[1-200] THE MECH TOUCH

Chapter 85: 'Teamwork'

Their group was already off to a quick start. Cynthia Barakovski rolled over most of her fellow designers with her immense accomplishments. Even Ves became almost convinced. If not for his stellar confidence in himself, he might have let the elite Leemar graduate have her way.

The workshop's terminal rested on the ground, forcing her to descend. Just as she approached the console, Ves stepped forward and held a hand.

"Please wait a moment, Miss Barakovski."

Her eyes pierced his own with a disgruntled intensity. "You are in my way."

Okay, this conversation already went downhill. Ves quickly adjusted his suggestion. "If I may add, I'm sure that with your accomplishments, you are more than qualified to take the position of lead designer. However, I'm pretty sure everyone else can contribute their own insights to our design. Are you willing to let us provide you with some suggestions?"

Sadly, Barakovski treated his suggestions like air. She contemptuously flipped her hair and turned around.

One of the fliers sank down in order to block Ves from pursuing her. "Our princess doesn't have time to entertain third-rate peasants like you. Now run along and play in the dirt. Your participation is unnecessary."

The other fliers closed ranks and made their stances clear. Ves almost couldn't believe how fast they threw away their pride as designers. He turned around to ask for help from his fellow walkers, only to see Missy and Clark turning their heads as if they were blind and deaf.

"Ves, let's not rock the boat. We only have twelve hours to design a mech. A future star like Barakovski can easily come up with a complete design."

"Yes, if we distract her too much, we'll only be ruining our group. To be honest, I'm barely scraping by. I'm not good enough to compete at this level anymore. Why not sit back and let her carry us past the qualifiers? Do you know how much of an honor it is to be part of the five hundred who will show up on stage tomorrow?"

Both of them came up with reasonable excuses. Even some of the fliers agreed with them. After being ganged up by practically his entire group, Ves had no choice but to back down.

"Alright, we'll see, but if she makes a mistake, I won't hesitate to call it out."

Naturally, everyone ignored those words. How could a nobody like Ves even compare against a prominent designer like Miss Barakovski? She represented the entire Friday Coalition in an immense competition that spanned a quarter of the galaxy. Even if she barely reached the top 100, the level of competition in these events was staggering.

Nevertheless, Ves thought it was not wise to put all of their eggs in a single basket. Even the disciples of a master never claimed to proficient in every field. However, he had no means of forcing the issue. He reluctantly stood back and allow Miss Barakovksi to do her wish without further objections.

The young lady started her design process by picking the basic frame. She confidently skipped the medium mechs and went straight for a light mech. Such a choice took a lot of daring due to the lack of options. Barakovski's other choices made it clear that she wanted to design a skirmisher.

If Ves was in charge, he'd pick a safe and boring medium mech. Sadly, he could only watch as Barakovski went all-in on her build. She intended to design a mech reminiscent of his very old Nomad.

Certain types of skirmishers excelled in different situations. Barakovski's skirmisher was obviously built for endurance. Fuel cells took most of the limited available capacity. To complement her choice, she chose to utilize a low-intensity fuel-injected power reactor to provide her mech with a steady amount energy. Most of this energy would be spent on powering up the mech's only weapons, a pair of lightweight wrist-mounted laser cannons.