The Warrior Mechanic

Cael began manipulating the provided simulation lab once he was left to focus. Just as he had predicted, he was given a set number of items to assemble with.

What was most striking about the layout was the lack of extreme systems. Not a single system was either extremely heavy. He assumed this was because people under 18 wouldn’t have the mass to handle such heavy equipment. It would hinder their speed too much to be of use.

From the sounds of things, Lazarro wanted an actuator system that wasn’t too light, and had high strength for its weight. Of course, such marvels of technology wouldn’t be readily accessible in this sort of format.

The technology to work with wasn’t as rudimentary and outdated as with the qualifiers, but it settled right into mid-tier.

The nerves started to get to Cael as he could see the mechanics around him working with absolute ease. Many people were already adding internals to the frames of their intricate designs.

Even through the translucent barriers to obscure his vision, he had been making less progress.

His hands had a slight tremble to them as well, making his work on the exosuit much harder.

Luckily, exosuits weren’t as intensive with internals compared to autonomous bots. The model wasn’t dense and fleshed out but almost like a skin.

Being thinner was usually better.

Revealing an actuator system of the mediumweight class, it fit the requirement of having a high strength-to-weight ratio but had lacklustre power efficiency. For the format of the event explained to him just prior, he deduced that it wouldn’t be a necessity.

1v1 battles never lasted long. There was no need for recuperation or discussion of tactics.

Just pure combat.

Off to a rocky start, his mind slowly started to calm, and was being filled with thoughts related to his own design instead of the other mechanics. His hands steadied slowly, and he could feel the effects of his increased focus.

Along with that, he was finding smart ways to use his current understanding to form unique ways of crafting his exosuit design. The process was going much more smoothly, and he had gotten through a large portion of the internals in just about 2 hours.

However, he found himself not sticking to his convictions. There were a large number and variety of components to work with, so trial and error would be a necessary procedure for the process.

Focusing on the shoulder energy rifle, Lazarro had specifically asked for one that was impactful. He didn’t need energy rifles with a high heat efficiency and fire rate, since he would use the weapon discriminatively.

Principally, the fighter resorted to pure hand-to-hand combat to win fights. What he instead wanted was a body-stopping blaster to make sure that he could control the range in battle.

Placing a barrel on his right shoulder, the hefty equipment needed a counterweight to not affect Lazarro’s balance. As a result, Cael resorted to placing numerous mana cores into parts of the exosuit near its left side.

As he began working the circuitry and internals for these new added components, the hour was over. It was hard to believe that so much time had passed in just that assembly process. It was weird, like his mind had entered a trance-like state.

There was a sea of nervousness and anxiety that surrounded these mechanics. In his chaotic mind, he had imagined these people as all gifted genii that he couldn’t beat. However, those same individuals were doing the same to him and the surrounding mechanics.

During this time as he traversed the stadium in search of Lazarro, he couldn’t stop thinking of improvements of his design. It seemed this rest period didn’t serve as just a refreshment break but also a time for mechanics to analyse and critique their approach.

Cael could already think of slight efficiencies and improvements to his internal design, along with the component layout.

He met up with Lazarro after a somewhat short search, as he was talking to some other fighters of the tournament.

“Oh, hey Cael. How did it go?” He asked.

“Okay. Better than I expected. Of course, it’s not complete, but it should meet your requirements. You can get a look of it whenever you want anyway.” Cael replied.

There was a short silence between the two, but Lazarro looked to be in thought. After a few seconds, he asked another question.

“Are you WarriorMechanic7914?”

This statement almost froze Cael. How could this kid even know his username on the Vault and marketplace? Was his name in the Vault Forum for some reason? Maybe, he was one of his unknown customers. He wasn’t entirely sure, but that would almost mean that the stars had aligned.

How could this person, who could’ve met him previously, also have been partnered up with him in this event?

“Yes, I go by WarriorMechanic7914 on the marketplace. I possess mana and my parents were both warriors, so I feel like it fits me quite well.” Cael explained.

Cael didn’t tell a lie, but also made sure to not give information that wasn’t required.

“Oh, right! I just want to say I love your stuff, that first drone really got me going in the LTM mode.” Lazarro replied.

This thoughtful compliment of his made Cael felt a sense of warmth he wasn’t accustomed to. A smile unintentionally grew across his cheeks.

It felt rather odd but very satisfying to hear another talk so highly of his works.

“I appreciate it. I didn’t really know why it was so popular in the beginning but I’m guessing it’s that LTM you speak of.” Cael jokingly replied, scratching the back of his head.

It felt slightly awkward to take such open compliments like that. Of course, thank you would be a standard reply, but it still made him feel slightly embarrassed – but in a positive way.

“It was the Total War Mode, I’m guessing you didn’t take note of it somehow. Your drone wasn’t that strong but there wasn’t a lot of crazy firepower in the mode. With its speed, the lower tier battle equipment stood no chance!” Lazarro emotively replied.

As he talked, he almost animated every phrase that was stated, exuding his likeness toward the drone.

Cael nodded with awkward laughter before thanking him again. Even if it felt a bit weird, it was great to see that even one of his worse designs was receiving love.

With this boost of confidence, his mentality for the upcoming 3 hours had almost fully reverse. His mind was ridden of its previous self-deprecating musings, and he felt more focused on the design at hand.

Implementing many of his theories to changing his exosuit’s general layout, he could see he was making positive progress. The total space that the main components and sleek framing took up decreased, while simultaneously decreasing the mass required for the suit.

Without any exterior sound but his own, this merely augmented his focus. There was no need for his hearing to mask out any of the background noise; there was none.

His internals were done and dusted by the fourth hour, and Cael was happy with his progress. For a person who hadn’t received a single minute of mechanical education at any form of institute, he was doing exceptionally well.

With the main part done, all that was required was to place the armour plates down. With his metal, the virtual metallurgy system was now a breeze for him. He could easily melt the metals and form them into the needed shapes, without wasting time from eventually discarded faulty plates.

This didn’t mean that it wasn’t an occurrence – it still happened a handful of times. However, it was no where near enough to even minorly disrupt his flow.

With the final hour, he spent it finalising the armour shelling but mainly improving the overall design as much as he could. Cael moved with swiftness -as to not be hindered by time constraints- but this left him with a manageable amount of time left to tie a knot in his work.

While thinking of methods of improving his design, he thought back to Lazarro and his character. He imagined what sort of fighter he would be from his desires and build. Complete understanding of who he was building this exosuit for was key to make sure it would be as efficient as possible.

There was only so much the fighter could do when the fighter he was attempting to analyse wasn’t present.

With half an hour to go, again hit by a strike of luck, the silver-haired boy had revealed himself. He gave a few quick glances to the other floating exosuit designs that surrounded him and was met with hostile glares from the mechanics that stood beside them.

Lazarro wasn’t scared of those who couldn’t even fight. What could they do to intimidate him?

Arriving at Cael’s designated space, he immediately began analysing the exosuit and nodded with affirmation. This warrior couldn’t truly take pleasure in viewing the intricacies of modern military technology, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t excited to give the exosuit a try.

“I like what you’ve done here, it’s exactly what I asked for.” Lazarro confirmed, walking around the central screen to see it from different angles.

“Thanks, that’s what I was hoping for. I was actually going to ask you; how exactly do you fight?” Cael asked, zooming out of a certain portion of the suit in another floating panel.

“Well, I use mainly fists, I kick sometimes against taller fighters and things. Grappling’s fun but it’s not really honourable, I’d much rather beat down someone with my knuckles instead of getting them in some ratty headlock.” Lazarro explained.

Cael chuckled at his last comment, and could hear the frustration of avid vault gamers in his tone of voice. Grappling was looked down upon in 1v1 matches, since it could just make a battle uneventful and ultimately unenjoyable for fighters.

Nevertheless, it was a crucial part of warfare in real life, so there was little that could be done to totally erase it from the vault.

However, those details were too surface level. Many fighters likely met the criteria of that vague description. Cael wanted not only to figure out how he fought in general, but to pinpoint his unique fighting style.

“I need more than that. I want the absolute specifics. For this to be your exosuit, I want to know your tendencies and style exactly.” Cael replied, with almost a bold and affirmative tone.

Lazarro felt a bit taken aback by his boldness and solemnness, since he felt like his previous descriptions were sufficient. Although, this was exactly what he wanted. With a mechanic like this at his side, he wouldn’t be held back by them but lifted to greater heights in battle through their specialist designs.

With that, Lazarro began to lay the groundwork for his style. It took deep contemplation, since it wasn’t something that most fighters were readily able to explain to pretty much anybody. A style was something that most people observed and didn’t truly know.

In his mind, there was nothing important to it. It was just how he fought. With that, the time had ended, and the design had made some minor changes. Cael wanted to make sure the weight in the arms was as low as possible -while keeping the actuator system identical- to allow him to place substantial power into his punches.

Giving the exosuit a customary swivel, Lazarro nodded with satisfaction upon seeing it.

“Looks great. Can’t wait to get in action with that thing.”

With his design complete, his system desired a name of it. Once again, he didn't muse over the matter and just called it the first thing that came to mind.

[Exosuit: WM Di Fonti]

[Type: Mediumweight Exosuit]

[Evaluation]

[Speed: 53/100]

[Strength: 55/100]

[Power Efficiency: 38/100]

[Agility: 57/100]

[Armor Integrity: 50/100]

[Framing: 48/100]

[Maintenance: 53/100]

[Overall Rank: 52/100]

For the items that he had gotten, it was certainly a job well done. With higher tech components to work with, he was sure the score could’ve increased to at least 65 or possibly even 70 and above.

“Please may all participants remain in their designated areas. To begin the bracketed tournament, the number of contestants will have to drop to 8192. As a result, 1808 designs have to be removed.” An announcement called out.

“If your design platform totally darkens, you and your fighter will be eliminated from the tournament.”

Everybody within the room waited in silence to see the news. Nobody wanted to go home after all this designing, just to not even see their designs get put to use in the battlefield.

A few seconds passed, until the design platforms made simultaneous beeps.

Two platforms had gone totally black, while Cael’s had not. Both him and his fighter associate sighed of relief upon seeing this, while the other mechanics looked distraught.

One’s face fell right into his hands, while their fighter associate seemed furious at their lack of skill. It wasn’t even their fault that they weren’t able to continue, but were also eliminated from the tournament.

“Looks like we’re in it. I guess this all falls down on me now.” Lazarro said, pumping up his chest with dauntlessness.

Other fighters looked slightly nervous upon contemplating the odds, but Lazarro seemed to rise to the occasion. The competitiveness exhilarated him. The pressure in the air did not suffocate him; it invigorated him.

He was ready to compete.