The Mech Touch novel Chapter 257

The mech pilot proceeded to tread carefully in activating the mech. Ves noticed plenty of bots hovering at the sides of the chamber. They carried a number of emergency equipment such as fire suppressants and isolation materials should his mech start to malfunction.

Fortunately, the Blackbeak turned online as smooth as flowing water. The testing chamber’s sensors and the diagnostics conveyed by the mech’s internals conveyed no red flags. For now.

"All systems look green! Minor deviances have been reported with the power reactor. They are well within tolerances!"

Ves had a lot of confidence nothing would go wrong at the start. He meticulously checked the quality of his own work as he assembled it piece by piece. Still, he felt excited to see his hard work pay off by delivering a near-flawless performance.

The testing grounds performed a rigorous amount of testing in the empty chamber. The test pilot started making simple but meaningful moves. This could be something as simple as leaning forward or backwards, or as complex as balancing on one leg while extending out the remaining limbs.

That last move caused Ves to wince. The Blackbeak’s leg had not been rated to handle all of that weight for long stretches of time. Still, his mech performed like a champ, taking the escalating levels of stress in stride. By the time the mech ran at full sprint while swinging its sword and shield back and forth, Ves relaxed enough to chat with the people from the testing ground.

"How large is the testing ground?"

"Oh, we have over twenty testing chambers and more than forty outdoor grounds and obstacle courses. Many of them are duplicates as we are constantly testing new designs. Our state-of-the-art equipment and galaxy-leading methodologies is praised by everyone in Bentheim. We frequently receive the most confidential test models from various famous Journeyman Mech Designers."

Interspersed between the somewhat exaggerated marketing speech, the people of the testing grounds revealed a genuine passion of getting their hands on the latest toys in the Republic first. The truly prestigious mech designers sometimes sent out a batch of half-a-dozen mechs for the testing grounds to wreck while gathering as much data as possible.

"You guys must be wrecking a lot of mechs!"

"Oh, it’s not that bad. Any destruction is always carefully controlled in a way the remnants can be fully salvaged."

Once they finished the basic tests, the testing grounds moved the prototype to a second chamber. This one contained various mech-sized dummies and obstacles for the Blackbeak to sink its teeth in. Ves even recognized some cheap exotic alloys that must have been salvaged and reforged a couple of hundred times.

The mech pilot slowly moved to attack a basic target made out of wood. The flimsy material split like paper, hardly putting up an obstacle against the alloys built into the sword.

That soon changed as the pilot started swinging the sword against a progression of increasingly formidable materials. Ves sighed in relief once they went through the final plate of armor, which mimicked the toughness of a medium knight’s chest armor.

"The sword has largely held up."

Certainly, it wouldn’t be a good sword if it became chipped or blunted after tearing through the armor of a couple of mechs. Still, even the strongest swords could snap like a twig if wielded by an incompetent pilot.

The testing grounds spent the next ten days subjecting the prototype to a variety of conditions.

They ran the mech through an obstacle course until it ran out of fuel.

They subjected it to a hellishly hot chamber before dropping the temperature to below freezing point.

They overloaded the internals to see how much mileage the prototype could extract out of that extra power, but they quickly had to halt their attempts. The mech reached the point of irreversible damage too rapidly to continue this particular test.

Most of the time, the tests consisted of hour-long sojourns into waiting for a component to reach its breaking point. The testing grounds left the more destructive tests at the very end, where they finally placed the mech in front of a couple of turrets and fired at it with sadistic glee.

"The toughness of your mech’s exterior is really good!" The same duty manager praised. "What a great armor system! Its compartmentalization isn’t too shabby as well."

"The Blackbeak is still a knight. It’s designed to take a beating."

The one thing they couldn’t test was how easy they could repair it back to full. Ves lacked the time to go through such a round and the testing ground demanded a substantial price for such a service.

During his ten-day stay at the testing grounds, he found it remarkable how far they went to keep their confidentiality.

The same crop of testing personnel manned to consoles and performed the testing. The various testing facilities had been carefully screened, and even the outdoor grounds had been fenced in by obscuring electric screens.

Alongside isolation, the testing grounds also employed a mix of active security that actively swept the grounds for spying devices and unwanted visitors. Considering the clout of their regular customers, such precautions were definitely needed!

"I must say, it’s a pleasure to test your first original mech!" The representative gushed as he accompanied Ves to the shuttle pad. "Yours is one of the most aesthetically pleasing debut designs I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing on our grounds!"

"Thanks for letting me witness the entire process. It always hurts to see your own creation get hurt, but I’ve learned just as much from my observations as I’ve had from the data you’ve compiled."

"It’s our pleasure to serve you. We don’t often see mech designers possess as much passion for the craft as you, to the point where you’ve stuck with us for the entire ten-day stretch!"

That inadvertently told Ves a lot about how the well-to-do mech designers treated their own creations. He gently shook his head. How far would he go before he started to treat his mechs as commodities as well?

"Well, I’m very satisfied with your services." Ves thanked the representative as he reached his shuttle. "I’ll think about bringing my next designs to you whenever I come up with something new!"

"You’re welcome, Mr. Larkinson. The APMTG always stands ready to find the limits of your mechs!"