Alto did not have anything to eat that morning despite being very hungry. He had woken up late which prevented him from eating anything, he made his way to the mech designing department in great haste.
On the way he could hear the way he could hear the mumurs of some of the other officers, they were all refering to the blackout the night before. The realization of this caused Alto to walk even more hastily, he was more afraid for his own safety.
If they were to track the source of the disturbance to his room how would he defend himself. If the mech designer protocol was found on him would it implicate the professor. Would it pose an even greater threat to the mech division or humanity in entirety.
As Alto made his way to the mech engineering department his thoughts started to the scope of humanity at large. He pondered on what he knew of the outside world, the current world power, the outposts, the world of mech pilots, government regions, other planets, the battles with the aliens and kaiju. But had he ever seen a kaiju before?
How was he supposed to create a mech to combat a kaiju when he had never seen a kaiju before. He wondered how frightening it would be to come across one.
Perhaps because of his slightly increased intelligence or the enlightmentof the pool of knowledge at his fingertips he felt compelled to learn something outside of his field. He wanted to know what exactly existed outside of his home planet.
This thought calmed his mind as he walked closer to his goal. On reaching the mech engineering department, he pressed his comm device or the thing that resembled it before the scanner and the portal appeared as usual. He sighed in relief as he walked through the portal and into the room with no effort.
As he came out the other end he was half prepared to be confronted by the professor for the stolen "item" from her private lab but instead he met a slightly more rowdy room than usual.
Charles Vans' cries were the loudest, Alto wished that for once he would not be greeted by his voice for once but he was at least grateful that he was not the subject of ridicule now.
But something else was up. "Take the bottle from her eleven, we can't have her getting drunk. Not today when we have our hands full."
Eleven the one who was being referred to just sat by a table spinning a spanner in hand, his eyes were surprisingly on Alto. Alto was taken back by this since the white haired man had never crossed eyes with him once and not for this long.
By now Eleven would have looked away but this time he stared even deeper, it made Alto feel very insecure. Luckily Charles Vans voice snapped him out of his trance.
Alto changed his direction and walked up to his least favourite person in the room. "Hello, what's up?"
Charles who hated Alto's casual sense was too occupied as he moved from table to table carrying around rolls of paper. "Oh it's you, don't go disturbing master today."
Now Alto was sure something has gone wrong and if he was to guess he had something to do with it. But to his surprise it had to do with a different matter.
"There are reports that the survivors of a battle fleet are going to land here, that means repairs and perhaps we get to build some mechs." Charles seemed extremely pleased.
It seemed that the suffering of some brought smiles to others. Alto looked around the room for the professor but she was nowhere to be seen. Charles were so keen as to keep her sober, he could not have his master looking unprofessional in the public eye. The sound of a door opening caused Alto to turn back to see the professor exiting her secret room and she looked terrible.
He had woken up expecting the power outage to be the next big thing but apparently these group of recovering mech pilots were the hot topic.
Alto's eyes widened at the thought of something. He wondered why the timing of their arrival and the activation of the mech designer protocol were so perfectly timed.
"Don't tell me, they're here for the device? But how?" Alto was not one to be suspicious but he had been too on edge to put this off. "Or what if the commanding officer called them to investigate me? Does this mean that the containment pod was left here by them. I am so screwed."
As Alto was about to panic again the professor tapped him on the shoulder. She looked like she had had a rough night and she did not seem to suspect him.
"Measle, it seems my hands are tied for the time being. And I had to fix the back up generators last night too." She slipped a small memory chip into his pocket and spoke into his ear, as she got closer he could feel her bosom pressing into his chest and the smell of alcohol on her. "Listen up measle, what I have given you is an already paid for account on Mech Galaxy Wars. You should know of it, I didn't have much on me but I managed to upgrade it to a mech designer account and buy you a mech design blueprint. If you can take it apart and put it back together then we can go from there. You are relieved to your room."
Saying that she pulled away from him, Alto was filled with more questions now. He knew what mech galaxy wars was, it was the biggest online mech battle royale game, it was an online massive multiplayer game where players would buy mechs and use them in battle but of course with the points they earned in the game. And it cost a fortune to open an account, especially in their poor side of their star system.
To think she would go so far for him, as the professor said nothing more and went back to her business he felt the chip she had placed in his pocket and thought.
"Why would she want to get rid of me this quick, these things cost a fortune. Surely she can't be doing this for free." Alto watched her turn slightly and curved her feminine form, then she glared at him for a second before telling him off.
Alto gulped down and thought to himself. "She knows, she knows I took the device in the containment pod."
That was the only plausible answer he could come up with but was she getting him away from the coming visitors, did that mean that these mech pilots were not to be trusted. Alto drifted off from the room, his head stuck in a web of questions as he went.
The questions never truly stopped and he could not dismiss the feeling that these would become more complicated for