[h3][right]Melech - The Trudger, Flying over Beck's Skiff, Jundland Wastes[/right][/h3]
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Yelling more profanity as he went up the steps-at this point, he'd almost made a game out of trying to see how many he could remember without accessing cyber memory-Melech headed back to his command deck. When he got there, things looked less than ideal. Beeps, in a glorious display of why it's a very bad idea to model an AI on your own personality, had made things 'ready' for Melech by finding a crate he could use to prop up his injured leg. This was, of course, in complete disregard to the fact Melech did not keep a chair on this level of the ship, in addition to not getting the scanners ready for Melech to reconnect.

While Melech's systems did enable him-a primarily organic being-to directly interact with the ship's controls as though he were a droid, with comparable efficiency, it took time to get them running. When he wasn't plugged into them, though, the drain on the ship's processing power to keep it active was high enough that he programmed them to end the program when he disconnected. Beep's could have restarted those programs, like he knew he was supposed to, and Melech would have been able to resume interfacing with his ship almost immediately. Instead, he'd now have to spend the better part of five minutes doing it himself, all so his robot could trill the closest thing it had to a laugh at him for getting shot in the only limb that could bleed.

Luckily for the skiff, he didn't need his long range scanners to tell him which side of his ship had taken fire from the heavy artillery. Sacrificing pure efficiency, he was able to delay the processes that would connect him to the scanners and a few of the ship's other systems all so he could bring shield controls online faster. Control of the ship's navigation already had similar protocols in place, specifically in case he needed to quickly take direct control of piloting his ship. Once the shield controls were up, he was able to adjust and redirect power to the forward shields to brace them for the impact of the heavier fire.

Once the shields were ready, he'd drop down in front of the skiff, putting the Trudger directly between the enemy's big gun and it's main target. The Trudger was by no means a small ship, so it would provide ample cover to the skiff. However, without his more complex systems online-Beeps rolling on the floor, trilling loudly, after Melech stubbed his toe on the crate while trying to kick it aside-there were no fancy tricks he'd be able to pull off to counter clever aim. The enemy might not be able to get a hit off on the engine, and anyone smart enough would be able to figure out a safe place to hide on the skiff, but there was more than ample opportunity to deal lasting damage with a well-placed round. At the very least, though, Melech's strategy meant the enemy would need time to aim, and would be hard pressed to get off two or three shots where before they could have gotten off nearly a dozen.