Colossi, the man had said, though he tried to backpedal. A vocal quirk that he shared with Leon’s father and grandfather. A Hyloan quirk, mixed in with that country bumpkin crap. Was the “Deputy” Hyloan? If he was, he didn't want anyone to know, and for all Leon knew, he was the only one with Hylo blood in him to notice that slip.
But then, it didn't matter much; let the man have his pretense, as long as his money was good.
Everyone was embarking in their mecha, their colossi, in preparation for the combat drill. Was it training, or was it a test? Apparently there were three of their number who needed neither. Leon only knew two of their number by sight(the only women, oddly enough) and he only liked one of those. There were a lot of military looking fellows here, and that made him a little uncomfortable. There was no military in the Fortune Region, and Leon didn't know what to think of these foreigners.
The Sioma was parked in a crouched position, awaiting its pilot. As he approached, Leon extracted a slim device from a hidden compartment on the hardened holster that his pistol was kept in. With a click of the device, the cockpit unfolded and Leon climbed up into it. He noticed that some of the others had fancier methods of getting in, but the Sioma was one of the smaller mecha in the room.
As the front closed around him again, Leon inserted the key device into a slot just above his monitors. The key unfolded with a click, revealing a camera. The camera recognized Leon’s face, and the key allowed the mech to come to life.
Leon opened up comm channels as Sioma stood up, and spoke, looking into the camera so they could see his face if they chose to use visual links.
“Good to be flying. The name’s Leon, for those what don't know me. Looks like only two of us are equipped for down and dirty fighting. I think we all know which ones.”
"No fire to check, Ma'am," Cecil appeared at ease on the flight over, but his mind was racing on the inside. Waller was so paranoid that she had basically crippled him for this mission. She apparently had some fantastical idea bout his capabilities, but without any information he was about as useful as a garage mechanic. Maybe that was an exaggeration, but he was annoyed nonetheless. He eyed Dazzle while they were in the confines of the vehicle, but dismissed the idea of trying to hack her almost immediately. It was just like the nanites, he would simply need too much uninterrupted study and tinkering to do anything about it.
He walked behind everyone else on their way through the facility, and when an aggressive android accosted them, he backed up the stairwell a few steps.
“Everybody take cover!” Daz shouted.
Cecil replied, "Oh, way ahead of you!"
Okay, laser cannon. It was a robot, military hardened electronics, he was sure.
Could he disable it?
What was available to him: in the stairwell? Nothing. In the rest of the facility? He had no way of knowing, thanks to Waller. He would have to assume the basics. What was he likely to find?
In order of likelihood
Breakroom... refrigerator microwave plumbing toaster/toaster oven oven stove top, gas or electric
Labs or offices... computers furniture(wood, metal? Glass?) calculator First aid kit
Bathroom... more plumbing mirrors automatic toilets, or pull handles?
Plus whatever else he could find.
Could he disable it?
75% likelihood. Good chance.
Did he need to? Dazzle's efforts made it seem like standard weapons wouldn't work terribly well. Not knowing what everyone else could do, Cecil had to assume he'd have to act.
"Hey," he yelled down the stairwell, "I might have a plan, but I need some stuff. If I run off to get it, can you not blow me up?"
Age: 32 Origin: Second Generation citizen of the Fortune Region. Height: 5'10 Weight: 165 Backstory: Antonio Falco was Hyloan by blood, but lived in a swamp town in the Fortune Region. He worked as a technician, making repairs on the orbital solar farm that was in geosynchronous orbit over the continent. Being a spacer, Antonio was gone for huge lengths of time, and his son, Leonardo, grew up largely without his influence. It was dangerous work, thankless, and not terribly well paid. Leonardo was always told that his father was gone so that his community could have electricity. But if that were true, then why was power so expensive, so heavily rationed, in their town? It seemed paradoxical, that one of the men who worked so hard to maintain the power system, was woefully unable to actually pay for the service that he ensured.
Spending long stretches of time outside of Orio's atmosphere, Antonio was exposed to an unusual amount of radiation during the course of his job. He developed an aggressive form of cancer in his brain. The tumor might have had something to do with the last few decisions of his life, or maybe facing death awakened a recklessness he never acted on in life. Antonio risked the ire of Sol Industries, and indeed the nation of Hylo, to steal the mech that he flew for his work.
His intention was for his son, then a young adult, to sell it on the black market, later, when the heat had died down. But Leon had a broader view. He saw the mech not as a one time payoff, but as a means to many payoffs throughout his life. A mech is worth money, true, and a buyer can always be found. But a pilot is worth money too, and employers are equally easy to acquire. Leon had his father teach him to fly it before he died, and Leon went through the shadiest channels he could to find work. An employer saw value in the mech's ability to hover and fly, and helped Leon to equip it to poach solar energy being beamed down from the farms in orbit.
Sol Incorporated, a Hylo based company, owns one of the only solar farms over the entire Fortune Region. They therefore have a monopoly on the most efficient source of electricity in many of the Region's city-states. The station keeps track of how much power is beamed down from the space station, and the ground collecting station measures how much arrives. There is an acceptable margin of loss that SI will take accountability for, and this is where Leon works. He flies, high enough that he's difficult to see from the ground, and hovers in the microwave beam, skimming power until his reserve battery is full. He has to be careful to do this slowly enough that SI doesn't notice an increase in the loss margin. When his battery is full, he'll take his mech to some out of the way village or town and plug it into the power grid, selling the power at a markdown.
His mech is equipped with black market weapons at this point, and he has been known to take on more violent work in lean times. He is well known in underground circles as being trustworthy, if a bit stingy.
Tactical Preference & Skills: Prefers to keep a distance and use trickery and agility to keep one step ahead of opponents. Quote: "Robin Hood, Smuggler, Thief. Call me what you like, so long as you pay me."
Name/Title: Sol Industries Orbital Mechanic Apparatus. "Sioma." Appearance : Body & Type: Humanoid Bipedal Equipment & Armaments :
Hand Slot 1: Tools. It is still equipped with the tools of its intended trade, a series of tools folded into the mech's arms. They can be used to make repairs on machines, or even other mechs.
Hand Slot 2: Plasma cutter. The "blade" has a range of only inches, but it is on a longer shaft, allowing it to be used at a longer range than the tools in the other hand.
Sub Weapon Slot: A Sub Machine gun. It's actually an infantry-sized light machine gun, but on a mech it's a pretty small weapon. It is modified to be held easily by the Sioma's claw-like hands, and comes out of a compartment on the side when needed.
Shoulder/Back Spot: A pair of automatically loading 150 mm smoothbore guns, loaded with laser homing anti tank rounds. The guns in question do not have any independent movement or aiming, and simply fires whatever direction the Sioma is facing. It relies on the homing for fine tuning of its aim. This failing is a direct result the makeshift nature of the weapons. They have a total payload of 45 rounds.
Gadget Slot: Microwave receiver. A sophisticated mod allows the Sioma to commandeer the energy beamed down from orbital solar farms, to charge either it's own primary battery, or its rather large reserve battery.
Sensor Suite. It is similar to military grade, but instead of being a single cohesive unit built for combat, it's jury rigged from whatever parts Leon and whatever mechanics he employed could find. Typically, he uses it to find microwave beams to siphon power, but he also needs it to watch the ground while he's at work, in case hostile mecha are closing in on him.
Stats Scale
Light/Heavy Body: 3
Accuracy & Tracking/FIrepower: 1
Air Mobility/Thrusters: 3
Solo/Skirmisher: 4
Flavour Text: Not at all originally built for combat, the Sioma was actually meant for space borne mechanics to work on large orbital installations, like the solar farms or various satellites. It features an impulse thruster for flight, meant for use in space, but adequate to get it off the ground and to rather high altitudes given time.