The Ainsworth Grants

After the Ferocious Cheetah visit, Kira spent one fruitful month among the Larkinson at their Family Compound. This vacation not only help him grow closer to other Larkinsons it also give him time to review his plans for future, Jonathan's vague words and the fact that such prominent people and important event never mentioned in the original novel shake him up to many possibilities.

'The original novel mentioned the Larkinsons have around a thousand members, with half of them possess the genetic aptitude to pilot Mechs, so there should be about two hundreds serving in the Mech Corp, not to mention other branch of services for non-potentate. As the Larkinsons are well known for their skilled pilots there should be many of them holding important positions or once prominent officers like old man Jonathan yet the original novel only mention old man Benjamin as an officer of Ministry of Defense and Ark as garrison commander of Citadel Havenswoth 20 years later.'

'As I was afraid of making change to the plot line I was subconscious avoid interacting with other Larkinsons aside from the orphans and old man Jonathan. But the event with the Ferocious Cheetah and old man Jonathan's ten-years-surprise wake me up. At first I planned to slowly build up my foundation and keep recruiting more forces with those at The Ambitious Collective and Steel Blood Orphans as my core and start the new Mercenary Outfit after I get my Mech Designer Certificate, but seem like i have to be more proactive now.'

'Should I talk to old man Jonathan about our plans to see if they conflicted? But will he take my words seriously? I'm only ten years old now.... Arrrggg, forget it, he said ten years so I still have time for other things, I'll talk to him after i am coming of age at eighteenth. He will have to take me serious by that time. Now I need to visit the Ainsworth and see if there is anything helpful.'

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The Ainsworth is a famous family in the science circle of the Bright Republic, even though there isn't any Ainsworth with too high profile and important positions, just the seer number of over a thousand Ainsworth working in scientific communities is enough to make them a respectable and emerging Family. The numerous patterns and licenses ranging from ships and mechs components schematics, designs and other applications give them enormous income and recognition.

The most successful of them is George Ainsworth, his ascend to Journeyman Mech Designer more than twenty years ago invigorated the Ainsworth. Ever since then more and more Ainsworth aspire to become Mech Designers, now they have over two hundreds Mech designers in their rank, though George is the only Ainsworth at Journeyman level to date. The Ainsworth Mech Design Studio head by George pumped out many mech designs either as independent designs or collaboration with other famous designers, even commissioned jobs by the Mech Corp give them even more wealth and prestige than ever.

The meteoric rise of George among the Ainsworth seem smooth sailing especially when his only daughter show much promises in mech designing and he soon sent her to apprentice under his senior and close friend, a famous Senior Mech Designer. When she married to a young and promising member of the Larkinson Family, son of a retired Division Commander of the Mech Corp, made him feel like there is nothing can make him happier, of course aside from advancing to Senior level.

Then the ever happen Bright-Vesia war broke out, with the Ainsworth's influence and contributions to the Republic and his own personal connections, he kept her as far away from the frontline as possible, he thought she was safe from war. Yet at the very last hours of the war, she died while in labor, it was so sudden and should be impossible under any circumstances, especially in this day and age with her had the best health care possible. From what the doctor in charge explained, she was too shocked and devastated when the new of her husband dead reached her.

Ever since then, George lost his drives and joy, his progress in mech designing stagnant as he can't find the inspirations he need to advance his design philosophy. Only till recently he finally find joy in designing mech again as he watch his only grandson growing up. He determined to advance his mech design career to Senior level or even higher so he can have more power and prestige to protect his grandson, when his grandson revealed to have the right aptitude to pilot mech and will soon attend a mech pilot school his determination burn even hotter.

Today he finally has sometime to spend with his grandson Kira before he start school and embark on mech piloting career, but this time Kira brought him many surprises.

"You say you want to learn how to design mechs? But aren't you going to be a mech pilot?"

"I know grandfather, I just want to design my own mech. And know about Mech design will not only help me to make full use of my mech but also let me repair and customize my mech to my liking."

"Haha, that's kid for you. But mech designing is a long and arduous journey, you will to dedicate time and hard-works if you want to design a good mech. And aren't you too young? You will lots of related knowledges, you still have you pilot training too."

"I know grandfather. I just want some basic knowledge so at least I can know what to expect from the mechs I will pilot in the future."

"Hahaha, you have your points. At least you can know if the mech designers are going to do decent jobs to your mech or not. But you will need a design suite to study or do anything related to mech design. The pilot school you are going to attend is a boarding school so I don't think they have such suite available."

"You don't have to worry about that grandfather. We are assigned personal virtual pod for our personal training, I can use it to access Iron Spirit. It is a simulator game that take realism to a very high degree as such every mechs and mech designs are 95% similar to the real things. I can use that to slowly get used to mech designing and I can I even pilot the mech I design too. Well, if you can give me some licenses and credit to get a head start ehehe."

"You are really serious about this don't you."

"Yes, grandfather."

"Hmmmm, OK. I'll give you some grants, but they will only be last gens designs. That would be enough for you to start with, I will also send you all the virtual books related to mech design up to apprentice level. Haha, you remind me about you mother. Maybe this will be good too, if you become a successful mech designer you will not want to become a mech pilot anymore."

"We will see about that grandfather."

"Haha, that will be for later, you need to spend time with me first. This old man is so lonely without you."

"Yes, grandfather, can you bring me to visit your design lab? I want to see your mech designs."

"Hahaha, I will show you some of my best designs."

The time with the Ainsworth turn out to be more fruitful than he expected. Not only George gave him 10 mech designs, 10 mech grade weapon designs and 30 designs of various mech components designed by Ainsworth Mech Design Studio as permanent grants as well as various virtual books related to Mech Designing, the other Ainsworth also generously gave out many of their licenses and books about other fields of science.

Even though all of these designs and licenses are last gens they still worth a lot, if it was any other party they would have to pay few hundreds millions of Bright Credit for annual licenses fee. And these last gens knowledges are already enough for Kira to build up his foundation at his current level.

'From what I know so far about the system, it encourages me to comprehend knowledge on my own as well as creating new inventions so higher level knowledge would be hard to digest and useless for me right now, I should become Apprentice Mech Designer before I start thinking about more advanced knowledge.'