"Attention to all Haven personnel! We have received word of heavy winds from the north. Mechanics and auxiliaries, please retreat behind the fortress' walls! Combatants, put on your pilot suits and prepare to sortie!"Uh oh. Avery fumbled with the slippery faucet, managing to shut it off with a few messy attempts.
Well, uh, I guess I didn't need to take a full shower anyway, she thought, a tad sour that she wasn't able to soak for a little longer. She hastily dried herself and tossed her clothes on, throwing a passing wave to the other three huddled in the bathroom. "I'll see ya guys on the field!"
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Throwing open the latch with less trouble than she had with the shower faucet, the amateur pilot climbed carefully into the cockpit and shut the heavy lid over her head with both hands. The thing was really heavy so she had to heave a lot of weight into it, but at least the handle grip was pretty tight and comfortable to use. Even for a walker, the control layout and display panels were all rather simplistic - it wasn't very difficult to operate mobile artillery compared to something like a humanoid or variable mech. That wasn't to say that it didn't require skill to pilot, however.
There were two screens in front of her - one simply showed what was directly in front of her vehicle, though the camera could be switched to any other cardinal direction. The second screen was a camera mounted on the main cannon itself, allowing both her and the ballistics computer to see where she was aiming and to judge the distance. The main screen was bordered by a digital compass that displayed the view radius in meter increments, and displayed both the vehicle's coordinates and the target location's coordinates. In artillery mode, the Stinger is not designed to be able to move and fire at the same time - not that anyone would really want or need to, and especially not with a single pilot.
Instead, the steering handle could be depressed from its standard elevated position, switching control from the walker's rotation to the cannon's rotation. In tank mode, the cannon is controlled with additional triggers built into the handle that control its left-right and up-down rotations (normally these controls are sheathed in a thin casing when not in use). It was more imprecise, but it was much faster to operate. Additionally, the cannon's camera would be aligned with a mobile reticle on the main screen should the two overlap, in addition to its own fixed reticle. Off to the side was an information panel that displayed everything from remaining drone and ammunition count, time elapsed since activation, outdoor conditions, the fuel gauge, damage reports, and wind strength and direction.
Other controls include a shifting pedal below that directs the vehicle in any direction depending on which way you slide it, an emergency pilot eject button, a comm system, a lever that allows the pilot to alternate between different types of ammunition, a switch to deploy drones and a small controller to guide it (the controller can toggle a secondary camera to observe the field from the drone's view), and of course the main cannon switch in the front, allowing the walker’s cannon to change from artillery mode to tank mode and vice versa.
Firing the cannon itself can be done in multiple ways: One could issue a verbal command to fire, which voice recognition will pick up, as well as several other commands. The second method involves holding down the dual triggers on top of the handle, which initiates a lock-on to either the target or a set of coordinates, allowing the cannon to hold aim even if the walker moves or becomes displaced. Releasing both triggers at the same time fires the round, while releasing the triggers separately cancels the launch order. Much of the weapon trajectory is computerized, of course, but if the computer handles the precision of the shot, then the pilot handles the aiming itself.
Once the engine came to life, she took a moment for the systems to boot up before guiding the Stinger outside of the hangar and into the open, unforgiving desert. She checked the display window, finding that there were practically no winds to speak of at the moment.
Hm, I'm not picking up anything right now. But if it's true, I sure hope it doesn't turn into a sandstorm. . .Avery deployed one of the Scanner drones, laying off the steering handle and grabbing the remote controller. In working condition, thankfully. For now, she let it idle, suspended in the air - against heavy winds, she was likely going to have a hard time flying it around. It was pretty tough, but didn't have a lot of mass so it was likely going to be thrown around quite a bit - she may have to rely on communication with the other pilots to make accurate shots.
Being a newer recruit, she was still nervous, even moreso with the forecasted weather conditions. With a deep breath, she closed her eyes and steeled herself for the coming encounter.
Alright. . . let's make this work!
