A/N

I'm back! I'm also happy to report that I'm ahead of schedule for all things university related, so I have some more time on my hands again. Time that I plan to devote to writing, considering my patchwork upload schedules the last few months.

Also, happy Halloween to those who celebrate it!

Chapter 76…

From her perch, Ashley peered down into the violently churning mass of wind and water. Her right hand, padded with nearly an inch thick of protective weave and insulating material, was wrapped up like a vice grip against the exterior handle of the Goblin dropship she was leaning out of.

'Why did I ever volunteer for this…?' Ashley thought sourly to herself. The answer came down to money - it always did - but despite still being secure in the dropship Ashley's life was already beginning to flash before her eyes.

What an unremarkable life it was… and so full of regrets…

But there was nothing she could do about it now. There was only ever the present, never the past, and the future was always so uncertain to Ashley that making plans for it was a fool's errand…

Gently inhaling and exhaling to keep her heart rate under control, Ashley tore her eyes away from the churning maelstrom below her. She swept her dark eyed gaze across what she could see of the planet's circumference. Like any other planet, pictures could not do Aeolus justice. Ashley was an insignificant speck compared to the swirling mass of greys and greens that constituted the planet's turbulent atmosphere.

From her position, Ashley could spot the curvature of the planet - although she couldn't see its poles.

"Jumping in ten seconds!" Nattered the voice of the Goblin's pilot through Ashley's helmet-mounted radio. "Good luck out there!"

Ashley swallowed nervously. She used her free left hand to paw at her chest plate. Her SMART pistol was securely strapped to her person through the use of several extra safety straps. Ashley carried no other weapons, not even a lightweight submachine gun; because even an extra ounce of weight could throw off her trajectory and send her spiraling towards her doom…

"Beginning the countdown! Ten, nine, eight…" Yelled the voice of the pilot through Ashley's radio. "...seven, six…"

Blowing out several quick puffs of air to steady her quivering chest, Ashley looked down at her target.

Within the swirling masses of clouds sat a gaping hole - so large that it could be plainly seen from orbit. The grey and green gases and winds churned violently around the gap. Comparatively, its center seemed far calmer.

The eye of the storm.

The eye was as black as the void of space, nearby sunlight refracting and unable to properly illuminate the interior of the planet's violent atmosphere.

Ashley was going to use the eye of the storm to gain access to Aeolus' surface. She would need to carefully ride the wind currents within, all the while not getting torn up by flying debris or flung off course by violent winds.

There was also the freezing cold temperatures of the upper atmosphere… but Ashley had been prepared for that…

"...five, four, three…"

The dark haired woman desperately hoped that everything would go according to plan…

… and if they didn't, which was usually the case, Ashley would do what she always did…

Improvise on the fly… this time quite literally.

"...two…" The pilot momentarily paused his countdown. "...one… GO!"

Taking one last deep breath, Ashley released her grip on the exterior of the dropship. Her stomach lurched as she tipped forwards, that and a tickling feeling underneath Ashley's toes both manifestations of her anxiety towards the current situation.

Ashley allowed herself to tip end-over-end as she fell away from the craft. After a one hundred and eighty degree rotation she carefully fired a controlled burst from her jumpkit to even herself out. Ashley was now pointed head-first at the oncoming storm, her neck painfully craned so that she could watch her surroundings.

On the inside of Ashley's visor flashed varying blue and red messages. The messages were stern warnings concerning her current travel velocity. The blue concerned Ashley's current trajectory, with two curved lines indicating which flight path was best to follow. These curved lines continued to stretch down towards the storm eye below, indicating to Ashley that her chances were better if she avoided the wind currents on the edges of the eye.

'Twenty Kilometers," flashed another green message in the corner of Ashley's visor. The dark haired woman had twenty kilometers to go before she reached the hidden surface of Aeolus. It wasn't a very long distance - only a few minutes in freefall - but this was no regular base jump.

As Ashley continued to fall, time and distance gradually lost meaning. Despite the churning atmosphere there was almost no sound registered by Ashley's ears, save for the rippling winds and the flutter of her suit's fabric. The spare air tank grafted onto the back of her armor filtered clean air into Ashley's helmet rebreather, helping her to keep a clear head and full lungs in the thin upper atmosphere.

'Almost there…'

From Ashley's point of view it was difficult to estimate her distance from the center of the eye. But as she approached, faster and faster, the dark center became gradually larger… and larger…

'Deploy!' Flashed a warning message on the inside of Ashley's visor. 'Deploy!'

Gritting her teeth, Ashley did exactly what her suit's onboard sensors were telling her to do.

Ashley's armor hadn't been equipped with just an air tank. Lining Ashley's armpit and legs was strong fabric, held back by metal restraints.

With a push of a button, the fabric would instantly deploy and expand outwards, forming fabric webbing between her legs and along her torso.

A wingsuit - necessary for riding the violent wind currents of the outer eye.

Gritting her teeth, Ashley located the button to activate the wingsuit. It had been crudely taped down to the front of her chest plate. Rubber encased wires extended out from the button's casing, connecting the switch to the different sensors and latches holding back the wingsuit.

Surging a fist down towards her chest, Ashley smashed the button…

To her horror, the wingsuit failed to deploy.

Ashley smashed the button again… and again. Each time the red piece of metal and plastic failed to depress into its casing. The fabric webbing did not deploy without the necessary input, and the repeated punches from Ashley had thrown her way off course…

"Fuck!" Ashley howled, her voice reverberating inside her helmet. "Jam! It's jammed!"

But who could possibly hear her through the ripping winds and atmospheric interference?

Ashley clawed weakly at the red button as she fell closer and closer to the abyss. The dark center of the eye now looked like a gaping maw ready to swallow Ashley whole.

Violent winds tore at Ashley's sides and limbs as she flew off course into the edges of the eye. Her jumpkit, necessary for making small adjustments in her descent, sputtered and whined as its metal casing cracked and splintered under the intense pressures.

Ashley's eyes grew wide in terror, her vision blurry as she flew off into the raging abyss.

The absolute worst of what could happen… happened…

Ashley's vision went dark.


Licking her lips and ignoring the unpleasant taste in her mouth, Ashley carefully blinked her eyes open and lifted her neck. Her back was stiff from its awkward position against the non padded seat of the simulation pod; but Ashley would take a bit of soreness over what had just transpired any day with zero hesitation…

Reaching out her curled fist, Ashley probed the dark interior of the pod until she found the exit handle. With a quick twist and tug, the egg-shaped pod opened up. The interior lights of the room beyond burned Ashley's eyes, forcing the woman to cover her vision with her hands.

"Hey!?" A male voice shouted. "What do you think you're doing! Get back into that pod!"

Peeking through the gaps in her fingers, Ashley searched around until she found the speaker. The shadowy silhouette of a man leered over her, his form indecipherable from the room's bright lights.

"You shouldn't be walking around yet…" The unidentified man huffed. "Pilot or not, there are safety regulations for a reason."

"Water…" Ashley coughed.

"Water?" The man sighed. "Alright, just give me one second…"

There was the sound of padding feet as the man disappeared from view. Ashley's trained ears picked up the sounds of footfalls growing softer, then louder as the man returned.

"Here."

Ashley could feel a water bottle being gently wedged into her hands. The dark haired woman carefully accepted the bottle before raising it to her lips. A small dribble of liquid escaped Ashley's mouth and traced the length of her chin. After draining the bottle of its contents, Ashley handed it back.

"Thanks."

"You're welcome… now put these over your eyes so you don't go blind."

Ashley felt another foreign object being placed in her hands. The dark haired woman gently spun the object around, feeling two moving parts, and quickly deduced that they were eyeglasses. Squeezing her eyes shut, Ashley fumbled the glasses over her eyes.

With the dark shades shielding her vision from the room's interior light, Ashley could finally take a good look around. The virtual reality training room of the MCS Dorado was little more than a hallway, the lines walled with black simulation pods. Ashley had been the first to emerge.

"How are you feeling?" Asked the same man from before.

Now capable of vision, Ashley turned her head towards him. The dark haired woman hadn't caught his name. He was dressed in the green work uniform of a technician, his pockets weighed down and sagging with tools. Now, the young man was to Ashley's right fiddling with the exposed wiring of her simulation pod.

"As expected…" Ashley muttered in response. "Headache… and a bit of nausea…"

"Sounds like the standard side effects…" The technician muttered, his eyes transfixed on the exposed wiring of the pod. "It should pass in a few minutes."

"Yeah…" Ashley relaxed into her pod. "My wingsuit didn't deploy."

"Huh?" The technician peered in Ashley's direction.

"My wingsuit… during the simulation…" Ashley gently stretched her neck. "It didn't deploy like it should… the button was jammed."

"A worst case scenario, I'm guessing?" The technician muttered as he withdrew an unidentified tool from his pocket. "Everything has a chance for error…"

"What do you mean?"

"The simulation is designed to be as realistic as possible," the technician shrugged, wagging the head of a wrench in Ashley's direction before he shoved the metal implement into the pod's open casing.. "The computer must have chosen to throw a curveball at you. It's unwelcome, I know, but at least you better understand what the dangers are."

"My upcoming mission is dangerous enough, I don't need malfunctioning gear on top of that."

"What do you want me to tell you…?" The technician huffed. "If you're going to complain, complain to the computer… I just keep this place running…"

"Nevermind, just put me back in," Ashley settled back into her seat.

"Uh, no."

"No?"

"You need to decompress for a bit," the technician shook his head. "Do you want your brain to get scrambled like an egg? These pods-"

"Have safety regulations for a reason…" Ashley mocked. "Fine, you're the expert."

The technician's nostrils flared in annoyance but the man said nothing further.

"That, and even if I wanted to send you back in, I can't…" The technician muttered.

"Why not…?"

"Uh, do you know how hard it is to simulate a planetary storm like this?" The technician scoffed, raising one eyebrow as he observed Ashley with a mocking look. "The size and curvature of the planet, atmospheric wind speed…? Stuff like that…?"

"Hard, I'm assuming?"

"Very…" The technician nodded. "Now times that difficulty by five…"

The man forked his thumb in the direction of the other occupied pods.

"Three circuits have already blown, and if I try to fire your pod back up it may cause a cascading effect," the technician sighed. "How do you feel now? Why don't you go for a walk or something and re-acclimate?"

"I feel like shit…" Ashley groaned. Pursing her lips, the woman gingerly lifted herself out of the cramped interior of the pod and stretched her legs. "But a walk sounds like a good idea…"

"Don't go too fast… and sit down if you feel dizzy at all…"

"Yeah, yeah," Ashley waved her hand dismissively.

The dark haired woman walked away from the pod, slightly stumbling as she went, and pressed her hands against the dark glasses still hanging off of her face. Overhead, the cold white light of the training room snuck past the lenses and burned Ashley's vision.

There was the slightest twist from her stomach, but nothing felt like it was creeping up into her throat…

'I could be worse off…'

Rolling her shoulders, Ashley exited through the sliding doors of the training room and stumbled out into the adjacent hallway. She leaned against the walls for support as she travelled the hallways length - occasionally receiving strange looks from passerby.

Pursing her lips again, Ashley ducked into the room which was her destination. The small, dank washrooms of the MCS Dorado. The overhead lights of the bathroom were not as overpowering as those in the halls so Ashley risked taking off her glasses.

To her pleasant surprise, her eyes did not painfully burn like she expected them to. To her unpleasant surprise, one quick glance at the scuffed bathroom mirror confirmed Ashley's sneaking suspicions about her current appearance…

She looked like death… or close to it…

Peering at the gaunt face staring back at her from the mirror, Ashley gently tugged at her cheeks and traced her eye sockets. Evidence of shiny, cold sweat clung to her forehead and temples. The skin near her eyes was tight and almost translucent, showing thin veins beneath.

Sighing deeply, Ashley turned on the sink faucet and splashed some water around her face. She rubbed the cool liquid into her skin and slapped some on the back of her neck, allowing it to dribble past her collar and trace the length of her spine…

Simulation pods were nothing new to Ashley. They excelled in their purpose - tricking the mind into believing what it was seeing. But even if Ashley was consciously aware that nothing in the simulation was real, her body couldn't tell the difference…

Worse, in a little while Ashley would be in that situation. She would quite literally need to hurl herself into a planetary storm. Her equipment failing in the simulation had been nerve wracking enough…

… how would she react if it failed in reality too?

Unable to bear her own reflection any longer, Ashley slipped her glasses back on. The dark haired woman ducked out of the bathroom and back into the hallway…

… where she ran into the one person she really didn't want to have to deal with at the moment.

"'Kara!" Barker grinned. He was leaning quietly against the wall of the hallway, turned at an angle where Ashley could not see him as she left the bathroom. "There you are! I've been looking for you."

"For how long…?" Ashley groaned.

"All of five minutes…" Barker shrugged. "I asked the tech guy where you went and he replied 'for a walk'. He's not the most helpful guy."

"Barker…" Ashley pushed her glasses closer to her eyes. "What do you want?"

"Rude. But I've come to expect that from you…" Barker pushed himself off of the wall. "I wanted to speak with you."

"About what?"

"Well… first I wanted to compliment you…" Barker stepped towards Ashley. "'Kara, you're an exceptionally good pilot and I'm very glad that I hired you…"

"Where is this going…?"

"But you could be better."

"Huh?"

"How, you ask?" Barker cocked his head.

"No, I didn't."

"You could be better if you had a proper partner to back you up…" Barker elaborated. "You know…? Because a pilot needs a titan…"

Ashley felt herself tense up as the last word sprang from Barker's lips.

"Barker…" Ashley sighed. "We've been over this…"

"That was a while ago. I'm hoping that your mind has changed."

"I can assure you, it hasn't."

"Look…" Barker lowered his voice and peeked down either length of the hallway to ensure privacy. "Whatever you got up to before I found you in that little town… that's your business-"

"And I thank you for respecting my privacy, but I'm not budging on this…" Ashley muttered as she tried to move around her boss.

"Hey, wait one second," Barker raised one eyebrow. "I wasn't done talking yet. A pilot needs a titan, 'Kara. You're no exception. Am I… safe in assuming that you lost your titan before you and I met…?"

Ashley paused and frowned, remaining silent.

"I'll take your silence as a 'yes'..." Barker matched Ashley's frown. "I'm sorry for your loss. It isn't easy… I know… you get attached to the buggers. But you can't dwell on the past forever."

"Easy for you to say…" Ashley turned towards the nearest window, silently observing the passing void of space. "My titan saved my life… more times than I can count, really…"

"So you feel some kind of debt to him?" Barker cocked his head. "That's understandable. But not having a proper titan puts you in even more danger… and you can't repay your debt to a titan that's long gone, 'Kara…"

"You have no idea what I had to go through…" Ashley turned her head and growled. "Just do yourself a favour and drop this conversation now."

"Or what?"

Ashley pursed her lips and tore her eyes away from her boss.

"Look, I don't want to have to fight with you over this," Barker sighed. "Just come with me for a bit. You still have to recover from your time in that pod, don't you?"

"Where are you taking me?"

"Shopping," Barker smiled. "Just follow me and see what your options are at least. There's plenty going begging over in the titan bay of this ship."

Ashley shut her eyes, giving her momentary respite from both the bright lights of the hallway and the unwelcome face of her boss. The dark haired woman worked her hands into the pockets of her jumpsuit and curled her fingers into the fabric.

"So…?" Barker cocked his head. "Are you going to come willingly? Or will I have to drag you kicking and screaming…?"

"Willingly…" Ashley groaned. "Just do me a favor and stay silent on the way there…"

Ashley resisted the urge to rub her temples as Barker led her off to the titan bay.