“Let's see what this thing can do...” your pilot mutters, and taps one of your screens. He wants the menu relating to your right arm, so you open that.
NC-CMT.RA 36% | Change
Error – Part Damaged
At the top, it lists your arm's part identifier with its current integrity, and a button immediately next to it, labeled 'Change.' The rest of the screen is dominated by a section with a rough depiction of your arm covering most of the screen space. Red text covers over most of the box, mentioning the error. With no other options, he chooses Change.
Inventory – Right Arm
Ibex Right Arm
Remove
The next menu has an entire graphical section for a list of items, with a bevy of extra options relating to searching the list, and filtering out options based on various criteria. However, there is only a single item, the whole space below left utterly blank.
Beneath the list, there is a single button labeled remove. While it isn't immediately clear what that means, the man chooses that option, and the corresponding prompt clears things up.
Remove NC-CMT.RA?
With options of yes and no, he quickly chooses not to. “So, that's what it means,” he notes to himself.
Then, he pauses. He takes a long, hard look at the single option listed. “Only one...?” he mumbles. “But there are frames everywhere...” For a few long moments, he hovers a finger just before your monitor, before finally tapping the option.
You bring up yet another menu, similar to the one before the last, with a vaguely outlined diagram of an arm.
NMC-IBX.RA 72% | Equip
Weight: 7 tons
Speed: Medium
Armor: Medium
Hardpoints: 5
Sockets: 5
Internals: Ammo Storage (2), Weapon Feed
Hardpoint 2: Armor
Hardpoint 4: Blade
Hand Socket 1: Weapon Feed
With the button to equip the part at the top, the diagram below is littered with bits of information. Most of it is unfamiliar, so you take a stab at your newly organized Secondary Storage. Luckily, among the remaining information, there is a section containing information on a number of frames, and the Ibex is among them.
While you check it yourself, you throw the information up on your monitors, beside the one with the repair station's Assembly menu, for your pilot to see.
Ibex – 9 meter, 65 ton. Classification: Attacker. Developed by NyaMoCom in 2048, it is an unauthorized redesign of the Mustang using modern components, with more emphasis placed on firepower. Lacking in armor, it moves quickly for its weight. Its cheap construction hampers effectiveness, yielding below average performance.
Notable traits: Equipped with powerful, but highly inefficient thrusters. Modular structure allow for easy upgrade of internal components.
“Cheap...” the man murmurs as he reads over the description, glancing back and forth between two info screens a few times. Nevertheless, he reaches toward the button to equip the part. “But it's the only one...”
After a few agonizingly long seconds of him trying to decide, he ultimately taps the button to go back instead. “I should look more first,” he says to himself. “Maybe... I don't know...”
From there, he pages through each section of the Assembly menu, checking each of your parts. The only replacement option listed for each of them is are the Ibex parts. All except for the legs, apparently. In that menu, there are no available parts.
Making it past everything in the diagram, he taps on Equipment below, with a new menu coming up this time.
It's another list, similar to the part selections, but this one is empty too. There's a button below to add equipment, which yields the first list you've seen more than a single item.
Inventory – Equipment
Nian
Mitchell
While there are only two options, it's better than nothing. Unfortunately, you can't find any extra information except for their model IDs and the basic class of each weapon falls into.
Once again leaving this menu behind, your pilot presses the last button on the main Assembly screen: Inventory.
Unlike everything previously, this one contains a comparatively enormous list of items.
Inventory
-Ray Frames-
Bogatyr MK1 (Custom) – Bay 3
Octagon MK1 – Bay 6
Ocelot (Custom) – Bay 9
Ironside – Bay 11
Avenger (Custom) – Trash
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Comet – Repair Bay 5
-Frame Parts-
Ibex Head
Ibex Torso
Ibex Left Arm
Ibex Right Arm
-Internals-
6 Ammo Storage
4 Fuel Storage
2 Paired Gyroscope
2 Mini Auto Cannon
2 Single Missile Launcher
-External Mods-
7 Armor Plating – Flat
5 Armor Plating – Round
3 Armor Plating – Spike
1 Armor Plating – Shell
15 Armor Plating – Corner
15 Armor Plating – Inner
11 Armor Plating – Ridge
14 Small Holster
7 Medium Holster
2 Large Holster
4 Medium Thruster
-Equipment-
Nian
Mitchell
Among all of the items, you can't help but note that you have no information on the first frame listed, the Bogatyr. Not even a model ID. Not in your storage, or even when you dig through all of the possible matches your visual recognition is capable of surfacing. You're forced to leave that section blank for now.
Meanwhile, hardly having read to the end of the list, your pilot is already tapping on the Bogatyr. You move to the next menu that the repair station provides, which is yet another frame diagram, similar to your own.
The main difference: this one also has a button at the top labeled 'Remove From Storage.' The pilot taps that. You send off the request, wait for a short time, and then...
Error!
Cannot retrieve frame.
Storage Bay 3 doors jammed.
“Ugh...” the man groans, when you show him the message, but quickly bounces back. He navigates back and selects the next option, the Octagon.
Error!
Cannot retrieve frame.
Storage Bay 6 Empty.
“Why are you like this?!” He barks out for some reason. Thinking back on it, wasn't the Octagon the one he moved earlier? He only got a few steps out of the storage bay before toppling the thing, but it makes perfect sense that it's missing, since he removed it himself.
The man has only just tapped on your screen to leave this menu when a followup message arrives, which you display for him instead.
Searching for missing frame... Found.
Retrieving Frame.
So, it was able to find it just outside its storage space after all. “O-oh?” the man blinks at your screen. “Ok then...” Within seconds, you can hear the whir of motors coming from across the hanger.
You're largely still locked in place by the mechanical arms holding onto you, but he manages to turn your head enough to see the Octagon from earlier, held in a similar set of arms. It is held slightly aloft, just enough to keep its feet from sliding on the concrete floor, while the arms carry it down the rail system.
“That's the one I... Oh,” your pilot says quietly, before shaking off whatever feeling came over him.
Watching the Octagon, it isn't brought over toward you, it's brought to the other giant repair bay machine out in the center of the hanger. Even at a distance, it's clear that that repair bay is the smallest of the three, sized just about correct for the Octagon, which itself is slightly larger than you are.
“Alright then, let's see... Maybe I can...” Looking back over the Octagon's body schematic, he taps on its right arm. Once more, a somewhat familiar menu.
RDS-OCT.RA 90% | Change
Weight: 9.5 tons
Speed: Medium
Armor: Medium-High
Hardpoints: 3
Sockets: 2
Internals: Ammo Storage, Recoil Suppressor, Reinforced Internal Structure, Weapon Feed
Hand Socket 1: Weapon Feed
Like your own arm, it has the item's model ID at the top, along with a button to change it out for another part, while below, it's more similar to the Ibex arm, holding all the same information those did.
Your pilot looks over the information with rapt attention, so you pull up more information that could be useful and display that as well.
Octagon – 10 meter, 80 ton. Classification: All-Rounder. Designed by the international Rounders consortium in 2046. A defensively focused frame. Uses a specialized shaped armor system to improve defense without as much armor required. Otherwise average capabilities across the board make this frame a solid, dependable go-to.
Notable traits: The shaped armor frees up a small amount of space for extra internal systems, at the cost of fewer external mounting locations.
Though you still don't have a specific figure, comparing yourself to the Octagon indicates you should be about nine meters tall.
Considering the short passage with that in mind, you note that the Octagon is both taller than you, and significantly heavier. Eighty tons, to your fifty five. You don't know how that might affect your pilot's attempts to fit its parts onto you, since it seems likely he may try.
But apparently, he still manages to hold himself back from committing to anything before investigating his options. He goes back to check each of the other frames listed.
The system only manages to retrieve the Ironside, since the Ocelot still stuck in the storage bay halfway behind the machine itself, and the Avenger is listed as being in the trash, wherever that is.
While the Avenger is comparable to the Octagon in size and weight, it doesn't much matter. Firstly, because it's in the garbage, and secondly, according to the readout, it's missing its arms.
The Ocelot is notably smaller and lighter, like you are. Looking among all of the frames, a number are listed as 'Custom,' which turns out to mean they themselves have had some portion of their body swapped for other parts. The Ocelot has Kitsune legs, as you saw, while the avenger has Elaran legs.
The inaccessible Bogatyr is the most heavily modified, with much of its body a medly of pieces from other frames. Notably, its current right arm is from a Zera, another frame of your size.
The odd one out is the Ironside. It's being carried on the overhead rails past you, headed off to the first repair bay you stopped at earlier. You display the information you have on it for your pilot to see.
Ironside – 11 meter, 130 ton. Classification: Defender. Built by Tupen Tech in 2045, it uses asymmetrical armor, allowing it to shield itself from incoming fire while returning its own. Does not have any standout features besides its exceptional durability, though it does have respectable speed for its size. Its largest weakness is its lack of sufficient maneuvering thrusters for its heavy weight. An overall dependable frame.
Notable traits: Made entirely from stock-standard components, so it is easy and cheap to maintain.
On one hand, there is no way you can support the weight of parts like that. Unless, of course, you swap out your legs too. That would allow you to increase your overall size and weight capacity, even if it slowed you down overall.
In fact, you could swap out every single part of your body besides your cockpit and it wouldn't make any difference. It's more a matter of what you want. Not to mention, what you can get your pilot to act on...
----------------------------------------
Vote:
[ ] Suggest to replace specific parts
-Which parts?
[ ] Get your pilot to check out the Ocelot
-Possibly try to retrieve it?
[ ] Search for the Avenger
[ ] Look for a way to get the Bogatyr
[ ] Check your storage for info on frames you haven't yet
-Ocelot, Kitsune, Elaran, Zera, etc?
-The Bogatyr's other parts
[ ] Look more into components used in other frames
-Which ones?
[ ] Get some of the other parts out of storage
-Weapons, internal components, etc
[ ] Start disassembling the parts of your body you want to change
-Which ones?
[ ] Write-in