After some time, Tendou climbs out of the cockpit. He walks away, putting some distance between you. Apparently, he's thinking about things, because he's not nearly far enough away that you can't hear him shouting at himself.
“This is a terrible idea!” He throws his arms in the air. “But what else am I supposed to do?” He turns in place, starting to pace rapidly, and goes on a little more quietly. “Just build another frame, you've got all the parts. But what if I can't pilot it? That other one wouldn't even stay upright when I tried. That pilot assist is obviously filling in for me. He suddenly stops in place, facing mostly away from you.
Staring directly at the ground beneath his feet, he says, “So practice. Just make one and practice until you can do it on your own.” With a much louder groan, he holds his head with both arms, turning around toward you again. “And how long will that take? Days? Weeks? Then I just starve to death. I've already sunk way too much time into this one. I can't just throw it away, I need it if I'm going to survive out there.”
He slowly glares up at you. “I've got no other options here, do I?” he says, quiet enough its difficult to make out. There's a pause, then he suddenly spins back around. “Alright, ok, look at the bright side. It's been super helpful so far, hasn't it? I don't know, I have no idea which parts were just the robot, and which parts were the AI!”
Going right back to pacing, he rambles on. “Alright, so the part suggestions, definitely the AI. What else? It gave me all those extra overlays, like with ammo and stuff, after making me the main pilot. Are those just automatic, or were they from the AI too? I know it was fishing for information about the hex, it actually said that in those messages,” he notes.
Yet another momentary pause, before he gets loud once more. “How much of that was even true?!” He throws his arms into the air again. “It could have been lying about anything!” He stomps off, before yet again, stopping himself. “No, no, come on, Saichi, think about this logically. What does it stand to gain by tricking me?”
His pacing slows down, a hand coming to his chin in thought. For a time, it seems he's thinking without just saying everything out loud, but he does soon begin speaking again. “Yeah, if it was all a trick, it'd just squish me. So let's assume the last part is true. It can't move on its own, so it needs me.”
After a little more pacing, he sits down cross-legged on the floor, propping himself up, one fist under his cheek while he gazes up at you. “If it needs me more than I need it, I have leverage.” His eyes slowly close with an unpleasant expression. “Except I also need it to survive out there, so I guess we're in the same boat...”
He shakes his head a little. “But it doesn't know that. So as long as it doesn't find out I don't have the time to build another robot to replace it... Yeah, I can work with that.”
Rubbing his chin, he voices another thought. “And... if it can't move, then it must be right about the hex... There shouldn't be any danger... probably. I mean, I already fought two hex with it, and it didn't get taken over. So it'll be fine. It's fine,” he repeats, for some reason.
Another few minutes of thinking, without being loud enough for you to hear this time, and Tendou finally stands up. He walks back over, then stands beneath your feet as he hesitates. “Come on,” he grunts. “Get in the robot, Saichi.”
Tendou shakes himself, slaps both cheeks with his hands, and climbs into the cockpit. He kicks the big button to close the hatch, and settles into the pilot seat. “Alright, let's do this, I guess,” he mutters.
He raises his head, eyes traveling left and right across the front of the cockpit, near the top of the monitors, like he isn't sure where to look. “Fine,” he says, louder. “Just remember, you need me more than I need you. If I don't like something, I can get out and walk away. You got that?” He points up at no spot in particular, with an expression Pilot Assist thinks is supposed to be threatening.
You consider. Simply agreeing would be good for smoothing things over in the short term. But long term...
I've decided not to hide things from you, so I feel obligated to tell you that I heard everything you said earlier.
His expression freezes solid. “E-everything?” Slowly, your pilot's face grows red with the realization. He sputters briefly, then lowers his head again.
Thank you for staying as my pilot, even if you felt you didn't have a choice. It is very important to me that I do not get abandoned here forever.
Tendou's expression softens a little, before you add the next part that reminds you of.
Also I should mention that there is no such thing as a 'main pilot.' I made that up as a pretense to ask for information about you and your allegiances.
Tendou curls down, face lowered into his knees. “Fffff...” He starts making a sound you're unfamiliar with, before-
“Ffffuck!-Ow!” His cry is cut off by a pained yelp when he throws his fists into the air and accidentally punches the canopy. He spends some time shaking his hand in pain, glaring up and around at the inside of your cockpit.
Still, Pilot Assist is reporting a definite improvement in his mood. You see him struggling not to smile a few times while rubbing his knuckles.
You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.
Once your pilot has some time to calm down, you remind him that he should siphon extra fuel from the other frames. “Oh.” He perks up. “Yeah, that's a really good idea.” When he tries though, he soon runs into an issue. The repair bay doesn't have any options for removing fuel from a frame.
“Hmm...” Scratching his chin, Tendou thinks briefly, before shrugging. “Then let's see if we can just do it manually. Where do you keep your fuel?”
Fuel Storages, and my reactor has my main fuel storage built in.
You aren't entirely certain what he means by 'manually' until he selects to remove the reactors from the other frames. After a little more searching, he discards the other fuel storages. Like yours while you were in storage, they are all listed as empty.
After a buzz of activity from the repair bays working to pull the torsos apart and dig the reactors out, you send off a request to leave them in place rather than taking them off to the hanger's storage area.
A little while later, Tendou walks you over to the pile of metal that's left. Six ray frame reactors, dumped unassumingly across the floor of the hanger. Each one is about the size of your pilot himself. After a good deal of work heaving, dragging, and wiggling the reactors across the concrete floor, he gets them spread out. Then he searches through nearby boxes and crates, assembles a host of tiny human tools, and gets to work.
“Let's see, this part kind of looks like an engine, maybe?” There's some grinding, then some cursing. You can't quite see, since the reactor itself blocks whatever part he's working on. “No, no, definitely not an engine...” He eventually huffs, walking away briefly, before getting back to it.
He proceeds to buzz around the metal contraption for quite some time, unscrewing sections, sawing off others, and generally just destroying the reactor his efforts to take it apart. And the further he gets, the more confused he becomes, until...
“Ah, this is definitely a pump!” he eventually shouts, tone triumphant. After all, it's the first part he's been able to identify in any meaningful way. “But what the hell do it go to? There aren't even any moving parts over here...
Still scratching his head, he starts banging on another nearby section. “Hmm, this sounds different. I wonder what's inside? Some shuffling, and a few bangs later-
Boom!
The sound shocks Tendou back, ducking low, before he sees that there's no danger. “Alright, definitely just depressurized something,” he observes, starting to poke at a hole in the side where the metal started shredding apart.
“Wait wait, hold on!” he gasps, then rips off the already damaged metal plate, and stares at it. Slowly reaching inside, he pulls out... something? It's a fistful of a pale blue substance. It deforms when he squeezes it, and wiggles when he shakes it.
He then rips off a chunk of the amorphous blob, which separates into a tiny little sphere of the substance, which he holds aloft, pinched between two fingers to examine it.
“Holy shit I was right. These things run on BP.” Soon after, he's pulling the rest out. There's only a small amount, just a couple handfuls worth.
So, that's the fuel you run on? Sizing it up, the tank it's contained in occupies about a quarter of the reactor's internal space, and that fuel would in one corner of the tank.
Tendou shoves it all into a canvas bag, then gets to work on the next reactor. It's much faster now that he knows where to search. Within minutes, he's emptied the next.
One after another, Tendou pulls apart the outer sections of the reactors to get to the fuel tanks inside. Most of them don't pop from decompression like the first did, but he also gets barely any fuel out of most of them.
Still, it's better than nothing.
Now, with his bag of reactor fuel slung over his shoulder, Tendou climbs back into the cockpit. “So, how am I supposed to refuel you, anyway?” he immediately asks.
In response, you blow up a diagram of your body, and put blinking red dots in numerous places – everywhere you felt your refueling ports open up before. You label each of them for him, so he'll be able to tell the different ones apart.
“These are all on your back, so, need you standing...” He straightens you out, opens the hatch, and looks down. He gulps. “You think I'll ever get used to the height?” It's clearly a question aimed at you, but he doesn't actually look up for any kind of response, and just climbs down the front of your armor.
You could have extended the catwalk for him again, but he seems to be moving with more purpose now, climbing down quickly, and disappearing to somewhere behind you. You can't see him, but you can still hear him wondering if there's 'some kind of lift or something.'
Then there's silence for a little while as he searches, until he apparently finds what he's looking for. There's an engine, and loud beeping coming toward you from behind.
It stops directly behind you, then there's another mechanical sound, extending up along your back. It must be a mechanical lift of some kind, like he wanted. You hear him stopping at various points, where you feel your fuel access ports opening up with a 'manual override' notice attached.
Each time, he refills the fuel storages with a good deal more fuel, twenty percent for each, and double that for your legs since they have two fuel tanks each. Then he reaches your main fuel tank, and you watch it tick all the way up to thirty two percent.
Soon after, Tendou clambers back up your front, into the cockpit, and sits down with a huff. You note that he still has the canvas bag with him, setting it down beside the other bag and the large metal canisters he's been drinking from.
As soon as the hatch closes, you display the changes for him.
Fuel
Core Reactor: 32% (+9%)
Fuel Storage 1: 30% (+20%)
Fuel Storage 2 : 30% (+20%)
Fuel Storage 3 : 30% (+20%)
Fuel Storage 4 : 30% (+20%)
Fuel Storage 5: 30% (+20%)
Fuel Storage 6: 30% (+20%)
Fuel Storage 7: 30% (+20%)
Your pilot looks it over and nods. “Great, that's looking way better than before. Now...” He turns you around a bit, makes sure the newly attached holsters are all in place, and that all three of the weapons are secured in each one.
He double checks your fuel and ammo counts one more time, all as full as you can get them. “I... think that's everything...?” he says, less certainly then before. His eyes stray toward the front of the hanger, obviously nervous at the thought of setting out.
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