What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[lost star]

Lilly had downtime at the moment. It felt unusual. She didn't get that. She'd never gotten that. There was always something to do. Now there wasn't. Even piloting would be just her playing around. It wouldn't be useful. She could still pilot of course, but she wouldn't get anything out of it until Dowry was updated. She couldn't even bother Bolt! The young man was extremely busy trying to cram as much information as possible into his head to update Dowry!

About the only thing she had in the near future was a small escort mission with Dowry to bring some mechs in, and that promised to be a cakewalk. Everyone on the planet was sort of laying low at the moment in an attempt to figure out what was going to change. Lilly wasn't ashamed to admit she was wondering the same thing. She couldn't even recruit or train people yet. Things were in too much flux.

For a person who's spent their life moving from action to action, this moment of stillness felt unpleasant.

Identifying and squashing that issue was therefore her first step to keeping occupied. Lilly was living life on her own terms. A flaw in her behavior was a blockage just as much as anything else. Fortunately the need for action was just the little girl in her wanting to go zoom zoom. She wasn't that anymore.

Some meditation came first. Spending a few hours focusing on herself and her newfound willpower would help her come to terms to her new existence. There was a distinct presence inside her that she needed to feel out and measure. Her willpower she assumed. It was likely going to be an ongoing process that she'd take her time with. Every day she'd spent some time identifying the feel of it.

After that she decided to roam around. The new fortress was big! And rather empty, as she'd found. There was a lot unused. It'd been designed as a small city, and they had enough for a small town. It'd fill out eventually, but for now roaming was just running through empty stone hallways. Pretty boring and something she gave up after exploring another empty room.

Piloting all of Bolt's mechs was the next attempt at keeping occupied. Lilly hadn't tried the Shining Shrine Maiden, or Cerberus. Both of them needed to be put through their paces!

It was only after she'd nearly caused the poor dog she was piloting to break that Lilly figured out she was being a bit too maniac. Cerberus hadn't deserved what she'd done with it. There was a difference between stress testing and just ruining the things. She'd gotten far closer to the latter than she was comfortable with. The dogs were fun though. They felt dependable. Sometimes you needed that in a mech. Not everything needed to be cutting edge impossible to pilot things.

Trying to squish bad impulses was harder than it sounded. Lacking any other ideas, she started to roam again and eventually found herself in one of the more protected areas. That was how she'd ended up in the nursery and helping to watch over the kids. It wasn't something most experts would do, but he she wasn't most experts.

The Wrench Rats practiced communal childcare. Their schedules were, put politely erratic. This combined with the fact that many people thought targeting their children was a valid tactic meant that they'd found it easiest to put the younger kids in the most fortified areas possible and assign a few minders to manage it all. The kids were frequently brought out to help with various chores in more trying times, but they had a nice central area to have their lessons and care done.

Lilly was very harshly reminded that this option wasn't available to her yet as she helped with a few minor things. She could not have children until she had money. She made a mental note to get back to researching later. Until then, dipper changing, burping, and helping the older children with lessons. (The caregivers had protested, but experts got what they wanted.)

Gadget was the oldest of the group at the moment. The older ones had started to migrate to their own rooms as they became able to do work. The girl seemed disinclined to. She was more concerned with her lessons, much like Bolt. Watching her go through them was mildly entertaining. The girl was just as focused as her brother. Lilly had ended up nearby the girl once she'd settled down and dealt with all the more obvious chores.

"Mom said you were an expert now." The words came in between lessons once she realized that Lilly was sticking around.

Lilly nodded slowly and gave the other kids a look. They were all on their best behavior at the moment amusingly enough. It wasn't even something she'd done. They were just playing nicely.

Gadget continued without looking up from her learning pad. "You gonna keep us safe?"

"That's something I'll certainly focus on." Lilly immediately tried to reassure the girl with a wide smile and a flex.

"Good, smash em." Gadget replied and started up another lesson. "Make their mechs junk."

"Ain't gotta worry about that." The expert pilot confirmed. "Anyone that'd think about hurting our family would get smashed." She promised easily. That was one promise she wanted to keep.

"Good. Less mechs the better." The little girl mumbled.

Words like that were quite unusual and made Lilly hone her senses in on the girl. "You don't like mechs?" She asked.

The emotions the child displayed were startling in their purity, if not in the intensity. Gadget had opinions and she wasn't shy about voicing them. "Don't like them." There was genuine hate there.

"And why not?" The expert prodded.

Gadget closed in on herself a bit and pulled her lesson pad closer as she looked away. "Just don't." She said softly.

Lilly nodded with cheer very obvious on her face. "That's perfectly fine. You don't have to like them." She encouraged in a similarly soft tone. "You're a smart girl. We can find other things to do."

Those words got her to look up to meet the older woman's eyes. Upon seeing that Lilly seemed sincere Gadget relaxed slightly and held up her current lesson. Lilly felt her eyebrows raise.

"Spaceships?" She asked back.

"We need some, daddy said. I'll build them!" The young girl nodded. "Not mechs." She continued with a nod.

For a brief moment Lilly blanked on what to say. There were issues with her desire. However, she was an expert. Thinking quickly was part of that. Using her newly found powers to figure out the best words to say to a child was probably not exactly what they were for, but they'd do it anyway!

"I look forward to seeing them then." Lilly praised the young girl. "Be sure to build the best ships ever!"

That got the girl to preen and she began to go over the ships she was learning on. Lilly was pretty sure that the lessons were CFA approved rather than MTA approved, but they weren't bad ones by any means. She just wasn't sure why the tiny tot had gotten into them.

A few discrete checks had her find out that the Wrench Rats had paid a premium for an early self-guided educational system. It was meant to ferret out and encourage specific talents in children. Gadget had apparently expressed a disdain for mechs and a liking for science and then gotten into the CFA programs. They weren't nearly as popular as the MTA things, and were kind of offensive to a pilot, but the little girl seemed to like them. Ship building was a respectable position, so it wasn't like Gadget was doing a bad thing. It was just sort of, well different.

Somehow Lilly was quite sure that Gadget was going to be just as large a terror as her brother, just in a different way. She had to wonder what the girl's parents had eaten? Whatever it was, she wanted some for her own children, when they could come about.

Still needed that money. Lilly admittedly didn't want children right this moment, but she had a goal. She wouldn't have her choices taken by anyone, including her own body.

 

[lost star]

You'd think they'd be less busy now. They weren't. They were in fact becoming more busy. It was just a contained sort of thing if that made any sense. Their current goal was a party. Which, well sounded strange to say out loud. It was a political party that all the Wrench Rats and Lilly would hate. It had to be done. Officially it was a celebration of their marriage and Lilly's ascension. Unofficially, it was going to be a sort of bow to the other nations. They'd invite a few of the more important people, and political shit was going to happen.

Before then, Bolt wanted to get Dowry situated. If he could make her a mostly expert mech, everyone would have a lot less leverage. This wasn't a feasible task on the face of it. Getting education in how to build an expert mech took study. It took specialized courses that weren't publicly available. It was in essence something that only well educated and connected people could learn.

It was possible for him to learn anyway though. He'd learn it the same way he learned how to make mechs. He'd learn from their trash. He'd take two of their mechs apart and learn from their failures. His hope was that would give him enough to work off. He'd still need a senior, but only for resonant materials, not for the general upgrade. There was a distinct difference between the design of an expert mech and the specialized parts that gave them what amounted to magic powers. (Yes that term was incorrect, Bolt was still going to call it magic because he was feeling petty at the moment.)

The two expert mechs his father had found were on the older side but still very relevant. About a decade old, they'd been buried underneath several tons of rocks and abandoned. Their location and circumstances were an old mech secret. Another mech would have been crushed so badly they'd be unrecoverable. These were still pretty bad, but they were something one could theoretically rebuild. It'd just be pointless, because expert mechs were explicitly made for their experts.

Bolt had a sneaking suspicion that if he wanted to, he could use one to repair the other and have Lilly pilot it. The tests they'd done had shown that she resonated with a lot of materials. She tested negative for a lot as well, but these two were made of types she could use. At least theoretically. He wasn't an expert and was just going off what the tests said.

His first observation was that even ten years old, these things were still advanced beyond anything else he'd worked with. One was a pure swordsman. The other was what looked to be a striker. Discounting the exotic components, they'd still be able to absolutely trash any mechs on the field just based on performance.

Each mech was laced with exotics. They had state of the art components that were still advanced compared to today. The material cost alone was ten times what a normal mech would have. All of this was synched and aligned with what Bolt assumed to be the dead pilot. These were custom pieces worth fortunes alone, and a prize even ruined.

It was an investment that they couldn't match yet. They were making money at the moment. They were not making that much money. It'd take about a year to afford to make an expert mech from scratch, assuming they kept up sales. If Bolt dipped into his and Lilly's savings, they could probably afford the plans and components right now. It would bring their savings to near zero though. It was a suboptimal action that would have to be a last resort, and one that he hoped to avoid.

Bolt hoisted the dead mechs up on the bay. Sitting there, they looked defeated. A far cry from what they had been. These were failures in one sense of the word. Dead bodies. All of the tech in the world, and now their worth only laid in the materials they held and the lessons he could wring from them. It was hard to be optimistic in front of such grim reminders, but Bolt was. Surprisingly so. This reminded of him when he was a kid actually.

Armor first, as always. Carefully prying it apart was harder than it sounded. The metal had warped from the weight that the mechs had been placed under. Dirt and small stones were still lodged in some areas. Some of the welds and screws required power tools to pry loose. It was all advanced stuff and custom alloys as well. Deliberately design choices to maximize what the designer had felt would best compliment the pilot. It was non-standard and very difficult to pull off without causing further damage.

The striker's most carefully made part was its weapon. Bent and broke, this had been someone's specialty. There were a few lessons in it even as ruined as it was. Bolt could see the dedication and lines in the shotgun's form. It had been someone's baby in design, but not in creation. The assembler had been methodic in a professional way.

That pattern continued for the mech. It was Vesia, he could tell this without looking at the history. None of the telltale missiles, but there were certain patterns common in their designs. They used specific screws at certain internal joins and threaded cables in a rather distinct pattern. Alloy choices were another tell, though not a certain one. There was a strange mix of attention to detail and clinical manufacturing in the creation of this mech. One of the designers had explicitly focused on how the little details added up into something big that the manufacturers hadn't followed as precisely as the design required. It was an intriguing flaw that he wasn't even sure the main designer knew of.

Amusingly the shotgun had fared better. Looking it over in comparison, the vision had come through with more clarity. While they'd both been made by the same hands, the shotguns vision had just required appropriate power and throughput. The shotgun was obviously done by the junior designer. It'd been done properly by the manufacturers. Three hands had handled the mech and it had made a mess that was only apparent in the end.

Maudlin thoughts aside, ripping it all apart showed him what an expert mech really meant. It wasn't just cost. It was optimization using money and exotic resources. No expense was spared and everything was aligned to the pilot. The weapon went above and beyond. The armor was exquisite. This was a weapon of war made double.

Bolt added a few mental changes to that design he carried in his head still. He still wanted a proper expert mech for Lilly, and he'd use this to fuel that plan further. She'd likely want to keep Dowry, but that mech was limited and would become more so as time would progress. She needed a proper one.

Left with parts and destroyed dreams, Bolt looked over the destroyed expert mech and then wrote down his notes and observations. He'd learned some, but not enough. He moved onto the other one. The swordsman. This would tell him more.

The swordsman mech was an Empties mech. You could tell that just based off the crosses in a few areas. It had been with holy fervor. The construction was close to perfect, with only a few flaws here and there because their enthusiasm had overcome their technical skill. The user had used a two handed sword that could be set aflame. The sword hadn't survived intact, and the entire length was ruined. Bolt could see the concept, and the power. It was very likely that was what it had led to the mech's doom.

He could trace the damage between the two and see the battle as he stripped the armor and the parts. The striker had gone first. He'd unloaded every weapon into the Swordsman, and it'd done nothing. Then he'd activated something, and they'd moved. Steady chipping and damaging to his opponent, and then they'd entered the cave. The Swordsman had caught up then. He'd struck once, twice, and the Striker had brought down the entire cave on them. Perhaps he assumed he'd be able to leave before the end? Bolt couldn't say an expert would cause such an amateur mistake as to kill himself accidentally in a cave-in.

The design itself was interesting as a contrast. They both used money to get the best performance. The design ethos was different. The sword had been everything for that mech. Every, single, part of it had been focused on making the weapon swing better. There was no subtly to that sort of design. There was no loss in focus. The only concession was a single weapon in the head of all things. That laser was meant to hinder mechs that kept at a range, that was it. There were four designers involved in it, but one real lead. The rest were just there to optimize the sword.

Now, the question came, how did Bolt apply this? Could he upgrade Dowry? Should he? These were good questions that he had to answer. He had to figure out what would be optimal. No one else in this mountain could decide. He could just replace the mechs parts again. They had experience in it by this point. It'd be almost as costly as building a new mech though.

Yet a wild idea came to him as he thought it over. Didn't Dowry just adjust herself internally? The nanomachine core that he'd put in was highly versatile after all. He'd been sort of lowballing the system in the initial creation to keep cost down. The system itself was meant to be a dynamic nanomachine factory. The recent self adjustment the mech had done made him think that he could push that system more. The only reason it'd been so restricted was the lack of exotics to fuel it. He had those materials available in the form of the disassembled mechs right in front of him... Recycling things was an old hat. He'd really just need to process these mechs and adjust the programming some wouldn't he? A lot of the theoretical work was already proven.

Putting thought into practice was easy. Having Dowry brought in was just a matter of getting a few techs to bring the mech over. Placing a few parts in the processor and adjusting the programming was also relatively simple. Bolt wasn't trying to change the process. He was trying to have the mech upgrade itself. Most of the changes were already there. Lilly could resonate with these materials. He just needed to get them laced into Dowry's systems using the nanomachines.

Concept wise it was easy. Implementation wise it was extremely difficult. This was slow, painstaking work. Bolt had to program each change, feed a minute portion of the exotics into the processor, watch the change, and then adjust as needed. In a way it was getting back to the mech's roots. Dowry had started off as different parts as Ghoul. They'd unified her design, but her original design had always been a bit of a mishmash. Now he was adding more things. The blackbox programs helped here and there. Bolt was able to pick them apart and refine them as he worked and watched them in action. There were still one or two left once he was done, but he was happy to say most of it was leashed now. (This was a very good thing. Machine learning had a tendency to go into suboptimal or dead end solutions if it wasn't directed.)

Dowry still wasn't a complete expert mech, but she was pretty close when he was finished. He still needed to select a resonant material to give her that extra oomph for when she needed it. Lilly could use the mech without breaking her now though, and Bolt was fairly sure that she could eat expert mechs to repair and upgrade herself further. Which would probably make things a bit weird when it happened.

For now he kept that under wraps and wouldn't put it in the documentation. So far as the outside world was concerned, Bolt had just upgraded her with salvaged parts. He'd tell Lilly, but he wouldn't write it down anywhere. Some things needed to be kept secret. Let people think he'd half assed the upgrade. No one needed to know the truth.

 

[lost star]

Wedding traditions varied extensively based off local planetary culture. For the people of the planet they called Rust Bucket, it was very simple. The couple shared a room and said they were married. Sometimes there was a party before or after. If they were very formal they had someone who handled religious matters bless them. The traditions were typically survive first, stick with the person you had kids with, and don't be a damned asshole to your family.

Bolt and Lilly had already made their promises in private. The party they had afterwards was not for them or their family. It was for politics. It was probably the largest native party in decades as well, and it had a little under five hundred people attending it. Most of those attendees were just support structure for the main leaders of each faction attending. It wasn't like there was a functional high class on the planet for the locals. The Wrench Rats would explicitly deny being 'high class.' Their recent fortune non-withstanding, they worked and bled for a living.

At the very least Bolt's family had been able to host something resembling respectable to the attendees. Thanks to the MTA's remodeling, they did have a proper ball room, and a food production facility that matched anything modern. They even had something special! It would have sounded very strange to people not in the know, but they were serving rations.

The obliquus rations came from a standard technology that was free of charge to download and build. They could be made from any sort of organic matter, and could be printed out with practically no resources. Food scarcity was very rare in this day and age. The MTA and CFA were frankly massive dictators that held humanity in a stranglehold, but they had explicitly tried to guarantee a few things with mass proliferations of specific technologies. The rations were one of those creations. They were best described as small miracles in specialized packages. Each one could last forever, and they aged spectacularly. They were a cornerstone to a surprisingly large amount of infrastructure, especially in space.

It was also not a lie to state that older ration packs were valuable. They were akin to old wines and cheeses in a way. A ten year old ration pack tasted better than a new made one, and the taste for century old ones was reportedly divine. This meant it wasn't uncommon to have little vaults here and there with the things in them. Not only were they solid time scaling investments, they were useful in an emergency!

The Wrench Rats had paid for and opened one of the fifty year old vaults for this party. It was an actual impressive display of wealth in a way. Everyone non-native considered it a fine thing to have for a party like this. The natives knew the more bitter truth of them. Old vaults were old because the previous owner had died for some reason. There was a grim and rarely said truth in serving the older stuff. They were very likely serving a dead person's last resort. Not that any of the rats would tell anyone attending the party that. The locals did know some things didn't need to be said. There were some attitudes that were strange and different even for them.

What wasn't different was the way things had to be arranged. As the main leading force behind this sort of thing Bolt and Lilly had to be front and center. Dressed in something rather gaudy that blended several styles together, they were both smiling and greeting the guests as if they wanted to be there. It was pretty obvious they didn't, but it was also obvious they were making an effort. That was enough for the attendees. (Some sympathized, but also knew this was a prime chance to make connections.)

Bolt was not social. He was probably the opposite of social. He'd answer things straight out if asked and didn't care to look into motives. Lilly was perhaps too social on contrast. She could pick apart a person's motivations with a few words and her conversations were either vapid as she put on airs, or too penetrating. Frankly it should have made the party a disaster, but the two of them had managed to play off one another and as an expert, Lilly was actually given more than a few allowances.

Most of what they did was greet and exchange information. Banal, boring, and predictable. A few conversations stood out. One was with Venerable Shin.

"You know, it is not common for experts to get married." The expert noted after introductions. He glanced at Bolt with an inquisitive eye, trying to find what drew the girl to him. "Especially not to designers. We travel in very different fields."

"You'd think it'd be more, not less." Lilly observed and hugged her now husband's arm with a warm expression.

Shin shook his head in a negative. "No, we as a group tend to be dedicated to piloting and nothing else. Long hours in the cockpit, risky missions, and so on. Likewise designers hone their logic and try to divorce themselves from emotion as they spend hours inside a lab. I cannot see your marriage lasting, if you'll forgive my rudeness, but at the same time I hope it succeeds. It is a contradiction I apologize for inflicting on you."

"I choose what I want." Lilly rebutted with words that she considered an immutable fact.

"If I'm inside a lab all day I get antsy." Bolt's response was less certain but more matter of fact. "Also, that logic thing is some strange mindset fashion, not a requirement." At least based off what he'd seen for designers. Bolt made a face as he recalled what he'd heard of it. "Can't say I like it. Feels less like logic and more slaving yourself to a religion that you made up."

Shin let out a small laugh and shook his head. "That is a way of seeing it, but let us not bring down the occasion more. Lilly, some of the moves you made were inspired. Bolt, your mech designs are still very rough, but the potential there is apparent. I very much look forward to seeing more." The expert gave a small bow to them both.

The conversation moved onto the various tactics Lilly had used. Bolt himself couldn't follow most of the discussion, but he got the general gist. Lilly had both gotten lucky and played her luck the best she could in the situation. Dowry's specific configuration had made it all possible though, and apparently Shin wanted a few mechs with her design. Bolt didn't see a reason not to create a production variant of Ghoul, but he also didn't want to commit to anything at a party either. Fortunately Shin didn't press, and then they moved on.

After some time Bolt and Lilly split off to speak with people in a more individual fashion. Bolt ended up speaking with the sole senior mech designer at the party, Travis. The older man was a sharp contrast to Chen. He didn't put on airs and was remarkably normal in behavior. Snacking on a few non-ration refreshments and keeping out of the way of most of the others.

"We're very likely going to work together soon." Travis didn't spend time on small talk. "I know for a fact my Lord is speaking with your father about a trade of sorts. I'll be working on your Dowry and likely Cerberus."

Bolt felt his eyebrows raise and he nodded slowly. "That seems 'bout right. I've progressed Dowry best I could, but I don't know resonant materials."

"You wouldn't. It requires senior and above." The senior designer responded simply and with little care. "The big thing we need is a proper resonating material, but I believe there's already one that we can use that's known to work with ASMAS and your pilot. It will allow for rapid repair and refinement and should work with the existing design with minimal adjustments and is relatively cheap, which will be needed because the ASMAS is a hungry thing when used."

That sounded relatively simple and would fit with the existing theme. "I don't see why we wouldn't use it then."

"I'll forward you the details and what I'll need. Expect it to take a few hours. Frankly, were it an expert I'm working with I'd insist on having more involvement, but these are unusual circumstances." Travis wiped his fingers off on a napkin and set his plate down. "Cerberus will take more of my time. You will be providing a good fifty of them to us, and I'm explicitly being ordered to focus on that."

"We're selling them already?" Bolt asked with surprise.

"Negotiations are ongoing, but that is within my predictions. Put very bluntly, Lord Selah despises you and your family. He will work with you out of self interest anyway. He' rather predictable in many ways." Travis laced his fingers in front of himself as he spoke. "I will be leaving his service within the year, so this does not harm me by saying it. You are a promising young designer with a unique look on mech design and a lot of potential. This will make you enemies. Be prepared for it."

"Ah." Bolt breathed out. That was quite the obvious warning. It was also not surprising. "I'm hoping that we can do that." He answered eventually in lieu of something better.

"Also keep in mind that Vesia is not united despite the face it shows to others. Your father likely knows this. He managed to get this party arranged after all. Despite how it looks, this is a rather impressive feat. He has leverage that I'm not aware of." Travis gave a shrug and began to walk off. "We will speak more on mech design later. It would not be appropriate to get into it here and now."

Bolt was looking forward to that. He was not looking forward to anything else. The future did not seem good despite the recent victories. Not that it had looked rosy before, but it was one thing to know that and another to be almost blatantly told you'd be in a war in a few years. Then again, that wasn't really new. The planet had always known war.

His grim thoughts were stopped from spiraling by Lilly. In this case it was because she'd gathered together a few pilots and was talking about something relevant to both of them. Expeditions. Getting money.

"Travel time is one issue, but the big one isn't that. It's finding your niche and exploiting it." One of the pilots was in the middle of an explanation. "Most mercs specialize. It's kind of like hunting or fishing. You look for the best prey that has the least amount of hunters around."

"Yeah, and what would Lilly's specialization be?" Another pilot asked with amusement as he gestured to the woman. "Building from the ground up is nice in that you can decide what you want, but you also have to build from the ground up."

"Thinking scavenging actually." The expert pilot gave her input casually.

The other pilots made a few noises of confusion. "Why?" Was the question.

"Bolt's family specializes in that." Lilly explained as Bolt came up and she pulled him close. "Also, we got the technical knowhow for that! Just need a good spot for an early payday! And probably the ships to get there and back."

"You can hire them till you get an in house group. Ain't that expensive if it's nearby." One of the men advised and then exchanged looks with the others. "Closest thing that comes to mind is the Cold Grave. You all remember that?"

"Ooooh." Came various groans of disgust.

"Cold Grave?" Lilly asked the obvious question with a cute head tilt and wide eyes.

"Nasty, nasty place. Non-experts get issues after a few days and can go mad after a few weeks. Got loads of graveyards. Was an old alien battlefield. You still get people trying for it cause the MTA and CFA lost ships there and there's rumors of them still being hidden there." Someone explained. "It's actually kinda close because of this planet's quirks. Anyone actually been there?"

"I have. Lasted two days before we started hearing whispers and pulled out. Colder than the icy hells, with barren halls big enough for mechs to walk through. Deep tunnels and some twisted architecture that really makes it hard to map." A man spoke up with a distant look. "We saw some ruins from old expeditions, but didn't have an expert to ward off the madness so couldn't get much. Had to fight some stone monster things. Apparently old alien defenses. Weren't much to speak about, but they didn't add to the welcome."

It was a lead that Lilly focused on immediately. Bolt couldn't say he liked the implication, but at the same time it would theoretically work. That was assuming they could get the manpower and transportation for it.

 

[lost star]

Lord Selah was less irritated now than he had been before the blasted farce of a contest. He was still very irritated. His personally groomed and funded mech designer had officially sent in his desire to retire from service, citing the failure of his design in the contest. He would be out of a designer before the year ended now.

As much as the lord wanted to dispute this, he couldn't. The designer had very technically failed, and refusing the resignation would cause social implications with a few of his more vocal allies. Selah disliked it. Travis had done his job well aside from this mishap. Losing him was a blow. At least the man was being careful to leave a replacement. Sure it was a journeyman, but they were an experienced, and loyal one. Selah had nothing to complain about there.

It still felt like something was going wrong somewhere. He was being forced into positions he wouldn't typically take, and did not like it at all. The timing was suspect too. Why inform him now while this farce of a party was winding down? After he'd accepted the 'gift' even. Fifty dog mechs from a young designer were not big prizes, but they were prizes. Buying them at cost of manufacturing was an absolute steal. Paying for them with a few hours of designer time was just economical. Travis had actually indicated agreement with the deal. Yet he'd still offered his resignation.

So very strange. Hopefully his spies would get something back soon. There was movement in the background that he wasn't seeing. Without that he had to react to things based off his initial impressions. There was a background player. He needed them identified before he could make more strident decisions.

"Is there something not to your liking?" The words brought Selah back to the present and he gave the peasant in front of him a blank look.

"No, this is acceptable." Fifty year old rations were actually expensive enough that they didn't offend his palate. They hadn't reached the extreme seasoning that rations could get but it was acceptable for an event like this. The wine was less fitting. It simple manufactured stuff. Only the fact that it was a high quality kept it acceptable rather than offensive. "I am merely contemplating the future."

Dealing with the designer's father was probably part of the irritation. He wanted the man dead, not in front of him. The man had no sense of fear or deference when speaking, and Selah had to continuously interact with him! He'd have someone acting like this back home whipped!

Salah let none of that show on his face. He'd have to rest tomorrow. He was obviously getting too stressed. He'd interacted with uppity peasants without nearly as much frustration before. He'd even praised one or two! Ordering someone whipped was only for extreme cases. This wasn't extreme.

"Well I hope that future is bright! It most certainly is for me and my family." The man smiled warmly and the noble forcefully stomped down on all his emotions.

Lord Selah inclined his head in courteous agreement. "Indeed. Not many people can boast of having an expert join them. I look forward to seeing how it goes." It'd certainly be an example of something in a few years. He'd be sure to see about hiring one or two mercs or pirates to keep them on their toes.

"Oh it will be something special I can say that. But that's only part of it. We're hoping you prosper some as well. Are you sure you don't want any other mechs? I'm afraid we can't do another discount after today." The man asked with a salesman's disappointment.

"No, no. Fifty of those dogs are fine. It is a fine gift." And damnit all, it was. The prestige of Hellfire missiles was something he'd love to rub into that moron of a neighbor's face. Getting them at cost was a steal. Doubly so because his personal designer would make sure they looked like the family breed. "I'm afraid the rest of your catalog is not refined enough for me to be enticed by your other offerings." A bit of a snub there, barely even an insult, especially because it was true.

"My apologies for assuming. I should have guessed that you would accept nothing more than the best. It's a small miracle that my child is able to produce one mech that fits your high standards." The junkmonger gave a small bow of his head. "Could I get you some more refreshments as another apology?"

"Oh, let him get his own." A very unwelcome voice made Selah grip on his wine glass and then try to relax. He gave the nun a bland look.

"Greetings Abbess." Lord Selah greeted the woman.

"Hello Lord." The woman gave a small inclination of the head, a gesture between equals, and a very deliberate insult that she knew she was giving.

An abbess of the Empties was educated extensively in politics. They were the mind behind the institutions. The force that kept them united and kept the nation in line. They were pretty faces hiding political monsters in human skin. She knew exactly how to speak to a noble from Vesia, and how to insult them directly to their face.

Amusingly, this soothed his irritation somewhat. This was a normal interaction whenever he had the displeasure to meet with one. "I expected you to speak with the expert after her victory." He spoke. "She was quite impressive against your forces." Translation, she broke them utterly and your people were pathetic.

"Oh, I've already given my congratulations. The young couple are so obviously out of their depth though." The woman turned to the couples father. "They will need some further guidance that I'd be happy to offer."

"They're young and just married. Let them have their honeymoon." The man deflected with a grin as he got another drink from a nearby automated server. "Though really, from what I hear it's going to be a working honeymoon. I swear that girl doesn't know how to stay still."

"Yes, she seems quite fascinated with that expedition idea." The abbess shook her head. "Well adventurous youths will be youths. I hope she doesn't get burned from it. That angle of thought is very dangerous."

"If I recall right, that's a lesson you have to learn on your own." The junkmonger replied without a change in expression.

The words made the woman's eyes sharpen. "That is a lesson frequently taught by our people."

"And one they still don't learn." Lord Selah spoke up then. "How many times has it been taught on this very planet?"

"The thoughts were that it was better this planet than something more important. As a nexus for FTL it is quite valuable, but we both know it's out of the way enough that no one really cares about it. It's a paradoxical prize. Too valuable to leave, but too useless to keep." The abbess countered back with a small and smug grin. "We've always cared for the people on it, just not the place itself."

"Ah yes, free transport off and into one of your vaunted and austere religious institutes." The noble said with disdain. "It's no wonder they like to stay here, at least here the dirt is honest. There you'd rub it in and call it holy."

"Better than being chained to a land and suffering the whims of self important swine." The abbess's grin didn't change as she spoke.

"I do believe that would be considered dueling words." Lord Selah said very calmly as he pushed away his glass and cutlery.

"Well I wouldn't stop ya all. That truce we're talking about ain't starting up just yet. Gotta get your licks in." The junkmonger interjected without a trace of fear. "Want me ta have the couple officiate it? I'm sure they'd love a good mech battle."

"No, no. I'm not a pilot, and it'd be a pity to mar an event with violence." The abbess backed down easily. "We shall speak of something else. My apologies Lord Selah." She gave a proper bow.

The noble was quite aware that the words were empty, but he also couldn't outright demand a duel now. "What else could we possibly discuss?!"

"How about that truce? Still ok with it?" The peasant said.

"We will have to bring it back to our people, but a preliminary truce of five years and rights to the planet are so small that it will be trivial." The abbess said. "Provided you abide by the rules."

"Taxes will be paid on all goods shipped to and from your nations."

Lord Selah gave a small harumph. "They had better." He and the others nations were in full agreement about that.

Let the junkmonger ship whatever he wanted. Having a small neutral area used to ship goods between nations discretely was, well mildly acceptable if he could get money from it. It'd make this planet more than a hole you threw mechs into. He couldn't imagine the man would make much profit though. He was getting taxed importing and exporting, and that would become ruinous quickly.

And here he was thinking like a merchant now. The irritation came back and Selah made a note that he was going to take a week off after this. Perhaps at that high class resort a few jumps away? It would be a bit expensive, but he needed it.

 

[lost star]

So, the wedding was done. The honeymoon was sort of ongoing. It wasn't like they wanted to head out and visit the beach. Also a honeymoon implied they had the time and ability to do something other than work. They really didn't. Not that Bolt and Lilly cared. They shared a room and things were good on that part. No need to elaborate more. (Bolt was a tiny bit tired after every morning, no big deal at all!)

Things were a little relaxed now. Not quite fully relaxed, but a general truce for the planet was in the works and people were mildly hopeful that there wouldn't be another damned war over some barren earth. It was a general hope. The natives didn't hold any expectations. Hope for the best and plan for the worst was their motto, and the worst would be another few years of metal giants stomping and trying to kill them.

In light of planning for the worst, Lilly was starting to train and recruit. Her ascension had somehow made her worse at directing people but very good at ferreting out reasons and desires. She'd gotten a few lieutenants in light of that first. Then she'd started to fill out their roster. It was an ongoing and slow process. They had a small pool to pull from and even less they could trust.

Bolt was working on a smattering of smaller problems. One of them involved working with Travis for a few days. It was proving to be an interesting interaction.

"I'll have to ask for privacy while I adjust Dowry, but we can work on Cerberus in your workshop." The senior began as he was escorted into the area. "You may inspect it afterwards naturally, but the work in itself is considered a trade secret you are not initiated into yet."

"Sounds good. Hope you don't mind the lack of decoration. Can't say I've used it much yet." The young man said while leading.

There were several designing rooms in the mountain actually. A big one and a few little ones. They each had their own computer and were air gapped. Bolt got the idea just from their configuration. The big one was for large projects, while the little ones were for private stuff. He'd used the big one a grand total of once. It had a very impressive computer and designing simulation. However, seeing such a large room filled with nothing but chairs and monitors was off-putting enough that he'd not felt the desire to use it again.

"Whomever designed these was dedicated to the future." Travis noted as he took a seat without a trace of discomfort. "I have a less impressive main work area and my budget is not paltry." He looked around. "I assume you do not have plans to add more people at the moment?"

Bolt winced. "Ya would be right there." He admitted. It still felt more than a little empty with just two people.

"Trust issues I would assume. You are very young. Take your time and educate in house." The older man advised and started up the program. "Oh, thank you for your foresight. The blueprint is already loaded." He immediately began to change a few lines. "Do not expect a massive increase in performance. My contribution will be limited by necessity. Lord Selah wants the breed the dog looks like changed and any quote sabotage unquote to be found."

"What?" The young designer couldn't help his offended tone.

"It's not uncommon for young designers to be pressured into doing it, or to believe it's a good idea. When I was younger I was asked to deliberately make a faulty part for instance. My personal advice is to nod and neglect to do it if you have to. We are mech designers. Making anything deliberately shoddy is just as damaging to ourselves as it is to others." Travis explained simply and gave Bolt a look. "Those who do not design will not understand this." He emphasized.

It took a moment for Bolt to get it. Selah had likely ordered something done to Dowry. Not that he'd allow that to happen, but it was very good to understand. It did bring up a topic he had to address.

"This isn't likely going to be the last time I need help for resonant materials for an expert mech." Bolt admitted. "I expect it'll be harder after this."

"It likely will. It won't be impossible. There are mercenary groups with experts that manage to get things done after all. Your most affordable option is finding a few unattached seniors and doing a few favors. Your best option is to pay the MTA. They'll charge you an excessive amount, but they do give the option and will ensure spectacular work." Travis paused in his examination of the design and documentation. "Why have you not patented the generators?"

"Why would I?" Bolt asked in confusion. "They're just standard shit that anyone can plop in. Ain't like I did something different."

"You did do something that another designer could do. They did not. You thought of it. You produced a viable variant of a standard component that works with substandard fuel and handles dust better than normal. You did this with an absolutely trivial loss in all over performance. This is valuable." Travis tapped on the screen. "Submit your variant as an individual part. Also, do the same with the sensor system. Actually give me a moment." He tapped again and brought up the other blueprints.

Bolt started to look through the process of getting parts approved. This was going to suck paperwork wise, he could already tell. He should as advised though. Money wasn't getting tight, but he did need every scrap of it to get proper licensing for more parts. They were in an awkward crunch of being just successful enough to want to expand, but not so successful they could buy everything they wanted.

"Patent the mist generation from the Drowned Man, the shoulder sensors from Zombie, axe on Berserker, sensor and weapon system on Undertaker, and also send the adjustments you did to Dowry to the company that makes ASMAS. While I'm at it, I'd say adjust the cockpit back to standard position in the Berserker. That trick works when it's rare, not when it's standard, and some pilots reflexively ignore the cockpit area. They could accidentally hit it with your design. The other changes are good for pilot survivability and I commend them. If you could somehow segment that into an independent system you could likely patent that too."

The young designer wrote that down quickly.

Travis paused and laughed at himself. "Ah, forgive me. I'm treating you like one of my students. Not that I regret giving the advice, but you aren't one of mine. Another lesson I suppose. As you grow, you will want to teach. It is the best way to improve in my opinion." He informed the other designer.

"I'm glad for the lessons anyway. Prob my first real one from a designer." Bolt admitted with a bit of gratitude. "Thank you."

"Hah. I would ruin you if you were my student for real. Part of your skill is that you are forging your own path. Full instruction would be actively detrimental." The senior patted his screen. "So I'll refrain from giving too much advice. I'll explain my reasoning and call it done. Mechs are automatically patented as part of the process when you get them approve. However, you can separate certain parts out as individual components for sale as well. That's where the very big money is. You could sell a hundred mechs or ten thousand parts. You'll probably double your income with just those patents, and there's a decent chance the company that makes ASMAS will give you a specific variant just for your Ghoul line as well as give you a permanent discount for further purchases."

That made Bolt stare. "Excuse me?"

Travis actually guffawed at the look he was getting. "Ah, I love seeing that look! Yes, even junior work can be worth money to the big names. In this case I have some insider information. The ASMAS is someone's baby. It's an expensive, niche, and rarely used product. There is a reason you can buy it even as a third rate nobody, if you'll forgive the classification. Your work on that Ghoul made it viable for an expert candidate. Some more work between you and that company and there's a decent chance you can make it viable for everyone."

Bolt turned back to his station. "Huh."

"You might get something similar with Cerberus." The senior turned back to his station and switched to the mech again. "Master Jeanne is very focused on her little corner of the galaxy and tends to notice when her products are used. The Hellfire Missiles were considered a flop commercially, so the design being used in a mech that could theoretically be a hit is of interest to her."

"I can't see that as being a good thing." The young designer muttered.

"Drawing a master's attention is inevitable. If you use more of her designs she will message you. Be polite but otherwise assume her agenda is advancing her own interests." The older man advised. "At master level designers are more focused on their own projects than you or mundane politics. There's a reason she doesn't lead the nation. I do commend your work with Cerberus by the way. It is very good for your level and I can see a very clear vision around it."

Bolt grinned at that surprising news. "Really?"

"Yes. You have the potential to be one of the greats. Keep honing your designs and focusing on your philosophy when designing." Travis said. "I will be leaving the area soon, but I will most certainly be watching your work with great enthusiasm." (Left unsaid was wanted to be comfortably out of the blast zone.)

It was rather gratifying to hear. It meant something from a senior.

"Now, onto changes. We'll be adjusting the form factor, and making the missiles slightly different. My suggestion is we reduce the missile count slightly so we can have a missile selector added to the internal mechanisms. That will allow a variable loadout. Other than that I can give it a few minor tweaks here and there to increase performance." Travis explained as he worked.

"Your specialty is..." Bolt didn't say familiar. He recognized the work from the expert mech he'd demolished.

Travis didn't notice. "Officially it's something like small scale reinforcement. I call it, little things make big changes." The senior designer explained. "I'm doing a bare minimum here as ordered. This is pure technical knowledge. You'll understand the difference as you grow." He tapped at the changes.

Bolt nodded quickly and watched as things were changed. It was a very good lesson. One that he was quite sure that Lord Selah didn't know he was getting.

 

[lost star]

Lilly was ill suited for certain parts of leadership. She'd learned that before her ascension and had it double emphasized afterwards. Her ethos was that of freedom and choice. She could not command someone to do something in light of that. She could still lead.

This felt like splitting hairs and semantics, but it made sense in her head. If people chose to follow her, she was fine with that. She could convince them. She couldn't demand they follow. She also just, well couldn't really direct them in battle. That was a different matter, and more a personal failing. She got too wrapped up in her own situation and could not properly estimate how to have people fight properly. One could not be good everywhere.

This was where the magics of delegation came into play though! Lilly's new mercenary group was controlled by her. She had more than a few subordinates who were specifically going to be stepping into direct command roles. They'd organize things as needed over time. She'd just need to provide direction and purpose.

Admittedly this was all theory. Right now organization was in the beginning phases and really just needed a framework. They only had about fifty pilots. Lilly was vetting about a hundred more. Most of them teenagers and younger. The older pilots had left, were shit, or were committed to defending very specific areas. They had a few, but the younger ones had actual potential and the desire to join. So perhaps one hundred fifty after a year with maybe one hundred being pilots worthy of more than the minimum. This would increase over time, but they were starting with the bare minimum at the moment. The planet's population was both sparse and extremely wary. Even having an expert didn't mean much to them ultimately. It just meant someone had a bigger stick. The little stick still killed.

Support personal were far easier to gather up. They numbered about three hundred at present time. Technicians, logistic support, personal support, and so on. Bolt's mother had helped arrange it all. Most mercenary companies skimped on this sort of thing. Lilly had no reason to, and frankly found that stupid. Non-pilots were cheap comparatively. Sure it took a bit more to transport them if needed, but they had an immense amount of space here for the setup! It was one of the benefits of their situation. Having a mountain fortress, a surprisingly educated workforce, and what amounted to a manufacturing business meant that they could handle a lot of extra hands not related to piloting.

One of the reasons merc companies frequently skimped on support personnel was because they weren't always in use. Money wise it was frequently cheaper to hire temps in the short term. Here they'd always have something to do. It smoothed a lot of things out really.

As did the fact that they had Bolt's designs to use. There were still a few gaps here and there in their lineup, but the seven mechs he'd designed covered enough that they could create a general tactical doctrine. They would need a consistent and cheap rifleman and a decent striker to really round out things, but that could wait. Cerberus filled the ranged options just fine, and they weren't particularly vulnerable to skirmishers either. That'd change over time, but right now they had a solid line of mechs to choose from.

Well they would when they had more mech pilots. The majority of their forces right now were Zombies. A few Cerberus were coming online and would be added shortly, and they'd probably increase in number as people got used to them, but Zombies would be the highest amount of mechs they had. Zombies were easy to pilot. The next one up was Cerberus, which had been designed to work with low skill people. The Drowned men would go to the average skilled pilots and were suitable enough as a general mech to serve there.

Lilly would need to recruit people for the Undertakers. There were no pilots able to handle it as it needed to be used, and they'd have to be trained specifically for command. That was a tall undertaking, but possible if they found someone the proper age. It wasn't like she needed elites. She just needed competence. The Undertaker mechs worked fine with mediocre pilots.

The oddest blip in her current forces were the Berserkers. She had five to six depending on assignments. One of the men would shift from the Berserkers to the Maidens if needed. He was technically her best pilot and he was a familiar man to her, Sticks. For some reason a lot of the early pilots had gravitated towards it, and it was a decent mech once you got the tricks down.

Frankly had she been a normal expert this would have been despair inducing. Sticks was, well putting it frankly, so average it was practically an artform. He followed orders. He knew how to pilot a lot of mechs. He was not good at it. His best and only virtue was loyalty, which was why her father had trusted him on a heavy. Him being the best of her forces made the budding group a genuine joke.

All of this being said, her first real order was to put Sticks full time on the defensive team and stuck him exclusively to the Shining Shrine Maiden. This was a waste of the Maiden's capabilities, but Sticks would do his job until his employers death. You wanted that on what amounted to permanent sentry duty. You also needed someone that could handle the full capability of that mech. Shining Shrine Maidens were not easy to pilot, despite their role. Sticks was the only experienced pilot capable of using everything about them. He couldn't do it well, but with practice he'd be competent enough to be an obstacle to anyone attacking. Lilly had to work with what she had.

Being forced to work with what she had didn't mean that she had to be satisfied with it. After her general review and basic orders Lilly began running her people through their paces.

She made another discovery then. She was actually pretty good at training people. It felt a bit weird to discover, but her intuition let her tell where people were slacking, where they weren't, and how they could push themselves. It was fun even. She enjoyed teaching the younger pilots the best. They had less bad habits. She could still tolerate the older ones. It was a skill she'd decided she wanted to hone.

New talent or not, training and getting things working would take time. Lilly wanted to go on that expedition. Currently she figured it'd take a little more than a year to get enough arranged to make it possible. A year's worth of training, gathering resources, and getting funds stockpiled.

The little girl in her wanted to do it now. The adult she should be said no, they needed time. She didn't want to go out and end up a popsicle because she'd skimped on heating. It grated, like it had when she'd had nothing to do. She needed more. Long nights of fun weren't cutting it. (Also Bolt was looking a bit tired.) Training wasn't cutting it.

That was what led her back to the simulation pod and speaking with the Iron Spirit mods. It was very silly. The game literally couldn't keep up with her at all anymore. She still arranged for the ability to connect to anyone anywhere and logged in anyway.

She'd liked training people. She'd made a few casual friends in the game. Experts advice was highly, highly prized. So, well, she was going to use the game to have fun in a way that was probably going to get someone in trouble. She was going to corrupt a whole lot of children for kicks and giggles. The Undead Legion would RISE!!!

As silly as it was, it scratched an itch she didn't even know she had and let her focus on her other duties. Something about helping kids become good pilots made her very happy. She didn't focus on that thought too hard. Hopefully Pa would be able to find more pilots. She also needed to see about getting a few training mechs built or bought. Bolt could probably do it, but the boy was getting a tad stretched in his duties.

They really needed a lot of everything didn't they? That wasn't even greed talking, it was just facts.

 

[lost star]

Adapting something for a different climate was a surprisingly involved process. The Cold Grave was an extremely hostile environment. One where the temperature was below freezing as a standard, and could dip low enough to freeze a person's lungs if they tried to inhale without protection. It went without saying that their mechs needed some adjustment to function properly there. Not much, but some.

Bolt had a hand in that. He had a hand in adapting the Dowry's design for a production Ghoul model, dubbed Scavenger Ghoul. He had to make variants of Cerberus, because that model was surprisingly popular for some reason. He had a lot of little things like that. He was in essence being stretched in so many directions that he couldn't spare time for personal projects.

Thankfully a lot of this was temporary. Some of it could be delegated once he did the initial steps to verify things too. The cold weather proofing was just coating the mechs with some particular sprays and changing out some internal coolants. It required his assistance to make the plan, but his family could do it. Licensing his parts was just doing paperwork.

He was not going to start up any new projects even when he cleared up some time. He had a few on the docket. They were in order, Lilly's new expert mech, a rifleman, and a skirmisher. The reason for that was simple. Bolt felt like he'd reached a sort of plateau. He could make more designs. It'd be easy. It would not be something new. It would not be an improvement. Bolt felt like he was at the cusp of something important and needed a challenge. He needed a focus. He needed more information.

What was a mech to him? What unified his mechs together? They were philosophical questions that he had never actually asked himself. He wasn't sure he could. All his mechs had come from necessity and practicality. The whimsy had been in his design and ambition.

A poking on his cheek made Bolt look up from his, frankly banal paperwork. "You're thinking." Lilly said.

"Yes?" Bolt replied back slowly and with confusion. "I'm always thinking."

"No, no. This isn't your hum hum thinking. This is you er." Lilly scrunched up her face and then draped herself over his lap. "It kinda feels sorta like how I advanced."

"Designers don't turn into experts." The designer in question said with bemusement.

"No, no. You aren't, but it feels that way too. You gotta focus and be pure though." The expert got up and grabbed at the sides of his head and made a face.

"What are you." Bolt blinked. He felt a very minor tingle. "Whatever you're doing I don't think it's doing what you want."

"Stupid willpower, do it right." Lilly muttered and let her arms drop. "Your thinking messy thinky things. I dunno how designers work, but I do know I had to cut parts out of myself to get better. I think for you, you need to focus and be sure you have what you want and nothing else. That's how it felt like with the other designers."

"You do know how alarming cutting parts of yourself out sounds from this end right?" Bolt asked the obvious question.

The woman nodded and took a seat across from him. "I'm greedy. I got almost everything still. Pretty sure that makes it harder to advance, but I'll figure out something. I won't give us being me." The willpower inherent in that statement felt almost physically solid.

"I'll help that however I can." Bolt replied before tapping on his pad and then setting it to the side. "So, I have to think about what I want?" He got back to the initial subject.

"You're the designer." Lilly pointed out before reclining. "Don't they have specialties? You take that and do something with it."

"They do. I couldn't say what mine is yet, which is probably the problem." Bolt chuckled at himself. "If I were to tell you want I'm good at, it's taking things apart and learning from them. Ain't like that's a specialty in my mechs though. That's just how I learn."

"You make them warm too." The pilot pointed out.

"Even that isn't really a specialty. It's something another guy can do better. I'd assume a designer's specialty is something that they focus at above all else. I mean even the designers at my level had a focus and something they were good at."

Ando for instance. He'd been decent at armor. Good enough to teach Bolt a few things. Bolt had surpassed him, but that was a difference in ability, not in focus. Bolt was positive that Ando would still have things to teach him if they met again. That was what focus meant. Bolt was good at everything, and that was part of the issue.

"And you don't know what you're best at." Lilly guessed at his thoughts.

"I don't think it's even that. I just don't know what mechs mean to me." Bolt muttered as he picked at the idea.

Lilly frowned. "Ok, up!" She gestured to her husband.

Knowing well enough to follow along, the young man got to his feet. Lilly grabbed at him and pulled him past their couches and to the mediation mat she'd set into the room. Then, holding his hands she dropped down into a cross legged position.

"Meditation time!" She practically ordered.

With bemusement the young man took a seat across from her. "If you say so."

He was not good at this discipline. His mind raced too often to really do meditation. He could still do it, somewhat. The most he got out of it was spending time with Lilly truthfully. Just doing tasks together was their way of staying connected.

"Why did you build Ghoul?" Lilly's voice startled him out of his attempts at stillness. "Eyes closed, think on that. Tell me."

"Half of it was to impress a pretty girl." Bolt admitted easily, mildly bemused that this actually didn't disrupt the other girl. She was being pretty serious. "Half of it was because I wanted to make a proper mech."

"That works, but why did you build it the way you did. You probably could have gotten more unified parts right? You went out and tried to get the best you could, then added onto them. We both know the mouth was completely unnecessary." Lilly pointed out.

Here the answer was pretty easy. "It unified the look, and you deserved the best."

"Is your philosophy mechs that look good then?" Lilly asked back.

Bolt gave a small laugh and kept his eyes closed just barely. "No."

"Zombie then, what worked for that one? Why the head?"

"That was mostly funny."

Lilly squeezed his hands. "There were other ways to make it funny you know."

Bolt nodded. "Yes. Was still funny turning the head into a weapon."

"The Drowned Man. He turns water into mist doesn't he?" Lilly asked. "What gave you that idea?"

"I needed something that worked in the rain." Bolt responded easily.

"Dowry eats things and turns them into other things too right?"

"If you're trying to say my designer style is cannibalistic mechs I'm going to bite you." The young man said dryly, eyes still closed.

Lilly laughed. "Maybe tonight?" She said in a salacious tone before continuing. "Vermillion then. Why specifically did you make it so focused."

"It made sense for the format." Bolt replied back with a slight bit of exasperation before he took a deep breath and let it out. "I'm not sure we're getting somewhere."

"No, we are." The young woman said with a happy sound. "The others didn't do that. You cut the operation time very close you know. If I had hit someone who knew how to play defensive I would have lost. Why did you give up so much run time?"

"I probably could have gone with something standard. It made sense to use the space for more armor and more speed." Bolt answered after reviewing his thoughts at the time. "You were good enough to make use of that more, and the extra space made it easier to design for repairs."

"Your designs are focused towards a singular goal. You convert everything you can to that goal, is that right?" Lilly asked almost casually.

"I'd like to think that's good design." Bolt responded with a trace of confusion as to the line she was taking.

"What was Travis' specialty?"

"His was micro design. He specifically aligned smaller changes alongside a central focus to create a larger effect. I couldn't see it in action, but it had interesting implications in some ways." Bolt explained.

"So he wouldn't convert fuel space to give more armor like you did with Vermillion then?"

Bolt thought a moment. "I'm unsure." He had to answer honestly. "I don't know his style well enough to be sure."

"But if he didn't, that wouldn't be bad design right? It'd just be different design." Lilly pointed out.

"That's true."

The designer thought about it, and Lilly seemed content to let him think on it. His design ethos wasn't in cutting out things. It wasn't goal orientated either. That had just been a consequence of what he'd done so far. What would he design if he was to just make a mech? No, bad question. What did he focus on with mechs outside of theme. That was a mnemonic technique to help unify the design.

Actually there was a trace of something there. He'd grown up with junk mechs. That was taking parts of different mechs and unifying them. Recycling, converting, and unifying disparate parts. Focusing on making a functional mech that did it's job right.

"I do feel like I might have something, but it's not coherent." Bolt eventually concluded.

"Well, do I have to play twenty questions with that too?" Lilly asked.

Bolt shrugged as he thought. "I don't think so. I think I need to define it to myself more than anything else." And wouldn't that be a problem. "Ug, this is going to stall my plans for your next mech even more."

Lilly audibly perked up. "New mech, for me?"

"Dowry is a bit limited. This one would be a sort of counter to her counters." Bolt explained and opened his eyes to see his eager looking wife. "Likely a defensive thing."

"Seems like a good change of pace." Lilly gave his hands a squeeze. "What's the problem aside from your mind not cooperating?"

"It's stupid. There's a laser part from the laser company I won licenses off of. It's in the experimental branch of their parts. It's supposed to create a laser sword, but the thing lasts about a second." Bolt snapped his fingers for emphasis.

He'd gotten hung up on using the device for some bizarre reason. It was really stupid because the device was functionally useless. The light sword lasted for half a second and destabilized faster if something impacted them. Why he'd gotten interested in it he couldn't say. It was just a miniature forcefield combined with laser technology. The thought was to make a sword out of the forcefield and run a laser beam around it. Hence, laser sword.

The problem forcefields were hungry, hungry things. There was a reason they weren't mounted on mechs. As fortification aids they worked. As compact parts of a laser emitter they just burned out the emitter when more was added to it. The only reason it was theoretically possible was because the two technology were cousins so to speak.

"I can see why you want it. Laser sword!" Lilly's eyes practically sparkled at that thought. "But let me guess, it isn't possible?"

"No, not with our tech." Bolt admitted bluntly and groaned. "I swear I don't know why I want it, but I can't finish the design until it fits in."

It didn't even fit with his standard designs even. It was a laser! His strengths weren't in that area. He was getting better, but not enough to do something that a specialist wouldn't.

Lilly patted him on the back and the young man sighed. "Honestly it sounds like you have two blocks. Both ones you inflicted on yourself." The girl pointed out. "So here's what we'll do. We'll meditate together when we can, and we focus on defining your philosophy. Then you decide if that part is worth the hassle."

It was a plan in that it was something to do. Bolt didn't think it would solve what was going on though.

 

[lost star]

The Undead Legion was a very silly little clan in Iron Spirit. It had one requirement. You had to have an mech that looked like some sort of undead. There was a lot of leeway allowed if you weren't particularly rich in game. Painting it up properly was sometimes enough if there was some effort involved. Some people just had their mechs painted green with some highlights to make them look rotting. (They were kids after all.)

About one thing that everyone agreed on was that the Legion was for fun. No serious stuff allowed! Well, no serious stuff when they were doing clan activities. They did skirmishes where the goal was just to play around, every zombie pilot had corny jokes, and re-enacting horror movies was perfectly fine.

Jun liked that about the clan. He also liked leading it. As the duly appointed leader of one of the factions of the Undead Legion, he had responsibilities. Not many, it was a game people played to unwind. He still had responsibilities. This felt important. Shy, outside game Jun was just another pilot. Inside, he was SmashyMister, lieutenant to the important expert!

Not that he interacted much with Lilly nowadays. Despite their desires the expert didn't have an infinite amount of time. She had a lot of duties. She could spend an hour or two in game a day at best. He'd still consider her a mentor, even if she'd basically bullied him into an Undertaker. She gave advice freely in the time she had, and was always encouraging, even if that encouragement wasn't always conventional, or polite.

"Live first, kick ass second." Jun whispered to himself and giggled.

One Star Undertaker was nothing special. He lacked the jamming. His communication was pretty bad. His best feature was his cannon. He was still fun.

The best part about Bolt's creations was that his main line had mechs from one to five stars. This meant if you wanted to downgrade or upgrade, you could get the same mech. The performance was different, but the feel was the same. It was very rare for designers to bother with that. That was probably the core reason why the Legion was still going strong even without Lilly's constant presence.

"Helle, you're out of position." Jun called out. "Back!"

The zombie didn't seem to hear him. Instead trying to lung forward and swing its club at its opponent. The knight back stepped and then several riflemen started to fire from the side.

Jun didn't let that get him down. One star battles with kids were frankly messy. He watched it happen and then carefully aimed his cannon. The shot sprayed cold goop all over them and caused their fire rate and aim to decrease significantly. Fog formed from the secondary effect of his shot and he gave the zombie another command.

"Helle, step back." He repeated again, calmly.

The zombie seemed to realize the position it was in finally and moved back with shuffling steps. Fortunately that mech was pretty tough. It wasn't down, just broken in some parts. Perfectly acceptable for a match.

"Skellies you have a line open. Blind fire." The Undertaker pilot carefully stepped back and readied his cannon for another shot.

Skellies were basically riflemen painted white. They'd found a very thin rifleman model at one stars that was both perfect in looks for a skeleton and decent enough to fit into the theme. It wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst. It just had decent eyes and a semi-auto rifle. Perfect for new players who needed to just get familiar with mechs. You just ordered newbies to fire in a general direction and they'd hit something. The mech was a bargain bin bare-bones travesty that functioned well for one purpose. That was all it needed.

Jun was a commander by virtue of being the only person suited for it. He was not the best at it. His 'subordinates' weren't the best either. They were kids one and all, in the game by virtue of having money and free time. Iron Spirit and other simulator games were training wheels and games at the same time. It was a game you could play and convince your parents that you were doing something important. This, combined with other factors meant that they lost in the end.

The boy wasn't broken up about it. He'd tried. There was only so much you could do with inexperienced pilots. The truth was that without Lilly, their teams weren't that good. Bolt's mechs had decent synergy with one another, but that alone didn't give a grand and insurmountable advantage. It gave a little boost. That was it. There were plenty of other good designs out there that gave their own advantages too.

Helle was more emotional about it though. "Sorry Jun." She apologized after the battle and in the training area.

"No need to apologize. Did you have fun?" The pilot asked in return.

"Some. Zombie is kinda fun." Helle replied. "I don't have any good jokes down and he feels slow though. I don't think I'm zombie material."

"You're what, eleven? No personal name, or details, just age." Jun asked very calmly as he went over standard controls of his mech. Just general practice.

"Eleven and a half!" Helle corrected. "I liked Lilly's stuff. Is it true she's back? Did she really marry Bolt?! Did they really fight off that whole army like they're going to show in Rust to Riches?!"

Jun very carefully kept his amusement under lock and key. Rust to Riches was a movie that had been somehow greenlit and was based very loosely off Lilly and Bolt's experiences. They were minor celebrities now. Lilly found it absolutely hilarious apparently.

"According to her, it was even more." Jun informed the young girl. "And she does come by every now and again. She likes teaching some when she has time."

"Can-can I?" Helle's zombie shuffled some as the pilot's nerves transmitted through the mech.

Jun hummed. "There's a long list, but you can get on it." Long list was a bit of an understatement. It was two lists. One was a maybe. The other was 'has potential.' Both took time to get through that the expert didn't really have so he frequently had to act as a buffer. "You do need to find a mech you like first. Do you like Bolt's designs, or just want to imitate Lilly? There's a difference."

"Ummm." Helle shuffled some more. "I like the Maiden?"

Her and every other girl. That one was in the game as a six star though. A modern mech. Bolt had not made one to five star versions of it. "You'd have to build up to it. Artillery mechs are hard. So do you like it because it's pretty, or because you want to shoot it?"

"It's pretty." Helle said immediately.

"And you're piloting a zombie mech." Jun pointed out with a trace of amusement. They were thematically appropriate, not pretty.

Helle shuffled again and made a few noises that Jun couldn't interpret. Unfortuantely, as much as he tried to be a leader, he was still very young. He didn't know how to help here.

"Umm, was there any other mech you really liked?" He asked.

"Vermillion?" Was the immediate but uncertain reply.

"Of course." Her and everyone else. "Well, keep trying other mechs. My suggestion, and Lilly's too, is that you look for something that clicks with you. Everyone has certain habits that work with specific mechs." Jun advised as best he could.

Helle nodded. Fortunately aside from the minor problems, she was an ok pilot for her age. Nothing spectacular, but willing to at least work with people. That was a lot harder than it sounded. Most pilots had a serious case of tunnel vision when they started. Jun couldn't count the number of times a mech had died because someone had walked up behind them and shot them.

Jun did pass a request onto Bolt through Lilly. It hadn't been a serious one. This wasn't the first time Vermillion had been requested. The mech won looking spectacular. There were still clips of it moving being spread around months afterwards. He was very surprised to see it show up later in the store, with a few subtle changes that made it look a bit like it was on fire and burning to fit the undead theme.

(Bolt had seen the request, and actually spared some time to contact his friends still in the Serene Temples. Revising Vermillion for the game and making one to five star versions of it had been a fun little side project. They'd had to do a few rough adjustments to make it worthwhile for more than a short time, but it was more a project for fans than anything serious. It had serious flaws. It was still very popular.)

 

[lost star]

Time waited for no one. It ground on without a care to petty human concerns. Sometimes though, it could be kind. After the initial spurt of activity, things started to slow down. Aside from general recruitment and build up, not much happened in the mountain. Bolt focused on studying and doing minor adjustments to his current lines of mechs. Lilly focused on recruiting and training. It was preparation work for the future and a welcome break for the couple.

In the meantime the galaxy moved on without touching them yet. Vesia finished it's war with their neighbors and went into a stabilizing period. Their frequent and constant internal rebellions had started to cause intolerable instability. Their focus was mostly inward as a result. It'd be a few years before they turned their attention outwards once more.

Likewise, the Empties were inward facing still. That was par for the course admittedly. Their internal politics were quite murky to outsiders. Something about their makeup and ruling structure made them very disinclined to look outwards for the most part, and people tended not to pry in the face of more relevant and local matters.

The Land of Serene Temples was going to be the largest trouble in the near future. Their ever-present bloodlust was barely restrained at the best of times. It was very likely that they'd be starting up their own wars shortly. Though calling it wars was a bit of a misnomer. They very frequently didn't formally declare war. What they did was send out raiding bands under experts to pick fights. Those bands would attack whomever looked like the best fight and return with whatever plunder they could get. It was a spectacularly infuriating and complicated tactic that had caused more than a few wars, which the nation gleefully and enthusiastically encouraged.

Bolt and Lilly's home was not immune to these raids. They were expecting at least one good attack within a year or two. Until then they had time to prepare. It helped significantly that the Wrench Rats were making good business. Bolt's creations weren't breakout hits, but they were enjoying steady and consistent sales with some surprising successes.

Cerberus was getting a reputation for being a good and consistent guard mech. It worked well in groups and was considered a very good mech to put less skilled pilots into. The Hellfire Missiles didn't require exact aiming and the mech itself was hard to mess up. Having a few good sensor mechs was also just good sense. They enjoyed brisk sales, especially in Vesia due to the different dog variants Bolt offered.

The Shining Shrine Maiden was enjoying an almost cultish popularity in the Empties. Every church wanted one. They also wanted them decorated appropriately, which was fairly trivial to do thanks to the Wrench Rat expertise. The only reason it wasn't a breakout hit was because each church really only wanted one. They were functional show pieces. Very loved, but also not something you needed a lot of.

Aside from that, the most commonly ordered mech was Zombie. The cheap mech was easy to use and deceptively durable. Most buyers had a habit of either not bothering with the head, or loading up custom ordinance in the decoy target. Typically relatively cheap things. They were decent filler mechs. A step up from ultra-cheap frontline mechs but still very affordable and consistent.

Bloody Berserker also enjoyed brisk sales. They weren't exactly popular, but more than a few mercenary companies liked having a few. The durability and destructive force made them useful in a narrow but consistently used role. The reinforced cockpit was also big selling point. Line breaking was a dangerous role in an already dangerous field. Having something that kept the pilots in the role alive was appreciated.

Other than that, the rest of Bolts designs were not particularly popular. They enjoyed a few sales here and there. The Ghoul version with Nanites, dubbed Scavenger Ghoul was too expensive for most people. It was still bought, but not much. Even with the custom nanites provided by the manufacturer the mech was simply too niche for the common buyer. The other mechs were likewise not suitable for most people. The Drowned Man was the most commonly bought of them. Fortunately it didn't cost anything to offer the mechs, and manufacturing different ones was easy for Bolt's family so they remained for sale. The production lines for the mountain weren't even being stressed yet!

These sales (plus the individual part licenses and repair jobs) put the Wrench Rats into the minorly successful category for mech salesmen. For mech companies this meant a few billion credits of whatever currency you worked in profit. For natives of the Junk Planet, this meant they were richer than anyone on the planet had ever seen. Not that this mattered much. It had about as much value to them as paper would to a starving man. There was no local economy at the moment. It led to a very odd situation where the Wrench Rats had to basically import everything and pay the locals in ration packs.

Strange economy aside, the money was still useful elsewhere. Lilly's ascension had eased a lot of things. She still needed a 'win' so to speak. She needed to show she wasn't going to squat on the planet and do nothing. They had a truce and an informal agreement that the planet was hers. To get it formally, they had to show she had teeth and ambition. This was where the money was being useful. They were planning an expedition to the Cold Grave.

Historically the planet was basically the local treasure hunter's destination. It was a planet in the boonies that had once been the site of several battles between an alien race and both the MTA and CFA. Officially it had been cleaned out of anything valuable. Unofficially people kept finding small trinkets and things there. Most people assumed that the big two simply didn't care about the smaller things that kept being found and found it amusing to see people squabble over scrap.

There were many reasons that it hadn't been claimed and seriously explored. One was that the average temperature was below subzero. Two, it was a fortress planet. It had automated alien defenses. Many of them were still active even after all of the aliens had been exterminated. Three, one of the defenses drove people mad if they stayed too long. Four, and probably the biggest one, the planet was isolated. Rust Bucket was actually only close because of its unique FTL configuration.

Now why did Lilly want to get in there? Experts were immune to the maddening effect and could apparently ward it away from other people. More importantly, Wrench Rats were experts at salvage. If there was one thing they knew they could beat anyone in, it was salvage. They were going to loot everything not nailed down and then steal the nails, the planks attached to the nails, and even the building if they could manage it.

This came back to money. You had to spend money to make money. They needed to rent haulers. They needed mechs prepared. They needed supplies, and other things.

Fortunately Bolt's designs came in handy here. The focus on repair and consistency helped significantly in long deployments. Cerberus could be configured with different sets of missiles, and Bloody Berserker could easily be shifted around to fight the defenses. This was important because the local 'monsters' were basically big stone constructs. They were durable and bulky in ways that many mechs weren't designed to deal with. Bloody Berserker would need to use hammers instead of axes.

It was a risky and large undertaking for a new group still. This problem was made doubly so by the fact that their home would very likely be attacked or raided while they were gone. The grim calculations of how things worked in this universe meant that without Lilly at the mountain they'd be considered weak and vulnerable. Someone would try something. Especially once word got out about the planet's status. Lack of claim by the nations made it a prime target for opportunists.

Lilly and Bolt were naturally taking steps to prevent that sort of thing, but they both knew how little that would matter in the end. Despite all the steps they'd made, they were still suffering the whims of the more fortunate. Their path to freedom was going to be filled with risks like this.

Money did come in handy though. In many ways. Reinforcing the shields in the mountain and spending enough for a few precautions did help quite a bit. Bolt and Lilly were not powerless. Not anymore.

Thus, a year and some days after Lilly's wedding they hired a few ships and made their way out of the system. Risking it all on a chance and a prayer. There was something both thrilling and terrifying about that.

 

[lost star]

"Remember, masks on at all times!" The command came from the mission leader immediately after landing. An old veteran Wrench Rat, Cable. "The cold's enough to freeze your lungs if you aren't careful. We do have fixes for that, but I'll make sure your stupid ass suffers if you have it happen!"

"Venerable Lilly, might I ask why you aren't lead?" One of the newer pilots asked on a private channel while the briefing started.

Lilly kicked back on Dowry and looked over the sensors. "Can't give orders for the life of me. Also, this lets me focus on combat." They'd trained for it, but there was still some friction among her people. Especially when the mission leader wasn't even a pilot.

Their rented ride had been surprisingly painless. They'd just paid some money and gotten shipped. No questions asked. Getting dropped down had been likewise easy. Cold Grave was a barren, undefended place on the surface. The defenses were all inside. The danger was all inside. Getting to the surface was easy.

Really, the cold and snow on the surface were enough to dissuade the more casual looters. The environment was so brutal that a unsheltered person would die in seconds. Mechs would creak and act sluggish if they weren't treated. Vision was measured in steps, and even sensors had trouble picking up things. It probably would have been disturbing if they'd not trained significantly in misty conditions with similar visibility.

"Remember, we have two FTL communicators for emergency exits. We will also get a checkup in thirty days. We will be setting up a rear base once we find an entrance. That will be our base of operations and fallback point. Do NOT forget that. If you are lost, or our FTL comms are down, the base will be our last resort." Cable continued to rant at the people.

Lilly kept half an ear on it as she kept watch. They'd chosen a landing spot that wasn't frequently used. Cable, as an old hand at salvage, knew how things were hidden. Though this was a fortress planet built by aliens the tricks to hide things were still pretty consistent. Not too obvious, not too out of the way. This landing spot had stood out as a good target after they'd poured over all their available information. If they were lucky, there was an untouched entrance nearby. That meant a possible payday, if they could grab it.

It didn't look like much at the moment. Ice, snow, wind. Not much to see. The planet itself was far relatively from the local star, so the lighting was also very poor and wouldn't get better. It was a minor miracle that it had breathable air. Or likely engineering. This was not meant to be a pretty world. It was a world designed to be a weapon and fortification.

A few minutes of briefing and checking their supplies happened before they began to move. Past the landing zone the terrain dipped and the wind got even worse. Even their treated mechs were having minor issues here and there, but it was easy to handle. Their goal was a narrow valley with high walls and no discernable features. It was almost claustrophobic for their mechs as they entered it and the wind had narrowed down to such a point that their vehicles were actually rocking from the force. Lilly led. Based off their guesses, this was a less used entrance to the fortress innards. Easy landing spot nearby, and a very subtle path into the planet. It was a possible emergency entrance or something similar.

Quicker than thought Dowry's hand lashed out before anyone could even register movement. A stone snake like monster was caught mid lunge and she pulled the thing up before biting down on it. The teeth tore through the stone covering and then there was a burst of heat registered in the mech's mouth before it cooled.

"Ambush types." Lilly reported as she examined the strange creation. "Camo and low visibility."

"Dogs front and rear!" Cable ordered immediately. "Send out a comm if you see something!"

There was some shuffling as the transport vehicles were repositioned. Fortunately mechs were mobile enough that it wasn't that large an issue. They began to travel again with more alertness. This was actually a good sign.

Lilly caught two more 'snakes.' The Berserkers crushed the others. They were simple and relatively easy to spot once you knew they were there thanks to Cerberus. These likely wouldn't even be able to really damage mechs. A quick analysis from Bolt determined that they were meant to pierce with their nose and inject superheated material into an enemy. Dangerous, but only if they weren't found beforehand. Really most of the pilots found them more like jokes than threats.

"They were likely more dangerous to older mechs." The designer noted over the coms as he continued his analysis. "Or they could be mine equivalents. They're quite simple and barebones as constructions."

"Historic reports are that there are still manufacturing facilities up and running." Cable contributed. "Cleared places don't stay cleared unless you find the places they're made in, and those are all over."

"We sure it's abandoned?" Someone asked.

"Very. Ya couldn't see it by landing, but the CFA made a nice big crack on the other side. That plus cold and time means nothing can live here." Cable answered. "Ain't a reason to be relaxed though. One o' those snakes will eat ya whole and have room for the truck yer in."

Lilly could almost hear the gulps. She did agree with the sentiment though. She could see possible holes that the snakes could come out of. Were the defenses fully intact there likely would have been hundreds of those snakes just ready to leap out. This might have been the easiest part of the job, but it wouldn't do to be sloppy.

More time spent traveling. A few more snakes were crushed. Walls rose around them and they moved deeper and deeper. Soon a roof covered them, and the wind stilled. This made it more eerie, not less. Outside of the wind there was only the sound of the mechs and vehicles they were guarding. By this point there were no more obvious defenses.

Eventually their lights showed that there was no where else to go. The tunnel terminated into solid rock, with no seams or obvious entrances. Nothing for mechs and nothing for people either. It was a dead end so obvious there had to be something around.

"Looks promising. Wonder boy yer up!" Cable called out.

"Wonder boy?" Bolt asked over the coms with obvious amusement.

"Should I go with lover boy instead?" The old man asked.

"No, I claim that one." Lilly joked and got a few laughs.

They needed them. The atmosphere was already oppressive. Lilly could feel little tickles at the edges of her senses and had to practically flare her willpower every now and again to push it back. Something was pressing at people. It wasn't potent yet, but she could feel it trying to claw at her people. A small weight that would grow as she had to hold it up.

At Dowry's feet Bolt got out of the armored vehicle he was in and walked to the dead end. It was very, very obvious that there was something there. A path like this was too artificially made. It was equally obvious that the door was shut and hidden.

Minutes passed. Then Bolt returned to the vehicle and pulled out a customized set of tools, including something that let him fly into the air briefly. The young man moved up and down the dead end before calling over a few other techs. They emerged and began to examine areas on the wall too. They discussed things, then hammered at the walls with sledge hammers a few times before they returned to their vehicles.

"Transmitting a few instructions. Lilly, your claws will have to work here. Be precise as possible." Bolt instructed the expert once he was settled. "We found what we need but we'll need to rip off some protection before cracking it."

Lilly looked at the markings and then raised her eyebrows. They were telling her to claw at the right wall instead of in front of her. The opening was perpendicular to the hallway then?

Experts could get very precise when they needed to. Dowry's claws were meant to rip into armor. The stone used in this planet was armor-tough, but still quite vulnerable to her mech. The fingers dug into the stone at the markings and she found some very distinct mechanisms after digging a bit.

Once these were exposed, Bolt and the others were able to hook up some generators to the mechanisms and force something to run. Very slowly the seamless wall started to open up like a curtain, revealing a very large and long, unlit corridor. The winding passage felt ominous.

"First step done." Cable said to everyone. "Now setup camp and get out the markers. We're taking no risks."

 

[lost star]

The camp when it was finished was not much. It was a simple fortified area with a few tents and such to keep out the cold. It was mostly a resting area that held their excess supplies and a theoretical fallback if they needed it. The ideal was to keep a few guards there while they ranged out and then return regularly before making further decisions. This would very likely change based on circumstances, but it was the idea. They planned for one to two months. They had supplies for six. The amount they'd brought was excessive, but it gave them extreme leeway and theoretical trade options if they encountered others. (Not likely.) Being pressed for time due to supplies would likely result in mistakes. Mistakes would kill.

"First layer is going to be a big maze." Cable explained to Bolt as the rode along in one of the armored vehicles. "History nerds call it the alien's version of a kill zone."

Kill zone was likely a misnomer really. That implied a place with a lot of weapons setup to funnel enemies. The first layer of the planet below the surface was mostly large tunnels fit for mechs. They were very empty and very dark. They twisted and turned in a dizzying fashion, and contained some rather strange shapes. The disturbing and frequently claustrophobic geometry was tailor made to disrupt human senses. More disturbing was the fact that the stone walls healed from damage over time. Lilly had clawed a few with her mechs and hours later the claw damage was noticeably reduced. It was like they were in something's innards rather than a planet of stone. Traveling through it and exploring it was going to be a nightmare.

They still persisted in their exploration. Rats in the pursuit of cheese could be very persistent. Days passed as they roamed up and down the passages carefully in pairs. People started to hear whispers if they hadn't been nearby Lilly recently. Bolt personally spent the nights with her, so he didn't notice anything aside from a few quiet sounds at the edge of hearing, but the symptoms were rather obvious when they happened. Paranoia and trouble sleeping. There was nothing he could do about that, so he tried his best to contribute in other ways.

His focus became dealing with the enemy force composition. These automatons, or fake mechs as others called them occasionally. These enemies loved to hide in these twisted tunnels, and made exploration something only the mechs could do without risk. So far they weren't a large threat. That could change. They all wanted to be ready.

It was rather fascinating from an academic standpoint. The large stone constructs that defended the place were made of some sort of stone, metal fusion. The alloy was smooth, slightly organic looking, and surprisingly tough. It didn't match mech armor, but the stuff made up for it by being extremely flexible when active. The dead 'snakes' were basically just a tube of stone and hot matter inside them. It didn't need joints or leverage. Just this living stone. How it worked was a large mystery. There wasn't any sort of obvious engine or anything else at first.

Bolt got a clue from the next step up when they encountered them. Spiders. Yes, it was as horrifying as it sounded. The round stone things suspended by eight spindly legs were disturbing enough to encounter, but they spat acid too. They were likely fulfilling a scout and terror role. The acid wasn't potent enough to be immediately dangerous, but it weakened metal and added a chemical identifier that likely marked the mech. Bolt's immediate counter action to handle that was just to create a spray that solved both issues. Loading it into a crude and quickly made missile and having the Cerberus mechs fire it sounded rather funny, but it worked. Yes, they were shooting their own mechs to prevent damage. Yes it was amusing. No you didn't get to do it that often.

Countering them was not the only thing he did. He examined them too, and that was where the clue came in. The living stone only looked homogonous on the first look. It actually had trace circuit like materials wound through the stone that functioned as a power supply and what made the locomotion happen. It was very efficient and hard to identify, but once Bolt did he was able to force the spider legs to move with a generator and a bit of wire work. It was a good first step.

Only a first step though. It didn't solve where the central command node housing the AI equivalent was, or where the power was coming from. It did give them weak points to target. All the spiders and snakes were identical. Cutting or damaging critical points made them inoperable, and having their mechs computers mark those targets made it easy for even the least proficient pilot to deal with.

More days passed as they continued to map the tunnels and deal with the persistent enemies. Cable was fairly sure that there was nothing in the first layer by this point. Had the base been live, they likely would have been bogged down with these stone constructs in the maze of passages. Instead they had long passages of nothing. They needed to get deeper to get into the good stuff. The tricky question was, where were the entrances?

The answer was never, ever bet against the scavenger when there was loot on the line. They were still Rats in the end. Born and raised on a planet where mechs died and battlefields looted. This wasn't the first fortress Bolt's people had looted. Just the largest.

Some of the more ambitious techs were the ones to find the opening that gave them the clue. It was very likely just a flaw in the architecture more than anything else. All it was was a small hole that they could put a drone through. Some of the living stone had melded with one of the walls wrong and given them a twisted path to drop down into the next layer. That had revealed another mech-sized tunnel that was lit up and straight rather than cured and disturbing. That was enough of a clue to mark it as a priority. After that it was just a matter of finding where it joined to the first layer.

This was easier said than done. A few long hours of tracing revealed that there was no obvious entrance. There was only a place where the two tunnels were close. This was considered good enough. It turned out that the creepy wall repairing feature couldn't work if you put a small sheet of metal in the way. With a target destination they could just do some controlled demolition and digging. They ripped open the tunnel and plastered some metal over the 'wounds,' and that was their in.

Time taken to get in? About a week and a half. Not bad theoretically. They'd gotten nothing of value yet, but they'd gotten past the initial security. Lilly was holding up decently, but they did switch her to more resting times. She was the lynchpin for the entire process and if she became exhausted they'd have trouble.

A third defender made themselves apparent as they explored more. Consisting of squat things with two legs and arms, the swiftly dubbed claymen were actual threats in that they were causing damage. At about three quarters the size of their mechs, the claymen had what amounted to machine guns in the place of arms. The shots were relatively anemic, and a zombie could bring them down alone, but that sort of chip damage would be dangerous if it added up. They also came in packs and were completely suicidal in behavior.

The actual arm weapons and stupidity made them useful in a different way though. Lilly was able to bring them down without actually killing them. The spiders and snakes had been too hard to keep alive. This one, she'd just needed to hack off the arms and then Bolt could get into one while it was still alive.

Well, cut into it. Getting through the stone stuff that they were made of required the same saw they used to break open damaged mechs. The things were basically blobs on legs too, so finding vital parts involved cutting out chunks in random areas and hoping you got the right areas. The coordination indicated something like active communication though. Using the hints from the spiders and several more test subjects let him narrow down the vital part to a golden area. Literal gold laced stone.

"This would be a bit valuable in another time." Bolt observed.

"Can't say I like the joking at tha moment." One of the techs he'd roped into to help noted nervously.

That was fair enough. They were standing in the thing's head and it was still trying to wiggle out of the restraints. It was a bit unsteady and if it got free they'd get squished.

"So, based on the others and my guesses, if we cut this, the thing will stop moving. So it's how they do brains in these things. How is it coordinating though?" Bolt mused.

The tech waved a tool in the air. "No radio. Getting the other doodad out." He put away the tool and pulled out another sensor. "This one got nothing either. Light maybe?"

"No receiver visible." Bolt knelt and placed a hand on the gold. Then he frowned and pulled off his glove.

"You touch that without cover yer losing the hand." The tech warned immediately. "Don't like no wind fool ya, it's still subzero."

"Ain't that stupid. Still got my thin glove on see?" Bolt wiggled the hand and pressed it to the gold. "It's not warm... But..."

"Coulda told you it wasn't warm." The tech muttered irritably.

"Yeah, if it were a computer it'd be warm enough to heat my hand, but these things don't generate a lot through their standard action, and distribute it very well." Bolt muttered. "Still, it's like. Hmm. Lilly? Mind poking this with your hand, it feels a bit like your warmth!" He called out.

The expert pilot didn't ask questions. She just got out of her mech and landed next to Bolt, then tapped at it. It was impossible to see her expression through the mask, but they could see her confusion.

"It does have that sorta feel to it. Also kinda pointing, ya know?" Lilly muttered.

"Yeah." Bolt nodded and held his hand to it. "Pointing... That way." He pointed in turn.

Curious, the tech pressed his hand to the thing. "I can't feel a thing." He admitted. "But yer the special ones, and one way's as good as another. Can try to triangulate things if we get another and this feeling is consistent."

That was what they ended up doing. Like the tech had said, one way was as good as another. Having an actual direction gave them a goal more than wandering corridors hoping for a lucky strike.

 

[lost star]

M060

----

Bolt and Lilly's senses had led them to a manufacturing and command area. That was the best description of what they found. A large factory for stone things. It was actually really fascinating to watch from a distance. They could see stone being poured like water into forcefield molds to form an alien replacement mech. It was a cross between metal casting and clay shaping. Actually very interesting, and something Bolt could watch all day.

"We need to disable it." Cable said bluntly as he lowered the binoculars.

"Getting Lilly and and wrecking it shouldn't be an issue." Bolt pointed out as he lowered his own vision aid.

The older man shook his head in an exaggerated fashion so that it was visible through the hood and mask. "No. She's getting worn down. Also, first rule of salvage. Keep the machines active if ya can." He pulled out a communicator. "Send in the rat cars."

Bolt stifled a snort. The rat cars were actually little cars with rats in them. Cheap, disposable, and perfect for triggering traps that targeted movement or things with biological traces. He pulled up his binoculars again.

The manufacturing area was part of a layered fortification designed to withstand a significant amount of damage. It also had a thousand holes in it due to time and the lack of manpower. That was how Bolt and rest had managed to sneak in so close. The designer had to assume that they'd usually have something to handle people, but those were long gone now. All that was left was the standby stuff. In this case a small army of silent and still stone guards on the outside that Lilly had already wrecked.

Watching the rat cars move through the open areas and towards the main manufacturing area was surprisingly tense. They trundled down a few ramps, through a few open areas and then to a door. A little mechanical hand opened the door and then the machine moved inside the largest building.

A few tense seconds later, and the tech manning the car gave an all clear. The next one to head out was an actual tech. Clad in their standard shielding robes, he carefully walked to the building. Then entered it.

Bolt watched from outside as Cable directed everyone. After the initial tension, all he could do was watch more stone things being poured. He wasn't in charge of clearing the building. That job went to the more experienced people, and it was going to take a few hours.

True to his thoughts, it took several hours before he was addressed. "We'll need you to look at things." Cable spoked up. "Can't make heads or tales of the controls."

Bolt nodded and snuck into the building himself. The inside was a mess to put it politely. Ruined and alien decorations littered the floor, and several doors had been forcefully burned open. There were even a few frozen bodies on the ground. Long mummified and utterly unidentifiable. None of them had warm clothes.

"Think the bodies are worth anything?" A tech asked casually.

"No." Bolt responded as he ignored the corpses and moved in. "Maybe something more intact, but this? They likely have mountains of them out there."

"Probably."

Death was nothing new. Once you'd had to clear out a collapsed bunker, you realized the fragility of life. Humans didn't treat themselves well. Why would they treat aliens differently?

Further inside he could see why people were having trouble. There were screen equivalents, but no buttons. Just little green crystal things here and there. Bolt refrained from speculating and examined the place further. The little crystals showed up again and again, placed in storge, on shelves, and elsewhere. They were the only consistent thing. The rest was decorations, mostly. There were a few possible weapons that no one wanted to test.

It was pretty obvious that the crystals were something, but visually they had no indicators as to what. Bolt had his suspicions though, and picking one up with a thin glove let him feel a strange sort of... Well connection was the best way to describe it. Feeling that there was a connection and actually connecting wasn't exactly easy though. That took more than a bit of fumbling mentally. Sort of like groping for a switch in a dark room. You knew it was there, but finding it was a different matter.

"This isn't pleasant." Bolt muttered to the techs as he tried to connect.

"Ain't even feeling anything." One of the other techs muttered as he held one of the crystals.

"Lilly says she feels something similar." Someone else called out. They'd brought her a few, since getting in and out was fairly easy if you avoided what looked to be the automated sensor areas.

Finally finding the 'connection' after all that fumbling was something of a relief really. Mentally Bolt couldn't explain it that well. Getting back to the dark room analogy, it was like he'd finally found the switch. How did you describe that to another person? Fortunately once he connected the rest was actually very intuitive, if admittedly tiring.

"Technical information." Bolt said as he began to categorize things. "Notes about mechs. Notes on enemies." His head was starting to throb a bit. "Shit, I can't do this that long."

"Think you can turn off the manufacturing?" Cable asked the relevant question.

As an answer Bolt moved to the very obvious crystal screens and pressed a finger to one of the chips beneath it. There he connected again. Most of the functions were indecipherable. He'd need to study everything more to get a feel of what was going on. Whatever and however these things stored information, it by passed the language barrier. It didn't give him instant understanding.

Issuing a general shutdown didn't need a lot of work thankfully. It did increase the throb behind his eyes a bit. Bolt rubbed at his mask as the throb slowly abated. He was going to have to take things slowly here.

"Damnit, this is going to take forever." He muttered as he saw the veritable pile of crystals his fellows had looted.

Cable chuckled. "Well, we can get Lilly in now. Just got a report that all the constructs in the area are inert now. Maybe she can help some when she gets the trick. These are small so we can store em just fine as well. This'll be a great place to move everything to once we clear out some things." (Translated, once they cleared out the bodies.)

The next few hours showed why they were veteran salvagers. Everything of value was found and categorized. They found rare materials. They found hiding spots. They even searched the bodies and found a few more crystal things.

Called Jade Slips, they were basically alien data storage. Some careful exploration from Bolt and Lilly found that they could hold a lot of information in a relatively language free form. It would actually have been a good personal diary or something like that if normal people could use them. As it was, Bolt got a headache after a few minutes of use, and Lilly was already being pressed mentally by keeping people 'clean' from the whispers so she couldn't actually review them.

In light of that Bolt changed priorities. Cracking into the enemy data storage would be extremely valuable. Therefore, while people were working on salvaging things, Bolt decided on another project. He'd already seen that a Jade Slip analog could interact with one of the crystal screens. Those were just TV screens made by aliens. In theory, all he needed to do was get one of their portable computers and get something setup to do a similar conversion.

Theory did not turn into practice unfortunately. The tokens required some sort of internal power that only he and Lilly had to read. They also didn't really store things in an easy to transcribe format that a computer could interpret either. It was best described as impressions and images. A person could understand it, but trying to write it out was rather difficult. How would you describe a picture with emotional context added to it? His few experiments gave them absolutely nothing, even with a near replica of what the aliens used.

Bolt did get another idea as he thought about the problem. What he was doing was really just a mental interface. It was very similar to one they already had. The nero-helmets in mechs. Therefore it shouldn't be that difficult to just add another input. He made a small device he called a Slip Reader, and then attached it to the mech's inputs.

Bizarrely, it worked out pretty well with a bare minimum of adjustment. All the pilots needed to do was put the Jade Slips into the provided slot and they could read them effortlessly. This both freed up Bolt and Lilly, and gave them a lot more people to look over the loot they'd gotten.

The designer couldn't say the pilots were happy about becoming glorified librarians, but they did begrudgingly help as requested. Part of that was because they had nothing else to do with the defenses disabled in this area. The other part was because they rather needed the help. There were over a thousand of the blasted things to go through. The pilots couldn't make sense of most of the details, but categorizing them reduced the time Bolt was tied up substantially.

 

[lost star]

"There's a surprising amount of personal memories in the slips." Bolt noted as he looked over the list they'd ended with. Technical information, history, some tutorials on strange things, and so on.

Several days had passed since they'd basically stolen the small fortification. Mostly leisurely. Aside from the whispers tapping at their minds, the place had been quiet. Disabling one of the production facilities had made a hole in the defenses and given them a good place to fortify up to boot. Remodeling the fortress for occupation had been relatively simple. Adding some insulation and heating elements had let everyone relax and recover from the constant tension some. It was still there, just a bit muted. They'd had a small victory.

Cable snorted at the statement. "You ain't done looting like this before. Just be glad we found so little porn." He gestured at the pile.

"I'll defer to your expertise and be sure those are properly labeled. Did we find burial rights?" Bolt asked before flipping through the sparse data they'd digitized.

"Entombed in stone." The older man said. "We found one of the unoccupied buildings, put the bodies in, and then poured concrete over it."

Bolt nodded. Rats were used to death. The policy was, loot, pillage, and then bury the poor saps if you could. Or do what they considered their final rights. Which was actually cremate them a lot of the time. No one wanted angry ghosts, and here the ghosts felt more angry than was normal.

"So, the next step is to find where to go next." Bolt said.

Cable gave a grunt. "Found a map in the mess thankfully. The language barrier hit us there though. Got a few places ta go. Thinking we go to the one the pilots described with two words. Valuable and ascension."

Bolt nodded and rummaged through the Slips until he found the one that had the map in question. Connecting to it was easier than it had been, but was still tension inducing. He had to agree with the interpretation. The name didn't translate. The concepts of valuable ascension did.

"After that?" The young man asked as he set down the slip.

"Depends on how Lilly's holding up." Cable responded.

Bolt winced. She was feeling tired no matter how much she slept at this point. It wasn't a critical exhaustion, but it was becoming noticeable. She'd taken to sleeping in Dowry because it helped keep the pressure away according to her.

"Based on that look we don't got much time left. We'll hit this ascension whatever and bugger out." The old man said with a grunt.

"How's our loot going?" The designer asked.

Cable shook his head and didn't sugar coat his words. "Not the best. We're covering the trip with the loot here. We found raw exotics in the manufacturing area. It's a decent payout, but we'll get gypped when we try to sell them."

Then the ascension thing was their best chance for actual profit. Though even if they found nothing that wasn't that large a problem. Lilly, despite her abilities, was still pretty young and untested as an expert. She lacked endurance. They had no idea how long she could have lasted, so they'd planned for something like this. Breaking even was mostly fine. It was not a failure, which was important. They could spin this fairly easily, especially due to the lack of casualties so far.

Bolt crossed his fingers as they began to travel once more. The ascension area wasn't close, but it wasn't far away either. The twisted paths and changes directions would have made it nearly impossible to find without a map. Now that they had one, the trip was almost pleasant.

Their destination was less so. The place had no room for mechs. The entrance was a locked double doorway hidden in the large halls. Unlike the obviously neglected and upended production facility, this place had been carefully closed up and sealed. This meant potentially valuable, and dangerous.

Fortunately most traps weren't meant to deal with a mech. Dowry might have been a bit slow because Lilly was exhausted, but she could easily rip a door open with her fingers still. The damage the traps did was absolutely negligible to mech grade armor. (It still damaged her, which was more than a little terrifying to imagine on a person.)

The rat cars caught the rest of the traps, of which there were more than a few. It was only when they could send a car all the way in and out that they sent in people to explore. Bolt was almost immediately called in again.

He couldn't even blame them this time. The manufacturing area had been alien but understandable in the end. This place had diagrams on the walls with circles and alien anatomy, things hovering in the air, and far too much glow. It made his head buzz a little bit.

The configuration of a few side rooms was interesting too. Bolt turned to one of them and examined them with a critical eye. They were barren except for a mat. The door locked from the inside.

"You see squiggles on the door right?" Bolt asked.

"Yep." One of the techs took out a magnifying camera and looked them over. "Laced with something. Looks like an exotic. Want us to pull it out?"

"No." The young man muttered and traced the lines. "Look at how they go over the entire room."

"Is it me or are the walls sound insulated too?" Another guy asked before stepping into the room and clapping his hands and listening to the sound. "Huh, I know this configuration! It's one of those fancy sensory deprivation rooms!"

"Then what do the squiggles do?" Bolt stepped in himself and closed the door.

Both him and the tech watched the writing carefully, but noticed no changes. Just as Bolt was about to open the door the tech held up a hand. He waited a moment as the tech breathed in and out through his mask.

"Holy shit, I can't hear the whispers at all." He said.

Bolt felt his eyebrows raise. He then opened the door and gestured to one of the techs. "Get Lilly here! They block the whispers!" He ordered with excitement.

Those words got the expert into one of the rooms before she could even ask what was going on. It was a testament to her exhaustion that she didn't protest much, and once she figured out what the rooms did she immediately flopped down in one of them. They had to provide a few blankets and make sure that the girl didn't suffocate in case it didn't let air through, but a place for her to recover was a godsend.

"We'll see if we can pull out another room whole." One of the techs said and pointed to one on the opposite wall. "If it just needs the little art projects we can cut out the room and test it. I'm sure a lotta people would love having a place insulated like that."

Bolt eyed the walls and the area. "X-ray it and test how the rock breaks first. Then wait until Lilly's recovered. We don't want ta risk destroying it yet. What else is there?"

"Side from the floaty things, there's a big door with some o' those slips next to it." Another man offered.

With a hum the designer moved to that area. There, as described, was a very prominent set of Slips right next to the door entrance. He pressed a thinly gloved hand to the slips and concentrated. The connection was fairly easy. The information was alarming.

"Shit. This place is running out of power." Bolt muttered.

"How long?" Was the immediate question from his fellows. "And what will it impact?" Was the other question.

"Few hours, and not much. I meant this room specifically. It runs off something with a fancy name and it started drawing power on entry." Bolt grumbled. "The floating things are some sort of training tool. Ya touch em and they help with something something sight." The concepts did not translate well at all. "This big thing is where most o' the power goes and it's about ta go out."

With a sigh the designer opened the door and peered in. He then gave a signal for the other techs to stand back. This had to be done quickly.

"I'm going to try to get something out of it. Give me a few!" He called back.

 

[lost star]

The room he ducked into was strange. In their exploration of the planet they'd found plenty of unusual things. This room topped it somehow. On the surface of it, it looked surprisingly normal. It was simply a room that had a slight slope to it. There was series of circles on the floor and a stalactite like structure in the center of it. If you discounted the glow, it would have been a strange curiosity. With the glow, it looked both wonderous and ominous.

Knowing the purpose of the room didn't detract from the aura it had. The aliens had a long word for it. Bolt termed it the 'ascension chamber' in his head. It was considered a 'safe' way to ascend for them in the documentation he'd found. Expensive, hard to power, but safe. The subject sat in the center and they were subjected to challenges of some nature on a spiritual level. The challenge would theoretically advance them, or simply fail if they couldn't advance. According to the aliens it was a cumulation of their study and the pinnacle of their work.

This sort of thing was invaluable. It was also nearly broken and almost out of power. There was enough for one anemic use according to the storage gauges. Putting Lilly in it wouldn't achieve anything, which was his first thought. The power requirements scaled beyond belief. Putting someone else in was iffy. Based on how things seemed to work with these aliens, just him and Lilly had the special sauce to connect, so to speak. Also, he could trust his fellows, but not with this.

If it hadn't been about to break he would have sold it, no question. Even with all the unknowns, this was an invaluable discovery. But he didn't know what fuel it used and couldn't fix it. He barely knew how to activate it. If it was going to be used, it had to be used now. This was very risky. He judged it worth it. The young man stepped forward, seated himself under the stalactite and closed his eyes. Mentally he connected to the device, and activated it. Everything blurred as his consciousness was pulled elsewhere.

"Welcome, welcome, guests and contests ladies and other beings. Welcome one and all to the ascension trials!" A voice immediately spoke. "Here we test the latest and greatest, or the least and worst, who am I to judge?! Oh, wait, I am the judge!"

A literal shadow man stood in front of Bolt now. He stood on a white and non-descript plane. Bolt looked down at his hands and saw nothing but shadow as well. He wasn't sure what he expected, but it wasn't this.

"Joking and kidding aside, we are here to have fun and entertain our audience, not to quibble about nothings!" The shadow man winked to something in the distance somehow. "And what a better way to do so than to have our trial takers make mechs!"

Bolt tried to speak, but found nothing coming out of his mouth. He was just a shadow here. Did he make a mistake here?

"Oh, but they aren't just making mechs! They're making mechs of their dreams! No assembly required. Special sauce included. Unliiiimited budget! Once they're designed, we then make two! And smash them together!!!" The host laughed. "To make things extra fun, they're all going to be piloted based off one of our grand contestant's memories. One expert candidate times two. So assume a spectacular show!"

The designer had so many questions. That wasn't nearly enough of an explanation. Then something hammered into his head and he winced as the rules made themselves apparent.

Two versus two. He'd have two rounds. Once against one opponent. Once against another. He had to design a mech for that. The arena was going to be a flat open arena with four massive pillars large enough to block cover and perch on if the mechs were so inclined.

It was a tricky thing because he needed to make a mech that would work well with a copy of itself. Also, the unlimited bit was a bit of a lie. He was sticking to third rate mechs, which was probably a good thing. If he wanted to try to make a first rate mech he'd make a hash of it.

As far as scenarios went it was intriguing. Especially because he'd pick up something from the mechs he was fighting after the battle. The opponents were 'imitations of blessed,' whatever that meant. He'd be able to determine more once he examined them. Bolt wasn't sure how this was going to help him advance, but he wasn't inclined to abort this. It did feel like a fun challenge that would at least help him develop.

So, he needed a mech that worked well in a duo when duplicated. This was actually very hard thought process. Usually when you made a mech for teamwork, you made a complimentary one. This was making a mech complimentary with itself. Or making it work well alone and just duplicating it. That felt a bit like it was ignoring the spirit of the challenge though.

A few ideas came to him. Some old legends. Ideas about partners. It kept coming back to the problem that these was going to be a mech duplicated, not individual. Bolt hit that stumbling block with each idea and found nothing seemed to fit.

So he discarded that ideal. He went with just making a mech that would work on a line battle. One that'd work with as many as needed.

He had a design he'd been working on consistently. Lilly's second expert mech. One meant to counter the things that would counter her normally, and one that could function where her other one couldn't. Dowry was good, but specialized.

Since this dream world could do anything, he could implement some of it to test it all out. He wouldn't do it all. That mech was supposed to be special. This one couldn't be an expert anyway. No resonating materials to give it the extra boost. This was just going to be a premium mech.

The design began with one wing. Very technically it wasn't a wing. It was a shield set into the back with a few manipulators to make it mobile. This was a poor choice structurally for a variety of reasons. It was actually a horrible choice unless you had specialized materials, or did things differently.

Bolt essentially cannibalized an arm to make it work. The wing draped over one arm and that arm provided the bracing. It wasn't much bracing, but it would make the intent work. This was a mech he was dreaming up. Designing it was surprisingly simple. The parts came together. He didn't need hours worth of simulations. He just needed the concept and it would click together as quick as thought. It was like he had a supercomputer aiding him at all times. The finicky parts were non-existent.

Back to the mech. One shield wing. The wing was custom armor, with special feathers. There'd been one part that Bolt had been working on what felt like forever now. The 'laser sword' from the laser company. The part had never worked. It burned out after less than a second. It provided none of the sword part. It'd been placed in the experimental and unfinished parts of the licenses and left to rot. Bolt had picked it up and been utterly fascinated with it for some strange reason. He finally felt like he could use it now.

He didn't want a sword. He'd just fixated on the part because of the failed dreams associated with it he guessed. Tweaking it every now and again and experimenting had been a relatively cheap process to do in his spare time. He'd spent days just fiddling with the various configurations. The part itself hadn't needed many exotics. It had been easy to sculpt it to look like feathers. He'd just missed something that made them more than cosmetic.

In this dream realm he could get it working. The wing was a shield. The feathers had specialized emitters that created laser feathers. Those feathers would explode on impact, deflecting or incinerating the attacking object. The shield was thin, it was weak, but with the feathers it'd deflect and annihilate attackers.

Here was where the rest of the mech came into play. Physics demanded that each force had an equal and opposite reaction. The feathers exploding didn't necessarily stop the damage completely. They would just change it. They would turn it into part energy and part kinetic force. The mech's frame and wing would have to absorb the kinetic force and redistribute it. His dream design for Lilly was designed to move gracefully. Each hit on this child of that ideal would therefore be absorbed by moving along with it.

In practice it would look like this: An impact would come in, like a sword. The wing would intercept it, there'd be an explosion of light, and the mech would ride that explosion back. Anything kinetic would cause that as it disrupted the containment field. Energy weapons would need another option, and one that he'd try to address for the expert version. Bolt was just happy to be able to get the part working finally.

The weapon was almost an afterthought after all of this. It was a bit of a departure from his normal pattern as well. Bolt was adding two weapons. One was a kinetic shotgun. The other a laser rifle. They would be stored on the back and could be switched rapidly. The shotgun was going to be a pain in the rear to aim and firing it would cause the mech to fly backwards some, but the frame was designed for that. The rifle just needed power and a steady hand, which Bolt could easily implement. One hand was free. The other was meant to brace the shield. It could use the rifle too.

Bolt dubbed the Mech a Guardian Angel.

Design wise, it looked like a mech with a single wing. The aesthetics were white and grey. Behavior wise, it had three modes. One was a shield mode, where it moved it's wing in front of itself to protect itself. The shield would last for one or two big hits before it had to be recharged. While it was doing that, it could switch to a shotgun or the rifle. The rifle would be long range and the shotgun close range. The mech was best described as a rifleman in function. The shotgun was more of a way to get range than a proper deterrent, and the design itself meant that kiting would be the best option.

To be honest, Bolt was so happy he'd finally fixed that damned part he didn't even care if he won or lost!