It was dark in Kione's room; that was the way she liked it. Unable to see shadows, shapes, anything. Just darkness. So far, it had been almost five months since she'd been grounded. That wasn't her problem. Her problem was the way everyone treated her, like she was some sort of war hero or some shit, like Jack and BT after they destroyed the Ark. Everyone was afraid of her now too, after hearing what she did to the IMC. In all honesty, that was the least of her problems.
Looking over to a small candle in the room, she could see the dark outline of an optical database. Kione slow crossed over and lifted it, sadness seeping into her like a tidal wave. Her hands shook as she set it back down and collapsed on her bunk. Tears swelled in her eyes, covering her head to blur them out.
Jenny…
Kione opened her eyes, wiping the blood off of her pilot's helmet. 50 meters. That's all she needed to cross before she could get to her titan. She could see her in the distance: her battle buddy, her trump card, her best friend. The Vanguard was holding up with two others, trying to keep the enemy's back. This had to be their hundredth mission, she guess by the way Jenny had mention she had a 'surprise' in store. The AI was never as advanced as Big Boy BT, but she still had a personality. Witty, sarcastic, bullyish to the newer pilots, and loved competitiveness. Her and Kione had made an amazing pair.
Until that day, on their 100th mission.
Kione could remember it all, the sound of a titanfall as she was blown backwards, away from her target. It had been so sudden, so silent. How had their radar not picked it up? She rolled across the ground, head throbbing from the impact. She heard Jenny's voice, so far away compared to the noise scratching her eardrums. Wincing, Kione had looked up to find the source.
A northstar.
It hadn't seen her but the optic was glaring menacingly. She realized in horror that the orange aura around her meant she was stuck inside the shield with it. Scrambling to her feet and running into the barrier, she yelped when it burned her. This caught the Northstar's attention, turning to lay its eye on her. Kione shook in fear as it stepped forward, hearing Jenny's panicked voice get louder in her head.
There was a wubbing nose as the Northstar's pilot broke through the barrier, the titan ignoring her to grab its pilot. As soon as he was in the cockpit, she could run. She could see Jenny about 30 meters off, fighting off an enemy titan to try and get to her. The northstar stood upright, the barrier dissolving as the pilot took over. This was her chance, this was-
The titan lashed out, grabbing Kione by the leg. She shouted in a horrified surprise, lifted into the air as if nothing more than a ragdoll toy. The pilot had seen her, and was laughing menacingly.
"Lookie Lookie, I caught a lil cookie~" He poked her roughly in the guts, causing her to almost puke into her helmet. The pilot wiggled the titan's finger, mostly over the armor protecting her bosom. "I wonder what my boss would think of taking slavegirls~"
"Go fuck yourself!"
"You first~" The northstar reached back to remove his sword, getting a grip on the handle before Kione saw a glimmer of multicam. Her whole body shook as Jenny rammed the enemy titan, causing her to be dropped like a rock. She hit the ground with a thud but quickly got back up, dizzy.
"Jenny!" She shouted over the link, feeling herself getting scooped up by the massive robot and placed into the cockpit.
"Are you alright, Pilot?"
"I'm fine."
The intercom bleeped, the radio of the enemy pilot popping up.
"Well well, looks like this pretty birdie can pack a punch."
"Oh yeah? Well this pretty birdie has a message for you: Get fucked."
"Sola, I do not believe you want to engage in sexual activities with the enemy." The sarcasm was dripping heavily from the robotic voice, enough where she almost groaned. The Northstar pilot growled in a way that made both mech and pilot uncomfortable, drawing all weapons. "Plan of action?"
"I wanna rip him out of his cockpit and squeeze him till his lil eyes pop out."
"That is unlike you to request such a graphic description."
"Yeah, well this guy pissed me off." She grabbed the controls, jerking them back. "Let's go!"
The Vanguard boosted away from the Northstar, release a hellfire of missiles. The pilot responded with taking to the air, firing right back. This long distance firefight continued for a good minute, Kione actually enjoying herself albeit angrily. It was just enough distraction to keep her guard down, just enough for her to make the fatal move.
When she jumped back again, she head the enemy pilot's radio go off. "Now!" He shouted, seemingly at the top of his lung. At the same exact moment, all of Jenny's alarms went off: There was a titan behind them that they were jumping right into.
"Sola, behind us!"
It was the last time she ever heard her titan's voice.
There was a loud screeching noise as a blade cut the Titan clean in half, taking Kione's right leg with it. She screamed in agony as her titan fell over, beeping warnings. Jenny's voice was a garbled mass of pain, but her optics were still online. The pilot opened her eyes just in time to see a Ronin class step on Jenny's chassis, bending it towards the pilot as he drew back his blade and thrust it tip-first into the head of her titan.
Kione awoke with a scream, greeted by the dark room's embrace and the dim light of an almost burnt out candle. She was in the midst of a cold sweat, panting through soaked sheets and clothing. Throwing them off herself, she stumbled into the bathroom, turning on the light for the first time in days.
She stumbled to the shower, forcing it to give her the hottest water available. As soon as the refreshing, scalding water began to wash over her cold body, she could stop shaking. She could calm down, tell herself that happened a long time ago, that she was alive.
But that she could not say the same for Jenny.
She stood in the shower for a long time before turning it off, shakily leaving the comfort of her therapeutic water. The mirror glared angrily at her, and with a sigh, she check her features.
Sola was very tan woman, hints of Japanese in her facial features and bodily shape. She had long dark hair that was always in a braid, thick eyebrows, large brown eyes with bright golden speckles, and pudgy cheeks that 'sagged like a butt', as Jenny had jokingly told her. For almost twenty-three, she looked okay, but could be better. Her cheeks were sunk from undernourishment, her ribs and hips looked like they were ready to cry if she missed anymore meals. Her eyes trailed down to her right leg, where just above the knee, the doctor had attached a mechanical leg like the robot pilots had. It was two inches too short, giving her a notable limp and a cruel reminder of her mistake.
There was a knock at her door as she was getting dressed, Kione pausing.
"Yeah?" She barked roughly. The person on the other side shifted.
"It's Gates. Can we talk?"
"…" Kione sighed. Her commander was the last person she wanted to see, but so be it. 6-4 are family, we'll kick your ass! echoed through her mind as she finished putting on her clothes and opened the door. Gates was waiting, leaning on the wall.
"Holy shit Kione, your clothes are barely hanging on. When's the last time you ate?"
"Depends, what day is it?"
"Come on asshole, let's go get food. The rest of the family's waiting."
Kione's heart panged. Despite the past three years she had been with this squad, she had absolutely nothing in common with them anymore. She had no titan, no motivation, and surely none of that good ole mama Gates spirit. She was nothing but a grunt, and even then they were better than her.
The line for food was average, she guessed it was early afternoon. The ex-pilot hobbled over to the food line, picking up a tray.
"Jesus Kione, if someone opened a door anywhere in base the gust is going to blow you over." The cook, a possibly 300 pound man, was in the mood to poke fun today. She smirked.
"Why don't you sit down and we can test that theory?" She got a laugh for that one, an extra helping of potatoes and meat piled on her plate, "Aw, no cookie?"
"Not today. My fat ass ate them last night."
"Thought so. See you around, Cookie."
"It better be tomorrow, you haven't been in for four days."
"Seriously?" Gates glare was ineffective on her solider, the woman shrugging and hobbling forward. She paused, glancing about.
"Hey, Hobbles!" Kione turned slightly, surprised to see Cooper waving at her from the 6-4 table. Shaking her head, she started to go to another table. Gates was right there, quickly herding her towards the group.
"Oh no, you're sitting with us."
"But moooooom, do I have to?" Kione mocked, hobbling quicker to keep from falling before she lifted her spring-bar leg and slid a pilot further down the bench to make room. They complied, the group cheering her arrival. She was surprised to see new faces, some being robots.
"Okay, so which one of you uploaded because they got fucked by a titan and which one of you uploaded to fuck a titan?" She joked, surprised to hear the voice of one of her training buddies come from the closer robot.
"I fall into the first category, Chuck here however~"
"Shut the fuck up, Rod." Chuck chuckled, flicking a pea with a fork across the table. It hit Rod's blue optics, startling him as the rest of the group laughed.
"Shit Rod, what happened to you?" Kione's eyebrows rose.
"Titan broke my goddamn spine. I think we should be asked what happened to you? I haven't seen you training in months!"
"Well, this new leg is too damn short. Docs pretty sure I'm never goanna run again without a new bar spring, and that was two months ago. Now I got a damn perma-limp because the fucker never got me a longer leg."
"Awe fuck. You just need to go down to Smith and get a new leg." Cooper joked.
"Smith? Fuck that crazy bastard, next thing I know I'll be like Chuck. Also, what the hell you doing at our table, Coop? Didn't you sign your soul off to Briggs?"
"That doesn't mean I can't say hello." He shrugged, "Also, I missed their lunch. Had training with BT."
"How is the Big Boy?"
"Better. He's still having glitches and it hurts like a bitch but they're less frequent. At least they happen more on base now, I think the last time he glitch in battle was almost three months ago."
"Thank god for that."
The conversation dwindled into utter bullshitting as time rolled on. Soon, soliders began to leave before all that was left was Gates, Coop, and herself. She had almost finished her food; it would hold her off for at least two days. She just needed to get some insta-meals from the vendor, and then hope Gates would be too busy to come get her. Her train of thought drifted off to Jenny. Jenny would have lost her mind to see her like this, so much so she would have had the techs stuff her cockpit with snacks. She always had the best snacks ready for her… Kione's leg began to throb, gripping her fork in pain. She had forgotten her pain pills again.
"Kione." A voice cut through the fog, the ex-pilot turning slowly to see Briggs standing behind her. Sighing internally, she let go of the fork and started to stand for salute. Briggs grabbed her shoulder quickly, sitting her back down, starling her. "At ease, I just want to talk."
"Oh, okay… About what?" Kione blinked a few times, the commander sighing as she sat down on the other side of her. The pilot suddenly felt very boxed in, with the commanders on either side of her and Coop sitting directly across.
"How are you feeling?"
"Better, still need a new leg."
"I talked to Doc, he said you stopped coming in for your appointments, he couldn't fit you with a new one."
The ex-pilot felt a cold glare coming from her commander and her friend, but she was too dead inside to care. The tune of some old song popped into her head.
Wake me up. Wake me up inside!
"Well shit, m'bad then. I thought I'd never get a follow up after that raid, I guess I just missed it. I mean, I haven't been doing shit. If he called me, I would have heard it."
"But, your phone has been off for weeks."
Fucking Cooper, Kione glared at his across the table, but the other pilot wasn't having it. She was so deep in shit right now, wishing she had died back on Liona.
"What do you want from me."
"To follow up, turn on your damn phone, get out of the dark. It's not helping, it's hurting you. And for god's sake, eat some real food."
"You think the potatoes are real?" Kione laughed, trying to draw the conversation off her. It wasn't helping.
"Kione, Smith decoded the info you got from Liona." Briggs' word shut the ex-pilot up, turning with a dead serious look in her eye.
"About fucking time that asshole did some work, we lost good people on that fucking hellhole. What was it? Locations? Names? Battleplans? Weapons?"
"It's a titan AI, a new one."
Disappointment was the first thing to cross her features, followed by rage. "An AI? We went to hell and back for a fucking AI?!"
"Hey, relax. It's alright." Cooper interrupted, "It's the best fucking AI we've ever seen, it might revolutionize our warfare, our own lives. Hell, it's even better than" He stopped, looking around, and dropped his voice to a whisper, "BT."
"How? BT is the best AI I've meet, he brought himself back to life with your damn helmet. No way can this fucking code top him."
"We're not one hundred percent sure, but apparently this titan's datacore is so big, it has the capabilities of a human mind. Because of this it's uploaded to the network, like our brains when we get robot bodies. It can't die, as long as that server is running real-time and saving all the information. No matter how many time you crush the optic database, you can always re-upload it to a new one and pick right up where you left off."
Kione was silent, gear churning silently in her head. Skeptical, she looked between the commanders.
"And what does that have to do with me?"
Briggs looked over the ex-pilot at Gates, who nodded slowly. Her gaze then went to Cooper, who also nodded, his turket sandwich flapping in the wind. Kione caught wind long before she even said it.
Oh no.
"We want you to pilot him."
