#the mechs fictions

[thesteamhunk]

Obscure UDAD character art but also I am in AWE that I drew these only months apart. I am so happy with my art now and being able to work to this point makes me so happy.

[p2ii]

real talk tho why was angel barefoot while performing in a "dark seedy bar"

GIRL THERE ARE EMPTY BOTTLES BEHIND YOU. YOU ARE GOING TO CATCH SOMETHING

[zhjake]

finally got around to playing the titanfall 2 campaign, always loved their look and feel for a more grounded conventional mech. bt was cute. i will never forgive apex legends.

[cicada-candy]

jonny dville,,, worlds babygirlest Absolute Worst Guy Ever i love him

[lil-tachyon]

The Lagrange Heavy Industries "Journeyman" utility frame was, for decades, a worksite staple. Its low price point, reliability and ease-of-modification made it wildly popular in various industries. Extensive use by insurgent groups, however, severely damaged its reputation. Eventually, its perception as a potential weapon of terror by LHI's clients forced the model's quiet retirement. Successor frames were purpose-built, more difficult to modify, and were often sold with software overrides that allowed corporate agents to shut down frames remotely.

The frame pictured bears the emblem of the radical Earth Orbit Shipbreakers Union, which at one point occupied and collectivized several industrial habitat cylinders before being forcibly broken up by Intrasystem Commerce Authority forces. Although the action failed, it inspired more successful occupations in the further-out belt mining habitats. Journeyman frames featured prominently in both struggles.

[partikron]

I keep thinking about the Dafeng test pilot that you take down in the first chapter of Armored Core VI.

In any other mech storyline, this kid would have been the protagonist. Bright-eyed and hopeful, he would have been the poster child for youthful determination in the face of corporate war profiteering, either finding a cool trick to defeat 621, or being saved by the sudden arrival of other plucky young pilots.

But we both know that no one comes to save him.

The universe of Armored Core is fantastical by any definition, but in this one moment it is at it's most brutally realistic.

"I'm...keeping up with a real merc!" he says, "My training is paying off!"

Reality sets in as the tide turns abruptly in your favor. He is outmaneuvered, outgunned and outfought by the "merc who only kills for credits".

"I can't die like this!"

But he does. All the tenacity of youth couldn't save him from you, and he dies alone and afraid, lamenting his little dream of having his own callsign, his life amounting to the meager credits transferred to your account after the mission.

He would have been the protagonist anywhere else, but here on Rubicon he is a reminder that, in a warzone, no one comes to save little boys.

[curatorofthisdigitalmorass]

Hajime Sorayama

[this-is-cool]

The awesome sci-fi mech designs of Longque Chen - https://www.this-is-cool.co.uk/the-awesome-sci-fi-mech-designs-of-longque-chen/

[ross-hollander]

Traditions for a widowed 'mech.

A square foot or so from something of the pilot's- the fabric cover of a cooling vest, out-of-'mech uniform, whichever -is cut out and hung at whatever most resembles its neck. There are some with scarves or mantles from the number they've been through, some with whole sweeping cloaks.

Get the hangar crew to take the external plating off. The ashes or dog tags will be stored within, safe under the armor. (Anything that could punch through will probably kill the 'mech as well.)

There's an alternative to that, where they take an armor plate off per pilot lost. "Killer" 'mechs are stripped down to bare frames, sent into combat with the expectation of being wrecked in repentance for the pilots they've lost (although, obviously, with the eject systems triple-checked). It's wastefully expensive, but some units just harbor a grudge like that.

Weld the armaments in place. No upgrades, no refits, not unless it loses the whole limb. Even then, most outfits will have it replaced with the exact same model.

If it has hands- after all, that is not something to take for granted -the 'mech will often serve as pallbearer (if there's time for it; obviously, mid-campaign is no time to take a 'mech off the front for a funeral).

Flame it into shutdown, until the metal glows and the systems spark, then patch it up and reboot it. A symbolic co-death for the metal to the meat before being restored to full service.

[laricnoli]

Blueprints of the Aurora

(click for better quality, tumblr compression why must you do this)

[wealmostaneckbeard]

The politics in Lancer the mech pilot TTRPG seems center left to me. A good way to explain what's going on in that game's universe is with this overly long metaphor:

Imagine an alternate history where Nixon somehow beat JFK Jr to the white house, and once in office he lets Kissinger go nuts setting fascists up on an accelerated schedule. That's what Union's Second Committee was like. Then Tricky Dick procedes to nuke Vietnam a couple times. That's the Hercynia Crisis and that FTL Piston weapon launch. JFK and company ride the shock and horror of approaching nuclear war into office on the promise of de-escalation and enforcing civil rights, and they deliver. That's the coup that formed Union's Third Committee. Kissinger, Nixon, and the entire pentagon/raytheon corp take over NASA in Cape Canaveral, Florida where they form a tolerated corporatocracy in exile. That's basically Harrison Armory on the planet Ras Shamra. Now a United liberal-leftist front of America is actively trying to tear down dictatorships around the world that Kissinger set up (he got assassinated at some point in this time line) and replace them with socialist democracies. That is Union's Justice/Human-Rights Department and a few other government branches. So far they've had some success although people are pointing out that it's a bit hypocritical that the liberators are using weapons from corporate conservative states where civil rights are discretely curtailed. That's what's driving political discourse in 5016u in Union's legislative body, the Central Committee and it's myriad political parties.

So yeah Lancer's political intergalactic landscape is a bit like modern day? Except also cthulhu is giving out reality-breaking tech to militant civil rights advocates and random civilians? That's what HORUS basically is, btw.

Now that I've written this out, it would make for a good american alt-history with mechs campaign in Lancer...

[p2ii]

just read both the udad!Orpheus centric fictions

some highlights I really enjoyed

[zhjake]

another1

[miralines]

the ship name discussion has reminded me. despite how vital Rose is to every part of the story, we know next to nothing about her. in fact here is a complete list of Rose facts

she is Snow's twin, part of one of the noblest families in the kingdom

she has a "short shock of scarlet hair"

she's Cole's best warrior, which involved her personally razing cities

she was "more resilient" to whatever they did to her to clone her than they expected

she had scars

she wore a dress to her wedding, which she kept a gun in the pocket of

she met cinders when she was the commander of the prison she was being kept in

she was briefly assigned as a goodwill ambassador to beaumont and was kind to Adam

so little about her personality or background or training, or even her relationship with Snow, except how we see it rippling out through the story... queen of haunting the narrative

[reattachedstrings]

What it's like outside

It feels like you’re blind. Outside of your mech, so much becomes an empty blackness. The cameras facing in every direction are dead- no, removed. The two sensors called eyes facing forward don’t have nearly wide enough of a view to feel at all secure. Anything could be around you and you wouldn’t tell through the blank black void. 

Closing them doesn’t help. That only highlights your other missing features. The infra-red view doesn’t click in, environmental data isn’t fed directly into your brain. It’s missing. 

The hanger lights are too dim to feel legible but bright enough to force your eyes into a squint from the pain. Your body is so loud. Folding and squeezing and breathing like a germ. The breath past your lips and the ringing in your jaw. 

Your hands are shaking against the steel floor. It hurts that they can feel the texture, cold and smooth. Your hands shouldn’t be forced to feel. They shouldn’t be forced to be so soft or so weak. This isn’t what you should look like.

Your handler is here. She says something to you. It’s too loud or she’s too much for you to understand her, but she says something to you. Your eyes can all focus on her. She’s all you need to see. It doesn’t matter what you look like while she is here.

She looks away and it hurts again, your body so light and yet so heavy weighing down your mind. 

Suddenly she’s back to looking at you. Her words sharpen and her hand grabs at your short hair. After pull that stings so deliciously and wonderfully because it’s Handler, it’s her that is doing it, you’re on your feet and walking. You don’t need to see anything but her. You don’t need to hear when she can still control you. You don’t need security when she is near you. Handler wants you to be like this. Handler knows best.