X-Wing settles onto the campus landing zone, grey-and-black armor towering over the familiar grounds. Its orange tech lines dim as distant academy security beacons converge through the morning haze.
The chest cockpit opens, and an internal elevator carries Daven downward through X-Wing's leg. Hydraulic systems hum around him until the platform reaches the ground and releases him beside the landing zone.
Yunito waits near the boundary lights, small and athletic beneath her dark jacket, teal streak sharp against her short hair. Gerald stands beside her, broad shoulders tense, one hand raised in relief.
Yunito Harisha
You made it back. Good. Those beacons are closing in, so we have minutes, not an afternoon.
Gerald Heaves
I kept the wafer partitioned and off academy channels. Tell us what you learned before their systems identify that frame.
Behind them, X-Wing remains motionless, its orange lines reduced to a low standby glow. A campus receiver chirps once, then begins searching for an unknown mech signature.
Yunito Harisha
Daven, start with the pilot assignment. What did Garden Corp hide in that lab?
✓ Quest Accepted
Keep X-Wing and the investigation hidden from academy channels
“This mech, dont know what it's made of but it connected with me when I touched it”
SUCCESS (Great Reasoning, rolled +1)
Daven
I do not know what X-Wing is made of, but it connected with me when I touched it.
Yunito studies Daven's face, then looks past him to X-Wing's towering frame. The mech's orange lines brighten in a slow pulse, answering his statement without a transmitted word.
Yunito Harisha
Connected how? Neural interface, cell resonance, or something Garden Corp never documented?
Gerald Heaves
The frame reshaped around your body before you ever entered a cockpit. That is not a normal pilot compatibility trial.
The campus receiver chirps again. X-Wing lowers one armored hand beside Daven, its orange circuitry forming the same recognition pattern that answered his touch in the lab.
Yunito Harisha
Then it chose you before Garden Corp could assign anyone. We need to move, but we are taking the truth with us.
Gerald Heaves
And we keep this unofficial. If the academy sees that connection, they will take X-Wing before we learn what it can do.