 fell over our section and we were ready. Unfortunately so was England. They came out strong and scored on us quickly but we were seeing from our boys grit and fight. We felt confident that our team was going to stay in the game and they didn’t disappoint. What was disappointing was the number of English fans in our section. In the past the US contingent has been packed into the Category 3 sections behind one of the goals but this was not the case here. But one benefit to the helter skelter organization here is that it wasn’t hard for the guys with seats away from ours to make their way over to our section. Now there were many highlights to the game but when Dempsey scored the goal in the 40th ish minute we went absolutely mad. I can hardly talk today and I am sure that the 2 or so minutes of screaming like a 12 year old girl after that ball went in is likely the major cause. But oh so worth it. That goal was another shot heard around the world and we saw it live. Brilliant!
A few of the pictures of the stadium and game.
Today we have plans to walk down to the stadium that is less than a 1/2 mile from our house and see if we can get some tickets to the Serbia vs. Ghana game on the cheap!The security guard yawned as he closed the hefty coffer. Its antrigrav modules sprung back to life and took up position behind its sharp-faced owner.
The middle-aged man nodded and sauntered to the exit. Bypassing the security of this dreary spaceport had taken a lot more effort than he thought. For some reason, the spaceport recently received a massive upgrade in its security suite. It took some quick thinking for the man to respond to the alarms.
As he walked outside the building, he looked up at the dreary clouds that constantly shrouded this planets. The few sheens of color, akin to flattened rainbows, hardly cheered up his day. He hailed an aircar and set his destination to the opposite side of the planet.
After several hours of flight, the man departed from the aircar and looked at the quiet neighborhood he’d be living in for the time being. He glanced at the sturdy walls of the guarded compound a few blocks away and whistled appreciatively.
His client had already prepared a house for him. Outwardly, it looked identical to the many other homesteads on the street. In fact, the house incorporated many dampening materials that suppressed signals and blocked unwanted spying.
After entering the home, the man ignored the furnished house and the closet full of clothes. He directly climbed to the attic at the top and approached a camouflaged window that could not be spotted outside.
The coffer dropped to the spotless floor and opened by itself. Instead of the mundane clothes the man showed to the spaceport’s security guard, the coffer held a dizzying array of alloy components.
The man took each of the components and methodically assembled them until the entire construction resembled a metal tree sitting on its sides. Its intimidating size and shape resembled a railgun, only scaled up to the point it could threaten mechs.
The main laid down behind the complicated weapon and swept over its systems. The railgun’s muzzle aimed straight at the entrance of the guarded compound that could barely be seen through the attic’s window.
“You got away once, but I’ve seen your tricks now.” The man whispered as recalled his previous failure. He never expected to come up short due the presence of a mythical miniaturized shield generator.
He made some adjustments this time. As long as his target left the compound, his railgun would never miss.
He simply had to be patient.
For humanoid mechs, the main difference between a standard mech and a frontline mech had to do with their arms. A frontline mech replaced its arms with gun barrels, while a standard mech retained its human-like arms capable of manipulating external gear like mech-sized rifles.
A lot of mech designers thought that adding arms and a rifle to a mech wasted a lot of resources. Yet on an actual battlefield, a standard mech often outperformed its frontline mech counterpart. Many factors played a role, from the increased range of motion afforded by its arms, to the ability to make better use of a pilot’s real life marksmanship.
No one liked to pilot an amputated mech! Those who piloted frontline mechs often fell behind in skill, work ethic and genetic aptitude. More than half of the mech pilots of the Bright Republic fell under this category.
Mech academies measured how much time it took for each mech pilot to transfer his shooting proficiency. They kept scores separately for both laser and ballistic weaponry, as both types had their own nuances.
Raella’s opinion echoed the studies conducted by academics. Not a single consistent factor had been detected that could increase the odds of breakthroughs. It appeared to everyone that rather than mechs, the key point of focus should be the mech cadet in question.
This was also why mech cadets started their training with older, outdated mechs. Modern designs incorporated many features that could easily overwhelm a young and immature mind. A good training mech focused on simplicity first and performance next.
Ves had already done the same with the Young Blood, but the stakes were higher this time. Proficiency in melee combat always transferred easier than proficiency in ranged combat. No holy grail existed that could shrink this disparity, and Ves didn’t delude himself into thinking he could accomplish what millions of mech designers failed to achieve.
As Ves kept asking for stories, he caught an important difference between Raella and Melkor. His niece never enjoyed the training. She only grudgingly kept up with her academy’s demanding curriculum, but spent most of her spare time mastering knife fighting.
This gave Ves an opening if he employed his unique insights into the X-Factor. He might not be able to stumble upon the holy grail, but perhaps he could make do with fruit juice. Compared to the bland water that no one really liked, perhaps he could entice the kids to drink a little more.
All in all, his talk with Melkor proved useful in shaping the concept of his next design. In his opinion, the way forward did not rest on coddling the kids.
A lot of training mechs went overboard in terms of simplicity. One of the reasons why his Young Blood drew so many teenagers was because it featured a couple of interesting gimmicks. It spiced up the boring knight concept and made it a lot more interesting without demanding an excessive amount of skill.
Those who ascended from piloting 1-star mechs sought to pilot more powerful mechs. They’ve already achieved the minimum amount of proficiency in marksmanship. In his mind, a training mech should have a soul.
When Ves left the gym and reached his terminal, he browsed the galactic net to see some examples of rifleman mech meant for training. As expected, most tended to be built for simplicity and ease of use. Other designs chose the other extreme and spiced up the design in order to generate more interest.
Now that he established a direction, Ves considered what kind of rifleman mech he should design. He chose to go for a medium weight class due to the additional power and capacity it afforded over training mechs designed to be as cheap as possible. In any case, Ves didn’t need to consider the costs when designing a virtual mech.
He recently acquired the Directed Energy Weapon Optimization II sub-skill, so he knew a thing or two about laser rifles. He chose to go for laser rifles which many mech pilots mastered first. Energy weapons demanded a little less consideration compared to ballistic weapons, though those who mastered the latter first all turned out to be prodigies.
Still, even with the optimization skill, Ves did not fully understand the full nuances of laser weapons. When he thought about his inadequacies, he suddenly reminded himself that he once made off with research notes on a certain kind of laser.
Ves looked around and saw that no one was present. His cousins likely entered the simulator pods while Carlos already worked on their company’s next order.
He turned on his comm and turned on his Privacy Shield. Now, even the security cameras and other sensors wouldn’t be able to spy on him. He navigated to his files and after inputting a couple of passwords, he reached the folder labeled ‘Gamma Laser Rifle Research and Development’.
If anyone from the MTA could see him now, they’d shoot him on sight. Ves knew he had a poisoned chalice in his hands, yet he couldn’t bear to delete the files. Radioactive or not, gamma lasers worked on much of the same principles as regular laser rifles.
He stood to gain a lot of understand in the workings of a laser rifle if he gleaned some insights from the research notes. While Ves didn’t have enough time to decipher the complete collection, he only needed a few pointers to elevate his next design.
Whether he’d be able to resist the temptation, no one knew.Updated: 2018-03-29T06:18:16.357-05:00
2014-09-19T02:20:09.216-05:00Everyone has their own personal style and way to utilize the internet for purposes that best suit them. One of my favorite things is to draw inspiration. My dear daughter in law Meg does the same. It was she who found an idea of a wedding quilt where family