“Okay. So it’s, suit up, get into our Coffins, and it puts us into a remote host, and we live in there for 64 hours?”

“Well, it’s hard to explain. It isn’t so much as a remote host as it is one of the techniques we learned through our studies into Peragomancy. You don’t as per say wear it, but it is kind of like an Avatar. You are in it, in certain respects. In fact, before the Deadweights, it would cause brain death, if your Exo was rendered inoperable. It more or less takes a copy of your synapses, and the electrical signals in your brain and translates it out to your Exo. Then the Exo translates it back when you do things. It’s kind of like old online games. Although it’s way more than just positional information and inputs. You will experience your time in the Exo, but since we don’t have to make room for a body we can keep the Exos roughly Human-sized, and shaped. So the Deadweights act as a buffer. That way if something happens it can prevent ‘damage’ from coming back down the line to you. You won’t have a health bar like in a video game, but it will be a bar; it shows percent operability. Although it is broken up into all of the major systems, If enough damage to render you inoperable is done all at once, it will be a 1 hit K.O.; just like in real life. So you will need to be mindful of vital areas. It seems to affect the minds ability to perceive the body as whole if you get a hole through your chest. We have tried to keep systems placed in similar spots as traditionally vital areas, so as to make use of the bodies natural defensiveness of those areas. “

“Wow, that’s a lot to process. I take it the ability to visualize what you are doing is going to be very helpful here?”

“Yes. That’s what we hope most pilots can do, although by using Peragomancy there is no perceptible lag, so it should feel like you are there, and are doing actions in real time. Visualizations are just one of the most important steps to ranking higher. The more you believe you can do, the more you can do. I imagine you might even leave here with a provisional Rank A or B.”

“Jester mentioned something about ranks. I thought ranks were just a form of seniority. Is it some system like a meritocracy?”

“It’s a little bit of both. So it’s a combination of what you can do, and what you have done. I am certain your time in the military will greatly assist in the ‘what you have done’ score portion of a ranking. For instance, Exxes is capable of a lot, but her actions that have not contributed to her sortie mates survival weighs against her. S rankers have to not only be able to take care of themselves but others as well. That may seem counterintuitive, but even if an S rank can operate solo, they are the first called in during crisis situations, or to help others they come across.”

“That’s an interesting system. How many S’s are in Skeleton crew? How many in other corps?”

“Well, the Skeleton crew boasts the highest ratio of S’s, at a total of 13 out of the 70 or so members. Although against some of the bigger corps that doesn’t mean much. Paladin has 47, but they are also the largest corp amongst all of the rig runners, at just over 5000 runners. One of Japan’s national teams has one of the only 2 Double S’s. Korea having the other. The problem there is that neither country has any kind of substantial corps presence, as they are two of the lowest contributors to rig runners. At least speaking nationally. There are plenty of Japanese and Koreans that fled to other countries that were more willing to put up for rig runners. Russia and America were the first to seize on these opportunities. Both boast a fairly large number of Japanese and Korean transplant as part of both of their primary forces. WotS, known as woe-ts, from America is one of the highest-ranking corps with an average ranking of A across all of their rig runners. Many of them are Japanese. Russia’s corp Iron Fist has the highest number of successful missions and is largely made up of Koreans.”

“Interesting some of these corps act like sports teams, almost. I mean I have heard of all of those corps and they are practically treated like movie or rock stars.”

“Some of them have been keeping us safe, and providing valuable resources for years. Also with all the data that the Deadweights record, it was fairly easy to post highlight reels that glamorized the SpEc Zones.”

“So. There is fame, fortune, and infamy on offer.”

“Yeah, you could say that.” She paused. “Let’s get you fitted so we can get in there. The other two are probably in transit stasis waiting for us to log in.”

“Log in?”

“Yeah, it is a sort of dreamscape VR lobby where you queue to launch altogether. Nothing worse than Rigs getting picked off one by one, because of a poor launch.”

“Well, let’s do this.” I stood up and grabbed the suit noticing that it looked like some sort of bondage suit minus buckles. “Uh… How do I do this?”

“You step into the legs and then you put your arms in and pull it up. Once it is pulled up and over your shoulders, you just grab the straps and lay them across. The suit material reacts with the Aether that will start circulating through the suit, and it will kind of glue it down. The button on the side of the collar will dump the Aether from the suit, and it will allow you to take it off.”

“What about my arm?”

“Oh yeah, in the lower locker you will find the newly modified arm unit. It's the same previous unit, but it has some new safety features built in as well as the new connector that the suit will use once it’s on. Also, you can use some of its functions remotely as well after you install the module. Here let me help with docking the new module.” Erin moved closer. She bent down and retrieved the unit from the lower locker, and moved closer to install it. She flustered for a moment as she remembered our earlier awkward ‘butt’ moment. “I mean if that’s okay.”

“Yeah. Honestly, I forgot how much it sucks to be forced to do things one-handed.” I waved my stump towards her.

“You shouldn’t feel anything when this slots in.” She stepped closer and took the very nondescript black module, about an inch or two thick and modeled to look like the rest of the arm, and placed it up against the port at a 90-degree turn. Once pressed tightly up, she swiftly twisted it into place, with a satisfying click. “That should do it.”

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“Could you help me dock the arm? I know it’s heavy, but I just need it stood up a little.”

“Sure. Although you should have some remote connection control now. If you focus on gripping and then pulling like you would get out of a chair, it should stand up on its own. If that doesn’t work I can help you wrestle it.”

“I think this might be a little much, but I can give it a couple of tries.” The first attempt went about as poorly as one could imagine. It was a little all over the place. Although, having got it to move and lift up a couple times during the flailing I figured I should be able to do this. I visualized gripping harder this time and did my best to visualize grabbing onto something and the feeling of doing a pull-up. “Quick grab it. I am not sure how much longer I can keep it steady.”

“Got it. Quick put it in.”

“Ahhh there we go.” The feeling of having an arm flooding back. Oh, I needed that. Thanks for the help. I’ve been really missing this wayward limb.

It was at this moment that Exxes came storming around the corner. Seeing Erin on her knees, clearly having just gone through some exertion, and me standing up stretching my arm looking quite satisfied with myself. “What the hell? We waited to go into the lobby for you guys to catch up and you are in here buh… du… playing around!” She was clearly frazzled at the idea of Erin and I being intimate so much so that she was sputtering.

“Erin was helping me attach my arm. I haven’t used a remote unit before. I couldn’t keep it up. Just let me get into my suit. Arms all good now. The new module and accompanying modified arm is now taken care of." I turned my back to them as I stripped off my shirt. The spider-like scarring that I took for granted coming off my arm drew a couple of gasps. “Oh sorry. I forget about that. I’ve had the scarring so long I don’t even think about it much anymore.

Erin was the first to respond. “Not the arm scarring, that’s cool. You’re a mess though. What the hell happened to you?”

“You look like you forgot your vest and armor, and still went to war.” Exxes spoke barely above a whisper.

“Something like that. The guys liked to say I was lucky, as I seemed to survive every mess and scrape we got thrown into. Since we got things done...they threw us into more and more. I ended up racking up quite a few injuries over the last month of the war as they continued to put us into these untenable situations. Medical tech was rapidly advancing, so they were able to patch me up pretty well. I got a bunch of neat scars though. Chicks dig scars ya know. I could have requested leave many times over, but I knew that the reputation of my company was built on my back. If I wasn’t there, the boys would have been just chewed up and expended. I went back in, over and over. Now, I look like this.” I take a little turn to show off my shirtless body riddled with scars. “The price you pay, to keep others alive. At least it was for me. I still lost too many.” Realizing I was sinking back into that dark place. I forcefully put on a happy face. “Don’t worry! Other than the arm, everything else is in working order. Some of it is even better than new.”

“Just hurry up.” Exxes blushed and turned to storm away. “We are logging in. Hurry up.”

“Yes, mom.” I said feigning exasperation.

“How do you do it?” Erin questioned me.

“What exactly?”

“Face all of this with such a cavalier attitude.”

I sucked in a breath. “It just appears that way. No one likes dealing with a sack of emotional potatoes. Sometimes you just have to muster your fighting essence, and deal with the devil in the details with a little gusto and humor.” I went back to stripping off my clothes as I turned away from Erin. “I don’t think my wife would have forgiven me for turning into a basket case either. I got shit to do.” I finished stripping and grabbed the oddly heavy slinky suit. I heard Erin turn away as she realized I was just going to go about my business even if she was still standing there. I stepped into the suit and slid it up and over my shoulders. It felt oddly pleasant, almost reassuring. A nice weighty feel to it. I got it shifted and situated and started to lay the straps over their target marks on the opposite side of the suit. In an oddly surreal moment, upon finishing laying over the last strap, the straps slide until it was perfectly snugged into place with a fitted feel. I turned around to see Erin kinda hopping from one foot to the other while waiting. “Well I think I am ready to go, it even seems to be connected properly to the new arm connector, I think.”

“Here let me check.” Erin turned around and started visually scrutinizing me. I could tell she only had eyes for the suit, but it was odd to be so thoroughly scrutinized. “Yep. Everything appears to be in order. Let's move to the stasis room.

We left the alcove we were in and made our way down the corridor running by all of the other locker alcoves. We arrived at a white door that had clear red markings. It had DO NOT ENTER WITHOUT SAFETY GEAR, all over it. I noticed a smaller note right at eye level, on the door sensor side. “This facility is NOT responsible for dimensional shrifting if you enter without proper safety gear.” I read out loud. Confused I turned to Erin “What the heck is shrifting?”

“Uh. Well… It’s kinda what happened to your wife. When dimensional borders are breached and there is no protecting Aether field. Shrifting happens. The results can be deadly.”

“Dimensions breached? I guess I don’t understand how this all works.”

“Okay we step into there, and once we are in our Coffins and secured, The room will be put into a dimensional limbo state. Physical objects will be aging at a normal rate, but everything in the Aether buffer will be happening much faster.” She paused a second clearly struggling to find the words to explain it. “I think it will be easier if we get in there and secure first, and we can field any questions once you get oriented in the Lobby.”

We step into the room, and two pods are already sealed, a thrum of energy can be heard coming from them. There is a dense stasis field structure around them. It’s clearly an Aether technology of some sort. It looks like a wall of glass made up of hexagon pieces. I know from experience though, that it’s about as hard as a giant block made up of Carbon nanotube plates. There wasn’t much that could penetrate a field that dense. I looked at the two other empty pods. They looked far more pleasant without the stasis field in place. Kind of like a bed in a box...okay, a metal coffin. It really did look comfortable, despite its macabre appearance. “So we just pick one?”

“No. Mine on is on the right. These are pretuned for us. Normally it wouldn’t matter, but since this is a specialized program, these are pretuned so that it can facilitate your development faster.”

“So the Left. Got it.” I move over to it. “Is there anything else I need to do?”

“Just slip the helmet on and lay down. Get comfortable, and hit the green button on the inside. Hold on to the grips on the side of the box and press both thumb buttons, and say out loud ‘Connect’. That should be it.”

I step in and sit down in it, and orientate myself to where I can hold both grips. They are very control stick like, with a button under each thumb. I grab the helmet off the hook on the lid and slide it over my head. It is very comfortable. It feels like it is just cradling my head. I reach up and hit the green button on the inside of the lid. It shuts smoothly, cutting off all noise. I see the Stasis field erect around the pod. With nothing left to do. I move my hands to grip onto the handles. I press both buttons. I say “Connect” with a firm conviction. The world goes white for a moment, as it feels like I have just been pushed through an ice cold membrane of water. I am certain I wasn’t, but that’s what it feels like. I find myself in a fairly nondescript room. It looks like a well-furnished break room.

“Well, this is weird.”