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

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For his upcoming original design, Ves already chose the Phoenix as its totem animal. He envisioned designing a durable knight that should be resilient enough to last a lengthy war.

However, a great design should accomplish more than mere survival. Ves forgot about the drive to succeed. No one wanted to lose. Planning for the worst was fine and all, but sometimes you've gotta risk it all in order to achieve a win.

"Avoiding a loss is not a sufficient goal. A mech should be designed to accomplish a specific objective."

He sketched out a possible character he could utilize as the human myth component of his Triple Division Technique. While he hadn't fixed a specific image in mind, he felt determined to include some ambition and the need to win in the list of possible traits.

As the Sea Crown Tournament wound down, Ves guided his floating room away from the morbid arena dome and the restless crowd. A lot of security bots appeared to keep the defiant supporters of the Velton Myrmidons in line. They were one step away from rioting over the heartless killing of Jackknife Jake.

Even though the competition came to an unfortunate end, Ves did not regret attending it. The collective emotions of the spectators and the dramatic turn of events in the ring had revitalized his drive to design an original mech.

In a sense, he reacquainted himself with the raison d'être of mechs.

For all their higher ideals, humanity ceaselessly sought to expand their rule over the galaxy. They began their conquest of the stars with the advent of interstellar warships. They consolidated their gains by establishing a flourishing mech culture.

Ves, Raella and Lucky stayed at an exclusive hotel next to the arena and spent the night there.

As he slumbered, Ves dreamt of the fantasies had in his youth and blended them with the harsh realities he learned in his adulthood. Designing an original mech was tough, but Ves never thought he would have an easy ride.

As he woke up the next morning, Ves left the arena domes behind and visited the cultural districts of Cava City. He toured the museums and art galleries for ancient monuments of fallen alien species and contemporary art alike.

Each individual piece carried a message. The best works of art came with rich flavours of X-Factor that had been imbued by their creators.

"What do you see in this piece of junk?" Raella complained as she crossed her arms. "It's just a barstool, Ves! You call this art?"

"I can tell the artists here are sincere. Can't you feel the emotions in the pieces?"

"My tummy is feeling hungry. When are we eating lunch?"

"Soon. Let me take in the sights first."

The art gallery put this particular ensemble in a notable position. The room they stood in had been converted into a metallic interior reminiscent of the insides of a spaceship. Rents and molten marks on the walls evoked the image of a desperate battle.

Devastation formed the theme of this exhibition. An artist collective called the Epitaph Among The Stars recovered several mundane pieces of space wreckage and turned them into display pieces.

Even though the artworks didn't look too remarkable, they resonated very strongly with his sixth sense. The emotions put in their compositions spoke of the dedication of the artists that made it their mission to remember the fallen from the void of space.

The other exhibitions never came close to matching their exquisiteness. Half of the art pieces he encountered in the gallery came with an empty void that spoke of two possibilities. Either they were fake, or the artists left the composition to a bot.

Either way, Ves found it rather disappointing that the curators valued such pieces. What would happen if materialization became mainstream in the art world? Would every piece of art become husks that were too detached from their creators?

From the way the museums and art galleries couldn't distinguish between real or fake, Ves held low expectations of the future.

Besides witnessing how other people unconsciously imparted the X-Factor in their works, Ves also received a lot of inspiration for his upcoming project. After the brutality he witnessed last night, the distraction pulled him back from the brink.

"Violence and civilization goes hand-in-hand, but it's not a good idea to lean too far in a single direction."

The industry generally abhorred mechs that catered to the darker nature of humanity. Designs that emphasized their ability to evoke terror and inflict mass casualties even received censure from the MTA.

Mechs should never be employed as a weapon of terror. While plenty of people outright made a mockery out of that rule, normally the market favored noble mechs.

Even a heavy striker armed with heavy-duty flamethrowers could be considered heroic as long as its design emphasized its role as a defender. Perception and reality didn't always have to match.

Ves absorbed this lesson slowly as he visited many different art galleries in the next two days. The way the artists played at the perception of their audience really inspired his creativity.

Some of the most impressive works of contemporary art consisted of four-dimensional displays that changed their form over time in a dynamic fashion. The artists accomplished these effects through the use of modern technology and a small amount of exotics.

One remarkable artwork consisted of a mirror that purportedly showed an alternate reality version of whoever stared into its reflective surface. People could only see their own reflections. No matter where anyone else positioned themselves, they would never be able to glimpse another person's alternate reflection.

Most visitors treated it as a fake curiosity as they saw themselves in a vastly different state of appearance. Perhaps a sophisticated computer pulled up various data from the galactic net and extrapolated a somewhat realistic image of what they might have been if some details of their past had taken another turn.

No one really believed the artist's claims that he had breached the barriers between the universes and opened up a window.

The reflections appeared to be completely random. Some looked thinner, as if they couldn't even afford to eat the most basic nutrient packs. Others wore resplendently brilliant dresses, as if their income had been inflated by over a hundred times.

Raella claimed she saw herself as a successful mech athlete who had gone pro. She wore a piloting suit emblazoned with the name of her old team, the Wailing Witches. Her suit even carried sponsorship symbols from several notable household brands.

Ves felt apprehensive when he got his own turn to look at the mirror. What would the clever computer system behind the illusions come up with as his reflection? Once the latest person moved away from the reflection, Ves stepped up to the full-length mirror.

"Is that me?" He sounded disappointed.

The Ves that looked back from the mirror looked decidedly average. He wore poor clothes that could be obtained with a couple of dozen credits. His body looked thin but not malnourished, showing that he barely made a living in this supposed alternate universe.

Much of the confidence and success that he enjoyed as a mech designer was absent from the reflection. Ves supposed that the reflection indicated his most likely fate as an individual if he never received the System from his father.

Crushed by debt and lacking both talent and connections, Ves would never be able to come up with a product in time to pay off the first interest payment that came due. Coming up with five million credits on his own proved wholly impossible to a mech designer without the right foundation to survive in the mech industry.

The Larkinson family must have refrained from bailing him out as well. With their modest net worth, they'd be ruining the foundation of their estate if they threw good money after bad in his hopeless venture to become an established mech designer. The most his grandfather could do was to secure his rights after the inevitable bankruptcy.

Obviously, he didn't take his failure very well. One year after the presumed closure of his nascent workshop, Ves must have probably turned back into a useless bum. Deprived of a promising career in the mech industry, he fell off in the deep end and lived from day to day in a wallow of self-pity and recrimination.

The next visitor in line started to get impatient as Ves stared at his own alternate reflection with melancholy. His self-esteem took a substantial hit in that moment. He only regained his composure after left and took a break by eating a meal at a nearby restaurant.

As Raella munched on a fat piece of aeliotonoc whale steak, she gently bonked his head with her knuckles. "Cheer up, Ves. Whatever you saw in that stupid mirror isn't you. Look at what you made of yourself in these last couple of years. You're a big shot now!"

"You're right." He sighed as he cut a piece of his own steak. Ves found the whale meat to be a little chewier than he liked. "It's a depressing reflection, but it's only one of many possible realities. What matters most is that I've avoided that fate."

Ves spent the rest of his allotted time in Cava City by attending a silly play. The performance centered around a setting where humanity and aliens struck a friendly accord. The play made fun of the diverse aliens humanity had befriended.

The performance made use of advanced projection technology to capture the speech and movements of an isolated actor and project them into a life-like alien characters. From upright horses with twelve limbs to a floating brain that manipulated its surroundings with tentacles, their antics roiled the audience in a flood of laughter.

"Why are you speaking to my waste channel? My nostrils are down here!"

"My apologies. My exhaustive lessons in human culture and etiquette has taught me that I should always start undressing myself after exchanging a couple of words!"

"By the Seven Three-Horned Gods! Humans are disgusting! They douse themselves in the foul and smelly liquid known as water for up to two times a day! Imagine the horror known as hygiene! We must declare war against this race to teach them the value of going without a bath for years at a time!"

What Ves enjoyed the most was how the play obliquely parodied aspects of society that they all took for granted. For example, while humanity universally maintained hostile relationships with aliens, why should they be locked in a constant struggle for dominance in the galaxy?

Space was vast, with billions of stars in the Milky Way alone. Not even the most prolific races had grown to the point where they ran out of space. Even if most star systems lacked deposits of exotic minerals, that didn't mean they were useless.

Humanity constantly hungered for exotics to fuel their ceaseless struggle for territory against the aliens and themselves. The play Ves and Raella attended presented a scenario where humans never resorted to war as the first option. While they maintained a decent amount of war assets, they mainly served as a deterrent rather than a prelude to a full-fledged invasion.

In this possible setting, the playwright envisioned that the lack of constant warring diminished the hunger for exotics, thereby placing less importance on securing star systems with deposits of these valuable resources.

With peace as the prevailing condition, human society occupied a smaller but more densely populated slice of the galaxy. The lack of competition even allowed their race to unite in a single common union that maintained the same set of laws and customs throughout their entire territory.

Such a silly future could never exist. Ves had a good laugh along with the rest of the crowd when the play made a mockery of this presumptuous vision.

"Humans are a greedy, jealous race that always takes away what other races possess." He reminded to himself. He spoke those words with prime.

At the end, Ves left the theater in a tired but satiated mood. All the ups and downs he experienced in the last couple of days had refreshed his mind even as it took a toll on it. In any case, he experienced a lot on this planet and gained a lot of inspiration on his upcoming project.

His holiday on Moira's Paradise had given him a lot of food for thought. While he didn't get to relax all that often, the mental stimulation he received should be sufficient to flesh out a draft design for the mech of his dreams.

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Their stay in Cava City came to an end. Ves, Raella and Lucky boarded the Nautilus of the Deep with memorable moments of their stay.

"The play is fun and all, but I don't get why it's so highly rated."

"With parodies, you have to look underneath the surface to get the message." Ves responded to Raella. "Have you noticed how the humans appeared more dimwitted than the aliens in the performance? My take on the play is that if humans for whatever reason lose their drive for war, they'll eventually turn into harmless monkeys who are only good for comic relief."

"Hah! As if that will ever happen. Too much blood has been shed for us to go all lovey dovey all of a sudden."

"You never know if the prevailing winds will change. There's always a portion in our society who are advocating for peace and understanding."

"That sounds pretty bad for you. Without all the fighting, who's going to buy your mechs?"

Who would buy his mechs indeed, Ves thought. For better or worse, the mech industry depended on the continuation of humanity's thriving martial culture. The amount of mechs that got wrecked and needed to be replaced in the Komodo Star Sector reached an astounding sum.

"Did you enjoy the holiday?" Ves asked.

"Well, it's not an adventure, but it's okay. Moira's Paradise is so different, it's like the people here are aliens. I don't get their fascination for living under a fragile dome all year long. The moment it cracks, all of that water will come crashing down on their heads! I'd rather live underneath the open sky."

Ves enjoyed the holiday as well. Besides the inspiration he received, it also felt refreshing to forget about his job, if only for a couple of days.

After the Nautilus returned to the surface, a large number of passengers departed the luxurious cruise ship. Ves and his entourage spent a short time on the artificial island before boarding the Barracuda.

"Back to Cloudy Curtain?" Captain Silvestra asked.

"Yup. Take your time, you don't have to hurry."

Before he returned to his workshop, Ves intended to do some market research as a final preparation for his draft design. While he could start to draft a design right now, he risked a disappointing reception if he disregarded the demands of the market.

"What do people in the Republic want from a knight mech?"

Ves already read up on the subject. Marcella had been very helpful in sharing some of her market research and industry reports. To make the long story short, the private market mainly geared up for a brutal slog against the Vesians.

Everyone expected the upcoming war to proceed in the same vein as the previous conflicts between the two rival states. The Bright Republic would be put on the defensive while the highly motivated Vesians did their best to break through.

The irreconcilable hatred between the Vesians and the Brighters ensured the war could drag on for up to five years or more. The mercenaries and company security forces that made up the bulk of the private market demanded robust designs that could potentially last them the entire war.

This fell into his niche, as his phoenix concept centered around extending the life cycle of his upcoming design. Still, his knight needed something more in order to distinguish his product from the masses.

Ves took inspiration of the late Jackknife Jake. While his dauntless personality made a profound impression in his mind, he also admired the semi-modular nature of his fish mech. To design a mech that continued to function bereft of most of its surface components took a lot of guts and skill.

He wanted to adopt such a feature into his own design to complement its undying nature, but practical concerns prevented him from going through with this idea.

"It's a lot easier to pull this off in the water than on land. The diminished form will have to come with its own miniature engine and power source, as well as a form of mobility."

Such demands took up too much space to make the concept feasible with the means at hand. Nesting mechs like the fish mech became more prevalent in the galactic center, where superior technology and materials brought about significant gains in performance while requiring relatively little space.

He turned his newly invigorated imagination in another direction. What do mech pilots want in their knight mechs? Ves poured into his research materials to look up the answer.

Ves spotted a tiny detail hidden beneath the personal testimonies. Besides the usual demands for power, armor and speed, the mech pilots wanted to own a mech that could dig.

He played a clip of an interview with a veteran mercenary pilot.

"How often did you find yourself huddled underneath the ground?"

"More often than I liked. The noble armies of the Vesians generally consists of a hodgepodge of designs, but one thing that's very consistent is that they bring lots of artillery, particularly missiles. They ship them in by the bulk and fire off their entire magazines in our direction to soften us up. Sometimes, the Vesians don't even care if they don't hit anything, because the bombardment has already frayed our nerves."

"If you know that they will be throwing missiles at you, why not prepare a portable bombardment shelter?"

"Those things work well, but they're only good for a single time. The cheaper ones weigh a lot so it's a massive pain to lug them around. The more expensive ones don't last long enough to pay for their expenses. It's better to take advantage of the natural soil around us and put a lot of earth between your mech and the missiles raining down in your sector."

"What about bringing in a digger module?"

"Are you kidding? Those things take up even more space, and they're finicky as hell! No, forget about those stupid gadgets. The only thing I need is an old-fashioned spade."

The veteran proceeded to detail the intricacies of digging a makeshift shelter. Different planets and climates led to different soil conditions. It took a lot of technique to dig out a semi-enclosed trench in a reasonable amount of time.

Ranged mechs that formed the mainstay of any squad often broke down easily if they helped with the digging. The arms of a rifleman mech specialized in aiming the weapon as accurate as possible. These types of limbs easily exceeded their maximum carrying limits if they went too far with digging.

More often than not, squads designated knight mechs as their go-to diggers. While knights possessed a lot of strengths, that didn't mean they excelled at digging. Many mech designers overlooked such demands when they came up with their knight designs.

"Interesting." Ves spoke to himself. "Could this be a gap in the market?"

In truth, many mercenaries preferred to be deployed in areas with readily available cover. If they couldn't find anything nearby, they would rather retreat and avoid the bombardment entirely. Only rarely did they decide to stay and ride out the storm.

However, his research into this topic revealed that digging became more prevalent in the later stages of the war. Most battles shifted from well-prepared fortifications to bombed-out ruins and temporary encampments in the wilderness. As everything started breaking down, a mech could only rely on his simple spade for suitable cover.

"So am I going to design a mole mech now?"

Ves wouldn't go that far. It became tempting to believe in the market research and try to form a response to every issue, but Ves only had so much space in his design.

"It's enough to take the possibility into mind."

A mech that could dig efficiently required a specialized set of limbs that diminished its ability to fight. Ves decided to make due with half-measures that made the digging a little easier while preserving the combat effectiveness of his design.

"This should be the base role of my design. A scrappy knight that also makes for a decent entrencher."

With this decision, Ves formulated the three required images for his Triple Division Technique.

The totem animal consisted of the mythical phoenix. This image represented his desire to design a lasting mech that would grow over the years and become more distinct with each round of repairs.

Ves decided to dedicate the human myth to Jackknife Jake. It saved him the trouble of formulating a fictional character. As a mech athlete, Jackknife Jake possessed keen instincts and a great sense for risk taking. Even if he lost out at the final moment of his career, the preceding feats in his career showcased his talent in this area.

"I need something with the drive to win no matter how frigid the situation has become."

This kind of motivation sounded rather dangerous. If Ves went too far with embedding this message into his design, his customers might be tempted to dive head-first into danger.

After a brief internal struggle, Ves decided to integrate this image into his design. "A knight has to possess a lot of courage to perform their roles. Otherwise, how will my design be able to excel in the field?"

The reality of the mech business was that the market paid attention to a design's performance in the field. Word of mouth spread quickly about good and bad designs. Mechs that performed poorly quickly resulted in cratering sales, while mechs that excelled on the battlefield exploded into popularity.

Much of this phenomenon depended on the habits and perception of the mech pilots in the field. Perfectly decent designs on paper might inexplicably be regarded as a harbinger of bad luck if a single pilot suffered from consecutive breakdowns.

Even if a lazy mech technician carried the actual blame for the mishaps, rumors always trumped over facts. Sometimes, investigators even found proof that a mech pilot deliberately made a fuss about their mechs at the behest of a competitor.

These days, the MTA came down hard on these kinds of practices, so Ves didn't worry too much about getting bad mouthed. What he actually concerned himself with was whether his design could stand out from the other knights in the market.

"With my reputation, it should be fairly easy to generate some initial sales. It's what comes after that I have to focus on."

The buyers in the mech market spent their money wisely. If Ves could influence his designs in such a way so that his customers used them in flamboyant ways, he'd be able to generate a lot of buzz for his designs.

He only hesitated because it could also backfire on him. If his design gained a reputation for driving his pilots into reckless action, his mechs would cease to sell as well as he hoped.

In the end, he decided it was worth the risk, and confirmed the concepts that he would use for his design.

"Two of my images are focused on different aspects of survival, while the remaining one prioritizes victory."

The lack of balance in the images had been a deliberate choice on his part. There was no point in employing seperate images if they all fulfilled the same role. By splitting the ratio from defense to offense in this manner, Ves emphasized the defensive aspect of his design while leaving room for offensive action.

"I'm ready to start my draft design."

Designing a draft meant he'd sketch out a loose outline of his mech. It fixed the general shape, type and weight-class of his mech and allowed him to figure out what type of components he should license for his final design.

Ves hunkered down in his stateroom aboard the Barracuda and projected his design software into the whole room. He took a deep breath and composed his mind, employing the Triple Division Technique at full strength.

His images showed signs of stirring up. As Ves infused the hungry concepts with his mind, they started coming to life. He held back his full force as he did not wish to wake them prematurely before he started with his actual design.

"This should be enough. Let's go with a medium mech."

He held out a finger in the air and slowly slided it downwards, leaving a single projected line. His finger turned direction, leaving behind another line, this one in a different angle. Ten minutes went by as Ves flicked his finger left and right, back and forth, up and down.

The resulting three-dimensional sketch looked like a mech doodled by a six-year old child. Yet in the eyes of Ves, it looked beautiful.

"Perfect."

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At first glance, his rough draft evoked more grace than grit.

The relatively sturdy profile of the knight took on a concave shape at the waist to save as much weight as possible. Most knight designs opted to beef up this area in order to protect the fragile engine and other related components. Unfortunately, all of the extra bulk tended to slow down the frame in a very major fashion.

"It's a good thing I've licensed a decent armor system."

The Keltrex armor system he licensed in exchange for merits allowed him to get away with more for less. It took up less weight for a comparable amount of protection to other armor systems, so Ves liberally took advantage of this trait.

While some people might consider that he went a little bit too far in trimming down the weight, Ves hoped that some would appreciate the upsides of his design choice. His draft design currently hovered in the middle of the mediumweight mech classification. Such mechs offered substantially more mobility than other medium knights that often strained against the limits of their weight class without sacrificing too much protection.

Besides trimming down the waist, Ves gently beefed up the areas that his mech couldn't cover with its shield. Most notably, he bulked up the shoulders to the point where it appeared his mech possessed pauldrons.

Knight designs sometimes included oversized shoulder pauldrons with the aim of employing them as disposable half-shields.

Any incoming attacks could be absorbed by the pauldrons instead of the mech's more sensitive parts. Mech technicians would be able to replace the pauldrons fairly easily if they got damaged. While it risked damaging the underlying arm mechanisms, it still beat risking the integrity of the highly vital power reactor.

"My power reactor runs on medium-density mech-grade fuel. It can't handle battle damage like a power reactor that runs on electric current."

Another license he obtained from the Clifford Society, his power reactor focused mainly on endurance and durability. As a tradeoff, it plateaued fairly quickly, delivering a low level of peak performance. Still, paired with Oleg's efficient Trailblazer engine, his mech possessed an enviable level of endurance.

"My design should be able to operate for weeks without requiring resupply."

The only downside to this amazing feature was that his design relied on the supply of medium-density mech-grade fuel.

Generally, most mechs in the Republic that incorporated fuel cells ran on low-density fuel. Refiners produced them by the bulk with hardly any effort at all. In contrast, high-density fuel was strictly regarded as a strategic asset and could only be synthesized at specialized refineries owned by the state.

Medium-density fuel sat in between these two extremes. While refineries in the private sector possessed the capability to synthesize this kind of fuel, they often left it at the wayside due to limited demand. It cost several times more to run a mech on medium-density fuel, which was reason enough for most mech outfits to balk at the expense.

"Still, the tradeoff is worth it. It's not like the mech outfits can stock up on the fuel beforehand."

Incorporating the use of medium-density fuel in his design did not come without risk. While refiners managed to develop formulas that did not combust very easily, if exposed to sufficient heat, they might catch on fire. Ves had to draw up an array of fuel cells that could be emptied or ejected rapidly in the event it became exposed to something like a laser or a flamethrower.

"As long as its armor holds up, my knight shouldn't worry too much about getting caught on fire."

Ves trusted in the Keltrex armor system to endure lasers without transferring all of that energy to the mech's internals. As far as he was concerned, he got his merits worth and more when he obtained this license.

"Too bad my licenses are only valid for ten years."

The value of the licenses would probably decline by more than half after the start of the new mech generation, but it still presented an unwelcome circumstance. Merits did not come cheap, even for the more established mech designers. Ves did not relish the prospect of running another life-threatening mission for the Clifford Society.

Hopefully, he made enough progress in the next ten years that he'd easily be able to afford the expense of renewing the licenses.

"Maybe I don't even need to bother with this hassle. Everything that's currentgen will soon turn into lastgen. There's not going to be much of a market for lastgen mechs."

The newer licenses introduced at the start of a new generation always cost a massive fortune to procure. This gave the larger mech manufacturers a head-start in the race to design a new generation mech. If Ves wanted to take part in the upcoming rat race, he'd have to grow the LMC to the point it could afford the investment.

"It all depends on how well this design will sell."

His draft design incorporated several other premium aspects by taking advantage of his remaining licenses he obtained from Leemar.

The fuel cells he mentioned earlier came in a configuration that minimized the chance of setting off its contents.

The ECM he included in his design came with advanced active countermeasures that spoiled the locks of any targeting systems. The Coalition-developed system did not possess a large margin of superiority over local ECM variants, but it should be sufficient enough to handle anything the Vesians threw at his mechs.

Finally, the cockpit deserved a special mention. The reason why he went out of his way to obtain a cockpit license in Leemar was because it insured the pilot's safety without taking up too much space. It incorporated a powerful set of one-time boosters that lifted off quickly and traveled far enough to escape capture.

As an added bonus, Ves also cladded it with a thin layer of Keltrex armor. While the cladding added to its bulk, the extra protection offered his customers a lot of added reassurance.

Put together, his draft already possessed the right elements to compete against the prevailing models in its target segment. While the market offered a lot of better designs that approached the performance of a second-class mech, they also cost a fortune to buy.

Like Ves, their designers incorporated several second-class aspects to their design. This resulted in wildly varying prices in the upper segment of the local mech market.

"There's more."

His vision for his knight and the images he used to guide his design work led to a couple of distinctive design choices.

First, Ves included a couple of optimizations that enhanced his design's ability to dig. He strengthened the internal frame and the spine so that it could exert more force into hardy soil without causing any internal stresses.

Ves even incorporated a free spade with his design. If his knight didn't need to dig, it could slide the spade into a specially-designed slot at the base of the spine. The blade of the spade also happened to offer some extra rear protection to the Trailblazer engine that rested inside the lower torso.

Secondly, he flourished up his draft with a couple of phoenix motifs. This started with the head, which Ves formed into an avine shape. He even added in a protruding beak that the pilot could use as a weapon of last resort.

Besides the bird-like head, Ves modified the shoulder pauldrons to look less like slabs and more like overlapping feathers. While it looked rather gimmicky, this enhanced their ability to absorb wide-area impacts at the cost of slightly worse performance against piercing attacks.

It also made maintenance a little easier since the mech technicians only had to replace a few damaged feathers rather than a large slab of armor plating.

As an added touch, Ves also planned to add the Festive Cloud Generator underneath the shoulders. If the mech pilot wished to make his mech stand out, he could choose to pump out fire-colored vapor from the feathers, giving allies and enemies alike the illusion that they faced a phoenix.

Perhaps this extra feature looked a little gawky, but it resulted in a very distinctive appearance for his design. "It looks really cool, that's for sure."

The sword and shield rounded out the phoenix theme that Ves was running. His upgraded creativity sprang into full as he figured out ways to embellish the armaments without taking it too far.

The sword incorporated a standard one-handed longsword design, but Ves styled its crossguard in the shape of a phoenix in flight. With its sweeping wings extending out of the sword and the beak that transitioned into the actual blade, it looked rather fetching in his eyes.

The shield on the other hand took an asymmetrical design. It was shaped like a phoenix turning in flight, leading to a crescent shape that covered one side more than the other. The sharpened edge of the moon-shaped shield provided his knight with an extra offensive option.

Ves had to admit that he spent a lot more time on detailing the surface of the shield than he should. While the sculptured surface looked fantastic, Ves envisioned a lot of added work should he push it into fabrication.

"It's worth it."

For a draft, the phoenix-themed knight already appeared unique. Ves was pretty certain that very few mechs looked identical to his own. At the very least, the Bright Republic's mech market had never seen anything like it. Its distinctive appearance alone distinguished his product from the rest.

"Let's iterate on this draft."

The first draft merely represented the starting point of his journey to publish an original design. Ves constantly tweaked the general shape of his design, adding in refinements and fixing some of the more obvious flaws. He only put down his weary finger once the Barracuda arrived at Cloudy Curtain.

Once the passengers returned to the workshop, Ves decided to seek some input from his circle. He gathered up Calsie, Gavin, Carlos and Chief Cyril and brought them to his enclosed office. He secretly activated his Privacy Shield before he turned on a projector of his draft.

"This is a preliminary draft of the original design I've been working on. It's an endurance-focused medium knight that excels in long, drawn-out conflicts. It's a premium design that incorporates several exclusive licenses from the Coalition, but I think I can manage to keep its price tag to around 60 million credits."

Besides the schematic, Ves also included his estimates on its specs. The guesswork shouldn't deviate too much from the actual numbers should he turn his draft into an actual design.

Carlos immediately raised his hands. "Okay, forget about its performance. What's up with the bird stuff?"

"I've been wondering about that as well. It looks tacky as hell."

Ves expected their feedback to start with this point. "I'm running a phoenix theme for my mech because I want to convey the message that it's not the end if it sustains a lot of damage. The core of my mech is very strong. In the event it suffers a lot of damage, as long as the owners are able to recover the mech, they should be able to repair it close to mint condition."

"That's a pipe dream." Chief Cyril shook his head. "You're selling a lie if you boast about infinite repairability for your mechs. Unless you're using smart metals or self-repairing alloys or some expensive stuff like that, a battleworn mech will always degrade over time and use."

The chief suggested Ves to take care of the kind of language he used to boast about his design. Hyperbole might be fine if he used it sparingly, but he should not make promises he could never deliver.

"What do you think about the phoenix theme?" Ves probed the oldest man in the room.

"I agree with the others it looks needlessly like a bird. You're laying it on a little thick. I suggest you cut back on the length of the beak and the feather covering of the shoulder pauldrons. The shield looks really good, although I'm not too certain about its asymmetrical shape."

All of his core personnel provided sensible remarks. Calsie pointed out that his design incorporated both feminine and masculine traits. "It's not the point where you can call it a typical 'girl mech' or 'boy mech', but I thought you should know. Knight pilots tend to be guys, right?"

"It's about the same as the total ratio of male and female mech pilots." Cyril noted. "There's always going to be a bit more men than women in the field."

"Well, your design isn't offputting to men or women in particular, so that should be a boon."

Ves turned to the final person in the room. Gavin hadn't spoken out a lot, which is strange as he possessed the strongest marketing background among the gathering. He appeared to be mulling over the draft with his chin resting on his fingers.

"What's your take on my draft?"

"That depends." Gavin uttered in a pretentiously serious fashion. "Do you want to make a lot of money or do you want to sell a lot of mechs?"

"Isn't that the same thing?" Ves frowned. Mech manufacturers made their money by selling mechs.

Gavin shook his head. "Not exactly. Let's take a step back and define your goal. What do you hope to accomplish with your initial original design?"

His related to the business rationale of releasing a new design.

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To clarify Gavin's question, Ves thought about his competitors. Some mech designers made a career out of their ability to develop fantastic designs but turned out to be awful businessmen. They didn't know how to run a business or hire someone trustworthy that did.

In contrast, the more business-savy mech designers made the most out of their limited means. Even if their designs lacked a spark, as long as they marketed their product correctly, they ended up presiding over a vast consortium of production facilities.

Right now, Gavin hinted that Ves leaned towards the former while having ambitions for the latter. While the two did not fundamentally conflict with each other, the market might not think so.

"It's a great-looking design, fantastic even." He explained. "It fits right in with the display models you designed for the Vintage Festival. Yet most of the designs we see on the battlefield are predominantly plain. If they have any decorations at all, it's usually the unit emblem and whatever personal crest the pilot is using."

Ves had to admit that his runaway creativity prompted him to go overboard in adding art to his design. As he looked at the projected schematic, he felt that it would be a huge shame to diminish that aspect. The draft he drew up already matched up with the images in his mind.

"It's an artsy design, there's no way around it. Maybe it will scare some people away, but making great-looking designs has always been an interest to me. A good design should have an iconic look."

This aspect had always been present, but his increased creativity practically forced the matter out in the open. Ves felt the downsides to upgrading his major Attributes to suddenly. Sometimes he couldn't help himself from acting on his impulses.

"So are you marketing your product as a battle mech or a show mech?"

"Definitely a battle mech. With the specs it carries, it's a waste to use it as a decorative ornament."

"Hm, if you're determined to go this route, then you should make some adjustments to your strategy."

Gavin proceeded to outline his suggestions. "You can have the best of both worlds. You don't have to choose between selling out or maintaining your artistic integrity. Simply stick a gold label to your current design. You can associate the silver label to your dumbed-down mass-market variant."

"I see." The idea had a lot of merit and solved the dilemma Ves was beginning to develop. He could accept toning down the detail on his silver label variant if he could retain them in the gold label base model. "I like the sound of it. Simplifying the design will also make it easier for the mech technicians to fabricate the parts."

"You'll also elevate the gold label version into a desired product with this strategy." Gavin pointed out. "The extravagant appearance of your mech will turn into a boon since it will only be rarely seen. Anyone who buys your gold label product will feel privileged for owning it, just like with your other limited edition mechs."

"So it's basically taking advantage of perceptual contrast."

"Exactly so. It's like evaluating a pile of dung. A small mound is ugly and smelly, but people will prefer it if their only alternative is an even larger mountain of dung."

Everyone laughed at Gavin's words. Ves shook his head. "They're both dung, so I don't think that analogy works in this case."

"You get the idea. By the way, why did you use a bird theme on your landbound mech? Shouldn't you be designing an aerial mech instead?"

"Uh, oops." Ves sheepishly let out and scratched the back of his head. "I didn't think about that incongruity. I'll probably design an aerial variant once the base model achieves some success. For now, it's not important that my mech can't fly. It's merely decorative, anyway."

Many designers incorporate mythical beasts as themes for their mechs. It wouldn't be to odd to come up with an eagle mech or a dragon mech as landbound mechs, for example.

Calsie and Gavin didn't have much else to say about his design, while Carlos lacked too much experience. Only his chief technician possessed the background to dig deeper into the feasibility of his design.

"There are two more aspects about your design that look sketchy. The specs suggest you're aiming to keep the weight down so that you can enhance its mobility. Don't you think you've gone too far? The most basic job of a knight is to endure attacks before they go through and hit more vulnerable mechs. Depriving your design of the maximum affordable protection makes your knight suboptimal for that specific role."

Ves had thought about that issue. "You aren't wrong. I deliberately set out to design an offensive knight with a decent amount of mobility and agility. I think the tradeoff is worth it in this case because the quality of the Veltrex armor system will be able to compensate for the lack of thickness."

"Do you realize how unusual it is to publish an offensive knight design? The use of defensive knights is standard doctrine. When someone is seeking to procure a knight, they always default to designs that excel in defense. Gavin, what's the ratio in the current market?"

"It's about four to one in favor of defensive knights. That means offensive knights only take up twenty percent of the market share for knights."

Ves saw an upside to that observation. "That also means that the market for offensive knights is a lot less crowded. I've done my market research. Defensive knights are easy to design so they're crowding out the market. It's a lot more challenging to design an offensive knight and it can't be done without a high quality armor system."

They argued a bit more about the feasibility of his design, but Ves had already set his course. Nothing Cyril said could change his mind.

It was not as if Ves set out to ignore the wisdom of his advisors. He simply wanted to do something new. After all his work on the Caesar Augustus and its variants, Ves preferred to enhance his catalog with something lighter.

"There's nothing wrong with sticking to your own judgement on things. That's why you're the boss. You have no one else to blame but yourself if it turns out you're wrong."

A company ran on the whims of its boss. Sure, larger corporations possessed a more refined corporate governance, with the board of directors overseeing its general directions while the various executives decided on the specifics. The larger they grew, the more they resembled states.

Even with an annual revenue of over a billion credits, the Living Mech Corporation still remained stuck in its startup days. Ves hoped to change that very soon after his grandfather sent him some retainers to beef up his administrative department.

"What's the other point you want to make about my mech?"

Chief Cyril pointed at the rear of the design. "That spade is an eccentric addition to your design. I'm not arguing the utility of including it, but it doesn't seem to fit with the concept of your mech. You're selling a 60 million credit knight to the private market. At that price, the mercenaries who buy your products will be putting them in leadership positions. Digging is something that's done by grunts, not by officers."

"I think you're a little too optimistic about that statement. According to my market research, mechs don't always have the right supplies on hand. It's tough to carry adequate supplies around on a fluid battlefield. The integrated spade should prove very useful against the Vesians with their penchant for missile bombardment."

"You won't convince anyone to purchase your mech on this feature alone. It's not something you can brag about and expect to be taken seriously."

"Even if it sounds extravagant, I'm willing to bet my customers will be thanking me for embedding that spade in my mechs."

His design resembled a work of art, but a robust internal architecture underneath its attractive exterior. Combined that with a nucleus of high quality components, his design should be more than ready to tough it out in the field.

That said, Ves only drew up a superficial design so far. It remained to be seen whether he'd be able to realize the potential of his design by solving every engineering challenge in his way.

After wrapping up his conference with his confidants, he decided to solicit the opinion of his mech broker. Gathering feedback and getting second opinions formed a very important part of the formal design process. He called Marcella over the comm and showed off his draft.

"Looks like you have a very solid idea of what you want to design." Marcella commented. "You'd be surprised how many mech designers muddle through their design process without a clue of what they'll end up."

She began by asking a couple of obvious questions that Ves had already discussed with his employees. Surprisingly, she expressed neither approval or disapproval at his visual design.

"I've seen weirder things in my life. Mechs come in all shapes and sizes. I can work with any kind of design as long as it works." Her words reflected the attitude of a veteran mech trader. "Rather than say the market is more receptive to certain designs, it's more accurate to say that most designs start off as a blank slate. It's up to your marketing to drum up demand for your product."

"It's going to be my debut mech, so I'm guaranteed to receive some free publicity."

"I'm aware of that, but don't think you can sit back and rely on the press to market your mech in your stead. There are many people who don't pay attention to this kind of news. I highly recommend you set aside some funds for an ongoing advertising campaign."

"How much money are we talking about?"

"A hundred million credits if you want to spend the absolute minimum."

That took out a very sizable chunk out of his cash. Ves hated the thought of spending so much money on something that had no effect on the quality of his design. Yet Marcella didn't lie to him about the necessity to have a marketing apparatus in place at the time of his design's introduction. Ves risked missing out on a huge chunk of early sales if he couldn't get a message out.

Besides this comment, Marcella sounded very positive about his design. The estimates specs ensured that it would be a good fit for his targeted price point.

"There's only one problem with releasing a design at this point in time. The next generation of mechs is only nine years away. Your currentgen design will be relegated to the bin of lastgen designs in less than a decade. While you can take advantage of refined and discounted component licenses this late in the current generation of mechs, you'll also have to deal with early depreciation of your design. It's an unfair trade-off."

"There's nothing I can do about the timing." Ves shrugged. "If my design pans out, I'll have the capital to participate right at the start of the next generation of mechs."

After discussing more details, Ves ended the connection. He considered asking his grandfather and some other people for advice, but called it off after considering they'd hardly bring anything new to the table.

"I think it's time to spend my warchest."

Now that he completed a draft design, he should have a good idea on what kind of components fit with his mech. With a budget of around a billion credits, Ves had to be prudent in his spending if he wanted to compliment his existing component licenses. He sat down next to his terminal and visited the MTA's internal market.

With his design still fresh in his mind, Ves hoped to obtain everything he needed so that he could move on to the next phase of his design project.

"Let's see what I need."

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Ves could spend as little or as much as he wanted to acquire the necessary component licenses.

If he wanted to splurge, he could blow a billion credits on the sensor systems alone, yet such an improvement hardly affected his design. "It's not about adding further improvements to my design, but retaining the strengths it already enjoys."

Desperate designers with an acute lack of money sometimes licensed outdated components offered by the MTA. They utilized technology that had been developed at least sixty years ago to plug a hole in their designs.

If Ves tried to do the same, he risked condemnation. As a premium design, his phoenix knight had to maintain a minimum level of performance across the board. He couldn't justify the 60 million credits price tag if he played fast and loose with his design.

He proceeded to splurge his entire budget on a number of generic licenses. Some components cost a little more than others, but Ves spent just enough to stray away from bargain bin territory.

Besides acquiring licenses for minor components that only die-hard enthusiasts cared about like gyroscopes or inertial compensators, Ves also made some big ticket purchases that played a vital role in the performance of his mech.

The sensor system cost an easy 100 million credits to pick up its license. At that price, Ves obtained the right to use a serviceable set of sensors that had specifically been designed to compliment knight mechs. It prioritized close-range detection over long-range detection and could take a beating as well.

"It's not like my knight will ever be used for a scout. It's enough if it can detect a sneaking mech up close."

The second major transaction consisted of a set of supplementary alloy formulas for the sword, shield and internal frame. Each part demanded different degrees of hardness, ductility, density and sharpness. The alloys that came with the Veltrex armor system only covered the exterior of the mech, and should not be used in other areas. Ves spent a total of 250 million credits to obtain all of these licenses.

The last major license consisted of the right to apply the Bright Republic's Modular Fitting Standard to his design. The Modular Fitting Standard or MFS was a relatively recent invention that aimed to standardize the dimensions of modular attachments for mechs.

Basically, the MFS ensured that every mech that used the same standard could share the same type of backpacks or other compatible devices.

For example, an MFS allowed a mech pilot to attach a standard energy pack from the Republic without worrying about compatibility issues. If he happened to come across an abandoned Vesian pack in the field, then he would have no luck, as the Vesian standard used a different set of dimensions. The plugs wouldn't fit in the sockets.

Before the proliferation of MFS, different companies and individual mech designers all employed their format. This led to a maze of confusing choices along with plenty of kludges as mech technicians tried to mate different modular standards together in the field.

Nowadays, each state or major faction stuck to a single standard to ease their logistics. The Mech Corps no longer had to keep track of fifty separate fittings.

Along with many other miscellaneous components such as transceivers and processors, Ves finally obtained all the necessary ingredients to design a mech.

"One billion credits down the drain. I only have around 400 million left in disposable cash."

The LMC still earned a decent amount of money out of routine transactions, so Ves didn't worry about running out of cash. Ves already reserved 100 million credits for an upcoming ad campaign, and he expected to spend a bit more to supplement the development of his phoenix knight.

"I'll have to fabricate a prototype at the very least." He mused as he stroked Lucky's back. The cat had woken up from his nap and demanded his daily dose of petting. "I can recycle it down to its constituent materials once I'm done with my tests, but I'm better off if I donate it to the MTA."

If Ves wanted to submit a valid original design to the MTA, he had to demonstrate he actually did all the work. The reality of the mech industry was that mech designers often cheated in their work. The worst cases involved stealing someone else's work through hacking or applying pressure.

"It's best to bring in the MTA right from the start. I should send my development logs to their servers."

He took some time to setup a secure connection to the MTA. Once every day, his computer systems passed along his documents, his data sets and more. He even included camera recordings of himself working on the design. This should leave ironclad proof that he alone developed the phoenix knight.

That was very important. A mech designer's first original design should always be the culmination of his own efforts. While he'd be allowed to employ assistants or specialists who worked on the components, the overall design of the mech must always be the reflection of a designer's skill.

Otherwise, any designer could ask a senior to 'help' him along. How could anyone be proud of their first original design if the senior did ninety percent of the work?

After establishing a connection, Ves was ready to move on to the next phase of his project. "It's time to mold my draft into an actual design."

This would be the most important phase of his design project. Ves couldn't afford any missteps at this point.

To turn his draft into a design, he had to incorporate the newly acquired components and fill out all of the missing gaps in the schematic. He expected to face a lot of bumps in trying to make something work the way he wanted to. Ves had to be inventive in order to make all of its goodies fit inside a single frame.

"At least it won't be as bad as the Caesar Augustus. Trying to fit multiple weapon systems in a single frame is a lot harder than trying to design a simple knight."

Ves faced two particular challenges in designing an offensive knight. First, he had to maintain a careful balance between mobility and protection. While he wanted to have the best of both, sometimes he could only prioritize one over the other. Ves had to make sure he didn't overshoot his priorities and put their balance out of whack.

His second priority lay in ensuring an adequate level of redundancy and compartmentalization in his mech's internal architecture. The downside to trimming the waist of his design was that it cut back on a lot of space that could have been used to toughen up his mech's internals.

He pondered over the issue. "The Keltrex armor system should be able to prevent a lot of breaches. It's not a disaster if my RF and CF ratios are merely average. A good mech pilot should be able to pull back before an enemy can exploit the holes in his mech."

Unless it was a matter of life and death, mech pilots always retreated before their mechs sustained too many battle damage. It took only a few stray shots to completely ruin a mech's internals. The benefits of staying in the field didn't outweigh the risks of death or totalling an expensive machine.

Before he embarked on his work, Ves wanted to take of any upcoming matters. He worked best if he could devote his entire concentration on his design.

"Ves!" Carlos called as he stepped inside his office. "You've got another pair of visitors from your family."

"Bring them to the lounge. I've been expecting them for a while."

After brushing up his clothes, Ves met with the retainers the Larkinsons had groomed on Rittersberg.

At first glance, the newcomers still retained the air of an elite from Rittersberg. The man looked like a typical bureaucrat, with his neatly groomed grey hair and impeccable suit. The woman looked younger, but still mature enough to occupy a senior position in a company. Both looked like they mean business.

"Ves, it's good to see you. My name is Jake Altern and this is Primrose Mackarie. We've been working on behalf of the Larkinson Estate for over a hundred years combined. I think you will find we can add a lot of value to the Living Mech Corporation if you let us take part in your venture."

Ves shook both of their hands. "I've already inspected your resumes, and I'm fairly satisfied with your qualifications. However, both of you have mainly worked in the retail sector. You will find that managing a mech business is a whole other beast than running a department store."

"We are aware of this shortcoming, but the Larkinsons have extensive connections to the mech industry."

Jake and Primrose had made an effort to immerse themselves into the world of mechs by reading up a lot of industry-specific textbooks. They also exchanged knowledge with various industry insiders. Together with their existing business acumen, the two should be amply prepared to take the helm of any medium-sized mech manufacturer.

"I'm glad to hear you've made the extra mile. The LMC is still in its infancy at this point, but I expect a lot of growth in the future once I publish my first original design. I'm going to need a competent COO and CFO to support my company's rise."

Without any further hesitation, Ves appointed Jake as the COO and Primrose as the CFO.

The chief operating officer often acted as the number two within the corporation. In the case of a mech manufacturer, the founder and principal mech designer usually occupied the title of CEO while the COO performed the actual day-to-day management of his company.

Since Jake occupied various leadership positions for the businesses under the Larkinsons, Ves could think of no other suitable position for him to adopt. His age and experience should provide a steady hand at the top.

The chief financial officer took care of the finances and bookkeeping of the company. The CFO led the financial department of a company, which managed the its accounts and made sure that no one secretly siphoned any money away. They also kept track of any transactions and made sure that their ledgers complied with the law.

While Primrose's resume did not look as impressive as Jake's, her knowledge in the field of accounting surpassed anyone else in the entire company by far. Ves had always intended to hire on an accountant to straighten up his increasingly burdensome transactions.

"The amount of money flying around will easily surpass a billion credits every year, spread over thousands of individual transactions. Right now, I don't have a lot of contingencies if something goes wrong. I hope you can help me with that, Miss Primrose."

"Just call me Primrose." She smiled at him. "I've already taken a peek at your records. It's a bit crude, but not as messy as I've thought. There are a number of entries that your automated management suite has been producing a lot of errors."

With his permission, Primrose brought up his asset listings and pointed out the nonsensical credit values attached to some of his licenses and his equipment. The accounting software mainly failed to estimate the proper values of things Ves had acquired by exchanging merits or DP.

"Oh, yeah, I haven't really thought of that." Ves awkwardly grinned. "The value of some of these things is very substantial but have a complicated background."

For example, Ves had no clue how to estimate the credit value of his reconstructed Dortmund printer. It should be worth several billions of credits, but it wasn't exactly market standard.

Fortunately, his newly hired CFO didn't mind the oversight. "I can take up this task. It's imperative your company can deliver a proper accounting to the Republic's tax office if asked. They may even confiscate your assets if you've been negligent in this area."

That sounded very scary to Ves, so he eagerly handed off all responsibilities of this nature to Primrose.

Besides discussing accounting, Ves also laid out his future plans to Jake. "I'd like you to take care of three things. First, I want you to setup an administrative department for the LMC. You don't have to hire a lot of people, just make sure you hire enough to take care of all of the routine stuff that needs done."

"Consider it done."

"Next, I want you to help lay down the groundwork for the debut of my first original design. I don't think I need to explain how important its success affects my company and my career. My biggest priority is to secure a fixed supplier to supply the most critical exotics for my design. I'll send you the list."

"That will be difficult to accomplish." Jake admitted. "A fixed supply contract is mostly established through existing connections or referrals and needs to be maintained through trust and communication. I think it's best I hire a specialist that can facilitate a connection with a specific supplier."

"Just get it done." Ves didn't care about the specific method. "My third demand is to get a handle on the political situation of Cloudy Curtain. My business is hovering on uncertainty right now because the ruling coalition has a beef with me. I've got a part-time law student filling me in on the situation, but I don't have the time to manage my relations with the scumbags in power."

"It's best to start up a relations department that can maintain ties with the local stakeholders of your company."

"Sounds good."

They had a fruitful talk about his intentions for the company. By the time the day came at an end, his new executives should have a good idea on how to perform their jobs. Ves would keep an eye on them, of course, but he didn't expect any missteps on account of their experience.

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The addition of Jake and Primrose set the LMC's household in order. Ves granted them a liberal amount of authority as the newly seated COO and CFO of his company. They utilized their power immediately by setting up a couple of departments and staffing them with young hires from Cloudy Curtain and Bentheim.

"How many departments are you setting up?" Ves asked Jake as he drew up an increasingly complicated organization chart.

"I'm only thinking of six so far. I'm setting up the Human Resource Management Department first to expand on our recruiting. Once we get that going, Primrose will be setting up the Finance Department while I'll be hiring or appointing the people who can head the Marketing Department, the Research and Development Department, the Relations Department and the Production Department. I'll be taking care of the Administrative Department myself."

Ves practically leaned backwards when he heard his COO's ambitious plan. "Don't you think that's a little much?"

"Frankly, I'm surprised the Living Mech Corporation has made do with a handful of people so far. It's not appropriate to run a company that's worth a couple of billion credits with automated software and a few young enthusiasts. It's time for the LMC to grow up and act like an adult."

Even if Ves didn't see the need to expand his administrative overhead right now, he sorely needed it once he unveiled his original design. "I can see the rationale for all of the departments you've mentioned, but It's going to be a huge problem keeping everyone under control if you hire fifty people at a time. I want trustworthy people under my wing."

He continually hammered on this priority. Ves would rather be understaffed than let a bunch of strangers get close to sensitive data and equipment.

"There are methods we can use to minimize the risks. For a fee, we can resort to employment agencies that specialize in vetting job seekers. You're not the first person who harbors these kinds of concerns. Corporate espionage is very prevalent in the mech industry."

Unpleasantries like this could never be fully prevented. Rather than quiver in fear, Jake went on with his hiring spree, trusting his newly setup management systems to contain any attempts at sabotage or espionage.

"A malicious actor can't do much damage anyhow." Jake observed. "You're a step ahead in terms of securing your software and hardware. Sanyal-Ablin enjoys a stellar reputation in this front."

"They better be. I'm paying out of my nose for their services."

His workshop's office space had always appeared rather spacious, but within a matter of weeks, it became filled to the brim with new administrative recruits. Jake hired a bunch of flexible middle management types from a renowned employment agency in Bentheim to take charge of most departments.

Besides a clean background, the managers also had to possess untapped potential so that they could grow with the company.

New faces appeared in the office every day that Ves stopped bothering to learn their names. The officers of the various departments coordinated with the chief human resources officer to entice the right kind of people to join the company. Despite Cloudy Curtain's lack of development, HRM managed to attract a lot of talent.

"Bentheim isn't a very pleasant place to live once you think about it." Jake explained to Ves. "Prices are high and public security is low. If criminals aren't running roughshod around the streets, they still have to contend with the Bentheim Liberation Movement."

"I thought the Mech Corps succeeded in containing the BLM."

"Their off-world assets are diminished, but their roots will always be Bentheim itself. No one knows how many people they recruited and how many supplies they managed to scrounge up. Their leadership is in disarray right now, but they'll hit back hard once they get their act together."

That sounded very ominous. The news portals only published encouraging news that the BLM had been neutered to the point of barely being able to muster up a suicide bomber. On second thought, Ves considered that the government engaged in a very deliberate messaging strategy in order to sap momentum out of the rebels.

"I see. What we see and hear in the news doesn't always match up to the facts in the ground. How did you know?"

"You can thank our new officers for that insight. Most of them are aware of the real circumstances on the ground when they still worked in Bentheim."

A touch of worry appeared on his face. Ves did not know what to think about the backgrounds of his unfamiliar officers. The need for competence meant that his HRM department took on managers who previously worked for his competitors. Even if they officially cut their ties to their old company, they might be keeping in touch.

Still, the added workforce already made a difference. They eased the procurement of materials and set his inventory straight. They straightened up his accounting and made sure they complied with the law. The chief relations officer even started probing various suppliers for the possibility of entering a mutually beneficial relationship with each other.

Maisie Duval, his CRO, put it this way. "It's much like dating if you think about it. There is plenty of fish in the sea, but you have to make an effort to find the right partner in the dark. Right now, I'm sending out a signal that tells the fish we're interested while simultaneously looking out for potential partners that are doing the same."

"What about the insular nature of the relationships at the top? Much of the resource market is kept in a stranglehold by the major industrial players."

"It's an ongoing issue, but I'm confident we can elbow our way into the periphery of their circle. We're too small to threaten their core interests."

In the meantime, Ves didn't sit back and do nothing while his workforce expanded. He turned his attention back to his design project. Before he embarked with the next phase of his project, he decided it was time to spend his generous savings of DP on upgrading his various Skills. He holed up in his private office and turned on his Privacy Shield before starting up the Mech Designer System in his comm.

"You're still my secret weapon, baby. With you around, I'm certain to make a splash with my new design."

The System had remained dormant all this time. Ves thought that he had been on the right track lately, so the System didn't prompt him with annoying Missions to get him to progress his career. He had no doubt that once he slacked off, the devious System would slap him with an impossible task.

"I love you, but you're still a bastard."

As usual, the System pretended to be a soulless AI and declined to respond. Ves knew the real score, however. Of all the wonders he witnessed so far, he refused to believe the System was as dumb as it sometimes looked. He would wring the truth out of the System once and for all one day.

"Status."

[Status]

Name: Ves Larkinson

Profession: Apprentice Mech Designer

Specializations: None

Design Points: 97,279

Attributes

Strength: 1.3

Dexterity: 0.8

Endurance: 1.9

Intelligence: 1.8

Creativity: 1.9

Concentration: 1.7

Neural Aptitude: F

Skills

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

[Battle Mechatronics: Apprentice

[Business: Apprentice

[Computer Science: Incompetent

[Electrical Engineering: Apprentice - [Structural Pathway Configuration II]

[Mathematics: Journeyman

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

[Metallurgy: Journeyman - [Alloy Compression II]

[Metaphysics: Incompetent

[Physics: Journeyman - [Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II] [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization III] [Melee Weapon Optimization II]

[Salvaging: Apprentice

[Signals and Communications: Apprentice

Abilities

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

Evaluation: A post-human mech designer with a random collection of Skills.

"You're hinting something at me, right? That remark on my evaluation isn't a random statement."

The System sneakily expressed its opinion about the depth and breadth of his Skills. It thought that Ves lacked focus in any particular area.

"Most of my major Skills are Journeyman-level, so at least I have a solid foundation."

However, no mech designer truly excelled with only a good foundation. They had to offer something special to differentiate their products from the competition. The key lay in the Sub-Skills, which Ves had to admit he spread his attention somewhat. He possessed Sub-Skills that covered both ranged and melee mechs, for example.

Since Ves prioritized the development of an offensive knight, he decided to spend over 80,000 DP on Skills related to this archetype, leaving 20,000 DP as an emergency reserve.

"It will be a bit dangerous to drain my pool of DP, but I don't think there are any threats on the horizon that will push me to the brink."

Ves had no intentions of leaving Cloudy Curtain for the foreseeable future. He already felt quite secure with Raella and Melkor taking up routine patrolling duties around the perimeter of his compound. Sanyal-Ablin prevented assassins and saboteurs from getting in while Walter's Whalers deterred the criminal elements of society from disturbing his work.

"There's a time to save and there's a time to spend. I can't hold back when I'm about to design my first original mech."

He proceeded to spend his DP like a man who won the lottery.

[Assembly - Journeyman: 2,000 DP

[Electrical Engineering - Journeyman: 2,000 DP

[Signals and Communications - Journeyman: 1,600 DP

First he upgraded a couple of his Major Skills that stalled in the Apprentice-level. All of them played a very integral role in enhancing his ability to design a good mech.

The upgrades enlightened him to many insights. Ves had to take a break for a couple of hours to digest the influx of knowledge. Even with his augmented mind, he still had to sort out the complicated theories and mountains of practical know-how all at once.

[Melee Weapon Optimization III: 2,000 DP

[Melee Weapon Optimization IV: 4,000 DP

[Mediumweight Armor Optimization IV: 2,400 DP

[Speed Tuning IV: 1,600 DP

After that, he gradually upgraded the related optimization Sub-Skills. At the fourth level, these Sub-Skills started to show their strength, granting Ves many little nuggets of knowledge that took Journeyman Mech Designers years to figure out on their own.

The optimization Sub-Skills didn't necessarily widened his options, but they allowed him to make the most of what he already got. They helped him spot more flaws and provided him with a little more solutions to squeeze out more performance out of his design. Reaching the fourth level in those Sub-Skills practically doubled his library of tricks.

Ves knew the value of this knowledge. "It's like I've apprenticed to a Journeyman Mech Designer for years and accompanied him as he designed his mechs. This isn't something I can learn from any book."

[Structural Pathway Configuration III: 4,000 DP

[Alloy Compression III: 4,000 DP

The following two Sub-Skills enhanced his ability to design the interior and exterior of his knight. Unlike the optimization Sub-Skills, Structural Pathway Configuration and Alloy Compression came with a lot of heavy theories that required Ves to employ his Major Skills to the limit to digest them all. The burden they placed on his Skills discouraged him from upgrading them to the fourth level.

"It's already sufficient for me to reach the third level in those two Sub-Skills." Ves decided after he recovered from the burden placed on his mind.

Now that he upgraded his existing Sub-Skills, Ves turned to acquiring some new ones, trusting in his instincts that it was better to acquire them now than later.

Since he had the DP to spare, Ves skipped over the cheaper Sub-Skills and started to consider the more exotic ones. One particular Sub-Skill for Battle Mechatronics stood out like a torch in the dark.

[Knight Mech Mastery I: 40,000 DP

The extravagant price tag already hinted at its value despite its entry-level status. Every Sub-Skill that possessed the word Mastery came with a correspondingly high price. Ves had the sense that only Journeyman Mech Designers embarked on the road to developing their Masteries.

"There's got to be something special about a Mastery if the System feels obliged to demand so much DP."

What did Masteries entail to make them so valuable?

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The System declined to provide an explanation on the nature of Masteries. The lack of description surrounding the various Mastery Sub-Skills roused his interests, especially since they seem to be advanced skills. The amount of DP required to learn the subsequent levels of a particular Mastery rose to a ridiculous figure.

Ves found it prudent to take a step back and find out more about this mysterious set of Sub-Skills. He browsed the galactic net, finding plenty of references, but nothing solid. It appeared the mech industry treated it like a trade secret that should only be kept within their circle.

"Interesting."

Fortunately, he found an introduction on the matter when he logged into the Clifford Society's online portal. He played a brief recording of a Star Designer lecturing in front of a conference of Masters over a hundred-and-fifty years ago.

"Mechs. We design them. We build them. We sell them. But do we understand them?" The elderly woman started. Despite her frail stature, her identity as one of the best mech designers in the galaxy shone through the brilliance of her eyes.

The audience remained silent. Despite their eminent status, the woman standing on the podium in front of them could easily beat them black and blue in any direct comparison.

"How many of you have ever piloted a mech? Simulations don't count."

A few hands rose up, but by and large, over ninety percent of the crowd had never truly piloted a real mech.

The old lady smirked. "Ah, you may think it doesn't matter. It certainly hasn't stopped me from reaching this height. It is a common understanding among our profession that you can only fully dedicate your life to pilot a mech or design them. No one among us has managed to advance to a Master Mech Designer while simultaneously becoming an ace pilot. It can't be done."

Everyone nodded in agreement at that statement. It took an extraordinary effort for professional mech pilots to progress from advanced pilot to expert pilot, from expert pilot to ace pilot, and from ace pilot to the exalted rank of god pilot. The latter of which enjoyed so much worship that they even exceeded the status of Star Designer.

"Yet how can we design mechs for the best pilots in the galaxy if we don't understand their perspective? Our individual design process is riddled with our own biases that we've formed through our own studies. Perhaps at the start of our careers, our shallow understanding of the piloting profession won't affect our designs that much, since our customer base is largely composed of regular pilots or advanced pilots at most. Yet will that superficial understanding of what mech pilots are going through be sufficient when you become a Journeyman or a Senior?"

Among the crowd, a hand rose up. "In my entire career of designing mechs, I've never stepped foot inside a cockpit. But I've always listened closely to my customers and my in-house test pilots. I've never received any complaints about incompatibilities of severe discomforts about my products."

"Ah, but these are ignorant pilots who don't know any better. Just because they are unable to perceive any flaws doesn't mean they don't exist. If you compare a mech designed by you to a similar mech designed by someone who understands, the difference will be very apparent."

Everyone looked confused. What did she mean by understanding?

"Understanding means knowing what a mech pilot is going through when he pilots your mechs!" She exclaimed as she clapped her hands. "It is not enough to read a memoir or two. You need to understand their thought processes, their reflexes, their skills, their reaction time and more! The best way to understand a mech pilot is to become one!"

"But we just found out that most of us lack the aptitude to become a mech pilot."

"I just told you it's the best way, not the only way!" The lady snapped back. "Think outside the box for a moment! To design better mechs, we must understand the people who will use them. So your neural aptitude makes you unsuitable to pilot a mech, big deal. If we can't interface with a machine, why not interface with the mech pilots themselves?"

The revelation came as a bombshell. The neural interface had been developed many years ago as a way for neurologists to investigate the minds of their patients. Mind-to-mind connections quickly proved exceedingly dangerous as many instances of improper use led to permanent brain damage among the observer and the recipient.

The technology had only been salvaged four-hundred years ago when a genius had the bright idea of connecting a person to a mech to solve its complicated control issues. The dangers proved much less substantial as the mind of a mech was nonexistent compared to the mind of a person.

"It is not the Age of Stars or the Age of Conquest! Technology has advanced! We understand much more about the neural interface now that it has proliferated with the help of our profession. There are many experts in the field of neurology who have taken the neural interface and made it into a safer device to connect with another human's mind."

"Have you… have you actually interfaced with a pilot?"

"I did." She smiled, to the stupefaction of the crowd. Even if she claimed that the technology had become safer, the Masters hadn't gotten rid of their doubts. "I am still alive, as you can see. I can count to ten without stuttering and I can still go to the toilet without assistance. As long as you take the necessary precautions, there are many benefits to be gained by interfacing with a skilled mech pilot!"

"What do you get out of interfacing with a mech pilot? Is this a way to become a mech pilot ourselves?"

"Don't talk nonsense." The Star Designer shook her head. "Interfacing is not a way to copy another person's efforts the way you can copy a file from one data pad to another. Each human is unique. It's impossible for us to copy a mech pilot's skills, as much of it is embedded in his reflexes, muscle memory and other properties that are exclusive to his body."

Then what benefits did she obtain to make the risky venture pay off?

"I can't explain to you how wondrous it feels to connect your mind with another. The connection goes both ways, and while it is possible to block sensitive memories from your partner, it will destabilize the connection if you go too far. So up to a certain extent, it is best to interface with someone you trust."

She went on the describe the advantage of interfacing with a pilot. The Star Designer did not set out to steal a mech pilot's memories, but merely wanted to experience the sensations of piloting a mech first-hand.

"There are many tiny aspects about piloting mechs that escape your grasp. I have learned so many new things and corrected so many misperceptions after I embarked on this exploration. As mech designers, we often receive second-hand or third-hand information on what a mech pilot is going through. Neural interfacing enables us to blur the boundaries between yourself and your partner, allowing you to perceive the piloting experience first-hand from the best."

Someone realized the significance of her wording. "That sounds like as if you interfaced with a mech pilot who interfaced with a mech!"

"Exactly! The best possible moment to understand a mech pilot is when he actively pilots a mech! The brain activities that goes on in his mind can never be fully expressed if he lays down in a clinical lab with a device stuck onto his head."

No one had ever thought such a mad idea could work. If interfacing a pair was already fraught with risk, then connecting three people at once always ended in disaster. Researchers who pushed the boundaries always ended off in jail after turning all of their test subjects into brain-dead idiots.

"I'm still alive and well, as you can see, so don't look too surprised! The risks are great, but the potential gains more than makes up it. My designs have improved remarkably to the point where ace pilots and god pilots have formed a decades-long waiting list for me to design a personal mech for them! It is because out of all my competitors, only I can fully tailor a mech that can bring out their full potential."

Once the crowd of Masters got over their shock, they started to see the advantages of understanding the minds of elite pilots.

The few potentates among them had never advanced beyond the rank of advanced pilot. To push themselves to expert pilots required a complete dedication to the warrior profession. No one had any delusions of advancing any further, so they never held any ambitions of understanding the perspective of ace pilots and god pilots.

Yet what they learned today opened the door to greater understanding. Comprehending the mindset of elite pilots finally became possible through the use of neural interfacing.

The Star Designer proceeded to explain her setup and the many technical challenges she faced. Much of it must be grossly outdated by now, but Ves still found it useful as the old lady explained the concepts that made the process work.

"Human-to-human neural interfacing can be used beyond getting into the minds of a mech pilot. Currently, I've partnered up with the MTA to research ways in which a mech designer can interface with a variety of soldiers and athletes to achieve a greater understanding on how to exploit the humanoid form, and thus achieve complete Mastery over a particular type of mech."

"Are there any dangers besides the obvious?"

"Good question!" The old woman praised. "Neural interfacing can go wrong even if you have the perfect setup with the right hardware. Think about what you are embarking on when you put on the neural interface. You are connecting your mind with another person. To illustrate how dangerous this can be, imagine if any of you, each with over a hundred years of life experience, would interface with a baby barely a day old."

Everyone who surpassed the age of hundred possessed a formidable mind, and that went double for Master Mech Designers.

"We've never tried it, of course, but the neurologists and researchers all project utter disaster for the baby. In order to insure the interfacing won't overwhelm one mind or the other, it is important to balance them out in terms of mental strength. A simple old farmer who barely reached his hundredth year possesses the same strength of will as a child barely into his teens."

That meant that age was not the only factor. This basically meant that mech designers had to interface with mech pilots who closely matched their age, intelligence, life experience and career development.

For example, a Master Mech Designer should only interface with an ace pilot, while a Star Designer should only interface with a god pilot. Any mismatch on either side could lead to the weaker side sustaining permanent brain damage.

"What about interfacing with an animal?"

Everyone laughed at that question. The notion sounded so dangerous it was comical for someone to even entertain the suggestion.

"Even I'm not that crazy." The woman replied with a rueful smile. "Despite the many strides we've made to minimize the risks, the neural interface technology is still immature. It will take many decades before we can even begin to interface with felines and canids."

Once the recording came at an end, Ves sat back and digested what he learned. "So that's a thing."

After a hundred-and-fifty years, the state of neural interfacing must have made a lot of strides. Ves checked the Clifford Society on any other mentions of Mastery, and found a few oblique references.

It turned out that only major institutions like the Leemar Institute of Technology offered the facilities to conduct human-to-human neural interfacing. One document stated that only direct disciples of Masters would be eligible to take part in this tightly controlled process.

This explicitly left out someone like Ves with only a loose connection to Master Olson. He felt a little indignant at missing out on goodies like developing your Masteries. If the System didn't offer it with a huge amount of DP, Ves would never know what he lacked compared to other mech designers.

"Seeing it's like this, it's no wonder that the System charges 40,000 DP for the first level of a Mastery."

Despite the painfully high price, Ves became enamored by the idea of skipping out the risky process of interfacing with a bunch of strangers. Besides the difficulty of getting access to this exclusive process, Ves did not wish to let anyone rummage through his mind as he rummaged through theirs.

"The price is high, but the benefits and the convenience must be huge as well. I'd be a fool to miss out on a Mastery."

Despite the uncertainty swirling around this new and explosive field of knowledge, Ves pulled the trigger and bought the Mastery from the System.

A flood of scorching heat suddenly emitted from his comm. After a long period of dormancy, the System roused its might for the first time in a very long time.

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[Engaging dimensional and temporal neuro-translocation. Please rest in a comfortable position. Initiating in 10… 9… 8…]

"What the hell?"

[6… 5… 4…]

"What is neuro-trans-"

[1… 0… Initiating transfer!]

The world changed as if his mind had been sucked into a wormhole. He clearly felt his body being left behind as if a giant scoop pulled out his consciousness and dragged it along a distance that Ves could not even begin to describe.

Longer than expected but shorter than he thought, the wild ride suddenly ended when his mind abruptly crashed into a body.

A different body.

"Barley!" A strong smack thumped on his back. "Get your head back in gear! I know we're up in an avalanche of dirtbags, but we can make it through! Persevere!"

Ves instinctively turned around and straightened his back. "We'll get 'em, Captain!"

"Glad to hear it." Captain Osprey smiled at him, though he couldn't hide the glint of bone-dragging weariness from his eyes. " Make sure your Cepth-S is in shape to deploy in the next shift. Intelligence think the dirtbags are cooking up an assault, I want to make sure my best knight is raring to go."

"Will do, sir!"

Once the captain walked away, Ves took stock of his surroundings while he nursed his aching head. Ves somehow ended up in the body of an average advanced mech pilot named Ivan Barley in the Chittering Cicada Star Sector.

"It's over fifty years ago!"

From the memories Ves had access to, everyone fought with mechs that were two or three generations older than the modern norm. The System not only stuffed him inside a body halfway across the galaxy, it also sent him back in time, all without destroying Ves or Barley's minds!

To say that Ves had complete control over Barley's body would be wrong. Ves likened his current situation as a pair of images being superimposed upon each other. Barley was still Barley. Ves was still Ves. The joint entity they made up comprised of both.

"I am still Barley!" He uttered to himself. "No matter what kind of weirdness is going on, I still have a battle to fight!"

Both of them agreed to push aside their existential crisis in favor of addressing the bigger threat to their lives. The invasion of dirtbags onto their current planet.

From what Ves understood from Barley's memories, he fought for a fairly strong third-rate state called the Exilis Domain. While it couldn't match any of the second-rate states of the Chittering Cicada Star Sector, its relatively abundant territory transformed it into a regional bully among the other third-rate states.

Owing to its size and its wealth, the Exilis Domain frequently threw their weight around. It didn't help that its neighboring states all consisted of piddling petty republics. The citizens often considered their territory to be the palace among the wilderness, with the surrounding states making up the dirt that borders it. Hence why everyone from the Exilis Domain called them dirtbags.

Quite predictably, the neighboring states had enough of being bullied around by the Domain and decided to form an Alliance. Faster than the Domain thought possible, the Lokis Alliance united their armed forces and formed a vast Mech Legion to hit back against their regional aggressor.

The war had dragged on for two years now. Barley fought in the war from the start, but the constant battle slowly took a toll on his mind and his mech. Currently, he'd been tasked with defending the local underground headquarters on a low priority rural planet.

Neither side commited a lot of mechs to this war zone. This slowed down the pace of battles and broke them up into smaller skirmishes as both sides wanted to preserve their mechs and supplies.

"Right now, I should check my mech."

Ves navigated the sturdy alloy corridors of the underground base. Like every other pilot, he constantly wore his piloting suit in case he needed to be deployed immediately. His suit's climate controls already started to fail from constant use and lack of maintenance.

No one minded his odor because everyone else radiated their own stink. Besides, once he reached the mech stables, the harsh smell of metals and fuel overpowered any human scent.

"Chief!" He called out to the burly man overlooking his mech technicians from a ramp. "How's it going?"

"It's been better, Barley." Chief Jackson shook his head as he chewed on a stimulant. "We've already exhausted the supply shipment we received last week. I did the best I could to fix up your Jimmy, but I prioritized the shield arm over the sword arm."

That sounded kind of bad. His Jimenez had dueled against a swordsman mech in his last engagement. His knight received a lot of cuts trying to block the tricky sword strikes from the much more agile mech.

"I'll take a look myself." Ves replied with a tone of resignation. "Don't work yourself to death, chief!"

"Hah! I'd rather die from exhaustion than let the dirtbags shoot me in the head." Jackson laughed and strolled away.

From his experience on Groening IV, he knew that the maintenance department was straining its time and resources to the breaking point. They had to triage the mechs in order of importance and rank. The more expensive machines piloted by the officers got their turn first before the average mechs like his Jimenez received some attention.

When Ves reached his Jimenez, his enthusiasm deflated like a pricked balloon. Its design was bog-standard for its time, featuring the maximum amount of armor that a medium knight could carry. Along with its plain but serviceable sword and kite shield, the Jimenez had obviously been designed as a defensive knight.

"It's a slow, lumbering moving shield."

Strangely enough, the insights of Ves the mech designer and Barley the mech pilot combined in an unprecedented clear perspective on the merits of the Jimenez. Even if its designer lacked boldness and inspiration, he did a good job in designing a capable workhorse. Barley had piloted his Jimenez through dozens of battles and skirmishes over the last two years and the machine hadn't let him down.

Barley had developed a bond with his mech. Even if the machine had been mass-produced without any love, his irrational affection for his mech pulled him through the constant fighting. While Barley hardly ever thought about the significance of his feeling, Ves found it to be a curious phenomenon.

If someone like Barley piloted a gold label mech fabricated by Ves, he'd be able to achieve a much greater synergy with his machine.

The way Barley approached his routine check relied on feeling rather than a solid understanding of the physical makeup of his mech. He mainly tapped against the worn-out armor plating of his mech and stepped inside the cockpit without it on, preferring to breathe in the smells in the dark.

To be frank, he wasn't inspecting his mech for flaws so much as to distract him from his worries about the war. All of that stress and worry faded away once he stepped inside the sanctuary of his mech.

Still, the addition of Ves prompted a change in routine. He turned on the console and checked the diagnostics of his Jimenez. Most of the technical readouts should mean gibberish to Barley, but Ves gained a good understanding of the state of his mech.

"Goddamnit. How many corners have been cut?"

A knight should be durable, and a defensive knight should be even sturdier. What Ves gleaned from the diagnostics was that the design incorporated sub-standard materials and the manufacturer didn't pay much attention to quality control.

Ves pulled up a hidden setting buried beneath the operating system of the mech. It summarized the complicated data into a color-shaded schematic of the Jimenez.

"No need to thank me, Barley."

Half of the components went from green condition to yellow condition. While that sounded mild, a mech should only reach this stage after ten years of regular use or five years of intensive fighting. A few critical areas such as the sword arm blinked in an alarming shade of orange with a smattering of red.

The overall picture looked discouraging, but it could have been worse. He suppressed the urge to pick up a multitool and perform some easy fixes to his mech. It would have been out of character for a musclehead like Barley to gain any form of technical competence.

It still ached his teeth to let those faults remain in place. "It's like boarding a shuttle with sputtering thrusters. You just know it will kill you one day."

A few hours went by as Ves and Barley re-familiarized themselves with their mech. The marrying of Barley's intuitive understanding of his machine with Ves' extensive technical background resulted in a lot of new insights for both.

"Ah, so that's why the arms are so frail despite their thick construction. The alloys that make up the internal frame are great at absorbing sudden impacts, but is prone to erosion if subjected to a constant level of low-impact shocks."

"The power reactor is the best part of this mech. It's obviously licensed from a major trans-galactic corporation. I don't have to worry about power supply as long as the internals hold up."

"Enduring constant attacks has shifted the dimensions of the Jimenez. It's asymmetrical now, with the shield half being pushed back half a centimeter compared to the sword half. All of that caused the frame to deform and open up more fault lines.

"What kind of grease monkey had the bright idea to fix the transceiver coupling with a copper wire?!"

A lack of personnel along with the need to work as fast and frugal as possible led to a lot of inevitable screwups. The lackluster longevity of the Jimenez also didn't help, as its design had been pitched to the Exilis Domain as a knight that could deliver a burst of peak performance whenever they decided to bully one of their formerly weak neighbors.

Ves learned a lesson from this realization. "Assumptions don't always pan out. You can plan ahead for your design, but that doesn't mean they're subjected to their intended use."

The Domain had no other choice but to stretch out the service lives of their mechs. The conflict raging at its borders had dragged on for so long because the hatred had grown too deep to settle with a couple of set piece battles.

Ves didn't care too much about the war but Barley felt otherwise. His disdain for the so-called dirtbags had turned into blind hatred after losing so many friends and colleagues to their stubborn aggression.

An alarm suddenly rang from the speakers. "Alert! Long-range sensors have detected scouts approaching our position!"

Everyone dropped their routine and entered into a frenzy. The mech technicians hastily put the half-repaired mechs back together while the mech pilots gathered up in front of their officers.

Captain Osprey paced back and forth in front of his diminished platoon of eleven pilots. There used to be thirty among their number.

"It's not likely the dirtbags sniffed us out, but their scouts are ranging closer than we're comfortable with. Given time, their scouting systems will be able to read the traces that our mechs have inevitably left behind and follow them straight to our base. Our job is to stop them before they make it that far!"

"Won't they know we're close if we show up out of the blue?" Shaundra asked as she scratched her head. Her hair had already started greying.

"That's why we're taking our mechs through a backup tunnel and emerge from the other side. We'll pretend we've been conducting a long-ranged patrol and happened to have stumbled upon the scouts. If all goes well, we can fool them into thinking that our base is on the other side of this sector."

"How many mechs are we facing?"

"Seven or nine, the scanners aren't very clear about that. We're mainly dealing with light mechs, so we should be able to smash them apart with force. Any further questions?"

They boarded their mechs once everyone understood the stakes. Ves entered his own Jimenez and roused it from its slumber. For Barley, one battle was like any other, but for Ves it was an entirely novel experience.

"This is my first time stepping into battle as a mech pilot."

Barley's constant reassurance lessened the fear that threatened to overwhelm Ves. He wondered if he would die for real if Barley happened to meet an unfortunate end. Would the System pull back his consciousness in time, or leave him to die as a consequence of his failure?

He couldn't afford to take the risk. "I have to survive."

Barley's lust of battle pushed aside his fear. He became eager to experience how a real mech pilot fought.

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Barley deployed on the field with his Jimenez along with Captain Osprey and ten other pilots. If anyone looked at their mechs, they'd shake their heads and say what a sad sight they represented. Every mech featured scratches, scuff marks and even pockets of rust. The melee mechs had it worse than the rifleman mechs..

Captain Osprey commanded only two medium knights, one of them being Barley's mech. The success of the upcoming engagement rested largely on Barley's ability to endure under pressure.

For a seasoned mech pilot who already went through this slog for two years, Barley shouldn't feel worried. For a young mech designer who mainly ran away when faced with threats to his life, Ves felt as if he entered the women's bathroom.

"I don't really belong here."

He kept those words to himself. No need to worry his comrades and his superior officer that their reliable knight pilot suddenly shared his mindspace with a mech designer from the future.

"Is this even the past? I don't believe that's even possible! This must be an elaborate simulation or an alternate universe at most!"

The implications of actual time travel frightened him beyond belief. Who knew how many entities messed about the timelines if it actually became convenient for them to travel back and forth in time.

"Barley." The captain uttered over the secure channel. The Jimenez's tranceiver was in a shoddy state, leading to a fair amount of static even if another mech stood right next to it. "I know your machine's sword arm is bad, so I won't let you take point this time. Johnson's Jimenez is in a decent shape compared to yours, so I'm putting him up as the vanguard. You'll be taking the rear to keep an eye out for ambushes."

"Got it, sir."

"Be sure to stay on your feet. If Johnson has to back out early, we're going to need your shield arm at the front!"

Barley's pride as a knight pilot swelled at being given the role as a protector. With his stodgy attitude and unsophisticated mind, he excelled in enduring the rigors of piloting a knight.

To Ves, Barley's personality provided him with a valuable window into his clientele. He realized that someone who specialized in piloting defensive knights would not enjoy switching over to an offensive knight. They preferred slow, deliberate and reactive combat over faster maneuvers and taking the initiative.

"I don't want to be in charge." He reaffirmed his thoughts.

Before Ves could mull over the implications, Osprey alerted them that they neared the projected zone where the scouts had been nosing about. "It's showtime, lads. Everyone, slip into battle formation. Johnson, stick close to Eloise, she's our sharpest shot after Fitzgerald kicked the bucket."

Barley took up the rear as ordered. His mech continued forward while its sensors scanned the rear. At their current state, the enemy would likely detect them first, but Osprey's personal mech possessed some pretty good sensors as well, so they'd be able to force a fight regardless.

"Contact!" Osprey barked. Their screens updated with the positions of the enemy mechs. "They're spreading out, pursue!"

Their mechs huffed towards the closest enemy bogey as fast as possible while still keeping together. The presence of the two lumbering knights slowed them down, making it impossible to catch the enemy scouts if they persisted in their flight.

"These cowardly dirtbags aren't even turning around to take a peek at us!" Osprey cursed as he decided whether to ditch his protection in order to catch up to the slower enemy scouts. Caution prevailed, however. "There's something funny about this. The dirtbags aren't splitting up. They aren't running closer to our base and into our trap either. It's as if… they're leading us into a trap of their own!"

Too late! The enemy scouts slowed their flight and turned around to close the net. From the sides, several more signatures emerged as mechs appeared from underneath their sensor-blocking camouflage.

"Two from the west, three from the east and three from the south!"

Along with the seven scouts that had been leading them on, that meant their unit faced a total of seventeen mechs! Several of his fellow pilots started to curse in the open channel. Someone even suggested that a traitor leaked the details of their deployment.

"Can it, folks! Traitor or not, there's enough enemies to go around, no need to look behind our backs!"

Captain Osprey eventually ordered them to make a stand while he hollared back to base to send some backup. Help would be on the way, but the chase had led them far away. The first wave of reinforcements was already on its way.

"Nine minutes! We have to hold our ground for nine minutes! That's all I'm asking for!"

Everyone became determined to last this long. Barley felt proud for being given the responsibility to help their unit endure the coming ambush. Ves did not share his enthusiasm for turning to a sitting duck, but he had to make do with what he got.

With contact imminent, Ves relinquished much of the control of their body back to the original personality. He had no delusions that he could outperform Barley's expertise in handling the Jimenez.

His decision proved wise, as Barley's instincts prompted him to jump his mech to the left and catch an errant sniper round aimed for Eloise's mech.

"Thanks Barley!"

"No problem, sweetie!"

As Barley positioned his Jimenez to catch another volley of incoming fire, Ves grew fascinated with the way he fought. His perspective inside Barley's mind allowed him to witness up close how a knight pilot thought and acted.

"It's a lot more instinctive than I thought."

Many times, lasers and projectiles appeared too sudden to respond, yet Barley managed to anticipate at least a third of their fire. Much of it had to do with pooling his experience, instincts and his intimate knowledge on the armament of his enemies into his instictive reactions. It was akin to a form of enhanced gut feeling that allowed him to block so many shots.

"Is this what an advanced pilot is capable of?" His impression of defensive knights had already gone up a notch so far.

Skirmishers are closing in! Don't let them take out our rifleman mechs!"

Osprey's men shifted gears. They stopped trading potshots at distant mechs and started firing their weapons in longer bursts at the incoming light mechs. Barley quickly noted that the enemy mechs wielded daggers, which meant that they felt confident they could get past Barley and knife the vulnerable ranged mechs.

"Not on my watch!" Barley uttered as he changed the footing of his knight. The Jimenez waited for the closest skirmisher to come within a hundred meters before springing his mech to the side. "Caught you!"

The weak sword arm held up for now as the Jimenez managed to rake one of the skirmisher's arm with his heavy knight sword. The weight of the blade did most of the work, successfully chunking the thin and fragile limb.

The Skirmisher lost its balance from the blow. A friendly spearman mech quickly capitalized on the vulnerability and punctured the unbalanced enemy with a stab through the chest.

The first blow was made in haste and without momentum, allowing the Skirmisher to sacrifice much of its armor to bounce away from the blow. Unfortunately for the enemy pilot, Captain Osprey slashed it from the other side with a single stroke from his swordsman mech. The enemy didn't stand a chance.

"Help out Blazer and Eloise!"

Barley had already dismissed the first skirmisher as soon as it skidded out of his range. The limited mobility of his knight didn't allow him to chase after his opponents. Instead, his responsibility was to defend a zone and make it diffiult for enemies to approach his position from a certain angle.

The presence of the two knights at the front and the rear constrained the enemy by their presence alone. The light mechs possessed no wish to confront them directly, which forced them to approach the cornered Domain pilots from the sides.

In turn, the limited approach vectors allowed the defenders to concentrate their fire in only two directions instead of four. They already took out three foolhardy skirmishers who thought their speed and agility would make them impossible to hit.

The dirtbags learned their lesson and waited for the noose to tighten before they reengaged.

"The medium boys are here now!"

A handful of medium mechs that weighed on the lighter end of their weight class arrived to take point. Barley mainly had to deal with three swordsman mechs of different make. While he possessed a vague familiarity of their designs, he didn't know enough about their capabilities to prevail against three at once.

Sweat poured down from his head where the neural interface connected to his head. Barley had ended up in a number of tight spots over the course of the war, but never did he face such dire circumstances.

Ves found it admirable that Barley still maintained his duty towards the Domain and kinship towards his comrades. He never thought of flinching away. It betrayed the very core of the principles he held as a knight.

As the three enemy swordsman mechs closed in, Barley figured out their plans. They'd leave the middle mech to tie up his Jimenez while letting the other two mechs run roughshod over his unit's vulnerable ranged mechs.

The awful thing about their plan was that Barley could do nothing to stop them. Any decent pilot of a swordsman mech learned how to leverage its mobility to constrain a knight mech.

Even though Ves was shaking in his metaphorical boots, his considerable mind constantly studied the designs of the enemy mechs. He realized quickly that they didn't appear to be in tip-top shape either. The Alliance forces on this remote planet suffered from a lack of supplies as well.

The faded scars of battle damage told its own story. Ves possessed a decent amount of experience with repairing damaged mechs, so he was able to read the markings as clear as day.

"Target the middle mech's legs! It's been blown apart before, and whoever replaced them employed weaker alloys underneath the standard system!"

The mech technicians did a good job disguising the inferior patch job underneath a top layer of standard armor. Any regular mech pilot wouldn't know the difference, but Ves was different.

Upon his advice, Barley slammed the bottom edge of his mech's shield against the nearest leg of his immediate opponent.

CRUNCH!

The swordsman mech lost its footing as its right leg gave out. Barley spent an errant moment stepping his mech's foot against the other leg, which crippled the stricken mech.

Barley had no time to finish off his victim as he also had the other two mechs to contend. His comrades already had their hands full in fending off the remaining dirtbag mechs. If these other two mechs attacked them from the flank, then their unit would quickly be wiped out!

"Focus!" They both said to themselves as the turned their attention to the left.

Ves already analyzed its major weak point and relayed them to Barley with the speed of thought. Barley slammed the shield close and blocked the next sword strike before hitting back with his own thrust that slipped through the sloppily sealed gap between the lower left side of his opponent's torso.

The swordsman mech lost all power and dropped to the ground like a lumbering ox that got hit by a tranquilizer.

Having taking care of his second opponent, Barley strained his mech to turn around as fast as possible to hurl his shield high against the final swordsman mech's head.

The errant throw dislodged the head from the frame entirely, momentarily disorienting the pilot as he had to get used to a sudden shift in perspective as his mech's backup sensors took over his primary view. A sword thrust from the rear downed the bewildered mech before it could recover.

"I don't know who you are, but you're goddamn smart! Keep 'em coming!" Barley yelled as he shifted his mech towards Eloise to help her fend off a skirmisher mech.

The enemies closest to his Jimenez noticed his abnormal performance. They lessened the pressure on his comrades in order to deal with the greater threat.

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"Ves?" Jake knocked on the door of the office. He tried to contact his friend through the company channel but failed to get a response. "There's an issue regarding the board of directors I'd like to talk to you about. Are you in?"

Nothing happened. The door remained stubbornly shut like a high security vault.

He started getting worried. Ves had a habit of focusing on his work for days at a time, but he usually put down his work if someone needed his input. This was the first time Jake couldn't get a hold of his boss.

He considered calling security to force open the door, but called it off after Carlos noticed his concerns.

"Ves can get really intense sometimes. You haven't seen him when he designs a mech. He's obsessed to the point of being deaf to the rest of the universe."

"What if he's having a seizure or something?"

"Hey, what age are we living in right now? His comm will send out an alert if something's wrong. Nah, it's best to leave him alone while he's in the zone. You don't want to ruin his mood when he's in the process of designing one of the most important mechs in his career."

As the COO of the LMC, Jake knew more than anyone else how much the company relied on the upcoming original design. The LMC could pump out variant after variant, but wouldn't be able to ascend and make significant progress simply by making cheap copies of other people's work.

Despite the healthy market for variants, it carried the stigma of too many bad designs. The mech market simply trusted original designs more.

Jake shook his head. "Well, if you get ahold of Ves, tell him his grandfather will nominate a number of people on the board of directors. A company of our size can't make do with two. The law mandates at least a headcount of five board members for companies that earn more than a billion credits a year. We also have to form a number of committees including a labor committee and an ethics committee."

"Sounds complicated." Carlos frowned. He felt sorry for Ves. "It's a lot different than the old days when it was just me and the boss. I kind of miss the simplicity of it. Now I have to fill a half-dozen forms just to use the Dortmund to fabricate a spare bolt."

"We're not adding those procedures just to make life miserable. Part of it is to comply with safety and tracking laws, but it also helps cut down any possible abuse."

The rapid expansion of the LMC left a lot of hiccups as the company didn't have a formal structure in place that scaled with its growth. Jake and the other managers had to develop solutions on the fly in order to maintain control over their increasingly complex hierarchy.

While Carlos and Jake talked about the changes that came with the professionalization of the LMC, Ves was having a desperate time keeping up with the fighting.

"Barley! We've got incoming from your left!"

"I know, but I have to fend off this bastard before he gets to Eloise!"

The hunt-turned-ambush reached a desperate stage as the attackers from the Alliance plowed past the defenses of the Domain mechs. Half of their rifleman mechs had already fallen, though Captain Osprey and his men gave as good as it got and disabled an equivalent number of opponents.

What caused the combatant to fight as if possessed by devils was the fact that many of the downed mechs could still be recovered. Some of the mech pilots managed to eject, but many more remained stuck in their disabled machines as the ejection system failed to launch due to battle damage.

The side who won would be able to salvage their mechs and the lives of their compatriots. As for the losers, they'd be captured or receive a summary execution.

With the fate of so many brothers and sisters on the line, no one thought of making a retreat.

In these circumstances, Barley's performance clearly made a difference. He had already disabled three complacent mechs before an officer of the dirtbags stepped up to contain his seemingly berserk Jimenez.

"I don't know who you are, but don't think of getting away from me while I'm here." The officer taunted as he flourished his curved sword for another tricky slash.

"Get out of my way!" Barley shouted over the open channel as he turned his mech in a position to bash the officer's mech with his shield. Unfortunately, the officer easily anticipated the attack and danced around the Jimenez, taking the opportunity to leave another mark with his sword.

"What's this dirtbag mech's weak point?"

Ves had been trying to puzzle that out for a while. "I'm trying, I'm trying! His mech is clearly first in line when it comes to maintenance. Do you know how hard it is to spot its weak points when it's been lavished by a full shift of mech technicians?"

"I don't care! Get me a weak point now or we both die!"

There was nothing like the pressure of death to motivate his full potential. "I've got it! Target his wrists! They've received an aftermarket modification to make them nimbler. That's how the officer is making all of those tricky moves. You just need to compromise their structural integrity a little bit. Brute force will do the rest!"

Now that he finally received a target, Barley roared to life as he forcefully pushed his mech shield-first into his opponent's grip. The aggressive move caught the officer off-guard but failed to make impact due to the swordsman mech's quick reaction.

"Again!"

Barley kept going, targeting the wrists with both his sword and his shield. A satisfying crunching sound rang throughout the forest as one of the wrists couldn't handle the weight of Barley's shield.

"Eloise!"

"Got him!"

The female marksman turned her attention away from fending off the enemy ranged mechs to snap a quick laser volley at the officer's mech. While the laser beams didn't do much except some of its armor, the sudden attacks succeeded in creating an opening which Barley ruthlessly exploited by thrusting forward with considerable momentum. The stab succeeded in punching through the waist, though the armor mitigated much of the damage.

That didn't matter for Barley, as the shock opened up his opponent to a quick triple combo that disabled the officer mech's engines and forced the officer to eject.

"I'm coming, Eloise!"

He was too late. The other mech that approached from his left had bypassed him entirely and went for the vulnerable rifleman mech. Eloise already lost her rifle as she held it sideways in order to fend of a heavy chop. Her mech drew out a pitiful backup knife that looked like a toy compared to the full-sized mech sword in the hands of the menacing Alliance mech.

"Leave her alone!" Barley roared as he urged his mech to close the distance. However, he realized he'd be far too late as the enemy pilot reared up his mech for a fatal slash that targeted squarely at the cockpit. "I got to go faster!"

"Give me control over one of your hands!" Ves suddenly urged. "I can make something happen!"

Barley didn't even doubt the other voice in his mind and relinquished a considerable amount of control to Ves. Some of the strong and intensive feedback of the mech ran through Ves, battering his consciousness for a split second. Despite the man upgrades to his mind, his neural aptitude still remained the same as a norm.

His mind simply couldn't handle the flood of foreign data. Barley quickly reined in his mind and spared Ves from any further ago.

The delay almost proved disastrous, but Ves managed to use Barley's co-opted arm to override the safety limits of the Jimenez.

With so much power running through its systems, Barley's mech gained a considerable amount of speed. He quickly lost his footing but not before he slashed the swordsman mech's back. The hasty attack bounced off the swordsman mech's armor, but the enemy pilot couldn't stop Barley from his follow-up attacks.

"Thanks, Barley!"

In the next couple of minutes, Barley completely turned the tide of the battle, having taken out a total of seven mechs! Each enemy that the knight pilot cut down was one less mech that could bother his comrades.

Soon enough, the numbers turned against the Alliance. Their flimsy mechs already held up poorly against their opposition, and the battle only turned worse when Barley the Destroyer chopped them down one by one by himself or with the help of his brothers.

Half of the Alliance pilots managed to eject, but some got stuck in the beginning stages before the process got stalled for various reasons.

"The sensor readings sent out an alert." Captain Osprey sounded grim over the comm. "Enemy reinforcements are coming. This time It's the big boys, likely the main force that's been trailing behind the scouts.

Their own reinforcements would still take three more minutes to arrive. Captain Osprey faced an increasingly difficult choice as the numbers of the enemy main force became clear.

They came with over thirty mechs. While much of them consisted of cheap frontline mechs, when they gathered in any significant numbers, his remaining mechs wouldn't last a minute under all of that firepower.

"Barley. Johnson. I hate to do this to you, but I'd like you to hold up the rear guard while we fall back."

"Sir! We can't." Eloise sternly objected. "That's leaving them to die!"

"We're all going to die if we stick to this location! We've got to rendez-vous with our own reinforcements, but the Jimenez models are too darn slow to bring along!"

"Don't argue any further." Johnson's cool voice emerged from the channel. "It's our job to hold the line."

"Why are you doing this?!"

"Because I'm a knight!"

"Because knights are meant to protect!" Barley echoed his fellow knight's conviction. "We're running out of time. Go now! Don't let our sacrifices be in vain!"

The surviving Domain pilots hesitated no longer and disengaged from the fight. They fell back straight towards the direction of the incoming reinforcements. While a number of enemy skirmishers sprang in pursuit, the two knights stubbornly stood their ground with their swords pointed to the ground littered with downed mechs.

The threat was implicit. If the Alliance soldiers chose to evade the slow and lumbering Jimenez mechs, they'd be consigning their fellow mech pilots to an early grave.

Four mechs stayed behind, all of them in the medium weight class.

"There's two to go around for both of us." Johnson mirthlessly joked. "I don't know how you turned into such a beast, Barley, but keep it up, because we'll need every bit of your magic!"

"It's coming right up!" Barley replied as his other hand took on a life of its own. It zoomed in on the readouts of the enemy mechs and rapidly pointed out a series of vulnerabilities which it sent to Johnson's mech. "Aim for these vulnerabilities! I guarantee you they're the real deal!"

"Really?" His colleague sounded sceptical, but had no time to ponder how Barley figured out so many weak points as the enemy medium mechs simultaneously sprang forward.

Barley had a difficult time fending off his two attackers. One of them wielded a sword while another utilized a spear. While the pair showed little cooperation in their movements, the fact that they attacked from opposite angles made it difficult for Barley to finish off one opponent faster than the other.

His mech also suffered from the after-effects of the momentary boost in speed. This became most pronounced in the limp manner in which his Jimenez attacked with its sword.

Both Ves and Barley ran through countless of ideas, but none of them had any chance of success. His Jimenez had reached the tail end of its operational life and Barley could barely squeeze any more potential out of its beaten frame.

"Too slow! It's simply too slow!"

A knight served as a protector exactly because it could rely on its faster and more vulnerable allies to cover up its deficiencies. Without any backup except for another equally-slow knight mech, they had no chance to salvage their lives.

"It's been a good ride, Barley." Johnson said as his mech failed to parry another sword strike. The attack ruptured half the energy channels that supplied power from the power reactor to the engine. "We should have never underestimated the dirtbags."

"Johnson! No!"

His fellow knight pilot died when the other swordsman mech deliberately ran its sword through the cockpit. Such a move was not considered a war crime, though it did foster further hatred.

"You… stinking… dirtbags!"

Pure rage subsumed Barley's mind. As a hitchhiker, Ves remained a little more detached, but even he became affected by its overpowering influence.

"C'mon, you ghost! Work with me now! Even if I'm going down, I'm going to take all four of these dirtbags with me!"

Ves wordlessly agreed with the original host of their shared body. He lost much of his rationality after being infected by Barley's rage. Now he too wished to harvest the lives of as many dirtbags as possible!

After a moment's thought, Ves came up with the most effective way of accomplishing Barley's dying wish. "Give me control of your hand again. In the meantime, try to last ten more seconds! It's best if you can pull them all forward!"

Barley did this in the most direct fashion possible. He taunted his opponents, who had all started to relax once they realized how easy it was for four of them to take care of a single Domain knight.

"Hey, dirtbags! Why aren't you finishing the job? If you don't come forward now, I'll do this!"

With a callous couple of steps, his Jimenez mech crunched its foot down one of the enemy skirmishers that got taken out in the early stages of the ambush. The cockpit of the light mech didn't stand a chance.

"You'll pay for that!" The lone spearman mech among the group broadcasted as it led the charge. Meanwhile, the other three mechs approached from the sides and he rear, completely boxing Barley in. "This is your end!"

"Wrong! It's yours!' Barley grinned and ejected his cockpit from his mech just before it blew up in a conflagration of heat, flames and electrical discharge.

Since the mech ran on pure energy cells, it was impossible to achieve a massive explosion. Nevertheless, the simultaneous release of all of that energy battered the four complacent attackers severely.

A normal mech pilot wouldn't be able to achieve such a feat, but Ves had spent several hours digging through the guts of the Jimenez, so he knew exactly how to force a worst-case scenario.

As the cockpit flew through the air in a parabolic arc, Barley started to feel drowsy. All of the excess energy in his body left him now that his ability to fight had ceased.

Ves felt a pull on his consciousness. "It looks like my visit has come to an end."

"Before you go… tell me who you are."

"Ves… Ves Larkinson. Sorry for the intrusion. I can't explain how I ended up in your mind. I merely wanted to know how a knight pilot functioned."

"No problem… you helped me out of a hopeless fight. Will I ever see you again?"

"Probably not. I get the feeling this is a one-time deal."

"That's a shame."

Ves stayed silent for a few seconds as he tried to resist the pull calling him back to his own body. "Keep an eye on the Komodo Star Sector if it exists in this universe. If everything goes right, you might see me popping up in the news fifty years from now.

"That's a long time ahead. I don't know if I'll survive the war."

"It's up to fate if we can meet again."

Ves uncharacteristically revealed his identity to Barley. It couldn't be helped, as their psyches intertwined so much that they developed an instinctive bond with each other.

Still, Ves got more out of the melding than Barley as the System automatically closed off any portions of his mind that related directly to its existence. Even if Barley questioned how Ves managed to achieve this bond, he would never in his wildest dreams come up with something as miraculous as the Mech Designer System.

"It's the end now. I'm coming home."

"Farewell, Ves!"

"Goodbye, Barley!"

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His consciousness descended back to his body with jarring force. Ves felt as if he rode a shuttle that made a forceful landing on the ground. His head spun like wheels and the entire world felt alien to his own senses.

Ves took a few minutes to recover from his ordeal. His breath shuddered with the aftershock of having his consciousness being pulled back and forth. The human mind wasn't supposed to endure such rigors, and if he hadn't upgraded his mental Attributes, he might have turned into an idiot.

"Heavens, System! Warn me before you pull another stunt like that!"

[The Mech Designer System is not meant to warn the user of any negligience on his part.]

In other words, Ves had only himself to blame.

"Fair enough, but I thought you'd do your usual schtick and dump a library of knowledge in my head."

[Mastery extends beyond pure theory. A mech designer cannot ever claim a Mastery without delving into the perspective of a mech pilot.]

Ves had to admit he benefited hugely from the experience. Even though Barley was nothing special in comparison to other knight pilots, his experience and earnestness in piloting his Jimenez taught Ves a lot.

He underestimated the value of a defensive knight. Lacking in mobility it might be, the Jimenez excelled in its narrow role.

"It almost makes up for the fact that I'm designing an offensive knight rather than a defensive one."

He understood the System's motive in selecting a defensive knight pilot to bond. The name of the Sub-Skill was called Knight Mastery I, and as an introduction to the archetype, Ves first had to master the basic model.

After he checkex the logs, he found out he passed out for over half a day. That matched the amount of time he hitch-hiked Barley's head.

Thinking about him compelled Ves to look him up. He went to the galactic net and searched for the Chittering Cicada Star Sector.

"It actually exists!"

A further searched turned up the existence of the Exilis Domain, which eked out a diminished existence after it lost the war against the Alliance over forty-five years ago.

His hands started to shake as he tried to search up the existence of a Domain pilot called Ivan Barley.

LORD IVAN BARLEY - ACE MECH PILOT - "THE DISCERNING EYE"

MISSING IN ACTION - EIGHT YEARS AGO

A mix of shock, excitement and dissappointment ran through his mind. A couple of searches confirmed the battle that Ves experienced alongside Barley happened exactly as he remembered.

The implications were frightening. The seemingly omnipotent System proved its might once again by accomplishing actual time travel!

"It's too bad he's gone missing. It's also incredible he advanced to ace pilot!"

Nothing in his personality or talent suggested he could reach this exalted rank. Ves dug into his history and found out that his momentary presence had been a turning point in Barley's life.

Just as Ves gained a lot of insight into the mind of a mech pilot, so did Barley gain a lot from the perspective of a mech designer. He leveraged his gains by cross-training as a mech technician and then as a mech designer, all for the purpose of improving his ability to discover weak points in the mechs of his opponents!

Barley's skills and kill record rose up like a rocket at the latter stages of the war. By the time he advanced to expert pilot, the Domain finally threw in the towel and signed a humiliating peace treaty.

The heroic feats of a few exceptional pilots like Barley hardly affected the Domain's dire resource shortages. The downside of being surrounded by enemy states was that they could easily intercept their foreign shipments.

After being discharged from the Domain's armed forces, Barley started making his mark in the mercenary circles. That he managed to rise to the point of becoming a certified ace pilot while he worked in the private sector showcased his determination to exceed his failings.

"Barley must have felt guilty for the way the last battle ended up."

The Alliance reached the battle site first. Predictably, they rescues all their friendlies while executing their opponents.

Ves understood how Barley took his knight oath seriously. Not everyone who specialized in piloting knight mechs bought into this culture, but those that did often made for excellent partners.

His lessons from his first experience with Mastery led him to reconsider his phoenix knight's overall premise. Did its draft possess the right concepts to serve its duty as a knight?

"I still believe in an offensive knight." He reaffirmed to himself. "I just need to make some practical adjustments."

With his newly mastered ability to adopt the perpective of a knight pilot, Ves smoothed out many potential wrinkles in his design. Even though they seemed innocuous, a real knight pilot would feel a little bit hobbled by these bumps.

"It's the equivalent of wearing a pair of mismatched shoes. It won't affect your ability to walk, but it constantly nags at you."

He also adjusted his images, particularly the base role of a knight. The infusion of a genuine knight's conviction breathed new life in the stale image's existence. The noble vibes it gave off caused the phoenix and Jackknife Jake's images to raise their guards.

The modified draft of his original design hardly looked any different, but it gave off a completely different vibe.

"Those people raving about Masteries are right. Mech designers think they know more than the pilots they served. What they learn from books and hearsay won't ever match a single first-hand experience."

Ves already enjoyed a lead over many of his competitors due to his Mastery. While it mainly applied to knight mechs, his ability to design the other archetypes improved as well.

When Ves finally left his office, his impatient COO came up to him with a mirthless smile. "Did you make a lot of progress?"

"I've achieved a breakthrough in my development process. The end product should be much more appealing now."

That's great, Ves. Now, before you take the day off, you really need to read through these authorizations and sign them off.

Going over the documents painted an unpleasant picture to Ves. "Expanding the board? Establishing all these committees? That will weaken my grip on my own company!"

"It's true these changes will dilute the concentration of power in your hands, but that's exactly why the Republic mandates these demands. Your company is not just your personal property, not anymore. The livelihoods of hundreds and perhaps more will depend on its performance. The company has the responsibility to provide every stakeholder a voice, not just the shareholders."

"Ah." Ves said flatly. "Good old corporate social responsibility rearing its ugly head again. I thought CSR went out of vogue in the mech industry. It's hard to pretend you care about the poor and the environment when you are literally selling machines of death."

"Well, the Bright Republic is behind the times. Besides, the MTA encourages mech manufacturers to establish a healthy corporate governance structure in their internal hierarchy. There's an inherent risk in letting the founder and lead designer of a company to hold all the decision-making power in his hands."

The theory surrounding this subject could fill entire galactic libraries, but the short answer was that even brilliant founders got it wrong from time to time.

That said, ruling a company through committees also had its downsides. They usually prioritized their own interest groups over the overall needs of the company.

For example, a committee staffed by workshop employees never chose to cut back a plant's production lines, even though it had grown outdated and inefficient. Leaving aging equipment running all that time diminished the competitiveness of the company and could even run it into the ground.

Ves feared exactly such an occurrence, so he continuously objected to the measures, though he signed them all in the end.

"The law is the law. Brighten up, Ves. Many other mech manufacturers have adopted these kinds of measures and they haven't gone extinct. Mostly."

"Yeah, but their growth has also turned stagnant as they prioritize stability over risk-taking."

"Is that a bad thing?"

Good question. Ves didn't wish to rehash the same arguments over and over so, so he waved his hand and called it a day.

The next day, his new employees seethed with excitement at the news that the LMC would formally enact committees in its decision-making structure.

Much of it would turn out to be window dressing, but the idea that the lowest workers could have a say succeeded in igniting their passion. They truly felt they took part in something great.

Meanwhile, Ves chewed on the more substantial decision to choose the makeup board of directors.

As the absolute majority shareholder, Ves had the right to appoint whoever he wanted as a board member. He'd elevate Lucky to the chair if he xould get away with it. Sadly, the LMC had to be seen as respectable and show some proof to the Republic that some reliable old geezers kept his youthful enthusiasm in line.

His grandfather sent him a list of suggestions. Each of these grey-haired men and women already sat on the boards of a couple of other companies at once. Naturally, none of the companies in their portfolios competed with each other, that would go too far.

"How do these fat cats even keep track of all of the industry-specific data?"

The board of only came together a handful times per year, but they somehow earned a salary that an average worker had to toil for decades to earn the same.

"Haha, I see now. It's a scam!"

These serial board members made a career out of their ability to 'advise' and 'supervise' a corporation. It didn't matter if the company produced dog food or mechs, it was all a business to them. As long as they applied their considerable business acumen to the data at hand, they'd be able to give out sage advice for the low price of several millions of credits a year.

His grandfather gave him an earful over the comm when he expressed his opinion.

"Stupid! Do you really think you can make waves without consequence! The Larkinsons have enemies within the Republic that doesn't mind if your career is cut short!"

"Then why should my company take on these board members?"

"Because they're connected! Each nominee is intrinsically related to a powerful influence on Rittersberg. It's not in the rules and you can't find any of this in a book, but the board members act as the glue that will bind your company tighter to a power faction within the Republic."

So it all came down to politics in the end. Ves thought he could shove those worries to his relations department.

"Okay." Ves replied in resignation. "I'll go over the nominees and take a serious look at their profiles."

"Make sure you do. You're making a major decision here which will profoundly affect the LMC's future course. The quality of the board and the amount of help they provide is directly related to its makeup. If you approach them with your numbskull attitude that they don't have any use except for leeching your company's profits, then you will end up with an unproductive board."

"Okay, okay, I got it already. Cooperation is a two-way street."

What actually ended up happening was that Ves projected the busts of all twenty nominees. He then called over his trusty feline sidekick Lucky.

"C'mon buddy, who do you think has the ugliest face? Go bite his or her head off!"

Ves appointed five respectable men and women who got chewed over last by his pet. All of them turned out to be bastards, but Ves selected the least awful ones through this scientifically proven method.

With that chore done, Ves turned to the real meat in the game. Resuming his original design project.

"I've revised the draft design so its concepts are more compatible with its pilots. Now is the time to substantiate this draft into a functional design."

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Since the design phase required a lot of focus, Ves made sure that the company didn't need his presence for the next couple of weeks. He met with the officers and set a couple of goals.

"The new directors will be installed soon. You'll need to take some time off your project to introduce them to the company. You're wearing the chairman hat as well, Ves."

"I know." Ves replied in a sour tone. "I'll make time, but I trust you can take care of everything else?"

The LMC only offered a single model for sale, so many employees had little to do outside of dealing with the backlog in administration.

"There will always be decisions that you have to sign off. I'l present them to you weekly if able."

With that taken care of, Ves closed himself in his office and booted up the design suite. It was time to turn an idea into a concrete product.

First, the images. The base role received such a substantial boost from Barley's borrowed sentiments that it threatened to break its shackles. It wouldn't be very desirable if the base role gained absolute supremacy.

"Fight, phoenix! Survive! C'mon Jake, you aren't a top mech athlete for nothing!"

Ves distinctively gave the other two images a boost of strength to catch up to the knight. With the timely infusion of energy, the phoenix and Jackknife Jake started taking the.offensive against the base role portion of the Triple Division Technique.

The battle took place in an abstract realm where imagination and intelligence formed the principal mode of struggle. This enabled the wily Jackknife Jake to take an early lead, having cut a pound of flesh from both the phoenix and the knight at once.

The battle for supremacy tugged back and forth as none of the three images held their advantages for long. Any moment where one image gained a clear advantage, the other two images ganged up on them. The struggle transitioned into a battle of attrition, where momentary bursts of energy occurred less and less as the images began to ration their remaining reserves.

Slowly, the phoenix gained an advantage in this increasingly lengthy standoff. It came down to which side lasted the longest.

The knight possessed a lot of endurance and willpower. As a master of defense, the image relied on its durability to hold out the storm. The only downside was that the knight did not have any means to replenish its reserves once it ran out.

Jackknife Jake typified a top mech athlete in that he treated the battle like a duel. While he started strong from the beginning, his reserves began to flag once it dragged on for a longer stretch of time. Mech duels never lasted longer than half an hour because the audience would get bored by the waiting game. Jake became increasingly more feeble as the attrition dragged down his performance.

It was exactly in these circumstances that the phoenix gained supremacy. It only needed to endure Jackknife Jake's intensive attacks at the beginning. As for the knight, the image acted too defensively to put any significant amount of pressure on the totem animal. By the time the knight realized its mistake, the phoenix already enjoyed a clear superiority.

"The phoenix is unending."

Once its superiority reached a decisive moment, Ves started to feel his brain heating up as the phoenix burst out into fire! A massive inferno swept through his mindscape and swept every corner with cleansing flames!

The phoenix forcibly wiped out everything on the battlefield including its two rivals! Both the knight and Jackknife Jake could do nothing as the flames disintegrated their unique identities and subsumed their purified essences for the victor.

The phoenix had won!

A rich bird cry rang out as the flames turned into a shade of black. The sinister-looking conflagration swirled like a shrinking tornado that concentrated all of the fire into a single, black egg.

Deep, mystical patterns ran throughout the egg, their meaning and purpose unknown. Ves sat rapt with anticipation as he waited for the egg to mature. The patterns seemed to invigorate the egg as it started to grow hotter to the point it burst into the same black flames that formed it in the first place.

This time, the fire seemed more deeper and nuanced than before. The wild, untamed fire had turned into a carefully-controlled mantle that tightly protected the egg as it began to hatch.

The shell cracked quickly. Among the broken shell, a pillar of black flames rose to the heavens as it announced the rebirth of the phoenix.

"The black phoenix!"

It had evidently gained a substantial boost in strength. Its cleansing flames enabled it to absorb the essences of the two other images without risking contamination. The black phoenix only willingly absorbed the best part of its rivals, such as the knight's enduring willpower and Jackknife Jake's devious intelligence.

Stronger and more intelligent than before, the black phoenix seemed to stare at Ves before huffing at him in disdain. It was as if the arrogant bird told him that his mind was an unworthy home for him, and that he should hurry up and finish his design.

"Alright, alright, I'll work on it!"

While the battle took a toll on his mind, Ves gained a lot of inspiration from the vivid imagery. "It's exactly how I envisioned my design."

Neither pure aggression nor pure defence triumphed over endurance. Staying power, longevity and recovery ability granted the phoenix a great amount of superiority in battles of attrition.

"By all accounts, the upcoming Bright-Vesia War will definitely drag on for years. This should be the greatest stage for my black phoenix knight."

With the conflict between the images coming to a close, Ves focused on the victor and channeled it through his work.

He started with the internal frame or the skeleton of his design. Knights usually possessed very robust internal frames, but the thicker the internals, the more it impacted its mobility. It also took up a deceptively large amount of volume, leaving less space for the internal architecture.

Ves faced a dilemma at the very start. Should he utilize a thick internal frame that offered strong defense or a leaner frame that left more potential for mobility?

"An offensive knight should still be able to act like a defensive knight if the situation calls for it. On the other hand, a thicker frame will cripple its playmaking potential by slowing it down too much."

Rather than decide by himself, he closed his eyes and channeled the black phoenix roosting inside his head. The proud imaginary creature squawked and lifted off into the air, circling around the mental representation of the design in his mindscape.

After regarding it with a critical eye, the phoenix released a burning black feather that landed on the design. The feather burned up once it reached the schematic and started to burn away some of the thickness in the internal frame.

Ves got the message. "If that is what you wish."

He could see the rationale for using a thinner frame. The black phoenix depended on its mobility, cunning and amazing endurance to outlast most opponents. Still, it knew when to stand its ground when the situation called for it. The phoenix did not carry over the noble mission of the knight, but it possessed its own peculiar pride.

"It's as if I'm designing a knight for mech pilots who hate piloting knights." He muttered, already forseeing the controversy his black phoenix knight could ignite. "I would have missed this issue if I declined to purchase a Mastery from the System."

The value of his first Mastery already exerted itself. Ves consciously knew what to look out for if he wanted to deviate from the standard of a defensive knight.

It took an entire day to wrap up his design work on the internal frame. Ves wanted to pursue balance in robustness and mobility. It came down to how much cutting he could get away with. If he thinned a section too much, it risked turning into a twig that might snap at the worst possible moment.

"Let's move on to the internal architecture."

His goals for the internals determined its ultimate structure. Even with a simple frame like a knight, a lot of compromises had to be made in order to form an efficient architecture that could withstand the test of time.

"It has to be tough, it has to be easy to repair, and it also has to possess a high amount of redundancy."

The last priority demanded a lot of clever solutions, because increasing a mech's RF took up a lot of weight and volume. Ves had to keep them down in order to maintain his knight's mobility.

With the generic alloys he licensed from the market, Ves began to draw up his structure according to a specific method. He started with the major pipelines and channels and began to surround them with smaller components. All the while, he sprinkled his growing architecture with features that improved his mech's redundancy and compartmentalization.

The work involved a lot of tedium and repetitive iteration. Time flew by as Ves became absorbed in the problems of day. He leaned heavily on the Mech Designer System's advanced simulations to produce the most optimal results when his considerable intelligence and creativity failed to provide a solution.

"I'm glad I beefed up my Mathematics and Physics to Journeyman. I'm finally starting to tap into the potential of all those simulations the System has in store."

Even more advanced models awaited his use once he advanced his Mathematics to a transcendent level. For now, Ves made due with the workmanlike models that provided fairly realistic results at the press of a button.

The design work on the architecture dragged on for over four weeks as Ves faced the prospect of running out of space. He could always decide to bulk up the exterior of his mech to accomodate more internal space, but that would ruin his design's entire balance.

Strangely enough, Ves never got bored throughout the entire process. With the fate of his future career hanging in the balance, he worked at peak efficiency throughout the day. Rarely did he need to take a rest due to an overburdened mind. The simplification of his images allowed him to dedicate his focus solely to the proud and relentless black phoenix.

"It's even showing signs of growth."

One of the main goals for his mech had always been the ability to foster growth. The black phoenix happened to be strongly connected to this concept, so it had been easy for Ves to emphasize that aspect. He just didn't expect the growth to start before he finalized the design.

A curious interaction took place as the design choices he made resonated with the image. In turn, the changing phoenix reflected its own desires back at the design. Ves served as the channel and mediator of this faint but clearly noticeable relationship. His role even allowed him to manipulate the interaction to suit his outcomes.

It felt like something unprecedented and profound took place in a plane beyond the material. Something that Ves had birthed out of nothing but his own mental energy took on a life of its own but colored in the perspective of his design. The black phoenix increasingly embodied the design, and the design increasingly echoed the phoenix.

"It's as if they are fated to be together."

In concrete terms, Ves made many design choices that seemed odd and out of place, but started to make sense once he put all the pieces in place. He did not design the most durable knight, but he sure as hell made it tough as bones. In order to increase his design's redundancy, he sacrificed a bit of everything, in particular his energy budget and his armor budget.

"My knight won't be outlasting or outdefending similar models as a consequence."

That sounded fairly… bad. Even with the excellent Veltrex armor system, if Ves did not employ too many layers, his knight would fall apart after a couple of alpha strikes.

"It's a marathon runner, not a sprinter. The endurance is still fairly good, and the repairability has remained excellent throughout the process."

The internal architecture crystallized all of his considerable insights in this area. His extensive development with the Caesar Augustus line taught him many ways to untangle its ungodly internal mess. Added with the fact that he designed a pure knight rather than a hybrid knight, the internals had been shaped into a form that hardly any Apprentice Mech Designer could top.

During his design work on the internals, Ves left out the layout of the artificial musculature. As knights relied on momentum and force to empower their blows, the question of forming the appropriate structure for his musculature could fill entire libraries.

Ves found to his consternation that his Battle Mechatronics Skill left him with an insufficient foundation to design a structure from scratch. Even his Mastery Sub-Skill didn't help that much, because the perspective of a knight only held a narrow perspective on the subject of something as complicated as the muscles of a mech.

"I'm going to need to read a book."

It was a good thing he saved some merits in reserve. It was time to take a break anyway, as Ves pretty much cut himself off from the rest of the universe for a month.

Once he stepped out of his office, he quickly wished he stayed inside. Jake arrived up his doorstep almost immediately with a very important message.

"The newly instated board members are eager to convene the board. If you will follow me to the conference room we've setup, you'll be able to meet them and set some high level goals for the LMC. You are working with brilliant minds here. You best take advantage of their expertise."

"Oh joy."

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The conference room projected his grandfather and five other board members in a lifelike fashion. All of them sat sat at the table with expressions of hope and anticipation.

After the formalities went out of the way, that optimism quickly disappeared as Ves did not approve of their suggestions.

A financial expert began to speak. "Entering the Bentheim market is a daunting venture that has broken many ambitious companies. We're going to need to build up a warchest. Right now, your various assets are tied up in a perplexing manner. There are ways we can leverage this situation to raise a lot of funds."

The man put up a snazzy presentation that entailed issuing stock and piling up debt. All of it sounded great, but Ves wasn't interested in a quick payout.

"I'm open to issuing a limited amount of stock, but I'm not a fan of complicating the ownership structure to this extent." Ves shook his head. "Let's not put the cart before the horse. The LMC isn't short on cash right now. Let me complete my design and figure out how much we have to spend on marketing before we address the need to raise more funds."

The financial expert probably had ties to the very same banks and investment companies willing to get involved. The board member would increase his effective control over the LMC if his buddies held a lot of its equity and debt.

Ves could tell that people had been eyeing some of the exclusive licenses he obtained from the Clifford Society. If he wanted to maintain his advantage, he had to keep the licenses to himself and only to himself.

"Our company is running far below its potential capacity." A woman spoke up next. She turned out to be product expert. "Many licenses are time-sensitive and it will take who-knows-long until you finish your next design. It's best if we hire more mech designers and expand our catalog of designs."

"I don't wish to dilute my brand with designs that don't adhere to my design philosophy. I'm pursuing quality over quantity so I'm very exacting in the type of mechs I want to sell."

"Then setup a different brand. It's not that difficult to draw a line between your own products and those designed by others. You can continue to pursue perfection while our other crop of mech designers can aim for mass market penetration."

"I'm not open to hiring other mech designers. I founded the LMC to provide a platform to develop and sell my own products. I don't want to provide safe haven for a bunch of losers who can't make it in the mech industry on their own."

Any external mech designer that the company brought on might be using it as a springboard for their own careers. They'd use the licenses and production facilities that Ves had tirelessly accumulated and hop off his train after they achieved commercial success.

Another possibility was that these external mech designers might take over the company's direction. If they developed a lot of designs that collectively earned more, they could diminish the value of his own products.

"What will it take then for you to accept more mech designers?"

"They'll have to work under me for a long period of time. Right now, the only possible candidate is Carlos Shaw."

"I see." The woman replied while looking down at her terminal. "According to the records, he's an able but inexperienced fabricator who is unremarkable in many ways. You can find many competent mech designers off the streets of Bentheim that can do a better job than a former classmate of yours."

"The difference is that I don't trust random bums off the streets even if they can design a bestseller. If they're actually that good, they should have started their own company or find someone else that can sponsor their work. It's not the LMC's goal to promote other mech designers."

After this, a mech industry expert started to tout his connections to Bentheim. "The LMC may have put their roots in Cloudy Curtain, but limiting it to an agricultural planet will severely hobble its growth. Any mech business needs a presence in Bentheim. I can put you in touch with some of the regional powers that can facilitate a deal regarding the foundation of a second site."

Such a second site would likely become the main base of production for the LMC, effectively giving control of a major revenue source to the mech industry expert's buddies.

"A second plant is not in consideration at the moment. Our current production facilities are already capable enough to meet a fair amount of demand. Since I'm in the business of selling premium mechs, I see no immediate need to expand our production capacity for the immediate future."

Ves parried a few more traps couched in helpful suggestions. Once the board members realized that he wouldn't fall for their tricks, the conference meeting shifted into an awkward silence.

His grandfather Benjamin broke the silence by bringing up something that actually sounded constructive, a first for this meeting.

"At the moment, you've signed a contract with a Bentheim mech broker named Marcella Bollinger. I've read through the contract, and while it allows you and your company to outsource all of your sales and support to her, the compensation she demands is uncharacteristically high."

The other board members nodded in agreement. "The standard rate should be ten percent of gross profits. The contract you signed gives her a twenty percent cut."

All of the board members looked at Ves like he got taken advantage of. Which he did, but he needed the extra help.

"The contract is only valid for ten years. We can always renegotiate after the current term ends."

"We can do better." His grandfather added, surprising Ves. "Rather than see it as an exploitative relationship, consider the initial contract as an opening for deeper cooperation. Even if we build up our own marketing capabilities from scratch, we'll never surpass Bollinger's brokerage in terms of understanding the market and finding the best customers."

A few board members disagreed. "I know at least five great marketers who can be persuaded to head a marketing division in Bentheim."

Benjamin shook his head. "It's not worth the effort. Consider the amount of money other mech manufacturers spend on their marketing. It can suck up to a billion credits a day. That's only for the mass-market segment. The premium segments rely more on personal connections to make a sale, something which Bollinger is very adept at. Can we find someone as equally formidable as her in the Bentheim market?"

Someone with so many connections either joined larger organizations or ran their own businesses. Even a medium-sized mech manufacturer didn't enter their eyes.

"What are you getting at, grandfather?"

"The contract can't be breached without a penalty, but it can be renegotiated if both sides are willing to make adjustments. I think it won't be unreasonable to make a demand to lower your mech broker's cut in exchange for a longer partnership. You've grown significantly since you first entered into a deal with her. Your future prospects is worth too much to risk being ditched at the end of a short ten-year contract."

His words sounded persuasive, and some of the other board members expressed approval at the suggestion. On the other hand, the remaining board members thought that the LMC should wait out the nine remaining years and run their own marketing operation from then on.

"Marcella has been very helpful throughout my career and I don't like to spoil that relationship." Ves decided after hearing out some arguments for both sides. "Even if my contract with Marcella ended, I had already been leaning towards renewing it with fairer terms. I guess we can try to push it forward."

It didn't risk much to make the offer. As long as he did well with his first original model, Marcella would have a gold mine in her lap. Thus, her acceptance depended on her estimation of his future performance.

The discussion soon turned to overall strategy. "You've repeatedly made it clear that you are targeting the premium segment. However, there are only so many rich customers in the market. I think it's prudent to evaluate whether it serves the company to offer a cheaper selection of models. Not immediately, but in the medium term."

"The Living Mech Corporation's mission is to bring mechs to life. I can't do that without a minimum standard of quality. I'm not interested in getting into a race to the bottom. Cheaper mechs means I'll have to start cutting corners, which I really hate doing."

The LMC could establish a different brand to take care of that problem, but Ves had already ruled that possibility out. However, the board member suggested another approach.

"I'm not saying the company has to be responsible for the production of these cheaper designs. Your design capabilities are impressive for a young man of your age. I'm sure it won't be a challenge for you to come up with some cheaper variants of your main designs. Once you finished your variants, you can license them out to other mech manufacturers, who will do the rest of the work on our behalf."

"You're suggesting that we engage in outsourcing?"

In the mech industry, outsourcing meant that Ves would offer his designs up for licensing with a very specific set of terms. The companies that bought his licenses had to abide by a number of very strict restrictions and wouldn't be allowed to modify his designs in any way. In exchange, Ves would waive the massive licensing fee, though he did take a larger share of per-unit revenue.

Mech manufacturers in possession of production hardware didn't always have the money to pay for a standard license. Producing mechs on behalf of another company was considered a way to make ends meet by these sorts of companies.

"Even though Ves didn't wish to cheapen his designs by developing severely hamstrung variants, he was open to the idea of offering up purpose-built designs. It would enable his work to penetrate the market and allow his reputation to spread beyond a narrow circle of wealthy customers.

Even if the licensees botched up the production, the LMC could terminate the license and find another manufacturer to do the work. The only issue was that his company earned far less profits than if it did everything in-house.

Then again, Ves had already shot down the possibility to produce any cheap models by themselves.

"The idea holds some promise, but only if the right manufacturers are interested in licensing my designs." He replied after careful contemplation. "Right now, we only offer the Marc Antony Mark II, which is an aging lastgen design that's unsuitable to further cost-saving modifications. Let's wait until I've developed my new design before considering the matter in earnest."

Ves started to understand the appeal of a board. Even if they had no actual decision-making power, they had a vested interest in the company's success. The various experts lent their expertise to the various matters that the company faced.

Still, he didn't delude himself that they worked for the greater good of the company. They only had their own interests at heart.

Overall, their knowledge and ability to think at a higher level made them useful sparring partners. Compared to the company's officers, the directors turned up short in terms of depth, but they made up for it by taking the bigger picture into account.

"If I might suggest something." The mech industry expert spoke again. "Your search for a long-term supplier will not be successful. Even with a moderately successful design, the LMC will always be regarded as a non-entity. Even if you catch the attention of a supplier, it's doubtful they're willing to offer favorable terms."

"The CRO sounded much more optimistic when he informed me of the ongoing search for a supplier."

"Your CRO must be aiming to build a relationship with a distressed or desperate supplier. It's not a good idea to source your materials from a troubled seller."

The expert provided many reasons why it might go wrong. The supplier might have almost tapped out its reserves. It might have engaged in illegal labor practices. It may even serve as a channel for pirates to dispose their ill-gotten gains.

"Considering the impending war, it's actually best we don't rely on any single source to supply our most critical exotic materials."

"Why is that?"

"Because exotics turn into strategic goods over the course of the war. The Vesians will try to occupy or destroy the Republic's mining operations. They'll also prey on the convoys delivering those materials to the hungry industries it feeds."

That sounded very troubling. "I don't see why relying on the open market is any better."

"Because no matter how the war progresses, the open market will always continue to operate. Don't forget that Bentheim is a port system and that it serves a regional nexus of trade. Some of that traffic will diminish, but not enough to starve the markets entirely out of resources. You won't be dependent on the whims of the Vesians if you can accept the higher costs."

Someone else disagreed. "As long as the LMC insists on leaving out the exclusivity clause, it's free to trade with any other party. I don't see the need to suspend the search for a supplier."

"You can't have your cake and eat it too! You won't find a supplier who is willing to let the LMC retain the right to approach its competitors for business. The LMC isn't producing enough mechs to force a compromise. They'd rather decline a partnership than be taken for fools."

The issue of suppliers had always given Ves a headache, and the directors just made it worse. He banged his fist against the table. "Enough! This is going nowhere. Let me tell you now that I plan to let the relations department continue to find a supplier and attempt to negotiate a mutually beneficial contract. We can convene the board again to discuss whether it's worth it for us to sign it into the books."

Even though the discussion led to nothing substantial, it got Ves to think about what his company would do after the war broke out. He decided to raise the matter to the board.

"As you all know, the Bright Republic and the Vesia Kingdom will likely be embroiled in a serious conflict. I'll likely be drafted by the Mech Corps, and so will some of my employees. How can we prepare the LMC so that it will continue to function during wartime?"

The directors made a number of useful suggestions, starting with his grandfather. "First up, the Republic provides a substantial amount of assistance to mech manufacturers affected by their wartime policies. If your administration is up to task, they should have already prepared the necessary paperwork."

"I'll check up on that after the meeting."

"You should also check with the bank." The financial expert said. "In some cases, they're obliged to freeze or even forgive parts of your debt in the event of war. Also, if the company is bleeding cash, it should be able to demand some compensation from the government, though they may demand some equity in return."

In truth, the government only offered a limited amount of support to failing mech manufacturers. It was content to let the weak ones close their doors while offering only a pittance to most medium mech manufacturers.

"The only way to receive better treatment is by contributing to the war effort." His grandfather added. "The Mech Corps has many needs. The LMC can best serve our fighting force by supplying them with high-quality replacement parts that are difficult to fabricate at military supply bases."

They formed a tentative plan around this suggestion. His grandfather even offered to pull some strings and lay down the groundwork for such collaboration.

At the end of the hours-long meeting, Ves left the conference room with a moderately satisfied expression. He patted Lucky's head once he entered the lounge.

"You did good, buddy. The directors aren't complete bastards."

His cat meowed lazily at him before turning around to resume his nap.

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Chapter 253: Blackbeak

Ves resumed his work on his design after taking a break. The board meeting led to modest changes but gave everyone a lot of food for thought. One thing that struck him was that everyone pushed for mass production. They didn't believe the LMC could deliver the necessary quality to grow into the high end market.

"They're right, in a way."

He'd have to become a Journeyman Mech Designer to break into the top and most lucrative end of the market. That was still a long way off despite the help of the System.

"My various Skills have reached Journeyman-level, but I'm barely scratching the surface. I'm still short on depth and experience."

Ves vaguely estimated he would have to design at least five or six original models to gain the minimum amount of experience to advance. They also had to be distinctly different mech, so Ves couldn't get away with designing six identical knight mechs.

"Let's get back to work."

Ves thought about the implications of forming the structure of his artificial musculature from scratch.

"The more experienced mech designers can do this by heart. I haven't reached that level yet, even with the theories I've learned."

In such cases, it would be a shame to consult a reference book and adapt a expertly designed template that had been derived from examples of nature. For example, knight templates often took their inspiration from studying the bodies of athletes and soldiers.

Ves chose to be fairly extravagant by borrowing a high quality reference book from the Clifford Society's Moon Library.

It took a couple of says for the fast courier to deliver the secure materials required to read the book. For a price of ten merits, the Society went out of its way to make sure that Ves didn't propagate its contents.

He didn't spend his time in vain during the wait. He re-read the textbooks on Battle Mechatronics and looked back on his old designs to study the way their musculature worked.

Mechs generally adopted simplified structures compared to a human made out of blood and flesh. In particular, they didn't require so much fine control for their toes, neck and head. Knight mechs also sacrificed a lot of finesse in their arms in favor of brute strength.

"Still, a strong pair of legs forms the basis of a sturdy knight."

Knights relied on the strength of their legs to build up momentum and withstand shocks. They also depended on their legs for balance.

The reference book he borrowed happened to contain a couple of templates for all the different archetypes. After a lot of browsing, Ves chose to go with the lightest knight template.

"It's the most responsive and agile out of all the medium knight templates. It's the only choice that conforms with my vision."

The black phoenix would never sit still like a rock for long. It wished to endure attacks only up to the extent for it to close in on its opponent and take it out.

A lighter musculature that facilitated movement over force enabled this choice of battle. Unfortunately, Ves also had to accept a substantial reduction in arm strength.

"My knight will never match the strength of a purely offensive type like a swordsman mech."

He accepted the compromise, since his mech's substantial defense made up for its lacking offensive prowess. It aimed to outlast its opponents by surviving to the end rather than killing them off first.

Ves made a couple of tweaks to the standard template.

He increased the range of motion of the shield arm to facilitate bashing with the flat or sharp end of the phoenix-emblazoned shield.

He also strengthened the back and abdominal muscles to insure they wouldn't overstain if his mech dug into hardy ground.

His inexperience with designing a musculature led to long nights of continuous work. The black phoenix remained demanding throughout the process, sometimes even forcing Ves to throw away hours worth of development.

The delays resulted in further refinements that provided greater strength without taking up too much space, which was getting very cramped by now.

He sat back in his seat with a satisfied smile after the latest round of modelling pronounced his work to be without any major flaws.

"This is the best I can achieve at the moment."

It helped that he licensed a fairly premium artificial musculature system from the Society. If he licensed a generic one, he would have been forced to bulk up his frame.

Still, the various compromises he made so far made it clear it didn't excel as a damage sponge. "It's leaning a bit too heavily on the offensive side."

Ves intended to use the armor cladding process as a way to correct this imbalance.

Much like the artificial musculature, the application of the armor system also came with a lot of complexity. Many mech designers either used a reference book or modelled the most optimal layout with sophisticated processors.

This time, Ves declined to borrow another reference book. His experience and his Optimization Sub-Skills should be sufficient for him to design an adequate armor layout.

The Veltrex armor system consisted of a minimum of three layers.

The upper layer consisted of various composites that worked best against directed energy weapons.

The middle layer consisted of heavier alloys that specialized in stopping kinetic weapons.

The lower layer mainly dispersed heat and force that went through the other layers. It also worked great in mitigating explosive damage.

The weakness of this armor system became apparent. If an enemy force stripped the upper layer with a ballistic weapon, it could easily penetrate past the middle and lower layers. While their sheer thickness could still mitigate a certain amount of energy damage, it was obviously not ideal.

"I doubt my models will become prolific enough for enemies to know about this weakness."

Despite this wrinkle, the Veltrex armor system could withstand a surprising level of abuse for its thickness.

Some armor systems could be trimmed or thickened by adjusting the amount of layers.

The Veltrex system worked a little differently by adhering to the same three layers, only this time he could adjust the thickness of each of the layers.

Ves spent a lot of time with the fine-tuning of the armor layout. He adopted a fairly standard medium knight layout but trimmed some fat wherever he could get away with it. However, he didn't go too far, as a knight still had to withstand a lot of blows.

"Even if the internals are easier to repair, it's still not a good idea to make it easy to get past the armor."

He took his time in this phase, dragging it out over four weeks as he meticulously verified his design choices with advanced mathematical modelling. From chilly ice planets to desolate asteroids, Ves simulated every possible hostile environment he could come up with. His model performed surprisingly poorly in vacuum and hot environments.

"My mech doesn't generate as much heat as a laser rifleman, so I didn't put too many heatsinks in its design."

This limited its heat processing capacity. The only way his phoenix could shunt its heat was through shunting it from its feet or dissipating it through infrared radiation.

"Isn't it ironic for a phoenix knight to be prone to overheating?"

Ves decided to keep the current amount of heatsinks. Adding any more meant decreasing his mech's performance to an unacceptable level in his eyes. He took the Republic's geography into account as well.

"The Bright Republic doesn't have that many hot planets anyway, and spaceborn mechs are far more suitable to deploy in vacuum environments."

After making sure the armor held up in every other environment, Ves surrendered himself to his artistic fancies. He meticulously carved the upper layer of the armor with phoenix-themed reliefs.

He shaped the generic humanoid face into a phoenix's head. He carved up the shoulder pauldrons into a feather-like appearance. He added minor decorative lines throughout the torso to reinforce its association with blackfire and phoenixes.

The only downside to this 'extra' addition was that the carvings affected the structural integrity of the armor system. Ves had to bulk up many of the sections due to the weaknesses he inadvertedly introduced.

"It's worth it, though. My design looks good, really good."

He already applied a coating of black and gold to his mech. The change in color amplified the connection between the design and the image in his mind. The black phoenix strongly approved of the phoenix knight's impressive appearance. It definitely possessed a strong level of gravitas that he only found in his recent Marcus Aurelius limited edition model.

What particularly stood out from its appearance was its underlying menace. The black coating gave his design a sinister association that Ves didn't see very often in knights.

The Marc Antony Mark II radiated aggression as well, but it always had a noble and flamboyant touch to it. The phoenix knight decried the brave charge, choosing instead to triumph over its opponent through a mix of guile and speed

"This doesn't fit with the knight ethos. Even offensive knights don't go this far."

Fortunately, Ves still had to design its shield and armor. He compensated for the menace by adding a slightly wider shield. He spent over three days perfecting the phoenix wing design on its surface. The asymmetrical look caused by the exaggerated curling wing gave it a distinctly exotic moon-like appearance.

As for the sword, Ves went ahead with designing it as planned. The winged guards and the phoenix body hilt gave the sword a fine touch, but besides that he didn't stray from standard doctrine. Together with the use of generic sword alloys, it was clear the sword would never be able to outshine the shield, which Ves had cladded it entirely with premium Veltrex armor layers.

His mech came into shape after more than three months of design work. The seasons changed and the tension between the Republic and the Kingdom neared the boiling point. Despite the passing of time, Ves hardly noticed any of it as he became subsumed in perfecting his design.

He spent the final weeks in subjecting his tentatively functional design through a barrage of tests. Quite often, the simulations revealed a host of flaws in the interaction between the armor and the internals underneath. These flaws hadn't showed up when Ves tested those systems in isolation. Only when he put together every piece in a single package did the flaws come to light.

"This is still rather sloppy for me. It's taken longer to eliminate all these flaws than I thought.

Nevertheless, Ves successfully completed his first iteration of what he temporarily called the Blackbeak.

"Blackwing sounds better, but it's too bad my mech isn't capable of flight."

Perhaps he'd adopt the name for an aerial variant of his design. The base model possessed sufficient space in the back to accomodate a flight system, though he would also have to overhaul the internals to increase its heat-handling capacity.

"That's a problem for later."

Now that he finished a solid design with concrete specs, Ves thought about the next step in his design process.

"I'm going to have to fabricate a prototype and subject it to an extensive amount of gruelling tests."

This went doubly so for knights that specialized in long-term durability. Ves couldn't trust his mathematical models to reflect the actual truth. His design might still hide a small number of critical flaws.

"The thing about models is that they reflect a distorted version of reality. No single model exists so far that can simulate our reality with perfect fidelity."

Even the System's impressive models admitted defeat in this area. For an existence capable of materialization and time travel to express its inferiority in this area, Ves didn't delude himself that he could trust his models blindly.

"First, let's see what the others have to say. They must be brimming with anticipation with what I've been cooking up all these months."

He exited his office, only to encounter a worrying development.

"What's happening?" Ves asked.

"You should check the mech portals." Carlos replied as he passed him a data pad. "One of your competitors is one step ahead of you."

Ves glanced at the news article and found to his surprise that another Apprentice Mech Designer debuted an offensive knight design as his first original mech. Could this be a coincidence?

Then he recognized the designer.

"I know this guy."

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Ves first became exposed to other promising talents at the Young Tigers Exhibition held more than a year ago. Mech designers around his age showcased their talents in order to achieve fame and recognition in the state they called home.

It mostly ended up as a comparison between who had the better foreign backer. Ves performed well at the event, only to be beaten by Edwin McKinney, who for some reason deigned to participate in such a low-class event.

Afterwards, Ves slowly realized that the geniuses who participated in the YTE likely didn't do very well abroad. They were mostly the equivalent to Squires in the Clifford Society, marginal figures that could never compete against the native mech designers of those second-rate states.

"Michael Dumont. It's been a long time since I last saw your name."

After being beaten by Ves, Dumont disappeared from the face of the Republic. Ves assumed that Dumont must have tucked his tail between his legs and fled back to the Coalition or wherever he called his second home.

Evidently, he returned, and just so coincidentally introduced an offensive knight design in his debut as an original mech designer. Ves played a recording of the clip.

"After months of intensive development and extensive testing, I am now ready to announce the release of my first original design, the Havalax!"

A medium mech slowly stepped into view. The reporters gathered at the press conference murmured with excitement as the ground under their feet thundered as Dumont's creation stopped in front of them. With its stylish white coating with triangular blue and orange patterns, it made for a vividly noble sight.

"The Havalax is a knight mech geared for offensive and defensive purposes. It's greatest strength is its speed, which is even able to match the sprinting speed of light mechs. As a fast and mobile knight mech, the Havalax excels in chaotic skirmishes and smaller engagements where battlelines often shift on a whim."

A projection appeared that showed the Havalax's performance in a number of realistic simulations, interspersed with clips of the first production model going through an obstacle course.

What stood out from Ves was that the Havalax showcased an impressive level of performance. So much so that he suspected the pilot must have overheated the mech soon after he completed his acrobatics.

"If you are worried about the Havalax's ability to function as a knight, then let me reassure you that it can take the hits as well as it can dish out. The armor system I am using is an exclusive development from a lab associated with my university in the Coalition. Its multifaceted composition employs a semi-modular arrangement where expended plates will fall after they degrade, facilitating even higher levels of mobility at the tail-end of a fight."

The rest of Dumont's speech detailed his design's strengths while glossing over its weaknesses. Some of the reporters did a good job asking about its endurance, which should have been quite awful for a pure knight design.

"The Havalax is a mech that is designed to make an immediate impact on the battlefield." He repeated. "There are hardly any mechs on the market that can compete with mine in these terms. Not at the price level of my initial models."

"How much will it cost?"

"Production has already started. You can reserve the first hundred copies by moving quickly and pre-ordering it at my company's portal for the generous price of 50 million credits. After that, you can purchase a standard model starting at 55 million credits. We offer many additional options and customizations at additional fees. Please consult the portal for the details."

Ves flipped the data pad and slammed it to the ground. Then he stepped on it with his foot, though he failed to make any cracks. Pads these days served as reliable information carriers under extreme conditions like battlefields and hostile alien planets.

"I don't believe this is a coincidence!"

Just when Ves prepared to debut the Blackbeak, an old rival released an offensive knight on his own. The Havalax differed distinctly from the Blackbeak by specializing in delivering peak performance, but that design choice would also enable it to inflate its spec sheet.

Frankly speaking, the Blackbeak's specs looked like crap compared to the performance that the Havalax was capable of pumping out. Sure, the knight designed by Dumont might only be able to keep running its systems at maximum capacity for a couple of minutes, but most laymen wouldn't know the difference.

In actual fact, the Blackbeak and the Havalax shouldn't even be direct competitors. Despite sharing the same roles, they excelled in different circumstances, so there should be very little overlap

Except Ves knew that many customers didn't think about less flashy criteria like endurance and longevity. They cared more about exciting stuff like top speed or arm strength.

Jake arrived quickly after Carlos. "It's fairly bad news. Early adopters already got their hands on the Havalax and they've been giving them rave reviews. Even some of the more reputable mech portals are giving it a thumbs up."

"How is Dumont able to produce so fast?"

"His backers bought out a failing medium mech manufacturer and repurposed it as Dumont's personal property in the Republic. There's rumors that the Ricklin Corporation has a stake in the company as well."

Figures. Both of them had a beef with Ves. Dumont's entry in the YTE had been cut short by Ves while the Ricklin Corporation suffered a devastating terrorist attack with the help of a mech that he designed and built.

Ves suspected that the Ricklin Corporation had been behind the various attacks on his person. Such threats had ceased to materialize in the last half year, which led Ves to believe the Ricklin Corporation quietly gave up on its attempt to hit back at Ves.

Evidently, they chose to retaliate by a different means. He admired the elegance of their plan. It wasn't illegal to give a helping hand to one of his competitors. Even if everyone in the Republic knew of their conflict, so what?

Right now, Ves was in big trouble. He could already sense an undercurrent of worry and despair among the employees in the office. They all thought that Ves would debut his Blackbeak too late. Even if it offered some redeeming features over the Havalax, demand for offensive knights had already been met by that time.

"Emergency meeting. Two hours from now." Ves said crisply as he stormed back into his office. "Bring everyone that matters."

Jake and Carlos watched the door slide shut. They both looked at each other. "Do you think he's resigned?"

"Not at all." Carlos replied. "That's his serious mode. Ves almost never makes an outburst. He's the type who lets his rage boil inside his mind. Don't let his flat face fool you."

Two hours later, the entire management team of the LMC poured into the conference room. The executives and pillars of the company like Jake, Primrose, Carlos, Calsie and Gavin sat alongside the oval table.

The rest seated themselves upon floating synthetic foldable chairs stored underneath the table. The 'planks' as people called them provided basic seating for everyone without taking up a lot of space when they returned to their storage compartments.

Ves stomped into the conference room a few minutes later. He slowly paced towards the front of the room and turned on the main projector. A full-throated projection of his first complete iteration of the Blackbeak appeared in front of everyone's eyes.

"This is the Blackbeak. It's a premium offensive knight that excels in endurance, longevity and energy efficiency."

He summarized its various attributes and emphasized its differences compared to a model like the Havalax. Still, half the crowd stopped paying attention to his words, because the mere sight of the Blackbeak consumed all of their attention.

Its sheer presence and artistic appearance dwarfed anything Ves designed before except for his most impressive limited edition designs. The sinister flavor underpinning the Blackbeak's X-Factor evoked both fear and admiration from the gawking crowd.

As Ves had been tinkering with his design for months, he'd grown used to its aura. He didn't expect it to have such a pronounced effect on his employees.

"Wow, Ves! Wow!" Carlos exclaimed. "If this is what you've been working on, then Dumont stands no chance!"

Several people agreed, but those who read through the Blackbeak's spec sheet quietly shook their heads.

"I have confidence in my design." Ves declared simply. It was important to emphasize his belief in his own capabilities. "However, that doesn't mean that it's a given that the Havalax can be dethroned. The first-mover advantage is a very powerful thing to have. The main issue is that over target segments overlap too much. The longer we wait, the steeper the hill we have to climb."

"Then what are we waiting for? You've already completed your design, so let's release it immediately while the Havalax is at its infancy!"

Ves shook his head. "I won't rush my design. I've thought it through, and the risk of missing out a critical flaw or two is too great. I can tell that the Havalax is a fairly rushed design as well. Dumont must have designed it when he received word that I had been planning to design an offensive knight myself."

Some people looked at each other with suspicion. "This was supposed to be kept under wraps. Someone leaked the news."

A brief argument broke out, but Ves forestalled any further shouting.

"Shut up! I haven't exactly done my best to keep my intentions secret. It's my own fault for letting too many people know. The important thing is that it's already done, so let's move on. As I was saying, the Blackbeak's development will stay on track. I will not rush its development just because a competitor is taunting me to hurry up."

"Why not?"

"Because the LMC stands for quality. It's in our mission statement. It will be a direct betrayal of the founding principles of this company if I set them aside at the first sign of trouble."

That said, in corporate warfare, expediency usually triumphed over principle. Ves merely believed he didn't have to go that far in order to turn the tables against Michael Dumont.

"Do you believe in our company?" He asked his employees.

"Yes!"

"We believe!"

"Do you believe in the Blackbeak?"

Everyone resoundly cheered.

"Then what's with all of the panic? We are better than Dumont!"

He succeeded in lifting up their moods. It felt good to inspire confidence in his workers. He needed them to work at their best in order to stand a chance against Dumont's well-funded vendetta against Ves.

As long as he could persuade his men, Ves also had a chance of winning over the market. They just had to remain rational and lay out the facts.

"It's important to note that offensive knight designs already exist on the market. Hundreds of thousands of designs already exists throughout the galaxy, though only a fraction is available for purchase within the Republic's borders. Likewise, demand for offensive knights is not a shallow pool that will drain quickly the moment someone cobbles up a decent design."

The threat the Havalax posed to their company distorted everyone's perspective on the market.

"I see now! We've been stuck in a tunnel vision!"

"The Havalax is still a competitor though. As long as it remains on sale, it will directly affect our own profits."

"We can still fight back when there's still time."

How much time did they still have? Ves wanted to take his time, but would all of that extra time pay off in the end? It all depended on their hard work and ability to succeed under adverse circumstances.

Ves clapped his hands to draw everyone's attention. "I've gathered you all here not to admit defeat, but to form a plan of action. We will not let Dumont have his satisfaction! We shouldn't fear his competition. He should fear us instead!"

He had unquestioning faith in the superiority of his own design. Ves hardly believed that Dumont progressed as fast as him since the last time they dueled against each other.

Along with the added advantage of a pronounced X-Factor, Ves possessed a final contingency should his design fail to match up to the Havalax. He tapped his fingers against his unassuming comm, which hid the option to super-publish any design once a year.

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In truth, Ves didn't wish to resort to super-publish option, as he considered it a cheat. Besides sullying his reputation and demeaning the tradition, he wouldn't be able to get away with it anyway.

He already shared his development logs to the MTA. if Ves suddenly improved his design by a significant margin at the very end, the MTA would rightly question whether he had help.

"Let's form a plan and draw up a time table." He announced to the people gathered in the conference room. "I think it's not too late to release my latest model a month from now. It's impossible for Dumont's company to have produced so many mechs in that span of time."

They hashed out a quick plan that mobilized the entire company.

Even though the Blackbeak hadn't been finished yet, its functional state allowed the workshop to grow familiar with its design. Chief Cyril and Carlos received permission to train the mech technicians with practising its fabrication in a virtual environment.

Meanwhile administration and relations departments laid the groundwork for logistics. Ves wanted the LMC to be amply supplied without being overcharged for the necessary raw materials. He also wanted the shipping to be reserved in advance in order to minimize delays and disruption in supplies.

"The current convoys between Cloudy Curtain and Bentheim won't suffice for our needs." Jake reported after making a projection on how many goods flowed in and out of the workshop. "The Barracuda has lately remained rather idle. Other than conveying some of our executives to Bentheim and back, the corvette is severely underutilized."

"Any shipments we make outside a convoy isn't insured by Sanyal-Ablin." Ves shook his head. "I don't want to tempt fate by putting millions of credits worth of goods in an even more expensive starship. The Barracuda will adhere to the current flight schedule. If won't attract so much attention if all it does is ship some of our marketing people back and forth. On that topic, how is the negotiation going with Marcella?"

"We've been making slow but steady progress in our discussions with your mech broker. From what we can tell, she values your ability to improve and thinks your worth will only increase in the future. Our negotiating team has been able to leverage this information into compelling her to agree to a number of important concessions. However, our talks have stalled lately due to the lack of activity on our part."

Ves already knew why. "She's waiting for my design, I bet. Once I fabricate the prototype of the Blackbeak, I'll ship it over to Bentheim in order to take advantage of their extensive testing facilities. The MTA's Cloudy Curtain branch office lacks the hardware to put the prototype to its paces."

A few people showed alarm at his decision to do the testing in Bentheim.

"The port system is a powder keg waiting to blow!" Primrose warned with a shrill voice. "It's highly inadvisable to step foot on the planet with war tensions so high!"

"There's no other choice. I can't do without the sophisticated testing equipment that is only available on major planets like Bentheim. Don't worry, I've got Raella, Melkor and Sanyal-Ablin watching my back."

"We're also permitted to pilot our own mechs within city limits!" Raella raised her fist in excitement. "If the BLM wants to pick a fight, I'll gladly give them one!"

Once they finished their testing, Ves would return to Cloudy Curtain and apply the lessons on his initial design.

"Do we have enough time for another round of testing?"

"Likely not. There's a lengthy lead time required to submit an original design to the MTA. If we want to make the Blackbeak ready for sale in a month, we have to submit the final version along with a fabricated copy to the MTA's branch in Bentheim at least two weeks before the official release."

So in essence, Ves actually had three weeks to work with before he had to finalize his design. "We can't afford to undergo a second round of testing. We can only hope that one round will be enough to catch all the major flaws. Marketing, once I show off the prototype to Marcella, please work together with her brokerage on a marketing campaign. Make sure to take various budgets into account."

A simple plan made all the difference. Getting his people moving again helped push back the negative sentiment. Everyone dispersed and went back to work. Ves himself took some time off. He wanted to be in his best condition before he fabricated the prototype.

Lucky meowed and climbed on his shoulder once he sank into a couch at the lounge. The cat didn't experience much excitement with Ves holed up in his office. His pet made his disaffection clear by batting his paw against his cheek.

"I know, I know, you'll get your fun soon. We'll be travelling to Bentheim again after a few days."

"Meow!"

Ves thought about picking something up at Bentheim that could keep Lucky busy. Then again, the amount of minerals his cat had eaten so far had reached a point where Lucky showed signs of evolving yet again. The glowing blue lines between its shiny bronze-like exterior glowed as bright as a flood lamp.

"You're stuffed with energy, aren't you?"

"Meorrww." Lucky lazily stretched his back.

"I wonder what you'll look like at level 3."

As Ves advanced, so did Lucky. It made him wonder what his cat had in store in the future. Perhaps he'd be able to traverse the stars, or fire a mech-grade laser from his mouth. Maybe he'll be producing gemstones that could double the performance of any mech.

He began to fabricate the prototype the next day. He skipped practicing the process in a simulation because he was short on time. Instead, he relied on his substantial fabrication skills to tide him over his very first attempt to bring the Blackbeak to life.

Chief Cyril gestured everyone away. "Everyone, clear out! The boss will be working on the prototype alone!"

Due to everyone's unfamiliarity with the new design, Ves demanded full control over the entire fabrication process. Only if he did everything himself would he be able to guarantee the quality of his prototype. It was vitally important that this early copy of the Blackbeak be a faithful reflection of its design.

Every mech technician halted their work and cleared their junk. The new production line stood ready to be used. Ves took a deep breath and centered his mind onto his continuously evolving image.

He opened his eyes, revealing a flickering glint in his eyes. "Let's make you whole."

Ves moved his fingers over the console of the Dortmund printer. He started working from the inside out, fabricating the innermost pieces first before working his way outwards.

The technical challenge laid mostly in his unfamiliarity with the process. He also worked with unfamiliar materials and entirely new alloys that sometimes strained his capability to solve problems on the fly.

"Still, the greatest advantage of designing a mech from scratch is that you have complete control over its complexity."

A hybrid knight like the Caesar Augustus possessed a lot of interconnected components that made a mess of things inside. Even if he substantially simplified its internal architecture in the Mark II, it still posed a lot of difficulties.

On the other hand, an pure knight with a narrow set of priorities carried a lot less baggage around. Ves prioritized on designing a simple, clean and easy-to-assemble internal architecture because he intended the Blackbeak to be repaired and worked on over many years in the field.

"Easier to repair also makes it easier to assemble."

He only encountered some genuine challenges when he formed the armor plates. Each of the three Veltrex layers centered around their own mix of highly valuable exotic minerals that might react unstable if handled improperly. Even with his Alloy Compression III sub-skill, Ves came across various close calls that could have been avoided if he practiced beforehand.

"I can't afford the time to take a trial run. I'm already in the race and there's no way but to proceed!"

The time pressure actually emboldened Ves to put his full effort in his work. The black phoenix also thrived in a crisis and become more active and engaged as the fabrication went on. The two synergised with each other and Ves started adding intuitive touches in his work at the prompting of the picky image in his head.

After his first slip-ups, Ves got the hang of working with each different formula. He smoothly applied the correct adjustments to the chemical treatment machine and the alloy compressor to ensure a near-perfect finish for each of the plates.

The most difficult work by far was adding all of the flourishes onto the top layers. Ves had to put the pieces back inside the Dortmund in order to utilize its precision carving module to neatly trace out the decorative flourishes. One wrong move risked threatening the structural integrity of the entire layer, turning it from an effective piece of armor into a clunky alloy plate.

"I definitely can't add something so elaborate in my silver label version of the Blackbeak." Ves concluded. "Anyone who's Assembly Skill is below the standard of a Journeyman can forget about doing this without leaving flaws."

The added difficulty of incorporating these engravings raised the value of his design. Ves put a lot of creative energy in their formation, granting them meaning beyond conveying a simple image. Ves even imagined the black phoenix blessing them with its own touch of vital energy.

"It's like they're acting as reservoirs for the X-Factor or some other kind of metaphysical energy."

By the time he finished decorative engravings, they appeared to glow in his sixth sense. The entire mech turned into something more than a simple machine by the time he started assembling the pieces into place.

His consciously simple design allowed him to assemble the various parts with greater speed and ease than with a hybrid knight. The Blackbeak hardly made a croak as its parts smoothly fit into place with the judicious use of bots.

"It's like magic." Carlos sighed as he compared the exquisite craftsmanship displayed by Ves with his own output. "How is Ves able to make his products with so much presence? The mech isn't even finished yet, but I can already tell it will be an exceptional work!"

Cyril chewed on a piece of stimulants as he formed a reply. "I've seen jobs like this a couple of times in my life. They're made by craftsman in the best sense of that word. They are passionate about their work and treat every individual mech like a seperate art piece. You can tell that Ves is made from the same mold by the intensity of his focus. It's like we're not even here."

Even their low discussion didn't affect the meticulous work that went into fitting the more delicate pieces into their assigned positions. Once Ves attached the finished sword and shield to the back, the prototype officially came into being.

The black phoenix in his mind cried out triumphantly and spread its wings. It was just about to depart from his mind and enter the almost-finished Blackbeak's design, but Ves held the stubborn bird in place.

"It's not finished yet! Stay put!"

The phoenix took offense at his demand and tried to burst through the shackles holding it down. Ves cried out in pain and held his thundering head in his hands. His sudden collapse alarmed the mech technicians.

"He's exhausted He hardly took a rest over these three days!"

"Call a medic from the security group! They have one on-site, I'm sure of it!"

None of them suspected that Ves was waging a battle in his mind. The black phoenix he birthed into being had developed a life of its own. Like any child growing up, it sometimes tried to defy its progenitor. In other words, the black phoenix reached the point where it started to assert its own identity.

"It's not time yet!" He yelled, to the confusion of the worried technicians. "Stop your stupid tantrum and get back inside!"

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His condition became so fierce that the medic hauled him to the tiny clinic set near the walls surrounding the workshop. By the time Ves recovered, he found out that everyone thought he collapsed from overwork.

"You worked for three days straight! Even with your abnormal body characteristics, humans are never meant to stay up for such a massive stretch at a time!"

"I'm okay doc. I'll be fine after a good night's sleep." Ves waved away their concerns and hopped off the cot as spry as an energetic child. "Let me see the prototype before I sign off."

He left the clinic and walked across the open courtyard to the workshop area. Once inside, he waltzed towards the other end of the hall where a crowd of bewitched employees gazed admiringly at the very first version of the Blackbeak.

"It's beautiful, and it's not yet even complete."

The blackbeak's dark coating gave the mech the illusion of an obsidian statue. The detailed carvings concentrated on its beak, its shoulder pauldrons and its symbol-laden armaments lent the prototype an air of gravitas.

"Well, you certainly did it." Chief Cyril slapped his back when Ves approached. "The Mark II is like a toy compared to this beast."

On the other hand, Jake looked a bit concerned. "I'm not so sure it will find its place in the market. It looks almost evil compared to your previous works, Ves. I don't know where you got your inspiration, but as it stands now, your design looks more fit for pirates than for mercs."

Ves belatedly realized that this might become a problem. "It will look better once the festive cloud generators underneath the shoulder pauldrons turn online. I've programmed them to emit some bright white vapor aided by some conveniently placed lights to add some life to my mech."

A knight was supposed to be a protector, a team player. Unlike the Havalax, the Blackbeak boldly bucked that stereotype by taking on an aggressive but subversive appearance. It won by staying alive, and it did so through a mix of grit and dirty tricks.

He decided to stick with its current appearance due to that reason. Dumont's Havalax could keep the white knights while the Blackbeak appealed more to the shadier crowd.

"Let's prepare for departure."

On matters as important as the shipment of a prototype, Ves didn't want to take a risks. He booked a berth at the next convoy shipment to Bentheim for the prototype and the mechs of his cousins. He also called ahead to Sanyal-Ablin to make the appropriate arrangements for his security detail on Bentheim.

A lot of prep work went into their upcoming visit. With the growth of the company, the LMC had to comply with a lot more regulations as well as take a lot of industry-specific standards into account.

The introduction of an entirely new design demanded even more compliance compared to variants. An incompetent designer could take an unknown mix of components and mix them together into a powder keg that could blow at any time

The MTA took no risks with regards to potential hazards to public safety. It was up to the mech designer to prove his new design was safe to use.

On the day of the transfer, a couple of executives from the LMC accompanied Ves and his entourage aboard the Barracuda. This time, the corvette joined the slow and lumbering convoy for safety purposes and to ensure their shipment of mechs remained safe.

As a luxury yacht, the Barracuda easily accommodated the extra passengers, though the executives had to bunk up in their cramped rooms. It elicited a lot of grumbling from the likes of Jake, Primrose and the people who originally came from Bentheim.

"Sorry guys. It's a small ship so you'll just have to make do." Ves apologised before turning to Captain Silvestra. "How's the Barracuda holding up these last few months?"

"The regular exercise has been great, sir!" The captain reported with a smile. "It's good to stretch our legs by conveying your people back and forth. The frequent travel allows us to become intimately familiar with the gravitic geography between Cloudy Curtain and Bentheim. As long as we can keep this up for half a year, we'll be able to develop a fairly complete chart that will allow us to develop fast and circuitous FTL routes."

"What does that mean?"

"It means we'll stand a higher chance of avoiding blockades and ambushes if the Bentheim System is taken over by the Vesians."

"The Vesians have never pushed as far as Bentheim before. The Republic always fights tooth and nail the closer they get. We can't afford to lose our only port system."

"Be that as it may, sir, it's best to be prepared should the worst come to pass."

The prospect of a disastrous occupation of Bentheim weighed down in his mind. Even though the Vesians always failed to take the prosperous system in the end, it only took a couple of random mishaps for them to succeed.

Besides preparing for the release of a new design, the LMC also had to prepare for the inevitable war. That meant talking with the government, the suppliers, the security companies, the insurance companies and more.

"Do we have to bring so many people?" Ves quietly asked Jake.

As his COO, the Larkinson retainer had been very bold in expanding the company's payroll. "We're making a lot of appointments because our company hasn't made any existing arrangements against various contingencies. It's fine if you want to leave it for later, but once the war finally sets off, it's going to be a lot harder to get a hold of important people."

The LMC already entered into half-a-dozen agreements so far that granted them access to military convoys and strategic resource stockpiles.

Ves had to admit it sounded like a good idea to be prepared. He hadn't even heard of half the programs in the list that Jake passed to him. "I see there are limits to how much insurance is willing to cover us."

"The entire Bentheim region is beset by difficulties in obtaining insurance now that the war is on the horizon. In the eyes of the insurance companies, Cloudy Curtain is even less secure than Bentheim, as our only real defense force consists of a single gang. The Vesians don't have to allocate too many mechs to destroy all our infrastructure."

Implicitly, Jake questioned the need to base their production facilities on a poorly defended rural planet. Ves ignored those unspoken thoughts.

"Is it unusual for the insurance companies to close up like that for our region before a war breaks out?"

"It happened a handful of times throughout the last two centuries. It's a rough indicator on how bad the war might progress. The insurance industry is especially spooked by all the pirates and rebels running roughshod over the Komodo Star Sector."

That gave Ves a lot of food for thought. He spent his remaining time on his ship reading up on the various preparations the company had been cooking up. They even formed an agreement with Walter's Whalers to ship out their most expensive production equipment off-planet if the Republic failed to contain the Vesians!

The convoy touched down upon Bentheim more than two days later. They'd been delayed by additional security checks and the requirement to adhere to the speed of the slowest transports.

A guarded planetary transport waited them at the spaceport. Loaders carefully transferred the prototype in the cargo bay while Melkor and Raella entered their mechs. Ves didn't expect any trouble, but it didn't hurt to be prepared. He also carried Lucky on his shoulders as an increasingly familiar custom.

Jake and a handful of mech technicians and aides accompanied Ves in an armored shuttle. His COO presented him with a secure data pad of the revised agreement between the LMC and Marcella's brokerage.

The entire contract looked awfully dense and Ves was not in the mood to decipher them. "I don't have time to read through these terms. Give me a summary."

"We've pretty much come to an agreement on this set of terms. Mrs. Bollinger is willing to accept a reduced commission of ten percent of gross profits for any product released after signing this agreement. In exchange, we'll assume responsibility for most forms of mass marketing as well as after-sales support. The latter change is a very impactful one."

"How so?"

"Mechs often get damaged, so they often need to be repaired as well. In extreme cases, the total cost of repairs have even exceeded the cost to buy a new mech, so you can imagine the potential earnings of this industry. Sometimes an outfit wants to modify a mech or add more armaments, and that takes a substantial amount of money as well."

"I see now. From the tone of your voice, you don't sound that optimistic. Marcella wouldn't have given us this concession without reason."

"Unless we grow large enough to form our own repair company, it's best to form a contract with an existing repair business on Bentheim. That means we have to form a branch office and hire some liaisons who can keep an eye on them. You don't want the repair companies to work without supervision. They'll rip you off in a thousand different ways if they think they can get away with it. Even a solid contract won't help that much."

"So they're as shady as salvage outfits."

"If you think about it, they're two sides of the same coin."

It turned out that the repair industry was plagued with a lot of fraud and pitfalls. A poorly managed repair scheme could easily pile the Bentheim division with a mountain of debt. Frankly, Ves admired Marcella for conducting after-sales support in his stead up to this point.

The entire agreement also hinged on Marcella's approval of his new design. Ves had managed to keep it under wraps so far. He wanted to achieve the maximum possible impact for her first impression, so he didn't even send along any documents.

The armed procession of transports, shuttles and mechs traversed away from Dorum and neared the mech hub of Ansel, which previously hosted the Vintage Festival. This time, they skipped the exhibition center and instead arrived at the doorsteps of the Ansel Precision Mech Testing Grounds, or APMTG.

"Mr. Larkinson! Welcome to the APMTG!" A sharply-dressed young man shouted over the all the thruster noise. The representative of the testing grounds greeted their arrival with a handshake and a smile. "Follow me to the labs! Our testing personnel has already prepared for the arrival of your new design!"

Ves looked upwards at the transport that carried his mech. "What about my prototype?"

"We're prepping our secure hangar for spying equipment before we allow your prototype to be transferred in our hands. At the APMTG, we take confidentiality as our highest priority! Our state of the art security systems is able to deter almost any spying methods known to the Komodo Star Sector!"

"APMTG is a mouthful."

"Just call us the testing grounds!"

Once they stepped inside, they entered a control room that overlooked an empty hall. A duty manager greeted them and showed Ves around. "This is our first testing chamber, where we will be measuring the basic parameters of your mech in order to get a baseline. This is not to say we believe your product is defective!"

Ves nodded. "I understand. Before you push my mech to the limit, you need to determine if the mech isn't already wrong from the start. It also helps calibrate your subsequent tests."

"Ah, thank you for your understanding. Do you have a background in testing mechs?"

"I know a thing or two about salvaging them, which does some of the same stuff you do."

That could be construed as an insult, as the salvage industry was well known for cutting corners. Fortunately, the duty manager didn't take any offense.

"Well, our testing process adheres to industry standards and is much more exacting than what can be achieved in the frontier."

They better be, because Ves paid over ten million credits for this service. He could get away with less if he took his prototype to the MTA, but it turned out that they had a waiting list over two months long.

At least the testing grounds performed a greater variety of tests, so Ves expected to get his money's worth.

"I can't wait to see how my prototype will perform."

As they waited for the prototype to be brought from the hangar to the testing chamber, Marcella arrived with a faux-angry face.

"The nerve of you!" She slapped his back with her artificial limb, only to be surprised by his ability to remain unfazed. "Well, I forgot you went through that ordeal in the frontier. You've grown some balls recently."

"Hey, we can always stick to the current contract."

"And risk letting you get away? No way! You're the goose who lays the golden eggs!" Marcella firmly shook her head. "Ves, even if your early work resembles dog turds, you've been getting better and better with each new model. Your progress is especially pronounced when you track the quality of your virtual models."

Since they basically fixed all of the terms of their revised contract, Marcella didn't feel any need to hold back her opinion. Ves got the sense that Marcella deliberately sang praises to make a better impression. It glossed over the fact that a mech broker like her more often posed as a ruthless shark.

They made small-talk while the testing grounds conveyed the prototype. Fifteen minutes later, the early version of the Blackbeak stood at the center of the testing chamber.

Everyone dropped their conversation and stared at its alluringly sinister frame in shock. His hand-crafted models always had that effect on those who saw his products for the first time, but even Marcella dropped her metaphorical jaw.

Eventually, she laughed. "When I heard you finally started working on your first original design, I didn't expect a monster! This is one of the most impressive designs I've ever seen, appearance wise alone! I'm tempted to sign the new contract right now!"

The testing grounds proceeded with their first tests once a test pilot boarded the Blackbeak's cockpit.

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The mech pilot proceeded to tread carefully in activating the mech. Ves noticed plenty of bots hovering at the sides of the chamber. They carried a number of emergency equipment such as fire suppressants and isolation materials should his mech start to malfunction.

Fortunately, the Blackbeak turned online as smooth as flowing water. The testing chamber's sensors and the diagnostics conveyed by the mech's internals conveyed no red flags. For now.

"All systems look green! Minor deviances have been reported with the power reactor. They are well within tolerances!"

Ves had a lot of confidence nothing would go wrong at the start. He meticulously checked the quality of his own work as he assembled it piece by piece. Still, he felt excited to see his hard work pay off by delivering a near-flawless performance.

The testing grounds performed a rigorous amount of testing in the empty chamber. The test pilot started making simple but meaningful moves. This could be something as simple as leaning forward or backwards, or as complex as balancing on one leg while extending out the remaining limbs.

That last move caused Ves to wince. The Blackbeak's leg had not been rated to handle all of that weight for long stretches of time. Still, his mech performed like a champ, taking the escalating levels of stress in stride. By the time the mech ran at full sprint while swinging its sword and shield back and forth, Ves relaxed enough to chat with the people from the testing ground.

"How large is the testing ground?"

"Oh, we have over twenty testing chambers and more than forty outdoor grounds and obstacle courses. Many of them are duplicates as we are constantly testing new designs. Our state-of-the-art equipment and galaxy-leading methodologies is praised by everyone in Bentheim. We frequently receive the most confidential test models from various famous Journeyman Mech Designers."

Interspersed between the somewhat exaggerated marketing speech, the people of the testing grounds revealed a genuine passion of getting their hands on the latest toys in the Republic first. The truly prestigious mech designers sometimes sent out a batch of half-a-dozen mechs for the testing grounds to wreck while gathering as much data as possible.

"You guys must be wrecking a lot of mechs!"

"Oh, it's not that bad. Any destruction is always carefully controlled in a way the remnants can be fully salvaged."

Once they finished the basic tests, the testing grounds moved the prototype to a second chamber. This one contained various mech-sized dummies and obstacles for the Blackbeak to sink its teeth in. Ves even recognized some cheap exotic alloys that must have been salvaged and reforged a couple of hundred times.

The mech pilot slowly moved to attack a basic target made out of wood. The flimsy material split like paper, hardly putting up an obstacle against the alloys built into the sword.

That soon changed as the pilot started swinging the sword against a progression of increasingly formidable materials. Ves sighed in relief once they went through the final plate of armor, which mimicked the toughness of a medium knight's chest armor.

"The sword has largely held up."

Certainly, it wouldn't be a good sword if it became chipped or blunted after tearing through the armor of a couple of mechs. Still, even the strongest swords could snap like a twig if wielded by an incompetent pilot.

The testing grounds spent the next ten days subjecting the prototype to a variety of conditions.

They ran the mech through an obstacle course until it ran out of fuel.

They subjected it to a hellishly hot chamber before dropping the temperature to below freezing point.

They overloaded the internals to see how much mileage the prototype could extract out of that extra power, but they quickly had to halt their attempts. The mech reached the point of irreversible damage too rapidly to continue this particular test.

Most of the time, the tests consisted of hour-long sojourns into waiting for a component to reach its breaking point. The testing grounds left the more destructive tests at the very end, where they finally placed the mech in front of a couple of turrets and fired at it with sadistic glee.

"The toughness of your mech's exterior is really good!" The same duty manager praised. "What a great armor system! Its compartmentalization isn't too shabby as well."

"The Blackbeak is still a knight. It's designed to take a beating."

The one thing they couldn't test was how easy they could repair it back to full. Ves lacked the time to go through such a round and the testing ground demanded a substantial price for such a service.

During his ten-day stay at the testing grounds, he found it remarkable how far they went to keep their confidentiality.

The same crop of testing personnel manned to consoles and performed the testing. The various testing facilities had been carefully screened, and even the outdoor grounds had been fenced in by obscuring electric screens.

Alongside isolation, the testing grounds also employed a mix of active security that actively swept the grounds for spying devices and unwanted visitors. Considering the clout of their regular customers, such precautions were definitely needed!

"I must say, it's a pleasure to test your first original mech!" The representative gushed as he accompanied Ves to the shuttle pad. "Yours is one of the most aesthetically pleasing debut designs I've ever had the pleasure of seeing on our grounds!"

"Thanks for letting me witness the entire process. It always hurts to see your own creation get hurt, but I've learned just as much from my observations as I've had from the data you've compiled."

"It's our pleasure to serve you. We don't often see mech designers possess as much passion for the craft as you, to the point where you've stuck with us for the entire ten-day stretch!"

That inadvertently told Ves a lot about how the well-to-do mech designers treated their own creations. He gently shook his head. How far would he go before he started to treat his mechs as commodities as well?

"Well, I'm very satisfied with your services." Ves thanked the representative as he reached his shuttle. "I'll think about bringing my next designs to you whenever I come up with something new!"

"You're welcome, Mr. Larkinson. The APMTG always stands ready to find the limits of your mechs!"

While the pieces of the prototype would be shipped back to Cloudy Curtain, Ves had to make one more stop. Marcella left after the first couple of hours since the testing began, but she regularly kept tabs on the results by remote. By now, she must have gathered enough data to prove that the Blackbeak was a solid design.

"It's too bad your Blackbeak doesn't perform that well in certain extreme conditions." Jake commented to him. "Knights have always shown historically poor performance in hot and vacuum environments, but your model is particularly bad at it. That may not be a problem in the Republic's market, but it will be greater hindrance should you decide to publish it beyond our borders."

"I'm not considering any expansions beyond the border at this point. Even if I do, I'll likely develop a cold-weather variant instead."

"Don't go overboard on developing variants for your own products. If there's a viable need, other mech designers will license your design."

"That sounds fairly unlikely." Ves replied. "I'm merely an Apprentice Mech Designer, and my design is being published at the tail end of the current generation."

"True. Most mech designers have already given up on the current generation and are waiting for the next one to arrive."

They had a fascinating discussion about what mech designers did to stay in business during these trying times. The more established entrepreneurs could easily sit back and rely on their existing catalog to generate a steady income. Newcomers had it more difficult.

Once they arrived at Marcella's brokerage, they went up to her office where she awaited his arrival. "Ves, please take a seat. We have important decisions to make."

"So what did you think about my prototype?" Ves asked as he dropped Lucky to the floor to run around while he took the center seat. Jake took the seat next to him and brought up a data pad that displayed the revised contract their negotiators hammered out.

"I have to admit, I'm impressed." The mech broker said. "I didn't think you'd be able to exceed the quality of your most recent products. Out of all of the products I've worked with, none possess as much magic as yours."

"Don't forget about its performance. I've worked hard and risked my life to acquire a set of high-quality component licenses. My mech's performance is on par with other currentgen models that are priced around 60 million credits."

"One could argue that Michael Dumont's latest model is a much better bang for your buck."

"The Havalax won't last as long as the Blackbeak when all hell breaks loose."

"It will take years before that becomes evident."

"Well, that's what marketing is for, right?" Ves pointed out. "I'm sure the benefits of my model will become clear as long as we put out the right message."

After some small-talk, they moved on to the revised contract. Ves skimmed over the clauses and found nothing that stood out to him, though he only understood half of the terms.

Meanwhile, Marcella clasped her hands and added a last-minute request. "I've been thinking about the cooperation we had so far and what we can achieve in the future. I think you have promise, Ves."

"What are you getting at?" Ves looked at his mech broker with a guarded expression.

"I'd like to take a personal stake in your business. Say, five percent of the LMC's shares."

Ves dropped the data pad containing the contract. Even Jake looked taken aback at this sudden demand.

"I'm sorry, Marcella, but I'm not short on cash right now."

"Hear me out, Ves. The current contract states that we'll be working together for at least twenty years. A lot of things can happen during that time, especially considering the Republic will be having their generational spat with the Kingdom. Times may become difficult for us, and that's why we need to forge a stronger bond."

Jake didn't refuse the suggestion out of hand. He looked intrigued and asked a pertinent question. "What are you prepared to offer in exchange for a five percent stake?"

"It's difficult to determine the LMC's current market cap. You're keeping your books close to your chests." She explained. "However, I have my sources, and I've also made a projection of your company's future earnings. I think it's fair to offer around 1.3 billion credits."

"That's a lot of money." Ves immediately replied, but he also revealed his misgivings. "But that doesn't sound enough. My growth is extremely fast compared to my competitors. Ten years from now, the LMC will be a completely different animal."

"Aren't you a little too optimistic? You've never lived through the last war, and from what everyone tells me, the upcoming one will be even more destructive. I'm also on the hook if a disaster falls upon your workshop."

They negotiated back and forth. Ves truly believed his company had a brighter future than the value that Marcella ascribed to it. Meanwhile, his mech broker believed that Ves severely underestimated the challenges his company was about to face in the next ten years.

Eventually, Marcella switched up her offer and decided to pledge 1.9 billion credits worth of marketing activities in exchange for a five percent stake and a seat at the board.

"Don't underestimate the value of marketing. It's essential to sustain your company's rapid growth phase. As your catalog and production capacity grows, you'll need to develop other channels to sell your mechs."

Jake made a subtle indication to Ves. His COO thought that Marcella offered a decent amount of value for what she asked. Ves let go of some of his misgivings. Still, the question remained whether he should issue stock or sell the ones he already had in hand?

"The Larkinson Estate won't agree with the decision to issue new stock." He responded. Before he joined the LMC, he used to be a retainer for the Larkinsons. He still acted as their proxy in a way. "Issuing new stock will dilute their ownership of the company below twenty-five percent. That's not in their interest."

In the end, Ves had to part with his own shares, reducing his ownership of the LMC from seventy-five percent to seventy percent. They slowly went through the paperwork and signed all the contracts. At the end of the day, the LMC welcomed another shareholder to the fold.

Ves rubbed his tired face. "I don't know if I made the right choice or not, but welcome to the fold. I hope you can help us grow into a fixture of the Republic."

The new agreement entailed significant changes in their cooperation. For better of worse, both of their fates became intertwined with the success of the LMC.

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The wrecked state of the prototype diminished its value immensely. Ves decided to scrap the pieces outright in order to recover as much exotics as possible and ship them back to his workshop.

With most of the company's envoys remaining on Bentheim to take care of business, Ves, Jake and his usual entourage decided to race back to Cloudy Curtain aboard the Barracuda. Without the shackles of a slow and lumbering convoy, the swift and agile corvette reached Cloudy Curtain in roughly a day.

Ves hardly wasted any time by returning to his office. The Blackbeak's ten-day crucible revealed a lot about its limits. "The simulations haven't been that far off."

The differences between the virtual models and the realspace testing didn't amount to much, but the details mattered. In particular, the testing revealed that the Blackbeak could use some improvements in terms of heat management and armor coverage.

"My mech runs too hot the longer it keeps running. It's not venting heat fast enough. The joints are also rather vulnerable."

Defensive knights featured very thick armor around their joints, making it difficult to exploit them as weak points. The Blackbeak demanded a certain level of mobility however, which limited the amount of armor Ves could put around its knees and elbows.

The testing grounds revealed that the joint armor degraded a little too quickly. The Veltrex armor system performed well below standards if Ves thinned its three layers beyond the minimum threshold.

Both problems demanded Ves to make a couple of unpalatable compromises. Solving the heat issues entailed incorporating more active heat emission elements, which took up valuable space. Increasing the armor around the joints meant that the Blackbeak lost a substantial amount of flexibility.

Could he plug both gaps while retaining the Blackbeak's current level of performance?

Ves crunched his head over the problems, but came up with nothing. He decided to consult the imaginary existence roosting in his mind. "C'mon, black phoenix, show me an idea."

The image hardly stirred. It didn't possess any intrinsic knowledge about mech design to suggest any solutions to the problems he faced. Ves had to solve the issue on his own.

He decided to punt on the problems and address the minor problems first. Ves corrected various minor shortcomings about his design by minutely shifting the placements of some components. It only took a couple of hours to enact all the changes, but Ves took three entire days to confirm they didn't result in any adverse consequences.

By that time, Ves made a decision about his design. "My mech is meant to stay on the field for long stretches of time. Both heat management and joint coverage are essential to extending the Blackbeak's operational time."

Though it hurt him a lot, he decided to cut into the Blackbeak's design in order to make room for further improvements. He made room by expanding its exterior to make room for a couple of heatsinks and some heat shunting mechanisms. He also clad the joints in thicker layers of interlocking plates.

Both changes profoundly affected the performance of his design. They also turned it into a slightly different beast, which forced Ves to rerun all of his virtual tests in order to insure he hadn't introduced any new flaws. This stretched on for two weeks.

The deadline to submit his new design to the MTA was only days away. Carlos knocked on his door and entered it when Ves signalled he could come in. Ves looked fairly haggard right now.

"I just came to tell you that our time is running out. You spent enough time on your design. I know you feel like you can always do more, but that's not how the industry works. Don't be like those perfectionists who spend decades on a single design."

Ves snapped out of his obsessive gaze towards his design. "You're right. I doubt I can squeeze more performance out of this design. It's time to wrap it all up."

Compared to the prototype, the latest version of the Blackbeak looked more robust. Its slightly expanded frame and substantial joint coverage slowed down the knight, shifting it away from the fighting style of a skirmisher. In exchange, Ves plugged some of its weak points and slightly increased its capacity to absorb damage.

He found it hard to tell whether his design actually improved, but at least he made it a little more rounded. Strengthening the joint armor closed a potential loophole that knowledgeable opponents could exploit with contemptuous ease. Now they had to work a little harder to cripple his knight.

The closer his design reached completion, the more the black phoenix stirred. When Ves added the logo of the LMC on the upper left chest of his mech, the bird practically screeched with impatience.

"Not yet." He whispered, trying hard to contain his image inside his head. "There's still something missing."

Despite the wholesomeness of his design, Ves felt as if it lacked a final touch. "There's a line between a fine mech and a great mech."

All of the compromises he made had turned the Blackbeak into a fine mech. His extensive use of modeling gave him confidence that all of the major kinks had been worked out. His design shouldn't carry any major flaws.

Yet that didn't seem enough.

Ves paused for over thirty minutes over this road block. No matter how much he flexed his mind, he couldn't figure out why his design was still not complete.

He decided to step out and ask for the opinions of others. He first showed off a small projection to Lucky.

"What do you think, buddy? Is it a good mech?"

"Meow!" His cat batted the projection away.

"Okay, then."

He entered the workshop floor next and gathered Cyril and Carlos. The two supervisors hummed over the Blackbeak with serious expressions in their minds.

"It's larger than the previous version." Carlos stated. "The initial design looked graceful. That's not quite the case anymore with this newer version. It looks fatter somehow."

"It looks less like a light mech and more like a medium mech." Chief Cyril added. "Thin mechs look pretty, but they don't tend to last too long in the field. Your design looks perfectly suitable to rough it out."

They supplied some comments but didn't mention anything too pertinent. Ves took his design to the rest of the mech technicians who had even less of an idea of what might be wrong.

Carlos shook his head. "Really Ves, you're obsessing too much again. I know it's important to get your first design right, but it's already a great mech. Let it go, man."

"I'll regret it if I stop at this point." He replied and shut off the projection. "I know I can do something to make it even better."

No one could help him identify the problem, he realized. Even his closest friends never understood his design philosophy. They only saw the surface of his design.

Ves left his workshop and stepped outside. He looked up at the perpetual cloudy skies and noted the subtle rainbow colors reflecting off their puffy surfaces.

It took only a minute to figure it out. "Sentiment."

He often liked to disparage other mech designers as producers of soulless objects. Yet many mech designers injected their designs with sentiment and personal feeling. The Larkinson ancestor's Valiant struck the strongest impression in his mind. The iconic mech was a piece of living history that was capable of telling an interesting tale from its appearance alone.

What kind of story did the Blackbeak convey? Why did he opt for an offensive knight, and why did it end up with a sinister aura?

His memories cast back to the start of his career.

Arriving at his workshop with a mountain of debt hanging over his head.

Designing his first virtual mech out of two badly matched elements.

Participating in the YTE and reaching the finals with the help of Charlotte.

Developing and producing the Marc Antony Mark I, his very first production model.

Journeying to Leemar and partnering up with Cadet Lovejoy to become one of the finalists of the Open Competition.

Transitioning from Novice to Apprentice, acquiring the tutelage and patronage of a venerated Master Mech Designer.

Improving the design of the original Marc Antony that resulted in the much-improved Mark II, which provided a steady amount of income to Ves.

Founding the Living Mech Corporation, thereby establishing himself as an entrepreneur as well as a mech designer.

Taking part in Lord Kaine's treacherous expedition to Groening IV, harvesting both benefits and misfortune, only to escape by the skin of teeth.

Returning home, spending his newfound wealth in merits and credits, and laying the groundwork for his first original mech.

"The Blackbeak is the culmination of my personal journey up to this point." He whispered to skies.

Even if he didn't mean to, his design had been shaped by his past experiences. The Blackbeak, for all its beauty and darkness, exposed a portion that lay hidden beneath his heart.

"What does this tell me?"

The Blackbeak represented a subversion of the standard doctrine of employing knights as defensive bulwarks. He emphasized this design choice by applying a predominantly black coating.

The Blackbeak represented his response to the darkness of the galaxy. It had already swallowed up his father and threatened to grasp Ves in its clutches. To fight back, he had to bend the rules as well, using something as unconventional as the System to get a head-start.

He also developed the Blackbeak as a poignant response to the Caesar Augustus. The old lastgen design served as the debut of Jason Kozlowski. Perhaps Ves wanted to avoid the famous business scion's lack of success by trying to convey the opposite mood.

It also expressed his opinion that the next war would be won by survivors instead of heroes. No one knew the depths at which both sides could sink a couple of years from now. In these murky times, you had to think outside the box if you wanted to thrive.

"My mastery has something to do with this as well."

His brief but unforgettable journey into Barley's mind provided him with an essential understanding of a pilot of knights. Even if the Blackbeak looked as if it couldn't be trusted, it still possessed a bone of unyielding will. It could still be relied on to act as a defender if needed.

"I understand now. The Blackbeak is something that I had always wanted to pilot if I ever became a mech pilot."

Sadly, his genetic aptitude ruled out any possibility of piloting his own mechs. Only the seemingly omnipotent System might offer a way, but Ves never looked up the option. He had a feeling the price was much more than he could bear.

The momentary break helped him reflect upon his work and figure out what he missed. Once he finished his contemplation, he calmly went inside and returned to his office. He summoned up his projection and zoomed in on the cockpit.

The interior offered fairly luxurious furnishings for a cockpit. Ves spent a decent amount of time in prettying up the interior and making it more comfortable for pilots in it for the long haul.

He also added reliefs of the black phoenix. The different carvings conveyed a made-up story about the phoenix's origins and its eventual transformation into a black phoenix.

As a final touch, Ves didn't think of changing the functional design of his mech. He merely wanted to add his personal signature to his work. One could argue that the label underneath the front console already sufficed, but Ves thought he needed to add a deeper meaning to his design.

A weight imposed on his mind, pushing him towards monumental decision. "You're the Blackbeak, but that's more of a name for a design."

If Ves considered his creations to be alive, then they deserved an intimate name that they could call their own. He felt like a father who was about to bestow a name to his recently born child.

With a couple of controls, Ves engraved the name of his design at the top of the interior of the cockpit.

"Your name is Akhran."

Ves let go of the reins of the image clamoring in his mind. The black phoenix screeched triumphantly as it escaped from the prison of its progenitor's mind and dove into the Blackbeak's intangible domain.

Even though he only witnessed a projection, Ves had the illusion that his design felt more complete somehow. The Blackbeak exuded a sense of finality and solidity that had always been lacking from the prototype.

"Hahahaha!" He laughed, finally letting go of the tension that had been crushing over his shoulder. "It's finished! I'm finally done!"

His very first original design was ready to be submitted to the MTA. Assuming everything went well, he would finally be able to advance his career and make his mark as a designer of original mechs.

He looked forward to competing against his upstart rival. An air of bloodlust momentarily infected his mood.

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The completion of the Blackbeak resulted in a cleansing of the mind. Ves never realized the black phoenix's presence took up such a heavy toll on his mind. Its departure freed up space he never knew existed.

His design possessed a definite spiritual element. He could feel it in his sixth sense. It distinguished his design from the vast majority of other designs publically available for licensing. No one would be able to tell why his design drew the eye, but it definitely possessed a seductive allure.

"It's pretty much a bad boy among designs."

The Blackbeak's appearance carried a dark mystique that made it a more natural fit among pirates and outcasts than upright mercenary circles. It was the kind of mech that appealed more to mech pilots with a lot of issues on their plate.

Even with these negative connotations, Ves still loved his design like it was his own child. In a certain sense, he indeed birthed it into this universe.

After Ves came off his high, he sighed and raised his comm before dropping it. Before he could get his evaluation from the System, he needed to fabricate a single copy of the final design. Taking such a step would leave a physical presence of his design.

"Onwards, then!"

He bounded out of his office and raced towards the workshop floor. The meandering mech technicians all looked up at his entry.

"Clear the production line!"

Everyone soon found out that the Blackbeak had been finished. The mech technicians wrapped up their projects and hauled every piece of junk to the side. They were about to witness the fabrication of the first production model, something that carried a lot more weight than the production of the prototype.

"Can we help?" Carlos asked. "We practiced on the prototype's design for several weeks. We're beginning to get the hang of it. The armor plates are still giving us a lot of trouble, but we can easily take care of the generic components."

Ves shook his head. "Not this time. It's not that I don't trust you, but my first production model is going to be submitted to the MTA. I can't afford to risk any deviations from the design."

His extensive Assembly Skills made him the most proficient fabricator in the workshop by far. This actually indicated that his workshop lacked a senior fabricator that could take over for Ves in his absence.

Such figures usually consisted of older mech designers who gave up on pursuing a career in design. Their background in mech design and their decades-long experience in fabrication entitled them to fantastic conditions. They easily earned millions of credits a year at some medium mech manufacturers.

Right now, Ves displayed the same amount of skill of a senior fabricator in his own workshop. He deftly manipulated the interface of the Dortmund to churn out part after part. His prior experience with the prototype allowed him to avoid many of the pitfalls he stumbled into last time.

Ves designed the Blackbeak to be easy to fabricate. Besides the complicated armor system and the elaborate surface carvings, the mech embodied the rule that knights should be a simple mech to make.

He even detected a faint resonance between the Dortmund printer and his work. He faithfully reconstructed the impressive machine out of a variety of salvaged parts. He understood the machine and felt connected to it in a way that he would never have with an off-the-shelf device.

The more he understood his tools, the better he was able to exert control over the process.

Even the armor forging proceeded with little incident. Once he got the hang of it once, he could reproduce the same steps in his sleep. The differences between the first version and second version of his design didn't lead to major shifts in paradigms, so he applied the same solutions as last time.

The Blackbeak's first production model slowly came together. Each bolt and plate had been made with loving care, as Ves channeled his full focus into making the most wholesome representation of his design into a physical presence in this reality.

The final step consisted of mounting a custom gem inside the cockpit. Like the Mark II, Ves turned the start button into a placeholder for a gemstone. He carefully opened a pouch and selected a pre-prepared gem that Lucky once produced some time ago.

[Black Diamond of the Night]

Increases the speed and armor of a mech by 10% at low light levels.

The dark diamond featured a compelling glint that matched the Blackbeak's mystique. While he didn't think his customers would employ his mech at night, it might provide a surprising result.

"Well, it's not quite certain my first production model will even see combat."

The mech market placed a lot of value on special or unique mechs. The abundant amount of money he harvested from the Vintage Festival was a case in point. Wealthy collectors constantly kept their eye out on mechs with noteworthy providence.

It remained to be seen whether the first production model became a rarity. It derived its value from the overall success of its design. The more copies he sold, the more collectors desired to obtain the initial copy he completed just now.

After completing his mech, Ves gathered everyone at work and invited them to gaze at the brand new model.

Jake whistled in appreciation at the sight. "I don't know how you did it, but your first production model is even more hypnotic than the prototype. I'm only worried that the market might not be able to stomach it. Those who get a glimpse of your mech from a projection won't be able to experience its intensity."

Much like artwork, a recording or a projection wouldn't be able to convey more than a tenth of the intangible properties of his hand-crafted work. His virtual models should have deserved more appreciation, but because of the limitations in simulation technology, his customers only experience a pale imitation of his original intentions.

"That's the nature of our business. We just have to work with what we have."

Ves spent the final day wrapping up his documentation. He already sent more than enough proof that he worked on his design alone, but it didn't hurt to send additional documents. He mainly paid attention to justifying his design choices. It gave the judges from the MTA a glimpse in his mind.

He also assigned the Blackbeak design a model number. Every mech designer adhered to their own rules with regards to these codes. Ves kept it relatively simple in order to keep track of his growing catalog of designs.

BP-A-01 stood for Black Phoenix, Arkhan, first published edition.

If Ves wanted to update the design, he'd change the code for the Mark II version to BP-A-02. If he wanted to design an aerial variant, the code changed into something like BP-S-01. In short, every update or variant using the Blackbeak as a base began with BP.

While he tidied up his project files, he also sneaked in some time with the System and submitted his design to its discerning gaze. The program spat out its evaluation of the Blackbeak almost instantly.

[Design Evaluation: Blackbeak BP-A-01]

Model name: Blackbeak BP-A-01

Original Manufacturer: Ves Larkinson

Weight Classification: Medium

Recommended Role: Offensive Knight

Armor: A-

Carrying Capacity: B-

Aesthetics: A

Endurance: A

Energy Efficiency: B-

Flexibility: C-

Firepower: D

Integrity: A-

Mobility: C

Spotting: E

X-Factor: C

Cost efficiency: C

Project involvement: 100%

Original component composition: 7%

Overall evaluation: The Blackbeak is a remarkable third-class offensive knight design that excels in lengthy conflicts. Its unusual balance between armor and design enables pilots to employ it in a variety of circumstances with abundant flexibility. However, its lack of notable strengths also demands a high level of skill and judgement to pilot the Blackbeak to its full potential.

[You have received 1000 Design Points for completing an original design that has no other equivalent.]

[You have received 500 Design Points for designing a mech with a moderate presence of X-Factor.]

"Damn it! I got so far and I still haven't broken through my previous record!"

His X-Factor score showed that he had reached the extreme end of the C range, yet it didn't enter into B territory. Ves felt a little bitter about that. Even though the growth element incorporated into the design should strengthen its X-Factor over time, it wouldn't be able to show off its potential at the time of purchase.

The System's lack of fanfare around his first original design felt a little off. It treated the Blackbeak the same as the temporary designs he slapped together during competitions. This should have been a major milestone for him. He at least expected a present or something.

"Can't you say anything nice for once, System?"

[User, keep working hard on developing your ability to design mechs. You are on the right track!]

Ves threw up his hands. "Whatever."

He forgot about the System and turned to his timetable. His administration already prepared the submission procedure. He only had to hand over his first production model along with some hard copy documents to the MTA to begin the validation process.

The validation process was mainly a souped up certification process where his design and his physical copy would be judged according to a very strict standard. Once his design passed muster, Ves gained the right to exploit the design through MTA channels.

Some mech designers skipped the entire process. This was mostly the case with more renowned designers or those who worked for powerful entities like the governments of second-rate states.

Submitting a design to the MTA entailed revealing all of its strengths and weaknesses to one of the largest powers in the galaxy. For designs meant to turn the tide in a war, such a massive exposure could spell defeat for the design, so under these circumstances, the MTA never got to peek at their inner workings.

Quite obviously, Ves hadn't reached that point yet. In order to convince his customers to purchase his mechs, he needed to make its details more accessible. Ves even planned to add the Blackbeak's design to Iron Spirit in order to let the public get a taste of its wonders.

The design phase formally ended when they loaded up the design aboard a secure transport arranged by Sanyal-Ablin. The security company would send it over to the MTA's branch in Bentheim as soon as the next convoy left from Cloudy Curtain. Ves didn't have to be present at the MTA unless they called for him, so he remained home this time.

Ves sank into his sofa at the lounge with a tired sigh. "It's finally done!"

"I'm curious." Raella drawled as she sipped on a drink. She recently finished a routine patrol in her Vectrix. "When will you develop a skirmisher variant?"

"The Blackbeak isn't a good platform to develop lighter mechs." He replied, not even giving it a serious thought. "It's a bit difficult but not impossible to develop a rifleman mech out of the base model, but I'm better off designing a dedicated skirmisher from scratch."

"Oh. I guess you won't be giving me a new mech any time soon then."

"Don't feel too bad for yourself. While I'm attracted to the idea of designing a rifleman mech, I'm not sure I'll be up to the task."

"What's holding you back? I thought you knew a thing or two about laser weapons."

That was an understatement considering that Ves even knew how to build a graser rifle.

"The weapon isn't the problem. It's the musculature that's an issue. Rifleman pilots demand exact control over the movements of their mechs. I haven't taken these priorities into account when I designed the Blackbeak. So again, it's better for me to come up with a new design than try to pigeonhole a knight into a rifleman."

All of this went over Raella's head. She quickly got bored of the topic and finished her drink. She threw away the container, which a spare cleaning bot deftly caught in the air before it could soil the floor.

"Hey Ves, I'd like to ask you something."

"What's up?"

"I'd like to take a few days off. Nothing happens in this boring dump anyway and all of those spooky assassins seem to have disappeared into nothing. So I'd like to take a trip to Bentheim to have some actual fun."

Ves frowned at that. "I'm not too comfortable seeing you go out alone. Besides, we just visited Bentheim a short time ago."

"That was for business, not for fun. The only thing I did was sit in my mech all day waiting for someone stupid enough to piss me off. Just let me go, please. Besides, I won't be alone."

"Is Melkor asking for leave as well?"

"Nah, he's a straight shooter who can stand guard at the same post for years on end if needed." Raella shook her head. "I already made some plans with someone else. You see, I'm kind of dating Dietrich right now…"

Ves sat up straight at those words. "What?!"

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He eyed his cousin like she was an alien. "You're dating the Little Boss? He's not a very good influence! I thought you hated lowlives like him!"

Raella held up her palms in a defensive manner. "Hey, he's cool once you get to know him! He's a great mech pilot and not like a country bumpkin at all, unlike most boys I've met on this farm planet."

Ves was not in a mood to play the parent, but he didn't want to leave it at that. Relationships with junior gang bosses had a tendency to entangle everyone close into a morass of intimidation and violence.

"I don't think the family will be glad to hear that. You know how they can get sometimes. We have a reputation to uphold!"

"Screw reputation! The Larkinsons will keep being the squeaky-clean military dynasty without me then!"

The argument devolved into a mindless back-and-forth that didn't resolve anything. Ves gave up on convincing Raella, since he obviously couldn't control her movements. "Look, if you want to go out with Dietrich, then go ahead, but please don't go off and join Walter's Whalers."

"Hey, I'm not that stupid. It's just a fling, man. Don't look at me like I'm off to elope with him! Sheesh!" Raella flipped her purple-dyed hair and scampered off.

He didn't know what to do. While he liked Dietrich as a person, one day he'd be sure to inherit his father's mantle. The buddy he knew may turn into someone he wouldn't be able to recognize anymore.

"Everyone changes over time."

After taking the rest of the day off, Ves returned to work in order to prepare for his upcoming debut. His company had already prepared for his public debut for months, having contacted various news portals and noteworthy experts to attend his press conference.

Every important manager in the company gathered in the conference room to report their preparations to Ves.

"Around twenty different publications accepted the invitation to attend Michael Dumont's debut." Gavin started to report. "Our goal is to surpass that number. However, the marketing department has found out that it's very difficult to get them to send out their reporters unless we cut some deals with them. Their demands range from exclusive interviews to free mechs. Some publications even demand we hand over the first production model to them!"

Ves was not amused. "I hope you refused those ridiculous demands."

"We put them down as gently as possible. With the help of Marcella's connections, we managed to secure the presence of at least fifteen different news portals and mech portals. They're regional names, mostly. You won't find any publication on the level of the Rimward Star Herald."

"They interviewed me last time. Did you send them an invite?"

"We did, but we only received a plain refusal. If I have to guess, they have bigger things on their plate than to cover some random Apprentice Mech Designer's debut. Thousands of mech designers around the rim are holding their debuts every day. It's too much to keep up with unless you already accumulated some fame like those direct disciples."

Frankly, Ves thought the RSH was making a big mistake, as his Blackbeak possessed a lot of noteworthy qualities for a third-class design.

"So do we have to spend more to get more publications to attend my press conference?"

"That's basically what it boils down to, boss. The reporters have to make a living too, you know. Don't think for a second that an independent news portal exists. We either cough up the dough or resign ourselves to parading your new design to a collection of smaller news portals."

"I've set a tentative marketing budget of 100 million credits. Can you cover the costs from that budget or do we need to shift more money around?"

Gavin fell into silence as he weighed the costs against the benefits. "It's only worth it to pay off the greedy publications if they have the audience to back up their big mouths. Not all of them have the viewership to support their boasts."

"I'm sure you can sort that out. Let's move on to marketing the Blackbeak. Fill me in on the plan."

His publicist turned marketing manager pressed a switch that called up a projection of the timetable. "The Blackbeak is a very compelling design, especially when you see it in person. The goal of our marketing push is to introduce the Blackbeak to public and rely on word of mouth to propagate its existence, hoping to stir up demand in the private market. Our plan is split into three phases."

Gavin briefly explained what the marketing people had come up with to make the Blackbeak famous.

His debut came first. The LMC would carefully keep the Blackbeak under wraps and avoid leaking out its appearance, its specs or its defining properties.

All the press would get to know for now was that Ves planned to announce a new offensive knight as his first original design. The marketing department wanted to rely on the wow factor to ignite the first round of buzz among the press.

The second phase consisted of fabricating ten gold-label Blackbeaks and display them in public at various locations around Bentheim. Their enthralling appearances should be able to elicit a lot of curiosity from the crowd.

"Wait a minute." Ves interrupted. "The plan sounds fine, but fabricating ten models without receiving compensation will drain my entire cash reserve. Does anyone know how much it costs to fabricate a single copy of the Blackbeak?"

Someone dug up the latest figures. "It costs 41 million credits for us to fabricate a single mech. The internals take up 13 million credits in raw materials, while the armor system requires 26 million credits worth of exotics to construct. The remaining 2 million credits consists of per-unit licensing fees to various companies who developed the components the Blackbeak is using."

Compared to the Caesar Augustus, the Blackbeak cost much less to produce, even with the recent level of price surges. It all had to do with his smart selection of components. Ves specifically licensed components that incorporated materials that the Republic could supply themselves.

The LMC didn't have to rely on expensive imports from distant star sectors to produce a single mech. That was one of the biggest advantages of designing your own mech.

Ves knew of the power of the X-Factor. Even with a rating of C, the physical copy exuded a magnetic pull that definitely halted traffic. Still, he sounded a little skeptical about its reach.

"Ten models won't be enough to cover the entirety of Bentheim, or even Dorum alone."

"We don't hold any ambitions to reach the entire public. We only want to feed the hype surrounding the Blackbeak. Once people start to see it on the streets, they'll take recordings from their comms and send it to their friends and relatives."

The third phase began after that. Once the marketing department thought they created enough of a buzz, they planned to release the virtual version of the Blackbeak onto the simulation games. Iron Spirit stood out the most, of course, but Gavin also suggested making it available to non-potentate games so that laymen could get a taste of the offensive knight as well.

"Even if they're never able to pilot our products themselves, they might recommend our product to someone with the right aptitude."

This virtual release would be paired by a fairly extensive advertising campaign. Most of the marketing budget had been allocated to this phase. Working together with Marcella's brokerage, they aimed to make the Blackbeak into a momentary sensation.

"In the short term, we can rely on advertising to drive our product's appeal. We don't plan to keep this up for more than a month. After that, we can hopefully rely on positive word of mouth from our first customers to drive up demand. If not, we can always spend more."

The plan sounded risky, but Ves understood their intentions. He only had one major problem with the plan. "We don't have the liquidity to produce ten models at the snap of our fingers."

The LMC generated a decent amount of revenue in the last few months, but their overhead also increased. At their current state, they'd come up short if they wanted to buy enough raw materials to fabricate ten complete models.

"Why not ask Mrs. Bollinger to lend us the money?" Their relations officer suggested. Maisie Duval had been very busy keeping their various stakeholders in touch. "She already agreed to pledge 1.9 billion credits in marketing assistance, so she won't hesitate to advance the necessary funds."

"That's a good idea! Contact her immediately after this meeting. She'll be in charge of selling those mechs anyway, so it's not like the money is lost forever."

Like the first production model, the couple of mechs after that also held a lot of collector's value. With her salesmanship, Marcella should be able to sell the first production run at extortionary prices.

The rest of the meeting turned to logistics. Duval worked hard to establish a temporary but stable channel of exotics they needed to fabricate the Veltrex armor system. This insured that they wouldn't be subjected to sudden supply cuts if they ramped up their production in the short term.

"I'd like to emphasize that we haven't established any long-term relationships with our current suppliers."

"That's fine. As long as they don't jack up the price, we can afford to wait and wait for better offers."

After the meeting, Ves kept staring at the cost projections. All of these elaborate plans called for lots of spendings. Everyone was in an upbeat mood after witnessing the final design. They treated it as a given that the Blackbeak would sell like hotcakes.

Carlos noticed his friend lagging behind. "What's up?"

Ves didn't feel so confident, however. "Will the market accept my design?"

"This again? Ves, at your age, you're one of the most talented mech designers in the Republic! The Havalax designed by that douchebag Dumont doesn't even come close to the Blackbeak. Besides, even if the market doesn't catch on yet, that's what all the marketing is for. As long as you throw enough money at it, even the ugliest piece of junk can become a bestseller."

That was easy for Carlos to say. He didn't risk hundreds of millions of credits on a potentially futile venture. Ves shook his head and left his seat. He had some more preparations to make.

Later that afternoon, Marcella agreed to send them a substantial advance. Combined with their existing cash reserves, they could easily afford the raw materials needed to fabricate ten Blackbeaks. After a few days wait, the shipment of materials arrived.

This time, Ves accepted the assistance of others, though Ves still took the lead. Their frantic production and constant learning shortened the time to fabricate a single copy from three days to two days.

They managed to fabricate five extra copies they could bring to the press conference. After the Blackbeak's official unveiling, Ves planned to leave the copies behind to be shown off on the streets while he returned to finish the production run before doing anything else.

As his workers packed up the mechs and sent them off to the convoy, Ves led a procession of senior management aboard the Barracuda. He planned to arrive at Bentheim ahead of the convoy shipments in order to prepare for his debut ceremony.

Melkor and Lucky would be joining his security detail as usual.

As for his niece, Ves constantly worried for her safety. Raella had already extended her 'few days off' into a weeks-long hiatus into the underbelly of Bentheim with her new boyfriend in tow. He prayed to the heavens that Dietrich didn't drag his excitable niece into something shady.

The Barracuda deftly transitioned into FTL. Ves constantly worried what could go wrong as the time of his debut neared.

Somehow, he didn't think Dumont would let him announce a competitor to his Havelax without a challenge.

"Dumont and the Ricklins have it out for me. If they're aware of my intentions from the start, then they should have already prepared a response."

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Someone rang the bell in front of the entrance to his stateroom aboard the Barracuda.

"Come in!" Ves called out.

The armored hatch slid open and let in Melkor. Wearing his trademark visor, his nephew's expression had always been hard to read.

"What brings you to my office, cousin? Is it about Raella?"

"Raella's a big girl now. She can take care of herself." Melkor waved away his concerns. "I'm here for you right now. I've been hearing that you aren't holding up so well these days. You're letting your nerves get the best of you."

Ves had to admit he fell into a hole of endless worry and consternation. He constantly came up with worst-case scenarios that threatened to ruin his debut and threaten his career.

"Don't you think mech pilots have it worse? Everytime we get deployed, we risk our deaths. Even those who man the security mechs assigned to routine patrols have to worry about madman trying to tear the whole place down. The galaxy isn't safe."

He understood Melkor's underlying message. How many Mark II's had the company sold all this time? Thirty? Fifty? More? Ves didn't keep track of his customers anymore, but he guessed that most of them employed them as warmechs.

The coming years of war would test his designs like nothing ever seen before. Not just the Mark II, but also the original Mark I could see a lot of combat. With the imminent introduction of the Blackbeak, Ves pushed even more mech pilots onto the battlefield with his creations.

His face adopted a rueful smile. "So many mech pilots will struggle to survive. Who am I to lament about falling flat on stage? It's not the end of the universe for me."

Even though a poor debut had a depressing effect on the rest of his career, as long as he worked hard enough, he could eventually redeem himself. Even Jason Kozlowski turned into a respectable mech designer nowadays despite having released the bloated Caesar Augustus.

The short talk woke Ves from his spiral of doubt and uncertainty. He thanked Melkor, who left once he did his job, and stood up from his seat to stare at a projection of the Blackbeak.

"I have all of the ingredients to succeed. I'll make sure you will get the recognition and use you deserve."

His sixth sense fluttered a bit, indicating that the black phoenix had been paying attention. Ves found it interesting how the black phoenix would evolve once more models began to proliferate.

The rules of the imaginary realm boggled his mind.

From what he guessed, a single black phoenix king ruled over the entire BP-A-01 line, while paler duplicates of the imaginary entity occupied the individual mechs.

These individual images possessed a growth element, so they grew over time, adapting to both their mech pilots and their shared experiences. This in turn fed back to the king of the mech line, allowing it to grow into an even more majestic creature that elevated the entire design to a higher level.

"It's going to require a lot of energy to accomplish such a thing, if something like that will happen at all." He suspected.

His inclusion of a growth element in his design had far-reaching effects that he didn't quite yet understood. His findings on the X-Factor only scratched the surface of what it could do.

The only downside was that it took a long time for the fruits to bear. Ves had to debut the Blackbeak when the design had only just broken out of its shell. He felt apologetic about that.

"Reality isn't always so perfect. I have to work with what I got."

He spent the rest of his journey preparing for the upcoming event. Through the galactic net, he coordinated with the marketing department on Cloudy Curtain and the envoys sent ahead to Bentheim. With the help of Marcella's brokerage, they secured a suitable venue to show off all six current production models at once.

"All of this is contingent upon the MTA approving the Blackbeak design for release." Gavin cautioned.

Ves knew his design. There was no way it could get rejected. "The Quality Assurance Department won't hold up our design. It's nowhere near those crappy designs that some of my competitors slap together in a couple of weeks. We specifically tested the limits of the prototype at the testing grounds to catch any remaining flaws that the MTA could use as an excuse to disqualify its design."

They did their due diligence. Some designers never even bothered to subject their mechs to any physical tests, thinking that the simulations would be lifelike enough to qualify.

When the Barracuda finally touched down at the spaceport, Ves met a representative from the MTA's QA Department. "Mr. Larkinson? We have a secure package for you."

A couple of security officers in MTA uniforms proceeded to confirm his identity. Once they made sure that he wasn't a body double, a robot, a clone or some brainwashed schmuck, the rep handed over a couple of fancy data pads.

As the people from the MTA boarded their shuttle and left, Ves glanced over pads with apprehension. Everyone else gathered around him to stare at the gilded pads. Their ceremonial appearance made it clear that their contents contained an official judgement from the QA Department.

"Open it up."

He activated the first pad. It took a few seconds for them to get a grip on the cover letter of the only document in the pad.

"...We are pleased to validate your submitted design, code name BP-A-01, as a battleworthy mech…"

"...Your submitted design exceeds the minimum standards of quality set forth by our Quality Assurance Department. It has been deemed worthy enough to be added to our archives…"

"...Your submitted design will be available for licensing as soon as it is commercially released. If your submitted design is not commercially exploited by any party, we will make your design available for licensing after one standard month…"

"...Our appraisers have determined the value of a standard ten-year production license of your submitted design to be 3 billion bright credits. If you wish to dispute this estimate, you are free to lodge a formal objection…"

"We did it!" Carlos yelled and raised his fist. "The MTA approved of our design!"

Everyone held a miniature celebration. The last roadblock ahead of its introduction to the market had been cleared. Even if Ves expected the MTA to give out their stamp of approval, even he didn't know for sure.

"The Blackbeak's license is worth only 3 billion credits." Ves sardonically said. "I don't know whether to feel glad or insulted. The license for the Havalax is worth 3 billion credits as well."

"Cheer up, Ves." Carlos clapped his back. "Even if they don't recognize your mech is better, at least it's in the same league."

Vees didn't think it likely that someone would license his design in the current generation. The huge sum mainly served as bragging rights.

For a third-class mech design, a valuation of 3 billion credits wasn't shabby at all. Ves sometimes heard of awful designs receiving a licensing value of only 500 million credits.

In that regard, he did quite well, though he heard of some geniuses managing to achieve a value of 4 billion credits.

"If I only had more time and better component licenses."

Now that the Blackbeak officially entered the records and became an MTA-approved design, their preparations entered a fever pitch. Ves shuttled back and forth between Marcella's brokerage and various offices in order to insure that nothing went wrong.

In the meantime, his back office continued to persuade more publications to come and cover the press conference without throwing too much money at them. That had proven to be quite a challenge.

Time passed in a blink, and the date of his debut had finally arrived. Ves woke up with all of his mental burdens gone. Somehow, he felt as if he already did his best.

After a short breakfast, Ves joined up with his entourage and left for the venue of his debut. They reserved an upscale exhibition hall in downtown Dorum that other mech designers frequently used to introduce new designs.

Beyond the palatial double doors, six gleaming Blackbeaks stood at a row behind the podium where Ves would make his speech.

"Wow."

Five of them stood just behind the first production model like an honor guard. All of their collective X-Factors resonated with each other to produce a remarkably strong aura that even took Ves aback.

Carlos whispered in appreciation. "With mechs like these, who's going to remember the Havalax?"

"Indeed."

Their view quickly cut off as a couple of bots covered the mechs with cloth. The bright white covers allowed spectators to get a glimpse of the silhouettes, which teased everyone's imaginations.

"Alright, folks! This is the big day! Let's make sure it happens without incident!"

Every preparation had already been made, but it didn't hurt to check. The exhibition room had been spruced up with banners featuring the LMC's iconic logo. Lucky meowed at the tall tapestries depicting a stylized version of himself longing atop a cartoonish cloud.

"That's you, buddy."

"Meow!"

His cat didn't seem so pleased at his appearance in the logo. Ves may have gone a little too far in making him appear cute and innocent.

"Oh come on, just look at that cute face of yours, with such big eyes you'll surely be a hit with the ladies!"

Lucky hissed and scampered off, not wanting to hear anymore nonsense from his owner. Ves merely shrugged his shoulders and went back to his final preparations. He already had a speech planned out which not only acknowledged his achievements, but also laid out a bold vision of the future.

Half an hour before the start of the conference, the first reporters arrived with a fanfare of hovering recorder bots. The reporters already staked their places before podium, hoping to occupy the best positions for their bots to transmit the press conference to their employers.

After that, security cleared a number of spectators. The LMC sent out a lot of invitations in the last couple of weeks. Those who decided to attend consisted mainly of industry insiders and previous customers.

Besides the expected guests, Ves also decided to open up his conference to bystanders. Plenty of people who walked by the exhibition hall must be wondering what all the commotion was all about.

This led to a fairly boisterous scene at the rear of the hall. Everyone pointed at the six covered mechs, hoping to get an early peak of what they hid underneath.

Time went by until it reached local noontime. Conversations faded out as Ves stepped forth onto the stage. Garbed in his anti-grav clothes, he cut a sharp figure as a mech designer.

"Welcome, everyone. Thank you for attending this press conference. Today, I will be introducing my first original design, a model which will revolutionize the way its pilots will be able to survive the coming battles!"

Ves waved his hand and a projection appeared of the LMC's logo. Lucky quietly meowed in objection at the back, but no one heard his complaints.

"Let me begin by introducing my company. Founded on the quiet planet of Cloudy Curtain, the LMC aims to elevate the sleepy rural planet's economy and bring more employment opportunities to its citizens. We already employ a substantial amount of mech technicians and office workers, and with the introduction of my upcoming design, I expect the company to expand even faster!"

The projection shifted to footage of a large number of decisive historical battles. They all featured a number of iconic mechs that enthusiasts could recognize in their sleep.

"You may be wondering what the LMC stands for. It's short for Living Mech Corporation. I named my company this way because I believe that mechs are more than machines. With all the love and passion surrounding mechs, we don't always appreciate their contribution to humanity."

He raised his hand, pausing the projection to a fateful clash between two top-tier cutting-edge mechs.

"Think about it. How many lives are depended upon mechs? The entire course of the galaxy is constantly shifting due to the tireless contribution of mechs of all shapes and colors. They deserve our appreciation, and the LMC is my way setting forth my principle that mechs can be alive as well!"

"That's a bold statement, Mr. Larkinson!" A reporter rudely interrupted his speech. "But we didn't come here to be lectured about mechs! We know our business, so can you please move on to your new design?!"

Ves maintained his smile before the cameras. The reporter happened to be representing The Republican Mech, one of the Bright Republic's most widely read news portals on mechs.

Instead of snapping back with a verbal quip, Ves snapped his fingers. The cloths clinging over the mechs suddenly moved away, revealing the Blackbeaks in their full splendor.

"Is this what you wanted to see?"

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No matter how many times Ves showed off his hand-crafted mechs, he never got tired of their dumbstruck faces. The snappy reporter from The Republican Mech practically dropped his jaw as he experienced the full brunt of their overlapping auras.

Nothing prepared his audience for this experience. Even those who witnessed his limited editions models at the Vintage Festival thought that Ves had could only achieve such results through herculean efforts.

The Blackbeak models right in front of them proved them wrong. Though they consisted of limited-issue gold label mechs, their powerful X-Factor exuded so much impact that even bots might fizzle out for a nanosecond or two.

"Impressed?" Ves asked the silent crowd. "This is just the start."

He snapped his fingers again, causing the mechs to come online. Their eyes glowed menacingly red while the feather-shaped shoulder pauldrons glowed in various shades of grey while leaking out a faint trace of dark vapor.

It took a lot of wrangling with the exhibition hall to pull off this stunt, but it had been worth it as the audience received a double whammy. Much like the rolling cape for the Marcus Aurelius, the miasma leaking off the Blackbeak drastically enhanced its visual presence.

The gloomy tones of black and grey made it look like the Blackbeak had emerged from the depths of the underworld to haunt the living in an inexorable march. The sword and shield affixed to their arms added an additional feeling of threat, and the phoenix-themed engravings on their surface only reinforced the myth.

"This is the Blackbeak BP-A-01, an offensive knight mech I've designed as the culmination of my experiences and insights into knights." Ves declared in front of the still-stunned crowd. His words served to pull them back from their fascination and hang onto his words. "It is a design that embodies the will to survive by any means possible!"

A new ensemble of projections appeared. They consisted of highly realistic combat simulations that showcased the Blackbeak's performance under a variety of conditions.

In one projection, the Blackbeak dueled against a swordsman mech. The latter mech had the edge in power and speed, but its sword failed to circumvent the Blackbeak's moon-shaped phoenix shield. The offensive knight grinded down the hapless swordsman mech over the course of a couple of minutes.

Another projection showed the Blackbeak as the forward element of a long-ranged deep-strike squad. They encountered a hostile patrol of defending mechs and became entangled in a fight. The Blackbeak showcased its defensive prowess by enduring a withering barrage of long-ranged fire with its shield and its armor. The Veltrex armor system held up long enough for the squad to gain a decisive edge.

Yet another scenario proved to be the most compelling. It showed a time-lapse of the mech being used in a low-intensity war. Each time the Blackbeak deployed on the battlefield, it gained additional scars and battle damage. Each time it returned to a workshop, the mech technicians fixed it up with ease.

Such a sequence of events didn't sound so interesting, but it kept repeating over and over. The battlefields changed, the allies it fought alongside changed, but the Blackbeak remained the same, bar a few choice customizations it picked up along the way. Over the years, the frequent cycle of deployments and repairs had morphed the original model into a formidable beast.

The Blackbeak evolved over time. Rather than degrading due to faltering integrity and heavy wear-and-tear, the mech's robust internals allowed it to soldier on. Just when you thought it reached the point of no return, the mech technicians figured out a way to keep it running.

"Featuring the leading second-class Keltrex armor system, the Blackbeak is a formidable knight that is capable of withstanding enormous amounts of punishment without flinching. Its lean construction along with the revolutionary Trailblazer engine delivers performance on par with Coalition mechs but at the fraction of the cost."

The scenarios faded out and a simplified wireframe schematic appeared over Ves. The lines denoting armor system and the engine blinked in green for a moment before he addressed the other components.

"The fuel-based power reactor runs on medium-density mech grade fuel, enabling the Blackbeak to operate on the field for an extended amount of time before requiring resupply. The design's overall energy efficiency is top-notch, and it will take substantial effort to force the Blackbeak to run out of fuel."

"The energy cells are optimized to carry medium-density fuel and can withstand a lot of punishment before they break. There is almost no chance of explosion since the mech is programmed to eject any fuel cells if their integrity is at risk."

"The artificial musculature is of a highly durable make, and is meant to last under substantial abuse…"

"The cockpit is a safe design that features additional armor and enhanced ejection systems…"

"The second-class ECM will dominate most other targeting systems on the battlefield…"

"The embedded shovel integrated in its back can be detached and used as an impromptu entrenching tool…"

Ves ran down the specs one by one. The second-class components impressed the crowd the most. Even the industry insiders found it noteworthy that a young Apprentice Mech Designer got his hands on so many quality licenses. They already started to change their appraisals of Ves, figuring he gained substantial backing from his Master or some other wealthy patron.

Meanwhile, the spectators standing behind the reporters and the distinguished guests remained rooted to the ground. Only half of them understood the jargon, but it didn't take a mech expert to understand the Blackbeak represented something special.

The extensive blending of Coalition tech with Republican practicality delivered a package that performed like a champ but kept its costs under control.

"A major issue with mechs that incorporates a lot of second-class components is that they're expensive! They often required expensive imports of rare exotics if they need to be built or repaired."

The crowd nodded in agreement. Such mechs suffered from inflated price tags and ruinous maintenance costs.

"The Blackbeak doesn't suffer from that problem! I'm a Republican mech designer at heart, and I know what you want. I went above and beyond to insure that all of the highest performing components can be sourced from within the borders of the Bright Republic!"

Throughout his speech, Ves set forth the Blackbeak's value proposition. It had been designed from the start to grow alongside its owners and users over a grueling conflict that everyone had been worrying about in recent times.

The specter of the latest Bright-Vesia War loomed over them like the Blackbeaks casting their shadows over the audience right at this moment. Hard times were coming and only a durable could see them through.

"What you are witnessing are the Living Mech Corporation's exclusive premium line-up of mechs. We will be selling at least three different lines, two of which consists of a basic silver label edition and a higher-quality gold label edition that's been hand-fabricated by myself. The mechs standing behind me consists of the latter, so you already know what you can get."

A guest that looked like a wealthy collector raised his hand. "When can we buy a mech?"

"Good question, sir." Ves clapped his hands, summoning up a pricing table for his new design. "Starting from now, the LMC will be taking orders for the first production run of twenty-five gold label Blackbeaks on a first-come, first serve basis at the exclusive price of 80 million credits a piece. Subsequent production runs of the gold label edition Blackbeaks will be priced at 75 million credits, so if you are tight on credits, then it's best to wait!"

"Does this include the first production model?"

"The first production model is a mech that carries an inordinate amount of value. As a result, it's scheduled for auction at a later point in this year."

Who was he kidding. Ves wanted to hold on to the first copy because the design had only just started to pick up hype. If he auctioned it out right now, he'd be lucky to get 100 million credits. If he held onto it for half a year or more, he'd likely be able to jack up the price to 200 million credits or more.

Ves even considered keeping the model for himself, but he threw that idea away. Besides his display models, each of his mechs had been built to serve their purpose in the hands of his customers.

Whether they employed them on the battlefield or paraded them in front of guests, his buyers brought meaning to his products. Only in the hands of others did his mech fulfill their intended purpose.

"When will your more affordable silver edition mechs be available?"

"They will go on sale as soon as the first production run is finished, which will take a month or two. The silver label Blackbeaks will be sold for 60 million credits. Do note that the silver label designs will feature cleaner appearances in order to achieve these cost savings."

"Are they worse than the gold mechs?"

"They deliver the exact same performance as the gold label mechs. Both of them are near-identical designs and are made out of the same raw materials, so if you are looking for the maximum amount of benefit for the lowest cost, then the silver label Blackbeak is a compelling choice."

Ves answered a large number of questions from the reporters and the industry experts. Sometimes, their questions cut very deep.

"Mr. Larkinson, your design looks too good to be true. There's got to a catch, right? What are the weak points of your mech?"

"I have never claimed to have designed the perfect mech." Ves tried to laugh, though he couldn't hide the awkwardness in his voice. "If I can name the most obvious weakness of the Blackbeak, it's that it isn't supplied with a ranged weapon! As a purely melee-oriented design, the Blackbeak isn't suitable for any form of marksmanship."

Some of the people in the audience wanted to pound his head. Who couldn't tell that a knight sucked at shooting? Stating something like that was as obvious as telling people that grass was green!

When he saw that the crowd didn't take his answer well, Ves relented a bit. "Okay, the Blackbeak is a design that's optimized to run all day, but it comes with only average heat-shunting capabilities. We do not recommend the Blackbeak to be deployed in places that limit heat-venting even further such as vacuum or high-heat environments."

"How well will its defenses fare compared to a defensive knight? Can it be employed to replace a defensive knight entirely?"

"The Veltrex armor system covering the shield and the frame is fully suitable to absorb impacts and shocks. That said, the Blackbeak is not intended to be employed as a low-mobility mech. Mech pilots will only bring out its full strength if they take advantage of its considerable mobility."

Ves addressed a few other difficult questions like that. He always managed to reply in a similar vein using a circuitous answer that allowed him to avoid leaving behind a record of saying something bad about his mech.

By understating the weaknesses and emphasizing the strengths that resulted from proper use of his design, Ves painted a rosy picture of his mech as the ultimate high-mobility knight. It could fit in nearly every squad composition and could even serve as a decent solo unit.

Just when he thought he could breeze through the rest of the press conference, a commotion sounded out at the entrance of the hall. The double doors slammed open as a young man stampeded past the cowed security guards.

"Heya, Ves! What's going on!? You're introducing a new design? Why didn't you invite me!"

"Hello, Michael. It's good to see you. Shouldn't you be busy selling your own mech right now?"

"Oh, my company is already taking care of it. The Havalax is selling like hotcakes! I've sold more than a hundred copies so far in the first month alone!" Michael Dumont grinned like a shark. "You've got to step up your game, Ves. How can you still call yourself a mech designer if you're only able to deliver half the amount of mechs in double the amount of time?"

"I put quality above quantity. The first production run is entirely produced from my hand, because unlike you, I'm not too lazy to wander into someone else's party."

Michael dropped his grin as he struggled to hold in his fury. "I didn't come here to celebrate with you. I came here to issue a challenge. You see, we both designed an offensive knight, and we both released them in the same market. As far as I'm concerned, the market isn't big enough for the both of us. Let's say we duel it out."

The gauntlet had been thrown, but Michael hadn't been content with that alone.

"Let's spice it up while we're at it! Like you, I'm also hanging on to my first production model. Rather than letting them collect dust in some warehouse, why not have them duke it out?"

The stakes had been raised.

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Out of several possibilities his competitor could choose to go with, Dumont chose to go with the classic design duel. When two mech designers had a beef, they let the strengths of their mechs do the talking.

In truth, Ves had brainstormed several ways that Dumont could retaliate against him with his team. They came up with possibilities, such as price dumping, regulatory harassment, industrial sabotage and more.

A design duel had been well within specifications. The only snag was that Dumont conditioned his challenge by setting forth his first production model. Considering the brisk sales of his Havalax design, his first mech already accumulated an enormous amount of value.

More than risking a huge chunk of potential cash, the duel also put their reputation at stake. Nobody among the crowd could say whether one design was superior over the other. Both the Havalax and the Blackbeak designs had their own merits. Some would argue that they didn't even compete in the same space.

Yet the prospect of a rivalry at play triumphed over logic. A few bystanders already started to egg Ves on. "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

The pressure mounted on Ves to accept the duel.

"I already reserved an arena, so you don't have to go to the trouble of arranging a venue." Dumont added. "Five days from now, there's an open time slot in the match between the Dorum Velvet Fists and the Haston Grease Monkeys. We'll get to prove the worth of our designs in front of a full crowd of mech fans!"

It must have cost him quite a bit of money to arrange such a highly-valued slot. Ves mulled over the offer for any traps. The mech arena shouldn't be able to get away with any tricks, but who could tell if they did?

"I'll only accept if there's official MTA representation."

Dumont waved his hand dismissively. "Fine!"

Requesting the presence of an agent of the MTA didn't come cheap, but it insured that nothing funny went on. If Dumont or the arena operators tried to cheat in any way, then the MTA would come down hard on their heads.

As the challenger, Dumont was obliged to pay for it all, which saved Ves a lot of trouble since his company's liquidity didn't look all that great. Ves also had the privilege of setting some additional conditions such as the duel environment and the pilot criteria.

Ves chose to go with the most advantageous circumstances for himself. "I want the dueling ground to consist of rocky terrain with plenty of line-of-sight breaks."

His Blackbeak excelled in dragging out the fight while the Havalax sought to end the duel as quickly as possible. By making the terrain as difficult as possible, the pilot of the Blackbeak would be able to extend the pursuit.

"Fine, but don't think you can run away all match. I don't think the public will appreciate a mech that can only stand a chance by acting like a coward!"

"As for who will drive our mechs, let's set the bar to advanced pilots no older than thirty years old."

"Agreed."

Advanced pilots could be found everywhere. If Ves didn't set such a condition, Dumont might have been able to persuade a rare expert pilot to fight in his stead. He set a relatively low age limit in order to prevent him from finding some grizzled war veteran who could pull of dozens of tricks in quick succession.

By posing all these limits, Ves made the duel more dependent on the machine rather than the person. He had faith in the quality of his Blackbeak and strongly believed in its performance despite the naysayers.

They hashed a few conditions before Dumont left in a confident whirl. He already accomplished his purpose, so there was no need to stick around anymore.

The impending design duel spoiled the rest of the press conference. Ves noticed that most of the reporters briefly notified their editors about the sudden challenge. The spell of had been broken, and nothing could pull them back into his trap.

Ves decided to wrap up his press conference.

"Thank you for attending, and I will see you five days from now at the arena!"

Word spread quickly. The duel between two young promising Apprentice Mech Designers should be one of the more exciting events that took place next week.

The constant hype surrounding their rivalry didn't peak the interest of every mech fanatic, but it definitely raised their profiles. Both the Havalax and the Blackbeak received a surge of free publicity.

Many publications that had snubbed the invitation to attend the Blackbeak's unveiling must be feeling green with regret right now.

News portals such as The Republican Mech published bold-faced headlines accompanied with high-quality footage of the confrontation between the two designers. Even if they went a bit too far with their creative editing, the dramatized retelling of that day served to put their designs to the forefront of the news.

"We've already sold out our first production run!" Gavin exclaimed as he met Ves at a private dining hall in a hotel next morning. "Our buyers are practically knocking down Marcella's doors right now. We had to limit our sales to one copy per customer. Demand is through the roof!"

"The free publicity is nice, but it's only a temporary phenomenon." Ves pointed out while eating his breakfast. "Whoever admits defeat in the upcoming duel will see their demand crater overnight. No one wants to buy a mech associated with failure."

The worst thing about the duel was that the format favored the Havalax. The raw specs didn't lie and the Blackbeak's advance in endurance would never be able to come into play in a duel that only lasted thirty minutes at most.

In hindsight, the Blackbeak made for a very poor dueling mech, while the Havalax practically thrived in these circumstances.

"Do we have a pilot lined up?"

"I have someone in mind." Ves leisurely replied as he moved on to drinking his cup of tea. "There's a reason why I set the age limit to thirty."

The door to the dining hall slid open to allow the entry of a familiar face.

"Good morning Ves!"

"Melinda! Good to see you again. I didn't want to call you up for this, but I really need your help."

Melinda Larkinson took a seat at the table and poured herself some tea. She dressed casually this time, but her powerful movements and predatory expression couldn't hide the fact that she was a mech pilot. "Who's this?"

"That's Gavin, he's in charge of marketing. We were just discussing some business before you arrived."

"Your mech business must be doing well." She remarked. "You're practically the talk of the town! Ticket prices for the match between the Velvet Fists and the Grease Monkeys have tripled overnight. Even the VIP rooms are fully booked!"

The mech duel attracted a lot of interest due to hype. Most people probably didn't know too much about Ves or Dumont. They just wanted to witness a historic rivalry between two similarly talented mech designers.

Ves started to compose himself. "About that. Melinda, out of all the cousins I know who are here in the Bentheim region, you're the only one who's proficient in piloting knights. I'd like to ask you to be my champion for the upcoming duel."

The entire room plunged into silence. Even Gavin almost spurted out his coffee. He expected Ves to tap a professional mech athlete, or some kind of elite academy graduate.

"Why me?"

"Because I trust you. Because you're a Larkinson. Because you're both."

He didn't need to say anything more. As a Larkinson himself, he knew how much the family prized their potentates. Every Larkinson with the aptitude to become a mech pilot had received a vigorous amount of training from the start. The family ensured that every Larkinson began their piloting careers with a solid foundation along with a couple of fully developed specialties.

For example, Raella excelled in piloting skirmishers and light mechs, while Melkor turned into a killing machine if he piloted a rifleman. Besides hard work, much of what they accomplished could be attributed to the training they received from the family.

Melinda looked dead-serious now as she weighed the offer carefully. "I'm not too sure about this. Sure, I know a thing or two about knights, but I'm more of an all-rounder than a dedicated knight pilot. Law enforcement mechs are a whole different beast, you know!"

Ves still remembered the mech she piloted when she rescued him from an assassination attempt. Her law enforcement mech consisted of an aerial hybrid knight that exchanged a sword for a fluid projector.

"It's not a bad thing if you're not a pure knight pilot. The Blackbeak is an offensive knight, so it performs at its best if you take advantage of its mobility. It's still a knight, but it's got several things in common with more agile knights like skirmisher mechs."

No matter who he approached, Ves still wanted to persuade Melinda to take up his cause. She was family, and family was meant to stick together.

"This is a lot to take in, you know." Melinda breathed deeply. "I'm not a stranger of duels, but the stakes are awfully high. How much money is at stake?"

Ves gestured to Gavin, who supplied the latest estimate. "The first production model alone can be worth as much as 300 million credits if you manage to win. Collectors are willing to throw money at any mech that carries such a great piece of history!"

"Sheesh, Ves! You're sticking me into a mech worth 300 million? Why not deposit a few billion credits in my cockpit while you're at it!"

"Actually, Miss Melinda, the outcome of the duel has far-ranging effects on the demand of the Blackbeak model. If we win, we can expect strong sales to deliver additional revenue the tune of two or three billion credits over the next year. If we lose, we'll be lucky if we can get the production line running at all…"

All of this piled more weight onto Melinda's shoulders. She had never been made responsible over so much potential gains and losses in her life. Her face turned numb at the dizzying amount of money being bandied amount.

"My salary is only around 200,000 credits a year. I really don't know, Ves. I'm a decent pilot when I'm on assignment for the Planetary Guard, but I've never performed in front of the entire Republic. Do you know how many fans are tuning in to the match between the Fists and the Monkeys? That's one of the most popular dueling teams in the Republic! And I'm going to be showing off my skills in their half-time break!"

Obviously, Melinda couldn't handle the pressure like a seasoned mech athlete. Ves wished that Raella hadn't wandered off with Dietrich, because he could sure use some help in reassuring his cousin.

"Competing in public is not that scary when you're good. I know you're good. Think about it as an opportunity to wave the flag for the family. Show the Republic what a Larkinson can do! If you win the match, you'll not only help me sell more mechs, but you'll also boost the careers of every Larkinson in active duty!"

When Ves joined the family's Steering Committee and attended their annual meeting, he learned that one of the family's priorities was supporting the careers of their younger mech pilots.

Many of his nephews and nieces joined the Mech Corps with dreams of making it big. It took a lot of money and effort to distinguish themselves from the other talents in their units.

"Consider this as well." Ves continued. "The Larkinson Estate owns twenty-five percent of my company. A win will directly boost my company's earnings, to the point where the family will potentially earn billions of credits in dividends down the line. Think of what the family can do with all of that money. We can increase the pensions for the widowers and provide better training for the young."

Not every Larkinson prioritized giving back to the family, but Melinda showed signs that she was receptive to the idea. She owed a lot to the family.

" I'm even willing to give you a fair share of what we gained. Have you ever thought about moving into a glitzy penthouse in the middle of downtown Dorum? I can pay for all of that."

This time, Melinda didn't hesitate any longer. "Okay, deal! I'll do it! I'll pilot your damn mech in front of a circus! Just get me that penthouse!"

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As the center of landbound mechs in the Republic, Bentheim featured a lot of mech arenas. Ves himself had witnessed the famous Leviticus vanquishing over another opponent at a privately-run mech coliseum. That enormous venue only found enough space to operate by setting up at the outskirts of Dorum.

Their upcoming design duel took place at a massive stadium operated by Bentheim's local government. Its central arena took up the same amount of space as the domed arena he visited at Moira's Paradise.

Ves entered the chamber that held the first production model of the Blackbeak. The mech looked as pristine as ever, courtesy of the mech technicians scouring over its surface right now.

In the days since Melinda accepted to duel in his stead, a lot had changed.

The lack of major events at this time prompted many publications to blow up the rivalry between Ves and Dumont. They turned a minor scuffle between competitors into the battle of the century.

All of this raised the profile of their mechs. Interest in the Blackbeak surged, with many laymen clamoring to pilot its virtual version. Ves vetoed the release of the virtual model, as he didn't wish to let his competitors study his design.

Although its specs had already been published, that was different from getting a solid feel for the mech. Any decent mech designer could easily spot a dozen weak points in any design if they spent at least an hour with any random design.

Dumont must have gotten a good glimpse already when he issued his challenge, so Ves had already fallen behind.

On the other hand, the Havalax had already started selling. While Dumont withheld the virtual version to the public, footage of the Havalax in action already started to appear on the galactic net.

This, along with other articles published over the last month provided Ves with a wealth of information on his competitor's design.

While he tried to figure what made the Havalax tick, Melinda trained with the Blackbeak as if her life depended on it. She applied for leave at the Planetary Guard and moved full-time into his first production model. The only time she left the mech was when she had to sleep or wanted to practice her more advanced maneuvers in a simulation.

Currently, Melinda sat at a nearby table and held her head in her hands.

"Are you ready to go on stage?"

Melinda groaned at his question. "How full is the arena?"

"It's completely packed. There's more than half a million spectators out here. Win or lose, you're bound to become a celebrity."

"Yippy." She replied flatly. "You know, my comm has been flooded with messages from our fellow cousins. They're all envious as hell that I'm able to display my skills in front of so many people. I bet they'll sing a different tune if they're in my place."

"Melinda, it's going to be fine. You've been spending a lot of hours inside the cockpit. Have you gotten a good feel for the Blackbeak."

This time, she released a brief smile. "I don't know how you did it, but your creation is one of the smoothest mechs I've ever piloted! It's like I'm donning a second skin, but larger. Best of all, it doesn't have any of the pet peeves that ruin my day!"

Experiencing the full majesty of a gold label mech was a unique experience. Melinda practically broadened her perspective on how far a mech could go to deliver an immersive piloting experience. The strong X-Factor in the Blackbeak's frame resonated within her bones each time she interfaced with the mech.

In addition, Ves applied everything he learned from acquiring his initial mastery into knights. Ves noted everything that Barley had grown frustrated about and made sure those elements didn't show up in his own design. This smoothed out the piloting experience and enabled Melinda to focus more on beating her opponent and less on trying to make her machine move as she willed.

Ves glanced up at the clock. "The last duel between the Velvet Fists and the Grease Monkeys before the break should almost be ending. If you're still having second thoughts, you can still back out now. Some of my underlings brought a couple of replacement pilots, you see."

"That won't be necessary." She shook her head. "I'm used to the first production model, and it's gotten used to me as well. You can't replace me at this point, not if you want your Blackbeak to perform at its best."

He shrugged. "Very well, then. Don't forget that you are risking your life out there on the field. If the duel is heading into an awful direction, don't hesitate to concede. I don't want you to risk your life just to drive more sales for my mechs. I can always figure something out if that happens, but there's no way for me to revive you from the dead."

"I'm not Jackknife Jake, Ves. I know my limits. In the Planetary Guard, we learned how much we can push a mech."

Minutes went by until the faint commotion above faded out. The latest duel must have come to a conclusion. An arena guide appeared from a side entrance.

"Mr. Larkinson, time is up. Please come with me. Lieutenant Larkinson, please enter the cockpit. Your mech will be lifted onto the arena as soon as we rearrange its terrain."

"Roger that."

The arena personnel guided Ves up a lifter platform which brought him out in the open. The recorders zoomed in on his face.

"Up next is one of our Republic's homegrown mech designers, a superstar who emerged out of nowhere! Give it up for the nerdy half of the Larkinson duo, Ves Larkinson!"

Ninety percent of the spectators had never heard of him before. Even if they caught a glimpse of his designs, the kind of people who attended mech duels cared more about the people piloting the mechs than the designers who made the machines.

Nevertheless, that didn't diminish the momentary enthusiasm of the crowd. With all the hype surrounding this duel, its anticipation had surpassed the outcome of the match they originally came to attend. The Velvet Fists and the Grease Monkeys had completely turned into sideshow characters at this moment.

The lifter platform reached at an elaborate open tribune. Despite its size, only two seats had been placed at the center. Michael Dumont already sat at the seat to the left, leaving Ves to take the one on the right.

"Ves."

"Michael."

They didn't exchange any other words. At this point, no amount of talk would change anything. Both of them let the minutes tick by in silence until arena finished its reorganization of the dueling grounds.

It was a wonder to witness how effortlessly the battleground morphed from a plain tiled surface to a decent imitation of a rocky canyon. Large amounts of rocks, cliffs and other debris carted in from below and cluttered up the field until it became impossible to see the other end of the arena from ground level.

Once the arena finished its rearrangement, the mechs started to appear.

"First to enter the stage is Michael Dumont's Havalax! Coated in resplendent white, this offensive knight can run as hard as it can hit! While it possesses a decent set of armor, the Havalax excels in hacking down its opposition through unrelenting aggression! Armed with both a sword and a handaxe, the Havalax has a plethora of offensive options to dismantle anything in its way!"

A projection of the mech pilot appeared over the sky. Ves took one look at the man's uniform before his face began to fall.

"Piloting the Havalax on behalf of Dumont is Captain Jaimie Vicar! Captain Vicar is one of the greatest talents to emerge from the Republic in recent times, and he has won a number of prestigious awards before the Mech Corps snapped him up! Nowadays, he leads his own unit as the youngest captain in our homegrown 3rd Infernal Hellhounds Regiment!"

Captain Vicar's handsome face and curvy blond hair made him a hit among the ladies, who all started to shriek like they lost all of their intelligence. Ves didn't care about that, but he did grow worried about Vicar's capabilities.

The Mech Corps held themselves to a higher standard than the Planetary Guard. They recruited the best of the best and anyone who reached the rank of captain at such a young age must be someone with a lot of promise. At the very least, the Mech Corps must be feeling hopeful that Captain Vicar had a decent chance of advancing to expert pilot someday.

The Blackbeak appeared next. Unlike the Havalax, the Blackbeak's strong X-Factor and dark appearance caused the crowd to grow a little muted. Even though they saw a couple of projections of the models in ads and promotions, it was different now that they encountered it in person.

"Emerging from beneath is the inventively-named Blackbeak! It's an offensive knight that's made for war! Featuring top-notch endurance and a running time that lasts for days, it's the perfect mech to deploy if you wish to drive the Vesians mad! Mr. Larkinson has promised that the Blackbeak is a mech that will grow with its pilot and is able to last an entire war. Hyperbole or not, the Blackbeak makes for a striking sight!"

Compared to Vicar's enthusiastic reception, the crowd reacted with considerable less attention when Melinda began to be profiled. The announcers briefly went over the highlights of her career, which wasn't much considering she spent much of her time in training or walking the beat in a rather boring law enforcement mech. Still, no matter how plain her biography looked, it didn't detract from the sheer amount of time and effort Melinda put into her training.

The two mechs approached the center of the complex battlefield until they were ten seconds apart. Formal duels of this nature mandated that the mechs had to be within line of sight from the start.

A number of inspection bots bearing the logo of the MTA started to scour the battlefield and the mechs. The delegation from the MTA occupied a different platform just above the heads of Ves and Dumont. Even though the projections didn't introduce them in any way, their presence was very much felt due to their reputation alone.

The bots cleared the arena once they failed to detect any signs of foul play.

"Let the duel commence in ten seconds!"

A timer counted down from ten.

Ves gripped the handholds of his seat. It felt frustrating to sit so far away while parading out his favorite niece to fight in his stead. He knew how dangerous a dual could turn out. Even though a duel between knights rarely led to fatalities due to their considerable defensive prowess, a single stab of a sword could puncture right through a cockpit if the chest armor had been weakened.

"Please don't go too far, Melinda. Just endure the opening moves. Don't try anything fancy."

The countdown ticked down to zero, and the duel officially commenced!

"FOR THE HELLHOUNDS!" The Havalax's speakers broadcasted in the air. The white mech immediately sprinted forward with its kite shield up in front. It aimed to close the gap to the Blackbeak with its superior speed.

Melinda kept her cool. She knew the Blackbeak couldn't run as fast as the Havalax, but she ran anyway in order to force her opponent to burn through its energy cells. The more the Havalax expended its power, the sooner its reserves ran out.

n response, the Havalax started to overload its systems, putting a lot of strain on them in exchange for a momentary surge. Captain Vicar decided to start the engagement with an axe, having sheathed the sword behind the Havalax's back.

Once his mech reached the lagging Blackbeak, it began to bash with its shield while simultaneously chopping its target from above.

The Blackbeak turned at the last moment and absorbed the shield bash with its own moon-shaped shield. As for the axe strike, it only managed to put up a hasty guard with its sword, which clearly didn't fare well against the power behind the offensive weapon.

The Blackbeak's sword arm strained to absorb the impact, allowing the Havalax to slip in a low kick that destabilized the black mech's footing. This opened up the Blackbeak to another attack!

Melinda immediately faced a crisis!

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She knew it was a bad idea. Yet her obligation to her family and her friendship with Ves urged her to step up and make the Republic remember the glory of the Larkinsons.

The amount of people flocking to the arena made her falter a bit. Melinda had never been shy, but that didn't mean she felt eager to embarrass herself in front of a crowd of half-a-million spectators. If that wasn't bad enough, the entire match would be broadcasted to billions of viewers watching at home.

One misstep and she would never live it down for the rest of her life.

"Is this what mech athletes have to go through?"

She found poor comfort in her cousin, who kept blabbing on about the strengths and weaknesses of the Havalax. As if she cared about those details.

The only thing she needed to know was that the Havalax possessed a lot of strength but couldn't keep it up. She merely had to outlast it with her Blackkbeak, which unfortunately struggled to match up to the Havalax's power.

Strangely enough, every time she interfaced with the Blackbeak, her doubts and worries faded away like they never existed. It was as if she was a little girl who returned to the embrace of her father.

The mech enveloped her mind and elevated it into an invisible network at the heart of the mech she controlled. Melinda had never had the pleasure of piloting a mech that treated her like a queen. Most other mechs she came in touch with treated her intrusion like an unwanted house guest.

"It's as if these mechs aren't made to be controlled by someone else."

It sounded crazy to hold such an outlandish opinion. Yet the difference became stark when she began to grow accustomed to the Blackbeak's welcoming embrace. Her nephew's mech simply possessed some kind of charm that revolutionized her piloting experience.

"Are all mechs that are worth 300 million credits like this, or is it just me?"

She felt regretful that she had to bid the Blackbeak farewell after the duel. She had warmed up to the first production model, and wished she was as loaded as her cousin. "I should have asked for this mech instead of a penthouse."

The floor suddenly started to lift the Blackbeak onto the arena. Melinda cut short her musings and shifted her focus back to her mech. She tested out the movements of her mech, finding the Blackbeak to be as responsive as a second skin. Nothing appeared to be broken. Ves made sure that her mech was in its best state possible.

Once her mech arrived at the center of the arena, Melinda didn't even flinch at all of the yelling and name-calling. The crowd meant nothing to the Blackbeak, so Melinda followed suit and tuned them out.

Her console chirped as her mech received a private communications request from the mech opposite to hers. Melinda shook out of her mantra and opened the channel.

"Miss Larkinson. It's a pleasure to meet you." Captain Vicar greeted her with his annoyingly attractive voice. "It's a shame to meet as opponents instead of colleagues. I have a lot of respect for the Bentheim Planetary Guard. It must have been hard to keep our planet in line."

"Not as hard as taking the fight to the BLM." Melinda coolly replied. She tried not to let her fangirl instincts get the better of her. "Did you participate in one of the assaults?"

"I did. The rebels put up a poor fight in one of their asteroid bases. For a movement that pretends to be strong enough to fight off the Republic, they sure didn't last very long when pressed into a corner. But anyway, I didn't open this channel to talk about old times. I just wanted to apologize to you."

"For what?"

"For beating your mech into a pulp!"

The countdown to the duel reached zero. The Havalax stormed forward at a rapid pace, catching Melinda off-guard. Her short flight backwards didn't prevent Captain Vicar from reaching her mech before she could get away.

The channel between their mechs remained open. "No offense to you, Miss Larkinson, but you don't stand a chance!"

Melinda gritted her teeth as she desperately fended off another chop of the Havalax's axe. "That's Lieutenant Larkinson to you!"

The axe was a supremely offensive weapon that transferred a lot of force with every swing. Melinda tried to redirect the force at an angle to prevent her sword and shield from chipping away, but Captain Vicar moved too quickly for her to adjust.

The damage quickly piled up. The axe bit into the Blackbeak's moon-shaped phoenix shield, parting the laser-resistant upper layer like a knife through butter. It encountered much more resistance from the middle layer, but each subsequent hack degraded the integrity of the armor, especially when the Havalax kept focusing on the same narrow area.

"Have to disengage!" She reminded herself, and tried to work together with her mech to push the Havalax back.

Melinda utilized her excellent control over the Blackbeak to shift the mech to the side. Her mech raised its shield to absorb the next attack square against the shield. A deep trench had been carved into the shield, but the Blackbeak successfully managed to bounce away from the murderous Havalax.

"You're not getting away so easily!"

The Havalax raised its power back to full and thundered after the fleeing Blackbeak. This time, Melinda paid attention to her environment. She guided her mech towards a large pile of rocks. While a mech could brush one or two aside, the sheer number of obstacles posed a significant threat if it wanted to straight through.

Her connection with the Blackbeak heightened as she took in all of the sensor input of her mech and processed them in a way that allowed her to keep track of the Blackbeak's footing. The black mech possessed enough responsiveness and flexibility to navigate the field of rocks without losing too much speed.

The Havalax turned out to be less proficient in navigating this kind of terrain. Michael Dumont designed it with a completely different paradigm in mind. Captain Vicar had to cease his opportunistic attacks in order to struggle his mech past this treacherous terrain.

The fundamental differences between their frames became evident. The Havalax was very much a momentum-based mech. It derived its superiority from its high powered engine and power reactor, allowing it to move faster and strike harder despite being clad in thick layers of armor.

Compared to the Blackbeak, the Havalax possessed a higher top speed, but this came at the expense of flexibility. Even a mech pilot as amazing as Captain Vicar struggled to make an elephant dance.

The majority of the crowd cheered for the more charismatic Vicar. Even the announcers sounded like they rooted for the Mech Corps Captain.

"Look at the Havalax navigate around those boulders! Even with these hindrances, it's hardly losing a sweat! It's a testament of his skill that he hasn't widened Miss Larkinson's lead! He's even closing in!"

They soon reached the end of the rock field, and Melinda desperately tried to reach the narrow miniature canyons up ahead. However, her mech first needed to cross a small stretch of open ground, and that was when the Havalax began to make its move.

A handful of boosters embedded into the back of the Havalax started to burn. Though they chugged a lot of the white mech's limited fuel, the extra thrust gave the mech a powerful hop that allowed it to close the distance within seconds. It raised its axe again, prompting Melinda to turn around her mech and raise its shield.

CRACK!

Captain Vicar put the Havalax's considerable forward momentum into the heavy blow. The axe managed to cut through the damaged upper portion of the moon shield and split that portion apart.

Melinda hastily ducked her mech to dodge the remaining swing of the axe. She tried to drag the Blackbeak away from the deadly axe, but Captain Vicar would have none of that.

His relentless aggression matched the Havalax's own as they collaborated to deliver his promise to dismantle the Blackbeak. The powerful knight stuck to Melinda's mech and began to rain down a hail of blows.

"Lay off a girl, will you!"

"Man or woman, it's all the same to me!" Vicar yelled over the channel. "The moment you enter a mech, you've turned into my prey!"

The Havalax had completely taken over the initiative in the fight. Vicar left no opening for Melinda to attack. His oppressive offensive started to achieve solid results when his axe began to bypass the Blackbeak's shortened shield and dig into its armor.

The audience showed little sympathy for Melinda. Instead, they egged Captain Vicar on. The man seemed to feed off the attention and upped the tempo of his offensive.

Even as the Blackbeak's armor started to suffer rents and tears, Melinda tried to keep her cool. She knew that the Havalax's hyperactive performance came at a cost. It wouldn't be able to sustain such a level of performance for more than fifteen minutes at most.

The only problem was that her mech wouldn't last more than five minutes at this rate. For all of its prowess as a knight, the Blackbeak hadn't been designed to duel against an elite knight like the Havalax.

The main problem was the compromises Ves had made in consideration with its armor coverage. Its Veltrex armor system could absorb a lot of punishment, but Ves hadn't been generous enough to apply very thick layer.

This was supposed to provide the Blackbeak with additional mobility, and against most other mechs it might be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat. This time though, the Havalax possessed enough superiority in this front to neutralize Melinda's options.

Melinda knew she had to flip the table somehow. One of the principles behind the Blackbeak was it shouldn't be playing fair. So she frantically tried to figure out a way to break the current entanglement.

Her eyes darted back and forth before focusing straight ahead. "It's a long-shot, but I've got nothing else!"

She made her decision. The Blackbeak currently suffered from quite a number of armor breaches. Internal damage had been kept at a minimum so far due to deft piloting, but a few minutes more might exacerbate the situation. Melinda made her move before her mech reached that point.

The Havalax struck down with yet another chop while holding its shield close to fend off the Blackbeak's sword. It expected its prey to backpedal in order to minimize the damage. It became surprised when the Blackbeak headed straight into the blow.

An awful tearing sound echoed into the arena as the axe bit through the shoulder pauldron. Melinda ignored the damage reports and urged her mech to continue forward.

Captain Vicar instinctively pushed out with the Havalax's shield. It impacted the Blackbeak's phoenix shield and successfully negated the black mech's momentum, but not before its head darted forward like a woodpecker about to drill into a tree.

An awful crunching sound emerged from the Havalax as its frontal head component caved in from Melinda's pointy strike.

Ves had added in the beak to the head of his design as an afterthought. Despite the lack of attention put into the beak, it was sharp and heavy enough to crunch any opposing mech's head.

The attack didn't really cripple the Havalax, but it gave Melinda enough of an opening to disengage. Her Blackbeak suffered moderate damage to one of its shoulders, but it had been worth it as she bought enough time to slip into the nearby canyons.

The entire crowd didn't know what to think of Captain Vicar's mishap. After a few seconds of silence, they all erupted into laughter.

"Captain Vicar's mech got face-checked! Look at the Havalax now! Who would ever want to kiss this poor mech with such an ugly face?"

Most mechs relied on their heads to provide a human-like perspective to their pilots. The sudden loss of those sensors disoriented Captain Vicar, who despite his plentiful battle experience still had to get used to the changed perspective.

He silently cursed to himself for letting the Blackbeak get away. His Havalax could still navigate through complex terrain, but it was doubtful if it could ever catch up again. As he gloweringly guided his mech into the narrow cliffs and valleys, the duel transitioned into another phase.

"This is more like it!" Melinda grinned as her mech slipped into the gaps. The time had come to turn this match around. "I'm done being your punching bag."

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Ves winced as his Blackbeak fell into a defensive posture soon after the start of the duel. The powerful Havalax started off strong and immediately pushed its advantage.

He knew it would be bad, but the Blackbeak lost the initiative and never got the opportunity to regain it. Pairing the Havalax with a captain of the 3rd Infernal Hellhounds resulted in an amazingly powerful combination that put Melinda at her wit's end.

"You could have prevented this, you know." Dumont suddenly remarked from his seat. They sat close enough to talk to each other in private. "There's no reason to accept the duel when you know your design is at a disadvantage."

"You speak as if I had a choice. You just had to issue the challenge while I was in the middle of my debut. To refuse your challenge will show the entire Republic that I'm not confident in my own design."

Dumont erupted into laughter. "Hahaha! It's like the public considers us wizards who possess a whole host of magical powers. Just because we design machines doesn't mean we know how to use them!"

Even when you lacked the courage to fight, sometimes the situation forced your hand. All of the press he invited to attend his debut would have crucified him as a coward if he dodged the challenge.

People often held mech designers to the same standards of mech pilots despite their lack of commonalities. Besides being connected to mechs, one occupation dealt with fighting while the other preferred to tinker with machines. It wasn't fair to expect a mech designer to adhere to martial traditions.

Sadly, the galaxy ran on its own rules. A mech designer must have courage. A mech designer must stand by his product. A mech designer must defend his honor if challenged.

At least Ves had been allowed to choose someone else to fight in his stead. He was a non-combatant, after all. Even if by some miracle he could pilot a mech, he still would have made a fool of himself. Even the worst pilots needed a full decade of training before they become proficient enough to outperform a simple modern combat vehicle.

"Tell me, Michael. Did you challenge me because you're still sore about your loss to me at the YTE, or did Catelyn Ricklin push you into it?"

His rival laughed again, though Dumont couldn't hide his irritation. "My associates are none of your business. The Ricklin Family is one of my shareholders, but that is the extent of my relationship with them. If you believe we're conspiring to bring you down, you're mistaken. You never even registered on our radar if not for your new design."

His words sounded innocent enough for Ves to doubt his suspicions. Did he make a mistake? Then he considered everything Dumont had done so far. Coincidence or not, Dumont had certainly made himself out to be his enemy.

"I don't know what kind of game you're playing." Ves started to say. "I didn't set out to pick a fight with you and your backers. Yet the moment you came up with an offensive knight, it's a given that we've become competitors. So as one mech designer to another, I'll warn you that you shouldn't pick a fight you can't win."

"Is that a threat?" Dumont replied sharply.

Ves smiled at his guarded posture. "Not as such. I'm merely stating that I'm better than you in any objective measure. I'll prove it to you by winning this design duel, and I'll prove it again when my Blackbeak drubs your Havalax in the market!"

"Arrogant! Let's see whether your champion can overcome my own before you open your big mouth!"

Melinda's Blackbeak just managed to slip into the complex maze of caverns and cliffs. The difficult terrain hindered the relatively stodgy Havalax while providing an advantage to the agile Blackbeak. Despite the latter's lower power levels, its agility had never fallen behind due to its fairly slim design.

Still, her troubles hadn't ended yet. The Havalax maintained pursuit at stayed hot on her heels. If the Blackbeak stumbled even once, then Captain Vicar would be sure to pounce.

The final axe strike happened to have bitten deeply into one of the Blackbeak's shoulders. The overall depth and sturdiness of that portion prevented the axe from disabling the shield arm, but it had enormously weakened it to the point where Melinda didn't trust it to hold up against a full-frontal body blow.

Despite her dire circumstances, Melinda grinned, echoing the predatory anticipation of her mech. Her opponent made a big mistake by letting her slip away. It seemed almost comical how Captain Vicar didn't expect to be pecked in a face by a mech called the Blackbeak.

"Haha, can't catch up, captain?" She taunted her opponent over the open channel.

"Don't laugh so soon. I'm catching up!"

Time was running out for Captain Vicar. If he couldn't catch up to the Blackbeak in the next twenty minutes or so, his mech would run out of steam. His mech only carried a limited amount of energy cells, but before it ran out his internals would already overheat.

Pushing the Havalax's limits came at a cost. Vicar gambled on winning on his opening move, but it turned out that Melinda proved more resilient and resourceful than he expected.

"Why don't you be a good girl and turn around for me to whack apart?"

"Are you kidding, captain? You're the faster mech here! Come and get me if you're so eager to land a blow on my mech!"

Standard dueling conventions stated that the mech with the fasted top speed had to take the initiative. If not, it could use its superior speed to stay out of range and run out the clock. Such behavior went against the spirit of the duel so the rule had been introduced to force the duelists to fight.

A peculiarity occurred in this case when the so-called 'fastest' mech proved unable to catch up with the nominally slower mech. The Havalax possessed a higher top speed according to its spec sheet, but in practice it could only achieve those speeds in open terrain.

This rendered Captain Vicar helpless for the moment. Though he adjusted quickly and learned to move the Havalax more proficiently, it would take a long time for the gap to close. His mech expended an enormous amount of energy trying to keep all of its bulk on the move.

Knights never made for very good sprinters, though an exception could be made for the Blackbeak.

Still, Melinda noticed the Havalax gaining on her mech at an uncomfortably fast pace. If she was a better pilot, then she would have been able to push the Blackbeak out of reach.

If she wanted to change the odds, then she had to take the initiative and use her strengths.

As a Larkinson, Melinda possessed her own strengths. Besides her strong foundation, she also excelled in one other area. Her battle sense.

Many of her colleagues complimented her for her uncanny decision making in the cockpit. While Melinda had never excelled in swordsmanship, marksmanship and other flashy skills, she always managed to pull off a win by making the right decisions in the heat of battle.

Right now, her mind worked together with the Blackbeak to analyze her current surroundings. She kept her attention focused on both the Havalax and anything she could use to her advantage. She quickly found something in the terrain up ahead and adjusted the course of the Blackbeak to guide her opponent to follow suit.

The Blackbeak stomped past an arched cliff. Just as it was about to pass through the narrowest spot, it struck the upper portion of the cliff with a quick raise of its sword.

A couple of rocks fell down the cliff and rained down right above the pursuing Havalax. Captain Vicar had to veer his mech aside in order to prevent the heavy rocks from exacerbating the damage to its head.

Meanwhile the Blackbeak had turned around to stab at its distracted opponent, only to come up short when the Havalax raised its shield to turn aside the blow.

"Did you think I would fall for that?" Vicar shouted. "Think again!"

Melinda fell into a spot of trouble when the Havalax recovered faster than she thought. Vicar landed a couple of good blows with the axe that dented the Blackbeak's already worn-out shield. She had to pull off a hasty dodge in order to slip out of reach again.

This pattern repeated itself several times over. Though Melinda chose to turn around and surprise Vicar several times, the captain's insane reaction speed insured that he would never fall into a permanent disadvantage.

"Annoying gnat! Why don't you stand still for a change!"

"Haha! Why don't you stop running yourself then?" Melinda taunted back.

Despite her repeated failures, Melinda kept up her hit-and-run attacks, making sure her mech would always be able to resume its flight before the Havalax pushed it into a corner.

Captain Vicar grew increasingly frustrated at this sequence of events. Even as he grew more adept at navigating the terrain, so did Melinda begin to master the art of hit-and-run. Her sword even managed to slip past his guard, though it only ended up scratching the Havalax's chest coating.

Still, his mech began to feel the toll. The running battles accelerated the Havalax's energy consumption and heated up the mech. He glanced at a couple of indicators in his cockpit and estimated that his mech could only hold up its current level of performance for another eight to ten minutes.

"No choice then!"

Vicar decided to do something drastic. First, he disengaged the locks holding the Havalax's kite shield in place. It dropped to the ground with a thunk, surprising both Melinda and the crowd in the arena.

Next, the Havalax quickly used its free hand to draw the sword from its back. The mech effectively abandoned the way of the shield in favor of wielding two weapons at once.

Abandoning the shield proved to be the right decision. A literal weight had been lifted off the white mech's shoulder, allowing it to gain on the Blackbeak with considerably more speed.

Melinda gritted her teeth as she realized that she couldn't get away. She turned her Blackbeak around in order to meet the incoming double chop. She parried the sword strike with her own sword while she took the axe strike with the remnants of her shield.

The latter almost splintered apart into smaller pieces after fending off the blow. People considered axes to be the ultimate shield killers, and this incident tested this maxim again.

Captain Vicar unleashed a hail of blows with the Havalax. Melinda frantically tried to disengage from the attacks, but the Havalax stubbornly stuck to her mech.

CRACK!

The Blackbeak's phoenix shield finally croaked its last breath and split apart into useless chunks. The sudden loss of the shield provided Vicar with an opening. He locked his sword with his opponents while chopping down with his axe along the Blackbeak's unprotected chest!

An awful rent resulted from that devastating strike. The axe had chopped right through all three layers of armor but stopped short from dealing any major damage to the power reactor. Still the attack exposed the Blackbeak's chest and left it open to a coup de grace.

The Havalax had run out of momentum after that last attack. This allowed the Blackbeak to bounce away and flee out of reach. The loss of its shield had liberated its speed as well.

Though the Blackbeak didn't gain as much speed as its opponent, it still proved vital in dragging out the engagement.

The two mechs ran in circles as Melinda desperately engaged in damage control. The Blackbeak not only lost its shield, but it also had to deal with various levels of damage to its frame.

Even if the Havalax started to run out of steam, Melinda wouldn't be able to put up a decent fight if she had to watch the rents in the Blackbeak's frame. The main issue was that her shield arm had become exposed. Without another shield, Melinda would be hard-pressed to survive against another barrage of swords and axes.

"Although… didn't this mech come with a shovel?"

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Despite the battle damage the Blackbeak incurred, its shield arm remained somewhat functional. Melinda managed to retract the spade integrated in the back of her mech and hold it like a makeshift axe.

"Is that a spade?" Captain Vicar asked with bemusement. "Your arm is already falling apart. It won't do you any good!"

"That's for me to decide!" Melinda spat back as she moved her mech to meet the Havalax in battle.

The crowd turned ecstatic at the visceral exchange of blows. Both mechs dual wielded their weapons with a varying amount of proficiency. Unfortunately, Melinda fell into leeward due to her mech's damaged shoulder and her relative lack of experience in fighting with two weapons at once.

The Havalax showed off its might by batting away the spade with its axe. The Blackbeak barely held onto the spade and recovered just in time to deflect another swing.

Every time the Blackbeak seemed pressed, Melinda always managed to recover in time. Sometimes she even hit back in unexpected ways by lashing out with a low kick in between another swing.

"You're better than I thought." Captain Vicar grunted in frustration as he tried to peel away Melinda's defenses.

The problem for him was that he pressed his mech too hard for too long. All of that running had especially stressed the Havalax's power reactor. To prevent his mech from overheating, Vicar reluctantly dialed down its power levels and therefore the amount of power his machine could exert.

He had no other choice. If he kept operating his mech at its maximum power level, then he had to be able to end the match in the next two or three minutes.

Ordinarily, Captain Vicar wouldn't have hesitated to take the most aggressive option. Yet after trying and failing to take out the Blackbeak several times, Vicar developed a modest amount of respect for Melinda.

"I always heard you Larkinsons are tough as brass, but this is the first time I've seen it for myself! You should have joined the Infernal Hellhounds!"

Melinda often received such compliments in her career. "Sorry, Captain, but all of that traveling and military discipline isn't for me. I'm happily serving with the Planetary Guard."

Even though the Havalax dialed down some of its power, it still managed to hold the advantage due to the difference in skill. Captain Vicar's mech sustained little damage so far. Any blows Melinda got past his guard landed squarely on the Havalax's thick chest armor which easily blunted glancing blows.

Getting the Blackbeak's sword to punch through all of those layers of armor required specialized techniques which Melinda didn't practice very much in lately.

Any time she tried to put some weight into her blows by turning the Blackbeak's torso or moving the entire frame forward, she telegraphed to the whole world what she planned to do. It was child's play for Captain Vicar to read her movements and adjust his own.

Melinda made a risky decision. She feinted another serious attack, which prompted the Havalax to put up a defensive posture. The Blackbeak quickly interrupted its original movements and instead continued its turn while stepping away from its opponent.

"It's been fun, captain, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do!"

"Coward!"

The Blackbeak ran at full throttle through the narrow gaps between the cliffs. Even though it exerted quite a bit of strength and suffered from a few more telling blows, the mech's mobility hadn't been affected. It ran as fast and spry as in the beginning of the match.

In contrast, the Havalax suffered relatively little damage but exhibited the largest decrease in performance so far. For all of its upper-body strength, when it came to the engines and legs, the white mech didn't enjoy a substantial edge over its adversary without resorting to its boosters.

Captain Vicar bit his lip as he grappled with a dilemma. The Havalax didn't incorporate a lot of high-powered boosters in its back, and their fuel capacity left a lot to be desired. He engaged them once already, which meant the Havalax only carried enough fuel to boost it one more time.

He decided to bite the bullet. His mech would only start to degrade from this point onwards. All of that time spent chasing and fighting hadn't weakened the Blackbeak to its limits.

Heat and smoke started to emit from the overstressed Havalax as it began to run on fumes. The limited amount of boosters installed in its back flared with white as they pushed the offensive knight forward.

Melinda noticed the elevated heat signals emanating from the mech of her opponent, and she knew she was in trouble. Her eyes darted back and forth but she found no way to exploit the terrain to her advantage.

Her eyes drew down towards the weapons the Blackbeak currently wielded. Her spade hadn't been very useful so far. The damage to the shield arm had been too extensive to make efficient use of the limb.

She decided to throw it at her opponent. The Blackbeak made blind overarm throw that spun the spade towards the incoming Havalax. Captain Vicar managed to cross his mech's armaments in time, which deflected the spade over the head of his mech.

The move momentarily slowed the Havalax down while allowing the Blackbeak to run a little faster. Still, the interruption didn't change the fundamental equation. The Havalax would be upon its prey in seconds before its boosters ran out of juice.

Melinda considered throwing away her sword, but changed her mind fairly quickly because she still needed a weapon to finish off her opponent. She needed to pull another trick if she wanted to survive this latest crisis.

"If you want a piece of me so bad, then here I come!"

The Blackbeak turned on its heels and ponderously halted its momentum. It faced the incoming Havalax with only a single sword in its hand.

Captain Vicar didn't expect his opponent to make a stand, but he welcomed it anyway as he pushed the Havalax to collapse upon the seemingly vulnerable Blackbeak with a double overhead chop.

Just before the Havalax landed the blows, Melinda abruptly jinked her mech into a ball. The Blackbeak hunched forward and began to roll, something which few mechs had been built to withstand! Ves practically stood up from his seat when he saw the move.

Wonder above wonder, the Blackbeak didn't collapse on itself during its rolling motion. Its armor largely held up, aided by the fact that the mech sustained most of its damage in its frontal areas.

What didn't help the mech was that the Havalax suddenly tripped over its frame. A messy impacted resulted from the sudden roll as Captain Vicar failed to adjust his mech in time. All of that boosting had forced his mech to rocket forward and fall into an undignified heap.

Both mechs suffered serious impact damage as the Blackbeak's back collided against the Havalax's legs.

The entire arena fell into silence as they wanted to find out which mech recovered first. Despite the collision, the Blackbeak managed to keep on rolling until it stopped in a crouch. Melinda carefully straightened up her mech while she suppressed all of the error messages.

A couple of fuel cells suffered catastrophic damage. Some of it had been ejected by the Blackbeak, but the deformities on its back prevented some of the cells from vacating their slots.

Besides the ruptured fuel cells, the damage to the Blackbeak's torso also affected its internals in other ways. Some of the delicate power channels turned inoperable, which affected the Blackbeak's already meager peak performance.

"It could have been worse." Melinda muttered as she brought her mech to an upright position. "How's it going, Captain?"

"Who the hell rolls a mech?! Don't you know how dangerous that is?!"

Vicar indeed had much to complain. The Havalax's legs suffered major deformities from the collision. The damage didn't cripple the limbs, but disabled enough systems to severely hamper its movements. The captain guessed that his Havalax would only be capable of jogging at most.

He let out a cry of frustration! Melinda's stupid roll managed to cripple his mech to the point it had no hope of continuing the chase! It was an abrupt and ignoble end to his chance of winning the duel.

Landing the deathknell, Melinda tested the Blackbeak's mobility. Despite the earlier collision, the black mech's overall toughness allowed it to shrug it off with only a moderate loss of performance. It could still continue to run at a fair pace, which was a lot better than what the Havalax could manage with its half-crippled legs.

Melinda started to grin and began to stroll away from the Havalax with her mech. Even though it was a bumpy ride, the Blackbeak's integrity insured it wouldn't fall apart any time soon.

Meanwhile, Captain Vicar still hadn't given up. The Havalax's legs looked bad, but he hoped that the collision had affected the Blackbeak as well. With shaky movements, his battered mech climbed up to its feet. It then started to chase after its opponent yet again.

The next few minutes turned into a rather sad affair as the Blackbeak easily teased the lumbering Havalax along the battlefield. While Melinda felt playful enough to tease the movement-impaired Havalax, her common sense prevailed and she kept a healthy distance instead.

To all of the people expecting blood, the duel had turned into a boring farce. The Havalax didn't seem capable of catching up to the Blackbeak unless the latter mech suffered from another malfunction, which didn't appear to be happening anytime soon.

Melinda's legendary roll had already entered the annals of history as the spectators spread the news along with captured footage from their comms. The Larkinsons inadvertently gained prominence throughout the Republic even before the duel had formally ended!

Watching from above, Ves shook his head at Captain Vicar's dogged persistence. His belief in himself was admirable, but his machine eventually couldn't keep up with him. While he never expected Melinda to turn the tides in such an unexpected manner, he felt relieved that his faith in his niece had borne out.

"I think this sideshow has gone on long enough." Ves remarked to Dumont. "It's time to throw in the towel."

His rival mech designer deepened his glower. Of all the reasons for Dumont's mech to fall behind, it had been a simple roll that spelled the end for his ambitions. His entire plans had fallen apart due to that fateful roll. It was practically an iron-clad rule that mech pilots should never attempt to roll their mechs!

In truth, Ves didn't design his mech to accommodate a roll. However, he did strengthen his mech's internal structure around its back in order to make it easier for the Blackbeak to dig up hardy soil. All of that modest strengthening also happened to have mitigated much of the potential damage his mech might have incurred from the roll and the collision that followed.

Dumont let out a frustrated sigh. "I concede."

A tone sounded out throughout the entire arena, announcing the end of the design duel. Mech designers had the right to concede on behalf of their pilots because design duels tested the mechs rather than the individual pilots. Dumont's words definitely put an end to his challenge and his hopes of boosting his profile.

From now on, Ves could brag that he designed the better mech, and most people would believe him at face value. The public might not understand a highly technical spec sheet, but they definitely understood the outcome of a duel. For all of its advantages, the Havalax hadn't managed to prevail against a competing design.

Ves smiled for the recorders, which hopefully broadcasted his face throughout the entire Republic. This must have been something that Dumont had been looking forward to himself. Ves reaped all of the rewards, while Dumont had to contend with social and financial ruin.

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The manner in which Melinda achieved victory looked comical, but it happened to have worked out in the end. Nobody knew whether she decided to roll the Blackbeak on a whim or with calculation.

Even Melinda didn't know how to answer that question. At the time, she had entered a highly immersive state where the boundaries between herself and the mech had blurred. Even as she exited her cockpit, a horde of reporters tried asking her how she came up with the idea.

"I got hit in the head and decided to take a tumble!" She shouted randomly and pressed her way past the annoying people in order to head for the showers.

Her answer became headline news along with a recounting of the duel. Various publications put their own spin on it.

Some saw it as a classic David vs Goliath struggle. Piloting a lower-performing mech, Melinda did her best to hang on to the end where she found an opportunity to upset the balance between the Blackbeak and the Havalax.

Others saw her victory as a cruel joke. Both her mech and her overall skill as a pilot couldn't compare to the qualities of Captain Vicar and the Havalax he piloted. In any objective measure, the latter combination should have won against Melinda and the Blackbeak.

One factor that played a big role was the terrain. The rocky terrain and the various obstacles played to the Blackbeak's advantage in agility. As the slightly lighter mech, it had been able to neutralize the Havalax's edge in speed by leading it through narrow terrain. This delayed Captain Vicar's one-sided thumping and sufficiently expended his mech's reserves.

The disparity in their performances led the pundits to take a closer look at the designs. They not only compared the spec sheets, but they also took a look at the publically available schematics, hoping to figure out what made the Blackbeak hold under pressure while the Havalax faltered in the end.

"The Havalax is a top-heavy design! It's the nature of a knight to be clad in thick layers of armor, but Mr. Dumont strangely decided not to strengthen the legs."

"That's not a fair characterization of his decision-making. The Blackbeak's legs are almost identical, but I don't see you raising any alarms about their lack of strength. What really happened was that the Havalax had run headlong into a stumbling block and crippled itself as a result. Anyech would wreck its legs at those boosted speeds!"

"That just shows how short-sighted Mr. Dumont really is! He piled up all of that sprinting capacity onto his mech without implementing enough safeguards His design would have been better off without those boosters!"

All of this discussion became moot, as the only thing that really mattered was that Ves had won against Dumont. The boost in credibility that he received could not be underestimated. All of the extra media attention that came with his victory also helped profile his design.

The Blackbeak had become an iconic sight. Its amazing appearance and its stubborn refusal to collapse had become etched in the eyes of the spectators of the match. Even if most of the Republic didn't witness the duel, word of mouth insured that a lot more people started to hear about the design.

Ves decided to strike while the iron was hot and answer some questions from the media down at the press area. He left the elevated platform to allow Dumont to wallow in his pity and took a lifter platform down to where the reporters congregated.

"Mr. Larkinson! How does it feel to be a winner?"

"Fantastic, although I always expect to win at the start. I never doubted my mech and my cousin could prevail in the end!"

In truth, Ves bit his lip and clenched his fists plenty of times throughout the duel, but he didn't admit to having doubts. He wanted to portray absolute confidence in front of the press in order to enhance his design's mystique.

"How did you come up with the Blackbeak's striking appearance? Did you hire a sculptor to shape its external armor?"

"That's all me!" Ves proudly declared. "The distinctive appearance of the Blackbeak denotes its premium status as the Living Mech Corporation's gold label product line, which are available in limited quantities as they are all hand-crafted by me. More accessible versions of the Blackbeak will be released at a later date."

He answered a few more inane questions from the media before he sought refuge at the backstage. Even then, a lot of people who managed to get in wanted to have a word with him. He finally pushed past the throng with his strong body and reached Melinda's rest room.

"Melinda! Are you okay?"

"I'm fine." She waved away her concern as she lay sprawled onto a sofa, looking to the world as if she was a dead pig. "I'm just exhausted, that's all. That duel took a lot out of me. No offense, Ves, but I never hope to parade myself in front of the entire Republic again."

Ves took a nearby seat and turned to gaze at his fellow Larkinson. Melinda looked sweaty and drained in her piloting suit. Even though the duel only lasted less than twenty minutes, the import of her decisions took a toll on her psyche.

"How did it feel to pilot the Blackbeak into battle?"

"It's… sublime." Melinda responded as she struggled to find the right words. "It's an unforgettable experience. I already got a taste of your mech during practice, but bringing it into an actual fight is something else. All the other mechs I've piloted in my career have never responded as smoothly as the Blackbeak. It's as if I reached a higher state of being. It's probably why I delivered my best performance as a pilot up to this point."

The Blackbeak worked as intended, then. Ves smiled at her. "That's the kind of product I've been itching to design from the start. I wanted to design a mech that can work together with its mech pilot. Too many designs out there promise to be the fastest or strongest mechs in their class, but ultimately lack too much balance to make them live up to their potential."

"Can I have a mech like that too?"

"Not yet." He shook his head. "I can't give them away like candy, you know. Ask me again a few years later."

Ves left Melinda to recover on her own and entered an armored shuttle that brought him back to Marcella's brokerage. He already received a number of important notifications on his comm including a request to attend an emergency board meeting to discuss the imminent future of the LMC.

He found it kind of annoying that the board decided to convene without his permission, but the circumstances really did call for a major shift in direction. Ves walked past the foyer and entered the elevator up to the mech broker's office.

"Marcella."

"Ves. You're here! The board is already waiting. Let's enter the conference room."

The conference room in her office looked swankier than his own. Various precision models of past models adorned the crevices in the walls. Ves paid little attention to those details and took his seat at the head of the table. The projectors flared to life as soon as he did.

A total of eight people had gathered to discuss the the dilemma facing the LMC. Marcella took the word.

"As you know, Michael Dumont issued a challenge to Ves." She began. "Unless you've been living under a rock, then you already know the outcome. Right now, both the Blackbeak and Ves have gained prominence throughout the Republic, but that won't last for long. With how fast the media works, any attention directed to us will fade by the end of the week."

"How are our sales faring so far?"

"We've sold out our initial production run of twenty-five gold-label Blackbeaks." Ves responded. "It will take a little less than two months to complete this order."

"That's not enough! Mrs. Bollinger, how high is the demand for the new model?"

"They're constantly knocking at my door. My estimate is that if we prepared five-hundred mechs, we could have sold them out within the day. This is only possible due to all of the hype that followed the duel. Our failure to meet this spike in demand will potentially cost us billions of credits in lost opportunities."

The news sounded very painful to Ves. By failing to build up a stockpile or declining to expand their production capacity, the LMC effectively waved away an opportunity to cash in on their fifteen minutes of fame. While they didn't actually lose any money, their lack of preparations effectively meant they flew past a pile of free cash.

"There's a way for us to salvage this situation." Another director stated. "I've proposed this before, and I think it deserves another chance. We should partner up a third-party manufacturer and leave the mass production of the Blackbeak up to them. I know several parties in Bentheim that will be eager to enter a contract with us for the right to produce a popular design."

Ves liked to maintain control over his own products, which was why he rejected the suggestion out of hand. The director's ties to those mech manufacturers also seemed rather shady.

He shook his head. "I'm still have a lot of qualms about the quality of the products by an external manufacturer. Any major defects will reflect back to us, which will tarnish our reputation as a premium mech manufacturer."

Sadly, out of all the board members, Ves remained the sole holdout on this topic. Every other board member including his own grandfather indicated that they wished to outsource production!

"Ves, I understand why you treat the company that you founded like a baby, but you are stifling its potential." Marcella explained to him. "There is nothing unusual about contracting out the production of a design. That's why the license model exist. Any faults resulting from shoddy fabrication will mainly reflect on the contracted company. We'll only get the blame if your design is at fault."

The meeting somehow moved on to inspecting a handful of quick-thinking mech manufacturers that applied to mass produce the Blackbeak on the LMC's behalf. They all wanted to waive the massive 3 billion credits licensing fee in favor of slightly higher per-unit royalty fees. All of the manufacturers had low-balled their offers, but many things could still be changed when they entered talks.

They narrowed down the list to three possible companies, one of which had been recommended by director from Bentheim. The other two manufacturers possessed their own merits, as they had a long track record of producing various models on behalf of other mech designers in decent numbers.

"Maybe we should contract all three of them?"

"That's not a good idea. We don't know how the current tide in demand will last. The Blackbeak is still an expensive design. Even if you lower the price to 50 million credits, there aren't enough buyers in the local market to snap them all up."

"Then we should expand our reach throughout the entire Komodo Star Sector! The Blackbeak has proven itself in battle. I'm sure that we can find some foreign partners to work with to make that happen."

"Let's not move too quickly." Marcella cautioned the high-flying directors. "First, we have to solve our problems close at home before we can think of entering another market."

Despite the Bentheim director's clamoring to hand over a contract to his preferred firm, the board decided to pit the three companies against each other by allowing them to enter some kind of bidding process. The mech manufacturer that offered the most attractive conditions won the opportunity to enter into a contract with the LMC.

"What do you think, Ves? Do you agree with the plan we've hashed out?" Marcella gently prodded him. She knew how sensitive he could be about this issue. "The best way to go forward is if you establish another product category that sits below your current silver label offerings. Let's call it the bronze label. This can be an exclusive label that you can apply to mechs made by outside parties."

Ves had remained silent throughout the discussion. He still felt rather ill about the whole thing. Bronze label? He might as well call it the trash label. However, deep down he knew that his company would be better off if it could borrow the production capacity of another mech manufacturer.

He bent his head until his chin hit his chest and considered the matter deeply for a few minutes. Eventually, he gave up. "Alright. Let's contract the bronze label to a third-party manufacturer. I do want to add that the contract better include strict language on quality control."

The board had been waiting for that answer. With his assent, they formed a brief set of goals for the coming month. While Ves adjusted the BP-A-01's design for mass production, the LMC had to find a partner by the end of the week.

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The entire matter about outsourcing the production of bronze label Blackbeaks had spread throughout the entire company. None of the workers under Ves felt very concerned. In fact, everyone felt excited to be part of something big. The option to leave the heavy lifting to another manufacturer was seen as boon to the LMC as a whole.

"Look at it this way." Gavin told him next morning as Ves prepared to go on a field trip. "Up until now, most of your new recruits had nothing to do. The anemic sales of the Mark II generates so little paperwork that most of them felt useless."

Ves raised his eyebrow as he finished dressing. "Is handing over most of our production to a third-party manufacturer going to change anything?"

The way these outsourcing contracts worked in the mech industry was that a mech designer sold the rights to exploit a design to someone else. Often times, the third-party manufacturer also gained the right to sell the mechs based off the borrowed design through their own channels with their own branding.

This last point served to raise the profile of the third-party manufacturer while simultaneously isolating any faults from affecting the original mech designer. Only rarely did the mech designer insist on retaining his company's original branding. That only happened if the two parties entered into a long-term alliance or if the mech designer owned a significant stake in the other manufacturer.

Essentially, it came down to control.

"Ves, just because the third-party manufacturer is going to do their own thing doesn't mean we're left in the dust. A strong surge in sales of the bronze label version will affect the popularity of the silver label and gold label versions as well. We aren't competing against our own partner for the same group of buyers."

Those that wanted to acquire more distinguished mechs could afford to wait for the LMC to produce their premium copies. Meanwhile, those who only wanted to buy the Blackbeak for its performance could order a cheaper copy with much less wait time from a third-party manufacturer.

"I admit, I'm not entirely sold on the idea. We don't actually get that much money from our partner as well. It's only a couple of millions of credits at most."

Gavin shook his head. "That's money that we basically earned for free. It doesn't cost us anything to extend a license to someone else. Sure, we need to keep an eye on them to insure they don't make shoddy mechs, but as long as they follow the agreement, we can sit back and relax while the money rolls in."

Some mech designers made their living licensing out their products. They setup design studios and focused solely on coming up with the best designs they could make. As for turning them into actual mechs? The third-party manufacturers handled all of that. They just went back to inventing newer designs while enjoying the steady stream of licensing fees.

Ves couldn't imagine working like that. He valued his designs and wanted any mechs built according to his schematics to be wholesome products that added genuine value.

To that end, Ves planned to go on a trip. "Gavin?"

"Yes, boss?"

"Please arrange an appointment with the three manufacturers we've entered talks with. I want to take a look at their production facilities."

"Why would you do that? The manufacturers have been very forthcoming with informing us of their available production capacities."

"It's not enough to know how fast and how efficient they can pump out mechs. I want to see whether they put their heart into their mechs."

Gavin scratched his head. "If you say so."

The LMC's various departments had been working at full tilt since yesterday. Marketing brought forward their advertising plan as soon as they secured a third-party manufacturer. They also released the virtual version of the Blackbeak onto all of the popular mech sims in order to ease some of the pressure that had been building up.

"The public is getting their fix for the moment. First impressions are very positive." Gavin reported as they sat in an armored shuttle. Ves was already on his way to the company's first potential partner. "We're hoping that will translate to persistent demand for the real thing."

"That will definitely happen." Ves nodded with a confident smile. Even though the virtual interface muted much of the Blackbeak's appeal, it should still convey some of the magic of its X-Factor. "Tell me about our destination. Who are we visiting first?"

His employee pulled up a data pad and browsed through its contents. "We're on our way to a major mech manufacturer called Vaun Industrial."

Ves remembered that company. The director from Bentheim always pressed the others to enter a strategic partnership with Vaun. It made Ves suspect that the two shared some sort of connection.

"Vaun owns three production complexes and produces a range of heavy vehicles and equipment. Still, two out of three of their complexes are devoted solely to producing mechs en masse. Their last public report states that they've been contracted to produce a number of models for seven different mech manufacturers."

They sounded like big players. A company like that should have been out of the LMC's league. "Does Vaun still have enough spare capacity to produce a sufficient number of bronze label mechs?"

"Well, Vaun has offered to dedicate at least eight production lines in the first half year. After that, they'll adjust their resources according to the winds of the market. If the mass-produced Blackbeak ends up being a hit, then they can easily shift their numbers to produce less of one mech and more of ours."

Gavin didn't mention that Vaun could also decide to go the other way. If sales of the Blackbeak slumped, then they could easily shift to more profitable alternatives.

To be honest, Ves already had a bad impression of Vaun. He merely decided to visit them in order to appear more impartial.

The shuttle landed after roughly an hour. Ves spent his time on tweaking a copy of the Blackbeak's design for mass production. He saved his current progress and stepped out of the hatch to the sight of a vast complex of factories.

"Welcome to our third and newest production complex! You must be Mr. Larkinson!"

Ves shook hands with a graceful looking woman. "My name is Melody Vaun, and I'm the director of this complex. Please follow me!"

They walked towards one of the enclosed production facilities while Melody narrated the history of the company. "Like many mech manufacturers, Vaun Industrial started out when my grandfather achieved a lot of success. He excelled in both mech design and business, so his company grew fast."

What followed next sounded similar to the stories Ves had heard before. Her grandfather became increasingly proficient at designing mechs, but his children proved to be a disappointment. They all grew up learning how to design a mech and how to run a business, but they pretty much only cared about money.

This gave grandfather Vaun a lot of grief, and due to some incidents that Melody quickly glossed over, he died an early grave.

His death presented a crisis for the company, which had expanded to the point where they operated five whole production lines for mechs. Without any new designs, Vaun would quickly fall into irrelevance. His children frantically sought another mech designer to take over in their grandfather's stead.

"We managed to enter a number of short-term contracts with various people and organizations that need things done. They never lasted more than a year or two, but it kept our company afloat."

Vaun Industrial never managed to find a mech designer good enough to produce as much sales as their late founder. A few years passed while the heirs kept accepting contracts, until they suddenly realized that Vaun Industrial didn't need to appoint another lead designer to survive as a business.

"When times became hard, we started cutting costs." Melody spoke."We eventually became quite good at efficient mass production, to the extent that our company was able to reinvest our profits into expanding our production line."

Fifty years later, Vaun Industrial ended up as a large manufacturer of mechs and other heavy gear that worked with multiple mech designers every year. Melody bragged that the secret to their success lay in their pursuit of efficiency.

"Our production lines are some of the fastest on Bentheim." She claimed, though Ves doubted their veracity. "We're able to maintain some of the highest rates of production."

"What about defects?"

"They're barely noticeable. You just reminded me of their existence."

They finally reached the closest facility. After Ves went through a thorough inspection, he followed Melody inside a cavernous white hall filled with lots of white production equipment.

He immediately turned his gaze to the 3D printers, which appeared to be smaller but faster than the Dortmund in his own workshop. Ves immediately noticed that all of the machines had been dedicated to fabricating the same components over and over again.

Melody walked over to the nearest machine. The printer worked so hard it emanated a lot of steam. "We utilize a batch production system where we fabricate enough parts to assemble hundreds of mechs at a time. These printers are highly efficient and self-sufficient at their jobs. They detect most defects on their own and scrap their current progress is the deviation is severe enough to impact the quality of the end product."

That meant that Vaun retained the components with only minor deviations. Ves would have tossed them out regardless, but Vaun obviously thought differently.

After admiring the largely automated fabrication process, they moved on to the assembly area. Large amounts of half-built mechs stood at a row. Parts were being lifted into place by a combination of advanced anti-grav technology. This prevented the assembly area from being cluttered by a sea of lifter bots.

"Similar to our fabrication process, our assembly process takes advantage of the automation processes that we've developed in-house. Incidents are rare enough that only a single person is needed to look over the assembly of thirty mechs at once."

"What kind of incidents can happen?"

"Oh, you know, screw ups that our bots have difficulty processing." She explained. "Sometimes, the bots mix up the parts for one model for another. Other times, the anti-grav system acts up and drops a couple of components. This doesn't happen more than a few times a year, so don't worry about our capabilities. We never fail to meet our production targets."

Ves wanted to talk with some of the mech technicians that worked on the factory floor, but Melody strongly denied his request. He frowned at her. "Why can't I have a simple talk with them?"

"Our apologies, Mr. Larkinson, but we've already been generous to you by allowing you to take a look. Much of our success lies in our proprietary methods and we can't insure that our technical staff will know what to say and what to withhold. In order to maintain our trade secrets, it's company policy to never let anyone speak with our experts."

As an apology, Melody guided him to an office in which he could view a variety of different designs they produced over the years. Many of the designs came from promising Apprentice Mech Designers or newly advanced Journeyman Mech Designers who hadn't expanded their own facilities yet.

Ves didn't doubt Vaun's competence as a mech manufacturer. They worked with so many different designs that they required no adjustment time to master the production of a new design.

Vaun ran a tight ship. They could be trusted to take his design and produce hundreds of bronze label Blackbeaks without any sweat. Out of the three possible candidates to entrust his Blackbeak design, partnering with Vaun appeared to be the least riskiest option.

He still disliked them, though. Beyond the disconcerting level of automation, Ves hadn't been allowed to talk with the mech technicians or supervisors who operated the production equipment. The only person from Vaun he really talked to was Melody Vaun, who mainly tooted her company's horn.

Mentally, he already crossed them out of consideration. He'd probably have to argue against the entire board for refusing to work with Vaun. Hopefully, the other two mech manufacturers offered something better.

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Dumont had been drowning his sorrows in his private mansion. He sent most of the the staff away, allowing him to avoid the scornful gazes of his own men.

"Here I am, a drunk and a failure."

Despite setting up the board in his favor, he failed to secure a crucial victory. Dumont put his own reputation at stake when he pitted his Havalax against Larkinson's Blackbeak. It should have been a slam-dunk win considering the Havalax's high performance characteristics turned it into an excellent dueling mech.

Nothing was ever set in stone.

He learned that lesson in the most painful way. Even a captain of the Mech Corps failed to account for the treacherous terrain and the bewildering decisions made by his opponent.

Dumont raised a glass at Melinda Larkinson's resourcefulness.

"People always say that the Larkinsons can't be messed with. They're the Republic's mangy wolves."

People called them wolves because they fought in a ferocious manner. They also called them mangy because they weren't really a big deal compared to the other military dynasties that held more sway in the Bright Republic.

Obviously, the emergence of a talented Larkinson mech designer changed the old equation. For the first time, it appeared the famous Larkinson Family gained some actual financial muscle.

All of that had nothing to do with him, of course. The highly placed folks who opposed the Larkinsons had secretly pulled some strings to allow the elite Captain Vicar to duel on his behalf.

"Hmph." He snorted. "What an elite he turned out to be."

"What happened yesterday is not his fault." An incisive female voice spoke from behind.

Dumont practically jumped from his seat, spilling his drink in the process. Tiny cleaner bots quickly cleaned up the mess, but that hardly calmed his heart. "Heavens! How did you sneak up to me, Catelyn?"

"It's not that difficult to bypass your security systems when you dismissed most of your security." The Ricklin scion sneered. "Any two-bit thug with a gun can approach you before you notice it. And last I'm aware of, you don't wear a shield generator that can stop an attack."

"I figured it didn't matter if I put my mansion on lockdown." Dumont shrugged. "If you decided to get rid of me, nothing I do will matter."

Catelyn Ricklin shook her head as she tutted. "My dear, you always think the worst of me. Did you really think I wrote you off? Hardly. I've diverted a substantial amount of family funds to your endeavors. I'm not about to let my investment go to waste."

Wasteful spending and frivolous business decisions had caused the Ricklin family to decline. In Catelyn's eyes, Vincent Ricklin exemplified the degenerate old ways.

In any case, Dumont started to see the light again. He sobered up and faced Catelyn with his full attention. "You want to continue to collaborate? Even after half of my customers canceled their orders?"

"You're a businessman as well as a mech designer, Michael. It's not the end of the universe if you lose a duel. Certainly, all of the sensationalism surrounding your very public loss will depress your sales, but will anyone still remember you after a month? Just hunker down and ride the storm. Your prospects will surely improve after talk about the duel dies down."

"That still leaves an irremovable stain on my record. I'll hardly be able to climb back out of the pit I dug for myself. The Havalax is a tainted design."

"Then design a new mech! You shouldn't be pining over the fate of a single design! You should be expanding your catalog instead of putting all your eggs in a single basket. In the meantime, your company can muddle through if you sell the Havalax model at a discount. As long as your company stays afloat, there are plenty of opportunities to make a comeback."

Dumont nodded at her words. Earning an ample profit was a luxury at this point. "I get it now. As long as the price is attractive enough, buyers looking for a bargain won't care about the bad press."

The Havalax was still a fundamentally good design. Although its endurance didn't amount to much, the performance it delivered at the start made it suitable to be used as an elite mech. And despite the unexpected outcome of the previous duel, it still held a significant advantage in most situations.

Offensive knights couldn't display their full strength by themselves. They worked best if paired with other mechs, preferably rifleman or artillery mechs. The Havalax would really start to shine if it could do its job as a protector of other mechs.

"You've regained your senses now. Good." Catelyn nodded and turned around to leave the room. "For now, you should weather this crisis. We can make new plans after you stabilized your company."

As Dumont dreamed about reviving his prospects, Ves continued his tour of the potential partners he'd be working with to mass produce the Blackbeaks.

After leaving the industrial complex operated by Vaun, the armored shuttle brought him to the next mech manufacturer on the list. Gavin briefed him on the company.

"The next manufacturer on the list is a company called Vikaris Mechs. VM is a medium-sized family-owned mech manufacturer based in Haston. They started off producing spare mechs from salvaged fabrication equipment and expanded from there. Nowadays, they've grown to the point of running ten production lines. Also, starting from a decade ago, they entered into a long-term partnership with a big Journeyman Mech Designer."

Ves frowned at that news. "Sounds like a great deal for VM. If they partnered up with a Journeyman, then they should have been running their production lines at full capacity. Why are they turning to us?"

"They've fallen on hard times." Gavin replied without much sympathy. "The mech designer they worked with suddenly dumped them out of the blue. From what rumors I've gathered, the mech designer wanted to work with a major mech manufacturer, but had to give up all of his existing contracts to seal the deal."

That designer must have decided to work together with a major mech manufacturer because they could handle more complex designs. Many small and medium mech manufacturers didn't possess the hardware required to fabricate some of the more sophisticated parts that Journeyman-level mechs often hosted.

"VM should have anticipated that something like that might happen. A Journeyman Mech Designer can be very exacting about their designs."

His assistant shrugged. "Well, they obviously didn't take precautions, seeing as they presented us with the most favorable terms. Their negotiators seem very eager to work for us."

Ves took a data pad that contained a document that outlined their latest offers. They indeed conceded a lot of ground during the negotiations. The per-unit licensing fee had somehow climbed up all the way to five million credits.

With an expected sale price of 55 million credits per Blackbeak, that didn't leave much profits for Vikaris Mechs in the future. Everyone expected resource prices to soar once again at the outbreak of war, so Ves didn't assume the current production cost of 41 million credits to stay the same.

The shuttle arrived at Haston after an hour of flight. The working-class city looked as dreary as ever from above. The Bentheim Liberation Movement often found eager recruits from the disgruntled unemployed masses.

The premises of Vikaris Mechs reflected the lack of confidence in public security. It featured high walls and a number of worn but very functional turrets. The armored shuttle and its escorts had to land outside the walls and receive a fairly rigorous inspection before being allowed through the gates.

A portly gentleman greeted him just inside the gates. "Mr. Larkinson, it's a pleasure to meet you. Let me introduce myself. I am Frederick Yang, and I've been steering this company for more than twenty years as CEO."

Frederick looked exhausted and overworked. His black hair started greying early and he didn't bother to use any of the modern grooming solutions to revive them back to their prime.

As Ves shook hands with the man, they walked over to one of the two great halls VM had built up. "I've heard you've recently lost a major client. Can you tell me if your facilities are still up to par?"

The blunt question took the CEO aback. He returned with an awkward smile. "We've parted ways with a major client for reasons unrelated to our performance. Our equipment is fairly old, but we have lots of experienced hands to keep them running smoothly. There is no reason to doubt our capabilities. We are able to fabricate virtually any kind of design an Apprentice Mech Designer might present to us."

They entered a stale and rather worn out fabrication floor. Ves noted a few touches of rust and grime in some of the corners, but nothing truly serious. The CEO guided him to an array of printers which churned out a variety of parts. Each machine had a serious-looking mech technician or fabricator at the helm.

"We operate all of our equipment manually. We believe in providing employment opportunities to the disadvantages communities of Haston, so we bring in those with talent and teach them the essential skills to become a fabricator or mech technicians."

Many of the people indeed looked like they grew up under harsh conditions. Ves found the initiative to be admirable. It must have been difficult to educate a barely literate man or woman from scratch. "Do they have diplomas or certificates?"

"It takes too much money to send them out for examinations." The CEO shook his head. "A diploma doesn't matter too much in our circles because we already know what they are capable of. They don't need to prove themselves to us."

Ves bet that Vikaris Mechs deliberately discouraged certification for more selfish reasons. They spent so much effort bringing up their skills. If they actually gained a diploma, they'd be able to apply to other manufacturers that provided better compensation.

Still, even with this shady exploitation, the staff hardly looked aggrieved with their lot in life. They obtained precious opportunities to elevate their lives without paying any tuition at all.

As he toured the old and rusty alloy compressors and CTMs, Ves got the sense that Vikaris Mechs was a social project. They obviously didn't need to hire so many locals and spend so much effort on shoring up their skills. A score of sturdy bots could have taken over the jobs of as much as half of the people working in the halls.

"I'm very impressed with your setup, Mr. Yang." Ves cautiously praised. "Still, I'm a little concerned by the age of your machines. My design isn't very difficult to make, but Veltrex armor plating is very difficult to work with. Are you sure your gear and your men are up to the task?"

The CEO hastily nodded. "We have decades of experience with fabricating comechs. We can handle the majority of currentgen compressed armor systems. There is no cause for concern, no cause for concern at all!"

Ves nodded politely to him. From what he saw with his own eyes, the CEO didn't lie. As long as the alloy compressors didn't fall apart, they should be able to meet his needs until the next generation arrived. Without a substantial investment, they wouldn't be able to keep up with the latest armor systems.

He wrapped up his visit by talking to a few workers. The CEO seemed unafraid the unsophisticated mech technicians would slip up. They probably didn't know anything important enough to matter.

Indeed, Ves didn't learn anything strange that could change his view on the company. Vikaris Mechs didn't do so well after losing their most essential partner, but they made do for now by performing small jobs here and there. The workers appeared hopeful that their company would recover its pride.

After bidding farewell to Yang, Ves and Gavin returned to their shuttle and left Haston as fast as possible.

Gavin appeared to be glad to get away from the murky town. "Ugh, all of that industrial smell is getting to me. Please let me stay in the shuttle if you want to visit Haston again."

Cloudy Curtain boasted exceptionally clean air, so it wasn't a surprise to Ves that Gavin disliked stepping foot into Haston.

"What do you think about Vikaris Mechs?"

"It's a charity case more than a business. I don't know if the owner is a bleeding heart or not, but you can hardly step forward without bumping into another worker. All of their gear also seems rather dated, but I'm not an expert on those things. The most I can say is that they don't look nearly as professional as Vaun Industrial."

At least they knew how pathetic they looked, because Vikaris Mechs offered the most attractive contract terms by far. Ves told Gavin as much. "They're cheap and they're dedicated. I think we can rely on their sincerity because we'll be their only major client for the time being."

"You get what you paid for. Don't expect consistent quality from these guys."

"True."

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So far, Ves visited two very different mech manufacturers. Vaun Industrial prioritized efficiency above all else while Vikaris Mechs possessed an abundance of heart. That said, neither seemed like the right fit for the LMC.

Gavin partially echoed his findings. "I can understand your doubts about Vaun, but I thought you'd be sympathetic for Vikaris. They employ lots of people and they all seem to care for their work."

"Well, it all seems a bit too harmonious. The people there seem happy, but Frederick Yang is just a patsy. Someone else is pulling the strings in the company."

"Now that you think about it, Mr. Yang doesn't seem very assertive for a CEO. You've got a bright eye for taking of that."

Combined with the overly generous contract terms, all of it seemed suspicious. Ves refused to entertain any further thoughts of cooperation with Vikaris Mechs unless they became more forthcoming on their background.

"Another thing that bugs me is the apparent charity that's going on." Ves continued. "It seems to be built on a fragile base. What if some of those workers harbor sympathies for the BLM? It's incredibly easy for a single infiltrator to sabotage an entire production line, or worse, cover up any instances of defects."

"I didn't think about that. You're right. There's too many people going in and out everyday. All of that security around their complex won't be able to stop a determined saboteur who already has free access to everything from the start."

Ves ran a business, not a social project. The main goals of the LMC should be to advance his interests and make a profit. He couldn't care less about the plight of the citizens of Haston. Bentheim's government should be cleaning up their own messes.

"Let's move onto the next destination. Who are we visiting last?"

Gavin turned to his data pad again. "We'll be dropping by a company called Elemental Mech Engineering. EME is actually a company founded by a reasonably successful mech designer called Andar Neverland. They currently only operate four production lines, but they're fairly modern and capable."

This sounded like another distressed manufacturer. "Is Mr. Neverland still alive?"

"Oh, he's alive and well. He even has a daughter who's a bit younger than you who's studying mech design at Ansel. From what we've gathered, EME has been chugging along great until their licenses expired."

This happened fairly often to mech designers. They budgeted out their earnings and saved up money for a license renewal or a net set of licenses, but something happened along the way that caused a gap to occur. The key here was finding out why Neverland couldn't acquire another set of licenses.

It didn't take too much trouble for Gavin to look up the reasons. "Sales of Neverland's designs have slumped in recent times. A huge transgalactic mech manufacturer entered the market with a fantastic design that outperformed Neverland's own products on both price and performance. Now he's facing a budget shortfall of several billion credits due to the fact he borrowed a lot of money to get his hands on quality fabrication equipment."

"Sounds like EME is Neverland's private playground. Does his company have any experience with doing contract work?"

"Not really. They're scrambling for work but their lack of pedigree in this field of business means that not a lot of clients are tempted to work with them. It also doesn't help that they're asking a lot of compensation for their efforts."

Out of the three parties the LMC had their eyes on, EME offered the least attractive terms. They only agreed to hand over 2.5 million credits per sale, half the offer of Vikaris Mechs. In exchange, EME offered smaller concessions in other areas, such as letting the LMC keep a close eye on their activities.

The shuttle reached the industrial district of Ansel and landed at a cramped and densely built complex that bore the logo of EME. As Ves and Gavin exited the shuttle, they met with the founder and lead designer inside a lobby.

A middle-aged man greeted them with much aplomp. "Mr. Larkinson! It's a privilege to meet you in the flesh! You're a famous mech designer now. The industry is buzzing about your rise to fame."

"You flatter me." Ves casually laughed in return. "My accomplishments pale in comparison to yours."

In his opinion, experts in the mech industry hardly took any notice of Ves. They considered his duel against Dumont to be as trivial as two ignorant toddlers fighting each other over a shiny toy.

Mech designers like Neverland deserved a lot of respect for elevating his company to such a height from scratch. Even if he failed to hedge his bets in recent times, he was still very much ahead of the game compared to someone like Ves.

"I haven't heard much about you. Please tell me about your designs."

Neverland looked eager to talk about his own work. "The pride and joy of the EME is the Klamson series. The Klamsons are a line of striker mechs with varying loadouts, from flamethrowers to shotguns. I've even supplied some of the remote Planetary Guard units with Klamsons armed with fluid projectors."

"Can I take a look at the design?"

"Oh sure! They're archived in the MTA, so it doesn't hurt for you to take a look."

Ves received a data pad that contained a couple of abridged design schematics. He skimmed over the documents and inspected the wireframe schematics with an eye for attention.

In his eyes, the Klamson design didn't look very fancy, but neither did it attempt to overreach its capabilities. It was a simple, workable design that had matured over the course of a decade. The Klamson mechs also benefited from fairly premium third-class components.

Still, despite their qualities, it wouldn't be too hard for a competitor to come up with a better design. They'd have to take some risks and be more skilled, but it could be done without resorting to more expensive components.

In a way, the EME treated the Klamson series like a cash cow. Neverland probably rested on his laurels thinking that a couple of minor updates every year would suffice to keep the design competitive.

He made a big mistake and fell behind as a result. It didn't help that Neverland invested a lot of money into expanding the EME's production capacity just before his sales followed a downward trajectory.

Ves didn't mention anything unflattering and kept his comments positive. "I like what you did with the weapon holsters. Even an unskilled pilot would easily be able to stow his mech's weapons without a fuss."

"That's been a persistent problem in the earliest versions of the Klemsons." Neverland explained. "Some of my early customers used the Klemsons as training mechs, and a lot of inexperienced mech pilots broke their holsters trying to stow away their shotguns. They're not as slim and delicate like laser rifles, so mistakes happened often enough for me to figure out a better solution."

"What made you decide to commit to striker mechs? They're not the most popular archetypes around."

The older mech designer shrugged. "It's all I inherited from my mentor. He's a fanatic about strikers and I took over much of his enthusiasm. There's a lot of charm in striker mechs. They combine some of the best parts about knights and medium-ranged mechs into a single, durable package."

Ves could see some of the appeal. "Still, it must be hard to design a striker."

"Oh, not at all, actually. People who approach the archetype with the mindset of designing a knight or rifleman in a different form will come away disappointed. Strikers demand an entirely new approach. Outsiders always place too much emphasis on accuracy and precision. They weaken the frame too much in order to chase after a dream."

"Don't they require a minimum amount of accuracy?" Ves raised his eyebrow.

If the Blackbeak picked up a laser rifle and decided to use it, it would be liable to hit its own squad members. Such was the danger of neglecting accuracy.

"Mr. Larkinson, the reason why strikers are armed with wide area weapons is because poor aiming is built into the archetype. What they lack in accuracy, they make up for it in strength. Standard doctrine says that strikers should avoid melee combat whenever possible, but in practice they often resort to their bayonets or backup swords to fend off an opponent up close."

Their conversation halted when they reached the fabrication floor. It didn't look as clean as the floor from Vaun, but neither did it look grimy like the floor from Vikaris. The look and feel of EME's floor resembled an upscaled workshop, much like the one owned by Ves.

Recent expansion has left the floor a little cramped. An abundance of shiny new production equipment sat idle. With the lack of demand for the Klemsons and no other contracts to fulfill, the expensive machinery sat dormant.

As for the workers, most of the mech technicians walked back and forth in a daze. They counted their inventory for the umpteenth time or simply sat back and played some games over their comms.

"As you can see, our state-of-the-art production equipment will be able to handle anything you can throw at it, including your wonderful Blackbeak design." Neverland bragged, who willfully ignored all of his idle personnel. "Don't think we are worse than others for maintaining only four production lines, the production speed of these machines will surely be a feast for your eyes!"

Ves didn't recognize the individual production models, but all of the printers, compressors, CTMs and assembly systems looked impressive enough to back his boasts. The EME should be able to produce enough bronze label Blackbeaks to meet demand, if only just.

As Neverland kept boasting about his production capabilities, Ves formed his own judgement on the man and his company. The EME must have landed in fairly dire straits. The fact that his negotiators insisted on retaining as much money as possible should be because the EME's creditors must be knocking on their doors.

If Ves looked closely, the personnel looked like they had already given up. They expected the EME to fold in a month or two, upon which they'd be free to work for someone else. They only stuck around because it would look bad on their records if they quit on their own accord.

"Thank you for allowing me a visit. You've been very candid to me. I appreciate that." Ves said to Neverland when they came to the end of their tour.

Neverland wiped some sweat from his brow. "I figured I wouldn't be able to hide anything from you. The EME is down on its luck, but we only need to shore over this difficult time before we can pick ourselves up. I hope you entrust the mass production of your Blackbeak design to us. Striker mechs and knight mechs have a lot in common, so we can instantly start production."

"I'll consider it carefully!"

Ves and Gavin returned to their shuttle. Now that they finished their field trips, the shuttle turned around to Dorum so that they could return to the hotel near Marcella's brokerage.

"Mr. Neverland is a desperate man." Gavin remarked after a moment of silence. "He's extremely eager to enter into a contract with us, more so than Mr. Yang of Vikaris Mechs."

At least Vikaris had been able to stay afloat by accepting a bunch of tiny short-term contracts. EME's vacant track record in this business segment made it much more difficult for it to do the same.

Still, that might change once people find out about their modern production equipment. EME just had to get past their acute dearth of liquidity.

"Mr. Neverland comes off rather fishy as well, but in a different way from Mr. Yang." Ves stated after thinking back on his visit. "He's a little too sincere, if you know what I mean."

"Do you think it's a calculated ploy to arouse your sympathy?"

"No, nothing like that. It's just that he genuinely loves the craft. His eyes light up whenever he talks about the Klemson or the Blackbeak."

"Then what are you apprehensive about?"

"I feel like Mr. Neverland wants to steal the secrets to the Blackbeak design." Ves concluded. "He'll come up with something identical or apply what he's learned from me to his own design once the EME is done with the contract."

"Oh. That sounds plausible. We probably shouldn't give them the opportunity to steal your hard work, then."

Ves shook his head. "If it's a choice between Vaun, Vikaris and EME, I'd pick the last one any time. Even if they're greedy, they're well worth the effort."

He already made his choice, and not just because he had a bad impression of Vaun and Vikaris. Gavin missed out on a couple of reasons which made EME the most suitable manufacturer for the LMC to collaborate.

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