After the first hour at work with Nico, the effects of the morning coffee had faded, and the Researchers' minds were a bit easier for Max to be around, so he made his way back to the lab and left the flight crew to do their work.
"Welcome back, Commander. We got your message about the coffee, and we apologize. The first taste of freedom was too sweet, and we might have gone overboard." The researcher nearest to the door greeted Max as he walked back in.
"I'm glad you all understand. Now, how was the first hour with Lead Researcher Nico?" He asked.
"It's amazing. Everything that we could have asked for and more. We're fine-tuning the Mecha design for the Line Mecha prototype, and we think that it will be ready to send to Uncle Lu by the end of the day. The Lead Researcher plans to have some of them sent to the Destroyers for testing, but the Moon Base will release the final version once they have that data."
"Excellent news. Is there anything I can do at the moment?" Max asked.
"You can watch those sensor readings there. Do you have a research-related System Function like Miss Nico?" The student asked.
"In a way. I have a System Function for making things work in the most efficient or optimal way. If there is a flaw or glitch, it is pretty good at catching it." Max explained.
Everyone got back to work as soon as Max moved to the station, and he could see that they were making the most minor of adjustments, trying to save as much weight as possible so that they would bring down the raw material requirement of the Mecha. Even if they could only squeeze out a few percent worth of savings, it was worth it in the long run, as that was an extra few dozen Mecha when they were produced on a Regimental scale.
There wasn't a Commander in the entire human race who would object to more Mecha for his materials.
A few hours after Max joined them, the next shift came in to say hello before they came on duty. Similar to the previous one, they were a Giant and Valkia pair on Command and Weapons, but this shift had two humans instead of a human and an Innu for Engineering and Communications.
"It is an honour to meet you, Commander, Lead Researcher. We will be in your care for the foreseeable future." The Giant greeted them with a smile.
His mind was all on duty and what he needed to get done this shift, but the Valkia's mind was all on how to convince Nico to help her pass a level in the VR combat game she was stuck at, while the two human crewmembers were intently pondering the mesmerizing way that her backside swayed as she walked in the heeled boots that the Valkia preferred.
Max could already tell that this crew was going to be a fun one.
The shift's crew finished their introductions and went to relieve the last shift of their posts while the development team got to work on the next fully constructed prototype. Only after it was fully constructed and tested would they be able to tell if there were any issues that the simulations missed, so great care was taken to make sure that everything was exactly to specifications.
On some projects, that was the hardest part. Getting the actual unit assembled to the design specs.
The Replicator system was very good, but any small inconsistencies would destroy tight tolerances. So, for the sake of experimentation, most things would be created in pieces and assembled. That would also reveal any flaws in their design that would make the unit hard to perform maintenance on.
Once the team had put it together, taken it apart, and put it back together again to begin testing, they could say for sure that it was actually possible to do and make notes on any design changes that might need to be made to get at frequently serviced parts.
That was an issue that had gotten many ambitious designs scrapped in the past. If the field technicians couldn't quickly and easily service it, then it was not suitable to be taken on the battlefield. If it couldn't be immediately repaired, it was scrap iron before it was ever damaged, just waiting for its first breakdown, when it would be abandoned by the unit.
It was the opposite of many civilian designs, which were designed to be difficult on purpose so that the dealerships could make more money on service calls.
They were only just past the main skeleton when they ran into the first issue with the construction. The holding frame for the power pack was designed to be modular, but when it was reinforced, there were extra brackets added, and now it couldn't be put in after the main skeleton was assembled, and the whole Mecha would have to come apart to take it out again.
So, back to the drawing board they went. The partially assembled frame was tossed into the recycle bin to be used for the next round of materials, and Max started reviewing the cockpit interior, the portion that he had chosen to refine today.
It was the part best suited to [Optimize] since most Pilots would be roughly his size, so Max started tweaking the layout of the control panel again, trying to make it more familiar to users of previous generations of Mecha without losing the more rapidly accessible portions of its design.
On the next attempt, everything at least went together. Taking it apart was a minor nightmare, though, as many of the bolts which would make the process easier were blocked by later additions, so the unit had to be dismantled in a specific order. That was not good for the battlefield either. You didn't want to take half the Mecha apart to get to what you needed, so they would have to redesign that again after the disassembly and reassembly were completed.
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