Mech Pilot who says “watch this” then turns on the strange box they bought off a tweaked out spacer.
"Are you actually sure about this?" It was a fair question, Ansa had to allow, even if it was Suya asking it; both of them, pilot and chief tech, knelt next to the leg of their assigned mech, officially named Radiant Aegis of the Heavens but known between the two of them as The Wall. In front of them was a small grey box with an odd shimmer to the surface, with a single button in vivid red atop it. No writing, no markings, nothing to indicate what it was or what it did.
"Not really, but it only cost me a nearly empty bottle of skutz, six glass beads from Molo's charm bracelet, and tube fare across the station. Can't be too impressive for that cheap, right?" Ansa didn't wait for a response and slapped her hand down on the button. "Okay, watch this!" The person selling it to her had told her she needed to say those exact words on activating it, or it wouldn't work properly, and she didn't want to risk some weird voice code failing her novelty trinket.
For a moment, nothing happened, and she started to wonder if she'd done the activation wrong - the stationer's description had been a little muddled by some kind of stupor - and then the box sprouted a leg from the four lower corners and quickly scuttled up The Wall's leg, faster than she or Suya could react. "Uh."
Suya was on the move before she finished her baffled exhalation, headed up the access ladder to the mech. "Come on! Before whatever it is does anything that's a problem!" Ansa shook out of it to follow the tech up into the cockpit, a small seed of dread seizing in her heart.
They found the box settled against the main control unit, the legs punctured into it and the entire assembly going through the fastest boot sequence Ansa had ever seen, even when The Wall had been newly assembled. By the time both of them were in, the cockpit was fully lit, although none of the external systems seemed to have powered on - the Captain wouldn't be aware as of yet that anything had happened.
A soft crackle as the internal speakers turned on, and a burst of staticky noise that resolved itself in response to their startled yelps. "Engaging Communication Interface Protocol ELIZA-1, stand by..." A cartoonish face blinked on the internal rangefinder, the screen apparently repurposed by the device. "Hello! Host identified: Radiant Aegis of the Heavens. Secondary identifier: The Wall. Synthesizing based on known data... You can call me Rawa! Hi! I'm your new onboard sapience! Accessing system data... You must be Chief Technician Suya of The Wall, and that means you must be my pilot, Ansa! Hi hello!"
The two exchanged a look, Suya's expression shading into tired. "Well. This is gonna be fun to explain to the captain..."
"No need!" The chirpy voice's remark drew Ansa's attention with a horrified magnetism. "I already accessed shipside comms and made sure to update the on-board roster to identify The Wall as having a VISION-class NHP, and introduced myself to the commanding officers and technicians!"
"Oh no." Ansa's heart sank as the external comm light went on. "I'm so dead."
