Sold?

The early morning of Logria was always lively - mostly in the coming days as the terraforming engines were busier than ever. This day was special in someway. Ceremonial rites to those who perished in the storm took place across the entire city. Sy had attended some, particularly to all the groups who joined them in the mech facility.

About 300 died, and a few dozens missing - most had been unearthed by the terraforming engines by now. The number of fatalities this time was significantly lower than other previous incidents same as this due to the fact that the storm did not persist longer - if it did even for a few days, thousands would have starved.

Sy had taken a quick bath and groomed himself. It was about time he visited Steel Arena. Yesterday was the reopening of the Starport, but he had been occupied with something else. As such, he had been delayed a day. His free food would run out and he would have to revert to eating Dirt Balls again. He hoped he could make some quick money.

'I forgot about, Tiff. Hope she's okay.' Sy thought as someone knocked on his door. He remembered the first time someone came knocking, and it was the start of a devastating storm - ominous.

However, the knock this time was somehow elegant - having gracefulness and not as urgent as Niel did. Since he was about ready to go out, he walked toward the door and swung it open.

Outside, a teenager with a proud demeanor stood with arms crossed. It was Laira Runerie.

"Just came here to say, I'm back." She said. A big rucksack hung over one of her shoulders.

"I bet your parents did not sanction you coming here, Ms. Runerie?" Sy put out a test for her.

"Bah!" She scoffed, adjusting the rucksack's arm, "I had enough living in an asteroid facility. Besides, I already paid a year's rent for my apartment here. I called Niel and he said you're in charge now."

"For now.." Sy scratched his chin, a bit enlightened. It seemed that Laira was accustomed to being addressed as 'Ms Runerie'. "So what can I do for you, Ms. Runerie?"

"I told you, you'd become my mechanic." She grinned, the expression a bit childish for her age.

"I'm going out right now and be back tomorrow at this exact same hour."

"Tomorrow then."

Sy thought that if there's anything that needed repair, she would have said it and perhaps pay for it. He was more than willing to delay his visit to Steel Arena as long as he earned some quick money. But it appeared that Laira was not in a rush.

"Well, then.." He turned around and started walking into the stairs. However, he glanced at Laira's direction, having a sudden idea, "You play Steel Arena, Ms. Runerie?"

"Yeah. Most of my cousins do." The teenager answered.

"You should check out my account. Vulcan444. Come to my workshop if you need repairs or custom upgrades." With that, Sy continued his way down.

"I don't have my gaming pod here. I'll tell my cousins!" Laira took out her phone as Sy disappeared from her sight.

[Check out Vulcan444 in Steel Arena]

The young Pioneer entered the garage and inspected the hover bike. He was confident that the damaged energy cells would still function properly for a few weeks. He mounted the bike and donned some protective gears, before he started its dual engines and rode out.

There were holes along the road - huge ones. Judging from their identical sizes, Sy correctly assumed that it was Mina's doing. It was still a grieving time for the city, but they will soon be repaired. Although, that's a big task ahead as the stone foundations was utterly drilled open. They will need to replace them.

Logria was not an ideal place to build anything of enormous proportion as it would collapse under the soft sands. Thankfully, the city of Patter was built on a rocky plain.

Sy saw that the city was already up and running. The Starport was as busy as ever - except that the numbers of orbital crafts had diminished since the hydroponics were still out of action, and food was the main trade of the planet.

Carefully parking the hover bike, Sy jogged into the Starport, having an expectation that the Gaming Center was not open. Surprisingly, it was packed with more people than the last time he was there.

He failed to consider that after the storm, people needed entertainment - distractions.

Tiff was sitting on the counter - watching the news. When she saw Sy, her eyes narrowed, laced with curiosity. She said, "I saw you on the news. You didn't mention you know Logria's great family."

"Niel's my landlord." Sy chuckled.

"Oh!" The blonde smiled. She joked, motioning for him to get closer, "Since you're famous, I already know your side of the story during the storm. I think you're curious with mine."

Sensing some kind of conspiracy, Sy leaned closer.

"I was one of the people who managed to get inside the Three Towers," She whispered, adding, "Strange that some fresh mech specialist graduates were with us. I did some background check and they were at the top of their schools."

As they parted, Sy had a few guesses, but shrugged, "We'll see.."

This puzzled Tiff.

"I'm gonna take a pod." Sy began exploring the Gaming Center and after a few minutes, he found an empty one. He immediately climbed inside and entered Steel Arena.

"Aaaaaaaaaarrrgh!"

A scream echoed in the workshop.

Not only that the Straggler S1-2 was not sold - a very sad thing, but also, Sy was utterly embarrassed by the price tag of his product.

"5,000,000 Gold? Are you kidding me? Was I that tired that I didn't noticed I put the wrong numbers? What would people think of me?"

Thinking that his reputation was tarnished even before he sold a single mech, Sy sulked on the corner of the workshop with a palm on his face. He regretted telling Laira about his account.

'I can fix this.'

Sy stood up, rallying for the last time. He was about to the change the price but found that it was permanent.

"Tch!" He strolled around, finding a spot on the assembly line and leisurely laid down, pillowing on one arm with legs crossed.

'If the Straggler S1-2 was bought with 1,000 Gold, even if it's not real money, I would have the means to buy the necessary materials to build a proper Gamma Welding Machine here.'

The Gamma Welding Machine was not suitable to be handled by a human. A single mistake, and they would weld their flesh into their bones - an irreparable damage that only the most advanced medical bay could fix.

As such, Sy was planning to design a flexible computer guidance to an automated welding bot, destined to be an additional force to the assembly line. Something he could not do in Niel's ancient mech facility.

Sy had already moved on. But with nothing to do, he could only stare blankly at the dark ceiling of his workshop.

-----

Star System, Pyr's Eyes, consisted of barren planets and a single gas giant, brought up together by two stars.

Although, the stars' satellites were inhabitable, they still sported an abundance of exotic minerals. This domain was in the good hands of the aristocratic Runerie family.

In a stagnated asteroid belt which was tampered by humans, a cluster of facilities built within the rocks, flickered with lights.

Within one of this facilities, a young man, who had just turned 18 yesterday, entered his room.

This young man was Gregory Runerie. He was happy with his birthday the day before - almost. All of the family was there to attend his glorious ascension to adulthood. Laira had survived the storm in Logria and escorted back home - to which she was present, and then departed shortly after she ate his whole cake!

Gregory would never listen to her even if she was the patriarch's daughter! She was a mischief who does whatever she wanted.

This time, however, it was her cousin Genevieve who asked him to check someone in Steel Arena. She was the jewel of the family. The first to ever become successful as a mech pilot.

Although the family had a long line of being able to bond with mechs, they did not have the same successes as the Fanicks. Due to their lone homebase, and the fact that they had to keep the Union's economy at the right angle, the Runeries did not have the luxury of being in military services.

This time was different. The family had grown and they finally had the manpower to dawdle in the military might of the Union.

With the simmering tensions between the great families of the Union, the Runeries had to choose their allies carefully. The Fanicks had bankrupted a long time ago because of their stubbornness to faithfully produce outdated mechs, but they were far from toothless. Niel Fanick was regarded by the family as a genius, even his sister Mina, rivaled his cousin Genevieve.

With all this, Niel was closely watched by the family. They even made a one time deal - a one time delivery of materials for a single mass production. Laira was sent to make a deal which he wasn't informed with.

The family was even more alarmed after the storm in Logria. Niel was able to design and assemble a mech from scratch. This machine was meant to dig, and was coveted by the Runeries. Although, useless when distributed far and wide - the reason being that a pilot needed to have a neural affinity in order to steer a mech. And the majority of the population does not have this ability.

This was not a problem to them. Runeries had neural affinity. Using a mech to drill, they could streamline their mining efforts in their domain.

However, there was a sting in the tail when Laira came back and narrated a different kind of story. She told them that a very capable man was assisting Niel. 'Mina's boyfriend', she would later say.

Genevieve would be greatly affected by this. Her long time rival - a scary figure which frightened even the toughest men, had suddenly found a man who could even outmatch Niel in some certain areas.

As such, Gregory was tasked with finding out more about this man. He entered his expensive looking gaming pod, and login to Steel Arena.

"Alright, Vulcan444. Let see how capable you are."