What's Junk? (The Mech Touch)

[lost star]

Bolt lowered his binoculars and thought over what he'd seen. One part of him loved the fact that he'd gotten to see his mech in action. The carnage and destruction had given him so many ideas. The rest of him was utterly enraged. Some dipstick had sabotaged his mech! They hadn't even done a good job of it! Just a damned explosion in the knee? Not only was it obvious, it was absolutely trivial to repair.

He wanted to message Lilly, but the girl seemed very occupied as she clambered out of her downed mech. That sort of thing had to be done carefully considering the awkward angle it was at from the damage. Actually trying to speak with her at that point would be both suspicious and endanger her. Instead he pulled the camouflage tarp closer over himself and adjusted his mask to be sure the seal was fine. Then he settled down to wait. Right now he was letting the salvage instincts come into play. He wanted to see what they did with everything before he made a decision.

There was an order to things after a battle. First you recovered the pilots. Lilly looked like she was being taken prisoner by the Royal. This wasn't common, nor was it good for the pilots typically. Lilly was a pretty and young girl as well...

Only sense and caution kept Bolt from making a rash decision. He did not have a mech. Lilly was also important. She was not going to be turned into some toy like the more belligerent Royals did. (The ones that sometimes ended up shanked in the middle of the night.)

After the pilots had been recovered, the victors typically tried to pickup what they could. Bolt noted that the Rats that had been piloting the other mechs were completely ignored. The Royals recovered their mech with relative ease and speed, denoting long practice at this sort of thing. That was his opening. He just had to follow them and he'd find out where they were going. They'd have less sensors and alertness than the still active mech and he could find out where they took Lilly.

It took time. The sun was setting by the time they finished and he managed to follow them to their base. It was as expected, a prefab camp right next to the buildings that consisted of the only city on the planet. Sloppily done, with the bare minimum of guards, and set next to one of the larger and more expensive buildings. The noble had likely commandeered the thing for himself, which was actually what they were there for.

The young man pulled back into a small hole just in sight of the area and pulled out his comm. He sent a text to Lilly. 'Saw the fight and end. You need help getting out?'

'I'm in a noble's camp. There's a hundred people here. How could you help?!' The text didn't convey much emotion but it did convey enough.

Bolt's face stretched into a smile as he surveyed the area. 'Pretty easy actually. You in the big building?'

'Top floor, corner room. One entrance, guards outside. Bathroom's fancy with good running water, which is what I'm using to cover me talking, but I can't do it forever.'

The plan came together easily. 'Give me until 3AM and then get to the window.' He sent.

'What sort of-shit gotta go.' The text stopped there.

The young man snorted and got back into his vehicle. His plan was very simple and something only a native could pull off. There was a tactic agreement of more than a few things on the planet. One thing was that Noble camps were great for loot. They were also a great way to get killed too. It led to a rather peculiar situation that he would need to exploit to get this rescue going.

A few hours prep after the sun set he approached that situation. On one side was the noble's camp. It was a sprawling area of pre-fabbed buildings and walls, lit up like it was daylight and patrolled by a few guards armed with rifles and other weapons. On the other side, more than a few Rats lurked in the shadows just far enough away that they weren't in the line of fire or that obvious.

These weren't the educated Wrench Rats or Biter Rats. These were the dregs of a planet that was already filled with dregs. Poor, improvised, desperate. People that could and would shoot or stab for something shiny to feed an addiction or just feed their bodies. They were not particularly good people, and even the most harmless trash scavengers carried a knife and were more than a little ready to surge into violence for some reason or another. They were the true rats of the world, and what people frequently thought of when the visited the planet.

Seeking them out was dangerous even for Bolt as a native, but his size and the obvious equipment he had was enough to make them wary. Bolt had spent his life lifting heavy parts. He was not a small lad, and combined with his furs and mask he looked outright intimidating. It was enough to let him approach without immediate violence, and his obvious native origins let one of to them hear him out.

The one to meet him was an older fellow. Wrinkled, covered in cloth, and smelling of old garbage. His gaze was not friendly, but he carried no weapons, which meant he was willing to talk rather than try to rob.

Bolt didn't lead with pleasantries. "Got some time for some crumbs?" He began simply.

He got narrow eyes and a frown in reply. "What's a Wrench like you doing here leading with that?"

Bolt shrugged and glanced at the lit up min-fort in the distance. "Something in there that I want. Ya know the deal, show me your holes inside and you get the crumbs."

The old man spat to the side before he replied. "Ain't stupid, pay now."

"Some now, some later." The young man held up a ration. "Crumbs, then this." He held up one of the blank comms he had.

That more than anything else got the old man's attention. Comms might have been easy to make for Wrench Rats, but they were still valuable, and frankly a Wrench Rat's comm was doubly so. They tended to be custom made for the local environment and were almost considered a local trade good.

"Throw in another crumb and I'll lead you." The man said after a moment.

"Done." Bolt replied and turned to his vehicle. A second later two ration packs flew through the air towards the Rat, who made them disappear into his dirty clothing in an instant.

He didn't quite trust the man, but Rats were canny and had a decent amount of ingroup loyalty. Not enough to not betray one another for the good cheese, just enough to like insiders more than outsiders. Also Bolt was giving them a really good deal. He wasn't telling them to risk themselves, just show him one way to get in. There were plenty of those.

This made the next step relatively quick and easy to get to his target. He was led into a fissure in the ground that wound halfway around the camp and through a hole that led into a small basement of one of the buildings that was inside the permitter. From there it was a simple matter of climbing a ladder out of the basement and he was past the walls and practically right next to the big building.

Inside wasn't that different from outside really. The prefabbed buildings were generic and unremarkable. The ground had been paved with the bare minimum, and there was dust everywhere. This late, there was absolutely no people out at all, and only the guards at the perimeter were awake.

"Got you in, now pay." The old man practically ordered Bolt before he scurried back the way they came, one comm richer.

Bolt surveyed the area. The guards might have been non-existent in this area, but it was lit up enough that he was sure the ones in the watchtowers could see him if they looked this way. He pulled out his binoculars and flipped though the settings carefully. He then looked up at the big building that Lilly was in.

It took a few minutes to locate the area she was in. Thin walls and a good idea of where she was made it relatively easy. Corner room, third floor. He could actually see her through the window, pacing. He supposed it wasn't surprising that she couldn't sleep. That did make things easier.

These buildings were old things, made up of a specialized brick-lookalike, they were durable and insulated. Frankly they were also the cheapest construction one could do. There was no security features at all on them, and they had a wealth of flaws. This meant that all Bolt needed to do was pull out a hook, some rope, and scale the wall practically in plain sight.

It was more than a little dangerous admittedly. All it would take was one guard looking his way, but Bolt was fairly certain that all of them were looking outside. He made sure to be quick about it though, and was breathing hard as he reached the window.

"Hey." The young man said as he met her eyes through his mask.

The girl said nothing, just met his eyes with genuine shock. Bolt didn't mind. He needed to be a bit careful and not make noise as he pulled out one of his cutting tools and began to carefully cut out the window.

Eventually the silence got a bit much for her. "I dunno what to say." She admitted quietly.

"Don't need ta say anything." The mech designer, and now infiltrator responded. "Now since you're tiny, you should be able to get out through just this." He finished the cut and carefully pushed the parts into the room before dropping down on the rope to give her room.

Lilly made a rude gesture but grabbed on and they both lowered themselves to the ground carefully. Mission almost successful. He just needed to recover the rope to leave less evidence and then he needed to do was guide them to the exit. First though.

"Spare robe and mask." Bolt handed Lilly the items in question. "Get them on. So far as everyone's concerned, your just another Wrench Rat."

The girl nodded quickly and threw the items on. Then Bolt began to guide them to the basement. It was a paltry disguise, but the rats outside the base wouldn't even care, assuming they even saw them as they left. Two Wrench Rats in their robes weren't the most standard thing, but they were frequent enough that it wasn't worth noting.

It was still a horribly tense affair, made doubly so by the fact that a mech started patrolling the area as they left. Bolt was extremely thankful that the robes were made for obscurement as then. It wouldn't fool dedicated watchers, but a casual patrol from the distance? They'd show up as brown blobs not even worth looking at.

Mission successful! Now came the aftermath.

 

[Luker number 5]

Sneaky, sneaky little Rats. Now what's going to happen since you tugged the cats tail?

 

[ThunderBasilisk]

Fantastic chapter as always

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

With every chapter Bolt value grows.

Soon he won't just be the anime mechanic but a genuine second protagonist.

That's when the real shitstorm begins.

 

[lost star]

It took a long moment before they could breathe again. Bolt kept glancing at the crude sensors of his vehicle, expecting the mech to be behind them and gaining. On terrain like this, rocky and devoid of cover, the mech could outpace them. It didn't have to worry about hitting a divot and flipping or something else in the dark.

Lilly probably felt similarly wary based on how she kept looking behind them. Eventually though, they had to concede that they'd managed the impossible and gotten out. Slowly, but wildly the girl began to laugh.

"I can't believe you managed that!" She said between breaths.

Bolt grinned behind his mask. "Got a bit lucky." The noble had been stupid on security. He had counters for more automated stuff, but that would have taken more time to prepare and been more risky.

"No, no, I was thinking I'd have to get a knife and start stabbing. Instead you just walk right into the base and cut me out!" Lilly pulled off her mask. "Stop a moment."

Bolt raised an eyebrow and stopped before turning to her. He was not prepared for her to lunge at him and pull off his mask. He was completely unprepared for the kiss. Or how it basically made him forget about everything for an unknown amount of time.

"Not the best payment, but it will do." Lilly said before reclining on her seat with a very smug look on her face. "Will pay ya more later."

"Er... Yeah looking for-." Bolt started to reply before shaking his head to clear it and starting to drive again. "Fun later. Work now. While you can stay with me for a bit, it's not the best place fer you and your pops will be real mad if he finds your with us."

The noise of disdain Lilly made at that was derisive. "That's if he bothers. He did just sell me to that guy and with the way ya pulled me out like that he likely won't even know where I am. Gonna keep it that way. I'm outta the cages and I ain't going to go back into another one willingly."

There was likely a story there. One that Bolt wasn't inclined to explore at the moment. "Got a few places you can lay low then. If there's one thing we're good at it's finding places to hide. We'll wait it out and you can do what you want to do then." It was the default fallback and usually fixed more than a few issues for Rats.

A crackle interrupted their talk. Bolt turned to look at the radio in the vehicle with alarm. He had not turned it on, or even touched it. He wasn't even sure if the thing had power actually!

"That would not be a positive solution for you." The voice that came over the radio was almost alien. Robotic, filled with static, and utterly devoid of emotion. "Currently, the one you call Wrecker is gathering up forces to assault the place you call central storage."

"What?!" Bolt shouted out. "Why, how? For that matter who are you?! How did you activate that?!" The young man swerved his car by accident before putting in park and grabbing at the radio.

"Irrelevant. Pilot Lilly, would you dispute that your father would do that action?" The robotic voice asked.

Lilly stared at the radio. "If he knew where they were and thought he could, he'd do it in a heartbeat."

"He is currently informing others that Bolt's faction has sabotaged your mech and has reported numerous violations, including a neural helmet alteration. If he discovers your current location and status he will double down on the accusation and most will likely believe him."

The young mech designer paled. "I'm dead." He breathed out.

It didn't matter if he'd never even touched the part that connected the mech to the pilot, nothing had been recorded with the Mech Trade Association. They handed all mech trade. The only reason the junk trade his family did wasn't part of it was because they couldn't register with a place that had no offices on the planet. That meant that everything had to be word of mouth, and an accusation like that was not only ruinous, it was almost blasphemous. It'd make his family free targets, which meant their standard tactic of running wouldn't work because other Rats would gleefully hunt them down.

"Hey, I can smack a few people that say that and I'll make it better!" Lilly tried to reassure him with a flex of her arms.

"That would not help." The voice corrected mercilessly. "Not that it will matter much. Wrecker will be leading his forces to eliminate the area. He's timing it to happen when the local storm cell is in your area to be sure the people cannot escape."

"The nursery is there too. There's bunkers, but if he's brining mechs he'll likely just bury people. It'd be a massacre." Bolt let his head hit the wheel. What could he do?

Still robotic and still cold, the radio continued. "I can have the accusations cleared. I can even grant you the ability to fight back."

Lilly was the one to answer. "But you want something."

"I want something." Was the confirmation. "Not monetary, nor in favors. I want to see potential. Make yourself worth more than a second of my attention. Return to your hovel. Your printers will have access to a series of blueprints I have provided for the purposes of this test. Create a mech for Lilly. She will have to fight Wrecker's crew with that mech. Do not use the other things you call mechs in storage. If you survive, we will speak more."

"And then you'll detail what you want in exchange for this?" Bolt asked after lifting his head from the wheel.

"Then I will decide what will push you more. To clarify my intentions and leave you no doubt I will state them." The voice continued tonelessly. "You are attempting to be a mech designer. Your actions so far have shown that might be possible. So, I will give you a single chance to prove it. Participation now and in the future is voluntary on your part. If you desire to die or fade into irrelevance say so and I will no longer offer further incentive. Understand that I will not be gentle, and you will always be in danger of death."

"Ah yes, feeling very willing right now." The young man muttered to himself before speaking louder. "I'll become the best mech designer you have ever seen then." He promised as firmly as he could.

"Good." The radio cracked on the word and there was a vague sense of satisfaction.

"Hey, what about me?" Lilly asked quickly.

For a moment there was no reply before the radio started up again. "You are a mech pilot with a higher than average level of potential. Your worth is irrelevant to me, but others will consider you invaluable and I will have to account for that. Do not interfere with the development of Bolt Silica and I will turn a blind eye to your actions." There was a brief pause. "Sexual intercourse and children would not be considered interference."

Lilly frowned a moment before giving a nod and ignoring the way that Bolt bounced his head off the wheel. "Ok mysterious voice. I can accept that, so long as you don't lie to me." She said.

"You are too small to me to bother with pretenses." With that the radio stopped and would no longer respond to any inquiries.

"Think they're telling the truth?" Lilly asked after they gave up waiting for more information.

"Easy enough to verify." Bolt shifted the vehicle to drive and decided that it was time to compartmentalize a lot of things. "We'll have to check when we get there and if the printers can print out different parts then it's the truth. That'll still give us a hellish amount of issues. I got what, like maybe a week to make something that you can use to fight your pops? That's when the storm should come in."

"Poppa's group is mostly chaff. I wanna say like two to three dozen people. He'd probably be able to get about half that in a week. Ain't the biggest group. I was most of the muscle." Lily gave her evaluation of their odds. "I could probably do most of it if I still had Ghoul. Only problem is that heavy they got from you and Poppa's."

"The heavy was an artillery mech with back mounted mortars and two arm missile systems." Bolt recalled out loud. "Nasty piece of work. Very slow but good enough to be dangerous."

"Ran it once. You could put anyone in it and it'd be functionally useful, which is more than one could say about a lotta the mechs. Good low skill thing really. Probably why Poppa put Sticks into it." The girl recalled. "Poppa has the nasty one. It's a custom previous gen called the Gorilla with laser in the shoulders and two big weapons on it's fist that really do a lot of damage."

That seemed off somehow. Bolt's eyebrows furrowed as he tried to think of what was tickling his brain and saying it was wrong. The configuration felt bad somehow.

"It's not the best mech, but it's better than anything we have here. Thinking Poppa got it for cheap." Lilly correctly identified what was likely causing his issues.

Bolt nodded at that and focused on the ground in front of them. "Makes sense. But we still have our work cut out for us. Do you have any preferences?"

"When I say I can pilot anything, I mean it. That said we'll need ta think about what would win here." The pilot of the mech to be observed.

"General tactics first and then specifics when I know what parts are available." The designer stated as he tried his best to speed up.

It was not a productive drive thanks to his distraction and worry. Bolt appreciated that Lilly made the effort to try anyway. What had he gotten into?

 

[Emptiness]

That has....potential. I can't rightfully think of who would be watching.

 

[Luker number 5]

Is this one of the Five, That Sandalien or someone else? Looking forward to what gubbins they just got available to make something nice and Shiny.

Edit: Just remembered that Lillys special skill is being able to pilot any mech type. That means each fight can go crazy hard into different tactics and styles.

 

[ThunderBasilisk]

Man I really need to check out this fandom

 

[lost star]

Man I really need to check out this fandom

Click to shrink...

Fair warning, the mech touch is long and goes off the rails over time. At some point you'll likely start hating the mc. Tbh it's actually a good slide into villainry really.

The first parts pretty good, so I'm trying to stay to that more than the latter stuff.

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

Sad they had to abandon the Ghoul, it sounded like it had potential.

Just another sin to lay at this bastard's feet I suppose.

 

[lost star]

Bolt's family was relatively well off for Wrench Rats. Not particularly rich, but above the standard. They had two holdings, though without a central government that meant little. It just meant that they controlled the areas with a mix of force and occupation. One was their shop front, a warehouse and presentation area next to a hill and fairly obvious. That place was disposable but fortified with more than a few traps. Their main home was about an hours drive away.

That place was set into a small mountain. The main way in was through a dug out area and a set of steel doors. A pair of cannons were set into the side walls to dissuade hostile attackers. The defenses were enough to discourage casual raids, but not enough to deal with more than that. The primary form of defense was obscurity, extensive armor, and the fact that if necessary they could cut and run. All of those defenses were useless at the moment because they had a grand total of Lilly as a pilot and nothing that could really fight mechs. It was frustrating to acknowledge.

"Wow, I love the look." Lilly breathed out.

In any other time Bolt would have been proud at that. Here he was just irritated. "Looks ain't gonna help us live." He grunted out before taking a breath. "Sorry, yeah, it's nice."

"You're worried. We can do this." The girl nudged him.

Bolt nodded as they drove through a small entrance in the side for vehicles. The scent of oil and metal greeted him, as well as his parents. Both were sans mask. They were on the older side for Wrench Rats. His mother had red hair and wrinkles. His father brown hair and a beard. They were rather typical of techs, muscled, with some grease on their clothing, but nothing exactly unique about them. You wouldn't be able to tell that they'd basically built this operation from the ground up. They also looked very worried.

"Boy, the printers are showing something strange. You didn't hack something right?" His father began without even a greeting.

"Shit." The young mech designer breathed out. "No time then." He got out of his ride and strode past them. "Lilly? Mind telling them?"

"Huh?!" The girl squeaked.

"I trust her, and she's important. Be nice ok!" Bolt called out to his parents.

"Wait, don't just leave that on me like that! It won't take that much time for you to explain!" Lilly protested as she pulled herself out of her seat.

"Wow, that's a mighty fine endorsement. I knew he was sweet on someone, but the pilot?" Bolt's mother began as she closed in with a sudden menacing grin. "I suppose we have a lot ta talk about honey."

Ignoring the calamity heading Lilly's way wasn't intentional. The young man honestly would not have done it in another circumstance. He literally didn't think he had the time. Fortunately his rushing seemed to convince others that he couldn't be interrupted, so he was able to get to a good room to design in quickly.

Once seated he immediately began to pull up the data. In particular what he now had access to. The list was staggering. Before he'd had the most generic of the generic. If he wanted something special he would have had to design it, and considering his shaky basics that would have been impossible.

Now? Choice paralysis almost kicked in. He could scroll down the list and take hours reviewing all the parts. He could literally spend months actually.

Bolt firmed his spine and ignored most of them. He decided to focus on a central concept. Lilly and he had gone through more than a few scenarios on the trip. With these he could do one of the more extreme ideals. He could make a heavy rifleman or artillery mech. Simple, well armored, and filled with weapons. Overwhelming firepower to solve an overwhelming force coming at them.

The initial sketch was relatively easy. Put together a big heavy. Rifle with good ammo. Missiles on the back. He could also add a laser, and a small sidearm for close range. Armor plating all over, decent reactor and energy cells. In essence something that could simply kill everything. Scrolling through his options revealed a lot of things he could further add.

"It's shit." Lilly's voice interrupted Bolt's flow and the young man looked up from his work. "Compete crap. Looks cold too."

"Still don't know what that means." Bolt said before he blinked. "Ah, sorry for-" He was cut off by Lilly's finger pressing over his lips.

"Ain't happy about siccing your Ma and Pa on me, but we've come to an agreement. We're gonna get married in a year after this." The girl said seriously with a half grin that turned into a full grin at the look on his face at that statement. "And cold means the mech ain't got any style. It's all junk or random parts. There's just a feeling to it. Ghoul was perfect! There's like a presence to it! It was there on one or two you repaired too. I could tell when you put a lot of emotion into it you know?"

Bolt stared at the girl for a more than a moment, honestly just a bit overwhelmed. Eventually Lilly grabbed at his collar and tried to pull him. The size disparity made that bit hard, so she used both hands and heaved, which moved him a little at least.

"What exactly did you eat?! Aren't techs supposed to be little weedy runts?!" The girl demanded mid yank.

Bolt got to his feet with a small chuckle that was strangled slightly as she wrapped her hands around his neck and mimed strangling him. "Urk. You're gonna kill me doing that." He got out before Lilly glared. "You're not the first to ask that. I did haul a lot of parts when I was growing up, and we didn't want for food." If you called ration packs food.

"You got all the luck." Lilly muttered before grinning. "Well, I'm part of it so that works out for me too. But back to mech stuff. Go to bed. Erase that shitty mech you have on the design and sleep on it."

He couldn't do that. "We don't have that much time." He pointed out.

"We don't, but you've been up all night and driving half that. Sleep. Make better decisions in the morning. I'll be patrolling tomorrow with one of those junk mechs you have already to get a lay of the land, but I expect you to get at least some sleep and then you can break out the stims." Lilly practically ordered as she tried to drag Bolt into his bed.

Unable to argue with that, the young man went along with her demands. He got a cot, a pillow, and then some sleeping drugs because he could not trust himself to not stay up in thought. He was out within an hour.

Nine hours later he was up again and in front of his designer. Lilly had somehow managed to wipe his previous design despite the fact she couldn't read and was currently outside so he couldn't shout at her. He couldn't even review the thing to see how bad or good it was!

Grumbling to himself Bolt decided to completely ignore the part catalog he had access to. That was a bad way to design. Vision first, then outline, then fill in the details, and only then would he look through the parts.

So, vision, vision. Bolt would like to live for more than a few days thank you very much. That was not a coherent vision though.

"Shit, I should probably plan to be finished a day early." The young man muttered. "How though?"

"Well I can answer that one." His father commented and Bolt jumped.

"Damnit! Why is everyone interrupting me?!" He demanded.

"Eat son. I was here for a few minutes waiting for you ta notice me." The older man said quietly as he set a small brick of what could be considered food between them. "We're starting to pre-fab a lotta new parts. Some things are pretty universal. Send us yer initial blueprint on day four. Do the finishing touches on day seven. Storm should be here at day eight, so daughter-in-law will have a day ta practice. It'll be tight, but we can make it work."

"That... Yes that will help some." The young man responded after a few minutes of thought.

"Yer not alone. Don't forget that." His father advised and got a grin in reply before Bolt went back to work. He could do this. He had to.

 

[OZT]

Lily ain't drivin' if it ain't got x-factor.

 

[ThunderBasilisk]

LoL meeting the parents speedrun

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

LoL meeting the parents speedrun

Click to shrink...

They'll have a gaggle of kids before season 2.

Hell at this rate they'll have them before the mid-season recap special.

 

[lost star]

Chewing on the block of nutrients was not exactly a pleasant experience. It grounded him. Despite the brave front his parents were presenting, there was a lot of problems in the background. He hoped and prayed that his family would all handle it, but it was not something that he should help with. Instead he needed to design.

Back to the original problem. He could design a heavy. They had the materials and the parts. His only cost limit was on materials, and they had a lot to feed into the printers. Heavies were literally designed to be expensive beasts. It just didn't fit here and he couldn't say why.

After a moment he smacked his head and rooted around for his comms. He called up his... Fiancé now? Bolt compartmentalized that and tried not to think on it. He needed other information. The device rang for a bit and he got no answer. He tried again. Then again. Finally Lilly picked up.

"Gaaah! You know I can't read! Quit flashing at me and do something else!" The girl's shout was accompanied by some loud crashing. "Which button makes you stop!?"

"Remind me to tell you later how to answer the comms." Bolt said dryly before he continued as something occurred to him. "Also remind me to get you a faraday bag. Comms can be trackable by more sophisticated people."

"Bolt? How, oh wait, I forgot that you can use this for talking, haha." Lilly sounded more than a little sheepish as there was more rattling.

"Yes. I'd love to talk more, but we don't have time. I was going to do a heavy, but something says no. Got an idea why?" Bolt got right to the point.

"Hmm. I think so too. Why though?" Lilly hummed in thought and then began to sing a bit before stopping. "Got it! Big stompy big gun boys aren't good alone, especially versus a lot! Also the fist thingies on Poppa's mech are real good against armor. They break the internals more than the surface."

Fist thingies. Bolt got a small chuckle about that. It also confirmed his instinct on not making a heavy was right. He'd probably read about that at one point and not remembered.

That left light and medium. He immediately ruled out light. Light mechs were good in proper areas, but they would not be suited for his needs. Mediums covered a wide range of things, but it gave him a good basis to start off.

Unfortunately that didn't solve his main issue. Were Lilly a full expert he could slap her in junk and she'd wreck twice the number against them. Without that, there were precious few mech types that could handle that many numbers unsupported. Most would require very special circumstances.

Special circumstances. That thought triggered something. The mech designer turned back to the parts catalog he had access too in a direct contradiction to his early decision. He needed to see if this was possible before he continued further.

The largest problem was that their part makers were bottom of the barrel. Actually, that was being generous to the bottom. They were below the bottom. They only functioned through constant repair, grit, and dedication. They lacked the resolution to do more than a few things. Who or whatever had given them the catalog had accounted for that, but it would still stress the printers to the max if Bolt wasn't careful.

His idea had merit though. There was an armor alloy that they could build that had reduced emissions at the cost of, well everything that made it armor. He'd use a layered method with that on top. There was also a mist emitter that was specifically rated to work in the rain.

Stealth devices were out of Bolt's skill and ability, but pseudo stealth? That he was familiar with.

The design came through quickly then. This would not be an assassin so much as a fighter that used stealth to pick good fights. This mech would have to dismantle a lot of different mech types after all. It could not afford to be too specialized.

Larger then. Bulky with more than average armor. This made it on the slower side. But made it feel deliberate. That was the best word. Very technically it would be a swordman. One hand would have a serrated sword meant to stab into an enemy and tear. The other would have a hook. Bolt attached a winch and chain to that one, along with a specialized tip that could engage and disengage upon command. Grab an enemy and pull them in, or just grab a limb to disable it, and then stab.

Some part of him imagined this monstrous man that grabbed people and drowned them. That wasn't feasible with mechs, but the image helped immensely. The form followed the ideal, and the mech took shape.

The largest part and what would make it all work was next addition. Mounted upon it would be a mist emitter. It was a relatively simple device that used water and a small addition to confuse sensors. It wasn't strong, nor advanced. There were plenty of other ECM devices that worked far better or more consistently. It also needed water, and that condensed poorly, which probably made it unpopular. It was perfect for Bolt's needs. Doubly so because it's simplicity and reliance on water made it very efficient.

He placed it on the back and shaped the armor around it so that the mech looked like it was wearing a coat. Added to that were several long tubes that were made to look like tassels. Those tubes could absorb water and use it to refill the generator. Pointless in clear weather, but in the rain? It would make the emitter last as long as the rain did.

Time passed. Bolt designed and filled in things past the general outline. Parts were printed out and put together. He went with a low output generator for this mech. It would keep the heat down very low, and reduce the sensor profile still further. Extra power cells would give it power when it needed. This mech would not win races. It would have power for days and burst when needed.

He made sure to put in boosters this time, and used low profile ones. Theoretically quiet, they'd be good for a quick maneuver out of sight or slight adjustments when needed. They'd lack the power output for long flight, but that wasn't the point.

After four days Bolt realized he hadn't accounted for the sensors. The mech's eyes so to speak. He couldn't go with the standard stuff because it would routinely be using mist to blind enemies. It would be indiscriminate! This stumbling block took hours of scouring his books and parts. Eventually he hit on a layered solution.

Layer one was the eyes (cameras.) He grabbed the ones designed for lowlight vision. They'd reflect in the darkness, but that was fine. They'd work. Then he moved from active to passive sensors. One was shining a flashlight, the other was listening in the dark. There was an interesting one that could be placed around the body he used. Then he added sound and vibration sensors.

All of this required significant programming to work properly. Each sensor came with some proprietary programs that did not play well with one another. Bolt didn't have time to properly work them out, but he did manage to kludge something together that would hopefully not overwhelm Lilly's interface. (He put manual adjusters in just to be safe.)

Five days into it, and with barely any sleep, Bolt stopped the general stuff and just focused on finishing out everything. Barely coherent he added some special bits to the sword, attaching a small capacitor and linking it to the hands so it could be charged. Lilly would be able to cause it to fry something once every few seconds if she wanted to.

Days six and seven would be assembly. The storm was definitely coming in on day eight. Bolt crashed on his cot and let his family do most of the pre-assembly while he caught up some sleep. The job was half done and he needed to be alert around heavy machinery.

Assembly was frantic. Even with the lead time and preparation, their equipment was poor. The blasted winches were on the fritz again, and half the lifts were down, so they had to manually move a lot of parts. Bolt and the rest of the techs ended up stripping down to just pants and a wrapping for the girls while they worked. They lifted, they welded, and they assembled. The entire chassis had to be made water resistant, so that meant more than a few sprayers had to be pulled out.

Morale was oddly high despite that. The new mech came together with clacks and a clicks. Nothing was going right, and yet it was all going right. They had to refit half a dozen armor parts and wires because the printers were shit. The generator ended up needing some additional reinforcement because whomever sold the plans hadn't accounted for the metal they were using.

The damned generic programs still didn't like what Bolt and his family did, so he had to get into the half assembled piece of shit and do some on the fly programming. Yet that didn't stop them. At some point someone starting singing nonsense and everyone all added onto it.

Bolt called them family. They weren't all related really. His mother and father called them cousins, but most of them were there for the love of mechs and the desire for a better life. Those who had none of those things had fled. They were Wrench Rats. The lowest people, sans citizenship, sans money, sans anything resembling worth to those above them. Yet they lived, they breathed, they loved.

At some point even the kids and Lilly joined in to help, though Lilly kept getting distracted, much to several people's amusement. They didn't help much, but it was a team effort. The mech stood up, the mech started, the mech lived. (So to speak.)

The Drowned Man finished just before the end of the seventh day, and he looked spectacular.

 

[Rustic]

Really good enjoyed this

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

Mech Davy Jones is here to remind folks that just because you're on dry land doesn't mean you're safe.

 

[Tsureai]

Does it look like the drowned batman?

 

[Luker number 5]

And we all lift together~

I wonder if the Mysterious Voice will give them the info to make better tools next or if having them use the bad tools is part of the challenge?

 

[lost star]

Lilly did not have much time to practice with The Drowned Man. She had a night and some of the day if she wanted to push it. That was fine though. She'd been well rested beforehand and an all nighter wouldn't hinder her. Unfamiliarity with the mech would though. She was good, not an instant expert!

The Drowned Man was far different than other mechs she'd piloted in a lot of ways. He was noticeably slower than Ghoul all round. He wasn't a long range monster like artillery and rifle mechs. He prowled rather than walked. He stalked. He was also very quiet. Bolt had somehow managed to make a nearly silence mech, which opened up so many options. Everything about him made her want to be silent rather than manic, which was ok. It was actually perfect for this! Lilly didn't want to be happy. She wanted to kill. This mech would help with that. (Honestly, this guy and the girl Bolt had made her were spoiling her. They practically purred when activated.)

Poppa wanted to kill the Wrench Rats and steal their things. She still loved Poppa, but she wasn't going to let him do that sort of thing. She liked Bolt, and she liked his parents. His little sister was cute too! The cousins were a bit annoying, but they'd made her a gym in the short time they'd been there, so she would forgive them and protect them too. It hurt, but that was ok. She was doing what she wanted finally.

This meant she was going to be mean today. As the storm rolled in and the rain began to fall, she roamed out from the mountain towards where Poppa's group was coming in. She wanted a big playground for this, so no dwelling right outside the fortifications. She was going to meet them.

Sensors in general ranged wildly in effectiveness. Lilly didn't know the exact specifics. She went by feel. And her mech had a very unique feel to it.

Most mechs gave the feeling of looking through a camera to her. The better ones had higher resolution. Ghoul had given her a crisp clarity and a decent amount of information aside from the visuals thanks to the good sensors. The Drowned Man's senses were different. It felt almost monochromatic, but wider and more encompassing. She could almost feel the rain coming down on the ground nearby.

"This dial right?" Lilly asked her mech as her body twisted one of the sense dials up.

A shiver ran down her spine as the sonic sensors moved to near max. She felt like she could hear miles now. It was mildly euphoric, so she turned up the other ones. There, at the distance, she could feel the mechs, and knew they were looking for her.

Lilly grinned savagely as she started up the mist generator. Around her visibility began to drop. To the enemy it was like a sudden fog rolled in. It grew thicker and thicker and started to obscure their other sensors as well.

Half of Wrecker's forces were junk frontline mechs. Best described as barely put together heaps of metal, most had visual sensors and the most basic of basics. This meant they were effectively blind. The ones with better sensors could see where they were going and their allies but had visibly dropped significantly.

Wrecker was not an inexperienced pilot or commander though. Once the mist started to actively cause ghosts on his sensors he knew it was enemy action. Normal mist did not cause this sort of interference. Lilly could tell exactly when noticed that and watched patiently as he ordered his people to group up.

It was a sound tactical order. Grouped in a small circle, facing out, they could fire their ranged weapons without worrying about enemy fire. The closer range mechs were in front, and the few with shields were also all ready.

The storm was going to last most of the day and into the night. It would turn the area into a quagmire of mud, mud, and more rocks. It wouldn't hinder the mechs that much, but this information was important for Lilly, because it meant she could let her mech go to low power and just pump out the mist. So long as it was raining, The Drowned Man could do this effectively indefinitely, and his design meant she could be practically right on top a mech before they'd notice her.

Time passed. Seconds turned into minutes. Lilly closed her eyes and waited. Her mech settled. Patiently, quietly they waited together. There was an art to hunting. One that she'd rarely put into practice, even though she knew how. She'd intercepted them midway to their target. Probably thirty minutes of walking at a slow pace. If they sprinted they could likely be there in half that. Their mechs had the fuel for that and far more. Yet every second ticking and waiting would press against that operation timer. They would start to worry at fuel, at why the enemy wasn't moving, at more. Those worries would press at them.

Wrecker knew this. Staying when the enemy wasn't even attacking would just wear at their nerves. Eventually he gave the order to move again.

Lilly opened her eyes. The Drowned Man's eyes gleamed through the mist as she moved again. Silent as death she stepped into the rear of the formation. Her first target wasn't the one in back. It was one to the side, a ramshackle piece of junk piloted by someone very nervous.

Her hook lashed out and hit around the mech's neck. He was pulled into the mist and then fell into the mud. The Drowned Man stepped on his back and stabbed before he could do more than start to scream. Lilly's felt a thrill of triumph but restrained herself from doing more. Softly she stepped back and away.

Such violence was impossible to conceal even with her mist and armor. The enemy mechs lashed out in her general direction with all of their munitions in an attempt to kill her before she got out of sight. Some of it even hit her, but it was all poorly aimed and her mech was not a lightweight. The damage scuffed her paint mostly. The alloy her mech was using wasn't the best for durability, but it was still armor, and layered with better armor as well. Without a heavy direct hit she wasn't going to be hindered at all.

The next victim she didn't even bother to kill. She just hid the hook in the mud at full extension and pulled his leg out from under him. The light junker mech wasn't totaled, but the damage made it functionally useless and perhaps more a hinderance had she just done a kill.

Cowardly by nature, this was enough to cause Wrecker to order a retreat. This was unfortunately bad for her. He still had most of his forces! Lilly couldn't allow that, so she pursued.

It made things harder, but not much. The mist needed time to spread in the rain. The Drowned Man was not fast. Wrecker's crew still had that heavy though, and while it was doing an admirable job of making Lilly wary, it was slow as shit.

More mechs fell, and then the enemy broke into four groups, whether on orders or because their morale had fallen enough that they didn't want to stay in formation. It didn't matter. What did matter was that Wrecker stayed by the heavy and two more intact mechs. Not the best fight, and they were durable enough that she didn't expect a quick fight.

"Oh?" The girl tilted her head and dropped the slasher smile she'd been wearing as she contemplated things. "Almost clever I suppose."

One of the groups was stopping right nearby. It felt like a setup. They hadn't accounted for her senses so she could tell exactly where they were. Assuming they were in contact with one another, when she hit one the other would try to pin her. She had to assume the others had similar orders. This was an actual threat. The Drowned Man was camouflaged, not actually invisible. If they got close enough she was going to be detected and would have to shake them which would likely cause chip damage she could ill afford.

Decisions, decisions. Lilly couldn't wait them out again. They were fleeing despite the new tactics. She did not want them to come back without a storm to back her up.

Ultimately what did she want? She wanted to win. She wanted to be free. She wanted to get married. She wanted this chapter of her life to be over with. She wanted power too.

She was a girl with a lot of wants wasn't she?

"So what do you want Mr Drowned?" Lilly breathed out and then laughed. What sort of question was that? He obviously wanted one thing.

The Drowned Man stepped forward, soft as a cat on a hunt. The mist was so thick at this point that she was not detected until she was close enough to use her hook. At that point it was far too late. The weapon was already in the air and in the back of the heavy. She pulled, and a mortar was pulled with it.

It wasn't actually shoddy construction that allowed that. The back parts for that mech were meant to detach first rather than the entire mech being dragged down. This left the thing with one mortar and two missile launchers, not even accounting for the others.

There was one rifleman and one spearman with her Poppa. Safe, generic, and useful mechs. Their pilots were nothing special based on how they moved and what she remembered of them. A step up from chaff and competent enough to be threatening if she was stupid. Wrecker though? He was a good and bloodied pilot in a mech that wasn't junk. He immediately turned towards her the second he spotted her.

Now the real battle started.

 

[Tsureai]

You do not fear the monsters in the dark. You are the monster

 

[Golgotha]

Oh this is good. Really evocative of the spirit of the mech... this one is "warm" for sure.
Or is it actually as cold as a watery grave?

Watched.

 

[lost star]

With only a week to work Bolt had not put together a perfect mech. He had done his best to take into account what the mech and how the mech was going to fight. One of those factors that his mech was going to get in a direct confrontation. It was going to fight alone without support against multiple enemies. That was inevitable. There was literally no way of avoiding it. So the Drowned Man was built to account for that. He took traits from skirmishers and stealth specialists, but he was ultimately a mech designed to slug it out when he needed to.

That was why he didn't crumble from the missiles flew his way once the heavy faced her. Oh, Lilly did a superb job of avoiding the volley from the heavy, and the mist and the armor's baffling helped a surprising amount too, but there was a limit to how much you could avoid from a mech designed to saturate an area. Damage alerts blared their warnings as Lilly took some actual damage. Yellows mostly, with some greens still. (The girl had to praise Bolt later, the visuals and lack of text were so nice.)

Despite the threat of the heavy reloading, Wrecker's mech was the more dangerous of the pair. Looking like a cross between a boxer and an ape, Gorilla was not a particularly pretty mech. Nor was it a stellar one. It was still probably one of the best mechs owned by a Rat on the planet. The thing moved into a boxer's stance fluidly and smoothly before it stepped forward in a strange shifting stride. Mid move, one of the shoulder mounted laser blasted out and right towards Lilly and The Drowned Man.

Dodging it completely was impossible. The mist and Lilly's piloting merely had it glance off the shoulder of her mech. She felt a line of fire trace across her shoulder bone in sympathetic pain, but it was trivial damage. It did emphasize Gorilla's danger. The mech was designed to bob and weave, using the fists to conceal where the lasers were aiming, and then crushing them with overwhelming force.

Lilly knew the way the thing moved already though, so she felt little threat. Her attention was more on eliminating the adds instead of Gorilla. They moved to flank as Wrecker moved in, and Lilly knew that was death.

Another pilot would probably have worried. Lilly just saw options. The Drowned Man was at his core a swordsman mech. A mech's sword was a deadly and tempered weapon that you had to track at all times, and in the mist that he made it was hard to follow the thing while it moved. The serrated blade shifted through the cloudy fog like a concealed snake and then struck out the second she saw an opening, not at her father, but at the spearman attempting to jab her side. The strike was light, barely scraping the armor around the wrist. Normally it'd be a trivial blow. The sudden lightning and wild shock caused the entire limb to spasm and the mech's spear jerked wildly. Lilly then twisted and threw her hook right through the mech's head in the sudden opening.

This wasn't a kill so much as a sensor removal. Most mechs had multiple sensors, they just put the visual ones in the head. It made it far easier for the mechs to function that way. A good pilot could stay in the fight with damage like this. This wasn't a good one. Lilly pulled the mech off balance and then forced the hook to detach as she threw the staggering mech at the rifleman.

Biter Rats were not good pilots. That had to be said again. Even those that practiced were hindered by a plethora of issues, one of the biggest ones being that the ones without issues left the planet the second they could. This led to the rifleman firing reflexively in her general direction and accidentally killing his teammate.

Wrecker and the heavy didn't care. They'd barely waited to fire upon her once she'd engaged hooked the spearman. The Drowned Man took more fire and Lilly saw the last of her greens turn yellow. Good defenses or no, not many mechs could stand up to stuff like that and she had no more cover.

Engaging further was suboptimal anyway. Lilly faded back into the mist, and the next volley of missiles missed entirely. True to her predictions, the others groups were coming in. The Drowned Man was limping at this point, but Lilly felt confident could win this still.

Actually, how many missiles did that heavy have again? The mortar would require targeting data that it wasn't going to get on her so that was out. Hand carried missile launchers did not have a lot. Lilly had an evil idea once she realized that.

One of the approaching groups was nearby and not nearly as wary as they should have been. One of them fell to the hook stab combo again and Lilly then propped the mech up with some creative maneuvering. When the heavy got nearby, she gave it a sharp jerk with the hook. Inexperienced in piloting, the man immediately unleashed all his missiles again at the hint of movement. Absolutely delighted, Lilly did the same trick again shortly thereafter.

By this point Wrecker's crew had mostly given up. They were fleeing in ones and twos at top speed without a hint of discipline. Only Wrecker's core group was sticking around, and they were obviously running low. Only Wrecker himself was good. The rifleman was hanging back and obviously completely unnerved.

"You know Lilly, I didn't expect you to be such a pain in the ass right when you were about to leave." The communication on the open channel from the mech was enough to make the girl pause and frown. "Don't try to deny it's not you. I raised you brat, and I know how ya pilot. The mech is different, but it ya ain't fooling your poppa."

Lilly wanted to be silent so bad. Some part of her still loved her father though. "Getting some fatherly feelings now?" She asked back.

"Hah, girl, you're wasted here. You're wasted off planet even! You have no idea how much yer worth! I had you all setup for a good life. Ya didn't even need to do much, just go along with it for a bit. Instead you're here, fighting your poppa with some piece of trash for trash mongering con-artist." Wrecker shifted his mech.

"I notice you don't mention selling me." The valuable pilot in question pointed out flatly.

"Princess, that's how the game works. Me getting a few benefits from the relationship ain't a bad thing. Hell, you got the better of the deal ya know? Them Royals would have made you another royal flat out. You'd live better than poppa here." The mech made a gesture into the mist. "Now we're likely both gonna die. Me killed by his darling daughter, and you because you pissed off a Royal."

Lilly just shook her head. "Poppa, had you told me I might o' gone along with it. As is, I think you're full of shit."

"Tch, just like your mother. All her first, no thought for anything else. Remember me telling you how she dropped you into my lap? Complete truth. Look up the records later if you live. Total piece of work worse than anything I've ever seen." Wrecker shifted again and then fired his lasers.

Both of them cored right into The Drowned Man's head and blew the top half of it clear off. The sympathetic pain hurt, but what was worse was the lack of vision. The Drowned Man staggered.

"Neat trick with the mist and all, but it only confuses sensors, doesn't stop them." Wrecker said conversationally as he approached her reeling mech.

The young mech pilot closed her eyes and fumbled for the dials. They were already at max, but she tried to push them up more anyway. Bolt had put more than a few sensors outside the head. None of them were visual, but that didn't matter. She was a good pilot. She could fight blind if she needed to.

"I swear, I never cared about how mechs looked, but damn if indulging you caused me no end of trouble. Did you know that noble fop was so concerned about that last one that I had to sit there and reassure him that we'd pull you out if it?" Wrecker continued to chat. "Ah well, doesn't matter that much. Sticks, quit dithering. Mortar the damned spot. We'll sort it out."

Some part of Lilly knew she could reach more. She could become more. There was a wellspring of power if she just let it come in. The girl rejected that notion entirely. She would advance when and where she chose. She would grasp that power when it was needed for more than a rebellion against her upbringing. If she couldn't win now, as she was, she was unworthy of more.

Right now she just needed to move. The Drowned Man obeyed her commands without question or hesitation and lurched to the side. It was an almost ungainly lurch, but it was a lurch that avoided the mortar. Wrecker made a sound of disgust and clicked off the communicators as he moved forward.

Lilly snorted and stepped in to meet him even as she dodged a half-hearted shot from the rifleman. The sensors were not designed to substitute sight. They were designed to compliment it. Gorilla could only move so many ways though. She knew how he was stepping. She could hear the rain patter off his frame. That was enough.

Wrecker led with would have been a quick boxing jab on another mech. There were two flaws with his weapons. One was the range was poor compared to her serrated sword. The other was that they were on the slower side. That was why it had been built with lasers. The trick was basically jab, shoot, jab shoot in theory. It was why Lilly thought of it as a failed design. Once you knew the trick it didn't work nearly as well.

Poppa had taught her though. He wasn't going to let her counter him like she normally did. He'd stopped sparring with her several years ago, likely for a scenario like this in retrospect. So she let herself go into a mindless flow of dodging as she waited for the trick. He sword darted in and out to keep him from getting ideas and she just waited and backpedaled through the increasingly muddy terrain. She let the hook drop and start to unspool as she did so, trusting the mud to hide it. She had to hope that this would be enough.

Then Gorilla stopped advancing and stepped to the side, away from Lilly and the mud-hidden hook. He'd seen through her trap and instead set one himself. She could hear the thumps as the mortar fired off once more and knew for a fact that the heavy had fired again right at the place she'd been herded to. The Drowned Man shifted into a lunge in desperation, just clearing the blast zone but moving right into the Gorilla's punch. Lilly parried with her sword and activated the electric charge again. Lightning cracked through the air. The sword dented and bent from the impact while the arm sparked and spasmed. (The constant rain had compromised the internals of Gorilla. Normally maintenance would seal those internals against things like this, but the techs Wrecker had were doing the bare minimum.)

Unable to see the damage, Lilly could still hear that side twitch. She triggered the winch and wound in the hook, then whipped it as she moved into the damaged side. The lasers drew harsh lines over her armor and more damage went red. Barely holding on but still moving, The Drowned Man hooked a leg and then pulled. Wrecker went to the ground in a titanic thud and splash.

This did not kill Gorilla. It was already attempting to recover. Lilly hit the booster for the first time in combat, and The Drowned Man shifted forward. She aimed the dented sword down and the serrated edge dug into something with a crunch.

Everything went still. Lilly took a deep gulping breaths as she tried to listen for the others, or a sign of Gorilla moving. There was just raindrops though.

"That was the cockpit." It took Lilly a moment to identify the voice. It was Sticks.

The words made no sense for a long moment. "Oh." The girl observed with a word that was more a breath of air than actual voice. Then she remembered her position. "You two want to fight still?"

Her answer was silence and the sound of both mechs stepping back. The funny part was they would probably win if they pushed. More Rat mentality crippling them.

That was to her benefit today though. "Go." Lilly said flatly.

The retreat was slow. Lilly listed to it, and then the rain for a very long time. Was it worth it? She had to wonder. Did she have to do it this way? She waited for movement. Hoping perhaps vainly that she hadn't actually gotten the cockpit. That her father had managed to escape. It'd be more trouble, but some part of her would feel better. There was nothing but rain.

Carefully she turned The Drowned Man back to the mountain base. It would be a bit of a pain to walk all the way blind, but she could and would. Despite it all she was still a Rat wasn't she? Pain and death were part of that life. It was cheap. She hated that fact, but it was a fact. No one here was worth a damned in the eyes of the galaxy. (Except her, and she hated that more.) That was fine though. She'd seize the good parts with both hands and damn the rest of the galaxy in turn if need be.

 

[Rustic]

Just thinking it would be a nice story if the MC and the mech warrior bring the rest of the rats with them as there support crew instead of leaving them behind.

 

[ThunderBasilisk]

Man this Galaxy sounds like hell

 

[Luker number 5]

Ouch, shame the rain got into the cockpit.

 

[Tsureai]

Reminds me of the end of Chinatown

 

[Evaunit02mark1]

The worst thing, at the end, her father was probably nothing but proud when she pulled off that last move.

 

[lost star]

Bolt did not see the victory. How could he? Watching mech battles required good sensors and more than a few other things that he had no access to. He'd also been asleep, mostly because his family had hidden some sleeping aids in his drink soon after everything had been finished. The young man had spent an entire week and extra on minimal rest and stimulants, so they'd been justifiably concerned about him staying up any longer.

The mech designer woke up two days after the battle, feeling like absolute shit, but well rested. He was alive at least so he had to assume something went right. He got off the cot with a crack of his back and then groaned as he made his way into the common area.

"Really gotta get a room of my own sometime." The young man grumbled.

"After you're married." His mother commented to him, not even looking up from the spreadsheets on her comm. "Welcome back ta the land of the living."

Bolt blinked several times before his brain actually started. "Ah, Lilly won?" He had to assume that since he was, well there.

"Tore up her mech somethin' fierce, and was quiet for a few hours, so we gotta assume something unpleasant happened, but she did. She perked up after we got it fixed and she's having a bit o' fun with it outside now." The woman frowned. "Did ya do something different with it? It feels different than even the shiny mechs."

"It did come together strange, but about the only difference from Ghoul is that The Drowned Man has actual new parts." Bolt flopped onto a chair and grunted. "Blocks?" He poked at the brick masquerading as food on the table.

"Rations are better, but they're fer storage. We might be able to scrounge a meal-fabricator at some point with the salvage. Lotta people are thinking we might finally be able ta do proper repairs now. The salvage from the battle was a big windfall, and with Lilly we have some good protection. Be a big step up for us."

Bolt paused mid bite at the words before continuing. Actual mechs instead of franken-mechs was certainly ambitious. It was also something that most Wrench Rats didn't do. Not only was it hard, the finished products were expensive enough that most of their clients wouldn't bother, and they ended up being a target when the inevitable war rolled around.

"Your Pa has a few ideas. We need to workshop it still, and it'd require some actual starting capital. Tis why I'm playing spreadsheets instead o' wrenching." The woman waved her comm in emphasis before an incoming text made her look at it again. She went pale.

"Is there a problem?" Bolt sputtered with alarm.

"Don't talk with your mouth full." His mother said reflexively before some color came back. "Ok, your mystery voice came through. I'm calling all hands on deck and getting yer girl back in. We got an honest to god MTA rep here and we ain't going to screw this up. Get your good clothing on, no mask, and be polite." She ordered quickly as she got to her feet and began to practically run out.

Only the fact that Bolt was still pretty burned out at the moment kept him from panicking himself. The Mech Trade Association ruled mechs. They had the best tech, the best people, and the best everything. God himself had less power over them than the MTA did. The only thing worse would be the Common Fleet Association visiting, and they'd not even think about visiting the planet unless they wanted to kill everything on it.

So Bolt made sure he was as presentable as he could be. This was not much unfortunately. A shower and clean clothing. It wasn't much, and the representative probably didn't even notice him. He was too occupied looking at a holographic display in front of him.

Polite, professional, and disinterested. That was the sum total of the man. An offworlder with precisely no interest in anything around him.

"Per regulations we will have to take the mechs or the appropriate parts in question in for a full test, but I can already see that you've kept the neural interface standard and not made any alterations." The man explained as his eyes flicked over the screen. "We'll render a full inspection and return everything within a month, pending your decision on the reward for the mech named The Drowned Man."

"We'll have ta think that part over." Bolt's father said with a slightly awkward shuffle. "Yer just need ta figure out what would be best."

"We are open to negotiations, and your cooperation is noted, but your situation does admittedly make it difficult to properly use our standard payments." The man paused as something came in on his screen. "Ah, I even have another variant of the offer. A complete remodeling of both your front facing shop and main storage. We can remodel it, bring everything up to third rate standards, and even grant you both a shield and an option to upgrade to second rate standards with the appropriate merits. Would that work for you?"

The older man paused with visible shock at the offer. The bureaucrat waited patiently in turn, seemingly well aware that the deal was very tempting. Eventually Bolt's father grimaced.

"Lord knows I'd take that deal if I didn't have to worry about theft and being a big juicy target." Bolt's father eventually said. "And leaving, since I'm sure you'd suggest it, has it's own host of problems." After a moment he took a deep breath. "I will have to default on giving it a day to think and discuss with the family. Sorry fer wasting your time and not giving you an immediate response."

"I do have to be on site to supervise the security of the mechs." The MTA man pointed out with a trace of amusement before continuing in a tone every official used when explaining things. "You have a month before you'd actually be wasting my time. I would suggest you do take into account the fact that making a masterwork mech already places a target on your back. While there is no discernable pattern to creating a masterwork, shops that have done so once become quietly famous to those willing to investigate."

"And with those damned Royals making a mess, we're likely going to be noticed no matter what we do." The leader of the family grit out. "We're gonna be lucky ta just get a missile up-" He cut himself off before he started ranting.

"Commenting on local politics is strongly discouraged by the MTA. While the investigation is going, and in the interest of Candidate Lilly, we will be extending a temporary protection to this area and your facility, consider it an additional unsaid payment." The bureaucrat finally looked up from his screen to glance over the area. "Once the investigation is done the protection will be lifted. I believer you understand what that means."

Bolt's father nodded. The MTA representative turned off his display and began to walk away. Everyone kept a very respectful distance and posture as he did so. They didn't let it go for several minutes after he left.

"What the hell?" Bolt asked once it became clear the encounter was over.

"The Drowned Man was apparently something called a masterwork. Don't know exactly what that means, but it means the thing's valuable somehow. They wanna take it off world. Lilly's also going with it for a bit too. Apparently she wasn't properly tested by her pa, so they want ta do those things together." The older man said as he sagged and rubbed at his forehead. "God above give me strength."

"That sounds horrible." Bolt muttered before an alert to his comm made him look at it.

'I believe your most recent guest verifies that I have fulfilled my promise.' The message came from no number, and the boy swallowed as he realized what that meant. 'On a related matter, and to head off future issues, I would be considered a hidden master by the MTA. They have appropriate protocols in place for that should the topic come up. It is considered rather insulting and carries conations if you mention me casually or for personal benefit, so refrain from it unless needed. There are several monitors in place to alert me if my attention is required, but assume you are on your own as they are for rather specific events, not actions that would result in your death.'

"Got it." The young man breathed into the air.

'We shall go over your current status and how to continue your professional development now. Your current circumstances are relatively rare in that you current lack obligations aside from your family and my task. You also have no backing or support aside from your family. The former is good. The latter is potentially lethal. I shall give you hints on how to rectify this through the following series of actions. Suggest your father take the offer for a remodel.'

Immediately the young man turned up. "Pops, our, er." Bolt paused in mild consternation as to what to say. "Our friend is suggesting that we take the remodel."

The man raised an eyebrow before nodding. "Far be it for me to turn that a suggestion like that down." He said quietly. "When the big man suggests it, we'll do it."

Bolt didn't know whether to laugh or be scared at what was happening. He was getting so much, but it was all done at the tune of someone else. Should he be glad for the help, or worried?

'While that remodeling is happening, you will be invited to accompany Lilly. Accept that offer. You will both be brought to an MTA facility in a nearby nation. Then you will both go through some testing. You will done after two days. She will be testing for six months.'

"Six months?" Bolt repeated. "Wasn't that going to take a month?" He winced as he realized the question could be considered rude.

'It and the protection the MTA offers will be lengthened to six due to internal and external political considerations. Use those six months will be to your advantage. You will be there on the MTA's credit and will be given several paltry rewards to ensure compliance. Exploit them to the best of your ability and look for opportunities. Your test is going to be in making advantages for yourself. As a designer you will often have times where you are not in direct danger but will still need to gather resources while being limited in other ways. This is one of them.'

Bolt nodded rapidly, already willing to do whatever was needed. "Er yes." He said after he realized the person on the other end might not be able to see him.

'Projections indicate that this will be one of the less strenuous times for you, but you would still be wise to grab everything you can. In particular you may be able to find designing contests. Use them to evaluate yourself. Victory or defeat is irrelevant. What you do to learn is irrelevant. Only advancement and your development mean anything. Your only goals should be to use what you have access to to secure your family's future and progress as a designer.'

The young man restrained a hiss but nodded again. "I got it. That's still a lotta pressure."

'You are free to resent me for this. It would be very human. It also does not matter. The cold reality of humanity is that there will always be people with interest in you, and as you grow the number will only increase. Deal with them with the tools provided. I will contact you if you do something notable once more, or advance. Otherwise my actions here have used up the sum total of time I have allotted to you.'

With that message Bolt got the impression the conversation was done. He was sweating he realized. He hadn't even been threatened. It had just been that tense.

 

[Golgotha]

The pressure is just going to continue to escalate, isn't it?
Thanks for the chapters!