The Mech Touch

by Stayrr

Humanity has conquered half the galaxy and the Age of Mechs reigns supreme! Ves Larkinson lacked the genetic aptitude to become a famed mech pilot. Fighting against his fate, he studied mech design in order to express his love for mechs as a builder instead of a soldier. When Ves graduated from college, he returned to a new but empty boutique. Left with a small, newly founded mec

6. 106

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The Arkon Mark I was 100 meters of pure craftsmanship. As a mech designer, Ves appreciated mechs the most, but he had a decent eye for ships.

The Arkon model had a sleek, curving shape. Her outer plating gleamed in white. A predatory pattern of sky blue accents broke up the monotony. If Ves had to describe it, it looked like a fish with its tail chopped off. Massive thrusters at the aft allowed the ship to traverse space with speed, while its stubby wings helped balance the ship if it descended onto a planet.

The ship did not come with a name. For now, she merely held a numerical designation. Ves could think up a name for the ship and register it later at any Coalition port at any point.

Compared to the gigantic but sluggish passenger ships and the smaller but 'economic' transports, the Arkon Mark I was built to satisfy the vanity of the rich. The designers of this luxury vessel pretty much picked the most expensive options available.

This meant that the Arkon was faster and more resilient than any other ship of her size. In formal terms, the Arkon was classified as a corvette. These vessels ranged from fifty meters to two-hundred meters. They were built for speed, evasion and sometimes stealth.

Compared to a regular corvette, the Arkon featured extensive automation. Leemar even included a complementary navigator bot, so Ves could theoretically operate the vessel without a single crew member.

"Not that it's a good idea. A man should never rely on bots."

A vessel controlled by bots and programs was highly vulnerable to malicious digital intrusion. Ves intended to hire a human pilot in the future.

The luxurious furnishings made up for the cramped interior. Dietrich's eyes widened at the fully stocked bar and instantly swiped a bottle of liquor. "Do you realize how much I can sell this bottle of Doomsday No. 8? It's worth at least a hundred-and-fifty thousand credits back home!"

While Dietrich slobbered all over the complementary booze, Ves inspected the three decks for any other surprises.

The cargo bay was situated at the lower deck. As advertised, it contained enough space to hold four standard-sized containers. The bay came with an integrated lifting system that allowed for effortless loading and unloading of any cargo. For now, Dietrich's refurbished mech took up much of the space, so Ves had no opportunity to test this system.

Other supplies took up the rest of the space in this deck. For example, Ves bumped into large barrels that stored the ship's water, air and fuel. As the Arkon ran on high-density fuel, the designers put a lot of effort into securing the volatile mixture. The protective shell around the fuel tanks could take a dozen hits from a mech-sized weapon.

A lot of compartments operated out of the middle decks. The all-important engineering compartment regulated both the FTL drive as well as the standard thruster engines. It also regulated the power reactor.

Ves could imagine if pirates boarded his ship and wrested control of engineering, they'd practically be in effective command of the entire corvette.

Besides some boring systems such as the air and water recyclers, the middle decks also came with a fully furnished lab and miniature workshop. Leemar generously furnished both compartments with state-of-the-art devices.

Though Ves lacked the expertise to fully utilize the lab, he handed off the chunk of mineral to the lab's expensive lab bot. While it was fairly stupid compared to a human scientist, it was better than nothing. With the ore in its hands, the bot should be able to find out a couple of things about the ore.

While Ves had nothing to do in the workshop area, he still went over all the supplied gear. The workshop enabled him to do some basic maintenance and repair on mechs. The ship's engineer could also borrow the workshop's tools to keep the Arkon running.

What Ves found particularly surprising was that the workshop came with a mini-sized 3D printer. The model was recent and came with many advanced capabilities.

Unfortunately, due to its scale, Ves couldn't replace his old 3D printer with this state-of-the-art device. The small printer simply couldn't fabricate anything larger than a person, and if Ves wanted to print something advanced, he had to wait a long time.

The mini printer still provided Ves with another tool. If he ever needed to fabricate an advanced component, he could turn to this device instead of seeking outside help.

The bridge of the Arkon was placed at the bow of the middle deck. Ves had no clue how to pilot the ship, so he entrusted the controls to the expert hands of the navigator bot.

The top deck took up less space due to the Arkon's sloping form. The deck mainly offered comfort and accommodation to the passengers and crew.

The smaller cabins held enough space for four. The beds could be expanded into double bunks if Ves ever took in more crew.

The mess hall offered a comfortable place for people to eat their meals. In its standard setting, the dining area looked like an austere cafeteria. Crew members could eat their meals in peace.

When Ves changed the dining area's mode, the normal furnishings receded and the room turned into a classy dining room that could also function as a conference room. The wooden furniture and soft carpets gave the transformed room a sophisticated ambiance that would certainly help in impressing any guests.

The food preparation system was state of the art. The hall also came with an automated food fabricator that prepared any meals programmed in its systems. The food fabricator took in standardized nutrient packs as input and fabricated natural-looking meals such as spaghetti bolognese or instant noodles.

If Ves ever grew tired with fabricated meals, he could hire a cook to man the attached kitchen.

The observation chamber came with a retractable roof that allowed the occupants to gaze at the stars. The chamber also functioned as a leisure room. It came with programmable seating that allowed Ves to summon up sofas or bar stools as he needed. Dietrich currently monopolized the bar set to the side while Lucky cautiously sniffed at fish swimming lazily inside the aquarium set on the other end.

The final two compartments at the bow of the ship turned out to be the ship's best cabins. The staterooms offered enough space for the captain and the owner to take care of some paperwork. One of the extensive secure closets already came with a new set of clothes.

"Are all of these antigrav clothes?!"

The freebie certainly came as a surprise. Though all of the sets looked simple, Ves quickly realized there was more under the surface. All of the sets could be reprogrammed, allowing them to change their shape and color.

Not that Ves thought to play around with this function. To his underdeveloped fashion sense, the clothes were already miles ahead of his old wardrobe. He quickly changed to a set but left the float function for later. The last thing he needed was to bump his head onto the ceiling.

He retrieved another set of antigrav clothes and left it onto the bed of the spare stateroom. He already received more than enough gifts. Dietrich deserved a share as well.

Once he finished his tour, he entered his stateroom. In the privacy of his office, it was time to reactivate the System and retrieve his rewards.

The System inundated him with notifications once he ran the program. Ves quickly glanced through most of them, only bothering to pause at the most important messages.

He held up the mech evaluation report for the Unicorn, his rushed design for the free-for-all.

X-Factor: C

He indeed broke through, though sadly he couldn't replicate the result. His Sword Dancer and Executioner designs only received a middling score of C- by the stingy System. He wasn't too worried. Once he had a taste of a higher boundary, he could still recall the sensations.

After pushing all of the evaluation reports along with the handful of DP the System rewarded, he finally got to the most important messages.

[Congratulations for upgrading your status to Apprentice Mech Designer. You have taken your first step into the path of a supreme. The Mech Designer System will now initiate an upgrade. Please stand by.]

"What are you doing!?"

His comm unit physically changed shape. The thin armband-shaped device started to melt in front of his eyes. For a moment, Ves panicked at the sight. Would his wrist melt off?

He calmed down a few seconds later once he realized his comm did not melt into a hot piece of metal. Instead, it merely broke down into tiny nanomachines of some sort.

It first spread out an ultrathin layer of metal until it engulfed his entire hand. Ves stood uncomfortably still while the metal constantly poked at his skin. After completing whatever it did, the metal receded into an unobtrusive brace. When Ves poked at it with his fingers, he found the comm to be surprisingly pliable and springy.

"Smart metal?"

Whatever its composition, Ves was sure the System massively upgraded his previously average comm unit. He'd dig through the changes later. First, he had to go over the rest of the upgrades.

[Your access to the Store has been expanded. You are now able to exchange more advanced items with Design Points.]

Considering that even the cheapest junk in the Store cost a fortune, Ves was not that eager to throw more DP in this bottomless pit.

[You are now able to purchase copper lottery tickets at the Lottery at the preferential price of 500 Design Points.]

That might be something interesting. Ves remembered he used up three of them at the start. While they gave him nothing, the lottery might hide something useful. The question was if he wanted to test this assumption by throwing away lots of DP.

[The Designer module has unlocked the Superpublish ability. When completing any designs, you are able to Superpublish them. In exchange for forfeiting all your current and future rewards, the Designer will automatically enhance your design by a factor of ten percent. You are only able to Superpublish a design once every standard year.]

This was a massive reward. Ten percent might not sound like much, but every percent mattered with regard to designs. The only snag was that giving up all of that DP certainly hurt a lot. The System obviously did not encourage him to use this ability often, given that the cooldown lasted an entire year.

"I should keep this trump card in reserve. I can learn a lot by watching how the System surpasses my design."

The messages ended at that point. It seemed the System did not intend to lavish Ves in riches for his successful promotion. Ves awkwardly scratched his head. He expected more.

"Well, I still have my new master's gifts."

He received two physical presents from Master Olson. The lab was still busy analyzing the mysterious piece of ore, so Ves turned to the secure suitcase resting on his desk.

As an engineer, he recognized its extraordinary construction. The metal surface had been treated with advanced alloy compression. The material worth of the coffer alone exceeded a million bright credits. To Master Olson, such an amount was chump change.

Unlocking the case took quite a bit of effort. Leemar somehow got a hold of his biometrics, so he had to let the digital lock scan his retina, sample his blood, measure his breath and read a random article aloud.

The lock disengaged after making sure that Ves was not some kind of shape shifting alien. The padded interior only held two distinct items. Ves first picked the item placed on top. He recognized the device as a miniaturized shield generator. A recording of Master Olson's voice popped up from nowhere.

"What you are holding is a life-saving treasure. This shield generator possesses enough power to withstand a single large-caliber railgun projectile. Its development is a closely guarded secret and you should never reveal it to anyone. It possesses its own methods of concealment, but for your own good, you should better keep it out of sight."

Ves thought such devices were exclusive to the upper crust of first-rate states. Perhaps his cognition of high society needed to be revised. Regardless, such a small and amazing shield must have cost his master a lot. He appreciated her generosity.

When Ves turned to the second object, his eyes turned a little weird. After removing the strange foliage, he held a medical injector. The vial inserted in the injector contained a strange, glowing green liquid. The label on the vial only displayed a single code:

M-21 INITIATING ELIXIR

"What you are holding is an even greater secret than the shield generator. This secret is so well-kept that you should extinguish any thoughts of leaking it to the public."

Ves already had a good idea what the mysterious vial contained. Holding it meant he had finally stepped into the upper ranks of society.

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The contents of the vial turned out to be a freshly synthesized gene boost elixir, tailored to his physique. The conspiracy theories were definitely true. Those in power controlled a method of manipulating a person's genes and improve their attributes.

The secret did not affect him as much as others, as he already enjoyed something similar from the candies the System handed out. He patiently listened to Master Olson's recording as she extensively warned him of all the ways he could end up dead if he did anything improper.

"The M-21 is an entry-level gene boost designed to reconstruct your body and pave the way for future injections. The M-series elixirs are particularly suited for scientists and engineers. The first dose has a pronounced effect on your intelligence. Due to their extreme effects, it is recommended that you ingest a premium nutrient pack before you proceed with the injection."

Ves ordered a household bot to retrieve a nutrient pack from Arkon's mess hall. After chewing up the mushy bar of essential nutrients, his belly quickly became bloated. Only starving people ate an entire nutrient pack without processing.

Without further ado, he placed the business end of the injector against his arm and pressed the button.

"Guhgugh!"

The elixir burned through his veins and travelled up his arm before spreading out. The fluid somehow engulfed his entire body in seconds. His flesh and bones shook with excitement as the fluid washed over them simultaneously. His brain received special emphasis as up to thirty percent of the gene boost made their way up.

A few indeterminate minutes went by as Ves collapsed to the floor. While his body suffered through the pangs of rebirth, the empty injector silently disintegrated into dust, which slowly broke down into smaller particles that was swept away by the ship's ventilation.

After Ves finally recovered, half an hour had already gone by. His bloated stomach had turned into an empty pit. He could certainly grab another bite. Eager to see how he progressed, Ves called up his Status.

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 815

Attributes

Strength: 0.8

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.8

Intelligence: 1.3

Creativity: 1

Concentration: 1.7

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly: Apprentice - [3D Printer Proficiency II] [Assembler Proficiency II]

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Novice

[Mathematics: Incompetent

[Mechanics: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging II] [Speed Tuning III]

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression I]

[Metaphysics: Incompetent

[Physics: Novice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization III]

Abilities

[Superpublish: Available. Can be activated once a year.

Evaluation: An apprentice who has taken a step in the true world of mech design.

His status hadn't changed much. Most of his rewards for completing his mission went towards upgrading his privileges. It was as if the System stole all the benefits and left him with a pittance.

Regarding his attributes, the M-21 gene boost certainly made a difference, though it was not as big as he thought. Both his strength, endurance and intelligence received a small 0.1 bump. Ves could imagine that anyone might faint at the sight. As someone who already ate a couple of candies, he merely noted the bump and wondered what it would take to get the next injection.

"Something like this should still be out of reach. The Clifford Society should have more information."

After taking a brief sonic shower, he dressed himself exited his bathroom and walked over to the full-sized mirror next to his closet. The shower's drying program even styled his dark brown hair into a neatly combed look.

The cut of his suit fit him like a glove. These antigrav clothes came with the most perfect measuring systems. It even adjusted to his changed physique without having to lift a finger.

"Wow, that gene boost sure brushed up my appearance." Ves stated admiringly. Even the System didn't offer cosmetic boosts from its Store, at least to his knowledge.

The gene boost's physique enhancement not only strengthened his muscles, but also smoothed out his physical features. His skin lost all of its blemishes and his face appeared more symmetrical. Though he'd never be called handsome, at least he distanced himself from the skinny nerd look.

"Should I grow a beard?"

No matter the era, facial hair always gave men a dignified look if properly groomed. Even if Ves knew little about styling, he could borrow his ship's amazing styling program to groom a sophisticated beard.

"Hm, I'm too young. People will think I'm trying too hard."

He just became an apprentice to one of the Friday Coalition's vaunted masters. Even if Master Olson was one of the youngest among their ranks, she had a bright future ahead of her. His new status had turned into his defining characteristic. Even someone as distinguished as Barakovski fell short.

"I'll be sure to squeeze my status as often as I need."

As a mech designer with ambition, he didn't want to rely on his master's name forever. He had no qualms of borrowing his status to deter anyone who wished him ill.

"Well, let's get this ship underway."

The Arkon came fully stocked with enough fuel, food, water and air to travel across the star sector. Ves summoned a tipsy Dietrich to the bridge.

"Cool bridge man, if a little vulnerable. There's hardly any cover here, so you better pray pirates won't reach this place."

Dietrich had a point. The Arkon had been designed first and foremost for the rich. While the ship incorporated some defenses, the interior prioritized aesthetics. Retractable defenses were only effective up to a point.

"I asked you up here to consult you on a couple of matters. First, you're aware that I've offended a couple of people during the competition, right?"

"Haha, you sure kicked a lot of people's butts!"

"Even though Master Olson took me in, I can't be sure that someone is out to get me. I've instructed my navigator bot to plot a circuitous route back to the Bright Republic. Take a look at the map."

A projection of the entire star sector appeared in view. A bright red line originated from the Leemar System and reached out to a lightly populated system. The route kept hopping between less crowded systems until it reached the border of the Bright Republic.

"We have to make fifty-six stops, but we'll still be back in a month. Unlike passenger ships, our Arkon won't be wasting time travelling to the interior of a star system in order to exchange passengers. Our ship will rest at the edge of each star system and leave when her FTL drive has finished cycling."

A ship could not hop into FTL immediately upon disengaging it. The FTL drive required at least a couple of hours of cleaning, maintenance and inspection. Military-grade drives cycled faster, but required a seasoned engineer to keep watch.

Dietrich stumblingly tried to make sense of the elongated route. "I don't have any complaints, but are we really skipping all of the port systems? We're taking a massive detour here."

"I don't mind if I have to delay my homecoming. What's more important is that my enemies won't be able to predict my schedule."

There were too many star systems in the sector. Ves deliberately included uninhabited systems in his planned route in order to mess up anyone's guesses. With the inclusion of these systems, anyone who wanted to track him down had to devote thousands of ships at each hop. He didn't think anyone would be crazy to divert so many ships for a trivial Apprentice Mech Designer.

"The second thing I'd like your input on is a name for this ship. We won't be visiting any other port system so this is our only chance to register a name."

Ves wanted to gift his Arkon with a dignified name. According to the laws of both the Friday Coalition and the Bright Republic, as long as he didn't come up with something offensive, he could pick any name.

"A ship is like your personal mech. It's part of your identity." Dietrich sagely explained, as if the liquor made him smarter. "The thing is the Arkon is already a beast. You don't have to crack your skull in order to come up with something cool."

After throwing a couple of names back and forth, Ves eventually decided upon the Barracuda. The ship already looked like the fish, so the name fit her like a glove. It also sounded cool enough without trying too hard.

After passing on the name to Leemar's traffic control, Ves quickly received a notification that they've approved the christening. The sides of his ship shimmered for a moment before they displayed the new name in a bold black font over the vessel's bright white surface.

"No wonder the rich like to throw good money after bad on these toys." Dietrich remarked with a hint of envy. "With a ship like this, you'll never worry about the hassle."

The Barracuda's extensive automation was her biggest selling point. Ves was determined to keep this ship in his possession. No matter how much money he had to throw in this money pit, the ship's ease of use allowed him to maintain her without involving too many outsiders.

"She's a good means of escape if anything happens."

In a galaxy full of tension, no planet was safe. Even a quiet and boring state such as the Bright Republic had to face a lot of threats.

The ship ascended into the skies. Ves bid farewell to Leemar-2 as the Barracuda effortlessly escaped the planet's gravity well. The archipelagos claimed by the Leemar Institute of Technology slowly faced underneath the clouds and haze of the planet's atmosphere.

For the next few hours, Ves observed the navigator bot as it efficiently slipped past the crowded traffic near Leemar-2's orbit. It frequently sent automated requests to the system's traffic control and received updates on its assigned routes that led it to the edge of the star system.

As a small and nimble corvette, the Barracuda only required half a day to travel from the inner system to the very edge. Surprisingly, the system's security force approved his departure after only a cursory scan. Their inspectors hadn't even boarded the ship.

"Looks like flaunting my status as an apprentice is quite useful."

The FTL drive transitioned into a different dimension without problem. The Barracuda was on its way. Feeling a bit uncertain, Ves summoned up the diagnostics of the ship. While he couldn't understand the details, the operating system detected no anomalies. His ship wasn't about to explode.

"Now that I've got some free time on my hand, I might as well take a look at the Clifford Society."

Technically, Master Olson was merely a guest professor at Leemar. Despite the short duration of her stay, she made several agreements with Leemar that smoothed over the rights and privileges of her apprentices and disciples.

Thus, when he returned to his stateroom and visited the Society's virtual portal, the room's projection came to life. A vivid world came into existence. Highly advanced projectors and other systems simulated a very realistic environment full of sights, sounds and smells.

Like a god observing his worshippers, Ves stood on a cloud that overlooked a vast and sparsely populated mountain range. A few moments later, another person warped into view.

"Ah, welcome. I was expecting you." The middle-aged man. "Are you enjoying your new ship? We've added a couple of extras once we've learned you've received this prize."

The man wore sophisticated antigrav clothes in a much more elaborate style. Custom jewels adorned his suit jacket in an intricate geometric pattern. An emblem of a fist enclosing a blue rose was pasted onto his chest. Ves recognized it as Master's Olson personal Master Mark, an exclusive symbol assigned by the MTA to mark her designs.

"Are you my senior?"

"That's right. I am Horatio Veclan. I am Carmin's oldest apprentice and one of her personal assistants. I am in charge with keeping track of her subordinates and managing their needs."

Horatio gestured with his hands, throwing his virtual contact details to Ves. "Contact me if you have any questions. You don't want to bother Carmin with a trivial issue. She takes quite a dim view to idiots who waste her time."

Only someone close to Master Olson could have the guts to call her by her first name. Ves decided it didn't hurt to get acquainted with Horatio.

"Can you introduce me to the Clifford Society?"

"Why certainly! That's why I'm here. If you will follow me, we will descend and tour the virtual facilities. There are a lot of hidden gems down there if you know where to look."

Through certain gestures, Ves learned how to descend his virtual body. He followed Horatio downwards. He was looking forward to what this exclusive society of mech designers offered.

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The virtual structures built on top and around the mountains were remarkably diverse. Some were shaped like ancient temples, while others borrowed from the latest architecture.

"Are you wondering why nothing matches? The Society is not in a habit of imposing firm controls. We're not the Konsu Clan after all. Every member above the rank of squire has the right to place a permanent structure in this mountain range. The higher your rank, the larger your personal space."

It turned out that the Clifford Society ranked its members in a simple hierarchy.

The lowest rung consisted of Squires. They formed the largest member group as each year many of the top 500 in the Leemar Open Competition chose to join. They only had basic level access to the Society's resources, but for the designers with shallow backgrounds, it was an oasis in a desert. They had to earn merits through missions in order to pay for more exclusive services.

The next step up were the Knights. Only rarely do Squires get promoted to this rank. Most of the apprentices, disciples and regular middle-ranked mech designers were Knights. They formed quite a substantial influence, and enjoyed more extensive access to the Society's exclusive libraries, Mission Hall and restricted lectures.

As Ves entered the society with this rank, Horatio gave him a better idea on what to expect with this status.

"Don't bother mingling with the Squires unless you want something done. You can assign a mission at the Mission Hall and attach a small reward. I can guarantee you that hundreds of the little buggers will flock to your task."

It appeared Horatio took a very dim view of Squires. Considering the mixed composition of this year's top 500, Ves understood his disdain. Due to the competition's weird format, plenty of unqualified mech designers had slipped through. These lucky bastards probably stagnated later on due to their lack of talent and work ethic.

"It's best to interact with your peers. Every Knight is an exceptional individual who has earned their rank. While you are able to earn merits the boring way through fulfilling missions, it's more convenient to trade for knowledge or assistance with your fellow Knights."

When Horatio guided him to the Mission Hall, Ves knew why he dismissed the Mission Hall. Many of the missions appropriate for Knights lasted for months or years.

They included missions like tutoring a spoiled brat until he successfully graduated with a degree in mech design. Such a mission rewarded the taker with fifty merits if he succeeded after five years.

"Don't underestimate the value of fifty merits. While there's no direct equivalent in cols, Knights like you often treat one merit as one million cols."

This meant that a single merit was worth at least a hundred million bright credits! He could fabricate four Marc Antony mechs with that much money!

"As a Knight, you are entitled to ten merits per standard year. This is merely play money to tide you over. To illustrate the value of a merit, let's take a look at the libraries."

The Society's library complex took over an entire plateau. Several different greco-roman structures offered varying levels of knowledge. The Star Library was meant for Squires and contained books and articles that ranged for novice to apprentice level. A Knight had unrestricted access to every book.

The Moon Library offered deeper knowledge. The books and articles in its catalog were of a higher level than the textbooks that Ves had previously bought from the open market. The vast majority of its books was at the journeyman level, though the highest floor also offered Senior-level books.

Knights like Ves had to exchange merits to gain a virtual copy of a book. He could only receive them onto special secure tablets in order to safeguard the knowledge. These tablets featured an abundance of encryption and other forms of copy protection.

The way they worked was very strange. If Ves wanted to read a book, he had to swallow a special neural capsule tailored to his DNA that temporarily reconfigured his optic nerves to read the nonsensical patterns displayed on the tablet. His brain would automatically interpret the squiggly lines and symbols into legible words.

The Society provided Knights with only twenty neural capsules. This meant that Ves received only twenty attempts to read through an entire textbook. He had to pay more merits if he wanted another batch of neural capsules.

"As you can see Ves, the foundational journeyman-level books only costs one merit for Knights. The more advanced books range from five to fifty merits. As for the senior-level books, don't even think about it until you've accumulated at least a thousand merits."

Even Ves needed to complete a ten-year mission if he wanted to earn a thousand merits. Some missions paid more or lasted shorter, but they also entailed a lot more dangers. Some of those missions placed the takers in the middle of active conflicts!

After leaving the structure, Horatio led Ves to the front of the most magnificent library. "The Sun Library is the holy grail of Leemar's Mech Development Faculty. Every professor of the LIT has donated at least a single book. Over the years, the amount of knowledge it has accumulated is very terrifying, even if most of it is dated."

"Have you ever had the opportunity to read a book from this library?" Ves curiously asked. Horatio looked rather old. He must have worked under Master Olson for many years.

Horatio puffed up his chest. "I completed a critical assignment for Master Olson a couple of years ago. I gained the right to access a single book from the Sun Library. Oh, you can't imagine the brilliance seeped into every page! To experience the essence of their specialties is a marvellous chance!"

"Ahem!" He awkwardly coughed once he realized his emotions got the better of him. He quickly regained his composure as a friendly senior. "The knowledge within this library is extremely dangerous for young mech designers like you. Unless you have gained a lot of experience and tempered your design philosophy to a strong degree, you better not sneak a peek."

Ves nodded in agreement, though he reserved some skepticism. How could something as innocent as books break a mech designer's mind?

They descended down the mountain range and entered one of the cities. Unlike the eclectic mix on the mountain tops, the city looked like a proper medieval castle settlement. Simulated people added a lot of livelihood to the scene, though all of them ignored the Society members as if they didn't exist.

"This is where the Squires can rent a virtual home or storefront. It is not the most harmonic environment, but it is sufficient for most of them if they wish to advertise their services."

Many squires had set up stores or stalls offering wares for merits. They also showed off their capabilities in the hopes of getting hired by someone who has merits to spare.

Looking at these talented mech designers debasing themselves for a couple of merits showed Ves how brutal the world can be. Squires who joined the Clifford Society started at the bottom and had to claw their way upwards. It reminded him of the harsh circumstances that students of the LIT had to go through in order to survive.

"These squires make excellent lackeys if you're short on manpower. The Society binds us all together. The rules are very strict against those who violate any contracts made within its bounds."

They reached the final destination of their tour. Horatio had led Ves onto an upscale bazaar where Knights and those of even higher ranks had set up their own storefronts.

Almost anything could be exchanged with merits. From completed mech designs to wreckage of highly advanced mechs, as long as you had merits, it was yours. Ves widened his eyes when he stopped in front of a store selling fabrication equipment.

"That's a decent 3D printer." Horatio remarked as he eyed the machine. It was a bog-standard printer common in the Coalition. "It's nothing to me, but it should be adequate for your needs."

The hefty price tag of five hundred merits discouraged Ves. There were not many ways in which he could earn so many merits quickly. He reluctantly let go of the shiny toys and followed Horatio as he pointed out the most notable stores.

The tour came at an end when they reached a fountain. Horatio reached inside his pocket and retrieved a merit ticket. He threw it into the fountain without hesitation.

"People say that you can gain some luck if you throw some merits in to the fountain." Horatio smirked at Ves when he looked bewildered at the waste. "You might think that I'm throwing away a virtual object into a virtual fountain for nothing. If you believe the multiverse is fixed and follows a defined set of physical laws, then you might be right."

Ves could guess the point he was making. This might even be a hidden test of sorts.

"I believe we have only skimmed the workings of our reality. There is much we have to learn." He said as he remorselessly tossed a valuable merit ticket into the waters of the fountain. Inwardly, he groaned at the loss. He only had nine merits left.

His guide said nothing and merely watched on. Once the ticket fully submerged, he started to float. "That's it for this little tour. Take care of yourself and work hard to become a Journeyman Mech Designer. Once you have reached this level, you will gain access to the Titanium Garden, which is Carmin's exclusive portal. It's not as lively as the Clifford Society, but it offers exclusive resources that will help you advance."

The Titanium Garden existed both as a virtual portal and as a physical location on Master Olson's home planet. Master Olson owed her rapid rise to the Vermeer Group, but her true allegiance was more complex. She proactively partnered with masters from other groups within the Coalition and maintained a neutral stance in all intra-Coalition turf wars. In essence, she was welcome everywhere.

While Ves could climb the Clifford Society's hierarchy, it remained a way for the Carnegie Group to exert influence on him. It would become messy if he got involved in the complex politics between the two groups.

If he had to make a choice, then he was better off favoring the Vermeer Group. Still, as a foreigner, Ves hoped to stay out of this cesspool and develop his mechs quietly in the Bright Republic.

"For now, try to take advantage of what the Clifford Society has to offer." Horatio advised Ves in a sincere manner. "The resources they offer to lower-ranked mech designers is quite comprehensive. Make sure to develop a solid foundation and develop your specialties one step at a time. While you shouldn't be in a hurry, I expect you to reach journeyman in a decade at most."

Ves didn't have to ask what would happen if he failed to meet that request. As a disgrace to his master, he'd be stripped of his apprenticeship and kicked away like a piece of trash.

"Understood. I'll be sure to work as hard as possible."

"One more thing. If you are stuck in your studies, feel free to contact me if you need some guidance. Do note that my time is also scarce, so you better have some merits on hand."

That left him with a way out if he absolutely got stuck. Ves did not expect to consult Horatio often due to his reliance on the System to advance his skills. Cramming books like a human lost its charm when he could simply spend some DP and gain complete mastery over a new skill.

"Well, I'll probably give this book learning a thing since I'm short on DP."

Once Horatio left, Ves exited the simulated environment as well. He could borrow some books later. First he had to finish the ones he purchased previously.

After going through so many battles at Leemar, Ves felt the need to consolidate his new gains by revisiting some theories he didn't completely understand. It was a good way to pass the time while the Barracuda made her way to the Bright Republic.

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The Barracuda quietly traversed the stars. By visiting out-of-the-way star systems, the Barracuda avoided most of the bustle. This led to a quiet series of hops as the Barracuda kept engaging her FTL drive with just a few hours of downtime.

While Dietrich was steadily sampling the ship's alcohol, Ves consolidated his gains from Leemar. The pressure and the lack of time during the competition caused him to unleash his potential. In his inspired state, he made several risky design choices that gave him a new perspective on design and implementation.

"Even if the System stuffs an entire library of knowledge in my brain, I still have much to learn. I thought I thoroughly mastered journeyman mechanics once I upgraded it through the System, but now I've found out it's just the start."

Books remained useful to him even if he still relied on the System. Different sources of knowledge provided contrasting perspectives. Some shined a light on issues that others neglected. Ves could never read too many books, though in practice he still needed to work for a living.

He sighed when he thought what he might face when he returned home. While the industry insiders from the Coalition only raised an eyebrow to his status, the hicks from the Republic might start treating him like the Vesian king.

No matter what, Ves was certain he could milk his status into increasing his sales. Brand and reputation mattered the most in the mech industry. They also hung on his neck like shackles. Any designs he sold had to meet a minimum standard of excellence. Anything he released that turned out to be lacking would affect not only him but also his master.

He didn't want to wait until the Barracuda arrived at her destination. Ves raised his comm and summoned up his list of contacts.

His finger hovered over Carlos Shaw's name. Compared to the Squires of the Clifford Society who were begging to be hired, Carlos fell awfully short. After a few minutes of consideration, Ves decided he'd rather have someone he trusted over someone who's only in it for the merits.

"My first employee should be someone I can treat as a partner. I'll be far too busy coming up with new designs to bother with managing my future subordinates. With Carlos on hand, he could act as my Horatio by keeping an eye on his expanding business."

Ves had been ambivalent about expanding the scale of his business. Not to mention the cost of equipment, he simply couldn't afford to split his focus.

After his ordeal in Leemar, he gained a different perspective. Every great mech designer needed a mountain of resources in order to advance. Designing and fabricating one mech at a time took too much time and earned only a limited amount of revenue.

If Ves wanted to accelerate his timetable, then he had to let go of his need for absolute control and delegate responsibilities. Though he hadn't started to expand his workshop yet, he wanted to bring in Carlos early.

His finger pressed the name, causing his comm to connect to the galactic net and route his call across the star sector. The Barracuda's quantum entanglement node allowed him to connect successfully to the galactic net without any shenanigans happening due to the ship travelling in FTL mode.

"Ves!" His eyes brightened with hope. "It's good to see you again! I've watched your performance at home. Patricia and you have really made our little Republic famous. The two of you are heroes now!"

"That's great news, but I didn't call you to rest on my laurels."

He briefly explained his future expansion plans to Carlos. Though he warned his friend that it might take a year or two to get the ball rolling, Carlos wouldn't be sitting idle in between.

"That's a great offer!" Carlos replied with emotion. "I can finally say goodbye to my stupid quality control job."

"I'm not hiring you to be a full-time mech designer, so don't get your hopes up yet. For now, I'd like you to polish your assembly and fabrication capabilities. You'll be taking over my machines whenever I receive a routine order."

"Don't worry Ves. After working in quality control, I've learned all the ways the fabrication process could go wrong. I can guarantee you that I won't be sloppy!"

After finishing his talk with Carlos, Ves hung up and called his cousin Melinda.

"Hi Melinda, did I call at a bad time?"

"I'm still on duty, but my boss doesn't mind a short break." Melinda said as she was fiddling with her Planetary Guard uniform. "You're a big deal now back at home."

"I've heard. I called you up because I want to ask you if I'm still under investigation."

One of his mechs had been used to commit atrocities in Bentheim. Last he heard, the Republic's investigators wanted to bring in Ves for a very firm talk.

"All inquiries involving you have stopped." Melinda responded with a smile. "Your impressive achievement gave the investigators a scare. They changed their stance overnight and quietly pulled back their feelers."

The influence of a Master Mech Designer was so dreadful that people proactively bowed out of his way. He didn't even have to say anything for others to accommodate his needs.

"What does the family think?"

"Grandpa is proud of you, as ever. As for the rest, well, we know the importance of mechs, but they think you're still too young to exert any meaningful influence on behalf of the Larkinsons."

Melinda's assessment rang true. Just because he became an apprentice did not mean he wielded a lot of personal influence. Master Olson had her own dignity. She wouldn't direct her attention to the small and weak Republic and start to meddle in their affairs.

After exchanging some small talk, Ves ended the call so Melinda could return to her duties. He made a final call to his broker.

Marcella Bollinger's stocky face stared at Ves with an intriguing expression. "You've made quite a leap. I didn't think you were capable of stealing the show at Leemar."

As a dealer of mechs, Marcella knew far more about mechs than the typical mech pilot. The Ves who designed the Marc Antony could never match up to the geniuses from Leemar. The sudden leap in strength was perplexing.

"I've recently come across a chance. I considerably improved my skills." Ves stated simply, deciding to leave Marcella guessing. "How is the demand for my designs?"

She adopted a greedy grin. "They've been barging at my door for days. While I suspect that much of the enthusiasm will die down over the week, you won't be lacking customers anymore. Your name recognition alone has broken through the roof."

Marcella sent Ves a marketing report that detailed his increased brand value. Even if he only fabricated two physical mechs, the value of his brand far surpassed the small-time mech manufacturers from Bentheim.

In fact, his value came close to matching the brand of a medium-sized mech manufacturer.

"The problem is that while your brand is bigger, your scale is still too small. What are your plans?"

"First, I intend to halt my sales. My Marc Antony variant is too outdated so I intend to update its design. You can expect a substantial improvements in its specs once I'm done."

"That's good. The Marc Antony's main selling point is that it's cheap. For an advanced mech, its performance falls woefully short. If you can close the gap to the most dominant models in the market, then I'm sure you'll attract a steady stream of orders."

Ves nodded in agreement. They both knew that the Marc Antony could never match the currentgen designs that maintained a stranglehold on the market. By increasing his variant's performance, they both hoped that his meteoric rise in fame was sufficient to divert a portion of the customer base.

"I've also revised my pricing and labelling scheme." Ves added as he sent over a single-page document outlining three distinct labels. "Since I'm planning to expand my workshop, I'll be handing off the fabrication to my employees. The mechs they make won't be as solid as my own, but I will make sure they will meet the specifications set by the design."

"This is your silver label, I see. A good choice of name. Silver is traditionally associated with valuable but affordable products. It fits well with your mass-market products. Your clients won't hold unrealistic expectations for your cheapest products."

"The next step up is the gold label. These are the mechs I've fabricated personally. As you know, I don't want to do this too often. Since my brand value has increased, I think a premium of fifty percent compared to the silver label is viable. Do you agree?"

Marcella hummed in thought. "This is a difficult question. I can do some market research for you, but it's better to implement it directly and see how many clients are willing to pay. I can see the appeal, but the price is very close to the maximum acceptable ceiling."

If Ves proved mistaken, they could always adjust the price. Marcella determined the final sale price in any case, so she only treated his suggestions as guidelines.

Her expression turned into a frown when she addressed the third label. "While the market will easily accept previous two labels, this ruby label of yours breaks the mold. Not only will you charge seventy-five percent above the base price, you also set the minimum order amount to four mechs. I don't know if you're aware, but we regularly offer discounts when clients order multiple mechs."

"I know that you're bewildered, but my ruby label is absolutely worth the price. It's an exclusive service meant to meet the needs of squads and close-knit mercenary corps. Just like what I've done for Vincent Ricklin, much of my time is spent on getting to know my clients and customizing my design to fit their profile. It's not worth it to go through all of that effort only to fabricate a single mech. By setting a minimum amount, I can make the most effective use of my time."

Left unspoken was that Ves wanted to develop his X-Factor. In the final round of the Leemar Open Competition, he became struck by how a handful of identical mechs strengthened each other's auras. He wanted to explore this phenomenon and turn it into a commercially viable benefit. If his speculations were true, his ruby label might turn into his biggest treasure.

"I'll put the word out, but don't expect any takers." Marcella replied with a hint of hesitation. "For now, you have to strike while the iron is hot. The market has a short-term memory. Before you fade away completely, you should find some way to solidify your reputation."

"I already plan to revise the Marc Antony. Once I've sold enough gold and silver labelled mechs, I intend to purchase an alloy compressor."

"Those things cost quite a bit of credits. You can get a second-hand one for about three-hundred million credits, but I don't recommend you take this route. Alloy compressors often deal with extreme pressures. They wear out faster than any other machine in a mech workshop."

"This is true, but the profit margin of the Marc Antony is too limited. There are two ways I can increase my earnings. First, I can expand my production scale. The problem with that is that it costs even more to do so. I'd rather take the second option and make a smaller upgrade to my workshop so that I can produce a higher quality mech."

"You want to design and sell a Caesar Augustus variant, right?"

"That's the only choice I have." Ves nodded his head. "I've advanced a lot, so I'm confident that I can tackle this design. I've already prepared the groundwork and have a new design ready in a couple of months."

The profit margin of Marc Antony paled in comparison to the Caesar Augustus. The faster Ves started to incorporate alloy compression in his designs, the faster he'd accumulate enough credits to fund the development of a completely original design.

Marcella looked intrigued. She thought over his words before formulating a response. "You should build a track record first. Once you've proven that you can earn a steady income, you should apply for another loan in order to purchase a brand new alloy compressor."

"What?!" Ves rose up from his seat. "I still have to pay off my existing debt!"

"Your debt ceased to be a burden a long time ago. Tell me, how much effort do you have to make in order to pay off your annual interest payment?"

"I can cover the payment with a couple of sales."

"This means your business is underleveraged. Debt is not a scary monster, Ves. It is a tool that you can use to fund the rapid expansion you have always dreamed about. You don't have to be patient and slowly save up the required amount of credits. You can take a shortcut by maximizing your leverage."

"I own all the shares of my business. If I screw up, all the consequences are born solely by me."

"What's a bankruptcy or two among entrepreneurs? You're still young. And are you so insecure that you lack the confidence to take the next step? I thought you are a genius."

Marcella also had a point. Ves gained a lot of confidence recently. He had high hopes for his future earning potential. If he could successfully sway the bank in giving him a couple of hundred million credits, then he'd be able to accelerate his timetable by at least a year.

"I'll do it. I'll make an appointment with the bank once I return." Ves said with conviction. Even if the bank remained skeptical, Ves was not above using his status to apply some pressure.

As Ves closed the call with Marcella, he thought about what else he should be acquiring. The Caesar Augustus utilized an amazing armor system, one that required more than an alloy compressor in order to fabricate.

"I'll have to procure a chemical treatment machine as well. The armor plates have to be processed by a patented chemical formula first before they undergo compression. Without access to the CTM, I won't be able to insure the chemicals will penetrate the alloys."

Armor compressors could still be bought from the open market. As for the CTM, they were usually in the hands of the big boys. Getting ahold of one required good connections. Fortunately for Ves, the Clifford Society provided him with a channel. He found several stores in the Society's market that sold affordable CTMs.

"I just have to save up fifty merits."

Even as a Knight, Ves had to work for his merits. The most lucrative missions either tied him down for years or sent him straight into a battlefield. He had no stomach for either, so he waited patiently for other opportunities.

Ves learned that the Society's Mission Hall sometimes issued time-sensitive missions. Those who took the missions often had to handle difficult situations. The rewards were ample and the risks were manageable.

"Hopefully I can grab a suitable mission in the coming months."

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Lucky playfully twisted his tail as he followed Ves into the lab. The Barracuda's lab bot finished analyzing Master Olson's present. Depending on the results, he'd either feed it to his cat or reserve it for another purpose.

When the lab bot presented the data, Ves looked intrigued for a moment. Disappointment set in right after. The miniaturized equipment of the lab ultimately lacked the power to break the veil surrounding the ore. The lab bot ineptness also couldn't be helped.

"I know its size, mass, hardness, and other basic attributes. As for its composition, I still have no clue."

Unless Ves entrusted the ore to a materials science institute, he could get nothing else out of this piece of rock. It wasn't worth the hassle.

He turned his attention to Lucky, who sat next to Ves looking pleadingly at him. The cat even stretched his paws in a grabbing manner, as if it was a starving kitten.

"Are you sure this thing won't poison you or something?"

"Meow!"

"Then have at it!"

He nonchalantly threw the ore onto the floor. The chunk rolled a short distance before stopping. The gem cat pounced on the rock without mercy. Lucky gnawed at its surface with his alloy teeth, which surprisingly bounced off. The cat appeared indignant and employed his energy claws to break up the rock.

The claws only managed to scratch tiny chunks out of the rock. The resilience of Master Olson's ore was something else. Lucky's most powerful weapon easily sliced through exoskeleton armor had to admit defeat.

Lucky eagerly gobbled up the tiny chunks before beginning to slice again. Ves could tell his cat could take a while to digest the entire rock, so he left his cat to enjoy his buffet in peace and went back to work.

During the Barracuda's uneventful journey across the border of the Friday Coalition, the ship encountered nothing unusual. Perhaps no one had pursued them, or perhaps their strategy of travelling through uninhabited systems worked. The Barracuda successfully evaded pursuit, if there was any in the first place.

Everyone relaxed after a few days. Dietrich finally had his fill of the bar and slowly explored the rest of the ship. Lucky kept slicing his new toy, swallowing piece after piece.

As for Ves, he started to work on improving his mathematics. He recognized that his poor math dragged his designs down. It might not have manifested during the competition due to its incredibly short time limits. When it came to regular designs, a good foundation in math could absolutely increase its optimization.

The key use of math was to create and adjust complicated models that could test out different design choices. For example, if he wanted to make a mech run faster, he could shave off armor from different spots. If he wanted to minimize the impact on the mech, he should lighten the area which would be least affected by the change.

How could he determine such a thing on his own? Up until now, he always used his judgement and intuition. For example, the chest was usually the most heavily protected portion of a mech. If he shaved off half a layer, it might not impact the mech a lot. In truth, he was merely guessing. He might think he only diminished the armor's effectiveness by five percent, when in reality it was ten percent.

Ves risked introducing a fatal flaw in his design if he was not aware of this discrepancy. The only way to make sure was to construct a mathematical model simulating the armor's performance. While the Mech Designer System came with a large amount of ready-made models, Ves ultimately didn't understand the essence of most of the math behind their complicated programming.

Using a model was like using a firearm. He only had to pull the trigger if he was content to shoot at someone. If he wanted to modify the firearm and achieve more penetration or a higher firing rate, then he had to thoroughly know the ins and outs.

Instead of using the System to forcefully upgrade his Mathematics skill, Ves tried to do the hard work himself. His mathematics remained at an incompetent level which was quite disgraceful. While it only took 500 DP to upgrade it to novice, Ves did not wish to waste the valuable points.

As his intelligence received a minor boost, Ves did not encounter too many roadblocks during his cramming sessions. He borrowed quite a few low-level textbooks from the Clifford Society's Star Library.

These bottom-level books were so worthless that the Society didn't bother with any elaborate security restrictions. As a Knight, Ves could directly study the content of the books inside the premises of the virtual library.

Ves made for a remarkable sight. A Knight not only stayed at the Star Library, but he was solving problems that others have mastered in their sleep. The Squires and Knights who visited the library couldn't help but pause at the sight of a solemn Knight cracking his head over basic college-level math.

"Haven't these people seen enough?" He complained inwardly as his cheeks grew hot.

He wanted to find a hole to burrow into. While the library offered to rent private rooms, Ves had to pay a merit in order to reserve one for a month. Considering his stingy nature, he refused to waste his valuable merits again. He already regretted tossing a merit into the virtual fountain.

Despite the embarrassment, Ves quickly learned to tune out the distractions and focus on his studies. His progress picked up and he quickly devoured every book he borrowed. In truth, Ves was capable of advancing his math long ago as he utilized a lot of elements already in his other skills.

His increased intelligence helped him in grasping new concepts. The content wasn't especially challenging, but there were hardly any shortcuts in improving his math. He had to study and master different kinds of math. His laser-focused concentration allowed him to persevere far longer than all but the most dedicated math fanatics.

All of that hard work eventually paid off. It took merely five days to raise his Mathematics skill from Incompetent to Novice, and another two weeks to raise it from Novice to Apprentice. Ves saved 1500 DP which he could use to buy something shiny. He studied his Status and confirmed that the System acknowledged his efforts.

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 1223

Attributes

Strength: 0.8

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.8

Intelligence: 1.3

Creativity: 1

Concentration: 1.7

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly: Apprentice - [3D Printer Proficiency II] [Assembler Proficiency II]

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Novice

[Mathematics: Apprentice

[Mechanics: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging II] [Speed Tuning III]

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression I]

[Metaphysics: Incompetent

[Physics: Novice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization III]

Abilities

[Superpublish: Available. Can be activated once a year.

Evaluation: An apprentice who has taken a step in the true world of mech design.

He also took note of his DP. His public efforts and Marcella's promotion caused his virtual mechs sales to spike up for a short time. Due to their low specs and primitive design, his sales hadn't reached a significant height, but the boost was welcome.

"If I have 2000 DP, I can upgrade my Mathematics skill to Journeyman. Once I reach that point, my overall ability to optimize my design will achieve a comprehensive transformation."

With a solid foundation in math, he wouldn't get lost when he used the System's more advanced mathematical models. With these tools in hand, his ability to correct hidden flaws in his design improved to a point where he could even be of assistance to more senior mech designers.

"Too bad it will take months for me to raise my skill level to journeyman. I also have to pay a lot of merits to borrow a decent book."

The value of a merit outweighed the value of DP. The former had to be earned through lots of effort or risk. The latter could be earned casually if he pumped out a couple of new designs.

"Hey System, if I update an existing design, will I earn any DP from its creation?"

[Any design that is similar to an existing design by the user will not reward any Design Points upon creation. This includes the act of improving an existing design. This limitation does not affect the Design Points granted through selling a design.]

The System's caustic words shut down the easiest way for Ves to earn a large amount of DP. Sure, he could update his designs in order to improve his running sales, but what was the point? Modelling his designs took a lot of time. He might as well design something new.

He made an exception for his Marc Antony design. As the only product of his workshop, Ves needed to make it as attractive as possible in order to lure over customers. When Ves last designed the Marc Antony, none of his skills reached journeyman. It could desperately use a tune-up.

"Still, it's a waste if I work on it now. I still need to bump my Mathematics to Journeyman-level and Physics to Apprentice-level."

That was the absolute minimum Ves had set. The Mark II version of his first commercial design should be a competitive product. If his improved Marc Antony still fell too far behind, he'd be making a mockery out of his status as an Apprentice Mech Designer.

"I can't be as sloppy as those amateurs who are stuck at the Novice level."

With no solution in sight, Ves put the problem aside. He revisited the Star Library and started working on improving both his Physics and Electrical Engineering skills. By now, most of the Society members had gotten used to his cramming sessions.

Meanwhile, the Barracuda discretely made her way across the Komodo Star Sector. Past the central territories of the second-rate states, the amount of traffic vastly decreased. Most ships ignored this region due to the lack of wealth, development and exotic resources.

Occasionally, the spaceship detected light activity in the inner system. They usually turned out to be scouts or small-time mining outfits. No one bothered to station a significant force in these empty systems, so the Barracuda ignored the paltry presences.

As they were crossing the territory of yet another trivial third-rate state, the ship suddenly detected unusual activity. When Dietrich investigated the issue, he deemed it serious enough to interrupt Ves.

Irritated at being pulled away from his studies, Ves followed Dietrich to the bridge. "So what's the alarm?"

"The sensors detected the remains of a raid. Some secret base got invaded and destroyed." Dietrich explained as he summoned a projection compiled by the Barracuda's long ranged sensors. "Whoever attacked the base succeeded in wiping out the opposition. They obviously salvaged the fallen mechs, but they didn't take everything."

The ship detected signs of the battle on a mundane rocky planet. The boring planet was as dry as a bag of salt. It lacked both water and an atmosphere. Two tiny moons orbited around the planet at a fair distance.

Ves studied the exterior scans of this fallen base or outpost. It did not bear any insignia, which was usually mandated by galactic laws. This meant that the base was an illegal operation. Who built this base? Was it pirates? Shady mercenary gangs? An intelligence agency?

Ves failed to puzzle out the clues. As for his companion, he had a much better eye for battlefields.

"Both the attackers and the defenders tried to erase all of their marks. I can't be sure of my guesses." Dietrich stated upfront. "My instincts tell me this is a fight between two corporations."

That certainly came as a surprise. Any corporation usually preferred to avoid getting their hands dirty.

"Oh, I don't mean to say that their security departments went into action directly. This is likely the case of one corporation employing shady mercenaries attacking a hidden base protected by other mercenaries. The traces on the battlefield are a bit too varied on both sides. They both employed individualized mechs with their own unique loadouts."

Though not an ironclad rule, corporations and the military usually employed a uniform force of mechs with no more than a handful of different types. Excessive individuality increased the amount of maintenance and complexity an organization had to deal with. Only a sloppy organization went into battle with dozens of different models.

"Do you have any indication on what this base was up to? This star system is quite desolate. There shouldn't be any exotics here. What company wanted to build a base so far out in the middle of nowhere?"

"Why not find out?" Dietrich grinned and cracked his neck. "I've been dying to make myself useful. Let's get close and explore the site. The battle should have ended at least a month ago, or else there wouldn't be so much erosion. It should be completely deserted."

Should they explore the fallen base? The notion excited him. What kind of treasures could he find from these abandoned ruins? Certainly, the attackers must have salvaged anything valuable, but if they were merely mercenaries, then they might have only reached out to the obvious. Depending on the purpose of the base, it might hold lots of specialized equipment that mech pilots might casually dismiss.

If the base turned out to be some kind of mech research facility, then he might even stumble upon an alloy compressor or a chemical treatment machine.

Greed almost overtook him before a note of caution doused his enthusiasm. Just because the invaders had left didn't mean the risks were gone. Who knows if the aggressors left behind a guard.

What Ves worried about the most is if either party came running with a quick-response ship if he tripped an alarm.

Was he contemplating adventure or disaster? Could he afford to take this risk when home was just a few leaps away?

"Let's do it. Navigator bot, please approach the designated planet carefully but maintain a low profile."

Dietrich already rubbed his hands. He loved treasure hunts like this. As for Ves, the only reason why he dared to approach the base was because he thought it was unlikely anyone had left a ship behind. What was the harm in taking a look?

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The star system was as quiet as a haunted house. Nothing popped up from the gas giants, asteroid fields and the other junk that orbited quietly through space. Besides the fallen base, the Barracuda detected no other signs of human habitation. Even if no threats had popped up, the ship still travelled cautiously, keeping its defenses on standby.

"The name of the game is caution." Ves explained to Dietrich as he tweaked the Harrier mech with the tools the Barracuda had in stock. "I don't want to step into a trap. I'd rather retreat and miss out on an opportunity than go in recklessly and gamble our lives."

Dietrich checked his own gear. While the Barracuda lacked an armory, the pilot brought his own gear. His main job was to pilot the Harrier, so he prepared to loan his spare pistol to Ves.

The light ballistic pistol fired smart projectiles that automatically changed their profile depending on what they encountered.

In the case of encountering armor, the bullet entered penetration mode, allowing it to punch through obstacles.

When facing flesh, the bullet entered fragmentation mode, which ensured unarmored targets suffered massive damage.

While the pistol was adaptable, its magazines only carried fifteen rounds. Dietrich customized the pistol and its bullets for accuracy. Due to his excellent marksmanship, he disabled the automatic tracking system that helped shooters aim on target. Before handing over the pistol, he reactivated the system so an amateur like Ves could actually hit something.

The Barracuda finally entered the barren planet's orbit after a day of travel. After a round of focused scanning, the ship found no imminent threats.

Though risky, Ves decided to let the Barracuda descend a kilometer away from the base. The ship smoothly sank into the ultrathin atmosphere of the planet and used her powerful thrusters and antigrav modules to moderate her descent. A ship as light as a corvette had no trouble entering or exiting the gravity well of an average planet.

Once the Barracuda extended her landing struts and landed on a somewhat level surface, the ship extended her powerful short-ranged sensors. A small hatch opened up and released a couple of tiny observation bots that spread out in a widening circle.

Ves stood on the bridge and studied the data gathered by the ship's extensive scanning. The topography of the map filled out in even greater detail. The map even showed what was buried underneath.

"There's no traces of traps nearby. It's safe to step out."

The Harrier stepped out of the Barracuda's cargo bay and engaged its flight module. The mech carefully lifted up in the air and patrolled the surroundings in a vigilant stance. Its ballistic rifle pointed at various rocks and other suspicious terrain features.

After ten minutes of elaborate scanning, a handful of observation bots finally approached the base. From its makeup, the scarred and ruined structure built along a cliff only served as the entrance to an underground complex. The bots carefully scanned the exterior before plunging into the gaping maw of the base.

In the meantime, both Ves and the Harrier approached the entrance of the base. Ves rode a small floating platform to the site with a curious Lucky clinging atop his shoulder. Bringing in anything else risked getting traced or hacked.

He already broke convention by employing observation bots. Ves prepared a crude standalone receiver that could interpret the data transmitted by the bots without exposing any other system. While it was not a foolproof method, it should delay any lingering defense mechanisms left behind.

The observation bots took their sweet time in mapping out the underground corridors. A lot of miscellaneous debris was strewn about. Many armored doors had been forced open. None of the scans detected any bodies or equipment. Only traces remained that told a story of a desperate defense.

Dietrich grew grim as he read the data from his cockpit. "The defenders went down fighting. If they are mercenaries, then they shouldn't have fought to the last man. This is strange."

"Perhaps you guessed wrong. The defenders might have disguised themselves as mercenaries."

"It could be that the people who hired these mercs compelled them to fight. It's not unusual for a shady corporation to keep their families as hostages."

Whatever the truth, the only way to find out was to step inside. Ves recalled the observation bots and sent them back to the ship. The Barracuda automatically corralled them into patrols. With their escape route secured, a mech and a suited human stepped inside the darkness.

The Harrier activated its powerful searchlights, illuminating the immediate area. Ves held a pistol in one hand and a hand-sized multiscanner in the other. The little device worked hard to make sense out of the cleaned-up battle site.

"My scanner estimates that up to seventy-five to ninety mechs exchanged fire from the traces left by the battle."

"The attackers came with the strength of an entire mech regiment. That's about fifty to sixty mechs. The defenders should have an equivalent strength. If they were caught with their pants down, then only those on shift were ready to respond."

As the pair entered the tunnel, they reached a broken elevator shaft. With the Harrier's flight system and Ves' floating platform, they cautiously descended to the floor below. Outside the wide, mech-sized corridors, they encountered several gaping caverns.

Even without the scanner, Ves could tell the space functioned as a warehouse. "The spaces are divided into two sections. My guess is that incoming goods are stored in the left cavern while the finished products are stored in the right cavern."

"Too bad that everything's gone. The raiders haven't even let off the loading equipment."

All the signs pointed out that the base functioned as a production facility. This ignited their enthusiasm. Ves sniffed a chance to salvage valuable production equipment. Dietrich hoped the attackers missed out on a few stashes that he could sell for a fortune.

Lucky proved to be of use when Ves let the mechanical cat roam the emptied caverns. It managed to find scraps of ores and metals. None of the traces were exotic, so Ves quickly lost his interest.

They exited the warehouse section and floated down to the second underground floor. The grey reinforced metal walls made way for a warmer green tint.

"From the looks of it, the barracks and mech stables are on this floor."

They encountered empty beds, ruined leisure rooms and half-destroyed mech stables. The fighting here had been hard, but the defenders were already doomed. The Harrier carefully shoved some of the debris aside while Ves poked around the mech stables.

The scavengers left a lot of gear behind. Tools like wrenches, cutters and various batteries were strewn about. Ves picked up a cutter and inserted a spare battery. The tool lit up with a flare of focused heat and light.

"This thing's only worth a couple of thousand credits." Ves said and turned off the cutter before tossing it away. "Nothing here is worth our time."

The real valuables should be the mechs and any spare parts. Whoever emptied out the stables had done a thorough job.

Despite the desolation, Ves wasn't about to give up. He constantly stretched out his multiscanner and began to search the areas where the mech technicians stored their gear. Lucky sniffed around as well and quickly meowed in excitement.

"What's up, buddy? Did you find anything?"

The cat scratched at his paws against a typical metal floor panel. Ves deep-scanned the location with his multiscanner. The machine found signs of a hidden compartment.

"What have you found, Ves?"

"There should be something valuable underneath."

After a few minutes of fumbling, Ves failed to find any triggers.

"Do you want me to pry it open?"

"No. We don't want to ruin what's inside. If my guess is right, we could be looking at a small fortune. Let me handle it."

He picked up another random plasma cutter and proceeded to cut a hole in the floor. The last time he operated a full-powered plasma cutter was back when he studied at Rittersberg. He held the cutter with care and made sure he followed all of the safety guidelines he could still dredge up from his mind. The last thing he wanted to do was to splash his legs with heated plasma.

A couple of minutes later, he finished cutting a man-sized hole. He carefully shut off the plasma cutter and removed its battery. With the help of a magnetizing tool, he lifted the metal cutout and placed it to the side.

Just as Ves took a step inside, a laser beam seared against his torso. At the very last moment, his master's shield generator flickered to life, expending five percent of its charge in an instant.

"GET BACK!" Dietrich boomed from his mech as he pointed his ballistic rifle.

Ves jumped to the side, breaking the line of fire. He stretched out his palm. "Don't shoot! You'll blow up everything inside!"

The Harrier held back not just due to the warning, but also because Ves was too close. The kinetic energy of a single mech-sized rifle could easily kill a human by proximity.

"As far as I know, there's only a single anti-infantry defense measure inside."

"Do you think it's a survivor?" Dietrich asked. He succeeded in pushing down his instinctive aggression once he saw that Ves mysteriously came off the attack without a single scorch mark.

"It's possible, but I doubt it. Whoever dug this out did it behind the backs of their bosses. They won't be using it to stash something as worthless as food and air."

"Let's call up an observation bot."

"No need. Just stretch out your Harrier's finger in the opening. We'll use your arm-mounted sensors to take a peek."

The fingers of a humanoid mech boasted very little armor, but they could easily withstand a single infantry-scale laser beam. As Dietrich did as Ves suggested, they both got a good look inside.

A small mounted light from the finger illuminated the hidden compartment. For a moment, both Ves and Dietrich were taken aback at the sight. Someone managed to stuff a whole container's worth of spare parts inside. The crude sensor-blocking wall panels added proof that it was an off-the-book operation.

"Let's take care of that defense bot first."

A single stationary defense bot remained active among the neatly stacked parts. Without any central direction, the cheap bot defaulted to its standard programming. Dietrich delicately flicked the Harrier's finger at the stupid bot, causing it to crunch and splash against the wall in a broken heap.

Just as Ves wanted to enter the compartment in order to finish off the bot, Lucky entered first and sliced the bot into pieces.

"Haha!" Dietrich laughed. "Looks like your pet it kind of pissed it almost killed its main source of food!"

Lucky had also been caught flat-footed by the surprise attack. Despite his deadly armament, his body only packed a limited amount of functionality. The cat's sensors were not as good as those carried by dedicated reconnaissance bots.

While Lucky vented his anger, Ves followed after his cat and scanned the compartment for any threats. Besides the broken bot, the compartment did not have any other surprises in store.

"That's a lot of spare parts." Dietrich noted as his sensors noted that all of the parts were in pristine condition. "We're looking at a mountain of credits. How did you know you'd find something like that?"

"It's a common scam among mech technicians." Ves responded as he rapped his knuckle against the surface of a packaged engine. "They're probably contractors or attached to the mercenary corps. It's a simple enough trick that only works if there's insufficient supervision. Since this base is supposed to be hidden, the real owners of the base kept their exposure limited. This left a hole in which the mech technicians are able to report a higher incidence of wear-and-tear than is actually the case."

A light dawned on Dietrich's face. "I get it now. The owners sent them their replacement parts, unaware that the old ones are still in working condition. Since the replacements are all freshly fabricated parts, you can sell them for quite a sum in the black market. I bet the mercenary corps was in on this scam as well. Maybe they never even performed the live-fire exercises they reported to their bosses."

This slowed down the wear-and-tear of their mechs even further, but it also lowered the readiness of their pilots. The consequences of losing their edge was obvious. All signs pointed out that the base had fallen fairly quickly.

As Ves inventoried the parts, he let out a whistle. "The great thing about this cache is that the mech technicians knew what to pick. Most of what they stored consists of engines or power reactors. They're not as valuable as armor plating, but much of their composition is made out of exotics."

This meant that the goods were easier to smuggle out. Since the Barracuda only had limited storage space, this was ideal.

"Let's finish exploring the rest of the base before emptying out this cache."

Until they fully explored the base, Ves did not intend to take anything away. Danger might still be around the corner.

After failing to detect any other caches, the group entered the elevator shaft and entered the next floor downwards.

The observation bots encountered a lot of issues trying to parse the third floor. Far more wreckage than anywhere else still littered the entire floor. Most of it turned out to be ruined industrial fabrication equipment.

Ves held his breath once he entered a large production hall. He imagined how many industrial-grade 3D printers worked side-by-side churning out the same parts. There were three halls in total, and each of them hosted three identical production lines.

Lucky pounced on some wreckage, trying to claw his way inside. The entire place was a treasure house for a pet that fed on rare materials.

"Man, some crazy mech has gone to town in here. All the fancy stuff is wrecked." Dietrich noted as his mech idly kicked the outer cover of a valuable 3D printer. "I'd say the defenders destroyed these machines once they realized they were going down."

His guess came close to the truth. There was no reason why the aggressors would be so destructive when they robbed everything else down to their bones. A defending mech had methodically sabotaged each machine by slicing them with a sword.

Ves noted that two spaces had been cleared. They must have hosted the most intact 3D printers, ones that could be fixed up and sold for a very tidy sum. He approached one of the brutally slashed printers and tried to find some markings. He eventually noted the model.

DORTMUND V3-B INDUSTRIAL 3D PRINTER

"It's a Dortmund!" Ves exclaimed. His greedy eyes ran over the wrecked printer like it was a pile of credits. "This is one of the fastest 3D printer available in the local market! Its speed and precision is miles ahead of a regular commercial model and can even rival the machines from the Friday Coalition. Only the most established megacorporations are able to afford this machine!"

"That's interesting and all, but how much money are we talking about?"

"A brand new third generation Dortmund is worth at least 3 billion bright credits!"

Even Dietrich's heart skipped a beat when he heard that figure. He quickly lost his excitement once he took a closer look at the state of the printers. "They're all chopped up now. Even the raiders didn't bother to salvage these leftovers. They're worthless."

"That not entirely true." Ves retorted as his eyes practically turned into credit symbols as they carefully inspected the damage. "Originally there's nine identical Dortmunds. The raiders took two, leaving us with seven broken machines. What do you think about salvaging everything that's still intact and piece together a single working model?"

"Is that possible?"

"It's worth a try."

Both of them thought about the pros and cons about this action. If Ves was lucky, he might be able to replace his rickety old 3D printer with one that could keep up with his future needs. The only problem was salvaging and reconstructing a printer took a lot of time and expertise, both of which were in short supply.

"Can we afford to stick around? I know you're serious about this, Ves, but whoever took a bite here might be coming back for seconds."

"I can puzzle together the printer back at home, so we only need to gather all the scraps." Ves decided. He didn't want to stay in this system any longer than necessary.

This was the find of the decade for him. Now that he glimpsed a chance to acquire an expensive machine for free, he was not about to let it go.

"There's one final floor left for us to explore." Ves remarked as he firmly pulled Lucky to his side. "Let's quickly go and clear the rest of this place. We can start taking apart these beauties once we're done."

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The fourth underground floor was the best defended one. The observation bots painted a gruesome picture of a desperate last stand. The reinforced walls and plentiful fixed emplacements suggested that this was a very important part of the base.

Once Ves and Dietrich's Harrier stepped past the ruined vault doors, they came across the remnants of a massacre. While, the invading force spent some efforts in cleaning up their tracks, they didn't put too much effort in wiping out the bloodstains.

"Whoever attacked this base has been very thorough so far. They're experienced and covering up their tracks. You'd think they do a better job on this floor."

Ves nodded in agreement. "Maybe they ran out of time."

If the attackers were in a hurry, they might have missed a couple of gems. The possibility fueled their anticipation. The abundant fortifications suggested that this floor certainly held a lot of value to the former owners of the base.

This also meant that the odds of encountering a lingering threat had risen by quite a bit. The observation bots found nothing active, but who knew what kind of booby traps remained.

"Lucky, can you scout ahead?"

The mechanical cat hissed at Ves.

"Oh, come on, I've gifted you that unknown chunk of ore. Can't you at least return the favor?"

After a brief back-and-forth, Ves convinced Lucky to act as their scout. In return, Ves promised Lucky a million credits worth of minerals when they returned home. The expenditure took out a big chunk of his savings, but considering his current gains, he could spare the money.

Motivates by piles of delicious food, the cat went about his role with gusto. The cat moved swiftly if a bit recklessly. Ves had to warn the cat to slow down several times.

They combed over the administrative department first. Not a single record remained. A scavenging party meticulously cleaned out all the terminals, processors and backups. Ves wasn't stupid enough to think they missed a spare.

Instead, he banked on the suspicion that the scavengers were in a bit of a hurry. He meticulously scanned the walls, floor and ceiling. Lucky helped out by employing his sensitive nose.

The mechanical cat's nose handedly outclassed the multiscanner. Ves borrowed the device from the Barracuda's lab, so that spoke volumes of Lucky's ability to distinguish smells.

The excited cat led him to a maintenance closet of all things. Lucky pawed a specific section of the wall.

When Ves came close, he held out his scanner. Nothing. Almost nothing. The only thing he registered was a faint rise in temperature. The difference was minimal. If Ves wasn't so close, he'd miss the signs.

After interpreting the data, Ves threw out a guess. "An active system is generating heat behind behind this wall. There's a box-sized area in front of us that's blocking out the rest of my scans."

"Sounds like we're dealing with a safe. In a place like this, it's bound to trigger an alarm or a self-destruct mechanism."

"That's quite possible. Even I'm not confident in disarming this trap." He obtained a good impression of the build quality of this facility. This was the work of experts, not a bunch of pirates with too much free time on their hands. "If it wasn't for Lucky, we'd be clueless. For now, let's leave this safe for last."

They didn't want to trip any alarms. For now, Ves prioritized the recovery of the parts for the Dortmund. In his eyes, the utility of a functioning high-quality 3D printer trumped any other possible gains.

After sweeping the administration department, they crossed the corridors and reached an even larger fortification. The size and thickness of the broken vault doors showed that it wasn't easy cracking this last part open.

"The attackers came prepared." Dietrich noted as he tried to puzzle out the sequence of battle from the remaining traces. "They brought enough mechs to overrun this base. It took a while for them to crack open this barrier, but they came prepared."

With Lucky taking the lead, they entered what used to be a highly secure research complex. Different from the rest of the base, only the main corridor and a couple of chambers were large enough to accomodate mechs.

They sweeped these giant chambers first. Everything had been swept clean. Only empty furniture and useless markings remained. Despite Lucky's best efforts, the cat failed to sniff out anything the scavengers had missed. Clearly the research labs was one of their main targets.

The Harrier bumped its feet against a wall. The lack of atmosphere dampened any noise, but the impact spread vibrations through the mech-sized chamber.

"I wonder what kind of research was done that requires this kind of elaborate setup." Dietrich idly wondered.

"Someone spent around five billion credits to set this place up." Ves estimated from what he saw. "The extravagant production lines alone points to a major commitment."

If a corporation wanted to mass produce a line of mechs, they were better off doing it open and above board.

After exploring the mech-sized chambers, Ves and Lucky proceeded to clear the smaller rooms alone. Dietrich remained in his cockpit in order to guard against major threats.

The remaining rooms differed little from their larger counterparts. Large amounts of servers, lab equipment and more had been completely swept away. The scavengers even dug out a couple of hidden stashes. Instead of feeling despondent at the sight, Ves found cause for hope.

"Another stash might be left." Ves informed his cat. "Go and take a sniff of these hollows. Perhaps you might encounter a similar smell."

Lucky hopped inside the hollowed-out stashes and memorized the smells. After an affirmative meow, the cat hopped back to the floor and slowly sauntered across the empty rooms.

The cat found one more possible stash. The cat indicated that a large, broken piece of machinery blocked the way to the potential treasure. This must have been the reason why the scavengers missed this find.

"How's it look like, Ves?"

"It's larger than the suspected safe we found at administration. My scanner tells me that there's a room-sized hollow hidden behind this wall. I found no traces of heat or energy so there shouldn't be a trap, but I can't tell for sure."

This final find marked the end of their exploration trip. Now they needed to decide how much longer they should stay and what to recover during that time.

Dietrich wanted to leave as fast as possible. "This place is creepy. If you tell me, we should empty the smuggler's cache first. It will only take half a day for the bots to load the goods into our ship."

"May I remind you that the Barracuda is my ship." Ves firmly asserted. It was important for him to remind his friend that he was in charge. "The broken Dortmunds are worth a thousand times more than a random collection of parts."

"Yeah, says you. It's all well-and-good for you to drool over a stupid printer, but even if you finally kludge something together, it only benefits you. I don't get anything out of this."

Ves did not want to argue too much with Dietrich. As the owner of the ship that brought them here, he should possess most of the rights to the salvage. He held back because he was armed with only a single pistol while Dietrich currently piloted a very deadly mech.

After a brief argument, the two hammered out a compromise.

They would stay as long as required for Ves to salvage the necessary Dortmund parts. Anything concerning the printer belonged solely to Ves.

After that, Ves would crack open the remaining two stashes. If he hadn't screwed up and triggered a self-destruct, they'd retrieve the treasures and split them up with Ves claiming eighty percent of their value while leaving Dietrich with the remaining twenty percent.

There was no guarantee that they'd get anything useful from the caches. Ves might also inadvertently trigger an alarm. In that case, they'd bug out as fast as possible and leave this star system.

The base still held a lot of value even after they emptied all of the caches. Dietrich had the option to turn in his twenty percent share for the sole right to exploit the ruins on behalf of Walter's Whalers.

Dietrich was confident that his father's gang would send a couple of transports to this star system and strip it down to the bone. This naturally included the smuggler's cache. Due to the Barracuda's limited cargo space, the ship did not have any room left after taking in the Dortmund parts and the Harrier.

The terms of the agreement heavily favored Ves. He was able to secure the prized Dortmund parts. As for Dietrich, as long as the base remained abandoned, he could earn massive amounts of credits from the remaining salvage.

The defenses, vault door and debris all consisted of high-quality alloys. Dietrich intended to get his gang to strip them down and melt the pieces in order to extract the exotic materials. The mech pilot estimated that the Whalers could earn as much as half a billion credits from the recovery effort.

"That's an optimistic assessment. You'll need a lot of ships to bring back the salvage. The defenses here are tough, so you'll also need a lot of time to break up this base."

The longer they lingered in this system, the greater the risk of discovery. Walter's Whalers had to invest in lots of transports and manpower to salvage the base. A major movement like that was bound to leak.

Dietrich didn't look worried. "If anyone comes looking for a fight, we'll kick their asses."

"If you say so." Ves shrugged. It was his problem to deal with. "Let's begin with the salvage operation."

Now that they've cleared the base, the Barracuda lifted off from the outskirts and approached the entrance of the base. After touching down, the cargo bay opened up and released a small fleet of cargo handling bots along with a couple of observation bots.

Ves directed the observation bots to thoroughly scan the internals of all the Dortmunds. He tasked the cargo bots with collecting the loose junk scattered around the third floor.

Meanwhile, Dietrich patrolled the perimeter, making sure that no one sneaked up on their vulnerable operation. Lucky on the other hand ran off to feast on the many wrecks left behind.

While the observation bots did their work, Ves was not assured he could piece together a single functioning machine. "I should get a detailed schematic."

If Ves tried to reconstruct the Dortmund without preparation, he was bound to screw up. In order to assure the reconstructed machine worked properly, he had to get his hands on an official blueprint. He returned to the Barracuda and booted up his terminal. He searched for any leaks on the galactic net but came up empty.

"It's too good to be true if the blueprint of the latest Dortmund is leaked."

In the past, Ves would end his inquiry at this point. "I'm not a nobody anymore. I've got connections now."

Ves logged in to the Clifford Society. His virtual avatar spawned in the clouds. He looked down and located the city at the foot of the mountains. His form descended from above.

Once he landed on the streets, he walked to the market district and browsed every store. Many stores sold only mechs or designs relating to mechs. Only a couple of Squires sold equipment related to fabricating mechs, and none of them possessed any blueprints.

Just as Ves threw in the towel, he finally found a place that traded in blueprints. Surprisingly, a Knight opened up this storefront. Since the Knight was absent, the store only offered Ves a projection of a catalog.

The Knight sold hundreds of thousands of blueprints. Ves couldn't imagine how he was able to get his hands on so many detailed schematics.

For now, it didn't matter. Ves selected the 3D printer sub-category and found a listing of the Dortmund V3-B. The Knight charged only five merits for the blueprint along with a repair manual for internal use.

Ves instantly bought the files. Five merits was a lot for just a blueprint, especially considering that it was impossible to use an existing 3D printer to build another 3D printer.

The developers and manufacturers of these expensive machines weren't stupid. The last thing they wanted to see was someone printing their own printers at home. The commercial 3D printers available on the market were designed to incorporate many complex components that could never be printed into existence.

Therefore, these leaked and stolen blueprints were of little use. Only someone like Ves who managed to come across a pile of broken printers could make full use of these schematics.

Ves grinned once he exited the Society's virtual portal. With these plans in hand, he might be able to piece together a working industrial-class printer.

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The salvage operation proceeded on schedule. Ves downloaded a popular scavenger's app and loaded in the blueprint and the scans of the Dortmunds. Every time the observation bots scanned a section of the Dortmund, a section of the blueprint turned from red to green. A brighter color meant that there were more of those parts available.

In this way, Ves slowly found out whether his reconstruction effort was feasible.

At the end of the day, the entire blueprint turned green.

"There's enough working parts available!"

Whoever sabotaged the Dortmunds did a sloppy job. The mech was evidently in a hurry as each machine only endured a couple of sword attacks. The observation bots already marked out all of the green parts. With some careful disassembly Ves could retrieve them intact.

The only problem was that the blueprint radiated a couple of glaring red spots. Some consisted of inconsequential parts like the exterior casing or some unimportant cables. Others presented a bigger problem.

"I'll have to scavenge all of the broken parts and figure something out."

Having marked the additional parts, Ves began his disassembly. Despite his lack of experience, he made up for it with patience and focus. His recent augmentation left him with a steadier grip, which aided him in utilizing his tools with precision.

A Dortmund was a beast of a printer. If Ves did lacked both a blueprint and a repair manual, he was liable to break something. The valuable information procured from the Society allowed him to avoid many pitfalls and handle the most important components with care.

The work proceeded slowly as Ves took care of the entire disassembly himself. None of the Barracuda's plentiful bots could help with this delicate operation. The best they could do was to bring them back to the ship and store them in secure containers freshly fabricated for this very purpose.

The entire operation lasted almost an entire week. Ves worked with excessive care, and this led to quite a few delays. His partner might have grumbled a couple of times, but he dutifully patrolled the area with hardly any pause. Both of their nerves were fraught with tension.

When Ves sent off the last shipment of parts, he finally relaxed a little. "The most crucial part of this salvage operation is done."

The Barracuda already swelled with printer parts. While her cargo bay possessed enough space to accommodate them all, in order to leave enough room for the Harrier, Ves was forced to store them elsewhere. He repurposed the dormant compartments in the middle and upper decks as emergency storage rooms.

It made his ship a bit less safe, but Ves could deal with it. The Barracuda could not fit much more without throwing away some supplies.

"Let's go back to the bottom floor of this base and open up the final stashes."

Dietrich, Lucky and Ves all floated down the elevator shaft and reached the fourth underground floor. While Dietrich kept watch from the corridor inside his mech, Ves entered the marked out maintenance closet and prepared to crack open a suspected safe.

First, he removed the armored wall panels. Then, he cut through the structural composites that make up most of the walls. In order to avoid any disruptions, he used a more sophisticated plasma cutter from the Barracuda's inventory. After reaching close to the safe, he turned it off and chiseled off the rest of the wall with a specialized tool that kept vibrations to a minimum.

He eventually hollowed out a corridor to the front of the hidden object. It turned out to be a simple armored box rather than a fully featured safe.

"This must be a later addition. Whoever installed the box likely fabricated it with the materials on hand."

"That's a good thing, right?" Dietrich asked.

"The safe is made by an amateur, but it's still generating heat. I can't be too sure about what's inside. Let me take some scans."

While the sensor-blocking exterior hindered most of his efforts, the proximity made it easier for the multiscanner to return some readings.

"There's a trigger attached to the hinges. Any use of force will trigger some sort of mechanism that will ignite a block of flammable high-density fuel."

"Is there any way you can stop that from happening?"

"Not yet, but I'm working on it." Ves replied as he churned his brain for solutions.

His Jury Rigging skill applied primarily to mechs, but it also came in handy in situations like this. He knew what type of fuel was inside. If he froze the section close to the fuel block, he could prevent its ignition even if he trigger went off. It might not be able to prevent anything else, but Ves was hopeful he could retrieve the contents.

He picked up a specialized freezing tool from the floor of the mech stables and got ready to freeze the flammable fuel block. He first dug out a wider channel to the top of the armored box. He pressed the semiflexible nozzle against the top and started the freezing process.

The box frosted over rapidly as the cold spread out quickly. After estimating that he'd done enough, he turned off the freezing tool and threw it aside. He quickly picked up a miniature plasma cutter and started cutting through the front of the safe.

He was racing against time. He had to finish cutting and retrieve the contents of the safe before the fuel block unfroze. Ves carefully operated the cutter in order to prevent its localized heat from spilling too far outward.

The box clanked as Ves successfully cut a hole in the front. He turned off the cutter and pulled away the circular piece. This time he covered his hands with a thick pair of gloves which he also borrowed from the deceased techs. With remarkable speed, he dug out a handful of objects that turned out to be a pile of data chips.

He finished the job by throwing in a prepared explosive before running outside. The blast ripped apart the entire wall setting. Ves deliberately strengthened the explosion in order to interrupt any other surprises. The scanners he placed around the closet failed to register any follow-ups. He was fairly certain it did not trigger any alarms.

"Are you certain no one has a clue we're here?" Dietrich asked again.

"The sensors and scanners that I have at my disposal are state-of-the-art. I haven't detected any outbound signals. I also haven't found any signs of an active quantum entanglement node."

The latter was difficult to stop, but those things were large, expensive and power hungry. They had to be in order to establish instant communication with the rest of the galaxy at a decent bandwidth. Ves suspected that the raiding force prioritized their destruction.

Before Ves tackled the larger stash, he wanted to take a look at the contents of the data chips he painstakingly retrieved. He grabbed a secure data pad and inserted one of the chips.

No viruses or hacks popped up when the data pad accessed the chip. To no one's surprise, he encountered nothing but encrypted files.

He had an answer for that. "Barracuda, please connect to this data pad and decrypt these files. Disable any precautions in the chip while you're at it."

His ship featured basic electronic warfare capabilities. By basic, it meant the systems paled in comparison to those installed by warships. Compared to the dismal technological standard of a third-rate state, the Barracuda only took 4.7 seconds to decrypt all of the files. That was considered to be fairly slow for a modern corvette.

The data pad revealed reams of unlocked files. Ves opened up a document and briefly tried to make sense of it. He nodded and switched to another file, only to encounter something similar. When he removed the data chip and put in another one, he encountered the same sort of data.

"So what did you get? Top secret research? Some juicy intel?"

"Nope. Looks like we've stumbled upon a financial ledger. It logs all external transactions, from import to export. The amount of revenue this base has earned is astounding."

"So are our suspicions correct?"

"I can think of no other reason why this base is so circumspect. The massive profits from these sales is enough to make any medium-sized corporation lose their morals."

From the clues they gathered beforehand, they concluded that this facility was an illegal operation. Ves had also recovered some of the logs from the Dortmunds to support this verdict.

Ves gathered up the data chips and put them into a secure container. "This facility was setup to mass-produce unlicensed mechs. It's not difficult to get a hold of a couple of excellent designs without paying for the license. The real challenge consists of producing mechs from these pirated designs without getting caught by the MTA."

As the self-proclaimed regulators of the mech industry, the Mech Trade Association took a dim view on anyone who broke the rules. The MTA's dreaded Enforcement Division came down hard on anyone who violated the rights of intellectual property holders. Forget about getting sued and sent to jail. The Division always went in guns blazing.

Any corporation who went ahead and still produced mechs had to be very circumspect. This was the reason why a base had been constructed in the middle of nowhere. The Barracuda only detected its presence due to the its fall. Otherwise, no scan should have been able to penetrate its camouflage.

"The files use specific codes to obscure the identity of this organization and its trading partners. It's very likely that the manufacturer shipped their mechs to pirates. Proof of that alone is enough to hang the entire corporation's board of directors."

Everyone hated pirates. Those who overtly supported their activities deserved no mercy. Due to the Komodo Star Sector's remoteness, the scourge of the galaxy was less of a threat in this region. Nevertheless, their mere presence endangered trade routes and depressed economic growth.

Dietrich expressed a lot of interest for the data chips. "This is great blackmail material. I know a data analyst who can make sense of these transactions. He'll be able to figure out which corporation is colluding with pirates."

"That's dangerous talk." Ves replied with caution. "Even if you figure out who has made a killing with this trade,

"Relax, I'm not stupid. Me and my boys might be small time, but I know just the place to sell the data chips. I can get you a lot of credits if you pass me the goods. We won't be able to earn as much if we don't do the blackmailing ourselves, but it's better to cut ties."

Due to the enormous risk involved with this transaction, Ves and Dietrich amended their agreement. They agreed to split their earnings fifty-fifty from the sale of the blackmail material.

Now that they handled the smaller stash, they got ready to crack open the larger one in the research department. Ves had high hopes for this stash due to its proximity to the labs.

His cargo bots already removed the debris blocking the wall. The unobstructed access allowed Ves to deploy his scanners closer to the suspected stash.

"There's a bathroom-sized space behind this wall. It's even better hidden than the previous stash due to the lack of any active systems. It's not leaking any signals or energy. That doesn't mean it's devoid of traps. I'll have to get closer in order to make sure."

Similar to last time, Ves methodically broke down the wall in front of him until he reached the sensor-blocking exterior of the hidden compartment. He removed a generous amount of material around the compartment and deployed his scanners almost right next to the surface.

His efforts picked up nothing that suggested any active systems. That still said nothing about any traps, but the likelihood of tripping anything decreased.

"It's a little suspicious, but the only way to find out is to crack this place open. Do you want to risk it?"

Despite their apprehension, both men were greedy for treasures. They already brought in a good haul. If they had to cut and run, they still earned a substantial profit.

Ves decided to crack it open directly without wasting too much time. He took a heavy duty plasma cutter and separated the vault door from the wall. A large hiss of air escaped from the enclosed chamber, causing his plasma cutter to sputter a bit. Once he created a large opening, he carefully sent an observation bot inside.

The two men kept their eyes peeled on their monitors. When the observation bot illuminated the interior, they both looked up in surprise.

"Those are dead bodies."

Besides a large stack of boxes, the compartment held three different corpses. They all wore the standard white lab coats that revealed their former status as researchers. The most notable observation about their state was that none of them wore any vacuum-sealed suits.

Dietrich figured out the story from the awful state of their bodies. "They suffocated when they expended all of their oxygen. This stash is just a place to hide some valuables. It isn't meant to be a panic room."

No air, no food, no water. The researchers never stood a chance of survival. Even if they wanted to surrender, they likely couldn't exit the compartment due to the debris blocking their exit. The blockage also prevented the scavengers from discovering their bodies.

"It's an awful way to die. The least we can do is bury their bodies with respect."

Ves tasked a couple of cargo bots to carefully bring the bodies up to the surface. He tasked some other bots with digging a couple of graves. Before he let the bots take away the bodies, he searched their clothes and removed all their comms and other possessions.

When he studied the comms, he knew he couldn't get anything out of them. These models were provided by the lab themselves, and came with a host of security features. In the event of their owner's death, they automatically wiped the memory chips and fried them into melted slag.

The large boxes turned out to store the components of a disassembled weapon. Surprisingly, Dietrich was the first to recognize the weapon.

"It's a mech-sized laser rifle, but it looks a little weird. Certain parts look larger than others. It's not a regular rifle for sure."

If the boxes contained parts, then they should also include a schematic. Ves did a little digging and finally found a couple of data chips inside a smaller box.

The decryption proceeded slowly. The lab put a lot more effort into protecting the contents of these chips. Despite this setback, the encryption method was dated, and stood no chance against the might of the Barracuda's electronic warfare module.

When Ves took a peek at the files, he found a couple of schematics along with lots of notes documenting the lab's developments. The logs included in the data chip spanned a period of three months.

Once Ves opened up a schematic, he finally got to know why this lab operated off-the-books.

"The researchers were developing a graser rifle. No, they already developed a working model. According to this schematic, they were working on their third iteration."

Dietrich banged his fist against his cockpit. If the MTA found out that they recovered the schematics of a viable graser rifle, they could get in a lot of trouble.

A graser stood short for gamma ray laser. Grasers could be considered as the hyperactive offshoot of a regular laser. A graser beam fared poorly in most atmospheric conditions due to their tendency to ignite air into plasma.

A graser had a number of special attributes that made the MTA take a dim view on this weapon type.

First, they packed a ridiculous amount of energy. A mech-grade graser consumed a substantial amount of power in order to make them practical on the battlefield. A graser beam passed right through obstacles or blew them up if it came across something dense.

The more insidious use of a graser was to take advantage of its penetrative properties. A strong enough graser always succeeded in passing some of its gamma rays through an obstacle. Grasers were capable of irradiating people who thought themselves safe inside the cockpit of a mech.

It only took a fraction of the energy emitted by a graser to consign a human being to death. Anyone who received a lethal dose of radiation in this manner had little chance of survival unless they had access to superior medical services. Only the best hospitals were equipped to respond to radiation poisoning.

Ves was certain this base developed and sold the graser rifles to pirates. In turn, the pirates used the graser rifles as a convenient means to irradiate the crew of a spaceship. This killed off the people but left the goods intact.

Certainly, the pirates had to clean up the residual radiation. This was not a big problem as gamma rays were not as bad as alpha or beta rays in that regard.

In short, Ves could not make use of this research, let alone attempt to sell it. Producing pirated mechs was one thing. Producing an outlawed weapon was an entirely different matter.

"Let's destroy the disassembled rifle." Ves suggested after a moment's consideration. "It's a bad idea to get involved. Let's not even mention taboo weapons when you sell the blackmail material."

Dietrich paused in his Harrier as he weighed the benefits in his head. "You haven't mentioned what you will do with the files you recovered. Are you thinking about keeping them?"

"Yes. I know it might doom me, but I can't let go of this valuable collection of research." Ves replied with hunger in his eyes. "Before you call the MTA, let me assure you that I have no intention of breaking any taboos. I can use the data to increase my understanding of conventional laser weapons."

Ves was playing with fire, they both knew it. Perhaps Dietrich didn't care, but he only objected briefly before he turned his thoughts to other matters.

The fact that Dietrich knew Ves kept the research gave the pilot some leverage. Any time he felt like it, he could report Ves to the MTA, or hold it over his head as blackmail.

What Dietrich didn't know was that Ves intended to transfer all of the files to the Mech Designer System. With the System's recent upgrade, it gained the capability to camouflage its programming so that it would look like a harmless designer app. Even the MTA couldn't do anything to Ves if they lacked compelling evidence.

For now, Ves didn't expect their relationship to deteriorate. The journey brought them closer and the earnings from this trip alone was enough to satisfy the pilot.

"Let's pack up and go home."

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Lading with treasures, the Barracuda exited the lifeless star system and followed the route back home. Both Ves and Dietrich were satisfied with their gains. Lucky was content with the promise of food and went back to chewing Master Olson's gift.

During the rest of the trip, Ves went back to improving his Physics and Electrical Engineering skills. The Society's Star Library offered many books that Ves could borrow for free. He liberally made use of this privilege to rapidly expand his knowledge base.

In order to puzzle a Dortmund back together, it was essential that he knew what he was dealing with. Improving his Electrical Engineering skill helped him in making sense of the Dortmund's blueprint. This allowed him to refine his tentative reconstruction plan and avoid some elementary mistakes.

Shortly after he upgraded both skills to Apprentice-level, the ship sounded an alarm. Ves immediately shut down the projection of the Dortmund's blueprint and raced down to the bridge. Lucky and Dietrich arrived seconds later.

"What's up Ves?" Dietrich asked as he scratched his loose blond hair. "I thought this was supposed to be a lightly inhabited system."

"Lightly inhabited or not, but the Barracuda detected a lot of dormant engine signatures coming to life."

The Barracuda arrived at the edge of this system only fifteen minutes earlier. The coordinated response that followed their entry originated from a nearby asteroid belt.

"The ships are refusing to respond to our hails." Ves stated grimly. "It's safe to say they aren't coming with good intention."

"Pirates." Dietrich spat. Normally, he enjoyed a scrap or two, but the ships and mechs they carried grossly outnumbered them. "Is there any way we can get away without a fight?"

Ves seated himself behind a console and ran the numbers. "Assuming that the pirate vessels are accelerating at their maximum rate, they won't be able to catch up to us if we start running. My ship is a lot faster than theirs."

Ves ordered the Barracuda to flip around and run past the edge of the star system. Her engines started boosting with substantial power. As a modern corvette, his ship was capable of outperforming any rustbucket in the hands of scum.

"These pirates are rather tricky. Even with our engine superiority, we don't have much of a lead. The pirate vessels already followed a ballistic trajectory before our arrival."

"What does that mean?"

"That means that the pirates have a running start. If my ship is just a standard third-rate corvette, then they might be able to overtake our ship before we can transition into FTL."

The Barracuda's FTL engine only took two hours to finish its cycling process. A regular corvette might take at least three hours to do the same.

"The pirates shouldn't be aware of this discrepancy. While they are still thinking of getting close, we'll already be waving them goodbye."

Even as he explained their situation, Ves was not quite reassured. As a mech designer, he knew very little about ships. For example, the pirate vessels might be keeping powerful short-range boosters in reserve.

He also had to consider their mech contingent. "With the relative speeds we are working with, there's no chance the pirate ships can catch up if they aren't hiding any surprises. What we'll likely see is mechs joining the pursuit."

"The ships won't be able to catch up to us, right? What about their mechs?"

Ves inputted some new numbers to the calculator. "We don't have to worry about medium mechs or heavier. The only light mechs stand a chance of overtaking the Barracuda, and that's only when they are geared for speed."

This was good news. They could disregard most of the hardware and focus on fending off the light mechs. While the amount of speed-focused light mechs in pursuit was still up in the air, Ves doubted he'd face more than half-a-dozen of them. A pirate gang of this size shouldn't be carrying too many light mechs.

"Haha, if those flies want to catch up, then they'll be easy targets!" Dietrich exclaimed once he realized he only had to deal with a handful of chasing light mechs. "I finally get to put my marksmanship to good use!"

The situation at the moment devolved in a slow and drawn-out chase. The sensor plot showed that the Barracuda was vastly outnumbered, but if the ship could keep her systems running, she could make it out of the system.

The key was to stall the impending light mechs without sustaining damage. The Barracuda was a corvette, which meant it mainly focused on speed. Her designers never prioritized her armor.

A concentrated barrage by a couple of pursuing mechs could easily damage her vulnerable rear. Ves and Dietrich wanted to prevent a situation where the corvette was forced to stop accelerating due to suffering too much damage. If the pirates manage to inflict critical damage on the thrusters, then the Barracuda would be hamstrung.

Both men descended onto the hangar bay. Dietrich entered the cockpit and optimized his Harrier's settings for deep space action. He already had some experience with fighting in zero gravity.

Meanwhile, Ves ran some checks over the Harrier's exterior and made sure the aerial mech performed up to spec in vacuum. There were many nuances involved in space combat. Ves only scratched the surface in this area. He applied only a limited amount of fixes.

Lucky remained at his owner's side. As a gem cat, his role in the upcoming battle was to keep Ves safe. As the ship's chief security officer, Lucky did not appreciate being taken away from his favorite food.

Due to its extensive rework back in Leemar, the Harrier was in its best shape in years. Ves had already inspected the mech a few weeks ago, so the mech was structurally sound.

"There's nothing else I can do for your mech." Ves finally said as he pulled back from the mech. "I'll return to the bridge and manage the ship from the captain's seat. Good luck."

The Harrier gently slapped the butt of its ballistic rifle. "Hah! I'll be back in no time! Just make sure I still have a ship to return to!"

Ves left the cargo bay with Lucky in tow and returned to the middle deck. After reaching the bridge, he forced the navigator bot off the captain's chair and claimed the seat for himself. He summoned a projection of the pirates and studied them in detail.

The corvettes and light transports in pursuit looked ramshackle. A lack of maintenance and patchwork repairs gave Ves the mistaken impression that these vessels were about to fall apart. In truth, the pirate ships exhibited lots of creative engineering. Most of the ships in pursuit sported additional thrusters that gave them an extra kick.

"These aren't professional mercenaries moonlighting as pirates." Ves informed Dietrich over the comm after scanning each ship's construction. Their quality fell short, which indicated that this gang lacked access to a legitimate market. "They aren't well-funded either if the ships are only capable of accelerating so much."

A speaker flared to life as Dietrich connected to the bridge. "How many mechs are they carrying?"

"They've only brought five light transports which they are likely using as mech carriers. They should each have space for about four to six mechs, so they've brought thirty mechs at maximum."

Only a couple of them were speed-focused light mechs, but the numbers still mattered if the ship suffered a slowdown.

Ves was able to guess the pirate gang's origin from this information. "These are regional pirates. I don't think anyone is supporting them from behind, much less someone I've offended at Leemar. Those snobs are well aware of the Arkon Mark I's amazing specs. Any force they send in my way should at least include faster ships."

"They could be sent by the shady corporation which used to sell those graser rifles we found."

"I don't think so. If they assumed we're aware of their illicit dealings, then they should have thrown more pirates at us. CEOs with a guilty conscience have a habit of overreacting when someone finds out they've broken one of the big taboos."

"I guess we'll know for sure once the mechs show up. If they're armed with grasers, we're screwed."

Ves believed that wasn't the case. They just happen to bump into a random pirate fleet by sheer dumb luck. They seemed to be everywhere you least expected them. That they happened to lay in wait right next to the Barracuda's emergence from FTL could be attributed to chance.

Due to the nature of space, it was impossible to eradicate the scourge of piracy. The rats fled to the vast space between star systems each time someone in power wanted to wipe them out.

His console beeped an alert. The pirates finally hailed his ship.

Ves had no idea what to expect when the pirate captain came into view. The interior of his grimy bridge had seen better days. The mech designer even detected patches of mold, something which should horrify any decent engineer.

"Eh? Who are you kid?" The bearded pirate asked as he scratched his scarred face. "I don't have time to play with juniors! Get your captain on the line right now!"

"My name is Ves Larkinson. You are speaking to the captain and the owner of the Barracuda."

"You?!" The pirate took a good look at the Barracuda's bridge. "Oh I see, you're one of those rich brats gallivanting in the big bad universe. Well, let your granddaddy teach you a lesson how you're supposed to react to the Astral Wolves. First, shut off your blasted engines right this instant!"

Ves hyped up his own status in order to stiffen his nerves and hopefully deter the pirates. "The likes of you don't have the right to order me around. Have you watched the news lately? Do you know who I am? I am the apprentice of Master Carmin Olson. A Master Mech Designer from the Friday Coalition. Touch me and you won't even know when you will die."

His relative youth and shaking voice betrayed his lack of experience.

"Hahahaha! Look at the little brat calling out for his parents! Well, grandaddy is here and I'll be sure to comfort you. So you're one of those nerdy mech designers, huh? I could use a new one after I splattered the brains of my last one!"

The pirate captain kept laughing like a pig and cut the connection. Lawless pirates truly feared no threats. Their confidence came from their ability scurry back to the depths of interstellar space where the nearest star was light-years away. No conventional force could track them down.

Only the Mech Trade Association and the Common Fleet Alliance possessed the technology to track down these rats. In practice, neither organizations bothered to chase after petty criminals. They only roused their mighty fleets and mechs once someone violated one of the big taboos.

The Astral Wolves launched their spaceborn mechs once the pirate transports came close enough to the Barracuda. Twenty-seven mechs appeared all at once and rocketed forward.

Mechs optimized for space usually incorporated powerful flight systems. While they could not compare to a spaceship in endurance, their relatively high thrust-to-mass ratio allowed them to sprint short distances as long as their fuel and heat capacity lasted.

The pursuing pirate mechs seperated in two different groups. The majority consisted of slower mechs in for the long haul. Despite the distance, those armed with lasers started to fire at the Barracuda.

Due to the distance, the mech's vibrations and the inherent flaws of of their weapons, the laser beams weren't able to hit the fleeing corvette. Yet as long as they kept firing their lasers, they might get a lucky hit.

"Our ride is under fire!"

"At this range they're barely able to hit us." Ves reassured Dietrich, though he squeezed his fist in frustration. "Our corvette can't withstand a sustained attack, but it hasn't gotten to that point yet. Ignore the lasers for now."

Since Dietrich's Harrier carried a ballistic rifle, he wasn't able to retaliate. As lightspeed weapons, lasers were able to attack at very extreme ranges out in the vacuum of space. Projectile weapons lost their effectiveness due to their relatively placid muzzle velocity.

"It's a shame we don't have a railgun or gauss rifle."

These kinds of advanced projectile weapons packed a formidable amount of punch and muzzle velocity. They were a lot more expensive than conventional weapons due to their high power consumption and their strict material needs. Even second-rate states employed these weapons occasionally.

Ves stuck to the plan for now. He saw five brilliant flares of light gaining in on his ship. He knew they represented the light mechs that formed the actual threat. There was no need to sortie Dietrich early and let his Harrier build up its heat in vain.

Now that the pirates revealed their full capabilities, Ves updated his model and gained some additional numbers.

"Dietrich, if the light mechs maintain their current speed, they'll reach extreme effective range in about half an hour. All we need is twenty-three minutes! Don't let them get land an attack on my ship!"

"That's too long! I can fend them off for about ten minutes, but I'll run out of magazines sooner or later. I need to go back and resupply at least once."

"That will endanger the ship. The cargo bay's hatch is placed at the bottom aft of the ship. Once I open it, a single laser can devastate the valuable Dortmund parts I've stashed in there!"

"Unless you can speed up your ship, there's no other choice. Either your printer goes down or we lose the entire ship!"

The pirate attack put all of their gains at risk. The Barracuda's spare rooms were already stuffed with plundered parts, though the cargo bay held the majority of the spoils. Ves stored them in simple boxes secured to the deck with reinforced cables. It was only one step up from leaving them in a messy pile.

Eventually, Ves was forced to relent and prepared additional reloads for the Harrier's ballistic rifle. Without the Harrier's deterrent, the light mechs would be free to take potshots at his ship.

Shortly after, the pirates managed to score their first hit. The laser beam only happened to scorch a rear panel of the Barracuda, but more was yet to come.

"Navigator bot, please start start dodging!"

The Barracuda adjusted her course. Instead of flying straight, she started weaving in four directions. This threw off the predictive targeting of the pirates, forcing them to work a little harder in achieving a hit.

Ves hoped he bought enough time for his ship.

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One of the worst dangers an interstellar ship has to deal with is pirates. Space was big, so the chances of bumping into them should be negligible.

In reality, pirate fleets worked together with observers stationed in neighboring star systems. They observed all traffic going in and out, and whenever a ship intended to transition to the pirate fleet's system, they informed their masters through the galactic net. This allowed the pirate fleet at the other end to prepare a reception for their unsuspecting victims.

This didn't always work due to the inherent uncertainties involved with FTL travel. Sometimes, the arriving ships ended up millions of kilometers away from the pirates.

Considering the odds, Ves could have ended up worse. The Astral Wolves accurately plotted his destination and even took the telemetry from their observer to predict his entry point in this remote star system. The trick with the running start further emphasized the capabilities of his pursuers.

"We're not dealing with amateurs here. These Wolves are seasoned robbers. I don't believe we've seen the full extent of their moves."

The aft of the Barracuda was taking a beating. The enemy pilots appeared to adjust to the circumstances and increased their fire rate to the maximum sustainable limit. While this did no favors to their accuracy, the sheer volume of fire inevitably worked their charm.

The odds of throwing a dice and getting a six was small. The pirates knew that, so they threw the dice faster.

Nothing in the Barracuda's arsenal could slow them down or mitigate their shots. While ships operating inside human space were not allowed to carry weapons, Ves wished his ship came with several defense measures such as security screens or after boosters. Even if they used up a horrible amount of energy, it was better than letting pirates get their hands on his ship.

As the clock ran down, his ship accumulated more stress. The Barracuda held on so far due to boasting thick armor. No matter the ship, even a heavy mech paled in comparison to the amount of absolute protection they enjoyed. This was the intrinsic difference between a bipedal war machine and a self-contained ecosystem built to traverse the stars.

Still, there were limits to a spaceship's integrity. While the long-ranged laser fire wasn't capable of dealing critical damage due to their wide dispersal, they softened up the Barracuda's aft section. If the light mechs came into range and were allowed to focus their fire, the ship could easily suffer an engine breakdown.

Ves desperately tried to figure out what he could do to repel the pirates from his end, but came up short. His ship was essentially a glorified pleasure yacht, a souped up sports shuttle with interstellar range.

"Three minutes to go until the light mechs are in range. Are you ready to swat some flies?"

"I've been ready ever since we arrived at this stupid star system."

"Good. I'm opening up the cargo bay hatch in thirty seconds. Please sortie out as fast as possible. I don't want to expose the interior any longer than necessary."

Dietrich wasn't looking forward to the upcoming fight. His Harrier worked best as mobile fire support and normally relied on studier mechs to hold the line. He did not look forward to trying to defend his buddy's ship while outnumbered five-to-one.

The mech designer might think himself clever for navigating through remote and inhabited star system, but it came to bite them back with a vengeance.

Now the mech pilot had to clean up after the mess. Fortunately his Harrier received an extensive overhaul back in Leemar. His mech might not be able to exceed its specifications, but it wouldn't fall apart from under him after receiving a couple of shots.

"I'm depressurizing the cargo bay. Get ready!"

The air disappeared from the chamber before the imminent opening. Letting all of the air escape from the ship when the hatch slid down was not only wasteful, but also dangerous.

"Ten seconds left!"

With just seconds to go, Dietrich grumbled about his friend's propensity to stumble into pirate attacks. This was the second time they encountered one so far, and they only made a single round trip! It shouldn't be so easy to bump into pirates!

The hatch slid open once the ventilators completely sucked away the air. A black expanse of stars came into view. Dietrich suppressed his instinct to admire the view and flew out of the ship in an instant.

The hatch closed behind him as he positioned his mech below of the constantly accelerating Barracuda. The Harrier had to adopt an awkward horizontal posture with its rifle pressed against its torso in order to keep up with the ship. The mech's modest flight system kept up with the corvette for now.

"What the hell?! You could have mentioned the rain of laser beams!"

"Relax. It's not as bad as it looks like. If you manage to draw away their fire, then that would be best. You're a much smaller target so you'll make a great decoy!"

Some of the distant mechs indeed shifted their aim to the Harrier. Dietrich already introduced some randomness in his flight path in order to cope with the barrage. Ves might had a point about their accuracy, but the pilot took no chances.

He already kept his eye on the approaching light mechs. Their flight systems flared up as bright as a star as they expended substantial amounts of energy or fuel to catch up to their fleeing prey. Detachable radiator panels extended from their backs in order to cope with their enormous heat generation.

The pirate mechs unleashed their weapons once they passed a certain threshold. A light volley of solid kinetic projectiles and explosive shells impacted the Barracuda's vulnerable rear.

"Dietrich! We just suffered as much damage as five minutes of sporadic laser fire! We'll only last a couple of minutes if this keeps up! Get them off my back!"

The pilot didn't need his partner's nagging to know what to do. He already engaged his sharpshooting module and prepared to fire on all five mechs.

He shot a volley of three projectiles at the closest aerial mech. The pirate panicked at the incoming kinetic slugs even though they did not land anywhere close to the target.

Dietrich already shifted his aim. His rifle barked another two shots at a see-sawing mech. The pirate's lazy and predictable dodging pattern allowed the young pilot to land a glancing shot at its legs. While the damage was negligible, it frightened the pirate into pulling back.

He sent a couple of shots in the direction of the other three mechs in turn. All of them paused their aggression in order to regain their composure. He succeeded in halting their relentless assault and disrupted their efforts to cripple the Barracuda.

The Astral Wolves adjusted their strategy. The distant medium mechs maintained their fire on the Barracuda. They were confident it was only a matter of time before the lasers crippled the ship.

As for the light mechs, they split their attention. Two of them kept up their fire against the Barracuda while the other three shifted their targeting systems to the Harrier. Dietrich had to overload his flight system in order to keep his hide intact.

"You're doing a great job, but it's not enough. Get the other two mechs off my tail!"

"I'm kind of busy here Ves!" The pilot spat back as he worked his controls. He increased his rate of fire in order to keep the enemy mechs on their toes. "How's the ship?"

"Her engine nozzles are accumulating too much heat! The shells landing on her hull is isn't helping either."

In the meantime, the Harrier only suffered from scratches and glancing blows so far due to the deplorable skill level of the pirates.

The typical scum who resort to piracy didn't have much choice. Even if they were potentates, their neural aptitudes ranked near the bottom. No decent mercenary corps was desperate enough to offer them a place in their ranks.

A potentate often grew up with an inflated sense of importance. Those with disappointing aptitudes, lazy work ethics or severe attitude problems might not be resigned to living life as a norm. Why respect the laws that held them back when they could use force to indulge in their desires?

Hedonists and degenerates like these never spent much time in polishing their skills. Even as he came under constant fire, Dietrich adopted a dodging pattern that worked well against riflemen who relied too much on their targeting systems. It decreased the odds of getting hit, but the irregular movements also affected his marksmanship.

He ignored the mechs who shot at him and instead fired at the machines who persisted in harassing the Barracuda. One or two shots hardly worked, so Dietrich increased his fire rate in order to put more pressure on the persistent bastards. His ammunition depleted at an alarming rate, but the pilot had no choice.

He achieved his first breakthrough almost accidentally. He shot a casual volley at the furthest light mech, intending to scare it back before shifting his attention to another opponent. By some coincidence, two slugs managed to hit the unsuspecting mech square in the center.

The stricken mech's breakneck speed worked against its favor by amplifying the damage. One slug crunched right through the frontal armor, crushing the flimsy plates. The second slug that followed after landed close enough to slip through the cracks and apart its sides.

To Dietrich's regret, his shots failed to disable the mech, though it halted its chase. The damaged mech sputtered as its flight system lost power. Whether the mech actually lost power or the pilot simply lost his nerve, nobody knew. In any case, it made Dietrich's job easier.

The pirates responded by by firing missiles. Over fifty individual missiles launched from the medium mechs which held back so far. Due to the need to chase and catch up to the Barracuda, the missiles weren't actually travelling very fast. They still presented a very real threat.

"Those missiles need to be shot down!"

"There's too many missiles." Dietrich growled as he kept distracting the light mechs, who flew much more circumspect at the sudden loss of a fellow pirate.

"Then empty your magazines if you have to. Those missiles are not only high explosive, they're also capable of homing in on a specific section of my ship. If you ask me, I'd rather get shot at by pirates who failed their marksmanship class than let those homing missiles chew up my thrusters!"

Dietrich faced a difficult choice. If he relented on the light mechs, they might recover their poise and begin to fight back more aggressively. Still, Ves had a point about the missiles. The mech pilot lamented that his mech lacked the capacity to incorporate a machine gun that was perfect for anti-missile duty.

He shifted his targeting settings and started to fire mech-sized slugs at the missiles. Despite their nimbleness, the homing projectiles had to swim against the current so to speak, which allowed Dietrich to land most of his shots.

While the Harrier methodically destroyed the missile swarm, the other mechs grew bold and focused their fire on the ship again. The pilot couldn't do anything about their opportunistic attacks besides speeding up the destruction of the missiles.

Once he intercepted the last missiles, the Harrier flew back to the ship. "Open up Ves! I need a resupply!"

The battered hatch lowered quicker than normal. Ves had overridden the safety protocols. The Harrier flew back inside even as sporadic shots landed close to the vulnerable opening. One laser managed to scorch the interior bulkhead of the ship before the hatch closed up again.

Ves tiredly spoke again from the bridge. "I need you back out of there as fast as possible. The aft section is almost out of armor and the thrusters aren't looking too good either."

"I know! I'm doing the best I can already." Dietrich replied as he quickly shook off his spent magazines. The empty cases landed onto the deck with a soundless thud due to the absence of air.

Midway through the resupply, the Barracuda shuddered for a second.

"What's that?"

"That's the result of a malfunctioning thruster! I've forced the faulty component to keep working, but it won't do any favors for its longevity. Get back out there please!"

Dietrich didn't bother with picking up the last magazines. "Open the hatch. I'm going out!"

The Harrier exited the hatch and fired aggressively at the pursuing pirates. He changed his strategy. His previous act of suppressing all of the mechs at the same time did not do much in deterring them. Only when he disabled a mech did the enemy pilots pull back a bit.

"You guys want to see blood? Then let me show you what this Whaler can do."

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With about ten minutes left to go before the FTL drive finished cycling, the pirates already came close to immobilizing their prey. Though unaware that the Barracuda was able to jump in just two hours after arriving at the star system, their ceaseless aggression made it clear these pirates were out for blood.

The passage of time allowed the light mechs to close the distance to their prey. Their mechs were at the brink of overheating, but their pilots exerted enough control to stay under the limit. Their awful accuracy improved quite a bit now that their target grew bigger on their targeting screens.

"You're not the only pilots who benefit from this ship." Dietrich muttered with a focused snarl. "I've taken a lot of crap from you guys. It's time for payback."

Dietrich specialized in both aerial maneuvering and marksmanship. Armed with a ballistic rifle, he excelled in picking off enemy mechs from medium range. Now that his main targets approached his optimal range, he could finally dish out the hurt.

Taking advantage of their lack of attention on him, Dietrich took his time and aimed at the nearest light mech. He calmly lined up his shots and released three kinetic slugs in succession.

His aim held true. The first kinetic slug glanced off the light mech's arm, stripping a decent chunk of armor plating. The following round flew past the mech's head, missing it entirely. The third one accidentally crashed against the rifle's stock, tearing the weapon from the still-reacting mech's hands.

The weapon helplessly flew off into deep space, leaving the lightly armored mech with no means to continue the fight. Like the Harrier, the pirate mech only carried one main weapon in order to save weight.

Realizing his predicament, the pilot of the disarmed mech pulled back and tried to join the second wave following from behind. He wanted to borrow a spare weapon from his comrades in order to resume the chase.

"Two down, three to go."

The sudden attack left the remaining light mechs stunned. They hesitated for a couple of seconds before focusing their attacks on the Harrier. In their eyes, the toothless Barracuda was a sitting duck they could slaughter at their leisure.

Ves encouragingly praised Dietrich's performance. "Whatever you're doing, keep it up! The integrity of the thrusters have reached a critical point. They're resistant to heat so the lasers don't bother them much, but they absolutely can't take any more shells."

"How much longer do I have to stall them?"

"Seven minutes! We're almost home!"

Those seven minutes were hard fought. Dietrich duelled with the three mechs. Due to his recent resupply, he liberally emptied his magazines like a drunkard binging at the bar. Previously, he had to take his time to line up his shots. Not anymore. He bracketed his target in an inescapable net of projectiles. No matter where the hapless pirate dodged, he couldn't escape.

To his credit, the pilot of the light mech spun around and let its relatively useless feet take the impact. Dietrich commended the pirate's split-second decision making even as he realized he was dealing with a tough cookie.

"Fine, I'll leave you for last."

For now, he had to remove as much sources of danger as possible. Even as his mech shook from the increasingly accurate incoming shots, he trusted his Harrier to hold together. Unlike the flimsy light mechs in front of him, his mech boasted actual armor.

In contrast, his immediate opponents emphasized speed at the cost of both armor and firepower. Their ballistic rifles only shot juvenile versions of what his own weapon unleashed. Despite being outnumbered, Dietrich leveraged his advantages in such a dominant way that the remaining light mechs stood no chance.

Like the flies they represented, Dietrich swatted them out of contention with only a bit of effort. It took a generous amount of kinetic slugs, but he inflicted serious damage to the flight systems of two of them. The remaining pirate decisively gave up once he stood alone and pulled back to join his mates.

"Yeah! Run away you coward!" Dietrich yelled as he realized he successfully beat back the pirates and saved his friend's ship from certain doom. They came with five but none made it to the end. "I am the best!"

The Astral Wolves obviously hadn't given up. They merely stopped throwing mechs at a closer range where the Harrier held all the advantages. The constant laser fire from the extremely distant medium mechs never ceased. While the Barracuda had been built to withstand a lot of heat, the cracks in her hull did not bode well for the ship.

"Get back to the ship." Ves commanded from the bridge, breaking Dietrich's high. "We're jumping out in two minutes."

"Roger that."

Now that Dietrich turned around, he finally saw how close they made it past this hurdle. The light mechs had done a number on the aft section. Their light projectiles might not pack a punch, but against a target as large as a ship, they chewed up the armor like a swarm of a thousand bees. The plating was marred by so many pits and holes that it resembled the surface of a barren moon.

"Is the ship still functional?" He idly questioned as he quickly snuck his mech inside the opened hatch.

"Whoever designed the Arkon class deserves a lot of credit. They've incorporated an ingenious buffer layout that mitigates any damage that goes past the armor belt. All our critical systems besides the thrusters are intact."

The damage to the thrusters was severe, but it mattered little when Ves spooled up the FTL drive. Engaging the drive immediately after finishing the cycle degraded its hardware, but nobody cared about maintenance problems right now.

The pirate vessels detected the unique fluctuations coming out of their prey. With impotent rage, the Astral Wolves had no means of preventing the corvette's escape. With a swirling whoosh, the ship transitioned into an entirely different mode of existence.

The Barracuda finally let go of her highest alert state. Repair bots of all kinds scurried out of their holes and patched up whatever internal damage the ship received.

Air returned inside the cargo bay as Dietrich slowly shut down his battered mech. Due to maintaining a flat fighting posture in the previous battle, the Harrier's legs blocked most of the incoming fire. The damage was so severe that the mech could not stand on its own two feet anymore under standard gravity conditions.

With no other choice, Dietrich awkwardly collapsed the mech to a sitting position. He made sure to avoid bumping into the the boxes strapped down to the deck.

He met Ves when he exited the cockpit. Sweat suffused his entire body though his pilot suit absorbed most of the moisture. There was nothing like snatching victory from the jaws of defeat.

"You fought good." Ves congratulated him even as he stared at his Harrier's wretched state. "We'll have to pay for the bills, but we could have lost it all."

"Ves?"

"Yes Dietrich?"

"You owe me a mech."

"Hey, I'm the one who invited you to this trip." Ves immediately responded with his palms held up. "I'll cover your repair costs but I'm not in the position to gift you a new mech. Besides, I'm not capable of designing a rifleman mech at this moment."

"Tch, I don't need your money to fix my mech. I can easily cover the cost once I send my dad to the abandoned base. No, I want you to personally build a mech for me. I can wait for it, but you better deliver. Don't forget who saved your billion col ship."

The blond mech pilot had a point. Ves eventually promised to tailor a mech for him once he had the means. If Dietrich's gang got a good haul from stripping the underground base, then he'd even cover the cost. It was an equitable arrangement for both men.

After Dietrich left for the showers, Ves looked at the Harrier once again and sighed. "We've really cut it close. I'm lucky to have brought you along. The galaxy is a lot more dangerous than I thought. I won't be making the same mistake twice."

The Barracuda sustained no damage to her FTL drive, so the remaining leg of the journey occurred without glitches or breakdowns. Ves made sure to inspect each of her systems in person, but there was only so much a mech designer like him could understand.

Ves stroked his chin with his palm as he gazed at the damage report. His ship got off lightly, all considered. She lost very little functionality and could still be used to traverse the stars.

The bad news came when Ves considered how much it cost to fix the damage. The Barracuda used a proprietary armor plating system that could only be produced at the most advanced production facilities back in the Friday Coalition.

If Ves wanted to fix the holes in his ship, he'd have to leave her at a repair yard and arrange imports of most of the exclusive materials. The total cost amounted to at least twenty million credits.

For now, he couldn't spare the money to repair a ship that wasn't essential to his daily operations. Better to leave the ship behind and focus on building his core business first. He planned to revisit the matter of repairs once he enhanced his earnings.

After making sure his ship wasn't about to fall apart, Ves went back to his studies. He only had a limited amount of time and he wanted to hit the ground running once he arrived at his workshop.

The recent attack once more reinforced how easy it was for him to die. Without strength, one had no right to speak. Even a mech designer was able to accrue power if everyone wanted you to design their mechs. His first priority was to advance his skills.

His latest brush of death pushed Ves to accelerate his learning. He wanted to advance his Electrical Engineering and Physics skills to Apprentice-level with just weeks to go. In order to keep up with his brutal schedule, he kept his daily interaction with Dietrich and Lucky to a minimum.

Fortunately, both cat and pilot had other concerns in mind. Lucky almost finished gnawing Master Olson's ore. When Ves stroked his gem cat's back, he always got the feeling he was touching an overstuffed energy cell.

Meanwhile, Dietrich helped plan his father's upcoming salvage expedition. Walter's Whalers were already in the process of commissioning a convoy of transports and corvettes.

By the time the Barracuda transitioned into the Bentheim system, Ves finished upgrading both of his targeted skills. The improvements bolstered his fundamental mech design skills by plugging his weaknesses.

They also eased his attempt to reconstruct the Dortmund. The new insights he received from his studies allowed him to understand the blueprint and repair manual a little better. He understood some of the subtler nuances of the 3D printer's design.

"Alright System. Show me my Status."

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 1307

Attributes

Strength: 0.8

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.8

Intelligence: 1.3

Creativity: 1

Concentration: 1.7

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly: Apprentice - [3D Printer Proficiency II] [Assembler Proficiency II]

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Apprentice

[Mathematics: Apprentice

[Mechanics: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging II] [Speed Tuning III]

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression I]

[Metaphysics: Incompetent

[Physics: Apprentice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization III]

Abilities

[Superpublish: Available. Can be activated once a year.

Evaluation: A well-rounded Apprentice at the start of his real career.

Even the System complimented him for working on his weakest skills. He shouldn't let his designs be dragged down by a critical shortcoming.

"My DP barely grew. It's still a long way until I reach 2000 DP."

His current plan called for earning enough DP to advance his Mathematics skill to Journeyman-level. Without this upgrade, Ves wasn't willing to release a second iteration of the Marc Antony. As his primary money maker, Ves wanted to make the updated variant last.

Ves had a lot on his plate when he finally returned. He was already looking forward to it all.

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"The prodigal son returns!" Marcella Bollinger greeted Ves with open arms as he arrived at her office.

"Does that make you my mom?"

"You wish!"

"Jokes aside, thank you for granted the Barracuda a berth in your private docking space."

"If there's one thing brokers don't lack, it's space. I'll be sure to keep your new toy secure."

The two sat down and began to discuss how the Bright Republic fared in his absence. The mech broker employed an entire department of analysts who kept track of the political and economic trends of their state. Marcella freely shared some of her insights.

"Everyone is smelling a war is brewing, but this time is different." She said grimly. She obviously predicted dark tidings. "We expect the Vesians to stir the pot a little, but the uprisings and terrorist attacks are much more severe than the Republic has anticipated. Every state in the star sector is suffering from some source of instability."

Ves scratched his head. Even the Vesians were dealing with their fair share of terrorists? "Could it be another star sector is having designs on our territory?"

"No, that doesn't make sense. The Komodo Star Sector ranks near the bottom in both exotic resource deposits and economic development. There's something bigger brewing behind the scenes. We won't know what's going on until they spring their plan on us."

"That doesn't sound reassuring. You're right, this isn't something we should stick our hands into. Better let the politicians from Rittersberg earn their pay for once."

"Your old friend Vincent is gaining prominence." Marcella added with a smirk. "He's one of the spokesmen for the so-called Bentheim Independence Movement. They want to secede Bentheim and its surrounding influence from the Republic, with violence if necessary."

"That's crazy! If Bentheim is our only port system. Without it, the Bright Republic is finished. Bentheim won't be better off either. Without the population and support from the rest of the Republic, the newly independent movement will only amount to a fourth-rate state at most."

"Don't underestimate their appeal. Bentheimers always consider themselves superior to the rest of the Republic. They resent the fact that they have to take their marching orders from Rittersberg. It doesn't help that much of Bentheim's wealth is used to subsidize the development of other planets and star systems."

The issue turned out to be quite the wedge between the people of Bentheim and the rest of the Republic. While Cloudy Curtain fell under Bentheim's sphere of influence, Ves had little sympathy for these delusions.

"So how's the mech industry faring these days?"

Marcella gave Ves an ambivalent smile. "The attacks are straining our industry's supply chains. Shipments get hijacked, factories get blown up or certain businesses get persuaded to cancel their long-standing contracts. It might only happen here and there, but each disruption has a ripple effect that affects all other companies down the supply chains."

"In other words, the saboteurs are trying to achieve maximum disruption with minimum effort. They shouldn't be part of a powerful group, then. Maybe they don't have a scary backing."

"Surprisingly, the chaos has only led to greater sales. The Mech Corps has expanded their orders by fifteen percent. Many mercenary leaders decided that they'd rather expand their arsenal immediately than to wait for the transition to the next generation of mechs."

"Looks like it's already high season for the industry. It's too bad I'm missing out."

"Are you sure you won't reconsider fabricating your current model? I already said I had a big order in store for you. It's easy money."

"The Marc Antony doesn't conform to my standards anymore. I can't allow any detractors to make an example out of it to convince the public that I'm not worthy to be an apprentice."

Marcella shrugged. "It's your call. Let me warn you that it won't do your credibility any good if you are halting your sales for an extended time."

A mech designer that was all talk and no show didn't go far in the business. Ves knew he risked squandering the goodwill he gained from becoming Master Olson's apprentice.

Ves asked for some tips on applying for a loan. Marcella briefly explained the procedure and what he should watch out for. She had a very daring suggestion when it came to collateral.

"You should put up your corvette as collateral if you're in need of a large amount of money. A genuine luxury corvette from the Friday Coalition is worth as much as a medium-sized company here. It's the best way to make use of a shiny but non-essential asset."

"No." Ves shook his head. "Absolutely not. I don't want to risk the ownership of the Barracuda. Besides, I'd be drowning in credits if I put up my ship for collateral. I can't grow my company that quickly without losing grip."

Marcella dropped the subject once Ves refused to budge on this matter. "Take a look at last month's national sales figures. Most of the skirmishes that have taken place are mainly hit-and-run attacks. Sales of light mechs have gone through the roof."

After discussing some minor issues, Ves ended his talk with his broker and left her office. He returned to the spaceport and met up with a waiting Dietrich and Lucky.

"Finally you're back!" The bored pilot spoke as he rose from his chair. "Are we done with this place?"

"I've finished all of my arrangements, yes. Your mech and my cargo are already being shipped back home. We've got a transport to catch."

They boarded the transport and took their seats without issue. The modest, utilitarian decor of the local spaceship contrasted sharply with the classier ships from the Coalition. This was the first time in months that he felt as if he finally felt at home. He didn't have to worry about class differences or watch his step in case of bumping into a powerful bigwig.

After two days of placid travel, their transport landed at Cloudy Curtain's spaceport. Their journey together finally came at an end.

Ves held Lucky close to his chest while making sure his floating luggage followed him out of the ship. He turned around and said goodbye to Dietrich. "It's been a wild ride. We've cut it close, but we made it through."

"I'd rather take a break from all the action." Dietrich smiled helplessly as he No offense, but you're a dangerous man to be around."

After a friendly pat on the shoulder, the exuberant mech pilot returned to the embrace of Walter's Whalers. The entire spaceport was a hive of activity as the gang finished their preparations for their upcoming scavenging expedition.

Ves had no further involvement in their proceedings. In exchange for forsaking all of his claims on the abandoned base, he'd receive the full sale value of the blackmail material they recovered from a stash.

"Let's go home, Lucky."

When the aircar arrived in front of his workshop, Ves sighed in relief. Nothing happened to his workshop. A lone security bot vigilantly patrolled the perimeter and the electric fencing sparkled ominously. Household bots neatly trimmed the grass and swept up any dust in their way.

A familiar face waited by the entrance. Carlos Shaw resolutely quit his job arranged by his father's connections. His friend severed his only opportunity to climb the ladder of a major mech manufacturer.

"Hey Ves. Look at you. Last time we met, you were just a fellow buddy. Now you've become an unreachable existence. You even look handsomer!"

Ves did change a lot since he left the Bright Republic. His mentality matured after winning the Leemar Open Competition and surviving two different pirate attacks. His appearance grew smoother due to the changes brought by the gene boost.

Finally, he set aside most of his normal clothes and started donning his gifted antigrav clothes all the time. The malleable high-tech clothes came preprogrammed with an entire library of stylish outfits. Even a fashion illiterate boor like Ves could not go wrong once he took advantage of this function.

"Let's step inside before we discuss your employment." Ves calmly spoke and led his friend past the security measures and into his shabby workshop.

Lucky escaped from his grasp and ran to his private little bed. The cat had grown less active over the past few days. Ves suspected his pet was about to undergo a fundamental transformation.

Once Ves finished arranging his luggage, he returned to the living room and stared at his friend. Carlos sat at the dining table with a data pad in front. The pad showed his employment contract.

"My broker arranged this cookie cutter employment contract. I've modified a couple of terms in order to suit my purposes better. You will work for my company in a full-time capacity as a mech fabricator. I'm not hiring you to be my designer, but you are free to use my licenses and facilities to play around if you finished your daily tasks. Your will receive a modest pay of ten-thousand credits a month before taxes. Do you have any questions?"

Carlos scrunched his face. "Yeah, it says here you will own all the rights for any commercial designs I register at the MTA. Isn't that a little overboard?"

"I don't think this is an unreasonable demand." Ves retorted with a firm voice. "Mech designers usually don't allow their subordinates to borrow their facilities in the first place. If you are taking advantage of my hard-earned equipment and licenses, then your designs should also belong to me. Don't worry, the contract states that you'll receive appropriate credit as well as a cut from any sales."

It might not be entirely fair to Carlos, but Ves wanted to make it clear who was in charge. He knew that Carlos wanted to work under Ves in order to develop his own mech designer career. Ves didn't want to invest in Carlos without getting anything in return. If Carlos thought he was going to be a selfless chump, then he was sorely mistaken.

"Okay, I can accept that." Carlos said and dropped his objection. "The next page states that I have to sign an MTA-administered disclosure agreement. You know the penalties for breaking a contract under the purview of the MTA, right? In the worst case, I can even get executed!"

"I trust you, but I've made quite a few enemies." Ves crossed his arms. "Who knows if someone offers you a couple of billion credits to pass on some information?"

"I would never do that!"

"Even if you are inhuman enough to resist becoming an instant billionaire, perhaps you'll receive threats. No one is infallible, Carlos. I don't want to consider the option of you betraying me. I can be assured you won't do anything stupid if I bring in the MTA. It will also send a signal to my enemies that there's no use trying to use their means on you."

Since it was a matter of life and death, Ves gave Carlos time to weigh the issue. If his friend insisted on change, then he would withdraw the employment contract. He had a lot of secrets in his closet. While Ves didn't intend to inform his employee about the System or the X-Factor, it never hurt to prepare beforehand.

"Okay. I don't know what you're hiding, but if you think it's serious enough to bring in the MTA, then so be it. I'll sign your darned NDA."

After going past these hurdles, Carlos brought up a range of minor issues. Ves patiently explained his thoughts even showed a little flexibility by changing some minor clauses. He hardly cared about when Carlos would claim his vacation days, or how much of a bonus he earned if he worked overtime.

"If that's all, then let's visit the local branch of the MTA to finalize the contract and sign the NDA. You'll start your work tomorrow. I'll arrange a spare design terminal and some other amenities in order to accommodate your presence."

After a firm handshake, Carlos left the workshop and went back to his new home. In preparation for his new job, he already rented a nearby home in the nearby suburbs of Freslin.

Ves returned to his workshop. He had to arrange the storage of his salvaged Dortmund parts. He considered taking another loan in order to fund the purchase of an alloy compressor. He also wanted to earn some very precious DP by designing a couple of virtual mechs.

In short, he was back in business.

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The next day, Ves stared at a glowing blue ball. He remembered that Lucky settled into his bed here. Overnight, he somehow turned into a dangerous-looking ball of energy. After stretching out his hand, he noted that the ball did not emit any kind of heat.

"Lucky should have warned me if he was up to something dangerous. I'd better leave this ball alone for now."

He remembered that he promised Lucky a million credits worth of minerals. Despite his apprehension at spending so much money, Ves still wanted to keep his promise. He went to his terminal and opened the MTA's internal market. After ordering a bunch of shiny-looking ores, he confirmed his order. He expected Lucky's present to arrive within the week.

He walked to his backyard and stared at the large containers that arrived in the morning. Ves summoned up his workshop's cargo bots and brought its contents to a secure storage room. He handled the boxes of Dortmund parts carefully.

As Ves did not plan to reconstruct the Dortmund immediately, he left the boxes unopened. Before he started work on reconstructing the industrial-scale 3D printer, he wanted to accumulate more skills. It would be foolish to ruin the reconstructed printer due to underestimating the difficulty involved in putting it back together.

"It's all about the skills." He said ruefully. "I'm never ready to do anything if I constantly chase after upgrades."

He couldn't help it. Reconstructing the Dortmund and updating the Marc Antony variant both required him to exert his utmost. Both were critical projects that Ves could not afford to screw up.

The extra office equipment he ordered yesterday arrived as well. Ves received the extra terminal, chair, drinks dispenser and other amenities and set them up in his workspace.

He reconfigured the workroom into an office space that complied with the local codes. He installed several privacy screens into basic cubicles that ensured a worker's privacy without isolating them completely.

Ves also activated the setting that prevented sounds from spreading. He had a tendency to talk to himself, and didn't want to bother Carlos with his ramblings.

Some of the work might not be entirely necessary at the moment. Ves wanted to prepare for the future.

"Speaking of expansion, I don't think I've thought up a proper name for my business yet. It's still registered as a sole proprietorship. That's fine when I'm just starting out, but now that I'm thinking of increasing my scale, I really should get around to registering a corporation."

A sole proprietorship basically meant that Ves and his business were one and the same. Any losses the business made reflected directly on him. This might be fine for small-time street corner stores, but for a company that dealt with goods worth millions of credits, it was wholly inadequate.

A limited liability corporation was a separate legal entity in the eyes of the Bright Republic and most other states. If his business somehow screwed up and incurred a loss of a billion credits, then Ves wouldn't be liable if it the company declared bankruptcy. Naturally, things weren't so simple, and Ves still had to deal with some of the consequences.

Registering a corporation was not a simple task at all. He had to set up a charter and enumerate everyone's rights.

"Ah, I'll take care of it later." Ves waved his hand, adding it to his increasingly growing to-do list. "First, I'll have to bring in Carlos to the fold."

His friend arrived at his doorstep at noon. Ves met him outside and hailed a high-speed aircar for them both. After boarding the vehicle, they were on their way to Orinoco, the planetary capital on the other side of the planet.

On the way, Ves explained his expectations for his new fabricator. "Once you're officially employed by me, you'll have to brush up your assembly. It's of prime importance that you can assemble one of my designs without my supervision. If I have to look over your shoulder every time you bump into trouble, then what's the point of hiring you in the first place?"

"I understand." Carlos dutifully nodded. "In the time I've been waiting for you to return, I dove into my old textbooks. I've got a solid grasp on theory."

"That's insufficient for my purposes. My first and only commercial design so far is a very complex advanced mech. Its maze-like internal layout alone is prone to faults. Just one mistake could set me back millions of credits. No, you need lots of practice before you can even think of using my machines for real. I'll register and pay for an Iron Spirit mech developer account in your name."

"What? You want me to play a game?"

"Hey, don't knock on the game. The realism is sufficiently close enough that you'll be able to master almost all of the fundamental steps to fabrication in a safe, virtual environment."

"Doesn't it cost a lot of money to start fabricating a virtual mech?"

"Don't worry, I'll cover the costs. With my current savings, I can afford to splurge a little. Consider it an investment. Just don't expect a raise anytime soon."

According to the current rates, it cost about 18,000 credits to fund the fabrication of a virtual Marc Antony. As a notoriously overstuffed advanced 5-star mech, Ves considered that Carlos needed at least a month of practice before he mastered the basics.

That was with the old version of the design. When Ves introduced the second generation of the variant, Carlos most likely had to do things over again.

Carlos smiled in appreciation. "I don't have time to be greedy when you've given me these opportunities. Thank you for taking care of me. I really appreciate all you've done."

"Then repay me by helping me grow my business. I need a trustworthy man by my side."

They spent the rest of the ride discussion the ins-and-outs of fabricating the Marc Antony. Ves did not have any notes about his insights, so all he could do was to pass them using his own words.

After a couple of hours, the aircar arrived at the MTA's local branch. Ves already scheduled an appointment, so they were led into an elegant meeting room by a low-level representative. Both Ves and Carlos confirmed their identities through numerous tests before signing a bevy of digital documents.

After leaving the MTA, Ves decided to stick around the capital. As they walked through Orinoco's modest shopping streets, Carlos whistled in appreciation.

"I can actually walk around without bumping into people all the time. I've got to say that it's a nice change of scenery. The only downside is that I still haven't gotten used to the constant cloud cover. It's even more disconcerting when the clouds adopt a rainbow sheen."

"Blame the original settlers for leaving the terraforming to the lowest bidder." Ves amiably said. "When you get used to it, you'll realize our sky is an endless canvas. Folks like to gaze endlessly at the clouds, taking inspiration from its infinite varieties."

It sounded incredibly boring to Carlos, but he kept his opinion to himself. Instead, he pointed at a nearby sculpture. "What's that?"

Ves did not answer his question immediately. Instead, he led his new employee to the foot of a thin but tall statue. It had been shaped into an archaic candle that reached above the tallest office buildings in the city.

A narrow trail of smouldering black smoke ascended from the top of the candle. Somehow, the smoke did not disperse, but maintain cohesion as it climbed its way into the clouds.

Both men looked up at top of the candle where its tip ceaselessly smouldered. Compared to the many monuments they onced toured in Rittersberg, the lone stone candle hardly matched up.

"Do you remember the founding story of the Bright Republic?" Ves suddenly asked.

"Sure I do. A bunch of marginalized idealists and pacifists from the New Rubarth Empire banded together and funded a colonization expedition to the galactic rim. They chafed at the stifling, militaristic culture of the Empire and wanted to create a paradise in the most remote corner of the galaxy. In their eyes, they wished to preserve the light of civilization in an unforgiving galaxy."

Every Republican citizen knew the story, and what followed after. The ancestors of the Bright Republic eventually reached the Komodo Star Sector, only to find the juiciest star systems claimed by expeditions funded by their more warlike rivals.

The few times the Bright Republic tried to wrest control of them ended badly, as pacifists did not make for very good soldiers.

Carlos continued the story. "After losing so many ships, supplies and men, they eventually came across a habitable world. They settled down on the planet and called it Rittersberg, the last refuge of a noble venture. The Bright Republic was founded there and then, and over time the colonists expanded and claimed the surrounding stars."

"And what happened to their dreams?" Ves asked in a tone that indicated he already knew the answer.

"Over time, the Bright Republic shed its pacifists roots. They had to in order to fend off aggression from aliens and regional rivals like the Vesia Kingdom. Still, in order to commemorate their origins, they built the Eternal Lighthouse at the spot where the first colonist stepped foot on Rittersberg."

Ves gestured his arm at the giant smouldering candle. "The descendents of hardcore pacifists consider the Eternal Lighthouse to be a farce. When the Bright Republic slowly increased its militarization, the most dissatisfied pacifists scrounged up their meager savings and founded the planet that would eventually become Cloudy Curtain."

"So they built this candle as a middle finger to the Eternal Lighthouse?"

"Yup. The Smouldering Candle is supposed to remind the people of this planet that the rest of the Republic has forgotten their ideals. The light is snuffed, and only a smouldering tip remains."

"Huh. Don't you feel strange about basing your mech workshop on this planet of pacifists?"

"It's already been hundreds of years since the founding of this planet." Ves replied without a note of concern. "Time has wiped away our roots. These days, the locals drink their beer and watch the mech arena duels like any regular Republican citizen. The bureaucrats hardly raised an eyebrow when my father and I registered my business."

Nothing was eternal. Dreams only lasted until the people woke up. Life eventually must go on.

After touring the streets and showing off the local sights, the pair decided to return. They took another aircar back to the outskirts of Freslin and returned at the workshop by evening.

Carlos said his goodbyes. "It's been great hanging out with you. It brings me back to our days at Rittersberg."

"Be thankful for the break, because your work starts tomorrow. You need to master your new role as a fabricator as soon as possible. I won't allow you to be a drain on my resources forever."

"I understand. You won't regret hiring me."

After a good night's sleep, Ves woke up the next day and started working on some administrative details. He keyed Carlos into the security system and granted him limited access to the facilities. He also prepared a new mech designer account for him and granted it access to the designs under his Chasing Clouds account.

When Carlos arrived at the workshop, Ves led him to the office room and pointed at the second terminal. "That's your new workstation. I've already configured it to allow you to login to Iron Spirit and practice your skills."

"Can I make use of your design software as well? It will help me out a lot if I can flex my other mech design skills."

"It's already done." Ves replied and drew his employee's attention to a greyed-out icon in the starting menu. "I've set the terminal up to unlock the design software after working hours is over. You can stay over after you finish your shift if you want to play around with designing your own mech."

"That's very generous of you. Thank you again."

"No problem."

Once Carlos finished registering a developer account, Ves went back to his terminal and logged into his own game account. He put off work for several days now.

"I'm still missing about 700 DP. If I want to upgrade my Mathematics to Journeyman, then I'll have to publish a new virtual design."

The problem was that he couldn't afford to waste too much time. He had to get back to selling actual mechs in order to keep up with his timetable.

"Rather than designing a whole bunch of virtual mechs, I should focus on perfecting a single machine."

With the attention he gained from the entire star sector, Ves knew he was being watched. Many industry insiders kept tabs on him. He didn't want to squander all of this initial interest by releasing a sloppy design. The first impression was the most important one to make.

His last two virtual designs consisted of Octagon variants. His Mist Prowler acted as a capable ambush predator, while his Speed Demon excelled in chasing down light mechs. Both were competent designs for a Novice Mech Designer, but they fell short to his current standards.

After advancing to an Apprentice Mech Designer, Ves felt it was time to move on to 3-star designs. He already had a taste of these designs when he competed at Leemar. He only held back due to the cost.

"My spending account has nothing left. I spent way too much money." Ves took note as he checked his bank accounts. "I've already started dipping into my piggy bank. With only 22 million credits left in liquid funds, can I afford to splurge on virtual licenses?"

Ves decided to take a look at the catalog. Most of the licenses for the mechs averaged around a million credits. This was a steep price that put most amateur mech designers out of play. The lack of clutter appealed to Ves, though he also had to compete against professionals with too much time on their hands.

"Even if I'm young, I can still stand firm." He concluded after taking a look at the best-selling variants.

It helped that he did not intend to top the sales charts. Ves was content if he earned 700 DP. With this modest goal in mind, Ves considered the type of mech he wanted to design.

"The ongoing tension has caused people to feel less safe. The game is experiencing an upsurge of players. In tumultuous times, they can only rely on themselves."

Many potentates intensified their training. They left behind the simple, generalist mechs and focused instead on mastering specialized mechs. Marcella already explained this ongoing trend during his last visit to her office.

Ves already had a plan in mind. In order to prepare for his upcoming redesign project, he wanted to work on a medium knight.

The Marc Antony was actually an overburdened hybrid knight. By working on this variant so early in his design career, Ves was actually putting the cart before the horse. He could gain more insight on hybrid knights by starting with the basic form of a regular knight.

In mech terms, knights referred to mechs armed with a single-handed weapon and a shield. Usually knights were armed with swords due to their versatility and popularity, though some relied on spears or axes.

A normal knight never wielded ranged weapons. Sometimes they carried a pistol, but never anything larger. Mechs focused on melee combat optimized their limbs for power. Ranged weapons did not make use of this. Instead, they demanded precision. A knight which tried to juggle both power and precision were called hybrid knights for that reason.

Regardless of their loadout, knights formed a bulwark of defense. They generally fared poorly when operating alone, but excelled in teamfights. With a knight holding down a position, any enemy had to go through a painful ordeal in order to dislodge the defender.

They also took on other roles if needed. For example, they made use of their tough exteriors to break through enemy lines. They also escorted vulnerable artillery mechs or any other kind of sharpshooter mechs. The synergy between a knight and a ranged mech was well-known.

"I'll have to design a knight that is able to work in a team."

Previously at Leemar, Ves designed mechs that operated alone. This was different. While he could still design a knight which excelled in solo duels, it had to seamlessly integrate into a team.

He settled a couple of parameters for his upcoming design. "The knight must be able to take a beating, so it will weigh at the top end of the medium weight class. It's going to be slow, but it should still be within the limits of a medium mech. The knight should also be a sufficient threat at close range, which means it is going to need strong arms and legs."

Most knights already took these factors in account. Certain designs fulfilled the basic requirements, but also emphasized some other aspects in order to distinguish themselves. What Ves sought in particular was a design with a powerful short-ranged dash.

After an hour of browsing through the catalog, Ves finally narrowed down his choice.

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Many mech manufacturers boldly entered the market with a superstar designs. Only a few companies demonstrated enough staying power to persist until today. The Lindholm Armament Company outgrew its modest roots to become a giant trans-galactic corporation. Lindholm was a household brand name in the mech market, to the point where loyal customers brainlessly bought their latest products.

Ves normally disdained mainstream mechs, but their introductory model deserved a look.

The story of Lindholm started with their first commercially available design, the Hoplite HPL-100P. Two-hundred years ago, the introduction of the Hoplite propelled a small and obscure company to galactic prominence. Its design deviated significantly from convention.

First, the Hoplite used a spear instead of a sword as its main armament. Lindholm was not content with a simple spear.

Instead, they introduced an innovative weapon capable of adjusting its own length. Through a sturdy layered tube design, the Hoplite could extend or shorten the length of the spear at will. The only downside to this structure was that the spear could not withstand as much force.

"It's still a daring innovation." Ves said admiringly.

True, the weapon had flaws, but it worked out for the model. It proved a design didn't have to be flawless in an engineering perspective in order to sell well. "

The Hoplite also made use of an unconventional heavy shield. Its large round shield sported a flat, broad spike in the center, allowing it to pierce through armor when used as a weapon. Lindholm expressly designed the shield for offensive use by adding a couple of unconventional augments.

First, they attached miniature boosters to rear of the shield. They automatically ignited their charges when the Hoplite initiated a bashing motion. The boosters only burned for a quarter of a second, but that was sufficient to magnify the impact by up to fifty percent.

If that wasn't enough, the Lindholm designers also stuffed in an inertial manipulator. Normally, it remained inactive. The module only took effect when the Hoplite started to bash. It only reduced the shield's weight by thirty percent, which sped up the bash.

At the last instant before impact, the module reversed its settings, making the shield thirty percent heavier. This slowed down the bash but that hardly mattered when the shield impacted its target an instant later. The extra weight gave the bash more momentum, making the shield harder to fend off.

Hoplite pilots usually followed up by striking their target with an extended spear. This was the Hoplite's staple combo, one that propelled the design to prominence.

There were downsides to the augments. While Lindholm reinforced the boosters and inertial manipulator against shocks, they were still prone to malfunction. The augments also only carried a limited amount of charges, enough for three times.

The critics called it a gimmick. The mech pilots who performed the move professed their love for it. Despite the controversy, Lindholm aggressively marketed the ridiculous move and sold hundreds of thousands of Hoplites. The hype eventually faded out, but by that time Lindholm earned enough of a killing to fund the development of better designs.

If that was it, then the model should be forgotten by now. Instead, the Hoplite enjoyed enduring popularity in Iron Spirit due to its final feature.

Lindholm wanted to design a knight with offensive prowess. Upgrading the weapons wasn't enough. They also wanted to give their mech the ability to rush forward at high speeds. To do that, they extensively modified the Hoplite without relying on boosters.

Installing boosters was the conventional way of enhancing a mech's short-ranged boost. While powerful, they also imposed many limits on the design. Instead of dealing with issues such as fuel storage and heat management, Lindholm instead augmented the legs.

While the legs still appeared humanoid, the designers massively strengthened the artificial muscles. No one knew how they did it, but they introduced an original muscle scheme that allowed mechs to push off the ground in an extremely powerful burst. Extendable claws embedded in the feet helped maximize the Hoplite's grip, which prevented it from slipping.

Overall, Ves admired the original developers of the Hoplite. They were not afraid to implement their own vision onto the staid old knight archetype. The work done on the spear, shield and legs all complemented each other's strength, amplifying their effects when combined together. The designers succeeded in turning their outlandish vision into a practical product.

"The Hoplite is a masterpiece."

In design terms, the model was difficult to improve but easy to ruin. Many mech designers tried and failed to develop variants that significantly improved upon its performance.

Ves did not fear a challenge. He wanted to prove he could handle a difficult model like the Hoplite. The way to to that was to succeed in creating a new variant that was not some minor rehash of the base model.

[Lindholm Armament Company Hoplite HPL-100P: 1.2 million bright credits

He winced at the price. While he still possessed a substantial amount of savings, he hadn't been earning any money lately.

"I still need to make another purchase."

Ves had a very simple plan in mind. He wanted to design that took advantage of the current trend. Many teenage potentates were currently flocking to Iron Spirit in order to polish their piloting skills.

Mastering a knight was one of the basic classes offered by mech academies and mech institutions. It was the simplest mech type and one that offered beginners an excellent starting point in piloting mechs.

One reason the base model only enjoyed a limited amount of popularity was that it was built around the spear. Trainee pilots only practiced with sword-wielding knights.

He intended to meet their needs by designing a sword-wielding Hoplite variant. While several such variants could already be found in the catalog, Ves thought he could put his own spin on the concept. After browsing the catalog, Ves found an appropriate weapon and added it to his shopping cart.

[J.J.V. Limited Imperial Sword ISX34: 250.000 bright credits

The so-called Imperial Sword sounded fancy, but shared the same shape as the weapons used by trainees. The one-handed sword was not too long, not too short, not too heavy, not too light and so on. It had no distinguishing features due to the need to accommodate every possible mech pilot, at least at the start of their training.

Ves chose the Imperial Sword because it was a well-designed upgrade from the cheap and sub-standard training swords. J.J.V Limited poured a lot of research into improving the simplistic sword design, from changing its composition to adjusting its shape and center of mass. It led to a weapon that many recruits loved to use at the start of their careers.

"It's not a very exciting sword, but it is a time-tested design. It's sharp, tough and not too expensive. That's good enough for most mech pilots."

After confirming his purchase, his savings shrank. He now owned two 3-star licenses, enough to design a decent variant. Sat back in his chair and thought about what kind of vision he wanted to imprint onto his design.

As always, he tried to seek an example from ancient history. "A gladiator? No, I don't want to create a showboater. A viking? Too aggressive and undisciplined. A medieval knight? That might work, but I still feel it comes up short."

After a couple of minutes of fruitless digging, Ves gave up on referencing history. "Do I even need to draw on reality in the first place to form a coherent picture?"

He thought about his designs so far. Ves always let his mind drift to dramatic actions when he tried to form his intent. When he thought back on designs like the Marc Antony or the Mist Prowler, Ves automatically constrained his imagination to obey reality.

What if he broke this rule?

"The X-Factor is something that is alive but intangible. Something that isn't anchored in the physical plane has no obligation to be bound by its rules."

It sounded simple, but how could an engineer like Ves ignore the laws of the universe so easily? A mech was a machine. Their structure and composition was nothing magical. So long as mech designer obtained its blueprint, they could replicate the mech without problem.

All except for the metaphysical. The apparent existence of the X-Factor had long since convinced Ves that mechs might have a proto-spiritual presence. He never explored the full implications of this premise.

"A spiritual existence can take any shape."

Ves recalled the time when he achieved a minor breakthrough in the X-Factor. Back then, he was competing in front of the entire Star Sector for the first time. He had to design a mech as fast as possible in order to claim a high-ranking mech pilot in the free-for-all stage.

The mech that resulted from his heated efforts was the Unicorn. Despite the frame's many technical flaws, Ves imagined its design as a proud and inviolate mech that wielded its spear like the horn of its namesake. To be honest, he had no time to consider its fantastical background.

"A unicorn is a mythical creature. Everyone has their own ideas about what a unicorn looks like and what kind of powers it possesses. In this case, the only perspective that matters is the one held by the mech designer."

If the X-Factor needed to be grounded by reality, then a fantastical image should be detrimental. Somehow, Ves did not believe the Uniform suffered any ill effects. It performed exceptionally well in Lovejoy's hands and slightly exceeded the limits of its shoddy construction.

"Is it really so simple?"

A single example did not prove his assumptions. Yet Ves instinctively believed he was on the right track. "The question is, am I willing to test it out?"

He strongly wished to test this new approach. The risks were great. If he screwed up his first new design after winning the Leemar Open Competition, then he might not be able to drum up enough sales.

Yet what if he failed anyway? Nobody knew how to observe and measure something as ethereal as the X-Factor. At most, those who entered the cockpit had to endure an unpleasant vibe.

Ves was in an exuberant mood. Like a child stepping out of the house for the first time, he wanted to explore this new world. He was only limited by his own imagination.

He did not even need to reference an existing myth. Why not make up something on his own? Something that meshed with the components he had to work, instead of trying to stuff a pre-existing image into a mold that didn't entirely fit.

"Let's go with something strong but not too complex."

His active imagination branched off numerous possibilities. Some were thinly veiled derivatives of existing myths, while others sounded too radical to be useful.

He chose to base his design around the image of an immortal known as the Instructor. He used to be a daring knight and swordsman in the past, having distinguished himself in battle against man and beast alike. He gained strength from every victory and refined his swordsmanship to greater heights.

In his quest to be the pinnacle, he even sought to learn different styles from other masters of the art.

The Instructor finally achieved enlightenment. The warrior grasped the secrets of immortality and joined the ranks of the exalted among men.

The years went by and the wars died down. Eventually, the Instructor shed the passion of his youth. He settled down as a guard for an esteemed emperor who granted him with a sword of office. He wielded his blade not to kill, but to protect.

As the Empire he served reigned supreme, the Instructor lacked the opportunity to prove his worth. With nothing else to do, he started instructing the younger generation in swordsmanship.

Slowly, he became known for his teaching. The Instructor not only excelled at explaining the essence of swordsmanship, he also gained many insights in the process. He slowly cast off all the flair and excessive moves in his repertoire, and distilled his swordsmanship into a purer form.

"Am I being a bit too vague?" Ves suddenly asked. He was very satisfied with the story he built up, but he did not wish to waste too much time fleshing out the setting. He might as well become a novelist if that was the case. "I didn't think too much when I designed the Unicorn, so it's probably okay."

The details probably didn't matter too much. What Ves actually needed was a myth to support the shaping of his intent. With a strong and distinct image, it became easier to hold on to the main points and maintain a cohesive intent for hours. A complicated backstory made it harder to keep the threads together.

The story was not without purpose. Ves hoped to accomplish multiple goals with this specific myth. First, the Instructor was old. He experienced much in his life and fought in many battlefields. He mellowed out in his later years but still retained his edge for battle.

Hopefully the trait translated to cool-headedness in the heat of battle.

Ves also wanted to pass on the Instructor's love and obsession for swordsmanship. He did not make the Instructor a master of a single style, but instead exposed him to many different forms. While flexible, the Instructor thoroughly mastered the fundamentals due to his extensive teaching experience.

What Ves wanted to accomplish with this was to make his customers more susceptible to breakthroughs. He did not expect to create a miracle. Just a gentle push was enough.

"This is all too vague. I don't even know if I'm deluding myself with all these assumptions" Ves chuckled a bit. "Fantasy or not, it doesn't hurt to try."

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Ves approached his latest design process like a project. Gone were the days where he haphazardly designed a mech ad-hoc in week-long sessions. His improved skills gave him much more possibilities and opened his eyes to many factors he previously missed.

When he previously competed at Leemar, Ves had no time to double-check his work. The brutal time limits imposed by the rules forced him to follow his previous methodology of trusting his intuition that he got it right.

His latest project called for a cycle of design followed by testing and back to design. With his increased base of knowledge, he was able to wield the System's many mathematical models without acting like a caveman.

With every design choice, he could verify the results through rigorous testing. He could find better solutions and avoid mistakes as long as he spent enough time crunching the numbers.

Certainly, it took time. Despite the System's prodigious processing power, Ves could only draw a portion of its awesome capabilities. More than that, Ves might frequently resort to tweaking the models in order to simulate many different conditions.

He did not intend to lose sight of his initial goal. Before he began to design, he created a simple schedule.

"Let's see. Three weeks should be plenty of time to come up with a decent design. Any more than that and it's not worth the effort. I'll spend one week on shaping the design, and two weeks on refining it through modeling and simulations."

Ves also split the project up into different phases that corresponded to the parts he modified. He preferred to start from interior and work his way out, so the first phases dealt with the internal frame and the various internal components. Each time he finished modifying the relevant components, he'd test them vigorously until he became satisfied or ran out of time.

He'd go through each phase in this manner until he combed over every part of his design. At the end, he reserved a decent chunk of time to testing out his new mech in a holistic manner.

"Let's start with the internal frame."

The skeleton of the base model disproportionately favored the waist and legs. The Hoplite put an enormous amount of stress on the legs when it initiated its powerful dash.

Ves decided not to mess around too much with the internal frame. Any minor change he made here cascaded into a ton of follow-up effects. The basic design of the frame already worked okay. He merely updated the two-hundred year old design to modern standards and rigorously tested his changes. The frame's upper portion resisted heavy impacts a little better.

He turned to the core components next. He did not swap out any of the core parts, but trimmed their design in order to fit its current use. A real mech needed to be robust and last for years. A virtual mech only had to last a couple of team battles at most. The Hoplite offered a lot of redundancies at the cost of putting on a lot of weight.

Due to their self-contained nature, the modifications he made to the power reactor, engine and other parts required little time to test. Lindholm obviously licensed these components from specialist equipment manufacturers, so Ves found very few instances where he could optimize the design even further.

"Those manufacturers and research institutes make their living off licensing their products. They must have spent years in optimizing their builds."

The lack of faults prevented Ves from making gains without losses with regards to these components. Thus, he mainly exchanged robustness for reduced mass in a proportional relationship. Ves considered the tradeoffs he made to be worth the cost.

After that, he moved on to the next phase. He devoted a lot of time on reworking the internal layout of the mech from the ground up. With his Journeyman-level Mechanics and Apprentice-level Electrical Engineering, Ves chose to focus on increasing the mech's range of motion.

Among all mech types, the knight had the most restrictive range of movements. It didn't need anymore due to its plentiful armor and sluggish motions. This also made knights an ideal mech for trainee pilots to start with, because they didn't have to master many maneuvers in order to become proficient in piloting this type.

"The original Hoplite meanly uses its spear to thrust forward with incredible momentum. Lindholm didn't design the Hoplite to fare well at a closer range. They even included an augmented shield in order to knock back any mechs who came into knife fighting range."

This presented a big problem to any mech designer who wanted to turn the Hoplite into a sword wielder. The mech lacked the responsiveness and range of motion to keep up with a serious clash.

Ves did not wish to compete directly with more experienced designers who tackled the same problem. He only wished to transform the Hoplite into a proficient sword wielder while retaining much of the internal integrity of a knight.

He did not directly reference the old layout. Instead, he built up his own internal layout first before comparing it to the original version, spending a lot of time in the process. Due to the need to maintain a focused intent, Ves required frequent breaks in order to finish this boring hurdle.

When he finally finished his own layout, he compared the new one with the old. The differences were immense. He reconciled the two by adopting the best parts of both, and put the new scheme through a barrage of tests.

With each iteration of tests and tweaks, the resulting design scheme reached a new equilibrium. Ves succeeded in shaving off bits and pieces while keeping enough redundancies in place. The extra space allowed him to improve the range of motion of its arms.

At this point, Ves reached the halfway mark of his project schedule. He spent a significant amount of time doing tests, but gained better results than before.

Along the way, Ves frequently paused his work when he couldn't maintain his concentration. Since he cared deeply about imprinting the Instructor to his new design, Ves did not dare continue working when his mind started to fray.

In order to distract himself, Ves devoted the majority of his free time to tutoring his new employee. Carlos also worked hard in trying to understand the assembly process, but achieved little success so far.

"This mech is a nightmare!" Carlos moaned during an evening after work. "It's like someone stuffed two different mechs in a single frame!"

Ves took a sip of a can of beer. "The Marc Antony isn't pretty once you look past the armor. I did my best to simplify the mess, but there's only so much I could do at the time. I have some more ideas now. I'll try them out once I finish my current project."

"You're planning to update your only real product, right? I've been thinking about it while I've practiced fabricating it. Don't you think the missile launchers are kind of redundant? Even the Caesar Augustus rarely finds an opportunity to make effective use of it. There's not enough capacity or firepower behind the missiles to achieve anything meaningful alone."

To be honest, Ves did not like the shoulder launchers either. They added unnecessary bulk for just two salvos worth of missiles. The mounts were troublesome to detach and even harder to put them back.

Yet Ves never considered removing them entirely. His ongoing work on the Hoplite variant gave him a better appreciation of the knight class. He gained a better understanding of what Jason Kozlowski wanted to achieve when he initially came up with the design.

"The missile launchers are an essential part of the Caesar Augustus series. There are many hybrid knights that combine laser cannons with swords and shields, but very few of them dare to add a third weapon to the mix. The launchers can hold a variety of missile types and add much-needed flexibility to an inflexible mech."

"Inflexible is an understatement. The Caesar Augustus is as stiff as a board."

"It never tries to excel in this aspect in the first place. The Caesar Augustus is still a capable knight up close. Any mech pilot that has received advanced knight training should be capable of working around its weaknesses."

An advanced mech required an advanced mech pilot to make full use out of its capabilities. The normal rank-and-file pilots did not normally touch sophisticated models like the Caesar Augustus. The Marc Antony was basically the bargain bin version, but it still retained much of the advanced characteristics that made it difficult to master.

"I doubt most advanced pilots even care about the missile launchers."

Carlos had a point, but Ves still insisted on the missile launchers. Removing them turned his variant into a regular hybrid knight that competed directly against a large number of mature designs.

The next day, Ves went back to work. He finished the insides of the mech. Now he had to work on the most important part of a knight.

The Hoplite is similar to the Caesar Augustus in that both designs are clad in as much armor as possible. If they carried anything more, then they'd lose too much speed to be of any use when dodging enemy fire.

His main goal in redesigning the armor scheme was to compliment his previous work. He had to accommodate the mech's increased range of motion without compromising its defense.

First, Ves stripped off the old armor scheme and designed the broad strokes of the new one. His knowledge in metallurgy allowed him to leverage the properties of the alloys used in the Hoplite's armor system in a modern fashion.

"Too bad the old armor has already benefited from armor compression. The only thing I can do is apply the existing formula to any existing plates."

With the help of Medium Armor Optimization II, he refined the sketch into a precise shape. Once he started modeling his work, he realized the true value of this sub-skill. It did not merely give him better ideas on how to shape a mech's armor.

No, the true worth of the Armor Optimization skills was to help him understand the more advanced simulations. More than that, he could also fine-tune the mathematical models to achieve a preferred outcome. Furthermore, he saved quite a bit of time by skipping redundant calculations and combining several models together.

Ves made full use of the extra time he bought by refining the armor incrementally. The improvements were marginal but welcome. More than that, he caught two minor flaws and eliminated them before they could act as potential weak points.

The end product deviated quite a bit from the base model's armor scheme. Ves basically broke up the largest, stiffest portions of the armor in favor of smaller segmented plates. This increased the armor's flexibility at the affected part without giving up too much defence.

To offset the vulnerabilities that came with the increased amount of moving parts, Ves thickened many critical sections. He kept this to a minimum by modeling the result of every potential reinforcement. He decisively rolled back the changes when it hardly brought any benefits.

Now that he finished redesigning the frame of the mech, Ves turned to his variant's equipment. He left the Imperial Sword alone, since he lacked the expertise to know what he was doing. He was already satisfied with its current specifications.

As for the shield, Ves saw an opportunity to increase the reliability of its active systems. The number one complaint the Hoplite received was that the augments often malfunctioned when put under pressure.

"It's a two-hundred year old experiment. Even if I'm not allowed to use more modern components, I can still see plenty of ways to strengthen the augments."

It wasn't as if Lindholm knew any better. Two-hundred years of progress in the Age of Mechs hadn't birthed a technological revolution. Only a couple of high-end inventions caused a stir. The lower-end technologies only received incremental improvements.

Iron Spirit did not allow Ves to introduce any innovations that broke the 3-star limit. Much like he did elsewhere, he only implemented optimizations that could still have been achieved two-hundred years ago.

Naturally, he didn't limit himself to replicating the obvious. He sought to refine the augments even further by building an improved shock absorbing shell around the fragile components. It took a lot finicking and testing before Ves tentatively accepted the latest iteration as the best he could do.

"Only a specialist or a much more experienced mech designer can do better."

Now that he finished going over the sword and shield, Ves put the entire package through a myriad of simulations. He measured its performance in a variety of environments such as deserts and snow plains. He simulated combat against a host of different mechs. He tested how the mech fared in a duel as well as in a large-scale battle.

Though the simulations had their limits, they all proved useful in catching weaknesses that only showed up under very specific circumstances.

For example, in an extremely hot environment, the mech channeled an excessive amount of heat through a specific spot near the mech's arm joints. This degraded the performance of the arms and increased its susceptibility to heat-based damage such as lasers. Ves modified the internal structure and the armor plating at those sections in order to plug the leaks.

After pushing through thousands of near-identical simulations, Ves finally had enough and called it a day. "I'm almost at the end of my three week deadline. It should be about time to wrap up this design."

Ves was very proud of his design so far. The variant exceeded the original Hoplite in many aspects. Its specs easily reached the standard of what an Apprentice Mech Designer should achieve.

If he approached the project in a casual manner, then the resulting design might only be eighty percent as good. Though he needed to spend a lot of time to achieve that extra twenty percent performance boost, it was well worth the time.

Now he only needed to put the finishing touches to his design.

"Wait a minute. I think I forgot something." Ves suddenly halted. He stood still for several minutes until he realized he forgot an old friend. "How could I forget about the Festive Cloud Generator?!"

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Ves completely forgot about the Festive Cloud Generator. The QuickForge system he used in Leemar didn't include the decorative component in its catalog. Even if it did, he didn't want to waste any time trying to incorporate a component with next to zero combat application.

"Even if it's useless, it still looks cool."

Local mech culture out here in the rim frowned upon a lack of professionalism. Mechs were vital weapons of war and their exterior should reflect their bloody purpose. That was why Vincent Ricklin's codpiece-sporting mech had been so widely derided.

Somehow, his frequent use of the Festive Cloud Generator got a pass. In most mockups, his mechs were usually displayed with the generator turned off. This made his mechs appear more sober than they actually were.

Only when a pilot bought the mech did they realize their mech emitted colored smoke from various parts of their mechs. Since the smoke only made them look cooler, hardly anyone complained.

Before he incorporated the generator, Ves first had to define his mech. An imaginary character called the Instructor acted as his inspiration. He thought about bestowing his variant with the same name.

"No, that won't work." He shook his head. "It not only sounds boring, it will give my customers the mistaken impression that it is a mech meant to be piloted by teachers instead of students."

How could he come up with a name that reflected the Instructor's values while making his mech attractive to the young?

The Instructor fed the flames of passion in his youth, using it to accomplish many feats. Though age has tempered the fire, it continued to kindle, ready to flare up when called to battle. The man was old in temperament but young in heart.

"Young Blood."

The name came out of nowhere, but it described the Instructor's drive. Even after achieving immortality, he never stopped advancing his swordsmanship.

Besides conforming nicely with his mental image, the name should also appeal to the target segment. As a business owner, Ves knew the importance of a good name. Great marketing began with an attractive product.

Many potential customers might only ever encounter his products when they stumble upon their names. Having a great name made it a little more likely that they clicked on it in order to learn more. From there, Ves could employ many other methods in order to increase his sales.

By mentioning blood, Ves was obliged to incorporate its color to his mech. He did it in an understated way by coating the Young Blood in a plain metallic color which was traditional to knights. He merely sneaked in a subtle reflective sheen in red.

In order to break up the monotonous appearance, Ves added golden decorative streaks around the torso. He was careful not to overdo it. The only part he spent more effort on was the variant's large, round shield. He painted a stylized lotus flower in yellow onto its surface.

Why a lotus? Ves imagined the Instructor loved to watch over the lotus flowers in the imperial palace's gardens. The flower stood for serenity, which might be a strange thing to include onto a shield meant to bash enemy mechs. Ves merely wanted to add something that looked good. The meaning wasn't important.

With this addition, Ves picked two different locations to include a Festive Cloud Generator. He attached a small-sized module to the shield. After rearranging its rim, Ves programmed the shield to emit a large quantity of yellow smoke whenever the Young Blood enhanced its shield bash.

By limiting the emission to the moment of impact, Ves was able to drastically reduce the size of the additional module. He did not want to go through another round of testing and simulation in order to properly integrate the generator.

He also installed a pair of cloud generators in the legs. Just like the shield, the generators only activated when the mech was about to perform a burst dash. He dyed the smoke in red this time in order to give his mech an impressive streak from behind.

After finishing the aesthetics of his design, Ves finally put down all of his work. "It's time to face the piper. Go ahead, System. Hit me with your report."

[Design Evaluation: Young Blood.]

Variant name: HPL-100S Young Blood

Base model: Hoplite HPL-100P

Original Manufacturer: Lindholm Armament Company

Weight Classification: Medium-Heavy

Recommended Role: Knight

Armor: A

Carrying Capacity: C-

Aesthetics: B

Endurance: A-

Energy Efficiency: B-

Flexibility: C

Firepower: D

Integrity: B

Mobility: D-

Spotting: E

X-Factor: C

Deviance: 70%

Performance improvement: 23%

Cost efficiency: 7%

Overall evaluation: The Young Blood is an affordable variant that retains much of its durability while benefiting from increased flexibility. A comprehensive rework of all of its systems has raised many of its parameters. A largely coherent thread of X-Factor suffuses the entire design. This is all the more impressive when the inspiration to the X-Factor consists of a single mech designer's idle fantasy.

[You have received 100 Design Points for completing an original design with a performance improvement of over 10%.]

[You have received 500 Design Points for designing a mech with a moderate presence of X-Factor.]

"Yes!" Ves rose from his chair. "I succeeded! My X-Factor has reached a score of C!"

Though it fell short of the C that Ves had reached with the Marc Antony and the Unicorn, those mechs came about in very special circumstances. It wasn't easy for Ves to feel all fired up. He was content with finding the way to reach the range of Cs when working on routine designs.

The relatively high score also validated his assumption that the X-Factor was not limited to physical constraints. At least, up to this point. Ves still consciously limited his imagination to myths that were larger than men, but less than gods.

"I don't want to find out what will happen if I take the old Christian God as my inspiration. I really don't want to open that particular can of worms."

Ves also achieved a twenty percent performance improvement without making use of expensive gadgets. He only brought in a ready-made sword to replace the spear. This was an incredible milestone, and one that Ves expected to surpass in the future.

The 600 DP reward came at a very nice time. The three weeks of slogging and maintaining his focus handsomely paid off. Ves only lamented that he was only a couple of DP short of reaching 2000 DP.

"Come on System, don't be such a tease. I deserve a treat!"

[Two-thirds of your design's improvements is attributed to updating an outdated mech with modern techniques. The performance increase that can be traced to your own original solutions is significantly smaller. Remember, you must study hard, but the only way to reach the pinnacle is to walk your own road.]

He bent over his head in defeat. The System was heartless as ever. "It's true that I copied and pasted from many other sources. I shouldn't be too proud with my design."

After regaining some of his mood, he logged into Iron Spirit. Ves imported the design to Iron Spirit and started fabricating a copy in the game's virtual workshop. Due to his extensive familiarity with his own design, Ves had no trouble with building up the virtual mech, even while maintaining his concentration.

He imagined bringing an incarnation of the Instructor to life. "How will he react to coming into life in a virtual game simulation? Will he be happy to experience new things? Will be be sad that he will give up control over his own body? Perhaps he might find joy in guiding the young and eager pilots who enter his cockpit."

Unlike his previous inspirations, the Instructor was his sole creation. He became invested in its myth to the point of treating it like a living person.

For a time, the line between reality and fantasy seemed blurred.

Only when Ves finally finished the fabrication process did he wake from his fugue. "That's a little weird. What was I thinking?"

He spent less time fabricating the mech than he thought. It only took a full day instead of the two days he originally budgeted. Despite the expedited process, the game did not detect any faults when Ves finalized its build.

He didn't forget to add a gold label inside the cockpit before he did so. He configured the design settings so that it would turn into silver when he let Iron Spirit sell a duplicated copy of the variant. Ves did not want the gold label to proliferate too much.

Ves entered the market interface and set the prices to both the gold label and silver label mechs. Different from last time, he did not use the minimum possible floor price but instead added a small profit margin to both products.

It didn't matter to the gold label because only one existed, but it represented a fairly different positioning to the silver label mechs.

Basically, Ves thought his Young Blood was good enough to deserve such a price. It also made more sense to charge this much. If he continued to hold on to bargain bin pricing, then his customers would subconsciously assume his mechs only performed as good as all the other trash mechs in this price segment.

He still wanted to earn as much DP as possible. That hadn't changed at all. Ves merely followed good business sense by managing the perception of his products.

Just as he was about to release his variant to the virtual market, he paused.

"This isn't a casual product. This is my first public design since coming back from Leemar. There should be some fanfare involved with the debut of this design."

Ves turned away from the market interface and instead pulled up his comm. He placed a call to his mech broker.

"Ves?" Marcella yawned as she looked up from her digital paperwork. "Have you finished the rework?"

"No, I haven't started yet on updating the Marc Antony. I'm calling you because I want your help in publicizing my latest virtual design."

Ves sent over the Young Blood's spec sheet along with some other data. He briefly explained why he spent time on a virtual design to begin with. Of course, he only limited his reasons to familiarizing himself with the knight archetype and to follow the current market trend for practice mechs.

Marcella did not need to know about his need to earn Design Points.

"I see. While it isn't conventional, I can see how we can spin it in a positive direction. However, you should be aware that marketing your variant comes at a significant cost."

"How much? Give me an estimate, please."

The woman tapped her finger against her firm lips. "For a knight variant with this level of performance, it's best if you hold a local advertising campaign. You don't have the specs to attract a lot of customers outside the Republic. The only thing you have going for is sympathy for local entrepreneurs."

"How much?" Ves repeated, feeling a bit uneasy with the way Marcella prefaced her explanation.

"The short answer? Around twenty million credits for a week-long exposure campaign in Bentheim. Anything less will only get drowned by the bulk of other messages floating constantly in the air."

One week just to push out the name of his variant? "No. Can't you offer anything cheaper?"

"Well, you can also make use of Iron Spirit's internal advertising channels. Again, if you want to penetrate past the noise, you will need to put up a significant upfront investment, say five million credits a day."

No wonder Ves achieved nothing the last time he used the game's internal advertising function. He might as well be throwing money into an ocean.

"Ahem, if you aren't aware, my earnings won't be very much even if I sell thousands of virtual mechs." Ves patiently explained. "To say nothing of earning useless ingame gold currency. I don't see any reason why I should spend millions of credits on some overblown ads that will only last a week at most."

Marcella shrugged, as if she didn't care. "Advertising works a lot better than you think, but I can understand your reluctance. Considering your current finances, it's better if you hold off on any mass marketing."

"Do you have a more affordable alternative? I only need to put the word out for my design. It doesn't need to be anything fancy."

The mech broker paused for a bit. Her eyes brightened as she found a good solution. "I got it! You're a newsworthy mech designer, you know that? Do you know what that means? The news sites want to interview you!"

Ves hadn't thought of that at all. She had a point. As one of the three extremely rare winners of the Leemar Open Competition, the Republic should be curious about his story.

"Alright, that's a good idea, and also costs nothing on my end. I don't know the best news organizations, so can you arrange a couple of interviews on my behalf?"

"I can do that easily, but it's best you only pick one venue to do your interview. These news sites are rather attached to exclusivity. It's the only way they can one-up the competition. In exchange, the news sites will push the interview to a more prominent place on their pages and broadcasts."

Since Ves had no clue how the news industry worked, he followed her recommendation. She had never steered him wrong so far. "Alright Marcella. Let's go with an exclusive if you think that's best. Right now, I mainly want to establish my brand."

"I'll go make some calls and come back to you within a day. Goodbye!"

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While Ves waited for Marcella to arrange an interview, he met up with Dietrich. The mech pilot finally sent him a subtle message that he succeeded in finding a buyer for the blackmail material they dug up at the abandoned base.

Dietrich embraced Ves in a hearty hug with almost crushing force. "Ves! Good to see you again. Let's go inside."

They entered a dingy little restaurant in downtown Freslin owned by the Whalers. Ves was leery of discussing sensitive matters in the middle of the city, but Dietrich insisted.

"The cloud burgers here are the best on the planet!" He said as he vigorously ordered a couple of burgers for them both. "And I'm not saying that because we own the property."

After a minute of settling down, Dietrich reported his results. "I've been putting the word out in the black market. It's been a little slow in spreading due to the need of staying discrete. I've finally found a single buyer who expressed interest in buying what we have on hand."

"That's good, right? What kind of price are they offering?"

The mech pilot pressed his lips. "The anonymous buyer is offering thirty-five million credits."

Considering the extremely expensive gear they found in the abandoned base, that was a remarkably low price. Whoever built that base must be swimming in money. Extorting a billion credits was not out of the realm of possibility.

"There aren't any other takers?"

Dietrich shook his head. "It's a matter of credibility. Anonymous sellers don't have much credibility in the black market. It's all about building a rep or getting to know someone who already has a rep. I'm just a fish in a pond of sharks."

"There's also the fact that only one of those sharks have taken the bait. He's basically setting the price."

"I don't know if the big boys are colluding to press down the price, but yeah that's basically what's going on. No one else has expressed any interest in our data even after weeks had passed. We either take the existing offer or leave it. The only upside to the trade is that the buyer wants to remain anonymous as much as us."

They weren't obliged to accept the low-ball offer. Yet Ves did not wish to hang on to dangerous material any longer than necessary. "Our safety is our highest priority. Getting rid of the dirty ledgers will deflect any potential attention away from us. The buyer might be offering peanuts, but he's also taking over all of the risks. Let's accept the offer."

Since Dietrich didn't benefit from the sale, he merely shrugged and promised to finish the transaction within the week.

As they ate their burgers, Ves asked how his gang had fared so far in their salvage operation.

"My father's staked a solid claim on the site. There's been a few opportunists who've tried to dislodge the Whalers, but they all backed off when they saw our numbers. The mercs didn't expect us to bring over half our entire manpower. We entrenched the hell out of the surrounding area."

If they Whalers managed to strip down the base and extract every piece of scrap, they stood poised to earn an enormous windfall. Ves predicted that the Whalers would quickly invest their money in mechs and fortifications.

The recent unrest has made every local power wary. They gathered their strength and waited for the other shoe to drop.

After finishing their burgers, which Ves admitted tasted pretty good, they went their separate ways. Recent troubles prompted Ves to visit the branch office of Sanyal Ablin Security Services.

Miss Robyn's exotic beauty greeted him with a professional smile. "Good afternoon, Mr. Larkinson. Are you here to talk about your security arrangement with us?"

"Yes. While I don't have the funds to pay for additional services on hand, I still wish to upgrade my current security setup."

"I am sure a man of your status has no problem paying the bill." Robyn replied and summoned up a projection that displayed a selection of security services. "We have an internal assessment of the likely threats you and your assets may face. From this, we have generated a number of optimized security packages at different price points. Please take a look."

Ves currently contracted their Cyber-Robo Service for just 500.000 credits a month. This might be adequate to a low-value local business, but for an up-and-coming mech workshop it was wholly inadequate.

He planned to spend most of his upcoming windfall on comprehensively upgrading his security. He skipped the cheapest package worth five million credits and the most expensive one at fifty-million credits. He settled instead for the middle option valued at twenty-five million credits a year.

"Tell me more about the Strategic Reserve Service."

"Ah, this package is a great and cost effective security solution tailored to facilities of strategic importance in the event of a raid. While it is not meant to clash head-on against a committed invasion force, it is nonetheless capable of fending off opportunistic raids. We do this by placing enough deterrence around your premises to scare off any would-be robbers."

SASS mainly accomplished this by installing a number of fixed defenses, from anti-air turrets to anti-mech cannons. A permanent detachment of three security officers managed the entire security grid.

A bolstered force of security bots handled all of the regular patrols, both indoors and outdoors, A dedicated guard officer from SASS kept an eye on bots in case they glitched or got hacked.

His workshop's cybersecurity also received a comprehensive upgrade. SASS would take the initiative to dig a secure hardwire connection deep underground that connected his workshop to the security company's planetary mainframe.

As long as the connection stayed intact, his digital assets benefited from the personal attention to the best cybersecurity professionals in the Republic.

Overall, the security package checked almost every box. Ves only missed an actual mech standing guard. The company only started offering mech patrols at much higher price points.

With no other choice, Ves signed on to the plan and promised to transfer the twenty-five million credits within the month. In the meantime, Robyn arranged the upcoming upgrades and construction work to his workshop.

"You should start seeing some of our men by tomorrow. They'll be measuring the land and planning the placements of our turrets. The real work will start as soon as we ship in the required materials from Bentheim, which may take up to five days."

While Ves spent as much as the price of a commercial mech, he got a lot in return. He did not have to worry about any assassins or sabotage for at least a year. Hopefully no one found out he still harbored forbidden research in his comm.

He returned to his workshop and took a much-needed break. He checked his hibernating pet and thought Lucky should almost be done with his transformation. The glowing blue ball had grown dim. Ves looked forward to the day he reunited with his lazy cat.

Later that day, Marcella finally called back. She sure worked fast. "I threw your name into the lake and reeled in some nosy fish. I've got a selection of three different news organizations that have expressed interest in conducting an exclusive interview with you."

That sounded pretty good to Ves. "Tell me about them all."

"The first to respond is the Bentheim Mech Affairs. It's the third largest news portal in our local area, though its influence is minimal elsewhere. It's a strong local organization that I've got a good relationship with. If you're willing to, 'ahem', donate to a particular charity, I'm sure they will portray you in a good light."

"How much of a 'donation' are we talking about here?"

"If you want a softball interview, then a million credits is sufficient. If you want to set your own questions, then you'll have to pay up to ten million credits."

Ves shook his head. "I've visited their virtual portal once in a while. No wonder all of their articles read like infomercials. It won't do my credibility any good if I hold my interview with these types of organizations. Their influence is also somewhat disappointing."

"Don't look down upon BMA and their like. They serve their own purposes." Marcella patiently explained before introducing the next organization. "The Junior Mech Hero is the Bright Republic's most popular news and entertainment portal for kids and teenagers. They wield a lot influence and they're interested in hearing the story of your new mech."

"That sounds pretty good. They fit nicely with the Young Blood's target audience."

"There's a catch. The JMH is a large organization that publishes hundreds of articles a week. Your interview will only be posted in a sub-site and not on the main page. The manager I spoke to isn't convinced you're newsworthy enough to warrant better treatment."

That sounded disappointing, but Ves understood their thoughts. He was not exactly a renowned mech designer. "I'm fine with the JMH's conditions. I used to read their news digest when I was young. What's the last option?"

"This one came as a surprise. The Rimward Star Herald is one of the most influential neutral news portal among the third-rate states in the Komodo Star Sector. It doesn't have much reach in the Friday Coalition, of course, but outside of that they have a very wide following, especially from the business community."

"The Herald is not a news organization that revolves around mechs." Ves pointed out. "People read the Herald if they want to find out which company they should invest in. It's not a news portal that allows me to reach my target audience."

Marcella spread her arms and shrugged. "The RSH is the most credible news outlet by far. A successful interview will certainly boost your prestige, which is helpful once you expand your business. They did warn me that they won't be gentle when they interview you. The RSH is one of the few organizations that prides itself on its journalism. Expect to face some pointed questions."

All of the organizations had their pros and cons.

The Bentheim Mech Affairs insured he had sufficient positive coverage.

The Junior Mech Hero allowed him to reach directly to his target audience.

The Rimward Star Herald boosted his reputation significantly if he survived the interrogation.

What did he need the most? Customers? Ves almost reached his targeted amount of DP. He could always use more, but he wasn't thirsting for DP at the moment.

Right now, Ves rather wished to be taken seriously by the mech industry. Raising his reputation didn't bring him any immediate benefits, but it could open doors that previously remained closed.

One aspect he always wanted to fix was to seek dedicated suppliers of raw materials. If he stopped being a noname wannabe, he might be able to meet with their executives.

"Let's go with the Rimward Star Herald. There's no use in trying to market my virtual mechs. It's enough if I can get a mention out of it. What I should really be doing is paving the way for the sales of my real mechs."

Marcella did not disagree with his choice. She gave him a small booklet of tips on how handle interviews and ended the call in order to arrange the interview with the Herald.

He didn't know if he made a mistake. Perhaps his ego grew too big. In any case, even if he failed the interview, he only risked his reputation. He could always regain what he lost by achieving a great feat. This should not be a problem with the benefit of the System.

Two days later, a reporter from the Rimward Star Herald arrived at Cloudy Curtain. Ves assumed the Herald wanted to conduct the interview over comm, but surprisingly they went for a personal touch. They even booked a suite in the best hotel in Freslin to record the session.

Ves arrived at the suite in his best clothes. He showed his appearance beforehand to Carlos, who merely shook his head and adjusted his look. Garbed in a rich formal suit of black and red, Ves cut a very mature look.

When he knocked at the door, it instantly slid open to reveal a chamber already prepared for the interview. Various bots finished placing the props and lights while a stately-looking woman sat on a furnished seat.

"Ah, Mr. Larkinson. My name is Jast Montefur. Just call me Jast. You are just in time. Please take a seat. I'd like to finish this interview as soon as possible so I can get away from this depressing planet."

She certainly sounded lovely. Ves apprehensively approached the set and took a seat placed at an angle facing Jast.

"First, let's touch up your appearance. Please don't move while the makeup bots do their work."

A handful of floating balls zipped in front of him and began to wash his face and apply the makeup to him. Ves wanted to ask if a man like him even needed makeup, but the bots kept crowding his face. They flew out of sight a couple of minutes later, leaving Ves to deal with his dizziness.

A score of high-quality recorders turned on, and Jast quickly fixed an authentic-looking smile on her face. "Good day our dear viewers, or if you are reading the transcripts, my readers. Today I'm visiting a quaint little planet called Cloudy Curtain, the home of its first and only mech designer. Ves Larkinson here is a scion of the Bright Republic's renowned Larkinson military family."

Jast did a good job describing his basic background, though Ves suspected she was reading a script from an ocular implant. She quickly wrapped up her obligatory introduction and served her first question to Ves.

"As a son of the Larkinson family, you surely wished to follow your family's tradition. How disappointed are you when you found out you do not possess the aptitude to pilot a mech?"

The question contained a number of traps. Ves paused and refrained from answering immediately. "Every kid likes to become a mech pilot. Few of them ever do, and that might not be so bad. Our society revolves around more than piloting. I have found a great calling in designing the mechs that pilots rely on to earn a living."

"You are the first and only Larkinson to study and choose a career in mech design. By all accounts, you have received no substantial support from the other Larkinsons. Have you already cut ties with your family?"

"That isn't true. We believe that a man or woman should stand by himself and make an honest living. The Larkinsons might be great pilots, but we do not have much in the way of wealth. The family is already doing enough to support the relatives of our fallen. I do not wish to burden the family's finances even more."

The woman nodded and flipped her fingers, likely calling up some kind of info sheet or something. "Let's talk about the start of your career. You've graduated from Rittersberg with average grades after five years of uneventful study. What happened in the months between your graduation and your success at Leemar that has turned you into a prodigy?"

This was a major gap in his personal records. Ves expected this difficult question to come up and already prepared an answer in order to obscure the System's intervention. "I had help. Before he went missing, my father left me some resources and contacts that I could make use of to kickstart my career."

"Your father's disappearance is a rather perplexing case. Ryncol Larkinson is a seasoned pilot who has seen much action in the border wars against our neighboring aliens. Could he be involved with something murky?"

"I do not believe so." Ves laughed as he tried to cover up his own mounting panic. "My father is by all accounts a straight shooter. You can ask any of his friends who still serve at the base how he has little ambition except to serve the Republic and raise his son. I do not know why he left me at the time, but he has given me so much help throughout the years. I still miss him."

Jast raised an eyebrow and looked at him pointedly, as if she wanted him to know that she wasn't fooled. "Your 'straight shooter' of a father sure has interesting contacts. A local mech pilot from a remote corner of the galaxy is somehow able to refer you to a secretive grant institution operating out of the New Rubarth Empire. How could he possibly be involved with the 'Future Sons Technology Institution'?"

"Do you think I know?" Ves threw up his hands as if he didn't have a clue. "It's a surprise to me, but so far I have only been contacted by them once, when they passed me a couple of aged production licenses. Frankly, they only did me a small favor, which they probably forgot the next day."

After a few follow-up questions, Ves did his best to deflect the suspicious woman's inquiry. Eventually, Jast stopped her digging and turned to another topic.

"Seeing as you've improved enormously since you received your father's gifts, participating in Leemar was a given. Did you travel to Leemar with the expectation that you'd triumph over all of the geniuses in your way?"

"We are all mech designers. I never took it as a given that I could prevail against any competitor. I merely came with the confidence that I could achieve a good showing. It was out of my expectation that I ended up at the very top."

They spent the next ten minutes discussing the competition, from the qualifiers that happened behind closed doors to the main event broadcasted to the entire sector. Jast repeatedly brought up the most notable opponents Ves had personally defeated, like Carter Gauge and Cynthia Barakovski.

Ves always spoke of them in a respectful manner, careful not to ruffle anyone's toes. Their influence extended far beyond their immediate circles.

After asking a couple of tame questions that Ves answered easily, Jas changed her tack and went for the throat.

"Now, the most interesting outcome of the competition is that two out of three of the finalists comes from the Republic. Many people happened to know that both you and Miss Patricia Schneider are in the same class in school. There must be something you are sharing with each other in order to keep up with each other. So tell me, are the two of you involved?"

For a moment, Ves considered if he was speaking to the wrong reporter. Did Jast work for one of the gossip rags those grannies always followed? How could a reporter from the sober and business-centric Herald ask such a question?

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Ves had to be careful in answering this question. If he said something sensational, his words might be splattered all over the galactic net. It might even get back to Patricia herself, who doubtlessly had little appreciation for controversy.

He employed the most important trick Marcella's notes had taught him. Evasion.

"I am only casually acquainted with Miss Schneider. She is a talented mech designer who excelled in her studies since day one at Rittersberg. We walk in different circles and it's a complete coincidence that we both reached the finals at Leemar."

"I see." Jast said, her tone colored with scepticism. "The two of you make a natural pair. Have you expressed any interest in pursuing your rival?"

"I'm devoting all of my effort to growing my nascent business. Running a workshop and designing mechs on my own eats up all of my available time. I hardly have a moment's of rest."

Fortunately for Ves, the questions that followed turned into a decidedly neutral direction. Jast began to ask the questions Ves expected a business reporter to ask. He answered questions concerning whether he was committed to doing business in the Bright Republic, whether he sold mechs to foreigners, if he planned to scale up production, and more.

"No, Master Olson has not involved herself in my business activities in any way except for gifting me with some goodies. All of the assets that I'm in possession of is in my own name. I have not given her any shares to my business. She is an incredibly busy mech designer and has no time to hover over my shoulders."

Jast paused for a bit as she checked her internal notes again. Ves sat patiently, waiting for the questioning to resume.

So far, Ves did a decent job in portraying himself in a decent light. Certainly, he could have navigated through the suspicions more elegantly. He might suffer from repercussions to his clumsy answers.

In any case, Ves rather preferred that others thought he was a Rubarthan or Coalition plant. It beat people getting ideas that Ves possessed a piece of reality-defying technology. The Mech Designer System had to be kept secret at all costs.

"Let's talk about your product." Jast resumed her questioning. "Most of your mech designs are early works that already seem dated. Your sole production mech is an underperforming variant of a lastgen mech. Why have you decided to release a virtual mech instead of updating your physical mech line?"

"Come now, Jast. You know as well as I do that Iron Spirit is the biggest battlefield in the galaxy. Certainly, it's all virtual, but plenty of pilots have polished their skills in these kinds of immersive games. I do not share the disdain that most professionals have for taking part in this active ecosystem."

"Ah, your latest virtual release appears to be a variant based off the famous Hoplite. Please tell me what prompted you to design a plain sword-wielding knight."

Ves repeated the standard marketing spiel Marcella originally prepared for him. He emphasized that the Young Blood possessed characteristics that made it a great training mech for the younger crowd.

"Some might say that the Young Blood's special features act as cheats. The strengthened dash gives the knight more mobility than it ought to, while the enhanced shield bash allows it to easily push away mechs that come too close. Won't trainee pilots begin to rely too much these crutches?"

"That can certainly happen, but I think you underestimate their resolve. The young still have to pass their courses with their boring academy-assigned models. The Young Blood is explicitly designed as an offensive knight, allowing it to keep up with its compatriots in fast-paced battles. The extra mobility and flexibility also allows the knight to take the initiative, which provides pilots with many more options."

"When we compared your variant to the best-selling sword-wielding knights, we found its specs are rather underwhelming. Why should players even consider buying your mech when numerous amounts of better models are available in the game?"

Ves coughed a little and tried to maintain his smile. "My mech has its own merits. A dry list of numbers can't fully express a mech's capabilities. You've already mentioned the augmented dash and shield bash. There's also the fact that I've spent a lot of effort improving the Young Blood's ergonomics. Piloting my mech should feel significantly more comfortable."

"Do ergonomics even matter when you're talking about a virtual mech?"

"Oh, it should be. I'm talking about more than a comfy seat. My mech features many internal adjustments that makes it smoother to move its limbs."

The X-Factor also played a large role, but Ves left that out.

"Your rebuttal hardly sounds convincing. All of the amenities you've mentioned are luxuries that does not substantially affect the core performance of your model. The Young Blood simply can't stand on an equal stage to the best-sellers."

"It has never been my intention to compete against the top models in the first place. If you look at the bottom of the spec sheet, you'll find that my mech charges a good chunk less than the mainstream designs."

Indeed, the Young Blood held its own when placed in the budget segment. Ves had purposely skimmed a small amount of mass from its design in order to lower its cost.

After asking a few more questions about the virtual mech, Jast turned to the future.

"Now that you have finished a virtual design, do you intend to continue exploring this market or do you have some other projects in mind?"

Ves anticipated this question. It was a good opportunity to pimp his soon-to-be-redesigned mech. "As you know, I only own two production licences. I have not yet plowed the depths of these two fascinating licenses. Preparations for a rework of my Marc Antony design is already underway."

He kept the details mum, only hinting that the redesign was going to be a sea of change. Even the price will see a bump due to the expected increase in performance.

The journalist did her best to tease out the pros and cons of his first and only production mech. The cheap mass production armor remained a sore spot, but customers could easily afford two Marc Antony mechs instead of a single Caesar Augustus.

Jast closed the interview with a question whether he had any plans of moving to the Friday Coalition.

"While I am officially apprenticed to a mech designer from the Vermeer Group, I repeat that my relationship with her does not extend beyond matters of teaching. Any assistance Master Olson throws in my way will come with no strings attached."

"So you have no intention of moving to a larger state with a highly developed mech infrastructure? It is customary for talents like you who emerge from a third-rate state to move up to a better environment. Why not do the same?"

"The Friday Coalition is not my home. It's as simple as that. My father brought me up in the Bright Republic and taught me to respect and reciprocate the care and love I received from my state. I am still a Larkinson at heart, and we have always served the Republic with unswerving devotion."

"There you have it folks. Straight from the mouth of one of the youngest stars of the mech industry." Jast closed the interview and smoothly summarized the interview in a couple of sound bites. "His latest virtual mech is on sale starting tomorrow! Be sure to check out Iron Spirit's catalog if you are interested in piloting an affordable knight!"

Ves left the hotel and returned to his workshop wondering whether he did okay. Marcella hadn't lied when she stated that the RSH wanted to poke into his closet. He underestimated the amount of mystique he inadvertently accumulated with his sudden rise to prominence.

The next day, the Young Blood variant officially went on sale. Instead of sitting behind his terminal checking his real-time sales figures like an obsessive recluse, Ves very firmly stayed away. He only briefly entered the galactic net to check on the Rimward Star Herald's news portal.

The Herald worked quick. They already edited the interview and published both a recording and an article embellished with supplementary information. The news organization filed the interview under their financial section, though the military affairs section also hosts a copy.

In order to avoid fretting about his design, Ves distracted himself with work. He read through the dense repair manual of the Dortmund industrial printer. He taught Carlos how to overcome the most difficult hurdles in his way to mastering the Marc Antony. He accompanied the consultants from SASS and agreed with most of their upcoming construction plans.

He went to bed with a fretful cloud hanging over his head and woke up the next day with hardly any rest. He scratched his messy dark hair and finally had enough. "Okay, alright! I'll go and check my numbers."

After washing up and putting on his antigrav clothes, he approached his terminal and logged into his Chasing Clouds account. He slowly summoned up his sales tracker.

[HPL-100S Young Blood - silver label] - Amount Sold: 2194

[HPL-100S Young Blood - gold label] - Amount Sold: 1

Ves blinked his eyes. He rubbed them gently then saw as the figure changed to 2195.

To a mainstream virtual mech model, a sales volume of two-thousand mechs in the first day represented a flop. To a solo mech designer in the early stages in his career, his current sales blew his previous efforts out of the water.

Ves did not yet call up his Status. If he knew how much DP he already earned, he might go crazy.

The game's sales tracker allowed Ves to glean more insights from his customers. According to the model's sales history, the initial buyers of his mechs all ranked fairly high in the game. Most of the players who bought the model shortly after it's release qualified for the Gold or Platinum League.

Half of the buyers came from the Friday Coalition. A smaller proportion originated from the Bright Republic. The remainder of the sales came from the rest of the Komodo Star Sector.

"These are probably professional mech pilots in the service of industry insiders who are keeping an eye on me. The interview also helped attract a lot of attention."

A very strange marketing effect occurred when five-hundred highly ranked players bought a model upon release. Iron Spirit's automatic market systems designated the recently released Young Blood as a hot property and a trending product in the Star Sector.

Players who were already predisposed to buying a new mech got saddled with the image of the Young Blood. While not everyone wished to purchase a knight, those that did eventually gave his mech some serious consideration.

Reviews and comments already poured in from the casual players who picked up the variant. Ves couldn't help but smile when he read how many players appreciated the 'feel' of his mech. Even if the game's automated production system degraded a copy's X-Factor, much of it still stuck to the duplicated mech.

Some renowned influencers even bought the mech to showcase it on their online streams. This led to a growing interest in his design, to the point that mech portals started to review the quaint little Hoplite variant that appeared out of nowhere.

Ves called Marcella in order to hear her perspective. The mech broker praised him for a successful debut, but warned him not to expect too much.

"The virtual mech market is oversaturated in designs. The Young Blood is a decent mech, but it will only peak in the first week, and only in the local star sector. Once the game pulls your product from its recommendation page, your sales will likely plummet. You can expect a constant trickle of sales from that point, but not enough to get excited about."

Her realistic outlook on the situation sobered Ves into regaining his calm. While he indeed struck gold by releasing a good design, in the end he was still an Apprentice Mech Designer. His skills could not compare to the established crowd of designers who released superior mechs in their sleep.

"I understand." He replied. "The virtual community is not my primary market. It is merely a means to an end. My true purpose remains selling physical mechs."

"That's good. For a moment, I was worried whether I made a mistake in contracting you. How soon will you finish your redesign?"

"I'll start working on it next week." Ves responded after a moment. He wanted to milk the DP streaming in from his ongoing sales bonanza as long as it lasted. "I'm still in the preparation phase. The longer I wait, the better the end product."

"Don't turn your delay in an endless hiatus. You know what happens to designers who constantly put off their work."

Ves already knew the dangers of such behavior. Leemar spent a lot of effort hammering the lesson into him. "My timetable hasn't changed too much. I can afford the extra week."

After discussing some business, Ves ended the call and proceeded to plan his schedule for the week. "There's not much I can do to prepare for the Dortmund project without further documentation. Perhaps I can check into the Clifford Society. It's been a long time since I visited their Mission Hall."

He still sought to obtain an alloy compressor and a chemical treatment machine. Besides taking another costly credit loan, he could also exchange them for merits. Unfortunately for Ves, merits were rather hard to come by.

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His mech broker's prediction came true, once again proving that she knew her business. At the end of the week, Ves sold more than twenty-thousand virtual mechs. Most of his customers came from the Republic, curious to see what a mech designed by a fancy apprentice to a mystical master looked like.

Overall, his customers appreciated the Young Blood. They called it a hidden gem and an underrated mech. His sales received a second boost when the variant's only gold label mech got resold someone else, who proceeded to donate the machine to a fairly popular streamer.

Emily Norford, known online as EmStar, made a living out of streaming her performance in games like Iron Spirit. Though she was a potentate, her aptitude scores placed her on the lower end of the scale.

No one except pirates wanted to sign her on as a mech pilot, so she turned to Iron Spirit to satisfy her mech cravings. Due to her inconsistent controls, her performance dilly-dallied between Gold and Silver League, which was rather low for a girl in her early twenties.

She nonetheless attracted a major following of viewers and fans. Each time she streamed from her personalised simulator pod from home, she earned thousands of credits in donations. This came on top of the generous subscription fee she charged for extra benefits such as exclusive interviews.

The reason why Emily attracted so many viewers was simple. She was hot. Her genetic aptitude for piloting mechs might come up short, but she certainly won the lottery when it came to looks. Even without any makeup she always attracted everyone's eyes. She ruthlessly took advantage of this and invested into gaming.

Nowadays, EmStar consistently ranked in the top 100 in the Bright Republic. She might be nothing special outside her state, but the locals all found her to be an adorable player. Her fellow citizens cheered when she won a match and booed when someone stomped her into the ground.

Watching her overcome try to overcome her genetic limits was like watching a kitten try to climb up a step just out of reach. Her audience pitied her and encouraged her while drooling at her skintight piloting suited form.

Everyone knew a possibility existed where a pilot could spontaneously break through their current genetic aptitude. Those who scored an E could reach the level of a D. Those who toiled for years as an average pilot with a score of C could break through the level of a B.

Even EmStar knew her odds of breaking through wasn't optimistic, but she tried her best each and every day.

She came across the Young Blood's gold label mech when a regular viewer abruptly gifted her account with this mech. The female streamer thought little of the gift since she received at least a couple of donated mechs a week on average. Still, she smiled to the camera and gave her thanks even as she read the details of her latest acquisition.

"Wow, this knight is apparently a limited edition mech designed by one of our Republic's own!" Emstar announced while she put up a projection of the model's appearance and specs. "The model is a variant of the Hoplite, one of my favorite mechs. The Hoplite is slow but easy to pilot."

She frowned a little when she read that the mech had been redesigned to increase its speed and flexibility. She preferred to pilot slow and heavy mechs which placed less importance on mechanical control and neural responsiveness.

After a few minutes of introducing the mech, Emily finally entered the cockpit. She looked around and seemed impressed by the comfortable chair. That certainly wasn't standard. Her virtual avatar pressed the activation button and sat back as the mech came to life.

An explosion occurred in her mind. For a moment, she thought her simulator pod had glitched. She quickly calmed down once she realized the pod's diagnostics showed green. No pain accompanied the hard-to-describe sensations happening in her mind.

The mental connection process continued until she found herself in control of a seemingly well-oiled machine. "Sorry guys. I got distracted by this mech. It's quite a rush!"

Emily eagerly tested out her mech. The Young Blood moved rather sluggish on account of her inferior aptitude, but the chat exploded into shock as Emily slowly practiced her routine.

She forgot all about the audience as she once again repeated her moves. The knight responded well to her commands. It made her feel she was piloting a top-quality mech. A strange fog of calm blanketed her enthusiasm.

"There's no better way to put this baby to the test than to see it in action."

The woman hungered for battle. After queuing up for a 50v50 Wartorn Instance match, she continued to test her mech.

First, she tried the augmented dash. Emily yelped for a moment as her mech's feet suddenly sported claws and dug into the ground. Moments later, the mech flew forward with implacable momentum, leaving a sharp trail of red in her wake.

"This dash is more powerful than I thought! The stock Hoplite isn't capable of reaching this distance. I'm also able to maintain my balance during the movement. This mech is remarkably well-designed!"

She also tried the shield bash a number of times. The bash hadn't changed, but the shield released a pressurized cloud of smoke from the sides when hitting something solid.

"My sensors automatically switch when I complete the bash. It's a good way to confuse opponents if they are solely using the visible spectrum of light."

While the emission of smoke had little practical effect, it looked damn cool and made her feel she was performing a special move. A number of viewers quickly decided to buy the Young Blood mech on that account alone.

The match locked in a moment later. Emily's mech disappeared from her personal space and reappeared in a waiting area filled with fifty mechs of all shapes and sizes.

She recognized none of the nicknames hovering above their heads. She currently played in the Silver League, which opened up matchmaking to the rest of the galaxy, though a slight regional bias was still in effect.

Emily ignored the player sporting the crown trying to boss everyone else around. In the Silver League, most pilots were kids who all had a better idea on what to do. Instead, she interacted with her audience before the start of the match cut the instantaneous transmission of her stream.

The game mandated a delay in any streaming broadcast in order to prevent an active player from spying on their opponents in real time.

The delay varied between game modes. For the huge Wartorn Instances game mode, that delay ran up to five minutes, which was why most streamers preferred to play duels. Minutes-long delays broke up any attempt to hold a conversation with their audience.

Fortunately, Emily had enough loyal fans to stick around her stream and watch the commercials, many of which she personally showed up. Sponsorship made up another portion of her income.

Once the hatch opened up, the gaggle of mechs exited and spread out over an alien planet. The alien foliage and strange animals made it clear that the planet had not been terraformed. Dense clusters of hills and caves hid behind the exotic foliage, offering mechs an alternate approach to their team's various objectives.

The goal of Emily's team was simple. They had to capture and hold three out of five different exotic mineral mines. They were all spread equally over the battlefield, though their team could only take possession of the mines if they held the tunnels.

Many artillery and aerial mechs bemoaned the underground tunnels. They still had a use on this map, but the real stars consisted of mechs specialized for close to medium-ranged combat.

As a knight, Emily's mech attracted a random assortment of players who wanted to take advantage of her shield.

"You're a knight, right? Can we tag along with you and hide behind your huge round shield?"

"No problem. I can use some guns to cover my back. Just be sure not to move in front of me."

Six mechs chose to let her take the lead. The motley collection of mechs traversed the alien jungle en route to the closest mine. They all moved at the pace of their slowest member, which in this case turned out to be Emily's mech.

No one could help it. A knight always moved slow due to their plentiful armor. Several flying mechs flew over their heads. Her squad members released some pot shots in their direction but the fliers already disappeared over the hills.

"Stop shooting!" Someone hollered over their voice channel. "You're wasting ammo and revealing our position to boot!"

"Sorry."

After ten minutes of careful navigation, they reached the site of their first objective. The tunnel looked natural instead of excavated, which meant that they might be facing uneven terrain and strange turns.

"EmStar, please take the lead. These tunnels are only wide enough for two mechs walking abreast. That leaves us with just enough space to shoot around your sides."

It also left her as their squad's punching bag, but Emily often ended up with this role anyway. She sighed with her lovely face and resolutely piloted her Young Blood into the natural cave.

Everyone switched to alternate vision modes such as night vision or infrared. It painted their vision in various monotones that leeched the color out of their moods as well. Everyone kept their mouths shut as they anticipated danger.

At least they didn't have to worry about a tunnel collapse. The game occasionally turned essential parts of the terrain invincible in order to even the odds, but only in the lower leagues.

Just as they approach the mouth of a wider cavern, their world turned bright as a barrage of lasers and shells hit the Young Blood's shield. The heavy shield held up against the barrage, though the yellow lotus flower painted onto its surface lost half of its petals.

"I'm counting four heat signatures!"

"There's another one activating close! It's a heavy knight!"

Emily's entire squad cursed their luck. The heavy knight conveniently blocked the mouth of the tunnel like a cork in a wine bottle. Without eliminating this heavily armed mech, they stood no chance in taking the mine.

"They're one mech short compared to us. We can still make it through." Emily said, trying to motivate her squad members in committing to the assault.

"Are you crazy? Our weapons have no chance of punching through their shield!"

"If we can't break through our enemy's front, then let's go take them out from behind!"

Normally, Emily might vacillate along with the rest. Somehow, her usual panic was nowhere to be seen. Instead, she piloted her knight like a veteran and responded to the situation with the ease of a professional. Her viewers who watched her stream on delay praised her uncharacteristic decisiveness when she resolutely jumped into the fray.

A second volley of beams and projectiles impacted her shield. The damage ruined its top layer but did affect anything else.

The Young Blood jogged its way forward as fast as possible while her squad members belatedly followed behind her. They began to return fire, which largely splashed ineffectually against the enemy knight's oval shield.

It kept the enemy knight pinned down if nothing else. Emily squeezed her delicate hands into fists and drove her mech forward, not even noticing she moved her mech with fluency above her aptitude.

"What are we going to do if we get close?" Another female pilot asked with uncertainty tinged in her voice. "That heavy lug is blocking our way. None of our mechs have the necessary throw weight to dislodge him from his position."

"Oh, don't worry about that. Let me take care of that." Emily replied. She already planned her next moves. Right now she was figuring out what to do after she brought her squad into the open cavern.

Before they could ask how a medium knight could possibly push around a mech that vastly outmassed her, Emily already started to shift her mech. The Young Blood raised its sword over its head, as if preparing to chop the enemy in front.

In response, the heavy knight raised its oval shield higher in order to cover its head.

"Just as planned." She called, and bent her mech's legs.

The Young Blood accumulated a substantial power in its oversized leg muscles. The artificial muscles creaked when subjected to pressure. The mech also oriented its torso so that its shield faced the side, ready to be brought up to the front.

Emily mentally counted down until she reached zero. Her mech turned into an enormous blur as it took off from standstill. The red streak of vapor partially obscured everyone's sights as the Young Blood dove towards the unsuspecting heavy knight.

The heavy mech did not expect its opponent to enter his range this quickly. The pilot lacked the mental preparation to do anything else but keep up the shield.

The Young Blood did not slow down and attack its opponent with a sword. Instead, it bashed its round shield against the larger oval shield of its adversary. Like the mech itself, the shield moved faster than it ought to, and the yellow smoke emitted from the shield sowed further confusion.

If the heavy knight properly braced for a full collision, then it might have only skidded a little backwards. Instead, the rapid speed in which the Young Blood moved caused the unprepared mech to stumble several steps away. Though the mech sustained little damage, the collision succeeded in rattling the pilot.

Though Emily's mech received some form of damage to its shield arm, the young woman already executed her next steps. Her mech's strengthened legs halted the rebound and allowed the brand new knight to move past its opponent's flanks. The heavy knight belatedly tried to slash Emily's mech, but only bounced off its battered shield.

"Shoot the heavy! Now!"

"You're still in our line of fire!"

"Do it!"

Emily's allies reluctantly fired at the heavy knight, wary of accidentally hitting her mech. The Young Blood ignored the risks of friendly fire and instead weaved around the heavier knight, looking for an opportunity to threaten its vulnerable rear.

The opposing ranged mechs followed suit with even greater care. The medium mech moved fast enough that their shots risked going wide and hitting their ally.

The assault from multiple angles confused the heavy mech. It didn't know which side to face its shield and its ally's near-misses also added to the chaos. The pilot eventually decided to use the oval shield to block the enemy fire.

"Big mistake!" Emily said as her eyes sparkled with the gleam of a correct prediction. Her mech's powerful legs allowed it to shift its direction at a sharp angle, almost coming up to the heavy knight's flank before its pilot could bring up its sword.

Emily's first attack crashed against the flat of the heavy knight's blade. While the heavy successfully fended off the attack, the force behind the blow caused it to stagger just a tiny bit. This gave Emily an opening to slip her mech's sword past her opponent's weapon and puncture the mech.

Her sword only sunk in shallowly as the heavy knight's armor was not for show. Emily frowned a bit. For a moment, she expected the stab to sink into her opponent's armor and draw blood. Shaking her head, she regained her composure and struck again and again, this time going for speed instead of power.

The heavy knight did a decent job in fending off the flurry of attacks. Emily did her best to get past the heavy knight's guard, all the while withstanding the raking strikes from its allies with the round shield.

The fight turned into a mirrored battle of attrition, but Emily knew her mech would break first. The Young Blood's shield couldn't last as long as the oval shield. With decisive deliberation, she stopped defending against the lasers and shells that targeted her mech and swirled her mech around.

The round shield emitted another burst of yellow smoke as it crashed against the heavy knight's sword arm with augmented force. Despite the brief windup, the bash successfully pushed away the sword, allowing Emily to stab underneath the enemy mech's armpit.

Only a limited amount of armor protected the vulnerable joint. The Young Blood's sword succeeded in punching through, though the sheer amount of components inside halted its advance shortly afterwards.

While the arm remained functional, the limb lost a substantial amount of power and speed. The heavy knight found itself unable to keep up with the Young Blood's follow-up attacks. Emily systematically dismantled the heavy mech like a butcher slaughtering a pig.

The heavy knight completely forgot about its comrades and let itself be pushed out of the way.

"Go on! Get inside this cave and hunt down the others!" Emily yelled to her squad mates. "Let me take care of this knight!"

She maintained her assault on the heavy knight, which responded by putting up its near-indestructible shield. Like a turtle retracting into its shell, the heavy knight gave up the chance to win and sought to last as long as possible.

Emily obliged her opponent by continuing to hammer against its shield. Bit by bit, the oval shield started to crack. She didn't expect to break it on her own. Instead, she kept her opponent in place while her squad used their superior numbers to demolish the remaining enemies.

After losing two of their own, her squad members returned to finish off the heavy knight. The poor mech tried to hug the cavern walls and hide its profile behind its shield. Everyone laughed as its shield couldn't cover its fat and bulky chassis.

"Good work EmStar." A mech slid over from the side and planted its feet on the heavy knight's wreck. "This tough bastard is a hard nut to crack. I'm surprised your mech is able to push this beast a few steps back. Did you plan all that or did you just roll with whatever came to your mind?"

"I don't know." She admitted. For some reason, she felt empowered while she piloted this mech.

Most of her difficulties in controlling her mechs became muted this time ever since she entered the virtual cockpit. Emily felt as if she received a blessing. She performed all of her limited sword moves with more assurance and speed than before. Even her viewers who watch the previous battle on delay admired her increased fluency.

Even more viewers started to take a second look at the Young Blood. There must be something about the mech that turned a bad pilot into a decent killing machine.

As for Emily, the remainder of their squad successfully occupied their mine. Due to its proximity to their headquarters, the enemy team never mounted an assault to take it back. They focused instead on maintaining their grip on their three nearest mines.

Eventually, Emily ordered all the other mechs to leave the cave and let her stay behind. "The assault on the third mine isn't going well. They need your firepower."

"What if the enemy diverts a squad to this mine? You won't be able to beat any squad that comes in your way."

"They won't come." Emily said with conviction. "They already lost a bunch of mechs. They can't afford to lose another squad of mechs."

Reluctantly, they parted and went their separate ways. The Young Blood stood quietly as it stood in the dark. No one else kept Emily company except her own mech.

Her pressing heartbeat slowed down. She breathed evenly. Coming back from her combat high took a lot of effort. Emily invested a lot more into the battle than she thought.

The reinforcements turned out to come at a very helpful time. The ranged mechs had circles around and attacked the enemy mine from an alternate tunnel.

They struck in coordination with the main assault force.

The defenders received a nasty shock when their reserve endured several painful volleys an unprotected flank. The small disruption grew into a major breach of cohesion as the defenders tried to defend against attacks from multiple directions.

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Emstar's higher than average performance when piloting his gold label mech propelled his sales past the ten thousand mark. Ves owed a lot of DP to her free advertising. Her influence in the Republic's gaming circles might not be the best, but her endorsement was worth a lot more than a hundred ineffectual commercials to an ad-weary society.

Ves even sent her a thank you note, though he doubted she could dig it out from her fanmail.

During the first week of the Young Blood's release, Ves made the rounds in the Clifford Society. He talked with a few of the knights who hung around the Moon Library. He found out that the Society was split up into numerous factions led by different Masters.

As an apprentice aligned to the Vermeer Group, Ves respectfully declined when he received invitations to attend their meetings. The factions open to cooperation with outsiders persisted with their attempts to draw Ves in but he kept his mouth shut.

Instead, he found some kinship with some of the neutral Knights who admittedly had little prospects of advancing. One older gentleman called Lavrey gave him some perspective.

"Master Olson walks with a particular crowd of people called Unionists. She represents a set of interests that seeks to integrate the Friday Coalition into a single, cohesive state. As you can imagine, not everyone seeks to have their culture and way of life subsumed in a tide of conformity."

"For all the effort I spent on staying out of politics, it turns out I've inadvertently joined one of their camps." Ves lamented. He didn't regret the apprenticeship even if he hadn't benefited from his master's personal guidance yet. "So are you suggesting that I should be more proactive?"

"No. You're still too young. Nobody is interested in an Apprentice Mech Designer. You still have a long way before you turn into a Journeyman Mech Designer. That's when the industry considers you mature enough to exert some influence."

None of this was his business anyway. He instead asked him how he could earn a lot of merits.

"Besides the Mission Hall? There's no other source than trading something valuable with your fellow Society members. You can also donate knowledge and research that our library lacks, though don't get your hopes up on that."

Ves already lost faith in getting an easy mission from the Mission Hall. Emergency missions were too scarce to come by, and it seemed that the most prominent Knights received a warning beforehand should any such mission crop up soon.

"So, there's no other way than to trade something valuable."

"Why do you think there's so many stores down in the city? Those Knights who opened storefronts have all found a way to earn what they need through leveraging their own assets."

He already had a backup plan. If he still couldn't find a mission, he'd open a store and try to peddle some of the exclusive items from the System's Store or Lottery.

The DP the System charged for most of its goodies was high, but anything became less of a problem when you had enough wealth. Ever since his Young Blood became a regional hit, Ves held on to his DP and started scouring the Store for anything rare and unique he could trade for lots of merits.

He could even buy entire machines like an alloy compressor or a CTM, though he had to pay millions of DP to afford the cheapest systems. The System was a downright snob and refused to sell any products that fell short to its expectations.

Even if he bought something precious, Ves had no doubt people would start asking questions if he tried to exchange them for cash or merits. Something as unique as Lucky's gems could spark a galaxy-wide manhunt for him due to their impossible effects.

Due to his increasing paranoia and his need to protect the System, Ves bought an upgrade to his comm that could help him keep his secrets.

[Comm upgrade - Privacy Shield - Level 1]

Price: 10.000 Design Points

Insert this datachip into any comm to upgrade its ability to block all manner of electronic surveillance, such as sensors, recorders, implants and other devices. This function will only work upon activation, and can only be sustained as long as the comm supplies sufficient energy.

The first level of the Privacy Shield emits an obscuring field of interference that blocks out any emissions from a 2-meter radius from the comm.

"Ten thousand DP. I can upgrade four skills from Apprentice to Journeyman with that much points." Ves regretted a bit, but he reminded himself that the Privacy Shield was essential going forward.

Even his workshop ceased to be a bastion to him. With Sanyal-Ablin's upcoming upgrades to his security suite, he could pretty much say goodbye to whatever remained of his privacy.

It also didn't help that Ves found out that the Konsu Clan hosted the security company's headquarters. It explained why SASS enjoyed a good reputation for honesty and adhering to the rules. The people living under the rule of the Konsu Clan always kept their promises, so Ves did not tear up his contract yet.

Ves stretched his arms after logging out of the Society's virtual portal. He stood up and briefly checked on Carlos, who seemed to have progressed halfway into mastering the Marc Antony. After patting his employee's back, he sauntered over to his bathroom and sat down on the toilet.

He activated his Privacy Shield, which caused a hazy electromagnetic storm to buzz from his comm. It no doubt scrambled any micro-cameras that might have been sneaked into his bathroom stall.

Once SASS brought their security suite online, he had no doubt that they'd catch bugs like these. For now, Ves could only rely on the System.

"Finally, some peace and quiet. Okay System, show me the money. Status."

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 40.210

Attributes

Strength: 0.8

Dexterity: 0.7

Endurance: 0.8

Intelligence: 1.3

Creativity: 1

Concentration: 1.7

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly: Apprentice - [3D Printer Proficiency II] [Assembler Proficiency II]

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Apprentice

[Mathematics: Apprentice

[Mechanics: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging II] [Speed Tuning III]

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression I]

[Metaphysics: Incompetent

[Physics: Apprentice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization III]

Abilities

[Superpublish: Available. Can be activated once a year.

Evaluation: An apprentice at the start of his true journey to greatness.

Every time he sold a copy of the Young Blood, he earned five DP from the System. With his current sales, he should have earned more than 150.000 DP. Instead, his DP stopped growing when it reached 50.000 DP.

"You cheapskate System. You didn't mention anything about a limit."

The System capped his point earnings for every single virtual design. For a 1-star mech design, that roof was set at 10.000 DP, while a 5-star design reached the limit at 250.000 DP.

If he received all of the DP he rightfully earned, then he could have strengthened himself enormously. It cost 100.000 DP to upgrade a Journeyman skill to Senior-level, though he also had to fulfill some other demands such as completing a special quest.

Still, leaving aside his previous purchase, Ves already raked in a fortune by accumulating 40.000 DP. He didn't expect to earn so much points again. Only a combination of factors such as the interview, the trending market page and the endorsement from a streamer allowed his product to gain such prominence.

"I'll have to make the most of my current points."

Ves had a tendency to go crazy whenever he earned a windfall of DP. Having learned his lesson, this time he waited for an entire week before he began to spend his precious points. He extensively studied the Skill Tree and Store and constantly weighed his options without committing to any purchase. It took a will of steel to keep his shopping cart empty.

First, he resolved to maintain a minimum balance of 10.000 DP. He could purchase a lot of gadgets with this much DP that could get him out of trouble. Having endured two pirate attacks already, Ves no longer thought that only others suffered accidents.

Ves previously skewed most of his spending towards skills, and while they remained essential, it was too unbalanced. He had other needs as well, and with the recent upgrade to his System upon his advancement, the Store sold a lot more useful products.

He therefore split the remaining points into three separate pools. He reserved 10.000 DP for upgrading his skills, 10.000 DP for upgrading his attributes, and the remaining 10.000 DP for purchasing other goodies.

First, he went for the easiest purchases. There wasn't much choice in upgrading his attributes, so he mainly bought intelligence candies.

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1.300 Design Points

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1.400 Design Points

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1.500 Design Points

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1.600 Design Points

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1.700 Design Points

[Intelligence Attribute Candy: 1.800 Design Points

[Dexterity Attribute Candy: 700 Design Points

He needed to upgrade his intelligence the most. Despite the escalating price for each additional candy, Ves decisively snapped them up until he almost drained his budget. He rounded out his spending by buying a marginally useful Dexterity upgrade.

"It's not that the other attributes are useless. Concentration helps me maintain my intent when designing or fabricating a mech. I'm almost convinced a higher concentration is needed to score better on the X-Factor."

Creativity also helped with forming a strong source of inspiration for the X-Factor.

Despite these advantages, Ves could not allocate too much resources on a strong but ultimately supplementary benefit. Intelligence formed the foundation of his ability to solve problems and absorb new knowledge. He specifically chose to upgrade his intelligence first before he stuffed his brain with lots of new skills.

Ves stared apprehensively at the colorful candies that materialized in his palm. "Hey System, can I ingest all of the candies at once?"

[It is recommended that you limit your ingestion to one category at once, and only up to a cumulative growth of 1.0 a day.]

"Right. Let's start with the lone Dexterity candy to be sure."

Ingesting a candy caused his body to feel hot as his muscles experienced a strange sensation. The phenomenon quickly faded. He figured his body had already been primed to upgrades ever since he injected his body with Master Olson's gene boost.

After flexing his arms, Ves noted that his movements became more precise, but only barely. He still scored below average, so the overall benefits were still too insignificant.

As for intelligence, he underestimated the power of the candies. Despite his gene boost, he still lost consciousness when he popped the candies into his mouth. The six life-changing pills dissolved into his body and guided an enormous amount of energy to his brain.

When he woke up hours later, he had to reassure both Carlos and his security detail that he merely fell asleep on the toilet. It quickly turned into a joke, which hopefully deflected any other suspicions.

He still suffered from a headache, though. "It's like there's a thousand elephants pounding inside my head."

Most of the aches subsided after a good night's sleep. Only then he realized how a score of 1.8 made a difference to the way he saw the universe.

The increased Intelligence did not improve his wisdom or his decision-making. It left his personality alone, but enhanced his cognitive skills. He could solve complex equations in his head, recall a text he read a day ago and puzzle out the meaning of a difficult textbook page.

Ves also suspected the massive boost to improve his ability to design a mech. It sped up his application of theory and allowed him to solve his problems with a lot less brain churning.

"Is this how those geniuses felt when they designed their mechs? I feel so powerful."

He doubted that most of the designers he competed against could match his current level of intelligence. Only few individuals still made him pause, such as Edwin McKinney, Patricia Schneider and Master Carmin Olson. Will he ever reach their heights someday?

[Please do not celebrate so quickly. A human body can only sustain an attribute up to a height of 2.0. You will not be able to increase your attributes beyond this score with attribute candies.]

He cursed a little. The System ruined another of his devious plans. "What about gene boosts? You haven't mentioned anything about them. Will I be able to increase my attributes past 2.0 if I'm not a pure human anymore?"

The System predictably declined to answer, but Ves was convinced he was on the right track.

With nothing more to go on, Ves turned to acquiring new skills. After entering the toilet again, he turned on the Privacy Shield and entered the Skill Tree. He already assembled a laundry list of priority skills. It still left him with over fifty highly regarded choices.

He first defined his goal. "I want to obtain the skills needed to improve my Marc Antony design and reconstruct a working Dortmund printer."

After a moment's consideration, he chose to branch out his specialties instead of shoring his foundation. With his improved intelligence, he could easily upgrade his lowest ranked skills as long as had access to the right textbooks.

In contrast, it was a lot harder for him to get ahold of the more obscure pieces of knowledge. The Clifford Society locked those kinds of books behind a wall of merits.

[Melee Weapon Optimization I: 500 DP

[Melee Weapon Optimization II: 1000 DP

[Directed Energy Weapon Optimization I: 500 DP

[Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II: 1000 DP

The weapon optimization sub-skills acted similarly to the armor optimization ones. They did not enable Ves to design his own weapons and armor, but granted him a large amount of handy insights on how to improve existing ones. It taught him what to watch out for and how to avoid the usual pitfalls.

Mech designers usually acquired these skills through experience due to their lack of unifying theories. Ves found it worthwhile to spend DP to acquire them instantly.

Due to his recent increase in intelligence, he hardly felt any pain this time when he acquired and absorbed the skills. "Intelligence also acts as a load-bearer for all of my knowledge. My mind is a lot roomier now. I'm able to process a large amount of information at a time."

Acquiring these set of optimization skills opened his eyes. His new knowledge already pointed out numerous subtle mistakes he made in his designs that degraded the performance of their weapons. He resisted the urge to reopen the Young Blood design and optimize its ability to wield a sword.

"Instances like these makes me feel like an idiot. I'll have to boost my Mathematics and Physics to Journeyman before I start my next project." He reminded himself, having opted not to spend any DP on those essential skills when he could easily leverage his enhanced intelligence to make up for it in other ways.

[3D Printer Proficiency III: 800 DP

[Assembler Proficiency III: 800 DP

Ves intended to upgrade his main Assembly skill after the redesign, but for now he found it prudent to upgrade his proficiency sub-skills. Like the optimization skills, they worked by granting Ves the combined experience of a veteran fabricator.

The many things he had to keep in mind also indirectly improved his ability to design a mech by making it a little easier to fabricate, which should no doubt make Carlos happy.

[Alloy Compression II: 2000 DP

[Structural Pathway Configuration I: 1000 DP

[Structural Pathway Configuration II: 2000 DP

Upgrading his Alloy Compression sub-skill seemed wise even as his Marc Antony still lacked the capability to make use of it. Ves still lacked a compressor and CTM. Even if he had them, alloy compression only worked with a limited number of rare and expensive exotics.

Only the mechs piloted by elites made use of this technique. The regular frontline models of a third-rate state did not make use of compression due to a lack of resources.

He had a lot more use for Structural Pathway Configuration, which was an expanded version of cable management for mechs. The internals of the Marc Antony still remained a mess. The only way to alleviate the congestion was to tear it all apart and start from scratch.

The sub-skill also played a role in his upcoming reconstruction project. The Dortmund printer was a massive, complex web of sub-systems intricately bound by various connections. These cables, feeds and pipes required extensive care, as they were relatively fragile.

After digesting all of his gains, he summoned up his Status again to admire his accelerated growth.

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 20.610

Attributes

Strength: 0.8

Dexterity: 0.8

Endurance: 0.8

Intelligence: 1.8

Creativity: 1

Concentration: 1.7

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

[Assembly: Apprentice - [3D Printer Proficiency III] [Assembler Proficiency III]

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Apprentice - [Structural Pathway Configuration II]

[Mathematics: Apprentice

[Mechanics: Journeyman - [Jury Rigging II] [Speed Tuning III]

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression II]

[Metaphysics: Incompetent

[Physics: Apprentice - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II] [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization III] [Melee Weapon Optimization II]

Abilities

[Superpublish: Available. Can be activated once a year.

Evaluation: An apprentice at the start of his true journey.

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