The Mech Touch

gly words being thrown around. ”

Ketis ignored the burly woman and turned to Ves.
”Who is this? ”

”This is Carletta Haine, the Chief Technician of the Shield of Hispania.
She ’s responsible for the mech technicians and makes sure that they do a good job. ”

The guest designer regarded Chief Haine with a mild amount of respect.
”It can ’t be easy keeping your..
people in line. ”

”It ’s a skill I ’ve honed over decades of service. ” The Chief replied simply.
Though they only exchanged a couple of words, Haine ’s dislike of the girl already deepened.
”I don ’t think it is something that you ’ll ever be able to master.
You don ’t fulfill the requirements to do so.
Perhaps you should spend your time elsewhere. ”

The two women, one as young as as a fresh graduate, another in her older and more wizened years, glared at each other as if they were cats competing for the same mouse.

Ves stood by awkwardly as the women decided to have an impromptu staring contest.
Eventually, he stretched out a hand between their eyes, breaking their stupid dominance ritual of forcing the other to avert their eyes first.
He didn ’t have time for this nonsense.

”Chief, please, I ’ve got this in hand.
I already set the matter straight to Ketis.
This is a delicate situation that requires a diplomatic approach. ” He begged.

The chief glanced at him with an unreadable expression before turning back to Ketis.
”Fine.
As long as this missy here give my men an apology, I ’m willing to forget the matter. ”

”You want an apology from me?! Then you have to fight for it! ” Ketis growled and placed her hand behind her back until she gripped her greatsword.
Apologising without a fight was unthinkable to her! ”You.
Me.
The practice ring.
If you can beat me flat, I ’ll give you your apology.
If you can ’t, then you better stay out of my way! ”

Ves audibly groaned and palmed his face.
What was wrong with these people!? Perhaps he should have expected a stunt like this from Ketis, but Chief Haine as well?

He quickly spread his gaze across the entire compartment and saw that pretty much every mech technician who wasn ’t performing any sensitive work had slowed down to listen.
Over half of their expression showed approval at their chief ’s attempt at backing them up.

He understood now.
Chief Haine had a responsibility to defend the honor of her mech technicians.
Failure to do so meant that the mech technicians would lose faith in her leadership and their morale would plummet.

Both of them remained implacable due to the expectations placed upon them by others! They literally couldn ’t back down in any circumstances or lose all their respect!

As someone with no stake in the matter, Ves took unilateral action.
He approached Ketis, grabbed her arm and dragged her away.
”Sorry, chief, but Ketis has some work to attend to! See you later! ”

It might not have been an elegant way to resolve the standoff, but it did break the spell between them.
The Chief stared wordlessly at their backs before heading towards the exit.
Perhaps she already found out that there was nothing to be gained from pressing the matter.
Not with Ves around.

As for Ves, he had been ready to employ his considerable physical strength to haul the genetically modified vixen away from her staring contest.
Surprisingly, Ketis felt as soft as a pillow.
She didn ’t resist at all, which was completely contrary to his expectations.

Perhaps Ketis became aware of how bad of a situation she was in, and latched onto his move as a way to escape the standoff without repercussions.

”Your chief technician is a formidable woman. ” She praised.
”She can give a lot of Swordmaidens a run for her money. ”

”Lydia ’s Swordmaidens don ’t have the monopoly on strong women, you know.
The Bright Republic ’s Mech Corps employs far more women than the Swordmaidens. ”

Ves led them over to an inactive 3D printer that he reserved beforehand.
”In any case, we need to get back to your lesson.
Do you know how to operate one of these? ”

”A 3D printer? Sure, though operating them is the job of the sl..
I mean the mech technicians. ”

”If you have any ambition about mech design, you need to readjust that attitude.
Fabricating a mech in person instead of shoving the job to your mech technicians will bring you much closer to your design, or any designs you work with.
Part of the errors I see many mech designers make is that they detach themselves too much from the workshop. ”

”Isn ’t that supposed to be how we work? ” She asked, genuinely confused at his words.
”We use our genius to draft up a good design.
Then we dump them to the mech technicians and order them to churn out mechs.
Nothing in this chain suggests we have to perform manual labor. ”

Ves really wanted to fix her contempt of mech technicians.
He supposed his next assignment for her might fix some of her attitude problems.

”I suppose I won ’t be able to convince you with words.
Fine.
I ’ll just let you have a taste of it yourself. ” He raised his comm and transferred some files to her comm.

”What ’s this? ”

”It ’s a design schematic of the Marc Antony Mark I.
It ’s a cheaper variant of Caesar Augustus that you recently struggled with.
It ’s a shame you hadn ’t been able to finish your variant, so I ’ve transferred the design schematics of my own. ”

”Oookay.
So what am I supposed to do with it? ”

”You ’re going to fabricate a working copy of the Mark I with this 3D printer and assemble it by hand yourself. ”

”What?! ” Ketis shrieked, attracting every mech technician ’s attention on her again.
”Are you daft?! I can ’t possibly do that! I ’ve never fabricated more than a couple of spare parts! Also, are you allowed to fabricate an extra mech out of the blue just like that? ”

Ves grinned at her.
”If you ’re unused to fabricating your own mechs, then this is a good opportunity to get you up to speed.
Besides, I ’m not telling you to build a full-scale model.
Instead, I want you to fabricate a miniature about the length of a human head.
I ’m also assigning you an imaginary budget.
You have to ’pay ’ for the materials you bring out of the stores.
You fail if you run out of money! ”Find authorized novels in Webnovel，faster updates, better experience，Please click for visiting.

”What happens then? ”

”I ’ll pass you over to Chief Haine and let you work as a mech technician for a few weeks. ”

Ketis whimpered.