After some time waiting for your pilot to sit back up in his seat, you show him a message.
Exiting Combat Mode.
Since you used up a decent amount of power during that battle, your battery is getting low. So, you pull more of the excess power still stored in your motors, dropping their charge levels and allowing them to cool off a good deal. The overall heat level inside your systems becomes much more manageable, which should help your pilot cool down too.
You also get Pilot Assist to raise the shroud at the same time, and readjust your visual feeds on your monitors, centering them properly again.
Recommendation: disassemble other frames to continue repairs.
That isn't the only reason though. You also don't want a repeat of this battle, in case one of the other frames spontaneously begins to move on its own. Your pilot begins to walk you over to the repair bay, and along the way, you flash up another message.
New Weapon Equipped: Kelpie
You include a glowing arrow, pointing down to where you have the laser weapon holstered. He pulls it out, and you start looking through the info you have on it to figure out how to use it.
It's a laser machine gun that fires in rapid three-round bursts, though it doesn't have a large built-in battery of its own, so it needs a steady supply of power to fire continuously. Checking on your own systems, you have a Weapon Feed subsystem built into the palm of the Ibex right arm you have attached. It's a system capable of feeding ammunition and energy into handheld weapons while you use them.
You pop up a big box onscreen, around your right hand, noting to the side that it has an active weapon feed.
The pilot swaps the weapon from your left hand to your right. The weapon makes a wireless connection with the weapon feed, and you get a read on its internal battery, which you throw up onscreen too, off in the corner of one monitor.
Since the battery is small, it charges within moments, ready to fire. With his eyebrows furrowed deeply, you pilot mutters, “Let's... see this,” like he's afraid.
Your hand rises, aiming off into the concrete wall nearby, and he pauses for a few long moments. Then his hand grips at the control handle, and you squeeze the trigger.
There's a humming Vrr, vrr, vrr in the air, with momentary laser lights extending between the end of the weapon and the wall. The three round burst ends in a fraction of a second, followed by a second burst, before you release the trigger.
Despite their short duration, each shot of the laser leaves scorched black marks, digging a short way into the concrete. The weapon has no recoil since it's a purely light-based energy weapon, but it isn't perfectly accurate either, since there's some sway in your arm holding the weapon, spreading the exact impact point of the six shots out a little.
What it does, is eat up a whole lot of battery power for such a short duration of fire. While you've barely used any of your fuel since you began operating, your fuel tank is still below one quarter full, and a weapon like this would make a much more noticeable dent than any of the systems you've been using so far.
With those tradeoffs in mind, you continue over to the repair bay.
Your pilot clearly agrees with the assessment that it's best to disassemble the other ray frames, because he does so immediately upon reaching the repair bay. They're all carried out of their hangers in a flurry of activity, whirring metal arms working on them all as it begins to take them apart.
You pull up the system's inventory of ray frames while considering your own plans for modifications. So far, you primarily want to replace your right arm with the Zera right arm off the Bogatyr. That's the whole reason you had to fight it in the first place. With a flurry of activity around you, the menu displays on-screen.
-Ray Frames-
Bogatyr MK1 (Custom) – Unknown
Octagon MK1 – Repair Bay 1
Ocelot (Custom) – Bay 9
Ironside – Repair Bay 7
Avenger (Custom) – Repair Bay 6
Comet (Custom) – Repair Bay 5
You note that only the Bogatyr and Ocelot aren't listed as being worked on, with an obvious issue on the Bogatyr's end, just in time for a pair of error messages to arrive.
Error!
Cannot retrieve frame.
Frame Location Unknown
Error!
Cannot retrieve frame.
Cannot access Storage Bay 9
You consider the messages closely while displaying them for your pilot. Obviously the Bogatyr got out of the giant arm rails while being transported, and is now sitting, broken, up against one of the walls of the hanger.
Of course the repair system can't find it.
As for the Ocelot, that's the one stuck behind the repair bay itself. It figures there's no access, with how it's stuck in there.
The Bogatyr is easy enough.
Bogatyr frame must be retrieved manually.
You supply a simple instruction for your pilot, and he slaps his forehead. “Wow, duh,” he says aloud, making it sound as if he realized the same thing you did. He walks you over, grabs one of the legs with your huge left arm, and slowly drags it after you, back across the hanger.
It takes a good deal more effort to hold the frame up, supporting the machine almost as heavy as you are. You only need to keep it in place long enough to instruct the repair bay to grab it, overhead arms clamping down on its armor to hold it aloft. Without further prompting, the system begins to disassemble the parts of the frame that aren't too damaged.
When it asks, you give it the ok to trash the parts that are too damaged to salvage. Which is mainly just the torso, since the arms and legs are intact, and the head is entirely missing.
With everything in progress, and no more unpleasant surprises, your pilot lies back in his seat. His eyes close while you continue considering things.
The only frame still unavailable is the Ocelot, stuck in the storage bay behind the massive repair machine you're standing at. You doubt you could reach it to pull it out yourself with the huge Ironside arm you have attached. If you did decide you want anything off of it, or even if you want to tear it apart in case it also attacks, you'll need to change to something at least a little smaller first.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
For swapping arms, you previously intended to take the Zera right arm, but you'll still need to choose which left arm to to use.
Besides that, you really need to get the hatch of your cockpit replaced. You tell the repair systems to go through the frames they're already disassembling, and also pull their hatches, so you can pick which of those to use. It's far too dangerous to continue going around with your pilot left so vulnerable.
After a thought, you have to filter the hatches, only considering nine-meter frames. The ones for larger frames won't actually fit your cockpit. Even the other same-height ones might not match perfectly.
That barely leaves any options though. Since you destroyed the Bogatyr's hatch in that battle, the only remaining ones come from the cheap Ibex parts, or the Ocelot.
The only other option you can think of is swapping your own cockpit into an entirely different frame's torso. Then, maybe you could be able to use a larger hatch instead, depending on precisely how the component is mounted. It's a big if though.
Not to mention, it would take a tremendous amount of time, especially if you're wrong and need to reverse the changes.
Whatever your choice, you'll just have to make it work. So, as before, you spread all of your options across the monitors for consideration.
Hatches
Ibex
Ocelot
Right Arms
Part
Ibex
Zera
Octagon
Ironside
Location
Inventory
Bogatyr
Octagon
Ironside
Weight
8 tons
7 tons
9.5 tons
15 tons
Sized For
9 meters
9 meters
10 meters
11 meters
Speed
Medium
Medium-Fast
Medium
Slow
Armor
Medium
Medium-Low
Medium-High
Very High
Hardpoints
5
7
3
6
Sockets
5
7
2
3
Internals
Ammo Storage (2), Weapon Feed
Small Phaser, Ammo Storage, Fuel Storage, Weapon Feed
Ammo Storage, Recoil Suppressor, Reinforced Internal Structure, Weapon Feed
Medium Rifle, Ammo Storage (2), Reinforced Internal Structure
Left Arms
Part
Ibex
Fire Dog
Octagon
Ocelot
Ironside
Location
Inventory
Bogatyr
Octagon
Ocelot
Ironside
Weight
8 tons
8 tons
9.5 tons
5 tons
15 tons
Sized For
9 meters
10 meters
10 meters
9 meters
11 meters
Speed
Medium
Medium
Medium
Fast
Slow
Armor
Medium
Medium
Medium-High
Low
Very High
Hardpoints
5
6
3
3
66
Sockets
5
3
2
3
3
Internals
Ammo Storage (2), Weapon Feed
Ammo Storage, Grapple Line, Medium Rocket Launcher, Long Range Radio Scanner, Small Heatsink
Recoil Suppressor, Reinforced Internal Structure, Heatsink
Combat Grapple, Extra Engine
Medium Rifle, Ammo Storage (2), Reinforced Internal Structure
You wait a while. As time moves on and the other frames are coming apart piece by piece, a problem becomes apparent. Your pilot is unconscious in the cockpit. Apparently, it's called 'sleeping,' and it's a thing humans do for long periods of time.
However Pilot Assist makes the determination, it indicates the pilot may be asleep for the next twelve to fourteen hours.
It turns out, you are going to have quite a long time to wait and think. Or, to put in orders to the repair bay, to get a whole lot of work done before your pilot wakes up.
Perhaps getting your cockpit transferred into another torso is more feasible than you initially thought.
----------------------------------------
Vote:
[ ] Make a build plan
-Choose which parts you want
[ ] Order work while the pilot sleeps
-What?
[ ] Don't order any work while the pilot sleeps
[ ] Write-in