You ponder over your options while Tendou digs around in the cockpit, eventually taking a few things with him and ziplining down to the ground again to inspect the Firebird.
Despite your hopes for heavier parts, there were precious few available. There must be a reason for it, so you begin to go through all of the information in your stores, year by year, and frame by frame.
As you work, Tendou buzzes about on the ground, climbing all over the Firebird. He has to come back and use you to turn it over a few times too, but leaves you to your thoughts as he does. By the time he's finishing up, you think you have your answer.
It must be miniaturization. There are numerous notes across different frame revisions mentioning the manufacturers utilizing newer frame technologies over the years to meet or exceed the capabilities of earlier frames, while simultaneously lowering the necessary component weight to do so.
So, a frame from the twenty-fifties might function just as well at a light weight as a medium weight from ten years earlier, for instance.
At the same time, there's a very obvious trend of frames getting larger over the years. Most of the early ones are nine meters tall, while some of the newer and heavier models are eleven meters. Since you'd excluded the eleven meter frames from your search, due to compatibility issues, almost all of the heavier ones were out of range.
To put it simply, given the advancements in technology with the newer frames, the ones that are as heavy as you want are almost all too large.
Then again, all of that applies to the frames as a whole. If you're only looking at the base structural components, and adding all of your own internals after the fact, that could change things...
Having spent quite some time considering all of that, you figure that one of your options could be to begin trading up to larger components. That would make those eleven meter frame parts less daunting to work with. It would also give you more space to fit different internal systems.
Of course, it would come at the expense of speed. Which... is also a trend in the frames you see. Even in the eleven meter class, there are a rather sparse number of medium-heavy weight types.
Thinking about that a little more, it actually makes some sense. In terms of defensive capabilities, the two main factors are armor and speed. If the frames you're seeing are any indication, the manufacturers of the time must have found frames in that medium-heavy weight band to be too slow to avoid attacks, but too weakly armored to resist them. Because there's a definite jump from medium to full heavyweight frames.
Nevertheless, there are some that seem like potential candidates if you loosen your criteria. Looking through, you put together a summarized list of those as well.
Hydra MK2 – Designed in 2045. 11 meter, Heavy weight. Uses high power, specialty made motors for extremely high power and lifting capacity despite heavy weight. Fuel inefficient.
Planar – Designed in 2051. 11 meter, Heavy weight. Lowest end of heavyweight frames, an extremely capable all-rounder. Very modular and easy to maintain.
Evangel – Designed in 2050. 12 meter, Medium-heavy weight. Tallest medium weight frame on record. Average capabilities. Probably too tall to integrate the parts easily.
Cheetah – Designed in 2044. 11 meter, Medium weight. Not intended as a combat frame. Specialty motors for extreme speed at the expense of all normal offensive and defensive capabilities. Used for long distance delivery of important items or information.
Firebird – Designed in 2047. 11 meter, Medium-heavy weight. Top end of the medium weight class. Powerful attacker, heavily focused on built in energy weapon systems, using many heatsinks and an armor system modified throughout, to forcefully vent the extreme heat produced.
Even as you put together the list, you retroactively cross off the Cheetah. Apart from that, some of those could be options if you're willing to compromise on your overall weight. You also note that luckily, have access to an entire Firebird right now. One which only suffered minor damage in the battle, and needs a new cockpit too.
Tendou settles back into the pilot seat at the perfect time. He looks all around the cockpit, holding a handheld device of some kind. He must find what he's looking for, because he soon leans over, plugging it into a small port just beneath a keyboard near the back of the cockpit.
There's a brief moment of back and forth with the newly connected system, before you have access to a bunch of new data. It's much like your own body's system info, but for the Firebird. He must have used that to device to get all of it. That's what he was crawling all over the body for.
As soon as you've realized that, you analyze the info and display it all on screen for him.
Firebird – VD-FBD.HD
Part Type: Head
Weight: 2 tons
Sized for: 11 meters
Armor Integrity: 84%
Internal Integrity: 88%
Structural Integrity: 95%
Motor Speed: Medium-Slow
Armor: Medium-Light
Hardpoints: 3 – None
Sockets: 3 – 1: Primary Visual Sensors, 2: Enhanced Visual Sensors
Internals: Primary Visual Sensors, Enhanced Visual Sensors, Basic Communications Unit, Fire Suppression System
Firebird – VD-FBD-LA
Firebird – VD-FBD-UT
Firebird – VD-FBD-RA
Part Type: Left Arm
Part Type: Upper Torso
Part Type Right Arm
Weight: 13 tons
Weight: 10 tons
Weight: 13 tons
Sized for: 11 meters
Sized for: 11 meters
Sized for: 11 meters
This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings.
Armor Integrity: 72%
Armor Integrity: 87%
Armor Integrity: 80%
Internal Integrity: 68%
Internal Integrity: 75%
Internal Integrity: 73%
Structural Integrity: 87%
Structural Integrity: 83%
Structural Integrity: 90%
Motor Speed: Medium-Slow
Motor Speed: Medium-Slow
Motor Speed: Medium-Slow
Armor: Medium-Light
Armor: Medium-Light
Armor: Medium-Light
Hardpoints: 6 – 1: Armor, 3: Armor
Hardpoints: 6 – None
Hardpoints: 6 – 1: Armor, 3: Armor
Sockets: 4 – 1: Med Thruster
Sockets: 4 – 1: Med Thruster, 2: Med Thruster
Sockets: 4 – 1: Med Thruster
Internals: Overcharger Capacitor, Heatsink, Large Zaratan, Large Zaratan, Fire Suppression System
Internals: Core Reactor, Backup Battery, Heatsink, Vented Armor, Fire Suppression System
Internals: Overcharger Capacitor, Heatsink, Large Zaratan, Large Zaratan, Fire Suppression System
Firebird – VD-FBD.LL
Firebird – VD-FBD-LT
Firebird – VD-FBD.RL
Part Type: Left Leg
Part Type: Lower Torso
Part Type Right Leg
Weight: 16 tons
Weight: 8
Weight: 16 tons
Sized for: 11 meters
Sized for: 11 meters
Sized for: 11 meters
Armor Integrity: 88%
Armor Integrity: 65%
Armor Integrity: 88%
Internal Integrity: 90%
Internal Integrity: 33%
Internal Integrity: 90%
Structural Integrity: 92%
Structural Integrity: 58%
Structural Integrity: 92%
Motor Speed: Medium-Slow
Motor Speed: Medium-Slow
Motor Speed: Medium-Slow
Armor: Medium-Light
Armor: Medium-Light
Armor: Medium-Light
Hardpoints: 7 – 5: Armor
Hardpoints: 4 – 1: Armor, 2: Armor
Hardpoints: 7 – 5: Armor
Sockets: 2 – 1: Med Thruster, 2: Med Thruster
Sockets: 4 - None
Sockets: 2 – 1: Med Thruster, 2: Med Thruster
Internals: Paired Maneuvering Gyroscope, Fuel Storage, Fuel Storage, Heatsink, Heatsink, Vented Armor System, Fire Suppression System
Internals: Cockpit, Main Engine, Heatsink, Fire Suppression System
Internals: Paired Maneuvering Gyroscope, Fuel Storage, Fuel Storage, Heatsink, Heatsink, Vented Armor System, Fire Suppression System
Weapons
Type
Ammo
Description
Zaratan
Energy
-
Oversized Phaser – built into left arm
Zaratan
Energy
-
Oversized Phaser – built into left arm
Zaratan
Energy
-
Oversized Phaser – built into right arm
Zaratan
Energy
-
Oversized Phaser – built into right arm
From what I can tell, the internal systems within the cockpit aren't included in the readout, probably because they were destroyed in the battle. Also, it looks like the frame's wiring has been extra reinforced, like my own.
The Zaratan phasers are somewhat damaged as well, from when we shot them.
With that said, the overall frame is in quite good condition. You could transfer your own cockpit into it to get a larger body far more quickly and easily than expected. That would immediately give you a jumping off point to get some of the larger, heavier parts you had in mind.
However, it's a more focused design, compared to your current one. Being so heavily geared toward long range firepower, it is definitely lacking in up-close melee capability. That's how you took it down yourself, after all. Something to consider...
While Tendou takes some time to look over the information on the Firebird, you silently compare it to the other two top contenders you have in mind, the Lancelot and Vivan. You still think getting one of their torsos would be the way to go, rather than other parts, like arms or legs.
Looking over each frame more closely, you read through their descriptions again.
Lancelot – 10 meter, 75 ton. Classification: All-rounder. Developed by the Round Table group in 2044, this is a top of the line frame. Painstakingly designed, using the very best components available and shaped armor, it excels in all aspects of battle, on both offense and defense. Advancements in technology have kept its weight down as well, offering superior mobility. Due to its long development time, it is sold at an extraordinarily high price.
Notable Traits: Extremely effective. Top end of the Medium-Light weight class. Shaped armor will be more difficult to maintain.
Vivan – 10 meter, 60 ton. Classification: Attacker. Produced by the RenCaTech conglomerate in 2053, this is an expensive, high end frame, focused on speed and explosive power, to take down foes in ambush attacks. Has built in maneuvering gyroscopes for high speed maneuvering.
Runs very hot, so it relies on numerous heatsinks and powerful maneuvering thrusters at the expense of lower power motors for slower than average movement without thruster assistance. Most production variants ship with built in energy weapons, which contribute further to overheating problems changed
Notable Traits: At the very bottom end of the Medium-Light weight class, despite having decent armor. Good socket mounts for numerous powerful thrusters.
Parsing through the schematics of the two, it does look like the underlying structural frames will each support their intended role well, even without any of their intended components. And depending on the ones you provide yourself, it could greatly change their resulting performance.
Separate from all of that, you take note of the weapons you have to choose from, which Tendou gathers from around the field. They're nothing outstanding – just the weapons used by the group of Badangs and Bogatyrs from the battle.
There are four Berger light machine guns, four H5B heavy machine guns, and four CT short range missile launchers. Perhaps you could use one, but you'd already have a variety of weapons, and you'd need to find ammo for it. Otherwise, you'll likely just sell them.
You think over your numerous options while he finishes getting things in order.
----------------------------------------
Vote:
[ ] Choose parts you want
-What?
[ ] Continue to look at loot first
-Badang
-Bogatyr
[ ] Consider the other parts on the list more
-Weapons
-Internals
[ ] Write-in