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Chapter 21: Cladding
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The Mech Chapter 22: Craftsman's Pride
A mech's armor defined the machine's appearance. The changes made to the internals might not be visible to outsiders, but it affected the heart and soul of the mech. His experiences in muddling around with the Nero and making more focused modifications with the Nero Redividus taught him a lot about the design philosophy behind the Caesar Augustus.Ves already knew that Jason wanted to cram as much goodies in his frame as possible. This adversely affected the mech's internal integrity as any damage that passed by its armor could spark a cascade of faults.While Jason relied on National Aeromotives' excellent armor to mitigate this issue, Ves had to make do with Marlin Solution's budget-focused 1004-HRF 5th Generation. Despite his best efforts, the Marc Antony's armor only withstood about a third as much as the original armor in the worst locations. The best places only matched the original armor by 80%, which was already extremely generous.With an armor scheme that only protected the
The Mech Chapter 23: Sell
When Ves logged into Iron Spirit, he visited the support section in order to register a free virtual license. The game charged a lot of credits for the virtual license of the The Marlin Solutions 1004-HRF 5th Generation armor plating. Considering that anyone could make a living if they designed and sold even a halfway decent mech, the prices weren't unreasonable. The support staff processed his request promptly. Ves had made this request before so they still possessed all of his information. After confirming that he possessed an authentic production license for the armor, he received his approval half an hour later. With all the paperwork done, he loaded the Marc Antony's design file into the virtual workshop. Still motivated from his previous evaluation, Ves had no trouble getting into the right mood. The Marc Antony embodied aggressive passion, so in order to keep its X-Factor intact, Ves entered a state of mild frenzy. With the help of his much more comprehensive Assembly skills
The Mech Chapter 24: Melinda
Melinda Larkinson had a busy life. As a junior member of the Bentheim Planetary Guard, she spent most of the time on patrols or back at base learning the ropes. As she was determined to reach the pinnacle of mech piloting, she continually sharpened her skills by sorting out troublemakers and sparring against her fellow guardsmen. A huge amount of business flowed through Bentheim, the economic 'port' of the Bright Republic. Due to a complex system of spatial distortions, spaceships had an easier time navigating towards Bentheim. This especially facilitated ultra-long-ranged FTL or faster-than-light travel. Put simply, a ship could travel directly towards Bentheim without making any stops in between in order to reorient themselves and cycle the FTL drive. Humanity actually stole the FTL technology they used today from a long-exterminated alien race. Through hundreds of years of study and refinement, they had already pushed their knowledge base on the tech to its limits. Nowadays, to g
The Mech Chapter 25: Wartorn Instance
The noise of battle echoed all around her as missiles kept raining down in salvos. Only now the blue team started to employ countermeasures. The medium mechs kept zigzagging while the heavies used their prodigious firepower to strike the missiles down.Melinda and Janet skillfully navigated forward. They dipped in the many craters to spoil line of sight and hide behind cover in case snipers aimed at them. Though few high-powered weapons aimed at them, they still received sporadic rifle fire from their entrenched opponents. Melinda resolutely shielded Janet from incoming fire with her shield."Our team's light mechs must be engaging the enemy scouts by now." Melinda noted as the missile fire stopped landing with unerring accuracy. Spoiled by the ECMs, the deadly payloads sprayed down in a wider spread, damaging many mechs but not to the point of wrecking them completely."What are Jaxon and his flyers up to?" Janet whined as she felt useless trudging behind Melinda's shield. Her cannon
The Mech Chapter 26: Objective
Now that Melinda got out of the high of super-realistic combat, she remembered why she stepped into the simulator in the first place."This mech... the specs aren't bad. It's a pity about the armor. It doesn't hold up in a large melee. The shield's also far too heavy for the scant amount of protection its offering."Still, when she saw how few gold she had to spend to repair her mech and replace her shield, she smiled. The total amount she lost paled in comparison to the amount of gold she earned from performing well in that last match. She even received the coveted MVP award. The game really went all-out in retaining its older customer base with these tricks.Janet whistled her appreciation as she read the score list. "Damn Melly, you went to town on them. You've personally disabled four mechs.""Yeah and pretty much wrecked my entire mech in the process. At least I won't cry about the repair bill.""You wanna go for another match?""Yeah. I need to get familiar with this mech. My li
The Mech Chapter 27: Absolute Power
In an unspoken agreement, the reinforcements that came with the Caesar Augustus busied themselves with fending off Melinda's allies."That's a nice mech you got there. Shame about the armor though.""It's the Marc Antony, designed by someone I know. It's supposed to be a more affordable alternative to what you're riding."The Caesar Augustus pilot let out a contemptuous snort. "The mere thought of cheapening any of this frame's components is abhorrent. It goes against everything this august mech stands for. You and your friend have no idea how much you sullied its grandeur."Like an unstoppable tide, the Caesar Augustus kept closing the distance as it exchanged laser blasts. Melinda's laser cannons were running hot, but the only thing she managed to achieve was to heat up the top layers of her opponent's shield, causing only a fraction of its mass to melt. Its defensive power was a testament to National Aeromotives' heat-absorption research."It's useless! Face the inevitability!""Yo
The Mech Chapter 28: Preparation
"What happened after that?" Ves asked over the comm as he rested on the couch. Lucky curiously tried to paw Melinda's head projected by the comm."The juggernaut blasted half the walls of the military base apart. It set up a panic in our team. Frankly, the only reason why we lasted so long after the juggernaut entered the field was because its pilot went drunk with power. He destroyed half his team with all the collateral damage he caused."The two spoke about the performance of the Marc Antony, and how Melinda found it to be a good mech despite its many faults. "It doesn't have a good place on the front lines due to its scattered strengths. It's not quite a knight, not quite a striker and its pitiful launchers don't give the mech a lot of long-ranged firepower.""Well, I'm only working with the tools I have. Frankly, if I could replace the mace and shield with something sturdier, I'm sure the mech would perform just as well as the Caesar Augustus.""Sadly, that's not an option if I w
The Mech Chapter 29: Bentheim
The appearance of Ves raised some eyebrows from the pilots and their chaperones."I haven't seen you around in class." One of the men stated as he looked at Ves' collar. "Are you sure you've boarded the right shuttle?"Every potentate wore a small pin on their collar, chest or arm that denoted their status. It was an exclusive privilege to the 3.5% that marked them as special. With it, they enjoyed priority services, had access to VIP sections, and had their safety taken care of first before the rest could take their turn. The entire scheme originated from the New Rubarth Empire, but pretty much every human state other than the Terrans copied the treatment. They also took over the rule that stated that any fraudulent use of such pins invited severe punishment."Security already screened me before letting me in. I'm a participant of the YTE mech design competition.""Mech design?" A young fresh-faced woman dubiously said. "So you're not a pilot."That pretty much killed the conversatio
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