"What are the drawbacks of your chosen armour-system?" She asked, amused at Theodores fear written on his face.

"Drawbacks?" Theodore murmured. "It's a rather expensive armour, it has great coverage but limits mobility. I accepted that drawback as in turn in protects the Indominus longer so it can keep functioning in its role as backliner."

"I didn't mean that drawback."She rolled her eyes. "That's an obvious one and even a reasoning that I fully support. Any more drawbacks?" She quizzed.

Theodore's mind went in overdrive at the repeated question. He decided to admit that he didn't know.

"It's the way you incorporated it. You have created beautiful scales, but it loses more than a quarter of its effectiveness. You neglected the connections that were originally part of the strength of this particular armour-type. Your scales overlap, like the original, does, but it no longer perfectly transmits kinetic impacts nor does it spread out and transfer and disperse the heat of laser impacts as great as it did before."

"In the end, though it still outperforms many stock options, it's far from perfect. Don't take a system based on its raw specs - understand its working and incorporate it in a way that does justice to its ingenuity." She lectured him as she had done many times before. "Now it's just an expensive gimmick. Not to mention that maintenance would be a huge burden on a crew."

"Let's move on to your weapon system. You choose a higher-powered laser system in order to have it pack the punch of an apex predator. Please explain how you're going to get rid of the dispersed heat?"

Theodore just sat there looking at her dazed. How did it disperse heat?

"Well, like regular laser-weapon systems it comes with several air vents, state of the art liquid cooling which is incorporated in its forearms."

"Great, a standard package, but you have dialled up its power and have installed a burst mode in order to crank up its ability to dish out damage. The alloys at the tip will burn out quickly and this will firstly decrease the accuracy, but under longer operation, it would overheat so bad that it would implode. Don't just add power to a weapon, but also scale your precautions." She sighed "Usually your one-trick pony's are much more solid than this. I understand you've rushed this work, but endangering the safety of your clients.."

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Alright, last question. What is the function of the spiked tail on your mech?" She asked as she sat back in her chair and leaned backwards.

"It's partially used to compensate the forward arch in its skeleton. This way it can always stand in its 'ready' pose. The spikes are added mostly for decoration." He had expected this question but still felt a little ashamed of the answer. He liked it too much to separate for it.

"It can be used as a counterweight, to this I agree. But why buy an expensive ready-made tail if it is only an ornament. The market won't accept such a gimmick easily. Though I understand it fits with your design vision." She sighed.

"M'am. Am I going to be kicked out of the mech design course?" If one watched Thedore during this grill-session he would have noticed how Theodore slowly got smaller and smaller, his shoulder hanging and his chin slowly facing downwards. His pride in his design had been ruthlessly dismantled. He could only fear for his place in MD now.

"Kicked out?" She laughed "Not by me Theodore. It is your first true design in my eyes. You had a solid concept and worked hard to flesh it out. Yes, you failed at a couple of important design decisions. But it's still much more coherent and appealing to me than your former works. I'm also flattered a work of an apprentice of mine has sparked this project in you."She smiled.

"Anyways, aren't you a bit young to design a custom mech for yourself, cadet?"

"You knew?"

"You think you can hide something as evident as that in your design? Don't look down on us professors. We read a design thoroughly, at your level, we can understand the process easily."

"Than what is my grade ma'am? I'm curious?" Theodore smiled, wanting to shift the conversation away from the awkward fact he designed a hugely expensive champion mech for himself.

"Not going to have me let my fun eh? Well, that's fine by me. You'll find your grade updated in a bit. I will show it off to some colleagues before making the grade definite."

"Ehm, Miss Greene, why do you want to show it to colleagues?" Theodore was already embarrassed enough..

"Because I will bet those old-geezers that you will rank top five by the end of the semester." She smiled heartily."If or better said when you take your technical ability and match them with your nascent design style, I bet you'll do great."

She then shooed him out of her office.