, but that all requires money, reputation, or familiarity with the local scene. To be honest once I made the four star I was going to show you and stop."
"Oh why?" Lilly did not pout at the fact her new toy was already going to go away.
She didn't turn down the hug that he gave her before he responded. "It's good for learning a few things, but it's not reality, and we have too much to do."
That was admittedly true. Once they returned home they'd likely get right back into conflict. This felt like more of a vacation from everything than a chore, despite the extensive amount of piloting she had to do.
"A four star now, then a five star when you get more sales." Lilly demanded.
"You got it." Bolt promised easily.
Not her though. This was mostly a break from the testing and stupidity that the MTA was making her go through. Yes she was an expect candidate, yes could pilot anything, no she wasn't exaggerating. All the mechs felt so cold or scratchy too. It was enough to make her actually irritated towards the end of the day despite her desire to be on her best behavior. The VR stuff was rather soothing in contrast, and Bolt's creations still felt nice even through the muffled feeling that VR gave her. Not as good as actually piloting his stuff, but still good.
Imagine, the boy has actually meant to give her a discount! Not only was that silly, he had to have the money to make more mechs. She could earn plenty by winning.
Though that was a bit hard with Zombie. Not that he was a bad mech, just that he was a low tier mech. There was only so much you could do with low level parts and performance despite your skill. If he ever got above his star class the poor guy would lose every advantage that made it possible to win. He was hilarious enough that it didn't matter much admittedly. You could get some surprising wins just because of how unexpected his entire design was.
"So, ah, you're local right?" Lilly asked her current opponent as he approached, staff raised up to fight.
"What sort of question is that? And what is this ugly thing in front of me?" The probable teenager replied.
"This is Zombie, and really, I'm just starting so I asked. Dunno the rules that well." Lilly shifted Zombie such that the armored shoulder was forward.
"Of course, a zombie mech named zombie, original." The mild disgust from the guy was actually a bit entertaining. "If you wish to waste both our time with a joke then so be it." The man shifted his staff mech and swung.
The local variants had started off rather amusing but had gotten kind of stale in Lilly's opinion. About half her opponents had some sort of staffman. It was interesting at first, but there were only about ten popular types of that sort of mech at the level she was at currently and they were all very similar. There were only so many ways you could swing a staff and the parts available at one stars meant you could do practically nothing interesting equipment wise.
Case in point, she could tell just based on how his feet were where he was aiming and she knew he had no other tricks so she just had to position properly. Zombie's shoulder just happened to be in the right way to block the strike and then the staff went clang as it hit the most heavily armored portion of the mech. The metal dented and her mech itself shifted form the force of the blow, but it was mostly cosmetic damage. In return her club came round and the staffman couldn't even block it as out of position as it was. Which was bad for, because unlike the staffman's more precise and controlled strikes, Zombie had been built to swing hard in one or two directions. It might have been predictable, but if you got a good hit there was going to be some sort of damage.
In this case, one good strike had basically broke his stance and parts of his mech. The mech wasn't so poorly built that it'd die from one strike, but the damage was enough for her to decide that it was time for the best part.
"Don't lose your head over this." Lilly called out.
The teenage pilot had a moment to question her words before her own head tumbled off towards him and then went flying like a missile mid drop. Like every other time it had happened the opponent had no idea what was going on, that is until the hidden weapon exploded right on top of him. Bolt had packed a monstrous amount of explosive ordnance in the appendage so a good hit typically ranged from a kill to a disable. That was what happened here. The already staggered mech was blasted to the ground and all that was left to club him.
"That's my job!" The young woman fished her joke while giggling at the bad joke and finishing her opponent off.
Another win. She had one or two more matches before she had to go to bed. Or maybe bug Bolt first and demand more cuddles. That was important to maintain.
The next match was in an arena. Mildly boring. Her opponent wasn't any of the sort though. It was another zombie! Lilly felt her eyes widen.
"Oh my god, someone else got one already?!" She practically shouted.
Her opponent paused and the young voice responded back with a bit of shyness. "Ah, yes." The young boy said. "Yeah, it looked uh fun when you did it?" He continued. "I didn't expect to fight you again so soon." They continued in a lower and more embarrassed tone.
"We're going to be friends after I beat you." Lilly immediately threatened.
"Oh, ah, umm." The mech twitched from the pilot's obvious uncertainty before he steadied himself and then threw his head at Lilly suddenly and without warning.
"Haha that's the spirit!" Lilly activated the boosters on her own Zombie's head and the two heads collided in midair to explode in a duel annihilation. Then she charged forward and met her opponent midpoint in the arena.
What followed next was less skill and more clubbing. Zombie wouldn't win many rewards for many things. He hit hard and had a funny explosion thing, that was about it. Without the head he'd be kind of boring really. With it he was entertaining. Also, sometimes you just wanted to hit something with a big stick and damn the consequences. Zombie was very, very good at that, and he could take a surprising amount of damage before he went down thanks to his simplicity and armored shoulder. Two of them fighting against one another was felt like a pair of primitives hitting each other with clubs than a mech battle though. Which was actually pretty cathartic, Lilly wasn't going to lie.
It became even more fun when she got friended the kid, who's name was Jun. Getting him and his friends to get zombies too and doing a zombie horde on five vs five teamplay was probably the most fun she'd ever had. It only won about half the time, and that was frequently because of her, but it was always hilarious. There was something funny about throwing five heads through the air at enemies. They always got so surprised at the action they couldn't respond in time and it always took out at least one foe. Once they even managed to get four of them at once!
Lilly got so into it that she missed cuddle time with her boy-toy and ended up having less sleep for the next series of testing. Not that the latter mattered much. Right now she was going through practice in animal mechs. Mostly just them trying to push her limits in her opinion. She liked dog mechs the best out of all of them, but bird mechs were a close second. If she ever got more than a few hours worth of practice she would probably have liked them more. Flying mechs were the closest she'd come to not being able to pilot something she found. She could, but she needed actual practice.
That discovery left her irritated, but only mildly so. She'd have to find a bird mech to practice eventually. She was still pleased enough to find Bolt during his studying and give him a poke. And then a cuddle from the back.
"I got to play through your new mech! Zombie's... Interesting." Lilly said into his ear and grinned at his shiver.
Bolt carefully set down the comm and the material he was looking through. "I was wondering why I'd seen a few sales. How'd ya like it?"
"In real life it'd be a failure. In game it works. It's a plodding target in open areas, but it's easy to use which is more than can be said for a lot of mechs. Once it closes in it's on par with melee mechs while it's shoulder armor lasts, and the head thing is hilarious. I made so many jokes." The pilot responded seriously before she continued in a more chipper tone. "I should rank up soon and be able to use Ghoul, then onto The Drowned Man. Those two are probably enough to get higher, where there's more team fighting." Lilly trailed off as something occurred to her. "How would that misty thing work if there were a lot of Drowned Men?"
It took a moment for the designer to think on it before he answered. "It should be able to run in moderate rain for about a day, but mist is less dense. Assuming they're closer together they'd increase endurance by a few minutes. There's too many variables to say how much though. A noticeable amount at least."
Now she had something she wanted to try. It shouldn't be hard. It might require some more online friends, but those were relatively easy to get. Potential experts were rather lauded in game apparently and she was flashy and obvious enough that even amateurs could spot her talent.
"So now I want to do an undead horde using what you've made." Lilly told Bolt as she began to plot things out. "Think you could make another one for that? We got decent coverage but we'd need a bit more of something."
Bolt gave a small chuckle as he closed his eyes in thought. "It's possible. I have enough for a four star that I was planning on. After that I'd need more sales though. I was looking through how to do advertising, but that all requires money, reputation, or familiarity with the local scene. To be honest once I made the four star I was going to show you and stop."
"Oh why?" Lilly did not pout at the fact her new toy was already going to go away.
She didn't turn down the hug that he gave her before he responded. "It's good for learning a few things, but it's not reality, and we have too much to do."
That was admittedly true. Once they returned home they'd likely get right back into conflict. This felt like more of a vacation from everything than a chore, despite the extensive amount of piloting she had to do.
"A four star now, then a five star when you get more sales." Lilly demanded.
"You got it." Bolt promised easily.
M019
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Four star mechs were just a tad below actually viable mechs. Outside the game, this meant they were old stuff, but they were old stuff within generational memory. The exact definition didn't matter to him ultimately. Bolt was doing this as practice and a thought exercise. He would need to seriously revise everything if he wanted them to be actually viable products on a live market. Which admittedly wasn't something he planned anytime soon. Ghoul had been able to technically fight non-modern mechs, but that was because he'd salvaged a lot of her parts from more recent mechs and Lilly was a spectacular pilot. In game it was fairly rated as a two star once he'd ironed out the licensing issues.
The question was, what did he want to do for this? Lilly had the funny idea of making an undead legion, so Bolt was going to keep on working within that theme. It was entertaining and another way of practicing. What sort of undead did he want though? A vampire didn't scream four star. A ghost would be a pain in the rear since he'd have to get into stealth to do it justice, and that would be painful to do with the restrictions he had and his current education on them.
He was going at this incorrectly. The other mechs hadn't been designed to work well together. That was just a happy coincidence. Ghoul's enhanced sensors could see through The Drowned Man's mist, and Zombie really just needed an enemy close. What was needed to tie it all together? Something ranged in Bolt's opinion. Something that would punish you if you kept outside the mist. Ranged would be good, but that didn't feel undead like. Also he wanted something else.
What else was there that made you want to attack? Visualizing the scene, there would be Drowned Men in the mist, Ghouls on the outside prowling, Zombies being numbers and walls. What would make this more like a horror show? The answer was pretty obvious in retrospect. Static on the comms.
This would require that Bolt dabble in sensory and communication tech. ECM tech more properly. A mech that made communication hard combined with The Drowned Man would work. He could even use the ECM's secondary function to link up sensors so that everyone could see through it! ECMs had to link to other mechs to keep allies communications open, so all he'd need to do was piggyback on that some. It'd require some programming and some study on ECM, but Bolt believed it was feasible.
Inspired, the young man immediately got to work. Education first. He completely ignored the standard virtual classroom and went with text only. The scrolling literature would likely have daunted another person, but he was looking for specific things. Purpose, implementation, history, all of this was useful, but he wanted the practical. What worked and didn't for ECM. What to look for in a device.
Even cutting out most of that the density was enough to give him a headache. He endured long enough to get what he wanted before returning to the game interface. The stuff in Iron Spirit was all old, so he didn't need to get into modern details. He'd do more review later. The narrow focus significantly cut down on what he needed to know, and he learned best in practical situations anyway. Rooting through the appropriate parts for a four star mech, Bolt found something interesting after a few pages of results.
ECM was a power hog. It was one of the largest drains for singular equipment possible, with energy weapons and cloaking being the second most common large consumers. One guy had gotten the idea of offloading some of that by creating small emplacements that could be stuck into the ground. The part hadn't been popular for a variety of reasons. The emplacements weren't particular long lasting, they had short range, and they ended up being another form of ammo to carry on a mech typically very limited on that.
Bolt could use it's unique features to further the theme though. Purchasing the combo parts he started to design as a plan came together. He tweaked the emplacements to look like graveyard tokens and made the bottom sharp. Some creative adjustment to the power lines and it could theoretically feed off a downed mech. It wouldn't extend the life that long, but it was amusing! That gave him the outline for the rest of the mech. This was a mech that made graveyards.
Of course that was just the preliminary steps. The actual mech needed to be made. Building around the ECM meant light was right out. Medium was his default, but he felt as if heavy would be better in this instance. It was both good practice and felt fitting. This guy wasn't one to leap around. He plodded and did his tasks slowly and deliberately. ECM mechs needed some sort of heavy defense too so a lot of armor was fine for this. The additional space gave him options as well. Bolt could use one of the bulkier computers in the innards, and then could upgrade the communication protocols so that it could pull everything together. This was normally the domain of mechs specialized for communication, but those were typically for a good thousand or so mechs. This would be good for maybe a hundred. Theoretically past that the mech would have to pick and chose who it pulled from, but that'd be in the domain of real world battle numbers, not in game battle numbers.
Mech design could often be described as balancing a budget. Each part cost a certain amount of weight, energy, and space. This one in particular was stretching Bolt's limits of balance, as simple as the design was in theory. He was enjoying himself though, going through everything quickly and firming the design over the next few days.
This was not a solo mech, and so since it wasn't Bolt decided to arm it like one. He decided to look for the physically largest cannon the thing could hold. There were more than a few options, but one in particular got his attention.
More an unholy combination of mortar and cannon, the device had a specialist ammo that was meant for law enforcement. It shot out goo bombs. A quick peek at history told him that it had fallen out of favor due to various factors, up to and including the fact that modern mechs could just break it in a few seconds nowadays. The part itself and the custom ammo was very cheap as a result. It was perfect for Bolt's needs!
Buying it, he tweaked the formula some to make it green and caustic. This wouldn't really disable mechs, but it would degrade their armor and all the bits outside. It also looked entertaining. Better still, it didn't need much power compared to the power hungry ECM.
After all of this was the details. He made the thing look like it was wrapped in a cloak, added a glowing eyes, and shaped the weapon to look like a coffin. Some work on the arms to make them compatible with an cannoneer type mech and Bolt was basically finished. Mostly.
Stepping back, Bolt gave the mech a once over and ran it through the simulators in the game. They weren't that good, but they could spot obvious issues that he'd missed.
One was boosters, which he'd forgotten again and could remedy on the final pass. The other was that the weapon was turning out to be rather anemic despite how heavy it was. He hadn't and couldn't upgrade the caustic factor enough to be actually debilitating without making the goo act like water instead of stick. This was actually very bad. A heavy had to have something that made it worthwhile as a heavy, otherwise it was a waste of metal. The ECM wasn't enough without some sort of armaments that made the mech useful. He could shift it to a medium, but that felt like admitting failure.
Grumbling, Bolt switched to look up chemistry. This was a complicated topic that he really, really didn't have time to get into. Adding a caustic effect and changing the color was easy. He wanted something else. Make it flammable? There were napalm munitions for the cannon that worked better. He'd do it if necessary. Coloring the flame wouldn't be that bad as an alternative. He didn't want that for this guy though. He wanted something that would put the enemy in a grave, not burn them to death.
How about the opposite direction then? Endothermic instead of exothermic? Mechs constantly had to deal with heat, but they did not like too much cold either. They specifically didn't like it in their joints. The goo the cannon shot would get into the joints right? It should.
This involved far too much tweaking of the chemical reactions to make Bolt happy, but the end result made it worth the extra time and late night study sessions. The goo stuck to the mech and emitted a misty byproduct while flash cooling the areas it touched. Some more additives made it cause even more mist. It also made the goo more slick than sticky, but that made it a lingering disability instead of an immediate and easily broken restraint.
Theoretically one could hit them with the cannon and wait a few seconds as the cooling effect jammed up their internals. A full blast from the cannon would blind, slow, and weaken a mech enough that you could just stab them with one of the ECM grave tokens. That would both power the ECM deployment and mission kill the mech.
For practicality, Bolt added different shells for the cannon. Modified flechette shots, explosive, and napalm shells on a bandoleer. The pilot could decide on the exact layout. Additional ammo was cheap. This wasn't some expensive custom weapon. All that remained was the name.
The Undertaker. That was the name of this heavy. He was an undead monster that made graves for enemies. He was not meant to operate solo, but he'd be interesting in a team. Also he looked like a pretty formidable and scary monster. Bolt added a finishing touch by adjusting the cannon-coffin to be usable as a bludgeon. The arms weren't built for that, but it felt right. If all else failed the Undertaker could give them the coffin, heh.
The question was, what did he want to do for this? Lilly had the funny idea of making an undead legion, so Bolt was going to keep on working within that theme. It was entertaining and another way of practicing. What sort of undead did he want though? A vampire didn't scream four star. A ghost would be a pain in the rear since he'd have to get into stealth to do it justice, and that would be painful to do with the restrictions he had and his current education on them.
He was going at this incorrectly. The other mechs hadn't been designed to work well together. That was just a happy coincidence. Ghoul's enhanced sensors could see through The Drowned Man's mist, and Zombie really just needed an enemy close. What was needed to tie it all together? Something ranged in Bolt's opinion. Something that would punish you if you kept outside the mist. Ranged would be good, but that didn't feel undead like. Also he wanted something else.
What else was there that made you want to attack? Visualizing the scene, there would be Drowned Men in the mist, Ghouls on the outside prowling, Zombies being numbers and walls. What would make this more like a horror show? The answer was pretty obvious in retrospect. Static on the comms.
This would require that Bolt dabble in sensory and communication tech. ECM tech more properly. A mech that made communication hard combined with The Drowned Man would work. He could even use the ECM's secondary function to link up sensors so that everyone could see through it! ECMs had to link to other mechs to keep allies communications open, so all he'd need to do was piggyback on that some. It'd require some programming and some study on ECM, but Bolt believed it was feasible.
Inspired, the young man immediately got to work. Education first. He completely ignored the standard virtual classroom and went with text only. The scrolling literature would likely have daunted another person, but he was looking for specific things. Purpose, implementation, history, all of this was useful, but he wanted the practical. What worked and didn't for ECM. What to look for in a device.
Even cutting out most of that the density was enough to give him a headache. He endured long enough to get what he wanted before returning to the game interface. The stuff in Iron Spirit was all old, so he didn't need to get into modern details. He'd do more review later. The narrow focus significantly cut down on what he needed to know, and he learned best in practical situations anyway. Rooting through the appropriate parts for a four star mech, Bolt found something interesting after a few pages of results.
ECM was a power hog. It was one of the largest drains for singular equipment possible, with energy weapons and cloaking being the second most common large consumers. One guy had gotten the idea of offloading some of that by creating small emplacements that could be stuck into the ground. The part hadn't been popular for a variety of reasons. The emplacements weren't particular long lasting, they had short range, and they ended up being another form of ammo to carry on a mech typically very limited on that.
Bolt could use it's unique features to further the theme though. Purchasing the combo parts he started to design as a plan came together. He tweaked the emplacements to look like graveyard tokens and made the bottom sharp. Some creative adjustment to the power lines and it could theoretically feed off a downed mech. It wouldn't extend the life that long, but it was amusing! That gave him the outline for the rest of the mech. This was a mech that made graveyards.
Of course that was just the preliminary steps. The actual mech needed to be made. Building around the ECM meant light was right out. Medium was his default, but he felt as if heavy would be better in this instance. It was both good practice and felt fitting. This guy wasn't one to leap around. He plodded and did his tasks slowly and deliberately. ECM mechs needed some sort of heavy defense too so a lot of armor was fine for this. The additional space gave him options as well. Bolt could use one of the bulkier computers in the innards, and then could upgrade the communication protocols so that it could pull everything together. This was normally the domain of mechs specialized for communication, but those were typically for a good thousand or so mechs. This would be good for maybe a hundred. Theoretically past that the mech would have to pick and chose who it pulled from, but that'd be in the domain of real world battle numbers, not in game battle numbers.
Mech design could often be described as balancing a budget. Each part cost a certain amount of weight, energy, and space. This one in particular was stretching Bolt's limits of balance, as simple as the design was in theory. He was enjoying himself though, going through everything quickly and firming the design over the next few days.
This was not a solo mech, and so since it wasn't Bolt decided to arm it like one. He decided to look for the physically largest cannon the thing could hold. There were more than a few options, but one in particular got his attention.
More an unholy combination of mortar and cannon, the device had a specialist ammo that was meant for law enforcement. It shot out goo bombs. A quick peek at history told him that it had fallen out of favor due to various factors, up to and including the fact that modern mechs could just break it in a few seconds nowadays. The part itself and the custom ammo was very cheap as a result. It was perfect for Bolt's needs!
Buying it, he tweaked the formula some to make it green and caustic. This wouldn't really disable mechs, but it would degrade their armor and all the bits outside. It also looked entertaining. Better still, it didn't need much power compared to the power hungry ECM.
After all of this was the details. He made the thing look like it was wrapped in a cloak, added a glowing eyes, and shaped the weapon to look like a coffin. Some work on the arms to make them compatible with an cannoneer type mech and Bolt was basically finished. Mostly.
Stepping back, Bolt gave the mech a once over and ran it through the simulators in the game. They weren't that good, but they could spot obvious issues that he'd missed.
One was boosters, which he'd forgotten again and could remedy on the final pass. The other was that the weapon was turning out to be rather anemic despite how heavy it was. He hadn't and couldn't upgrade the caustic factor enough to be actually debilitating without making the goo act like water instead of stick. This was actually very bad. A heavy had to have something that made it worthwhile as a heavy, otherwise it was a waste of metal. The ECM wasn't enough without some sort of armaments that made the mech useful. He could shift it to a medium, but that felt like admitting failure.
Grumbling, Bolt switched to look up chemistry. This was a complicated topic that he really, really didn't have time to get into. Adding a caustic effect and changing the color was easy. He wanted something else. Make it flammable? There were napalm munitions for the cannon that worked better. He'd do it if necessary. Coloring the flame wouldn't be that bad as an alternative. He didn't want that for this guy though. He wanted something that would put the enemy in a grave, not burn them to death.
How about the opposite direction then? Endothermic instead of exothermic? Mechs constantly had to deal with heat, but they did not like too much cold either. They specifically didn't like it in their joints. The goo the cannon shot would get into the joints right? It should.
This involved far too much tweaking of the chemical reactions to make Bolt happy, but the end result made it worth the extra time and late night study sessions. The goo stuck to the mech and emitted a misty byproduct while flash cooling the areas it touched. Some more additives made it cause even more mist. It also made the goo more slick than sticky, but that made it a lingering disability instead of an immediate and easily broken restraint.
Theoretically one could hit them with the cannon and wait a few seconds as the cooling effect jammed up their internals. A full blast from the cannon would blind, slow, and weaken a mech enough that you could just stab them with one of the ECM grave tokens. That would both power the ECM deployment and mission kill the mech.
For practicality, Bolt added different shells for the cannon. Modified flechette shots, explosive, and napalm shells on a bandoleer. The pilot could decide on the exact layout. Additional ammo was cheap. This wasn't some expensive custom weapon. All that remained was the name.
The Undertaker. That was the name of this heavy. He was an undead monster that made graves for enemies. He was not meant to operate solo, but he'd be interesting in a team. Also he looked like a pretty formidable and scary monster. Bolt added a finishing touch by adjusting the cannon-coffin to be usable as a bludgeon. The arms weren't built for that, but it felt right. If all else failed the Undertaker could give them the coffin, heh.
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"Hello everybody, and welcome to another edition of Kimi's Cooky Cooking!" The VR streamer began with a smile and made a heart with her hands. "Here we look up the latest and most crazy trends in our favorite game, Iron Spirit! Be sure to subscribe to see more." The woman winked in the camera and continued after another cutesy pose. "Today we have a spooky sort of fun! Roll the clip Sparkles!"
The VI in question began to roll a small film.
It begins with fog. Or mist. A lone swordsman walks through the mist with sword upraised. Before it can react a hook flew out from the mist. The swordsman is impaled before he can defend himself, and then another hook comes out from the opposite side. He's ripped apart right in front of the camera, cooling fluid leaking everywhere.
The camera zooms out. Above them is a flying mech shaped like a bird. It's hovering on its boosters and zipping this way and that above a sea of mist, looking obviously spooked. Something shoots out of the mist and explodes right in front of it. The mech is covered in green go and the boosters sputter. It's wings stick and mist covers its form as it falls. It hits the ground with a thud and zombies come out, clubs high. The clubs drop and the bird goes still.
Mechs erupt from this mist nearby, clearly running. More blasts appear from the mist and they are covered in more goo. They trip and fall and then hooks come out to drag them back in, slowly, surely. One scrabbles at the dirt and then a mech pounces on it and tears it apart with its claws.
The film ends with the mist clearing and many mech bodies littering the ground. Each one has a grave token sticking out of them. A zombie, sans head walks right in front of the camera and groans.
Kimi was in a cutesy pose of horror once the camera cut back to her. "Spooky!" She shuddered theatrically. "Scary, oh my, is that a horror flick? No, it is in fact a competitive match!" With a wink the girl continued. "Full link attached! I've done some creative editing, but you'll find it's more spooky in full length, not less. I'm sure you degenerates all want to try it yourself now that you see it, so here's the lowdown on my newly dubbed Undead Legion Build!"
A flicker had the screen now show several mechs behind her. All of them were the mechs Bolt had built. They had stars and prices above them as well, denoting the rank and cost.
"All of these are made by a guy calling himself MonsterMakerRat. Most of my clips are from a girl named MonsterPilotRat. They're a duo, and while I couldn't get an interview, I did get a few statements from Pilot! They're visiting our little planet for awhile and using Iron Spirit to unwind! They aren't staying as of yet, so keep that in mind! Above all all else, keep an eye on this channel for more Monster Pilot clips, because she is an artist with mechs!"
The mechs rotated behind her and started to do various action poses.
"But we're not talking about her at the moment. We're talking about making a horror team! You can see the specs right in the link so I won't go into nitty gritty details in this link. Remember, Kimi does not urge you to buy anything. She gives lowdowns and reviews! And as a preface, remember that every designer has their quirks. Maker's biggest ones are that he's a bigger penny pincher than my aunt on a fire sale and that he trends towards simple and reliable. The mech designs are quirky, but the construction is solid. He also defaults the GUI on all mechs to the visual, non-text one, so remember to adjust that if you familiar with the other standard."
With a wink the streamer continued with the first mech. Zombie groaned as it came to center stage.
"Zombie is the one star. Not much to say about this one stat wise. It's a pretty standard melee mech once you get past the unusual design. Those are so limited no one can do much. The head is absolutely hilarious, but it's basically just a one time big missile. You'll note he's lopsided. That's deliberate. You keep that side towards the enemy and then club em. Use the missile when you wanna. Once people get familiar with it you're not gonna surprise them with its unusual style, but till then it'll likely get a kill because it looks like a complete joke.
I rate it as a decent newbie mech for people learning or as a fun thing for vets to play around with. The unconventional stance and movement is very smooth, and it forces you to be aware of positioning, which is key for getting better. If you're experienced enough that doesn't matter, it's cheap and funny enough to be worthwhile for a quick match." Kimi waved a hand and Zombie flew away.
Ghoul came front and center. More notation came on around it showing highlighted strengths.
"Ghoul is the two star. Now Zombie is a mech designed to be funny and fun. Ghoul's a killer. It's a pure skirmisher, at the higher end of speed, and just deadly enough to be a threat. The acid spray in the mouth is an interesting choice, but where the weapon is doesn't matter so much as the specs. The range's pretty anemic and it's got a horrible stopping power. Biggest unique thing for this is actually the sensors. This one can spot an enemy through a most concealment measures in Iron Spirit."
Kimi paused here and spun the mech in place, pointing out the claws. She then highlighted the unusual length of the arms.
"I would call this the hardest mech to use of the bunch. Skirmishers are very skill dependent and this needs more than most because it's movement and arms are designed to be deceptive, which makes them hard to visualize naturally. The claws, as you can see here, are not an intuitive weapon either. They need timing and precision to work right. That said, Ghoul is Monster's baby for a good reason. This mech can be a nightmare and a letteral terror when you get its quirks down. I rate it as good for skirmisher players only. Anyone else, get it only if you want a skirmisher mech on the cheaper side."
With a snap the next mech came into the foreground. The Drowned Man. Kimi paused here and spun the mech before talking.
"Now this baby, this is what the legion revolves around. You see the back? That's a mist emitter. If you haven't heard of that, don't worry. It was very niche. That might change if this guy gets popular. Wouldn't be the first time our little game influenced the real world! Our Drowned Man here puts out mist to hide in. Simple enough alone, but the effect gets better the more you have of them! Better still, the generator feeds off water you can step in or find so you can get hours of fun time in the right circumstances."
The VR streamer winked and showed off a few screenshots of misty terrain.
"Now Kimi, you ask, is this another one of those janky mechs that puts up a screen and has to jump through hoops to kill? The answer in this case is no."
The Drowned Man stabbed through the air with his sword as an emphasis.
"See, the mist emitter uses almost no energy, and is relatively low cost. This means a Drowned Man functions as a full swordsman. The hook comes on a chain so you can perform some fun horror re-enactments, but the sword side is pure sword. This mech can match almost any other swordsman's might up close so it's not going to lose any duels based off that. In fact I'd call it a five star in rain. We might see a dreaded re-star for it so get it now if you're interested!"
Kimi gasped in mock dismay as she uttered the words. A re-star was a balance patch of sorts for the game, and would reclassify a mech's rating to better balance it. No one liked that sort of thing, because it frequently locked out players who owned the mech.
"You can actually do a full undead legion build with just Drowned Men. It's a bit stiff team wise though. If your opponents have good artillery they're going to crack your formation. It's better to do one to three stars if you want to do the bare minimum. Ghoul can work through light mist and it will counter most people that want to setup outside and zombie is cheap enough that you can lose an entire team of them and still come out ahead if you win. A Drowned Man is a bit more pricy, but remember Maker's quirks and notice that this guy's pretty competitive in pricing.
I rate this one as a must have if you're good with swordmechs. It's a solid and affordable mech all round that can fill out your roster with something unexpected. Good for newbies and vets alike!"
The last mech then took the foreground. This time of a large, gray, stitched man-like mech in a robe. He had a bunch of cross shaped objects on his back and a smaller coffin in his hands.
"I personally think the full build isn't complete without one of these though. The Undertaker is a heavy, so it's expensive, but that's just heavies in general. If Maker could do a cheap heavy that worked I'd worship the ground he walked on. This isn't cheap, but he's efficient. It's a cannoneer slash ECM slash communication mech that doesn't fall apart against a stiff breeze. That alone would make him valuable if he did them all properly, and spoiler alert, he does with some tricks!"
The Undertaker took a cross from its back and stabbed it into the ground. Little wave-like animations emitted from it. A chibi mech appeared under it and even more waves flowed out.
"Lookit those little graves! Aren't they cute? Useful and great for misdirection or extended range. They can be placed wherever you like, but there's another and vastly more important use for them! That's using them for extra disrespect! Stick them into the fallen to use them as fuel for your undead legions!"
With a dramatic gesture the Undertaker put away the crosses and pulled out his cannon. The animation showed him firing next. Kimi gestured emphatically at the picture to emphasize her next words.
"For all that I'm talking it up, it does have issues. This is a pure support mech. It cannot solo. Not only is it slow, the cannon's size only gives it range and area. The damage is pitiful compared to other cannoneers. It will disable what it hits for a bit, but they'll be back up in minutes if you don't hit them with something more potent. The mech does come with other ammo for more punch, but if you get it use the main ammo mostly. The effect is entertaining and the punch of the other shots isn't enough to justify the time firing. The main ammo's got a wide blast area, which means you do not need the best aiming." The girl shrugged as she continued.
"I rate it as a solid team mech. Buy it if you have a team and need to support them. The area it can effect is limited to hundred mech battles, but anything past that will have mechs dedicated to that role. You cannot typically find mechs that fill as much as the Undertaker does in a single package. Just don't put your good shooters in them if you have something better. The cannon doesn't require perfect aim and you want anyone with proper aim to use something with more punch."
Here Kimi waved a hand and the mechs disappeared. She then turned serious, though it was a performed seriousness.
"Now, again Kimi doesn't endorse this designer directly and she hasn't been paid to advertise for them! This is just something she found that looked like hilarious fun! If you like horror or just want something to look into, these are it! Attached to this review are a few other mechs that would compliment the strategy and links to other videos I've made of MonsterPilot. Be sure to keep an eye on things! You always get copycats when you get a real good pilot on the scene! Savor it while it lasts!"
With that Kimi ended the video.
The VI in question began to roll a small film.
It begins with fog. Or mist. A lone swordsman walks through the mist with sword upraised. Before it can react a hook flew out from the mist. The swordsman is impaled before he can defend himself, and then another hook comes out from the opposite side. He's ripped apart right in front of the camera, cooling fluid leaking everywhere.
The camera zooms out. Above them is a flying mech shaped like a bird. It's hovering on its boosters and zipping this way and that above a sea of mist, looking obviously spooked. Something shoots out of the mist and explodes right in front of it. The mech is covered in green go and the boosters sputter. It's wings stick and mist covers its form as it falls. It hits the ground with a thud and zombies come out, clubs high. The clubs drop and the bird goes still.
Mechs erupt from this mist nearby, clearly running. More blasts appear from the mist and they are covered in more goo. They trip and fall and then hooks come out to drag them back in, slowly, surely. One scrabbles at the dirt and then a mech pounces on it and tears it apart with its claws.
The film ends with the mist clearing and many mech bodies littering the ground. Each one has a grave token sticking out of them. A zombie, sans head walks right in front of the camera and groans.
Kimi was in a cutesy pose of horror once the camera cut back to her. "Spooky!" She shuddered theatrically. "Scary, oh my, is that a horror flick? No, it is in fact a competitive match!" With a wink the girl continued. "Full link attached! I've done some creative editing, but you'll find it's more spooky in full length, not less. I'm sure you degenerates all want to try it yourself now that you see it, so here's the lowdown on my newly dubbed Undead Legion Build!"
A flicker had the screen now show several mechs behind her. All of them were the mechs Bolt had built. They had stars and prices above them as well, denoting the rank and cost.
"All of these are made by a guy calling himself MonsterMakerRat. Most of my clips are from a girl named MonsterPilotRat. They're a duo, and while I couldn't get an interview, I did get a few statements from Pilot! They're visiting our little planet for awhile and using Iron Spirit to unwind! They aren't staying as of yet, so keep that in mind! Above all all else, keep an eye on this channel for more Monster Pilot clips, because she is an artist with mechs!"
The mechs rotated behind her and started to do various action poses.
"But we're not talking about her at the moment. We're talking about making a horror team! You can see the specs right in the link so I won't go into nitty gritty details in this link. Remember, Kimi does not urge you to buy anything. She gives lowdowns and reviews! And as a preface, remember that every designer has their quirks. Maker's biggest ones are that he's a bigger penny pincher than my aunt on a fire sale and that he trends towards simple and reliable. The mech designs are quirky, but the construction is solid. He also defaults the GUI on all mechs to the visual, non-text one, so remember to adjust that if you familiar with the other standard."
With a wink the streamer continued with the first mech. Zombie groaned as it came to center stage.
"Zombie is the one star. Not much to say about this one stat wise. It's a pretty standard melee mech once you get past the unusual design. Those are so limited no one can do much. The head is absolutely hilarious, but it's basically just a one time big missile. You'll note he's lopsided. That's deliberate. You keep that side towards the enemy and then club em. Use the missile when you wanna. Once people get familiar with it you're not gonna surprise them with its unusual style, but till then it'll likely get a kill because it looks like a complete joke.
I rate it as a decent newbie mech for people learning or as a fun thing for vets to play around with. The unconventional stance and movement is very smooth, and it forces you to be aware of positioning, which is key for getting better. If you're experienced enough that doesn't matter, it's cheap and funny enough to be worthwhile for a quick match." Kimi waved a hand and Zombie flew away.
Ghoul came front and center. More notation came on around it showing highlighted strengths.
"Ghoul is the two star. Now Zombie is a mech designed to be funny and fun. Ghoul's a killer. It's a pure skirmisher, at the higher end of speed, and just deadly enough to be a threat. The acid spray in the mouth is an interesting choice, but where the weapon is doesn't matter so much as the specs. The range's pretty anemic and it's got a horrible stopping power. Biggest unique thing for this is actually the sensors. This one can spot an enemy through a most concealment measures in Iron Spirit."
Kimi paused here and spun the mech in place, pointing out the claws. She then highlighted the unusual length of the arms.
"I would call this the hardest mech to use of the bunch. Skirmishers are very skill dependent and this needs more than most because it's movement and arms are designed to be deceptive, which makes them hard to visualize naturally. The claws, as you can see here, are not an intuitive weapon either. They need timing and precision to work right. That said, Ghoul is Monster's baby for a good reason. This mech can be a nightmare and a letteral terror when you get its quirks down. I rate it as good for skirmisher players only. Anyone else, get it only if you want a skirmisher mech on the cheaper side."
With a snap the next mech came into the foreground. The Drowned Man. Kimi paused here and spun the mech before talking.
"Now this baby, this is what the legion revolves around. You see the back? That's a mist emitter. If you haven't heard of that, don't worry. It was very niche. That might change if this guy gets popular. Wouldn't be the first time our little game influenced the real world! Our Drowned Man here puts out mist to hide in. Simple enough alone, but the effect gets better the more you have of them! Better still, the generator feeds off water you can step in or find so you can get hours of fun time in the right circumstances."
The VR streamer winked and showed off a few screenshots of misty terrain.
"Now Kimi, you ask, is this another one of those janky mechs that puts up a screen and has to jump through hoops to kill? The answer in this case is no."
The Drowned Man stabbed through the air with his sword as an emphasis.
"See, the mist emitter uses almost no energy, and is relatively low cost. This means a Drowned Man functions as a full swordsman. The hook comes on a chain so you can perform some fun horror re-enactments, but the sword side is pure sword. This mech can match almost any other swordsman's might up close so it's not going to lose any duels based off that. In fact I'd call it a five star in rain. We might see a dreaded re-star for it so get it now if you're interested!"
Kimi gasped in mock dismay as she uttered the words. A re-star was a balance patch of sorts for the game, and would reclassify a mech's rating to better balance it. No one liked that sort of thing, because it frequently locked out players who owned the mech.
"You can actually do a full undead legion build with just Drowned Men. It's a bit stiff team wise though. If your opponents have good artillery they're going to crack your formation. It's better to do one to three stars if you want to do the bare minimum. Ghoul can work through light mist and it will counter most people that want to setup outside and zombie is cheap enough that you can lose an entire team of them and still come out ahead if you win. A Drowned Man is a bit more pricy, but remember Maker's quirks and notice that this guy's pretty competitive in pricing.
I rate this one as a must have if you're good with swordmechs. It's a solid and affordable mech all round that can fill out your roster with something unexpected. Good for newbies and vets alike!"
The last mech then took the foreground. This time of a large, gray, stitched man-like mech in a robe. He had a bunch of cross shaped objects on his back and a smaller coffin in his hands.
"I personally think the full build isn't complete without one of these though. The Undertaker is a heavy, so it's expensive, but that's just heavies in general. If Maker could do a cheap heavy that worked I'd worship the ground he walked on. This isn't cheap, but he's efficient. It's a cannoneer slash ECM slash communication mech that doesn't fall apart against a stiff breeze. That alone would make him valuable if he did them all properly, and spoiler alert, he does with some tricks!"
The Undertaker took a cross from its back and stabbed it into the ground. Little wave-like animations emitted from it. A chibi mech appeared under it and even more waves flowed out.
"Lookit those little graves! Aren't they cute? Useful and great for misdirection or extended range. They can be placed wherever you like, but there's another and vastly more important use for them! That's using them for extra disrespect! Stick them into the fallen to use them as fuel for your undead legions!"
With a dramatic gesture the Undertaker put away the crosses and pulled out his cannon. The animation showed him firing next. Kimi gestured emphatically at the picture to emphasize her next words.
"For all that I'm talking it up, it does have issues. This is a pure support mech. It cannot solo. Not only is it slow, the cannon's size only gives it range and area. The damage is pitiful compared to other cannoneers. It will disable what it hits for a bit, but they'll be back up in minutes if you don't hit them with something more potent. The mech does come with other ammo for more punch, but if you get it use the main ammo mostly. The effect is entertaining and the punch of the other shots isn't enough to justify the time firing. The main ammo's got a wide blast area, which means you do not need the best aiming." The girl shrugged as she continued.
"I rate it as a solid team mech. Buy it if you have a team and need to support them. The area it can effect is limited to hundred mech battles, but anything past that will have mechs dedicated to that role. You cannot typically find mechs that fill as much as the Undertaker does in a single package. Just don't put your good shooters in them if you have something better. The cannon doesn't require perfect aim and you want anyone with proper aim to use something with more punch."
Here Kimi waved a hand and the mechs disappeared. She then turned serious, though it was a performed seriousness.
"Now, again Kimi doesn't endorse this designer directly and she hasn't been paid to advertise for them! This is just something she found that looked like hilarious fun! If you like horror or just want something to look into, these are it! Attached to this review are a few other mechs that would compliment the strategy and links to other videos I've made of MonsterPilot. Be sure to keep an eye on things! You always get copycats when you get a real good pilot on the scene! Savor it while it lasts!"
With that Kimi ended the video.