Cohost writing prompt: @Making-up-Mech-Pilots — Mech Pilot who is upset with how many things that they have to put away
"Hey, Total. Quartermaster says they shipped your latest replacement mech in through the freightgate this afternoon. What is that, number five?"
"Jeez, is that what that was? Darn gate was running for hours, they having bandwidth problems or what?"
"Or what, I think." Total's squadmate smirks like there's some joke Total's missing out on. "Quartermaster says they need you to run over there, do the on-site assembly, and clear it off the beam-in pads ready for the morning."
"Sure thing," Total says, and heads over to Receiving, only to be greeted, not by a frame and power module and cockpit assembly ready to be powerloadered together, but by a huge wall of cardboard boxes. "What the hell?"
"Looks like somebody," the Quartermaster says, grinning with a distinct lack of good humour, "wants to hammer home the idea that five replacement mechs per year represents significant assembly labour. And maybe encourage you to think about not wrecking so many."
"What the hell," Total repeats, dumbfounded. "That's—"
"About six and a half thousand boxes of component subassemblies." The Quartermaster claps Total on the shoulder. "Get my pads cleared, pilot."