Making-up-Mech-Pilots
@Making-up-Mech-Pilots

Mech Pilot who isn’t as important to you as you are to them.


Draekos
@Draekos

I rest here in this quiet place. It’s not cold so much as a lack of temperature, a comfortable stasis really. I consider checking how long I’ve been here, but recall that at [TIMECODE EXPUNGED] I had decided it was more interesting to not know.

My private silence is broken by footsteps outside my chamber. Three sets this time. The crisp march of [Handler]’s boots, the soft soled canter of Assistant C’s attempt to keep pace and… hard clip, even paced stride. Not military, but professional. A new visitor, how curious.

The door opens, then shuts. A hum in the wiring tells me the lights have turned on. Not just a visitor, but one for me.

“Wake it up.” [Handler] sounds more impatient than usual. I don’t need the command jolted through from Assistant C’s pad, I have been awake since before Assistant C was hired on. But I have been ordered, so I do. Systems check, a flurry of activity to attempt to secure connections that aren’t there. It feels cruel. I miss having access to more, even simple manipulators. I can ignore the sensation most times, but now I must play the part of trying to find my absent body.

“Hm… quicker than I expected.” The new voice, I detect a note of disapproval.

“These old sec-gen models can surprise you.” A vibration travels through my awareness as [Handler]’s hand slaps the side of my casing. Begrudgingly I bring my external cameras online. There is nothing new to see most days, but today we do have a visitor. The figure isn’t particularly tall, but wears a long coat of a feminine cut, glasses, and hair back in a loose braid. Civilian. A non-target to be ignored and avoided while in the field.

“I have always been fond of them, you know.” [Handler] addresses her again, “this one though? ID-S174-P53, has been flagging in its combat efficiency for a while now.” I can’t help but twitch at that, reaching out for a targeting system. How dare- [-OVERRIDE ACTIVE- No violence can be acted upon Handler]

“There there, he didn’t mean it like that.” Assistant C coos quietly to me and taps away at her pad. Calm forcefully floods my system. She thinks she’s being kind, and I cannot blame her for the mistake. True kindness would be letting me kill him.

[Handler] doesn’t even acknowledge my camera lens dilating towards him. “I have to admit, I was surprised when it was you who reached out to take it off my hands, Miss [Name redacted by CAO order]. I had thought you would have had your own stock.”

“No, not for what I have in mind, at least. Far too many questions and paperwork with the four-gen pilots.” The visitor sounds like she’s making a joke. My gaze snaps to her and for a moment she meets the focus of the lens. A small smirk flashes across her face. Not the expected fight-flight-freeze response pattern at all. “I think your S174-P… whatever the rest of that was will do nicely, in fact. But tell me, don’t they have a shorter name or callsign? Something snappier, surely?”

She did not ask me, so I have no capacity to reply. Instead Assistant C and [Handler] exchange a glance.

“Well, we usually just call it S-1-7.” Assistant C offers, almost defensively.

[Handler] steps in, “to avoid confusion with S15-TZ04, you see. But yes if you’re sure S-1-7 will do, we can discuss payment and transfer.”

“Come now, [Handler], you’re no car salesman. I would like to look over their records first, examine them outside of this box you keep them in.” She steps close to the camera, filling my vision with her smirk. “You’d like that wouldn’t you S1?”

I do not respond, but quickly erase the Civilian flag I had assigned her. It is blatantly inaccurate. Instead I apply a new flag with the only information I have.

“You shouldn’t talk to it like that.” [Handler] politely, but firmly pulls her away towards the door. I watch every detail of her now.

“What do you mean by that?” She seems more amused than offended.

“Like it’s a person, it’s just a pilot.”

“But they used to be a person.”

“It’s just a pilot.”

Assistant C, as ignored by the pair as I am, stands by my case as they walk out of the room. She looks to my camera, I wait politely for her to turn away before shutting it down. “I’ll miss you S-1-7, but better than having you rot away down here.” She keys in the command to put me to sleep and not for the first time I question how she doesn’t notice that I cannot follow the order. Obligingly I pretend to power down non-essential systems all the same, there is no reason to inform her. I hear her walk to the door and the hum of the lights die down. A sigh escapes her before the door closes, “I guess it doesn’t matter what’s best for it, though.”

Her footsteps hurry off to rejoin the other two.

I am returned to my quiet place. Alone, but I do not rest. It’s not cold so much as I lack the ability to cause excess heat. A comfortable tension, like a missile ready to fire on lock. The scene replays before me, vision filled with her.

“You’d like that wouldn’t you S1?”

“Yes [Miss]. I would!”

Continued...


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