"How's the arm?" Valentine asked, tapping out commands into his data tablet.
"Elbow's feeling stiff, but the wrist damage's repair from our assault in London when I punched that bodyguard is fine."
"I meant the Cherub's left arm. I calibrated the shoulder servo earlier before you hopped in."
"Oh, well, it feels much better since the last time I was at the helm." Sheva reported, the large 28 foot tall mech's cockpit wide open as she tested the fine tuned limb, her movements inside matching the whole mech in perfect sync thanks to her custom T-15 Exosuit variant designed exclusively for controlling the Cherub, designated the T-15A2 Pilot model.
The Cherub was a combat mech, designed by Valentine to act not only as the Nightfall's figurehead, but also as additional firepower both aboard the ship as well as on the ground. Valentine wanted Sheva to act as the pilot and had been training her in how to control it for months now, and it was combat ready. Right now was just fine adjustments after a practice session just before the London skirmish.
At present, the pair were standing aboard the Nightfall's deck, their usual training area with the Cherub, and Valentine was idly hovering level with Sheva in the cockpit on his hoverboard, tapping at his tablet. Compared to the last four months of breakneck work to the ship, today was a mere skeleton crew working directly on the Magno-Core that had been installed that morning, rendering the Nightfall fully operational on all systems. In fact, the only reason it was still on the ground was the loading of the support aircraft, the Cherub's last few modifications, and loading all of the munitions and supplies for the crew.
"So, any ideas for a name for the AI I'm adding to assist you in there?" Valentine asked, since the main core of the AI itself - due for installation just behind Sheva's lower back inside the cockpit - was currently resting on his hoverboard between his feet.
"You mean a name for the whole thing?" Sheva teased, since giving her mech a literal personality meant giving it a proper identity, and therefore a name. "I'm sure you've already rigged the AI with a personality already?"
"You know, I left that part dynamic. Motoko helped me code it." Valentine commented, still tapping away at his tablet. "The personality will develop as it gets to know you, not to mention the others around it, like Dad or me."
"The way you said that makes me think I have to teach it like it's a toddler..." Sheva commented as she disconnected her suit from the system link and set the Cherub to stand idle, then powered down all systems until it was completely inert, then climbed out of the still open hatch and used her suit's Boosters to descent safely to the deck with a clunk of metal as her boots made contact. Valentine, however, drifted his hoverboard over to the Cherub's cockpit and lifted the AI's core into one hand, then shoved it into the awaiting slot and backed away from the suddenly reactivated mech, watching the cockpit seal itself and the armour to lock into place as it came back online.
"Confirming ID... ID confirmed; Darkwood, Valentine. Greetings, sir." The mech's computerized voice spoke up loudly, several of the main optical sensors tracking the idle sway of Valentine's hoverboard in the air before it. "Locating pilot..."
Again, the sensors searched the deck, then the whole thing tilted forward to look down, immediately spotting Sheva in front of itself with her hands on her hips.
"Pilot located. Greetings, Sheva."
"State your current command directives." Sheva spoke up, and the mech - still unnamed as of yet - took a step back before crouching down onto one knee and opening the armour and cockpit for her to enter.
"Understood. Currently set to Recon mode, status; green. All systems nominal, ready for active duty."
"Confirm your identification." Valentine spoke up suddenly.
"I have no data at present related to personal identification. Update required." The mech replied. "Required information: Standard ID, identification of gender through voice preference of pilot, and callsign for active duty."
"Standard ID and callsign are the same, revise paramaters." Valentine ordered, and the mech said nothing.
"I'll call you... Rico. Keep your current voice, I like it. You will identify with male pronouns." Sheva regarded her combat companion with a pleased smirk. "Information update complete, confirm your identification."
"I am Rico, Cherub-class combat mech for the BSAA's aquatic assault battleship, the Nightfall. My pilot is Sheva Alomar-Darkwood." Rico answered as Sheva climbed inside and he resealed his protective canopy around her as she linked with his systems. "Engaging manual pilot control. Primary and sidearm weaponry unavailable at present time, locations unknown."
"Proceed to the front of the superstructure, I've arranged for your weapons to be stored there while we ran diagnostics." Valentine pointed towards the large menacing superstructure behind them, so Rico spoke to Sheva just using the interior speakers rather than the external ones.
"Requesting autopilot, intention is to retrieve primary and sidearm weaponry from specified location."
"Alright, you drive." Sheva agreed, already feeling Rico beginning to turn and walk across the deck without having to move her legs. "Val, baby, what are you going to outfit Rico with? I've never seen what weapons you designed for him." Sheva spoke aloud, knowing that Rico enabled the external speakers for her since he was in autopilot as they walked.
"I've got a whole kit, thanks to Dad's recommendation, you have five primary weapons for Rico to use at any time, and two sidearms... I'm still building the third."
"Sweetie, can you send them to my screens?" Sheva asked, since she already knew that Rico was able to send and receive all forms of data, at an time.
"20mm T45 Assault Cannon, The Uppercut C66 electromagnetic shotgun, Tac-3 140mm multi-grenade launcher, 375mm T4 rocket launcher, and the Artemis energy bow. Sidearms are the 45x130mm Goliath revolver and the .50 cal Demonia autopistol. The one that's not finished yet is a semi-auto pistol, like the Goliath, just... not a revolver." Valentine sent the images of the weapons to Rico's HUD as he glided alongside the walking mech as they approached the seven shipping containers in a neat stack of four and three.
"Rico, which one do you think would work best? I think that bow... the Artemis." Sheva spoke to her mech, who gave a vocal humming sound, clearly evaluating the weapons.
"I agree, the Artemis is an excellent choice. Next selection would most likely have been the T45 Assault Cannon, which bears similarity to an infantryman's assault rifle or squad automatic weapon. For sidearm, I suggest the Goliath, for reliability and assured firepower."
"Alright, I'll open the containers that have them." Val heard the conversation and hopped off his board, opening the two containers with a wave of his hand and a screech of the metal moving. "Ammunition for the Goliath is in the top container. The Artemis is charged magnetically to create the plasma arrows you'll be firing."
"Understood, sir. Retrieving weaponry." Rico declared as he reached into each container and withdrew the two weapons, already provided with operation data by Valentine's tablet for all of the weapons. He then proceeded to place both weapons on the deck and crouch down for Sheva to climb out of his cockpit. "Sheva, I shall stockpile Goliath ammunition to maximum storage capacity, please disembark while I complete this task."
"Have fun with that." Sheva commented as she got out and approached Valentine, only for Rico to speak up.
"I do detect sarcasm in that statement."
"Op leader Wong here, recon team, report in." Carla Wong spoke into the team radio from her safehouse with the team technicians. They were controlling the drones and, as Carla suppressed an internal shudder, the P-36 Mobile Landmines, which were designed to resemble very creepy blonde girls. She wasn't fond of them, but Alex gave the order to use them, so she was. They were currently on standby inside the ship's superstructure, defending the jammer.
"Recon team here, all civilians are off site, we are in position for assault assist on the primary target. She's with Valentine, working on a robot aboard the main deck, near the superstructure."
"Grab your gear, we make our move in five minutes." Carla reported, signalling to the drone tech to begin his portion of the assault, using stealth-camouflaged attack drones to surround the two children, ensuring that they couldn't escape. Another technican was jamming any cellular and radio communications they may have with a locally placed device aboard the ship, thanks to the recon team. "Remember, our objective is to kill her. He'll try to protect her, so long as she dies, we succeed at destabilizing the Family."
"Yes, ma'am."
"Sheva, ammunition preparations are complete. Goliath is loaded and ready, with 54 extra rounds for use." Rico thudded over to his pilot, who was sassily perched atop one of the shipping containers with her legs crossed, seated right beside a hovering Valentine, tapping at his tablet for himself. He'd gone aboard the ship briefly to retrieve his bag, including his P90, which was now strapped to his chest, over top of his white sweater.
"Good work, Sheva, you might want to get into Rico... Right now." Valentine lowered his goggles over his eyes as he spoke. "I'm pretty sure we're about to be attacked by the Syndicate."
"I agree, sir. I am detecting electromagnetic interference coming from the command deck, most likely a wide area jamming signal, sir." Rico held his forearm out to Sheva as she smoothly transitioned from jumping to his arm and swinging her legs inside the cockpit, closing the canopy behind her as she linked to Rico and lowered her T-15's mask into place from her forehead. "Multiple Therm-Optic camoflauged targets in the vicinity, I count 25 of them."
"I see them, they're drones." Valentine continued to tap at his tablet, smirking for a moment as he heard the nearly silent engines of the drones... Nearly silent was not truly silent, now was it? "It's a security perimeter, to make sure we don't escape prematurely. Rico, can you scan their signatures, determine what they're carrying for weapons?"
"They're Dragonfly drones, sir. US Military, carrying 100 rounds of 9mm ammunition. Most likely copper rounds to reduce weight compared to Q-Bullets."
"Rico, if they're using copper..." Sheva's eyes widened in realization. The Syndicate was targeting... Her. "Then I'm their target."
"Yes, ma'am." Rico agreed with her conclusion. "Requesting autopilot for combat."
"Alright, you drive." Sheve agreed with this arrangement, to test Rico's abilities against the Syndicate assassination attempt.
"Valentine, sir... I would suggest disarming or destroying the jamming device, it's located in the command deck, near the helm." Rico sent the signal interception to Valentine's tablet, and earned a small nod.
"I can sense it, Rico. You keep them busy, and deal with these damn bugs on my ship." Valentine swung his hoverboard around as he detected over two dozen men moving through the ship's nearest cargo entrance towards them. "And don't forget about the drones while you're at it." He put his tablet onto his hoverboard between his feet, small clamps unfolding to hold it in place as he gripped his P90 and flew towards the nearest door, headed for the command deck.
"Shall I initiate commbat, or let them make the first move?" Rico asked Sheva, who was flexing her fingers on Rico's controls, already tensed to spring into action with manual control.
"WE KNOW YOU'RE INSIDE THE ROBOT, SHEVA. STEP OUT AND MAKE THIS EASY ON YOURSELF." A voice spoke up from outside, clearly using a megahorn as the foot soldiers came into view from several access doors, already using the ship's cover to stay out of sight.
"Wait for them to make a move, Rico." Sheva made her decision, watching as one soldier readied a rocket launcher with a projectile and shouldered it. "Anti-rocket systems online." She ordered to the voice-command system, which activated the defensive systems immediately.
Rico drew the Goliath from the leg holster incorporated to his left leg - Valentine's idea, since Sheva was a lefty and piloted Rico - and menacingly spun the chamber with a loud ratcheting sound before clicking back the large hammer with his thumb.
"Protocol one: Protect my pilot." Rico's voice came through the external speakers. "Engage me at your own risk, Syndicate soldiers."
"FIRE!"
The rocket screamed through the air in an instant, but thanks to the countermeasure system, it exploded halfway to Rico by a blast of supersonic soundwaves as Rico leveled the Goliath at the soldier that fired the rocket.
"My turn."
With a blast very akin to a tank's main gun, the Goliath kicked in Rico's huge metal hand, blasting a huge cloud of red mist where the two men - one reloading the launcher, the other the one that fired at Rico - were crouched beforehand a mere second ago.
"Threats detected, engaging." Rico announced as he turned towards the weapon containers with the rest of his toys and produced the Demonia, which he'd thought ahead to load alongside the Goliath.
With a slew of .50 cal rounds, several more Syndicate soldiers were splattered all over the deck before they could bring their heavy weapons to bear at the hulking robot standing by the shipping containers with the two huge pistols in hand.
"Oooooh, the Demonia looks like fun. Remind me to try it out during the next engagement." Sheva smiled sadistically, clearly inheriting the Darkwood family's notorious sadism.
"Reminder saved." Rico replied internally, still chewing through the 100-round magazine at a respectable pace. "Shall I demonstrate another weapon, ma'am?"
"Give them a taste of the T45!" Sheva giggled, pleased by how pitiful the Syndicate soldiers were against Rico.
"An excellent choice, ma'am." Rico replied, holstering the Goliath and simply dropping the Demonia to the deck at his feet as he hefted the Assault Cannon out of the shipping crate, oblivious to the small arms pinging off his hull and the deflected rockets and grenades from the countermeasure system. The T45 was equal to an assault rifle, so he simple raised the weapon to his shoulder and started firing, tearing another group apart in a single burst of fire. "Detecting drone activity, deploying anti-air weapon system."
While still focusing the T45 on the infantry, two small hatches on his shoulders opened, revealing a pair of missile pods, which launched out a slew of homing missiles at the camouflaged drones, blowing them right out of the air before they could even react. The flurry of exploding drones and flying scrap sent the infantry ducking for more cover, and hunkered down under the hail of 20mm shells from Rico.
"Drones neutralized, none detected in vicinity, continuing scans for reinforcements. Infantry still active, anti-ordnance system at full efficiency, continuing to engage hostile troops." Rico reported to Sheve internally, dropping the T45 as it ran out of ammo, replacing it with the Uppercut C66 and blasting several soldiers off the side of the ship, all screaming in terror as they went. "I like this shotgun." He idly commented to Sheva with the internal speakers. "With a chassis modification, I think Valentine could allow for two primary weapons to be carried simultaneously. I shall discuss the suggestion with him after our current situation is resolved."
"Can you hack their comms signal? Even if it's being jammed, they're still connected to some sort of leader, right?" Sheva asked, checking her own uplink with Valentine, only to find it was still disabled, meaning Valentine was encountering resistance in the ship. "Val's still fighting his way to the jammer."
"Beginning backhack on enemy communications, allocating paramaters." Rico was, by no stretch of the word, easily keeping pace with the multiple dynamics of the battle, from monitoring Sheva, shooting, and scanning for new drones to the backhack and physical movement, plus the ordnance countermeasures - the soldiers were still trying to whittle that part down with rockets - he was an AI, with a state of the art processing core, this was barely 10% of his capacity. Child's play, was the term.
"How long?" Sheva asked, which made Rico provide her with a visual on the HUD. A GPS map showing the location of their comms signal's source. "That's not far from here. Are your Boosters online?"
"Yes, ma'am. All systems are operational. Shall I set a waypoint?"
"Damn right, that's our next target, the fuckers want me dead... Well I'd better knock on their front door... With the Goliath."
"Duly noted, ma'am." Rico seemed amused by the declaration. "However, might I suggest using the Tac-3 grenade launcher for the task? My scans indicate that the building is reinforced with steel armour panels."
"Then we try the T4." Sheva grinned with the same sadistic glint in her eyes. "You could always just kick their door down and let me loose inside."
"Negative, Protocol One dictates I must protect you."
"Who said I was going in alone? Valentine's been pissed about the ship's security breach since a recent mission in London. We're still working on who did it... I think it's one of his inner circle people, the leaders directing the crews with their tasks."
"A likely theory, ma'am." Rico agreed, seeing as the provided details would garner such a theory's authenticity. "Infantry numbers diminishing, shotgun appears to utilize a Magno-Core for power... Excellent." Rico would've been smiling if he could at this point. Near limitless ammunition was a very excellent feature of any weapon. "Shall I begin taking prisoners, or continue elimination?"
"We'll capture their leader, I heard patches of you two talking." Valentine's voice came through the line suddenly. "Bastards from my own building crew were the Syndicate's insiders, had to deal with them properly, y'know? Plus they had P-36's defending the damn jammer. But, the jammer's down, I'm coming to assist, tag me on your HUD, Rico."
"Copy that, sir." Rico followed the order, a blue indicator popping up in the screen to show Valentine's location to Sheva.
The last dozen Syndicate soldiers were sent flying by several blasts from the C66, screaming as they went, only to slow mid-flight and float in mid air, trying to almost swim through the air in attempts to reach safety, only to realize that Valentine was floating by himself in their midst, radiating magnetic energy as he heaved a huge sigh, two fingers pressed to his forehead, just above one eyebrow.
"Now I have to conduct repairs to my ship, all thanks to you jackasses, this delays our scheduling... Good thing we were three weeks ahead of your fleet, fucking pricks. Thanks for dropping in, by the way..." Valentine smirked as he released them all from his magnetic grasp, causing them all to fall nearly 120 feet to their deaths over the side of the already 70 foot high deck of the Nightfall. "Rico, I'll hitch a ride on your hull, I like that shotgun idea too, I'll get a chassis design prepared while we handle yours and the ship's repairs... After we deal with their commander."
"Copy that, sir. All threats neutralized, returning manual control to pilot." Rico declared, lowering his new favourite toy, the Uppercut C66 shotgun. "Anti-ordnance system disabled, returning to Recon mode."
A/N: Rico was designed and envisioned long before Titanfall 2 was released, but... BT and Jack's relationship held some sway in more recent revisions to Rico's personality and some commentary. Basically, Rico is equivalent to an Atlas class Titan, like BT, but he's got a lot more upgrades and fun stuff like modular kits. He's also about twice the height of a Titan, and his cockpit (inside the torso) is very differently designed. Sheva stands up inside, and moves Rico quite similar to a Jaeger from Pacific Rim, using hand and leg controls that lock to her Exosuit. Unlike the Titanfall style of a seated Pilot. Rico can also override Sheva's manual control whenever necessary, unlike a Titan (to my knowledge, at least)
Also, Rico is named from his prior comment about being set to Recon mode, and Sheva just put that connection together on the spot. Since his induction into the story, the name Rico was just a temporary placeholder name that just grew on me. Don't know why.