Ravens of Eternity

241 Mecha Central One

All six Ravens walked through the makeshift city that was built near the tournament grounds. It was erected specifically to support the tournament itself, and housed the pilots and their crews throughout the month-long event.

Eva likened it to Olympic Villages. However, unlike those back on Earth, Mecha Central One was a small city that was filled with more than just the competing teams. It also sported doctors and technicians and merchants and artisans.

Some unsigned crew and pilot hopefuls also found their way here, in hopes of being recruited to the top teams. Or in some cases, any team at all.

There were multiple districts inside of the small city, each one targeted for specific purposes and commercial burdens. There were hangar bays, hackerspaces, parts shops, relaxation venues, medical buildings, a couple of concert halls, and a single huge food-based district that linked all the other districts together.

Claire couldn’t help but wow at everything around her. She had been born and raised in Helios, and her whole life was defined by that single massive city. MC1 felt incredibly quaint to her. Cozy, even.

She found it cute. The others also found it wondrous in their own way.

Kali, who was brought up in literal seclusion from the rest of the galaxy, had never seen or experienced anything like it in her life. She was like a kid in a city-sized candy store, and her eyes bugged out at every marvelous thing that passed them by.

Eva, Miko, and Amal all felt overawed by it. It made them feel like they were Olympic competitors themselves. Of course, they were in their own way. But being in the middle of it all really hammered that feeling home.

They all felt the energies that coursed through the entire place, of all the people who brought life to the city itself. And they all made sure to capture everything with their EyeCasts.

.....

“Look at those two!” said Claire.

She pointed to a couple of people wearing mecha costumes. But they weren’t just any mecha – they represented the mecha piloted by the captains of the 1st and 2nd seeded teams.

Hilariously, the two “randomly” saw each other as they walked down a street, and began to get into a ludicrous argument. It soon devolved into a shouting match that ended in an all-out mock battle.

The two wailed at each other with their soft-ish weapons as onlookers cheered them on. They began to leap on tables and other obstacles as they sparred, which only drew them more attention and cheers.

“I kinda wanna go shopping,” declared Eva.

Amal turned to her, eyes wide as saucers. She could hardly believe what she had heard.

“You?” she uttered. “Shopping? You break up with one guy and suddenly you’re a normal girl that wants to go to the mall? If you aren’t careful, you’re gonna end up getting your nails done too.”

Eva laughed heartily at Amal’s teasing, and shook her head at the same time. She was never going to be a normal girl, and was proud of that.

Normal was overrated.

“I mean, for mecha parts,” she replied. “I heard some people say that some are only available during mechageddon. And even then, they’re only offered to competitors. I wanna go drool at them... And maybe buy one?”

“I am for this,” said Miko. “I have also heard that there are celebrated parts builders and mecha engineers in the city. I wish to find them so I can study their bespoke designs, and steal their knowledge for myself.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Xylo. “Gonna need something to dampen my Phantom’s signals. Maybe something for my gun, too, like make it more robust. I’ve got a feeling that only a custom maker would have a solution.”

“And I’ll go with Eva,” said Claire. “I’m a normal girl and I wanna go to the mall! And besides, we all know how you can get when it comes to mecha. I’ll make sure you don’t overspend, alright?”

Everyone laughed as she dug into Eva’s weakness, though Eva herself took Claire seriously. She knew she needed someone to keep her in check, and immediately gave her certain permissions to her ledger.

“I agree,” said Eva. “Any purchase I wanna make, I’ve gotta run it by you first.”

Claire gawked when she realized Eva was being completely serious.

“Kali and I are gonna go to where the food is,” said Amal. “We can smell all that deliciousness from here, and seriously, it’s making our stomachs growl.”

“You don’t even need to eat,” countered Xylo. She turned towards Kali, and continued chiding the both of them. “And you barely need to eat.”

“Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy it,” Kali replied.

“Besides,” added Amal, “food heals the soul.”

After figuring out their individual plans, they all split up and went their separate ways.

Amal and Kali headed straight towards the food court, where they began to salivate nonstop. Eva and Claire went to the main parts market, where they pored over every cool weapon they could see. Miko and Xylo sought out the engineers and designers in the Builder’s District, which was the closest to their group.

The overall design of the district was relatively simple – most of it was a wide-open expanse. But it was populated with countless multi-story, high-tech hovels. Each one was utterly unique in nature, which reflected the mind of the designer or engineer who worked inside.

Some were incredibly space efficient, or were simple to build and take down, or were incredibly sturdy despite the materials. Others were heavily decorated and eye-catching, and easily attracted people towards them.

The two of them ended up walking into almost every single one of the hovels and chatted up the owners inside, even while they worked.

Xylo sought tirelessly to find a way to reduce her overall signatures even lower, and chatted up every signal engineer in the district. She eventually found someone who had an incredibly simple and elegant solution for her, so she immediately contracted her to do the work.

Miko on the other hand chatted with every single designer she came across, especially if their work caught her attention. But she never bugged them about any specific design, and instead asked about their habits and processes.

Not that she ignored their work, in fact she downloaded their schematics as they talked. She wanted to hyper analyze their work later. By combining their opinions with their actual designs, she could derive the techniques they used to make them.

It was in her nature to understand the creation in tandem with its creator.

To her, they were more than just parts. They were physicalized expressions of the people who made them, and the only way to truly understand the design was to understand the designers’ philosophies as well.

If Eva sought empowerment through constant practice, Miko sought it through constant study. And so, she absorbed everything she could and grew that much more powerful as a result.

~

In an adjacent district, Eva and Claire entered the Merchant’s Corridor. Unlike the Builder’s District, this was composed of multiple large buildings. Each one was filled with a number of shops and kiosks, all of which varied in size.

Some were large, some were small. Either way, every building was packed with goods and people.

It was basically a campus-style supermall. Except instead of department stores filled with clothes and appliances, it was filled with weapons and armor and modules of all kinds. There were small boutiques lined up with huge stores, and numerous kiosks, stalls, and booths in between.

Eva was practically in heaven as she pored over part after part, weapon after weapon, shop after shop.

She was never the type to sink herself into consumerism, and wasn’t here to wantonly satisfy some urge to purchase. There was another itch that had bugged her, and it began ever since she started piloting mecha professionally.

Her loadout never satisfied her, and that started to become a real pain point for her.

She had switched her loadout throughout multiple skirmishes and fights, and yet never once did the loadout feel right to her. A few did stand out, of course. The beamcannon was certainly one of her favorites.

And those electrolances from back in the day were a joy to use.

Otherwise, nothing really stuck out to her. Even her CryoBlade – she assumed that since she was great with her beltknife, she would also enjoy using it with a mecha. But it just wasn’t the same.

She felt as though she was constantly seeking the perfect loadout, but never actually found it.

It occurred to her that she might only be sated if she had multiple combination weapons on hand. Like a shield with a cannon built into it. Or one of those goofy sword guns. She always felt that those things were utterly ridiculous, but now she understood part of their appeal.

Another thought that crossed her mind was if she could get Admiral Chase’s particle disintegrator cannons somehow. If she had a rifle or shoulder-mounted version of it, she was sure she could dominate any fight in the tournament.

Then realized it would have been too much for the tournament to deal with. After all, S-ranked weapons, armor, and modules were restricted in the tournament, much less overpowered experimental ones. This ensured that nothing could penetrate the S-class armored cores provided by the tournament organizers.

It was the only way to protect the pilots and cement their safety. Most of the time, anyway.

After a couple hours of browsing, she finally came upon the Myrmidon Technology store, where they had their most recent product showing right on the main floor. Eva couldn’t stop drooling at it.

She realized she absolutely had to have it, and immediately begged and pleaded with Claire to let her buy it. Eva practically harangued her into submission, despite the hefty price tag.

In the end, Claire accepted, on the condition that it was her only purchase.

Eva agreed happily, high on the impulsive purchase. Then she frowned as she watched her ledger shrink by hundreds of thousands of credits.

~

At the center of every district was FoodTopia, and it was perhaps the largest of all of them. Amal and Kali walked around in wonder at the sights and smells. Especially the smells. The two let their noses guide them as they wove through the alleyways and salivated at every food stall.

Many were cozy little sit-downs with colorful and beautiful signs that led people to them. But that wasn’t all. Beyond the stalls were multiple restaurants of all kinds and sizes. Some were lavish and grand, while others were large and voluminous.

Each one promised flavors beyond compare, and various mouth-watering smells emanated from them.

The whole district was a veritable garden of cuisines.

And neither of them recognized the vast majority of cuisines that were offered. The most popular dishes from all over Federation space found their way here, and it was incredibly overwhelming.

Kali was especially affected. When she was in the family, all she ate were simple rations and tasteless MealBars. The first time she had actual, real food almost a year ago, she cried.

Amal was in a similar boat. The last time she had eaten Syrian food was way too long ago, and she was dying to have a taste of falafel and shawarma and halawat. Her mouth watered as she thought about the flavors of her homeland, and missed them terribly.

But she knew that she would probably never taste them again. The flavors of the distant past had long since disappeared, or diminished, or evolved into something new.

Here at FoodTopia, she hoped to find some semblance of what she used to love. Or at least find evolutions of their flavor profiles.

The two of them looked at each other with ravenous and devilish grins as they headed towards their first pick. Then, over the course of a couple hours, stuffed themselves silly with some of the most delicious food found in Federation space.