While her ant mech waited by the mechbay doors, Xiao did a final check. Despite the ant being a familiar mech, the new subcomponent made it feel foreign. As discussed between her and the head mechanic, they would ease the subcomponents in. She needed time to get a feel of how they worked while Wattan needed more time to finetune everything. Despite having specs, actual combat provided the data he needed to make the necessary adjustments. Despite this being only a single change, the young woman felt like she was piloting something very different.

We’ll see how the engine booster will fare.

<

Component: Center Torso

Armor: 80/80

Structure: 40

Subcomponent(s):

Armor (Basic) [Provides up to 2 Armor per Structure, 0 Slots]

Gyro (Basic) [Provides 50 Stability, Recovers 1 Stability per Minute, 1 Slot]

Engine Core 20 (Basic) [Provides mobility to the mech, 2 Slots]

Cooling (Basic) [Provides 20 Heat capacity to mech, 1 Slot]

2x Heat Sink (Basic) [-1 Heat per minute, 2 Slots]

Ant Specific Engine Booster [100% Success rate when increasing engine core output by 50% for 1 min, has a 5 min cooldown timer, 2 Slots]

>

The young woman still needed time to get adjusted to subcomponents with cooldowns. These subcomponents provided a temporary boost to the mech. A pilot could continue using the subcomponent past the duration but that could result in failure. Failures could be as minor as the subcomponent turning off, no longer an option for the pilot, or as major as an explosion, taking most of the component where the subcomponent was installed with it. Once the subcomponent was turned off for the cooldown period, then it could be reused with none of the negatives.

“I hope you’re ready to zoom around the arena!”

Xiao shook her head as soon as she heard Vesna on the other side. The little girl had a weird assumption that the ant mech would zoom around while it shot at her foes. First, she wasn’t proficient enough to do such maneuvers reliably, especially if her foes decided not to stay in one place. Secondly, her two opponents were known to be packing engine boosters too. Therefore, she had only leveled the playing field as opposed to getting an advantage on her foes.

I wonder how the cattlemech would fare against these two foes.

She and Puhi were up against two hornet mechs. The pilots of the two hornets were brothers and, based on what they saw on videos, the brothers were very in tune when it came to fighting together. This was something she and Puhi couldn’t overcome in such a short amount of time. They trusted one another but their teamwork still had room to improve, a lot more room.

“I might let them come to me,” Xiao spoke into her headset. “It’s common sense for pilots to target and eliminate the weakest foe to gain a numerical advantage.”

“Wattan told you to keep an eye on the timer once you turn on the engine booster. He doesn’t know about the difficulty of repairing your ant specific subcomponent.”

The young woman turned her attention to the grayed out timer beneath her engine booster icon. The timer was already set to 1:00:00 and would count down the moment she activated her new toy. For pilots like her who hadn’t developed an internal clock for cooldowns, she had to actively check the number to make sure. This sounded simply but, once she was in the heat of combat, her attention could be focused elsewhere.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

“That’s why I asked you to keep an eye on the cooldown too.”

The chit chat ended the moment the mechbay doors opened. Xiao gently maneuvered her ant to the starting location, unable to shake the feeling of her mech’s fragility compared to the cattlemech. She was almost certain that, if she rammed the arena walls with her cattlemech, the walls would come out worse. In the final minutes leading up to the match, she took a quick moment to check the streaming site and read the comments there. Unsurprisingly, there were comments that questioned her decision to go with an ant over the hornet.

< Why is she using an ant mech? Did her hornet mech break during practice and they cannot repair it in time for the match? >

< She must be really underestimating her opponent if she believes an ant mech is sufficient! These are hornet mechs with engine boosters! WTF! >

Xiao couldn’t help but smile. The comments were fun to read and helped her relax before the match. The thought that some of these commenters were her fans also made her feel warm inside.

This match is more than just me. I got to do well to make a mech a respected mech again!

“The match has begun!”

As expected, the two opposing hornet mechs headed straight for her. Following the plan, Xiao and Puhi ran their mechs to each other to avoid either mech getting double teamed. A few seconds later, Vesna alerted her that the enemy mechs were using engine boosters based on their speed.

“I’m going to use mine as well then!”

With the engine booster active, Xiao felt her body pushed into her seat more. The simulations didn’t prepare her for it so, for the briefest moment, she panicked a little. Once she grew accustomed to the new speed, the young woman returned her attention to the match. Her new engine booster allowed her ant mech to meet up with Puhi’s mech before her opponents could get close enough to fire any weapons. As a precaution, Xiao turned her engine booster off before the one minute was up. She didn’t need the remaining thirty seconds and wanted the cooldown to be over as soon as possible.

“I bet they are puzzled by your speed,” said Vesna. “Keep them guessing!”

While engine boosters could be installed onto an ant mech, it was uncommon. Standard engine boosters took up 4 slots and produced heat when activated. With an ant that had so few slots available, an engine booster was a risky choice that few competent pilots were willing to make. Therefore, Xiao was quite amazed when Wattan showed her the specs for the ant specific engine boosters. The performance was on par with the standard ones without the negatives. She might have lost one heat sink but it was a small price to pay if she could move her ant to where it was needed.

“I’ll surprise them with my attacks. I wonder how they’ll process that.”

Xiao hoped her opponents would make bolder moves after getting the impression that her ant mech wasn’t as dangerous in offense. She just needed to get good positioning before she could make them realize their mistake. As soon as she and Puhi met up, they advanced toward their foes together. With the mobility on both sides, it was nearly impossible to mount a proper pincer attack, especially this early in the battle. Since Xiao had an ant mech, she would prefer to avoid two one-on-one confrontations which would be a disadvantage for her side.

Once the hornet mech opposite her was nearly within her firing range, the young woman eased into the control of her jump jets. The cattlemech had spoiled her by having very few things she needed to focus on. After her break, Xiao had to readjust to the jump jets, getting the feel of changes from a slight nudge of her fingers. By the time she was facing incoming fire, her ant was already zigzagging and making itself a difficult target to get a direct hit on. During the initial engagement, she purposely activated only some of her weapons. Prior to the match, she and Wattan went through calculations and layouts to determine what number of weapons would fool her opponent.

“Xiao, Puhi said that you two need to split up. In our current skirmish, they have the edge.”

For the sake of keeping her facade up, Xiao reluctantly broke formation with Puhi. She purposely moved behind her opponent to get his attention. While her opponents could doubleteam Puhi, she might be able to finish one of them off if she only had the rear armor to shoot at. Her foe responded by giving her his entire attention, resulting in two separate skirmishes once Xiao pulled back enough.

“Tell Puhi she better not lose!” Xiao shouted into the mic before focusing on her own duel.

The hornet mech kept close, not letting Xiao open up any distance. Despite her maneuvers, it was clear that the hornet was still landing more hits due to firing more. Luckily, the hornet was only using small lasers. The brothers built their mechs knowing that heat control would be the most important so they neglected weapons where the ammo would take up valuable slot space. As a result, the hornet could fire at least three small lasers at regular intervals without worrying about overheating.

I better dig myself out of this hole before it's too late!