Chapter 150 : Mecha Guard, Happy New Year’s Eve!!!
Chapter 150: Mecha Guard, Happy New Year’s Eve!!!
In the equipment room, Betty put on the inner exoskeleton armor with the help of the logistics staff.
She fastened all the connection buckles herself, while the staff installed high-strength spring assemblies and small hydraulic telescopic pumps on her back, shoulders, and thighs.
A row of rectangular magic crystals had been fixed neatly along the rigid spine.
“Move around a bit and try it.”
Betty moved her hands and feet as instructed and found that squatting was extremely difficult, so she explained the situation to the staff behind her.
The staff member smiled.
“The weight of the outer armor will all rest on the exoskeleton. The spine is the key component of the support structure.
It’s normal for squatting to feel difficult now.
Try again after the outer armor is on.
All right, no problem—go ahead.”
Every exoskeleton was tailored to the combatant’s body data.
Although it was an external skeleton, its purpose leaned heavily toward load-bearing, so its structure focused on simplicity and efficiency.
For example, the arm exoskeleton only had movable devices at the shoulder and elbow sections, while the upper arm and forearm were made of solid rigid material and could not move by themselves.
The most finely crafted part was the gauntlets designed in imitation of plate armor.
On the back of the hand, the palm, and even inside and outside each finger sleeve, specialized interlocking rune arrays had been engraved—the same applied to the legs.
After taking a transport lift to another assembly workshop, Betty saw a large number of staff standing by in place, with batches of Mechanical Body components neatly arranged beside them.
There were also rows of mecha lower bodies over two meters tall, lined up like giant cabbages by the roadside.
Betty stood on the designated assembly platform above the mecha’s lower body and positioned herself as instructed.
Five or six staff members gathered around her to begin the final assembly.
Two mobile frame carts pushed the front and back plates of the main chest armor together against her chest and abdomen.
A staff member inserted large and small rectangular rods into each reserved slot.
The runes on both ends of the rods interconnected with the runes on the chest armor.
Then he lightly touched them with an energy crystal to check whether the rune paths were smooth.
The assembly of the arms was much more troublesome.
The mecha stood four meters tall, and just the arm alone was 1.6 meters long, while Betty’s arm length was only 65 cm.
Therefore the arm had to be assembled in four sections.
They first fastened the arm base to the chest armor.
Another employee pushed a huge steel hand connected to a piece of forearm into the proper position, and activated the palm mechanism by connecting the magitech pack beneath the frame cart to the energy source.
They matched the high-strength flexible rune patches inside the arm—glimmering faintly—with the runes on Betty’s outstretched gauntlet one by one.
The interlocking runes automatically adhered when touching the lower section, completing the rune circuit.
“Hey comrade! Please move your hand!”
Betty moved her fingers as told.
Turning her head, she saw that as she moved her own fingers, the huge steel hand on the nearby rack mimicked the exact same motion.
“Perfect! Comrade, here’s a piece of advice—this control method may cause your fingers to tense up and curl, so please don’t point your muzzle at your own people~”
‘Mm…’
The staff continued with the remaining assembly.
They lifted Betty’s arm and inserted half the section underneath it, while the other half was lowered from above and fastened together.
Once the locking rings rotated and clicked into place with the previously installed components, her entire arm became encased within the mecha’s upper arm.
Since the lower arm had no pilot’s body part inside, most of its structure was made of magic-resistant alloy, firmly protecting the rune patches that controlled the hand at the very center.
If necessary, this was also the hardest part of the entire mecha and could be used for blocking and parrying.
The lower body was much simpler, since Betty couldn’t reach any part of it at all.
Through numerous soft rune cables integrated into the leg exoskeleton, her mental power and the force she exerted using the leg exoskeleton allowed the mecha legs to move in sync with her.
When the head assembly was finally lowered and secured at the top, the staff behind the mecha installed two emergency oxygen canisters and a spare energy pillar into a hidden compartment and closed the panel, marking the near completion of the assembly.
The final step—installing the large energy rod and the outermost tactical backpack—could only be done by machinery.
They couldn’t lift such heavy components.
Soon, a convoy of engineering trucks drove in through the underground passage and stopped inside the massive factory hall.
A short, stout old man in a white lab coat jumped down from the lead vehicle.
After arranging the engineering trucks to proceed with the final energy installation, he climbed onto the roof and shouted into a large loudspeaker:
“Listen up, boys and girls! I believe the staff already warned you about the direction of your muzzles, but I’m reminding you again—unless it’s an emergency, keep your fingers on the extended lower grip!”
“Accidental discharge due to ammunition issues is absolutely unacceptable.”
“One armor-piercing spike can pierce straight through the entire length of the Alliance-class car engine! Trust me, you do not want to see what happens if it hits a human body!”
“I trust your combat discipline, but people cannot stay tense all the time. If you heard me clearly, you can now line up to collect your weapons. Zone B has standard magazines, and each person may take a box of drum magazines for test-firing to get used to the feel.”
The night of the Festival of the Magic Goddess’s Birth arrived as scheduled.
The Holy Light Cathedral was about to receive its very first group of visitors.
Besides worker-farmer representatives and state officials, there were also ambassadors stationed in Seris from neighboring countries and their families, as well as elite citizens who had received honorary medals in the fields of agriculture, industry, science, commerce, and academia, along with their families.
Even those who didn’t obtain on-site admission didn’t need to worry.
Large magic arrays for transmitting images were available in major commercial squares and in town centers throughout the states.
When the bus convoy carrying officials and elites arrived at the Holy Light Cathedral, the expected scene of heavy security, guards everywhere, or thick crowds simply did not appear.
Only a few patrol officers passed by and cooperated with the traffic police to guide them off the buses.
A middle-aged man in a red robe stepped off one of the buses.
Seeing the quiet surroundings, he let out a cold snort and spoke in a sarcastic tone:
“If your Alliance lacks manpower, why not allow us to bring our own national security guards? Or does Her Majesty the Empress simply not care about our safety?”
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, who was responsible for greeting them, did not answer.
Instead, he smiled warmly as he guided the worker-farmer representatives and elite citizens off the buses, greeting them with handshakes and occasional embraces, creating an atmosphere of cheerful festivity.
Handling the representatives of each country was Deputy Minister Coy.
Facing the various expressions—some puzzled, some displeased—he simply smiled.
“We take your safety very seriously.
Please wait just a moment.”
The middle-aged man was about to say more when a deep rumbling sound echoed from the street corner in the distance.
A massive black silhouette with flickering yellow lights atop its head emerged, its front turning to reveal blinding headlights.
With a 10×10 chassis supporting a vehicle nearly seven meters tall, it looked like a moving steel fortress as it approached.
Two such vehicles escorted an ordinary elongated sedan positioned between them.
Coy smiled.
“Our Empress has arrived!”