"Well, the idea is for you to stay functional for as long as possible. In case you haven't noticed, I need you out here."
"Well, yes, that is fairly clear, but suffice it to say that I need you too," the AI pointed out.
Jessica13 nodded. Sure, Mini could probably operate the mech on his own without her, but maybe he liked having a human around.
It didn't seem like something an AI would care about, but that didn't matter. The idea made her feel good.
She continued to rummage through the mechs until she found something they could use. "The Watson is a comparable size to the Minato, right?"
"The Nordicgear WTS-N?" Mini asked. "Accessing data banks…"
The Watson was the support mech most of the other bulletfoots used in Sanctuary. It was simple to maintain and easy to learn how to use and was also capable of carrying considerable weight on its squat frame. It was still a little larger than the Minato at a little over nine feet tall, which meant it would take a little adjustment of the power cells.
Which really wasn’t a problem as she thought she could do it.
"The power cells from the Watson should be compatible," Mini said. "But you weren't waiting for my assertion, were you?"
Jessica13 shrugged, pulled the cells clear, and gently severed their connection to their mech of origin. "I thought you liked the fact that I'm impulsive and adventurous."
"Agreed. That is why I stole you away from Sanctuary," the AI said as she put the cells on her back and climbed onto the Minato's back.
"Excuse you, I'm the one who stole you," she pointed out, pulled the power cell isolation plates up, and opened the back to give her access to the functions there. "You were the mech that moved the fastest and had an AI I liked."
"Why do you think it moved the fastest and had an AI you liked?" Mini asked. "Do you think that was merely a coincidence?"
"What are you saying—you chose me when you weren't even functional?" she asked, spliced a couple of the power wirings from their original couplers, and guided them out. "Let me know if the energy spikes start to reach a dangerous level, would you?"
"Of course. And note that is an answer to both questions. I guess you could compare my state before I was functional to the human subconscious."
"Huh." She grunted and mulled that statement over while she connected the wiring and slipped the new nuclear power cells into the appropriate compartment. They were slightly too big but there was a little space to work with. It would feel tighter inside the pilot's area, but that was actually not a terrible thing.
"What's the matter?" Mini asked when she noticed her sudden silence while she installed the shoulder plates.
"Nothing," Jessica13 lied and shook her head quickly. What was the point of lying to the only companion she had? "It's only…well, I'm here having fun, inspecting mechs and upgrading you, while people at the bunker are waiting for me to bring them help. I can't help but feel a little selfish, is all."
"Your mech requires care as well," the AI pointed. "As do you. Your own care should not be neglected in order to provide care for others."
"I guess you're right." It was quick work to install the shoulder pads, and while they were better than having none at all, she would feel more comfortable when she found the time and materials to weld them in place. For now, bolting them in would work. "Still, the sun is starting to set and we haven't heard anything from the Knights so we should probably find someplace to spend the night that isn’t out in the open."
"True, although the fact that we have remained in the same place over the past three transmissions of your message might indicate that we have remained too long," Mini pointed out. "We might want to move away from these coordinates as others could have listened in on your transmissions."
"That sounds like a plan," Jessica13 said. "You might want to stop transmitting at those intervals while we're still here. I wouldn't want those pirates to find their way to us before the Knights do."
"It might be too late already," Mini said.
"What?"
Jessica13 climbed down as she’d finished installing the upgrades and moved inside to look through the HUD at what Mini saw.
A group of Mechs moved through the junkyard, climbed over the piles and piles of metal carcasses, and appeared to be searching for something specific.
"Shit," she snapped. "Do they have our location?"
"That is unlikely, or they would have already attacked us," Mini replied. "Unless those mechs are the Knights Mechanica?"
She shook her head. "To quote you, that is unlikely. Look at the way they've built those Lancers—like they don't even care about repairing them. They'll simply discard them when they break and pick up the ones they killed others to find. That's not like the Knights."
"You don't know what the Knights are like," the AI reminded her.
"I still know it's not what the Knights are like," she retorted tartly. "Hold on, I think I saw a couple of things we could use for weapons—"
"Weapons were likely the first things to be stripped from these mechs," Mini pointed out.
Jessica13 grinned manically and scrambled out. "Only to those who don't know what they're looking for."
She moved through the pieces and tried to make as little noise as possible as she worked. It wasn't long until she tugged something up from the pile and struggled somewhat with the piece.
"What is that?" Mini asked.
As the AI undoubtedly already knew what it was, she assumed he had asked what she planned to use it for.
"An old battery pack used to store energy from the nuclear reactors from one of the older Cable mechs," she said as she worked. "It was one of the last models to use acid-based batteries to store power instead of cycling it
