[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 36: Fusion Cup

As the sixth-scoring mech designer, Ves got paired with a native of Bentheim called Charlotte Hoffmeister. The fiery dirty blond-haired woman was built like a leopard, and seemed to regard him that way as well with the narrowed eyes scanning his skinny form. He felt as if the young woman dismissed him as a threat.

"Hi. I'm Ves Larkinson."

The woman's phoenix eyes narrowed at his introduction. "You don't look like a Larkinson."

"Not everyone in my family is a potentate." Ves helplessly shrugged.

"Whatever. Just fix up my Kirby and don't mess things up. Larkinson or not, I'll string you by the balls if you cost me my revenge."

After prying a bit more information from the taciturn woman, Ves learned that Charlotte suffered a humiliating loss against her rival Miranda del Rey, who is now the second-ranked pilot in the competition. She wanted to take advantage of her second chance on the stage to give her rival a comeuppance.

"Damnit, that's Patricia's partner." Ves grumbled. The second-best pilot paired with the second-best mech designer made for a very formidable pair of opponents. "I'll have to put in all my effort and more something special if I want to make it that far."

Everyone went to the improvised workshops that the organizers put up in the unused side arenas. The wrecked mechs the pilots used already rested on a lifting platform.

When Ves saw Charlotte's Kirby, his heart dropped to the bottom of his stomach.

"Your Kirby is.. a heavy mech."

"Yup." The woman smiled with obvious affection. "It's the best damn partner a girl could ask for. He's been my buddy since my final year in the academy."

The Kirby was in actual fact a Raisling Inc. Turbofire RTF-581. The Turbofire was built around the concept of overwhelming mid-range firepower. At the time, it was an excellent fire support mech that provided a powerful amount of suppressive firepower in the battlefield. It was not a mech suitable for arena duels.

The organizers knew this, and came up with a long list of demands ever since the first few YTEs resulted in severe injuries. The firepower of all projectile weapons were reduced substantially. In return, melee attacks also got reduced in power by lowering the mech's arm power. Naturally, the latter could be circumvented by putting the weight of the entire mech in the blow.

This also resulted in melee dominating over ranged weapons in the tournament, which Ves supposed was the intention of the organizers. Too much firepower strained the protective screen that kept the spectators safe from the explosions.

In any case, Ves had to get this lumbering, bipedal gun platform in working condition in just six hours. This might not sound like a problem, but when he saw what Miranda del Ray did to it, he practically despaired. The Turbofire's legs both suffered amputations, which led to the scrapping of both whole legs. In addition, the rest of the mech's surface sported nefariously thin sword marks, which made it easy to exploit the damaged sections.

"This is going to take a lot of work to fix up." Ves said grimly.

Luckily enough, he shored up just enough of his skills to conduct the repairs within a decent amount of time. The only problem was that he could only work on the most critical parts, and leave the cracks in the armor alone due to lack of time. Heavy mechs demanded a lot more resources and time with regards to maintenance and repair. This was one of the reasons why light and medium mechs significantly outnumbered the heavy mechs in service.

Ves tried to discuss making some modifications to the mech to make it more viable to the limited range arena format.

"No. Absolutely not."