Mecha Design Quest

MECHAQUEST 2

Rolling out of your bed with a gleam in your eye and a hitch in your knee, you started digging around your closet to grab a uniform, before remembering that you weren't an officer anymore. Eight years was habit-forming, what can you say? Instead, the 'uniform' of a civilian in the design and mechanical offices was what you settled into: a dress shirt in bright colors (in this instance, a wonderful teal that hadn't been around when you were in your prime trying to pick up girls on the occasional bout of leave) to be covered with a black waistcoat, in which your pocketwatch and rotary slide rule went. A pair of pens, grease pencil, graphite pencil, and india rubber eraser went in next, as well as a small notebook.

After that went your jacket, and after a quick look at the thermometer outside, your well-worn shemagh and a good heavy overcoat. As the snow whistled around your stoop, you gave the wife a kiss, before heading out to your small job at the hardware store. It wasn't because you needed the money, since good frugality and a house lease from one of your friends who's unit had been stood up kept you out of the red, but more as a way to kill time between job applications. Most of the job involved reading a magazine at the register, talking problems through with people, and explaining that while you could do that jury-rig fix their friends told them about, it would inevitably explode in their faces.

Really, you had to wonder who thought it was appropriate to tell people a doped canvass hose was appropriate for a radiator return line? That wasn't gonna hold under heat.

Of course, after that came the real meat of your work: heading on down to the office bars, and trawling for contacts. Most of the time you couldn't get too terribly much out of the trip, with your ever-so-slight limp, but most of the time between beer and a cigarette you could keep your skills sharp. Along the way, you started picking up a bit of mechanical knowledge, enough to make sure that you had a more clear-cut experience in dealing with one part of a hypothetical mecha.

(choose one)
[] Armament Knowledge. You understand guns, simple as that. More importantly, you also understand how guns interface with your mecha, and the tradeoffs involved in lighter, heavier, and automatic models. (unlocks "hunchback" designs with off-center Torso armaments)
[] Engine Knowledge. Over time, you have been seeped in the machinations of the machine engine. In return, you can finesse the systems of them so as to avoid some of their distinctive cost. (reduces tradeoff costs of mounting radial versus in-line engines, reduces tradeoff costs of mounting diesel versus gasoline engines, reduces penalties for steam engines)
[] Transmission Knowledge. Outside the engine, the transmission is one of the most mechanically complicated parts of the mecha. Now, you can finally start to see the light on how the blasted thing moves the power to where it needs to be. (Increases transmission reliability, decreases actuator strain, and reduces cost for higher RPM gyros.)
[] Gyroscope Knowledge. The ways of the circle are no mystery to you, until someone adds motion to the equation in which case oh dear. Now, however, you have tackled the dark arts of rotational momentum, and find them wanting. (Increases mecha stability for given weight/rpm of gyroscope)
[] Cockpit Knowledge. You've driven enough mecha to understand how a cockpit should be laid out, and more importantly you've crawled around in the underside of a cockpit enough to understand how to pipe the gauges for the blasted things too. (Increases ease of piloting and instrumentation, decreases multi-person cockpit size)
[] Actuator Knowledge. There's only so much you can learn about mecha before running into the ten-ton question of how to move that mass about. Therefore, you've put a lot of work into figuring out the answer to that question (Increases horsepower actuators can accept leading to higher theoretical speeds, and increases wear and environment resistance)
[] Foot Knowledge. The ground is your friend and enemy, and understanding how your mech interfaces with it is critically important. Without good feet, a mecha is a bunker with delusions of grandeur. (Decreases terrain penalties, increases chance of foot improvements, and slightly increases top speed)

Finally, once that's handled, you go over to the old soldier's office, and make sure nothing of interest is happening. Getting a jump on the news is important, and rumors travel faster than light if you're not careful.

What rumors do you hear?
[] The Party has finally decided to support radical groups in Spain, and in case a war breaks out between them and the reactionaries, will be willing to send the best of their troops and equipment to aid their cause- and not to get practice for the inevitable war to reclaim Poland, of course (starting nation: RUSSIA)
[] The Government's faith in the Maginot is wavering, and the Regional Companies are having trouble building an adequate mech to support the Tracked Cavalry. As such, a crash-development company is being spun off Hotchkiss for the explicit purpose of making sure there's at least one solid Mecha available. (starting nation: FRANCE)
[] The Chancellor has decided that, for purposes of agricultural development, there should be a people's light agricultural mecha, to be placed in the hands of frontier farmers. Naturally, anything done to them later is obviously nonstandard and the abuse of the owners. (starting nation: GERMANY)
[] The Army, bogged down in China, needs a reliable fire support vehicle that's not nearly as vulnerable as their truck infantry. To this end, the Toyota Corporation is making its first foray into Mecha Design, and they're standing up a new branch from scratch- and your name could be in the rosters. (starting nation: JAPAN)
[] With Congress slowly letting their death-grip on military funding go, the army has decided it needs a modern mecha to support the Cavalry Arm and carry heavy weapons for the Infantry in order to intensify the effects of artillery, machine guns, and light artillery fire. (starting nation: AMERICA)