"Aww, man! That's the third time this thing's crashed on me!" Lieutenant Dwayne Hunter said as he kicked the remains of the BGY-10.

"Attention, everyone," General Thorton said as he entered the room. " I have assigned a new member to your Pit Crew, Lieutenant Hunter."

A young woman walked into the hangar.

"This is Jo," General Thorton introduced her to the crew.

"Pleased to meet you, Jo," Dwayne said as they shook hands.

"Ha! a girl! No offense, General, but we don't need any help!" Mack exclaimed.

"It looks like you do!" Jo replied, looking at the rubble of the BGY-10.

Dwayne smiled faintly.

"Lieutenant! You might want to find a way to make the Big Guy stop crashing SOON or you might be in the hospital for a LONG time," General Thorton said as he left the room.

"Maybe we should try the AI again." Garth said.

"It's not going to work. Dr. Poindexter's plans are not working for some reason. We're going to have to stay with the Human Factor," Dwayne replied with a heavy sigh.

"May I suggest a new power core?" Jo asked.

"No, you may..." Mack started to say until Dwayne cut him off.

"What kind of power core?"

"Cobalt-thorium G." Jo replied.

"That stuff is extremely unstable! It'll kill Dwayne if it cracks and explodes!" Mack exclaimed.

"That's why I was thinking of a new design for the Big Guy," Jo said as she took out a blueprint from her bag. She spread it on the table.

"Hmm. Not too bad," Mack commented. "For a girl," he whispered to Garth who chuckled slightly.

"Hey, I heard that!" Jo growled.

"The BGY-11. By these designs, seems like this Big Guy is more agile and powerful with a cobalt-thorium G core," Dwayne said.

"And it will help keep the power core stable so it doesn't explode," Jo added looking at Mack.

"Let's give it a try," Garth agreed.

The Pit Crew started to put together the BGY-11.

Dwayne woke up early to finish some system repairs to the Big Guy and give the rest of his crew some more sleep. They had all been working hard for the past 2 weeks. He opened up the cockpit and started to run some tests on the systems. "I hope I don't get killed this time if it crashes," Dwayne thought to himself. He sighed, thinking of the last 3 Big Guys that had crashed during testing. The BGY-10 almost killed him. The AI in the giant robots just didn't work. The crew and scientists had no other choice than to make those robots an exosuit.

"Lieutenant Hunter?!" a voice called from the floor of the hangar. Dwayne was startled and hit his head on a lever inside. He groaned and looked out to see Jo.

"What are you doing?" she asked as Dwayne climbed down from the BGY-11.

"Just running some tests before the first practice run," he replied wipping his greasy hands on a rag.

"Good luck. I'm going out to get some coffee. You want anything?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'll take some of that coffee," Dwayne replied. He shuddered at the coffee they had on the Dark Horse.

"Since you're out, I'll take two jelly-filled donuts," Garth's voice rang from his quarters.

"And I'll take some of those glazed Krispy Kremes." Mack added.

Jo sighed.

"I'll come with you. You'll have a lot of things to carry," Dwayne said, grabbing his jacket and followed Jo out. He could hear Garth and Mack snickering as he left. About 30 minutes later

"What took you guys so long?" Garth asked, chuckling.

Mack smiled as he opened his mouth to say something, but Dwayne shoved a glazed donut in his mouth. "Hey! You didn't get Krispy Kreme!" Mack mumbled through the donut.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Dwayne said.

Garth sipped his coffee trying not to laugh at Mack.

As the crew finished their breakfast, General Thorton came in. "Meeting in ten minutes," he said and quickly left.

As the crew took their seats around the large, round table, the General began to talk.

"When will the BGY-11 be completed?" he asked Dwayne.

"We'll be finished by this afternoon, sir," Dwayne replied.

"Good. The flight test will be at 1700."

"Yes, sir!" Jo, Mack, Garth and Dwayne said at once.

As the meeting dragged on, the Dark Horse began to sway but no one noticed it.