Faith came awake laying on the medical bed in the same circler room she left the simulation in. Faith wondered what time it was or if the simulation paused when she exited.
“SCS operative Harrington the procedure lasted two hundred and twenty three hours and has been a complete success with no negative physiological effects having been detected. Your psychological state well be evaluated but projections does not predict any negative effects. You will return to the shuttle that brought you here and will be flown to a special camp that will teach you how to use your new cybernetics safely and effectively.”
Thanking the AI Faith exited the medical room and found the same officer who had escorted here standing waiting. Nodding to her but saying nothing he led the way through the numerous passageways until they finally arrived at the shuttle bay.
Again, Faith did not see or encounter another person throughout the travel to the shuttle bay. There may not have even been another person aboard if everything was handled by an AI.
Faith boarded the shuttle and with the blackout she did not feel when they took off. The travel time was the exact same time as the travel to the medical hospital confirming Faith’s suspension that the travel time was being manipulated to conceal just how long flight time it took to reach the hospital and return.
Without any indications of landing the rare hatch opened letting bright sunlight stream into the cargo area. Blinking at the sudden light Faith stood up and marched towards her new training school.
Upon exiting the craft Faith found herself on a concrete apron that covered a thousand square meters surrounded by metal hangers and a desolate landscape surrounding her. It was not any desert she had been to before, the lower heat then the blazing hellscape she had trained in confirmed that, but the surroundings gave an air of abandonment with rusting metal hangers, fences and a metal sign that was hanging by one corner that slowly swung back and forth letting out a screech on every swing.
Faith wondered if she was at the right location and saw a person exit one of the hangers. In a torn and dirty coverall that in no way looked military and with a scruffy appearance the person smiled at her.
“Welcome to Air Base 22 Gamma.” He greeted.
Faith looked around meaningfully. “Doesn’t look like much of a base.”
The grin turned into on of amusement. “Appearances can be deceiving. Come.”
With that he turned and walked back towards the hanger he had just left. Faith hurried to catch up. Inside was old purely air based fighters that had last been seen in combat fifty years ago. Still a decent fighter with the proper upgrades but these looked old, worn, and given the barest maintenance.
Faith wanted to tear then apart and rebuild then into proper fighters, the shoddy condition they were in offended the engineer in her.
Without pausing the man walked towards the back of the hanger and entered an office in the back. A metal desk, several filing cabinets, which was interesting because most records were stored digitally, and a beaten down chair was the only things in the room.
Standing beside the desk the man looked at her in growing amusement. Faith was about to snap and ask what was so dam amusing when the whole room shuddered. Looking around in alarm Faith realized the whole room was descending. It was a disguised elevator.
The room dropped a long way and Faith was even more surprised when they finally stopped. The new area was in pristine condition looking almost brand new with people in crisp military uniforms walking about.
“Welcome to SCS cybernetic enhancement, adjustment, and training, C.E.A.T or See At. Everything you see, hear, and learn is classified and you can not speak of it even to fellow SCS operators.”
Gone was his amused scruffy civilian persona, now he had a no nonsense military baring that scream high level officer.
“Yes sir!” Faith came to attention.
“Good Operator Harrington. Follow me.” Walking confidently the man, who still had not introduced himself, lead the way through the busy base.
“The first part of your training will be a full medical evaluation. The medical hospital you received your implants does not gave out information and, in fact, cut off from all forms of communications beside a standalone and isolated system. Anything else is hand delivered.”
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Faith nodded at this. The best way to stop hackers was not to give them anything to hack.
“After the evaluation we will start your training by slowly activating your implants during the following two months. We start your training at five percent strength then increase weekly after you adjust. If you need more time then training will be extended.”
Faith thought this was a good way to train. Instead of just turning it on at full power, without any prior experience, they would slowly allow her to get used to her new increased abilities. Faith had to silently thank Sarah for pushing her to return to the simulation, no matter how much Faith had not wanted to reenter so soon after getting free.
They arrived at medical which was filled with advanced equipment and meet a female doctor who wore a scs operator’s uniform.
“Operator Carson.” The woman greeted the man Faith had been following.
“Operator Melissa. This is newly implanted Operator Faith Harrington. I’ll leave her in your care.” Nodding to Melissa and then again at Faith he turned and marched briskly out of the room.
Melissa turned her attention to Faith.
“Welcome to the ranks of SCS Faith.” She greeted Faith.
“Thank you Ma’am. It was a hard journey but I finally completed it.”
The woman snorted in amusement.
“Hard is right. The SCS training is the hardest training course the Empire could make while still giving people a chance to finish the training. Any harder and no one would be able to become an SCS operator. Now let’s get your assessment out of the way.”
With that Faith spent the next several hours completing a battery of tests. Not only was she scanned with a dozen different machines, she had to run on a treadmill, breath into a tube as hard and as long as she could, and had holographic targets the swirled around her and she had to hit the ones that light up. This test got faster and faster and tested her hand eye coordination, spatial awareness, and vision acuity.
These were all baseline tests and Melissa told her she would be taking the tests several times throughout her training.
“Now before we activate your neurological implant there are a few things to go over.” Melissa explained in her office. “The implant can regulate your bio chemical balance which means it can dampen fear, adrenaline, and physiological responsive.”
“So it can control my emotions and automatic responses such reacting involuntary to a sudden loud noise.”
“Correct. It will also stop you form shivering in the cold. A useful option if you need to shoot long distance in freezing cold weather.”
Faith could see that. During sub zero training it had been hard to keep her weapon steady when she had been shivering in the extreme cold.
“Now the most useful function but also the most dangerous. The implant can turn off all pain receptors in your body.”
Faith understood the implication immediately. “So I can hurt myself without knowing it.”
Operator Melissa nodded in confirmation. “Correct. More than one operator has died from relatively minor wounds because they ignored it and kept the pain blocks in place to long. Still it has allowed operators to fight their way out of overwhelming odds while severely injured. As long as we can get to them before they die, and sometimes when they die, depending on how soon after it is and luck, we can repair most injuries.”
Faith nodded at that. The military had some of the most advanced medical equipment in the Empire. Equipment that could not be found in a civilian hospital, either because the equipment was too expensive, deemed to risky to be used on civilians, or ethical concerns.
“Now the implant can also keep you awake and alert for weeks. This is not recommended because it can cause a number of heath and psychological problems. After to long you will start to hallucinate which can lead to a complete psychological break form reality. Still it will allow you to fight long after the enemy is exhausted.”
Faith could see how this function could be the deciding factor in wining or losing. As Melissa said an enemy would be exhausted and make mistakes that an SCS operator would not.
“Moving on. The implant can enhance your eyesight allowing you to see broad spectrum light, form ultraviolet to thermal.”
That was cool and had interesting ramifications when dealing with repairs. It would allow her see overheating parts, the paths electrical energy was traveling in electronic parts, and if detailed enough maybe even microfractures that needed special scanning equipment to detect.
“Lastly it allows you to interface with computers and you, as a trained engineer, could program and reprogram equipment at the speed of thought. You could code almost as fast as a simple AI.”
That was another benefit that had interesting ramifications. When she coded Sarah all she did was kludge together several different programs and then did some coding to smooth over the rough edges that did not mash properly. With the implants help she could have coded Sarah completely form scratch and done it in a faction of the time a normal person would have been able to.
“Now let’s talk about how the enhancements and implant are powered.”
Faith was very interested in this; power was the most vital resource a space station could have, even more vital than air. Oxygen could be made as long as you had electricity.
“The enhancements use your body temperature for power and should be energy neutral but the implant will increase your consumption of nutrients as well as raise your body’s core temperature. The enhancements should absurd the heat so you should not stand out on thermal unless you are pushing yourself and the enhancements to the limits.”
Melissa waited for Faith to digest the new information. Faith would need to eat more and her body would become a furnace was interesting.
“As for your implant it will use your brain’s electrical field for power. It is smaller so does not use as much power unless you are overloading it. A word of caution, do not overload your implant for to long, it will lead to brain damage as it heats up to searing temperatures.”
Melissa gave her a pointed look knowing Faith as an engineer would push her implant in her work. If the situation was dire enough Faith might will chance permanent brain damage if it saved lives and Melissa knew that.
“Now following me and we can start the activation.”