"Now that paperwork is out of the way." The Commanding Officer, seated behind the office table, smiled. He placed his elbows on the table as the back of his hands proceeded to hold his chin.
"I wish to discuss utilising your talents in improving the Union's Mobile Suits."
"Right to the point, sir." Marcus nodded, then took over the conversation. "I have provided some of the ideas to Bill." The Emperor motioned at the fellow Mobile Suit developer with his eyes.
The Glasses guy was confused by the 'nickname' already...
"I can use my expertise to improve the Flag. The issue with ideas is that we will need to improve certain facilities." He smirked a bit.
"If you give me a free rein and allow me to play with your toys, I can do much more; hell, I could improve Flag's operational time up to 80%, nearly double it, or I could improve its power output with the Ion Technology."
The trio who listened could barely control their expressions, but then again, none of them would jump right into it.
"How about I finance this myself? This won't cost you, and I only need one Flag to run these prototypes."
"I volunteer my Flag." Graham chipped in as he looked at Marcus.
The blonde's gut feeling was telling him that this guy was the real deal. He never dismisses his gut feeling. It's what allowed him to reach this point in his life.
"Are you sure? Lieutenant?" The commanding officer looked at the Flag Pilot.
"I trust him." The experimental machine pilot looked at Marcus with a smirk.
"I was thinking of running some tests before giving this much freedom, but fine. If this is what you want." The man behind the table sighed. They are skipping quite a few steps, but this is fine.
"Very well. If you succeed, the military will sign a contract for each new piece of technology. If you make this right… Your Anaheim could be one of the most important companies in the Union.
That is, if you are successful."
'Tell that to foreign nations on my Earth… oh right, they don't exist.'
Marcus snorted internally.
"Good, then I shall start by buying a manufacturing plant and a hangar."
"...You will be making new parts?" Billy Katagiri chipped in that he already read the ideas he provided to him.
"Indeed, if we manufacture unique parts, the machine will be harder to replicate by other nations. Besides, to do what I want, we need to change how the frame operates completely.
Because of its ability to transform, the Flag suffers in its Mobile Suit form because it feels like you are the puppet Master, I am right?" Marcus looked at Graham, who slowly nodded. He might love his Flag, but it has downsides.
And those are exactly what this guy just said.
"I am surprised, did you ever pilot a flag before?" Billy asked.
"No, I don't need to; all I need to do is check the frame. The way the frame is assembled can tell you a lot." The Inventor explained.
"Fascinating, I can't wait to see what you will build." The Commanding Officer can smell a promotion on the horizon.
~~~~~~Later~~~~~~
"So! What do you want me to do?" Graham asked Marcus as they were in the Flag hangar. The pair can take one of the Flags and tinker with it.
The warehouse and manufacturing plant were already 'ordered', it won't be far from MSWAD HQ. A short drive away, as builders began work on what Marcus wanted, they needed to use the current hangar for now.
"We will start with gathering your data. We are building to impress. So the mobile suit will be hard-tailored to you."
"I like that. It will be a heavy custom one?"
"Precisely, so I will install several data gathering software in your unit and then you will do some tests for me," Marcus explained how this whole thing will work.
"Roger, boss!" The blonde grinned. He was ready to show this Mobile Suit developer how good he is! He was the reason Union is using Flags, not Blust.
"Good, then which unit is yours?"
In response to Marcus's question, Graham motioned for him to follow. The pair walked to one of the units on the side.
"Great, then let's begin."
The Inventor prepared a laptop with a bunch of software.
"So how is it going to work?" The blonde man asked, seeing a bunch of open windows on the laptop's screen, along with a lot of running text, numbers, and other strange stuff.
It was so much that he wanted to know what was going to happen.
"Well, for starters, I am going to install a personalised OS just for your Machine. Software that runs on your Mobile Suit is half of the battle.
The one I will use will have several AIs in the background that will assist you in your battles."
"Oh, so you are a programmer as well! Damn." Graham was surprised that this guy was not just a Engineer.
"Pretty much, it's a hobby of mine." Marcus smiled a bit as he played down his software development abilities.
"Oh, nice. Then I am all game with what you will make out of my Flag."
"Yes, but first your piloting data, once I get that, I can start improving your suit." The Inventor reminded him of what they were supposed to do and not to get ahead of things.
"Alright!"
And so Marcus installed data-gathering software into the suit's computer. Before long, the blonde took the machine out and began to run some test flights.
The Emperor watched closely as the blonde was piloting the Flag.
'The suit is worse than a Knightmare, but he can push this thing to the limit. This guy is good. He would make a great G-Force member.' He thought to himself as he watched the test runs from the Flight tower. It was the best watching spot.
"Damn, Lieutenant is something else! He can push the Flag to the very limit."
"Not quite. The Flag has installed limiters, as the G-Force could cause him pass out." Marcus commented with crossed arms.
"If we truly want to break the mould, we need to do something about it."
"Do you have suggestions? Such technology doesn't exist." Billy asked, even though he had joined midway, what they were doing. The brown-haired nerd is volunteering to work.
"If it doesn't exist, we just have to make something," Marcus smirked a bit as he already solved this issue when he was just a kid and was making his first Knightmare Killer.
"That is quite the confidence." The Mobile Suit Developer smiled at such confidence; it was borderline arrogance.
"You will see."
~~~
Graham liked his new developer. This was even more interesting than it was a couple of years ago, when they were making the first Flag.
Marcus was far more different from any other mobile suit maker. For one, he was an extreme workaholic.
One day, his Flag was okay, the next day the whole frame was taken apart. On the third day, replacement parts arrived from Japan…
On the fourth day, he saw new machinery assisting in assembling the improved parts of the mobile suit. It was like a miniature factory.
After seeing this in action, Graham knew that Marcus was the real deal; his gut feeling was right! Now, all he wants is to see his Flag up and running.
Midway on the fourth day, a blonde woman, dressed in a sundress and a big white sun hat, followed by another woman in a black suit that looked like a bodyguard, strolled into the hangar.
'Who are these two?'
"...Excuse me… This is a restricted area." The blonde man tried to stop them. He never seen them before so he is a bit concerned about their origins.
"Hmm? There is no such thing as restricted to me." The leading blonde woman waved an ID card at him. It was an Anaheim card…
He looked at the name and surname on the card.
'Anaheim? Wait…'
His eyes widened as he quickly looked at her left hand. He saw a ring on THAT finger.
"...Are you perhaps related to Marcus?" Graham asked; he was 80% sure this woman was his wife.
"Of course!" The blonde woman flicked her left hand, showing the ring." I am Milly Anaheim, Marcus' wife, and I am annoyed that I haven't seen my husband for 3 days.
I assume it's your fault." She looked at Graham; at that moment, he felt he should make a tactical retreat.
"N-No? I simply provided him with a Mobile Suit that he can work on." He tried to explain himself, but it sounded quite good in his head!
"In other words, it's your fault, you have satiated his curiosity. Back when we were in the academy in Japan, he used to skip classes for months." Milly explained while shaking her head.
'That bad, huh… I do understand him.'
Funny enough, Graham does understand Marcus, since the inventor is doing what he loves, just as he is. He is piloting a mobile suit; he could do it for days. Marcus is in the same camp as him.
"...I guess… He is in the hangar. I can get him for you."
"It's fine. I can see him by himself. I brought some homemade food and a change of clothes." Milly rolled her eyes. From the looks of it, this is not the first or the last time.
"If it makes you feel better, he is an incredible individual."
When Milly heard that, she smiled a bit.
"You don't need to tell me that my husband is great. That much I know. The issue is that he doesn't have a decent circle of people around him. So it becomes a unique situation.
But I suppose working for MSWAD will satiate his need for making things." Milly said as she began to walk towards the working area, her eyes scanned the area.
'Doesn't look that bad. Still miles away from his workshop level, but we just arrived here.'
As someone who saw the peak of Empire's Workshop level, this hangar was basically a shed compared to a science lab.
Though those primitive Assembly Lines Marcus has brought over raise the bar a bit
"Yo! MARCUS! Your wife has arrived!" Graham, with an amused tone, shouted though the hangar.
"Hmm?" Marcus raised his head as he looked at the source of the voice.
He noticed the blonde, followed by another very familiar blonde.
'Oh shit, here we go again.' The Inventor Emperor massaged his forehead, and he then realised that he oiled himself by doing that.
"Come with me mister!" Milly acted like she was super angry. The Empress was enjoying herself in this situation.
"Alright."
As Marcus and his two female companions left, Graham and Billy looked at them walking away.
"I am surprised…" The brown-haired mobile suit developer commented as he didn't imagine him having a wife, of all things.
"That he has a wife?" The blonde asked with an amused grin and crossed arms.
"I did notice a ring on his hands. So, I wondered if it was a wedding ring, but this just confirmed it." The Flag pilot explained to him.
"Quite the observant one. Though he struck me as the overworking type who has no time for such things… like you or me." Billy replied with a smile of his own.
"Hey! I am already married!" Graham complained, but it only got the nerd next to him to roll his eyes.
"You mean the Flag that is taken apart at this very moment?" The brown-haired engineer motioned towards the parts lying around them.
"No, Katagiri, it's my job. Flags can be destroyed, but my passion is not!" Graham clenched his fist; he couldn't wait for the result! It will be a kind of event.
"Is that so? Well, it will only get better with Marcus around. I am curious to see how other nations will react to his creations.
If only he knew…
~~~
500 powers stones = 1 Extra Chapter
1000 Power Stones = 2 Extra Chapters
And so on, You know what to do.
~~~
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