Apologies, for stealing, but ... read too many Bolo stories.
"You look down." His mechtech Reighly walked up to him.
"I can't help but feel I lost something special. That Fafnir had me dead to rights, so much so I should not be here talking to you. Yet my mech seemed as determined as I was to not go down easy. I couldn't save it but it gave me enough of an edge I survived." Earnst sighed.
"I know. It's an old technician's urban legend that a mech once it gets old enough and sees enough pilots that it becomes something more than a war machine. I doubt we'll see many more like it with all this war and new production." Reighly hung off Earnst's shoulder.
In the background, hidden under tangled armourflex, a telltale glowed dimly. You could easily miss it. After all, they all did.
I lived. I die. I wonder what comes next?
The glow faded from the telltale.