After letting out a sigh, Xiao led the way into the library with Wattan in tow. She had given Vivian a heads up on this meeting and the librarian happily accepted. She even suggested the library given the very low traffic to the facility. The young woman wasn’t sure how this meeting would turn out. Except for the mechbay, she rarely spoke to Wattan. She had no clue what the man’s interests or hobbies were. A part of her was worried about the head mechanic overwhelming the librarian with way too many questions.
“Vivian, this is Wattan!” Xiao introduced the two adults to one another. “He’s the one who compiled all the notes in the report.”
Wattan stepped forward to shake Vivian’s hand, giving praises on the excellent products that reached his mechbay. The librarian responded by bringing out the report on her tablet. Before Xiao could blink, the two of them discussed the matters of the ant and the subcomponents. The two of them quickly got into the fine details and the history of the research.
This is beyond my understanding. I better leave before I die of boredom.
Xiao easily slipped out, doubting either of them would notice her absence until their discussion came to a conclusion. They were already engrossed in the report as if they were the first to make a discovery. As she walked back to her room, the young woman felt bad for not reading the report herself. She had been too busy preparing for her upcoming matches in the fighting ring. The prospect of facing medium mechs both excited and terrified her. This was uncharted territory so she had plenty to catch up on. First, she needed to read up on medium mechs. Her knowledge on them didn’t come close to what she knew about light mechs. That lack of knowledge would be the cause of her defeat before the matches even began.
“Where are you headed?”
Xiao jumped when Puhi popped out of nowhere. She knew her squadmate wasn’t busy that day but, given how big the academy was, the hallway she walked was the last place she expected to find her. After calming her beating heart, Xiao shared her plans of doing homework for medium mechs she could encounter in the fighting ring. Normally, she couldn’t share fighting ring matters with other people due to the impact on the gambling scene and the lawsuits that came with disclosing certain information. Puhi had already signed a waiver that, in return for not being able to gamble in any matter related to Xiao's matches, allowed her could discuss fighting ring matters freely without any penalty as long as she didn’t disclose the matters with a third person.
“That’s a big topic if you want to look into medium mechs. Let’s start with your next match.”
Puhi led the way to her room and the two of them quickly got settled in. After learning of Xiao’s next opponent, Puhi brought up the information on the medium mech on her tablet.
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Mech Type: Hare
Mech Weight Class: Medium
Left Arm (Structure): 60
Left Torso (Structure): 60
Left Leg (Structure): 120
Center Torso (Structure): 120
Right Leg (Structure): 120
Right Torso (Structure): 60
Right Arm (Structure): 60
Armor Type(s): Armor (Basic), Armor (Improved)
Gyro Type(s): Gyro (Basic), Gyro (Improved)
Engine Core Type(s): Engine Core 10 (Improved), Engine Core 20 (Basic), Engine Core 20 (Improved)
Cooling Type(s): Cooling (Basic), Cooling (Improved)
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
Weapon Type(s): Light Machine Gun, Machine Gun, Small Laser, Medium Laser
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The immediate thing that jumped out for Xiao was the doubling in structure. Medium mechs were just a lot tankier than their light mech counterparts. This was why it was often rare for different weight classes to face one another, especially when one considered that the hare was among the lightly armored mechs in the medium weight class. One thing the overview didn’t show was the hare’s reliance on jump jets. Unlike her preferred style of zigzagging, the hare mech preferred to leap to a high altitude where it shot down at its foes. In addition, its engine cores ensured that the hare could keep up with most light mechs which was a terrifying prospect.
“This will be a tough match for you, rookie.” Puhi handed over her tablet with a video on pause. “Your opponent is pretty good and easily defeated a turtle mech without breaking a sweat.”
“A turtle?”
A turtle mech was the tankiest medium mech, at least in terms of standard mechs. There were likely tankier ones that were developed by the military or some powerful corporation but the turtle generally took the crown given how common it was in the competitive scene. Despite its limited mobility, a turtle mech could tank so many hits that most foes had no hopes of getting through it, reminding Xiao of her cattlemech in the light mech division.
“Yes, your opponent isn’t afraid of kicking foes.”
“Kicking?”
Xiao knew that Puhi wasn’t referring to standard kicks in martial arts. Her squadmate was referring to the kick delivered following a use of jump jets. The concept was to get to a high altitude before directing the mech into the opposing mech with one of its legs first. The combination of the jump jet propulsion and gravity made this a devastating strike, though the mech doing the kicking could also suffer damage to its leg. This strike required plenty of training to do it consistently.
“Talk about your worst matchup!” Puhi quickly scrolled through the highlights of the hare mech matches. “Maybe they want people to gamble against you so someone can win big if and when you do win.”
“Gambling manipulation? They couldn’t possibly do that!”
Regardless of the circumstances, the young woman knew she had plenty to prepare. Her cattlemech couldn’t even come close to comparing to a turtle mech so the odds were against her. However, she did want to use this as a chance to try out a crazy strategy, though her options were limited due to having only the pitchfork.
Okay, pitchfork and a shield…if I can even call that a shield.
Xiao never understood the purpose of the shield. It more often than not got in her way so she had discarded it at the earliest convenience. She couldn’t justify its uses, especially when the mech’s armor had been sufficient against the light mechs.
“Puhi, do you know why my cattlemech was given the shie….the flat scrap metal?”
Her squadmate tilted her head and, after a pause, started laughing.
“You…you really don’t know about melee equipment, do you?” As soon as Puhi got her laughter under control, she pulled up some information on the shield. “Take a look at this! The scrap metal is more useful than you think!”
Reddening somewhat at her ignorance, Xiao took the tablet and read it with her back to Puhi.
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Item: Titan Shield
Description:
While the titan mech technology has long been lost, partially complete titan mechs have been discovered and salvaged. The armor from these mechs were used in creating various items. Among these items is the titan shield which boasts both incredible durability and lightweight, making it usable by even light mechs. Because there were so few titan mech salvages found throughout history, the titan shield became a valuable item only owned by a select few, generally those with big backing or connections.
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“In other words, I tossed aside one of the most valuable items in favor of fighting solely with a pitchfork?”
“Yup! Now we’ll see you use the cattlemech to its full potential!”
After thanking Puhi, Xiao headed for one of the practice rooms so she could train with a shield. She didn’t need the exact titan shield, not that she believed any template would contain it except for the highly secretive ones. Any shield of similar sizes would work as she could practice against a hare mech. To make it easier on the AI, she broke the training into two sections. One allowed the hare to stay on the ground attacking her while she defended. The second scenario saw the mech only perform the kicking and she would get a feel of how to best counter it.
After several hours of practice, Xiao began to see the errors of her ways. The shield might appear as a hindrance initially but it actually provided her with a lot more options. Her favorite was bashing the foe with the shield. The damage wasn’t much but it could create instability, thus making it easier to knock her foe over. An enemy mech lying on its mech was one guaranteed to be defeated. Sadly, the shield bash approach wouldn’t work against a hare mech that was simply too quick to get pinned down like that.
Still, I can try luring out the kick to eventually take out one of the hare’s legs. By then, I should be facing a less agile foe.