Tin Man, Part 3 Of 4
13 Sep 2020JB Threepwood
The last time I was in Chubby's workshop I tried to fix the door. It still rattled it's way along the runners as I approached but at least it was automatic now.Before I could turn the lights on I could see the two green eyes of the robot as it sat in the dark. I thumped the lights on and saw it sat where I left it... in a chair, supported by a chains with its chest panel open. I'd left it in this state as I needed to charge the main unit back up. The robot that I'd attached the metal skull to was an old security 'bot but it had been left in a room full of junk for years... at least the head should've been recently removed from it's previous body as the shifty bastard I bought it off would've wanted it off his hands sharpish.
I'd collected a few odds-and-sods from old, disused ships and put them, with a box of parts, on the worktop next to the robot. I pulled a chair up in front of the robot and bent the hanging light to face it's chest.
I dusted the internal couplings of the robot's motherboard so I could insert some of the internal modules I'd brought. I had a COVAS from a scarab along with an Advanced Docking Computer, a Supercruise Assist and some other combat suites from various ships.
If I could get this robot to be a proper copilot, it would be more than I had hoped for from when I'd originally bought the metal skull. I hoped the bootleg combat suites worked too, you never knew when you'd need to take things to the mattresses.
I'd had my fair share of dogfights myself. After being shot up and left for dead by my old gang I took a little while to convalesce. The poor bastard whose health insurance I had scammed could afford cybernetic replacements for my lung and kidney, but my arm and eye were pretty basic robotic replacements. I'd need more money to upgrade them... so I fled to the other side of the bubble, eventually kitted out an eagle and took up bounty hunting.
I'd hoped that I could offset some of the shit that I'd caused back in my pirating days. It was just a dumb, idealistic thought at the time... but back then, still in my early 20's, I had a romantic outlook on how my life could work out.
A small faction recruited me and I, along with the rest of their hired hunters, started cleaning up the 12 systems that they controlled. I'd paired up with another hunter, Caleb, together we'd hit extraction sites to cover the faction's miners and mop up the incoming pirates.
Hitting pirates with Caleb felt like I was doing something right. Self righteously watching pirate ships shut down and then pop.
But, as always, it wasn't long till I was let down by those around me. The faction had sold themselves to me as a democratic, liberating organisation but more and more I'd see them pushing wetwork on the bounty hunters. Turning up to an extraction site to find Caleb massacring an unarmed convoy was the last straw so I ditched my faction badges and left their space.
The COVAS was the last unit I fitted into the robot. I closed it's chest and turned off the diagnostic machine. The robot would take a little while to reboot with it's new programs. I left it in it's chair and picked up my jacket. I'd come back tomorrow and see how it was getting on.