The Greatest Mecha-Chapter 31: Designing A Second Generation Mech In A Virtual Workshop 2

The first part Alto started with was the spine of the mech. While it was a good place to start the term spine was more theoretical than actual since the back of a light mech would open up for the pilot to crawl into it. It still seemed like a good place to start if he wanted to align his design.

Having experience with the mech design made things a little bit easier. He had reviewed the major problems of the mech design and they all had one thing in common, that being the wiring. Unfortunately a lot of wires had been forced into slots where they were supposed to remain untouched.

Alto focused on what he wanted in his mech, he wanted something fast and reliable, he positioned the armour where he knew they should be. He thought of removing weight from the armour plates in anyway he could to increase their speed.

The arms and leg armour plates were impossible to reduce without affecting the functionality of the mech. He noticed that the mech had something that infact slowed it down and that being the huge clumps of metals on the mechs shoulder. These were created by Redshot Enterprise to become shoulder mounted lasers but they were never accepted.

Alto felt that this betrayed the mechs design, it seemed to be more like a striker or assassin not a weaponised type mech. Since the shoulder mounts did not fit his vision for the mech he wanted to make he decided to remove it. His hand movements and intentions were interpreted by the workshop interphase and he sent the should mounted lasers into a trash icon. Without their weight to cause the light mech to sway he would be able to maximise its speed to some extent.

Alto looked at the model after putting them back together, it looked very much like a body suit than an actual mech. He was sure it was much faster than it’s initial design but now it looks anything but durable, if a player were to take it into a battle a few shots would send the mech to the scrap heap.

Alto knew that one of the redeeming qualities for mech above all else was durability. And the original manufacturers of the initial Fenwick-720 had sacrificed durability for functionality.

"No wonder their mechs underperformed in the field." Alto said. He was not making fun of the original designers of the model, with his little knowledge of the current times he knew what he had to do. "I have to change the armour plates for a more durable type."

He initiated the in games mech designer shop from the games interface, he could see multiple icons from weapons to mech pieces to designs. He tapped the icon that said armour plates. Within the game he would have to purchase the model of armour plates he wished to get, such purchases were referred to as licence. It was more like a digital consent on a specific design type.

He of course scrolled to the cheapest ones he could get, one of the cheapest being the Compact Alloy which cost 5000 credits per piece. In terms of quality and ease of affordability it was substandard. His knowledge of metallurgy told him it would be worth it. But then came the problem of purchasing it with the in game currency.

Alto pushed by the determination to finish his task proceeded to the selling icon. He tried to see if he could sell the barely operable early second generation mech designs. He doubted anyone would buy it but he persisted and continued to search for buyers for hours, after a long time he counted himself lucky to find a potential buyer.

The person was into older models of mechs, Alto did not know what to think of it but he shrugged as he tapped in the person’s contact on his wrist comm. He felt nervous for two reasons, the first was that it would be his first time conversing with someone on another human inhabited planet and the second reason being it would be about business. Alto had no experience in the field of business, he never even considered him owning one but here he was trying to start a business.

He cleared his throat awkwardly as his mind strayed slightly. "Please pick up." He bit his lower lip.

When the call was about to end the person on the other end picked up the call.

"Hello, I suppose this is the person who contacted us to sell the mech designs." The voice on the other end sounded like that of an old man, and it was in a funny dignified accent.

Alto cleared his throat and tried to sound like a business man. But how did a business man sound again, he tried to imitate the man’s accent but failing slightly. "Yes, I am the ma—"

Before he could finish the person on the other end cut him off. "Indeed, please hold on the line while I relay you to my master."

"Bloody hell, master? What master? Who the hell am I talking to?" Alto kept his thoughts to himself but perhaps he was in over his head.

A few minutes passed with him waiting in the other end in silence, his mind going wild as to who he had just made contact with. If the person had a master then that person was a slave, but did people really have slaves. He was in deep thought when the other line beeped and someone spoke.

The voice that came from the other end this time was much more younger, lighter but carrying that similar accent but a bit less refined. But enough to make Alto remember that he was not speaking to a nobody.

"Well hello my good sir, you are a sir right?"

The cheerful start of the voice caught Alto off guard, "Well, yes."

The voice continued over his voice not paying him any mind. "Well you do sound like a sir, would you know how embarrassed I would be if I greeted first and found out you were a gal instead?" The voice laughed and said. "I would be very disappointed."

Alto tried to imitate a classy accent or at least make up one, he felt that this person was of high status and would cut off the deal if they realised that he was indeed a nobody from some unknown planet. "Good thing you were right." Alto felt this person was someone who like to be right, someone who always wanted to be heard so he chose to be passive during this transaction and stay mutual.

The voice made a slurping sound to show that he was drinking something, he then smacked his lips causing Altos throat to itch a bit.

"So straight to business, you have something I want right? What’s your angle?"

Alto’s confusion reached a peak in that instant. "Angle, what angle?"