When you get outside, you find the other pilots standing around while large teams of humans scurry around beyond, hauling massive amounts of equipment out of their largest trucks, constructing a series of machines. There are a half dozen of them in a line stretching the whole width of the ravine, about a hundred meters out from the factory.

You figure they must be for defending the factory, though you can't tell how from what little is in place so far. In any case, it's clearly a lot of work, they're using entire cranes on their trucks to lift various pieces into place.

You return your attention from the construction project when you reach the other frames, standing by idly. Besides Wayne and Takashi, two other frames stand, a pair of repurposed Bogatyrs. Tendou clears his throat, and you open comms.

“Hey, can we talk about how we're splitting everything?” he asks, gesturing back to Gardenia a few steps behind. The other pilots agree, and you immediately receive secure communication requests. You let Tendou know, and switch over, so only the pilots will be able to hear the conversation.

Right off the bat, Gardenia says, “I vote we split everything equally.”

“Agreed,” comes in near-perfect unison from the two men, except Takashi follow up, “Except for the Firebird.”

“Yeah, the Firebird is Strider's,” Wayne follows up.

“Yeah, yeah, fine,” Gardenia says with a note of reluctance.

“Uh, wait, what?” Tendou himself finally asks, completely blindsided by the decision. Not to mention, why are these pilots so quick to agree on everything? “Sorry, could you explain that, I'm not familiar with how this all works yet.”

“We fought together,” Wayne responds first, though that doesn't help much. Tendou seems to agree, from his confused expression.

Thankfully, Takashi expands on the explanation. “Because we all fought in battle together, we all contributed. Trying to determine exactly who did the most damage, or who worked the hardest dealing with any given enemy would just lead to a hours of irritating bickering,” he sighs. You figure an old man like him has probably had a lot of that in his life already. “The exception is the Firebird, since you took it down one-on-one.”

“I... I did,” Tendou says slowly, blinking as he clearly realizes it himself.

“During a battle where we were dealing with everything else,” Gardenia notes her displeasure, “but I'm not about to fight you on that,” she sighs, her Wolf moving its hand to wave the whole matter off.

“So, in that case...” Just as Tendou's saying that, you alert him that Mouse is coming out of the factory behind you. At least, you figure that's her based on the ray frame sized signal your scanner picks up. You turn back and confirm your guess, sending a request to have her join the private conversation. She accepts, walking up to the group.

“We just finished deciding on the loot split,” Takashi informs her. “All even, except the Firebird to Strider.”

“Sounds good,” she agrees as well. “I also got us a deal with Tachibana. We can trade the equivalent of a fresh Bogatyr for two custom parts from the factory. Once they get a shipment of Chi from Shado, anyway. I'll send you the parts list they have schematics for.”

Even as she's finishing saying that, you receive the data transmission and save the data for later. You already have some ideas in mind for potential upgrades, which you want to run by Tendou after this meeting.

A mixture of responses comes from the rest of the group, Gardenia and Takashi expressing interest in the deal, while Wayne says he just wants the loot.

With everyone on the same page, the pilots quickly get to hashing out exactly what counts as an even split for everyone. With the Firebird excluded, that leaves six Bogatyrs in perfect condition, one with a damaged cockpit and internals, and four with significant battle damage. Four badly damaged Badangs, and another two almost completely totaled. And lastly, the Thor, also heavily damaged.

The pilots discuss back and forth for some time, Tendou mostly taking a back seat, since the others are far more knowledgeable about just how much the various frames should be worth.

Wayne ends up getting the Thor, since he thinks there might be some parts he'd like to salvage out of it, giving up on most of the rest, besides one of the good Bogatyrs and the totaled Badangs, since they're only good for scrap metal.

And Takashi took the plasma sword earlier, which everyone agrees is easily worth his share from the battle damaged frames.

That leaves the other three of them to split the frames from the battle. It's a little uncertain, splitting them three ways, but they decide everyone gets one Bogatyr and one Badang from the battle. That leaves one Badang and one Bogatyr, going to Mouse and Gardenia, respectively, while Tendou gets most of the weapons, of which there are a substantial number.

The remaining six Bogatyrs from the factory are more difficult, needing to be split four ways.

Thankfully, there's a solution. Everyone gets one, with Tendou deciding to take the one with the damaged cockpit, since he still feels uncertain about getting the Firebird all to himself, despite being the newbie here.

The remaining two frames are split in half. That would normally mean selling them and splitting the profit, or figuring out which parts go to who. But since everyone wants custom parts made, it's decided that those two will be traded in, and everyone will get one custom part out of the deal.

All told, Tendou comes out of the negotiations with one damaged Bogatyr, one damaged Badang, one Bogatyr with a damaged cockpit, the Firebird, one custom part, and a pile of various weapons.

“Alright, that's a wrap then,” Takashi concludes. “Now if you'll excuse me, I have to look over this list, see what I want built.” The whole party fully agrees. After closing out the private conversation, you let Tendou know.

He nods slowly, rubbing a hand against the arm of his seat as he thinks. “So, can I see the parts list from Mouse? And I guess we should go check out that Firebird and find out what we can get from that too...”

You begin to walk back through the factory while pulling that up for him. He looks it over slowly, glancing back to the way ahead as he continues piloting you to the entrance.

At the same time, you consider the list yourself, starting with the various frame parts at the top.

Cowboy

Bushranger MK2

Emu

Mir

Isabel

Crow MK2

Pangolin MK2

Salamander

Liu

Rockal

Churchill MK2

Lancelot

Ibex

Wolverine

Monast

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Black Cat

Spinner MK3

Streak

Lynx

Viper

Arctic Fox

Deva MK4

Bhima

Rhino

Quake MK3

Mustang MK3

Napola MK2

Hydra MK2

Elaran MK3

Avalanche MK2

Zera MK2

Octagon MK2

Planar

Vivan

Arc

Macha

Caracal

Wildcat

Ronin MK5

Kusanagi MK2

Kitsune MK3

Evangel

Hyena

Cheetah

Ocelot

Ironside

Crusader

Cloud Warrior

Hare MK3

Wolf

Sovnya

Firebird

Bogatyr

Falcon MK2

Bahamut

Badang

Avenger

Goblin MK2

Gumiho MK3

Knight

Igor

Bison

Harrison MK2

Washington

Vanguard MK2

Golden Gate

Jackal MK3

...

The list continues on past there, with various weapons and internal components, but by the time you reach the other end of the factory, Tendou hasn't even read to the halfway point.

“This is way too much, can you narrow it down?” he asks.

I can filter out some of the options, just starting with frame parts. How do you want to do that?

“Well... nothing too big, or too heavy,” he says, thinking it through as he speaks. “So maybe, exclude anything eleven meters and up, and anything you'd classify as a heavy frame. That should get us parts that should actually be compatible... I hope,” he finally finishes with a little uncertainty.

You do so, reducing the frames on the list by about a third. He eyes the remainder and asks, “Is there any way cut out more? Anything that stands out about them to you?”

Some are old models, I could remove those too.

“Yeah, that works,” he agrees easily. Of course, that leaves you questioning exactly which ones are 'too old.' The average date of production is twenty-forty-four, so you start by simply removing the ones before that. After all, even you were created in five years after that point.

Still, that leaves thirty different frames to look through. You've been considering that you wanted some heavier parts, so you decide to also remove ones that are too small and light as well. In doing so, you notice some of the designs that your data calls out as particularly cheap or poorly made, and remove those ones as well.

All told, you slash the list in half once more, leaving fifteen frames to look over.

I've removed anything I don't think is feasible, and all of the sub-par and cheap options. So all of these should at least be viable choices, depending on our plans for the future.

Remember, these are just the structural frame components, with their armor and component mounts, but not the armor plating itself, or any internals. I'll also include some basic statistics and any notes I find relevant about their usefulness.

Cowboy – Designed in 2046. 10 meter, Medium-Light weight. Low armor, high offensive power.

Bushranger MK2 – Designed in 2045. 10 meter, Medium weight. Unspecialized all-rounder. Reliable, easy maintenance.

Liu – Designed in 2044. 9 meter, Medium weight. Good mobility and thruster mounts. Durable internal structure.

Lancelot – Designed in 2044. 10 meter, Medium-Light weight. Extremely expensive, massively excels in all aspects. Uses shaped armor, making maintenance more difficult.

Spinner MK3 – Designed in 2047. 9 meter, Light weight. Has unique motors for excellent speed, flexibility, and mobility. Lacks scalability to support heavier loads.

Arctic Fox – Designed in 2046. 9 meter, Medium-Light weight. Low armor, high speed. Internal space optimized for built in long range weapons.

Napola MK2 – Designed in 2048. 9 meter, Medium-Light weight. Combat scout, well armored with good direct combat ability.

Elaran MK3 – Designed in 2052. 10 meter, Medium-Light weight. High end all-rounder. Well balanced in all aspects. Lighter weight allows for better mobility, without compromising other capabilities.

Zera MK2 – Designed in 2050. 9 meter, Light weight. High component flexibility and modularity, easy maintenance. Upper end of light weight class.

Octagon MK2 – Designed in 2051. 10 meter, Medium weight. Good defense. Uses shaped armor, more difficult to maintain.

Vivan – Designed in 2053. 10 meter, Medium-Light weight. High end expensive model. Low power motors, many thruster mounts, runs very hot. Extra built in balancing gyros for increased maneuverability. Excellent speed and offensive capability, with extremely light weight.

Ronin MK5 – Designed in 2051. 9 meter, Light weight. My newest recorded revision of the first combat frame ever produced. Average capabilities across the board at an extremely light weight. The most mature frame design. Very reliable.

Kitsune MK3 – Designed in 2050. 10 meter, Medium-Heavy weight. A remodel from the MK2 version, larger and heavier. Below average armor, high mobility, high maneuverability. High power motors, high power use, many thruster mounts, runs hot.

Ocelot – Designed in 2046. 9 meter. Light weight. Average capabilities, common frame. Easy and cheap to maintain with many available replacement parts.

Gumiho MK3 – Designed in 2050. 9 meter. Medium-Light weight. Direct competitor to the Kitsune, focusing even more on speed and offense, at the expense of defense. Extremely light, barely classes as medium weight. Low armor, extremely fast and maneuverable, high offensive power. High power motors, fewer thruster mounts, sized for very high output thrusters.

The list is obviously lacking in the medium-heavy class options you'd been hoping for. Perhaps a design trend when those frames were being produced...? You wait briefly, walking out of the factory, to stand over the Firebird. You give him a little more time to read, then mention something you've had in mind.

I've been considering changing torsos like you said. It could be suspicious to request having just my cockpit moved into a frame that already has a working one, but perhaps ordering a custom built torso would help with that, since it will need a cockpit. I'm not sure though, I'll keep thinking about it.

You leave that up in the air for now. After all, frame components aren't the only ones on the list. There are a wide array of weapons, and a lot of internal systems too - everything from engines and reactors to maneuvering gyros and electronic warfare systems.

And one of them is a combat grapple. You've been interested in that as well, given the lacking usefulness of your current grapple line. And of course, computer systems are there as well, a good way to replace your own damaged computers.

Many things to consider...

----------------------------------------

Vote:

[ ] Choose parts you want

-What?

[ ] Check out your loot first

-Firebird

-Weapons

-Other frames

[ ] Consider the other parts on the list first

-Weapons

-Internals

[ ] Write-in