What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[lost star]

As much as she disliked to say it, the carrier she'd inherited from her estate was useful. The thing was capable of holding enough mechs to be useful, fast enough to avoid most problems, and durable enough to handle any problems that did catch it. That was without the tuneups Gadget had done. It was in essence perfect for their goals, if you discounted the cost of maintaining it. As a high quality carrier that did everything it was on the upper end of expensive for a ship. Most of their profit from the job was being spent on that and supplies for the mechs. Really the upkeep of all of it was such if they were just restricted to their salvage income they would have almost no profit at all. You got what you paid for in this instance, and they paid a lot.

Fortunately Bolt pulled in enough independent income that the could likely maintain several ships like the carrier if they needed. Military contracts could be extremely profitable, and Bolt had gotten two sweetheart deals by this point. This meant that the only real issue they had was in maintaining their operating was keeping their secrecy when gathering supplies. If no one knew where they were in the void before they hit a place, predicting where they would strike next was extremely hard.

Lilly tried to be careful while she helped arrange the supply runs. Her contacts with the space-born clans had continued to grow, and they weren't afraid to route her the required supplies for a small fee. That meant they'd have to supply in what amounted to dead zones in space, but that was more a bonus than a problem. The carrier had plenty of ways to keep people entertained and the wide open void gave them the perfect viewpoint to avoid ambushes. It also meant she could pay a bit more for news and the like, though the results from that were always going to be mostly rumor and heresy.

"All Hail the Arch Heretic!" The man said on the short range radio as the shuttle approached.

"Why do I get the feeling that asking you to look into things was a mistake." Lilly muttered back.

"Why miss blasphemer, I could never guess." The reply came with a chuckle before the man continued. "But yes, the Hexxers are squawking about you, and have issued a bounty. They also refer to your husband as the Arch Heretic, the Corpse Thief, the Blasphemer, the Defiler, and any other name they think could stick. Really the amount of curses going your way would make me blush if I had any shame at all. I think the last tale was him laying on a mountain of bodies with you chained up on a throne."

Lilly genuinely wanted to cry about that. "Oh god." Neither she nor her husband had wanted fame and now she had the worst possible images stuck in her head thanks to her talks with Sami. "All right, so I regret even asking now."

"If it helps, even the witches don't really believe most of it. The propaganda peddlers are really just throwing things out there. They don't like that you got something that rivals what they consider holy mechs. Gotta say I like the look of the Ice Maidens. They're one of the most cinematic mechs I've seen in ages." The man paused. "Are yours different? Cause I saw the versions they're rolling out and they aren't nearly as good as yours."

"The Hoarfrost model is internal. The Yuki-Onna are what the Friday field. There was a bit of a problem with the exotics when sourcing them." Lilly explained.

"Does explain the order and price changes then." The shuttle docked with the carrier at that point. "We've got another load by the way."

"No rush." Lilly replied and kept Dowry at an active scan.

Trust but verify and all that. Dowry wasn't the best in space, but her scanning was good enough to pick up anything reactive. Plus it was easier to deploy when you were already out there and all that.

"Friday news is a bit different. There's still a large hate towards Ves, but with the victories and your stuff it's dying down a lot. Your group's considered some flashy maverick that has been running around doing random prison breaks like a modern day superhero. You'd be the talk of the town if the internal salty conflicts weren't sucking up airtime." The man said after a few beats of silence while his shuttle was unloaded.

"Venerable Lilly, two bugs, three instances of skimming, and two improper orders." A man on another channel informed her.

Lilly nodded. "Isolate the bugs. We have to assume we missed a few, so you know the drill." She ordered.

"Into the melter!" Her subordinate said with a laugh.

Some bugs and sabotage could get really tricky. The easiest way of dealing with all of that was just processing it all immediately. Only First Rate stuff could avoid destruction after that, and if that was being used they were screwed anyway. (Bolt did have a few discrete ways of checking, but they didn't want that known.)

"Got a few misfiled supplies." Lilly forwarded the records of two of the skimming attempts and all the mislabeled orders. Had to both keep them guessing and get the proper materials they needed. Letting one skimming go through would make them uncertain as to what they were catching.

"Blasted packagers always try to stiff us. Don't worry, I can get that solved." The supplier didn't miss a beat blaming someone else. "I'll get that on the next trip. Any last minute requests?"

"I'd rather not pay the extra surcharge for that." The woman said with half a smile. "So trouble in Friday paradise?"

"They like to dress it up, but there's about five separate factions with different ideas in the Coalition. It's probably going to be one less soon, especially if you get that disinheritance done. When the last heir is gone the people using that faction as a sock puppet are going to have to find another front." The shuttle pulled away and moved back to the visiting ship as the man explained. "That plus how things went will really shake things up. Anyone not the Guagers were getting hosed until your husband's mechs came around. Now that they're not drowning they have questions about certain behaviors and it's loud enough that I'm hearing it. Only the fact that the Hexxers are insane is keeping things together, and even that won't last forever."

"Ah." Lilly breathed out. "Lovely."

"Ain't that the truth. This is why we live in space. Sure you get issues in some areas, but if you don't like your neighbors you up and leave." The man chuckled. "Be right back. Next load should finish up the order."

Lilly made the mic click and settled back in her cockpit chair to think. It would figure that winning wasn't going to make things easier. They didn't want to pull back either. The Hexxers were going to start losing soon, and desperate people did very stupid things. Threading the needle here was going to be difficult.

"So that's general news." The man said as he docked in the supply station several minutes away. "More local news is a bit mixed and more specific. Not sure if you care much about it. Biggest thing is actually people wondering what mech your husband does next and what heroics you're going to do."

"Can't say anything about either really." Lilly responded with a small chuckle.

"Don't expect you too, but if you take requests, we'd love to see a space mech. I'd even chip in for something myself." The supplier said.

"I'll relay that. Knowing him he'll take it as a challenge."

"Hah! If he does something good I'll get you a discount of one percent!"

"Stinnngy!"

 

[lost star]

To his mild bemusement, Bolt was actually caught up, relatively. He still had that work with that master in the near future, but he had no real large projects now. It was probably time to start planning his next mech.

Before then he checked up on Sami. The girl had not designed any original mechs yet. This wasn't a ding on her. Bolt had been rather bizarre in his designing development. The first real project most young designers did on their own was altering another person's design. That was what Sami had done and was doing. She'd taken the Zombie and made a few variations. None were released yet. The changes were mostly just altering the head and appearance, and in one case giving it a witch hat that also detached and exploded. She was exploring her boundaries and creativity. It was a good first step.

It would still probably be appropriate to speak with her before he got caught up in work though, so he took a small walk to her workstation. There the girl was going through a lot of the backlogged tickets for the Third Rate models. She was actually doing a very good job based on the rate she was flipping through them.

"Hello, ma-er sir." The woman nervously greeted as he entered.

Bolt didn't roll his eyes, but it came close. She'd relax over time. "Having trouble with the work at all?"

"No, I did this when I was at the facility and working for the senior. There's always some sort of question or problem. Third Rate isn't much different." Sami said with a small shrug. "Implant does a lot of the work truthfully."

"Good to know. I let it get too backed up far too often." The senior admitted with a small chuckle. "But I thought I'd talk with you about your personal work. Having fun with it?"

Sami frowned and closed out of a few things on the station. "I've been trying? I don't think I get it truthfully."

"Take your enthusiasm with mechs and go with that. You don't have ta go with my old models." Bolt advised. "Make something wacky."

"I suppose. I was hoping to get an idea of what... Umm. Is it appropriate to even ask? I wanted to know how you do the glow thing." Sami asked while lowering her head and looking away with a wince.

"While I don't mind giving you hints, I think we should talk a bit about how teaching should work for you." Bolt turned around and got a chair to sit down. "Right now you're actually at a really delicate time. Higher level designers are meant ta teach, but we're also supposed to help you develop your own style. I can give you parts of my style to develop, you can use my style to influence yours, you can go on your own path, or you can even attempt to mimic me. How you want to develop will tell me how we should move forward with Glows."

It was an actually extremely complicated and delicate topic actually. Bolt had been given a lot of literature to review for this with his ascension to Senior. The most key thing was to develop the student, not forcefully put your own specialty on them. Trying to suppress a nascent style was the equivalent of shouting until the student went silent. Deliberately overriding someone's emerging specialty was the equivalent of taking a young mind and brainwashing them to your point of view. None of it was illegal, but it was actually fairly offensive to most masters and Star Designers. Bolt had no intention of doing that, and he didn't want to unintentionally do it either.

"I'm guessing you don't want the latter?" Sami asked with a hint of curiosity. "It's not restricted either?"

"What I do is something that I will have ta teach at some point. If you can learn it and do it better that's good. But the last option is typically when you have someone who's dying and wants to pass on their style. Ya want that anyway?" Bolt asked back.

That got the woman to laugh softly. "No thanks. I don't want to be the heir to the archdemon. By the way, the collars on the maids are not helping the sex-slave rumors."

Bolt sighed with sudden weariness. "That's on them. But onto what ya want. Based on your thoughts, you want to specialize in Glows?"

"Yes!" Sami nodded with a hint of eagerness. "The stuff you do is like magic! Ves is all channeling the Mother, and that's nice and all, but really not my thing."

"Heard that before. You want magic?" Bolt smiled slightly at the hidden enthusiasm. "Ain't easy to do. Really don't got a best way to teach you either." He was still working on that book after all.

Actually now that he was a Senior he could technically publish it now according to Bubbles, but that felt like a bad idea. Instead his current plans were to have it accompany the Heart System when it was released. This would really make things better. He could use Sami to really get the kinks worked out.

"You can't teach it?" The woman looked very disappointed.

"I can, it's just that it requires trying several different methods and some strange steps." Bolt gave the girl a pat on the shoulder. "Get up and we'll try the first one."

Bolt had probably underestimated the enthusiasm his student had here. She really wanted to learn this, and it didn't seem like the sort of 'enemy action' thing. It was more she was genuinely enthusiastic about it. Which actually boded well.

Though now that he was thinking about it, he needed to change the lesson plan. His first thought was to get her used to sensing spiritual power, but was that really the best path? Did she needed to sense spiritual power to do something with it? More importantly, did he want to risk her enthusiasm by rolling the dice on sensing? Everyone had different degrees of natural sense and it was very possible that she wouldn't feel it.

Letting none of it show on his face, Bolt shifted his plans immediately. They made their way to Bolt's sort of personal work-room. It had a small fabricator, a few Heart Crystals and was frankly a mess of wires and metal parts. It wasn't a place he'd normally take a student. Sami immediately wrinkled her nose at it before she smoothed her expression out. (No one's personal work-room was tidy, just various degrees of messy that made sense to them.)

"Have a seat." Bolt gestured to a chair and grabbed a Heart Crystal before setting it down in front of her. "You probably recognize this."

"Yeah." Sami nodded. "You put it in all your mechs."

"So, what I'm going to do is this." Bolt set the crystal into a holder and started up the connected computer. "Now I have the data to show something the unseen energy that sort of powers Glows. I call it spiritual power, but the MTA would probably call it psionic power. You could even call it magical power if you want. The name doesn't matter so much as what it does and there's no real official name for this stuff yet."

Bolt added two small metal rods to it and shifted the spiritual power from one side to another. On screen the numbers shifted. It was a relatively easy mental exercise, but it still caused a bit of strain.

"All you have ta do is focus and move it. Very specifically mentally." Bolt ordered.

Sami grabbed at a rod and narrowed her eyes. The computer showed no movement. The pout was rather expected.

"It'll take a bit. It requires mental focus and either emotion or will. Once ya get it down it will be easier, but there's going to be a strain." The senior explained. "If ya get a headache stop immediately. That means your exerting yourself, and pushing through it will result in nosebleeds, bleeding from the eyes, and probably worse." He'd never pushed that hard so he didn't know what the next step was.

"Visualization, visualization." Sami murmured, and there was a slight twitch on the computer. "Yes!" She shouted and then winced. "Ow!"

"Give it ten before you try again." Bolt advised. "It's like a muscle."

"So what's next after this?!" The woman asked with wide eyes.

"You do that fer the next month until you can do it without wincing. Gotta build it up." Bolt advised and almost laughed at her expression.

That'd keep her very busy for awhile by his estimate.

 

[lost star]

Today's problem was quite unusual. Bolt wanted to design a new mech and flex his abilities. He also did not want to let people know about his advancement to Senior. This meant he couldn't actually push the mech he'd designed into production, because people would notice. So, he had to get creative.

"Ya know, the spacers who supplied us did want you to make a space mech." Lilly mused from her place on the floor next to the couch.

Bolt tried to vary up where he designed and brainstormed. Mostly as a way of keeping things fresh, but sometimes as just a way to spend time with his wife. They were both very busy, so they had to be specific about spending a few minutes around one another just doing things. Right now Lilly was on a very plush rug listening to an audiobook.

And he just realized he'd not actually told her about his advancement. Sure it'd been implied, but he'd never outright said it. Now how should he say that.

"I'll probably do a space mech next maybe." Bolt said. "Can't build it now though. Ya remember that work I did that gave me a headache?"

"Yep." Lilly eyed him. "Yer gonna admit to your poor long-suffering wife that you advanced now?"

"Ah." The man breathed out in mild embarassment.

The woman closed her eyes and flopped onto the rug in a manner that felt more smug than anything else. "I do pay attention hun. Just thought it was some designer thing and you'd say when it was finished."

"Well yes, I did advance, and becoming Senior this soon ain't necessarily the best thing. I almost hit the record that Polymath did. That sorta thing means that people will believe Star Designer ain't off the table." Bolt said.

"You'll owe me a Star-mech then." Lilly replied back with a yawn. "And the kids too, if they pilot."

"That's a given." Bolt responded and sighed as he recalled the latest update from home. "They're both talking a lot now according to Ma and Pa."

"Good. We'll see them in person soon. Just gotta wrap up the war." The expert replied and flipped herself over. "Can't wait to hold them."

"Me either." Bolt said and began to sketch out something.

Since he was going to be waiting on building the mech he decided to just go down a list of mechs he didn't have types for in their lineup. Boiled down to it, he could use a dedicated duelist (Brawler or Fencer), an something with explosive range (Cannoneer or Artillery), something that could handle speedy mechs (Striker), and some utility. There were a lot of gaps in his lineup.

A good artillery mech felt like the best option. Something that could lob explosives downrange was always useful. The thing was his current lineup was actually pretty offensively orientated. Most artillery mechs were pretty slow. He would need to brainstorm on that. Their current lineup was extremely aggressive and a slow mech could make them lose tempo. Perhaps something with long range? There'd be a problem with friendly fire though depending on the weapon.

An idea came to him as he thought on that. He wasn't near the limit of what spiritual construction could do. Hadn't he managed to finagle a small friend-or-foe recognition in the snowflakes? They weren't exactly safe for allies to touch, but they would drift away from them naturally, and that made them useful and precise enough to be used. The Hoarfrost and the Yuki-onna both be very free with their weapons due to that. Bolt could probably create something else using that concept.

He decided he wanted lightning on a whim. This was not an unknown weapon. There were even a few of them on the market. They were all short ranged shot-gun like devices. Hell, Morning Star used a lot of it herself. That was again short range though. Bolt wanted long range. He wanted artillery.

That wasn't physically possible. Even with all their technology past a certain point lightning obeyed physics. Short range electrical weapons got around that through exotics or other factors. It required a fairly high amount of voltage to get past the natural defenses a mech had as well. He still wanted a lightning mech!

Making proper lighting weapons required bending physics into pretzels. There were still ways, technically. You could get a lot of range using some specialized technology involving exotics and lightning-rod analogs. One particularly fun weapon involved using a spike and to provide a conduit for the electricity. Unfortunately that weapon wasn't actually used frequently because if you could hit them with the spike you could use a bullet instead.

Bolt still bought the weapon license and began to take apart the design to get a few ideas. He had a possible workaround. It would need to be a heavy mech due to power needs again. Though the problem was different in this instance.

The weapon, titled Lightning Rod MK U1TRA used capacitors to charge up electricity before it released. More range required more stored power. Scaling it required a lot. A heavy mech was the only thing that would have enough output to charge it quickly.

So, one heavy artillery mech. Not uncommon. The initial design was fairly standard too. Heavy armor, bulky frame. Back mounted weapon in the shape of two large rods, which was the modified U1TRA that would serve as one of the main weapons. It needed some hand weapons too. Something big. Something dangerous.

"You know," Bolt mused as he looked at his plans. "I do owe you a heavy."

"Oh?" Lilly opened one eye.

"Something like this." The designer sketched out the twin gattling guns and added a bit of flare. "Your next expert mech."

"Hey, that's sorta like the Woodpecker." Lilly noted as she opened both eyes to stare at the sketch. "Don't recognize that back weapon though."

"Gonna shoot lightning when I'm done with it, and the range will be variable." Bolt explained. "I figure if I adjust one or two things I can have it use allies as range extenders up to a pretty large distance."

The expert grinned. "Sounds fun! Though it'd be another crowd killer like Morning Star."

"Ah, yeah. Would you prefer a duelist?" Her husband asked as he looked at his sketch with a more serious eye. A duelist would probably be better in retrospect.

"No, this will be fine. Will it have the Woodpecker's space shifting?" Lilly asked curiously.

"I..." Bolt paused and looked over the plans again.

He did have the power budget for it somewhat. If the weapons weren't charging the energy had to go somewhere. Pushing it into the space warping was possible. It'd require some very good cabling and some very delicate energy management. It was also very possible.

Bolt nodded slowly as he talked himself around to it. "I can do that. It'll have to be done after I do my work with Master Olson. I'm going to offer that device as a sort of distraction. We'll work on it together to make a mech, and I can take the lessons to finish this up and make it a real monster."

"Look at you being all sneaky." Lilly said with a small laugh. "What'll you call it?"

"Hmm." Lightning, space, and rather heavy. "Thinking Typhoon, but there's like a hundred other mechs with that name."

"Probably more. We'll just make sure yours is the best." The woman said with a nod before making grabbing motions towards the designing pad. "Now I want him, gimmie gimmie."

"Gotta make him first woman." Bolt muttered back and got another laugh.

 

[lost star]

As much as Lilly and Bolt wanted to just sort of chill in space and let the war pass them by, they did need to be seen doing things. So, once they were supplied they moved off again. This time to a place closer to an active battle.

Now, it has to be said that the Wrench Rats were not part of the Friday Military. They'd managed to get around the offers / demands of direct recruitment by supplying their own equipment and basically being mercenaries. This had good parts and bad parts. The good was that they chose their missions. The bad was that there was no support from the Friday Nation. This was less of a problem than you'd expect, mostly because the 'standard' contract the Friday people had with experts they recruited was basically just upgrade the mech to Second Rate and throw them at the enemy.

This was very evident in the battlefield they approached. The first thing they found was a rather large pile of mech bodies on one of the moons around the primary planet. Amongst them were over a hundred wrecks of expert mechs. Many of them hadn't even been stripped properly. This was the result of a space battle around the area that had been puttering along since the war started. The number of wrecks in the area was a bit unreal.

"No point in checking for survivors there." Lilly observed from the bridge. "We cleared for low-g salvage?" She asked the main salvage leader.

"Less experienced there, but we'll handle it. That's a lotta expensive stuff they left though." The man commented warily.

"Why does that sound like a bad thing." Miranda asked.

"Because that means there's still fighting. Get to the mechs." Lilly said as she began to move. "Assume we're going to get attacked the second we broadcast our greetings or a bit before."

They'd drilled something like this more than a few times. There were specific elevators designated for pilot transport. She got to the bay within a minute and was in Dowry within another one. There was no particular reason for this choice. Either one of her mechs could function in space and do so well enough to be impactful.

"Venerable Lilly, ready to being the broadcast." The man in the bridge said.

"Do it." The expert ordered and shifted Dowry to standby.

As ordered the carrier began to broadcast on all frequencies. It was a fairly generic statement, Friend or Foe recognition codes and their intent to salvage the battlefield. Lilly closed her eyes and synched with Dowry while she waited.

"Movement." The words she as half expecting came.

A few seconds later she was deploying with her people. The void of space and her fellows were all the surrounded her now. Their Son of War deployed his banner and the Torments shifted into a rough formation.

Space battles were a whole different kettle of fish than land battles. They typically revolved around the ships that carried the mechs rather than anything else. Some clever ships had deployable cover and the like, but here they just had their carrier while the enemy had something else. Their ship was already moving back as her people shifted to oppose the oncoming enemies.

"Valkyries spotted. Enemy shield-ship also on the way." Someone called out. "Brace yourself."

Lilly drifted up and engaged Dowry's stealth. The camouflage would let her choose her targets here. She could almost feel the enemy experts now. There were likely two there based on the movements she was seeing and what she was feeling. One was still on the ship as it approached. Either a riflemen or an artillery. She was leaning towards the latter based on positioning of the mechs involved.

The shield ship was mostly a stack of metal on an engine. Designed to hold artillery mechs in space it was mostly a close range support ship that was meant to get around the fact that warships were very much banned. It was a typical example of the ship type. A lot of metal bunkers designed to hold mechs and little else. Dowry was picking up a singular mech inside one of them. This was unusual enough that she held off on immediately deciding that that was where she should go.

"Going dark to backstab. Naoto, you're up here." Lilly called out and cut her comms.

Beneath her, her people moved as Miranda ordered them. Lilly carefully boosted a few times and watched as the enemy charged forward and smashed against their lines. She could tell when the Valkyrie raked people with it's Glow as they charged. The way some people froze was very obvious to her. One of them even hit her by accident. The feeling was potent. A thick cloying feeling of impending doom. Like seeing an oncoming sword right for her cockpit. Lilly found it bracing but it made Dowry furious.

"Hmm." The expert hummed to herself and continued to drift. "Where are you?" The experts were being careful in positioning. She had the likely targets, but she needed something more for confirmation.

Naoto moved forward as the lines started to clash. His sword swung. There was no concealing his expert status with that swing. The blade slipped through the enemies guard like it was air instead of a blade almost the size of the mech using it. It flowed through the poor target without stopping or even slowing. The mech drifted into two parts and the man almost serenely moved forward to the next target.

An enemy skirmisher moved forward intercept him. That was one of he experts she was looking for confirmed. It was also a relatively even matchup that Lilly didn't feel the need to supervise. She drifted closer and undetected until she could peer into the bunker and confirm the other one visually.

"And what are you..." Lilly focused on the artillery mech already readying its weapons. "Naughty girl."

The enemy Hexxer wasn't targeting the mechs. The woman was targeting the carrier, which was why she'd held her fire. The carrier had naturally moved away to avoid something like that, but they'd obvious underestimated the range if she was drawing a bead on it. This wouldn't do at all. The ship did have defenses, but against an expert like that they wouldn't last long.

Lilly dropped onto the bunker and ripped open the top of it in a second. The woman opposing had only a moment to react, and she did so by blasting her boosters and slamming open the emergency exit. The heavy metal door blew out from the impact as she frantically tried to gain room. This was unfortunately a poor matchup for her. Speedy mechs like Dowry were meant to eat mechs like her alive, and Dowry was very hungry at the moment.

A feeling of death hit Lilly as she began to chase, but she brushed it off even as she acknowledged the enemy movement. The opposing Valkyries had disengaged and were attempting to their allies to the best of their ability. They might have lacked serious long ranged weapons but it was enough to force her to slow slightly. The larger mech used that movement to bring the hand-weapons to bear, two small missile launchers sent out a wide swath of missiles that blanketed the area. Dowry was hit hard enough to force her to expend precious energy trying to get her footing again. The Zero-g was not doing her any favors here at all.

"What's next... Shit." Lilly muttered as her mech sensed another group approaching.

"Friendlies incoming!" Her comms screamed.

Lilly grinned at that call. That was some good fortune for once. All they'd need to do was pin the enemy down here and the reinforcements would finish them off.

She shifted her attention back to the artillery mech even as the enemy Valkyries charged at her in a frantic and last ditch attempt to stop her. The next few seconds were a frantic bit of movement as the Spearwomen tried to skewer her or just give the mech with some very large guns a free shot. Lilly managed a good enough job to keep neither option from happening, and that was obviously not acceptable to the Hexxer women. Mid-dodge the artillery mech simply aimed its heavy weapons in her general direction and fired.

Even braced and ready an expert shot like that was no joke. It caused horrific chaos to everyone. On the positive side the damage was pretty indiscriminate. Several of the mechs trying to aid their expert were shredded. Another feeling of doom hit her and Lilly almost rolled her eyes. It should have been terrifying. Dowry was having none of it, and the building fury let Lilly push past the oppressive aura without a flinch. Around her the remnants of the woman's allies floated away from the slightly molten shield-ship. Everything was clear now.

Her shot would have been useful and valid against any other mech truthfully. A blast like that was what cockpits were practically made to deal with. The pilots of those hit were still fine. Assuming the Hexxers won, the trade would have amounted to a few mechs for her life. Lilly should have been more damaged than she was, but Dowry's absurd regeneration made the trade far too lopsided on her end. The opposing woman obviously hadn't been briefed on Dowry at all.

Willpower fed into Dowry and she flexed and clawed as she grabbed onto the ship and moved with all speed towards the still fleeing enemy. The enemy mech in turn bounced away, picking up another set of hand missile launchers. Lilly hissed even as she tried to egg her mech on, but the woman fired before she could approach again, forcing her to shift and dodge even as she approached. Around her the battle intensified. This was getting extremely irritating. The ship was giving her quick reloads!

Shots hit the ship and it was forced to turn as the reinforcements began to fire upon it. The Hexxers were losing and they all knew it. It was only a matter of time really. The woman could obviously see the same thing and did something desperate instead. She turned her big weapons towards the ship she was on, right between them. A pointblank shot with an expert's willpower at full throttle would cause an explosion that would either throw them both off the ship or kill them. It was a complete tossup as to which would happen, and the woman gambled. Lilly could feel absolutely no hesitation as she fired.

Unfortunately for her, Dowry was a mech both flexible and fast. The moment Lilly noted the intention she was already digging her claws into the ship and shifting her position. The mech dropped down flat to the ground and ducked. Dowry's head was still nearly blown clear off, but the damage was relatively contained thanks to the angles, and it wasn't the first time she'd had the damage. In contrast the enemy expert had been blown back and was now off the ship, drifting slowly away as she tried to recover from the self inflicted damage.

This wasn't the end of the battle, but it was most certainly when victory was assured. As a bonus, Naoto finished about a minute later, outright slicing off each of his opponent's limbs before hacking the body up into neat squares. He hadn't even killed the expert while doing it, which was somehow more terrifying than actually killing her. (Lilly was so proud!)

 

[lost star]

Cleanup was unfortunately more of an issue than the fight. They'd almost accidentally managed to capture two expert Hexxer pilots, a fair amount of normal pilots, and all their support staff. Figuring out what to do with that many people was going to be a hassle, because putting them on ice required resources that they didn't actually have. Their initial step was therefore simply disarming them and throwing them into a camp that had food, water, and enough support that they weren't killing themselves. It was fairly messy and unpleasant process made worse that the surviving Friday forces practically demanded they all be lined up and shot.

Being fair, this wasn't an outrageous demand considering how the war was going. Hexxers would routinely do something similar. They'd also just as frequently do proper prisoner captures. It was highly commander dependent and there was no official line from the party aside from 'don't kill women.' Lilly was casting no judgements at all here. She simply didn't want to have her people be the ones doing the shooting, hence the camp.

Space at least wasn't an issue for this. The moon they'd been fighting around had simply been a primary point of battle. The local planet was a relatively serene place that mostly grew and farmed. Neither side had been inclined to fight on it due to the fact it had almost no military targets of value. The primary export had been a sort of luxury beef and feedstock for most standard food machines. Actually landing and fighting had thus been completely pointless for both sides of the war. There was therefore plenty of unused and untouched land for a prison complex to be hastily made. That would solve the prisoner problem in the short term.

What was less easy was dealing with the Friday remnants. These weren't shattered men and women who's units had been broken. They were desperate and near fanatic resistance members who'd been doing anything they could, up to and including suicide attacks. They were friendly only by virtue of opposing the Hegemony.

Even Lilly's expert status didn't make communications and trust happen. The people involved insisted on radio only and kept very far away from their forces before almost demanding that they leave as soon as possible. The doubled demands combined with their near insistence on her people killing the captured soldiers soured any sort of actual negotiation and made her very disinclined to work with them. After a few hours of back of forth, tense negotiation Lilly switched to legal Friday speak and the authority her contract gave her rather than trying to come to an agreement.

"Per our official negotiated agreement with the Friday Coalition we are able to claim the bounty found in any battlefield so long as we do the securing and it has not been claimed and occupied by any recognized units. We are also fully authorized to work in all unrestricted Friday territory." Lilly rattled off the appropriate legalese. She still got a small headache from reading, but she'd developed a lot of workarounds. One of which was having Bolt put the entire contract into the Heart Crystal. "Are you recognized by the Friday Coalition as one of their units?"

"Respectfully Venerable Lilly, we have been fighting since the start of the war." The man responded with absolutely no real respect in his voice.

"Are you recognized? Do you have the paperwork for it?" Lilly pressed with a small snarl. She was getting very tired of this mindless insistance.

"We are the sons and daughters of the people who defend this nation!" The man snarled back. "You are scavengers trying to make a quick credit. We both know you'll be leaving as soon as the witches show their face with a real force."

"Real force yes." The woman rolled her eyes and paused. "Actually, why were there two experts here? More importantly, why were two experts here with so few forces? Those two together should have had at least double what we faced."

Military wise, experts were attached to units. Unless they specialized in it, most experts needed a wide variety of support, from fire support, to actual supplies and such. A lone expert on the field was a dead expert. An artillery and skirmisher expert should have the forces to let them play to their specialty. A singular ship was not proper backing. The Wrench Rats should not have been able to meet their numbers at all.

"That is none of your business." Was the immediate and hasty reply.

"Let me think out loud here." Lilly spoked out as she looked at the top of her cockpit. "This place isn't much in the grand scheme of things. It was on a minor route to one of the fallen fortress worlds and was really just an intersection that you could pass people through discretely. Now it's pointless to control for either side due to how the fronts are positioned. Yet from our survey there's been constant low level fighting, and we had two experts with with what looks like half their forces lost."

The other end of the radio was silent for awhile before the man very quietly confirmed her words. "That is a proper assessment of the situation."

"So, I suppose my question is where's your expert and how much trouble are they in?" Lilly finished with a small grin. "Ain't gotta tell me if that's right or not, but I'll go ahead and have enough salvage for an expert mech and change put into a gift box with a bow on top it. That stop your squawking and complaining?"

"We are done here." The man said with finality.

Lilly didn't laugh, although it was close. She'd been mostly guessing, but she'd obviously stumbled on something since he'd disengaged rather than talked. Pushing more would probably result in something more hostile than what she'd been encountering. There was a decent chance that she'd hit upon something delicate. She opened up another channel instead.

"All right, get to work on salvaging. High value stuff first." She ordered and then closed that one once she got the acknowledgement.

Once all of that was settled she turned her attention back to the more lingering problem. The women they'd captured were relatively fine in their current area, but they couldn't just leave them in the area. Two experts alone were a pretty nice prize. When the Hexxers swung by here they would take the time to rescue them and Lilly didn't want that. So they had to either take them with her or bite the bullet and shoot them. The latter would get side eyes from the MTA. They did not like people killing experts out of battle. (This was another reason to keep from killing the PoWs.)

The problem in transporting them was the lack of space really. There were enough of them that if they placed the captured people on the ship there would be issues. None of their people were experienced with dealing with prisoners. Tech would surmount a lot of that, but it wouldn't keep problems from happening. She needed more room.

Her gaze turned to the shield-ship they'd also captured. That thing wasn't in the best shape, but it did have enough room and life support to handle the people if they stripped out a few military things. It was likely bugged and sabatoged to all hell as well. Yet if they threw the people on there and had the controls slaved to a few remote controls they could just have it transport people. The nearest good Friday Fortification was about two jumps away. That would be quite possible to achieve.

All that remained was doing it.

 

[lost star]

The Valkyrie Redeemer was interesting in several ways, yet boring in others. Mechanically it was sound. Ves had obviously gotten a significant amount of assistance in building it. The Hexxer influence was all over the blueprints. His design ethos still showed through that almost taint. The mechanical parts of it were standard Hexxer military. The spiritual parts were potent and his alone. Bolt was actually fairly tempted to poke at the spirit backing it, but he refrained for many reasons. That was Ves' full specialty there, and Bolt was fairly sure that working with spirits was not really his strength. Mechalla aside, his sum total of work was with Qilanxo and actual mech spirits. What Ves did was rather beyond him. He wouldn't learn any more by interacting with them. He had a firm handle on his strengths and limitations.

Really his largest question in examining this was how did the Glow feel? So he'd arranged for one of the prisoners to show him. The mech she was in was completely destroyed as a matter of safety, but the glow should still work.

"Pretty interesting that he linked the activation to faith." Bolt mused as the test started to count down. That was really the most relevant mechanic that he'd discovered.

Three, two, one...

A terror hit him at zero and Bolt staggered as it hit his mind. He was perfectly safe and yet felt like he was a second from death too. His could feel his hands trembling and his heart racing. It wasn't an unfamiliar feeling. He'd felt this far too many times. He couldn't help the chuckle as the test continued. The woman was obviously relishing the chance to inflict some sort of damage on him and his laugh intensified.

"Ahaha." Bolt laughed even as the feeling continued to press down. "Ok, that's enough, that's enough." He said to the pilot.

It wasn't actually funny, but he could still feel the humor in it. That feeling was achingly familiar, like an old friend. He couldn't name a Rat back home that hadn't had to deal with something like that, from a gun being aimed at you to trying to live through a mech stomping right next to you, to more. He almost felt nostalgic at feeling it again. Almost, because it still wasn't a pleasant feeling. He could very much see people being paralyzed by it.

"Have it salvaged. I've learned all I can." Bolt ordered and began to think on what to do next. He should probably head down to the repair bay and see about getting their mechs in top shape before he did more.

Mid thought an alert started to sound. One of the green-skinned maids that liked to follow him around immediately grabbed one of his arms and pulled him out of the bay and towards one of the safe areas on the ship. Bolt allowed her to do so. Internally he mused that the familiar feeling of death was back again. This was a very low intensity, but it still echoed what he'd felt from that Glow.

"Intruders were discovered on the ship." One of the security forces informed him once he was settled.

"We know what they're after?" Bolt asked back.

"Can't tell at the moment."

Phillipe's people had seriously progressed since they'd joined up. They were professional, competent, and most importantly confident now. Bolt had no regrets about paying them, less about keeping them on, and he was quite happy about how they'd developed. They searched the ship and swept through everything they could quickly. This took several hours unfortunately. Bolt did have his comm, so he managed to get some work done, but not as much as he'd liked. The secured area was metal and chairs, not much else. That wasn't conductive to real work.

"It looks like someone left an airlock unsecured and someone used that to float in." Phillipe reported after they were certain things were clear. "Zey probably panicked once we detected them and ran to the mech area. One override later and they were gone with one of the mechs. Pursuit was being arranged, but Lilly had them stop."

"Override?" Bolt asked.

"Explosives and localized hacking tools. Nothing that compromised our computers or security, if you discount the need for repairs." Phillipe reported with a mild sigh. "We will be reviewing things, but it's likely someone let them in."

"Of course." Considering their recruitment sprees, it was more surprising that this was the first time. "Can we see who did that?"

"We will." The young man promised him. "That said, they did take the mech named Cheshire and some supplies nearby."

"Cheshire is a stealth mech with no weapons." Bolt observed.

"That is why Lilly stopped the pursuit." Phillipe replied before giving Bolt a questioning look. "Why did you build a mech without weapons?"

"Cheshire was mostly a proof of concept mech. The stealth if very potent for such a small frame. She'd actually be very good for infiltration like what we just dealt with if you modify her to carry people. You could probably get like six or so if they're crammed together." Bolt mused. "That said, the stealth does have flaws." The man picked up his comm. "Lilly."

"Hey hun. Bit busy. I wanna know how they got so close and who I should gut." The expert didn't sound happy.

"Got something ta help. Ask Dowry to hunt." Bolt replied and then sent a set of numbers to the mech that would allow it to track Cheshire somewhat. The spirit in Dowry should be able to handle the rest.

"Hmm?" Lilly's laugh wasn't exactly friendly. "Oh you got it."

Really, what had they been thinking? Bolt shook his head in mild exasperation. Had they thought they could just get on the ship undetected? Every military ship had internal sensors. Had they just assumed they could bypass them? Actually now that he was thinking about it, perhaps they had?

Bolt got to his feet and made his way to where Cheshire had been stored. The small mech hadn't been in a primary bay since she wasn't really something they wanted to deploy. She was a novelty mech really. Cute, mildly useful, but also a mech that required a very specific skillset. You didn't get someone able to pilot a cat and a stealth mech casually.

True to his thoughts, this meant that the security was different. It'd been mostly locks and armored doors. Each one had been bypassed with precise explosive devices or self-destructive devices of some indeterminate nature. The ruins of them were already being collected carefully by Phillipe's team.

"Friday gear." Bolt noted. "Exclusive stuff too."

"Mind explaining please?" Phillipe asked with a bit of exasperation.

"There's a subset of hacking tools meant to deal with ships and doors." This was something Bolt had specifically looked into with Gadget, and just in case. "Based on the look and the damage, this was all high level Friday equipment. Why just Cheshire though?"

"Any other mech couldn't have escaped. They must have had information on the manifest, including what you had stored." The young man replied back with a small sigh.

"We'll get it sorted." Bolt tried to comfort the other man.

It probably didn't help much. This was a failure of security now matter how much you dressed it up as. Unfortunately with the way they recruited it was going to happen. Lilly vetting them could only do so much. There unfortunately wasn't really a solid solution available.

 

[lost star]

Dowry was not a stealth mech. That was the mech she was chasing, Cheshire. Dowry did have enough camouflage to mimic a stealth mech in certain situations, like following a stealth mech trying to get away. Which made following the cat easier. It helped a lot that the little cat-mech wasn't really built for anything but being sneaky. The sensors on it were average, the armor was minimal, the speed was poor, and the lack of weapons made it mostly a toy, and possibly a scout if you wanted to be funny. (Lilly had taken it out a few times just for that. The stealth was very good and hilarious if you did things right.)

Lilly tried to think of why they'd pulled this idiocy. It reeked of something. What she couldn't tell yet, but it reeked. That was why she was slowly drifting along in space rather than burning and following them with everyone. Better to take Dowry as a semi-scout and decide things afterwards cautiously.

Now one thing everyone had to remember and be told repeatedly was that space was big. Its size was not something that the human mind was meant to handle. You could get lost and dead in short order if you did not take care to orient yourself. The places people fought around were specks compared to the stellar bodies in a solar system. This meant that there was a lot of space to hide in. If you were very careful with positioning and energy radiation you could remain undetected for years.

Lilly was reminded of that when she finally saw where the stolen mech was going to. It looked like nothing from the distance. Just an asteroid floating in space. The system had billions of them. If Dowry's senses weren't extremely good, she'd have just thought of it as a hollowed out asteroid or something. Instead she was registering metal. As she approached it became even more clear.

"Huh. That's some decent concealment." She observed to herself.

They'd camouflaged a ship with enough silica to make it look like an asteroid from a distance. Nice trick. It was useless once you had a visual on the ship, or when it powered up, but still useful when you didn't know where it was. If Lilly were to guess this was a stealth ship that they'd added extra concealment to while doing repairs. She could see signs of severe battle on the hull. This thing had done a lot.

Not that she cared. She was more irritated at the utter disrespect they'd shown in stealing her husband's mech. Now how to handle this? Did she want to do this calmly? Hah!

"All right thieves, I caught you red-handed. Either surrender now or I start shredding." Lilly broadcast to them even as she signaled her position to everyone on her side. "If you try to spin up your engine expect me to treat that as hostile and start shredding."

For a long moment there was silence. It was long enough that Lilly almost started readying herself to attack the ship and plotting vectors on how to pull this off. Then one of the doors on the ship opened, then shut, then opened again. The woman saw a hint of an explosion before it shut once more.

"Please don't shoot venerable!" Someone sent out, and then was cut off.

Oh for the love of god. Lilly cursed internally and moved Dowry forward so that she could do something if necessary. "All right, dunno what's going on in there, but knock it off!" She switched to the Rat channel. "Get a boarding team together when you come in. We're going to need boots on the ship."

Several long minutes occurred. Lilly almost had Dowry start clawing at things while she waited. The only reason she didn't was that the ship had gone very dead and the bay doors were staying firmly shut. Eventually the breaching teams arrived and under her watchful eyes they began to infiltrate the ship.

Lilly expected to need to tear into things to support. She even readied her claws and approached the ship close enough to start. If the morons though they could hide behind the ship bulwarks they'd be in for a very rude surprise. The precautions proved less than necessary.

"Venerable, we've captured someone on the ship. You're going to want to speak with them." The breaching man said after a moment.

"Um Hello Miss Venerable." A young sounding male spoke.

"What?" Lilly breathed out.

"Yes, so uh, we're really really sorry about everything." The young man continued. "There's just a lot of... Well..."

"The chain of command is screwed." The man who'd done the breaching interjected. "You don't know who's in charge right?"

"Yes!" The young man said back before giving an audible swallow. "So, uh, we have like three groups here. Me and my friends are, what do you call it, defects?"

"Defections, or defector." The man said with a very tired sounding sigh.

"Ah that. We followed along Venerable Willow because she said something that went over my head. She was apparently a deep plant and the guys who extracted her got really hurt along with her. The other group helped us a lot, but are really paranoid? I'm sorry I don't know more, just that there was shooting and yelling and screaming and-"

"He's crying now." The breacher muttered uncomfortable as he took the radio.

"Of course. Male hexxer?" Lilly asked.

"A group of them, ranging from eighteen to nine, if I'm lucky. It's complicated because there's barricades, infighting, and what looks to be several prisoners on their own side." The man answered, sounding increasingly out of his depth.

"Of course." Lilly muttered. "Do you have locations of people?"

"A few. Not many." The man responded.

"Hey kid, is everyone in suits?" The expert asked the other person.

"Huh? Some are? Venerable Willow isn't. She's in medical." The near child responded.

Lilly nodded, though it couldn't be seen. She then plunged Dowry's hand into the ship. Some very careful tearing opened it up like a can and she had her mech run full sensors as the air started releasing and several emergency hatches slammed down.

"Order everyone to stand down. Those that don't will have me doing something." Lilly flexed a hand and very deliberately scratched long the hallway she'd exposed.

From her perspective that was relatively soundless. There was some vibration that transmitted to the cockpit, but nothing else. From their perspective it would be a loud rattling shriek.

Only the terminally stupid would actually ignore that offer, which meant that Lilly had to prove good on her words several times. Dowry was actually ideal for this. Her claws were meant to be precision weapons, so Lilly's only real obstacle was in getting to her targets with no damage to her allies.

It probably looked more than a little silly towards the end. Dowry ended up having to stick her entire arm into the ship to get to some areas. Her fellow Rats found the exercise both entertaining and midly horrifying. It was one thing to call for support, but another to see a hand rip through a bulkhead and squish a person.

Eventually they managed to subdue the people with a repairable amount of damage to the ship. Unfortunately that wasn't the end of it. They now had more prisoners, and several critical patients, including the expert Willow. Willow in particular was one step away from death.

All told it was a fiasco that made everyone involved both irritated and upset.

 

[lost star]

Logically the series of events made sense. Bolt really didn't want to actually try to decipher it all. It made his head hurt. The stupidity involved was so endemic that he wanted to scream.

"So, you saved these kids on your infiltration job, attempted to run away, and ended up with the local resistance?" Bolt summarized the issue.

"Correct." Venerable Willow confirmed.

The woman had seen far better days. Truthfully Bolt wasn't even sure how she was alive at the moment. Fully half her body was gone. She had a singular functional hand, and had to be hooked up into several devices because she was missing most of what was needed to digest food. Fixing this was possible with their technology, but it'd take months. Months that she didn't seem to have.

"Several radical Hexxer groups have a tendency to kill the male side of the population in various types of purges. They're usually harshly punished for it, but it's far more consistent than the upper echelons like." The woman seemed serene despite her injuries. "Rescuing them was the correct thing to do. It was easy actually. It's one of the larger dividing points between many factions inside the nation."

"But that broke your cover and caused the officials on the Friday side to deny help." Bolt filled in.

"It helped that the result of my escape did this." Willow indicated her body with her one good hand.

He suspected that there were other factors too. Experts were valued. Willow, with her specialty in stealth related actions, was probably one of the most valuable people in their lineup. Her getting cut off like that and forced to rely on local and unreliable help smacked of politics.

"They're good children." The woman commented into the silence. "Keep them safe. Don't blame the theft on them or the others either. Some people thought a mech would make me feel better."

"You've not piloted in awhile." Bolt observed before nodding and getting to his feet as he made a decision. "All right, I'll get the mech ready for you."

Willow gave a soft smile. "Like I told them, that won't help me. I vowed to serve the Friday Coalition. With no use for me, this is not the worst fate."

The designer flicked her forehead. As she stared at him in consternation he did it again. "No. Bad cat."

"Cat?" The expert repeated with bemusement.

"Bad cat." Bolt repeated with a nod. "No curling up in the shadows to die." He pulled out his comm. "Lilly, talk some sense into the woman giving up if you would? I'm getting Cheshire ready for her."

All teasing aside, this was an issue known to the MTA that he wanted to prevent. In the more restricted briefings there was information on various afflictions experts could have. One of them fit here. When experts suffered a severe mental hit related to how they'd ascended they tended to wither and die. If Bolt was right, Willow had devoted her life to the Friday Coalition, and them cutting her off had caused a fatal and poisonous blow. The physical side could be repaired. The mental side couldn't.

Really this was a bad situation all over. Taking the local resistance force, Willow's supporting staff, and the ship crew into custody was a bit of a problem in many respects if it got out. They couldn't cut anyone loose right now either. The resistance force could probably be left once they were ready to leave, but the rest would cause trouble or be in trouble if they left them behind.

Getting Willow up and running was therefore a mix of altruistic and selfish reasons. If they could get her active then her relations with all the involved groups would smooth things over. The word if was holding a lot of weight though. The restricted information didn't really have official ways of helping someone with a broken will. It was a psychological issue that required a quick and precise evaluation and a substitute reason for the expert to pick up. The latter was highly dependent on circumstances, and also had to be done carefully, because experts were not people that responded well to manipulation.

Lilly had an advantage in this case that made him believe they could do it. She could read people and was genuine. Bolt was setting up their other advantage. Cheshire wasn't a combat mech, but she was a very special mech in a spiritual sense. She was serene in a way no other mechs were. The combination of the two should stabilize Willow and get her mending instead of fatalistically dying.

In a way the next few hours resembled someone getting physical therapy. They had to carefully get Willow into the cockpit, and then practically beg her to take control of Cheshire before taking her out. They stepped out into the open fields of one of the many empty areas on the planet and watched as she took a few steps.

"I fail to see the point here." The woman said with good humor as Cheshire moved, if no real enthusiasm.

"Really, you haven't piloted in over a year and you say that?" Lilly asked back with an audible eye roll. Morning Star picked up a rock and threw it her way.

Willow dodged reflexively. "Rocks, really?"

"You're so rusty that I could kill you with anything better." The other woman shot back and threw another rock.

A delicate sniff followed and Cheshire disappeared from sight. Bolt stifled a small chuckle from his observation position. He'd put a few monitoring tools in the mech before doing this just in case, but Lilly didn't have access to them. Not that she really needed them.

"Gentle." That's was Lilly's response as she flapped Morning Star's wings slightly. "I didn't think I'd ever see a gentle expert, but here we are. Yer really soft."

"That sort of description is a first." Willow replied placidly as Cheshire prowled around.

"Yep. Met a lotta experts by now. Naoto thinks of himself as a blade, and he's at peace with that. Pup is a guard dog. You? A quiet ghost. How'd you ascend?"

"I'd rather not speak of it."

Bolt glanced at the battlefield, if you could call it that. Cheshire had been quite before, but as time passed she was getting even quieter. The little mech wasn't an expert mech, but Willow was certainly making it seem like it. It was even making the monitoring tools slightly glitchy.

"Since the goal here is to get you moving I think I'm going to take it up a notch." Lilly had Morning Star manifest a dozen small stars. "These won't do much to anything, but let's play tag with em." She flicked one through the air.

Willow was forced to dodge. Completely invisible, obscured from all the senses, she was still forced to dodge. Bolt truthfully had no idea how Lilly was seeing her at first. After a few movements he figured out that she was watching the ground. No matter how invisible and padded the mech was, there was still going to be a bit of a shift.

That was until there wasn't. Lilly paused when it happened and made a guess. "Using the boosters? That's not gonna last forever."

"Please don't confuse me with an amateur Venerable Silica." Willow responded softly.

"Oh, is that a hint of will?" The other expert immediately said with cheer.

"Professional pride." Willow muttered with a hint of emotion.

Truthfully Bolt was quite impressed. Seeing the trick didn't make it any less impressive. Cheshire was stepping on solid ground and places she'd already flattened to keep her movements from being seen while boosting periodically to get from point to point. It was a cat playing hopscotch invisibly and silently. The little mech had managed to do all of this and approach Lilly.

"Ya don't gotta say it, but I think yer getting a bit back into it." Lilly said after a few seconds.

Willows response was simple. "Tag." Cheshire appeared with a paw on Morning Star's back leg.

"Hah!" Bolt's wife said with a laugh. "Ok, that tears it. Bolt do your magic and Cheshire. Willow's perfect for that."

Bolt exhaled loud enough that the mic probably caught it. "Ya know that'd be a bit pointless if Willow hasn't decided to live yet." He pointed out. "And magic, really?"

"Don't care." Lilly responded. "I want ta see her in something special even if she dies. Someone like this deserves to be remembered at her peak."

"I am still here and on the public channel you know." The woman they were speaking of reminded them.

"Like that matters." Lilly said flippantly.

Bolt really sympathized with Willow's long sigh there. He really did.

 

[lost star]

It was all well and good to say they needed to make Cheshire into an expert mech and another to actually do it. The mech was small. The stealth system occupied most of the available space as well. Truthfully Bolt wouldn't have bothered at all had the entire design not really clicked with Willow. Had Willow not shown improvement upon piloting the mech he might had delayed some as well. Might have. There was a distinct possibility that he would have tried anyway. He knew himself well enough to acknowledge that.

Adjusting the mech to make it viable in combat was actually going to require a lot of rather delicate work. If it were anyone else it wouldn't have been possible, Bolt had to acknowledge. The best adjustments he could do to make Cheshire a proper offensive mech was add some armor, add a singular weapon with a little bit of ammo, and resonant material. The latter had to be the main offense. Willow, when using the mech would have to burn willpower to really deal damage. This would be completely non-viable designing conventionally. Only Bolt's skill and the fact that it was a stealth mech made it possible.

The offense would be achieved with a particularly rare, but also relatively cheap exotic that produced an entropic effect. The reason it was both those factors was because the exotic had entropic properties. Properly preserving it was a pain in the ass, and it held very niche uses. Hence relatively cheap and annoyingly rare.

Cheshire would be using it to create 'bad luck.' She'd tap her paw to an enemy and they'd be marked. How bad it would be would be up in the air. Aside from that untested weapon she'd also be able to set small sticky bombs that'd explode on a timer. Getting something high yield enough would be costly, but necessary.

Other than those changes, the mech would get more armor and some tweaks here and there by changing out the salvages parts with more expensive and more efficient parts. Cheshire was going to be a very pricy cat! She'd also hopefully be a decent sapper mech. They'd have to test the bad luck after the changes were done to see how good that was. Ideally no one would even notice the cat was there at all.

Thankfully rushing everything wasn't really needed. Willow would need months to recover enough to properly pilot, assuming she reassembled her willpower. The woman was improving, but it was a slower process. Regular walks with Cheshire in space and on the ground when they could would hopefully fix her. After the changes were done there was a decent chance that the mech spirits hiding in Mechalla would be able to sim the bad-luck for added practice as well.

Also, while she wasn't fully recovered, Willow was up and working well enough to smooth things over somewhat with everyone. The rebel forces were being placated with a lot of scrap. The Hexxer boys and Willow's support staff were being folded in with the Wrench Rats, and the people manning the ship were being cut loose with a repaired ship and would likely find mercenary work doing something a stealth ship would be good for.

At Willow's instance both of the rebels and the shipmen did not know she was actually recovering. In their eyes she was passing on her last wishes. That was a sneaky reason for that. Bolt wasn't particularly enamored or interested enough to care about it. It would probably be useful in the future. Especially if he was discrete with upgrading her mech. Watching for expert parts wouldn't actually tell people what he was doing in this case! Cheshire had never been seen, and upgrading her to an expert mech was particularly insane from a designer perspective.

Subterfuge aside, the salvage was going well, and they were on track to leave. The next destination would be a Friday fortification world. There was a decent one on the list of places they could retreat to, and it'd be a good place to drop off prisoners. They'd dip in, see about any news or updates, and dip out.

--Elsewhere, in a Friday meeting between high level people--

If one had to say what the largest bane of any real organization was, it was one of two items. Corruption or internal politics. Very typically it was both, frequently intertwined. It was human nature to favor the ingroup and dislike the outgroup and corruption favoring you was hardly real corruption wasn't it?

Takaharu was familiar with all the excuses. He'd used more than a few himself. There was a sort of understanding that so long as the main mission of resisting the witches was kept up, people would look the other way. That didn't mean he liked all of it. He frequently felt like he'd sold his soul several times. But the problem was that sometimes that was what was necessary to keep the war moving.

"Projections are that Larkinsons' next mech will be out within a month or two." The intelligence officer gave the last part of his report. "Rumors are that he was inspired recently."

"Inspired." One of the generals noted sourly. "Is that what we're basing our tactics off now? Scuttlebutt about a singular designer halfway across the galaxy?"

"The Witches are finally starting to take meaningful losses. Would a new mental Glow actually do anything to change that?" Someone else asked. Looked like a lower level officer being used as a mouthpiece.

"Reports are that they're tapped on manpower. I'll leave you all to make predictions." The intelligence officer deflected quietly.

Takaharu gave a small grunt. He didn't blame the man for being less than eager to commit. The tension in the meeting was high despite the relative good news.

"Shall we bring up unit distribution in light of that news?"

If there were fighting words at the moment, it was those. It had not escaped people that the Guager forces were still rather fresh. Officially they'd been held back as a last resort due to the dire nature of the war. Unofficially they'd been very happy to let others take the damage and then push back. With the push back happening they were suddenly far less happy at the entire situation.

"How's our special asset?" The question was directed to Takaharu.

"He's alive." The general said. "We'd know if he died. And no he doesn't want to be moved to a secured facility. Anyone who wishes to push the issue would be best advised to read the designer management advice we keep handy."

Very specifically trying to cram designers into environments they weren't happy with usually ended up with rebellion or worse. You literally couldn't force designers to work for you. Even brainwashing techniques weren't valid, and those had been proposed. The MTA would not be happy with people assaulting someone of Bolt's status either. There were lines you could and could not cross.

"There is an official note of him doing a design collaboration with one of our masters." One of the less poisonous officers noted. "Do we have information on that?"

"Master Olson has been quite cooperative, so we can likely send her requests. She should be able to guide the special asset into something more suited for countering Larkinson at the very least. There's a report of him dropping off PoW's soon?"

Takaharu wished he could have covered that one up, but no. Paperwork had to be filed for something that large, and experts were extremely valuable as trading cards at a minimum. "Yes. The area does have facilities suited for rapid prototyping. I'm sure we can get something done quickly there."

"Good. Leak that he's doing it to the enemy." One of the higher generals ordered. "Place forces ready to reinforce the area, but pull back a few garrisons on the world itself."

"We're baiting the Hexxers?" Takaharu asked quietly.

"Yes. Delay the asset there as long as you can. Give him a few bonuses and request that he help with prototyping the new work. If you can, have them have a few ready. With luck the Larkinson and the Assets mech will counter one another and we'll be able to crush whatever forces the Hexxers pull together to attack it." The leading general said.

It was a good plan. It was also a trap in a lot of ways. Takaharu was quite sure that someone at the planet would be discretely ordered to prioritize their forces, not Bolt and his family. If some of their independence was clipped then they'd be able to quietly pressure the Rats into areas more favorable to Friday forces.

Kami help him, he despised politics.

 

[lost star]

A curious effect had emerged on the battlefields recently. It was not uncommon for experts to ascend and keep their mechs. It wasn't uncommon for groups of experts to do this. If one particular model was very popular, you could get hundreds of almost identical expert mechs. The Shining Shrine Maiden was just one amongst many in that regard. It still stood out though, for one particular reason.

"Let evil be cleansed by fire!"

They called it the Wrath of God. When several Expert Maiden pilots worked together their laser attacks magnified one another instead of added together. The similar mindsets, unique mechs, and willpower created something that was more biblical than made by man.

Everything burned. Vast swaths of terrain were fried. Enemy mechs ignited. Some more than others, but all of them took more damage than simple lasers could produce. Even glancing hits would take off limbs as the lasers superheated the armor beyond natural causes. It was utterly apocalyptic on a scale that took divisions of heavy artillery mechs.

It was also a relatively telegraphed attack that couldn't be done often. Good to utterly annihilate an area, bad for everything else. The Hexxer forces had adapted to it quickly out of necessity after they'd been baited into a few attacks. The laser bombardment could get devastatingly precice.

"They've spent themselves, charge forward!" The rallying cry came out from the Hexxers in question and they charged through the blackened and ash strewn terrain. Once the attack came through it took a noticeable amount of time to reload, so a quick charge could frequently disrupt any sort of followup.

Several quiet and unassuming mechs interrupted their momentum. At their forefront was a near skeletal mech with a halo behind his head. Venerable Huang, a Buddhist that had ascended with Bolt's Last Prayer. He had not kept his original mech. The Last Prayer simply couldn't handle being pushed up to a Second Rate mech. His new one had been custom made by a mildly Senior and some minor input from Bolt. It wouldn't have fit him had it not still had the Heart Crystal though, which had convinced him of its importance.

"Namaste to my opponents." He spoke as they ran forward.

His mech had no weapons. It's armor was average. Aside from the halo and prayer beads it was unadorned. Simple, unassuming, non-threatening for a mech. The prayer pose it held as the enemy approached was almost arrogant in this situation. Shots flew at him as he stood still. Not a single one hit.

"Forgive the violence and be assured that no offense is intended." The mech moved and it was as if the battlefield moved to accommodate him rather than anything else. Several Hexxer enemies were destroyed by gentle palm strikes before they could even register the attack.

A Valkyrie Expert moved to attack. "Feel death!" The woman shouted as she charged.

"I do, and I am unafraid." Huang replied simply as he slapped aside the spear and then danced back as the woman used secondary weapons in her attempt to attack.

"Foul man." The expert in the mech snarled and charged forward with all her willpower.

"Be glad that it is I, and not another here." The halo eluminated. "She would find your goddess' gaze offensive."

"You should be glad that it gazes your way at all!" The woman snarled back and maneuvered her spear to slash and thrust at her enemy.

Despite the casual nature of how Huang was moving, he was being pressed. While every shot missed him, and the Glow flowed through him without trouble, he was at a disadvantage in range and power. That was perfectly fine with him. If he died, he died. He accepted the world as it was. This allowed him to bypass the feeling of death. It was also a very odd example of willpower as well, which privately amused him when he allowed it to happen.

Behind his head the halo continued to grow brighter as the systems began to flow with power. After a few seconds the light trickled down to the prayer beads around his mech's neck. Then it traveled more. Liquid gold moved around his mech and formed into an intricate pattern that flowed with willpower. Eventually it hit the hands and mid thrust one of those golden detailed hands grabbed at the spear attempting to attack him.

Reflexively the woman attempted to jerk it free. Her mech's arms whined but there was no response. The golden light spread up the spear and she dropped it before she could discover what it'd do further.

"Corruption?!" She switched to secondary weapons as she backed up. "Another spear!" She called out to a fellow.

"Merely spreading enlightenment." The man pulled a prayer bead off the wire it was held on. "You need not fear me."

"I fear nothing!"

"Ah, but allow me to rephrase that, my apologies for the implication of cowardace." Huang corrected himself. "You should fear someone else."

"BURN!!!" The shout traveled too far to feel natural.

Huang clapped the palms of his mech together as light rained down. Miraculously all of it missed him. None of it missed the charging Hexxers. Those that got hit head on were melted to various degrees. Those that took glancing blows found chunks of their armor melted off. The expert was touched by a singular beam. It shouldn't have a lot of damage. It caused the afflicted part to ignite in flame against all laws of reality.

Huang shifted his stance as the volley ended. "For that to effect you so much..." He mused. "I wonder."

"Spare me your wondering and simply die as the Mother intends." The woman shot back and grabbed a spear from one of her fallen comrades.

"You could simply render yourself deaf if you find me too abrasive." Huang's serene response ended up just enraging the woman still further.

This was far from the only battle of course. Bolt's designs became more and more recognizable as the war continued. Not only were they designed in an iconic and thematic sense, there were a lot of experts using them. This made sense for the most part. The Sand War had resulted in many people ascending with Last Prayers, Shrine Maidens, and other mechs. Most of the new experts had elected to keep with their mechs when they could, and if not get some consulting from Bolt. While Bolt himself couldn't design all their mechs, he could and did put a blanket permission in place for any expert to use his Heart System and would frequently spend an hour or so when he could to help. It ended up spreading his reputation far wider than most people suspected.

Heart Crystals and both Bolt and Ves designs started getting far more scrutiny as this continued. Demand started to rise for both of their mechs despite any implications it might have had, and people began cataloging the unusual effects. One of them was a sort of correlation between certain types of mechs and pilots. If a mech 'felt right' to the pilot, there seemed to be a better chance of an expert happening. This was mostly rumor, but rumors had a way of gathering life on their own.

The MTA's official statement about this was that no harmful effects were noted for using either Ves or Bolt's mechs. This ended up pouring gas on the fire. Which was probably the organization's intention in retrospect.

 

[lost star]

"This next lesson is gonna be mean." Bolt's voice was rough as always, with a bit of a drawl that he'd never bothered to smooth out.

Sami still had trouble dealing with it truthfully. Every time she heard it some small part of her cringed. No Hexxer male would allow himself to sound so much like a yokel. As a scion she'd never interacted with men outside her nation and the differences were stark. It was only now that they had a few men from her nation on the same ship that she realized how stark. The systematic adjustments men went through in her nation were rather extreme from the outside. They wanted 'boys' and not men. She'd almost forgotten what that meant for them. She still liked the pretty boy look but had to acknowledge that it was not the whole of man and they were lesser for it in the place she called home. (She wasn't alone. The fashion for men in the Hexxer was truthfully not that extreme compared to other places, it was just oppressive and mandatory.)

"No more exercising my head?" The young woman asked as she met her teacher's eyes.

Bolt chuckled and shook his head. "Not really. You could keep it up, but yer consistent enough that it's fine to move onto the next step. Now there's a problem we need ta address before we take that step. I haven't seen a mech from you."

That statement made Sami flush slightly. "I know." She admitted. It had been several months now since they started. She'd failed at anything original. "I did work with Zombie and Ghoul, but nothing really made me eager."

"We'll go over the work." Bolt responded and brought the blueprints up. "Yer gonna be stuck on this ship once we hit that Friday base, and I'll be down on the planet designing so you'll got plenty of time ta review." He rolled his eyes at that. "They requested my personal presence and offered to pay a lot. I swear they couldn't be more transparent if they tried."

That statement made Sami perk up at the thought of some juicy gossip. "Are they trying some sort of nefarious plot?"

"Something like that. It shouldn't be a concern for you. You'll be up here in the carrier being safe. It'll jump away if needed." The designer responded. "And if yer wondering about that decision, I do have reasons fer this. That's getting off topic though. Right now we need ta... Let's call it refine you."

"That sounds needlessly ominous." The woman replied with a half grin.

Bolt's look made that grin die. The next few hours made her want to scream. It was like no other teaching she'd ever gotten. He poked and prodded at everything she did, asking for explanations, forcing her to account for everything, and making her brain hurt horribly as she was forced to think again and again. It was all she hated about mech design. It was also unfortunately sort of part and parcel in making them. Calculations and evaluations were all absolutely necessary for mech design. She gone through this process several times. That Senior she'd been mentored under had specifically had her do this. Sami had really never been pushed this hard, or been forced to explain herself so much, but it was unpleasantly familiar.

Eventually the girl felt herself reaching the end of her abilities and couldn't stop from letting her head rest against the desk in a display that would have gotten her scolded back home. "Uuuug. How are you managing to push me like this? I know you don't have an implant! This isn't mech design. It's math and numbers pretending to be mech design!"

"I can see why you scored average." Bolt responded and chuckled at her scowl his way before turning serious. "Your knowledge is appropriate fer your level. Your designs are average and play it safe. But probably most importantly, your drive towards learning the base parts of mechs is average. This part of mech design doesn't interest you." He indicated the equations, diagrams, and other things necessary to make a mech work that they'd gone over. "If you keep on this path you're maybe gonna be a journeyman in a few decades."

Hearing it so bluntly stated made Sami wince and close her eyes so she wouldn't be seen crying. "Ouch."

"This ain't bad news. It's just an evaluation of your weaknesses. You're not a logical thinker and we've proved that. Now time to prove that you still can design and become more than just the knowledge you got pounded into your head. Draw me a sketch of your perfect mech." Bolt ordered.

"Huh?" The girl breathed into the table.

"Draw yer perfect mech. Hell, draw a mech you think looks good. Don't think about the parts and the base. Just give me the mech." Bolt continued.

Sami snorted as she raised her head and switched to the drawing tools. As fuzzy as her head was, she didn't have trouble sketching out something. It was also very, very silly. A witch. She knew what her people were called, but she'd never found it particularly offensive. Even the ugly witches were powerful. The pretty, sexy ones? They were icons. She had a semi-secret love for the look.

Big floppy witches hat, magic wand, a skirt with floof, even heels, because why not. It was an utterly ridiculous mech. Even one glance at it made her quite certain that it was impossible to build.

Her master chuckled as he looked at it. Then he did something that made Sami gape. He added parts. He shifted internals around and made it all make sense for the shape. Right in front of her eyes the basis for a mech formed and became something real. It became possible. It was a mech in the shape of a witch that would work, and work well, if it was finished.

"Why'd you stop?" Sami whined and knew she did, but she couldn't help it.

"Hmm, why would I finish your design?" Bolt asked back. "This is your mech. I'm just letting you know it's possible. In particular, if ya wanna add magic, it has to be yours. I ain't gonna do it. Channel your passion, feel your emotions. You had a hint of it while watching me. We both know that. Even if it's just whimsy, that's ok. Do the rest."

Grumbling, tired, and barely able to focus, the girl did as ordered. She couldn't say she was happy about it. She was in fact very unhappy. Working with the old outdated Third Rate tech in the game wasn't exactly easy. Nothing really fit, everything was so expensive and primitive. She had to practically jam everything she needed into the mech, and was forced to cut and cut. She felt clumsy as she worked. Like she was working with a hammer when she needed pliers instead.

The only thing she was proud of was the wand. The base weapon created a contained plasma sphere and shot it. With a little bit of her teachers help she was able to adjust it to form the plasma sphere inside the wand, and then you waved it to shoot. It was very silly, with a very slow fire rate, but it was a wand that threw viable ordinance at the tech level she was forced to use. Even that was flawed, but it felt like she'd achieved something with it.

"Good. We have just enough time to build it too." Bolt noted once she was finished.

"Build it?" Sami repeated blankly. "We're not just giving the design to the techs?"

"Sami, no student o' mine is going to know just how to design. You're going to learn how to build mechs by hand, with minimal assistance." The man noted as he got to his feet. "This is non-negotiable." He said very firmly before he paused and looked at the time. "Tomorrow though."

Unfortunately for the girl, having a project like that on the horizon didn't make for good sleep. She had no idea what to expect. She'd never assembled mechs with minimal assistance. She'd barely worked on mechs at all! Even in her overloaded job before this she'd mostly just directed people.

 

[lost star]

The bay Sami was directed to the next day had a faint smell that was hard to identify at first. It felt different than what she'd expected. It should have been drenched in oil and metal. There was none of that. Just a faint electrical smell and the hum of shipboard life. A few small drones flew through the air to tidy things up here and there, but it felt empty. It emphasized how large mechs were in her eyes.

"Normally I'd just leave ya to it, but I'm guessing that you don't have much experience here." Bolt's voice made her jump as he came in.

He'd switched his normal robe-like look out for a shirt that had no sleeves and clung to his body. Sami was reminded again that his build was very far from typical for a designer upon seeing it. You didn't usually see someone looking like that unless they were infantry-men typically. It made her quite aware that she didn't really have work clothing either for this.

"You'll wanna tie off your hair." Bolt threw a band the woman's way. "That standard Second Rate clothing?" He asked.

"Yes?" Sami looked down at the blouse and pants she'd found before tying back her hair.

"That'll do for this. It's durable enough and nothing in it would be reactive. You're going ta build your first few mechs before you find your footing. It gives you a good feel of your design outside a designer table. Once you've done it enough that I'm satisfied you can avoid it in the future if you want." Bolt instructed the girl. "Now, we're going to start."

Her very first impression minutes in was that she hated everything. She was a modified human yes, but she was not modified for physical labor! In she was a baseline Hexxer woman in that regard. Bolt could life three times her weight! She had to use machine assistance and take multiple trips

Her only real advantage was that small hands made the delicate wiring a lot easier. She ended up doing most of the cockpit herself alone, which gave her a small bit of pride through the misery. The rest of it was pure torment. Adjusting the sensors in the big hat was required her crawling through parts at some points. She was fortunate that there wasn't a lot of oil being used yet or she'd be a complete mess.

"After this you can move up a level of tech." Bolt said about halfway through. "This is full manual." He continued hefting a bar almost as large as him. "Ain't something I do often nowadays either. It's good to show you why we use a lotta the tools though."

"That'd be Second Rate then?" Sami asked hopefully.

"Third Rate." Bolt corrected. "This is if ya don't have tech. Notice how all of the tools are low or no power? You can make all of this with a half-assed fabricator and pedal power." He gestured to the assembled construction aids they had.

Despite herself she felt a mote of interest in that. "Sort of like forging a sword by hand then?" She asked cheekily.

"They still do that, but yes sort of." The man answered with a small laugh before directing her to the break area. "Now hydrate. Also remember that this mech design is pretty safe, but as we go up in complexity some things can get very dangerous. Exotics especially can become lethal depending on positioning." He continued the lesson.

It might have been a lot of torment, but Sami could appreciate seeing her mech come to life. There was something very special about knowing you made a mech and watching it form. The size, the power, the feeling of it. It actually made her glad to get into design for a brief moment before her body reminded her that she wasn't a very physical person.

"Will I be able to add the Heart System for the magic later?" Sami asked.

"Ya don't need that for the spiritual effects." Bolt said as he guided her though the armoring process. "That's just a way ta make it easier. Here's a little trade secret." He lowered his voice dramatically. "Building it like this is part of how you do that magic."

The words broke her brain a bit. "Huh?" She stared down at a screw. "How?"

"Spirit, psionic, magic, chi, whatever. It's all a flow of energy around us. It's pretty thin, but every action we make adds a small layer. If ya focus in design you add a layer. You focus here, you can add another. Remember that push? Do it while we finish up the mech." Bolt ordered. "Think up a good song if you like. We can play music too. Whatever makes you put the emphasis on what you desire."

Sami was silent as she finished off the build. She tried, she really did, but without the computer and the crystal she didn't know if she succeeded. Was that why he'd made the Heart System then? It would make it a lot easier if she could see what she did. A good song for a witch like this? Something from those old magical girl animes maybe. That felt fitting.

"Later we can go over how ta sense it. There seems to be degrees of it, and it's hard ta train up. Didn't want ya to get focused on the wrong thing. You have my permission to use the Heart System too, but that takes some work ta figure out what it's showing." Bolt said while doing a final spray coat to seal up the mech. "This one? This one's going to do a bit of what you want, and it'd be all you. I just helped you guide it."

"Really?" Sami asked.

The two designers stepped back to look at the mech. Sami could already see a thousand flaws. It was a bad mech, even for a Third Rate mech. Yet...

"Good work." Bolt gave her a pat.

Why was she crying now? Sami sniffled and almost missed a new person coming in and getting into the cockpit. "Venerable Lilly!?" She asked as the person registered.

"Hey Hun. Figured I'd help a bit here." Lilly said with a wave as she got in and sealed up the mech. "We're nearby a small planetoid, so I can go ahead and do a few tricks with your first mech."

Sami didn't squeal, but it was close. Having an expert drive her first mech was beyond an honor. She'd never heard of it ever happening. She rushed to the observation deck to observe. A few minutes later she got to see her mech move. It made everything worth it. Everything.

Especially when Lilly fired the magical wand. The plasma-shots curved! There was no physical mechanic that should allow that, yet they curved slightly upon command! It was tiny, but it was magic. She'd finally done something special. The joy from that was unreal.

Admittedly the report from Lilly afterwards really cooled her enthusiasm, as did Bolt's instruction to take the mech apart and find all the stresses and flaws. That lesson had been messy and unpleasantly physical again. It didn't eliminate the joy and newfound enthusiasm, but reviewing her work made her wince. Especially he damage it could take from a single test run.

To her mild despair it seemed to be extremely helpful though. That meant she'd have to do it in the future as she continued with designing. Physically seeing how the mech got stressed by piloting showed so many flaws. A report didn't do it justice, though Lilly had admittedly pushed the mech to the absolute limit too. Bolt had taken pains to emphasize that in his instruction.

(Bolt was sure she'd get the reason for that lesson later. He also made sure to store the reassembled mech away. His first real student's first mech!)

 

[lost star]

Fortress worlds were interesting, but not in good sense of the word Bolt found. This one was a mess of metal, ramps, and barriers, and all other sorts of fortifications. Getting down from orbit had taken almost an hour getting through security. Traveling to the building had involved driving through fortified roads, past several barriers designed to stop mechs, and through many security checkpoints. This took two hours. Gaining entry into the building took another hour's worth of work. He had a far greater appreciation of teleportation after that insanity.

All of this was not helped by the decor. Everything felt oppressive. The walls were a sterile grey and white. The turns were twisting. Cameras were everywhere. It was almost a prison. Being one of the most secured places on the planet required tradeoffs apparently. This was where all the most top-secret things were tested. The security was absolutely insane. It meant something that Bolt was able to get inside with minimal fuss and searching. (It also meant something that he'd gotten through the security clearance so fast, but he didn't know that. The Friday Coalition might have been using him, but they were also trying to offer something like a carrot too.)

His personal room was far less oppressive thankfully. It was small for Second Class, but packed with everything he could need, and probably expensive enough to outright buy several mechs. It would have been pleasant in any other circumstance. Here it was just tense. Bolt's first night was not restful, but he'd dealt with worse so it didn't effect him at all as he made his way to the designer's area.

They'd not skimped on the designing area either. The tech there was peak Second Rate. Interactive screens, extremely comfy chairs, reactive programming, instant refreshment and more. Bolt was able to get some very nice black coffee that was both bitter and biting. Not quite his favorite, but close enough that he could enjoy it.

Master Olson came into the room about halfway through his first cup. Bolt had been familiarizing himself with the programs and documentation he had available. The programs were good. His access was non-existent. Both were as expected. He couldn't even bring up Yuki-Onna, and he made the damned mech.

"Pleasure to meet you in person." The woman said as she glided in and took a seat. A gesture had a cup of tea placed in front of her by a drone. "I see you got here early?"

"Not one ta dither." Bolt responded with a shrug. "Unfamiliar place too. Always a bit restless when that happens."

"You probably will not have time to get familiar with it. We have thirty days to make this mech so the scheduling will be tight." Screens began to appear around the master without any physical motions. "I have to thank you for being so quick to answer and agree to these arrangements. I know the nation has been quite demanding towards you."

Bolt took a long sip of his drink. "We both know there are reasons beyond just designing a mech for that."

"True. Take the advice from someone familiar with all of this, as you grow you cannot avoid it. Use or be used." The woman flipped through a few screens without a gesture before continuing. "I've granted you appropriate access rights for this project and authorized a data connection to your comm. It is not much, but it should be an appropriate start."

"I'd like access to a mech bay as well. I prefer to make mechs by hand and examine them after they're tested." Bolt said before setting down his near empty cup.

Master Olson frowned as she responded. "That will require the base commander's authorization. Designers are usually seperate."

"If you want me down here and helping to accelerate prototyping that's a minimum." Bolt shot back with an almost glare. "Otherwise I could just go back to my ship. That is roughly the same."

The other designer's expression smoothed out and she nodded. "The request will be sent."

It was transparently obvious that they wanted him on the planet for some time. The reason was one of two things. Either an abduction attempt or they wanted him to bait in an attack. Both would be less of a problem if Bolt had access to a mech bay with a fabricator.

"Accompanying that should probably be a request to have my wife and a few mechs on the planet as well." Bolt continued.

"That we already have authorization for. They'll be given access to a small base and full rights to defend it as they like." The woman seemed glad to inform him of that. "Security makes it so that they can't have your location, but I assume that you'll both be glad to be on the same planet and visits can be arranged if we have time."

So, it was bait. They wouldn't be stupid enough to try to abduct him while Lilly was on the planet. Sure she might have been outnumbered, but unless there was an ace here they could not guarantee anything. That mean the original plan was still a go.

"Well that's about all of my real demands here. With that out of the way, let's get to the actual work." Bolt said with a small smile. "With just a month we'll need to be fast." He could design a mech in a day. Actually getting it fully compatible with Friday forces and free of flaws would take a lot more time. Frankly getting it done in a month was going to mean that a lot of people wouldn't have restful days.

"Of course. Do you have ideas of any sort? I would like to know any requirements you have for your Glow." The statement was serene and the woman's face held no hint of anything more than polite interest.

Bolt chuckled at the question. "Tha requirements aren't that particular. Theme's more important really. I need ta contribute some to make the glow part, but overall the theme brings it together."

"That is different than Ves, and you both appear to work with similar fields." The master prodded with surprising delicacy.

"Hmm." Bolt thought about how to phrase his deflection. "It's more that I took some of what he did and adapted it to my own. I'd fully credit him for the discovery and being better at it than I am. His requirements are adapted to how his style works."

Something about his words seemed to surprise the other designer and she took a moment to say her next words. "That is oddly humble."

"Ain't gonna lie to you. You probably already know if you've studied my stuff. I'm real good at pulling ideas from other people." Bolt said with a small shrug. "Least I could do is credit people with their discovery."

Flattery obviously crossed the master's mind before she realigned her thoughts and switched back to topic. "Indeed, so theme is necessary for you to do your work?" She said.

"Basically, I find if ya align the parts the sum becomes greater. Yuki-Onna's ice look actually helps with her glow. Some of the techs noticed that chilled areas have an easier time making her too. Bit o' fun discovering that. I think she's a mascot in some ice planet because they make the best ones now." Bolt explained.

"That is quite interesting." The woman nodded. "I can see how that'd work with your design ethos. It's taking Ves' Glows and integrating with your overall style. Do you have any information you'd be willing to share about that?"

"His secrets are his own." Bolt stated firmly and politely.

A beat passed as the designers stared at one another before Master Olson turned back to her station. "You might regret that over time. Giving your rivals any advantages can become lethal."

"Were we fighting to the death I wouldn't hesitate to kill, but as designers our battlefield is in ideas. I want to fight there and blabbing his secrets feels like a step towards a path I don't wanna take." The young man exhaled. "But we're going in circles. What design would ya want to do. Yer the master."

She took the suggestion and turned to the designer station. "Ideally I've been asked to get another Glow counter. Specifically for any future glows. Ves has another mech on the way."

"Tricky." Bolt muttered as he flipped through the designer views just to keep his hands busy. "Glows aren't like radiation. Ta be honest I don't really know much about how they work. I'm makin' lightbulbs without the knowing about lightspeed or FTL theory by comparison. There might be a material that can block it, but I doubt it's easy to find or use. The best bet is to counter it with another glow."

Master Olson brought up the Yuki-Onna and examined it before talking. "In light of your statements, some of the reasoning for this design now makes more sense, but it also brings up a problem. We've had many complaints about cold, and some people have even come in with frostbite symptoms despite the fact that the cockpit is explicitly warmer than standard."

"Can't help that sadly. Just how Glows work. For instance..." Bolt brought up an older design, the Bloody Berserker. "I could adjust this to give more rage, and that'd counter most Glows. It'd also sorta basically do what you'd think."

"Berserkers aren't good in organized ranks." Carmin Olsen stared at the design. "I recall looking over that and your earlier work. Two generators?"

"It made sense at the time." Bolt admitted. "In retrospect a heavy exclusively meant to be a shock trooper had issues. It enjoyed some success, but it was flawed. The two generators were a, if you'll pardon the expression a bitch to deal with all the time. Combined with the armor, you really didn't want to field it in its intended role if you couldn't schedule repair time." One particular near essay from his techs had been about half swears. It'd been five thousand words as well.

The woman actually gave a hint of a laugh. "Yes, I've found similar complaints. It would be a spectacular counter to both the Squire and the Valkyrie physically. How would their Glow interact with the Berserker mythos if that is a thing? The Valkyrie in particular has associations with that."

"I genuinely have no idea. Still learning." Bolt rotated his old design and loaded up a particular part he'd been saving for this, the space warping device. "Well, if ya wanna try it. Two generators, this part, and axes. Wanna make a Berserker anyway? Can make an off and on switch for the berserking part."

"You are tempting me." The woman said as she examined the device he'd presented. "Successfully too. Let us get to work."

 

[lost star]

Bolt's work on the space warping device had been a small journey of discovery really. The initial concept had been stolen from classified research documents. He'd gotten it to work, for a given value of work, with a biomech, using what amounted to alien parts as the exotic component. The thing had unfortunately been a tremendous power hog that literally burned the bio-machine from the inside out. It had been integral to victories, but also a relative failure in that it absolutely totaled both mechs after a singular deployment. The metal version of the device had not been able to change that factor, and had in fact been theoretically worse.

Here was where Master Olsen came into play. The woman was was an expert on energy systems, perhaps the expert on them if her skills progress enough. If they could find an alternate exotic component feasible to use in the sector and could also solve the problem of it needing enough power to melt internals, the device would become a deadly and notable weapon in any nations arsenal. The achievement would be a feather on the woman's cap and that was why it was considered a bribe by both designers. By putting her name on it, the woman would gain an immense amount of prestige.

A device that could warp space to make one more mobile, or bend it around them to make them resistant to ranged attacks? That was almost a miracle creation. If they could get it working right.

"The name need adjustment." The woman began with something that Bolt wouldn't have considered at all. "It's not FTL, though it uses the same principles. Calling it a space warping device is fine for prototyping, but it's also too generic, especially once we start using derivatives. Branding can be just as important as the design sometimes, and for a device with this potential we will need something more evocative."

"Call it an SW device?" Bolt suggested.

He received a sigh and a look from the other woman. "No." She said flatly. "Normally things like this are based on a name, but the Silica-Space-Warping device brings the wrong connotation. Star-Shifter perhaps?"

"Good a name as any." The creator of the device muttered and changed the name. "Now do you think you can adjust it to work?"

"Trivially with the notes you have." The Master said with a flick of her hand that brought up all the device information. "You were on the right track for making it usable and probably could have gotten it if you were willing to make sacrifices somewhere. Making it not destroy the mech while functioning is a different matter. I will need to take most of a day to get a preliminary model working. Switching the exotics to something local will also change the energy draw, and that's merely the most obvious step."

"So I'll work on the mech." Bolt concluded with a nod.

Twin generators and axes. Both of them were needed to make this shine he believed. This would be a proper berserker that took queues from Bloody Berserker.

"We ok with a heavy?" The man asked mid sketch.

"The tonnage would be appreciative." Was the slightly distracted reply. "The Bloody Berserker might have been flawed, but the concept it's centered around isn't unsound. We could name it Einherjar Berserker to contrast the original Valkyrie myth. The morale boost alone will make the name acceptable. Ves' use of Valkyrie has been quite enraging to some."

Ah yes. One of the factions in the Friday Coalition had Norse roots. There were Arabic, Japanese, Norse, and Italian as the primary sources. This was simplifying it quite a bit, but those were the cultural foundations. Using Valkyrie on a mech opposing them would be a mild insult. Very mild. Names tended to be used and reused so many times that most people did not care.

Back to the mech, Bolt could use some of his old design as a basis. Mostly in the positioning and basic configuration, since damage profiles tended to be similar between tiers. The goal here was all redundancy and keeping the mech alive. He's improved a lot since his older days and could definitely make it stronger in that regard.

Weapons were going to be all close range. A pair of axes and a back mounted weapon sounded good. The axes would be nothing special. Just solid and weighty weapons. There wasn't really a cult around axes like there was swords, so Bolt didn't have to do precision refinement to the nth degree. He still made them very good, but they were just solid and heavy axes rather than precision tools. That fit both the theme and made it less of a hassle to manufacture.

Back weapon... A bit of searching and Bolt went with a cluster missile package. The particular package was a fire and forget setup. You got up close and it'd unleash a veritable storm of missiles on everything in range. A heavy mech could have multiple volleys available. The part was also a favorite of several Friday factions, so the parts could be sourced easily.

Really this mech was already halfway built with the Bloody Berserker. He had the glow, he just needed to make it intensified on the pilot. He had the theme. He had the proof at Third Rate. Second Rate mechs were more mobile, so it couldn't boost from mech to mech to annihilate them, but that was what the Star-Shifter was for.

"Initial prototype is done. We are going to need a prototype mech and significant testing. There's too many unknowns to finalize the design." Carmine said, interrupting Bolt's work.

"Ah, almost done with the preliminary sketch. So get it all set tomorrow, prototype the day after?" Bolt asked.

"Much as that would please me, paperwork and preparation has to be done to have this tested in secret. Expect the prototyping to begin next week after we answer questions from the techs and officials, then another week of testing." The master gave a very small sigh as she pulled up his work, then paused. "When were you going to inform me that you had become a senior?" She asked with a slight hitch in her voice.

"Today mostly." The young man responded with a nod. "Once the prototyping and testing is done, I need ta see the mech. Work best with my hands."

"Please do not change the subject." The master replied back. "When did you achieve senior?"

"Not sure." Bolt didn't quite deflect. He wasn't actually sure.

"You are Thirty Three. That is a year off from Polymath's record. You do know..." The woman trailed off and finally nodded. "I see. This is another bribe is it not?"

"Er... Let's go with that." The man replied with a blink. He was missing context somewhere.

"We'll announce it when you finish the mech. People will assume that I have assisted and this ties me to you no matter what I say now." Master Olson turned back to the design. "It changes a few things for the future, but for now it changes little. To answer your previous request. They do prototyping in groups of ten to one-hundred. For a design this large, it will be twenty or so done in another testing area separate from this facility. We can have one deposited in the bay you requisitioned."

"That'll probably impact the glow strength." Bolt noted.

"It will be in the documentation. There have been experiments with the glow strength and such. Your instructions are quite useful in that regard." The master didn't quite rush, but she certainly stepped outside the office quickly.

Bolt felt a tiny bit bad. Only a little bit. The Assembler was a bit terrifying truthfully. He'd turned Bolt's ascension into blackmail of sorts. If he was reading things right, Master Olson couldn't move against him publicly now.

 

[lost star]

Bolt had thought he'd known tedium before. He'd planned for it but all his planning had not managed to encompass the shear drudgery involved. He longed for the days he could build his own mech on his own pace. He desired it. He now knew why his superior had shown emotions when she'd described what was going to happen, because this was insane.

"How many times do I need to answer questions about bolt and soldering types?!" Bolt asked himself incredulously. "For that matter, why did they blame me for smashing themselves into a wall?!"

Some of the reports were outright moronic. One assembly had outright missed like three rivets on the torso and caused the mech to break apart a few seconds into activation. Computer error his ass! No competent tech would make such a trivial mistake.

Infuriating or not, there was use past the inanity. The Star-Shifter wasn't teleportation. It bent space to move faster. That had to be clarified in the documentation and limited in the final product. Far too many tests had resulted in destruction due to the mech stepping into various walls and other obstacles. There were going to have to be limitations and computer checks to keep the mech from colliding with things. They'd also probably have to limit it to line of sight as well, since that was the most intuitive thing for a pilot to judge. The testing had proven that placing a unlimited Shifter into a mech would just result in it's destruction through pilot error or just physical impossibilities. Some mechs had literally torn themselves apart by trying to move incorrectly!

The enraging effect was also something that needed work. That was what Bolt had to do. Master Olson could handle adjusting the Star-Shifter into something more user friendly and less self destructive. He needed to refine the Glow. Turning a person into a berserker wasn't just anger, and the switch idea hadn't worked. The pilot would forget to turn it off, and trying to order them didn't work either. While the glow had been low key, more than one pilot had not been able to really handle it in a way that was productive. The simplest solution of a timer was also relatively unfeasible due to the unpredictable nature of battle.

Fixing this would require some creative work, so Bolt was in the bay he'd gotten right now checking over one of the more successful prototypes. He already had a pretty large list of notes. The Star-Shifter was still an enormous power draw, and the stresses that caused would require special settings and probably hard limits. The armor was good at least.

So far as a heavy armored beast, the Einherjar Berserker was pretty good construction wise. Bolt guessed they'd need maybe two to three more prototypes before they addressed most of the glaring problems. Not bad for a new technology really.

He rather wished he could make it look better though. Right now it looked like a muscled man with a rather large pair of pants. The back was probably the worst. The missile pods clashed aesthetically. (Military didn't care about pretty.)

"I'm dithering." Bolt muttered and got into the cockpit. He pulled open the Heart Crystal container and grabbed the crystal inside. "What are we feeling here?"

The man closed his eyes and focused. The piloting logs flashed by him, and nausea hit as he tried to interpret the pilot's feelings. He did not know the pilot, so this was extremely difficult. Only his familiarity let him interpret what they felt and how they'd piloted. Even then he had to take frequent breaks.

Once he was done he had a few more things to add to the list, but he'd also identified the issue. Solving it was another matter. The emotion had to be potent to counter the Glow. If one wanted to face the feeling of death or some other sensation, Bolt couldn't just put a 'ignore that' flag into the mech. It didn't work that way. The rage was almost a dead-end here. He needed intense, but past a certain point intensity was a detriment. Straddling that line was impossible for a mass produced mech.

Bolt tapped at the crystal and hopped out. Some work with the printers and he had a figure of the mech. He then grabbed a small tool that was capable of cutting the mech and sliced to simulate battle damage. How would this mech handle that? How would it handle the rage?

A stray thought hit him as he looked at the mech. What if he shifted it towards more endurance. A spite to live and push through? It wouldn't be an immunity. It'd be a resistance. Was that worth pursuing?

It felt like it was. A niggling idea came to him. He was neglecting some of the more exclusive contacts this particular creation had access to. Wasn't one of the masters out there someone that specialized in a type of liquid armor that was fixed by 'pouring' a specific compound into it? Those mechs were famed for a speedy repair time.

Bolt looked at his mech and grinned as the idea flowed through him. Wouldn't that synergize well with the idea of 'endurance?' This was already a tanky mech. Making it more durable and easy to repair would be useful, and the armor should be stockpiled enough to be useful.

He had to speak with the master working on this with him. He didn't need her to speak to her colleague, but getting that armor on this felt like the way forward. It'd also make the mech a lot easier to repair after it fought, which was a serious consideration for a mech with this design and probably another needed selling point to the entire thing.

-At the Hexxer Assault Team -

"How is the new mech?" The commander asked the pilot.

"Difficult to use. The Hella Handmaiden has many unusual features, and we are still practicing." The woman responded with a small bow.

The command nodded and turned to the tactical view of a planet. "Will you be ready for the attack?"

"Most definitely. Different does not mean insurmountable." The woman responded immediately. "It makes numbers less of a problem so the trouble is worth the pain. Plus it is another aspect of our Goddess, who would not be happy to learn it?"

"I will hold you to that. Intelligence has indicated that the Defiler's location has been found. He's working on another blasphemy. We will be taking it and him out in one blow." The commander indicated the planet. "You will be running drills attacking it with others."

The pilot looked at the planet and made a face. "Ma'am? Permission to speak?"

"Granted."

"If we're sure about the intelligence, that is still a fortification world. He could be anywhere there and be moved anywhere while we try for a lightning strike." The woman observed as she looked over the world.

"That is a point we have considered, as such your orders are simple. While he is a primary target we will have numerous secondary targets, and a set timetable. If we cannot find him past a certain point we will retreat in good order." The commander glared at the planet in the display. "The contemptable boys in charge are baiting but the bait is so good we must attempt to take it anyway. You'll find several expert mechs in storage. They're mechs of confirmed experts that have been imprisoned, and we know which prison they're in. The plan is freeing them and using them to bring Mother's wrath upon everyone."

"Consider me very assured." The pilot said with a salute.

That got a small laugh from her superior. "You were right to be concerned. We will be joined by the Vital-Cutters. They have different priorities."

The pilot blanched at that. "Those fanatics?!"

"They're on a penance assignment. They were found to have arranged another one of their 'rites.'" The commander didn't spit, but only because she was raised better than that. The look on of disdain on her face. "Not only did they arrange it, they failed to secure the boys and then tried to cover that up, only to lose practically half their forces. Two of the captured experts are theirs, and you have full permission to leave them behind."

"It will be done ma'am."

 

[lost star]

Surprisingly, getting the armor implemented had been a relatively simple affair. This turned out to be mostly by design. The liquid armor had many pluses and minuses. One of the major pluses was that it was relatively easy to alter mechs to use it. Applying that and the Glow changes had both resulted in positive test feedback, so they'd then done a limited production line. About a thousand had been made and were now being trained in and testing for a final production run. After the feedback from that was dealt with, the blueprint was would then be distributed across the Coalition.

Now this probably seemed slow for those unfamiliar with this sort of thing, but it wasn't. It was in fact blisteringly fast. Usually you had a few more steps involved, but Bolt being on site had accelerated a significant portion of all the testing. In particular the Glow alignment had needed a lot of documentation for the production lines. The standard methods used in Second Rate militaries for the mechs made the Glow a bit hard to properly align, and Bolt had to get creative in directing people to get it set in many instances. Some workstations were utterly incapable of making the mech due to certain work conditions. (There were now two formal investigations and court-martials happening in the background because of poor worker treatment.)

Despite this success Bolt was just waiting for the next problem to occur. He therefore found himself more relieved than anything else when the alerts started to sound. Here was finally the other shoe dropping. The attack he'd predicted had happened, and while it wasn't the best time, it was not the worst of time either.

As a VIP and likely other things he'd had a few monitors around him at all times. They'd been relatively unobtrusive so far, but Bolt would have had to be blind to miss the people following him. With the alarm, they didn't even try to hide. One of the men in unforms gave him a nod as he approached.

"Sir, we're under attack. Please move to your room and stay there until it's done." The man said.

Now this was actually a sort of a trap for Bolt. Unfortunately it was one he had to walk into. Moving to his room would isolate him, but he had to assume it was armored and positioned enough that he wouldn't be killed by a stray shot or something. Fortunately he hadn't spent his time idlily. Bolt gave the man a nod and made his way to the supposedly secured area. Once inside his room he closed the door and took a seat.

He wasn't technically a prisoner at the moment. He also wasn't technically being cut off from people. He had access to communications between people, and even still had a line open with Lilly. Being directed here was officially for his protection. What was happening in the background was less obvious though. The Friday Coalition could not kill him. Not only would it render the mechs he'd made in-operational, it'd basically get the MTA bringing a very big hammer down on them. They could 'disappear' him though. He'd know when they were going to make that move.

Until then he had to assume he was under surveillance. He pulled out his comm and set it on a nearby table, then connected it to Lilly. He then grabbed a small kit filled with tools, a model of his latest mech, and then began to carefully paint it.

"Ya got the alert?" Lilly asked once she was connected.

"I'm in the room they gave me." Bolt answered. "They made a bit o' noise about taking my comm every now and again, before this but I pointed out it has better encryption and security than anything they got. Also they can't stop me from calling you either."

"Cute. I'm getting into Morning Star fer this one. Dowry isn't going to work that well. Naoto is readying up too. ETA appears to be an hour. They're burning towards the planet fer a landing." Lilly gave a small laugh as she continued. "Ain't getting full tactical data, but it's pretty obvious what's going on. We're forting up."

Bolt nodded, even if his wife couldn't see him. "Rat style then?" Which was actually something far different than what others would expect.

"Ya got it." Lilly said. "I can shoot you my tactical data if ya like? Wouldn't mind having your input."

"I'd love to in any other circumstance. Stay safe love." Bolt declined with a small grin that went away once the comms clicked off.

Now was probably the worst time, it was time to wait. Bolt focused mostly on his painting while the time ticked by. Midway through his work a surprise came through. A message came to his comm from the base leader, and then several soldiers came to escort him to the command center.

This was strange enough that Bolt didn't even bother to speculate. He let himself get escorted with no fuss and found himself in an area that looked very familiar. Their command center looked very much like the one at home, complete with a tactical view.

Bolt wasn't kept waiting long. The commander didn't bother with any pleasantries. He just brought up a recording. "We need info on the new mech they're fielding."

The recording began with nothing special. A series of mechs dropping out of a drop-shuttle. Bolt tiled his head at them. They were absolutely nothing special. They were in fact completely useless.

"What in the world?" He asked.

"That was what the initial question was. They're not even fodder. Remote controlled, bottom of the barrel mechs. It's a net loss for us to shoot them." The commander said. "It's not the new mech. They were just dropped off for a reason."

As Bolt watched the engagement proceeded to happen. Mechs charged in, shot at one another, and so on. It was as normal as a battle could get aside from the fodder that had very quickly been killed. There were few Glow mechs fielded here. Just a Son of War and a Blessed Squire.

"This is one of the landing zones. We pulled back our forces and readied an counter attack." The commander noted as the battle continued.

True to his words the Friday forces pulled back to gather up. The Hexxer forces did something similar. They gathered up as they readied their strike. Bolt paused the recording. "That's the new mech?" He indicated a particular area.

"Yes."

Design wise, it was different. Hexxer mechs had two broad categories. Male mechs were meant to be softer. Female mechs had angular and sharp profiles. Not quite a reversal of traditional masculine and feminine, but more like 'young' and 'athletic' if one were to translate it into personal fashion. This mech was strangely majestic. It was not a typical Hexxer design. One of Ves' then and something a lot more like what he cared for than Hexxer stylistic choices. Larger shoulders, a staff of all things, and a sweeping cape-like construction on the back.

"Strange design. I don't understand the staff." Bolt observed and flipped through the views.

"Five minutes in." The commander instructed him.

Bolt accelerated the playback to view the counterattack. As the attack started the new mech moved to the backline. Bolt assumed it was therefore an artillery or something, but when the staff tip lit up with light he was further confused.

His confusion stopped once the downed fodder started to move on its own. Limbs twitched, hands moved, metal parts shifted to attack the enemy. The Friday forces found themselves bogged down by formerly dead fodder. They adapted quickly, destroying the mech bodies with full ammo, but the distraction cost them. Worse, several of the falling mechs started to get back up, obviously being controlled by the new mech.

"He made a damned Necromancer." Bolt concluded with a half laugh.

There couldn't be a larger direct challenge than that. Ves had created something that animated broken mechs! The complexities involved in that had to be massive. It was also the designer basically showing that Bolt wasn't the only one that could work with 'dead mechs.' Ves had almost stolen his style doing this, and created a monster that was more formidable the longer the battle went on.

"We need to know how to counter it." The commander growled out, clearly annoyed.

Bolt tapped at the mech itself. "Pressy sure you already got an idea of what the deal is here. Think of it like a drone coordinator. Really, if anything it's easier ta deal with mentally, and I can't imagine it can animate them long." The designer shrugged. "I'd need one o' them to know more. Intact isn't necessary, but as close to it as possible. This is another Glow of sorts of course, so don't expect jamming and hacking to work."

"You'll get the mech. Be ready."

Bolt nodded in return. Amusingly, he was quite certain this sort of thing wasn't something the higher ups had planned for in many respects. He imagined they'd wanted him isolated and alone inside his room. Then they'd escort him to some other place for his 'safety' and never be seen again by outside eyes. This was why he'd made a few partial plans instead of one big one. So many options were suddenly available.

 

[lost star]

There were some powerful words being bandied about. Talks about magic, a new age, and so on. Luke didn't really care about that. Half of the pilots were gossiping like hens about best fit and greatest chance. It was apparently the newest fashion to look for the mech that matched you more than anything else. The chance of ascension felt closer than ever to many people looking for an edge. Some pilots were adamant in the thought that if they could find just the right mech they could become an expert, no effort needed, just the proper mech.

Luke couldn't say he cared much about that. He was just a man who piloted. As one of the more average pilots he wasn't particularly notable in any field. There were millions of him out there. The army liked men like him. They could be put into a box and shifted around when needed, because they were frequently just like the mechs they piloted to the eyes of the leadership. They were expensive, government owned, pieces of equipment. You mixed and matched those sorts of things based on need, not on desire. So, becoming attached to a mech was just another way of being disappointed.

This was admittedly a rather grim view. Good units would rarely shift pilots from mech to mech. The leaders knew that it took time to familiarize yourself with mechs and the styles inherent to them. Even in best you still needed to be flexible. A mech could run 24/7. Sometimes you needed the mech on the field and the pilot didn't matter. Sometimes you just needed a pilot for a new mech. If you couldn't find someone who specialized in the style it promised you threw people like Luke into them.

Like now. Luke had spent a grand total of three days training in this new Berserker. One day in sims, one day in a training yard, and one day in a mock battle and more sims. That was barely enough time to get proficient. But it was either this or a random available mech, so he chose this.

Einherjar Berserker was a weighty mech that stomped when moving. Heavies always were. They were meant to be point that local tactics revolved around. The pin on the map. Typically, they were artillery or some other big hitter. Melee ones weren't common, but they existed and were always beasts that required effort to take down. Armor and weight came with that designation. There were no nimble heavies.

This was admittedly bad even for a heavy. Luke's movement towards battle felt like the mech had weights strapped onto its limbs. It wasn't something he was worried about really. This mech was always sluggish at the start. It took its time to warm up. This was a noted flaw, but also one deliberately inflicted. The mech had two generators. Only one ran when it was out of combat to save fuel. You just had to tolerate it until it was time to fight.

Up ahead he could see the battle and judged himself in range and initiated the secondary startup. Heat started to race through his mech as the second reactor woke. Power surged through the mech and he felt it grip its axes as if relishing the oncoming fight. Luke eyeballed the distances involved and then pushed the throttle all the way up. The mech came alive and the feeling was like a shot of the worst stim ever. He almost stopped thinking. He stepped.

And appeared in front of his target. Luke couldn't tell what it was, only that it was an enemy. His vision had reddened out and he could barely think over his racing pulse. The axe cleaved. The enemy dropped. More. Sensor readings hit him. Practically indecipherable to him in this state. He didn't care. Enemy, enemy, enemy. Missiles out. Two killed. Boost to the side, rip that one apart with the axe. Had they attempted to block him? It didn't matter.

Fodder tried to stop him by grabbing a leg. He stomped. The weight of the mech was more than enough to crush it and render it irrelevant. Something washed over him. A feeling of death that he dismissed immediately. He wasn't done and felt contempt at the one trying to stop him. He glared at the Valkyrie on a oblique approach vector. She thought she was safe enough to do that? He stepped.

The axe swung and hit her blocking spear as he was next to her. The momentum and weight didn't break the weapon, but it did dent it and stagger her. The next axe strike cut. The enemy dropped, and he spared just a moment of thought to it.

"Judge yourself before me." Luke snarled out, barely sure why he was saying it.

"Unworthy failures rise up!" Another mech spoke outloud.

The mech he'd just bisected moved to attack him. The clawing hands were annoying, but against his armor it was just that. He didn't bother to defend, he just slapped it away and looked for another target. The shouting one. There. Another step.

A staff stopped his strike. Actually stopped it. The staff was weightier than it looked. Irritating. Luke fired off another volley of missiles to get rid of the chaff as he swung again. The vermin had hit him. He noted damage reports. He didn't care. The mech was functional. Keep moving. Keep fighting. Keep killing.

Berserker was not a subtle mech. Axes in general weren't a subtle weapon. They had one direction they were swung in. Like all melee weapons they took a surprising amount of skill, but none of it was in tricks and feints. Only overwhelming power and the dedication to see your swings through. Axes were weighty things that cut and crushed. Using them required leaning into that.

Clangs resounded as the heavy clashed with the opposing mech. It stood up longer than he'd expected. The dead mechs tried to rise up around him, but he used another missile volley to clear them out and let him focus. Again and again the weapons swung. No room, no relief, no mercy. The staff spun around and endured, the pointed tip actually managed to stab him once, but the damage wasn't enough. Even the dedicated fire from all around wasn't enough to stop him.

Something had to give eventually. In this case it was the enemy. One moment she was ready to block, and the next her arms buckled as the axe hit hard. The repeated impacts might have been blocked, but the damage was still going somewhere. The heavy weight and monstrous strength of Einherjar Berserker was not something you could shrug off. Even dodging wasn't enough sometimes, because all it would take was one hit. The intensity the mech brought broke the enemy just as much as the weapons did.

Luke watched his opponent fall without a care. He'd likely killed the pilot. The energy and vitality rushing through him demanded he continue. The damage readings and fuel ratings indicated he needed to return. He let the computer calculate a path and he stepped a final time.

Out of the battlefield he let the secondary generator stop and then winced and gagged as his emotions leveled out. He couldn't say he liked this mech. He could pilot it, but damn if it didn't demand everything. Half his mech was orange and there were red damage hits here and there. On another mech that'd mean it was on its last legs. This one could probably have kept going for another few fights. Its durability was just shy of insane.

Perhaps there was something to be said for mechs fitting the pilot Luke thought as he limped back to the base, because this one was probably something like the opposite for him. The man was going to have to take some anti-nausea stuff later, maybe some painkillers too. For now it was back for repairs and take five while the mech was repaired and possibly passed onto another pilot.

 

[lost star]

"Status report?" The general in charge of the planet demanded as he swept into the room.

"Six prongs have been dropped onto the planet with covering support from orbit." Someone called out calmly. "Initial skirmishes and defenses have been activated. Landing zones are contested, but first responders are falling back due to lack of numbers and support."

With a hiss the general looked over the screens. "Of all times for the upper brass to play fuck-fuck games." He muttered. "Of course we can't contain this with what we have." Thank you morons up top for pulling people off his planet to bait this.

"Predictive algorithms are bugging out again. New calibration didn't hold. They're showing us full holding with minimal casualties after they hit our secondary defensive lines." A tech from the side reported.

"Disable the prediction and switch the computers to data collection." The general ordered with a scowl. Another thing he could lay at his superior's feet. Using computational power to predict battles sounded great on paper but they couldn't even predict experts, much less Glows. "What are the new mechs?"

"Initial report from the special consultant indicates that it's a Glow focused around reactivating dead mechs. Anything that lacks a pilot connection can be targeted." Someone called out. "Re-animation lasts about ten minutes or longer if the downed mech still has power."

"Zombie mechs, of course. It wouldn't be a proper horror show without that." The general said with a small growl. "That explains the chaff." Without weapons a mech wasn't that dangerous, but that was the best-case scenario.

Worst case was if they managed to down a few artillery mechs and animated them. That sort of ordinance would shift a battle in an instant. It was insidious in that it forced local people to be more cautious than normal, gathering up in an attempt to avoid losses. This played into the Hexxer's favored strategy of getting up close and personal.

"Reports on our counter mech show that it's theoretically viable. It can reach an enemy with just line of sight and eliminate it. The new mech are durable though, and there are more of them. The Berserkers aren't going to be able to eliminate all the targets we have. There's already reports of them overextending and being overwhelmed." An analysist gave his input.

"We had too little time to adapt." The general concluded.

Those problems were obvious in retrospect. They would have been compensated for had they been given time to scrimmage and wargame. As it was, they were being forced to game it out on the fly. He could already see the casualties. Thankfully the new mech was designed to be damned near impossible to kill, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. He was doubly thankful for the fact that the mech was rather simple at its core. You got close and attacked. It was very hard to mess that up. Everything else could be plotted around.

"Got a name for the new Hexxer mech. Hella Handmaiden." A call came. "Consultant got the remains of a few of them and is giving us an evaluation." There was a small pause. "I'm going to have to request a technical aid."

"What?"

"He's giving a train of thought, and I can't understand any of it." The attendant reading the report replied back.

"Oh, damnit he hasn't been read in on how to do military briefings. Ask him to summarize!" One of the many aides instructed the man on the communicator.

The general kept half an ear out for that summary as he continued to watch the overall view. It wasn't good. The pulled garrison forces had opened up far too many holes. They had to pull back to the production facilities and let the Hexxers run relatively free. They were already making a beachhead and he couldn't dispute that.

"Summarized. The Handmaiden uses a nanomachine dust empowered with Glow to animate mechs. It needs proximity to dust a mech, but the nanomachines can last for days before animation. It's also highly armored and the staff is meant for close combat. There's some speculation that the pointed end can also inject a specialized substance, but he can't confirm. No other weapons were observed." The attendant said.

"Clarify on the armor." The general ordered.

"If it had a shield it'd be a defensive knight." The response was fairly quick.

That made him take a moment to think. The lack of serious ranged weapons made the mech a large team player rather than something meant to operate independent of other forces. The chaff were used to give it some material to work with and sow confusion. It didn't fit the standard drone mech pattern. It was more like an area of effect disruption and something that forced an enemy to be mindful of casualties. It was another morale targeting effect really, but could snowball quickly with the proper kills.

"I'm getting damned tired of Glows." The leader of the defenses concluded with a heavy sigh.

Wisely, there were no comments from his staff about that. The man was fairly sure that were feeling the same thing. They couldn't change anything though. Like it or not the Hexxers had initiative here. Their offense with the new mech had been very well crafted, and the combination of glows they had access to were utterly dominating the battlefield. That'd change as the Friday coalition continued to mobilize their defenses, but for now they were winning well enough to have secured places on the planet.

"One of the prongs is adjusting!" The callout made everyone laser focus. "They're targeting the Guest forces."

"Guest forces? Ah, wait I recall them." The general grimaced. He'd received specific orders to let them take hits if he could. "Any forces in range?"

"Their positioning was in the place reserved for mercenaries as per procedure. That area is deliberately set apart and we have several clear lines of fire for specific scenarios, but no forces are there at the moment." The callout wasn't emotional, but everyone knew what those words meant. The guests were being targeted with almost double their numbers.

"Sent a warning and that we can't offer reinforcements." The man ordered with a trace of relief. This wasn't on his head, nor was it intentional. It was just how the flow of battle worked.

"Done." A comms officer said after a second and then paused. "They just gave me a cheerful ok?" He said with confusion.

"What?" The general asked with matching confusion.

"Guest forces are moving! Unable to define destination. Enemy forces are in pursuit, but..." The officer responsible for the report blinked. "Sir I have no idea what's happening." He concluded.

"Offer whatever support you can short of directing forces that way. We cannot neglect the defenses. If the Hexxers want to get bogged down with our guests we use that to hit them elsewhere." The general ordered after a beat and tapped on a prison area. "I see a prong moving this way. Prioritize it."

He couldn't aid Bolt's family here without destroying his career, but he could certainly make the Hexxers bleed and tie up any other forces he could. If they got out just fine, well he'd done everything he'd been asked to do. Teach those morons upstairs to play politics with his planet.

 

[lost star]

Once, long ago the defender's advantage had been supreme. You could be outnumbered by thousands and still hold out so long as supplies lasted. That wasn't the case now. Technology had slowly eroded that advantage away. Modern day wisdom was that the defender's advantage could go as low as 1.5 to 1 if the attacker brought the proper equipment. Modern day sieges were typically measured in days or sometimes weeks. More than that was wishful thinking.

Even in a fortress world fortified as high as possible had severe vulnerabilities that made it difficult to truly defend. When you could outright level terrain with a few shots things like cover and fortifications lost a lot of meaning. The locals had done what they could but mechs were highly advanced tools of war capable of a great deal of mass destruction. Only shielding systems could really hold up against concentrated attacks, and those were temporary measures that cost both fuel and precious resources. Those were reserved for the true forts. Everything else was just considered hardened obstacles that would not last.

The Hexxers attacking the Rats showed this spectacularly. The second they confirmed where the group was, they leveled the area with artillery rather than attack immediately. The reinforced fortifications held up only momentarily before becoming little more than rubble. By the time they were finished the fort resembled a parking lot more than a fortification.

It still did nothing. Wrench Rats knew how these people acted. The tier of technology might have been different, but the behavior was the same. Their technicians had placed a few dummy mechs here and there, and mimicked Morning Star's signature deeper in and been gone the second the enemy started firing. The Hexxers charged into the rubble and found that the only thing they'd done was waste ammunition.

At this point several Hoarfrost mechs hit their artillery. The attack was quick, done with little warning, and did little damage as well. It was a poke in the back. A little pinprick of damage that left a frozen blizzard behind. The blizzard did more damage than what the actual attack did. The attack served its purpose though.

Lilly wasn't a strategist. She wasn't particularly good at leading either. This style though? It had been pounded into her growing up. If there was one thing her people had dealt with, it was scenarios like this. Nobles loved to attack with overwhelming force because of some slight. Rats had learned to make it not worth their while.

By this point the consequences of blasting the area were starting to become known as the traps finished igniting. The air was filled with disrupting dust. Radiation of all sorts were blurring sensors. Mechs in general were finding their formerly pristine sight lines blurring. Several walls were popping up without any visible means of it happening. (They were literal popup walls made of the cheapest material possible.)

This was now familiar terrain for the Wrench Rats. Many had fought battles in the mist with Third Rate mechs. The Hexxers were well trained and had spectacular equipment. Their sensors still worked, but they started seeing ghosts as the Soldiers started shifting around and firing when they had a shot. Their focus was forced to switch from all out offense to a cautious advance just because of the uncertainty and skirmishers hovering at the edges.

Nip, nip, nip. That was the pattern the attacking forces dealt with. Traps and careful cuts at their heels. Committing to a fight was anathema. The Wrench Rats were very content to give ground and flee. Why would they stay really? Even the Torment Guards were able to out speed the attackers due the familiar ground, and if the enemy managed to catch up? That was what Lilly and Naoto were for. The two of them in their respective mechs could shred the skirmishers that wanted to pin them down and forced everyone to keep on the move.

Through it all Cheshire danced too. The little cat was unseen and unheard. It didn't even attack. It set a little paw on a mech or two and danced away while also noting the people that could be a problem.

It was an infuriating style to deal with at the best of times. The Hexxers, far more familiar with the devoted Friday Coalition defending to the last man, were completely unprepared to deal with it emotionally. They became utterly enraged. Lilly was quite proud to say she helped.

"Nyaha!" She taunted from Morning Star, just in sight. "Come on slowpokes."

"Stay still and fight!" The enemy expert shouted out.

"Hmmm." Lilly formed a blade of light and fired it in the woman's direction. "Nope!" Her mech flapped her wings and she boosted away.

"Venerable Lilly, we're reaching the end of available space." Melinda reported.

All right, that meant the next part of it. There were many flaws to the strategy they were using. Really, it was only showing such success because the fanatics were utterly enraged at the 'disrespect.'

Lilly did the equivalent of a few skips and stopped suddenly. There was nothing really notable where she stopped. It was just another paved and reinforced barricaded area. Morning Star moved to a defensive pose and the woman waited.

Half a minute later the Hexxers roared in. There was no attempt at speech. They simple charged in, believing in their strength and so enraged that they thought the damage she could do alone wouldn't be enough to save her.

Morning Star dropped in response. Literally dropped through the ground as the trapdoor she was on was opened. The mech fell, and then around where she was artillery shots started to rain down. While the Friday forces couldn't reinforce them, they could quite easily send a few shells their way upon command.

Once the barrage was done Lilly jumped out of her temporary cover and began to attack. Around her, her fellow Rats had begun to maul the enemy. Mechs clashed, many died. Lilly blasted several mechs before the enemy expert engaged with her. The swordswoman screamed something as she tried to slice up the other woman, but it wasn't enough to really stop Lilly. She didn't even focus on the Expert. She instead fired everywhere. It gave her opponent a few hits, but the wings were more than enough to handle that.

Then more explosions started to occur. The Hexxer forces pulled back in an attempt to prevent themselves from getting hit by another artillery barrage. A few seconds later they realized that the 'explosions' were actually just planted things that were more flash than anything else. Half the attacking Rat forces had retreated in the distraction, and the other half had just abandoned their mechs. Those pilots were impossible to find. They'd been played.

Off to the side, Lilly led the way with a small group of forces, right back the direction they came. The enemy had graciously given them all the room they needed after all. They'd also proved that they were after the people, not the terrain. The victory condition had therefore become 'get Lilly away' and they were happily taking complete advantage of that.

The enemy's reaction to this behavior was rather theatrical. What made it even more entertaining was that several of the mechs chose that moment to break down from assorted stress and accumulated damage. Each one had a faintly glowing pawprint that was rapidly disappearing as they fell to the ground. Cheshire's little trick would not be detected for a while, which made it all the more entertaining for everyone that wasn't a Hexxer.

 

[lost star]

You did have to stop running at some point. Lilly had known that. Rat tactics worked only as a way to make it painful to fight them. The lack of glory and immediate satisfaction would frequently sour the nobles trying to attack them, and they'd either leave or commit too hard. The latter was usually solved by taking a fall in a variety of ways. If the enemy was too emotional they wouldn't realize that their kill wasn't a kill. That wouldn't work here.

Which was ok. Lilly had grown up as a Rat, but she wasn't limited to just that anymore. As their space to run became less and less she decided it was time to show that. Her and a few others moved to the pre-planned area and readied themselves.

By this point cooler heads hadn't prevailed. The enemy had simply decided to use numbers to handle the hit and run tactics. They'd spread out into groups in an attempt to create a net of sorts. Thus the first people to hit them were low on resources, far too eager, and really easy to eliminate. Lilly and her small group had little trouble with them and then moved back to allow for more enemies to charge in.

"No more running!" The expert Hexxer screamed as she charged forward, sword first.

Naoto intercepted her with a sweep of his blade and silence. His mech, which had been at low power until now started to wake up. Blades clashed and clashed again as willpower flared.

Lilly kept back, wings kept low. They'd taken quite a few dings over the battle but still looked new. The repair nanites were specifically centered around them. Morning Star looked as pristine as she had at the beginning of battle. This probably contributed to the fury really.

A mech in the distance raised a staff as it approached. Lilly glanced around the area and then flexed her will. Morning Star's greed latched onto the faint signs of power all around and snuffed it out. Bolt had informed her about the nanomachines, and Morning Star was actually a fairly good counter to them. No enemies would revive within her range. Outside of it was more of an issue though, and she could see a few mechs moving there.

Further thought about that stopped as a mech stepped towards her. A Brawler. A mech designed to get up close and personal and use grappling or punching maneuvers to destroy a mech. One of the harder counters to Morning Star and Dowry alike.

"Researched me I see." Lilly observed. "How much I wonder?"

"Enough. Were we in another place I'd call for a duel." The opposing expert said simply. "But we both know that is not in the cards. This is an execution."

"Scary." Lilly breathed out with more than a little sarcasm. "Yer not one of the main fanatics." She could feel the woman's willpower. It was a particular blend of certainty and dedication that was frequently in patriotic career soldiers.

"I have my faith." The brawler surged forward. "That is enough!"

Internally Lilly cursed. This really wasn't one of the fanatics. She was in fact, very, very good. Morning Star nearly lost a wing from the initial grab, and three moves in she'd taken a solid hit to the torso. This wasn't some expert coasting on their ascension; she was a veteran. It felt like fighting Headhunter again.

Blasts of light and heat forced the two to separate as Lilly blew up several of Morning Star's swords. She could not let the other woman keep close unopposed. The Brawler obviously wasn't going to let that happen, so as soon as the shots finished she boosted forward again. Lilly used the time to reform the lances and shift closer to the enemy, pulling in more power from the approaching forces. The spread-out nature of their formation was making reinforcements come in piecemeal.

Several fell to her upon getting too close. Others charged in still, trying to tie up her allies if nothing else. It was a brawl reduced to nothing more than hate and energy.

Lilly focused her will and let loose lightning. It crackled over several of the enemies around her, spreading and frying many of them. The expert was relatively untouched. Slightly crispy.

"Insulated specifically against that." Lilly said over the loudspeaker. "Wow, you really hate me."

"You have no idea." The other woman said and her own exotics flared. An almost demonic aura flowed around the mech and she charged forward at twice the speed.

An overclock exotic?! Lilly let a wing intercept the charging woman and winced as she grabbed it and ripped it off in a smooth motion. The sacrifice bought her half a second. Enough to shift her mech just barely, turning a blow into something that dented the armor on her chest rather than shattered it. She was able to strip some of the opposing armor with the tools in her hands in return, but it wasn't an even trade. Especially as one of her hands was dislocated in return.

Pressed, Lilly let herself drop into the rhythm of combat. Dodging where she could, taking the hits where she had to. It was a dance with death that only the nimble steps of Morning Star could achieve. It was also one she was losing. There was no fear in admitting that. There was more annoyance really.

"Do you mind?" She slapped away a shot from a nearby mech and then shot off every one of her gathered explosions around the mechs trying to aid their expert.

"You're treating this too calmly." The opposing expert said.

"Ah, I am. You caught me." Lilly admitted as she was literally caught. "It's really simple. You can't win here." Her arm shattered under the grip and Lilly danced back a few more steps as the remains of it dropped to the ground.

"All your running had done is having you die tired. I've made sure my mech has full fuel." The woman said. "You aren't the first to try hit and run. You won't be the last." She approached agian.

"But have your allies?" Lilly asked as she spread her single arm out. "Have they kept full?" She clarified and joined fully with the spirit in her mech.

Around her, enemy mechs started to break down as she pulled on their energy. Parts of them rattled off and then turned liquid. They flowed towards her. Points of light formed. Past her limit of twelve. The brawl around her was a feast of energy and power and she drew on it all. More shots hit her, but the armor or the wing deflected them. The enemy charged forward and grabbed at her. One hand closed around the neck.

"That's probably enough there." Lilly said with a laugh and hit the eject seat.

The chassis of Morning Star started to overload. All the energy it pulled in destabilized without the pilot there to keep it alive. Explosions ripped through the air as everything detonated. Lilly flew on her ejection seat before popping out the Heart Crystal and dropping to the ground. A few seconds later Cheshire stepped down next to her and she hopped into the cockpit with Willow. No one was able to follow the movement, so it was like Lilly had disappeared.

Behind her, the expert she left shook off the explosion after a few seconds. Her allies were less responsive. The expert that had been dueling Naoto had lost her leg and the man had left once the mech detonated.

"Find her! She still has a mech available!" The leading expert snapped out only to pause as she realized half her brought forces were completely inoperative. She switched to a secured line. "Let the fanatics keep pursuit and get ready to fall back in good order. We've used too much time and Dowry would take too long to track."

Privately she acknowledged that this was Lilly's win even if she lost the mech.

 

[lost star]

Keeping himself busy was probably the hardest thing about the entire scenario. He was technically done with his analysis of the mech. Hella Handmaiden was an interesting thing in many respects, but in an iterative fashion. Ves had done something new by building off his previous works and actually copying a bit of Bolt's own designs. (He was actually a bit flattered about that.) Once Bolt had understood that he'd been able to analyze a lot of it relatively quickly. He'd had an initial analysis in a few minutes and been done within several hours.

It served his purposes to be in the bay and working though, so he continued to find projects. Stretching it out to a day was relatively easy. There were plenty of things he could analyze still. Getting a few Berserkers to examine had actually extended his time even further. After damage and live testing really helped get the final iteration of the mech properly designed. There were a lot of little tweaks that would help make the final design pop.

The interruption he'd been expecting did eventually happen though. It came in the form of men in helmets and holding weapons. This in itself wasn't completely unusual, but base policy was that only soldiers on very specific duties had that sort of loadout. Most weapons were restricted this far into the base. This many people with weapons was quite suspicous.

"Sir, we're going to have to request that you accompany us." The man began with.

"Hmm?" Bolt asked back, tapping at the bench he'd been using before stepping away from it and putting his hands in his pockets. "Last I checked the battle was still ongoing." Lilly's last report had been that the enemy appeared to be making a last push. "Unless they cracked the shield of this place, then I'm as safe here as anywhere else."

"I'd request that you follow our orders for your safety." The man continued and several men beside him fanned out.

"Gonna ring up the base commander before agreeing to anything like that." Bolt noted as he pulled out his comm.

The rush towards him wasn't a complete surprise, though the aggression did catch him off guard. It wasn't the worst play in this instance. Most people of importance had a significant amount of defensive technology on them. Ranged attacks would trigger most of them. Up close and physical would still trigger some, but less. It was highly dependent on what you were willing to risk.

Half a dozen men with enhancements would typically be enough to safely and quickly restrain someone, especially one unused to personal combat. Bolt was different in that regard. Not only was he in the upper percentile of strength, he'd specifically added a few spiritual tools to upgrade that strength for something like this. It let him bodily grab the nearest of the men and throw them halfway across the room before he could react.

Still holding his comm, Bolt triggered an emergency contingency. One of the gas tanks in the area pinged as the valve was blown off and a thick mist began to spurt out. A man grabbed his neck while another grabbed at the arm holding the comm while this happened. Bolt dropped the device while also kicking out.

Close combat was not a specialty of his though. His kick didn't do much, and someone hit the back of his knees as he struggled. He dropped down with a grunt of pain but still chuckled as the mist covered them. His attackers didn't care about it at first. Their helmets came with filters. Then the effects started to happen and they paused. That was enough to throw the ones on him off and step further into the obscuring mist.

"Recall, Bolt." The designer ordered, and his comm flew back to his hand while he levered himself up to his feet with a grunt of pain.

The mist was actually quite harmless. The exotic it was laced with had a fun reaction with the most common Second Rate filters, where it created a slightly stinging caustic emission on the inside of his mask. Combined with how it made skin it touched tingle, and it felt like the onset of a nerve gas. That fear should give him a few seconds.

Bolt triggered the next contingency as he recovered. Several things began to topple as the cranes around him released their payload. Some of them were so large that people would have to get a ladder to climb over them. It turned the mist covered area into a maze that his attackers would find hellish to navigate.

He probably should have expected the grenades as a response to that. The devices were pitched into the air and suddenly the entire place was filled with sound and light. It was horribly disorientating until Bolt managed to pull on his mask. Then it was just mildly painful. That was a pretty good indicator that he needed to get out of there fast.

The back door was guarded by a pair of men. Since they hadn't responded to the noise he had to assume they were with the others. Grabbing them both and throwing them through the door he'd come through was a matter of seconds. As was forcing it to lock with a slam on the door control.

Bolt triggered his last contingency. It was a fairly loud one. It exploded several of the ammunition stores in the bay. That one would trigger every single alarm on the base and make them conclude they were under attack. It would trigger every single lockdown protocol in the base.

Doors slammed shut. Bulkheads closed. Several corridors were outright gone as they were shifted away. The base became even more of a maze than it had been. Security cameras searched for everything.

Since he was on the authorized personnel, Bolt didn't get a single look as he made his way to his room. This was actually what he was supposed to do in an alert after all. There he closed the door and then broke every single override and thing that could possibly make it open. He also welded it shut and moved a couch in front of it for good measure. Finished with his precautious he took another seat and set his comm right on the table in front of him. After a bit of thought he pried open the speakers and other inbuilt tools to communicate outside of the room. A bit of sabotage later and it was impossible to reach him with anything on base aside from his own personal comm.

Now it was time to wait. Bolt threw his comm onto the table and settled into the chair. After a few seconds he found himself bored so he went back to his figurines. He had the materials to make a Hella Handmaiden, so he was going to do that for giggles.

Outside his room, there might have been a few attempts to open the door. Bolt didn't know, and he couldn't tell you. If they happened, it wasn't anything official.

Several hours later the base commander called him on his comm. "Journeyman-"

"Senior." Bolt interrupted him. "I'm sorry, but senior."

"Senior Bolt. Would you happen to know when there was an explosion in your bay and I hear reports of sabotage?" The man asked.

"I have no idea." Bolt lied so blatantly that it was impossible to miss. "I was just pursing a few MTA options. Did you know they can transport you anywhere you want for a specific sum? I can even have them teleport me. It's quite amusing what you can do when you're in good standing and have a lot of favor."

"Yes. Quite amusing." The command repeated in a dead tone. "We'll investigate the explosion. I'm sure it was something improperly stored by undertrained techs. With the battle winding down I'd like to schedule your exit tomorrow."

"Why thank you. I'll gladly get out of your hair as soon as possible." Bolt chirped back. "Just let me know the time when we have it. I'll need to pry open my door. I panicked a bit and secured it more than it should have been. Don't worry, I can pay for the damage."

"Don't worry. It will be part of the battle repair bill." The commander said before hanging up.

Bolt went right back to painting his figure.

 

[lost star]

The Friday Coalition had committed a rather large strategic error in Ves' opinion. Sure they'd sprung a trap and forced the Hexadric Hegemony to take losses, but the trap had been so obvious they'd only lost what they wanted. Furthermore they'd managed to capture an example Bolt Silica's next mech. That was something that'd be a grievous error in any other time. Here it just let them evaluate the mech early.

"You were right." Gloriana admitted with complete defeat after running the numbers. "We can't win anymore." This was referring to her people and their war.

Ves didn't shrug. He instead examined Einherjar Berserker visually and with his spiritual sight. The delicate reinforcement was as always a treat. Bolt had obvious progressed. The Senior advancement was well deserved. It was a singularly odd style too. Consistent in a way that he knew wasn't normal for many designers. Mech designers typically had strengths and weaknesses consistent with their specialty. Senior Silica's designs only had weaknesses where he wanted them. It enabled a flexibility that let him compete with anyone, including Ves. It also had a few costs in that his mechs needed to be carefully aligned and optimized. It was very likely a lot of why his rise to prominence had been such a surprise to so many people. Not that Ves cared that much.

This was a true designer battle! His battle. Bolt Silica's designs pushed Ves like nothing else. Hella Handmaiden owed everything to that inspiration. What was even better for Ves was that this was all his design. Barely any input from the Masters in the Hegemony, and nothing from his cheat, which was inoperative at the moment. Ves had only felt this sort of challenge in his early days.

"You're not listening." His wife's words drew his attention back.

"Gloriana, I'm not going to gloat. I know you had utter confidence in your people winning. Reality said something different. As far as I'm concerned that's the end of it. Now we try to keep all the pieces from becoming worthless." Ves replied as he turned to her.

"All my houses resources are being channeled to the Red Galaxy trip. We're gathering like minded people already." The woman hesitated before she continued. "We'll need a public statement from you, and possibly some sort of sign from the Superior Mother to keep some radicals from attacking Bloody Karma."

The words made Ves scowl. "What?!" He demanded with real anger.

"No one official wants to, but we have heard demands from specific areas." Gloriana clarified quickly. "Mother has personally been stomping down on it, but she's leaving. We've also heard that a few Friday factions might be trying to trick people into doing it anyway." She stomped a foot. "They're all being morons!"

"I have family there. The Silica family has been good to them. I'd be very unhappy if someone targeted them." Ves said.

Good was an understatement. According to them, they were thriving. His grandfather in particular looked better than he ever had been on the video calls. Ves had been half tempted to visit them, even if it would have set them back months. He still wished he could, but he was satisfied with them being happy and being a part of another rising star.

"That's why we need a statement." His wife said gently.

"You'll get it." Ves stated with anger. "If there's anything else you need, let me know."

"We might be able to have a small detachment moved there to help the defence, but you'll have to speak with your people." The hexxer woman said quietly. "There's a few devoted that will be willing. It will be small though."

"I can't imagine Bolt doesn't have defenses there already, but more wouldn't hurt. And the place does have other Second Rates there, so they won't stick out too much." Ves mused before nodding. "We'll revisit that if you get more information."

Until then he switched his attention back to the Berserker. The others had already done a fairly comprehensive scan of the thing. His job was more to evaluate the glow. That admittedly wasn't that notable. It made the pilot angry enough to ignore most other Glows. Ves could probably bypass it with another design, but he wasn't inclined to at the moment.

One thing he'd really wanted to avoid doing was falling into 'counter my counter.' That was a very dangerous trap you could hit as a designer. You'd end up focusing on opposing one person and ultimately a third would sweep up and beat you both. Ves would be damned before he allowed that.

"That Star Shifter device is a menace." Gloriana noted as she looked over the blueprints and performance specifications of the mech.

"It's not Glow based." Ves replied and had a few automated cranes pull open the mech's chest to expose it. "How did you do this one Silica?" He asked himself more than anything else.

"We can probably replicate it in a year or so if it isn't one." The woman said, ignoring the physical side in favor of looking over the evaluations and blueprints. "Are you sure Silica made this and not the masters working with him?"

"His style is all over it." Ves observed. "See the consistency and odd artistic flare on some of the design lines?" He said as he traced a finger over some of the blueprints. "That's practically his signature. The man has to struggle to make ugly parts." It was actually amusing when you noticed it. Likely a sign of his upbringing. (This had given him a lot of respect once he'd learned of it really.)

"I'll have to research his work more if he's capable of this." The hexxer heiress observed. "I assumed that he was mimicking you with the other mechs, but this isn't that."

"Imitation is a word for what he does, but that doesn't encompass all he's capable of." Ves said and turned back to the work. "I don't recognize the all the sources, but I think I see how he did it after some thought."

An alien influence was part of it. The Phase Water research was another part. Like Ves had said, Bolt imitated, but if you thought that was all he could do you'd be blindsided when he stomped all over your assumptions. He blended things into a coherent whole and then bent it into a way he wanted. Ves was half convinced the man had a piece of the Metal Scroll like him.

"How'd he do it then?" Gloriana sounded less interested and more amused. "You boys and your rivalries."

Ves couldn't help the chuckle. "He used a few of the papers on Phase Water Devices to create a pseudo-FTL device. We could actually probably imitate this once we get our hands on some for far cheaper. You could say he stole the research, or you could say he used it to create an entirely new device for his own use."

Either one was valid based on your viewpoint. That was what made it so amusing. Ves really couldn't wait for the next mech, though it would probably take a bit of time. He also wasn't sure that there'd be more than one more. The war was turning against the Hexxers and it was very likely they wouldn't be enough time for more. Pity. He needed to arrange a private conversation with Bolt at some point. How though?