Alexis wakes up feeling groggy and cold. Her tongue rolls in a dry mouth as she tries to wake up. Shifting causes multiple pains making her yelp. The harsh use of her throat has her coughing, an odd chemical smells tickles her nose. The woman moves slowly as some small red lights come on.
There is a voice droning on that she doesn’t get until it says, “Two… One… Adrenalin boost activated.” Alexis feels her heart leap with a burning sensation in her limbs. Her head clears within seconds after that.
There is a hissing sound as the top of the capsule slides down then opens up. She tries to rise but tubes in her body prevent her. It takes her a painful minute to remove them. One in her right arm she pulled first caused a small rip in her flesh that bleeds. Being careful in removing them becomes more paramount to Alexis. She then removes some tabs that are all over. A few of them shock her as she does. The final items to remove are tubes that just feel wrong having in her.
She sits up looks around outside her capsule. The room she is in has red lights flashing and readouts coming to life. Across from her capsule is a rack of black tools. She is distracted from them by the whirling sound and a hot breeze hitting her.
Alexis runs her hand up to her head finding she is not bald anymore but has 15 centimeters (six-inches) of hair. Her nails are all longer then she ever had them. She has to wonder what else changed with her.
Blinking lights to her left catches her attention and they outline a fluid bottle. She is quick to open it and drink. The thick liquid is soothing to her dry mouth and throat. She takes another drink before moving.
She shifts her legs to get out of the capsule. The stepping on cold floor is a strong boost to waking up along with the icy metal that touched her thighs. Her legs give out on her and she collapses on to the wire mesh flooring.
Alexis calls out. “Hello?” The hollow metal rebounds her voice and lights click on but not all of them by her increased activity. No one answers to help her. She turns her voice to berate her legs. “Well work and let me get up.”
It takes two efforts to get up. Her body feels totally different then just the other day. Walking requires her to keep a hand on some surface.
The young woman looks at the area and cannot place where this is in the RX vessel. She goes over to a terminal still nude and types in asking for her location. The long nails causing her some minor difficulty. The machine blips showing her a map of the big vessel and her point being outside it, she is on one of the shuttles docked on the ship. The computer keeps showing an internal error in the time. This puzzles Alexis who then tries to check with the main system but finds there is a malfunction connection to the main ship. She then stumbles over to check the shuttle systems and finds there is the reason for the alert and waking of her. The military shuttle sensors found possible enemy communications in system.
Alexis gasps realizing another ship is possibly around. Stepping back she gasps again when her body touches the cold machinery.
The need for clothes is paramount to her and she goes to some lockers opening one. The one she opens causes her to back up a step. Inside it has a carefully put away row of very lethal looking matt black weapons with a knife coming off one end of them. On the door are some stun batons firmly attached.
Alexis udders out loud in shock, “Why are these here?” Nothing answers her but her own voice echoing on the bare metal. She somehow knows what each one is without conscious thought.
She closes the rack and goes down to a drawer below it. She is a bit self-conscious looking behind herself when she bends over, there is no one else there thankfully. The drawer has a set of clothes in individual plastic wrappers. She gleefully looks through some till she finds what to put on first.
Putting on the one-piece silky undergarment causes Alexis to purr. Her skin is so sensitive it can feel the silky pearl white material and she is glad it is not an abrasive. Getting down to get the rest of the new clothes the one item she has on is embarrassingly stimulating her. She has to pause and get use to it.
“Oh not good. Ghim is not around. Suck it up girl and get working” She gives herself a pep talk before steeling herself. While she wants to ignore it she just can't help with the fabric rubbing her and she has to take some personal time before she continues.
Pulling out the packets fully she finds a grooming kit at the bottom. The clippers bring her nails back to manageable length. The rest of the items in it can wait she thinks.
The clothes are black in color but just as silky as what she has on. The label sizes show they must be for her. She is not use to pants as she puts them on finding them a bit tight. A second look shows they are the size she was when she left. The Velcro closing shirt is also tighter then she is use to. The boots are also new to her, she never wore anything other then the simple slippers of a citizen.
Once fully dressed she feels differences add up. Stepping around she realized she is a lot slimmer missing the ‘baby fat’ she always had. Flexing make her feel muscle tones she never had before she gone to sleep. The shot of energy she has is wearing off.
Alexis takes the last item in the clothes drawer. It is a belt with a number of containers. She recognizes it from the sentries before and gets it on after two tries.
“Why didn’t they tell us we had to wear all this? I never did check what we would wear but this feels to much.”
Alexis checks the belt containers and finds some items but one stops her cold. It’s a small diskshooter. The woman stares at it wondering why she would need such an item. The small weapon easily fits in the palm of her hand and the readout turns on when she grips it tightly listing 80 in red. She puts it away sickened by the thought of what it means. Her mind whirls with knowledge on how it is used and any maintenance it might need.
In the other pockets there is food pills and paste. The woman gets in to the food and finds strange bars also in there along with the normal pills and paste, sadly vanilla. Eating helps restore her flagging energy levels. The bar really is interesting as she never seen anything like it. New sensations hit her taste buds, it is so much more flavoring then she is use to. She enjoys the meal glad they give more taste to the food.
The blinking red lights keep distracting Alexis and she goes to check them. Alexis twists her short hair with her right hand as she checks the status of the shuttle. What she finds is disheartening, maintenance has been lacking. Many of the systems are down and it is barely able to heat the chamber to 15 degrees centigrade. She does the work she was trained getting systems up or bypassing those down to secondary backups.
By the time she is tired the critical systems are not blinking an angry red color. Alexis really wants to get at who let it get in so bad of shape. She frowns needing rest but the only bed is the capsule. The short woman really hates the idea as she moves the stuff that once was attached to her.
Alexis takes off the black clothes leaving her in the simple garment and resets the heater that she fixed to make it warmer in the area. Her sleep is slightly unnerved with her shifting to get comfortable often but refreshing.
After waking she eats and pulls a dataslate trying to see what she can fix. Sighing she gets to work but after a while she gets frustrated and toss and adjustable spanner, she needs help. She knows the systems on the shuttle can’t keep her alive forever and then there are Capitalists out there. The metal around her gets to hear her frustrated ranting but it does not help, only the fans power up to deal with the addition carbon.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Going over to one of the capsules Alexis notices it is larger then the one she was entombed in. She runs her hand over the black metal feeling how cold it is. Looking over she finds this one has malfunctioned over time, the displays are mostly dark but the few still on blinking red. The occupant is dead for sure, Alexis blinks back a tear thinking of the people inside who never had a chance and then walks to the last one to try it. Most of the lights show green with only one red.
She tries her code and finds it does not work. She looks over and tries again growling, “Elitist trash work.” When it doesn’t work she goes for the emergency code and it activates finally with the hiss.
There is the whirl of unused machinery behind the capsule surprised her it turns upright rapidly. She is still uncoordinated enough that when the container is moved out she falls on her ass. System lights change as the interior is warming and chemicals are flooded in to the body. The process takes some time giving her a chance to get back up.
The front plates that opened are armored. Alexis screams in terror and goes back down on the floor. Her hand unconsciously on the diskshooter. The capsule is not a normal one Alexis learned of in training and its occupant is a lot more fearsome. It is much larger then her own capsule she has been sleeping in but the insides have more machinery that looks to lock in the occupant in place.
The occupant is not human but a Warborg. Its face has some resemblance of a dog but horribly mutated with metal parts. The creature looks like it has a metal human frame with the muscle, fur, and claws pulled on to it in a disgusting abomination. The creature before her is a killing machine grown and built by her Government to kill its enemies. It is a thing of nightmares and its optical sensors adjust on to her. The creature howls out as a metal cylinder is slotted in to its torso from behind.
Alexis’s legs get wet from fright. The woman is paralyzed with fear watching it.
Tubes hiss with released gasses as they remove from ports in the metal parts of it. Needles retract out of the body and move in to the capsule. Clamps open as the monster before her shifts out after the restraints release it. Clumps of its fur and even flesh keep stuck to the icy machinery as it takes its first steps out of the capsule.
Alexis’s paralysis breaks and backpedals on all fours backward to the wall. She then puts her arms up to ward off the creature. The words barely come out, “Keep back.”
A mechanical modulated voice calls out, “AI unit 4 activated. Operation mission and parameters not downloaded. Commence under command of…” The machine makes a pause there as its systems move and the Warborg comes fully off the rack showing to be much taller then she at around 2 meters in height. It looks over at her continuing, “Military personal 0501.4117.4117.1336 Alexis.” It turns and walks backward away from her position, “Doing as ordered and backing away.”
The young woman cannot stop herself but pukes seeing fur and skin still on the rack and the sores of the loss of it on the Warborg who stands away from her. The Warborg waits patiently for her not judging her weakness or even the fact she got some on her. Her mind works on some level and cannot fathom why they not do the same for this monstrous creature or why it is here. She now knows why they are shaven with how it suffered.
The nightmare moves up to her. A hand comes down and with the whine of power motors, “Let me help you up.” Alexis is pulls up and only the metallic grasping appendage keeps her up after her feet are under her. The metal claws on the grip are retracted to not harm her.
Alexis’s mind is reeling as she takes in the creature before her. Her feet take a bit before they keep herself standing. Pink returns to her face. As she looks around she notices the creature’s nose flaring. “Are you… ok?”
The machine arm releases her. “The aroma in here is distracting to my organic components. Central computer link is down so I need to know what the objective is for the mission.”
Alexis moves away and thinks but it is still taking a moment for her to get up to speed on the situation with that under her control. “I… I need help repairing the ship.” She then stammers, “And to defend it from Capitalists.”
The Warborg barely shifts before giving a reply, “Repairing is a non-standard use of military equipment and will be noted in your file.” It freezes for a second before adding. “Unable to connect to main computer. My knowledge on repairing equipment is incomplete and could be dangerous. Do you wish to continue with first objective of mission?”
The short woman looks at the machine and flesh creature that was asking her permission to do what she needed done. She shifts as her wet leg bothers her before saying, “Yes. I need help.” She loathes saying the next part. “And you are all I have.”
“Affirmative. Strength of force of the second objective?”
“I don’t know.”
“Any restriction on weaponry to use?”
“We can not destroy the ship.”
“Affirmative. Unit suggests you get cleaned up and in proper uniform.”
“I am that bad?”
The machine acknowledges she does.
The shuttles chemical shower helps her get cleaned up and a few wipes remove anything from the floor. She found there are four sets of clothes for her that she is very thankful and wearing a new one. She feels much better in such and the Warborg defers to all her orders.
Alexis gets back to work on getting the shuttle systems up. The repairs go by better with another pair of hands even if they have a coat of fur. The Warborg is useful only as a gopher, it gets the parts or tools she needs as she works. This does help increase what she gets done and the shuttle systems all look to be green. This takes another day of work.
Alexis looks over at the machine having gotten semi use to it but at least is not sickenly disgusted overall. It has scabbed its frost injuries but it smells since the chemical shower the shuttle has cannot fit its size.
Alexis checks the hatch but the system reports unsafe to open. She checks the report and finds the seals to the ship have failed and it’s impossible to get to the main ship from it. Alexis puzzles over how to get in to the main ship when she gets an idea. She queries the database computer system and finds an option.
She looks over to the Warborg. “Can we move the shuttle?”
Its first response, “It is to heavy.”
Alexis has to giggle with how straight the machine voice says that. “No, fly it off the ship and dock back on at another hatch.”
“That could work. I do not have access to your file to know you have such a skill.”
“I don’t. I have no clue how to fly.” Even as she says it somewhere in her head unlocks the basics of it. “I might be able to do it but I do not want to trust our lives.”
The Warborg, “Then it is a negative option.”
“No it isn’t. I might not be able to fly it but we can just program it.”
“The law required a pilot in the seat.” The machine is adamant.
Alexis is not willing to fight the machine and tries a different tack. “What of you? You got the programming to fly it?”
“This unit has the programming to do so but it lacks pilot…”
The short woman interrupts it. There is an internal switch somehow turned on in her. “If we do not move we fail and die with the enemy around. I will not allow the Capitalist to succeed.”
“This unit prime objective is to defeat the enemy.”
“To do that we need to get the ship operational. And to do that we got to get in it.”
“This unit will pilot the shuttle then. It will log the unauthorized flight as needed.”
Alexis nods feeling she won that fight with its programming.
It takes another day to get the knowledge of how to move the shuttle with undocking and docking down as good as they can on such short time. Alexis finds herself using orders from checklist on a dataslate to the machine who mans the controls.
The moving of the shuttle takes them most of the day by how weary Alexis feels. She wipes a bit of blood from her nose forgetting about it soon after. She is shaken by how nerve-wracking it was.
“Thank the Party that was successful.” She says after the shuttle controls are locked down.
“This unit needs to recharge.” It gets up and goes back to the container it was in.
Alexis follows rubbing her ear. “Is that like eating for you?”
“Each unit has a power supply and once it gets low it needs to recharge.”
“The shuttle will provide enough?”
“After the use of the engines the power on the shuttle is near 53.4%. This unit needs only a minor amount of that.” It then looks to shut down on her.
Alexis goes back to her own sleeping arrangement. She rubs her eyes and gets out of her clothes. It is not a good place but she is tired and falls asleep.