In Love & War & Mechs

All was quiet aboard the Eos-5, an Eos-class starcruiser whose mecha armament was designed for deployment into planet-side sorties. The deck-7 hanger was no quieter or less busy than any other. Pilots and mechanics alike crawled over and under various mechs, running diagnostics, performing routine maintenance, as well as the occasional hover checks.

Jett was the pilot of a Artemis-467, a bipedal recon mech with an accompanying AI to assist threat analysis and the deployment of weapon systems. After hooking auxiliary power up to his ship’s right heel, he climbed into the cockpit with a data pad.

“Well, hello, talk, dark, and handsome,” said his Mech’s AI, her tone seductive.

“Heya, Arty,” Jett replied. “Sorry to disappoint, but it’ll just be me. Tall and Handsome are seeing to a boy’s poker night.”

“Ha ha. Oh, Jett. You’re so delightful. And I really appreciate a pilot who always turns me on so flawlessly.”

The cockpit was shaped like a sphere, the digital screen displaying his surroundings in place of windows. “Oh, come now,” he said absently while retrieving a data cable from a side panel and connecting it to his data pad. “I’ll bet you say that to all the mechanics.”

“Jett! Just what kind of mech do you take me for? I’m not an Eos? No, sir! I’m a single-occupant kind of gal.”

“Well, I can’t argue with that logic.”

‘Well, I can’t argue with that logic,’ repeated from the cockpit speakers.

“I’ll remember you said that, Jett. Besides, everyone knows our logical processing power is far superior.”

Jett navigated menus within the data pad, selecting ‘Send’ to initiate several data transfers.

“Jett...”

“Uh huh?”

“Do you think you could love me if I were an Aphrodite-class droid?”

He looked up from his screen and oriented an overhead cockpit monitoring lens. “What happened to all that superior logic you were just going on about? I’m a recon pilot. If you weren’t a recon mech, how would we interact?”

“Oh, I know, it’s just... Okay, hypothetical question for you. If you could choose absolutely any mech, would you still choose to enter me?”

Jett narrowed his eyes. “Your backup cycle. That’s tonight, isn’t it?”

“Don’t change the subject! I need to know!”

“Arty, it’ll be fine. You always get moody like this when you’re scheduled for a backup. You know as well as I do that even their redundancies have redundancies. So just relax. You’re not going to get wiped.” The cockpit’s display powered down, darkening his surroundings. “Can you stop playing? I need to finish uploading your nav data.”

“You didn’t answer the question, Jett.”

Bwerp-bwerp! A deployment alert bellowed across the hangar as red signal beacons spun to life. A command announcement tapped into his cockpit speakers.

“Attention! Attention! This is not a drill. All of Deck 7, Artemis-class, prepare for immediate deployment. Operation: Search and Destroy. Mission parameters will be made available en route.

Jett straightened. “Well, Arty, that’s us.” He set to fastening his four-point harness.

“Aren’t you forgetting something?”

“You know the drill. Mission first. You keep this up, and you may actually get repurposed into an Aphrodite class.”

“The auxiliary cable?”

His brows furrowed. Then, he remembered hooking her up to external power. “Ah. Right.” He toggled her internal power unit. “Could you?”

*Poomf! *sounded as she jettisoned the cable before magnetically sealing the compartment.

“Thanks, babe. You’re the best.”

“We’re not done talking about this, you know?”

“Yeah, I thought not. But what do you say we go find something to blow up?”

The display screen turned back on to show other mechs hovering towards the departure bay.

“Well, when you put it like that... I love you, Jett.”

“Yeah, yeah. Love you too, babe.”

[WP] you're a mercinary mecha pilot, and your fully sentient mech has the hots for you.