Chapter 65: Front 33 – Volcanic Felsite – Part 1/2

Scarlet had read some years ago that humans can experience time as slightly slower during moments of high stimulation - That the moment before one jumps off a plane, the act of skydiving, could actually cause you to experience the same few seconds everyone else did normally, as being longer - As though time itself had slowed down.
 This was not Scarlet's own experience of 'over-stimulation'

Rather the opposite, Scarlet found she frequently lost time - It happened whenever she took the Enhancer drug, whole swaths of her memory simply dampened or faded away entirely.
 Scarlet's time aboard the Fluchtig had been odd, both long and short.

Some weeks she remembered just fine, the week she came to the warship - The day she met Una, the ten initial days she spent tutoring the girl before Operation Deadlight really took off - And then... Pangs, feelings but nothing more.

Apparently at the Battle of the Clover she had gone berserk in their first fight against the Casnel - Scarlet could not remember it.
 She loosely remembered days of waiting before the battle and she had feelings about the time.
 She knew that before the battle she had held negative emotions towards Hoki Bachika, and that after the battle she held positive ones - But honestly? Not that she would ever say it aloud, but Scarlet couldn't remember the words of any conversation that had lead to her and Hoki becoming such good friends - She was simply glad the feeling remained strong enough that she hadn't unwittingly lashed out at the younger woman after the whole affair.
 Kolme Nilas had tried to interview Scarlet in the days following that battle - She'd fobbed him off, been sarcastic at the time, but deep down, she didn't have the answers to Kolme's questions, she couldn't remember that fight with the Casnel.

But following that had come an 'awesome' stretch in Scarlet's opinion - Sure the few days in sickbay had been a drag, but then there had been Station 9.3.
 Kolme and the rest of the squad had done most of the fighting that day against the Fortress machine - All Scarlet had to do was arrive last minute and ram Major Moncha's mech - That was something that hadn't required taking her enhancer - Meaning to her joy, she could remember the thrill of moving at that ridiculous speed with all her engines set to maximum and the bonus thrusters she'd borrowed off Sabban's Vijaik equipped - Like the ultimate roller-coaster ride.
 But better yet was that she could remember what came next, the week spent just lazing about the Fluchtig, further training Una - The night out in Bannerman, or atleast as much of that as anyone remembers the next day - And then an Aardig's day party to top it all off!
 It had been a great period.

But then they had gone into battle once more and she had taken two doses of the harpy's call.
 Her memory of the last week was hazy at best - Last thing she truly remembered was sitting on some large metal crates, shooting the breeze with Kolme and of all the people, Major Moncha.
 Next thing, 5 days later, or so every calendar on the ship insisted on showing, she was running through a corridor, heading for her mech - Then it was just flashes, bursts of intense energy, fights she could only see shards of - And then two more days later here she was.

It didn't feel like 7 days had passed since the party, she simply couldn't work out what she had been doing for those first 5 before the battle - And the battle itself, slowly she could see less and less of it - People kept looking at her, some out of admiration, others like she were a monster - All because she had apparently taken on the entire enemy squad one unit at a time, but that she couldn't remember, not in the slightest.
 It didn't help that in the two days since the battle, Scarlet had found herself at a loose end - Hoki was a tornado lately, constantly rushing around, attending meetings, overseeing the repair work of the ship and the Neos.
 Sabban who's machine had been mostly undamaged, had sealed himself inside it almost instantly upon his return from the battle, hooked up the simulator and been pretty much practising ever since - According to Hoki, the young man was frustrated he couldn't do more in the battle, Scarlet actually felt a little guilty - Was the boy comparing himself to her performance?
 Fights she couldn't even remember, driving Sabban to try even harder?

Kolme was seldom seen either - As Field-Commander of the battle, he alongside Nate Novel as Fleet-Commander were spending all their time attending remote meetings with HQ - The duo seemed to spend every moment of the day, receiving lectures, having their every choice in battle scrutinised, and in-between begging for reinforcements - All from sealed within the confines of the Captain's quarter.
 That left Scarlet with just Una to talk to - Una was after all her only responsibility. She'd been banned from the hanger, the place already crowded and some fearing she might copy Sabban and seal herself inside her mech.
 So with others taking care of her machine's maintenance, and training off the table - Her days were simply spent sitting with a depressed Una, or sitting in her room, reading or thinking - And that thinking was starting to lead to some unpleasant thoughts.

So when Scarlet had run into Typhoon-Hoki, she jumped at the chance to take on a quick job.
 Hoki had been carrying a file to Kolme, claiming he needed to see it and it would only get lost if she sent it digitally.
 It reminded Scarlet just how short staffed IAFS really was, back in her own time as a squad leader she'd almost always had attendants to do busy work and errands for her - That and her boredom in mind, Scarlet now stood outside the Captain's quarters, thin report held laxly in one hand, waiting for Kolme to finish his current meeting.

The obvious problem of course, was now rather than being bored in her room, or bored sitting beside Una - Now she was bored standing in a corridor.
 There were she guessed, worse corridors to be standing in - Like most space-fairing vessels the Fluchtig was mostly uninhabited, the massive iris shape of the ship's main body contained engines, cannons, massive amounts of fuel & water storage and so on. Only a small portion of the crew had reason to be in the lower decks, even less lived down there.
 Most of the crew resided in the main hexagonal dome atop the ship, filled primarily by the hanger-bay, opposite that the bridge and in-between the recreational facilities and the many different sleeping arrangements - Even for someone who liked to bend the rules, Scarlet had enough respect not to turn up unannounced on the Ship's bridge, but today she had a reason.

The Captain's quarters were in the same corridor that lead to the bridge, so now she stood facing its door. The door itself was somewhat unique, the Fluchtig being designed as a command vessel could potential house a fleet admiral or high level dignitaries, so safety was important.
 The door she stared at was made of a solid reinforced metal - In fact the walls surrounding the quarters on all sides were, making the room effectively a miniature fortress hidden inside the ship - A far cry from the thin partitioning wall between rooms like those of Hoki and Scarlet.
 Inside there would be no windows, that was luxury saved for lower ranked officer's quarters, rooms like Una's that rested against the outer wall of the hexagon.

Being so close to the bridge meant new faces were passing by Scarlet, she kept herself vaguely entertained by aggressively tapping her prosthetic leg against the metal floors and glaring 'evilly' at passers-by, simply to watch their reactions.
 Now she was considering strolling up to the bridge itself while she waited. Perhaps Cally would be on duty today, Scarlet didn't know the woman all that well but she felt having Una in common would be enough to spark a few idle minutes of chatter.
She had pretty much solidified her decision to go sightseeing when suddenly a yell broke across the room - It had come from the Captain's quarters - That's when she saw it and kicked herself for not noticing sooner, the door was ajar, not closed, just on the hinge.
 Without hesitation Scarlet glanced to either side of the corridor before stepping across, pushing her back up against the door and listening.

She couldn't hear much, whomever Kolme and Nate were talking to on the computer screen, was a mumbled mystery - Still half a conversation was better than nothing;
 "Sirs please, with one squadron of Vijaik Heavies I think we could greatly increase the survival chances of our pilots."

Following what she was sure were Kolme's words, Scarlet strained her ears, trying to hear the response from the computer link but failing - After a few moments;
 "Yes Sir, I appreciate that, I'm not trying to debate the merits of the Nemo--"

Another brief pause.

"Ah, no Sir, I of course mean the Neo-M. Look Sir, not even a full squadron, with just four Vijaik Heavies I could, errr, greatly increase the chances of a positive outcome in further fleet engagements - One for each of my high level pilots, Tomo, Erfu, Sabban and Scarlet, I've sent your office their files - You'll see they all have the necessary skill threshold to qualify for a more specialised machine than the Nem-- Neo."

Another, longer period of mumbled reply from the computer - 'Kinda cute he's trying to get me a better machine, guess he knows what the ladies like.' Scarlet thought to herself in the pause.

"But Director! With all due respect Sir, if we can't beat the Casnel with 15 Neo's, the hell do you expect us to do it with just 10!!" Kolme suddenly shouted.

"Calm down there old sport." Nate's voice added.
 Scarlet found herself agreeing, to shout at superiors like that took some courage, or stupidity - 'Didn't know he had the balls.'

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There was a much longer reply from the computer's speakers this time, the few words Scarlet did catch seem to centre around respect, with additions on how the flotilla would of already succeeded had they just followed HQ's plan better and how the Neo-M is perfectly good machine.
 Finally there were some painful seconds of silence as neither the computer or Kolme & Nate said anything, until in a more subdued tone;
 "Neo-Cs Sirs, a squad of those instead of the M model, No actually, just two, one for Tomo and Erfu each, and their damaged Neo-M's can go to the pilots who's machine were completely destroyed. Just two Neo-Cs Director, please, I ask you this not as an officer but as a fellow."

"Oi Kolme, lift your head up man."
 Scarlet blinked, based on what Nate said, was Kolme Nilas bowing?

There was a curt reply from the monitor.

"Yes Sir!" Kolme and Nate barked back together, flowed by just Kolme;
 "Thank you Sirs, and I apologise for any disrespect I may of conveyed."

Then Silence.
----

Scarlet stood, head still resting on the door, she could faintly still hear Kolme and Nate but they were speaking more quietly now - Then - The door opened.

She didn't fall in or anything, she'd been in space a long time, there was no gravity, she simply hung in the air turning her head slowly to face a bemused Kolme;
 "Yo." The Scarlet Scourge grinned a little sheepishly.

" 'Yo'." Kolme Nilas said back, he gently pushed her back, causing her to float into the corridor and giving himself room to shut the door behind him; "Ya know lass, its a court-martial offence to ease drop on superior officers."

Scarlet attempted to smile 'sweetly', though it wasn't very effective - "Who me? Never, just here ta' give you this old man." She finished tossing over the file.
 Kolme frowned, than sighed in dismay as he read its title, "Ya, ya, fine."

Scarlet didn't know what to say, where was the fun teasing someone when they didn't get angry, flustered or embarrassed? Looking at his face she realised he had deep bags beneath his eyes and his clothes were a creas lined mess too boot.
 "You ah, you slept much recently Nilas?"

"Hmmm? Er, here and there I guess..." He mumbled back, thumbing through the report.

Scarlet frowned, "Hey listen, not that I was listening in or anything, but you did good in there man - I was pretty impressed, it takes alot to stand up to people like that."

Kolme glanced up at her, his eyes that same vacant complexation as they had been after the battle two days ago, perhaps even more drained than then;
  "Scarlet, according to this report, we're down 4, if not 5 machines and 4 pilots - And all they are willing to send me is two Neo-Cs. No new pilots, no better machines. I begged them and got the bare minimum, nothing more than that."

"That's still two more Neo-Cs than we had a week ago." Scarlet said back.

"No it isn't, its one more Neo-C! We lost Una's unit remember, even though she got out alive, what's left of her machine is scrap metal. We're up one Neo-C and down 3 Nemos - We'll have 12 machines in the fight, if we couldn't win with 15, how're we going to with 12!!?"
 Kolme straight up shouted back.

Scarlet gently leant forward and laid a hand on his shoulder - Maybe she was still just bored, but right now she felt this was a man who might crumble up and disappear if she left him alone;
 "Hey, why don'cha buy me a drink k? You can read over your little report with some of that horrible tea of yours or something?"

Kolme looked up at her and nodded softly, "Alright..."

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