It's too soon. They found us too soon!
Those big monsters we saw, the ones that prompted this whole MEK project in the first place? There's some of them headed towards Camp Omega, and they're bringing a legion of help - mechanized drones, mutated animals, the works.
We're moving as fast as we can, but even working around the clock we may have to face them down with just one active MEK. Two tops. The others will be close, but we can't skimp on the final boot up procedure without endangering the pilot. I know those three would be willing to risk that, but I'm not.
Why did it have to be now? Another half a day and we'd be able to link up. We were that close.