T A H L I A S T Y L E S
Hangers - New Anchorage
The day started off with the usual morning breakfast call before several hours of hard training under the guidance of Rebecca Marek. Tahlia hadn't done any real training for the longest of time and while she was able to complete the various tasks and requirements set by the Operations Commander, it hadn't been an easy road. For the first couple of days Tahlia had to take her full hour lunch break in order to let her body relax from the torture she was putting it through, watching during that time the various other people that entered and exited the mess hall. She had come to recognise who each person was and even the small friendships that seemed to blossom during that time. One person that she recognised quite easily was Eli.
Eli's NC was parked opposite Hanger #8 and next to Hanger #4, meaning that every time Tahlia went to the Mad-e to get some practice in syncing up with a Bipedal machine, she would often pass by the pale girl as she went about with her duties. The occasional hello, nod and general conversation was made, but it wasn't what one would call a blossoming friendship. Tahlia just didn't like talking about her personal life and her past, and from the looks of some of the others, they didn't seem to really question it... except her two engineers.
Thomas and Philip had learnt by now exactly when to stop asking their pilot questions. They would go on their usual off topic conversations before one would stop and redirect it elsewhere because they knew that they were encroaching on Tahlia's personal space.
"So we're trying this again?" Thomas asked as he loaded up the boot protocol for the Mad-e.
[
"Yes,"] a voice replied from within the Mad-e, [
"I need to show I can sync up with either the VR or another NC other than my own, and 39% isn't a pass."]
39% was far beyond a pass and Tahlia knew it as she sat inside the alien NC trying to get a grasps on the simplicity of how a bipedal NC should operate. It should have been easy for any pilot and in the past Tahlia DID operate a normal NC.
"Tahlia. This just doesn't make any sense. You were just sitting in your NC twenty minutes ago and scored a ninety plus percentage, then you come over here and get a thirty-nine. Are you holding back or anything? Is there something about the Spyder that makes it any different to th— Oof..." Philip felt an elbow from Thomas jab into his side gently as a precautionary. Philip turned to his partner, fuming at his actions,
"Hey! It is a serious question!"Tahlia opened up the cockpit as she climbed out onto the scaffolding and made her way down to the ground below, cigarette already in her mouth when she came up next to the two engineers. They stood there cautiously in silence as she leaned over Thomas to have a look at the laptop that he was gathering the details from. With a gentle tap on his shoulder, she motioned for him to move aside in order for her to sit down in his place. The two were surprised that for once she hadn't told them off, but instead was taking the reigns in seeing what the problem was.
"So these are?" Tahlia spoke, pointing to the various statistics that were indicated on the screen.
"The top one is the sync statistics from the Spyder, bottom two are the details from both the Mad-e and the VR simulation results. Those two lines are showing your elevated heart rate, similar to someone who under extreme distress. They almost match Madison's signs when she had that heavy hit from the Volkov force," Thomas explained, tapping the keyboard to show the various comparisons between the Mad-e's history and Tahlia's attempts,
"Without prying too much, is there something we should know because at this rate you're not getting anywhere fast, and if we can't get the Spyder up'n'running you are not entering the battlefield in another NC. You won't be any use to the others at this rate."Tahlia sat in the chair plucking at the bands around her wrist, listening to the gentle rattle in the sea of pneumatic and mechanical tools that were buzzing around the hanger air. She gave a few heavy breaths before laying her non cigarette holding hand on top of the keyboard.
"You're right. I am holding back," she began to type a name, somewhat half looking at the monitor and over at the Spyder in the nearby hanger.
>O-A-K-L-E-Y J-A-M-E-S S-T-Y-L-E-S"Oakley James Styles? Who's that?" Philip asked as he leaned over to take a look at the name.
"If you repeat his name again and I'll punch your headlights out... But that was my son's name."
M A D I S O N C O L E
Medical Facility - New Anchorage
"We're loosing too much blood! You there! Keep pressure on the wound!"
"It's no use! The injury is too much, the infection has already started spreading."
"Even if we stop it, there's no telling whether she will have any long term repercussions."
"Madison dear, I am so sorry for this... Prepare room three for an emergency amputation!"
Madison's eyes opened up to a stark white glow of a sun like object. The glare was enough to blind her and force her eyes to seal back shut, but as the moments passed she gained the confidence to reopen them and face the light once more. A bright light, surrounded by the white of the skies and almost heavenly in it's appearance until she started to notice the gentle flicker of electricity surging through the filament. Everything looked rather unusual, everything felt out of place and her vision felt restricted as though she was only peering out of one eye.
With a gentle twist and turn of her body she attempted to lift her hands to block the light from beaming down on her face, but the weight of limbs were fighting against her. The left arm felt weak, but responded well to her movement, the right arm however felt empty and void. She lifted her left hand and slapped it across her face, feeling a heavy wrap of bandages like an eye patch over her eye. Carefully she dug her fingers underneath the padding and began to peel it back off her face.
"ERGH!!!" she groaned as the light radiated itself into her newly exposed eye, the heat could be felt from the flickering light above, but it wasn't the light source that was causing this pain, it was the un-calibrated nature of her replacement lens. Her body jolted as she turned to her left in attempt to dig that side of her face into the pillow. Her right shoulder unfortunately wanted to pull in the opposite direction and when she rolled back over she could see her right arm was wrapped up.
Eh... That's why, she wondered as she let her left hand drop onto her right forearm and began to slowly peel back the layers until she could see metal. Madison stopped for a moment, confused at what the metal was but as more and more layers were slowly peeled back, the reality of what she was seeing began to hit her.
"No... No. No, No, No!!"Heart monitors started screaming as her adrenalin began to kick in. Even in her weakened state she shot up in her bed, pulling on all the cords attached to her body and hearing the crash of medical equipment on the ground, but her hand was still ripping into the layers of bandages around her hidden arm until she had exposed what she had feared the most, a limb that wasn't of her own skin and bone. She thought she was only having a nightmare where she continually recalled the misguided words from the medical staff. She didn't expect them to be true. After just waking up and exposing her arm she simply sat there in shock with her mouth open in a silent, harrowing scream while the tears began to form on the corners of her eyes.
Madison looked around the empty room, finally realising where she was and what had happened for her to get into this place. She did this, she lead herself into this place and the only thing that she could see that indicated to her that she was still within
"Smith's Rest" was a green fluffy dinosaur on the ledge next to her bed. A toy that Ana must have left behind. Madison leaned over and instantly grabbed it, feeling it's warmth as she wrapped her human arm around it and plunged her face into it's padded body. She could feel the surface slowly become wet as her tears dripped down from her eyes and the soft, muffled sniffling sound of her crying began to fill the room.
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