https://archiveofourown.org/works/66585553/chapters/172123963
5 -- Maintenance, Care and Operation of Farm Machinery: A Practical Guide
Calibarn and Aerial were gone. It was possible their like would never be seen again. But Suletta didn’t need a gundam for her purposes. Not these days. Demi parts were easy to come by these days, and they mixed and matched across models readily. Suletta spent so much time in a Demi Trainer in her school days that maintaining one was second nature. She had been offered a more advanced Burion mobile suit—the benefit of having friends in high places still—but she graciously turned it down. Simplicity, durability and ease of maintenance was more important out here than the bleeding edge of technology. She had made her own modifications, mostly for the sake of improving visibility. The cockpit hatch, for instance, had been done away entirely, giving her an unimpeded view of the world outside, save for a roll cage put there for safety. There were no plans to take this thing up into space, after all. A Haro fluttered by, hovering on its little rockets. It gave her a report on the field that surrounded the house. Temperature, moisture, ph balance. “Conditions ideal,” it concluded. Just what Suletta wanted to here. “Right. Time to get to work!” She made her way slowly up a gently winding catwalk and into the open cockpit, settling into it heavily. There, she winced, then reached behind herself. Her fingers buzzed with the pain of nerve damage, but through the leaden sensation she found something that didn’t belong. She held up her shaky hand to find that she had sat on a colorful plastic object. A little beet mascot, shaped like a heart and wearing sunglasses. Printed across its front were words that said: “You make my heart skip a beet!” Suletta smiled. “Huh! So that’s where that was.” She dusted it off and put it on the left console of the Demi, where it joined, among other plastic figures: a little mascot carrot, a watermelon with googly eyes, a cornstalk that had a ukulele, five different cartoon tomatoes and a cup of ramen with noodle arms. Suletta tapped a tomato on the head and smiled. Then she started the Demi. It hummed to life, the fine-tuned sound of its reactor belying the rather grimy exterior.
