Tracy Burns woke to a notification from her compad. The young woman reluctantly sat on her bed, while a sigh escaped through her mouth. After letting down her hair, she grabbed the device with hesitation. These past few days have been hard on her, and she could not take any more bad news. Bracing for the worst, she swipes her finger on the screen, revealing the contents of the message.
Her face brightens as she reads the notification sent by the A.M.S. system. "Your Nova Star has been delivered to your hangar." Tracy's face showed a hopeful expression. The young woman aimed to revive her career as a comm-tuber with this new machine. She was glad to have been among the first to place an order for the Nova Star.
Her career took a turn for the worse after her top sponsor demanded the comm-tuber promote a new high-end mech. However, Tracy warned them that her neuronal capacity was not up to the machine's demands. The outcome was as she expected: the young woman failed to operate the machine. As a result, the company lost face and was forced to shelve the product.
To cover up their mistake, the sponsor black-listed Tracy. Soon after, the comm-tuber lost the rest of her sponsors one by one. Her content creator career hit its lowest point. Only her loyal fans supported the young woman at the moment. However, the donations of this small group were not enough to make ends meet.
One of her loyal fans spoke to the comm-tuber about the upcoming mechs of the Grease Monkey Workshop. As she examined the list of products, her eyes were drawn to a female-looking mech. The young woman knew that if she managed to pilot an S-grade machine without problems, she would redeem herself in the eyes of her audience. Her career would get a second chance. The comm-tuber used the A.M.S. vouchers accumulated on her account to order the mech.
Tracy decided to make a first impression comm-clip after having a bite to eat. While it would be hard to regain her sponsors with a video like this, gaining more fans would at least bring in more donations. Her situation was not yet dire; however, she needed to increase her revenue intake. While she still has a modest amount of savings, the funds are running out.
After a quick bite, she took a refreshing shower and prepared herself. While most people used avatars to conceal their likenesses or to live out a fantasy, Tracy did not need to do so. Even though she had average neuronal capacity (a grade of C+), the young woman had lucked out with her good looks.
Her custom-made avatar used her likeness along with some animal features, like furry ears above her head and a thick fox tail, that combined seamlessly with the color of her natural red hair. In a word, she was stunning. Her appearance brought her many fans during her first year in the comm-tuber industry.
She returns to her room and places a V.R. headset on her head. Tracy lay in her bed and began her session. Before entering A.M.S., the comm-tuber loaded her recording software. Once she set up her preferred parameters, Tracy loaded the game and entered her hangar. As the hangar loaded, she began recording. This recording was not a live video; Tracy could edit out the stuff she did not want people to see.
Taking a pose, she stood at the entrance of the hangar and began the greeting. "Hello everyone, and welcome to my hangar. I am Lovely Foxy Girl. Today, we will share our first impressions of a mech I recently acquired." The comm-tuber starts walking while briefly talking about the machine. "The mech we are reviewing today is called the Nova Star. It is a variant of a very popular mech called the Beam Star."
As she arrived in front of her mech. her eyes gleamed. For a moment, Tracy forgot she was being recorded and let out a sigh of admiration. While the mech looked good on the catalog and comm-clips, having it in front of her felt different. The sensation overwhelmed her briefly. She shook her head, regaining her senses, and blushed. Tracy decided to cut that part of the video.
Since it was the first time using this mech, she opted to use the obstacle course at the testing facility. Climbing into the cockpit, she used her V.R. menu and flashed towards her destination. Once there, Tracy began testing her machine's movement and response. Her feed split to show the cockpit and a third-person view of the mech.
Without losing a beat, Tracy moves to the obstacle course and begins a sprint. Her mech dodged and weaved through the course with ease. The recording showed her emotion as the comm-tuber cleared every obstacle; the response of the mech was beyond her expectations. The comm-tuber even felt a little dejected as she finished the course, like a child at the end of a carnival ride.
Tracy turned to face the recording bot and commented as she finished the task. "I can not believe how responsive this mech is. I used to have a Beam Star back when I started, but this feels like a whole new mech. I guess that is what you get with an S-grade machine."
With the obstacle course now completed, the comm-tuber moved to the shooting range. Unlike the McCain Reaper version 2, the Nova Star came equipped with the Warren rifle and the Warren sting pistol. The comm-tuber tested the rifle first.
As she fired multiple times in each mode, Tracy admired the control she had. Finally, she purposely forced a steam discharge just to show her audience the feature. A red plume of smoke came out, blanketing the area and forming a crimson wall. Her sensors lost sight of the targets in the shooting range.
Tracy commented on the feature. "Some people use this smoke discharge to train their heat management skills. Others use it to throw off the enemy while fighting. I think it's called the Beater maneuver or something, but I can be wrong. If I messed it up, leave a comment with the right name." The comm-tuber knew she was right; she was just hunting for comments.
After the smoke cleared, she tested the Stinger pistol. The normal fire mode was good, with a strong kick for the size of the weapon; however, it was nothing to write home about. Yet the moment she tested the charged shot, her eyes opened wide as she saw the destroyed target.
Turning to look at her recording bot again, she eagerly shared her opinion on the weapon. "Now that is a game-changer. The power of the charge shot is surprisingly good when you consider the size of the weapon. Now I really want to try the bigger version, the Stinger heavy pistol."
With all the tests done, Tracy returned to her hangar. She decided to end the video as she exited her mech. "Well, boys and gals, you saw it with your own eyes. This mech is the Nova Star. To tell you the truth, the machine was better than I expected. It runs like a dream and kicks like a nightmare."A smile spread across her face as the comm-tuber recalled the feeling from the obstacle course.
She tossed an alluring glance at the recording bot, as if she could see her audience. With a sweet voice, she began the outro of her video. "Don't forget to post a comment with your opinions, and remember to like and subscribe. If this clip reaches 10,000 likes, I will stream my first real play-through live."
The comm tuber deliberately set a low like count. In the Rappal system, it will take her a few minutes to get that many likes. She was really looking forward to using her new mech on a live stream. Tracy moved to a recording studio on the second floor of her hangar. This facility was directed towards comm-tubers like her.
In her studio, she opened a clip-editing suite. After half an hour, she had finished editing the video and uploaded the clip to the comm-grid. Tracy decided to read more on her new mech. While she bought the machine to ride the hype and get new fans, the comm-tuber fell in love with the mech.
After a few hours of reading and getting acquainted with her Nova Star, she checked the video's progress. To her surprise, the number of views soared. The counter was still moving upwards. Tracy wanted to know why her numbers were so high. Checking the statistics, the comm-tuber learned that her video was playing all across the Lishean Commonwealth.
Tracy was taken aback; never in her wildest dreams did she expect her videos to go beyond the Rappal system. The number of likes was well past 100 million, and it kept on growing without end in sight. The young woman took a deep breath to get over the shock of such a number. Remembering her promise, the female comm-tuber prepared for her live stream.
She began preparations by placing a few calls to a group of streamers she knew. After hearing how many views her first-impression video got, they gladly agreed to form a party and launch a live stream. Two of her friends also had products from the grease monkey workshop.
The group coordinated the composition of a fire team; three of them had mechs from the Grease Monkey Workshop. A McCain Reaper version 2, a Nova Star, and a Gungslinger Outlaw. The other three mechs were A-grade machines from different producers. These three eagerly accepted the live stream proposal. Their sponsors paid them based on the number of views.
They put their heads together to decide on a game mode for their stream. In the end, the group opted to play the stream on the operation game mode; they had two reasons for this. The first was that the Warlord Battles game mode was too chaotic. The second reason was that they had the perfect number for a fire team. With all members cooperating, they could coordinate both the battle and the stream more easily.
Once in the operations waiting room, Tracy examined the composition of the fireteam. Besides her, two other collaborators were using mechs from the Grease Monkey Workshop. One was her friend, a pilot with the game ID Killer Kitty. Her machine was a Gunslinger Outlaw with the Scout configuration.
The other was an acquaintance whom she had collaborated with before. A player using the game ID The Good Shepherd. He was using a McCain Reaper version 2. Unlike Tracy, he had been using this mech for a few weeks and was used to his mech by now.
The remaining mechs were a group of friends who constantly streamed together. The trio was composed of a Hybrid guardian mech and two heavy artillery mechs. The pilot of the Guardian Mech used the Game ID Caramon's Warbringer. His humanoid mech used a vibroblade and a tower shield. Mounted on the sides of each shoulder, the mech had two laser projectors to attack enemies at range.
The first heavy mech was a quadruped machine shaped like a bull. It had two massive laser cannons mounted on the back for long-range attacks. Also, two laser turrets mounted on each shoulder serve as a deterrent for enemies that come near. The game ID on top read Sargas the Mighty.
The last mech of the fire team was a heavy bipedal mech. The machine looked like it belonged in an exhibition. The humanoid form was adorned with golden armor plates arranged in ornamental symmetry, giving it a regal look.
On its large back, the nearly 25-meter-tall machine carried two massive missile batteries. This configuration made the mech very slow and cumbersome, but its durability was second to none. Additionally, multiple laser projectors were mounted on the waist and chest, engaging enemies at closer range. The name above the intimidating machine read Jolith the Just.
Tracy crossed her fingers. The comm-tuber hoped they would not be assigned an operation that required fast-moving mechs. While the first three mechs moved quickly, the last three moved at a crawl. If they were assigned to an operation requiring speed, the three fastest mechs would have to shoulder the mission. That kind of handicap would be a pain to deal with.
Soon after arriving, the operation launched. As the environment changed, the comm-tuber recognized the place. It was a planet in the Tucker System. To be more precise, it was Tucker 3. The old Terra-like conditions on this world meant it required very little terraforming to be settled. The Commonwealth currently uses the planet to grow the crops needed to feed a large portion of its population.
Tracy smiled. There were very few speed-based operations based on this map. However, the map featured many defensive operations. The mech loadout they had was perfect for one of those. The comm-tuber thanked her lucky star. Little did she know that there was a secret organization with a hidden agenda behind her lucky streak.