It took a total of 8 days for them to be ready for the second trip. The lab had accepted the modified design and the workshop had helped to get it ready. The mech had to be almost completely remade as Anne ability had severely weakened all the structure and even part of the armor.

So, fully disassemble the mech, replace or remelt the metal and remaking all the internal structure and support took an extra 2 days. It was also interesting that while the broken metal didn’t regain the expended mana and weakened naturally after it did recover part of the original mana after the melting process and it started to absorb mana again until it was back to normal, or so Mina said.

The trip did bring many comments about Anne’s pilot ability as she could fight and move with a basic harvesting mech. Curiously no one said anything about her almost destroying the prototype in the process.

After the structure was done the surviving modules and tanks were mounted again and the assembly process progresses normally.

Once the mech was finalized Marcus noted that he could see the different versions almost superimposed. The original body and harvesting arms but using the new and improved blizzard cutters, the mist dispersing protection, and the short-range shrapnel countermeasure and finally the legs, he had kept the pneumatic tubing inside the last segment of the leg which would act as an attenuator and as a second source of power keeping the ability to make small jumps.

The prototype was assembled and ready for transport, and the ambience was happy but the time was short so the party was postponed until the contract was completed.

Marcus and Mina where at the platform waiting for the Aquilae transport ship to pick them up while Anne was talking with one of the unfortunate Vigile on guard.

Marcus looked at Mina with doubt and nodded in the direction of Anne and the pilot.

"That guy was trained by Anne almost 30 years ago, yesterday there was a problem with your local population of wolves and he led a group of Vigiles to protect the harvesting mechs. Anne saw the whole battle and was disappointed in him so she is telling everything that he did wrong"

"Isn’t he captain Tulius?"

"Yes"

"Huh"

They both chuckled while looking at the poor captain standing there almost about to cry and Anna analyzing the battle and destroying the man’s honor and pride.

Finally, the torment ended for the poor man as the ship touched down.

"My ship is here so I will be leaving. If I ever see you rushing forward like that again I will personally RE-TRAIN YOU. Understood?" Anne slowly closed her eyes menacingly.

"YES MASTER!" The man stood straight while loudly knocking his first on his heart.

"At least you don’t tremble anymore while giving the salute. That is good"

"Come honey, leave the poor man be, we are leaving" shouted Mina from the airwalk.

Inside the ship the mech was stored and 2 mercs were waiting for them.

Marcus smiled, full huge smile that didn’t reach his eyes.

"HELLO EVA, HELLO NIKKO. So NICE to see both of you. Such BEAUTIFUL hair you have" he said without barely moving his teeth while keeping that smile.

Eva paled.

"Yeah Eva, I know who converted my beautiful head into a cue ball" said Marcus while Nikko chuckled "You are not free of this, chuckles, you too shall pay the price"

"Why me? She did it!" exclaimed Nikko

"Who gave her a shaver and the idea?"

"Marcus, live and let live" said Anna to the complete shock of everyone "Also never tell your enemies that you consider them so but when you are ready strike hard, fast and without remorse" her toothy smile made the brothers blanch.

In silence the brothers guided the ‘guests’ to the passenger area and quickly disappeared.

"Don’t be too hard on them honey"

"I know mom, no escalation. I’m planning on using a multi pigment spray bomb and make Eva’s face look like a rainbow and add plusidae pepper into Nikko’s shaving cream" explained Marcus, he would always return the favor and Mina always preached about not escalating pranks so he would do something soft.

The rest of the trip went quickly with no troubles and when they were leaving the ship both brothers came back to wish good luck at Marcus and cheer for him.

This time they did reach the testing facility and after some basic confirmation the mech was carried to a testing chamber while they went into a waiting room. Another ‘quick’ Mech Warrior match and the first results were done so they were invited into a room with the representative of Minerva’s Lab and the government for the verdict and closure of the contract.

When the door opened the people inside all looked at them and kept quiet. The room was big with pure metallic walls, with a big round table and 8 seats around it. In the middle there was an open virtual display with Marcus’s mech in half the display and another one in the other half.

From the people inside the room 2 men, clearly from Minerva’s Lab with white long coats and the owl stamp in their chest. One Marcus recognized as Evander, he looked a bit strange but he showed a brief smile when he recognized Marcus, returning to a neutral stern look. The other man looked a bit older, head full of blond flowing hair in a perfect cascade around his head. Evander had brown unruly hair reaching down to his shoulders.

The other 2 men were wearing matching black and brown suits with dark ties with metallic sheen and red accents. One was clearly older with short cropped black hair, one eye clearly augmented as the silver metallic sheen couldn’t be hidden and a suspiciously looking bulky right arm. The younger had also short black hair parted sideways in the middle. Both had the same prideful look and directed almost perfectly similar contemptuous looks at the Caelums. Marcus immediately felt their contempt.

The final one was a woman, youthful with shoulder length white hair and a perfectly schooled face betraying no emotions. She greeted them first.

"Designer Marcus Caelum and 2 companions, please be seated" perfectly balanced and neutral tone.

"As we are all here let’s start.

For Minerva’s Lab we have Albus Aquilinus Celsus and Evander Gaius. They submitted the request and they have the final say.

For external audit we have Designer Demetrio Claudius Flavianus.

We also have Designers Emil Claudius Flavianus and Marcus Caelum who submitted their personal designs.

We count 2 observers Roxxanne and Whilemina Caelum.

Finally for the government Arbiter Fulvia Maior.

Minerva’s Lab solicited a design to safely harvest bark from the Rupes tree. This can improve our society and as such the Roman government supports Minerva’s Lab in this endeavor.

Only 2 designs have been approved, the first was the ‘Metentis Aranea’ designed and presented by Designer Marcus and the second the ‘Tree stripper’ designed and presented by Designer Emil.

Originally the ‘Metentis Aranea’ was chosen however due to miscommunication and Roman guidelines about government funded projects led to a secondary testing using prototypes.

Due to unforeseeable problems the first date was not kept and the contract was open once again for all those that had sent designs previously, this allowed Designer Emil to send an improved design and bring his mech for testing which was found to fulfill the requirements.

Designer Marcus modified his schematic which was approved and brought his prototype for testing which was also found to fulfill all requirements" Fulvia moved her hand towards the mechs in the virtual display. Of the 2 mechs one was clearly Marcus’s Mech and the other looked like a fat goat without head, it had a fuzzy big coat all around, 4 short legs from the bottom and 2 strange looking contraptions that looked like horns.

The mechs where moving in different ways testing, range of motion, movement limits and how they would complete their task.

"As you can see a preliminary test was already conducted on both and while further testing will continue in the ‘Metentis Aranea’ the government is ready to pass judgment and verify that the prototype follows the submitted schematic, this also guarantees that the derived simulations are correct.

Now I pass the word to Head Researcher Albus for questions"

"Designer Emil, what defensive, offensive and harvesting capabilities does your design have?"

"First let me tell you that it is an honor to… "

Fulvia raised her hand immediately "Designer Emil, keep in topic"

"Of course, your honor" he acknowledged "As you can notice my design counts with incredibly defensive capabilities starting with the hyper thread cover imitating a fake wool, any attack from owls would be absorbed by the threads not allowing it to penetrate into the inner armor working both to spread any kinetic force into the full body and to entangle attackers. These threads can also be electrified to serve as a deterrence. The torso also hides 4 small turrets 2 on each side armed with rubber or gas ammunition. It is not recommended to use it offensively as the stock is limited.

For harvesting the horns hide an extendable structure that contains a transporting belt for storage, a spike for draining safely the liquids and combines air cutters with the gamma knife technology to create a precise incision to remove the bark quickly and swiftly.

It has minimal offensive capabilities using the 4 turrets." Emil explained with technical precision and a bit of flourish in the details.

"Please tell us about the energy generation and how do you manage to keep the mech from heating up and to keep it as noiseless as possible"

"The mech carries a specialized sound-proof mounted generator that requires low temperature combustible. This allows it to keep its heat generation low. The hyper thread cover works as a sound dampener and to spread the heat to all the area around. It can take dirt or plant matter from the legs which allows it to compress dirt or stone into a pellet, transfer the heat to the newly created pellet and then deposit it under the mech at 1 meter depth" Marcus could see the pride he had in his design.

Albus look impassive, gesturing for Emil to stop he looked at Marcus and said"Designer Marcus, same questions as previously stated"

"My spider mech relies more in quietness, stealth and the ingrained behavior of the owl to defend itself. It uses a cryo mist field that simulates a minor spray from the trees to dissuade the owl of ever coming down, it also has pressurized nozzles to shoot water and a few hidden laser lights that can be used in the ice crystals to project specific images to use it as another deterrence. In case it receives a kinetic impact, it has a malleable, multi-layer armor that absorbs and disperses the force up to 10 times the area and is especially useful for penetration attacks such as the owl’s talons. It doesn’t have any weapon that besides the pressurized water and the pressure is weak enough to hurt but not injure them.

For harvesting it has 2 extendable legs that uses a blizzard cutter for removing the bark while keeping the liquid inside the tree until the growth liquid is applied. It also has a transportation line for retrieving the bark and nozzles to spray the cryo mist protecting the harvesting arms from attacks too.

For heat and sound. It has a detachable generator that can be left with the main part of the convoy under protection. Without the generator it relies on internal batteries so its heat generation and noise levels are minimal when the generator is disconnected while all the internal structure is made to dampen all sound. Using 6 legs with pneumatic shock absorbers allows it to transfer weight easily and reduce the noise levels greatly while moving. With the piping for cryogenic liquid around the mech will remain cold which can be further improved with releasing the cryo mist create a field of low temperatures which hides from both visual and heat detection. The negative part is that the lack of generator gives a maximum of 2 hours of work at max consumption or 4 hours of normal work plus an emergency reserve of 1 hour for emergencies.

It has no direct offensive capabilities but the cryo mist nozzles that surrounds the mech can be adjusted to generate a short-range ice crystal barrage that should injure gravely all beasts under rank 2."

Marcus felt amazing, he explained his design while the screen showed his mech doing all the things he was describing and, as a bonus, he could see Emil’s and Demetrio’s face frowning while he explained. He even remembered the original offer from Demetrio’s workshop.

"Excellent. In your schematic, Designer Marcus, you include multiple configurations including for different armor plating and with a strengthened mobility but with increased energy consumption. Also, all your choices from harvesting the bark with minimal damage to how to prevent owl attacks are in line with our studies. As for the schematic presented by Designer Emil, while it is suitable to harvest the bark it brings multiple problems, the main one being that any temperature above 10º will draw negative attention and many of his choices would result in a less effective harvest and possible environmental modification due to the heated pellets" for the first time Albus smiled "Your honor Fulvia, Minerva’s Lab has reached the conclusion that the design created by Designer Marcus is the best option"

Suddenly Demetrio rose "Your honor" said while looking at the Arbiter "I want to appeal for a truth judgment. Designer Marcus is untrained and yet for his first design he a design of incredible quality. This is way above what he should have achieved on his own. Are we to believe that he did this in barely 2 months? That he knows about the owl’s behavior as good as scientists that studied them? That his choices are magically the best and the same with their studies? Are we to… "

Marcus was feeling very angry. He had won, his victory was questioned so he had to produce a prototype. Now his victory was questioned again with a functioning prototype. With sis emotions in turmoil, he rose "He is right your honor, I didn’t achieve this on my own" shock was showing in most faces, Emil scowl had changed into a big smirk but Demetrio frowned and Fulvia raised an eyebrow "From the first moment the package of information received with contract was lacking so I contacted Evander for more information, he explained that any heat signature above 10º would draw the attention of the owls, something that wasn’t on the package. He also explained the how and why they extracted the bark which I replicated in my first design and then improved with the help of my mothers. He explained about the owls, their behavior, how the trees repaired themselves and that freezing the bark and the fluid below was the best choice to harvest it and keeping the fluid so that the tree will recover faster allowing for less downtime and more bark harvested"

Emil stood with a giant smile "So you colluded together to create an unfair advantage" Everyone looked at Emil with mixed emotions, even Demetrios look at him like he was an idiot.

"Designer Emil. Did you try to contact Minerva’s Laboratories to ask for more information?" asked the Fulvia sternly

"No?"

"Is that a question or a statement Designer Emil"

"No, I didn’t try to contact them"

"Then how can you say that there was collusion?"

"We should have received the same information, he had more so it is unfair for the me"

"Governmental contracts require all those who work in them to do their best to further improve our society. You created a design that followed all the guidelines and that could guarantee the tasks to be completed, you receive all the information and was also given the contact information to reach them in case of need, it was YOUR choice not to do it. Now gentleman please take a seat"

Emil was frowning but Demetrio placed a hand in his shoulder and forced him to take a seat and took his seat once more.

Marcus was almost seated when he asked "Your honor, what do you mean he was given the contact information? It was not present in my copy of the contract, I had to search on the web for the laboratories information and contacted Evander specifically because the online reports where in his name"

Fulvia’s eyebrow rose once more, she quickly pressed some keys and brought the original contract. "As you can see Designer Marcus, here at the bottom you have all the contact information required plus some additional information about terrain, particularities of beast in the region and an addendum with contact for the professionals that were consulted"

"When I accessed the contract that information was not there your honor"

Mina suddenly started to move, she brought a data pad from her side and started typing while Fulvia spoke.

"The contract information is all here Designer Caelum maybe you should have paid more attention"

"If I may your honor" interrupted Mina "please access the historical archive and verify how many times has the contract been modified and see such modifications"

"There is no need your honor, he is just a new Mech Designer, he simply made a mistake" interjected Demetrio quickly.

Fulvia looked at Demetrio silencing him, then looked at Mina and nodded.

Once the historical archive was open the contract showed it was modified 2 times, once 1 day after the posting and a second time 2 days before the due date. The first time someone had removed some of information including all the contact information, the second time they had restored it.

"Designer Marcus, you seem to be correct, the date that you accepted this contract would have been after the first modification so you wouldn’t have received a full copy. I applaud your work as you took into your own hands to seek for more information"

"Shouldn’t an investigation be started for this your honor?" pushed Mina

"It could have been a mistake and it would be review internally" replied Fulvia.

Before the situation could change Fulvia stood up and with authoritative voice said "As Minerva’s Lab has chosen and the contract has been completed then Designer Marcus Caelum is considered to have fulfilled the contract properly and the due rewards would be given. The payment of 20.000 credits and 1000 citizen score points would be deposited to his personal account. As the first prototype is already here it would count as delivered and the government will pay for the submitted price deducting the given modules.

Having finished these proceedings, I would ask both designers and companions to leave while final deliberations are done between the government and the laboratories"

Two doors opened one to each side of the room and the Caelums rose and left the place to one side while Demetrio and Emil left with matching frowns towards the other door.

"You did wonderful Marcus, why don’t you go with Anne and look for a hotel and food, we will be staying the night here because I have some things to do" said Mina quietly on the corridor.

Marcus was quite tired after all of this; he was happy and wanted to celebrate also but looking at his mother it would be the best to wait. Anne hugged Marcus "Come let’s play one more round and let Mina go do what she has to"