Yet another plan comes to you, so you respond to Tendou's question.

  Before we leave, we should talk to the other pilots. I think we should trade in the Bogatyr for a custom part, but I still haven't figured out what custom parts would be best to pair with the Firebird parts we have on hand. Though we'll at least need a torso to replace the Firebird's.

  We should talk to Mouse and Takashi, I think they'll have the most relevant information.

  “Mm, sure, but... why trade in the Bogatyr?” he asks.

  Since they're mass produced for cheap, none of the parts are worth taking. Even the armor is low-grade, so that's not worth stripping off either. We'd need to sell it, but with the most valuable components destroyed, I wouldn't expect a high price. And that would necessitate transporting it all the way back to Shado, which would cut into the profits further.

  I believe that a single, high quality custom part would be more valuable to us right now.

  Tendou follows your train of thought this time, nodding along while reading. “Yeah, that works,” he agrees. “Let's go.” He eases the controls forward, and you begin walking, looking around for the two pilots.

  Checking around inside the factory, you find Mouse first. She's in her Arctic Fox, standing beside the wall near the material storage room. Her cockpit is open, the woman lounging all the way back in her pilot seat with her hands resting behind her head. Eyes closed, taking a nap.

  “Hey?” Tendou says experimentally, just loud enough that she should hear him, unless she's asleep.

  One eye peeks open. “Yeah?”

  “Just had some questions. Is now a bad time?”

  Sitting up, she says, “It's fine. What did you want to-” and her words are interrupted by a long yawn. “...ask?” She finishes with a big stretch, leaning side to side.

  “I wanted to ask about custom parts. I was looking over the list from Tachibana and everything I recovered from the battle, and I think I'll be using most of the Firebird parts. But I don't know what would work well with it.”

  “Ahh, that makes sense.” She tilts her up and to the side, looking off at the ceiling while tapping one finger against her chin.

  “So, with the stuff I'm trading in, I'll be able to get two custom parts made. The Firebird's lower torso is pretty wrecked, so I planned to use the cockpit from this one. And I'll... probably have to check the engine,” he says slowly, like he's just thinking of it now, as he looks over the frame's spec sheet off to the side of one monitor. “I might need to pull the engine out of this one too.”

  “Mm,” she makes a sound, showing no particular response yet. “Can you send over the Firebird data?” she requests.

  “Sure, sure...” he delays briefly, looking about the cockpit. With her watching, he can't speak to you freely. And you can't do the whole thing for him.

  Over here.

  You display some small text to catch his eye where it won't be visible to her, and point over to the keyboard and controls on the side of his seat. His fingers trace over the control buttons, and he taps, popping up the basic system menu, which you move to the side for him.

  You point arrows at the selections he needs, and unexpectedly, he picks up on the control scheme immediately. He flashes through the options one after another to open up a secure data connection to the Arctic Fox and send over the Firebird's info.

  “Alright, let's see...” Mouse says when she receives the info. She turns to the side to look at her own cockpit readouts. It takes her a minute to scan over everything for herself, giving a couple little nods as she does. “Ok. Yeah, I see your point, there's a lot of good stuff here. I didn't realize you took it down so cleanly.”

  After a little more thought, she goes on, “There is a lot of damage to the internals within the torso, so yeah, it would be a good idea to make sure the components themselves are still operational. You'll probably need to replace a lot of the wiring either way.”

  “Well, I was thinking of using a different torso entirely,” Tendou says. “That could be one of my custom parts, right? The structural components of a new torso? Or, would it be better to repair it?”

  Still deep in thought, Mouse considers that for some time. “Besides the cockpit, the structural integrity doesn't seem that bad. I'd say it still looks usable.”

  “Oh,” your own pilot perks up when her advice contradicts yours. Looking at it her way, the structural integrity of the lower torso would be much higher if you didn't account for the destroyed cockpit. “So, if I don't need to replace that, what kind of parts would work well with it?”

  Mouse, tilts her head. “That's... hmm...” Eyes narrowed at her readouts, she begins explaining. “It's got reinforced wiring, seven full size heatsinks, fire suppression, and an entire vented armor system. This thing must run hot. But it also means there's not much room left in there to modify it.”

  She turns to the side and starts tapping at a terminal. “Assuming the size and internal capacity, from what I'm seeing here you might get... best case scenario, four more systems, if they're small and you really jam them in there.”

  “I see...” Tendou hums in thought.

  “Here, you've got the part list I sent you, right? Take a look at the subsystems section.”

  “Yeah,” he nods, hand returning to the system controls. You point him through what he needs, opening up the necessary information on screen. He scrolls the list, past all of the frames and weapons they can produce here, and just focuses on the internal systems.

  “Looks like they can make most normal frame parts here,” Mouse says. “I'm not seeing the more specialized electronic warfare systems, but they do have ECM... But no AMS, though I guess you'd need to alter existing armor to make the mount for that...

  She shakes her head and refocuses. “Anyway. I haven't looked inside myself, but I'm guessing there should be room for three, maybe four small systems if you're lucky, and you can find some spots to squeeze them in. Are there any parts you had in mind?”

  She cocks her head. “Actually, you're new, do you need help understanding what any of them do? Or how you'd use them?”

  “Let's see...” With a fist tapping lightly to his mouth in thought, his eyes scan down the lines of text. “Most of these are pretty self explanatory...” he murmurs into his hand. “What do you think?” The words are quiet, a small tilt of his brow saying that they're for you.

  Vote:

  [ ] Ask about something

  -What?

  [ ] We know everything we need to know

  [ ] Consider what you'd want to get

  [ ] Write-in