Building Zoids in a World of Titans

The Arosaurer sat in Borin's workshop like a corpse that hadn't stopped breathing yet.

Alex stood in front of it, arms crossed, just looking.

The left arm was torn open from shoulder to elbow. The chest plating had a split running through it, deep enough that he could see the core housing beneath. The Liger's claws had done that. Three passes, each one digging deeper than the last.

Borin had suggested the workshop. Said it had the crane capacity, the reinforced flooring, the tools Alex would need for a job this size. Alex hadn't argued. The Stonehand workshop was better equipped than his own cramped bay, and the Arosaurer wasn't going to fix itself.

Behind the Zoid, taking up nearly as much space, lay the Stormclaw Liger.

Its corpse was still whole. Still intact. The galvanic fur-hide hadn't been stripped, the claws hadn't been removed, the mane tissue hadn't been harvested. It lay there like a monument to the fight, all twenty meters of it, waiting for Alex to decide what to do next.

Borin stood beside Alex, hands on his hips, craning his neck to take in the full height of the Arosaurer. His weathered face broke into a wide grin.

"That's a real beauty, son. Never seen anything like it. The craftsmanship, the plating, the way it all fits together." He shook his head slowly. "Five years. Five years you were buying parts from my shop, and this is what you were building. I always knew you were working on something, but this?" He let out a low whistle. "This is something else entirely."

Ziya stepped up on Alex's other side, her hazel eyes scanning the cobalt blue armor plating with a professional's focus. Her fingers traced a gouge along the shoulder joint, and she tilted her head, already cataloging the damage.

"The load distribution on this frame is unlike anything I've seen," she murmured. "The way the armor segments overlap, it's not standard fabrication. This is custom work."

Behind them, Borin's other craftsmen had gathered near the workshop entrance, speaking in hushed tones as they stared at the massive machine. One of the older smiths had his hand resting on the Arosaurer's lower leg, almost reverently.

Alex shifted his weight, a little uncomfortable with all the attention. "Thanks for letting me use the workshop, Borin. I know it's not standard procedure."

Borin waved a hand dismissively. "Standard procedure? Boy, this machine saved Veridia. Saved my daughter." He clapped Alex on the shoulder hard enough to make him stumble forward a step. "Letting you use my workshop is the least I can do. It's an honor, truth be told."

"It's called a Zoid," Alex said quietly.

Borin's grin softened into something warmer. He looked at the Arosaurer again, then back at Alex. "A Zoid. So that's what you've been building all this time. Your five-year project." He nodded slowly, his voice dropping. "I'm proud of you, Alex. I mean that."

Alex felt the words land somewhere in his chest, heavier than he expected.

"When should we start?" Borin asked, rolling up his sleeves.

Alex blinked. "We?"

"Of course we. Me, Ziya, the boys. We're going to help you repair this thing."

Alex's hand went to the pendant at his chest. He looked at Ziya, then back at Borin. "I appreciate it, but I need to do this myself."

Borin's eyebrows shot up. "Do it yourself? Alex, this machine is sixty tons. You can't lift half this work alone."

"I know, but the technology." Alex chose his words carefully. "Zoid construction isn't something I can just hand out. The systems, the integration methods, the core housing. It's not standard Warden tech or guild engineering. It's something else entirely."

Borin's expression shifted from confusion to understanding, then to something that looked almost hurt. "You think I'm going to steal your work? Alex, I've known you for five years. I've extended you credit when you had nothing. I trusted you enough to let Ziya help you build that beam projector."

"I trust you," Alex said quickly. "I trust both of you." He glanced toward the other craftsmen, who were still murmuring near the door. "But I don't know them. And this kind of technology, if it gets out before I'm ready, it could cause problems I can't control."

Ziya folded her arms, studying the Arosaurer's exposed core housing. "He's right, Father. If this tech got into the wrong hands, every nation on Terrax would be knocking on our door."

Borin let out a long breath, rubbing the back of his neck. He looked from his daughter to Alex, then back to the Zoid.

"Fine. Keep your secrets." He held up a hand before Alex could speak. "But the repairs, the materials, the use of my workshop, my tools, my power conduits, that's on the house. Consider it my thank you for saving this city and for saving my girl."

Alex opened his mouth.

"Don't," Borin said. "I won't hear a word of argument. You dragged a B-rank Titan out of Veridia's streets. The least I can do is make sure your machine gets put back together right."

Ziya nodded, her expression firm. "He means it. And honestly, watching you work on this thing will be worth more than any payment. I've never seen engineering like this."

Alex looked between them, the pendant warm against his chest.

"Alright," he said quietly. "Thank you."

Borin's grin returned, wide and genuine. "That's more like it. Now, where do we start?"

The first three hours were the worst.

Alex had the System running diagnostics while Borin operated the overhead crane, lifting the damaged chest plating clear of the core housing. The work required absolute precision. One wrong move and the housing cracked, and the entire Zoid would be scrap.

Ziya handled the smaller components, her hands steady as she disconnected damaged hydraulic lines and cataloged each piece. She worked without comment, but Alex caught her glancing at the core housing every few minutes, her eyes sharp with questions she wasn't asking.

The left arm was the easiest fix. Torn plating could be welded, servos replaced, claw assemblies reattached. Borin's stock of Rank D actuator components covered most of it. The chest was harder. The split ran through the primary impact zone, which meant the entire section needed to be re-forged, not just patched.

"We'll need to source better alloy for this," Borin said, running his thumb along the fracture line. "Something with more give. This Titanium-Titan blend is strong, but it's too rigid for a hit like this."

Alex nodded, already pulling up material specs in the System's interface. "I have some Rank C skeletal fragments in my workshop. Denser, more flexible. I can bring them by."

"That'll do." Borin stepped back, wiping his hands on his apron. "We've got the arm sorted and the chest plating off. The core housing is intact, which is the main thing. But we're maybe a quarter of the way through, son. This is a week's work. Minimum."

"I know."

Ziya set down a bundle of severed cabling and stretched her back. "The leg actuators took damage too. Not critical, but they'll need recalibration before you take it into the field again."

Alex made a note on his slate. The Arosaurer stood in the workshop like an open wound, its guts exposed, but it was alive. The core still hummed faintly behind its housing. He could feel it through the floor.

That was when the workshop door opened.

Anya stepped through first, her crimson suit replaced by a standard Warden utility uniform, though the rank insignia was still visible on her shoulder. Fia came behind her, her dark hair pulled back, a fresh set of bracers on her arms. Lyra and Seraphine followed, the former carrying a compact data slate, the latter a medical kit slung over one shoulder.

They stopped just inside the doorway, taking in the scene. The Arosaurer's exposed frame. The scattered components. Alex standing in the middle of it all, a hydro-spanner in one hand and a smear of hydraulic fluid across his jaw.

Alex set the tool down and straightened up.

"Anya. All of you." He wiped his hand on his trousers. "Sorry about the mess. We're in the middle of repairs."

Anya's eyes moved from the Zoid to Alex, then back to the Zoid. "We didn't mean to interrupt."

"It's fine." Alex gestured at the machine. "You'd have to interrupt pretty hard to make this worse."

Fia let out a low whistle, stepping closer to the Arosaurer's exposed leg joint. "That Liger really did a number on it, didn't it?"

"It earned its rank," Alex said.

Anya exchanged a glance with Lyra. "The guild's been asking questions. About the machine. About you." She kept her voice low, though Borin and Ziya were across the workshop, bent over a hydraulic assembly. "They want to know who built it. How. What it's capable of."

Alex shrugged, picking up a calibration tool from the workbench. "Let them ask."

"You're not concerned?" Lyra's sharp eyes studied him. "The guild doesn't like unknowns. Especially armed ones."

"The secret was already out the moment I flew that thing through Veridia's wall." Alex set the tool down, meeting Anya's gaze. "They'd have figured it out eventually. Better they see what it can do for the city than spend resources hunting it."

Anya's jaw tightened almost imperceptibly. She understood what he wasn't saying. The guild would want control. They always did.

Seraphine moved closer to Alex, her gaze soft. "Are you alright? You took a beating in that fight."

"I'll live." Alex picked up the hydro-spanner again, turning it over in his hands. "Listen, there's something I want to talk to you about. The Liger."

Anya tilted her head. "The kill contract?"

"Right." Alex met her eyes. "We took it down together. The contract's yours by rights, but I want to talk about the body."

Fia's eyebrows went up. "The body?"

"I want it," Alex said. "The whole thing. Unstripped."

Anya studied him for a long moment. "That's a Rank B carcass. The components alone are worth a fortune. The guild will want their cut."

"I know what they're worth."

Lyra adjusted her goggles, her voice taking on that precise, analytical edge. "You're going to use it to build another Zoid."

It wasn't a question.

Alex didn't confirm it. He didn't deny it either. He just held Lyra's gaze and waited.

Anya let out a breath, something almost like a laugh in it. "Of course you are." She looked at her team, then back at Alex. "The Liger's yours. We'll file the contract under Celestia's name and transfer the salvage rights. The guild doesn't need to know the details."

"Ann—" Fia started.

"He earned it," Anya said, her tone final. "We'd all be dead or buried under rubble if he hadn't come back for that thing. The Liger's his." She looked at Alex, and for the first time since he'd met her, her expression softened into something genuine. "Use it well."

Alex felt the pendant shift against his chest. "Thank you."

Seraphine smiled. "We'd like to see what you build with it. If that's alright."

"Just try not to let the guild steal the design," Lyra added.

Before Alex could respond, the workshop door opened again.

A woman in a crisp Warden's uniform stepped inside, her boots clicking against the stone floor. She was tall, her hair pulled back in a tight braid, and she carried herself with the kind of rigid authority that came from years behind a desk making decisions for people who worked with their hands.

Her eyes swept the workshop, landing on the Arosaurer, then on Alex.

"Alex Ward, Rank 9?" Her voice was clipped, official.

Alex set the hydro-spanner down again. "That's me."

"I'm Deputy Warden Sera Voss." She produced a sealed guild envelope from her belt and held it out. "You've been formally requested at the guild hall. Immediately."

Alex didn't take the envelope. "Requested or summoned?"

Voss's expression didn't change. "The distinction is yours to make. But the guild masters want to speak with you about the events of the last week. Your machine. The Liger. And your future as a Warden in Veridia."

She extended the envelope again.

Alex looked at Anya, who gave him a small nod. He looked at Borin, who shrugged. He looked at Ziya, whose jaw was tight with concern.

Then he took the envelope.

"I'll be there within the hour," he said.

Voss inclined her head once, turned on her heel, and left.

The workshop was quiet for a long moment.

Fia broke the silence. "Well. That sounded fun."

Alex turned the envelope over in his hands, feeling the guild seal pressed into the wax. Whatever was inside, it wasn't a thank you note.

He looked at the Arosaurer, its core still humming behind the open housing, and at the Stormclaw Liger lying in the shadows behind it.

The repairs weren't done. The Liger wasn't his yet, not on paper. And now the guild wanted a conversation.

Alex cracked his neck and picked up the hydro-spanner.

"One thing at a time," he muttered.

Advance chapters on my p@tR$0n/Najicablitz.

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