Since Mark and the two teens started their game session, around 10 minutes had passed in the real world. But in the virtual world, nearly 50 minutes had passed. This was called accelerated perception and worked similarly to the R.E.M. part of the sleep cycle. Mark had grown a bit more familiar with the design sweet, Alex was happily painting the hangar, and Steve had finally found something that looked promising.
"Mark, I think I have something. It's an old rifleman model, it's about 400 years old. The fabrication rights are only 50 A.M.S. vouchers or 150 L-credits. The model's name is the McCain version 1. For its period, it had decent mobility but average endurance. Compared to the ones today, ... it's trash. I think it's what you wanted.
Mark steps away from the design suite. He then takes a look at the mech itself. It was a humanoid model; there were no integrated weapons on the chassis, no backpack module, and no flight capacity. It was, in all senses of the word, a bare bones machine.
The mech came equipped with a standard laser rifle of the third generation; it was the design's only weapon. By modern standards, it was an archaic weapon. A secondary weapon could be equipped. But it was not standard. The legs of the machine were larger than usual for a medium mech, probably to help with heat dispersion.
"Say, Marksman, why is this mech so ...bare bones?" Steve asked.
"Well, this mech was meant for people with low neuronal capacity. The more functions a mech or any other equipment has, the higher the neuronal load." Mark explained.
"So what capacity is needed to operate the McCain?" the teen asked, looking at Mark with interest.
"That would be D+, basically the lowest recommended load for mech operations."
"Let's see what we can do with it." Mark purchased the fabrication rights. The design library had its first entry.
"Steve, why don't you design a paint job, make it flashy, something a kid would like?" Said Mark, pointing at the paint suite.
"Heck yeah! Leave it to me, Marksman." Steve started working with his usual energy.
Mark then loaded the design onto the design suite. With the sweep of his fingers, he took the design apart. The wiring was a mess, it had very little redundancy, and the cluster of wires was causing heating problems. The hand and leg actuators were of poor quality even for the period, and the heat dispersion was concentrated on the legs, as he thought. The engine was underperforming due to various reasons.
"Let's start with the wiring." He lost no time repairing the problems he could find. Using the Improved distribution channels skill he bought from the system, Mark was able to untangle every mess and create a better electrical grid. His work even improved wire redundancy.
Two hours passed inside the Game. Steve completed his task and went over to mark to show him. The armor plates of the mech were painted in a dark red color, which looked like blood, with the joints and under armor painted black.
He decided to drip some of the red paint onto the black portions, as if it were blood dripping. The head was a simple shape, with no features; it was a plain metallic slab with two sensor lights for eyes, and no other characteristics were present.
The energetic teen painted the head with the same pattern. He then painted a white skull over it. Leaving the sensors in the eye sockets of the skull. Overall, this paint job gave the machine a savage look.
"It looks great, Steve, just what we need." Mark Admired Steve's handiwork.
"I knew you'd like it. What now, boss-man?" Steve looks at Mark with a smile.
Mark assigned him another task. "We need a better rifle, see what you can find that is from the same period but better, also we need secondary weapons."
Steve raised his hand in the form of a salute, "YES SIR!" he then marched over to the catalog interface and started browsing.
"Let's see what's next, ...the actuators." He then stripped the actuators from the hands and the legs. "Not much to do here, these actuators have little room for improvement." An hour later, Mark had done all he could with the tools he had on hand. The use of his sub-skill, Movement Optimization, helped him on this task.
"Now for the heat dispersion." He decided to add a bit more mass to the arms and carve heat dispersion channels using the added materials. Mark created a pattern of channels using his heat dissipation skills. This added a new layer of heat management that the machine needed. An additional 2 hours had passed.
Mark decided to work on the mech's main engine. This component was held back by the poor wiring that prevented enough power from getting to the engine. With the better layout, the young man tweaked the performance settings to increase the yield of motive power.
"I'm done with the improvements I can do for now," Mark said, feeling somewhat satisfied with his first project so far. All it needs is a new weapon."
Alex came from below, the teen then grabs Mark's arm. Mark looks at Alex.
"Are you done? ... Let's go down and see." Mark and Alex move to the first floor, Steve remains, looking through the shop catalog.
Mark arrives on the first floor. He was met by the new look of the place. The gunmetal gray plates were replaced by light blue plates with a silvery shine. There were canals carved between the plates, and a white neon light moved randomly through the canals.
The green polished concrete floors were replaced by a black-pearl colored floor that reflected everything. At the end of the hangar, there was a graffiti-style sign. The design was a monkey wearing a jumpsuit and holding a large wrench. On the name tag, the words Grease Monkey could be read.
"This place looks great. Thank you, Alex, you are a real artist," Mark said while padding the blue helmet.
Alex started typing a message. "I'm glad you like it. It's your birthday present."
"Thank you again, Alex, it's a nice present." A sudden scream came from the upper part of the workshop.
"Marksman, I think I have a rifle!" Mark pats Alex's helmet once more and moves to the second floor. Alex followed close behind. Entering the room, Mark moves to the shop catalog with Steve.
"I think this is it, the rifle looks really mean, and it has better specs," Steve added confidently. His choice would be approved.
Mark looks at the rifle. It was longer than the mech's original rifle. The weapon had a long cylindrical barrel, which was unnecessary for a laser weapon, but looked good. The hand guard liner was shorter than the barrel by a few meters. The rest of the weapon looked like a normal rifle.
"The I.M.S. (Integrated Mech Systems) Reaper. It has a continual fire function, meaning the rifle will fire for as long as the trigger is pulled. It has 33% more damage capacity, but it's a heat-generating pain. The thing is more like a small laser cannon than a rifle. ... We can work with this."
Mark looks again at Steve, "What about the secondary weapon?"
Steve, for his part, had two choices in his hands. "I'm torn between a laser pistol and a vibrating knife."
Mark scratches his chin. "Let's go with the pistol; the hand actuators are still not good enough for a knife." He takes another glance at the rifle. Let's start with this, I think the pistol will stay as it is."
Between the rifle and the pistol, Mark spent another 300 L-credits for the fabrication rights. He placed the design of the rifle on the suit and took it apart. The heat buildup was a problem, so he decided to change the continual beam to a burst firing mode. Now the rifle will fire three consecutive laser bolts with a bit less intensity. The gun was now 20% stronger than McCain's original rifle. The modified burst mode gave it a 15% faster rate of fire than its counterpart. The rifle had less heat generated, but it was still a problem.
Mark then decided to improve the heat resistance of the rifle. Alex and Steve looked at the process with undivided attention. With his Thermal Dispersion skill, the cat butler quickly set a plan in motion.
He enlarged the hand-guard liner and added more heat-resistant materials. The cat butler added heat-dispersing channels to the insides of the rifle. Mark then reinforced the cooling coils to give them more efficiency. Because of the changes, the rifle looked bulkier. The hand-guard liner now covered most of the barrel; only the tip and the muzzle were visible.
After a certain point, Mark was unable to improve the rifle further using only his skills. He then decides to add coolant to the mix. "Steve, could you go to the catalog and get 2 coolant dispensers?" Mark asked his friend.
A few moments later, Steve came back with three choices, all of them pretty generic. Mark chose the one with the best specs of the three.
"Let's make this quick and dirty." He basically welded the dispenser's case to the hand-guard liner and added armor plates to protect the canisters. With his programming skill, he created an automated protocol; the mech's computer will activate the canisters, deploying a 10% burst after the rifle's temperature reaches a set point.
The rifle looked more intimidating now. It had more mass, and the canister on both sides looked more like a very thick bipod shooting rest that could provide more stability when prone.
Steve loved the way it looked and decided to paint it the same colors as the mech. Alex wanted an entirely different paint job for the mech. Mark relented and let the teen make a variant paint job. To no one's surprise, it was blue.
"Hey, Marksman, what are we going to call this mech?" Steve asks, looking fondly at their creation.
Mark thought for a moment. "I'm thinking about combining the names of the mech and the gun? ...how about The McCain Reaper."
Steve looked at Mark with excitement. "Dam! Dude, that is one cool name." Alex nodded in approval.
The alarm sounded; it was eight o'clock on the dot. "Well, it's time to go. We can pick this up tomorrow after I configure my virtual headset. Let's log out. We need to test the mech before I decide if we sell it or not."
Steve was the first to log out. Followed by Mark. Alex was trying to save the paint job before leaving, but in the rush to finish, accidentally submitted the mech in its current state and weapon load-out for A.M.S. review and sale. Without realizing this, Alex logs off. The three of them got out of the pods. Mark went to get his hover box.
Steve turns and talks to Alex. "Did you see Mark working in the mech? I wonder where he learned that. I know he has good grades and all, but it was too much, what do you think?"
Alex shrugged inside the blue jacket.
After Mark got his stuff back, the three of them went out.
Once outside, Mark hails a cab. "Hey guys, want me to take you home?" Steve decided to take his offer; Alex declined. As Mark and Steve got into the cab, they said goodbye to Alex and flew away. A few moments later, a fancy black sky car lands near the entrance to The Pit. Alex gets on and flies away in a different direction.
After dropping Steve at the housing complex where he lived, Mark went straight home. Once he arrived, he found his mother and three other women having a chat at the kitchen table. They appear to be having a hell of a time.
Mark enters the apartment and says hi to all of them. The three women went silent. His mother returned the greetings. "Hi Mark, did you have fun shopping?"
"Yes, I bought a few things that will be delivered tomorrow, along with a surprise," Mark replies to his mother.
"Rachel, are you going to introduce us to your kid?" Said one of the women sitting at the table.
Rachel smiled and cleared her throat. "Girls, this is my beautiful son Mark. Mark, these are my friends from work, "Tina," Rachel points at the oldest looking lady of the bunch, a woman in her late forties with brown short hair sitting to the left of Mark's mother.
"Daphne." Her finger moves to the woman sitting across her at the table, a redhead with perfect tanned skin who looked to be in her early thirties.
"And Reva," Her finger moved again to the third and final woman sitting to her right side. A woman in her mid-thirties with black polished hair and fine facial features.
"Hello to everyone," Mark said, waving his hand.
Tina looks at Mark, "Aren't you a well-behaved young man?"
Rachel smiles proudly. "Mark has always been well behaved, even as a small boy." The four women looked at him with approving eyes.
Feeling a bit awkward, Mark decides to go to his room. His mother stopped him. "Mark, this arrived today." Rachel stands from the table and walks to a Cabinet at the other end of the kitchen. She opens the metallic door and takes a box out. She then puts the box on the table.
"Care to explain why you bought a gas mask?" His mother asked with an annoyed tone.
Mark looks at the box and answers. "It's not a gas mask, it's actually for spelunking, apparently, there is a legal difference."
Rachel raises her left eyebrow; she tends to do this when she's annoyed. "Not the point, Mark."
He thinks for a second, measuring his next words, " Mom, I told you about my dream, remember, I just want you to be safe."
Rachel eased her annoyed face. "Mark, it was only a dream."
He looked back at his mother with a determined look in his eyes. "It was not to me."
Tina interrupts the scene. "What are you talking about, Mark?"
Mark looks at the older woman and answers. "Well, I had a bad dream where mom and nine other people died suffocating in toxic gas because the power went out and the ventilation system of the factory failed."
His mother interrupts him."Baby, it was just a dream."
Tina looked thoughtful, "Well, there might be something to it."
Everybody in the room suddenly looked at her. Feeling a bit awkward, she decides to explain.
"I have a nephew who works for the company that provides maintenance to the factory. I had not seen him for a few weeks, so I decided to call him. Turns out that the contract with his company had been voided; Apparently, the factory management was trying to renegotiate the cost of maintenance, so his company decided to cancel the contract."
Reva adds to the conversation. "Well, I heard that the men's bathroom on the third floor has been without lighting for a few days. Some of the men were complaining about having to turn on the light in their comm-pads to use the toilet."
"It's that new manager, he's trying to cut costs everywhere," Daphne commented with resentment.
Tina added in a mocking tone. "You are just angry because he keeps looking at your butt every chance he can get." The three women started laughing.
Rachel tossed a disapproving look at Tina. The woman clears her throat. "Sorry, Reach, I forgot your kid was here."
Reva takes the box in her hands and looks at it. "Where did you say you got that mask from?" Reva asked, looking at Mark.
"Girls don't encourage him," Rachel scoffed at the women.
"Rachel, sweetie, think about one thing." Tina gestures with her hands while speaking. "Do you talk to Mark about your job?"
"No," answered Rachel.
"Then how come he knows there are 10 people on our crew?" Pointing to a fact that even Mark overlooked. Suddenly, the room fell silent, and all eyes fell on Mark once more.
"Well, I'm off to bed. I want to get up early tomorrow." Mark said, trying to get away from their awkward looks.
"OK, baby, sleep tight," Rachel answered while looking at the box on the table in a new light. Mark walked to his bedroom with the hover box and closed the door. He then changed into sleeping clothes and lay in bed.
At the other side of the city. A fancy black sky-car landed in front of a large, ostentatious house. Alex gets out of the sky-car and walks to the entrance. The teen is met by a well-dressed woman with a worried look on her face. She had Black hair braided in a fancy manner.
"Alex, you are late. Are you OK?" The concerned woman inquired while visually inspecting the teen.
Alex nods in a usual gesture and enters the house.
There is a man sitting on a couch near the entrance. "Hey, honey-bun, did you have fun with your friends?"
Before Alex could answer in the usual manner, the woman spoke from the door. "Alexandria Sorrell Lambert, could you at least take that ridiculous coat off inside the house?"
Alex froze. The man on the sofa stands; he was at least three heads taller than Alex. He waved his hands, gesturing for the woman to stop. The woman realizes her blunder and stops, covering her mouth with a hand.
"Kara, remember what the psychologist said, we have to take this one step at a time," the man said in a controlled tone to the woman.
He places his hands on Alex's shoulders and looks at her, " Honey-bun, are you OK?"
Alex looked up to match his eyes; they were an intense shade of blue, with hints of purple. She then nods.
With gentle movements, the man pulls the hood of the jacket down. He then takes Alex's sunglasses off, revealing two big blue eyes with tones of purple and the soft white skin of her face. The man could see himself reflected in her eyes. After that, he takes the skull cap off, revealing her long black hair.
"Let's make a compromise, Honey-bun, whenever you are inside the house, you will take off your hat and your sunglasses, you can keep the jacket for the moment, is that OK?" In his gentle way, the man decided to reach a compromise.
Alex nods.
"That makes me and your mother very happy; we want to see our beautiful daughter's face." Alex hugs the waist of her father.
"Now go on, the night is still young, so if you want, you can use your game pod." He taps Alex's head with a soft touch.
As Alex moved to her room, she could still hear her parents' conversation. A feeling of guilt showed on her angelic face.
"Look, Hans, I'm sorry, but how long is this going to take? I want my baby back". The woman said in a desperate tone.
"Kara, it will take the time it takes," Hans replied with patience. "Besides, she has improved; she's going out with friends." Alex's father retorted.
"Hans, after what happened, I am not too keen on letting her go out alone," The woman complained to her husband.
"My love, do you think I would let her go out without taking precautions?" The man answered, addressing his wife's worries.
"No, Hans, I know you take precautions. But I still worry." Hans could not argue because he felt the same way.
"She might have started to go out with friends, but she hides behind her jacket," Kara argued.
"If jackets help her get through this, I will buy her hundreds." The man replied with measured intensity.
Alex took the stairs to the second floor, then walked down a hallway and into her room. With lazy steps, the girl walks inside her closet and changes clothes. She comes out dressed in blue sweatpants adorned with pictures of cats and a light blue tank top that reveals her feminine figure.
After changing, Alex walks to the door on the other side of her room. As she opens the door, her black game-pod is already primed and ready for a game session. The rest of the room was filled with expensive-looking toys and stuffed animals.
Alex logs on to A.M.S. She wanted to finish painting the Second version of the McCain Reaper. She was almost done; all she needed to finish was to paint the rifle in matching colors. She spawned at the entrance to the hangar. Alex took the stairs and entered the design lab. To her horror, when she tried to edit the paint job, she found a message from the A.M.S. review board.
" Your mech, The McCain Reaper, has been rated and put for sale." Alex retraced her steps in her mind. It was then she knew she had messed up.