Saturday, April 16, 2011

Digital Immersion - Part 1.

Evelyn Querent sat apart from her fellow squad members, she always hated making planet fall. Something about the change in gravity always bothered her. They said you couldn't notice the subtle change with the landing craft's internal generated gravity as it compensated. But she always did. She never let it show though, Evelyn never had been good with emotions. It helped her as the commanding officer of the squad to remain aloof.

Fresh from the Academy, Evelyn had been the poster child of an ace pilot. She had climbed the ranks with ease to become a Lieutenant and be granted her own squad. And yet, still she wore her uniform as if she was the image from the cadet manual. Even her short cropped midnight-hued hair was within the kept regulation, never wavering even a millimeter.

Always guarded, she let her vibrant purple gaze scan her squad-mates for any sign of nervousness, trying to measure them against their records she had already memorized. Carefully she watched, wondering if any of them saw weakness in her, or if any knew her secret. For Evelyn Querent lived in constant terror, always scared people would discover the very thing that helped her excel as a mecha pilot; she was a Bioid. An artificially created synthetic biological being, not born, but the general consensus was they had a soul, even though it was still hotly debated.

Maneuvers, those were the orders Evelyn had been given. Take out the fresh squad, drill them on an isolated empty world against drones, and forge them into a cohesive unit. The only problem, Evelyn riddled, was how was she to do that? Would they even listen to her? Surely they had heard of her reputation, that had to help her maintain authority, right?

Checking a holo-display along the wall, Evelyn noted their E.T.A. They should be dirt-side within a few minutes. Rising she turned to face her three fellow squad members, summoning all the tone of authority she could recall having heard. "Touchdown in five. Prep yourselves, all mecha will deploy in six." Reminding herself not to show weakness, Evelyn turned and set herself to making sure her own mecha was ready.

Starring up at her massive mecha, all reservations fled from the young lieutenant. As long as she had her mecha, she felt complete. Hopefully her squad-mates felt the same way.

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