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Chapter 44: Birth of a Mech
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2024-10-29 19:42:56Related chapters
The Mech Chapter 45: Mech Trade Association
If anyone first heard the words Mech Trade Association, they'd assume it was a nonprofit trade organization. They weren't wrong, but it deeply understated what a massive influence the trans-galactic behemoth exerted in every corner of human space. They regulated the development, licensing, production, sale and disposal of mechs. Pretty much the entire life-cycle of a mech was in their purview, and they sometimes came to blows in order to enforce their self-proclaimed rights.Even a small, tranquil planet like Cloudy Curtain possessed a local branch of the MTA. As even the Greater United Terran Confederation and the New Rubarth Empire acknowledged the powerful organization's supervisory powers, a small third-rate state like the Bright Republic had nothing to say about the MTA's forceful presence within its borders.The association founded branches wherever there was a sizable population of people. Lots of people meant that at least a handful of them piloted mechs. If left alone, they c
The Mech Chapter 46: New Perspective
Ves personally watched on as the shipping company Marcella contracted brought the Phoenix Cry away. The loaders and bots carefully loaded the dark and red coated mech into a sealed and padded mech container. They carried it back to the spaceport and loaded it onto the next transport out to Bentheim.With that out of the way, Ves returned to his workshop with Lucky. The cat enjoyed the time out, but now appeared to laze away for the rest of the day."You're such a lazy bones."The cat drowsily meowed at him, not really paying attention to his words. Ves scratched the gem cat's chin before sinking down into his couch.Before Ves got back to work, he wanted to rest a bit and recover from his high-intensity fabrication spree. He found it exhausting to constantly pay attention to his emotional mood when he shaped the Phoenix Cry. While he thought his mech successfully radiated the kind of aura similar to the best mechs he saw in Bentheim, it still remained to be seen if it generated more s
The Mech Chapter 47: March of Progress
The inevitable advance of science and technology rendered today's machines worthless and turned tomorrow's miracles into everyday goods.One of humanity's better characteristics was the race's insatiable curiosity of the unknown. Nothing better expressed the rise of humanity better than to track its technological advances. From fire and sticks, the race took a scant blink before it mastered more advanced technologies such as agriculture and forging. A few thousand years after that, humanity escaped the limits of their home planet and spread their presence into the greater galaxy. Each time humanity advanced, it was due to a new scientific breakthrough.This dynamic process of introducing new technologies to the market was not an entirely positive experience to everyone. To the people involved in the mech industry, many companies might lose all of their customers if they progressed one step slower than other firms.The earlier years of the mech renaissance was a wild west, with new inv
The Mech Chapter 48: 2-star Designs
Ves considered hiring a fabricator in order to ease the pressure on his time. If he wanted to advance his skills, he had to keep pumping out designs. If he wanted to earn lots of money, then he had to fabricate lots of mechs for Marcella to sell. He lacked the time to invest in both activities if his sales volume grew to more than three mechs a month.The only problem with hiring someone was that keeping the System secret might be difficult. As much as the System appeared harmless, it was actually a miraculous invention that straight-up defied the laws of reality as Ves knew it. Such a precious treasure attracted covetous intentions, many of whom had the power to squash him like a bug. Letting the System's existence leak to anyone else was just asking for trouble.Another problem which concerned Ves was that hiring someone else to do his fabrication would lead to sub-standard products. A full-time fabricator might be a wizard when it came to working with the 3D printer and assembler,
The Mech Chapter 49: Modular Armor
Working with modular armor posed unique challenges to the mech designer.To visualize the problems the designer faced, imagine being handed a square or rectangular piece of paper. If you were told to make a cylinder out of the paper, you could easily bend it in a a way so that one end of the paper touched the other end. What resulted was a pretty good cylinder with a cutout in the shape of a circle.What if instead of a big piece of paper, you got handed some cardboard instead. And not just one piece, but many smaller pieces that you weren't allowed to bend. With a bit of tape, you could approach the shape of a cylinder with square pieces of cardboard, but the cross section wouldn't look as smooth as a circle anymore. It would look like a many-sided shape that only approximated a circle.The same concept applied to working with modular armor as opposed to conventional armor. Modern 3D printers and armor fabricators could miraculously produce armor plates in virtually any complex shape
The Mech Chapter 50: Hunter
Ves looked at the fifth iteration of the Octagon's radically redesigned armor scheme. He spent a week to come this far. The main changes he made involved setting plates in certain oblique angles that made it easier to deflect damage instead of taking it head-on. The use of subtle angles and a ribbed pattern made the mech appear as if it wore a crocodile's skin.Incorporating such an unusual armor scheme came with a major disadvantage. By stacking the armor plates at an angle, Ves needed to incorporate more armor in the same surface area than if he stacked the plates at a flat angle.It was like using a pack of cards to make a house of cards instead of just placing them side by side. One method maximized the surface area, while the other method increased the density. In order to keep down the Octagon's weight, Ves was required to shave off the amount of SquarePlate armor layers and skimp down on the FlexiPlate."After all this work, I don't think the mech's armor has improved very much
The Mech Chapter 51: Test Pilot I
Captain Caruthers sat in the dark and silent cockpit. The entire enclosed space was isolated from any outside noise. Only the rhythmic tapping of his fingers against the only red shade in the space bounced off the metal walls.Bounty hunting was a tough business for any upstanding mech pilot to pursue. It went beyond the basic jobs like guarding outposts or patrolling conflict zones. In many cases, pilots simply had to wait long hours standing by and only occasionally get into the cockpit to deter a couple of opportunistic raiders.The amount of incidents happening in the outskirts of the Bright Republic was fairly low. Most people thought the nearby systems and asteroid fields were barren of high-value resources. Only a couple of the more common exotics could be found, and small mining concerns eked out a small profit from exploiting them at a low cost."Even a barren hinterland like the Bright Republic can be squeezed of resources if you make it worthwhile enough."The pirates that
The Mech Chapter 52: Test Pilot II
Joshua smiled with satisfaction as he leaned back in his piloting chair inside his personal simulator pod. After months of grinding up the ranks, he finally broke past the Bronze League and entered the Silver League. For a teenager of his age, reaching such a height was impressive. Only the top 3% of the potentates in his grade matched or surpassed this result."Aw man, you've finally promoted. Looks like we won't be playing together for a while." Triceratopsss whined over the comm.Joshua, or TheSeventhSnake in the game, smiled back at his friend. "Hey, at least you won't be taking too long to follow me up. You've been showing plenty of improvement.""I got more time to hop in the game now that summer break is here. I mean, the mech classes are fine and all, but a real match always beats a dry lecture."While Joshua didn't entirely agree, he kept his opinions mum. "I'm going to go pick out a new mech to play with the big boys. Are you interested in helping me choose?""Nah. I got to
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The Mech Chapter 65: Vincent
How integral were chips in the daily life of a modern day human? Even as they slept, these silent workers played their role. They observed the time, measured the surrounding temperature and were on the lookout for any toxicants in the air.When a person woke up, he interacted with dozens of different processors in a short succession. His power shower automatically cleaned him with the most optimal settings before drying him off without any excess heat and air.If he was fairly well off, then his household bot would have already prepared a sumptuous breakfast for him. Though the act of automated cooking was long perfected, bots still needed a tiny bit of processing power to adapt to different ingredients.When it was time for him to go to work, he entered his aircar if he owned one or hailed one from the streets. These basic vehicles were packed with processors of different kinds. The most high-end one was in charge of the main functions, but plenty of auxiliary modules required less c
The Mech Chapter 64: Second Mech
By the time Ves exited the transit shuttle, he breathed in the fresh and moist air of his home planet. Bentheim might have been a melting pot of trade and business, but it did not fare well hosting so many people in such a small planet. He led Lucky and his floating luggage carrier onto a nearby aircar and headed back to his home.His workshop already received its first deliveries of materials by the time he returned. The rest of the raw materials he needed to build a modified Marc Antony trickled in throughout the day. The new security system installed by SASS did their work and performed thorough scans of the arriving delivery shuttles and the containers they carried.Ves already summoned up the design in his System's Designer program and optimized his first commercial design. He had advanced his skills a little bit since he first completed this design, so Ves took advantage of it to marginally increase his mech's speed and armor specifications."It's only been a few weeks but I've
The Mech Chapter 63: Nether Regions
"My man Ves, I received your files. I can't say I'm entirely satisfied with your work. The cape doesn't have any frills and the surface lighting schemes don't seem impressive at all. The only thing I found cool is the red lights installed underneath the armor."Ves was afraid of that. Not satisfying his client meant his rewards for the mission could be reduced. "I have made my design choices with resilience in mind. Excessive frills will be the first thing that gets lost when your mech receives damage. It's better to keep a clean appearance that looks great both when it's pristine and when it has survived a battle."The excuse was enough to cause Vincent to pause in his tirade. He frowned and thought over his words. "Alright, but I'm consulting a pro shuttle customizer artist for the lighting scheme. I still feel your designs are too basic. Heh, why didn't I do that in the first place. Your not an artist.""If you are unsatisfied with my designs, feel free to turn to someone else." Th
The Mech Chapter 62: Leviticus
"So anyway, I didn't only invite you here to talk about old times. To be honest, I wanted to ask you something.""Oh?" Ves raised his eyebrow. "What's that?"Carlos stopped paying attention to the match entirely and turned to face Ves with the most serious face he had ever seen on his friend."You know what kind of job I have now. Even if you say I'm likely to move out of my current position, it will take many years, perhaps even decades before I go anywhere near the development process of a new design And that's only if I resign and switch companies, as the current one I work for is just a wholesaler which buys completed mechs from other manufacturers.""You can't rush a career, Carlos. I've seen you studying for nights on end back in college. You've got a good head on your shoulder. Any employer will be bound to appreciate your talents.""But I can't wait that long." Carlos shook his head. "A successful mech designer always starts his career when he's young, we both know that. So wh
The Mech Chapter 61: Design Studio
Ves was not immersed in the whole shuttle racing scene. As someone focused on mechs his entire life, the sleek personal transport shuttles that were capable of both atmospheric and space flight held little appeal to him. That did not mean others found them unworthy of their time.In fact, lots of norms worshipped shuttles. They paid fanatical attention to each newly released shuttles and liked to customize and tinker their own vehicles in their free time. Adding some decorative lighting was just one of the ways a fanatic distinguished himself among his peers.He looked over some footage on the galactic net and found it to be a basic concept. It could be as simple as adding a few colored stripes to adding in an elaborate artistic pattern. It impressed Ves that these hobbyists cobbled up evocative looks for their shuttles."I won't be able to get Vincent's approval if I half-ass this job."The best-looking vehicles didn't necessarily have the most lights. Instead, the artists who custom
The Mech Chapter 60: Capricious
Vincent Ricklin unbelievably went on for about ten minutes on the importance of manhood in mechs. He really believed almost all mechs were gender neutral. As a bona fide man, Vincent hated the thought of mentally castrating himself whenever he piloted a mech.Naturally, someone immersed in mechs such as Ves had no problem with the lack of gender indications. Mechs were only designed to emulate the human form in order to perform better as a war machine. Adding unnecessary extensions such as hair, skin or gender expressions did not add anything to a mech's battle performance.Frankly, only an extremely vain pilot who cared more for his looks than his battle record could demand something like this. Ves had the misfortune of making a mech for this kind of person."This is an extremely complicated addition. Let me think about it for a day or two. It's not easy to add mass in the front part of the waist."Actually, Ves wanted to ditch Vincent and go back to Marcella and demand they drop him
The Mech Chapter 59: Package
As Ves debarked from his shuttle with a curious Lucky in tow, his heart weighed down his mood. The articles he read about Vincent Ricklin all painted an ugly image of an irresponsible wastrel.As a serious mech designer, Ves preferred his mechs be used in the purpose they had been built. He was okay with them collecting dust in a warehouse or put on display in some kind of private garage, but to play around with them and take them too lightly was pushing it. No mech designer liked to earn a reputation for making flashy mechs that lacked substance."Though it's not as if I have a choice."That someone like Vincent considered buying a mech from a newbie was miraculous. Ves should thank the heavens for giving him another opportunity to fabricate and sell his variant.Ves took a smaller shuttle to Marcella's brokerage. She owned a nice office in downtown Dorum amid many other offices of major mech manufacturers and salesmen.The giant name plastered on the small five-story office made it
The Mech Chapter 58: Profligate
Lucky finally woke up the day after Ves visited the MTA. The cat appeared to slink in a satisfying manner, as if he ate the biggest fish in the universe. Ves gave his pet the stink eye."So… you got anything to say?"The cat acted cute and brushed its smooth body against his legs. Ves let go of his irritation and just picked up the cat and hugged him in his arms. It was easy to forgive the loss as he never really owned the strange material in the box to start with. He suspected the advanced alloy may have been meant for Lucky in the first place."Do you feel the need to go to the litter box?"Strangely enough, even after a couple of hours the cat never visited the toilet or his backyard. Ves picked up his cat again and inspected his body closely. Lucky still looked and weighed the same. He started to doubt whether anything really changed. Did the cat just ate a bunch of priceless alloys because it tasted good?He fed Lucky his usual meal of minerals and let it go out and play. Ves sti
The Mech Chapter 57: Ominous Warnings
As Miss Robyn from the SASS supervised the work, she also approached Ves for a talk."As a mech designer, when do you think we will switch to the next generation?"Taken aback by the question, Ves needed a moment to think through his answer. "It won't happen too soon. We can milk our current generation for at least 10 years. We mech designers don't like to see the value of our work plummet before we extracted as much value out of it as possible. I'm sure the big manufacturers are colluding to keep this generation alive as long as possible."The security consultant nodded. "That fits with our internal assessment. However, the new technologies employed by the advanced states have already leaked out a little bit. We do not believe the mech industry can stand in the way to progress very long.""Why are you asking about this? Are you planning to upgrade your security hardware?""For sure, and more besides that. You may not have heard about this seeing as you're young, but the mech and secu
