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3.3 - Daily Life Aboard The Fluchtig Part 3
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"Alrigth girl, now listen here. I don't know what the 'Princess' or any other 'official' would think of this but as I see it there are two types of pilot--"
Una nodded along attentively as Scarlet broke the short-lived silence following the botched simulation;
"- There is Nilas and her highness's type, the one's who see it all as numbers, well not literally numbers but the type who calculate. When they want to do something, they think about how to do so right?
They think about the order they'll hit enemy A,B and C in. On the other hand-"
Una had noticed that at times like this the older woman had a habit of moving her arms around expressively -
"-- you got pilots like myself and that Sabban guy. We don't think about the machine, we feel it you understand girly? Instincts, I don't think that I need to press button A, then 2 followed by 3C, I just do it, I let the battle flow around me.
Well it's my reckoning that's what you are, you're intuitive, you can feel the controls but problem is you spend too much time trying to read the screens and than tryin' to pick out the right controls. In that last 'attempt' you spent half your time reading a novel and the other half trying to find the ground."
Scarlet stared intently at Una as if to confirm the statement.
Una realising she had heard Hoki say something similar about adaptability before and knowing she had clearly messed up the simulation, nodded her head in agreement.
Scarlet seemed satisfied with this and began to point empathically to the eye patch that lay over her left eye;
"See this Rookie? According to the doctors I lose about 22.252 et-cet-er-ra-percent of my vision cause of this here. Think that stops me piloting do ya?
No the point is girl it's like all things. Eyes are just one sense, you can hear the sounds of the machine when it's been hit - Ya can taste the change in the air if your spacesuit switches to it's internal oxygen supply.
You can feel what each control does! Show me your stats for a second."
Una flinched a moment, knowing they had increased lately recently, but showed them nonetheless;
User; Una O' Conchabhair
Vitality 53 (+2 in the last 10 days) Physical Strength 28 (+1 in the last 10 days) Mental Fortitude 25 ( - 3, Status: Mentally Exhausted) Magi Score N/a Occupation; Junior Pilot Simulation Rank D- (+10 Points) Estimated Real Ability D- Leadership Skill N/a Close Combat Skill E+ (-40 points) Marksmanship Skill D- Manoeuvres Skill D (-75 points)
Between her disappointing stats and the lecture Una did her best to keep up as this onslaught of theory continued, it seemed to her to go against everything the textbooks had taught them. Piloting was generally about precision, Vijaiks were complicated mechanisms, with dozens of small AI programs operating at all times.
The pilot may choose where to put an arm but a dozen smaller sequences would occur automatically to make such an action possible - It was in that way they had been taught to see themselves as computers, a central processor amongst the machine.
Scarlet however seemed to favour a different view;
"Now that isn't me saying ignore the whole damn thing, neither your stats or the machine's. Back there you obviously knew ya had ammo left, and you thought you'd only taken one minor hit yes? But ya got over confident didn't you, not seeing you'd actually been hit again, a shot was fired by that second enemy, masked by the explosion just before it went down.
Pegged your arm's servo. Your gun didn't fire cause the connection between it and the cabin was all severed by one minor hit of the dieing enemy"?
Una focused on Scarlet with awe, having been entirely unaware to what had happened.
Scarlet having explained the post-mortem seemed to pause to contemplate how best to go forward. Una found a slight similarity between Scarlet and Kolme in the way they'd both periodically cease talking, in a struggle to best word something. Although she daren't of suggest any such link between the two out-loud.
At last Scarlet began again by lifting up one of her legs so that it sat folded across the other, which still dangled over the edge of the Vijaik hatchway she'd made her temporary perch.
Without any fanfare she rolled back the leg of her trouser, "Now look, this is what I mean righ-- What's wrong, why the face? You got some sort of problem girl? Hadn't picked you for being that sort."
She finished, a tone of offence creeping into her voice.
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"What? No, ah, er, well umm, I'm sorry... I didn't know..." Una retorted receding into herself.
"You didn't? I thought everyone knew." Scarlet replied raising her visible eyebrow.
Una shook her head lightly, trying her best not to stare. Beneath the trousers, from the knee down lay a metal prosthetic leg, a sleek contraption of practical, if not particularly comfortable looking make. Possibly an athlete's prosthetic she considered.
Scarlet laughed that slightly hoarse cackle of hers, "Well if you really didn't know that's al'rigth then. Doesn't bother me either way what ya think of-course."
With a little hesitance Una stopped standing and lowered herself to sit down alongside Scarlet - "Were you, ummm, born with it like that?" She asked tentatively.
Scarlet mussed the question momentarily, "Hmm, no. That's the point I wanted to make to ya, as soldiers you need to understand that every part of our bodies is a weapon."
"A weapon? I don't think I understand....."
As if to answer Scarlet now rolled up her jacket sleeve aswell, beneath which lay her tanned arm, covered in deep burn marks and old, wide scars. Una nearly clasped her hands over her mouth in response.
"Look girl if you could stop getting so worked up I might finally get to my example - This is why I end up having to conceal all this cack, 'tis less effort than all the gawking." Scarlet added exasperatedly.
Una nodded as best she could, still unsure what all this was in aid of.
"What I'm getting at is this--" She traced a line along a particularly harsh looking scar that covered the whole length of her forearm;
"Got this one back when we made landfall on Bhaile. At that point in the war the Union forces still didn't have their own mechs, well not ones that could match a Vijaik anyway - So their best option was to send speical forces lads to kill the pilots in their sleep or steal our machines in the middle of the night.
I mean there we were on a foreign planet, right in their back yard so I can't tell ya the number of times we were 'rudely awoken'. Anyway the point is one night the wall of this old building we had set-up as a base, it just blows apart while we're all asleep.
The initial spray of bricks and mortar got a couple of us, then came the attack task-group. Well me and the rest were no slouches! We were awake and flipping over tables & beds in no time, returning fire against the incursion while dressed in nothing but our plain cloths, some of the guys where in no more than their boxers or briefs considering we weren't used to the heat.
Enemy quickly realised they were in for a fight, so through the hole in the wall comes in a grenade. Shrapnel everywhere, split one poor feck's head clean open, I got lucky - Raised my hand up in time, blocked a massive piece of shrapnel and a bullet all in one."
Una stared at the woman as she continued with this remarkable tale, trying to figure out if she was exaggerating the story or not, her eyes fixed on the many scars Scarlet pointed to across her arm one by one.
She had of course heard how brutal the fighting had got after Abhailien-Revolutionary-Forces made their full invasion gambit against Bhaile's States-Union, but hearing it first-hand was something different.
"And that's how you got that biggest scar Ma'am?"
"Ha! Heck no, that came next. There I am in absolute agony, my arm falling limp to one side, while still trying to fire my pistol with the other. I tell ya the company CO would of killed me for droping my rifle - Well that's if he hadn't already been lying dead via a brick to the stomach followed by a stray bullet to the head - Anyhow the rest of the base finally gets its assess in gear and surrounded the enemy on the far side. Seeing how they were routed their unit decides to make one last charge on us.
Well there were only a handful of us not dead at that point and in comes a full kamikaze assault, and at the forefront of it, charging at little old me is some madman with a friggin sword! A sword, no word of a lie, an actual sword in this day and age!"
"Well I had only one option, my pistol was out'ta rounds, nowhere to move to or hide - I grabbed my bloodied, limp arm and held it up in front of me like a shield. Next thing I know Im' on the ground, the swordsman is dead, his blade still embedded in me bleedin' arm.
Apparently one of his other comrades had charged in laced with grenades, I would of probably died - pretty much all the others bar one or two did in-fact, yup that shrapnel should of torn me to shreds or at the very least I'd of lost this arm from the sword-guy if he got a second strike, had the very same shrapnel not killed him first.
Essentially he acted as my shield, while the grenade saved my arm. That sword is what gave me this mark."
She finished triumphantly, a wolfish grin plastered on her face as though she were boasting about wining some competition or prize.
Una found herself at a loss for words. Scarlet seemed to pick up on this, with an expression of disappointment at her story not landing with the desired effect she had hoped for;
"Look the thing is, if I hadn't treated my whole body as a weapon that day and moved with the flow of the fight as best I could, I'd be dead right now. Ya see?"
Una frowned searching for understanding - "But, ummm, isn't that a little too reckless?"
"Reckless! Girl are you dense or something? We're soldiers, being a soldier is reckless - a pretty little thing like you joining up by her own choice during wartime? Now that's just plain stupid.
Think of it this way, if I hadn't shielded with my arm that first piece of shrapnel would of had me dead in the head, never mind the rest. What good is an arm when you're dead Rookie? And it's more than that, I didn't think about sacrificing my arm, I'm no darn masochist! It was instinct you see? The instinct to move forward. I didn't check my surroundings to look for body armour of something to use as a shield 'cause I'd of already been dead by that point.
For you girl I reckon that's the only way we make a half-decent pilot out'ta ya."
Una sat quietly once more contemplating the words. Putting aside the extravagant narrative she couldn't help but wonder if the older woman had a point.
'No point in having an arm if you're dead huh? I guess they do say you should respect the wisdom of Elders....still I kinda' want to keep all my limbs.....'
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