The woman radiated authority, her presence commanding without being overt. She wore a sleek, utilitarian coat adorned with subtle metallic threading that hinted at integrated tech. A slender mechanical bracelet coiled around her wrist, its segmented plates shifting almost imperceptibly as she moved.
She moved to his mech, slowly circling it, her eyes taking in every detail. Then, paused at the modified power core, her brow furrowing.
Kovacs followed her out of the competition floor and into a quieter corner of the venue, where holographic displays cast faint blue light across the walls. Ilara gestured to one of the displays, which displayed a complex schematic of an energy generator. The design was intricate, with its core components layered with dense arrays of capacitors and energy converters.
Kovacs stared at the schematic, his mind racing. The core''s complexity was beautiful, but something about it felt off.
Ilara handed him a tablet with the schematic displayed in full detail. Kovacs sat down at a nearby workstation, his fingers brushing over the controls as he analyzed the design. The micro-singularity was housed within a containment field created by a lattice of electromagnetic projectors. The problem was clear: under high energy demands, the lattice destabilized, allowing the singularity to expand uncontrollably.
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As he cross-referenced the data, a disturbing realization began to form. The containment lattice in the singularity core was strikingly similar to the radiation amplifier’s energy field. Both relied on fine-tuned electromagnetic projectors to maintain stability, and both had catastrophic failure modes if overloaded.
As the hours stretched into night, Kovacs began sketching ideas for his mech, inspired by the lessons he had learned. He pulled elements from the singularity core’s design, adapting the concept of dynamic feedback loops to his power distribution system. The idea wasn’t to create something revolutionary but to build something stable and reliable—something he could stand behind.
His design began to evolve piece by piece. The adaptive systems prioritized functionality under stress, redirecting power where it was needed most. The loader claw integrated finer actuators for precision, while the mining legs received updated stabilizers to handle uneven terrain. Each modification was a small step forward, reflecting the progress he had made, both as an engineer and as a person.