The Fixed (pilot)
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The Fixed is an AI pilot (appearing as playable in the MechCommander: Lostech mod).
History[edit]
While Capellan scientists were still trying to "fix" the recovered "Broken" AI from Necromus, the rich scientist Alistair Gowan-Centrella abandoned the project calling the people in it "fools" and claiming that "making an all new better AI is easier than fixing that mess".
He was believed to have secluded himself in his lab, while paying mercenaries to run errands for him, some of them explicitely suspicious. Nobody was allowed to look at him or his work, and they were to leave all demanded materials and information in an intermediate decontamination chamber from where they would be retrieved later.
Years passed and many believed Alistair to have become insane or dead. When the lab doors finally were opened -from the inside- and people invited in, according to some, both speculations would have proven true. Using Star League tech beyond normal understanding and genes decodified from the alien Tetatae species, Gowan had infused himself into a quantum computer capable of piloting a BattleMech as though it was his own body.
Capabilities[edit]
The computer did not recognize itself as human anymore, and demanded to be called "THE FIXED", believed to be a jab at the doomed "Broken" project. Treating wil disdain the entire mankind, the new "AI" (if it can be called that) claimed to be able to "see" and manipulate the future by looking at millions of possible outcomes of every action, thanks to quantum uncertainty.
Unfortunately for the new "Fixed" entity, its synapses were just as fragile as the futures it was able to predict. The system was unstable and its information was destroyed upon reading it, not giving any chance to reproduce the mechanisms inside.
Fortune[edit]
"The Fixed" ended up as a MechWarrior, seeking the thrill he no longer had at living in calculating probabilities in battle instead. Its memory fickle to the point long term research is now impossible, the short term of combat is perfect for its abilities.
Ironically enough, he ended up serving in a number of battles alongside his one-hated "refurbished" completely classically cybernetic "Broken" AI. It is believed certain commanders, aware of the "relationship", did it on purpose. Others, after witnessing this, simply thought it was "Natural" to pair Artificial Intelligences together.
Ingame[edit]
The Fixed is quite possibly the strongest MechWarrior in the game. It has 99 in every non-personality stat, way more than the normal maximum of 80 that can be gotten by human pilots and is equivalent to a "full bar" graphically. As such, the skill bars in The Fixed exceed their allotted space.
However, there is a catch: The Fixed can be recruited only at 1 health, six times less than the six starting health points of a normal pilot. As such, it has a great probability of dying in combat - even probably before its 'mech has given it all. Any injury to The Fixed will be fatal, as its quantum systems decouple and its fragile consciousness experiences a cascading failure.
Trivia[edit]
- The Fixed has a "glitched" text description with yellow vertical bars, designed to evoke a sense of mystery and elicit suspicion from the player.
- As of version 0.82, he remains the only pilot with a "flashing" animated picture (his would-be pupil and iris) which does not call airstrikes. This intends to portray his over-the-limits special ability instead.
- His eye is similar to the one from The Broken, however it is set vertially rather than horizontally and the colors and flashing effect are different.
- If used on a campaign, mission by mission its health would be able to "regenerate" to normal levels.
- Though it would take several missions, the pilot is only available by default on Capellan-tech solo missions to prevent the potential imbalance.
- Its name is an offhand reference to a "Fixed" competition or match, meaning a contest where the winner is predetermined or expected due to underhanded interference.
- This is in turn a reference to the unnaturally high stats the pilot boasts, which no other pilot can attain via normal means, no matter how much they combat.
- Its stats can also no longer rise any more, nor do they decrease (due to not being a mechanic for the latter), thus why they remain constant unlike the ones of other pilots. In other words, they are "Fixed" (numbers).
- The name is also a reference to The Broken, a rogue Capellan Confederation battle AI.
