M078
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To Bolt's mild entertainment, the designing station was right in the little pavilion. It was actually part of an entire system that could be adjusted. Basically a smart room that could become whatever they needed. It answered more than a few questions. They'd left it at park like settings just because it was casually novel and relaxing for all of them. It was just a background though. The designing was the important part, and everyone wanted to do it already.
"Here's the parts we have available." Gary began with a swish of his hand, and an entire list filled up a wall. "Exotics over here." He made another list.
"I'm compatible with the highlighted." Delicee noted while highlighting a significant portion of the parts, all business now that they were designing. "I'm unfamiliar with second rate design though. Too big for my usual tricks."
"Join the club. I'm mostly lost there." Bolt muttered as he tried to get an idea of what was available before closing his eyes and taking a breath.
"Going up a level in tech isn't something we can remedy quickly. I can select things if you like. I'm not going to be able to apply my specialty without my usual supplies so I'll have the time." Gary offered.
Bolt opened his eyes and shook his head. "No first, we need to go over the exotics together. You need specific exotics?"
"I can use chemicals, but they're not potent enough for real mech operations. Home had entire mountains of exotics that ate heat. Hence me needing this even at Second Rate." Gary fluffed his hood in emphasis.
"Understandable, I tried doing that with my own mech and hit that problem. I think I can bring it up. You'll see the issue immediately I think." Bolt brought up Undertaker. "One of my works. Third Rate, so sorry about that." While he wasn't ashamed of his work, it was decidedly low tech.
"Don't apologize. Designing with limited resources is an artform in itself. I actually love way you do forms." Delicee tapped and all of the sudden all of Bolts designs were displayed. "You have the soul of an artist. Actually, that needs reciprocation, here." He tapped and everyone's designs filled up the rest of the space.
The young designer took a moment to look over them. This was actually very interesting. Delicee's work was all space mechs, for what little that meant for multipurpose First Rate mechs. They were studded with stars and all had ranged weapons of various sorts. There was even a little video on each of them showing notable feats. Most of it wasn't as understandable as he'd like.
Gary's were easier to understand. Those were basically walking icicles or mountains. He favored very heavy mechs, and there wasn't a single freeze ray to his mild disappointment. Most of them actually didn't have any obvious frost effects at all.
"Huh. You designed your works to deal with cold rather than project it. I expected more weapons." Bolt observed after a few minutes.
"The exotics I work with can do offensive work. Most of my early designs were just to make the mechs function in the cold. I advanced when I figured out how it applied to other areas in mech designs." Gary tapped at the blueprint of Ghoul. "Yours is harder to pin down. A novice would say it's you having cannibal mechs."
"I'm never going to live that down." Bolt said with a sigh.
"Oh, don't feel bad. It's splashy and spectacularly risque! We can tell your specialty is actually quite subtle. I'd say the Cerberus has the clearest display of that. You haven't made a mech since you hit journeyman though have you?" Delicee asked with mild amusement. "None of these have that signature heft that Journeyman work has."
"I made one, but that's for my wife. She's an expert and it's not in the databases here yet." Bolt replied and ignored why that was the case.
That of all things he'd said got mild looks of surprise, and then a bit of flipping as the other designers looked for information. Delicee was the one to say something after the information was brought up. He'd found a video of her ascension. Someone had edited it very well. It looked far more dramatic than Bolt remembered, and he had no idea where they'd gotten the music. His fellow designer had a different idea about it.
"I am absolutely in love." Delicee declared once it finished. "That skill? That absolute showmanship? Oh to design for her. I don't even care that it'd be a Third Rate. If I could see her in a First Rate? Oh I'd die happy."
"Putting aside the inappropriate declarations, we'd probably be best served to let him do as much designing as possible. I remember my first real mech after journeyman and how much I needed to feel things out." Gary noted.
The other designer nodded. "Yes, you haven't flexed at all. You need to, and the Rim Guardians can foot the bill!"
"I'd rather we all work together. My teamwork still needs improvement." Bolt muttered as he switched the blueprint layers on Gary's mechs and flipped through them. "Hmm. I can see why you're going to have trouble here. I don't recognize half the materials on in your mechs."
"Local resources. You never realize how much you depend on them until you move halfway across the galaxy." Gary sounded more than a little frustrated.
Bolt felt irritated himself, but he couldn't actually address the issue. The list of materials they had access to with this challenge was expansive and unfamiliar to him as well. "Ug. Delicee, can you help identify something that will work with his style? I refuse to have someone here do substandard work, and I need to review everything to see what I can contribute. Give me thirty."
He was actually pretty appreciative of the way the other man jumped on it. Both of his companions for this had egos, but it felt as if they were also willing to work with others too. The low stakes and purpose of the group probably helped a lot there. Bolt could see their brilliance based on their designs, so it meant a lot that they were willing to just, well be nice and try to work with him. He was going to do his best here just because of that.
Thirty minutes was nothing in the grand scheme of things. It most certainly wasn't enough to get himself up to speed technically. Second Rate was an entirely different paradigm of technology. Bolt would need to learn parts and costs from the ground up if he wanted to make a mech from that type. It wasn't his purpose here though. He was going to try to flex other parts of his specialty. All he needed to do was get a handle on the other designer's specialties. Class Ones were supposed to be really good with others right? He just had to be careful not to 'eat' the others. (Which he suspected was just making sure they made sure their work wasn't overridden by his, hopefully.)
"Found something usable of sorts." Delicee said after the time was up.
"This isn't optimal, but I can work with it." Gary agreed as he brought up the exotic component specifications.
The exotic was almost a liquid in that it flowed like a liquid sometimes. It could change from a solid, to a liquid, to what amounted to flowing shattered glass in a second. When it changed phases it stored or released energy depending on the phase. The stuff was barely controllable, but had some use in mechs when appropriately leashed. Called Flowing Ice, it was nasty nasty stuff in the wild and subsequently rather expensive as a Second Rate compound.
"All right, so my thought was we do a heavy. That's something yer very good with Gary." Bolt nodded at the heavies on display. "That's not something Delicee is good with, but he can do the weapons. Most of your stuff does orbital shots so you can do something long range." He gestured to a video of an a laser changing direction mid-flight.
"That is a good basis, but there's the problem of applying our specialties together." Gary noted.
"I can smooth over most of them I think." Bolt offered. "The tricky part is we need to coordinate. I have some understanding of your work and will need you to walk me through the mindset some. That's the whole unification thing I put in that description."
The other designers were smart enough to understand he was keeping some things close to his chest. At the same time they didn't seem to mind. If anything they seemed both amused and eager to get started. He felt the same way. They weren't competing per-say, but he wanted to sort of show off some. They likely felt the same way.
"Here's the parts we have available." Gary began with a swish of his hand, and an entire list filled up a wall. "Exotics over here." He made another list.
"I'm compatible with the highlighted." Delicee noted while highlighting a significant portion of the parts, all business now that they were designing. "I'm unfamiliar with second rate design though. Too big for my usual tricks."
"Join the club. I'm mostly lost there." Bolt muttered as he tried to get an idea of what was available before closing his eyes and taking a breath.
"Going up a level in tech isn't something we can remedy quickly. I can select things if you like. I'm not going to be able to apply my specialty without my usual supplies so I'll have the time." Gary offered.
Bolt opened his eyes and shook his head. "No first, we need to go over the exotics together. You need specific exotics?"
"I can use chemicals, but they're not potent enough for real mech operations. Home had entire mountains of exotics that ate heat. Hence me needing this even at Second Rate." Gary fluffed his hood in emphasis.
"Understandable, I tried doing that with my own mech and hit that problem. I think I can bring it up. You'll see the issue immediately I think." Bolt brought up Undertaker. "One of my works. Third Rate, so sorry about that." While he wasn't ashamed of his work, it was decidedly low tech.
"Don't apologize. Designing with limited resources is an artform in itself. I actually love way you do forms." Delicee tapped and all of the sudden all of Bolts designs were displayed. "You have the soul of an artist. Actually, that needs reciprocation, here." He tapped and everyone's designs filled up the rest of the space.
The young designer took a moment to look over them. This was actually very interesting. Delicee's work was all space mechs, for what little that meant for multipurpose First Rate mechs. They were studded with stars and all had ranged weapons of various sorts. There was even a little video on each of them showing notable feats. Most of it wasn't as understandable as he'd like.
Gary's were easier to understand. Those were basically walking icicles or mountains. He favored very heavy mechs, and there wasn't a single freeze ray to his mild disappointment. Most of them actually didn't have any obvious frost effects at all.
"Huh. You designed your works to deal with cold rather than project it. I expected more weapons." Bolt observed after a few minutes.
"The exotics I work with can do offensive work. Most of my early designs were just to make the mechs function in the cold. I advanced when I figured out how it applied to other areas in mech designs." Gary tapped at the blueprint of Ghoul. "Yours is harder to pin down. A novice would say it's you having cannibal mechs."
"I'm never going to live that down." Bolt said with a sigh.
"Oh, don't feel bad. It's splashy and spectacularly risque! We can tell your specialty is actually quite subtle. I'd say the Cerberus has the clearest display of that. You haven't made a mech since you hit journeyman though have you?" Delicee asked with mild amusement. "None of these have that signature heft that Journeyman work has."
"I made one, but that's for my wife. She's an expert and it's not in the databases here yet." Bolt replied and ignored why that was the case.
That of all things he'd said got mild looks of surprise, and then a bit of flipping as the other designers looked for information. Delicee was the one to say something after the information was brought up. He'd found a video of her ascension. Someone had edited it very well. It looked far more dramatic than Bolt remembered, and he had no idea where they'd gotten the music. His fellow designer had a different idea about it.
"I am absolutely in love." Delicee declared once it finished. "That skill? That absolute showmanship? Oh to design for her. I don't even care that it'd be a Third Rate. If I could see her in a First Rate? Oh I'd die happy."
"Putting aside the inappropriate declarations, we'd probably be best served to let him do as much designing as possible. I remember my first real mech after journeyman and how much I needed to feel things out." Gary noted.
The other designer nodded. "Yes, you haven't flexed at all. You need to, and the Rim Guardians can foot the bill!"
"I'd rather we all work together. My teamwork still needs improvement." Bolt muttered as he switched the blueprint layers on Gary's mechs and flipped through them. "Hmm. I can see why you're going to have trouble here. I don't recognize half the materials on in your mechs."
"Local resources. You never realize how much you depend on them until you move halfway across the galaxy." Gary sounded more than a little frustrated.
Bolt felt irritated himself, but he couldn't actually address the issue. The list of materials they had access to with this challenge was expansive and unfamiliar to him as well. "Ug. Delicee, can you help identify something that will work with his style? I refuse to have someone here do substandard work, and I need to review everything to see what I can contribute. Give me thirty."
He was actually pretty appreciative of the way the other man jumped on it. Both of his companions for this had egos, but it felt as if they were also willing to work with others too. The low stakes and purpose of the group probably helped a lot there. Bolt could see their brilliance based on their designs, so it meant a lot that they were willing to just, well be nice and try to work with him. He was going to do his best here just because of that.
Thirty minutes was nothing in the grand scheme of things. It most certainly wasn't enough to get himself up to speed technically. Second Rate was an entirely different paradigm of technology. Bolt would need to learn parts and costs from the ground up if he wanted to make a mech from that type. It wasn't his purpose here though. He was going to try to flex other parts of his specialty. All he needed to do was get a handle on the other designer's specialties. Class Ones were supposed to be really good with others right? He just had to be careful not to 'eat' the others. (Which he suspected was just making sure they made sure their work wasn't overridden by his, hopefully.)
"Found something usable of sorts." Delicee said after the time was up.
"This isn't optimal, but I can work with it." Gary agreed as he brought up the exotic component specifications.
The exotic was almost a liquid in that it flowed like a liquid sometimes. It could change from a solid, to a liquid, to what amounted to flowing shattered glass in a second. When it changed phases it stored or released energy depending on the phase. The stuff was barely controllable, but had some use in mechs when appropriately leashed. Called Flowing Ice, it was nasty nasty stuff in the wild and subsequently rather expensive as a Second Rate compound.
"All right, so my thought was we do a heavy. That's something yer very good with Gary." Bolt nodded at the heavies on display. "That's not something Delicee is good with, but he can do the weapons. Most of your stuff does orbital shots so you can do something long range." He gestured to a video of an a laser changing direction mid-flight.
"That is a good basis, but there's the problem of applying our specialties together." Gary noted.
"I can smooth over most of them I think." Bolt offered. "The tricky part is we need to coordinate. I have some understanding of your work and will need you to walk me through the mindset some. That's the whole unification thing I put in that description."
The other designers were smart enough to understand he was keeping some things close to his chest. At the same time they didn't seem to mind. If anything they seemed both amused and eager to get started. He felt the same way. They weren't competing per-say, but he wanted to sort of show off some. They likely felt the same way.