The following day, I come down to the workshop, with the rough plan on how I want both the sniper and artillery mechs. I wanted both of these mechs to have a alternate modes. One mode would be the travel mode, allowing them to have access to weaker and closer range fire, while there would be a quadruped mode for when they have firmly established firing positions behind protected lines.

The sniper mech would have a long firing arm attached the shoulders of the mech, where a high energy beam sniper would be used. Unlike the infantry mech, both of these mechs would have additional energy generation built into the mech. Since these mechs would be unlikely to be facing as much direct fire, the associated generators and batteries would not be as significant of a weak point. The personal Qi of the mech warriors would still be used, as in the quadruped mode, formation flags would be shot out the sides of both the sniper and artillery mechs. These would be used to set up mine formations in the general vicinity of the mechs. These formations would act as both an alert system and a last form of defense. This would be what takes up a burst of Qi at the beginning, with an additional ongoing use of Qi going into a relatively small formation barrier meant to protect the warrior inside the mech, as well as act as a general barrier to protect the batteries and energy generators, located around the waist of the mech, would be safe when the mech is on all fours.

When either mech is standing up, heavy metal plating would substantially protect both the waist and chest areas of the mech, allowing it to take some damage if closer to the front lines, but still would not want to be under heavy targeted fire. Where general weaponry begins to diverge between the artillery and sniper mechs is the bipedal weaponry. The sniper mech had an two different arm mountain Qi guns, one was used to delivery bullets marked with electrical formations, intended to disable and stun opponents long enough for an escape, while the other Qi gun acted similarly to the infantry Qi guns, albeit with only the normal gun function, and not the overcharged Qi bullets.the combo of the Qi and stun guns would allow for tactical retreats if ambushed, so that combined with the formation flags placed, would cause enough mayhem and slow the enemy down before significant damage could be dealt to the mechs.

In contrast, the artillery mech would have the equivalent of arm mounted grenade launchers. These weapons would launch metal balls engraved with explosion formations, destroyed weaker fortis ruins and doing substantial area of effect damage. The general idea behind this weapon set up is an artillery mech division would be split into two, half of the division coming in slightly behind the initial infantry mech push, allowing it to soften up the first push, while the second half of the force would stay back, doing the more significant damage to bigger fortifications. As the consumable “grenades” ran low, with the idea the infantry forces would have pushed further ahead, they two would switch into the quadruped form and dish out their greater damage. When this happened the artillery mechs who stayed back would have moved forward, and switched places, becoming the new forward artillery mech forces. When the artillery mechs would rotate again, the forces would resupply and get updated commands, allowing for a general rolling offense, with the sniper mechs picking off targets of high value or to thin counter attacks.

With things roughly planned out, I drew up some quick sketches for the designs. Using my Technique, [Mech Blueprint Creation] I turned the sketch into a detailed blueprint, setting it aside with my other blueprint for the infantry mech. I passed these off to one of the mechanics, letting them know what parts will be needed for the next day, as well as to place orders for the formation flags and other consumable items, so that the general pieces could be tested, before getting adjusted for firepower and other needs. When I check the time, I notice that the entire morning has passed, and that several of the workers around the workshop are heading in to get food. Deciding I may as well use this time to eat while there is downtime, I go and check on Yi-Jun to see if he wants to eat with me.

I find him amidst a series of papers, plenty of diagrams and calculations made, with what seems like notes on the infantry mech. “ Hey there Yi-Jun, you up for some food?” I say to him, trying to catch his attention. He looks up at me and mumbles a few things I don’t first catch, until I notice his wide eyes.

“Didn’t you hear me, I said that your mech design so far will likely output greater firepower than our current infantry style mechs” he says for a second time when I got closer. I reply back, asking what he means. He mentions that the previous designs for the guns utilized a set amount of damage, where the mech warrior would shoot a shot as soon as the necessary amount of Qi was channeled. Since my gun was based off a percentage of total Qi being used per shot, ten percent for the usual shot, and fifty percent for the overcharged shot, or more accurately, the “grenade”. With our current design, not having done any tweaking to designs, which would likely increase energy efficiency, that only those on the lower ranges of our allowable cultivation levels would produce a shot weaker than current mech versions. When considering only the average and above average ranges, our shots were much stronger.

I decide to add something to his mental calculations, “Don’t forget about how Techniques may affect it, I’m not sure if there are Techniques like quick shot, double shot, or speed channeling Techniques, but that could certainly affect it”. Once he hears that he starts crossing several things out and going on another tirade, talking about how a standard channeling speed up Technique would likely match current designs, and even if the current designs utilized the Technique, the energy disparity per shot got too large to bridge the gap, likely resulting in a greater percent of Qi, and thus damage, being delivered over time. He continues on about Techniques that increase Qi pools, creation of dantians, and so forth until I snap him out of it.

I grab his arm and march us out of the workshop, bringing us to find some food. We settle down, grabbing what looked like barbecue, although they called it something different. While it looked a bit different, when we sat down and began eating, it gave me that smoky, meaty tenderness I was looking for. I sat in silence for a few minutes while I chowed down, giving the occasional grunt and “uh uh” while Yi-Jun tried to talk to me. After I take the last bite, I lean back and start to pay attention to what he is saying, which turns out to be exactly when needed.

“So Jack, my older brother, the First Prince, will be coming down to our workshop soon, he has been made aware of our work, and is wanting to get a first look at our progress to determine if our changes will be noticeable enough without vastly affecting the price effectiveness of the mechs” Yi-Jun says, which makes me sit back up in my seat. I ask how long do we have before he arrives at the workshop, to which Yi-Jun tells me that we still have a few hours, the Prince would be stopping by an hour so before dinner.

I get up, putting my dishes away, and telling him that I will be back at the workshop, it’s going to take a while to run diagnostics on the mech, fix any small errors, do last minute tweaking, and ensure everything is ready. I walk back hurriedly to the workshop, spouting off a handful of orders to the mechanics to bring me some tools and diagnostic equipment. I do a quick once over on the mech to ensure everything is installed correctly and that nothing is out of place.

I notice during the diagnostic testing that that the metal surrounding large concentrations of the Qi channeling wires seem to heat up more than expected, so I open up section of the mech and do a quick thermal test on various wiring sections. I discover that way the Qi is being delivered, as a the elemental fire Qi, even when condensed and channeled through the wiring, still leaks out a level of heat beyond what it’s energy signature would. I keep this is mind for future mech builds, thinking I can use other elemental Qi to balance it out for hyper performance. For these models that type of wiring would unnecessarily complicate things, so I just have sections of rubber brought in, and along with the workers, have rubber insulation installed around key points of the mech to prevent the excess heat from getting too high. I ran a test after everything was installed, noting that the armor integrity shot up a few points, Qi transfer efficiency went up slightly, but most importantly, the actual transfer speed of the energy shot up almost ten percent faster. I put everything back together and did some polishing and general cleaning of the mechs, finishing a couple minutes before Yi-Jun arrives, the First Prince in tow. We exchange greetings, even having a brief conversation about what I did before I came here. When I mentioned my family’s mechanical abilities, and my specialization overlapping with the general ideas behind a mech, as well as some of my gaming hobbies, it made it a cinch to consider mech building, and maybe one day piloting. I even briefly mentioned my boon Technique, which greatly interested him.

Before things got too sidetracked Yi-Jun did the polite cough thing, getting us back on topic, and walked us over to the mech prototype. We both explained that while we still consider it a prototype, unless drastic design changes were needed for it, it would only need fine tuning, whatever paint finishes, and all the other formalities associated with a mech creation. We had a Mech Soldier come over who had been part of some of the testing steps, so the piloting and weapons demonstration. The First Prince began asking various questions about design choices, such as why a grappling hook instead of dedicated climbing mechanics, why not greater use of Qi generators, and so forth. I explained that one of the key concepts I kept in mind was the need for flexibility, as well the assumption that the mech forces would never be send out alone, but in mixed formations. With this in mind, I wanted the weapons and utility systems to provide as much benefit in as many situations as possible. As a grappling hook could be used as a weapon or mobility boost, whereas a variation on climbing claws or greater specialization would remove close combat abilities while making them less viable in other areas. Finally, I mentioned the reason for a greater design overhaul instead of an upgrade to existing models. On a logistics scale, having ten different models that needed to be repaired and trained for became a nightmare. Even just considering an infantry mech soldier staying within infantry mechs, those various differences between the different mechs became problematic. By keeping things as standardized and role specific as possible, it made it easy for any soldier to hop into another mech as the mech type they trained in. The simplicity also allowed for captains or other leadership to get smaller weapon upgrades, keep Path Techniques in mind, so that not having a certain Technique wouldn’t impact the core functionality, while not invalidating other Techniques. While explaining the inspirations and answering his questions, the pilot was doing his thing, showcasing the functions and blowing stuff up, while Yi-Jun pulled out the numbers and estimated figures on its efficiency.

At the end of the Mech showcase, the Prince was clearly impressed, noting the clear improvements in some ideas that didn’t invalidate the mech being a standard, non-elite model. After saying goodbye, he promised us he would pass on his findings, and arrange for follow up showcases the King and military leaders once the full suite of mechs were built and gone through the various design polishes. The day having been long but fruitful, me and Yi-Jun called it a day and headed back to our rooms for the day.