I had pretty much decided against getting one until I talked to my recruiter for the Brotherhood, Clan leader, and friend KiloToneRecoil. He sat me down and described how he and the tech heads had worked out a build that would enable the mecha to fight on par with other combatants in the field, and not just sit there like a target as the other two so often do. The build itself would take a small fortune in niodes to pull off, and would have to be done in increments, but the end game and pay off would be worth it. The build is confidential so I can not share the ins and outs of it here, but suffice to say this conversation changed my mind entirely.
The next day I had purchased a Fext and was starting to learn all about my new mecha. I plugged myself into the neural interface, and was met by a shimmering digital representation of my mecha in its A.I. consciousness.
"Greetings Brother pilot, I am Crossfire your personal mobile battle platform. What can I assist you in learning about me today?" He cheerily greeted me.
"Oh hell no.." I replied, I immediately unplugged myself and got some techs on the line. I had them bring down Frozen Dream my Frigis, and Jabberwocky my Regis from the main hangers to the maintenance docks. Once they arrived I had the techs all interconnect the three mecha consciousnesses. Dream and Wocky both had hybrid Actual Intelligence programs with advanced probability detection, and nearly unlimited learning potential, whereas Crossfire had a standard issue battle A.I. from the company that was just way to happy, and upbeat for my liking.
I plugged into the primary interface from the maintenance console to once again join my mind with the three machines. I was this time within a Brotherhood server which was programmed to work and act like a standard hanger/repair bay. Anything you could do in the physical world you could do to its digital counterpart here.
Wocky and Dream had been with me long enough to know to wait and see what would be required of them, meanwhile Crossfire walked right up and started in.
"Brother pilot, excuse me please but what are these other battle platforms doing here? Are they to assist us in some way? Or is this some kind of initiation within the Brotherhood between mechas? Oh I do so hope it is an initiation! I have always wanted one of those!"
I just looked over to Dream and Wocky and said, "Do you see the problem?"
Wocky shook her head and snorted in disgust, while Dream just glared at the heavier mecha. They both started to move towards him at the same time.
"Oh are we starting now? Okay, Okay, wow what are the rules here? Will I get a clan emblem when this is over? Will this make me the point mecha of the..."
He was cut short as dream stepped behind him, and Wocky started him down in the front. They both raised their arms out and to the sides as a shining blue dome began to encompass the three mecha. Intelligence programs collided like lightning across the sphere, sparks danced through the air where they met. Eventually the light show died down and I saw Wocky, and Dream start to breakdown in reolution before flowing into Crossfire. When this happened he glowed a brilliant neon blue before Wocky, and Dream reformed once again.
The two then backed away from Crossfire, Wocky addressed me in passing letting me know the job was done. I grinned to myself and disconnected us all from the server. I had Wocky and Dream returned to their usual hangers, and plugged myself directly back into Crossfire.
Once again I was met by the digital representation of the Fext. I wanted to see just how well my advanced mecha did with this machine so I said, "Status?"
"ONLINE", was the deep booming voice with a clear note of more than a little menace to it.
"Objective?" I asked.
DESTROY WITH EXTREME PREJUDICE ALL NON BROTHERHOOD PERSONNEL", he answered.
Oh yeah this will do just fine, this is a mecha I can work with, such an improvement.
Submitted by Pat Willis#224534