New Roman University

Mech Designer course

General introduction

To become a Mech Designer first you must understand what a mech is.

Per definition, any machine that has a Neural Interface can be a considered a mech.

Regardless of its shape and function, from the failed attempt of stationary mech turrets to the old giant mech excavators to the humanoid 'Hero' mech, all of them are considered mechs.

Once you realize that, you should be free of preconceptions, you will understand that, regardless of the shape and form, anything could be a mech

With that in mind we go for the second most important thing.

Function over form.

Remember, mechs started as the cheapest most effective way of achieving an expected result. While highly technical and complex, they require the least amount of materials and standing infrastructure to bring the highest efficiency.

With transportation lines broken, uneven topography and dangerous mutated lifeforms we had to get new tools to get things done. Thus, the first mechs came to be. They were not much more than a powered exo suit with a neural connection, however after the invention of the Neural Interface by the Coalition it was possible to control more parts with a higher degree of precision increasing the protection to the pilots and the complexity of the machines.

The kinetic energy from a mutated rhinoceros's charge could easily kill the pilot inside an exo suit. It would be even worse if it struck with its horn that could rend and torn metal. However, there is a difference, when you have a 2.5 m exo suit that weights 400 kilograms and when your mech it 4 m tall and weighs a few 3 tons. The kinetic energy may affect the exo but a mech would, most of the time, shrug it off.

It's important to also remember this, WE as Mech Designers must search for the optimal solution always and we will always fail for any problem can be solved in multiple ways.

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Multiple thoughts raced in his head creating a veritable brain storm which only brought confusion.

Marcus was still seated at the sofa, face scrunched in concentration mumbling to himself.

Suddenly a though prevailed.

"Mina said something about a connection and an interface but I don't feel different and have no idea how a System's interface would be" he pondered for a bit before "Usually an interface of any type has to be triggered in some way or are permanently shown"

"There are not differences in my field of view nor anything I can detect any other way so maybe I have to trigger it"

Suddenly Marcus stood up, straight, firm and with a serious face extended his hand and spoke

"Interface Open"

...

…

Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened except Marcus turning into an interesting shade of red.

"Thankfully no one saw that. Maybe it is another command" Marcus cleared his throat and kept trying

"System UI" "Activate"

"Command line" "Status"

"Shazam" "Help"

"FUCK"

Silence and shame were Marcus's company, a noticeable blush in his face yet undeterred he kept trying in different poses with no results.

He realized, grudgingly, that this was a useless endeavor, he would get more answers when they came back. While he would've loved to ponder and try to infer answers from what he knew he also needed to pay attention to the here and now.

As a new Mech Designer he had to pay attention to what is important, to what he could and couldn’t do. Mech Designing was hard and unforgiving, you either deal with the pressure or you leave. One mistake would mean millions of credits worth of materials, time and effort to be wasted, the lives of the pilots lost and the tasks they had be failed. Not everyone could survive a failure.

The Roman University had a saying for this.

"For want of a bolt the wheel was lost.

For want of a wheel the car was lost.

For want of a car the driver was lost.

For want of a driver the message was lost.

For want of a message the battle was lost.

For want of a battle the Empire was lost.

And all for the want of a wheel bolt."

"A Mech Designer had to..." a loud stomach rumbling rudely interrupted him… "EAT. Can't perceive the connection, don't how to activate the interface and can't deal with any of the other questions, I have to focus to grow as a Mech Designer aaaand I'm hungry and tired, food then".

He took the forgotten data pad, deactivated the privacy protection, went into the kitchen, check the food cartridge and ordered a simple pasta dish. 25 minutes of that tested his self-control later the food was ready.

Picking the hot dish and disposable cutlery he went back to his living room into the same coffee table from before, pressed a button to change the table from coffee to a normal dining table then took a nearby chair and activated the virtual projector in search of some distraction while eating only to find the 2 unopened messages from unknown senders.

With his curiosity picked he opened the first from some place called Demetrius's Workshop.

"Congratulations Marcus Caelum

We from Demetrius's workshop wanted to congratulate you for your achievement of graduating as a Mech Designer in record time.

We would also like to offer you an opportunity to demonstrate your ability..." Marcus flicked his finger and trashed the offer.

While eating he thought about all the designers that would be destroyed by taking those kinds of offers.

The New Roman civilization never had many Mech Designer.

First the university was hard and getting the title required lots of work and study.

Then once you had the title you had 5 years to validate his title with proof that he was an active Designer that would help the New Roman civ to develop. He had 5 years to prove his worth or he would need to retest and would have 5 more years. On the other hand, if he didn't make the cut, he would lose his title. Those who failed to keep the title would work as professional modders or as high-class mechanics. There were some that even abandon the market completely.

A successful designer, depending on their success, could designed custom mechs for prominent or wealthy figures, be called to design specific mechs with unique uses or even become a Master Designer, like the 4 Stars Designers of the New Roman civ.

He could also validate his title with the Coalition but that was even harder, the coalition didn’t care about the title they only cared about efficiency. To earn their validation a Designer needed to present 5 designs with a testing prototypes for all and every one of them must have over 100% of efficiency in something. A Designer could, in some way, affect a logical design in a way that would be better than the sum of its parts. Marcus never knew how that happened but after the stone he had an inkling ‘Mana, the design was affected in some way by mana’.

‘No, keep yourself together, questions for later’ mumbled Marcus. He went back to his previous thought, Demetrio.

Since the market was limited, the big companies tried to bring new Mech Designers under its fold and either control them or destroy them and usually it started with a test your skill ‘Offer’. From then they could make you lose time and fail to achieve results thus losing your opportunity or tie you with a contract that would limit you, some would even be total scams, giving a designer a blueprint to build as a test, then saying that they had ruined something and had to work for them to pay back. Sure, some where relatively decent offers but had limited future development

Most Mech Designers knew that. If you wanted to be big you could progress either alone or with the help of a teacher, old Designers that would take young ones and train them to be their successor. Any other way could give you experience and knowledge but would also chain you down.

No, thank you, he already spoke of this with his mothers, Val and a few others. He would develop his own brand and seek partnership contracts.

However, he was doubtful of how had this 'Demetrius' even found out that he graduated and gotten his email. University records where supposedly protected... another mystery for the pile.

The 5th and final email came from the Roman government and seemed like an automated one to all registered Mech Designers.

"The town of Quintus 33 is in need of a specialized design for procuring specific and delicate meta material.

All designers that are interested in the offer should enter the following link with their credentials and would receive all documents with requirements and specifics of the meta-material"

Since he had graduated, he now could take government approved contracts "Hmm, that is interesting, too bad this has started over a month ago and it's deadline is in 2 months, it could be interesting and could help me create my first design” though Marcus aloud.

He finishing his pasta dish, placed the cutlery and dish for recycling and went back to the table considering taking the contract.

If he took the contract and failed to present anything good it could end as a black mark for him but only if his design was disastrous, if he did a good job but was not selected it could be used as positive press. Maybe he could even win the contracts.

There were some pigs that could fly so why not.

Usually, these kinds of contracts were separated into levels. Pure harvesting with localized use were left to low level, local and starting Mech Designers because the pay is relatively low, there are few mechs required but it would help as experience. More complicated mechs including those used to fight specific beasts, military mechs and the like were left for more experienced Designers. Of course, the more experienced ones could always directly look at the market for possibilities and make a killing.

Although expert Mech Designers could make fortunes some also concentrated in raising their citizen score.

The New Roman civilization took part several parts of the Old Roman Empire including some of the old titles too.

While all the citizens were under the same law if your score was higher, you could get some specific benefits.

Nowadays your housing was assigned by the city official but with a higher score you could request better housing, maybe even an official’s villa. You could be allowed to buy a personal transportation unit, get higher quality food printer and food cartridges.

You would also need a higher score if you wanted to ever leave your city and travel. With a very restricted workforce everyone had to work and do their part.

Technically all jobs paid in credits and gave some citizen score, working in anything was contributing to society, buying things from producers, basically anything that you did that had a positive effect in society.

But you also had to pay certain points every month, for your housing, for the general services you have, for your food, clothing, etc.

Sure, you could always buy food with credits, the government gave you the cheapest most effective things. Food cubes for example. You never knew what they were made of but every cube had the perfect quantity of needed things for your body. 2 cubes could replace any meal but it wasn’t the same as eating a printed burger or going to restaurant and eating a burger made from printed materials.

Anyways, Marcus wanted to take the contract, at worst he would win some experience, at best he would win the contract. As soon as he finished signing up for a new notification rang in his pad.

"That was fast" mentioned Marcus while checking the email received from the Roman government.

"Let's see, Overview and requirements, a harvesting mech for a new discovered tree that had incredible properties in the bark fibers" Marcus smiled while reading the data, he loved this, this is what he had wanted, finding new solutions to interesting problems.

The Rupes Tree, so called because its natural habitat is in big cliffs or mountain sides, produces a very particular kind of bark which serves as a protection mechanism.

The trees themselves can grow to 10 meters tall on average with few lower branches and a thick canopy. The topography is usually near a cliff with uneven terrain and small amounts short flora, mainly in the form of bushes.

The tree would have a core of hard wood, a segmented tubular covering (like wheel around the center) filled with water and a reactive bark that would contract on damage If the bark where to be damaged or heated it would contract putting pressure into the ring and when penetrated it would release the water at high pressure, sometimes, enough to cut metal.

Passively the tree would absorb extra water and some metals from the soil storing the water along the rings in the trunk and using the metal to harden both the bark fibers and some leaves.

The bark can quickly change from a relaxed resting state while filled with water, to a constricted 'ring' state thus pressuring the water for defense. The ejected pressurized water CAN trigger a chain reaction effect in other trees.

The constriction reaction can affect a specific area to, even, the whole tree depending on how quickly and violently the action is.

These fibers had been proved to be both flexible, highly durable, heat and electric reactive, tear resistant and the contraction properties may allow to create a new kind of artificial muscle or be used in new equipment.

The bark is easy to separate following the fiber direction but extremely tough against. Also, they grow ALONG the horizontally rings instead of growing in a vertical fashion.

To improve the yield a specific fluid had been engineered to help the tree regenerates bark at an accelerated speed.

Additionally, a dangerous avian family similar to the Iron-beak Owls has been found to live in these trees. They are extremely territorial and protect the area around the trees they made their nest with zeal. Their natural weapons are hardened talons and beaks.

They have excellent hearing but only regular eyesight. They react very strongly to sound and heat.

Objectives.

Create a mech blueprint with the following capabilities

Harvesting the required material in a way that will cause the least amount of harm to the tree allowing it to regenerate faster. Spray the trees after the bark has been removed with the regenerative fluid. Contain and transport securely the harvested bark to outside the forest area. Provide protection and/or defense capabilities to the pilots from the avian population. High autonomy to allow it to work for longer time without going back to the city. Move in the complicated environments where the trees are found Work silently and at low temperatures.

Marcus finished reading the information package and he could barely contain his excitement. He felt challenged, he had an incredibly opportunity in hand that only required his time. Even more, he believed he could do a good job, maybe not enough to win but enough to win some recognition.

He wanted to start now but he cooled his head. "Designing and thinking about this request is wonderful but tomorrow I have to go work and I do needed to sleep" Marcus chuckled for a bit and thought to himself that it was perfectly normal talking to himself "I'm not crazy, not at all, not yet, never have" he left with a smile on his face.